At The Movies

BATTLE: LA - Aaron Eckhart stars as Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz, a platoon leader in the middle of a world war with an alien race. The film begins much like WAR OF THE WORLDS, with an alien race invading Earth to exploit its resources. I'm serious - the first 10 minutes are right out of the H.G. Wells story, and it's by far the most interesting part of the movie. But when the main story comes into play the film takes an interesting turn. Nantz and his platoon are sent into Los Angeles to rescue some civilians before a major bomb drop takes place. As the platoon of marines makes its way through the battered city streets they encounter wave after wave of alien troops, and several gun battles ensue as they attempt to escape the city. That right there is what makes this movie unique from other "alien invasion" movies. What you would expect to be another WAR OF THE WORLDS clone quickly becomes a clone of BLACK HAWK DOWN, with a little SAVING PRIVATE RYAN thrown in for good measure. Aaron Eckhart's performance is surprisingly great, but his is the only one. The battle sequences work and the action of the story is interesting, but the writing is surprisingly poor. In fact, some of the dialogue here is at times laughable. But overall I thought it was an okay "popcorn" flick.


THE LOVELY BONES - Directed by Peter Jackson this is the story of Susie, a 14 year old girl who is murdered by her neighbor. As her parents (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz) grieve over her death Susie is caught between heaven and earth as she waits to move on. As she wanders around in the afterlife Susie tries to communicate with her family and friends, and she even starts to "will" her father to go after her killer. The movie moves at a snail's pace. It's just one long grieving scene after another. Oh, the film looks gorgeous, I'll give it that much. The scenes where Susie wanders through the afterlife are beautiful to look at. But too much of the movie is spent on Susie's parents as we watch them grieve...grieve...argue...and grieve. The film's best quality is the powerful performance by Stanley Tucci, who plays the neighbor who murders Susie. But too often the film gets bogged down in its own despair. At times the film reminded me of the 1998 film WHAT DREAMS MAY COME. Both films deal with a character caught between heaven and earth, but WHAT DREAMS MAY COME is way better. THE LOVELY BONES is a beautiful film with a very dark story.


THE AMERICAN - George Clooney stars as Jack, a lone assassin for hire. When a job in Sweden almost costs him his life he accepts a new job in Italy that's a little less dangerous. While in Italy he meets a local girl and starts to think about settling down and starting a new life. But when he tries to get out his former employers suddenly have a change of plans and make him the target. When the trailer for this film first came out it gave the appearance that it was an espionage thriller. Actually, the film is more of a character study about an assassin who is coming to terms with life after retirement - how does a man who doesn't trust anyone actually start a new life? The film reminded me of the spy films from the 1970's, where the plot isn't spoon fed to the audience and the pace is slowed to increase the tension. The Italian scenery is gorgeous, and the performances are great. Great movie!


VALHALLA RISING - Judging by the movie poster and the title you would think this is your typical viking movie. This is anything but. Directed by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn VALHALLA RISING is more of a viking movie for the pretentious "art house" crowd than your typical cineplex movie-goers. The film follows a viking warrior mute, nicknamed "One Eye," who is introduced at the beginning as a slave used in viking fighting games. When he escapes from his captors he soon joins a group of christian warriors who are traveling to the holy land. However, during the voyage the ship gets lost and ends up in a dreamlike "new world" teeming with hostile natives. The film sounds like an action movie doesn't it? It's actually not. There is graphic violence here, but most of the movie is an atmospheric character study of "One Eye" and his christian allies. What's that? Character study in a viking movie? You're read right. The story is very artistic in style. The pacing is very slow, the cinematography is gorgeous, and the music is mesmerizing and brooding. There's a total of about 2 pages of dialogue in the whole thing, and the film is broken up in chapters, with titles like "Wraith," "Silent Warrior," "Hell," and "Sacrifice." The film reminded me of the Terrence Malick film THE NEW WORLD, where the main character slowly descends into madness...and then the story suddenly stops in place of a confusing dream-like sequence that makes you wonder if the main character is in heaven or hell. This film was not at all what I expected, but yet I still kind of liked it. VALHALLA RISING has MANY faults, and a lot of people would probably flat out hate it. But there was something about it that I found interesting and very unique.


MONSTERS - According to the story, 6 years ago NASA discovered alien life in our solar system. A probe was sent to retrieve samples, but then crash landed in northern Mexico. Soon after, all of northern Mexico is "quarantined" with giant alien monsters, and became an "infected area." Now, before you write this off as another sci-fi monster movie let me tell you the twist. The twist is this movie plays more like LOST IN TRANSLATION than an alien movie. A photographer named Andrew is stuck in Mexico with his boss's daughter, Samantha. He is then asked to escort the girl through the "quarantined" area of northern Mexico and bring her home to the states. Most of the movie is "monster-free," and plays more like the romance in LOST IN TRANSLATION than anything else. Then out of nowhere the romance is interrupted by a quick monster attack with the Mexican military. This movie was nothing like what I expected. It's a low-budget monster movie that's curiously void of monsters. While I admire it for trying to be something different nothing really happens here, and nothing much gets resolved at the end. Kind of an odd movie.


IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY - Craig is a 16 year old who is all bottled up inside and fed up with the world. After feeling suicidal he commits himself to the psychiatric ward in a New York hospital. There he meets Bobby, played by the great Zach Galifianakis. Bobby helps Craig find peace with the world, and also helps him win the affections of a girl named Alissa, who also lives in the ward. This movie is really nothing like the one that is advertised. What is advertised as a romantic comedy, instead comes across as a college version of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUKOO'S NEST. The writing here is witty, but not laugh-out-loud funny. Galifianakis gives another great performance here, and at times he saves the movie from being something easily forgotten. This is a nice rental...but other than that it's not anything special.