The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) review

Well, we’re nearing the end of the summer film season, meaning that the slate of new releases that we’ve had for the past few weeks admittedly hasn’t been as strong as it was a few months back. At this point, we’ve already gotten all the summer’s biggest outings from the likes of Marvel and DC, other big franchise hits like the newest Planet of the Apes film, and excellent new films from the likes of Christopher Nolan and Edgar Wright, just to name a few. Thus, it can sometimes be easy to look past the films that come out during the month of August, because aside from films like the first Guardians of the Galaxy, not a lot of big hits tend to come out during this part of the year. However, that doesn’t mean that we haven’t had any new worthwhile releases this month because there have been a few. One of these is The Hitman’s Bodyguard, an action film that is headlined by two of the biggest on-screen personalities in the film industry. First, there’s Ryan Reynolds who, of course, is fresh off his long-awaited success in the superhero film genre with Deadpool. The other main lead in this film is the one and only Samuel L. Jackson, a man whose legendary status in the film industry needs no introduction. As for the film itself, it’s directed by Patrick Hughes, who recently helmed his first big studio picture back in 2014 with the third installment of The Expendables series. And while this was the entry in the franchise that was heavily affected by both a nasty online leak and major backlash towards its watered-down PG-13 rating, it was still a decent commercial hit overseas. But this isn’t a PG-13-rated action film that we have here today, folks; nope, this is an R-rated action extravaganza that uses the fun onscreen personalities of its two leads to great effect.

Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) is a top-level bodyguard for high-level assets. However, when one of his clients ends up getting killed, Bryce finds himself ‘demoted’ to the position of protecting lesser targets. However, that begins to change when he is approached by his ex-girlfriend, Interpol agent Amelia Roussel (Elodie Yung), who asks for his help on her current operation when it begins to go horribly wrong. Said operation involves the transportation of infamous hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) to the Netherlands. There, he has agreed to testify at the International Court of Justice against the diabolical dictator of the Republic of Belarus, Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman), in exchange for the release of his wife Sonia (Salma Hayek) from prison. There’s just one problem, though; Bryce and Kincaid have had quite the tumultuous history together, meaning that these two aren’t exactly keen on working with each other. But, neither of them ultimately have much of a choice in the matter as Bryce is forced to get Kincaid to the Netherlands by a specific deadline, otherwise, Dukhovich goes free. Thus, the two head off on a crazy adventure while being endlessly pursued by Dukhovich’s men who are hell-bent on killing them… that is unless Bryce and Kincaid kill each other first.

Let’s be honest, folks; you’re not expecting anything Oscar-worthy out of this. It’s just a simple action film with a basic plot and some clear-cut plot twists, from a mole within Interpol (played by Joaquim de Almeida, who played the villain in Fast Five) to a reveal that ties Kincaid to the incident that ruined Bryce’s career. But, ultimately, that’s not what makes this film such an entertaining action thriller. The key to it all is its two leads, as Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson work off each other incredibly well. Both have terrific comic timing and, thus, provide the film with its greatest moments whenever they’re on-screen together. Everyone else in the film is solid too though, admittedly, their roles are minor compared to Reynolds and Jackson’s. That can especially be said for the main villain Dukhovich, who doesn’t even factor into the plot, really, until the finale. Still, to the film’s credit, it does have quite a lot of fun action sequences. Unlike The Expendables 3, director Patrick Hughes isn’t limited in terms of having to tone them down so that the film can be rated PG-13 (even though Expendables 3 did, kind of, go beyond the limits of a usual PG-13 rated action film, but that’s beside the point). The action sequences in this film are far more violent and don’t suffer as much from the quick editing that was apparent in Expendables 3. And so, in conclusion, The Hitman’s Bodyguard may be far from perfect, but for a film that got released during the tail-end of summer, this is a decent way to close out one’s summer at the theater. Simply put, if you’re just looking for a film where Deadpool and Nick Fury constantly bicker with each other while mowing down bad guys, this is that film.

Rating: 3.5/5

The Defenders: Season 1 Review

Daredevil: “I’m glad we found each other.” Luke Cage: “I’m not hugging you.”

RIMC's Annual 'End of Summer' Fan Vote - 2017 Edition

We’re nearing the end of Summer 2017, and for longtime followers of this blog, you know exactly what this means. Yes, the time has come for Rhode Island Movie Corner’s fourth annual ‘End of Summer’ Fan Poll, where I’ll be letting you, the readers, vote for your favorite films from these past four months of the year. For those who are new to this site, here’s how this whole thing works. The link below will direct you to a poll that I’ve created on the site SurveyMonkey. There, you’ll be tasked with selecting your favorite film from this summer’s slate of new releases. There are several options to choose from, but I mainly decided to restrict it to wide releases. But with that said, there may be a possibility that your favorite film from this summer was one that isn’t listed. If that is the case, then a write-in section is also available. This poll will run for two weeks and will close on September 5^th. After that, I will tally the votes and use them to do another post listing all the winners, which will be posted a few days after voting is complete. So far, the winners from each of the past three years that these polls have been running have ended up consisting of a three-way tie between The Fault in our Stars, 22 Jump Street, and Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, Mad Max: Fury Road utterly dominating the competition in 2015, and a two-way tie between Captain America: Civil War and Bad Moms last year. And while there’s part of me that speculates that this year’s winner will be an undisputed front-runner like Mad Max: Fury Road was, given that Bad Moms ended up being as popular as Captain America: Civil War in last year’s poll, anything’s possible. At the end of the day, it’s all up to you folks, so vote away and let’s see if we can make this the biggest year yet for this annual poll.  

Click here to be directed to the Poll!

Logan Lucky (2017) review

Steven Soderbergh has had one of the most unique careers of any director in the film industry. Since the late 80’s, he has done films in several different genres under varying budgets. First, he made his start with indie hits like 1989’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape, which won the Palme d’Or, the biggest award given at the annual Cannes Film Festival, at that year’s event. And while he hasn’t stopped making indie-level films since, like the 2008 biopic Che or 2009’s The Girlfriend Experience, which starred porn star Sasha Grey and has since been adapted into a TV series on Starz, Soderbergh has also made some big-name Hollywood projects as well. In the year 2000, he directed a pair of critically acclaimed films in Erin Brockovich, which won Julia Roberts the Oscar for Best Actress, and Traffic, which won Soderbergh the Oscar for Best Director. And, of course, one of his most famous directorial efforts was 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven, the star-studded remake of the equally star-studded 1960 heist thriller of the same name which went on to spawn a highly successful trilogy. However, in 2013, Soderbergh announced that he was taking a brief hiatus from feature filmmaking. For the next few years, he mainly worked in TV, directing all 20 episodes of the Cinemax series The Knick. But this year, one of the most famous ‘auteur’ directors in the industry is back on the big-screen with his latest feature, Logan Lucky. This is very much a Soderbergh feature; for one thing, it was financed almost entirely by Soderbergh himself instead of through the Hollywood system. But enough about that; what of the film itself? Well, to put it simply, Logan Lucky is more than just the ‘Southern equivalent of the Ocean’s films’.

The film opens with blue-collar worker Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) being fired from his current construction job in North Carolina due to a prior leg injury (that was sustained during his brief football career) that wasn’t disclosed to his superiors. To make matters worse for Jimmy, his ex-wife Bobbi Joe (Katie Holmes) reveals to him that she and her new husband Moody (David Denman) plan on moving to Virginia, effectively making it harder for Jimmy to spend time with his daughter Sadie (Farrah Mackenzie). Thus, frustrated with how life’s been going for him recently, Jimmy plans a heist along with his brother Clyde (Adam Driver), who lost part of his left arm in Iraq, and their sister Mellie (Riley Keough). The plan involves them stealing money from the Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Jimmy used to work, by utilizing the Speedway’s air-based money-moving system. To help them in their endeavors, they acquire the assistance of incarcerated safecracker Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) and Joe’s hillbilly brothers Sam (Brian Gleeson) and Fish (Jack Quaid). However, during preparation for the heist, the team finds themselves dealing with a new problem. Originally, their plan was to rob the Speedway during a car show, where security would’ve been easier to deal with. However, due to unexpected time constraints, they’re instead forced to pull it off during one of the biggest NASCAR races of the year, the Coca-Cola 600.

To be clear, while it may seem to some like this is just a Southern-set version of Ocean’s Eleven, that is far from the truth with this film. This is not a glitzy heist thriller set in the fancy world that is the casinos of the Las Vegas Strip. Instead, this is a down-and-dirty southern heist based around a cast of characters who often get into wacky hi-jinx. And that’s ultimately one of the best things about this film; it has a great sense of humor. There are a lot of great humorous moments in this film, from the very specific demands set by a rioting group of inmates to Joe Bang’s unique method of crafting explosives. All in all, this makes the film a good, old-fashioned, fun summer ride that benefits from great cinematography and editing, both of which were handled by Soderbergh himself as he’s a filmmaker known for more than just directing. However, when I say that this is a ‘good, old-fashioned, fun summer ride’, I mean that this is a ‘good, old-fashioned, fun summer ride’ and not much more than that. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great character moments here and there and, unlike the Ocean’s films, you are emotionally invested in the main protagonists’ plight. Still, for the most part, this is primarily just a simple heist plot, and that’s ultimately where Logan Lucky’s true similarities with the Ocean’s films lie. That and some parts feel a bit extraneous, namely with Hilary Swank’s character, FBI agent Sarah Grayson, who investigates into the robbery. Instead of being incorporated fully into the plot, Swank doesn’t appear until the final half hour of the film after the heist has already happened, thus making her role in the story feel rather tacked on.

Still, this film benefits greatly from a terrific ensemble cast. It’s all headlined by Channing Tatum, who’s become a new regular collaborator of Soderbergh’s having worked on films like Magic Mike and Side Effects. And through these collaborations with Soderbergh, Tatum has had some of the best performances of his career since breaking out in 2012. This is one of those great performances for sure, and he has terrific camaraderie with Adam Driver and Riley Keough, both of whom are just as excellent in their respective roles of Clyde and Mellie Logan. As for the film’s supporting cast, while they’re mainly limited to more minor roles, by comparison, they all have their standout moments here and there. This includes Seth MacFarlane as a pompous British business tycoon who the Logan brothers continually cross paths with and the duo of Jack Quaid and Brian Gleeson as two of the three Bang siblings, who end up getting some of the film’s best humorous moments. And on that note, as I’m sure everyone else who sees this film will attest to, the biggest standout performance of the entire cast comes from Mr. James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, as the eccentric explosives expert Joe Bang. But, through this film, you don’t see Daniel Craig being James Bond; instead, you see him in one of the most transformative roles of his entire career. In other words, Craig absolutely steals the show whenever he’s on-screen and is an absolute riot.

Thanks to Logan Lucky, Steven Soderbergh has made a solid return to the art of feature filmmaking. It’s a film that is reminiscent of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s films, for sure, but, at the same time, it’s not just a carbon copy of those films. Its southern setting leads to a wackier heist when compared to the Ocean’s films while still being a highly entertaining heist thriller with a good sense of humor and a terrific ensemble cast. However, at the same time, I wouldn’t necessarily call this one of the ‘best’ films of the year, which I know a lot of other people are saying about it. Because while the film does have a solid amount of emotional resonance to it, more so than any of the Ocean’s films, it’s still ultimately just a simple heist plot and not much more than that. However, I do understand why this film has been such a big deal amongst film buffs. As noted in the intro, Soderbergh financed this film himself, primarily, so that he could have complete control over it in this current age of the studio system. Ultimately, though, as someone who doesn’t really get too worked up over the internet’s apparent need for more original, director-driven films, what I mainly got out of this was a simple, fun summer film, which was all that I was looking for, really. This is the best kind of film to watch as a temporary reprieve for one’s end-of-summer blues while also serving as a nice return for one of the most unique directors in the film industry.

Rating: 4/5

Ocean's Trilogy Retrospective

There is a lot of hype surrounding one of this weekend’s new releases, Logan Lucky. And one of the reasons why is because of who it’s directed by; none other than director Steven Soderbergh. This film serves as a much-heralded return to the big-screen for the director, who ‘retired’ from directing feature films in 2013. Prior to that, Soderbergh had made quite a name for himself in the film industry through his work on various projects. These have ranged from indie flicks like 1989’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape to A-list releases like his pair of efforts from 2000, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, the latter of which won him the Oscar for Best Director at that year’s ceremony. However, just like with Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit earlier this month, today I won’t be doing a full directorial retrospective on Soderbergh’s work because, once again, I don’t have enough time to watch all his films to get this out in time for Logan Lucky. Instead, today we’ll be looking at one of his most famous directorial efforts, the Ocean’s trilogy. The first of these three films, 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven, was a remake of a 1960 film of the same name. The original film featured an all-star ensemble cast highlighted by several members of the era’s iconic ‘group’ of entertainers known as the ‘Rat Pack’, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., etc. The remake features an equally stacked ensemble cast that includes the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Julia Roberts… and that’s just to name a few. And while the critical reception of this series has varied with each release, all three films have been solid commercial hits with a combined total of over $1.1 billion earned at the box-office. There’s even a spin-off in the works directed by Gary Ross, Ocean’s Eight, which will be headlined by an all-female cast. Today, though, it’s time to hit the casinos and tag along with the charismatic Danny Ocean and his crew as we look back at Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy.

OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001)

In Ocean’s Eleven, George Clooney stars as Danny Ocean, a charming thief who’s just been released from prison. As soon as he gets out, he enlists 10 of his old associates for a heist on three of Vegas’ biggest casinos; the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand. All three are owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who just so happens to be dating Danny’s ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts), which proves to be one of the main reasons why Danny is undertaking this operation. And really, that’s all that this film has in terms of its plot; at the end of the day, it’s just a simple heist story with minimal character development. Aside from Danny, Tess, his best friend Rusty (Brad Pitt), and ‘rookie’ Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), everyone else is mostly just ‘there’, meaning that there’s not much emotional weight to these proceedings. With that said, though, when the film delivers on exactly what the audience came for (i.e. the heist), that’s where it really shines. Soderbergh does succeed at crafting a slick, stylish, and all-around fun heist thriller that benefits from some excellent cinematography by Peter Andrews… who is really Soderbergh. Yeah, Soderbergh’s one of those directors known for doing the cinematography and editing on their own films under a pseudonym. Anyway, as for the film’s cast, while it’s often been said that they’re mostly just mugging for the camera in these films which, to be fair, is kind of true, they’re still a lot of fun to watch and work off each other incredibly well. Thus, Ocean’s Eleven ultimately succeeds at being exactly what it is; an admittedly simple but overall fun thriller, nothing more, nothing less.

Rating: 4/5

OCEAN’S TWELVE (2004)

Steven Soderbergh has gone on record stating that Ocean’s Twelve is his personal favorite of the three Ocean’s films that he’s directed. However, he’s sort of in the minority on that one, as Ocean’s Twelve received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and is generally considered to be the weakest of the trilogy. And overall… unfortunately, Mr. Soderbergh, I find that I agree with the critics on this one. Ocean’s Twelve is an oddly assembled sequel, as it doesn’t do much of what it’s meant to be about, heists. In fact, most of the main protagonists end up in jail at one point or another, meaning that they’re often separated from each other for most of the runtime which, therefore, goes against the series’ team dynamic. And despite starting out with what appears to be another simple heist plot, this film then goes all over the place in terms of its narrative, including the infamous scene where Danny’s wife Tess pretends to be Julia Roberts for a heist (just as a reminder, Tess is played by Julia Roberts). This scene, complete with a random Bruce Willis cameo, soon descends into complete absurdity, to the point where I genuinely got disoriented at one point as to just what the heck was going on in it. Now, in Soderbergh’s defense, I can at least understand as to why this is his favorite entry in the trilogy. Stylistically speaking, this entry in the series feels the most Soderbergh-esque, with experimental camera work (i.e. a TON of panning shots) and a meta vibe to the proceedings. In fact, it could be argued that, with this film, Soderbergh was going against the norms of a traditional Hollywood sequel. Still, I think that he was being a bit too experimental with this one, resulting in a frustrating film that doesn’t really have a lot of what made the first film so entertaining. Whereas that film left me entertained, this film just left me feeling empty.

Rating: 1.5/5

OCEAN’S THIRTEEN (2007)

After experimenting with Ocean’s Twelve to mixed results, Soderbergh returned to basics with the third and final installment of the trilogy, Ocean’s Thirteen… which makes it more of a superior sequel than its immediate predecessor. Now, sure, it could be argued that, by doing so, this makes the film more of a ‘safe’ sequel. However, this also means that, unlike the previous film, this film’s focus is exactly where it needs to be, and that is on Danny Ocean and co. and their heist. In fact, this film benefits from much stronger pacing compared to both the previous two films. Whereas those films started off slow to set things up, this film gets right into the action. Plus, while there wasn’t really anything to get emotionally attached to in either of the first two films’ plots, this one does, in fact, have more to it in terms of its emotional stakes. The main plot revolves around Danny and the gang attempting a heist on a new Vegas casino owned by hotel owner Willy Bank, a highly entertaining villain played by Al Pacino. This also happens to be more of a personal job for the group, as Bank had screwed over their ally Reuben (Elliott Gould) when building it. The film also does a nice job of showcasing how things have changed in the gaming industry since the original film. This ends up making things harder for the group during the heist, like when they must deal with the casino’s advanced computer system which can track the legitimacy of a player’s winnings. Granted, I’m not saying that all this makes the plot and character development that much better compared to what we saw before. But, thanks to what is easily Soderbergh’s best directing job on this entire trilogy, Ocean’s Thirteen ends up being the rare case in which a threequel is ultimately the best installment of its trilogy. Yeah, it’s mainly just popcorn entertainment, but when it’s this well-made, who am I to judge?

Rating: 4.5/5

Iron Fist: Season 1 Review

“I am the Iron Fist. Protector of K'un-Lun. Sworn enemy of the Hand.”

(WARNING: Minor Spoilers Ahead!)

Detroit (2017) review

Director Kathryn Bigelow has been in the film industry for quite a few decades now. While most of her early works didn’t do so well at the box-office, that didn’t stop them from attracting considerable acclaim from critics. This included, among others, 1987’s Near Dark and 1995’s Strange Days. Back then, one of her biggest collaborators was her ex-husband, fellow director James Cameron. Nowadays, her biggest collaborator is journalist turned screenwriter Mark Boal. They first worked together on 2009’s The Hurt Locker, which went on to win six Oscars at that year’s ceremony, including Best Original Screenplay for Boal, a Best Director win for Bigelow (making her the first female director to win the award), and most importantly, Best Picture. Three years later, they teamed up again for Zero Dark Thirty, which recounted the events of the U.S. government’s decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden. Like The Hurt Locker, it attracted rave reviews from critics. However, it also sparked much controversy for various reasons (e.g. its allegedly ‘pro-torture’ mentality) and it only won for Best Sound Editing at that year’s Oscar ceremony, an honor which it shared with Skyfall in a rare Oscars tie. This year, Bigelow and Boal are back with their third major collaboration together, Detroit. Like Zero Dark Thirty, it’s based on a true story; in this instance, the 12^th Street Riots, which occurred from July 23^rd to July 27^th, 1967 (half a century ago now) in Detroit, Michigan. In this film, Bigelow and Boal primarily focus in on one of the most infamous incidents that occurred during the rioting at a local spot known as the Algiers Motel, which resulted in the deaths of three African-American teenagers and the brutal beatings of the other men and women tied to the event by a collection of corrupt, racist cops. And thanks to brilliant performances and an unflinching look at what happened that night, Detroit is sure to be another major awards contender for this dynamic director-writer duo.  

On Sunday, July 23rd, 1967, members of the Detroit Police Department raid a party that’s going on inside an illegal speakeasy located on 12^th Street. As the police begin to round up those in the establishment, the angry responses from nearby onlookers soon turn violent, resulting in a full-blown riot that lasts several days. As looters begin to rob stores and buildings start burning all over the city, the National Guard is brought in to aid Detroit’s predominantly-white police force in their attempts to quell the rioters. However, this incident soon becomes even more serious on July 26^th. During a night of intense rioting, Larry Reed (Algee Smith), a member of the local band known as the Dramatics, and his friend Fred Temple (Jacob Latimore), decide to retreat to the Algiers Motel to avoid getting into any trouble with the cops. While there, one of the residents, Carl Cooper (Jacob Mitchell), jokingly pretends to fire a toy gun at the police officers and National Guardsmen situated outside the motel. However, this immediately causes the officers to react in retaliation to this supposed ‘sniper’. Once all the people in the building are rounded up, a trio of police officers, Krauss (Will Poulter), Demens (Jack Reynor), and Flynn (Ben O’Toole) take charge of the situation to try and figure out who the shooter was. However, their aggressively cruel handling of everything soon sends shockwaves throughout the entire city while simultaneously adding more fuel to the fire in these racially tense times.

While the film mainly focuses in on one incident from this whole ordeal, Bigelow and Boal fully immerse you into the chaos that came from the Detroit riots. Now admittedly though, because of this, the film doesn’t exactly delve fully into everything that led to the rioting, save for a brief animated intro that goes over the racial divide at the time. Still, thanks to Bigelow’s trademark shooting style and editing work, the film manages to establish an impressive sense of realism, something that’s become another trademark of Bigelow’s recent films. The sheer brutality that is exerted by the racist and corrupt officers involved in the Algiers incident is portrayed in a completely unwavering matter. Now, with that said, the film does take some creative liberties with the events of that night. Obviously, this is something that happens all the time with films that are based on true stories. But in this case, this is very much emphasized and it’s even acknowledged in the end credits. Because after all, not everything that happened that night at the Algiers has been completely documented. However, I do think that Bigelow and Boal did manage to get the point across in terms of the horrific nature of the atrocities that happened there on that summer night. Bottom line, this is by no means an easy watch. With that said, though, while the film does share a similarly hefty runtime with Bigelow and Boal’s last film, Zero Dark Thirty, this one flowed much better, by comparison, thanks to far superior pacing. In other words, there wasn’t any major part of this film that dragged. In fact, I’d say that this film does a lot of things better than Zero Dark Thirty, especially in terms of it giving us a more emotionally-involved story.

The film takes a similar route that Dunkirk took a few weeks back by not necessarily having a definitive main character. Instead, it focuses in on the various people who were involved in the situation, from the lone African-American officer, security guard Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega), who got caught up in the whole ordeal to the two young white women who were brutally assaulted alongside the African-American men at the Algiers, Juli Hysell (Hannah Murray) and Karen Malloy (Kaitlyn Dever). And overall, everyone in the cast does an excellent job in their respective roles. Boyega’s character, Dismukes, isn’t front and center like the trailers have implied but he does do an excellent job as one of the few ‘honest cops’ in this situation who finds himself put under intense scrutiny due to him being one of the few African-American officers in the city. The same applies to the other big names of the cast who mainly occupy minor supporting roles, including Anthony Mackie as one of the men harassed by the officers at the Algiers, Jacob Mitchell as Carl Cooper, and John Krasinski as the attorney for the corrupt cops when they get charged with murder. Ultimately, the two biggest characters in the film are newcomer Algee Smith as Larry Reed and Will Poulter as Krauss, the ‘leader’ of the corrupt cops. The parts of the storyline revolving around Larry and his friend Fred are what ultimately gives the film its most prevalent bits of emotional depth. On the flip side, you have Poulter doing a phenomenal job at being the most despicable character in the film; seriously, his character openly states that he blames the black community for all the rioting. It’s a lot like Michael Fassbender’s performance in 12 Years a Slave. He’s playing a completely vile character and yet is so good in the role that you can’t take your eyes off him either no matter how hard you try.

Overall, I feel that Detroit did a lot of things better than the last Bigelow/Boal feature, Zero Dark Thirty. Because while both films focused on a major event in U.S. history, Zero Dark Thirty suffered from being too devoid of emotional depth, resulting in quite a lot of dry proceedings. And while Detroit may not always succeed at showcasing the struggles that were going on in Detroit at that time, it’s a far more engrossing story by comparison. Because after all, at the risk of stepping too far into political territory here (something that I don’t like to do in my reviews), stuff like this is still happening today. While it’s been over half of century since these events transpired, we’re still seeing incidents like this where African-Americans are dealing with intense discrimination from the police. This makes Detroit such an important film in this current landscape because it doesn’t relent in showcasing one of the darkest moments in our country’s history. Heck, I even agree with the common consensus that’s being tossed around in that the whole sequence focusing on the Algiers Motel incident very much feels like something out of a horror film. Like I said before, this film can often be emotionally taxing to watch, especially during the finale that covers the corrupt cops’ subsequent murder trial (without giving the full details of it away for those unaware of what happened, the results aren’t pretty). However, thanks to strong performances from its ensemble cast and the equally strong direction from Kathryn Bigelow, Detroit is sure to be another big awards contender for Bigelow and writer Mark Boal. Admittedly, I wouldn’t call this film ‘perfect’ but it’s still very much a must-see.

Rating: 4.5/5

Kathryn Bigelow/Mark Boal Double Feature Review

This weekend sees the release of the new crime drama, Detroit. Based on the infamous 12^th Street Riot that occurred in Detroit, Michigan half a century ago in 1967, it is the latest film from director Kathryn Bigelow. Bigelow has been working in the film industry since 1978 and has often worked alongside her ex-husband, James Cameron. While most of her early works did not attract much attention at the box-office, many of them fared excellently with critics, including the 1987 vampire western Near Dark and the 1995 sci-fi thriller Strange Days. She also helmed the 1991 action thriller Point Break, a film that has gone on to become one of the most famous action films of the 90’s. But today, I won’t be doing a ‘Directorial Retrospective’ on Bigelow’s career, and that’s only because I don’t have enough time to get it done before Detroit is released. Instead, I’m going to focus solely on the last two films that she directed since they share a common factor, the same screenwriter. Both these films were written by Mark Boal who, prior to his work in the film industry, served as a journalist for the likes of Rolling Stone and Salon. Detroit serves as the third collaboration between the two and it’s a partnership that has earned them much critical praise. And from the looks of it, that hot streak will continue with Detroit. Thus, today on Rhode Island Movie Corner, I’ll be doing a double feature review of 2009’s The Hurt Locker, which won the Oscar that year for Best Picture, and 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty which, despite tons of critical praise, attracted a fair amount of controversy over one of the biggest aspects of its narrative.

THE HURT LOCKER (2009)

We start off today’s proceedings with 2009’s The Hurt Locker. Although technically a 2008 production, it didn’t see a wide release until the following year and, thus, it ended up being a contender during 2009’s awards season. And it did well during that awards season in a run that was capped off by it winning the Oscar for Best Picture. Kathryn Bigelow also became the first female director to win the Oscar for Best Director, and rightfully so. The Hurt Locker is a highly suspenseful war film, and not just because it focuses on the day-to-day proceedings of bomb disposal squadrons in Iraq. A lot of the film’s tension also stems from the personal conflicts that emerge within the film’s main squadron, who lose their leader due to an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) and get a new leader who’s more gung-ho by comparison. Each of the three main leads, Sgt. William James, Sgt. J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge are well-layered protagonists who each go through their own personal dilemmas that are set against the backdrop of the Iraq War. This includes, but is not limited to, Eldridge’s guilt over his inability to protect his former squad leader and an incident where James attempts to get revenge for the apparent death of a young friend of his, who is revealed to still be alive much later. Bigelow does a fantastic job of showcasing how each of these three guys are affected by the horrors of war, which adds to the tension when you know that, in this environment, any of them could be killed at any moment. Plus, these three are portrayed excellently by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty, respectively. In conclusion, as is the case with any Oscar year, there will most likely be some out there who question this film’s legitimacy as 2009’s Best Picture winner. In this case, though, I do think that it was well-deserving of its Oscar win thanks to its great tension and strong character development.

Rating: 4.5/5

ZERO DARK THIRTY (2012)

After the success of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal teamed up once again in 2012 for a film based around one of the biggest recent events of that time; the successful operation where SEAL Team Six eliminated the notorious leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. However, upon release, while the film was another critical success for the duo, it ended up attracting a considerable amount of controversy for various reasons. The biggest of these was due to sequences in the film where the main characters forcefully interrogate prisoners who are connected to al-Qaeda. This then led to some people arguing that the film carries a pro-torture mentality. Sometime after the film’s release, there was then another bit of controversy when some government officials claimed that the filmmakers weren’t given permission to use the classified information that was tied to the operation… as well as some backlash over the film’s use of audio recordings from September 11^th in the intro. So yeah… this film was easily one of the most controversial films of that year. By comparison, the biggest controversies surrounding The Hurt Locker were a few post-release copyright/defamation lawsuits. Ultimately, though, I won’t be making any comments about any of this film’s controversies here today because I don’t like to get into politics when it comes to my reviews. Instead, I will say that, unfortunately, I found Zero Dark Thirty to be a rather dry political thriller. Now, to be clear, this is not an ‘action’ film; instead, it’s a political drama focusing on the behind-the-scenes efforts of those involved in the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The big SEAL Team Six raid only takes up the final half-hour of the film. And that’s fine and all, but I feel that the film suffers from two big issues. With a runtime of over two and a half hours, it is way too overlong with a middle section that drags too much. It also doesn’t help that the film is severely lacking in terms of emotional attachment.

Now, for the record, I do get what Bigelow and Boal were going for with this film. Their intent was to show both the stress and the time-sensitive nature of the U.S. government’s hunt for Bin Laden following the September 11 attacks, a situation which becomes even more imperative with each subsequent terrorist attack that happens over the next decade. And for the most part, they do succeed in at least getting that across. I even get why this has been well-regarded as a thinking man’s political thriller. However, there’s ultimately a rather soulless feel to the whole proceedings, partially because it’s hard to connect with any of the main people involved in the operation. The only character in the entire film to get any major bit of character development is Jessica Chastain’s Maya, the young woman who dictates most of the operation. To her credit, Chastain is excellent in the role and while most of the other big names in the film are limited to smaller roles, they all do good jobs as well. This includes the likes of Jason Clarke, Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, and Chris Pratt, just to name a few. However, by the end of this film, I found myself left with an empty feeling overall, even during its recreation of the attack on bin Laden’s compound. And the thing is, when this film first came out, I was really looking forward to it because, like many others, I had been caught up in the hype surrounding the country’s success in finally getting bin Laden. But for a film that was touted as the story of the ‘greatest manhunt in history’, said manhunt ended up being quite the underwhelming affair on the big screen.

Rating: 2.5/5