My August Rundown

Sorry about the long wait for new reviews, folks. The decision to move from my former apartment to the new one was sudden and not entirely my decision. For three weeks, I barely had time to SEE any movies, let alone review them in a timely manner. And to top it all off, when I arrived at the new place, it took a week just to get the internet up and running. I'm just not one of those types who can pull out his phone and post from there. Typing just doesn't feel natural unless I'm sitting at my desk or in bed with the laptop. But since I DO want to get back into the swing of things, I'm just going to jot down my impressions of the movies I watched in August, a month with blessed few titles I actually cared to see. I'll include a brief synopsis, my findings, and a final score, based on an A+ to F ratings system. There were certainly a number of movies I wish I hadn't missed, but most of those, like The Spectacular Now or The Butler, are still out there. Sadly, so are many that I'm glad I didn't see. I'll catch up on them eventually, but for the moment I present to you what I would like to call... my August.

2 Guns is exactly the kind of gun-toting wise-crackery you would expect from a film that stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. In this buddy-cop formula, the two actors play a DEA agent and a Naval Intelligence Officer, respectively, who go undercover without knowledge of the other, in an attempt to take down a vicious Mexican drug cartel. After they successfully rob a bank in an effort to solve the case, they discover one-another's true identities, as well as the fact that they have unwittingly ripped off a corrupt cell of the CIA. With the money lost in the wind and three whole organizations calling for their blood, two men who simply do not trust one another are forced to work together just to survive.

As I mentioned before, 2 Guns is definitely derivative of the buddy-cop formula that has existed in Hollywood for decades. Adding an international flavor with the Mexican drug angle helps, as does the easy chemistry between the film's stars, and the trio of heavyweights coming after them (played well by Edward James Olmos, Bill Paxton and James Marsden). Director Baltasar Kormakur (Contraband) knows how to film action, even if his directing as a whole is uneven and at times excessively violent. Still, the humorous edge does work wonders, causing the film to rise well above where it ought to have been. However, his is no game-changer for either Washington or Wahlberg. Despite their pairing, 2 Guns was never meant to be anything more than a flash in the pan. The story at times does get pretty bright, but other than some crisp dialogue the whole thing is barely memorable.

Score: B-

I'd been long awaiting Elysium, the sophomore entry from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, and not just because District 9 was one of the best science fiction films of the past decade, if not all time. You had Matt Damon, who looked to kick the most ass since leaving the Jason Bourne franchise, and Jodie Foster, a talented actress who is just starting to get back into mainstream films after almost a decade of independents and laying low. The story takes place on a ravaged and over-populated Earth and follows Max (Damon), a former car thief trying to keep his life on the straight and narrow when a work incident exposes him to a lethal dose of radiation that will end his life in a manner of days. His only chance is to escape to Elysium, a wondrous man-made satellite that is the home of the rich and powerful, orbiting the Earth while leaving the sick and dying planet to the poor. There, and only there, they have the state-of-the-art medical facilities that can heal him. Hacked into an experimental exoskeleton designed to keep him alive, Max seeks to take over Elysium and change the class system forever.

In retrospect, it's easy to see how Elysium fails to live up to the bar set by its predecessor. District 9 had an amazing and believable universe set around its alien refugee invasion plot, and the story was subtle and nuanced leading up to its explosive-packed ending. Elysium lacks that same subtlety, and while the action never gets dull, Blomkamp's curious use of shaky cam makes the fights confusing, really taking you out of the story. The acting is also all over the place; while Damon is solid and Sharlto Copley's appearance as an evil mercenary is downright scary, Foster turns in a throwaway performance that is almost cartoonishly bad. You'll certainly enjoy yourself watching this, especially with the gorgeous visuals projected onto the big screen, but with such an obvious 99% message hammered down your throat, it's hard to get fully behind this otherwise-innovative tale.

Score: B

The concept behind We're the Millers was simply too good NOT to be true. When a low-level drug dealer (Jason Sudeikis) is forced to smuggle marijuana across the border from Mexico in order to pay off his blood-thirsty boss, he is unsure as of how to pull it off without getting caught. Desperate, he hires a broke stripper (Jennifer Aniston) and two local youngsters (Emma Roberts and Will Poulter) to play his "family", and the group travel down south to pick up the package. But two things happen: first, things get complicated as the gang discovers they haven't completed a transaction so much as they've stolen from a ruthless drug lord. The second is that, despite their initial dislike of one another, the four begin to grow into something resembling a family unit. But despite their growth, will these four people who are not as they outwardly appear be the victims of violence when that drug lord eventually catches up?

To the point, We're the Millers is way, WAY funnier than it ought to be. This is partially due to the work of Dodgeball director Rawson Marshall Thurber in keeping the pace and jokes flying, but especially thanks to the cast. While Sudeikis perhaps is the weakest link here, everyone else has chances to shine, especially British actor Poulter as a virginal teenager. Aniston also proves that she can still pull off angry well, and though her range is rather limited she does a great job of picking roles that let her tap into that vein. But perhaps the biggest scene-stealers are Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn as the parental units of another traveling family to whom the "Millers" become acquainted. While some of the jokes miss, far more hit that sweet spot perfectly, and when that 110 minutes has passed you'll wish you could stay for more of that great humor. We're the Millers is easily one of the funniest R-rated comedies in recent memory, and while that's really not saying much, it's a platitude well deserved.

Score: A-

I saw Blue Jasmine more out of respect for its director than for thinking it would be a great movie. Woody Allen is a legendary filmmaker whose efforts have largely been lauded in the industry even as they have often failed to garner a mainstream audience. His biggest hit in recent memory was easily Midnight in Paris, and it also happens to be my favorite of his films. After the mediocrity that was To Rome with Love, however, I remain convinced that Midnight will remain his high point for the distant future. Still, with a strong cast and strong Oscar buzz for Cate Blanchett, I figured I could spare a couple of hours and give this one a try. It follows Jasmine Francis (Blanchett), a former big-time society wife whose multimillionaire husband was a crooked financier, getting himself arrested and soon afterward dead in prison. Penniless and humiliated, Jasmine moves across country to San Francisco, moving in with her sister and hoping to turn her life around. But no matter what she does, whether it's getting a receptionist job, returning to school or meeting a romantic interest, she cannot escape the truth about where she came from and the mental instability that threatens to crack her soul at any second.

As I mentioned before, the cast is absolutely spectacular. Blanchett is especially divine, the marriage of Jasmine's demure personality to Allen's dialogue as expert a performance as you're likely to see this year. And there's more as well, as the group of actors includes standout performances by Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Sally Hawkins. But while the cast is first-rate, the pacing is a bit slow, and the characters a bit too numerous. Jasmine makes for an excellent character study, but the others - while certainly well-acted - are written as relative one-notes and given a bit too much to do. Blue Jasmine is a bit closer to Vicky Cristina Barcelona than it is to Midnight in Paris, and so it's better off as a future DVD rental than as a trip to the movies right now.

Score: B

With four wide releases coming out the weekend of August 18'th, Paranoia was the choice of my faithful movie-going sidekick Anne. I guarantee it wasn't the story of a war between two old tech giants that enticed her, but the starring role going to Liam Hemsworth, younger brother of Thor and up-and-coming Hollywood hunk. Oh, well, at least I get Amber Heard as part of the package.

Paranoia is the story of Adam Cassidy (Hemsworth), a blue-collar computer expert who finds himself trapped in a trade war between cell phone magnates Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman) and Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford). Forced to spy on Goddard on behalf of Wyatt, Adam hopes to at least come out making enough money to take care of his dad. But when things go from shady to outright deadly, it'll take everything Adam and his precious few allies have to overcome and take down these seemingly untouchable forces.

As a brainless diversion, Paranoia has opportunities to be passable entertainment, and for the most part it takes them. There's equal parts humor, tension and action, and the story itself is decent, if laughably edited and entirely predictable. Director Robert Luketic (Killers, 21) isn't the best director out there, which should have been the first clue as to Paranoia's true potential. The acting and dialogue are also second-rate, and while Oldman and Heard really try their hardest to make the material work, Hemsworth is entirely vanilla. Worse, Ford puts in the kind of ham-fisted, paycheck-seeking performance that reminds you that without Han Solo and Indiana Jones, his career would be far less memorable. Despite a few smart choices, it's mostly wasted potential, and there's really not that much about Paranoia that makes me excited to see its eventual DVD release.

Score: C-

I've been awaiting Kick-Ass 2 for nearly three years. That was when the original Kick-Ass hit theaters with it's bizarre blend of ultra-violence and dry, bathroom humor. And for the most part, it worked. It heralded the rise of actors Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloe Grace Moretz and brought something radically different to the big screen. Expecting anything different from the sequel would be a mistake, especially considering the smaller budget and change of directors (from X-Men First Class' Matthew Vaughn to Jeff Wadlow, whose biggest movie to date is American martial arts flick Never Back Down). Kick-Ass 2 continues the story of every-man turned brawling hero Dave Lizewski as he adjusts to a world in which it's becoming cool to dress up in cool costumes and fight crime when the sun goes down. Kick-Ass soon finds himself surrounded by like-minded citizens determined to keep the streets safe. But when Chris D'Amico demands revenge on the hero for the death of his father, he puts together a gang of super-villains with one goal in mind; humiliate and kill Kick-Ass.

Frankly, if you liked the first movie back in 2010, there's absolutely no reason not to like this sequel. Despite the change of creative heads, Kick-Ass 2 is strikingly similar to its predecessor that you'd be certain they were made by the same filmmakers. There is the new emphasis over super-groups over the individual, and Wadlow does a good job expanding the universe that had already been set in the last go-around. And if I had the room there would be no end of praise for Moretz, whose character undergoes such an epic, identity-seeking journey that sets in nicely - if apart - from the rest of the story. There are some quibbles: Jim Carey is a bit misused (though genuinely unrecognizable) and doesn't quite fill the void left by the first movie's Nicolas Cage, and the special effects are a bit of a step back, though to be fair they looked worse in previews than they did in the final big screen product. Kick-Ass 2 is not a total package, but does a better job of reminding viewers why the first one was so good, feeling remarkably similar to the first Kick-Ass while still establishing it as a film all its own.

Score: B

The wait is finally over. The World's End is the final entry in director Edgar Wright's so-called "Cornetto Trilogy", following cult hits Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the films that made Simon Pegg and Nick Frost household names. The World's End takes five grown men who were friends since childhood (Pegg, Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, and Eddie Marsan), as they travel back to their hometown of Newton Haven at the urging of Pegg's alcoholic miscreant, in order to complete the "Golden Mile", a pub crawl spanning twelve bars across the village. What they discover along the way is that most of the townspeople have changed since they left; not in the normal ways, but replaced by human-like, blue-blooded robots from outer space. With no hope of escape and no discernible plan, the five friends can do only one thing: reach the final pub on the way, the "World's End", and hope for the best.

In the end, this might be considered the best of Wright's loosely-associated trilogy. The film pumps all of the character development and plot progression into the opening sequence, which would seem odd anywhere else but here allows the film to pace itself perfectly, as the lads go from location to location without having to stop and explain themselves. We largely understand their motivations from moment one, and it allows them to do what they do without causing confusion for the audience. It's great to see Frost play straight man off the wonderfully-irreverent Pegg (it's usually the other way around), and the humor hits on all cylinders, while still finding some room for some appropriate melodramatics when they're called for. The supporting cast also helps immeasurably, which is far different from the two-man shows that were Shaun and Hot Fuzz. The ending is a bit drawn-out, but The World's End is still a relative masterstroke by its creators, as Wright, Pegg and Frost put together an "End of the World" movie that handily beats the similar efforts that have been released the past few years.

Score: A

I realize now that logically I should have concluded with The World's End, but I of course blindly went in order of viewing. So we finish up with You're Next, a low-budget horror flick from Adam Wingard, perhaps best known for his additions to the V/H/S series of horror compilations. It's a familiar horror trope; an often-contentious family gets together for the first time in a while to celebrate their parents' wedding anniversary at their remote family summer home. Suddenly, and without warning, they are attacked and hunted by a group of mask-wearing killers intent on slaughtering the entire family. But this is no random attack; there's a reason these things are happening, and if anybody wants to survive, they'll have to find out who these attackers are, and why they're doing this.

You're Next starts off with cervical bruising (there, I said it), and for a while you're not sure if it will ever get any better. The trope has been done to death (home invasion horror is nothing new) and even horrible fare such as The Purge manages to include something new to the formula once in a while. Top that off with the acting, which ranges from stilted to just plain bad (the one exception is Australian lead Sharni Vinson, who is wonderful). Then, just as the film begins to veer into the point of no return, You're Next begins to emerge as something of a black comedy, riffing on the very genre it's emulating. Yes, the twists become obvious and the gore is pointless, but some of the deaths are actually pretty inventive and you actually get some glee out of watching little-loved or poorly-developed characters get offed in humorous ways. It's not as good as it could have been, but horror fans may enjoy it, even if absolutely nobody else will.

Score: B-

That, folks, was my August. As you can tell, eight movies is a little under my usual monthly average, and I'll be sure to catch up on Percy Jackson, The Mortal Instruments, The Butler, Getaway, Closed Circuit, Planes and more in the coming months, though whether I'll see them in the theater or on DVD remains to be seen. Thanks for your patience, and I'm looking forward to getting back to a regular posting schedule from now on!

Fly the Friendly Skies

For over twenty years, Denzel Washington has been among the best actors in Hollywood, and for good reason. Cry Freedom; Glory; Malcolm X; Philadelphia; Crimson Tide; Courage Under Fire; The Preacher's Wife; Devil in a Blue Dress; The Hurricane; Remember the Titans; Training Day; Antwone Fisher; American Gangster; The Great Debaters; The Book of Eli; Safe House; if that list seems like a random mishmash of titles, it's because Washington seems perfectly at home whether he's playing a military man in an action thriller or a blue collar detective in a noire mystery or an angel in a romantic fantasy. That he will be remembered as one of the premiere black actors is almost a shame; his talent crosses color barriers, and hopefully history won't remember him as "just" a black actor but a wonderful performer overall. Sure, he's seen his share of mediocre movies (seriously, what actor doesn't have a list of embarrassments?), but he always manages to bring his "A" game to whatever project he's on, and raises the quality of the film by sheer force of will. That's certainly the case with Flight, which also has the distinction of being the first live-action film directed by Robert Zemeckis in over a decade.

"Not sure that's quite enough flattery"

William "Whip" Whitaker (Washington) is a veteran commercial airline pilot making a routine flight from Orlando to Atlanta when the plane he is captaining suddenly fails and goes into a dive with 106 people aboard. Through sheer skill and a just little luck, Whitaker manages to crash-land the plane and save most of the people aboard, proving himself a real American hero. But Whitaker has a problem; he's an alcoholic, and not only drank and did drugs in excess in the days leading up to the incident, but during the doomed flight itself as well. Alone that issue would be worth five years in jail, but with the crash suffering some fatalities, his problems might mean life in prison for the troubled aviator.

The movie that will make people stay at home this holiday season.

With an estimated 140 million people worldwide suffering some form of alcoholism, Flight makes itself much more accessible a tale of mental sickness than last year's Shame, which focused on much-disregarded sexual addiction. But while that NC-17 title brought a host of unique imagery in to tell its story, Zemeckis doesn't do nearly as well in Flight, which often gives us cliche and stereotypical ideas and characters in lieu of anything approaching actual feeling. I do have to give the director and screenwriter John Gatins some credit; Whip is an unrepentant jerk with an ego the size of Manhattan, and the filmmakers don't go out of their way to turn him into a saint or a misunderstood savant. They go out of their way to treat the disease of alcoholism with respect and honesty. But while it might be wholly realistic for such a stricken man to constantly renounce his problem and throw all the liquor in the house away only to buy it all back later, the scene becomes less tragic and more superfluous the more you show it on screen. Zemeckis obviously feels more at home in Uncanny Valley (it's ironic he's getting out of the 3D animation game just as it's really getting good) and doesn't have the same feel for real living actors as he did in the days of the Back to the Future trilogy, Forest Gump or even Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

"No more questions about Training Day, please."

But while Washington is partially sabotaged by his creative team, he responds by putting on one of his most impressive performances in years. As I stated before, Washington is simply one of the best, and you can see him undergoing this emotional roller coaster with each new scene, as one by one Whip alienates and shrugs off the advice and help offered by his friends and compatriots, including the (somewhat shoehorned) romance with a recovering drug addict (a surprisingly strong Kelly Reilly). But while Washington excels, the script wastes a vast ensemble cast that includes Reilly, John Goodman, Tamara Tunie, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, Brian Geraghty, Melissa Leo and an absolutely wonderful early scene by James Badge Dale. I don't know if this was a conscious decision, but the film insists on being all about Whip and only Whip, brushing aside the potentially interesting characters and extremely talented actors to the wings.

Cue rock anthem... now.

While he does his best to overcome overwrought material, Washington still can't make a mediocre Flight the Oscar favorite that many reviewers are calling it. He is still one of the best performers in Hollywood, and one of the few black men who can producers feel comfortable headlining a major motion picture without saddling him alongside a bigger white star. You can also look forward to seeing him nominated for another Academy Award this year, as both his work here and a dearth of sufficiently high-caliber performances this year all but guarantees him a nomination alongside Lincoln's Daniel Day Lewis and The Sessions' John Hawkes. I also wasn't bored with one minute of the two-plus hour film, so if you're okay with watching Washington commanding the screen with his usual panache for 139 minutes, then you might consider taking a flier on this one. Washington's too good an actor to make a really  BAD movie, but there's still better fare out that you can enjoy more.

Safety First

Denzel Washington has worn dozens of hats in his storied Hollywood career. In his numerous films he's played soldiers, detectives, reporters, gangsters, incarcerated boxers, football coaches, men on a mission, and civil rights activists. Arguably the most well-known and respected African American actor in Hollywood history, you can't walk into a theater playing one of his films and not be astounded by what he puts forth, even if the rest of the movie isn't necessarily worth watching. One of Washington's biggest career turning points was when he played dirty cop Alonzo Harris in 2001's detective film Training Day, a role that won him his second Academy Award (the first was for his supporting role in Civil War drama Glory). The upside was that Washington got the attention he deserved, not a mean feat for a nonwhite man in this industry. The downside was that his work in Training Day was so effective, it became difficult for audiences to accept him as anything outside that brand of gritty character, or that type of downtrodden universe. That's what made 2007's American Gangster so popular, as Washington played a legitimately bad dude in real-life mobster Frank Lucas. Meanwhile, more uplifting, dramatic films like Antoine Fischer and The Great Debaters were moderately successful, but not the hits this prolific actor has been known for. Well, Washington is back after a slow couple of years (The Book of Eli and Unstoppable were fun excursions if nothing else), and Safe House looked to be very Training Day-like in the bad-boy portrayal of its star performer. Even if the film doesn't live up to his unnaturally high ability, it would be worth it just to see this great performer in action.

Nope, this isn't the waiting room for the Oprah Winfrey show...

Tobin Frost (Washington) is a former CIA operative who went rogue several years ago, selling State secrets to interested parties around the world, and earning the ire of his former bosses in the Central Intelligence Agency. He's remained invisible for years, until a mysterious group comes hunting for him, and the only escape he can make is to surrender himself to an US embassy in Cape Town, South Africa. Meanwhile, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a young CIA agent who is stuck babysitting a Cape Town safe house, unable to qualify for a more active posting due to a lack of field experience. His life is sitting in an empty building, where nobody ever visits and nothing ever happens. That is at least until Frost is extracted from the embassy and placed into his custody. Very quickly, the people who have been hunting Frost track him down and start killing anyone who gets into his way. Responsible for keeping Frost out of enemy hands, Weston must escape the safe house, get in touch with his agency handlers, and figure out why Frost is being hunted, and by whom.

"No, Tobin, this is a bad time to try and teach me the Vulcan neck pinch!"

There's no doubt soon after the opening credits that this is an action film, and Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa (in his American directorial debut) was definitely a good choice to take advantage of that. He obviously has an eye for the detail necessary to make an action story work, and manages to turn any location - from a high-end urban sprawl to a football (soccer, for the uninitiated) stadium to a disheveled shanty town to a rural farmhouse - into a believable set piece of epic violence and imminent death. None of these things feel regurgitated from one another, either; each scene is fundamentally different and exciting in its own unique way, with only the overarching story binding it all together. One thing I hate about modern action movies is the director's decision to focus so closely on the action that we the audience cannot tell exactly what is going on. Safe House does unfortunately suffer from this affliction, but thankfully not as often as it could have. For the most part, action sequences are clear, fun, and without any doubt as to who has the upper hand.

If you want to avoid drawing attention, you probably shouldn't have the black dude drive.

Of course, it's that storyline that is the real problem with Safe House. For all the fun excitement that it throws out there, the premise is very much Training Day meeting a modern-day 3:10 to Yuma. The entire story revolves around the straight-laced Weston getting the Frost from point A to point B, with all the obstacles both in between and at the destination. It's thanks to a well-paced screenplay that this doesn't become completely obvious until the final act, but the derivative plot points do get slightly troublesome after a while. Worse are the sudden-but-inevitable betrayals (thanks, Wash) which are visible a mile away and provide absolutely no surprise. Its here that the film's lack of character depth becomes a problem, as everyone reacts pretty much exactly as you would expect, with nothing so shocking as to be a game-changer.

All these TVs and no HBO? What has the world come to??

At least the acting talent of this ensemble cast makes up for the lack of real characters. Washington of course is amazing, but that shouldn't be unexpected to those who have seen him in just about anything else. Tobin Frost is not a good guy. For those out there who thought his betrayal was a coy misdirection shouldn't get their hopes up, as you'll be disappointed. But playing bad is no new skill for the actor, who still will manage to be the "hero" to many watching him on the big screen. Smart, efficient, and utterly without compassion or loyalty to any but himself, Tobin Frost succeeds as a character due to being incredibly detailed, a trait many of the rest lack. Ryan Reynolds is almost surprising in that he's nearly as good as Washington, something most folks won't be expecting. Like Ethan Hawke in Training Day, Reynolds' Weston is a rookie ripe for life lessons, and Frost is, well, maybe not "happy" but able to impart his wisdom as an ace agent. Weston is shown to be physically capable, however, and able to hold his own against the living legendt, in an important distinction to Hawke's character, who was more over his head than anything else and survived thanks to luck rather than skill. Between Washington and Reynolds is a constant see-saw of control between the two characters, and Reynolds, who is out of his comedic comfort zone, proves here that can handle a serious piece. The rest of the cast is less able to evoke anything akin to emotion or believability. Brendan Gleeson doesn't get a whole lot of attention in America (probably because he's a big, ugly Irishman), so when he gets roles in big movies, he goes all out but generally isn't given much to work with. I'd love to see him in last year's The Guard, in which he was epically praised, but here he's smarmy and normal. The same goes for Sam Shepard as a plain Jane CIA Deputy Director. Vera Farmiga and Nora Amezeder play the film's only two substantial female roles, and they are pretty much at opposite ends from one another. Farmiga is a senior CIA operative who can learn anything about anyone in an instant, while Amezeder plays Weston's girlfriend, a nurse who doesn't even know Weston's real occupation. Neither play a major force in the film, and are just foils for the male characters in the room. And seeing Robert Patrick so old just makes me want to go back and watch Terminator 2 again.

Sure, it's not a .44 Magnum, but do YOU feel lucky?

In the end, Safe House is a fun, if derivative, thriller that utilizes better talent in the final production than it did in the early, formative stages. Washington and Reynolds carry this film to new heights, and while it's no piece of perfection, it does come in at #4 when ranking the year's best releases. While I'd love to see Washington get back into Oscar-hunting territory with his film choices, I certainly won't complain when he takes an otherwise dull retread and turns it into something I'd eagerly recommend. Enjoy.

It Can't Be Stopped!

What do you get when you cross one of America's greatest actors, one of it's up-and-coming stars, and a runaway train? If you're director Tony Scott, the answer is Unstoppable, the "based on a true story" tale of two train engineers who take it upon themselves to try and stop an unmanned train that presents a danger to the people along whose rail it runs. The film was inspired by the real-life CSX 8888 incident in which a runaway train carrying hazardous chemicals went rampant through the state of Ohio before finally being brought under control by CSX employees and local authorities. I won't lie, I wasn't entirely behind seeing this film. Besides the fact that the trailer made the film seem so over-the-top dramatic to the point of almost unwatchable, there had been other options out there that seemed far more palatable to my tastes than this. Finding myself out of those options for the first time in a while (and of course needing all the material I can get for three reviews a week) I decided that I liked Denzel Washington and Chris Pine enough (not to mention the foxy Rosario Dawson... Rawr) to slip into theaters unseen and catch this while it was available.

Wait... This isn't the set of Star Trek 2...

There's very little in the way of deep story here. Thanks to the ineptitude of train yard employees, a train trailed by rail cars measuring a half mile long gets loose and under power, entering the main line unmanned and becoming a danger to every community along the rail. Meanwhile, Will Colson (Chris Pine), a young train conductor, arrives at work and learns he's paired with veteran engineer Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington), with whom he's never worked before. After the beginnings of a rocky partnership, plus almost being crashed into by the runaway locomotive, the two team up on the crazy idea of running down and stopping this engine of death. Real deep, riveting stuff.

Washington gets paid big bucks to make you see films like this

Fortunately, the film is a lot more watchable than you might initially think. Yes, it does feature a train full of kids in danger, but those same kids - who the trailer would have you think are a major focal point of the film - are out of danger a mere quarter of the way through the film. So that's one major criticism avoided, as that aspect of the trailer was probably the most over-the-top storyline bit they could have introduced. The film is also compellingly watchable, and if that doesn't seem like the best of compliments, remember that it could have been MUCH worse. The sad truth is that Tony Scott manages to make two men chasing a runaway train in a single locomotive extremely entertaining, and even if it's not a perfect film it can easily be enjoyed by someone looking to just unwind and not think too much. Another good point is it's intelligence with train operation. The film often fills in what might be critics' complaints about the plot by explaining why a train's "dead man" switch doesn't trip or how a device called a "derailer" could fail to derail a sufficiently-laden train. While I should probably feel insulted that the film so openly explains tiny details as if I don't know how a train operates, the truth is that I - as well as most film-goers seeing this title - DON'T know how trains operate, and actually benefit from these open, simple explanations.

No trains were harmed in the making of this film

That said, the film does get a little out-of-hand starting at the mid-point of the tale, as the attempts by the railroad company to stop its runaway get more and more ridiculous. When it's finally Will and Frank's chance to do their part, it's almost a relief because it puts an end to the silliness that had come before. Characters are also pretty slim pickings, as they seem to be pulled from the cliche heap. Will is a husband and father who has found his way into the dog house and starts the film sleeping on his brother's couch. Frank is a father with a dead wife and two daughters, one of whom's birthday happens to be that very day and OF COURSE Frank forgot. It's stuff like this that reminds you that this is Tony Scott, the action-oriented younger brother of the more talented and varied filmmaker Ridley Scott. Tony doesn't DO high class drama, he's an all-American action boy. And he knows how to blow stuff up almost as well as Michael Bay.

The same can not be said, however, for train EMPLOYEES

The film's acting is fine, if not given much material to work with. Washington is getting a paycheck as Frank, whose idea it is to try and capture the train in the first place. This is a typical B-level Washington film, one of the dozens he has sprinkled throughout his career in between solitary drops of actual top-shelf quality film. One might say that he's limiting himself by appearing in so many low-brow releases that he might not be as well remembered after his career as some of his contemporaries, such as Tom Hanks. I however give him credit for doing his career his way and he'll be remembered as one of the most talented actors in Hollywood once his time in the spotlight comes to an end. Pine is obviously an up-and-comer whose big break-out, Star Trek, made him a world-wide phenomena. While not allowed to churn out his Jim  Kirk charm, Pine does a fine job as the young conductor simply trying to get by. Rosario Dawson is good as a train yardmaster who keeps tabs on the duo and helps them figure out what to do in order to stop the train. Once again, there's not a lot for her to do besides support the film's heroes while being angry at her higher-ups who consistently gunk up the works. Kevin Dunn plays the film's main human antagonist (because Scott believes that every film needs at least ONE), a corporate executive for the rail company that looks out more for the interests of the company than the people this train might harm. Ethan Suplee plays a train yard worker who instigates the whole mess. Suplee plays it like a semi-retarded manatee, which is pretty much his range. And Lew Temple plays his train welder as an unlikely secondary hero and is also a hick with a capital H.

Rawr

Though the film does exaggerate the events that actually occurred during the real event, there is nothing so out there as to be completely unbelievable, and Scott does a good job at making sure that your eyes watch the screen at all times. It was poorly advertised and looked much worse in the trailers than it did while sitting in on an actual screening, lending credence to the idea that seeing is believing. Unstoppable is a film that is much better than it deserves to be, but like brother Ridley's 2010 effort Robin Hood, is far from reaching the true potential set by its respective genre. The result is a film that, while overly-relying on fictional danger and poor character designs, manages to entertain through sheer simplicity. And who doesn't want to keep it simple once in a while?

"Warp factor 1, Sulu. Engage."

Walk the Line

In Hollywood in 2010, it's safe to say that if you're headlining films that receive world-wide theater release, you're probably doing pretty well for yourself. If you're Denzel Washington, however, it must be somewhat disappointing to no longer command the same respect and box office draw you once owned. Seriously, despite being one of the most talented performers in the industry, his inability to pick quality projects has seemingly derailed his promising career. Not that awards and box office rankings are the epitome of career success, but they are a good source of the facts, and the facts are that not only has Washington not had a number one box office movie since 2007's American Gangster, he hasn't even been nominated for an Academy Award since winning his Best Actor Oscar for Training Day, all the way back in 2001. It's no secret that Man on Fire and The Manchurian Candidate were not especially well-received films, yet at least Denzel has never let his talent dim, his ability to command any scene he's in almost as inspiring as it was during his golden era.

Denzel hits on hard times

The Book of Eli came out early this year with almost no fanfare and in a bad spot, opening during the time when everyone was still rushing out to see Avatar and it seemed like no other movie mattered. It finished number two opening weekend, but fell quickly after that, not helped by mixed reviews and Avatar fever. It was destined to lie among the forgotten Denzel movies of the past few years. That's a shame, because I have it now ranked as my new #3 film of 2010, as shocking a placement for you as it was for me to find out how enjoyable this movie actually was, and not just resting on the laurels of it's lead actor's talents.

The breathtaking visuals are half the excellence in the film

That's not to say Denzel doesn't bring his A-Game. Throughout this story of a solitary man trekking westward through the nuclear wastelands that are all that's left of a post-apocalyptic North America, it's a one-man show through nearly the first third of the film, and Washington never loses the audience's attention whenever he's in the scene. It's just that he's not the only great thing about this movie. It's obvious from the opening scene of a slowly-dissolving forest that the look and atmosphere of this film is unlike many you may have seen; the dark gray clouds and seemingly odd sunlight that shines on the world, you feel as if this world is alien, something never seen before by human eyes. The directing is also surprisingly adept, especially coming from sibling directors Allen and Albert Hughes, who hadn't directed a major motion picture since 2001's From Hell. Taking the original story by versatile screenwriter Gary Whitta, the directors have managed to create a whole new world, populate it with survivors of a great war who barely manage to cling to their humanity in the face of unspeakable adversity.

Nothing screams "unfriendly" like a trenchcoat

The movie, as I said before, has Denzel's Eli traveling across what's left of the United States, traversing damaged highways, roads and cities, all the while showing adeptness at hunting, pathfinding and, when beset upon by bandits, personal defense. We soon discover that he is carrying a very precious artifact, an actual copy of the King James Bible, possibly the last in existence. After the bombs and the apocalypse, we learn, many of the survivors of these atrocities blamed the war on religion and sought to purge the holy book, utilizing book burnings and plain old fashioned desecration. Eli believes himself to be on a mission from God, meant to deliver this book safely to it's destination somewhere to the west. On the way, he encounters a small town ruled by the ruthless Carnegie (Gary Oldman) who by chance has been sending raiders and miscreants out into the wastes to bring back books, searching for just the kind of book that Eli is carrying in his pack. It's only a matter of time before paths cross...

Warning! Gratuitous Violence in Effect!

I was very excited to see a movie done in this post-apocalyptic setting. It's such a fascinating idea, not that we'll eventually bomb ourselves into the stone age, but the recovery from that traumatic experience. How would humanity as a whole react to this kind of setback? The innocent and just, hunted and assaulted by those anarchists who would take advantage of the new world. Irradiated drinking water. vast stretches of land where trees, buildings and cities that once stood are no more. Destroyed infrastructure. And, perhaps most unsettling, the lack of wild animals to hunt or soil to grow leading many down the path to cannibalism. I've always found it an interesting, if somewhat terrifying prospect, that humanity may one day head down this dark road. Or maybe I'm just overly excited at the prospect of playing Fallout: New Vegas by year's end, but either way, the setting was a big deal for me. Thankfully, no specifics are given to explain exactly why the war happened; We're simply plopped down here like so many survivors of the end times, and that works for me.

He still kinda looks like Count Dracula

The other reason I loved this movie so much is that finally - FINALLY - I've seen a movie where I actually thought the bad guy had proper brains, motive, smarts, and muscle to make himself a real danger to the protagonist, even advantages at times. Gary Oldman can chew scenery like a theatrical rottweiler, but the best things about his performance are what the script has his character doing, rather than what he brings to the part. Oldman'sapocalyptia, while Eli wants to bring the book west because he believes doing this will help spread God's word. That the movie perfectly walks the line between faith being used as a salve and a weapon is amazing, which even works for me, who follows no faith to speak of.
The odds are decidedly against Eli, alone but for his wits and skills, and occasionally he appears to be blessed, where he'll take a bullet to the back without getting hurt or escaping from a locked cell with an armed guard watching the door, or many such things. These seem a little out there on the oddity scale, as not all of it can be explained away rationally as an alternative to the idea of divine intervention. In this way the story gets a little far-fetched, but fortunately, don't hurt the flow of the story at all, simply makes it a little too fantastical to completely believe. The other problem I had was with the small town's ample resources. The place seems to somehow have plenty of fresh water and fuel, and while the water is explained satisfactorily, can anyone explain to me how proper fuel can exist in this type of place so that the bad guys who want to drive big trucks and motorcycles can do so? I know other movies in this setting have had vehicles that people drive, but unless they use some sort of alternative fuel, I can't believe it's gasoline they're filling their engines with 30 years after the fact.

No, this isn't what it looks like

The acting is mostly excellent, with Washington and Goldman raising the bar of what might have been expected of with a different cast. Jennifer Beals is also excellent as a blind concubine under Carnegie's control. There aren't many large roles in this movie, but plenty of good small roles, and a cast of Ray Stevenson, Michael Gambon, Tom Waits, Frances de la Tour, and Malcolm McDowell all do good jobs with their roles. The only one who could be considered a disappointment is Mila Kunis as Beals's daughter, a slave who ends up following Eli. Kunis has yet to show me any transformation in any of her roles, as they all remind me of Jackie Burkhart from That 70's Show. And she shows no deviation here. She's interesting only because it gives us a hero alongside Eli, but we didn't need that, it was a better David vs. Goliath story without the extra help.

Walking the roads

I never expected to like The Book of Eli as much as I did. It's a shame it was released when it was; if it had been released in the brief time between when Avatar and Inception had been in the theaters, it may have had a chance to do much more at the box office. Still, it hasn't been a total loss. The studio made their money back and then some, and when the movie was released on DVD, it was an excellent seller, meaning it hadn't been completely overlooked. And that's good, since this is a smart, fascinating film that has enough surprises to make you shriek and is smart enough to keep you interested until the final credits. It just goes to show, don't ever underestimate a Denzel Washington film.