The Prince (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Mississippi mechanic Paul (Jason Patric) is worried when his undergraduate daughter Beth's (Gia Mantegna) phone is answered by some strange guy. He tracks down Beth's friend Angela (Jessica Lowndes) and persuades her to lead him to Beth's no-good boyfriend in New Orleans. This leads him to minor crime boss The Pharmacy (rapper 50 Cent).

Coincidentally, Paul used to be a major gangster in New Orleans. He accidentally killed crime lord Omar's (Bruce Willis) wife and daughter in a car bombing. Hearing that Paul is back in town, Omar pulls out all the stops to get Paul, despite warnings from his lieutenant Mark (Korean star Rain - Ninja Assassin) to leave Paul alone.

Paul drops Angela off at his old friend Sam's (John Cusack) place for safekeeping, and begins a one-man rampage to retrieve his daughter.

***

The Prince is a redneck version of Taken. Instead of former spy Liam Neeson, you have former gangster Jason Patric. With Bruce Willis and John Cusack as supporting cast, I had high hopes for this movie. Unfortunately, it's a B-movie dud.

I'm a Jason Patric fan. I loved Incognito, The Beast of War and The Lost Boys. Heck, I even liked Speed 2. Unfortunately, like Mark Dacascos and many other good actors, his career never really seemed to take off.

He's doing himself no favors by acting in movies like The Prince. I would also like to know who called in favors to get Bruce Willis and John Cusack to act in this clunker.

The movie starts off slowly. There are no quotable quips here, no ready-made tough-guy Internet memes. Taken quickly establishes Liam Neeson's bad ass credentials at the start of the movie, but The Prince keeps Paul's gangster past under wraps for a while.

This makes for a slow start to the movie, but it almost works when at about 30-minute mark, Paul gets recognized by an old foe. Paul had killed seven men in a shootout, and then had spared this man's life. He repays Paul by convincing his thug nephew (Beth's boyfriend) to tell Paul where Beth is. Along the way, he recounts Paul's bad-assery to his nephew (and of course the audience), making Paul sound like a Grammaton Cleric.

Aside from the tough-guy lines, Taken worked because Liam Neeson's tradecraft in tracking down and fighting the kidnappers, was interesting and believable. There is no equivalent detail in The Prince. The scene described above, is about as good as it gets.

Paul is not believably established as the one-man-army the movie says he is. Omar and Sam are also not well developed as characters. Worse is Angela. Angela doesn't seem to care much about Beth at the start, but then suddenly risks her safety to help Paul.

There's also an overall lack of style and polish to the whole movie. The visuals are far from cinematic (the best-looking scenes are at the start - Paul working in his garage) and often look drab. Not purposefully grungy, just student-film uninspired. Just like the gun fights and car chase (singular) - plain boring, bordering on ridiculous.

IMDB estimates the budget at $18 million. That sounds about right. Director Brian A Miller, and writers Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore, deserve their obscurity.

As a joke, I texted a movie-buff friend, asking him if I should watch Denzel (his movie The Equalizer opened on the same day) or Jason Patric. He knew about The Equalizer, but had no idea that there was a Jason Patric movie showing in the cineplexes. I don't blame him.

P.S. There's a scene where Paul checks out an unloaded submachine gun, working the mechanism, all the while pointing the gun at Angela. That's a safety no-no, even with an unloaded gun. Paul is supposed to be a crude gangster, but he is also supposed to be ex-military. This is the kind of thing that the army drills into you to not do. Paul also shoots from the hip (at least some of the time), another thing that the army trains you to not do.

Café. Waiting. Love (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): University freshman Si-Ying (Vivian Sung) works at a cafe. She encounters various quirky personalities including the cafe's depressed owner (former pop star Vivian Chow), stern barista Abusi (Megan Lai), legendary university prankster A-Tuo (Bruce Lu-Si Bu), handsome flirt Zeyu (Marcus Chang) and former actor Brother Bao (Lee Luo).

***

"Café. Waiting. Love" is a sweet, whimsical romantic comedy. It's more a series of vignettes or multiple subplots - in the parochial style of Amelie - than a conventional plot-driven movie.

But it works. The adorable Vivian Sung deftly carries the movie. She's feisty, cute and girl-next-door approachable, not too glamorous (that would be Vivian Chow). Bruce Lu-Si Bu doesn't have quite the same impact - his goofy persona isn't particularly endearing or impressive. And that's okay. This is Vivian Sung's show and she is up to the task.

The other actors stack up pretty well. Megan Lai is striking in her small but impactful role as the unsmiling ace barista who concocts weird, customized drinks for customers. Vivian Chow is surprisingly effective as the sad cafe owner, pining after her dead lover (she seemed like a bubblehead when she was a pop star). 

Written (novel and script) by young (born 1978) Taiwanese author Giddens Ko (You Are the Apple of My Eye), this is the kind of hip and stylish movie that makes you believe in an international youth culture. It's the world of 1970's TV's Big Blue Marble (gawd, I'm old) or Thomas Friedman's Flat World.

A world where urbanites all over the world share the same kumbaya liberal values and Starbucks tastes, but retain a few of their own cute cultural idiosyncrasies (Si-Ying's roommate practices Iron Head Kung-fu, by repeatedly bashing her head with a brick). It's a world many of us want to believe in. But looking at today's headlines, would be foolish to believe exists outside a thin demographic of middle-class, westernized societies.

I'm not saying that the movie consciously pushes this ideology. I'm saying that writer Giddens Ko and first-time director Chin-Lin Chiang are naturally citizens of the world. "Café. Waiting. Love" is a fun and lightweight movie that makes no demands on an international audience, because its worldview is a westernized worldview that today passes for international culture. And there's nothing wrong with that - both being lightweight and having a westernized worldview.

I'm a story guy and I normally look at movies from a storytelling perspective. But I was really struck by the modern, almost hipster, sensibility of this movie. It's a world away from Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, Tsui Hark, Wong Jing, Johnnie To and Wong Kar Wai. 

I do have a few gripes. The magical roast sausages are a bridge too far (and are unnecessary) but they hardly mar this charming little movie. For quirky magic, the underrated Simply Irresistible (1999, Sarah Michelle Gellar) is much better.

However, considering how crude and clueless contemporary Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China movies can be; this movie is a treat. There's more to Chinese cinema than martial arts and costumed, historical dramas.

The November Man (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) quits the CIA after an operation with rookie Mason (Luke Bracey) goes bad and an innocent child gets killed.

Five years later, Devereaux's ex-boss Hanley (Bill Smitrovich) tracks him down to his Swiss retirement cafe. Hanley tempts Devereaux back to work, saying that an old friend needs his help.

Devereaux agrees, but things go bad and Mason end's up killing Devereaux's friend. An enraged Devereaux starts to hunt down the members of Mason's CIA team.

At the same time, Devereaux tries to complete his friend's mission and bring crooked Russian politician Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski) to justice for war crimes. This leads him to aid-worker Alice (Olga Kurylenko) and they are now hunted by the CIA and the Russians.

***

The November Man is an enjoyable, fast-paced spy thriller. It doesn't break any new ground but it has the advantage of being based on a novel - Bill Granger's relatively unknown "There Are No Spies." This means that compared to your average spy movie, The November Man is above-average in terms of plot complexity and character development. Most importanly, Brosnan doesn't sing.

Director Roger Donaldson (The Recruit, Thirteen Days, Dante's Peak, Species) keeps the pacing fast - always a good thing. The run, run, chase, chase style is reminiscent of a Roland Emmerich movie. Devereaux and Alice are always on the move, unlike too many movies where the heroes spend too much time in the bat cave.

The movie's opening (and trailer) makes it look like this is going to be a student versus master movie, ala The Recruit (Colin Farrell versus Al Pacino). But this is Pierce Brosnan's show. Mason is quickly sidelined and the movie turns conventional with bad-ass Devereaux playing Jason Bourne with eye-candy Alice in tow.

Considering Pierce Brosnan's past roles as James Bond, the question people will be asking is - How does the movie compare with the Bond movies? Quite well, especially considering that the budget is only $15 million. Brosnan doesn't try to play Bond here, coming across as a more human and sympathetic spy.

There are two main twists in the plot, both of which do work but teeter on the edge of being obligatory. There is some subtle foreshadowing of the twists, so if you're paying attention you'll be rewarded with the satisfaction of guessing correctly.

Brosnan is one of the producers of the movie, and a sequel has already been announced. It looks like Brosnan has better luck starting a new book-based movie franchise with November Man, compared to Tom Cruise's attempt with Jack Reacher.