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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. 
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McFarland, USA: Mini-Review

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Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner has his second solid starring role in less than a month in McFarland USA.

B The sports movie of today often falls back on a familiar formula, one that I’ve dubbed “zeroes to heroes.” A team of underdog, hapless losers learns how to compete and eventually win, usually thanks to that one coach who really cares. Still, no matter how familiar the formula, occasionally a movie manages to put just enough of a fresh spin on it to make it interesting. In the case of McFarland,USA, that fresh spin is a healthy dose of salsa.

Kevin Costner has seemingly made a career out of sports movies, and, now that his “playing days” are over, he’s moved on smoothly into roles on the sidelines. Costner plays the aptly named Jim White, who was fired from a number of high school football coaching jobs for disagreements with school administrators. He gets what may be his last chance as a PE teacher at McFarland High School, most of whose students are the children of Hispanic farm workers. He notices that some of his students have a knack for running, so he persuades the school to start a cross-country team. Some of his runners have to help their parents out in the fields, so he has to balance their practice time with both school and work time.

As you might expect, the team starts out poorly, but gradually they start winning. And, as you also might expect, White learns to make the most of his last chance and to help repair his relationship with his own family. But McFarland, USA is not Hoosiers in track shoes. Jim White has to bridge a huge racial and cultural divide to connect with his team and winds up being assimilated in the adopted community in which he and his family now live. McFarland, USA is formulaic, but it’s also sincere, and White’s situation is far enough removed from the norm of movies like this to keep audiences interested, even though they know full well how it’s likely to end.
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Black or White: Mini-Review

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Kevin Costner loses the beard before he plays a lawyer in Black or White

B-It’s easy to bash Black or White, writer/director Mike Binder‘s earnest effort to explore race relations in 21st century America from the point of view of a wealthy white man, and many critics have done just that. The movie is not a documentary, and the racial issues it explores are not nearly as pressing as those that have regularly made the front page in the last couple of years. Yet, before it falls apart in an overly melodramatic third act, Black or White is an engaging and at times insightful family drama.

The wealthy white man in this case is Elliot Anderson (Kevin Costner), a newly widowed attorney with a bi-racial granddaughter Eloise (Jillian Estell) and a major drinking problem. Eloise’s other grandmother Rowena (Octavia Spencer) wants to be a bigger part of the girl’s life but Elliot refuses because of his ill will towards Eloise’s father Reggie (Andre Holland), a drug-addicted petty criminal. Since Rowena’s brother (Anthony Mackie) is an even higher-powered powered attorney than Elliot, a major custody battle ensues. 

Kevin Costner carries Black or White with one of his best acting performances in years. Elliot at times seems a stereotype (he even resorts to referring to Reggie by the n-word), but Costner’s chemistry with young Estell is amazing. He makes Elliot comical without ever becoming a total joke. Mike Binder has a firm hand on his material for most of the movie and gives most of his characters just enough depth to make Black or White interesting and at least somewhat unpredictable. Unfortunately, Binder apparently couldn’t think of a way to resolve the custody issues, so he resorts to a bizarre, violent plot twist that makes the ending anticlimactic and far too convenient. Ending aside, Black or White is a generally entertaining crowd pleaser that at least raises some significant issues, even if its answers are by no means comprehensive.
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