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by pat

I don't really have much to say about this one. It's just another movie. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It's another Hollywood product. There's only a few things worth critiquing, making me put off this article until my obsessiveness with reviewing everything I see forced me to sit down and put a few words to keyboard on it. I sometimes think my recent writer's block is in some way tied to how little movies can inspire me one way or another. Since we're creeping out of the early year dumping ground, hopefully that will come to pass, but man is it tough right now. Also, haven't seen as much due to schedule, desire, and screening availability. Studios aren't exactly keen on getting critics into "Kangaroo Jack," and if it isn't free, I am not seeing that one.

The script is the weakest thing here. It was simply copy/paste. I know it was based on a book I've never read that was probably far superior, but I'm guessing it was full of symbolism and internal struggle that can't directly translate to screen. I also know it wasn't based on a book, but I realized I was risking journalistic integrity by trying to be nice. What we wind up with is a basic premise (soldiers help refugees escape rebel forces against orders, complications arise) and clunky dialogue. The familiarity with each character comes from the performances, as well as an understanding of them by seeing their archetypes enough times before. The dialogue does nothing for me.

The direction is decent. I think Antoine Fuqua needs some confidence or preparation. There's some beautiful imagery (which has to primarily be credited to the DP, but he knows how to use him) and pretty good mood pacing, both of which establish a real feel for the movie. That's the one thing that the movie does really well. By using the locations, performances, sound, and imagery, there's a solid feel of being there in the moment. It doesn't come off as an Africa-themed section of a studio tour. You can tell it was shot on location. Unfortunately, this is where you can tell there may have been more on-set improvisation than preparation. There's shots of indigenous animals that add nothing thematically, nor for pacing or story. It looks like, "Holy crap, a baboon! We gotta get that to prove we were there!" The editing also told of too much mismatched footage. Lots of cool, interesting shots, and a struggle to find two that can be combined. There were some scenes where it was just jarring, others where it came together okay. In a few years he'll either burn out / sell out, or he'll come into his own and rock. Oh, Monica Bellucci is smokin'.

CROCODILE TEARS

by jim

Is there anything worse than movies that think they're smarter than they are? Well, kids, I've seen two of them this week! Deja vu...unless you didn't read my THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE review first, or at all you heartless bastards! If you haven't go read it now...nah...don't bother, get to it when you're done this one. After all, you've already made it this far. Going back would seem awful silly. Of course, it has only been a few sentences. Mostly run on sentences, though, so that takes time. No, no, stay here. Stay with this one. You can read how bad GALE sucks after you finish reading how TEARS OF THE SUN only mostly sucks.

TEARS OF THE SUN, eh? First off, what's with that title? I thought it should be about how some kid's dad beat the crap out of him or died or something. Nope, it's not. Apparently, it's about how Navy SEAL Bruce Willis has to go into civil war-torn Nigeria to bring some American doctor home from a mission before the new military regime kills her. Like a religion and help people mission, not like she was spying or anything, although, that may have been pretty cool. So this doctor, played by the hot-as-balls Monica Bellucci, refuses to leave unless Willis and his crew also save the seventy refugees she has on the mission (the religion kind again). Ignoring orders to the contrary, Willis agrees to transport them all to the safe border of Cameroon. The script is so cardboard that it betrays a lot of the otherwise decent things going on in the movie. Willis has played this tough-as-nails soldier of honor role before, but he's quite good at it and doesn't simply phone in this performance, as he easily could have. Bellucci has some of the worst dialogue in the film, but her ability shows through. Unfortunately, the director was more interested in getting her wet and sweaty than he was in developing her character. Well, actually, it's kind of fortunate, as Monica is "hot-as-balls". Seriously, she's so one-dimensional nobody even bothers to explain why she's so important that they are sending an elite team of SEALS in for her!

Thematically, the film is as weak as the script. The film is set under a fictional circumstance, yet comes off as inconclusive and shallow as Ridley Scott's BLACK HAWK DOWN. At least Scott was working with history and trying (perhaps too hard) to stick to it. Script writers Patrick Cirillo and Alex Lasker write a script that could easily have been penned by a pubescent kid with military aspirations and a hero complex. The Nigerian military (aka The Bad Guys) are painted as so racistly savage you'd think THE SEARCHER's Ethan Edwards had written it. The refugee Nigerian's don't have it much better, everyone of them is flatly spiritual and noble (positive stereotypes can be just as insulting as negative ones) and when they are celebrating their freedom into Cameroon, they swarm around Willis and Bellucci as if they where Han and Leia in the Ewok Celebration Scene. I was expecting a rousing chorus of "Ooma-gotta-noo Yuk! Yuk! Ooma-gotta-noo". I'm not African and I was offended. Save for one of them, they are handled as childlike ignorants. That one, turns out later, isn't exactly one of them to begin with! All the American SEALS on Willis' squad are glossed over symbols of courage and self sacrifice. I wanted to be sick. I was thinking alternately, "Wouldn't it be great if we actually heard about soldiers like that." and, "I hope this doesn't go international soon, the rest of the world already thinks we're a bunch of self-important egomaniacs." I mean, I'm sure there are men and women in the service that are all gung-ho and swelling with super honor, but this was so over-the-top and the majority of the military folks I've been around, honestly, we're overly aggro assholes. So we find nothing to condemn or condone, due to the movies falseness, and therefore it relegates a well visualized film with strong performances into a run-of-the-mill war/gore fest. You tell that director Antoine Fuqua really thought he was making an important and smart film. Sorry to say it, but the joke's on you pal.