The Contract (R-2006)

"The Contract" is sort of a less intense "The River Wild". Morgan Freeman plays an assassin who is setting up his next assignment with his team when he finds himself escaping the police through the forest. At the same time, John Cusack plays a man trying to reconnect with his son on a camping expedition. Of course, those worlds collide and Ray (Cusack) finds himself trying to bring Carden (Freeman) to justice while still trying to protect himself and his son. The movie plays some cat-and-mouse as Carden's team is trying to get him free, but they may not all have the same motives with a lot of money at stake. This is a fun "pursuit" and chess game movie with the expected good performances from Cusack and Freeman (who, as usual, is pretty much playing Morgan Freeman). It is a good movie in a lot of ways, but the total package ends up being just a little better than mediocre. Without Cusack and Freeman in these parts, you basically have a made-for-cable movie (and not the great HBO ones!!).

Grade: C

Trailer:

Resurrecting the Champ (PG-13-2007)

"Resurrecting the Champ" has all of the earmarks of a feel-good movie. Josh Hartnett plays Erik Kernan Jr., a struggling young sports reporter who can't seem to get any of his stories into the paper. He happens upon a homeless man called "Champ" (Samuel L. Jackson), asks why he is called that and he is told that "Champ" was once a boxing legend who has fallen on hard times. Kernan realizes that this is his big break and if he could write a feature story on "Champ", it could help both of them. As they spend time together, they become friends. All is sailing along smoothly and then, the story is published to great accolades. It is then that it all begins to fall apart. The story, you see, is not true. Sure, "Champ" was a boxer, but not the one he claimed to be and really was not much of a boxer at all. The film deals with the fallout of this mess as Kernan struggles with the mistake he made and tries to find a way to make it all right. It is an entertaining movie with good performances. Jackson, in particular, looks to showcase the fact that he can do much more than his tough guy persona. It is also interesting to watch the rise and fall of a journalist who forgets the most basic rule of journalism: fact checking. I enjoyed the movie, but didn't love it. It was really just north of mediocre, with Samuel L. Jackson being the biggest factor in rising above that. Josh Hartnett was also very good, trying to become a hero again in his son's eyes.

Grade: C

Trailer:

Valkyrie (PG-13-2008)

"Valkyrie" tells the story of a group of German officers who plotted to assassinate Hitler in the latter stages of WWII. Much of the press has centered around Tom Cruise and his performance (or lack of same) and I think it detracts from what is actually a very good movie. For the record, Cruise was absolutely fine in this role. Aside from the fact that he makes no attempt to pull off a German accent, his acting is quite good. He is also surrounded by a slew of top-flight character actors, all of whom you have seen before, but none of whom are "names". The cast overall was fantastic and the story was extremely interesting. For someone like myself, who was not all that familiar with the real story going in, it is amazing to see how close these men actually got to staging a coup and pulling Germany from the clutches of a madmen. The attention to detail on the sets was excellent. My only "issue" with the movie was Cruise's look overall. Very early in the film, he is badly injured in an explosion, losing a hand, some fingers on the other hand and his eye. He wears an eye-patch most of the time, but sometimes puts in a glass eye. It is these times that it struck me that he just looks too damn good. If he lost his eye in an explosion, I imagine there would be some scarring in the area of that eye. Cruise's face looks absolutely perfect. That issue did not really detract from my enjoyment of the movie one bit, but I did notice it. I found this to be an "incredible true story", as stated on the poster, and very entertaining.

Grade: B+

Trailer:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (PG-13-2008)

Let me set this up for you: I'm a sucker for comic book movies. I enjoy the "Hellboy" character. I liked the original movie a lot. I believe this one was equally well made. Now, somehow, despite all of that, I found "Hellboy II" did not keep my interest. Ron Perlman was once again very good as Hellboy. He has a great knack for these characters. Having a big, red, cigar-smoking man with sawed-off devil horns is just plain fun and Perlman completely captures this character. In this installment, there is a mythical Golden Army once controlled by the king of the magical people. When this army is far more destructive than her ever dreamed, he splits up the town that controls them and reaches a truce with humans, keeping their two worlds separate. Of course, many years later, his son, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) decides to find the separate pieces and break the truce. Of course, Hellboy and his team will have something to say about that. The movie is visually fantastic to watch and is actually a very good script. I think the element that was missing was that there was just not enough Hellboy. When he is on the screen, it is great fun as he is a "hero" that just does not take himself seriously at all. Also, they added a pregnancy subplot that really did nothing for the movie itself. I understand it was designed to give some depth to the character and his motivations, but it really didn't move the plot along at all. If you are a fan of "Hellboy" or Guillermo Del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth": HIGHLY recommended by the way), you will definitely enjoy this, but it is probably not something I'd recommend for the mainstream movie-watcher.

Grade: C

Trailer:

Eagle Eye (PG-13-2008)

"Eagle Eye" mixes elements from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and the Will Smith film "Enemy of the State". Obviously, it is a lot closer to "Enemy of the State" as it follows Jerry Shaw (Shia Lebouf), who finds himself under attack and being chased by Federal agents for no apparent reason and being watched at every turn. As it begins, Shaw is a bit of a slacker, a smooth-talking retail clerk who finds a cache of weapons in his apartment with the FBI busting down his door. He receives mysterious phone calls by a woman dictating his every move while manipulating traffic systems and other machinery to get him to do her bidding. He is joined by Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), who is also being manipulated by the same voice with the threat of her son's life. This is a pretty solid action movie, but as with most of them, you don't want to take it too seriously. It is a fun thrill-ride and it was definitely entertaining, but not high-brow entertainment. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear why Shaw is dragged into this situation, but I never felt like it was clear why Holloman was picked, other than the fact that the movie "needed" a female lead. The performances were solid and the action scenes were fantastic. Some of the plot points also seemed to be a bit of a stretch. Great fun, though. What can I say? I like this stuff!

Grade: C+

Trailer:

Bedtime Stories (PG-2008)

I'm going to make a bold statement here: "Bedtime Stories" may be Adam Sandler's best movie. Yes, "Happy Gilmore" and "Billy Madison" are both funnier, but "Bedtime Stories" works on a lot of levels. It is laugh out loud funny at times, warm at others and shows some depth in Adam Sandler's acting while still preserving some of his trademark comic tones and voice inflections. Simply put, it is a very fun movie for "children of all ages". Sandler plays a handyman at a luxury hotel who was hoping to run the place one day when his dad originally owned it. While babysitting his sister's kids, he finds that the bedtime stories he tells them sort of come true the next day. They even manage to find real-world ways to come true (the raining gumballs are not what they seem). He then decides to use these bedtime stories to make some of his dreams come true, but finds it is not that simple. His efforts lead to some very funny moments as he tweaks his stories to try to manipulate results and cringes when the kids add their own elements, often horrific in nature. Upon further review, maybe it is not Sandler's best film. That may have been a stretch, but it is definitely a very fun time spent at the movies.


Grade: B+

Trailer:

Leatherheads (PG-13-2008)

"Leatherheads" is billed as a romantic comedy or as an "old-time football" movie. It some ways it is both, but in some ways it is neither. Sure, it has the romantic triangle angle and it also has pre-NFL, no holds barred football. However, it has a subplot that sometimes becomes the main plot about Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (Jim Krasinski), a war hero football star who finds his sudden fame is causing people to look a little deeper into his "war hero" past. Renee Zellweger plays the reporter following him and digging into his past, while fighting off the advances of Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly (George Clooney). Connelly is a football star in decline, trying to keep pro football afloat, who recruits Rutherford to the pro league. This sudden attention is a boom for the league, but threatens to expose Rutherford. Connelly goes back and forth from ally to adversary as he becomes jealous of all the fame that used to belong to him. Clooney directs and does a nice job duplicating the feel of old time movies in the way the characters talk and move. In fact, for the first half, it was almost disorienting and seemed too gimmicky, but once it settled in, it fit the atmosphere Clooney was going far. As you may have guessed, I found the war hero plot to be more interesting than anything else in the movie. That really didn't start to get going until the second half.

Grade: C

Trailer: