Grogu stultifyingly dull
I remember as a child, while playing with either my army men or action figures, the scenarios I would make up for them were pretty simple. A fight would take place and then a chase, followed by another fight with maybe the arrival of another figure and then another fight and … you get the picture. The mind of an 8-year-old isn’t attuned to plot intricacies or many variations at that age but it didn’t matter. I had fun for about 20-30 minutes before moving on to baseball or a stack of comic books.
I mention this because this was one of many things my mind turned to while watching the stunningly dull, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. The story, if you could call it that, is about as simplistic as the set-ups I put my toys through. This is one of the laziest films in recent memory, Disney betting the fans of the television show will flock to (they will) and have enough good will to give it a pass (we’ll see). Clocking in at over two hours, this is yet another bloated, seemingly endless, hamster wheel of a movie, one in which the repetition of its narrative beats becomes so familiar, it seems as if we’re standing still.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should state that I have not seen a single minute of the Disney program The Mandalorian, and it quickly becomes apparent that, if you’re in the same boat as I, it doesn’t matter. After a needless opening sequence that shows the titular bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal, maybe?) has the bona fides to dispatch bad guys and blow up stuff real good, we see him hired by Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) of the New Republic. Seems she needs him to track down the kidnapped Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), who needs to be rescued and returned to his aunt and uncle. Ward is hoping that in return for this goodwill gesture, they will reveal the whereabouts of an Imperial despot she needs to apprehend.
With Grogu, a Jedi lord in the making, in tow, the duo set out, encountering one mishap after another. Like so many studio manufactured movies, you can set your watch to the predictable beats that occur. Much like my action figures, Mando and Grogu get into a fight and then there’s a chase, and another fight and a chase, and, uh oh, a double cross, and a fight and a chase, ad nauseum. Perhaps the funniest thing about this entire production is that three people are listed as authors of the screenplay. I’m not one for employing A.I. to write scripts but I have no doubt it could have come up with something far more witty and inventive than what’s on display here.
Another scam is the participation of Pedro Pascal. I’m not sure what he was paid for this but he is on screen for a total of six minutes. The rest of the time, Mando’s helmet is affixed to his head, it apparently being verboten for anyone to see his face. Though Pascal did have to participate in an elaborate fight sequence, this has to be the easiest staring gig in Hollywood history.
As we’ve come to expect from the franchise, the production values are good while the special effects remain top notch. There are some amusing moments throughout, notably from Martin Scorsese who provides the voice of a put-upon, four-armed, short order cook and a quartet of tiny mush-mouthed aliens who aid Grogu. As for the glorified hand puppet, he provides the cute moments he’s become famous for, eating everything that doesn’t eat him, his amusing grunts and squeaks conveying multitudes to those in the know.
Granted, I’m not looking for something with narrative heft where a Star Wars film is concerned, but there was a time when the subtext in some of the entries held some weight. That’s certainly not the case with Grogu, a film that exists solely to push the Star Wars brand and is pitched toward the kids in the audience. They still possess a sense of wonder where the mythos of the franchise is concerned and could care less about lazy storytelling. There are times, I wish I were my 8-year-old self again, so I can enjoy a movie as simple and redundant as this. In Theaters.
Though familiar, Ryan a competent thriller
There’s nothing in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War that you haven’t seen before. It’s standard espionage fare involving covert operations, a few clever surprises, the requisite number of car chases and gun battles, concluding with all being put right for God and country. That this is a Tom Clancy-spawned production, there’s no shortage of pro-American sentiment at play, the titular character an over-grown, if slightly disillusioned boy scout and the country’s institutions flawed but ultimately reliable.
And yet, despite the script’s by-the-numbers nature, there’s no question veteran television director Andrew Bernstein has fashioned a competent and, at times, slick entertainment. Working from a script by series regular Aaron Rabin and Krasinski, the filmmaker brings a workman-like sensibility that results in a stripped down, briskly paced affair that’s consistently engaging and, most importantly, avoids action-movie bloat.
Though he’s entered the private sector, Ryan (Krasinski) is pulled back into service – a bit too easily – by his mentor, CIA Deputy Director James Greer (Wendell Pierce). He asks him to travel to Dubai to facilitate an exchange of information with an old colleague of his, Nigel Cooke (Douglas Hodge). With their ex-nemesis and now ally Mike November (Michael Kelly) in tow, the pair set out for what’s to be a 24-hour mission.
It comes as no surprise that things go sideways when Cooke is killed before the transfer is made. Soon, Ryan and November are taken in by MI-6 agent Emma Marlow (Sienna Miller), who reveals elements from Greer’s past that suggest he may have ulterior motives regarding this exercise. Complicating matters is Liam Crown (Max Beesley), another former associate of the deputy director, who is leading a black ops group intent on independently taking our terrorist organizations.
As in most spy thrillers, nothing is as it seems and no one should be taken at face value. Yet, Rabin and Krasinski use that to their advantage as they provide Greer with a back story that adds a new dimension to his character in the service of driving home the film’s theme. With the 9/11 attacks as background, the question as how to remain morally sound while fighting the morally corrupt comes into play. In order to protect a society, is it acceptable to break the laws it’s built on to save it?
What with bald-faced government corruption on display daily, this comes off as a rather quaint notion. Still, it cuts to the moral differences between Ryan and Greer, the source of much worthwhile dramatic tension over the course of the Amazon Prime series. Ryan’s morally sound beliefs come off as antiquated in the face of current political complexities, while Greer’s pragmatic action first, consequences later stance seems a bit too cut and dried to be viable. That this issue is the foundation of the film and it provides no easy answers to this dilemma helps elevate it above other genre fare.
Though I’ve often thought Krasinski’s sometimes flippant approach is wrong for the character (I just don’t see this guy becoming Harrison Ford!), he brings a world-weariness to the role here that’s effective. Miller, as always, is fully committed and believable, wielding her character’s cynicism and weapon with equal effectiveness. The always reliable Pierce brings a quiet complexity to his role, while Kelly is given the unenviable task of providing mild comic relief, which he is ill-suited for.
The film’s conclusion offers the possibility of further installments with an intriguing premise, as Ryan and Greer find themselves working side-by-side in an administrative capacity. The opportunity for further debates regarding the former’s conscientious philosophy in opposition to the latter’s more expedient approach would be welcome, especially now that such concerns have seemingly been relegated to the ash heap of outdated notions. Streaming on Amazon Prime.
Grey an entertaining throwback
I have no hard proof to back this up but I’d be willing to bet that one of director Guy Ritchie’s favorite films is The Dirty Dozen. More than any other modern filmmaker, he gravitates toward films that revolve around a group dynamic. Whether it be Snatch (2000), King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, (2017) The Gentlemen (2019), Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023), or The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) he returns again and again to the “guys on a mission” premise. He’s quite adept when it comes to creating a disparate group of characters whose differences wind up complimenting each other, the friction the oddballs he puts together generating as much humor as fireworks.
He returns to this setup once more with In the Grey albeit a more modest version of Ritchie’s sometimes sprawling adventures. Clocking in at just under 100 minutes, the filmmaker displays a sense of narrative economy that’s been missing from many of his previous features. This a slick, energetically rendered B-Movie, elevated by an A-List cast with a craftsmanship that focuses on story and character, something that’s become far too rare in this era of cinematic bloat.
Wasting little time, the first of the film’s three principals, Rachel (Eiza Gonzalez), clues the viewer in on her unique occupation. Basically, she’s a high-end leg-breaker, hired by investment firms to recoup delinquent loans. She uses all the charm she has at her disposal to negotiate the return of sums in the hundreds of millions and if any client refuses to meet her demands, she resorts to Plan B.
That would be Sid (Henry Cavill) and Bronco (Jake Gyllenhaal), who have their own methods of persuasion. The former uses various methods of corruption, payoffs mostly, to muck up the holdings of their target, while the latter employs more forceful means if those fail. The group’s target is Manny Salazar (Carlos Bardem), a Latin-American kingpin who absconded with $1 billion from a New York firm.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an action movie if everything went off without a hitch. Rachel ends up being kidnapped, prompting her cohorts to pull together a group of guys, each with a special skill set, to get her back. While this is a standard set-up, Ritchie throws us a curveball, offering up a seemingly neat conclusion that turns out to be a red herring, as well the late introduction of another villain.
While Cavill has never been an expressive actor, he serves much like a sounding board for more charismatic co-stars. Such is the case here, Gyllenhaal employing a wry sense of humor that belies his character’s lethal nature. His costar’s stoic reactions to his character’s sly jokes produce subtle laughs throughout. Thankfully, Gonzalez has enough presence to ensure this is doesn’t become a solely testosterone fueled exercise.
Again, nothing all that original here but Ritchie’s smart script and sharp execution elevate the material. While there’s a danger of using a first-person perspective to propel the story, here it works beautifully and, I would argue, is necessary. Rachel’s dense explanations regarding the ins-and-outs of her job, Salazar’s background and the consequences when things go wrong are sharply written, quickly delivered and always engaging. The same can be said for the myriad action scenes, nary a bit of fat on any of them, the editing accentuating the movement rather than obscuring it. Like his characters, Ritchie gets the job done with little fanfare but maximum competency.
Unfortunately, Grey will likely be overlooked amidst the bigger Hollywood blockbusters. That’s a shame, as it’s an effective old-school effort that today’s self-absorbed auteurs would do well to study. In Theaters.
