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basta "solo" tradurlo: (vero MarcoSly o Butkus? )
Assassins: A Stallone Movie I Kinda Like? Oye!
Author's Product Rating
****1/2 (su *****)
Pros
Solid cast, solid direction, solid script, great cinematography
Cons
Sure, there are some action clichés, and sure, some of the acting isn't flawless...
The Bottom Line
Bonkers Banderas, Stern Sly, and Julianne Moore star in this well-made, if sometimes slow, action drama that's better than most anything else Sly's made in recent years.
Full Review
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
I mean, it had to happen eventually. Those of you with HBO know that the Home Box Office has been a Sly Stallone Crap-a-thon this month, featuring quality Sly Selections like Get Carter and Driven. And, easily suggestible viewer and reviewer than I am, when they put these movies on air, who am I to not watch them? And who am I to not follow-up my viewership with a glowing one-star review. But here I am and I actually enjoyed the heck outta Assassins, which is just a solid, periodically intelligent action film with a decent amount of technical heft behind it. Would I have enjoyed Assassins quite so much if I hadn't dedicated nearly four hours to Get Carter and Driven? I couldn't begin to know. In my intellectually weakened state, I may have been grasping for a lifejacket and grabbed Assassins. Still, I think there's a lot of fun to be had with this movie.
In an ideal world, Assassins would have been written by David Mamet and directed by either Samuel Peckinpah or John Huston. OK. I understand that this ideal world would also have to subvert little problems like death, but if any directors would be willing to cheat the Grim Reaper to direct a Stallone film, it'd be Bloody Sam, or Anjelica's Dad.
No, Assassins is a film about maintaining masculinity and old world principals in a business that values only the former and sometimes rewards the latter with death. How many times has Mamet tread well on this path? The men in Assassins believe that the world in which they exist — the world of hired hitmen — has specific rules and history that must be acknowledged and learned from. Like a Mamet band of petty thieves or a Peckinpah posse of Western anti-heroes, these hitman exist on the fringes of mainstream society and yet integrate the values of the mainstream into their decidedly illegal pursuits. The things that they do literally are things that businessmen mutter about metaphorically. Things about never shooting a man in the back, or about giving men a dignified way out, or about fulfilling contracts (OK, some of these are literal in the business world) are central to their practices. The killers in Assassins are computer savvy, analytical, and deadly and they're clearly the last of a dying breed. They're also alone, solo operators reaching out for contact but finding that excessive connections with the outside world are often the fasted path to death. They've chosen their paths, but now they can never fully integrated with acceptable society. It's all macho posing and men comparing the sizes of their silencers.
Now can you see the fun that Mamet and Peckinpah might have had with this material? Instead we get Richard Donner directing and the Wachowski Brothers and Brian Helgeland writing. It's a bit of a comedown, but none of these men are without talent.
Assassins with a high contrast black-and-white flashback of an assassination. We don't know the shooter or the victim, but we guess that it's in some South American locale because of the architecture. But don't worry, but flashback will appear several more times to make sure you don't miss any details.
The we cut to Robert Rath (Stallone) walking another man through a swamp. Both men are well dressed, but Rath is wearing high boots, as if he knew when he got dressed that a swamp was in his future. The other man used to be a hitman, but now, apparently, he's Rath's mark. The mark begs for a dignified way to go out, so Rath chambers one bullet in his gun and lets the mark shoot himself. Dignity, apparently, is somewhat relative. But Assassins is all about relativistic codes of morality. So don't stress it. In fact, it'd be good if, right from the begin, you put your traditional sense of logic and common sense on hold. There are some pretty massive holes in the plot of Assassins and if you're wise and want to enjoy the movie, you'll just accept that it's inner logic works differently.
Rath returns home and is soon Instant Messaging on his Apple with his contractor, picking up his next assignment. Rath goes to a cemetery to kill wealthy old man with connections to bad doings in Central America, but before he can pull the trigger, another man does the job for him. That man is Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas), a slightly crazy young Spaniard. The two have a confrontation behind bullet-proof glass in a taxi and we discover that Miguel grew up idolizing Rath, but that he now wants to be #1. Miguel disappears, but soon he and Rath are, once again, after the same mark, an introverted (but sexy) Seattle surveillance expert, Elektra (Julianne Moore), who has a disc containing some important information. And at that point, the crossing and double crossing begins as Miguel becomes the hunter and Rath and Elektra become the marks, heading down to Mexico for a final showdown at a run down old hotel that looks like something out of The Wild Bunch or The Getaway.
Assassins is almost a chamber piece it's so inimate in terms of character. Basically the audience only gets to know Rath, Bain, and Elektra and the script wastes little time on anybody else. There are limited subplots (Rath's relationship with a rival hitman named Nickolai; Elektra videotaping all of her neighbors), but mostly the film is a cat and mouse game pitting two smart and calculating killers against each other, with the added complication of the woman.
The two actors provide an amusing contrast in styles. Stallone underplays everything. He's so Stoic he makes Zeno look like Dionysus (heh... little high minded philosophy joke there...). Probably Stallone isn't up to the full task assigned to him by the script. Rath is supposed to be at the end of his rope, ready to retire and desperate for contact with the world of normal humans. Stallone only gives you hints of his moral anguish, but for Sly, this is pretty darned intellectual. After all... he wears glasses and knows how to use e-mail. And, if memory serves, he doesn't actually punch anybody for the entire film. So this is mind-over-matter Stallone, brains-over-brawn Sly. And it makes him seem somewhat more endearing than he usually does. He's so determined to be taken seriously in this role that he doesn't take off his shirt once. I, for one, support this decision since his veiny steroid-enhanced biceps in Get Carter haunt my dreams.
The alternative to calm, cool, and collected Sly, is manic, off-the-wall Banderas. Here, Mr. Melanie Griffith is just crazy fun, overacting like a maniac. Long hair bouncing, sweat pouring down his face, guns ablazin', Banderas looks like he's having fun and who are we to argue? The differences between the two killers is highlighted by the fact that while Banderas runs through rooms shooting two guns at once, Stallone is a one-gun-at-a-time man. In the post-Peckinpah/Woo world of Assassins that makes Stallone truly old school. It also makes him a relic. Banderas is the new generation, but he's an upgrade with a lot of bugs including, apparently, total predictability. Stallone may not have Banderas's manic energy, but he can anticipate the younger man's move's with near-perfect-precision. Some critics have complained about this fault in the script and I can't say I blame them. It all comes down, though, to whether you feel like suspending your disbelief. I was comfortable with believing whatever Assassins threw at me.
Heck, I even believed the love angle between Stallone and Julianne Moore's hacker. These are two characters who don't get out much and you can see how each would be attracted to the other. And, in an amazing twist, Sly and Moore actually have some on-screen chemesty. I'm not sayin' they melt the celluloid or anything, but even though they don't kiss or anything, they're simpatico and that's nice to see. This film came out around the same time as Nine Months and Safe, so most audiences were just getting to know Moore (though nobody who saw Robert Altman's Shortcuts could possibly forget her). Despite her miraculous ability to share scenes with Sly, she's only OK here. The testosterone addled script stiffs her with many of its worst clunkers, leaving her saying "I just want my life back" and "I'm in over my head" and "I'm a ghost" and other fugitive cliches and while it's easy to figure Moore as a cute hacker, Richard Donner may have gone overboard to try reinforcing her sex appeal, sticking her in midriff baring shirts and short-shorts. Moore pulls off the ensemble OK, but it's just not to her best advantage.
My pantheon of directors could roughly be summed up as having four levels (this is pretty reductive) — there are hacks, mediocrities, workmen, and craftsmen (I apologize for the sexism of this breakdown). Hacks never make good movies. Mediocrities can sometimes luck into something good but are more likely to make so-so to trashy movies. Workmen have the occasional misstep and the occasional breakthrough, but mostly can just be counted on to make solid movies. And a craftsman can sometimes make a bad movie, but usually it's a glorious failure, but when they succeed, they achieve on the highest of levels.
Richard Donner could be the poster-boy for the Workman Director. He's directed some very good movies. I've always enjoyed Ladyhawke and Lethal Weapon and The Omen. He's also directed some bad movies. I've always hated Lethal Weapon 3 and Lethal Weapon 4 and Maverick is pretty bad as well. But mostly? Richard Donner knows how to make solid, low pressure, slightly-above-average action movies. I put Lethal Weapon 2, Goonies, and probably Assassins into this class. Donner's films go by quickly, feature strong action scenes and decent star performances, and rarely linger in the mind. Does anybody remember a thing about Conspiracy Theory? I sure don't. But I don't think it was a bad movie.
More than anything, Donner's greatest skill as a Workman is that he works with amazingly talented technical workers. Only the best people work behind the camera with him. That means that his movies always look as professional as possible. In Assassins Donner's collaborators include the near-peerless cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, ace editor Richard Marks. And production designer Thomas Sanders. Well, Zsigmond shot Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Marks edited The Godfather II, and Sanders was the production designer on Bram Stoker's Dracula. So these men are pros.
The final Mexican-standoff sequence in the rotted out hotel could be looked at as a textbook on how to use editing cinematography, and production design to make a good action scene. [Like everything in Assassins, this finale isn't *great*, it's good. Like so much of the movie it's slightly over-long and features logical flaws that are problematic even if you're totally going with the movie] Look at how the hotel is character in itself, mirroring the important themes of the movie — it's a relic of a dead way of life, out of touch with the modern world. Look at how the editing helps establish the physical space, even though we never get a full perspective of the entire hotel. And look at the gorgeous shots of Banderas, sweat pouring from his brow waiting, as light pours through slats in the wall. It's just nice work. Donner just gets good results in the film's major setpieces — the Mexican scene, the first cab encounter, and a shootout in Elektra's apartment. Those scenes make up for any lagging in the middle.
Basically, Donner is a director who you can count on to make a decent movie out of a decent script and the script (first written by the Wachowskis and then doctored by Helgeland) is decent. It sets up a couple interesting (if not exactly complex) character and moves them through interesting situations. It's entirely possible that the script was, at one point more complicated. We now know the Wachowski Brothers from Bound and The Matrix and we know there's nothing they like more than details and complications, while Helgeland is more of a structure man and he probably streamlined the script and perhaps removed some of its shadings. On the other hand, what use were the shading going to be to Stallone? The performance he gives here is about as complex as the guy can handle.
Someday, when I haven't just seen one-star classics like Driven and Get Carter, I may revisit Assassins and see if it's better-than-average in addition to being better-than-trash. But if you can keep your expectations down, I suspect you'll find Assassins a pleasantly complicated, tough, action film. My review for this film is really more 3.5 stars than 4, but still...
Recommended:
Yes
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The original spec screenplay was written by Larry and Andy Wachowski and sold for a million dollars to producer Joel Silver around the same time he bought their script for The Matrix, also for a million dollars. The script was similar to the final product, but with a more developed love story between Rath and Electra and a briefer ending without the character of Nikolai. Joel Silver offered Richard Donner $10 million to direct, but Donner insisted the script was rewritten to tone down the violence and make the central character more sympathetic and brought in Brian Helgeland, who did a page-one rewrite and earned a co-screenwriter credit. The Wachowskis attempted to remove their name from the film but were refused by the Writers Guild of America [1]. Later, after watching Bound, Joel Silver apologized to the brothers over Assassins and offered them the chance to direct their script The Matrix.
A few years after the release, Richard Donner admitted that if he had to make the film again, he would've stuck closer to the Wachowski's original script and swapped the main leads, so that Stallone would be the reckless killer and Banderas would star as the experienced pro.
Electra's cat, Pearl, is a Maine Coon.
Sean Connery, Michael Douglas and Arnold Schwarzenegger were all considered for the part of Robert Rath. Christian Slater and Tom Cruise were offered the part of Miguel Bain.
Part of the film was shot in Puerto Rico. The movie featured several local actors, such as Axel Anderson and Juan Manuel Lebron playing bit parts.
The Banco de Puerto Rico building featured in the movie is actually a historic casino which was previously featured in the film La Gran Fiesta.
The movie features a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) procession crossing the streets of San Juan. This procession is mainly a Mexican tradition and is not celebrated in Puerto Rico.
Birra is the slang term in Spanish for beer.
The story line of Athadu, a Telugu film made in 2005, is similar to this film.
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