Louis and Papa are the only heroes in this Spielberg Tragedy

Rating: 1/10 (30 December 2005)

I just sat through all three hours of Munich (Please could someone have edited this movie's running time? - particularly the final sex scene that climaxes with Avner pounding his wife while visualizing the murder of the Israli Olympic team). The story had great potential to explore the tensions between Arab/Palestinian countries and Israel and engage viewers minds on modern day terrorism by drawing parallels to the aftermath of the Munich massacre. However, as discussed, poor editing, an unrealized story and poor casting, particularly Bana as Avner, leaves much of Spielberg's ideas unrealized (in contrast, Jar Heads made me think much more about lots of issues than this movie which had an easier subject matter to challenge the viewer on).
Here are a few of the drawbacks of the movie: 1. Two hours into the movie Avner and his posse have only killed three of the eleven terrorists on their list. I leaned over to my buddy and said My Lord, there are eight more killings to go - when will this movie end?.
2. Avner's prophetic downward spiral into paranoia highlighted by storming the Israeli consulate in New York City and sleeping in the closet - not only was it awful, Bana's poor acting stripped it of all credibility.
3. The Australian/South African kick asser Israeli crack teammate - this guy was cool, but cast completely wrong for the movie - he seemed more Lethal Weapon than Munich.
4. As already discussed, the final sex scene where Avner sweats up a storm and does his stuff while visualizing the final seconds of the Munich massacre.
Now don't get me wrong, this movie was not all bad. Geoffry Rush was excellent as Ephraim. However, the movie was stolen by Louis and his beloved Papa and their family business that provides global intelligence at a price but not to any government and complete infiltration into the world of international espionage. While it made completely no sense for Avner, who had just lied to Louis about not working for a government and then traveled to Lebannon and blown away dozens of soldiers on a hit-run on the basis of Louis' information to then voluntarily attend Papa's house, this was the highlight of the movie. Papa's admiration of Avner's loyalty to his own papa and need to provide for his family were great because of their simplicity and universality. Further, the dialog between the family members particularly at the dinner table over grace was dynamite.
However good Papa and Louis were, unfortunately, their performance was overshadowed by a very forgettable movie.