Faster

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Gugino and Oliver Jackson-Cohen

Genre: Drama, Crime, Action

Director: George Tillman

Rated: R

A convict fresh out of prison systematically hunts down the crew that killed his brother one by one, While being pursued by a hit man and a burnt out junkie police officer.

Faster was supposed to be this year’s Thanksgiving offering for the young male movie going demographic. Dwayne Johnson has finally dropped his “The Rock” Moniker as well as the recent string of unwatchable children’s films. Faster is marketed as that Action movie audiences were clamoring Dwayne to release. I will cut to the chase faster is not that movie. Faster is a movie that aside from the title character being called driver, Billy Bob Thornton’s character being Called “Cop” and Oliver Jackson-Cohen’ character called “Killer “ (replete with on screen graphics, in case the names were to challenging to remember) Takes itself way to seriously and can only be considered an Action film in the loosest sense of the term.

There is very little fun had in Faster. What you get is Dwayne Johnson, (who’s character is so dialogue free that he probably didn’t even get a script) going from one victim to the next putting a bullet in their head.

While all of this is going on “Killer” an utterly useless character that neither improves nor progresses the story tackles a completely unnecessary marriage subplot that goes nowhere. From pictures the audience can assume that his legs didn’t work as a child and he overcame his disability  to become an internet millionaire with extreme hobbies and now for no tangible reason has become a hired killer. He talks to his shrink on the phone; he can’t find happiness and longs for respect from “Driver”. The entire character of Killer was strictly utilized to stretch out a slowly paced film to reach its hour and a half running time.

Thornton as “Cop” is trying to hunt down “Driver” before he completes his vendetta list.  Cop is a drug addled, burn out of a police detective about to hit retirement looking to secure his pension and have time to get his life back in order. Billy Bob looks every bit the scraggly junkie and does the bare minimum to carry his part of the film.

The biggest hindrance to Faster is the plodding pace of the film and being sold as an action piece. Faster really only has a few scenes with anything that resembles action,  a couple of shootouts a knife fight and a car chase, all told the action is about fifteen minutes. The film is more about doing something good with your life and redemption rather than the action fest the title and marketing campaign would have you believe. Yes there is Dwayne Johnson and a rumbling Chevelle SS but there is nothing fast in this movie let alone anything faster. Faster is more a morality tale that happens to include a car and a gun. Given a different title and sold to audiences differently faster wouldn’t be that bad of a movie in its current state it’s a straight to DVD title that fails to realize its potential.

Grade-71

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes
Director: David Yates
Rated: PG-13

Harry and Friends are hunting for the magical horcruxes to stop Voldemort, while trying to evade capture, along the way they learn about the “Deathly Hallows” the most powerful wizarding objects in existence.

The Deathly Hallows is the final chapter in the Harry Potter saga, being such a bankable franchise Warner Bros decided that this tale needed to be broken into two parts. With Part 2 being released the Summer of 2011.
Part one is merely an appetizer wetting the appetite for the legion of rabid Potter fans. If the goal was to get audiences in the seats and guarantee even more will want to see the finale next year then Warner Bros has marvelously succeeded. If the goal was to create an entertaining film that can stand on its own against the others in the series, then not so much.

Deathly Hallows starts out strong with Voldemort sending the troops out to destroy Potter but shortly the entire tone of the film switches when Hermione transports Potter and Weasley to the countryside she remembers as a child. At this point the film completely slows down and we are thrust into what feels like something from the “Twilight” franchise, you half expect Harryr to grow fangs and Ron to turn into a Werewolf. The entire middle section of the film is painful to watch, I understand they are growing up and are experiencing more adult emotions but to be in the woods for an hour with a love triangle plot is hard to sit through and felt overly extended.

Thankfully when we finally learn about the “Deathly Hallows” we are given an excellent animation sequence which is a true Highlight. There is more action, drama and intrigue during this sequence than during the rest of the film. The ending is abrupt as one would expect given the story is split in two, some might find it awkward but it does peak your interest for the next installment, although part 1 is a bit of a disappointment it does set up part 2 surprisingly well. The fact that most of the movie takes place in the countryside only leaves the viewer longing for the next installments triumphant return to Hogwarts

Grade-73

Smoke

I am personally a big fan of short films as a medium, they are typically highly stylized with a unique vision and you don’t have to invest hours of your time, The major drawback is that most shorts are shot on a shoestring budget, if any budget at all. A lack of funds tends to typically give them a less that professional look. However occasionally someone puts the time and effort into their project to give there film, the look of a professional cinematographer. Smoke is a fine example of the latter, while short on dialogue (in the sense that there isn’t any) it quickly makes up for it in visuals. Much like a great song, Smoke is the type of film that puts the images on the screen and leaves it up to the viewer to interpret their own meaning. Well shot and visually appealing Smoke is like an appetizer while you wait for the Long form from newcomer Grzegorz Cisiecki.

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127 Hours

Starring: James Franco, Amber Tamlyn, Treat Williams, Kate Mara

Director: Danny Boyle

Rated: R

The True Story of Aron Ralston who while traversing a canyon gets trapped by a boulder and must do everything possible to Survive.

Aron Ralston (James Franco) has a love for the outdoors he travels by himself to Utah to mountain bike and climb the canyon walls. While traversing down a canyon, a boulder comes loose and lodges his hand between the boulder and the canyon wall, leaving little in the way of opportunities for him to escape.

Danny Boyle proving that he is one of the most intelligent and interesting directors of our time expertly contrasts the seclusion and claustrophobia of the canyon floor with the desolate and baron outer expanses of the Utah countryside. The combination of being completely trapped with limited mobility yet at the same time being in this expansive and open environment creates an extremely tense juxtaposition.

Ultimately what we have is an hour and a half of James Franco slowly dehydrating to the point where he fades in an out of consciousness while his body starts to shut down.

For a movie like this to succeed nothing short of an exceptional performance will do, without an emotional connection to Aron 127 hours would be just a guy trapped in a canyon. Franco far surpassed my expectations and delivers the most powerful and moving character put to screen all year. While Aron Documents his situation with his video camera, basically recording a living will, we are given insight into his behavior and regrets. During these moments is when we really connect to Aaron, you realize that he isn’t that much different than you or I and he just found himself in a horrible situation and is trying to make the best of it without giving up. A lesser person might have utilized the rope and hung himself to end the suffering; Aron chose to go a different route. He utilizes all his resourcefulness to find a way out and continue fighting even when he thought he was done for.

In the span of an hour and a half you are taken on an emotional journey that tests the human spirit. Franco delivers an Academy Award winning performance, more impressive given the limited setting and lack of actors to work off of. You truly become emotionally invested in Aron you feel every ounce of pain he feels, you begin to feel thirsty yourself as you see the water bottle slowly empty. As his energy reserves fall and his eyes become more sallow you realize that not only has Franco captured the essence of the character but he has captured the audience as well.

Anyone familiar with the story knows the ending and while it is graphic, what resonates the most is the sounds. It’s not so much what you see but what you hear that is disturbing. 127 hours is an excellent film with its own unique visual style and a story that is both inspiring and entertaining.

Grade-97

30 Days of Night was scooped up in a wave of comic book-to-film adaptations. It told the story of the small town of Barrow, Alaska, and the group of vampires that attacked it when the sun set for an entire month. It wasn’t a fantastic film, but it had its merits. It was one last hurrah for terrifying, demon-like blood suckers before Twilight took over, forever damaging the vampire’s reputation. Now more than ever we need a vampire film done right, and while 30 Days of Night: Dark Days makes good on that front, it’s pretty much a bust in every other aspect.

Dark Days begins a year after the original, with Barrow survivor Stella (now played by Kiele Sanchez) traveling the world, preaching the existence of vampires. Not surprisingly, few listen with a serious ear. Her lecture circuit is cut short, however, when she meets up with a group of fellow survivors. It’s through them that she learns of Lilith, the vampire queen who was behind the attack on Barrow. She joins the group in an attempt to take Lilith down.

What follows is very, very different than its predecessor. The original was very much a horror movie, with some of the scariest creatures to grace the silver screen in a long time. Dark Days feels much more like Blade, with the team bringing the war to the vampires. It’s a natural evolution for the story, but that doesn’t do it any favors. While the Blade films may be far from cinematic greatness, Blade was a character you could believe in and really get behind. This ragtag group of slayers feels a might too silly and forced, especially the youngest girl in the group, who seems more like a girl scout than Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This also hurts the vampires themselves. They still look pretty much the same as before, but now they’re the victims, which takes away a lot of the terror.

Then there’s the probably with Stella, who’s somewhat inconsistent of a character. She starts out the rough, stoic action hero, and by the end of the movie she’s in tears. Of course, it could be intentional, her getting in over her head and becoming overwhelmed, but it just makes it even harder to support her character.

Like the vampires themselves, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days has no soul. The original 30 Days of Night felt like a complete story, and while the comic has numerous sequels, it doesn’t feel right for the films to keep up, especially when you have to do so with cast changes and a lower budget. It’s not scary, it’s not cool, it’s not worth your time.

“Dylan Duarte is a horror buff and writer who writes about Halloween costumes for StarCostumes.com.“

Due Date
Starring: Robert Downey JR and Zach Galifianakis
Genre: Comedy
Director: Todd Philips
Rated: R

When two strangers unwittingly get thrown off their airplane to LA, due to a misunderstanding that lands them on a no fly list. They must travel together to Los Angeles, one for the birth of his child the other to reach Hollywood to make it as an actor.
Peter Highman (Robert Downey JR) is a bit high strung with some rage issues he just wants to get to LA in time for the birth of his first child, however socially awkward yet kind hearted Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakas) keeps screwing everything up despite his best of intentions. If this sounds familiar it’s because you probably saw something very similar, aside from some very slight plot deviations this is the same story as the Thanksgiving Classic “Plains, Trains and Automobiles” complete with car accident.
The comparison is so obvious you would think that John Hughes estate should be able to cash a nice royalty check for creating the premise the film was based on.
Todd Philips (Last year’s Comedy smash the Hangover, Old School) goes back to his roots directing his first road comedy since 2000’s Road Trip. Highman initially blames Tremblay for almost every problem and rightfully so as Tremblay causes problem after problem without even realizing it. Slowly through all the ups and downs Highman gets to know Tremblay as a person and realizes he is a nice guy who is dealing with extreme sadness over the passing of his father. Throughout the movie Tremblay walks around with Sunny his French Bulldog. While I love the one gag he is used for I felt I saw the same gag with Galifianakis with the baby in the Hangover thus rendering “Sunny” completely useless aside from being cute.
The major disappointment has to rest solely on the back of Warner Bros marketing department, they have created so many different trailers that reveal so many gags that when you see them again, they lack the punch they would have delivered if seen fresh. Jaime Fox is in the movie for ten minutes and both comedic highlights involving him (the drainage ditch, and the coffee) I had seen a million times. It would have been a nice surprise to not know he was even in the movie there is no need to spoon feed every aspect of the movie to me before its release. It seemed everyday a new and longer promo was cut that revealed more of the movie than the last.
Ultimately Due date is a bit uneven with only a few scenes that were laugh out loud funny. Between a plot you have seen a million times and WB giving everything away in the promos, you get less than what you expect. It doesn’t quite deliver enough on Laughs or tug on your heartstrings to pull out any real emotion. While being enjoyable it leaves the viewer a bit disappointed.
Grade-73