Brad Furman
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Furman's movie has the throwback vibe of Paul Newman crime procedurals like The Drowning Pool and the swagger of the first installment in a continuing movie or television franchise.
Don Johnson had a lot of great moments doing it on “Miami Vice,” and when you think back to the Johnny Depp performances that were still rooted in the real world, certainly one of the highlights was his intricate and mournful work as the undercover cop in “Donnie Brasco.”
But it pales next to a similar scene in "Donnie Brasco," because there's no follow-through, no sense that this agent has been playing a character so long he's beginning to become it.
Ellen Brown Furman ’s screenplay too often plays like an amalgamation of “ Scarface ,” “ Donnie Brasco ,” “ The Departed ” and any number of episodes of “Miami Vice,” and when it seems to begin moving into somewhat more uncharted waters—such as a scene in which Mazur’s real and ersatz wives wind up meeting—nothing comes of it.
Anyone who’s ever seen an undercover crime drama (think Donnie Brasco and The Departed) will recognize just about every in-too-deep beat of The Infiltrator: Mazur’s concern that partner Emir Abreu (John Leguizamo) is a loose cannon, their hilariously hard-bitten boss (Amy Ryan, wasted), the near-misses, the strain on Mazur’s home life with wife (Juliet Aubrey) and kids, and the tug of sympathy on Mazur and his fake fiancé (Diane Kruger’s agent Kathy Ertz) for the mark, high-ranking lieutenant Roberto Alcaino (Benjamin Bratt).
Of course you have, and who can blame you; you’ve seen this story a million times before, on countless television shows and in films from Donnie Brasco (the gold standard) to Deep Cover to In Too Deep to The Departed to Point Break to Miami Vice (film and television versions).
The picture is entertaining throughout, but it never plumbs the dramatic depths of a film like “Donnie Brasco,” instead remaining content with a lurid surface sheen and a generalized tone of menace and corruption.
Casino (1995)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
influenced Runner Runner (2013), The Infiltrator (2016)
Characters Themes Plot
In its early moments, the movie evokes everything from The Social Network to Casino.
Affleck wants us to think Robert De Niro in “Casino,” but I was more scared of Robert De Niro in “Little Fockers.”
A cautionary tale about the danger of shortcuts and the seductiveness of pretty faces, however lightly they overlie ugly souls, Runner Runner forgoes the Jacobean grimness of Martin Scorsese's Casino in favor of a sleek, slick lesson in playing the odds while keeping a jaundiced eye on an exit strategy.
Another failing of Runner Runner is that, despite providing a few tantalizing glimpses behind the curtain of online gambling, it never goes the full Casino to flesh out the setting.
Films like " The Sting ," " Casino ," and " Ocean's Eleven ."
None of this is The Infiltrator’s fault, but the film falls down by settling for archetypal characterizations and relationships, and by being generic when it could be—like, say, Martin Scorsese’s Casino—fascinatingly wonky about the ins and outs of the criminal enterprise, the law enforcement effort to take it down, and the politics therein.
The Verdict (1982)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
influenced The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
Themes Characters Plot
The courtroom thriller used to be a staple of big-studio "adult" product, and the genre produced some notable --Â some would have said "important" --Â pictures over the course of its long heyday, from " Witness for the Prosecution " and " Anatomy of a Murder " in the '50s to " The Verdict " and, God help us, " Jagged Edge " in the '80s.
For “Lincoln Lawyer” to have worked it needed to be a cross between Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict” and Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye.”
After all, Paul Newman had to struggle to stay sober in “The Verdict”; James Stewart had to go against a big-city lawyer in “Anatomy of a Murder.”
And the most poignant is Paul Newman's Frank Galvin - an ageing alcoholic who retrieves his self-esteem by taking on a seemingly unwinnable medical malpractice suit in Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982).
It's not exactly Sidney Lumet's The Verdict, nor does it re-invent the wheel of its particular sub-genre, but who says it needs re-inventing in the first place?
What he does do is both clever and plausible, thanks to Connelly’s cunning plotting and John Romano’s sure-handed script (a great leap forward after “Nights in Rodanthe” and “Intolerable Cruelty”).
Gary Lucchesi produced "Primal Fear" early in his career, and one can see what drew him to John Romano's (“Intolerable Cruelty”) adaptation of the Michael Connelly novel with its similar plot about the client who acts like innocence personified before revealing the depths of depravity.
Adapted by screenwriter John Romano (whose anemic earlier credits include the Richard Gere-Diane Lane sudser Nights in Rodanthe and the Coen brothers’ aptly titled Intolerable Cruelty), the movie has a revved-up narrative engine and the snappy banter to go with it.
What follows are the usual twists and turns, but under the direction of Brad Furman a fun and thrilling watch ensues, backed by a great screenplay by John Romano (Intolerable Cruelty) and a bevy of interesting characters, where everyone from the jailhouse snitch (Shea Whigham) and perhaps the sleaziest witness to ever take the stand (Eric Etebari) all have something to contribute.
It’s a poorly directed yet surprisingly watchable mystery that aches to stand with the gumshoe classics of the 1970s — films like “Night Moves’’ and “The Long Goodbye’’ — and it has the supporting cast and neo-soul soundtrack to get at least halfway there.
For “Lincoln Lawyer” to have worked it needed to be a cross between Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict” and Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye.”
The courtroom thriller used to be a staple of big-studio "adult" product, and the genre produced some notable --Â some would have said "important" --Â pictures over the course of its long heyday, from " Witness for the Prosecution " and " Anatomy of a Murder " in the '50s to " The Verdict " and, God help us, " Jagged Edge " in the '80s.
After all, Paul Newman had to struggle to stay sober in “The Verdict”; James Stewart had to go against a big-city lawyer in “Anatomy of a Murder.”
It feels, at times, like the actor sat down and watched “Harper’’ (1966), the sleepy LA noir in which Paul Newman played detective Lew Harper, a character based on Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer.
All twang and confidence, Mr. Just Keep Livin' hits the very notes that made him so durn winning in his indie debut, "Dazed and Confused," and his big-screen breakthrough, "A Time to Kill."
4. Fortunately, he's played by McConaughey, whom I haven't enjoyed more in a movie since "Dazed and Confused."
There’s always been a real actor lurking somewhere beneath McConaughey’s bronzed façade, even if it hasn’t surfaced much since his attention-getting early roles in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and the John Grisham adaptation A Time to Kill—performances that had some critics and commentators hailing McConaughey as a young Paul Newman (instead of a young Fabio).
But this was not one of those movies--in fact, I wager to say it's his best role since Dazed and Confused.
McConaughey’s unfortunate choice of roles (and, let’s face it, his offbeat off-screen behavior) have saddled him with a reputation as a vapid star with a penchant for unchallenging roles, a persona he seemed to invite the moment he espoused the virtues of high-school girls in Dazed and Confused nearly 20 years ago.
Gary Lucchesi produced "Primal Fear" early in his career, and one can see what drew him to John Romano's (“Intolerable Cruelty”) adaptation of the Michael Connelly novel with its similar plot about the client who acts like innocence personified before revealing the depths of depravity.
(It even shares a producer with one of the last gems of the genre, “Primal Fear.”)
Of course, you don’t go to a movie like The Lincoln Lawyer expecting a directorial master class, but a hatchet job like this does make one long for the solid, unfussy craftsmanship of a competent journeyman like Gregory Hoblit, whose Primal Fear and Fracture remain the recent high-water marks for this brand of courtroom potboiler.
We’ve seen The Lincoln Lawyer before—a little bit Primal Fear, a little bit A Time to Kill.
Fans of well-regarded gavel-pounders like Jagged Edge and Primal Fear will probably find a smoothly good ride from The Lincoln Lawyer.
But what to make of the random voodoo ritual murder (never mentioned again), the white-suited cartel goon who seems to have teleported in from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain , or the scene where Mazur rams a waiter’s head through a chocolate cake?
Drawn into a Chinatown-like morass without a Robert Towne or a Roman Polanski to guide him, Haller is nearly bailed out by crusty supporting characters played by William H. Macy and John Leguizamo.
We've come to know its streets, canyons and valleys through the adventures of Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Chinatown's J.J. Gittes, Ross Macdonald's Harper and all the others in between.
A Time to Kill (1996)
Directed by Joel Schumacher
influenced The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
Characters Visuals
In "The Lincoln Lawyer," a courtroom procedural based on the best-selling novel by Michael Connelly, he returns to the same genre that initially put him on the Hollywood A-list in 1996's riveting John Grisham adaptation "A Time to Kill."
Matthew McConaughey has joined the Atticus Finch law firm -- in both A Time to Kill (1996) and The Lincoln Lawyer, his character's conscience prevails.
It's understandable if, for those unfamiliar with author Michael Connelly, the title The Lincoln Lawyer followed by the words "Matthew McConaughey" induce bone-chilling shudders accompanied by visuals of the actor in his typical courtroom attire - dazed and bespectacled, as seen in Amistad and A Time To Kill ... shudder - giving a fiery, bongo- accompanied speech in the forgotten case of Mary Todd Lincoln v. the Ford Theatre's Refund Department.
All twang and confidence, Mr. Just Keep Livin' hits the very notes that made him so durn winning in his indie debut, "Dazed and Confused," and his big-screen breakthrough, "A Time to Kill."
That’s a problem: Mr. Naked Bongo Man hasn’t truly worked his thespic muscles since at least “We Are Marshall’’ (2006) and arguably as far back as “A Time to Kill’’ (1996).
If you took Jake Brigance from “A Time To Kill” and combined him with agent Rick Peck from “Tropic Thunder” you would get Mick Haller.
And Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck) has great fun as Mazur's aunt, a mob matron who respects her nephew's law-abiding career choices but would prefer that he join the family business.
Olympia Dukakis ("Moonstruck") adds humor as Bob's Aunt Vicky, recruited to sell her nephew's reach to the Alcainos.
While not quite as good as something drafted by the master Elmore Leonard (the best adaptations of which have been “Get Shorty,” “Out of Sight,” and Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown”), “Lincoln” holds its own nicely with other norish tales.
Partially that’s because it’s so reminiscent of the Jim Sturgess-Kevin Spacey casino-based thriller “21.”
2008's cool, chic, informative card-counting drama " 21 ," this is not, and the further "Runner Runner" bumbles along, the more synthetic it appears.
The script seems modeled on too many luridly escapist books like Ben Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House and The Accidental Billionaires, and the film resembles 21 and The Social Network, beautiful sagas of smart guys getting into trouble—and increasingly wide and mobile frames—once they leave the dorm room.
From the writers of Rounders, but closer in quality to 21 , Brad ( The Lincoln Lawyer ) Furman’s online gaming thriller is a strange beast.
It won’t satisfy anyone looking for action or thrills or, you know, actual card playing, nor will it sate viewers hoping for the substance of “The Social Network” or the flashy fun of “21.”
Every time the film threatens to rise to the greatness of another gambling film like Rounders (one of the previous credits for the screenwriters, Brian Koppelman and David Levien), stilted voiceover, predictable plot twists and style over substance bring it crashing back into the company of something more like 21.
Instead, he simply juxtaposes scenes of Mazur leaving a PTA meeting to go to a drug sting, films an execution without pretext or postscript, and shows that impressing Escobar’s main distributor, Roberto Alcaino (Benjamin Bratt), is as easy as flanking Alcaino with Bob’s aunt (Olympia Dukakis) and Kathy’s billowing fur coat—to remind Roberto of his own feisty aunt and that Kathy likes to shop just as much as Alcaino’s wife, Gloria (The Skin I Live In’s Elena Anaya).
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
influenced The Infiltrator (2016)
Dialogue
The (literally) crazy cartel member Ospina’s (Yul Vazquez) last words to Mazur echo Michael’s final scene with his brother Fredo in The Godfather 2. Fortunately, Cranston expertly maneuvers his way through all the character relationships and interactions – he’s in almost every scene.
While not quite as good as something drafted by the master Elmore Leonard (the best adaptations of which have been “Get Shorty,” “Out of Sight,” and Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown”), “Lincoln” holds its own nicely with other norish tales.
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Directed by Billy Wilder
influenced The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
Themes
The courtroom thriller used to be a staple of big-studio "adult" product, and the genre produced some notable --Â some would have said "important" --Â pictures over the course of its long heyday, from " Witness for the Prosecution " and " Anatomy of a Murder " in the '50s to " The Verdict " and, God help us, " Jagged Edge " in the '80s.