August 28, 2003

You have two choices. Option A: You see The Rundown. Option B: You miss the next great iteration of the non-buddy buddy movie and the real career arrivals of a movie star named The Rock and a director named Peter Berg. There is no Option C.

There have been buddy movies for a long time. For me, the last great shift came in 1982 with Walter Hill’s 48 Hours, which took the buddy formula to a new level by allowing the dramatic tension of race and other politically incorrect ideas seep into his comedy about a rule-breaking white cop and a horny black criminal. The next great step forward came in 1988 with Martin Brest’s Midnight Run, which raised the stakes by putting DeNiro in his first true comedy lead, following a cameo on Brazil and more of a character performance in the King of Comedy. (The film had its dramatic moments, but DeNiro gave a great straight comedic performance.) As his foil, Brest enlisted the effete nasality of Charles Grodin. Screenwriter George Gallo brought the twist of a rough-going road trip to the table.

Amazingly, there were very few attempts at this peculiar and peculiarly satisfying genre in between… or since. Perhaps the Lethal Weapon buddy cop movie was just too easy to reproduce. Mix that up with Beverly Hills Cop and you have a pretty full picture of the buddy movies of the last decade.

Fifteen years after Midnight Run, Peter Berg and screenwriters R.J. Stewart and James Vanderbilt have finally given us another gift that may well live up to 48 Hours and Midnight Run for decades to come. This iteration takes a very similar set-up to Midnight Run and adds a whole lot of muscle and a banana republic storyline that includes the classic “tough guys go local” turn.

The Rock, I am amazed to be writing, is not only good… he seems to be Arnold/Sly good. A lot is not demanded of him, but this is not the smirky role you might expect from him. He has a great sense of humor about himself as an actor and you feel every single thing you are supposed to feel when you look into his eyes. Seann William Scott is relatively mellow here, but brings a distinct comic tone which often reminded me of a more verbally aggressive Charles Grodin. And not only is Christopher Walken his ever-fascinating self… he has one of the best freaky comedic speeches of his entire career. Rosario Dawson, who wanders a little in her Brazilin accent, plays a little closer to the vest than usual and delivers one of her best performances.

Nolte was one of my favorite actors when 48 Hrs. came out and DeNiro is DeNiro. I expected to like this movie, but I didn’t expect this much from The Rock. Don’t get me wrong… not an Oscar performance… not even a Johnny Depp Pirates Oscar… but a solid movie star performance that seems to signal a long and very prosperous career in front of the camera. I was rooting for the guy.

And every single second of Walken footage should be used. He is so fun. And quick cutting messes with the psychotic elegance of his pace.

Parts of Peter Berg’s work (and the work of cinematographer Tobias Schliessler and editor Richard Pearson) are hard to judge from the work print that was screened. Almost every scene needed color correction… and if you don’t know, that’s normal at this stage. There was only one scene in the film that clearly came up short and it may well have been simply because we couldn’t really see what was going on in the very dark cave. But in general, Berg has managed to break new ground in the genre in a number of surprising and intriguing ways.

Berg uses The Rock’s extreme natural physicality to pump up the action violence to a degree that might be a little hyper real, but which unlike Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, is right on the line of believability. (In fact, if Columbia wants to get that franchise in order, they should hire Berg to make the third film, on a budget, with some real street style.) Berg does a lot of coverage from fairly extreme angles in many cases to piece together, with his editor, a style of edited action movement inside of the action of the scenes. He has also found a style of fighting that is reminiscent of all movie fights, but somehow uniquely its own… again, right on that border of reality.

Berg’s only weakness is the occasional urge to show off too much. This movie is so smooth, based on its strong performances, solid storytelling and fun visuals, that when Berg decides to send his micro-camera up the barrel of a gun, it is not as exciting as it is distracting. When Fincher goes inside the bomb in Fight Club, it may be flashy style, but it also moves the story. Here, we just want to hang out with our buddies, who we are really happy to be with. There are only two scenes when too much is more than enough and the shots could easily be cut and relegated to the “well-made shots you can see on DVD file.” There are a few shots that are cut a little too short. And one speech by Ms. Dawson should be cut slightly, since it confuses us about her intentions. But otherwise…

Wow.

I forgot how much I loved this genre and how much it was missed. And they find really fresh ways of challenging these guys and their road out of Dodge. It s everything you would expect, but it is a surprise around every corner.

The best idea in the movie is the way they found to take most of the guns out of the picture, allowing modern characters to resort to good old brawling. It doesn’t feel forced or false. The payoff – there’s always a payoff in a good movie – is not quite as extreme as it could be. But it is a satisfying turn after a summer where Michael Bay resorted to dumping dead bodies on the causeway as a way to ramp up the action. Why is it funny every time Seann William Scott gets hit? I’m not sure. But it is. I guess the Three Stooges live.

It’s always a little creepy to come out of a movie that is this much fun and to put yourself on the line with lavish praise. And for me, a comparison to Midnight Run and 48 Hours is huge praise indeed. Will it hold up the second or third time around? Will the color corrections and other tweaks be as successful as I expect? You know, I sat through 48 Hours about five times in its first 48 hours of release thanks to a promotion Paramount ran. I saw Midnight Run three times in a theater, it was such a joy to me. I consider both films to be very near perfection in their genre. Brest and Hill have both done work, before and since, despite late career failures, that deserves great respect.

Peter Berg is still very young as a filmmaker. And despite occasional excesses, this is a film that puts him two steps ahead of a lot of directors who work at studios all the time. This is very similar to the step Doug Liman took with The Bourne Identity. If I were an exec, I’d be willing to give him a movie like The Fantastic Four or an urban comedy or any not-too-serious –about-itself character piece. Give Berg the same puzzle pieces as Mark Steven Johnson had on Daredevil or that Brett Ratner had on Red Dragon and you would get much better movies, based on what he shows here.

There is a good chance that The Rundown will be this year’s Matrix, in that it is being released in the off-season, which will give it room to breath, but which might cost it tens of millions that might have come from a mid-summer play date. It won’t play to every quadrant like Pirates of the Caribbean does. But $180 million during the summer might have happened. As it is… I can easily see this one going to $140 million… or $142 million… making it the highest grossing film ever to open in September, passing the original Rush Hour. Even with the sucky title.

It’s not an important movie. But if you love movies, especially in this genre, you will have a great time. And isn’t that what movies are for too?

TOMORROW: The second major shift in Oscar strategy… and it’s still August. Monday, the definitive summer wrap-up.

READER OF THE DAY: THE WELL ONE writes: “I'm counting the moments until I hop into my car Thursday afternoon for the 485 mile drive to the rarefied Olympic air of Telluride. This is my 3rd, it was your column that inspired me to go. You even gave me tips on approaching the festival. Thank you again. It's been the best.

Had some money around to fund the first 2 trips but that is all gone. Yet I'm addicted and couldn't stand the though of not going so I plotted. This year, I'll do it 2 people (me and 17yr old very lucky son) for $1900.

Two festival passes ($600 each): $1200
Gas: $75
5 nights in Rico (28 miles down the hill): $275 (yep $55/per night for 2 with tax)
Food/souvenir poster/teeshirt: $350 (I never sit down for a meal there, I'm always in line so I do the crepe vendor, etc).

This is down about $1000 from previous visits, the difference between a room in Telluride and in Rico. Hell I even thought about camping! I tried to think of leaving my son behind but this is the best of bonding experiences. And of course I could have saved another $600 if we had settled for the ACME pass, but let's say I cut out lunches all summer. So we're doing it less that a few grand per person and you can see there are still room for cuts. Whooohoooooo! I'm going and those lack of lunches didn't hurt the waistline either.”

E ME: And that passion is why I love Telluride. What festival do you HAVE to go to?

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