Don't rush to the theater to see this Pierce Brosnan-Salma Hayek film. The scenery may be great, but the story isn't.
By RICK GERSHMAN
Published November 11, 2004
[Photo: New Line Cinema]
Max Burdett (Pierce Brosnan) studies a diamond in After the Sunset.
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Pierce Brosnan recently told a television interviewer he felt "gutted" when producers of the James Bond movies changed their minds and chose not to invite him back for another go as 007.
Watching After the Sunset, it's easy to understand his dismay: If this is a preview of the Irish actor's post-Bond career, it's going to go a lot more like the Roger Moore route than the Sean Connery course.
Not that we're blaming Brosnan, who at 51 remains as handsome and charming as ever. He perfectly inhabits the role of not-quite-reformed jewel thief Max Burdett, though that's not surprising because he played virtually the same role in 1999's The Thomas Crown Affair.
And to be fair, watching Brosnan and a drop-dead gorgeous Salma Hayek cavort around a Caribbean island and make out isn't entirely a waste of time. That's especially true when the film takes advantage of every single opportunity to show off Hayek, playing Brosnan's partner in crime and romance, in a range of skimpy bikinis and undergarments.
Sure, that sounds base and crude, but without that angle, there's really no movie here.
Sunset fashions itself a lighthearted caper flick with heavy doses of romance and comedy. That setup can work great when it's executed with a likable cast, a witty script with smart plot twists and a director with finesse, timing and taste.
Sunset gives us a cast that's likable, but a little off, with a miscast Woody Harrelson playing way too broad as an FBI agent tracking Burdett and obsessed with getting the last laugh.
What laughs Sunset provides largely derive from characters acting absurdly as possible just to set up lame punch lines. Before authoring the story and cowriting the screenplay for After the Sunset, Paul Zbyszewski's only previous professional credit was writing for the television game show The Weakest Link. That experience shows, as Sunset falls apart under the weight of a plot with so many holes that it would hardly make sense in a Farrelly brothers comedy, much less a caper film.
Director Brett Ratner's leaden approach makes the gaps all the more glaring. And Ratner dates his film immediately by opening it with lingering closeups of basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, now with the Miami Heat, playing in a Los Angeles Lakers game.
We'll cut Sunset a little slack for casting the always-awesome Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) as an island kingpin pressing Burdett to make one more score, though he gets little more than a cameo.
And it's refreshing to see Naomie Harris, last seen kicking zombie butt in 28 Days Later, as a sexy policewoman who doubles as Harrelson's love interest. But ultimately Sunset will be best enjoyed at home on your television, where you can enjoy its visual assets with the sound, mercifully, on mute.
