• The Wicker Tree Review
     
     http://bartybooks.com/the-wicker-tree-review.htm
  • Man on a Ledge Review
     
     http://bartybooks.com/man-on-a-ledge-review.htm
  • One for the Money Review
     
     http://bartybooks.com/one-for-the-money-review.htm
  • The Grey Review
     
     http://bartybooks.com/the-grey-review.htm
  • The Front Line Review
     
     http://bartybooks.com/the-front-line-review.htm
  • Miss Bala Review
     
     http://bartybooks.com/miss-bala-review.htm
  • The Flowers of War Review
     
     http://bartybooks.com/the-flowers-of-war-review.htm

Movies under ‘Action’

One for the Money Review

The trailer would remind you of the forgettable The Bounty Hunter starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston with the former being the titular character whose target happens to be his ex-wife, having them bicker and run from various misadventures together. Reverse the roles in order to have a female bounty hunter going after an ex-boyfriend, and the stage is set for more of the same, no? Not quite. One for the Money has a lot more going for it, predominantly being a film written by and made by females for its intended audience, and being an engaging flick chick that wonderfully encapsulates a whodunnit.

Katherine Heigl seems to be on a successful roll on celluloid, and is in her element here in this romantic action adventure comedy as lead character Stephanie Plum, a rookie bounty hunter drawn to the profession only because she’s desperate for a job to pay off impending bills. An ex-lingerie model, we follow her transition from girly girl to a somewhat tough cookie ready to hold her own in her cousin’s business, where an added incentive is to hunt down and bring in her ex-boyfriend Joe Morelli (Jason O’Mara), a cop wanted for the gunning down an unarmed felon.

Yes one would expect the usual laughs coming from her inexperience in a new field, her constantly being outwitted by slier opponents in the big bad town of Trenton, New Jersey, and having that pitch perfect sexual charisma with her mark since they share a common romantic history before in their youths. But to my surprise One for the Money has a little bit more depth in its story than I would have imagined, playing out like a mystery with a crime at hand to solve, with Stephanie stumbling her way from fact to fact, interacting with various interesting caricatures who don’t bore, and plays out exactly like an 80s private detective film of old in spirit.

Written by Stacy Sherman, Karen Ray and Liz Brixius off the well received novel of the same name by Janet Evanovich, this probably accounts for a lot of female-centric focus on elements in the storyline, as well as director Julie Anne Robinson’s ability to center this very much like a chick flick, wrapped around an old fashioned whodunnit. I mean, only in a story with an attractive female protagonist would you have other females in the story either old, or matronly, and having not one but two hunks – Morelli and fellow alpha-male bounty hunter Ranger (Daniel Sunjata) – involved at the crossroads of her life. Plenty of characterization goes into the lead character of Stephanie Plum, and Heigl brings a certain sass to the role, with little street smarts that cover for her lack of experience in the field.

Granted the mystery doesn’t quite play out with that kind of tension and suspense as one would expect from a true blur genre film, but it does enough with its slight touch and managed to keep interest afloat. While there are 18 novels to date in the series of Stephanie Plum’s adventures in bounty hunting, with each novel title starting with a number / numerically related, reality is that any subsequent film will have to rely on how much this makes at the box office. My bet is that it’ll likely be something quite modest with a potential of 17 more films made only if Heigl wants to be stereotyped (if not already) or typecast. Still, One for the Money sits above average on the entertainment scale, and can be recommended fare if you’d give it a chance.


Fast Tube by Casper

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The Grey Review

A lot of people will complain about this film not having enough action or being too introspective or whatever other reason they can think of not to like the film. But the reality is, this is a fantastic movie about survival when there is little to no chance of doing so. In fact, the film speaks about a lot of things. It speaks about man versus nature, about being male, and about the human spirit’s need to persist. What this film is not is an action-adventure or one about Liam Neeson punching wolves. No, the trailer really pulled a number on anyone expecting a loud movie about wolf killing.

The film’s setup is simple: Neeson’s bodyguard-like character to a group of men drilling in Alaska finds himself and several others having survived a plane crash and facing the cold, harsh wilderness in an attempt to get back to civilization. In said wilderness, they are faced with a pack of wolves who have had their space invaded by these men and are out for blood. The cast is mostly fantastic, but obviously Neeson shines in the lead role. He is the kind of hard-edged man we’ve seen of him recently, but like the rest of the cast, he is vulnerable. The film speaks a great deal about the male ego and what it means to actually be a man. We’re told that these men Neeson is protecting are some of the worst kind of men, being criminals and just general a-holes. But when faced with such impending doom, these men show their vulnerabilities. They come across as tough and gruff. Even Neeson plays things cold and disconnected, but over the course of the film we learn about each of the men, see the things they truly care about, and even see them face fear when they would otherwise not admit to being afraid. It’s a film that shatters the image of male machismo in a slow, thought provoking way.

Now, I’ve already mentioned that the film isn’t an action-adventure in the way that people might expect, but it is nonetheless heart racing (or stopping, take your pick). Nearly every minute of screen time is taken up by some kind of tension, and this is in part thanks to pure visual and audio goodness. The darkness surrounding the men, the sounds of trees breaking, or wolves howling. It all creates a frightening, edge of your seat atmosphere. And when the attacks come, they come quickly and quietly. It’s unsettling and has you bracing for more. It’s not just wolf attacks either. Nature is as much a killer of these men as the wolves, and facing the cold and an attempt to escape prove harrowing, and sometimes even fatal. It’s a film shot beautifully, but in that beauty is true terror, the kind of which few films these days can create. Sound is as much apart of that terror as it’s look, and the two combine fantastically.

The film is also fairly depressing. There is little hope here, and as the men come to face their individual fates, the sense of dread grows greater. This coupled with an ending that many may find disappointing will probably turn other viewers off. I, for one, was not. The movie is still quite fantastic despite it’s depressing tone, and even if the ending isn’t quite what we’d anticipate, there’s enough of a sense of finality in it that it seems justified. In other words, if all you expect is a film that is shallow and about what you see, instead of what you feel and think, then you will most likely be disappointed. But if you’re looking for an exciting, edge of your seat, thought provoking film with a lot to say, then The Grey is something you will probably enjoy. It’s certainly a heck of a good way to kick off a new year of cinema.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb1aTdC929w&feature=fvst]

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Miss Bala Review

This review may contain subtle spoilers.

Although the review below does not contain any specific spoilers, the gist of it could allow the reader to guess the movies final outcome, especially the penultimate paragraph.

Miss Baha is a film that is almost great but not quite there hence my 7/10 rating. It’s the story of Laura, a 23 year old working class Mexican girl who with her friend is trying to get a rung up the ladder by entering a beauty contest. Miss Congeniality this is not. Through a series of unlucky breaks and circumstances, Laura falls into a spiral of ever more perilous situations. Every decision she makes pushes her further away from her previous normal existence as she becomes ever more entwined in Mexico’s de facto civil war between the US backed authorities and the Mexican drug cartels.

The film despite being almost 2 hours long never loses your attention as the plot unfolds at quite a pace. The lead actress Stephanie Sigman gives an excellent performance as a normal person having to cope with ever more dangerous circumstances.

Noe Hernandez playing the besieged leader of the drugs cartel portrays a man who seems to know that even though things are looking bleak for him, he somehow instinctively knows that he’ll probably survive. He portrays the characters evil and violent deeds in a very matter of fact way as though he is so used to the violence that it’s just another day in the office for him. A very good performance.

The film has scenes of real menace when you just don’t know how Laura is going to escape her latest predicament and has very well handled action scenes. There’s a good sense of realism and a big pat on the back should go to the sound crew who have created an excellent sound mix with very realistic and naturalistic sound effects punctuated by ear shattering gun shots and explosions.  The desaturated photography adds to the gritty realism and use of mostly close up and medium shots add to the claustrophobic situation that Laura finds her self in.

Now for the problem. Having thought about the movie over night, it ends up being a procession of ever more dangerous episodes for Laura rather than being what was probably intended as an expose of the chaotic Mexican drug war. For Laura to be in the situations she is in. she must have bought a number 13 raffle ticket, walked under a ladder while tripping over a black cat and breaking her fall by smashing into a mirror. However as the film progresses it does clearly show the corruption in Mexican society and the futility in trying to do the right thing.

Recommended to see in a cinema because of the 2.35:1 wide screen photography and the excellent sound or just rent the Blu-ray if you’ve got a big TV and good surround sound.


Fast Tube by Casper

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