Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Action/Adventure, Crime Drama
Opens locally Friday, October 29th, 2010, Rated R Run Time: 2 hours, 26 minutes Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace Directed by Daniel Alfredson [Film is in Swedish with English Sub-titles] Some Background. If you are not familiar with, or haven't heard of the Millennium Trilogy by now, you must be living under a rock. The bestselling Swedish novels written by the late Stieg Larsson are the hottest property right now in Hollywood. Part 1, entitled "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is currently being re-made into American films by David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, The Social Network) and is set to star Daniel Craig (James Bond) in the role of journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara in the much coveted role of Lisbeth Salander. The first in these American remakes are set to be released in December of 2011.
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Rating: 4 out of 5 starsThe back cover of the South of the Border DVD reads "Oliver Stone reports. You Decide." The word "reports" implies that it is an objective look, free of opinion...so to say that Stone is "reporting" in his newest film is like saying Michael Moore or Bill O'Reilly "report" objective news. But "South of the Border", a documentary that follows Stone to several South American countries for chats with their regional leaders, is a compelling although slanted take on a topic not many Americans are aware of.
Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Opens locally Friday, October 22nd, 2010, Rated PG-13 Run Time: 2 hours 9 minutes Starring: Matt Damon, Cecile De France, Thierry Neuvic, George/Frankie McLaren, Bryce Dallas Howard Directed by Clint Eastwood (Mystic River, Gran Turismo, Invictus) How Clint Eastwood continues his incredible pace of directing movies is beyond me. Many of his recent movies have been critical darlings, but on a personal level, only Mystic River and Gran Turismo stand out as great movies. His latest film, "Hereafter" is not quite a great movie, but I had an odd reaction while watching and afterwards...the movie itself is a slow, borderline sleepy movie, that somehow towards the end was very satisfying to me. I can see the film receiving mixed reactions, and I truly think that only someone with Eastwood's clout could get a movie such as this made. A strange film that seems to be focused on the afterlife, but is much more interested in the here and now, rather then the hereafter. Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Opens Friday, October 22nd locally, Rated R Run Time: 1 hour 47 minutes Starring: Hillary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Melissa Leo Directed by Tony Goldwyn (The Last Samurai) "Conviction" is a great and fitting title for this movie, a "based on a true" story shot entirely in Michigan. The movie centers on the real life Betty Anne Waters (Swank), an unemployed single mom who's brother is convicted of murder. The brother Kenneth (Rockwell), is a trouble-maker but not a killer...he vehemently denies the accusations. Betty Anne, in order to prove her brother's innocence, first takes her GED, then bachelor's, then master's, before earning a law degree. All of this to exonerate her brother of the charges, while also raising her two boys and supporting them any way she can. So on one level, the movie is about the "conviction" of Kenny Waters, but the true meaning of the film is the "conviction" of Betty Anne's character: the dictionary definition of which is "an unshakable belief in something without the need for proof or evidence." Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy, Action/Adventure, but mostly somewhere in between
Opens October 15th, 2010 Rated PG - 13, Run Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes Starring: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker Directed by Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler's Wife) For a movie named after a bright, exciting color, the movie couldn't be more dull. "Red" actually stands for "Retired, Extremely Dangerous", based on a comic book mini-series by Warren Ellis (and artist Cully Hammer), it is meant to be one of those "Lethal Weapon"-style action pictures...one with a good amound of thrills, that keeps you laughing along the wild ride. Well Red is no Lethal Weapon even, falling somewhere between the two genres it tries to belong to. It is not nearly funny enough to recommend, and it fails as an action movie as well. What's left? We see several fine actors collecting a paycheck in what will surely be a low point in many of their careers. Rating: 5 out of 5 starsGenre: Documentary
Opens locally Friday, October 8th, 2010 Run Time: 1 hour, 42 minutes, Rated PG Directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) Great documentaries are able to portray real-world, big-picture issues in a compelling way that touches the core of each individual watching it. They should shed light, uncover truths (or inconvenient truths), and most of all, ignite the audience into action. Waiting for Superman then, is a great documentary. Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: SciFi/Fantasy, Drama
Opens locally Friday, October 8th, 2010 Run Time: 1 hour 44 minutes, Rated R Starring: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield Directed by Mark Romanek (Bee Season, One Hour Photo) SPOILERS TO FOLLOW "Never Let Me Go" is an odd movie based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. Starring the lovely Keira Knightley, and Carey Mulligan (one of my favorite young actresses working today), at first glance, it seems like a period-piece movie, set in an English boarding school called Hailsham. The movie has an eerie tone to it, and we suspect that there is more going on. We are right. Turns out, Hailsham is actually a place where human clones are being raised, for the sole purpose of having them provide donor organs for transplants. A horribly haunting concept, the movie sounds much more interesting on paper (or computer screen) than it does on film. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Opens October 1st, 2010 Run Time: 2 hours, Rated PG-13 Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer Directed by David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) SPOILERS TO FOLLOW. "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies" reads the press poster for "The Social Network", the new movie about the invention of Facebook. If you don't know what Facebook is, or if you're not on Facebook, there is a good chance that you're an alien, or one of the last known human hold-outs to the popular networking site. Significant as the invention of Facebook is (I rank it right up there with the invention of crack...it changed the world, but in a good way??), many may not know it's origins. "The Social Network" may not be entirely factual, but it is an interesting and head-scratching look into one of the most important cultural phenomenons of the 21st Century. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Horror
Opens October 1st, 2010 Run Time: 1 hour 55 minutes, Rated R Starring: Kodi Smit McPhee, Chloe Grace Moretz, Richard Jenkins Directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, 28 Weeks Later) SOME SPOILERS TO FOLLOW "Let Me In" is an intelligent, deliberately paced, and effective movie strictly for adults, although most of the on-screen time is spent with child actors. It seems that nowadays kids are having more and more names, as both of the stars of this film have 3 each (see above). But that aside, "Let Me In" is a different kind of vampire story, mixing in flavors of odd-ball acceptance tales where a kid just doesn't fit in. It focuses on these characters and really hits home in it's themes of alienation. For the genre (horror), it isn't too thrilling as far as making you jump and squirm, but there are definitely gruesome sequences worthy of similar films. Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Independent, Romance
Opens locally: October 1st, 2010 Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Ryan, John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman (directorial debut) Run Tim: 1 hour, 29 minutes "Jack Goes Boating" was a 2007 off-Broadway play by Bob Glaudini, who adapted his own work for the screen. The play also starred Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role as "Jack", as well as Rubin-Vega and Ortiz. This film marks Hoffman's directorial debut, and from what I can tell, is quite faithful to the stage version. |
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