Red Tails

Movie: Red Tails

Genre: war

Synopsis: A squadron (company?) of Tuskegee-trained black airmen is stationed in Italy in 1944.  Due to the prejudice that was rampant back then, the Tuskegee airmen have not been trusted to do anything other than the simplest of missions, far from the enemy lines.  Finally their leader, Colonel (Terrence Howard) manages to get them a really mission.- flying fighter support to the waves of American bombers being sent into Germany.  The future of black aviators in the military hinge on the success – or failure – of this assignment.

My two cents: The historical aspects of this movie were fascinating.  The dog-fight sequences were also extremely well-done. I was not as sold on the acting.  I like Cuba Gooding Jr. (Major Stance), but the sight of him sporting a pipe just did not seem natural.  I did enjoy seeing Daniela Ruah (she is Kensi on NCIS: LA) as an Italian girl who falls in love with one of the airmen.  Despite some reservations about the movie, I think this is one of those “must-see” movies to provide insight into what blacks had to put up with.  It was appalling to see how poorly (to be charitable) the blacks were treated.  I just find it mind-boggling to see such discrimination in action.

[11]

Haywire

Movie: Haywire

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: Mallory (Gina Carano) is a top operative with a firm that is frequently hired by the CIA to perform things that the CIA cannot afford to be caught doing – kidnappings, killings, etc.  For some reason, her firm has turned on Gina and is out to kill her.  A pretty good cast, with Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, and Michael Fassbender

My two cents: I really liked this one.  Gina Carano is a former MMA champion.  Watching her fight, I kept thinking of her as a female Jason Bourne.  If you like a lot of action and you like seeing a woman do some serious ass-kicking – give this a shot.  I am hoping to see a lot more of Gina Carano on the big screen.

[10]

Contraband

Movie: Contraband

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: Chris Farrady (Mark Wahlberg) was a renowned smuggler in his younger days.  Now he is a law-abiding citizen, married to Kate (Kate Beckinsale), raising two young boys and running his own security alarm installation company.  He is determined to go straight.  This resolve goes by the wayside when his idiot brother-in-law botches a smuggling job and the only way to save his life is for Chris to do “one last job”.

My two cents: A decent movie, but not up to what I expect from Mark Wahlberg.  Mark has done worse (“The Happening”) but has done so much better – although it is probably not fair to blame the whole movie on Mark.  There were some good chases and an interesting scenario to accomplish the smuggling.  The way he ultimately got the goods into the country was pretty innovative.  I also got a kick out of the ship’s captain – played by J.K.Simmons.  It really showed off his versatility as an actor,

[9]

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Movie: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Oskar (Thomas Horn) is an 11-year old with mild autism.  He lives in Manhatten with New York City with his mother, Linda (Sandra Bullock), and father Thomas (Tom Hanks).  Oskar has a very special relationship with his father, who seems to be the one who reallyunderstands him.  When his father is killed in the 9/11 attack, Oskar is devastated.  When he finds a mysterious key belonging to his father, Oskar becomes obsessed with finding the lock that the key is for,   He spend every weekend traveling around the city on his quest.  We follow along as Oskar struggles to come to terms with the loss of his father while at the same time learning to cope with the world around him.  The movei culminates in one of the best endings I have ever seen.

My two cents: I loved this movie. Thomas Horn 9the boy) was in almost every scene and did a heck of a job.  I would not have minded Sandra Bullock getting an Oscar nod for this.  Her character is not in the movie very much until the last 15-20 minutes – but she was awesome in showing the love her character had for her son and the sorrow she suffered over the loss of her husband.  The twist at the end of the movie totally blindsided me – and it was great.  Plan on shedding some tears at the end of the movie – but they will not be tears of sadness.  The ending is heartwarming and uplifting.

[8]

Underworld Awakening: IMAX 3D

Movie: Underworld Awakening: IMAX 3D

Genre: horror-thriller

Synopsis: This installment in the series picks up 12 years after the last one.  Mankind has spent these twelve years doing their best to eradicate vampires and lycans.  Selene (Kate Beckinsale) has just held captive and unconscious the entire time.  When she regains consciousness she has to escape, find allies, fight lycans, fight super-lycans, fight evil scientists, fight humans,….

My two cents: My favorite of the series so far.  The new Lycans are pretty impressive, but not as impressive as Selene.  Kate Beckinsale is absolutely great in this role.  If you liked previous Underworld movies, you should like this one.

[7]

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Movie: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: This is the American movie version of the first of the three Stieg Larsson books.  Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is an investigative journalist who has just been convicted of libel.  A wealthy industrialist (Christopher Plummer) approaches Mikael with a job proposition.  He wants Mikael to investigate the disappearance of his grand-niece 40 years ago.  Mikael takes the job and hires Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) as an assistant.  Lisbeth is almost totally lacking in social skills (for good reason) but is an amazing investigator – especially when computers are involved.  Together they try to solve the 40-year old mystery.

My two cents: As much as I liked the original Swedish movie version of the book – I think I liked this American version even better.  I think Robin Wright was better as Mikael’s partner and sometimes-lover.  The only thing that really disappointed me was the ending.  It was significantly different than the book and whte Swedish film version – and I cannot figure out what was gained by changing it, other than saving a few minutes of movie time.  In any case – sign me up for the next two movies in this series.

[6]

The Devil Inside

Movie: The Devil Inside

Genre: horror

Synopsis: When Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) was a young child, her mother, Maria (Suzan Crowley) was believed to be possessed. During an exorcism performed on her, Maria killed three people.  The Catholic church steps in and spirits Maria away to an asylum in Italy.  Fast forward to the present.  Isabella is now an adult.  She decides to go to Italy in a quest to find her mother and find out for herself what is wrong with her mother.  She brings along a friend to film the whole thing.  Isabella befriends two renegade priests who perform unsanctioned exorcisms.  They decide to help her understand more about exorcisms and, ultimately, to help her with her mother.

My two cents: It does not take much for me to enjoy a movie.  This movie missed even my low bar.  There was pretty much nothing original.  Some of the scenes of possession had some fairly good special effects showing the bodies doing some cringe-inducing contortions.  Outside of that, I just kept waiting for something interesting to happen.  I thought the ending was especially bad – it was as if the writers just arbitrarily decided that the movie had gone on long enough and ended it.  I would not even waste time watching this on TV.

[5]

El Bulli: Cooking in Progress

Movie: El Bulli: Cooking in Progress

Genre: documentary

Synopsis: Ferran Adrià is a world-renowned chef who runs the equally world-renowned El Bulli restaurant outside Barcelona, Spain.  The restaurant is only open six months of the year – from July through December.  The other six months are used by the chef and his staff to develop new dishes for the upcoming season.  This documentary follows them in the painstaking process of developing some of the exotic dishes that make up the 30+ course meals served at the restaurant. 

My two cents: For many parts of this documentary, I would like to have had a narrator explaining what exactly was going on.  Many of the cooking techniques were one I had never heard of – indeed, some were invented on the spot.  A voice-over would have been useful in understanding what was being done and why.  That said, this was a pretty interesting glimpse into what goes into the “menu” of world-class restaurants.

[4]