Movie Review 12 Strong

12 Strong (2018) 

Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig 

Written by Ted Tally, Peter Craig 

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Trevante Rhodes

Release Date January 19th, 2018 

The story of the Horse Soldiers of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11th attack is pretty damn remarkable. As told in 12 Strong, 12 American soldiers became the first American soldiers to hit back at al Qaeda by riding horses over some of the roughest terrain on the planet and taking the fight to the enemy in a way that hadn’t been seen since Roosevelt and The Rough Riders.

Based on a true story, Chris Hemsworth plays Captain Mitch Nelson who was recently moved to a desk job just before September 11th, 2001. Nelson had to plead with his superiors to be reunited with his team of Green Berets so that he could lead them in Afghanistan. Michael Shannon plays Chief Cal Spencer, Nelson’s second in command who manages to convince their superiors to bring Nelson back.

Nelson, Spencer and their 10-man squad arrive in Afghanistan where they convince Col. John Mulholland (William Fichtner) that they can do in three weeks, prior to the brutal Afghan winter, what the other teams could do in six weeks. It’s a bold and dangerous plan that will require Nelson and his team to not only directly engage the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters but also act as diplomats trying to keep the supposed "Northern Alliance" from crumbling before they reach their objective.

The Northern Alliance in Afghanistan was made up of three different warlords who were as eager to fight each other as to fight the Taliban. Nelson and his team are embedded with General Abdul Rashid Dostum (David Negahban). Those who follow world news closely will recognize that name as he is currently the Vice President of Afghanistan, and 12 Strong gives a strong indication as to how he has arrived in his place in the world.

Find my full length review in the Serve Community on Vocal Find my full length review in the Serve Community on Vocal 

Movie Review: The Town

The Town (2010) 

Directed by Ben Affleck

Written by Peter Craig, Ben Affleck

Starring Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Chris Cooper

Release Date September 17th, 2010 

Published September 16th, 2010 

Ben Affleck has spent the past decade, give or take, getting a hard time for his choice of friends, relationships and films. Since his break out success, and Oscar win, for “Good Will Hunting,” the knives have been out for the Boston native. At times it's been deserved, “Armageddon” and “Gigli” are terrible films, oftentimes it has not been deserved, his personal life is none of our business and “Jersey Girl” was unfairly maligned by those attacking 'Bennifer.'

Though he may deny it, the digs did get to Affleck in the mid 2000's and it drove him away from Hollywood for a time. Back in Boston he got the nerve to go behind the camera and the result was the highly compelling crime drama “Gone Baby Gone” starring his little brother Casey. Growing bolder from that success, Affleck is back in front and behind the camera for his latest effort, another gritty crime drama, “The Town.”

In “The Town” Ben Affleck stars as Doug MacRay a life long resident of the crime riddled neighborhood of Charlestown. Doug was born into crime and as a grown up he has taken up the family business; robbing banks. With his highly efficient, professional crew, including his best friend Jem (Jeremy Renner), Doug plots highly detailed heists that leave law enforcement officials baffled.

The latest heist however has an unexpected twist. In a fit of pique over a silent alarm trigger, Jem takes the bank manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall), hostage, a first for this crew. Doug manages to convince Jem not to kill her but releasing her is a decision that will come to haunt them all.

With Jem suspicious of what Claire may have seen of the crew and wanting to go back and finish her off, Doug decides to protect his hot headed friend by tracking her himself. However, upon meeting Claire in person he is drawn to her and against all good judgment a romance develops.

As all of this happening an FBI Agent, Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) catches the bank robbery case and seeing the level of efficiency involved, he becomes even more determined to catch the bad guys. Claire is the main lead and with her direct link to Doug you can imagine the intrigue and drama. Add Jem's growing suspicions and hothead tendencies to this mix and you have a recipe for piping hot drama.

”The Town” burns with drama, tension, excitement and action. Overcoming the challenge of directing and starring, Ben Affleck dominates the screen and turns in an Oscar caliber lead performance. The romance between Affleck and Rebecca Hall is subtle, natural and would be downright sweet if we weren't aware of just how it came to be.

Affleck and Hall do a tremendous job of bringing us into their world and nearly making us forget about the rest of the plot when they are together. That feeling is brilliantly shattered in the film's most effective scene, when Jem bumps into Claire and Doug having lunch at an outdoor cafe.

Jeremy Renner and Jon Hamm are tremendous back up for Affleck and Hall in the leads. Renner's string of brilliant performances, stringing back to his stunning debut as Jeffrey Dahmer through last year's Oscar nomination for “The Hurt Locker,” continues here as he essays a hotheaded psycho who with a cool streak of mean that separates him from similar characters in other crime dramas.

Jon Hamm does something similar to Renner, taking a character that is quite familiar and giving the expectations a twist. The key to Hamm's performance is his focus on the job, being an FBI professional, right down to the clipped speech direct manner, over looking cool. Hamm is essentially the good guy, he's fighting criminals but he's not afraid of playing the heavy and letting the audience not like him even as we know from a moral standpoint we should admire him.

It’s a trick of the best crime dramas to get the audience to abandon their better judgment and come to root for the bad guys. It’s exciting to have your values challenged and live vicariously through eyes and lives of those who live outside the law. Most will never have this experience but we can all easily understand the allure of easy money and of the bad guys who do things we know we could never do.

Ben Affleck and the crew behind The Town certainly know this appeal of the bad guy and the bad deed and they cleverly manipulate that appeal to draw the audience into this criminal world as well as into the forbidden romance between Doug and Claire.

“The Town” is smart, compelling, fast paced and exceptionally well crafted. Watch out for Affleck at the Oscars as “The Town” could bring nominations for Ben in front of and behind the camera.

Movie Review The Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt 1

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt 1 (2014)

Directed by Francis Lawrence 

Written by Danny Strong and Peter Craig 

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks 

Release Date November 21st, 2014 

Published November 20th, 2014 

"The Hunger Games" could have been a revolutionary box office bonanza with a brain. Sadly, thanks to the greed of Lionsgate Pictures, it's become an ironic symbol of the greed that the film is meant to satirize. I’ve been told not to hold against "Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" how it came to be a “part 1.” But I must. Because what could have been a deeply impactful 2 1/2- hour epic finale has been beefed up into a bloated, four-hour-plus time waster that won't play out in full for another year. There was the potential for greatness in the "Hunger Games" series. 

"The Hunger Games" arrived on the big screen at nearly the same moment as the Occupy Wall Street protests dominated the headlines. It wasn't by design, but it happened that the plot about the desperate poor spoiling for war with the ruling elite coincided with an all-too-brief cultural moment. Of course, Occupy Wall Street had neither the marketing muscle nor physical will of the "Hunger Games" hype -- I'm speaking more of a fashionable attitude for revolution rather than an actual revolution. 

"The Hunger Games" was never meant to galvanize a movement. Still,  Gary Ross's original had an unmistakable edge with its themes centered on the “haves” and “have nots.” The denizens of the Capitol, first glimpsed in "The Hunger Games," are the picture of grotesqueness: Loud, proud fools adorned in their riches, flaunting everything in front of those who arrive with nothing. Those who arrive with nothing include our heroes, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). 

Sport fighting the poor for the amusement of the rich has a historic flavor to it – think “Christians and the lions.” While our modern society hasn't devolved to that point, who hasn't heard someone compare America to ancient Rome? The rich under-girding of the first "Hunger Games" is the potential for class warfare and why such warfare is justified. The second film, "Catching Fire," doesn't carry the metaphor as strongly. While Katniss is used as agitprop for the Capitol, we're left with a story about the games and not the people in them. Simply getting Katniss and Peeta to the arena seems to be that film’s goal, and the journey is a bit of a drudge. 

"Mockingjay - Part 1," on the other hand, goes too far back the other way. Katniss, now the agitprop of the revolution, spends the film mourning the poor and the dead in the class warfare that she inspired. The film fails to take flight as an adventure movie without the propulsive effect of the games. This isn’t because director Francis Lawrence is incapable, but because he's been handcuffed to two movies instead of a single film. 

"Mockingjay" should have been written as a thrill-ride epic, a finale that combined tears and compassion with the kind of rollicking rebellion the series should have built toward. 

What should be a whipsaw ride of emotion, excitement and catharsis is instead an exhausting, 2-year trudge to an overstuffed conclusion. What a shame. Commerce has defeated art in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1." While Katniss weeps for the districts, I weep for wasted opportunity for greatness.