Directed by Noam Murro. Written by Zack Snyder and Kurt Johnstad. Cast: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro, David Wenham, Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey, Jack O'Connell, Andrew Tiernan, Igal Naor, Andrew Pleavin, Ben Turner, Ashraf Barham, Christopher Sciueref, Peter Ferdinando. (R, 103 mins)
Zack Snyder's 300 became an unexpected blockbuster in early 2007, earning the director the clout to make the long-planned big-screen version of WATCHMEN and giving Gerard Butler what will likely go down as the role of his career. A hyper-stylized, CGI-heavy depiction of King Leonidas (Butler) of Sparta leading 300 brave Spartans on what amounts to a suicide mission against the Persian army of god-king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), 300 has inspired countless parodies and quotes and its digital splatter, slo-mo, and speed-ramping have become, for better or worse, standards of modern action cinema from sword & sandal epics of this sort to martial-arts to sci-fi, though you could argue that THE MATRIX really got the ball rolling; 300 wasn't the first to use these techniques, but it was the biggest factor in its current ubiquity. The biggest surprise with 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE is that it took seven years to happen. 300's story was self-contained but it seemed like a DTV franchise or cable-TV series would be inevitable (you can probably file the Starz' SPARTACUS under the "inspired by 300" category). Presumably so he could focus his attention on incurring the hyperventilating wrath of fanboys the world over, Snyder only produced and co-wrote here, opting instead to hand directing duties off to the unlikely Noam Murro, whose only previous feature is the 2008 comedy-drama SMART PEOPLE, RISE OF AN EMPIRE isn't exactly a sequel but rather, a spinoff that--courtesy of flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks--takes place before, during, and after the events of the first film.
Opening after the death of King Leonidas and his fallen warriors (Butler is seen fleetingly in footage taken from 300), RISE begins with Leonidas' widow Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) recounting the story of famed Athenian general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton of Cinemax's STRIKE BACK), his legend cemented upon killing Persian King Darius (Igal Naor), naturally prompting Darius' son Xerxes (Santoro again) to vow revenge upon making himself a god. Themistokles leads his ships against the Persian naval forces of Xerxes, led by the ferocious Artemisia (Eva Green), a former Greek slave who has pledged allegiance to Persia. Themistokles unsuccessfully lobbies for help from the Spartans, who end up in their own battle. Though the Spartans are defeated, it inspires Themistokles and his men as Stapleton gets his own "We are Sparta!" catchphrases to bellow ("Let it be known...we chose to die on our feet rather than live on our knees!"). Murro wisely opts against fixing what isn't broken, instead taking the action set pieces and violence to extremes, making this even more of a hard-R, CGI bloodbath than its predecessor, and in 3-D on top of that. Given its graphic novel roots (RISE is based on Xerxes, a yet-to-be-published Frank Miller work), the artifice is essential to the experience and for the most part, RISE looks magnificent on the big screen (one shot of Xerxes looking down upon his kingdom is dizzyingly breathtaking), though there is some occasional murkiness and one sequence where Themistokles rides a horse onto Artemisia's ship that's distractingly video-gamey in its execution.
The idea with RISE is that everything's bigger and bloodier. It avoids the jingoistic subtext of the first film, instead zeroing in on the carnage, the action, and the sex. If anything, it's even more of an adolescent pulp fantasy than Snyder's film. While Stapleton is competent if unspectacular as Themistokles (he looks like he's readying himself to be the second-string Michael Fassbender), RISE gets its biggest oomph from a gloriously over-the-top nemesis in Green's Artemisia. Best known for Bernardo Bertolucci's THE DREAMERS (2003) and as Vesper Lynd in CASINO ROYALE (2006), Green has spent recent years exploring her inner psycho-bitch. With her wicked snarl and her wild-eyed yet piercing glare showing no limit to the potential for crazy, Green writhed and vamped across the screen as Angelique Bouchard and was the best thing about Tim Burton's otherwise ho-hum DARK SHADOWS (2012). Here, she goes even further but never turns Artemisia into a cartoon. Whether she's kissing a severed head or seductively cooing to Themistokles about "the ecstasy of flesh and steel" like a Greco-Persian-era femme fatale before a vigorous round of mutual hate-fucking, Green absolutely owns this film from the moment she first appears (Green fans should also check out her work in the unsettling cloning/incest drama WOMB). When Artemisia defies Xerxes' orders to stand down by snapping "Just sit on your golden throne in the safety that I provide," even the ruthless god-king is left speechless and intimidated. If they choose to make another 300 offshoot, they shouldn't even bother unless it's focused squarely on Green's Artemisia.
300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE isn't a lesson in historical accuracy, but it succeeds as thoroughly enjoyable trash. I wasn't as enamored of Snyder's film as many were, mainly because it seemed to take itself a little too seriously (for what it's worth, I stand by WATCHMEN and consider SUCKER PUNCH to be Snyder's masterpiece). RISE, on the other hand, feels looser and is a lot more fun. It's a big-budget B-movie that embraces its exploitative elements, knows exactly what it is, and makes no apologies for it.
Written and directed by James DeMonaco. Cast: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane, Max Burkholder, Edwin Hodge, Rhys Wakefield, Tony Oller, Arija Bareikis, Chris Mulkey, Tisha French, Dana Bunch, Tom Yi. (R, 85 mins)
The dystopian home invasion thriller THE PURGE is set in 2022 America, a few years after the "New Founding Fathers" have salvaged the economy and rebuilt the country due in large part to the annual Purge: one night a year, from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am (perhaps the New Founding Fathers also instituted a singular, nationwide time zone), all crime is legal, with the exception of acts committed against certain ranks of government or police officials, and nothing above "Class 4" weapons can be used, presumably to rule out mass killings, domestic terrorism, etc. By allowing these 12 hours of cathartic release--the slogan is "Release the Beast!"--everyone theoretically gets all of the aggression, anger, and negativity out of their system for 364 more days. You can kill your boss, your cheating spouse, or anyone else who's pissed you off and be free from prosecution and the consequences. But "Purgers" are primarily the rich and entitled targeting the poor and the perceived societal moochers, the "filthy swine" that now exist only to serve as targets for The Purge. Critics of The Purge argue that it's just a new way for the one-percenters to take out their frustration against the less fortunate--the lower class and the homeless, though even its critics concede that it appears to be working.
James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) lives in a gated, suburban enclave with his wife Mary (Lena Headey), rebellious teenage daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane), and shy, tech-nerd son Charlie (Max Burkholder). The Sandins are living large, thanks to James being the top sales rep with a local security company. He sold high-tech security systems to all of his neighbors in preparation for The Purge and now has the biggest, gaudiest house on the block, which is pointed out to Mary by friendly neighbor Grace (Arija Bareikis) as she drops off some cookies, telling Mary "A lot of the neighbors think they paid for all the additions to your house...but it's just neighborly gossip." The politically neutral James doesn't necessarily agree with The Purge, but displays the blue flowers of support for it outside his house and is happy that it's provided him with so much money and material goods (he's thinking about buying a boat with its own parking garage simply because he can afford it, even as he chuckles "Who would need a car on a boat?"). The Sandins settle in for The Purge with their house on steel-vaulted lockdown, but that ends quickly when Charlie sees an injured African-American man (Edwin Hodge) stumbling down the street, crying out for help. Charlie disarms the security system and lets the man in. It turns out he was being pursued by a group of college-aged masked revelers and other products of privilege having a "Purge Party." The leader (Rhys Wakefield) demands the Sandins turn over the man, a homeless war veteran, but that proves difficult when, in the confusion over Charlie disarming the system in the first place, the man is able to run off and hide somewhere in the house. The eccentric Purge leader (Wakefield's character is in the credits as "Polite Stranger") demands James turn over the man or they'll dismantle the security system and enter to house to kill them all, explaining that "You're one of us, Mr. Sandin. We don't want to do this to you and your family." The family splits up to search for the homeless man and deal with other troubles--Zoey's boyfriend (Tony Oller) managed to sneak into the house earlier to have some words with James--but the Polite Stranger runs out of patience, ordering his Purging companions to launch a full-scale attack on the Sandin mansion.
THE PURGE is written and directed by James DeMonaco, who's got some experience with these sort-of "siege" situations, scripting 1998's excellent THE NEGOTIATOR and the surprisingly good 2005 remake of John Carpenter's ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. Hawke starred in the PRECINCT 13 remake, and he and DeMonaco are good buddies who also worked together on 2009's little-seen STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK. DeMonaco introduces some very politically-charged exposition in THE PURGE but it soon gets sidelined as much of the film turns into your standard home-invasion thriller that owes a tremendous debt to Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS (1971) and the more recent THE STRANGERS (2008), in addition to a first-season STAR TREK episode titled "The Return of the Archons," which DeMonaco actually cited as an inspiration for the "Purge" period of lawlessness. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as THE PURGE often works on a purely visceral level, especially in some of the incredibly violent confrontations in the third act (it's hard not to feel the adrenaline when James not only buries an axe in a Purger's back, but then blows his head off for good measure), but the very concept is crying out for more substance--more bite--than DeMonaco chooses to give it. It doesn't really explore the critiques that it lays out--greed, entitlement, selfishness, the inherently violent nature of America today--and instead opts to become a mostly by-the-numbers thriller, at least until it's shown that the have-mores can be just as despised as the have-nots. But even then, it builds to a weak finish, and in films like this, the house (or whatever structure is under siege) must also be a character in the sense that the viewer must know the layout and the basic floor plan, otherwise it makes no sense. We never get the tour of the Sandin home and it's such a maze that we never really know where people are. Once the Purgers force their way in and start pursuing the family and the homeless man, it seems ludicrous that 8-12 people can wander through a house and down long hallways and not run into anyone else for long periods. Perhaps the intent was to illustrate how ridiculously big the house is, but I doubt it.
Given its invasion/siege plot, I couldn't stop thinking about what someone like the aforementioned John Carpenter--in full-on, angry THEY LIVE mode--could've done with this concept. DeMonaco obviously finds Carpenter an inspiration, not just in his previous work scripting the PRECINCT 13 remake, but also in some of THE PURGE's suspense sequences being punctuated with the kind of driving, repetitious score that makes Carpenter films so identifiable. A hypothetical "John Carpenter's THE PURGE"--or say, Paul Verhoeven or George A. Romero or even Joe Dante--other genre filmmakers who have expertly balanced suspense/horror with eviscerating social commentary--would've fully explored and fleshed-out the political ramifications of THE PURGE, while DeMonaco only hints at them early and late, with the bulk of the film feeling overly familiar. As far as summer movies go, it's fast-moving, never boring, knows how long to stick around (the credits start rolling just shy of the 80-minute mark), and the performances are fine, especially Headey, who's very good toward the end. THE PURGE isn't bad, but it could've followed through on its premise and been something a little more substantive.
Were it not based on true events with material quoted directly from police reports, it would be easy to dismiss COMPLIANCE as one of the least believable thrillers in years. Inspired by a series of prank call scams over a 12-year period that authorities believe involve the same perpetrator, COMPLIANCE is a dramatization of the last such incident, one that took place at a McDonald's in Mount Washington, KY in 2004. Writer-director Craig Zobel takes small liberties--McDonald's becomes "ChickWich," the assistant manager in the real incident is changed to the store manager in the film, the caller used a supermarket pay phone but in the film, he's calling from his home using a prepaid cell, and all names have been changed--but what's onscreen is largely how the incident played out. Zobel's concern was to focus on the idea of obedience to figures of authority (think Stanley Milgram), be they law enforcement or in the structure of the workplace, specifically the rigid, by-the-book methods of a fast-food chain, but his script also gives the characters subtlely-displayed psychological reasons for some of what transpires. None of these prank calls lasted as long or went as far with as many people involved as the Mount Washington incident, and it's almost impossible to believe that it took several hours and an off-duty maintenance man to put a stop to what was happening.
On a busy Friday night at a ChickWich in rural Ohio, store manager Sandra (TV and stage vet Ann Dowd, given a rare big screen lead and running with it) is already on edge and nervous about telling her district manager about losing $1400 in food because of a refrigerator door that was left open all night. Her night goes from bad to worse when she gets a phone call from an Officer Daniels, who claims that he's got her district manager on the other line and he's with a customer who says that a cashier stole some money from her purse. "Daniels" gives a vague description that Sandra concludes to be Becky (Dreama Walker). Daniels orders Sandra to take Becky to the office, and an over-the-phone interrogation leads to a strip search, and far worse once Daniels badgers Sandra into getting her slightly drunk fiance Van (Bill Camp) involved. Zobel reveals early on that "Daniels" is in fact a seemingly well-to-do guy (Pat Healy) who's just calling from his own house and doing this for the sick thrill of seeing just how much he can manipulate them into obeying his increasingly ridiculous and dangerous demands. Anyone who's ever worked in a fast food or food or customer service environment will recognize how well Zobel captures the atmosphere, the jargon, and the mindset of such places. It helps that the film is cast with people who you've likely seen in many other things, but don't know their names and therefore don't have the distractions you might get if, say, Meryl Streep was playing Sandra. Dowd nails this character, just in the ways she's eager to please and be a team player (her district manager, the irate delivery driver, Daniels), and how, even in the stress of the situation, the harried boss in her still manages to reprimand Becky during the strip search for not wearing "the company's standard-issue khakis." Does Sandra have something against Becky? Is there a small part of her that's OK with what's happening? She did, after all, catch Becky and the much-younger assistant manager (Ashlie Atkinson) snickering behind her back at her awkward attempt to engage in girl talk. Walker also does a commendable job in a difficult and frequently uncomfortable role, spending a good chunk of the film wearing nothing but an apron. Produced by David Gordon Green (taking a break from directing terrible comedies that are sinking his once-sterling rep), COMPLIANCE is a riveting, intense, and often unpleasant film with a cast delivering believable performances as characters behaving in a very unbelievable fashion. (R, 90 mins)
DREDD (South Africa/UK - 2012)
Doing its best to blast away any bad memories of 1995's JUDGE DREDD, no one's favorite Stallone movie, DREDD is a hyper-stylized and outrageously violent take on the character created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, and is a much more successful interpretation. The film pretty much tanked in theaters, due in large part to its opening on a crowded weekend with about six other major releases, but this is one that will find a strong cult following in years to come. In the Cursed Earth wasteland of Mega-City One, merciless law enforcement officer Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is assessing rookie partner Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), who failed her exams but has a strong psychic ability that Dredd's bosses think will be handy in the field. The two answer a homicide call at the 200-story slum block tower Peach Trees, home to 75,000 residents under the control of ruthless, scar-faced drug lord Madeline Madrigal, aka Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), who rules the market on the new and highly addictive street drug Slo-Mo, which creates the illusion of time moving at 1% of its speed for the user. Ma-Ma has had three rival gang members skinned alive and tossed off the top-floor balcony. Dredd and Anderson take one of Ma-Ma's gang, Kay (Wood Harris) into custody when Anderson's psychic senses confirm he's responsible for the three killings. Before they can exit Peach Trees, Ma-Ma orders the entire block put on lockdown, forcing Dredd and Anderson to shoot their way up and down the building, two against several hundred of Ma-Ma's enforcers.
Directed by Pete Travis (VANTAGE POINT) and scripted by novelist and frequent Danny Boyle collaborator Alex Garland (28 DAYS LATER, SUNSHINE), DREDD belongs to the same class of over-the-top insanity along the lines of PUNISHER: WAR ZONE (2008). Travis splatters gallons upon gallons of CGI blood (very cartoony, but appropriate in the context of the film) across the screen, with occasional old-school Karo syrup to keep it real. He does a nice job of establishing a John Carpenter-style siege situation, complete with non-stop, droning techno music, and DREDD immediately joins the short list of "high-rise mayhem" classics like DEMONS 2 (1986), ENEMY TERRITORY (1987) and DIE HARD (1988), and more recent examples like THE HORDE (2010), ATTACK THE BLOCK (2011), CITADEL (2012), and THE RAID: REDEMPTION (2012), to which it drew many unfair ripoff accusations. Urban is absolutely perfect as Dredd, and Thirlby holds her own as the wet-behind-the-ears rookie just trying to survive her first day on the job. The many scenes with characters under the influence of Slo-Mo probably played a lot better in 3D on the big screen than they do flat at home, but they provide some of the trippiest visuals this side of Gaspar Noe's ENTER THE VOID. DREDD simply had the misfortune of opening on the wrong weekend. It's one of the best action thrillers of 2012 and deserved a better reception. (R, 96 mins)
SLEEP TIGHT (Spain - 2011; 2012 US release)
Spanish horror master Jaume Balaguero, best known for co-directing the first two [REC] films with Paco Plaza, made this bleak, unsettling thriller while Plaza helmed [REC] 3 solo. SLEEP TIGHT is definitely the better film, with misanthropic apartment building concierge/handyman Cesar (Luis Tosar) engaging in a quiet war against the tenants of the building when he isn't contemplating suicide. First it's little things like letting plants die and giving a tenant's dog food that he knows will make it sick. Cesar soon devotes all of his psychotic energy to the endlessly upbeat Clara (Marta Etura). At first, Balaguero and screenwriter Alberto Marini deceive the viewer into thinking this is a riff on the 2011 Hilary Swank/Jeffrey Dean Morgan thriller THE RESIDENT, where he's obsessively fixated on her from a misguided romance angle when he sneaks into her apartment, goes through her things, uses her toothbrush, and hides under her bed, waiting until she's asleep to chloroform her and crawl into bed to snuggle with her while she's out cold. No, quite the contrary. He's unable to feel any joy or happiness in his life and simply wants to break her constantly positive, cheery personality. He purposely clogs her sink, hides a cherished watch that was a gift from her mother, sends her anonymous threatening text messages from a prepaid cell, plants cockroach eggs throughout her apartment and injects skin allergens into her cosmetic products to cause a miserable rash all over her body. When her apartment is overrun with cockroaches and he offers to fumigate it, he's enraged to find that she isn't even upset about having to throw so many of her things away. "Oh, well! It's time for spring cleaning anyway!" she says with a smile. Balaguero and Morini approach much of the film with a twisted sense of humor, but things eventually turn grim and violent when Clara rekindles a romance with her ex-boyfriend (Alberto San Juan), who immediately senses something isn't right with the concierge.
There's a few implausible moments here and there that stretch credibility and threaten to derail the train, such as the scenes where Cesar is tiptoeing through Clara's apartment undetected while she and the boyfriend are there, or the fact that there's no security system or cameras in such a nice building. But overall, thanks to a disturbing performance by Tosar (it's interesting to note that he and Etura have been a couple offscreen for several years), SLEEP TIGHT generally works, with some very suspenseful set pieces, generous portions of dark humor (particularly when Cesar finds an unexpected nemesis in a bratty neighbor girl who knows what he's up to but opts to blackmail him instead of telling anyone), and a creative structure in that the film is completely from Cesar's point of view and with the antagonist as protagonist, in a strange way, you find yourself oddly rooting for him when he's trying to glide through Clara's apartment undetected. Overall, Balaguero succeeds in making SLEEP TIGHT an interesting film with a different approach to the psycho stalker flick. (Unrated, 101 mins)
GUNS, GIRLS & GAMBLING (US - 2012)
This wretched, decade-and-a-half late throwback to the post-PULP FICTION wave of Tarantino knockoffs like THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1995) and 2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY (1996) was on the shelf for two years before Universal quietly dumped it in one theater in L.A. in December 2012. There isn't a single thing that works in this tired, unfunny and utterly pointless endurance test that's only recommended for people who think DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO is a unsung gem waiting to be rediscovered. Nice guy John Smith (Christian Slater, whose presence draws obvious comparisons to TRUE ROMANCE) gets in over his head after a night of poker with four Elvis impersonators at a Native American casino. Someone has stolen a priceless Apache tribal mask, and now everyone in town is after it and killing everyone who gets in their way. Among the players: Elvis Elvis (Gary Oldman, another TRUE ROMANCE vet), Gay Elvis (Chris Kattan), Asian Elvis (Anthony Brandon Wong), Little Person Elvis (Tony Cox), The Rancher (Powers Boothe), The Cowboy (Jeff Fahey), The Girl Next Door (Megan Park), The Sheriffs (Dane Cook, Sam Trammell), The Chief (the late Gordon Tootoosis, who died in 2011), and The Blonde (Helena Mattsson, trying way too hard to be Charlize Theron), a sexy, Poe-quoting assassin. It's an endless series of flat jokes and predictable double crosses and the cast just looks lost, though chances are they had more fun making this than anyone will have watching it. I imagine Slater and Oldman (what is he doing in this?) probably reminisced about TRUE ROMANCE and maybe Oldman broke out his Drexl Spivey act to entertain his co-stars and the crew. Regardless, this is his worst career decision since TIPTOES. And for those keeping score, this is the second awful film Slater's made that involves a casino heist pulled off by Elvis impersonators. Did he learn nothing after surviving the wreckage of 3000 MILES TO GRACELAND? (Unrated, 90 mins, also available on Netflix streaming)
