2 Guns

First Hit:  From a tongue-in-cheek point of view, watching Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg work together was really fun.

The problem with this film is the script. There are just a few to many twists and turns to make this really hold together well.

However, the interaction between the two actors was wonderful. It seemed as though they probably had a gas working together. They were great in their characters as unidentified agents of the government.

Trench (Washington) is an undercover DEA agent who is attempting to set-up the arrest of Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos) a major cocaine dealer. Stigman (Wahlberg) is with a Navy investigative unit that is trying to recover money that was taken from a crime.

Together they decide to rob a bank for different unspoken reasons. What they end up doing is stealing a bank full of money put there by the CIA. Now the CIA area agent headed by Earl (Bill Paxton) who is a cruel man prone to using Russian roulette as a way to get people to talk. One of the lures to draw Trench deeper into the fray was his part-time lover Deb (Paula Patton).

So what the film tries to sort out is why the Navy, CIA, DEA and a drug cartel are fighting about $43.125 million dollars and how a friendship grew.

Washington is his usual strong centered intelligent character. Wahlberg is goofy bold in his approach to life and the mission. Paxton is excellent as the thuggish CIA lead. Olmos did a very good job of being the drug kingpin who needed to be taken down a notch. Patton was OK in her minor and pivotal role. Blake Masters wrote the convoluted screen play with enough comedy to redeem his effort. Baltasar Kormakur directed this team of top-notch actors and made it hold together by expanding the personality of the characters and using his actors well.

Overall:  This was an amusing film but any other two actors in the lead and this film fails.

Disconnect

First Hit:  A very good, interesting, powerful film about how our digital connections, and how we use them, can damage our lives.

This is a film about three stories: A son attempting suicide because of a picture of him nude was posted on the internet. Another about young kids who’ve runaway from home and make a living selling themselves for private sex over the internet. And, finally a couple whose personal tragedy grew to include identification theft, but this difficulty helped them grow closer together.

Each of these stories was based in today’s reality. The point of these stories was how technology creates new ways for us to communicate and do it poorly.

Rich and Lydia Boyd (Jason Bateman and Hope Davis respectively) have a daughter Abby (Haley Ramm) who is popular at school while her brother Ben (Jonah Bobo) is a loner who loves music and keeps to himself both at school and at home. Two boys, using technology, decide to harass Ben. They make up a girl that likes him and encourage him to do something stupid. A television interviewer wants to expose young kids selling sex over the internet. By getting more involved creates complications for both the person she’s trying to help and herself.

Derek and Cindy Hull (Alexander Skarsgard and Paula Patton respectively) have just lost a young son and turn to internet activities to soothe their pain, her a chat room, him online gambling. Their identity gets stolen and now they are losing everything except themselves. T

wo of the three stories are interwoven with Mike Dixon (Frank Grillo) who is a former cop who has turned to internet sleuthing and remedy.

Bateman is great as a father who loves his son but has gotten so involved with work; he lost his family connection and tries to get it back. Davis is strong as the mom who is trying to get her husband to pay attention to the family. Ramm is good as Ben’s sister, a brother she loves but is also embarrassed by his awkwardness. Bobo is fantastic as the boy who is so scared of showing up and lives within the world of his music. Skarsgard is really good as the father who has lost a child and doesn’t know how to reach out to his hurting wife. Patton is fantastic as the hurting mother who is looking for a way to find emotional relief. Grillo is very good as the single parent trying to do right by his son. Colin Ford as Grillo’s son did a superb job of showing his angst, sorrow and fear for his actions. Andrea Riseborough was really good as the reporter knowing she wanted to help but also wanting a story. Max Thieriot was fabulous as the young kid just finding his own way. Andrew Stern wrote an outstanding script. Henry Alex Rubin directed this three story film with precision and wonder.

Overall:  This was a really good film and deserves to be seen by a lot of people who don’t get how technology has changed our lives.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

First Hit: Whatever one might say about Tom Cruise or this franchise of films, this film was entertaining.

Improbable would be a word that would fit but so would entertaining.

Despite all the odd dialogue and character development, this film is entertaining. OK, enough already about how entertaining it was.

This highly improbable story comes together because the actors make it work. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is one of the government’s leading IMS agents. He commands the storyline and the sequences as a lead agent needs to.

William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) is the “Analyst” who has a story to tell. Benji Dunn (played by Simon Pegg) is the techno-nerd of the group. The last member of this team is Jane Carter (played by Paula Patton) is the other hands-on physically skilled team member.

The story is simple, someone wants to start a nuclear war between the Russians and Americans. The protagonist Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) is a brilliant but slightly insane man who wants to be seen and counted on the world stage. Therefore he obtains the launch codes to Russian missiles and proceeds to make it the launching of a missile a retaliatory event.

This film is filled with great chase scenes and my favorite was the multi-story parking garage. This story also features the tallest building in the world and some of the shots brought up my, once thought gone, fear of heights feelings.

Cruise, despite what one thinks of him, has the ability to charm with good looks and be part of a chase scene and make it work well. Renner gives a strong performance as the Analyst with a story to hide. He's great in this role and provides added intelligence. Pegg is perfect as the odd-ball side kick with blather and brains. Patton is very good as a skilled fighter and her looks, as her character is required to be, fit the part well. Nyqvist is good as the steely man who wants to be seen. I liked Lea Seydoux as Sabine the assassin. Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec did a great job of coming up with a story line that works and is entertaining. Brad Bird did an excellent job of keeping the film, light, active, engaging, and without waste.

Overall: I enjoyed this 4th film in this franchise and would watch a fifth.

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

First Hit: A powerful film about a young woman finding both hope and her path after growing up in abuse.

Gabourey Sidibe embodies Precious a teenage girl finding a way out of a life of physical and emotional abuse.

Precious’ mother is powerfully played by Mo’Nique who allowed her daughter to be sexually abused by her boyfriend and Precious' father. These are just two of many engaging performances in this film.

The relationship between these two as mother and daughter is extraordinary in its exposing how twisted and embattled a parental child relationship can get. To escape, Precious fantasizes about being a famous star, about being married to her teacher, and about having a different life which are interludes in the film.

The director Lee Daniels chose to represent these fantasies as realistic scene segues which didn’t quite work for me. I thought they took away from the film. As Precious finds her own strength and voice by going to an alternative school class taught by Ms. Rain (played by Paula Patton), she begins to learn how to read and write her story as a way of seeing, processing and dealing with her life of abuse.

The scenes of her classmates surrounding her and supporting her after she delivers her second baby (her father is the daddy of both children) was a true measure of how these teens still have the ability to lift themselves out of horrible situations when they are given respect, attention and seen as people with honor.

Lastly, I’d like to say that Mariah Carey as the social worker was a great casting selection. Her performance was spot on. Towards the end of the film when she, Precious and Mary sit together one last time, the dialog and performances were breathtaking.

Daniels did an incredible job directing this film although I wasn’t a fan of the fantasies. Sidibe was hauntingly wonderful as Precious. Mo’Nique was beyond amazing as Mary and her monologue when she explains why she allowed the abuse to go on in the interview with Carey was without hesitation the most powerful scene on film this year. Patton was strong and a ray of light in this very dark film.

Overall: Astonishing piece of work with no punches pulled.