Films

Smokin’ Aces [2007]

Director: Joe Carnahan
Actor: Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia, Common, Alicia Keys, Taraji P. Henson, Matthew Fox, Tommy Flanagan, Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, Maury Sterling, Joel Edgerton, Nestor Carbonell

God, if you love action-flicks that don’t necessarily have to be very believable, then this one is it for 2007. Basic (very basic) rundown; Buddy “Aces” Isreal, a Las Vegas entertainer with mafia ties, is testifying against the last real capo in America; Primo Sparazza, who orders a hit on him for the grand sum of $1.000.000. That type of money attracts some big fish, and so Lake Tahoe (where he’s holed up in the penthouse, surrounded by private security and his own squadron of thugs) suddenly becomes overrun by an ecclectic mix of assassins.

There’s Georgia and Sharice, two bad-boy girls that are up and coming assassins, having pulled off a Triad hit that put them on the shortlist of shit-hot assassins. Georgia (Keys) is the sexy face, while Sharice is the hard-hitting guns-n-ammo girl. They have a .50 cal rifle, fer chrissakes.

There’s Lazlo Soot, the master-disguise artist, ruthless and cunning, who manages to infiltrate the hotel and get closer and closer by killing people and assuming their identity.

Then there are the brothers Tremor, or “The Tremors”, three brothers (same mother, different daddies) who consider Mein Kampf as their bible and are completely nihilistic. They are well known for…eh…collateral damage. They will kill anything without a heartbeat, and they’ll do it with a bang. Guns, bombs, chainsaws, punk-rock and unintelligible screaming. _Nazi_ _nihilists._

Then there’s “El Estrago,” a.k.a. “The Plague,” who is known for his inventive ways of murdering people, daring infiltrations, and incredible cruelty. He’s an international man of mystery who has done contracts all over the globe, and for all manner of organisations and individuals, even the CIA. An expert torture-artist, who, when caught by authorities he chewed off his own fingertips so they wouldn’t be able to identify him.

And of course, then there’s the mysterious “Swede” that nobody seems to know anything about. A foreign hitman who hasn’t shown up on anyone’s radar yet!

Want to know more about these assassins? Then read the short, excellent article called The Seven Assassins of Smokin’ Aces.

Then there’s Jack Dupree (Affleck), a bailbondsman, who, together with his two ex-cop partners, is out to get Buddy Israel on a skipped bond. Affleck is fantastic is the handle-bar moustache wearing, rough-house bailbondsman.

And of course there’s the FBI; Carruthers (Liotta) and Messner (Reynolds) who are trying to get him into the Witness Protection Program before the assassins get to him. Sadly, they are cobwebbed by beauracracy, and even by their own boss Locke (Garcia) by what is consider “bureau politics.”

What follows I have only ever seen in my old Shadowrun games; complete and utter chaos. It’s great. I love it. :) People are trying to protect Buddy, people are trying to kill Buddy, and it seems that Buddy is just looking out for Buddy, and burning the goodwill of his buddies at the same time.

Special notice goes out to Common (formerly known as Common Sense), a Chicago-based rapper who plays Sir Ivy, Buddy’s lieutenant, who maintains a strange but refreshing code of honour, which is a mix between street and budo. He doesn’t get enough screen-time, but does a fantastic job.

Blood Diamond [2006]

Director: Edward Zwick
Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly

This is a gripping story about two men, whose lives become closely intertwined when the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) is pushing back the government forces of Sierra Leone in the early 90s. One man, Danny Archer (DiCaprio) finds his trade (former-mercenary-turned-diamond-smuggler) hindered by the war, while he tries desperately to find a way to make enough money to get out of Africa. Another man, Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) finds his once peaceful village overrun, his eldest son taken as a child-soldier for the RUF, his wife and daughter sent fleeing, and himself taken as a slave to work in one of the many diamond rich areas of Sierra Leone.

The come together when Solomon finds a huge, 100+ carat diamond which he tries to keep from his slavers, right before government forces overrun the mining camp and take everyone prisoner. He manages to bury the diamond before being captured, however, but when word gets out in prison that he had found the diamond, Danny (also in prison for smuggling) decides to get close to him in order to get the diamond. Danny does it for the money, Solomon in order to get his son back. Together they travel through a war-torn Sierra Leone in search for the diamond and Solomon’s family.

It’s very powerful. Not Hotel Rwanda powerful, but it comes close. It’s made extra powerful by the fact that diamonds are traded over the backs of slaves, and sold to our fat, white arses in the west. We don’t realise what has happens sometimes to get us our engagement rings, or diamond-studded earrings. This film portrays the worst of days, before the Kimberley accord.

“T.I.A.; This is Africa.” A cold comfort that people remind themselves of whenever something bad happens to them. As if bad luck, bad fortune is somehow inextricably tied to Africa.

Bobby [2006]

Director: Emilio Estevez
Actor: Anthony Hopkins, Harry Belafonte, Freddy Rodríguez, Laurence Fishburne, Christian Slater, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, William H. Macy, Sharon Stone, Heather Graham, Martin Sheen, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf

Great film about the Ambassador Hotel in L.A. on the day presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy gets assassinated minutes after hearing he won in California. It follows a handful of ordinary people (retired doorman, June bride, kitchen staff, starlet singer, hotel phone attendant, campaign staffer, etc.) and their day, which ends in tragedy.

While, story-wise, the movie isn’t challenging, its pace and disconnection from that main, important event, which trails through the story, tying everything together, is really…peaceful and fun to watch. All the stories have a sincerely social problem at their core, all of which were big issues on June 6th, 1968, the day the movie portrays.

I’m really happy to see Emilio Estevez do well with this film, and I hope to see many more like it. The only thing that I started out being a bit wary of was this tremendous cast. Sometimes a film is so star-studded you can’t see the story any longer. This film didn’t have that problem, since these stars all portray normal people with normal problems and normal lives, so their stardom is expertly stiffled. :)

Brokeback Mountain [2005]

Director: Ang Lee
Actor: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal

An absolutely fantastic film about two men who grow close while on a cattle-drive one season. They go their seperate ways and start families, but they always have intense feelings for one another. After getting back in touch with eachother they regularly go back to the spot where they originally met, Brokeback Mountain. Their love intensifies as time passes, and starts to influence the rest of their lives.

Heath Ledger especially, and Gyllenhaal to a lesser extent, puts down a fantastic performance, and the casting was spot on. Ledger as the stoic macho, and Gyllenhaal as the doe-eyed romantic.

The Departed [2006]

Director: Martin Scorsese
Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone

A good film, but not a great film. I can’t help but compare it to the much more accomplished Infernal Affairs, of which The Departed is a remake. The acting is top-notch, although Jack Nicholson goes a bit over the top in his crazed-bad-guy-maniac role, and Di Caprio does an especially good job of portraying someone under the mental duress of an undercover cop who might not have the psychological fortitude for the job. The editing is absolutely abysmal, and perhaps that’s Scorcese’s quirky way of filming, but it wasn’t so much fun while in the cinema. He knows how to put a scene together like no other, he just doesn’t know how to start or end it, it seems. Ugly and sloppy.

See either Infernal Affairs or The Departed, but don’t see both, otherwise you’re going to be disappointed with the latter.