Olympus Has Fallen (2013) - Fuqua's rough and unrefined actioner

♥♥

Not a still from the actual, real-life, presidentially commanded storm on the Washington D.C. Capitol Building of January 6 2022, this is instead an explosive poster for Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen

Mike Banning was a Secret Service agent who was close with the US President, until he was involved in the accident that cost the first lady her life. Now the White House comes under attack by North-Korean terrorists, and Banning decides to return!

Olympus Has Fallen is written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt (The Expendables 3 (2014), both) and co-produced and directed by Pennsylvanian master filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Bait (2000)), whose 7th feature it is.

The film attempts to marry In the Line of Fire (1993) with 24 (2001-10) but doesn't get anywhere near the quality of either of these thrillers. It is a shame, because Olympus Has Fallen has so many of the right ingredients. But although Fuqua is good, he is no John McTiernan here, and Olympus Has Fallen fails first and foremost because it is lacking suspenseful scenes.

Instead there is sketchy CGI by the barrel load, and scores of scenes of co-producer/co-star Gerard Butler's (Dracula 2000 (2000)) Banning torturing and punishing bad-guys. (You'll also get Melissa Leo (Bottled Up (2013)) as Secretary of Defense getting beaten up at length and forced to walk on shattered glass.) Without the necessary suspense one mostly just thinks 'yikes' at this and other unpleasantness - and the preposterous plot, which involves a bomb program in the basement of the White House that no-one at the Pentagon has contact to ... Olympus Has Fallen is also souped up in more than enough jingoistic prattle and possibly more presidentially sounding drums than in any film ever before. 

 

Related posts:

 

Has Fallen franchise: London Has Fallen (2016) - Jingoistic and irrelevant actioner that passes the time

Antoine Fuqua: The Magnificent Seven (2016) - Fuqua makes a noisy party trick out of the western

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

The Equalizer (2014) or, Mr. Swift Justice

 

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 70 mil. $

Box office: 170.2 mil. $

=  Minor flop (returned 2.43 times its cost)

[Olympus Has Fallen premiered 18 March (Los Angeles) and runs 119 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 2012 in Louisiana, including in New Orleans, and in New York. Production scrambled through to be the first of 2013's two big White House attack action movies, beating White House Down to the punch by around 3 months. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Croods, to a 30.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#4-#5), grossing 98.9 mil. $ (58.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.5 mil. $ (5.6 %) and China with 5.8 mil. $ (3.4 %). Rothenberger was sued by a John S. Green over authorship of the script with Rothenberger winning 175k $. Butler sued Nu Image/Millennium Films for 10 mil. $ over perceived unreported profits and failure to pay him according to a 10 % net profit participation deal. The conclusion of that suit has been kept under wraps. The film spun two sequels with Butler but not Fuqua returning; London Has Fallen (2016) and Angel Has Fallen (2019), with a third sequel entitled Night Has Fallen currently in production. The film additionally earned more than 38.2 mil. $ on the domestic home video market. Fuqua returned with The Equalizer (2014). Butler returned with a voice performance in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and physically in Gods of Egypt (2016); Aaron Eckhart (Thursday (1998)) in I, Frankenstein (2014); and Morgan Freeman (Edison (2005)) in Oblivion (2013). Olympus Has Fallen is rotten at 50 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Olympus Has Fallen?

Frozen River (2008) - Courtney Hunt debuts with freezing social realism border crime drama

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year  + Best Social Realism Movie of the Year

A sparse and cold, yet also evocative and curiosity-sparking poster for Courtney Hunt's Frozen River

Ray has been left by her husband in her trailer home with two children, debt and a crummy discount store clerk job in upstate New York near the Ontario border, when she learns that she can earn some much needed money by trafficking illegal immigrants.

Frozen River is the debut for Tennesseean writer-director Courtney Hunt (The Whole Truth (2016)). It takes up some exciting topics and handles them with freezing, crude realism. The aesthetics are regrettably Dogme-like, - ugly, - and some of the amateur performances wobble a bit here and there.
To its credit as a social-realism drama, Frozen River features no great villains. Melissa Leo (Prisoners (2013)), Misty Upham (Expiration Date (2006)) and often also Charlie McDermott (The Middle (2009-18)) as Ray's son TJ are excellent as the ill-starred folks. Frozen River is a powerful, thrilling and unpredictable drama.

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here, which starts after Quentin Tarantino awards the film a prize at the Sundance Film Festival

Cost: 1 mil. $
Box office: 5.4 mil. $
= Big hit (5.4 times the cost)
[Frozen River premiered 18 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. Hunt based her scripts on stories she had heard from her husband's family of Mohawk Indians smuggling cigarettes across the frozen Saint Lawrence river. Shooting took place in freezing weather in New York and Ontario, Canada in 24 days in March 2007. The film opened #33 in 7 theaters to a 70k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #29 and in 96 theaters (different weeks) and grossed strong 2.5 mil. $ (46.3 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.2 mil. $ (22.2 %) and Spain with 722k $ (13.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to two notches better than this one. It was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Actress (Leo), lost to Kate Winslet in Stephen Daldry's great The Reader and Best Original Screenplay, lost to Dustin Lance Black for Gus Van Sant's masterpiece Milk. It won an AFI award, 2/7 Independent Spirit award nominations, 3 National Board of Review awards, a Sundance award and many other honors. Hunt returned to directing on TV-series In Treatment (2009-10) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2011-13) and theatrically with Keanu Reeves-starrer The Whole Truth (2016). Leo was in 9 titles in 2008! Two of them short films and one a TV-series, - wildly impressive. She returned theatrically in Lullaby (2008). Frozen River is certified fresh at 88 % with a 7.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Frozen River?

The Fighter (2010) - Russell's fine, gritty boxing biopic

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Boxing Movie of the Year

The elegant, simple poster for David O. Russell's The Fighter

The Fighter tells the story of boxing brothers Micky and Dicky Ward of Lowell, Massachusetts.

It is in a way the story of the other America, the one that we are rarely treated to on the silver screen: The prejudiced, crudely talking white trash-segment that is really very large. The film is a wildly unglamorous and focused boxing picture with realistic fight scenes and fine performances from Oscar-winning Melissa Leo (Treme (2010-13)), Oscar-nominated Amy Adams (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2000), TV-series) and Oscar-winning Christian Bale (Henry V (1989)), whereas Mark Wahlberg (Planet of the Apes (2001)) is a bit less impressive.
The Fighter is written by Oscar-nominated Eric Johnson (The Finest Hours (2016)), Scott Silver (8 Mile (2002)) and Paul Tamasy (Air Bud (1997)) with Keith Dorrington (The Merger (2007)) contributing story elements and directed by Oscar-nominated, great New-Yorker filmmaker David O. Russell (Three Kings (1999)), whose 5th feature it is.

Related posts:

David O. Russell: Silver Linings Playbook (2012) - Tender moments, great De Niro in uneven romantic dramedy
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Christian Bale lost weight and reportedly stayed in character for the duration of the shooting of David O. Russell's The Fighter

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 129.1 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Fighter was released December 10 and runs 115 minutes. Martin Scorsese and Darren Aronofsky were contacted to direct, before Russell finally got the job. Filming lasted 33 days from July - August 2009 in Massachusetts, including in some of the facilities the real Wards had trained in. At its wide opening weekend, the film opened #4 (behind Tron Legacy, Yogi Bear and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 93.6 mil. $ (72.5 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 10.1 mil. $ (7.8 %) and Australia with 6.1 mil. $ (5 %). The film was nominated for 7 Oscars, winning two for supporting performances (Leo and Bale), the first film to do that since Woody Allen's great Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). Adams lost Supporting Actress to Leo, Best Picture was lost to The King's Speech, directing to Tom Hooper for King's Speech, original screenplay to King's Speech's David Seidler and editing to The Social Network. It was also nominated for 6 Golden Globes, winning the same two it did at the Oscars, and for 3 BAFTAs, winning none. Wahlberg has tried to develop a sequel, but that hasn't materialized yet. The Fighter is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fighter?

Mildred Pierce (2011, miniseries) - Haynes' spin on the Cain classic is a luxury

♥♥♥♥

1 Time Film Excess Award Winner:

Best Costumes: Ann Roth

4 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Actress: Kate Winslet (lost to Bérénice Bejo for The Artist)
Best Supporting Actor: Brían F. O'Byrne (lost to Michael Shannon for Boardwalk Empire S2)
Best Costumes: Ann Roth (won)
Best Production Design: Mark Friedberg, Peter Rogness, Ellen Christiansen (lost to Boardwalk Empire S2)

+ Best Miniseries of the Year

The great Kate Winslet portrays Mildred Pierce in Todd Haynes' miniseries

Mildred Pierce is Todd Haynes' (Far from Heaven (2002)) five-part HBO miniseries, written by Haynes and Jonathan Raymond (Meek's Cutoff (2010)), based on James M. Cain's (The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)) same-titled 1941 classic, previously adapted as Michael Curtiz's same-titled 1945 masterpiece.

Part-by-part rundown (contains SPOILERS):

Part 1: Los Angeles, 1931: Mildred has a fight with her unfaithful husband, who leaves her and their daughters: Small Ray and the spoiled and snobbish Veda. After a one-time passion, Mildred's desperation starts nagging, and she has to eat up the degradation of taking a waitress job to keep afloat. But Veda's condemnation lurks...
Part 2: 1931: Mildred keeps her head high and soon has a small pie-production going, as also her waitressing job leads to friendships and new knowledge. She finalizes their divorce, following lawyer Wally's advice, so that she can open her own chicken restaurant. After a showdown with naughty daughter Veda, she still puts great importance in the young girl's thoughts. An impulsive romantic outing following her last day as a waitress with rich, idle Monty ends in tragedy, as daughter Ray expires in the hospital from sudden illness. Mildred is now alone with Veda.
Part 3: 1931-1933: Mildred opens the restaurant after Ray's funeral, - with the help of a few friends, - and its opening exceeds all expectations. Her friend Lucy (Melissa Leo (Flight (2012))) gets booze into the place, and Mildred's relationship with ex-husband Bert has improved. Monty goes bankrupt and gets kept by Mildred, while he back-stabs her to Veda, who takes music lessons and puts her mother down, still unpunished. Mildred leaves Monty in a New Year's Eve storm ...
Part 4: 1937-1938: Veda is now a grown, young woman, and she and Mildred finally take a big fight with each other, which Evan Rachel Wood (The Ides of March (2011)), who enters the miniseries as Veda here, plays with some misplaced sentimentality. - Because the dialog is hard as slaps, as her deplorable extortion scheme now sees the light of day, to Mildred's shock. Veda gets kicked out by her miserable mother, who, nevertheless, goes searching for her again in Hollywood, lonely and sad. Bert locates her as a vocal talent on the radio, much to Mildred's elation.
Part 5: 1938-1940: Mildred, who has grown successful, meets Monty again and, more or less inexplicably, takes him back, and they get married, after he has made her buy a smaller mansion in Pasadena. Veda also resurfaces, and Mildred showers her with money and attention, SPOILER until she finds her and Monty in bed together... - And tries to strangle the harlot! Mildred's business is also lost, but Bert is there, and the two decide to get remarried. Veda returns for one last, unpleasant appearance at the nuptials. "To hell with her", the two parents finally agree, after she has run off to New York.

Haynes gives Mildred Pierce his very own spin here, as he subdues his hankering for production abundance instead of some Spartan 1930s feel and a camera that always rests on and probes tremendous Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road (2008)), who is in virtually every shot and has stated that the 14 week shoot of the miniseries was her hardest since Titanic (1997).
As Part 1 ends, my feeling was that Caine's novel could be drawn out to these 336 minutes without problems, but by Part 4 I did feel that the story was getting stretched to some degree. The miniseries avoids most of the format's pitfalls very well, partly due to fine images that heighten a kind of simple beauty (by Edward Lachman (Carol (2015))), and partly due to some great actors: Besides Winslet, Morgan Turner (Quitters (2015)) as young Veda, Guy Pearce (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)) as Monty and especially Brían F. O'Byrne (Jimmy's Hall (2014)) as Bert is excellent.
In the final part, Mildred's trials do bend over into the soapish, unfortunately, and the sometimes pitiful Mildred Pierce of this reiteration is less heartbreaking than formidable Joan Crawford's portrayals in the 1945 movie version.
Haynes' Mildred Pierce is still a handsome and well-acted luxury to watch.

Best episode:

Part 1: Written by: Haynes, Raymond. Directed by: Haynes
Mildred becomes a single mother of two and has to take a job as a waitress, - which is shown in amusing, precise details.

Related posts:

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Evan Rachel Wood as adult Veda Pierce in Todd Haynes' Mildred Pierce

Kate Winslet as Todd Haynes' Mildred Pierce

Watch the trailer for the miniseries here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: None (TV-miniseries)
= Uncertain
[Mildred Pierce's premiere ratings fell from a 1.2 mil. viewers to around a mil. in the following parts, which isn't too impressive. The miniseries did draw praise critically and a long list of Emmy nominations, winning 5; for Winslet, Pearce, Art Direction, Casting and Music Composition. Mildred Pierce is rotten at 50 % with a 6.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes, but note that this is only based on 6 reviews.]

What do you think of Mildred Pierce?

Red State (2011) or, End of Days II

♥♥♥♥♥

3 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Parks (lost to Michael Shannon for Boardwalk Empire S2)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (lost to Agnieszka Grochowska for In Darkness)
Best Practical Effects (lost to Haywire)

+ Wildest Movie of the Year
+ Best Independent Movie of the Year

The gritty-cool poster for Kevin Smith's Red State

Three high school friends find a middle-aged woman online, who wants to screw them. But as they search her out, they walk right into a trap set up by a hateful, Christian doomsday sect.

Red State is a hard-boiled, crazy, cool little indie film, replete with biting societal criticism of both government and religious fanaticism and bolstered by vivid action and pitch black (sometimes nearly bizarre) humor by writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks (1994)). It is well-written and dazzlingly carried out with very limited funds, (the budget for special effects were reportedly just 5,000 $.)
Red State has some fantastic performances; by John Goodman (Flight (2012)) and particularly by Melissa Leo (Flight) and Michael Parks (Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)), who plays the deluded father in the film with an intensity and gusto that simply knocks you over: In his long speech scene, his charisma and rationale almost gets us to understand his congregation.
The film is intermittently very dark, funny and scary. A wild ride and probably the most kick-ass piece of independent American film-making of 2011.
Smith has several projects in the making; he is involved with the filming of Holidays right now, a horror movie that he both stars in and co-directs, with several others. He is also debuting his new movie Yoga Hosers, the sequel to Tusk (2014), later this year.

Related posts:
 

Kevin Smith: Tusk (2014) - Smith goes all-out wack
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Cop Out (2010) or, A Couple of Dicks 

Michael Parks' lunacy is quite convincing in Kevin Smith's Red State

John Goodman is a no-bullshit type government agent in Kevin Smith's Red State

Watch Kevin Smith introduce the teaser for the movie here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 1.8 mil. $ + 3 mil. $ from VoD
= Even Steven
[Red State's distribution was as controversial if not more controversial than the film itself: After its Sundance screening, Smith had said publicly that he would sell the distribution right auction-style, so he gave the crowd long faces when he told them after the screening that that wouldn't be the case anyway; because he would sell the rights to himself for 20 $, and that he thinks that it is the way forward for independent filmmakers of today, - distributing their own films and avoiding the distributor's often sizable box office cut. Smith then showed Red State for a week in his pal Quentin Tarantino's cinema in Los Angeles and went on a roadshow in North America, starting in Radio City Music Hall, with the film and himself, whereupon it was released to VoD and video. The reception to the film has been wildly mixed, and Smith has burned many bridges for himself with his 'auction', but Red State has been praised by peers such as Richard Kelly, Tarantino and Ben Affleck. Note that the VoD-figure listed above comes from Smith and could be misleading.]

What do you think of Red State?

The Equalizer (2014) or, Mr. Swift Justice

♥♥♥♥♥

A simple, neat poster for Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer

  
Antoine Fuqua (Olympus Has Fallen (2013)) made a great villain out of Denzel Washington (Flight (2012)) in his break-out movie, which also won Washington his Best Actor Oscar, tough crime drama masterpiece Training Day (2001). It escalated both of their careers and was also a landmark for African-Americans, as Washington was the first black man to take the Best Actor Oscar, although the fact that he got it for playing a despicable, violent, drug-taking, morally reprehensible character bothered some. This may be an indirect reasoning for the matching in this year's The Equalizer, in which Fuqua directs Washington again, but this time as a straight-as-an-arrow vigilante hero, making up or 'equalizing', if you will excuse the pun, their past misdemeanor in the African-American mirror of self-reckoning.

McCall is a tough, aging guy who is content with a job at the Home Depot, until his local acquaintance, a young woman who is a prostitute from an Eastern European country, gets in trouble with some nasty Russian hoodlums ...

The Equalizer isn't a societally relevant, troubling, groundbreaking film as Training Day was. Instead, it is a potent revenge thriller, based on a CBS TV-series (1985-89), where Washington hands it out to some really ugly Russians in Boston. For those of us who'll never tire of watching ugly Russian mobsters take beatings and some incidental bullets, Equalizer is a joy. - Most people who have experienced random violence will find it easy to revel in having a guy like Washington clean up the tables of rot which society can't manage by itself.
Richard Wenk (16 Blocks (2006)) has written the simple, solid script. Dissatisfied customers will claim that Equalizer is too much at times, - but I'll say they ordered the wrong dish. This dish is revenge, and that's gotta be cold, just as it is here.
The script's most satisfying turn in my opinion is its finale, SPOILER which is set inside the Home Depot where our hero works: As the militarized Russians enter the Home (Mart), they've sort of asked for what's coming, haven't they? Needless to say, such a location abounds with booby-trap materials...
The Equalizer first of all has bad-ass Washington going for it, and fans of the great will appreciate hit turn here, even if it isn't among his dramatically powerful films. The Equalizer is also a tad long at 131 minutes. - It doesn't have annoyingly superfluous passages but just takes its time telling its story. There's well-produced, fine, professional photography by Mauro Fiore (Avatar (2009)) and a good, tight, slightly Drive (2011)-reminiscent score by Harry Gregson-Williams (Deja Vu (2006)).

The nasty villain is played effectively by New Zealander Marton Csokas (Noah (2014)), who gave me goosebumps at least once. Happening young actress Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass (2010)) is alright as an imperiled prostitute; and David Harbour (Revolutionary Road (2008)) is great as a troubled corrupt cop.
The Equalizer is a vigilante movie with its heart in the right place. I liked the way that the film takes its time closing up shop as well, and finally I must say that I loved the last scene SPOILER of Washington in the American diner, answering some stranger's distress post on Craigslist, just because he can. The Equalizer is all about that guy. The good guy that we all hope is out there.

Watch the excellent trailer for the film here

Cost: 55 mil. $
Box office: 191.3 mil. $ and counting
= Big hit
[The Equalizer continued Washington's impressive box office sway in the US, where it opened first with a 35 mil. $ opening weekend and broke some records, including biggest R-rated September opening as well as becoming Fuqua's best weekend opening. The film has also made decent business abroad and Fuqua has announced interest in a sequel with writer Wenk, if Washington wants to...]

What do you think of The Equalizer?

Flight (2012) - Character study masterpiece from Zemeckis and Washington

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Drama of the Year

Denzel Washington at his very best, in Robert Zemeckis' Flight

Captain Whip Whitaker lands a crashing airplane so that only 6 of the passengers die. His drug- and alcohol abuse, however, is against him, while he desperately steers his lie-clouded life onwards in the aftermath.
Great American director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future (1985)) has here made his best film yet, his first actual masterpiece. Flight impresses by moving from one outstanding scene to the next, unpredictable to the last one. The film is like a shark in the water and not, as the old Woody Allen joke continues, a dead shark.
An Oscar-nominated Denzel Washington (Training Day (2001)) gives the performance of a lifetime, commanding his character spectacularly, and everyone else follows his lead: John Goodman (The Big Lebowski (1998)), Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)), Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda (2004), Kelly Reilly (Me and Orson Welles (2008)), James Badge Dale (The Departed (2006), Tamara Tunie (Wall Street (1987)) and Melissa Leo (Frozen River (2008)).
The flight crash is especially spectacular and real edge-of-your-seat-exciti. For anyone with anything resembling discomfort or fear of flying, that scene is sheer terror.
The photography is eminent (by Don Burgess (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)). Several scenes are held for a long time, building a fierce intensity, in the Oscar-nominated script by John Gatins (Coach Carter (2005)).
Flight is a film about alcoholism, existential flight - and flying. It is thought-provoking and rock-solid.
As we re-watch Flight over and over again, we can also look forward to Washington's next movie, a more traditional vigilante actioner titled The Equalizer (2014) and Zemeckis' next, a period drama about the Twin Tower high wire artist of 1974 played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt called To Reach for the Stars (2015).

Related posts:

Robert Zemeckis:  2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Back to the Future Part III (1990) or, The DeLorean Time Traveler's Last Adventure 
Back to the Future Part II (1989) or, The DeLorean Time Traveler Returns 
Back to the Future (1985) or, The DeLorean Time Traveler

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 31 mil. $
Box office: 161.7 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Flight?
What other movies command the subject of alcoholism as powerfully in your opinion?