Back Seat Producers

Ty Hackett has returned from his tour of duty in Iraq and has his own set of problems to deal with once he’s back, his parents have passed away, his younger brother Jimmy is always getting into trouble, and he’s about to lose the family home. To make ends meet, Ty has been training with the Eagle Shield security company to be an armored car guard where he’s being mentored by an old family friend, Mike. Right as things are looking darkest for Ty, Mike reveals to him a plan that he and a few other guards have to heist 42 million dollars from one of their deliveries. Ty reluctantly goes along, and then things begin to go south…

That’s the premise to Armored a fun little B-movie heist film from director Nimrod Antal, who previously directed a fun little terror movie named Vacancy and will next be working on Predators. What I like about this film is that it’s not too over-the-top in what it does, and the guys performing the heist are your basic working stiffs, who really aren’t as equipped to deal with this situation as they’d like to think they are.

It’s a short movie, running about 88 minutes, and it doesn’t really waste it’s time on anything- it does just what it needs to do to set up it’s main character (Ty) and puts everything else in it’s proper place for this situation to play out.

The really good thing about the movie though is it’s cast- Columbus Short plays Ty and while I’m not that familiar with him (just found out that he’ll be in the movie version of DC Comics’ The Losers), I think he does solid work here and makes Ty a good character. But the real gold is in the other members of the cast- Matt Dillon as Mike, along with Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno, Amaury Nolasco and Skeet Ulrich make up the rest of the guards. Fred Ward plays their captain, and Milo Ventimiglia plays a young cop who stumbles onto the plan. Everyone does a nice job here and keeps this moving right along.

It’s a fun diversion film, nothing that will win any awards or anything like that, just some solid entertainment- probably for most, more fun to catch on home video or cable down the road.

Mr. Fox, out on a romp with his wife Mrs. Fox, decides to have some fun and go after some squab, only to find himself trapped and his wife pleading to him that if they survive this, they need to change their life, and by the way, she’s pregnant. Well, they do survive and two years later, they’ve changed their life, with Mr. Fox now being a columnist for the newspaper for the other wild animals and now a father with a young son named Ash. Mr. Fox though, isn’t happy with his situation, and thinks at this stage in his life he and his family shouldn’t be living in a hole, and so Mr. Fox decides to purchase a new home inside a tree that overlooks the collective farms of Boggis, Bunce and Bean… and from there, he feels the need to resume his old ways… and of course hi-jinks ensue…

Fantastic Mr. Fox is the latest movie from the very talented Wes Anderson, using Roald Dahl’s original book as a springboard (I’m not familiar with the book, but there’s just too much stuff here that’s pure Wes Anderson to even begin for me to think that it was ever in the book). It’s an animated feature that’s pretty much unlike anything else that’s out there today and for two reasons: 1. It’s stop-motion animated, no CGI in sight and 2. It’s really way more for adults than it is for kids. If you’re familiar with Anderson’s other movies (he’s made Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited) then you already know that his movies have a pretty unique voice and look to them, and Fantastic Mr. Fox fits right in with the rest of his filmography (and for me having much in common with both The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic).

The animation here is actually some pretty sophisticated stuff, particularly with the character subtleties, though there’s also a little something that’s just a touch creepy about it as well (though I’m having a hard time putting my finger on just what is a little creepy about it- it just struck me that way). And though this is about anthropomorphized animals, they don’t let you forget that they are wild animals, with Mr. Fox coming off as urbane and witty one moment and the next moment viciously attacking his food.

But it is very entertaining, at least to me, and one of those movies that I expect for me might end up being like Being John Malkovich was for me- mildly amusing at the first viewing, but increasingly funnier the more I see it.

Lots of Anderson’s go-to guys are here in the voice cast, including Jason Schwartzmann, Bill Murray and even Owen Wilson in a walk-on role. George Clooney plays the part of Mr. Fox and he’s just as uber-confident as he should be, and Meryl Streep voices his wife, with a lot of quiet confidence.

I tend to think that your liking for this will probably hinge on whether you like Wes Anderson’s previous movies. I know some just won’t get it, and there’s nothing wrong with that, he’s just not your cup of tea. But those that are real fans of his work will probably just love this, and if not immediately be head over heels with it, then for sure having it grow further with them in later viewings. If you’re a parent looking to see if they should take their kids to see this though- well honestly, I don’t know what to tell you. I mean this isn’t a Pixar film by any means (and that’s not being derogatory to Pixar at all) and while not being a parent my own self, I found something just a little creepy to this (but still entertaining) and thus just don’t know how it would go over with a kid. But still, this is pretty unique stuff and if you’ve had any passing interest at all, I’d surely recommend seeing it at some point, if not in a theatre, then surely when it hits home video later…

“Trained since childhood to be a lethal killer, Raizo has since turned his back on the Ozunu clan that raised him and now seeks revenge for their heartless murders. Teaming up with Europol investigator Mika, Raizo steadily butchers his enemies while inching ever closer to the long-awaited bloody reunion with his former master.”

That’s how the premise for the movie, Ninja Assassin reads over at IMDB, and really that’s it in a nutshell, and it’s one very entertaining film, especially if you’re a fan of big-ass over-the-top martial arts action- Ninja Assassin ups the ante in a very big way.

It’s the second movie from director James McTiegue (his first was V for Vendetta, who is also well-known for being the Wachowski Brothers Assistant Director on the Matrix movies, and the Wachowskis are certainly connected to this one as well, as film producers, along with long-time genre fan favorite writer J. Michael Straczynski, so this film already has a hell of a pedigree behind it.

And they really deliver the goods, with some very fast paced action and some solid characters that you can get behind. The biggest thing that I think it does though is it really makes a ninja something far more fearsome than what has been shown in film before, at least to me, where the term Ninja seems to have a set meaning but hasn’t really been taken to a full potential in a live action movie.

McTiegue’s influence from the Wachowski’s is certainly present, but in addition, again at least to me, he’s been watching Zack Snyder’s 300 as well, especially around one particular sequence that follows Raizo through a battle with a bunch of different ninjas, but going in different speeds with different camera zooms on the action (much like Leonidas charging into battle in 300)

Another Wachowski alumni appearing here though is Rain as Raizo. Rain was also in the Wachowski’s excellent Speed Racer and here he really gets to make a mark- he’s got a great screen presence, and just looks terrific in all of his action scenes. Also of note though is the legendary Sho Kusugi, who appears here as Ozuno, and is just as commanding as ever.

Really, Ninja Assassin is just a fun and extremely bloody good time, harkening back to a time when these sorts of movies were a little more plentiful, but upping the stakes, by just having a budget to take some of these things way farther than they’ve been taken in the past. I really hope this does well, as I’d certainly like to see a Ninja Assassin 2. Very much recommended…

When I wrote a review for 2012, I made mention of the fact that while it’s special effects were spectacular, there just seemed to be a little something odd that it’s escape-by-the-seat-of your-pants popcorn movie thrill-ride was being viewed as entertainment considering that it’s backdrop was hundreds of thousands of people meeting their certain death…

Well, think of The Road as the story of people who weren’t lucky enough to get to go on that roller coaster.

It’s actually much, much more than that, but that was something that certainly popped into my head after watching it.

The Road from director John Hillcoat adapted from a novel by Cormac McCarthy tells the story of a father and son trying to survive after a global cataclysm has occurred and it takes the harder and darker path in it’s tale of survival while still trying to maintain their humanity. There’s no explanation for what has occurred and there’s no government team that’s seen as the path of salvation, it’s probably way closer to what you and I would actually face if such things were to really occur.

And it’s a really great little film with a very good performance from it’s lead actor, Viggo Mortenson. But, even though I had criticisms with 2012 one thing that it surely offered up was conversation afterwards of what you’d really do in something like this, and The Road does that as well.

It’s extremely dark stuff, though and that’s certainly not the thing for some in the potential viewing audience out there. There is a subtle message of hope here by the film’s end, but you literally have to go through hell and high water to get there.

Viggo Mortenson plays the father, never called anything other than “Poppa” by his young son. I’ve often said in conversations with some friends that Tom Hanks is the closest thing that we have to a James Stewart today in films, well with that in mind, the more and more that I see of Viggo Mortenson, the more that I’m convinced that he’s the closest to what we have now that’s like Kirk Douglas in his prime. This is really a thoughtful performance from Mortenson, another good mark from him in an ever-increasing amount of good roles that he’s taken on. Kodi Smit-McPhee is the young actor who plays his son, and he’s certainly up to the task of keeping pace with Mortenson, and there is a great chemistry between the two that’s a very natural thing between a father and son. At one point, Poppa says to his son, “You must think I’m from another world.” and the moment he said that, I couldn’t help but think of my own relationship with my father. In addition, Charlize Theron plays the wife and mother, seen only in flashbacks, and there’s some nice walk-ons by both Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce- it’s all good and solid work, with Theron getting the best of it as a mother who’s delivered after the apocalypse has happened and who struggles with the idea of trying to survive with her husband and son during this.

It’s really a terrific movie, but it’s by no means a feel-good movie. It’s very bleak and very dark and from what I understand, very true to it’s source, so if you don’t want to see something this dark, then you probably shouldn’t, but for me, I think it’s right up there with The Hurt Locker as one of the better things that I’ve seen this year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Viggo Mortenson get an Oscar nomination for this, his performance is certainly worth it. Without a doubt, highly, highly recommended.