Man on a Ledge (2012) - Neutered stars in insipid thriller

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Star faces and a major still of the titular suicide scenario with fish-eye effect make up this poster for Asger Leth's Man on a Ledge

 

An escaped convict gets out on a ledge on a tall hotel building in Manhattan - but why?

 

Man on a Ledge is written by Pablo F. Fenjves (A Case for Murder (1993, TV movie)) and directed by Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006, documentary)).

It is hard to care about mullet-haired Sam Worthington's (Bootmen (2000)) protagonist's plans in this dull, unexciting thriller. A random cast of stars are seemingly present to cash easy paychecks, and unfortunately lead Worthington is especially uninteresting.

The film has only insufficient and small bouts of weak action. Man on a Ledge is deeply forgettable and pointless. Its story is hard to follow as it plays out, simply because it is so facade-focused and vacuous. A major turkey.

 

Related post:

 

Asger Leth: Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006, documentary) - A. Leth debuts with formidable documentary

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 42 mil. $

Box office: 47.6 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.13 times its cost)

[Man on a Ledge was released 26 January (Germany and 6 other markets) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in New York around October 2010. The film opened #5, behind fellow new release The Grey, holdover hit Underworld: Awakening, new release One for the Money and holdover hit Red Tails, to an 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 18.6 mil. $ (39.1 % of the total gross. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 3.9 mil. $ (9 %) and South Korea with 3.8 mil. $ (8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Leth returned with Hold On (2012). Worthington returned in Wrath of the Titans (2012). Man on a Ledge is rotten at 31 % with a 4.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Man on a Ledge?

Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006, documentary) - A. Leth debuts with formidable documentary

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Snaps from the film behind a strong, unclothed, Haitian man holding a rifle make up this dark poster for Asger Leth and Milos Loncarevic's Ghosts of Cité Soleil

In the slums of Haiti, the leaders are the local 'Chimeres'; gangster-rapping, gun-toting men whom the poor country's president at times hires for security. Two brothers that are such leaders now come at odds with each other and with the people...

 

Ghosts of Cité Soleil is written by writer/co-director/co-photographer Asger Leth (Move On (2012)), who co-directed it with Milos Loncarevic.

It is an incredible documentary. The slums of Haiti seem as alien to a privileged Scandinavian like me as would a foreign planet, and the to some degree self-created hell that the country is in is despairing. The work that Leth and Co. have done here is staggering; practically because the shoot has obviously taken place under significant personal risk, and narratively because the documentary deals with two protagonists (and one French assistant nurse, who risks her life to live and assist in an area of great deprivation) who don't deserve our sympathy: They are godless, gun-crazed murderers, who stand in the way of their country's improvement, essentially uneducated hoodlums. - But Leth, Locarevic and Co. still manage to capture them in such various situations that their humanity still unmistakably peaks through. - Still without the film coming across as apologetic for it.

Ghosts of Cité Soleil is wildly courageous, eminent documentary filmmaking.

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 218k $

= Uncertain

[Ghosts of Cité Soleil premiered 1 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 86 minutes. Shooting took place in Haiti during a time of civil war. 2Pac, the rapping of the two brothers in the film, was shot and killed three weeks after the filmmakers left Haiti. The film opened #57 to a 7k $ first weekend in 1 cinema in North America, where it widened to 3 theaters but didn't attain a higher rank, grossing 48k $ (22 % of the total gross). The other two recorded markets were Leth's native Denmark with 125k $ (57.3 %) and the UK with 44k $ (20.2 %). Leth returned with Man on a Ledge (2012); Loncarevic has not returned with a credit in film or TV. Ghosts of Cité Soleil is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ghosts of Cité Soleil?