Based on his performance in “Sully” (2016), I nominate Aaron Eckhart for Best Supporting Mustache. In today’s age of media oversaturation, this is another one of those based-on-a-true-story films in which everyone is already super familiar with the “true story.” So how do you create drama? Play up Capt. Sullenberger’s wife, make the National Transportation Safety Board dude extra dicky (the birds weren’t enough of an antagonist), and plow a buncha money into special effects. Also, hope the audience can calibrate its expectations and lose itself in the re-creation of one of the all-time greatest airplane landings. Worked for me.
Archives for posts with tag: Clint Eastwood
Denzel Washington is Clint Eastwood with a nailgun, cleansing the high plains of Boston in “The Equalizer” (2014). You will either love or hate its bloody, vigilante-style violence. I loved it, particularly as viewed through an earlier Washington character from one of my all-time favorites, “Man on Fire.” In that 2004 movie, Denzel’s Creasy is a lost soul atoning for past sins. Here, his activities, while achieving the same goal through the same methods, are that of an avenging angel. Are those characters that much different, or is it simply our perception? Either way, I look forward to the sequel.
Waiting two decades before seeing “The Dead Pool” (1988) was definitely a good call. It fills the movie with surprises, surprises that having nothing to do with the boilerplate Dirty Harry plot. Liam Neeson! Too bad his character is a throwaway. Jim Carrey! (I’m sorry, the credit says “James.”) Too bad he dies. Patricia Clarkson! Too bad she’s not a redhead, but anything’s better than Sondra Locke. A “Bullitt” car chase! Too bad it’s with an RC car. Clint Eastwood wearing the sunglasses the optometrist gives you after he dilates you! Too bad Clint apparently thinks they’re for everyday use.
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