A HARD DAY

There are times when nothing seems to go right -- but that is upped several levels in A Hard Day, a South Korean modern film noir (with a slightly misleading title) where problem builds on problem, sometimes with deadly results.

Things start badly for Go Geon-Soo (Sun-kyun Lee), a detective with the South Korean police department.  He's driving home from his mother's funeral, where he'd been drinking, and is pestered on the phone by his sister to bring back a chocolate cake.  His colleagues at the police department warn him that Internal Affairs is raiding their office, where Geon-Soo has bribes from small businessmen in his desk.

With all this going on, Geon-Soo still manages to swerve his car to avoid a small dog in the road.  Unfortunately, while looking back at the dog  he hits and kills someone who ran into the road.  The detective panics, dumping the body in his trunk -- and almost immediately gets stopped at a drunk driving checkpoint.

 Impressively, from there things get worse.  Geon-Soo has to control his temper long enough to get rid of the body (for which he has a novel solution involving balloons and a toy army man), deal with his sister and son, fix the damage to his car, and handle Internal Affairs.  But then the precinct gets word that the man Geon-Soo is wanted for murder, and everyone's trying to find him (while Geon-Soo is frantically trying to cover his tracks).  And then Geon-Soo gets mysterious phone calls from someone who claims he saw what the detective did -- and who wants the body.

A Hard Day is straightforward, and it's also well done.  Sun-kyun Lee is very good in the main role, as his corrupt cop who's used to getting away with anything by flashing his badge keeps falling deeper and deeper in trouble and complications.  Man-sik Jeong is suitably crafty and violent as the blackmailer ready to turn Geon-Soo in (or worse) if he doesn't go along, and the action ranges from desperate planning to an almost primal physical battle at the end.  A Hard Day may begin at night and take place over several days, but it's certainly engaging.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

Big Trouble - Dave Barry (1999)

Dave Barry is best known as a writer of humourous newspaper columns and collections of the same, as well as books of short bits of humour in the same vein. In 1999, he published his first novel, Big Trouble, which is in the "Bunch of South Florida Wackos genre," as he puts it in his acknowledgments. The result is a little uneven, but not unappealing.

The genre's master, as Barry says, is Carl Hiaasen, and Big Trouble reads almost like Hiaasen juvenalia. The plot concerns a Bunch of South Florida Wackos who, without really meaning to, finding themselves reeling from bad to worse as they get involved with arms dealers, corrupt corporations, hit men from Jersey, FBI agents with mysterious powers from Special Executive Order 768 dash 4, and a strangely heavy suitcase. The situations are zany, the characters comically inept and yet strangely frightening and the plot, such as it is, involves everyone except for the suitcase chasing the suitcase for one reason or another.

Pretty thin stuff, plotwise.

But the plot isn't the point. The point is Barry's writing and the oddly amusing characters. Here the novel works pretty well. It's not as funny as Barry's straight-ahead humour writing, which isn't surprising, but may come as a shock to anyone who reads it expecting straight-ahead humour writing. The characters are not particularly deep - they are South Florida Wackos after all - but are quirky and interesting. Barry keeps the pace up, an essential in this sort of thing, since if anyone slowed down to think the whole thing would fall apart. This combined with plenty of white space and a large font means that one can zip through the book in a couple of hours (I did).

All of which boils down to this: it's brain candy, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's pretty light and distracting, also not always a bad thing. If Carl Hiaasen's books in this genre are the giant Chocolate Easter Bunnies with their heads bitten off of brain candy, Big Trouble is the marshmallow Peep that's been run through the microwave. And sometimes, that's exactly what you want.

Overall Grade: B-

WHITE COLLAR

Thanks to the good people at the USA Network, I received an advance copy of the pilot for their new show White Collar. This is the latest in a series of shows about a colorful outsider who helps the officials solve crimes.

White Collar revolves around two opposites. Neal Caffrey (Matthew Borner) is a con artist, convicted forger, and non-violent criminal who scams his way out of prison four months before his sentence is up after his girlfriend dumps him. Caffrey is pursued and caught by FBI agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay), who caught Caffrey the first time. But Burke is having a hard time catching a mysterious criminal called the Dutchman, so he arranges for Caffrey be released into his custody in exchange for helping with cases.

There's nothing new in White Collar. Borner plays the lovable rogue, a fast-talking opportunist (but nice at heart) who in his first day of freedom goes from living in a crummy hotel room to staying at the guest room of a rich woman with a fashionable wardrobe for him to wear, a terrific view of Manhattan, and a beautiful young granddaughter. DeKay is the straight man, the working stiff who has to shake his head and smile at the antics his new partner gets into. The supporting cast is pretty routine, from Tiffani Thiessen as Burke's supportive wife to Alexandra Daddario as Burke's subordinate who's also gay (and not to be seduced by Burke.) The mystery keeps having elements only Burke can figure out -- something I expect will happen in each episode.

Monk has an obsessive-compulsive former police officer helping the police solve crimes. Psych has a fake psychic helping the police solve crimes. And now White Collar gives us a former (current?) criminal helping the FBI solve crimes. This show isn't terrible, but it's neither original nor memorable.

Overall grade: C
Reviewed by James Lynch

OUT OF SIGHT

Elmore Leonard's novels have always been about character as crime, and the movie Out of Sight is no exception.

As much a romance as a crime caper, this Steven Soederbergh film is smooth, clever, and romantic to boot.

Jack Foley (George Clooney) is a criminal who relies on his brains instead of guns to rob banks. He escapes with the help of his friend Buddy (Ving Rhames), planning to steal a fortune in uncut diamonds from banker Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks), also in the prison. But as luck would have it, Federal Marshall Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) happens to be stopping at the prison just as Jack is climing out of a tunnel in the ground. Buddy wants to leave her, but Jack brings her along, joining her in the trunk during the getaway. Afterwards, the two seem obsessed with each other: Karen wants to be part of the task force that's chasing Jack, while he calls her from time to time to chat.

Back to the crime... As we learn from flashbacks, ganger Maurice Miller (Don Cheadle) wants to be part of the robbery -- but he's a lot more dangerous than Jack. There's alos Glenn Michaels (Steve Zahn), a stoner who is easily led. And Marshall Cisco (Dennis Farina), Karen's father and a cop, sees before she does how deep her interest in Jack goes.

Out of Sight is a combination of the star-crossed lovers (here, the criminal and the law enforcement official) and the robbery caper. Neither of these are completely original, but they flow together seamlessly here. Director Soderbergh makes the action stylized, but not so much that it's over the top (as in his Ocean 11-13 movies). George Clooney puts on his frequent charming rogue persona to good effect, and Jennifer Lopez is quite good as the romantic, yet officially determined, love interest. Add in a good supporting cast and a few surprises on the way, and Out of Sight becomes a pretty good crime-romance movie.

Overall grade: B+

Reviewed by James Lynch