The Company You Keep

First Hit:  I liked it because it effectively reminded me of the subject events, how they happened, and how it affected me.

The Weather Underground made a splash in 1969 when they grew out of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and announced they would fight violence with violence.

The SDS focused on trying to stop the Vietnam War through non-violent means. The Weatherman decided that maybe our government would only hear the mood of a majority of its citizens, which was “to stop the war” and to “stop the killing” if they brought violence to make their point. In other words will the government only hear the will of the people if they act as the government acts, violently.

Many younger people may not understand or “get” what it was like when government troops attacked (not just tear gas, they shot and killed) students on campuses in our country.

Being in Vietnam at that time I realized, first hand, the reason for their protest. We were in a foreign country killing people we “thought” we should kill because our government said we should kill them. The reality is that we were bullying our beliefs in another country. Sound familiar?

Our government can and will create stories to make their decisions right. That is what this film is about. It is about Jim Grant/Nick Sloan (Robert Redford) hiding and running away because the government “believes” it is right about thinking that Sloan and another Weathermen Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) killed a bank security guard in a bank robbery back in 1970’s.

The beginning of this film Solarz turns herself in after 30 years. This causes a small town reporter Ben (Shia LaBeouf) to dig out the truth. Grant is quickly identified as Sloan so he goes on the run again. While on the run he connects with his fellow Weathermen. These were the most interesting parts of the film.

Sloan knows who killed the security guard, wants them to turn themselves in so he can raise his daughter. He won’t turn them in because that is the code of the weathermen. Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie) was this person and through the underground network they meet to discuss the dilemma. At their meeting they also talk about the girl they parented back then which plays on their decisions then and now.

Redford seemed a little old for the role especially when he is shown in the film with a 10 year old daughter. However, I could sense his belief in the subject and he brought that belief and intensity to the role. Sarandon also seemed to embody her role with belief, sadness, and truth. Christie was wonderful and embodied the role of a strong rebellious woman. LaBeouf was good as the reporter and vehicle to move the story along and he mixed well with the older actors. Richard Jenkins as Jed Lewis was really good as the radical who found a way to present his material to younger people. Lem Dobbs wrote a strong (at moments) screen play. There are lines sharing the philosophy of the Weathermen and those times that were great. Redford directed this with an understanding of the times and it worked.

Overall: This was a good/not great film and it touched some of the difficult thoughts I have about our country that haven’t died.

Olympus Has Fallen

First Hit:  Despite big holes in the plot and feasibility, it was entertaining enough.

It is hard for me to believe that a big, prop driven, slow plane such as the one that riddles Washington DC with Gatling gun bullets, could and would get as far as it did.

If our defense system consists of two jets (with follow-up planes as well) and they cannot figure out how to shoot down this big slow plane at the outset then… oh we wouldn’t have had a film. Anyway, the timeliness of this film about a North Korean dissident Kang (Rick Yune) trying to teach the US a lesson about the Korean Peninsula made me smile just a little.

The film sets the audience up by showing the close relationship between Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), President Asher (Aaron Eckhart), and his family (wife Margaret – Ashley Judd and son Connor – Finley Jacobsen). Through no fault of his own Mike gets excused from the protecting the President by protecting the President.

When the Korean’s storm the White House, Mike gets back into action and does what he can to save the President, his country, and to save his own life. Another hole in the story is that when the President is shot, and everyone knows there are no more bad guys, no-one rushes into the White House to assist the wounded President – they waited until Mike and Asher slowly made their way out of the rubble – all for drama.

Butler is OK at portraying the troubled agent – but it wasn’t a stretch at all. Eckhart was OK as the President doing the Presidential and honorable acts by letting his Secretary of Defense give up her code to keep her alive. Judd was fine in her small role. Yune is good as the dissident. Morgan Freeman was very good as Speaker Trumbull who ends up being the President in Charge. Angela Bassett as Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs was good. Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt wrote a script that had an interesting concept but too filled with holes. Antoine Fuqua directed this with the idea of fantasy not reality.

Overall:  It might be something to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon at home, but not worth the money to see in the theaters.

The Call

First Hit:  A very taut thriller that captured the intenseness of being a 911 operator.

Keeping one’s emotional detachment in place when someone else’s world is falling apart is a talent, especially when they are relying on you to save them. 

That is the life of a 911 phone specialist. Keeping their composure while guiding someone through a tough situation would be difficult. 911 personal also get people who call them for ridiculous things like lost keys. This film focuses on Jordan (Halle Berry) who gets a call from a young girl named Leah who is home alone and someone is breaking into her house, she calls 911 and gets Jordan.

As the perpetrator finds Leah, he grabs the phone from Leah and tells Jordan in response to her statement “please don’t hurt her”, “it’s already done". The girl isn’t found until they uncover her buried and dead. The whole experience affects Jordan more than she wanted and changes jobs from being on the phone to teaching others about how to be on the phone.

While taking a group through the call center, a novice gets a call from a young girl, Casey (Abigail Breslin) who is being abducted. The novice hands the phone to the more senior Jordon and the real thriller begins. The scenes of Jordan and her call center mates were very well done because of the job they share, the scenes came across deeply touching given what they share.

Berry was very strong and exhibited great angst and intensity as her part unfolded. Breslin was very good as the captured girl who wanted, in the end, to stay alive. Michael Eklund (as Michael Foster) was perfectly and weirdly intense as the kidnapper. The scene of him waiting at the stop light for the signal to change was amazing. The audience sees his mouth and jaw clicking and clenching, making small noises, - perfect. Richard D’Ovidio wrote a very intense and strong script while Brad Anderson’s direction kept it taut.

Overall: Well done.

Snitch

First Hit:  That Dwayne Johnson didn’t break out into a fist fight and violent rage added to this films intrigue.

Johnson  has shown in numerous films he has some range. Here, because of this size and build, I expected him to beat the crap out of his antagonists, but he didn’t.

Playing John Mathews in this film as a once divorced father of two children. His son Jason Collins (Rafi Gavron), by his first wife, gets into trouble and his integrity won’t let him rat out someone else for a lighter prison term. Seeing his son beaten from an altercation while in prison, Mathews decides to assist the government’s prosecutor Joanne Keeghan (played by Susan Sarandon) catch a bigger fish so that he can get his son’s sentence reduced.

To do this he befriends Daniel James (played by Jon Bernthal), an employee who has a felony history. Through this connection he finds himself in the think of a drug deal. How he decides to make the deal work for everyone requires him to create his own plan to save his family.

Johnson does a really good job of not using his size and bulk to make the role work; he uses his head and heart to make his character real enough. Gavron does a very good job of being the forgotten son that also wants to do right. Sarandon is OK as the prosecutor. Bernthal is really good as the guy who’s trying to do right for his family. Barry Pepper is wonderful and powerful as a federal agent. Melinda Kanakaredes is almost a bit over dramatic as Johnson’s first wife. Justin Haythe and Ric Roman Waugh wrote a fairly strong script from what based as a true story. Waugh also directed this film and generally it was well paced.

Overall:  Entertaining and shows Johnson’s willingness to continue to grow as an actor.

A Good Day to Die Hard

First Hit:  More or less, it was aimless, thoughtless and died hard.

I’ve seen and enjoyed most all of the Die Hard films. There was a personality created in them through Bruce Willis as John McClane, the script, and the situation in which these two things came together.

In this fourth incarnation I found myself not caring, looking around the theater and waiting for the film to end. It was overstuffed with car chases, shoot-outs, and special effects (helicopter sequence at Chernobyl).

The basic storyline was that McClane didn’t know his son Jack (played by Jai Courtney) was a CIA operative in Russia (thought his son was a lost soul, dealing or using drugs in Russia). John goes to help his son and gets caught up in Jack’s job which is to find out and capture the guy who is going to smuggle nuclear weapons out of Russia.

The story complicates itself with the poorly written part of a wayward daughter double crossing her father, and John and Jack trying to reconcile their relationship.

Willis is the only occasional bright spot in this film with his usual McClane quips. Courtney is OK as Willis’ son but there is little chemistry to make it seem real. Sebastian Koch (as Komarov) is not very believable as a Russian scientist who is on the outs with the Russian Premier. There was nothing that made me believe that Yuliya Snigir as Irina was Komarov’s daughter. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Willis’ daughter Lucy was OK and was aspect of the film, in her brief parts, that worked. Skip Woods and Roderick Thorp wrote a lazy script that focused on what sort of shooting and chase sequences can we put in. John Moore wasted my time (and probably yours) by trying to put this story on the screen.

Overall:  The worst of this otherwise reasonably entertaining group of Die Hard films.