Tagged with Gal Gadot

Criminal: Mini-review


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Kevin Costner

What this movie does to Kevin Costner’s career is criminal

D+Ryan Reynolds‘ career is on a roll now, but he needs to steer clear of movies in which one man’s memory is transplanted into another man’s body. It didn’t work out too well in Self/Less, and the results are even worse, both for Reynolds and the audience, in Criminal. 

Actually, Reynolds is only on hand for the first 10 minutes of Criminal before his character, CIA agent Bill Pope, is tortured and killed by an international terrorist (Jordi Molla) trying to find the location of a potential doomsday device. In order to get the information Pope had and find the device before the terrorist does, Pope’s boss, Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman), has a scientist, Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) perform an experimental operation transferring Pope’s brain cells into the body of convicted murderer Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner). Before he reveals what Pope knew, however, Stewart escapes custody, killing several people, and both the CIA and the terrorists are after him.

The plot of Criminal is completely preposterous, but it’s the type of movie that might be over-the-top fun in the right hands. Unfortunately, director Ariel Vromen plays it far too straight. From the moment the audience realizes that Pope left behind a wife (Gal Gadot) and adorable moppet daughter (Lara Decaro), there’s no doubt where Stewart is headed. Of course, Pope’s implanted memories eventually allow Stewart for the first time in his life to feel emotions for Pope’s loved ones. Before that, however, Costner is fun to watch for a while as he casually and brutally beats up anyone who literally gets in his way. The fun quickly wears off as the nearly non-stop violence is excessively brutal and overdone. Unfortunately, there’s little else besides Costner’s performance to recommend in Criminal. Gary Oldman bellows and blusters through every scene while Tommy Lee Jones compensates by mumbling his lines. The plot is needlessly convoluted. and almost every character in Criminal is, well, criminally stupid, seemingly for the sole purpose of allowing dozens of stunt persons to meet sometimes grisly demises. And, while the movie has plenty of set pieces, Vromen’s handling of them is rather pedestrian. Ironically, Nicolas Cage turned down Costner’s role in this movie; that one fact should tell you all you need to know about whether to see Criminal.  Continue reading →

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Mini-review


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Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck without his mask

C Batman has always been a somber, brooding character, especially in recent comics and movies, but director Zack Snyder‘s version of the Dark Knight (played by Ben Affleck) makes most of the others incarnations seem like Adam West in comparison. Throw in an equally depressing version of Superman (Henry Cavill), and their eagerly awaited encounter, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is perhaps the most gloomy, slow-moving, and downright unenjoyable superhero movies ever made. 

The centerpiece of Batman v Superman is the showdown between the two heroes, orchestrated by an insane Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), who manipulates Batman and Superman into hating each other. When they both survive their epic showdown, Luthor unleashes an even more powerful threat on the world, Doomsday, a giant superpowered monster he created from Kryptonian DNA.

Admittedly, saving the world from diabolical business tycoons and mutant behemoths is serious work, but never before had I seen a superhero movie in which nobody, with the exception of the manically hysterical Luthor, had a single bit of fun. Snyder apparently set out to make sure that the audience wouldn’t have any fun either. Most of the set pieces in Batman v Superman take place at night, often in pouring rain in rundown decrepit buildings. The film moves at a near glacial pace, taking nearly two hours of draggy exposition to lay the groundwork for the heroes’ battle royal and to invent a mechanism whereby the all-too-human Batman can credibly take on the seemingly invulnerable Superman. But the filmmakers aren’t content with their already overstuffed central storyline. Instead, they introduce Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), who helps fight Doomsday, and drop hints about other members of the Justice League (DC Comics’ version of Marvel’s Avengers), all for the purpose of laying the groundwork for future sequels and spinoffs. What gets lost in all the gloom and doom are solid performances by Affleck and Cavill and some genuinely exciting set pieces, especially those featuring Batman in action. These sequences reveal the movie that Batman v Superman could easily have been with a bit more of an upbeat tone and faster pace. Instead of epic excitement, however, Snyder and the producers seemingly went for epic tragedy, and the result for audiences will be an epic disappointment.    Continue reading →

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