Somewhere Alongside the Moonrise: The Grand Budapest Hotel

I still think Moonrise Kingdom should have been nominated for Best Picture.

Wes Anderson's 2012 nostalgic comedy was one of many casualties that Oscar season, which also saw Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck (whose Argo took Best Picture) miss out on Best Director nominations. That year was... kind of a mess. It's almost as if people are ignoring little gems like this while overindulging on and celebrating David O. Russell and his admittedly good - but by no means groundbreaking or original - fare. Not that Anderson, the Texan director whose movies seem to run on whimsy and charm, is lacking in public attention. Though he's had a few bombs, Anderson has reached that point in his career where not only does the mere mention of his name elicit squeals of glee from fanboys and fangirls, but his films have also proven good, quirky and unique enough to draw in more mainstream audiences. And Moonrise Kingdom is one of his most inclusive, with all the nuttiness of Rushmore but more approachable at the same time.

Ralph Fiennes: one less great actor who hasn't worked with Anderson.

So can The Grand Budapest Hotel capitalize on that and become Wes Anderson's greatest work yet? Well, yes and no. Budapest is arguably one of Anderson's most artistic efforts, as his distinct style is all over the German locations and sets in which the film was shot. Whether it's opulently-colored models, creative camera techniques or unique character models, Anderson is at his glee-inducing best. His story of a legendary hotel concierge (Ralph Fiennes) falsely accused of murder and on the run from the law with his loyal lobby boy Zero (newcomer Tony Revolori) would make for a great thriller, if the screenplay (also written by Anderson) wasn't content to throw every humorous anecdote and amusing situation along the way to lighten the mood. The fact that Fiennes can talk about sleeping with older women in the same nonchalant tone in which he tells of the violent passing of a fellow prison escapee proves that he belongs in this director's pantheon of recurring performers, many of whom make their presences known.

I even liked Jude Law in this! Truly this Anderson is sacred!

And it's a great cast that the director has assembled here. Though there are a few returning actors that could have done more (no more than a small cameo for Bill Murray?), The Grand Budapest Hotel is surprisingly built upon its new talent, with the Anderson regulars filling out the smaller support roles. Fortunately, that new talent is headlined by Fiennes, who is simply put on of the best actors working today. Revolori also impresses, and the two make for an excellent pair, as the younger actor's innocent and eminently loyal sidekick plays beautifully against Fiennes' haughty, confident and charismatic leading man. And the cast is littered with excellence, Saoirse Ronan as Zero's dutiful but independent fiance to Tilda Swinton as a wealthy hotel patron, to Adrien Brody as her inheritance-seeking son to Willem DaFoe as his thinly-veiled violent sociopath of a lackey. Returning actors Edward Norton and Jeff Goldblum also find their marks as a police inspector and a by-the-book lawyer, respectively.

No, really, there's a funny story in here.

Budapest also carries an extra dose of the zaniness that makes Wes Anderson more than just a standard filmmaker, from his use of four distinct narrators (F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, and yes, I'm including the girl with the book at the beginning) to the Mexico-shaped birthmark on one character's face to having a man named "Monsieur Chuck" (Owen Wilson) to the beautiful cakes designed so that the prison would not want to disturb them looking for concealed escape tools. The atmosphere that the director creates never feels stale, and while there are times that a scene feels a tad overlong, it's a rare occurrence, and usually is made up for by the kind of irreverent humor and witty dialogue that feels reminiscent of the golden age of spoken comedy.

That's a lot of flattened cakes.

Unfortunately, The Grand Budapest Hotel is SO MUCH like a Wes Anderson comedy that.... it never really takes that next step you might have been expecting after the magic that was Moonrise Kingdom. Much like how Django Unchained was Tarantino's sideways step from Inglorious Basterds, Budapest just doesn't feel that different from Moonrise, not in locale or story (which are obviously differing) but in tone and pacing. The humor is the same, and the character archetypes just FEEL as though they've got Anderson's hands all over them. Keep in mind, that's not a bad thing. I mentioned before how the story would make for a great thriller, and another director would have done just that. By subverting that story and combining it with his style of moviemaking, however, Anderson makes something undeniably, indelibly his. And like the excellent Django, that identifiabe voice is what makes The Grand Budapest Hotel the wonderful experience that it is.

Nope, nothing suspicious going on here!

And while that means that The Grand Budapest Hotel ultimately appeals a little more to diehard Anderson fans than the average moviegoing audience, it's still one of the best movies released so far in 2014. You never know where the story will go next, and it makes for an excellent quirky, lo-fi option if you're already tired out from the big-budget tentpoles films that are starting to make their way into theaters. If you haven't already gone out of your way to see this, now is the best time to make it happen. Just don't expect anything truly groundbreaking - by Anderson's standards, anyway - and you'll enjoy your time at the movies very, very much.

Saddle Sore

You know that thing that seems like a really bad idea? Somebody's going through with something, and for the energy and attention and hype they are devoting to that project, you can't for the life of you understand why? That's pretty much my case with Disney's epic western, The Lone Ranger. All the elements for failure are here. With very few exceptions, nobody WATCHES westerns anymore. On top of that, the budget for this particular piece is so bloated ($215 million, not counting advertising) that it would have to be the highest grossing western ever JUST to be considered a success. Plus, Disney's attempts to push into the action-adventure genre in recent years have fallen flat creatively, and for every financially successful dip into the nostalgia pool (Oz the Great and Powerful) there have been far too many pricey belly flops (Prince of Persia, John Carter and the last Pirates flick, for example). Finally, there's a bunch of negative attention out there focused on the casting of Johnny Depp as Comanche sidekick Tonto, which essentially has the top-billed star performing the Native American variant of blackface. Can The Lone Ranger overcome all these issues by simply issuing the statement that it was from the same team that brought you Pirates of the Caribbean (director Gore Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Depp)?

The short answer is no, it cannot.

Surrender is not an option.

Based on the character from the popular TV show and radio serials that first appeared way back in the 1930's, The Lone Ranger tells the origin of the man once known as John Reid (Armie Hammer), who returns home from college to Colby, Texas to become the new District Attorney. Unknowingly, he is aboard the same train as outlaw Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner), soon about to hang for his crimes against the Indian natives. But when Cavendish's gang breaks him out, kills several Texas Rangers (John's brother included) and leaves the young lawyer for dead, John must team up with eccentric Comanche Tonto (Depp) to avenge his family and bring law back to the untamed West as the masked outlaw known as The Lone Ranger

Hope you like him... he gets old fast.

Right from the start, we're assaulted with idiotic imagery, as the opening scene takes place in a San Francisco museum in the 1930's, where a young fan of the Lone Ranger meets an aged and demented Tonto (Depp in heavy makeup). There, Tonto begins to narrate the entire tale, a plot device so contrived and ill-conceived that I can't believe it made the final cut. Why not just go right into the story and action? Do we NEED to see that no matter what, the legend of the Ranger has endured? Isn't what you're about to show us going to do that? It's a lousy way to begin this whole experience, as I don't ever remember Pirates needing to remind us that the entire plot was written around a theme park ride.

The railroad: our first major environmental devastator.

This is just the beginning of Lone Ranger's problems, as that opening (and subsequent occasional story-breaking subplot) sets the tone for a movie that can't figure out what it wants to be. On one hand, it's light-hearted action-adventure, with classic cowboy gun play, colorful bad guys and even a bit of witty dialogue. On the other, it tries way too hard to overcome its lighter fare and attempts to show some authentic culture of the time. This includes a scene in which one of the bad guys (in this case, Barry Pepper's military officer) leads an army in the slaughter of an invading Comanche tribe. With bodies clogging up a river, it's a powerfully sad reminder of the atrocities committed in the name of "progress." And then, not twenty seconds later, Tonto tells a one-liner about a horse. It's this unevenness in theme and plot even within the confines of a single scene that mars much of the fun that could have been had with this western tale.

HBC with a gun leg? Are you sure Tim Burton didn't direct this bit?

And that's sad, because the film really does have its moments. Despite any niggling concerns about the quality of the production, this is a veteran team who have committed great acts of filmmaking in the past. This was especially true for the first Pirates of the Caribbean, and there are times during Ranger where you remember why you liked that swashbuckling adventure so much. The action is better than you might expect, culminating in an insanely epic - and surprisingly fun - battle atop, under and through racing train cars, set to an updated (but still classic-sounding) variant of Rossini's 'William Tell Overture.' Though the special effects are not always as sharp as they could be, at least they don't possess the cartoonish quality of a George Lucas adventure. It's easily some of Verbinski's best action work, and never feels overlong (which you couldn't say about any of Pirates' battles). There are also a slew of talented actors and interesting characters, though for the life of me I'm not sure how I feel about Ruth Wilson's mediocre performance. On the more positive side, Armie Hammer is as pleasant a lead as you can get. I wish he'd pick better projects (his last two were the terrible Mirror Mirror and the meh J. Edgar), but at least you can't say anything negative about his efforts or talent. He's supported by a bevy of charismatic villains in Fichtner, Pepper, and Tom Wilkinson as a corrupt business magnate (in Hollywood, is there any other kind?), who are a triple threat to the forces of justice. However, I wish we could have seen a bit more of Helena Bonham Carter's peg-legged (and bad-ass) brothel madam Red Harrington, who charms in a few scenes but is missing for almost the entirety of the movie. James Badge Dale meanwhile rounds out the cast (and is enjoying a pretty good career run presently) as John's brother.

Let's just get this trope out of the way.

But the film boasts two big stars. One is featured on the poster above; the other is not. One was in Pirates of the Caribbean; the other was not. One has a few moments of levity but is otherwise remarkable; the other is a horse who absolutely steals the show. Johnny Depp fails to attain the same level of entertainment he managed as Captain Jack Sparrow, which I wouldn't even bother mentioning if it weren't obvious they were trying to emulate the exact same process by making Tonto a wise-cracking, deranged and occasionally dangerous individual who is supposed to steal scenes and chew scenery. However, he doesn't do any of those things, despite wearing a dead bird on his head and wearing more makeup than KISS. His too-frequent motions to "feed" the bird get old after the first few minutes, and his monotonously-delivered dialogue doesn't show the same charisma we've come to expect from the actor. And his Native American routine (which I'm sure was meant to be endearing and honorable) never feels fully developed, as though he and the filmmakers never really took the time to nail down his characteristics. While it's certainly not as insulting as it could have been (especially when there are a few Native American actors in here that are great), there's no doubt that Depp was the wrong man for the job (seriously, the kid who plays his younger self has darker skin), brought in as box office padding and nothing more.

Guess who's better?

No, the star of The Lone Ranger turns out to be none other than Silver, the albino horse who can often be seen hanging out in trees or silently arguing with his human counterparts. Stories from the set overtly praise the abilities of Silver, and his on-screen antics certainly seem to prove these tales accurate. However, he doesn't stand out in all that many scenes, and even then as a comedic foil to the Ranger and even to Tonto's more lucid moments. Still, it's a sad day in the industry when a horse not only outperforms his human hosts, but does so with relative ease.

"I am the Law."

Sadly, despite a few glimmers of genuinely strong filmmaking, The Lone Ranger is everything you might have feared: it's a pretty, over-bloated, uneven, SFX-dependent, mediocre, and slightly racist epic that never deserves the attention that it attempts to demand. It's understandable why the marketing department for this film focused so hard on the "from the people who brought you Pirates" plan, as I'm sure the remaining fans of that franchise represented a significant percentage of those who actually showed up opening weekend. But Lone Ranger is no Curse of the Black Pearl. Its desire to resurrect the western genre is admirable, but better movies have been made in recent years (including True Grit and 3:10 to Yuma) that had far less a budget than the one used by Bruckheimer and crew. If he and his fellow producers had perhaps lowered their ambitions somewhat and put together a smaller, low-tech production with the crew and cast that they had, The Lone Ranger might have been a winner. As it is, it's just a mess we'll they'll be spending the next couple of weeks cleaning up.

Age Before Beauty

With Marvel's The Avengers both being the best film of the year AND making money hand over fist, it's difficult not to be swayed into seeing the superhero extravaganza a fourth time (I will, but only after I've met my writing obligations). This is especially true since there really isn't all that much out there on the big screen that I WANT to see. I'm not particularly jazzed to watch Think Like a Man, and The Lucky One is no longer playing at a theater near me. Besides the mediocre The Dictator and Battleship, the only other major release this past weekend was What to Expect When You're Expecting, and I'm pretty much done with half-assed book adaptations for the time being. That doesn't leave a whole lot of options on the table.

The most appealing of what was left turned out to be The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, directed by Shakespeare in Love's John Madden and starring a bevy of veteran British talent, including Dame Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson. Released the same weekend as the favorite Avengers, albeit in a limited capacity, the film has been receiving some strong support overseas and even among our local theaters, where it has done quite well in the face of the Summer Blockbuster season. It will finally getting a wide release this Memorial Day weekend, but will the story of a groups of relocated older folk really be worth your time?

It's like a "who's who" of elderly Brits.

Based on Deborah Moggach's 2004 novel These Foolish Things, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel looks at seven retirees who have journeyed to India to start the next phase of their lives. Evelyn (Dench) is a widower whose husband's debts forced her to sell her home after his death. Graham (Wilkinson) recently left his life as a high court judge to return to the country in which he grew up. Douglas (Nighy) and Jean (Penelope Wilton) are a married couple who lost their life savings investing in their daughter's failed Internet startup, with this hotel being all that they can afford. Madge (Celia Imrie) wants to get away from her family so that she can find her next husband. Norman (Ronald Pickup) is an aging lothario who has become lonely, searching for new experiences. And Muriel (Smith) has come to expedite the much-needed surgery for her hip, despite her reservations and generally racist views. They've arrived at the retirement hotel looking for new lives, but owner Sonny (Dev Patel) has his own problems: he's having difficulty getting funding for the building's renovations, and between that and his mother's dislike of his girlfriend Sunaina (Tena Desae), nothing seems to be going right for the young entrepeneur; he may soon be forced to close down the hotel that belonged to his family and has become his dream, forever.

It's okay, Dev; we forgive you for The Last Airbender.

While you might think that watching a film about older people accepting the difficulties of change isn't your idea of fun, I argue that should you give this title a chance; you might be surprised with how good this thing actually is. The story at times does feel a bit unbalanced, as juggling the adventures of eight different characters proves to be slightly too much for even an experienced director as Madden, whose 2011 title The Debt had similar challenges. His way of solving the problem, by relegating some of the characters to the background, works enough so that we can focus on the film's main plot points, while still allowing for side jaunts with others when the time is right. For this reason pacing is also not an issue; Madden does such a good job telling these characters' stories and showing us the discrimination that society shows towards its elders that we can forgive the occasionally overwrought cliche, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel never gets stale while we watch, waiting with eagerness to see what happens next..

Happy to see M back on the big screen!

It's not only the work of Madden, but the excellent cast he's put together that really makes this film stand out from your typical geriatric comedies. Per usual the film is carried by the amazing talent and star power of Dench, Wilkinson and Nighy, the last of whom displays such an amazing subtlety in his performance that if you couldn't plainly see that it was him, you'd be forgiven for confusing him with someone else. Wilton is perfectly cast as a woman unswayed by the charm and humanity of India, and she plays such a perfect foil for those who cannot help but be swayed by the experience. I would have loved to see more of Imrie and Pickup, who share some comic relief but otherwise are only observers in the grand scheme of things. Pickup especially charms, with his character's irreverent outlook on life and the choicest, funniest lines of the cast. Patel still charms, though at times his performance is a bit over-the-top to the point of absurdity. Fortunately, that appears to be more the script's fault than his, and the young actor still has a good career ahead of him, should he take it. It's Maggie Smith though who steals the show. I was not expecting to like the character of Murial, a racist, bitter old woman who has no redeeming qualities at the film's start. Still, I shouldn't have doubted the Downton Abbey star and two-time Academy Award winner, who by the end was by far my favorite character in movie chock full of great ones.

Smith: Another Academy Award in her near-future?

It's that great sense of character that makes The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel an absolutely wonderful film, and places it at #5 for 2012. While it certainly could have been more complex, and leaves a few loose ends dangling in the breeze, this was a movie that loves its characters enough to treat them with the respect they so richly deserve. I know The Avengers and the typical Summer smashes won't appeal to everybody, or at least not everybody will want to see it more than once. For those people, this film presents an excellent alternative, a feel-good film about aging that hits all the right notes, but not in a predictable and old-fashioned way. Maybe not a must-see, but certainly better than you might have been expecting.

A Tom Cruise Horror Story

The search for last minute additions to 2011's "Worst Of" list continues. Today's contender is the latest in Tom Cruise's popular Mission Impossible films, code-named Ghost Protocol. It's relative easy to write off Tom Cruise these days. Ever since he decided he was going to act all bat-shit crazy, his box office performance went from "sure thing" to "meh" in a heartbeat and although he's still a profitable actor, he's nowhere near the superstar he was a decade ago. Thankfully for his agent, there's still one franchise that is completely under his control, and that's the Mission Impossible series. With both his sexuality and religion constantly under fire, it must be nice to be able to make an escapist film with zero elements of realism and earn a ton of cash doing so. In this latest installment, Cruise upped the ante by bringing in such talented performers as Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and Michael Nyqvist, not to mention director Brad Bird in his live action film debut. So will this latest entry have the same draw as the series' earlier titles? I'd be content knowing whether or not it was any good.

Tom Cruise: rugged and loving it

After his IMF unit breaks him out of a Russian prison, super-spy Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is tasked with the mission of breaking into the Kremlin to extract sensitive nuclear launch information before it can be appropriated by a fanatic intent on starting a worldwide nuclear holocaust. When they fail and the Kremlin is bombed in a related attack, Hunt and his team are blamed, forcing the US President to declare "Ghost Protocol" in effect, disavowing the IMF completely. Now this small group must stop terrorist Kurt Hendricks (Nyqvist) from successfully launching a nuclear warhead, and they must do it without backup, support or any allies to fall back on. Win or lose, they must do it on the fly and with whatever materials they can scrounge up, from Moscow to India and home again.

Yes, Simon Pegg is here... I'm not sure why, exactly, but there you are

As in all the previous Mission Impossible titles, you have to keep a very high measure of disbelief in your system throughout most of your viewing. There is so much that happens, and the heroes (especially Cruise) are banged up so much over the course of the film that it's a shock they can still stand through most of it. Adrenaline and sheer willpower can only take you so far, after all. Still, Ghost Protocol does have some truly exciting sequences, and spread throughout the film to boot. There's no one moment that stands out as best from the others, though sufferers of Acrophobia will probably find it impossible to watch Ethan Hunt scale a portion of Dubai's Burj Kalifa without a safety harness. It's a difficult scene to watch even without the ever-present sense of vertigo setting in. Other standouts include Hunt chasing a target through a sandstorm and Agent Brandt (Renner) diving into a tunnel to get "caught" before he can impact with a giant turbine. The special effects are consistent throughout, with only a few moments looking obviously tweaked beyond the realistic. Bird's live-action directorial debut obviously could have benefited with a step further from the animation that he's used to working with, but to be honest the difference would have been negligible at best.

I'm guessing they can't hear him now. Good.

The acting, like the SFX, is if nothing else consistent. This is the type of film where most actors can get by on their charm, and for most of the people here, that is true. It's certainly the case for Cruise, who (ahem) cruises through everything that happens with a cool face of detachment, except for the few moments in the script that call for mild frustration. Despite his relative career downturn, Cruise hasn't needed to act in almost a decade, and when all he apparently does these days is action films, that's understandable. Less understandable is when a talented performer such as Paula Patton falls in that trap, an actress who has nowhere near the career cachet to justify oozing with charm without bringing more to the table. There's plenty of opportunity for her character to grow, but sadly that never really seems to happen. Simon Pegg is the comedic sidekick and he knows it, but apparently the script didn't, and Pegg does more than you might expect, though it was nice to see him bring a levity among the critically serious characters around him. Veteran actors Tom Wilkinson and Anil Kapoor also do little, with Wilkinson playing his small role as dry as the Sahara, and Kapoor doing just the opposite, playing up on the charm he exuded in 2008's Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire.

The best deterrent against catcalls

But there are still a few actors who defy the shallowness of their roles. It's a shame to see that this year Michael Nyqvist has followed up arguably his most successful heroic role (that of Mikael Blomkvist in the Swedish adaptation of the Millennium series) with two cliched villain parts, first in the stinker Abduction and now this. He's a far more talented actor than he's being given a chance to be in Hollywood, and I wonder how long the good will is to last for him on the big screen in the good ol' USA. Still, he does do menacing well, and his final battle with Ethan Hunt at the film's finale is nothing if not believable. Lea Seydoux also stands out as a French assassin for hire, though she only appears in a few scenes of note. Finally, Jeremy Renner plays the only member of the four-person IMF team given real character development, and he is the only one who actually acts his way through the entirety of the movie. Renner is quickly becoming a true superstar, and I'm happy to see him rise to such heights from the relative success of 2009's The Hurt Locker.

Don't look down don't look down don't look down...

Between the action, special effects, and a liberal dose of humor that doesn't overpower the seriousness of the situations presented in the film, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol does a better than average job of entertaining its audience. It's not a very good movie overall, but nobody expects that of franchise action films these days, and this entry is no different from any similar release. That's it's biggest drawback, of course; you could have literally stayed home and rented any other action film (or an earlier Mission Impossible) and gotten exactly the same amount of fun from that than you would from Ghost Protocol. Still, it's nowhere near as poor as you can imagine, and should ensure more entries to the Mission Impossible series before too long. After all, Tom Cruise has to make money SOMEHOW.

A Debt Replayed

For so many people who claim that remakes are inherently a bad idea, many have no idea what they are talking about. Forget about all the films that are obviously remakes, films sharing their origins' titles of The Fly, Ocean's 11, True Grit or The Thing. Not only are the remakes of these classics all quality films, but some would argue better than the originals. However, remakes aren't always named after their inspirations. Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Jaime Lee Curtis lit up the screen in 1994's spy film True Lies, based on the French comedy La Totale! Classic westerns A Fistful of Dollars and The Magnificent Seven were originally acclaimed filmmaker Akira Kurosawa samurai dramas. And the Martin Scorsese Irish gangster movie The Departed, which won the director his coveted Academy Award, was a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Internal Affairs. My point is that people put this catch-all negative statement on remakes when more than half the time they don't know one when it's staring at them from the big screen. For instance, you probably didn't realize that the recent film by John Madden, The Debt, was originally an Israeli film of the same name released in 2007. That film was never released in the United States, making it ripe for Hollywood to pounce on and make into their own. The only question was upon which side of the quality line it would eventually fall: on the side of obvious charlatanism and inferiority, or into the realm of quality film-making no matter the source.

Helen Mirren makes scars sexy

In the 1960's, the Isreaeli intelligence agency Mossad sent a cell of young operatives into Nazi-occupied West Berlin on a secret mission. Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain), David Peretz (Sam Worthington) and Stefan Gold (Marton Csokas) are on the search for Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), the legendary "Surgeon of Birkenau", who performed experiments on Jewish prisoners during the Second World War. The mission ended in success, and though Vogel was never properly extracted from the city, Mossad was happy with the man meeting his end in the streets of West Berlin. Thirty years later, the exploits of the cell has been popularized in a book written by Rachel Singer's (Helen Mirren) daughter, and the three live apart from one another as national heroes, never talking about their mission. At least that is until Stefan (Tom Wilkinson) presents Rachel with some disturbing information. A secret they have kept hidden for thirty years has against all odds reared its head, forcing her to confront a truth the three had kept hidden from everyone, even those they loved.

The Debt takes a hard line against its critical dissenters

As you can gather, the cat-and-mouse spy story is the meat and potatoes of the film's level of quality. It is a well-paced, character-driven tale that takes you from beginning to end and beyond, with clues left in plain sight to allow anyone to follow along with ease. Unfortunately, this also cuts both ways, as there are no "OMG" twists to make the relatively slow pace more rewarding to the audience. You can pretty much guess what the big secret is before it hits, making sitting through waiting a bit like waiting for Gallagher to bust out with his watermelon; you know it's coming and making you wait for it is just pissing you off. Still, this is only a minor criticism, as the basics of the story are flawless and well built, creating a largely enjoyable atmosphere for the viewer.

Young Sam Worthington... handsome... pretty, almost

That atmosphere is helped by an acting core that really reach for higher levels with this film, especially the cast of the 1960's. Jessica Chastain has really taken off in her career, appearing in six films released or scheduled for release in 2011. I've seen three now, and between this, The Help and The Tree of Life, I've really become entranced by her talent and awestruck as to how she's come out of seemingly nowhere to become one of Hollywood's most sought-after stars. She's proving herself to be a serious artist, and more roles like this will get her some true recognition in the future, if not sooner. Sam Worthington is a surprise, an acclaimed Australian actor who wowed some with his role in Terminator: Salvation but otherwise hasn't been a major force since breaking through, especially with his somewhat bland performance in Avatar. The Debt allows him to show off in a legitimate acting role and show what his doubters have decried as not being there. And Marton Csokas ties the trio together, his arrogant and serious cell leader playing beautifully off of Worthington's humble and driven operative and Chastain's brilliant but emotionally-starved intelligence officer. And Jesper Christensen is also brilliant with the material he's given, playing smart doctor and smarmy villain with equal precision. He's the unspoken hero of The Debt, at least on the performance side of the equation.

...and Sam Worthington in 30 years? Scary

Unfortunately, I was somewhat underwhelmed with the way the story worked in the current day, and the quality of the story given the actors. Most of the film takes place in the sixties, and that's where the best moments and story sequences take place. In the present day there are some good moments, but in comparison it pales noticeably. Helen Mirren is of course amazing, but that comes as no surprise to anyone who has EVER seen her perform. As someone with a wide range of talents ranging from drama to comedy, Mirren can do just about anything, and look good doing it. Less impressive are Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds as the current day Stefan and David. It's not that they're BAD, only that they don't distinguish themselves from what we usually expect of them. In the current-day storyline, only Mirren stands out, and despite her best efforts, it's not enough that even she can make up.

Future Academy Award winner?

As a modern spy drama, however, The Debt is a great performer that could have been an excellent one but stutters a bit too much at the end. It does work as a character driven thriller, especially with the acting talents of Mirren, Chastain et al. While the theaters are packed with big name films flexing box office muscle, explosions and laughs, The Debt is a world away as a subtle, clever remake that introduces a unique story to an American audience that didn't get the chance to see in the original. As remakes go, it's one of the good ones, coming in at #10 for 2011. Maybe not a must-see for the genre, it's still a "should-see" as it's difficult find a title so well story-driven in this age of CGI, 3D, and action sequences that exist in a realm completely outside the real world.

Worst or Best? Time Will Tell

Finally, we get around to the 2011 film watching only to remember that most stuff that comes out in January is absolute crap. Oh, there's the occasional gem, but for the most part January is the month where almost every new release is either the dregs from the production company's cutting room floor or an expanded release on something released in New York or L.A. already for the sole purpose of qualifying for the Academy Awards. If you're a legitimate 2011 film released in January, it's a good chance the boys upstairs either think you have no chance of gaining critical acclaim or you're a big-budget action film released solely to make a big payoff during a slow month. And if you're The Green Hornet, both may apply. In spades.

Ah, for the days when things were simple...

The long-in-production film (which had been in development in some capacity since at least 1993) finally came out this month, though I seriously doubt it's been a film most people have been waiting for. Directed by Michael Gondry, the film's big draw was its 3D implementation, by far now the most overused technology from the past year. Though there seems to be no need for 3D or IMAX when you see the trailers for The Green Hornet, someone big obviously decided that it was the way to go. The Hornet's been around seemingly forever, from radio shows in the 30's to film serials in the 40's, a TV show in the 60's and many comic book series. Despite this, the character is simply written off as a Batman clone while in fact predating the caped crusader by three years. But is the combined acting and writing of film star Seth Rogen enough to derail the film more than previously expected?

An early shot of Rogen securing the writing credits for The Green Hornet

Seth Rogen stars as Britt Reid, full time party-goer and heir to his father's (Tom Wilkinson) media empire. Never having a strong relationship with his father, Britt nevertheless mourns when dear ol' da dies under mysterious circumstances. Deciding to make something of his life, Britt teams up with his house servant and friend Kato (Jay Chou) and takes to the streets in an Imperial Crown sedan dubbed The Black Beauty as the hero known only as The Green Hornet. Meanwhile, Russian gangster Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz) takes his aggressive brand of violence to the streets of Los Angeles to weed out the competition and rid himself of these new crime fighters.

Older woman, younger man... That's different, I suppose

The first half of the film is actually quite enjoyable, with the "origin" story for the Hornet believable and succinct. Painted against the backdrop of a crime-ridden LA, the division between the rich upper class and the poorer sections of the city is as distinct as the differences between Britt and his father, who he sees as something of an ass. When the film starts and its just Britt and Kato messing around and having fun, even when they start kicking ass as the new superhero duo, the film is a lot of fun to watch. Even allowing for the mediocre and unnecessary 3D conversion, there are some cool scenes and it helps that the leads are as charismatic as they are. Don't get me wrong: Seth Rogen is COMPLETELY miscast as the hero type, he's something of an arrogant fool who uses his wealth to go through with what many would consider a stupid idea and dismiss it before too long. Still, he's the kind of guy you'd like to sit down and drink a beer with, at least until he hit on your girlfriend and you knocked him cold. "Over the top" would be the perfect phrase to describe his performance, as he quickly becomes too much to bear. On the other hand, Chou is well cast as the enigmatic Kato. The award-winning Taiwanese singer, songwriter, director and actor makes his American film debut and doesn't feel at all out of place filling the shoes once worn by legendary martial artist Bruce Lee. The two actors have great chemistry together (a must in any buddy film) and for the first half an hour to forty-five minutes it's enough to keep me entertained.

Gotta love Chudnofsky's double-barreled pistol

Sadly, after those initial moments I began to get restless as the film gets far too meandering and cliched. First of all, while Waltz is convincing as the self-conscious Russian antagonist, the part isn't well written in the slightest. Waltz is on that post-Oscar kick where you can do whatever you want and get paid tons of money to do it because, well, when you win an Academy Award it opens so many doors you're not sure where to go. That's why so many Oscar winners (see: Cuba Gooding, Jr) go on to have such unfulfilled careers after winning the big award, since they have so many bad options it's hard to pick the diamonds out of the rough. Cameron Diaz's appearance as the film's love interest also summons some demons out of the plot, as she's immediately treated as a romantic target for both Britt and Kato, eventually leading to a partner-breaking feud between the two. Original, huh? But I'll give Diaz credit: her character refuses to be a simple female token and has enough brains to be her own person outside of the main duo. Diaz is up to the task and puts on one of her better performances in recent years. Take that for what you will. The rest of the cast are largely unimportant, though I'll give any casting agent credit for putting into this film Wilkinson, Edward James Olmos and The Wire's Chad Coleman. Each are great actors in their own right and Olmos never gets enough credit for his gritty, down-to-earth demeanor. Wilkinson is an ass for his small role, but does a fine job with it. All in all, the supporting cast has the better talent but the leads get all the story.

Definitely NOT in the running for an Academy Award

We all have to start off somewhere, and this year I started off with what at best could be a hopped up, mediocre explosion fest. There's some good here, most especially Chou and Waltz, but not nearly enough to really recommend for even the average audience member. The writing and dialogue get annoying fast, the plot is silly and full of holes, and the 3D isn't good enough to make you forget that there was no real reason to put it in anyway. It may debut at #1 on 2011's Top 10 Films, but being number one on a list with one title ought to see this film quickly drop down the list in the months to come. If you wanted to see it then I won't tell you not to, but if you didn't want to see it in the first place, you made the right choice in my eyes.