Hey folks, Harry here with a review from Pokey of ECKS VS SEVER that seems really reasoned and thought out. Sounds like the film has a lot of talent being thrown about by a terrible script - at least as Pokey describes it. Here ya go...
Hey Harry. Moriarty. Pokey here. I went to a preview screening of Warner Bros.' "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" this week. Late last year you posted my review of Michael Mann's "Ali", and early in the summer you posted my review of "Juwanna Mann."
Okay. "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever." What did Shakespeare say in "Macbeth" about a "tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"? Well, when he wrote that he must have been in Nostradamus mode and thinking about this movie. Alright, it's certainly unfair of me to refer to Thai director Wych Kaosayananda -- unwisely billed as "Kaos" in this film -- as an idiot because I don't know him. Hell, to be the first Thai director who convinces Hollywood to give him a shot on a big-budget studio film -- he's got to be pretty smart. In real life. But in the context of this movie, Shakespeare's golden words have never rung truer.
Simply put, "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" is full of explosions; full of spectacular stunts; full of hand-to-hand combat scenes; full of guns, bullets, and more people getting blown away than in the bloodiest movies of Schwarzenegger's and Stallone's heyday...and you just don't care. It's all up there on the screen, but it's not presented in a way that is all that exciting.
The film doesn't even give itself a chance, this due to the incomprehensibility of the plot. Now, I'm all for dense plots that require the audience to work at least a little. But this movie doesn't even know what it is doing itself. It tries to be clever about who the real good guys and the real bad guys are; and what their previous relationships were and how they morphed into what their current relationships are; and how the bad guy who for a time becomes a good guy then becomes a bad guy again, but a different kind of bad guy than he was before... This film mires itself in unnecessary confusion. Kind of like the cinematic equivalent of the Winchester Mystery House -- so many doorways and hallways and stairwells in there for no particular reason that several of them just wind up going nowhere except into a wall or a dead end.
The actors? Lucy Liu is nice to look at for the first few minutes you see her, but after awhile she just fades into the boredom of the screen world around her. Antonio Banderas sleepwalks his way through the movie. Gregg Henry is a villain without any layers whatsoever. The beautiful and talented Talisa Soto is wasted. As is Ray "Darth Maul"/"Toad" Park. (More on that later).
Director Kaos falls into the same vein of the majority of the young directors championed by the studios in recent years: A lot of bang and a lot of flash, but in the end someone who does not seem to much understand the CRAFT of directing at all. Kaos is at his "best" during the action scenes. But even then, amid all the stylized stunts and explosions, a person paying close attention will see that he does not quite grasp basic things like pacing, effective staging, and how to create shots that cut together well. Further, a lot of the stuff he gives us is gratuitous, and does little to add to the big picture of the scene. So we follow a guy as he falls off of a building all the way down until he crashes through the roof of a car. Big deal. There's no point to it in the context of the scene.
There are quite a few action scenes in the film that SHOULD be good, but they turn out barely competent and not very interesting. There's a motorcycle chase scene that is just offensively boring. The way the chase is set up -- a shot of Banderas eyeing a fallen motorcycle that will allow him to chase after Liu -- tells the audience, "Something cool and exciting is going to happen here." (This set-up to an action sequence is a very important element of the James Bond films going back to the early 70's, and has become standard in action films.) But when the actual chase takes place... Again, Shakespeare said it best. There's actually a point in the scene where it looks and FEELS like Liu and Banderas are going no more than 30 mph. A chase scene that feels like it belongs more in "The Straight Story" than in any other movie. (I think even Richard Farnsworth could have caught up to Liu's motorcycle in that lawnmower of his.)
And that is talking about the best stuff in the film -- the sub-par action scenes. Unfortunately, when things come down to a smaller scale everything is just lost. The "dramatic" scenes are after-thoughts. The acting is below average-to-bad (and not helped along by a script containing some real groan-worthy dialogue).
A really telling scene is near the end, when Ray Park goes toe-to-toe with Lucy Liu. Now first let me say that Park is TOTALLY wasted in this movie. He's one of the major characters, and is in every other scene. But for 95% of his screen time he's just talking. Not knocking heads. Not even displaying a gun. Just talking. Now, I don't want to begrudge Park a shot at being seen as a legitimate dramatic actor. Hell, give him a role where he just talks. Fine by me. But if there is one film where he should be kicking ass and taking names more often than not, it's this one. Alright, back to that fight scene near the end between him and Liu -- Park's only fight scene in the film. There is rarely a shot where you see his full body. You can SENSE that he's doing some cool things with his body, but you can also see that a lot of those things are happening outside of the frame. Or you can see that he was about to do something cool before that last cut. Speaking of which, this film is the latest to employ that annoying habit of over-editing fight scenes with guys who are best seen in long, uninterrupted shots. (Perhaps this was done to make Lucy Liu seem a more credible combatant alongside Park.) Then, there are a couple of shots where we DO see Park's full body and he does some spectacular moves -- but then the camera placement is all wrong, so 70% of the impact of those moves is squandered. (For example, there was one move Park did where I said to myself, "That was an awesome move. I know it's awesome because I could actually see him do it in 'Phantom Menace.'")
If you choose to wait for video/DVD, take comfort in knowing that absolutely nothing will be lost watching it on the small screen. Actually, it may even be better. You won't be assaulted by the heavy-handed score and soundtrack in surroundsound.
Let me end this by having the bald audacity to address a couple of people, or perhaps the people working for them:
Lucy Liu... I like you lady, but you've got to stop playing these caricatures. I know the paydays you've been having lately are real good, but start thinking about your longevity in this business. Stop being a star and start being an actress, at least some of the time.
Antonio Banderas... Man, you were the acting GOD way back when. "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." "Tie Me Up Tie Me Down." "Law of Desire" (in what is definitely the bravest role I have EVER seen taken by an actor -- I'm talking about the heterosexual Banderas, a heartthrob actor back then much more than now, playing a gay role that required graphic leave-nothing-to-the-imagination simulation of gay sex. Would Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise ever love their craft enough to do THAT?!). You were THE living definition of what an actor should be! Then you came to Hollywood. Yeah, you have more fame, and multitudes more money. But you've also fallen into the same fate of fairly recent foreign talents whose work provided a bridge to America, like John Woo, Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan, Penelope Cruise, and several others. Namely, your American work, while much more financially lucrative, doesn't even begin to approach the quality of your work in your pre-American days. Mr. Banderas, take a pay cut, fly to Spain, and sign up for Almodovar's next film. (Seeing you two together at the Academy Awards a couple of years ago, and seeing you pulling Almodovar offstage and rescuing us all from his never-ending acceptance speech, only reminded me of the magic you two share, and that you should be the Toshiro Mifune to his Akira Kurosawa.) I know it's unrealistic for you to leave this Hollywood fluff behind. Even I don't advocate you vacating Tinseltown. But at least squeeze some quality projects in between the high-paying fluff. You'll always be one of my favorites based on those early films you did. But I KNOW you still have a lot of brilliant work in you! I want to see it.
And with that plea, I'm out.
- Pokey
