Spartan review

SPARTAN

Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B-
Warner Bros./Franchise Pictures
Directed by: David Mamet
Written by: David Mamet
Cast: Val Kilmer, Kristen Bell, Derek Luke, William H. Macy
Screened at: Warner Bros., NYC, 5/8/04

In Jamie Uys's offbeat comedy "The Gods Must be Crazy," a South African Bushman, having seen his first blonde, states that he never before saw a woman so ugly. "Everyone likes blondes: that's why we're here," barks a high-level operative in the United States Government, without realizing the opposing view of his fellow human being out in the bush. If we accept the premise of "Spartan," yet another thriller from the pen of director David Mamet, the universal affection for blondes fuels a white- slavery ring that kidnaps young, fair-skinned women, preferably of college age, and hustles them off to Dubai where they apparently serve at the pleasure of the sheiks. It's up to the special operatives of the U.S. the CIA, the FBI, the Secret Service and various and sundry top secret organizations to break up the ring and get back the blondes, or what's a red- blooded fraternity boy gonna do?

David Mamet, whose best screenplays include a vivid reshaping of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," a comic "Wag the Dog" (inspired by the alleged technique of high government officials to distract the public from economic woes by inciting foreign wars), and "Glengarry Glen Ross," a masterwork about the wheeling and dealing that form the basis of capitalism, is not exactly running on automatic pilot this time around. In fact once you get into the swing and begin to comprehend what's going on, you can become absorbed trying to guess the allegiance of the men and women in counter-espionage activities. Of course since the CIA is involved, we've come to expect some nasty goings-on involving rogue agents and missions that are kept secret to avoid embarrassing the administration currently in power.

The plot revolves around a Harvard student, Laura Newton (Kristen Bell), who has been kidnaped by a white-slave ring, a practice which gets the attention of the White House because (Mamet implies) Laura is the president's daughter. How could a girl who is tailed every moment of her life by a team of secret service agents possibly fall into the hands of these slavers, particularly since they'd never dream of calling attention to themselves by taking the chief executive's daughter? That and other questions become clearer once Mamet gets us past an opening scene that could have come out of a training camp dreamed up by Oliver Stone involving a hierarchy of commandoes including mid-level Robert Scott (Val Kilmer) who barks orders to a naive recruit, Curtis (Derek Luke) and is in turn bossed around by a top dog in the department (Ed O'Neill). Scott has been thoroughly indoctrinated with the mission of his department the sort who'd take a bullet to save the president and act on the orders of his superior without question. Assigned to recover the girl from her captors, involving not only a trip to Dubai where the Secret Service enjoys special storage privileges at the airport, but also a series of raids on local houses that serve as a kind of underground railroad for the illicit commerce.

Though the action is taut, the dialogue coming across as the usual Mamet-speak of staccato rhythms and repetitions, the writer-director takes too much time looking into the training program before getting into the real story. Nor is the action in Dubai, which involves particular input from Agent Stoddard (William H. Macy), convincing. As complications pile up during the bracing conclusion of the tale, we wonder exactly how Scott expects to transport the unhappy young woman back to the States, particularly since the Harvard student is not too thrilled about going home.

Val Kilmer, the perfect robo-cop who "finds himself" when he disobeys an order for the first time, could easily replace the California governor in future actioners as long as that state's chief exec is busy dealing with gay marriages rather than rival cyborgs. As for where the title of this movie comes from when it's not mentioned anywhere in the story, well, that's Greek to me.

==========
X-RAMR-ID: 37266
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1258031
X-RT-TitleID: 1130353
X-RT-SourceID: 570
X-RT-AuthorID: 1123
X-RT-RatingText: B-

NOTE: This review was posted on the usenet to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup.
Mooviees.com accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review.
Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.

Spartan (2004)

Review of Spartan (2004) by Harvey S. Karten