NO GOOD DEED

(2014) 84 Minutes, Rated PG-13

A.C.’s Review:  This fall 2014 movie is the latest in the "Home Invasion" genre starring Idris Elba and Taraj Henson  In the movie Elba is a charismatic convict who violently escapes from his prison transport and takes refuge in the home of stay at home mom Henson a mother to a young daughter and an infant.
 
This movie works due to watching Elba in action. At first at his parole hearing before his escape you aren't sure whether he is guilty of the disappearance of five women who were never seen again. However once he escapes and in the process  shooting a sympathetic guard we have little doubt how ruthless he is. The beauty is in watching how he manipulates Henson into letting him into her home and how he plays her completely until he ultimately reveals himself.
 
This was a good thriller and the leads were excellent. Also a favorite actress of mine turns up in the supporting role of Henson's best friend...Leslie Bibb from the 1990's show POPUALR. Even though she practically has future murder victim stamped on her forehead its always good to see her on screen..
 
The movie also ends with an unexpected twist I did not see coming so that's a bonus.
 
Best Scene: In a very tense scene the pair is stopped by a police officer and Henson has a chance to escape but unknown to the cop Elba is threating to harm her children in the car if she gives him away.
 
A.C.'s Rating: Full Price

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES

(2014) 114 Minutes, Rated R

Bean's Review: Although a bit slow moving, an interesting story as it is based on the Lawrence Block series of books featuring the pseudo private investigator, Matthew Scudder, a recovering alcoholic and ex-policeman.  I have read most of Lawrence Block’s books and enjoyed them, so was pleasantly surprised at the theater that the movie was based on one of Block’s books.

Liam Neeson was a good choice for the role of Scudder, however this role was not much of a reach for Neeson, as he tends to play this type of character in most of his movies.

  

The introduction of the young boy, TJ, played by Brian Bradley, helped bring some levity to a very creepy storyline in which the kidnappers/serial killers were particularly gruesome – along the lines of the serial killer in Silence of the Lambs (not Hannibal).  

The characters were well developed, as would be expected, if you were reading the book.  I liked the development of Boyd Holbrook’s character in the story, as well.

This movie was not “action packed” as so many recent movies, but the acting and story kept your interest, as a majority of the action packed movies tend to have a thin plot and poor acting.

Best scene:  when the one serial killer was eating cereal in the kitchen just after he killed his killer colleague

Bean’s rating:  Matinee-would watch again

Mike's Review:   This movie was not what I expected.  I thought it would be more along the lines of a hit man for hire type of movie.  Overall I wasn't to impressed the story was boring and the movie crawled.  There was just enough action to keep me entertained but it could have had a few more twists to the plot or some scenes cut to shorten the movie. 

Best Scene: The last fight scene in the basement.  

Mike's Rating: Matinee

A.C.'s Review: In the past year Liam Neeson has played a heroic if flawed Air Marshall (NON-STOP), an evil gunslinger (A MILLIONS WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST) and now a gritty “unlicensed” detective working in the shadowy and a bit sinister corners of 1990’s New York City.

Called upon by a local drug trafficker ex-cop Scudder must find the men who kidnapped and brutally killed the dealer’s wife and race against time to stop the serial killers who are basically using the kidnappings/ransoms as window dressing to perpetrate their violence against women. These men are so deadly that a man who doesn’t even know their full identities kills himself rather than possibly face them for giving information to Scudder.

Crime thrillers are not my usual viewing choices but this one works for several reasons. True we’ve seen the anti-hero washed up ex-cop in many movies before this but Neeson seems at home in this role. Also a nice subplot is Scudder befriending and ultimately making a difference in the life of a homeless teen who after meeting Scudder wants to become a private eye and by the end of the movie is somewhat of a sidekick with Scudder as his mentor/father figure.

Dan Stevens fresh from walking away from hit TV show DOWNTOWN ABBEY as the drug trafficker takes on a role vastly different from his role as early 20^th century  heir to an English manor. Stevens is also headlining THE GUEST which I haven’t seen. It will be interesting to see if these movie roles will continue or if he will suffer the same fate as David Caruso who left a hit show for a promised movie career only to have to eventually return to TV in CSI Miami. I wish him well. The other roles in the movie such as the teen sidekick and various suspects all are played well.

Also working in the favor of the movie is it’s very atmospheric…a sense of impending dread and doom seems to saturate the movie. The time frame adds to the movie set in the shadow of the millennium and the prophesied Y2K that never materialized plays nicely with some in-jokes. As someone who use to use microfilm to look up stuff I appreciated Scudder’s reluctance to embrace the still new concept of the internet.

Another good thing liked that the movie did not try and shoehorn in a love story for Scudder. Not every movie needs to have one and this one did just fine without it.

The only misfire is what appears to be some sort of truncated subplot where a whole band of DEA agents appear for one scene and one scene only and are never heard from again. Their inclusion made no real sense or effect on the plot.

One final note…since the movie was set in NYC in 1999 I kept waiting for an appearance of the Twin Towers. I was rewarded in the final shot of the film when they appeared on screen just before the fade to black.

Best Scene: There is a sequence on the roof (whose outcome was spoiled in the trailers) where Scudder confronts a suspect that was very suspenseful and well done.

A.C.'s Rating:  Full Price

THE MAZE RUNNER

(2014) 113 Minutes, Rated PG-13

A.C.’s Review:  This movie is another attempt to launch a YA (Young Adult) franchise.  The past two years are littered with the corpses of would be franchise such as CITY OF BONES and THE HOST to name a few. Everyone is shooting to have their own version of THE HUNGER GAMES. Well, THE MAZE RUNNER managed to pull itself off as basically a male version of said HUNGER GAMES.

 
The long and short of it is Thomas wakes up with no memory in "The Glade" which is the center of a huge maze like structure from which there is no escape...especially since the inside of the  maze contains creatures known as "Grievers" who are like a hybrid of a giant spider and mechanical limbs. Thomas is told no one has ever survived a night in the  maze.
 
Being the typical protagonist that he is Thomas quickly brings chaos to the glade as he attempts to find his way out despite opposition from a rival who does not want to shake up the status quo that has led to the band of about 30 teen boys surviving in the glade for three years. Thomas of course will not be dissuaded.
 
The strength of the movie lies in the overall mystery of who put the group in the maze and why. Sadly the mystery is better than the revelation because when all is made clear not everything makes a lot of sense and suffers from the fact that things are left hanging for the sequel...which has just been announced as the movie conquered the box office on its first weekend. Personally I think that is jumping the gun as who knows if it will crash and burn the second weekend but that's not up to me.
 
So in short the effects and the mystery are pretty good and that sells the movie. The cast is made up of unknowns but they are up the task.
 
On a final note I have to comment on the fact that I have never seen a bigger collection of "Red Shirts" in a movie. Anyone familiar with Star Trek knows a Red Shirt with a non-speaking role who beams down with Captain Kirk won't be coming back. If you were one of the thirty kids in the glade who had not one line of dialogue or direct interaction with Thomas you could be guaranteed to be Griever "bait" and have a 99% chance of not making it to the final reel. The one or two who did make it to the end I suspect will be almost instant cannon fodder in the announced sequel.
 
Best Scene: Thomas and another "runner" have to escape from a new section of the maze as it begins to close itself off.
 
A.C.’s Rating: Matinee if there is nothing else playing you really want to see

A MOST WANTED MAN

(2014) 122 Minutes, Rated R

A.C.’s Review:  A better title for A MOST WANTED MAN would be A MOST BORING FILM. This is movie is an alleged spy thriller with no thrills. Before I completely tear the movie apart I want to say that it’s lead Phillip Seymour Hoffman was an actor’s actor. He was no matinee pretty boy like Cruise or Pitt but he was the guy you called on when you needed to immerse themselves in the role. Whoever he’s playing you believe the character. When you see say Tom Cruise…you just think…oh there’s Tom Cruise playing an astronaut or such. Hoffman you believed was the role he was playing. A true loss in the acting world.

I firmly believe that it’s only the presence of the late actor that got this film a wide release. Typically you would expect a film like this to play in your local art house theater.

Basically the whole movie is about a German intelligence officer in Hamburg attempting to use a new arrival in the city who may or may not be a Chechen terrorist to his advantage to trap a Muslim cleric in an attempt to prove the cleric is actually a money launderer for Al Quida. Aiding the Chechen is a lovely female lawyer played by Rachel McAdams who attempts to help the Chechen get his inheritance held in a bank managed by Willem Defoe.

The whole boring mess plods along at a glacial pace and almost nothing happens. Every time you think something interesting might happen like…maybe the Chechen will reveal himself to be a bad guy and murder McAdams it doesn’t happen. When you think maybe Defoe will co-coerce McAdams into sleeping with him to grant the Chechen his money…it doesn’t happen.  Nothing truly happens.

I’ve been in three hour movies that flew right buy because the story or the spectacle are great. None of that is here. It was a two hour movie and if I had a watch I would have been checking it because I couldn’t believe how dragged out it was. It’s been ages where I have felt like this during the movie. There is one interminable segment where McAdams is being interrogated that felt like it lasted half the movie.

And then at the climax it turns out the whole point of the movie was Anti-American propaganda on how we handle terror suspects as the “evil” Americans swoop in whisk the money launder and the Chechen off to Guantanamo Bay or some other black ops prison right out from under the noble Germans. If I am spoiling the ending its for your own good as you will be sorry to waste time or money on this film.

A.C.’s Rating: Don't waste time or money on this film.

LET'S BE COPS

(2014) 104 Minutes, Rated R

A.C.’s Review:  Months ago when the trailer for this movie first appeared I thought it looked like it could be pretty funny. Finally the release date came and it was in theaters but I found myself in no rush to see it. In fact the more I thought about it I had a feeling that I knew how the movie was going to play out. There would be a love interest and I knew there would be problems with the love interest when she found out they weren’t real cops. I also knew there would be a scenario where they would have to save real cops thus gaining their respect. All came true of course…the only thing I didn’t see was one of the cops would have a child as a friend. I should have seen that trope coming.

So the long and short of it…two down on their luck Midwest transplants to California start masquerading as cops when they see the respect and women it can get them. Shortly they run afoul of some sort of  Russian mob trafficking in guns stolen from police weapons lockers. All this leads to the love interest being threatened and having to save a real cop just like I predicted.

Also there is a bizarre subplot of the guys doing a stake out in a woman’s apartment and the woman is trying to seduce one of the cops and he’s into it. The “joke” supposedly here is that the cop is only attracted to older woman. So according to Hollywood a 40 year old woman is old and he should not be attracted to her.

The only surprise was that the true love interest (a waitress in a coffee shop being fleeced in a protection racket by the Russian mob)  went to the African American fake cop played by Damon Wayans Jr. because usually he would have the funny side kick role but he was more of a straight man.

All predictable and not very funny.

Best Scene: The fake cops attacked by a naked Sumo wrestler.

A.C.’s Rating: DVD

IF I STAY

(2014) 107 Minutes, Rated PG-13

A.C.’s Review:  September being a weak time for movies so I was trying to decide between this and another so called YA (Young Adult movie) THE GIVER. The premise sounded interesting that of a young woman  who is out of body following a tragic car crash must live a life she never imagined is she chooses to live or head off into the light.

I figured that we would get glimpses of what her life in the future would be like if she lived kind of like a reverse of “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE”. That’s not how it played out. Instead the movie detailed flashing back to her life before the accident seeing her close relationship with her family, her trajectory as an outstanding Cellist with a potential to attend Julliard and her romance with an up and coming lead singer of a garage band.

No pun intended but  this whole movie lived and died on the performance of the lead Chloe Grace Moretz who is one of the  most popular young actresses working in Hollywood today. She totally delivered in his film…she’s never given a bad performance and was amazing in LET ME IN and CARRIE and was a fan favorite in her debut  as Hit Girl in KICKASS and was probably the only good thing about the Johnny Depp misfire DARK SHADOWS. In fact I can’t see anyone else playing the lead in this…if anyone else had it would have easily been a TV-movie of the week but Chloe Grace is a true star.

Best Scene: A series of scenes where she tries to connect with friends and family keeping vigil as she hovers between life and death.

A.C.’s Rating: Matinee

THE NOVEMBER MAN

(2014) 108 Minutes, Rated R

Bean's Review:  A lot of action in this movie.  Pierce Brosnan plays Peter Devereaux, a retired CIA agent and former mentor of Luke Bracey’s character, David Mason.  The storyline is a bit twisty with some surprise revelations.  Brosnan’s character is portrayed as a hold-no-bars, brutal spy.  I believe it was difficult for him to act as harsh as he was supposed to, as he is no Liam Neeson, Gerard Butler or Russell Crowe. 

The connection between Brosnan’s character and Mason’s character needed to be much more developed as did the interplay between Mason’s role and Eliza Taylor’s role of Sarah.  I could not feel any real sympathy for Sarah and David’s predicament with Devereaux.  

The storyline with Alice Fournier (Mia), played by Olga Kurylenko, and Devereaux was a bit choppy, as sometimes she was just left standing around, while Devereaux performed multiple action bits.

Bill Smitrovich, playing Hanley, the CIA boss, does a good job as the “bad-guy”, although we are lead to believe that Will Patton’s character, Weinstein is the “bad-guy”.

So, a lot of interesting stunts and pretty much non-stop action, but the movie needed more character development or a different leading man.

Best scene:  when Alice Fournier’s character hits a great blow to the female assassin with the shovel

Bean’s rating:  Matinee

Mike's Review:   This movie was okay but forgettable.  It entertained me for the most part but its one of those movies I wouldn't rush out to buy on DVD or go see again in the theater.  Pierce Brosnan was ok but I'm getting kind of tired of the old spy still has game, movie plot.  It was done better in Red with Bruce Willis.

Best Scene: Shovel to the face

Mike's Rating: Matinee