The Family.

When I recently ‘blogged’ Kenneth Branagh’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2013) I stated that complete nonsense can be fun and that Branagh’s film committed the greatest sin in the action genre in that it was tediousness! Now I can give you another example of an action drama that the critics hated, but in this case it was, at least for me, a great deal of fun which in turn made it a very diverting watch. 

Luc Besson is a prolific movie director capable of making some very watchable movies from the seriousness of The Lady (2011) to the quirkiness of his comic book adaptation of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) and the Cinema du look of Subway (2010), The Big Blue (1988) and Nikita (1990) and The Family (2013) or to give it its French title Malavita, is certainly no exception. Described as a dark action drama it involves an ex-Mafia boss, Robert De Niro, and his wife, the still very attractive Michelle Pfeiffer, and their two teenage children Dianna Agron and John D’Leo who are relocated to a small Normandy village in France under a Witness Protection Program after ‘grassing up’ their Mafia connections. Assigned to keep the Manzoni family in line is FBI agent Tommy Lee Jones. Most of the ‘humour’ comes from the fact all four members of our ‘family under cover’ have problems forgetting their old Brooklyn way’s. We witness mum blowing up the local Supermarché when a shop assistant insults her; dad has his own unique way of dealing with the problem of brown water and the two kids are not long making them selves known at the local school. But as you would expect it’s not long before their former Mafia cronies’ track them down and all hell breaks loose.   

 

Making a 'bang' at the local supermarche!

Made as a tongue in cheek tribute to the gangster movies of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola this English language French film is based on the novel Malavita by the award winning French crime fiction writer Tonino Benacquista, and has been adapted as a screenplay by Besson and Michael Caleo. The real strength of this film is in its splendid cast who along with Besson’s direction really highlight’s the clash of comedic cultures between the Americans and the parochial villagers. The chemistry between De Niro and Pfeiffer is well worth the cost of a DVD on its own. Prime entertainment for politically incorrect people.

Night and the City 1992

The original 1950 British film noir was directed by American Jules Dassin and set in London. It starred Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney and was based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. It was Dassin’s first film after being blacklisted in Hollywood for alleged Communist sympathy’s.

 

That sleazy New York location.

The 1992 version of Night and the City updates the story to contempory Manhattan and substitutes boxing for the sport of pro-wrestling, but still follows the lines of Kersh’s novel. Harry Fabian (Robert De Niro) is a motor mouth shyster lawyer, an ambulance chaser in search of clients and the quick buck, a shallow man with too much to say. Some one who can’t really pull their life together, if things can go wrong they will for Harry Fabian. When Fabian is humiliated in court by big time boxing promoter Ira ‘Boom Boom’ Grossman (Alan King) he decides to extract revenge by setting up a rival boxing promotion. But as he learns to his cost ‘Boom Boom’ is not the man to go against even when you have his ex boxing champion brother Al (Jack Warden), who despises his sibling, on your side. To finance his big ambition he turns to his married mistress Helen Nasseros (Jessica Lange) and her bar owning husband Phil (Cliff Gorman) for help.

 

Harry Fabian.

Helen Nasseros.

This film is a good example of why De Niro was regarded as one of the best actors of his day. Although Richard Price’s screenplay can be a little hard to understand at times, De Niro’s machine gun chatter puts it right up there in your face.  The actor plays him as a sort of older version of Johnny Boy in Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973), other character are well covered by an array of supporting cast members. There is some great incidental music and Tak Fujimoto’s cinematography adds superbly to the sleaziness of the New York locations.

Killer Elite.

When I wrote about The Mechanic (2010) I said that with Jason Statham you get what’s written on the tin, gun battles, explosions, car chases, in short an action adventure for undemanding grown up children, but what you never get is boredom: I lied!!! I’ve now had the dubious pleasure of watching Killer Elite, made later the same year, and what you get with this film is a thriller without the thrills and in fact considering what an interesting story it could have been, its quite boring and uninteresting.

Statham plays an ex-mercenary, Danny, who is brought back from what passes as domestic bliss in a Statham film, well you don’t really expect to see pipe and slippers, by an Dubai oil sheikh to kill three, or was it four, ex-SAS types. The sheikh claims that the soldiers are responsible for killing his sons and in exchange for this wee task he will release Danny’s ex-partner Hunter (Robert De Niro) who for some reason is locked in a cell in the potentate’s basement. The plot, what there is of it, also involves corrupt British government ministers, The Feather Men a group of British businessmen and bankers, lots of villains to chose from in this movie I hear you say, and Clive Owen who plays somebody called Spike who also seems to be ex-forces and I think works for The Feather Men!  I’ll not go on!!!

Although it’s based on the 1991 novel The Feather Men, an alleged fact based book by ex-SAS officer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the movie is totally unconvincing and completely un-engaging, there are plot holes the size of volcanic craters and the acting is abysmal, the terrible dialogue does not help either. Statham doesn’t do romance so why has director Gary McKendry, in his debut feature film, tacked on an amorous liaison between Danny and an Australian girl which adds nothing to the narrative. Spare us all from these lame throwaway movies, I want my two hours back!!!!!!The Mechanic (2011)

Silver Linings Playbook

The film provides great chemistry between Lawrence and Cooper. 

I must be getting old, why, I hear you say? Well, I actually went to see a romantic comedy with a happy ending and thoroughly enjoyed it!!!!  But before you all get too excited I’d better tell you that the director of the award winning The Fighter (2010) and the brilliant quirky comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004) David O Russell’s latest film Silver Linings Playbook (2012) does in fact deal with problems associated with mental illness, maybe not quite Family Life (1971) but a very agreeable picture all the same.

The film boasts a very talented cast that manages, with Russell’s directive powers, to walk the line between romance, comedy and a dark psychological drama. Based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Matthew Quick is stars Jennifer Lawrence (Winters Bone 2010) who plays Tiffany, the young widow of a police officer who was run down and killed by a car while helping a stranger change his wheel after a puncture. Unable to get over his death she suffers from an addictive dysfunction, which has resulted in her getting the sack from her job after having sex with all the staff, male and female!  Pat Solitano, played by the Hangover (2009) star Bradley Cooper, is a former school teacher who has spent the last eight months in a psychiatric hospital suffering from a bipolar disorder brought on when he came home from work early one afternoon and found his wife Nikki naked in the shower with a fellow teacher and severely beat the man. Discharged, he is sent home to live with his parents, Dolores (Australian actress Jacki Weaver best known as the gangland matriarch in Animal Kingdom (2010)) and his gambling addictive father Pat Senior (an on form Robert De Niro) with the proviso that he diligently takes his medication and does not enter the exclusion zone around his estranged wife. It’s when he meets Tiffany and she invites him to partner her in a dance completion, in aid of a police charity, that the psychological sparks begin to fly.

Mum (Jacki Weaver) and Dad (Robert De Nero)

The chemistry between Lawrence and Cooper forms the backbone of this hugely watchable movie, but all members of the cast, even the minor one’s are excellent. Russell is a director of some credit who is not afraid to tackle underlying serious subjects without being pretentious or depressing. A film that’s head and shoulders above the normal material found under the rom-com banner and for once I can sit through a feel good movie without requiring a sick bag. Could be in the running for an Oscar nomination?