2 Razors

Tower Heist

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Tower Heist
  • IMDB: link

tower-heist-blu-rayDirector Brett Ratner hasn’t had what I would call a distinguished career. Other than the fun, but increasingly dumb, Rush Hour series the director’s filmography mostly contains movies which are best left forgotten.

However, at least for me, the true highlight of Ratner’s career was a heist film he made back in 2004 starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, and Don Cheadle. After the Sunset isn’t a great film by any definition, but it is a pretty good heist flick that’s far more fun than it has any right to be.

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Waste of Time

/ / Home Video
  • Title: In Time
  • IMDB: link

in-time-dvdIn a world where the population is genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, time becomes a commodity to be bartered, traded, and stolen. Without acquiring more time those who have already reached their 25th birthday begin to see the final year of their limited life start to fade away.

When a wealthy benefactor (Matt Bomer) looking to die bequeaths Will (Justin Timberlake) a century of time the young man from the ghetto learns the truth about how time is horded by the wealthiest class and decides to do something about it.

Kidnapping a young girl (Amanda Seyfried) and persued by a time cop (Cillian Murphy), Will does his best by living day to day with a limited amount of time by committing the worst crime in the world, the same thing that got his father killed – giving away time.

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Catch .44

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Catch .44
  • IMDB: link

catch-44-dvdI’m not sure if writer/director Aaron Harvey is attempting to give us nothing more than B-movie along the lines of 2 Days in the Valley or (God help us) Smokin’ Aces or if he aspires to something more like early Tarantino. Whatever his intentions, what Catch .44 delivers is a trio of attractive actresses, short skirts, a couple loving butt shots, and a movie not nearly as smart as it wants to be.

Our story begins with a theft of a drug shipment gone wrong. Our would be robbers are a trio of women working for a local drug trafficker (Bruce Willis). After the opening shootout the movie resets to the beginning of the night as Tes (Malin Akerman), Kara (Nikki Reed), and Dawn (Deborah Ann Woll) while away the hours together before their job goes horribly wrong.

Tes is the leader of the pack, or “the smart one.” A waitress in a seedy strip club who gets kicks by stealing customers wallets, she takes the job as a drug runner as much out of boredom as anything else.

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Birds of Prey #4

/ / Comics

birds-of-prey-new-52-4-coverIt takes more than half the issue but Batgirl finally joins the team. The addition of Batgil may mean good things for the future of the comic but it doesn’t do much to help out here as the story is still stuck in neutral with invisible ninja assassins and super-secret scientists planting bombs in peoples heads.

Birds of Prey is a comic I want to like but now for four months it’s given me little reason to do so. The addition of Batgirl isn’t the only change that needs to be made on this title. We still know next to nothing about Starling, Katana remains a one-note character, and I don’t see how Babs sticks around for a team that includes Poison Ivy as one of its members.

The good news is Batgirl works well here, especially with Black Canary. It’s good to see the Babs/Dinah team back together. Now if we can just figure out a way to get Zinda Blake and the Huntress to replace Poison Ivy and Katana we might, might have something. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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Nightwing #4

/ / Comics

nightwing-new-52-4-coverAnother of DC Comics New 52 titles goes off the rails. We know we’re in trouble from the very start when the comic is opened to find a that Trevor McCarthy has replaced Eddy Barrows as artist for this issue. Aside from not knowing what age to draw Dick Grayson (a common problem in Bat-books this month) McCarthy’s art is certainly slick, but he seems to be suffering from the same affliction of Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane in wanting to draw characters in awkward angles in big splash pages regardless of whether it helps tell the story (or makes sense).

The story is also confusing as Batgirl comes to town asking for Nightwing’s help (after telling him to stay away just one month ago). I don’t know if the writers’ were going for a Buffy/Angel homage here, but it’s impossible not to see the similarities with “Sanctuary” and “The Yoko Factor.”

The villain is an undeveloped stand-in for Clayface that comes off disappointing that the pair deal with without too much trouble. The more looming threat of a villain who knows Nightwing’s secrets is mentioned but instantly discarded.

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