Red 2

I could say that the Red series is everything that's wrong with modern spy films.  It's more show than substance, more flair than grit, more punchline than punch.  Wrapped into that are aging actors - Bruce Willis primarily - whose abilities to withstand a punch, or a knife, or a gun, are simply unbelievable.

But then again, this movie gets right so many things that its contemporaries - I'm looking at you, Untouchables - get wrong.  It's not about the cameo, or joking around with old buddies.  It's about being of a certain age, one where your work is your art.  There are other lines, like the Raid series, to satisfy, the brutal realism of combat.  This is about watching Bruce Willis and some good actors have fun with their work, their art.

Red 2
2013, 116 minutes, directed by Dean Parisot

Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Yet another mid-trilogy bridge film with no resolution of its own.  I yearn for the day when a screenwriter can again create a second film with an ending as good as the first.

Katniss is sent back into the games as a way to shut her up, but this time she doesn't need to fight to the bitter end for survival - for the revolution has begun.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire
2013,  146 minutes, directed by Francis Lawrence

Impact

When this made-for-TV movie started a few nights ago, I had no idea Syfy would drag it out into a four-hour sap fest.  In this epic tale, an asteroid - a fragment of a brown dwarf star - has crashed into the moon, causing it to veer and swing towards Earth.  A team of scientists rush to find a solution before the moon impacts our planet, while meanwhile their families suffer the effects of the star's gravity and magnetism.

With a few adjustments and a different ending, I think I saw this in Melancholia a few years ago.  And I hated that film.  And this one was almost worse.

Impact
2008, 180 minutes, directed by Mike Rohl

The Town That Was

In Centralia, Pennsylvania, a fire burns.  In 1962, to clear up the smell before Memorial Day, a controlled burn was started in the garbage dump pit.  A few days later, when they noticed that the pit was still smoking, the townsfolk realized that the fire had ignited the anthracite coal that lines this part of eastern Pennsylvania.  It might have been easy to stop - at the time, a trench around the pit might have cut off the fire for a few thousand dollars.  Instead, it was mostly ignored - for 17 years - steam vents were added, and residents installed methane detectors - until the local gas station owner, wondering why he was losing gas - realized the tanks were being heated to 170 F in the ground.  Coupled with a sinkhole that nearly swallowed a small boy, the state and federal governments finally started taking action.

Unfortunately the most cost effective option at that time was to move the people out, and so the state started buying and demolishing homes and businesses, voluntarily at first, but eventually through eminent domain.

This documentary tells the story as of 2007, when some dozen or so residents remain "squatting" in their own homes, all now owned by the government.  It's a fascinating story of a city in decline, but the documentary is pretty much ruined by focusing on John Lokitis, the youngest remaining resident, who in his 30s lives in the family home and maintains several blocks of the former city.  He rambles on about how special the town is, and how it's such a shame to see it change, which may be true, but then he says that there's no danger and the government should return the land and people should move back, all while we can see the smoke rising from the ground behind him on camera.

The last remaining residents blame the government for lying to them, for in the 1980s promising that no one would be forced out, not once considering that the situation, the fire, and everyone in the government had since changed.  It should be all about the fire, and the town as it was, not about the man who stubbornly refuses to move on from the small town where he grew up, as it slowly burns from the fire started 21 years before he was born.

In Centralia, Pennsylvania, a fire burns.

The Town That Was
2007, 71 minutes, directed by Chris Perkel and Georgie Roland

Iron Man 3

Can this series wind back down after the craziness of aliens in New York?  Clearly the audience expects bigger, better, more, but that's simply not possible with just an Iron Man and friends but no gods or hulks.  To take this on, the script weaves and dodges away from New York references, but does hit dead on with Tony Stark confronting growing waves of anxiety as he suffers from PTSD, and steps out of his suit for some action scenes au naturale.

Other than that, though, the continuity falls flat.  The usual brash Tony eggs on a new badass terrorist to attack him at his home.  When it happens, his suit is damaged, Jarvis shuts down, and all the old suits are trapped in the vault.  What happened to all the suits he kept in his New York penthouse?  Doesn't he own more than one server for Jarvis to run from?  With the President in trouble, where's Captain America?

Before I saw this, I read an interview where Gwyneth Paltrow predicted the end of the series.  I didn't believe her at the time, but after seeing the film, I agree that they've burnt through Tony Stark as a character and are ready to set him aside, pulling him out for cameo roles in the next few Avengers films.

Iron Man 3
2013, 130 minutes, directed by Shane Black

Smokin' Aces

For a brief while back in 2006-07, I purchased my way to a friendship with the Leagues of Alamo Drafthouse fame.  They wanted to save their downtown theater, but their original ten-year lease was ending, the warehouse district had exploded in popularity, and the only way they could afford to stay was to become a non-profit.  They founded the Heroes of the Alamo Foundation, dedicated to preserving vintage and genre film presentation in downtown Austin - in other words, to keep the Original Alamo open.  My wife and I joined as our first big philanthropic donation.

It was a good year.  Part of our membership included free access to all Alamo Downtown events.  Despite living out in the suburbs at the time, we made great use of this perk, attending many events, hanging out with the owners and staff, and, for me, for the first time feeling part of the Austin vibe.  And when Butt-Numb-A-Thon came around, Tim held a few seats for us members and got me in, despite having never heard of the event or Ain't It Cool News.

This was the year of Octobuttnumbathon, and I was not prepared.  I do not like missing part of a film, even credits, and when Harry played a scratchy 1930s Irish gangster film in the middle of the night, or the 1980s Hanna Barbara animated adult film, I was awake through all of it.  Oh, what a fool I was.  For by the next morning, approaching the 24 hour mark of film, I lacked a changed of clothes or deodorant, and was jittery from caffeine pills.  I called my wife to pick me up, and when she arrived I had to bail.  Not only did I miss the final film in its entirety - an early screening of 300, but I left with 25 minutes to go on the previous film, Smokin' Aces.  So that gets around to the movie.

I like Guy Ritchie films.  Big ensemble British gangster just works.   Joe Carnahan apparently likes them as well, since he copied them to make this.  Except for him, gangster films are set in the Nevada, and feature a wild and improbably ensemble of characters that would otherwise never make it through the front door of any respectable establishment.  Classy, they aren't.  When Buddy "Aces" Israel decides to turn mob informer, mob boss Primo Sparazza puts a hit out on him.  As word spreads, several teams converge on Lake Tahoe to protect him, arrest him, or cut out his heart.  Violence ensues.

Clearly seeing the ending of the film was high on my list, since I managed to wait six and a half years to rent it.  Well, anyway, now I have, and I don't have to watch it again.

When the Leagues made the deal to get the Ritz location, the days of the Heroes Foundation were numbers.  We were able to attend the Last Night at the Alamo, and I took home my favorite chairs, but our year membership expired before the Ritz opened, and with it went our "in" with the clique.  Since then, neither the owners nor staff have acknowledged that they ever even knew who I was.

Smokin' Aces
2006, 107 minutes, directed by Joe Carnahan

GI Joe: Retaliation

It wouldn't take a Joe to drive a tank through the holes in Cobra's plan, making the entire story a laughable chain of improbably action sequences.

Wait, didn't Mission Impossible already use this plot?

GI Joe: Retaliation
2013,  110 minutes, directed by Jon M. Chu

The Bourne Legacy

I thought this was a sequel with a replacement lead.  Needless to say I'm surprised to instead find it's a "co-quel", taking place alongside events of the Bourne Supremacy.  This makes it somewhat disconcerting as they keep referring to things that happened in a film I saw two years ago, not in retrospect but in real-time, in a way that seems vital to the plot.  Or, to put it a different way, the plot of that other film seems so much more important to this one.  It's sort of like the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern of CIA action flicks.

It finally picks up most of the way through as the action intensifies and the film is finally allowed to chart its own course.  And then it ends, all set up for a sequel.

Having dropped from a must-see theater experience to Netflix DVD, I suppose I can't downgrade the series any further.  Overall though, I'm disappointed that they weren't able to set this up better, with more tie-ins to the previous film actually in the previous film.

The Bourne Legacy
2012, 135 minutes, directed by Tony Gilroy

A Good Day to Die Hard

I heard bad things about this film.  Most of them were true.  Rehashed catchphrases fill 75% of the dialog.  The bad guys are stupid.  And no one that age would survive that much abuse and keep moving, ruining any suspension of disbelief.  And, worst of all, this McClane has no respect for civilians; this one would have blown the roof.  Disappointing.

A Good Day to Die Hard
2013, 98 minutes, directed by John Moore

Red

Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA asset, just trying to figure out how he's going to fill the rest of his life.  He's particularly fond of Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a customer service representative at the agency responsible for sending him is pension checks, which "mysteriously disappear" forcing him to call.

Then, for some reason, a hired squad tries to kill him.  Unfazed, he heads to Sarah to pick her up, knowing those after him will get to her, too.  As the plot thickens, he enlists the help of his former associates, all retired, and all also on the same hit list.  Can the experience of age defeat the vigor of youth and get to the bottom of the conspiracy that goes to the top?

The film has a catchy feel - a modern action story without sacrificing dialog or character development.

Red
2010, 111 minutes, directed by Robert Schwentke

Skyfall

It's interesting to watch a reboot of the James Bond franchise without them actually replacing the main character.  I can picture a film 20 years from now, with this Moneypenny and Q interacting with a new Bond thrice removed.

Film-wise, the story does feel significantly less epic than the two prior installments.  The action comes closer to home as M is threatened, and Bond must go off the grid and off the rails to protect her.

Skyfall
2012, 143 minutes, directed by Sam Mendes

The Avengers

First thoughts: There are a lot of ingredients in this pot.

Second thoughts: I was wondering when the not-so-super heroes would be relegated to civilian duty while the fly-through-the-air jumping-on-buildings super heroes would save the day.  Oh, yes, here it is.  Well at least they kept it as part of the action, as an important part of the mission.

Ending thoughts: I don't think this film - aka Iron Man III and friends - was the best film I've seen this year.  Oh well.  It's made enough money that there will be another film.

Final thoughts: Stay until the end of the credits for a bonus scene.

The Avengers
2012, 143 minutes, directed by Joss Whedon

District B13

Leïto, a product of Paris bario B13, wants to clean up his home and rescue his sister Lola.  Damien, a go-it-alone cop, needs to defuse a bomb captured by the B13 thugs.  Together they need to bring down the crime boss Taha, save the girl, and save the city.

I liked the idea of putting two very physical actors together on screen, though I have to admit their respective solo work at the start of the film exceeds their group scenes.  Still the story is solid enough and the action sequences are good.  I'd watch it again.

District B13
2004, 84 minutes, directed by Pierre Morel

Iron Sky

In a world where Sarah Palin is president, the Moon Nazis return...

Iron Sky
2012, 93 minutes, directed by Timo Vuorensola

I spent an hour in line chatting with acting hopeful Samantha Davilry.  I'm noting her name so I can keep an eye out for film credits.  Good luck!

WE ARE LEGION: The Story of the Hacktivists

This feel-good activism documentary chronicles the story of Anonymous and it's offshoots, from its origins on 4chan, early operations against Hal Turner and Scientology, through the Lulzsec activities of 2011. It does a good job of marketing the Freedom ethos, but there's little time spent on opposing viewpoints if you want an apolitical account.

If you don't believe the government will always protects ALL your freedoms, you too rely on Anonymous. I expect though that only those who agree with film will ever see it.

WE ARE LEGION: The Story of Anonymous
2012, 89 minutes, directed by Brian Knappenberger

Safety Not Guaranteed

I'm old enough to be sentimental about things. In the film they say "It's not about a girl, it's about a time and a place." But it's not. It's really more about finding who you want to be right here and right now.

Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and two coworkers follow a classified ad:
"WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. 'Safety Not Guaranteed.' I have only done this once before."

Safety Not Guaranteed
2012, 85 minutes, directed by Colin Treverrow

The Cabin in the Woods

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon don't want anyone to talk about this film.  It's hard not too because it was fucking awesome.  You think you have it figured out?  Oh no you don't; check out this.

What happens when five young college students set off for a weekend alone in the woods?  Mayhem of course.  If you would ever watch a horror comedy, make sure you watch this one.

"This came from a place of love.  Joss and I just love horror movies." - director Drew Goddard at the world premiere Q&A on opening night of SXSW 2012.

The Cabin in the Woods
2012, 105 minutes, directed by Drew Goddard




"No, no, no.  It's not an angry raping tree.  It's an angry molesting tree." - Drew

Deja Vu

This film starring Denzel Washington starts as a straight-forward police procedural, investigating a terrorist attack that destroys a New Orleans ferry carrying returning sailors and their families.

Then the time viewing/interference starts and it gets weird.  Couple that with an ending of imperfect knowledge and I hesitate to like it as much as I think I should.

Deja Vu
2006, 126 minutes, directed by Tony Scott

Calibre 9

All hell breaks loose when a gun, possessed by the soul of a dead hooker named Sarah, decides to use a mild-mannered city planner named Yann to exact revenge on society, corruption, and anyone else who gets in her way.

This is just what the festival has so far lacked and I greatly needed - glorious, glorious, violence.  With guns.  Well, one gun, named Sarah.

Calibre 9
2011, 84 minutes, directed by Jean-Christian Tassy

Salt

This film was reasonably enjoyable, except for the fact that it was clearly designed to set up a series of sequels.  Angelina Jolie as an action star works well, especially since the action never pauses long enough to consider how she just kicked all those asses.

Salt
2010, 100 minutes, directed by Phillip Noyce