2.5 Razors

Heartbreakers

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Heartbreakers
  • IMDb: link

Heartbreakers2001’s Heartbreakers, a film about a mother/daughter (Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt) team of con artists working to scam to separate a wealthy man (Gene Hackman) from his money, is more notable for its cast than its plot. Yearning to get out from under her mother’s thumb Page (Hewitt) decides to target her own mark in a goodhearted bar owner (Jason Lee) she inevitable falls for. The women also must deal with their last previous mark (Ray Liotta) who shows up looking for his money.

More dumb romcom than smart heist/con film, Heartbreakers is a mixed bag, although it does provide some humorous moments. The cast (including appearances by Anne Bancroft, Ricky Jay, and Sarah Silverman) is fine but they’re mostly slumming it here in movie that belongs on home video. Re-released on Blu-ray, the movie includes the previous behind-the-scenes feturettes and deleted scenes but lacks the audio commentary from the DVD release.

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Daredevil #2

/ / Comics

Daredevil #2In both as a vigilante and in his new role as an Assistant District Attorney, Daredevil continues to take on the new gang leader Tenfingers whose control over his followers is explained in the new series’ second issue. Suffering a loss in the courtroom when Tenfingers’ agents manage to get to the state’s star witness is nothing compared to the trouble Daredevil steps in at the end of the issue when The Hand shows up to take back the power Tenfingers stole from them.

I understand the choice in putting Daredevil in the prosecutor’s office, but I’m having a hard time accepting Matt Murdock, the champion of lost causes and the little guy, in that role. Nor am I sold on his new sidekick Blindspot whose only interesting attribute two issues in seems to be his suit’s powered invisibility.

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Youth

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Youth
  • IMDb: link

YouthWriter/director Paolo Sorrentino‘s Youth is the kind of ensemble dramedy you will either buy into immediately or struggle to make any connection to throughout its two-hour running time. My experience with the film falls into the later category. Sorrentino’s script gives us an odd collection of characters at an otherworldly resort in the Swiss Alps. The main storylines revolve around retired composer Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) and his relationships to his best friend filmmaker Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) and Fred’s daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz).

Sorrentino’s film isn’t lacking for either on-screen talent or style. Although not in the category of their best performances, the ensemble plays well off one another. And the film looks terrific but, since we are viewing events through an unreliable protagonist in Frank, its unclear how much of the magic is actually present in the odd resort and how much (such as his hallucinations) are entirely figments of his imagination. I suppose, like most of the movie’s superflous plot and characters, it doesn’t really matter.

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All-New X-Men #2

/ / Comics

All-New X-Men #2The newest volume of All-New X-Men continues to focus on the time-displaced X-Men from the past and the friends they have made in the present. Issue #2 gives us more of X-23 (renamed Wolverine now) and Angel‘s romance, but it’s primary focus is to catch up on the younger Cyclops who feels trapped following the death of his older self.

After hiding for weeks without using his powers Cyclops unleashes his power to fight off a group of young mutant thugs causing trouble under the name the “Ghosts of Cyclops.” The use of his powers not only allows his friends to finally locate him but also gets the character thrown into prison for his role in destroying the local library.

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Daredevil #1

/ / Comics

Daredevil #1For the third time in five years Daredevil relaunches in a new title. Since the last time I checked in on the character a lot has changed. Matt Murdoch has relocated back to New York from San Francisco, he’s somehow made the entire world (with the exception of Foggy Nelson) forget that he’s Daredevil, he’s taken on a protege in Blindspot, he’s altered his trademark red costume, and he has forsaken his role as a defense attorney to accept a position with the District Attorney’s office. That’s a lot of change (not all of it good).

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