Author: Darren Goodhart

In the summer of 1944, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg of the German Army and a group of other ranking German officials, both military and civilian, attempted the last of the Germans own attempts to kill Adolf Hitler and wrest away control of Germany to peaceably negotiate an end to World War II. Valkyrie is the story of that attempt and it’s failure…

… and it’s one hell of a great movie from director Bryan Singer and star Tom Cruise. This marks the first time these two have worked together and I can only hope that they’ll do it again someday. Nothing is really spoon-fed to you here and though this plan seems like the best way to go about it, it always hangs on both timing and the wills of the players involved. What you have here is a pretty taut thriller, that still plays extremely well even though you already know the outcome.

I mention Tom Cruise specifically because he’s obviously the lead here, but the way the movie plays out, it’s way more of an ensemble than most might figure it to be, and there’s one hell of a good cast at work here. You’ve got Kenneth Brannagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp, Christian Berkel and Thomas Kretschmann amongst this fine cast and all are doing great work, with some stand out stuff from both Wilkinson, Nighy and Berkel in particular.

I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how this will disappoint them because Tom Cruise doesn’t speak with a German accent in the film, which of course is a lame reason for disappointment, especially considering that the bulk of the cast is British and doesn’t speak with a German accent either. This film has a pretty clever way of getting past that right at the start and it’s something that’s been done with other films (most notably The Hunt For Red October) because as we all know, audiences for the most part hate to read their movies… so big effin’ whoop over the fact that no one has a German accent here. I’ve also seen complaints about how this doesn’t get into much in the way of Naziism or the atrocities committed by the Germans, and while that might be a little valid, it’s not what the movie is about, and it’s pretty evidently stated that this group came together because they didn’t believe in the legacy that Hitler was leaving behind with his Germany, though some (most notably Wilkinson’s General Fromm) have different ambitions growing from the outcome.

I was riveted to this movie right from the start, and honestly can’t wait to see it again. For me anyway, it’s right up there with HBO’s movie Conspiracy and Oliver Hirschbiegel’s excellent film Downfall (and to a lesser effect Wolfgang Peterson’s Das Boot) about key moments on the German side during World War II. Highly recommended…

The masked crimefighter of Central City known as The Spirit becomes embroiled in a plot by his archnemesis, The Octopus, to unlock mythological secrets that will garner for him the power to rule the world- all the while, also pursuing a mysterious woman from his past, the criminal Sand Saref.

The Spirit written and directed by Frank Miller and based on the comic strip series by legendary comics creator Will Eisner is a mixed bag. Miller is somewhat faithful to what Eisner has done, but decidedly, like Darwyn Cooke’s version of The Spirit for DC Comics, this isn’t an impression of Eisner’s work, it’s Frank Miller’s vision of the character, and what Miller has decided to do is go really big and over-the-top with The Spirit, not necessarily unlike what has been done in the past in movies with characters like Flash Gordon or Warren Beatty’s version of Dick Tracy. He’s embracing the sheer “comic book-iness” of it all rather than try to make it at all “real.”

The stuff that he does well, at least in my estimation, is the earnestness of the title hero, with The Spirit willing to show the extremes in his face between utter grimness and just wide-eyed silliness (stuff that Eisner did as well), and The Spirit himself is well portrayed by actor Gabriel Macht who really does a great job here and holds his own quite well. Scenes with him on screen are for the most part pretty cool. Another thing that he does well is embracing the sheer sexual quality of the many females in The Spirit’s life, and here those women are represented by such characters as the abovementioned Sand Saref, Silken Floss, Plaster of Paris and in a much more innocent way by Ellen Dolan (played by respectively Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Paz Vega and Sarah Paulson and they’re all terrific here, and just look fantastic).

Where the movie is hurt is in some pacing issues, scenes with The Octopus, Silken Floss and their toadies (all played by Louis Lombardi and it looks like he’s having a lot of fun with this), tend to go on to long and decide to show the characters in other lights that just fall flat. And personally, I think this was hurt also by the choice of using Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus. Now in the comics, The Octopus’ face is never shown, and here, because it is Jackson, then Jackson does his “thing” as part of it and doesn’t really exude as much menace as he could. I think a better choice might’ve been to have done what was done in a movie like V For Vendetta where Hugo Weaving was cast as V and didn’t show his face through the entire movie. Weaving was still able to carry the day and preserve the mystery aspect of the character, and I think The Spirit would’ve benefitted from the same choice.

Other than that though, I had a pretty good time with the movie- it’s loaded with some great visuals (and the end credits show a lot of art from Miller’s storyboards for scenes) and has a great atmosphere about it, that is as long as your able to take the over-the-top manner in which it’s all presented, and Gabriel Macht as a leading man, is a talent to watch. This is a movie, much like Speed Racer that will no doubt be derided endlessly now (by most) but down the road could get a lot more appreciation.

The world is taken aback with the discovery an alien who has come to the planet. This alien named Klaatu has come with the idea of saving the Earth, not the people on it, but the planet from the people on it, with the rationale that the Earth is one of the few planets that can support a variety of lifeforms, and that it will be destroyed in it’s own time by it’s dominant lifeform. Klaatu lands in Central Park in New York City and is immediately intercepted by all manners of scientists, military and police, but one scientist stands apart from everyone else, Dr. Helen Benson an astrophysicist, who believes in Klaatu and wants to have the chance to show him that humanity can change. But looming in the background, is Klaatu’s gigantic protector, ready to strike…

And with that, you have the basic premise of The Day The Earth Stood Still, the re-make of the 1951 movie of the same name originally directed by Robert Wise. This new version is directed by Scott Derrickson who very much impressed me previously with The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Now, I’m not one of these guys who’s going to cry foul about remaking a classic like the original, in fact I’ll go so far as to say that considering the changes in technology, both in filmmaking and in our culture, this could be served well be a remake. And there are aspects to this film that are very well done with that, for instance, the fear that would go with this event is way more palpable here than it was in the original, as is all of the measures that are being taken to look into this. Where it veers horribly from the original though is in it’s final solution, basically looking to appeal more to the heart than intellectually, and though the original may be more simplistic in some ways, one thing that should be admired about it is that it was a more cerebral film for the time.

How does it veer? Mostly with the changes brought about with the Helen Benson character, who has been decided to be the heart of the film. At the start, we’re shown that she has a strained relationship with her son, who’s father was killed in the war. And then when she’s brought on board with a team of scientific experts, the focus of the film shifts solely to her- with the camera going for as many Jennifer Connelly close-ups as it can get, and the other players looking to her more with all of the answers. Later, as she’s on the run with Klaatu and her son, the relationship with the son comes to a head and then Klaatu sees that the potential for change is there in humanity…

… oh, please…

This change with the Helen Benson character smacks more of movie marketing and trying to get the female audience to care about the characters more than anything else, and as such, there really is no cerebral message to the film. A better solution, would’ve been to have had more of multi-cultural mix of the scientific experts be the ones to help Klaatu along the way rather than confined down to one person, and by what it does, it presents as it’s solution in the end as the all-tto familiar and none-to-true of “love conquers all.” It’s not at all believable in the end… and it’s a shame, because the pieces are here to be true to the original solution of the first film.

That main piece being one sole scene, done as a nod to the original, and featuring John Cleese in the role of the scientist Professor Barnhardt. It’s a great scene, with a great deal of weight as performed by Cleese, but in the end, it’s more of a throwaway here as opposed to what it should’ve been, just as it was in the original, the impetus to solving the problem.

Instead, we’ve forced on us this one character and her son, who’s relationship is forced (and also helps to serve some of the political commentary to the film- making me also wonder what this movie would be like if it had been made say two years from now instead), it’s never really believable- Jaden Smith plays the son (he’s the real life son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith) and he’s just annoying as hell in the film. And on top of that being forced and unbelievable, so is Connelly as an astrophysicist, especially considering how important a player she’s deemed to be by the authority figures early on.

So wither Keanu Reeves as Klaatu? Well, again, I’m not going to fall in the traditional internet “hate” of Reeves, I actually like him my own self and I think he does a great job here… now with that said, he still wouldn’t have been my first choice in casting Klaatu. Recently, I watched the original movie again and along with that, a featurette on the making of the film. Now in the original, there were two actors being discussed to play Klaatu, Claude Rains and Spencer Tracy, both pretty big stars at the time. Rains fell through, and so the choice was going to be Tracy, who really wanted to do the movie. Then, studio head Darryl Zanuck got struck by the notion that when Klaatu takes off his space helmet, the audience was going to see Spencer Tracy and as such, not really have any mystery about it- then Zanuck was off to England and while there, that’s where he saw Michael Rennie and was struck with the idea that this guy should be Klaatu, and so he was… Now it was Rennie’s first movie part, and while I wouldn’t have gone with a total unknown as Klaatu, I would’ve gone with someone who was less a household name, as Keanu Reeves is, and my personal choice would’ve been Ralph Fiennes in the part. Still though, I don’t have any problems with Keanu Reeves here.

No, my biggest problem is with the casting of Jennifer Connelly and Jaden Smith and the importance that they’re given in the remake. Oh sure, the Helen Benson character and her son in the original are also quite important to that film, but not in the same way and not to the sacrifice of the cerebral quality to the original.

There’s still stuff here though that I think is pretty cool, that would’ve been even cooler had the focus not changed from head to heart. Changing that, changes the ideas behind the film considerably. And with a movie like The Day The Earth Stood Still and the high regard that people have for the original, this hurts it tremendously and as such, this remake is more a blown opportunity than the chance to make something that could’ve stood right on a par with the original.

Frank Castle, the vigilante known as The Punisher, continues his war on crime in New York City. As he’s busting up his usual Mafioso, while they’re engaging in a deal with the Russians to bring over bio-toxic material to sell to terrorist organizations, two things happen- Castle inadvertently kills an undercover FBI agent and he causes the head of this mafia cell, Billy the Beaut to become horribly disfigured. Billy renames himself Jigsaw and vows to take down the Punisher, all the while while Frank tries to make amends with the family of the agent that he’s killed… and of course, hijinks ensue.

Punisher: War Zone is now the third movie involving the titular character and also the third take on the character, and so far, the one that has the most fun with it yet. Director Lexi Alexander has decided with this version to really embrace some of the over-the-top aspects involved with The Punisher, and has delivered an ultra-violent R-rated version that pretty much lets you know this is the way it’s going to be right in the first few minutes of the film. What she’s got here is a very fast-paced and fun piece that’s certainly faithful to some aspects of the character. Marvel’s had so many different versions of what The Punisher is over the years, and what’s shown here is probably the most familiar to longtime fans (though I have to admit, I haven’t kept up as much as others, but there were certainly things that I recognized).

It’s a good-looking movie for sure, and the action is really nicely done, and the way I see it, it looks like all involved were having a pretty good time.

Ray Stevenson takes over the role of Frank Castle, and he certainly looks the part and he pretty much delivers the goods though this doesn’t really ask that much from him- he’s the driving force of the film though, symbolically more than anything else. More fun is had with all of the supporting cast in the film, primarily with Dominic West playing Jigsaw, who’s clearly having a ball on-screen. Doug Hutchinson plays his insane brother Loony Bin Jim, and he’s a cool little physical counter here, being a relatively small man, but obviously very deadly. The inspired casting choice award goes to Wayne Knight, playing Castle’s long-time tech associate, Microchip, Knight’s just perfect for the part, and actually provides more of the human insight to The Punisher. The cast is rounded out with good supporting turns from Colin Salmon, Dash Mihok and Julie Benz, amongst others, and like I said, all looking like they’re having a pretty good time here.

My expectations were relatively low going into this, as I really enjoyed the last Punisher film with Thomas Jane in the lead, so I wasn’t quite expecting a whole lot here. So I was pleasantly surprised to have had as a good a time with the movie as I did. It’s on the minor side compared to some of the other big comic book movies of the year, but there’s still a good time here, and if you can take the high level of violence that this has (and it’s pretty high), there’s s good time to be had. Very much recommended…

Yet again, transporter Frank Martin finds himself in another dangerous situation, this time holding the daughter of a Ukrainian Prime Minister in tow, while an “evil corporation” is negotiating with him (the Prime Minister) to store their environmental waste, against his wishes, of course. The only catch, Frank and the girl, Valentina both have explosive devices attached to their wrists triggered to go off if they go further than 75 feet away from Frank’s car.

Now I really like the first two Transporter movies from director Louis Letterier and producer/writer Luc Besson, they’re just some good mindless fun, and for the most part, so is Transporter 3 this time with director Olivier Megaton (that’s his name) helming the action. And the action here is pretty darn good for the most part, but this film does have it’s draggy moments.

And most of those moments involve Frank’s “package,” the girl, Valentina, who is strictly his opposite number, a party girl who wants Frank to satisfy her in what she believes are her final moments alive. She’s pretty much the typical Luc Besson “heroin chic” type of girl, and this might not be so bad if the actress involved had any charisma or actual beauty to her, but mostly she comes off as an annoying skank, except for the final scene in the film.

Jason Statham reprises his role as Frank Martin and as always, Statham is solid as a rock. I make no apologies, I’m a huge fan of the guy and he’s had a pretty good year, not only being in this and Death Race, but also in what is one of the very best movies of 2008, The Bank Job. He’s always fun to watch and pretty much, if he’s in it, I’ll probably see it. François Berléand is back as Frank’s friend, Inspector Tarconi, and he’s solid as well. New to the series this time is Jeroen Krabbe (who I haven’t seen in anything in quite awhile, it used to be every time I was turning around he was in something- most notable in The Fugitive) as the Ukrainian Prime Minister, and the always reliable Robert Knepper as Johnson, the man pulling the strings on Frank, our villain of the piece. Most know Knepper as Tea-Bag each week on Prison Break and he’s just a great character guy and I hope he ends up in more movies. But as I said above, the biggest problem here is the actress who plays Valentina, Natalya Rudakova, who just has zero charisma, stilted English that sounds more like reading lines than anything else, and in my own opinion, just not that attractive at all. Some scenes in particular, especially when she’s trying to distract Frank from doing his job, you just want him to knock her out so we can get back to the action.

It’s not bad in the end, but it’s probably the weakest of the Transporter movies thus far, but hopefully it’ll still do well enough so that Luc Besson and company will still keep making them. If you like these movies, I expect that you’ll probably like this as well, though your mileage may vary with the Valentina character.

Literally taking place right on the heels of Casino Royale, James Bond is seeking revenge on the killers of Vesper Lynd, and through his last suspect, Bond and M discover a far greater threat, that of a new group called Quantum, who even has an operative placed right in MI-6. Bond’s investigation leads him to an environmental entrepreneur named Dominic Greene and his company Greene Planet and also to a woman named Camille who has her own plan of revenge to complete.

And in a nutshell, that’s the premise of Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig’s second movie starring as James Bond. This movie is almost an extension of Casino Royale completing Bond’s opening arc and setting things up (hopefully} to come. As such, it doesn’t quite carry the same impact that Casino Royale did, though to me, it’s still a very entertaining film with some very nice action set pieces.

This one is directed by Marc Forster, who previously directed The Kite Runner which I haven’t seen. And Forster is doing some things here that’s not atypical James Bond stuff, but still fitting to what has been set up with the first movie. Where it falls a little short is doing something that’s more complete unto itself, that is if that’s what you’re expecting, but if you’re going into it looking at this as an extension of the previous film, well then you’re bound to have some fun with it.

I really like Forster’s action sequences here, some of them giving an almost over-the shoulder type of view and others intercut with some other action going on simultaneously. One in particular going on during an opera, Tosca, is really extremely nice.

Craig is solid gold as Bond, he proved in Casino Royale and he cements it with Quantum of Solace. and while this doesn’t quite ask the same things of him that the previous film did, there’s still some nice character stuff along the way. One scene in particular when Bond is giving Camille some advice about killing a person is very nice. Olga Kurlyenko plays Camille, and she was most recently seen in Max Payne and she’s OK in the part, mostly serving as window dressing more than giving anything real meaningful. Better is Mathieu Amalric, who plays Greene. Now he’s not in the same category as Le Chiffre, but as the tip of the iceberg that should be the organization of Quantum, he does a pretty decent job. The real trick will be in the third film and if the pursuit of Quantum is taken further, then that’s when the filmmakers will have to up the ante a bit. Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini and Jeffrey Wright are all back from the previous effort and all are fine, though Dench’s M seems just a bit softer than she’s been in previous efforts (including the Brosnan Bond when speaking of this). Still though, this cast is pretty well suited in the big picture.

I thought it was a lot of fun, even though it doesn’t have the same impact as Casino Royale it does have it’s moments, and it closes the emotional arc for Bond started in the previous film, while setting the stage for bigger things to come. My advice is to set those expectations just a wee bit lower than what you had for Casino Royale and look at this as an extension, and you should have a pretty decent time with it.

It’s Pittsburgh and the dead of winter and platonic roommates Zack Brown and Miri Linky are struggling to make ends meet. We find that Zack works in a Starbucks-like coffee house, but strangely, we never quite see what Miri does… but I digress. Times are tough for the two and then they have their 10th anniversary class reunion that they’re going to and while there, they pretty much discover that they’re not doing anything for anyone to give a damn about them at all… and as they make their way back to their apartment, then everything is cut off- no power, no water, they’ve truly hit their rock-bottom. Now at their class reunion, they’ve discovered that one of their former classmates now makes gay porn, and so that inspires Zack to suggest to Miri, that they should make a porno film and with a ready made list of 800 names from their class reunion, they’ve got the perfect base to sell their film to, make money and live the good life…

And then of course, hi-jinks ensue…

This is the premise of the latest movie from writer/director Kevin Smith, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and unfortunately, while it’s a pleasant enough piece in it’s own way, it’s also Smith’s weakest movie yet…

Here’s the deal, I don’t necessarily mind raunch in my films, and further I expect it from Kevin Smith movies, but there’s something about it in his other movies where it feels right and further where it’s delivered in such a way that it’s wildly amusing. But here, it feels like Smith is doing it just to be doing and saying “yeah, here’s what I can do” and it just feels forced amongst his cast…

… and his cast is just plain wrong for the film. Seth Rogen plays Zack, Elizabeth Banks plays Miri, and they’re backed up by Craig Robinson, Traci Lords, Justin Long, Brandon Routh and perennial Smith regulars, Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes. Now I’m on the record of just not being a Seth Rogen fan, so I certainly admit that bias, and had this not been a Kevin Smith movie, I doubt I would’ve seen it in the first place, but I don’t buy a bit of Rogen in the film for the most part (though he does have his moments), but he’s just not at all sincere to me with his performance. And I think Elizabeth Banks tries to be too sincere here, and as such, it just never gels between the two. Now you can certainly chalk this up to poor writing as well, as we’re never really told how they end up in their situation in the first place, we’re just shown a scene where their unpaid bills are overflowing, but nothing that really tells us why these too “losers” (and I use that term real loosely in Banks’ case) are the way they are- they both have jobs (though as I said above, we really don’t know what Miri does) and absolutely nothing gets paid, I guess it’s because they really don’t discover anything about personal responsibility until they decide to make a porno film, but that’s really thin, especially in comparison to what Smith has done with his characters in other movies.

Now the rest of the cast is fine, with the exception of Craig Robinson, who doesn’t really do anything to differently from what he does in The Office. In fact, I think Justin Long, Jeff Anderson, and Jason Mewes have the best moments in the film- there probably should’ve been more with these folks than there was with Zack and Miri.

This misses the mark in it’s perception of the porn business as well, but that doesn’t really bother me as much and I think that would’ve gone over better had this had wither two different and more complimentary leads or else either Rogen or either Banks and someone else to compliment them better. It’s not the worst movie that I’ve seen for the year by any means (it’s a comedy and I did laugh a few times in the film- not like Get Smart where I didn’t laugh at all), but compared to what Kevin Smith has delivered before, Zack and Miri Make a Porno falls way short…

Once upon a time there was a promising young movie director by the name of Guy Ritchie. This talented fellow made a name for himself primarily from two movies, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, both in the crime fiction genre. It seemed that the sky was the limit for this fellow, and then he met the singer, a famous American singer who was known for constantly re-inventing herself. And somehow or another, she managed to snag this fellow all the while re-inventing herself again as an earth mother and Queen of the Kaballah, all while starting to use a pseudo-British accent and then he bore her children (or so it seemed). Oh, Guy managed to get in another couple of movies, but something was just clearly “off” about them, almost as though his talent had been sapped from him. But eventually, as all things did with the singer/earth mother/Queen, this also came to pass, and the two were plunged into divorce. Divorce is obviously never an easy thing to go through (as this author can surely attest to), but on the upside, hope was there that maybe this talented director just might get something back- his ability to make a good movie again and not in the limelight of his more famous wife…

… and that brings us to Rock N Rolla the latest movie from director Guy Ritchie, and easily the best thing that he’s done since his first two movies… and thank goodness…

Yeah, I know I’m simplifying his situation with the above, but that’s how a lot of film fans saw this situation (or at least me), and while I don’t know the exact timeline of the making of this movie with his personal tribulations, at least this movie shows that his heart is still in it.

Rock N Rolla follows along the same lines as Ritchie’s prior crime films, being how seemingly disparate people with their own situations wind up causing trouble for bigger fish in the crime pool. Rock N Rolla brings together a band of small time hustlers with a land deal, a big fish gangster with a bigger deal, his self-styled rock and roller son with his own issues, even bigger fish Russians, and a very ambitious and sexy accountant out to get her own piece of the pie, and it does it all in a very entertaining and satisfying manner, that still shows that Guy Ritchie has “it,” though “it” is just a little quieter than Ritchie’s previous efforts.

And again, the above is a huge simplification of what this is about, but for me to go into further detail would just start something even longer than my initial paragraph…

But, I can tell you that I thought Rock N Rolla was very entertaining, filled with some very cool characters, who were extremely well drawn in a very tight and complex situation that all comes together in the end.

Ritchie’s working with some great talent here, Gerard Butler, Idris Elba, Tom Wilkinson, Jeremy Piven, Chris (Ludacris) Bridges, a very talented Russian character actor Karel Roden, the extremely sexy Thandie Newton, and a British guy on the rise, Mark Strong. Mark Strong plays Archie, who’s the right hand man to Lenny played by Tom Wilkinson, the major “heavy” of the film. Archie is more or viewpoint into what’s happening here, and Strong does real nice work in the part. He’s been around for awhile, and just recently he’s been getting a lot of good notices for his work, and I could easily see this guy taking the leads more and more very soon.

In the end, yeah, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but that’s hardly a criteria for my own enjoyment of a film. When it’s well made, it’s still fun, and for me Rock N Rolla was a lot of fun and it makes me look forward to what Guy Ritchie’s next project will be. Welcome back, Guy… we missed you…

With the events of Saw IV now past, it’s believed that the killer known as Jigsaw has finally been put to rest, but those of us who’ve seen the movie know better because of another protege of the famed killer. One lone FBI agent, Peter Strahm (also seen in Saw IV) believes he’s still out there as well, and after surviving his own Jigsaw deathtrap, Strahm is believed to be unsuited to continue the investigation, but he continues on his own. Now, as five new people are put through the Jigsaw paces, Peter Strahm seeks to find the truth, and we’re given insight as to how this new Jigsaw came to be…

Saw V continues what I believe anyway is your genuine horror epic, and while this film seems a little more sedate than the previous entries, it still delivers the goods in it’s own way, and basically, I tend to think that if you’re a fan of the series, and appreciate all of what it does, then you’ll like this one as well.

But also, much like the previous entries, you can’t go into this one as a virgin to the material and hope to get it all. The creators behind the series have pretty blatantly made it so that you need to see the other chapters, and for me anyway, that’s part of the fun of the series. There’s always things left open with each previous film and each new film pulls some retroactive continuity moves and answers those questions, and they do it in a way that really works. There’s a formula to the whole thing, but yet there’s always something new added, but still working in the formula.

This time around, there’s a new director on board, David Hackl, and Hackl does a decent enough job filling the shoes of both James Wan and Darren Lynn Bousman before him, though he doesn’t quite have the same flash that Bousman has, this still fits visually with what’s come before. And more importantly, so does it’s story.

Tobin Bell returns to the series yet again, and really it wouldn’t be Saw without him in some way, also returning from the previous film are actors Costas Mandylor os Detective Mark Hoffman and Scott Patterson as FBI Agent Peter Strahm and Betsy Russell as Jill Tuck, John Kramer’s wife. New faces to the series this time includes actors like 24’s Carlo Rota, Julie Benz, and veteran character actor Mark Rolston. The entire cast does a great job here, and much like I did with Saw IV I have to give high marks to Scott Patterson again, and would just love to see this guy break out into some bigger stuff.

There’s still lots of questions, including one very big one, to answer from this film, and of course Saw VI has already been announced. As a huge fan of the series, I can’t wait to see it, and so next year at this time, I no doubt will. In the meantime though, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Saw V as long as you’re a fan of the series.

Detective Max Payne lost his wife and child to a brutal killing. And though now, Payne is bound to a desk, he still continues to try and solve the murder himself and soon he finds the clues that leads him to the pharmaceutical company that his wife had worked for, currently trafficking in a super-soldier drug called Valkyr, that has hallucinatory effects on most who take it…

Max Payne is the latest video-game to movie conversion and it comes to us from the hands of director John Moore, who was wonderful with the film Behind Enemy Lines but less so with some more recent efforts. The game itself was really quite fun, bringing with it the mechanic of “bullet-time” allowing you to slow time for some really cool effects a la John Woo movies or more recently, The Matrix.

The movie is certainly an earnest effort and above anything else, absolutely has a fantastic look to it, but what it lacks is the fun factor which comes way too little and too late into the film.

The first hour has it’s moments, but for the most part is just so dry that I just didn’t really care about anything that was happening in it. Max himself, at least in this movie, is a one-note character, just driven to the point of being the atypical “cop on the edge” character. Now that would’ve been fine had there been a little more wit about everything else going on, and that doesn’t necessarily mean having to have humor about it, but just something else to it that would’ve at least made it much more fun to get into. Unfortunately, it lacks this, and as such, it’s pretty boring until about it’s last half hour. And even though things pick up then, they don’t pick up enough, at least by what’s promised in the trailer.

Pretty much, the trailer has all of the best parts of the film in it.

Mark Wahlberg plays Max, and he’s certainly got the look and the intensity, but little else, but then as I said, if this had a little more wit about it, he wouldn’t have needed anything else. He’s backed up with actors like Mila Kunis, Amaury Nolasco, Donal Logue, Chris O’Donnell, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Kate Burton and Beau Bridges, and all do a decent enough job, but again all are hampered by a pretty pedestrian first two acts.

I’d recently watched the movie Shoot ‘Em Up again and had a pretty good time with it and actually think that what Max Payne needs is just a little of what Shoot ‘Em Up has in abundance, and that’s more of a wilder over-the-top and somewhat self-aware fun factor, primarily during it;s first hour… had it done that, this could’ve been a whole lot of fun, but as it is, it looks great but doesn’t have anything really cool or fun in it that you haven’t already seen played out over it’s trailer. Not one of the worst that I’ve seen for the year, but certainly a big disappointment.