Tropic Thunder

“Tropic Thunder”

USA. 2008. Directed by Ben Stiller. Screenplay by Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. Story by Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux. Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruschel, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Matthew McConnaughey, Bill Hader, Brandon Soo Hoo, Danny R. McBride, Amy Stiller, Valerie Azylynn, Matt Levin, David Pressman and Dempsey Silva.

Rating: ★★★

Ben Stiller must have had this movie bottled up inside of him for much too long, particularly considering his career in the last few years has consisted of family movies that fared no better than reading bedtime stories such as in Madagascar and Night at the Museum and getting embarrassed in last year’s The Heartbreak Kid. In his latest movie, Tropic Thunder, the comedy is all so brash, so insolent that it hardly looks back at the damage it is causing to the face of political correctness. And that approach could not be more appropriate when the primary subjects of sly satire are war movies and Hollywood filmmaking.

The comedic premise is a rather clever one in which a group of actors trained to play soldiers in a new Vietnam War movie end up running into a gang of illegal drug smugglers who mistakenly suspect that they are armed special forces from the DEA. From this, director Stiller and his co-writers, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen (no relation to Ethan Coen) aim at a great many targets from greedy Hollywood executives to screenwriting and showbiz stardom to method acting and its follies. Not all of them hit their mark but when they do, the laughs really stick.

One area in which the film near consistently scores a bull’s eye is the performance of Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus, who offers a critique of method acting through method acting. Some people’s hairs were raised when news spread that he was going to play an Australian actor who undergoes a surgery to darken his skin and play an African-American platoon sergeant. Following up his great, career-reviving work in Iron Man earlier this year, it is a tribute to Downey’s skills as an actor that he perfectly modulates his eyebrows and his body so that the “impersonation” avoids being just a silly caricature but a sly and constantly funny jab at an actor’s potential identity crisis after immersing into another character so completely on and off the set. He also gets the biggest laugh of the movie (which sadly comes much too early as it is right in the beginning before the movie proper) in a fake trailer of a movie called “Satan’s Alley” where he plays a gay priest who falls in love with another priest played in a cameo by Tobey Maguire (an “MTV Best Kiss Award Winner” as the trailer helpfully points out).

The rest of the actors playing the platoon include the starring lead, Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), an action star trying to recover from his last critical and financial fiasco of playing a mentally handicapped man called “Simple Jack” who can talk to animals, and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), an actor who gained his popularity for a Nutty Professor knock-off called “The Fatties” and is also a heroin addict. There is also Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), an African-American hip-hop artist (a cunning dig on the popularity of Scarface here) who has recently made his name in a popular TV commercial for an energy drink called “Booty Sweat” and understandably cannot put up with Lazarus’ identity crisis. Finally, there is Kevin Sandusky, who is played by Jay Baruschel in a role that thankfully allows him to play smarter and more of a straight arrow instead of the bumbling, slacker weasel he has been typecast with over the years.

The movie opens with a pyrotechnic sequence that sends up all the war movie clichés from the almost drum line-like array of explosions to the exaggeratedly bloody and gory battle wounds. After that initial shooting goes wrong, the actors are placed in the middle of nowhere in Vietnam by British director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) upon the forceful behest of screenwriter Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), who is dissatisfied with the lack of authenticity brought on by the actors. The actors, particularly Speedman, initially think that it is their job to act and react and that hidden cameras will capture it all, even after a landmine suddenly goes off on someone in a gruesomely, darkly funny scene. That is, until Speedman himself is captured by the drug smuggling ring that is led by a 12-year old, Tran (Brandon Soo Hoo).

While the rest of the platoon attempts to rescue Speedman, there is the producer, Les Grossman, the megalomaniacal, profanity-spewing studio chief character that director Stiller tilts to full effect to throw all the tomatoes he can at the Hollywood studio system (most notably in the way he seems to comically suggest that the studio execs really could not care less about the welfare of their actors as long as it does not hurt their earnings). I will leave the actor who plays the role as a surprise (since he is not shown in any of the trailers) but I will note that it is probably a smart, self-deprecating career move for the thespian who has recently had quite a bit of on and off-screen vanity to answer for. Next to Downey Jr., he gets a couple of huge laughs by performing two ridiculous dance numbers (one over the end credits) that would have even the cheesiest and most infantile hip-hop boy bands running for the hills.

The movie is far from perfect and Black, in particular, gets shortchanged in the quota of laughs he delivers as he plays the easiest, broadest comic creation among the cast. More importantly, there is one almost inexcusable flaw in a conversation between Speedman and Lazarus on how to act out a handicapped person. This scene and a few others involving how the druglords turn out to like the portrayal of “Simple Jack“ have already drawn controversy from the community of handicapped people and I can understand why. The R-word is said incessantly in a derogatory fashion and, though I understand what the filmmakers are going for, they don’t show the same skill and finesse that they brought to the character of Kirk Lazarus in fully filtering the critique of performance art out of the subject matter.

But then, total finesse may be too much to ask for in a movie that spreads the satirical impropriety and vulgarity around like napalm wildfire. And despite the stumbles, Tropic Thunder is actually better and has more focus than any movie Stiller has directed before including his last film, Zoolander because it has a worthier target to lampoon this time than male modeling, which is already a self-parodying topic itself. Maybe he figured himself that it was time for him to do something besides the typical two comedic modes he plays – the bumbling, mild-mannered buffoon or the egotistical jerk – and the creative results delivered here manage to provide a kind of self-effacing comeback for most everyone involved.

[Rec]

“[Rec]”

Spain. 2007. Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. Written by Jaume Balagueró, Luis Berdejo and Paco Plaza. Starring: Manuela Velasco, Pep Sais, Ferran Terraza, Jorge Serrano, Javier Botet, David Vert, Maria Lanau, Claudia Font, Manuel Bronchud, Vicente Gil, Carlos Lasarte and Carlos Vicente.

Rating: ★★★½

You have seen shaky POV cam before and the horror elements presented are not unfamiliar. But the Spanish horror film, [Rec] reinvents the exercise by combining the elements into a really frightening package that feels simultaneously fresher and more classical. Many of the classic horror films work just like haunted houses in which the filmmakers just want to shout out “boo” as many times and as effectively as possible and this film almost always knows how to stay ahead of the audience.

One of the reasons the movie’s directors, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza and their co-writer, Luis Berdejo are so successful at this is because it is patient. Horror films are often too eager to start with a literal bang and/or at least make sure the viewers know their setup early on (for example in Cloverfield, which was good but perhaps still too keen on informing what kind of footage is being presented). This film’s opening is simply of the heroine, Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) stumbling in her reporting that she will be shadowing some firemen for a TV show. In order to respect the film’s patience, I will suggest you shelve this review until afterwards if you know nothing about this film.

The night first starts out pleasantly, if a little boringly for Angela, as she is filmed and followed all around by her cameraman, Pablo (Pep Sais) and learns that a fireman’s routine is not what she imagined of running through burning buildings but of waiting quietly on duty and resting up for an emergency situation. However, a distress call comes in reporting a noise disturbance at an apartment building and Angela and Pablo’s camera follow a fireman, Manu (Ferran Terraza) and a group of policemen into the room. There, they find a very disturbed old lady that they attempt to calm down, until she suddenly aggressively sprints, lunges and bites a policeman in the neck.

This is the point when the zombie elements come into play (e.g. you get bitten, you also get virally infected and turn into a zombie) and the government officials, as is their usual procedure in the movies, abandon and lock all the residents, firemen, Angela and Pablo inside so as to prevent further spread of infection. The fresh, clever twist here though is that because they are locked in an apartment building and the camera thus also stays entirely inside, it builds a perfect setting to turn the complex into a full, traditional haunted house, all captured by Pablo’s news camera. No one can get out and the claustrophobic terror thus can only build and build as the number of infected start to grow in number, all while Angela insists that Pablo film everything that goes on and the survivors try to find a way out.

Surely, directors Balagueró and Plaza drive this for primal effect and I would not dream of giving away any of the numerous shocks that pervade throughout. Months, even years can go by before a jump scene really gets to me but this film has about three moments that are so unexpected and implacably timed that my jaw fell agape. They are all so effective because, unlike lesser horror films, they grow organically out of everything that we know (and fear) before and then spin the story into another terrifying direction.

Much credit must also go to the actors who deliver unadorned, unaffected performances that enhance the naturalistic feel the filmmakers are trying to create in order to underline the scares. The clever touch in the story’s premise is that since Angela is a TV reporter, it allows the opportunity for each actor/character to realistically talk about their doubts and suspicions (some of which is discriminatory, namely towards a Chinese family who lives inside the apartment) directly to the camera, without a hint of self-consciousness. Providing a sturdy anchor is Manuela Velasco with a wide-ranging performance that sustains our empathy by starting out as an adorably plucky and fearless personality and very gradually and believably becoming hopelessly aghast and terrified.

There has recently been a wave of accomplished, traditional horror movies in Spain with The Orphanage last year and this movie. While The Orphanage got a limited release last December thanks to producer Guillermo Del Toro, [Rec] at last has already been bought to be remade into Quarantine, which will be released in October this year (and is already too eager to reveal its “found footage” premise as its selling point). The fact that the studios are yet still reluctant to release subtitled foreign sensations may perhaps say more about some American audiences than the studios themselves (I still know people who sadly refuse to read subtitles) and that is a pity for all. Why should foreign filmmakers get repeatedly denied their due recognition for their original work in the United States while the mass American audiences are insulted with what so often is a carbon-copy hack job (which Quarantine seems just as well to be, as those who have seen the original will recognize that so many scenes are just shot-for-shot replicas)?

Even if the remake steals scenes wholesale from this film, I doubt that they will be able to fully reproduce the effect of innovative restraint and skill with which the filmmakers utilize their POV handheld camerawork. Staying true to its illusion to the point that the TV cameraman, Pablo is only heard and not seen, the camera is often dropped during unexpected frights or when Pablo himself must take action and it never goes for lingering kill or gore shots unless the story sensibly takes it there (and the only time the gore is prolonged is during an impromptu treatment of bite wounds). There is also one detail I particularly enjoyed where the unguarded camera starts rolling while it is on its side on the floor and captures an askew view after a little girl comes over and curiously turns it on.

The only notable flaw that keeps this movie from being perfect is in the final act in which certain characters towards the end unfortunately fall into the horror movie cliché of never doing the most logical thing before running around through dark rooms, which is to first look for and turn on the light switch (even if there is the camera light that illuminates just enough to see). But, without the pitch-darkness in the end, we would not have had the concluding payoff in the last five minutes that leaps so heedlessly into a pure, unadulterated nightmare. Just like a good haunted house, the filmmakers have saved the biggest scare for last.

Taken

“Taken”

France. 2008. Directed by Pierre Morel. Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Xander Berkeley, Leland Orser, Katie Cassidy, Jon Gries, Olivier Rabourdin, David Warshofsky, Holly Valance, Nathan Rippy, Camille Jappy and Nicolaus Giraud.

Rating: ★★★

What if a super spy like Jason Bourne in his middle-aged years got into a situation where his daughter is kidnapped by illegal human traffickers? The result of that high concept is Pierre Morel’s Taken, a swift, compact French action thriller that does a devious number on the kidnapping genre with the slickness and smarts of deadly espionage. The kidnapping villains have no idea what kind of father they are dealing with.

As the movie opens, the hero of the story, a divorced ex-CIA operative named Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), is already paranoid about his 17-year old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace) traveling to Paris for the first time with only one other friend, Amanda (Katie Cassidy). After initially refusing to sign consent for her to travel as a minor without parental supervision, he reluctantly agrees thinking that this may be his chance to bond with his estranged daughter since he has moved closer to her in L.A. although she has told more than a few lies to be able to slide past Bryan’s seemingly overbearing paranoid assumptions. Then, when she arrives in Paris and while on the phone with her, he overhears her being taken away by some group of men.

The initial introductions of Bryan attempting to reconnect with his daughter and his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen), who is now married to Stuart (Xander Berkeley) but still mad at him for sacrificing his family for his covert job are no doubt a little bit hokey. But the movie quickly shows that it means business once Neeson’s Bryan gives his ultimatum to a kidnapper on the phone he overhears, assuredly warning them that he will find and kill them with all the skills he has acquired. As he quickly hears from a spy analyst friend, Sam (Leland Orser) that the kidnapper is part of a sex trade trafficking mob, he finds he has only 96 hours to find his daughter or else she will likely never be found.

Once Bryan flies into Paris, the movie becomes a nonstop, cathartic ride in which the kidnappers can barely blink before they can figure out Bryan’s next move. The director, Pierre Morel (who previously made his directing debut with the equally kinetic District B13 and was the cinematographer of the Transporter movies) and writers, Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen seem to have taken a lot of cues from the Bourne movies from the surveillance tactics and car chases to the martial arts fights and rapid-fire editing, all while giving them their trademark, at times almost monochromatic gloss in true Luc Besson style. And like the Bourne movies and District B13, it is almost perfunctory to try to describe much of the ceaseless action in words, as the film itself rarely takes a breath in showing the lightning speed with which this ex-CIA operative returns to his training roots for a more personal cause.

Although Neeson has wisely chosen to have a far more versatile and challenging career than a conventional action leading man, it is still a wonder that Neeson has never taken on a role like this until now in his mid-50s. As an actor, he always projects a commanding presence without ever seeming to go for an effect and an actor’s presence is really key to keeping an action movie grounded in its own reality even when everything about him starts to border on the impossible. And perhaps because his mission is now paternal, his character is also more ferocious than any other recent super spy. The man has no compunction to kill and even electric torture anyone who is involved with the kidnapping and, at one point, he even shoots a flesh wound into the wife of an old fellow French government agent who is purposely not disclosing the information he needs to find his daughter.

If I have a slight complaint against the film in hindsight, it is that it does not give full weight to the more disturbing issue it tackles that is human trafficking. The films from Luc Besson and company are often effective at integrating a human element into the action but also sometimes limit themselves to it, without exploring the larger social consequences involved. That was also true of Kiss of the Dragon (which reduced a drug smuggling operation that Jet Li uncovers into a simple promise made to rescue Bridget Fonda out of her predicament) and, while the film is restrained in its depiction of the pivotal issue, I wish the filmmakers had tried to insert some more social commentary for the larger issue beyond the father’s single-minded quest to rescue his daughter.

But, of course, most fathers would not have the strength and skills that Bryan Mills has to even face up to these nasty, brutish human traffickers and the film cleanly and efficiently delivers on its purpose to give the audience-pleasing thrill of seeing the bad guys cower and squirm against a protagonist who already knows where to find their guns as soon as he enters their hideout. Towards the beginning, after Bryan gives his ultimatum to a kidnapper on the phone, the kidnapper says smirking, “Good luck.” When the phrase is repeated again later, the villains don’t even have the time to wipe off the smirk.