2.5 Razors

3:10 to Yuma Redux

/ / Home Video
  • Title: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
  • IMDb: link

“Just remember, it’s your old man that hauled Ben Wade to that station… when nobody else would.”

3:10 to Yuma

This remake of the 1957 film (read that review) makes a few changes to the tale.  The down-on-his-luck farmer Dan Evans (Christian Bale) still agrees to help deliver the notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to justice, but in this version his reasons are just as much about making himself look better in his son’s eyes (Logan Leman) as providing for his family.

The inclusion of the son on the adventure changes the dynamic of the relationship and the one-upsmanship between Ben and Dan.  Although this gives the film a fresh take on the story, it’s a take that isn’t as good as the original.

Also of interest here is the peculiar ending which seems haphazardly put together.  In the first film Wade reluctantly helps Dan at the last minute, but here Wade and Dan almost become bosom pals (which was the intention of director James Mangold) as they race through the town trying to catch the train.  So the tense psychological drama is dropped in favor of a buddy film. Sigh.

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Lions for Lambs

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Lions for Lams
  • IMDb: link

“These events are going to define our lives.”
“The problem is not with the people who started this.  The problem is with us, who do nothing.”

Lions for Lambs movie review

Robert Redford‘s latest flick is what we would call a message film.  The characters themselves aren’t that important; they are only there to promote the message the director and writer want to convey.  The odd thing about the film is, for a message film, it’s all over the place.

The film moves through three different storylines.  The first involves a professor (Redford) trying to motivate on of his brightest but most apathetic students (Andrew Garfield).  The second involves the preemptive Republican nominee for President (Tom Cruise) giving an interview to a reporter (Meryl Streep) about a new military strategy.  The third story involves a group of Army Rangers (including Michael Pena and Peter Berg) making an attack inside Afghanistan.

It doesn’t really matter how the different threads connect, but if you care go see the film or simply check out the trailer.  What is important is the message of the film and what it sets out to say about America, our government, and our responsibilities and duties both at home and overseas.

Although the performances are all quite good I had more than a few issues.  I never bought Cruise as a Presidential nominee, though I could buy him as a Senator promoting his own agenda.  Nor did I buy Streep as the ace reporter who becomes too easily flustered by the circumstances and events in which she finds herself.

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Bee Movie

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

Bee Movie movie review

After graduating college a disillusioned Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) leaves the hive and travels into the outside world.  Barry isn’t ready to buckle down to one job for the rest of his life.  His adventure goes awry, as these things do in movies like this, and Barry finds himself staying with a florist named Vanessa Bloom (Renee Zellweger).  Barry falls hard for the beautiful human and breaks the bee’s taboo never to talk to people.

His friendship with Vanessa leads him to learn of humans consumption of honey, which in turn leads Barry, with the help of his pal Adam (Matthew Broderick) to sue all of humanity for stealing honey.

The film includes many colorful characters Barry meets on his journey, all voiced by well-known actors including Vanessa’s jealous boyfriend (Patrick Warburton), a mosquito named Mooseblood (Chris Rock), the famous Bee Larry King (Larry King), a sneaky Southern attorney (John Goodman), and Ray Liota (playing himself as the owner of a huge honey business).

Although there are a few moments that may make you smile and the film has an important message about the environment and how all living things are tied together, it is also lacking in many areas.  First there are some puzzlers, like why are there so many female bees in the hive?  The Queen Bee is elected?  Why is she called a queen?  I could go on and on about little nagging problems like this but there are bigger fish to fry.  There are no memorable jokes or big laughs, nor does the story ever elevate itself to the level of a feature film.  Instead what we get, though well done, feels like a straight-to-DVD release or something you’d see on Nickelodeon.  While many might enjoy this, mostly young kids, I don’t know how happy parents will be paying $10 a pop for it.

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Lights Out

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

“Our sun is dying.  Mankind faces extinction.  Seven years ago the Icarus project sent a mission to restart the sun but that mission was lost before it reached the star.  Sixteen months ago, I, Robert Capa, and a crew of seven left Earth frozen in a solar winter.  Our payload, a stellar bomb with a mass equalivant to Manhattan Island; our purpose, to create a star within a star.”

sunshine-poster

50 years into the future our sun is dying.  One mission to restart the star has already failed; now the fate of the world and the entire human race rests in the hands of the crew of the Icarus II who will attempt a desperate mission to try and re-ignite the sun using all of the world’s remaining nuclear weapons. It’s an interesting set-up as we begin with the crew already 50,000,000 miles away from Earth when the discovery of the first Icarus spacecraft and a small miscalculation put the lives of the crew, and the entire population of Earth, in jeopardy.

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Odd Duck

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

Joshua

What if your child had always been a little odd, and you eventually began wondering if he wasn’t evil?  Joshua asks this question, and the result is a mixed, though memorable, result that, although I can’t recommend, is still better than expected.

To the causual observer the Cairn’s are your typical upper-middle class family.  Brad (Sam Rockwell) works too hard in an investment company, Abby (an almost unrecognizable Vera Farmiga) stays home and takes care of their son Joshua (Jacob Kogan) and thier newborn daughter Lily.  Scratch the surface however and you’ll find plenty of troubles in the Cairn home.

To begin with Abby has a history of mental problems and increasing anxiety over not being able to care for her new baby.  And then there’s Joshua who, to put it politely, is a little off.  When the family begins to spiral out of control Brad begins to suspect that everything can be traced to one cause – his son.  Is this young nine-year-old responsible for it all?

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