Drive Angry

Movie: Drive Angry

Genre: thriller, supernatural

Synopsis: Milton (Nicolas Cage) was bad person, but a loving father)  – who died and went to hell, leaving behind his daughter.  His daughter falls in with a cult, has a baby and is then brutally murdered by the cult leader, Jonah King (Billy Burke) who wants to – literally - sacrifice the baby.  So Milton breaks out of hell and is after King to save his grandchild and avenge the murder of his daughter.  He is helped in the chase by a girl, Piper (Amber Heard), that he rescued and by an old friend, Webster (David Morse).  And to complicate matters, Milton is being hunted by The Accountant (William Fitchner).  The Accountant’s job is to take Milton back to hell.

My two cents: I loved this movie.  Nicolas Cage plays a total bad ass who has the advantage of already being dead.  Lots of chases, lots of fights and lots of bad guys being killed in various and sundry ways.  I thought William Fitchner really stole the movie.  He is revels in being the invincible bad guy with an outrageous sense of humor.  I have seen Fitchner in a lot of movies and TV shows and have always liked him . . . but I don’t think I have ever enjoyed him more than in this movie.  He has great lines.  His car goes off a bridge and lands upside down.  Two young men come across him as he calmly steps out of the mangled wreckage.  He looks at one and says that he won’t see him again for a long time”.  Then he smiles at the other and says “I’ll see you in three months”.

If you are any kind of Nicolas Cage fan you will like this.  If you just like seeing bad guys get beaten up and killed, you should like it too.  The 3D did not really add much, in my opinion.

[52]

Kaboom

Movie: Kaboom

Genre: comedy

Synopsis: Smith (Thomas Dekker) and Stella (Haley Bennett) have been best friends forever.  They are now in college together.  Stella is gay, Smith is “undeclared”.  Smith has an odd dream that is seemingly coming true.  He meets a girl from the dream, only to see her die when attacked by men wearing animal heads.  The next day there is no evidence of any foul play.  Eventually Smith and Stella and Smith’s new friend, London (Juno Temple) start figuring out what is going on.

My two cents: This was a strange one.  It has a lot of things going on: a subversive group planning to take over the world, a plan to blow up the world, witches, boy-on-boy sex, boy-on-girl sex, girl-on-girl sex, boy-on-girl-on-boy-sex, children kidnapped to be brain washed and yes – men running around wearing animal heads when they do their evil deed.  If you can go with the flow, the movie is kind of fun – but I kept finding myself muttering “Oh come on, give me a break”.

Bottom line: if you see this, just try to accept what it gives you and don’t look for anything resembling realism.

[51]

Even the Rain

Movie: Even the Rain

Genre: historical drama

Synopsis: Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Costa (Luis Tosar) are producing a movie about the treatment of the native American population by Christopher Columbus.  For budgetary reasons, they are filming in Cochabamaba, Bolivia.  It happens that Cochabamada is in the throes of government efforts to privatize all water sources.  People are not even allowed to have their own wells.  One of the natives cast in the movie is a driving force behind the popular uprising to protest this privatization effort.

The movie goes back and forth  between it’s movie within a movie showing the horribly inhumane treatment the natives received at the hands of the Spanish and the way the current government is treating its own citizens in modern day Cochabamada.

My two cents: After seeing this movie, I charged home to see just how accurate the two story threads were,  It turns out they were both dead-on accurate.  In 2000, the government really did try to privatize all sources of water in Cochabamaba.  The resulting uprising by the people was called “The Bolivian Water War”.  Had the privatization been successful, people would have had to pay up to 50% of their income for water.

And backing up 500 years . . . the Spanish really did require natives over the age of 14 to pay a tax that consisted of either a tiny bell (the size worn by hunting hawks) with gold or 50 pound of cotton every three months.  Failure to pay the tax would result in one or both of the native’s hands being cut off.  It is pretty grim stuff.  Also, the priest depicted in the movie-within-the-movie making the exact speech shown.

As to the movie itself, it took me a while to separate Gael Garcia Bernal from the image of Carlos burned into my brain by 5½ hours of the “Carlos” movie.  I thought this was a great movie – it was a real eye-opener regarding current conditions in Bolivia as well as just how horribly the native population was treated from a492 on.  One problem I had with the movie was with the two main characters: Sebastian and Costa. It seemed that they were inconsistent in how the characters reacted to the current plight of the native population.  Sometimes Sebastian was sympathetic and Costa did not give a damn, other times Costa put himself at risk to help while Sebastian only seemed to care for the fate of the movie.

Bottom line: most definitely see this movie.  If you have the opportunity, before you see it – do yourself a favor and do a little research on Antonio de Montesinos and Bartolomé de las Casas and look up The Bolivian Water War in Cochabamada.  It will help you appreciate what you see in the movie.

[50]

Cold Weather

Movie: Cold Weather

Genre: mystery

Synopsis: Doug (Cris Lankenau) is a college dropout.  He had been majoring in forensic science before he quit school.  Now he is living with his sister, Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn) in Portland and working the night shift in an ice factory. Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) is a former girlfriend who pays Doug a visit when she is in town.  When she seems to mysteriously vanish from her motel room, Doug and his sister take it upon themselves to figure out what happened and what became of Rachel.

My two cents: This movie started a little slowly, but picked up steam nicely.  Initially, you are not even sure there is a mystery to be solved.  I had a lot of fun following the two as they came across clues and tried to solve them to get to the next piece of the puzzle.

Bottom line: this is one of those independent gems that will be seen by far too few people.  Don’t pass up a chance to see it.

[49]

Hall Pass

Movie: Hall Pass

Genre: comedy

Synopsis: Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are married to Maggie (Jenna Fischer) and Grace (Christina Applegate), respectively.  The two men are obsessed with sex.  Specifically, they cannot stop fantasizing about having sex with everyone from the babysitter to the coffee barista to just about any female they see.  Finally the women have had enough.  They offer their husbands a one-week “hall pass”: a week when the wives take the kids out of town and the men can behave as if they are not married.  They can do whatever they want – with impunity.  The two men learn that they are not the smooth operators they seemed to think they would be.  Meantime, both of the wives end up having a bit of fun during the week.

My two cents: An interesting premise.  A lot of laughs.  Personally, I found the raunchiness of some of the situations to be a bit over the top.  That said, I really enjoyed seeing Jenna Fischer outside “The Office” – although I found it a bit of a stretch to view her as a middle-aged mother who has lost her physical appeal.  An interesting bit of casting had Richard Jenkins as a kind of sexual guru.

[48]

Unknown

Movie: Unknown

Genre: action thriller

Synopsis: Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) arrives in Berlin with his wife, Elizabeth (January Jones).  He is a biologist who has been invited to give a lecture at a conference.  After leaving his wife at the hotel, the taxi Martin is in has an accident.  The driver, Gina (Diane Kruger) saves his life – but then flees the scene.  Martin is in a coma for two days.  When he awakens, his wife not only does not recognize him – but has another man that she claims is her husband – Dr. Martin Harris.  Martin does not know if he is going crazy or if he is being duped.  He tracks down the taxi driver and enlists her help to get to the bottom of things.

My two cents: Pretty good.  I was stumped as to what the heck was going on until pretty close to the end of the movie.  There were a couple of excellent car chases.  Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger and January Jones were all great.  The movie was not as good as Taken, but definitely worth seeing.

[47]