MISCONDUCT

Josh Duhamel and Alice Eve

MISCONDUCT (2016). Director: Shintaro Shimosawa.

New Orleans lawyer Ben Cahill (Josh Duhamel), feeling neglected by his busy nurse wife, Charlotte (Alice Eve of She's Out of My League), makes a date with an ex-girlfriend named Emily (Malin Akerman). Emily is the lover of possessive pharmaceutical giant Arthur Denning (Anthony Hopkins), who fiddled with the lab results of his drug Vypraxilin to get around the FDA, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Emily gives Ben confidential information that can help his firm win a major lawsuit against Denning; Ben's boss, Charles Abrahms (Al Pacino), agrees to go along with it. But, of course, there are major complications as well, including murder, and a handsome, dying Asian-American hit man (Byung-hun Lee of G. I. Joe: Retaliation) who shows up now and then ... Misconduct is aptly named, although there are many who will argue that it is the filmmakers who are guilty of same. The movie isn't dull, and it has a few interesting plot twists, but it becomes increasingly ridiculous as it goes along, and the ending probably had most people in the audience going "what the f--k?" There are some mildly clever ideas in the screenplay, but they are not well-executed, and the movie throws so many disparate scenes at the viewer that most people watching the flick will only be irritated and confused. Even when the damn thing is over there are still loose ends. (For instance, did the hit man take Vypraxilin  himself?)  This is the "Al Pacino" movie that notoriously made only $150 in the UK, but both he and Hopkins have just supporting roles. [One would think they would have called this an "Anthony Hopkins" movie in England, but despite Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins was never quite as big a star as Pacino.] Pacino is in his southern jive talk mode, which doesn't really work for his character, and his accent, as usual, comes and goes. Hopkins makes a better impression as his opponent and easily steals the movie. Josh Duhamel is quite effective in the lead role, although he may be way too calm in certain sequences. Malin Akerman makes an impression as the provocative Emily, but Alice Eve's every line and look seems heavily coached by the director, and she is generally unconvincing. Julia Stiles [The Omen] is much better as a private eye hired by Denning when his girlfriend is allegedly kidnapped. The final twist in this was already used in a well-known novel/movie of a few years ago in which it was equally predictable.

NOTE: For more about Al Pacino and his films, good and bad, see Al Pacino: In Films and On Stage by yours truly.

Verdict: Coherency is not this film's strong point. Maybe if it were a French film with sub-titles? **.

G. I. JOE: RETALIATION

London gets obliterated by Cobra Commander

G. I. JOE: RETALIATION (2013). Director: Jon M. Chu.

In this follow-up to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the president of the United States has been replaced by a double, the evil Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), a lieutenant in the Cobra organization. While the Cobra operatives who were captured and imprisoned in the last film manage to break out, an operation to wipe out the "Joes" -- a crack fighting unit whose main opponents are Cobra Commander and his gang of terrorists -- nearly succeeds in obliterating the entire team; Duke (Channing Tatum) is one of the casualties. Fortunately, the survivors -- Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Flint (D. J. Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) -- join forces with grizzled General Joe Colton (Bruce Willis) -- to take down the "president" before he and the Cobra Commander can cause havoc and mayhem throughout the world. Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) is a Cobra agent who decides to help the Joes when he realizes how much he's been manipulated by Zartan. Unless you're a G. I. Joe fanatic, Retaliation can be confusing, but there are some genuinely impressive stunts and FX work, especially the chilling destruction of London by the Cobra Commander's special missiles. [This obliteration of a world capitol seems pretty much forgotten by the movies' end -- huh?] The acting is serviceable for this kind of stuff, nothing more, although Jonathan Pryce does manage to impress as the president and his duplicate. Like the previous film, this is sometimes too frenetic for its own good. A bit with some weird mechanical bugs is notable.

Verdict: For Joe fans mostly. **1/2.