Tripping Down Jeremy Lane

 What made Renner famous

By Morgan P Salvo

As we all know (unless you live in a cave) The Bourne Legacy opened this week with Jeremy Renner taking over the reins from Matt Damon under the guise (or tagline) of “There was never just one…” The dude that caught our eye with his mesmerizing performances in Hurt Locker followed by The Town, both of which got him nominated for Oscars, traveled down a ragged indie flick road before catapulting into Bourne territory. If you’re like me some of these  movies you knew before hand going into the Hurt Locker while others will merely make you go—“oh yeah that was him!” His ability to blend in and still stand out is an acting trait rarely seen but when he has to turn it up, watch out. Here are some of the flicks Jeremy Renner did before he got famous.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Great movie great performances all around but Renner’s introspective supporting role as a cousin of James and one of the more moral-minded members of the notorious James Gang proves pivotal in this pensive drama.

 

Dahmer

Renner accomplishes the impossible here by making us feel sympathy for Jeffery Dahmer. His complex portrayal of the infamous serial killer is stellar in this strange dreamlike biopic. While this is not by any means a great flick the levels of pain, torment, mental anguish and even sick humor come through just by Renner’s mere facial expressions of dark loneliness. You have to wonder where Renner draws his inspiration from here. He pulls you deep into his inner angst and somehow, don’t ask me, you feel you know where he’s coming from. Brilliant.

A Little Trip to Heaven

A husband (Renner) and wife (Julia Stiles) tangle with an insurance adjuster (Forest Whitaker) over her dead brother's million-dollar insurance policy in Baltasar Kormákur’s (Contraband/Jar City) decent weirdly paced thriller. Renner steals the show as a sadistic creep and from the smattering of Renner’s scenes he proves a force to be reckoned with.

 

Swat

This little teaser for his upcoming action flicks which personally I think he should avoid, after all, his generic performances in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol or The Avengers prove to be paycheck flicks. Here he caught audience’s attention opposite Colin Farrell and Samuel L Jackson playing an ousted member of the Los Angeles Police Department's S.W.A.T team. The movie is a mess.

North Country

Renner inhabits the role of an iron mine supervisor who is a sexist boss that conspires against a female mine worker's (Charlize Theron) attempts to stop sexual harassment at work. You completely believe in his bigotry no problem.

 

28 Days Later

 In the post-apocalyptic horror sequel to the Zombie flick where they haul ass, Renner plays a US Army military dude that keeps our attention through his WTF plight running and shooting zombies. It’s debatable whether his character is an asshole or not.

 

The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things

Director Asia Argento’s sadomasochistic take on life, love, death, sex and motherhood… Renner steals the one big scene he’s in--- OK I have to admit it! I forgot he was even in this and I don’t remember what he did---saw it once and have it on the shelf to see again but I KNOW he was awesome OK?

TOTALLY HONORABLE MENTIONS:

 

Must-View Verhoeven: Painting the Dutch director by numbers

I decided that even though director Paul Verhoeven has now returned to his Dutch roots his visually stunning array of movies need to be divided into four definitive categories.

1) When Verhoeven was still Dutch and still good:

The Fourth Man,

This crazy, surreal, very cool movie is about life, death and sex. Jeroen Krabbé plays a man who has visions of impending danger and begins an affair with a mysterious woman, (Renée Soutendijk) who may lead him to his doom.

Soldier of Orange

 Offering the first glimpse of a young Rutger Hauer, this is an excellent film about the horrors of war. A character-driven story about Germans invading the Netherlands and a group of six university friends caught up in the events that follow. Also starring Jeroen Krabbé.

2) Absolute classics: 

RoboCop

 This overtly sadistic robotic ¾ robot ¼ cop action flick doesn’t skimp on the high octane chase scenes, coke snorting, and sex scenes not to mention bullets flying, guts spewing, blood spraying and slime oozing.  Kurtwood Smith goes directly to best brutal villain of the year (perhaps ever). My first reaction was “how are they going to top this?”  

Total Recall                                                 

 

Arnold goes to Mars…or does he? In this sci-fi mind-bender all stops are pulled out to deliver goods in a hectic race against time. This neat little twist and turns of events and its crazy-ass vivid colors and over-the-top state of the arts (for the time) special effects are superb. This movie will make you laugh again and again providing that you watch it more than once. And you should.

 3) So bad they’re good enough to have cult followings: 

                                                                                                        

Basic Instinct

  Famous for the Sharon Stone leg crossing scene this movie is so lame it boggles the mind. This insipid badly envisioned sells out thriller careens through sex and whodunit ice pick murders while Michael Douglas acts all flustered, hot and bothered and Stone sucks the air out of every room by being vampish . The teaming with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (who had his heyday in the 90s) has a lot to do with Verhoeven’s decline.

Showgirls

 Speaking of sex, Verhoeven/ Eszterhas pull out all the stops in soap operatic nudie fest boasting perhaps maybe the most topless women in any move at one time I liked this movie from the very start due to its’ blatant campiness and ensuing absolute moronic drama. I was laughing at this atrocity immediately. It took the cult worshipping public forever to catch up.

 4) Franchised:

 Starship Troopers

 Hey you cannot go wrong with demolishing cockroaches from space in this super gory shoot ‘em up. Interspersed is a super sappy love story.

Other credits include Hollow Man, The Black Book, Flesh and Blood and Spetters

                                                                                   

                   

Rotten to the Core

Total Recall Picks and lifts form the original but goes nowhere fast, really fast

by Morgan P Salvo

Just like main hero Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) Total Recall has a ton of problems. Quaid has a boring rut of a life and wants a change...some action. This flick is all about the action but has no substance and subsequently gives a boring take on a really cool idea. But the film’s main flaw lies in the filmmakers’ public announcement that this not a remake but a version that is more true to the story by Philip K. Dick.

Dick was around to help write the original screenplay based on his short story “We can remember it for you wholesale”. NOW I have to read it because of the two diverse treatments of this tale of a factory worker bored with his life who goes to the mind-bending world of REKAL where they give you any scenario fantasy you want, to take your mind off things and perhaps entertain yourself for a few days with some awesome memories. What could possibly go wrong? Quaid goes for the double agent spy fantasy and bam before the treatment is complete something goes awry and faster than you can say Schwarzenegger he is embroiled in murder, espionage, suspense double crosses, hailing bullets and car chases. You know… spy stuff.

We all know going in that this film is all about the special effects and the mind twisting adventure that is bestowed upon our hero. The Google Earth beginning shows us what’s left of population is in Great Britain and The Colony (Australia). Plot wise Recall is the same big mess that director Paul Verhoeven gave us in 1990. Mars as fantasyland has just been replaced by “the future” where workers toil away at earth’s core which I guess is just as hot and maddening as the angry red planet.

And like the original throughout the whole movie we are supposed to be guessing if we’re viewing the fantasy or reality. The original did a nice job bouncing that concept around but perhaps because of my knowledge the old version ruined most of the fun of the twists and turns but the ending is where it really falters. A weak hint at deciphering your own interpretation is not as much fun as the blatant ridiculousness of the first. The Blade Runner looking world is cool at least. It really looked like we just got transported to the Ridley Scott masterpiece. Recall is in the red light district and an upgraded three breasted hooker is back if only for a glimpse. Where most of the problem of this movie is that while a great looking generic action flick, it retains none of the K Dick wit and insight nor the roller coaster ride of Verhoeven’s flick.

Director Len Wiseman‘s credits include Live Free or Die Hard, Underworld and Underworld: Evolution. He starts his flick at madcap pursuit and quickly falls short while the antagonist is  running and jumping acrobatically to verandas landings and rooftops to stand utterly still in stagnation only to regurgitate stereo typical formulaic drivel. The best part by far is the hover cars. I saw an impressive special on how they did that and it was far more compelling than this flick. The Fast and Furious stunt team basically did all the driving in real cars as technicians green-screened the rest out. Wiseman wisely uses Kate Beckinsale’s action movie prowess again here. And I must say, I could watch two hours of almost anything starring Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel even when they offer no skimpy outfits.

This version is much more like how they took Deathrace 2000, a superb campy hilarious colorful grade z drive-in movie classic and turned it into DEATHRACE staring Jason Statham. This Total Recall strips away the psychedelic romp in Mars that was Verhoeven’s   genius. Guilty of being too generic this flick is absolutely devoid of humor. While there are some intentional and not-so-intentional laughs throughout, like a stash of futuristic Obama money and Bryan Cranston spewing poorly written villain lines while sporting a really bad hair-hat. Even with the metal detector scene as the exact same plump woman homage from the original only serves as an in-joke for cinephiles like me. I knew I was going to miss Michael Ironside’s character, the military leader in botched pursuit of Quaid. Here he has been replaced by a slew of robotic Star War Troopers.

The main problem with making a “based on” is causing curiosity as to its intentions. Is it emulation or sacrilege? Like the recent “non-remake” of Straw Dogs if I hadn’t seen the first would I like the second? Now that two movies have posed this question the answer is easy…no I don’t.

And like the “it’s-not-a-remake” fantasy world the filmmakers live in they also steal lines straight from the first one which is a dead give away that they are blatantly ripping off the original merely  masking their attempt by high tech wizardry. Which brings me to another question; this is the supersonic future, why are they shooting bullets? Where are the damn lasers?

When all the futuristic smoke clears we are left with the memory of a decaying society and planet with a couple of heroes and hope. Meanwhile I shall return to my newly envisioned corporation called “Selektive Memory” and have all elements of Total Recall wiped clean except for hover cars Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale. 

 

Total Recall

Starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Bokeem Woodbine, Bryan Cranston, Jessica Biel

Directed by Len Wiseman

Rated PG-13

2 stars