This week on the HomeVideodrome podcast, Hunter reviews Liam Neeson’s death-obsessed wolf-fighting-fest “The Grey,” Jim discovers “Blubberella” and extols on the greatness of “Adaptation” and the week’s releases get the usual treatment. Head on over to The Film Thugs and give it a listen.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” is the essence of crime cinema cool boiled down to its bones, combining the spartan feel of Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samourai” with the sheen of Michael Mann’s ’80s output like “Thief.” Throw in a protagonist reminiscent of Ryan O’Neill’s strong silent wheelman in Walter Hill’s “The Driver,” and you’ve got a shiny movie buff confection.

Ryan Gosling completely owns the nameless lead role, shiny scorpion jacket and all. The year Gosling had in 2011 effectively silenced his critics who wrote him off as a pretty face in “The Notebook,” with “Drive” standing at the head of the pack. His soft exterior makes his cool-yet-vicious character in “Drive” all the more potent whenever he has to stomp some poor henchman’s head in.

I love grizzled, masculine action heroes like Liam Neeson and Lee Marvin as much as the next red-blooded American, but Gosling steps up to the plate, points to the outfield, and knocks the ball straight into the spark-spewing lights. Don’t let his soft features or feathery surname fool you. Gosling brilliantly channels the brand of cool perfected by Alain Delon in Melville’s quiet heist & hitman sagas.

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“Today is the day that everything changes one way or another.”

That sentiment leads escaped convict Nick (Sam Worthington) onto the ledge of the 21st floor of a New York hotel in the new thriller, “Man on a Ledge.” The former inmate is trying to prove his innocence in front of the police and a national media watching his every move. The concept sounds like “The Fugitive” on a skyscraper. but the film is so mundane and lifeless Dr. Richard Kimble himself might have asked for an autopsy.

“Man on a Ledge” is a tight little crime thriller—a heist-movie variant—with a few small problems and one big one. Given the top-notchness of the supporting actors here assembled—Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, Anthony Mackie, Titus Welliver—the casting of doughy Sam Worthington in the lead seems crucially ill-advised.

True, Worthington was also the nominal star of James Cameron’s “Avatar”; but really, who will ever think of that techno-epic as a Sam Worthington film? The mildly amiable Aussie is a stranger to star power, and putting him at the center of this picture is like building a fancy banquet around a main course of vanilla pudding.

In any case, the character Worthington has been called upon to play would challenge many a more resourceful actor. Nick Cassidy is a disgraced New York City cop, framed for a high-profile jewel theft and consigned to Sing Sing for a very long stretch, who escapes his warders, returns to Manhattan, checks into a room on the twenty-first floor of a midtown hotel, climbs out the window, and then spends most of the rest of the movie huddled on the titular ledge, in what we at first take to be suicidal despair. This constrained situation offers little opportunity for physical or emotional expression, and it shines a cruel light on Worthington’s charisma deficit.

Still, there’s some snappy action going on all around him. The script, by Pablo F. Fenjves—a star-bio specialist whose literary credits include ghostwriting the reviled O.J. Simpson murder book If I Did It—is a compendium of nicely tweaked genre clichés.

Read the full review at Reason.com

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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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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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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“Release the Kraken!”

If those three words don’t stir up all kinds of nostalgia for the summer of ’82 when HBO aired the original “Clash of the Titans” 9 times a day (in ’83 it was “Beastmaster,” in ’84, “Eddie and the Cruisers”), you probably shouldn’t plunk down the price of admission. What we bring to the movies plays a big role in what we get from the movies (which is why critics are absolutely useless). And if cheese and nostalgia don’t play an important role in this particular film-going choice you might find yourself a little disappointed.

Sam Worthington is Perseus, a demigod and bastard son of Zeus (Liam Neeson). He just doesn’t yet know this because as a baby a whole lot of mythology occurred that resulted in him being found by a kind fisherman and his family and raised as such. It’s only after man declares war on the gods of Olympus and his family is killed that Perseus unknowingly starts down the road towards his own destiny as he sets out for revenge against Hades (Ralph Fiennes), the god of the Underworld responsible for his family’s demise.

Hades and Zeus are estranged brothers but man’s insolence drives them to form an uneasy alliance. Zeus just wants some appreciation. Hades wants to betray Zeus and rule over everything in order to spread evil throughout humanity. The endgame involves a huge sea monster known as the Kraken. A fierce beast that we’re told can’t be killed. Man doesn’t have a chance in this war. But driven by rage, Perseus doesn’t much care. (more…)

I wanted to see “Remember Me” because of rumors surrounding lead actor Robert Pattinson. I get daily updates on all things James Bond (yes, I’m that much of a geek), and a couple months ago I started hearing that Pattinson wanted to play the infamous assassin. I was not pleased. Who was this young upstart vampire that thought he was good enough to play the ultimate leading man? Having avoided the Twilight films like the plague, this rumor drove me to see “Remember Me,” to judge for myself whether Pattinson could one day play the great James Bond. 

Set in the early 2000s, “Remember Me” chronicles the life of Tyler Hawkins (Pattinson), a foundering college student who smokes excessively and journals to his dead older brother. When he isn’t brooding, he’s spending time with his younger sister Caroline (Ruby Jerins) or chasing meaningless relationships with his roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington). Following a drunken fight, he mouths off to Police Sergeant Neil Craig (Chris Cooper) and winds up in jail. After his dad, Charles (Pierce Brosnan) bails him out, Aidan convinces Tyler to get back at Sergeant Craig through his daughter, a fellow student named Ally (Emilie de Ravin). But while the relationship starts as a dare, it quickly blossoms into something more. And as characters reveal their pasts it threatens to tear their young love apart. 

Director Allen Coulter and cinematographer Jonathan Freeman have worked together in the past, and their visions click. Fade-outs are used a little too often, but other than that the film is well-shot and edited.  (more…)

So I saw Avatar. I dug the CGI and thought the 3D was cool. As always, James Cameron delivers with the action sequences. Sam Worthington is really likable. Sigourney Weaver is good as always. Michelle Rodriguez kicks ass, which is pretty much what she does.

As I left the theater however, I found myself quite disappointed. Not because my conservative “propaganda sensor” was going into overdrive. No, I pretty much knew what to expect based on Cameron’s resume and the synopsis of the film I read eight or ten years ago. I was disappointed because the film, with it’s cheesy, hippie message left me feeling empty and unaffected. I thought about all the films I’ve seen, films that cost a fraction of Avatar’s budget, that were so much more effective emotionally. Even if I didn’t agree with the political message.

A big problem with the film is the simplistic and superficial way that it tries to convey its themes. I think a lot of the conservative critics of the film have made a mistake by analyzing it in a similarly simplistic way.

I made the point in an earlier post that when filmmakers add subtext to their screenplays they often inadvertently add conservative messages and themes. These themes and messages are universal, they cut to the very core of humanity and appeal to our basic instincts and emotions. Leftist thought is predominantly contradictory. It is overly emotional on the surface, but attempts to deal with issues from a theoretical and intellectual perspective. “We need to save the polar bears, so let’s establish a complex and unfair wealth redistribution system.” Enough said. (more…)

Imagine the story of a soldier sent to fight native tribes for their land, but finds that once he actually meets and gets to know them, he respects them too much to follow through with his mission. Gradually he becomes one of the tribe, leaving his old way of life behind to embrace their nature-loving culture.

You might think you’ve just read the synopsis for Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning classic “Dances With Wolves.” But it’s actually also the core plot of another Oscar-winning director’s new film: James Cameron’s “Avatar.”

The fact that “Avatar” is basically “Dances With Wolves in Space” represents the film’s major flaw. For despite being the most expensive film of all time, with a $300 million production cost and another estimated $200 million spent on advertising, “Avatar” is also one of the most derivative films of all time. It’s hard to believe that a man like Cameron (“Terminator 2,” “Titanic”), who is capable of absolute genius in creating the film’s staggering visuals and astonishing breakthroughs in 3D IMAX technology, is unable to come up with a screenplay that isn’t a hamfisted mishmash of countless better films’ plot elements and a heavy-handed bash on modern American foreign policy. (more…)

Absent from the big screen for over a decade now, Oscar-winning director James Cameron returns armed with a reported half-billion dollars, a story he’s been desperate to tell for 15 years, and the very latest in cutting-edge visual technology. The result is “Avatar,” a sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC clichés that not a single plot turn – small or large – surprises. I call it the “liberal tell,” where the early and obvious politics of the film gives away the entire story before the second act begins, and “Avatar” might be the sorriest example of this yet. For all the time and money and technology that went into its making, the thing that matters most – character and story – are strictly Afterschool Special.

What a crushing disappointment from one of our most original and imaginative filmmakers.

Set in 2154, “Avatar” is a thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War. Sam Worthington is Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine Corporal sent to the planet Pandora after the untimely death of his brother. In a plot-thread built up to promise much that never pays off, Sully has none of the training his brother benefitted by: years of schooling in the Avatar Program to prepare him to infiltrate the indigenous species of Pandora called the Na’vi, who are the only things between Earth’s RDA (Resources Development Administration) and a precious energy resource “ironically” called Unobtainium.

Because the air on Pandora is toxic to humans, the RDA developed the Avatar Program to create clone-like avatars from both Na’vi and human DNA (which is why they need the untrained Sully) that allow for a human to transfer their consciousness into the 10-foot native blue beings and safely explore the planet. The scientists want to use the program to study Pandora, the military wants to conquer it, and the RDA wants to strip mine it. At first Sully’s unconcerned with these dueling tensions and agendas. Once a marine always a marine, and when his commanding officer, the beefed up genocide-happy Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang), asks him to infiltrate the Na’vi and do recon for a probable attack, Jake is more than ready. Hoo-rah. (more…)

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Hard to argue the “Avatar” trailer didn’t disappoint when the film’s star is forced to do this kind of damage control:

“It’s interesting that [Cameron] released that trailer and then the next day goes and shows it on IMAX,” Worthington said of the 16-minute preview released on August 21st in IMAX theaters. “One extreme to the other. We get the criticism, and then we get the rave reviews of what it really looks like in its own formula. That’s obviously going to get people to think and go, ‘Well, damn right. I’m going to go see this at the cinema.’ Jim has always said to me he wants to bring people back to the movies. And he’s a smart enough man to be tactical.”

Worthington added that he has read lots of comments about the trailer and understands the disappointment. “It’s got a hell of a lot of hype,” he said. “I read all what was said yesterday about the trailer. I can see their point. But, as I said, it wasn’t meant to be built for an Apple Mac. It’s built for IMAX. It’s built for 3-D.“

Now that we’ve all had time to view the trailer and mull the reaction, it’s poll time: (more…)

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Have at it.

Discuss. Debate. Write your own review…

Big Hollywood’s review can be found here.

As we enter the fourth week of this summer season, I don’t know about you, but after a pleasant surprise with the unpretentious, proud to be a B-revenger “Wolverine,” each new release has gotten progressively worse. Let’s just hope – because there’s a lot of summer ahead of us – that we’ve bottomed out with “Terminator Salvation.”

What a crushing and noisy disappointment this is. For whatever reason, Director McG’s fourth chapter in the “Terminator” franchise tosses aside the simple but successful plot template that made its predecessors so memorable and goes all “Bourne” with a hyper-complicated plot, narcissistic “hero” and a big fat wide blur between the concept of good battling evil. Yes, welcome to Hollywood’s post-Bush “Terminator,” where a militaristic Resistance demands we “Stay the course,” Terminators work through their feelings, and John Connor runs off to find himself only to end up in a numbingly dull third act that plays like a direct-to-DVD toss off.

Things open on an intriguing and hopeful note. The year is 2003 and Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) is a guilt-ridden death row inmate not far from execution. Dr. Serena Krogen (Helena Bonham Carter, who’s always interesting), approaches Wright for what we assume is the umpteenth time to convince him to donate his body to science. His coming to terms with his own death mixed with her losing battle with cancer sparks his humanity and he relents. The State gives him what he deserves and we cut to 2018.

The world as we knew it is now ravaged by a war the machines wage against mankind. Cities are reduced to rubble and those who survive are reduced to prey, living underground or constantly on the run. Some have organized into what’s called the Resistance and their spiritual leader is John Connor (Christian Bale). (more…)