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By Joe Bendel. It was a time of poorly planned military adventurism, punitive taxation, and talentless heads of state demanding unquestioned obedience. Fortunately, our times are nothing like England circa 1327, except for those last three points. The Builders have erected the cathedral at Kingsbridge, but their descendants have fallen on hard times in the sequel to Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. The priory runs the town—badly—and the cruel French queen sitting on the British throne nurses a mysterious grudge against Kingsbridge residents in the four-part World Without End, which premieres on the Reelz Channel this Wednesday.

The fictional Kingsbridge has both a priory and a convent. The former controls the city charter but the latter was entrusted with the purse strings. The nuns are progressive, supporting modern medicine and dignified conditions for the common people. The brothers are backward fear-mongers, who insist on smothering sick patients with dung. People assume Brother Godwyn is a progressive, by virtue of his youth, but when he is elected prior, he proves to be an exceptionally ruthless Luddite.

As one might expect, Kingsbridge also has a bridge. Unfortunately, it has become too narrow to facilitate traffic to the Fleece Fair, the town’s most important commercial event of the year. The priory naturally looks to the knuckle-dragging Elfric to build a similarly inadequate replacement, but the commercial guild hires his innovative apprentice, Merthin, the disgraced son of the former Earl – who was violently purged by the Queen’s new tax collector, Roland.

Those taxes will be high too, even by the standards 2012 America. Queen Isabella holds Kingsbridge in particularly low regard, partly because Sir Thomas Langley found sanctuary there, becoming a monk well regarded by both his brothers and the guildsmen. Circumstantial evidence suggests that he also murdered King Edward II in prison, on Isabella’s orders. He is not talking about his past, but his presence remains embarrassing to certain people in power.

Langley’s arrival ignites all the scandals that will follow in Kingsbridge. Merthin will pursue his star-crossed love of Caris, while her devious kinsman Petranilla schemes to protect her sociopathic son Godwyn. Meanwhile, the Black Death and the Hundred Years War are wreaking a grim toll on the British, particularly in Kingsbridge.

A prestigious period piece co-executive produced by Ridley and the late Tony Scott, World is a throwback to the 1980’s style cast-of-dozens miniseries. Sometimes it works on that level, but it is a maddeningly slow starter. The production works best when focusing on the mystery surrounding the murder of Edward II and Isabella’s subsequent Machiavellian machinations.

Indeed, amongst the sprawling ensemble, Ben Chaplin fares better than most as the intense Langley. He just looks like a man with a history. Similarly, longtime MI-5 veteran Peter Firth knows how to chew the scenery as Roland, the somewhat reluctant Nottingham of Kingsbridge. Indeed, his character has one of the richest development arcs of the series. Also, look for 24 regular Carlo Rota (a.k.a. Morris O’Brien) as Caris’s not-so-fast-on-the-uptake father, Edmund – who is pretty convincing when facing the rough justice of the royal court.

Unfortunately, as the on-again-off-again lovers, Tom Weston-Jones (so appealingly hardnosed in BBC America’s Copper) and Charlotte Riley are rather colorless. Cynthia Nixon is instantly unlikable as Petranilla. Nonetheless, her vampy character is so anachronistic and blatantly on the make, it is hard to buy into her intellectually and Nixon never sells her on an emotional level. Miranda Richardson tries to give it all a high tone when appearing as Mother Cecilia, a sort of a Fourteenth Century Iron Lady, but World’s melodramatic inclinations are insurmountable.

If there is one thing that comes out loud and clear throughout End, it is Follett’s antipathy for the Church. Aside from Langley and his closest cronies, the brothers are uniformly depicted as superstitious misogynists. Yes, there are plenty of documented excesses in its history, but this was also a time when the Church was single-handedly preserving the wisdom of ancient western civilization. Frankly, World’s anti-clerical bent gets intrusively heavy-handed.

There is something engaging about a big juicy costume drama epic, especially when it has enough time to sufficiently unfold every intrigue and double-cross. Director Michael Caton-Jones (whose credits include Scandal and Rob Roy) clearly understands that appeal. However, the inconsistent cast and didactic point-scoring quickly become distracting. Not really recommended for audiences beyond Follett’s diehard readers, World Without End airs on Reelz Channel, beginning this Wednesday (10/17).

Posted on October 15th, 2012 at 10:06am.

By Joe Bendel. It was a time of malaise. In 1979, the iconic Hollywood sign had fallen into a state of disrepair, but there was still a patriotic old guard willing to invest their time and reputations in a film that would never be made, for the sake of their country. Recruited by CIA “exfiltration” specialist Tony Mendez, two movie industry veterans provided the cover for a long classified rescue operation. During the Iranian hostage crisis, the Canadian ambassador furtively sheltered six U.S. embassy employees, at considerable personal risk – so Mendez devised a plan to fly them out in broad daylight, posing as crew members of a Star Wars knock-off. Their stranger-than-fiction mission has become Ben Affleck’s Oscar contending Argo, which opens today in New York.

In its opening voiceover narration, Argo helpfully explains that everything that happened in Iran was the fault of America and Great Britain, because we supported the Shah. After we’re properly chastised, Argo then admits that the early days of the Islamic Revolutionary regime were little more than a reign of terror, culminating with the seizure of the American embassy, in gross violation of international law. Carefully modeled on actual news footage, these occupation sequences are a harrowing depiction of mass fanaticism at its most savage – and are also highly cinematic.

Caught flat-footed, the Carter Administration (which had pressured the Shah to abdicate, assuming the Ayatollah would mellow once entrusted with power) is at a total loss. The Canadian Ambassador simply cannot shelter his “house guests” indefinitely and it is only a matter of time before the hostage takers realize they are short six Foreign Service Officers. Most of the proposed action plans bear little or no relation to the on-the-ground realities. Of course, Mendez does not have any better ideas, until he thinks of make-up artist John Chambers, the man who created Spock’s ears, who secretly volunteers his “transformative” services to the CIA.

The plan is daring in its conception: Mendez will enter Iran via Canada on the pretext that he is scouting locations for a sci-fi epic set on a rather Persian looking alien world. A few days later, he simply flies out again with six of his crew members. Of course, it is rather more complicated than that. To be credible, Argo, as the non-film within the film is titled, must have legit names attached to it and generate some trade press. Old school producer Lester Siegel can take care of that.

Argo really packs a punch when conveying the overwhelming oppressiveness and paranoia of Revolutionary Iran. The atmosphere is truly overpowering and profoundly scary. Yet Affleck effectively breaks up the mood with the Sorkinesque absurdities of the Carter Administration and the outright comic relief provided by Siegel and Chambers. However, their “kvetching for freedom” never feels overly silly or forced. Instead, viewers clearly understand these old cats are used to dealing with serious situations through humor.

As Mendez, Ben Affleck broods and bluffs convincingly enough, but his work on the other side of the camera is far more distinctive. John Goodman and Alan Arkin are absolutely perfect as the real life Chambers and the composite-figure Siegel. They both deliver zingers like the old pros they are, while still projecting an unabashed love of country that is quite endearing. Yet Bryan Cranston gets some of the film’s sharpest lines as Jack O’Donnell, Mendez’s superior at the Agency.

Aside from the audio from a ridiculously self-serving interview with Jimmy Carter heard during the closing credits, the sure-footed Affleck avoids politicizing his tight narrative. He keeps the tension cranked up, but has the good sense to unleash his colorful supporting cast. Given the presumed field of Oscar candidates, it probably deserves to be in the mix. Recommended for those fascinated with the history of espionage, Argo opens today (10/12) in theaters throughout the City, including the AMC Loews Lincoln Square.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on October 12th, 2012 at 12:57pm.

By Joe Bendel. As one of those obnoxious YouTube posters, Alex Wright probably has it coming. When he uploads a review ripping the Vicious Brothers’ found footage horror movie Grave Encounters for looking fake, the film student gets something he never anticipated—a starring role in the sequel. Viewers will indeed head back to the haunted nut house, but with a postmodern twist in John Poliquin’s Grave Encounters 2, written, produced, and edited by the Brothers Vicious, which screens appropriately at midnight this tonight and Saturday in New York.

Set in the abandoned Collingwood asylum, the filmmaking duo known as the Vicious Brothers (sort of like Radio Silence) scared a lot of folks with Grave Encounters 1, in which Lance Preston and his reality television crew spends an ill-fated night in the evil building, with their cameras running to record to record their supernatural demises. However, as Wright soon learns from an online commenter known as Death Awaits 666, Sean Rogerson, the actor who played Preston, has never been heard from since.

As Death Awaits emails and faxes tantalizes clues to Wright, the aspiring filmmaker becomes increasingly fixated on the first Grave Encounters and the institution it called “Collingwood,” but whose real name has been censored to protect viewers from their curiosity. Eventually getting off-the-record confirmation GE is the real deal, Wright scrounges together a crew and heads to the nameless asylum to shoot his own film, Grave Encounters 2.

Essentially, GE2 is to found footage style films what Wes Craven’s New Nightmare was to the Nightmare on Elm Street series. It opens up the subgenre through its post-modern devices, like a filleted fish. However, Poliquin (a.k.a. JP) does not invest the same amount of time establishing every ominous inch of Collingwood, presumably assuming we are already familiar with the shunned building. Likewise, despite the cleverness of the first act, including an appearance by “the Vicious Brothers” as a pair of numbskull figurehead interns at the original film’s production company, the sequel lacks the same slow building tension.

Even so, the institution formerly known as Collingwood remains creepy as all get out. The GE franchise must have some of the best location scouting and set design you will see in contemporary horror films. Sean Rogerson also makes a heck of a return in the follow-up, playing himself playing Lance Preston. While not as an engaging presence, Richard Harmon has some okay moments showing the dark sides of obsession and the pettiness of film schools (which the Viciouses reportedly despise).

By genre standards, GE 2 is uncommonly original. It just does not get under the skin the way its predecessor did. Definitely still good for a few scares, Grave Encounters 2 screens midnights this tonight (10/12) and Saturday (10/13) in New York at the Village East Cinema.

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on October 12th, 2012 at 12:55pm.

By Joe Bendel. Elsa Cassanova opposed the invasion of Afghanistan and wears keffiyehs. She thought she would fit right in, but she is shocked to discover that the Taliban systematically abuse local women. As a result of her reporting on the horrors experienced by a woman sold into marriage-slavery to a prominent Taliban warlord, Cassanova is abducted and forced to make some rather ominous internet videos. Without proper backup, an elite commando unit will mount a rescue attempt in Stéphane Rybojad’s Special Forces, which opens this Friday in New York.

It is a good thing Cassanova est tres jolie. The prospect of her beheading has the French government freaked. While the men under Commander Kovax command are not exactly thrilled with her byline, they will bring her home anyway. It will not be easy, though. They will face Ahmed Zaief, an Islamist fanatic Cassanova dubbed “The Butcher of Kabul.” You’d think he’d like that title – but no, evidently not.

Executing a mission planned on the fly, Kovax’s men liberate Cassanova from her immediate captors easily enough. However, things get complicated with the extraction. Cut off from their rendezvous points, the commandos have no choice but to head home on foot over the mountains, from Zaief’s Pakistani hideout to their base in Afghanistan – not unlike the gulag escapees in Peter Weir’s The Way Back. However, Zaief and his men will pursue them (somewhat reluctantly) every step of the way.

While the French initially seem to have A-Team like success holding off the Taliban fighters, it should be kept in mind that they have superior firepower, better morale, and higher ground all in their favor. Their charmed luck soon runs out, however, with squad members dying off one by one. Eventually only the biggest stars are left to protect Cassanova. That includes Djimon Hounsou as Kovax and Benoît Magimel as Tic Tac, a flirty paratrooper who might just have a shot with the lefty journalist, if they both survive.

Hollywood should take note: Hounsou was an inspired casting decision. Blessed with a truly commanding screen presence, he is completely credible in every action scene and lends the film dignified gravitas. A Ryan Golsing or Reynolds just would not cut the Dijon mustard here. While not as hardnosed, Magimel is sufficient as the sensitive commando. Also perfectly cast, Diane Kruger nicely portrays Casanova’s resiliency in the face of harsh elements and even harsher Islamist extremists. It is hard to think of any other name actress working in film today who can similarly combine grit and beauty.

Well known in France for his military documentaries, Rybojad’s narrative is about as straight as gets, never throwing any sort of twist or turn the audience’s way. Yet, to his considerable credit, he never whitewashes or excuses the brutality of the Taliban. We see several instances of the terror they rain down on helpless villagers as well as the destruction left in their wake. Again, this is an example of the sort of film Hollywood ought to be making, but refuses to. Recommended for both action movies fans and Francophiles, Special Forces opens this Friday (10/12) in New York at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on October 10th, 2012 at 4:04pm.

By Joe Bendel. In the movies, casinos exist just so they can be taken down. However, one Korean criminal mastermind is not just pulling a heist because the casino is there, like Everest in downtown Macao. He is also out for payback. Nor is he is not the only one looking to settle scores in Choi Dong-hoon’s Thieves, which opens this Friday in New York.

A monster hit in Korea, Thieves has just about all the classic heist movie elements. There is Popie, the cynical ringleader; Yenicall, his hot new accomplice to shimmy about in Cat Woman suits; and her predecessor, Pepsee, fresh out of prison. They have been recruited for a job in the former Portuguese colony by the man Popie and Pepsee blame for her incarceration: their former partner, Macao Park.

After a rather unfortunate incident in an elevator shaft, Macao Park disappeared with a bag full of gold, reinventing himself as a bank breaker in Macao’s casinos – thereby earning his new moniker. It is not the casino’s cash Park is after this time, though. He is interested in the “Tear of the Sun,” a spectacular diamond a guest is storing in their vault. That would be Tiffany, the mistress of mobbed-up fence Wei Hong. The plan is to steal the diamond and sell it back to Hong, with the help of a Hong Kong crew led by the sly Chen (for the record, this will make the team an even ten). That might not sound like a very good plan, because it isn’t, but it’s not really what many of the conspirators have in mind. There are a lot of agendas at play in Thieves that will inevitably lead to a series of crosses and double crosses.

Dripping with style, Thieves will draw obvious comparisons to the Oceans franchise, but it is rather better than that. While there is comic relief here and there (mostly from Oh Dal-su’s crook, Andrew), Thieves is far edgier with a very real sense of danger present throughout. Nobody here mugs for the camera or tries to show the audience how much fun they are having. They are professionals and not all of them are going to make it.

Thieves also has something else the Oceans lack: Simon Yam, bringing all kinds of HK action movie cred as the crafty old Chen. This is a great part for him, allowing him to stretch out as he develops romantic chemistry with Kim Hae-suk’s “Chewing Gum,” the mature Korean con woman he has been paired up with.

Yet Yam does not quite out-grizzle Kim Yun-seok’s Macao Park. Rumpled in a noir way, he could kick Clooney’s butt while still hung over, much like his breakout character in The Chaser (but not quite as dark). Also recognizable to international audiences (from The Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, among other films), Gianna Jun makes flirtation looks dangerous as the seductive cat burglar Yennical.

Clearly, Choi was not afraid to cut loose with third act action sequences. There will be no place for smug looks over champagne when it is all said and done, which is what makes it so refreshing. An amped-up and pleasingly devious heist movie, Thieves is highly recommended for genre fans when it opens this Friday (10/12) in New York at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on October 10th, 2012 at 4:03pm.