{"id":15720,"date":"2006-05-22T05:03:17","date_gmt":"2006-05-22T09:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=15720"},"modified":"2015-06-23T05:08:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T09:08:09","slug":"spartan-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/22\/spartan-2004\/","title":{"rendered":"Spartan (2004)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"spartan\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Leave it up to David Mamet to write and direct what a true spy film should be and has to be. What starts off as a full procedural evolves in to a film in the spirit of \u201cThree Days in the Condor\u201d. As per usual Mamet, his film rapidly evolves from scene to scene, and what I thought would be a cold procedural film that would usually be a stupid show on CBS, quickly evolved into a very well characterized thriller. And films with Val Kilmer have, of late, left me skittish to enter it, but Kilmer really leads a truly well drawn thriller that I had fun with.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSpartan\u201d is basically a very confusing but utterly charismatic spy thriller about a mystery that unfolds further and further all the way until the climax that quickly reminded me of the last scene of \u201cThree Days of the Condor\u201d. In \u201cSpartan\u201d, nothing is ever as it seems yet you never feel jerked around, nothing ever feels genuine, yet it\u2019s never artificial, and everything is sleek without feeling like a McG film. Mamet knows what he has and uses it well as a very effective and entertaining action spy film that\u2019s both story and shoot outs. This is probably what Colin Farrell\u2019s ridiculous \u201cThe Recruit\u201d was trying to be, this is what it should have been. Only Mamet of all people can take something with the potential to be really idiotic and turn it in to one hell of a great time.<\/p>\n

And as always in Mamet\u2019s world, the heroes never win, and the villains always succeed. What realism he strives in. A covert operations team has been called in to investigate the sudden disappearance of the president\u2019s daughter. The problem is, the disappearance, which they assume are the actions of a rebellious girl, turns into a bonafide kidnapping, and before the world can be told she\u2019s been kidnapped, they have to get to her and get her back, or else they lose. The problem is, something just isn\u2019t right, and agent Scott is beginning to realize what is happening. What\u2019s so peculiar about \u201cSpartan\u201d is that Mamet invites us to watch this story, yet keeps us at a comfortable distance by dragging us into the middle of a situation. The characters all speak to each other in their own lingo, speak with their own inside jokes, and involves us as we attempt to discover what they\u2019re conversing about.<\/p>\n

As always, Mamet\u2019s dialogue shoots at us at a rapid fire pace, and the cast handles it well. Val Kilmer is an actor who particularly handles his performance like a pro. He gives a very good performance and makes his character worth rooting for. During the film you can clearly see why Kilmer is the lead, and it\u2019s because of his ability to take the hero and make him unique. His quest to find the president\u2019s daughter beyond everything else really does make this a worthy viewing experience. I wouldn\u2019t be able to finish this off without mentioning the very well done performance by Kristen Bell who plays the president\u2019s daughter Laura.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s always been a strong actress, even before \u201cVeronica Mars\u201d, and she steals the second half with her performance. \u201cSpartan\u201d begins on a high note, and ends on a low note, and that\u2019s what really pulled me into it. Mamet\u2019s storytelling abilities are practically flawless, and \u201cSpartan\u201d is a very entertaining thriller. I’m angered at myself that I held off on “Spartan” for such a long time, but I learned my lesson in the end. Mamet’s spy thriller is a surefire cure for boredom as it evolves from a procedural to a tense thriller with great performances by Macy, Kilmer, Bell and Luke. And then there’s Mamet’s writing, which is just top notch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leave it up to David Mamet to write and direct what a true spy film should be and has to be. What starts off as a full procedural evolves in to a film in the spirit of \u201cThree Days in the Condor\u201d. As per usual Mamet, his film rapidly evolves from scene to scene, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,71,240,885,975,1087],"class_list":["post-15720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-crime","tag-s","tag-spy","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15723,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15720\/revisions\/15723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}