Review: ARGO

Every now and then there comes a story so preposterous and incredible that you know it has to be true; no Hollywood screenwriter could have come up with it. Ben Affleck’s new film, in which he stars and directed, is one of those cases. The film opens with an animated intro covering the events that led to the Iranian Revolution; “This is the land of The Persian Empire”, it begins - as if this were going to be a large fantasy epic. But Argo is no fantasy and the film is ten times more gripping because of it. 

Like most average movie goers, I am not particularly fond of modern day political thrillers. They involve a lot of characters sitting around, discussing “stuff” in complex jargon as if they were playing chess. Even the acclaimed Syriana was a bit of a bore. There is some chess playing in Argo but it is mostly for a set characters to pass the time; most of the film is all show business. 

Review: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

            I knew what was coming. I saw the Swedish film when it first came out. And read the book afterwards. Yet nothing could have prepared me for the visceral intensity that David Fincher’s take on the story of Lisbeth Salander (Ronney Mara) holds. Stieg Larsson’s story is already a gripping thriller that needs no further advertising. This is the story of a girl with a terrible past, who is proudly isolated and dangerously angry; the first installment doesn’t dwell too deep into the back-story, but it lays out a twisted series of murders where the broken heroine begins to heal.

Review: DRIVE

There is a silent elegance to the way Drive presents itself; there is some clear nostalgia at work, as the film tries to emulate classic noir of the 60s and 70s, which results in a film that is very different from what modern day viewers are used to. But despite the nostalgia, Drive has suffered time’s filter nevertheless. Today all car chases are loud, explosive, and somewhat incoherent. With this background in mind, I welcome a movie like Drive; a movie that takes its time to explore the craft of driving. When you think about it logically car chase should be much more about stealth and avoiding the spotlight than blowing up half of downtown LA.

Review: LIMITLESS

At one point in Limitless a character mentions, “If I don’t keep moving forward, it felt like I might explode”. It seems the whole movie feels the exact same way. And when I left the theater, so did I. Like a good thriller Limitless keeps moving forward and it doesn’t stop for one second to look back. If you missed something you've missed it. So, it is a good thing the movie captures your attention effectively as it does while your eyes and mind indulge in one of the most pulpy thrillers in a long time.

Review: UNKNOWN

            Unknown is as schizophrenic and lopsided as its main character Martin Harris (Liam Nielsen) is a character. You see Martin Harris is not really Martin Harris, but we have to call him Martin Harris because we never learn what his name is when he is not Martin Harris. But there is another Martin Harris who claims to be the real Martin Harris but is not Martin Harris. Who is the real Martin Harris?

            May the real Martin Harris please stand up? I repeat; may the real Martin Harris please stand up? We are going to have a problem here, because this movie makes no sense.

 

Review: SANCTUM

            Somehow I cannot find the right words to describe Sanctum. A few hours after coming out of the screening room and I still feel trapped miles below the surface of the Earth; I still feel as if someone forced their hand down my throat clenched my stomach with their fist and didn’t let go. This is a painfully visceral movie.  But I am still in awe of the sights I just experience; I just saw heaven and hell within the same movie. This is an exhilarating thrill of a movie.

            It is both an effective and breathtaking (latterly and figuratively) movie. Sadly, embarrassingly bad dialogue and flat characters bring all of this crashing down nearly to B-movie levels.  But you know what?

            I didn’t care.

Review: BLACK SWAN

Darren Aronofsky said he was fascinated to make a re-imagening of Swan Lake because he thought the story of a girl who transforms into a swan to be similar to that of a werewolf. Frankly, I have never seen Swan Lake because I dismissed it… well, as a boring ballet about a swan. And I am still skeptical that a ballet performance would be able to capture the nightmarish thrill of this adaptation. If it does, then I can’t wait to see it. 

Review: SKYLINE

I really do not understand why Skyline has gotten so many bad reviews. Yes, the acting sucks. Yes, the dialogue doesn’t help it at all. Yes, we have seen better special effects. And yes, it is a story we have all seen before one thousand times. But it is undeservingly filled with beautiful imagery, and such elegant style it would make experienced big-budget action directors cower with jealousy; the Strauss brothers made this movie with less than 10 million dollars. That has to count for something, or rather everything. They made it back three days after it premiered without ever being in the top five.

Review: SHUTTER ISLAND

I can’t recall the last time one movie made every person in the theater jump at the same time; I mean every single person. Most horror movies make a few girls scream but most just turn their heads to the side and try not to look. This is not the case in Shutter Island; the film is so compelling that you are forced to watch and when the moment to jump arrives there is no way around it: you jump.

Film Review: PUSH

So it might be a bit late for a review because Push came out in theaters a few months ago but it just came out on the iTunes store & rentals; so I think a late review is fair game in this case.

As a super-powered hero movie Push is not the best. But as a thriller it rocks… big time! Remember Minority Report? That movie kept you hooked because there was know way to know what was going on at any point. Yet at the end everything came together through a very neat and clever twist. Push plays very similarly to that other SciFi thriller… but with a big difference: this time the characters are actually interesting.

Review: ANGELS & DEMONS

For anyone that enjoys a fantasy thriller, Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons is 100% pure fun and 90% harmless. The movie is set in a mystical and ritualistic world where two ancient organizations have waged a war for more than one thousand years. On one side we have the Vatican, the Holy See of the Catholic Church, and on the other we have the Illuminati, a group of pseudo-scientists who still think earth, wind, fire and water are the only four elements in the periodic table. The Vatican also has Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) at their disposal whose knowledge about religion, science, and history prove to be the winning factor.

Review: EAGLE EYE

I loved this movie the way I loved National Treasure. If you can get past the fact that every event is so totally unbelievable, so totally unrealistic, and so totally outrageous, it is nothing but a thrill ride sparkled with some big laughs, and some really good acting. To me, it is acceptable to make a movie that is ridiculous, if the performances and effects make it truly worthwhile - which they do.

Review: TRAITOR

Eh.

There's some spoilers here. Not major ones. You'll deal.

If this movie is about breaking down racial barriers, and presenting the idea that not all Muslims are terrorists, it pretty much fails. If anything, I feel like I am likely to start racially profiling more after seeing this movie.

Don Cheadle pays Samir Horn, a man born in Sudan, and trained in the United States as a Special Op. He has an American accent.

Also, is Muslim.

He spends his life as a terrorist helper, making bombs, delivering bombs, and overseeing flashy Islamic terrorist attacks. Right away, we get a sort of sympathetic feel from him, and it makes you wonder why our protagonist is a terrorist.

After escaping from a prison in Yemen, he decides to help his newfound friend Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui) in a complicated, but professional nation-wide terrorist attack. We spend half the movie watching him help Omar to recruit young kids from around the world to help in this impending attack. We get to see the terrorist point of view - Americans have spilled innocent Muslim blood for centuries, and now it is time to take back their honor. Attack and kill as many Americans as possible.

I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable for most of this movie. Really? Our protagonist is a terrorist? Just a guy who follows Allah and helps to kill Americans. For an American, it is odd to watch.

And all the while we have Detective Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) on the case, looking to stop Samir. Pearce is a personal favorite actor of mine, and I naturally thought he did a great job. His accent was spot on.

So here's the problem: we have no antagonist. The film sets it up so that we want to hate Clayton. But how can we really? He's an FBI agent, a good one, a guy that wants to stop innocent people from dying. Sure, his assistant Archer (Neal McDonough) is a douche, but that is not enough for us to label Clayton as the bad guy.

Then I began to think it must be Samir that is the "bad guy". After all, he is setting off bombs and killing people all around the world.

And then he became the good guy! That's right, we find out about half way through that he is not in fact working for the terrorists, but he is in on something secret with FBI agent Carter (Jeff Daniels). Samir Horn is a not a traitor of the US, but a traitor towards the terrorists.

So now we have Clayton hunting an innocent guy, and he has no idea.

This movie takes you through too many loops. You have no one to hate, and no one to root for. You never find out Samir's plan until the end, so you feel like you are just waiting on something to go off, kind of like a bomb.

It seems like they wanted to make a "Bourne" style movie, but about terrorists. The movie is shot like it, Samir fights like it, and the music is a straight up knock-off.

It has decent action and decent performances, but it leaves you with nothing. You don't have to see it. If you want to, rent it. Don't waste your ten bucks.

Review: TRANSSIBERIAN

Transsiberian is about trains. There are lots of trains in this movie. About 70% of the movie takes place on trains. The characters are like trains. The entire structure is a train - a movie on a long, twisting, turning track, where you feel like you are just along for the journey, and you are not exactly sure of your destination, and not exactly sure if you are heading towards a big wreck.

This is just one of the hundreds of feelings you get during Brad Anderson's indie film, Transsiberian.