L'homme à abattre

I find it hard to believe that I could dislike any film starring Russell Crowe, but this one is a complete waste of his talent -- and my time. I'd like to say that his acting job was a "rose among the thorns" but I don't think that even he was convincing. He was a foul-tongued protagonist [with an ugly hair-style that even his character couldn't have thought was becoming] who over-reacted to everything in this tortured and unbelievable plot. In retrospect, I wonder why I even gave it a "3".

An undercover operation goes wrong for FBI Agent Zack Grant (Russell Crowe) when new agent Seiko (Kelly Hu) goes vigilante and kills everybody including herself. Eight people are dead and Grant is blamed. He wants to find the truth. It turns out that Seiko had been calling Yakuza member Yuji Kobayashi and Grant goes to investigate. Gangster Frank Serlano (Michael Lerner) blames Grant for his son's death in that operation, and kidnaps Grant's son. Flight attendant Mary (Helen Slater) comes in after 30 minutes and has a funny turn.

This movie tries so hard to be a stylish action thriller. Writer/director Frank A. Cappello misses the mark and strays into cheesy territories. The over the top acting, the bad style, and the splashy action does nothing but strip the movie of any realism. The only good thing is the funny turn that Helen Slater takes in this movie. It's a welcome relief from all the ridiculous seriousness.

FBI agent Zack Grant sends a female officer (Seiko) in to the apartment of a mafia boss's son posing as a whore in order to drop a bugging device. However when the agent kills the group and then kills herself Grant finds evidence to suggest that she was working for Yakuza lord Yuji. Grant travels to arrest him but on returning to America finds that the mob have kidnapped his son in exchange for Yuji. However with Yuji claiming innocence and the FBI, police, Yakuza and the mob all after him, can Grant make it to the trade?

I watched this film on the strength of Crowe being in the lead – even though I knew that it was made before he `made it' so the quality may not be that great. The plot is a mix of bad guys and good guys all trying to get Grant and Yuji, with Grant just trying to save his son. It isn't a very innovative idea but it is good enough for a video thriller such as this. The set pieces are all reasonably exciting and most are directed with style and energy that belies the standard of the plotting.

While it may not be brilliant it is certainly a lot better than most of the video thrillers you'll find on a lonely Saturday night. A big part of this is due to Crowe being in the lead. Years before Gladiator he'd already had some powerful Australian roles and was a commanding lead actor. Here he rises above the material and makes it better – during the action scenes etc he is faultless, it is only his interactions with women and children where he comes across as wanting. Tokokawa's Yuji is a good character – never morally clear until the end and charming and deadly with it. Slater is a bum note but happily she doesn't spoil things too much. Her bubbly comedy sidekick is irritating and the film could have easily done without this part of the video thriller formula.

Overall I enjoyed this film much more than I suspected I would. Without Crowe this film still has higher values that I thought it would and is polished and entertaining despite a formulaic plot. With Crowe in the lead the film is raised a notch and he is commanding in an ordinary role that many would have failed to liven up.

What starts off as a fairly promising film completely collapses after the first 20 to 30 minutes. Kelly Hu plays rookie FBI agent "Seiku Kobayshi" who volunteers to go undercover as a call-girl in order to plant a listening device into the bathroom of a dangerous white supremacist organization. Once inside the organization she guns down the leader, "Victor Serlano" (played by Ian Zierling) and several of his men. When FBI agent "Zack Grant" (played by Russell Crowe) arrives on the scene, Seiku jumps out of the high-rise to her death. During the follow-up investigation it is learned that Seiku had very recently contacted an important leader of the Yakuza named "Yuji" (Etsushi Toyokawa). This results in speculation that she was somehow coerced by Yuji to kill Victor, so FBI agent Zack Grant is sent to Japan to investigate. A gun-battle then ensues and Zack arrests Yuji in order to take him back to the United States. Meanwhile, Frank Serlano (Michael Lerner), the father of the white supremacist leader, kidnaps Zack's son "Eric" (Andrew J. Ferchland) in order to pressure Zack to bring Yuji to him. On the way back "Mary" (Helen Slater) is introduced into the film as one of the flight attendants who becomes inadvertently involved in the scenario. So far so good. Unfortunately, it is at this point where the film begins to deteriorate as the audience is treated to one far-fetched incident after another. While Helen Slater played her part adequately, the same can't be said for Russell Crowe as this wasn't one of his better performances. But the main responsibility for this fiasco belongs on the shoulder of the director/writer, Frank A. Cappello. With the cast that he had he should have been able to produce a much better film. Instead he chose stunts and gimmicks over good acting and a reasonable plot. What a shame.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It's a well-produced, good-looking action/thriller flick with sharp, witty dialogue and great performances from the lead actors. Russell Crowe is charismatic and very watchable. I especially liked the morally ambiguous tone - Crowe's character isn't a clean-cut good guy. Well worth a look.