When I picked up “Defiance”, I was pretty excited because I’ve enjoyed some of director Ed Zwick’s previous movies (The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, Courage Under Fire), but I became a little nervous when I realized Liev Schreiber (Zus Bielski) and Daniel Craig (Tuvia Bielski) would be sporting Russian accents in this “true story.”  Despite my reservations I was gladly surprised and pleased with the turnout of the film.  Craig and Schreiber do a good job with the accents and generally excel in their roles. I really enjoyed the fact that all of the main characters spoke Russian at times. It drives me nuts when movies speak English in certain regions and times when English was obviously not spoken. I understand that people don’t enjoy reading movies, but I liked the fact that this one mixed it in.

I did have some small issues with some of the characters.  Daniel Craig begins as a ruthless man seeking revenge, but almost as soon as he satisfies that urge he changes his mind and develops all of these morals and values that were completely absent before.  He mentions that he can still see the faces of the people he’s killed, but it’s so quick you might miss it. If that intense moral conflict were drawn out a little more, it might seem a little more plausable that he would be overcome by such a dramatic change of heart when his brother wants to go on his own mission for revenge.  Also, the two brothers share the screen for about the first half of the film, but when they split up, Liev’s story is basically tossed to the side and almost forgotten entirely.  Zwick paints Craig as the more likable brother and the obvious the hero, but there would have been a more enjoyable dynamic if both brothers got their fair share. Zus’ character would have been more nuanced and less predictable had he had been given more time. Instead, the youngest brother, Asael Bielski (Jamie Bell) took over his place, and I found him the most interesting.  There was a really interesting scene that showed Asael getting married, and blended it with Zus attacking and killing more Nazi’s. It was a great contrast and maybe my favorite scene.

Speaking of contrast, I wish Mr. Zwick would have gone into more depth about the clashes within the Jewish class system.  Zus describes how despite their incredible heroism in saving these fellow Jewish people, some still refuse to give up their prejudices, feeling that they’re better then him because of their superior wealth, class, etc.  It was really only mentioned that once, but it would’ve added a level of depth and created a more compelling story.

The wardrobe department deserves some recognition.  The costumes effectively got across the fact that these people had to literally drop everything and run into the woods to survive.  Men in suits and women in nice dresses are not the typical outdoor survival wear, but they had no choice.

With all that being said, I still enjoyed this movie. It was really entertaining and fun to watch. It had its cliche moments; forced love story for our hero, very predictable moments etc. and can we please stop doing the “video game war scene”? You know the scene.  When our hero is getting attacked, and something explodes right by him, and everything goes into slow motion, and there is a ringing like know he can’t hear anything, and then someone yells at them to snap them back to reality. Hasn’t that been in every war movie? It was even in “Tropic Thunder,” which makes fun of this genre!

Anyway, pick this one up.  It’s probably not my favorite Ed Zwick film, but it doesn’t disappoint.

(3.5/5)

Fun fact:  The producers struggled to find a proper shooting location, and when they finally chose remote Lithuania, they realized they were only a few hundred miles from where the real story took place.

Next week I tackle my favorite movie ever, The Jonas Brothers Concert Experience!!!!!! Oh what’s that? My DVD player rejected it? Oh shucks. Oh well, I have it memorized for you.

“Notorious,” starring Jamal Woolard, is the life and death story of one of the most famous rappers of all time, Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious BIG.  The movie opens in familiar biopic fashion;  We see a key point in the subject’s life, e.g. their death, and then we flashback to when it all began, and work our way back to that key moment.

The main difference between this biography and other recent films of the same ilk like “Ray”, or “Walk The Line” is most noticeably the acting. We all know Jamie Foxx won an Academy Award for his portrayal as Ray Charles, and Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar for her performance in “Walk the Line”, but don’t worry–nobody in “Notorious” will be bringing home any prestigious hardware.  Everything just seemed so over-the-top; from Puff Daddy’s (Derek Luke) constant hand movements and dance moves, to Voletta Wallace (Angela Bassett) struggling to maintain her Jamaican accent.  Whether these people really act like that in real life, or the dialogue was just poorly written, it was just awful either way.  It seemed as if every time someone talked, they had something profound to say, regardless of the time or situation. Every time Voletta Wallace opened her mouth it was some great piece of wisdom. This made the characters seem unrealistic, which is no easy task considering they were based on real people.

Another issue with this film is the entire narrative is very anti-climactic.  If you know anything about Biggie and his story, than you already know everything that’s about to happen. I’ve been a Notorious BIG fan for awhile, and I’ve known most of his story, but I was hoping for more.  It’s no secret that he sold drugs on the streets of Brooklyn, then became a world-famous rapper and then was shot and killed, oops, is that a spoiler alert? Obviously the filmmakers shouldn’t take blatant liberties with the story, but adding a layer of depth and background to the secondary characters could have helped a ton!  There were times when they didn’t even introduce people, and I was left wondering who they were, and why were they hanging around so much.  Even though I knew the rapper’s story, there could have been more drama that might have surprised me, or at least helped me become more emotionally invested.  I knew Ray Charles’ story too, but it was far more compelling than this one.

On a positive note, if you enjoy Notorious BIG’s music, than this film can be fun.  It’s been a few years since I’ve listened to him and it definitely makes me want to go dust off the CD, er I-Tunes now.  Also, there are some really funny moments when the movie decides to put the actors in some real life, famous situations.  Not least of these is the infamous “Vibe” magazine covers during the peak of the West Coast vs East Coast rap battle (who won that, by the way?).  It was hilarious to see the Death Row cover featuring a real picture of Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre next to the character Tupac (Anthony Mackie) and the character Suge Knight (Sean Ringgold).  There were also your typical flashbacks, and a few montages that really served no purpose for this movie, but managed make me laugh a few times.  One montage in particular that ended with Notorious having grown a beard stands out. Thank goodness they made it clear time had passed!

Overall the movie wasn’t horrible, but could have been much better–the acting and dialogue being the most prominent areas in need improvement.  But if you want to have a little fun watching Notorious BIG try and balance his rap career and juggle three women at the same time, then you should check this out. If you really want to hear some old Biggie tracks, and if it’s on HBO or something, give it a look, but you might weigh other options before renting it.

Fun fact about the movie: The little boy playing Notorious BIG as a 10-13 year old was actually Biggie’s and Faith Evan’s real son, Christopher Jordan Wallace. How odd would it be to play your father that you never really knew? (Chris Jr was born in 1996, BIG was killed in 1997)

(2.5/5)