Grudge Match

Actors:  Sylvester Stallone, Robert Deniro, Kim Bassinger, Kevin Hart, Alan Arkin, Jon Bernthal

Rating:  8 out of 10, I didn’t have high hopes for based on what I’d heard about it, but c’mon Rocky Balboa against Jake Lamotta – I was going to see this movie.  While it certainly did have its awkward moments it was very enjoyable.  They went a little overboard trying to make connections back to the Rocky movie, some more blatant than others and Kim Bassinger was completely out of her league. Stallone’s gone the lunkhead route for most of his career but he’s really not that bad an actor and more than holds his own with Deniro which is no mean task.  The movie is predicable but again, enjoyable.  It was the kind of movie I know I should dislike but I couldn’t help myself, a tribute to the two leads, ably supported by Alan Arkin, one of the funniest guys to ever draw breath.  The hardest thing to do was suspend disbelief that Stallone would not immediately mop the floor with Deniro in the ring, so maybe this was really an Oscar level turn for Deniro.

MVP:  Arkin steals every scene as the ancient trainer and is funnier than Hart 

Homefront

Actors:  Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, and Kate Bosworth

Rating:  8 out of 10, The latest Jason Statham offering, that’s all the description you need to understand what kind of movie we’re talking about.  Statham is kicking Cajun redneck butt in this one with James Franco as a really un-scary meth gang leader.  We’re not delving into Shakespearean fare here but this was pretty entertaining as the action moves towards the inevitable show/smack down.  The biggest surprises were two of the female supporting actresses.  Kate Bosworth completely shunned her good looks and looked to be method acting the part of a meth-head low life.  Winona Ryder was completely unrecognizable as Franco’s girlfriend/business partner.  I just hope they offered Bosworth rehab after filming because she seriously looked like she needed it; her best performance in years.  

MVP:  Statham kicking ass and taking names

Escape Plan

Actors:  Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio,  Amy Ryan

Rating:  7 out of 10, This is another of their combined attempts of Stallone and  Schwarzenegger to recapture their 1980’s glory days even as they pass into senior citizenry.  Both can still carry a movie and this was watchable, if predictable.  They both end up incarcerated in a sadistic private prison and their geritol fueled angst is palpable.   Stallone has obviously done a whole lot of steroids and can barely walk in a straight line, but then again, did he ever?  Caveizel does an interesting turn as the bad guy.  No surprises but some very good set action pieces.

MVP:  Stallone as the incarcerated escape artist

Blue is the Warmest Color

Actors:  Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos

Rating:  8 out of 10, This was a movie my daughter really liked but was leery recommending to me.  First of all it’s French and that’s never a good starting point for me but it does have an overwhelming amount of female nudity so the French factor was mitigated.  It’s a coming of age flick about a young girl who meets her true love (who happens to be another woman) and follows their relationship for the next decade or so.  Despite all the subtitles and the length (really long) this is a very engaging film about the essence of true love not tied to societal norms and that a relationship need more than great passion in the long run.  The director ensured that the color blue was represented in every scene which became an interesting game to note after spotting this.  The film is very explicit as the camera is for extended periods brought right into the various writhings going on and it had my wife running to close the curtains so the neighbors wouldn’t be exposed to our depraved viewing of French anatomy.  If you’ve got the time and aren’t offended by graphic nudity – a great movie.

MVP:  Exarchopoulos as the confused and semi-tragic Adele

Dallas Buyers Club

Actors:  Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Denis O'Hare, Steve Zahn

Rating:  7 out of 10, A movie that grabs you from the outset mainly because McConaughey appears so absolutely wasted physically by AIDs.  He and Jared Leto went all in on portraying the ravaged characters and it’s almost mesmerizing.  The plot is kind of thin but doesn’t get into Hollywood preaching mode which was refreshing.  A Texas cowboy finds out he is afflicted with AIDs during the Reagan years and is given thirty days to live.  He becomes an illegal purveyor of unapproved treatment drugs and over the next seven years turns his life around with an unlikely alliance with a cross dressing Leto.  This film does accurately capture the panic and hopelessness when the AIDS epidemic first surfaced.  You leave the movie worried about the real world health of the lead actors who went to award winning lengths to lose weight.

MVP:  While Leto’s Rayon was astounding McConaughey as Ron dominates 

Hours

Actors:  Paul Walker, Genesis Rodriguez

Rating:  6 out of 10, This is virtually a one man show and at the risk of criticizing the dearly departed, thespian skills were Paul Walker’s strongest suit.  He plays a new father struggling alone to save his newborn baby in an abandoned New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina and aftermath.  There just wasn’t enough meat hanging on the bones of the script.  The plot device of being anchored to his kid’s lifesaving apparatus which needed recharging every two minutes opened some gaping plot holes.  Walker’s forte was action and he shouldn’t have wandered away from that.  The dog was pretty cool though.

MVP:  Walker as the only guy really in this movie 

Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit

Actors:  Kenneth Branagh, Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley

Rating:  7 out of 10, Chris Pine is the fourth actor to portray Tom Clancy’s iconic hero and this movie goes back to his origin story although updating it to present day (and setting up a new franchise).  The movie is extremely well done and at least the first half is loyal to Clancy’s character.  For the second half Ryan is transformed into a combination of James Bond and Sherlock Holmes as Pine Captain Kirk’s his way to the finish line.  This is just me waxing philosophical about a new take on a cherished literary character in the cinema.  All that being said the action is literally non-stop and extremely well done.  The only miss in the cast is Keira Knightley (someone I usually like a lot) as Cathy Ryan who struggles badly maintaining her American accent.  Costner and Branagh (who also directed) are typically fabulous in important supporting roles.

MVP:  Costner continues a strong series of middle aged action dudes as Thomas Harper, Ryan’s CIA controller 

Nebraska

Actors:  Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacey Keach

Rating:  8 out of 10, A very simple story lovingly told in simple stark, black and white.  The issues at play (within the object family) aren’t as clear though.  Dern is magnificent as a befuddled old man on a quest to claim one of those mythical million dollar sweepstakes awards.  He ends up on a road trip back through his life with a loving son.  I’m usually not that much into “message” type films but this one touched me, probably because I’m getting older.  The subtle humor at the social gaffes that form the fabric of the extended family is incredible.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I’ll give you a quick piece of advice – don’t give up on the character of the wife too early.  The final ride back through Hawthorne was priceless.

MVP:  Squibb as the long suffering but wise wife who you’d want on your side in any fight 

Lone Survivor

Actors:  Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana.

Rating:  9 out of 10, An elegant film about the sacrifice young Americans continue to make daily in the furtive, hidden parts of the world.  You know going into the movie what the result is so it’s kind of painful to watch the real life story of a SEAL team's desperate battle for survival in Afghanistan which earned one a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.   The 4-man recon team is compromised and tries to fight their way out of danger against a much larger force of Taliban. What emerges is the nobility of spirit amongst these warriors as they pay the price for a humane decision.  The devotion of the men to each other even when they might disagree is an object lesson.  The real life survivor plays a small role and advised in making the film, keeping the movie from descending into typical Hollywood jingoism.  The Afghans are given their place in the story and allowed to show some of their own nobility.  It’s bloody, heart rending and yet somehow ultimately uplifting.  The sacrifices these gallant young men made on that remote mountainside will never be forgotten now, even if the mainstream media would like to ignore the fact we still have a shooting war going on.  I was literally choked up at the end and said a prayer of thanks for those guys and to a country that can produce such heroes.

MVP:  Ben Foster as Ax truly captured the mannerism of a special forces operator 

Robocop

Actors:  Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbuie Cornish, Jackie Earl Haley

Rating:  7 out of 10, The original movie was something of an event when I took my very young (alright way too young) son to see it.  He doesn’t seem too damaged by this parental failure.  The new one is glossy and all CGIed up but it lacks the heart and visceral violence of the original.  There were some exciting sequences but invariably interspersed with some absolute plodding.  The resulting stop and go reaches whiplash level pain.  The new Robocop had issues covering up his Euro-accent but the rest of the cast was good.  There was a heavy handed, anti-American message in TV host Samuel L. Jackson’s character (who got in his signature M.F. with only a few seconds to spare).  I’m probably too hard on this because the original had so many fond memories, but this wasn’t nearly as good and a PG-14 Robocop is just too safe.

MVP:  Oldman as the Robocop creator 

All is Lost

Actors:  Robert Redford

Rating:  8 out of 10, A movie like this sneaks up on you.  Sometimes a sinking ship is worth logging onto.  I watched this almost accidently and was soon caught up in the understated crisis of one man trying to survive once his yacht is damaged by some debris in the middle of the Indian Ocean which also knocks out all of his electronics.  The filmmakers don’t go for cheap tricks or heartfelt emotionality.  This is so simple in execution and speaks volumes about Redford’s unappreciated acting skill.  He is the only person seen in the entire movie and as he moves from disaster to disaster it’s impossible not to get caught up in the escalating drama.  This character is not someone you would want to stand next to in a thunderstorm because he has the worst possible luck imaginable.  The unpretentious dignity of his fight to survive is worth the watch.

MVP:  Redford who is also the least valuable because he was the only guy in the  entire movie 

Old Boy

Actors:  Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Imperioli

Rating:  6 out of 10, Why are iconic films re-made and then everyone wonders why they fail so miserably?  I offer a case in point with Spike Lee’s attempt to “Americanize” the Korean classic revenge flick.  The film had Lee’s typical fascinating camera angles and pace but the last thing Oldboy should be is safe.  Lee obviously had to tone down the story to “appeal” to a wider audience in the USA and that doomed what could have been a riot.  The story of the extremely flawed hero held in a private prison by a mysterious billionaire is transferred almost intact as is the final “yechhh!” twist.  Samuel L. delivers his obligatory M.F.s as the jailor who’s caught up in Brolin’s post incarceration rampage and Olsen is compelling as the victim.  Brolin just doesn’t sell his role as Oldboy which made the original so awesome and could certainly use some Korean hammer lessons.  Don’t bother with this – watch the original.

MVP:  Olsen as the bleeding heart nurse drawn into the maelstrom of revenge