Posted by Doug S. on March 28th, 2011
Battle: Los Angeles – Movie Review
5 stars out of 10
Genre: Sci Fi / Action
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Run time: 114 min.
Writer: Christopher Bertolini
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Year: 2011
In 1998, "Saving Private Ryan" established a new war movie aesthetic that is still consistently imitated and expanded upon today. And its visceral immediacy has been put to use in science fiction films of late as well, most particularly "Children of Men"and "District 9" "Battle: Los Angeles"is the latest attempt, drawing from Ryan’s bag of tricks to portray a supposedly realistic confrontation between human troops and alien invaders. And the battle scenes do work to some extent. Unfortunately the film fails in just about every other regard.
Also clearly drawing from "Black Hawk Down" the film wants to be a gut-wrenching combat picture that just happens to have aliens in it. And on a visual level, it gets a lot of things right. The battle scenes are arresting to look at, if not always entirely coherent, and the effects are impressive enough, although nothing we haven’t seen in the "Transformers" movies already. But despite the almost constant action, it is all completely uninvolving. It’s only occasionally exciting, and never even close to the intensity of "Ryan" or "Black Hawk"
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Posted by Doug S. on March 28th, 2011
The Adjustment Bureau – Movie Review
7 stars out of 10
Genre: Sci Fi/Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Run time: 106 min.
Writer: George Nolfi
Director: George Nolfi
Year: 2011
Philip K. Dick’s stories and novels have long been mined for the big screen, but it’s hard to think of even a single instance where the movie resembled the source material in anything other than core premise. It seems that his concepts are great, but his actual stories are unfilmable. "The Adjustment Bureau" based on Dick’s short story "Adjustment Team" is no exception. It bears little resemblance to the story, but manages to find its own way and create a serviceable romantic thriller from Dick’s bizarre concept.
Matt Damon stars as David Norris, a Senatorial candidate who falls for a woman (Emily Blunt) that he meets in a hotel bathroom. He soon stumbles onto a shady group of men in hats called The Adjustment Bureau who are tasked with making sure the world goes according to plan, and the "plan"is for Norris to never see the woman again. Naturally, Norris isn’t happy about that. Soon he’s off and running trying to find her, thereby exploring questions of fate and destiny, and what happens when you try to change them.
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Posted by Doug S. on March 28th, 2011
Doubt – Movie Review
8 stars out of 10
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Run time: 104 min.
Writer: John Patrick Shanley
Director: John Patrick Shanley
Year: 2008
“Doubt” is very much an actor’s movie, and director John Patrick Shanley populates it with the very best, and then stays out of their way. There are scenes in here that can give you chills just with the sheer magnificence of the performance talent on display.
There is no lead character in “Doubt”. Instead, it’s an ensemble of 3. Meryl Streep is the strict, forceful nun and principal of a Catholic school who suspects the resident priest of an inappropriate relationship with a student. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the priest, who swears his innocence and claims a compassion for all the children that Streep’s character does not possess. And Amy Adams is the young, innocent nun caught between them.
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Posted by JB on March 1st, 2011
Written by Peter Craig, Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard; Directed by Ben Affleck; 2010; Rated: 14A; 125 minutes.
8/10
“Bank robbery became like a trade in Charlestown, passed down father to son.” – Federal Agent, Boston Robbery Task Force (The Town).
Charlestown, a working-class neighbourhood in Boston, was notorious for its Irish mob presence during the 1960s through to the 1990s. This story takes the fighting Irish into the 21st century with Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) leading a crew of professional bank robbers through a fast-action, character-driven plot.
After blowing his chances in the NHL, MacRay follows in his father’s footsteps, working for a nasty mob-leader disguised as a frail florist (Pete Postlethwaite). Now MacRay and his gang of masked men have had their extravagantly choreographed robberies go “wrong” more than once and the FBI is hot on their tail.
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Posted by JB on March 1st, 2011
Written by David Seidler;
Directed by Tom Hooper;
2010;
Rated: PG;
112 minutes
8/10
The king of England had a nasty stutter. Not something that a country hanging on the edge of World War II wanted to know.
King George IV, known to friends and family as Bertie, struggled to speak. He choked on every word and, second in line to the throne, may have gotten away with it. But with his father’s death came the realization that his rowdy older brother had no intention of being responsible for an entire country. As Hitler mows down Europe and England is within his grasp, Bertie is forced to become the king his country needs. He seeks the help of unorthodox speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to give a voice to his leadership.
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