Prisoners

First Hit:  Intense, beautifully shot, and engaged acting.

The opening scenes show a darkened winter climate, truck in the driveway, one family walking over to another family’s home for holiday cheer.

The Dover family’s patriarch Keller (Hugh Jackman) is somewhat of a survivalist, intense, appearing to have a quick angry trigger. However it is apparent he loves his family – deeply.

The Birch family’s patriarch Franklin (Terrence Howard) is mellow and somewhat thoughtful. Their wives are different as well. Grace Dover (Maria Bello) seems to be on the edge of falling apart while Nancy Birch (Viola Davis) appears to have more of hardened and strong background. Their daughters all of a sudden go missing.

Police Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is assigned to the case and he’s got a 100% crime solving record. He is methodical and follows his own path despite questioned interference from his boss Captain O’Mally (Wayne Duvall). The initial suspect Alex Jones (Paul Dano) is a grownup with a 6 year olds understanding of things. Loki doesn’t think Alex knows, or can articulate, enough about the missing girls to be really helpful. Keller thinks differently and imprisons Alex so that he can torture him to give up information about the missing daughters.

This film is hard to watch at times because the torture scenes are graphically displayed. The ending wasn’t suspected, but the pieces do come together and while walking out, I felt I’d been through a wringer.

Jackman was intensely focused and fully engaged his role. Howard was great as a man who was being led to do things he felt wrong. Bello showed a perfect weakness in her character, which isn’t her normal role. Davis was solid and showed a subtle rage against Dano’s character which was perfect. Gyllenhaal was sublime as the intense loner detective who prides himself on getting the answer right. Dano was beyond amazing. He embodied the character all the way and his eyes told the whole story. Melissa Leo was fantastic as Jones’ aunt and matriarch of a sick family life. Aaron Guzikowski wrote a powerful interesting script. Denis Villeneuve did an outstanding job of directing this deep dark script with both light and dark muted scenes.

Overall:  This was a very good and disturbing film.

White House Down

First Hit:  A very entertaining action film that touches on our political subjects in a sometimes humorous way.

I’ll be open in saying; I didn’t have much hope for this film because it arrived in the theaters so shortly after another recent White House takeover film previewed.

However, this film is heads and tails above the other one. Black President Sawyer (played Jamie Foxx) has a quirky way of arriving to the White House when coming home by helicopter; he requests that the crew do a fly-by of the Lincoln Memorial. This is something that could be congruent with President Obama because of the association of Lincoln and slavery but highly unlikely.

This is why this film is interesting. It gives us a view of our President that makes him human. Cale (played by Channing Tatum) is a member of the Speaker of the House’ security crew, is divorced, doesn’t spend enough time with his daughter Emily (played by Joey King) and wants to get his life together by becoming part of the Presidential Secret Service.

The President is not liked by the head of the Secret Service as well as multiple Republican leaders in the Senate and House. Overall, the film is somewhat suspenseful, except there are clues early in the first few moments of the film telling the audience who the two main opponents to the President are. One specific scene told me exactly who was spearheading the take-over of the White House and to me it wasn't subtle enough.

This film, explores in different ways, the control of the government by special interest groups (arms makers), race perceptions (black President), party differences (Democrats and Republicans), gun use and laws surrounding gun use, computer sabotage, and our governments’ chain of command.

The essence of this film is, through motive of revenge, certain government officials want President Sawyer out of office so that his call for getting out of the Middle East can be reversed.

Foxx is really very good and funny, at times, and I just loved the line, “let go of my Jordan’s”. Tatum is very good as the guy who has been lost but is doing what he can to make it all right. King is sublime. She is amazing as the President admiring daughter of Tatums'. Maggie Gyllenhaal is very good as the number 2 person in the Secret Service. James Woods brings the right amount of intensity and strictness of belief to his role as head of the Secret Service. Richard Jenkins is effective as Speaker of the House Raphelson. James Vanderbilt wrote a strong, funny, and politically astute screenplay. Roland Emmerich did a very good job of making this unrealistic scenario fun, topical, and interesting.

Overall: This film is worth the price of admission on multiple levels.

A Hijacking

First Hit:  A serious and interesting film about what a high-seas hijacking might entail.

My curiosity about how Somali pirates get on-board the huge freighters to hijack them, made me want to see this film.

It starts by showing Peter Ludvigsen (Soren Malling), the CEO of a shipping company, negotiating a deal with a Japanese group. He’s matter of fact, unemotional, and clear about his objective.

The other part of the story is about Mikkel Hartman (Pilou Asbaek) a cook on the ship that gets hijacked. The third main character is the Somali pirate’s negotiator Omar (Abdihakin Asgar) who wants to make sure that he is not classed with the pirates, but hired to negotiate a settlement because he speaks multiple languages. Mikkel is highly attached to his wife and child who are awaiting him to return home.

When the boat he’s on is hijacked, Peter insists on negotiating the release of both the boat and the crew. Omar suggests that the initial price asked by the pirates is $15M US. Peter’s counter offer is $250K. Omar uses Mikkel as a pawn to drive emotion into his bosses' negotiation tactics. 

The distance between the two sides makes for a long protracted negotiation and as one of Peter’s consultants tells him, time is a western concept and means nothing to the pirates. Meanwhile the during the 4 month negotiation process the film goes back and forth between Peter at corporate HQ and Mikkel, the ship, and its crew in the middle of the ocean.

Asbaek is very good as the sensitive cook who misses his wife and child. At one point he gets very angry and slams his fist on the table, but the rest of the time, he is a quiet force. Malling is excellent as the supposed heartless negotiator. He’s anything but heartless and knows how to put on the face and mental attitude to make his negotiations work. He does everything he can to hold the line required to make it work. Asgar is very good as the Somali pirate negotiator. Tobias Lindholm wrote and directed this film and made it really work.

Overall:  Although I didn’t learn how the pirates get on these huge freighters from their small boats, I did feel as though I learned how this process works.

Now You See Me

First Hit:  I like magic and therefore I was interested and entertained during this film.

However from a plot point of view it was confusing and didn’t necessarily hold together. In the opening scenes we see four magicians performing their particular types of magic. J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) doing street magic that is grand in its own right.

Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) does mindreading and hypnosis in small venues to make a living after his bother stole all his money. Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) use to be Atlas’ assistant but does her own dramatic magic in small showrooms. Lastly there is Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) who is mostly a con-artist with deft hands and the ability to be clever.

They are corralled together by an unknown guide and a year later is performing major stage magic in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas. They identify Author Tressler (Michael Caine) as their financial benefactor to the audience.

Also the audience is introduced  to Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) in this “First Act” show as someone who makes a living debunking Magic by sharing magician's tricks on his website. In the first act the 4 Horsemen, as they’re called, are to have someone from the audience come up to the stage and rob a bank in France and give the proceeds to the audience.

This is the films setup because the magicians are brought into the FBI for questioning and here they meet Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) who is heading the US investigation of the robbery while his Interpol counterpart is Alma Dray (Melanie Laurant). As each of the three 4 Horsemen acts unfold, the story gets more convoluted. This is the problem with this film, it just doesn’t provide enough sustenance and bread crumbs to make it work.

Eisenberg is intense as usual and although he’s good for the part, he’s become more of a one trick pony. Harrelson, as he’s done in the last few years, takes each of his characters and makes them interesting and compelling. Fisher is good enough but I would have seen more grit (street smarts) from her to beef up her part. Franco is OK as the most minor of the four characters but reappears at the end as a critical component. Caine is good as the hard, steely eyed, guy who gets taken for a ride. Freeman is strong as the guy who gets his in the end. Ruffalo is OK, however didn’t seem very believable as a FBI investigator. Laurant is OK but I’m not quite sure this character was needed. Ed Solomon and Boaz Yakin wrote the convoluted story with big ideas. Louis Leterrier directed the film, and it seems, with a certain respect for magic.

Overall: I found the film entertaining and that could be that is because I like the illusion of magic.

Fast & Furious 6

First Hit:  It was fun however so many of the stunts were so far fetched that it made it unbelievable.

This is one film in a series of films that highlight fast cars, car chases and some sort of crime.

We begin with everyone who participated in the previous film having some portion of $100,000,000 on which they are living the good life. However they cannot return to the United States because they are wanted for robbery. Also in the last film, Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) lost his love Letty (played by Michelle Rodriguez) in a fiery explosion.

A government investigator Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is trying to track down an infiltrator named Shaw (Luke Evans) who is stealing items to make some unimaginable weapon (none of this is really clear because the film is more about the chases). Shaw needs only one more item and Hobbs is worried that he'll get it, so he makes a deal with Dom and his Fast & Furious warriors to stop Shaw.

The deal is that they will get absolute pardons for their previous crimes. But this isn’t the reason why they say yes, they say yes because they learn Letty is still alive and under Shaw's control. Tricks like jumping off a car, catching someone in mid-air and then landing on the windshield of another car moving the opposite way and not getting hurt? Right.... Or maybe it was the plane moving quickly down a runway that must have been 5 or more miles long before the plane even got 30 feed off the ground. Just isn't real - there is no such runway. Or maybe it was jumping from a plane and landing in/on a car some 30 feet below. Nope, not lined up like they were - just isn’t real.

I enjoyed the car chases and driving but that was it. “More” and “bigger” is not necessarily better.

Diesel is OK and I felt that the edge is gone and his ability to be believable has been diminished. Paul Walker as Brian is stronger here than he was in the previous films. Johnson was adequate as the government agent. Jordana Brewster as Mia (Brian’s wife) is good in a minor role. Rodriguez is OK but her interpretation of having no memory didn’t work for me. Tyrese Gibson as Roman was funny and enjoyable to watch. Sung Kang and Gal Gadot as Han and Gisele were good but didn't have enough screen time. Ludacris as Taj was funny as well and I liked the way he and Gibson played off each other. Chris Morgan wrote the screenplay and pushed it farther than needed. Justin Lin kept the film moving but some of the stunts were too unbelievable to buy in to.

Overall:  Action was fun, cars were great, but some of the stunts made it unbelievable and therefore I lost interest.