The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Let's get this out of the way. Do you love the book, The Hobbit? Do you want a movie that is simply the book on film? Then you should stay home and read the book. If you got upset and distracted by the way Peter Jackson wasn't strictly faithful to the timelines and events of the Lord of the Rings books in his adaptations, then save yourself, and everyone else, the bother and read the freaking book again. You're not going to be happy. You're just not – you know it, I know it, everyone knows it.

Peter Jackson is taking the opportunity of telling The Hobbit to also fill out more of the Middle Earth story. He's including other material that Tolkien wrote to make a more complete Middle Earth story, together with the Lord of the Rings films, than would be possible with sticking only to what is in The Hobbit book. When this series of films is finished, it looks like the goal is to be able to watch these and the Lord of the Rings films as one singular tale, as opposed to two separate entities that are tied together only by Bilbo, who doesn't feature heavily in the latter story, and the ring, which doesn't feature heavily in this story.

And, so far, it looks like the two series will fit together quite well, at least as far as look and style are concerned. Unlike, say, the Star Wars films, where the original set of films and the prequels look and feel like very different entities. Although Jackson has switched to shooting on digital and can do more with CG now than before, he still uses a lot of the same techniques, and uses much of the same crew. The result is unity and consistency to both series.

I felt like there were some times where they forced thing a bit, particularly emotion. For instance, when Bilbo meets up with the rest of the group after escaping Gollum. They believe he has run away and so much the better, because all he's wanted to do is go home anyway. He hears them and after a few moments of doubt, he sneaks up on them, invisible because of the ring, takes it off, reappears, and makes a speech about why he wants to help them. And immediately everyone's happy and they believe in him, where a minute ago they didn't. It felt like a cheesy, forced moment. And there's a couple of them. It is something that Jackson indulged in with the Lord of the Rings series as well, with emotional, inspirational speeches.

The film is nearly 3 hours, but I didn't notice the length. Once they leave the Shire, the movie keeps a pretty good pace. So it moves along well. I think they incorporated the additional story elements well, bringing back story and more motivation to some of the characters than in the book. In the book, it's basically just that they want to get their ancestor's gold and treasure, because they like gold and treasure. But with the added story elements there's more about regaining their lost kingdom and home. It makes for a more fulfilling story with greater character depth.

I saw the film in 3D. It was filmed in 3D, not a post-conversion. I thought it looked very natural. I've given up on 3D actually adding anything, it doesn't and didn't here. It just looked good. But nothing will be missed by seeing it in 2D. I didn't see it in the 48 frames-per-second that Jackson shot it in, so I can't comment on that.

The film is cast well. It's a large cast because there's a lot of characters. And because there's so many characters, you don't really get to know most of them that well, aside from the real main ones. But that is the result of the source material. Like the Lord of the Rings series, the special effects, make-up, and costumes are all outstanding. The film is fun and exciting. I'm interested what they do with the story in the next two films.

3 1/2 out of 5

Anna Karenina

I've never read Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I also have never seen any previous film versions of it. I've also not seen any of Joe Wright's previous films. I also hadn't really heard much about this film. I'm stating all this here to note that I can't comment on how this film treats the story, as compared to the novel; how effective it is in telling the story, as compared to previous film treatments; or how the director's style or tendencies come into play. Basically, I know nothing about anything to do with this film and can only speak from the vacuum of this film in and of itself. Why point this out?

Well, the film is very stylistic. The film has a theatric quality to it. Occasionally. Every once in a while they call back to a stage, as though it's a play being performed. And every once in a while the actors make their way through the 'backstage' area on their way from one scene to the next. And every once in a while the actors in a scene move as though choreographed. And I like this. It's very unique. The choreography sense makes it feel very musical in a way. They set this up in the opening minutes. And once it becomes clear, I totally bought into it.

But you may notice I used words like “occasionally” and “every once in a while” up there. And that's the rub. It sets up this feeling, it says 'here's what we're doing' and you go 'okay, I'm ready.' But then it doesn't really follow up that style of the first few minutes consistently throughout the rest of the film. This device didn't seem to be used for any particular characters specifically or for particular types of scenes. Just every once in a while 'oh look, there's the stage' or 'oh look, they're going backstage.' Everything else is done in a traditional film style on contained sets. And when he decides to show a scene or a character on this stage, it's not as though they're playing to anyone or that it is a play being put on.

There's a scene after Anna's husband, Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, finds out she is in love with Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky where he leaves the room and goes into his study. We follow him into the room and he's sitting on a chair on the stage, the camera behind him looking out to an empty hall. Maybe he's going to soliloquize or put on an act in some way, you think. But no, he just sits there. On a stage. For what purpose? I don't know.

So, essentially, this effect is just there for show. It's there to be there. When it's there at all. Which is a shame because, as I said, I liked it. I just didn't feel it added anything or was implemented in a way which said something about the story or the characters. I thought 'maybe it's representing the artifice of their society,' but in that scene I described above, her husband is displaying no artifice, it's a display of honest emotion from him. So...what was it?

The film looks beautiful. The sets and costumes are outstanding. It's shot gorgeously. The camera work is superb. The cast is fantastic. The moments that seem choreographed have a musical energy (Stiva walking through his office, all the men stamping paperwork in unison, rising as he approaches and sitting as he passes like a wave rolling by, while his assistant puts a coat on him without him missing a step or having to stop, for instance) that just grabs you – though as I talked about, these moments seem to be there merely for stylistic points.

It's a good film. All in all, the story is told well. It's just that there seem to be poorly implemented stylistic touches from the director. It's disappointing to walk away from the film thinking more about what purpose these touches served than about the merits of the storytelling itself. And that's why my rating for this film is so low - it's better than might be suggested, but the distraction of the style is too much. That's the failure of the film.

2 1/2 out of 5

Skyfall

2012 marks 50 years of James Bond films, starting in 1962 with Dr. No. And the latest installment in the series, Skyfall, is one hell of a way to celebrate. Daniel Craig returns for his third go as Bond. Sam Mendes, director of films like American Beauty, Jarhead, and Revolutionary Road, takes over behind the camera. While the renewed series took a bit of a misstep with the last film, Quantum of Solace (a film hurt by the writer's strike, often having to work without a script and unable to get proper rewrites), after the magnificent Casino Royale, Skyfall gets the series back on the right track.

Bond starts on a mission to recover a hard drive which contains the identities of undercover NATO agents in terrorist organizations from a mercenary. He's shot and falls off a bridge. MI6 presumes him dead. Bond, of course, isn't dead. He uses his apparent death to retire, a bit upset that M gave the order for his partner, Eve, to take a shot though she didn't have a clear view and could easily hit Bond instead (which she did). However when MI6 headquarters is blown up, he makes the decision to return. He's reinstated though he performed poorly in the tests. He uses shrapnel he had been hit with in his fight with the mercenary to find him.

Bond tracks the mercenary to Shanghai, where he finds him in the middle of a job. They fight in a high rise, but before Bond can find out who he works for, the mercenary falls to his death. Bond searches through his kit and finds a chip for a Macau casino. Bond goes to the casino where he finds a woman whom he saw in the room with the mercenary's victim in Shanghai. She had seen him also and warns him that he is going to be killed. Bond disposes of his would-be dispatchers and joins her as she makes her way to her boss' island. They're captured and Bond is introduced to Raoul, the mastermind behind the attacks on MI6 and the undercover NATO agents. Raoul blames M for the torture he received when he was an MI6 agent. Bond is able to dispatch Raoul's henchmen and apprehend him, with MI6 having found them thanks to the radio transmitter Bond was given by Q.

So Raoul is captured and imprisoned in MI6's emergency headquarters. However, this was part of his plan. Knowing that they'd tried to access his hard drives to see what's on them, it instead hacks into the MI6 computer system when they crack it and opens all the doors, including his cell. Raoul kills his guards and escapes to go after M while she is at a public hearing over the stolen hard drive Bond was originally after. Raoul shoots up the hearing, Bond, who had been chasing him, shows up to save M. He arranges for Q to show a false computer trail of where they're heading, and takes her to his childhood home, Skyfall, in Scotland.

They know that Raoul will eventually find them, but they use the time to prepare. It almost becomes a grown-up version of Home Alone as they set up traps around the house. In the eventual fight, the house is destroyed and Bond kills Raoul (this is a very oversimplified summary as I don't feel like going over all of it because that's not why I'm writing this and I don't want to give everything away).

The film is exciting and interesting. They get back to making Bond a real character, like they did in Casino Royale. He's vulnerable and has actual emotions (he cries here. Bond cries!). The third act, at Skyfall, is very different to the rest of the film but very intense. You never know what's going to happen. Craig gives a great performance as Bond, again. Javier Bardem is extremely creepy, in the best possible way, as a Raoul. He makes you uncomfortable and isn't that what the best Bond villains often do?

I think the most striking thing about the film is how beautiful it is. It was shot by renowned cinematographer Roger Deakins (his other works include O, Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country For Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and The Shawshank Redemption, among many, many others, seriously, look up his filmography). I think it's safe to say that no Bond movie has ever looked as amazing as Skyfall does. The fight between Bond and the mercenary in the Shanghai high-rise, silhouetted against video screen advertisements on buildings across the way is just simply gorgeous. A wonderful sequence of shadow and lights reflecting off the glass walls. Bond's approach to the casino in Macau is also extremely striking. This isn't just an action movie, this is pure visual art.

Raoul's incredibly forethought plans in the middle of the film (to get captured, that they'd search his laptop so have it ready to hack their systems, have disguises, explosions ready, etc) stretches believability a little bit. I didn't find it particularly distracting though. It's more or less par-for-the-course for these types of movies (the Joker's plans in The Dark Knight come to mind) really. It wouldn't make a very interesting movie, or for a formidable opponent, if the villain's plans fell apart easily and the hero didn't feel and appear to always be a couple steps behind. But it's otherwise a really excellent film, with great story elements that build the Bond character, story, and legend, with some nice little call backs of the older films. A fantastic way to mark half a century of Bond films.

4 1/2 out of 5

Bonus! Because I really can't talk of Roger Deakins' cinematography enough, here's some screenshots:

Flight

Robert Zemeckis makes his return to directing live-action films with Flight (his last live-action film was 2000's Cast Away, he has a thing for plane crashes apparently). Denzel Washington stars as an alcoholic pilot, who deals with the aftermath of a plane crash in which he saved all but 6 people on board, but was drunk and high on cocaine at the time. With the investigation, he could go to jail for a few years for flying under the influence or for the rest of his life if they find his state was the cause of the crash and, thus, the 6 deaths. Or, with the help of his union's lawyer, he could go free.

The beginning of the film is fantastic. Whip wakes up from a night of drinking and sex with one of the flight attendants, Katerina. To wake himself up after the rough, late night, he snorts a couple lines of cocaine. He goes to the airport and prepares for the flight and shows no ill-effects. They take off in rough weather, experience severe turbulence but finally pull through it (an excellent fake-out when you know a crash is coming). The crash sequence is excellent. It's uncomfortable and hits at that innate fear of crashing that even people who are not afraid of flying must have. When they roll the plane it is absolutely terrifying. Finally, Whip lands the plane in a field by a church.

In the hospital, Whip makes the decision to quit drinking. His friend Harling (played by John Goodman) brings him supplies but he tells Harling to take away the alcohol he brought. In the hospital, he sneaks into a stairwell for a cigarette and meets Nicole, a former photographer in the hospital after overdosing on heroin.

When he's discharged from the hospital, Whip goes to his deceased father's farm instead of his own home to avoid the press. He's able to keep away from the press, however, there is the matter of the NTSB investigation into the crash he has to deal with. After a few days of successfully avoiding the temptation to drink, the pressure of the investigation drives him back to drinking. His drinking drives away Nicole, with whom he had a budding relationship, as she tries to deal with her addiction issues.

He spirals out of control and eventually shows up at the home of his union handler to keep him clean in the days leading up to his NTSB hearing. He's kept clean for a week and the night the before the hearing he's checked into a hotel with a guard and a mini-fridge stocked with non-alcoholic beverages. However, during the night, he discovers the door connecting the hotel room next door is ajar. And their mini-fridge is full of alcohol. The next morning, the morning of his hearing, he's found drunk, passed out on his bathroom floor. He's woken up and asks for Harling, who comes and peps Whip up with a few lines of cocaine. He gets through the hearing, his union lawyer was able to get his toxicology report thrown out for being done improperly and with out-of-calibration equipment. The NTSB knows that a couple bottles of vodka were consumed during the flight (which Whip drank), though there was no drink service on the flight, so they could only have been consumed by the crew. Katerina's toxicology report was the only one that was admissible that came back positive for intoxication. When he's asked if, in his opinion, she drank the bottles, he has a change of heart and admits that it was him and he was drunk.

The movie lost me here because what kind of a question is that? In his opinion, did she drink those bottles of vodka? Who would ask that? It just feels like a purely movie question meant to make a movie character have a change-of-heart movie moment. It didn't feel real in the slightest. And when the rest of the movie did a pretty good job of being realistic with emotions and motivations (though the union rep and union lawyer assenting to call Harling to drug Whip in order to protect him was a bit of a stretch, though humorous), that sort of thing is a real let down.

I also found the religious overtones a bit out of place. They seemed to go out of their way to have characters express religious beliefs and sentiments. For instance, when Whip meets Nicole in the stairway, they also meet a cancer patient who's sneaking out for a cigarette as well. He talks about how God gave him cancer, it's God's plan, it was God's plan for Whip to land the plane and save those people, it was God's plan for Whip and Nicole to meet. This guy is never seen again. Was God involved in any of it? I don't know. God is mentioned all throughout, it makes you think there's going to be something to it. But it's just, sort of...there. I can't even say that Whip's reversal at the hearing was some sort of divine epiphany – it seemed more as though Whip couldn't bring himself to tarnish the memory of someone he cared about (Katerina died in the plane crash, the result of helping a boy who fell out of his seat when the plane rolled and being unable to get herself back into her seat before the crash). He clearly cared for her, when he woke up after the crash he wanted to know if she survived. So why'd they make such a big point of that stuff if it didn't add anything or lead anywhere?

In the end, it felt like an uneven film. There's some good stuff to the story and there's some that didn't really work. The highlight is Denzel's performance. It's fantastic. A great performance, no doubt. John Goodman is also great as Harling, extremely funny, however it's somewhat disappointing how little he's in the film. He shows up in the beginning for a few minutes then disappears until another few minutes at the end. Don Cheadle also shines as the union lawyer. It's these performances and the crash sequence that carry the movie. Flight is a good film, I just wasn't sure what it was going for at times, so I'm not sure what it was aiming for or if it hit the mark.

3 out of 5

Argo

Argo is Ben Affleck's latest film, following Gone, Baby, Gone and The Town. It's based on the true story of what is referred to as the Canadian Caper – in the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis, ex filtrating 6 embassy workers, who escaped as the students stormed the embassy and were in hiding at the residence of the Canadian ambassador to Iran, under the guise of being a Canadian film crew scouting locations.

The film starts with a brief history lesson on what led to the taking of the American embassy. The United States' involvement in overthrowing the Iranian leader and supporting a dictator before a revolt overthrew the American-backed government and replaced the shah with the Ayatollah Khomeini. The shah fled Iran, eventually seeking medical treatment in the United States. The Iranians wanted the shah sent back to Iran so that he could be tried for the abuses of his regime. The United States' refusal to send him back thus led to rising anger, demonstrations, and, finally, storming the American embassy and taking hostages.

As the students were taking over the embassy, six workers were in a part of the embassy that they could escape onto the streets. They managed to evade detection and get bounced from embassy to embassy looking for a place to hide. Finally, the Canadian ambassador agreed to let them stay in his residence. In Washington, D.C., when they get the news of the six escapees (from the Canadian government, the film underplays the role of the Canadians), the C.I.A. gets to work planning a way to get them out.

The best (best-bad) idea they have is to create a cover story of a film crew scouting locations for a science-fiction movie in need of exotic locations. With the help of a Hollywood make-up artist, who had worked with the C.I.A. previously, a script is purchased (titled Argo), production company set up, offices obtained, casting calls set up, script readings done, and press releases put out. All in order to create a convincing cover story.

The film moves from drama to comedy with ease. John Goodman as make-up artist John Chambers (Oscar winner for his work on Planet of the Apes) and Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel (a fictional producer) are great comic relief. They ease the tension inherent in trying to set up and execute a rescue plan in a hostile territory. When plans can fall apart and the ruse be discovered, with the possibility of death, at any moment, it's good to provide that release or else the movie could be unbearably dark and heavy.

The film is well-paced and plotted. The words “based on a true story” should let you know that the film takes liberties with the truth – it's drama, not docu-drama. But it's to create a compelling film-story. The story is focused and clear, despite having to bounce between Iran, Washington, D.C., and Hollywood. You don't get lost in it or confused about what's going on and what people are doing. Credit for this has to go to screenwriter Chris Terrio and Affleck as director, they handle it with skill and confidence.

The film is well-acted by Goodman, Arkin, Bryan Cranston, and, yes, Affleck. Affleck keeps everyone on point. It's well-shot by Rodrigo Prieto. The film is compelling and incredibly enjoyable. A tense, funny, dark political-thriller and Hollywood-send-up.

4 1/2 out of 5

Ruby Sparks

Ruby Sparks left me thinking about it for quite a while. I thought it was funny. I thought it was a little disturbing. It was an interesting take on this sort of romantic-comedy, manic-pixie-dream-girl story. But I couldn't quite figure out if it was trying to say something about that type of story; about the type of man who imagines and hopes for something like that. I'm not sure if I ever quite came to any conclusion about it.

Calvin Weir-Fields is a young author, struggling to follow-up his first, smash novel, published when he was just 19. He feels the weight of the expectations and celebrity, clearly uncomfortable at readings and parties for him. He chastises people who call him a genius. To top it all off, he's single and lonely.

Calvin's therapist gives him a writing assignment – write one page about someone who likes his dog, Scotty. Calvin got Scotty to try and help open himself up and meet people, but he finds Scotty slightly embarrassing because he pees like a girl dog. Calvin has a dream about a woman and uses it as inspiration for the assignment. He writes pages and pages.

One morning, Calvin wakes up to find the woman he was writing about, Ruby Sparks, making breakfast for him. He freaks out, naturally. Believing her to be a figment of his imagination, he calls a college girl, who gave him her number at his last reading, for lunch. He tries to walk down the street and act as though Ruby isn't there. He tells her to wait at a corner while he goes to lunch, which she doesn't know about. While talking with the college girl, Ruby finally comes up to see wait Calvin is doing and causes a scene upon seeing him with the college girl. And, of course, once he realizes other people see her he knows that she is, in fact, real. Following this they start going out. Ruby doesn't realize she's a creation of Calvin's; Calvin puts the pages he wrote away and swears to not write any more about her or change her.

Naturally, what happens, at first everything is great, but after a while he grows weary of her free-spirit and not being able to just enjoy some quiet time and read, and she longs for a life beyond Calvin. She starts taking classes and making friends away from him and he becomes worried that she's thinking about leaving him.

The fear of losing Ruby and being alone drives Calvin to change her. And when the changes are unsatisfactory, as she becomes clingy (to the point of crying because they got separated crossing the street as he answers his phone and has to let go of her hand), he changes her again. Eventually, as things come to a head, he reveals to her that she is his creation and that he can control her, in an incredibly disturbing scene. When he realizes that he's gone too far, he sets her free, when she leaves she will have no memory of him or what's happened.

The idea of the manic-pixie-dream-girl is attractive, but not realistic. It's an attractive idea because of the thought that they'll set you free, your life will become exciting and interesting. But if you're not that type of person to begin with, and you're not interested in embracing that sort of change, inevitably it won't work out. Calvin wanted that, but he wanted it to work into his routine and be controlled, which defeats the purpose. He was the one who needed to change most if he wanted their relationship to last, but all he could think to do was try and change her – but by doing so he changed what it was he liked about her. He was too self-absorbed to look within.

It sounds heavy but it is actually very funny. Paul Dano is very good as Calvin, always a layer of sweetness and insecurity covering a self-absorbed and controlling character. While Ruby is a creation of Calvin's imagination, Zoe Kazan plays her with depth and enthusiasm. Kazan also wrote the screenplay which is wonderfully original, creative, and well-done. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris direct the movie well, not heavy handed or with the idea they must try to be as quirky or weird as the story might suggest, they keep it grounded. Ruby Sparks is an interesting story that will make you laugh and think about relationships, your expectations of them, and yourself and how you'd deal with the reality of them.

3 out of 5

The Dark Knight Rises

If you are reading this I will assume you are not concerned about spoilers, so let that serve as warning and turn back now if you don't want to know about things that happen in the film.

Christopher Nolan finishes up his Batman film series with The Dark Knight Rises (starting with Batman Begins in 2005 and The Dark Knight in 2008). And as is Nolan's wont, he does it in epic fashion – the film is nearly 3 hours long and just generally huge.

The film has much more in common in style, story, and tone with Batman Begins than The Dark Knight. Batman Begins introduced two threats to Gotham – organized crime and the League of Shadows, which had targeted Gotham for destruction. Ra's Al Ghul was killed in Batman Begins, which presumably took care of the League of Shadows as well. And with the organized crime of Gotham more or less taken care of in the aftermath of Harvey Dent's death, Gotham is now in a state a peace. Until Bane is brought into town by Bruce Wayne's business rival, John Daggett, who is looking to bring down Wayne Enterprises so that he can take it over.

However, Bane has plans of his own. Following Ra's Al Ghul's death, he assumed leadership of the League of Shadows (he had been trained, like Bruce Wayne, in the League of Shadows) and plans to finish what Ra's started – completely and utterly destroy Gotham.

In Batman Begins we see as Bruce Wayne learns the skills and, seeing the corruption rampant in the city, makes the decision to become a vigilante. Here, in The Dark Knight Rises, we see as Bruce Wayne makes the decision to come out of retirement as the Batman, after taking the fall for Harvey Dent's death so that he may become the symbol Gotham needed. After the punishment he put his body through in the first two films, and 8 years hiding out in Wayne Manor, Bruce is not quite in the shape he once was, and his skills no longer as sharp. This ends in Bane breaking Bruce's back in an absolutely brutal, punishing fight.

As Bruce watches what Bane does to Gotham, he finds a new determination within himself. He must recover, get back in shape, and reacquaint himself with his skills. The result is that Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises act as bookends. Batman Begins is the setup and The Dark Knight Rises is the conclusion that pays it off.

Initially, I thought that the idea of using a giant bomb that threatens the whole city felt a little too old-school comic book-ish (am I the only one who had trouble shaking the image of Adam West's Batman running around carrying a giant bomb from the 1966 movie?). Especially for what Nolan has done with these movies. However, as I thought about it, it made sense, it worked, and actually is not out of character of what he had setup in Batman Begins. As we find out in the end, Bane is working for Talia Al Ghul, Ra's' daughter. And Talia has been posing as Miranda Tate, a business parter of Bruce's, backer of a fusion-energy project which Bruce had canceled after discovering that the fusion device could be modified into a nuclear bomb. Which is what happens. And that was her plan – make the company lose money on this idea that sounds good but she knew Bruce would nix once he found out what could be done with it, and thus the company becomes vulnerable. And given Ra's Al Ghul's plan of tainting Gotham's water supply with an aerosol toxin and a device to turn Gotham's water supply into steam to thus weaponize it on board Gotham's city rail system in Batman Begins, this bomb acts, again, as a bookend - a call back.

And don't take this to mean that they're just re-hashing what they did before. They're not. Like I said, they've setup, they've built, now they're paying off. They use these call backs to the first movie to bring the series full-circle. Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, and David S. Goyer did a very good job in creating the story for this. They've been careful and deliberate in creating a series of films that tells a full, complete story. A story of Bruce Wayne. A story of the Batman. A story of Gotham.

Is The Dark Knight Rises as good as The Dark Knight? No. But that's an unfair expectation to saddle the movie with. I'm glad that they didn't seem to go 'we need to do that again' though. What's most important is telling a good story which concludes this arc, not competing with themselves. Is Bane as good a villain as the Joker? He's not as dynamic and electric as the Joker, but he's the physical, and mental, match the Batman needs. The Joker was chaotic – he plotted in order to push people to the edge and make them unknowingly play into his hands. Bane is cold and calculating – he plots to outsmart, give you hope then snatch it away. The Joker is just simply more fun to watch - that's why the character is so iconic.

I like what they did with Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Her and Bruce work well together. But she's just doing what's best for her. If it helps her to help Bruce, she will. Until it helps her to help Bane. It's not personal, it's just what she has to do in order to get what she wants. And that is to wipe her identity and any trace of her in order so that she can start her life over. It gives her a good, believable story and justification.

The movie is long, but it never feels that way. It moves along quickly. It's just that the story is so big it requires the time. I like that the story isn't just a simple, straightforward setup that could be taken care of in closer to two hours – that sort of story isn't Nolan's style. It keeps you guessing, unsure of where it's going and what will happen next, which gives you the uneasy feeling that at any time something can go wrong as opposed to being sure everything will work out. And, most importantly, with something as expansive as this, it doesn't feel unwieldy, it doesn't get lost.

Tom Hardy gives a fantastic performance as Bane, despite the fact his face is hidden the entire time by a mask. It's a performance of eyes and body language. Anne Hathaway is good as Selina Kyle. She's physical, sensual, and playful. Christian Bale does a good job portraying a character who has essentially given up on life. Gary Oldman is a man worn out by carrying the weight of a massive secret. Christopher Nolan, as always, keeps the film grounded – nothing feels superfluous or coincidental.

It's a fantastic film that closes out the series in a way that it deserves. It doesn't fall into the trap of doing the same thing as before because it worked or just treading water because they know they have an audience. It's the film the series needed as well as the film the series deserved.

4 out of 5

Safety Not Guaranteed

I didn't know what to expect from Safety Not Guaranteed. I didn't know much about it. I just knew it was about a man who put an ad in the paper for a partner for time travel and that it had been getting reviewed very well. As I said, not much.

At first I was curious to see how Aubrey Plaza works carrying a movie. I've only seen her in Parks & Recreation and her small part in Scott Pilgrim vs the World. While she's good in Parks & Rec, she doesn't exactly show much in it. So, does she have what it takes to be the lead? Yes. At least, for a movie such as this she does. All I've seen her do before is be sarcastic and misanthropic. I was quite pleasantly surprised to see her pull off a performance of subtlety, honesty, and tenderness. There actually is more to her than being the funny, sarcastic girl.

She plays a girl, Darius, who, since her mother died when she was young, has gone through life expecting the worst. She has no friends. She, as far as we can tell, has not gotten with anyone romantically. And you think “Aubrey Plaza is a cute girl, even if she was awkward or inept, she should be able to have gotten something.” But they do a good job, in the opening sequence, showing that that's not the issue, it's that she hasn't to get involved with people because she expects the worst from life. So she's gone through life choosing to avoid these things so she doesn't get hurt, which is what she expects.

Working as an intern at a local magazine in Seattle, living with her father, she's not happy. When the magazine has a idea meeting, one of the writers pitches the idea of doing an article about a classified ad that had been placed which read: "Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed." The ad interests her and she volunteers to join the writer, Jeff, on the trip to profile the man who placed it.

Kenneth is the man who placed it. He's a loner. Jeff attempts to contact him, but he believes Jeff is just attempting to make fun of him. Jeff sends Darius to try and contact Kenneth. They connect and Kenneth brings her in to his world – she doesn't tell him she's working for a magazine though. Kenneth starts training her and through this they bond and connect.

You're never sure of what to think of Kenneth. Is he crazy? Is he paranoid? Is he delusional? Does he honestly believe he can build a time machine? I think they do a good job of never revealing too much or trying too hard to make him come off as crazy to make us doubt him. They give just enough to make you think or feel what they want you to – building slowly to the reveal at the end.

Safety Not Guaranteed a unique movie. It's not science fiction. It's about looking forward, not backward – along with Darius and Kenneth wanting to change events in the past (Darius, her mother's death; Kenneth, the death of the only girl who treated him with kindness), the reporter Jeff suggested this story in order to travel to this town to find an old girlfriend; and the other intern to go on the trip, Arnau, learns to live while he can and enjoy his youth so he doesn't come to regret wasting it. It's a well done movie. Well written. Well acted. And quite enjoyable.

4 out of 5

Brave

I'll just be straightforward and say that Brave is good...for your typical, average movie. For a PIXAR movie? It's kind of a disappointment. It feels more like a Disney movie than PIXAR. So, while it's good and enjoyable (it is, don't get me wrong), it just seems like there should have been more to it.

The story is just underwhelming. It doesn't have the sort of daring or adventure you might expect from PIXAR. It feels ripped out of a book of stock Disney stories. You know – child unhappy with family runs away and through events that happen learns to appreciate and love their family, and the family them. It's nice. But it lacks anything deeper to it. PIXAR is a company that isn't afraid of telling unusual stories (Ratatouille makes us sympathize and like a rat in a kitchen) or touch on more serious themes (Toy Story 3 has the characters facing certain death, Wall-E touches on environmental issues, Up love and death), so when they do something that's just so...unremarkable, it's a bit of a let down.

It takes place in 10th century Scotland, but you could take the story and set it anywhere and any time period and not lose anything. It's a unique and specific setting, so you'd want something that really uses and takes advantage of it. Instead, it seems more an excuse to have funny accents, a couple kilt jokes, and very pretty landscapes (the visuals cannot be knocked, in any way, with this movie). So, aside from the landscapes, the setting is squandered because the story just doesn't utilize it.

The main character, Merida, isn't fully utilized, either. She's presented as a headstrong, independent young girl. And, she is. But, you know what? I want to see that character go on an adventure and kick some ass. There's potential that just isn't grabbed. She runs off, comes upon a witch, asks for a potion to change her fate so she's not forced to choose a suitor, the potion turns her mother (who is the one that is set on Merida being and acting like a proper princess) into a bear, and her and her mother must find the witch and the way to undo it and through this they learn to understand and accept each other. Of course, the problem is that the character that really needs to make a change is the mother. Merida isn't really changed, she's sorry for the argument they had, but she still wants the same thing at the end. The mother must make the change from being stuck in the old way to accepting Merida's wishes for something different. So...it's not Merida's story. But it's supposed to be and it should be. And that's the ultimate problem with the movie and what holds it back. Something that feels like it should be an adventure turns out to be two characters butting heads.

I mentioned it earlier, but I should bring it up again...the animation is beautiful. The visuals are beyond compare. The character design, the backgrounds, the detail – outstanding. I saw it in 3D, I'm not a fan of 3D in general because I don't feel that it really adds anything essential, and this didn't change my mind on the subject, but it did look great in 3D – it had great depth and fullness to it.

Also, it's really nice to see a strong female main character. A princess who doesn't want, or need, a man. She can take care of herself, and wants to. How many movies with princesses end with them unmarried or uncommitted to a man? None come to my mind. Merida is a character you can show young girls and they can look up to. And that's why I wanted more from the movie. As good as she is, the way the movie is, it'd have been so much better if they could have let her loose on her own.

So, as I said before, the movie is good, it's enjoyable, it's fun. For your typical animated kid's movie, it's good. It's just that PIXAR has set the bar higher for themselves in the past and Brave is perhaps just under it.

3 out of 5

Bernie

I didn't really know much about this movie going into it. I had read a brief synopsis and thought it sounded interesting. And it was. It was also extremely funny. And, in the end, a very pleasant surprise. Bernie is based on a true story about a murder in a small town in Texas and has the dramatized action interspersed with interviews of local people who knew those involved.

Bernie (played by Jack Black) is a mortician – sorry, assistant funeral director – in Carthage, Texas. He's very good at his job, he takes it seriously and goes that extra step to ease the pain of those grieving. He's also beloved by the people of Carthage, as he's active in the church, local theater, willing to help anyone out, and just generally a nice guy. Even though he's a little “light in the loafers” and there's speculation that he might be homosexual, the people of this small, conservative town love him.

After the death of a local businessman, Bernie befriends the widow, Marjorie (played by Shirley MacLaine), who is not well-liked in the town, described by one of the locals as 'she'll rip you a new, three bedroom, double-wide asshole.' It starts as him just being the nice guy he is and wanting to check up on her. They become friends – they go on trips together, there are rumors that they're intimate, and she convinces him to only work part-time at the funeral home and work for her full-time as her assistant/companion. As time goes on she becomes increasingly dependent on, and possessive of, him. He begins to feel trapped but he's too nice to say 'no' or stand up to her and tell her off.

Finally, one day, in a fit after having her trap him in her driveway as he tries to leave rather than argue with her, he shoots her four times in the back. For the next 9 months, he goes on as though nothing has happened. As she had no other friends, she wasn't really on speaking terms with any of her family, and she more or less had him do everything for her, he was able to convince people that she had suffered a stroke, wasn't well, and went somewhere to recuperate. In the 9 months he continues to spend her money...but not on himself. He donates to help build a new wing on the church. He buys cars or houses for local people who need them. He invests in local businesses. All in her name. Eventually her stock broker becomes suspicious of her absence, as Bernie has been smart enough to not try doing anything in her name with her investments. Her stock broker gets the sheriff to search her house, where they find her body in a freezer.

Bernie's arrested and confesses immediately. He's charged with first-degree murder. However, he's so loved by the locals, the D.A. (a fully-clothed Matthew McConaughey) realizes there's no way Bernie would be convicted. So he has the trial moved and Bernie is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life (I'd worry about spoilers but it's a true story).

The movie is surprisingly funny, especially the interviews with the locals. They're so funny that you start to think that it can't be real, they must be scripted. But they are real. And, really, those interviews and that humor is what makes the movie. If you were to take it away, the story wouldn't be that compelling or interesting – a nice guy befriends a mean old woman until she becomes so mean and unbearable he snaps for a moment, kills her, when caught he gives up, and there's no real drama during the trial. It's the perspective from the locals that does it.

It's an incredibly funny, enjoyable movie. Director Richard Linklater is able to make a compelling movie of a story that by itself is only interesting because it's somewhat quirky. Jack Black plays Bernie very well; he actually acts, he doesn't just do the typical Jack Black thing. At the end, you'll feel for Bernie because he is a genuinely nice man who just broke for a minute but still must pay the price. But you'll also be laughing.

3 1/2 out of 5

Goon

I love hockey. I don't know if you heard me. I. Love. Hockey. So I got excited when I started hearing the buzz that Goon was creating, especially among hockey fans, writers, and even players. So once I was hit with the void created by the end of the Stanley Cup Final (in which my team won its first championship!) I moved Goon up to the top of my Netflix queue, ready for something good.

I was disappointed. Severely. This wasn't a case of a movie that's pretty good but gets a lot of hype and is built up as great. It's just not a very good movie. It's got a couple laughs and funny lines, but other than that it's lacking.

Let's take the main character, Doug Glatt, played by Seann William Scott. He's a nice guy, bouncer at a bar, not very bright while the rest of his family is. However, he's more written as just plain stupid, bordering sometimes on challenged. As if there's no other way to make character nice and sympathetic. There's no depth. He's just...simple. He has no real thoughts or concerns about what he's doing, he's just glad to find something he's good at. It's pandering, not endearing.

So, Doug goes to a hockey game with his friend, the incredibly annoying Ryan (played by co-writer Jay Baruchel). When a player from the opposing team goes to the penalty box and decides to go into the stands to attack Ryan for taunting him, Doug intervenes when the player calls Ryan gay, because Doug's brother is gay so he takes offense. The player punches Doug, who is unfazed by it. Doug then knocks the guy out quickly and easily, because, you know, he's a bouncer. Apparently Doug's ability to take and throw a punch is all that's needed for him to be offered a spot on the home team in the next few days. Doug can't skate, he gets to the point where he can stand and slowly make his way to where he needs to go, but I guess this doesn't matter as he can fight.

After a short time, his fighting ability gets him noticed by a minor-league team who signs him to protect their star player. He instantly becomes a star and a leader on the team – after a few weeks he is made an assistant captain – merely for his fighting ability. In this movie, hockey is all about the fighting. The game is simplified and boiled-down to the most brutal bits – which make it look exactly like what people who don't know anything about the game think it is. You know how hockey only gets attention on ESPN when something bad happens and people think that's all it is? Yeah, this is like that.

As a fan, I find that insulting. Yes, we do, for the most part, like fighting. Yes, we do often like the tough guys. But not so much, really, when they are a one-dimensional player who only fights and offers no skill – we'll like them as a person because by and large they're actually good, friendly people but not as a player. More often than not, fans will bemoan their team playing someone who offers nothing but an ability to take and throw a punch over someone who might not be as good at that but can bring something else to the table. Fighting doesn't win games, scoring goals and keeping the other team from scoring does. And Doug is one of those one-dimensional players, so, in reality, he wouldn't be as adored as he is. I feel as though the movie whiffed on a chance in the slot to make a statement on fighting or the role of the tough guy or enforcer in hockey. The classic Slap Shot, known for its portrayal of fighting, does this with characters who see their team descending into goonery and making a mockery of the game.

As a film fan, it's really poor film making and story telling. There's no real struggle here. There's no actual obstacle for Doug – everything just falls into his lap. His parents don't like that he's a goon and think he could be doing something better, but we only see that in one scene which is just a ham fisted way to make us sympathize with him. It's there and then gone. It's not earned and it's not followed-up.

The film climaxes with a game between Doug's team and the team of a legendary fighter at the end of his career. So of course it's played as the changing of the guard type deal. But...there's no real build-up to it. Ok, this guy delivered the Marty-McSorley-on-Donald-Brashear-esque hit that gave the star player a concussion and made him too scared to play in the big leagues anymore, hence why he's in the minors. But that didn't happen during the movie, it happened a couple years ago. There's no bad blood between Doug and him or between the two teams. It's just that we're supposed to care because we're supposed to care.

Ok, ok...the two teams are also playing, in the last game of the season, to decide which one makes the playoffs. Not win the championship. Make the playoffs. The stakes just aren't there. I'm not invested enough to care whether or not one of them makes the playoffs. Give me a reason to root for them other than that I'm supposed to. In Miracle, Team USA doesn't win the gold medal by defeating the Soviets in the climactic game of the movie, but it has enough emotional power to serve the purpose. Not so here.

The love story between Doug and Eva similarly offers nothing for you to grab hold of. She has a boyfriend but he's out of town so there's no trouble at first. When he comes back and discovers that she's been seeing Doug, they break up, she gets with Doug for reals (because they pretty much already were) and Doug goes and lets the guy punch him for taking his girlfriend. It's all very easy.

So, at the end of the movie, you walk away with nothing but a couple good lines to remember and share with others who've seen the movie. There's nothing else memorable. And you have a lesser appreciation for the game. I wanted to like this movie, I really did, but it just gave me no reason to. Like Patrik Stefan it had a wide open net with a few seconds left, missed, then the other team took the puck the other way, scored and won in OT (if you don't get this reference, YouTube is your friend).

1 out of 5