Centurion

I like nothing more than a good historical epic, especially ones from a turbulent time in world history, the Roman Empire. The stories of Roman soldiers conquering the world one battle after another lends well to the big screen, especially stories of the fighting in Britannia with films like King Arthur, The Eagle, The Last Legion, and 2010's Centurion.

Stationed at a remote Roman garrison in Britannia, Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) is the lone survivor of a vicious Picts attack and taken prisoner. Brutally beaten, Quintus manages to escape and is rescued by the nearby Ninth Legion, commanded by General Titus Virilus (Dominic West). The Ninth has been tasked with wiping out the warring Picts, but instead, they become the target. Betrayed by their mute scout, Etain (Olga Kurylenko), the Ninth is almost completely annihilated. Virilus is captured while Quintus is one of the few survivors. Trapped far into enemy territory, Quintus and a group of just six survivors must find a way to get back to safety at the nearest Roman garrison. As they race for help though, Etain is not far behind with a squad of Pict warriors ready to kill all of them.

Okay, here goes. Medieval times were all sorts of nasty, especially when it comes to violence. Swords, knives, all sorts of blades and blunt instruments, those weapons will do plenty of damage to the human body. Directing this Roman Empire epic (and writing too), Neil Marshall plays up the violence quota. The problem is that in its epic graphic quality, it comes across as cartoonish. It's in the vein of 300, but without that graphic novel quality. The blood splatter looks ridiculous, and the violence becomes tedious almost immediately. How many times can you see a knife/sword/arrow impale itself in someone's face/eye/throat before it becomes numbingly painful to watch? It took me one fight scene when a Roman soldier takes a spear to the crotch. Oh, by the way, that gimmick is used again later. Making it worse, the editing is so quick that it becomes a blur of bloody, indecipherable body parts being hacked away.

So snowballing off the violence angle, the issue comes from the pacing in an already pretty brisk 97-minutes running time. In the first 50 minutes, Quintus is caught, beaten, escapes, joins the Ninth, watches the Ninth get annihilated, and then runs for his life with the six other survivors. The frenetic pacing is insanely uninteresting as we see repetitious shots of the seven -- strung out in a single-file line -- sprinting across the Britannic landscape to composer Ilan Eshkeri's booming, dramatic score. Cut to Etain and her warriors prodding their horses on fast in pursuit. A survivalist story set in the 2nd Century Roman times should be interesting, but it isn't. Thankfully, the story slows down a bit in the second and figures out a better way to go as Quintus and his dwindling survivors meet Arianne (Imogen Poots), a young Britannic woman banished from a Pict village now living in the woods. The finale especially works, delivering some surprising twists and a worthwhile final scene that plays on Quintus' earlier narration.

I wish I liked this movie more. The basic premise of the story is ripe with potential. Think The Lost Patrol meets Gladitator meets The Magnificent Seven. Providing the narration, Fassbender delivers a fine lead performance. He's the Everyman, a common soldier thrust into an unlikely heroic position. A rising star, it's another strong part for Fassbender. Quintus' survivors include Bothos (David Morrisey), the Roman officer, Thax (J.J. Feild), the me-first troublemaker, Brick (Liam Cunningham), the veteran on his last campaign, Macros (Noel Clarke), the African fighting with the Romans, Leonidas (Dimitri Leonidas), the Greek refugee who joined the Legions, and Tarak (Riz Ahmed), the knife-wielding cook. Lots of different backgrounds, and some very cool characters, but they're not given enough to do. Surprise, surprise, when they start getting picked off by the Picts, it's far from emotionally or dramatic moments.

As for the villains, there's good and bad. Kurylenko as the mute Britannic tracker, Etain, is a gem. With war paint covering her face and hair standing on end with all sorts of flowing robes and animal furs, she's a vision of anger and violence, providing quite the counterpart to the Roman survivors. Her one-on-one fight scene with West's General Virilus is a gem too. The Pict leader, Gorlacon (Ulrich Thomsen), is just the opposite. He's not imposing or intimidating and basically disappears halfway through the movie. So overall, I can't completely rip the movie, but I can't completely recommend it either. Instead, it falls somewhere in between unfortunately.

Centurion (2010): ** 1/2 /****

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Ask an Irishman to hear a sad story and plant it. You're in for a trip. A country with quite a history -- the Great Potato Famine, the oppressive British rulers, so much more -- has added up to an almost lyrical, browbeaten genre of films. These are far from uplifting films, like 2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

In 1920 County Cork, Ireland, Damien O'Donovan (Cillian Murphy) is ready to head to London to start practicing medicine. As he readies to leave though, the Black and Tans surprise Damien and a group of friends, meeting staunch resistance to the point where a friend is killed. He later sees the Black and Tans try to intimidate a train conductor, bullying everyone in a train station. Already a country full of unrest as the Irish Republican Army fights the British government, Damien joins his brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney), who is the local commander of the IRA group. The resistance fighting though intensifies with each passing week though, and the casualties begin to mount on both sides. An idealist in his beliefs, even Damien is tested.

Call it a cop out -- again -- but I struggle with what to write about this movie. I've been using that excuse more and more of late, and I can't quite figure out why. For starters, I'm not well-versed in Irish history, especially the very turbulent times in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Near the middle of the film, a turning point is 1921's Anglo-Irish Treaty which provides quite a turning point for the IRA, some good, mostly bad. 'Barley' does a good job of laying out the history without turning the movie into a history lesson. We see the big picture and thankfully don't get bogged down in the historical details.

Like many other stories focusing on a resistance fighting against a ruling army, the strongest points from 'Barley' come from Damien's growing involvement with the IRA. Outnumbered, under-supplied and under constant threat of betrayals and being turned in, the Irish Republican Army faces tremendous odds in hopefully gaining freedom from Great Britain. We only get a sense of the big picture though because the focus is on how the big picture impacts Damien and Teddy's group. Damien becomes a respected leader and all that entails, including killing people he's known since childhood because they've betrayed the movement. We see a descent into an almost obsessive pursuit of making sure Ireland's freedom is obtained. The underdog -- in sports, in war, whatever -- is almost always more interesting here, and that's the case here.

Somewhat pigeon-holed as a creepy villain thanks to the Batman series, Red Eye, and In Time, Murphy takes advantage of getting a pretty straight heroic lead performance. A motivated resistance fighter who becomes fully committed to gaining his country freedom is a fastball down the middle for a talented actor, and Murphy doesn't disappoint. As his brother, Teddy, Delaney is another solid performance, similarly driven but not as fanatically driven in a more reasonable way. Liam Cunningham plays Dan, a member of Teddy's group who is a ferocious fighter but also an intellectual while Orla Fitzgerald plays Sinead, a young woman in love with Damien who is just as devoted to the cause as he is. There are plenty of other characters in and out of the story, but none leave much of an impression, if they're even identified by name.

That was my biggest complaint with 'Barley.' While the story, time period and history on a bigger scale is interesting, I never really felt connected to any of it. Murphy's performance is solid, as is Cunningham and Delaney, but other than that I felt no real tie to the characters. When one character is killed late in the movie, I didn't even know who it was because it felt like a rotating door of supporting players surrounding the fighting. In the end, I came away disappointed.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006): **/**** 

The Guard

One of my favorite actors currently starring in movies, Brendan Gleeson is from that oh so familiar sub-group of actors....the character actor! Duh dun duh! He's perfect in those supporting roles that typically have him play alongside the lead instead of being the all-important lead. Thankfully, some studios saw that the Irish actor is extremely talented. In 2008, he co-starred with Colin Farrell in In Bruges (a great movie), and has continued with a lead role a few years later in 2011's The Guard.

In his quiet town on the Irish coast on the North Atlantic, Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson) goes about his duties "policing" the town. He's unorthodox and doesn't have much of a filter in communicating, but he's a good cop nonetheless. With a new officer on staff, McBride (Rory Keenan), Boyle investigates an odd murder, an outsider shot in the head and left to rot. Boyle and McBride wonder if it's a possible serial killer, but there's bigger things afoot. An FBI agent, Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle), has arrived to help the investigation. Everett believes the murder was involved with a huge drug deal that could net half a billion dollars in cocaine. Now the country cop must deal with the American agent, the time wasting away as the deal approaches.

A dark, indie Irish comedy was a new one for me. I can't think of another Irish movie I've even seen, but I picked a good one to start with. According to Wikipedia (and when are they ever wrong?), 'Guard' is the most successful indie Irish film of all-time.  First-time director John Michael McDonagh is working with familiar territory here, the fish out of water agent/officer forced to work with the eccentric, hometown police officer. But familiar is not a bad thing because McDonagh and the cast make it worthwhile. It feels like you've seen it before, but still manages to have that unique, unseen quality. The kinda quirky tone and eccentric qualities to it all work (think Irish Fargo in a way), and the Spanish guitar-themed score just adds to the quirkiness.

There was some pre-Oscar buzz that Brendan Gleeson would be nominated for an Oscar for his role as Sgt. Gerry Boyle, but that never materialized. Maybe because it's a comedy, the performance didn't get a ton of publicity. And if it isn't an Oscar-winning part, it is a very good one just the same. Gleeson's Boyle is somewhat proud of his racist prejudices, drinks on duty, samples drugs, visits prostitutes, but as an officer he always gets the job done. All vices aside, he is a good cop...even if his techniques are a little off-the-wall. His lack of a censor or filter provides a ton of laughs. He isn't necessarily racist, just curious and generally inexperienced with anyone non-white and non-Irish. A sub-plot with his mother, Eileen (Fionnula Flanagan), helps humanize him too if you're having trouble liking the character. It's just more proof that characters actors are more than capable of becoming lead actors.

The more familiar territory does come with Gleeson's Boyle working with Cheadle's Wendell as the investigation into the drug deal develops. Boyle isn't angrily racist, he's just prejudiced by stereotypes. He assumes Wendell doesn't like to swim, grew up in the projects, and that all drug dealers are black and Mexican. To his credit, Wendell doesn't flip out on him. The dynamic though is what makes the buddy cop relationship work. Differences aside, they'll get the job done. Gleeson and Cheadle are two immensely talented actors in whatever role, comedy or drama, and their chemistry is what makes that familiar story worth watching. Toward the end, Boyle asks Wendell if he's been shot before, and the exchange about the pain involved is priceless. The button-down American agent and the eccentric Irish cop? Can't go wrong.

Developing his story, McDonagh has some fun with his villains too, making them more than just underworld thugs. The trio is led by Sheehy (Liam Cunningham) and includes London enforcer Cornell (Mark Strong) and sociopath killer O'Leary (David Wilmot). The basic characters have been done before, but never quite like this. Sheey leads his crew in a discussion of everyone's favorite philosophers and said philosopher's most famous line. Strong's Cornell almost blows up on cops he's cutting a deal with them, asking them why he'd skim off the top a few thousand dollars when a $500,000,000 drug deal is on the line, also claiming he got into drug trafficking, not carrying heavy things. Given an option to run or fight, Cornell states "It's like f'ing Christmas!" and opts to stay. They're villains, yes, and rather nasty ones, but they're not run of the mill by any means. Other solid parts include Michael Og Lane as Eugene, a youngster who always helps Boyle, and Dominique McElligott (of Hell on Wheels) as Aoiffe, a prostitute Boyle visits.

I was somewhat surprised by the direction the film takes in its last 20 minutes. It was already pretty dark comedically, but it leans just more straight dark dramatically in the finale. The confrontation on a dock at the drug deal is a good action scene, added by a spaghett-western like score playing over the shootout. But what's really surprising is the open-ended quality of the ending. It leaves it open to the viewer to decide what happens, much like 2008's In Bruges. What ending works for you is what it comes down to. A really good, really funny comedy.

The Guard <---trailer (2011): ***/****

Safe House

Denzel Washington is one of a rare breed in Hollywood. He's an Academy Award-winning actor who has shown that regardless of the role he's in, he is truly an actor. On the other side, he's also a movie star, a true movie star. There aren't many actors/actresses around who have the cache that Washington does. Oh, he's in a new movie? Sign me up. It doesn't hurt that with 2012's Safe House, it's also a good movie.

Having been stationed in Cape Town, South Africa for 12 months, CIA agent Matthew Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is at the end of his rope. His lone task is to care for and watch over a CIA safe house, one that in his year on duty has seen absolutely zero visitors. That is, until now. One day, a CIA extract team (led by Robert Patrick) arrives at the safe house with a prisoner, Tobin Frost (Washington), a rogue agent suspected of selling intelligence secrets to the highest bidder. Before the interrogation can begin though, the safe house is attacked with Tobin as the target. Weston takes him out and finds himself on the run, needing to hide long enough until help can arrive. What isn't Tobin telling him though? And how did the attackers know the time and place to attack? Someone most definitely wants Tobin dead, and Weston may be the collateral damage.

An espionage thriller set in South Africa with Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, and a crew of more than reliable actors in supporting roles? Oh, count me in. From director Daniel Espinosa, Safe House doesn't break new ground in the genre. There is a familiarity with the story and characters, but not that overdone feel of having seen everything done before and done to death. With its washed out colors and quick editing, it has the look and feel of a Tony Scott flick crossed with a Jason Bourne movie. It isn't like those movies, just similar. Espinosa handles the twisting, fast-moving story very professionally. As a viewer, you're always aware the revelations are coming (somewhat predictably), but the enjoyment comes from the ride along the way. The action is impressive, but there's not too much. The twists make sense and fit logically into the story. And the characters? Stock characters from the spy/espionage genre, but good ones at that.

Much of the appeal from Safe House will no doubt come from Denzel Washington as spy come in from the cold Tobin Frost. Washington isn't the type of actor who's in 9 or 10 movies a year, picking and choosing his roles more carefully. When they come along, you've got to enjoy and appreciate them. When he's on-screen, Washington is effortlessly cool, making him an ideal choice to play a possibly rogue agent looking to come in. Tobin is a master manipulator, highly intelligent, very capable of handling himself, and ready and willing to use a wide network of associates and contacts to help his cause. His motivations are kept in the dark to a point -- left in the dark -- but it's clear he's fed up with living a hidden life. He's the one who sets the action in motion, and when it starts, it never slows down. There are very few must-see actors, but Washington is one of them. The actor and character leave you wanting more.

As his counter, Ryan Reynolds shows again why he's one of the rising stars in Hollywood. We meet him in the beginning; an inexperienced agent looking for actual field work, wasting away in a pointless job. He keeps secrets about his job from his girlfriend (Nora Arnezeder), hoping to get reassignment somewhere. As he's thrust into the world he's only dreamed of up to this point, we see a transformation, a young agent learning in a do-or-die situation. His comedic abilities as an actor have never been in question, but with parts like this and 2006's Smokin' Aces, Reynolds shows he is very capable of being an action star. Let's not talk about Green Lantern which looked like all sorts of awful. Most importantly though, Reynolds isn't overshadowed by Washington. Their scenes together keep things flowing when the bullets aren't flying. Tobin is playing Weston to a point so can the inexperienced agent figure it out and fight back?

Who else to look for? Washington is the drawing card, but there's no drop-off between him and the rest of the cast. Back in Langley at CIA headquarters, Sam Shepard, Brendan Gleeson and Vera Farmiga play CIA supervisors trying to piece everything together. What exactly is going on in South Africa, and who's on who's side? Ruben Blades makes a quick appearance as Carlos, an old associate of Tobin's who helps him out as he tries to get out of South Africa. Patrick helps legitimize the small part as Keifer, the leader of the CIA extract team, with Liam Cunningham briefly appearing as an MI6 link to Tobin. Two other worthwhile parts include Vargas (Fares Fares), the killer tasked with killing Frost and Weston, and Keller (Joel Kinnaman), another safe house operative looking for any sort of excitement.

With a 115-minute long movie, director Espinosa keeps things flowing and never really lets up in the action department. Expansive, loud shootouts, harrowing car chases through Cape Town's crowded streets, and knock down, brutal hand-to-hand fights pepper the story throughout. The editing is lightning-paced, but you're always able to keep up and see what's going on. Thankfully, the brakes were tapped before 'Safe' reached Bourne-editing territory. The shaky camera never goes too far, but you do feel like you're there with the action. South Africa is an exotic, different location for the thriller as well, not the typical backdrop for an espionage story. A classic? No, but it's an above average flick with its fair share of unique qualities.

Safe House <---trailer (2012): ***/****

Clash of the Titans (2010)

English actor Sam Worthington is at an interesting point in his career.  After toiling in relative obscurity on British TV and movies since 2000, the 35-year old actor now stands poised to become one of Hollywood's biggest stars...with the right part.  Where does he go from here? He was by far the best thing about Terminator Salvation and outdoing Christian Bale, managed to hold his own against James Cameron's CGI work in Avatar, and then followed it up with 2010's Clash of the Titans.

An updated version of a cheese-fest in the form of 1981's Clash of the Titans, this is a movie that was remade solely because there is CGI now.  That's it.  There's no other reason to remake the movie.  I haven't seen the original, never really having an interest in it.  But there was potential here if nothing else. It's Greek mythology, and it is nearly impossible to ruin that.  The gods up on Mount Olympus interact, controlling the world with an iron fist, the backstabbings, betrayals and hook-ups that a modern soap opera would be jealous of.  The movie never amounts to much though, a somewhat entertaining movie if nothing else.

The son of a mortal woman and the most powerful of all the Greek gods, Zeus (Liam Neeson), Perseus (Worthington) is saved by a Greek fisherman (Pete Postlethwaite) and raised as one of his own with his family. As he grows up though, a war develops and builds between the ego-tripping gods and the frustrated mortals.  The gods are ready to wipe out the mortals if they don't receive their due, especially lord of the Underworld, Hades (Ralph Fiennes), even threatening to release the monstrosity of a beast, the Kraken. The only option is to sacrifice an Argonaut princess, Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), but Perseus finally embraces his demi-god status to help the mortals win.  With a small group of Argonaut warriors at his side, Perseus heads out into the wilderness in hopes of finding a way to defeat the angry gods and the Kraken.

One of my concerns when I first started reading about the movie was some choices in casting.  As much as I like Worthington, I wasn't sure he was the right choice to play Perseus, son of Zeus. He basically gets to play the only character with any sort of actual development so he's got that going for him.  Like so many other characters though, it is only taken so far.  We've got to have a reason to root for him, and Worthington -- through his own fault or that of the script (more on that later) -- never really provides that reason. He handles the action sequences well enough, but I wish they could have done more with the main character in what looks like it will be a franchise with Clash of the Titans 2 scheduled for a 2012 release.

The rest of the cast -- without a ton of huge star power, not a bad thing -- is more hit or miss.  Neeson, Fiennes and Danny Huston play Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, the most powerful of the Greek gods. Neeson is the best of the three but is really around only to say 'Release the Kraken!' Fiennes glares and looks mean, and I don't believe Huston actually says a word (unless I missed it). Gemma Arterton is a bright spot as Io, Perseus' guardian angel of sorts who looks over him. Mads Mikkelsen is also a big positive as Draco, the Argonaut warrior who questions Perseus' status. A stock character, and one you've seen before, but a good one. His Argonaut squad includes Liam Cunningham, Hans Matheson, and Nicholas Hoult. There's also a CGI warrior -- a Djinn fighter -- who's pretty cool. Along for the adventure are two hunter/fighters brothers, Ozal (Ashraf Barhom) and Kucuk (Mouloud Achour), two very underused characters.

This was a summer blockbuster in 2010 so what should we expect from this flick? Action...lots of action.  Because there is no really good, detailed way to say it, the action scenes are both good and bad.  The potential is there with CGI creating all sorts of mythological characters for Perseus and Co. to battle (giant scorpions, Medusa, the Kraken, Hades' winged attackers), and the CGI looks solid for the most part.  However, the action is from the 'Let's over-edit this scene so it is indecipherable to watch and/or follow!' school of editing. Look it up, the school actually exists. Edited so quickly that the viewer can't see anything is never a good choice as a film-maker.  When the action and editing is slowed down enough where we're able to keep up, it's good stuff.  There just isn't enough of it.

Something was missing from this movie, and maybe it wasn't just one thing; maybe it was lots of little things.  For a blockbuster with all the makings of an epic, it clocks in at just 95 minutes before an extremely long 11-minute credit sequence.  That is not long for an R-rated comedy, much less a historical/mythological epic.  The look of the movie is too clean, too neat and tidy. The musical score is lacking, receding into the background too much where a good score would drive the action. Mostly though, I just never got fully into the movie. With a finished product that's barely 90 minutes long, there just is no time to take a breathe here.  Characters vanish as soon as they appear, and the ones that do stick around aren't given a chance to develop or interact at all.

A decent enough, entertaining movie, but one that is pretty forgettable in the grand scheme of summer blockbusters. Hopefully with the sequel, the cast, script and director actually get a chance to stretch out and get comfortable. The first movie certainly had the potential to be pretty good even if it ultimately wasted that potential.

Clash of the Titans <---trailer (2010): ** 1/2 /****