Looking for something different to watch on a Saturday night, we decided to skim through the recommendations from Netflix. I really don’t care for their search engine, but after a few hits and misses, we settled on “True Memoirs of an International Assassin”. This is a NETFLIX original and was not released into theatres. For the purposes of title brevity, when referring to the title from this point forward, I will just call it “Memoirs”.
Memoirs stars a large ensemble of supporting actors centered around Kevin James in the lead role. This film is a cross between “Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Pink Panther, and the Secret adventures of Walter Mitty”. Taking some of those ideas and merging them with the comedic stylings of Kevin James make this film a fair little time waster.
Memoirs stars Kevin James as Sam Larson, an aspiring novelist whose real job is that of a struggling Insurance actuator. However, his real dream is to write a best-selling novel, but with very little real life experience he tends to lean on the stories of a friend who claimed to be an analyst for Mossad. Struggling over writer’s block, Larson (James) turns to Amos (Rifkin) for assistance. Even though Amos demands that these stories are not to appear in his book, he changes a few words and incorporates them into the story. Searching for a publisher for his novel, Larson (James) meets up with an independent agent who takes on his novel, but makes one small change to the title, by adding the word “True” at the beginning. This small amendment starts Larson’s new adventure. His book hits best seller status and, he starts promoting his novel on television. It is at this point that Larsen (James) actually starts living the life of the main character in his book. He finds himself in Venezuela where many parties all think that he is a world class Assassin and strongly persuade him to take on a hit for them. As this is a comedy, we see that each party wants Larsen to kill one of the others to promote their cause. Using the techniques that he has incorporated into his writing, he manages to thwart several criminals, outwit the CIA, get the girl, help the good guys and live a real adventure instead of writing one. That is pretty much the story in a nutshell.
Anytime you watch a show or movie with Kevin James, you know what you are going to get. You know you will have to put your brain away, not think of the all of the plot mistakes, over-use of clichés, predictable outcomes or even the expectation of a quality performance. Instead, you will get mindless entertainment that will make you smile, maybe even laugh out loud. “Memoirs” provided just that. We saw where the character was going within the first 10 minutes and could map out the general storyline, maybe not all the sub-characters, but at least all the main plot points and hints of what was to come. But, it did not matter, we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. What made this mindless little farce enjoyable, I would have to say the performances of the cast writ-large. They all played their stereo-typed characters to a T, and even with a little bit of flair. While we are on the subject of the cast, lets take a look at each character;
Kevin James as Sam Larson/Mason Carver: Kevin James is Kevin James, he never changes his character or style, but that is what makes (most) his films enjoyable. He bumbles/fumbles around, makes faces and almost has the agility of some other large comedians (John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farly). While his performances rarely change, he can still carry an action/comedy to the end. It was actually fun to watch him embrace his fictitious character of Mason Carver and watch his metamorphosis into a hero. He had great chemistry with all of his co-stars, especially Andy Garcia, Kim Coates and Zulay Henao. While he was in essence Paul Blart on steroids, his character delivered the necessary laughs and let us escape for a few hours. Oscar performance it was not, but at least it had more laughs then a re-run of “King of Queens”.
Kim Coates as President Miguel Cueto: Kim Coates has been around almost forever, he usually plays the tough guy, killer or soldier. To see him play a comedic role was extremely enjoyable. He had a dry delivery that made us laugh at all the right times. His portrayal of an inept President was great! The one-liners and drunken appearance were extremely entertaining and the scenes with James were extremely well done. Even though I really like him in roles that he plays in shows like “Sons of Anarchy” or “Prison Break” he should look into some of these more comedic roles in the future as he played it extremely well.
Zulay Henao as Rosa Bolivar: Henao as Bolivar in this film was almost cartoonish. It was probably meant to be that way, and if so, they succeeded. Dressed up like a rip-off of Lara Croft, in an outfit that accentuated her assets, she still managed to pull off a few funny scenes. Her chemistry with James was pretty good and she added to the humour in their scenes. I looked at her resume on IMDB and only remember seeing her in Stumptown (which was a show that we liked, too bad it got cancelled). Other than that, it looks like she has only had some smaller roles, and maybe a bit typecast in them. Who knows what the future will hold for her in film, but I don’t think this movie added to her credibility or made it worse. Her acting while cartoonish, was exactly what the film was looking for and in that aspect she did it well.
Andrew Howard as Anton Masovich: Howard played the Russian mobster very well. He covered every stereo-type of the nouveau riche Russian mobster, and best of all, he made us laugh. His scenes were amusing and his repartee with James were well done. I had seen him in a few shows in the past (Copper, Hell on Wheels, Boardwalk Empire) and he had done well.
Andy Garcia as El Toro: Garcia is an excellent actor; he seems to give it his all in big parts as well as small. Versatile, he can play a comedic role and switch to action films or dramatic parts in a heartbeat. Even though a relatively small role in this film, his was actually one of the most memorable. As the revolutionary leader, he played his part with style. His stole every scene he was in and managed to make even the lesser actors look better. A truly talented thespian, he adds to any film or endeavor that he undertakes. We always look forward to seeing him in a show and look forward to the next one.
Rob Riggle as William Cobb and Leonard Earl Howze as Micheal Cleveland: As the token CIA agents in the film, Riggle and Howze did what they were supposed to do. They provided some of the key ingredients to tie some of the scenes together in a comedic fashion. While not primary co-stars, they still provided some entertainment and laughs when they were on the screen.
Ron Rifkin as Amos: While he actually had the least amount of screen time, his contribution to the story was the cornerstone of the plot. It was his character’s contribution to the story (and in this case I mean the novel James was writing) were integral to the outcome, and even though we could predict when he would come on screen and his subsequent actions, they were still well done.
So after all this, were we entertained by the Paul Blart, Pink Panther, Walter Mitty rip-off. Yes, we were. We parked our brains, turned off our thought and enjoyed the ride. If you like Kevin James films and are into his comedic style, then this film will entertain you for a few hours. However, if you are looking for a deep plot, with great character development and a stellar script…then keep on searching through the Netflix menu. “True Memoirs of an International Assassin” is a light film with a very basic plot, even though predictable as hell, and using every cliché or stereotype in the book, it still came together and provided us with an escape for a few hours. So in essence, it did its job.
Our rating 5.5/10
If you are looking for some other films from the key characters, please check out the following recommendations.
Kevin James Hitch, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, The Dilemma, I now Pronounce you Chuck & Larry
Kim Coates Sons of Anarchy, Prison Break, Black Hawk Down
Zulay Henao Stumptown,
Andrew Howard Hell on Wheels, Bates Motel
Andy Garcia The Mule, Book Club, Oceans Thirteen, Oceans Eleven, Godfather III, Internal Affairs
Till Next time!
Comments powered by CComment