Act of Valor, Starring Real U.S. Navy SEALs

Perhaps the unlikeliest action sequence in this film is based on a real-life event, in which Private Channing Moss survived the impact and injuries from an unexploded Taliban RPM that struck his abdomen with full force. It hardly needs to be said, but don’t try that at home. It also depicts the potentially catastrophic consequences when Islamist terrorists try to exploit the porous southern border, but surely we have fixed all those problems in the time since this film first released in 2012, right? Regardless, the courage and dedication of the U.S. Navy SEALs and Special Combat Crewmen remain a source of national pride. Many of the dedicated real-life Navy SEALs and Crewmen played fictionalized versions of themselves in Mouse McCoy & Scott Waugh’s Act of Valor, which makes fitting viewing for the Fourth of July weekend, when it airs on El Rey Rebel.

It starts in the Philippines, with the assassination of the American ambassador, who was instrumental in coordinating anti-terror alliances. It was perpetrated by the pro-terror alliance of Chechen Islamist terrorist Mohammad “Yuri” Abu Shabal and his old pal, “Christo” Troykovich, an international smuggler-money launderer. Operating out of failed states like Somalia, they are training suicide bombers to infiltrate the United States from Mexico, with specially designed vests would not set off metal detectors.

SEAL Team 7’s Bandito Platoon only learns of the evil plan from intel gathered after they rescue CIA Officer Lisa Morales from Christo’s thugs. Suddenly, their mission extends and expands. That is rather inconvenient for Chief Dave Nolan and his close friend, Lt. Rorke James Engel, who is due for leave in anticipation of his son’s birth. Yes, that kind of happy news never bodes well in movies, does it.

Since real deal SEAL were involved in Act of Valor right from its inception, the action sequences are highly realistic and consequently very intense. Rorke Denver and Dave Hansen develop some nice comradery as Engel and Nolan. Beyond them, the rest of the SEALs have little character development or even identifiable personality types. However, pro-thesps Roselyn Sanchez and Nestor Serrano look and sound smart and snappy together as Morales and her colleague, CIA Officer Walter Ross. Indeed, it is refreshing to watch a film that considers the CIA part of the good guys.

Chief of Station: Aaron Eckhart’s Next CIA Movie

Many movies depict CIA officers as the bad guys, but in the real world, several CIA station chiefs have been assassinated while serving their country. Tragically, Farrah Malloy will be the next to die in the line of duty. However, her widowed husband is also a CIA officer, with the know-how to find her killers and extract retribution in Jesse V. Johnson’s Chief of Station, which releases tomorrow in theaters and on-demand.

Ben Malloy just ran circles around the FSB (the former KGB) intercepting a courier drop on the streets of Budapest, where his wife is Chief of Station. Then he met her for their anniversary, but it was interrupted by an explosion. Supposedly, it was a gas leak, but Malloy soon suspects otherwise. Since the agency’s general inspector clearly has it in for him, Malloy only trusts Dez, his wife’s former colleague in the cyber division, with his findings.

Technically, he also trusts Nick, who will also soon start working in agency IT, but Malloy does not want him involved. Of course, the mysterious terrorists will inevitably target the son to get to the father.

Much like Aaron Eckhart’s last CIA movie, The Bricklayer, Chief of Station starts with a promising premise, but quickly reverts to standard issue payback VOD action. In this case, Chief is worse, because it chickens out quite cowardly, by making the FSB “friendly” rivals rather than the true bad guys. Just ask Ukraine how the FSB really conducts their business. This is not the mid-1990s. Audiences are craving Russian and CCP Chinese villains, because they want to finally see payback for their oppressive crimes. Instead, the producers apparently cared more about sales in some of most despotic territories on earth.

It is a shame, because Eckhart has the perfect cerebral grittiness for a vengeance-seeking CIA officer like Malloy. Olga Kurylenko has instant action credibility Krystyna Kowerski, an agent Malloy’s wife used to handle. However, screenwriter George Mahaffey literally drops her into the film from out of nowhere, after a full hour of Malloy lone-wolfing, just in time to save his butt.

The Painter, Co-Starring Jon Voight

Peter Barrett was raised to be a super-hearing man of action, sort of like a Daredevil with sight. How did he use those powers? That became a point of contention for the CIA assassin, who resigned after an assignment inadvertently led to the death of his unborn daughter. He is therefore quite surprised when the daughter he thought never lived comes looking for his help in Kimani Ray Smith’s The Painter, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

After the tragic death of his own parents, Barrett was adopted by CIA bigwig Henry Byrne, who sponsored the cutting-edge treatment. The young’s boy’s overwhelmingly sensitive hearing was driving him insane, but Byrne helped him learn to filter and harness it. Naturally, his powerful hearing gives him an edge in the field. No uncocking of a gun goes without his notice. Unfortunately, some wires got crossed in the agency, when Byrne sent Barrett to kill the asset his wife Elena had turned. Tragically, the pregnant “El” was shot in the crossfire.

Unfortunately, the bullet also killed their relationship. Subsequently, Barrett retired to Oregon, largely withdrawing from life, except for his work as a painter—a fine artist, rather than a house-painter. He is skeptical when his surprise daughter turns up on his doorstep, but the agency hit squad following her forces him to revert to his old ways.

Compared to The Painter, The Bricklayer is the second coming of John Wick. Renny Harlin’s film also presents a more nuanced perspective on the CIA. It is not all good, but it is not all bad either. In contrast, screenwriter Brian Buccellato portrays the Agency as irredeemably evil, through and through. The Painter is an example of why American films are so frustratingly shortsighted. In effect, they serve as anti-American propaganda in the international market. Why wouldn’t foreign nations think the U.S. is evil when filmmakers like Smith and Buccellato tell them so. In contrast, Chinese propaganda films celebrate the CCP and the PLA, while concurring with films like The Painter, with regards to the CIA.

Unfortunately, the action sequences in The Painter are not even close to be being sufficiently impressive to compensate. It is mostly just standard issue shootouts, punctuated by shots of Barrett perking up his ears like a dog.

Renny Harlin’s The Bricklayer

Greece is situated smack dab in the middle of a sensitive geographic area, with easy access to the Balkans and Turkey. It also has a history of a particularly childish strain of leftism. (Remember their threats to leave the Eurozone, because they were shocked to learn they had to balance their budgets once they relinquished control of their monetary policy? Any econ major could have told them so.) That makes Greece the perfect location for a scheme to discredit the CIA in Renny Harlin’s The Bricklayer, which releases this Friday in theaters and on-demand.

Things got a bit messy while Steve Vail was assigned to Greece, so he resigned from the agency, returning to his blue-collar roots laying brick for construction sites. Unfortunately, Radek, the contact he supposedly liquidated, is alive and well, framing the CIA for the assassinations of leftist “journalists” with a history of investigating Agency operations. Ostensibly, he is extorting the CIA for 100 million in Bitcoin, but his vendetta runs deeper than that. Regardless, Kostas, a demagogic leftwing Greek politician is shamelessly exploiting the killings to undermine America and NATO.

Reluctantly, Vail secretly returns to Greece, along with Kate Bannon, a Jack Ryan-esque analyst, who gets her first field assignment, because her politically astute boss O’Malley wants to limit the circle of agency personnel with knowledge of the affair. Initially, the by-the-book Bannon clashes with the rogue Vail, but after they save each other’s necks a few times, they hash out a degree of mutual trust.

Hanna Weg and Matt Johnson’s adaptation of Paul Lindsay’s novel (written under the name Noah Boyd) has a sophisticated premise that is shrewdly realistic and incredibly timely. Unfortunately, their screenplay emphasizes routine action over international intrigue. Harlin was always an action-oriented filmmaker, so this plays to his strengths, but it is a missed opportunity for something smarter.

Neither Confirm Nor Deny: Project Azorian

There was a time when journalists were not inclined to take the government’s word for what constituted “disinformation.” Can you imagine what Jack Anderson would have thought about the Department of Homeland security working with social media sights to suppress news stories and opinions they didn’t approve of? Of course, because all ethical judgements are situational these days, many of the same cheerleaders for censorship will be happy Anderson broke the story of the CIA’s “Project Azorian” salvage mission. Regardless, there is no denying it was quite a story, which Philip Carter chronicles in the documentary, Neither Confirm Nor Deny, which releases tomorrow.

In 1968, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-129 (and its highly sensitive nuclear codes) sank somewhere in the Pacific (it was one of four subs that mysteriously sank that year, probably because of kaiju). In 1974, the CIA located it and hatched a Clive Cussler-worthy mission to recover it from the sea floor. Naturally, they wanted to keep their efforts secret from the Soviets, so they approached Howard Hughes to help create their cover story.

Supposedly, the CIA mission would appear to be a deep-sea mining initiative launched by Hughes Industry, which made sense because the reclusive tycoon had mining and nautical companies. He was also a little eccentric. Obviously, for the plan to work, the CIA had to maintain its secrecy, which meant keeping the operation out of the newspapers.

Perhaps the biggest, juiciest revelation in NCND is the news that CIA director William Colby supplied Watergate dirt to Sy Hersh, who agreed to kill his story on Project Azorian in return. This comes directly from Hersh himself.

Throughout the film, Carter tries to intertwine Project Azorian with the Watergate scandal, but Hersh’s horse-trading with Colby is the most significant point of intersection. Quite inconveniently for the Agency, details of the operation broke during the time of the Church Committee hearings. However, it seems unfair in retrospect to lump Azorian in with the black ops the Committee was investigating. The off-the-books operation might have technically violate international salvage laws, but you could still argue it was a case of finders-keepers.

Operation Napoleon

It sounds like it was based on a Robert Ludlum novel, but it is really adapted from a book by Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason. That title certainly has a Ludlumesque ring to it and it also happens to be a Nazi thriller, but they aren’t the bad guys. Instead, it is the CIA who are the villains in Oscar Thor Axelsson’s Operation Napoleon, which releases tomorrow in theaters and on-demand.

Right before Hitler’s suicide, a mysterious flight left Berlin disappearing into legend and conspiracy theories. Shadowy CIA bigwig William Carr (played by Scottish actor Iain Glen) and his late father have been looking for it ever since. Kristin’s outdoorsy brother Elias and his mates have the bad luck of stumbling across the wreckage of the fabled plane while exploring one of Iceland’s melting glaciers. Soon, Carr’s trusted enforcer Julie Ratoff (played by British thesp Adesuwa Oni) is stabbing them to death with a pencil.

Elias manages to escape Ratoff on the ice, so Carr dispatches his assassin Simon (played by German actor Wotan Wilke Mohring) to eliminate Kristin, since she saw her brother’s posts. However, being a sharky corporate loan officer, Kristin easily eludes Simon, with the help of her ghosted boyfriend, Steve Rush, a British professor, who specializes in American military history.

Finland just joined Iceland in NATO and their fellow Scandinavian nation Sweden is well on its way as well, but apparently Axelsson and Indridason consider their Ally, the United States, to be their greatest national threat. Russia and China surely appreciate the propaganda assist. Does Mark Cuban also see the world that way? That is a question to ask yourself next time he endorses a candidate, since he owns the American distributor of Operation Napoleon.

So basically, the CIA shoots the stuffing out Iceland trying capture Kristin and Rush. However, it is important to keep in mind they get help from Einar, a schlubby soccer fan who lives alone on the glacier. Granted, it all looks slickly professional, but the anti-American plot and uninspired action sequences are mediocre at best.

Black Site, on Redbox

Peace must be breaking out if Jordan is okay with the presence of a Mossad agent assigned to a Five Eyes black site hidden in the kingdom’s desert. Of course, it is not like Jordan has a lot of civil liberties to hinder its operations (Freedom House gives it a 34 out of 100, ranking it “Not Free”), but of course, we’re the bad guys in Sophia Banks’ Black Site, which releases tomorrow via Redbox.

When terrorists blew up a hospital in Ankara, they also killed the husband and daughter of Abby Trent, a CIA analyst. Why would a high-level analyst be doing in-country station work you might wonder? Well, don’t, because one year later she will be attached to the black site responsible for interrogating persons-of-interest, with respects to the bombing. Okay, some think it is a bad idea to have her on the case, but there she is.

Unfortunately, Trent is due to be shipped out soon, but right before she leaves, “The Hatchet” arrives. Supposedly, he was the terrorist mastermind behind the bombing that Trent now suspects was a drone strike. He also inconveniently let himself get captured, so he could wipe out Trent’s team and their incarcerated assets. The Hatchet seems to have inside help, but at least Trent can rely on Uli Wasserman from the Mossad (whereas not so much cocky American contractor Raymond Miller).

Jinder Ho and John Collee’s screenplay explicitly argues the CIA is more dangerous than international terrorists. Yet, it is produced to serve as an old school, bullets-flying VOD action movie, that even emblazons Old Glory across its on-sheet. The question remains, who is the intended audience expected to be entertained this film?

By far, the most interesting thing about the film is the character of Wasserman and Phoenix Raei’s portrayal of him. In this murky world, the Mossad guy is the moderate pragmatist (which could very well be true in the real world as well). On the flip side, Jason Clarke looks visibly bored going through the motions as The Hatchet, who must be the world’s most sullen and depressed terrorist ever.

Similarly, Jai Courtenay spewing anti-authority attitude as Miller makes no sense in this context. Anyone in a sensitive post like this would get bounced real fast for challenging the chain of command.

Dying of the Light: Nic Cage Will Not Go Gentle into that Good Night

Evan Lake is the CIA’s top motivational speaker. He also happens to be played by Nicolas Cage, so hold on tight, this will be a bumpy ride. While a station chief, Lake was captured and tortured by a notorious terrorist, but he lived to tell the tale, with honor. Fatefully, just as the physical and mental symptoms of a rare neurological disease start plaguing Lake, he gets a line on his old tormentor, Muhammad Banir. He might as well get his revenge or die trying in Paul Schrader’s Dying of the Light (trailer here)—although Schrader himself would reportedly prefer not to be so closely identified with the final producer-cut product. Regardless, it opens this Friday in New York.

Every year Lake gives a pep talk to the new recruits undergoing basic training and he projects to the back row of the theater—the theater next door. This might be his last hurrah. The agency just got wind his second opinion came back positive (in a bad way). However, his protégé, Milton Schultz has some interesting news. The rare pharmaceutical used to treat Banir’s degenerative disease has strangely surfaced during an incident in Romania. Yes, both men are slowly dying, betrayed by their own bodies.

Since the Agency still insists Banir is dead, Lake goes rogue, burning every possible bridge behind him. Yet, despite his increasingly erratic and anti-social behavior, he can count on the help of the loyal Schultz and Michelle Zuberain, an ambiguously close former Euro colleague. Meanwhile, the dastardly CIA bureaucrats keep trying to send Lake doctors and counselors.

Evidently, Schrader and several cast members are unhappy with the current theatrical cut, but it is hard to see why. It is a reasonably serviceable thriller with a bit of style here and there. Let’s be frank—this is latest film from the director of The Canyons and the star of Left Behind. It’s just not that bad, especially compared to some of the recent gems in the Cage filmography. Frankly, it probably doesn’t even crack the bottom twenty (hello, The Wicker Man, Stolen, Seeking Justice, Trespass, Season of the Witch?)

Be that as it may, Cage sure does his thing as the tightly wound Lake. The man just doesn’t seem to have an inside voice. When he gorges on scenery, it is like watching a bull in a china shop, but at least he is nowhere near as embarrassing as Meryl Streep unconscionably overacting in Osage County. As Schultz, Anton Yelchin looks thoroughly freaked out, probably because he was. At least Irène Jacob does her best to class-up the joint as Zuberain.

Dying wrings plenty of atmosphere out of its Romanian locales and surprisingly, it is almost sympathetic in its treatment of the CIA (perhaps that is why some principals are unhappy). Say what you will, but they are dashed indulgent of Lake. In its current state, the film also portrays the Islamist terrorists as unambiguously vicious extremists. It is far from perfect and nobody would describe it as high art, but Dying of the Light is compulsively watchable, building a fair degree of suspense in its weird way. Recommended for fans of Cage’s flaring nostrils, it opens this Friday (12/5) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

The Numbers Station: CIA Bingo

Forget about the jocks, the CIA prefers to recruit math geniuses.  If they happen to be drop-outs with socialization issues, so much the better.  Of course, they still need people who can kill, but any old losers can do that, even someone who looks like John Cusack.  Unexpectedly, one such field agent babysitting a remote code transmitter will have to do what he does best in Kasper Barfoed’s The Numbers Station (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Short wave radio is untraceable, making it the perfect format to convey messages to operatives in the field.  Periodically, conspiracy nuts and Democracy Now listeners get all worked up about mysterious “Number Station” broadcasts.  Typically, they are simply series of numbers that have no meaning to listeners without the code.  After a dirty job gets downright ugly, Emerson Kent is reassigned to a station somewhere in the English countryside.  He provides personal security to Katherine, who analyzes incoming code and reads out the resulting number sequences.  Neither he nor she has any idea what any of it means.

Typically, they alternate with the other team every three days.  However, when they arrive a few hours early in accordance with their new schedule, they find the station under siege.  Thanks to Kent’s skills they are able to hole-up in the station.  Ominously though, they discover fifteen unauthorized messages have been sent.

A film like Numbers Station would do so much more business if it actually celebrated CIA agents’ service and sacrifice for their country.  There are now 103 stars on the Memorial Wall in Langley commemorating officers who have fallen in the line of duty.  However, screenwriter F. Scott Frazier is unmoved by that, preferring to represent as the Agency in the person of Kent’s boss, the ruthless Michael Grey, who constantly growls euphemistically about tying up loose ends.  Those 103 stars deserve better than that Mr. Frazier.

It is a shame too, because Numbers Station is a pretty tightly executed cat-and-mouse-game thriller.  Barfoeld uses the claustrophobic constraints of the station bunker to build tension, shying away from conventional action sequences.  Both couples’ developing extracurricular attractions also ring true, given the intimacy of their working environment.

Frankly, John Cusack is pretty convincing as the guilt-ridden, clinically depressed black ops agent.  Perhaps Barfoed was reading a list of his recent direct-to-DVD credits to him off-camera.  Likewise, Malin Akerman proves she can credibly play smart and attractive simultaneously, which should put her on a short list for bigger and better roles.  Unfortunately, the usually super-cool Liam Cunningham is largely wasted as the generically villainous Grey.

Numbers Station features some better than average chemistry and respectable thriller mechanics.  However, the constant demonization of the intelligence service is clumsy, didactic, and clichéd. Frankly, it is so familiar it makes a film with a few new ideas still feel old hat.  The victim of its own self-sabotage, The Numbers Station opens tomorrow (4/26) in New York at the AMC Empire.

Felix Leiter Weeps: Hanna

There are 102 stars on the memorial wall at CIA headquarters in Langley. Each one signifies an officer who died in the line of duty. In their latest film, director Joe Wright and screenwriters Seth Lochhead and David Farr add at least eight stars to their ranks, inviting the audience to give a bloodthirsty cheer for each and every execution. Hollywood has come a long way since we first met James Bond’s CIA colleague Felix Leiter, but it is difficult to think of a film more hostile to the men and women who serve in America’s intelligence services than Wright’s Hanna, which opens widely tomorrow.

Hanna was developed by the agency to be a super-killer. However, when the program was canceled, vampy agent Marisa Wiegler was charged with disposing of the evidence—you know what that means. Somehow though, Hanna’s presumed father Erik was able to whisk her away to a remote Finnish hideaway, where he continues her training, relentlessly attacking her like a fatherly version of Inspector Clouseau’s man-servant Cato.

When Hanna decides she is ready to face Wiegler, she activates Erik’s clunky CIA signal beacon, a piece of hardware perhaps developed by the same company that produces self-destruct switches for super villains’ lairs.  (This seems like an oddly passive strategy, considering Hanna and Erik spend about eighteen hours a day stalking wild game or each other.)

Extracted simply so she can escape again, Hanna cuts through at least eight CIA personnel and a number of freelance contractors on her way to rendezvousing Erik. If that were not disturbing enough, dear old Erik also kills two completely innocent German cops, though their deaths are kept antiseptically off-screen.

As Hanna, Saorise Ronan is quite a credible young action star and can be excused for not fully appreciating the film’s ideological implications. For his part, Eric (with a “c”) Bana mostly broods sullenly as Erik (with a “k”). However, Cate Blanchett’s Wiegler looks and sounds like a stand-up comic’s bad impression of the late Ann Richards. At least she is allowed a personality. The rest of the film’s CIA personnel and associates are colorlessly interchangeable—mere meat for Hanna’s grinder, except for one conspicuously “swishy” contractor, a bizarre exercise stereotyping for this day and age.

To give due credit, Wright stages some energetic action sequences. Unfortunately, this also makes it more effective as propaganda. It is only too easy to picture Hanna playing for months in countries across the Mideast eager to indulge in some cheap anti-Americanism. Indeed, following the revelation youtube clips of Brian De Palma’s anti-Iraq broadside Redacted helped spur the fatal shooting of two American servicemen at the Frankfurt airport, a film like Hanna can no longer be viewed in an ethical vacuum.

Frankly, Wright, Bana, Blanchett, and the rest of grown-ups behind the film should be asked directly how they would explain their film to the family of CIA officer Johnny Michael Spann, the first official American casualty in Afghanistan, killed by duplicitous Taliban terrorists. What would they say to the family of William Buckley, the CIA Beirut station chief brutally tortured and murdered by Hezbollah? What would they say to the friends and family of anyone of the fallen 102?

Indeed, Hanna has serious issues far beyond its gaping logical holes and clunky performances. It is deeply cynical and profoundly disrespectful of the American intelligence officers who risk their lives on behalf of their country. Entirely problematic, Hanna should be avoided when it opens tomorrow.