Movie Review Takers

Takers (2010) 

Directed by John Luessenhop 

Written by Gabriel Casseus, John Luessenhop, Avery Duff

Starring Idris Elba, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, Michael Ealy, Zoe Saldana

Release Date August 27th, 2010 

Published August 27th, 2010

Expectations for the action/heist flick “Takers” were so low they had to be scraped off of a sticky theater floor. There really was not much to be expected from a movie featuring the wooden talents of Idris Elba, Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen or the first time performance of troubled R & B star Chris Brown. Add to that a first time director and a screenplay credited to four different writers and really all the film has to be is in frame to surpass expectations.

So what a great surprise that “Takers” is more than merely in frame. Indeed this fast paced, quick witted caper flick is wildly entertaining in its mindless quick cut manner.

Gordon (Idris Elba), John (Paul Walker), A.J (Hayden Christensen), Jake (Michael Ealy) and Jesse (Chris Brown) are first glimpsed entering a high end Los Angeles bank. They will soon rob this bank with an efficient, violent flourish.

The celebration of this very successful, multi-million dollar heist is short lived as a former member of their crew, Ghost (T.I), arrives with a new opportunity. Ghost has a plan for robbing an armored car that could quadruple the amount of money they took from the bank. The plan involves complex timing and well placed violence, all right up this crew’s alley.

The biggest question is Ghost. Freshly released from prison after five years, no one can be certain whether he is motivated by greed or revenge. His plan is solid but after he finds his ex Rachel (Zoe Saldana) engaged to Jake it becomes relatively clear that he cannot be entirely trusted.

As the crew is making plans, the cops are closing in. Lead investigator Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and his partner Eddie (Jay Hernandez) have stumbled onto a lead involving Russian gangsters linked to Ghost. The lead goes from Ghost to Gordon and from Gordon to the rest of the crew. Will the cops catch on to the plan before they can execute it? Will Ghost betray his former friends?

These questions don't really matter all that much but they lend enough context to “Takers” to give the action enough juice to be compelling. First time director John Luessenhoepp shrewdly limits the time spent with these actors talking and gets right into these actors doing the things that most other movies would spend time explaining.

”Takers” is keenly aware of the derivative nature of the heist picture and spends little time on the explanation in favor of action that rarely pauses. These actors are at their best when they are physically involved and “Takers” plays to that strength with scene after scene of action. When the movie needs any minor explanations they turn to the one actor in the cast with the chops to deliver, Matt Dillon. The veteran Dillon cleverly plays chief explainer and is only rarely bogged down with heavy exposition.

That's not to say that Dillon doesn't get physical himself. In fact, in easily the best scene in “Takers,” Dillon and Jay Hernandez give chase to a fleeing Chris Brown in an extra long chase that involves Parkour leaps and bounds, heavy hitting traffic and one well placed, unexpected bullet.

”Takers” is terrific genre entertainment, an action movie almost without pause. Clever, well employed violence combines with a super fast pace and juices “Takers” beyond its acting and story limitations. It also helps to have a guy like Matt Dillon around to do the minor heavy lifting.

Movie Review Seven Pounds

Seven Pounds (2008) 

Directed by Gabriele Muccino 

Written by Grant Nieporte 

Starring Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Barry Pepper, Michael Ealy, Woody Harrelson 

Release Date December 19th, 2008

Published December 18th, 2008

It took me maybe 20 minutes into Seven Pounds before I figured out exactly where the plot of this Will Smith weepie was headed. Predictability often is an inescapable sin for mainstream filmmakers and I try to be understanding. In the case of Seven Pounds, director Gabrielle Mucchino must have realized he had a predictability problem because halfway through the movie the predictable 'mystery' portion of the movie falls to the background and a sweet well observed romance emerges.

Will Smith stars in Seven Pounds as Ben Thomas, an IRS Agent with a deep, dark secret. Ben did something that he feels he must atone for and thus sets out to change the lives of seven strangers. Using his IRS credentials, Ben identifies a few desperate souls and sets about stalking them to see if they are worthy of the massive favor he is going to do for them.

Along the way Ben meets  Emily (Rosario Dawson) , a heart patient desperately in need of a transplant. She also owes the IRS a ton of money. After observing her, Ben decides to help her and in the process he falls in love. Ah, but don't forget that deep dark secret that will have to be dealt with before you can even imagine finding some happy ending.

I won't spoil the secrets for you. It won't take you long to figure out the secret for yourself but it nevertheless is crucial to the story for the secret to remain a secret here. I can tell you that I found the secret implausible on top of being highly predictable.

Barry Pepper takes on the role of Ben's best friend Dan. He is crucial to Ben's plans but his motivation for doing the important things he does is terribly lacking. There is simply no logical basis for Dan doing what he does and his actions undermine the drama and what I am sure was supposed to be a mystery and a revelation.

The plot of Seven Pounds fails in its logic and underlying plausibility but it succeeds in creating good characters. Will Smith dials down the Big Willy charisma and in so doing crafts a quiet, gentle, graceful performance. He sparks tremendous chemistry with Rosario Dawson and their romance is the one element of Seven Pounds that really works.

If you are a BIG fan of Will Smith you might like Seven Pounds. If not, skip it.

Movie Review Never Die Alone

Never Die Alone (2004) 

Directed by Ernest Dickerson 

Written by James Gibson

Starring DMX, David Arquette, Michael Ealy, Clifton Powell 

Release Date March 26th, 2004

Published March 25th, 2004 

For rapper DMX, Hollywood has been difficult to navigate. Stuck with B-movie plots and co-stars (Steven Seagal, Jet Li), DMX has managed to show raw potential but little else. The most notable things about his film career thus far are his multi-platinum soundtrack albums that have been better than the films they accompany. Now, however, teamed with director Ernest Dickerson in Never Die Alone, DMX gets an opportunity to realize some of that raw potential.

DMX stars as King David, a bad-ass drug dealer who has returned to New York to settle old debts and reestablish his home. After ten years on the West Coast rolling up huge amounts of cash selling heroin to starlets, David has more than enough cash to pay off New York's top drug dealer Mr. Moon (Clifton Powell). The deal is he will give the money to Moon's top thug Mike (Michael Ealy from Barbershop) and once Moon has the cash, King is free.

Young Mike however, has other plans. Mike and the King have a history that King doesn't know about. A dangerous secret leads to Mike stabbing King. As Mike makes his escape, a writer named Paul (David Arquette) witnesses the stabbing and runs to the aid of King. As Paul drives King to the hospital, the dying man pledges all of his possessions to Paul with the caveat that Paul uses them to locate King's son. At the hospital King dies and Paul is left to put the pieces of King's life back together with the audio tapes King left behind in a hollowed out bible.

It's convenient that Paul happens to be a writer living in the King's old neighborhood for research on a gritty crime novel. Not many writers are lucky enough to have a gritty urban crime story fall into their lap like that. Paul is merely a convenient device through which to tell King's cold, hard, thug story. The King's tapes take us back to when he left for LA and eventually why he ran, which sets up the main plot of the film.

The scenes in LA are a frightening examination of the kind of sociopath it takes to be a cold hard killer. King uses the drugs and money he lifted off of Moon to wine and dine a Hollywood actress (Jennifer Sky), willing to front drugs to her TV co-stars and a young med student (Reagan Gomez-Preston). King met the college girl at her job as a waitress and with the cool cunning of a snake he gets into her bed and his drugs into her veins. Watching the way King slowly deconstructs the once promising student reminded me of a moment from the movie Fight Club where Edward Norton maims Jared Leto in a fight and coolly explains that he felt like destroying something beautiful.

Many critics are faulting Director Ernest Dickerson's choice of visual style. Dickerson, the former cinematographer for Spike Lee, abuses his film stock with scratches and washed out color to give the film a classic seventies Blaxploitation look. The look evokes that early seventies feel but the story is a modern hard edged urban noir in the vein of Sugar Hill or New Jack City. All that is missing is a Wesley Snipes cameo to pass the torch of urban menace to DMX.

That said there is more than one way to look at King's portrayal. On the one hand, this is an unglamorous end that teaches, if you live hard you die hard. On the other hand, DMX's powerful, charismatic cool could earn cult status among those predisposed to admire such things. DMX is powerful, his tattooed, muscled presence and serial killer mentality is as intimidating as a horror film villain should be. His charm and charisma is so enticing you would admire him if the film didn't demonstrate what a bastard he really is. This is DMX's best performance thus far though too many more roles like it will lead to typecasting. For now though DMX wears the hardcore gangster persona like a perfectly fit Italian suit and that comfort is part of his charm.

For young Michael Ealy, Never Die Alone is a chance to establish some dramatic cache to match his well liked comic performance in Barbershop and he does a terrific job. Ealy's heartfelt sadness and tortured existence is the perfect counterbalance to DMX's cold, sociopathic, and charismatic performance. Though the film’s twist near the end calls logic into question, Ealy sells it well and we accept it because he does. David Arquette is far less successful in his role as plot device. Arquette's Paul is entirely a function of the plot and never an interesting participant.

Ernest Dickerson has yet to make the masterpiece that I'm sure his former protégé Spike Lee is expecting him to make. But, Never Die Alone is a step in the right direction. Expect Dickerson to do something spectacular very soon. For now, Never Die Alone is a terrific genre piece, a gritty urban drama worthy of comparison with other great gangster films.

Movie Review: Barbershop 2

Barbershop 2 Back in Business

Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan

Written by Don D. Scott 

Starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, Troy Garity, Michael Ealy 

Release Date February 6th, 2004 

Published February 5th, 2004 

There is an insidious disease raging through Hollywood. It's a disease that can afflict any number of good films and seemingly good ideas. It happened to Men In Black, it happened to Jaws, it happened to Jurassic Park and countless other franchises. The disease is sequelitis, and it strikes when Hollywood executives try to take advantage of a successful product by forcing a mediocre money grabbing follow up. 

The latest casualty of sequelitis is the 2002 surprise hit Barbershop starring Ice Cube. The film’s surprise success, nearly 100 million in domestic box office for a film that only cost around 25 million to make, threw execs into a feeding frenzy leading to the creation of an inferior sequel made solely for the purpose of printing money.

Calvin and his charismatic crew of barbers are all back in the shop for another round of loud talking and head cuttin'. The crew, Eddie (Cedric The Entertainer), Ricky (Michael Ealy), Terri (Eve), Dinka (Leonard Earl Howze) and Isaac (Troy Garrity) are still hard at work. Eddie is still stirring things up with controversial topics ranging from Bill Clinton to the DC Sniper. Ricky is moonlighting at school getting his GED while romancing Terri. Dinka has a burgeoning romance with a girl from the neighboring hair salon and Isaac has become a star cutter even signing his work. The crew’s former teammate Jimmy has left the shop to work for a corrupt local alderman played by Robert Wisdom.

The story is a lethargic take on some of the same themes from the first film. In this case, it's the encroachment of big business chain stores in the shop’s southside Chicago neighborhood. A developer played by Harry Lennix is attempting to buy up the neighborhood and replace the tiny mom & pop stores with chains like Starbucks and a new hair salon called Nappy Cutz which he plans to open right across the street from Calvin's. Nappy Cutz offers food, massages, basketball and various other amenities to go with your hair cut.

Calvin tries to be competitive but in doing so, he nearly forgets why his shop became a neighborhood institution in the first place. The film is rounded out by an odd subplot involving Eddie's history in getting work in the barbershop and the woman he nearly married reappearing. The subplot is cute and well played by Cedric The Entertainer but it never feels like anything more than filler. Also on the filler side is a subplot that introduces Queen Latifah as Gina, one of the stylists at the beauty shop next door to Calvin's. The subplot is only in place to setup a spin-off series starring Latifah that will launch later this year.

The Beauty Shop spin-off looks kind of funny but also feels like another very cynical cash grab, another attempt to squeeze this Barbershop cash cow for more and more money.

Barbershop 2 has bright moments, it's just as smart and quick witted as the original film. However, it lacks that first film’s energy and coherence. Especially in its ending which wraps thing's up a little too easily and unsatisfyingly abrupt. Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan, picking up the reigns from Director Tim Story's original, can't seem to find a consistent theme. He has the set pieces, the likable characters and enough smart funny dialogue but not enough of a story to give it all proper context.

Barbershop 2 is not a bad film but it is obviously inferior to the original Barbershop. Another casualty of sequelitis.

Movie Review Kissing Jessica Stein

Kissing Jessica Stein (2002)

Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld

Written by Heather Juergensen, Jennifer Westfeldt

Starring Heather Juergensen, Jennifer Westfeldt, Scott Cohen, Jackie Hoffman, Tovah Feldshuh, Michael Ealy, Jon Hamm 

Release Date March 13th, 2002 

Published September 18th, 2002 

When it comes lesbian relationships in film, we generally get distracted by the sex stuff and the relationship aspect gets lost. That is not the problem with the comedy Kissing Jessica Stein. In fact you would be hard pressed to find many problems in this wonderful comic romance. Written by and starring Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt, and adapted from their stage play, Lipschtick, Kissing Jessica Stein is the non PC story of two straight women who begin a tentative lesbian romance. 

Helen (Juergensen) is an art gallery owner who has dabbled in bisexuality but is first glimpsed cheating on a jerk boyfriend in the middle of a gallery show. Helen is tiring of the meaningless sex and is exhausted of men so she places a personal ad seeking a woman. Helen's ad catches the eye of a copy editor named Jessica (Westfeldt) almost by accident. As Jessica and some friends are glancing over the personals they come across an ad in which there is a quote from Jessica's favorite poet. While Jessica's friends dismiss the ad after finding it's a women, Jessica finds herself strangely intrigued. In a move that totally goes against her conservative nature, Jessica answers the ad.

Helen and Jessica hit it off and thus begins a series of funny, sweet moments of a budding relationship. The film is well written and well acted. It's no surprise that Juergenson and Westfeldt, who have been doing this material for a long time, have chemistry unmatched by many straight romantic comedy couplings.

The supporting cast is as strong as the two leads, especially veteran actress Tovah Feldshuh as Jessica's mother. The role could have been a sitcom knockoff of a stereotypical overbearing Jewish mother. Instead, Feldshuh brings a wonderful calmness and ease to her performance and has one extraordinary scene with Westfeldt as she finally opens up about the new relationship that is funny, smart and touching.

Kissing Jessica Stein never gets overly caught up in the sexuality of Helen and Jessica's relationship, at least not in the sleazy B-movie way most lesbian relations are treated. Sex is an issue in their relationship but it isn't the only issue. While the ending left me cold, I still really liked Kissing Jessica Stein, one of the best comedies of the year.