Film

Rock on a roll

Snitch

Man, Dwayne Johnson has had so much ink done, yet he doesn’t show off his tattoos in his latest, Snitch. Not one tattoo shot! That’s because Dwayne wants to be taken seriously as an actor, and his performance in this film certainly shows he’s capable of more than making his pecs dance or firing guns while his tattoos sexily vibrate. Heck, it looks like he’s going to leave the sexy tattoo vibrations for the other 172 films he seems to be starring in within the upcoming year. Snitch casts Johnson as John Matthews, an incomplete but well meaning cinema father. He provides for the family he has living in his lush house thanks to a semi-lucrative trucking company. As for his ex-wife and son from the former marriage, he gives them enough so they can get by, and has little to do with the upbringing of son Jason (Rafi Gavron). So, of course, Jason has gone a little bad. He likes to smoke a little pot and take Ecstasy. His like for Ecstasy leads to a bunch of it being Fed-Exed to him by a drug dealer friend, and this is where the big trouble starts. Jason gets pinched, John gets pissed, and a long jail term for the young dummy seems in order. That is, until John takes matters into his own hands, and offers to help the federal government nab drug dealers in exchange for leniency towards his son. This leads to a lot of scenes with Johnson doing a good job of looking concerned and Gavron doing a bang-up job looking freaked out. I found myself caring for their characters fairly early on in the film’s running time, and that got me invested in the picture to some degree.

Snitch isn’t great, but it’s a serviceably good action film featuring good lead performances and a decent supporting cast. Michael Kenneth Williams (Boardwalk Empire) offers a scary presence as Malik, a drug dealer unknowingly participating in John’s scheme. Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) garners plenty of sympathy as an ex-con employee of by Bob Grimm John’s who can’t resist a chance to make a lot of money for his struggling family. And Barry bgrimm@ Pepper is his reliable self as a drug enforcenewsreview.com ment agent with extraordinary facial hair. Susan Sarandon is actually the film’s weak 3 link as the typical government type with political aspirations who will do anything to get some votes. It’s a “nothing but a paycheck” gig for someone capable of so much better. She feels very out of place. If there is a problem in watching a film like this, it’s that you know things are all going to come out OK in the end. There’s no real sense of tension when it comes to John driving a big truck on the freeway and being shot at by drug dealers while trying to carry on a phone conversation. And you just know the ending is going to involve tears and one last prison visit. Still, I must admit to enjoying the film on certain levels. The scene where John is shot at while driving that truck is well staged, even if it is predictable. The movie claims to be based on a true story, so that means the real life chase probably involved a cruiser bicycle and a kid with a slingshot. Hollywood tends to embellish. Do I think Dwayne Johnson will ever take a big grinned walk towards a podium to pick up an Oscar? Hell no. Do I think he will be able to handle future roles in thrillers that require some acting muscle rather than some HGH enhanced, rippling tattoo muscle? Certainly. His work here shows that he is capable of taking things to the next level. Now sit back and await the arrival of Johnson in Fast & Furious 6, Pain & Gain, Empire State and G.I. Joe: Retaliation, his other 2013 offerings. Or check him out on the TV as The Rock in a recent visit to his old haunts at WWE wrestling. This man wants to be everything at once. Ω

“Will you teach me how to love?”

1

Poor

2

Fair

3

Good

4

Very Good 5

excellent 4 Amour Man, oh man, this is a tough one to watch. From Michael Haneke, the director of the brutal Funny Games—both the foreign and the American versions—we get a film about old age so honest, it guts you. Many of us know a couple like Georges and Anne (JeanLouis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva). Seeing a couple like this dealing with terrible illness is heartbreaking, and Haneke takes a terribly honest approach to impending death. Riva’s Oscar nominated performance is one of those pieces of work you will never forget. It tattoos onto your brain. Rest assured, if you choose to see this, it’s going to knock you on your ass. Don’t watch this if the truth scares you.

1A Good Day to Die Hard The Die Hard franchise has been one of the more reliable action movie franchises in cinematic history—until now. Bruce Willis looks tired, beaten down and embarrassed in this useless installment of the adventures of John McClane. The action takes him to Russia this time, which is a mistake. While there, he helps his son with some espionage crap, another storytelling mistake. He goes up against villains who do not distinguish themselves at all, and this would be the film’s biggest mistake. Die Hard needs a big villain. All of the prior installments had good villains, and that includes naked William Sadler in Die Hard 2. I think McClane has got some good stuff left in the tank, but enough with this garbage involving his kids. And stay the heck out of Russia; that place has lost all of its cinematic bad guy appeal. Little in this movie makes sense and it just doesn’t belong in a category with the first four chapters. Reboot, forget this thing, and start fresh the next time out, sort of like how Rocky Balboa forgot the previous two chapters and restored the Italian Stallion’s dignity.

2Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters This seriously had the makings of the worst, dumbest movie ever made. Hansel and Gretel, the famed gingerbread house eaters, survive their ordeal to become world-class witch hunters. The result is bad, but it’s one of those so-bad-it’s-almost-good endeavors. Jeremy Renner somehow got talked into this thing, and he gives it his best shot, as does Gemma Arterton as his sister, Gretel. Famke Janssen is on hand as a mean witch who plans to take the blood of a bunch of children and do something or other with it. I wasn’t really following, or caring. The 3-D is bad, so go ahead and opt for 2-D. It’s got Peter “Where is Pancakes House?” Stormare in it too, which is usually the mark of a bad film unless it’s Fargo. Lots of blood and curse words get this one an R-rating. Director Tommy Wirkola seems as if he’s playing it for camp at times, and that would’ve been the better move for the whole film. It really slows down when it takes itself too seriously.

1Identity Thief Cashing in on her Oscar-nominated turn in Bridesmaids, Melissa McCarthy gets a headlining role alongside Jason Bateman in Identity Thief. While both performers are talented and make the best of the crap heap of a script they are handed, it’s not enough to make this anything more than a desperate misfire. From the director of Horrible Bosses, this is just another riff on Planes, Trains & Automobiles minus much of the fun. Bateman plays a sorry sap who has his identity stolen by a free shopping weirdo (McCarthy). He gets into some legal troubles, and vows to capture the thief and bring her back to his hometown. So it’s another odd couple road movie, and pretty exploitive when it comes to McCarthy. She’s a talented woman, and she deserves much better than this.

5Les Misérables This is a grand, beautifully shot adaptation of the legendary musical, directed by Tom Hooper and starring Hugh Jackman in the heavy-lifting role of persecuted bread thief Jean Valjean. Set in 19th century France, the musical calls for nearly every word to be sung, and it’s a major undertaking. Hooper had his cast sing live on the set rather than prerecording in a sound booth, and this results in a moving musical experience. Jackman has a spectacular voice, and you get at true sense that he and his costars are acting these songs, rather than lip-synching. Anne Hathaway will probably win an Oscar for her work as Fantine, singing her big number in one take and summoning honest, heart-wrenching tears. Russell Crowe, as Valjean’s lawman nemesis Javert, doesn’t have half of Jackman’s voice, but there’s something about his interpretation that’s appropriate and amplifies the character’s loneliness. Every number is treated with a majestic grace that makes this one of the greatest movie musicals I’ve ever seen.

3Mama This genuinely chilling haunted fairytale comes from producer Guillermo del Toro and writer/director Andrés Muschietti, and is based on Mushcietti’s original short film. Two little girls are abandoned by their demented father in the forest. They are discovered years later and adopted by their uncle (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend (Jessica Chastain). The little girls have taken on the characteristics of feral beasts and are convinced they are being watched over by a force they call “Mama.” As it turns out, Mama is very real, and a decent CGI creation that is both scary and just the right touch of funny. The film works well not just because Muschietti knows how to construct a good scare, but also because he does a great job getting you to care for the little girls and the Chastain character. Chastain, looking rather gothic in this one, delivers another good performance, even though she isn’t very convincing as a bass player in a punk band. I was scared throughout much of this movie.

3Side Effects The first half of director Steven Soderbergh’s alleged feature film’s swan song is excellent, while the second half is only passably good. Jude Law stars as a doctor treating a depressed patient (Rooney Mara) who is given an experimental drug with some nasty results. The film is at once a mystery and an indictment of the worldwide pharmaceutical industry, and it hums along nicely for a good chunk of the running time. Then, it suddenly becomes a mediocre Brian De Palma movie as the mysteries are solved, and it gets a little hokey. Good things happen before it unravels, with Mara doing some nice work alongside Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Soderbergh says this is it for him. Hopefully, he just takes a couple of years off and finds himself back behind the camera someday. This movie is OK, but I would like to see him go out on a better note.

4Silver Linings Playbook Bradley Cooper is on fire as Pat, a troubled man recently out of a mental institution and obsessed with his ex-wife. He’s so obsessed hat he can’t see the value in Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a recently widowed neighbor trying to befriend him. Directed by David O. Russell, the movie is a funny, slick treatment of people with real problems that works because Russell and his performers find the right balance. Robert De Niro does his best work in years as Pat’s obsessive father, and Chris Tucker gets big laughs as Pat’s former mental institution buddy. Cooper and Lawrence make for one of the year’s most interesting screen couples. They are certainly unique. Russell is establishing himself as one of the industry’s most reliable and innovative directors.

5Zero Dark Thirty Director Kathryn Bigelow getting snubbed by Oscar for this taut, scary, intelligent movie about the war on terror and hunt for Bin Laden is a travesty. Well, it’s a travesty when it comes to movies and stuff, not so much in the grand scheme of things. Still, Bigelow deserves praise for putting together a movie that is both exciting political thriller and terrific action movie. Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain is deserving of the accolades as Maya, a composite character of CIA agents who managed to find Bin Laden in Pakistan and end his life. The film contains scenes of torture, but it doesn’t feel “pro-torture” by any means. It’s a great movie that will only get greater with time, and yet another reason to call Bigelow one of the best in the business.