A different way of telling a story

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

so back in 2009 I had gone to the Leon Collins library and rented this film. My new friend who had a loft apartment off Virginia let me crash there for the weekend....(she still lives there). what I remember without the relevation of the scene with Jon Goodman and William forsyth in raising Arizona, Val Kilmer and Derek Luke are army people who go through a robbery...or even possibly recover missing money from other people who did it...and the plan was to meet back at the base...and Val Kilmer takes his time while Derek Luke waits at the base....BUT after watching this AGAIN the situation with ed o neill kind of sheds some light on what I might have seen...kinda like a Morgan freeman in the gone baby gone film with Casey Affleck...but for sure there had not been that woman whose married to Dax Shepard who again Once upon a time ago I coulda sworn it was Dax Daxter or something.

Nearly ten years on, I decided to revisit this film, and found it riddled plot holes, inaccuracies, stilted dialogue and wooden delivery.Plot holes - Just after the rookie gets shot (again!), he takes apart his pager (who still used those in 2004?) and his Nokia, where he finds what we are meant to believe is a tracking device. Obviously, someone doesn't want him to investigate the house, and is able to plant a bug on his phone. Perhaps you might have wanted to look into that before haring off to the middle east. Later, Val finds another pager inside his knife. Apart from the extreme likelihood of this tracker falling out when he opened the knife, what was the power source? Unicorn's tears?Inaccuracies - Sub-machine guns are not accurate over long distances, and yet the rookie manages to shoot through walls to get his man. A lathe and plaster wall will not provide good cover against incoming fire, but it plays hell with the grouping of your shots, as the rounds will tumble any which way.Stilted dialogue - Clichés in a clichéd movie. There is nothing to get your teeth into here; the entire film is fluff. What would have been more interesting to watch is Val as the bad guy, trying to stop the daughter from reaching safety. Films portraying valiant and heroic rescuers are ten-a-penny, how about some real drama?Wooden delivery -Val has been attempting to portray the strong silent type for a long time, but his delivery is more monotonal than gruff. This may explain his casting for the role of the voice of Kit in the Knight Rider films.Conclusion - Avoid this film. Try Luc Besson's Taken instead.

David Mamet exhibits his versatility and dedication to his craft as both writer and director through one of the more exciting thrillers in a long time coming, "Spartan". Mamet does everything he could to keep out the characters from being clichéd and never lets the action and the excitement become predictable. He does that maintaining the plot to keep it moving and to challenge your minds. This movie demands that you need to think at all times. The majority of "Spartan" is very plot-driven and nothing more, which is not entirely all that bad as long as you are quick-witted then you might enjoy the movie a whole lot better. Because the complexity of the story lingers on very sudden.I'm going to refrain from giving too much details about the movie because the twits delivered here are to be seen to be believed. For the record the story stars Val Kilmer plays a hard-liner secret service agent who's on the prowl in search of the President's daughter who's been kidnapped. To really get a good feeling about the movie, it's best when it's served cold and even though the twists delivered here happen quite frequently to make you go bonkers, it all seems to work out well with the story giving it a steady flow in its entirety.There's not an ounce of anything boring about "Spartan." In fact I will go out as to say that there's not an abundance of action to call it an "action" movie, however, there's always something happening in each scenes and everything falls into place at the right times.Mamet plays it right by avoiding annoying things like pointless character arcs or overwhelming sub-plots. The plot along with the thrills and suspense is all that Mamet really cares about. The characters depicted here seem to know who they are and know their positions of where they're supposed to be as each event unfolds. But Mamet cranks up the ante by throwing small tidbits of information just to keep issues all the more compelling.Overall, "Spartan" is an engaging and involving thriller that should have more credit than it really deserves. It's very high on intellect, not one generic scene is featured, one that will challenge the brain and a thriller that truly defines its genre. The only thing I have to advise you is to not get turned off the trailer because it unravels too much of the plot twists. That's what I meant when I said this movie is best served cold.

Prior to reading Inside Delta Force (by Eric L Haney) I would have viewed this as just another super spy movie that was entertaining. Now, knowing how much of the trade-craft featured is true and accurate, brings the story to a whole different level. Although the storyline premise is a bit out there, I found the path that Val Kilmer's character takes to be mesmerizing. Having to shift from "just following orders" to thinking for himself becomes a conflict for the character. In the end, doing what is right despite the cost. Drawing on the true character that draws men like this to this type of work in the first place.On a side note, for those that are fans of Mamets TV show The Unit (also based on Haney's book). Check out how many actors from this film crossed over to play guest roles on the show. Bill Macy, Ed O'Neil, about 3 or 4 others.