Tag: Alan Arkin

  • Remaking ‘Going in Style’ was a great idea that went horribly wrong

    Remaking ‘Going in Style’ was a great idea that went horribly wrong

    “Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength” – Betty Friedan

    “Wake up, Al. The cops just called us a bunch of amateurs. I suppose we gotta’ knock off a bank every other week in order to get some respect from those jerks.” – George Burns as “Joe” in the original 1979 film Going in Style.

    There is no question that Hollywood loves making heist movies.  They love making and remaking them.  Since 1999 they’ve remade Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job, The Thomas Crown Affair and Fun With Dick and Jane.  I mention the last one because when I reviewed it in 2005 I said that while the remake was probably worth seeing, people would probably do better by renting the original.  Sadly that statement is even more accurate in the 2017 reimagining of 1979’s brilliant Going in Style.

    Alan Arkin, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, Academy Award winners one and all star as three retirees who toiled in a steel factory for decades.   “Al (Arkin) supplements his pension giving sax lessons to untalented youngsters while his neighbor “Annie” (Ann-Margaret) is warm for his form.  “Joe” (Caine has allowed his daughter “Rachel” (Maria Dizzia – Margin Call) and his granddaughter “Brooklyn” (Joey King – Independence Day: Resurgence) to move into his house.  But when he visits the bank to find out why his pension checks have stopped, the bank is robbed by three men.  Their robbery is a dazzling display of precious planning and excellent execution.  They are in and out in two minutes and get away with more than $1 million.  Joe becomes a witness when he shares a moment with one of the robbers and is questioned by FBI Special Agent Hamer (Matt Dillon – Armored).  “Willie” (Freeman) has not told either Al (his roommate) or Joe that he is in end-stage renal failure and doesn’t have long to live without a kidney transplant.

    Michael Caine and Joey King in ‘Going in Style’

    After the robbery the trio attend a meeting about the stopping of their pension payments.  There they learn their financial futures are ruined because their former employer was taken over by a foreign corporation that has decided to cease operating in the U.S.  As a result the fund that pays their pensions has been frozen and its assets will be liquidated to pay off the company’s creditors.  This gives Joe the idea that if those three robbers could rob his bank, so can he and his friends.  Some elaborate planning and scheming transpires, where they are helped by a “low-life” friend of Rachel’s ex-husband named “Jesus” (John Ortiz – Silver Linings Playbook).

    The presence of the underhanded corporate tactics of the former employer and the bank are intended to provide a reason for the robbery, something this reimagining changed from the original.  A change for the worse.  Growing old in a society that praises and prizes youth is tough enough.  The trio of lead actors, aided by a set of stellar supporting players do their best but this move delivers neither style, drama or laughs in sufficient measure.  Joey King is great in a role that was written for her.  Ann-Margaret still oozes sensuality.  The alibis created by Al, Joe and Willie are interesting and well-photographed and Christopher Lloyd is fun as an elderly man who isn’t quite “all there.”  It just isn’t enough.

  • ‘Stand Up Guys’ is a tale of vice and men

    ‘Stand Up Guys’ is a tale of vice and men

    Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin and Al Pacino are the 'Stand Up Guys'
    Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin and Al Pacino are the ‘Stand Up Guys’

    If Stand Up Guys, the new light crime noir that marks Fisher Stevens’ second stab as a feature film director, were a person, it would be a voyeur. This is most certainly a film that likes to watch.

    And who would blame him for that when one’s subjects are such mega-ton Oscar winners as Alan Arkin, Al Pacino, and Christopher Walken? Based on a script by Noah Haidle, Guys is so busy watching that it doesn’t stop to give much information away. We hardly know where it takes place, and would it not for references to Viagra, outfits and use of landlines make it so that the film could have easily occurred 30 or 35 years earlier than its modern setting. Pacino plays Val, a thug recently released from prison (how many times has Pacino now played an ex-con? I count roughly 14 billion) after serving a 28-year sentence for the unintended murder of the son of local crime boss Claphands (Mark Margolis, menacing underused). Claphands intends for Val to be killed as revenge for his son by Doc (Walken), Val’s best friend and (literal) partner in crime.

    With Doc’s George to Val’s Lenny, the two embark on a day and night on the town, including several trips to a local brothel, to Doc’s favorite diner, a raid on a closed pharmacy, a couple of unplanned trips to a nearby hospital so Julianna Margulies can show up as a nurse, and even a cemetery. This film is more of a due than a trio; Guys is mostly a showpiece for the two actors, with Pacino exercising his frenetic side, although not inappropriately, and Walken in a sadder, more contemplative role that benefits from very careful modulation and restraint. Arkin, whose character, Hirsch, enters and exits the film pretty much exactly as you might predict, takes a (not literal) backseat to his two co-stars. Addison Timlin shines in the small but significant role of a waitress at Doc’s diner. (Which brings to mind a logistical question: how many times in the course of a night can these guys scarf down all that food and coffee?

    The thrill of the movie is to sit back and watch these veterans do their thing. It’s a bittersweet victory lap, as age allows them to inject a greater gravitas into every moment but also tinges their scenes with a sense of finality. Decades ago these talented men represented a new guard of vitality and realism in acting. We’re now reminded me that all things, even the most illustrious and door-opening of careers, must come to an end. Guys aches with decay and loneliness, and even Doc, Hirsch, and Val know their days are numbered. Stevens lays on the pathos a bit too thick, though – these flawed guys are so sympathetic and omniscient that they begin to adopt the deity-like qualities we all want to attribute to their portrayers.

    And as long as Guys remains full of hero worship, this star vehicle isn’t doing its job. It’s looking backward when it should be moving forward. Haidle’s script includes many moments that wink back to the past, including a joyride in a speeding car and Pacino dancing with a stranger in a bar, both of which call back to Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman. Guys also loves quoting Rowdy Roddy Piper’s big line from John Carpenter’s They Live. And the film is consumed by tropes involving these randy men getting their rocks off – think Cocoon meets Porky’s.

    And after a while, Guys’ jejune humor takes its toll. Pacino’s shamelessness begins to feel, well, shameful, especially as he swallows Viagra by the fistful, not unlike his Tony Montana once dove into a hill of cocaine. 40 years ago we were introduced to a young Pacino as Michael Corleone struggling with a gun. Now he’s popping Viagra to load a very different kind of pistol. Is that how Pacino really wants his career to climax?

  • Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’ is filmmaking at its finest

    Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’ is filmmaking at its finest

    Ben Affleck directs and stars in 'Argo'
    Ben Affleck directs and stars in ‘Argo’

    Argo builds on Ben Affleck’s most recent films to continue to cement his reputation as a director of high quality movies.

    Here he uses the central elements of a true story from the late 1970s/early 1980s to create a film that tells the story in an engaging way.  Is there some poetic license?  Affleck admits there was, saying “because we say this is ‘based on a true story’ rather than ‘this is a true story’ we’re allowed some dramatic license.  There’s a spirit of truth.”

    The actual story and the film center around the history of the U.S. involvement in Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979.  Decades earlier, the U.S. had installed the Shah, Reza Palavi, into power and he was a cruel ruler given to enormous excess in his personal lifestyle.  The Savak, his secret police, routinely made people disappear and murder/torture was commonplace while the Shah continued his life of opulence.  The film describes this at the open.  Then the Shah was given refuge in the U.S. as the revolution swept through the nation of Iran, installing the Ayatollah Khomeini in power.

    On November 4th, 1979 the demand for the Shah to be returned for trial and execution reached a new height and supposedly “students” seized the U.S. Embassy, taking hostages.  Six employees in the visa division managed to sneaked out in the chaos and eventually took refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador.  Word of their escape made its way back to the U.S. State Department and the CIA.  Plans began to be discussed to get them out of the country, as if they were to be captured, they would undoubtedly be executed.

    The State Department has the lead on the project, but asks the CIA to help as they are the experts as so-called “ex-fils” (it’s the insiders way of shortening the phrase exfiltration) and their best expert is Tony Mendez (Affleck).  There are no suitable ideas at the first meeting and he goes home that night and calls his son.  Mendez and his wife are on a “break”.  The son is watching a movie that Affleck switches on and the idea is born.  An idea he presents to his boss “Jack O’Donnell” (Bryan Cranston) the next day.

    Ben Affleck with John Goodman (left) and Alan Arkin in 'Argo'
    Ben Affleck with John Goodman (left) and Alan Arkin in ‘Argo’

    The six will be working with Mendez as a Canadian film crew.  He will set up a cover story in Hollywood to back up their claims and walk them right up to the departure gate at the airport in Tehran and just fly right out of there.  It’s not the best idea but there are no options for best ideas and his plan quickly gains support.  Including that of his long-time friend John Chambers, a famous Hollywood make-up artist who’d won a special Academy Award for his artistry.  They find a producer, “Lester Siegel” (Alan Arkin) and quickly they have a production company and a movie in pre-production.  Titled “Argo” it’s a Star Wars/Planet of the Apes rip-off that requires desert scenery, making Iran the perfect place to shoot it.

    Approval comes and Mendez is off to Iran to put the plan to good use.  Security at the airport has been increased several times as members of the Shah’s former staff have tried and failed to sneak out of the country.  The six themselves don’t think the plan will work.  But their lives depend on it working and time is running out.  The Canadian Ambassador, “Ken Taylor” (Victor Garber) has been ordered to close the embassy and come home.

    This is superior moviemaking.  The story captures the attention of the viewer through the use of both footage from the actual events involved and detailed re-creations.  Someone really did their homework in getting the little things right.  The kind of things you only notice when they’re done wrong.  The best available typewriters were programmable correcting IBM Selectrics and there’s one on the desk of the secretary to the Secretary of State.  The cars are right, the clothing, appearance and mannerisms. Perhaps only those of us who lived through the era as young adults will remember and recognize it so vividly, but the filmmakers did this very well.

    They also did everything else well.  Music.  Story.  Making an edge-of-your-seat spy thriller without “shaken, not stirred” martinis and elaborate gunplay is difficult, but Affleck and his crew pulled it off.

    Arkin and Goodman provide just the right of comic relief without going overboard.  Affleck delivers a very fine performance, as does Cranston.  Behind the lens, Affleck also delivers, keeping the film tight and filled with tension right through the third act of the film, leaving viewers wondering how it will end even if you already know the outcome.  It is an ending that is definitely worthy of seeing on a big screen to get the full effect.

    Bryan Cranston and Ben Affleck in 'Argo'
    Bryan Cranston and Ben Affleck in ‘Argo’

    Ben Affleck playing the role of Tony Mendez, a real person who is of Hispanic ancestry, has received criticism as an example of Hollywood’s racism.  Tail Slate‘s And Palladino wrote an interesting and thought-provoking article about this subject.

    After having seen the film myself, I disagree with my colleague’s conclusion that the film should be rated only a 1.  While I agree that this can be seen as an instance of racism in Hollywood, I can’t agree with his contention that the film automatically deserves a rating of 1 for this reason alone.

    Casting Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in Argo isn’t the same as someone having tried to cast Dustin Hoffman as Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver.  The ethnicity of the central character in that film is far more ingrained into film’s story than the actual ethnicity of Tony Mendez in Argo.

    Ultimately, this is a tempest in a teapot.  Making a movie and choosing the actors to portray the roles is first and foremost about casting actors who will put “butts in seats” and make the film profitable.  If producers take a character whose race in ingrained in the psyche of the audience, then casting someone not of that race may be a very bad decision and cost them money.  Acting is a craft and not always about the race of the actor.