Flight

Movie: Flight

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) is a veteran airline pilot.  His skill as a pilot are unmatched.  This skill enables him to accomplish a seemingly impossible landing of an airliner after a catastrophic mechanical malfunction during a flight.  Unfortunately, Whip is also a lover of drugs and alcohol – and had used both the night and morning before the flight.  What ensues is the battle over whether he will be remembered as the heroic pilot or the criminally drug-user pilot.

My two cents: Another great Denzel Washington movie.  Denzel’s character is fascinating as he resists the idea that he is an out-of-control junkie.  As good as he was, I think John Goodman steals the movie as the Whip’s flamboyant drug-supplier. On a side note – I have long thought that the plane crash scene in Tom Hanks’ Cast Away.  The crash scene in this movie might just be better than the one in Cast Away.

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Cloud Atlas

Movie: Cloud Atlas

Genre: I have no idea

Synopsis: The movie has an all-star cast that includes: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, James D’Arcy, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant.  Many of the actors have up to six different roles. The movie jumps from slavery days to a distant future.

My two cents: This movie lost me pretty quickly.  I would have been better off just viewing it as 5 or 6 short films rather than trying to understand how they were supposed to fit together.  What I did enjoy weas seeing the range of roles the actors had.  For instance – in one part of the movie Huigh Grant plays the maniacal leader of a band of pillaging barbarians.  I know this movie has been widely acclaimed my critics – but I just did not get it.  About 45 minutes into it friend turned to me an asked “Do you have any idea what is going on”.  My answer was “not a clue”.

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Argo

Movie: Argo

Genre: docu-drama

Synopsis: This is a dramatization of the real-life rescue of six Americans after the 1980 takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran.  The six Americans escaped the embassy minutes before the takeover and have been in hiding for months in the Canadian ambassador’s residence.  Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) masterminds an innovative plan to accomplish the rescue.  The plan is to film a fake documentary in Iran and sneak the six out as members of the crew.

My two cents: This was a great movie on its own. What made it even greater was that it actually happened.  Ben Affleck did a fine job acting – as well as directing.  John Goodman does a lot of scene-stealing as the fake-producer of the fake-documentary.

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The Man With Iron Fists

Movie: The Man With Iron Fists

Genre: Kung-Fu/Action

Synopsis: Myths talk of an old hidden treasure of gold.  Several competing bands of treasure seekers converge on a village in China where they believe the gold to be hidden. Alliances, betrayals, assassinations, and lots of fighting ensue.

My two cents: The fighting was in the style of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  The movie as a whole was a disappointment to me.  I wasted too much time trying to figure out what the various relationships were. If all you want is a lot of old kung-fu type fighting, you might like this.  If you want more, you might not.

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Taken 2

Movie: Taken 2

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija) is the patriarch of an Albanian crime family.  In the first “Taken” movie, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) was forced to kill a couple dozen members of the crime family.  Rade is now out for revenge.  His plan is to kidnap and kill Bryan’s wife IFamke Janssen) and daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace).  Of course, once again they underestimate Bryan – resulting in a lot more deaths.

My two cents: I loved it.  Liam Neeson is once again great as the retired CIA operative.  This time his daughter has a pretty big role and gets to kick a lot of bad-guy ass herself.  If you liked the first “Taken”, you will like this one.

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Liberal Arts

Movie: Liberal Arts

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Jesse (Josh Radnor) is a 35-year old college admissions worker in New York.  He considers the best years of his life to have been when he was in college.  He gets the opportunity to visit his alma mater when he is invited to the retirement dinner of one of his former professors (Richard Jenkins).  While there, he meets Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), a 19-year-old sophomore.  The two have an instant connection and really hit it off.  The age difference is something which Jesse has a difficult time dealing with.  The movie follows the relationship and how it forces Jesse to take a look at his life and how he is kind of stuck.

My two cents: I really enjoyed this movie – although I would have changed some of the last 20 minutes.  Jesse and Zibby had a great chemistry.  There were several side stories – one of them involved another former professor (Allison Janney) and one of them involved a somewhat mystical person played by Zac Effron.   Very solid performances and a pretty nice story line – although I have to say that I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the movie more than the last 1/3.

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