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The Films of John Madden

Ethan Frome

Golden Gate

Mrs Brown

Shakespeare in Love

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Proof

Killshot (May 23/09)

Based on the novel by Elmore Leonard, Killshot follows a pair of thugs (Mickey Rourke's Blackbird and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Richie Nix) as they terrorize an estranged married couple (Thomas Jane's Wayne and Diane Lane's Carmen) that witnessed their violent efforts at shaking down a prominent real estate mogul (Don McManus' Nelson Davies). It's not surprisingly to note that Killshot has been languishing on the shelf since 2006, as the film - though far from the all-out disaster one might've expected - suffers from an increasingly uneven sensibility that ultimately renders its few positive attributes moot. Rourke's decision to employ a Native American accent certainly ranks high on the movie's list of problems, as the actor's exceedingly ostentatious performance proves a consistent distraction and effectively prevents the viewer from accepting the character as a fully-realized figure (ie we're never not aware we're watching Mickey Rourke struggle to become this guy). It subsequently goes without saying that Killshot slowly-but-surely squanders its admittedly promising (and surprisingly stripped-down) premise, with the film's stirring opening half hour inevitably giving way to an atmosphere of pointlessness that becomes almost impossible to overlook. And although it's hard not to derive some enjoyment out of Gordon-Levitt's go-for-broke, unapologetically over-the-top turn as the trigger-happy Richie Nix, Killshot finally establishes itself as a thoroughly misguided endeavor that certainly deserves a place alongside such other ill-fated Leonard adaptations as The Big Bounce and Be Cool.

out of

The Debt

Click here for review.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Miss Sloane (December 1/16)

Miss Sloane casts Jessica Chastain as the title character, a tough, hard-as-nails lobbyist who risks her considerable reputation to launch a seemingly unwinnable crusade against the gun industry. There's certainly a lot within Miss Sloane worth admiring and appreciating - Chastain delivers as solid a performance as one has come to expect, for example - and yet the movie remains curiously (and continuously) uninvolving for the duration of its overlong running time. Jonathan Perera's almost absurdly dense screenplay, which completely lacks an entry point for the viewer, offers up scene after scene of characters talking about (and referring to) topics that couldn't be less interesting, and the movie does, as a result, suffer from a hands-off, arms-length atmosphere that grows more and more pronounced as time progresses (ie it's virtually impossible to embrace a narrative that's overflowing with meaningless chatter of filibusters and polling and the like). The movie's periodic smattering of effective sequences, coupled with an impressively stacked supporting cast (which includes, among others, John Lithgow, Dylan Baker, Mark Strong, and Michael Stuhlbarg), paves the way for a watchable vibe, at least, although the lack of momentum ensures that one's efforts at embracing the material fall flat on a dispiritingly consistent basis (ie the film is ultimately neither good nor bad; it just is). By the time the unexpected yet far-from-stirring third-act twist rolls around, Miss Sloan has cemented its place as a perfectly competent endeavor that never quite rises above the level of barely-passable mediocrity.

out of

© David Nusair