[6] George Clooney stars as an assassin-for-hire who’s getting tired of the job. He’s always looking over his shoulder, always afraid to trust anyone, always sleeping with one eye open. Can he turn over a new leaf, or will his past come back to haunt him? You know the answer. But don’t get the impression that The American is an action movie, because while there’s …
[6] Gore, boobs, and monsters have always been a recipe for success — at least a moderate degree of it. Piranha 3D, Alexandre Aja’s remake of Roger Corman’s cult classic, proves the recipe may well be immortal. This flick is a big love letter to the low-budget creature features of the 70s and 80s. It’s not better than any of those movies, it’s not quite …
[6] Jean-Luc Godard once said, “All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun.” Watching Helen Mirren seize comand of a blazing Gatling gun, I think Godard may be onto something. RED isn’t terribly original or surprising, but its venerable cast rescues it from mediocrity. Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Mirren play retired CIA agents who return to their old habits …
[7] Ben Affleck stars in and directs this drama/thriller about a bank robber who falls in love with the manager at a bank he recently took down while he plans his next heist and evades the FBI. Affleck is a solid director, especially in the film’s heist and chase scenes, but The Town lacks a bit of the tension and thrill found in his earlier films …
[8] Jennifer Lawrence earned her first Oscar nomination playing Ree, a brave teenager raising her younger siblings in Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone, based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell. When her drug-dealing father puts the family home up for collateral on his bail, it’s up to Ree to save her family from becoming homeless. Winter’s Bone is essentially a quest for the father, whose dealings and …
[7] For the entirety of this film, you never leave a pine box buried in the desert. It’s a gimmick, but it’s a good one. Star Ryan Reynolds and director Rodrigo Cortes work magic to build drama and suspense in a confined space. By the end of the movie, you’re as anxious for Ryan to get out of the box as you’ve ever been engaged …
[3] I dislike remakes in general, but Michael Bay can kiss a special place on my ass for remaking and homogenizing every horror classic from my childhood. His Platinum Dunes company is a shit factory, and A Nightmare on Elm Street doesn’t buck the trend. Bay’s director of choice here (miscellaneous hack so-and-so) can’t resist but tinker with Freddy’s backstory, putting too fine a point …
[6] Moderately entertaining supernatural drama from director Clint Eastwood. The film follows three separate story lines that come together in the end. Matt Damon plays a reluctant psychic who can commune with the dead; Cecile de France plays a news reporter who has a near-death experience in a tsunami that opens the film; and Frankie and George McLaren play twin brothers separated by death. The …
[7] 127 Hours is the true story of a man who accidentally slips into a rocky crevasse in the Arizona desert where he’s trapped for days and must resort to desperate measures in order to survive. After the first fifteen minutes and before the last ten, the film takes place almost entirely within the stone entrapment, where actor James Franco and director Danny Boyle (Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire) keep …
[8] The teenaged children of a lesbian couple seek out their sperm donor and wackiness ensues. Actually, it’s not all that wacky, and that’s what’s refreshing about The Kids Are All Right. The film steers clear of good/bad absolutes and offers up an ensemble of characters a little more sophisticated than Hollywood rom-coms tend to offer. And while the moms may be gay, I think …
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