If you skip your daughter’s cello recital to do big-time lawyer stuff, some CIA-trained psychopath is going to kill half of Philadelphia. That is the main lesson to be learned from “Law Abiding Citizen”(2009), in which Jamie Foxx is the big-time lawyer and Gerard Butler is the CIA-trained psychopath. I might be oversimplifying. I was too caught up in all the big, sloppy revenge Butler was taking on an American legal system that promotes expediency over justice (I am a long-time fan of big, sloppy revenge). If the sloppiness makes you feel guilty, the ending will bail you out.
Archives for posts with tag: Jamie Foxx
For most of “Sleepless” (2017), I was on the edge of my seat. Partially because of the tense action surrounding crooked cops and a Vegas drug deal gone bad. Mostly because I couldn’t hear the clenched-jaw mumblings of Jamie Foxx and his cast of mush-mouthed costars. It wasn’t me. I’m old, but I don’t listen to Fox News all day with the sound turned up to 11. This was the worst dialogue sound of any movie I’ve seen recently. There are also way too many plot elements straight out of “How to Write a Modern Hollywood Action Script, Vol. I.”
Movies with poker-playing con artists are always kinda fun. Thus, “Shade” (2003) is kinda fun. The film also sets a world record for the number of cigarettes lit in a single movie (I counted 10 bazillion). But like a chain-smoking teen, it’s trying too hard to be cool. The silly graphics, the cheesy techno music, the one-too-many double-crosses. It’s so unsophisticatedly noir, it ends up blanc. Pronounced, blah. Which is too bad, because like I said, there’s some fun. Jamie Foxx appears, then disappears. And Sylvester Stallone plays a veteran card sharp trading Bogart and Bacall lines with Melanie Griffiths.
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