If you’ve been missing action movies the likes of Running Man, Commando and Rambo, then The Expendables is right up your alley. Helmed by a cast of the most widely known action stars of now and the past twenty years, and anchored by Sylvester Stallone both in front of and behind the camera, The Expendables is a series of action scenes and explosions thinly veiled by a plot that substitutes a military dictatorship on a small island for Castro and the CIA.
Now, when I tell you The Expendables is thin on plot, I mean it. The actors move around and interact as if there is a plot, but in fact all there is to this is one script page after the next that must be played out in order for the action sequences to evolve in grandeur and eventually reach their denouement. I don’t mean this as an insult, in fact this is probably why the film works in the manner it intends – it’s a fun romp of gunfire, fist fights and explosions provided by people that the audience wants to see do what they do best.
What doesn’t work so well is the random bits Stallone throws in there to try and give these action stars a chance to act…most of them are action stars for a reason… The most legit actor of the bunch, Mickey Rourke, even has a scene where he manages to squeeze out some tears, despite the ham handed dialogue that accompanies it. Perhaps, I’d see more merit in the acting segments if the dialogue were given another pass – but again that’s not what you see a movie like this for.
The Expendables really settles into its groove in the final act of the film. Why? You guessed, because the last act is nothing but car chases, fights and explosions –one exhilarating romp after another. It’s so fun to watch you cease to care that the coup Eric Roberts character helped fun was apparently for profits from cocoa beans, or that the General/Dictator has made all of his soldiers wear face paint to show loyalty (seriously?), or that Stallone and Li manage to survive and Bonnie & Clyde style ambush in their car – it looks good on film and so begins a sequence of activities where every one of the stars gets their moment.
If you’re looking for an action movie that has it all from this past summer then you should see Inception. However, if you’re looking for a throw-back from the good old days when explosions ruled action films, see The Expendables.
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Writers: Dave Callaham & Sylvester Stallone
Barney Ross: Sylvester Stallone
Lee Christmas: Jason Statham
Ying Yang: Jet Li
Gunner: Dolph Lundgren
James Munroe: Eric Roberts
Toll Road: Randy Coture
Paine: Steve Austin
Gen. Garza: David Zayas
Sandra: Giselle Itie
Lacy: Charisma Carpenter
Hale Caesar: Terry Crews
Tool: Mickey Rourke
Church: Bruce Willis
Lee: What's he sayin'?
Hale: He said we're dead, with an accent!
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Showing posts with label eric roberts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eric roberts. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Thursday, September 25, 2008
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Lately, I have had a fascination with watching Robert Downey Jr. movies. I’d forgotten how much I love him as an actor until I picked up Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and threw it into my DVD player a few months ago. Now I am obsessed. Since I opened a Netflix account and now have access to everything I added most of Downey’s catalog and Christian Bale’s to my queue. The latest Downey film I received is A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.
The film is autobiographical about the life of the director/writer of the film and book - Dito. In the film Dito is played by Robert Downey Jr. in the 2005 time line and Shia LaBeouff in the 1986 time line. In the present Dito has just written the book about his life as a teen in Queens and why he left, and his mother gives him a call because his father is sick and won’t go to the hospital so she wants Dito to attempt coming home and taking him. Dito left home in 1986 and hasn’t been back since. The film recounts the events that led up to Dito fleeing home in the flashbacks with Shia LaBeouf.
I enjoyed this movie, but I don’t think that it is one that will appeal to the mass audience. The director has chosen to add some experimental elements into the film that won’t sit well with a large portion of the audience. There is subtitles put in the film when they would not normally be necessary, portions are edited similar to The Limey where you flash forward and backward with characters during a conversation so you don’t see them speaking while you hear them conversing, and the fourth wall is broken multiple times.
It is my opinion that this film worked in this format because it was made by the author of the book. It is obviously not a faithful adaptation to the entire book, but rather focuses on something very specific that Dito needed to work through – his relationship with his father and the life that he wanted for his son. This is actually one movie that really makes me want to learn more about the man behind it and read the book.
Director & Writer: Dito Montiel
Dito: Robert Downey Jr.
Young Dito: Shia LaBeouf
Flora: Dianne Wiest
Laurie: Rosario Dawson
Young Laurie: Melonie Diaz
Diane: Julia Garro
Jenny: Elenore Hendricks
Guiseppe: Adam Scarimbolo
Nerf: Scott Campbell
Young Nerf: Peter Tambakis
Antonio: Eric Roberts
Young Antonio: Channing Tatum
Monty: Chazz Palminteri
Mike: Martin Compston
Frank: Anthony DeSando
Dito: In the end - just like I said - I left everything, and everyone. But no one, no one has ever left me
The film is autobiographical about the life of the director/writer of the film and book - Dito. In the film Dito is played by Robert Downey Jr. in the 2005 time line and Shia LaBeouff in the 1986 time line. In the present Dito has just written the book about his life as a teen in Queens and why he left, and his mother gives him a call because his father is sick and won’t go to the hospital so she wants Dito to attempt coming home and taking him. Dito left home in 1986 and hasn’t been back since. The film recounts the events that led up to Dito fleeing home in the flashbacks with Shia LaBeouf.
I enjoyed this movie, but I don’t think that it is one that will appeal to the mass audience. The director has chosen to add some experimental elements into the film that won’t sit well with a large portion of the audience. There is subtitles put in the film when they would not normally be necessary, portions are edited similar to The Limey where you flash forward and backward with characters during a conversation so you don’t see them speaking while you hear them conversing, and the fourth wall is broken multiple times.
It is my opinion that this film worked in this format because it was made by the author of the book. It is obviously not a faithful adaptation to the entire book, but rather focuses on something very specific that Dito needed to work through – his relationship with his father and the life that he wanted for his son. This is actually one movie that really makes me want to learn more about the man behind it and read the book.
Director & Writer: Dito Montiel
Dito: Robert Downey Jr.
Young Dito: Shia LaBeouf
Flora: Dianne Wiest
Laurie: Rosario Dawson
Young Laurie: Melonie Diaz
Diane: Julia Garro
Jenny: Elenore Hendricks
Guiseppe: Adam Scarimbolo
Nerf: Scott Campbell
Young Nerf: Peter Tambakis
Antonio: Eric Roberts
Young Antonio: Channing Tatum
Monty: Chazz Palminteri
Mike: Martin Compston
Frank: Anthony DeSando
Dito: In the end - just like I said - I left everything, and everyone. But no one, no one has ever left me
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