A Prophet (Un Prophete)
In this French crime movie, at the age of 19, a Muslim juvenile offender, called Malik, is transferred to an adult prison. There, he is to discover the harsh realities of the so-called liberal French penal system. Malik is also to come under the ‘protection’ of a much older man, called Cesar, who is an imprisoned Corsican mafia kingpin. Cesar is to teach Malik how organized crime is organized. These are lessons which Malik is keen to learn. Director Jacques Audiard makes a movie which is gripping, absorbing, suspenseful, and, considering its setting, extremely sleek and stylish! Apart from making a great thriller, Audiard is also able to subtly suggest the mounting racial and religious tensions currently emerging in France between the indigenous French and their colonial immigrants. Both Tahar Rahim, as Malik, and Niels Arestrup, as Cesar, are terrific in their roles. They interact superbly, creating a believable, if somewhat tense, mentor and protégé relationship.
The Book of Eli
When you really think about it, even though it is set in a nuclear devastated futuristic environment, the Hughes Brothers latest movie is actually a good old-fashioned ‘Hollywood Western’. A righteous travelling ‘cowboy’ has in his possession a rare book, one of the few remaining following a cataclysmic war. And, when the ‘cowboy’ wanders into a small town controlled by an evil ‘sheriff’, who is an avid book collector, much nasty violence develops over ownership of this valuable piece of literature. In their terrific movie, the Hughes Brothers cunningly offer many references to the classic ‘Hollywood Western’, and combine them with elements from the more contemporary ‘Nuclear Apocalyptic’ genre. This unusual combination works rather well! Denzel Washington is superb as the ‘cowboy’, while Gary Oldman, as the ‘sheriff’, gives a great performance, which should revive his sagging career.
The Wolfman
The legend of the werewolf, a man who turns into a ravaging beast at the full moon, has long been a Hollywood staple. The most famous version of the story is probably ‘The Wolfman’ made in 1941, and starred Lon Chaney Jr. In that movie Lon played an heir to a stately English home, and he is unlucky enough to be bitten by a werewolf, and is thus condemned to a monstrous immortality until dispatched by a silver bullet. In his up-date, director Joe Johnson more or less rehashes the same old plot, though he does occasionally throw in some extraneous new frivolities to sparkle things up. However, Johnson’s glossy ‘gothic’ re-make is so lavishly staged, costumed, and photographed, that you can’t help but enjoy all the nonsense. Actors Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt, are all impressive.
Unthinkable
This movie is not for the fainthearted, for it delves into the unsavory topic of ‘legally condoned’ torture. A terrorist has placed three nuclear bombs in three American cities, and, when he is captured, he is taken to a government bunker where he is systematically tortured, to extract the locations of the bombs. Samuel L. Jackson is chilling as the cold and calculating torturer. For him, this is just another day at the ‘office’. Meanwhile, Carrie-Ann Moss, as an impartial FBI observer, finds her integrity being challenged, as the clock ticks by, and there is only hours to go before the explosions. The movie is a little bit silly, but, director Gregor Jordan is able to maintain interest through his brazen swipes at America’s current ‘Patriotic’ laws.
Chloe
Avant-garde Canadian screenwriter and director Atom Egoyan is renowned for making such sexy intellectual brain-teasers as ‘Exotica’ (1994), ‘Sweet Hereafter’ (1997) and ‘Felicia’s Journey’ (1999). Unfortunately, his latest work, ‘Chloe’, is disappointing, and doesn’t really make the grade. Even though it is well-crafted and well-acted, for some mysterious reason it fails to ignite. When Julianne Moore, a doctor, suspects that her husband Liam Neeson, a professor, is philandering around with his students, she hires a prostitute to seduce him, and report back to her their dalliances. Then, as Julianne listens to the prostitute’s descriptions of their encounters, she starts to ‘get off’ on the whole thing. Meanwhile, the prostitute is developing a neurotic attraction to Julianne. It’s all very intense and highly emotional. While watching the movie, after a while, you start to wonder “Why Bother”?
Cop Out
Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan play a pair of mismatched New York police detectives hot on the trail of some Latin drug dealers, and a stolen valuable Baseball Trading Card. Don’t even try to figure that one out! The reasons for the failure of Kevin Smith’s comedy are quite obvious. Bruce appears to want to get the whole movie over and done with as quickly as possible, while Tracy is frenetically crazy and absolutely annoying through out the entire ordeal. Also, the movie looks like it has been severely edited and restructured in a ridiculous and futile attempt to make it more appealing.
Iron Man 2
Okay, the first ‘Iron Man’ (2008) was a real blast. As a Pop Art adaptation of a Marvel comic book, the movie enjoyed immense commercial success. However, director Jon Favreau’s much anticipated sequel is incredibly bad and over-bloated. There is just way too much dreary and unintelligible blah, blah, blah crammed in-between two or three high-tech action sequences. Robert Downey Jr. is a real boring pain in the neck, while Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke, and Don Cheadle, are all totally wasted.
