The Spirit

The Spirit is a classic comic book character that sprung from the imagination of famed comic book writer and artist Will Eisner and is revered by many a comic book fan. “The Spirit” is also a recent movie adaptation from writer/director Frank Miller (“Sin City”), and is despised by not only comic book fans, but virtually every other moviegoer that was unlucky enough to believe it looked appealing. So, aside from the obvious difference in mediums, why is one version of this character so much more beloved than the other? My guess is that the biggest faults of this movie lie with the horrible dialogue, sub-par visual effects, over-the-top acting, and an uninteresting storyline. Now I must ask, amongst all of those items what is the common denominator that links them all together? The answer is… the overrated writer and co-director of “Sin City”, and formerly brilliant comic book writer, Frank Miller.

Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht) used to be one of Central City’s finest, patrolling the city to ensure that its citizens were safe from harm. After a gangster’s bullet brought the life of Officer Colt to a sudden end, he found himself mysteriously resurrected as the avenging hero known as The Spirit. Now, he must contend with seductive foes such as Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) and Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson), femme fatales who are as dangerous as they are beautiful. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, this new hero must also thwart the nefarious schemes of his archenemy, the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), before all of Central City is destroyed.

The cast for “The Spirit” is led by actor Gabriel Macht (“The Recruit”), a generally solid actor who isn’t the most recognizable of talents, yet still delivers on most instances. He’s one of those guys that when you see him in a movie you recognize him, but you just can’t quite place him exactly. As the Spirit, which I believe to be Gabriel’s first true lead role, Gabriel’s performance falls prey to what virtually every other member of the cast is guilty of, repeated bouts of wooden acting during many of the monologue-esque moments in the film or overacting in a way that is far too distracting to the point that the character is laughable at best. Granted I believe the script and the direction (Frank Miller’s responsible for both) that Gabriel and the entire cast received most likely prompted them to act in those ways, but the end result is extremely detrimental to the movie and any enjoyment I could have derived from it.

Along with Gabriel Macht are several talented actresses, who without a doubt definitely look the parts of female comic book characters. With their voluptuous curves and great beauty, it’s as if each of the film’s main actresses from Scarlett Johansson (“The Island”) to Eva Mendes (“Ghost Rider”) to Paz Vega (“Spanglish”) could have jumped off the comic book pages themselves or at least served as part of the inspiration for their illustrated counterparts. As far as their performances went, as I said a moment ago, the entire cast suffered from the same problems in their roles, and these ladies are no exception. The only one I can really say stood out a little more than the others would be Eva Mendes, mostly because her character was given the most to do out of all the females, and she seemed to keep her performance as grounded as possible. Truthfully, I must admit that I was a little disappointed in Scarlett’s performance, because she seemed to be quite bored in the role during several scenes. She just never really sold her commitment to the character at any point within the film’s duration. As for Paz Vega, well she did as good as the others, which obviously isn’t saying a whole lot given my complaints about the performances, but her character just didn’t have all that much to do in the film. From what I can recall, I really didn’t see the need for her character to even be included in the story. Mostly the character felt like she had been wedged in because she probably appeared in the comics, so it was merely a gesture intended to please the fans is my guess.

And last but not least is the almost always enjoyable Samuel L. Jackson as The Spirit’s archenemy, The Octopus. Sam’s performance here easily ranks as one of his least enjoyable from my perspective, and out of the entire cast he is the worst offender in terms of overacting and cheesiness within a performance. I know Sam sometimes tends to wander towards the over-the-top side of things in his various roles, but this time he really goes overboard, and the character never benefits from the choice at all. Really it didn’t feel like he was playing a new character, merely an over-exaggerated version of his celebrity persona, imbuing The Octopus with Sam Jackson-ism’s so to speak. As a role it obviously didn’t challenge Samuel, but he didn’t seem to be trying too hard to improve upon what was given to him either. It’s a shame when even someone like Sam Jackson, who is one of my favorite actors, doesn’t even give a performance worth talking about or remembering (at least not in a good way).

What is really surprising to me is the fact that so many talented actors and actresses signed on for such a horribly written movie like this. Surely they all, or at least most of them, would have looked at the script first. Did no one catch on to how horribly written this snore-fest was? Speaking of the story not only does it feature some extremely bland moments of dialogue, but numerous times throughout the film the story barely ever makes sense. There were times where a plot point was being discussed, then out of nowhere the topic is changed to something pointless, and the plot never gets readdressed. I guess Frank Miller just assumed that we wouldn’t notice that the plot just skips around without ever fully fleshing out the different points. Perhaps he was trying to go for some kind of record in movies for the most instances of pointless conversations within a single film or just trying to get noticed for making one of the most incoherent pieces of cinema to hit the big screen in quite some time.

Another problem with the story was that believability was stretched far too thin, even for a comic book movie. It is one thing to deal with super-powered beings, aliens, or any other science fiction related item, those things can be accepted if the audience is aware that that is the kind of movie they are watching. However to have a comic book movie that doesn’t really deal in the arena of sci-fi all that much, yet have it still push the envelope in terms of believability is quite surprising. For instance, how many different guns can The Octopus pull out of his fur coat? I know from watching “The Matrix” that a person can strap a shockingly large amount of guns to their person; however, the amount and sheer size of the weapons The Octopus pulls out in some scenes is a little too extreme given that he was supposedly hiding them all under his coat. It was just so ridiculous to watch that it made me question my sanity for even sitting through the entire film. Perhaps a little more of a grounded sense of reality could have strengthened this film’s story just a little bit, it still wouldn’t have made it a great movie, but at least it would have been more bearable to watch.

Finally, I must take some time to touch upon one of the biggest eye sores within the film, the visual effects employed to create the backgrounds for virtually every single frame of the movie. I know that Frank Miller was trying to recreate a look and feel similar to what he and co-director Robert Rodriguez had captured on “Sin City”. This was a decent idea, not very original, and in the end seemed like Miller was more interested in making another “Sin City” movie rather than one based on The Spirit. Beyond all that is the fact that the budget for “The Spirit” must have been considerably less than that of “Sin City” or “300”, for that matter. I say this because almost every scene reeks of CGI created or enhanced backgrounds, and for the most part they all look extremely fake and poorly rendered. If you are going to make a film using this method of filmmaking, then perhaps you should either have the proper amount of funding or be sure your visual effects house can handle the workload to produce a quality result that can at least meet, if not exceed today’s audience expectations.

In the end, “The Spirit” is a terrible movie that is full of cheesy one-liners, an abundance of wooden and/or over-the-top performances, shoddy effects work, not to mention a generally unexciting story making it one of the weakest comic book adaptations I have ever seen. This film was so bad that it may actually give “Catwoman”, “Howard the Duck” or “Supergirl” a run for their money in being the absolute worst adaptation ever. For any directors or producers out there in Hollywood who may be wishing to make a comic book film adaptation, please take note of this movie, because this is essentially a lesson on what not to do.

“The Spirit” is rated PG-13 for violence, language, and brief nudity.

Fast & Furious

After three high-octane rides on the street racing scene, the fourth film in the “The Fast and the Furious” series features a departure from the flashy, overblown colors, obvious CGI-enhancement, and at times over-the-top stunts of the previous two films. With “Fast & Furious” the series returns to its roots with a grittier, more realistic leaning tone and reunites the primary players from the original film’s cast of gearheads for more high speed mayhem.

“Fast & Furious” finds Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) continuing his lawless ways in the Dominican Republic alongside his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and a new crew of velocity addicted miscreants. When the law begins to close in on Dom and his crew, difficult choices are made, plans are put into motion, and a life is lost. All of this forces Dom to return to his native Los Angeles on a quest for answers and to ultimately deal with those responsible. While back in town, Dom is reunited, albeit begrudgingly, with his former friend Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), who once again finds he is torn between doing what he desires most or following the letter of the law he’s sworn to uphold.

With the slightly weaker feel of the previous two films in the series, I was kind of unsure of how good this fourth attempt would prove to be, regardless of the fact that many of the original film’s cast members were reprising their roles eight years later. After seeing “Fast & Furious” over the weekend, I can honestly say that any misgivings I had regarding the film were easily blown away by the sheer entertainment value and superiority exuded by this film over anything included in the previous two films.

Besides the original film’s primary cast returning to the series that made them stars, the writer and director duo of Chris Morgan and Justin Lin (“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”) make their return to the series with a much more polished final product than what had been featured in their previous effort. The screenplay is a much more complex work than one may expect from this type of movie. Screenwriter Chris Morgan ups the stakes for all the players, delivering several twists along the way, and some very sharply written dialogue, all of which makes for a thoroughly entertaining ride from start to finish. The story really seems to focus on resolving storylines begun in the first movie, and creating a stronger link between all of the other movies in the series, especially “Tokyo Drift” (which has always felt a little bit like an outcast in the franchise). As a fan of the series, I believe that this film’s more mature storyline and well-written dialogue showcases the time and effort that Chris Morgan put into this film, and the work definitely pays off by rewarding longtime fans of the franchise by interconnecting each of the films, while not alienating any newcomers.

Director Justin Lin shows an even steadier hand when it came to helming his second effort in the series. Even though Justin proved quite capable in capturing the high speeds and general fast-paced nature of the series with “Tokyo Drift”, his work here is stronger even if it is with a little less flashiness. By approaching the film more in the vein of the original’s look and tone, Lin imbues “Fast & Furious” with a grittier nature that cements its close ties to the aforementioned, along with having the slight feel of an urban crime drama (albeit without the same level of intensity inherent in most of those films). If there are to be any more films in this series, then I believe that the powers-that-be may have found a valuable asset in this director, and one that they should use whenever possible to maintain consistency between the installments (something this series has previously lacked).

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times already, the cast for this film features many returning members from the original film. Let’s begin with one of the biggest breakout stars of the original, Vin Diesel (“A Man Apart”). In his reprisal as Dom Toretto, Vin gives one of the best performances of his career, if not his best yet (easily rivaling his work in “A Man Apart” or “Find Me Guilty”). In this film, Diesel is given more opportunity to explore Dom, whether it is his passion for the various facets of his life, personal loss, the issue of trust, or merely the unbridled fury that we had only heard mention of in the first film. Here we are presented with a much more layered and developed anti-hero than had been previously established, and one who is more weathered and world-weary from all of the experiences he has endured whether good or bad. If there are still some detractors of Vin’s work out there, then the combination of his movies mentioned above should help convince them to the contrary, so long as they ignore his misfire with the dismal “Babylon A.D.”.

Alongside Vin is Paul Walker as the other main lead for this installment. This film also marks Walker’s second reprisal as the lead in this series, as Paul was the only main cast member to return for the initial sequel “2 Fast 2 Furious”. To be fair, Vin has also appeared in the series three times, although his second appearance was just a cameo in the final moments of “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”. But I digress, now back to Paul Walker’s performance as one-time ex-law man turned outlaw turned active FBI agent Brian O’Connor. It’s a rather convoluted series of events that comprise O’Connor’s storyline through the series, but it works. In the first film, Paul gave a fairly solid, if not flawed performance, which he proceeded to follow-up with a decidedly more surfer-esque, flat and stilted performance, replete with more “Yo’s”, “Bro’s”, and “Check it’s” than one would care to count. Paul’s third stint in the series, much like Vin’s return, makes for his best performance of the series, not to mention his entire career. I used to think that he was one of those actors that merely skated by on his looks and onscreen charm, with very little acting talent holding it all together. With his performance here he is much more reserved and believable, even intense at times, to the point that one wonders if there may be hope for Paul’s career as a serious actor yet. Gone are the various surfer boy idioms, replaced by a much more mature character who is still trying desperately to atone for past mistakes.

The final two returning characters are the two important female roles of Mia and Letty (Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez respectively). Both of these characters suffered from very little development in their first outing, a problem that has now been rectified by this film. The character of Mia is given a very emotional arc to go through over the course of the film as she is forced to deal with the return of her former lover and betrayer of her family, Brian O’Connor. Jordana proves with her more developed role and character arc that she has the acting chops necessary to handle more of the story should the occasion call for it, something that future writers of the series may want to take note of should her character make any more return appearances. Michelle Rodriguez has proven in numerous movies and on TV’s “Lost” that she is a very capable actress, but in this series she has yet to really be all that important or necessary for that matter. In the first film she was merely Dom’s girlfriend and not all that interesting beyond that; however, in this story her character is central to the film’s main plotline. I have to admit that while I wasn’t all that enthralled by Michelle’s character in the original film, she definitely proved more interesting in this one, and was much more enjoyable to watch as she really seemed to be having a good time in the role.

Lastly, we have one key newcomer to the franchise. Actor John Ortiz (“Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem”) plays a man named Campos whose job is to find and recruit drivers to smuggle drugs for a very powerful Mexican cartel. I haven’t seen John in any kind of tough guy roles, mostly because I haven’t seen too many movies he’s appeared in, but I have to say he was very convincing in the role. He portrayed the character with a subtle hint of menace, never really overdoing it just keeping an obvious air about him that this guy is not one to be trifled with. While he wasn’t given an incredible amount of screen time, what he is given John makes the most of. John delivers a strong antagonist that could have ended up being just another stock character, but became something a little more developed thanks to his work in the role.

“Fast & Furious” is by far the best of the sequels in the series, and easily rivals the original film, possibly even surpasses it. This is all due to a much tighter and more developed story, the best acting in the entire series, and a much more grounded sense of reality than the previous two films boasted. If you’ve been a fan of the series or have simply become disappointed by the direction it’s taken in the previous sequels, then this is the movie to see as it undoubtedly kicks the franchise back into high gear.

As a side note, it’s important to know that “Fast & Furious” occurs prior to the events shown in the third film, “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”.

“Fast & Furious” is rated PG-13 for violence, language, and sexuality.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Five years after “The Fast and the Furious” sped its way across the silver screen, the third installment in the franchise, “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”, raced its way into theaters. After two successful entries into a series that most didn’t expect much out of to begin with, can this third iteration featuring an all-new cast, style of racing, and country gain enough traction to build upon the success of its predecessors or will it leave the series simply spinning its tires?

“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” explores the illegal world of underground street racing in and around Tokyo, Japan. Unlike in the states, the primary style of racing over there is a much more difficult, and outrageous form known as drifting – where drivers’ skills are put to the test as they must navigate hairpin turns at incredible rates of speed. Joining the ranks of these racers is a convicted racer from the United States named Sean (Lucas Black) whose parents had hoped he would be able to start a new life in this foreign land. However, when racing is at the core of your very being, it’s hard to walk away when the temptation of high speeds is calling out to you.

Even though I had seen the first two films in this series, I found myself with little to no interest in seeing this third one. The only reason I could come up with for this lack of confidence in the film, was because I thought the second one was a little weaker than the first, even though it at least featured one returning cast member (Paul Walker for those that don’t recall) which garnered some favor; however for this film there appeared to be no original cast members returning from either of the previous films. So, in my opinion there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of potential for “Tokyo Drift” to actually be all that good. Based on the box office results for this film, I felt that my estimation for the movie was fairly accurate, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get around to watching it anytime soon, if ever for that matter. Then, there came along the recently released Blu-ray collection of the trilogy. Because I wanted to own the first two films on Blu-ray, and they were only available in a trilogy box set, I knew that I would end up with the third one anyhow. Which meant that since it was now in my possession, and I had already watched the other two, I may as well put this one into the player and see how it fares by comparison. Much to my surprise, “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” is actually a pretty good movie. Granted it’s not as good as the first film, and is perhaps a little below “2 Fast 2 Furious”; the film still did an admirable job of keeping me entertained to varying degrees from beginning to end.

Written by newcomer to the series, Chris Morgan (“Wanted”), “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”, was a surprisingly well put together story, albeit with a few contrivances and convenient plot devices employed. I figured that if this series ever made it to a third movie it would most likely be tapped out in terms of story, unless they would be willing to resurrect some of the characters from the previous films and delve into them a bit more. However, I was wrong, because Chris Morgan wisely chose to shake things up dramatically to inject a new sense of life into a franchise that was running the risk of becoming stale in a hurry if the status quo remained intact. The inclusion of the new style of racing (which was incredibly fun to watch, especially for someone that hadn’t really seen it done before), having not just a new city, but an all-new country as the backdrop for the action, and making it more of a fish out of water-esque story opened up several new doors for the series to walk through.

Even though the story brought new energy to the series there were some problems that plagued the script along the way. For starters, the character of Twink (played by Bow Wow) seems to have an endless supply of goods which he sells to whoever has the desired amount of cash. This wouldn’t be a trouble spot for me, except that Twink is merely a high school student, and by all accounts shouldn’t have access to the amount of goods and services he has at his disposal. If the writer really wanted me to believe that Twink was capable of gaining access to all this stuff via stealing or whatever, then that is fine, but I believe that we should have seen this at some point within the story. Instead, his character came off as a little too unbelievable for my liking. Also, the whole plot point of sending Sean to Japan seemed like a big leap for me. Sure he’s apparently gotten into a lot of trouble over in the U.S., but having his mom just give up and ship him over to his dad (who doesn’t seem like he’ll be all that good of an influence) seemed a little too convenient of a way to introduce us to the world of drifting. I know it was necessary to get the character over to Japan, but it could have been achieved within the story any number of ways, and most of them would have been more successful.

The last problem within the story that I will discuss revolves around the drifting style of racing that the movie focuses upon. I appreciated that a new style was introduced (as I mentioned a moment ago); however, there seemed to be numerous times that the characters opted to drift (unnecessarily) rather than drive straight (as in the previous two films). This was especially evident during a car chase sequence where all the drivers were drifting around traffic and other miscellaneous obstructions, when if they had simply moved over slightly they could’ve just driven straight (or relatively straight), thus gaining more speed to outrun their pursuers. It was due to these weaknesses within the story that caused several lapses in believability, resulting in a somewhat diminished opinion for the film.

Helming this third venture into the high-octane series is director Justin Lin (“Annapolis”). Lin brings a somewhat more grounded sense to this film than what was showcased in the previous film under the direction of John Singleton. The majority of the action seemed to be done using real cars, with little CGI enhancement being employed. The second film used plenty of real cars as well, but numerous sequences displayed obvious CGI usage in place of the real deal. With “Tokyo Drift”, director Justin Lin appeared to stretch himself a bit more as a director, getting away from the straight-forward, generic camera style he used in his previous American film “Annapolis”. For a movie such as “Tokyo Drift” to really fit in with the rest of the series, it requires that a little more flair be brought to the camera work, and Lin came through surprisingly well. He offered up a slick piece of American cinema that fits in perfectly with the tone and feel of the previous two films, while establishing the movie as a standalone entity within the franchise.

The cast for this film was comprised of numerous young acting talents, some more capable than others at their craft, and based on most of the cast member’s limited experience, I really didn’t expect much out of them either. As you can see by now there were several factors that led to me viewing this film with rather low expectations. Anyways, leading the cast is actor Lucas Black (“Jarhead”) who gives a decent, although flawed performance as Sean. With a slight southern drawl, that is inconsistent in thickness throughout his entire performance, and a few instances where Lucas portrayed a somewhat down home country charm when attempting to woo the ladies, there weren’t too many layers or points of interest to be found in his character. Truth be told, Lucas was probably the weakest cast member performance wise, showing nary a hint of emotion beyond a slight smirk or chuckle here and there, which does cause a bit of a problem due to the fact that his was the lead role.

Thankfully, many of his supporting cast members were there to help mask his shortcomings as an actor. Rapper turned actor Bow Wow (formerly Lil’ Bow Wow) has become quite the decent performer with roles ranging from TV appearances (“Smallville”) to several feature films (“The Johnson Family Vacation” and “Roll Bounce”). Out of all the roles I have seen him in, I think that his character of Twink in this film, is probably the most interesting, and likely the most fun to play. From his eccentric taste in cars (an Incredible Hulk themed car), to his penchant for finding virtually any and every possible good that his customers requested, almost nothing about Twink was normal. Even though his character pushes the limits of believability in places, Bow Wow does his level best to keep the character as grounded as possible, and delivers a solid performance in the process.

Alongside Bow Wow was actor Sung Kang (“Live Free or Die Hard”) as Han, a talented drifter, who befriends and trains Sean in the ways of drifting. Sung created a very interesting character in Han, by having him be as much of an outcast among the Asian community of street racers as Sean was being an American in their midst. I liked the way Sung always played Han as if he longed for a way out of the illegal street racing world he almost seems trapped by, and the way he looks at his “friends” in that world shows a clear contempt for some of the actions they take in order to get ahead. His was a character that was all about honor both on and off the track, and out of all the cast he was probably the most interesting of characters on display.

Aside from the three characters mentioned above, the remainder of the cast was relegated to either quasi-cameo appearances or merely one-dimensional antagonists. Most of the cast whether in a more developed role or not-so developed did a good job with their respective characters. Besides Lucas Black, who perhaps with acting classes could do much better work, the cast worked out very well, and managed to keep the movie’s story interesting without relying solely on the racing to propel the film from start to finish.

“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” was an energetic and fun ride that I’m sure introduced many of us to a new style of racing, but if you’re like me you still preferred the other way instead. The film attempted to stand on its own as a movie without tying directly into what had come before it. In that respect, I feel that “Tokyo Drift” was a success of a movie; however, it sustained a much weaker box office than the previous two films, so perhaps this drastic of a change-up in a single installment wasn’t the best of choices for this film’s sake.

As a side note, the title for this movie seemed a bit too long in my estimation; couldn’t we have just stuck a number 3 on the end of the original title and called it a day? That’s all I’m saying.

“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” is rated PG-13 for violence and language.

2 Fast 2 Furious

Two years after audiences made a surprise hit out of “The Fast and the Furious”, Universal Pictures released the speed-injected sequel “2 Fast 2 Furious”. Gone were most members of the original film’s cast, except for Paul Walker who opted to return once again as Brian O’Connor, and joining him this time would be then-newcomer to the acting world Tyrese Gibson (“Four Brothers”), Eva Mendes (“Ghost Rider”), and Cole Hauser (“Pitch Black”), along with director John Singleton (“Shaft”) filling up the director’s chair in place of Rob Cohen.

“2 Fast 2 Furious” finds Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), now an ex-cop, living a life in hiding, yet still trying to prove just how fast he is in the world of street racing. But when the FBI catches up with Brian, he is given one final chance to do what is right by using his skills behind the wheel to assist in bringing down an international drug lord (Cole Hauser), or face the next few years behind bars. To do this Brian must enlist the aid of a former buddy (Tyrese Gibson) who is just as addicted to the rush of high velocities as he is, and hope that their combined racing prowess will be enough to get the job done before time runs out.

With the original film, “The Fast and the Furious” audiences were given a movie that no one really had high expectations for, and in the end it became a massive hit for the summer of 2001. For “2 Fast 2 Furious” expectations were notably higher going in due to the great success of the original, but only having Paul Walker return for the sequel didn’t seem to spell good things for this installment’s future, at least not in my book. As it turns out I was wrong in my estimation that the missing element of Vin Diesel and most of the other cast members from the original would effect box office take, because “2 Fast 2 Furious” easily drove past where its predecessor finally parked on the box office tally sheet.

The original film was essentially a story about loyalty between friends that live their lives on opposing sides of the law (as it turns out); for the sequel writers Michael Brandt & Derek Haas (“Wanted”) along with original writer Gary Scott Thompson tried to take that initial theme and expound upon it. The main thrust of this film rests upon the decisions Brian made over the course of “The Fast and the Furious”, and how those decisions for better or worse have affected his life today. By taking this route, not only do the writers actually enrich the story for the first movie by adding some new layers after the fact to Brian’s character, but also strengthening this film by linking it directly into the action of the original (something that many franchises forget to do, and at times causes a movie within a series to feel unrelated in a way that is detrimental to the franchise). I did enjoy how the story gave us insight into Brian’s and Roman’s (Tyrese Gibson) history, and made their relationship in this film a parallel to Brian and Dom in the original. It was also interesting to see a different side to Brian’s character than we have before. In the first movie he was a cop, so he was bound by the law (to an extent); in this film, no such restriction is in place, and Brian is much more care-free and most likely being himself, thus making him a little more interesting as a character.

As strengthened as the film was by its link to the original, it was also hurt by it because it forced the inevitable comparisons between the two films to come even more naturally. The script for this film did have some weaknesses that detracted from the end result, some of which were problems in the first movie, just not to the extent that they are here. Numerous times throughout the movie the dialogue began to grow tiresome, especially the pervasive uses of the words “Yo”, “Bro”, and “Check it”, all of which seemed to find its way into almost every single moment of Paul Walker’s screen time. I know that in the first movie he used these words, and that it kind of solidified his surfer image; however, when it begins to become noticeable to the point that it’s annoying, something has gone wrong. Along with that problem there were also several moments within the story that felt slow, as if the writers weren’t really sure how to propel the story forward in an interesting way. It was at these times that the movie seemed to be meandering about aimlessly just waiting for the next action/racing sequence to begin so that the story could find its mojo once more. It was due to these problems, and a few other minor ones along the way, that caused “2 Fast 2 Furious” to stumble along in places, and in the end fall short of the standard set by the first film.

A staple of this series is of course the racing sequences, and there are a plethora of such scenes in this installment, all of which are fun to watch no doubt about that. Yet, the problem with a franchise such as this, or any action series for that matter, is that it becomes harder in the sequels to make the action (in this case racing) seem fresh and original. No matter how hard you try the racing is going to resemble that which came before it, unless you explore a new style of racing or just go completely unrealistic with the scenes (which appeared to happen in a few instances in this film). With this problem standing in his way director John Singleton did manage to at least make the racing interesting by including more stunts into the sequences than had been done before, some of which were a little harder to believe than others. It was this decision that helped keep the racing from feeling stale, yet also resulted in a more gimmicky feeling than the previous film’s races had. Despite all that, director John Singleton did a very good job in trying to differentiate his movie from the original, while at the same time keeping a similar feel and tone. Not an easy task, but one that he managed to succeed in doing.

As I stated earlier Paul Walker was the only primary cast member to return for this installment, and I had praised him previously for his work in the original film. However, for this movie he seemed unfocused and uninterested through several of his scenes, almost as if he were simply “phoning in” his performance. I’m not saying that Paul is the greatest actor of his generation, far from it actually, but his apparent aloofness to the material, and at times wooden portrayal, was very distracting. Despite the problems that Paul had in his role, there were several moments within the film where he actually came out of his funk, and delivered some very key scenes; namely those revolving around his past mistakes and how they have effected his decisions and choices ever since.

Joining Paul Walker we have actor Tyrese Gibson, who has become quite a decent actor in his own right since this film. Now, his performance in this movie is troubled like Paul Walker’s, but for different reasons. Unlike Paul, Tyrese clearly enjoys his role, and seems to really be trying to invest himself in the performance; however, his talent had not yet been honed enough to let him fully deliver in all his scenes. This is best illustrated by what is easily one of the worst line readings within this film, and reminds me of Hayden Christensen’s horribly flat utterance of the words “Don’t underestimate my power!” in “Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”, which is, “I have a problem with authority.” Wow, could a line be delivered any flatter and with any less conviction, obviously it could be if Hayden had delivered it, but still that was atrocious and by all accounts should have resulted in another take to try to get it right (take note director John Singleton).

Alongside the two leads is actress Eva Mendes as an undercover FBI agent working inside the drug cartel. Eva was very good in this role, and had the good fortune of actually receiving a female character that was given more to do in this film than Michelle Rodriguez or Jordana Brewster was in the first one. Cole Hauser as the drug lord gave a decent performance, and seemed to do the best he could with what he was given to work with. The problem with his character was that he wasn’t really a guy that was all that interesting, and truth be told he seemed more like a stock villain from any other action film. I know that the main focus for this series will always be the cars, but a little effort could have been put into making this villain a little more of a threat and much more developed as a character. Truthfully, even though we rooted for him, Vin Diesel’s character Dom was in essence a bad guy in the original movie, but it was the way his character was developed to be a more complicated guy than what you merely see on the surface that made him so interesting. That is what was sorely lacking in this movie’s villain; I’m not saying you need a villain that you can root for, but at least give me one that isn’t so one-dimensional.

All that being said, for me “2 Fast 2 Furious” was a generally fun ride with plenty of high-energy racing, a decent story, and average acting for the most part (with a few bright spots here and there); however, the movie never did quite capture what made the first one such a success, so it does fall somewhat short in the end.

“2 Fast 2 Furious” is rated PG-13 for violence and language.

The Fast and the Furious

The summer of 2001 was chock full of great movies for audiences to feast their eyes upon. Within that assortment of entertainment there was one film that stepped out of the shadows of obscurity to become one of the biggest surprise hits of the year. That film is the adrenaline-fueled thrill ride known as “The Fast and the Furious” starring Vin Diesel (“A Man Apart”) and Paul Walker (“Varsity Blues”), and directed by successful action director Rob Cohen (“xXx”).

On the streets of Los Angeles, in the world of street racing, there is only one question you must answer to in order to win the day: Are you faster than all other contenders standing next to you? For undercover LAPD officer Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker), that question is one that he is determined to answer at any cost by taking down the one man that rules the street racing life, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). However, can Brian remain loyal to his brothers in blue while at the same time becoming immersed into this fast-paced world of cars, money, and women?

My initial reaction when I saw the first trailers for this film was one of indifference. Based on the trailer the film seemed to be just an endless supply of racing sequences, close-ups of cars, women, and so on and so forth, with not much of anything else really holding the experience together. While each of those items I mentioned are on display in this film (and I’m not complaining about that in the least), there also happens to be plenty of story to tie it all together in a very cohesive fashion that I found surprising for a movie like this.

The story, written by Gary Scott Thompson (“Hollow Man”), Erik Bergquist, and David Ayer (“Training Day”), is a non-stop ride filled with intense racing, character development (surprisingly enough), drama, and even a little bit of romance. I thought it was wise for the writers to take the time to actually build-up relationships between the characters, especially the two leads. Thus allowing the audience to get to know them and relate to them, so that even when they do things that we know isn’t completely legal, we still side with them due to our connection. The inclusion of the theme of loyalty was also a very nice touch and in the end was the overall theme for the entire film. Many times a film’s theme(s) are beaten endlessly into the audience so that they don’t miss the main message of the film; however, in this instance the question of loyalty amongst the film’s characters is handled in a much more realistic fashion. Only a few instances is it really touched upon in an overt way, and rarely does it feel forced into the storyline as a way to catch up those audience members that might not be comprehending the underlying theme. For a film that at first glance appeared to be a brainless actioner for the adrenaline junkies, the well-developed storyline really took me on a much more enjoyable ride than I initially thought possible.

For a movie like this to succeed several key factors must fall into place, among them it must have the combined talents of stunt drivers, computer wizards, and of course a director accustomed to action films to hold it all together. The stunt drivers in this film have got to be without a doubt some of the best in the business, if not the very best. The tricks they achieve are truly stunning, and sure some of them benefited from CGI enhancement, but even with that assistance there was plenty of realism involved to serve as the basis for the technical wizards to draw upon. As for director Rob Cohen, he tends to be one of those directors that creates very entertaining movies for the general public, but finds himself maligned by most critics. With “The Fast and the Furious” I believe that Rob has actually crafted what could be his best and most comprehensive movie to date, and as a person that has enjoyed many of his films, it’s a shame he’s not more appreciated by most film critics.

And finally, we cannot forget the cast of talented up-and-comers that brought these characters to life. Portraying the film’s two leads are Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. Another part of why this film found bigger success than was expected (at least in my opinion) is due to the brotherly type of relationship between Dominic and Brian that develops over the course of the film. Had their scenes not felt so realistic and natural, this movie would have fallen apart at the seams in an instant.

Regarding the actors individual performances let’s start off with Vin Diesel. For the majority of Vin’s work he ends up criticized for being a one-note performance type of actor, which normally means he’s best suited for the action genre; however, in this film there are a couple of times where he lets down the machismo armor and allows a gentler side come to the fore. It’s in these times, and in other films he’s done (i.e. “A Man Apart” or “Find Me Guilty”), where Vin shows that there is more depth to him than most critics give him credit for. As for Paul Walker, I typically find him to be a decent actor, albeit with a little too much laid back, surfer dude quality imbued within every performance he gives. However, for this film, it is that very quality that seems to make him an ideal choice to play the character of Brian O’Connor. And for the most part, his performance in this movie is actually quite good, only a couple of instances he seemed like he rushed some lines or was a bit stiff, overall it was one of the stronger performances in his career.

Supporting the two leads are actresses Michelle Rodriguez (“Resident Evil”) and Jordana Brewster (“Annapolis”). Both actresses do well with their respective roles; although, for me personally I would have preferred a little more work had been put into developing Jordana’s character a bit further. It seemed that her character was essentially there for two reasons, to serve as the catalyst for getting Brian mixed up with Dominic’s crew, and secondly, to be Brian’s love interest so that all the ladies in the audience would have a little bit of romance to enjoy. Jordana’s character of Mia seemed like she could have been a more interesting character given the opportunity, but I guess the writers just didn’t really know what all to do with her. As for Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), she was a different kind of character than I expected, because in essence she was just a female version of Dominic. Just like Mia, Michelle’s character was mostly used as a love interest and strong female character for the ladies to relate to. Unlike Mia though, I didn’t really find Letty to be all that interesting and worthy of receiving any further screen time, especially since most of her background was summed up in a matter of sentences and beyond that I didn’t feel any further exposition was warranted.

“The Fast and the Furious” was not only a surprise hit at the box office, but also a surprise for me as well. As I stated before, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the movie, but upon watching it I found that I was sorely mistaken in that assumption, and extremely entertained at the same time. This film is definitely a lot of fun, especially for car guys, but even if you’re not, there is plenty in this film to keep you entertained and in my opinion leave you wanting more.

“The Fast and the Furious” is rated PG-13 for violence, language, and sexuality.

Punisher: War Zone

Perhaps there are some comic book characters that just aren’t as enticing to moviegoers in the same way as say, Iron Man, Spider-Man, or Batman. In my estimation, Marvel Comics’ anti-hero Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, would be one of those characters that only commands a much smaller niche audience than the aforementioned ones. This thought is further supported by the fact that in 1989 the character arrived on the big screen in what could easily be called one of the worst comic book adaptations ever made, not to mention it was just a horrible movie in general. In 2004, the character made a resurgence on the silver screen in a much more faithful and enjoyable adaptation that produced decent numbers (when combining the theatrical and DVD releases), yet still was viewed as a less than stellar release for a Marvel Comics film adaptation. Which brings us to the 2008 release of “Punisher: War Zone”, the third, and based on the horrible numbers it pulled down at the box office, most likely the final attempt at finding success for the character on the big screen.

“Punisher: War Zone” follows the extreme vigilantism of former Special Forces operative Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson). He is a man whose family was murdered before his eyes, and he now wages a seemingly endless war on the Mafia as the killer of killers known as The Punisher. During his latest mission in his self-declared “war”, Punisher targets mobster Billy Russoti, and in the process inadvertently finds himself in the middle of an undercover FBI investigation. Due to his interference, along with the ever-increasing body count of Mafia hoods filling city morgues, Punisher finds himself having to elude the law, while trying to finish what he started with the Mob.

This latest film iteration of Marvel Comics’ skull-clad anti-hero is a mixture of good and bad, resulting in a movie that will miss more moviegoers than it hits. Let’s start with what this current adaptation actually did right. As a comic book fan, I found this version of the character was much more accurate to the source material. From the location of the film being set in New York City, the appearance of Ray Stevenson in character looking as if he just walked off the page of the comic, to the inclusion of the characters of Micro and Jigsaw, so many elements within this movie made this the most accurate depiction of the character we’ve seen, and most likely will ever see on film. The action is fast-paced and very brutal, and at times it can be quite inventive. Plus, I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that it is kind of nice seeing such evil people getting their come-uppance.

Now, on to where the film went wrong, something that occurred frequently throughout the movie’s duration. For starters, why were there so many unnecessary bouts of over-the-top performances that at times wandered over into the despicable realm of camp? Whoever had the idea to give the film’s primary villain, Jigsaw, some of the dumbest moments in the film really should have thought twice about it. For me, I find it hard to take a character seriously when he acts so stupid and childish several times over the course of a movie. While on the topic of bad character choices we can’t forget to mention that the characters Loony Bin Jim and Detective Soap were two of the most annoying, and utterly pointless characters within the film, and truthfully every time they appeared on-screen the film’s standards began to drop even further (not that they were all that high to begin with). I mentioned the action as being a plus; well it’s also a minus for this film. This is due to the fact that the action appears to be the only driving force in this movie, the story takes a distant second or maybe even third in the grand scheme of things. While I am a fan of action films, I typically enjoy the ones where the movie doesn’t feel like one excessive fight after another. On top of that the violence is extremely gory, not all that big of a deal to me most times, but when I’m not supposed to be watching a horror film I don’t expect there to be buckets and buckets of blood being spilled across the screen (to the extreme that would make the most ardent of slasher film fans happy). Lastly, the story, written by Nick Santora (“The Longshots”) and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (“Iron Man”), is extremely thin and at times finds itself on the verge of becoming non-existent. While it does contain just enough detail to loosely hold everything together, there are too many missed opportunities to capitalize on character development or even just include a slight bit more exposition on how a character knew to do this or that or go here or there. Had the writers gone through the extra effort it would have gone a long way in making this a better film.

As for the cast of this film, they may not be the same caliber of talent as most Hollywood A-listers, but they do a decent job with what they’ve been given. Ray Stevenson (TV’s “Rome”), as I stated earlier, looks just like the character from the comics, and his performance is solid given what little he had to work with. I personally preferred Thomas Jane as the character, he just seemed like a more talented actor, not to mention his whole movie I found better than this one, but Stevenson’s interpretation was a close second. Portraying the villainous Jigsaw is actor Dominic West (“300”). So many things went wrong in Dominic’s performance, he’s over-the-top in most of his scenes, and on top of that his make-up is some of the worst I have seen in a film in quite some time. Honestly, I’m surprised and disappointed that anyone felt that any portion of Jigsaw’s character was done correctly as both a fully-developed character and an adaptation.

In the area of the supporting characters, actress Julie Benz (“Rambo”) was essentially wasted in her role as a widow to a fallen undercover FBI agent. Julie does a good enough job with the lame story arc that her character is given, but her whole portion of the movie could have been removed, because its only purpose was to make the Punisher appear to have a softer side (which isn’t like his comic book counterpart at all). The character of Micro, the weapons supplier for Punisher, as played by Wayne Knight (TV’s “Seinfeld”) was not much more than a cameo, and aside from being a nod to the comic book, he wasn’t really all that important to the story as it turns out. Plus, if you aren’t familiar with the comic books his involvement with Punisher and importance to him isn’t very obvious, so you find yourself wondering, “Why does Punisher even care about this guy one iota?” This was just a prime example of how a little bit of character development and/or exposition would have benefited the story.

Finally, “Punisher: War Zone” isn’t a horrible movie, and I would say it falls somewhere in between the 1989 disastrous attempt and the much better 2004 remake. If you are a fan of the character, then you will probably find that this movie is worth watching once, and who knows, you may even enjoy it. Personally, I believe if you took the best parts of the 2004 film and mixed it with the best portions of this one (which only amounts to about 30 or 40 minutes) then you could really have a terrific Punisher movie. That being said, I don’t believe there needs to be another movie featuring this anti-hero. I think three is plenty, and since it doesn’t appear that they got it perfectly right on any of the attempts, I don’t think number four would fare any better.

“Punisher: War Zone” is rated R for violence, gore, and language.