The Fox show “24″ had the ticking time bomb plot device virtually all to itself for eight seasons. Just how far do you go interrogating a suspect with information about a nuclear bomb ready to blow? “Unthinkable” addresses the very question that haunted Jack Bauer day after miserable day – but you couldn’t buy a ticket for it. Fox’s “24” scored big ratings during its network run, but “Unthinkable” didn’t snare a theatrical release in the U.S.

The film, which shoots straight to DVD and Blu-ray today, focuses on a Muslim extremist planning to flatten three U.S. cities. Sounds like can’t miss material, but a tortured screenplay leaves far too many questions unanswered while wasting an impressive cast.

An American Muslim named Younger (Michael Sheen, sans British accent) planted nuclear bombs in three cities and allowed himself to be captured by U.S. officials. But he won‘t say a syllable about the bombs‘ locations.

Enter Samuel L. Jackson as “H,“ a mysterious interrogator with a track record of getting criminals to talk – and a willingness to spill a little blood in the process. (more…)

 A favorite tactic of the political left is to declare an opponent racist. Take the recent controversy surrounding Senate nominee Rand Paul. He was attacked as a racist after describing a libertarian view of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. He did say he objected to the end of abhorrent racial segregation and persecution – he simply identified how the Act diminished the rights of private business owners. 

Hollywood politics are no exception to racial attacks. Recently Chris Lee of the Los Angeles Times wrote a piece about “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” and “The Last Airbender,” listing them as recent additions to Hollywood’s “rich history” of casting white actors in ethnic parts, giving the example of John Wayne playing Genghis Khan. 

Quickly, before I delve further into why Lee’s article is ridiculous, let me point out a double standard. In Tom Clancy’s book, “The Sum of All Fears,” his villains are Muslim extremists. In the film, they are neo-Nazis. No one complained about that swap, especially the Times, as their review ignores the change.  (more…)

Though the highly anticipated “Iron Man 2” qualifies as a hilarious, entertaining, irreverent, and openly patriotic summer blockbuster well worth the price of admission (and then some), like most sequels, the continuing story of Tony Stark and company does falls short of its predecessor, especially in what I call the “lift department.” Superhero films that transcend their genre contain an unforgettable moment or two that lifts the hair on the back of your neck, pulls you out of your chair, and urges you to stand and cheer. The original “Iron Man” had a number of those moments. And while the follow-up has a whole lot going for it, this is where it most lacks.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has privatized world peace. Yes, all on his own as Iron Man, Stark has whipped the world into behaving itself and it’s completely gone to his already bloated head. Obviously this wasn’t accomplished through the changing of our enemies’ hearts, but rather through the superior firepower that comes with being Iron Man. This is the reason/excuse our government, led by the oily Senator Stern (a very funny Gary Shandling) uses to demand Stark turn over the suit to the Pentagon. During a hearing televised on CSPAN, Stark can’t bring himself to politely decline. With his ego red-lining, (he has saved the world, after all), he both insults the Senator and dares him to try and take the suit away from him.

Game on.

In this vacuum steps a rival arms dealer, Justin Hammer (a delightfully twitchy Sam Rockwell), who’s desperate to replicate the Iron Man technology and scoop up all that Pentagon money while at the same time fulfilling a desire to humiliate Stark by elbowing Iron Man into irrelevancy. Hope arrives in the form of Ivan Vanko (a quietly menacing Mickey Rourke), a Russian scientist burning with both a hate for Stark and the technical know-how to fulfill Hammer’s mercenary desires. (more…)

—–

Tagline: Right and wrong no longer exist.

(more…)