WRATH OF MAN : Thursday 6th May 2021.

'WRATH OF MAN' which I saw last week at my local multiplex is an MA15+ Rated American action thriller offering Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Guy Ritchie and is based on the 2004 French film 'Cash Truck' Directed by Nicolas Boukhrief. The lead star of this film is Jason Statham, with whom Ritchie has worked on three previous occasions - 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', 'Snatch' and 'Revolver' with a fifth collaboration currently in the works on spy thriller 'Five Eyes'. Originally slated for a mid-January release but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this film was released in Australia last week, one week ahead of its US cinema release and not until 23rd July in the UK. It has so far taken US$8M following its earlier release in Russia, Germany, New Zealand and here in Australia, and has generated mixed or average Reviews so far.

The film opens up with Patrick Hill (Jason Statham) being interviewed for a new job at cash security firm Fortico by the manager Terry (Eddie Marsan) who tells Hill that his references more than check out, and that he has all the necessary credentials to come on board as a new security guard, including a pistol licence. Fortico collects tens of millions of dollars from around Los Angeles every week from hospitality venues, clubs, casinos, banks and businesses and are therefore considered an easy target. So much so that just a matter of weeks ago two of the firms security guards were killed in a heist on one of their trucks. Needles to say Hill is given the job on the spot. He is quickly introduced to his supervisor Bullet (Holt McCallany) who tells him that he will have to undergo four days of intensive training on driving and manoeuvring a cash truck and his shooting skills, and under the latter he needs to score a minimum rating of 70% to pass. After his first day he is introduced to a number of his co-workers. There is Boy Sweat Dave (Josh Hartnett), Dana (Niamh Algar) and a number of others who all treat the 'limey' with disrespect and indifference. All of this treatment is like water off a ducks back to 'H', as Hill has come to be known by his new colleagues, who tries to keep himself to himself, mingles when it is called for, and is pretty adept at playing the strong brooding silent type. 

We then fast forward three months and one day Bullet, Sweat Dave and H are out on a cash collection in their truck at the docks off loading only about US$10K from a recently berthed cruise ship. Bullet is on board for what should be a simple and routine pick-up. But something is not right and over the radio comes a garbled message that they are to drive the truck a couple of blocks to rendezvous with a bunch of crims who have Bullet captive, and they want the US$1.5M that is already in the back of the truck. Sweat Dave goes into a blind panic not knowing what to do for the best, while H remains cool, calm and collected and orders Sweat Dave to drive the truck. At the meeting point, Bullet is bundled out of a car and beaten to the ground. What ensues is a fire fight in which H shows off his very particular set of skills as a precise marksman by taking down all six crims singlehandedly, while Sweat Dave and Bullet are left speechless by what they have just witnessed. 

After this show of force, H is hailed a hero by his colleagues and Terry. After the fact he is interviewed by FBI Agents Hubbard and Okey (Josh Cowdery and Jason Wong respectively) wanting to clear up some details and show him video footage of the earlier heist on a Fortico truck which claimed the lives of the two security guards, to determine if there were any similarities in the crims MO. Afterwards, the Agents call their superior officer Agent King (Andy Garcia), who tells them to lay off Hill and let him do what he has to do, and that he will monitor the situation closely.

We then go back in time five months and Hill and his teenage son Dougie (Eli Brown) are about to go out to watch a game, but they are running ahead of time and decide to go get a bite to eat first. Hill's phone rings and it is one of his henchmen, Mike (Darrell D'Silva) who wants him to do a quick surveillance job of the movements of a Fortico truck as its leaves their depot. Hill says it's his day off and he has his son with him, but Mike responds with the fact that there is no one else available and it will only take a few minutes of his time. Reluctantly Hill agrees. Under the pretext of wanting to stop for a burrito from a food truck parked outside the Fortico depot, he orders Dougie to stay in the car with the doors locked. As the cash truck leaves the depot, turns right and heads under an overpass, the trucks route is blocked by construction workers. But these construction workers are not what they seem and they soon produce weapons and the necessary hardware to break into the armoured vehicle and steal the cash money contained therein. In the process the two security guards are both killed and shot, and Dougie is observed to be witnessing all of this and is also shot four times and killed outright. At this Hill rounds the corner and witnesses his son lying dead on the ground, he runs towards him only to be shot three times sending him crashing to the ground as he looks up at the gunman wide eyed but motionless. 

A couple of weeks later Hill comes round in a hospital bed with a doctor standing beside him. The doctor tells him he is lucky to be alive having taken three bullets and lost a quarter of his blood. Hill asks after his son and is told that he died at the scene. Later Hill walks out of hospital and back into his office where Mike, Hollow Bob (Rocci Williams) and Moggi (Babs Olusanmokun) are in attendance saying that they have done everything they can do to locate the perpetrators of Dougie's death, but have drawn a blank. Meanwhile, Hills ex-wife, mourning the death of her son, blames Hill directly for his slaying, leaving him speechless.

After slaying all of the lowlife crims in the neighbourhood who may have had an inkling as to who the perpetrators were responsible for Dougie's death, and having so far still drawn a blank, they hit upon a lead who tells them (under immense duress) who the crims might be. We are then introduced to a bunch of ex-soldiers led by Sergeant Jackson (Jeffrey Donovan) who are all working dead end jobs, as bored as Hell watching TV and drinking beers all day long, and after some excitement in their lives and ideally a big pay cheque. Jackson suggests to his former soldier buddies Jan (Scott Eastwood), Tom (Chris Reilly), Sam (Raul Castillo), Carlos (Laz Alonso) and Brad (Deobia Oparei) a robbery from a wealthy man who Carlos works for but this yields them only a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Jackson later suggests a heist on a cash truck, which eventually leads then to the heist on the Fortico truck in which the two security guards were shot and killed, together with Dougie and in which Hill was collateral damage. 

After successfully pulling off that heist the crims lay low for a couple of month before their next heist. Jackson tells them not to spend up big and just to go about their normal routines so as not to attract any undue attention to themselves. Then comes a major pay day in the form of Black Friday in which Fortico will collect upwards of US$160M in cash. Eight weeks of intense preparation is needed in the lead up to the big day, and all the guys are in, tempted by the excitement of their next 'mission' are the prospect of retirement at the other end. The day duly arrives, and Fortico is as well prepared for every eventuality as it can be. The crims know the high stakes they are playing for and what can go wrong but their planning has been meticulous. Jackson fears only one man in his gang - and that is Jan, the loose cannon, who has attitude, the temperament and the mouth to go with it. Despite being told to lay low he has a furnished warehouse style apartment and a US$28K brand new motorcycle, much to Jackson's chagrin. 

In the truck making their way back to the Fortico depot, Bullet confides in H that he likes him, but that he has a confession to make. Bullet is the man on the inside, feeding intelligence to Jackson and telling him which trucks to hit and when. Bullet is telling H this because he needs his cooperation when they arrive back at the depot to make it look as though all is good to gain access inside. H is surprised and agrees to go along with the plan asking 'what's in it for me' to which Bullet replies with 'your life'. 

Once inside, the other gang members arrive and gain access and needless to say it's not long before a fierce gunfight breaks out as things go awry. H is led into a side room with Terry and Sweat Dave, and has his hands cable tied and is watched over by a pair of the crims wearing full assault gear from head to toe. Meanwhile, all out war is going down outside with Jackson and his remaining crew exchanging rapid gunfire with everyone else working for Fortico. Bullet is making out that he is being held against his will and used as a bargaining tool for the crims to gain access to the main vault. With the shoot out intensifying one of H captors leaves the room to join the fray. This gives H his chance to overpower the remaining one which he does so, ultimately strangling him. In the meantime Terry is on the phone to the S.W.A.T. team who are en route, albeit eight minutes away, and Sweat Dave is dithering about unsure of what to do - fight or flight!

H picks up the automatic weapon from the man he's just killed and goes off in search of the others. He gets into a fist fight with Tom and it doesn't end well for Tom who is killed with a knife to the jugular, while the others get shot up, leaving Bullet to dispense with Dana and a few others. Jan shoots H several times in the chest and leg, leaving hism prone on the ground motionless, but eyes wide open staring at Jan straight in the face. Jackson, Jan and Bullet are the last men standing although Jackson has sustained a bullet injury to the neck and is beginning to look decidedly pale by the time the cash truck crashes out of the depot, pursued by a convoy of Police vehicles. The truck heads down the highway chased closely behind by the Police, a S.W.A.T team and a chopper above. Eventually the truck heads into an underground parking lot, and as the Police vehicles are about to enter Bullet activates the bollards by remote control to come up out of the ground so preventing the Police from gaining access. Unknown to the authorities there is a secret tunnel leading out of the parking lot, that does not appear on any of the schematics as the lot was built in the '50's and the site has since been redeveloped, masking the tunnel from any blue prints. This was Jacksons plan all along. While Jackson is bleeding out Jan and Bullet off load the bags of cash onto two waiting quad bikes that they drive through the tunnel to a parked up Prius at the other end. While Bullet is attending to the stash of cash Jan goes back to the truck and finishes off Jackson by slitting his throat.  

When the pair arrive at the Prius they load up the boot with the money bags. Bullet knows that Jan can't be trusted and so pulls his gun. When Jan returns from opening the gate, he pulls his weapon before Bullet has time to respond, and shoots him through the head without hesitation. Jan successfully makes his getaway with all the money. At his apartment, after stepping out of the shower, he finds a phone ringing in one of the money bags, which was planted there by H to track his location. H had survived and confronts him with Dougie's autopsy report before shooting Jan in the same places Dougie was shot (liver, lungs, spleen and heart), killing him. Agent King is waiting outside to collect the stolen money while H drives off with one of his associates. 

'Wrath of Man' is an enjoyable, well orchestrated piece of action cinema that both Ritchie and Statham are renowned for with set pieces that more than deliver, an ensemble cast of familiar names, and enough shoot 'em up violence and cuss words to please any lover of the genre. With several time shifting storylines, this revenge and retribution offering is often brutal and uncompromising in its depiction of low life criminals and a man on a mission who will stop at nothing to see that his own brand of justice is duly served on those that wronged him. Statham is light on the fast talking quips and one liners trading these in for brooding menacing dialogue that on occasion misses the mark, but is countered by the fast paced action and the actors cold blooded performance. For Ritchie this is not quite up there with his recent 'The Gentlemen', or his earlier works 'Lock, Stock . . . ' and 'Snatch' but it proves his versatility as a film maker of the action crime drama, and as for Statham you know exactly what you're gonna get, but this would be one of his more noteworthy films in recent memory. At a running time of just under two hours, the film feels slightly over extended and perhaps ten or fifteen minutes could have been shaved off, although this would be a minor criticism only.

'Wrath of Man' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

PASSENGERS : Tuesday 10th January 2017.

'PASSENGERS' which I saw this week is from Norwegian film Director Morten Tyldum who previously brought us 2014's 'The Imitation Game'. Here he Directs this Sci-Fi adventure offering set in deep space. Made for US$110M and released in the US just before Christmas, the film has so far made US$181M and has seemingly fared less well with critics whose general response has been mixed at best, than it has with the movie going public. Having read the negative press, I was pleasantly surprised by the film, and feel it fares better than the critics give it credit for.


The story here takes place during some undisclosed future date aboard the starship 'Avalon', a state of the art vessel transporting 5,000 Earth inhabitants and some 250 crew to colonise a far away planet called Homestead II. That planet is so far away from Earth that the journey takes 120 years, and those 'passengers' and crew are in hibernation pods for the entirety of the journey, with the super advanced spacecraft on autopilot. The intention is that the passengers will awaken four months before arrival at Homestead II, and the crew one month before them, in order for everyone to assimilate to each other, their new surroundings, the prospect of life in a galaxy far far away, to learn new skills and to prepare for a fresh start at life. There is no going back.

Early on we see Avalon pass through a meteor cloud, and using its defensive shield manages to get through largely unscathed until we see a huge chunk of space rock the size of a football stadium come into view and headed on a collision course. It impacts and is deflected, but the jolt to the ships infrastructure causes a malfunction in one hibernation pod - that of mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) who awakens thinking that he has arrived at Homestead II already, and the requisite 120 years has passed. After a day or two however, he comes to realise that nothing could be further from the truth, largely by the absence of anyone else. He searches through the mighty Avalon looking for others, interacting with various holographic beings passing out information, instructions and intelligence and learns too that the ship left earth only thirty years ago, and its destination is still ninety years away. How is this possible?

Resigned to his fate, Preston goes about his daily routines using all the facilities available to the passengers once they have woken up from their hibernation - restaurants, cinema, basketball gym, and the bar where he is able to interact with mechanical robot bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen) for some kind of companionship.

He also investigates the ships every corner to ascertain what he is dealing with, what resources are available and if there is a means of re-hibernation, but there is not. However, some areas are beyond his ability to access given that he is a lowly mechanical engineer who gained free passage to Homestead II on account of his necessary skills. One such area that 'is beyond his pay grade' is the main deck where the ships controls and diagnostic systems are housed, which he tries fruitlessly to access for a prolonged period, but to no avail.

Contemplating suicide after traipsing around the ship all on his lonesome for many months, he happens upon the hibernation pod of Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence). He reads her digital profile and we learn she is a journalist, a writer, her family history, and Preston instantly becomes infatuated by her. After some soul searching and deliberation over many weeks he decides to wake up Aurora, but keep the truth from her about how her pod opened, other than it was another malfunction.

Initially Lane goes through the same emotions that Preston did over a year ago now, seeking ways to re-hibernate, or turn the ship around, but when she can see that everything she suggests has already been attempted by him, she resigns herself to her fate. In time the two fall for each other and become lovers. She starts writing a book, and the pair take full advantage of their seclusion, their surroundings and everything they have available to them.

This carries on for a year, with the two making the most of their lives abroad the Avalon, until Arthur inadvertently lets out that it is the anniversary of Preston waking up Lane. At first Lane cannot believe what she is hearing, and then her anger turns physical and emotional as she deliberately distances herself from Preston, accusing him of what is tantamount to murder.

Shortly after this as Preston is trying to explain himself over the Avalon's PA system, they hear the voice of Chief Deck Officer Gus Mancuso (Laurence Fishburn) who has been woken by another pod malfunction. Mancuso has higher authority and so gains them access to the main deck which earlier Preston had spent tireless hours trying to access. Using the ships diagnostic systems they learn of multiple failures in the ships infrastructure and systems, which if not repaired will have catastrophic effects. They learn that the damage was done two years ago during the meteor storm that initially woke up Preston, and so now it becomes a race against time to locate the damage and effect repairs. Mancuso meanwhile is in ill health and in the ships infirmary in the Autodoc (an automated medical diagnostics and treatment pod) they learn that he has just hours to live thanks to the manner in which his hibernation pod was opened and what he was exposed to in the process. Before he dies, he hands over his ID wrist band giving the pair unrestricted access to all areas.

As the ships systems increasingly fail putting at risk over five thousand souls, so the hunt is on for the damage. They locate several holes in the ships hull that caused damage to the computer that administers the ships reactor. Knowing that there are spare parts on the ship for every conceivable necessity, Preston retrieves a new computer bank to replace the damaged one. In doing so however, it causes further damage to the reactor. Preston realises that the fusion reactor needs to be vented, but this cannot be done from the inside due to damaged systems infrastructure, and so he needs to do so from outside the ship. Lane is reluctant to let him go knowing that she may never see him again, and she couldn't abide that thought despite her previous feelings of being cheated out of her future life.

With Lane inside and Preston outside the ship but in constant communication with each other, the reactor is successfully vented, but in the process he is ejected by the blast with such a force that it snaps his tether causing him to drift helplessly. With his spacesuit also damaged he is loosing oxygen rapidly and the temperature inside his suit begins to plummet. He apologies to Lane and bids his farewell. Not having any of it, Lane dons a spacesuit and ventures out to retrieve her man, eventually doing so. She slams him into the Autodoc where he is pronounced dead on arrival. Using the diagnostics and treatment functions she throws everything at Preston to revive him.

Eighty-eight years later the crew of the Avalon awaken as they approach Homestead II. Upon opening the doors to the main concourse area, Captain Norris (Andy Garcia) is greeted with a landscape of lush green vegetation, tall trees, and a small wooden house that Preston promised he would build Lane if they were together on Homestead II. Lane completed writing her book revealing that she elected to stay with Preston and finish writing her story of adventure and love aboard the Avalon where the two of them lived happily until they died.

There are nods aplenty to other films, including '2001:A Space Odyssey', 'Prometheus', 'The Martian', 'Gravity' and 'Titanic', and like all of these films 'Passengers' does not disappoint on the visuals which are stunning and expertly realised. With a small handful too of individuals battling against the odds; a story that you can relate to; and a chemistry between the two leads that make you believe, this is ultimately a love story wrapped up in a disaster epic where loss and despair give way to love and hope. I found Preston just a little too worldly wise as a lowly mechanical engineer who is able to craft metal trinkets, reprogramme robots, sidestep complex computer systems, design an eco system, and know how reactor fusion works amongst other things to be just a little too convenient and a little to MacGuiver esque. Preston's motives for waking up Lane are at the core of the film, and it is a matter for debate as to what you would do confronted with a lifetime of no other human contact, and ultimately her reaction and reconciliation to this is equally questionable. I enjoyed 'Passengers' much more than I thought I would, and I think you will too. It is worth seeing on the big screen for all the spectacle, complexity and the enormity of a sterile, untarnished brand spanking new floating mega shopping mall and entertainment complex hurtling through space on its 120 year journey to go boldly where no man has gone before!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

GHOSTBUSTERS : Thursday 21st July 2016.

For nostalgic reasons I saw 'GHOSTBUSTERS' last week having been undecided about viewing this all female reboot given the mixed publicity it has so far received. The original 'Ghostbusters' film was released in 1984 and was Directed and Produced by Ivan Reitman, Written by Dan Aykroyd who also starred as Ray Stanz, and starred Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler and Bill Murray as Peter Venkman - making up the threesome of parapsychologists, ghost hunters and spectre busters. That film was made for US$30M and returned US$295M and was also a critical success having been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Ray Parker Jnr's. signature tune as Best Original Song. Based on this success 'Ghostbusters II' was released in 1989 with the same cast reprising their roles for US$37M and returning US$215M. During its time there were also two animated television series, a number of video game releases, a comic book adaptation, merchandise, and the film has seen several cinematic re-releases in more recent years. And now, in 2016, we have a reboot for a whole new audience, but this time with a budget of US$144M, and Paul Feig in the Directors chair and Co-Scripting, with Ivan Reitman Co-Producing, with both Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd appearing in cameo roles. So far the film has made US$123M.

Here we have an all female cast of ghost hunters and catchers continuing the work laid out by Stanz, Venkman and Spengler 30 years ago, although you wouldn't know it, and still in Noo Yawk City. This time, paranormal researcher Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) and physicist Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) are largely unsuccessful and uncared about authors who believe that ghosts are real and are among us in everyday society having written a book about it years earlier. Fast track a few years and Gilbert lands her dream job at Columbia University, and Yates continues here work at a Technical College ably assisted by whacky & other worldly engineer Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon). When her book resurfaces unexpectedly Gilbert tries to deny all knowledge and distances herself from that earlier now frowned upon publication. She searches out her estranged friend and co-author Yates to halt further sales and publicity of the book for fear that it might cost her the hard earned job at Columbia, and her reputation.

When their meeting doesn't quite go according to plan the three girls are called out unexpectedly to a sighting of a ghost at New York's longest standing still intact inside and outside historical homestead that is believed to be haunted but never confirmed . . . until now that is! When the presence of a real life nether worldly spectre is confirmed and it's none to friendly, the video footage evidence is posted to social media but is quickly debunked as a fake. Gilbert's belief in the paranormal is however, reignited, but it costs her the position at Columbia that she had fought and studied so hard for. When Yates and Holtzmann seek additional funding for their research now that they have concrete evidence, the rug is also pulled from under them, and they find themselves out on the street too. With their new found proof and belief in life hereafter, the three team up and open 'The Department of Metaphysical Examination' above a Chinese Restaurant.

They newly formed team settle in and Holtzmann sets about quickly upgrading their ghost hunting equipment. At the same time they advertise for an office administrator and receptionist. The only applicant is Kevin Beckman (Chris Hemsworth) - a dim-witted, clueless but handsome and well meaning type that immediately catches the eye of Gilbert, and within a heartbeat he is hired. Shorty afterwards the office receives a call of a ghostly presence in the subway. Going to investigate they meet up with New York 's finest long standing and long suffering MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) Attendant Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) who takes them into the subway at the location of the sighting, and sure enough - there they encounter, but fail to capture, another ghost. However, they have captured more photographic evidence and tested out Holtzmann's latest proton containment laser device, but again their evidence is dismissed as fake by one world authority on such matters Martin Heiss (Bill Murray).

The team carry on unabated and none too worried about their lack of concrete evidence or the naysayers who dismiss their findings. Holtzmann continues to develop more sophisticated ghost hunting and containment gizmo's, and the team, now joined by Tolan because of her historic and geographical knowledge of NYC, is able to borrow a hearse from an Uncle, which the team have customised to suit their needs and call it 'Ecto-1'. By now the media are referring to the team as the 'Ghostbusters' as their presence on the streets becomes more frequent and there are increasing reports of other worldly spectres and poltergeists running amok.

What the team don't know yet is that one lowly hotel janitor, Rowan North (Neil Casey) has been dabbling in the occult for sometime and using Gilbert & Yates book as a source of reference to bring about a cataclysmic apocalypse that will see the dead rise up and bring an end to the world as we know it. He plants a devise at a heavy metal rock concert (watch out for the Ozzy Osbourne cameo) to summons an evil ghost to show the world what he is capable of, and set the scene for the start of his apocalypse. As the concert gets underway the evil spirit is released, the Ghostbusters are called in and using their latest developed ghost containment technology, they capture their first ghost - in front of hundreds of concert goers.

The Ghostbusters are then quickly escorted off to see Mayor Bradley (Andy Garcia) who thanks them for their support & assistance and advises that Homeland Security were well aware of New York's ghost problem, but must debunk their work and brand them as fraudsters to avoid panic in the streets, whilst in private supporting their efforts. The team come to realise that North is has been planting various ghost release devises along New York's ley lines which come to intersect at The Mercado Hotel in Times Square which has historical significance as a place riddled with paranormal activity. It is here that North works as a janitor, and in the basement he has built a portal to the other side, and at the flick of a switch the ghosts and evil spirits will cross over into our dimension. Cornered in the basement by the Ghostbusters North electrocutes himself to avoid capture, but this is part of his cunning plan to return as an all powerful ghost to rule over those he has released. Before doing so though his spirit first possesses Yates then Beckman who flicks the switch in the basement so releasing those ghosts and ghoulish entities upon an unsuspecting New York City.

With the Ghostbusters mobilised once again and armed to the teeth with more hurriedly assembled technologically advanced ghost busting weaponry, the team of four gals go head to head with all manner of evil spirits intent on trashing the city, as they seek to get to the portal and close it. Meanwhile, North has manifested himself into a giant evil form of the Ghostbusters logo, and begins trampling all over the city and tearing at its tower blocks and skyscrapers whilst commanding a legion to thwart the ghost busting girls. Needless to say four tooled up girls is enough to overcome hundreds of evil malevolent larger than life ghosts, ghouls and spectres on any day, and of course they do, so allowing them to reach the portal and drive Ecto-1 with its roof mounted nuclear reactor into the portal so creating a total protonic reversal and returning everything back to normality and the ghosts, ghouls, phantoms and spectres back to their own nether worldly dimension.

Having saved the city from near certain doom, Mayor Bradley secretly agrees to fund without question and without limitation their continued research, whilst publicly denouncing them as fraudsters. The Ghostbusters relocate to a much larger premises in a disused fire station, and in a closing scene the team congregate on the roof top of their new premises to see the city light up with messages of thanks and gratitude from the people of the New York. Wait for the closing credits sequences to see the set up for a possible sequel and another cameo, from Sigourney Weaver joining Dan Aykroyd who appears as a cab driver and proclaims "I ain't 'fraid of no ghost!"

Judging by the mixed reviews this film has received I went in with fairly low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. That said, the film presents exactly what you would expect from this reboot for an audience probably unfamiliar with the original films. There is little new here, except the advances in movie making technology and FX that allow for bigger, bolder, better ghost busting and ghost capturing effects than we saw thirty years ago. There are a few laugh out loud moments in the film, but these are few and far between, and the banter between Yates and Gilbert began to grate on me after several of their one on one interchanges that just weren't funny. Hemsworth's Beckman does well enough with some dim-witted gags at his own expense, but seems to be just added eye-candy to balance out the four female leads. The focus is very much on Yates and Gilbert with Tolan and Beckman left wandering around the periphery with brief moments of action and dialogue, and Holtzmann basically quickly whipping up weapons of ghost mass destruction with little other purpose to serve - wasted talent here I think too! Worth a look on the big screen, but equally you can see it on your big screen at home and wait for the DVD/BluRay release.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

KILL THE MESSENGER - Tuesday 18th November 2014.

I saw 'KILL THE MESSENGER' at my local suburban cinema earlier this week with a couple of movie buddies, and largely enjoyed this retelling of the late 90's US true story exposed across the national press that shook the nation, and the upper echelons of both the government and the CIA. Jeremy Renner stars in the lead role as noted investigative journalist Gary Webb, and the film is based on his book 'Dark Alliance' and Directed by Michael Cuesta. Jeremy Renner is very watchable, and puts in a convincing turn as the journalist for the San Jose Mercury News whose brief 15 minutes of fame is quickly torn from under him as the Washington power brokers do everything they can to stop the truth from getting in the way of a good story!

The films cast list reads like a Who's Who of Hollywood talent including Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Oliver Platt, Robert Patrick, Michael Sheen, Barry Pepper, Paz Vega - all of whom have relatively fleeting, but nonetheless very important, screen time with the exception of Oliver Platt who plays Jerry Ceppos who manages the paper where Gary works, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Anna Simons the newspapers Editor. The roles of the latter two are much more pivotal as Gary Webb goes from hero to zero as his story unfolds, gets a foothold and then starts to unravel. Of course, Webb's family of Susan Webb his wife, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, and the three children are brought into the fray too and all of the performances are solid, grounded and believable in the context of the unfolding story arc.

Essentially, working for small town newspaper the San Jose Mercury News, Gary Webb is contacted by the wife of a suspected drug smuggler (Paz Vega) with a hot lead, and evidence, that high ranking officials in the government are linked to bringing crack cocaine into the USA from South America, selling it on the streets for vast sums of money with which to buy arms for the Nicaraguan Contra Rebels. In the process the US is gripped by a drug crazed portion of the populace who are buying the shit quicker than the CIA can bring it in to the country! 

Of course the more and more digging that Webb does the more he uncovers that goes high up into the Whitehouse, the CIA and the drug enforcement authorities who all have a hand in these shenanigans. Feathers get ruffled, and the more they get ruffled the more Webb keeps searching - to the point when he is hauled into a room with high level CIA officers and told to back off in no uncertain times - although of course 'they would never do anything to bring harm to his family' smirks one Agent! This is the proverbial straw that broke the camels back for Webb, and with this and enough information now to go to print, he publishes his story with the blessing of Ceppos and Simons at the paper. 

In no time the story is syndicated around the world - on the TV, the radio, the big print media publications and of course the fledgling Internet, and suddenly Gary Webb is hotly in demand for TV appearances, radio interviews, and chat shows. Naturally, the government and the CIA quickly go into defence mode and deny everything, and with this starts a smear campaign against Webb digging up just about every bit of historical dirt no matter how small and insignificant it may seem and promptly going public to now not only discredit Webb as journalist of repute in the pursuit of truth, justice and transparency, but also smear him forever as a human being, a husband, a father and a hardworking man. It gets ugly as his world starts to cave in around him from all directions, and those that did support him now turn their backs!

As the final credits role we read that certain officials in the CIA and the government stand down in the resulting enquiries, and that largely the whole sorry matter gets swept under the carpet as news breaks across the world of Clinton and Lewinski's dalliance which makes for more newsworthy fodder. Sad but true! The way that Webb is ostracised is also very sad and very telling, and for many wrapped up in this either directly or indirectly it didn't end well needless to say.

A strong cast, a solid performance from Renner, a gripping story and well told . . .  but in the end I felt a little cheated by the brisk running time that left me wanting more. I felt more of this story could have been told, and what Webb did in the years following this, and how in the fullness of time he was vindicated and his story was accepted as more factual now 15 years hence than it was at the turn of the century. Webb too was a Pulitzer Prize winner for Journalism, and various other awards in his time.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-