Movie Review: Everest

Everest
Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur.
Written by: William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy.
Starring: Jason Clarke (Rob Hall), Jake Gyllenhaal (Scott Fischer), Josh Brolin (Beck Weathers), John Hawkes (Doug Hansen), Sam Worthington (Guy Cotter), Robin Wright (Peach, Weathers' wife), Michael Kelly (Jon Krakauer), Keira Knightley (Jan Arnold), Emily Watson (Helen Wilton), Thom(Wright (Michael Groom), Martin Henderson (Andy Harris), Elizabeth Debicki (Dr. Caroline Mackenzie), Naoko Mori (Yasuko Namba), Clive Standen (Ed Viesturs), Vanessa Kirby (Sandy Hill), Tom Goodman-Hill (Neal Beidleman), Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson (Anatoli Boukreev).

For a movie that is about a tragedy, that cost several people their lives, while climbing the title mountain, watching Everest is a curiously muted experience. The director, Baltasar Kormákur, and screenwriters William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy, clearly wanted to show respect to those who lost their lives – a somewhat refreshing change, as most movies just want to exploit them, but in doing so they’ve flattened out the characters to the point where none of them really have much of a personality. The excellent ensemble cast gamely tries their best – Josh Brolin better than most (although it just be that I was amused in the early scenes that he seemed to be playing George W. Bush again), but for the most part they speak in banalities heavy with foreshadowing. The final, which should be an emotional gut punch, as some of the people we’ve spent the entire movie with are dying, and one pretty much comes back from the dead, but it just never quite hits you like it should. The film is impressively made – but its lack something essential.

The film takes place in 1996, and Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) is an Aussie who runs a company called Adventure Consultants, who charge people a small fortune to take them up Everest. These are not complete amateurs – they’ve all climbed mountains before, but they are not the sort who would be trekking up Everest without someone like Hall to guide them. It’s late March, and they’re planning to summit on May 10^th – which gives just over a month to get into shape, and get used the thin air – doing some smaller, exploratory climbs before the big one. On the day they Summit, they’ll have to move quickly – after a certain elevation, the body literally starts to die, so you have to move quickly – and if you’re not going to make it, Hall will turn you around and make sure you get safely. As he puts it, you don’t pay him to reach the summit – you pay him to get you back safely.

Hall is a big, genial guy – with a pregnant wife (Keira Knightley) at home – and also somewhat of a pioneer, as he was the first to start taking “tourist” climbers up the mountain. Now, there are a lot of people doing it – including Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is more casual and laid back than Hall – but a great climber. He’s friendly with Rob – more than the other guides anyway – even though Hall did steal the journalist – Jon Krakauer (Michael Kelly) – away from him this year – (Krakauer would write Into Thin Air, the most famous of the multiple books based on this climb – none of which are credited by the movie). Gradually, we meet a few of the climbers who have paid to get up the mountain as well – like Beck Weathers (Brolin), a big time Texan, with a goofy grin and an abundance of confidence, Doug Hansen (John Hawkes), a mailman who also came last year, and didn’t quite make the summit because Hall had to turn them around, and Yasuko Namba (Naoko Mori), who has already scaled 6 of the 7 Summits, and just needs Everest to complete the set – and is the only woman in the movie whose entire role isn’t to be worried on a telephone or walkie-talkie the whole time. All of these characters are painted in broad strokes – which makes a certain degree of sense (mountain climbing is not really the time for character development), but doesn’t really let us know much about them. Even in the scene where Krakauer asks directly why the all do it, considering how much it costs and the risks involved, we never really get an understanding as to why.

The tragedy of the climb really only takes up the last third of the movie – the rest is setup. When the weather turns quickly, and a few climbers make some bad decisions, their fate is sealed. But these scenes – where the wind and snow are whipping are all around them, are perhaps the biggest problem with the movie. After all that setup, you expect some sort of payoff – and the movie doesn’t really deliver. I’m not arguing that the movie should have had a more action packed climax – which would have been false – but I do think the movie needed to make the audience feel that cold, that wind, that sense of doom more than it does. You get to the end, and it all just feels like such a waste – such a sad waste of human life.

Everest is impressively made – and it does look gorgeous. The 3-D, which normally I am not a fan of, is at the very least not distracting here (I’m not sure it added much either, but it didn’t make me want to throw the 3-D glasses at the screen either, so that’s a plus). Perhaps it would have been better on an IMAX screen – where it played for a week exclusively before going wide (I’m not going to make the mistake of skipping The Walk on IMAX this weekend and waiting for a wide release next). But it’s not really the craft of the movie that failed for me – it’s the emotional pull of the movie that isn’t there – and that wouldn’t be saved by an IMAX screen.

Movie Review: 2 Guns

2 Guns
Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur.
Written by: Blake Masters based on the graphic novels by Steven Grant.
Starring: Denzel Washington (Robert 'Bobby' Trench), Mark Wahlberg (Michael 'Stig' Stigman), Paula Patton (Deb), Bill Paxton (Earl), Fred Ward (Admiral Tuwey), James Marsden (Quince), Edward James Olmos (Papi Greco), Robert John Burke (Jessup), Greg Sproles (Chief Lucas), Patrick Fischler (Dr. Ken).

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg are two very talented actors, who spend most of their time coasting on their considerable charm. Before last year’s Flight, Washington had spent basically a decade doing this – and Wahlberg, while occasionally throwing in a film like The Lovely Bones and The Fighter – basically does the same thing. You know what you’re getting when you walk into an action movie starring one of these two guys. And to both of their credit, they don’t simply phone in their performances – they perform them to the hilt, even if they aren’t really challenged by them. That can be said about their first onscreen team-up – 2 Guns. This is a likable, late summer action comedy with double and triple crosses, an ever twisting plot, and multiple trips across the border into Mexico.

When the film opens, we meet Bobby (Washington) and Stug (Wahlberg) as they walk into a dinner across the street from a bank. They want to rob the bank, and are there for two reasons – one, to scope out their target, and two, to make sure that this dinner “with the best donuts in three counties” won’t mess up their job. Needless to say, not everything is what appears to be. They pull off the robbery – only to discover they have both been lying to each other, and whoever gave them the information in the first place has also been lying. What follows is an over complicated plot featuring a Mexican drug dealer (Edward James Olmos), a crazed CIA agent (Bill Paxton), the DEA (represented by Paula Patton), and the army (James Marsden). The plot is busy, but never confusing, and the movie breezes by easily – coasting on the considerable charm of Washington and Wahlberg.

The film was directed by Baltasar Kormakur, who had made some pretty acclaimed films in his native Iceland, before coming to Hollywood. His North American “debut” was last year’s Contraband – also starring Wahlberg – and also having one of those plots where nothing is as it seems. Personally, I thought Contraband overstayed it’s welcome – tried too hard to pull the wool over the audiences eyes a few too many times. 2 Guns seems to be constantly threatening to do the same – but never quite does. The film is short, violent, funny, briskly paced and ends just as I was starting to get tired of all the plot twists. In short, it’s an effective genre piece – not much more – but a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

Washington and Wahlberg are surprisingly good together. It didn’t surprise me to find out after the movie was over that it was initially meant to be a vehicle for Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson (perhaps they backed out when Google came calling) . The film was most likely re-written to better suit its current stars – but this is still an buddy-comedy/action movie – and Washington and Wahlberg play well off each other. It also helps that the rest of the cast is game as well. Olmos is having fun playing the stereotypical Mexican drug kingpin – and I’m not sure what movie I’ve seen him in the last decade or so where he’s been better. James Marsden once again proves why he’s better suited for these type of odd, quirky supporting roles than as the leading man. Paula Patton is a standard issue “love interest”, but she does the job well. Best of all is Bill Paxton, who just may be insane.

Overall, 2 Guns doesn’t attempt to do anything too new. There’s nothing wrong with making a solid, fun, genre movie – and that’s precisely what the filmmakers have done here. I do hope that it isn’t too long before Washington and Wahlberg stretch their acting muscles again, but for now, it’s good enough to see them at their charming, movie star best.

DVD Review: Contraband

Contraband ** ½
Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur.
Written by: Aaron Guzikowski based on the screenplay by Arnaldur Indriðason and Óskar Jónasson.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg (Chris Farraday), Kate Beckinsale (Kate Farraday), Ben Foster (Sebastian Abney), Giovanni Ribisi (Tim Briggs), Lukas Haas (Danny Raymer), Kent Jude Bernard (Tommy Raymer), William Lucking (Bud Farraday), J.K. Simmons (Captain Camp), Lucky Johnson (Tarik), Diego Luna (Gonzalo).

You have to kind of admire a film like Contraband that throws everything and the kitchen sink at the audience. Whenever you think you know where the movie is going, it veers off into a different direction, adds another villain, another action sequence, another bloody mess. It also casts two of the great over actors currently working – Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi – in supporting roles. If only the two leads – Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale – were the least bit interesting the movie may have been better.

Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) was once one of the best smugglers in the world – but he has given that all up for the quiet life – wife Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and two sons. He runs his own security system business now, and he just wants to be left alone. But his idiot brother in law gets himself into some trouble – he was supposed to smuggle in some cocaine for Tim Briggs (Ribisi), a mean ex-con who demands the money he would have made selling that coke – and if the brother in law doesn’t pay, he’ll come looking to Chris for the money. So, to protect his family he decides to pull, say it with me now, one last job.

I liked much of Contraband. As I said, just when you get comfortable following one plot twist, the movie adds another one. You think that Ribisi is the only psychopath in the mix, and then one by one, the movie introduces some other ones to spice things up. Just when you think that all Chris is going to get involved in is a smuggling operation on a commercial shipping boat, the filmmakers throw in a violent armored car robbery gone wrong in the streets of Panama. And after that settles down, and you think you have the smuggling operation figured out, the movie twists again, and you realize that you’re wrong.

The problem with Contraband is perhaps that it twists too much. The movie spends so much time trying to pull the rug out from underneath you, and play with your expectations, that it never really settles down and tells an interesting story – or develops any of its characters. Yes, Ribisi is wonderfully twisted and evil, and Ben Foster (as Wahlberg’s best friend), does a good job matching him facial twitch for facial twitch, and Diego Luna has a lot of fun as someone perhaps even more insane then either of those two. But other than joy in watching these three performances, there really isn’t much to Contraband. Wahlberg is good as an action hero, but he is easily the least interesting character in the movie. Beckinsale is fine, I suppose, but she is just doing what every wife in every movie does – sound concerned on the phone, and then getting herself into trouble. As well a movie can only twist so many times before you stop trusting it completely.

I’m not saying Contraband is a bad movie – far from it. It will keep you entertained for its two hour running time. But I was never really involved in the movie – never really cared what happened from one scene to the next. Ribisi and Foster both certainly have the potential to become the next Christopher Walken – that actor who constantly plays the psychopath, but who you cannot help but love. But for me Contraband simply isn’t quite good enough.