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EDGE OF DARKNESS Although based on a 1985 British TV miniseries, Edge of Darkness mostly feels like The Constant Gardener shorn of all emotional complexity and weighty plotting. That hardly matters, though: This could have played like an episode of Sesame Street and audiences would still turn out just to answer the pressing question: So, what's Mel been up to these days? It's been eight years since Mel Gibson has handled a leading role on the big screen (2002's Signs), and he's spent the time since then directing the biggest moneymaking snuff film of all time, getting in trouble with the bottle, with the law and with the wife, and being brilliantly parodied in a memorable episode of South Park. And now he's back in Edge of Darkness, and while his off-screen antics have noticeably aged him, he hasn't lost a step when it comes to exuding that undeniable movie-star magnetism. Gibson plays Thomas Craven, a widowed Boston cop whose grown daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) is murdered right before his eyes. The devastated dad starts snooping around and finds that all signs point toward Emma's former place of employment: Northmoor, a shady corporation with all sorts of underhanded ties to the government. Edge of Darkness is effective as a cathartic revenge yarn, at least until the absurdities begin to pile up during the final half-hour. As for Gibson, he's just fine in the sort of role that's been his bread-and-butter for the majority of his career: the maverick out to right a massive wrong by any gory means necessary. It's not exactly a fresh interpretation -- one reason the similar Taken works better than this picture is because we're not used to seeing Liam Neeson in such a part -- but it demonstrates that Gibson knows the best way to reconnect with his sizable fan base is by giving them what they expect and nothing more. And now that the edge has been removed from his public persona, can the career resurrection be far behind? **1/2
EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES Had Harrison Ford spent as much time playing risk-taking actor as action hero, would he now have a mantel of awards to call his own? There was a time when the former box office behemoth would occasionally tackle a quirky character (e.g. The Mosquito Coast, Working Girl) amidst all those larger-than-life super-studs in guaranteed blockbusters, but that time is long gone, and the past decade-plus has mostly seen him wheezing away in ill-advised bombs like Firewall and K-19: The Widowmaker (the latter directed by current critical darling Kathryn Bigelow). Ford did have the opportunity to stretch when Steven Soderbergh offered him a key role in Traffic, but he inexplicably backed out and the part went to Michael Douglas instead. Now Ford turns up in a supporting role in Extraordinary Measures, and it's a good fit, probably the reason he also signed on as an executive producer. As a grumpy, antisocial scientist who agrees to help a grieving couple (Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell) by developing a drug that will save the lives of two of their children (both inflicted with the rare Pompe disease), the aged matinee idol demonstrates that there's plenty of thespian talent left in the tank. But did he have to choose such a lame project on which to expend his energies? Extraordinary Measures is merely ordinary in every way, an earnest but plodding and unimaginative melodrama so flatly realized that it's hard to imagine there will be anything in the theater except dry eyes. Even its potential worth as a tool for universal health care coverage is compromised by the fact that it's even more likely to bore politicians than a stodgy slide show presentation on the subject. *1/2
