Howdy Folks! It’s The Kendog with two new releases this week in the cinema!
First off we’ve got “12 Strong” the true tale of twelve soldiers led by Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) in the first, top secret fight against the Taliban just after 9/11. Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig from a script by Ted Tally and Peter Craig (based upon Doug Stanton’s “Horse Soldiers), “12 Strong” is surprisingly light on character development given the fact that it’s based on a true story. It feels more like a patriotic propaganda piece than a true-life experience and it takes away from the emotion one might feel if the characters were a little more fleshed out. Hemsworth leads a cast that includes Michael Shannon, Michael Pena and William Fichtner, but all of these talented actors are trapped in cardboard, clichéd characters. The best performance goes to Navid Negahban as General Dostum, the Afghani warlord charged with helping the Americans fight the Taliban. Negahban has a sense a gravitas that helps improve Hemsworth’s performance as Nelson. The two have good chemistry and serves as a reminder of how good the film would have been if the rest of the cast had been given this much meat for their characters.
Fuglsig has pretty decent command of the camera and the battle sequences are competent, but I couldn’t help but feel a sense of playacting in the atmosphere of each battle. Unlike, say, “Blackhawk Down” there’s never a real sense of suspense or impending danger for the Americans involved despite the fact that they’re facing Taliban tanks on horseback. I imagine those who served in battle will probably get a lot more out of “12 Strong” than I did and that’s good. For my part, “12 Strong” has a strong idea but stumbles in its execution. 2 1/2 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer!
Next we have “Den Of Thieves,” a film that oh-so-badly wants to be this generation’s “Heat,” only without the storytelling prowess of Michael Mann. “Den Of Thieves” marks the directorial debut of Christian Gudegast, who also happened to write the script. Gudegast, who’s best know for penning “London Has Fallen” tells the tale of Nick Flanagan (Gerard Butler), a burn-out, possibly corrupt Sheriff’s officer in Los Angeles tasked with taking down a highly trained crew of professional bank robbers lead by the smart and charismatic Merrimen (a very good Pablo Schreiber). Merriman wants to rob the Federal Reserve in Los Angeles and has a very complicated way of going about it. Caught in between the two factions is Merrimen’s driver Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr., proving “Straight Outta Compton” was no fluke) who is serving both as driver to the gang of thieves and reluctant informant to Butler’s group of thuggish lawmen.
“Den Of Thieves” is a halfway entertaining film that, narratively speaking, is enough of a carbon copy of “Heat” to make Michael Mann wonder if legal action is in order. There’s nothing wrong with making an homage to the classic 1995 heist film provided you bring the same attention to detail and fantastic character development as the film you’re honoring. Unfortunately “Den Of Thieves” does none of this and the result is a half-assed imitation. That said, there’s a lot to like about this film. The robbery itself is creative and suspenseful even if the details are a tad vague. Butler is really good despite the fact that his Nick Flanagan is a horribly written character. Throughout the films two-and-a-half hour runtime, Nick undergoes no growth as a character and narrative threads involving him are broached and then abandoned with no thought as to how they would impact the rest of the movie. Butler gets to shine is some great individual scenes that don’t add up to much.
The criminals, particularly Schreiber and Jackson, are the true standouts and I would have enjoyed the film more had the movie been entirely about them. Even Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson gets a show stopping scene involving his teenage daughter’s prom date. It’s probably the funniest scene in the movie and it’s something all father’s wish they could get away with.
The action is so-so, with a shoot-out toward the end that is obviously and homage to the brilliant shoot-out in “Heat” but the logistics of the action scene boggle the mind with very little thought to collateral damage other than “hide behind the engine block of your care when the shooting starts.” A fairly clever 11th-hour twist takes the film to some entertaining new territory but it’s not enough to shake the film’s obsession with it’s classic inspiration. 3 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!
