In Theaters: SNOWDEN (2016)

SNOWDEN
(US/France/Germany - 2016)

Directed by Oliver Stone. Written by Kieran Fitzgerald and Oliver Stone. Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Nicolas Cage, Rhys Ifans, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, Lakeith Lee Stanfield, Joely Richardson, Ben Chaplin, Nicholas Rowe, Basker Patel, Edward Snowden. (R, 134 mins)

It would be nice if Oscar-winning filmmaker and tinfoil-hat fashionista Oliver Stone was back in provocateur mode with SNOWDEN, but the message is lost in the auteur's didactic execution. Told with myopic tunnelvision and with nothing but gushing admiration for its subject, SNOWDEN lumbers along with little in the way of nuance or subtlety, and nothing in the way of questioning the ex-CIA/NSA whistleblower. It's canonizing hagiography of the most one-sided order, with Edward Snowden the sole voice of morality in a world of evil big government surveillance that exists only to piss on the freedoms of Americans and can't possibly have any positive purpose whatsoever. This should be a nailbiting thriller but Stone is so distracted by his Snowden man-crush that it never has a chance to reach the heights of his in-his-prime conspiracy/paranoia triumphs like JFK or NIXON. It's more in line with the hokey, neutered simplicity of something like WORLD TRADE CENTER. Snowden is a complex, complicated figure, but you wouldn't know it by watching SNOWDEN. Stone isn't interesting in getting in Snowden's head, so you're better off checking out Laura Poitras' Oscar-winning 2014 Snowden documentary CITIZENFOUR instead.

That said, Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a terrific job of capturing Snowden's voice and mannerisms with uncanny accuracy. The film opens in 2013 as an on-the-run Snowden is holed up in a Hong Kong hotel preparing to leak secret CIA and NSA files to documentary filmmaker Poitras (Melissa Leo) and Guardian journalists Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson). Jumping back and forth from 2004 to 2013, we follow Snowden through a short stint in the Army, where his goal of joining the Special Forces is stalled by brittle bones and a pair of fragile legs that get him a discharge. Told by his doctor that there's other ways to serve his country, the conservative, Ayn Rand-admiring Snowden is admitted into The Hill, the CIA training facility in Virginia where he becomes the top prospect of (fictional) instructor Corbin O'Brian (a vampiric Rhys Ifans). He also falls in love with liberal Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley), who joins him when his new CIA job takes him to places like Switzerland and Japan, where his focus is cybersecurity and designing programs that are ostensibly used to monitor post-9/11 terrorist activities. He leaves the CIA but works for them on a contractual basis later on, and is disturbed to find that much of the US government's surveillance focus is spying on its own citizens and that one of his programs is used for drone strikes in the Middle East. Growing increasingly concerned about the nature of his work and how far the surveillance goes (he's informed at one point that his suspicions about Lindsay having an affair are unfounded, proof that the omnipresent They are watching her and monitoring her computer and phone activity), he decides to blow the whistle, stealing thousands of secret files and fleeing the country before reaching out to activist filmmaker Poitras.

How heavy-handed is SNOWDEN? The surveillance program is called "Prism," and when invoking it, Stone feels the need to frame shots with a prism effect that's also used when epileptic Snowden has seizures. It actually caused snickering in the audience about the 10th or 12th time it's used. How unsubtle is SNOWDEN? Ifans has been directed to play O'Brian in the most ominously sinister fashion possible, making it difficult to tell if he's a top CIA official or the Antichrist. Watch when he's shown speaking with Snowden in a conference room, Snowden physically there, but O'Brian on a giant, theater-sized screen as Ifans' looming, side-eyed visage takes up the entire display, just in case the whole "Big Brother is watching" concept wasn't already clear. The performances are generally solid, though Nicolas Cage is squandered in an intriguing but tiny role as a benched analyst curating antiquated espionage equipment, his sole purpose being to unknowingly supply the Rubik's Cube that Snowden will use years later to stash the SD card with all the files. But it's Ifans' bizarre portrayal that really sticks out, bringing to mind what might happen if PHANTASM's The Tall Man worked for the CIA. There's a nerve-shredding, Alan J. Pakula-type paranoia thriller to made about Snowden's exploits, and less preachy filmmakers could've done wonders with the subject. Remember that incredible Donald Sutherland exposition drop in JFK? That Oliver Stone could've done something with SNOWDEN. So could Michael Mann in INSIDER mode or David Fincher channeling ZODIAC. There's also a nice Mann vibe in some of Anthony Dod Mantle's digital cinematography in locations all over the world that recalls last year's criminally underrated hacker thriller BLACKHAT. Unfortunately, Stone the filmmaker defers to Dr. Stone the lecturing activist with an agenda. The film completely flies off the rails in a catastrophic climax that recalls Professor Steven Seagal's speech at the end of ON DEADLY GROUND, as Gordon-Levitt actually exits the film and Snowden takes over, playing himself being interviewed via internet from Russia, basking in the standing ovation he gets at a TEDTalk event. This drawn-out finale--more like a tacked-on Snowden infomercial--concludes with an inspirational, manipulative score crescendoing as a pensive Snowden finishes the interview, closes his laptop and turns away, in profile, triumphantly staring out the window of his Russian apartment and smiling, looking like he's waiting for Stone to cue up Foo Fighters' "My Hero" for the closing credits.

In Theaters: SAVAGES (2012)

SAVAGES
(US - 2012)

Directed by Oliver Stone.  Written by Shane Salerno, Don Winslow, and Oliver Stone.  Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Demian Bichir, Emile Hirsch, Shea Whigham, Sandra Echeverria, Joel David Moore, Amber Dixon.  (R, 130 mins)

There's some inspired flashes of the Oliver Stone of old throughout SAVAGES, and while it's not on the level of his finest work, it's his most entertaining film in years.  Doing away with the maudlin, Hallmark sentimentality of WORLD TRADE CENTER, the SNL-level caricatures of W, and the perfunctory clock-punching of the awful WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS, Stone may not be hitting the heights of PLATOON or JFK with SAVAGES, but he at least brings his A-game.  Pre-release buzz seemed to indicate that he was back in NATURAL BORN KILLERS territory, but SAVAGES is perhaps most reminiscent of his neglected 1997 film U-TURN, at least in terms of tone and style. U-TURN is usually dismissed as minor Stone, but it's one of his most entertaining films, and SAVAGES has that same loose, freewheeling, occasionally dark-humored, anything-goes feel to it and between the nonstop profanity, sadistic villains, splattered brains, decapitations, torture scenes with dangling eyeballs, and a few fairly graphic sex scenes, it's a hard-R of the highest order.

Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson) are two Laguna Beach pot entrepreneurs who have built a reputable independent business selling product with the highest THC levels in SoCal.  They've been friends since high school and share everything, including Ophelia, or O (Blake Lively), an airheaded beach bunny who lives with and loves both of them (as O puts it in her likely intentionally spacy narration, "Chon fucks...Ben makes love" and the two of them "make one complete man").  Their paradise is invaded by a Mexican drug cartel that wants to take them on as partners.  Already looking to get out of the business, Chon and Ben turn them down, which leads to cartel head Elena (a ferocious Salma Hayek) sending her goons, led by the ruthless, repugnant Lado (Benicio Del Toro), to kidnap O.  Battle-hardened (and scarred) Iraq War vet Chon convinces the laid-back, pacifist do-gooder Ben (who builds water systems in third world countries and donates laptops to impoverished African children) to put his Buddhist ideals aside (Chon: "Who cares what some fat Jap thinks?"  Ben: "Actually, he's a fat Indian") and head in to battle with the cartel to rescue O, leading to some over-the-top, Peckinpah levels of bloodbathing.  Complicating matters are shifting loyalties in Elena's organization as well as the involvement of the duplicitous Dennis (John Travolta), a corrupt DEA agent with a cancer-stricken wife and a stake in both sides of the conflict.

Chon (Taylor Kitsch), O (Blake Lively), and
Ben (Aaron Johnson) before all hell breaks loose.

Based on a novel by Don Winslow (who co-wrote the script with Stone and Shane Salerno), SAVAGES isn't a message film for Stone, which may explain why it succeeds.  Tackling subjects as monumental as 9/11, the Bush White House, and the stock market in recent years, and for the most part, botching them (W was alright, though it doesn't really hold up that well on a repeat viewing), it's nice to see Stone being able to just make a good movie and not succumb to the pressure of the expectations of being "Oliver Stone."  In other words, SAVAGES isn't TRAFFIC, and it isn't trying to be.  

Salma Hayek as the ruthless cartel boss Elena

Benicio Del Toro as the depraved henchman Lado

John Travolta as corrupt DEA agent Dennis, with Kitsch.

The three leads acquit themselves well (and good for JOHN CARTER and BATTLESHIP star Kitsch, who's not having the best year), and I kept imagining Lively's O as a ten-years-younger version of Bridget Fonda's Melanie in JACKIE BROWN (1997).  But it's the veteran actors who steal the show from the kids.  Hayek and Travolta (who previously appeared together in the barely-released 2006 thriller LONELY HEARTS) have their best roles in years, with the script providing some interesting bits of characterization (Dennis' terminally-ill wife, and Elena's concern over her fractured relationship with her grown daughter) that give the actors some space to work and more to do beyond being stock cardboard villains.  And Del Toro is very memorable as one of the most repulsive bad guys to ooze down the pike in some time (it's a quick action on Del Toro's part, but watch for the almost unspeakably vile act he commits while forcing a young cohort to shoot a woman in the head). Also with recent Oscar-nominee Demian Bichir (A BETTER LIFE) as a top cartel representative, and Emile Hirsch as Chon and Ben's money launderer (why is the INTO THE WILD and MILK star doing bad horror movies like THE DARKEST HOUR and taking on a buried-in-the-credits role here that barely qualifies as "sidekick"?  Four years ago, he would've been starring in this; was SPEED RACER that much of a career-killer for him?).  The biggest problem with the film is that Stone can't seem to settle on an ending, so he provides two, and it's almost like he's saying "Here's the ending I want, and I'll just throw in the ending they'll make me use."  It's a gimmicky finale that doesn't really work, but for the most part, SAVAGES is a brutal, blood-soaked, and unrepentantly scuzzy thriller that finds a great filmmaker not hitting his prior heights of glory, but checking his agendas at the door and appearing to be enjoying his work for the first time in a while.

Summer of 1982: CONAN THE BARBARIAN (May 14, 1982)

With numerous classic genre films released over a four-month period, the summer of 1982 is generally regarded as a benchmark year for summer movies.  30 years today, the summer movie season kicked off with its first blockbuster, John Milius' CONAN THE BARBARIAN.  Not only did a make a movie star out of five-time Mr. Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it also broke the floodgates on an endless series of ripoffs, imitations, in addition to official sequels, spinoffs, and, 29 years later, a remake.  Based on the influential series of books by Robert E. Howard, CONAN THE BARBARIAN reveled in its much-deserved R-rating, as Milius (who co-wrote the script with Oliver Stone) gave us an unforgettable villain in James Earl Jones' Thulsa Doom, a memorably sexy heroine in Sandahl Bergman's Valeria, but also filled the screen with all manner of blood, gore, and skin.  The nine-year-old version of me found it to be, at least for 129 minutes, the single greatest movie ever.  Of the week.  And the summer of my dad taking me to a ton of movies that a nine-year-old had no business seeing was just getting started.  Thanks, Dad!

Arnold Schwarzenegger in his star-making performance as Conan the Barbarian

James Earl Jones as the nefarious Thulsa Doom

Sandahl Bergman as Valeria. 

The 1984 sequel was geared toward teenage boys and younger, with the gore
and sex significantly toned down, completely missing the point of
what we found so appealing about the original film in the first place.

In 1985's RED SONJA, another Howard adaptation, Schwarzenegger plays Kalidor, but
might as well be named Conan.  It was supposed to be a cameo, but
his role got increased after production began.

The success of CONAN THE BARBARIAN resurrected a
forgotten 1970 Arnold Stang comedy that featured
 Schwarzenegger, under the name "Arnold Strong."





The impact of CONAN THE BARBARIAN was seen at drive-ins and in video stores for several years to come.
 If you walked into a video store at any point in the 1980s and into the early 1990s,
 chances are you saw the boxes for all of these.  Some were better than others, and some
(THE BEASTMASTER, ATOR, DEATHSTALKER) spawned their own series of sequels.