6A - Monday, October 3, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Owen 'Elite' in thriller COiURTESY OF INTERNATIONAL FILM CIRCUIT Heather Courtney's "Where Soldiers Come From" follows U.P. National Guardsmen who are deployed to Afghanistan. 'Soldiers' fromU Director Courtney brings war home to rural America By EMILY BOUDREAU DailyArts Writer Distant both culturally and geographically from the rest of the state, the Upper Peninsula is a part of Michigan that's easily forgotten. However, documenta- ry filmmaker Heather Courtney ("Letters From the Other Side") calls this place home. In her new film "Where Soldiers Come From," she does her best to make sure it's not forgotten as she fol- lowsthe lives ofagroup of friends from the Upper Peninsula to Afghanistan and back again. "The original idea was to go back to the place I was from and do a story about rural America because it's a place that's not very well represented in mainstream film and television," Courtney said. "So that was my motivation in the beginning." She started to get a better idea of the film's narrative as she began to flip through her local paper for story ideas and found an article about the National Guard. She went to watch the training and met Dominic and Cole, the two young men whose story she would capture on film. "Being from there actually made it easier for me because when you're doing a documenta- ry, half the battle is getting access to the people you want to film," Courtney said. "You really have to become part of the community." She thought it would be inter- esting to focus on a group of friends in the National Guard when they were 19 years old and trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Though the friends were in the National Guard, the film would primarily be a coming-of-age story. "Then, a year and a half into shooting, they were deployed to Afghanistan," Courtney said. "Then - well, it was still a com- ing-of-age film, but in the context of war." once the young men in the film were deployed, the story changed. Courtney had just been film- ing their lives as they happened and wasn't planning on going to Afghanistan, but suddenly the film wasn't about a small town in rural America. The narrative became much larger and Court- ney found herself following these young soldiers through the moun- tains of Afghanistan. "You have to sort of trust that you're following these people and that they're people with lives worth telling, worth showing because they represent most peo- ple in America. These are univer- sal stories and there's a lot of value to it," Courtney said. She also made sure to capture the difficulties of the young men's return to complete the story, focusing on issues of assimilation and how they dealt with things like post-traumatic stress disor- der. "With the National Guard, you're not coming back to a mili- tary base, you're not a soldier full time so you go from teenager to soldier to being a hardened com- bat veteran and you're trying to live a normal life again," Court- ney said. Courtney spent four years working on the film, traveling back and forth between the U.P., Afghanistan and her home in Austin, Tex. She ended up with 650 hours of footage and edited it down to 90 minutes. "I feel much more connected to the place I'm from because of it," Courtney said. "I hadn't really spentmuch time there since going off to college. It's really beautiful up there, and natural beauty is a big part of the film." The loveliness of the setting does not take away from harsh reality. According to Courtney, places like the U.P. are dispro- portionally represented in wars because they send more of their sons and daughters off to combat than urban or suburban America despite the fact that rural Ameri- ca is soeasily overlooked. "For me, it's a film about friend- ship and family and a portrait of a town and a town that's very easy to forget about," Courtney said. "Most Americans are very removed from the wars because they don't know anyone who has gone. I think the film because it's such a human story ... can help people feel they do know people who've gone off to war so it makes it harder to forget." "Where Soldiers Come From" showed at the Michigan Theater on Saturday and will be broad- casted on PBS's POV documen- tary series on Thursday, Nov. t0. ByKAVI SHEKHAR PANDEY Senior Arts Editor The very presence of Messrs. Statham ("The Transporter"), Owen ("The International") and De Niro ("Heat") together in a motion pit- Killer Elite ture strongly indicates an At Quality 16 action-packed, and Rave kaboom-riffic bonanza - in Open Road fact, that's pre- cisely what the trailers imply with their sequences of Statham and Owen beating the holy hell out of each other, set to "Rock You Like a Hurricane." Well, watching "Killer Elite" is ask- ing for Kung Pao Chicken and getting a California Roll instead: not exactly what was ordered and satisfies a completely differ- ent craving, but it's still totally delicious. There's a special rung in hell reserved for marketing teams that grossly misrepresent their movies. "Killer Elite" is nothing like the retread of Every Jason Statham Movie Ever Made that it's presented as - in reality, the narrative closely mimics Spiel- berg's modern classic "Munich," a taut, stirring, espionage drama inundated with political under- tones. Forget cat-and-mouse, the movie is more aptly described as a nonstop cat-and-cat hunt. Sta- tham would be the first feline, tracking down and assassinating former SAS officers in order to tone of the film and displace it rescue his friend and mentor (De into campiness. Niro) from Omani royals (there's Still, there are enough acting a true-to-history backstory legs on the "Killer Elite" table about all that). But he can't just to make up for the one broken straight-up murder the louts; off by Statham. Robert De Niro he has to make the deaths look is shockingly decent, wielding like accidents, bolstering the weapons with convincing com- film with even more delectable mand and momentarily allowing tension. Opposing him is Clive audiences to forget the travesty Owen, a former SAS officer who that is his career over the past is furious that his bros are being decade ("Little Fockers," for picked off and thus tries to stop a reminder). Dominic Purcell Statham from killing the rest of (TV's "Prison Break") plays the his bros. point man on Statham's crew, owning his role with the charm and poise reminiscent of Tom M ustachioed Hardy's character in "Inception." But the man of the hour, m h mthe toast of the town, the belle iC iO i'nan of the ball is none other than protcts ros. Clive Owen, who plays the protects bros. least-despisable antagonist in memory. Although his character is despicably underdeveloped, Even with this promis- Owen dons a marvelous mus- ing premise, "Killer Elite" is tache (add "can pull off facial a shrewd dramatic thriller hair" to the list of reasons why trapped in a Jason Statham Clive is God incarnate), and action vehicle. The bald, Brit- growls through his role as a ish badass's requisites are all in warrior of virtue, fed up with place: a stupid backstory, stupid the system but trying to protect dialogue, a stupid love inter- his brotherhood. Owen appears est and a stupid scene where he to be the only actor aware of the chooses to give up his merce- gravity of the situation, creating nary career after killing a man in a strange juxtaposition to Sta- front of his daughter (complete tham's stupid antics. with a shot of Statham staring Sans Statham and with a more at his blood-stained hands, gag). serious tone, "Killer Elite" could Also crammed in are extrava- have been something special - gant shootouts, Statham doing the rest of the cast was ready parkour and an intensely bru- and waiting. There's nothing tal brawl between Statham and elite about this movie, but it still Owen that, despite being well has all the elements of a killer choreographed, don't match the thriller. Renegade Ops' a wild ride By SHIN HIEFTJE Daily Arts Writer When it comes to entertain- ment, sometimes you want to see a serious piece that is ***.i* intellectually stimulating, Renegade Ops while other times you Sega just want to Xbox, Playstation, turn off your PCdownload brain and see RELEASE DATE- Monday, October 3, 2011 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 4 Noshes in Nuevo 39 Some summer 50 Exotic sushitfish 1 What ice cream Laredo births, 53 Carton sealers does in the sun 5 Passenger pickup astrologically 55"Does thisiring 6 Mythicalweeper point 40 Like some ?' 11 Witht 6 Reply to "Is it gestures or logic 07 tLa wrong 14 "Terrifil!" soup?" 41 Cad 5Mtotire of 15 Play-of-color gems 7 Wall St. headline 44 Week segment country 16 Bambi's aunt 8 Clumsy sort 45 Collage materials 62 See 18-Down 17 "Get a grip!" 5 Radar screen 46 Convention sites 63 Put away at 19 Albumskept in spdot 47 Workclumsily dinnertime iely Cons Pt0Colorad s 4g (through) 64Tetr's"Here's 20 Dgpatch dadt it Badgr at the 45"'mwo not what I think' d Etlikeabird 1maclu imprssed"event 65Clean airorg. 23 Anti-alcohol types 12Ultimate goal ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 25Grenish-lan 3 tedasoosu h an 18W h2-ownat HOST KARA ANJOU 28 Room for Rene a satisfactory A N T I T O X I N L 0 E W S 29 Stubbed extremity level S T A T E SMAN B R N E 30 lnternetcompany 22thellois G A L O S HES EASIER 32 Bnarsadvicn lieutenant UAL LEDt 3Scrnpa er 23Sot's woe, 35Folded Mexican briefly T I E B A R A L P H U D seacks 24MiFitryprep org. 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INFO @ICC.COOP 5 & 6 BR Houses May 2012 www.copiproperties.com 734-663-5609I something explode. "Renegade Ops," a new digital release from Sega and Avalanche Studios, def- initely falls into the latter cate- gory, as it's essentially the video game equivalent of a cheesy action movie from the '80s. Its ridiculous paper-thin story is only a means to an end, and that end is nonstop chaotic action. "Renegade Ops" is easy to pick up and play. You control a jeep from a top-down perspec- tive, meaning you're looking at it from a bird's eye view at all times. The left control stick moves the jeep, and the right control stick shoots the machine gun turret of your jeep in any direction. The story in "Renegade Ops" is perhaps even simpler than its control scheme. There is a major terrorist named inferno causing chaos in South Ameri- ca, and as a member of an elite commando unit, it is your job to take him down. What is Inferno's motivation, you may ask? Stop asking questions and start blowing shit up, the game responds. While initially it may seem like the whole of "Renegade Ops" takes place in a South American jungle, later stages have you globetrotting from Africa to Eastern Europe to track down inferno. The premise is ludicrous in a comic book kind of way, but it's ser- viceable in giving you context for destroying everything in your path. That's basically what the game is about. Over the course of nine stages, you'll dump your machine guns into all sorts of enemy vehicles, from small, nimble jeeps to massive, power- ful tanks. This has the potential to get repetitive, but "Renegade Ops" does a good job of mix- ing up the action and keeping things fun. Occasional pow- er-ups will let you fire rocket launchers or rail guns along with your machine guns. Some- times the game will let you pilot a helicopter, while other times it will pit you against mortars or vehicles with flamethrow- ers. Everything is destruc- tible, which factors into the gameplay nicely. For example, sometimes there will be enemy watchtowers that harass you with their turrets. Runninginto their wooden structures with your jeep destroys their struc- tural support and takes them out quickly. Causing wonton destruction so easily is a lot of fun, especially since the explo- sions look really nice. While playing "Renegade Ops" may sound like a simplistic destructive romp, Avalanche Stu- dios has admirably put in place a deeper system that lets you cus- tomize how you play. Before you start each mission, the game asks you to choose from four different characters, each with a special ability. One equips a shield for temporary invincibility, another has the ability to call airstrikes, and so forth. Each class has its merits, so it's fun to experiment with each of them to see which one matches your style. Along with the class differentiations, there is also a leveling system in which experience is gained for completing objectives or killing enemies. With enough experi- ence you gain levels, and with more levels you can spend points on upgrading your health, ammo or effectiveness of your special ability. The video game equivalent of '80s flicks. 4 4 HORSE , BOARD/LEASING/- LESSONS, DRASSAGE 9950092 THESIS EDITING. LANGUAGE organization, format. All disciplines. 25 years' U-M experience. 734-996-0566 or writeonnuliservnet. MOVIE EXTRAS TO Stand in the backround for a major film production. Earn up to $300 for the day. No experi- ence required. 877-491-5152 PART TIME TUTORS needed for math & science. Call (734) 434-1228. Dynamic Tutoring Services. EARN $1000-$3200 A month to drive our brand new cars with ads. www.FreeCarJobs.com PHYSICAL THERAPIST ASSIS- TANT U.S. Rehab Services has an immediate full time position available in Ypsilanti area. 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Despite these annoyances, "Renegade Ops" is still one hell of a good time. Careening reck- lessly over cliffs taking out everything as a one-man army is as fun as it sounds. It's a little on the short side for $15, but the levels are designed to be enjoy- able time and again. Don't let the generic, forgettable name of "Renegade Ops" turn you away. Anyone interested in fast-paced action should give it a shot.