Army of One

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source: Army of One

I was so looking forward to seeing Nicolas Cage and Russel Brand in one movie as I love both of them. However, the storyline consists of endless meaningless dialogues, Cage overacting all the way to a point where you can't stand the self absorbed ADD behavior of the character. I did not realize it was supposed to be a comedy? Not much happens in the movie, just a bunch of traveling back and forth with little insight of Pakistan, just so very cliché. Although the movie is just 90 minutes long, I started looking at my cell phone after about 20 minutes cause my mind kept wandering, it was just so boring. What a waste of so much potential. What a waste of my time - I am frustrated.

Not many would remember a popular Indian TV show from early 90s called Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne. It was about this office peon (an utterly unimportant person in social order) with an active imagination. Typically the episodes would deal with his daydreaming scenarios. Army of One is a story about a similar man. Only thing is that it's about a real life person (Gary Faulkner) who did went on with his quest to capture Osama Bin Laden, all by himself. Now, its something of a debate whether all the incidents in his narrative are true but one thing is certain that he did end up traveling to Pakistan, on multiple occasions, with his Katana blade, without much trouble. That's classic privilege because most Asians would be stopped at airports if they were even carrying a pen knife. Well, for Gary the orders apparently came from God himself (Played by Russel Brand in the movie). Well if God is in-fact like Brand, then we've no hope. On the other hand, it could be a smart move if he's just channeling through comedians now-a-days. Probably works for the better. Reports say that Faulkner got dangerously close to finding Osama despite his bumbling, idiosyncratic demeanor. The CIA even considers recruiting him. Well, as far as expendable foot soldiers go, Faulkner might actually be a fine candidate. Although, Nicholas Cage went a little over the top in his portrayal of Faulkner, I think that any man embarking on such an insane quest is in-fact hysterical. So Cage's performance makes sense. If you put aside the main plot for a moment, you'll realize that the movie does have have a heart. Gary's relationship with a single parent Marci is beautiful and touching. Marci's adopted daughter has Cerebral Palsy and to her, Gary is the most interesting person in the world. While he might be the Don Quixote swinging his sword (Katana in this case) at the windmills but when he comes home, he finds the real purpose of his quest. Its a funny movie and if you like watching Nicholas Cage going nuts, its full of it. It's gratifying to see Hollywood recovering from the grimness surrounding 9/11 and daring to bring some levity around the tragedy. Kind of reminds me about the Bollywood movie Tere Bin Laden and its sequel. Watch Army of One when you've nothing else to do.

Right, now I have to state that I wasn't aware that this was actually based on real events. Yeah, I had not heard about the guy who actually underwent this trek to find Bin Laden himself. But anyway, I sat down to watch "Army of One" with my better half, because my wife is a fan of Nicolas Cage. I, however, am not a fan of his, not in any way; I think he has one expression for every scene and every character - and that is constipated. I will say that Nicolas Cage impressed me tremendously here with his performance in "Army of One". It was good to see him in a role such as this, and get to see a more diverse and offbeat side to his acting. I was actually genuinely impressed with what he pulled off here. And this is easily the second best performance of his entire career, with the best (in my opinion) being "Matchstick Men" from 2003. The story in "Army of One" is about a fairly unstable civilian who decides to set out to find Bin Laden and bring him to justice, since the American army had no luck in doing so. Now, I do like Russell Brand, but I didn't think he was the right cast for this movie. It was just a bit too off to see him in this movie. He is a funny guy, for sure, but he is better at comedies of a whole different genre. "Army of One" is actually a very enjoyable movie, and it is a movie that is fun and turned out to be entertaining. I was surprised with how good I found the movie, so I can actually warmly recommend that you take the time to watch "Army of One", whether or not you are a fan of Nicolas Cage. It is a movie that tells a good story.

Sadly, apparently this is somewhat a true story. Sad. Gary Faulkner (Nicolas Cage) is told by God (Russell Brand) to go to Pakistan and find and capture Osama Bin Laden. If Mr Cage did not use that ridiculous voice - thinking he was mimicking the real Gary Faulkner - this would not have been as bad as it is. I mean by using his own voice this could have been good, funny and at least watchable and most important of all the Nicolas Cage Impersonators would have been in 7th Heaven. Now they are shaking their collective heads. Sad. We do see the real Gary Faulkner at the end of the movie as he appeared on the TV show The View and in other interviews, and his voice sounded good and nothing like the one used by Nicolas Cage in this Silly, Ridiculous and mostly Annoying movie. It was this voice used by Cage that put this into a tailspin. (If you didn't like this, why did you watch it to the end?) Truth be told I was hoping this would save itself as I do like Nicolas Cage and I was hoping that the Director and other powers that be would see that this voice of Cage's just wasn't working. They didn't see it. Sad. Also it was the out-of-control-behavior Faulkner exhibited that was just as annoying. Using Russell Brand as God was okay, but when this "God" uses foul language then all this falls apart. Couldn't anyone see that? Apparently not. Sad. There is nothing more to be said. This was like being in a nightmare we couldn't get out of. Very sad. If there was ever a story that never had to be told, this is it. (1/10) Violence: Yes, Faulkner gets beat up. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes.

When I heard that Nic Cage will star in Larry Charles' new movie, I was psyched. The director of Borat and the Dictator plus the writer of Seinfeld making a bin Laden satire with the greatest genius in Hollywood, Wendi McLendon from Goldbergs and Russell Brand as God (or his version of God). How can you go wrong? Well I am happy to say that the movie is a lovely satire but don't get your hopes up if this is going to be something on the level of the Dictator. Cage as Gary Faulkner is hilarious (the movie would be worse without him), the guy they picked to play bin Laden looks like him and did a nice job for those two scenes in the movie. Brand nails his role as God. McLendon-Covey is extremely sexy as Marci and has lovely chemistry with Cage. In the end, this movie might get panned because of the satire or Nic Cage but I'm betting that in a couple of years they will be talking about it every time somebody brings up George W. Also the ending is pretty funny.