REVIEW

Statham steals the movie

 By Connie Ogle

 FILM: Parker

CAST: Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Wendell Pierce

DIRECTION: Taylor Hackford

Based on a novel in a series by Richard Stark, the alter ego of the late, great Donald E Westlake, Parker is basically a heist-and-payback movie. But it’s made with such skill and smarts that it stands above such eye-rolling blow-’em-up fare as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Last Stand.

As played by the ever-stoic Jason Statham (the Transporter and Expendables films), Parker is more anti-hero than hero: He operates on the wrong side of the law, but he’s got a complicated code of ethics.

He will steal — and steal quite unremorsefully — but only from people who can afford it, he says. If you stumble into one of the many crimes he commits, he won’t hurt you as long as you do exactly what he tells you to do. He doesn’t go looking to hurt innocents. But all bets are off if you don’t follow directions, and woe unto anyone who dares to cheat him.

A double-cross is precisely what happens in the opening scenes of Parker: A crew carries out a daring robbery at the Ohio State Fair. The heist does not run smoothly — not all the thieves in this bunch are as detail-oriented as Parker — and after their escape, the second in command, the menacing Melander (Michael Chiklis of The Shield and Vegas), demands that Parker turn over his share of the profits to help finance the next job. “It’s the score of a lifetime,” he tells Parker.

Like any sensible individual who hears those words, Parker is skeptical. So he refuses and gets shot, robbed and dumped at the side of the road for his trouble.

The rest of the movie follows what happens when Parker recovers and decides to get his money back from — and revenge on — the guys who left him for dead. This requires him to figure out precisely what the next job is and where it’s happening. The road to payback leads him to Palm Beach County, where the movie was partially filmed, and into the orbit of Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), a real estate agent dying for her first commission.

Directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray, Proof of Life), Parker is not without its absurdities. Melander is resourceful, but could he and his gang really commandeer a West Palm Beach fire truck? Patti Lupone goes a bit over the top as Lopez’s super-ethnic mama, and Lopez gets stuck with a couple of unfortunate ditzy moments, courtesy of the script by John J McLaughlin (Hitchcock, Black Swan).

But Statham, not always the most charismatic of actors, turns out to be a good choice to play the taciturn thief. He looks like the sort of guy who stands a good chance of getting out of any tight corner, even if his assailant is armed and he’s not.

Even the people who griped about Tom Cruise being cast as the towering Jack Reacher will have to admit Statham fits nicely in Parker’s shoes. — The Miami Herald/MCT

(DVD courtesy:

Kings Electronics, Doha)

A dark comedy

 By Moira Macdonald

FILM: The Oranges

CAST: Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Leighton Meester, Allison Janney, Alia Shawkat, Adam Brody, Sam Rosen

DIRECTION: Julian Farino

A husband (Hugh Laurie) and wife (Catherine Keener), currently estranged, meet by accident in a restaurant. He strides toward her, determined to make the most of an awkward situation; she, looking at him, tries to smile but it keeps fading away, like an engine that sputters but won’t start.

The Oranges, a superbly cast dark comedy directed by Julian Farino and set in the suburb of West Orange, New Jersey, is full of tiny moments like this that feel utterly real; it’s a familiar story made fresh by actors who know how to make each breath matter.

The idea of discontent simmering under the perfect exterior of suburbia has been around for a long time, and lesser actors might have made The Oranges forgettable. It’s the story of two families, longtime neighbours and best friends, who face crisis one holiday season when Nina (Leighton Meester), rebellious early-20s daughter of Terry (Oliver Platt) and Cathy Ostroff (Allison Janney), begins an affair with twice-her-age David Walling (Laurie). David is married to Paige (Keener) and lives across the street. Consequences are emotionally devastating, for all involved.

That said, it’s surprising how funny The Oranges can be. Platt and Janney, playing a married couple hit by a thunderbolt, are a dream team (she’s sharp, he’s soft); Alia Shawkat, as David and Paige’s grown daughter, adds wry commentary to the mix, though you wish her character were fleshed out more; Sam Rosen, a late arrival to the action, has a charming cluelessness as Nina’s hapless fiance.

But the real story’s in that broken smile of Keener’s, or in the way Laurie’s sad-eyed character stares at Nina as if he’s trying to reconcile the little girl across the street with this new, appealing woman, or in how Nina, young and callow, focuses in on happiness, believing that it’s all that matters.

All of the characters come together for the final act and you find yourself, improbably, wishing all of them well. Though its comedy is often darker than a winter night, The Oranges, ultimately, treats its people kindly. - The Seattle Times/MCT

(DVD courtesy:

Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha)