I have loved John Voight ever since he was in the schlockfest Anaconda. He overacted in that film and has in every film since. Here, he’s drowning while capsized in his kayak. The overacting never ends:
We start just before Gulf War I. In a very bizarre opening credit sequence with soldiers playing Texas Hold’em in the back of an all terrain vehicle with like 6 different songs spliced into the mix. Finally we meet our two leads. Denzel Washington plays Capt. Bennett Marco. He is the leader of this reconnaissance troop in Kuwait. Also with him is Sgt. Raymond Prentiss Shaw (Liev Schreiber) . Shaw is a loner in the troop and also the son of a prominent political family. The troop gets ambushed, Shaw saves a majority of the men in the troop, he becomes a war hero and this jump starts his political career. Or so everyone was led to believe.
Jump forward 10 years. Besides Shaw and Marco the entire troop has died. Most of them under mysterious circumstances and all after they’ve depleted mentally. All of them have complained of nightmares that show a different version of what happened in Kuwait after the ambush. All of them feel something is not quite right with Shaw becoming America’s favorite son. Marco decides to confront Shaw and get to the bottom of what happened in Iraq. What he uncovers is a HUGE government conspiracy (Oliver Stone would be proud).
This involves brain washing, murder, cover ups, mind control, corporations being corporationy and Shaw’s evil power-hungry mother (Meryl Streep).
But it’s not a gripping as it sounds. This movie was OK. I’m glad I rented it and did not waste my time in theatres. It had its moments but is not anything to write home about.
First the acting. Denzel puts on another Denzel performance. If you have seen Man on Fire, Inside Man or even Ricochet, you’ve seen this Denzel character before. Kind of on the edge, unpredictable and he knows more than everyone else but no one believes him. The Denzel conspiracy unraveler is getting a little tiresome. But it is a good performance.
Meryl Streep’s power-hungry bitch is also getting really old. Her performance in this film is no different than her Cruella De Vil. I can only imagine that it’s the same as her latest role in The Devil Wears Prada. She is trying to harness Mrs. Baylock from The Omen, but it just falls flat. I really don’t believe she is as evil and conniving as she is trying to be.
The rest of the cast is impressive. Miguel Ferrer, Jude Ciccolella, Dean Stockwell and even John Voight (one of my favorite bad actors) all have small but memorable roles in the film.
Here’s my favorite screen shot.
I have loved John Voight ever since he was in the schlockfest Anaconda. He overacted in that film and has in every film since. Here, he’s drowning while capsized in his kayak. The overacting never ends:
But the stand out is Liev. I have liked just about everything this guy has been in. This film is no exception. As the brainwashed political puppet he shines as a slick Congressmen, a repressed mama’s boy and a man losing touch with reality. He saves every scene with the overacting Streep and he holds his own with Washington. I hope he gets more roles like this one where he can show his diversity.
As for the filmmaking. Well, it’s weird. Plain and simple it’s just shot in a bizarre way. Lots of close ups with the actor talking directly to the camera. I know this is to jar the audience but the trick got real old real fast.
On the DVD:
There is a behind the scenes short. It is no different than any other short with the actors and filmmakers saying how great the whole filming process was.
There is a meeting of all the actors. This allows the director and writer to suck off all the actors and say empty comments like, “He put a lot of magic into this role.” What the fuck does that even mean?
There is a commentary with the same two guys. They say a lot of the same bullshit. Hey I have an idea, if you make the movie a little more interesting, your commentary will be more interesting.
There are some deleted scenes and outtakes but none would have added anything to the film.
FINAL ANALYSIS:
I may be too hard on this film but it’s because a cast as good as this and a plot with s9uch potential should have been light years more interesting than this film was. The twist was given away in the trailers and in the early stages of the film. It had such potential but fell well short of what it could’ve been. It’s a decent rental to see Liev in a good role but nothing more than that.
Rent this film.
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