Lonely Planet: Love is its own reward

Lonely Planet (2024) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, for profanity, sexual candor and fleeting nudity

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang

Romantic dramas come in a variety of flavors, and this one can be filed under Attractive People in a Swooningly Gorgeous Setting.

 

During a day trip to a colorful town bustling with activity, Katherine (Laura Dern) and
Owen (Liam Hemsworth) discover that they genuinely enjoy each other's company ...
which comes as a surprise to both.

Writer/director Susannah Grant knows the territory, having previously scripted and/or helmed modest charmers such as Ever After: A Cinderellal Story, In Her Shoes and Catch and Release.

Her notion here is that travel can be transformative: that journeying thousands of miles from the (perhaps stale) familiarity of home, can help people see themselves in a fresh light.

 

Celebrated author Katherine Loewe (Laura Dern) — stuck on her next book, in part because of relationship strife — abruptly decamps to an upscale literary retreat at a lavish estate in Marrakesh. (Given that she’s hoping for quiet solitude, I’d argue that being surrounded by half a dozen gregarious writers is an odd choice at best ... but we gotta roll with it.)

 

Convivial host Fatema Benzakour (Rachida Brakni) also has invited first-time New York-based author Lily Kemp (Diana Silvers), whose beach-read hit the best-seller lists and resulted in courtship offers from numerous publishers. She arrives with boyfriend Owen Brophy (Liam Hemsworth); he’s a high-rolling financial “fixer” who matches property-owning clients with corporations that wish to develop the land.

 

Although present to support Lily, Owen must take conference calls at odd hours of the day and night, due to the five-hour time difference. He and Lily obviously are a mismatched pair; the relationship likely worked while she was struggling to break through, but things are different now ... particularly because she quickly becomes intoxicated by the degree to which she’s fêted by Fatema and the other attendees.

 

Owen therefore feels increasingly isolated: an obvious outsider in a circle with which he’s wholly unfamiliar. Katherine can’t help noticing; she has a seasoned author’s eye for body language and emotional awkwardness. But she has her own battle to fight, and likely wouldn’t have given Owen much more thought ... until, entirely by accident, he winds up joining her on a bumpy road trip and a day of sightseeing in the Northern African hinterlands.

 

Because they’re both outsiders — at the retreat, and also amid this unfamiliar culture — they bond as casual friends.

 

The Killer: A well-crafted slayride

The Killer (2024) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated R, for profanity and frequent strong, bloody violence

Available via: Peacock

By Derrick Bang

I’ve of two minds about this film.

 

On the one hand, I respect the feelings of purists; goodness, I’m one of them.

 

On the other hand, we must acknowledge the march of time, and changing styles.

 

Onward, then:

 

********

 

Directors don’t often remake their own films, although notable exceptions exist: Cecil B. DeMille (The 10 Commandments, 1923 and ’56), Frank Capra (Lady for a Day and Pocketful of Miracles, 1933 and ’61), Alfred Hitchcock (The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1934 and ’56), George Sluizer (The Vanishing, 1988 and ’93), and Michael Mann (L.A. Takedown and Heat, 1989 and ’95) leap to mind.

 

Veteran cop Sey (Omar Sy) may think that he has the handcuffed Zee
(Nathalie Emmanuel) under control, but he reckons not with her cunning, quick wit
and lightning-fast resourcefulness.

Celebrated Hong Kong action director John Woo now joins their ranks, with this English-language remake of his 1989 classic: widely considered one of the greatest action thrillers ever made, and which strongly influenced filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. (And Woo’s 35-year gap tops all the others mentioned above.)

When asked about his two versions of Man Who Knew Too Much by fellow filmmaker François Truffaut, in the latter’s influential 1966 book-length interview, Hitchcock/Truffaut, the Master of Suspense immodestly replied, “Let’s say the first version is the work of a talented amateur, and the second was made by a professional.”

 

The same can be said of Woo’s two cracks at The Killer. This new version boasts Mauro Fiore’s vastly superior cinematography, and is a brighter, sharper “daytime experience,” as opposed to the original’s grainier, dingier “nighttime look.” The split-screen touches and cleverly presented flashbacks also are quite cool.

 

The new film’s gender switch is a novel touch. Scripters Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken also modified and expanded Woo’s 1989 screenplay, making the plot more relevant to real-world events, and altering interpersonal dynamics in ways that definitely improve the story. It’s easier to like these characters.

 

(Although ... should we?)

 

The original’s brooding, almost overwhelming atmosphere of Shakespearean tragedy has been replaced with a greater sense of fun and dark humor, which likely will play better with modern audiences.

 

However...

 

Woo’s longtime fans are certain to decry the loss of that relentless sense of foreboding, and with justification. More crucially, this new version lacks the breathless, chaotic energy of the first film’s multiple melees, chases, and mano a mano face-offs. The stunt work may be cleaner and more inventively edited here — credit for the latter to Zach Staenberg — but only a handful of sequences possess the thrilling, balls-to-the-wall mayhem that occurred more than half a dozen times in the original, which — let’s not forget — put Woo on the cinematic map.

 

That’s a shame.

 

(However, we do get a welcome reprise of the tense, straight-armed handgun pas de deux between the two primary characters, which is so iconic in the first film)