Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Quick & Dirty Reviews

End of Watch (4 out of 5)
An authentic portrayal of police officers on and off duty. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena play hot-shot partners who get in over their head when they catch the attention of a local Mexican cartel gang. Set in South Central, End of Watch delivers an exhilarating and almost first hand look at the day to day lives of two police officers in their best heroic light and in their worst macho posturing ways. End of Watch is shot in a handheld style, similar to the found-footage horror films which seem to be all the rage these days. This perspective is both an asset and a detriment, while it certainly draws you in it can be frustrating when you can't see what is going on, though in some brutally violent scenes you may be glad you can't. What makes End of Watch so engaging are the performances from the two leads both Gyllenhaal and Pena play well off each other and display a comradery so honest you lose yourself and join in with their dirty jokes and bravado. This film doesn't portray cops in neither a good or bad way, it is simply a more dramatized version of an episode of Cops and I guarantee you will find yourself questioning however you feel about cops for good or ill. The ending is my one compliant but unfortunately it's a pretty big deal. The film quickly becomes an over the top action movie in its final moments sucking all drama and realism it had up until then, and the ending while approriate will leave some viewers cold and maybe a little shaken. End of Watch is worth watching for the two lead performances alone, few times have a pair of actors so realistically portrayed friendship of this level and its incredibly engaging to follow these two around.

Dredd (3 out of 5) 
Dredd is a very different cop movie from the one above. Minimal in its story-telling and cartoonishly gory in its portrayal of action. Dredd sets out to make a kick-ass simple action movie, and it mostly succeeds. Karl Urban plays Dredd a Judge, a sort of terminator-esque cop dispatched to bring down criminals and ditch out justice on the spot as deemed necessary. Dredd is brutal and unemotional, executing criminals on the spot and dryly requesting the "meat-wagon" to dispose of the innocent bystanders who are undiscriminating killed throughout the movie. Dredd is played by Urban but since he never removes the iconic helmet, the only thing that comes across is his gravely voice and dead-pan delivery, and quite frankly it's all he needs. Partnered with a rookie physic Judge on her first mission, they must investigate Peach Trees a city block sized super complex run by the notorious Mama and her gang. The film doesn't aspire to be anything its not, and god bless it for that, but it also never truly stands out or becomes remarkable in any way. Even the over the top violence is too fake to have any visceral impact. I kept waiting for the big set-piece the one thing I would remember for weeks, but I never got it. Dredd aims low and hits right on target, a simple mindless action movie that is plenty bloody but never amounts to anything even remotely interesting.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Quick & Dirty Reviews

The Road (5 out of 5) 
It may surprise you to learn that The Road is actually a love story between a father and his son, albeit a bleak and hauntingly raw post-apocalyptic paternal love story. The Road contains one of the very best child performances ever committed to celluloid. Rarely can such a young actor convey such power and emotional range as Kodi Smit-McPhee and he does so at every turn. The ever reliable Viggo Mortensen gives his usual 110% in selling the absolute heart-breaking and demoralizing lengths this father is willing to go to protect his son in this savage and depressing new world. The Road is a movie with very little plot; it is a movie about circumstance. You follow this oftentimes silent father and son duo as they trek through this awful wasteland and you would still be hard-pressed to call this movie boring. This film is a masterpiece in minimalistic film-making, with long silent scenes of intense suspense and an apocalypse that is wholly believable as these two stumble upon abandoned homes, collapsed highways and legitimate concerns of cannibalists. Yet through all this doom and gloom the real message is one of hope, courage and the good in all of us. It's a wonderful film that may be too depressing for some viewers, but powerful performances and an original atmosphere make it worth the two hours of grey skies and the depravity of man.

Magic Mike (4 out of 5)
A sharp script and naturalistic performances make what could have been a shallow sex appeal movie into a interesting look into the lives of Tampa, Florida male strippers. Channing Tatum gives another in a quickly amassing collection of great performances, and as a former stripper himself he shows his talent in each of his routines. Matthew McConaughey is also fantastic as an aging stripper and owner of the club whose time in the limelight is fading but is desperate to keep it. Magic Mike directed by anyone other than Steven Soderbergh would have turned into something closer resembling a Step-Up movie, instead Soderbergh coxes real drama and genuine laughs that tears down any reservations male viewers may have. Soderbergh brings his usual deft directorial hands, allowing actors to improvise and keeping the camera on them longer than a typical scene to capture more grounded interactions. If you aren't confident enough in your sexuality and the thought of watching a male stripper movie worries you let me simply say there is no male nudity in this film though there is a fair share of female nudity, take that as you will, I simply think its incredibly ironic. Magic Mike is simply great film, don't let any predisposition sway your opinion before checking this movie out. Slightly left of center but still an engaging and entertaining trip through the stripping culture with its hundreds of cheering female screams highs and drug overdosing and overly competitive lows.