Movie Reviews

Tower Heist - I caught this on cable. Don't make the same mistake. It's a comedy about a Bernie Maddoff like guy (Alan Alda). He was also managing the pensions of the apartment building's staff and a group of misfits try to steal his hidden stash. It's Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy and Matthew Broderick and some others. I had figured from the trailer and reviews I wouldn't like and I don't know why I felt the need to verify that assumption by watching it.

Onto the better movies…

Looper is a time travel movie by the writer director of Brick and The Brothers Bloom, both of which I liked a lot. In 2074 time travel exists but is outlawed so only criminals use it. Apparently it's hard to dispose of a body then so then they send them 30 years back into to killers they've contracted with to get the job done, until they kill their future selves. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Joe and now you know where the film starts but not really where it goes. Surprisingly it's less a time twisting film (though it has that) and more a noir story with interesting characters. Good sci-fi fun.

Taken 2 - aka Liam Neeson Kills Everybody 2. The man has trained Obi-Wan and Batman, led the A-Team and the Greek gods, and killed wolves with his bare hands. Do not kidnap his family! In the genre of dumb action films, this isn't completely stupid, not like say Transformers. They at least make an effort to show how he could do what he does. It's almost plausible though not realistic. I enjoyed the first and while the second isn't as good and takes a bit to get going, it's fun ride. Good dumb fun.

Argo - On the other hand this is good smart fun. Based on the true story of the rescue of 6 hostages from Iran in 1980 this is a two hour that goes by very quickly. Ben Affleck directed, stars in and produced this and continues his streak of making good movies. Yes they changed things to make it more dramatic but only one bit felt fake to me. After seeing the film read How Accurate Is Argo? for the details. And if you want more, the original Wired article is good: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From TehranSeven Psychopaths is written and directed by Martin McDonagh who made the very fun In Bruges and the Oscar winning short Six Shooter. I'll let IMDb summarize it: "A struggling screenwriter (Colin Farrell) inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends (Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken) kidnap a gangster's (Woody Harrelson) beloved Shih Tzu." It's a fun cast with Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Waits, Zeljko Ivanek, Gabourey Sidibe and more. Farrell's screenplay is called Seven Psychopaths and the stories his friends tell him turn out to be true and the film gets very meta though not nearly as pretentious as Adaptation (which I also liked). It's too bloody to be for everyone, and the story meanders a little too much and comes off as vignettes, but it's at times very very funny.

Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming of age film set in 1991 in Pittsburg, PA. It's based on a novel, by the screenwriter-director which I had not read. Charlie is a loner freshman with some issues in his past who falls in with a crowd of senior outcasts. Patrick is gay, his step sister Sam has a past, Mary Elizabeth is the smart goth buddist. Most of the scenes like Charlie's first football game, dance, party, Rocky Horror Show, acid trip and etc. all work reasonably well though the dialog sometimes felt a little forced to me. In the second half most of those issues fell away as the emotions really resonated. Good smart film, I wish it were doing better at the box office.