Movie Review: Secretary

Secretary (2002) 

Directed by Steven Shainberg 

Written by Erin Cressida Wilson 

Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, Jeremy Davies, Leslie Ann Warren 

Release Date September 20th, 2002 

Published September 19th, 2002 

Recently, I have come to hate even the idea of a romantic comedy. The genre's many conventions and classic elements have overwhelmed any film tagged with the romantic comedy label. Take for instance the Resse Witherspoon romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, which seems as if it were assembled in a romantic comedy factory. Every element of that film was clipped from previous films in the genre and pasted together under a new title with a big star's name attached to the poster. However, just when I have lost all faith in movie romance comes a most unlikely romantic comedy called Secretary. This is by no means a traditional romantic comedy, but it does have both comedy and a very unique romance.

In Secretary Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Lee Holloway, a troubled young woman just out of the hospital after what was believed to be a suicide attempt. Lee is looking for a way out from under her dysfunctional family which includes an alcoholic father (Stephen McHattie) and her overprotective mother (Leslie Ann Warren). Lee has taken to cutting herself with knives and needles as a way of dealing with her parents' constant arguing; the apparent suicide attempt may not actually have been suicide but rather an accident while cutting. Lee is still trying to figure herself out but she seems to take pleasure from hurting herself.

One way for Lee to get away from her parents may be to marry an ex-high school friend named Peter (Jeremy Davies) or she could get a job and make her own way. Lee decides to get a job and, using her amazingly fast typing skills, Lee lands a job as a secretary for a lawyer named E. Edward Grey (James Spader). It doesn't take long before Lee figures out that there is something unusual about her new boss who seems quite particular about the order of the office. When Edward catches Lee cutting herself, he orders her never to do it again and his forcefulness begins a strange sort of courting that includes sado-masochistic punishments for mistakes--which Lee makes a lot of once she realizes how much she enjoys it.

Secretary is so unique and funny that you laugh at things you once may have thought shocking or even appalling. The performances by Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader are pitch perfect which helps the audience to accept the weird behavior. Though Spader has been criticized for too often trading on his creepy persona that he has cultivated throughout his career, I found it interesting to see him make that creepiness a likable trait for once.

Director Steve Shainberg does an excellent job of combining likable performances with difficult material. It's likely that if Secretary were made without the amazing lead performances of Gyllenhaal and Spader it wouldn't have worked. Even when the film seems to fly off the rails in the last 20 minutes, the actors save it with their endlessly likable performances and fiery chemistry. In a year light on good comedy, Secretary is a standout. The material might not appeal to all audiences, but the actors will--if you give them the chance.

The Medallion

The Medallion (2003) 

Directed  by Gordon Chan 

Written by Bennett Joshua Davlin, Alfred Cheung, Gordon Chan, Paul Wheeler, Bey Logan

Starring Jackie Chan, Lee Evans, Claire Forlani, Julian Sands, John Rhy-Davies 

Release Date August 22nd, 2003 

As a stuntman Jackie Chan is unparalleled. However, as an actor, Jackie fights dialogue and loses badly. I can't fault Jackie for not having mastered the English language but I can fault the numerous directors who still force Chan to wrestle with not only dialogue but jokes and one liners, something that is almost as painful as one of Jackie's numerous pratfalls. In The Medallion, Jackie is once again relied upon to deliver jokey dialogue in between the fights, and though the fights are fun, the dialogue is absolutely deathly.

Chan is yet again in the role of a Hong Kong cop sent around the world to fight bad guys. In this version he's Eddie Yong and he is searching for a mystical young boy with strange powers who has been taken hostage by a terrorist named Snake-head (Julian Sands). On Eddie's side are a pair of Interpol agents, the bumbling comic relief Arthur (Lee Evans)and the love interest Nicole (Claire Forlani).

The Medallion of the title is the boy’s power source. With it he can bestow immortality or take it away. He can also use it to bring people back to life, which comes in handy when Eddie is killed attempting to save him. Not only does Eddie come back from the dead he now has super strength and immortality. However Snakehead has also used the Medallion and has the same powers as Eddie leading to climactic battle that is essentially an exercise in special effects, which really doesn't suit Jackie's more natural approach to fight scenes.

But then not much of anything in The Medallion seems to suit Jackie's talents save for the early fight scenes where Jackie gracefully works his way through henchman after henchman, barely breaking a sweat. When he does sweat it's usually fighting his way through sub Abbot and Costello style banter with Evans.

Director Gordon Chan, directing his first western feature, seems at a loss trying to combine Hong Kong action with a Hollywood script that calls for as much acting as fighting. You can see from the hack job editing that Gordon Chan didn't have a clue what to do with the film’s scripted humor which looks as if it was pieced together from the outtakes that always play during the credits of a Jackie Chan film.

The Medallion is yet another attempt by Hollywood to shoehorn Jackie Chan into American style action comedy and, like last years The Tuxedo, it's yet another failure. Jackie Chan is a charismatic and lovable actor but watching him have to wrestle with a script that doesn't suit his talents is painful to watch and impossible to enjoy.  

Movie Review: The Mechanic

The Mechanic (2011) 

Directed by Simon West

Written by Lewis John Carlino, Richard Wenk

Starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn 

Release Date January 28th, 2011 

Published January 27th, 2011 

If by some chance you have managed to avoid every other movie about coolly efficient assassins who live alone like monks and share a warrior's code with old school samurais then you might find the new Jason Statham film “The Mechanic” interesting. If, however, you are like me and you have seen any hit man movie ever you will find nothing the least bit original or fascinating about this rehash of sub-genre cliché.

Jason Statham is Arthur Bishop a classical music fan who also happens to be the coldest of the cold blooded killers in the world. Arthur's specialty is hits that don't look like hits and in the opening montage we watch as Arthur murders the head of a South American cartel by making the death look like an accidental drowning. The murder is clever but more in a B-movie fashion than in the sleek, cool fashion the film seems to think it's pulling off.

Arthur's next hit will not be as efficient; he's been hired to kill his mentor. Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland) taught Arthur all that he knows about killing people. But now that Harry is aging and in a wheelchair he has become a greedy liability to the higher ups who give the contract to Arthur out of a sense of decency and respect, or something. The expectation is that Arthur will make the old timer's death quick and painless.

Arthur has a son, Steve (Ben Foster), and though the two were not close Steve wants revenge for his father's death. Lucky for Arthur, the unpredictable, hot headed Steve doesn't know who killed his dad. Out of guilt or sympathy, Arthur takes Steve under his wing and begins teaching him the tools of the trade for a 'Mechanic,' aka assassin, a man who fixes problems.

Simon West directed “The Mechanic,” taking the bones of a forgotten Charles Bronson flick from the early 70's and taking out anything vaguely arty like the original's wordless 15 minute opening in which Bronson lays out a complicated kill and cover up without feeling the need to narrate the proceedings the way Statham's Arthur does temporarily and fitfully throughout the new film.

The original “The Mechanic” was no art-house film but it had more ambition than this knock off and in Bronson a more compellingly stoic and fascinating lead. Jason Statham's one note performance, compounded by the dull and needless voiceover, has the same lack of energy and innovation as Simon West's direction. It's a shame because Statham is capable of being a charismatic presence but The Mechanic sucks the life out of the bullet headed action hero. 

Ben Foster is the truly unfortunate one in “The Mechanic.” This talented young actor who has brought vitality and unpredictability to roles in other not so great movies like “Pandorum” as well as great movies like “3:10 to Yuma” and the military drama “The Messenger,” where he helped Woody Harrelson to an Oscar nomination, is stranded in the one note role in The Mechanic. Much like Statham, Foster is hamstrung by an uninspired script and Simon West's dull direction. 

Dreary, derivative, and deeply uninspired, The Mechanic is a complete failure. It's indicative of every other movie Simon West has directed, a dull, often insulting rehash of genre cliches, slickly produced with little care for character or storytelling. 

Movie Review Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell (2017) 

Directed by Rupert Sanders 

Written by Jamie Moss, William Wheeler, Ehren Kruger 

Starring Scarlett Johannsson, Takeshi Katano, Michael Pitt, Juliette Binoche 

Release Date March 31st, 2017 

Published March 30th, 2017 

Is “Ghost in the Shell'' offensive? It’s certainly tone deaf and in poor taste but offensive? That depends on your perspective. I wasn’t offended by “Ghost in the Shell'' per se, though I oppose the white washing of the casting, I am also practical and cynical enough to understand it from the perspective of a profit driven business. That the film is the subject of such controversy only shines harsh light on the film’s artistic failures, even if better art would not negate the controversy. 

“Ghost in the Shell” stars Scarlett Johannsson as Major, a secret agent with a not so secret super power. Major is mostly a robot but with a human brain. She is relatively invincible, impervious to most things, but with human intellect and instincts. Major was the subject of an experimental surgery undertaken by a secretive organization for which Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche) serves as the public face and the seemingly benevolent doctor who saved Major’s mind, if not her body.

Major is tasked with tracking down Kuze (Michael Pitt), a hacker/terrorist who is targeting the scientists and doctors who created the Major. Kuze claims to have a secret about Major that is being repressed in her mind through drugs the company claims she must take in order for her mind not to reject her cybernetic shell. It’s a secret that the filmmakers hope will cure them of white washing allegations, even as it only serves to make things worse in the eyes of many.

“Snow White and the Huntsman” director Rupert Sanders helmed “Ghost in the Shell” and he has certainly created a feast for the eyes. The futuristic Asian setting is rich with glittery, bright colors and tech similar to other sci-fi visions of the future such as “Minority Report,” minus that films’ visual wit. “Ghost in the Shell” is quite pretty with star Scarlett Johansson only adding to the visual delights.

That said, the spectacular visuals do serve to underline the emptiness at the core of the story. While the original anime “Ghost in the Shell'' was about identity and what made someone human, the live action “Ghost in the Shell” has been sheared of the subtext in favor of more of a revenge movie in which Major eventually begins to seek vengeance against those who kept secrets from her related to how she ended up a cyborg.

The change dumbs the movie down into a more mainstream action movie because hey, audiences don’t like to ponder existence when there are simple thrills to be had. This is not the fault of Johansson who seems to want something deeper in her performance but it’s just not there onscreen. This could also be the function of multiple screenwriters culling the deeper themes through series after series of rewrites, the film has three credited screenwriters including the subtext challenged Ehren Kruger.

I don’t hate “Ghost in the shell.” It’s not poorly acted and the visual splendor is undeniably fun. I must admit, I am knocking “Ghost in the Shell” for the most part, for not being the movie I wanted it to be and not for the movie that it is. The movie that “Ghost in the Shell” is is a shallow yet dazzling action movie that will satisfy the base action movie audience with their brains turned off.

I’m also reviewing the film’s politics which isn’t really fair either. From a business standpoint casting Scarlett Johansson makes more sense than casting a more appropriate Asian actress with less name value. From that very base, cold, cynical perspective I can’t fault “Ghost in the Shell,” I can only ask why it had to be “Ghost in the Shell?” Why go for the full Asian aesthetic and then cast white people, the setting has no impact on the story and could be transported anywhere. 

Why not rip off the concept, move it to New York and abandon the burden of white washing accusations in favor of the much easier to deflect cries of ‘rip off?’ The controversy only harmed the film which otherwise would have likely skated to modest success as a standard, simpleminded action movie instead of being pilloried on its way to underperforming.

Movie Review The Matrix

The Matrix (1999) 

Directed by The Wachowskis 

Written by The Wachowskis

Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie Ann Moss, Joe Pantoliano 

Release Date March 24th, 1999 

Published March 24th, 2019 

Keanu Reeves returns to the big screen this weekend in the new science fiction flick Replicas. That film has Reeves playing a scientist crossing ethical boundaries to use cloning technology, or something of the sort, to bring back the wife and child he lost to a car accident. The premise is interesting but the trailer includes an attempt to pretend critics like it by boasting in ads about a “92%” rating on RottenTomatoes.com that simply does not exist. As of this writing, Replicas has only one critics review, a negative review, in Spanish. 

That said, even if Replicas is a bad movie as my instincts are telling me, I won’t hold it against star Keanu Reeves. After all, there is still John Wick 3 to look forward to this year and an all new Bill & Ted movie that appears to have a clever revival idea behind it is also still to come. Most importantly, Keanu will always be Neo from The Matrix. The 1999 sci-fi action blockbuster The Matrix heralded the beginning of the end of the era when blockbusters based on original ideas were all the rage and visionary filmmakers with new ideas appeared to have a place in Hollywood.

That era is over, likely brought to the close by the very visionaries, The Wachowski siblings, whose film, The Matrix, became the last of the great original franchises. Big budget originals such as Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending may have been the death knell for any original, big budget adventure without a built in audience, comic book, or novel, behind it but I don’t hold that against The Wachowski’s. I may hate both of those original flops but at least they were trying something original and bold.

In the era of the remake, reboot or comic book based blockbuster originality needs to be cheered even when it fails spectacularly as The Wachowski’s recent features have. Honestly, we should have a GoFundMe campaign or create some sort of ‘Too Big to Fail’ scam in order to fool studios into thinking those failures were hits so people like The Wachowski’s can get more chances to create something as bold and original as The Matrix was in 1999.

The Matrix stars Keanu Reeves as a part time drug dealer and full time office drone living a mundane existence. I called him a drug dealer but his trade is more in outlaw software that has the effect of getting people high. Neo himself has no use for such thrills. His life is lived in the secret places of the internet where, as a hacker, he tracks the strange movements of a vigilante named Morpheus (Larry Fishburne) whose hacking skills have led to rumors even Neo can’t begin to make sense of.

One night Neo’s work catches the attention of Morpheus and his cohorts and they reach out via Morpheus’s second in command, Trinity (Carrie Anne Moss). Trinity warns Neo that ‘Agents’ may be on to him, a warning that Neo or Thomas Anderson in his world, fails to heed. At his office the next day, Neo is cornered by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) who threatens him if he won’t help the agents find Morpheus.

With the help of Morpheus, Neo makes a dynamic and improbable escape from the agents. When Neo meets Morpheus he is offered a choice that became and has remained a meme or metaphor for seeing the world in a different way. Neo is offered a Red Pill that will wake him up to The Matrix and reality and the Blue Pill which will allow him to remain in his current place in the world, ignorant of reality.

Neo, of course, chooses the Red Pill and soon awakens in a pod, naked and covered in goo. His brain stem has a plug in it and his lungs are being operated by a machine until he removes the plug in a scene of modest but highly effective body horror. Neo is picked up by Morpheus’s ship, the Nebuchadnezzar where he will recover and eventually be taught about The Matrix, the machine of which he was a prisoner.

In the real world, humans are batteries within a massive machine and reality is fed to them via the subconscious. To fight The Matrix, Morpheus and his crew hack the system and work to disassemble the machine from the inside, one part at a time. Morpheus believes Neo may be a mythical savior with the power to bend The Matrix to his will and bring an end to a war most of humanity doesn’t realize is being fought, a war between man and machine.

It’s been nearly 20 years since The Matrix arrived in theaters and the film still feels like a fresh commentary on modern society. In fact, a coterie of conspiracy theorists believe that our reality is trending more toward a Matrix-esque reality due to our ever-growing dependence on the online world. Much like ‘The Red Pill’ has become a meme that has been co opted in myriad different metaphorical forms, The Matrix itself remains a strong and singular commentary on modern society.

Part of what keeps The Matrix fresh is Keanu Reeves. While some consider Reeves’ blank slate performance to be flat and unaffected, I have always felt that the film effectively deploys Reeves’ perceived flatness. Reeves is a rather perfect audience surrogate. We can project upon his blank, open, face, our own personas and interpretations. Some might consider that a flaw in that he doesn't stand out and stand on his own but, for me, Reeves’ empty vessel quality is part of the film’s appeal.

Reeves is a terrifically physical actor whose wiry frame is not so muscular as to make him un-relatable but not so average that he isn’t believable as he transforms into a karate master in the world of The Matrix. Truly, Reeves is ideal casting for Neo as he can be what most of the audience wishes we were, a handsome, world saving, bullet dodging karate hero. If Reeves played the role with a great deal of charisma he’d risk standing apart from the audience rather than standing in for us.

While I wish Keanu Reeves had more movies like The Matrix on his resume than say, Destination Wedding or Replicas, at the very least he will always be our Neo, the hero so open to interpretation and impersonation that he is all of us and none us all at once. Will Smith was initially sought for the role of Neo as The Matrix was entering production but he would have been all wrong for it. Neo isn’t a quippy, believable, world-saving, comic book hero, he’s an Everyman and while Reeves may be super handsome, his blank slate has an every man quality that is iconically Neo from The Matrix.

Movie Review: The Matador

The Matador (2005) 

Directed by Richard Shepherd 

Written by Richard Shepherd 

Starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Phillip Baker Hall, Hope Davis 

Release Date December 30th, 2005 

Published December 27th, 2005 

A great matador can kill a bull with a single precise blow from his sword. This pinpoint accuracy is prized by the crowd who, despite the sport's inherent cruelty, cannot abide the bull suffering too much. At first glimpse the title The Matador seems odd for a movie without a matador character, but with the film set in Mexico and the lead actor playing a hit-man prized for his precision, the title choice becomes clear perfection. Also perfect is the casting of the film which moves the former James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, on to a new career path that may be more rewarding than any secret agent franchise.

Pierce Brosnan stars in The Matador as Julian Noble, a hit-man who's losing his touch. Julian has been blowing off jobs and telling his handler, Mr. Randy (Phillip Baker Hall), he just needs a vacation, something most hit-men are not afforded. One lonely night in a Mexico City hotel bar Julian meets Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), who's in Mexico on business. Desperate for any kind of human contact--someone he doesn't have to pay or kill--Julian buys Danny a drink and makes a fumbling attempt at friendship.

Julian is terrible with people and manages to insult Danny more than once before Danny finally agrees to hang out with him. Danny has his own troubles. He desperately needs a major business contract with a Mexican firm or his new company will go under. As if that wasn't enough, just before he left his home in Denver, a tree fell through the wall of his kitchen--nearly killing him and his wife, Bean (Hope Davis).

Julian is, at first, leery of telling Danny what he does for a living. Eventually however, while attending a bullfight, he finally breaks down and tells Danny who reacts with a reasonable disbelief. After a rather ingenious demonstration where Julian nearly kills a target that Danny chose at random, Danny finally comes to believe Julian is a hit-man. Here is where the film takes its first unique turn. Rather than run away from Julian, Danny is intrigued by him and takes on the interesting perspective about what a great story he will have to tell his friends back home. Not many people can say they hung out with a contract killer.

There are plenty of unique twists and turns in The Matador, but to go into much more detail would ruin the fun of this cleverly scripted comedy. Written and directed by Richard Shepard, best known for the direct to video thriller Oxygen, The Matador never goes where you expect it to. The rare unpredictability of The Matador is its charm. Shepard scripts the film with an eye on what is expected in each scene and turns every predictable scene on it's ear.

Pierce Brosnan is attempting to start a brand new career post-James Bond and The Matador is an excellent start. While his comic skills are suspect--he never seems quite comfortable delivering a joke--Brosnan is undeniably handsome and charismatic and that kind of charm can carry an actor along way. Brosnan is aided by a deft and clever script that never tries for big laughs but rather quiet, appreciative smiles as satisfying as big guffaws.

Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis are well cast as a married couple who have never lost the spark of first love. Writer-director Shepard gives both actors a great deal to play with and trusts his actors to make the material come off the page. Because most of the film is made up of smart, funny, dialogue without the kind of dramatic flourishes or overstated comic setups you might expect from a film of the action-comedy genre that The Matador is haphazardly included within. Davis and Kinnear find a lovely beat to play within the familiar genre elements of The Matador and their chemistry is exceptional. 

The Matador plays a little like "David Mamet lite". Drop the expletives (there are a few but not of the Mamet degree), keep the sharp wordplay, and whip smart plotting and you have a movie that resembles Mamet while displaying a light comic touch that establishes the film as a Richard Shepard original.  The real delight of The Matador are the three principle stars who bite into this smart material with gusto. 

These are tough roles which, in the commercials, and the film's trailers are played up as broadly comic but are in fact quieter and more cerebral. Yes, the performances tickle at times and draw more than a few good laughs but the most effort is put into establishing these characters and the universe they inhabit as something plausibly close to reality.

One of the last films of the Weinstein/Miramax-Disney partnership, The Matador only suffers the lack of full support by one studio giving it the marketing attention it deserves. But aside from that, The Matador is a wonderfully clever comic thriller that gives three terrific actors three exceptional roles that each knocks out of the park. For audiences looking for smart funny adult-minded movies, The Matador is a gift.

Movie Review: The Marine

The Marine (2006) 

Directed by John Bonito 

Written by Michelle Gallagher, Alan B McElroy 

Starring John Cena, Kelly Carlson, Robert Patrick 

Release Date October 13th, 2006 

Published October 12th, 2006 

WWE films has been in business for just about a year with two features under their belt. The model seems to be Lionsgate or the former Miramax genre arm Dimension. Cheap genre pictures that succeed or fail by the popularity of the WWE superstar assigned the starring role. The first WWE feature See No Evil starring Glen 'Kane' Jacobs cost a mere 15 million dollars to make and is headed for DVD soon already having made returns on its small budget.

The latest WWE feaure, The Marine, is a bigger deal for the WWE because this one stars the standard bearer of the company, World Champion John Cena. Once again the film is a cheaply made genre picture whose key is turning out WWE fans, regardless of whether the film is yet another Ed Wood quality sub-drive in movie.

In Iraq 2006 three marines have been taken hostage and Sgt. John Triton (John Cena) has discovered where they are being held. Though he is ordered to await backup, Triton takes it upon himself to rescue the hostages. Returning safely to base, Triton is a hero but his violation of a direct order has forced commanders to give him a dishonorable discharge.

Returning to his civilian life, with his beautiful wife Kate (Kelly Carlson), Triton finds the life of a regular joe just doesn't agree with him. After John gets fired from his first job, on his first day, his wife suggests they  take a road trip. This fateful decision finds John and Kate at an out of the way gas station in South Carolina just as a group of diamond thieves, lead by Rome (Robert Patrick), have arrived with the cops on their tail. When the thieves engage the cops and kill three people they go on to take Kate hostage. Now John Triton must use his marine training to track down and kill the bad guys and rescue his wife.

The Marine is an old school, 80's style action picture that fires copious amounts of bullets and blows up anything in its path. However, because the film is hemmed in by a PG-13 rating; much of the fun of this level of carnage is left on the cutting room floor. What is left on the screen is a goofy faux action picture that leaves star John Cena dangling in the wind employing his wrestling skills to provide the films only jolts of fun.

Cena, the current WWE champion, is not a great actor. That could probably be taken for granted but his limitations become clear by the fact that though he is the star of the picture, Cena has fewer lines than top bad guy Robert Patrick and even Patrick's goofball henchmen played by Jerome Ehlers and Anthony Ray Parker. It's clear that the edit of The Marine was engineered to hide Cena's shortcomings as an actor and that meant cutting as much of his dialogue as possible. 

There is so little that Cena can do onscreen, aside from run and fight, that the minor henchman played by Anthony Ray Parker is given as much screen time and even a bizarre monologue. Parker is given a scene all to himself, early in the picture, the subject of which is his love of racial conspiracy and his hatred of rock candy. How awful must Cena have truly been that director John Bonito felt Parker's scenes should be left in and much of Cena's dialogue was cut.

There is little appeal to The Marine beyond kitsch and a touch of nostalgia. There is a distinct Ed Wood or even early Russ Meyer quality to The Marine that is entertaining in a so bad it's good kind of way. Had the filmmakers had the guts to give the film a slightly bigger body count and some naked female flesh we could be talking about a camp classic. There is a nostalgia for the old school 80's action flick, ala Commando or Rambo 2 & 3, that some might find charming in an ironic way.

Robert Patrick does goose the film a bit with a performance reminiscent of Christopher Walken at his most loopy but without the self awareness. Patrick is actually committed to this goofball performance where Walken always has the slightest wink to let the audience know that he's in on the joke. Patrick is not in on the joke that is The Marine and thus, though he is at times bizarrely entertaining, he looks as foolish as the rest of the cast and crew of The Marine.

A hint of self awareness; a slight level of intended kink, and maybe there could be some hope for The Marine. Unfortunately, the film is played straight as if it were a semi-serious attempt to thrill action audiences. That does give the film a slight kitsch appeal but the film is not smarmy enough to take advantage of the kitsch. That leaves just a bunch of explosions and the WWE champion who is not unappealing but should probably limit his acting to faking punches in the ring.