In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, Green Lantern Needs More Light

I went into Green Lantern expecting a solid summer action movie and that’s exactly what I got. Therefore, I don’t get a lot of the hatred directed towards this film. Critics have been giving this long-gestating DC comic book adaptation, a not so great review. The movie opens with a brief rundown of the history of the Green Lantern Corps, the galactic police force at the center of the universe. Afterwards the audience is wisked right into action: on a distant, uncharted planet this films foe, Parallax is unleashed and begins a crusade of terror throughout the universe, feeding on the fear of its victims.

One of the patriarch Lanterns dedicated to stopping Parallax becomes mortally wounded in battle and must flee to the nearest inhabited planet to choose his successor before his death. Landing on Earth, the Lantern's ring, one of the primary sources of a their power, chooses hotshot test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) as his succesor. Jordan is haunted by the death of his father, something that pushes him into depths of loneliness and irresponsibility to the dismay of his colleagues, particularly his on-and-off love interest Carol Ferris (Blake Lively).

The ring’s glowing green power brings Hal to the location of the fatally injured Lantern's crashed ship and has the ring imparted to him before the alien dies. Soon after, he is journeying to new worlds including the planet Oa, the home of the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians, divine alien beings who harnessed the green energy of will that gives the Lanterns their strength and the yellow energy that powers Parallax. With Parallax on a path of destruction heading for Earth and a scientist named Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) infected by the being’s evil power, Hal Jordan has no choice but to take on his Green Lantern identity and save earth from the dark might of Parallax.

What helps make Green Lantern work are the scenes that take place off earth: they are visually stunning and help to capture the silly spirit of the comics.  The planet Oa is incredible to look at and the individual members of the Corps are a delight to watch, and the casting of the Lanterns who guide and train Hal is absolutely perfect. The human characters, on the other hand, are a touch off base. Ryan Reynolds is not a perfect Hal Jordan, but his wit and charm make it work.  Blake Lively is a good love interest, but that’s the extension of her character development, nothing beyond it.  Peter Sarsgaard (Flight Plan) makes for a decent villain even though his evil role was not terribly relevant to the plot. The cinematography by Dion Beebe is bright and colorful and the production design work by Grant Major is awesome.

Green Lantern is a good movie. It's no Dark Knight, but then again, what is?

It's A One Man Show

Buried

Shooting a whole movie about a man buried alive is undeniably an impressive cinematic idea, and director Rodrigo Cortes pulls it off. The entire running time is spent inside a coffin with a man who’s been interred alive. This man is Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) who awakens tied up in total darkness—which means we hear his desperation before we see it. Thumps, scratches, gasps emanate from a black screen as the movie begins…and then Paul finds a lighter and flicks it on, and we become aware of the details of his predicament only as he does. Right of the bat, Cortes makes the audience feel as if they are right there, suffering, with Reynolds. Extreme close-ups of his face help convey the initial claustrophobia, that one can only hope will seize to let up as the movie continues.

What makes the movie interesting is that there are no flashbacks to reveal how he got there. The camera shot does not move off of Reyonld's confined body the entire ninety minutes. The only details as to the who, what, where, when, and why of this 'situation' are only revealed through conversations he has on a cell phone (not his own) he finds in the coffin. We soon learn that he has been kidnapped in Iraq by insurgents, and that he’s not a soldier, but simply a relief worker who was driving a supply truck when the convoy was ambushed.

The movie centers on Paul's frustrated attempts to call for help (Phone is in another language, ouch) reaching only voice mails and uncooperative, dispassionate operators, all while his wife is seemingly unreachable. The screen play, written by Chris Sparling, is ingenious; it is consistently clever in the way it drops hints and suggestions about Paul’s life and relationships. Sparling even manages to make Paul, and the audience for that matter, more claustrophobic then they already are, involving a visitor to Paul's coffin. BURIED is a well-paced series of alternations between Paul’s frantic conversations with the unseen supporting characters and stretches where, totally alone, he runs a range of emotions in response to his confinement. Reyonld's steps outside his usual romantic comedy and hits this thrilling masterpiece out of the park. He's not a hero like in his upcoming film, Green Lantern, which happens to make his situation all the more unnerving--he's just a regular guy.

Rodrigo Cortes does an excellent job escalating the claustrophobia. What makes the movie work is that it traps you in that coffin right beside Paul, wondering how long the air will last, the survival of his cell phone battery life and ultimately, his own. BURIED doesn't grab it's audience's attention by the cliche jumps, jolts, and pop out scenes but rather it brutally and diabolically tightens its suspense screws as the movie progresses, not only keeping Paul mercilessly trapped, but also you.

The OC meets Fight Club?

Never Back Down is not a remake, I repeat, not a remake, although it might as well be. Simply put, the plot of the movie we've all seen before, the underdog earns self respect while training with a master then puts it all together for the final showdown.  Despite the lack of creativity in Never Back Down, there is something about it that just, well, works.

Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) is a mild-mannered guy with a quick-trigger temper (And I mean quick-temper). Mention his father's death in a drunk driving accident and he'll go ballistic. His reputation precedes him to his new high school in Orlando. The school's hotshot bully, Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), wants to teach the newcomer a lesson by giving him a beating, and that he does by using his attractive girlfriend, Baja (Amber Heard), to lure Jake to a party where Ryan plans on embarrassing him in front of the entire crowd. Initially, Jake refuses to fight, yet with instigation involving his father, he's ready to go (And shirtless). With cell phone cameras capturing every moment of the action, Jake gets the crap beaten out of him.

The scene is very, Fight Club meets The OC. You have your perfect looking high school students (that are most likely all 25 years old), wearing their expensive clothing (Money provided by the parentals), a mansion bigger than Opera's, a pool shaped like...well not your typical shaped pool, a few girls making out in a tub (I suppose this is realistic), and of course the fight. All things you'll find in The OC, including Cam Gigandet, (Kevin Volchok: infamous for the killing of skinny girl, Mischa Barton). The next day, accompanied by his new geeky friend Max (Evan Peters, Kick Ass), Jake visits a gym for a little training. There, a big, black version of Mr. Miyagi named Jean Roqua (Djimon Honsou) takes Jake under his wing and prepares him for the inevitable re-match.

The movie is good. The fights are energetic, and the soundtrack is awesome. Never Back Down is solid. It may have a recycled plot and different characters going through the same motions of past movies but director Jeff Wadlow delivers what young audiences are looking for: good bodies on good looking people, good music and an underdog ending.

There is a lesson, it might not be the best one but there is one:  violence is bad unless you're teaching the antagonist a lesson and the point is driven home by a humiliating beat down captured on hundreds of iphones (while the crowd cheers from the hoods of an excessive amount of colorful Hummers).

Oh, and there's lots of abs. LOTS.

Scary Beyond Belief Serial Killer Thriller

Identity
I really had no idea what to expect when I started watching this movie, and honestly I am glad that I didn't. I won't give away too much about the plot because it may ruin any surprise that's left (if the previews didn't already give it away). At the beginning, it appears that this movie is just another hashing of the horror genre's predictable stereotypes, but as you delve deeper into the movie and the plot you'll realize that there is something more profound at the movie's core. By means of misdirection and trickery, you'll be led down a path to believe what you and director James Mangold want you to believe. Because the film sets you up with the same old-same old and cliches of all thriller plots, you won't be tempted to think outside of the box and that leads you into the big unexpected surprise that comes out of nowhere. Once you figure out what's really going on, you'll have to do some more sleuthing to find out how the movie is going to end. The problem is, that once you reach your conclusion, the last few minutes of the movie might just prove you wrong.

The movie starts out exceedingly common and very simple. On a dark and rainy evening, several people find themselves stranded at a run-down motel in the middle of nowhere because all the roads have been washed out or are impassable. The cast of characters include: Ed (John Cusack), an ex-cop turned chauffer who shuttles around a fallen starlet (Rebecca De Mornay) ; Paris (Amanda Peet) a reformed stripper who is leaving Las Vegas for a more Sunkist life in Florida; Officer Rhodes (Ray Liotta) and his convict charge Maine (Jake Busey) who is being moved to a new prison; George (John C. McGinley), whose wife Alice (Leila Kinzle) was gravely injured when she was struck by Ed's limo. Quietly taking all of this in is their son, Timmy. He doesn't know what to make of everything and is deathly afraid. There is also a Norman Bates wannabe Larry (John Hawkes) who runs the ramshackle motor lodge; and two not-so-happy newlyweds Lou (William Lee Scott) and Ginny (Clea DuVall) on their honeymoon.

                                                                    

True to Hollywood form, as the rainy night wears on, the characters, one-by-one, turn up dead. In the middle of nowhere, ten strangers, a rainy night, and one hell of a wicked twist, Identity takes you on a wild ride up until its halting revelation of an ending.

Ghostface Is Back and Bloody

SCREAM 4
Plot: Returning to Woodsboro to launch her new self-help book, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), once again finds herself the target of the Ghostface Killer.With the killer now terrorizing her niece Jill (Emma Roberts) and her group of friends including horror fanatic Kirby (Hayden Panettiere), Robbie (Erik Knudsen), and Charlie (Rory Culkin), Sideny must reconnect with old friends Dewey (David Arquette), and Gale (Courteney Cox) to uncover the identity of this new and violently improved Ghostface before Jill and her friends are killed.

Review: I was ecstatic when I heard of the release for SCREAM 4. A generation of lag time has a way of successfully adding to an already blood savy triology. I can't help but admit to getting swept up in the hype surrounding this new installment. Once I found myself watching the familiar Dimension logo pop up on screen, with the ever-present ring of a phone in the background, I remembered Wes Craven's knack for a shocking, gory movie intro: and that it was. SCREAM 4 has no trouble roping in its viewers with a brutal, through-provoking begining.

The question that looms in everyones brain is whether or not SCREAM 4 revitalizes the franchise and feels as fresh and hip as the first film back in 1996. Yes in that a sharply directed, bloody, R-rated slasher flick with a good cast can’t help but look mighty slick next to the increasingly poor films in the SAW-franchise, or some of the wimpy PG-13 horror remakes we’ve seen lately. SCREAM 4 was not only a comeback for the horror movie genre but also for Wes Craven himself. Most people thought after his mediocre films, Cursed and My Soul To Take, that Craven lost his touch.

The appealing Neve Campbell and likable duo, Cox and Arquette truly give the film a major upturn. I even really liked the new group of kids Ghostface terrorizes, with Hayden Panettiere being a major highlight, as the cool, horror-movie loving gal. For the first ninety-minutes or so, SCREAM 4 is a pretty damn fun slasher film. As for the last twenty minutes, it really depends on your definition of a good ending. I had an inkling who the killer was a little earlier in the film, and happily, I was right. Not only is the movie bloody savy, but it's tech savy. After a shocking ending, SCREAM 4 actually had me still sitting in the theater thinking about its climax. The ending is outrageous, suprising and holds no mercy. I had to remind myself that this new installment is ten years after the original trilogy, so just as our society and technology has progressed, SCREAM 4 has as well. Think about the ending. It requires thought if you truly want to understand Wes Craven's awesome addition to the franchise on a movie level and even beyond that.