After a seemingly interminable 18-month wait since the last original episode of "24", Jack (Bauer) is back with "24: Redemption", a two-hour movie meant to tide us over until, catch us up with and get us excited about the seventh season of "24" premiering in January.(Well, the wait was slightly more interminable for me, since my slacker tendencies meant I didn't watch this movie until last night, almost two weeks after it aired.)
The movie finds Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) in the African leg of his redemption tour to atone for his past sins. He's holed up in an African school run by his Special Forces friend Benton (Robert Carlyle). Bauer also has to dodge a subpoena served by the weasely Frank Trammell (Gil Bellows), who we know is weasely because he wears weasely glasses and is trying to get Bauer back to the United States to pay for said sins.
The action takes place in the fictional country of Sangala, which is run by Gen. Benjamin Juma (Tony Todd), and his second-in-command Col. Dubaku (an impressive Hakeem Kae-Kazim). They are recruiting child soldiers to help them utilize the weapons provided by a shady power player named Hodges (Jon Voight) from back in the United States.
By the way, all of this is taking place during the inauguration of new president Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones).
When I watch a movie based on a TV show, the most important thing to me is that the movie is bigger (you HAVE to take advantage of the fact that it's playing on a large screen) and also able to stand on its own and that it NOT just feel like a two-hour episode. "Redemption" is going to have to be an exception to this rule, since it's obviously a TV movie and because it's not really meant to be a standalone adventure.
So did "Redemption" do its job in getting people excited for season 7? Hard to say. I've missed seeing Jack Bauer and hearing him say "damnit" so much that I probably would've been satisfied if "Redemption" followed Jack as he served food for two hours at a soup kitchen.
Seriously. I was probably a little more psyched during Jack's introduction last night (standing in the doorway as young Willy was going through his stuff) than I should've been.
I think the movie did a nice job of establishing the child soldier storyline in Sangala, showing us Jack's conflict AND delivering some kickass action in the span of two hours. Kiefer Sutherland is still excellent as Jack and here he probably showed more outward weariness than we've seen before (look at that poster - he looks like he can barely hold up that rifle). He's also apparently been working on his marksmanship since I don't believe Jack missed a single shot last night. The action scenes in Africa delivered, with my favorite throwaway moment being the guy Jack killed with his knife.
Still, I definitely could've done without the generous amount of screen time given to Willy, Jack's wannabe Short Round. (I kept waiting for him to say "Okee, dokee Mr. Bower!") The kid was irritating in that way that kids are in shows or movies that have no place for kids. Also, what happened to Benton is probably Willy's fault. I understand the child soldiers were crucial to this storyline, but please promise me you won't have any more little kids in prominent roles ever again. (It's a shame because the rest of the child actors were actually pretty good.)
I was more impressed by Kae-Kazim as the vengeance-seeking Col. Dubaku, whose fate was left up in the air. Personally, I hope he comes back because I think he has the potential to be a formidable adversary for Jack.
It seems that Jack won't have an adversary in the White House since President Taylor, so far, seems to be pretty close to David Palmer-like saintliness. Obviously, it's still ridiculously early to tell, but I hope they give Cherry Jones some interesting things to play in the future besides "goodness." The character should be an interesting change following the reptilian presidencies of Noah Daniels (Powers Boothe) and the late(?) great Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin).
That notwithstanding, I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes in Washington. I guess I was mostly happy to see Peter MacNicol temporarily reprise his role as White House aide Tom Lennox (one of the very best parts of the lackluster season 6) and Boothe as Daniels (oozing nastiness). I also liked the introduction of Hodges as the apparent Big Bad this season, though beating Jack Bauer will be an even bigger challenge for Jon Voight than beating "Karate Dog."
I was less impressed by the storyline involving the druggie (Kris Lemche) who stumbled upon Hodges' dirty deeds and also happens to be close friends with the president's son (Eric Lively). Sure, the scene where those two guys broke into his house was tense and very effective and creepy, but I just couldn't have cared less about this guy, and most of this stuff seemed to be happening on another show. There had to be a different (better) way to tie Hodges' dirty dealings with the president's office because this stuff had "DVD Deleted Scenes" written all over it.
In the end, it was a decent movie — not great, but certainly not as good as many of the show's episodes. I was surprised by the fact that I was excited for Jack to get out of Africa. Critics and fans were calling for an overhaul of the show after the stinky sixth season, and one of the ideas was to relocate our hero to a different country. While the stuff in Africa was decent (I probably could've done without the stereotypical "chanting" music on the soundtrack — I get it, he's in Africa), I'm glad he's on his way back to the U.S. I'm optimistic the writers have come up with something great for him to do when he gets there.
24: Redemption...B
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