The American

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Plot:  An underworld killer and gunsmith is being hunted by Swedish assassins, so Jack (George Clooney) shoots his girlfriend to cover his tracks and treks to a mountain town in Northern Italy to hide. His boss sends him a client, Ingrid (Irina Bjoeklund) for whom he makes a specialty rifle. He meets Clara (Violante Placido) in Italy and flirts with her.

Review: This is a patient drama about how a cartoonish killer might respond if suddenly dropped into a art school film. Clooney plays a his assassin/gunsmith as a deeply repressed and flinty tough guy. The camera spends the first half of the film staring deeply into his wrinkled face looking for emotion.  We don't find much emotion or motivation.

Why does this guy kill so many people? It does not seem to be to fund his cool lifestyle. It is not for his friends, his family, his country. He's not being blackmailed.

The film has a long sex scene that is supposed to show Jacks and Clara's developing affection, but it seems gratuitous. The skinny dipping scene is better in that Clara's playing in the idyllic lake is contrasted with murderous intentions (we imagine) the characters are thinking.

There are some highlights. The scenery is pretty, especially the city scenes. I want to go visit Italy. Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli,) the local priest is a bright spot. Those scenes were interesting; even  if Paulo Bonacelli's hairy and flabby face was pretty gross.

!!MAJOR SPOILER!! What is the point of this movie?  Are we watching a cartoonish killer turn from girlfriend slayer to co-worker and boss killer? Is that moral progress? Are we supposed to be impressed that he gets teary when he is wounded? Is he crying for himself?

Cast: George Clooney, Violante Placido

Directed by: Anton Corbijn; based on the novel by Martin Booth

Rating: 1.5 flasks; dull enough for one star; overwrought; basically pointless.


More: George Clooney fans will probably be severely disappointed.

Even more: Other critics has called this movie slow and silent. I did not have a problem with the pacing or the minimum of dialog.
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The Switch

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Plot: Kassie's (Jennifer Aniston's) biological clock is ticking down, and she wants to get a sperm donor. Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) is Kassie's BFF and former boyfriend. He naturally is really in love with her, and SWITCHES (ha! that's the title) his sperm for the sperm donor's. Time passes. The kid becomes a precocious and neurotic 1st grader. The rest of the movie is humor based on this premise.

Review: Like children's and horror movies, romantic comedies have their own rating system. Yes this was unrealistic, and it was done just for fun with no real morale, message or insight into the human condition -- despite a pithy voiceovers at the beginning. But in the romantic comedy universe, this was pretty good. This film is more artificial and arranged than most -- it is more of a fantasy. If you are looking for a drama or an action movie you'll be disappointed.

Jason Bateman is great in this movie, and he makes the film worth watching. Jennifer Anniston is good also, and there is some good chemistry between them early in the film. Jeff Goldblum steals every scene he is in.

The child, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson), has unnaturally adult dialog, which is funny at first, but also moves the story along faster; another example of the artificiality of the film.

Still it is a cheerful, likable movie, that provides a diverting movie experience, and it is better than most romantic comedies.

Cast: Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Goldblum, Thomas Robinson

Directed by: Josh Gordon, Will Speck; based on the short story The Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides

Rating: 2.5 flasks because the acting was good, but not higher because this is still a forgettable comedy.


More:  Did they use the word "sperm" in the movie at all?  Perhaps once.

Even more:  I wondered how long Jeff Goldblum was going to keep explaining over and over that the sperm got switched.

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Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

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Plot: Scott (Michael Cera) becomes Ramona's (Mary Elizabeth Windstead) new boyfriend, but her old boyfriends have formed a club to keep her single --out of revenge. Scott needs to defeat each one of them as in a video game. The battles are like a Street Fighter game or a role playing game. Scott's old girl friends are in the story too:  Knives (Ellen Wong), Kim (Allison Pill), and Envy (Brie Larson) each contribute subplots. Scott and Kim are in a band, and two of the boyfriend battles are musical showdowns.

Review:  Scott Pilgrim is a winner because it's good time and it's clever. The plot is a simple romance between Scott and Ramona, and its gimmick is video game battles and rock-n-roll.

Like a musical or a Power Rangers episode, the live action scenes stop for surrealistic, video-game action sequences. There are also dream sequences and magic doors.

The action scenes are at least as interesting as in regular action movies, probably because the idea is so novel.

Director Edgar Wright keeps the action moving with quick video editing. The visual story telling works especially well, and is a major part of why this film works. There are split screens  and captions styled like comic books.

Micheal Cera plays Scott Pilgrim in a low-key fashion, like "look at the weird stuff that keeps happening to me." It might have been better if Scott were more dynamic, but it would have been a different film. Similarly Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Ramona as troubled, but she could have been more quirky and mysterious.

On a serious note, every new person we meet has to deal with baggage of all our previous experiences and relationships. The film can be interpreted that way. Each ex represents some facet of Ramona's life and how she moved past it; perhaps the graphic novel expands on this. The movie is more about fun than life-lessons though.

This movie is an instant classic. I want to see it again, even though I am not a gamer.

Cast: Micheal Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Directed by: Edgar Wright; based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Rating: 3.5 flasks; perhaps it deserves only a 3.0, but I did like it a lot.


More: The video game action will catch all the attention, but the fast moving video style, and the interaction with gamer culture will be the lasting impact of Scott Pilgrim.
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The Other Guys

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Plot: Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) is a nerdy accountant, who is also a New York cop, and his parter is Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) a normal guy who is ashamed to work with Allen because he is too nerdy, clueless and not macho enough. Allen and Terry stumble upon a financial scandal, and fight the bad guys. There are many subplots involving Allen's strange attraction to women, and the back story of each detective.

Review: The is a strange and ridiculous movie. It is funny because it is relentlessly ridiculous -- very funny at times. 


Will Ferrell is the star. His Alan Gamble character is pitiable, but not quite pathetic. The plot is simple, but it keeps the comic set-ups coming, and the jokes follow.


The special effects are showy and punctuate the jokes, but they seemed to be tacked-on to awe the audience not to advance the story. 


Mark Wahlberg is a great straight-man, and he is likeable enough. I expect it is harder to be a straight-man than it seems; still I was not overly impressed.

The Other Guys is all for fun, and it has no serious side. Just a mindless August movie.  Mindless or not, I was glad I saw it.


Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton

Directed by: Adam McKay

Rating: 2.5 flasks; Really funny at times, but not a top quality comedy.


More: This is one of the funniest movies of 2010. What are the funniest? Date Night and Take Him to the Greek are the best funny movies. The Other Guys and Hot Tub Time Machines are laugh-out-loud mindless fun.

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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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Salt

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Plot: Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a CIA agent who is accused by a Russian informant of being a Russian agent on a mission to kill the Russian President. Once accused she runs, and keeps running right to the end of the movie. There are several twists in the plot to keep interest up.

Review: I enjoyed Salt perhaps because I did not expect much. This was fast paced fun that I liked. Stop thinking that it could never really happen.

The first third of the movie where Salt is running from the CIA is enjoyable and solid, and the middle part ending with a big explosion is very clever -- less fun but smart. The third part with the President is the weakest. People who demand realism from action-adventure movies should stay home. This is summer-time super-heroine action where a skinny girl's kicks and karate chops immobilize soldiers twice Salt's size, and no bad guy can shoot a gun straight.

There is a point in this movie where you realize, she must be a bad guy since it looks like she is killing all the good guys. Is she a double-agent? Is she a triple-agent?

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Lev Schrieber

Directed by: Phillip Noyce

Rating: 3.0- flasks I liked it. It is mindless entertainment, but I still liked it. So what if it could't really happen?  Superman can't really fly, either.


More: The Russian spy affair in Washington seems eerily like Salt. Who could have predicted real Russian deep cover agents would be discovered right before this film is released.

More: Who thought up the name "Salt"? And why?
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Inception

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Plot: Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) makes money by interogating prisoners in their dreams and stealing their secrets. He uses drugs and a science-fiction machine to create an elaborate fictional world to convince them into talking. Cobb is himself a fugitive, and becomes involved in a risky corporate espionage scheme involving planting memories. As the movie unfolds, we learn Cobb has emotional problems of his own involving his wife Mal (Marion Cotilliard), and these complicate completing the espionage. He forms a team with Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and Araidne (Ellen Page.)

Review:  Inception is a clever and original movie that mixes action sequences and a spy story with an emotional love story that occurs in flashback. It has a complicated plot, which was easy enough to follow in broad-strokes, but I'd need to see the movie another time to get in detail. I thought that the plot made sense by end of the movie, though I did not follow it as it spooled out.

The relationships between the characters especially Cobb and Araidne carry the movie, and Ellen Page does a nice job. Mal's scenes were played with great intensity by Marion Cotilliard, and they helped carry off the science-fiction premises. I don't usually like Leo, but he was non-objectionable in this movie -- even above average.

I liked the movie. It was fun to watch, and had some clever messages about the realness of life. My wife liked to relate this story to the teachings of mystical religions or The Course in Miracles, which teach that all the world is a dream.

I liked the ambiguous ending. When you have seen the movie, check out the discussion on the meaning of the last scene, here.

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio,

Written and directed by: Christopher Nolan

Rating: 3.0+ flasks; maybe it should be higher certainly others are giving it great reviews. I thought it was strong, more in the range of Kick-Ass, Ironman 2 and Alice in Wonderland -- not as good as Dragon Tatoo or Toy Story 3. I reserve the right to raise this to 3.5 if I see it again, and I am interested in seeing it twice. Just that I want to see it again says something.
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More: Ariadne (the namesake of the Ellen Page character) is a figure in Greek mythology who helped her boyfriend get out of a maze by giving him a thread. It is thus appropriate that she was concerned with mazes and guiding Cobb through the maze.

Obviously, Mal is supposed to be bad -- a little too obvious. I can't figure out the reference to Cobb. His full name is Dom Cobb.

Even More: Check out this comic prequel on the Cobal job, which the movie begins with.