Theatrical Review: MAN ON A LEDGE

I should preface this review of Asger Leth’s MAN ON A LEDGE by saying the screening I attended was immediately followed by a Q&A with Sam Worthington. While most find him to be wooden and bland, I dig the guy. I dig his work. I even dug him in CLASH OF THE TITANS. It’s certainly not his best (my picks would be TERMINATOR: SALVATION or TEXAS KILLING FIELDS) but it’s nowhere near as bad as most (including himself) have made it out to be.

And now I dig this guy even more because he’s a very down to Earth movie buff just like you and me. Dude knows his movies. Not only that, Worthington knows what we think of him. He is fully aware that his American accent (he’s Australian) is a little dodgy. He also took full blame for CLASH during the Q&A. Full blame. Says the main reason that movie sucked wasn’t because of the hackjob post-conversion 3D Warner slapped on it or the wonky ending but because he wasn’t able to bring his best to the role. I disagree with that…but how many actors out there are willing to admit that their performance was the problem? Usually it’s the actor blaming the director or the producers, not the actor blaming himself.

Worthington is also a hardcore movie buff who loves movies. Not films, not art house pics, not indies, but actual movies. Movies like LETHAL WEAPON and DIE HARD. You know, the movies that Hollywood churns out constantly but never rewards because they are simply moneymakers and not actual “films”.

But Worthington intentionally looks for those films. He wants to be a movie star. Not an important actor or even a well-respected one. He just wants to be a guy who’s face tells an audience they are in for a good movie worthy of their hard-earned moviegoer dollar. Plus, Worthington admitted that he only does movies he’d actually pay to see. Very cool. Just like when he admitted during the Q&A that he was psyched to meet his LEDGE co-star William Sadler because of his work as Death in BILL AND TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY and revealed he wanted to work with Banks because of ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO and that Ed Harris scared him a little because he was the guy who took over Alcatraz in THE ROCK. Worthington is a movie geek just like you and me …and I’m man-crushing. And bragging. Geez, I’m such a f**king douche. Sorry about that. I’ll aim to be less douchey for the remainder of this review.

From what I gathered from the Q&A, MAN ON A LEDGE was written, designed, cast and filmed solely to be an entertaining picture. Nothing more, nothing less. An antidote to the glut of high-profile dramas and important pictures that have been taking up space at the multiplex recently, if you will.

Click on the pic to read my full review…