REVIEW: Argo

Argo (2012): Dir. Ben Affleck. Written by: Chris Terrio. Based on the books The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and The Great Escape by Joshuah Bearman. Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman. Rated R (Violence, language). Running time: 120 minutes.

3 ½ stars (out of four)

Argo tells an unbelievable story, a prime cut of Hollywood entertainment complete with a daring rescue, down-to-the-wire phone calls and by-the-skin-of-their-teeth chases. That this story is also a true one dampens none of the thrills director Ben Affleck and screenwriter ­­­­­Chris Terrio cull from declassified files of a CIA mission from 1980.

The mission, which occurred during the early months of the Iran hostage crisis that began in 1979 and lasted until 1981, was to save six civilian lives who narrowly escaped the U.S. embassy before it was flooded and overrun by protestors. When it comes to the attention of the CIA that these six men and women have fled to sanctuary in the Canadian ambassador to Iran’s home, the government plots a rescue mission.

Enter CIA officer Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck). He has the look of a guy who has spent countless hours in smoke-filled backrooms of the government agency – both intensely focused and somewhat dazed. He is brought in to advise the CIA on the mission and quickly concludes that none of the proposed plans are even remotely achievable. The only way out of Tehran, he says, is the airport, which means they will need a plausible cover story and fake identities.

Here’s an idea: What if they pretend to be members of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a science-fiction film to be shot in Iran? It’s a crazy idea but is it just crazy enough to work or simply crazy? The CIA, seeing no better alternative, gives Mendez’s plan the go-ahead.

An operation like this will need lots of help, which is also to say the movie offers a number of opportunities for choice supporting roles. Ben Affleck, making good use of his friendships with fellow actors, has assembled a strong ensemble cast filled with fantastic character actors. John Goodman as the genial John Chambers, an Oscar-winning makeup artist and Mendez’s Hollywood connect, and Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel, a crotchety veteran producer, make a lively pair. They spend most of their screen time together, trading quips and banter, and Mr. Arkin in particular gets most of the film’s funniest lines. An intense Bryan Cranston plays Jack O’Donnell, Mendez’s direct superior, and Mr. Cranston’s commanding presence drives many of the more tense scenes late in the film.

Mr. Affleck gives a strong performance too but more impressive is the sure command he maintains as a director. The film toggles between scenes of the six Americans hiding out, jittering nervously about their fates, and scenes of Mendez preparing for the mission. We get a real sense for the politics at work not only in the CIA but in Hollywood as well. Mendez must contend with the difficulties of planning a dangerous undercover operation in addition to navigating the bureaucracy required in order to get a film – even a fake one – into production.

Argo acknowledges the absurdity of this process while also addressing the grave reality of the larger geopolitical conflicts that defined this period of American history. And it illustrates the strangeness of all this with startling clarity. One superb scene shows Mendez arriving in Tehran, riding through its streets in the back of a taxicab. He glances out the window and sees an Iranian woman eating outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken followed by – no less than a few blocks down – a man hanged for treason from a construction crane.

It is a strange world we live in and Argo streamlines its strangeness and complexity into an engrossing two hours of commercial entertainment.

- Steve Avigliano, 10/18/12

REVIEW: Total Recall

Total Recall (2012): Dir. Len Wiseman. Written by: Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback. Screen story by: Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, Jon Povill and Kurt Wimmer. Based on the short story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick. Starring: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, John Cho, Bokeem Woodbine and Bill Nighy. Rated PG-13 (Mostly bloodless action and exactly three breasts). Running time: 121 minutes.

1 ½ stars (out of four)

In the distant future, chemical warfare has left Earth uninhabitable in all but two regions: the United Federation of Britain and Australia (known now as the Colony). The UFB is your run-of-the-mill dystopia: a bustling high-tech metropolis plagued by overpopulation and the terrorist attacks of a rebel anarchist group. An ominous Chancellor named Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston) rules the nation, his giant face projected on TV screens throughout the city as he addresses his citizens.

Fear not, he says. To counter the increase in terrorist bombings he will increase the size of the synthetic police force – an army of sleek, faceless robots carrying automatic weapons. Something tells me the Chancellor doesn’t have the people’s best interests in mind when he announces this.

Meanwhile, the citizens of the Colony live in comparative squalor. The streets of its drab concrete cities are brightened only by neon signs (in a shrewdly prescient touch, Chinese letters always accompany English). The Colony always seems to be overcast and rainy too, a meteorological curiosity I might have liked explained.

It is here that Douglas Quaid (a sleepy Colin Farrell) calls home. He works at a factory in the UFB where he builds those synthetic police officers. He commutes there daily with his buddy (Bokeem Woodbine) via a fascinating innovation in transportation called The Fall. The Fall is a “gravity elevator,” a sort of train that zooms down into the ground, past the Earth’s core and back up to the surface on the opposite side of the globe. Halfway through the trip, gravity reverses and passengers momentarily float in their harnesses. (This comes in handy later during the film’s best action scene.)

In the future there is also Rekall, a company that offers customers the opportunity to plant fabricated memories inside their minds. The memory can be anything you like – a passionate affair, a luxurious vacation, a stint as an international spy – and Quaid thinks he might like to try the spy fantasy.

But before the Rekall attendant – a slick, white-haired and wonderfully goofy looking John Cho – can start the procedure, the cops bust in to arrest Quaid. What do they want with him? Is this all a Rekall memory? Or was his old life an illusion created by a past trip to Rekall?

Next thing Quaid knows, he is on the run from the law and has gotten two beautiful ladies caught up in his newly complicated life. There is Lori (Kate Beckinsale), Quaid’s wife of seven years who may be more than she initially seems, and Melina (Jessica Biel), a member of the rebellion who claims she already knows Quaid. To Melina, however, he is a man named Carl Hauser.

Most of this should be familiar to anyone who has seen the 1990 Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (both this film and that one are based on the Philip K. Dick short story, “We Remember It for You Wholesale”). But it is not familiarity that sinks this movie. (In a year that saw successful revamps of 21 Jump Street and Spider-Man, why not this too?)

The premise is intriguing and the set design impressive but the script by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback is awful. It rushes through the set-up and then wastes time in the middle. The dialogue is clunky and utilitarian; characters speak in exposition or they don’t speak at all. Total Recall begins as hard sci-fi but devolves into mindless action. It needs to choose; it can’t have it both ways. (On second thought, Christopher Nolan’s Inception did exactly that. Hm.)

The three leads – Mr. Farrell, Ms. Beckinsale and Ms. Biel – all have the dazed look of actors on a greenscreen. What a shame. Colin Farrell can be such an energetic and dynamic presence. Why, if you cast him in this movie, would you have him play such a muted and humorless character? Director Len Wiseman should have let him loose, popped a cigarette in his mouth and allowed him to speak in his foul-mouthed brogue. The movie would have come alive.

There is one actor who gets it right. Bryan Cranston, in a limited role, makes for a great antagonist. Late in the film he delivers a monologue explaining the whole knotty plot. I didn’t understand a word of what he was talking about but I couldn’t take my eyes off him. During that chase scene with the hover cars? I was checking my watch.

- Steve Avigliano, 8/11/12

REVIEW: Red Tails

Red Tails (2012): Dir. Anthony Hemingway. Written by: John Ridley and Aaron McGruder. Story by: John Ridley. Starring: Nate Parker, Davi Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Daniela Ruah and Bryan Cranston. Rated PG-13 (Aerial battles and explosions). Running time: 121 minutes.

2 ½ stars (out of four)

Red Tails is an unabashedly corny war movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black fighter pilots who fought in WWII. In it, American soldiers shout things like, “Take that, Mr. Hitler!” and the Nazis are limited to snarling, “Show no mercy!” from their cockpit, translated for our benefit with subtitles. What makes Red Tails appealing is how unshakably positive it is. That is not to say the film downplays the racial tension of the time – this is a central focus – but rather that the film is not interested in depicting these prejudices as merely oppressive. The movie is about a group of black soldiers who ignore what the white higher-ups were saying about them and became American heroes.

Red Tails was produced by George Lucas, who also financed the film out of his own pocket. If the dogfights sometimes remind you of Luke Skywalker’s scuffles with Imperial Tie Fighters, that is only because Star Wars was influenced by WWII movies of the 40s and 50s, the same films that Red Tails emulates. (An early cut of Star Wars is even said to have used clips of aerial battles from these films in place of unfinished special effects.) This film pays homage to that part of cinematic and American history, even retaining those films’ plucky innocence. I say innocence. Others might say naiveté and others still will call it childishness. Regardless of how you label it, the effect is the same: giddily exciting heroism.

The Tuskegee Airmen were real people and are fictionalized here as a thoroughly likable bunch. There is Martin “Easy” Julian (Nate Parker), their stoic flight leader whose drinking habit is the only blemish on his impeccable character. His best pal, Joe “Lightning” Little (David Oyelowo), is a showboat, always going for the glory even when his orders dictate otherwise. The rest are known primarily by their nicknames painted on the sides of their planes: Junior (Tristan Wilds), Joker (Elijah Kelley), Neon (Kevin Phillips). For the most part, you can guess their personalities by their nicknames. Cuba Gooding Jr. also costars as the Major on base.

The soldiers kid around on the ground and we learn a bit about their lives and friendships but not a whole lot. The character accorded the most non-fighting scenes is Lightning, whose blossoming relationship with a young, Italian woman (Daniela Ruah) in a nearby town is sweet and quietly romantic in an old Hollywood sort of way. (Again, you may substitute these adjectives with “insipid” or “trite” if you are feeling cynical.)

The true heart of Red Tails, however, is in the sky. The dogfights are fast-paced and energetic, and I enjoyed the way the characters’ personalities effect how the battles play out. When Easy commands his boys to attack a German train, he orders them to swoop in from the side but Lightning stubbornly disagrees. He wants to shoot at it head on. Just how reckless this is is difficult to visualize until you see him do it.

One of the most interesting threads in Red Tails features Terrence Howard as a Colonel who meets with an all-white group of military officials in Washington to discuss the progress of what one of these men (Bryan Cranston) calls to as an “experiment.” He refers to Tuskegee Airmen when he says this. The U.S. government at the time was skeptical that black soldiers would be as effective in battle as white soldiers. One published study (excerpted in on-screen text before the first scene) finds that the inferior skills and cowardice of black men make them unreliable in war.

Mr. Howard, with characteristic poise and composure, denies the validity of these offensive claims. He must give half a dozen speeches in this film, either in defense of the Tuskegee Airmen or to inspire them, and man, what a great speaker he is. When he talks, you listen.

And the Tuskegee Airmen, they can fight. Red Tails, which was written by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder, and directed by Anthony Hemingway, is often cheesy and clichéd. There is nothing cheesy about the heroics of the Tuskegee Airmen though and George Lucas and Co. pay tribute to them not with gritty realism or brutal violence but with a dashing, old-fashioned, action picture. And why not? Red Tails turns back the clock to 1944 and gives these men the movie they never got back then.

- Steve Avigliano, 1/27/12