Abduction

Movie: Abduction

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: Nathan (Taylor Lautner) seems to be a typical teenaged boy.  He has a loving mother (Maria Bella) and a rather strict father (Jason Isaacs).  His biggest problems seem to be managing his anger issues and getting up the courage to ask his neighbor, Karen (Lilly Collins), out on a date.  Nathan’s world is turned upside down when he suspects his parents are not his biological parents.  It turns out a really nasty foreign agent is after Nathan and all hell breaks loose because now he know where Nathan is.  Nathan and his friend Karen go on the run.  It also turns out that the CIA is after Nathan.  It becomes a race to see if the CIA will be able to get Nathan before the foreign agent (and his seemingly endless supply of gunmen) can get him and kill him.

My two cents: I had a little problem with the idea of a teenager to be able to get through what Nathan has to do.  Other than that, this was a decent movie.  Probably no Oscars . . . but enjoyable enough.

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Drive

Movie: Drive

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: Ryan Gosling plays a character known only as “Driver” or “Kid”.  He is a mechanic who moonlights as a stunt driver and as a wheel-man for robberies – or whatever someone needs to “getaway” from.  Driver has a neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan) with a small child and a husband who is soon getting out of prison.  Driver and Irene clearly have some chemistry.  Drivers’ boss and agent is Shannon (Bryan Cranston).  Shannon is involved with a pair of mob bosses played by Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman.  When Irene’s husband gets out of prison, Driver helps him on a job that ends badly.  The further muddy the waters, the two mobsters get involved.  All Driver wants to do is get Irene and himself out alive.  Lots of action and lots of violence.

My two cents: I am getting to be a big fan of Ryan Gosling. From “Half Nelson” to “Fracture” to “Lars and the Real Girl” to “Blue Valentine” to “All Good Things” to “Crazy, Stupid, Love” to “Drive” he is like a chameleon.  He seems to effortlessly go from playing an emotionally-backward character to a suave lady’s man to an abusive controlling monster to a nice-guy wheel-man.  In this movie, Driver seems to be completely calm – but you get an occasional glimpse of the volcano waiting to erupt.  He is quietly eating dinner in a diner when someone who once employed him as a wheel-man offers him a job.  In a perfectly conversational voice, Driver tells the man “how about you shut your mouth before I knock your teeth down your throat and shut it for you” . . . and then calmly goes back to his dinner.  Albert Brooks was great as a smiling but utterly ruthless mob boss.  The violence in this movie is shocking at times, but if you can get past that, this is a great movie.

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Straw Dogs

Movie: Straw Dogs

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: David and Amy Sumner (Jamers Marsden and Kate Bosworth) have just moved to Amy’s hometown of Blackwater Mississippi.  David is a screenwriter working on a movie script and is something of a pacifist.  Amy’s return stirs up her old boyfriend, Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård) and his posse of rednecks. Charlie and his friends keep pushing David.  Finally the town trouble-maker, James Woods, provides the match that ignites the finale with the whole bunch doing their best to break into the house to kill them . . . when it turns out that if you push David hard enough, he will eventually push back.

My two cents: This movie had its moments, but not enough of them.  I thought the behavior of David and Amy was not too believable, given the circumstances.  In retrospect, I would have waited for this movie to hit HBO or Netflix.

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The Lion King 3D

Movie: The Lion King 3D

Genre: animated adventure

Synopsis: Simba is the son of Mufasa – the king of the lion pack.  Simba is next in line to be king, much to the frustration of his conniving uncle, Scar.  Scar plots a way to eliminate Musafa and tricks Simba into leaving the pack.  Simba eventually comes back to do battle with Scar and his hyenas to claim the throne from Scar.

My two cents:  I forgot just how great some of the songs were in this movie. I also forgot just how violent it gets.  I don’t understand how it managed to get a “G” rating.  It is a great movie, but I don’t think I would be comfortable taking a child under the age of 8 or 9 to see it.

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Warrior

Movie: Warrior

Genre: action-drama

Synopsis: Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) and Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) are brothers.  Growing up, Tommy was a champion wrestler of amazing talent.  When their abusive, alcoholic father, Paddy (Nick Nolte), became too much to bear, Tom and his mother fled.  Brendan opted to stay behind.  Flash forward to the present.  Brendan is a high school physic teacher, married (to Jennifer Morrison) with children and is estranged from his father.  He is also about to lose his house to the bank.  Tommy has returned home for the first time since he left – while he was gone, he had no contact with his brother or his father.  Although he still despises his father, Tommy asks him to help him train for an upcoming Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) world championship.  Paddy has been sober for 1000 days and agrees to train Tommy, in hopes of building a relationship.  Brendan also enters the same MMA tournament – in hopes of winning the $5 million prize so he can save his house from foreclosure.

My two cents: A really enjoyable movie.  While there are a lot of fight sequences that are well done and fun to watch, the movie is just as much about a father trying to redeem himself with his sons and build a relationship with them – and the sons trying to bring themselves to forgive their father and each other and put the past behind them.  Nick Nolte was great to watch.  I first saw him as a boxer in “Rich Man Poor Man” in the 1976.  It was interesting to watch him play a tired old man trying to coach his middle-aged son as a fighter. I also liked seeing Jennifer Morrison (Brendan’s wife) – I have not seen much of her since she left “House”.

Bottom line: most definitely worth seeing.

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Contagion

Movie: Contagion

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) is infected with a particularly virulent virus while on a business trip in Asia.  She brings it back to the U.S. where it spreads like wildfire.  Her husband, Mitch (Matt Damon), was immune but she and their son both succumb to the disease.  One story line follows Mitch as he tries to keep his daughter from being infected.  A second story line follows the efforts of the CDC doctors (Laurence Fishburne and Kate Winslet) try to track the origin of the disease and develop a plan to contain it.  A third story line follows a WHO doctor (Marion Cotillard) as she tries to locate the origin of the disease in Asia.  Another story line follows a fringe blog writer (Jude Law) who claims to have predicted the outbreak and also claims to have a cure.

My two cents: A really good thriller.  A lot of good performances.  The really scary thing about the movie is how possible it is.  Something like the 1918 Spanish Flu could spread throughout the world in a matter of days.  It’s pretty sobering stuff to think about.  Definitely a movie worth seeing.

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Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star

Movie: Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star

Genre: comedy

Synopsis: Bucky Larson (Nick Swardson) is a not-so-bright kid (early 20’s) who is hanging out with his equally dim-witted friends one night watching a porn film from the 70’s.  Much to his surprise, the film starred his parents (Edward Hermann and Miriam Flynn).  Much to his delight, he learns that his mother and father were a famous porn acting team in the 70’s.  Bucky decides that his destiny is to also be a porn star . . . so he moves to L.A..  There he meets Kathy (Christina Ricci) who becomes his good friend.  He also meets a down and out porn film producer, Miles Deep (Don Johnson).  Mile guides Bucky into his new career where, amazingly, he becomes a wildly popular star.

My two cents: I saw this movie because of the “0” rating in Rotten Tomatoes.  I thought it might be one of the those “so bad that it’s good” films.  It was not.  This was the type of film that regularly made me feel really uncomfortable because the lead character was just so naïve and downright stupid.  I was surprised to see actors like Christina Ricci, Edward Herrmann (the grandfather from Gilmore Girls), Don Johnson, and Kevin Nealon (Weeds) in a film like this.

An example of the level of this movie is the opening scene: Bright and early in the morning, a farmer is shown standing in his goat pen holding a big jar of peanut butter as he takes a handful of it and smears it on below.  A big smile appears on his face as the goats crowd in. . . and you get the definite impression that this is considered to be perfectly acceptable behavior, as he waves and says “howdy” to a passerby who gives a friendly wave back.  Too much for me.

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