FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Troubled detective Keith Frazier is brought onto the scene when a bank robbery turns into an armed hostage situation. These aren’t your typical thieves. They’re out to conduct the perfect heist. All the details have been worked out. All contingencies accounted for. Every loose end will be tied. But they don’t count on Detective Frazier’s quick thinking and sheer determination. And neither of them count on Madeline White, who’s brought in to protect more than just the contents of the bank by any means necessary.

I’m trying to make this movie sound somewhat interesting, although I really shouldn’t be building any false hopes. Is Spike Lee really that desperate to have a mainstream hit? The writing is shoddy; the acting falls far short; the cinematography is everywhere except where it needs to be; the structure and score need major retooling; and Lee’s social commentary needs to be scrapped.

If you think my writing is bad, then check out the horrible dialogue Russell Gewirtz (failed TV series “Blind Justice”) slapped together. This script runs the gamut of clichés and lame self-aware references to the myriad better cop movies that clearly had too much inspiration. He really tries to create the ultimate caper film by borrowing from every other bank robbery/police action movie available for rental. I think the dialogue was meant to act as the putty to hold all the explosive twists and turns together. But it never goes boom. I guess the end reveal was alright, but hardly mind blowing or all that clever. And I have to say that I really hated how they had Dalton Russell (the heists’ kingpin) bookend the film with his pathetic monologue to the audience. Nothing he says here is important or deep. It’s all style (cheesy at that) with absolutely no substance. To top it all off, the script is interspersed with really bad jokes that usually come at completely inappropriate times. There’s only one truly funny line. Allow me to share it with you so you don’t have to waste your time watching the film for it. Dalton says, “I’m just saying, money can’t buy love.” Frazier replies, “Thank you, Mr. Bank Robber.” Trust me, it’s funny when Denzel says it.

Speaking of the bad acting, this is further proof that any movie that feels the need to tout its stars’ past Oscar glory will suck. I truly believe it’s a sign of a studio’s lack of faith in a lackluster product. This is no exception, providing some of the worst acting I’ve seen from any of the three major leads. Denzel tries to hold it together, but when you have Clive Owen (as Russell) stinking up the joint and Jodie Foster (as White) giving a slow, dry, monotone sleepwalking performance, there’s not much to be done.

Cinematographer Matthew Libatique (“Requiem for a Dream,” “Gothika”) might be losing his touch. The whole film is full of flashy camerawork with no purpose. From the dolly-zoom combination that accompanies the equally pointless introduction from Dalton to the slightly interesting but completely random angles showing off the architecture of the sets/locations, the camera is all over the place. In fact there’s one sequence in which the camera pans all around the room as if it were searching for a better story. Either that or the camera operator just got bored and filmed himself spinning around in circles.

And oh, how the movie drags. I wanted to be an Outside Man, but they wouldn’t let it end. You know from the trailer, I was expecting more of a heated rivalry between Foster and Denzel, but there wasn’t much there. I’m glad, because the movie is crammed with all kinds of other filler and we don’t need more. I’m not a fan of flashbacks, but I think flash forwards are even worse. They kept cutting away to nasty, grainy, overexposed shots of Denzel and his partner interrogating the hostages. That means you know they get out and everything will be okay. You just have to wait for it to happen. And I didn’t really care how. It completely ruins the suspense aspect of it all. And the faulty dialogue is too specific for you to believe it could just be a dream or fantasy sequence like the shots are trying to suggest. Denzel’s character mentions the interviews at some point later as well, basically rendering them useless. The movie would have been so much more effective if those flash forwards were left on the cutting room floor. So not only do you have to wait for that ending, but you also then have to wade through much more crap as other plot lines get wrapped up eventually leading to a greatly unsatisfying ending.

I hated the music, I hated the acting, I hated the cinematography, I really hated the script, and I really hated the flash forwards. But I hated this one scene more than any other. Dalton is talking to this little boy playing his product placement game system and car stealing, cop shooting game in it, which appalls the bad guy Dalton. There’s no other way to interpret this than to see it as social commentary about how video games are corrupting our youth. Not only do I not agree with that stance, I particularly have a problem with it being so randomly placed inside a film that happens to glorify crime and makes virtually everyone out to be a bad guy. In some respects, everyone in the movie commits some type of reprehensible act. For Lee and Gewirtz to get on their high horse and attempt to preach to us out of nowhere within the context of this film is hypocritical and extremely ill conceived. I won’t say you shouldn’t see the movie because of that, but I will say don’t see this movie, because there’s nothing there to make it worth your while.

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