"Movie-Making Maniac"

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"Part Peckinpah, part Hong Kong, the movies Luc Besson creates -- including Pierre Morel's From Paris With Love, which he produced and wrote the story for -- are kinetic juggernauts, as carefully plotted with action beats as any of Jerry Bruckheimer's or Joel Silver's films, but with more wit and adrenaline. There's no pretense or wasted motion in Besson's films, and that includes little time spent trying to force sense into the script.

"Rather, Besson's films are like elaborate wind-up toys that seldom rest. You crank them up, turn them loose and get out of the way. Perhaps the metaphor should be a Roman candle: sparking and exploding, always with one more little ball of fire at the end than you expect.

"Morel obviously studied at the Besson school. In From Paris as in his previous Besson-mentored efforts, District B13 and Taken, he displays no real style of his own. His carefree, breathless style is Besson's -- their tropes are the same. The action flies by, with little time to make sense or do much more than assault the eyeball and tickle the pleasure center (make that the male pleasure center, which is so easily stimulated by explosions and automatic-weapon fire)." -- from Marshall Fine's 2.2.10 review.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 3, 2010 at 12:36 PM

comment #1

BurmaShave says ...

This will be the first 2010 movie I see, just as TAKEN was the first 2009. Hopefully I can recreate the experience of seeing it Sunday afternoon and then immediately getting shitfaced watching the Super Bowl. All too rare these days.

Morel's DUNE is going to suck, he should know that better than anyone. He just needs to make these films for the rest of his career.

Posted by BurmaShave at February 3, 2010 12:54 PM

comment #2

Nick X says ...

I'll be interested to see if he really directs SIGNALS. It's not an action movie like TAKEN or DISTRICT B13, more of a conspiracy wrong-man-on-the-run type thing, fairly low-budget. I liked the script.

Posted by Nick X at February 3, 2010 1:05 PM

comment #3

Eloi Manning says ...

Taken was hugely overrated. It was like a standard episode of 24, with slightly more elaborate action sequences. It looked low-rent and it had precious little of the wit that Fine claims are in the films.

Posted by Eloi Manning at February 3, 2010 1:17 PM

comment #4

Eloi Manning says ...

*is in

Posted by Eloi Manning at February 3, 2010 1:19 PM

comment #5

Jonathan Spuij says ...

The Bourne movies are the biggest influence on Morrel.

Posted by Jonathan Spuij at February 3, 2010 2:01 PM

comment #6

Terry McCarty says ...

David Edelstein also offered shout-outs to FROM PARIS... and the DISTRICT B13 sequel on the NEW YORK magazine website.

Posted by Terry McCarty at February 3, 2010 2:01 PM

comment #7

ZayTonday says ...

I'm going to see this despite my hate for Travolta just because Taken was just that awesome as was Unleashed and the last few Besson-penned or produced flicks prior to that.

Posted by ZayTonday at February 3, 2010 3:02 PM

comment #8

Noah Cross says ...

But what did Paul Fischer think of the film? I never go to see anything without checking his blurbs.

Posted by Noah Cross at February 3, 2010 3:14 PM

comment #9

Chase Kahn says ...

"Taken" was flippin' awful.

I'm not seeing this because John Travolta's over-cussing machismo performances irk the hell out of me - I'm still recovering from "Taking of Pelham 123".

Posted by Chase Kahn at February 3, 2010 3:21 PM

comment #10

drbob says ...

I'm going to say it . . . . . Taken was The Dark Knight without costumes.

Both are stealth conservative tropes whose subtle endorsement of torture and rendition makes me ill.

Posted by drbob at February 3, 2010 5:33 PM

comment #11

Chase Kahn says ...

"The Dark Knight" didn't have a performance as bad as Maggie Grace's...

Posted by Chase Kahn at February 3, 2010 5:41 PM

comment #12

Gordon27 says ...

"Taken" didn't have a performance as bad as Christian Bale's.

Posted by Gordon27 at February 3, 2010 5:52 PM

comment #13

Scott Mendelson says ...

Wait a minute... The Dark Knight endorses rendition? Wasn't it Batman's act of rendition that caused the mob to unleash The Joker in the first place? As Alfred states, Batman crossed the line and Joker was the blowback. The Dark Knight endorses torture? Batman's insistence on hammering The Joker with brute force rather than attempting to match wits with him costs Batman and Gordon the precious time that they needed to perhaps otherwise be able to rescue Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes.

I wrote about this last year. The Dark Knight may not be a favorite at the ACLU, but it absolutely does not endorse the Bush/Cheney(and alas Obama) War on Terror policies (short version - Harvey Dent is Dick Cheney).
http://scottalanmendelson.blogspot.com/2008/07/batman-in-movies-debunking-dark-knight.html

Posted by Scott Mendelson at February 3, 2010 5:54 PM

comment #14

drbob says ...

You're right, rendition failed, torture failed, then massive illegal wiretapping - success.

Posted by drbob at February 3, 2010 6:03 PM

comment #15

pmn says ...

Besson has made one good movie -- La Femme Nikita. Everything else is junk. And that includes the Professional (which some people seem to love), which is just such a silly movie.

Posted by pmn at February 3, 2010 6:11 PM

comment #16

Chase Kahn says ...

I've never liked "Leon the Professional," either. To me, it's a film the Eloi like to champion as an action masterpiece.

Posted by Chase Kahn at February 3, 2010 6:30 PM

comment #17

Pinko Punko says ...

The Professional is a good cable movie if the Portman stuff doesn't creep one out. The Frenchier the movies get the worse they are. For example making the rich ex wife kind of shrewish and having and adult play weird teen. Taken was OK for a blow off matinee, just because it was awesome to see Liam Neeson play badass in a way that was more Bourne-esque or even original Die Hard-esque in terms of being pretend not over the top way over the top instead of boring CGI so over the top you never want to see a movie again.

As for The Dark Knight, there was never a part of the movie where there was an out for Batman to defeat the Joker- there was never a consequence of Batman's actions that didn't seem to be pre-determined. The only way the Joker was "defeated" was when the general Joe Blow public decided not to blow each other up on the Ferry Boats. Of course that rang so incredibly false because you know some bedwetter like Ann Althouse would have been on one of those boats and that candle would have been lit, so I can't really say I agree with Scott that Junior High Debate club The Dark Knight edition was a sophisticated film, though it was very watchable in real time, just not that good. Though it was a billion times better than Transformers.

What the hell was this thread about. Oh yeah Besson, The closing credit music on the Transporter and the Orangina product placements are all you need to know about that guy.

Posted by Pinko Punko at February 3, 2010 9:08 PM

comment #18

DeeZee says ...

Bullshit. Besson's a hack, and the only reason people praise him is because he's French. But he relies on the same dumb 80s action cliches as anyone in the DTV business.

Posted by DeeZee at February 3, 2010 10:44 PM

comment #19

Punchdrunk says ...

Christian Bale was good in The Dark Knight. He was bad in Terminator. Or maybe it was just a bad film and I couldn't stand anybody in it.

And yeah, Taken is the most overrated piece of junk from the last year.

Posted by Punchdrunk at February 3, 2010 11:08 PM

comment #20

Steven Kar says ...

Neeson doesn't know how to run.

Posted by Steven Kar at February 4, 2010 3:43 AM

comment #21

michael says ...

Why is it that any movie made that we don't like is made by a hack and for the "eloi" and any film we happen to like is a step above that?

Posted by michael at February 4, 2010 8:22 AM

comment #22

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comment #23

belgian malinois says ...

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comment #24