Like most action stars of the 70s through 90s Mel Gibson seems to have fallen from grace in Hollywood. Due to his infamous rants, divorce issues and the fact that he proved them all wrong by directing one of the most successful religious films of all time, he can’t seem to find top notch movies to star in these days. In spite of that he’s done some amazing movies in the past few years. He played a great bad guy in THE EXPENDABLES 3, was a bad cop in DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE and did an amazing job in the drama THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN. And he directed HACKSAW RIDGE.
But like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis he seems to have been regulated to movies that are going straight to DVD rather than on the big screen. That’s sad because he still has the ability to outperform many of the young actors we’re seeing these days. That being said we come to his newest film FORCE OF NATURE, a movie where he’s actually not the main lead.
The film takes place in San Juan, Puerto Rico as a hurricane is about to hit. Everyone is boarding up buildings and making preparations. Two suspicious gunmen led by John (David Zayas) take a woman hostage to a bank where they force her to open her deposit box. Inside is a stolen painting and they get information from her leading to more before killing her.
Police officers Cardillo (Emile Hirsch) and Jess (Stephanie Cayo) are sent out to handle a situation where a man named Griffin (William Catlett) was trying to buy 100 lbs. of meat. When asked why he tells them he has a pet back at his apartment he needs to feed before the hurricane hits. They agree to take him by and once there get a call that assistance is needed to remove several other tenants in the building. They come across an elderly man on the lower floor (Jorge Luis Ramos) and are told about two tenants upstairs, Ray (Mel Gibson) and his daughter Troy (Kate Bosworth).
Griffin goes to his place and the officers head on up to Ray’s. But Ray has no interest in leaving. Coughing and ill Troy wants to put him in rehabilitation but he refuses. An ex-police officer he recognizes Cardillo and we learn of an incident in his past where he shot and killed his partner as an officer in NYC.
The two stories collide when it turns out the old man was actually an ex-Nazi who has something the thieves are looking for. They show up and shoot the apartment owner in front of Cardillo who rounds up his partner and the old man and they head for Griffin’s apartment. There they find out the hard way why Griffin needed the meat as he’s attacked, wounded and in need to medical assistance. Fortunately Troy is a doctor.
Yes it’s entertaining enough if you don’t mind a barrage of F bombs dropped like the rain hitting the windows outside the building here. The cast does their best to soldier through what feels like a thin plot that’s pulled together from several other movies in the past. The camera work looks solid enough but offers nothing amazing. The direction is there but feels more workman like than substantive.
Gibson as Ray is the biggest name in the cast but relegated to an angry codger here who knows how to use a gun. His character is more of an aside than the main focus and comes in to help when the fighting starts. But it is the rest who are the main story here and for being the name above the title that’s a bit sad. He deserves better. Hirsch does a solid job as does Bosworth but neither stands out. The same for the rest of the cast with perhaps the exception of Zayas who makes a slick bad guy.
If you’re looking for something to rent and watch then you might get a kick out of this one. I don’t think it’s a film many will add to their collections unless they want to own every picture Gibson has ever made. If you’re bored and want something though this one should do the trick.
No comments:
Post a Comment