Four Brothers

            John Singleton (Baby Boy) is still an amazing director, and can masters both the indie film and the main stream. The scene opens with a gangland robbery and massacre at a quickie mart, complete with Indian clerk, and little old lady victim. The old lady in this case is Mother Mercer, one of the legendary saints of the run down Detroit Projects, responsible for finding homes for over 1000 lost children, including a certain set of infamous boys.

            They are introduced at the funeral: The four brothers who Mercer raised herself, because they were such lost causes. Bobby (Mark Wahlberg, Rockstar) is the hotheaded gunslinger, a thug and hockey enthusiast. Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin, aka Andre 3000 from Outkast) is a former gang member, former union member, and independent businessman. Angel (Tyrese Gibson, 2 Fast, 2 Furious) is a marine, and former hustler, and womanizer. And Jack (Josh Charles), the youngest, a rockstar in the making, and victim of child abuse.

            The Movie goes on to chronicle their search for their mother’s killer, which eventually leads them to a long list of dirty laundry and corruption, which they systematically take down. Or not so systematically. This is another fine Hollywood piece in which the wrong choice becomes the right choice, and the morality of real life is flipped on it’s ear. A 2 in the tradition of Payback, 2 Fast 2Furious, and Kill Bill, this is a fun movie, and well worth watching. Singleton can bring any story to the big screen and make it sparkle.

Gran Torino

            This movie is a gem, and kind of a surprise that it’s not up more than golden globes as it came out shortly before the start of the year. Clint Eastwood plays your dad. Basically, he is everyones father, if your father is patriotic, hardnosed, racist as hell, and has a fuse as short as a brazilian midget. Walter is his name and he doesn’t take guff from anybody.

            He’s a retired autofactory worker, and the only hold out in a naighborhood taken over by Vietnamese immigrants. His kids work for Japanese car companies, and he is totally separated from them. His wife just died, and her ninny catholic priest keeps coming around, and He can’t stand that guy.

            He catches a young Vietnamese boy breaking into to steal his car, but the confrontation quickly becomes obvious that it’s an initiation into a gang, a gang he doesn’t really want to join. Walter becomes an unwitting neighborhood hero after stopping the altercation without resorting to deliberate violence.

            As the violence grows worse, Walter realizes he must do something to stop it, and he begins to realize there is hope for all those around him, and maybe even for himself. This movie isn’t that deep, and some of the scenes are downright hilarious, but the pacing is really what’s perfect, you feel what the actor feels, and see what he sees, and while there are some tough scenes, you can learn right along with everyone else.

            This is a clear 2, a great tribute to The America of old, and what growing old truly means in 2010. A real educator for a younger generation.

Midnight Cowboy

            Meet Joe Buck. Jon Voigt (Anaconda) stars as this southern Texas fake Cowboy. He’s a cowboy, but not a real one. This dishwasher has quit his job and after saving up a bit, he’s headed to the big city to be a big time hustler. Joe doesn’t know anything about anything really, and the first half of the movie is a picture of failed dreams in the big city. Joe goes around naïve, and foolish, quickly blowing his savings and getting swindled, and never quite making it as a hustler.

            Enter Enrique Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman, Wag the Dog), aka, Ratso. Prime New York Scum. Ratso has his own dreams, of making it big and then retiring to Miami. He’s just a two bit conman, and can’t really put anything together, and he’s a bum, and a cripple. They meet and he promptly swindles Joe Buck, but they connect later, and begin to bond as friends.

            It’s supposed to be provocative, and edgy, but, it’s really just weird, and kinda boring. The powerful scenes, and the craziness of the lives these guys lead is kinda gritty, but overall, it lacks. I’m gonna give this a 1, because, it’s just not all it’s cracked up to be. We start to see the depth of character at the end, as the boys attend an acid party, and then depart for Miami as Ratso lays dying, but, too little too late.

            This movie is DOA, just like Rizzo, and poor Joe Buck does a good job, but, blooms to late to make this movie worth it.

Formula 51

             This is a surprisingly charming direct to video release from the British film vault, released in other countries under the title “The 51^st State”. It stars Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane) as chemist Elmo MacElroy. Busted on a drug charge in the 60’s, his licensure as a pharmacist was lost. He turned to the Lizard (Meat Loaf) and started making pharmaceutical drugs, finalizing his masterpiece, POS51, 51 times stronger than cocaine, and 51 times more hallucinogenic than acid, 51 times better feeling than e.

            The one problem is, Elmo doesn’t like the Lizard, or the way he pays. He’s selling out to the british. Enter Felix De Silva (Robert Carlyle, Trainspotting). He’s a middle level enforcer. After a major his nails everyone but MacElroy and De Silva, they’re off on a buddy comedy adventure full of violence, gun-play, drugs and yelling.

            These 2 volatile stars make for some great on screen romance. Compared to other performances, Jackson feels somewhat flat, but he still dazzles in many of his lighter moments.

            Carlyle as well brings the british culture out very richly and stands his ground without getting dominated by the huge talent and domineering persona of Jackson. The Balance is restored in their buddyship. The twists and turns in the plot are pretty weak, but it’s still quite entertaining and well approached. 2.

Logan's Run

             Michael York stars as the title character in this ground breaking sci-fi underground hit. Logan is a sandman in the City. People have lived in the City, a domed wonderland, for over 2000 years, not knowing anything of the outside. All people are born with ID crystals which tell their age. Everyone in this wonederland pursues hedonistic pleasure until age 30, when they are summarily executed for the purpose of “rebirth” by the fantastical ceremony known only as “Carousel”.

            Sandmen are feared and honored, for it is their job to stop anyone who doesn’t participate in Carousel. They Terminate Runners. Logan is great at his job, and loves the pleasure lifestyle, and he’s only 26. But, when he destroys a runner and finds an ancient symbol on his body, the central computer hatches a plan to locate all the unaccounted Runners. Logan will be aged, and made to appear as a runner. His purpose is to infiltrate the little known underground, named “Sanctuary”. Sanctuary is believed to have harbored and exported over 1000 runners.

            Logan, as well as a girl he falls in love with, is about to make a daring escape, and seek to go all the way to the outside. In very symbolic cinematography and an intricate world, this movie is really quite a lot of fun to see. It is also groundbreaking in it’s effects, being the first film to use “Laser Holography” later made popular in the Star Wars Series.

            While it isn’t much to look at, the movie is definitely worth watching, and has a lot of cool ideas about what true freedom is, and what it means to be human, and what an American is. And it’s got that idealistic feel to it, very THX-1138 in it’s outcome. A 2.

Amistad

             This was Steven Spielberg’s (Raiders of the Lost Ark) first film with the newly formed Dreamworks SKG company, and man, did it sizzle. This is a great film chronicling much of the darker part of U.S. History. A ship of slaves is headed for the new world when it’s cargo breaks free and kills it’s captors, save for the owner, and they attempt to sail back to Africa, but are seized and taken to the U.S.

            There is a very confusing and interesting trial that takes place. Mr. Collins (Matthew Maconaghay, A Time to Kill) plays a young property lawyer who takes the case, on behalf of the Abolitionist movement. Through many trials and tribulations, and much development, including the retelling of how the slaves were captured in Africa in the first place, they eventually are set free. However, seeking to be re-elected, President Martin Van Buren decides to retry the case at the supreme court level.

            Throughout the movie, the differences in culture and language of the villagers and the Americans are remarkably well done. The whole scene is powerfully captured, and te courtroom and other performances are masterful. The final speech by John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs) is stunning.

            The cinematography is typically spielbergian, and the whole movie portrays the deep sense of sorrow that we as Americans ought to have for our countries history. The true sense of our freedom is what we fail to grasp, and what these Africans so keenly and desperately wanted. An easy 2.

Conspiracy

            This was a supreme triumph in my opinion, and was shockingly good for a direct to private cable release. This HBO film was really quite good, with superior acting from a razor sharp cast including Stanley Tucci and the world famous Kenneth Brannagh. This film follows a detailed account of the meeting in the winter of 1942 which revealed the Final Solution to the mid-level officers of the SS and the German Armed Forces, as well as the various Ministry heads. The meeting itself was spearheaded by Heydrich Himler (Brannagh) who later become the Butcher of Prague, while the details themselves were plotted out by his lieutenant Adolf Eichmann (Tucci), and together these men are two of the most infamous nazis in the history of genocide.

            The whole idea, of making the movie about a two hour meeting is ingenious, and pulled off in fantastic style. The portrayal of Himler was especially good, and the overall spirit and demeanor of the film which is set by the low key Eichmann is maintained by the entire cast, creating one of the most lucid and soul-eating portrayals of the Socialist Regime and their Anti-Semitic lifestyles.

            The very way they speak of Hitler and exalt him establishes the base for their actions, and the 15 participants struggle over the final solution, which Heydrich already has completely mapped out and under construction, and as he repeats frequently, his goal is unanimity, which he seeks to attain by any means.

            He is portrayed as a master of personal communication, and a strong armed and soulless killer. But yet, a german gentleman to the end. An ensemble cast plays off of his self-confident direction of the meeting with perfect timing and inclination.

            I was actually captivated at the discussion of the Jewish Problem, and the true to life dialogue regarding their Evacuation (Extermination) as opposed to their Sterilization.

The lengths the germans of varying mentalities would go to justify the mass murder, and the brainwashed language which flowed so easily forth from their lips. The most surprising part was in the epilogue, when the fates of the men involved revealed that almost two-thirds of them got away with it and went on to live lives of all different sort. Only 4 of the men were executed. This is another powerful corner to the image of the Holocaust that is slowly being painted in my mind as I begin to again watch films regarding it. A definite 2 with desire to learn more.