JohnDeSando
A rejoint le oct. 2001
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Note de JohnDeSando
"A Working Man"-hardly an accurate descriptor for tough-guy Jason Statham's new character, Levon Cade. As a former black-ops super star, he is more like a robotic savior of the working man and in this case, saving an abducted daughter of his boss Joe (Michael Pena). Nevertheless, he has chosen daily to leave his exalted rank in special forces to be a low-key construction foreman, whose past few know about.
Until the bad-boy Russian mafia enters his scene and he is dramatically called back to his killer way of life. Statham has evolved lethal characters from a simple transporter to a beekeeper, from a mindless operative to a citizen who reluctantly helps the needy, using those deadly skills from long ago.
In this manner, he has some value as a do-gooder, but beyond that he is simply a killing machine and his enemies, unapologetically Eastern-European, now are the once accursed enemy but beginning to look like co-conspirators in the world politic outside the film.
Talk about the world, films are paying attention more than ever to human trafficking from Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington to the holy studio Angel, whose Sound of Freedom sets a standard for smart anti trafficking drama. Because I find Statham a suitable heir to the Bronson, Stallone vigilante tradition (a writer and producer of A Working Man), we'll continue to review his films even when he has withdrawn on this thriller to dialogue-starved mayhem.
When he is more than a death dispenser, Statham's films have potential for insightful social commentary outside of the visceral satisfaction of simply shutting down world-wide mafia activity.
Until the bad-boy Russian mafia enters his scene and he is dramatically called back to his killer way of life. Statham has evolved lethal characters from a simple transporter to a beekeeper, from a mindless operative to a citizen who reluctantly helps the needy, using those deadly skills from long ago.
In this manner, he has some value as a do-gooder, but beyond that he is simply a killing machine and his enemies, unapologetically Eastern-European, now are the once accursed enemy but beginning to look like co-conspirators in the world politic outside the film.
Talk about the world, films are paying attention more than ever to human trafficking from Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington to the holy studio Angel, whose Sound of Freedom sets a standard for smart anti trafficking drama. Because I find Statham a suitable heir to the Bronson, Stallone vigilante tradition (a writer and producer of A Working Man), we'll continue to review his films even when he has withdrawn on this thriller to dialogue-starved mayhem.
When he is more than a death dispenser, Statham's films have potential for insightful social commentary outside of the visceral satisfaction of simply shutting down world-wide mafia activity.
After seeing over the years Robert De Niro star in gangster films such as Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman, it's astonishing to see him play gangster fresh in The Alto Knights. Sure, we've seen most of his facial and vocal turns before, but never in two different mobsters in the same film with two distinct personalities.
Narrator Frank Costello (De Nir0) is an analytical businessman not wholly invested in being a mid-twentieth century icon; his former best friend from youth, Vito Genovese (De Niro), is a hot head bound to lead the mob in the US, regardless of his friendship with current mob head, Frank. To see De Niro play both nose to nose in negotiations is to see one of the great film actors of all time.
When you look into Frank's eyes, you see latent menace that has caused countless deaths. Looking at Vito's glasses, you don't have the depth but rather a surface violence, hardly hidden. A great actor brings both distinct personalities alive.
Director Barry Levinson also brings his memorable work with Bugsy and Wag the Dog while writer Nicholas Pileggi brings traces of success from Goodfellas and Casino. With the three pedigrees converging in The Alto Knights, you must expect greatness, and you get it, maybe not throughout but enough to say that if Coppola and Brando had also been involved, this film would have been incomparable.
Most scenes are intimate as Frank's wife Bobbie (Debra Messing), and he quietly map out their fate. More flamboyant is Vito's wife, Anna (Katherine Narducci), whose courtroom histrionics as she testifies against him is the stuff of in your face while it contrasts with De Niro's subtler approach (not his usual path). The variety of acting and its excellence makes this a gangster film you should not refuse.
Narrator Frank Costello (De Nir0) is an analytical businessman not wholly invested in being a mid-twentieth century icon; his former best friend from youth, Vito Genovese (De Niro), is a hot head bound to lead the mob in the US, regardless of his friendship with current mob head, Frank. To see De Niro play both nose to nose in negotiations is to see one of the great film actors of all time.
When you look into Frank's eyes, you see latent menace that has caused countless deaths. Looking at Vito's glasses, you don't have the depth but rather a surface violence, hardly hidden. A great actor brings both distinct personalities alive.
Director Barry Levinson also brings his memorable work with Bugsy and Wag the Dog while writer Nicholas Pileggi brings traces of success from Goodfellas and Casino. With the three pedigrees converging in The Alto Knights, you must expect greatness, and you get it, maybe not throughout but enough to say that if Coppola and Brando had also been involved, this film would have been incomparable.
Most scenes are intimate as Frank's wife Bobbie (Debra Messing), and he quietly map out their fate. More flamboyant is Vito's wife, Anna (Katherine Narducci), whose courtroom histrionics as she testifies against him is the stuff of in your face while it contrasts with De Niro's subtler approach (not his usual path). The variety of acting and its excellence makes this a gangster film you should not refuse.
I don't remember ever seeing a spy film where I didn't care "whodunnit"! Yet, in the new Black Bag, the dialogue is everything and second to that is the process of finding who done it. Nor does it matter how many foreign locales a hero visits, for here London, Zurich, and the sound stages are the only locations, and thank you, all we need for a first-rate thriller with accomplished, well-dressed spies trying to figure out among six, who is the traitor.
Heading the cast of operatives are husband and wife spies, George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett). Is she a counter-spy, traitor? George has been charged with finding out if she or one of the others could be the traitor. It becomes obvious that director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp care more about the challenge to a marriage and the dialogue than world travel or the actual counter spy at the center of the plot.
The cinematography is creative, with a long opening shot that follows George to meet a boss in a camera tracking reminiscent of the casino sequence in Goodfellows. At other times multiple closeups serve to place the aud at the same table as the spies. It's all intimate story telling with no gorgeous travelogue distractions such as in Bourne, Bond, or beyond.
Equally seductive are the private husband-wife moments, underplayed in deference to their star power. While they don't give away if she's the traitor, they do reveal the chemistry between the two stars and the characters' abiding love for each other.
Their intimacy is trumped by Soderbergh's delight in digital tongue-in-cheek, sharpened by his Oceans' experiences and his own light-hearted love of spying with memory of love, sex, and videotapes, notwithstanding the old-school McGuffin of a nuclear malware called Severus carried in an old-fashioned thumb drive!
Fassbender's droll delivery along with his Land Rover are just the retro ticket, including a suspicious movie ticket that challenges one of the most uxorious spies in film history. If not deep, Black Bag has secrets its title suggests, not to be told, serving up Spring in its many enigmatic delights.
Heading the cast of operatives are husband and wife spies, George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett). Is she a counter-spy, traitor? George has been charged with finding out if she or one of the others could be the traitor. It becomes obvious that director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp care more about the challenge to a marriage and the dialogue than world travel or the actual counter spy at the center of the plot.
The cinematography is creative, with a long opening shot that follows George to meet a boss in a camera tracking reminiscent of the casino sequence in Goodfellows. At other times multiple closeups serve to place the aud at the same table as the spies. It's all intimate story telling with no gorgeous travelogue distractions such as in Bourne, Bond, or beyond.
Equally seductive are the private husband-wife moments, underplayed in deference to their star power. While they don't give away if she's the traitor, they do reveal the chemistry between the two stars and the characters' abiding love for each other.
Their intimacy is trumped by Soderbergh's delight in digital tongue-in-cheek, sharpened by his Oceans' experiences and his own light-hearted love of spying with memory of love, sex, and videotapes, notwithstanding the old-school McGuffin of a nuclear malware called Severus carried in an old-fashioned thumb drive!
Fassbender's droll delivery along with his Land Rover are just the retro ticket, including a suspicious movie ticket that challenges one of the most uxorious spies in film history. If not deep, Black Bag has secrets its title suggests, not to be told, serving up Spring in its many enigmatic delights.