That old saying about first impressions being the most lasting? It certainly holds true with \u201cFalcon Rising.\u201d<\/p>\n
In all respects, \u201cFalcon\u201d is the very definition of a B picture. Budget: low. Stars: second tier (and lower). Plotting: predictable.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a straightforward vengeance tale with no other ambition than to entertain.<\/p>\n
That said, it has something. And that something is evident in its opening minutes: close-up of a hand dropping bullets into shot glasses and then pouring whiskey over them. Now show the man with the hand drinking that high-caliber cocktail. Now show him spitting those bullets out, loading a couple into a revolver and playing some Russian roulette.<\/p>\n
Clearly a tormented soul here.<\/p>\n
Shortly afterward, finding himself in the middle of a convenience-store robbery, he invites a robber to shoot him. Demands it, in fact. \u201cEither shoot me,\u201d he instructs, \u201cor stop wasting my time.\u201d And then he beats the guy silly.<\/p>\n
That, friends, is an opening, especially when this particular tormented soul is played with the charisma and conviction that star Michael Jai White brings to the role.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s reminiscent of the wild-eyed conviction Mel Gibson brought to a similar opening situation in the first \u201cLethal Weapon.\u201d Crazed charisma. Grabs the attention every time.<\/p>\n
Thus grabbed, one is willing to follow White\u2019s character, a muscled wedge of a man with a bad case of post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in Iraq, to the slums of Rio, where his social worker sister (Laila Ali, Muhammad Ali\u2019s daughter) has been beaten and left for dead by unsavory characters. In colorful Brazilian surroundings, White\u2019s character, a deadly martial artist, will bring acres of pain to legions of unsavories.<\/p>\n