THE TOWN--2010

Rated R--primarily for language and violence

Stars: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively

Director: Written and directed by Ben Affleck

Genre: Action/Adventure/Thriller

Four friends who grew up in Charlestown--a Boston area neighborhood known for having the highest rate of bank and armored car stick-ups in the U.S.--resort to (what else?) robbing banks and armored cars! You can tell these guys are thugs because they speak THUG-ESE, which is basically cussing and F-bombs as every other word, spoken in that New England accent that is not your higher class accent--like the Kennedys spoke--but your lower class accent that is most notable with Ben Affleck's character, Doug MacRay, who looks and sounds a lot like Adam Sandler on Valium.

These are not sympathetic Robin Hood type characters--they have no qualms about terrorizing and beating the crap out of bank employees--but give them credit for being creative, as they make their hits wearing these Halloween masks and costumes, my favorite being the nuns with grotesque faces that you've no doubt seen in the trailer (the movie trailer--not your trailer--though you may have seen the movie trailer in your trailer) . They will keep upping the ante, successively pulling off bigger and more complicated--and dangerous-- jobs, as if they think they will never get caught. They may be creative, but they're not too bright.

Anyhoo, on this one bank heist they take attractive bank manager, Claire Keesey (the attractive Rebecca Hall) hostage, but later release her. Later on, Doug wants to follow up and see how much of a threat she might be to them, so he "accidentally" runs into her at a laundromat (an opportunity for him to launder some of his ill-gotten cash there, I mused). Claire, of course, doesn't recognize him. Doug is held captive (pardon the pun) by her charms, and even though she's been suffering traumatic stress from her ordeal, she immediately starts up a relationship with him. You'd think she'd be a little more wary of strangers at this point, so this part didn't ring true for me.

Many a man has been undone by getting distracted from his objective by a woman, and the remainder of The Town centers on the familiar plot of bad guy trying to go straight and turn his life around and build a future with the apple of his eye. But there are enormous pressures on MacRay to participate in one last job--trying to pull of a huge heist of Fenway Park during a ball game, of all the ridiculous things! (There is also enormous pressure on you--the viewer--to begin to sympathize with the character of Doug MacRay...hmmm...which way will you lean?)

Will any of these guys make a clean getaway with the entire Boston police force and the FBI closing in on them?

The shoot-'em-up, crash-'em-up escape scenes in The Town are edge-of-your-seat thrilling-- some of the best you'll ever see--and they make up, in large part, for the implausibility of the plot, as you forget about all that and just hang on for the ride!

As mastermind of The Town--and with a talented ensemble cast--writer/director/star Ben Affleck has pulled off a pretty big job here.

Grade: B

SALT--2010

(PG-13 theatrical release, unrated director's cut, and unrated extended cut on DVD.)

Stars: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Director: Philip Noyce

Genre: Action/Thriller

Angelina Jolie stars as CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who goes on the run when she is suspected of being a Russian sleeper spy. As if we didn't have enough enemies around the globe these days, Salt dredges up the cold war again--an unintentional (you'd think) spoof of the old James Bond versus the Evil Genius bent on taking over, or destroying the world... whichever comes first.

Agent Salt karate chops her way through scores of big, heavily armed men--half a dozen at a time--as if they are so wimpy they can't take a punch from a 120 pound woman, and just drop to the floor, out cold or dead. (The most blatant kind of patronizing and pandering to the rage-against-men fantasies of the hormonally out of control set!)

Funny...I remember some of those fight scenes in movies like Roadhouse, where dudes are repeatedly getting lambasted in the kisser by 250 POUND GUYS, and they just get back up and keep coming back for more! Weird.

Jolie performs these outrageous stunts--each more humanly impossible than the next-- that a real person would end up as flat-as-a-pancake roadkill if she attempted even one. The movie obviously wants you to take this seriously, otherwise she'd be wearing a mask and a cape. I suppose if you're in the right mood, you can just go with it--willing suspension of disbelief and all that--and I've been slap-happy enough to do that with many films, where it's obvious they're winking at you and asking you to just play along. But there is nothing tongue in cheek here, and to buy into Salt on any kind of serious level, you'd at least need a modicum of believability.

Nearly everything about this film is ridiculous...and naming the main character "Evelyn Salt" should be your first clue.

Grade: D -

I AM LOVE--2010

Rated: R

Stars: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Pippo Delbono, Alba Rohwacher

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Genre: Drama

A woman of Russian lineage marries into a wealthy Italian family. Emma (Tilda Swinton) now has grown children, and to outward appearances it seems like a good fit--a life where everything is ordered and meticulously laid out like the seating arrangements and place settings for the birthday gathering to honor the Recchi family patriarch--where we are introduced to the large ensemble cast of I Am Love. But something is missing. We can see it in Emma's eyes, her facial expressions, her body lauguage.

I Am Love is a fill-in-the-blanks, draw your own conclusions kind of movie, where certain questions remain unanswered from the beginning. Emma's young adult son, Edoardo, (Flavio Parenti) loses a race. We are not privy to whether it's a foot race, a bicycle race, or a soap box derby. We only know that he was bested by a young chef named Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini) . In a family of so much privilege, the expectation of excellence is the norm. But Edoardo isn't sweating it. There is great camaraderie between the two young men--and maybe something more--which is hinted at but never spelled out. Further speculation is fueled by Edoardo's reaction upon the discovery that his mother has entered into a passionate affair with the young chef. (No surprise that THAT'S what was missing in Emma's life!)

A subplot involves Emma's daughter, Elisabetta, (Alba Rohwacher) who has recently come out of the closet, and is the only one who seems to understand her mother's heart-rending decision in the climactic scene.

I Am Love is like one of those old steam locomotives that chugs along slowly at first, gradually picking up steam and momentum...then suddenly out of control...until the inevitable derailment involving casualties, precipitated by the karma these characters have drawn to themselves. A film that seems to be telling us to follow our instincts, and to go for love--DAMMIT--no matter how inappropriate, destructive, or doomed it may appear to be.

Pay the karma off in installments.

Tilda Swinton shines in this cinematically gorgeous movie--except for women getting their beautiful long hair whacked short--becoming rather plain looking as a result--the usual consequence of a type of capriciousness that often plagues the fair sex.

Grade: A -

THE TOURIST--2010

Rated: PG-13

Stars: Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Steven Berkoff, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Genre: Romantic Thriller

Who could blame one for thinking that The Tourist might be just another vehicle designed to showcase a couple of mega-stars--Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp--and little else? HOWEVAH...I'm happy to report that was not the case! Here is a film with intrigue, romance, gorgeous scenery, (in addition to Ms. Jolie) and a mesmerizing score from James Newton Howard...so what's not to like? (Okay, there's no skin...live with it!)

In the world of intrigue--as in life--there are assumptions, and there is often a reality that blows our assumptions out of the water. Speaking of water... we're in Venice, where the elegant Elise (Angelina Jolie) is being tailed by agents from Interpol who believe she's getting ready to hook up with her lover, the elusive Alexander Pearce, wanted for ripping off a ton of money from the brutal gangster Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff). Previously, when Elise received a note from Pearce instructing her to board a designated train from Paris to Venice and pick out a guy about his build and height to glom onto so as to bamboozle the British agents...there sits the hapless looking Frank Tupelo, (Johnny Depp) a math teacher from Wisconsin, who is immediately taken with Elise...and then taken BY Elise to her fancy hotel suite and...suffice it to say that Frank is now caught up in everything that Elise is caught up in...and WE are caught up in one spellbinding movie!

There are two plot twists in The Tourist that (unless you're Sherlock Holmes) will dispel the major assumptions you've drawn about each of these characters. The one at the end stretches the bounds of believability like the elastic on that one pair of undies you've been wearing now for the last five years. WHO CARES? It's the movies...remember?

Johnny Depp gives what must be the most understated performance of his career, but the reasons for that will fall into place at the end, at which point you'll be able to appreciate it for what it is. (What...you want him to be the swashbuckler every time? Hey--he's run out of eyeliner!)

Jolie, who is about to be inducted into the BIG LIPS AND MOUTH HALL OF FAME (along with Carly Simon, Mick Jagger, Steven Tyler, and Lisa Rinna) is elegant, playful, witty, daring, and self-confident as Elise.

The Tourist was a fun ride that I will likely take again--the second time knowing what I know, and watching for subtle hints in facial expressions that may give more away than what I was able to catch onto the first time around.

Grade: B +

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KICK-ASS--2010

Rated: R

Stars: Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Nicholas Cage, Mark Strong

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Genre: Action, Dark Comedy

We've been conditioned to the same formula for comic book superheroes ever since Clark Kent ducked into that phone booth, donned those form-fitting tights, and went out to kick some ass. So when a comic-adaptation film like Kick Ass comes along where this nerdy kid gets a mail-order superhero costume, hits the streets to engage the bad guys, only to discover that he has no latent super-normal abilities and is running only on bravado--and, of course, sheer stupidity--we keep expecting SOMETHING to kick in to give him an edge when some truly bad dudes start mopping the floor with his sorry ass. This endears him to us all the more, because he's just like most of us everyday stiffs who are trying to live an honorable life and are appalled by some of the stuff that goes down in the world (only his cojones are bigger than most!)

When his exploits make the headlines, Kick Ass--which is what hapless teen Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) has dubbed his alter-ego-- spawns a couple of more effective caped crusaders in the dad/daughter duo of Hit Girl, (Chloe Moretz) and her somewhat off-kilter father, Big Daddy, (Nicholas Cage) who come to bail Kick-Ass out when he has drawn the attention and the ire of ruthless crime syndicate boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong).

The violence and the splatter-gore of Kick-Ass (based on the comic by Mark Millar) can only be described as cartoonish--it's so over the top it makes Sam Peckinpah look like Walt Disney, and can't be taken seriously. And yet, one could make a case that it's just one more milestone on the to-hell-in-a-hand-basket road of numbness and moral decay our society is headed down.

Another controversy-sparking milestone in Kick-Ass has to be what comes out of 11-year old Chloe Moretz's mouth--and yet she's adorable as Hit Girl, even when the F-bombs and other choice epithets begin to fly. After a while it occurred to me that yeah, that IS the way eleven-year olds (and younger) talk. Anyone who doesn't believe it hasn't listened to the kids who pile off the school bus in front of my house on a daily basis.

Despite all that, Kick-Ass is a movie that will bring out the latent superhero in you...all you'll have to do is decide which silly looking costume to wear.

Grade: B +

BLACK SWAN--2010

Rated: R

Stars: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassell, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Genre: Psychological drama

A promising young ballerina on an irrational quest for perfection inexorably descends into fantasy and madness in Black Swan. And who or what is responsible for Nina's (Natalie Portman) tenuous hold on reality? Is it her manipulative, controlling mother(Barbara Hershey) ; the demands of a highly competitive (and cutthroat) profession that eats 'em up and spits 'em out with no remorse; or could it just be the silliness of dancing in that punishing and unnatural way that drives young women crazy?

We see every shift on Ms. Portman's emotionally expressive face--and that's because the camera is IN her face for most of the dancing shots, so as not to show the footwork of an actress who obviously is not a professional ballerina, though she did have some extensive training in preparation for the role. It always irks me a bit when you see the star in the close ups and then the stand in doing the more complicated moves when the camera pulls back, and it's really transparent that this is what is occurring.

But other than the aforementioned little bugaboo, Black Swan--billed as a "psycho-sexual thriller"-- is one that will keep you on your toes throughout. Is it a psychological drama? Horror flick? Erotic thriller? Hallucinatory fantasy? It's all that and a bag of chips, and a near masterpiece to boot.

Portman gives a heady performance as the driven, tightly wound Nina. Other notable renderings come from: Mila Kunis, as Nina's sexually provocative rival and nemesis. Vincent Cassell--the smoldering, unorthodox ballet director (he uses sexual harassment to motivate his dancers to "loosen up"). Barbara Hershey as Nina's creepy, controlling stage mother. And Winona Ryder as an aging star who is involuntarily being put out to pasture.

Director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) knows how to ratchet up the intensity increment by increment, leading to a fervent climax the likes of which you normally aren't going to experience in a movie theatre (unless you're Pee Wee Herman, of course!) A film that gives new meaning to the phrase: DAMN...MY FEET ARE KILLING ME!

Grade: A-

MOTHER AND CHILD--2009

Rated: R

Stars: Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson

Director: Rodrigo Garcia

Genre: Drama

Rife with poignant moments and superb performances, Mother and Child follows the interconnected lives of three women: The middle-aged Karen, (Annette Bening) who bore a child at the age of 14 and gave it up for adoption; Her child as an adult, Elizabeth, (Naomi Watts); and Lucy, (Kerry Washington) a young woman anxious to adopt a child.

Annette Bening--who remains one of our most talented actresses--shines as a moody, difficult woman, haunted by her decision lo these many years. Naomi Watts has always been an "anything goes" film presence, (see Mullholland Drive) and she's still willing to bare a lot more than her soul. Her portrayal of a promiscuous, emotionally numb young woman is spot on.

What can sometimes be the emotionally devastating effects of the adoption game may be a bit overplayed here, but Mother and Child is a film with its heart in the right place.

Grade: B +

A LIFE LESS ORDINARY--Retro: 1997 (R)

Stars: Cameron Diaz, Ewan McGregor, Holly Hunter, Delroy Lindo

Director: Danny Boyle

Genre: Dark Comedy

Holly Hunter steals the show as a gun-toting, tobacco juice spitting emissary from heaven who, along with her sidekick, (Delroy Lindo) is on a mission to unite two unlikely bedfellows (Cameron Diaz and Ewan McGregor) in true romance.

Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) demonstrated his directorial prowess early on in this quirky, high energy romp that seeks to answer the question: IS LOVE MERELY AN EMOTIONAL ADAPTATION TO A PHYSICAL NECESSITY?

Retro Grade: B