the Hurt Locker

DVD Release : 01/12/2010

“The Hurt Locker,” directed by Kathryn Bigelow from a script by Mark Boal, is the best nondocumentary American feature made yet about the war in Iraq. This may sound like faint praise and also like a commercial death sentence, since movies about that war have not exactly galvanized audiences or risen to the level of art. The squad of well-meaning topical dramas that trudged across the screens in the fall of 2007 were at once hysterical and noncommittal, registering an anxious, high-minded ambivalence that was neither illuminating nor especially entertaining. And the public, perhaps sufficiently enervated and confused by reality, was not eager to see it recreated on screen.

The Hurt Locker is a riveting, suspenseful portrait of the courage under fire of the military�s most unrecognized heroes: the technicians of the bomb squad, who volunteer to challenge the odds and save lives in one of the world�s most dangerous places. Three members of the Army�s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad battle insurgents and each other as they seek out and disarm a wave of roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad -- in order to try and make the city a safer place for Iraqis and Americans alike. Their mission is clear - protect and save - but it�s anything but easy, for the margin of error on a war-zone bomb is zero. A thrilling and heart-thumping look at the effects of combat and danger on the human psyche, The Hurt Lockeris based on the first-hand observations of journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal, who was embedded with a special bomb unit in Iraq.

 

Not necessarily about the causes and consequences of the Iraq war, mind you. The filmmakers’ insistence on zooming in on and staying close to the moment-to-moment experiences of soldiers in the field is admirable in its way but a little evasive as well. “The Hurt Locker,” which takes place in 2004 (it was filmed mostly in Jordan), depicts men who risk their lives every day on the streets of Baghdad and in the desert beyond, and who are too stressed out, too busy, too preoccupied with the details of survival to reflect on larger questions about what they are doing there.

The filmmakers, perhaps out of loyalty to their characters, are similarly reticent. But within those limits, “The Hurt Locker” is a remarkable accomplishment. Ms. Bigelow, practicing a kind of hyperbolic realism, distills the psychological essence and moral complications of modern warfare into a series of brilliant, agonizing set pieces.

Her focus is on Delta Company, an Army unit whose job is to detect and defuse — or carefully detonate, if all else fails — the I.E.D.’s that seem to pop up everywhere, like mushrooms in the rain. Some of the devices are brutishly simple, others fiendishly elaborate, but each one lays the groundwork for a cruel and revealing test of character.

The Final Destination

On what should have been a fun-filled day at the races, Nick O�Bannon has a horrific premonition in which a bizarre sequence of events causes multiple race cars to crash, sending flaming debris... On what should have been a fun-filled day at the races, Nick O�Bannon has a horrific premonition in which a bizarre sequence of events causes multiple race cars to crash, sending flaming debris into the stands, brutally killing his friends and causing the upper deck of the stands to collapse on him. When he comes out of this grisly nightmare Nick panics, persuading his girlfriend, Lori, and their friends, Janet and Hunt, to leave� escaping seconds before Nick�s frightening vision becomes a terrible reality. Thinking they�ve cheated death, the group has a new lease on life, but unfortunately for Nick and Lori, it is only the beginning. As his premonitions continue and the crash survivors begin to die one-by-one -- in increasingly gruesome ways -- Nick must figure out how to cheat death once and for all before he, too, reaches his final destination. The film marks the latest in the highly popular Final Destination series, and its first 3D installment, giving horror fans an especially visceral thrill ride. --© Warner Bros

The Final Destination 4 Official Trailer - Click here for funny video clips

When the decision was made to produce a fourth Final Destination movie, there must have been conversations about whether the same formula would work without any reconfiguring. Audiences were pretty familiar with it by now: someone has a premonition that saves a bunch of people's lives; then Death comes back around to kill everyone anyway, in the order they'd have died in if they hadn't gotten away the first time. Someone must have asked, "Should we tweak the formula a little? Offer some kind of new angle or a surprising twist we haven't used before?"

That person, if he existed, was outvoted. The new film, senselessly called The Final Destination, follows the formula to the letter, without deviation. You might just as well stay home and watch one of the other three, where at least there will be some devilish wit and ironic humor in evidence. You'll get none of that here.

This time we're at a racetrack when Nick (Bobby Campo), a young man with no defining personality traits, has a vivid daydream about a horrific accident that kills him, his friends, and 50 others. Spooked, he gets out of there just before the real thing happens, saving his own life and the lives of his girlfriend, Lori (Shantel VanSanten), her best friend, Janet (Haley Webb), and Janet's preppy d-bag boyfriend Hunt (Nick Zano). A security guard (Mykelti Williamson) is also spared, along with a few tag-alongs.

All About Steve

DVD Relaease: December 22, 2009

Sandra Bullock has cleverly taken one more stab at this problem with All About Steve; it's packaged like a regular romantic comedy, but in it, Bullock gets to play around and have fun with a much different character. She's Mary Horowitz, a designer of crossword puzzles for a small Sacramento newspaper. She's very smart but socially graceless; she tends to babble incessantly, quoting trivia. She's confident and walks with a spring in her stride -- mostly thanks to her shiny, red, knee-high boots -- but has no idea how to read other people. Her parents set her up on a blind date with Steve (Bradley Cooper), a television cameraman for a cable news station. Their date begins well, with Mary jumping all over the willing Steve, but after a few minutes he gets a "psycho" vibe from her and gives her the brush off, telling her that he wishes she could come but he's got a job to do.

After doing an "all Steve" crossword puzzle, she loses her job and decides to tag along after her beloved. She finds him in the Midwest, covering a series of offbeat news stories. Steve's partner, reporter Hartman Hughes (Thomas Haden Church), decides it will be funny to encourage her, so she sticks around. Eventually Mary picks up some oddball sidekicks, Elizabeth (Katy Mixon) and Howard (DJ Qualls), and winds up as part of a news story herself, also involving a school of hearing-impaired children and an abandoned mine shaft. It's suggested Howard may actually be the perfect match for Mary (he likes crossword puzzles and understands all her quotes and references) and Steve eventually warms up to her as well, but the movie avoids any romantic payoff. It's not clear whether this was Bullock's idea, or if the movie tested badly, but it just doesn't quite click.

The other problem is that screenwriter Kim Barker (License to Wed) and director Phil Traill, who makes his feature debut here, can't quite settle on a tone for the big "mine shaft" climax; it's played alternately for satire, black humor and pathos. The filmmakers don't want to make fun of deaf kids, but they do want to skewer the media. Eventually they have no idea how to juggle both, and each aspect feels cheapened at the expense of the other. At the same time, Bullock manages a strange juggling act of her own; in the film's first few minutes she turns us off completely with her character's abrasive personality (we would run if we met her in real life) but without betraying the character, she manages to charm us back by about the halfway point. It happens slowly, as she finds herself out of her element and listening to others for the first time.

Other actors come out well, too. I very much liked Ken Jeong (also in The Hangover with Cooper) as the oddly-named Angus, who works as Hartman and Steve's producer, and who is required to yell at them both from time to time. Poor molten-hot Bradley Cooper, hoping for his third big hit of 2009, has pretty much nothing to do; interestingly, he's the bland, passively-pursued character that usually goes to the female in the cast. But Thomas Haden Church proves he's an able-bodied comedian in the finest sense; he almost steals the entire picture, which is hard to do with Bullock onscreen. He continues an odd new trend of handsome, chiseled men (Brad Pitt, Jason Bateman) who are brilliantly funny as well as stoic and heroic. It's too bad that the movies -- and the audiences -- can't allow a similar duality for Bullock.

Twilight: New Moon

Theatre Release: November/2009

The Twilight Saga continues with the New Moon movie that arrived in theaters Friday, November 20, 2009. This year's most anticipated film really delivers to the fans of the Twilight Saga. I loved New Moon because of its trueness to the book. It will be a harder task for the next installment, Eclipse. Even if you are not a Twi-hard (a fan of the Twilight Saga), you can appreciate the movie. Understand the series is a pre-teen sensation with abstinence throughout the first two books.

New Moon correlated with the book by telling the story of why Edward left Bella because he feared for her life with Vampires. Unless you are have read the books, you might be lost as what is going on with the movie. The camera angles and effects were a little too complicated and took away from the story. The exception to that is when Bella is depressed was told well with a 360° view of her and the window outside changing as time went on.

New Moon movie reviews. The best parts of the movie were the gratuitous shirtless Quileutes. Audible expressions were heard from the female viewers in the theater when Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) takes off his shirt for the first time in the movie. Costuming for the movie must have been easy because there was a lot of cut off jean shorts. Jacob Black is caring for Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and she tells him, "You're kind of beautiful, you know?" Yes, we know. His body was amazing. Especially when you compare to how Jacob looked in Twilight.

GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra

DVD Release:  November/2009

The plot is this: "Nanobites" can do pretty much anything. An evil arms dealer, thanks to his deformed, monocle-wearing mad scientist sidekick, has figured out how to turn "nanobites" into A) missiles that devour metal, B) a serum that turns men into virtual immortals, and C) a handy McGuffin for all the armor-plated characters to fight over. And what a crazy crew it is! I suppose that's what happens when your movie is spawned from a line of action figures, but this movie has mega-ninjas, robotic sharks, inviso-cloaks, machine gun bracelets, and more than enough he-men / wonder-women to play with all these toys. And for the most part, there's a good deal of loud, eye-tickling fun to be had. (The movie's goal is to be viewed when "bad guys vs. good guys, loudly" is all that your brain is craving.)

The eclectic ensemble is, of course, a mixed bag, but standouts include a wonderfully oily Christopher Eccleston as Head Baddie, Rachel Nichols as Heroic Hottie, Said Thagmoui as Computer Expert, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as All-Purpose Authoritative Ass-Kicker. Matter of fact, The Rise of Cobra just might be the United Nations of mindless action flicks. The obvious Americanism of the Joe franchise has branched out to include about a dozen different creeds, cultures, nationalities, and persuasions. I approve. At the very least, it's a pre-teen-friendly rendition of the unapologetically stylish mayhem generally found in much "harsher" action flicks.

the Proposal

DVD Released: Oct/2009

the Proposal --Check out the good, the bad, and the plot below…

The Plot:

Margaret (Bullock), a prominent and constantly PMSing New York book editor who forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Reynolds) into marrying her, lest she face deportation back to her native Canada. He begrudgingly agrees and in an effort to avoid speculation from a nosy INS agent, they set off to Andrew’s hometown of Sitka, Alaska to meet his parents (Steenburgen and Nelson) and his quirky grandmother (White). Soon city girl Margaret, finds herself in all sorts of unfamiliar situations in the backdrop of Andrew’s scenic small town of Sitka, Alaska.

The Good:

• Ryan Reynolds - Though Sandra Bullock portrays snarky Margaret quite well, it’s Ryan Reynolds’ that shines with his stoic looks, great line delivery and interaction with other characters. When Margaret comments on his choice of drink, he replies “It’s like Christmas in a cup!” That line could fall flat for others, but Reynolds’ facial expressions and predicaments make him very believable and entertaining.

• Betty White - If there’s one reason you should go see The Proposal it’s the magnificence that is Betty White. With hilarious lines like “Do you prefer to be called Margaret or Satin’s mistress?”, and her pop culture appeal and antics, this scene stealer will be the cause of most of your laugh out loud moments and she’ll make you miss your grandmother.



• Scenery – The picturesque mountains, trees and lakes will make you want to head out on the first plane to Alaska, until you find out that they actually shot the film in Rockport, Massachusetts. Either way, one look at the wide angle shots of the town, along with the glorious Paxton house that sits on a hill and you’ll be itching for a nature-themed vacation.

• Laugh Out Loud Moments -In one scene Margaret lands on Andrew while she’s trying to make her way out of the bathroom after an encounter with the family puppy – a scene that would have been funny on its own, but brings the laughs more so as both of them are stark naked. In another memorable moment, Margaret improvises the best version of “Get Low” by Lil’ John and the Eastside Boys that has eve been captured on film. What can I say, it’s stupid, but I laughed!

The Bad:

• Lack of Chemistry – Though the genre suggests that The Proposal is a romantic comedy, I frankly found nothing romantic about it. Bullock and Reynolds are great in their roles and their snippy interactions with each other can be appreciated, however even that needed to be counterbalanced with some chemistry and sexual tension. The film needed more awkward romantic interactions that would have broken up the comedy and provided the audience with at least a good make out scene to indulge in.

• Clichés Galore – From the addition of the cute furry puppy to wreak innocent havoc, to Andrew’s tense relationship with his father and Margaret and Andrew’s uncomfortable situation that must be kept secret from family and friends, The Proposal draws material in many ways from its romantic comedy predecessors like Meet the Parents and The Wedding Date. It’s a formula that works and I don’t know why I expected anything more, but it was too hard to get past the overdone plot lines for me to enjoy the film.

Overall:

If you’re looking for an easy laugh, The Proposal is right for you, but don’t expect anything new or original in this 107-minute distraction from reality. If you’re looking for eye candy, this film will also satisfy you – there’s no need to state the appeal Ryan Reynolds holds, but at 45, Sandra Bullock looks amazing whether she’s in New York City or Alaska.