3 Razors

Gone Baby Gone

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Gone Baby Gone
  • IMDB: link

“If we don’t catch the abductor by day one only about 10% are ever solved.  This is day three.”

Tough choices and consequences
The story begins with the disappearance of a young girl (Madeline O’Brien) from her home.  Two private investigators, Patrick Kezie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), are hired by the girl’s aunt (Amy Madigan) and her husband (Titus Welliver) to find her.

Ben Affleck, who does double duty here by co-writing the film, his first since Good Will Hunting (he adapted the tale from Dennis Lehane‘s novel), and directing his first feature, produces a pretty good flick.  Centered around the poorer section of Boston each character feels real.  It may not be a pretty view of America, but, sadly, it’s a far more realistic one than most of us are willing to admit.

For the first hour the film slowly unfolds as the investigation by John Ashton (Sgt. Taggart!!) and Ed Harris and led by Morgan Freeman uncovers only dead ends and false leads.  The case is complicated by the mother’s (Amy Ryan) drug addiction, her recent decisions, and the people surrounding her that may have a reason to hurt her, or possibly her child.

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Elizabeth, Take Two

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
  • IMDb: link

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Director Shekhar Kapur‘s follow-up to 1998’s Elizabeth is something of a train wreck, a lush and well acted train wreck to be sure, but a train wreck none the less.

Where the first movie chronicled Elizabeth’s (Cate Blanchett) rise to the throne this film splits in focus in many directions including the Queen’s fascination and friendship with the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), court intrigue and her relationship with one of her ladies in waiting, the “other” Elizabeth (Abbie Cornish), Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush) investigating and torturing traitors, the plot to assassinate the Queen and to put Mary Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) on the throne, the machinations of King Phillip II of Spain (Jordi Molla), and the war between England and Spain.  If that’s not enough we also get subplots including Elizabeth’s (Cornish) brother (Steven Robertson), Walsingham’s son (Adam Godley), a burgeoning relationship between Elizabeth (Cornish) and Raleigh.

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In the Valley of Elah

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: In the Valley of Elah
  • IMDb: link

In the Valley of Elah

When I saw the trailer to this film I couldn’t get over how much it reminded me of your average Ashley Judd thriller/mystery vehicle (and isn’t it odd how Theron is even made up to like a little like Judd?).  Though the film turns out better than I expected, given its marvelous performances, it still gets stuck by the confines of its genre – complete with a head shaking and nonsensical ending.

Former Army Sergeant, and crime scene analyst, Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) is informed his son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) is back from Iraq but AWOL from the base.

Hank leaves home and travels down to look for his son but can make no headway in the investigation and tries to enlist the help of a local cop, Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron).  Things only get murkier when his son’s burnt and chopped up body parts are found on the side of the road.

Unwilling to let the Army investigate, and most likely hush up the crime, Emily and Hank work together to try and piece together his son’s last few hours and try to understand how and why his life ended in such a brutal act of violence.

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Jodie Foster’s Death Wish

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Brave One
  • IMDb: link

The Brave One

After radio talk show host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) and her fiancée (Naveen Andrews) are brutally attacked in the park by a gang she wakes up in the hospital beaten and frightened after weeks in a coma.  Her fiancée is dead, her dog is gone, and the men who are responsible are still free.

In an attempt to get control of her life Erica buys a gun and puts herself, sometimes purposefully sometimes by accident, into dangerous situations where violence will occur.  Though she is repulsed and frightened she also seeks out these situations and even begins to enjoy herself.  She becomes a vigilante and imposes her own brand of brutal justice on her victims.

She also meets and befriends NY Detective Mercer (Terrence Howard) who is struggling with the limitations of the system and also trying to help Erica come to grips with what happened to her.  As the clues to the vigilante’s identity begin to pile up Mercer begins to suspect his new friend might be responsible.

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Arctic Tale

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Arctic Tale
  • IMDb: link

Arctic Tale

The documentary, as narrated by Queen Latifah, follows a handful of arctic creatures.  The main focus of the film is the separate stories of two animals: a polar bear named Nanu and a walrus named Seela.  The documentary begins with their births and development and follows each of them through the first eight years of their lives as they grow, mature, and have children of their own.  Somebody cue up “Circle of Life” from The Lion King.

As a documentary for young viewers it does a good job of setting up the life cycles of its main characters and explaining how the changing climate in the arctic is effecting everything.  Though adults won’t really find any new information, the film does work as a good primer for kids.  It is well shot and compiled, including many scenes which you wonder how close the camera men got to their subjects, and for adults wanting something educational to watch and discuss with their youngsters this will suffice.

What doesn’t work?  The documentary is geared to young children and although Latifah never comes off as condescending, at times it does seem to talk down to kids.  It is also filled with some juvenile fart humor that anyone over the age of ten will grow tired of quickly enough.  And finally, the film is filled with musical cues that are a little too cute for me.  An example, when discussing the family of walruses, “We Are Family” begins to play.

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