Mr. Nobody

Actors:  Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Regbo and Juno Temple.

Rating:  6 out of 10, So this is what happens when the French, Germans, and Belgians get together with the Canadians to make a movie. A movie that makes you go “Huh?”  a lot as the main character, a 118 year old Jared Leto, explores his past life which careens through an ever increasing number of tangents as he remembers key decisions and then makes different choices.  There’s a kind of sweet love story buried in the middle of the wildly staggering plot lines but it’s almost buried under the non-linear approach.  I was left with the impression that there were a lot of ideas thrown up in a planning meeting and nothing was discarded.  The result was a visually stunning movie that plods on for what seemed like all 118 years of Leto’s life.

MVP:  Kruger as Anna, the destined great love of Nobody’s life

3 Days to Kill

Actors: Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen, Richard Sammel, Eriq Ebouaney

Rating:  9 out of 10, This was a Luc Besson vehicle so of course it featured a grizzled, flawed hero (Costner) surrounded by legions of bad guys in Besson’s beloved Paris.  With a typically outlandish plot I really enjoyed this action flick.  Costner plays a CIA assassin dying from cancer trying to reconnect with a teenage daughter and estranged wife while simultaneously foiling a terrorist attack by the team of the Albino and the Wolf (very Besson).  There’s a huge body count and Costner lends a very cool level of humanity to the character.  Hailee Steinfeld continues her impressive work as the confused daughter.  Amber Heard plays Costner’s diabolical CIA boss who may have a cure for his cancer (as long as he stops at critical moments to down vodka).  The drug has the side effect of immobilizing Costner just as he’s about to close with and eliminate the bad guys.  As you can see this movie was all over the place but leavened with Besson’s typical charm – a lot of fun to watch.

MVP:  Costner, of course, as the deadly CIA assassin Ethan trying to learn how to be a father to a teenage girl

Next of Kin

Actors:  Patrick Swayze, Helen Hunt, Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin, Ben Stiller, Bill Paxton

Rating:  6 out of 10, It’s the red necks versus the mafia as 1980s Swayze tries to straddle two worlds.  He’s trying to make it as a Chicago cop while dealing with his backwoods brothers.  When one of them gets knocked off by the mafia (including a very young Stiller) he’s caught between his family’s backwoods code of eye for an eye and the law.  Neeson as a hillbilly is a real stretch (didn’t know they had Irish accents).  The ending confrontation in a graveyard was typical 1980s subdued action and angst.  This movie was more of a vehicle for Swayze to strut around looking cool with a pony tail and still kicking ass.  I really miss Dalton, always thought he’d be bigger.

MVP:  Swayze as Truman Gates, 1980s action dude extraordinaire

Runner, Runner

Actors:  Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck, Gemma Arterton, Anthony Mackie

Rating:  4 out of 10, It’s good to see that Affleck hasn’t totally lost his ability to deliver an absolute stinker of a movie, a la Gigli.  He plays a criminal mastermind here running an online gambling empire from Costa Rica.  He draws in the innocent Timberlake to take the fall for his crimes.  The plot is all over the place with sub-plots emerging and disappearing without resolution.  The overall arc is exposed way too early and the ending twist way, way too pat. 

MVP:  Mackie as the hat wearing FBI agent

I, Frankenstein

Actors:  Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Miranda Otto, Jai Courtney, Kevin Grevioux

Rating:  8 out of 10, I was not going to miss a movie about the Frankenstein monster fighting gargoyles and demons!  It turned out to be pretty good popcorn fare, maybe because my expectations were so low.  Some great action pieces and fantastic special effects with an out of the ordinary take on the Frankenstein “legend”.  I’ve always thought Aaron Eckhart was an interesting actor and he delivers here as the monster caught in the war between good and evil.  This wasn’t Shakespeare by any means but one of those put your mind on hold and enjoy the carnage kind of flicks.

MVP:  Eckhaart as the monster, of course 

Alpha Dog

Actors:  Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy, Anton Yelchin, Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried with Harry Dean Stanton, Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis

Rating:  6 out of 10, The retelling of a real world senseless killing by some California teenaged idiots boasts a strong cast with the exception of Hirsch. Hirsch is not believable or even a little scary as the supposed bad guy pulling all the strings.  Timberlake on the other hand plays to form as a happy go lucky irresponsible California “dude” who cannot take responsibility for anything and ends up costing an innocent life.  I really wanted to like this but it kept coming back to Hirsch and his totally unbelievable villain.  They would have done better giving Ben Foster more screen time as he was at his compelling best, as usual.
MVP:  Timberlake excels as the apologetic assassin Frankie

The Book Thief

Actors:  Geoffrey Rush, Sophie Nelisse, Emily Watson, Nico Liersch

Rating:  7 out of 10, Supremely well-acted, but slow moving drama about a young orphan thrust into a childless German family on the cusp of World War 2.  It was obviously aiming for some highly moralistic message as the atrocities of WW2 are seen through the eyes of a child but it ends up being a little too dull.  The cast does its level best to elevate the work but there’s just not enough meat hanging on the bones of the story. Geoffrey Rush should be marked as  a national treasure for his career and he’s once again spot on as the doting father.  The young actors are also very good and it was interesting to see the story told from the German side.  Death as the narrator wasn’t an easy thing to pull off and wasn’t.

MVP:  Rush elevates any role he undertakes and does so as the humble and loving Papa