Movie Review: Riddick

Riddick
Directed by: David Twohy.
Written by: David Twohy based on characters created by Jim Wheat & Ken Wheat.
Starring: Vin Diesel (Riddick), Jordi Mollà (Santana), Matt Nable (Boss Johns), Katee Sackhoff (Dahl), Dave Bautista (Diaz), Bokeem Woodbine (Moss), Raoul Trujillo (Lockspur), Conrad Pla (Vargas), Danny Blanco Hall (Falco), Noah Danby (Nunez), Neil Napier (Rubio), Nolan Gerard Funk (Luna), Karl Urban (Vaako).

 If there is anything good to say about Riddick – and I do say if – it’s that at least David Twohy has scaled back his ambitions from the ridiculous level of the last Riddick film – The Chronicles of Riddick from 2004. The (limited) charm of the original Riddick film – Pitch Black was how simple it was – convict who can see in the dark is on a planet engulfed in darkness fighting alongside others as monsters try and kill them. That’s it, that’s all – nothing else. The Chronicles of Riddick tried to make the lead character into some sort of mythical creation of epic proportions. If nothing else, Riddick brings the character back to his roots – a simple story of one bad man - a bunch of other perhaps even worse men fighting horrid monsters and trying to survive the night.

Ok, so it is a little more complicated than that, but I really wish it wasn’t. The story opens with Riddick having been betrayed (there is a brief, if somewhat confusing prologue for those of us who haven’t thought of Riddick and his adventures in the last nine years) and abandoned on a seemingly desolate planet. There are some creatures there – including some dogs, one of which Riddick befriends as a puppy to ensure we don’t think he is a complete asshole. There are also some water aliens, with huge spiked tails that seem menacing, but who Riddick is normally able to dispose of pretty rapidly in a series of scenes involving all sorts of disembowelments. After spending years there, the planet seems to start changing – Riddick does not like what is coming. He is able to get to a distant outpost and set off a distress signal – which immediately identifies him. Since he’s a wanted criminal, it isn’t long before two ships of mercenaries arrive. The first group seem rather low tech and brutal, the second a little more organized and well-funded. The first group is led by Santana (Jordi Molla) – a crude little man. The second group is led by Boss Johns (Matt Nable) – who has a personal vendetta against Riddick.

After a largely wordless opening 20 minutes – it’s just Riddick and his dog battling monsters – Riddick takes a back seat for much of the next half hour or so as we get to know the feuding groups of mercenaries who eventually come to an agreement – mainly because they have to. Although Riddick is not seen often, he is able to cause havoc and discord in the group by murdering members who wander away from the group (idiots) and stealing something that will prevent the mercenaries’ ship from flying away. He has a deal for them – give him one ship, and he’ll let them take the other ship home. If not, when night comes and the monsters come out to play, everyone is screwed.

I have to say, I’m not quite sure why writer/director David Twohy and star Vin Diesel are so determined to try and make Riddick into a franchise. After the last film bombed, Diesel went as far as to agree to make a cameo appearance in Fast &Furious Tokyo Drift in exchange for the rights to the franchise. It’s clear to the two of them; these are personal, passion projects. What I don’t understand is why. The films feel like generic horror-action movies. Yes, all three have some good sequences – but none of them have the kind of weight or substance you normally associate with passion projects. If the end of this film is any indication, they aren’t done with the character either. Apparently there are things that still have not been wrapped up.

Like Pitch Black, Riddick is not a horrible movie. It feels precisely like what it was – a mid-range budget action-horror film released at an off-peak time (in this case September) to try and get the hard core action fans who cannot go a week without seeing some things blow up and guts being spilled. Twohy has shown he can be a good director – as mentioned, I think all three Riddick films have some very good sequences – but other films, like the haunted submarine film Below and the twisty crime thriller A Perfect Getaway, are even better. I think it’s time to let this franchise die. No one seems to love it as much as Twohy and Diesel do. Then again, I wanted the Resident Evil franchise to end about 4 installments ago, so what do I know.

Movie Review: A Perfect Getaway

A Perfect Getaway ** ½
Directed By: David Twohy.

Written By: David Twohy.

Starring: Steve Zahn (Cliff), Timothy Olyphant (Nick), Milla Jovovich (Cydney), Kiele Sanchez (Gina), Marley Shelton (Cleo), Chris Hemsworth (Kale).

The problem with movies like A Perfect Getaway, which relies on a final act twist to shock the audience, is that if you figure out the twist before it is revealed in the movie, you spend much of the time simply waiting for the movie to catch up with you. With A Perfect Getaway, I guessed the twist ending about 20 minutes into the movie, and was sure I was right by about the 45 minute mark. That the movie is very well made, very well acted, and when not trying to throw us off the scent of the secret, well written, by the time the movie does spring its surprise on us, I found I no longer cared.

The movie is about Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich), a recently married couple on their honeymoon in Hawaii. They decide that they want to take an extended hike to a secluded beach on one of the islands. Along the way, they meet two other couples. First is the creepy Kale (Chris Hemsworth) and the seemingly naïve Cleo (Marley Shelton). Next is the elite army officier Nick (Timothy Olyphant) and his good old Southern gal girlfriend Gina (Kiele Sanchez). The news in Hawaii is dominated by the recent murder of another couple on their honeymoon, apparently at the hands of a man and woman team of killers. At first, Cliff suspects that perhaps Kale and Cleo are behind the attacks, and so they stick close to Nick and Gina. But Nick and Gina seem to be a little too comfortable with blood and violence, so they being to suspect them. As they walk along the almost deserted path with Nick and Gina, with Kale and Cleo somewhere behind them, they start to get more and more nervous and scared.

Now it would not be much of a movie if the murderers do not make an appearance at some point. I will not reveal who the killers are, but if you’re like me, you will not have too much trouble piecing the mystery together. I especially loved how they made Cliff into a screenwriter, and Nick into a movie buff who believes that his life would make a great movie. As the two of them start debating story structure, and second act twists and “red snappers” (Nick means red herrings, but doesn’t know that he is wrong). The film’s first two acts, even if they are a little obvious, are also quite entertaining, as writer/director David Twohy quietly builds suspense and suspicion, without being too obvious about it. He makes you identify with Cliff and Cydney, while casting suspicion on everyone else in the movie, to the point where you are just as paranoid as they are. But there is nothing that is so overt that we can see can say with certainty who the killers are.

It’s the third act where the movie falls apart. Once the twist is revealed (in an utterly ridiculous five minute black and white sequence that reveals everything that the filmmakers held back from us to that point), the film devolves into one fight sequence after another, one chase after another, one cliché after another. That it is handled with skill (with the exception of that black and white sequence) does not really matter, because by then we do not care. We know what is going to happen well before the characters do, and we simply sit there and wait for the movie to end.

A Perfect Getaway is two-thirds of a great thriller. You could not ask for better performances. Zahn is perfect as the cowardly everyman, Olyphant in fine form as the manly man soldier, Jovovich is the proper mixture of sexiness, and toughness and Sanchez, who I can never recall seeing before, is particularly good as the Southern girl who is not as dumb as she looks. In much smaller roles, Hemsworth and Shelton are just about perfect. Director Twohy is much better working with a pared down script like this - and his previous films Pitch Black and Below - then he is with mega production (the less said about his horrid The Chronicles of Riddick the better). If only he had found a better way to end his film (which, sorry to say, would have been just about anything else), we could have had a classic thriller on our hands. Because he doesn’t A Perfect Getaway is a perfectly adequate thriller, no more, no less. If I am disappointed in the film, it’s because it could have, and should have, been much better.