Directed by: Brett Ratner
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, Don Cheadle
Rating:
I think I?ve figured out what the problem with Brett Ratner is. You see, as much as I dislike the guy?s personality, he?s not a terrible director. Unlike such hack artists as Adam Shankman or Shawn Levy, he does know how to put a scene together. A graduate of NYU?s film school and a longtime director of music videos, Ratner has repeatedly proven himself to be more than just technically competent. His movies are stylish and fun to look at. What they lack, however, is any sense of the director?s personality. They?re so coldly professional they could easily have been made by a computer. Even Red Dragon, which was supposed to have catapulted Ratner into the big leagues, was frustratingly opaque. Before that film opened, Ratner told a story about how he sought counsel from Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme. According to Ratner, Demme told him ?Brett, don?t make a Jonathan Demme movie, make a Brett Ratner movie!? Sound advice, if only Ratner knew what a Brett Ratner movie was?
After the Sunset, a heist comedy, is unfortunately more of the same. Once again, the movie is beautiful to look at (particularly any scene containing Salma Hayek) and has a zippy energy, but there?s nothing going on underneath its attractive surface. Ratner seems to be going for some of the old-school zing that Steven Soderbergh brought to Ocean?s Eleven, but he doesn?t possess Soderbergh?s stylistic confidence. It doesn?t help that this is a profoundly lazy movie, where even the climactic heist inspires more yawns than cheers. Granted, the story begins on an interesting note. What happens when the world?s greatest thief pulls off that fabled last job and actually retires? Pierce Brosnan plays the retired thief Max and Hayek is Lola, his lover and partner in crime. After stealing an expensive diamond, the pair retires to the Caribbean where they spend their days lounging in the sun, drinking plenty of booze and eating like kings. But an island paradise proves to be not enough for Max and when a ship pulls into port carrying another famous diamond, he reverts back to his old ways. Things are complicated by the arrival of Stan Lloyd (Woody Harrelson), the FBI agent who Max has repeatedly outsmarted in their previous encounters. Will Max be able to steal the diamond from under Stan?s nose? And will Lola still be around to care?
As a heist movie After the Sunset is only mildly entertaining at best; the robbery sequences have zero tension and, to be honest, aren?t even that imaginative. Brosnan, who did a better variation on this role in The Thomas Crown Affair, seems distracted during most of these scenes and Don Cheadle turns in a wasted cameo as a local heavy. The comedy portions of the movie play slightly better, particularly any scene where Brosnan has to act opposite the clearly stoned Harrelson. The former Cheers star has always had a weird screen presence that makes it hard for casting directors to figure out what to do with him. Here Ratner just turns him loose on an underwritten role and Harrelson has a blast wandering around the island getting on Brosnan?s nerves. In fact, a much better movie could probably have been made about his character?s misadventures in the field. As for Hayek, she really isn?t called on to do anything except look gorgeous, which she pulls off with ease.
For his next film, Ratner is returning to the Rush Hour franchise, but then afterwards he?s supposedly tackling a project that sounds right up his alley: the screen version of the bestselling book, Bringing Down the House. That book was about a group of Asian kids who score millions of dollars in Vegas casinos through a card-counting operation and it seems tailor made for the big screen. I think it might also be the project that finally brings out Ratner?s personality onscreen. After all, he is something a Vegas type?loud, brash and obnoxious. Those aren?t personalities I especially admire, but they do make him a good choice to tell a Vegas story.
