Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (2011)

Not many films dare to put the em dash in their title. Behind the slick, hyper-modern, Apple Computer veneer, this is sort of a throwback to a time before gritty and real and visceral (but still PG-13) were major buzzwords in tentpole action films. Tom Cruise leads a group of character archetypes through a massive conspiracy to stop a nuclear war. It's so strangely safe a plot that it has to be a race against the end of the world itself. But then, the story isn't the point; these are films about high tech, high tension set piece moments and action sequences with nearly unlimited budgets, and this is where the film largely delivers. First time live action director Brad Bird (yep, the guy who made Iron Giant and The Incredibles) is able to bring more than a few pulses of exceptionally nimble choreography, ranging from rousing and novel chases to a surprising number of quiet, clever, and subdued sleights of hand. The ragtag group of misfits chosen to save the world all find a great chemistry among the chaos, with each member given several chances to really shine and be featured. It's a movie absolutely overflowing with ideas to excite even as several of the story reveals fall flat. There's a sheer confidence to its goofy stride that, while it's certainly several notches over the top, it still manages to remain unpredictable and, best of all, damn entertaining.

8 out of 10.

Prometheus (2012)

Let’s be clear: this is a film with problems, and some of them are pretty big. Yet the fact remains that they just don’t make sci-fi like this very often: grand and inquisitive, poking a big stick into bigger ideas and seeing what kind of horrifying monstrosity of an answer comes tumbling out. For the first half of the film, it’s almost as good as you want it to be. The setup is immediately compelling: an invitation to a faraway planet written on ancient cave walls across the world. We wonder what answers wait in the far reaches of space. This is a horror-thriller, however—wonder will soon give way to dread, and unfortunately once things inevitably start to go sideways the plot and pacing do the same. The second half is frankly a bit of a mess. Character motivations get lost in the shuffle, traumatic events pass with hardly a moment of reflection given to the victim, and developments that should be startling are met with a strange sense of apathy. Horror exists almost entirely on the premise of characters making poor decisions, but some of these are particularly cringe-worthy. And yet this is still a film worth seeing. For one: it’s absolutely gorgeous from start to finish, with barely a shot that is anything less than beautiful, even when it’s grotesque. For another: Michael Fassbender’s performance as the android David is absolutely riveting. And there are still those questions it’s keen on fiddling with, dangling like a carrot on a stick. This may not be a perfect film by a very long shot, but there’s more than enough here warrant recommending. Especially if you’re a fan of the Alien franchise.

7 out of 10.

The Box (2009)

Someone drops a box off at your door. Inside is a button. You are informed that if you press the button someone you do not know will die, and you will be given one million dollars. You have twenty-four hours to decide whether or not to push the button. And from that, things get weird. What starts out as a great bit of mental torture and suspense quickly gives way to an extended episode of The Twilight Zone with all the trimmings. Unfortunately, it's just about as cheesy too. There's some excellent weirdness going on in this movie, but while the scope of events from one reveal to the next is spot on, the sense of mystery doesn't quite follow suit. Lots of things change for the cooler, but it's hard to really care beyond curiosity. That's a shame too, because with a bit more love and a lot less runtime this could have been a perfect popcorn muncher. The same Richard Kelly that brought us the excellent Donnie Darko does a very good job capturing the vintage 70s television vibe throughout, but alas it just doesn't quite come together in a way that does its far-out ideas justice.

5 out of 10.

Das Boot (1981)

As far as harrowing scenarios go, it's hard to picture worse than being trapped in a metal contraption hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean with every pipe around you creaking under the pressure, and enemy ships passing by above you determined to see you drown. Try to forget for a moment that his is a film about Germans in World War II; just focus on the human drama on display. The result in unbelievably tense and thoroughly nerve wracking. There is rarely a dull moment in the film, as each passing boat or each life-threatening trial perfectly ups the ante. Being that it is film about the unrelentingly tight quarters of a German U-Boat, the atmosphere of cramped quarters is sold to perfection. If you are claustrophobic, you may want to give this one a pass It may not be perfect, largely thanks to some transparent production whenever the boat surfaces, and an ending that feels either contrived, or bluntly honest, but even with those caveats this film is a masterpiece of total suspense, and a fascinating peek at a nightmare situation for many people.

9 out of 10.

Casino (1995)

Ever the master of the the montage and the mob movie, Martin Scorsese here gives us the raw, bloody red belly of Las Vegas casino management in the late 70s. It's basically like Goodfellas but with more sand. And like Goodfellas, it's based on truth. Here you get all the Scorsese crime film staples: brutal, unglamorous violence, an absolutely pitch-perfect classic rock soundtrack, Robert De Niro being somber and awesome, and Joe Pesci throwing out hundreds of the most finely crafted f-bombs in cinema. The whole thing runs at a blistering pace as well, which is good because even at such a brisk jog it still runs just shy of three never-dull hours. The epic length begets a story that feels even bigger; the first hour alone has enough plot to bury a half-dozen other movies and things only build, beautifully, from there. Martin Scorsese is simply the master of this genre, and once again he shows us why. There isn't a weak part, a slow moment, or a wrong cue anywhere to be found in this film. About the only way in which it fails is in not giving more of the real life stories behind the mayhem.

10 out of 10.

The Road (2009)

Quietly trudging through the wasteland after the end of the world, a father and son simply try to survive. Just as Cormac McCarthy wrote his silent story of desperation, so it is with this film. It is a surprisingly faithful adaptation, especially considering how devastating and cruel the remainder of the world is portrayed. There is no safety, no beauty, no kindness, nothing left in this setting. Still, for as accurately as the original vision has been fit to the screen there is a surprising, if slight, disconnect throughout. This may be a perfect example of something being lost in translation. Without the stream-of-conscious narrative of the book, the crushing weight of the main characters situation doesn't settle as heavily. Similarly, the few dangers the characters encounter feel less ominous, and far more direct. Yet still, despite the subtlety lessened impact brought about, there is more than enough gravity to circumstances, more than enough desperation to go around.

8 out of 10.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Also known as C'era una volta il West.
Nobody does the western like Sergio Leone. Returning to the murky waters of moral uncertainty, this epic of revenge and perseverance shows off the very best of what the venerable director is can do. On the one hand you have a fairly straight-forward tale of a man out for revenge for an unspeakable wrong done to him, and on the other we follow a woman fresh off the train grimly determined to make it on her own as a homesteader. The dusty back and forth that ensues is every bit the director's exceptional trademark. There has never been another director who can characters doing so little seem so intensely interesting. While ultimately it is perhaps a less complicated film than some of Leone's other work, the more narrow focus lets the suspense grow beautifully, and allows the final payoff to have a lasting sense of satisfaction. Even when he sets out to make a more common western, Leone still delivers the best in the genre.

9 out of 10.

Inception (2010)

So few directors can orchestrate a mystery better than Christopher Nolan. Hot off of The Dark Knight, Nolen gives us an opus of a passion project, a film so cleverly intricate and expertly executed that there is little left to do in the end but marvel. At its core it is simply a grand heist movie, but when the goods are stored in a person's subconscious things start to get tricky. And surreal. Very surreal. What plays out is an incredibly labyrinthine story accented with mind-bending, well, mind-bending. It's unbelievably fascinating and expertly crafted. The sheer scale and breadth of thought that goes into some key sequences is enough to fill the imagination. Yet there Nolan is, confidently pushing along, and making the most complex of concepts sing and dance and comfortably layer on top of themselves. It's a total trip on a scale not seen since The Matrix. The only downside is that you'll spend so much of your brain coming to grips with its crazy ideas that the emotional side of the story has trouble staying potent. But for a film to fill the head with so very much, and successfully nudge the audience along down such a winding road, the few tiny flaws can easily be forgiven.

9 out of 10.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Director Guy Ritchie may have outgrown making stylish gangster flicks, but his talent for creatively smashing his way through British culture is very much alive and intact. Taking the grandfather of all super-detectives and giving him a heaping dose of modern cynicism may not do anything for purists of character continuity, but it makes something damn entertaining regardless. That it's the professional motormouth himself, Robert Downey Jr., as the man himself just makes things all the more fun. Meanwhile Ritchie's hyper detailed editing style lends itself perfectly to such a meticulous character. Series purists will of course lament the loss of his cocaine addiction and implications of invisible friends, or that he's more of a man of action than a dour riddle-solver. But this is a film that is aiming for pure, breezy, popcorn-munching entertainment, carefree and pleasantly complicated. About the only real knock against this film are the almost universally terrible CG effects. If you can get past that little tweak, and don't mind a few character liberties, there's very little to dislike in this hyperactive reimagining.

8 out of 10.

Body of Lies (2008)

Although his visual sense has only grown with age, the same cannot be said of director Ridley Scott's consistency. This twisting tale of a pair of CIA agents butting heads over anti-terrorist operations in the middle-east is big on visual punch, but is too self-important to settle comfortably. Difficult names with complicated alliances are thrown around casually, and in ten minutes all the thinking committed to sorting out where they fit in the story is rendered irrelevant as they either die, or some difficult revelation switches up the playing field. Its eye candy is opulent throughout, but it lacks a pace slow enough to be understood or, sadly, cared about. By the time it's over and done there's no great message, no single “wow” moment, no lasting flavor. It's not a waste of time, but neither is it a particular good use of time either. But it sure looks good.

5 out of 10.

Knowing (2009)

You get these sometimes: movies that start out pretty good, get about half way in, then start to fall apart. By the time you get to the last fifteen minutes of this film you'll want a refund on your time. In the early going, as the catastrophic numerology starts to pull things together, it feels pretty good—there's palpable tension as the disparate threads introduce themselves, the characters have interesting tweaks on familiar dynamics, and Nicolas Cage manages not to make a mess of himself. Then things swing into the second act. The more everything starts to make sense, the less interesting it becomes. There's a lot of potential carelessly discarded by the time the credits roll. The few effects sequences are still pretty decent, and the first act holds up well, but if you need a sci-fi thriller fix, you can do much better.

4 out of 10.

In Bruges (2008)

Straddling the line between comedy and drama is not an easy thing to do. Just ask the producers of this film, who manage to make a pretty decent drama-thriller, yet in the same turn almost entirely fail to make it funny. It certainly tries to be funny, but this tale of a pair of hitmen laying low in a quiet European hamlet after a job just doesn't have enough humor going for it. But even so, it's still a compelling film, with enough quiet turns and character moments to pull it through to the end. The assassins are both likable and interesting, if a bit off-kilter, the setting is quaint and pleasant to look at, and the script itself remains remarkably consistent. So no, it's not the black comedy it wants to be, but everything else seems to be on solid footing.

7 out of 10.

Die Hard (1988)

When all is said and done, this is still just a typical 80s shoot-em-up. It just so happens to be possibly the best 80s action shoot-em-up. Watching Bruce Willis sneak around a terrorist-filled office building is a case study in how to make a great action film. The setting is mundane enough to be believable yet handled with a sense of geographical complexity that is always interesting, the villains are appropriately menacing and cut-throat, and our hero is a down to earth cop with terrible one-liners and an ever increasing number of cuts and bruises. All the tools are there, and director John McTiernan comes out in force to make full use of them, giving each scene an effortless sense of suspense and purpose. For every bit of cheesy action excess to come out of the 80s, this is one for the decade to be proud of.

9 out of 10.

Die Hard 2 (1990)

Replacing terrorists in a nearly deserted office complex for terrorists in an airport in the middle of the holidays does wonders for the scale of the film, but sticking Bruce Willis' every-cop into the middle of such grandiose spectacle only seems to drive home just how perfectly restrained the first film was. Willis is just as strong as before, but the situation he's in is just too much to swallow. Worse still is how it tries to ape the first's sense of place and improvised geography. Yet despite that, there's still a bit of charm to be had. There's nothing wrong with the script itself, and the shootouts are both plentiful and exciting. Even the drama holds together fairly well. It's just that when you stick such an affable everyman in the middle of a far bigger slice of impossible than before, things fall out of balance.

7 out of 10.

Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

Tearing New York City apart bit by bit has rarely been this much fun. The triumphant return of the original Die Hard's director, John McTeirnan, means a move away from the too-convenient plot devices of the second, and the added megabudget means he's is free to destroy as much of the city as necessary. It really is spectacular what the filmmakers are able to get away with in this movie, plowing through one location after another with little but wreckage left behind. This piece of cat-and-mouse features a terrorist with a personal ax to grind with every-cop John McClaine, but it's Samuel L. Jackson's role that really stands out. It's fantastic to see how well the concepts of the series hold up when expanded out to a full city instead of a single setting. While it may be a more straight-forward action thriller than the first, the sheer scope of escalation easily gives it solid footing among the best in the genre.

9 out of 10.

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

And here's where it falls apart. After an amazing start, a bit of a stumble, and a triumphant return, it is really sad to see such a grand series go out with such a whimper. It isn't that this is necessarily a bad movie in its own right, either. In fact at worst, taken on its own, it's merely a bog standard, bland summer action film. What makes this effort so sad is that it betrays almost everything that makes Die Hard what it is. Gone is the everycop, gone is plausibility, gone is the workmanship that seems evident in all the previous films. Instead we get a super-slick, damn near family friendly action film attempt at re-branding the series to seem more “modern.” Oh no! The terrorists are after the internets. All of them! And only superhero cop John McClaine, with his invincible bone structure and implausibly great luck, can stop them. I'm not buying it. Neither should you.

3 out of 10.

Fight Club (1999)

Just as ballsy and brutal more than a decade since its release, Fight Club remains every bit the resonant anthem of apathy and despondency it was years ago. Watching Edward Norton's insomniac cum ringmaster utterly decimate and remake his life is still such perfect fuel for self-analysis, and the cathartic release of bareknuckle combat comes as a punchline whose joke is often too depressing to be spoken. Few movies in the last generation have said as much to the anger and disappointment and aimlessness of the times, and fewer still dare to propose such unrelenting purpose and planning as if it were a good idea. The times may have changed, but the message and its relevance have not, and while some may find its siren song of chaos horrifying, it is nonetheless seductive. Rare is the film that is as dangerous, or as right.

10 out of 10.

Watership Down (1979)

Respect for an audience can be a hard thing to come by in an animated film. For as many talking bears, singing princesses, and pieces of anthropomorphic silverware as have been drawn for the screen, few are given the chance to breathe and be part of something bigger than mere archetype. Watership Down is not a perfect film, but considering the time it was made and the general story, it's amazing that there was any consideration to make it more than just another kid's film, let alone a full-blown thriller. Seeing a group of rabbits strike out on their own to found a new colony wouldn't be this tense if it had been in more market-minded hands. But there's a confidence here, and a sense of respect enough for the laws of nature to show things maybe not as they really are, but as the could be. It's dark and it's violent sure, but it's honest, and doesn't let tragedy break its stride. Though at times it may seem more interested in how a rabbit moves about than in telling its story, there's definitely a sense of weight and intelligence to be appreciated.

8 out of 10.

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Going back to your roots is always a risky proposition. As directors grow, the things that made them able to make the kind of experience that sparked their career fade. It's nice to see that Sam Raimi doesn't really have that problem. In some of the best possible ways this shows that Raimi may not have evolved at all since the days of Evil Dead. It's every bit the cheesy, crowd-pleasing scarefest that he cut his teeth on. The story of a woman cursed to be, of course, dragged off to Hell, has plenty of easy hooks and evenly placed jumps, but is also remarkably direct with its intentions. It knows exactly what kind of movie it is, and gives off clever smiles as often as demonic fright. In the end, it's nothing more than is standard for the genre, but is so much fun that it hardly matters.

8 out of 10.

My Name Is Bruce (2007)

Unfortunately, this is probably about as close as Bruce Campbell will ever get to doing another Evil Dead. Pity too, as this film definitely shows he still has the badass side of that character in him. Here Bruce Campbell directs Bruce Campbell playing Bruce Campbell, kidnapped by a devoted fan to do battle an ancient demon unleashed in a small mining town. It's a B-movie with an oversized B, filled with loving fan-service and covered in a thick layer of good natured cheese. It's a film for Campbell's fans, featuring bits plucked from all his best stuff, wrapped in the attitude of Army of Darkness, and stuffed with self-parody. If you have a hearty respect for Campell's more egomaniacal characters, there's a lot to enjoy here. If you don't already have some love for the man with the infinite chin, this might not be your cup of tea.

6 out of 10.