By Roger Moore
FILM: Son of a Gun
CAST: Brendan Thwaites, Ewan McGregor, Alicia Vikander
DIRECTION: Julius Avery
You’ve never seen Ewan McGregor quite like this— all sadistic and ruthless and what not.
In Son of a Gun, he plays Brendan, an escaped convict who busts out of the joint, does a job and is double-crossed. And Brendan isn’t pleased with what he must do to the henchmen of the guy who double-crossed him, all that “shouting” and pleading.
“It’s all, ‘Oh please Nooo,’” he purrs in that once-sweet Scottish burr. “’NOT the thumbs! I’m just learnin’ the piano!”
Brendan, as we’ve already seen, is capable of just about anything. So heaven help the fellow, and his thumbs, whom he’s addressing.
Son of a Gun is a quite-conventional Australian prison thriller that morphs into a passable heist picture. McGregor isn’t the lead, that’s the young Brendan Thwaites of Maleficent, an Aussie hunk who plays a kid, JR, whom Brendan takes under his protection in prison. Upon getting out, JR finds himself forced into the criminal underworld where Brendan was more at home, where the Russian mobster Sam (Jacek Koman) presides.
The kid and the older con are hurled into a not-quite-impossible heist. First-time feature writer-director Julius Avery put much of his energy into cooking up character traits and illustrating them visually. Brendan and JR are both avid chess buffs. No real explanation how or why, they just know all about “sacrificial pawns” and Bobby Fischer’s use of the “Son of My Sorrow” strategy.
There’s a decent car chase and a few realistically-rendered shootouts.
Thwaites is OK in a role that demands mostly passivity out of him.
McGregor is the one with his work cut out for him here, looking tough amongst veteran Australian screen toughs, swapping hard-bitten lines with the best of them.
“When’d they let you out?”
“They DIDN’T.”
The milieu — coastal-industrial Australia — is engrossing, with its arms dealers and crazed thugs of every age. But what sells Son of a Gun is McGregor’s presence and performance as a guy using and mentoring a gullible but gutsy young man, trying to impart the wisdom of the wizened con to a kid who needs to grow up, fast. — TNS
Welcome to Video game country
By Roger Moore
FILM: Vice
CAST: Thomas Jane, Bruce Willis, Ambyr Childers, Jonathan Schaech
DIRECTION: Brian A Miller
Bruce Willis has aged into a fit, bald menace, a character actor best-suited to chewy supporting parts in ensemble action pictures. “Has been?” Maybe. He should be looking at cable TV scripts.
Thomas Jane, on the other hand, is a never-was, or never-quite was. He seems to be a player doomed to play an endless procession of unshaven cops.
But he is every bit as good as Willis when it comes to delivering a one-liner with panache. And Roy does exactly that in this film, as a cop trying to track down an escaped “artificial”, a flesh-and-blood clone/robot used as fodder for fantasies at the pricey new resort Vice, which Julian Michaels (Willis) runs.
Vice is a low-budget thriller that borrows heavily from Blade Runner and Westworld, and serves as an answer to the question “How much sci-fi can you get when you shoot your $10mn film in Mobile, Alabama?” The answer is, “Quite a lot” — with modernist buildings, striking control room sets and the city’s docks serving as a backdrop.
Vice is “a place where there are no laws, no rules and no consequences” Julian says in its TV ads. But that unfettered giving in to one’s basest desires tends to spill over into the real city, which is sort this script’s commentary on video game, TV show and movie violence. Only it isn’t. It is, however, why Roy hates the place. His boss refuses to let him go into Vice to chase criminals. So naturally, that’s what Roy does, guns and one-liners blazing.
It’s all rather malnourished, but not nearly as sad as one might expect. Jane turns up in films at this level all the time, and always gives fair value. Willis is just now getting used to the Vice budget era in his work. And if he doesn’t give us more than he figures he was paid for, at least he’s adept at hiding any embarrassment at the low rent district his career has parked in. -TNS
Uplifting messages
FILM: Russell Madness
CAST: John Ratzenberger, Fred Willard, David Milchard along with talking animal stars voiced by Will Sasso and Sean Giambrone
DIRECTION: Robert Vince
Russell Madness tells the story of Russell, an undersized but big-hearted terrier who dreams of having a family of his own. After running away from his current pet store residence, Russell gets taken in by the Ferraros, a family desperate to revive their grandfather’s pro-wrestling arena. That’s when they discover their new pet pooch has incredible wrestling skills.
With help from his coach, Hunk, a savvy and hilarious monkey, Russell rockets to the top of the pro-wrestling world and becomes a famous sports superstar. But when a dishonest promoter double-crosses the Ferraros, Russell will face his biggest challenge and discover that the strongest tag team is family.
Russell Mania, which is about the importance of family with many uplifting messages, is charming, like a cute puppy! Serious adults may roll their eyes, but a 6- or 7-year-old will find it hilarious.
DVDs courtesy: Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha
