The Grey

While the terrifying depiction of the wolves in 'The Grey' has been the centre of the praise directed toward this film, for me it’s Carnahan’s ability to capture the harshness of the north with a kind of intensity rarely equalled. It’s certainly not the best Arctic survivalist film. I might give the trophy to Mikael Kalatozov’s 'Letter Never Sent', but Carnahan manages to play into the expectations of this sub-genre and deliver a powerful and reflective adventure film with balls and pathos.

The Grey (2012) dir., Joe Carnahan
Starring: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo

By Alan Bacchus

This is one of the benchmark stops along the way for Liam Neeson’s monumentally unlikely career turn as a legitimate action hero. Obviously, it was Taken that turned him into an ass-kicking leading man, and here he’s much the same but with a tortured soul. He’s John Ottoway, an outdoorsman contracted by an Alaskan oil company as security of sorts against the dangerous wolves which prowl the landscape. Ottoway’s a man of few words, a man of action but with sad eyes which hide a painful past. Dreamy flashbacks to encounters with his wife suggest she’s dead, or she’s left him, which is perhaps why he’s now off the grid hunting wolves.

His next assignment goes awry when he and his convoy of drillers become stranded after a plane crash in the far north. With civilization far, far away, it’s that familiar set up, a group of men against the wild, conflicts oscillating between man and nature, as well as amongst themselves. While Ottoway’s experiences in the outdoors makes him the natural leader, it's inevitable that there’s some conflict, specifically with the pessimistic Diaz, played by Frank Grillo.

Carnahan, who has over-stylized most of his films in his filmography, indeed applies a strong visual look, including grainy faces combined with over-exposed white skies that enhance the harshness of the environment. Here it all works. Carnahan’s camera work is precise, handheld some of the time, but never shaky. And his near invisible use of CG effects (snow and background matting) effectively put us in one of the most violent environments on Earth.

Evocative music and artful detours to flashback sequences take us out of the harsh world creating a sad feeling of inevitability for these characters. Never do we feel a happy ending is coming, nor do we want it. For Ottoway it’s about coming to grips with the trauma in his life and challenging his angst and rage into a final battle with the relentless wolves.

Carnahan relaxes his inspired realism on a few occasions when a character or a set piece or two lapses into stock conventionality, but not enough to tarnish the experiential nature of this film, thrilling and moving, and not easily forgotten.

***½

The A-Team

The A-Team (2010) dir. Joe Carnahan
Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copely, Quinton Jackson, Jessica Biel

**

By Alan Bacchus

There was much potential to create a viable new movie franchise here. The A-Team TV series, after all, had the wonderful hook: a group of soldiers of fortune, on the lam, who help out ordinary beleaguered citizens fight off their enemies – kinda like The Seven Samurai with cartoonish simplicity.

The producers started off right, casting the honest, trustworthy and commanding physical presence of Liam Neeson as Hannibal Smith, the grey-haired cigar-smoking leader who ‘loves when a plan comes together’. Bradley Cooper, the fine up-and-coming actor, who possesses a Cary Grant quality of comic timing and handsome good looks is perfect as the suave ladies man Lt. Faceman. Sharlto Copely, who was simply awesome in District 9 is a spitting image of Dwight Schultz who played the raving lunatic helicopter pilot Murdoch. And UFC fighter Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson has enough of a physical presence to adequately fill the shoes of Mr. T.

The Joe Carnahan/Skip Woods/Brian Bloom script is heavily problematic however. In essence this film works as an ‘origin story’, showing us exactly how these four soldiers became the heroes of vigilante justice of the TV series, with Iraq subbing in for Vietnam (ok, no problem there). The first meeting of the foursome makes up the lengthy introduction, which has Hannibal racing to rescue Face and Murdoch from their respective incarcerations. Carnahan then spends the rest of the film orchestrating an overly complicated double-crossing military plot involving the search for some counterfeit money plates from Iraq.

We only get to know 'military' characters, CIA operatives and various other spy personnel, all of whom seem slimy and untrustworthy. Other than the four A-Teamers there’s no real 'people' to cheer for, and so it feels like a subpar version of Mission Impossible. Part of the A-Team branding are the ‘plans of action’ which Hannibal dreams up to exact revenge on their enemies. Unfortunately Joe Carnahan doesn’t seem to have the chops to direct with the panache required to make Hannibal’s plans sing with giddy cartoonish enjoyment. The potential is there, but the execution is lacking.

Carnahan’s action is over-the-top in a Stephen Somers way. Each action scene is so overly imagined with characters falling from the sky or swinging from ropes in virtually every scene. And the reliance on low rent CG and a sloppy editing style means it's a mess somewhere in between Van Helsing and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

The lack of a distinct bad guy is cause for more frustration. Patrick Wilson walks around with an air of supreme egotism, and we’re confused because he’s not overtly identified as the team’s main antagonist until much later. There’s also an underused Henry Czerny as a shift-eyed CIA Director, 80’s throwback Gerald McRaney (yes, Simon and Simon!) as a suspicious military general who assigns the Team to the case, and co-writer Brian Bloom as the B-team leader Pike who tries to subvert the A-Team’s movements at every turn. The result in an unnecessary melange of activity without the necessary focus and simplicity the concept demands.

It’s only by the end do we realize the A-Team movie is an origin story, and that we would need to wait for subsequent movies to really and truly have fun with the 80’s nostalgia. If these movies ever get made hopefully Carnahan won’t be at the helm.

SMOKIN' ACES

Smokin’ Aces (2007) dir. Joe Carnahan
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia

*1/2

“Smokin’ Aces” is a madcap action-comedy derived from the “Cannonball Run” school of filmmaking, throw in lots of famous actors give them a maguffin to find and let them loose.

That just about sums up the ‘plot’ of “Smokin’ Aces”, or at least the idea behind it. To give more detail, Jeremy Piven plays Buddy “Aces” Israel, a strung out Vegas magician turned gangster living atop a Reno Hotel waiting to make a deal with the cops for immunity in return for snitching on the mob. The mob has put out a bounty on his head - $1million (that’s it? I’m reminded of the ‘Austin Powers’ gag). Out of the woodwork comes a host of would-be takers – bail bondsmen, mobsters, hitmen, etc all trying to claim the prize. Among them are: Ben Affleck, Peter Berg, Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, and Alicia Keys.

Some get blown away by each other along the way, some survive. Eventually the cops show up and Buddy is taken to the hospital, where more action and revelations are played out.

The film is a blatant rip off of “True Romance” – or at least the final scene expanded into a whole movie. There’s lots of coke, guns, weird beard-art, ripped muscle-heads, cop-talk, surveillance cameras, huge guns, green cinematography, pop music etc. Perhaps it was made to serve as Carnahan’s audition tape for Jerry Bruckheimer. It’s ridiculous how much he steals from Bruckheimer-alum Tony Scott. Just watch the introduction of the backstory:



The film is frustrating because it clearly wants us to think strung out characters are cool – Jeremy Piven’s disheveled bedhead look is obviously inspired by “Scarface.” But we never like Buddy Israel because he’s strung out and disheveled from beginning to end. “Scarface” actually showed (over the course of 3 hours as well) how Tony Montana got to that place. So it’s a cheap copout. It’s like making the final scene of “Scarface” into a standalone movie. Basically it’s a video game, which, considering their increasingly complex narratives, might be an insult to video games. Perhaps Carnahan thought we would instant love Piven through his Ari Gold character in “Entourage.” Sorry, Joe, didn’t work.

What a bad miscalculation for Carnahan. Though, perhaps he was just letting off steam after being fired from “Mission Impossible” III the year before.

Buy it here: Smokin' Aces