Review: The World's End

As the Cornetto Trilogy draws near an end, let us take a moment to appreciate how we got here. Before Simon Pegg was a key fixture in massive studio properties like Mission Impossible and Star Trek, he caught on as a layabout, who played video games with his buddy Ed (Nick Frost) before the impending zombie apocalypse. Ten years later and the smashing success of 2004's Shaun of the Dead and 2007's Hot Fuzz have brought Pegg, Frost and Edgar Wright to the mainstream.

As we gather to say goodbye to the wild romps that Wright, Pegg and Frost are known for there is only one question. Will their third feature come out on top?

Gary (Simon Pegg, taking his lead in a different direction this time) was an "outlaw" in high-school, his trademark black duster alerting everyone that he was on the scene. Gary wasn't really liked then and he certainly isn't now as a wayward 40 year old still rebelling against the system.

There was a time though when people did like him, twenty or so years ago during a pub crawl when Gary led Andy (Nick Frost), Oliver (Martin Freeman), Steven (Paddy Considine) and Peter (Eddie Marsan) on a drinking marathon that lasted nearly twelve pubs. They had three stops left before The World's End, but the beer caught up to them and the crawl ended in defeat.

Flash forward two decades and Gary's development is firmly arrested: still rebellious, still dressed like a Criss Angel groupie while the rest of his pals have moved on with their lives—families, careers, responsibility, you know, adulthood. Jonesing for a nostalgia trip, Gary convinces his friends to put life on hold and get together one last time to complete the historic pub crawl and reach the fabled World's End.

Reluctantly, Andy, Oliver, Steven and Peter go back to their hometown to appease Gary and to accomplish what they couldn't do twenty years ago.

Going home is never really the same, yet the rose-tinted shades of time usually don't distort things that much. The folks back at Newton Haven don't seem to remember Gary or the rest of the crawlmembers at all. In fact, much of the town looks different, the pubs that had each possessed their own little personalities and quirks look white-washed and homogenized. Even the menus are identical, down to the blue chalk and exaggerated font.

With each passing pint, Gary and the gang take another stab at reconciling their past with where they are now. Of course, as with any other get together with old friends, nothing goes according to plan, squabbles arise and Gary nearly winds up getting his ass kicked when something very peculiar happens. An event that makes the gang realizes their race to World's End isn't just a pub crawl anymore, it's a struggle for the entire human race.

Six years since their last film together hasn't dulled the comic timing of Wright, Pegg and Frost. Each line of the script is delivered with precision and an ample amount of irreverence. Riffing on genres is what made their careers and it's because they are the best at it. Zombie movies, check. Action movies, check. The box on apocalypse movies has a hole punched through it now.

The problem with most end of the world flicks is most get caught up in the spectacle of the special effects and completely lose sight of the people at the heart of the film. We already knew Pegg and Frost could craft loveable characters, but Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan give tip-top contributions as well.

The entire team is at the top of their game here and firing on all cylinders. They bring the wit hard and fast in between rocking some hardcore fighting choreography that I didn't know they had in 'em (Plus, keep an eye out for another Timothy-Dalton-level-fun cameo!). Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead are certified cult classics with infinitely quotable dialogue and memorable characters, consider The World's End safely among them as a classic.

Send summer out with a bang this weekend and send it out with a pint in hand.

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Review: The Wolverine

Wolverine has fallen on some hard times with his last two endeavors in cineplexes. While X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine were both financial successes, but left the most famous X-man feeling stagnant. Expectations were raised temporarily when it was announced that Darren Aronofsky would be directing the next feature, based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's acclaimed graphic novel that sets Logan in Japan.

Aronofsky ultimately dropped out, but James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma and Walk the Line) stepped in. With that, the tide turned on the sequel and audiences were low on The Wolverine. So when James Mangold put something together that looked and felt like a character study, it was a very pleasant surprise in a season (with exception to a few indies) that has thrown out more sequels and franchise add-ons than it knows what to do with.

The Wolverine picks up some time after the events of The Last Stand, and Logan (Hugh Jackman), racked with guilt after having to kill Jean Grey, is in the midst of a self-imposed seclusion in the Canadian wilderness. Doctoring himself with liquor and classical music to deal with the grief, Logan is content to live out his days in the cold comfort of abyss, vowing to never hurt anyone again

That vow is pushed dangerously close to the edge when a local hunter poisons a grizzly bear, resulting in the death of several campers. The only thing that stops him is a mysterious woman who arrives in town and beckons him to Japan at the request of a Japanese prison guard Logan rescued from the Nagasaki atom bomb explosion years ago.

Since World War II that guard has amassed a fortune large enough to become the most powerful man in Japan, and now Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) is dying. As a gift to Logan for saving him, he would like to offer him something no one else can: mortality. This gift does not come entirely out of gratitude, Yashida has been developing a system that will allow him to take Logan’s healing factor for himself.

Logan is hesitant to pass along that curse to anyone so he refuses Yashida's offer flatly.

Not long after the conversation Yashida's cancer finally takes his life. The Yashida clan is home to a great deal of strife, his granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), is next in line to the throne much to the chagrin of her father, Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada). Logan attends the funeral as a last gesture, but finds himself needed when the Yakuza kidnap Mariko. Injured during the attack, Logan finds that he is not healing as quickly as he used to.

Trying to protect Mariko and left vulnerable for the first time in his life, Logan is at his most dangerous.

The Wolverine is bolstered by a newly enthused Hugh Jackman reinvigorated with his character after a couple of subpar X-Men features. Jackman is always a magnetic presence, but Mangold has a knack for drawing superb performances from his leads (as exampled by Witherspoon and Phoenix in Walk the Line and Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted) and he does it again here.

Paired along with Jackman is talented newcomer Rila Fukushima as Yukio and the much less interesting Mariko (she mostly serves as a plot device throughout most of the film, giving Logan cause to place himself in danger and also entangle himself in a romantic subplot that could have been left on the cutting room floor).

Why Marvel waited as long as they did to cover this storyline is beyond me. Placing Logan in Japan works in a sense because Wolverine has always fit into samurai culture. This is a culture that allows Logan to explore his personal definition, something he never found in the X-Men. He is the ronin wandering through life without a driving purpose. The Wolverine is at its best when it finds the divide in Logan, the divide between wild animal and the wounded psyche looking for solace.

Oh, if only things stayed that way, but The Wolverine has the misfortune of having a dog of an ending. For all the wonderful scenery and character exploration that we were treated to earlier, the film's third act retreats into a summer template rock 'em, sock 'em conclusion. Throw in a completely unnecessary villain (The Viper is about as bad as Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin. Yes, that bad.) and a large robot and the humanity of The Wolverine is gone.

That the ending doesn't completely botch all the goodwill the film had going for it is a testament to how well it succeeded as a character-based drama earlier on. I hope that this hot streak continues into Days of Future Past.

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Stay after the credits for a hell of a teaser sequence!

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Review: Kick-Ass 2

What a difference four years makes. Matthew Vaughn's 2009 adaptation of the Mark Millar graphic novel Kick-Ass was a mid-level success due to its smack-in-the-face riff on the superhero genre. Now that the novelty of the extreme language and excessive violence has worn off, there is little reason for a sequel to Kick-Ass to exist. That there even is a Kick-Ass 2 undermines any criticism that was could be construed about the superhero genre in the predecessor.

With so little going for the project, Vaughn jumped ship and now the reins are in the hands of Jeff Wadlow (known for low-budget fare like Never Back Down and Cry_Wolf). Really the only matter drawing attention to Kick-Ass 2 is that one of its stars, Jim Carrey, has decided to refuse supporting the film.

Dave/Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy/Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz given the gift of a more developed character) are about to put normal life behind them to become a full-time crime-fighting duo. The feeble Dave has bulked up thanks to Mindy's workout regiment, but his tendency to crumble under pressure sinks those efforts. With that, Mindy's new guardian tells her to hang up the uniform.

As Mindy hangs up her Hit Girl uniform and navigates the shark-infested waters of high-school, instead of bashing in skulls, she deals with sleepovers, dating, makeup and boy bands. Hit Girl's forced hiatus creates a drag for a lengthy portion of the film as the runtime is split between Mindy's high-school exploits and a new fighting group inspired by Dave's viral video shenanigans turned heroic antics. Oddly enough, this storyline is the more successful.

Chloë Grace Moretz is an increasingly popular presence in Hollywood and with Carrie coming up with fame sure to follow, she can put this schlock behind her and move on to better pictures.

Back to Dave (how the titular character can be as vanilla as this, I'll never know), Kick-Ass joins Justice Forever ranks to help clean up the streets. Justice Forever is fronted by a reformed mob enforcer known as Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). His methods are extremely unorthodox (pet lovers beware), but they keep the streets clean. While the league begins to thinks they've made a difference, they have yet to face a the vengeful wrath of The Motherfucker, formerly known as Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

Determined to avenge his father's death, who died at the hands of Kick-Ass and Hit Girl, Motherfucker declares war on Kick-Ass and his cohorts in Justice Forever. Already a powerful crimelord with a legion of henchmen (including the WTF inducing Mother Russia), MF utilizes his sway to put down a ten million dollar bounty for Kick-Ass's head. Largely overmatched, Kick-Ass needs Hit Girl if they have any hopes of winning, and she must decide if it is worth it to give up the rest of her childhood to continue fighting crime.

When a studio cashes in on a sequel from a property that was only mildly successful to start, it's no surprise that the result is a series of diminishing returns. Jim Carrey is tasked with being the over-the-top presence that Nicolas Cage was as Big Daddy, but while the star power is about the same, Cage and Moretz were a much better pairing than Carrey is with Johnson. Even at his most animated, Carrey isn't enough to save scenes without Hit Girl.

Left with nowhere to go but down, Kick-Ass 2 goes for the depths of decency. There's being irreverent and there's being immature. Dogs maul people in the crotch, cops are brutally murdered with a lawnmower and rape is made light of. And, because the film goes exactly as expected, it all ends, rather unsurprisingly, with a giant horde of masked characters beating the hell out of each other. There is absolutely nothing worthwhile in any of the 107 minutes it runs.

The problem with this film is that it pretends to portray violence like a Quentin Tarantino, but it completely misses all of the moral subtext. Everything is about the destruction and none of the consequences.

Kick this sequel to the curb.

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Review: Elysium

The summer movie season, in this day and age, is almost strictly reserved for rock 'em, sock 'em superheroes, super spies and giant robots and monsters. Escapism is in full swing during these months and audiences generally reward those pictures that put a smile on their face as they exit the theatre.

Neill Blomkamp is no stranger to this season (his debut film District 9 was also a summer release) but where he differs from the action crowd is a tendency to lean toward the subversive. District 9 was an example of dropping some real-world truths into the cineplex and introducing viewpoints typically not seen in a blockbuster.

Earth in the year 2154 is a world made up of favelas and a lack of resources, the wealthiest citizens have left and inhabit a station above the Earth where overpopulation, hunger and sickness is no longer an issue. With the technological innovation of medpods present on Elysium, broken bones are mended immediately and cancer can be waved away in seconds. Citizens there are virtually immortal.

Such luxuries are vied after by people like Max DeMarco (Matt Damon) who we meet as an impoverished child reaching toward a paradise he could never afford to live in. Flash forward a twenty or so years, and the boy is now a weary ex-con, who no longer rages against the machine. His only opportunity to vent lies in trying to shoot the breeze with robotic police and parole officers, who have a failing in humor or sarcasm. For put upon Earth dwellers like Max the only recourse available to leave Earth is a hacker (Wagner Moura) named Spider with few qualms about stealing and kidnapping to get others to Elysium.

Opposing those seeking a reprieve are Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) and her private mercenary Kruger (a maniacally unhinged Sharlto Copley). Delacourt is the head of Homeland security on Elysium, tasked with protecting the space station in all the ways that would be deemed unacceptable to others, especially Elysium leadership. Kruger renders these services personally for Secretary Delacourt and takes great delight in doing so.

Max refuses Julio (Diego Luna) and Spider's initial offer to earn some cash moonlighting as a car thief, but after he is doomed to death by a mishap in the workplace, Spider is his last chance to get to Elysium and to one of the medpods that could be his salvation. That chance? It comes by kidnapping the CEO of Armadyne, the company that services Elysium.

What follows afterward will be familiar to those who watched District 9: careful world building that loses itself in the high-speed chase between Max and Kruger.

Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley ground the proceedings with physicality while both operating from the opposite spectrum of humanity. Damon distances himself from his Bourne character here by falling prey to the fears and selfishness that don't inhibit other template action characters. Copley, known mostly for his roles as Wikus and Murdock (The A-Team), creates a vicious chracter in Kruger, one whose psychotic nature gives Max a very frightening obstacle.

The degree of world building that takes place in Elysium is staggering, District 9 was very impressive for its budget, but Elysium shows off what a talented filmmaker can do with a bigger budget. The panicked nature of living in a slowly dying, overpopulated planet blends seemlessly with the surveillance state that is Earth in the twenty-second century. It's a lived in Los Angeles that doesn't resort to that over-saturated cityscape of most sci-fi films.

However, a movie is only as good as its flaws allow it to be and there are some incongruities as the third act rolls out. The security on the habitat consists of gigantic holes that should not be there in order for Max to proceed through his journey. Robots are on the spot immediately to throw poor people out of med pods, but when firefights break out later, they are nowhere to be found. Other characters find themselves making spontaneous changes of heart that don't correlate with any prior scenes.

Given those issues, the overall product and positive impressions regarding all other aspects of Elysium are more than enough to recommend Blomkamp's sophomore effort. Original material like this should be rewarded.

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Review: Only God Forgives

Few films in 2013 have been (or will be) as divisive as Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, depending on who you ask, the film is either an arthouse masterpiece, or an overly existensial mindfreak. The words critic-proof couldn't be a more perfect descripter.

Drive was Refn's big break-through on the scene for mainstream audiences, but this effort is much closer to the rest of the auteur's filmmography. Those who were big fans of Drive may want to temper their expectations before walking into Only God Forgives, this picture is much closer to something like the acid trip that was Valhalla Rising than the more straight-forward Ryan Gosling vehicle.

Brothers Julian (Ryan Gosling) and Billy (Tom Burke) run a boxing club that serves as a front for a drug operation. Dealing drugs is the least offensive attribute of Billy, who regularly seeks the services of underage prostitutes and beats them for his amusement. One evening, he goes too far and murders one of the prostitutes, drawing the ire of Bangkok police lieutenant Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm). Rather than arrest Billy, Chang allows the father of the murdered girl to exact his own revenge.

Chang is less an officer of the law and more an archetype completely aware of every evil act committed, particularly those done by Julian's clan. He enforces justice, not as we know, but more in the Old Testament sense, taking an eye for an eye, or in Billy's case, a life for a life.

News of Billy's death reaches Billy and Julian's mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) in Florida and before long Crystal comfortably muddles herself in the filth of the locale, hiring thugs to take care of Chang. Outraged that Julian didn't kill his brother's murderer, Crystal chastises Julian for not only not seeking vengeance for his brother's death, but thinking that he deserved it in the first place.

Julian is impotent in all aspects of his life except rage. The only time he feels in control is when he smashes his fist into someone's face. Bound to protect his mother, Crystal's decision to take retribution into her own hands places Julian and Chang on a collision course.

No one would accuse Refn of loading up on plot for Only God Forgives and in many ways, the film serves as the perfect example of an economic narrative. All you need to know about the characters and story is present, but nothing more is given. Dialogue is on the sparse bordering on the verge of becoming a silent picture. Communication is limited to glances, clenched fists and awkward silence.

Refn knows exactly how to visualize Julian’s internal pain, keeping him bathed in neon red and framing him within narrow halls and cages. As impressive as Refn's handling of the film's aesthetic is, there isn't enough on the screen to justify a full-feature. The characters are thinly sketched and the motivations provided are not enough to sustain the visual oddities and dreamlike sequences that pop up.

If the camp of the material isn't immediately obvious, the string of obscenities that flows from Thomas's mouth with regularity will make it clear. Kristin Scott Thomas relishes the role of Crystal in a way that would make Mommie Dearest blush. Thomas doesn't just chew scenery, she swallows it whole. The only problem with that is she is the only actor relishing the opportunity, Gosling and Pansringarm act on a purely physical level, rarely venturing to anything compelling. Such flaws are expected from a grindhouse homage, but Refn lets himself indulge in incredulous moments too often.

An exercise in audience identification, Only God Forgives utilizes violence as a currency like many of Stanley Kubrick's works or those of Martin Scorsese, but Refn has no such social messages present in his film. Coupled with overly-stylized moments that have no meaning and a waste of a very talented leading man, audiences can only hope that Refn and Gosling's third film together will be closer to Drive than Only God Forgives.

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Review: Red 2

 

Retirement didn't suit black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) well the first time he tried it and, in Red 2, it seems like domestic bliss with girlfriend, Sarah (Mary Louise Parker) isn't all it is cracked up to be. Frank is getting up there in years and shopping trips at CostCo is not how he wants to spend his remaining time on this Earth. Springing up from the tupperware, Marvin (John Malkovich) informs Frank that he won't have to.

A portable nuclear device, missing from the pages of history until WikiLeaks dragged it back up, is back on the market and just waiting for evildoers to destroy the world with it. Sensing an opportunity to get back in the game one more time, Frank reunites his crew of retired operatives for one last hurrah.

With Morgan Freeman and Ernest Borgnine missing in action, Anthony Hopkins and Byung Hun Lee are added as Dr. Bailey and a super assassin in a crisp suit, respectively.

The trio's little chase catches the eye of many international players and suddenly they wind up targeted by their former employers (again), with Victoria (Helen Mirren, smashing as always) given the contract this time around. Of course one assassin after Frank and Marvin just wouldn't do, so a legion of assassins, terrorists and corrupted government officials will have to suffice.

Sarah still plays the outsider as Frank and Marvin track the device around Europe while Willis's exasperated reactions to Malkovich's eccentricities prove to be as entertaining as ever. But the fun doesn't end there for Frank, he also gets to manage a relationship on the run as an old flame (Catherine Zeta-Jones) finds her way back into his life, much to Sarah's chagrin. The back and forth between the main cast is a rich well waiting to be returned to again and again.

No more fun could be derived from an action flick than placing acting greats in a completely tongue-in-cheek genre movie in which they can mug and chew scenery and have a blast doing so. Mirren, above all others, gets what Red is about and provides exactly what the audience wants: disposing of bodies in evening-wear, rifling at a picnic and taking part in car chases and so on. Watching Mirren relish in all of the shenanigans that older actresses aren't typically privy to is an unfettered joy.

As entertaining as this cast can be, the fact that Red 2 is almost a shot-for-shot recreation of the last film makes every high a little more disappointing when you feel it coming before it happens. Nowhere is this highlighted more than this move (that smacks of studio tinkering) where there are three recreations of the car spin from the predecessor. The plot is serviceable enough, but when you spend the entire film waiting for the next scene to thrill you only for it to be a repeat, it grows tiresome.

Red director Robert Schwentke is replaced by Galaxy Quest's Dean Parisot, which leaves the film a little more dull stylistically, but Parisot is right to place the focus on his crew of three Oscar winners, they can save the world, just not quite the film.

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Review: Pacific Rim

 The concept of monsters and giant robots bashing each other is certainly not new (Godzilla, several anime shows, etc.), but Pacific Rim has a secret weapon up its sleeve: Guillermo del Toro. Every picture Del Toro makes is infused with an enthusiasm for creatures and fantastical elements that could only come from the mind of the man who brought us Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy and Cronos.

In the year 2020, a collision of techtonic plates in the Pacific has created a breach in the Earth's crust releasing massive beasts called the "kaiju" that plague cities around the world. To combat the threat, humans build gigantic mechas (named jaegers) in hopes that they can ward off the monsters threatening humanity. Instead of remote operation, these mechas can only be operated by two pilots mentally linked in "drift space".

(As a quick aside, as cool as it looks for two people to pilot the jaegers, but why a robot needs a human to act out a punch in this age of remote control warfare is just a little puzzling.)

The Jaegers prove to only delay the destruction a little longer and in the midst of the chaos, world leaders decide to shelter themselves inside kaiju-proof compounds. It goes without saying that these kaiju-proof compounds work in name only and with the jaegers out of operation, there aren't many options left.

Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) crafts a plan to use nukes to close the breach from the inside. To do so, he needs to convince former jaeger pilot Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam), to end a self-enforced exile and partner up with Pentecost's assistant, Mako (Rinko Kikuchi). Even if Pentecost manages to bring Raleigh onboard, the odds look slim, the only weapon at their disposal is an obsolete jaeger.

It was proposed by critics that the thrill of Pacific Rim would be less palpable because of the Transformers series, but those critics were very wrong. The fight scenes are beautifully choreographed, with each kaiju battle unique in its aesthetic, placing the audience right into the heart of the action. Everything is shot cleanly, without any of the shaky-cam mess or the extreme close-ups that diminish the grand scale with which everything unfolds. So thanks should be given to del Toro's regular cinematography Guillermo Navarro as well as editors John Gilroy and Peter Amundson for capturing the essence of a movie featuring giant robots should be.

Pacific Rim doesn't just shine in its action, but it also beats Transformers in another aspect where that franchise failed: humanity. The human factor that was completely missing in Michael Bay's efforts, is available in abundance with their central cast proving to be very capable in creating characters worth caring about. del Toro's picture succeeds because Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi and Idirs Elba take characters frequented in many pictures and layer them with charm, warmth and unity. When an audience is watching robots beat up monsters it's easy to forget the human stakes involved, but with this talented cast, that is never a worry.

That's not to say the film works completely. Years worth of character backgrounds and initial battles are fit into a 20 minute prologue and while that part works fine, the rhythm is lost afterward. Leaving sags during the film where it feels like del Toro is just following a blueprint with story elements feeling too similar to moments other big-budget flicks. Luckily, the highlight of the action sequences and the cast outweigh any of those problems.

Traditionally, Guillermo del Toro films tend to be more rewarding when they are on a more intimate scale, but Pacific Rim is... not really intimate. Still, with all that spectacle onscreen, it's hard to take in this clash of mechanical and monstrous titans without enjoying yourself. Monster movies like this are seldom seen anymore, but del Toro's child-like glee offers a promise to the audience: you will have a blast.

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Review: Man of Steel

On a planet nearing its end, plagued by military coups and an oncoming apocalypse, a father (Russell Crowe) makes a choice to give his race a second chance and sends Earth his only son. Despite the pleas from most to ignore the origins of a man whose tale is known by all, a lot of the character is lost in only having him walk out of the phone booth in red, yellow and blue. Clark Kent could literally go anywhere and do anything, why would he devote his life to helping others? Especially when he is expected to protect those who treat him as an outcast.

The previous exploits of Superman have been covered many times by many people, more successfully by Richard Donner and Christopher Reeves than by Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh. With Superman Returns lukewarm reception in 2005, the kabosh was put on the character only to watch Batman's meteoric rise under the steady gaze of Christopher Nolan. It seems no small coincidence that Warner Bros. tasked Nolan with producing their most iconic character: the Man of Steel.

Superman is a tough sell for a postmodern audience: Too many superheroes now aren't quite fully-functional human beings, their development arrested by narcissism, rage, or curses. With all of these heroes around, the concept of a superbeing doing good just for the sake of others seems a little out-of-touch now. David Goyer sought to set Superman in a more realistic, post 9/11 world, and he succeeds in doing so in tinkering with the origins of the character (actual conflicts rather than conveniently placed Kryptonite).

Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner as Jor-El and Pa Kent bring big doses of gravitas to their respective characters and ground what could be considered silly concerns in a very real way. In a world where a child with Clark's gifts could wind up in a government research facility, he has to be hidden in plain sight. When General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his exiled fellow Kryptonians arrive on Earth, Clark is freed from the hiding and all that anger built up inside him finally has a purpose. He finally has a outlet for the years of frustration. The release is a cathartic one and how couldn't not be when not living up to your true potential causes so much suffering?

In a spectacular sequence of some of the most visually compelling combat ever filmed, most of Metropolis is destroyed and we're subjected to ten minutes of two ridiculously powered beings fighting for the survival of their own.

Henry Cavill is an unknown to most, but the silver lining in that allows him to be Superman. The earnestness of that boy raised in a small town in Kansas blended with the man with the weight of the world on his shoulders is exactly what Superman should be. Cavill gets to play with the character as a well-intentioned loner who defines himself along the way.

The men aren't the only ones given decent material in this Superman either, Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is fortunate enough this go around to actually get something to do with her time onscreen. Her back and forth with Cavill is organic and a far cry from the constant rescuing that ends up onscreen too often.

It is interesting to see Zack Snyder, the man who deconstructed the superhero genre with Watchmen, given the reins to bring Superman back to the public eye. There is none of the cynicism from that film and for that I am grateful. Snyder has evolved with each film he has made, but the visual composition of several Man of Steel set-pieces is something that must be seen on IMAX.

The wonder has finally been brought back to the man faster than a speeding bullet and he will have his time in the sun.

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Review: Mud

A little over two years ago, Matthew McConaughey came out in The Lincoln Lawyer and started the road to repairing his reputation as an actor. He followed up that good word with other critically appreciated performances in Killer Joe, Bernie and Magic Mike. The man known for being shirtless in romantic comedies has reinvented himself as a leading man with a knack for good material again. When it was announced that he would lead Jeff Nichol's follow-up project to Take Shelter, Mud became a must see picture of 2013.

Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) don't have much to look forward to in DeWitt, Arkansas, life on the river is dying and they are at the age where girls aren't interested in them. A boat in a tree poses new opportunities, though, something they can lay claim to. The only problem is someone is living in it.

He goes by Mud (McConaughey) and, at the moment, he's living on nothing but beanie weenies. His possessions are few: one gun and a shirt he believes to be lucky. Mud tells the boys he is waiting on a woman to meet him there on the island, and he won't be leaving without her. Something in Mud's voice when he says her name inspires Ellis. His own concept of love is on the ropes as of late and Mud's optimism gives Ellis hope for his own life. Neckbone has his doubts about a man living on an island on his own accord, but Ellis is eager to help him piece together a way to leave with Juniper (Reese Witherspoon).

The more information comes to light about out Mud, concern grows that Ellis is blind to the danger that the man poses.

On the surface, Mud would seem to be a vehicle for McConaughey, but the focus is placed predominantly on the two boys. Director Jeff Nichols drew excellent performances out of Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain with Take Shelter and he continues that trend with Mud. Sheridan and Lofland manage to glide that shaky line of child performances that blends naivete, without going into overly saccharine territory.

McConaughey covers his natural charisma in a thin layer of grime and dirt that obscures his classic movie star good looks, but not his folksy charm. That the audience is constantly guessing just exactly what the man is capable of is a testament to the actor's abilities. The McConassaince has officially come full-circle.

Mud is only Nichol's third film, but he is very quickly becoming a singular voice in a new generation of auteurs. Filming on location in the south gives Nichol a canvas to work from that highlights the, sometimes, obsessive way we live our lives and knowing when to walk away from it.

***1/2 out of ****

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Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

As Star Trek Into Darkness opens, we are thrown into a Starfleet operation where James Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are actively disregarding the Prime Directive. The mission is ultimately a success, but there are consequences waiting for Kirk when he gets home. Captain Pike is livid, flying by the seat of your pants works when you're just some local farmboy, but Kirk is responsible for the lives of hundreds of officers and he can't be left in the captain's seat in good conscience.

The time for Kirk to reflect on his leadership is not a lengthy one though, an act of terrorism occurs that shocks Starfleet to its very core. With Starfleet brainstrust searching for a suspect, the harbinger of our downfall appears in the form of a renegade former officer, John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). Considering the last villain had the ability to alter the future, it wouldn't have been a surprise if Star Trek suffered a little letdown, but Cumberbatch takes the dial and breaks it off at eleven. Even when safely contained behind a wall of glass (a blockbuster theme at this point after The Dark Knight, The Avengers and Skyfall), Cumberbatch can raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

Harrison's involvement lends a post 9/11 scope to Star Trek Into Darkness that sets the stage for the moral qualms that color the film.

“I thought we were explorers,” Scotty (Simon Pegg) interjects when Kirk accepts a command from on high to hunt for Harrison in Klingon airspace. All of the sudden, a crew focused on space exploration find themselves faced with a military operation. There are no shortage of moral shadows that the Enterprise crew find themselves in and bigger political and moral ramifications are aired here, despite what more vocal Trekkies would have you believe.

J.J. Abram's high-octane films of Gene Roddenberry's cerebral series has drawn criticism, but the moral stature than Star Trek is known for is still present in an increasingly magnetic Spock. Quinto's logical Vulcan verbally spars with Kirk about hunting Harrison across space, but the brotherly bond is there this time as the antagonism of the last film has worn off.

Though there is plenty of reason for Spock to question his fearless leader. Kirk has the requisite swagger, but there is always a glimmer behind his eyes that suggests he still doesn't know what he should do. Any chance for character growth in a summer blockbuster is appreciated, but it is handled in a devil-may-care fashion by the writers and, frankly, Kirk's perpetual combat with maturity should be resolved by now.

The action is of course there in spades: a human-missile sequence witnessed in 3D is a real treat and the scale of IMAX rewards the impressive world-building of this sequel, but there are a few qualms to be had with Into Darkness though, namely, it's been done before.

With the events of the 2009 film altering the timeline, the sequels zigs where other prominent Trek films have zagged and we can see the resolution coming. More disappointing is that the women of the U.S.S. Enterprise have been left with nothing more to do than pine for their male counterparts or (in a very curious scene) strip for no presumable reason. Given that Uhura was set-up to be a strong female character, Uhura's (Zoe Saldana) lack of depth stings more than it does for Carol Marcus (Alice Eve).

All accounted for these little flaws don't take away from the larger picture of Into Darkness. Riveting action scenes and the warmth and authenticity of the cast still leave plenty of enthusiasm for the next adventures of the Enterprise.

***/****

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Review: The Great Gatsby

Self-made men like Jay Gatsby have been a fascination of American culture for decades, men like Howard Hughes and Don Draper, men that create veiled versions of themselves available for public consumption. These men raise the ideal of the American dream for all to see. Too often that ideal is so golden that few inspect further to see the pyrite underneath.

During parties Gatsby has a story for every occasion, a drink to offer in both hands and an practiced "old sport" for each party goer. Of the two Gatsbys we see (one private and one public), the private moments captured by Luhrmann offer a stoic man, one with green-tinted regret leering at him in the distance. The house across the water.

Two people live at the residence: Tom Buchanan (gleeful villain, Joel Edgerton), but more importantly to Gatsby, Tom's wife, Daisy (Carey Mulligan).

We are kept at a distance from these characters, the audience views them through the eyes of newcomer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire). The spectacular parties are taken in with Carraway's wide-eyed wonder, but the more time Nick spends around Daisy, Tom and Gatsby, the more cracks appear in the veneer. As each party brings Daisy and Gatsby together, tragedy comes closer to West Egg.

Very rarely have an actor and a role seemed tailor-made for each other. DiCaprio has similarly crafted his own self-image that is equally as polished as Jay Gatsby's. Both men know the practiced smiles and the rapport that you utilize with others while keeping other feelings locked down. Portions of Gatsby fall flat (Daisy never seems like the woman that would inspire a feud), but DiCaprio's embodiment as the titular character never ceases to amaze.

The reason why The Great Gatsby didn't work in the 1974 film starring Robert Redford is because previous filmmakers felt the need to rigidly adhere to the source material. When source material is treated with such reverence, the product feels overly sacred and keeps the audience at a distance. Bringing the story to life is difficult because what grips reader about the book is not the dialogue or Carraway's voiceover, it's Fitzgerald's prose that makes the story and prose isn't adaptable.

To make up for that, a sense of style has to be melded into the story.

Baz Luhrmann has been flogged as an auteur with an overly sweet tooth, yet Luhrmann's choice to create an over-the-top Jazz Age America is an intentional decision. This effort is sure to bring Moulin Rouge! to mind, but it is a shot of energy into a summer that lacks a distinct touch. The glitzy and confetti covered world Gatsby and Daisy live in is a hollow one, one made more heart-breaking by the optimism surrounding them.

***/****

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Review: Iron Man 3

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is in the middle of a panic of sorts. He is suffering what most would call a crisis of confidence. The Avengers left Stark with a distinct impression that there are, in fact, things he cannot control. The suit won't always be around and Tony has loved ones who are exposed. With Rhodes (Don Cheadle) piloting around the world as Iron Patriot, and Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow, getting her best part yet in the series) running Star Industries, Tony is firmly set in his R&D lab trying to figure out how to keep them all safe.

In the isolation of his fortress, the global reign of terror brought about by The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is off Tony's radar, panic attacks and insomnia are more present worries. The slightest mention of New York City is enough to send him searching madly for his iron cocoon. Tony being Tony, trouble doesn't stay in his rear-view for long. He finds himself in the middle of a press conference where he gives the world his address and begs the Mandarin to man up and come at him. Lo and behold, trouble knocks on his door. Loudly.

The similarities between Shane Black's last team-up with Robert Downey Jr. (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) are quite instant. The film begins with a voice over and treads back into a more familiar starting point, just like the 2005 release. And the similarities don't end there, every nudge and wink about genre tropes from that film is present in Iron Man 3 as well. Everything is played up for laughs in this sequel and one wonders if there is a spot where Murtaugh comes in to tell everyone "he's too old for this shit" left on the cutting room floor.

At first glance, Black looks like he may scale back the over the top nature antics of Iron Man 2 in favor of a real-world threat like terrorism. Such expectations are lost during the third act as one villain is successfully defanged to the point of laughter and replaced by a much more vanilla nemesis with questionable motives. How much you enjoy this trickery will define the film's reception.

Excess is abound, villains come back from the dead multiple times, seemingly every character in the Iron Man universe has a power or suit of their own. There's just too much of everything. It's a shame considering that Downey is perhaps at his most Tony and left to fend for himself without the crimson and gold for large portions of the film. These moments are where Iron Man 3 shines.

Marvel has effectively made Iron Man into the James Bond franchise of comic book franchises at the film's conclusion. Robert Downey Jr.'s contract is up after this picture and, should he decide to walk away, this film easily serves as a tidy wrapping for this particular interpretation of the character. Though with Avengers 2 looming, it's likely Marvel will back in the dump trucks of cash to bring him back. Hopefully they do, as RDJ says "I am Iron Man" and the franchise would be lost without him.

**1/2 out of ****

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Review: Sins of the Father (Place Beyond the Pines)

It is said that the path to hell is paved with good intentions. In this tale of fathers and sons, hell just may be the best they can hope for.

Luke (Ryan Gosling) lives his life completely uninhibited as a stunt rider in a traveling carnival. Luke being introduced by his profession is an important note, his trade is not a spectator sport for its grace, people watch Luke because each time he steps into that cage, he could die.

This evening in Schenectady is like any other, that is, until he sees Romina (Eva Mendes). The two had a brief, but passionate fling and he hasn't seen her since. He wants to reach out, though it's too little, too late. Luke drops Romina off, yet something keeps him from leaving town. He comes back the next day to find a son he never knew about. The moment he found out he was a father, Luke quits the road.

Money is hard to come by for an out-of-work carnie, he is taken in by an auto mechanic (Ben Mendehlson). Robin has only seen talent like Luke's maybe a handful of times, he rides like lightning. Robin has robbed four banks before, and he stopped before he got caught. He offers his system to Luke, if he wants to provide for his new family, he can do it quickly.

Robbing banks comes with its own set of circumstances. Luke isn't just riding in a steel cage anymore, the ride is not choreographed, and those men waiting for him will put him in prison. Men like Officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper).

There is a speed at which movement is impossible to comprehend and the eye is just frantically throwing pieces together. Some would complain that everything is a blur, but the visceral thrill from taking everything at the speed Luke sees is unmatched in white-knuckle intensity. Sean Bobbitt captures these chase scenes beautifully.

Place Beyond the Pines shifts narrative focus several times over the course of the film. Once finished with Luke's story, Derek Cianfrance places Avery under his scope. Avery starts out as a beat cop, but with his family pedigree (his father is a former Supreme Court Justice), that won't be the case for long. If he is to do so, he must navigate the waters of his department, waters filled with sharks like Lt. DeLuca (if there is a face that suggests a lack of morality more than Ray Liotta's, I haven't seen it).

Are some just predetermined to be successes or fuck-ups? Jason (Dane Dehaan) never knew his father, but the paths he and A.J. Cross (Emory Cohen) are about to cross will irrevocably change both families.

Cianfrance could have coasted off the success of Blue Valentine, but with Place Beyond the Pines, he delivers a much more ambitious picture. Instead of capturing the love built and lost between a husband and wife, Cianfrance sweeps the camera over a city and generations of men who enforce the law, men who break it, and those for whom that line is grey.

It's not an indictment, but a well-acted display of whether or not our lives are determined by fate, or our own choices.

****

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Review: No

Over the course of history, some dictators have found themselves made into the antagonists in many a film. Some dictators just fade away into the ether after they are ousted. Augusto Pinochet is one of those men whose evils have gone relatively undocumented. Pinochet was a terrible man, he ranks right up there with Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini as one of history's greatest monsters.

In 1988, military dictator Augusto Pinochet calls for a referendum to decide whether he remain permanently in power. Opposition leaders, sensing an opportunity to give the people their freedom again, handpick a hotshot advertising executive, in the form of René Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), to head their campaign against the dictator.

Really, the plot for No could loosely be summed up as re-imagining the plot of Argo with the staff of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce leading the charge.

Getting an ad campaign off the ground will not be easy. Resources are limited and Pinochet's men keep René's team under constant scrutiny. Eventually, Saavedra and his team conceive of bold advertisements in hopes of winning the election and their freedom from oppression. The spots are not what you would think of at first: mimes, dancing, rainbows, and the message is capped by telling countrymen “Chile, happiness is coming!”

René doesn't take the campaign because of personal political beliefs, he does it for the challenge. The rebellion is better captured by his father or Veronica (Antonia Zegers), an activist with eyes toward a democratic future. Not just her future, but the future of her son with René as well.

At times, René's apathy is a little off-putting. Bernal's portrayal of the man could not be confused with a politically correct icon of a movie about rebellion. One imagines that if he were not being paid for these ads, he may not have done them at all. His inaction is at its worst during a scene where René stands by when Veronica, the mother of his son, is viciously beaten by police officers.

René recoiling from the violence is less a question of his cowardice and a larger symbol of the systemic fear throughout Chile. With a wave of Pinochet's hand, you could disappear forever.

Pablo Larrain captures the conflict with U-matic cameras to give an authentic feel for the time period, but don't confuse this with documentary realism. Larrain takes liberties with the material, but none that feel blatantly false. What Larrain creates in doing so is picture that sells.

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Review: Oblivion

Not much can be said about Oblivion without spoiling the experience for audiences, too much has been shown already by trailers and television spots. If the premise intrigues you, stop reading, and just go see it in theatres. This review will gladly wait for you.

The year is 2077. Following a war with extra-terrestrials, the Earth is left a shell of its former self. Humans won the war, but only after resorting to nuclear weapons. Monuments like the Statue of Liberty are shattered, half of the land is still radiated and remnants of the alien army litter the land.

Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are Earth's last two inhabitants. The two are assigned the responsibility of overseeing security while T.E.T. takes the last of the water from Earth. T.E.T. holds the rest of the survivors awaiting the trip to their next settlement on Titan, if all holds well, Jack and Victoria will join them in two weeks.

Jack is an inquisitive man, he takes a lot of risks and incurs plenty of reminders from Victoria that they only have two weeks left before they join the other survivors on Titan. Jack's dreams bother him, images that he knows he couldn't have experienced plague him constantly and he wonders if these dreams are more than merely an active subconscious.

Their supervisor on T.E.T. greets them every day with a mission statement "are you an effective team?" that poses more as a veiled threat than an actual question. Still, Jack and Victoria monitor drone activity and make sure everything T.E.T. asks for is accomplished, even when the drones almost kill Jack (take from that what you will).

However, Jack's inquisitive nature may cost him more than a few bruises when he comes across the aftermath of a shuttle crash-landing in one of his sectors.

Oblivion, on the surface, may seems like a mash-up of other elements used elsewhere in more famous films, but it provides a solid sci-fi effort for adults in a time period where there are not many. To boot, it will easily serve as a conversation starter on a very divisive issue right now.

Tom Cruise, it was said, is fading as a movie star. His last few films haven't raked in massive amounts of box office dollars, but the authenticity and earnestness that made him famous is still there. Cruise lends to Jack a sense of importance to the many scenes that could have suffered from green screen fatigue. Say whatever you want about the man, but he is a professional first and foremost.

Joseph Kosinski, in just two films, has created a unique vision of Earth assisted by gorgeous special effects. The Earth Jack and Victoria see is not the one we are used to, but it could be very easily pass for come whatever may in sixty or so years. Hopefully, an Earth we can avoid.

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Review: Simon Says (Trance)

Danny Boyle, fresh off of two straight best picture selections, is returning to the nitty-gritty genre roots he made his name on with Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. Boyle is leaving the Oscar pedigree behind him this time and reveling in the extreme behavior, seedy characters, violence and everything else you could imagine in a crime thriller. What is intriguing about Trance is that this particular tale focuses on the art world rather than junkies or zombies.

Simon (James McAvoy) is an unassuming auctioneer who finds himself mixed up with the Frank (Vincent Cassel) and his sordid associates. Frank has devised a seemingly fool-proof plan to steal a Goya's "Witches in the Air". For the heist to succeed, Simon just needs to keep in mind four words "don't be a hero."

Of course, the plan doesn't hold up.

McAvoy, like fellow Scot Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting, decides to cut out the middle man and enrich himself. A blow to the head stops that charade dead in its tracks once Simon awakens in a hospital and he can't remember where the painting is. Torturing him isn't coaxing out any answers and time is of the essence, so Frank hires Dr. Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) to assist in finding the Goya painting in Simon's subconscious.

Like looking through a kaleidoscope, clues are constantly tumbling and rearranging depending on the scene. Not to be outdone, the three leads shift between the spectrum of morality just as quickly. They evolve constantly as the search for the painting leads into some very dark recesses, flipping certain noir cliches on their head in the process.

Noir often lends itself to trappings that ultimately weaken the film containing them, but screenwriters John Hodge and Joe Ahearne manage to avoid those pratfalls in writing such strong characters such as Simon, Frank and Elizabeth. As stylish as Boyle's composing is, McAvoy, Dawson and Cassel are the real draw of Trance.

Danny Boyle and frequent collaborator Anthony Dod Mantle are no strangers to stylized cinematography, but Boyle and Mantle have outdone themselves. Filming portions of the film through glass, and playing with angles, Mantle puts the audience in a constant state of bewilderment. Deciphering which events are real and others only suggested keeps a constant tension running throughout Trance.

Cinema blends illusion better than most mediums, limiting the scope of narrative to one character's point of view and keeping the audience guessing all the while. Yet, for all the guessing, few films have kept me in the dark as long and as well as Trance did. Danny Boyle has crafted a fine mind-bender.

***1/2 out of ****

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Review: Evil Dead

Some catering to fans of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead franchise was expected when it was announced that there would be a fresh start to the franchise two years ago. Cult classics only succeed with a passionate fan-base and Fede Alvarez's update of five kids going to the woods was met with a great deal of hesitance, but the dread of a soulless cash-in disappeared once Bruce Campbell and Raimi backed the project.

Even with this reboot though a great deal of the enjoyment to be had is dependent upon knowing the turns of where the original 1984 film goes. Misdirection and a subversion of audience expectations is more than half the fun of Alvarez's film.

Going cold turkey is never easy, so Mia (Jane Levy) and her four closest friends go away for the weekend to a secluded cabin in the woods for her to detox. Left with little to do, the five come across the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead) and accidentally release the demons therein. Deadites abound, the group of five are picked off one at a time.

Placing Mia's heroin addiction center stage makes it a little easier to stomach that when all hell breaks loose, no one simply just says "screw it" and leaves.

Two major standouts spring out from the acting branch: Jane Levy and Lou Taylor Pucci. Levy puts in her time as the emotional wreck before she eagerly dives into playing a Deadite. Playing a vaguely hippie-ish teacher, Pucci isn't replacing Ash, but he is easily just as put-upon as Bruce Campbell was. And like Campbell, he too gets some of the best lines.

While Jane Levy and Lou Taylor Pucci are very game for the source material, the other three performances feel like they thought they were walking onto the set of a Michael Bay produced remake of The Evil Dead, not Sam Raimi's.

Evil Dead will leave fans wanting for nothing when it comes to props and makeup. Every corn-syrup drenched scene screams practicality, replacing computer generated foolery with hand-crafted scares. Very rarely is gore done well enough to be appreciated, yet the technical prowess here should be applauded.

Fede Alvarez, whether by choice, or not, recreates several shots from the thirty year old predecessor (demon speeding through the woods cam) and he is quite competent at composing scenes. Still, giving him a chance to create more scares of his own would have been appreciated. By referring back to the original in so many ways, Evil Dead is defined more by what it is than what it isn't.

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Review: The Man Behind the Curtain (Oz The Great and Powerful)

Rapscallion and traveling magician Oscar Diggs (James Franco), you can call him Oz, performs acts for audiences across the dusty roads of Kansas. He's not happy with his place in life and a conflict presented in the form of a cuckolded strong man makes Oz's decision to escape all too easy.

A tornado whisks Oscar off to a foreign land where there are none of the problems that plague his life.

He is greeted on the shore by a woman who doesn't fit the general description of a witch. Theodora (a game Mila Kunis) explains to Oz that his arrival in their land is foretold by a prophecy and he will be the wizard to save the kingdom of vast riches. Without much hesitance, Oz tells Theodora that he is in fact the answer to their prayers.

Theodora, Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams) are the three powers that reside in Emerald City. The sisters are feuding and in order for Oz to claim the throne, he must defeat the wicked witch who slayed the previous King. Oz agrees to this condition while forgetting he isn't an actual wizard.

Sleight of hand won't save Oz if he wants to defeat the wicked witch and his habit of forming enemies with women he meets also poses challenges. Fortunately, he went have to do it alone, aid comes in the form of a flying monkey, Finley (Zach Braff), and a china doll (Joey King).

Selecting James Franco as the titular Oz was a curious choice, while Franco is a showman in most regards, he seems miscast for this role. A prequel to The Wizard of Oz requires a lead man with a sense of authority even if he questions himself. Oz needed a charismatic actor to pull it together.

Sam Raimi does what he can with this huge project (a few of his trademark scares), but there is only so much he can bring to a Disney tentpole. These flicks have been focus grouped and tested so that they appeal to as large an audience as possible. Tinkering with the formula is generally frowned upon, but Raimi knows where to hide some visual flourish.

There is a sense of too many endings before the film closes out, but it is a slight addition so the overall effect isn't lost, though franchise building is definitely felt.

Oz: The Great and Powerful is made up of too many moods to coalesce into a tonally consistent film. There are winks from Army of Darkness, candy-colored visuals from Alice in Wonderland and heartwarming moments from the original Oz. The tonal twist and turns are a little distracting and the lead feels too disingenuous to make it work entirely, but background characters like Finley and China girl (lovingly rendered pieces of SFX) present some warmth to a story that suffers a little too often from a post-modern sense of irony.

**1/2 out of ****

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Review: Dead Man Down

Victor (Colin Farrell) is the trusted right-hand man of one of New York's more unscrupulous land developers, Alphonse (Terrence Howard). Alphonse is receiving threats from an anonymous party and he will spare no expense in dispatching that threat.

When Victor isn't scouring the city for gangsters, he eats microwaveable noodles at home by himself. His neighbor Beatrice (Noomi Rapace) waves to him, but that is the extent of his communication with the world outside of work. His loss has severed him from life.

Beatrice is no stranger to tragedy herself, an accident has left her physically scarred permanently. Possessing a window into Victor's life, she finds out information that could make his life his infinitely worse, and that may just be her ticket to satisfying the need for revenge in her heart. Her ultimatum comes at a terrible time for Victor, who has his own scores to settle.

Forced into dealing with each other, soon they find kindred spirits in each other. Beatrice and Victor are the physical manifestations of wounded prey, they have been injured, but not killed, and there is nothing more dangerous than wounded prey.

Niels Arden Oplev proved he had the sensibilities of a revenge thriller director with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but his lead actor and the pulp material failed him ultimately. So for his English language debut, Oplev took his best asset (Rapace) and paired her with one of the more underrated actors working today.

Colin Farrell is past the stage of his career where he is forced into the typical Hollywood leading man mold, but he has found his niche with morally grey characters in more independent features.

Noomi Rapace takes what could largely be a thankless role in another film and offers a layered woman instead of the helpless victim portrayed so often in revenge flicks.

Dead Man Down works for the most part, which makes the decidely silly turn during its last act particularly hard to stomach. Thugs walking around with automatic weapons in broad daylight, plowing vehicles through buildings, and odd character motivations all rear their ugly heads when a film should be flourishing in its last stretch. All of these things invalidate the drama that came before.

That is a shame given Oplev had, up until that point, crafted an intimate portrayal of grief and the wrecking ball effect revenge takes on a life. Even with the flair Oplev employs during chase sequences and shoot-outs, the high is never recaptured.

**/****

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Review: The Master

Freddie Quells (Joaquin Phoenix) is the textbook definition of a scoundrel. Contained on a vessel in the Pacific he could pass for normal, but only due to the distressed nature of war-time. He remains in company purely due to his innate ability as a mixologist. Still, his cocktails possess the kinds of contents that bootleggers would consider hazardous.

Following his naval tour, Freddie is a veteran who finds himself without a place. Jobs come in an erratic order and he finds himself out of them just as quickly. He looks as uneasy in the world physically as he is mentally. Perpetually hunched, Freddie makes everyone around him a little more uncomfortable. He has a convicts' eyes, constantly searching for exits.

When Freddie seeks a free ride boarding a yacht, he finds himself under the inquisitive gaze of Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Dodd takes Freddie in, for what reason is unknown, but he sees something in the feral cat of a man that no one else does. In the interest of science, Dodd must know what makes Freddie tick.

Dodd is the leader of The Cause, a group dedicated to returning to the perfection in man by finding our flaws in our past. To his detractors, Dodd preys on the willing belief that his audience offers, much like a magician. He offers solutions in a life that has few following the second World War. Peggy (an increasingly varied Amy Adams) appears to be the steady hand behind Lancaster, but she is a driving force. Where he is weak, she pushes him, the movement must not fall prey to outsiders or critics.

Freddie presents a major road block to legitimacy in Peggy's mind. Especially when naysayers start appearing in door wells of Cause gatherings. Some changes in language of "processing" does not ease the minds of benefactors. Dodd simply just dances around these questions with light jokes and casual asides, forever the showman.

L. Ron Hubbard is a reference, but nothing Paul Thomas Anderson nor Hoffman offers is reverent to the actual man. The Cause's expansion is hinted at, but never fully acknowledged. And Freddie, well, his enigma will forever remain unsolved.

As perfectly rendered as every technical aspect of The Master is (including the sumptuous 65mm print), the film's lack of emphasis on the story it tells is frustrating. Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman embody the id and ego relationship that makes them both so interesting to watch, but ultimately it feels like it didn't mean anything. When two performances are as strong as Hoffman's at times charismatic and at others Dodd and Phoenix's total devolution into a madman, that is a shame.

Paul Thomas Anderson has slowly transitioned the structure of his pictures from ensemble pieces to character studies replacing the inherently likable with cast-outs like Daniel Plainview and Freddie Quell. One man learning to obey his master, the other forced to roam the world without one.

Is it an evolutionary leftover that plagues man to place such faith in alpha members of society? Anyone with a polished image of themselves and a confident message can become a prophet. Placing your faith in the hands of these men is a dangerous game and one that rarely ends without displeasure.

One can only characterize watching The Master as holding a match, watching the embers slowly burn their way down to your fingers, but you don't care because you are entranced by it, you will pay for staring into the fire, but you don't know it yet. Eventually the light of The Master is gone and the only thing that remains is a burn of lingering questions.

**1/2 out of ****

Blu-ray review at Film Annex

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