Spartan or How to Lose the President's Daughter in 10 Days with Val Kilmer, David Mamet, and Kristen Bell

February 16, 2006 - "Spartan" is the story of the kidnapping of the U.S. President's daughter (Kristen Bell ["Veronica Mars"]), and the man charged with finding her, Secret Service agent Scott (Val Kilmer ["Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"]). Along the way he discovers there's more to this kidnapping than meets the eye (isn't there always?), and must face-off against not only the kidnappers, but some of his own, as well, in order to get to the bottom of things and save the day.

This movie dives right into its subject matter from frame one, and never lets up. It comes at you fast, and is almost disorienting because of that fact, but that approach is also what allows "Spartan" to have a sense of urgency to it throughout and never waste a moment. Another thing "Spartan" has going for it is its authenticity, or, at least, its appearance and/or feel of authenticity (because it's not like I did any research or anything. So, hell if I know whether it's really true to its subject matter or not, but it sure fooled me real good, if it's not) in its treatment of procedures and the overall approach of the authorities. Now, authenticity's great and all to a point, and that point is when it starts to hurt the story, i.e., bore the audience, and "Spartan", unfortunately, strayed into that territory on a couple of occasions. I mean, "Spartan" was an OK movie and all, a good rental, to be sure, but definitely not in the same class as other works I've seen by writer/director David Mamet ("Heist") such as "The Untouchables" (written by only), "Glengarry Glen Ross" (written by only), "The Spanish Prisoner", "Wag the Dog" (written by only), "Ronin" (written by only [as Richard Weisz]), and "State and Main". And if you haven't seen any of the films I've just listed, do, and if you have some time leftover near the end of your Mamet Marathon, give "Spartan" a twirl, too. Think of it as a sort of added bonus, like the free toaster that you can sometimes get for opening up a checking account. Yeah, that's right. When you think of "Spartan", think of free toasters (or can openers, if you're on Adkins).