The 2011 thriller “The Debt” isn’t your standard Hollywood fare. Too many modern dramas substitute plot twists for credible narratives, and don’t start me on that shaky cam nightmare.

“The Debt” proved to be everything you could want in the genre – a crackling cast led by Jessica Chastain, a potent tale of the hunt for a Nazi criminal and enough cogent storytelling to keep you rooted to both the characters and their fates.

Yet “The Debt,” out on Blu-ray and DVD this week, couldn’t find its audience despite hitting theaters on Aug. 31, one of the least competitive times for film releases. The film’s $31 million haul isn’t an embarrassment – ask Sarah Jessica Parker about her $9 million flop “I Don’t Know How She Does It” which opened two weeks later. “The Debt” deserved a better reception from ticket buyers.

Helen Mirren stars as Rachel, a retired Mossad agent basking in the glow of her daughter’s new book release. The tome recalls Rachel’s capture of Dieter Vogel, one of the Holocaust’s greatest monsters. The story soon flashes back to 1966, and Rachel (“The Tree of Life’s” Chastain) along with two fellow agents (Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas) are planning to kidnap Dieter (Jesper Christensen), living anonymously as a gynecologist in East Germany.

Rachel poses as a patient to get close enough to Dieter to confirm his identity. Meanwhile, her fellow agents are torn between completing their mission and feelings they’re developing for Rachel.

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When it comes to watching actresses portraying police officers or detectives, I admit that I am a bit of a chauvinist.

I prefer my cops to be big and strong like Dirty Harry, and as more television programs feature women in various enforcement roles, I find some of them tolerable and others not so much. I love this genre, however, but find myself at times cringing at some of these leading ladies. So I thought it would be fun to grade them with star ratings and invite others to do the same.

Bear in mind, however, that I can only critique shows I actually watched on a regular basis, so don’t expect to see Cagney and Lacey in this pile. Nor did I ever watch Heather Locklear in “T.J. Hooker” or the sad-eyed Peggy Lipton in “Mod Squad,” who I found snooze-inducing.

“Police Woman” (1974) Angie Dickinson **

Totally unbelievable but I liked her co-star Earl Holliman who has always been underrated. Pepper Anderson, however, became producers’ idea of what they’d like their cops to look like.

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What a wonderful summer we have had for movies! I think the absolute best movies. From the climatic finale of the beloved ‘Harry Potter’ series to the heartwarming book turned heartwarming movie, ‘The Help’ to the unpredictable romantic comedy ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ — I thought summer 2011 was coming to a nice close. Just when you think this season couldn’t get any better, ‘The Debt’ is released and it’s a movie that shocks and astounds.

 I wanted to see ‘The Debt’ because of my love for Helen Mirren, an actress that only grows more talented and beautiful with age. I was also excited to see 2011’s breakout star Jessica Chastain (‘The Help’ and ‘The Tree of Life’) when I first saw the trailer.

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The film begins in 1997, when three former Israeli secret service agents (played by Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds) are being celebrated for capturing and killing a horrible Nazi war criminal about 30 years prior. Two of the agents accept the accolades, another doesn’t feel comfortable being in the public eye.

Most of  the story takes place back in the ‘60s when the young trio (played by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington) plans and then finally executes their dangerous mission. The intense complications that follow brings the trio together and relentlessly pushes them into a love triangle.

This film is structured by director John Madden (‘Shakespeare in Love’) so that the audience sees two actors play each role. The young characters are motivated and charged by their mission, while the older characters live with an obvious weight on their shoulders caused by a secret they have carried ever since. When you see Jessica Chastain, you see the shadow of Helen Mirren and vice versa. It is a true success when two actors can mimic each other and play off each the other’s scenes.

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“The Debt” opens in 1950s Israel with three young Jewish Mossad agents – Rachel, Stephan and David – returning home after a covert operation in East Berlin. Their job was to capture the elusive Dieter Vogel, the “Surgeon of Buchenau,” and bring him to Israel to stand trial for his crimes against humanity. Years later, the daughter of Rachel and Stephan authors a book celebrating their mission: Vogel’s capture, the botched attempt to smuggle him out of East Berlin on a train, hiding him in their apartment for weeks and eventually, as he tried to escape, killing him. But the truth is not so simple. Rather, it’s a secret the three have kept for years. Now, after decades of living a lie, the truth threatens to get out, and only Rachel has the power to silence it forever.

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The film is based on a 2007 Israeli movie by the same name, and adapted by the writers of “Kick-Ass” and “X-Men: First Class” (Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman) with help from Peter Straughan who wrote the screenplay for “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” Their experience at adaptation shows, as “The Debt” is a beautifully crafted story blending events from East Berlin in the 1950s with Israel in the 1990s.

Like his previous films “Proof” and “Shakespeare in Love,” director John Madden’s latest features a powerful female in a male-dominated world (mathematics, 16th Century England, espionage), where being a woman is both an asset and liability. Rachel is the newest addition to the Mossad sleeper cell hunting Vogel, and her presence in their cramped apartment headquarters immediately adds tension. She is also perhaps the most important member of the group: she must visit Vogel’s women’s clinic, verify his identity and drug him. It’s a significant task for a first-time field agent and Jessica Chastain (who recently appeared in “The Help” and “Tree of Life,” which I haven’t seen) as the young Rachel conveys a delicate balance of vulnerable femininity and cunning agent – perfect for the character. As an older Rachel, Helen Mirren is significantly different from her “RED” ex-agent, less confident and snarky, more fragile, with a greater sense of duty. Tom Wilkinson and Marton Csokas as Stephan/young Stephan are both forceful and charming when it serves them, an ambitious, likable Mossad mission leader who quickly sours as the mission deteriorates. Sam Worthington as the young David gives a fine quiet performance, subdued and timid with brief explosions of anger. Most of his characters have been pretty emotionless, so it’s nice to see a more expressive side of him.

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Since her Oscar-winning role in “The Queen,” Helen Mirren often brings a gravitas and an air of authority to her work. Even in “Red,” where she played a retired assassin, Mirren brought a level of class to the film despite some of its silliest moments. The actress continues to command respect in her  newest film “The Debt,” where she plays Rachel, a former Israeli intelligence official who is both celebrated and revered for the work she did on an undercover mission in East Berlin.

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From 1965 through 1966, a young Rachel (played by Jessica Chastain) and her associates, Stephan (Marton Csokas) and David (Sam Worthington), are tasked with finding and kidnapping a Nazi war criminal, who was known for the cruel experiments he conducted on prisoners during the Holocaust. Once they kidnap him, the trio plan to sneak him out of the country and transfer him to Israel for trial as a war criminal. Doktor Vogel (Jesper Christensen), who was once known as the “Surgeon of Birkenau“ now works as a gynecologist in Berlin. To confirm his identity, Rachel starts seeking fertility treatments from him. After he is kidnapped, the prisoner’s transfer goes awry leaving the three agents living in a small apartment taking turns feeding and caring for the hostage. When their plan ultimately falls apart, the three agents are forced to make difficult decisions about what they will tell the Israeli military when they return home.

In 1997, the former undercover agents are still being celebrated for the work that they did and Rachel (Mirren), in particular, is now being lionized for her work on a new book. However, the truth about their mission isn’t as simple as their story makes it seem. The three former agents are keeping a secret about what actually happened in Berlin– a secret that could undermine their legacies as heroes.

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As the title suggests, “Arthur” focuses on the life of one man. Unfortunately, that man is played by the unappealing British comedian Russell Brand, who’s desperate for laughs throughout the story. Brand replaces Dudley Moore, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the original film. Brand has little of the charm that made the original “Arthur” worth seeing and most of the supporting cast are wasted in this remake as well.

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Brand stars the titular rich playboy set to inherit millions of dollars from his family. He spends his days sleeping with beautiful women and generally wasting his life under the supervision of his nanny, Hobson (Helen Mirren). When his mother threatens to take away his inheritance unless he marries a corporate executive named Susan (Jennifer Garner), Arthur begrudgingly agrees. At the same time, Arthur meets and starts falling in love with Naomi (Greta Gerwig), a New York City tour guide who is known by the police for not getting the proper permits for her tours.

The whole remake feels like a platform to showcase Brand’s abilities as a comic actor and as a leading man. Unfortunately, he tries too hard with most of the story’s lame jokes. He always seems to be waiting for the audience to laugh but most of the things he says aren’t funny.

The story takes some wrong turns on its way to get to the few laughs it merits. One scene feels like it belongs on the show “24,” not in a comedy remake. Nick Nolte, appearing as Susan’s sadistic father, decides to threaten Arthur with a table saw. He says that the blade will stop moving when it senses liquid and he tests this theory by almost cutting Arthur’s tongue in half. Aside from that disgusting scene, the entire storyline about Arthur’s fiance Susan is more disturbing than delightful. Susan is an obnoxious business woman who wants to marry Arthur so she can run his family business, an unfortunate arrangement that Arthur’s family approves of.

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Ed. Note: Please welcome Kurt Loder to our growing family here at Big Hollywood. Thanks to our friends at Reason.com, we’ll be co-hosting Kurt’s terrific film reviews regularly, and as a lifelong admirer of The Voice of Intelligent Reason on MTV, this is an unqualified banner day.  — J.N.

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The most hysterical thing about the new Arthur (as opposed to the old Arthur, the 1981 movie starring Dudley Moore) is the instant wave of hatred it has drawn from the nation’s 10 million movie reviewers. Their objections are several. Many appear to feel that the new film sullies the memory of the first one—as if that agreeable entertainment were some sort of sacred text. Others find the picture formulaic (it’s a romantic comedy, a genre always high on critical hit lists) and decry the non-judgmental depiction of its titular multimillionaire in the midst of our current economic meltdown (as if the original Arthur had not itself been released on the cusp of a deepening recession—and as if Hollywood had never produced grand, sumptuous musicals in the pit of the Great Depression). There are also those indignant about the movie’s comedic view of alcoholism (as if William Powell’s martini-marinated Thin Man films had never bestrode the box office), and more yet who resent the presence here, in the old Dudley Moore role, of Russell Brand, a more-than-usually irritating English import, in their view, who’s being force-fed to the indiscriminate moviegoers of this great nation.

I must pronounce myself baffled. Walking out of the movie before I became aware of this monolithic vituperation, I thought it was a fresh and more-than-usually funny rom-com, and that the transformation of Brand from the amusingly addled rock star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall into a full-fledged romantic lead had here been completed. In addition, for a love interest he’s been engagingly paired with onetime indie queen Greta Gerwig (whose onetime admirers are now bewailing this Hollywood sell-out). I can’t imagine anyone who enjoys well-made romantic comedies not enjoying this one.

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“Ocean’s Eleven” has met its match and it arrives in theaters featuring a machine-gun wielding Helen Mirren. Many viewers enjoyed the 2001 remake of “Ocean’s Eleven” with its well-known cast and entertaining premise. The remake wasn’t trying to be much more than a good time at the multiplex and it largely succeeded in reaching that goal. “Red,” which features a higher caliber cast than “Eleven,” replicates the “Ocean’s Eleven” formula and does so in a commendable fashion.

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While “Ocean’s Eleven” featured more exciting actors like Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and George Clooney, “Red” has a stronger and more well-respected cast. It features iconic actors like Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren. Both “Ocean’s” and “Red” were far-fetched and over the top, but each movie overcame its shortcomings with its cast.

“Red” opens on Frank (Bruce Willis), a retired and lonely man who receives his pension check in the mail. He’s trying to maintain a relationship with an employee at the pension office named Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). Once he receives his check, he immediately destroys it and then calls her to say that it never arrived. Frank eventually wants to meet Sarah but she’s nervous about such an encounter. However, meeting her becomes a necessity when a team of assassins targets Frank for elimination. When their plan fails, Frank is forced to kidnap Sarah to protect her from any danger she may be in. (Frank has spent so much time on the phone with Sarah that he fears she might used as a way to get to him.) (more…)

A good argument can be made that the period 2000-2009 was the single worst decade for movies in Hollywood history. Unfortunately, judging by what we’ve seen so far in 2010, the next decade could conceivably dip even lower into mediocrity. Over just the next three months, theaters are set to debut yet more anti-conservative rewritings of history, yet more anti Prop-8 propaganda masquerading as entertainment for the masses, yet more heaping piles of torture and snuff porn, and much else that looks eminently skip-worthy.

So what’s left for those of us looking for things like stirring heroism, rousing action, and solid family-friendly entertainment? If you had to pick five films appearing between now and the end of the year that look decent enough to take a chance on, what would they be? Here’s my shortlist, sorted by release date:

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YouTube -- click here to watch in full-screen

Red (October 15)

A blissfully silly, cartoonishly hyper-violent trailer. A formidable array of talent seeming to have the time of their lives as they chew up the scenery, with normally stately and self-serious Oscar-winners like Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman hamming it up next to Bruce Willis and John Malkovich. A premise that sounds something like Spy Kids for adults. Sounds good to me. (more…)

Paris Hilton is celebrated for a sex tape. Kim Kardashian is thrown in our face for the same, almost daily. And recently it was reported that “Laurence Fishburne’s 19-year-old daughter Montana is making a serious push to break into Hollywood — and she’s doing it with a hardcore sex tape.” Gawker reports: “I’ve watched how successful Kim Kardashian became and I think a lot of it was due to the release of her sex tape.” I think

I felt a collective shudder from parents everywhere when they heard about this.

When did woman start reaching so low to find their heroes, giving up what the feminists fought so hard for in the 60s and 70s? Wouldn’t it be nice to go back just 10 years or so, before reality TV and the Internet, before any Josephine was celebrated for displaying slut behavior? It seems like the norm for women in Hollywoodland and pop culture is to use their sexuality, savvy and gifts to seek celebrity with an abandon of self-respect, integrity and class. Whether Lindsey Lohan’s endless partying, drinking, drugs, and prison; to Ashley Judd’s belligerent, political tirades.

Whatever happened to women showing character and integrity when making choices and exhibiting decorum in debate? Wouldn’t it be nice to see them exercise the brain God gave them and work at the top of their intelligence? Granted Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Montana Fishbourne wouldn’t have careers if they had character, but TMZ would be much more palatable.

Rather than feeding these lower life forms with any more of the publicity that provides their sustenance, I thought I would celebrate a few exceptions to the rule. (more…)

In my Final Weekend Tracking column posted on Wednesday, I predicted that X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) would reach $92M on opening weekend, despite soft reviews (now only 38% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). My first fearless forecast of the 2009 summer blockbuster season appears to be close to dead-on (missed by only 5%).

Star-turned-producer Hugh Jackman has scored his second-biggest opening ever and, easily, his biggest as a solo star. Wolverine has mauled the competition with a massive $34.75M opening day (including $5M or so in Thursday midnight sales). That could translate to a 3-day of $86.8M, getting Hollywood’s most lucrative season off to a spectacular start.

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The great thing about a sequel is that it has a built-in audience. The problem with sequels is that, as the numbers after the title go up, so does the production budget. Very hard to know for sure, but sources have told me that the production budget for X-Men was in the $75M range. X-2: X-Men United may have had a budget of about $110M, while the cost of X-Men: The Last Stand was, in all likelihood, as much as $210M. Why doesn’t it make sense to just churn out X-Men 4?

Look at these numbers.

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Recording superstar Beyonce Knowles is building a bankable resume for herself as an actress with Sony Screen Gems’ Obsessed as the latest title burnishing her resume. Co-starring the excellent Idris Elba (The Wire), this low budget, PG-13 genre pic has scored a far-above-expectations $11M on Friday, and it will likely reach $27.5M for the weekend. That is the best opening yet for the former Destiny’s Child lead vocalist as an above-the-title star, topping 2003’s The Fighting Temptations and Cadillac Records from late 2008.

Beyonce does battle with the sexy Ali Larter (HEROES) in OBSESSED

OPENINGS FOR BEYONCE MOVIES
1. Austin Powers: Goldmember – $70.3M opening
2. Obsessed – $27.5M opening (projected)
3. Pink Panther (2006) – $20.2M opening
4. Dreamgirls – $14.1M wide break (after a platform start)
5. The Fighting Temptations – $11.7M opening
6. Cadillac Records – $3.4M opening

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The final weekend of April has never been Hollywood’s favorite release date. In fact, it is generally considered to be among the worst release dates on the calendar. Whatever opens on the final weekend of April gets absolutely crushed by the official start of the summer blockbuster season on the first weekend of May.

The 4 new wide releases and 1 major specialty release set to debut this weekend will face an onslaught of mega-hits over the next month. How can Obsessed (Sony), Earth (Disney), The Soloist, (Dreamworks/Paramount), Fighting (Rogue) and The Informers (Senator) possibly find an audience with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) arriving next weekend followed by, in successive weeks, Star Trek (Paramount), Angels & Demons (Sony), the combo of Night at the Museum 2 (Fox) and Terminator: Salvation (Fox) and Disney/Pixar’s Up?

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I caught a media screening of the new Russell Crowe flick, State of Play, in Chicago this week.  It did not disappoint.  The film’s trailers promise a taut, political thriller with a number of dramatic plot twists–and the movie delivers a pretty solid pay-off.  I’ll admit in advance that I was predisposed to enjoy this film, so take my analysis with a few grains of salt: 

1. I love this genre, and since many of these types of movies end up being terribly disappointing, a fairly well-executed thriller with a decent plot is more than enough to satisfy this customer. (more…)

The chubby guy on the Segway rallied for a come-from-behind win over the Beckinsale-less Underworld sequel, but regardless, it was a 1-2 finish for Sony. When I originally predicted that Paul Blart: Mall Cop as the likely weekend winner over the MLK 4-day, some online sites questioned my pick. Even I didn’t expect an opening close to $40M, and now the Kevin James vehicle has surprised again.

The Adam Sandler-produced comedy has broadened its audience, showing real family appeal. That led to stronger Saturday and Sunday matinees for a stellar $21.5M by Monday morning. That gives the movie a 10-day cume of just shy of $65M, which is impressive considering that it was budgeted at just $26M. After success as a supporting star in movies like Hitch ($179.5M cume) and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry ($120M cume), it appears that James can open a movie without the help of Will Smith and Adam Sandler. Mall Cop dipped only 32% from last Friday-thru-Sunday (and that was part of a 4-day weekend, which can often lead to a sharper drop). (more…)

Michael Sheen has two movies in release this weekend. The classically-trained Welsh actor plays Lucien in the wildly commercial Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (Sony), opening on about 3,000 screens, and he plays David Frost in Frost/Nixon (Universal), expanding to about 800 playdates.

He is a classically-trained stage actor, who has starred in heavyweight UK productions of Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Amadeus and The Dresser, was somehow overlooked by both Hollywood Foreign Press and Oscar voters when he starred as Tony Blair in 2006’s The Queen. (He was outshined by Helen Mirren, who won every acting prize imaginable). This year, he is in the shadow of Frank Langella’s towering portrayal of President Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.

As an aside, The Queen was the second in screenwriter Peter Morgan’s Tony Blair trilogy. The first film was called The Deal for British television and tells the story of the rivalry between Blair and current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (This is a great title to put in your Netflix or Blockbuster cue.) The final film will be called The Special Relationship, which will focus on the intimate friendship between the British PM and President Bill Clinton between 1997-2000. Sheen has signed on, but there is no word on who will play Clinton. Morgan says the idea for the third film began to germinate when he heard that Blair and Clinton were alone together when Vice President Al Gore conceded the 2000 election.

In the meantime, Sheen will almost certainly have the #1 movie in America this weekend with Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. This is the third Underworld movie, but it is a prequel set in the dark ages with Sheen as Lucien, a young werewolf, who leads a war against Bill Nighy as Viktor, the leader of the vampire race. (more…)