Friday Preview: The Grey

The Grey

This is Liam Neeson's winter badass movie. It seems like he has some sort of action movie coming out in the early part of the year every year. This time he takes on nature, and nature has no chance. All kidding aside, this does look pretty entertaining. Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News included it in his top ten of 2011, and the production company is planning a rerelease late in the year to drum up talk of Oscar contention for Best Picture and Best Actor. It's a lot of hype for a January movie, but we'll see.

The Director - Joe Carnahan - His last movie was The A-Team which was stupid fun, but a dime a dozen action movie. Smokin' Aces I felt was overrated, but Narc with Ray Liotta was a pretty good movie. Again, there is a lot of awards hype for this movie, so expectations are high.

The Writers - Joe Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers - Jeffers wrote the short story this movie is adapted from. This is Jeffers second writing credit. His first was Death Sentence that was directed by James Wan (Saw, Insidious). Carnahan has written mainly the features that he has directed.

Starring

Liam Neeson... Ottway

Dermot Mulroney... Talget

Dallas Roberts... Hendrick

Frank Grillo... Diaz

Nonso Anozie... Burke

Joe Anderson... Flannery

The cast really isn't important. This is Neeson's movie and how good it is will completely depend on how good his character is. Other than that, the rest of the cast is wolf fodder.

Early Reviews

Colin Covert - ***1/2 out of 4

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/138137413.html

Michael Phillips - *** out of 4

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-mov-0124-the-grey-20120126,0,2419038.column

Roger Ebert - ***1/2 out of 4

http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120125/REVIEWS/120129984/-1/RSS

Lisa Schwarzbaum - C+

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133_20556661,00.html

May the Force be with you,

CHUD

Red Tails Review

Red Tails
Directed by Anthony Hemingway
Written by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder

Starring
Terrence Howard... Colonel A.J. Bullard
Cuba Gooding Jr. ... Major Emanuelle Stance
David Oyelowo... Joe 'Lightning' Little
Nate Parker... Marty 'Easy' Julian
Tristan Wilds... Ray 'Junior' Gannon
Andre Royo... Antwan 'Coffee' Coleman

Story
In 1944 the Tuskegee Airmen, an all black fighter pilot group, are asked to provide cover for bombing runs into Germany. This is their first real combat after performing mop up duty miles away from the front lines in World War II. If they do not succeed their unit will be shut down and disbanded.

The story is very simple and definitely not the most appealing part of the movie. Based on user reviews on other websites it seems if you go in expecting a moving piece of historical drama you will be disappointed. But if you go in expecting a fun popcorn flick with lots of action, you will be more than satisfied. It may have been easier and more profitable to use a different storyline to showcase WWII aerial fighting, but I don't think they pay any disservice to the Tuskegee Airmen in this movie.

Acting
This is a very talented cast, but there is no standout performances. It seems like George Lucas had a very specific vision for this movie and it didn't include any variance from it. He wanted a 50's war movie with updated special effects, and that's what he got. Watch any old war movie and you will see similar characters and storylines. Most of the characters have one memorable trait that sets them apart and that is their entire character. Although most of the roles are one dimensional they are fun and lighthearted.

Review
Like I said before, if you go in with certain expectations that will be what you get. If you go in wanting to like it, there are things to like, and vice versa. Some people hated the prequels so much, and rightfully so, that they'll never let Lucas live it down. I enjoyed the prequels, but I admit that I am a Star Wars junkie. However, in every review people agree that the aerial dog fights are amazing and are the best part of the movie. So, if you think you'll hate, don't go, but if you like some fun action it's worth seeing.

*** out of 5

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Friday Preview: Red Tails

Red Tails

This is George Lucas' first production since the Star Wars prequels. He has been trying to get this movie made since the late 80's, but has had trouble finding financing and a distributor for the film due to it's all black cast and unknown black director. The special effects and the action sequences look fantastic, but the dialogue in the trailer looks a bit preachy. Lucas has said that he wanted to make an old fashioned war movie with true heroes without faults. I liked Spielberg's War Horse a bit, and that was supposed to be a throwback movie, too. Whether this is a good movie or not will depend on how the actors playing the pilots do. Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrence Howard will give the corny speeches that were in the preview, but the lesser known actors have a chance to make this a memorable movie instead of the usual trash that is released in January.

The Director - Anthony Hemingway - This will be his first feature directing job, however he has quite a few excellent television credits. He has directed episodes of The Wire, True Blood, Community, Battlestar Galactica, Treme, and Fringe.

The Writers - Aaron McGruder, John Ridley - And here's what has me worried about this movie. Ridley's biggest credits are as the creator of the Barbershop TV series and the head writer of the Wanda Sykes show. Then McGruder is the creator of The Boondocks on Cartoon Network. I haven't watched any of these shows, but this seems like a pretty big jump in production size. At least Anthony Hemingway was directing big budget television shows.

The Actors
Terrence Howard - I didn't like Hustle & Flow, but he seems like a good actor. Doesn't look like he has much to work with in this movie though.

Cuba Gooding Jr. - This type a movie only needs one guy to give long spirited speeches. Seems like an unnecessary character to me.

Bryan Cranston - I haven't seen Breaking Bad yet, so I'm not sold on him as a great actor.

The pilots - No big names, so we'll see how they do.
Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds, Elijah Kelly, Leslie Odom Jr., Kevin Phillips, Cliff Smith(aka Method Man),

Early Reviews
Michael Phillips - ** out of 4
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-mov-0117-red-tails-20120119,0,1748740.column

Roger Ebert - ** 1/2 out of 4
http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120118/REVIEWS/120119986/-1/RSS

Colin Covert - ** out of 4
http://www.miami.com/039red-tails039-pg-13-article

Owen Gleiberman - B-
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133_20556657,00.html


May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Contraband Review

Contraband
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur
Written by Aaron Guzikowski

Starring
Mark Wahlberg... Chris Farraday
Kate Beckinsale... Kate Farraday
Ben Foster... Sebastian Abney
Giovanni Ribisi... Tim Briggs
JK Simmons... Captain Camp

Story
The basic premise of Contraband is pretty similar to another Giovanni Ribisi classic, Gone in Sixty Seconds. Chris Farraday's brother-in-law is forced to dump a shipment of cocaine when his ship is boarded by the Coast Guard, and is in debt to a local drug dealer for $700,000. Here comes Marky Mark to the rescue. He is a former smuggler, but has gone legitimate as a home security installer. Unable to reason with Tim Briggs he is forced to do one last job to come up with the money. Of course, he won't smuggle drugs because he has such high morals, but is willing to smuggle in millions of dollars in counterfeit money.

Acting
No standout performances, and a couple very mediocre ones. Mark Wahlberg is very attractive and can do no wrong. (Guess who produced this movie?) Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, and JK Simmons all do their part, but their characters are pretty two dimensional. And Giovanni Ribisi shouldn't be allowed to do an accent, or play a tough guy. I can't think of a person I would be less afraid of than him.

Review
I had pretty low hopes going in, and those hopes weren't even met. Every character is thin, the action sequences are a mess and impossible to follow, and the story is very predictable.  If it had a little more edge to it, and the risks seemed a bit more real it would have been better.  But if you like a nice simple  heist movie, it has some enjoyable parts to it. You know Farraday will get away with it, so the question is how will he do it? They come up with a couple of low tech ways that seem plausible, but I'd like the Mythbusters guys to take a look at it. The big action sequence with the duct taped face army from the preview is completely pointless and the worst part of the movie. It makes no sense why the characters would be there, or what purpose they serve, and it was poorly shot and edited. The camera is shaking so much, and bad guys and policemen appear out of nowhere with fully automatic weapons that must be misfiring when they aim at Mark Wahlberg. All in all, an average movie that has been made better before this.

** out of five stars

May the Force be with you,
CHUD