Based on a short story by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, who co-wrote the screenplay with Carnahan, it has Neeson playing yet another tough guy, albeit one contemplating suicide who works in Alaska killing wolves that threaten a team of oil workers. When the plane they all take home crashes, Neeson and six other survivors struggle against not only the elements, but a pack of grey wolves stalking them.

Neeson, unsurprisingly, is the film’s bright spot. His size alone makes him a commanding presence, someone you’re convinced could survive such a brutal ordeal. But he has a touching soft side, too. You hear the defeat in his voice in the opening scenes as he narrates a letter, and feel his compassion as, in the film’s best scene, he helps a survivor face his impending death.

To his credit, Carnahan (The A-Team) manages to wring some decent tension out of the wolf attacks themselves, and for the most part eschews explicit gore, staging the attacks at night or showing them from a distance. As well he does a solid job with the soundtrack, effectively creating brief moments of terror as wolves howl into the night or growl threateningly at the weary men.

The main problem is that, when the wolves aren’t attacking, the film attempts weightiness, which Carnahan doesn’t know how to pace. Scenes of the survivors discussing religion while sitting around a fire, or of an injured character quietly claiming he can’t continue, drag on and on and practically ground the film to a halt. The weak writing in these scenes only compounds the issue.

What’s more, the survivors (including Dermot Mulroney and Dallas Roberts) are poorly defined, save, naturally, for Neeson, making it hard to care what befalls any of them. They’re basically just types. Roberts is the one with humanity, Joe Anderson the freaked-out chatterbox and Frank Grillo the aggressive challenger (and the only supporting survivor with any kind of depth).

Beyond that, the script creates too obvious a parallel to the wolf-pack mentality, there’s a little too much shaky cam for my taste, and, save for a couple shots, Carnahan fails to do much with the obviously breathtaking Alberta locale. What burned me the most, though, is how Carnahan ends the thing. I wanted to see Neeson punch a wolf in the throat. I had to imagine he did instead. – [DVD]

Action/Adventure/Drama

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 5/15/12

Soon after humans discover the existence of both species and try to eradicate them, Beckinsale’s vamp is captured and cryogenically preserved. Many years later, she thaws out and sets about trying to thwart the genetic machinations of a ruthless scientist (Stephen Rea), receiving help from a pretty-boy vampire (Theo James) and a helpful detective (Michael Ealy).

On a positive note, the plot is relatively straightforward and easier to follow compared to the convoluted mythology storylines of the first three films, and Swedish directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein both give the film a pleasingly sleek and slick look and ensure you can actually make out what’s happening during the plentiful, relentless and extremely bloody action sequences.

Beckinsale herself remains a striking figure as Selene, breathtakingly cool and confident as she struts around in her sleek leather outfits, blasts away with machine pistols and evades danger by running up walls and flipping back over the bad guys. She even bodily broadsides a van at one point, sending it flipping and flying. And her character’s graceful landings after jumping from very high places are a thing of elegance amid all the mayhem.

But the action scenes, while blessedly coherent, generally lack energy and style. You first notice this as Beckinsale, James and Beckinsale’s genetically unusual tween daughter (India Eisley) flee in a van from a pack of Lycans, and then later in Beckinsale’s initial tussle with a colossal über-Lycan, a sequence that also serves to remind us what second-rate CGI creations the werewolves are here. Paul Haslinger’s pounding score attempts to make these scenes exciting, but to no avail.

The only sequence that’s even kind of visually interesting is when Beckinsale saunters in slo-mo out of an elevator she’s just blown open, silver nitrate particles drifting down around her like snow. Otherwise, the film has little personality, and gets no help from the too low-key Rea. Its biggest flaw is how it ends so abruptly at the 78-minute mark, leaving you unsatisfied and screaming for blood. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Fantasy/Horror

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 5/8/12

First question:
Who is Gina Carano?

Gina is a mixed martial arts fighter and, I’m totally serious, a former “American Gladiator.” While this is not her first movie, it is probably her first movie to play in a movie theater.

Second Question:
Can Soderbergh do action?

In short, yes, better than most. While he’s known for more artful fare, the action in Haywire is exceptionally well executed.  There isn’t the crutch of a shaky camera or fast cutting; clearly Soderbergh trusts his fight coordinators, and the stunt performers.

Third Question:
Okay, I’m kind of interested, is there anyone else in it?

Well I mean, sure. There’s Ewan McGregor as the shady security firm owner, Michael Douglas as the CIA guy, Antonio Banderas as the guy with the awesome beard, Bill Paxton as Carano’s father, Channing Tatum as a former partner, Michael Angarano as the helpful kid with the car, and Michael Fassbender as a freelance operative.

Fourth Question:
Wow, that sounds like a great cast, and with the awesome action, are there any drawbacks?

As much as Gina Carano is an amazing butt-kicker, she clearly never went to Stella Adler. She does fine, but sometimes her delivery can be oddly stilted, and the internet says that Soderbergh altered her voice in post. The rest of the cast is fine, but kind of forgettable. While critically well received, the film didn’t do gangbusters at the box-office, bringing in 18 million domestically.

Fifth Question:
Now I’m torn, what do you think, Noah?

I’d say go for it. It’s not a perfect film, I didn’t root for Carano like I did Matt Damon in the Bourne movies, but the action is phenomenal, the script is interesting, and it’s probably one of the best shot action movies I’ve seen. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Thriller

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 5/2/12

Mark Wahlberg

Based on the 2008 Icelandic flick Reykjavik-Rotterdam, in which director Baltasar Kormakur acted, it casts Wahlberg as a reformed smuggler who returns to his old ways to pay back a mobster (Giovanni Ribisi) for a job botched by Wahlberg’s brother-in-law (Caleb Landry Jones).

Kormakur (The Sea) moves the film along at a smooth, brisk pace, supplies gritty atmosphere and every once in a while shows off with an artfully composed shot or two. He also proves capable choreographing the small amount of actual action here, turning the main setpiece, an armored car robbery instigated by a Panamanian drug lord (Diego Luna), into a reasonably exciting thing.

Yet as a whole it just feels too standard issue, with a little too much going on, and lunkhead Wahlberg’s lack of charisma, middling acting skills and constantly dumbfounded expression don’t help. For a brief moment, as he greets his pals on board a cargo ship, Wahlberg does kind of come alive. But generally, like when he informs a bad guy he’s coming for him, he’s Mr. Monotone.

As well Kate Beckinsale, as Wahlberg’s wife, is a little too beautiful to be believable as a blue-collar character, and Ben Foster is underused as Wahlberg’s buddy. He would’ve been great in Ribisi’s role, but admittedly has played more than his share of psychos. As it is, Ribisi, all beard, slicked back hair and nasally whine, is adequately nasty, if not a tad cartoonish.

J.K. Simmons (Juno, The Music Never Stopped) makes the best impression, I think. As the cargo ship captain, he affects an Orleans accent and adopts a wonderfully brusque, unfriendly and somewhat amusing attitude toward Wahlberg. Alas, his screen time is all too brief, and we’re left with Marky Mark in a not nearly funky enough action movie. [DVD]

Action/Crime/Drama

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 4/24/12

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (note the official title uses a dash to avoid the awkwardness of two colons) is, arguably, the best of the four Tom Cruise-led films based on the classic 1966-1973 TV series. This has a lot to do with the hiring of director Brad Bird, who heretofore had only directed animated films, and excellent ones at that (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille). His live-action debut benefits most from his experience making the superhero satire The Incredibles at Pixar, which I consider to be among the best action films in decades. Though ostensibly a family-friendly comedy adventure, Incredibles had cracking energy and staging in its action setpieces, and with its James Bond-esque villain and clever gadgets, had a lot of spy movie style of its own.

There are other major ingredients that make this latest M:I so successful. For one, it feels a lot closer in spirit to the original series’ style, which emphasized a more team-oriented operation instead of following a lone operative the whole way through. This time we have a team, consisting of Ethan Hunt (Cruise), hacker and gadgeteer Benji (Simon Pegg), Carter (Paula Patton), and a suspiciously formidable analyst, Brandt (Jeremy Renner). From beginning to end, these four are all involved on each mission, though Cruise remains in the star forward position. I should point out that while Tom Cruise the actual human being still weirds me out, I did enjoy watching him do the whole Ethan Hunt thing again, and his costars are well-chosen to conceal his diminutive stature.

Another hallmark of the Mission:Impossible franchise, both on the small screen and large, was the application of all manner of gadgetry and clever subterfuge, and this is where Ghost Protocol really shines. While even the James Bond films of late have either largely abandoned the mechanical wizardry or trotted out a bland parade of smartphone product placement, the gadgets in this movie impress not only with their ingenuity but with their unreliability. Nearly every single tool and/or scheme that the good guys employ somehow manages to fail in some way, necessitating a lot of improvisation and what could euphemistically be called “operational compromises.” For my money, this is where most of the fun comes from.

I can’t really say that Ghost Protocol surpasses its predecessors on every front–both the villain and his evil plot are pretty generic, leftovers from Cold War nuclear gamesmanship, and the final scene does a little too good a job letting the audience come down from its adrenaline rush. But the action setpieces are great fun, the mix of humor and drama is spot-on, and the locations are dramatic (especially the prominently showcased Burj Khalifa in Dubai, by far the tallest building in the world). Bottom line: this is an extremely entertaining action crowd-pleaser, something we’ve been missing for at least a month or two. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Adventure/Thriller

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 4/17/12

Moscow, that is, where young American entrepreneurs Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella get burned by their Russian business partner (The Killing’s Joe Kinnaman) and meet a couple of cute girls (Olivia Thirlby and Rachael Taylor), with whom they then run around the city trying to evade blobs of orange light that suddenly start falling from the sky and obliterating the populace.

While the visuals are certainly impressive, in particular the way the aliens literally shred people (and a dog) into ash, director Chris Gorak and screenwriter Jon Spaihts squeeze a surprising amount of mileage out of making the things invisible, fashioning some nicely tense sequences around the clever idea that the survivors can only tell if the aliens are coming if lights light up or cell phones ring.

Gorak and Spaihts are also smart in how they have the youths efficiently and believably gain knowledge about the aliens each time they encounter other survivors, first a Russian teen (Veronika Ozerova) and a Russian electrical engineer holed up in an alien-proofed apartment, then a band of Russian cops armed to the hilt with machine guns, flame throwers and a grenade launcher.

Too bad, then, that the characters, save for the engineer who sings to his cat, are a remarkably colorless bunch of people. They’re not quite as irritating as the folks in Skyline, but I really couldn’t have cared less about who lived or died, which was not exactly hard to guess in the first place. Having said that, cat people will probably love this movie, because the cat survives.

If you manage to make it to the end, like I did, but only because the effects were so cool (including the aliens’ X-ray ability), you’ll be treated to a ridiculous and unexciting finale set on a runaway Russian bus, followed by an ending that hints at a sequel, a dreadful idea that, if realized, would truly be mankind’s darkest hour. [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Horror/Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 4/10/12

Our story begins with Tintin (Jamie Bell) finding a wooden model sailing ship at a flea market in his hometown (Brussels?), which naturally turns out to be one of the keys to finding an ancient pirate treasure, also sought by nefarious ne’er-do-wells, led by the sneering but conspicuously non-threatening Rackham (Daniel Craig). His quest takes him, accompanied by his white terrier Snowy, out to sea, where he meets Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) a perpetually-drunk sea captain with a conveniently blurry memory. The trio (counting the dog of course) escape in a plane to the adventure-ridden Sahara, leading to the one truly bracing action setpiece in the movie, a motorcycle chase through a Moroccan casbah.

This is a movie which, in my eyes at least, has a lot going for it. It’s an Indiana Jones-esque exotic adventure, directed by the guy who directs Indiana Jones movies no less, produced by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) and co-written by Steven Moffat (in my opinion the best writer working in British television today), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block). And I wasn’t disappointed with the results. I also can’t say I was especially thrilled. While the motion-capture animation style has improved somewhat, it still has that oddness to it, with human-but-not-quite characters that need to either look more real or more cartoonish. Even in the visually resplendent Tintin, much of the time they seem caught in some uncomfortable middle ground (a.k.a. the Uncanny Valley). This movie also has, as implied above, a weird mix of the childlike and the startlingly aggressive. While Tintin is undoubtedly a professional adult, his Boy Scout demeanor and juvenile appearance make his gun-toting ways somehow unseemly. Of course, the filmmakers are careful to avoid having him ever use a firearm in anger, usually only in clever MacGyver-style trick shots, but the mere fact that he clearly owns a pistol and carries it with him seems strange to me for some reason. It probably wouldn’t bother me if the villain he is pitted against weren’t so doggedly determined to avoid hurting the hero or even keeping him in a properly-locked room. [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Action/Adventure

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 3/13/12

Much of the plot remains true to the book: a young Gascon named D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman) comes to Paris to become a Musketeer, discovers they’ve been disbanded and befriends former members Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Aramis (Luke Evans) and Porthos (Ray Stevenson), eventually helping them foil a plot by power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) to become king of France.

As big a fan as I am of Anderson’s films, with their slick visuals and cool stunts, he lacks the lighter touch necessary to make this kind of material work right. It needs a certain dashing spirit, and we don’t get that here. Anderson’s idea of comedy is to give the title heroes a harried manservant (James Corden) and have them constantly tell him to shut up.

The film also lacks a good main villain. You’d think Waltz, who always seems to ooze menace, would be the right fit for the devious Richelieu, but he falls incredibly flat. (Tim Curry was better in the part in the 1993 version.) And Milla Jovovich just doesn’t work as the duplicitous Milady de Winter, never once sounding seductive enough as she talks of betrayal and double crosses.

Seemingly aware of his poor storytelling skills, Anderson concocts a number of sweet set pieces to distract us. The sword fighting scenes–in Cooper’s Square; on top of a cathedral–are energetic and expertly orchestrated things, while Jovovich deftly displays her Resident Evil-honed action moves as she takes out some palace guards in slo-mo while wearing a corset and a dress.

Even more entertaining are the impressive, Wild, Wild West-inspired airships, basically frigates attached to giant hot air balloons (and “designed” by Leonardo da Vinci) that lumber through the skies. Two of them battle it out, Star Trek II-style, among the clouds, while the Musketeers also use one, in a fantastically explosive scene, to attack the palace of evil Duke Buckingham (Orlando Bloom).

Speaking of which, Bloom seems to relish playing what amounts to a moustache-twirling bad guy, Casino Royale baddie Mads Mikkelsen is perfect as Rochefort, the Cardinal’s one-eyed henchman, and Lerman’s just cocky enough, if not a little too American for his role. Among the Musketeers, Evans and Stevenson are fine, but have little to do. Naturally, Macfadyen fares best in the comparatively juicy part of the jilted Athos, nicely infusing some real emotion into this slick enterprise. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Adventure/Romance

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 3/13/12

Tarsem Singh

Set in 13th century Greece, it centers on the efforts of Greek peasant Theseus (Brit-born Henry Cavill) to stop evil King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) from acquiring a mystical bow that will allow him to free the Titans (immortal beings who fought the Gods eons ago) to spite the Gods for allowing his family to suffer.

Despite its ancient-Greek setting and gory, slo-mo battle scenes, the film is not a 300 clone. It’s actually far less hyper-stylized, with Singh giving it a somewhat grittier feel and more energy than you’d expect in a sword-and-sandal picture. And though we do see men shirtless, including Cavill and the male members of the Gods, it’s infrequently and they’re not dressed in leather bikinis.

The biggest difference is that Singh is a much more skilled composer of images than is Zack Snyder. Not just of majestic CGI landscapes, themselves seamless and beautiful here, but of more elegant imagery, in particular a scene in which Singh juxtaposes Freida Pinto‘s Oracle priestess, wrapped in a bright red cloak, against Cavill, who, like the rest of the background, is covered in black oil.

What really differentiates the film, though, is the unique, some would say bizarre, touch Singh brings to some of the costumes. While this includes the priests in Cavill’s village who wear candle holders on their heads, or the Gods with their indie-art headpieces, it generally applies to the spiky-eared bunny mask, as a colleague’s girlfriend described it, Rourke sports in numerous scenes.

And the wonderfully grand and operatic dialogue thought up by screenwriter brothers Charley and Vlas Parlapanides makes the film feel even more grandiose. They give the most delicious pieces to the perfectly cast Rourke, all mangy locks and scarred visage, who delivers them beautifully in his deep, raspy rumble of a voice. He makes Hyperion into a truly nasty fellow.

Cavill himself is perfect as the hero of the piece, conveying confidence and hurt, and displaying some superb athleticism, as well as an impressively ripped physique, during his fight scenes. He confirms his leading-man chops when giving Hellenic soldiers a rousing we-must-fight pep talk, a scene that fairly oozes testosterone despite the fact that all the men are wearing skirts.

Among the supporting players, Pinto is alluring and intelligent as the Virgin Oracle and John Hurt warm and encouraging as Theseus’ mentor, while Stephen Dorff is glaringly miscast as a horny Hellenic slave. The young people playing the Gods, including Twilight hunk Kellan Lutz, seemed to have been cast for their improbably pretty looks, though Luke Evans makes for a nicely fierce Zeus.

Let it be known, though, that this is a very violent movie, which you almost forget amidst all the visual razzle dazzle of giant tidal waves and Gods zooming to and from the heavens. Characters are speared, run through and beaten, throats get sliced, heads chopped off, eyes gouged out and, at one point, a solider is castrated in probably the most painful way possible.

Before I go, I do need to mention one more thing, an absolutely stunningly constructed moment in which the shot of an enemy soldier in his medieval helmet gradually melts away into a shot looking down on a same-shaped boat sailing on the ocean. That description doesn’t quite do it justice, of course. Like the movie itself, it’s something you have to see to believe. - [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Adventure/Drama/Fantasy

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 3/6/12

Martin Scorsese

Fairly faithfully adapted from the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (cousin of classic Hollywood icon David O. Selznick), Hugo‘s eponymous hero is an orphan boy (Asa Butterfield) who haunts the margins of Montparnasse train station in 1920′s Paris, keeping the clocks wound and evading the notice of the station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). Meanwhile, he swipes mechanical trinkets from the old man who runs the toy store (Ben Kingsley) in the hope of repairing an old automaton discovered by his late father (Jude Law). The old toymaker is none too happy about these thefts, but Hugo nevertheless befriends his goddaughter (Chloë Grace Moretz), a bookish girl craving adventure and equipped with a vocabulary that some might call… voluminous.

It may be unnecessary at this point for me to keep secret the discoveries young Hugo makes regarding the old toymaker, but I will anyway. Suffice to say, this is a movie devised to inspire present and future generations to embrace Scorsese’s own appreciation for the most distant origins of cinema and its magical evolution across nearly twelve decades. And it’s a tale that’s gorgeous to look at. Though a long champion of film, Scorsese shot this with the new Alexa digital camera (which I must admit achieves a stunning film-like look) and in 3D, which I actually kind of missed a little when I re-watched it at home. If you have all the equipment necessary to watch 3D Blu-rays at home, this movie might make your investment worthwhile. Marty was careful to treat the third dimension with his usual careful artistry, playing with depths of field ranging from standoffish to practically… fathomless.

Hugo is Hollywood family fare cast in a classic, even retro mode. The movie doesn’t lack for energy, but its emphasis is on character and mood, much less on action and rapid-fire cuts. I can’t declare with certainty that it will become a favorite for most kids who see it, but I don’t expect them to be bored either. Even if it does try to teach a little vocabulary. It certainly invites one to be sesquipedalian.

Look it up. - [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Adventure/Drama/Family

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 2/28/12