Karl Urban

 

One of my favorite actors these days comes from New Zealand, and he’s…. KARL URBAN. 

 Lord of the Rings.  The #1 prince of Rohan is Eomer, pretty much a hero like Aragorn.  This was one of Urban’s first major roles.  I’ll have to watch this again…

 Dredd.  After Stallone did a heroic job in the first movie – but botched the whole thing by taking his helmet off, a big no-no for Judge Dredd (possibly a secret Mandalorian) Urban got it right by keeping his helmet ON for the entire film.  Sadly, Urban himself notes there are no current plans for a sequel.

 McCoy.   When they rebooted the Star Trek movies with a new, younger cast taking the roles of the Original Series Characters, Urban got the role of “Bones” McCoy, the ship’s doctor, originally played by DeForrest Kelley.  Bones was easily the most cynical of the crew members and usually at odds with Spock, though their rivalry was mostly friendly.  As with all his other portrayals, he nailed this one. 

 The Boys.  Season 2 done, Season 3 on its way.  This is a series which takes the premise of “superheroes gone wrong” – who protects us if the superheroes themselves turn out to be villains?  Urban plays Butcher, the #1 guy leading the team of otherwise ordinary (but highly skilled and determined) humans bumping ugly with Homelander, Stormfront, and the rest of the not-quite-so good superheroes.   Count on his usual gruff demeanor, and I’m even hearing a quasi Australian accent – whatever passes for a New Zealand accent, not that I can tell the difference – in this role. 

 RED.  “Retired, Extremely Dangerous” describes Bruce Willis’ character, kind of John McClane on steroids.  Urban is in here too – but don’t ask me what he does.  I’ll have to watch this again.

 He’s also in Riddick, but as a minor character too insignificant to watch the whole film just for his sake.  Moreover, Vin Diesel has yet to make a movie I’ve enjoyed seeing. 

 In a sense, Urban is taking many roles we might attribute to Clint Eastwood were he not too old for these.  However, I haven’t seen him in any westerns, spaghetti or otherwise, nor have I seen him with an orangutan (do they have kangaroos in New Zealand, or is that only in Australia?).  I imagine he’s overdue for a more light-hearted role – in fact, a comedy.  I get the impression that he doesn’t click with comedy roles and told his agent to steer him clear thereof (though not in a position to say that based on any actual evidence beyond my subjective thoughts) but his clear wit seems to be underexploited in all these dramas and action films.  Karl, if you’re reading this, give it a thought….. 

REDs 1 & 2

This is the first of my trilogy of blogs on movies with excellent sequels, the RED-Ass-Burgundy Trilogy.

RED.  Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) thought he had retired from “The Company” (CIA), but his life gets considerably more interesting when masked intruders break into his house in an unsuccessful attempt to kill him – instead of simply banishing him to a boring little village until he reveals why he retired.  He shanghai’s his pension case worker Sarah Ross (Mary Louise Parker, best known as Nancy Botwin from “Weeds”) and off they go across the US in a Big Adventure, the primary purpose of which is to find out who is trying to kill him and why.  Along the way they pick up old buddy Joe (Morgan Freeman), paranoid maniac Marvin (John Malkovich) (maybe not as paranoid as he appears), MI6 assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren) and KGB counterpart Ivan (Brian Cox).   Even Richard Dreyfuss has an amusing role in this whole thing.  RED stands for “Retired, Extremely Dangerous”, which all these old folks definitely prove to be.

            Naturally they get some official scrutiny from a currently serving CIA badass Cooper (badass Karl Urban) who senses that his boss isn’t being completely forthcoming in the information department. 

            Like “True Lies”, the movie is simultaneously a parody of the action shoot-em-up big explosion genre, but also an excellent example of the genre in its own right.  Like that film, its charm is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  Because of that, it’s a blow-‘em-up film that the female half of the couple can watch and enjoy too, not rolling her eyes like “you KNOW I hate these films!” but loving it almost as much as the male half does.

RED 2.   Apparently “RED” was successful enough to merit a sequel and a larger budget.  While the first film was 100% baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, taking place in the USA (“America!  F**K yeah!”) this film got its passports stamped….

            Frank and Sarah’s domestic bliss and boredom are rudely interrupted when Marvin accosts them in Home Depot…and the fireworks begin again.  This time around a befuddled, absent-minded mad scientist who is not quite as dead as everyone assumed, Bailey (Anthony Hopkins) enters the equation.  Paris, London, and Moscow are the scenes this time around.  Ivan and Victoria return, but Cooper’s role [sympathetic adversarial US official authority figure] is taken by Jack Horton (Neal McDonough) and Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones, as delicious here as she ever is) stops by to make Sarah jealous and uneasy.  There’s even Han (Byung-Hun Lee), a mysterious assassin whose role seems to be ….to satisfy the EEOC and put an Asian person in the film, and naturally he does martial arts.  At least it’s not Jet Li or Jackie Chan.  RED 3 will probably have to include an openly gay character, as they cavort from planet to planet. 

            Bottom line: minor cast changes, major scenery changes, but the same zany fun, explosions, and witty dialogue.  Watch them back-to-back.