39. John Wick - my last 2014 viewing

This film was viewed on February 16th as an OnDemand purchase. Since I had watched The Equalizer, I figured that I need to see this to round out the Fall films that pertained to this subject. John Wick is directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch (who's role as co-director was uncredited) and it stars Johnny Utah on the wrong side of the law as a retired assassin/badass who comes out of retirement to right the wrong of his dog being killed...

Bad choice by the villains

Wick's wife, played in flashbacks by Bridget Moynahan, dies of an unknown illness and he's devastated. She posthumously sends him a puppy to help him get over her death. The puppy takes a liking to Wick, despite the fact that he never seems to feed him or take him for a walk, and naturally Wick gets attached to the puppy. Their first outing together they go for a drive in Wick's wicked awesome 1969 Mustang Mach 1...

Amazingly, it stays pristine throughout multiple firefights.

Wick is allowed access to a private airport and he just drives it real fast back and forth on a runway while screaming. It kind of appears that he's going to kill himself but not really. I'm not sure ofthe meaning of this scene other than to show off what a cool car can do. While at a gas station, a Russian mobster (what a surprise!) takes a liking to the car and offers to buy it from Wick, who in turn tells the dude to go pound sand. Like most Russian mobsters, they don't like being told "no" and later that evening they break into Wick's home, beat him up, kill the dog and take the car. It is now officially on! Now keep in mind that the Russians commit the cardinal cinema sin of leaving the protagonist alive. They killed his dog. They took his awesome car. Why not complete the trifecta by killing him? When villains are that stupid they deserve to be killed.

Which is exactly what Wick does. It turns out the punk that took his car is the son of a senior Russian mob official who previously used Wick's services as an assassin. Wick was the best most badass assassin in the city. Mobster Dad is none too pleased with his son's choice. He knows how good Wick is at killing people but he sends a team to take care of Wick but he dispatches them in about 80 seconds. This is pretty much the whole film. It's like they took DNA from Taken, Bourne and Road to Perdition to make John Wick. Wick gets closer to the mobster's son and leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. He eventually kills the punk mobster and turns his attentions to the father. The finally of the film is Wick and the Russian boss duking it out a la Riggs versus Mr. Joshua from Lethal Weapon.

A kung-fu battle to the death in the rain featuring two men, one of whom in theory wouldn't stand a chance against the other. Since Lethal Weapon was 27 years ago, no one will recall the similarities.

This film was mildly entertaining. I would've like this film 10-13 years ago a lot more but there was very little originality here. Much like The Equalizer and A Walk Among he Tombstones. Of the three, this was the best. It was a much faster pace then Neeson's entry and less stupid than the Denzel's entry. Much like the other two films,  there is the climactic end involves rain (it's raining at the end of Tombstones and Equalizer uses a store's sprinkler system as a substitute). There are some cornball moments, like the fact that there's a high class hotel in NYC that caters to the underworld types where they payment is in the form of gold coins (who the f*ck thought that up?). Does the hotel have a rewards program that allow a person to earn points towards free stays like Marriott Rewards or Hilton Honors. Or that there are all these firefights going on in public and cops are nowhere near the place. I'm fine with suspending disbelief but there's a limit. 

Ugh! I'm going to have to consider taking a break from these types of films. At least Reeves probably donated a portion of his salary as he usually does after filming this. Or he at least did it as a favor to Leitch and Strahelski, whom he's work with before (they worked with Reeves on the Matrix Trilogy as stunt doubles) since this was their first time behind the directors chair. To say the least, this was a mildly disappointing way to close out the 2014 film viewing season. I had two indie films in my Netflix queue but never bothered to get around to them. Sometimes you eat the bar. Sometimes the bar eats you. Thank you for your time.

38. Force Majeure

An OnDemand viewing on February 8th. This Swedish film got a late December 2014 U.S. release. The film was written and directed by Ruben Ostlund, who has done some interesting work over the last 20 years. Granted, I've never heard of anything he's done but it sounds interesting. The film takes place at a luxury hotel in the French alps where a young family; Tomas (father), Ebba (mother), Vera and Harry (the kids) are enjoying a ski vacation.

While eating lunch on the 2nd day, there is a controlled avalanche that gives the appearance that it is definitely not in control...

Suffice to say there's a panic and Ebba tries to gather the kids to flee. You can see Tomas make a half-hearted grab for Harry and bolts out of there leaving his family behind. It turns out that the panic was unnecessary and nothing was harmed. Tomas returns to his family as if it's no big deal. This really grinds Ebba's gears as she's not happy her husband left them there. When she brings it up, Tomas denies her version of the events and it really sets her off. She brings it up at a party with 2 friends who come to visit them (which causes an argument between the couple).

It eats away at Ebba and eventually Tomas has a breakdown and sobbingly admits his faults to Ebba. On their last day of skiing, the weather conditions are not optimum but they go anyway despite Ebba's reservations. In a thick fog, they lose Ebba, who was bring up the rear, and Tomas has to go "rescue" her. All is seemingly fine. As they're leaving on a bus back down the mountain, Ebba has a bit of freak out due to the multiple k-turns the driver has to make, it's mountain for crying out loud! The bus empties and the passengers walk down the mountain, sans luggage. End of film.

This was a really good film minimalist film that relies heavily on acting and dialogue. It had a bit of everything, comedy, drama and a little action as well. Tomas and Ebba are a good looking couple with good looking kids. A great life! Ebba's image of her family are shattered when Tomas runs off and she has a rough time dealing with. You can see it eat away at her until she finally goes off in front of Mats and Fanni. Tomas blows it off as nothing but after they discuss the incident with Mats and Fanni, the guilt starts to eat away at him until he breaks down. The film runs nearly 2 hours but it goes by quickly and I didn't see the need for it to take another run through the editing room like most films. Very nicely done. The thing that got me was if the rescue was staged by Ebba. After Tomas brings her back, she does not appear injured and they go on their merry way back to the lodge and eventually leave. Since she didn't appear injured, she just lost the others in the fog, did she fake everything so Tomas could redeem himself?

The only real issue I had was the ending. Why was it necessary for Ebba to freak out on the bus? I kind of felt that it belittled her character because she got off the bus and expected Tomas to follow her and bring the kids. That's my only issue and it doesn't change my opinion of the film. It was a very nice change of pace and I recommend seeing it. Thank you for your time.

Whalers nostalgia

Apparently, Evander Kane is not happy with being on the Winnipeg Jets. This prompted an article about the 10 worst break-ups in NHL history. Normally I could care less about what's going on with the Winnipeg Jets in February but the story has been making the rounds and Kane appears to be on the trading block. What caught my eye was the 9th worst break-up on the list, Brendan Shanahan and the Hartford Whalers. I read the article and it got me thinking, it was a bad break-up and it sealed the fate of the Whalers being in Hartford.

What the piece fails to mention was what the Whalers gave up to get Shanahan. The Whalers traded a young defenseman (just 20 years old) by the name of Chris Pronger. Pronger was the 2nd player taken in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft and in a long standing franchise tradition of giving up on young players (it's a long list) the Whalers mortgaged their future and it backfired. Badly. Shanahan played 1 full season in Hartford and was traded 2 games into the 1996-97 season (I booed him at the home opener).  At the end of the 1996-97 season, Shanahan would be sipping champagne from the Stanley Cup as a member of the Detroit Red Wings (the 1st of three Stanley Cup Championships during his time in Detroit) and the Whalers would be leaving Hartford.

Jerk!

What would become of Pronger you ask? Pronger would play 9 seasons in St. Louis as the defensive anchor. Under Coach Joel Quenneville (former Whaler!), Pronger would be named to 7 All-Star teams, win both the Norris Trophy (league' s best defenseman) and the Hart Trophy (league MVP) for a Blues team that won the President's Trophy in 1999-2000 season. Pronger would also lead a down trodden Oilers franchise to the Stanley Cup finals in 2006 (the Oilers have terrible since then) and eventually win his own Stanley Cup in 2007 when the Ducks defeated the Senators.

See how well that worked out for everyone?

37. The Drop

This was an OnDemand viewing on Friday January 30th. Directed by Belgian Michael Roskam and starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandalfini in one of his last roles before his untimely death. Hardy is Bob Saginowski, a bartender at a Brooklyn dive bar that serves as a "drop" location for unlaundered mob money. Bob works with Marv (Gandolfini), who used to own the bar, called Cousin Marv's, before being pushed out by a Chechen organized crime group. Suffice to say, Marv is a little bitter about being losing the bar and being relegated to a 3rd class citizen within the organized crime social structure.

The film opens at the bar with Bob and the regulars toasting an neighborhood guy Richie Whelan who was murdered 10 years ago (Richie's murder is an important plot point so bear with me).  As Bob is walking home after work, he finds a pit bull puppy in a garbage can of Nadia (Rapace). Nadia helps Bob care for the injured dog and Bob leaves the dog with her while he decides to either keep it or give it over to a shelter. The next night as the bar is closing, two masked gunmen rob the place of $5k in cash. Bob notices that one of them is wearing a broken wrist watch and actually mentions in to the police. Now Marv and Bob are not made men nor do the have the connections they once had but they still live by the mob code of omerta, which simply means don't talk to the cops about anything. It doesn't take long for the Chechen mobsters to show up and start asking questions and they're not too happy about the fact that Bob "cooperated" with the cops. They also want to see if Bob and Marv know a guy who's in the back of van (in not too good of shape) and that they want their money.

Bod decides to keep the dog and names him Rocco. He also starts to develop a nice relationship with Nadia. Bob runs into Eric Deeds and he tells Bob that the dog is his and he wants it back. While opening the bar one afternoon there's a severed arm, with a broken watch, sent to them and some bloody money. Bob casually preps it for disposal and Eric Deeds shows up again (asking for a Zima for crying out loud). Marv  lets Bob know that Deeds is a local thug who has taken credit for killing Whelan. The Chechens get their money back and they tell Marv that the bar will open up for drops beginning on Super Bowl Sunday. In the mean time Deeds is really giving Bob are hard time and demands $10k for Rocco.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Marv orchestrated the robbery at the bar and after killing the last person who knows he's involved, he decides to bring Deeds in to rob the bar after the Super Bowl. Marv calls in sick on super sunday which Bob finds suspicious. He gets even more suspicious when Deeds shows up with Nadia. With the bar empty, Deeds makes his move to rob the bar and even threatens Nadia. Bob then tells the story of Richie Whelan's death, it turns out that Marv was a loan shark and Richie was into him for a lot of money. Richie wins big at a casino and looks to pay Marv back but Marv has been skimming, so Richie has to go. Bob reveals that it was he who killed Whelan and took care of the body. Then he shoots Deeds. Marv, who prepped his car to dispose of Deed's body after the robbery, is executed. The film ends with the detective investigating the robbery informing Bob that Deeds had been taking credit or Whelan's death for years but he was actually in a mental institution for observation the night of Whelan's disappearance and that Deeds has gone missing. The detective turns to Bob as he's leaving and says, "no one ever sees you coming do they?"

Roskam did a nice job of painting a grim portrait of life around Cousin Marv's bar and the lives of everyone in this section of Brooklyn. AThings are dark, gritty and there's not a lot of hope but people carry on anyway. The pace is sometimes slow but never boring and with just enough intrigue to keep things moving along. Marv is not happy with his drop in status and his life is so terrible that he has to risk robbing the drop to get out. Gandolfini was excellent in his performance but was overshadowed by Hardy. Bob Saginowski comes off as a bit of a simpleton but it's not the case. He lulls you to sleep so you'll drop your guard. The Drop reminded me a bit of Killing Them Softly, except that this film was much better. I look forward to seeing more features directed by Roskam and will make at least a half hearted attempt to see his other films.