(1 People gave this 3.00 out of 5)

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“The Hungry Rabbit . . .”

Swift shot:  I know, I don’t normally review theatre – I am more a theater guy – still, when I was given the opportunity to watch these young actors perform, I just couldn’t say no.  Being a performer, on any level, is not easy, to some it comes naturally, and others have to work at their craft.  Some scripts are easier than others, some roles fit you better, and some you have to force yourself into.  But, Diego De La Espriella was incredible, is incredible, and will stay incredible – and he is only in the eighth grade!  He delivers the final scene as Otto Frank with such power, it was almost surreal.  This was seventh-grader Rachel Rose Capo’s first lead role with Broadway Kids Studio, and she performed admirably as the passionate, chaotic, enduring, and endearing Anne Frank.

When I prepared for this invitation, I didn’t know what to expect.  This was my first time even hearing about the Broadway Kids Studio, and when I did a little research I saw that they had their own “Black Box Studio” – I had no idea how intimate that space would become.  To set this portrayal of the end of hope in such a dark, small, claustrophobic space was probably more convenience than genius, but it was an incredibly powerful venue nonetheless.  It trapped you in with the characters, you weren’t watching from the comfort of your seat a few rows back.  They were mere inches away, these actors, these children couldn’t call out for a line or feign interest if not the center of focus.  There was no escaping us anymore than they could escape the Nazis.  To call these “kids” anything less than professional would be an insult.

We all know the horrible story, the true story of the final years of a group of people forced to live in squalor while enduring the worst kind of fear imaginable.  The only thing they had was each other, and in the production’s final act, we are reminded that when Anne Frank met her sad end . . . she was alone, naked, petrified . . . alone.  As parents sat in the audience, when those words were spoken aloud, to think of your child meeting their fate with such cruel abandon – knowing you couldn’t be there to protect them, to shelter them, or even just to die with them, was something that an eighth-grader conveyed with a maturity some aged actors still can’t master.

All of these “kids” at some point in the show became their characters.  Each one of them had a moment where the scene was all about them, and they didn’t fail to impress.  When Sergio De La Espriella as Mr. Van Daan shouted down his wife for wanting to keep her fur coat, you felt his powerful desperation. When Edith Frank, Anne’s mother, played by Rachel Harrison finally connected with her rebellious daughter, she wasn’t a “kid” anymore.  She conveyed true empathy and understanding, and in that moment, she was a mother to a girl who finally cared for her mother.  The two, understood one another and accepted love.  When Griffin Marthe, who portrayed Mr. Dussel, had a few comedic moments, it was like the darkness in the box had abated some, and you could almost see the stars twinkling through a window that wasn’t there . . . only in a dream.  But before the nightmare of reality shrieked out, before that sad end, the play captured the joy of others, the hell of others, but also the overall enduring strength of togetherness.

Finally, when all was at its bleakest, in a crescendo of pain and sadness, there was one loud explosion of hope, as we learned the invasion had started.  As hope, which seemed like a four letter word earlier, became a pragmatic possibility.  But, sadly, this was a true story, no knights in shining armor would came to save the Franks or their friends.  In the end it was the Gestapo – they were betrayed by a faceless coward.  Regardless of the setting, the time, the heroes, or even the villains, this story always serves as a stark reminder that freedom is not something that should ever be taken for granted.  The next time you find yourself bored or miserable, think of the final two years of Anne Frank, a girl who would never become a woman, a writer whose only prose was in her youth, with such potential, cut down, wasted, lost forever.

In the end, we will all wind up in a box, alone, but with the grace of friends, family, and faith, we can endure as people and we can remember that humanity is only defined by us, what we choose to leave behind as a legacy of good or evil is our choice.  I think that was what the last entry of the diary really captured, Anne was surrounded by fear and misery, yet she still saw the good in the world, she still believed that people were inherently good and worth loving.  I hope we always are.

(1 People gave this 1.00 out of 5)

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Who will speak for the trees?

Swift shot:  I am no tree-hugger, but I can proudly say that iRATEfilms.com is run solely on wind energy; you can see our badge below.  And my views on finding alternative energy sources stem more from my loathing of certain oil-rich regimes than saving mother nature.  Still, I have a heart.  And, where some may take The Lorax as a beat you over the head with guilt film, I chose to take it as a, hey, just don’t forget about the trees, film.

Or let’s take his own words to heart, before I get hate mail about the “real message” or the fact that he lampoons environmentalists as some furry little creature.  Seuss once said, “The Lorax doesn’t say lumbering is immoral. I live in a house made of wood and write books printed on paper. It’s a book about going easy on what we’ve got. It’s anti-pollution and anti-greed.”

Starring Ed Helms as the mysteriously named, Once-Ler and Danny DeVito as title character The Lorax, the film is setup as a love story where Ted (Zac Efron) is trying to woo the auburn-haired dreamer, Audrey (Taylor Swift – No Relation to Me), and in fact the book itself was inspired by a romantic trip to East Africa that Seuss took with his wife Audrey in 1970.  And, yes, fans may realize this film was produced by Audrey, the widow of one Theodore, Ted “Dr. Seuss” Geisel.  It really is a love story.

In the film, twelve-year-old Ted is so infatuated with Audrey that he is willing to go beyond the trappings of the plastic city of Thneedville, run by corrupt, bottled-air-tycoon, Aloysius O’Hare (Rob Riggle) to find the one thing that Thneedville really needs, hope, in the form of a Truffula Tree seed.  Stealing the show, of course, was Betty White as Grammy Norma,who tells Ted that he must see the Once-Ler to find out about the trees.

With a little help from Grammy who tricks his mom (Jenny Slate), Ted manages to escape town and soon meets the Once-Ler who forces him to to endure a long story, a long, long story (complete with songs) about where all the trees went and how he met the odd-little magical creature, The Lorax.  Right away the Once-Ler is skeptical and catches on that Ted is just doing this to impress a girl, but he is also just happy to have someone captive, err, captivated with his story.

I was glad to see The Lorax, it was a highly imaginative and colorful film for little minds to enjoy, but it also has some wonderful surprises for adults to keep your attention throughout.  The Humming-Fish and Bar-ba-loots get almost excessively cutesy, but they grow on you as you anticipate their next silly antics and the film doesn’t put you to sleep.  Kudos to Danny DeVito for being the first actor in an animated movie to voice his role in multiple languages!

Sadly, I read a story today about a tree that stood for over 3,500 years, it was the fifth oldest tree on Earth and some meth-head burned it to the ground last month in Florida, and I couldn’t help but think about my review today.  “The Senator” will stand no more, and it wasn’t killed for greed or corporate necessity – it was destroyed by a person that probably needed a little more Dr. Seuss in her life!

Finally, I will leave you with the film’s effective and endearing message taken from the book – “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.”  Put down your cell-phones and tablets, pull away from your TV’s and PC’s – take your kids to this heart-warming film and remind them that there needs to balance in all things in life.  I think this film would make Dr. Seuss very proud.

(3 People gave this 4.00 out of 5)

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“If you’re not willing to give up everything, you’ve already lost.”

Swift shot:  How many times have you run into people claiming to be SEALs?  Odds are, they were lying.  With rare exceptions, the silent operators of the deep will emerge from the frosty surf long enough to do their duty and then sink back to the darkest depths.  That is why I was shocked to hear active-duty SEALs were cast in this film, and (for our screening at least) the Bandito Brothers explained why before the film began in a short tribute to the elite warriors.  These are not actors, but they sure as hell deliver the action!!  Act of Valor is an exceptional military action film, which should be required viewing for anyone looking to join the service, any military service, during a time of conflict . . . i.e. WAR!  The above image was a live action sequence that the Bandito Brothers had one chance to capture, of an actual SEAL team embarking to a sub.  While this shot is epic, the next shot in this sequence is something you have to see on the big screen!

A lot of controversy has surrounded the access to the Teams for this film, and casting active duty personnel must be giving someone in the Naval Special Warfare headquarters a friggin’ ulcer, but, somehow, this film hit the can.  My opinion on it is this, no real sources were revealed, names were changed and hopefully if the bad guys are taking notes, it will just flush them out into some well-devised trap wherein the actors will get a chance to face their . . . critics . . . toe to toe.  I could live with that.

Much like a Law & Order episode, the film’s plot is ripped right from mission files of the Navy SEALs, and I won’t give away too much here.  Essentially, a duo of really bad school friends decide they want to strike inside America and make a larger statement than 9/11.  They both have their special skills, and when they reunite after years being apart, their union is something that we can’t allow . . . send in the SEALs!

The film’s narrative is read throughout as a letter to a son, as lessons are to be learned, morals taught, right and wrong determined, values earned in a perceived world where words mean nothing without action.  Each time pieces of the letter are read, it will sink in more and more their overall impact . . . leading to a dramatic final closing signature.  The film captures the hearth and hearts of these, often mis-portrayed, deadly men.  My favorite line from the letter is, “The worst part about getting older is that other men no longer see you as dangerous.”  No doubt, these men are incredibly dangerous, and more than a few times you will find yourself thinking . . . damn, I am glad they are on our side!

If you have ever seen Navy Seals, you have an icon, a stereotype, about what these men should be like.  But, the most chilling aspect of the film shows how ‘normal’ they are, there are no idiotic scenes akin to Charlie Sheen jumping from a moving jeep on a bridge just to avoid a wedding, crap like that is not even a thought to these men.  They are lethal, when necessary, and live life on the edge, at work, but at home they try to be the best providers for their families and balance their mortality with morality.  The only verified SEAL that I ever met was the most down to earth person.  It was refreshing to see Hollywood go to the ‘source’, for a change.

After I just got done reading my Drill Instructor’s EBook, Friends from Damascus, it was awesome to see some of the same types of action-sequences play out in the theater.  When the live-rounds are being peppered into a Quick Reaction Force vehicle, and it almost turns into dust as the SWCC bubbas light it up from the river, it’s like a symphony of precise destruction.  One thing I found interesting, given the current political seascape, was the use of female pilots used for the insertion craft sequences – personally, I couldn’t care less, if they can do the job, and the SEALs can live with it – - – who can argue with that?

This film is just one bad-ass ride at the movies; little dialog is necessary when the action takes the center stage.  And, every critic’s favorite action-flick lament, “But where was the character development?’ goes nowhere here, because these weren’t characters, it was more like watching the actual troops reenact a previous engagement for our viewing pleasure.

Ok, Rick, you LOVED it, we get it, then why not five stars?  Well, this is where I found myself puzzled.  I expected the SEALs to not be able to act, and with the exception of a few scenes with Senior Chief, that held true.  Still, I am not about to say they sucked . . . they can find me fairly easily, heh.  The folks who were supposed to be the actors, didn’t bring their A-game, or maybe they did, but it wasn’t good enough.  Perhaps that is understandable, because they may have been incredibly intimidated.  But, in one scene, that was supposed to be emotionally riveting, the Christo actor (Alex Veadov) dropped so painfully in and out of his accent that I was actually expecting to hear – “CUT!”

But, if you live for hardcore action, you can’t do much better than this, because it is the real deal, the covert, presented in overt glory just so you can understand what true sacrifice these men live with everyday, the threat of death is something they face . . . everyday . . . so that you don’t have to come toe to toe with the enemy.  Oddly enough, when the final credits rolled, I turned to Amadarwin and said, “I think we are going to war soon,” because the film has that feel, much like Pearl Harbor was released right before we were hit in 2001.  It feels like a readiness drill.

I would like to take a few lines here to remember these brave warriors of the night who met their deaths while we all worried about petty things like bills, social networking and gas-prices . . . we are already at war, these Damn Few already know it!  Semper Fi Team Six-  “. . . the dead included 25 Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six.”

(1 People gave this 1.00 out of 5)

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“Something elusive”

Click here to jump to the Swift’s Notes (AKA Cliff’s Notes) Review!

Swift shot:  In 1977, I was three years old, so there is no way I could have possibly seen Star Wars in theaters . . . but, I did.  I was probably four when my dad took me in his yellow MG convertible, the kind you had to snap shut, and (perish the thought) I sat in the front seat . . . with only a seat-belt to protect me, well, that and my dad.  Funny how we overlook the most important part of child safety, the parent!  Still, we went, and the roads were wet, and the air was kind of musty outside, like after a dog shakes and there is a light fog in the air.  I was really small, and the world was still new and exciting to me, I believed that anything was possible.  After I saw Star Wars, there is no denying this, I wanted to know what made Darth Vader so evil. Even before I saw Empire Strikes Back, I can remember being secretly happy that Vader didn’t die in the final battle in A New Hope.  He was . . . interesting, and I was compelled to know more about him.  Twenty-two years later, I would finally have a third of his legacy revealed.

Stavanger, Norway – the year was 1999; I had just gotten back from Albania, where I was doing Counter-Intel work for NATO where I saw more than I care to admit.  I saw humanity’s inhumanity.  With that backdrop, I was well ready for something to take my mind off of reality and to just be child-like again.

The film was released already in the states, it released in May, and it hit the can in August in Norway.  I had given strict instructions to every single American that I knew to reveal nothing to me . . . on pain of death!  Maybe the tone I took was sufficient, because no one revealed anything.  But, now we have all seen the film, and we are now thirteen years later, where all the questions have been answered . . . and then some.  So, I won’t pretend you haven’t all seen the film, and I will violate my rule of making spoilers verboten.

Let me start my defense of the film thusly.  When I was in high school, it wasn’t cool to like Bon Jovi, or Bon BlowMe as my friends and I all called them, because we were so damned cool.  But, years later I found out that we were all closeted fans, would go home and jam out to them, all while faking the funk back in school.  And, I think, that is what has happened with Phantom Menace.  I think it has become derivative to say you don’t like it, because of one stupid freakin’ Gungan! Ask yourself, honestly, when you saw it in 1999, was it so incredibly bad then?  Or were you sucking at the Lucas teat and waiting for whatever he would squeeze out, teasing you in anticipation of Episode III?  If nothing else, did not the film get your butt into the theater for Attack of the Clones?  I thought as much.

This first film holds a special place in my heart for being the first piece of a greater puzzle to make up arguably the most hated villain in Hollywood . . . Darth Vader.  When we first meet him, Anakin Skywalker is a slave boy who has dreams of grandeur and adventure . . . but he also is incredibly protective of his mother.  Is this fear of loss the thing that will finally make him the sinister lord of the Sith?  Well, you already know the answer, but I didn’t in 1999 – and neither did you!

Starring the incredible [Academy Award Winning] Natalie Portman as Padme/Queen Amidala and casting Ewan McGregor as the legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi was a master-stroke for Lucas.  Liam Neeson, no stranger to audiences now, and back in 1999 had a fair film resume and lots of hungry fans, plays Master Qui-Gon Jinn with Ahmed Best providing some exceptional voice-over work as the oft-derided Gungan Jar Jar Binks.  The pivotal character though, had to be a boy, had to be believable, and had to be someone you cared for in the end.  Jake Lloyd, all of ten years old had to step into some of the biggest, darkest boots Hollywood has ever created.

Could you have done better . . . at ten?  Hell, could you now for that matter?  There was one scene he had to get right . . . and he did!  When Yoda says there is much fear in Anakin, and Lloyd is looking at him with pure malice, that is one of the finer scenes of any young actor.  If he blew that moment, however subtle, it would have ruined the film for me.  That is the essence of Vader, he is an egoist, but he protects those he loves . . . anyone else is just in the way.  In that moment, Lloyd nailed it . . . at ten.  So, put that in your pretentious pipes and suck deep, cynics.

There has a been a lot of talk about Portman not doing a good job, bull, I think the scenes where she was being a queen, she was directed to be regal-sounding or something, and given that a lot of the work was done with a blue-screen, I think she did enough with what she had to work with.  Also, she had to alter her voice etc. to not make it obvious that she was Padme.  I must admit, in 1999, I didn’t know it for sure until she was washing R2-D2, after being (comically) ordered to clean the heroic droid by the “queen.”

Which brings us to the synchronicity quips of so many “critics” – it was “childish” to have C-3PO created by Anakin and to have R2-D2 already introduced in the series.  It was lame to have the force described in an organic, scientific fashion, and why did Lucas feel the need to force racial stereotypes in this film?  Because it is a film . . . it is a series driven by fan admiration, he was going to the candy store, maybe he did it one time too many with making C-3PO’s maker Darth Vader, but I actually thought that was a nice touch.  When he was a ” child” he created a toy, a “childish thing”, but when he becomes a man, that childish thing leads to his destruction.  Impressive.  Good mythology there, don’t ya think?  Or, did you not catch that, because you were too busy hating a certain Gungan?

Also, on to the Gungans . . . did you hate them all, Boss Nass, Captain Tarpals, every last floppy-eared “primitive life form?”  Or was Jar Jar the only Gungan you wanted to kill?  Newsflash, he was supposed to be annoying, he was the comedy-relief, buffoon, hell, even Obi Wan wants to leave him and can’t wait for him to shut up half the time.

All this is why I didn’t hate the film, because this is how I was already dissecting it in 1999, I was intrigued with the story-line, the epic battles, the droids, and then there was this new guy . . . Darth Maul.  When he makes his first appearance, it is one of those great movie moments, and when he engages the second blade on his light-saber, tell me you weren’t four years old again and thinking, “That’s cool!”

What I really liked about his character though, and the fight scenes in particular with him, he doesn’t say anything.  There is no, I am your father, I hate you, I am Sith, your mother is so fat . . . none of that trash-talking.  He just goes right for the kill.  I LOVED THAT, even though the dialogue is what fascinated me about Vader in 1977, in 1999 the lack of dialog had me thinking, woah, that Darth Maul is one bad mutha!

Episode I – The Phantom Menace had rich characters, a compelling plot that sets up the motions to create the Galactic Empire, and a few strikes which can mostly be over-looked to make for an enjoyable time at the theater.  The cinematography, albeit mostly CGI, was state-of-the-art for its time.  The ILM team may have used a softer stroke on the special-effects to create a more raw feel to the film, like they had to do in 1977.  In effect, they got too good, and they show-cased their work to the nth degree.  Still, the overall immersive feeling to transport myself outside of my theater seat was still there.  A few stilted lines delivered by a less than spectacular Samuel Jackson, and one overtly annoying Gungan, weren’t enough to ruin the film.  Telling the first part of the Anakin Skywalker trilogy, where he is but a small boy, the film does a fine job laying out all the pieces that will ultimately lead to his betrayal and his transformation to vile Sith Lord, Darth Vader.

I don’t read.  Well, I read occasionally.  And when I read – because I am a movie freak – I see each page as a film scene laid out in my mind. So, let me treat this book review much like a film review and let you know how Friends from Damascus played out in my mind’s ‘unblinking’ eye.

First, I need to offer a disclaimer:  Cliff Happy was my drill instructor (DI) in 1993.  He put me through the harshest physical experiences I have ever had to endure. And when I say he was tough, I don’t mean Hollywood tough – I mean the real deal, in your face, tough. He was less than ‘happy’ – demanding, and yet, somehow compassionate.  Friends from Damascus is no exception, that delicate balance is exactly what he delivers.  The story is a page-turner with lots of gore and meaty violence, yet the romantic passages were full of depth and passion. 

I felt a bit weird reading it, to be honest, because it has so much depth . . . I was expecting it to be more GO! GO! GO! And it is actually paced incredibly well.  The action is intense, and the romance is handled with aplomb.  The two love interests both have something to hide and something to share.  With each unable to trust a soul, they are eventually forced to trust each other, but testing this loyalty may put others in jeopardy as well.  And, in a world where betrayal has lethal consequences, these lovers have to come together and defeat a more sinister evil than we would care to admit exists. 

With an imagination for bad deeds, Happy creates a seemingly implausible scenario that is actually as equally terrifying as it is somehow believable.  The plot is simple in design: a bunch of bad guys are trying to release a nerve agent that is so nasty most special operators haven’t even met it yet.  The CIA will stop at nothing to prevent the gas from being released, which is what you would hope – unless you are some kind of pacifist who believes that talking to the bad guys gets results.  If that is you, you probably aren’t going to enjoy reading this one, because quite a few terrorist scumbags meet their maker.  Or as Happy used to say in a popular Marine cadence, they get turned into, “Bodies, bits of bodies.”

But that is just the plot. The story is interesting and globally complex.  While Friends from Damscus is a short read, the characters are developed enough that you want to know more about each, but you aren’t left feeling like you’re cheated out of the essence of who they actually are, what makes them all tick, and how they each completely relate to the overall plot. 

Mona Carlotti is, to be blunt, a CIA assassin, who has been put on ice for a year following a mission where she was compromised and was hoping to put the sordid life behind her.  She is trying to atone for her past, but her creator, Colonel Merrick, needs to pull her back in for one last job.  This might be a little cliché, but Happy does a good job of adding enough nuances to the Carlotti character to make this, oft-used, cliché permissible.  You will find yourself hoping that she takes the job to make the story interesting, and as she grows on you, you will feel guilty for wanting her to take the job in the first place.  Carlotti is one of those characters that won’t leave you immediately.  Maybe some of her actions come across as pushing the suspension of disbelief envelope, but I didn’t feel like I did after watching Hanna, where my BS detector tilted several times as we were led to believe some piss-ant teenage girl was the most lethal weapon since the Terminator.  The Carlotti persona is an established killer whom I would not want to cross in real life, and what she lacks in stature, she makes up for with a mischievous malevolence for creativity. 

The Friends From Damascus are a group of rogue operators sick of dealing with red-tape and pencil-pushing politicians who are more worried about covering their own asses rather than taking out actionable targets.  They have caught the ire of Merrick though, and he doesn’t much care for them running ops without his say-so.  He deems them as much a threat as the stolen gas . . . maybe more personally, as he struggles to keep a leash on his Mona Lisa, his creature Carlotti.  She is sent to track and liquidate the ‘friends’, but what happens from there is for me to know and you to find out.  Suffice it to say, we could all use some Friends from Damascus covering our butts!

Happy does a tremendous job with his attention to detail. No shocker there, as he used to (almost literally) hammer that into my head at Parris Island.  He paints wonderful mental cinematic scenes as he describes each new location and flawlessly places the reader into the center of the action.  Some sequences will feel like a hand-held, first person shooter, while some will come across as grandiose, picturesque landscapes where a bird’s eye view is warranted.  The action is dissected to a level that affords even the novice action reader a chance to follow every bullet and ricochet. 

This isn’t some pompous novel that will force you to rethink your pathetic lives, and it isn’t a history book, nor a trashy romance novel.  It is what I like to call a ‘travel read’.  Whenever I am traveling on a plane, I like to hit the gift store and find the most compelling looking action novel by a writer I have never heard of before.  I have come across good authors that way in the past . . .  some of whom I continue to follow. I think it goes without saying that Happy has, in me, a reader for life.  But, Semper Fi aside, even if I had never heard of Cliff Happy, I would be waiting with as much impatience to read the follow-up to Friends from Damascus, The Pelindaba Conspiracy.  So, stay frosty, and read all about the Friends from Damscus. It will make my crusty old D.I., if you will pardon the pun . . . happy.

(1 People gave this 4.00 out of 5)

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“House Keeping”

Swift shot: I N T E N S I T Y – Intensity, Intensity, Intensity!

Ever have one of those “boring” jobs where you wish something would happen . . . anything, just to kill the monotony of your daily existence?  Well, Matt Weston, of the Central Intelligence Agency has one of those jobs.  He is a safe house keeper, meaning he provides an off the grid location for the Agency to put up friendly, and not so friendly, guests as the situation demands.  He has been the sole proprietor at his safe house in Cape Town, South Africa for 12 months.  Poor Matt hasn’t even had one guest stop on by.  Think your job sucks?  Director Daniel Espinoza does an excellent job in the opening sequence of developing the boredom so we can all relate, using a little Steve McQueen nod as well, right out of The Great Escape I should add.  And, escape is exactly what Matt Weston is seeking . . . escape from this most uninteresting assignment, ever.  Thing is, as the old adage goes, be careful what you wish for, especially when you work for the CIA, because excitement can come in many forms!  And in “Safe House” it comes in the form of CIA spook, legend, boogeyman (insert other cliched titles here) Tobin Frost.

I heard NBC’s Matt Lauer said this one is “non-stop action”, and the hell if he wasn’t dead on!  Other than the opening sequence where we feel for Matt (Reynolds) to have even one guest, something, anything significant happen, when the shit hits the fan, it really is non-stop, in your face close quarters battles, gunfights on the streets of South Africa, car chases, foot chases, explosions, snipers, knives, broken glass and whatever the hell can deliver violence.

Matt quickly learns he may, or may not, be on the wrong side of the equation when he first gets introduced to his house guest, Frost (Denzel).  Frost literally re-wrote the book on psychological manipulation for the Agency (AKA mind-fucking), and now he is a victim of his own design.  Frost has been a rogue agent for over nine years and specializes in selling secrets to the highest bidder, at this point he is not interested in being a patriot, he just wants his money and understands that eventually everyone betrays everyone.  But Frost has one rule . . . he only kills professionals.

Not since “Training Day” have I been pinned to my seat just waiting for the next sequence to shock me.  Some lady sitting next to me must have said “shit!” twenty times as things kept going blam, splat, or boom and caught her unaware each time.  Much like real violence, it is brutal and comes seemingly out of nowhere, because that is when it is the most effective.  I mean, how many idiots call out, “Hey, you!” before opening fire?  The action sequences were incredibly well shot, crashes were believable, characters actually get dirty, beaten and bloody.  Continuity in this film was tight!  Overall it was a full-throttle spy thriller with plenty of bad guys, bullets and bravado.

So, why not five stars?  Well, to reveal that might be to include a spoiler as I didn’t much care for how the whole thing finally played out in the end.  Also, there should be a rule for modern cinema, we can tolerate bare-assed Ryan Reynolds if we get a likewise bare-assed beauty in Nora Arnezeder (come on, she is French, so we know she isn’t prudish).  A glancing side boob shot is not gonna cut it, what happened to women’s lib?  Where is the equality!?!  Other than those two things though (pun intended), this movie has no flaws!  See it at the theater if you can, and if you have a kick ass system at home, more power to you, because this will be fun wherever you watch it.  I wish all “spy” movies were this good!

(Give us your rating!!)

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A film, long, long overdue, in a decade not so far away

Swift shot: Despite a tacky soundtrack and a high-school AV club font for the credits which looked like it was ripped right from Windows Paint, this film delivered some solid memories.  Thanks to the previews, I was expecting it to have modern music for the sound, ala “A Knight’s Tale” and “Marie Antoinette”, but they went with a more traditional score.  I wish they had opted for the modern style, because the music never worked for me . . . granted I was focused on it the whole time.  I was also expecting a lot from the folks at Lucas’ Industrial Lights & Magic (ILM), and they didn’t let me down.  The gritty attention to detail paid to the P40 Warhawks with rusty bolts and hinges in contrast to sexy, mint P51 Mustangs was noteworthy.  The actors were a bit rough around the edges, but as the film progressed, I found myself more drawn to the characters and less focused on the film’s elements.

Set in 1944, Italy, we follow the “historical” adventures of the 332nd Fighter Group, comprised entirely of “negro” pilots and crewmen.  In 1944, the brass has decided to grant black soldiers the chance to prove they can stand toe-to-toe with any other Americans in the war effort.  One bold initiative creates the 332nd and, at least on paper, affords the men that chance.  Met with nothing but resistance along their path to become pilots, the men form a strong bond – probably more significant than most other soldiers who essentially take for granted that they have at least earned a grudging respect from their comrades.  Not so for the 332nd, everything they are doing is literally being scrutinized by everyone in the world, not just the military, and not just the Americans.  They are under a lot of pressure to be beyond good . . . thing is, the brass isn’t exactly giving them any real missions worth a damn.

And that is where we come in, after a routine mission of “killing traffic” (one of my favorite lines) their Colonel, Bullard (Terrence Howard) is called to Washington D.C. following some harsh words from the press that the negro pilot experiment is a failure.  One particularly nasty Colonel, Mortamus (Bryan “Breaking Bad” Cranston) has leaked the false story in the hopes of putting an end to them once and for all.  Now the pressure is higher than ever for them to show they can take on dangerous missions, and they are granted an air cover mission for an Allied Landing . . . Operation Shingle.  Not only do they accomplish their mission, they log some significant kills.   Speaking of killing . . . this film is incredibly violent, lots of strafing runs, lots of explosions and people meeting their mortal end.  For the most part these people were Nazis, so no one really minded, but in all wars even the good guys die, and Red Tails does show a few of the good guys eating dirt too.  In fact, with four words, the entire tone of the film shifts in one dramatic dogfight.

I read on imdb that George Lucas started this project in 1988 and couldn’t get any significant funding, because “an all black cast isn’t going to sell tickets”.  Interestingly, he foot most of the bill for this film himself, and stylized the leads after historical figures from black civil rights lore, Easy, or Capt Marty Julian (Nate Parker) was inspired on Martin Luther King, Jr.  Lightning, or Capt Joe Little (David Oyelowo) was inspired on Malcolm X, and considering the screenplay was co-written by the controversial “Boondocks” writer Aaron McGruder, it makes perfect sense.  His characters are always bigger than life and inspired on great men and women.

The other characters make up a fairly motley crew of pilots and mechanics which reminded me a lot of the Black Sheep Squadron that I used to watch with my dad, with clever call-signs and a bit of arrogance and flair.  There really were too many to list here, but my favorite supporting actor would have to be Ne-Yo as Smokey who delivers the most clever line of the film.

I wanted to like this one a little bit more, and it is a freakin’ crying shame that in 2012 no one stepped up to the plate and assisted George Lucas to the point where this film was on an epic scale, I wasn’t overly impressed with Terrence Blanchard when I am spoiled with John Williams doing Lucas’ other scores and some other elements felt tacked on at the end as well.  In once scene, Lightning takes on an entire Officer’s Club filled with white pilots, and he is in the stockade the next scene without a scratch on him, not so much as a hangnail.  That might fly in an amateur’s reel, but not when I see Lucas’ name attached.  Ultimately, this film was not all that it could, and should, have been.  The aerial combat sequences were tight and magnificent, and I really have not one bad thing to say about them.  The story was interesting, but I felt that a lot of the film was rushed in order to get as much “history” into the final edits and I think some things should have been cut out altogether.

As far as the historical accuracy of this film, I will let you do your own research.  But in my research it was interesting to see that even as late as this decade, controversy over the historical accuracy of the documented combat missions still hasn’t been soundly put to rest.  Perhaps this film will serve to do what it was ultimately intended to do, get Americans, black, white, red, yellow, blue, purple, green, who cares, to care about the sacrifices of these ‘colored’ men who not only had to fight a war, they had to fight to earn even a modicum of respect in their “free” country.  We all have battles, and we have all had to deal with prejudices, but I challenge anyone to say these aviators weren’t some of the most mentally tough men to ever wear wings.  The Red Tailed Angels of the sky.

(1 People gave this 3.00 out of 5)

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Carano, you have arrived!

Swift shot: From the jump, let me just say I am not a Soderbergh fan, I didn’t care for Ocean’s Eleven; I am not big into the heist movies, they are always rife with double-crosses and become pretentious parodies of anything worthwhile in my earnest opinion.  But, regardless of that disclaimer, I actually liked Haywire despite its obvious attempts to stylize itself as one of those predictably unpredictable heist movies.  Haywire had one element that I couldn’t resist . . . Gina Carano.  She made Darth Vader’s choke hold look like a stilted pantomime.  In one brutally sexy scene, she dispatches a bad guy between her legs!  Wonder what that guy’s last thoughts were . . . The rest of the movie was just filler at that point, getting her from one kill to the next, so even though the journey was tedious at times, I did enjoy the payoff at the end.

I was happy to see that Channing Tatum finally took my advice and got himself some acting lessons.  They paid off.  But with the award-winning supporting cast of Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas and even a few small scenes with Bill Paxton, newcomer Gina Carano was tough-as-nails on scene and somehow didn’t come off as a fighter who plays at acting, or an actor who plays at fighting, she came across as a lethal fucking weapon, in every sense of that phrase.

[Swift aside: I blew an opportunity to interview her in South Beach, and all I can say is I hope she doesn't bear any grudges, because the thought of Gina Carano gunning for me, quite frankly, terrifies me.  Again though, depending on how she dispatched me, there are worse ways to die, I suppose.]

Because this movie was stylized as a heist film, with the requisite double-crosses and a pseudo 70′s soundtrack, I can’t give away too much about the story.  Point of fact, there wasn’t much story to be told, there was a whole hell of a lot of walking and foot-chases to sate Jason Bourne fans.  They won’t be disappointed.  I did hear one person in my row say, “What the hell, they are just showing her walking . . . and there’s no music.”  I hope Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy doesn’t translate into more of these ‘extended transition moments’ in cinema.

Haywire starts out with Marine veteran, Mallory Kane (Carano) meeting someone in an upstate New York diner.  Then things quickly go, wait for it, haywire!  (I love when the title of the film fits so perfectly into a review).  Mallory is a sub-contractor for a government agency that handles things the employers might not like traced back to their government.  She manages to escape the diner and sorta carjacks a young college kid, Scott (Michael Angarano) who, let’s face it, aint exactly trying to get away from her.  To me, Carano looks like a cross between Jolie and Spears, but she can literally hand you your ass!!  (Hey, I wanted to give you something special, so, here is your ass).  Accordingly, Scott buckles up and listens to her spill her guts about why she is on the run.

It isn’t clear if she is normally an assassin, a body guard, a goon, or what, we just know that on this particular job, she has been hired to retrieve a hostage in Barcelona, or to go along with the heist theme, the hostage, Jiang (Anthony Brandon Wong) becomes the sought after ‘package’.   Her team manages to retrieve the package, but other folks have different plans for that package, and she is caught in the middle.  Can she trust her employer, and lover, Kenneth (McGregor), the government agent (Michael Douglas) or her new MI6 contact, Paul (Magneto…I mean Michael Fassbender)?  Hell, can she trust anyone?  She soon finds out that the only person she can really trust is her dad, a Retired Marine Colonel (Semper Fi) who is a successful writer of his exploits overseas.  Paxton didn’t have his a-game in this one, but he didn’t suck either.

I recommend checking this Soderbergh film out, but not because of anything he did, other than get an incredible performance out of a neophyte actress who is sure to be all over the freakin’ place soon!  He just launched her career, she will be the most sought after ass kicking beauty this decade . . . mark my words!  She did this one thing in the film where she kept kind of biting her lip, and I don’t know if that was scripted, directed, but whoever came up with that little tick . . . keep it!  Hell, Gina, take some friendly advice, make that your “thing” – Arnold had “I’ll be back.”   You can do that lip biting thing in all of your movies and you will have at least one fan for life.  Oh, I also wanted to add she walked around with an umbrella which reminded me of Mrs. Peel from The Avengers or a lethal Marry Poppins, either way, I heard she is in talks to be the next Wonder Woman, you don’t need the lasso of truth to know I second that!