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Can a scumbag also be considered a hero? Lance Armstrong fans probably mull that question each time a new, unsavory revelation about the now-disgraced cyclist comes to light. The issue was addressed in 1992’s Hero, which starred Dustin Hoffman as a low-life who saves a group of passengers on a crashed airplane. Flight also takes to the not-so-friendly skies to examine whether it’s possible to reconcile a lifetime of destructive behavior with an extraordinary act of valor.
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“When creating art, there’s a fine line between greatness and nonsense.” You know who said that?  I did as soon as the end credits for Cloud Atlas started rolling. The sci-fi adventure/historical drama/mega-budget drag show has modest aspirations: all it’s trying to do is tell an epic, centuries-spanning story about the human condition. Needless to say, Cloud Atlas is easily one of the most ambitious and audacious films released in the last few years. No wonder it took three directors to wrestle this thing into theaters.
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Whenever the TV spots for Alex Cross promise that the movie features “Tyler Perry as you’ve never seen him before,” I can’t help but snarkily add “…in men’s clothing!” To put it lightly, I had my doubts when I heard the wildly successful actor/producer/director/playwright/crossdresser would be stepping into the title role, previously played on screen by Oscar winner Morgan Freeman. (Especially when Perry replaced the great Idris Elba on this project, though my giant man-crush on Elba possibly clouded my judgment.)
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Pitch Perfect is the best big-screen a cappella comedy I’ve ever seen. Of course, the new film pretty much wins that title by default because the hyper-competitive world of collegiate a cappella has been largely ignored by the movies. To make up for that oversight, Pitch Perfect tries to cram all aca-related matters into one movie. The result is a slightly flabby 112-minute running time. Fortunately(?), I’ve been to enough a cappella competitions to appreciate the fact that the movie gets a lot of things right. (Including the annoying habit aca-people have of sticking “aca” in front of everything.)
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If it were possible to buy stock in any Under-25 actress today, I’d pick Jennifer Lawrence first, Emma Stone would be a close second, and Kristen Stewart would be last. Lawrence has a pair of blockbuster movie franchises in her back pocket (The Hunger Games, X-Men), is a past Oscar nominee and is generating buzz for the upcoming Silver Linings Playbook. So if a studio were to have a Jennifer Lawrence film on its bench, September 2012 would probably look like some prime real estate.
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