Lockout

Actors:  Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, Peter Stormare Rating:  9 out of 10, a really fun movie that totally snuck up on me when I saw it in the theater.  This kind of stuff is right in Luc Besson’s wheel house which he did so well with the 5^th Element.  Two actors completely dominate this movie.  Joseph Gilgun is mesmerizingly evil as the totally daft bad guy.  It’s impossible to look away when he is on screen and equally tough to understand what he is saying at times.  Pearce is even more effective as the wise cracking hero, channeling Bruce Willis.  He has too many great one–liners to recount but he takes serious moments and takes the air completely out of his superiors with incredibly funny jabs.  The action is almost non-stop as Pearce has to rescue the president’s daughter, Maggie Grace, from a prison located in space.  Grace holds her own with Pearce which is a challenge because he is so good.  The supporting cast is also superb although some of the American accents fray at times.  The dynamic between the two bad guy brothers was also well done and explains why Gilgun’s character survives his outlandish excesses.  The only thing that keeps this movie from achieving top ranking are the special effects which are not up to par.  Some of the early scenes look like they were done for a 1990’s Atari game.  That being said, this is a great movie for we lovers of popcorn escapism.
MVP:  Pearce as the witty, sarcastic but very effective CIA Operative Snow

American Reunion

Actors:  Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, Tara Reid, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Mena Suvari, Chris Klein, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Eugene Levy and John Cho

Rating:  6 out of 10, I actually enjoyed this when it came out in theaters a couple of months ago but when I watched it at home it had lost a lot of its comedic punch.  It was clear that some of the leads are less than gifted actors and were merely reading their lines instead of trying to emote.  It was interesting to catch up with the characters from the original American Pie movie and see them wrestling with adulthood.  The best part of the movie was the relationship between Jason Biggs and his dad Eugene Levy, who’s still the funniest guy in the movie.  Stifler‘s act is a little lame now and they made no attempt to make the high schoolers look anything less than mid-twenties in age.  Jim and Michelle’s relationship was the sweetest thing about the other movies and it didn’t seem right to threaten it.  I loved the turn about between Finch and Stifler and their respective maternal quests.  Overall this was a nice, little movie where hopefully these characters are saying goodbye to us, one can hope.
MVP:  Levy as Jim’s Dad once again steals every scene he’s in and tries to show the younger actors what comedic acting is all about

Murder By Death

Actors:  Peter Falk, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Truman Capote, Maggie Smith, James Coco, Eileen Brennan, Alec Guiness, Elsa Lanchester
Rating:  8 out of 10, an extremely intelligent comedic parody of film noir  detectives that shows its age but is still laugh out loud funny.  The film was penned by Neil Simon and his sharp wit gives real traction to what would otherwise be extremely silly.  The story has five famous detectives based on Hercule Poiroit, Sam Spade, Miss Marple, Nick and Nora Charles, and Charlie Chan who are challenged to solve a murder by/of Truman Capote.  You can take a look at the cast and realize this was a lot of fun to watch.  As with most of Simon’s work the best part were the one liners and most of those fall to Falk in what I believe to be his best film role.  They even made a sequel featuring his character, called the Cheap Detective which was horrible.  I didn’t realize how hot Maggie Smith was at the time but she is also very good in a small part.  Alec Guiness is so funny as the blind butler James Sirbensonmum and shows a real flair for physical comedy, although I ddi keep flashing back to Obi Wan hearing his voice.  The only misses were Coco and Sellers who overdid their parts, maybe because they were surrounded by such talented actors.  I still love this movie and could not believe it was not in my collection until now. 
MVP:  Falk as the over the top tough detective Sam Diamond steals scenes even in the august company of this cast