Contraband - Movie Review

★★★

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Lukas Haas, Caleb Landry Jones, JK Simmons, Diego Luna and David O'Hara.
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur.

Mark Wahlberg is cool. He just is. He can do your art-house flicks (I Heart Huckabees), your comedies (The Other Guys), your Best Pictures (The Departed), and then he's an action star. His action movies serve as a reminder that Jason Statham could do better.

Wahlberg in action mode isn't much different than Eastwood in the 1980's or Bruce Willis in the 1990's. When I watch movies like this, I always have John Malkovich in True West come to mind. "It's not a film, it's a moo-vie."

Here he's Chris Farraday, former smuggler gone legit, with his wife Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and two kids. When Kate's little brother Andy has a job go bad (throwing some drugs in the ocean when customs boards), he's threatened with his life unless he pays the amount the score was expected to bring - $700,000.

Chris tries to appeal to his boss, a little psycho named Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi, in Bruckheimer villain mode), but Briggs wants the full amount and threatens to kill Chris and Kate and their kids as well unless he gets his money. So Chris comes out of retirement for one last job - smuggling counterfeit money from Panama.

The movies goes back and forth from hard-hitting action drama to light-hearted heist flick. Of course Chris's best-laid plans fall apart in Panama. If it all went smooth we'd have a dull 60-minute movie.

This is based on the 2008 Icelandic film Reykjavik-Rotterdam. The producer and star of that movie, Baltasar Kormakur, serves as director here, and he has a sleekness to his style. Reminded me of the Scott brothers at times.

(P.S. My wife's biggest complaint? Wahlberg never takes his shirt all the way off.)

Killer Elite - DVD Review

★★

Starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert DeNiro, Dominic Purcell, Aden Young, Yvonne Strahovski, Ben Mendelsohn and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
Directed by Gary McKendry.

Jason Statham plays an expert assassin brought out of retirement who must kill a group of war criminals in exchange for the life of his mentor/friend (Robert DeNiro). But an ex-SAS agent (Clive Owen) is on his trail to stop him.

Thoughts I had through the movie:

"Jason Statham was born to play characters named Danny."

"Don't know who this guy is they've tied to the chair, but to me, he's the British Daniel Baldwin."

"Alkaseltzer Akawaka-Ajablahblah would probably have a more successful movie career if he'd use a more pronouncable name. I've seen it spelled out dozens of times and can never remember it. He was cool as Eko on Lost."

"Nice to see Yvonne Strahovski getting work outside of the Chuck universe."

"Wait a minute, that guy with the long hair and mutton chops is the guy from Prison Break! Wow, he looks different. Good for him."

"Why is this being lit like it's a sequel to Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever?"

"Clive Owen's mustache looked silly in the trailer, but it's actually working for me here."

"This setup is very similar to Munich, but these two movies are worlds apart. Which makes me wonder if this movie would be leagues better if Spielberg had directed it."

"Very cool car-chase sequence marred by one guy on the team doing two very stupid things in a row. One, okay. Two? How did he wind up on the team?"

"Gotta love it when movies pretend to be over at the 80-minute mark. Who they foolin'?"

"100-minute mark. Really ready for this muddled movie to be over."

"I wonder how much DeNiro was paid for what looks like about a week of work. More of an extended cameo than a supporting role."

"Ugh, Statham actually had to say 'You just don't get it, do you?' to someone."

Cowboys & Aliens - DVD Review

★★½

Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Clancy Brown, Keith Carradine, Paul Dano and Walton Goggins.
Directed by Jon Favreau.

The first fifteen minutes or so work really well. It's a real Western. Daniel Craig is a cowboy who wakes up with amnesia. He goes to the nearest town where he gets recognized as a thief. He fights back, but he gets jailed. The townsfolk gather when the chief cattle baron of the region (Harrison Ford) shows up to spring his own wayward son out of prison.

And then the aliens show up, kidnapping about half of the people we meet. Somewhere in there the fun factor should kick in, but the movie plays it straight the entire time.

So as an alien movie, the aliens don't seem that threatening, which is to say, despite their technology, the aliens are poor tacticians and shockingly easy to kill. Their design isn't that creative, straight out of the gray-skinned, many-limbed playbook. They actually reminded me a lot of the creature from Super 8.

Now I've read the source material. It was a comic-book written with the intent of being made into a movie. Its story wasn't great either. In fact Favreau's really fleshed it out. I just don't see a reason why no one seemed to realize they were making a summer movie called Cowboys & Aliens. Let's have a blast, why don't we.

Are You There Chelsea? - TV Review

NBC's ARE YOU THERE CHELSEA? - Laura Prepon plays Chelsea Handler, and Chelsea plays her grouchy sister in this sitcom based on Handler's life.  The laughs from the studio audience are half-hearted at best.  It's about on the level of Whitney.

The first episode centers on Chelsea getting a DUI.  There are tons and tons of jokes about how Chelsea drinks too much, to the point that her sister decides she doesn't want her to be there for the birth of her child. It all works out.

Other news shows:

ABC's WORK IT - It is about as stupid as you'd expect.  Two men, in tough economic times, dress in drag in order to get a job, and they're completely unconvincing as women, so all the other actors have to pretend like they don't notice.  Almost as glaring as White Chicks.

ABC's CELEBRITY WIFE SWAP - Same old, same old.  The one I saw had Carnie Wilson and Tracey Gold swap.  Carnie's a wild messy mom with a ships-passing-in-the-night relationship with her husband; Tracey's a neat organized mom that spends a lot of quality time with her family.

Warrior - DVD Review

★★★★

Starring Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn, Maximiliano Hernandez, Denzel Whitaker and Kurt Angle.
Directed by Gavin O'Connor.

If you put a hundred different writer/director teams into a hundred different rooms and told them to make a movie about mixed martial arts, I believe Gavin O'Connor's team would win.

Brendan (Joel Edgerton) is a family-man/school-teacher whose personal finances are suffering. He was a former UFC fighter, and an upcoming MMA tournament has a $5 million winner-take-all purse attached.

Tommy (Tom Hardy) is an ex-Marine, stalled in life, bitter against his formerly alcoholic father (Nick Nolte) and his brother Brendan. He's also a great fighter and wants to join the tournament.

The family dynamics and father-son issues ring true and run deep, even if it's hitting familiar notes. It hits thems skillfully, where it doesn't even feel like a formula.

Also, the choreography of the matches are fantastic. They're brutal and exciting, and more than once it seems like people are really getting hurt.

It's really a shame this flopped at the box office. It deserves to find new life on DVD.

Random Movie Stuff - 1/10/12

- Robert Downey Jr. is Tim Burton's top choice to play Geppetto in his new version of Pinocchio, a semi-sequel (like his Alice in Wonderland) where Geppetto is on a quest to reunite with his missing wooden son.

- Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) and Jordi Malla (Knight & Day) are in talks to join Riddick, the third movie starring Vin Diesel as the sight-enhanced fugitive, following Pitch Black and The Chrnonicles of Riddick.

- Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy) is in talks to join the cast of Inside Llewelyn Davis, the next movie from Joel & Ethan Coen.  It's about folk music in the 1960's and stars Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Oscar Isaac and John Goodman.

- Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) has been hired to rewrite Thor 2, which reunites Chris Hemsowrth, Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins, and will be directed by Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones).

Old Movie I Saw:

SKIDOO (1968) - Check out this cast: Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Groucho Marx, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, Frankie Avalon, Cesar Romero, John Phillip Law, Michael Constantine, Austin Pendleton, Peter Lawford, Mickey Rooney, George Raft, Slim Pickens, Robert Donner, Richard Kiel, Arnold Stang. That movie has to be seen, right?

This is in the same boat as Casino Royale, in that it's a cultural oddity. Otto Preminger doesn't embrace the anarchic sloppiness of Casino. He's a meticulous director, and he just can't do comedy well. This movie was dated the moment it was released. It's very much the movie of an old guy in 1968 trying to be cool with "the hippies." How can you have Groucho Marx and not unleash him?

So yeah, I sat through the whole thing, but I would advise, if anyone wants to seek it out at this point, if you watch 20 minutes of it - any 20 minutes - you will have gotten the idea. Gleason plays a long-retired gangster dragged back into action for one last job by the big boss. The boss's name is God, and he's played by Marx. This movie has the Joker (Cesar Romero), the Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), but none of them are really allowed to go wild, except when Meredith and Gorshin have to pretend they're on an acid trip.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Movie Review

★★★½


Starring Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Hurt, David Dencik, Kathy Burke and Simon McBurney.
Directed by Tomas Alfredson.

Gary Oldman made his name by playing frenetic, over-the-top personalities (Sid & Nancy, Dracula, Immortal Beloved, True Romance) but he's reintroduced himself to a new generation as the mild-mannered Jim Gordon in the Dark Knight movies, and now here he is as George Smiley. Smiley barely moves, speaks low. He's a British gentleman. He's also one of the best spies in the world.

Smiley is brought out of retirement to help out. Seems there is a mole at the top. The boss is named Control (John Hurt), and Smiley is the only man he can trust with the job. Control knows it's one of his top four agents, and he gives each of them a nickname. Perhaps you've seen the title of the movie?

Smiley never shows what he is thinking, but to the scrutinizing audience, we can catch those glimpses of him locking information away.

It's based on the classic John le Carre spy novel, and it rewards the audience members that pay attention and leaves behind those that don't. As glued as I was to what was going on, even though there's very little actual action, I must admit that the reveal of the mole didn't have the emotional impact for me I'd hoped, I guess because it didn't make much difference in the grand scheme of things who the mole actually was.

Gary Oldman has never been nominated for an Academy award. That is not right.

Weekend Box Office 1-8-12

For the weekend of Jan 6-8.

1. The Devil Inside - $34.5 million - 1 wk (Par)
. . . 2285 screens / $15,098 per screen
2. Mission Impossible 4 - $20.5 ($170.2) - 4 wks (Par) -30.3%
. . . 3555 / $5767
3. Sherlock Holmes 2 - $14.06 ($157.42) - 4 wks (WB) -32.7%
. . . 3603 / $3901
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - $11.3 ($76.84) - 3 wks (Sony) -23.8%
. . . 2950 / $3831
5. Alvin & the Chipmunks 3 - $9.5 ($111.59) - 4 wks (Fox) -42%
. . . 3425 / $2774
6. War Horse - $8.6 ($56.83) - 3 wks (BV) -40.4%
. . . 2783 / $3091
7. We Bought A Zoo - $8.45 ($56.54) - 3 wks (Fox) -36.2%
. . . 3170 / $2666
8. The Adventures of Tintin - $6.6 ($61.88) - 3 wks (Par) -42.3%
. . . 3006 / $2196
9. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - $5.77 ($10.42) - 5 wks (Foc) +431.3%
. . . 809 / $7129
10. New Year's Eve - $3.27 ($52.03) - 5 wks (NL) -48.5%
. . . 1864 / $1752

The Devil Inside is getting terrible reviews, but the marketing was good and there was no genre competition.

Mission Impossible 4 is going to pass the $200 million domestic mark. Sherlock Holmes 2 has an outside chance of doing that as well. Those naysayers who tried to paint it as a flop the first week are eating crow.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is showing strong legs. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy had the second best per-screen average in the top twenty.

SNL's White People Problems

The funniest sketch from last night's Saturday Night Live.

The Adventures of Tintin - Movie Review

★★★

Starring the voices of Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.

There's one scene in here that keeps coming back to me. It's a chase sequence that's done as if all in one take. Since it's animation we know that's probably not how it happened, but I like that I really don't know how they did. I just know how I felt as it kept going and going... It's Spielberg at his finest.

Tintin, created by Herge many decades ago, is not a character I'm that familiar with. I read a couple comics of his in my 9th grade French class, but that's about it. And any good movie based on other source material should not require familiarity with said source material for it to be enjoyable. Well, this was Spielberg in Indiana Jones mode.

Intrepid investigative reporter Tintin (Jamie Bell) buys a model ship, that others are willing to pay a high price for. His home is eventually burglarized by those seeking the ship, and he learns it's the key to finding a large amount of lost treasure. With his dog Snowy, and the drunken Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis, the mo-cap king), Tintin travels the world looking for clues that will lead him to the treasure before the bad guys get there.

This is a motion-captured animated movie, like the Zemeckis trilogy (Polar Express, Beowulf, Christmas Carol) and the Mars Needs Moms bomb. I liked that Spielberg kept just enough animated quality to the characters' faces (bulbous noses and such) that we don't get that dead-soul look, but there's still expression in the eyes.

What surprised me about Tintin is that for a smaller guy, he's apparently an incredibly effective fighter, and he's really good with a gun.

Cancer sucks

I have a couple reviews I was going to write tonight but I just found an old theater friend of mine - Colleen Hansen Weigand - died of cancer.  Her funeral was this morning.  I knew she'd been battling it off and on for years, but it was still a shock to see that she's gone.

Sauron

http://xkcd.com/712/

MCN's List of Top Ten Lists

Compiled from 188 different critics' top-ten lists by the good folks at MCN.

1.  The Tree of Life
2.  The Descendants
3.  The Artist
4.  Drive
5.  Hugo
6.  Melancholia
7.  A Separation
8.  Certified Copy
9.  Moneyball
10. Martha Marcy May Marlene
11. Take Shelter
12. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
13. Midnight in Paris
14. Shame
15. Beginners
16. Bridesmaids
17. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives
18. Margaret
19. Meek's Cutoff
20. We Need to Talk About Kevin

Man, I've only seen eight of them.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - DVD Review

★★★


Starring Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss, Philip Granger, Brandon McLaren and Chelan Simmons.
Directed by Eli Craig.

The rural citizen has achieved a brutal reputation thanks to the magic of cinema, largely designed by them coastal dwellers. You have Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Deliverance, and that's let to the numerous Hills Have Eyes/Wrong Turn parade of murderous hillbillies. This movie picks up where the Scream franchise fizzled out, and we get the best horror comedy of the year.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are two country boys who've purchased a cabin in the woods. A vacation home. Meanwhile they come across some beer-drinking college kids out for a little fun, the kind of good-looking two-dimensional students just waiting to find out where they fit in the inevitable body count. A series of misunderstandings leads the kids to believe the hillbillies are serial killers, and darned if the kids don't keep accidentally dying around them. This is not what it looks like.

Tudyk (Serenity) and Labine (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) make a good team, and the ways the kids keep dying would make the fates of Final Destination proud. This barely had a theatrical release, but for fans of the genre, it's a hoot.

Random Movie Stuff - 1/3/12

- Demi Moore will cameo as Gloria Steinem in Lovelace, the Linda Lovelace biopic starring Amanda Seyfried.

- Julianne Moore will star in The English Teacher, about a small-town teacher with no personal life who decides to help a former student put on his unproduced play at their high school.  Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, Michael Angarano and Nathan Lane co-star.

- Sony is moving forward with plans to film The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second book in Steig Larsson's trilogy.  Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara will reprise their roles as Mikhael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is currently in theaters.

- Ben Lyons, who single-handedly destroyed all credibility for any film critic on TV anywhere again ever when he took over one of the seats on At the Movies, has been let go as a correspondent on E! channel.

Online Film Critics Society Awards

Best Picture
The Tree of Life

Best Animated Feature
Rango

Best Director
Terrence Malick, The Tree Of Life

Best Lead Actor
Michael Fassbender, Shame

Best Lead Actress
Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin

Best Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Supporting Actress
Jessica Chastain, The Tree Of Life

Best Original Screenplay
Midnight In Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay
Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

Best Editing
The Tree Of Life

Best Cinematography
The Tree Of Life

Best Film Not in the English Language
A Separation

Best Documentary
Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Special Awards (previously announced)
To Jessica Chastain, the breakout performer of the year
To Martin Scorsese, in honor of his work and dedication to the pursuit of film preservation

(h/t Deadline)

War Horse - Movie Review

★★½


Starring Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston, Niels Arestrup, David Kross and Toby Kebbell.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.


Steven Spielberg has always had one foot in the past and one foot in the future when it comes to his films. He likes the old-fashioned melodrama, the sweeping spectacle of cinema, and generally I like the idea of this movie. But Spielberg can't help himself. This movie almost collapses under the weight of its own schmaltz.

The movie is about Joey, a horse. A special horse. One day he is purchased by a proud Irish farmer who owes rent to one of those evil-smug "owns half the town" types. But the farmer's teenage son Albie (Jeremy Irvine) trains him. When World War I breaks out, the farmer, despearete for money, sells the horse to the army. And so Joey's journey begins, like Homer's The Odyssey. Joey goes from one adventure to another, somehow staying alive, all the while hoping he can get home.

I liked most of this movie. It's never boring, and I was interested to see where Joey's journey might take him. But the movie tries too hard to tug our heart-strings, and without resistance nor effort, it never tugged at mine. There's an earnestness that feels forced.

I saw a YouTube essay recently on what they call the "Spielberg face." The Spielberg face is a common shot he uses, where he zooms in on the face of an actor reacting with awe at whatever they're looking at behind the camera. It's been a trick of the trade since the silent era, but Spielberg uses it often, and I've never been more aware of it than in this movie. Way too many shots of people marvelling. "Wow. What a miracle. What a horse."

My favorite moments came from Niels Arestrup, the criminal godfather from Un Prophete, now here a kindly French grandfather trying to raise his orphaned granddaughter in peace as war rages all around them.

Some people this might work for, and they'll find it a rewarding cinematic experience. I thought it was fine. A shrug. A thumbs sideways.

Weekend Box Office

For the weekend of December 30-January 1.

1.  Mission Impossible 4 - $31.25 million ($134.14) - 3 wks (Par) +5.9%
 . . . 3455 screens / $9045 per screen
2.  Sherlock Holmes 2 - $22.1 ($132.1) - 3 wks (WB) +9.1%
 . . . 3703 / $5967
3.  Alvin & the Chipmunks 3 - $18.25 ($94.61) - 3 wks (Fox) +45%
 . . . 3724 / $4901
4.  War Horse - $16.94 ($42.97) - 2 wks (BV) +125.4%
 . . . 2547 / $6651
5.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - $16.3 ($57.1) - 2 wks (Sony) +27.8%
 . . . 2914 / $5594
6.  We Bought A Zoo - $14.3 ($41.79) - 2 wks (Fox) +52.8%
 . . . 3163 / $4521
7.  The Adventures of Tintin - $12 ($47.84) - 2 wks (Par) +23.6%
 . . . 3087 / $3887
8.  New Year's Eve - $6.74 ($46.37) - 4 wks (WB) +103.7%
 . . . 2225 / $3030
9.  The Darkest Hour - $4.3 ($13.2) - 2 wks (Sum) +43.3%
 . . . 2327 / $1848
10. The Descendants - $3.65 ($39.68) - 7 wks (FS) +76%
 . . . 758 / $4815
11. The Muppets - $2.59 ($82.46) - 6 wks (BV) +20.6%
 . . . 1541 / $1679
12. Hugo - $2.53 ($49.54) - 6 wks (Par) +18.8%
 . . . 951 / $2655
13. Young Adult - $2.2 ($12.17) - 4 wks (Par) +25.7%
 . . . 987 / $2229
14. Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 - $2 ($275.45) - 7 wks (Sum) +36.3%
 . . . 1411 / $1417

Doing really well in limited release are A Separation, The Iron Lady and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol has passed MI3 and is on course to pass the first MI movie to become the second-highest grosser in the series.  It probably won't pass MI2, but it's made the franchise still relevant and justifies an MI5, should Cruise want to do it.

After disappointing openings, Sherlock Holmes 2 and Alvin & the Chipmunks 3 have shown strong legs and will be profitable.

Steven Spielberg has cannibalized himself by having two of his movies (War Horse and Tintin) opening less than a week apart, though I've always said Tintin was made for overseas audiences first.