Yes, I know. This post is a few weeks late. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to see everything as soon as it comes out and only caught up with “Salt” and “Eat Pray Love” this last week. So please be kind and rewind your brains to early August. Or pretend that what you’re reading here is a way-early DVD review from a real go-getter. My original plan was to wait for the DVD releases, but that was before witnessing the surprise box-office stamina of “The Expendables.” My expectation was that Stallone’s ode to the 80s would top off somewhere below $80 million, and yet after three weeks of release it continues to chug right along earning another $10 million this weekend for a total of $83 million.
That’s pretty impressive for a non-sequel, non-franchise action film, especially one with the added weight of being R-rated. You’ll never catch me trying to publicly predict the how and why of the box office, but a look at “Salt” and “Eat Pray Love” did bring to mind certain elements of “The Expendables” that helped me to respect it as something more than just a thick-necked gun and run (not that that’s a bad thing) and maybe help somewhat to explain its unexpected shelf-life.
There’s a lot to like about Angelina Jolie’s PG-13 “Salt,” and even though the Oscar-winner looks a little frail to be dispatching nameless henchmen, there’s no doubt she’s one of the few movie stars, male or female, still able to artistically and commercially carry a picture all on her own. Better yet, after a ten-year absence from the action genre, director Philip Noyce returns in fine form with his old-school skill of putting together the kind of exciting action sequences that made Harrison Ford’s two Jack Ryan pictures so memorable. In this awful era of The Paul Greengrass, what a treat it is to comprehend what’s happening during a car chase, what a rarity to enjoy gunfights structured in a way that allow you to understand the geography of who’s killing whom.
Well-paced, with an excellent supporting performance from Liev Schreiber (who, if Hollywood had a lick of sense, would be cast as the next Jack Ryan), and even patriotic in spots, “Salt” delivers a fine old time at the movies. But it does feel like a relic, like something you watched on HBO a zillion times during the summer of ’83. That’s not necessarily a negative. But it does take something away from what could’ve felt like a more vital, urgent and relevant story.
We currently live in a world packed with very real dangers courtesy of Islamic terrorism, North Korea, Iran and Marxists who with the help of Oliver Stone are sowing seeds of anti-Americanism South of the Border. And still, though set in the present, “Salt” chooses Russians for its villains. Stranger still, they aren’t even present-day Russians but rather Soviet-era villains who want the current Russian president assassinated because of a lingering, two decade-old grudge regarding détente and the loss of the Cold War.
As a film fan willing to suspend as much disbelief as humanly possible, choosing Soviet-era Communists is a bridge too far. The decision to avoid portraying America’s smorgasbord of real antagonists as the film’s fictional ones is such a self-conscious choice that it hangs over the entire movie, especially after a brief opening sequence set in a North Korean prison that ends up feeling like an anachronism. This creative decision probably has something to do with race. After all, Soviets still piqued over glasnost perfectly fit the mold of Hollywood’s favorite villains: old white guys.
Ironically, we’ve had all kinds of Hollywood films involving our present-day enemies but a majority of them portray us as the enemy. And while Jolie’s character is driven by vengeance and not selflessness, by the need to clear her name and not duty to country, it is nice to see “Salt” portray America as being on the side of good. But when will Hollywood portray us as the good guys against our very real enemies?
On this front, “The Expendables” resonates – at least more than most action films these days. While the oppressive government Stallone’s group of mercenaries sets out to overthrow might be set in a fictional country, it is still a recognizable and relevant one. Set in South America, you’re at least allowed to enjoy the vicarious thrill of seeing a Hugo Chavez/Fidel Castro stand-in — an anti-American despot, get what he has coming in a righteous and selfless fight to free the people he enslaves.
For all the grief Stallone’s receiving in reviews – even positive ones – that use words like “mindless” and “throwback,” give the man credit for at least seeing the world as it exists today.
Still, I do recommend “Salt” and even look forward to the promised sequel. Under penalty of a “Thirtysomething” marathon, however, I couldn’t say the same about “Eat Pray Love.”
Sitting through the latest from Oscar-winner Julia Roberts is like listening to a three year-old screech Me! Me! Me! for 133 minutes. The movie’s ridiculous theme — as spoken by one of those tired Hollywood tropes: a “simple” European man who interjects GREAT WISDOM after overhearing a conversation, is that Americans don’t understand pleasure.
And so our heroine sets out on a personal journey to pleasure herself.
Based on a wildly popular novel memoir I’d never heard of, Julia Roberts plays Julia Roberts; an elite, somewhat cold but attractive career woman living the kind of life most people can only dream of. But her Liz Gilbert, a successful New York writer with a beautiful home and faithful husband (Billy Crudup) who might need a little focus but remains devoted to her, is … unhappy. Can’t have that. So before you can say “second act,” an overdose of self-involvement has driven her to divorce her broken-hearted spouse and after an affair with a younger man (James Franco) that also doesn’t fulfill her, she sets off for Italy and India and Bali where she will learn to eat and pray and love, in that order.
There are episodes of “Seinfeld” more meaningful, and what a waste of a fine actor, Richard Jenkins. Though not Jenkins’ fault, the melodramatic scene where his character confesses his back-story might take home the award for 2010’s Most Excruciatingly Obvious Plea for An Oscar. The whole movie’s an embarrassment, which is always the case when Hollywood tries to convince us that their fanatical belief in narcissism is some sort of human value.
“The Expendables” is at least about something. As was the case with his recent Rambo reboot, Stallone plays a character emotionally withdrawn from the world inspired by a Christian woman to get over himself and to risk his own life for the sake of others – for something bigger than self.
What his team of Expendables are actually doing during that insane action extravaganza of a climax is more than just blow things up and kill people. For no personal gain, they’re risking their own lives to liberate a population of oppressed people from a ruthless, selfish thug (and the ex-CIA agent using him).
For all the chuckling going on over Stallone’s “silly” little genre picture, in-between explosions and badass tough guy talk, the director’s painting with some large and universal themes. “The Expendables” is about redemption and self-sacrifice, about that old-fashioned idea of heroism, about American men doing what American men gotta do.
And I think this renewed appreciation might mean seeing it one more time.
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