THE FIX | Official Trailer | In Theaters September 11<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truthfully, very little about The Fix comes naturally beneficial to the extent of such bewildering execution, but when those compelling elements do occasionally present themselves, mostly in the form of aesthetical components to the presentation, it feels like a much-appreciated breath of fresh air to such a suffocating experience, leaving us clamoring for style over substance in small and sporadic doses. For starters, the production’s decision to base an overwhelming majority of its filming on-location in Tehran, Iran, not only appraises an endearing element of authenticity for the engagement, where the ominousness of such a dangerous place illustrates vulnerability for these characters, but also offers a rich versatility of background landscapes that are uniquely specific to this corner of the world, helping to open up ambitious appeal to the integrity of Larry Smith’s cinematography, with disarming beauty to so much of the intoxicating scenery. Smith’s praises towards the project aren’t exactly singular, however, as everything from the lighting schemes to shadow work does wonders illustrating the moral complexity of these characters under obscuring nightscapes, where the metaphorical rendering of their obscured facial registries preheat the speculative oven long before the heist itself has taken shape, producing such an alluring vibe of stylishly sleek frames that resonated mutually alongside the movie’s atmospheric ambiance. Beyond Smith’s irreplaceable integrity to the picture, the idea itself of PTSD CIA operatives banning together to lash out against an organization that took so much away from them is commendably compelling, helping to shed some much-needed focus to so much everyday undocumented trauma for those conflicted, regardless of its eventual ways of conveying such matters. If the film was given a different director, urgently enacted editing, and compelling characters, then it would’ve fared much better towards fully realizing the potential of this plot, but as it stands it’s merely the first layer of the movie’s convoluted creativity, and because of such wipes away the tender sentiment of these soldiers taking charge of their respective lives, regardless of the morality of the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earning its place amongst the year’s most unmemorable experiences, The Fix clumsily sabotages any semblance of opportunistic impulses to the movie’s ambitious commandability, within the grasp of an overwhelmed and inexperienced director who fails to bring to life the naturalized urgency and intensity of such vulnerable environments. While this is far from Moshe’s only flaw in helming this production, it’s undoubtedly the most influentially detracting to the interpretability of the experience, as so many of these in-the-moment sequences of this mission’s objective never feel remotely suspenseful or chaotically combustible to so much risky uncertainty enacted by the characters, but even while Moshe steers the storytelling outside of the heist, there’s very little developmental characterization deposited to these characters, in ways that make a single one of them worth investing in, an especially troubling aspect when you consider that these are freedom fighters tasked with protecting our country from terrorists of all breeds. That feels like a realistic opportunity to deviate to the script, as Moshe and co-writers Mark Bacci and Ron Hutchinson not only turn in a painfully dull creative outline during a first half whose momentum and pacing are gutted by these long-winded exposition dump diatribes in the prolonged planning of this heist, but also these candidly icky moments where the material trivializes the need to feel politically combative towards one particular side, inevitably alienating half of its audience by the unnecessary singling of conspiracy shilling that is one of the many strangely surreal elements to come out of this movie’s climax. During the last forty minutes of this grueling 137-minute endurance test, the film feels like it realizes that it has established such minimalized memorability towards the integrity of the experience, and because of such unloads a trio of ridiculous twists so unearned and out of nowhere that they smell of the desperation factors of this production, where they become less impactful and detracting to our investment in the narrative and these characters with each passing one. Its storytelling is never quite so convoluted and contrived that you can’t follow along cohesively in the detectability of the narrative, but rather so depleted and uneventful that it fails to muster the necessary thrills to its action-thriller branding, and with these supernatural soldiers attaining the power to accurately predict and adapt to such unforeseen elements of disaster in their plan, that are impossible to plan for, it fails to conjure any semblance of tension or empathy to their predicaments, where they’re constantly able to evade such environmental pressure despite such overwhelming odds against them. To be fair, the material isn’t totally to blame for such a bloated runtime, as the relaxed editing practices do more than enough to agonizingly prolong the experience, whether in the glaring missing pieces of surmised character motivations shifting abruptly from one scene to the next, or prolonged meandering of others, that feel like the editor (Like the audience) fell asleep while sequencing out the storytelling. Without deliberately trying, there’s easily a half hour of material pertaining the planning of this mission that could be amputated from the finished product, and it would leave the film feeling all the more beneficial for it, but because the script goes over every spare detail with naggingly endless repetition, it leaves the editing working overtime to even make it presentable for a theatrical engagement, with its inconsistently mixed results testing my patience throughout one of the toughest sits that I’ve had all year. When the film is able to produce pay-offs in correlation to its abundance of exposition, the action sequences lack atmospheric immersion and dimensional believability, on account of these shoddily enacted special effects and minimally resonating sound designs draining so much commanding emphasis from these moments. On the former, whenever there’s an explosion resulting in engulfing flames, they’re realized with Microsoft Paint levels of influential graphics articulating an almost cartoon-like rendering to the ways they colorfully stand out from everything else in frame, and the latter, while underscoring the intensity of automatic rounds of seemingly limitless ammunition, undermines the attention-grasping influence of its weaponry, leaving each of these sequences fumbled by such underwhelming aspects that play abysmally in a theatrical auditorium with the greatest sight and sound technology. Even those audiences who are expecting reprieve from the performances of a talented dynamic duo at the movie’s forefront are sure to be disappointed, as Zachary Levi and Liam Neeson don’t provide any semblance of notoriety for their respective portrayals, without anything even closely resembling redeeming work to their squandered approaches. Levi is completely miscast in the role of the hard-edged Tucker, regardless of the strongly silent kind of channeling that he lends so unsubtly to the demeanor of the character, with Levi’s wide-eyed goofy expressions typically found in the Shazam! franchise constantly undermining the emotional tangibility of dramatically driven moments, all the while encompassing an intentionally flawed protagonist whose selfishness on his own accord makes it difficult enough to seamlessly invest in him. As for Neeson, the film’s marketing and accompanying posters pulls an old-fashioned switcheroo on the audience, in that it might feature his name near the top of the promotional billing, but he’s sadly relegated to the kind of forgettable supporting turn that feels like a paycheck obligation rather than a passion project, where the majority of his on-screen moments are regretfully spent offensively fleshing out the characteristics of a sensitively debilitating condition. I don’t exactly blame Neeson, as Moche’s guidance should’ve provided him with the necessary influence, however Neeson’s exaggerated emphasis provides more than enough argument for this being among his most condemning work to date, as even during moments uninfluenced by his character’s condition, he still feels a bit anxiously unrelenting in even his most subtly illustrated interactions, leaving those seeking another masterful Neeson performance unfulfilled by a movie that undervalues his presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
The Fix is an overly bloated and meanderingly muddled shallow exploitation on the psychological horrors of war, trivializing its powerfully stirring social commentary and call for awareness with narrative contrivances and melodramatic detours aplenty, cementing a poorly executed thriller that grows disastrous with each passing minute of the nearly two-and-a-half hour runtime. Even as a heist movie, the abundance of stacking twists derive meaning and integrity from the characters and their corresponding actions, and with the unmemorable turns of Zachary Levi and Liam Neeson failing to supplant necessary heart to their characters, it leaves the material searching for a soul that it regretfully never finds, surmising an audaciously baffling experience made surreal by its ability to find its way to the silver screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 2.9 or F<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Guy Moshe Starring – Zachary Levi, Liam Neeson, Quincy Isaiah The Plot – Disillusioned by the end of the war in Afghanistan, a group of disgraced, war torn ex-CIA operators set out to Tehran to take down a life changing score. Rated R for strong\/bloody violence, adult language, and some nudity. THE FIX […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,4,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9909"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9911,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9909\/revisions\/9911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}