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Righteous Kill Trailer

Director: Jon Avnet

Starring: Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Carla Gugino, 50 Cent

Every decade or so, a director/producer gets the bright idea to team up iconic actors in a movie and create the next Godfather. Sometimes this idea works splendidly (Glen Gary, Glen Ross / The Departed / Analyze This), other times it is about as good an idea as Rosanne Barr singing the national anthem (Heat / Ishtar / Wag the Dog). Sometimes, when there is an absolute absence of an original idea and no real meat in the script, great actors are left looking very mediocre…..enter Righteous Kill.

Righteous Kill is the story of career long partners in the police force Tom “Turk” Cowan (played adequately by Robert Deniro) and David Fisk (played by Al Pacino). Fisk and Cowan are a couple of rough around the edges, old school New York detectives who have spent their career trying to do the right thing by keeping the scum off the street and making the world a safer place. Since no good deed ever goes unpunished, they have become increasingly dissatisfied with the effectiveness of the judicial system watching many of their good busts get thrown out of court for many different reasons. This growing resentment leads them to take justice into their own hands on a couple of occasions which has left them with a less than clear conscience. When a serial killer starts killing off defendants that had skated on major charges like murder and rape, the investigators become increasingly suspicious that it may be one of New York’s finest behind the death list. The question is who?

Righteous Kill has an interesting although not very original premise and decent but not transcendent script. The performances although palatable could easily have been turned in by Mark and Donnie Wahlberg. Although I have nothing against the brothers Wahlberg, I expect more from a combined 6 Oscar acting Nominations and a combined 3 Oscar acting wins. Fifty Cent is entertaining as a Gangster/Drug Dealer/Club Owner, I am sure he has plenty of people in his entourage that he could have researched for that role. Righteous kill is a very typical, formula who dunnit cop movie that is entertaining enough if you happen to catch it on starz while doing laundry but definitely not worth expending any energy to see.

Director: David Mamet

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alice Braga, Joe Mantegna, Emily Mortimer, Ricky Jay, Tim Allen

I love a good martial arts film. The problem with kick flicks is that it is so damn hard to find a good one and all too easy to find bad ones, which actually have an appeal all of their own, of course, but I still prefer a good one, so when twice Oscar nominated writer/director David Mamet made this mysterious motion picture about a martial arts instructor trying to keep his principals in a world that now relies mainly on the government to provide our morality, I was glad to see it. Ejiofor is subdued, but effective in the lead and Mamet‘s favored stiff, rhythmic dialog style for his performers is thankfully downplayed here. Mamet’s story is slow but engrossing and full of secrets and twists combined with bursts of pretty good fight action all leading to an appealing ending with equal parts of originality and corniness.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is Mike Terry, a skilled and traditional martial arts instructor with a struggling school and an exasperated wife, played by Alice Braga who wants Mike to use his skills as a professional mixed martial arts competitor. Things get more complicated after an incident at the school involving a cop student and a distraught female visitor. Next, Mike finds himself defending a movie star in a bar fight and the game is on. The tricky story is not always convincing, but it is always interesting. Look for lots of familiar faces, from Mamet’s posse of favored performers, and the fight world celebrities like Randy Couture to Hollywood personalities, including Tim Allen who has a supporting role as the aforementioned movie star.

David Mamet’s clever writing is always worth a watch and Red Belt is no exception. Kung fu fans will be glad to see the genre return to the big screen and those dragged along with them will be pleasantly surprised by a film with a great deal of interest and entertainment value.

Director: Roger Donaldson

Starring: Colin Farrell, Al Pacino, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht

Director Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job and The World’s Fastest Indian), does a good job with this spy thriller that features a pretty good story with plenty of suspense and semi-surprising twists. Al Pacino shows flashes of his past glory, as he manages to perform without simply shouting his lines at the camera. The characters could have been more fully developed and the dialog needed to be punched up, but not a bad job, overall.

Colin Farrell is James Clayton, a computer whiz kid all set to start making the big bucks in Silicone Valley, when he is approached by a different kind of recruiter. Al Pacino is Walter Burke and he is recruiting for an outfit with a three letter acronym, but it sure ain’t IBM. Burke tantalizes Clayton with hints of secrets about his long deceased father and eventually manages to persuade him to join the CIA, where he is sent to ‘the farm’ for training as part of a group of recruits that includes a willowy beauty played Bridget Moynahan. There is plenty going on here and the story manages to keep the tension up as it progresses.

I am a sucker for spy films, be they cheesy James Bond, twisted, realistic (in my mind, anyway) features like the Tailor of Panama or glossy and far-fetched films like The Recruit. Action fans, may find it too slow and drama fans may find it too unbelievable, but for spy genre fans, its just right.

Director: Sturla Gunnarson

Starring: William Hurt, Andy Jones, Molly Parker

Icelandic-born director Sturla Gunnarson made this charmingly offbeat Canadian small scale feature. The Newfoundland setting is fresh and the characters are likable and interesting, with good performances all around. There is an interesting little story and a few funny lines, making this an appealing distraction for a couple of hours.

William Hurt is Dave, the owner of a dying restaurant in small town Newfoundland with an absent wife and a quirky friend named Phonce, who has built himself a submarine as a recreational vehicle and has a plan (plus a plan B – “always have a have plan B, Dave.”) to help the restaurant, involving a couple sightings of a duck believed to be extinct which brings bird watchers flocking to the little town. It would be simple if that was all there was to worry about here…

Rare Birds is a pleasant and entertaining little film that may be worth watching if you bump it into it on TV.

Director: Carter Smith

Starring: Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, Joe Anderson

Novice director Carter Smith (Bugcrush) turns out an entertaining little suspense film based upon Scott B. Smith’s novel, and screenplay. This is the first screen work for Scott B. Smith since he turned his earlier novel, A Simple Plan into a script, as well. There is some strong tension here and the performances by the young, but experienced cast is impressive. The script is a little heavy on the gore and light on action, but mounting tension still keeps the viewer in the story, aided by likable and natural characters that will be easy for the film’s target audience of teens and twenty-somethings to identify with.

Two young couples are enjoying a leisurely beach and bar vacation in Mexico when they decide to have a little adventure, after meeting a friendly German tourist, Mathias (Joe Anderson from Across The Universe). Mathias is planning to head out the next day to join his brother in visiting an unknown ruins site. Enticed by seeing history that is unspoiled by tour buses and white-legged seniors, Jeff, Eric, Amy and Stacy (Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey) decide to join him, though a hung over Amy does so only reluctantly. After something of a trek, marred only by the ominous loss of a hat, they reach the impressive site. Unfortunately, some unfriendly locals show up and soon people are screaming, crying and dying. But why?

The Ruins was a better film than I expected it to be, mainly because of the character development which, though still lacking, is still far better than the complete absence of any development, which is common in features of this genre. The group is in a tough situation and I would have liked to see more about conflict within the group under this kind of pressure. Some more action would be welcome, too, but this is still an enjoyable suspense film that illustrates why you should always stick to resort approved excursions only.

Director: David Schwimmer

Starring: Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, Hank Azaria, Dylan Moran, Harish Patel, Matthew Fenton

Writer/actor Simon Pegg split off from Edgar Wright, his partner from Shaun of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, to work with David Schwimmer from Friends, on this more mainstream romanatic comedy. There is a decent, but painfully predictable story to work with, and the talented cast pulls out some laughs, but in the end, there is little here to pull this romantic, race comedy ahead of the pack.

Simon Pegg is Dennis, and the story starts out five years earlier on his wedding day to the lovely, and pregnant, Libby, played by the lovely Thandie Newton. Poor Dennis feels overwhelmed, unfortunately, and instead of taking his vows, he takes the window and is last seen sprinting for safety. Fast forward five years and Dennis is prospering (not!) as a security guard at a woman’s lingerie store and has a relationship with his son, but regrets blowing things with Libby, who has hooked up with Whit, a handsome, successful hedge fund manager, who even runs marathons for charity. Who doesn’t feel awkward meeting their ex’s new bang boy? It is truly one of life’s most unpleasant moments, already, but what hope can Dennis have for winning back the woman he loves from a guy with such a cool name?

Run Fat Boy Run is a thoroughly entertaining, and completely forgettable British comedy. It should be good enough to get Schwimmer some more work, though, and it is nice to see a comedy that doesn’t come from the Apatow/Rogan Hollywood laugh machine.

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: Terry George

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino, Elle Fanning, Eddie Alderson

Writer/director Terry George (Hotel Rwanda) takes a stab at a smaller scale drama this time out. The acting is fine here, as would be expected from such a stellar cast. The story, based on John Burnham Schwartz novel, is heavy on melodrama and the story has too many coincidences to be ignored. The story and the character’s actions become more far-fetched and unconvincing as the motion picture draws toward an unimaginative Hollywood ending.

Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix) is driving home with his family when a gas station stop leads to tragedy. Learner’s 10 year old son is killed by attorney, Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo), who is driving home with his son (Eddie Alderson). Frightened at the thought of involvement in the ensuing legal mess because of an uncertain situation concerning his son, Arno flees the scene. This leaves Learner obsessed with seeing his son’s killer brought to justice and the story skips between him and Arno, who is terrified about being discovered and wracked with guilt. The two men bump into each other everywhere except the living room and the whole thing gets a little tedious.

For all its attempts at pounding home the pain of losing a child, I found Reservation Road is be lacking in impact and the writing seems lazy when it falls back on coincidence after coincidence. The Life Of David Gale was another issue-oriented drama where the unlikely story and obvious attempts at emotional manipulation hurt the overall product. if you ejoyed that feature then this one may be for you.

Reservation Road – movie quotes:

“Can you hear music if you’re in Heaven?”

Movie lines from Reservation Road

Rambo (2008) *1/2
Director: Slyvester Stallone

Starring: Slyvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Paul Schulze, Reynaldo Gallegos, Tim Kang, Jake La Botz

Rejoice Rambo fans, rejoice, for the man of few words and many bullets has returned in a 21st century style action movie, complete with the new action requisite of hand held camera scenes. This modern look is mixed with retro slow motion sequences and also features the God awful return of the 90’s bullet-eye angle (like the camera is is on the bullet). The action scenes are exciting, so it’s target audience will be unlikely to object to the canned dialog, utter lack of any interesting characters or even any stereotypical development of the cliched characters. Why bother with that? Instead, there is violence piled on top of violence and, in a new twist for the Rambo series, there is a disturbing level of sexual violence, though it is tastefully handled with little nudity (insert sarcastic chuckle here). The whole thing is written, directed, produced, and probably catered, by Sly, of course.

John Rambo is living a quiet life as some kind boat-driving, snake catcher in Thailand, when he is approached by a group of young missionaries off to do good in neighboring, war-ravaged Burma. When John is unable to use his monosyllabic skills of persuasion to dissuade the group from going to offer aid, he is charmed by the only female member of the group, Sarah (Julie Benz) into taking them in. It doesn’t take long for trouble to start and the body count begins before he gets them to their destination with only a minimum of mayhem. He leaves them there and returns to busy life. Soon, however, they are taken prisoner by a group of nonsensical somebodies who seem to have no goal beyond killing and raping everyone they find. John can’t let that happen. You can guess what happens next.

I knew this would happen. Now that these continuations to 80s blockbusters have begun, they won’t stop until we are rolling around on the box office floor crying and pounding the floor. I tried to do it before this one, but I need help, people! I’m only one man! Rambo is a low brain action feature, that also vomits out an offensive, condescending view of changing the world without violence as pointless, naive and impossible. They must be right. Humans have been fighting for forever, and that really seems to be working in keeping the violence level down. Ok, all kidding aside (for now, at least), this Stallone offering will please fans of Rambo 2 and 3. Younger action fans may like it, as well, but it does lack the familiar style of the current bullet operas. As for the rest of us, we can only lie in silent fear that the Indiana Jones entry into the Hollywood 80s revival festival is up next, but we can trust Ford, Lucas and Spielberg, can’t we?

Director: Mat Whitecross, Michael Winterbottom

Starring: Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Waqar Siddiqui, Afran Usman, Shahid Iqbal, Sher Khan,

The Road To Guantanamo is a riveting mix of dramatic re-enactments and interviews with the ‘Tipton Three’, three British citizens captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11. The dramatic scenes here come across as chillingly authentic, though from time to time, it does slip into scenes that feel like a TV re-enactment. This is offset by the mesmerizing tale of three men that went through a harrowing experience that is beyond even our own imaginations.

The three principal characters here, are each portrayed by actors in the dramatized film portions, and appear as themselves during interspersed interview segments. The first is Asif Iqbal (Afran Usman), who traveled from Britain to Pakistan with three friends to get married. His friends were Ruhel (Farhad Harun), Shafiq (Riz Ahmed) and Monir (Waqar Siddiqui), who went missing and is believed to have been killed in Afghanistan. The three friends decided to take a side trip to Afghanistan where they were lost ,and misled, into a warzone, where they end up being taken prisoner as suspected Taliban members. This is where their incarceration starts and the story really begins.

I knew nothing of these three, before this film and it is an eye-opener about the confused and dangerous state of 2001 Afghanistan, and about the treatment of prisoners taken in the War on Terror. The end result is gripping and terrifying, and will be enjoyed by politically aware movie viewers.