Monthly Archives: June 2021

THE ICE ROAD (2021) – New Liam Neeson Adventure Dumb But Fun

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It may be getting a chilly reception from critics, but THE ICE ROAD (2021), a new Netflix adventure starring Liam Neeson is at bare minimum an entertaining thrill ride that provides some popcorn movie fun here at the beginning of summer.

In northern Canada a mining accident traps nearly thirty miners underground. Rescue proves nearly impossible, and with oxygen running out, and methane gas everywhere, their only hope lies in the people on the outside being able to cap the gas. But this can’t be done without a wellhead. The only way to get the heavy wellhead and pipe to the mine is by truck, and that means traversing over the dangerous ice roads in April, a time when conditions are exceedingly treacherous.

The man in charge of the trucks, Goldenrod (Laurence Fishburne) only has a few hours to put together a replacement team of drivers, since all of his staff have already left for vacation. He recruits a talented young female driver Tantoo (Amber Midthunder) who he had once fired for “borrowing” a truck during off-hours, and two currently unemployed truckers Mike (Liam Neeson) and his brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas). Goldenrod wants to know why Mike and Gurty can’t seem to hold jobs, and when Mike explains his brother has psychological problems after time in military combat, Goldenrod hires them.

There will be three trucks on the trip, each carrying the same wellhead and pipe, in an effort to increase the odds of getting the materials to the mine in time. The extra member of the team is an insurance representative from the company named Varnay (Benjamin Walker) who’s only there to keep an eye on things. Yeah, right. We just had this same exact plot point in the zombie apocalypse thriller ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021). If there’s a rep from the company, you know that can only mean one thing: trouble. That’s right, because here in THE ICE ROAD, we have once again that cliched villain in the movies, the dreaded evil company! Cue maniacal laugh!

And when it becomes apparent that the truckers not only have the thawing ice on the road to contend with, but sinister forces at work, it’s up to our friendly neighborhood action hero Liam Neeson to save the day!

If you are a Liam Neeson fan, you will no doubt enjoy THE ICE ROAD. I’m a fan, and I liked it. Even though at this point Neeson can play these roles in his sleep, he still excels at it and makes Mike a character you root for and feel good about following on this journey. And even though Neeson is pushing 70, he still makes this kind of tough guy character believable.

And there are some rather exciting sequences on the ice road, involving melting ice, trucks falling through, and wiping out in every direction. There are also some fun and exciting chase sequences. Director Jonathan Hensleigh gives this one a very cinematic feel. I felt I was at the movie theater watching it.

But THE ICE ROAD isn’t a very smart movie. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, and since Hensleigh also wrote the screenplay, as much as I enjoyed his direction here, I disliked his writing.

One of the stories told in THE ICE ROAD is the plight of the trapped miners, but it’s told superficially, and we don’t really get to know the stories of the men trapped down there. Had their stories been told, it would have added a whole other layer to this thriller. Holt McCallany, who was so memorable as FBI agent Bill Tench on the TV show MINDHUNTER (2017-2019) plays one of the trapped miners and makes the most of his scenes, but like the other men, his story is not fleshed out. It’s a wasted opportunity for McCallany.

And the sense of what is happening on the ground around the mine is not captured at all. Is there a rescue mission happening? Are people outside in a panic? Family members? Co-workers? Reporters? Any sense of urgency about these trapped folks is absent.

Likewise, the rescue mission with the trucks, which is clearly the focus of the movie, strangely is less about the natural dangers of getting the equipment to the mine in time and more about the silly subplot of the evil company trying to sabotage everything.

Which for me was clearly the worst part of THE ICE ROAD. The story of the trucks having to make a treacherous trip across incredibly dangerous roads of melting ice is naturally exciting. A plot built on this idea could have been really intense. Instead, the film goes the route of the “evil company”! And that whole story is convoluted and far less believable than a straightforward rescue mission tale.

Laurence Fishburne is every bit as good as Liam Neeson here as Goldenrod, in what turns out to be just a supporting role. I wish Fishburne had been in the movie more. And Amber Midthunder delivers a spunky, energetic performance as Tantoo, the young driver who is as talented as she is volatile.

But THE ICE ROAD belongs to Liam Neeson. Not because his performance is otherworldly good. No, it’s far from it. It’s a decent performance, of course, but we’ve seen Neeson do this countless times before. THE ICE ROAD belongs to Neeson because he possesses tremendous screen presence, and when he’s on screen, you pay attention.

I thought THE ICE ROAD was a rather stupid movie that should have been better because its main plot of trucks making a harrowing trip to save trapped miners was good enough on its own. Instead, the film adds a dumb plot of sabotage and cover-up. And yet I enjoyed THE ICE ROAD and had fun watching it, for the simple reason that Liam Neeson is that level of actor who can take a dumb movie like this, put it on his back, and make you forget that what you are watching is all rather inane.

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ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021) – Zack Snyder Zombie Actioner Fun But Overlong

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Zack Snyder needs a best buddy to pull him aside and tell him point blank, Dude, you gotta edit down your movies!

Snyder’s latest, ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021), a zombie apocalypse action flick starring Dave Bautista and currently available on Netflix, is exciting, action-packed, and a heck of a lot of fun. I almost loved it. Why didn’t I? Because it’s so gosh darn long! It’s two and a half hours! Had this movie been 90 minutes… heck, even two hours… it would have been so much better. If you’re going to make a movie that runs two and a half hours, you’d better have a strong enough story to hold the audience’s interest. ARMY OF THE DEAD has an average story and characters that are not fleshed out. The best thing the movie has going for it is its expertly choreographed zombie attack scenes. The action here doesn’t disappoint. But if that’s all you got, that makes for an excruciatingly long 150 minutes!

And that simply put was the part I liked the least about ARMY OF THE DEAD. It was way too long. Which is too bad. Because there was a lot I liked about this one.

Zombies invade Las Vegas! After they overrun the city, and the military fails to contain them, the decision is made to nuke the entire city. This poses a problem for billionaire casino owner Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada). He’s got a ton of money in a vault in one of his casinos, which he will lose once the city is leveled by the bomb. Guess he’s never heard of electronic banking! Anyway, he hires mercenary Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) to assemble a crack team of soldiers and a safe cracker to get into the city, fend off the zombies, break into the safe, retrieve the money, and get the hell out of there all before the nuke is dropped. And Ward being the movie hero that he is, accepts the offer and assembles that team, and that’s what the rest of the movie is all about.

A bank heist in the middle of a zombie apocalypse! It’s OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001) meets WORLD WAR Z (2013). Actually it’s better than these movies. I’m not a fan of the OCEAN’S movies at all, and while I liked WORLD WAR Z, I think I enjoyed ARMY OF THE DEAD a bit more, by the length of an extended zombie finger. It’s livelier, the action sequences are more fun, and it has Dave Bautista.

Bautista was the main reason I wanted to watch ARMY OF THE DEAD. I always enjoy his performances, from his outstanding portrayal of Drax in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to his comedic turns in films like STUBER (2019). As an action star, Bautista definitely has a persona and presence, reminiscent of what Arnold Schwarzenegger used to have in his hey day.

As expected, Bautista is very good here as mercenary Scott Ward, even though he is let down by the script. This is the kind of movie where a character like Ward deserves some catchy one-liners, but there’s nary a one to be found. And I’m not so sure I bought how easily Ward decides to accept this mission. Sure, there’s a lot of money to be earned, but knowing his back story you’d think he’d just want to keep away from this sort of thing.

But Bautista brings his amiable personality to the forefront as Ward, making him yet another of his likable movie action heroes, and with his build he certainly looks the part of a soldier who can take down hordes of zombies at a time.

And while there are some other notable performances in the film, again, the screenplay by Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten, and Joby Harold let’s the actors down as the characters are not fleshed out, and so for two and half hours we are watching characters we know so little about go into harm’s way. The film would work so much better if we actually cared about the characters.

Ella Purnell plays Ward’s estranged daughter Kate, and she enjoys some good moments, but nothing out of the ordinary. And the idea that her dad would let her join this mission never really rang true to me.

Garret Dillahunt makes for a very suspicious right hand man to mission financer Tanaka, and the team doesn’t really trust him, and rightly so. And in his few scenes, Hiroyuki Sanada plays Tanaka as that guy you know you shouldn’t work for but you do anyway because the money is too good. We just saw Sanada a few weeks back in MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)

I really liked Nora Arnezeder as Lilly, the mysterious woman who helps the team get into Las Vegas. And Matthias Schweighofer entertains as expert safe cracker Dieter who’s a bit squeamish around zombies and has one high-pitched wail whenever he’s in danger.

Stunt man Richard Cetrone looks good as Zeus, the hulking alpha zombie leader who makes for a formidable foe. In fact, when he and Bautista’s Ward finally tangle in the film’s climax, it’s one of the movie’s highlights. Of course, it would have been even better had Zeus had more story and Cetrone was allowed to do more than just look good.

So, while I had fun watching ARMY OF THE DEAD, I would have enjoyed it much more had it been shorter, had the characters been stronger… we know so little about them it’s hard to care what happens to them… and had the actual story been a bit tighter. There’s a twist at the end which raises questions as to whether the entire bank heist was even necessary!

I’m not the biggest Zack Snyder fan. It’s been hit or miss for me with him, and the misses have not been fun. I hated BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016), was lukewarm to JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017) and MAN OF STEEL (2013), but I really liked WATCHMEN (2009) and remember liking SUCKER PUNCH (2011) more than most others.

ARMY OF THE DEAD is not bad. In fact, it’s quite good. No lie. I enjoyed watching this one. I’m a big fan of Dave Bautista, and the action sequences work. The problem, as I have already said, is that it goes on and on, and without supporting characters to pick up the slack or a story to really keep me riveted, after a while, what was enjoyable and entertaining became less so.

At 90 minutes, ARMY OF THE DEAD would have been a helluva movie. At 150 minutes, it’s a helluva long movie. There’s a big difference between the two.

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AWAKE (2021) – Netflix Thriller About People Not Sleeping Exciting But Unoriginal

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I think the events in AWAKE (2021), a new Netflix apocalyptic thriller are already happening for real.

The premise is a mysterious global event causes everyone to lose their ability to sleep. I know so many people, myself included, who are dealing with sleep issues, as in not being able to, that it’s easy to see how the screenwriters got this idea. It’s happening right now.

Okay, I don’t mean this literally. No conspiracy theories here.

But one of the reasons I enjoyed AWAKE is its story taps into something real that is going on in the here and now. People really are struggling to get a good night’s sleep. And the reason isn’t mysterious or unknown either. We’re all stressed out beyond the scope of imagination between a global pandemic, political divisions and hatred, racial divides, and on and on I could go. Yes, life these days is a perfect sh*tstorm.

But back to AWAKE. The other reason I enjoyed it is I do enjoy apocalyptic movies, and while AWAKE isn’t as effective as A QUIET PLACE (2018) or BIRDBOX (2018) it still has its moments. That being said, other than its plot where people lose the ability to sleep, it doesn’t really offer anything new to the genre.

AWAKE follows three characters during this catastrophic event, Jill (Gina Rodriguez), her teen son Noah (Lucius Hoyos), and younger daughter Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt). At first, they are just trying to survive the insanity, as people without sleep begin to lose their minds, and in this case, the effects of sleep deprivation for some reason are accelerated. But soon they find themselves heading to a secret destination to meet up with Jill’s employer, a psychiatrist Dr. Murphy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an expert on sleep, who is leading the charge to find a cure, as Murphy has discovered a person who still can sleep. And Jill is heading there because her daughter Matilda also can still sleep.

It’s not an easy decision for Jill, however, because she knows Dr. Murphy worked for the military as an expert on sleep deprivation torture. In short, Jill doesn’t trust Murphy. Along the way, they meet up with an escaped convict Dodge (Shamier Anderson) who turns out to the the Mister Rogers of convicts as he proves mighty neighborly to the family and decides to help them on their quest to reach Dr. Murphy.

Actually, Dodge was one of my favorite characters in the movie, even if he wasn’t all that realistic. And that’s because he was played by Shamier Anderson, who we just saw a few weeks back as the accidental stowaway in the Netflix science fiction thriller STOWAWAY (2021). Anderson’s performance was one of the best parts of that movie, and it’s one of the best parts of this one. He makes Dodge a very sincere character, somewhat odd since he’s an escaped convict, but welcomed in this story because everyone else is violent and nutty.

The three leads are all fine. Gina Rodriguez as mom Jill, Lucius Hoyos as her son Noah, and Ariana Greenblatt as young daughter Matilda who mysteriously still possesses the ability to sleep. They are all believable and act sufficiently terrified and tense at all the right moments. The trouble is, we’ve seen all these moments before, whether in other apocalyptic movies or in TV shows like THE WALKING DEAD (2010 – present). The film presents nothing new in this department.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is sufficiently cold and stern as sleep expert and psychiatrist Dr. Murphy, but the character reminded me an awful lot of a similar medical villain character played by Glenn Close, Dr. Caroline Caldwell, in the superior zombie thriller THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (2016).

Barry Pepper, who played the dad in need of rescue from some very hungry alligators in CRAWL (2019), enjoys some fine moments as a pastor who prays with young Matilda hoping to achieve a miracle. What makes the character interesting is that he’s not the typical cliche clergyman, but instead finds himself defending the girl against his crazy parishioners who float the idea that the girl needs to be sacrificed for the miracle to happen. It’s one of the more riveting sequences in the movie, and it’s too bad it occurs early on.

Frances Fisher also enjoys some fine moments as Jill’s not always friendly mother-in-law Doris, who means well when she brings Matilda to church. And Finn Jones, who starred in GAME OF THRONES (2011-16) and played man with the super hand Danny Rand in IRON FIST (2017-18) is on “hand” here as Jill’s co-worker Brian who pleads with her to bring Matilda to see Dr. Murphy.

The screenplay by Joseph Raso and Mark Raso, who directed, based on a story by Gregory Poirier, is okay. I liked the premise of people losing the ability to sleep, and it does a solid job of putting the characters in tense situations. Both the dialogue and characterizations are strong. The story never reveals the cause of the apocalyptic event, and I didn’t think it needed to.

The weakest part of the screenplay is that nearly every suspenseful sequence is derivative of similar scenes we’ve seen before. Other than the plot point of losing sleep, it offers nothing fresh.

I also wasn’t crazy about the ending. I don’t think it makes a lot of sense. The film does hint about this solution in a brief hospital scene early on, so it’s not a complete shocker. I just didn’t really buy it as a realistic solution.

Mark Raso directed AWAKE, and has a good go of it. I was enjoying this one throughout, and it moves at a crisp pace. It’s one of those movies where I recognized yup, seen this before. That’s not new, but the way it was all presented made me not care that I had seen it before. I found it to be a fun thriller.

Is AWAKE so thrilling and disturbing it will keep you awake at night?

Nope.

But it will keep you awake for its 96 minute running time as it takes you on a race-against-time thrill ride where its small band of characters have to find answers to their sleep problem, because if they don’t, humanity will die out in the most gruesome of ways.

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OSLO (2021) – Story of Historic Oslo Peace Accords Straightforward and Authentic

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OSLO (2021), a new HBO original movie, tells the story of the backchannel negotiations held in Oslo, Norway which led to the historic Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

It’s an important story to tell, not only for historical reasons but because it’s one that is every bit as relevant today as it was back in the 1990s when these events occurred. OSLO tells this story in a plain, straightforward manner that doesn’t always translate into a satisfying viewing experience. In short, it plays like the TV movie that it is rather than anything you would see at the theater, and this works against it.

The screenplay by J.T. Rogers, who adapted it from his Tony Award winning play of the same name, is clear and concise in its storytelling, and does allow for some characterizations to shine through. But moments of drama and tension, while there, are all rather subdued, and the whole thing plays more like something you would be required to watch in a history class rather than something you’d sit down to appreciate on your own. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments. It does. It just doesn’t come alive like the best movies do.

Norwegian couple Mona Juul (Ruth Wilson), who works for the Norwegian state department, and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen (Andrew Scott), who runs a think tank, decide to become involved in the Middle East peace process when they are traumatized by an event in which they witness as Israeli and a Palestinian, both young men, about to kill each other, and as Mona recounts, looking like that was the last place they wanted to be, and harming each other the last thing they wanted to do. So, Mona and Terje secretly approach both sides, the Israelis and the Palestinians, and offer to bring them together in a private spot in Oslo, and by using Terje’s think tank methods, attempt to do something that so far no one had been able to do, reach a peace agreement. When both sides ask why they should say yes, Terje responds that they need him, and without his methods, they will continue to fail. They agree.

The rest of the movie recounts what happens at this secret meeting place in Oslo.

Directed by Bartlett Sher, OSLO does what it sets out to do, which is recount a significant historical event. It just doesn’t do it in a way that makes for a rewarding cinematic experience. In short, it’s not terribly exciting.

What OSLO does best is capture a feeling of authenticity. The whole thing seems real. It invites the audience in and makes them feel like they are a fly on the wall to these secret negotiations. This feeling of authenticity extends to the cast as well.

Getting the most screen time are Ruth Wilson as Mona Juul and Andrew Scott as Terje Rod-Larsen, the married couple responsible for launching these negotiations. Wilson, who was very memorable as the unpredictable Alice Morgan on the excellent Idris Elba TV series LUTHER (2010-2019), plays Mona as the level-headed half of the married team, constantly reminding her husband Terje of what they can and cannot do during these negotiations. Scott plays Terje as the more emotional half, wanting to become more involved and help in more ways than they agreed to. As a STAR TREK fan, I couldn’t help but think of the Prime Directive when watching these two face their own dilemma of having agreed not to influence the negotiations.

There are several other notable performances as well, including Salim Dau as Ahmed Qurei, and Waleed Zuaiter as Hassan Asfour, the two members of the Palestinian negotiating team, and Doval’e Glickman as Yair Hirschfeld, an Israeli professor and private citizen pressed into the negotiations, and Jeff Wilbusch as Uri Savir, the smooth polished and self-assured Israeli negotiator.

These secret meetings were ultimately a success and led to the Oslo Peace Accords. Sadly, this peace was only temporary, and the violence between the Israelis and Palestinians continues to this day.

The story told in OSLO is relevant today. The political climate in 2021 is filled with division and hate, and one of the negotiating tactics used at Oslo was the acknowledgement first that everyone in that room were friends, because if you couldn’t start as friends, you weren’t going to get anywhere. Opposing sides in the here and now would do well to listen to the lessons taught at Oslo and use them.

As movies go, OSLO is okay. It’s not on the same level of the riveting Iran hostage tale ARGO (2012), now nearly a decade old, unbelievably, nor did it work as well for me as the recent Netflix film SERGIO (2020), which starred Wagner Moura as United Nations diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello and told the story of his work trying to broker peace after the U.S. invaded Iraq.

But OSLO makes up for its lack of cinematic storytelling with concise straightforward writing and authentic performances.

Is it enough to keep you watching? Sure, as long as you understand that while you may have a front row seat, you won’t be sitting on its edge or leaping to your feet.

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