by George Wolf
POMPEII
Two doomed lovers kept apart by the strict class system of their era, fighting to be together as disaster looms. Plus there’s a scene with handcuffs and a haunting love theme at the end.
This remake of Titanic is called Pompeii, with a CGI Mt. Vesuvius showing tremendous range in the role of the iceberg.
The smoldering Milo (Kit Harington) is a gladiator/slave who catches the eye of Cassia (Emily Browning) , the daughter of a wealthy Pompeii businessman. Trouble is, she is unwillingly betrothed to the menacing Corvus, a visiting senator from Rome (Keifer Sutherland, unapologetically hammy).
As Milo and the other gladiators begin combat in the crowded arena, Vesuvius uncorks in very angry fashion, leaving an entire city scrambling for a seat on one of the boats to safety..seriously.
There’s just no way to watch this film without thinking of Titanic, except in the moments when a Sutherland is standing before a crowd to “open the games” and then you’re thinking of The Hunger Games and wouldn’t you rather be watching that?
Pompeii offers very little substance. Harington (staying in his Games of Thrones comfort zone) and Browning (Sucker Punch, Sleeping Beauty) fail to generate any chemistry or emotion, while the screenplay relies on empty cliches such as, “Welcome to your new home, savages!”
Director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil series, Event Horizon) is a bit lost in the quieter scenes, as if he’s just impatient, and hankerin’ to get back to the action. The abundance of shirtless hunks, along with Anderson’s knack for keeping M’lady cleavage in the frame whenever possible rank as weak attempts to keep attention from waning.
He’s much more at home creating a spectacle, and once the volcano erupts and madness ensues, Anderson does manage a few scenes that are visually impressive. So there’s that.
Still, Pompeii continues to ignore the most pressing issue.
Wasn’t there enough room on that piece of shipwreck for both Jack and Rose?
Photo credit: WENN
3 DAYS TO KILL
Remember when the first Charlie’s Angels movie came out, and it was much less terrible than we’d all expected – mostly thanks to Bill Murray? So much so that people marveled? Who’s this McG person, I’m sure someone said of the newcomer director. Look at his loose comic style and action movie flair.
Well, five tired films later, not that many people are still buzzing about McG, and his latest,3 Days to Kill, isn’t likely to change that.
Kevin Costner stars as Ethan Renner, an aging CIA assassin with a bad doctor’s report who wants to spend what little time he has left in Paris with his estranged family. But a mysterious upper level agent (Amber Heard) offers him an experimental drug in exchange for one last assignment.
Little more than another riff on the old stand-by Luc Besson tale (who produced and co-scripted), the film feels worn out before it even gets started.
Costner’s casually humorous presence gives the movie some heart and McG coordinates some car sequences with a panache reminiscent of his earlier work, but otherwise you can expect a mishmash of every theme, scene, lesson and cliché in Besson’s arsenal.
Heard proves again that she doesn’t have the chops to act her way out of one-dimensional roles or the charisma to leave a mark within them. Hailee Steinfeld, playing combustible teen Zooey, does not use this particular project to live up to the promise of her spectacular performance in True Grit. Connie Nielson is wasted as her mother.
The subplot with a family of squatters in Ethan’s apartment is almost offensively clichéd. (Thanks, you noble clan, for teaching Ethan a thing or two about family!)
A blandly derivative middle age fantasy, 3 Days is about on par with everything else Besson, McG, Heard or Costner has done in the last few years.
Maybe we can still hold out hope for Draft Day?
IN SECRET
To put it mildly, the story at the heart of In Secret has staying power.
It’s the latest telling of Therese Raquin, a novel by Emile Zola that has seen countless adaptations since its debut in 1867. The classic tale of lust, betrayal and murder has seen big and small screen productions, live stagings, and been sampled in a range of films, ranging from the noir staple The Postman Always Rings Twice to the Korean vampire flick Thirst.
This latest version sees writer/director Charlie Stratton adapting Neal Bell’s play and chasing Zola’s stated desire to produce a “study in temperament.”
Elizabeth Olsen is Therese, who is stuck in a passionless marriage to Camille (Tom Felton), her sickly first cousin. They live with Camille’s doting mother Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange) in Paris, above the small shop she owns and Therese helps to keep running.
Camille brings his old friend Laurent (Oscar Isaac) home to visit, which ignites the long-repressed passions in Therese. Soon, she and Laurent are stealing every possible moment for bouts of bodice-ripping, which eventually leads to the pair imaging how nice it would be if Camille were to turn up dead,
Stratton, in his feature debut, is effective at setting the period, and the mood. The entire affair is laced with desperation, both before and after the murderous deed, and Stratton is able to differentiate between the shifting motivations of the characters.
His sublime cast is a huge help. Olsen continues to prove gifted at conveying much with the slightest of glances, and Isaac, fresh from his triumph in Inside LLewyn Davis, easily conveys Laurent’s penchant for blindly following his impulses.
Felton may be the biggest surprise. Since originating the Draco Malfoy role in the Harry Potter series, Felton has shown an impressive growth, and here he deftly gives Camille the dim-witted vulnerability which makes him an easy mark for,the scheming lovers.
And Lange? Well at this point, what can you say? She’s delicious, digging into a role which she makes even more effective once her character is forced to rely on her son’s killers for survival. Lange has been doing some of the best work of her storied career recently, people, take note!
In Secret is a pure, old-fashioned Gothic thriller, one that purposely takes a detached approach to the scheming. Those looking for a deep psychological look within the characters won’t get it.
You will get a filmmaker determined to stay as true as possible to the intent of its source material, and a cast talented enough to bring that vision to a satisfying fruition.
