Columbus Day

Ah Columbus Day . Not exactly a day you would title a movie with, well at least not an "Action Movie with Heart" as the synopsis calls it. While there are a number of action scenes the movie isn't really a full on action film. But then again it is not a full feel good movie either. The feeling I got from this movie was that it could not make up its mind what it wanted to be. You never really grow to like Val Kilmer's character, John Cologne, to care enough about him. They open the movie showing him to be a bit of a badass criminal and then they want you to feel bad for him that he still carries a torch for his ex and his daughter wants nothing to do with him. This is explored in a series of flashbacks and phone calls that Val's character makes while waiting in a park. Literally that is what he is doing for most of the movie, walking in a park. In between phone calls, he is exchanging dialog with a young boy who appears to almost live in the park. Now the only real reason this movie is called Columbus day of course is because its on the day of the same name. I guess Hollywood ran out of major holidays. Course there is also dialog about columbus between John and his Drug dealer buddy Max,played by Wilmer Valderrama, you know Fez on that 70's show. Looks like he is trying to break away from that role and he does a good job of it as you hardly recognize its him in the film.

The way this movie is edited is what I think helps in me not liking the movie as much as I could have. By doing it all in flashbacks is a popular way for you to find thing out about the characters, for this film it doesn't work. While the dialog with the kid is very touching and well directed, the interlacing of these scenes with the action ones was very awkward. I think if the movie had been in the hands of a different director this movie could have actually seen the light of the big screen. Its just a movie that doesn't quite make it. Had they gone almost completely with Val and the kid talking and the phone calls in between I think it would have helped. We didn't exactly need to see the flashbacks. In the end the movie didn't seem to know what to focus on and it ended up not focusing on anything.

I give it 2 stubs.

PS I want to know what cell phone battery John Cologne is using because it lasts for hours.