American Sniper

I first remember seeing Bradley Cooper as a secondary actor, playing the annoying brother in the Vince Vaughan comedy 'classic' The Wedding Crashers'. Since then he's progressed considerably onto bigger and better things. From the Hangover trilogy (don't watch the second and third films, you'll lose IQ points if you do) to The A-Team. Mr Cooper can seem to do no wrong. Limitless and American Hustle also showed that he was capable of portraying a wide and diverse range of characters. However it wasn't till The Silver Linings playbook that his application to join the 'A-list' elite had been completed. Playing Pat, a teacher with mental health issues, trying to reconcile with his ex-wife. He put in a damaged and vulnerable performance that earned him his first Oscar nomination. 

With American Sniper Cooper portrays a real Navy Seal sniper called Chris Kyle. A man who has the highest confirmed kill rate in American military history. At over one hundred and sixty he Kyle earned himself two unique and equally different nicknames. 'Legend' by his comrades and 'The Devil' by the Iraqi insurgents. 

Kyle was very much a man without a purpose during his teenage years and his twenties. Moving from one meaningless relationship to another and being from Texas his highest aspiration was to become a cowboy and a rodeo rider. It wasn't until the 9/11 attacks in two thousand and one that he felt the urge to help defend his country and basically contribute to the fight of good against evil. Kyle enlists as a Navy Seal at the age of thirty, which is practically unheard of and finds he has a talent with firearms. Sniper rifles to be more specific. 

His first tour of duty starts three days after he gets married. Hi wife Taya, played by Sienna Miller, is reluctant to even talk to him when they first meet in a bar. Taya's sister having had problems being engaged to a sailor and it not ending well. Kyle is almost guilty by association and tarred with the same brush. He does however slowly win her over and with the help of holding her hair back whilst she's being sick Taya begins to see him for more than just muscle & uniform and as quite a compassionate and vulnerable man. 

Kyle’s first kill is quite harrowing. For those of you who have watched the trailer and seem him looking through his scope at an Iraqi mother and son as a military convoy pulls ever closer towards them all I will say is this. Yes he does and yes he has to. 

Kyle's belief system is very black and white. The Americans are good and Iraq's military and street fighting militia are evil and need to be stopped at all costs. This is why Kyle ends up going back to Iraq a further three times. You get the impression that it's because he believes the job is not yet complete and he's incapable of leaving loose ends. Each tour of duty he embarks on leaves his wife emotionally in no man’s land. Never knowing if he'll return or what will be left oh her husband mentally if and when he does. The fact that he does survive four tours physically is extraordinary however every time he comes home he finds it harder to reintegrate into what most people would describe as a normal family life. During his forth tour Kyle finally manages to take out a Syrian sniper who he's had to deal with since his first deployment. This victory comes with a cost though. During a rooftop escape Kyle and the team he is with come under heavy fire and he gets shot in the leg. This is effectively the straw that breaks the camel’s back.  

Bradley Cooper has just picked up his second Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Chris Kyle and it’s not too difficult to work out why. He trained with Chris Kyle’s marine colleagues, spent months bulking up so he would physically match Kyles size and frame and spent time with a dialect coach so he’d sound like Kyle too. The cumulative result of this time and effort is a transformation that is almost indistinguishable from the real man himself.

The tragedy of American Sniper comes in its closing moments. Having completed four tours of duty and in a bid to reclaim back his humanity Kyle, once he’s retired from the armed forces, agrees to help other Marines with posttraumatic stress disorder. This is as much therapy for himself as it for the others he helps. Unfortunately on February the second 2013, whilst at a firing range he is shot in the back and killed by another Marine. Whether you agree with the war and the Americans involvement in it, Chris Kyle’s funeral procession was over two hundred miles long and was lined by well-wishers for its entire length. The funeral itself had so many people wanting to attend it had to be held in the Dallas Cowboys football Stadium.  The closing credits actually use news footage that was broadcast on the day and it does make for difficult viewing given the film you’ve just seen and the sacrifices that you’ve observed Kyle making for hi country.

Clint Eastwood has been on a bit of a production marathon recently. His output of films has left even the most of prolific film makers in his wake. In the last eight years alone he has directed nine films. That's the same quantity as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Peter Jackson combined over the same time period. I do start to wonder if at the age of eighty four Eastwood has realised that the clock is ticking and there's only so much time left available to tell the stories he wants to. According to IMBD he's already in production to direct a remake of A Star is Born. Where he gets his energy from is unknown but for someone who is currently twice my age it's remarkable. 

It’s unlikely that Cooper will win this year’s best actor Oscar due to his competition being incredibly strong. Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Steve Carell and Michael Keaton are far safer bets but given that the film itself has just opened with a ninety million dollar weekend I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it walked away with best film on February the 22nd.  

Twitter Review:

Fiercely patriotic and it doesn't apologise for being so. A story of a simple man with a simple set of values. 

#BestInTheWorldAtWhatHeDid

Useful Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/?ref_=nv_sr_1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99k3u9ay1gs

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=138645

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRE21DY1pjo

A Good Day to Die Hard

In 1988 the silver screen was introduced to the world’s most reluctant hero, John McClane. A New York police officer who finds himself stuck in a Los Angles skyscraper on Christmas Eve, fending off a dozen or so German terrorists and generally saving the day with the help a desk sergeant, a limo driver and a substandard Rolex watch.
Bruce Willis, hot off the success of Moonlighting, the television series that launched his career was given the role of McClane. The rest as they say is history. However things could have been entirely different if the role hadn’t first been turned down by the likes of Nick Nolte, Richard Gere and Robert De Niro.
The original is not only the best of the Die Hard films but is also regarded as one of the best action films ever made. It has become a legend and was for a long time the yard stick that all other action films were measured against. John McTiernan the director was in the form of his life, having just helmed Predator and went on to make The Hunt for Red October after Die Hard. The film also marked the big screen debut for Alan “shoot the glass” Rickman. A role that put him on the Hollywood map and played a large part in him being cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood. However Die Hard has always been more than the sum of its parts. Based on a Novel by Roderick Thorp, it was at the time a unique story that didn’t open to much hype or fanfare. By today’s standards didn’t set the box office on fire. Its worldwide gross was less than one hundred million. Where it really started to gain traction via word of mouth was when it hit the video rental and retail stores…..

Twenty five years later and we find ourselves on the fifth film in the franchise. Twentieth Century Fox, knowing when they’re on to a good thing seem to keep throwing money at screenwriters and directors until they either relent and realise that “everybody has a price”. This also seems to be true of Mr Willis. After the third film Bruce went on the record as saying that he didn’t feel he could do anything else with the character. I wish he had stick to his principles as the forth and now fifth film are basically shadows of what came before.
You do get the feeling that Mr Willis is acting on autopilot in this film and is it’s being treated as an exercise in how to earn as much as possible with as little effort as possible.

The majority of this most recent Die Hard film, which, in my humble opinion should have been called “Five Hard” takes places in Russia. McClane travels there to try and reconnect with his rebellious son, played by the Australian actor Jai Courtney, who as it turns out happens to work for the CIA and is trying to stop a nuclear weapons heist. And as plots go that’s about it. There are a few twists and turns along the way, including some signposted double crosses but this really does fall into the “leave your brain at the door” film category.
The Irish born director John Moore has been let loose with Hollywood films before with such grand and majestic titles like Behind Enemy Lines, Flight of the Phoenix and Max Payne but they’ve never really set the critical or box office world alight.
I think because of this and the fact Fox came along and said “would you like a crack at the fifth Die Hard film?” Mr Moore decided that he’d just take the script Skip Woods had provided (another Hollywood devotee that probably had could do better written on his high school report card) and use the Spinal Tap methodology and just turn up everything up to 11.
There are two major action set pieces in the film. The first is a car chase through the streets of Moscow that takes place in the first act of the film. The second is in the film’s third act climax and looks like it could have been storyboarded by a five year, who’d just been given a toy helicopter and truck for Christmas. Both set pieces seem to want to try and distract you from the fact the story is weak and the screenplay is so frail it could best be described as suffering from an asthma attack.

The other problem with the film is the McClane character. In the first three films at least, he was very much doing what he’s doing because he has to. In the last two films you really get the feeling that he’s doing this because he wants to. The reluctant hero has either started to believe his own press or he has taken out a life insurance policy that only pays out if he happens to be shot by an Ak47 or taken he’s taken out by an explosion involving Semtex.  The problem is I keep having to come back to is the plot and the fact that there isn’t one in his movie. The forth film was about digital terrorism and trying to reconnect with his daughter. The fifth and current film centres on nuclear terrorists and trying to reconnect with his son. Not much of a leap when it comes to being creative as you can see.
I’m certain that there will, in the not too distant future, be a sixth Die Hard film and I can only hope that instead of just asking anyone to come up with a screenplay the executives at fox actually realise that you can’t just throw money at a problem to fix it. It doesn’t matter how big your bangs are or how many rounds of ammunition the production gets through, you have to have a story that works. However I do feel that the next film will take the path of least resistance and the plot will be written with the mantra “if it aint broke, don’t try to fix it” in mind. If I were a betting man I’d take myself off to my nearest bookmakers and have a five pound bet that John McClane has a twin brother that will turn out to be the villain of the piece and Bruce will end up playing both parts.

Sometimes the old adage of less is more can actually work. As I said at the start the First Die Hard film is regarded as an action classic and it doesn’t have that many big set pieces in it. In my opinion films will only work if you can hold the audiences interest and A Good Day To Die Hard didn’t hold mine at all. There was just too much going on without anything happening at all.

Twitter Review:
Trilogies are much better when they don’t have five parts. Overblown with a plot and script that are MIA.
#SayNoToSix

Useful Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606378/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVkzZD92cMQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61UqRmDjwgc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxBXm7ZUTM   (How it should be done!)