Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Every few years in Hollywood, there is a film that defines a generation. In 2009, “The Hurt Locker” illustrated the intensity and paranoia of scouting for IEDs during the Iraq war. In 2010, “The Social Network” dramatized a new generation of youth that became consumed both positively and negatively by the rapid rise in online social networking. Now in 2012 we have “Zero Dark Thirty,” a film that recounts a ten-year period of time where America was on edge with various nations in the Middle East, and the determined confidence of a young female CIA agent that led to the conclusion of one of the greatest manhunts in world history.

Premium Rush (2012)

January and August. What do both of the those months have in common with each other? Well for starters, you can easily take similar climate out of the equation. However, something that these two months do share is releasing movies that are mostly either mediocre or just plain bad. "Premium Rush" fits that example since it was a film that was originally set to release in the second week of January way earlier this year, but then got pushed to the second-to-last week of August. Now that right there folks, is definitely not the wisest of moves to glimmer any hope that a film would be good. So does "Premium Rush" prove that decision wrong, or does it highlight why the two aforementioned months are known to release relished within mediocrity and sometimes more? Hit the jump button to find out!

The Expendables 2 (2012)

 

When it was first announced, who really thought that a sequel to "The Expendables" was needed in the first place? The insanely hyped 2010 first installment was of the most disappointing action movies ever made, and it was a true shame because it had all the necessary stars, but the film itself was executed so poorly. Suffering from choppily shot and edited action scenes, dodgy CGI, in addition to taking itself too seriously, it was one of those few movies that I was so disappointed with I initially didn't want to admit it. Fortunately though, I got some hope for the sequel when Sylvester Stallone vacated the director's chair to Simon West, in addition to more acclaimed action legends being added to the star-studded cast of manliness and testosterone. In the end, does "The Expendables 2" live up to what the first film should've been, or did Sy and the crew still not learn from the many mistakes made in the first one? Hit the jump button to find out!

Safe (2012)

Since "The Transporter" franchise kicked off by releasing in 2002, Jason Statham has been heavily typecasted in lead roles for action movies as the obligatory "macho man who kicks ass." Since the typecasting began, he's had a fair share of success with the "Crank" franchise, but hasn't found that same acclaim with any other film he's done besides those two aforementioned franchise. However we now have "Safe," which from the trailers just looked like "Jason Statham with his fists and guns Part 39." Surprisingly though, "Safe" is actually one of the much better action showcases for Statham, and it brings me one step closer to forgiving him for his latest duds such as "The Mechanic" and "Killer Elite."

The Hunger Games (2012)

 

To make a quick disclaimer, I'm not a die-hard fan of "The Hunger Games" novel trilogy. I've read half of the first book that this film adapts to the big screen, but what I did read in those first 12 chapters was quite thrilling and enthralling within its immense detail. However, it did put me into place of the insane hype surrounding the film's release, and that feeling did create some doubt on whether the overwhelming amount of hype will lead to a certain amount of disappointment in the end. In the end though, I feel like I made the right decision on leaving off on the point that I was in the book because no matter what, this is the first solid blockbuster of the year.

Safe House (2012)

Denzel Washington is one of the few actors left that has been able to put on incredible performances for almost every new generation of cinemagoers since the beginning of his career. Lately though, he has been starring in movies where his credibility as an actor is in fact too good for the movie itself. He hasn't worked with strong material since emulating infamous drug kingpin Frank Lucas in "American Gangster," and has since then starred in roles that have sadly misused his true talent as one of the finest actors in movie history. This time around, he stars in "Safe House," which is sadly yet another film that is too good for Denzel Washington's acting.

Chronicle (2012)

*Apologies for the different font used.

The found footage subgenre is one that has steadily gone downhill since several filmmakers attempted to cash in on its popularity since the release of 2009’s “Paranormal Activity.” Some of those films just used the technique with a static execution, while others tried to shamelessly make us think what we saw was actually real (cough…Apollo 18). However, fear no more, because the genre can still live on if it’s in the hands of a smart director, and the newest movie “Chronicle is certainly that.

The Grey (2012)

Usually when we come to a close on the month of January for movies, there isn't a whole lot that's really worth reflecting upon where we end up saying "oh yeah, that film was really good!" Surprisingly however, Steven Soderbergh managed to make me say that after seeing his stylish action flick "Haywire," and now writer-director Joe Carnahan has made me do the exact same thing with his latest production titled "The Grey," a film about the survival of men in the midst of harsh mother nature and unrelenting, intimidating forces of the wilderness.

Haywire (2012)

You know the archetype of there being one film released during January that actually turns out decent? Well look no further, because Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire" perfectly fits that description. This has been my most anticipated film for the month of January, and I had the special privilege of seeing it at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. So does it stand alongside other great femme fatale action films like "La Femme Nikita" and the "Kill Bill," or is it a rugged entry in director Steven Soderbergh's lengthy filmography?

Contraband (2012)

January releases are typical every year as they derive from repetitive cliches, generic characters and lifeless direction. When I first saw the trailer for "Contraband," those three aforementioned phrases immediately popped into my mind. Mark Wahlberg is one of the most talented actors of this generation, but I strongly question some of his career decisions, hence the infamous movies he starred in during the year 2008, and now this film.

Brick (2005)

Looking at today's brand of cinema, we have seen many classic genres wither away over the last decade. However last year, hope was brought to old school film buffs with "The Artist," a silent film that payed tribute to the once famous, but fading genre. Another genre that has faded over the past few decades is the neo-noir hardboiled detective film. Back in 2005 though, a first-time filmmaker and relatively unknown cast made the acclaimed indie "Brick"  that payed tribute to the genre, in addition to partly resurrecting interest in the genre, too.

Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol (2011)

The Mission: Impossible series is one that I surprisingly have never bought into during my life as a cinephile. However, I'm up to see just about anything that Tom Cruise stars in. I've always been aware of how his public persona has an overall sharply divided response from the public, but it has never really created a tough effect on me because I mostly focus on his acting instead. The best thing about the Mission: Impossible series is that none of the films are direct sequels of the previous entries, so it's accessible for the average filmgoer to get into this franchise at any one of the "Missions."

IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team composed of Field Agent Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Tech Agent Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) are set up on a mission in Moscow where the Kremlin is bombed, and they're framed for the apparent terrorist attack. The IMF secretary (Tom Wilkinson) and Chief Analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) inform Hunt that the President has initiated "Ghost Protocol", which means the IMF has been disavowed. Hunt and his team, along with the addition of Brandt accept the mission of tracking down the real culprit behind the attack, which takes them on a mission that to exotic locations which include Dubai and India.

 Tom Cruise delivers as Ethan Hunt, mostly due to how accustomed he's become to playing this character in the three previous movies. In addition to nailing down the expected charm and charisma he exhibits in nearly every movie he stars in, he does all of his own stunts including his character scaling the Burj Khalifa (aka The Tallest Building in the World). For an actor who's about to hit 50 and can still do his own stunts in big action movies, Cruise has a lot of guts to do that and it improves on the realism of his character due to the complete lack of stunt doubles. Paula Patton and Simon Pegg hold their own very well alongside Cruise. Patton not only delivers on being the sexy eye candy, but also performs very well as one very badass femme fatale when it comes to her fighting scenes. Simon Pegg provides great comic relief as Benji, and his background as one of the best British comedic actors currently working today enhances his spot-on comedic timing,too. Jeremy Renner though, manages to stand out compared to the rest of the supporting cast. He plays the only character that has an important back-story to the film's plot and he manages to deliver his scenes on a dramatic level that is sufficient enough to this type of film without exaggerating it to a point of pure over-the-top acting.

Brad Bird directs the film with a very solid visual style for a live action film debut as he constructs some of the most adrenaline-fueled action sequences I've seen this year. In addition, he chooses to shoot the action in a serene style like Justin Lin did with "Fast Five", which is a great switch from the majority of the action films we get with the obligatory shaky cam. Usually a 2 hour 13 minute film would drag if not handled well, but Bird's direction creates a fast pace of transitions between scenes that never bore you from the action taking place. 

For an introduction to the Mission: Impossible trilogy, Ghost Protocol could not be any better. The film delivers on the escapist entertainment you'd expect from a film like this, and not expect anything more from its audience. If you do plan on seeing this film during its theatrical run, this is one that must be seen in IMAX format, because the film's action sequences are absolutely stunning to look at, in addition to the base of the sound making your heart pump in the most intense action set pieces.

Final Grade: B+

Red State (2011)

Red State is a film that I have been highly anticipating ever since it was announced several years ago. Add on the Sundance Film Festival fiasco where Kevin Smith purchased the film himself and took it on a nationwide tour, it made me even for excited for the Video-On-Demand release on September 1st. And to top off that anticipation, I was lucky enough to attend his Comic Con panel where he showed the audience a five minute clip of the film in Blu-ray sound and quality. However once the extremely divisive reviews started to pour in, I started to grow a very skeptical and a brooding feeling inside me that I could be wrong that Kevin Smith trying something new in his style would be interesting.

Three horny high school students (Michael Angarano,Kyle Gallner,and Nicholas Braun) receive an online invitation from a woman who invites them for a group orgy. Unbeknownst to them though, the woman is Sarah Cooper (Melissa Leo), the daughter of the cult Five Points Church Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), who he and his followers are immense opposers on the subject of homophobia. She spikes the beers she gives the three teens and they're transported to the church to be killed for their "sins." However, the ATF and police arrive at the scene which sparks a deadly shootout between the Five Points priest and his followers. Basically, the first half of the film draws heavily upon the real-life religious extremist group Westboro Baptist Church led by the infamous priest Fred Phelps, and the second half derives mostly off of the famous 1993 Waco,Texas, ATF siege on the Branch Davidian ranch which ended in a deadly shootout killing almost 80.

All the performances aren't strong because almost every character in this film is unlikeable in their own way. The three teenage boys are unlikeable from the very beginning, because they are so one-note in their characterization, therefore leading to the fact there isn't one moment where you're going to  feel bad for what they go through. Some people have been raving that Michael Parks deserves some awards contention for his performance, but I'll be one of those few that say all he does is just play extremely over-the-top, but the script simply doesn't allow him to push into the territory of being scary or fun over-the-top. The only actor I feel that did a halfway decent job was John Goodman as ATF Special Agent Keenan. It was cool to see him dive into a more dramatic territory in his acting which is sometimes a rare occurrence in his career. In addition, his character is about the only likeable one in the film. On the reverse end, though, there is a plephora of great actors in the supporting cast including Kevin Alejandro,Kevin Pollak,Matt L. Jones,Anna Gunn,and Stephen Root who are all completely wasted of their potential, because their characters are either completely unlikeable or heavily underutilized, thus preventing them from fulfilling their complete acting potential.

The real blame of this film,though,is unfortunately placed on writer/director Kevin Smith. His choice of departing from his usual directing style of just keeping the camera still and having his characters let loose on the genius witty dialogue he writes is completely abolished for an overload of poorly explored themes,constant hand-held camera work,and an overload of dialogue that just bores you instead of making you laugh. For instance, the movie presents several themes mostly in the categories of homophobia,extremist cult religions,and a possible satire on the kooks of the Westboro Baptist Church. To be truthful, the people of that church are the people I hate the most in America because I'm part of a military family, and the fact that they picket military funerals creates the biggest "F*ck You!" I have towards anybody in the world. However, Smith seems to not have the slightest clue on how to fully utilize all of these themes in a coherent manner as they jump from one to the next every scene, and never revisits them for the rest of the film. There are scenes of dialogue that should be interesting, but instead several conversations occur where I just wanted a new scene to occur because the lines spoken are boring and tedious. And when the second half rolls around to the big standoff, Smith believes that killing off characters by surprise will be a shocker to the audience, but since all of the characters in this film are either unlikeable or barely do anything rational to the plot in their short screen time, you'll figure out that you simply won't care at all. Finally, his attempts at incorporating humor fall so flat that it does no justice to a film that is already deteriorating at a rapid pace from being anything okay. On a brighter note though, I did dig the grimy setting of the film where almost every shot is very gray and grim in its look.

Red State is one of, if not the biggest catastrophic failure of the year. In the end, this film is all hype and nearly nothing redeeming in its content. In addition towards the end, there is a jump cut where the film suddenly shifts from what could be an exciting confrontation to a boring negotiation scene that feels completely out of place compared to the rest of the film's events. I was sorely disappointed by how much of a trite mess Red State was, and the fact that I'm a devoted Kevin Smith fan made this experience even more painful and unforgivable. Please save your $9.99 and avoid renting this movie On-Demand from anywhere it can be bought, because it is one of the biggest calamities in film this year.

Final Grade: D

Drive (2011)

When I attended Comic Con 2011, I managed to catch early screenings for two films: Drive and the 3D remake of Fright Night. The first of those two I saw was Drive, which is definitely the most of all of the films they were showing around downtown San Diego during the four days of the Con. Believe it or not, this was my most anticipated film to see when I was down there, especially for the fact that it won Best Director at this year's Cannes, and that it came very close to winning the Palme d'Or over The Tree of Life. Before the screening began, director Nicolas Winding Refn along with stars Carey Mulligan and Ron Perlman appeared to give a short introduction to the film and then it began. 

Ryan Gosling plays the unnamed protagonist who is a Hollywood stunt driver by day and a getaway driver for criminals at night. His boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston...hell yeah) books him a job with a new shady client named Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks), while in the meantime, Gosling's character strikes up a friendship with his single mother neighbor (Carey Mulligan). But her husband (Oscar Isaac) returns home to disrupt their relationship from reaching further heights. He's in trouble to pull off a final job, though, and he recruits Driver to be his getaway driver. And that's the point where the job gets botched and the rest of the film kicks into major overdrive. 

This is a very daunting challenge for Ryan Gosling's acting because his character is very silent for most of the film and it's his facial expressions that do most of the acting. However, he does a sensational job as his performance pays a brilliant ode to characters of the neo-noir genre who slowly pace their line delivery and don't even say much which makes the viewer feel more weary of what they'll do when they hit their breaking point. Carey Mulligan drives the emotional strength of this film as her performance is similar to Gosling's with the slow line delivery, but she continues to show that she's one of the strongest female actresses of this current generation in the industry. Bryan Cranston (with hair) and Ron Perlman also manage to deliver commendable performances as well, even though their characters aren't utilized as much as I thought they'd be. Albert Brooks on the other hand, is the real scene stealer of this film. He's mostly known for playing neurotic characters for most films he stars in, but here he gets to play a shady businessman that goes completely insane and slimy when things go wrong. And when things go wrong, boy does he become evil! Be on the lookout for his name to pop up during awards season because his performance is nothing short of brilliant in this film.

Nicolas Winding Refn has officially become the new Tarantino (but without the humor) of today's industry as he directs this film masterfully. Refn builds up moments of unbelievable moments of tension to before these bursts of extremely shocking and bloody violence, which really reminded me of Tarantino's style of doing the same thing in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. In addition, Refn also uses the sudden tone change in a perfect way, especially involving a scene in an elevator with Gosling and Mulligan that immediately switches the film from a love triangle to a very bloody revenge thriller. And look out American History X, because that scene just about put your curb stomping scene to shame! Newton Thomas Siegel's cinematography is breathtaking, especially within the nighttime shots of downtown Los Angeles which perfectly convey the moody tone the film takes on in the first half of its duration. In addition, the chase sequences are filmed to perfection as the camera angles used for those scenes will remind you of the way car chases were filmed back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as you can hint that the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt served as an inspiration for both Refn's directing style and Gosling's performance.

Overall, Drive is an unforgettable thriller with lots of odes to the art house and neo-noir genres in tow. Flat out fantastic performances across the board from all of the main actors (especially Gosling and Brooks) along with very stylish direction by Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive is a film that will be either an international box office hit, or one that will only be appreciated by the film geeks who have a passion for the art house or neo-noir genre. Whether or not it will fall into the realms of one of those two, it is sure to be a cult classic in the future because this is definitely one of those films you shouldn't miss because it will talked about a lot come next year's awards season.

Final Grade: A