“Revolutionary Road”, the first post-Titanic reunion of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, is first and foremost a showcase of some pretty amazing acting. Kate and Leo play a married couple with two kids trying to make good on the hopes and ideals they held during their courtship. The story carries a nuclear amount of potency and is certain to make a lot of people look at their own marriages and relationships, but it doesn’t really deliver.

Sam Mendes, Winslet’s real-life husband and director of another suburban hell film, American Beauty, provides a wonderful backdrop for his two stars. The piece plays in the 1950s and everything is spot on. Slow sweeping shots within the house on Revolutionary Road display an impressive attention to detail. Between this obsessive attentiveness and the space given to his actors, the story itself massively suffers. In addition to a couple of holes, (where are their two kids the whole film?), you can pretty much see where things are going. I also anticipate that this is the kind of movie where sides will be taken divided by gender. The guys will side with Leo’s character, the ladies with Winslet’s. The actors definitely put on a good show, but the story fails to give the character’s much depth.

Another point of criticism, (and I sort of hate to go there but have to), is Leo’s uncanny trademark boyish look. Don’t get me wrong, he gives a brilliant performance here, but the guy just does not seem to age. He could literally play a teenager. Here he’s placed in a very grown-up setting and is seen grappling with pretty tough issues. He pulls it off, but his looks work against him. They really do.

I don’t think “Revolutionary Road” is really a film for Titanic fans or for those who want a story into which they can sink their teeth. As an actor’s showcase, however, it does have its merits.

This film certainly takes the cake for worst title of 2007. No guy would be caught dead buying tickets to see or renting a movie called P.S. I Love You. It is, however, clearly your typical chick flick. You’ve got an American girl Holly (Hillary Swank) who meets an Irish guy Gerry (Gerard Butler). Gerry’s got a cool accent, sings in a pub, drinks Guinness. In other words, in chick flick land, he’s Irish. Holly is fidgety, awkward, and just oh so cute and American. As the film opens they seem to be experiencing a bad case of the 7-year-itch. They get in a big fight about their future and then he charms her and they make up. If you’re able to stomach the initial few minutes, then you might actually like this movie.

The film then skips ahead a bit to where Gerry has just died due to a brain tumor. Holly understandably feels sad and being the jolly Irish man that he is, Gerry has concocted a way of keeping in touch with her after his death via letters in girly handwriting. Hence, P.S. I Love You. Get it, he’s dead, but he still loves her. Amazing stuff indeed.

If you look closely at the actor’s faces during the course of the film, you can see that they know this movie stinks. Hillary Swank is horribly miscast. She’s trying to re-live her 90210 days and was perhaps afraid of being typecast after movies like Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby.

Harry Connick Jr., apparently out of his singing gig because of Michael Buble, tries to play a quirky bartender, but it just ain’t happening. Holly’s ridiculously annoying friends are played by Gina Gershon and Lisa Kudrow. Kudrow plays a gold digger who justifies her gold digging based on some kind of warped feminist shenanigans.

Even as chick flicks go, I would urge everyone to avoid P.S. I Love You.

P.S. This movie is awful.

I tend to enjoy movies about midlife crises. You can build a wonderful story around a character whose well-established life is falling apart. You can keep the audience on their toes because in the midst of a crisis, it’s not always clear in which direction a character will go. “Meet Bill” falls under the midlife crisis category and, based on preliminary information about the film, I thought it would be a decent film. Bill is played by Aaron Eckhart, whose performance in “Thank You For Smoking” was stellar. Throw in a bit of eye candy in the form of Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Alba and we got us a movie, right? Wrong. Oh, so very wrong.

“Meet Bill” tries to follow in the footsteps of “American Beauty” and “The Weatherman”, but has no real story to support its sagging dead weight. From the get go we’re supposed to sympathize with Bill because he’s got a gut, messy hair, and compulsively eats Snickers bars. We quickly find out that his wife Jess (Elizabeth Banks) is shacking up with a local TV news reporter Chip (Timothy Olyphant). The in-laws think Bill is a lame push-over and he works as a phony executive at his father in law’s bank. He dreams of independence, and thus wishes to take part in donut shop franchise.

The final part of the puzzle is “the Kid”, a prep school student played by young Logan Lerman. His job is to shake things up further, providing Bill with the youthful spirit he needs to shake off his middle age slumber.

Meet Bill provides actor Eckhart with plenty of chances to embarrass himself, but none of them are particularly funny. In fact, the movie is rarely funny. There is a good comedic turn by a firecracker salesman (Paul Goetz) with his “Get excited” commentary. SNL’s Kristen Wig is also funny as the donut franchise maestro.

The movie loses steam very quickly. Elizabeth Banks seems to be about as human as the doll in “Lars and the Real Girl” and the movie is slapped carelessly together. I’m not one to notice continuity errors, especially when I’m just trying to stay awake during bombs like “Meet Bill”. And yet, I couldn’t help but notice one of the worst continuity errors I’ve ever seen. Bill is eating a donut and is about one bite from finishing her off, and in the next cut the donut has only one bite in it. Stuff like that just throws me right out of the film. Later. after an accident, one character doesn’t if mention the accident or what happened to the injured character. I’m assuming they cut out scenes that didn’t work, because I can’t believe they didn’t write those scenes into the screenplay.

Jessica Alba as a lingerie shop employee is mildly passable, and Logan Lerman plays a good kid, but his character is poorly written. Even worse is the TV reporter Chip, a complete waste of Olyphant, who was good in movies such as “Go” and “Die Hard 4″.

In conclusion, by all means, do not “Meet Bill”.

When you’ve got hind quarters like Jessica Alba, acting skills are optional. In Into the Blue, she plays Sam, a young woman living in the Bahamas with her diving instructor boyrfriend, Jared (Paul Walker). Together they scrape together a humble life on an old house boat. For Jared, being a diving instructor is just his day job, as he dreams of an exciting life as a prospector, hunting for buried treasure. A hurricane has recently swept through and he hastily gets fired, deciding that his time is now and that it’s “all part of the plan”.

The bad guy is introduced early in the form of Bates (Josh Brolin, the only real actor here), a successful prospector and bona fide asshole. He and Jared have a macho rivalry, though Jared doesn’t have much to show for it.

The plot thickens when Jared’s friend Bryce (Scott Caan) and his girlfriend of five days (Ashely Scott) arrive. Bryce has the dough that Jared needs to start doing some serious treasure hunting. Bryce is also a show off who is willing to put his pocket before his heart. Things start to get complicated when one of their diving expeditions leads to a sunken plane filled with cocaine. At this point, a moral battle starts bubbling to the surface. Jared can definitely use the money and for Blake there really is no question. Sam, however, will have nothing of it.

Into the Blue has magnificent underwater sequences, not the least of whcih involve Jessica Alba flummoxing about. On the other hand, the flim is often very lame, in particular when the cheesy soundtrack kicks in or when the wooden actors poorly deliver badly written dialogue. Big no five to Scott Caan whose non-performance is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Paul Walker is a bit less inept, and he certainly does have that blue-eyed, hawk look appeal, but he would be much more at home in an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog. Into the Blue is certainly nice to look at, but you won’t discover much beneath the surface.

Buy Into the Blue [Blu-ray] or Into the Blue (Widescreen Edition) from Amazon.

Harsh Times, directed by the David Ayer, writer of Training Day, is the story of a former army ranger. Jim Luther Davis, played by Christian Bale, readjusting back to civilian life. Davis is one majorly conflicted guy. On the one hand he’s got his best friend Mike Alonzo (Freddy Rodriguez) and a penchance for chugging canned beer in his car, and on the other, straightening out, mid joint, to answer a phone call offering him a job at the Department of Homeland Security. He’s also got his “old lady”, a pretty Mexican girl (Tammy Trull) who lives in a tiny village in Mexico.

As in Training Day, Ayer places the majority of his scenes in moving cars. I guess, this is a way to keep things moving and pepper the dialogue, though Harsh Times in particular, is not exactly what you’d call plot heavy. I guess you can take this film as a mood piece, two guys cruising the streets of southern California, trying to be adults, and yet unable to repress their rather primitive intimacy.

Christian Bale is known for his extreme taste in film roles. He’ll always rank extremely high in my book for his amazing performance in American Psycho. I’m still not sure if he pulls off his character in Harsh Times. Somehow, I always see something somewhat refined and noble in his inner core, even when he’s spewing out the word “dude” every other sentence. As an actor he has a ton of intensity, but it seems kind of wasted here. His best friend Mike seems so wimpy in comparison, that the balance is off.

For a celebrated screenwriter like Avery, it’s hard not to be disappointed by much of the dialogue in this film. A few action sequences might have helped push things along, but this movie essentially boils down to immature adults chatting away about how they’re going to get wasted. The film gets boring pretty quickly.

Harsh Times is somewhat noteable for Bale’s character. A mentally disturbed vet who really wants to get back into the game, but this time on domestic soil. It’s terrifying, and Bale’s intense performance is the only thing driving an otherwise dull film.

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Street Kings is advertised as being directed by the writer of Training Day, which in my opinion, doesn’t say a whole lot. The ability to write a good film does not automatically make you a good director. Furthermore, Street Kings is not even written by David Ayer, the writer of Training Day, just directed by him. To be fair, Ayer does have one film, Harsh Times, under his belt as director.

Street Kings does have a a few big guns in its pack. Hot off his heels as an Academy Award winner, Forest Whitacker plays police captain Jack Wander. Wander is totally loyal to troubled detective, Tom Ludlow, played by a moping Keanu Reeves. Ludlow has a bad habit of drinking a few minibar bottles of Smirnoff and then heading into a house full of Korean gangsters without backup. Through his huffing and overly serious behavior, we realized that Reeves’ character is bothered by something. To quote Reeves’ most famous film dialogue, “Whoa”.

Ludlow’s gotten into a bit of trouble for his awful police work, and rightfully so, though we’re supposed to understand him and sympathize. Reeves does his darndest to with every acting bone and muscle in his body to show us that he’s battling inner demons. In capable hands, this could have been a character I really liked. Reeves, however, can’t do much more than avoid eye contact. This might have worked in other films, where other actors could have picked up the slack, but in a movie boasting a number of rappers/actors, Jay Mohr with a stupid mustache, and Whitacker who sounds like he’s foaming at the mouth the whole time, it just doesn’t cut it.

And yet, I keep getting away from the storyline. The fact is, there is not much of a story here. Reeves’ Ludlow mopes around, gets in a few gun battles, shows us he’s an unorthodox police officer. A fellow officer who he apparently used to be friends with, gets mowed down. Ludlow happens to be there, wants to get revenge. He then gets in over his head in some really bad stuff. All in all, really bland material. The interesting thing about Training Day was watching notorious good guy Denzel Washington play against the grain. In Street Kings we have notorious troubled inner demons guy Keanu Reeves doing the same thing he always does. Sure, he’s playing an insane detective who is the kind of guy who probably would have fit right in with the Stasi, but because he’s doing the Keanu vibe the whole time, we barely notice it.

One final word about the whole actor/rapper phenomenon. What’s the deal? 8 mile, where Eminem played a version of his rapper persona, was a load of crap, and I really like Eminem. Ludicrous in Crash was decent, but other than for box office returns, I can’t really see why they couldn’t have picked a capable actor. In Street Kings you’ve got Common and The Game both playing L.A. crime figures, in other words, not too far from their rapper personas. I though Method Man was pretty awful in American Gangster, but at least he was playing a straight cop. This is a trend that has just got to stop. I wonder if I’m the only one annoyed by gangster rappers playing their gangster rapper characters in movies. (In other words, not themselves, but copies of what they copy in real life. I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.)

I really do enjoy a good action flick once in a while and I’m also totally cool with the whole Dirty Harry badass cop thing, but this movie really gets nothing right. If this thing had been a TV pilot, I doubt it would have ever passed the first round. Skip it.

Being a huge Joy Division fan, I was quite torn when I heard a movie was being made about their tragic story. Or rather, the tragic story of their frontman Ian Curtis. After all, the remaining members went on to fame and fortune as New Order — one of few bands to overcome the loss of a frontman.

Upon hearing that “Control” featured my favorite German “Schauspielerin” Alexandra Maria Lara, and was being filmed by famous photographer Anton Corbijn, my initial icy impressions started to thaw a bit.

The result is a moving, exquisitely filmed story light on mythology and a bit too heavy on realism. “Control” was flimed entirely in black and white, which helps accentuate one of its main characters, the gloomy, industrial city of Manchester, England.

Fortunately, Sam Reilly plays extremely well as Ian Curtis. No complaints here. His wife’s character, equally well played by Samantha Morton, avoids superficial pitfalls which might have been expected. My main complaint is that the build up to Mr Curtis’ tragic end seems to be a bit too simple.

Another problem is the character of Ian’s mistress. Alexandra Maria Lara portrays her merely as someone nice to look at. She barely manages to whisper out her lines, perhaps due to shyness on her part of acting in a foreign language. Aside from obvious beauty, we don’t really see what drew Ian Curtis to her.

All in all, however, “Control” is very solid, with surprisingly good live scenes and haunting cinematography. Recommended.

“The Savages” seems to follow a recent trend of creating thoroughly miserable motion pictures. I mean, who enjoys watching a story about two siblings watching their father slowly deteriorate and die? A show of hands please. That’s right, no one.

Any glimpse of entertainment value is salvaged by the dead-on interplay of the sibling pair played by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. You just know they’re going to be good. Laura Linney shined in “The Squid and the Whale” and here she continues to excel as a quirky, intelligent, approachable female. In fact, “The Savages” passes more than a fleeting resemblance to another sibling movie starring Linney, “You Can Count On Me”. The latter is clearly the better film as it takes you an a journey, albeit a rough one, as opposed to “The Savages” which feels more akin to a plunge into dark water.

“The Savages” also finds Hoffman back on his A-game. I thought his performance in “Before The Devil Knows Your Dead” was a let down. I just didn’t buy it. He was, however, amazing in films such as “Magnolia”, “Almost Famous”, “Owning Mahowny”, and “State and Main”. Here he plays a literature professor who is torn between what common sense dictates and deeper, conflicted feelings.

The few side stories seem to do no more than pad the running time. Linney’s character’s affair doesn’t move the plot one bit, nor does Hoffman’s character’s girlfriend’s visa problems. It was, nonetheless, a pleasure to see Cara Seymour again who was unforgettable as Patrick Bateman’s escort service fodder in “American Psycho”.

As an acting showcase, “The Savages” does pull some weight. I can also imagine it having therapeutic value to those who went through a similar situation with a parent or loved one. I suppose it took a certain amount of courage to shed light on such a dismal story. Watch it if you feel you must. If not, why not spend some time with your family?

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An up and coming public prosecutor with a near perfect record takes on what looks like a cut-and-dry attempted murder case. Only problem is, it’s actually not really in the bag. Even after a hasty confession, the accused has done a great job covering his tracks. The bullet is lodged in his comatose wife’s brain and the gun has mysteriously disappeared. What ensues is a gutsy battle of wits between the attorney played extra tangy by Jake Gosling and his nemesis, played by what I guess is supposed to be an Irish Anthony Hopkins.

This is the umpteenth time we’ve seen Hopkins rehash his Hannibal Lector masterstroke and, personally, I can’t get enough of it. I even loved watching John Malkovitch channeling Lector in Ripley’s Game. Don’t get me wrong, the movie was horrible, but you can’t help but relish Malkovitch snarling, “Hold my watch because if it breaks I’ll kill everyone on this train.” Good times.

Hopkins is the only the good thing about this movie. I couldn’t stand Gosling’s overdone accent. It’s supposed to show that he doesn’t quite fit in with his rich girlfriend, a decent Rosamund Pike, and her people. It’s not all Gosling’s fault. The script doesn’t give him much too work with and the film doesn’t take the time flesh out his character. Then again, I didn’t really care to know any thing else about him. He’s caught in the tug of war between career advancement and doing the right thing. Deep in his heart, he seems more concerned with the former, even if we are shown otherwise.

Another problem with this film is the complete waste of Embeth Davidtz, who plays Hopkins’ wife. Her pre-comatose part is so brief, and yet the her character is left undefined. It’s hard to figure out what she would be doing with a creep like Hopkins and if you’ve got a talent like Davidtz on your hands, you’re a feel to not let her have a bit more screen time.

The sight of a detective played by Billy Burke also gave me the shudders. He also plays in the more recent disaster “Untraceable”, and the guy belongs on a soap opera. No offense, but when he undergoes a rather painful transformation later in the film, it’s hard to really care. It’s as pathetic as his attempt to portray a pathetic character.

If you like all things Hannibal Lector as much as I do, this movie will be worth your time. All in all though, it’s plot starts to wear thin, very fast. In fact, after the film completely runs out of steam, it takes a lame turn, a moment when many people probably left the theater. Fracture is a middling average legal thriller.

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From the get go, Lord of War is on to a good thing. Here you have a unique take a on an arms dealer, played smirky as hell by Nicolas Cage. This is trademark Cage, so if you hate him, as many do, you’re not going to like it. I, on the other hand, acting skills aside, feel a strange affinity towards him, so I see that as a good thing. Still, the movie is heavy on the narration and rubs it in, way in, that they’ve got a fascinating topic to run with.

Cages’s sidekick brother (in arms), played by wannabe rock star Jared Leto, is a bit too reminiscent of what down in Face Off, and after a certain point he plays nothing more than dead weight. The other top gun is Cage’s nemesis, played by Ethan Hawke. He’s actually a bit unspectacular in the role. I didn’t even notice him at first because he just looked so boring. They shoudl have given him a little tick, like a strange haircut or something. He’s too clean cut, too moral, and sports the ugliest sunglasses.

The movie has a ton of international flair and insight into politics. It is a movie, but one gets the sense that some of Cage’s narrative shields does ring true. Whether he’s talking about the end of the cold war or conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, we feel like we’re getting insider’s view on the world’s power plays.

Of course, there has to be a love interest. In this case, it’s an unattainable billboard model with a desperate past. It gets off to a good start, but is quicky degraded to marriage mush. I’m not saying we had to go Mr and Mrs Smith here, but Cage’s character and his wife just lag on screen. His ambivalence towards her, makes us feel the same, and then we’re just waiting for the scenes with her to be over.

Unlike many a film, Lord of War, actually has a very well-done ending. Though, not a great movie, by any means, if you’re interested in another way of viewing the ways of today’s world, check it out.

Buy Lord of War [Blu-ray] or Lord of War (2-Disc Special Edition) from Amazon.