Killer Elite

KILLER ELITE (2011) - March 31, 2012
A disappointing film about an ex-special agent who is forced out of retirement when his mentor is kidnapped.  There's little doubt that this film was misleadingly marketed -- made to look like a full-out action film when it's really a spy thriller with some action thrown in.  However, it's hard to fault a movie for its own poor marketing.  I can, however, fault it for being plodding and flat-out dull, with some clunky dialogue and unengaging spy shenanigns.  Though the film was competently made, the action was a bit iffy and the spy stuff was kind of bland, and all-in-all the movie just takes itself too seriously.  Though the novelty of seeing De Niro (briefly) kick ass was almost worth the price of admission alone.  **

The Raid: Redemption

THE RAID: REDEMPTION (2012) - March 30, 2012
A flat-out awesome movie about a group of cops who go to take down a crime lord in an old apartment building, which just happens to be filled to the brim with thugs and criminals.  The first half hour or so feels fairly perfunctory, with the team initially working their way through the building, and eventually getting ambushed.  It's after the ambush, when the team gets whittled down to a handful, and the film becomes Iko Uwais taking down wave after wave of hapless thugs that it becomes really magical.  The amazingly staged and fantastically choreographed fights are an absolute joy to behold.  There are some scenes here that are absolutely stunning in their intensity.  This is also an amazingly violent film; I don't think I've ever seen a martial arts film so breathtakingly combine intricately choreographed fights with in-your-face violence.  The fights here are absolutely no-holds-barred -- if a character has a knife, you'd better believe he's going to use that knife.  I seriously loved this movie.  ****

Monkey Warfare

MONKEY WARFARE (2006) - March 29, 2012
A low-rent but basically enjoyable film about a couple whose lives get shaken up when they meet a young girl who is full of the type of youthful energy they have long since lost.  The movie was basically well acted and sorta-kinda well made, but having read the script a few times, it was hard to watch it and not compare it to what I would have done (the movie in my head was far better than the movie on the screen).  **1/2

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism

FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: THE STORY OF AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM (2009) - March 26, 2012
A kind of low-rent but mostly enjoyable documentary about the history of film criticism, from the beginning of cinema to its heyday in the '60s and '70s to the current state on online criticism.  The movie was made by a critic, not a filmmaker, and you can tell (it's a little amateurish) -- but at the same time, the man's passion for film criticism definitely shines through.  The film drags a bit, but for the most part it's actually pretty interesting.  **1/2

Brute Force

BRUTE FORCE (1947) - March 25, 2012
About a group of prisoners who decide to escape, mostly to get away from a particularly brutal guard, this was a really well made prison movie.  You just can't go wrong with a good prison movie; there's something about cramming a bunch of desperate guys of low moral fibre into a small space that they can't leave that's rife with dramatic possibilities.  It helps that the evil guard was played pretty much perfectly by Hume Cronyn -- you really hate the guy.  ***

Silent House

SILENT HOUSE (2012) - March 24, 2012
A really well made film about a young girl who returns home to help her father pack up their spooky old house (with all the windows boarded up, just to make it spookier); spooky shenanigans ensue.  The film consists of one long take (or at least it's designed to look that way), which sounds gimmicky but which actually works fairly well.  The film establishes a fairly palpable sense of tension and dread almost right from the start, and pretty much does not let up for the entire film.  The use of the single take actually helps, in this case, to elevate the tension, because the audience knows that the tension cannot let up -- there's no cutting away to a new scene.  The film is almost a one-woman show, with Elizabeth Olsen spending much of the film wandering around the house alone.  Olsen proves to be pretty much perfect in the role; much of the film consists of close-ups of her terrified face, and she is so convincingly terrified that it actually makes the audience more scared.  It's a pretty great performance.  ***1/2

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (2010) - March 23, 2012
An absolutely entrancing film about a dying man who gathers his close relatives and looks back on his life (and his past lives) days before his death.  The film is very slow, and it's not really about much, but there's something very captivating and almost magical about it.  This is a film that features ghosts and strange spirits and treats them with a deadpan normalcy that somehow makes them feel simultaneously more magical and like almost humdrum everyday occurences.  I'm not doing a very good job of describing this movie, but it's quite delightful.  It helps that the film is beautifully directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who emphasises long takes in which the characters take their time in whatever they are doing; no one is in a hurry in this film.  This could have made the film disasterously uneventful under a lesser director, but here it only helps to draw the viewer in to this enchanting universe.  I also really liked the use of sound in this movie; the sounds of nature are used in a way that somehow manages to feel both very stylized and completely naturalistic.  ****

Merantau

MERANTAU (2009) - March 22, 2012
About a guy who moves from his small village to the big city, only to find himself trying to protect a stripper with a heart of gold from an evil businessman.  No, it's not the freshest / most interesting story ever, but this is a martial arts movie, so what really matters here are the fights.  And boy, do they deliver.  Intricately choreographed and satisfyingly brutal, the fights may not be mind-blowingly innovative, but they're exciting and solid without much room for complaint.  Director Gareth Evans stages the action like a pro, keeping things exciting and dynamic without ever resorting to the type of quick-cutting trickery that ruins so many contemporary action films.  Star Iko Uwais is a bit of a bland screen presence -- he doesn't seem to have the charisma of a Jackie Chan or a Donnie Yen, but he's obviously an awesome martial artist, so hopefully the other stuff will come in time.  He's definitely not terrible here, he's just a little bit bland.  ***1/2

Limitless

LIMITLESS (2011) - March 20, 2012
About a guy who starts taking pills that make him super smart; shenanigans ensue, mostly revolving around other people who want the pills for themselves.  Propulsively paced and stylishly directed by Neil Burger, the film feels a bit slight at times, and has an ending that feels a bit too pat, but it's well made and enjoyable enough.  ***

Murderball

MURDERBALL (2005) - March. 19, 2012
An enjoyable documentary about the American wheelchair rugby (a.k.a. Murderball) team and the lead-up to the Paralympics.  It's well made and definitely entertaining, though perhaps not quite as good as some people are making it out to be.  ***

John Carter

JOHN CARTER (2012) - March 18, 2012
A well made but overlong film about a Civil War-era soldier who gets teleported to Mars; Avatar-esque shenanigans ensue.  It's Andrew Stanton, so it's obviously very well made, but I just found that I was never quite as into it as I should have been.  There were some standout scenes, and the action was mostly fairly exciting; I was always engaged, but rarely excited.  Why?  Well, for one thing, Taylor Kitsch is a fine actor, but he lacks the charisma to draw you in and make you really root for John Carter.  Plus, the setting was kind of bland, and the story felt really familiar.  And then there's the length -- the 132 minute film probably shouldn't have been much longer than two hours.  The film opens with a 20+ minute sequence on Earth that had almost no narrative purpose other than to establish the character of John Carter; this is something that could have easily been done on Mars, with no need at all for the Earth stuff.  There are quite a few other areas in which the film could have been streamlined.  Oh well -- the film was entertaining enough, but it's hard not to be disappointed considering how much potential the film had.  ***

Faces in the Crowd

FACES IN THE CROWD (2011) - March 17, 2012
A cheesy but basically entertaining film about a woman who, after surviving an attack from a serial killer, finds herself stricken with "face blindness," unable to recognize even her own face in the mirror.  The film was competently directed, and the choice to cast a variety of actors in each of the roles to put the audience in the protagonist's shoes was an interesting one.  But the movie just felt like B-level stuff, with the low budget and general lack of talent apparent in the look of the film, the hammy script, and most of the performances (Milla Jovovich was pretty much the only person to give a decent performance -- or at least as good as could be expected, given the material).  **1/2

21 Jump Street

21 JUMP STREET (2012) - March 16, 2012
An enjoyable comedy about a couple of young cops who are sent undercover to a high school in an attempt to bust a drug ring.  The film drags a bit in spots, but it has some genuinely funny moments, including some clever self-aware gags, and features really great chemistry between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum (who proves to be surprisingly adept at comedy).  ***

New Year's Eve

NEW YEAR'S EVE (2011) - March 7, 2012
I really thought there was nowhere to go but up after the horrendous Valentine's Day, but apparently I was wrong -- well played, Gary Marshall.  This was awful right from the start; every moment here felt forced and artificial, every character a walking cliche, and every joke so hacky and embarassing that even the writers of Two and a Half Men would cringe.  The film just ping-pongs from one vacuous character to the next, as if the editor thought that if he cut from subplot to subplot quickly enough, he wouldn't give people time to realize how terrible it all is.  It is interminable.  How they got so many recognizable actors to be in this is a bit of a mystery (though I suspect it had something to do with several dumptrucks filled with cash).  I watched this on a plane, and towards the end it occurred to me that I would have been more entertained by simply staring off into space for a couple of hours.  1/2*

Man on a Ledge

MAN ON A LEDGE (2011) - March 3, 2012
About a guy who, wrongly convicted of stealing an enormous diamond, sets out to prove his innocence -- he goes out on a ledge to attract as much attention as possible while his brother attempts to actually steal the diamond for real.  The stuff with Sam Worthington (whose American accent was especially sketchy here) out on the ledge was passable enough, though it did feel like it was spinning its wheels at times.  Where the movie really shines is the heist stuff -- though that may just be because I have a big soft spot for any movie dealing with heists.  Really though, this is just a solidly made by-the-numbers thriller that doesn't aspire to much, but which manages to be pretty entertaining throughout.  ***