Monday, September 18, 2017

SNEAKERS



(September 1992, U.S.)

Released in 1992 (on September 11th, no less), SNEAKERS was filled with many high-tech concepts involving security and hacking before the internet and social media changed everything forever. From my perspective, I hadn't seen such possibilities involving computers and security since WARGAMES in 1983. Who knew back then that we were just barely scratching the surface? I mean, we still using floppy discs, for crying out loud!

Robert Redford leads a team of security specialists who are hired by high-profile companies to break into their systems in order to tell them how to keep others from breaking into their systems. Among them is Redford himself as Martin Bishop who's been in hiding ever since his college youth when he was a young hacker and evaded police capture (though his partner in crime, Cosmo, was arrested and sent to jail), an electronic technician and conspiracy theorist (played by Dan Aykroyd), a young hacker who's also looking for love (played by the late River Phoenix) and a blind phone phreak (played by David Strathairn). When they're approached by the National Security Agency to recover a "black box" developed for the Russian government from a famed mathematician, Martin reluctantly agrees in the hopes that his record will be cleared.

Through the team's talent and ingenuity, they discover the "black box" hidden in an ordinary answering machine and manage to retrieve it. But even before they can truly celebrate their victory, they soon realize they've stolen something very dangerous and the NSA boys who hired them are anything but. Turns out they're rogue agents working for the now successful and wealthy Cosmo (played by Ben Kingsley), who hasn't quite gotten over the fact that his one-time friend got away while he spent time in prison. Still holding a grudge, we wishes Martin dead, yet at the same time, entices him to join his ultimate plan of controlling and manipulating the world's information with the "black box".

When the team isn't exercising their hacking skills, they're evading capture and keeping their wits about them from being killed by their enemies. However, since they're all a bunch of misfits, at heart, their dialogue and chemistry is often a pleasure to follow. Even at the end, when they're surrounded by FBI agents at their office, they know just how to negotiate for the material things they want out of life before turning the box over to them; whether it's a trip to Europe, a Winnebago or simply the phone number of the pretty female agent. Even if it seems like the team has lost in the end and walked away with little for their efforts, we need to remember that these men are hackers, and won't rest until they've done their part to steal the right amount of money from the Republican National Committee and dispersed it among Greenpeace, the United Negro College Fund and Amnesty International. In a world of greed and crime, even in the early '90s, I suppose that's an appropriate happy-Hollywood ending.

As a caper film, SNEAKERS has enough thrills, tension, humor and plot twists to keep one interested. Of course, the ensemble case led by Redford doesn't hurt, either. One can't help but recall his early roles of the 1970s involving political intrigue and mystery including THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975) and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976). Sydney Poitier adds a certain blend of charm and class as an ex-CIA man who acts much like the logical "Spock" among an Enterprise crew who are off and running on their latest mission and trying to survive it. While hardly a perfect film, it's an interesting follow-up from Phil Alden Robinson, who'd previously convinced the world that, "If you build it, he will come."

Favorite line or dialogue:

"Whistler": "I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men."
Bernard Abbott: "We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing!"


















Friday, September 8, 2017

SNATCH



(January 2001, U.S.)

Guy Ritchie's SNATCH is a British crime film filled with great comedic dialogue. Trouble is, you can barely understand much of this great comedic dialogue due to such thick accents, from cockney English to thick Irish coming from the mouth of American actor Brad Pitt. It's set in the London criminal underworld and contains two intertwined plots, the first one dealing with the search for a stolen 86-carat diamond, and the other with a small-time boxing promoter who's "in the pocket" of a ruthless gangster who has a taste for carrying out sadistic acts of violence against his enemies, particularly by feeding their body parts to hungry pigs. Like Ritchie's previous film, LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, you need to sit quietly and pay attention to every frame and every word in the hopes that you'll follow along well enough and take in the sheer pleasure of all its bloody nastiness. And like that previous film, there are many of the same elements of visual style, themes, and actors, including Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones and Alan Ford (the pig feeder!).

So, beginning with the infamous diamond, it's stolen by Franky "Four Fingers" (played by Benicio del Toro) for his boss, "Cousin Avi" (played by the late Dennis Farina). The theft itself is original in that the thieves dress up in identical fashion to the Hasidic Jews they're robbing, right down to the thick Jewish accents. It would seem that every underworld criminal in London is after this precious jewel as it repeatedly changes hands, changes hiding place, gets stolen, gets retrieved, and even ends up down the throat of a dog at one point. All the while, the blood of criminal violence is flowing like water around those who seek the prize. By the time it's all over and "Cousin Avi" ultimately fails to get the diamond, he's had just about enough of London's bullshit and returns home to New York empty-handed...at least for a while until the diamond is discovered in London again and he's back on a plane.

Meanwhile, the boxing promoter known as "Turkish" (Statham) is falling deeper into trouble with the pig-feeding gangster known as "Brick Top" as attempts at a successful fixed dive keep failing. Through chance and circumstance, he and his partner recruit "One Punch" Mickey O'Neil (Pitt) who proves so lethal in the ring, that his opponents keep going down before Mickey can fulfill his contract of going down in the fourth. These failed matches inevitably lead to arson against Pitt's low-life, trailer-trash family of gypsies, which in turn, awakens Mickey's hidden rage and thirst for vengeance, proving him (and his family) to be the best and most deadly threat against "Brick Top" and his goons. In the end, we can barely count the dead and the mortally-wounded, nor are we entirely sure of where the diamond has ended up and how it even got there. We simply know that we enjoyed the journey and the chase, and did our best to keep our ears open to follow along with whatever the hell these bloody men are saying to each other, or as "Turkish" puts it, "Did you understand a single word of what he just said?"

As a crime caper, SNATCH fulfills its promise to deliver the kind of blood, guts and violence you likely want from such material. What's truly irresistible is the dark comedy behind it all. The dialogue is quick and snappy, and the characters provide enough of it to make them more than just interesting. While it's not that much different from Ritchie's first offering, we can find new reasons to smile with American additions like Brad Pitt and Dennis Farina. Farina, in particular, brings a sweet element of American impatience and anger toward a country he simply cannot understand or tolerate. Pitt is almost incomprehensible with his terrible, over-the-top Irish accent, but he's clearly having so much fun with his role, that you can't help but smile and join in with him.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Cousin Avi: "Shut up and sit down, you big, bald fuck! I don't like leaving my own country, Doug, and I especially don't like leaving it for anything less then warm sandy beaches, and cocktails with little straw hats!"











Saturday, September 2, 2017

SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE



(June 1993, U.S.)

I love SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, but part of this blog post is going to be highly critical of its ever-popular status as one of the best love stories on film - but I'll get into that a little later. Still, I can't help but start off with some questionable criticism as to the chemistry between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It works well enough for the little time they spend together on screen in this film (and continued to work well in YOU'VE GOT MAIL), but if the late Nora Ephron was banking on their star power to come together effectively based solely on their previous 1990 effort, JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO, then their faith must have been equally accompanied by their caution.

In any film where someone has lost the one they love, in this case architect Sam Baldwin recently relocated from Chicago to Seattle (Hanks), then it's immediately apparent they'll find love again at some point. The fact that it's a call-in radio talk show that plants the initial seed is highly original, in my opinion. The additional fact that it's the grieving widower's eight year-old son that calls the show on behalf of his father, claiming he's very sad and needs a new wife, is even more original. If nothing else, it reminds us all living in the 21st Century of the possibilities behind the power of national radio, once-upon-a-time. No sooner has the radio discussion between Sam and the show's psychologist ended on Christmas Eve, that he's immediately receiving thousands of letters by desperate (and crazy?) women all over the United States who want to meet him. We, of course, are focussed on Meg Ryan's character Annie, who spends Christmas Eve driving and listening to the radio show in her car. She's not only touched by Sam's voice and story, but can't stop thinking of and fantasizing about him from across the U.S., despite her engagement to Walter (played by Bill Pullman), who's obnoxiously allergic to everything on this planet! After watching the film AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, she impulsively writes a letter suggesting that she and Sam meet on top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day.

Meanwhile, as Sam attempts to get on with his life romantically, his wise-ass son Jonah is determined to bring his dad and Annie together, even if his dad wants no part of it. Sam's smart, I suppose, because he knows that meeting some stranger based on a letter, which in turn, is based on the sound of his voice on the radio is a potentially dangerous situation. Still, we can't ignore the fact that Sam's dating a co-worker who laughs like a hyena and can probably do a lot better. Jonah is also very stubborn and takes it upon himself to fly to New York by himself to meet Annie. By the time Sam has followed Jonah in a desperate act to reunite with his son, he and Annie finally meet and all is happily-ever-after in the magical-make-believe land of Hollywood love stories; fade to black, end credits and Celine Dion starts singing!

Okay, so let's dive into the problem I have with this film. It's hailed as such a great love story, with so much warmth and gentleness, but exactly WITH WHO is this great love between? By the time Sam and Annie have finally found each other and met at the top of the Empire State Building, the story is over and we have absolutely no idea if these two are going to make it or not. While both Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are such likable characters on their own, we can't ignore the fact that their initial meetings are awkward and tense, thus suggesting there's much work to be done between the two of them if they're going to truly win each other's hearts and affection. This is a lot of work that would traditionally be handled during the love story and not following it. Is the great love between Annie and Walter? Hardly. Even she practically admits that she's settling down with the poor bastard simply because it feels like the right thing to do. Even when she dumps him to go and meet Sam, he's hardly that broken up about it, suggesting that he was never really in love with her, either. So, really, when you get down to it, where is the great love story between man and woman? It simply doesn't exist, I tell you! Instead, I see the great love Sam had for his wife who died young, as is effectively suggested by the dream he has on New Year's Eve when she sits with him on the couch and shares his beer. But even more so, I believe the great love story of this film lies between father and son, as they not only try to survive the loss of a loved one together, but also come to terms with each other in their own relationship amidst the daily grind of life and routine in a new city. Jonah longs for a new mother, but also longs to see his father happy again. Each of them, in their own stubborn manner, must deal with each other's acts against each other in order to achieve happiness in the end. Really, if that's not the true love of SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, then I don't know what is.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Sam Baldwin: "There is no way we are going to New York to meet some woman who could be a crazy, sick lunatic! Didn't you see FATAL ATTRACTION?"
Jonah Baldwin: "You wouldn't let me!"
Sam: "Well I saw it, and it scared the shit out of me! It scared the shit out of every man in America!"