“Bruce Willis and Jamie Foxx are ‘Kane & Lynch’ ! in that prototypical big booming basso trailer-like voice is pretty much the sound of a lulling narcotic that puts us to sleep.
The black-and-white poster illustrating two gun-toting silhouettes is as generic as they come, and then there’s the fact that the project is a video game adaptation and really, has there ever been a good video game adaptation movie, yet let alone a great one? Also it’s being written by Kyle Ward who is writing a sequel to “Hitman,” not the most desirable sequel on planet Earth.
The pairing of the duo sounds fairly uninspired (Willis and insert African American foil here), and while we admit we were mildly interested for a second when it seemed like Wayne Kramer might take the directing reigns — “The Cooler” with Alec Baldwin being an interesting indie film (and that 2003 film earned Baldwin an Oscar nomination and began his zeitgeisty renaissance as a beloved figure who yes, is a great actor; sometimes the public needs a reminder) — our interest now has officially waned once again.
Variety is now reporting that filmmaker F. Gary Gray is circling the directing spot and we basically get sleepy again. Gray is not a bad director, is technically very competent and is an entertaining popcorn-ist. “The Italian Job,” while uninspired, was mostly entertaining and the first “Friday” was fun, but his ouevre, if we can use that word here, is generally populated with nondescript and conventional DVD rentals like “The Negotiator,” “Be Cool” and the rather empty-headed “Law Abiding Citizen.”
Frankly, he’s actually a pretty perfect director for this gig, but the interest level for us with these kinds of films is generally subterranean. The especially rote premise is that Willis plays a mercenary who gets framed and then is broken out of prison by his former mates who’ve kidnapped his wife and daughter and give him 72 hours to recover a doomsday device. Foxx will play his partner, a ticking time bomb of a guy prone to violent rages.
Sounds like a pedestrian concoction of testosterone and unchecked alpha male ego. Pass. Mark our words, the trailer will have a lot of yelling and the butting of heads, but it will surely satisfy some demographic out there including the geek one that generally has no issues with Gray’s films. To each his own we suppose…
But while we’re here, what happened to Jamie Foxx becoming a leading man actor who was stretching his skills? While “The Soloist” didn’t quite gel, we did appreciate the effort.
