Loosely based on a 1950s short story by Richard Matheson that was also the basis for a Twilight Zone episode, it’s set in 2020, when mechanical boxers have replaced human ones, and casts Jackman as an ex-fighter scraping out a living entering secondhand robots in unsanctioned matches whose life takes a turn when he takes temporary custody of his preteen son (Dakota Goyo).

The script is equal parts Rocky and Over the Top, and so is predictable, and is peppered with dialogue that will have some rolling their eyes. “I want you to fight for me,” Goyo tells Jackman at one point. “That’s all I ever wanted.” As well Goyo is improbably made out to be an expert robot programmer simply because he plays a lot of video games.

And yet, the film works, incredibly so, in part because Levy not only manages to fashion such an interesting, lived-in world, with its myriad styles of robots and the idea of a World Robot Boxing league, but makes the bot battles themselves fun and energetic exhibitions full of rock music and crowds of people cheering wildly as mechanical behemoths pound away at each other.

What’s more, Levy (Night at the Museum) infuses the film with lots of heart, making the characters feel surprisingly real and ensuring that we genuinely care for them. As corny as it may sound, the film really is about Jackman and Goyo bonding, and less about fighting robots, though I suppose an exception could be made for Atom, the instantly endearing sparring robot Goyo saves from a junkyard.

Granted, Levy gets a lot help from his cast, starting with Jackman, who gives a great performance, capably conveying con-man charm, don’t-bother-me-kid gruffness and palpable paternal feelings. He gets a wonderful co-star in Goyo, who possesses surprising poise and emotional range for a 12-year-old, and lends the film a contagious exuberance. He and Jackman play off each other so well you almost forget about all the impressively rendered CGI automatons around them.

To all that you can add ex-Lost beauty Evangeline Lilly. As Jackman’s childhood buddy/romantic interest, she combines feistiness, intelligence and vulnerability into a very appealing package, becoming more than just the shoulder Jackman cries on. I especially liked the scene in which she fills Goyo in on his father’s career, though her rooftop reconciliation with Jackman is a nicely tender moment.

As well Danny Elfman’s excellent score not only sounds like something Trevor Rabin might have composed (a good thing in my book), it succeeds in making the action feel rousing and triumphant, and the quieter moments poignant. Suffice it to say that, if you don’t smile when Goyo teaches Atom to dance, or cry even one tear during the big-match finale, then you must be a machine. – [DVD]

Action/Drama/Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 1/24/12

Based on a controversial book by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, it opens in 1980 as mercenaries Statham and De Niro and their two colleagues take out a target. A year later, Statham is forced to take a job eliminating three ex-SAS agents for an exiled Oman sheik holding De Niro hostage, during which he encounters Owen, the chief enforcer for a secret society of former SAS operatives protecting their own.

The film’s overall tone is closer to The Bourne Identity than Death Race, which means few explosions but lots of gunfire, a couple car chases and some energetic fight scenes, the highlights being Statham and Owen’s brutal hospital brawl and a three-way third-act scuffle between Owen, a tied-up Statham and a British government agent involved in a convoluted bigger-picture scenario.

I can’t say Statham really stretches here, but he does at least get some chances to try, like during the excellent opening-act action when he discovers he’s killed the target right in front of the target’s young son, or in general when, during his subsequent retirement, he begins a relationship with a blonde and very beautiful Australian (Chuck’s Yvonne Strahovski, with too little to do).

Owen, on the other hand, is the main reason the film is more than just another Statham vehicle. He skillfully creates a character who’s intelligent, determined and very capable physically, and who carries a deep respect for his fellow former SAS members, going so far as to chastise young pub patrons for not respecting the news about one of his fallen comrades. Watching him here makes me just a little sadder that he turned down the chance to play James Bond.

In any case, the film is most interesting when he and Statham share scenes, and I don’t just mean their initial hospital mêlée, but their subsequent, dialogue-driven moments. This includes a nicely tense confrontation in Owen’s home, as well as Owen’s interrogation of Statham, which features perhaps the film’s best shot in Owen’s beautifully wry reaction to Statham asking to be untied.

De Niro has far less screen time but still comes off very well, both as Statham’s good-hearted mentor, and the macho badass he becomes when stalking around with a machine gun. As the other mercenary members, Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) sports a hideous ’70s mustache and oozes ladies-man sleaze, while Aden Young (The Tree) makes next to no impression, though his character does get the admittedly neat task of remote-controlling a tanker truck. - [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

In a rather prolonged prologue, we watch as a little girl in Bogotá, Cataleya, sees her parents murdered by a drug lord’s thugs, and subsequently makes her way into the U.S. Fifteen years later, she works as a hitwoman for her criminal uncle (Cliff Curtis), all while plotting to take down the drug lord and evading an FBI agent (Lennie James) determined to catch her.

The main reason to watch the movie, naturally, is to see the sleek Saldana slink around in short dresses or skintight leotards and shoot guns. We get most of the former in the film’s generally action-less first half, which alternates between Saldana’s clever methods of accessing her targets (air ducts, a shark tank) and her trite struggle to connect emotionally with her boyfriend (Michael Vartan).

Fistfights and fireballs start occurring late in the second half, when Saldana finally gets around to executing a fantastically fast and furious assault on the drug lord’s compound. Machine guns, rocket-powered grenade launchers and an armored truck are all involved, but the best part of the entire finale is Saldana’s superbly brutal bathroom brawl with the drug lord’s second-in-command.

And yet this is still assembly-line action. There’s nothing particularly memorable about any of it, except maybe Curtis’ hilarious Tony Montana accent, and at least one character, namely a corrupt CIA agent played by Callum Blue, is wholly unnecessary. James, admittedly, does invest some energy in his dogged character, but it’s all for naught in a movie directed by a guy with the decidedly bombastic moniker of Olivier Megaton.

(P.S. – “Colombiana” is the name of a type of orchid, found in the Andes mountains, that Saldana draws on the bodies of her victims.) - [DVD]

Action/Crime/Drama

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 12/20/11

Tom Hardy

Warrior is the proof in the pudding. I don’t even know what that means, really, but it’s totally true.

The story of two estranged brothers who are pitted against each other in a UFC style cage-match, Warrior could have easily starred Jean-Claude Van Damme and Wesley Snipes and gone directly to video. Thankfully it didn’t, and we got a well made drama with some really good fight scenes.

Tommy Conlon (Hardy) and his brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton, whom you might remember from the fantastic Aussie gangster flick, Animal Kingdom) haven’t seen one another since their mother left their abusive alcoholic father (Nick Nolte, who could get a nomination), Tommy going with his mother, Brendan choosing to stay put. Some years later, Tommy comes back from the war ready to beat many people up, so he starts MMA fighting in Pittsburgh. Over in Philadelphia, Brendan starts fighting to earn some extra cash, before the bank forecloses on his home. All of this is happening right around the time a billionaire hedge-fund manager is starting a 5 million dollar tournament called Sparta. With both brothers’ eyes on the prize, who will win it all?

Drama happens, violence ensues.

When you write it out, it really does seem like a JCVD movie. But it’s much better, I promise.

Highly recommended for fans of underdog sports movies, people who liked Redbelt, and anyone who owns a Tapout Shirt. - [DVD]

Action/Drama/Sport

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 12/20/11

There are many factors that make Rise of the Planet of the Apes so successful at re-imagining the Apes franchise. First of all, it apparently wasn’t even originally conceived as a remake at all–rather, the writers were initially more interested in the perilous modern phenomenon of humans raising chimpanzees in their homes. Combining that thread with the emerging potential of genetic engineering, they fashioned a story about an exceedingly intelligent chimp raised and eventually mistreated by humans, who is forced to abandon human society and find a new place amongst his own kind. Broaden the scope a little, and you have the ingredients for a planet of apes.

As much as its title telegraphs the outcome, Rise is peculiarly engrossing. Much of this is thanks to Andy Serkis, the actor who pioneered motion capture performance when playing Lord of the Rings‘ Gollum and King Kong. His performance as Caesar is the genuine centerpiece of the film, an entirely computer-generated character that in fact evokes the expressive, non-verbal acting of the Silent Era. Particularly during its second half, after Caesar is imprisoned in a primate “sanctuary,” this is a film that masterfully demonstrates how much can be done without dialogue. There’s an old adage in filmmaking that advises that it’s better to show it than say it, and rarely have I seen a blockbuster film that took this advice to heart quite so skillfully, well into the closing credits in fact. There are snatches of sign language complete with helpful subtitles, but anyone can see on the protagonist’s face that he’s working on a plan.

The human actors in the piece are more than capable, but they largely occupy the positions the story requires of them. James Franco is the scientist hoping to create a viable Alzheimer’s treatment for his father, which inadvertently works so well at making the apes smart. John Lithgow, playing his father, probably lends the most soul to the human characters and serves as Caesar’s erstwhile grandfather. The lovely Freida Pinto, after injecting a bit of exposition early on, spends the rest of the film relegated to being Franco’s presumed love interest. Tom Felton, best known to audiences as Harry Potter’s nemesis Draco Malfoy, here sports a spitting American accent as he torments the apes in the primate sanctuary.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes certainly doesn’t eschew the satirical bent of its predecessors, but it really feels much more like a speculative science fiction film than a mirror to our times. It approaches the apes from an ape perspective more than a human one, and this ends up being one of its greatest strengths. It doesn’t so much ask the question of what people in monkey costumes can say about society, but rather, simply, what might it look like if an ape were suddenly able to compete with us mentally? As this movie surmises, he might have better things to do than sit around debating philosophy with us. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Jack Black

After opening with a nicely done shadow-puppet-like explanation of how the film’s villain, a peacock named Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), came to be evil, we watch as Po, the chubby Panda voiced by Black, and his martial arts pals attempt to stop Shen from conquering China and wiping out kung fu. Moreover, Shen has a connection to what befell Po’s parents.

The rotund Po is the perfect showcase for Black and his manic comic personality, even more so than any live-action character he’s played. Black makes him an amusing and endearingly goofy character who knows kung fu, sure, but who still has weight issues (“My old enemy…the stairs”) and isn’t quite as clever as he thinks he is. Black also does well enough with Po’s heavier moments.

As well the film has its share of energetic set pieces for the kids to enjoy, from Po and his pals’ first-act scuffle with Shen’s armored wolf goons, to Po careening across rooftops and, later, deflecting flaming cannonballs. An especially enjoyable bit sees Po and the gang taking out Shen’s soldiers while hiding inside a Chinese Dragon.

That unexpectedly darker tone I was talking about, and which I welcome, is rooted in the film’s underlying theme of parental desertion, in how it shaped both Po and Shen. It’s not Freud-level stuff or anything, but it does lend the film some weight, and at the very least allows for a more interesting animated-movie bad guy. And Oldman does great work as Shen, giving him a wonderfully Machiavellian quality, but also making sure we feel his deep-seated anger and sadness.

Freshman director Jennifer Yuh Nelson nicely adds to the darker mood by rendering Po’s unsettling memories about his parents in the kind of old-fashioned hand-drawn animation reminiscent of the darker animated films of the early ’80s, like The Secret of NIMH and The Black Cauldron. She also creates a number of striking visuals, in particular the line of ships making their way down the Gongmen City canal, not to mention ominous thunderclouds and a tall toppling temple.

Now, I do realize this is a movie populated by talking animals, including a raccoon (Dustin Hoffman), a fortune-telling goat (Michelle Yeoh), Po’s goose dad (James Hong, funny and touching), a crocodile (Jean-Claude Van Damme!) and various pigs and rabbits. But you almost forget they’re not human. This goes especially for Angelina Jolie, who exudes Zen-like calm as Po pal Tigress, and Seth Rogen, hilarious as Praying Mantis, chattering on like he does about how the females of his species bite off the heads of the males. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Action/Adventure

Rated PG

Release Date: 12/13/11

Therein lies the rub: Cowboys & Aliens is a movie that somehow fails to live up to its title. There are indeed cowboys and aliens aplenty in it, but it takes itself a little too seriously to earn its playful-sounding moniker. That’s not to say it isn’t any fun at all. Particularly during its first half hour, which establishes the amnesiac stranger Jake Lonergan (a relentlessly dour-faced Daniel Craig), cattle patriarch Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and the dying boomtown of Absolution, Arizona Territory. The early scenes, replete with fisticuffs and dueling dagger stares, are actually fairly (maybe unintentionally) funny. Later on, when strange objects appear in the sky and start blasting the town, things get a little uneven.

Disregarding the title altogether, it’s hard to say exactly why the souffle that is Cowboys & Aliens never manages to rise all the way. It has all the right ingredients–a good cast, a good director (Jon “Iron Man” Favreau), and a script that could be a heck of a lot worse. The writers manage to find a few nice moments to remind us that these characters are out of their depth when it comes to alien invasions, and even things we today take for granted are novel to them (like flight). But whatever the reason, it doesn’t quite cohere as it should. Maybe someday it’ll gain some kind of cult status as the oddity it is. Until then, you could do a lot worse. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

As in Howard’s original pulp stories, the Conan here is a Cimmerian born during battle and raised by a blacksmith father (Ron Perlman). From there the film’s trio of screenwriters concoct a new plot, in which Conan seeks revenge against a malevolent warlord (Stephen Lang) bent on conquering the world via a mask made out of the bones of dead kings.

The problem with Momoa is presence. He doesn’t have any. He probably got the role because of his six-pack abs and model-pretty face. But not only does he deliver his lines somewhat woodenly, and in a low growl, he behaves more like an entitled surfer boy than an uncivilized grunt, and seems to believe that glowering through liberally applied mascara makes him intimidating.

Marcus Nispel is the director, and that just compounds the issue, because hiring the guy who made the awesomely uninspired reboots of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th is always a good idea. He has not the skill to craft anything creative, be it action sequences or scenes in general, or to compensate for Momoa’s deficient performance. He stages the chases and various swordfights competently, sure, but some of the more interesting sequences, like Momoa’s clash with warriors made of dirt, deserve to be better than merely proficient.

The only one who brings anything interesting to the party is Stephen Lang, a veteran actor probably best known for chewing the scenery as badass soldiers in Avatar and Fox-TV’s Terra Nova. He’s the best thing in them, and he’s the best thing here, imbuing his pony-tailed villain with a wonderfully fierce spirit, be it while goading Momoa during a swordfight, or uttering cheesy dialogue. “My wife will make me a god, and we will cast all rivals into oceans of blood,” he proclaims to Rachel Nichols’ damsel-in-distress at one point, almost managing to make it sound believable. Almost.

As a whole, the thing is grittier than the Schwarzenegger version. That is, it tries to be a mite more realistic, which is an interesting tack for a film like this to take. As well there’s actually far less use of special effects than you might expect, dirt-warriors, tentacled creature and finale notwithstanding. For once, though, I wouldn’t have minded getting a CGI show. It would have distracted me from the lackluster lump of beefcake at the center of the movie. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

If neither of these is a problem, why haven’t you seen Bellflower yet?

It’s the story of two friends, Woodrow (Evan Glodell, who also directed) and Aiden (Tyler Dawson), who apparently don’t work, drink a lot, and build flamethrowers in their spare time. One night at the bar, Woodrow meets Milly (Jessie Wiseman) and it’s kismet. Ah, young love.

This is the point where linearity and reality start being a little less trustworthy, and this is where a lot of people might turn the film off.

Just before it gets awesome.

It’s also where we see the film is less about romantic love and more about masculinity in the twenty-first century. It’s like a reboot of Fight Club, but instead of hitting one another, they build amazing cars and flamethrowers and hit other people. All for a meager budget of around $17,000.

Originally conceived of in 2003, they didn’t really get moving until 2008. Shot over the course of 3 years on handmade cameras, Bellflower is the definition of an independent movie. They made the car, they made the cameras, wrote, shot, edited and produced the whole thing themselves. It’s like watching El Mariachi for the first time, the amazement of what people, motivated people, can get done.

The sheer amount of swagger in Bellflower is mindblowing. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Action/Drama/Romance

Rated R