Movie Review: Armored

Armored (2009) 

Directed by Nimrod Antal

Written by James V. Simpson

Starring Matt Dillon, Columbus Short, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich

Release Date December 4th, 2009 

Published December 4th, 2009 

Streaming Rental via Amazon Prime 

Armored is the latest attempt by Hollywood to look engaged and aware of the current economic condition. At its center is a character making less than a living wage and about to lose his home and the desperate lengths he considers going to in order to save everything.

Columbus Short stars in Armored as Ty a former Iraq war veteran who returns home to a crumbling neighborhood and a teenage brother to take care of. The bank is looking to foreclose on Ty's house and the only job he can get is a part time gig as a guard working for an armored car company.

Ty's pal Mike (Matt Dillon) got him the job and does what he can to help him out. Mike has a plan, with the help of 4 other guards they will set up a robbery of their own trucks. 42 million dollars can go a long way toward solving Ty's problems but he only agrees to go along after a threat by child services to take his little brother away.

The plan comes off without a hitch, initially. Hiding the trucks in an abandoned industrial building the crew begins off-loading the cash when Baines (Laurence Fishburne) spots a homeless guy hiding in the building. He kills the guy and Ty realizes that things have gone too far. He locks himself in one of the trucks and sets off the alarm to try and draw attention. A cop (Milo Ventimiglia) does arrive and he too is shot. 

Ty makes an effort to save the cop and stop the bad guys and that is where Armored gets its juice. Directed by Nimrod Antal, Armored gets off to an exceptionally slow start but once it picks up some speed it gets pretty entertaining. Columbus Short is a likable actor who holds the screen well as well as our hero. Matt Dillon as the villain is backed up well  by Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich and Jean Reno.

As for how timely Armored is? The idea of a guy willing to rob an armored truck to save his house is more of a motivational conceit than a comment on our times. Armored isn't much related to our current economic conditions as it as a coincidence. This film has been made a few times before and could work just as well in a prosperous economy; there's always someone who’s struggling.

Armored is an old school action flick with good chase scenes, gunplay and a strong hero. Director Nimrod Antal takes a little while to get things going but the final act moves fast toward a satisfying action flick conclusion. If everything is tied up a little too neatly; call it a function of modern pop entertainment, modern audiences hate a down ending.

Movie Review: Crash

Crash (2005) 

Directed by Paul Haggis

Written by Paul Haggis

Starring Ludacris, Lorenz Tate, Brendan Fraser, Sandra Bullock, Shaun Toub, Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard 

Release Date May 6th, 2005

Published May 5th, 2005

Paul Haggis showed the depth of his talents as a writer with his Oscar nominated script for Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. The natural progression of any filmmaking career has lead Mr. Haggis out from behind the computer keys to behind the camera directing his first feature. Working from his own script, Mr. Haggis has crafted Crash, an intricately plotted and engrossing drama about the futility of violence, the helplessness of anger and the politics of race.

As two well dressed young African American men, Anthony (Rapper, Ludacris) and Peter (Lorenz Tate), walk down an affluently appointed street in Los Angeles discussing race, they are the only black faces to be seen. Even as they dress and act like they belong here, Anthony can't help but note the most minor of slights from the lack of good service in the restaurant they just left to a rich white woman (Sandra Bullock) who crosses the street with her husband (Brendan Fraser) when she see's them.

Anthony asks Peter what makes them so different from all these white people aside from race? They provide an answer to his question by summarily bringing out guns and stealing the couple's SUV. This act touches off a series of events that envelopes a pair of cops played by Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe, a detective and his partner played by Don Cheadle and Jennifer Espisito, a locksmith and his family (Michael Pena) an Arab family headed up by Farhad (Shaun Toub) and a black married couple played by Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton.

When Sgt. Ryan (Dillon) and his rookie partner Hanson (Phillippe) get a call that a car jacking has taken place nearby, Ryan pulls over the next similar looking car he sees. Despite the fact that the SUV is clearly not the one they are looking for (Hanson points out that the license plate is different) Ryan stops it anyway after seeing the driver, Cameron (Howard), black. The stop is marked by Ryan harassing Cameron's wife Christine (Newton) over the weak protest of Hanson. The incident is devastating to Cameron and Christine's marriage.

Peter happens to be the brother of police detective Graham Waters (Cheadle) who, as a result of the carjacking, is brought to the attention of the L.A District Attorney Rick Cabot, the victim of the crime along with his wife, Jean (Again, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock). Cabot wants a black detective on the case to avoid accusations of racism and he wants Detective Waters specifically.

Meanwhile Jean at home alone is absolutely freaked out by the incident and has had the locks changed. Unfortunately when her husband sent for a locksmith (Michael Pena) he did not know he was a tattooed inner city Latino, something his wife notes immediately in accusing the man of wanting to change the locks in order to return later and rob her. For his part the locksmith is good hearted family man who has struggled to get out from under this sort of cultural bias all his life.

When the locksmith accepts one more late night job at the grocery store before heading home we get a very tense scene between he and the shop owner Farhad (Shaun Taub) an Iranian immigrant who speaks very little English. What was a simple misunderstanding due to the language barrier very nearly turns violent and leads into yet another scene at the locksmith's home that may be the strongest moment in the film when you yourself see it.

The links between all of the various characters in Crash are tenuous in terms of actual interaction. However in terms of themes, race and racism, they could not be more strongly connected. So bold are the themes and the characters that you can forgive the often forced attempts to connect them physically in the same scene or plot strand.  

Crash is akin to Paul Thomas Anderson's extraordinary 1999 ensemble drama Magnolia. Both films share a reliance on chance and fate and sprawling casts of well known and respected actors. Crash Director Paul Haggis eschews Anderson's esoteric flights of fancy-- there are no frogs in Crash-- but both films pack an emotional punch that will leave the theater with you. Crash is hampered slightly by not having Magnolia's extravagant run time of three plus hours, for at a mere 93 minutes the film has far less time to establish its characters.

Haggis makes up for this by creating dramatic scenarios that are harrowingly tense and emotional. The scenes involving Michael Pena's locksmith and Shaun Toub's Iranian shop keeper are an extraordinary example of Mr. Haggis's ability to craft confrontations that provoke fate without entirely crossing that thin line between dramatic realism and fantasy.

Crash is ostensibly about racism but it goes much deeper than that into an examination of the psyche of a broad expanse of people displaced emotionally by tragedy, by violence, by hatred and more importantly by chance. Chance is the strangest of all, the way people are sometimes thrown together in situations they never could have imagined. Chance breeds fear but it can also breed love. You can meet your end by chance or meet your destiny. Crash is all about chance encounters, people crashing into one another and the way their lives unfold afterwards.

A brilliant announcement of a new talent arriving, Crash brings Paul Haggis from behind the writer's desk and into the director's chair in the way that Paul Schrader broke from his roots of writing for Martin Scorsese to direct his first great film American Gigolo. Like Schrader, Haggis will continue writing for others (he and Eastwood are collaborating once more on the upcoming Flags of Our Fathers), but with Crash, Mr. Haggis shows where his future really lies.

Movie Review: You Me and Dupree

You Me and Dupree (2006) 

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo

Written by Michael Lesieur

Starring Owen Wilson, Matt Dillon Kate Hudson, Michael Douglas, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader

Release Date July 14th, 2006 

Published July 16th, 2006 

Owen Wilson's career is coming to a serious crossroads. The star of Wedding Crashers and charter member of Hollywood's so called frat pack, with his pals Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell; is reaching a tipping point with his good natured slacker persona. How much longer can Wilson continue to play the same relaxed slacker charmer and remain in the good graces of audiences? 

How much longer can Wilson play a variation on the laid back musing hippy that has made him a star. His latest effort, You, Me and Dupree co-starring Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson, gives us a glimpse of Wilson's coming crossroads crisis. Exhibiting the very limits of his appeal, Dupree is typical of the dazed and confused good natured stoner that Wilson has made his bread and butter, he is also however an example of how that laid back stoner can be as irksome as he is charming.

As we join the story of You, Me and Dupree, Carl (Matt Dillon) is in Hawaii preparing to marry his fiancee Molly when his best friend and best man Dupree turns up on the wrong island and needs to be flown in. Dupree has always been a drifting, lazy, slacker but his friends, Carl and Neil (Seth Rogan) have always loved him.

Now that Carl is getting married the whole dynamic of their friendship is changing. Faced with having to watch his friend really grow up, at 36 years old, Dupree finds himself once again in arrested development. Having been fired from his job for attending Carl's wedding without bothering to get time off from work, Dupree is homeless and sleeping on a cot in a bar.

Seeing Dupree's dire straits Carl, fresh from his honeymoon, invites Dupree to sleep on his couch for a few days much to the chagrin of Molly. Naturally, hi-junks ensue as Dupree makes his mark on his new territory. He floods the downstairs bathroom, eats all of the food and eventually nearly burns the house down while sharing intimate relations with a friend of Molly's.

All of Dupree's actions and his completely oblivious attitude make for one truly irritating character. And then the film takes a giant mid-point turn that those of you who are really sensitive to spoilers might want to skip until you have seen the film........

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After all of the horrible things that Dupree does the filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo decide to try and turn Dupree into the good guy of the movie. It's really rather astonishing. To the half way point you are with Kate Hudson' Molly in wanting to strangle Dupree but then the movie tries to turn him into this slacker with a heart of gold with a philosophy that heals all and suddenly even Molly is on his side while Matt Dillon's Carl turns into the worst variation of a Ben Stiller Jovian afflicted fool. This may work for those in the audience willing to love Owen Wilson no matter what but if you aren't buying Wilson's usual charm as I wasn't the mid-point twist is nearly as irritating as Dupree himself.

The film is pretty well downhill from this point. Michael Douglas joins the fray as Molly's doting dad who happens to hate Carl. This plot line leads into one of my biggest movie pet peeves. The troubles of Carl could be solved completely with one open honest conversation but if he were to do the logical thing and have this conversation there would be no movie. Thus the plot requires Carl to be a fool. This further undermines Dillon who was already stuck with a role it is clear Ben Stiller turned down.

I cannot say that You, Me And Dupree is completely devoid of laughs. With a cast this talented and lovable laughs are going to come no matter how poor the plot or direction. Owen Wilson occasionally emerges from the Dupree character with this wonderful hangdog expression reminiscent of a loving puppy that messed on the floor but doesn't truly realize he's done anything wrong. It's undeniably charming and at times funny.

Kate Hudson is really spot on throughout. Had not the script and direction let her down at every turn her winning smile and ability to adapt to any comic situation could have turned the whole film around. Its unfortunate that she accepted a role in which her character subservient to the whims of her male counterparts. Though she is clearly the equal of her co-stars in terms of star power, the plot relegates her to a dull supporting role that she seems far to big for.

Matt Dillon never should have accepted this role. I'm sure the idea, which came from two of the minds behind TV's brilliant Arrested Development, seemed like a potentially fun idea but he had to have seen the writing on the wall that this was a role meant for the slow boil, comedy of humiliation that is the specialty of Ben Stiller. Dillon is never comfortable in this role which is neither deep enough for his terrific instinctual acting or loose enough for the kind of wild streak that he showed in There's Something About Mary.

In the end You, Me and Dupree turns on the likability and adaptability of Owen Wilson. Sadly he is not up to the task. Dupree exposes the limitations of Wilson as an actor and a persona. Dupree evokes the idea of a stand up comedy routine rather than a fully fleshed out film character. The Owen Wilson persona established in Wedding Crashers, Starsky and Hutch and Zoolander, keeps peeking out from behind the character to wink at the audience and undermine Dupree as a character. You are essentially watching Owen Wilson try out the material of a Dupree character rather than watching a real character develop.

The one word that kept popping into my head throughout You, Me and Dupree was irritating. Dupree as a character and as played by Owen Wilson is irritating. Kate Hudson forced to dial down her star wattage is irritating. Matt Dillon shoehorned into a Ben Stiller character is irritating. The toneless, rhythmless direction of Anthony and Joe Russo is irritating. And at 2 hours in length Me, You And Dupree like it's central houseguest from hell overstays it's welcome and that is truly irritating.

Movie Review: Deuces Wild

Deuces Wild (2002)

Directed by Scott Kalvert

Written by Christopher Gamble 

Starring Brad Renfro, Stephen Dorff, Fairuza Balk, James Franco, Johnny Knoxville, Matt Dillon, Norman Reedus, Deborah Harry, Frankie Muniz 

Release Date May 3rd, 2002

Published May 3rd, 2002

The troubles of actor Brad Renfro are well documented. Renfro has had multiple run-ins with the law and is also notoriously difficult to work with. What gets lost in Renfro's problems is the fact that the kid is one hell of an actor. Renfro has a Brandoesque persona, handsome with deep soulful eyes that emit a piercing gaze that cuts like a knife. Sadly, Renfro's troubles have kept him from the acting status his work aspires to and is likely the reason he is relegated to such B-release fare as Deuces Wild.

In Deuces, Renfro plays Bobby, a street tough who runs with a gang called the Vipers. The film begins in flashback with Bobby's brother Leon (Stephen Dorff) carrying the limp lifeless body of their brother Al. Al is dead from a drug overdose administered by rival gang members Marco (Norman Reedus) and Franky (Balthazar Getty), members of the Vipers.

Three years later Leon is the leader of the Deuces and Bobby is his thuggish enforcer. The Deuces are dedicated to keep drugs off their block. This comes into conflict with the Vipers and their leader Marco, fresh from jail and looking for revenge against Leon for sending him there. Neither gang can make a move without the approval of a local mobster named Fitzy and played semi convincingly by Matt Dillon.

Deuces Wild is as much a gang movie as it is a love story, as Bobby falls for a Vipers girl named Annie (Fairuza Balk). The courtship between Bobby and Annie would be sweet if it weren't steeped in cliché and bad 50's dialogue. In fact, the whole film is buried under clichés from West Side Story, The Outsiders, Lords of Flatbush and whatever greaser gang movie you can think of.

It gets worse, even with the problems of the ridiculous attempts to ape 50's lingo, the film introduces and dismisses subplot after subplot. Marco seeks revenge on Leon for sending him to jail, while we in the audience find out in a dream sequence that it wasn't Leon who did the deed, a piece of information that makes no difference whatsoever and is never resolved. Then there is Leon's romance with Betsy (Soprano's actress Drea Demateo), which exists solely to provide Leon with something to do while not beating the crap out of people in fistfights.

And why does Leon feel so bad about everything he does? Where is the commitment to the cause? In one scene he watches as the Vipers burn down his block. In another scene he admonishes his gang for acting against a pair of drug dealers moving into their territory. It was interesting to note that gangs of 50's Brooklyn only controlled one block. Literally one block! So, the Deuces kept drugs off of one city block, but if drugs were sold right around the corner, it was all good.

Renfro for his part is uncomfortable with the lame attempts at 50's dialogue, but still communicates with body language and his laser stare. This kid is a contender, as he showed in Apt Pupil and his Tour De force performance in Bully. With Deuces Wild, Renfro signals an attempt to move into mainstream Hollywood roles. Here's hoping he develops the same eye for Hollywood material as he has for his indie work, and that Deuces Wild is just a minor annoyance on the way to an Oscar nomination.