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Security: A Movie Review
I’m not a film aficionado. The fact that John Wick didn’t win an Oscar was scandalous. But last night, tired, sore, and frustrated (reasons for which will be in my next Group Writing submission, I think on November 5), I needed an excuse to drink as much as I required to be able to get some sleep. I fired up Netflix and hit whatever came up first in the “we recommend for you” category.
The movie was Security, it was outstanding. Classic scrappy, outgunned underdogs fight to keep the MacGuffin away from totally well-trained, well-equipped, thoroughly evil antagonists. A great set up for any storyline. As I’ve read and believed repeatedly, all good stories are basically conservative. So I got ready to watch a rote, pro forma guns ‘n’ explosive fireballs movie. Security was that, and much, much more.
“C’mon, it’s a shoot ’em up, how great could it be?” asks the philistine who thinks it fitting that John Wick didn’t win an Academy Award. They did three things making this movie that put it over the top.
First, they did a great job with the raw material that Antonio Banderas brings to the table. Banderas plays a former Special Operator/International Man of Mystery who has fallen on hard times and will take any job, even a minimum wage rent-a-cop job (I know, Ricochetti are shocked, shocked that I’d find this storyline compelling). But they did something brilliant: Instead of playing the high-strung pretty boy that gave Banderas his stardom (see Desperado or Assassins), they took the same power but changed the frequency. Banderas’ frequency is dropped so low, the brother is broadcasting on earth waves.
He does extraordinarily well as the beat-down father, frustrated that he cannot provide for his family, and is dealing with his own demons. He also portrays a guy that needs to work. Given the skills that he evinces as the plot progresses, there are plenty of ways he could make money, most of them illegal. He needs money, but he needs to work for it.
Second, the relationship between Banderas and the MacGuffin is sound and appealing. It’s hard to play that trope right, without going straight to cliche. They do it well. Pinky swear.
Finally, the mall Banderas is securing has a night crew of five. They are typically diverse with the smart-aleck Asian, the strung out white/latina/Italian chick, the self-important, glib, self-impressed white kid crew boss, and the anxiety-ridden white dude that is too smart/good/well-bred for the job; it’s an interim stopgap.
Great, I thought. They just crammed 19 stereotypes and jammed them into a five-man crew. Watching this is going to be such a slog. It’s not. It’s friggin’ awesome. They did it right, though. (I keep saying “they” because I don’t know from directors, writers, or producers; if I had any idea what I was talking about, I’d be swanning around in an ascot, like @titustechera.) They let your brain fill in the blanks on the obvious stereotypes they’ve presented, and then let the American nature of the characters blow all those stereotypes apart.
Want to know why Americans form a human chain to rescue a family in a car trapped in floodwaters? Want to know why Americans drop everything to haul their flat boats down to Houston and help out? Ye can’t know. It’s that indescribable, totally awesome aspect of the American character that impels people to perform these incredibly heroic acts.
Want to know why a ragtag group of unarmed, ill-trained rent-a-cops would stand against a slick, hyper-violent Big Bad* to protect a wee, innocent MacGuffin? Ye can’t know. But you can watch, and it’s well worth your time.
If you might be inclined or swayed to watch this movie, don’t watch the trailer. Wrong vibe, wrong perspective.
*Ben Kingsley plays the leader of the Big Bad, so if your internal radar is going off saying “Mongo’s taste sucks! He thought John Wick should get an Academy Award,” stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
Published in Entertainment
That’s an athletic talent. There is nothing worse than a dude who practices like crazy , at anything , but still sucks.
You may have been bred to zombie kill. Be ready. Cardio. Double tap.
They think it grows on trees.
In the interests of diversity, movie people shoot queer-
Of the four action-ish movies starring Antonio Banderas that came out this year, this isn’t the one I would have picked, either. Guy ruined his career. Boss is right, the trailer sells it like direct-to-video action garbage. (Bruce Willis does that, by the way. Somehow, he ruined his career, too.)
That said, I trust the Boss, so I’ll get on watching this.
Those ascots mean something, dammit! I can’t let these superhero guys corner in on my business…
So John Wick was an ok movie. The one part of it that few like talking about is the Christian-sin-&-damnation world it’s set in. Especially the second one shows what I mean.
You gotta think of it like poker hands…
So, Boss, I need your expert barrel-chested opinion on the following two movies: Spartan (2004, David Mamet, Val Kilmer) & Basic (2003, John McTiernan, John Travolta, Samuel Jackson).
It’s not high art, by any means. Plenty of corny and trite dialogue but it is well paced. @nandapanjandrum, give it a go.
If you work regularly and enjoy what you do, is your career ruined?
Certainly, mine would be-
Let’s see: Act of Vengeance, Gun Shy, Black Butterfly, or Bullet Head (not yet released). Which one would you have chosen, Titus?
He also has Lamborghini coming out.
Yeah, that. plus – Salma Hayek…
This is what makes the penultimate shoot-out in Appaloosa (Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen) so great. It lasts about 5 seconds and practically everybody gets killed or wounded. Lying on the ground, bleeding, in the aftermath, Mortensen’s character mutters, “That was fast.” His wounded friend (Harris) lying next to him says, “That’s because everybody could shoot.”
The queer rock star comedy Gun shy. But that sort of thing is a dud nine times out of ten, so I know enough to stay away. I’ll also say, Act of vengeance has something to recommend it. Something sacred about killing–the guy is reading the most famous Stoic, Marcus the Philosopher, & he takes a vow of silence. Again, this is bound to fall flat, but it’s intriguing–sends me thinking…
Thanks for the heads up. Watched it last night with husband – recommended it to sons.
Will add it to my roster of good-enough to watch again. (My daughter says I crave movies like normal people crave food)
We still rent DVDs and it’ll go on our list. After Jerry reads your review, he’ll kill me if I don’t order it. Thanks, Boss.
So does Mongo rate it 4 Claymores out of 5?
Sold me. It’s on my list.
She went downhill after I stopped sleeping with her.
We talkin’ mines or swords here?
two-shay!
(b/c I don’t know how to put an accent mark over a letter)
The easiest way is to know the code. Hold down the Alt key and then type the number on the numeric keypad, so Alt-130 = é
Another way is in the comment window on the second toolbar, and here I probably need to mention that if you do not see the second toolbar, the last button on the right of the first toolbar will open it up, there is an Omega (Ω) on a button. That will bring up a special characters dialog where you can select characters with accents among other things.
touché
Yes.
Showoff.
Well, there are other ways, too, Larry, but I did not go into those.
The “ohm” is just fine. thanks A!
@titustechera Heretic. Burn him!
Here’s why I like John Wick so much: The combatives and shooting were technically perfect (I’m talking John Wick I, here; if they ever come up with a Savile Row bullet proof business suit, I’ll grade II). I had a couple of itsy-bitsy quibbles, but for the most part, I could not criticize the tactics, techniques, or procedures of this film with regard to combat.
Story: Good. Acting: Not bad. Combatives/shooting: A+. Academy award material.
It’s so funny how we can have our personal little things that we notice in a movie and which can ruin it for us or make it for us. In one of my birding magazines, some guy wrote a rant about a movie, I forget which one, but it was a great movie to most people, but he went on and on about how they had the call of the flammulated owl in the background. “Everyone knows that area is not in the range of the flammulated owl at that time of year! I can’t believe they gave that piece of garbage an Oscar!”
A buddy of mine is an actor and goes off about things in movies all the time. One is racial diversity in places and times where there was none, such as Medieval England. Another is firearms usage. His rants are great fun.
Tanks, M!