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Director: Gary Gray

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meany

The worst complaints I have about Law Abiding citizen are not the ridiculous plot or the tired, overdone evil genius character. The worst part of this project is that it has made alot of money and will encourage more crap to shoot out of Hollywood’s crap machine. Director Gary Gray has put out other weak action efforts like The Negotiator and The Italian Job remake where he wasted so much great talent that he should have been arrested for impersonating a filmmaker. Gerard Butler brings his considerable presence to the project and Foxx is solid enough.

Gerard Butler is Clyde Shelton, an ingenius inventor whose idyllic family-filled life is shattered when a couple of criminal misfits force their way into his home apparently for the main intention of killing everyone there and maybe grabbing a bit of jewellry. When they are caught, prosecutor nick Rice, played by Jamie Foxx, makes a plea bargain that allows the worst of the two criminals to be released in a mere ten years. It appears that Mr Shelton is a resourceful and patient man. He uses those then years to plan elaborate revenge on everyone he sees as being involved in this miscarriage of justice.

This film has found a following of non-discriminating viewers who will doubtlessly defend its glaring flaws with the “it’s only a movie” defense. It is only a movie. It is a bad movie that plays like Death Wish crossed with Saw. It’s unoriginal, over the top result is suitable viewing for fanas of the genre, but likely to be somewhere between nap-worthy and reactionary junk for others.

Director: Drew Barrymore

Starring: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Eve, Kristen Wigg, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon, Landon Pigg, Daniel Stern,

Drew Barrymore’s feature directorial debut is a success! Well, sort of. Working with novel author Shauna Cross’ screenplay, Barrymore does manage to keep the energy level up an does a fantastic job of casting a talented cast of actors who both look and play the roles they are in. The story is unique (at least unique within the cookie cutter confines of Hollywood) and interesting. Ellen Page is as great to watch as ever and Jimmy Fallon steps in from time to time with some comic relief. Where Whip It loses its roll a little is with a story that dulls its edge too much and with the roller skating scenes that could have been punched up with bit more action.

Ellen Page is Bliss Cavender, a high school girl competing in beauty pageants to please her frustrated mother played by Marcia Gay Harden. Bliss needs something of her own, however, and finds it, with her friend’s Pash’s (Alia Shawkat) I-dare-you encouragement in the resurging world of roller derby, but her challenges are many. Can she evade her mother (and league rules) to play? Can she fit in with the raucous crew of boisterous women and, most of all, can she hold her own on the track where bigger, meaner opponents with names like Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis) are playing rough and hard? Let the credits roll. They are dotted with fun outtakes.

Whip it is a good film about women stepping out and doing things by themselves and for themselves. It’s flavour and feel are rather like “A League of Their Own”, but lacks the polish of the latter. It is still an enjoyable film. It’s a fun, upbeat film with a charismatic cast and an interesting subject.

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Starring: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Kristen Hager, Chris Pratt

Well, the summer action season is here, and along with it, the promise of three months of high octane, low-intel action explosions that plug their gaping plot holes with expensive CGI and Dolby surround sound. Wanted made its way to the big screen as a comic book series, which explains the nonsensical plot and overdone action sequences which are becoming the all too typical style of today’s action features, and the end result is a yawning formula film.

James McAvoy’s character, Wesley starts out as a discontented office worker – aka Ed Norton’s Fight Club character, but his life takes a turn to the exciting when he is thrust into the midst of a violent war within a secret thousand year old fraternity of assassins, to which it turns out he was born to be part of. His sexy, but unconvincingly scrawny guide into this world is Fox, played by Angelina Jolie, who mostly just poses for the camera between comic book battles. Morgan Freeman is Sloan, the fraternity leader who monitors Wesley’s progress to determine when he is ready for his very special mission. The story strains credibility, but does manage a couple of decent surprises.

The action scenes of Wanted will remind viewers of pictures like Jumper mixed with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Jumper at least had an original premise but the ancient secret society of assassins is not original enough to carry this feature, but it should still pack enough punches and bullets to keep the action crowd happy for a couple of hours.

Director: Kimberly Peirce

Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rob Brown, Channing Tatum, Victor Rasuk, Timothy Olyphant

Director, Kimberly Pierce, who has been conspicuously absent from Hollywood movie credits since her auspicious debut with Boys Don’t Cry, returns with a motion picture that gives us yet another reason to hate the war in Iraq: the back-door drafting of soldiers who have finished their tour. This controversial practice is called ‘stop loss’ and little question remains as to what side of the argument this film falls onto. The tone gets preachy from time to time, and the story never quite manages to turn the heat up to the boiling level. The acting is strong, as is the direction, but neither manages to distinguish itself beyond that, leaving the film mired in mediocrity.

Stop Loss opens win some intense war scenes, but quickly shifts gears from a war film into a drama about a group of gung ho soldiers that include Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe- that guy you’ve heard of and know from something, but have no idea what), and his best friend Steve (Channing Tatum, who you don’t know from anything). Both of these guys have put in their time and are glad to have done their duty, but are even more glad to be done. Steve is all set to marry Michelle (Abbie Cornish), and Brandon, well I can’t remember what Brandon’s plans are, but it doesn’t matter because he is informed that due to a clause in his contract, the army is allowed to keep him and send him back to Iraq. This is called Stop Loss and is exactly what they intend to do. Brandon feels betrayed and angry over this and has to decide what to do, while all of his army buddies have struggles of their own, as well.

If you are not tired of films that show us yet another problem with the whole Iraq, post 9-11, Bush situation, yet, then here is another related issue. This subject area has already been saturated by the CNN, news magazine television shows, and several Hollywood releases. It’s point is valid, but perhaps using a true story might have managed to give it the interest and impact that it lacked. Stop Loss is a good film that will vanish into obscurity as quickly as a presidential address.

Director: Guy Ritchie

Starring: Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore, Andre Benjamin, Terence Maynard, Mark Strong

I was pleasantly surprised when I found this little known Guy Ritchie (Snatch) crime feature. It sounded great and Ritchie’s cool and stylish hand was immediately evident in the lightning editing and unusual use of color. The slow story, however, couldn’t keep up with the pace that Ritchie sets, and eventually becomes a little hard to follow, very hard to buy and, by the end, it has become strange, surreal and too clever for its own good. For some reason, Ritchie inserts short comic book clips of the action, as well. These were different, but seemed out of place. The characters are adequate, but nowhere near Snatch standards, as is the dialog.

Jason Statham is Jake, a tough, smart hood, who has just been released after seven years in jail at the hand of local mobster, Macha, delivered by Ray Liotta, in a great performance. Jake feels he is owed something for the time he served and goes to tell Macha this, which, predictably results in a bunch of thugs making a determined effort to kill him. So far, so good. In an early twist, however, it seems that poor Jake has only three days to live due to a rare blood disease. Because of these two situations, he agrees, for some unfathomable reason, to turn over all his cash to a couple of loan sharks to protect him. Huh? I thought Jake was a tough guy? Anyway, suddenly Jake has become a lap dog for Avi and Zach (Andre Benjamin and Vincent Pastore). Don’t worry though, there are plenty of action scenes and plot twists to watch before all is revealed in a longwinded, and awkward ending, that I think I only understood part of.

Fast paced direction with a lumbering story isn’t a strong combination and, in this case, the result is a disheartening blow to Guy Ritchie’s reputation as the premiere maker of stylish crime films. Revolver is as over done as hockey puck burger, and there are better choices out there, but I know that Guy Ritchie fans (like me) will have to see this one for themselves. Maybe you’ll enjoy it more than I did.

Director: Roger Donaldson

Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Michael Jibson, Richard Lintern

Director Roger Donaldson is on a roll. His last three films, The World’s Fastest Indian, The Recruit, and Thirteen Days, have all been fine efforts, but all are outdone by this captivating, true story of a 1970s bank robbery, where pulling off the caper was only the beginning of the robber’s challenges. The cool script moves at a brisk clip that swiftly ramps up the tension, and keeps it up the RPMs, all the way. Not all of the subplots seemed necessary and, although the dialog is sound, a few more slick quotable lines would have made this fine film even stronger.

Jason Statham (Snatch, Transporter series) must have been wondering what happened to the requisite scene where he leaps through the air in slow-motion with two pistols blazing. All of his projects since Snatch seem to find a way to fit that in. This isn’t that kind of film. Statham is Terry, owner of an unsuccessful car lot, with a shady background and the kind of debt that isn’t settled by declaring bankruptcy. An answer appears in the form of an old flame, Martine, who shows up with info and an offer of a lucrative robbery. What she fails to mention, is that she’s been recruited by black-op government types to get a hold of royal sex photos that are being used by a criminal as a stay out of jail free card. Terry puts together a team and this ambitious plan gets more complicated and dangerous as it goes on. And this is true? So they say. If there is a book about this (I looked. I couldn’t find one), I want to read it.

Today, sex photos of a prominent royal would likely lead to little more than a flurry of internet activity and a tearful apology. What a difference a quarter century makes! In the 1970s, the British government would apparently stop at nothing to keep those photos from becoming a front page scoop. The Bank Job is a jaw-dropping true story with top notch direction, and strong performances, that held me riveted to the end. If you loved films like Heat and Inside Man, then this is your first must-see motion picture of 2008.

Director: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Steven Strait, Camilla Bell, Cliff Curtis, Joel Virgel, Affif Ben Badra, Mo Zinal, Marco Khan

Well, after creating an alien invasion in Independence Day and a giant monster in Godzilla, two things have become abundantly clear about writer/producer/director Roland Emmerich. He is very skilled at creating large-scale CGI spectacles, and he is the worst writer getting rich in Hollywood, today. It’s hard to believe that this is the same mind that brought us the shallow, but very entertaining, Stargate. At least in his previous projects, however, Emmerich was willing to lay out some cash to get his dumb lines delivered by professional stars with some skill and charisma. Not so here. The cast of 10,000 B.C. is largely made up of lost unknowns and untalented newcomers, with the exceptions of Cliff Curtis and narrator Omar Sharif (I‘ve heard of him). The fitful acting is worsened by soap opera quality dialog and a story that belongs on Saturday morning cartoons. Even Emmerich’s direction, which helped his earlier efforts seems tired and unimaginative, here.

The woeful, and historically-inaccurate, story (I won’t even get started with that) of 10,000 B.C. starts out with a clan of mammoth hunters, living a Native-American inspired lifestyle. Their little world, which includes perfect use of all language concepts except contractions, is upset when a young, blue-eyed girl (Evolet) stumbles into their village and prompts their magical mystic (“Old mother” – that’s original) to fire out a doomful prophecy. Aren’t all prophecies doomful? When was the last time anyone prophesized something bland, but pleasant? Anyway, the prophecy prompts the village’s main hunter, and holder of some ridiculously prominent white spear, to abandon his son, and his clan, to go…go…I don’t really know why he left, but he left. Some kind of plan to stop the prophecy, I guess. At any rate, he leaves his son, D’ Leh, who grows up, falls in love with Evolet and becomes a leader. His world is turned upside down when a group of technologically advanced raiders show up and take Evolet, and others, captive. Now, D’Leh and a few companions have to rescue them, which involves crossing the great mountains, meeting new groups, stopping for cappuccino, etc. Okay, I made up the last part, but if they had, it wouldn’t have made the story much more ridiculous than it already is.

The wonderful CGI effects in 10,000 B.C. could not save this sorry effort from the blunt force trauma of my keyboard. Imagine Apocalypto, crossed with Quest for Fire, mixed with Stargate, and drained of all logic, and you have 10,000 B.C., which is nowhere near as good as any of those films (and I didn’t even like Quest For Fire that much). The usual crowd of easily-pleased action fans will like this one, and spout off with typical “can’t you just enjoy the movie” kind of defense, but others should stay away from the shrapnel of this bomb. The CGI animals are cool to watch and they entertained me in a Jurassic Park 2, kind of way for awhile, but there wasn’t even enough of that, so I was left to endure a story that is on a par with the efforts of a motivated eighth grader, disappointing performances from a cast that may improve one day, but I doubt it, and action direction that had all the imagination of an infomercial. If you catch trailer for this one, you have seen the best it has to offer. It only gets worse from there. 10,000 B.C. is the first major cinematic disappointment of 2008.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984) *

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth

I suppose that it’s only fitting that arguably the greatest adventure film of all time would be followed by the most disappointing sequel of all time. The characters are horrible, but how could they be anything but with a script that still serves as an embarrassment to Spielberg’s career to this day? The acting is abhorrent and the dialog is unintentionally funny, which is the only source of amusement, since the legitimate attempts at humor are flatter than a Montana highway.

Harrison Ford is back as the famous archeologist, Indiana Jones, but instead of the exciting jungle scene that the original started out with, this film opens with a cheap rip-off of a James Bond scene. This time out, Indy is teamed with an incredibly irritating and offensive character of an Asian boy with the ridiculous name of Short Round. They are soon joined by a diva nightclub singer played by Kate Capshaw whose screaming is only surpassed in aggravation by her terrible performance. She met the married Spielberg on this movie and five years later she was his wife. Maybe that explains how she got and hung on to this role. Anyway, the film is set in India and has the trio searching for a village’s mysterious missing gem. Yawn. The movie starts out weak and, unbelievably, only gets worse as it goes on.

The Temple of Doom is an insult to Indiana Jones’ earlier masterpiece and a regrettable viewing experience that is only likely to be enjoyed in the company of your most sarcastic friends.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring:

Inspired by the rousing cliffhanging serials that he loved as a kid, Steven Spielberg set out to make a film that captured the formula of a two-fisted hero in simple fast paced excitement set in exotic locales. In few instances in cinematic history, has a director so completely succeeded in creating his vision. Harrison Ford plays the physical title role like he was born to it, and the supporting cast is uniformly solid. The story is a simple, clear and exciting mix of action and humor, while Spielberg’s direction stands out as some of the most brilliant work ever put on screen.

Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones, a 1930’s archeologist in a world where grand artifacts seem not to be buried, but instead are protected by ancient, but lethal security systems. Indy is approached by government officials to set out to find the lost Ark of the Covenant which is being sought by Hitler and is rumored to have terrible power. Soon Indy is globe hopping with a former flame, Marion (Karen Allen), in search of the Ark, while dodging Nazis, who are being helped by his ruthless nemesis, Belloq (Paul Freeman). The result is a well-paced blend of humor and excitement.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a modern cinema classic that surely must be one of the most well-made motion pictures of all time. Its elements seamlessly combine to create a special movie experience that, thanks to its period piece setting, has stood up well over the passing decades since its release. If you haven’t seen it, you should and if you have seen it, you should see it again. Each viewing seems to give just a little more appreciation of its quality.

Director: Pete Travis

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Bruce McGill, Edgar Ramirez, Said Taghmaoui, Ayelet Zurer, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Eduardo Noriega

Novice director Pete Travis’ inaugural big screen effort is a surprisingly taut action effort that manages to juggle lots of characters, and a complex plot, in a reasonably efficient manner. This is no small feat, even for a seasoned director, so Travis may be a guy to watch. The characters are soundly developed, considering their numbers and the acting is also commendable, though, Quaid overacts in the lead role. The intriguing story uses a modified Rashomon narrative style, which focuses on five characters’ differing perceptions of events during the same time period. This style kept me riveted to the unfolding story, though some character actions didn’t always make sense (especially at the end) and this puts a strain on the film’s credibility, but it is an action movie, so I won’t judge that too harshly. The movie flies back and forth at a lightning pace, as you would expect with this story style, with each character adding something to the viewer’s understanding of the events. The action scenes are chaotically filmed in the now-familiar, close-up style and are a little difficult to follow, but are not overdone, which is always a pleasant surprise. The end result, here, is an enjoyable action picture.

Dennis Quaid is Thomas Barnes, a Secret Service hero, who returns to duty, just in time to join the detail guarding the president (played by William Hurt) during a political, anti-terrorist rally in Spain. Security threats cause a last minute decision to replace the president with a double (has this ever happened?), which is probably good, since the double is shot as soon as he steps up to speak. Explosions, confusion and panic follow, and poor Mr. Barnes has a rocky return to active duty. A Spanish police officer, a visiting American tourist (Forest Whitaker), several Secret Service agents and others all have a different take on the events and this original method of unfolding the story is effective. My attention was riveted, and only an ending that could stand improvement kept this movie from getting a higher rating. Ask yourself this: Why is this guy suddenly worried about killing someone?

Vantage Point is a satisfying, fast-paced action film that will please fans of the genre, while providing a pleasant surprise to those with low expectations. Denzel Washington’s Deja Vu from last year, had a similar pace and cleverly stretched plotline, though similarities end there. Imagine In The Line of Fire, if it were sped up and told in a twenty minute time frame, and you will have some idea of what to expect here.