Rendition

Rendition_360P

Good intentions do not make this a good product. Like most movies with a social agenda, this thing just fell apart at the end. The directing, certainly the acting, the visuals, the incredible storytelling technique, EVERYTHING had the makings for a great movie, except for somebody that was afraid the public was too stupid to draw its own conclusions so they had to spell it out. The GREAT movies, even--or maybe especially--message movies, have a far better chance of getting the story told with a long-life if they leave us with something besides the agenda to argue about. Regardless of the truth of the message, this puppy is a short-timer because there's no reason to see it twice.

As an alternative to Rendition you could create some form of power-point presentation showing a picture of Jake Gyllenhal with the words "TORTURE=BAD" flashing on and off every second or so. Then you could watch it for two and a half hours. It would be slightly more enlightening and a lot more entertaining than Rendition. --Spoiler-- Naughty terrorists blow up a market place in an unsuccessful attempt to kill a senior Egyptian police officer and killing Jake Gyllenhall's friend in the process. Because all the planes in America are currently being used for rendition flights the CIA cant send out a replacement for the dead bloke and tell Jake that he has to do the job despite not being a field agent. A man is stopped at customs while getting off a flight from South Africa and then kidnapped by the US security services. He's an Egyptian chemical engineer who's suspected of having ties with the terrorists behind the marketplace bombing. He's innocent. We know this because he's married to preggers all-American blonde Reese Witherspoon. After refusing to admit to being a terrorist the Egyptian is renditioned (rendited? rendified?) to Egypt for water-boarding. I always think that it sounds like some kind of sport. I expect to see pictures of happy people surfing with the slogan "Go Waterboarding With the Family" or some such. Anyway -insert generic Arabic sounding name here- is sent to the prison camp run by the police officer and tortured while Jake looks on with mounting horror and increasing conviction that the Egyptian is innocent. In the meanwhile we see a sub-plot about the policeman's teen-aged daughter being seduced by a bloke who is going to lots of "Allahu Akbar" type meetings. There is also the sub-plot involving Reese trying to get the American government to admit to kidnapping her husband for torture. Eventually the Egyptian gives up the names of his "comrades" who turn out to be the 1974 Egyptian national football (soccer) side. "Brilliant!" I thought, "Now we get to see ageing footballers having the electricity applied to their nipples." But sadly it wasn't to be. Jake gives in and rescues the Egyptian, presumably loosing his job in the process. To cut a needlessly long story sideways we eventually find out that the daughter's boyfriend was the suicide bomber from the beginning of the film and that the policeman doesn't realise that his daughter died in the same incident. Bummer, that'll teach him for being a nasty torturer then. --End Spoiler-- The film falls into the terrifying category of films that want to make you a better person. I can just about tolerate it when it's a film about some horrible abuse that I don't know about but really, anyone who doesn't disagree with the policy of extraordinary rendition either: A) doesn't care; B) thinks all brown people should be tortured on general principle; or, C) couldn't spell extraordinary, let alone know what rendition means. In the end this film is a bit like Syriana which spent about 7 hours shocking us with the massive revelation that "the oil business is a bit shady". Rendition is a non film about a non issue (given that extraordinary rendition stopped about 2 years ago). Hollywood can make all the movies it likes about these sorts of injustices and it wont make a blind bit of difference because the people who agree with, don't know about or don't care about the policy wont see this film and those that do see it will already share the film makers moral outrage about the issue and will tut and carry on eating their organic, sustainably produced, hand knitted hummus.

Hi, I will skip passed the 'politics' of this movie, for they we're in it as much as an Alien base exists on the backside of the moon. That is to say, arguably so... Discussing the story and even the premise of the movie, the whole thing falls apart from scratch. Are we honestly to believe that a major player in the terrorism business would walk around, calling people across the globe with a traceable mobile phone? Are we seriously to believe that a 22 or so annalist, after a bombing that made a coworker of his die in his lap, would scratch his head, utter a 'What a day folks' and then take up the job of an observer to a professionally carried out torture, even lending a hand? I didn't... Stupidities aside, the movie was slow, sluggish even, with people staring at each other, waiting sometimes several minutes to mutter a response to the initial bit of script. Acting never convinced me, not even by veteran Meryll Streep or Jake Gyllenhaal (who made me weepy in Donny Darko) who had exactly one scene in which he was actually acting and not sleepwalking around the faxmachine that he used to 'deliver' his lines. The music score did nothing to provide gravitas to the movie and it consisted of maybe 1 or 2 themes which were rewinded time after time, or reshuffled and then put on again providing even more release to even the worst insomniac alive today. I honestly fail to see why people are impressed with such a hackneyed screenplay and story which was as straight forward as they come and yet make some people feel they saw something thought provoking, which is becoming an increasingly annoying term here on IMDb for you will find it even in the reviews of the latest Rambo entry. I wasted what felt like 5 hours with this movie, don't say you weren't warned. 5/10

This is an example of film making at it"s worst. Styleless smug moral rubbish. A film dressed up as being "intelligent" but is dumb and artless in the extreme. Perfectly one dimensional clichéd characters,the oh so walmart plot, the slow motion sequences, dreamy middle eastern music and the use of a film grading that is the signature of the lame. Yes torture and politicians are bad. The issues addressed within the plot are of course worthy. I am surprised to see within the other comments that this film is viewed as some kind of expose, or as having some kind of current affairs value. Anyone "shocked" by the behaviour of these "bad guys" really needs to start watching the news. Surely it's not worth getting to embroiled in the nieve politics presented here. Please blush if you feel any more worldly wise having seen this. Sure all the boxes are ticked and it is "professionally" executed, but why. I see absolutely no value in this kind of film. I watched 100 Million years BC the other day which is in some ways the worst film ever made, but I'd go to their wrap party over this lots any day. Not for me thanks

The powerhouse cast pulls the crowd in the theatre, despite the ominous title. Jake Gyllenhaal guested on Conan O'Brien to promote the movie and explained that 'Rendition' was a euphemism for obtaining information via torture. Since 9/11, 'extraordinary rendition' allowed the government's intelligence agency to extricate people unquestioningly without due process and use any means necessary in exchange for information. Gyllenhaal plays rookie CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (note the irony) who is torn about his assignment which renders him as a mere observer to unorthodox interrogation proceedings at an underground detention facility outside the US. Omar Metwally plays the suspected terrorist Anwar El-Ibrahimi, Egyptian national and green card-carrying hubby of American Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon). Isabella and her son wait for Anwar to come home from a scientific conference when he suddenly disappears from the plane's passenger manifest. She seeks help from her college friend who works in government and learns that the Head of Intelligence, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) is behind it all. Rendition is directed by Hollywood newbie Gavin Hood (who is set to do X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and begs the question of whether such 'extraordinary rendition' is exercised in real life. The movie was released locally in the wake of the Glorietta explosion (bombing/mishap?), and a pivotal scene in the movie is when a bomb explodes in a public plaza, so that must have sent chills up every moviegoer's spine. Seeing the exploding tableau with a lone red and yellow sign Aajala (Ayala?) on the upper right hand of the screen, plus the effect of silence and slow-moving images magnified the impact of the scene's real-life coincidence. There are lessons to learn from this movie and it all boils down to personal decisions we make, daily. We all have choices we can exercise at will, and we often do not always (want to) see how these affect others, who may end up as hapless victims of circumstance. What 'the greater good' is should not have to be a forced choice our leaders have to take if we each already decide correctly at the source. Now that's a utopia worth building.

I saw the much hyped Rendition at an early press screening in Herzliya, Israel, last week and was under whelmed to say the least. The post 9/11 film, dealing with illegal procedures towards Muslim Americans since 2001, unfortunately felt like a rehash of so many things we saw in recent similarly-themed films like Syriana, Babel and A Mighty Heart. Though dealing with an interesting concept that could have worked as a thought provoking film that shows how both sides suffer the consequences of terrorism, the resemblance to the aforementioned films was so obvious, that it just wasn't engaging, or fun, to watch anymore. Even though some of the performances were OK (watch for Gyllenhaal to earn some year-end praise for his work here), the overall feel of this film was that of a bitter disappointment. Truth be told, I actually felt as if the trailer gave away the best parts of the movie, leaving you with a half baked project that (theoretically speaking) had the star power and potential to be so much better; but got caught up in it's own web of clichés and lack of originality that it failed to actually lift off. Bottom line, I have a feeling Rendition won't do so well come award season, or strike a chord with North American audience at the box office either, and I really feel bad for the actors who seemed like they made a genuine effort, but couldn't truly fulfill themselves with the "been there, done that" script they were handled. Still, look out for the always-fun Gyllenhaal (as I mentioned earlier); underrated actor Peter Sarsgaard; the surprisingly talented Omar Metwally, who play's the innocent Muslim American falsely detained due to his ethnicity; and (allow me to be Zionistic for a moment) Israel's very own Igal Naor - who does a wonderful job here as well. Thanks guys, for making this would-be award contender less painful to watch then it already was.

Rendition fails to really nail the issue - it chooses instead to show its colours too distinctly. And what we get instead is a decent political thriller, but one that is difficult to assess in terms of its attempted aim - after all, here we are dealing with what must be one of the emotive issues known to man - can torture ever be justified? Is the utilitarian rule of the possible gains worth the literal breaking of a possibly innocent man? Is he a terrorist, isn't he a terrorist? This is a very important topic, and a very complex one, that is treated as though it were a film about lobbying on the one hand, showing Washington and the Beltway as a ground for piranhas to make or break their careers, and on the other, in Egypt, a battle for the sanity of all involved there. Yes, it makes a good thriller; but, and it's a big but, it lacks the true depth of thought, rather than action, that will address the issue, rather than (God forbid) entertain an audience. Excellent performances from all involved - really. Good steady hand at the helm - but what it lacks is complexity - it seems complex initially but unravels the further down the rabbit warren we go. I came away uneasy, but not as uneasy as I should have, and non-plussed by the sleight of hand tricks that should have revealed real ambivalence, real moral dilemma, real grey areas, whereras instead I was left with black and white. Not the film it wants to be, it is a good political thriller, but it is not as effective a piece of cinema as it could have been.

Making the movie Rendition was a very good idea and addresses an important problem that is occurring today. This movie though does fall short. It did not have the juice that Lions for Lambs or the shocking portrayals of a documentary. The acting was for me below average. Reese Witherspoon looked her part and played the way she needed to as a pregnant mother who's husband has been kidnapped. I cannot say the same for the others though. Merryl Streep just annoyed me in this movie. She played as a top employee of the CIA (I think) who gives out the order of torturing someone, but the way she played her role was just so cliché and unoriginal she did not bring anything special that she usually does in other movies. She actually ruined this movie. Then there was Alan Arkin, he played very well but there is just one problem he was in the movie for about as long he is in the advertisements. He did show you what a senator does do but not enough. Peter Sarsgaard did have a very good chance to shine in here but he did not get enough screen time. He was the key to this movie and he just did not have the chance to inspire or perform the way he could have. Jake Gyllenhall who did was just there. I'm not really sure what he was supposed to do in this movie but just stand there. I think he is an overrated an actor and showed that in here. Yigal Noar who played the father looking for his daughter could as well have really had an impact on this movie but just did not. The two actors who played lovers really did not bring enough of an emphasis to there characters at all and it just fell short like the rest of this movie. Omar Metwally who played the man being tortured gave the best performance out of all of these actors. The directing and writing was poor in Rendition. Gavin Hood and the writer are the main reason why this movie fell short in every aspect. They did not give too much meaning in this movie and did not develop the character in a efficient way. Probably the lack of development of the characters ruined this movie the most. That is why the acting was not too great. How could you write a story like this and not explain who these characters are and why they do the things they do. That is how you explain why people are terrorists, CIA agents, etc. Without that this is a horrible political movie and political statement. This movie does not even tell you the job positions of the Merrly Streep and Yigal Noar who are very important here. This movie needed to be much longer in order to truly push the message of the story forward but it just turned out to be a battle for screen time between the stars of Hollywood. Not enough clarity. Not enough development of characters, not enough reasoning and just too short.

I'm Egyptian. I have a green card. I have been living in the US since 1991. I have a very common Arabic name. I'm married (non-American but non-Egyptian, non-Arab wife). I have children who are born in the US. I have a PhD in Cell Biology from the US and I travel for conferences. I make 6 figure income and I own a home in the Washington, DC area. I pay my taxes and outside 1 or 2 parking tickets I have no blemish on my record since I came to this country in 1991. I look more Egyptian than the Ibrahimi character but my spoken English is as good as his. A couple of months ago I was returning from a conference/company business in Spain through Munich Germany to Washington, DC (Home). I was picked up in Munich airport by a German officer as soon as I got off the Madrid plane. He was waiting for me. He was about to start interrogating me until I simply told him "I have no business in Germany, I'm just passing through". He had let me go with the utmost disappointment. That was nothing compared to what happened at Washington, Dulles airport (Which was not nearly as bad as what happened to Ibrahimi in the movie). The customs officer asked me a couple of questions about the length and purpose of my trip. He then wrote a letter C on my custom declaration form and let me go. After I picked up my checked bag I was stopped at the last exit point (Some Homeland Security crap). I sat there for 3 hours along with many different people of many different nationalities. I was not told the reason for my detainment. I was not allowed to use my phone or ANY other phone. I was feisty at first asking to be told of the reason or let me go but decided to suck it up and just wait and see. I asked if I can call my wife to tell her that I'm going to be late but was told no. When I tried to use my phone and as soon as my wife said "hello", an officer yanked the phone out of hand and threatened me to confiscate it. When I asked about needing to call home because my family is waiting, they said "Three hours is nothing, we will make contact after 5 hours". When I asked to use the bathroom, an officer accompanied me there. It toilet was funny; I guess it was a prison style toilet that is all metal with no toilet seat. Finally, they called my name and gave me my passport/green card and said you can go. I asked what the problem was, they said "nothing"!! I know it was only 3 hours but I was dead tired and wanted to go home to see my wife and kids. As for the movie, it was very well made. Unlike most movies that involve Arabs and use non-Arab actors who just speak gibberish, this movie the Arabic was 100% correct. I assume the country is Morocco (North Africa).