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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘IN THE LAND OF SAINTS AND SINNERS’ Rated R on
Released in theaters last year and little noticed, “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” is a Liam Neeson film that fits into the canon of his late-career action pictures, albeit with a variance from such fare as “Taken” and “The Commuter.”
Set in the 1970s Northern Island during the times of The Troubles (conflict driven by nationalist and sectarian divisions), the violence of the time centered on bombings mostly in major urban areas.
Here, Liam Neeson’s Finbar Murphy is an aging hitman seeking the quiet life in a sleepy Irish coastal village when he’s pulled out of retirement for one last job for underworld boss Robert McQue (Colm Meaney).
Finbar may be an amoral hired killer but he’s developing a conscience, spurred somewhat by the conversation of his last victim forced to dig his own grave who suggests that the assassin should consider a different path in life.
The film opens with IRA firebrand Doireann McCann (Kerry Condon) and her cohorts planting a bomb in Belfast that results in the death of innocent children. The terrorist leader and her gang decide to go on the lam in the same little village that Finbar calls home.
The small town is picked because Doireann’s sister lives there in a trailer with her young daughter. The child ends up being abused by IRA member Curtis (Desmond Eastwood), and Finbar takes great offense to this maltreatment of the little girl.
As you can guess, Finbar won’t be reporting the offender to the authorities. His moral compass dictates what you can expect, if you’re aware of Neeson’s method of delivering vigilante justice.
Taking up gardening with the help of his neighbor, Finbar likes to spend time at the local pub and often meets up with friend Vincent O’Shea (Ciaran Hinds), a member of the local constabulary seemingly unaware of Finbar’s profession.
It turns out that Doireann is quite perturbed that harm comes for her cohort. She’s intensely fierce and determined to exact revenge, inevitably leading to a collision course with Finbar, who reverts to his past ways even without compensation.
While resorting to an expectedly climatic violent showdown at the local pub, “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” is more about human drama than action-packed thrills, and this leads to a fascinating story.
CRIME SHOWS ON A&E NETWORK
The A&E Network, like other cable channels, has its own share of crime series. The new year brings original series that delve into various facets of law enforcement, enhancing its lineup of crime and investigative programming.
Kicking off the slate is “Homicide Squad New Orleans,” which is produced in part by Dick Wolf’s company, whose prodigious amount of crime shows includes the “Law & Order” franchise and “Chicago P.D.”
To safeguard their streets, the New Orleans Police Department boasts a dedicated team of homicide detectives, many of whom are natives of the legendary city known for its “laissez les bon temps rouler” attitude.
“Homicide Squad New Orleans” chronicles the harrowing work of this committed group of men and women united against the odds to protect their city and home.
In each one-hour episode, the team will be faced with a new case and tasked with putting together the evidence to catch the perpetrator, find answers for the victims’ loved ones, and keep their community safe.
“Fugitive Hunters Mexico” brings viewers along as an elite Mexican task force pursues American fugitives hiding south of the border. Every year, hundreds of wanted Americans flee to Mexico to evade justice, thinking once they’ve crossed the border, they’re home free.
What these fugitives don’t realize is that there’s an elite Mexican police unit whose sole mission is to catch them. In this groundbreaking new series, viewers follow this undercover unit as they investigate, track, and capture outlaws.
With intel from American and Mexican authorities, this exclusive task force apprehends the runaways hiding out in Mexico to hand them over to law enforcement in the United States to face justice.
The summer season at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks is fertile grounds for a tourist invasion. The other nine months of the year are a peaceful home to just a few thousand residents.
“Ozark Law” follows two small police departments working to maintain order during the height of the tourist season, when millions flock to the area, seeking fun on the water and vibrant nightlife in the bars. This surge puts extra pressure on local law enforcement.
Narrated by actor Keith David, “Cold Case Files: Murder in the Bayou” features stories that the swamp threatened to swallow forever, but detectives managed to drag out into the light. No sin stays secret endlessly, no matter how deep in the muck it’s buried.
One episode, “The Devil in Hammond,” tells the story of a young mother found murdered in her car. Detectives in the small Louisiana town turn over every rock in search of her killer; her case languishes for more than 30 years before justice is finally served.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘CARRY-ON’ ON NETFLIX
With the holiday season now behind us, would debate over certain movies being called Christmas films result in a more dispassionate discussion? Argument has raged for some time about whether “Die Hard” is Yuletide entertainment.
Now we have Netflix’s “Carry-On,” similarly placed on Christmas Eve and involving redemption of the central character, to possibly raise, by comparison, the question about whether the Bruce Willis classic is holiday-centric entertainment.
The lead character in “Carry-On” is Taron Egerton’s Ethan Kopek, a TSA agent at Los Angeles International Airport, who reports for duty on one of the busiest days for holiday travelers.
Reporting for work, Ethan must figure the spirit of the season might be a good time to ask for a promotion from his churlish superior, Phil Sarkowski (Dean Norris), only to get shot down from consideration.
His best friend at work, fellow TSA agent Jason (Sinqua Walls), points out to Ethan that he started the same job two months after him and has already had two promotions to his zero. In Jason’s estimation, Ethan has been coasting on the job.
Ethan’s live-in girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson), pregnant with their first child, also works at the airport in a managerial position with fictional Northwind Airlines.
With fatherhood on the way, Ethan needs to step up his game. His aspiration to be a police officer has failed due to not getting beyond the entrance exam to the academy. Meanwhile, he hasn’t shown much initiative to get on track for advancement in his current position.
Hoping to rectify his situation, Ethan pleads with his dubious boss for a more important assignment, such as working the security check-in to monitor bags as they pass through the X-ray machine instead of dwelling in the bowels of the terminal.
Getting his way to man the security station, his request to demonstrate fresh ambition will be something Ethan will soon regret when he gets targeted as second choice to look the other way when a certain piece of luggage gets scanned by a passenger wearing a red baseball cap.
Pulling the strings is a person only credited as the Traveler (Jason Bateman), who has done his homework on Ethan and his previous first choice to know their vulnerabilities related to their personal and professional lives.
For his part, Bateman is working against type; here he’s truly an intimidating villain rather than showing his usual deadpan comedic delivery most evident in a string of comedy films and the TV series “Arrested Development.”
Bateman’s Traveler, clad in dark clothes and black hat, exudes menace in his methodical approach to bullying Ethan to do his bidding. It all starts with an earpiece Ethan is instructed by text to wear and follow every command lest Nora be killed.
What the Traveler tells the TSA agent is that all he needs to do is exactly nothing. Let the bag pass inspection through the machine without raising a red flag. He makes it all sound so simple.
But it’s not that simple after all. The dilemma posed for Ethan in following through is that the love of his life will live, but hundreds more on an airplane will surely perish when the hidden device detonates mid-air.
Do you sacrifice the life of your partner if it means saving innocent lives? Under the watchful eye of the Traveler, how does Ethan resolve the dilemma when the anonymous criminal cohort (Theo Rossi) is an expert sniper who has Nora firmly within his sight?
Outside the airport, a subplot forms when Detective Elena Cole (Denielle Deadwyler) investigates a crime scene where there may be a link to what is transpiring with the terrorist plot unfolding at the airport.
Riding in a car with an FBI agent, the detective astutely figures out something wrong is afoot, and then the most spectacular action sequence occurs in the speeding sedan as Elena grapples with the driver while the careening vehicle smashes into various obstacles.
The subplot of a high-speed run on the freeway leads to the detective becoming part of an eventual denouement at the airport. We can sense that the plot will be averted, but getting there requires Ethan to outsmart the Traveler.
The challenge for Ethan is compounded by the knowledge that the Traveler is not bluffing for having already killed one of his TSA colleagues. Ethan has to become a hero, but how will he make it happen?
Director Jaume Collet-Serra has figured out how to deliver resolution while performing similar duties in the Liam Neeson films “The Commuter,” “Run All Night,” and “Non-Stop,” the latter involving a terror plot on a transatlantic flight.
This film does not ask much from its audience other than to enjoy the thrill ride of a throwback to an era when movies like “Die Hard” flourished. For that matter, “Carry-On” runs in the same genre as several of the director’s other films.
“Carry-On” is reliably entertaining despite its inherent predictability and the absence of plot logic when you start to think about what unfolds with a critical eye.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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‘JUROR #2’ Rated PG-13
Courtroom dramas have the ability to be riveting entertainment that capture one’s rapt attention for every possible twist and turn during heightened moments of revealing developments.
Classic films, like “To Kill a Mockingbird” with Henry Fonda defending a black man against a false rape charge in small-town Alabama in 1932 or “Witness for the Prosecution” with Charles Laughton defending Tyrone Power accused of murder, have produced enthralling courtroom dramas.
None of the many films in the genre may surpass the spellbinding allure of Sidney Lumet’s classic 1957 legal drama “12 Angry Men,” where a dozen men in a New York City murder trial deliberate on the fate of a teenager accused of killing his abusive father.
As Juror #8, Henry Fonda is the only one who initially questions the evidence and resists an immediate rush to judgment and wants to have discussion on the case becauase he has a feeling of reasonable doubt.
Without a long, torturous summation of the path to the eventual outcome, it should be noted that “12 Angry Men,” with its excellent cast of notable actors and nominated for an Academy Award Best Picture, is arguably the best legal drama of all time.
Well into his tenth decade, Clint Eastwood is an institution all to himself in a long career as actor, director and producer, most recently starring in 2021’s “Cry Macho.” His likely final directorial effort may be “Juror #2,” which seems largely inspired by “12 Angry Men.”
In Sidney Lumet’s film, an honorable man stands unaided by his fellow jurors to not reach a hasty verdict. The similar situation in “Juror #2” hinges less on ethical qualms and more on muddled moral grounds.
The titular character turns out to be Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult), a writer for a Georgia magazine that he describes as not being “Vanity Fair.” His wife Allison (Zoey Deutch) is in the final stage of a precarious pregnancy.
Summoned to serve on a jury for a murder trial, Justin wants to get out of this duty since the couple suffered a miscarriage the year before, and he feels the need to stay close to home.
The judge (Amy Aquino) in this case fails to entertain his request to be excused, and neither the prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) nor the defense attorney Eric Resnick (Chris Messina) object to his selection for the murder case.
The accused is James Michael Sythe (Gabriel Basso), an ill-tempered guy in a volatile relationship with his girlfriend Kendall (Francesca Eastwood). After a night of drinking at a local bar, James becomes abusive and Kendall walks away alone on a rainy night.
Many people at the bar witness the altercation between the couple in the parking lot and notice James driving away, seemingly following her in his car as she takes off on foot down a dark highway.
The next day, Kendall’s body is discovered by a hiker in a creek off the side of the road. An old man living in a nearby trailer identifies James as the man he saw that night standing on the highway near the scene of the crime.
Political ramifications enter into the courtroom case because Prosecutor Killebrew is campaigning for district attorney in the fast-approaching election and needs to prove her crimefighting credentials to pull off an electoral victory.
A major question that arises early in the judicial proceedings is whether Justin, known only as Juror #2 during the trial, finds himself questionably compromised since he realizes he was at the same roadside bar on the night Kendall was killed.
As a recovering alcoholic, Justin feels not only guilty for ordering a drink he didn’t touch, but on the drive home he hit something on the road. As he got out the car, all he could see was a “deer crossing” sign and assumed that’s what he may have hit.
Not only did Justin tell his wife that the damage to the car happened on another road so that she wouldn’t know he stopped at a bar, but he develops a nagging feeling during the trial that maybe he’s the one at fault.
This is where the trial gets interesting because the morally conflicted Justin is at first the lone holdout on a guilty verdict, which would solve his personal dilemma of wanting to move on.
But then a retired cop (J.K. Simmons) serving as a juror starts to poke around with his own unsanctioned investigation, managing to get himself booted off the jury in the process. Simmons, as always, is a remarkable presence, and it’s unfortunate his role is rather limited.
Quitting may not be a word in Clint Eastwood’s vocabulary, but if “Juror #2” is his last cinematic effort, at least he leaves on a decent note.
In what was a curious strategy, the Warner Bros. studio had a very limited release of “Juror #2” in November, but now it is streaming on HBO’s Max, and it is definitely worth seeing.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Back by popular demand, and just in time for Christmas, the Lake County Theatre Co.’s live radio drama of the timeless tale,
“A Christmas Carol,” will be replayed on KPFZ, 88.1, on Christmas Day at 3 p.m. PST.
LCTC presented four live performances, Nov. 30 to Dec. 8, and received rave reviews for the work of their voice actors, Foley sound effect artists, and live musicians.
The Dec. 7 performance was broadcast live from the Soper Reese Theatre, and was recorded for future enjoyment.
For anyone who may have missed it the first time around, here is your opportunity to experience this holiday classic, brought to you by talented local performers.
Tune in to 88.1 FM, or stream it online at www.kpfz.org on Wednesday, Dec. 25, at 3 p.m.