Near Dark

Actors:  Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Adrian Pasdar, Jenette Goldstein, Tim Thomerson, Joshua John Miller
Rating:  7 out of 10, this is a really interesting take on vampire mythology.  It was made before the current vampire craze and was one of Katherine Bigelow’s first movies before she achieved fame with The Hurt Locker.  The vampires are shown as a tight knit, totally amoral family led by Henriksen and Goldstein.  There’s none of the stake through the heart or crucifix stuff but they do catch fire in daylight.  They are trying to initiate Pasdar who is not playing along.  It is interesting that this was made shortly after Aliens and has three of the lead actors from that film together again in Paxton, Goldstein, and Henriksen.  I really liked the interplay between these three actors and they carried the movie because Pasdar is just kind of there.  I didn’t really like the climatic scenes because they don’t credit the century old vampires with a lot of common sense but the scenes when the “family” is together is worth the watch.
MVP:  Goldstein demonstrates the same smoldering presence as Diamondback that she showed in Aliens

Do Not Disturb

Actors:  Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Hermione Baddeley, Sergio Fantoni, Maura McGiveney
Rating:  7 out of 10, another of my Christmas.  Day and Taylor continue the real easy chemistry.  They play a married couple trying to settle down in England while he runs a textile firm.  She is trying to set up house in the English countryside and they both are faced with opportunities to cheat on each other.  Fantoni plays a Louis Jourdan look alike who tries to woo Day but earns a right cross for his efforts.  This was one of the last movies where Day was featured as a sexy lead and she more than holds her own.  You can also see her famed love of animals with foxes and goats wandering her English home.  Taylor is solid, as always, and plays the perfect exasperated husband to Day’s occasionally ditzy pronouncements.  This was very light, but highly entertaining 1960’s rom com. 
MVP:  Day, again, as Janet Harper, the funny and sexy harried wife

The Crimson Pirate

Actors:  Burt Lancaster, Nick Kravat, Torin Thatcher, Eva Bartok
Rating:  7 out of 10, if you had asked a fourteen year old version of myself what my favorite movie was I would have enthusiastically endorsed this movie.  I saw this as a very young boy and was captivated by the comedic adventure with Lancaster and Kravat showcasing their impressive physical talents.  Because of his long career it’s easy to forget what a great athlete Lancaster was.  The movie has suffered over time and didn’t hold the same magic for the middle aged version of myself but it still resurrected some very fond memories.  It was kind of appropriate that I watched this on a snowy Saturday afternoon.  The plot is completely nonsensical with Lancaster playing a pirate captain who falls in love with a captive and then has to lead a revolution on a Caribbean island.  When I was a kid I thought the many different inventions used for the revolution were so cool but now they just seemed kind of silly.  Bartok was very memorable and Christopher Lee appears in a small role as well.
MVP:  Lancaster as the charismatic Captain Vallo – “Gather Round Boys!”

The Glass Bottom Boat

Actors:  Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Dick Martin, Dom Deluise, Arthur Godfrey, Paul Lynde

Rating:  8 out of 10, another of my Christmas presents and one that I really enjoyed.  Day was near the end of her ability to play the young ingénue but she and Taylor had real easy chemistry which was in clear evidence here.  Day plays a widower who meets multi-millionaire inventor Taylor when he hooks her bathing suit bottom.  The rest of the movie is a romp with a bunch of very funny actors.  Day is accused of being a Soviet spy amidst a real Soviet spy plot.  It is a really amusing glance back at cold war paranoia and there’s even a spot cameo by Napoleon Solo, which only people my age would understand.  I could have lived without seeing Paul Lynde in drag.  You can see the changing of mores as well as they actually acknowledge non-married adults would get together for sex.  There are also a lot of technological marvels highlighted as Taylor is supposed to be a great inventor.  It was interesting to see a couple things here that were stolen in later movies, like the floor cleaner in Taylor’s kitchen that appears in the 5^th Element. This was a lot of silly fun.

MVP:  Day, again, as Jennifer Nelson at the peak of her craft, likable and sexy

Lynde is Drag Along with Solo

Please Don’t Eat The Daisies

Actors:  Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige, Patsy Kelly, Jack Weston, Richard Haydn
Rating:  7 out of 10, I received a bunch of Doris Day movies for Christmas and my wife chose this as the first to see.  It was shot when Day was at the height of her fame and she is incredibly good in this as the housewife mother of four young boys to theater critic husband Niven.  I always admired Day for not shying away from playing mother roles and she seems very at ease with the young actors playing her sons.  She and Niven are an interesting couple with Niven’s cool Englishman paired with Day’s American wholesomeness.  The plot revolves around the forced move to the country from their Manhattan apartment and Niven’s struggle to adapt to being one of the most important theater critics.  There’s not a lot happening in this film but I didn’t mind as it did have two of the iconic actors from the films of my youth at the height of their careers.  I really enjoy seeing the changes we’ve all undergone since this much different time. 
MVP:  Day as Kate MacKay the quintessential 1960’s housewife

Total Recall (2012 Version)

Actors:  Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston, Bokeem Woodbine, Bill Nighy
Rating:  8 out of 10, I did not have high expectations for this because I loved the original Verhoeven version, even though it included the acting chops of the Governator. I’m also not a huge fan of Colin Farrell (I mean have you seen Alexander) but it did include Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale so there was no way I was missing this movie. I was totally blown away by the film. Instead of rehashing the same story of the earlier film they went in a new direction with incredibly realistic special effects that were over the top. The story was completely new with the same character names and there were several odes to the old movie, some more obvious than others, which I always like. I’m going to watch both films to catch even more. I love it when a movie surprises me and Total Recall did. All three leads were at the top of their game, especially Beckinsale who proves she doesn’t need to wear spandex to be dangerous. I even liked Farrell who took his character in a completely new direction from Arnold which I liked.  Both of the women in this movie took on the brunt of the action and made Farrell look like a sissy at times.  This was a good flick which I wholeheartedly recommend.  There is an extended version on the blu ray which I watched instead of the theatrical version.  The theatrical version is much better and keeps the pace up.  The extended version dragged in a number of places, obviously the director added back in some things that were rightfully excluded in the theatrical version.
MVP:  Beckinsale as the totally hot and incredibly dangerous Mrs. Quaid

Ted

Actors:  Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel Mchale, Seth Macfarlane, Sam Jones
Rating:  9 out of 10, This movie was an absolute riot, so funny on so many levels. The story of a teddy bear that comes to life and bonds with a Boston loser with an incredibly hot girlfriend.  It was vulgar, insulting and just delightful. It takes a really smart script to make vulgar tolerable and funny and this film accomplishes that nearly impossible task. There are some incredibly funny cameos which I also love. It was irreverent, poked fun at itself,  and even had a huge connection to the 1970s Flash Gordon movie (another guilty pleasure). This was one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a very long time.  Kunis has quietly evolved into a real screen presence and can handle comedy as well as drama which is not easy.  All the actors deserve some credit here because the acting with the computer generated main character was seamless and made you believe Ted was really there.  Some of the funniest bits in this movie are the Boston inside jokes which are hilarious.  I also liked the familiar Boston settings.  This wasn’t as funny the second time around but there were a lot of one line zingers that I missed the first time through as well.  This is certainly not Shakespeare but it is extremely funny, if in a guilty pleasure type of way.
MVP:  Kunis as Lori, Wahlberg’s love interest and bane of Ted

The Bourne Legacy

Actors:  Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Stacey Keach, Scott Glen
Rating:  8 out of 10, I kind of wondered when they first broke the news about another Bourne movie, this one without Matt Damon.  This one picks up events before the end of the last Damon one and uses that as kind of an envelope to take story in another direction which was kind of interesting.  Renner continues his exceptionally strong series of performances in the lead role. The biggest surprise for me was the appearance of Rachel Weisz who was almost unrecognizable as the female lead. I don’t know if she’s gone under the knife or is just evolving as she gets older but she’s one of my favorite actresses and like I said, I almost didn’t recognize her. She’s still really hot and delivered her usual superb performance. The action sequences were intense and lived up to their Bourne predecessors which made watching these movies almost like being on a roller coaster. My only problem with the movie was that it seemed to be only half a story. Obviously the studio is gearing up for a sequel but they didn’t really finish up the plot for the first movie and that’s kind of cheating. The three very effective movies with the first Bourne trilogy achieved this without stooping to doing this so I was a little disappointed in that; still it was a great movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.  The best part of the movie was the intelligence.  It wasn’t all action scenes but had a reason for everything that happened in a well written plot.  Norton is such a great bad guy – I get the impression he must be some kind of A-hole in person or is just an incredibly gifted actor. 
MVP:  Renner as Aaron Cross ably picks up the Bourne mojo of a skilled assassin with a heart

The Dark Knight Rises

Actors:  Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Matthew Modine
Rating:  10 out of 10, Two nights in a row watching Oldman and Hardy with a dose of Bale thrown in this time.  I’m probably one of the few that didn’t think The Dark Knight, the second movie in the trilogy, was a transcendent movie.  I did enjoy it but never elevated it to the pantheon of movie excellence most fans seemed to have placed it.  Heath Ledger was riveting as the Joker but the movie didn’t connect with me.  I actually liked The Dark Knight Rises much more because it allows Bale to complete the arc of his Bruce Wayne/Batman character instead of making illogical but well meaning decisions as he did in the second film.  The supporting cast in this newest movie was incredibly strong, a hallmark of this series.  The only miss in the cast was Modine who was terrible and completely unbelievable.  Luckily he was rescued by the addition of Gordon-Leavitt who has gone chameleon on us, changing his personae and physical aspect with each new role – (expect very big things from him in future).  There were a couple of issues with the middle third of the movie, ad hoc spinal surgery in a 3rd world prison to mention one and a bizarre battle plan for the climatic confrontation as another.  The movie also wastes Tom Hardy who is unrecognizable and completely masked as the villain Bane.  Hardy is a really good actor but his part could have been played by a stuntman because of the mechanical voice and face covering breathing mask – complete waste of talent there.  Hathaway on the other hand, who reminds me so much of my daughter, is pitch perfect as Catwoman.  She is one of those rare actors that portrays emotions in just a glance.  The ending was pitch perfect – just a great movie.  I absolutely loved this movie and could not believe how fast the 2+ hours sped by.
MVP:  Hathaway as an extremely multi-layered Catwoman, sexy, smart, tough and vulnerable – makes you forget Pfeiffer’s take – no mean task

The Dictator

Actors:  Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, John C Reilly
Rating:  7 out of 10, a Netflix rental because I’m not a huge Cohen fan but the trailer looked hilarious.  I was truly and pleasantly surprised by how consistently funny this movie was.  So many stereotypes were attacked and exposed that this movie had me laughing from start to finish.  Cohen was prefect as a clueless despot forced to live a normal New Yorker’s existence for a while.  Some of the funniest bits were A-list movie stars portrayed as selling themselves to foreigners.  You really had to pay attention to catch some of the funniest lines and almost hidden cameos.  Cohen is so funny in this type comedy that I wonder why he does the reality shock thing so relentlessly – he has real talent as a comedic actor which is rare.
MVP:  Cohen – as Admiral General Aladeen, so funny when he wants to be and not trying to just shock people

Lawless

Actors:  Shia Lebeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman
Rating:  9 out of 10, The Bondurant brothers enters cinema history as a collection of entertaining characters delivered by great actors in supremely nuanced performances.  This was another great outing by Tom Hardy who steals every scene he’s in while saying virtually nothing – talk about screen presence.  I think this is what Ryan Gosling is going for in his staring mode but he’s not the actor Hardy is who carries it off with élan here.  Hardy is perfect as the quiet but indestructible head of the family bootlegging business. I’m sure a lot of critics will complain about the mumbling but if they really looked beyond the points of their noses they’d see that he’s made this an effective part of his character. I loved the interplay between him and Jessica Chastain. It takes two really good actors to depict the subtle progress of the romance portrayed here. Guy Pearce is the villain and I was amazed once again at his versatility going from the hero mode in the last movie I saw him in to the totally evil scoundrel here. I’m not a big fan of Shia Lebeouf, especially when he tries to be an action guy, but here he plays a “poser” who’s not tough and it worked.  There was a real texture to this movie which transports the viewer back to depression era Appalachia.  From the previews you would think Oldman played a big part in this movie but I think he had more screen time in the previews than he did in the actual movie.  This movie is a clear win, action, drama, and a serious amount of heart. 
MVP:  Hardy as the indestructible older brother Forrest Bondurant

The Grousers

Actors:  Tab Hunter, Cherie Latimer, Nadyne Turney, Linda Leider, Isabell Jewell
Rating:  2 out of 10, the Grousers AKA The Arousers AKA Sweet Kill was a joke gift from my friend who remembered this from our high school days as a racy film from the “naughty” drive in located in a nearby town.  It acquired the name Grousers when the drive in misspelled the name on its marquee and we were all trying to figure out what a “Grouser” was.  We watched it together on Saturday and marveled at just how bad this movie was and how tame it seemed by today’s conventions.  This was a Roger Corman produced movie with no real plot other than 1950s heart throb Tab Hunter killing girls.  Interestingly this was written and directed by Curtis Hanson who went on to have some real success in main stream Hollywood.  A really bad movie that brought up a lot of really funny memories from my youth.
MVP:  Whoever the actress was who was drying her hair in front of a mirror– still scene stealing

With Six You Get Eggroll

Actors:  Doris Day, Brian Keith, Patt Carroll, Barbra Hershey, Jamie Farr, William Christopher, George Carlin
Rating:  7 out of 10, this was Doris’ last film and you can see the years starting to impact but she was still at the top of her game.  I guess she had a lot of personal issues because she never made another film after this which is a real shame.  She plays an appropriately older widow in this one where she meets widower Brian Keith and they embark on a romance and elope.  All of this is to the horror of the very controlling children of each.  I’ve always loved Keith’s understated acting and he shares a great deal of chemistry with Day.  He seems a much more appropriate pairing for Day than her usually “too pretty” leading men.  There is kind of a hand off between acting generations as Barbra Hershey debuts in this movie and reminded me why I had the childhood crush I had on her. The funniest thing about this movie is the comment on the social scene of the late 1960s as Hollywood tries to portray flower power and the hippies.  Jamie Farr and William Christopher, before their MASH days, play hysterically (and unintentionally) funny leaders of a motor cycle gang with psychedelically painted helmets.  George Carlin looking impossibly young also has some funny moments.  Overall just a fun look back into the 1960’s with the iconic actress of that era in her swan song.
MVP:  Keith as Jake Iverson proves a perfect foil and holds his own with Day’s character

Farr and Christopher - I Had to Add this One - Too Funny

Send Me No Flowers

Actors:  Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Clint Walker, Paul Lynde
Rating:  5 out of 10, Back to Doris last night with a movie that came as an add on to one of the others I wanted to see.  This was not a good movie.  Day was good as always as the bright, perky housewife this time.  The problem was casting Hudson as a hyper-hypochondriac.  He was just not believable and neither was the notion that Day would put up with the incredible nonsense from her husband.  This is not how you expect from Hudson and he was not a good enough actor to pull this off.  Clint Walker, one of my favorite Dirty Dozen guys, tries to play a romantic rival but he’s even worse than Hudson.  He was nothing but big and should have stuck to action roles.  This is a totally forgettable movie with a contrived plot and most of the actors just going through the motions, definitely a pass.
MVP:  Day as Judy the long suffering wife of the idiotic Hudson

Expendables 2

Actors:  Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lungren, Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Terry Crews, Jason Statham, Liam Hemsworth, Nan Yu
Rating:  8 out of 10, I decided to break up my Doris Day retrospective by going in a slightly different direction.  This is a completely guilty pleasure movie but boy does it rock.  It’s obvious that the 1980s action stars (and every single one of them still alive is featured) are well beyond their prime but this still is a hell of a lot of fun.  The movie starts off with a bang and doesn’t let up for small things like plot continuity.  It’s also great to have the governator back but its obvious politics were not kind to him.  This is a movie in two parts with some straight forward action for the first half but jumping into cartoonish when Norris appears.  This reaches its “high” point when Arnold rescues the Expendable from a mine driving the boring machine from his Total Recall movie.  But that’s alright because this movie was made for people like me who just want to see things blow up and the good guys win every now and then.  That’s what best about this – it doesn’t take itself too seriously (at all) and repeatedly pokes fun at the stars and their 1980s selves.  Nan Yu was kind of a romantic inetrest and she is a very ineretsting actress and can kick ass as well.  I think they realized any romance between her and Stallone would be kind of creepy (for her) and thankfully didn’t go that way.  Supreme popcorn fare, and that’s all right.
MVP:  Nan Yu as Maggie, holding her own with the action and keeping her head above water in this sea of testosterone

Lover Come Back

Actors:  Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Donna Douglas, Edie Adams
Rating:  7 out of 10, my journey with childhood crush Doris Day continued with a film I never saw before.  It was another send up of the battle between the sexes that was fomenting in the early 1960s and features Day and Hudson at the peak of their careers.  Hudson plays another Neanderthal that thwarts the go getter Day as rival advertising executives.  Hudson really was an alpha male type despite his later revelations.  Day doesn’t often get credit for it but she was a ground breaker in the movies as a smart, confident professional female in a male dominated work environment.  The movie takes on the role of sex in a very straightforward manner which is surprising for a 1961 film.  There is also another fleeting reference to Hudson’s sexuality when he walks in wearing only a female’s mink coat that is only notable for what we learned later on.  Randall is incredibly funny as the spoiled rich son and Hudson's supposed boss.  This was another fun trip down memory lane that had my wife in stitches.  Over the past week she has become a devoted Doris Day fan, who knew?
MVP:  Day as Carol Templeton, the smart, sexy, and frustrated foil to Hudson’s cad

Pillow Talk

Actors:  Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter
Rating:  9 out of 10, my journey with childhood crush Doris Day continued with arguably her best film.  This iconic film holds up extremely well over five decades later.  The chemistry between Day and Hudson is palpable which is certainly a tribute to Hudson’s acting ability.   There was even a scene, so much more memorable now with the hind sight of the intervening years, where Hudson feigns homosexuality.  This movie actually takes other chances as well which makes it all the more enjoyable.  A professional woman in the 1950’s and the beginning salvoes of the loosening of views on sex that came with the 1960s among other themes.   It provides a very interesting glimpse back in time where there were party lines and completely different societal mores.  I really liked the split screens which are used extensively and Hudson tries to first confound and then win Day.  This technique as well as the entire movie was spoofed in Down With Love but here it’s a lot of fun.  That is the bottom line with this movie, its still very funny and a complete treasure.
MVP:  Rock Hudson as Brad Allen defining himself as the complete leading man of the 1960’s rom com (little did we know)

Move Over Darling

Actors:  Doris Day, James Garner, Chuck Conners, Thelma Ritter, Polly Bergen
Rating:  8 out of 10, a true guilty pleasure movie from my youth.  I was wandering through Amazon and happened upon some Doris Day movies from the 1960s and this one brought back some nice memories.  I put it on my wish list and my dutiful daughter promptly rewarded me with it as a birthday present.  It hearkens back to a more innocent time but it stands up well and is still incredibly funny.  Day plays Garner’s wife who reappears from a 5 year spell as a castaway thought dead just in time to thwart Garner’s marriage to Bergen.  Light hearted fun and it even has the Rifleman – Chuck Conners in a small role. I was fascinated with the back story which I was unaware of.  Apparently this script was originally meant for Marilyn Monroe and they actually started filming with her.  She was fired for unprofessionalism and died several months later so this was her last screen work (still hot).  The extras on the DVD are fascinating because they show several of the scenes with Monroe and then compare them to the Doris Day version.  At the same time Fox was shooting the Monroe version they were also pumping ungodly amounts of money into the Liz Taylor Cleopatra movie which was causing all kinds of financial problems for the studio at the same time Monroe was fired.  It offers an intriguing look into the Hollywood of the early 1960s.
MVP:  Doris Day as Ellen Wagstaff Arden proving herself as the once and always queen of rom-coms.

The Amazing Spider Man

Actors:  Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Fields, Rhys Ifans, Dennis Leary
Rating:  9 out of 10, when this first came out I really questioned why because of the excellent Toby Maguire series (at least the first two).  I guess there was a lot of scuttlebutt in nerd world that the earlier films got some things wrong but nothing that made me think a new series was needed this soon.  I’m sure a lot of it came from the success of the Batman re-boot.  As I stated when I saw this in the theaters – I was very pleasantly surprised by this film.  It all has to do with casting because there isn’t a miss in the entire cast here.  The lead, Garfield, who was so impressive in The Social Network, strikes just the right amount of humor, wonder, and angst as Peter Parker.  The real revelation though is Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy who completely elevates her role out of the mundane and becomes an equal partner to Parker.  I really appreciated the way characters weren’t all completely good or evil – it leant a lot more depth to the story.  The plot was well done and moved the action at a brisk pace without losing sight of the fact they had a story to tell.  This was a huge set up for future sequels and given the quality of this offering I’m more than ready for those.
MVP:  Stone – another in a long series of stand out performances who makes Gwen so much more than just a pretty face – but she’s got that going for her too

The Iron Lady

Actors:  Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach, Harry Lloyd, Iain Glen
Rating:  7 out of 10, a Netflix rental that took a very close look at one of the iconic figures of the later 1970s and 1980s, Margaret Thatcher.  She was Britain’s Ronald Reagan and accomplished a lot of the same things for which she was pilloried by the left leaning film industry.  This is a much more subtle look at her historic accomplishments and Streep totally owns this role – is there anything she cannot do?  The flashback technique was well done for the first half of the movie but wore me down in the second half.  This seemed to be a very honest appraisal of her battles against the rigid class structure of British society that is so prevalent but rarely talked about.  The supporting cast (many of them refugees from the Game of Thrones series) was fantastic, especially Broadbent as the often maligned but solid Dennis Thatcher.  I especially liked the scenes showing her origins and her fight up the ladder.  In the end I felt the film fell a little short because it couldn’t decide what it wanted to do – attack her, lionize her, or show the price she paid with her climb.  The best part of the movie were some of her quotes which rang true and could serve as a great indictment of today’s political arena which seems more about form than substance.
MVP:  Streep, the greatest actress of her generation, convincingly portraying Lady Thatcher

The Other Guys

Actors:  Will Farrell, Mark Walberg, Michael Keaton, Ray Stevenson, Dwayne Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson. Eva Mendes
Rating:  8 out of 10, this was a movie I had avoided seeing because I thought it was another lame rip off like so many “parody” films that try to capture the magic of Airplane or the Naked Gun (when it was still funny).  My son insisted I borrow his copy of the movie and I snuck in a viewing (my wife hates Will Ferrell for some unknown reason).  I was so glad he had me watch this because this is Ferrell back in his Anchorman and Talladega Knights realm where he is so funny.  This film really works and is so funny because the actors (great cast) play the insanity straight.  Walberg plays an able foil to Ferrell’s understated accountant type and is showing a flair for comedy.  There are several gags within gags such as a truly heroic Prius and Ferrell’s impossibly hot wife, Eva Mendes.  The small parts played by Johnson and Jackson as the epically super cops had me literally rolling on the floor.  The plot is only semi-important and mildly incoherent, especially the last quarter but this movie is about getting as many jokes onto the screen as possible, and that’s not a bad thing.  A nice little comedy that works because of the acting.
MVP:  Ferrell, as Detective Gamble, playing the understated psycho only as he can

Prometheus

Actors:  Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green
Rating:  9 out of 10, a movie that was hotly anticipated as Ridley Scott returned to science fiction and to the Aliens plot line.  This was truly an epic movie as the scope was just immense bridging the time from the origin of life on earth to the distant future.  Some sci fi fans are bemoaning the lack of direct connection to the Alien movie but they are there if you look and this plot direction made more sense in that it preserves the secrecy of the planet where the Alien is eventually found by Ripley. Speaking of Ripley, Noomi Rapace definitely lived up to Ripley’s credentials as the lead actress.  Anytime a character self-administers abdominal surgery and then still goes out to the fight certifies her as a genuine bad ass.  I really liked this movie but there were a couple of issues.  The plot is sailing along and then ¾ of the way through the movie changes directions radically, becoming the story of Pearce’s character instead of Rapace.  This was kind of jolting and not necessary.  The story also severely underused Theron which is criminal in its own right.  Great movie with tremendous scope and set up for the sequel where Rapace will seek out the engineers.  Fassbender continues his streak of superb characters as the slyly evil cyborg who loses his head (really his body).  If you didn’t see this on the big screen you missed out – a true epic.
MVP:  Elba as the sardonic and ultimately heroic captain, small part but it made it important

The Avengers

Actors:  Robert Downey Jr., Scarlet Johannsen, Samulel L Jackson, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tim Hiddleston
Rating:  10 out of 10, that rare film that totally lives up to the hype surrounding it and despite the remarkable special effects present, it is the actors that make this movie.  Joss Whedon must be some kind of genius because this movie totally worked. These were serious actors playing silly characters and by playing them straight – the entire movie was a treasure.  How he was able to weave the story so that each character had his or her own story line and screen time was astounding.  I worried there was too much going on to be coherent but that is certainly not the case.  When you consider the number of major characters and plot lines involved and the fact that it still works so well – I am dumbfounded.  This movie is a sci fi, action junkie’s (guilty) ultimate high.  I liked the way Whedon was able to get CPT America and Black Widow involved in the action even though they didn’t have the same level of super powers as some of the others.  Johannsen again demonstrated that she is a lot more than just a pretty “face”.  Ruffalo stands out with his almost sardonic take on Bruce Banner.  The Hulk has the best moments in the entire movie when he sucker punches Thor and then disabuses Loki as to his divinity.  This was a dream team of actors who sublimated their egos to produce a real treasure – as goofy as the premise is, this was a great movie.
MVP:  Ruffalo as Bruce Banner subtly finesses the anguish of Bruce Banner

Get The Gringo

Actors:  Mel Gibson, Kevin Hernandez, Peter Stormare, Peter Gerety, Dolores Heredia

Rating:  7 out of 10, a Netflix rental that I hadn’t heard anything about but it had Gibson, still serving his exile from Hollywood main stream, so I figured I would give it a chance.  I’m very glad I did because despite some very gritty edges this was very entertaining.  For all of us who wondered whatever happened to Gibson’s character Porter in the Payback movie – this provides a reasonable answer.  Gibson plays a career criminal who finds himself locked up in a depraved Mexican prison and he ends up playing all sides against each other to achieve his own ends.  He befriends a young Mexican boy serving time in the prison with his mother.  Gibson looks very washed out but I think that’s by choice and it plays well with his character.  The young actor playing the boy, Hernandez, is also extremely good and more than holds his own in his scenes with Gibson.  Whatever else Gibson may be guilty of he can still make a very entertaining action movie.

MVP:  Hernandez as the kid has real screen presence

Wanderlust

Actors:  Paul Ruud, Jennifer Anniston, Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Malin Ackerman, Joe Lo Truglio
Rating:  6 out of 10, a Netflix rental that I probably won’t buy because it just misses.  This comedy has Ruud fired from his job and trying out life in a Georgia commune.  I will watch any movie Ruud is in and he plays the same character he seems to play in half a dozen other movies but there was just something missing in this one, at least for me.  There didn’t seem to be a lot of chemistry between him and Anniston.  I was surprised to learn that they are virtually the same age because I left the movie thinking that Anniston was too old for him.  The hardest part for me was that Anniston was just not believable as a gal who couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do with her life.  I was kind of disappointed because she was so good in a couple of recent comedies, Just Go For It and Horrible Bosses.  Theroux is strong again as the hippy too good to be true and the rest of the loonies in the hippie colony are stand outs as well.  The sub-plot of the evil brother just did not work.  The writing overall was very smart and there were some great throw away lines.  There was also one extremely uncomfortable scene where Ruud is obviously ad libbing while talking to the mirror.  This is usually one of Ruud’s strengths but most of this scene should have been left on the cutting room floor.
MVP:  Alda as the drug addled aged hippie, Carvin, still got it

Cabin in the Woods

Actors:  Kristin Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchinson, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Sigourney Weaver
Rating:  10 out of 10, probably my favorite movie of the year so far and more so because it surprised me so much, something I did not think possible in the horror movie genre.  That is because this really isn’t a straight horror movie but a mix of horror, drama, comedy, and definitely satire.  How it was possible to generate a new angle on the slasher horror movie just amazed me. The cast was smart and the script was incredibly funny and intelligent.  Hemsworth continues his strong series of roles but the real star is Kranz who is the total slacker who emerges as the hero.  I think some of the writers identified with him and saw their chance to make him transcendent; it totally works; as does the entire movie.  The funniest bits are left to Jenkins and Whitford as civil servants with the future of the world hanging in the balance.  Whitford has the best line in the movie and it is simply, “C’mon!”  There were some subtle odes to past horror movies like the cabin itself was a replica of the one from The Evil Dead. I cannot say enough good things about this movie.  It was still macabre but had so many truly funny moments. I really can’t say too much about it because it will ruin some of the delicious surprises offered and I do want you to go see it. It’s such a rare opportunity when a movie can combine two seemingly opposite genres such as comedy and horror so successfully – go see this movie.  I tried to get my wife to watch it with me but she didn’t even last until the first decapitation, so it goes. 
MVP:  Kranz as Marty the stoned out slacker who saves the girl if not the world

Funny Guys

Gone

Actors:  Amanda Seyfried, Wes Bentley, Michael Pare, Katherine Moennig, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter
Rating:  7 out of 10, this was another Netflix rental that I missed when it was released in theaters because I thought it was just a chick flick.  It turned out to be a really good thriller with Seyfried getting out of her usual comfort zone and showing some real depth.  You’re left wondering for the whole movie if she is crazy and just imagining the killer stalking her and she does this with a lot of aplomb.  She definitely demonstrates that she is more than a pretty face and, for me, this justifies a huge comeback from Red Riding Hood.  The supporting cast is solid, especially Sunjata (another strong performance) which keeps the fast paced plot moving right along and keeps you guessing.  The police are treated as complete incompetents, unless they’re chasing Seyfried.  I’m still trying to figure out what Moennig was trying with her hair.  It must be her part was so small that she wanted to stand out but it looked like she went out of her way to look idiotic. Bentley is wasted in a part where you figured he had to be a bigger part of the story but wasn’t, definitely a red herring for the viewer.  There were some huge holes in the plot such as the police being able to track her cell phone only when it was needed for the plot but overall this was a very solid thriller with a nice little edge to it.  I really liked the ending.
MVP:  Seyfried shows some depth as the lead Jill, carries the whole movie and makes you wonder if she’s just driven or insane

The Raid: Redemption

Actors:  Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno
Rating:  8 out of 10, this was another Netflix rental that I checked out because I’d heard some really good things on some of the nerd sites I wander through.  It is the first Indonesian film I can remember seeing and it was awesome.  I watched it with sub-titles which didn’t really matter because you watch this movie for the action which was non-stop.  A SWAT team is led into the apartment building fortress of a crime lord on false pretenses and a young (and very deadly) cop (Uwais) is one of the few survivors trying to fight his way out.  The plot was paper thin but that’s okay because the fight scenes more than make up for that.  It was obvious that Uwais and the other actors were doing the fight scenes themselves and the brutal hand to hand fights were taken to a level I’ve never seen on film before.  I guess this is some form of Indonesian martial arts but it reminded me of Snake Plisken for some reason; which is a huge compliment.  The action was extremely well choreographed and filmed.  The toughest thing about a movie like this is to keep the viewer interested in repetitive fight scenes and this movie achieves it by making you care about Uwais, a tribute to his skill as not only a fighter but an actor.  I really liked this movie, definitely not a date movie (my wife walked out after the seventeenth knifing) but a real guys flick.  I discovered afterwards I could have watched it with English dubbed in, glad I didn’t.
MVP:  Iko Uwais is very memorable as the lead as last policeman standing - Rama

Machine Gun Preacher

Actors:  Gerard Butler, Michele Monaghan, Kathy Baker, Michael Shannon
Rating:  6 out of 10, this was a Netflix rental that we checked out after seeing the preview on another movie because my wife swoons at any appearance of Mr. Butler.  This is the real life story of a Pennsylvania hood who found Christ and is trying to save children in war torn Africa.  This film had a really good premise but it couldn’t figure out how to tell the story.  The plot becomes very episodic and they never delve enough into the reasons behind some of his biggest life decisions.  I mean we get it, this guy is driven, but they don’t spend enough time developing the background. There were a couple of moments where they could have spent just a little bit of time demonstrating why he was doing certain things, Butler is certainly a good enough actor to have carried it off.  The film also severely under uses Monaghan, one of my favorite actresses, as Butler’s wife.  It’s obvious that their relationship is one of the prime motivations for Butler’s character but it is given very little quality time on screen.  This could have been something really cool, but missed.
MVP:  Butler carries the movie as the scarily driven Sam Childress

Safe

Actors:  Jason Statham, Chris Sarandon, Catherine Chan, Robert John Burke, James Hong, Anson Mount, Reggie Lee
Rating:  8 out of 10, mindless, action thriller – check, gratuitous violence and huge body count - check, me loving the movie – check.  Mei, a young girl (played ably by Chan) has memorized an important criminal code, is pursued through New York City by the Chinese mob, the Russian mob, and corrupt NYC cops. Coming to her aid is a street person (Statham) whose life was destroyed by some the same gangsters on her trail.  Of course he’s a whole lot more than just that as we gradually learn. He plays the same deadly, kick ass character again, but boy is he good at that. He’s also my wife’s latest heart throb so she was gushing about his shirtless scenes.  This movie doesn’t try to be anything more than it is and for that reason it works. The supporting cast is excellent in small roles led by Chan.  Burke is scarily ominous as a corrupt cop and Lee is exceptional as a conflicted but still vicious Chinese gangster.  The action scenes are incredibly well choreographed and Statham does what he does best – let the mayhem commence.  The plot has just enough meat on it to justify the mayhem and that makes for a great ride for the viewer – as long you weren’t expecting the Great Gatsby.  Great popcorn fare.
MVP:  Statham as Luke Wright brings his Transporter personae into a new role and still kicks massive ass

Battleship

Actors:  Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgaard, Rhianna, Brooklyn Decker, Laim Neeson, Jesse Plemmons, Tadanobu Asano
Rating:  9 out of 10, in a word was AWESOME! This is the kind of movie my daughter and I completely disagree on as she is a lot more cerebral in her cinema preferences while I just revel in this type of popcorn corniness.  Of course this movie did have Kitsch which seems to help women overcome their cerebral tastes.  I worry that the director, Peter Berg, may also be love with Tim Riggins because of the long, lingering camera shots of Kitsch. It was almost uncomfortable at times but I guess that was for the ladies because there was a hell of a lot of action for the guys – must be the new paradigm. The last 45 minutes of the movie was some of the best action I’ve seen in a long while – it just really rocked, especially when the battleship Missouri took the field.  Seeing the 16” guns bellowing was almost worth the price of admission in and of itself.  The editing was kind of choppy and Neeson was severely underused but overall this was a great action thriller. I don’t understand all the bad reviews because it was not like they were trying to make Hamlet here and you get exactly what you expect, a big, overblown, heroic fight against a technically superior alien invader - what's not to love?  If the critics scared you off this movie and you love action – go see this movie – the last 45 minutes make it all worth it.  I loved the old board game of Battleship which I played incessantly as a kid and really wondered how they could make a coherent movie out of it, Brooklyn Decker helped a lot. Seeing Riggins and Landry (Plemmons) together again was also interesting with both playing very similar characters to what they did in Friday Night Lights.  Rhianna can actually act a little bit which surprised the hell out of me but she held her own with the real actors.  Put your brain on hold and just revel in the completely over the top insanity that is Battleship.
MVP:  Asano as Japanese naval Captain Nagano was the best actor on the screen, I’m not saying there was a lot of competition but he was very good

Yeah Baby!!

Hunger Games

Actors:  Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harellson, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Willow Shields, Lenny Kravitz, Amandla Stenberg
Rating:  9 out of 10, I was really looking forward to this movie after my daughter gave me the books and I read them in very short order. The books were very good and the movie had some really good reviews so I was set up to be disappointed. I was not. The movie was loyal to the books and the small diversions did not impact in a big way.  There’s always a problem when a movie tries to capture the plot that has so many levels but this movie does.  Harrelson proves he can still do more than just crazy and Kravtiz was extremely memorable in a very small part.  This movie though is carried by the persona of Katniss Evergreen played ably by Lawrence.  After reading the books I was wondering if any actress would be up for the central character but Lawrence is more than able.  I really like her as an actress because she takes chances and she certainly does here.  She’s okay with being less than likable in some of her scenes because that was what the scene called for.  I think she will be the next great American actress.  Some of the best scenes were the ones she had with Stenberg who is another young actress we should all keep an eye on for future greatness.  Hutcherson was a bit of a miss as Peeta because he didn’t have the physicality I imagined with the character but he can certainly act and that covered up what I thought he was missing to a large extent.  I was really wondering how they were going to pull off the action scenes of the games themselves but this was the strongest part of the movie.  If anything I think they missed out on the opportunity to show more and especially how the games were being viewed in outlying districts. It’s rare that a movie with its limitations as a media format can capture the depth and texture of a well loved book but this movie achieves it, thanks in large part to the delightful Ms. Lawrence.
MVP:  Who else but Jennifer Lawrence as the deadly but vulnerable Katniss Evergreen

Red Tails

Actors:  Cuba Gooding Jr., David Oyelowo, Terrence Howard, Nate Parker, Michael B Jordan, Andre Royo,
Rating:  8 out of 10, I missed this movie in the theaters and due to the recent poor luck with buying films unseen I checked this out as a Netflix rental.  I hadn’t heard anything good about this movie so I wasn’t expecting much and was truly pleased with how well done it was.  I’m in the middle of watching the final season of The Wire and many of the same actors show up in this movie which made it even more enjoyable – like seeing old friends.  There’s been a lot written about the real world heroes who flew as African-American pilots in World War 2 but this was the most enjoyable I’ve seen.  Most of the other movies about the Tuskegee airman focus on the social struggle they faced and give short shrift to the combat action which is where they ultimately proved their worth and validated their place as icons of US military heroism.  This movie rectifies that in a big way as the action is almost non-stop and the aerial combat scenes are breathtaking.  George Lucas was involved in this and you can see the special effects expertise manifest itself in the dogfights.  The writing is a little more lightweight but this is a fantastic group of actors who elevate the work above the content even though some 21^st century lingo does sneak in (obviously (hopefully) ad libs).  The only miss in the cast was Oyelowo who was not convincing as the supposedly brash guy.  He didn’t strike me as very American and after watching the film I learned he was British.  With so many talented American actors surrounding him he just didn’t come across as genuine.  It was great to see a movie about African-Americans that allowed them to be action heroes and not beat the audience over the head with the message of racial equality.  The message is there but rightfully and accurately demonstrated by the combat prowess of the pilots.  The first hour of the movie is riveting and while the plot gets bogged down in the last half this is still a very well done and fitting tribute to some of the greatest Americans to ever wear the uniform.  While I was serving I had the honor to meet some of the actual Tuskegee airman and they were some of the nicest, most self-effacing gentlemen I ever met, true heroes.  This movie soars and will soon occupy a position on my movie shelf.
MVP:  Howard as Colonel Bullard in a small but important part as the leader of the Red Tails