Man on a Ledge

I resisted seeing Man on a Ledge in the theater for one main reason…Sam Worthington’s mullet.  I’m guessing it was for Clash of the Titans: Yes, We Made a Second One of These but that doesn’t excuse it. 

Man on a Ledge has a pretty good cast but sadly that didn’t really help. One stand out for me was Elizabeth Banks.  I don’t often like her but I liked her in this.  She was slightly broken but determined to not only clear her name but help this guy off a ledge.  Worthington could never quite shake his accent but was otherwise fine.  Ed Burns basically took up space and Ed Harris was a caricature of a corporate bad guy who also needed a haircut.  Anthony Mackie was criminally underused and I forgot until just now that Kyra Sedgwick was even in it.  However, Jamie Bell did dish out a few quick dance moves.  Seeing him dance again only made me want to see him in Step-Up: UK or some such.  Of course they’d feel the need to stick Russell Brand in it too but he could play the host of a dance competition show on which Jamie Bell competes.  Nigel Lythgoe could produce the movie and Adam Shankman would, of course, direct.  Oooh!  It could even be a Billy Elliot sequel... Step Up, Billy Elliot!  Billy, now older and out of ballet and into jazz and hip hop enters a dance competition to save his small village from destruction.  I’d totally go see that.

Where was I?  Oh!  Man on a Ledge.  So the actual movie I watched (and not the one I just came up with) had a good idea for a story (guy tries to prove his innocence by threatening to jump off a building) but ended up being pretty predictable and not at all possible.  The pacing was bad and really dragged on a bit too long towards the end.  Actually it would have been a great episode of a television show like Person of Interest.  OK, Ben from Lost would get Sam Worthington’s number and Jesus would have to go save him by shooting a bunch of bad guys in the knees. Meanwhile, Taraji Henson would figure it all out in less than an hour and all would be well.

Technically it wasn't an awful movie.  It was a rental from that cheap, red kiosk and I was entertained for the most part. So I think if we could break Man on a Ledge up for parts and sell it off, we’d have some pretty great entertainment on our hands.