The Final Take with Parker Mott

3 Stars out of 4
(117 minutes)

Neeson against beast in "The Grey".

Joe Carnahan’s The Grey is another example of what an excellent action star Liam Neeson is. Even in the mountains of Alaska, the 59-year old actor can get down to business. But it’s not his muscle power, but the somber enigma that usually transcends Neeson’s roles. If there’s a reason to like Taken (lord knows I do), it’s to study the unsettling river of emotions that flow through his character. He, even in those dumber flicks, maintains a profound screen presence. He takes up the screen in long shot. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(120 minutes)

Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) types and drinks away in "The Rum Diary."

When Hunter S. Thompson wrote his (many unpublished) novels, I don’t think a movie adaptation was on his mind. Only booze, women, cocaine, and menthols. Maybe that is why Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was so profoundly unwatchable. His stories are snake-like, as they writhe episodically across the desert of his existential jaunts. His words are terse and venomously cynical. His characters are sociopaths, who probably put rum in their cornflakes. (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(102 minutes)

Should I stay or should I go? Sam Worthington ponders his fate in "Man on a Ledge."

Man on a Ledge has the single most ridiculous finale I have ever seen. And I’ve seen Snake Eyes. Wait, that almost makes you want to see it, doesn’t it? If I said “the second most ridiculous finale” you would run the other way. What is this final moment? If I said it you would have to kill me. Its absurdity is perhaps the only point of conversation you may have about the movie afterwards. (continue reading…)

Hold your horses!

This Oscar category should really be called the Best Animated Pixar Film, because since 2001 (when this category was introduced) Pixar has taken it six times. But this is the first time since 2005 that Pixar’s annual film wasn’t nominated. Wise choice. Cars 2 was joyless – all exhaust, no engine. This year, however, will not transcend the annals of animation. The best animated film of 2011 was thankfully nominated by the Academy, and without a doubt it will win. To find out what it is, you must read below… You like how I coerced you there? (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(133 minutes)

Lovers in melancholy in "Norwegian Wood."

“And when I awoke I was alone. This bird had flown…”
- John Lennon, “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”

He could have called it “Cheap Pine”, but Lennon was aiming for euphemism. This song quietly revealed his infidelities against his wife Cynthia, but it was dressed with enough soft prose that the song was more an act of self-vindication than a wholehearted confession. Tran Anh Hung’s Norwegian Wood shares little resemblance to Lennon’s number, only it too surrounds the impossibility in eternal love. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(127 minutes)

Control (Hurt) dismisses class in the "Circus" room in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."

“This isn’t about soldiers in trenches anymore. We’re the frontrunners now,” asserts Oliver Lacon, who then casually takes his knife and butters his bread. It’s about the most truthful thing anyone utters in Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a thriller thrusted in a time – the 1970s – when the world’s pipes leaked of lies and deceits. Then, competing governments were stealing each other’s intel right under their tables. So, of course there must be a mole involved. And in that case, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy becomes one elaborate whodunit. (continue reading…)

2 Stars out of 4
(145 minutes)

John Miller (Bale) trifles with Yu Mo (Ni Ni) in "The Flowers of War."

My heart goes thud to the thought of a story about the Nanking Massacre told through the eyes of a drunken American mortician. For one of the most anticipated films in China, would it have killed it to be about its people? This is sensitive subject matter, and it deserves more sensitive treatment. The Nanking Massacre took place over 6 weeks in 1937-38 and resulted in, arguably, about 300,000 Chinese casualties. For those who died, most were raped beforehand. It’s a huge stigma in Japanese and Chinese history, and there has been much debate over the gravity of it being a “massacre.” (continue reading…)

2.5 Stars out of 4
(94 minutes)

There's something you thought you'd never see: Channing Tatum getting beat up by a girl.

Haywire is an efficient, minor effort for Steven Soderbergh to show off a little. After Contagion, a film that made me run for the nearest Purell, understandably the director just wants to get his hands dirty. The film’s basic intention (and instinct) is watching its heroine punch and kick her way through every man who crosses her. And our heroine, Mallory Kane, is no lightweight. She even beats up Magneto, if you follow me. (continue reading…)

2 Stars out of 4
(129 minutes)

Oskar (Thomas Horn) roams New York with his deceased father's secret key in search of a lock-box in "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." The film itself should be in search for a better script.

I ask you this: are we ready for a film about 9/11 and, with that, are we able to feel any catharsis? Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I think, would argue yes – but with reservations. This new movie by Stephen Daldry, based on the 2005 novel by Jonathan Foer, takes its precautions and, rightly so, makes 9/11 a backdrop not the forefront to the story. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close instead deals with the universal fact of death, but it’s about the living. On this level, Daldry strives for a work of humanity and subtle emotions, but his execution is, alas, nobly scattershot. (continue reading…)

3 Stars out of 4
(94 minutes)

Mavis is dressed in style in "Young Adult."

Mavis Gary is someone I would have hated in high school. She is shallow, intrusive, whiny, and downright cruel. How on earth do you make a drama about her, even more so a comedy? Sure, reality shows like Jersey Shore and The Real World depict characters of similar vainness, but the laughs stem from a considerable amount of tasteless, unearned pity. We laugh because they – not to mention any names – have become exploits of the lowest form of entertainment. (continue reading…)