Cosmopolis

This reminds me a lot of Cronenberg's movie Spider from 2002. While Cronenberg stamps his name all over it, there’s none of the action, suspense or brutality of his many great movies. That doesn’t make this a bad movie, it just makes it a very boring one. It’s absolutely minimalistic. This makes A Dangerous Method look like Raiders of the Lost Arc. Performances are good, and I’m sure some of the ideas talked about in the dialogue are meaningful. But it’s so intentionally slow and sullen, Indy might say it might be better off in a museum.

Premium Rush

Having proven his stunt performing abilities in Inception, the busy JGL delivers a fun and tense diversion here. While not truly weak, the script and motivations of the extra creepy villain (Michael Shannon) are pretty thin. But that’s not the point of Premium Rush. The point is a ticking clock and one long bike chase. Filmmakers wallow in wild, “Go-Pro” style shots of bikes racing in, around, and OVER New York city traffic. (How’d they shoot some of that stuff??) It’s a bicycle fetishist’s wet-dream, and truly a cinematographer’s movie. It’s like one long, amazing Red Bull commercial. It’s definitely worth seeing if you like this sort of thing, i.e. bikes and/or camera gadgetry and/or Manhattan settings. And most people looking for a decent action movie will probably like it, too.

The Expendables 2

Embarrassing. Especially the lame efforts to work in all the action stars’ bygone catch-phrases. How many more “I’ll be back” jokes do we really need? The miracle of this movie is the actors who managed NOT to embarrass themselves. The real stunt fighters, Jet Li and Jason Statham, manage to make it out unscathed. Chuck Norris, not so much.

Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!

A wildly entertaining and inventive concert film of a Beastie Boys show from 2004. 50 audience members were given cameras and the film cuts between them, often creating rhythmic and almost stop-motion animated movement. Directed by Adam Yauch, it’s an undiscovered gem.

The Campaign

There’s nothing really new here, and the resolution is clunky, but I laughed. Filmmakers take jokes all the way up to their R-Rated potential, which is refreshing these days, when so many other comedies are pulling punches.

The Bourne Legacy

There isn’t an action scene in this movie for the first hour. Kind of risky for an action movie. It’s all exposition, except for a very un-fun gun massacre in a research lab. The former “Bourne” director Greengrass kept the talky scenes moving with a dancing camera and crazy cuts. But the current director Gilroy slows it all way down, requiring a little bit of patience. Once the action starts, though, it never stops. It’s fun, but you can tell they did it on a lower budget. During the chase, all the onlookers were staring at the camera!

Beasts of the Southern Wild

They should have called this movie Where the Fuck are all of the Social Workers? Because it’s competently shot, this movie has a way of tricking you into thinking that it’s better than it is. Despite a really good child performance, this movie is a mess. It’s all pretentious, abstract symbolism. There’s nothing tangible or coherent. There’s barely a story, barely a plot and there’s no real point. I felt empty, angry and dirty when I left the theater. Imagine if, in Slumdog Millionaire, the little kid who dived into the shit at the beginning stayed covered in shit for the whole movie and there was a very sad, pointless ending. You might ask yourself, why did I watch this? That’s how I feel about "Beasts." But I’m sure everyone will say how important it is. I say: ew!

Total Recall

It’s amazing to me that I could still be impressed by computer effects, but well, here I am. Swooning. Seeing the cityscapes, future-cars, and super-elevators was awesome. Unfortunately, the script is joyless and dead serious. While the performances are skilled, I didn’t wind up caring very much for the characters or their peril.