The Informant!

Year 2, Day 323 - 11/19/10 - Movie #689

BEFORE: I'm hoping this is the ultimate extension of the "common man caught up in intrigue" genre, even though the espionage here is of the corporate variety, not the international cloak-and-dagger stuff. Here we have a man who thinks of himself as a secret agent - but is he?

THE PLOT: The U.S. government decides to go after an agri-business giant with a price-fixing accusation, based on the evidence submitted by their star witness, vice president turned informant Mark Whitacre.

AFTER: The tone here was actually more similar to films like "Fast Food Nation" and "Flash of Genius", so I kind of wish I'd watch this one back in September, but I didn't really know it belonged in that chain because, you know, I hadn't seen it yet.

This is based on a true story, but a title card in the open informs us that dramatic license has been taken, facts have been changed, blah blah blah, offer valid in 49 states (SOR-ry, Tennessee!) so there's no real point in me looking up the details of the case and taking the filmmakers to task by pointing out their mistakes.

What begins as a businessman, played by Matt Damon (last seen in "Finding Forrester") coming forward to report price-fixing to the FBI starts to spiral out of control when the informant is too eager to please both the FBI and his bosses, so he starts stretching the truth. While attempts to get him to record meetings and supply hard evidence are made, each conspiracy leads to another one behind it, so, as in "The Man With One Red Shoe", the government ends up chasing its own tail around.

So there are twists, and we learn a little bit more about the situation, but I question the filmmaker's decision to have loud music or Whitacre's internal mental dialogue played over certain scenes - it makes me wonder what was wrong with the original dialogue recorded in those scenes that I couldn't hear. I didn't have any problems with the content of the internal dialogue, yes it rambled on, but sometimes those are the mental connections that people make.

I'm sure that there are secret backroom deals made in corporate America. I'm sure that people do embezzle money, and I'm sure that other people blow the whistle on them. I'm just not sure whether the corruption of corporations is a proper subject for a comedy. Reminder: comedies are supposed to be about funny things.

And you can't have it both ways, referencing films like "The Firm" and trying to be like "The Insider", and still be taken as a comedy. Casting a long list of comic actors and stand-up comedians doesn't automatically make your film a comedy either.

But the real take-away here is, honesty is indeed the best policy. If you have to lie, and then tell another lie to back up that lie, and so on, then where do you end up? This is something I've always believed...

Also starring (and this could take a while...) Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Tom Papa, Rick Overton (last seen in "The Astronaut Farmer"), Tom Wilson (Biff from "Back to the Future"), Scott Adsit (last seen in "Be Cool"), Tom AND Dick Smothers, Clancy Brown (last seen in "Blue Steel"), Tony Hale (last seen in "Stranger Than Fiction"), Patton Oswalt (last seen in "Blade: Trinity"), Paul F. Tompkins and Candy Clark (last seen in "Niagara, Niagara")

RATING: 5 out of 10 hidden cameras

The In-Laws

Year 2, Day 322 - 11/18/10 - Movie #688

BEFORE: Back to more foreign intrigue, and the theme of a common man teaming up with an expert spy - in this case, the father of a bride and groom.

THE PLOT: Right before his daughter's wedding, a mild-mannered foot doctor discovers that his daughter's new father-in-law is a rogue CIA agent.

AFTER: I thought about saving this one for Thanksgiving, since I'll be spending the day at my in-laws' in-laws - but I think thematically this fits better here, with "Bad Company" and "I Spy". Just substitute "nuclear submarine" for "nuclear bomb" or "invisible plane", and I can see the similarities.

The experienced spy this time is played by Michael Douglas (last seen in "A Chorus Line") with one of my favorite comic actors, Albert Brooks (last seen in "The Muse"). Of course it's Brooks' neurotic Woody Allen-esque schtick that makes it work, making the confident spy look extremely slick by comparison.

I enjoyed this one, maybe it just seemed much better than "The Man With One Red Shoe", but that's all part of the game. Some of the music cues were a little strange - "Live and Let Die" maybe a little too obvious, and the Badfinger song just seemed out of place. But if that's my only major complaint, that's not too bad.

Also starring Ryan Reynolds (last seen in "Blade: Trinity"), Robin Tunney (last seen in "Niagara, Niagara"), and Candice Bergen.

RATING: 7 out of 10 tranquilizer darts

The Man With One Red Shoe

Year 2, Day 321 - 11/17/10 - Movie #687

BEFORE: Yet another comedy in which a regular guy gets caught up in international spy affairs, I think.

THE PLOT: A man picked randomly out of a crowd is made the target of CIA survelliance and pursuit.

AFTER: There's not much of the international scene depicted here, after a smuggling operation that takes place in Morocco - and it's really tough to see what relation that opening has to the rest of the film. Something goes wrong, and the Senate holds a hearing and...well, after that I found the plot hard to follow.

For some reason, one group of CIA spies needs to keep the other group occupied, so they pick an everyman out of an airport crowd and pretend he's their contact. One group of spies protects him and the other pursues him, and the CIA basically chases its own tail for the next 90 minutes of screen time.

The random guy is a violinist, played by Tom Hanks (last seen in "That Thing You Do!"), and he's mostly oblivious to the attacks, assassinations, and surveillance operations around him - thanks to a series of wacky misunderstandings that would put "Three's Company" to shame, and a lot of people getting hit on the head and falling unconscious, or hit with tranq darts, at inconvenient times.

Most of the gags fail to connect, or don't make any sense - why, for example, did the CIA see fit to reconfigure the plumbing in his apartment during their search? And then, later on, why did they seem to be unaware of having done that? The menacing dental-surgeon agent seems to be a reference to "Marathon Man", but why did he knowingly remove the teeth from the wrong person?

Plus, what's the big picture? There seem to be two rival factions in the CIA, but why? Who are they, and what do they each want? And how did Tom Hanks' career survive this drivel?

There is one original element, which perhaps prevents this slapstick farce from being as bad as "Radioland Murders" - Hanks' character doesn't know how to drive, so the standard spy-film car chase is instead replaced with a bicycle chase. Other than that, this film is a big waste of everyone's time.

Also starring Lori Singer (last seen in "The Falcon and the Snowman"), Dabney Coleman (last seen in "9 To 5"), Jim Belushi (last seen in "Jingle All the Way"), Charles Durning (last seen in "The Hudsucker Proxy"), Edward Herrmann, and Friends of the Show Carrie Fisher (today is the anniversary of her singing performance on the "Star Wars Holiday Special", BTW) and Tom Noonan (last seen in "Manhunter"). Cameos from David L. Lander and David Ogden Stiers (last seen in "The Majestic").

RATING: 2 out of 10 two-way mirrors

I Spy

Year 2, Day 320 - 11/16/10 - Movie #686

BEFORE: Last night I watched a spy movie with some comedic elements, and I think tonight's film is more like a comedy with some spy elements...

THE PLOT: A professional boxer has to help a U.S. government agent recover a missing jet.

AFTER: Ah, common themes abound...for starters, we're still in Eastern Europe, Prague or Budapest or the general vicinity. Secondly, we're still dealing with international arms as a commodity - a bomb in last night's film, and an invisible plane tonight (what, did they steal it from Wonder Woman?) And we've got a common man (OK, a pro boxer, maybe not so common) brought into the world of international intrigue.

I didn't watch the original TV series, with Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, but I think that Cosby played a pro tennis player, or at least that was his cover to travel around the world and do spy stuff. A boxer played by Eddie Murphy (last seen in "Meet Dave") is a craftily planned update.

But I rather liked this one, there were some nifty car chases and stunts, and the humorous interplay between Murphy and Owen Wilson (last seen in "Zoolander") made it enjoyable. Murphy's character was obnoxious, but since he was an egotistical boxer, he was supposed to be obnoxious. Wilson's "aw, shucks" attitude even worked out well, making him seem to be an underdog, laid-back secret agent.

I guess I'm becoming an expert on the genre if I can spot all these common themes - and I've still got 2 weeks of spy movies coming up...

Also starring Famke Janssen (last seen in "Taken"), Malcolm McDowell (last seen in "Just Visiting"), and Gary Cole (last seen in "Extract", with a cameo from Sugar Ray Leonard.

RATING: 6 out of 10

Bad Company (2002)

Year 2, Day 319 - 11/15/10 - Movie #685

BEFORE: I'm getting a late start tonight due to an unexpected beer dinner. When I realized yesterday that the chef from the famous Schlenkerla Brewery & Tavern in Bamberg, Germany would be appearing at a Manhattan restaurant, I decided that I had to attend. The main course was the notorious "Bamberg Onion", which is a hollowed-out onion, stuffed with pork, topped with beer gravy and a piece of bacon. Pub food simply does not get any better than that - it's a food that was on my "bucket list", paired of course with the brewery's famous Rauchbier, or smoked beer.

Which was a nice lead-in to a spy film where much of the action takes place in Eastern Europe...

THE PLOT: When a Harvard-educated CIA agent is killed during an operation, the secret agency recruits his twin brother.

AFTER: I really enjoyed this one, it had the requisite action, including some great car chases and shootouts, and this was nicely balanced with humor supplied by Chris Rock (last heard in "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa")

Rock plays Jake Hayes, a small-time ticket scalper (and chess expert) who's not aware that he has a twin brother, since they were separated at birth and raised in different foster homes. His brother was a CIA agent killed in the line of duty, and he gets recruited to impersonate his own brother, to finish a transaction to obtain a nuclear bomb and keep it out of the hands of terrorists.

The idea of a common man getting caught up in international intrigue is a somewhat common one, I've seen it used already in "Marathon Man", "The Tailor of Panama" and "The Russia House", but it's done very well here, largely due to the cultural differences between Hayes and the CIA agents, and also between Hayes and his dead brother - he has to take a crash course in fine art, wine tasting, and international customs just to impersonate his brother for a nine-day period.

His guide through the world of international intrigue is Agent Oakes, played by Anthony Hopkins (last seen in "The Wolfman"). Though Hopkins seemed a little old to play an active CIA agent - one has to assume he's been passed over for promotions several times and is counting the days until retirement - he did a fine job as a spy.

Also starring Gabriel Macht (last seen in "The Spirit"), Peter Stormare (last seen in "The Brothers Grimm"), Kerry Washington (last seen in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer"), Daniel Sunjata (from TV's "Rescue Me"), and John Slattery (from TV's "Mad Men").

RATING: 7 out of 10 courtside seats

Rising Sun

Year 2, Day 318 - 11/14/10 - Movie #684

BEFORE: Sean Connery carries over from last night's film, but I'm done with Soviets (for now), and moving on to Japanese villains.

THE PLOT: At the offices of a Japanese corporation, during a party, a woman is found dead, apparently after some rough sex. A police detective, Web Smith is called in to investigate.

AFTER: OK, my bad - this is not a film about spies, it's about homicide detectives investigating a murder at a Japanese company's L.A. office. But there is some international intrigue here, and political ramifications, so I'm going to include it.

There's also a lot of stuff about the cultural differences between Japanese people and Americans - stuff like bowing, and exchanging business cards (even with the police!) and different attitudes toward crimes like corporate espionage. Some of it seems to rely on simple stereotypes - it seems like all Japanese men enjoy singing karaoke and eating sushi off of naked women. Really? Or is that just in the executive lunchroom?

I can't really fall back on my typical complaint that "nothing happened" here. Stuff definitely happened, but not all of it fit together especially well. There were a number of plot elements that went absolutely nowhere (like the corruption charges against the main characters - what's the point of bringing up past cases, unless they relate to this one?) and connections that meant nothing (why establish a cop's ex-wife as a character, and then do nothing with her, story-wise?)

Sure, you can call these things red herrings, but it seemed to me more like loose ends that forgot to be tied up, or things mentioned once and then forgotten about.

Movies like this one, and "The Russia House", and "Tailor of Panama", make we want to skip ahead to something with real action, like "The Bourne Identity", or just scrap the whole spy-movie chain and watch "Avatar". We'll see...

Also starring Wesley Snipes (last seen in "Blade: Trinity"), Harvey Keitel (last seen in "The Two Jakes"), Tia Carrere, Ray Wise (last seen in "Powder"), Steve Buscemi (last seen in "Hudsucker Proxy", and making his 13th appearance in my countdown tonight), Mako (last seen in "Tucker: The Man and His Dream"), and a bunch of TV actors: Sam Lloyd (best known as the loser hospital administrator on "Scrubs"), Tamara Tunie (best known as the coroner from "Law & Order: SVU"), Dan Butler (best known as "Bulldog" Briscoe on "Frasier"), and another apperance by Daniel Van Bargen (last seen in "Thinner", but best known for "Seinfeld" and "Malcolm in the Middle")

RATING: 5 out of 10 security cameras

The Russia House

Year 2, Day 317 - 11/13/10 - Movie #683

BEFORE: Continuing my long-term (OK, 4 days...) stand against the Red Menace. And following up those Pierce Brosnan films with another ex-James Bond, Sean Connery - last seen playing an author in "Finding Forrester", but playing a book editor/publisher here. This is based on a novel by John LeCarré, who also wrote "The Tailor of Panama". Uh-oh...

THE PLOT: An expatriate British publisher unexpectedly finds himself working for British intelligence to investigate people in Russia.

AFTER: Yep, I've got essentially the same problem here as I had with "Tailor of Panama". Namely that the film's director forgot to make anything exciting happen. You know what's exciting about spy films? A good car chase, maybe a shoot-out or even a few explosions. Give me the action of a Bond film without the ridiculousness, and I'll be happy.

Unfortunately, this is another talky-talky film. There's plenty of intrigue, but hardly any action - and no, a train ride from Moscow to Leningrad doesn't count, since no one dies on the train, or rides on top of it, or anything like that.

I have a bad feeling, though, that most real-life spy work might be as boring as this film - trading state secrets in unmarked briefcases, getting people to admit things on tape, even writing in invisible ink. But this is a movie, and darn it, you've got to give the audience something exciting to look at, besides Michelle Pfeiffer (last seen in "Wolf").

And the notion is put forth that in order to love one's country, one must betray it. Really? Where's the logic that says that? I'm missing a step in there...I can understand everyone who traffics in information between countries as trying to get the best deal for themselves, but I don't see why betrayal of one's country is so highly regarded here.

I'm honestly glad that Connery wasn't playing a Russian here (like he did in "The Hunt For Red October", or we would have had another accent problem. But he mis-pronounces the name "Dante" throughout the whole film - he says something closer to "Danty", and you'd think a book publisher would know how to say the name of a famous author. He also mis-pronounces the word "urinal", with a long-i sound - weird.

Also starring Roy Scheider (last seen in "Marathon Man"), John Mahoney (last seen in "The Hudsucker Proxy"), Klaus Maria Brandauer, and the ever-present J.T. Walsh (last seen in "Misery").

RATING: 3 out of 10 cricket bats