Snitch The new thriller-fighter with Jason Statham came out on the level of a number of successful recent his works, in general, he is stronger than “The Defender”, where the hero also had to protect a little girl from representatives of crime, more attractive than “Blitz” and “Hummingbird”. Almost everything you want to get from such a picture is in the film, and the characters are spelled out very well, after all, the script from Sylvester Stallone fell to Statham and the rest of the cast very much in time. Psychopath-Alligator performed by James Franco and at all in the centuries deserved opponent for the main character of modern fighters.
Jason has appeared in the opening scene with long hair for three films in a row, but pretty soon, after the prologue, he finds his type appearance. He still plays the victim of circumstances, but the victim is talented and with a rich past, so that he is able to stand alone against absolutely all enemies. While the main character and his little daughter in the brilliant performance of Isabela Vidovich are trying to get used to the picturesque Louisiana, they are surrounded by very bright and contradictory characters. Everything lives and breathes, with its own special and unique spirit.
“The Last Frontier” is generally distinguished by a certain humanity and a special disclosure of characters for the characters, in not quite typical moves for paintings with Statham, the characters of the film evolve greatly from the moment of the first meeting to the last. And this applies to literally everyone, from the local sheriff to the same Alligator. And Jason’s character develops a very complicated relationship with all of them, except for a black partner on a new job. However, as with his daughter, when a skirmish with a local hooligan leads eventually to the invasion of the city by a gang of motorcycle killers.
All the characters are colorful, it is impossible to forget neither such a sheriff, nor the hysterical mother of a school bully, nor even more so Franco, with a smile kicking out the dope from local drug addicts who encroached on his drug business and his territory. Grillo is a real beast, while Winona Ryder’s heroine rushes between unfortunate places and companies in order to survive. Also perfectly spelled out an affair with a school teacher, or rather a psychologist. Being in the past “undercover”, the main character tries to start a new life, especially after the death of his wife, but the imprisoned criminals want the “snitch”, the traitor of the gang, to get “according to his merits”, so that the prologue of the film is not just a certain thread to the past of the hero, but a very important event hanging on the wall a gun that brilliantly shoots closer to the end, unfolding a real hell of confrontation and the fight for his life and the life of his daughter.
Unfortunately, Statham was again unlucky with the director. Gary Fleder is not capable of boasting anything in filmography and the ability to put action he is also not observed. No, there is quite order with fights, many original moves and applications of surrounding objects, everything is in the best traditions of the "Carrier", but ragged shooting for each action prevents tinkering and worthless camera work. There are hand-to-hand fights, and shootings, and explosions, but the video does not allow you to admire the real spectacle. In the opening scene, in a nightclub, for example, strippers will not even be shown (although they are visible when the lights go out). The R rating in the picture is very far-fetched, and all the violence that happens rarely turns into truly eerie violent scenes.
The only thing Fleder was able to create a great atmosphere of the film and competently build a suspense. The tension grows as the plot develops, each new encounter with enemies is even more spectacular than the previous one, and new turns of the narrative increase the degree more and more, when even the denouement with the assault on the house is not at all over. Nevertheless, thanks to very strong acting work and the emotionality of the characters, because of a strong script and an equally strong cast, the film reaches a much steeper level than a one-time action movie.
“The last frontier” I want to review and have in the collection. With the shortcomings of staging and directing, the film still came out very decent and cool, in the best traditions of the genre, tense and cool. Perhaps not so much a “fighter”, as a criminal thriller, without top-notch tricks and constant running, but an inventive muzzle, albeit in a torn edit, still very successfully dilutes the plot tension with active action and new skirmishes. The characters are very much humanized, thanks to which they are quite contradictory personalities, causing a variety of emotions and attitudes to them as the film progresses, and the action itself is very dynamic and interesting, thanks to which there is not a drop of boredom in the film, but there is a rescued kitten and, perhaps, the best phrase of Jason Statham addressed to the enemy, for all his films: “Whatever you think, change your mind” (c)
8 IZ 10
Original