June-Claude Van Damme: Legionnaire (1998)

Even in the filmography of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Legionnaire stands out as a bit of an oddity. More dramatic than most of his other movies, it comes close to making some interesting points at times, but ultimately falls short.

Van Damme plays someone who, unsurprisingly, ends up in the French Foreign Legion. There he makes one or two friends, suffers at the hands of a tough Sergeant (Steven Berkoff), and finds reserves of inner strength that end up making him an ideal legionnaire.

Because this is a film that I spent years accidentally avoiding (there just always seemed to be a better viewing option when I remembered that it existed) I was always under the impression that this was another riff on A.W.O.L.: Absent Without Leave AKA Lionheart. I assumed that Van Damme would start the film as a legionnaire and then have to escape and end up fighting to win cash and the respect and love of those in awe of his ass-kicking abilities. It's not that kind of film at all, and everyone should be aware of that going into it.

This is more of a straight drama with one or two moments of "action" (I've placed the word in quotation marks because the scenes in the third act are the kind of battlefield confrontations not to be confused with more easily entertaining martial arts moments).

Written by Sheldon Lettich and Rebecca Morrison, based on a story idea by Lettich and Van Damme, Legionnaire also incorporates some gangsters and a boxing match that our hero is supposed to throw, all in the opening act of the film, and it's obvious that all of the main players thought they could stretch the range of Van Damme while also incorporating elements that would keep his fans happy. They don't manage that, mainly because they forget to make things entertaining enough, with the script unhelped by the flat direction from Peter MacDonald (although a quick look at his directorial filmography shows that he may have peaked with his first film, Rambo III).

Van Damme tries his best here but his acting isn't up to par. It's probably not all his fault though, considering there are equally disappointing turns from Nicholas Farrell and Berkoff. The only one who manages to do well is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, mainly because he's given a role that doesn't feel like an over the top caricature.

It's hard to imagine who will get the most out of this film. Fans who wanted to see more of his acting in a period setting after The Quest? Anyone who wanted a film in which JCVD helped to defend Morocco against an army of rebel warriors? If you are in either of those two groups then this film is for you. Everyone else may want to look elsewhere instead.

4/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can pick it up here.

Annie (2014)

Yes, I was as dismissive as a lot of other people when I heard that we were about to get another remake of Annie, the musical that gave us the songs "Tomorrow" and "It's A Hard Knock Life", and starred a little red-headed girl being annoyingly precocious. The 1982 movie isn't, as far as I can recall, that great a movie anyway, so I just didn't see any point in going back to that well. And when I saw the first trailer for this movie I was slightly smug, safe in the knowledge that this was a movie that I needn't prioritise, what with it having the potential to be absolutely bloody awful.

Well, I can always admit when I'm wrong (because it happens so often, unfortunately), and in the case of Annie I was wrong. It's not going to be one of my favourite movies, and it suffers from many of the failings that the original movie had, but this is a fun, energetic, musical that should keep the family entertained for the duration.

Quvenzhane Wallis takes over the titular role, and just fine she is too. She's an orphan who lives with the constant hope that one day she will be reunited with her parents. Meanwhile, she is stuck in the care of the bitter Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz), a nasty drunk who regrets the opportunities she missed out on in her past. Jamie Foxx is Will Stacks, the character substituting for Daddy Warbucks here. Stacks is a billionaire business tycoon trying to become mayor of New York, and when his approval rating jumps up after he's filmed saving Annie from being hit by a truck his staff decide that he could benefit even more if he offered Annie a temporary home.

I started to warm to this version of Annie in the first few scenes. In fact, the very opening moments provide an amusing little fake-out before moving in to a credit sequence that nicely riffs on the well-known musical numbers with a makeover that feels genuinely appropriate for the new audience without seeming horribly desperate. And everything kept ticking over nicely, for the most part.

There are two main problems that prove insurmountable for director Will Gluck, who also worked on the screenplay with Aline Brosh McKenna (with help from the past versions of the tale, of course). First of all, this isn't a musical full of the best songs. I'm sure many musical fans will disagree, but I've always found Annie to have more filler than thriller, to put it simply. Two good songs just don't cut it, especially when one of those isn't really all that good as opposed to just being one of the most familiar. The second big problem is Cameron Diaz horribly overacting in the role of Miss Hannigan (and let's not even mention the horrible backstory given to her). I've been kinder to Miss Diaz than most, over the years, but she's sorely miscast here, and an undeniable weak link in the cast.

Wallis is bright and sweet in the main role, just about avoiding feeling too precious, Foxx is a lot of fun as the rich man who tries to keep his defences up at all times, Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale are both good as the advisors who watch things unfold from two very different perspectives, and David Zayas and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje do well as two men, one a store owner and one in the employ of Stacks, who try to help Annie as much as possible.

Overall, the flaws in this version are similar to the flaws in the previous versions. The fact that it tries so hard to win viewers over with a better cast, for the most part, and ever-so-slight adjustment of the twee factor means that it's far from the worst family movie to come out in recent years, even if it will never be one of the best.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Annie-Blu-ray-UltraViolet-Digital-Copy/dp/B00R878NI4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1420223100&sr=8-5&keywords=annie

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