Category: Raymond Cruz

UNDER SIEGE

By Marc S. Sanders

Die Hard on a battleship is how to describe Under Siege, Steven Seagal’s best film.  His second best is Executive Decision, and (SPOILER ALERT) he dies in the first ten minutes of the movie.  What does that tell you? 

Before Andrew Davis scored big time with The Fugitive in 1993, he used a lot of the supporting players of that cast (nine in total) to build this action crowd pleaser.  Notably Tommy Lee Jones was selected to be the main villain alongside a kooky Gary Busey.  Jones is smart, silly, downright nuts and dynamic.  He sings, loves Saturday morning cartoons, and even plays the harmonica.  Seagal can’t do any of that, but he’s got some moments of deadpan humor because he sticks to the script by J.F. Lawton (Pretty Woman). 

The USS Missouri is ceremoniously being decommissioned as President Bush has delivered the executive order to have all nuclear missiles removed from naval vessels.  Real news footage opens the film to confirm this was actually happening at the time of the movie’s release.  

On its final voyage to Honolulu, Commander Krill (Busey with a real bad guy name. See you add an R to the word Kill and you great KRILL) is preparing a surprise birthday party for the ship’s colonel.  Krill is going entirely against regulations to welcome a chopper full of catering staff along with a rock band aboard for the festivities.  Playboy’s Miss July, Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak, who actually was Miss July) is on board too but not so enthusiastic to jump out of a cake.  William Strannix (Jones with another bad guy name; You see if you end a last name with an X it sounds mad man like) is the rock star lead singer and he is just a balls to the wall energetic wild man.

Down in the kitchen is Casey Ryback, the ship’s muscle bronzed cook who doesn’t get along with Krill and his cronies.  As a result, he gets locked in the freezer and conveniently unaccounted for just as Strannix and the catering staff takes over the ship with Krill by his side.  Heavily armed, these guys mean business by imprisoning the ship’s crew while they construct a railing system to haul the vessel’s missiles onto an arriving submarine.  Strannix’ motivation stems from a longstanding gripe following his service as a specialized CIA assassin.  He means to make Honolulu “glow in the dark”.  However, if Ryback can get free, he’ll do everything in his power to thwart the bad guys’ plans, retake the ship, rescue the crew and deactivate the missiles before they reach their destinations.  Fortunately, besides being a talented chef, Ryback was also a decorated Navy SEAL. As the body count increases, Strannix and Krill realize this is not the work of a cook. A microwave bomb is a nice touch.

Under Siege is wholly entertaining and worthy of repeat viewing.  Andrew Davis directs a fast-moving workshop of organized activity that walks you through the various decks and cabins of the ship, actually shot on a Louisiana docked USS Alabama.  Davis had the challenge of manipulating his backdrops and overhead camera shots to make it look like the Missouri was coasting along the Pacific at night.  To me, it looks seamless.  Very impressive exterior work.

Tommy Lee Jones is the real attraction here.  Unlike Seagal, who he hardly shares any scenes with, Jones is just living it up as this guy in a leather jacket, sunglasses and tye dye shirt with a washed out and manic complexion and bulging blue eyes with his growly signature bellow.  He makes sure Strannix is unpredictable and funny too.  Tommy Lee Jones will always be at the top of the list of best antagonists.

Gary Busey is doing his regular thing.  He’s a brat.  The bit grows tired, but Jones makes up for it.

Seagal is just the same personality.  Not entirely ho hum though. He looks better here thanks to a script designed with strategy and tact.  Andrew Davis shows Seagal doing the work, not just slapping a guy into knockout submission with his notorious kung fu inventions.  You see Ryback cleverly build bombs and set up gauntlet approaches for the enemy.  None of his dialogue is anything special and when Ryback is finally face to face with Strannix, knife against knife, but, well, you know who controls the scene.  Jones delivers his natural talent for acting while talking to Seagal’s brick wall.  It works, but Andrew Davis and Tommy Lee Jones deserve most of the credit.

Under Siege is sensational action with a good supporting cast to compromise with Steven Seagal’s unfavorable public ego. It avoids making this picture a ridiculous one-man army, over the top showcase.  Ereka Eleniak is especially memorable, on the level with Sandra Bullock and Rae Dawn Chong in Speed and Commando, respectively.  Not as strong as them, but she has some good moments as she embraces the combat scenes.

There are some overlooked inconsistencies in editing that I caught on a second viewing. In one scene Strannix is wearing a sweatshirt. The very next moment he’s in his jacket again. Things like that. Yet, the stunt work, shootouts, knife fights and explosions are grand to watch. I also love the war room arguments among the military commanders and government officials who stay in touch with Ryback and sweat in suspense on behalf of the audience. Davis’ set up is a hearkening back to Dr. Strangelove.

I saw a prior film by Andrew Davis called The Package, a good thriller with Gene Hackman in the lead. Tommy Lee Jones was featured in that film but regrettably underused having minimal dialogue and no character buildup. You don’t ever stifle Tommy Lee Jones! Never!!!! Ever!!!! Davis atones for that in Under Siege.

This is an action picture that holds up. I miss Andrew Davis. Like Martin Brest, I wish he was continuing to make movies. These are really skilled craftsmen.

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

By Marc S. Sanders

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds himself in an inadvertent private war between the United States and Colombian drug kingpins in Clear And Present Danger.  Harrison Ford returns as the heroic government operative. I like this film for much of the same reasons I liked the prior Jack Ryan pictures.  These movies give an inside view of internal politics within Congress, the CIA and inside the hallowed halls and Oval Office of The White House.  The Clancy adaptations are not just about action set ups and shootouts.  Though we are treated to plenty of that material as well.

The film opens with a luxury yacht being raided by the Coast Guard. They uncover Colombian killers that have murdered a wealthy American and his family for reasons of a failing partnership with drug dealers.  The incident can be bridged to the President played by Donald Moffat, a terrific character actor who also shared the screen with Ford in Mike Nichols’ Regarding Henry. He secretly initiates a retaliation for what has occurred while also insisting on collecting over six hundred and fifty million dollars he feels the US is entitled to, following his friend’s murder.  Henry Czerny, playing a carbon copy of his role in Mission: Impossible, headlines the covert plot and recruits a mercenary named John Clark (Willem Dafoe) to place a clandestine militant team into the South American jungles to take out the drug runners one by one.

The suit and tie formal dynamics fall on Jack Ryan when he swears testimony on the legitimacy of the country’s response.  However, the President’s armament exercises are unbeknownst to Jack.  When it finally dawns on him what has been occurring, into the field Jack Ryan goes to clean up the mess.

A lot of spinning plates structure the storytelling of Clear And Present Danger which is on par with Clancy’s thousand-page novels.  There’s an abundance of characters to address, betrayals to happen and even the mechanics of various weaponry and policy decisions that need exploring, despite the innate complexities of it all.  It can feel overwhelming.  However, with this film, as well as with The Hunt For Red October and Patriot Games, I feel included.  If you’re patient through the exposition and set ups, then these fictional controversies become very absorbing, and you feel like you’re there.  

There’s a great scene between Ford and Czerny racing to download vs delete some suspicious files on a computer.  These guys are in their boring offices, dressed in their boring suits and they’re clicking on the mouse pad and typing away on the keyboard.  Director Phillip Noyce gets nail biting back and forth closeups on each guy as they are off to the races trying to get ahead of each other.  Then it becomes a yelling match in the hallway with threats of prosecution between both men, and I feel I’m in on the whole thing.

There is also a good amount of internal conversations between the main drug czar (Miguel Sandoval) and his top henchman (Joaquim de Almeida).  Almeida’s role is written very well as we witness how smart and resourceful he is while protecting the best interests of his employer.

For the most part, the action is nothing special.  However, the highlight of the whole film involves an SUV convoy getting ambushed by Colombian terrorists mounted on rooftops firing missiles at the government vehicles below.  Harrison Ford prefers to do as much stunt work as possible and it definitely helps the ten-minute sequence.  This is an outstanding part of the picture with perfect editing of sound and photography. Later on, we see Ford leap on to the landing gear of an ascending helicopter. Very impressive. Harrison Ford always does his best to invest himself in his movies.

I also admire many of the explosions that went into the Special Forces’ continuing storyline of sabotaging the drug lords’ laboratories and various locales. Nothing is miniaturized here, and the resulting blasts are really big and eye opening. This movie did not shortchange on anything it was attempting to accomplish.

The film adaptation of Clancy’s fourth book takes some major liberties.  In the novel, the story is primarily focused on John Clark and his mission, with Jack Ryan not appearing until after the midway point.  However, at this stage of Harrison Ford’s career there was no way he’d accept just a supporting role.  The notable changes hold well within the screenplay though, and a showdown between Jack Ryan and the President is one for the ages.

Overall, Clear And Present Danger was a successful picture at the box office. Critics and Clancy fans alike had favorable responses to the picture.  So, it’s disappointing that producers decided to try numerous reinventions of the Jack Ryan franchise subsequentially.  Those other movies, along with a TV show, would prove well.  Yet, it is regrettable that Harrison Ford, or at least this interpretation of the hero, did not move on through Tom Clancy’s ongoing stories transcending within other areas of government and espionage.  If you have read the books, then maybe you recall the unbelievable ending to Without Remorse.  Boy, would I have loved to see what Harrison Ford did with the cliffhanger that closed out that book. Care to know? Then this Unpaid Movie Critic suggests you pick up a book.

NOTE OF TRIVIA: James Horner conducts the music for this film and he includes samples that were used in the beginning of Aliens. Interesting to catch this as the music works for both a science fiction piece, as well as for a political thriller.