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THE FORGER and SURVIVOR – Reviewed by David

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Two releases this week that can’t quite disguise a certain straight-to-video air—The Forger, a caper/drama starring John Travolta, and Survivor, a political action-thriller featuring Pierce Brosnan and Milla Jovovich—nonetheless manage to rise above their obvious fiscal limitations on the strength of their aging leading men and talented supporting casts.

The Forger casts Travolta as a petty thief, and expert forger of art, who manages to get himself sprung early from his latest prison stint by making a deal with the devil—the devil being the head (Anson Mount) of a local crime syndicate, the deal being for Travolta to forge a Monet painting, then break into the museum where the real one’s hanging and switch them out.

From the title and plot, you’d be right to expect a slick little caper flick, and it does sort of become that late in the third act. Mainly, though, we get a nicely done little drama about Travolta (doing his best work in a while) trying to connect with his sick teen son (Mud’s Tye Sheridan, also good) and make amends with his elderly but still-sharp father (Christopher Plummer, in fine, wily form).

Veteran BBC series director Philip Martin keeps the pace low-key, choosing to focus on the characters—including, briefly, Sheridan’s mother, heartbreakingly played by Jennifer Ehle—instead of tick-tock tension. Which helps us hope all the more that Travolta and company complete the switch, and not get caught by the pair of police (including Abigail Spencer) on their tail.

Survivor2015People chase Jovovich, too, in Survivor, in which she, as a security expert at the American Embassy in London, pays too much attention to a particular passport applicant, gets Brosnan the international assassin sent after her, and then finds herself on the run from not only him, but the British cops and her own colleagues, who think her responsible for the trail of death left by Brosnan.

Brosnan doesn’t do villains often, but he’s a great one here—elegant and cold as ice, with his hair cut short and neat and nary a smile crossing his face, like an evil 007. Jovovich gets not nearly enough notice for her non-Resident Evil roles. She really can play normal humans, and although she does beat up a few people here, she also nicely conveys her character’s fear and confusion, and smarts.

The plot’s clever, too, though it skimps on logic in spots—e.g., Jovovich walking around sans disguise—but V for Vendetta director James McTeigue compensates by generating solid tension and devising some lively action. He also makes good use of Dylan McDermott as a Jovovich co-worker, and gives the always welcome Angela Bassett the kind of screen time she deserves.

The Forger: Crime/Drama/Thriller, Rated R, [DVD]

Survivor: Action/Crime/Thriller, Rated PG-13, [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

DVD Release Date: 6/23/15


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