Morgan P Salvo

Kick-Ass is a goofy, mixed-up movie that examines what would happen if regular people became super heroes. I don't think this movie is sure what it is: teenage angst flick, revenge crime-stopper thriller or sensitive slice-of-life indie slacker comedy. But one thing is sure: Kick-Ass has tons of spurting blood combined with more than enough curse words to garnish an R-rating, plus an 11-year-old heroine using the “c” word and chopping off limbs like a ninja assassin. Basically this movie has its moments, but it's a mess.

A Prophet is a French prison/mob film that sucks you in from the first scene. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture, I guarantee this movie will inspire you to recommend it to others a) because it's that good and b) because… it's just that good.
Prophet is the story of the transformation of an impoverished young Frenchman of Arab descent, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), and his Machiavellian rise to power within the prison system. Learning the ropes as he goes, Malik is a quick study. From the Muslim gangs to the Corsican mob led by César Luciani (Niels Arestrup), he constantly absorbs knowledge.

I was never a big fan of the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans. Believe it or not, a painfully tired Laurence Olivier as Zeus, and mini-skirt-wearing Harry Hamlin with flowers in his hair just didn't do it for me. But the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion special effects were cool. For decades, Harryhausen was the go-to guy for all things monsters — – Three Sinbad Voyage movies, Jason and the Argonauts and Mysterious Island to name a few. Faithfully, this Clash of the Titans includes all of Harryhausen's monsters from the original with pumped-up technology and CGI. Unfortunately, Clash tried to cash in on the Avatar-inspired 3D craze as an afterthought, adding it in later in production, and suffers for it.

Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan has garnered respect over the years for his long list of eclectic and stylish movies, including The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica and Felicia's Journey. Now with Chloe, his newest entry into the erotically charged pseudo-thriller genre, Egoyan cannot rest on his laurels, as his reputation will certainly backpedal as a result of Chloe, one of the most tedious movies I've had the displeasure of seeing.
Chloe begins promising enough, with Amanda Seyfried adorning black stockings and garters in soft-focused photography resembling a Penthouse magazine cover. While we listen to her monologue rationalizing why it's perfectly acceptable to be a prostitute because it's rewarding to be someone's dream girl, we stop and think, “How farfetched is this going to be?”

Sharing nothing in common with Alex Cox's 1984 punk-rock-crazy Repo Man yet more aligned with Darren Lynn Bousman's 2008 film Repo!: The Genetic Opera, this Repo Men has some wit, violence and gore, but also some problems. Like Saw VI, this film provides commentary (albeit only at surface level) on the current health care debate.
Repo Men introduces us to the future with a news voiceover montage of how things came to be: global recession, fifth stage of war in Nigeria, technological breakthroughs. A corporation called The Union manufactures technologically sophisticated artificial organs, or “artiforgs” marketed and sold to gullible customers at exorbitant prices. The downside lies in the fine print that tells patients that if payments aren't made, hotshot repo men are sent to cut them open and yank out the bionic organ. Then, of course, you die.

The Green Zone is what action movies are supposed to look like. A suspenseful, high-voltage, in-your-face action drama with a plausible scenario, this may be the best action flick I've ever seen. And if film editor Christopher Rouse doesn't get an Academy Award for his work, there is no justice in this world.
With a premise inspired by the real-life events found in Rajiv Chandrasekaran's 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Green Zone is the story of a U.S. Army officer who went rogue after discovering faulty intelligence and was instrumental in blowing the lid off the truth behind WMDs during the same year the Pentagon and the White House were declaring “mission accomplished.” The movie takes its cues from the ignorance and objectives that came from inside the Green Zone, a safety area including the old Republican Palace where American decision-makers were cut off from Iraqi reality.

Going into Brooklyn's Finest I didn't expect something special, but I came out somewhat amazed at how bland it really was. It's a lame attempt at combining Training Day and Crash that comes off like a mediocre television crime drama.
Finest begins with an ominous black car silhouetted in front of a New York cityscape, as Vincent D'Onofrio delivers a foreboding monologue about what's “righter and wronger” in the fight between cops and lawbreakers. We lose his character quickly, but then a trio of stories begins. We get Dugan (Richard Gere), a drunken suicidal “doesn't-give-a-shit” loser cop with seven days left before retirement and Sal (Ethan Hawke), a Catholic-guilt-ridden, crooked, sociopathic narcotics cop ready to kill and swindle money for the good of his pregnant wife and growing family. Then there's Tango (Don Cheadle), a conflicted undercover cop deep into the drug scene, dealing with the dilemma of busting his long-lost pal Caz (Wesley Snipes) who once saved his life. Tango and Caz… get it? Other stereotypical characters are Will Patton as the grizzled nice guy detective and Ellen Barkin, resembling a cornered bulldog, doing her tough-mama-agent routine.

The Crazies is based on the 1973 George A. Romero flick of the same name and joins the ranks of newly remade apocalyptic scenarios, though this 2010 version borrows only marginally from the original.
While Crazies '73 was set in Pennsylvania, this time the plot revolves around the inhabitants of Ogden Marsh, a small Iowa town suddenly plagued by an outbreak of insanity and death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. From the opening scene of a disheveled guy interrupting a kids' softball game carrying a shotgun, Sherriff Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) and Deputy Clank (Joe Anderson) figure something is wrong in their little community. Bouts of insanity are eventually traced to the town's water supply where a plane has mysteriously crashed. Afterward the military moves in, dispensing martial law and wiping Ogden Marsh off the map along with all its inhabitants, infected or not. Where the 1973 classic was more politically motivated, dead set on making parallels to the Vietnam War, the Kent State shootings, this Crazies is more personal, focusing on Sheriff Dutton and his wife/ town doctor (Radha Mitchell) as they battle the evil gas-mask-wearing military on one side and vein-popping wide-eyed crazies on the other.

Martin Scorsese was my favorite filmmaker for at least two decades. It was not until the Dicaprio era kicked off with Gangs of New York and the Aviator that I started to lose faith. Not to blame Leo so much (as most do), he isn't such a bad actor. But with Shutter Island comes near redemption – it's almost a good flick.
Based on Dennis Lehane's (Mystic River) novel, Shutter Island takes place in 1954 at an insane asylum/correctional compound on an island in the middle of the Boston Harbor that specializes in the containment and care of the most dangerous criminally insane. It's a fortress of abstract terror, surrounded by cliffs on all sides. U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) ride a ferry out to investigate the disappearance of a patient. What begins as a simple missing person investigation slowly morphs into full-on psychological horror. As more disturbing revelations come to pass, the stress starts eating away at Daniels' nerves. It revives his alcoholic past while creating parallels with Nazi science experiments and death camps.

The Wolfman looked like it might be OK, beginning with a lone figure prowling the moors at night, segueing into the first beastly attack. But resurrecting a horror icon should be done with some pizzazz, and the only thing this Wolfman has down is the lavish, Gothic sets.
The plot revives the classic werewolf tale. Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) returns to his family estate to investigate his brother's death, deal with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins) and contend with a horrifying family legacy. The full moon looms and evil transformation is imminent. But this one made me miss even the abysmal Wolf with Jack Nicholson, not to mention Lon Chaney Jr's sensitive portrayal in George Waggner's 1941 version.