Shutter Island
Shutter Island is a story informed by the conventions of film noir:  our hero, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a World War II veteran struggling to make sense out of post-war America.  There is a palpable tension in every scene, a world of shadows rarely touched by light, and of course a mystery is afoot:  a patient on Shutter Island has mysteriously disappeared from her cell without a trace.  As a U.S. Marshal, Daniels has volunteered to investigate the "escape" at the secretive institute.  Daniels has that reputation of "always getting his man"; he's a sharp detective, but he's also deeply troubled.  As he first steps onto the grounds of the island, the film cuts to his experience liberating concentration camp prisoners at Dachau.  The... READ MORE >>>

Formosa Betrayed
The big screen might have found one of it’s new leading men in the form of James Van Der Beek, if his performance in the political thriller Formosa Betrayed is any indication.  Hats off to the casting people.  Hartnett, Di Caprio, Tatum take note.    Van Der Beek (TV’s Dawson’s Creek) plays an FBI agent sent to Taiwan (Formosa) to observe and report the murder of a Taiwanese- American professor during the early 1980’s.  His task is helped/hampered by  US diplomat Susan Kane (Wendy Crewson) who knows the lay of the land and speaks the language and a Taiwanese official (The Lady Killers’ Tzi Ma). What he finds is a complex mix of double-dealing, patriotism, capitalism, gangsters, and of course murder, all in the name... READ MORE >>>

The Hurt Locker
Ouch.  That’s what it felt like watching The Hurt Locker.  This is supposed to be director Kathryn Bigelow’s near perfect film, a masterpiece.  Unfortunately, I have to disagree and I take no pleasure in doing so.  At one point around the 40 minute mark I had to put my head in my hands.  How could one of the most celebrated films of the year make me feel this way?  Taking place during the United States war with Iraq circa 2004, an “elite” squadron whose assignment is to locate, disarm, or detonate explosives loses their Staff Sergeant to the many hazards of this line of work and is replaced with SSG William James (Jeremy Renner).  It goes up in smoke from here.    Renner’s (The Assassination... READ MORE >>>

The Wolfman
The Wolfman seems to be trying to stay true to the classic, gothic films from Universal Studios of the the 1930's, even though it was a late comer (1941).  The story, the characters, the dark and foreboding tone, the fear of monsters all harken back to the original film.  The basic story remains the same, and credit is given to the original screenplay author, Curt Siodmak.     So, take a good idea and improve upon it.  One difference is the the early Wolf Man takes place in its present day of 1941, but the new Wolfman is set in Victorian England, which makes it even more romantic and moody.  Instead of Lon Chaney, Jr. we now have Benicio Del Toro (Traffic).  Del Toro has... READ MORE >>>

Terribly Happy
A disgruntled and unhappy cop from a capitol city is transferred to a small, peaceful, crime free town near the edge of nowhere.  There is no explanation for the absence of the previous police presence.  At least one person in town has disappeared and nobody seems to care.  It's a difficult adjustment from cosmopolitan to village sensibilities for the cop.  Sound like a description of Hot Fuzz, the fast paced, hysterical crime comedy from 2007?       Terribly Happy couldn't be a more diametrically opposed cop-out-of-water film.  Where all the inhabitants of Hot Fuzz's village were sociable, polite and charming, the denizens of Terribly Happy's outpost are moody, taciturn and almost hostile. Whereas Fuzz's British citizens were dropping like flies in a summer evening's electric fly... READ MORE >>>