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Southpaw: Mini-review

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Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t seem too much the worse for wear here

BFew young actors immerse themselves as completely in their roles as does Jake Gyllenhaal, who lost 30 pounds for his acclaimed role in Nightcrawler. Now, he’s gone in the other direction, working out and bulking up to play a champion boxer in Southpaw. And once again, the effort pays off in a knockout performance.

Gyllenhaal is world light heavyweight champion Billy Hope, whose world is shattered when his wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) is killed when a hotel scuffle with another fighter gets out of control. Billy’s life soon goes out of control as well as he loses his title, his sobriety, his money, his manager (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), his boxing license, and custody of his daughter Leila (Oona Laurence) in short order. Having hit rock bottom, Billy goes back to the basics, working with trainer Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker), the only person willing to give him a chance.

Southpaw was written by Kurt Sutter, creative force behind Sons of Anarchy, but there’s little of the TV series’ freshness here. Instead, Southpaw‘s plot pretty much recycles every boxing film ever made, down to the demanding training montages and the nail-biting, physically damaging “big fight” at the end. And, frankly, Antoine Fuqua‘s direction of the  boxing sequences is nothing more than competent. What rescues Southpaw are the performances, particularly Gyllenhaal’s and Whitaker’s. Once again, Gyllenhaal immerses himself in a role, this one requiring him to be in some sort of pain most of the time. It’s not a subtle role, but what’s most convincing about Gyllenhaal’s performance isn’t how Billy Hope takes punches; it’s the rapport with his daughter. Young Laurence is a natural screen presence, and her character is actually the best written and least clichéd in the film. Forest Whitaker has his moments as well, as a man with demons in his own past that are never fully spelled out in the script. In the long history of boxing movies, Southpaw is no champion, its storyline has been around as long as professional boxing itself. However, Gyllenhaal and Whitaker score enough points with their acting to earn Southpaw a solid decision.  
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Two Men in Town: Mini-Review

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Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker has one of his better roles in Two Men in Town

B-Since winning his Oscar nearly ten years ago for The Last King of Scotland, Forest Whitaker has mostly chosen non-demanding paycheck roles  as second bananas in films like Taken 3. So, it’s good to see him take on a more demanding role in Two Men in Town opposite a couple of other seasoned veterans, Harvey Keitel and Brenda Blethyn. Unfortunately, the movie’s script doesn’t stretch itself nearly as much as the actors do.

Two Men in Town is a remake of a French crime film of the 1970s starring Gallic heartthrob Alain Delon. In the remake, set near the Mexico/New Mexico border, non-heartthrob Whitaker has Delon’s role as an ex-con paroled after serving 18 years for killing a sheriff’s deputy. That killing still doesn’t sit well with the sheriff (Keitel), who wants Whitaker to do more time. To make matters even worse, his former partner in crime (Luis Guzman) wants Whitaker to head up his Mexican operation. As Whitaker gets squeezed on both sides, the only one in his corner is his parole officer (Blethyn). 

Writer/director Rachid Bouchareb takes full advantage of some spectacular New Mexico location scenery to illustrate the bizarre dilemma in which Whitaker finds himself. He’s a man living in some of the most wide open space in the United States but who finds himself more and more constricted. And, as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that Whitaker’s tendency to violence is not gone, but, instead, rather tenuously held in check. Unfortunately, Bouchareb doesn’t take advantage of the plot points he’s added to the original story, the immigration issue and the issue of Whitaker’s conversion to Islam. Further, the ending is a big letdown; the film simply fizzles out in the last five minutes. Still, top-notch acting from the three leads carries Two Men in Town for nearly the entirety of the movie.
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Taken 3: Mini-Review

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Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson stars in Taken 3

C- Liam Neeson is back for the third time as former CIA agent Bryan Mills turned vengeful ex-husband and father in Taken 3. This time, none of his loved ones have been kidnapped; instead, ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) is murdered, and he’s the prime suspect. For once, Mills actually has an interesting adversary, but it’s not any of the Russian mobsters who actually killed Lenore, or the master criminal, whose identity is fairly easy to guess. Instead, it’s the cop chasing Mills, Forest Whitaker, who’s a lot smarter than cops in movies like this typically are. Whitaker has a lot of fun with the role, and Neeson, as usual, is believably tough as Mills.

Unfortunately, the action scenes in Taken 3 are a mess. Director Olivier Megaton uses lightning fast edits and shaky camera work to a headache-inducing fault, and it’s impossible to tell what’s going on in most of the action scenes. Usually in this type of movie, the action scenes make the film somewhat worth watching despite the ridiculous plot. Here, viewers hope the action scenes end quickly so they can see more of Neeson and Whitaker. Our full review of Taken 3 is now available on Silver Screen Cinema.
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