Page 6 • Inside Beat
September 29, 2011
FILM & VIDEOGAMES
Killer Elite Gary McKendry | C-
BY SPENCE BLAZAK STAFF WRITER
A possible alternative title for the new espionage thriller Killer Elite might be Generic Fall 2011 Jason Statham Vehicle, because then the title would have had the same amount of effort put into it as the movie itself. Danny (Jason Statham, Death Race) is an ex-killer who is dragged out of retirement kicking and screaming when his old partner, Hunter (Robert De Niro, The Deer Hunter), is kidnapped by a Middle Eastern sheik. The sheik says he will release Hunter if Danny can kill the three men who killed his three sons in exactly six months. Soon after, Special Air Services operative Spike (Clive Owen, Children of Men) is on Danny’s tail. It’s not a bad setup, but Killer Elite quickly finds a way to destroy any potential it has in its first twenty minutes. Saying it is clichéd is a drastic understate-
ment; the characters are motivated by nothing more than money, power and relationships with significant others that are flatter than a flapjack. This leads to the audience being overwhelmed by a slew of characters that are nothing more than names. The fact that these people are the protagonists is the beginning of Killer Elite’s many problems. The actors do the best they can with such a limited script. Clive Owen pulls off the role of a generic villain well enough, as does Robert De Niro as a wisecracking killer, but Statham really struggles. Transporter 2, Crank and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels showed that he could have been the 21st centur y’s answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger – Statham can be a great action star at times. In Killer Elite, he just looks like he doesn’t care. This completely sucks any energy from the film. As the movie progresses, it keeps tr ying to out-cliché each
scene. The most hackneyed line of all is towards the end when one character shoots another, claiming, “It’s nothing personal, just business.” Killer Elite has committed the unforgivable sin of an action movie script: quoting The Godfather. Despite all of Killer Elite’s missteps, first-time director Gary McKendry shows a few moments of brilliance. While most of the fight/chase scenes are edited so closely together that it’s hard to tell what’s happening, McKendry shows potential in a minor fight that Danny witnesses from across a street. It’s only two or three shots and features a middle-aged Englishman beating up three skinheads who key his car. Too bad it only lasts for 50 seconds. All in all, Killer Elite is a massive dud. It will soon find its way to the bargain DVD bin at the checkout of K-Marts nationwide. Banality permeates the overbearing pores of Killer Elite through and through.
COURTESY OF ALLMOVIEPHOTO.COM
MONEYBALL Bennett Miller | B BY RYAN SURUJNATH ASSOCIATE EDITOR
COURTESY OF ALLMOVIEPHOTO.COM
In 2003, Michael Lewis wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. His novel had such a profound impact on Major League Baseball, that teams like the New York Yankees now use the form of statistical analysis Lewis writes about, known as sabermetrics, as an important factor in acquiring new players. Bennett Miller turns Lewis’ book into an accessible drama that is based on the true story of an economically disadvantaged team. Brad Pitt (Inglorious Basterds) plays Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane. After a defeat in the 2001 ALDS by the Yankees, Beane and the A’s organization are placed in the unenviable position of having to rebuild following the loss of three key players. To help with this monumental task, Beane hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill, Knocked Up), a former advisor to the Cleveland Indians. Together, Hill and Beane adopt a radically different team-building strategy that stresses the importance of a high on-base percentage. Beane and Hill set out to sign a number of unlikely players, among which include the oft-injured first baseman Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt, Wanted) and the aging, former Yankee star, David Justice (Steven Bishop, Lost). Though this new method earned him no favors with team manager Art Howe (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote) and the Oakland media, Beane’s A’s persevered to a spectacular 2002 season. Admittedly, the film does not focus much on the team itself; astute baseball fans will notice the omission of some names that were central to the team's playof f run. Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez, Tim Hudson, Barr y Zito and Mark Mulder are never mentioned in the film. Even the
individual stories of Hatteberg and Justice are left unexplored. Indeed, Billy Beane is the protagonist of Moneyball. The film deftly ties Beane's professional life as a manager with his emotional baggage: prior to his ascension within the Athletics organization, Beane was a highly touted high school prospect who choked upon entering the big leagues. The driving force behind Moneyball is a stellar performance by Brad Pitt, who injects the right balance of emotion and light humor into Beane's character. Pitt's performance has at least an outside chance at an Oscar nomination. Pitt's performance is supplemented by a team of proven screenwriters. Steven Zallian (Schindler’s List) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) do an amazing job in dramatizing Michael Lewis' book, which contains long, unfilmable stretches on sabermetric principles. One of the film's most memorable scenes involves an expertly written spectacle in which Beane haggles with several other teams in an effort to acquire Cleveland reliever Ricardo Rincon. Though Pitt’s performance drives the film, Moneyball suffers from blatant pacing problems. The movie has a runtime of just over two hours, and it has a tendency to drag on at parts. This can sometimes be especially painful for those who are not baseball fans and may not have an interest in or understanding of baseball terminology. Moneyball also suffers from a lack of climax; the film repeatedly builds suspense over long periods of time towards a singular event that, ultimately, is not as satisfying as it ought to be. Moneyball will not win the sport of baseball any new fans. It is best to think of Moneyball not as a sports film, but rather, as a smart and well-written drama.