The Lincoln Lawyer

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Lincoln Lawyer
  • IMDB: link

lincoln-lawyer-dvdMatthew McConaughey stars low rent defense attorney Mickey Haller who operates out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car. According to Mickey, he’s never had an innocent client until a new case involving a spoiled rich playboy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) comes his way.

Oh, Roulet isn’t innocent, far from it. He’s not only guilty of the charge of assaulting a prostitute (Adventureland‘s Margarita Levieva) but also the death of another woman (Yari Deleon) years before who Mickey’s previous client (Michael Peña) is serving time for on advice from his lawyer to cop a plea.

The realization causes Mickey guilt over not taking his previous client seriously as well as anger at Roulet who chose him specifically to not only shield himself from the previous crime but to mess with Mickey’s life. Now Mickey has a choice, expose Roulet and be disbarred for sharing privileged information with the police or do his job and get the smug son of a bitch off.

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Rango

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  • Title: Rango
  • IMDB: link

rango-dvdA pet chameleon (Johnny Depp) with an overactive imagination finds himself separated from his owners and stranded in the desert. As a consequence of his wild tales (and an amazing amount of dumb luck) he soon finds himself elected sheriff of a small town with a water shortage. Under the name of Rango our hero sets out with a posse to solve the problem.

Rango is a quirky and beautifully rendered animated slapstick comedy that also, sadly, drags in places. And despite referencing everything from the westerns of Sergio Leone to Chinatown to Apocalypse Now, Rango isn’t nearly as original or smart as it wants to be.

The story plays out in predictable fashion. Part One – ill-suited protagonist is mistaken for hero. Part Two – hero is forced to admit lies. Part Three – liar is given a moment of illumination and learns his lesson. Part Four – liar returns and becomes a true hero he was destined to be all along. You’ve seen this story before, many, many times.

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Red Robin #25

/ / Comics

Red Robin #25There’s much to recommend in the second-to-last issue of Red Robin. We get an appearance by Cassandra Cain (the former Batgirl who has been absent from the DCU since Stephanie Brown took over the role) who helps stop the latest group of assassins from killing our hero, and attempts to “kill” him herself.

Aside from surviving the attack by the sister of Ra’s al Ghul and uncovering a mystery opponent behind all of the attacks on his life, Red Robin must also deal with the fallout of his lies to Tam Fox about her father, help out Cain take on a ten year-old martial arts genuis who wipes Hong Kong with both of them (I want more of this story).

The real shocker comes in issue’s final panels where we see Red Robin’s impressive new base of operations as well as learn that our hero has “assassinated Captain Boomerang.” Like most of DC’s current Bat-titles I’m sorry to see this one going away, but it looks like the final issue will be a doozy. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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Captain America

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Captain America
  • IMDB: link

“To the rest of the world he’s Codename: Captain America. He may not be Superman, but he’ll be a living symbol of what this country stands for.”

Captain America posterCaptain America: The First Avenger is set to hit theaters this Friday but it isn’t the first attempt by Marvel Comics to translate their iconic hero to the big screen. While DC was churning out Batman and Superman flicks at will in the 80’s and early 90’s, Marvel was lagging behind. For the Captain America’s 50th Anniversary Marvel Comics put together a feature film centered around the hero.

Financing issues (which the production ran into after it had moved overseas for shooting in Europe) and the addition of stunt sequences, further re-shoots, and editing bogged the film down. Captain America went unreleased for two years. Although it did see the inside of theaters internationally, in the country of his origin poor Captain America was limited to a unheralded straight-to-video release.

The film begins neither in America nor in Germany, but in Mussolini’s Italy. A young boy is brutally ripped from his family and taken to a secret government laboratory where a reluctant scientist, Dr. Vaselli (Carla Cassola), will attempt to create the world’s first Super Soldier.

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