There’s no denying Don Cheadle’s charisma and talent as an actor. He’s born to do what he does. Much like Kenneth Branagh, when he speaks we don’t really want to see or hear anything else. He owns the area around him. We sense an ease in what he’s doing. He’s a chameleon who captures the voice and movements of any character thrown at him. But even Cheadle’s charisma can’t save a slightly typical and slightly partisan show premiering on Showtime tonight.

“House of Lies,” debuting at 10 p.m. EST, follows a team of management consultants led by lethal-in-a-board-room Marty (Don Cheadle). The supporting characters, however, simply fill out stereotypes. The two other men on Marty’s team exist for little more than to give some cheap, sitcom like laughs, and Kristen Bell exists as a foil for Marty. There’s supposed to be a sexual tension or, at least, tension between the two, but the script never sells the chemistry and neither do the two actors (mainly Bell, who still looks like she belongs in high school).

The show begins by thrusting us into the hectic mess that is Marty’s life. We are introduced to his ex-wife, whose management consultant team is number one (Marty’s is number two). We are introduced to Marty’s shrink father, his son who’s going through a very strange gender crisis, and Marty’s clients. Once we enter the business world Marty inhabits, the writing gets wooden and the politics go left… way left. (more…)

Only one word can describe Michelle Williams’ performance in the new film, “My Week with Marilyn” – intoxicating.

Williams imbues her character with class, sexuality and self-doubt, making her one of the front-runners for the best actress Oscar next year. She’s the focal point of this biopic and owns every scene she’s in. The screenplay, though, is strong enough to build a story around her mesmerizing performance.

The film revolves around Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a young man interested in the film business. Clark is so eager to be involved in the industry that he spends days camped out at the office of the famous actor/director Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). Clark – the persistent and wide-eyed youngster – eventually gets his big break and is offered the job as an assistant director for the upcoming film, “The Prince and the Showgirl.”

Monroe, who is acting alongside Olivier in the film, arrives on set and Clark quickly becomes smitten with the seductive actress. Her fragility and self-consciousness only lure people closer to her. Despite her fame and overt sexuality, she longs for people’s approval and people, including her overwhelmed personal assistant, are happy to give it to her.

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Thor, perhaps the most Shakespearean of Marvel Comics heroes, is a refreshingly fun adaptation of another comic character destined for franchise glory. In an inspired piece of hiring, “Thor” is directed by Kenneth Branagh, famous for his numerous Shakespeare adaptations. His unabridged version of “Hamlet” was my favorite screen version of the Great Bard’s most famous work, and though it’s no surprise that he can stage a large production, it’s good to know he can handle the physicality of a CGI-laden blockbuster as well.

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In this one, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) hails from the realm of Asgard, and is apparently more of an alien than a god or deity. Cast out of Asgard by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) as punishment for narcissism and disobedience, Thor’s stripped of his powers and banished to our little marble, landing in small town New Mexico. There, he’s confronted by a world that greets his stories of fantastic kingdoms and powers with scorn, and where his mighty hammer, containing the thundery awesomeness of his powers, remains inaccessibly stuck in a block of stone. Thor then must not only clash with a civilization that doesn’t respect his ancestry, but also with the machinations of villains back home and some surprisingly well-intentioned government agents. (more…)

One of the greatest appeals of superhero movies lies in their ability to take ordinary humans and give them the ability to do extraordinary things, whether they’re a teenager flying through New York City by shooting webs in “Spider Man” or developing a super car and a kickass suit to fight crime in the “Batman” films. Even “Superman” and the “X-Men” films base a large part of their appeal in alien characters whose struggles parallel the daily angst we all face in our mortal daily lives.

Unfortunately, the latest superhero epic “Thor” doesn’t have that basic human appeal. Instead, it offers up the incredibly convoluted tale of a Nordic god who falls to Earth when his hubris makes him overstep his bounds and risk the safety of his home planet of Asgard.

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The movie kicks off quickly with some impressive fighting between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and a team of Asgardian super-warriors against an evil race known as the Frozen Giants from the icy realm of Jotunheim. The Frozen Giants are hoping to exploit the fact that Asgard’s aging king Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is attempting to hand over his power to Thor, and wage an attack on Asgard during the coronation ceremony.

The sneak attack provokes a desire for revenge from Thor and his closest warriors, and things go haywire when they act on it. As punishment, he’s cast to Earth (aka Midgard), where he crashes into the desert amid a furious flash of thunder and is discovered by a team of scientists that includes an astrophysicist named Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).

The crash rendered him without his magical hammer named Mjolnir (what IS it with all the convoluted names, too? They’re hard to understand, which only adds to the emotional coldness of the film) It’s key that Thor regain control of it if he’s going to save Earth from destruction by the Frozen Giants and forces unleashed by his own ruthless brother Loki, who learns some dark secrets about his own origin.

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The Los Angeles Times has a sordid history of race baiting in its effort to pump up its progressive bonafides, despite a historic lack of diversity in their own staff. Their latest diatribe is a recent attack on Hollywood for “whitewashing” the Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender. They were quickly followed in lock step by the Huffington Post, publishing an AP article that seemed to be cribbed from the Times. And then the industry blog The Wrap took things a step further by calling this a “White Summer” for the “lack of diversity” in Hollywood films this season. Hear that Eddie Murphy, Jackie Chan, Common, Jaden Smith, Queen Latifah? You don’t have any movies this summer. Uh, wait.

Here’s the crux of their discontent. Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender have male leads played by white actors; Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia and Noah Ringer as Aang in ‘The Last Airbender. So, like the predictable hacks they are, they jumped on the racism argument. Dancing around the “R” word by reciting the industry’s history of casting white actors in non-white roles.

Yes, that did happen a lot in the past, and it does happen on occasion now. But here’s where the stupidity starts. Persians, aka Iranians, are ethnically white. In fact, most people of Eurasian stock are considered ethnically white. Casting a white actor as a Persian is hardly a racially insensitive move. And the Last Airbender is directed by Indian-American M. Night Shyamalan, who took exception to the criticisms his movie has gotten on this subject. (more…)

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter.

SUNDAY MORNING: Dog lovers everywhere united to make Fox’s Marley & Me the #1 Christmas weekend movie with an expected $51.18M in the Thursday-thru-Sunday period for a Per Theatre Average of $14,888. Pre-opening industry tracking pointed to a clear win for Bedtime Stories (Disney), but it was the lovable lab who finished on top.

As an aside, all of us who read John Grogan’s extraordinarily well-written novel should have seen this coming. The book is a joy, and anyone who has a dog, or has ever had a dog, could easily identify with the struggles and pleasures of having a 4-legged member of the family.

The success of Marley slightly mitigates a disastrous year for Fox. Its year started out well enough riding the huge success of 2007 release Alvin & the Chipmunks into January ($70M of Alvin’s gross landed in this calendar year). The January 18 release of chick-flick 27 Dresses scored for Katherine Heigl ($76.8M in the US), then Jumper was a good solid February hit, topping $80M, followed by the wildly successful Horton Hears a Who ($154.5M domestic). Little did Fox know that when the Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz comedy What Happens in Vegas played solidly to the tune of $80.2M domestic starting in May, it would be its last legit hit until Christmas’ Marley & Me. This is a huge, redemptive win for Fox, and its sentimental tear-jerker of a dog movie could near $100M domestic by Sunday.

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