Ric Roman Waugh

  • Greenland (2020)

    Greenland (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, May 2021) When the dust will settle, the memories of our COVID/lockdown years will definitely affect the way we make and approach entertainment. Already, I’m fundamentally less amused by zombie movies, and even catastrophe films are feeling less fun now that we have a new baseline against which to measure world-changing events. In taking a look at Greenland, for instance, I’m more inclined to question some of the base assumptions of the film than playing along with it. Part of it is the recent re-demonstration that a strong society works better than rugged individuals at facing down a great peril. In this light, having a film about a man judging that he and his family deserve to be saved rather than everyone else strikes me as distasteful, not matter how cleverly the film tries to weigh down its moral scale. (Meteor strike; pre-approved list of people to save; everyman trying to save his family; etc.) What makes the protagonist better than anyone is not satisfactorily demonstrated here, especially as he often relies on the unsaved to save himself. Yes, yes, I know — the film is meant to be an episodic series of mini-adventures on the way to shelter, and that’s it. But Greenland doesn’t help itself by featuring some fundamentally irritating plot cheats and complications, often presenting a caricatural portrait of other people that the protagonist has to overcome. For Gerard Butler, this is another solid role in a middling thriller: as usual, he’s better than the film he picks, but at the same time feels like an interchangeable part of a generic ensemble — I liked Morena Baccarin a lot more as his wife, but then again, I would in just about any film regardless of her part. There’s a bit of contrived lifeboat ethical dilemma here, and those often end up being ludicrously didactic lessons in semantic bullying, and I don’t think that Greenland, even under the guise of a lightweight apocalyptic adventure, is too far away from that. Director Ric Roman Waugh does have a sure hand on his handling of a large-scale spectacle, at least, which softens the blow slightly. I’ll at least grant that when it comes to disaster films, Greenland doesn’t pull back on spectacle while still presenting a relatively plausible depiction of how it may happen. I probably would have enjoyed the film a lot more a few years ago; I probably will like it more in a few years. Right now, however, it feels slightly distasteful and egotistical.

  • Angel Has Fallen (2019)

    Angel Has Fallen (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, December 2020) I’ve been saying since London has Fallen that the wrong White-House-in-Peril movie got a sequel (White House Down should have been the one to get follow-ups), and now we’re adding insult to injury with an even less remarkable third film in the series. Sure, you could warm up to Olympus has Fallen and even London has Fallen because whatever their faults were, at least they aimed big: White House under attack by terrorists? G7 meeting attacked by terrorists? There’s some fun there. But in this instalment, the plot hook is just… our hero being framed by mercenaries. Oh. The much smaller scale of the action fails to impress, and it’s not as there is that much character to develop in between the action sequences – writer-director Ric Roman Waugh is content simply getting something bankable to the screen. Sure, Angel Has Fallen is watchable. Whether it will hold your interest in between other things, though, is highly debatable. At least it’s honest about what it’s trying to do: Gerard Butler is making a career out of mediocre films that know perfectly well what they’re all about, and it’s not with this third film in the series that he’s striking off in unexpected directions. At least the supporting cast also understands what kind of movie they’re playing with: John Huston makes a great heavy as usual, and Morgan Freeman plays a president like no one else can — oh, and Nick Nolte brings a welcome bit of craziness in a far too staid film. But none of this really elevates Angel Has Fallen over disappointing mediocrity. Go ahead and go rewatch White House Down instead.

  • Felon (2008)

    Felon (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, November 2018) Prison films have a long, long history in Hollywood, and the earliest of them have even been able to effect some social change in calling for reforms and more humane treatments. Alas, with the newest American prison-industrial complex and worship of punitive policies, that time is past. The newest wave of prison movies simply describes what’s happening without editorializing for better conditions and the result can be disheartening, especially considering the markedly higher rate of imprisonment for American males as compared to other most civilized countries. (Watching American prison films as a Canadian is the kind of thing that makes you want to hug your Canadian passport.) In this context comes writer/director Ric Roman Waugh’s Felon, a story about how an ordinary man gets stuck in the gears of the system and becomes increasingly familiar with the violence inherent in the system. Once you’ve seen enough contemporary prison movies, Felon feels very familiar. Some of the plot logic is weird—including the confounding set of circumstances that sends an ordinary man to high-security jail. But it may rank a little bit higher now than upon its release because the last two big prison movies (Shot Caller and Brawl in Cell Block 99) have been of such unrelenting grimness that Felon manages to feel uplifting merely by not condemning its protagonist to death or a life sentence. Otherwise, it’s a fair standard thriller, generally well executed but not specifically memorable.