Wonder Boys [2]

We all need to make a pact to go see Samuel L. Jackson in the new Shaft remake. I just saw the preview and it looks better than Mission: Improbable 2. Well, close anyway. And who better to play the black private dick who’s a sex machine to all the chicks than Mr. Jackson?

So did you know that there are now two William Friedkin films in the theatre now? Wow. That hasn’t happened since…well…this summer when The Thomas Crown Affair and The 13th Warrior (both directed by John McTiernan) were accidentally overlapped. (I say “accidentally” because The 13th Warrior was supposed to come out about six or eight months earlier than it did. By the way, is McTiernan going to redo all of Norman Jewison’s films? His next project is a remake of Rollerball. Will he be doing Fiddler On The Roof next?) Well, as much as I liked Billy’s new film, The Exorcist has no competition.

Rules Of Engagement asks us what would happen if a career colonel was held responsible for the innocents that he killed. Col. Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) was sent over to Yemen in order to get the American Ambassador (Ben Kingsley) and his family out of danger. There are hundreds of protesters outside waiting for him to show his face so they can yell at him, I guess, is what we’re supposed to believe at first.

As soon as Childers and his men show up the crowd starts throwing rocks and snipers start shooting from the tops of buildings. The ambassador gets out with Childers’ personal help, saying “I’ll never forget this.”

Then all hell breaks lose. Marines start to die and Childers orders his men to fire on the crowd. 83 innocent men, women and children died that day and 100 more were wounded. Did they have weapons? Were they the immediate threat? We don’t know.

Enter Col. Hayes Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones). He is two weeks away from retirement and he’s been behind a desk for the last 30 years being a mediocre marine lawyer. He was wounded in Vietnam where Childers saved his life. (This is shown in the first scene which is a not too badly done battle sequence.) Now he’s being called upon to save his friend from a murder conviction. Unfortunately, the U.S. has a better lawyer in Major Mark Biggs (Guy Pearce sporting a strange New Yawk accent). He’s not a bad guy, he’s just doing what he’s told. Basically we need a scapegoat for what happened or else we’ll have to take our ambassadors out of all of the Middle Eastern countries because of what Childers did.

Throughout this we see some conflict in Hodges’ mind over whether or not his friend was malicious and if he should be on the case at all.

For the first half of this movie I really wanted Childers to burn. I don’t care what they said about his character, he ordered his men to shoot into a crowd that, as far as I knew, didn’t have any weapons. Yes, they were throwing rocks and molotov cocktails, but most of them were just going right back onto their own people. The real threat was the group of snipers. Shoot those guys and you’ve got your safety. The people disperse because we’re firing back and all is right in the world. Was this the intention of the filmmakers? To make us hate the guy we’re supposed to be rooting for? Sometimes that works. In film noir it worked. In this kind of thing it really doesn’t.

But I was willing to let that go. It was actually a very good movie. Not the most original, mind you. It was no Exorcist or French Connection. But it’s Friedkin’s best movie since 1977′s Sorcerer. (What was he thinking with Jade? And Cruising?!?!) The courtroom scenes are very good. I was actually enthralled to see people talking about the fate of one man, although I saw a lot of Jackson’s character from A Time To Kill coming out in this character. (“Yes they deserved to die and I hope they burn in HELL! And they did have guns, dammit!”)

The main cool thing about this was the “massacre” scene itself. It was done in a documentary style that reminded me of Saving Private Ryan. No body parts being blown off, but it was very realistic. I’m hoping that this means that Friedkin is back in form.

Of course the acting was great. Do I really need to say that, though? Jackson and Jones are great actors. No doubt about it. Jones didn’t overplay his drinking problem. Jackson didn’t overdo is anger at being on trial for something that he thought he was right in doing. They gave a great sense of two friends in a harsh situation, too. From those opening scenes in Vietnam, I believed these guys’ friendship. And that’s what this whold movie hinges on. And Guy Pearce wasn’t bad as the northern boy who had never seen combat, but was going to pass judgment on someone who did what had to be done. And then there’s Ben Kingsley who can be a very good actor when he wants to be. Here he was a weak willed little pushover who would say anything just so he could stay out of trouble…even if it meant perjuring himself. And, to top it all off, there’s a small part for Captain Dale Dye (Platoon, Always, Saving Private Ryan). Who could ask for more? Maybe someone older than Philip Baker Hall to play Tommy Lee Jones’ dad. Or some better makeup on Tommy when he’s supposed to be young in Vietnam. But that’s nitpicking.

A few more problems? Well, yeah. Plot holes abound. Are we supposed to believe that the Secretary of Defense (Conrad Bachmann (Foxy Brown, Outbreak, Tremors), who burned a tape that would keep Childers out of jail, would actually let the jury make up their own minds? That he wouldn’t get to the judge? He got to the ambassador, what’s a little more? That’s the main problem that I had with the whole thing. And what about bullet holes in the embassy itself? Wouldn’t those have clued some people in? Oh well. I didn’t write it, so I can’t change it.

Not a bad flick from Mr. Friedkin. Worth the time and money to go see, but don’t expect a masterpiece. More than I expected, but not as much as I had hoped for.