Hanna

Movie: Hanna

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) has been raised by her father, Erik (Eric Bana), in an arctic forest to be the perfect assassin. The ultimate target of Hanna’s training is a government agent, Marissa (Cate Blanchett), from Erik’s past.  The movie follows Hanna on her quest to kill Marissa while Marissa is doing her best to kill both Hanna and Erik.

My two cents: This was a great movie.  Hanna’s survival and fighting skills reminded me of Jason Bourne – but with a teenaged girl.  The plot was interesting, the acting was good and the action was great.  I have been a fan of Cate Blanchette since The Aviator and of Saoirse Ronan since Atonement – neither of these two let me down in this movie.  I look forward to a sequel.

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Source Code

Movie: Source Code

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: The government has a secret program that enables them to effectively send an agent back in time for a period of eight minutes.  During this eight minutes, the agent inhabits someone else’s body.  Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is such an agent.  His handler is played by Vera Farmiga.  Colter’s assignment is to go back in time to learn the identity of a terrorist who bombed a train.  He is sent back repeatedly to relive the same eight minutes – each time making a little more progress.  Naturally, there is more to this secret program than meets the eye – and Colter has been kept in the dark about certain aspects of the program.

My two cents: The premise, although interesting, was just a little too hard for me to swallow.

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Insidious

Movie: Insidious

Genre: horror

Synopsis: This movie opens with Renai and Josh Lambert (Rose Byrne and Patrick Lambert) and their three sons moving into a new house.  Starting on the first day, something is not quite right.  Books are mysteriously moved, strange noises come from the different parts of the house, voices come from thebabymonitor, doors open and close by themselves.  Their oldest son, Dalton, is bothered by strange dreams.  Then one day Dalton does not wake up.  He is alive but in a coma-like state.  Things get progressively worse in the house until Renai and Josh finally get some insight into the cause of the disturbances.  The movie comes to a climax with Josh having to do battle n a last-ditch attempt to save the life of his son.

My two cents: My favorite kind of horror movie:  it made me (almost) jump out of my seat and gave me multiple waves of goose bumps without a single drop of blood being splashed and with no body parts getting hacked up.  I really enjoyed this movie.  The explanation of what was happening to Dalton was an interesting twist.  My only real beef with the movie was the willingness of the parents to accept stuff like the front door being locked and chained one minute and swinging open by itself the next.  If you are any kind of horror fan, you will get your money’s worth with this movie.

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Winter in Wartime

Movie: Winter in Wartime

Genre: war drama

Synopsis: This movie takes place in the winter of 1945 in Nazi-occupied Holland.  When an British warplane crashes, the pilot manages to escape.  In the nearby town, Michiel is the 14-year-old son of the town mayor.  He discovers the downed pilot and decides to help him escape the country.  The escape plan does not go as well as he planned, and Michiel is forced to enlist the aid of his sister.  A subplot follows the relationship between Michiel and his father.  Michiel is ashamed of how his father seems to be happy to work with the Nazis, while his father is trying to get his town through the war with as few casualties as possible.

My two cents: This movie did not do much for me.  I would like to think that when I was 14,  I would have had the good sense to not attempt something like this escape on my own – and if I did, to have planned it better.  It was interesting to see how Michiel discovered that his father was much more of a man than he thought – but not enough to make it worth my time.

Bottom line: given a second chance, I would skip this movie.

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The Music Never Stopped

Movie: The Music Never Stopped

Genre: Drama

Synopsis: Henry Sawyer (J.K. Simmons) is a 65 year old engineer who learns that his son Gabriel (whom he has not seen in almost 20 years) is hospitalized with a brain tumor.  Although the tumor is successfully removed, parts of the brain are damaged – affecting Gabriel’s memory.  Not only are major portions of his memory wiped out, he is unable to form new permanent memories.  If he is introduced to you, 10 minutes later he will have no idea who you are.  Henry gets a music therapist to examine Gabriel.  The therapist discovers that when music and songs that he grew up with are played to Gabriel, it is as if he awakens and is normal.  Music becomes the bridge that allows Henry to reach his son.

My two cents: The write-up I read about this movie did little to catch my interest.  The reason I took the time to see it was J.K. Simmons.  He has never disappointed me and did not let me down here.  This was a fabulous movie.  The further into the movie you get, the more you learn about how deep the estrangement was between father and son and how little Henry understood his son.  It is quite moving to see Henry come to terms with his failures as a father and strives to reach his son.  The scenes where the therapist first discovers how music affects Gabriel gave me goose bumps, as did the climactic concert scene near the end.  Also quite movie are the scenes between Henry and his wife where we get to see the devastating effect the estrangement had on her.

This is a definite “don’t miss it” movie.  I average well over 200 movies a year.  A fair number of the limited release art-house films are disappointing.  "The Music Never Stopped" is the kind of movie that makes it worth sitting through all those disappointments.  It is truly a gem.

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Sucker Punch in IMAX

Movie: Sucker Punch in IMAX

Genre: fantasy/horror

Synopsis: Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is committed to an insane asylum by her evil father.  To combat the horrendous condition of the asylum, Baby Doll mentally retreats into a fantasy world.  In this world, she is joined by four fellow inmates (played by Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgins and Jamie Chung).  The five join forces to go on missions to obtain mystical items needed to accomplish an escape from the asylum.

My two cents: The story line was pretty confusing.  I was never quite sure what was real and what was imagined.  I was not even sure about the timeline.  That said, the great special effects more than made up for my confusion.  I saw this in an IMAX theater – the sound was fabulous.  I could feel the battle scenes.  I am not a frequent fan of 3D.  Few of the movies I have seen in 3D really had anything added to them by the 3D.  This was one movie that I think would have been really great in 3D.

Bottom line: if you can just accept the story line, the action sequences and special effects make it worth your while.

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