Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Anticlimactic, 9 Aug 2004
The second half of any film is supposed to be better than the first. Hollywood got this one wrong.Val Kilmer plays Scott, a Secret Service operative assigned to do the dirty tasks that would otherwise not be countenanced by squeamish bleeding hearts. For instance, in order to get crucial information from a suspect, Scott is not above breaking the scumbag's arm. In the defense of Mom, flag and apple pie, a Hard Man is good to find. In SPARTAN, a VIP's daughter, Laura (Kristen Bell), is kidnapped from her college dorm after her Secret Service protection is temporarily withdrawn to supplement that of Ol' Dad's when he comes to town to visit his mistress during a re-election campaign. The script never specifically says so, but the viewer presumes we're talking about the President here. In any case, the girl is apparently destined to be sent to a country bordering the Arabian Gulf where she'll become the sex slave of a rich sheikh. At this point in the plot, the kidnappers don't know whom they've got, and Scott must retrieve Laura before the story breaks in the press. Mind you, Kilmer gives a taut performance as the Service's Rambo. And the supporting cast includes the ever-watchable William H. Macy as the VIP's political Machiavelli, and Ed O'Neill as the agent in charge of the rescue. (I can never see O'Neill without hearing MARRIED WITH CHILDREN's Peggy whine "Aaaa-lll!") However, when the audience finally meets Laura, she turns out to be such an unappealing brat that the viewer perhaps wonders why all the bother. Finally, Laura's deliverance from the Middle East is by such a successful, albeit fortuitously unexpected, route, that one questions why Scott didn't plan something similar - such as marching into the local BBC office with the girl in tow - from the very beginning instead of trying to be cute about it. The title "Spartan" makes reference to the proud habit of the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, when asked by a neighboring city to send military aid, of sending just one of its super warriors to get the job done.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A twisted kidnapping tale courtesy of David Mamet, 21 Aug 2004
I wish I had known that "Spartan" was written and directed by David Mamet before I started watching it because then I would have warmed up to the movie a lot more quickly. Doing so was a problem for me because this film pushed a couple of my buttons. First, it involves the kidnapping of the president's daughter. My complain is not that this has been happening a lot (e.g., "The West Wing"), but that doing these stories at a time when the sitting president has daughters and there are ample reasons for terrorists to make them targets might be tempting fate too much. Second, it also touches on the idea of Secret Service incompetence and culpability in political shenanigans. I get the feeling that the Secret Service in most Hollywood movies has replaced what would have been psychotic Vietnam vets a generation ago (and sadistic Nazis the generation before that). I just tend to find such portrayals rather insulting to those people whose job is to throw themselves in front of bullets.But even given the hole that "Spartan" started out with in my eyes this is quite a compelling film. With Mamet things are never simple and the chief attraction here is how the film's hero, an agent named Scott (Val Kilmer), tries to catch up with the events that are unraveling at warp speed involving the president's daughter (Kristen Bell), and unraveling is most decidedly the operative word in this story. I probably should have started counting the conventions of this genre that Mamet is playing with in "Spartan," especially with regards to the supporting roles of Curtis (Derek Luke), Jackie Black (Tia Texada), and Stoddard (William H. Macy), who come and go in the most interesting ways. Scott is an interesting character because he is almost a sanctioned loose cannon, who will put on his thinking cap and do whatever it takes to get the job done (even if it means doing whatever it takes to get the job done). Of course as much fun as a David Mamet plot is there is also the distinctive dialogue that he gives his characters to speak. If you are hoping for lots of exposition to explain what is going on, then you are in the wrong movie. Add to that the fact that just because somebody says something does not mean they mean it. There is a lot of guesswork involved here, not just for the characters but also the audience, because of what we see and here. But that is the road we expect to travel when Mamet is out guide and in that regard "Spartan" does not disappoint. It might prove too cerebral for most aficionados of the action genre, but then there are plenty of such brain dead films out there that we should be allowed to enjoy this one in peace.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I have seen the sign, 18 Jan 2006
The president’s daughter is stolen and it requires all the US secret resources to find and bring her back before the people that did the abduction know who she is.Looks like it is too late so everything will be called off. No wait Curtis (Derek Luke) has seen the sign. What does this mean? A movie that was well done. Lots of action, good acting, and emotion. Yes this is a formula movie and the theme is older the hills. But that is why we watch these movies. We suspect who the good buys and bad guys are but never know until they turn on us. And is it my imagination or is Val Kilmer getting better?
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