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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: 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: Ethan and Joel Coen

Starring: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons

The Coen brothers who do everything on their films but the catering, have snap fired from the hip with this light, quick comedy that is more about characters and performances than it is about story and dialog, but what a great group of characters played to the hilt by a crew of seasoned performers who were clearly had alot of fun making this movie. I still find Tilda Swinton to lack charisma to truly fit into the star role, while J.K. Simmons (best known as Juno’s dad and Peter Parker’s boss) impresses me every time I see him.

John Malkovich is a disgruntled CIA guy whose memoir notes end up in the hands of a goofy fitness worker and his sad, pathetic co-worker (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand), who come up with the world’s worst blackmail plan. This is backed up by George Clooney as a treasury department officer with more testosterone than brains. For a film that seems to be set up as a comedy, it turns a little slow and depressing in spots, and could have benefitted from some more zippy dialog. The end result is an uneven but entertaining look at fidelity and intelligence and a group of characters who lack both. The whole thing ends strongly and has one of the funniest final scenes in recent memory.

Don’t go to Burn After Reading and expect Fargo or No Country For Old men. This feature is closer to The Big Lebowski or O’ Brother Where Art Thou, though is distinctly different from their previous efforts. Not a bad film for fans of off-beat comedies, or the Coen brothers body of work.

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.

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: Louis LeTerrier

Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson,

Marvel is back up on the silver screen, and the formula of Spider-man/Ironman, etc., is in clear view. That’s not a bad thing, but it doesn’t work as well for novice director, Louis LeTerrier. True, he has the uber-talented Ed Norton to work with, but he is also saddled with what is without a doubt, one of comicdom’s most boring superheroes. The Hulk has limited power of speech, ruling out the snappy patter in the midst of battle, and his ability, which is simply being big, really strong and indestructible leaves his battles looking like a locker room scrap at the Mr. Universe competition. That being said, this is still a decent chase film and LeTerrier shows great pacing instincts for getting the action in, just as things start to lag, and slowing it down when it starts to get repetitive. That judgment was sadly lacking in the 2003 Ang Lee Hulk disaster. The CGI here is a little underwhelming, and the characters and script needed more zip, but this is still a solid action effort.

Ed Norton is Bruce Banner, who is on the run in South America, where he is trying to stay hidden from his single-minded nemesis, Col Ross, control his temper (I like the days without incident angle), and find a cure for his condition. This plan blows to pieces with one little accident and soon Banner finds himself back on the run, pursued by Ross and his aging super soldier, Emil (Tim Roth, looking unconvincing in the role, but what the hell, I like Tim Roth). Along the way, he meets his old flame, Betty (Liv Tyler) and experiences a big reduction in his days without incident number. You can guess where its all going, but getting there is a pretty fun ride, and it even features a cameo by original on-screen hulkster Lou Ferrigno, who also provided the monster‘s voice.

Don’t make me bored. You wouldn’t like me when I’m bored. Luckily, The Incredible Hulk didn’t make me bored, so it is saved from the scathing power of my keyboard. Norton is great, and this film plays like Ironman mixed with The Fugitive, though lacks the sharp dialog of both and Ironman’s lighter, fun moments. Fans of the green smashing machine will find this a more satisfying big screen treatment, and those who think comics should be restricted to Saturday morning papers will still find this film to be palatable enough.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Betty Buckley.

Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan seems to have unfortunately become the Hollywood version of a brilliant rookie of the year winner, who slips into obscure mediocrity after. The Sixth Sense, his early masterpiece shot him to a level of prominence that he has been sadly unable to maintain. The Happening is ironically titled, since after the big hook at the beginning and some early developments, nothing happens. Shyamalan, who showed the courage to make a subtle, slow-paced film with Unbreakable, which I enjoyed a great deal, takes that tact here, as well, but he just does not give us enough. We learn little more about the either the phenomenon, or the characters that it is affecting after the first half hour. The story premise is imaginative, but seems like it was not sufficiently developed. The acting is pretty good, but sometimes the script has character actions that seem silly and forced, as it limps along to a fizzle of an ending.

Mark Wahlberg is Elliott, a calm, NYC high school teacher, who finds himself fleeing the Big Apple after people start dying (or killing themselves to be more accurate) in Central Park, and the strange psychological phenomenon starts popping up all over the city. He is accompanied by his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel), his friend, Julian (John Leguizamo), and Julian’s 8 year old daughter (how many times are we told that she‘s only 8?), Jess. As they and masses of others try to escape the city, they learn that the strange, lethal event is popping up all over the American northeast. What can they do? Where can they go? What is causing this?

The Happening has a great premise that seems like it was never properly finished, and a hasty script that feels lazy and slow, take what had the promise to be an interesting movie and turn it into a napping opportunity for insomniacs. There is an admirable theme of environmental respect, but its just not enough. We want something to happen, to watch this imaginative scenario unfold and be filled with dread, or wonder, or something. I guess I did get filled with wonder. I left wondering how a half-finished movie like this gets made.

Director: Dennis Dugan

Starring: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui

Adam Sandler co-wrote this explosion of muddled accents, weak characters and occasional humor, as he tries to make us laugh and give some kind of light plea for peace in the middle east. Fine supporting actor John Turturro seems a little lost here and Sandler plays a softer, gentler version of his stock leading man, but the comedy is pure Happy Madison slapstick.

Adam Sandler is a Mossad agent/super hero who makes James Bond look like Maxwell Smart. He fakes his own death to get out of the game so he can pursue his real dream of becoming a hairstylist in New York. There, his specialty of….ummm charming elderly women and offering much more in depth service than cutting and styling their hair. It’s silly and an overdone gag and is added to an evil landlord trying to force his boss, played by Emmanuelle Chriqui (a veteran of over a decade’s worth of work that you have probably never heard of ,and high on FHM’s 2008 list of sexiest women) to move. Things get more active when a trio of goofy terrorists recognize him, and when it turns out that the nemesis of his past life, The Phantom, (played by John Turturro) is also in New York. If it sounds like alot going on, it is, but it all leads to a gentle but awkward ending with a sentiment that’s easy to agree with.

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan is cinematic evidence that Adam Sandler is growing up…sort of. The humor is juvenile, but intermittently funny, and the writing is rough but the script shows a social conscience. Like most of Sandler’s efforts the story is weak, but filled with funny scenes of various effectiveness, that should please his fans, but probably won’t win him any new ones.