The Hurt Locker

A very good movie, tied together more or less by a series of sequences. It doesn’t seem to build toward anything -- it’s more of a “day-in-the-life” of an Army road-side bomb diffuser. But the episodes are visceral and suspenseful, the acting is outstanding, and the directing by Kathryn Bigelow is positively triumphant. The filmmakers milk that special kind of bomb-diffusing “cut the red wire or the blue wire” suspense to a sweating-in-your-seat, nail-biting level, all the while barely venturing into the policy-making of the Iraq war. It’s the first of the Iraq war movies of late that I’ve wanted to see and I’m really glad I did. It plays like an action movie, albeit a highly emotional and moving one.

Black Dynamite

A laugh-out-loud hilarious and loving tribute to the blaxploitation movies of the 70’s. It never strays from trying to be as funny as it possibly can be, and it only occasionally ventures into silly Wayans Brothers territory. It is, for the most part, played skillfully and refreshingly straight. Solid props to co-writer and star Michael Jai White for delivering all the bad karate, bad-ass posturing and sex-god movie platitudes with astronautical precision. It’s a masterwork of straight satire, an astute homage to the groundbreaking genre, and a really fucking funny night at the movies.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Redefines bad. The first one was stupid, but fun. This was offensive – a crime against humanity. It’s a kind of a rehash of the Bad Boys 2 debacle. Bad Boys? Cheesy, but fun. Bad Boys 2? Crime against humanity. Maybe Michael Bay shouldn’t do sequels. What’s tragic, too, is, I read about some of the many effects artists and the many months an army of people would work on one six-second sequence. It’s a shame such careful, hard-working technicians would, perhaps unknowingly, be accessories to this atrocity. The script? Terrible. The lame jokes? Like hot pokers in the eye. The running time? Appalling. Wow. Let’s never speak of this again.

Moon

Sam Rockwell is terrific here – an astronaut feeling desperately alone, unappreciated, and facing death. It’s a courageous performance from an actor I’ve always liked (see Choke), but never seems to have gotten his shot. The script is full of surprises and it skillfully upset my expectations for how it would all unfold in Rockwell’s one-man show. Production design is bare, calculated and very realistic for what is reportedly a low-budget movie. It’s essentially a piece of cinematic minimalism, but still gripping to the end. Moon is an unqualified success for being unique, daring, and showcasing a virtuoso lead performance.

The Proposal

There were several moments during this when I wanted to kill myself. Not that it’s bad. It’s just -– those rom-com moments. Man! Trying on the wedding dress, etc. Makes me cringe. Reynolds and Bullock have chemistry, there’s no doubt. And Reynolds does his best to keep the smart-alecky tone for as long as possible. But it eventually gives in, as it must I suppose, to the schmaltz. So the goodwill they earn in the first half fades away.

Year One

It’s fun when comedies pick on the bible -- don’t get me wrong. But there’s no plot at all and, in the second half, the shtick starts to get stale. Michael Cera and Jack Black make for an inspired duo. But some of the supporting cast is phoning it in. And even though it’s pretty soft on the sacrilegious aspects, when Cera asks, “What if there isn’t a God?”, I saw three people stand up and angrily leave the theater.

The Taking of Pelham 123

Not my favorite of the Tony Scott/Denzel collaborations. The villain’s plan is fatally flawed, so it’s hard to see him as much of a menace. He doesn’t seem ruthless, so the killings seem out of place. As if to inject some extraneous action, there’s a really lengthy race through the city, resulting in a lot of crashes and explosions. It all felt very unnecessary. Sure, the performances were fine. But the script was kinda blah.

Angels and Demons

Very luke-warm and digestible in that Ron Howardy way. As if to prove how safe he wants it to be, he includes the ubiquitous casting of a family member – his father Rance as an important Bishop dude. The writers play it safe. The technical stuff is all safe. Tom Hanks is REALLY safe casting. There’s no one safer. (Why MUST “Robert Langdon” be an everyman?) It’s not an awful movie, but I just wonder what these Dan Brown movies might have been like helmed by someone more daring.

The Hangover

Beloved by almost everyone I’ve talked to. I liked it. I thought it was fine. I laughed. But the set-ups in the first half were funnier than the pay-offs in the second half. And I was frustrated by the many loose ends about which the creators assume we won’t care whether or not they’re resolved. But despite my nitpickiness, I gotta admit, I was really rooting for Ed Helms. I couldn’t wait until he stood-up to his horrible, one-dimensional, emasculating girlfriend (perfectly & courageously conjured-up by Rachael Harris).

Land of the Lost

Once again, Will Ferrell plays a way, way over-confident heel who must be taken down a peg or two to overcome and finally show-up a nemesis (Matt Lauer). Ferrell does a lot of obvious riffing. The movie milks these moments for all they’re worth. (i.e. a lengthy bit about covering one’s self with dinosaur urine.) The bits are funny, I suppose. But the whole mess doesn’t add up to very much. Anna Freil plays the rational woman here, and she’s cute and likable. The effects are top-notch and the pace is brisk. So it could be worse. But it’s just “bits.” And it’s starting to feel like we’ve seen them before.