(no subject)
So aside from Olympics fever, what else have I been up to?
Well I had my first physio appointment for my knees yesterday and have various exercises that ought to do them some good. I've also been off work sick the last couple of days. Just a bit of a stomach bug really. Nothing that's had me feeling too out of sorts, but the kind you don't want to pass on.
I probably could have gone to work today, but it was as well to be sure. Also it was Friday and neither my project lead nor my line manager were going to be in. I'm not sure I'd have accomplished much anyway. I've been feeling kind of bleh all day so was probably a good idea.
Still, me not feeling too terrible means I have been able to watch TV. I watched the first episode of Accused that was on BBC1 on Tuesday, and it was just *desperately* sad and utterly compelling. Poor Sean Bean.
And today I watched The Best of Men which is about the birth of the Paralympics and is funny, touching and just lovely and wonderful.
But the reason I write this post so soon after the last is that last night I also watched:
U.S, Marshals (1998)
This was on my list because Robert Downey Junior. And oh man, is it a great film. Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes spend most of the film trying to out badass each other and Robert Downey Junior has curtains. *CURTAINS*
The DVD described it as a "Manhunt Thriller" and I guess that's accurate. This film has more twists than... a twisty thing. So beware: Here Be Spoilers:
The film opens on CCTV footage of some shit going down in a multi-storey car park. People get shot and we see someone has nicked some TOP SECRET files.
Then we cut to a guy in a Land Rover type vehicle on a car phone (this is not especially relevant except it had me going "car phone? CAR PHONE?!" and scrambling to find out when the film was made). The important thing is he crashes into Wesley Snipes who is driving a tow truck. Wesley Snipes gets rescued from the wreck and taken to hospital and then the cops realise he was carrying a gun and fake papers. Things start to look fishy.
Concurrently, Tommy Lee Jones is staking out some bad guys. Dressed a chicken. He notices them arrive and glares at them menacingly. Dressed as a chicken. He runs towards them and he and his team pile in to arrest them. Tommy Lee Jones is still dressed as a chicken. They then get into a massive fight with all of the bad guys and it looks like one of the guys has pulled a dick move by shooting one of the bad guys who wanted to comfort his baby, but it transpires there was a shotgun hidden in the cot, so you know, good call. Throughout it all Tommy Lee Jones remains dressed as a chicken. I know I am going on here, but Tommy Lee Jones remains badass whilst dressed as a chicken. This takes skills.
Then we see them celebrating in a bar, and it becomes clear that the team is a Rag Tag Bunch of Misfits. There's The Guy Who Looks Like One Of The Other Team In An 80s Buddy Cop Movie Complete With Moustache And Sports Jacket, The Young Nerdy One, The Brash New Jersey Type With No Dress Sense and The Sassy Black Woman. And Tommy Lee Jones.
There is a conversation with his superior who is a lady female and it is broadly hinted that they are / have been / will be together at some point. It also transpires that Tommy Lee Jones is A Maverick because he might have done a police brutality on one of the bad guys. That that's ok because he was a bad guy and thus deserved it.
Anyway, in penance, Tommy Lee Jones has to go an escort the prison plane that is taking a bunch of prisoners from Chicago to New York. This seems really odd to me, but I suppose such things must exist in a country as big as the US. Also on this flight is Wesley Snipes, who was arrested as soon as he was discharged from hospital and it was discovered his prints matched some found at a double homicide in New York.
Wesley Snipes has managed to hide about his person the arm of a pair of glasses, which he then proceeds to use to unlock his cuffs. One of the other passengers turns out to secretly be an assassin and attempts to shoot him with a gun that had been hidden in the toilet roll holder of the plane. Wesley Snipes is too badass to be killed by mere bullets, however, and so the gun dude misses, and instead shoots out one of the windows of the plane. Obviously, the plane immediately begins to break up and people start getting sucked out. Luckily, the pilots manage to spot a long straight road to land on and do indeed bring the plane down. I am in the middle of congratulating them for badassery under pressure, when it becomes clear the danger isn't over yet. The wing of the plane catches on the power cables at the side of the road and breaks off and the plane catches fire. Just when you think it can't get any worse, they run out of road as it bends sharply to the right and so the plane rolls down the side of a cliff. To land upside down in a lake. At least that puts the flames out?
I should perhaps have mentioned that, this being prison plane, all of the prisoners are shackled to the floor. Anyway, they are released and get out of the plane, the guards covering them with shotguns in case they attempt to escape. Tommy Lee Jones proves he is badass, caring and stupid by risking his life getting all of the prisoners out of the plane and later proves he can also look badass when wrapped in a patchwork quilt. In the confusion, Wesley Snipes escapes.
The local hick sheriff is a little out of his depth with this manhunt, but it's all cool because Tommy Lee Jones is able to badass at them and get them working effectively until his team turns up and he can badass at them.
Then some Government Agency turns up. DSS, apparently, which could stand for any one of at least 3 different US government agencies. Anyway, it turns out that the double homicide Wesley Snipes is wanted for is for two DSS or whatever agents and happened in the car park of the UN building.
And thus Robert Downey Junior enters the scene. He as been seconded to Tommy Lee Jones in the hunt for Wesley Snipes, and even with his curtains, he is clearly way too cool to fit in with the Rag Tag Bunch of Misfits. But he also immediately starts flirting with Tommy Lee Jones because... I guess that's what you do. Whether I mean, "what you do if you are Robert Downey Junior" or "what you do in response to meeting Tommy Lee Jones" or both, I'm not quite sure.
Despite the flirting, it is also clear that he is By The Book. Which is obvious really, given the Misfits and Tommy Lee Jones' status as A Maverick. He also appears to be Young and Keen.
Tommy Lee Jones then handcuffs Robert Downey Junior because reasons... (I swear to god it made sense at the time and was nothing to do with Tommy Lee Jones being a kinky motherfucker) and Robert Downey Junior uses the same trick as Wesley Snipes did to escape. This may be taken as our first clue that All Is Not As It Seems.
Then I get annoyed at everyone's lack of crime scene protocol. At least wear gloves you dolts!
Wesley Snipes then takes a trucker and his wife hostage and forces them to drive. The wife is very clever and manages to subtly indicate to the cops who pull them over at a check point that all is not well, but Wesley Snipes is too badass to not notice and so he escapes in some exciting way.
They realise he's gone and hidden in the swamps, so they all head out on swamp boats. Robert Downey Junior is allowed to look badass at last, again despite the curtains, because he is wearing a US Marshals vest and cap and looking ready for action. I am rather amused that the (blue) vest in question (of the bullet proof kind, for clarity) has a large white star in the centre of the chest. It is... reminiscent. It... reminds me of things.
The one order Tommy Lee Jones gave his crew before they left was "if you find him, stay in the boat and send up a flare." So of course the first thing that Robert Downey Junior does upon finding Wesley Snipes is to get out of the boat. He almost immediately gets taken hostage and has his gun taken from him. Which Wesley Snipes then uses to shoot Tommy Lee Jones as he comes charging to the rescue. But it's all ok, because Tommy Lee Jones was wearing a bullet proof vest and so is only bruised. However Wesley Snipes has escaped and is now armed.
We then follow Wesley Snipes for a bit as he phones his girlfriend to protest his innocence and that he was in fact a Government Agent too and was Set Up.
Meanwhile, Tommy Lee Jones has managed to get hold of the CCTV footage of the crime that Wesley Snipes had committed, and you will be shocked, I am sure, to discover that it is the footage we saw at the beginning of the film. From this Tommy Lee Jones notices two things: 1) Wesley Snipes shot the dudes in self defence, not cold blooded murder as he had been told and b) He was wearing leather gloves. So how the hell did his prints get on the crime scene?!
They confront Robert Downey Junior's boss and he confesses, yes they planted the prints. They had them on file because he was, indeed, a Government Agent, but he had Gone Rogue and was selling secrets to the Chinese. He (Robert Downey Junior's boss) hadn't told them (Tommy Lee Jones and the Misfits) before because it was hush hush and classified and all of that rot.
Meanwhile, Wesley Snipes has got to New York, getting fake papers, money and a gun from his old handler (maybe) and protesting his innocence all the while. He manages to find an apartment that coincidentally looks over the UN Building and begins to stake the place out.
Are you suspicious yet? I was suspicious. These did not seem to be the actions of a guilty man. These seemed to be the actions of a man desperate to clear his name. Tommy Lee Jones was suspicious. As well as Robert Downey Junior's boss' evasion, he notices that Wesley Snipes seems to be going out of his way to not kill people, which seems somewhat at odds with the story of a traitor he is being told.
Anyway, to cut a long story a little shorter, they track Wesley Snipes to New York and during a shoot out in a cemetery it transpires that Robert Downey Junior's boss is indeed a lying traitor and he set Wesley Snipes up to be the fall guy.
He gets shot in the head by the Chinese Sniper Business Man Diplomat (did I not mention his involvement before? My bad. Basically he's the one being sold the secrets). And Wesley Snipes runs away again. They chase him into a retirement home and I, somewhat to my disappointment, become suspicious of Robert Downey Junior's motives. He seems just a *little* too trigger happy to just be glad to be taking the bad guy down. It seems like he might be trying to silence him before he can talk. Oh yeah, he is also wearing a hideous tie. Wide blue and green horizontal stripes. *shudders*
Anyway, he tracks Wesley Snipes to a patient's room and Wesley Snipes leaps down on him from the ceiling. Because. He is Wesley Snipes and he is that badass. They fight for a bit and then The Nerdy One from The Misfits bursts in on them and so Robert Downey Junior shoots him in the chest. Because reasons of him being Evil. And a Traitor. Possibly The Nerdy One Heard Too Much. I can't remember. His motives made sense at the time. Of course, Tommy Lee Jones bursts in, is told Wesley Snipes shot the kid and gives chase. Wesley Snipes out badasses Tommy Lee Jones for perhaps the first time in this movie by swinging from the roof of a building on a cable onto the roof of a train station below, and then jumps from there onto a moving train.
The Nerdy One dies, so Robert Downey Junior's secret is safe. For now. They track Wesley Snipes to a cargo ship and he and Tommy Lee Jones have a fight in... sand? Gravel? Unpopped popcorn? It is unclear. Anyway, Wesley Snipes gets hold of Tommy Lee Jones' gun and is about to shoot him when Robert Downey Junior shoots him from a distance. Several times. And the look on his face is... not pleasant. Also two things are clear: a) He didn't care much about Tommy Lee Jones. At that distance there was a real chance of hitting him instead. 2) He wanted the motherfucker dead.
Unfortunately, he must have gone to the Stormtrooper Academy of Marksmanship, because despite shooting him 3 or 4 times, Wesley Snipes is not dead. Or possibly he is a vampire and can't be killed by mortal bullets...
Tommy Lee Jones is suspicious of Robert Downey Junior who proves they are founded when he takes the first opportunity to get into Wesley Snipes hospital room and confess that he was basically behind the whole thing before attempting to finish what he started. Luckily Tommy Lee Jones turns up in time to shoot Robert Downey Junior, who is not a vampire and thus dies.
Finally, Wesley Snipes' name is cleared and he can live a normal life (ignoring the countless crimes he committed whilst on the run. Sure he never killed anyone, but he took people hostage and stole and shot at people)
So what do I think of this film? You've read the plot. The plot is damn silly. But there is some class talent in it, and they put in some great performances. Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes basically spend the entire time trying to out badass each other, and Robert Downey Junior is great, coming across at first as this Green Rookie, anxious to please, but with this ruthless side that flicks out and back like a cat's claw and becomes more obvious as the film continues and your suspicions are raised. And The Misfits are all great too.
It occurred to me about the point where I was beginning to be suspicious of Robert Downey Junior's character that it was just the kind of role I could imagine James Spader playing, but I wasn't sure I'd have believed his innocence so readily if he had.
All in all, a fun film, raised from mediocrity by great acting.