Tag: action

In this action, comedy based on the true story of Barry Seal, a pilot for TWA who starts taking pictures of drug smugglers for the CIA then become a drug smuggler himself, then become a… I’m getting ahead of myself.  In American Made, Tom Cruise reunites with his Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Linman, who also directed the films, Swingers, Go, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity.  He definitely knows how to put the comedy in action, not to mention the action in action, and him and Cruise pairing up to make this film is a truly winning combination.  You’ll barely have a chance to take a breath watching the escapades Barry Seal gets into.  The film is also very nostalgic in its presentation.  As if to steal its cue from Tarantino, American Made is edited to look older on purpose to lend to the truth-telling it’s doing but also to keep up the fun.  It certainly wasn’t wasted on the audience I watched it with.  They couldn’t get enough.

While in a bar, Seal, unhappy and bored with his job as a commercial pilot, is approached by a member of the CIA, Monty ‘Schafer’ (Gleeson) who seems to know everything about Seal, especially about a little extra money-making scam he has going on.  He could reveal it to the authorities or… Seal could work for them.  Slimy Schafer wants Seal to fly above certain areas of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and capture photos of Commies in the middle of doing illegal acts.  Seal is worried if it’s something safe. Schafer isn’t worried.  Seal wonders if it’s legal.  Schafer assures him it is.  Americans are the good guys!  This does little to make Seal feel better about the job but takes the offer.  What he never really realizes, and this is important, is that he is not a member of the CIA much like an informant isn’t a police officer.  Had he stopped to think about this, he, as he tells us several times in the film in a documentary style that will be explained later, would have passed.

Seal lands at an airstrip and finds himself a not so happy reception from Pablo Escobar (Mejía) and Jorge Ochoa (Edda).  They, like everyone else he has run into of late, know everything about who he is and what he has been doing.  So, they make him an offer he can’t refuse… not that he could.  He doesn’t know how to turn down money, even when he can no longer find a place to put it.  Escobar starts having him taking flights full of cocaine to the states for them.  The scenes with Escobar are some of the most comical in the movie.  This was just before Nancy Reagan hit the country with her ‘Just Say No’ campaign so when you find out who is working for who, it makes that slogan look like a contrived scam to appeal to the little people and she a useful tool to frighten U.S. citizens.

Barry also becomes a gunrunner for Panamanian dictator, Noriega.  It’s quite interesting seeing how he’s wrapped up in this, too.  Seal’s life gets complicated and he’s often nervous, so is the audience as they’re trying to keep up with the players, but that’s what makes this film so likable.  There is a lot going on and you’re just there for the ride.  Maps are made available to make it easier to understand.  Seal and his wife are moved from Louisiana to Arkansas, in the middle of nowhere, where he is given his own hanger, home and hideaway.  On his land, the military begins training members of the rebellion.  The not so bright rebellion.

The entire cast of American Made is glorious.  They make the film work and help you with the flip-flopping back and forth of the tale itself… of what Barry Seal really went through.  With what’s going on today in politics, seeing what the American government had a hand in doing while jailing Americans for smoking a joint will have you wondering just exactly what happens behind the scenes.  It may have you questioning things and could make you a bit uneasy but this is well told and entertaining.  I highly recommend you don’t skip it.  It’s good that this serious issue was presented to the public in the manner of an action/comedy.  It needs to be seen and understood and though it is only based on the true story, the Iran-Contra affair is a good reminder that there is always a reason to question.

Sure, Ryan Reynolds can play Deadpool. But can he play Deadpan? As in, a straight man to an out-of-control Samuel L. Jackson? Yes, yes he can, and the results are hilarious. “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” takes a ton of common movie clichés and pummels them into submission with violent comedy timing and hard R-rated language that could make a sailor blush. No new ground is being broken here, but the interaction between the two stars makes for a fun, if silly, joy ride.

Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) is in charge of a triple-A rated ‘special protection’ company, who makes it point to keep his clients safe from bad guys and hitmen. Hitmen such as Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) who has tangled with Bryce at least 28 times in the past. Bryce keeps his clients protected, until he doesn’t, and a murder of Bryce’s client puts him into the doghouse. He loses his top rating and becomes a low-level bodyguard. Bryce blamed his ex-girlfriend for blabbing out the name and location Bryce’s 29th client, the one who was killed. Amelia Roussel (Élodie Yung) is an Interpol agent and the ex-girlfriend who comes back two years later to ask Bryce for a favor.

The hitman Kincaid has been captured, and Interpol wants him to testify at the World Court in The Hauge. There is an Eastern-European exiled dictator named Dukhovich (Gary Oldman) on trial for genocide. Kincaid will testify against the murderous fiend, but only if the Dutch release from prison his wife and one true love – Sonia (Salma Hayek). Kincaid is taken by Agent Roussel and other Interpol agents to get him The Hague. The convoy is ambushed by Dukhovich’s henchmen. They had been given the Kincaid’s position by Agent Roussel’s boss, Director Foucher (Joaquim de Almeida). Foucher is double-crossing Interpol by working with Dukhovich.

Roussel needs Bryce’s help to deliver Kincaid to the World Court to testify. Kincaid has attempted to kill Bryce’s past clients at least 28 times. So there is plenty of bad blood between the two men. But a job is a job, and Roussel makes a promise to get back Byrce’s triple-A rating. So there is a journey to be made across England and then into Amsterdam, all the while being pursued by Dukhovich’s henchmen. This will result in R-rated bickering, violent mayhem, and cross-county male bonding. Bryce is a button-down, by-the-book kind of guy – but with Kincaid he is at wit’s end. Kincaid will shoot first and ask questions later, and takes life for all that he can.

Kincaid is willing to be in jail if he can free his beloved and street tough Sonia. She and Kincaid where made for each other. Kincaid asks Bryce about why he broke up with Agent Roussel, because he knows how much she means to him. Advice for the lovelorn from a Hitman, why not?  There are car, boat, and motorcycle chases down the streets and canals. The climax brings Bryce and Kincaid together to face off against Dukhovich and Director Foucher, with explosive results. Sonia could be freed from jail and Agent Roussel might get back with Bryce. So will it be a happy ending for all concerned?

Ryan Reynolds is the dashing professional service provider Michael Bryce who has been turned into a low-life bottom-dwelling bodyguard. He wants to be back on top, but his life keeps getting worse. The interplay between Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson is wonderful to behold. Reynolds sad-sack face stays at a mild grimace whenever Jackson goes on off on one of his many tirades. Jackson is an R-rated class clown and he can wield the mother-f**ker phrase in the same way a brain surgeon can use a scalpel. His over-the-top antics are contrasted to Reynolds methodical ways for laughs. The two of them mesh in these roles in a way that makes it fun to watch.

All the other actors are well suited for each role. Gary Oldman seems a little over-qualified for his role. Salma Hayek is a major hoot as Sonia, who can drop enough f-bombs to peel the paint off the jail cell wall. Élodie Yung and Joaquim de Almeida also good. The stunt work and fight scenes are well-paced, and the canal chase is all crazy all the time. It involves a bunch of car, boat, and motorcycle chases down the narrow streets and even tinier canals in Amsterdam. Again, nothing that is brand new, but it is done really with a lot of spirit.

This movie will not resolve and world issues, but it will give you a taste of some R-rated frolics. Until the next Deadpool, and the next time Samuel L. Jackson ‘walks the path of the righteous man’, this one will do. Hey it even gets Jackson singing an end title song, which he also wrote. What a bad Master-Flicker…