State of Play
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Genre: Drama
Main Cast: Russell Crowe (as Cal McAffrey) Ben Affleck (as Congressman Stephen Collins) and
Rachel McAdams (as Della Frye)IMDB Rating: 7.3
My Rating: 6.7
Length: 128 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $60 million/$88 million
As noted before, I was expecting a lot from this film, with it starring Crowe, Affleck, and McAdams, three high-tier performers who I enjoy watching immensely, and thus was slightly disappointed of the overall storyline and lack of importance accomplished. Crowe's character of the truth-seeking journalist was played well, very similar to his role in American Gangster. A pretty typical corporation corruption/journalist investigation film, with its disability to impress being its cause for it being ordinary, not excellent.
Changeling
Release Date: 2008
Director: Clint Eastwood
Genre: Drama
Main Cast: Angelina Jolie (as Christine Collins) Jeffrey Donovan (as Captain J.J. Jones) and John Malkovich (as Reverend Gustav Briegleb)
IMDB Rating: 8.0
My Rating: 6.4
Length: 141 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $55 million/$113 million
Although an overall well-done piece, the film was severely lacking closure in the ending of the film. Jolie and Malkovich were both excellent throughout, both being fighters for rights against the corrupt LAPD. Malkovich plays another one of his few main protagonist roles in his career. The fact that the story was based on true events accounted for some of the issues with the film not finishing with any moral or better understanding of the situation. I also felt that the film did not do a great job of keeping the audience informed of the full situation, and that major events throughout the film were not connected to one another well. For example, towards the end of the film, the film goes from showing Jolie being released from the mental institute, to the courtroom, to jail to visit the murderer, all in a very quick and untransitioned manner. The transitions between these locations were not smoothly portrayed in my opinion. A good clean drama, but one that leaves much lacking in a storyline that tales off towards the finale.
Karate Kid
Director: Harald Zwart
Genre: Action
Main Cast: Jaden Smith (as Dre Parker) and Jackie Chan (as Mr. Han)
IMDB Rating: 6.2
My Rating: 6.7
Length: 140 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $40 million/$358 million
Very similar to the three Karate Kid films prior, this 2010 version chronicles the rise of an out-of-place kung fu-trained boy who uses his skills to defend himself against bullies and win a kung-fu competition after moving to China with his mother. The acting of Smith and Chan was respectable for their respective ages, although I did not feel that the sentimentality of their relationships as well as the other connections throughout the film were very heartfelt. Similar again to the other films in the series, the importance of the Dre winning the competition did little besides win him respect from his tormentors, something not terribly applicable to his life in the future. A good family film, but by no means a blockbuster.
Secret Window
Director: David Koepp
Genre: Thriller
Main Cast: Johnny Depp (as Mort Rainey) and John Turturro (as John Shooter)
IMDB Rating: 6.5
My Rating: 7.3
Length: 96 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $40 million/$130 million
The most pleasant surprise and my favorite film of the week, Secret Window had a similar psychological effect that both Fight Club and The Number 23. The ability of the main character (Depp) to imagine a realistic alter ego to take the place of the thing that he could not consciously do is a very cunning concept in film making, in my opinion. I also thought that Depp nailed the naive and troubled author, which in turn had some similarities to the character he later plays in the Pirates series. An overall very well done and suspenseful film, Secret Window is a great watch and a good testament to Depp and Turtorro's talents in character manipulation.
Dragonball: Evolution
Director: James Wong
Genre: Action
Main Cast:
Based On: Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
IMDB Rating: 3.2
My Rating: 2.4
Length: 85 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $30 million/$57 million
I expected nothing out of this film, and nearly got less out of it. Terrible acting, character development, plot, and action sequences. The sci-fi theme was outrageously bad as well. Luckily I didn't pay for this film, or I would have thrown it away. Hopefully the name in itself deters you from wasting 85 minutes of your life on this film.
The Informant!
Release Date: 2009
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Genre: Comedy
Main Cast: Matt Damon (as Mark Whitacre) Scott Bakula (as Brian Shepard) and Joel McHale (as Robert Herndon)
Based On: The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald
IMDB Rating: 6.7
My Rating: 7.1
Length: 108 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $22 million/$42 million
One of the oddest films I have seen to date, it was hard to determine throughout the seriousness of the film with it being a comedy/drama hybrid. It reminded me a lot of The Office television series, with a lot of dry humor, but the key theme in The Informant! was the deceit and corporation fraud. One of the biggest reasons the film was so odd was due to Damon's character in the film's issues with bipolar disorder. Damon played an excellent role throughout acting and narrating such random actions and thoughts, that really being the only reason a film about fraud and office cubicles could be that comical. His narration of polar bear hunting is one of my favorite comedy film quotes of all time. It was really a change up of pace from most of the films I am accustomed to viewing, and for that I enjoyed it a good amount.
Pathfinder
Director: Marcus Nispel
Genre: Action
Main Cast: Karl Urban (as Ghost) and Moon Bloodgood (as Starfire)
IMDB Rating: 5.2
My Rating: 6.1
Length: 95 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $45 million/$31 million
A rather poorly done pre-civilization action film, the decent action sequences were the only thing that saved the scattered plot and sub-par acting in this film. A really kinda creepy film about the Viking conquest of the American Natives, the plotline didn't stay consistent nearly at all, and the camaraderie between Urban's character and his old Viking people was awkward and unrealistic. However, the few bright spots included some solid action/escape sequences of Urban as well as a always a good supporting actress in Bloodgood. Not a great film by any means, but you could go wrong watching action as well.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Director: Jake Hasdan
Genre: Comedy
Main Cast: John C. Reilly (as Dewey Cox) and Jenna Fischer (as Darlene Madison)
IMDB Rating: 6.7
My Rating: 6.5
Length: 96 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $35 million/$21 million
An absolutely outrageous comedy resembling both Step Brothers and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Walk Hard outlines the life of the fictional Dewey Cox and his rise to fame in the music industry. Though this film's storyline is horribly unbelievable and all over the place, the ending does an excellent job of wrapping up the events that took place during the flashback that occurred at the start of the film. The connection made between those sections of the story save the film from being just an average film. Reilly does a good job in his usual comedic role as the erratic musician who is always is in the middle of a problematic situation. Not a bad comedy, but not on the level of Reilly's related film, Step Brothers.
Takers
Director: John Luessenhop
Genre: Action
Main Cast: Matt Dillon (as Jack Welles) Paul Walker (as John Rahway) Idris Elba (as Gordon Cozier) Jay Hernandez (as Eddie Hatcher) Michael Ealy (as Jake Attica) Chris Brown (as Jesse Attica) Hayden Christensen (as A.J.) and T.I. (as Ghost)
IMDB Rating: 5.7
My Rating: 6.9
Length: 107 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $32 million/$68 million
The huge ensemble of this film as well as questionable IMDB rating caused me to have some skepticism prior to viewing Takers. However, it turned out to be an above average film, very similar to a Bank Job or Italian Job type. The individual acting of the film was above average as well, Elba performed an excellent leader of the group of heists, Christensen was a very good utility man throughout, and Chris Brown's extreme athleticism and respectable acting surprised me in his first major film debut. The one exception was T.I. who did an absolute pitiful job with his antagonist role, as I was expecting. I also liked the police sideplot that Dillan and Hernandez presented in their companionship. The film didn't resolve very well, like the Bank Job with the majority of the characters dying in shootouts and a few making it out free. Like most of this weeks films, not something to die over to see, but altogether decent.
Dinner for Schmucks
Director: Jay Roach
Genre: Comedy
Main Cast: Steve Carell (as Barry Speck) Paul Rudd (as Timothy J Conrad) Stephanie Szostak (as Julie)
Based On: Le Dîner de Cons (The Dinner Game) written by Francis Veber
IMDB Rating: 6.0
My Rating: 6.7
Length: 114 minutes
Budget/Gross Revenue: $69 million/$86 million
Dinner had a tendency to deviate from the plot throughout is comedic performance, as everything that could have gone wrong to Rudd's character Tim Conrad did, most due to Carell's provoking. That actual dinner part of the film only lasted around 10-15 minutes at the end, while the rest of the film was the problems with Conrad's girlfriend and job building up to the dinner. The film really wasn't outrageously funny, but it did do a decent job of adding a sentimental aspect that most comedies do not have, by instituting the companionship of Carell and Rudd. An overall decent comedy, pretty typical of current director's lack of ingenuity in the comedic film genre.
Quite a few films viewed in the past week, but not a lot of quality that went with them. With most of the films in the 6's, the following week's views can only be better. Watch smart...
-Jarid Holliday
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