Haywire Preview

As one film year comes to an end, there are more films to look forward to in the new year. Already 2012 promises blockbusters (The Avengers), fantasy (The Hobbit), scares (The Woman in Black), Oscar front runners (The Artist and The Descendants) and a usual breed of action movies and thrillers.

Steven Soderbergh who returned to big screen fare with his big screen friends with Contagion in September, has another star-studded film on the horizon in January 2012 - titled Haywire it sees him reunited with writer Lem Dobbs, who wrote The Limey, which starred Terence Stamp - a film about revenge and the journey to exact the revenge.

Mallory Kane (Gino Carano) is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world.  After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency.  Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who knew her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.

Gino Carano is a former MMA fighter and this is her first starring role in a major film, which would be considered a risk unless you have seen the trailer and the numerous fights she is involved in one where she kicks Channing Tatum's butt in a roadside diner and then disposes of suave Michael Fassbender in a hotel room.  The Fassbender scene sets the wheels in motion for her betrayal, she is meant to be killed meaning she is on the run and in search of Ewan McGregor's point man who ordered the killing, along with CIA official by Michael Douglas.

The trailers show the film attempting to be as globe-trotting as Bourne; as hard-hitting as Craig's Bond, and as thrilling as any Michael Mann film - however, many people will be surprised at the action film being directed by Soderbergh, an auteur more adept at vast character pieces like Oceans 11 or Traffic and social comment pieces a la Erin Brockovich.  Haywire promises to be another feather in the cap for this versatile and always entertaining director.

The tagline is 'They Left Her No Choice', you can make the right one and go see this exhiliarating feature.

Haywire is released by Momentum Pictures on January 18th up and down and around the country.

www.facebook.com/haywireuk

The Yellow Sea

Starring and directed by the same two behind the success of The Chaser, Kim Yun-seok is reunited with Na Hong-jin for The Yellow Sea, a film that featured as part of the Un Certain Regard in Cannes this year.

The film follows the story of Gu-nam (Ha Jung-woo), a Korean living in Yaniban, China who loses his job after being crushed by gambling debts.  We first meet him losing another game of mah-jong, but he ends up sleeping odd hours and being threatened by debt collectors.  We see him working hard as a cabbie, earning money but he cannot resist the urge of immediate cash of mah-jong.  He loses more money and ends up being beaten up also.

One day he meets a hitman Myun-ga (Yun-seok) and Gu-nam agrees to cross the Yellow sea (by train - allowing for some beautiful landscape photography) to kill a businessman in Seoul, in turn the hitman will help pay off his debt.  Gu-nam also hopes to be reunited with his estranged wife, who left for Seoul in search of work six monts ago and has not contacted him.

Gu-nam tracks down the target and just as he is about to make his move, his target is murdered in front of him and he gets framed for the murder.  Soon the police are on his tail and the man who did the crime is hoping to eliminate both Gu-nam and Myun-ga.

The film is moodily shot and darkly photographed, you get a real sense of the nocturnal air of Seoul - the dinginess, the squalor of the city as Gu-nam attempts to clear his name.  A stranger in his own homeland almost, Gu-nam plays the immigrant rather well, giving him an animalistic quality the role deserves.

Shot enthusiastically and acted impeccably the film fails in its execution only by giving us too much of a good thing; the film has a very simple noir storyline but unfortunately it goes on for nearly 30-40 minutes too long.  It should have a punchy feel, and yet you feel you are being punched too much and if not punched then stabbed.  A lot of the violence takes place clearly for the sake of violence and also because this is a crime movie.

Yet for that fault, the film remains a roller coaster ride with enough action to maintain interest and a chase sequence to rival anything that comes out of Hollywood.

The Yellow Sea is a Bounty Films release in association with Eureka Entertainment Ltd. and will be released in the UK on Friday 21st October.

James Patterson 'London Private'

In this ever decreasing global community, things seem to be moving at quite a pace. Nevermore so in evidence, than the work of James Patterson, celebrated creator of the Alex Cross character immortalised by Morgan Freeman in the films Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider.

Patterson, a long term advocate for literacy (especially in children) has used his muscle as a best-seller to collaborate with up and coming authors in dual efforts. This means Patterson can keep releasing books under his marquee name whilst maintaining his work to get children reading from an early age.

Private London  is a spin off of a new franchise Patterson created with Maxine Paetro, on this occasion his co-author is Mark Pearson - it tells the tale of a private detective agency in London, a spin-off of the Los Angeles agency set up by the erstwhile Jack Morgan. In London, the head of Private is former Royal Military Police Sergeant Dan Carter, imagine Jason Statham but with an ability to string a sentence together without a grunt or monosyllabic shrug

The book revolves around two kidnappings, involving the same family, the Shapiros from Los Angeles. We flashback initially to a date in 2003, when Hannah Shapiro's mother is kidnapped, held for ransom, raped in front of her and the ransom is never paid by her billionaire father, Harlan. Flash forward to 2010, and Hannah is about to start studying Psychiatry at Chancellors in London, Morgan contacts Carter to be Hannah's personal protection during her stay in our homeland.

Then to the relative present day, and another kidnapping takes place this time with Hannah the target. However, with this being a Patterson thriller, nothing or anyone is ever what they seem - with the threat of crosses, double crosses and triple crosses always in place.

Carter and his team are on the case, but Carter has his own backstory with his ex-wife DI Kirsty Webb on the case from the legitimate standpoint for the Police; it is never made out that Private are secret just a private detective agency with unlimited financial resources that put the Metropolitan Police in the shade.

There is a common theory regarding the success of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code - not that it was about the conspiracy theory, but because the chapters were short and punchy. Four to five pages that were of narrative significance and sustained a sense of purpose by including a moment of incidence or thrill. Private London puts Brown's books to shame, chapters of sometimes two pages in length means there is always something to keep you gripped. This novel was swallowed up in two days of page turning wonderment.

Whilst an American writer taking on London is not out of place, you need only look at Jeffrey Deaver's recent Bond novel, you can see why Mark Pearson was required. Pearson must have helped with the geographical element of locations from the difference of Metropolitan and Jubilee Line to identifying Amersham in Buckinghamshire.

The dialogue is the key to the page-turning, snappy and in combination with constant action and violence; however it never gets to the stage of parodying itself, although characters do refer to watching television programmes and it being nothing like the real thing. Characters are also self-knowing of what to say next,( 'Ready?' he asked. I nodded, resisting the impulse to say I was born ready.) straight talking guys who get to the point.

The only drawback was the other case revolving missing fingers in the book, whilst dealt with care and suggestion, that plotline gets kind of forgotten about once the kidnapping of an American princess takes centre stage. Patterson has that ability to render your full attention in what he exactly thinks you should pay attention to.

For fans of Patterson's novels, of which there are 1,698,671 on Facebook at last count, this is a definite positive addition to his back catalogue and the enticing anticipation of a sequel with a brilliantly constructed reunion at the end means Private London is open for business and it is booming

Private London is released on Thursday 9th June in Hardback by Century Publishing for £18.99 and is 368pages.

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The Mechanic - Review

Jason Statham returns on DVD with another action film with lots of violence, lots of shooting, lots of gun and not a lot of dialogue or theoretical expansion of the geo-political spectrum of arms trafficking.  No, this is a Statham film, he is the good guy who shoots the bad guy(s) ad nauseum.

Statham, is the Mechanic, Arthur Bishop (a remake of the 1971 original starring Charles Bronson) an agency assassin who handles and eliminates targets with ruthless aggression and emotional detachment.  He is mentored by Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland), who treats Arthur as more of a son than the disappointment of his actual blood son, Steve (Ben Foster).

After completing his most recent target in Mexico, Arthur returns and finds that his new target is Harry.  After meeting his boss, played with atypical malevolence by Tony Goldwyn, who confirms that Harry is the next target due to some embezzling of company funds; Arthur takes it upon himself to seek out why Harry has been set up.

This sort of narrative structure and plot points are by the by on occasion, and once Steve arrives wanting to learn the tricks of Arthur's trade and make his father proud of him.  Foster, for so long a bit part player and excellent in The Messengers (with Woody Harrelson), is himself not the most handsome or as muscle bound as Statham, luckily though he can deliver a line - something Statham unfortunately cannot.

But you do not buy or pay a ticket for a Statham actioner for him to talk, you pay for him to kick butt.  He has worked very hard on his career, making familiar and generic actioners with homophobic tendencies and a regrettable body count.  You could even say that the film is misogynistic, as the only woman in the film is a prostitute who is paid by Arthur, a prostitute who does not even know his name.  Cleverly, she asks him for his name and in his rich thick cockney accent, Statham replies, 'Aaar-fur'.  She replies, 'No, you look more like a David or a Brad.  I will see you around Brad.'  Statham smiles that Bruce Willis smile like he does after he says 'Yippee-kayee'. 

Statham is the model 21st century actor, he is an amalgamation of other actors - Willis, Stallone, Caine and Bronson - and in this day and age, in this global culture of various cultural icons; Statham is the actor that is both nostalgic, making you yearn for glories and pictures of old - with an embracing of the new and violent world we live in.  Statham and Foster put so many bullets into some goon at the end, you think is there much purpose to that or is it just how things are handled; and then there is the cod slow-mo at the end to hark back to the epitaph of Bonnie and Clyde, that started this whole slow-mo gunplay.

Watching The Mechanic on DVD is a better way to watch it, I would have been disappointed to pay to see this film at the cinema as the ending is a little bit cod but it ends with Statham jumping into a new car and driving off into the sunset to his next role of similarity. 

Much like that other B-movie star, Randolph Scott, a star who was eclipsed by contemporaries like John Wayne and Henry Fonda; Statham is like that Scott character - an outlaw who does his business in a city or town, and then leaves to pop up in another city or town playing the same role.

Yet the reason a film like this, with its $40m budget, is produced and with technical sheen is because Statham is a DVD icon - guys love to buy the films, watch it with a beer and a smile as those memories of Rambo and Commando reappear on the brain. 

Is it worth reviewing a Statham film, when you know what you are going to get.  This is not his best film, that remains Chaos; but this is a worthy second thanks in part to the continual growth and aura of Statham on film and the excellent support of Foster.

The Mechanic is released on Monday 6th June by Momentum Pictures and is available at £15.99(DVD) and £19.99(RRP), check out the website http://www.themechanicmovie.co.uk/ for more details on the title.

TRON:Legacy

Tron (1982) is the typical cult film, in the fact that even though you may not have seen it in its entireity, you feel as if you have because it has been parodied and spoofed in many shows and cartoons as in 'Family Guy', coupled with the famous one-sheet poster, with its pop icon imagery of frisbees as weapons, motorbikes in a computer grid and the now brilliant casting of Jeff Bridges as a zen-like maverick of computer technology.

Bridges returns in the film as Kevin Flynn, the patriarchal creator of the world where all the action takes place as it enters the thousandth cycle of its being.  We enter the film at 1989, Flynn is sitting with his six year old son, Sean in his bedroom having to go to work late again.  Flynn never returns, presumed missing as if vanished from the face of the world; Sean (Garrett Hedlund - smouldering) grows up to become the major shareholder of the company, EnCom, which is about to enter the Japanese stock market but Sean attempts to rebel and cause a meltdown of the company using his technical ability to hack and hijack the programs.

His surrogate father and Flynn's long-time friend, Alan (Bruce Boxleitner) approaches Sean after his latest hijinks saying he received a page from Flynn from a number that has been disconnected for 20 years.  Sean goes down to his fathers office at the old arcade (full of nostalgic games including the spin-off 'Tron'), after finding a hidden wall to his office and intialising the last run program, Sean is beamed into the world of Tron.

Confronted by people who capture him, the world learn he is a user/human, and so after a series of survival contests - set pieces reminiscent of gladiatorial warfare involving said frisbees and then the trademark motorcycle variant of 'Rollerball'. After these set pieces whet your appetite in glorious 3D we are then thrust into a father-son relationship film as after being hoodwinked by Clu (a computer version of Bridges), whom has taken over control of the world from Flynn, Sean finally comes face-to-face with his father in a room not too dissimilar from the end room of '2001'. This is Flynn's sanctuary in the outer regions away from the mess of Tron that he is established with the help of Quorra (Olivia Wilde), who may have answers to the future of our real world in terms of religion, science, philosophy.

They attempt to get back to the portal that Sean came through, before it close and the chance has gone.  And so the film becomes a chase film and reminiscent of those films from the original film's era 'Battle Beyond the Stars' and even the original Star Wars trilogy; a motley crew going against an ordered system to gain victory without a hint of irony in the sense of sacrifice that may be committed. 

With the help of a great scene involving Michael Sheen as Zeus, a deal maker in this world, that could make the journey easier, Clu tracks him down and the pursuit is ongoing.  Sheen pouts around the stage in his 70s Bowie persona, using his identifiable cane as a character in his own right to make him more memorable; and even the music producer Daft Punk are afforded a cameo as his personal DJ's in the 'End of the Line' club; one of those bars that will go in movie folklore such as the Mos Eisley cantina and the Milk Bar from 'A Clockwork Orange'.

Directed by debut helmer, Joseph Kosinski (an architecture major, but geek at heart) with great clarity and purpose, in the fact that he takes a lot of the action and exposition with a pinch of salt; a sense of general disbelief would be appreciated in this film.  But the film, whilst it will not win a barrow load of awards, is nevertheless good action/sci-fi cinema.  A script that is brisk and bouncy, characters that are believable helped in part by the commendable actors; Bridges brings his Dude-like persona to the party ('You're really messing with my Zen, man.'); Hedlund injects just enough vulnerability into his would-be rebel in need of a father and Wilde gives doe-eyed innocence to a role (similar to Daryl Hannah did in 'Splash' ) by the film's conclusion, as she takes a look around the world she is now a stranger to.

The promise of a sequel to this film itself the longest gestated sequel is foreboding, but necessary when you consider the possibilites of an uncredited cameo of Cillian Murphy (wearing his evil glasses) going up against all-American Hedlund on this Earth.

With so many people invested in a film that happened so long ago, the prospect of them falling flat in their collective faces could so easily have happened.  However, it must be said that the film is a triumph and a good box-office banker; thrills, spills, laughs, action, adventure and a kick-ass soundtrack from the people born to do it.

It is formatted for 2D, 3D and IMAX, but whichever form you see it in you will not be disappointed by this roller coaster action yarn; science-fiction action film is back with a bang; from a film we thought that had disappeared without a whimper.

Released nationally on December 16th.