I kept on Laughing.... and Ducking

Rating: Null/10 (17 September 2011)

The first few minutes of this movie are blissfully misleading. You could at this point be forgiven for thinking this movie was about to be another Sleepless in Seattle. But then three guys in homeland security fancy dress costumes pump lead into the fixtures and fittings of Bruce Willis' house. Next thing you see is Willis tossing a handful of ammo into a frying pan and leaving it on a roaring stove. After that it all gets hot and messy as a load more guys give the house a lead makeover. There after, the action never stops. The plot moves quickly and turns right angles throughout. And it's funny. It's a non stop giggle even though the violence is pleasantly graphic. Nice cameo performances from Ernest Borgnine and Richard Dreyfuss - always good value. Karl Urban plays cold steel - he was riveting in The Bourne Supremacy as Kiril the Russian Treadstone assassin - and does action well. He's focused and smart and dangerous. He's a guy to watch. Willis is as ever Willis, clinical, whimsical etc. always watchable. Great action and physically punishing. Marie Louise-Parker, civilian and Willis' love interest seemed to get used to being shot at too easily. I know I could never get used to it as a civilian. That aside she got my sympathy. Helen Mirren and Brian Cox, stalwart quality performances. John Malkovich though was matchless. His character, ex CIA and somewhat unhinged by years of acid abuse and paranoia just kept me laughing. An actor who often plays malevolence - and nobody does that better - playing an almost homicidal nut job who's so paranoid he believes everybody is out to get him.... and they are! And yet he is a ruthless killer too. I don't know, he just made me laugh the whole way through. A great performance like the Muppets character "Animal" in human form. Good film, lots of laughs, action and destruction. Not a cerebral experience but then that isn't what I watched it for. I watched it for fun - and it was!