3 Short Paragraphs: Man on a Ledge

2012, Ager Leth -- download

How do you review or even comment on a very very average movie?  Oh, you can complain about it and review it as a terrible movie, but that is  too easy.  But what if it has decent acting, likeable cinematography and a compelling, if absurd, plot?  How do you give it more than a few lines of text or a yawn and a "moving on..." ? I guess this time I will actually have short paragraphs.

Man on a Ledge is a thriller about a ... wait for it.... not a man on a ledge.  That's your misdirect.  Just like the fact that Sam Worthington is a man on a ledge distracting us from the jewel heist going on kitty-corner (to my American friends, this means the diagonal corner on a street intersection) to the building Worthington's Cassidy stands on.  The ledge standing is seen as a bid for attention, as he is a wrongly-convicted cop who was looking at 25 years, no parole.  He escaped during his father's funeral and came to the ledge.  Meanwhile his brother and his brother's too-hot-for-him girlfriend are doing a mission impossible across the street.

I like cop dramas, especially NYC cop dramas.  I like the tough guy attitudes and the boys-in-blue camaraderie.  This was directed with that feel, with the typical elements of a disgraced but capable cop, a by-the-books cop and an obvious dickhead cop.  The addition of heist movie elements are exciting, in a completely unbelievable sort of way -- no way he could pick up that expertise in two years in a jail cell, even if they didn't check his internet downloads.  I think Ethan Hunt must have been his cell mate.  And of course, they accomplish their goal and of course, there is a last act where things are foiled and there is a cop bar scene for them to celebrate coming out alive.  Sorry, I guess the only way to review a very average movie is to complain about it as a terrible movie.  Too bad I actually had some fun watching it.