kellym40 film review

Feel good feeling about ‘The Patriot’

Rating 3.5/5

While the film may not be historically accurate, it was a good source of fun, summer entertainment when it was released in June 2000. Set in the backdrop of the Revolutionary War, The Patriot offers some good stuff that makes for an enjoyable summer film – action, developed characters, impeccable acting, strong dialogue, and so on – something that is typically not seen in a Roland Emmerich summer blockbuster.

Robert Rodat penned the script for Emmerich to direct. It doesn’t seem the filmmakers were much on making a historically accurate film, as they were to make a Hollywood film based on history. Taking events and battles from the actual war, Rodat places characters (based on actual historical figures) within that world making their existence seem more real, adding the Hollywood touch of a simple hero pitted against a seemingly unbeatable villain.

The Patriot stars Mel Gibson as Benjamin Martin (a character based on several actual characters from the War – Francis Marion, Elijah Clarke, Daniel Morgan, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter), a religious family man trying to put the ugliness of war behind him. He is a widower who has seven children he protects dearly. When the villain, British Col. William Tavington (Jason Isaacs), who is based on Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, arrives with his British soldiers on Martin’s property, kills one of his youngest sons, arrests Martin’s eldest son Gabriel (Heath Ledger) and takes him away, and burns Martin’s house down, this pushes Martin to the one thing he wanted to avoid – going into war himself. He pursues Tavington, with two of his other sons, to free Gabriel. With militia style tactics, Martin succeeds in freeing Gabriel and he is thrust into the war to take vengeance upon Tavington. Martin then helps organize a militia, and with the help from his friend Col. Harry Burwell (Chris Cooper), puts forth strategies to stop Tavington and the British. After a series of incidents where the American militia bests British soldiers, Gen. Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson) develops a hatred for these “peasants and farmers” and wants Martin gone too.

Gibson gives an effective, emotional performance, as does Ledger. He was a bright newcomer at the time of the film’s release at 21 years old. Just nearly eight years later, he passed away. He is gone, but not forgotten.

Isaacs plays Tavington straight faced and with conviction. He is virtually emotionless, always with a smirk and evil in his eyes. Wilkinson portrays Cornwallis as somewhat pompous and arrogant, which seems to be Hollywood’s take on the character. This creates another character to dislike and of course root for the hero to win.

Well-choreographed fight and battle scenes, great acting with developed characters, wonderful cinematography, and a musical score to punch the dramatic narrative through the film. It makes for a more satisfactory film than the usual bang, bang, big explosions, and heavy use of special effects.

kellym40 film review

20 years later, ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ fails to surge

Rating 2/5

Earlier this summer, a sequel hit theaters supposedly 20 years in the making. Independence Day: Resurgence appeared, on the surface, to be a near carbon copy of the 1996 original with a few new characters and plot points. Roland Emmerich, the “master” of disaster films, took the script from writers Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods (and others) and made a two hour, sci-fi, special effects extravaganza – and not in a good way.

I think I liked this film better when it was just called Independence Day. Of course, that’s not saying much. This time around, some returning cast members play out their characters in much of the same fashion as the original. Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, and Judd Hirsch return as David Levinson, ex-President Whitmore, and Julius Levinson, respectively. Another returning character Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner) received a few laughs from his minor part, but overall it wasn’t noteworthy. Newcomers Maika Monroe, Jessie T. Usher and Liam Hemsworth offer up decent performances as the former president’s daughter Patricia Whitmore, Dylan Hiller (the son of Will Smith’s deceased character, and Jake Morrison (a hotshot pilot), respectively.

The problem with this film is that there are similarities with the events in the first film. The dialogue is one of those problems. While it may suit your average summer popcorn flick, it does little to tell a new engaging story to capture audiences. I suppose that is why Emmerich relies on special effects and CGI. I would say if his intention was to deliver a film with a heavy dose of special effects, explosions, and spaceship battles – with very little substance otherwise – then I would say a job well done. But shouldn’t there be more than that? I read in an article, shortly after this film was released, that Emmerich had a problem with the superhero movies these days. He claimed they “stole” his “ideas” and uses of world destruction in those films. Really? I wasn’t aware you could claim property on the concept of world destruction. Besides, the Marvel films do it so much better than Emmerich,because he doesn’t seem to bother about things like plot, story, and character in his disaster films.

There appears to be a notion that the bigger something is, the better it is. That is not the case in everything. It is certainly not the case with Roland Emmerich. It seems when he makes these big blockbusters, these disaster films, he fails on telling a story with substance and depends greatly on special effects, explosions, and anything else he can find to go boom as in films like 2012 (2009), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), and 1998’s failed Godzilla. However, in films like The Patriot (2000) and White House Down (2013), Emmerich does bring substance and story to the screen. Those films are few and far between from Emmerich. And he has stated he wants to make a third Independence Day film. Only time will tell if that will happen. If it does, it just better not be another 20 years.