Movie Reviews

The Monuments Men

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  • Title: The Monuments Men
  • IMDb: link

The Monuments Men

Originally planned for a Christmas release, The Monuments Men finally makes it into theaters this weekend. Directed and co-written by George Clooney, who also stars as George L. Stout, the film is a war-time picture highlighting an unusual group of heroes. Based on true accounts, The Monuments Men tells the story of Stout and other over-aged art experts and connoisseurs who were put together by Franklin D. Roosevelt to save priceless art being plundered and destroyed by the Nazis during WWII.

The group of Monuments Men includes Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, and Bob Balaban, along with Englishman Hugh Bonneville, and Frenchman Jean Dujardin. A little bit Ocean’s Eleven and a little bit old school war film, Clooney’s latest project begins with Stout stumping for the need for such and organization and recruiting old friends on what many in both Washington and on the battlefield see as nothing more than a fool’s errand. From basic training through searching abandoned German salt mines after the end of WWII, the film follows the fate of the unusual band of art experts and historians turned soldiers and the treasures they seek.

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The Best Produced Lifetime Movie for Women Ever Made

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  • Title: Labor Day
  • IMDB: link

Labor DayI’m a Jason Reitman fan. Young Adult made my Top Films of 2011, as did Juno a few years earlier. I consider Thank You For Smoking the best satire (by far) of the past decade, and Up in the Air was easily my favorite film of 2009. With a combination of wit, talent, and an eye for casting, the writer-director has produced some terrific films over the past few years. Sadly, Labor Day is not one of them.

Based on the novel by Joyce Maynard, Labor Day lacks Reitman’s usual flourishes or the trademark edge of the director’s previous work. Although competently acted and well produced, neither the director nor its stars (Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Clark Gregg, and Gattlin Griffith) can save the movie from trashy romance novel themes about the nicest escaped murderer (Brolin) this side of Mayberry and an implausible love story that is impossible to take seriously (but also not quite cheesy enough to laugh at or enjoy). It’s with neither malice nor spite, but with a heavy heart, that I dub the film the best produced Lifetime Movie for Women ever made.

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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

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  • Title: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
  • IMDB: link

Jack Ryan: Shadow RecruitIt’s been more than a decade since the last movie based on Tom Clancy‘s thinking man’s action hero Jack Ryan opened in theaters. Far from a box office bomb The Sum of All Fears still failed to relaunch the franchise with Ben Affleck in the starring role. 11 years later Hollywood tries again with Chris Pine taking over the role in a Jack Ryan origin story that is the first of the five films to not be based off one of Clancy’s novels.

Although it plays with the timing of various important events, the screenplay remains close to Ryan’s origins from the Clancy novels. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit offers a quick look at the series of events that led him from earning a Doctorate in Economics to his stint in the Marine Corps and his eventual injury and recruitment into the CIA by Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner). The film also spends quite a bit of time developing the relationship between Ryan and Cathy (Keira Knightley), a phsycial therapist earning her medical degree who helps in his recovery and rehabilitation following the helicopter crash that nearly left him paralyzed.

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Lone Survivor

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  • Title: Lone Survivor
  • IMDb: link

Lone Survivor

Based on Marcus Luttrell‘s (Mark Wahlberg) personal accounts, Lone Survivor chronicles a mission in the Hindu Kush mountain region of Afghanistan to find and kill high ranking Taliban member. Of the four-man initial team, and the first group sent in to retrieve them, Luttrell would be the sole survivor.

After a brief introduction to life on the base and the various Navy SEALS (most of whom will play only ancillary roles to the main tale) the film moves forward with the introduction and deployment of Luttrell, Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Axelson (Ben Foster). Arriving at their destination without incident, the mission takes a turn for the worse when they are discovered by three locals.

Cut off from HQ, and with no standing orders for such a situation (something which seems a tad odd), the foursome argue over how to proceed knowing any chance of their mission succeeding means the death of the old man and two boys which the team is unwilling to do.

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Her

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  • Title: Her
  • IMDb: link

Her

Set in the near future, the latest from writer/director Spike Jonze is as much about an unusual love story as an examination of ever evolving technologies which increase the very real chance at something like this occurring. When we first meet Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) he’s a miserable human being. Still not over the impending divorce of his wife (Rooney Mara), and spending every day composing letters and cards for other peoples’ loved ones, Theodore is depressed and very much alone.

His life changes when he decides to purchase a new top-of-the-line operating system which offers him the chance to begin a relationship with a woman he will never meet. Designed to evolve and change like a human being, adapting to those she comes into contact with, Samantha (voiced by an unseen Scarlett Johansson) proves to be just the breath of fresh air Theodore needs. Although there’s no chance of any sort of physical relationship (other than an awkward attempt with a surrogate), Theodore falls completely for Samantha whose love rehabilitates him.

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