The Reel World

"They cry, they plead, they beg, they piss themselves, they cry for their mothers. It gets embarrassing. I like to kill 'em softly. From a distance."

Brad Pitt demonstrates that very well during one of his execution scenes. Killing Them Softly is director Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of the 1974 novel, Cogan’s Trade by George V. Higgnins. This film is Dominik’s third go-around serving as both writer and director (the other two times being Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James), and I must say that he seems at home with double the amount of work.

"For them this is just some place. For us it's our home… it's up to us to fight for it."

For decades it was the doomsday scenario. Cold War Americans lived in almost constant fear that the Soviets might drop a nuke on us and begin Armageddon. It was unthinkable that a conventional invasion could reach our shores instead. Red Dawn stirred its own mushroom cloud of controversy when it reached theaters in August of 1984. While the Cold War was actually closer to its end than any of us might have suspected, Red Dawn entered our collective consciousness as a shock to a system that had for some time moved beyond the culture of fear those older than myself knew growing up. Now nearly 30 years later the Soviet Union is no longer, and the Cold War is something many Americans have never even experienced firsthand. We have new enemies, and so we now have a new Red Dawn.

"Pause...take a breath."

At first you might expect A Late Quartet to be about the music. There is certainly plenty of it to go around. The film even manages to convince us that Christopher Walken is a renowned cello player even though we all know what he can do with a pocket watch. Yeah, you caught yourself smiling there, even if you'd like to believe you're above such things. It demonstrates the real strength of the film. It's not the music. It's a rather surprising and convincing collection of performances, this is true. But it's the thespian art that is truly on display in this rather intimate drama.

There’s an old showbiz adage warning performers to “never work with children or animals.” There’s also an impressive list of legendary filmmakers — including Steven Spielberg and James Cameron — who struggled mightily to make water-based blockbusters like Jaws and Titanic. (That list also includes somewhat less legendary names like Kevin Reynolds and Waterworld.) Apparently, no one told Ang Lee any of this before he agreed to make Life of Pi.

Like Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi is a recent big-screen adaptation of a best-selling book considered by many to be unfilmable. The list of Oscar-nominated directors who reportedly took a crack at Life of Pi over the years includes M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie).

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this..."

These were strong words, and the man who spoke them was certainly a dominant figure in American history. He's been portrayed hundreds of times on film and television. Rarely have any of these efforts been able to capture the true essence of a great man. You can't blame the actors or the production teams. There are those tasks which some say just can't be done. Lincoln heard those arguments himself. I'm sure that Steven Spielberg must have been haunted by the same thoughts when he set out to do Lincoln. Fortunately, he found another remarkable man who was up to the task. If Daniel Day-Lewis does not get the Oscar for his performance as Abraham Lincoln, then I propose the Academy close its doors forever. We might well believe that all men are created equal. It's a true enough axiom. That doesn't mean that all men possess equal ability in all things. Just two hours with Daniel Day-Lewis and you'll find the point well illustrated.

"Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that sort of thing anymore."

It was 1962 and Ursula Andress emerged from the tropical island surf sporting a provocative swimsuit, and a tradition was born. The seductive scene would become the first iconic image in a line that has lasted a half a century and counting.  Fifty years; 23 movies makes it the longest running film franchise in motion picture history. He had many faces over those 50 years: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, George Lazenby and even David Niven, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen in a 1967 spoof. For the last three films he's been played by Daniel Craig. They all had somewhat different styles. They all had a line of beautiful women. They all faced different challenges and foes. But they all shared the same name: Bond...James Bond.

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.

You wouldn’t necessarily guess that from the film’s punchy trailer — see below — which paints Flight as a cynical gloss on the Sully Sullenberger story. (The movie’s protagonist even has a similarly folksy, alliterative name: Whip Whitaker.) Instead, Flight is an R-rated drama that presents one of the most unflinching portrayals of drug and alcohol addiction you’re likely to ever see in a mass-appeal film from a big-time director and starring one of the world’s most famous movie stars.

"I'm bad and that's good. I will never be good and that's not bad."

One of the easiest ways to let your age show is to talk about your favorite video games. If you're old enough, you even remember a time when there weren't any video games at all. Most people refer to this era as The Dark Ages. But I'm willing to admit that I put a deposit down on an Atari 2600 system these many years ago. If you have a love of all things video games and a great appreciation for the history of the field, Wreck-It Ralph was built just for you.

“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.

Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) joined forces with the Wachowski Bros. siblings (The Matrix trilogy) to adapt David Mitchell’s 2004 novel of the same name, which seems utterly unfilmable on paper.

Here's the thing. Fans of the franchise should be pleased with the latest entry. The series has been a solid October tradition for some time now. When you consider the low cost of creating one of these films with the proven box office numbers, this was all really a no-brainer, to say the least. You're going to get more of what you are expecting, and the film throws in enough new angles and tricks to keep the idea as fresh as possible. However, there is a flip-side to all of this. I don't think it's very likely that you can enjoy this film quite so fully if you have not seen any of the previous films. The history is of vital importance if you're going to appreciate where all of this is going. That isn't to say newcomers won't be entertained. There are enough jumps and shocks to have a relatively good time. Still, if you haven't gotten yourself caught up in the franchise's mythology, you might want to make that effort before going to see this film. It was my intention to watch the first three again before I saw this one. I couldn't find the time. I wish I had. I did see the first three films, and I still feel like I needed to refresh myself before the journey into number 4. Alas that was not meant to be, and this review will suffer somewhat because of that. I very strongly encourage you to take in the story so far before venturing to your local multiplex.

You say you don't have the time either? Here's a quick history lesson to get you caught up. You should be warned that here there be SPOILERS of the first three films: