Screenshot Reviews - Young Adult, Hugo, My Week With Marilyn, Dragon Tattoo, War Horse

Pina - (Immediately) Before and After (typed on my phone)

Before
I don't know if it is Peenya or Pinuh or Peena, I am going to see it because it is showing at a theater that only shows movies worth seeing. I don't know much about the choreographer that the film is a tribute to, I think she is German? I am happy to admit that I enjoy dancing, both taking part in and the watching of. I do not dance well enough, well I suck at dancing, but I don't do it well enough to know how to appreciate professional dancing. I deal with professional dance performances much how I do classical music. I sit back and let it happen. I enjoy going to both. Most of all, I like watching dance with someone that does appreciate watching dancers as much as I appreciate the performance of professional athletes; the two are not unrelated. If you asked me if I had reservations about seeing this two hour dance film I would reply with a simple no. Reserved my 'no' may come-off but don't take my lack of emphasis to mean  reservations. I only say no with heft when I am asked if I want to go to Wal-Mart.  To be most honest, I am kind of jacked about going to see something that will hopefully push me a bit. And even more honestly, I am most stoked about talking to my friend Chiara about this movie. She makes it cool for me to want to talk about how athletic and awesome dancers really are. We used to talk about dancing and we wouldn't even have to talk our way around the high-brow part of it all. We dismissed all the exuberant pomp of a London dance audience by first buying student tickets and second by getting straight to the meat--our shared response to a professional's dedication. 

I am also going to see it because the trailer reminds me of this crazy Chinese show that I saw in Hong Kong. It was a music, dance, light, architecture, performance thing. It was called 'The Life and Times of Louis Kahn'. The stage would lift and tumble and then Louis Kahn would talk about how once light hits a room then it belongs to that room. What a wild thought that is? Light belonging to a room. Almost as absurd as land and water and air belonging to one or a thing. At any rate, that performance was something other. More movies should go after an other. I think we would do well to usher some other into our lives that are often predictably similar. Walking in the theatre now, probably should have worn contacts today, stock 3-D goggles don't fit well over my glasses, I'll persevere.

After
"Move when there is nothing left to say." "Dance, Dance. Or you'll die." Pina (Peena) is a motion picture made in remembrance of and in dedication to an obsessor of movement, the novel and brave choreographer, Pina. So often we are moving. Pina asks, "towards what are we moving?" Only towards death, maybe? The person and the movie begs us to move with purpose and to experience an-other's movement for life's sake. We are at once joyful and lonely in our sentience. Words are sufficient for evoking some-thing but our folly is thinking that words are enough. She instructs her dancers to respond and search for an expression of the longing, the yearning that is within all of us. To her dancers it is of no matter where the need to purge comes from. The parascientific explanation falls on deaf ears in the Tanztheater. Pina's movement and troupe is in pursuit, a pursuit for the ultimate mystery--us. 


If you have ever sat in a movie theater and tilted your head and leaned forward as if a little extra effort on your part will assuage the discomfort you feel when the pictures on the screen aren't enough, then this movie will edify your curiosity. The camera moves in this one and in some cases, as adeptly as the dancers. I am not a choreographer, I know nothing of choreography. I do understand that the audience's vantage point is key in the design of a production. The camera in this sense, adds a third dimension. We are permitted to see each movement from more than one perspective. We usually fix ourselves in immovable seats that are situated according to efficiency as it concerns ticket sales. Imagine if we were able to get up out of our velvet seats, move about, and wander around the stage with the dancers at arm's length, maybe even touch them. Pina invites us on stage though it is not a proscenium stage. Often in this movie the stage is a space we would normally walk right by, except here, there are dancers on the corner next to the bus stop. Pina infuses the ordinary with extraordinary movement. Her dances are about engaging our surrounding, both the physical and the un-physical with all parts of our self, wringing every last drop of creativity out of the dancer. 


I was reminded of something I read from Jay-Z. He was quoted in an education journal, he was talking about sonnets, he said, "They confined themselves with these rules and therefore were forced to crawl around on their hands and knees in the alcoves of our imagination in order to conjure up an expression for what they felt. It was only a feeling until they forced themselves to give it language. Imposed parameters bore self discovery that proved to be revolutionary and timeless. I mean we are still reading that shit, like 500 years later." 


Pina, literally gets down on hands and knees and takes us with her. So often movies are ordinary. This one is something other and other is good for us. 

Netflix Recs

Gomorrah

Taking the appeal out of the life of a gangster, Gomorrah tromps through the muddy terrain of quid pro quo with the camera on the backs of kids that lack 'that' and are willing to do any 'this'. Scarface is the epitome of the impeccably tailored gangster. Kids toting automatic rifles in this haunting, necessary movie are the outcome of Scarface's unrequited respect. Naples is the star of this one, gray and drab, just like the future for kids growing up in capitalism's/Hollywood's cracks. In my top 100.

Coffee and Cigarettes

Jim Jarmusch makes far-out movies. If you want to watch Tom Waits and Iggy Pop intellectualize the theater of the absurd then queue up this one. You'll be impressed by how tight Jarmusch scenes can be in the face of a devoid script. If you don't smoke and don't drink coffee, or if you only partake in one and not the other, you'll still enjoy watching a hodgepodge of thoughtful celebrities indulge their vices. Most of the vignettes are on youtube if you ain't got Netflix.

Up The Yangtze

I was at a friends house  waiting for him to wax his surfboard. Our plans to surf ended when this documentary came on PBS. How nerdy of us? We were mesmerized by the dedication of those being displaced during the construction of Three Gorges Dam. Life as they knew it, simple but enough, was thrust aside by plans for a gargantuan China. They defer to the authorities they'll never meet or know, put their furniture on their back and "do what's best for China." We can't relate.

Senna

Ayerton Senna is an enigma despite candid, verbose tantrums. His self reflection is what is most interesting. He was Brazil's hope when visions of western luxuries seemed unattainable. Favelas latched on to his bravery and relished in his successes that challenged an establishment. He is political and spiritual and contemplative. He is also one of the greatest drivers to ever live and die on a track. The hook in this flawless documentary is the timeless human dilemmas beneath Formula 1, a billion dollar endeavor. This is a great one.

The Oscars - In Your Words

The Oscars are this weekend. There is more than one way to think about, watch or react to the production. Here are some thoughts that HOM solicited from some individuals worth hearing from.

Best awards show of them all.  Best red carpet, best hosts and comedy.  Best category in the show?  Best supporting!  It's always the one that's right on and usually involves no favoritism.  Comedies should get more love. – Joey Proffitt

The thing that always interests me the most about the Oscars are my personal reactions to them.  I always root for movies that I enjoyed or affected me personally.  When those win I enjoy the validation that comes.  When something else wins, I always wonder what I've missed or wasn't told.  Why do I do that?  I mean, a not tight movie is still not tight even if a bunch of other not tight people think it's tight.  And, you guys, Moneyball was not that tight. – Jacob Simmons

The Oscars, in my opinion, should acknowledge and distinguish extraordinary achievements in the film industry. Whenever I think about them I immediately seem to consider them a stamp of high quality in acting or film-making. But then I am always dissapointed by them being too main-stream or at least overlooking one great film or great actor every year. They seldom mean enough for me to watch the entire show, although I always read the lists of nominations and winners. Part of their attraction is of course to opinionate on the dress and appearance of celebrities. – Tine

It's the most overdone and disgusting night of the year. Hollywood patting itself on the back for doing what? making a bunch of commercial shit that could be good but had to be dumbed down for a perceived dumb market. We would be smarter for not watching. I can't take my eyes off the television screen for the entire 7 hours of coverage. - Anonymous

I grew up watching the Oscars, so the Oscars conjure memories of watching them as a kid.  It's not unlike how every Cowboys game feels like I'm watching it on my grandfather's knee in the Fairlie farm house.  Anyway, here are some of the thoughts that pop to mind when I think Oscars:  beach sand, Saving Private Ryan, Billy Crystal, David Letterman running from English Patient plane, blankets quilted by Ms. Freddie, oscar parties with Weaver, and on and on and on. – James King

I think oscars are needed bcz they keep people interested in commercial cinema. Without them everyone would get bored with this stuff.

:-) – Ewa

I personally enjoy the Oscars. I know it's a pointless event in the grand scheme of things but it's fun to see all of the pomp. I also think it pushes filmmaking forward; without the possibility of winning awards many of these movies would never get made. – Tyler Atkinson

Once or twice I may have daydreamed about walking the red carpet at the Oscars with a very beautiful and famous movie star. The only attention I would get as the nobody on this starlet's arm would be for being the nobody on this starlet's arm. And that would be quite exciting for me, and my family and friends, who would be watching the Oscars not only to see who won Best this or that, but also to catch a glimpse of someone they actually know, and not just think they know from the magazines at the checkout counter, on the red carpet. I would wear an expensive suit from a famous designer that she purchased for me (I am her guest, after all, and anyway she makes more money than me because she is a movie star), and we would look great together. We would have a ball and maybe she would win Best Supporting, or something like that. Later, maybe a week or two, after our picture had appeared some in one of those glossies, we would make the headline: "Beautiful and Famous Actress Breaks Up With Unknown Date from the Oscars," and the inside would detail the affair. One would hope to save some face and not come off as an a-hole, but you can never tell with the tabloids. Then I would return to normal, daily life. But I would definitely put one of those magazines in a drawer with other keepsakes, or maybe frame it and put it on the wall next to my television. – Rob Culpepper

I love the Oscars…I think they are great way to learn about movies that were't as publicized as some of the main stream movies the came out during the year. I wish they would go back to only 5 best picture nominees. I feel like that has kind of watered down that category, but overall I always enjoy watching the Oscars so that I can learn about movies I may have missed out on. – John Gesenhues

Safe House - A Conversation with Bob

HOM: Can you name a movie that features Denzel in which he does not play the character he plays in Safe House? What is it about Denzel that makes me see every movie he is in?

BOB: Denzel stars in one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time, Glory...it was back in 1988...and he does not play the action type character he plays in movies like Safe House and Man of Fire. There are several things about Denzel that makes me see all of his movies... regardless of his character, good guy, bad guys...he has such charisma and you just always like and root for his character. You can tell by the way Denzel plays them that there is depth, and that there is a backstory that explains the characters personality and actions. They characters are always calm, intelligent, and they do what they do with a purpose greater than themselves (Glory, Remember Titans, Red October, etc...) He has the cool confidence that all men admire.

HOM: Have you ever seen the 1998 movie titled Safe House that features Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Father of the Bride)(she's hot) and Patrick Stewart? It's not good but I loved the crap out of it. If you haven't, I doubt you have, then give me a few sentences of your thoughts on Father of the Bride.

BOB: Father of the Bride is a solid romantic comedy/chick flick...Steve Martin is funny, and it's not too corny or emotional. Martin Short's character is funny, if nothing else for his accent. I think if I had a daughter I would like it a lot, as I could relate to the refusal to acknowledge her growing up.

HOM: Safe House has earned mixed reviews from critics. The film currently holds a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 116 reviews with the consensus stating: "Though Safe House is anchored by strong performances from Washington and Reynolds, they're let down by a thin script and choppily edited action sequences that betray the film's unfortunate lack of imagination." Would you agree with this? What would you add or refute?

BOB: I would agree that Washington and Reynolds carried the film...but those are two very good actors, so saying that they were the best part of the movie doesn't mean that the movie was bad at all...because they would most likely be the best part of any film. The script wasn't great, and the action sequences could have been done better, but they didn't take away from the entertainment value in the film. It was predictable, but it's hard to find an action movie that the end is not pretty easy to predict. I would say the overall script and editing were average, but the acting takes it to an above average movie, and worth seeing

HOM: This movie was pushed pretty hard through ads and trailers and all the stuff production companies do to promote a film? It made 40 million the first weekend and it is Denzel's second biggest box office weekend since American Gangster. What makes you want to go see a movie? 

BOB: Actors are a large part of wanting to see a movie, but I think there are 2 reasons I mainly go see a movie...1) they give me a break from reality and/or 2)  they take a piece of reality I can relate to and expand on it. I love movies about fantasy worlds (LOTR) and superheros (Batman) because they take the characteristics of human nature that we all love and admire (strength, bravery, selflessness, love) and put them into situations and characters that enhance them to the utmost. Who wouldn't love to be Aragon, a great warrior and leader, who gets to battle through a fantasy world and fight for the future of mankind? who wouldn't love to be Batman and battle villains selflessly for the good of his city? These are scenarios we can only imagine, so seeing them come to life allows us to escape the limitations that we have as humans and dream beyond our capabilities. I also like it though, when a movie takes a situation or an emotion that we can relate to, and then spins it to something that we don't see normally. For example Field of Dreams...every young man craves that relationship with their father...some through baseball, others through another activity. We all have that, but none of us have built a field that allows ghosts to play on it...they take the emotion we all have, and spin it to a place that again captures our imagination and our attention. legends of the fall puts the emotion of love, and spins it in gorgeous Montana and adds in extreme drama and ties in the rivalry between brothers. 

HOM: I thought Ryan Reynolds was really good in this. He made me believe that the life of a CIA operative was actually kind of a sucky thing to have to do. How is it then that the world record number of gun shots and good looking french girlfriend still make you wish you were a government spy? 

BOB: Would love to be a CIA operative...would rather live 50 years of an extraordinary life...than 70 of a normal one. Obviously not all CIA operatives are Jason Bourne type...but I want to have the biggest impact on others as I possibly can, and a CIA agent could do that.     

HOM: Where does this rank for you alongside the Bourne Trilogy and let's say Entrapment?

BOB: Bourne is supreme, no question...it was the first, and the best...best script, best acting by Damon. Original idea and quite possibly the best actions scenes I can think of

HOM: Any final thoughts?

BOB: One final thought is that I think people sometimes focus too much on the artsy side of movies...a movie can suck as far as editing, general script, or other technical aspects, but who cares if it is fun to watch. Movies are like music...there is no science to what a "good movie" is...so if it's fun to watch, makes you laugh, enjoy the action, whatever....it is a good movie. professionals sometimes can't see the forest for the trees.

10 Second Screenshot Review - Shutter Island

Chronicle

I really enjoyed this clever dip into timeless themes and all that stuff they call CGI. Chronicle chronicles the events that must transpire if one accidentally develops super human skills like telekinesis and flight. Contrived at times, some scenes and dialogue don't really make sense. It's not so important that everything does though, especially since there are a whole slew of metaphysic questions to answer in an hour and a half. I think the point is to sift around in the reality of how unreal it would be to be able to will things to move. Necessarily, the movie reaches into melodrama. What is a hero if he or she is not tragic? You'll find all the status quo hubris inducing forces that have been exhausted in lesser movies yet still rear their head. To avenge the movie out of monotony we are given a tussle that Goonies and Super 8 had trouble conjuring up, a pretty sad ending amongst the enjoyment of watching friends hanging out. All is not really well with this one, it's bitter sweet the whole time. The entire story in this way is a monition for those that secretly still kind of wish that comic books weren't so comedic to the quarterback. In the end, "maybe we want the world at a distance." Something between us and them or us and that or us and that bad thing. Be it through a camera or a superpower, Chronicle does well to usher us into a world that looks real and feels real but just may have to be thrown in the $5 caped crusader bin, try as it might to get out. There was some great acting in this one, too. Check it out.

The Interrupters

Steve James elevates his game and patiently pans across societal ills in the most passionate documentary I have seen since Hoop Dreams. In 2009 more died from gang violence in Chicago than did U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's the reciprocal violence that is the phenomenon. James for one year latches to the hip of 'The Interrupters', a group of former gang members making up the nonprofit CeaseFire, as they 'interrupt' violence. He is after the phenomenon as much as anything else. The wizended folks of CeaseFire have all been incarcerated. Their story is hauntingly typical and prophetic. These folks that preach higher ground and forgiveness are sad. They're sad because there aren't really any answers when belonging is the issue and so many don't belong to much. Essentially what they're asking 'at risk youth' to do is to grasp on to fruits of the spirit when that is seemingly the most alienating and uncool thing one can do.

 If one lives on a high ground, where does one get off asking groundlings to act as if they have season tickets for box seats? James making this documentary begs asking. Refreshingly, they get their hands dirty for better or worse, James included. It takes a PBS audience to stomach the systemic mess. I still don't know what to do about it though, the violence that is. I don't think James or CeaseFire really does either. They make it clear that at the root of the problem is that nagging human affinity for belonging and power. Combating that might take more than jobs and opportunity and education. I wish we could bring in the forefathers on this one. Their foresight, most of which went unpublished, addressed this kind of stuff, albeit marred with antiquated, enlightenment quills. Is a step back possible in a capitalist system? Steve James, here, blows the dust off such a question. It's a brave film that bolsters faithful bravery. You don't have a choice, you have to see this one. You can watch it here.

10 Second Screenshot Reviews - Bucky Larson

Netflix Recs

Netflix's ineptitude when it comes to recommending 'movies you'll like' often translates into 28 minutes of laboriously clicking 'next'. Word is they have spent millions of their dwindling cash flow  on software ingenuity, particularly pertaining to movie recs. It has been hashed out on this site already, but I think the woes of Netflix validates sentiments manifested here on HOM. In short, a friend's recommendation always trumps a stranger's . As it is, we are launching a new feature on HOM. Netflix Recs. Somewhat regularly, we'll offer up our recs of which movies on Netflix Instant Streaming we think you may not have seen but should see. Queue up these "bad boys".*

Alamar
Agrarians often talk of the abhorrent losses we sustain in globalization. Machines have replaced humans as the source of community resulting in listless existences. In this short movie an agrarian father makes one last effort to deftly implant images of the simple, good life in his son's mind. Odds are you'll come away wishing you had a boat and some fish to catch instead of email.

Ali: When We Were Kings
This is a must for anyone that lived after Ali was in his prime. Get an inside look at the bombastic progenitor of the modern professional athlete mantra. He changed the world, in my opinion. You'll be captivated by all that you did not know and even more so by the person. You'll be called on the carpet if you combated ESPN for hailing him as the third greatest athlete of all time. If your father, when Ali is mentioned, stalls for a second or a minute or for several moments, as if to be playing back moving images of The Man, as if to be in true reverie, then make sure you check out this documentary to find out why. You'll be smarter and relevantly impacted for having watched this one.

Sin Nombre
Man, this one's tough. Don't just wander into this. My admonition is that you understand how little you understand about gang-mindset, even if you regularly indulge in History Channel's gangland. Keep an eye out for those moments when the main characters figure something out. Rightly so, they connect the dots faster than you. Being forced to accept their harsh realities inevitably becomes your prerogative as the viewer in a cushioned seat. Your seat will feel like it has needles in it, though. Don't let the discomfort deter you, this is some of the best acting I've seen in a while and one of the better scripts to come out of immigration cinema.

Encounters at the End of the World
The National Science Foundation is more than entertained by an eccentric and prickly Werner Herzog. They sent him to Antarctica, a place as crazy as he is, to find out why monkeys don't saddle a horse and ride off into the sunset. In this crazy place Herzog finds crazy people and captures some far out images. It all comes full circle with a soundtrack that will leave you googling "encounters end world soundtrack." A must see, you won't believe it but your gut will.

Slam
I checked this out of my university library* in 2003 because I was in an art movie phase. After, I thought about it for like nine years. Recently it popped  up in my Netflix 'Watch it Again'. I watched it again. I am still thinking about it. The theme is not original, the story is not original, the way it is made is not original. However, its way into a subculture's subculture is. The extended scenes allow the actors to be a touch more real even though they're encompassed by what has to be unreal. A series of bad choices, usually cumbersome to a viewer, are experienced more through words, thereby being something we can relate to. The idea is that the only way to make sense of ghetto life is through rhymes. I think this is a pretty good idea, if not a necessity.


*A 'bad boy' is often used as slang for one's passport. Its use here implies a sense of "this movie is a good one, you should watch it." In other words, its a provocative way to refer to something. 
*If you don't know, I didn't for a long time, your local library or your university library will rent movies out to you for free. Most likely, the folks renting them to you will be librarians. I've found that librarians are some of the coolest people around. Check out your local library and check out some free movies. 

Albert Nobbs and Dangerous Method (2 OK Films) - James King

2 OK Films

Albert Nobbs and Dangerous Method are alright.  I wouldn’t ask for my money back or anything because I love going to the movies (and this particular theatre has beer, so there you go).  But, I didn’t leave feeling like the movie itself was worth the price of a ticket and 90 to 180 minutes of my life.  Are OK movies by definition a failure (at least in terms of artistic quality or worth-seeingness (I don’t care about boxoffice))?  I think so.  Movies are magic, and you can’t have second-rate magic.  I’d rather see a magic trick go horribly wrong and be able to throw things at the stage rather than just sit there, amused enough not to leave.  On the other hand, it’s good to think positively and in that spirit here are some things to like about AN and DM.

Nobbs:  Glen Close as a man (kind of, more like Glen Close as a silent film actor made of wood) in a 19^th century Irish fable by George Moore adapted for the screen by John Banville!  A movie about a woman forced to become a man in an ultra-conservative society should have been great (it also has Brendan Gleason, so it really really should have been great); but it wasn’t.  To dwell on the positives, there is some great acting here; particularly by Janet McTeer playing another woman-in-hiding.  But where Nobbs is tortured, she is set free by her disquise and able to lead a fulfilling life.  Maybe the movie would have been better if Nobbs had been a supporting character to her much more interesting and uplifting story. 

Dangerous Method:  Vigo, Fassbender, Keira Knightley and the director who made the Fly.  So there are definitely some good moments.  To begin with, the subject matter is fascinating:  the birth of psychoanalysis.  The plot, as told in Jungian archetypes, involves Dr. Jung’s persona treating a Russian/Jewish hysteric.  She’s beautiful, brilliant, and interested in psychoanalysis and, once Jung’s Self travels away from Persona into Shadow, goes from patient to colleague to lover.  Winding around this story, like a dragon’s tail over a star, is the oedipal story of Jung’s fractured relationship with Dr. Freud.  Metaphorical patricide ensues, and the movie ends with a nice, tidy text-on-black-screen to tell us how it all turned out (shame they didn’t do it six-feet-under style instead with a speedily aging Jung driving his carriage away).

Buried - Kohrs

With the wife being out for the night; I figured I’d fire up Netflix and find a good thriller with satisfying explosions and gratuitous death scenes. What I found in Buried was something quite different.

The movie opens with Ryan Reynolds, who stars as Paul Conroy, groggily waking up trapped within a coffin and buried in the Iraqi desert. We later discover than an IED and small arms attack on Reynolds’ supply convoy has placed him in this place of peril. With only a lighter, Blackberry, and a few other supplies; he finds himself in a race against time to find a way out of his claustrophobic nightmare.

I wouldn’t classify Ryan Reynolds as a gritty, expressive actor; however, I was pleasantly surprised with his believable emotions throughout Buried. From the moment he awakens in his desert tomb, Reynolds demonstrates his ability to showcase a litany of real emotions. Unfortunately, his character’s inability to calm down and try to save himself, as well as a couple throwaway movie gimmicks (a snake in the coffin…seriously?) overshadow these abilities at times.

Overall, I would say that I was impressed with Buried, mostly for Reynolds’ ability to lead a one man show, one stage show using nothing but emotion and a quickly dying Blackberry.  Did I get to see our hero riding a tank into an enemy compound while waving the American flag and fighting off the (name your time period) bad guys by himself…No. I did, however, get to see a cool cinematic idea put into very satisfying action.

3.5/5

Breaking Dawn Part One - Tine

Indulging in a rather embarrassing guilty pleasure, I went to the cinema to see the newest chapter in the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn Part 1. To be fair, I have seen all the other Twilight films, and on some level appreciated their inconsistent style, bad acting and glittering vampires. But Breaking Dawn takes it all to a whole new level, which keeps escalating as the film progresses. Actually it took the whole cinema experience to a whole new level, which is why I decided to write a review on it. I went in expecting to see some more vampire/werewolf drama, but was met with Rosemary’s Baby meets … I don’t rightly know actually, I have never seen anything like it.

It starts out pretty mellow with a teenage wedding of the extravagant type, Edward the vampire finally gets his Bella, where a majority of the guests look like playboy bunnies with fangs. After a quick (and completely unnecessary) stop-over in Rio, literally bed-breaking sex and an unexpected pregnancy, the beginning of it only left my mouth slightly open in wonder and horror.  Then after a lengthy period of sexual frustration it gets really bad, with the human, Bella, pregnant with a monster child, turning increasingly into the living dead and drinking blood from styrofoam cups.

There is a much talked of and remarkable amount of thinking moments in this film; Days of Our Lives-style, but without the enlightening voiceover. This increases the sense of complete disjointedness, instead of a storyline the plot consist more of random scenes, some from rom-coms, some from action films, and a lot from horror films. More often than intended, the whole audience broke into a collective fit of laughter of the ‘what?’-kind. I’ve never been to the cinema with such a feeling of being at the circus, everyone screaming and laughing and almost retching collectively. And we’re talking a big crowd. It was like a festival, a continual journey of awe and wonder, through a never-ending love triangle between Edward, Bella and werewolf Jacob (and the rivalry between vampires and werewolves in general). When, at the end, Edward takes a nibble out of pretty much every limb on Bella’s body in an attempt to turn her vampire before she dies I think people were ready to throw rotten tomatoes at the screen. Excellent entertainment in other words.

Not to say that this film doesn’t touch on deeper cultural discussions, the obvious being the question of sex before marriage and abortion, although personally I think the choices made in the film were made for the sake of fattening up the already thin plot. And for those of you who are worried about lack of dramatic content in the next and last chapter of this saga, do not worry, we get a lovely preview of Jacob’s future feelings for Bella and Edward’s child through a stylish montage. Oh, and the child will be named after Bella’s mom Renee and Edward’s mom Esmé, making her name Renesmee (I’m not kidding).

Haywire

Haywire, theoretically a thriller, is Stephen Soderbergh's most recent genre experiment that stars Gina Carano (an MMA fighter) as an incredulous backhander of lesser men. The mistrust is not unfounded or hard for Mallory (Carano) to swallow. From the first swallow of tea, which she ingests in such a way that strips us of our own incredulity--can an MMA fighter carry a film featuring men with red carpet fuzzies on the soles of their Jimmy Choo's (Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas and Ewan McGregor)? Yes. I was floored by her presence. Who knew that drinking tea could serve as a quick roundhouse to the teeth of skeptics? Like I said, the first sip of tea in the homey upstate New York diner is shared with her unexpected, hungover, colleague Tatum and not the expected, tail-between-the-legs Kenneth (McGregor), her boss and director of a privately owned gun-for-hire company. With so much distrust on the table in an unassuming, peaceful diner the introductory ass kicking couldn't be far off--it wasn't and it served to set the dial at full-throttle.

Soderbergh excels in allowing true fighting skills to dictate his first action movie. Carano is athletic enough to make Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan shout-outs worth the effort. I don't think Soderbergh was trying to make an epic like Traffic. Nor was he fulfilling expectations for another too cool for school Ocean's. I think he is successful enough and rich enough to do whatever he wants and get whatever actors he needs. I imagine that he has some favorite action movies and wanted to make one, so he did. So don't expect an Oscar worthy script or bracket busting acting. Expect entertainment and enjoy the parody/genuine action movie.

The narrative takes from the Usual Suspects. The ending is teased out in the beginning. Major gaps are left that could only be filled in by camo-painted faces and thigh-around-your-neck-choke-outs. For the story to work we needed what I call I check-back. A check-back is the character that we can periodically check-back with to make sure that we are getting everything. The check-back in this case is the owner of the car that Mallory needed to borrow for a bit on her way to tie up loose ends. She drives, the check-back listens to her story. He'll be the alibi when it's all said and done. Check-backs are always endearing and non-threatening. Someday, a main character is going to get in a car with a check-back and the check-back is going to be a Navy Seal or something. At any rate, this check-back serves as a reminder that Haywire is supposed to be fun. Not a Bourne movie (she is athletic and agile but still takes her time climbing over fences), nor a Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (intriguing plot twists and subtle clues but none that are intense enough to warrant really long conversations). It's more a movie to go see with your friends from high school, it would most likely be OK to text during this one--the mood is that light.

Kenneth (McGregor) is the sleazy, spineless, money and fear driven boss of the contracted hit-woman company. It's obvious from the first meeting wherein he's pitching Michael Douglas (Senator), that he is probably going to get his ass kicked. Antonio Banderas is one of his main clients. He must be in on the whole scheme that Mallory slugs her way through. Their motives, Douglas', McGregor's, and Antonio's are murcky. What is important is that Mallory has been targeted and she is not going down without going way past tap-outs.

All in all, a slimmer of cerebral chill, but not much backbone. Soderbergh has made a fun one and Carano has left her mark. How she kept such a mark-less face only Bruce Lee would know. She is feminine-sexy enough to make you say whoa, yet physically inclined enough to say, I don't think I can handle that. Most of all, she had that presence. Check her and Haywire out, good times.