Ondine

I don't know how this landed in the queue but I suspect sabotage.  Chick flicks are not my bag...though I did like Mystery, Alaska 1999...for the HOCKEY!!!  Okay, the dialogue in that was okay too.  So, Ondine is a chick flick and my stash of red envelopes was a bit thin, so I watched it.  Not bad, although for each day it took to finish this film, I had to make sure I watched at least 45 minutes of The NFL Network and check the mirror to make sure I still had a hairy chest and legs.

In short, an Irish fisherman finds a beautiful girl in his net.  His daughter who is suffering from kidney failure and who needs a miracle believes the girl is a mermaid, or selkie.  Your standard "boy gets girl, boy loses girl, and boy gets girl back" storyline is here as is the other storyline of "the character who is at first perceived as an oddball by the rest of the cast ends up being the miracle/savior the rest need."  No problem.

The acting was good but the cinematography was dark.  I don't mean it was dark like moody, but it was dark.  I couldn't see a lot of what was going on when shots were done at night or in shadow.  The directing was fine and the script, well, even if it were bad, accents have a way of covering that.  All said, I would not place this at the top of my list, but if it is date night and (guys) you want to feign giving a rip about possibly possessing a feminine side, go ahead and watch it.  There are, however, a ton of other movies that might take cuts in front of this one.

Let Me In

All the parts were done well, but still, I can't enthusiastically recommend it.  The acting was good, the directing was good, the script was good, and the cinematography really fit/made the mood of the film.  For those reasons I would recommend it, but because I also evaluate films on how I feel after watching them and what will be in store for the characters beyond the running of the credits at the film's end, I have reservations. 

Kodi Smit-McPhee is this amazingly white, scrawny 12 year old kid who, becuase of his unique looks and physique, is the target of your run of the mill school hooligans.  He reminds me of Lukas Haas from Witness (1985) in that the looks got him the role, but like Haas, you will probably not see him in too much more.  Life is hell  for him until Chloe Moretz moves in next door and as a vampire with crazy strength and appetites, she befriends him and acts out revenge.  Now that was satisfying.

So, I can't really recommend it as something to run out and see, but if you do get it and have kids, be sure they don't see it.  If they do, they'll never trust new kids in the neighborhood.

Hereafter

I am stuck on a gloomy vein of films and this is one of them.  I need some flowers, sunshine, puppies, and...and a pint of coconut chocolate chip ice cream.  Okay, the lives of 3 people in different parts of the world are followed: there is one who can reach the dead, one who was and came back, and finally one who wants to reach the dead.

A few classic lines are:
1.  One character has a gift that brings enlightenment and benefit to others, but when it is used, it results in pain to him.
2.  One character is willing to give it all up in order to pursue a path less travelled.
3.  One character suddenly loses the buffer he was able to hide behind and now must suddenly man up and fend for himself and can he do it.

This is Close Encounters of a Third Kind (1977), meets Rainman (1988) meets My Bodygaurd (1980).  As soon as the movie started and I met the players, I knew their lines would cross and that I was in for one of those "will they meet, won't they meet, ah come on Ron, you know they will so stop wondering" deals.  That was okay, the acting made up for it as did the cinematography.  The cinematography was awesome by the way as it really kept the mood and feel of the movie intact.  The directing was good as was the acting.  The script was good too.

The tough thing is really recommending this as a must see.  I can't.  If it is there in the house, see it.  If you have to make too much effort to get it, don't.

The Next Three Days

Bail on it.  It took far too long for me to get through this thing and yes, there is tension, there is drama, there is good acting and all, but it was missing something.  It was like Egg Nog at Christmas missing the bourbon.  It was good, but it was missing that kick and eventual warm feeling you get in your stomach after a good experience.

Crowe's wife is sent to prison for a crime that only she, the real murderer and the victim know she didn't commit.  She is sentenced, goes to jail, and exhausts all possible appeals etc.  She gets busted out of jail and the last 15 minutes of tension don't outweigh the previous 118 minutes. 

I was into the knowledge that this was a prison escape moive and was looking forward to it, but in retrospect, 1979's 'Escape from Alcatraz,' 1994's 'Shawshank Redemption,' and 1996's 'The Rock' are far better uses of time that you might want to spend on prison break out/in movies.

Layer Cake

See it!  Awesome!  The cover posted here is a sham as to the character played by Craig, unless this was a DVD box cover test for his upcoming roles as James Bond.  This is so like Guy Ritchie films with respect to its UK gangster stuff, but the class of gangster (for the most part) is like comparing the Godfather series to the Soporano series. 

Daniel Craig has a plan to make his cash as a drug dealer and then get out.  As usual, there is one favor that he is asked/forced to do for one of the top dogs in the business.  Twists, turns, and more twists come in to play and, wow, it was good.  The film is tied together well and through all the twists and double crosses, there are no loose ends when it ends.  Awesome.

The writing was good, the script was good, the directing was good and the acting was awesome.  In the acting, you get a few surprises.  If you have seen the Band of Brothers series, Dexter Fletcher was a surprise.  I swear I thought he was a Yank.  Sienna Miller was amazing.  At first I thought she was Jessica Simpson until she started acting.  Based on her skills as an actress, no, she was definitely not Jessica Simpson.  In fact, if Jessica Simpson needs an acting double for her roles, she should call Sienna.

True Grit

Remember how I said that actors and directors sometimes travel in packs?  Here it is again...Matt Damon, Barry Pepper, and Steven Spielberg.  Together in Saving Private Ryan and back again here.  All good.

True Grit is a 2010 remake by the Coen brothers of the 1969 original.  They can be credited with doing a ton of quality stuff and really kind of skewing things in intriquing ways.  This is a watchable film, but man, it takes so long to get going to the last 30 minutes or so and then, it becomes bleak and depressing in the end and really makes you question why you suffered through the first 70%. 

Okay, maybe not suffer.  The acting is great and Jeff Bridges has and always will be one of my favorite actors.   Matt Damon does well, but for the most part, the script was really kind of interesting.  Just about every character seemed to be some sort of mix between Ted Levine's Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lamb's and John Malkovich's Lenny in Of Mice and Men: just on odd but deliberate speech tempo spoken by people with a low IQ.  That is of course except for Hailee Steinfeld who played Mattie Ross.  She had it down and was smart as a whip.  She reminded me of the know it all type of girls I despised in junior high school.

So a girl's father is killed and she sets off to enlist a Marshall to hunt down the killer and kill him.  They do, the end.

The directing was good, the acting and script were great, and the cinematography was really good too.  However, there was something so lacking that I can't really recommend it.  The four key components that either add or detract from a movie were all there, but they were like a really nice paint job, sweet rims, Ricaro racing seats and a killer stereo all placed within and on a '71 Pinto.

Unstoppable

WATCH IT!  Within 2 minutes I was in.  Of course, I am a dude and I love trains.  I guess it is the power and the predictability of them that I like so much.  Whatever.  A train that is at full throttle and loaded with enough nasty chemical stuff to level an entire Pennsylvania town is powering through the state without a driver. 

Many movies work this theme and that is, there is something out of control that is on its way to a final massive destructive crescendo and the entire 90-120 minutes of the movie shows the preparation of those involved working to avert that disaster.  They either avert it or they don't and we 'the loser audience' will endure the duration just to see the explosive effects presented by the special effects crew.  Not this movie: throughout, it is punctuated with mini-disasters along the way.  AWESOME!  This is one of the few...the VERY FEW...that I watched again the next day.

Denzel Washington is a true actor.  In each role he takes, he is a different character: The Book of Eli, Philadelphia, etc.  He is awesome.  New comer Chris Pine (Star Trek, Bottle Shock, etc) is the same, though not as dynamic in his acting range.  His characters all have at their core a dude who is pretty sharp and who is able to overcome the lack of a sustained dedication (and the experience that dedication to one thing would bring) with his smarts.  The two play really well together and yeah, good movie, good movie.

The script was great, the directing was really good too.  It and the cinematography with grainy, choppy shots, really enhanced the intensity of the film without being too choppy to the point of inducing nausea and eventual vomiting.