Photo: ©Lions Gate Entertainment, Inc.
Fortress: Sniper's Eye
Bruce Willis in "Fortress: Sniper's Eye"
Fortress: Sniper’s Eye
(Limited Theatrical Release and Streaming on VUDU & AppleTV, April 29)
Bruce Willis starred in nine films during 2021, and—according to numerous critics—seemingly without regard for quality. The revelation he is being forced to retire by neurological afflictions offers one possible explanation. The first of a trilogy, the Fortress film rates among Willis’s questionable choices. He portrays Robert Michaels, a retired CIA agent living in a highly secure retirement center for high-ranking intelligence agents. During chapter one, Michaels received an urgent visit from his estranged son Paul (Jesse Metcalfe). Shortly after Paul’s arrival, the Fortress was attacked by a vengeful band of thugs led by Frederick Balzary (Chad Michael Murray). In chapter two, Balzary’s attacks continue with Robert and son attempting to repel bad guys and save the good ones. Parts one and two were shot back-to-back. The first film featured exposition bombing runs interrupted by bursts of shoot ’em action. Expect more of the same. (Lisa Miller)
Jigsaw
(Cohen Film Collection Blu-ray)
After a suspenseful opening scene, in which an unseen man kills his girlfriend after she threatens to tell his wife, Jigsaw (1962) settles into a leisurely police procedural. Written and directed by Britain’s Val Guest (Expresso Bongo), Jigsaw refers to the scattered clues—and body parts—left behind by the gruesome murderer. The story follows the frustrating accumulation of leads that arrive at dead ends, catching the routine of early ‘60s police work with radio prowl cars and clacking teletypes transmitting word of forensic results. Bits of dry humor enliven the plot in this window onto Britain just before The Beatles. (David Luhrssen)
Memory
(In theaters April 29)
Once again Liam Neeson portrays an aging operative in this American adaptation of the 2003 Belgian film (known as both The Alzheimer Case and The Alzheimer Affair). He’s Alex Lewis, an assassin planning to retire following a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Pricey experimental treatment persuades Lewis to take one last assignment from his boss (Guy Pearce), but he backs out upon learning a 12-year-old girl is the target. Her killing orders issue from the sex-trafficking ring that forced her into child prostitution. Determined to save her, Lewis targets everyone responsible. Lewis faithfully begins executing those comprising a long list, but memory loss causes him to leave evidence behind that helps the homicide detective (Ray Stevenson) working the case. Director Martin Campbell and Neeson walk in big shoes. The Belgian version stands at an 84% approval-rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (Lisa Miller)
Servants
(Film Movement DVD)
The luminous black and white cinematography and carefully measured pace will remind cineastes of early ‘60s European art house—maybe even Ingmar Bergman? But Secrets is a 2020 film by Czech director Ivan Ostrochovsky set in his homeland in 1980. In stark images with focus distributed evenly across every frame, the story shows life among Roman Catholic seminarians deciding how or whether to conform to an atheist totalitarian regime, Some faculty are in uneasy complicity with the regime while many of the students are in opposition.
Servants catches the furtive shadow game of life in the Soviet Bloc where no one knew whom to trust under a government based on fear. When several students type out a pamphlet against the regime, the secret police seize every typewriter in the seminary—all 64 of them—trying to match the font with the perpetrator. For the secret police boss, it’s just work. For the students, it’s the meaning of life and death. (David Luhrssen)
