Unknown

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Plot: Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) is in a taxi accident and when he leaves the hospital, another man has assumed his identity, and his wife (January Jones) has forgotten him. He finds the taxi driver Gina (Diane Kruger) to help retrace his steps, and soon killers are after both of them.

Review: Unknown starts like a high concept movie with a man whose identity was assumed by someone else, and no one can tell. Just when I decided that maybe this was a Bertolt Brecht story with surrealist idea of identity, the films reveals its true identity as a mindless action movie, and omniscient thugs arrive to start killing people.

There are chase scenes and explosions. Lots of Liam Neeson being outraged.

The plot twists into a pretzel, and the movie ends in a stupid and unsatisfying way. If the ending had been better I might have liked this movie.



Most of the movie fun enough to watch until the end at least.  I was not very fond of Liam Neeson, but I liked January Jones. 

Cast: Liam Neeson, Duane Kruger, January Jones

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra

Rating: 2.0 stars, edging closer to 1.5

More:  The German in the movie was pretty easy, and the accent was easy to understand.

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True Grit

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Plot: Fourteen-year-old Mattee Ross (Hailee Steinfield) hires Federal Marshel Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to hunt down murderer Tom Cheney (Josh Brolin.) They are joined by Texas Ranger Laboeuf (Matt Damon) as they venture into Indian territory to find Cheney and the criminal band he is hiding with.


Review: Mattee Ross carries True Grit. It is her larger-than-life, poise, worldliness, and spunk that makes this movie fun. The traditional Western characters like Cogburn and Laboeuf are colorful, but not distinctive or memorable. Hailee Steinfield deserves recognition It is like Ellen Page's role in Juno -- the dialog is the star of the movie. 
The scene where Matee negotiates with the horse dealer should become a classic. 


Jeff Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn as a likeable tough-guy with a warm heart. Jeff Bridges is always a bit disgusting, but the disgusting parts are given only in small doses. Matt Damon was probably too prominent an actor to play Laboeuf because it always seemed like Matt Damon reading lines, and never like an actual character. 


True Grit was fun-to-watch, and surprisingly funny -- usually because of the dialog. There was some suspenseful action, but actually the characters were shallow - as in a comedy or action movie. 


True Grit is not a Western but rather a Black Comedy.  The film was well made and well acted. The movie is not really about anything -- it does not make any points about life or people or whatever.


Cast: Hailee Steinfield, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon


Directed by:  Ethan Coen, Joel Coen


Rating: 3.0 stars, perhaps edging higher to 3.5

More: I want to read the book. 

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Unstoppable

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Plot: A big freight train with toxic chemicals is set to derail in a Pennsylvania town unless railroad veteran Frank (Denzel Washington) and railroad rookie Will (Chris Pine) can stop it.


Review: The video of the trains, bridges, rails, pick-up trucks were colorful and great. Director Tony Scott has a great eye for colorful and shiny machinery, however, some of the dialog was awful, and attention to detail sucked. All the dialog from the TV reporters, the daughters, railroad coworkers was bad bordering on stupid.


Happily the dialog between Frank and Will was good. They did a nice job of integrating the back-story with the plot. Denzel's acting was serviceable -- not great but competent and entertaining. Chris Pine was a more engaging. Rosario Dawson, as railyard master Connie, stole the show -- lots of good lines and reaction shots.


In summary, the main train story was action-packed and entertaining. The dialog between the main characters was good enough. The rest of the actors and story was embarrassingly dumb.


Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson


Directed by: Tony Scott


Rating: 2.0 stars



More: This is the first movie (that I have seen) with omniscient TV reporters. Rather than have a character or narrator explain the plot twists , a series of local Fox 43 News reporters do it. It informs the audience, but it was in no way realistic. I can forgive a little of this, as a story-telling device, but it got too distracting.


Even More: I was distracted by the endless "product placement" of the Rupert Murdock-owned Fox TV Network in this Rupert Murdock-owned Twentieth Century Fox movie.

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Despicable Me

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Plot: Gru is a supervillain who needs to steal the moon to gain approval from his sourpuss mother. As part of the scheme he adopts three orphan girls, who turn his life upside down.

Review: This was a surprisingly like-able and fun movie. Even though Gru was a supervillain, he was sympathetic like Scrooge in Dicken's Christmas Carol. The Minions were clever and cute; they stole most of the scenes they were in.

More than the plot or the characters, it was the tone of this movie makes it comic and likeable. The directors deserve credit.

It was great when the Evil Bank turns out to have formerly been Lehmen Brothers.

You need to stay through the credits to test the limits of 3D technology. The roller coaster scene is great 3D too.  Pretty cool.

Directed by: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud

Rating: 3.0 flasks; too fun to be just 2.5 flasks.



More: Gotta love the Minions.

DESPICABLE ME: Meet the Minions,, .

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The Men Who Stare at Goats

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Plot: The Men Who Stare at Goats is about soldiers who were trained in extra-sensory perception ESP as a battle or intelligence weapon. Vietnam War-era soldiers were trained in "paranormal" combat, and had some success. Now in the 2000's, they are called back together for the war in Iraq.  Journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) stumbles on the story, and he narrates the film. The movie is an absurd comedy where it is not clear how real the ESP is, or whether the soldiers are insane or geniuses. 

Review: This was an entertaining movie with a comedic, farcical premise. Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) is the main character with the strongest gift. Bob Django (Jeff Bridges) is the hippie founder of the New Earth Battalion, and they adopt old-time hippie practices to tune their abilities.

There are a lot of jokes and absurdities in the film, and I don't think it is trying to make any serious points about the military or the paranormal.

I liked the movie on the level of entertainment, and I think most people would enjoy it.

A decent performance by George Clooney. A nice likeable nuanced performance by Ewan McGregor. I thought Jeff Bridges was annoying, and I thought Kevin Spacy should have been in the movie more.

Cast: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacy

Crew: directed by Grant Heslov; written by Peter Staughan; based on the book by Jon Ronson

Rating: 2.5 flasks


More: Were there any women in this movie?

Even More:  I liked the way the goat fell over when it died. Clunk.