Tag Teams

Movies that feature high profile leading men sharing centre stage need to perform a precarious balancing act: Both it's high wattage leading men need room to shine, the script needs to play to their strengths while not sacrificing the story in favour of "actor showboating". In the recent trio of big name team-ups, James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma (Russell Crowe and Christian Bale) is probably the one that combines all elements successfully while Ridley Scott's American Gangster (Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington) comes pretty damn close. Phillip G. Atwell's War (Jet Li and jasaon Statham) on the other hand, doesn't have a fucking clue as to what do with its butt kicking protagonists.

American Gangster

All gifted directors at some point essay a gangster flick and why not? Where else would you find such scope for epic storytelling, great and violent drama not to mention roles for equally gifted actors to flex their acting muscles?

The awesome versatility of Ridley Scott gets another workout as he attempts the genre conquered by Coppola and Scorcese and De Palma. Pick a genre and it's probably had Scotts's imprint on it at one point or another. Never mind the seminal science fiction flicks Alien and Blade Runner, the man has done fantasy (Legend), period movies (The Duellist and 1492:Conquest Of Paradise), cop thrillers (Someone To Watch Over Me and Black Rain), feminist road film (Thelma and Louise), con capers (Matchstick Men), macho war movies (G.I.Jane and Black Hawk Dawn), revitalised the sword and sandal epic (Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven) and even helmed a Hannibal Lecter movie (Hannibal).

The plot of American Gangster can be concisely summed up:

A Harlem heroin kingpin, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) smuggles drugs into America by American military planes and servicemen returning from the Vietnam War. He is extorted by corrupt policemen.
Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is a detective who works to bring down Lucas.[2] Unlike many colleagues he is not corrupt; once he found a million dollars of drugs money, and did not keep any for himself.
When Lucas is arrested they have partly a common goal: to expose the corrupt policemen who extorted him.

Scott keeps the movie running on two parallel plot lines, Lucas' rise to power, set to the throbbing beats of jazz, soul and the street rhythms of Harlem in the '70s, and Roberts's unravelling personal life while forming and heading an elite drug squad tasked with tracking down the supplier of an almost pure and therefore lethal grade of narcotic on the streets. Scott makes you wait for a full 2 hours and twenty minutes before having his 2 high wattage thesps meet.

If Scott's meticulous attention to detail means the film's authentic recreation of New York in the '70s come as no surprise, then neither do the high voltage sparks generated by Crowe and Russell in their money shot face off in the films' closing scenes. You expect no less from these 2 charismatic leads who are a joy to watch throughout this lengthy epic.

Washington, in his first movie with Ridley (although he's headlined 3 movies by brother Tony Scott) channels his Training Day bad cop, albeit with a lot more style and suave elegance while retaining the lethal menace of his Oscar Winning antagonist.

Crowe (in his third Ridely Scott flick), however, is the real revelation, not only taking a slightly dimished role next to Washington, but playing Roberts' minus the customary swagger you'd expect from a veteran policeman. Make no mistake, Roberts' is skilled and equally dangerous in a gunfight and capable of operating with ruthless efficiency but he's layered with self doubt, terrified of public speaking and as his soon to be ex-wife puts it succinctly during a court room confrontation, a man who returned the drug money "to buy the dishonesty he practices in his life".

Both Crowe and Washington effortlessly convey the contrast of the chaotic personal life of the policeman against the stable family life of the gangster (Lucas moves his ENTIRE family to NY from North Carolina when he's able to afford it; Roberts' can't even prevent his wife from moving away to Las Vegas with their only son).

Action is in surprisingly short supply as is the violence for a movie of this ilk. Scott's mastery in staging action sequences is saved for a climactic shoot out at the drug dealer's hide out. What is in surprising abundance here is nudity, not a Scott staple (this is a director who eschewed filming a orgy in a movie set during the Roman Empire).

And did I forget to mention Josh Brolin's effective turn as the real villain of the piece, a ruthlessly corrupt cop? His rather tame downfall is the movie's few weak points.

Were it not for Michael Mann's seminal Heat that brought Al Pacino and Robert De Niro together for only the second time after Godfather 2, American Gangster may well have been the shining beacon of star team ups not to mention epic crime dramas.

Gangster lacks the intensity of Heat and despite its subject matter, the all pervading aura of menace of a Goodfellas or Casino.

But Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington in a Ridley Scott directed crime drama. How often do one of those come along?

WAR

Or Rogue Assassin in some places..or A Collossal Waste Of Time that most people who have seen it are going to sub title it, whatever the name, it's still proof positive, that in the wrong hands, it's still possible to fuck up a Sure Thing.

Jet Li and Jason Statham sure ain't no Crowe and Washington, you don't shell out 10 bucks in a cinema (or a lesser amount for a bootleg copy, whichever's your preference) to see Oscar calibre acting and nuanced characters. You expect to see action. Tons of it. Legs and hands working in precisioned harmony to wreck mayhem, balletic martial arts that keep you enthralled and in blissfull self-denial that story-wise, the plot isn't worth the used napkin it was written on. Even if the dingbats responsible for this mess didn't catch Jet's kung fu masterpieces like the Once Upon A Time In China movies or Statham's Transporter flicks, at least a viewing of Tony Jaa's Tom Yum Goong would have awakened some basic awareness that zero or inexplicable plot is excusable in the face of jaw dropping martial arts choreography.

But no, director Atwell (who?) chooses to saddle us with a supposedly intricate plot of a master assassin Rogue (Jet Li) playing the Yakuza and Triads off one another that would have appeared complex only to those who've never seen A Fistfull Of Dollars. Hot on his trails is dedicated cop John Crawford (Jason Statham), out for revenge for the death of his partner and family at Rogue's hands 3 years ago.

Statham fares the best, only because when he's not fighting (and there's a lot of that:No Fighting), he's allowed to peddle his roguish machismo to good effect. It's the one note Jason Statham swagger, you've seen it in 3 guy Ritchie movies, 2 Transporter flicks and the charmingly off beat Crank and Chaos. And he does it well.

Jet, on the other hand is made to Act Cool. Note to director: The Jetster only looks cool when he's unleashing martial arts mayhem. Garbing him in stylish black coats, shades and having him deliver one liners that may have sounded cool if Jet didn't have a propensity for mangling the English language almost as brutally as he does his assailants is NOT.

So,do Jason and the Jetster get it on? Yes finally. Don't blink though. You may miss it.

Talky and ponderous, War most likely sprang from the same heads that thought teaming up a martial arts star with a hip-hop artiste was the epitome of stylish cool and gave us such unforgettable masterpieces like Romeo Must Die, Exit Wounds and Cradle to The Grave. The same geniuses now give you two stars who can actually fight in one film and have them do very little of it.

The only noteworthy part of this dreck is a sly twist tacked on at the end that actually took me by surprise. It's actually...clever and doesn't belong in the film, much like it's stars, who would have been much better off filming Transporter 3 or Return Of The Kiss Of The Dragon.

Hell, I'll even settle for Unleashed..Again.

3:10 to Yuma

With Ridley Scott's ambitious and ultimately over reaching American Gangster being a little less than the Perfect Cinematic Crime Drama and War being the latest addition to the scrap heap housing the detritus of over shot, over-cut, over-stylised and severely underwhelming action flicks, it falls to 3:10 To Yuma to pull off that near perfect combination of propulsively kinetic action and intense drama that not only revitalises the Western, but skillfully utilises it's stars' magnetic charisma to boost it.

It works because director James Mangold (Cop Land, Kate and Leopold,Walk The Line) has Russell Crowe and Christian Bale play to their strengths.

Crowe is in full on Swagger Mode, Maximus with a Stetson and Gun, oozing charm and cold ruthlessness with equal measure.

Christian Bale was born to play the Tortured, Intense Soul the way John Wayne was born to play a cowboy and he's in his element here as a tortured, intense rancher struggling to hold on to his farm and family's respect. The onrush of the railroad means his land is worth more with him off it. A chance to earn some much needed cash to save his land emerges when he stands a chance to escort notorious outlaw Ben Wade(Crowe) along with a posse of railroad employees and bounty hunters to the town of Contention to catch the 3:10 train to Yuma where Ben will stand trial and be hanged. But hot on their trail is Ben's gang of vicious killers led by sadistic Charlie Prince (Ben Foster, surprisingly good and menacing. This is the geek who had his piercings pulled off in The Punisher and the Mutant Boy ashamed of his wings in X-Men 3).

And Ben himself will prove to be a handful....

The action is fast and furious, the dialogues simmer with tension and the climactic High Noon style showdown is nail-biting.

Like American Gangster and War (shudder!) , 3.10 To Yuma also features a climactic reversal on the part of its antagonist that, like the other 2 films, don't quite ring true. But after delivering more than 90 minutes of pulse pounding excitement, you're more than willing to overlook it in this case.

3.10 To Yuma calls for a resurrection of the Western. And that ain't no bad thing...