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The Mechanic

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  • Title: The Mechanic (2011)
  • IMDb: link

Remakes, Hollywood’s second favorite shortcut (after sequels) for quickly churning out mediocre flicks. If I have seen the original 1972 film with Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent I don’t remember it. And there’s nothing in the remake that makes me think I’ve missed anything.

This version stars Jason Statham as hitman Arthur Bishop who takes on the son (Ben Foster) of a old friend (Donald Sutherland) he was forced to kill.

As action flicks go this version by director Simon West is average at best. There’s plenty of poor decision making and plot holes where the story is sacrificed for more action scenes. I also found the film’s main villain (played by Tony Goldwyn) to be rather bland. His near limitless supply of generic soldiers are even less memorable than he is. If a movie is only as good as its villain The Mechanic is pretty damn forgettable.

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Covert Affairs – The Complete First Season

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  • Title: Covert Affairs The Complete First Season
  • tv.com: link

Most people remember Piper Perabo for her starring role in 2000’s Coyote Ugly, but my crush on her started with the first movie I saw her in where she played newbie FBI Agent Karen Sympathy. Covert Affairs is a return to form (of sorts) as Perabo stars as a young woman in her first days as an agent for the CIA.

The First Season follows Annie Walker (Perabo) going to work for the Domestic Protection Division of the CIA under the command of Joan Campbell (Kari Matchett), the wife of the Director of the National Clandestine Service (Peter Gallagher). Throughout the first season Annie will learn much about trust, spycraft, and the new shade of gray her life has become as she lies to her sister (Anne Dudek) about what her new job entails. She will also begin to unravel the mystery of a short-term love affair (Eion Bailey) from her past which has much more to do with the CIA than she could have possibly imagined.

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No Strings Attached

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  • Title: No Strings Attached
  • IMDB: link

no-strings-attached-blu-rayThe subject of friends with benefits usually makes for lackluster Hollywood scripts. No Strings Attached is no exception. Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher star as acquaintances who meet occasionally over the years and eventually get together in as sex friends who “use each other for sex at all hours of the day and night.” The story obviously wants us to root for these two wacky kids to get together in a real relationship, but gives us no real reason to do so.

There are also subplots about his career as a hopeful writer in show business and his father (Kevin Kline) dating his former girlfriend (Ophelia Lovibond), but neither of these amount to much. And, in true Apatowian homage (nicer than saying rip-off), we also get several scenes with and his friends (Jake M. Johnson, Ludacris) and and her friends (Greta Gerwig, Mindy Kaling) discussing relationships, sex, and menstruation with slightly inappropriate (but only occasionally funny) ways.

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Blue Valentine

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  • Title: Blue Valentine
  • IMDB: link

blue-valentine-blu-raySome couples shouldn’t stay together. That’s the basic message behind Blue Valentine from writer/director Derek Cianfrance which stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams trapped in the painful end of a marriage which should have never happened.

Through flashbacks we’re shown their shy beginnings and the events which rush the couple into an all-too-quick marriage. The effects of this are all to obvious on the current state of their relationship.

I liked the film enough to sneak it onto my Best Movies of 2010 list. Williams and Gosling carry the film with a pair of strong performances of two people going through the motions of a doomed love affair which should have ended years ago.

Available on both Blu-ray and DVD the extras include deleted scenes, a making of the film featurette, and commentary with Cianfrance and editor Jim Helton.

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XIII: The Conspiracy

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  • Title: XIII: The Conspiracy
  • IMDB: link

xiii-blurayInspired by the original Jason Bourne novel, The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum, the Franco-Belgian comics by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance entitled XIII took things to an entirely new level by amping up the action by layering mystery, conspiracy, and mistaken identity on top of each other until no one knew who exactly the main character really was, even the readers.

I’m a fan of the comic and this TV mini-series, despite a couple of changes to the story, does a pretty good job making sense out of the Byzantine plot of the comic. Stephen Dorff stars as a man with a unique set of skills, suffering from amnesia, and with an appearance and wounds that match that of the assassin who killed the President of the United States (Mimi Kuzyk). The only clue to his identity is a roman numeral tattoo of XIII on his chest.

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