Prisoners (2013) - Villeneuve arrives in Hollywood with grim crime story

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Two very serious-looking male stars in a sea of grey and darkness make up this poster for Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners

During a normal Thanksgiving celebration a family suddenly lose two daughters. The tracks to finding them are few, and as despair lurks, the mystery widens.

 

Prisoners is written by Aaron Guzikowski (Contraband (2012)) and directed by Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (August 32nd on Earth/Un 32 Août sur Terre (1998)), whose 6th feature it is.

With a strong opening and a monumental rain (so great it made me wonder how it was created) this thrilling, very well photographed (cinematographer Roger Deakins (Sicario (2015))) film pulls you in. It serves several good performances: Jake Gyllenhaal (Jarhead (2005)), Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman (2017)), Maria Bello (Lights Out (2016)) and more in the background: Terrence Howard (Iron Man (2008)), Viola Davis (Widows (2018)) and Paul Dano (Youth (2015)) are also good. 

The film is long but it manages to keep us close to its electrically grim story. Unfortunately it is resolved poorly, SPOILER since Guzikowski's script finally refuses to accept the obvious crook (a pedophile) to instead give us some babble about labyrinths, snakes - and Melissa Leo (Coast (2021)) as a heavy! She is a Jigsaw-like (from Saw (2004-) franchise fame) character, who punishes God for children's cancer and locks Jackman into a hole ... - Unsatisfying.

 

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Denis Villeneuve: Dune/Dune: Part One (2021) - Villeneuve revitalizes another SF boulder 

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Villeneuve's speculative sci-fi sequel is fascinating but flawed 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
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Arrival (2016) - Villeneuve, Heisserer and Adams head sensational sci-fi wonder
Incendies (2010) - Villeneuve's dreary and depressing, wildly overrated drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 46 mil. $

Box office: 122.1 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.65 times its cost)

[Prisoners premiered 30 August (Telluride Film Festival, USA) and runs 153 minutes. Guzikowski's script landed on the 2009 Black List, a list of Hollywood's most popular unproduced scripts. Shooting took place from February - May 2013 in Georgia. The film opened #1 to a 20.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 61 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.6 mil. $ (9.5 %) and France with 9.7 mil. $ (7.9 %). It additionally made an estimated 18.3 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Cinematography, lost to Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity. It also won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #163 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Raging Bull (1980) and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Villeneuve returned with Enemy (2013). Jackman returned in Chantoozies: Baby It's You (2014, music video) and theatrically in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014); Gyllenhaal in Enemy. Prisoners is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Prisoners?

The 33 (2015) - Great true story squandered in uninspired movie

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Antonio Banderas seems to be looking up in wonder at a mysterious, giant, floating number on this poster for Patricia Riggen's The 33

A greedy mine boss sends a new group of workers down into a mine, which is showing signs of imminent collapse. Soon after a part of the mine collapses, and the 33 men find themselves buried alive in a hollow space about a kilometer below the surface ...

Regrettably, no good film has been dug out of the incredible true story of the 2010 Chilean mining disaster. The 33 is deeply uninspired, flat and boring, seemingly dragging itself towards its ending, which for most of its audiences is already known. Apparently the bet of the filmmakers here has been that it would somehow become compelling storytelling, if enough stars got sprinkled on it, - but great actors employed here can't change the film's deficiency. Furthermore, the only star that really stands out is Gabriel Byrne (No Pay, Nudity (2016)), but for the wrong reason: He seems to start out here with a Spanish accent, which then turns back to his natural Irish English accent shortly after.
The 33 is written by Mikko Alanne (5 Days of War (2011)), Craig Borten (Dallas Buyers Club (2013)) and Michael Thomas (Welcome to Woop Woop (1997)) with Jose Rivera (Letters to Juliet (2010)) contributing story elements, based on Héctor Tobar's (The Tattooed Soldier (1998)) Deep Down Dark (2014) nonfiction novel, and directed by Patricia Riggen (Miracles from Heaven (2016)). It is a poorly handled, conventional film spun over an incredible story.

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

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2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Antonio Banderas gives an interview about the film here

 

Cost: 26 mil. $

Box office: 27.9 mil. $

= Big flop

[The 33 was released November 6 (Chile) and runs 127 minutes. It is the first film to receive the Colombian Film Commission's incentive for shooting in the country. Jennifer Lopez had to bow out due to her work on American Idol and was replaced by Juliette Binoche. Filming took place from November 2013 - February 2014 in Colombia and Chile, including at the actual site of the event. James Horner's score is the second of two he made in 2015, just before he passed away. The film opened #5, behind behind Spectre, The Peanuts Movie, Love the Coopers (the only other new release of the 5) and The Martian, to a 5.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its second week and grossed 12.2 mil. $ (43.7 % of the total gross). The film is a US-Chilean co-production, and in Chile, it reigned #1 for 5 consecutive weeks and grossed 4.9 mil. $ (17.6 %). The 3rd biggest market was China with 3.4 mil. $ (12.2 %). The 33 is rotten at 44 % with a 5.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The 33?

16 Blocks (2006) or, Heavy Traffic!

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This tall-lettered poster for Richard Donner's 16 Blocks presents the almost real-time cop action-thriller effectively but without much color

A police witness needs to be moved 16 blocks to a court house in New York City. The cop in charge faces serious resistance working against his completing the seemingly simple job.

Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)) is excellent as a troubled NYC cop, who for some unknown reason is also a burned-out alcoholic. David Morse (The Hurt Locker (2008)) is equally great as his opponent. 16 Blocks has a good anti-hero/anti-villain quality to it, which is refreshing in the superhero-age of the 00s (which still continues today.) The film also has an exciting hostage scene in a bus.
Though praised elsewhere, Mos Def (The Italian Job (2003)), who now goes by the name Yasiin Bey, plays the central witness in the film as a stereotype of a retarded African-American criminal in my opinion. This stereotype drags the film down immensely, as he is in almost the entire movie. SPOILER Another problem is that the ending of 16 Blocks is cheesy.
Master filmmaker Richard Donner (The Omen (1976)) has made the somewhat similar Lethal Weapon films (1987, '89, '92 and '98) with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover that are in some of the cases better than this, which seems to be his last film. 16 Blocks is written by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer (2014)).

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 55 mil. $
Box office: 65.6 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.19 times the cost)
[16 Blocks premiered 27 February (New York) and runs 110 minutes. It was shot in New York, Los Angeles and in Toronto, Ontario from April - June 2005 with re-shoots in July 2005. It opened #2, behind holdover hit Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, to an 11.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more week in the top 5 (#4) and grossed 36.8 mil. $ (56.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4.2 mil. $ (6.4 %) and Mexico with 2.6 mil. $ (4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. 16 Blocks reportedly heaved in an impressive 51.5 mil. $ on DVD and Blu-ray sales, which would change its status to merely a flop if figured in. It is Donner's last film. Willis returned with a voice performance in Over the Hedge (2006), That '70s Show Special: The Final Goodbye (2006, TV special) and theatrically in the flesh in Fast Food Nation (2006); Def in Journey to the End of the Night (2006); and Morse in A.W.O.L (2006, short), House (2006-07) and theatrically in Hounddog (2007). 16 Blocks is rotten at 56 % with a 5.9/10 critical averate at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 16 Blocks?