Disney’s live-action adaptation of the popular action adventure video game series follows an adventurous prince Dastan (Gyllenhaal) who must join forces with Tamina (Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess, to prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time. Molina will play Sheik Amar, a mentor to the prince. Kingsley is rumored to be playing Vizier, the main villain of the film.

The casting of two notable and respected “actors” ratchets up the prestige factor of the film a notch or two. I personally think this trend of casting “up” for summer blockbusters is a very welcomed change of pace. In the past there wasn’t a lot of thought put into trying to get the best actors for a summer tentpole pic as much as there was trying to get bankable actors.

Batman Begins probably began the latest trend by having a cast list that reads more like an Oscar nomination list than a list of the actors in a summer superhero action film: Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Ken Watanabe. And that film was directed by Christopher Nolan who was first recognized as a good filmmaker and not as an action filmmaker.

Other films have followed suit including the smash hit, Iron Man, which cast the actor’s actor, Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role and brought in Jon Favreau, not really known for action films, to direct this very action-oriented movie. We all know how well that worked out. The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight will follow the same pattern later this summer. Many think Heath Ledger has a real chance at a posthumous Oscar nomination for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

I’m not saying Prince Of Persia is exactly reaching these lofty goals just yet, but adding Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina will go a long way in that direction. Bringing in Mike Newell as director was a smart move as well. Sure, he directed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but he also directed Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Mona Lisa Smile, and Love in the Time of Cholera – not the typical action director’s resume.

I’m not exactly a Jake Gyllenhaal fan, but I find that I’m starting to look forward to seeing what they do with this movie. Video game adaptations haven’t fared well in the past, but I’m thinking this film could be the one to break the curse.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is somewhat based on the bestselling game and will be adapted by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. In this fantasy adventure, Gyllenhaal will play Dastan, a young prince in sixth century Persia. He’s forth in line to the throne with no chance of ever becoming King so he leads a sort of Indiana Jones type adventurous life. In this film he will have to join forces with Tamina (who will be played by Gemma Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess (aren’t they all?) to prevent a bad guy from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow whoever possesses it to rule the world.

Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard, Jordan Mechner and Boaz Yakin wrote the script. Production is set to start in July for a release in summer of 2009.

The Essentials

Title: Rendition (official site)
Directed by Gavin Hood
Written by Kelley Sane
Running Time: 2 hrs. 2 min.
Release Date: October 19th, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for torture/violence and language.

The Plot of “Rendition”

When an Egyptian terrorism suspect “disappears” on a flight from Africa to Washington DC, his American wife and a CIA analyst find themselves caught up in a struggle to secure his release from a secret detention facility somewhere outside the US.

The Story of “Rendition”

After a terrorist bombing kills an American envoy in a foreign country. An investigation leads to an Egyptian who has been living in the United States for years and who is married to an American. He is apprehended just as he’s about to return home from a business trip. The U.S. sends him to the country where the incident occurs for interrogation which includes torture. An American CIA analyst who has just become an operative and is on his first real field mission observes the interrogation and is at odds whether to keep it going or to stop it because he doesn’t agree with the methods being used to gather information from the suspect. In the meantime, the man’s wife uses her contacts and tenacity to attempt to find out what happened to her husband despite being pregnant. Unfortunately, the CIA does not want to help her and refuses to give her any information.

The Review of “Rendition”

I wish there were more to say about this film than what is written in the “Story” section of this article. Unfortunately, there really isn’t. The synopsis of this film accurately tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the movie and about what you’re going to get when you watch it.

Rendition is full of great performances as you might expect from a film starring so many prestigious actors. Unfortunately, none of the great performances come from Jake Gyllenhaal who is primarily the heart and soul of this picture. Gyllenhaal appears to be sleep walking through half the picture and fully enveloped in dream land the other half. I’ve seen more believable emotion from muppets.

With the lead actor seemingly mentally and emotionally MIA during most of the picture the onus is on the rest of the cast and the script to carry the film. Unfortunately, the cast can only do so much with a mediocre screenplay. The plot is formulaic and predictable with the only exciting change being in the way the film was organized. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen it (and I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t), but the screenwriter or the director or the editors (not sure who thought this one up) pulled a nice trick out of their bag when putting the film together that really made me do a double take. It’s a shame it was one of the few moments in the film that was truly enjoyable.

The film wasn’t nearly as preachy as I feared it would be which is good. At the same time, I didn’t find myself compelled to feel sympathy for the abducted Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) either. Here’s a man who’s not a citizen of the United States who has contacts with people in a country that has terrorist ties and he doesn’t want to talk about it. I mean, they pick this guy up and start asking him questions and he suddenly can’t remember anything that might be important – but he loves America – been here 20 years or something. I don’t know about anyone else, but if the CIA starts asking me questions about people who might be terrorists I’m giving them names and email addresses and phone numbers and physical descriptions. I’ll tell them where they like to eat and hang out and what part of their bodies are ticklish. Not Anwar. He can’t remember anything.

The torture scenes didn’t really elicit sympathy either. The whole time I was thinking that it didn’t really look that bad. I kept wondering if I could stand those tortures – as they were depicted in the film. I think I could. If this is the stuff we’re doing that people are using to say that we torture our prisoners…well, case closed – we’re not.

The look and feel of the film was first class, but it wasn’t enough to make up for everything else. Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Peter Sarsgaard, and a bunch of others who spoke mostly in a foreign language did their best to maintain the momentum of the film but every time it seemed the action was just about to get going and the story was just about to take off the movie would hit a long period of dialog (again, mostly in a foreign language) where they attempted to explain everything to us. It grew burdensome after a while

By the time the film ends with the ending you knew would come all along you no longer really care about the El-Ibrahimis (if you ever did) and you certainly don’t care about Douglas Freeman, Gyllenhaal’s character.

Watch “Rendition” If…

You’ve ever been illegally abducted by the CIA and “questioned” about your involvement with alleged terrorists…just to see if your tortures were worse than the ones depicted in this movie.