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Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh, Oscar Isaac, Ali Suliman

DiCaprio continues his trend of working with the biggest names in Tinseltown, as he teams up with Russell Crowe in this gritty 21st century spy nail biter. Di Caprio is steady, but unremarkable, while Crowe shines as one of the worst bosses in film history. Crowe always manages to find different ways to portray characters that seem, on the surface, to be similar to his past selections, and its always impressive to watch. Add directing master, Ridley Scott to the mix, and all the ingredients are present to make a film that is actually worth the ten bucks they charge for it.

Leonardo is Roger Ferris, a smart, fearless hands-on kind of modern spy who is after a terrorist leader named Al-Saleem with the shadowy help of Jordanian intelligence leader, Hani (Mark Strong), and the dubious support of his manipulative boss, Ed Hoffman, who is half soccer Dad and half sociopath (Russell Crowe). There is an unconvincing Hollywood-style romance tacked on with the usual style and results, but the dark story is still engaging and is sprinkled with authentic action scenes.

Body of Lies is an appealing blend of films like Traitor, Spy Games, Syriana and Enemy of the State, that mixes a good story with a not so subtle message about the weaknesses of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East with striking visuals and high quality production. If tricky espionage action is palatable to you, then don’t miss this one.

Director: Thomas McCarthy

Starring: Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Jekesai Gurira, Hiam Abbass

Hollywood likes to make films that I call issue pieces from time to time. An issue piece has a story and characters and they can be quite a good film, but there is always a central social issue that the filmmakers seem to want to sway your opinion on. The Visitor is an issue piece, with the issue here being the plight of illegal aliens in the United States. The story is grim and slow-paced, but the message is clear and poignant without being overpowering. The performances are very good and both relative newcomers Haaz Sleiman and Danai Jekesai Gurira, show both ability and charisma

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a widower and university professor who is living life through the motions, finding some relief in music, though he is frustrated in his attempts to learn an instrument himself. When an unavoidable NYC conference leads him to return to his long-kept but rarely used apartment, he finds a young couple, Tarek and Zainab (Sleiman and Gurira) are living there. Things are tense at first but soon Vail’s loneliness and a mutual interest in music gives rise to a friendship between Vail and Tarek, which leads to complications.

The Visitor is a semi-satisfying, but unremarkable drama, designed to tug at our heartstrings, but is not wholly successful. Still, with a decent story and a fresh cast of talented and mostly unknown faces, it does mange to draw out a couple hours worth of entertainment.

Director: Morgan Spurlock

Starring: Morgan Spurlock

The documentary genius of Morgan Spurlock returns! In his first effort since the brilliant look at fast food, Super Size Me, Spurlock is about to become a dad, and decides he has to make the world safe for his offspring. The best way to do this, he determines, is to track down western public enemy #1, Osama Bin Laden. This premise is handled quite lightly, though this feature has less appeal than Spurlock eating MacDonald’s ninety times. Still it is another wonderful film that eases us into an uncomfortable subject and then offers an engaging introspective view of it. The film clocks in at less than 90 minutes and offers enough animation and cheesy CGI, that the whole thing looks just a little cheap, but is still entertaining and compelling.

Finding the most wanted man in the world, seems like it could be a tricky goal, but undaunted, Mr. Spurlock sets out on his task. His plan is simple. Just visit countries where he may be and ask people if they’ve seen him. Hmmm, why hasn’t western intelligence thought of that? Anyway, Morgan visits several Muslim and middle-eastern countries, and talks to people. Some are people of power and influence, while most are average citizens. Besides the inquiry into Bin Laden’s whereabouts, he asks them what they think of the terrorist leader, the United States and of their own circumstances. The results are interesting and range from chilling to amusing.

“Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?” plays like ‘political science light’ and will should make the rounds of grade twelve classrooms for the next few years. It is light enough to be fun and serious enough to offer a little insight, but with a feature like this, its best to keep in mind that its not difficult to give the viewer any message that the filmmaker wants to give.

Director: David Koep

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Bill Campbell, Aasif Mandvi,

David Koep who has an impressive list of writing credits and a list of unknown directing credits co-wrote and directed this intermittently warm and occasionally humorous project with the very funny Ricky Gervais (The Office). The dialog could have been much better, and the low-on-laughs story is all too familiar, even for a comedy. The charismatic cast does manage to pull enough entertainment out to save this from being a poor movie but the end result is unremarkable.

Ricky Gervais is Bertram Pincus, an incredibly rude, people-hating dentist, whose main goal in life seems to be to avoid any human contact and get back to his lonely condo as quickly as possible, each day. This would seem like an incredibly rich opportunity to have us rolling in the aisles, but, incredibly, writers, Koep and John Kamps were unable to do more than pull out more than a few chuckles from me. At any rate, following what should have been routine medical procedure, poor Pincus, has a lot more humans to avoid on his way home, since he can now see huge numbers of dead people walking around in addition to all those pesky live ones. Pincus’ confusion over which are alive and which are dead, and living observers seeing one side of his conversations with these human-looking ghosts, who all want him to do something for them, provides the main base for cliche humour for the rest of the film. The most persistant ghost is Frank (Greg Kinnear), who wants Pincus to split his widow (Tea Leoni) from her new love (Bill Campbell). Pincus reluctantly agrees, but of course, promptly falls in love with her himself. Who would expect that kind of zany plot twist?

Ghost town, was a lot less funnier than I had expected, but did offer a slightly touching cliched story to pass the time with the result being a pedestrian project from beginning to end, that will stay in my mind about as long as my last golf score. Imagine a movie that crosses Ghost with Sixth Sense, with half the appeal of each, and you will know what you can expect here. Worth seeing for Ricky Gervais fans, perhaps, but if the popular TV actor and podcast star, wants to make it at the box office, he will have get better features than this one.

Director: George Roy Hill

Starring: Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Harold Gould, Jack Kehoe

If ever there was a film where the key elements of great writing, innovative direction and charismatic performances came together in a flawless and enjoyable cinematic experience, then that film is The Sting. A seasoned cast of excellent performers is lead by Paul Newman and Robert Redford as they re-created the on-screen magic that they had first demonstrated in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid in 1969. The clever story is smart and cool as it features fun period dialog, and is smoothly laid out by director George Roy Hill, and is brought together and made even more memorable by Marvin Hamlisch’s well known score.

Robert Redford is Hooker, a charismatic, depression era street grifter whose partner, Luther, is murdered under the orders of a ruthless Chicago mob boss, Doyle Lonnegan, played by Robert Shaw in a masterful performance. Hooker wants the kind of revenge only a conman can get and goes to an old buddy of Luther’s, Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman). Together they set out to hurt the gangster with a big con, while not ending up murdered along the way to a great ending.

The Sting is a 70’s classic and is required viewing for all scam loving movie goers., as well those who enjoy finely crafted, but still light and entertaining period pieces. The end result is not comedy, but is pretty campy and manages to invoke a mood all its own. Worth seeing and worth seeing again, and again, and again….You get the idea.

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruel, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, Haylie Duff

Written by the husband and wife team of Jared and Jerusha Hess, and directed by Jared, this film has more reasons that I should dislike it than lots of acclaimed films that I consider a waste of my time and somebody else’s money. It’s silly, has a story on par with a bad sitcom and has a whimsical setting that never does completely decide on a time period with valium-powered performances are understated to the extreme, giving this project an extraordinarily slow pace for a comedy, but the fresh, deadpan humor is magnified by these creative choices, and it is all lovingly presented with the low budget TLC that only an independent film can muster. The result is uneven cinema that grabbed a stack of award nominations and is considered to the funniest film of 2004 by many, including myself and was picked as an overrated head scratcher by many others.

Jon Heder, who has since climbed to exalted Hollywood heights with such esteemed projects as Blades of Glory and Robot Chicken, shuffles onto the scene in this film about a pathetic High School loser, dealing with bullies and an equally pathetic family, as well as the unusual name of Napoleon Dynamite. Since I’ve had to go through life with the name, The Manhattan Move Maniac, I know. It ain’t easy. Anyway, Napoleon is just dealing with it one day at a time as he hopes against all odds that life might get better and a new friend named Ramone (Efren Ramirez) and a socially disabled girl named Deb (Tina Majorino) seem to offer up some hope. Could it be?

Napoleon Dynamite has an original and silly collection of offbeat characters pulled together with some very unusual filmmaking, making a bit like the Royal Tenenbaums with teen appeal. For me, Napoleon Dynamite is a shining example of why I should occasionally see a film that I know that I will hate (besides being pulled into one, while whining and stamping my feet, by some woman with strange power over me). For you, it may be a shining example of why you should find better uses for your time than amusing yourself with my movie opinions

Writer/Director: Sean Ellis

Starring: Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Shaun Evans, Michelle Ryan, Stuart Goodwin, Michael Dixon

What if you Had the ablility stop any moment in time and be able to really see the world for what it is. It’s beauty, it’s chaos. British Writer/Director Sean Ellis explores that exact idea in this indy work and unlike the Adam Sandler effort “Click” that had a somewhat similar premise, Cashback is original, funny and entertaining.

Ben Willis is an aspiring artist with no other real marketable trade. After a ugly break up with his girlfriend Suzy, he developes a nasty bout of insomnia. Having a hardtime filling the extra 8 hours a day he decides to start working at a 24 hour grocery store as a stock boy to pass the time. During his tenure of trading time for money, he meets a motley crew of characters that all have their own unique and often very humourous way of passing the time and boredom at work. It is here that he also realizes his undiscovere skill of being able to “freeze time” at any second and explore the world in that exact moment. It allows him to appreciate the true beauty of all things and all people in any frozen moment. The beauty he realizes most often is his co-worker and suspended animation muse Sharon. Ben developes the true depth of his talent for drawing in these captured moments.

Cashback is a refreshing story with a truely unique look at love and beauty. It is filled with clever dialogue and interesting characters and a clear message that the world is filled with beauty at all times, most of us just don’t take the time to see it. As with many good English indy films,the characters are interesting and fun to watch interact. Because of the backdrop of the late night supermarket and the eclectic cast of characters and the introspective lead character, this movie plays like a cross between Career Opportunities, Snatch and Garden State. If you liked any combination of those three you are sure to enjoy this one. If you have not seen those…..it looks like a four movie weekend for you!

Director: Peter Berg

Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Jae Head, Eddie Marsan

What if a super-hero was also a hard drinker with anger management issues and nonexistent social skills whose crime-fighting choices often lead to heavy property damage and courtroom subpoenas? Director Peter Berg answers this original question in an action/drama/comedy starring box office hero, Will Smith who flexes his money-making muscles in an entertaining story with several laughs and a couple of innovative twists.

Will Smith is Hancock, a sullen alcoholic nursing hidden pain who would have been ignored as he slipped through the cracks like all too many of our unfortunate fellow citizens, except Mr. Hancock also happens to have Superman-like abilities and a reluctant but consistent habit of fighting crime and rescuing people, on his terms. This leads to an image problem that Ray Embry, played by a well-cast Jason Bateman, offers to help him with, as a thank you for saving his life. As he helps Hancock to try to get control of his life, he also invites the socially awkward Things may sound funny, simple and fun and they are, but the plot takes a couple sharp turns that while catching the viewers unawares, they are also a little hard to buy, but the whole thing is still fun.

Hancock is an interesting twist on the recent popular genre of comic book hero movies. Smith and Bateman show their considerable acting skill, as well as good chemistry, and do a commendable job with a creative script that packs one of the few real cinematic surprises of 2008.

Director: Guy Maddin

Starring: Darcy Fehr, Ann Savage,

Art house, and film festival sweetheart, writer/director Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in The World) has put out a visual poem about his hometown and one of the coldest cities in the world, Winnipeg. It has a pretentious and surreal black and white dream-like style, and elevated language that reminded me of the works I had to read for University English classes, but soon the film shows a playful and damn funny side that lightens up after its ostentatious opening.

There is no plot here, to speak of and the film is alternately ridiculous and repetitive, but also becomes increasingly funny. Guy Maddin wants to have some fun as he tells us about his memories of Winnipeg, both past and present. He talks about his quirky family before moving on to touch on hockey, the railroad, back lanes and plays with little snippets of history, some of which is partially true and others are just little Maddin jokes. In the end he comes back to his family and his own ideas and light-hearted opinions of Winnipeg. The film is often repetitive and there is a painful dance segment that made m want a nap, but still the charming narrative and tongue in cheek humor makes up for it.

My Winnipeg is an unusual film that is more of a mockumentary than anything else, and has found some support on the North American art house circuit, and with critics. As for me, it was better than I had expected. It is a poem set to film and if Robert Frost were alive today and decided to allow a movie to be made about one of his poems, I have no doubt that he would choose Guy Maddin to make the film and that it would look and sound like My Winnipeg. It’s not for everyone, but then, neither is Robert Frost.

Director: Peter Seagal

Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Terry Crews, David Koechner

As a kid, I loved the old re-runs of Get Smart with its repetitive jokes and situations as we watched agent 86 bumble his way into battle with the forces of Kaos. Steve Carell looks the part, and deadpans (Don Adams style) his way through this action comedy as a smarter, but no less bumbling update of Maxwell Smart. There are several old jokes from the series like ‘Would you believe…’ and the Cone of Silence. There are some laughs, some entertaining characters, cool cameos and better action than I expected, but not as many laughs as I had hoped for.

In this film, Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is an ace analyst for the spy agency, Control, but Max really dreams of being an agent and the Chief (Alan Arkin) gives him his chance when almost all of Control’s agents have their ID revealed. Soon Max, encouraged by Control’s sidelined superstar, Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson), is paired with the beautiful, experienced and very reluctant Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to foil the nefarious plans of Kaos general, Seigfried. Seigfried is played by Terence Stamp, but look for series original Bernie Kopell in a cameo.

It seems like every action movie Hollywood puts out these days, is made with an eye to becoming a multi-movie franchise and Get Smart is no exception. Hopefully future installments will more upon past gags, go a little more slapstick and tone down the action a bit, but all in all, this isn’t a bad film and will get probably get the world’s worst secret agent a few more fans.