Category: Theatrical Review

Across the eastern seaboard a strange phenomena is occurring, people are becoming disoriented, stopping dead in their tracks and then have the overcoming urge to kill themselves. This first starts in large populated areas and then moves on to smaller areas of population. It’s first believed to be some sort of terrorist attack but soon we learn that it’s something beyond that. Now we follow high school science teach Elliot Moore and his wife Alma as they try to escape this strange happening…

… and that’s the premise to The Happening the newest movie from director M. Night Shyamalan who’s given us such great movies in the past as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs and lesser efforts like The Village and The Lady In The Water.

Count The Happening as one of the lesser efforts, and hell, I count it as the worst movie I’ve seen this year thus far, and I thought it would take something to beat Jumper for that title.

Shyamalan’s film presents this immediate threat and yet as short a movie as this is (only 96 minutes) it hardly has any sort of real air of urgency to it and it’s not helped by the fact that it’s poorly cast and maybe features Shyamalan’s most ridiculous characters to date, Elliot and Alma seem more like they should’ve been in some other film (like something from Disney) as opposed to this.

Situations just seem to happen more at Shyamalan’s whim than seeming natural to any sort of story. And while Elliot Moore seems an amiable enough character, the situation that’s set up between him and Alma seems almost petty in these circumstances. It doesn’t help by the fact that Alma is just such a strange character on her own in the first place, and that’s certainly not helped by the fact that she’s played by Zooey Deschanel.

Mark Wahlberg is Elliot and I like Wahlberg, I do… I thought in Boogie Nights he was absolutely terrific and he’s certainly ben fine for me in other movies up to the point of delivering one killer performance in The Departed. But here, he’s just woefully miscast, not really seeming that convincing to me as a science teacher and having a line delivery that’s more sing-songy than anything else. but he’s not the worst of it, no that goes to Zooey (and I pronounce it as zoo-ee) Deschanel who’s just so damn odd in the first place that there’s really nothing to grasp onto here, and it makes you wonder what the hell did Elliot see in her in the first place. but as long as we’re on the subject of unconvincing casting, we can’t ignore John Leguizamo who’s cast as a math teacher friend of Elliot’s who basically delivers his lines in such a mealy-mouthed way, that it seems just like he’s reading the part of this math teacher rather than inhabiting it. And later in the film, Elliot and Alma come across an old woman played by Betty Buckley that literally just comes out of left field as she first seems like a light of salvation to the couple (and the young girl with them) but instead ends up as just… strange. There was one point where Elliot was wandering through her house and the tension builds up and all of sudden she just appears in a white nightgown with menace about her and the only words that came through my head were “and then there’s Maude.”

In the end, Shyamalan is trying to hit you with an environmental message, but it just sort of flounders around, oh some explanations are given thanks to televised reports, but again, they just seemed tacked in simply to move things along more than anything else. This floundering message combined with unconvincing characters and some really stilted dialogue right now results in the worst movie of the year… see it at your own risk…

After returning to a vacation home from a wedding reception, a young couple James Hoyt and Kristen McKay- who’ve just gone through their own emotional turmoil, find themselves suddenly terrorized by three unknown people (two women and one man) and must endure a horrifying evening just hoping to make it out alive.

First-time writer/director Bryan Bertino gives us a good, old fashioned creep-out with The Strangers. it’s a movie that on it’s surface might seem like it’s going to follow in the “torture-porn” (man, I hate that term) path of other popular horror films of the day, but instead at least to me seems more a bit of a throwback to something like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s filmed in a slight handheld style and setting a mood of tension right from it’s very start without necessarily relying on large amounts of blood and gore (though that’s in it too, but not say to the extent of a Saw movie) and in the end delivering some genuinely frightening moments.

Something similar came out last year in a movie called Vacancy (another genuinely entertaining horror film in it’s own right), but The Strangers veers from some of the paths that Vacancy took, primarily in giving motivations to it’s assailants.

With this being Bertino’s first effort, it’s extremely strong and very well-paced, and it certainly makes me look forward to what he’ll do next.

He’s really well aided here though with his cast. Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler play Hoyt and McKay, giving them the right depth that you need, especially considering you’re coming in on their story right in the midst of things. they’re certainly likable and sincere and you feel their horror as they endure the evening’s events.

We had a pretty decent audience with this one, especially considering how quiet in spots this movie gets, they got frightened at the right moments and certainly helped make this a good viewing experience.

If you’re a fan of horror movies and in the mood for something just a little different from the big-ass summer blockbusters, The Strangers certainly delivers the goods. Highly recommended.

Indiana Jones. The name alone brings up images of whip-swinging, leather hats, and religious artifacts. 30s pulp at its peak. The newest film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (what a mouthful), is set twenty years into the future, in the late 1950s. The change is rocky, and doesn’t succeed in my opinion.

I saw this film with my roommate at a midnight showing. I’m a fan of the previous Indy films, and came into this one with moderate expectations. I’d seen the trailer once before Iron Man and enjoyed it, but had done no other digging about the film. The theater was packed, and I was cracking jokes to my roommate through the whole movie, making several “Legends of the Hidden Temple” references, and after the plot exploded, expressing my dismay.

The shift from the 30s to the 50s is most noticable in the change in Indy himself. He’s older and stouter, and several scenes make a joke at his expense, notably one near the beginning of the film when Indy is swinging on his whip and misses his target. Despite this, Harrison Ford has a ton of fun with the role, and you can tell. Also, the enemy has changed. In the previous films, Indy took on German Nazis. Two decades later, the Reds take the spotlight, led by KGB operative Dr. Irina Spalko. Played well by Cate Blanchett, Dr. Spalko is a specialist at getting information out of people, and she plays the dominatrix-esque doctor well. Overall, I was impressed with the performances of the actors, save Mutt’s mother. She annoyed the crap out of me.

The plot (which is impossible to delve into much without spoiling the experience for the viewer) is perfect for a 50s pulp movie, but it didn’t work at all for me. At the point where it’s revealed (about an hour in), I completely lost interest in the story and did my best to block it out. It just didn’t fit my vision of what an Indiana Jones film should be. I know it was Lucas’s idea, which makes it worse. It’s a growing trend in Spielberg’s films now, as well. It’s getting tired.

Speaking of George Lucas, the special effects are great. ILM really pulled out the stops for this flick. However, it’s a problem here. Green screens are used to excess, and the CGI doesn’t fit the aesthetic of the older Indy flicks. The action sequences and the places where Indy is being Indy are awesome, and Mutt has his fair share of bad ass moments as well. Despite this, several scenes take this to a ridiculous extent, especially one involving Mutt and some spider monkeys, and another featuring a series of waterfalls. I don’t have a problem suspending my disbelief during a film, especially one as over-the-top as Indiana Jones, but this was ridiculous.

The biggest problem I have with the movie is the ending. There was absolutely no payoff once the McGuffin is taken to the place of power, no great moral choice that has to be made. Add that to my other problems with the plot, and that makes this movie a waste of my money and my time, despite the coolness of the scenes featuring Indy and Mutt together, and the fight sequences.

It’s hard for me to recommend this film to anyone, because of my extreme distaste towards the plot and gratuitous use of special effects, but all the action (save a couple of ridiculous scenes) is great. If you can just put on a tinfoil helmet that blocks out the subpar plot as well as Mutt’s mother (who will remain unnamed (but still annoying) in the review), you will really like this movie. Otherwise, go see Iron Man again.

It’s 1957, and in the Nevada desert, a covert Russian military force has captured the archaeologist adventurer Professor Indiana Jones to find one of his finds to serve their own needs. Jones, with his usual aplomb, manages to make his escape, but not without consequence to himself. Because of what happened, and because of the “Red Scare” period of time, Jones finds himself under the watch of the FBI as a possible subversive. Jones is ready to leave the country when a young man by the name of Mutt Williams approaches him about helping to find a mutual friend, and Mutt’s mother. Their journey leads them to South America and a further tie with the adventure that Jones started this story out with. and of course, hijinks ensue…

… and I could tell you more, but to do so would be to spoil more of the and if you’re an Indiana Jones fan, you surely do not want me to do that.

I’ve gotta say, out of all the big summer blockbusters, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the one that I was least looking forward to, primarily because it’s been 20 years since the last story and I thought this might be dipping into the well one time too many and also because lead actor Harrison Ford hasn’t done that much to impress me with any of his other films of late, even being in one, Hollywood Homicide that I just consider extremely awful. So what an extremely pleasant surprise for me that so far, I think director Steven Spielberg, producer and writer George Lucas, and star Harrison Ford have delivered the best summer movie going experience yet. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is just a rousing good time and does some wonderful stuff to fill in the gaps of the 20 years since we’ve last seen Professor Jones back in action.

I’d put this one right on a par with Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade which I also thought was just one hell of a good time.

Oh sure, this has the signature stuff that you expect it to have, legends of old and thrilling adventure set pieces to go with it, but it also expands the story, adding significantly to Indy’s personal history and taking one of Indy’s quest in a whole new direction, one much more in the science fiction vein.

Harrison Ford is absolutely terrific here, and the fun he’s having shows all over the performance. Yeah, sure he’s aged 20 years and they don’t exactly hide it either and that’s just terrific. I also have to give Shia LeBeouf high marks as Mutt Williams. the scenes that he and Indy have together, especially after getting to South America are terrific. Mutt’s certainly a product of the time, a motorcycle riding greaser who’s certainly got a tough guy exterior, but once he’s in Jones’ world, he certainly bows to the experience. filling out the cast are Cate Blanchett as the villain of the piece, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and the return of Karen allen in the part of Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s really a wonderful cast and they are truly enjoying themselves here.

As is the case with the other films, this is a pure salute to the classic movie serials of old, and the action certainly comes from that, with some of it (mostly around Mutt) being a little over-the-top. But like I said, that’s mostly with Mutt and it works in a way that basically says, this is what this character would be all about, and I think by the film’s end, you’ll see what I mean.

Anyway, I just think Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is just absolutely fantastic entertainment and so far the best of the big summer blockbusters. don’t miss this one for one moment… highly, highly recommended…

Mike Terry is a mixed martial arts instructor specializing in Jui Jitsu. Terry is a very honorable man, using his martial arts and the instruction of to prevail in life, even though he finds that that’s not quite enough when the bills come due. And as Terry and his wife, struggle to make their ends meet, seemingly random events are starting to happen that look like they could be the answers to all of Terry’s problems. Except of course they’re not, and this ends up putting Terry in a position where he must compromise his values.

Redbelt is the latest movie from writer/director David Mamet, and I’ve got to say, I’m a huge Mamet fan, and with Redbelt he’s kind of making a throwback sort of film, like the type of movie that you might have in the day when say a boxer must find himself in a situation that in order to prevail he might have to compromise himself (or, in movie terms, In the movie Barton Fink, the title character finds himself in Hollywood having to write a Wallace Beery wrestling movie- Redbelt is probably the kind of movie that Fink would aspire to) and personally, I think this is one of the better films that I’ve seen yet this year.

The subject of mixed martial arts doesn’t exactly seem like the sort of thing that I’d ever really expect Mamet to delve into, and yet he pulls it off pretty nicely. There’s plenty of examples here of the fighting going on, and Mamet never gets theatrical about it, there’s no flashy moves or stylish edits, it’s all handled pretty matter-of-fact.

Chiwetol Ejifor plays Mike Terry and this is his film, hands down. For awhile now, Ejifor has demonstrated that he’s certainly one of the more versatile supporting talents in Hollywood today in such films as Serenity, Inside Man, Talk To Me and Children of Men, but in Redbelt, he gets the opportunity to carry the movie himself and he’s pretty much in every single scene of the film and does a fine job here, having a whole lot of heart in his performance, but discipline as well. He’s got a great supporting cast here including Mamet regulars like Joe Mantegna and Ricky Jay, but without a doubt the most unusual bit of casting is comic actor Tim Allen as an action movie star like Bruce Willis, who finds himself crossing paths with Terry. Allen’s really good doing this bit of stretching for himself and I just hope he manages to do some more of this over time. My only complaint with him is just that his part is pretty small in the big picture, but he still gets the job done.

Right as we’re in the midst of all of the big summer blockbusters, it’s certainly nice to see that a small movie like Redbelt can come out there and deliver the goods. Oh sure, it’s still going to get lost in the shuffle, but then expectations are a lot lower as well. Still though, this is a quality drama, and another great movie in David Mamet’s filmography. Highly recommended…

Young Speed Racer has always had a big dream of being the greatest racer in the world and living up to the high standards set by his father in the production of racing cars and his older brother, Rex. As Speed has gotten older, he’s able to face that dream, though he believes his brother Rex to have been killed living out his dream. Now Speed and his family have the chance to be part of a huge racing conglomerate, Royalton Industries, but he turns it down, because even though he knows it could be a big personal gain, in the end it’s at the expense of what he and his family believe in with this sport. Speed ends up being recruited by a secret agency to root out the corruption and at the same time, bring back some glory to the sport.

Speed Racer is the latest film from The Wachowski Brothers (at the time they were still brothers anyway) who of course gave us The Matrix trilogy, and were executive producers of the adaptation of V For Vendetta. With Speed Racer their goal was to make a family film but something that pushed their own filmmaking skills in some new directions. And while Speed Racer certainly has it’s roots in other films (I’m thinking things like Flash Gordon, Popeye, Dick Tracy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and damn near anything that Tim Burton does) it goes further than any of those ever did (no doubt by technological advancements) literally making a live-action anime that’s a sight and sound sensory overload. I can honestly say, I’ve never seen anything quite like this from American filmmakers before.

And all the while, they do it by staying true to their source material. For many of us, the original animated Speed Racer was our first exposure to Japanese animation (or anime for those that don’t know the term) and I know as a kid weened on cartoons from Warner Brothers, Filmation and Hanna-Barbera, it was something totally new and exciting. Looking back at the cartoon now, it’s hokey and corny, and the movie certainly replicates that and even though, it’s visually and aurally amped up by a factor of ten, at it’s core, it’s absolutely true to it, even maintaining the innocence that I got from it.

Now I really enjoyed this, but it’s not without a criticism and mine is that it’s a little too long. The Wachowskis do their best to keep it all moving at a rapid clip, even employing a new editing style that has it’s own rhythm to it, but still this probably could’ve been shortened by a good ten or fifteen minutes (right now the movie weighs in at 2 hours and 15 minutes long).

The Wachowskis have a good solid cast here, with Emile Hirsch in the title role and backed up by Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman and Matthew Fox amongst others. And while no one here is going to win any awards for what they’ve done, I have to give them credit for fully handing themselves over to the Wachowskis and trusting in their vision. I could see for a lot of people as a bone of contention being the characters of Speed’s little brother Spritle and his pet monkey Chim-Chim, and yet again, they’re true to the cartoon- sometimes you just hate them, sometimes they’re as funny as can be and sometimes their humor is just the pure groaner variety, but that was the same way as it was in the source as well. I really like the cast and give special kudos to both Sarandon and Goodman for some bit of weight here, especially Goodman who’s no stranger to playing an over-the-top character by any means. He’s played Fred Flinstone and any number of his characters that he’s done for the Coen Brothers can just as easily be seen as living cartoons, and Pops Racer is just another notch in his repertoire, but still he’s fun and it sure looked like he had fun here (at least to me).

Now with all this said, and again I really enjoyed this (though I’ll certainly grant that I was predisposed to as well- this was the one that I was most looking forward to seeing this season just to see what new stuff the Wachowskis had in mind), I find this hard to recommend unless you’re really, really open to it. There’s so many strikes against it as far as a general audience goes, that if you’re coming into it with any sort of bias against it, there’s everything there to feed into it- there’s the anime angle, there’s the CGI angle, there’s it’s explosion of color, there’s the corniness and there’s the whole thing that many have against the Wachowskis for the second and third Matrix films (and I’m not one of them, I’m pretty much ready to go toe-to-toe with any one that hates those movies at any time). So seriously, if you have that anti-bias on any of those levels, stay home, don’t bother. But if you’re open to some new stuff and if you’re a fan of the original cartoon (corniness and all), I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to see it in a theatre. And I was lucky enough to see this in a room with digital projection as well, so the experience was even better, actually seeing this in a way that will be even better than what I could have at home.

I’m expecting this one to be pretty polarizing, and can already picture the critics on the weekend movie shows (Ebert & Roeper and Reel Talk just chopping this one up in a big way), but I thought it was a lot of fun and look forward to watching it again and again when it makes it’s way home.

In 1988, a cool and different little genre film premiered called Alien Nation this movie which sprang from the mind of Rockne S. O’Bannon told the story of how an immense group of alien slaves (over 250,000) found themselves stranded on Earth and had now been incorporated into our society. The movie starred James Caan as Detective Matt Sykes and Mandy Patinkin as his alien partner, George Francisco, and it’s nice and different take on the cop/buddy film but with a genre twist.

The movie as a pretty moderate success and in 1989, a fledgling FOX TV network took the movie and had it modified to be a weekly series (and if memory serves, it ran on Monday nights). The series was spearheaded by producer/writer/director Kenneth Johnson who, like Rockne O’Bannon, comes with an impressive genre pedigree (O’Bannon was also a big contributer to the 80s revival of The Twilight Zone, but he’s far more famous for creating the world of Farscape). Kenneth Johnson was behind such TV hits as V and The Incredible Hulk and had worked on The Bionic Woman and The Six MIllion Dollar Man.

The series starred Gary Graham as Matthew Sykes (certainly far and away a different presence than James Caan) and Eric Pierpoint as George Francisco, and these guys were really a good team on the show, I actually preferred them over the theatrical version. And while science fiction shows have really progressed since this premiered, for the time that it was on, it was certainly something that really hadn’t been seen on TV before.

I used to watch the show regularly and I was disappointed that it was only cancelled after one season, but certainly give Fox credit for sticking with this at the time and obviously for bringing it back in a series of movies (and no, I’m not one of these guys who’s going to jump on an anti-FOX bandwagon because their genre series gets cancelled).

After the series was cancelled (and on a cliffhanger no less) FOX commissioned Johnson and company for a TV movie to let them wrap everything up, that movie Dark Horizon covered a number of things, another Tenctonese ship in space looking at Earth as the spot where 250,000 of their slave class had been misplaced, the danger that the settled Tenctonese were facing from a secret virus developed by a purist political group, and further development and near resolution of the relationship that was always being teased at between Sykes and a Tenctonese doctor named Kathy (played by Terri Treas). It’s a fun film, especially if you used to watch the show. I know when I watched this, it was literally the first time I’d even given Alien Nation any thought over the years, and I have to say, I had a very pleasant time re-living this again.

This was a success for FOX and the following year, another movie came out, Body And Soul, and with this film, we sort of drop back to an expanded TV episode, this one centering around a Tenctonese/Human hybrid…

In Millennium, George’s son, Buck, who’s displayed Tenctonese loyalist qualities throughout the run, gets drawn into a cult, with of course Sikes and Francisco out to uncover the secret.

In The Enemy Within, George has to confront a some of his own prejudices after investigating the death of a lower class of Tenctonese.

And in The Udara Legacy, we get a story involving how some of the Newcomers who’ve adjust well to their new world are now committing crimes and find out if there’s a connection to the Udara, a segment of the Tenctonese who’s committed themselves to overthrowing their Overseers.

I think your satisfaction with the movies themselves will just come from whether you’re a fan of the show, though there is enough here in these films to tell you the background and overall story without having seen the first season, these do all seem now almost a little too late 80s cop/buddy fare and a modern genre fan (who’s never seen any of these shows before) might see this stuff as almost a little hokey or corny compared to shows that they see now. Well, that’s your TV history for your… when the series was on, cable wasn’t yet the beast it was today, and FOX had yet to discover American Idol gold… and they were still trying all sorts of stuff to see what would hit. I think overall, these movies are some good fun, and if you were a fan of the show, then by all means, look at picking this set up, because FOX has done a real nice job with the set.

First off, they all look fantastic, far better than you ever saw them on broadcast. I was particularly taken by the visual effects around the Tenctonese slave ship in Dark Horizon and just how crisp it looked here. The presentation is full-frame so for you folks looking for anamorphic widescreen, this was made before that was going on.

Kenneth Johnson provides commentary for all five of the movies, and Johnson is just as sharp as can be when talking about these films. He’s willing to go into technical detail as well as a little bit of personal discussion. As much fun as the movies are themselves to watch, they’re even more fun to watch with Johnson’s commentary tracks and getting a glimpse into both his production style and what it takes to shoot a TV movie.

But there’s more… Each movie also features a making of featurette that’s not the slickly produced things that you see, no what you have here is literally home movies made around the shooting of each film. These are all shot by a woman on Johnson’s staff, and here Johnson provides commentary for these films. After I saw the first of these for Dark Horizon (which was about 20-25 minutes long), I’d really thought I’d gotten a nice little bonus here.

There’s also extensive photo galleries for each film, much of these from Kenneth Johnson’s on collection, and these were pretty cool with the added bonus of seeing photos from recent Alien Nation cast reunions, so you’ve got a chance to see what Gary Graham, Eric Pierpoint, and the rest of the cast look like now. I’m not usually that big on photo galleries on DVD sets, but for this set, well these just go beyond the normal studio publicity stills and as such are a great part of seeing some of the history and production of this show.

This set gets a big thumbs up here, though I recognize the fact that it still may not be for everybody. Genre fans that like the old show shouldn’t hesitate for a moment here. Genre fans who have a sense of perspective and an appreciation of what was in the past will probably like this as well. After that, it’s hard to say who will like the set, but I can at least tell you that I think it’s fantastic. Kudos to FOX for a job well done…

Billionaire munitions manufacturer Tony Stark is living the good life, enjoying a bit of a hedonistic lifestyle from profiteering from his weapons sales. He has his justifications for it and he’s proud of it, and then one day it all goes to hell. After demonstrating his newest weapon, a landscape altering super-missile called The Jericho in the Mid-East, Stark is ambushed by a terrorist group called The Ten Rings, and taken captive where he is forced, along with another scientist named Yensin, to re-create the Jericho for his captors. Stark has different plans though, and instead makes for himself an incredible suit of armor that he eventually uses to take out this cell of The Ten Rings and free himself. Once he’s made it back home, Stark has experienced enough of a life change to want to bring his weapons-manufacturing to a close, and yet still secretly perfecting the armor that he created, now wanting to take on the role of protector. This all to the disdain of Tony’s partner in Stark Enterprises, Obadiah Stane, who has his own sinister agenda.

Jon Favreau’s adaptation of Marvel Comics’ Iron Man is without a doubt, one of the most anticipated movies of the year. It’s been no secret how Favreau has immersed himself in the material and made himself accessible to fans, earnestly wanting to make the best possible movie that he can, and I think for the most part, he’s succeeded wildly. Iron Man being the first Marvel Comics property controlled by Marvel Entertainment, is a pretty entertaining film with a lot of promise of what’s to come from future Marvel properties handled by Marvel Entertainment.

Favreau’s immersion in the material has some great pay-offs to fans of the character (and I am definitely a fan of the character, Iron Man was always one of my favorites as a kid, with the version by David Michelinie and Bob Layton being in my mind the definitive version of the character) and nods to just about all of the major versions of the character, from the Stan Lee origin, to the Michelinie/Layton run and even up to the version presented by Marvel’s Ultimate line, there’s a little something of everything here, and yet it’s all accessible to those who know nothing of the character as well.

Favreau’s film is stylish yet not overbearing, and with the exception of three scenes that are there for more lowest common denominator laughs, it all works really well- fortunately those scenes don’t really cause any reverse sympathy towards the character, and so much of the rest of the film is spot-on that they’re pretty forgivable.

Favreau’s best move is in his casting, and here he’s picked actor Robert Downey Jr. to portray Tony Stark, and really that’s inspired casting. Downey’s own personal problems actually play into things that affect Stark in Iron Man comics continuity, and Downey has literally thrown himself into this. Personally speaking, I think it’s one of his best parts yet. Favreau’s got a good supporting cast here as well, with Gwyneth Paltrow playing Stark’s personal assistant, Pepper Potts, and Terence Howard playing his best friend, James Rhodes, both are solid here and in particular, Paltrow does a great job. Favreau’s even put himself in the movie as Happy Hogan, one of Stark’s bodyguards- and though Hogan had a bigger part in the comics continuity, Favreau chooses not to dwell on him too much here. The final bit of main casting goes to Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, and again, it really looks like you have another actor here who’s just eating up the part he’s in and just adding to Bridges’ own incredible diversity to what he’s done on-screen (there’s one point where I’m watching this, just enjoying Bridges’ performance and remembering this guy played The Dude in the Coen Brother’s The Big Lebowski, just thinking of the extremes that Bridges has covered in his career).

The visual effects are, of course, another big star of the film and they’re really nicely done. I particularly enjoy watching the character take flight. There’s one scene where Stark is being “suited up” so to speak by all sorts of robots attaching the armor onto him, and it made me think back to back in the day in the comics when the character used to carry the armor with him in a brief case, where he could just suit up like he was putting on another set of clothes. It’s sorta ironic in a way, because the method used in the movie certainly looks cool, but considering the technology in the Marvel Universe, the old way would actually be far more advanced, and that of course could even be extrapolated now to a point where the character, technically speaking, now wouldn’t even need a suit of armor any more to function, but I digress… that’s certainly a discussion for another time…

Still though, Iron Man is a whole lot of big-ass fun, and there’s weight here to both it’s main character and his ideas beyond just the action of the film. Highly, highly recommended… and whatever you do, stay past the end credits for one last scene, that certainly is worth seeing.

As our story starts, it’s 1997 and the place is Seattle, Washington. A man named Jon Forster has been arrested for serial killings (as the Seattle Slayer) and is being sent to jail by the damning testimony put together by FBI forensic psychologist Jack Gramm. As Forster is found guilty, he looks over to Gramm in the courtroom and mouthes the words “Tick tock, Doc.” 9 years later, on the day that Forster is to be put to death, a new crime with the same M.O. as the Settle Slayer is committed, and Jack Gramm receives a phone call telling him that he has only 88 minutes left to live, ending with the words “Tick tock, Doc.” Now Jack Gramm must put together the pieces and keep himself alive over this short, but significant to Gramm, period of time.

88 Minutes is a new thriller from director Jon Avnet starring Al Pacino in the role of Dr. Jack Gramm, and it’s premise is pretty good, but it’s execution is pretty preposterous and almost laughable in a lot of places, but for me anyway still watchable just for Al Pacino, doing the stuff that Al Pacino does best, but keep in mind, that is not a recommendation for the fim.

What it suffers from is the same thing that a lot of Hollywood thrillers suffer from today, and that’s being overly plotted to death to give out the guise of complexity, when what it boils down to is just being ridiculous and coincidental in how everything falls into place. The majority of the film runs in a bit of pseudo-real time, though there’s nothing on-screen that indicates that, you’re just reminded of it by phone calls and other means as the story unfolds. Now this isn’t a bad way to do this at all, but here it just feels that the pacing is almost casual in how stuff unfolds, and at least in my eyes, if you’re going to do something like this, things should seem just a little more frantic than how they play on-screen.

Jack Gramm, not only works for the FBI but is also a successful college professor who teaches forensic psychology, and his students are also drawn into the events on-screen. This sets up a number of the coincedences and red herrings here that really plays into the implausibility of things, and yet oddly, I still had fun with this.

And most of that fun comes with Al Pacino. Now I’m sure that many will see this and just not think this is great work from him and in more than all likelihood, 88 Minutes is Al Pacino cashing a paycheck, but he still throws himself into this, but more as Al Pacino rather than playing a real character (and maybe it’s not entirely for the paycheck either, as another movie, Righteous Kill from director Jon Avnet is coming, teaming Pacino and Robert DeNiro together again, but I digress…). And I’m a Pacino fan so for that, it’s fun for me anyway. Pacino’s backed up with some pretty good players here including Neal MacDonough as Forster, Amy Brenneman, Leelee Sobieski, Alicia Witt, Deborah Kara Unger and William Forsythe, with MacDonough being the best of the bunch, and Amy Brenneman playing the hardest working assistant ever seen on-screen (to me, her part is almost a running gag here, the moment Jack needs anything he calls here and it comes up right away). It’s a good cast overall, it just needs a better movie to be in.

Like I said, I cannot recommend this, though if you appreciate the aspects of the character that Al Pacino has become (and a lot of that is due to an incredible impression of Pacino that comedian Craig Gass has done, made popular on The Howard Stern Show), then you might have some fun with this like I did, though I’d expect that most won’t. The biggest saving grace for me anyway is that I got to see it for free, having gotten “movie money” for this in recently buying a Special Edition DVD package for an earlier and far, far better Al Pacino film, “… And Justice For All”. Unless you did what I did, I really cannot say to make the trip to a theatre to see this, just wait for a cable run of the film. Hopefully, Avnet and Pacino will score better when Righteous Kill premieres later in the year.

Thomas Ludlow is a driven police detective, having suffered his own personal tragedy, he’s now extra hard on himself and he focuses it all into his work, doing things that other cops wouldn’t do to see that justice is served. He’s effective in his ways, and though those ways could be professionally costly to him, he’s well-protected by his direct superior, Captain Jack Wander head of L.A.’s Vice Special unit. Ludlow’s methods have cost him the friendship of his former partner, Washington, who he’s found out is informing to Internal Affairs. One afternoon, Ludlow trails Washington to simply get in his face about this, but at the conveninece store where he catches up to him, it’s suddenly under attack by two masked men, viciously killing Washington in the process. Things look bad for Tom Ludlow, because of this, and though Ludlow is protected yet again by his captain, his own sense of justice won’t let him rest on this. Now, working with an independent detective named Paul Diskant, Ludlow seeks to find the real killers of his former partner, unaware of where the whole thing will lead him.

Street Kings is the second movie from director David Ayer, who previously made Harsh Time with Christian Bale and before that wrote the Antoine Fuqua film, Training Day starring Denzel Washington, so Ayer is no stranger to this sort of hard-hitting crime drama. I thought Harsh Time was decent but somewhat lacking, but think he’s more than made up for it with Street Kings which is extremely well-paced, well-acted and very driven in getting it’s point home.

While there’s elements of the film that aren’t anything new, the way Ayer has put everything together still comes together as an effective crime thriller with one terrific ending.

Ayer’s cast really carries the day here. Keanu Reeves plays Ludlow, and manages a way to keep himself both dark and also the focus of the audience’s concern. Forest Whitaker is quite good as Jack Wander, and the scenes that both have together, especially near the film’s climax are really nicely done. Chris Evans, who put himself more on the acting map with Danny Boyle’s Sunshine goes up another notch here as Diskant, and working with Reeves, they actually make a pretty good on-screen team. The rest of the cast, filled out by guys like Hugh Laurie, Jay Mohr and Cedric The Entertainer all play their parts very well. Honestly, I don’t have a single complaint about this cast in the slightest.

If you like hard-hitting cop/crime thrillers, well then Street Kings to fill that bill. Like I said above, there’s nothing overtly original here, but it’s all put together in a very entertaining way, and it certainly gets a recommendation here.