No.222 : The Iceman (2012)

The Iceman at the IMDb

No, it’s not a spin off from ‘Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends’ instead it’s a bio-pic of mob hit man Richard Kuklinski, starring blog second favourite Michael, Mr Shannon.

The film opens with an aged and beardy Shannon being asked if he has any regrets. Before he can answer the film morphs back to 1964 with a younger Shannon on his first date with soon to be wife, Winona Ryder. She admires his tattoos and slow drawl, and even believes his story of being employed as a voice actor for Walt Disney. In fact he has a slightly seedier job copying porno films. He plays pool for cash in a bar and we get a quick taste of his temper when he slashes a man’s throat for giving him some lip.

Meanwhile at the porn lab he takes a slap himself when gang boss Ray Liotta wants to know why his order of porn isn’t ready yet. Ray sees a steely coolness about Shannon and offers him a job as a hit man. Shannon is keen to please and shows his loyalty, and psychopathic tendencies, by gunning down a random beggar. Things go well for a while and Shannon, Ryder and their two daughters move to the suburbs. His cover story is that he’s a currency trader, but it’s more whacks than Marks that he’s into.

Liotta has issues of his own when big boss Robert Davi wants him to kill his idiot henchman David Schwimmer who has stolen some drugs. This causes Liotta to lie low and this puts Shannon out of business. Despite being warned off, he decides to go freelance and hooks up with Captain America’s ‘Mr Whippy’ hit man who uses an ice cream van as cover.

The two soon pile up the bodies, keeping them frozen to disguise their crimes and the dates of death. After one loose talker too many, we are back at the start with Shannon reflecting on his worthless life and lack of regret.

I had high hopes for this film but it dropped off quickly and became a bit dull. It was confusing in places as the double crosses racked up and it was hard to care for a mass murderer whose only redeeming feature was supposedly his loyalty to his family. They touched briefly on his abusive childhood for his motivation but you need some excuse to pardon over 100 confirmed kills.

They did try to sugar coat the character of Richie, but reading the real life accounts it’s clear he was nothing but a murderous and wife beating psycho.

The cast was mostly good with thin material with the likes of James Franco, Chris Evans and Winona all underused. Chris Evans was hidden in a big wig and beard and his casting seemed largely pointless. Better than Franco though, who only got one short scene.

60s/70s New York was well realised with lots of classic cars and brown clothing on show. The film did one of my pets hates in that they had captions for dates of certain events at the start but they quickly disappeared, even when years had clearly passed in terms of fashion. Do it consistently or not at all!

Shannon was OK in the lead with his usual quiet menace. I didn’t really buy the character however and if he was seeking sympathy he got none from me. You could dress this up as a morality tale but ultimately it’s a bloke killing loads of people for money and getting caught. THE END.

THE Tag Line : Will Leave You Cold  - 56%

No.205 : The Informers (2008)

The Informers at the IMDb

Based on a book by Bret Easton Ellis and boasting a stellar cast, I had high hopes for ‘The Informers’ but alas it was a bit of a mess, although a mess with a couple of decent ideas and scenes.

The film is set in L.A. in 1983. We open with a great looking party with everyone wearing neon and looking like escapees from the set of ‘Miami Vice’. The dreamy feelgood vibe lasts for all of two minutes as one attendee wanders out into the road and bleeds to death in his friend’s arms after being hit by a car.

The incident has a greater or lesser effect on a wide range of characters, and we follow seven separate stories, some of which intertwine, and others which barely reference the event at all.

I won’t go into intimate details of the plot as that would take all of the 100 minute run time to map out. The main events were a love triangle between Billy Bob Thornton , his wife (Kim Basinger) and the TV anchor he’s having an affair with played by Winona Ryder.

We also meet an English band who are jetting in for some concerts and to shoot a video. They are managed by a barely seen Rhys Ifans and have a lead singer who is a total nonce. There is also a plot involving a hotel worker whose uncle, Mickey Rourke, comes to stay and gets him involved in a kidnap plot, and a group of teens who all sleep with each other, often at the same time.

The hedonistic and seamy lifestyles we look in on slowly start to unravel and  as they play out we have to wonder if we really care what happens to these privileged and hedonistic assholes.

As you can imagine, there is a lot going on here and it’s a difficult balancing act to keep all of the balls in the air, and it's one the director fails to manage. The main love triangle plot was dull whereas I could have done with a lot more about the kidnapping. Chris Izzak and his son looked like they had fun in Hawaii but I missed the point and the rock star plot didn’t go anywhere.

I think that this was supposed to be an essay on 80’s culture and excess but it just came across as a bunch of rich folk with too much time on their hands. I guess the ‘informers’ of the title is a suggestion that they are each informing us of a flawed element of society. That, or it was just a load of good looking people having sex and taking drugs?

Reading the details of this production, I see that it suffered in the edit with a vampire plot from the book excised from the movie. That’s a shame as the film could have done with an extra element, supernatural or otherwise, to take it away from the self-indulgent mess that we ended up with.

There is a star name in nearly every scene but Thornton and Basinger were well off their Oscar form and only dear Amber Heard appeared to put everything into her role. I wouldn’t write it off as a complete waste of time, but the film certainly represents a wasted opportunity.

THE Tag Line :The 80’s Without the Fun  53%