New Releases

Crime drama was not a genre that interested me until Luc Besson's 1994 Leon: The Professional, when I was lured in by the development of the quasi-paternal relationship of killer Leon and young girl Mathilda. Their relationship added another dimension to this genre for me, and since then I'm more inclined to view these often ultra-violent films that I might have previously avoided.

Reminiscent of The Professional, the crime thriller Safe opens in theaters this weekend and stars Jason Statham as Luke Wright, an ex-cage fighter with a mysterious past. Admittedly, all it takes to pique my interest in an action movie nowadays is the name Jason Statham thanks to his beefy role in the Transporter franchise.

However, within the first few scenes it is obvious that there are two stars of this film -- Catherine Chan in her feature debut as Mei has as much if not more screen time than Statham. Writer and director Boaz Yakin (Remember the Titans, Fresh) takes a risk depending less on Statham's star power and more on young newcomer Chan in her own scenes, as well as the convergence of two subplots connecting the unlikely companions Luke and Mei.

The Lucky One is the latest romantic drama based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, starring Zac Efron. These two facts alone should be enough to ward off anyone with a Y chromosome from this film. A word of advice -- don't be fooled that the main character is a Marine who has served three tours in Iraq, this movie does not have broad appeal. Sparks is known for his modern romance novels, and the story of The Lucky One appears as a thinly re-imagined mashup of Message in a Bottle and Dear John with the tracking down of a found object and star-crossed lovers.

The Lucky One features Efron as Logan Thibault, a Marine who travels on foot from Colorado to North Carolina after serving three tours in Iraq to search for the unknown woman he believes was his guardian angel during the war. His discovery of the photo of a smiling blonde beauty happens at such an opportune moment that it saves his life in an Iraqi war zone, and he keeps the photo as a good luck charm.

With only a lighthouse as a landmark in the photo, he tracks down Beth (Taylor Schilling) who lives with her Nana (Blythe Danner) and son Ben (Riley Thomas Stewart). Logan's intent is simply to thank her, but instead winds up working at her dog kennel. Logan quickly encounters Beth's dominating ex-husband who is also a local deputy sheriff. Beth herself struggles with the pain from losing her younger brother Drake a year earlier in the Iraqi war, without clear resolution of his death.

If we could go back and change one aspect of our past that would change everything about our future, how many of us would take that chance? Questions like that are obviously silly and they serve merely as discussion points rather than actual situations, but the question is an interesting one nonetheless. The football film Touchback even asks a great question with its tagline, "Would you give up everything you love for a shot at everything you've wanted?" When worded that way, a simple premise becomes infinitely more interesting.

Scott (Brian Presley) is the quarterback of the high-school football team in a small Ohio town, and in 1991 he leads the improbably successful team all the way to the state championship. On the final drive with his team down, he must take the ball and run down the field to score because he missed a wide open receiver. As he dives above the goal line, he badly injures his knee and from one second to the next he goes from a future college football with definite NFL aspirations to never being able to play football (much less walk properly) again.

Fast forward 20 years and Scott's the only farmer in town farming soy beans -- no one tells him this will work. He's got a loving wife and two great kids and his friends are some of his old high-school teammates. As much as this town loves football, he's as far removed from it as possible. Never going to games or even watching them on TV, it's obvious he regrets the turn his life has taken. Until one day he wakes up and he's somehow been transported back in time to that fateful week 20 years earlier and he realizes he's got a chance to right the ship that is his life. But will he do it?

The beats are predictable, and the story itself as stated earlier isn't the most original. Kudos deserve to be handed out for Touchback, though, because no one mails in their performance. Kurt Russell as the head football coach is as heartfelt as any role can be. It's maybe a bit underwritten, because the closeness of a football coach to one of his players is more implied than actually shown here. But writer/director Don Handfield has crafted a really good film. One that football fans can certainly relate to and enjoy.

There's a lot you can say about Bobby and Peter Farrelly, aka the Farrelly brothers. Among all of the things you can say about them, one thing you certainly can't say is that their movies are lazy. Though their last few films have lacked in quality, they have been full on heart and and they've certainly stuck to the formula that gave them some early success. It's a shame that early success hasn't been more consistent as of late and their homage to some classic comedians, The Three Stooges fits more along their mold as of late than it does their earlier films.

It opens with a flashback, the way a lot of Farrelly brothers films do, at an orphanage run by nuns. There are children happily playing until Sister Mary-Mengele (played amazingly by Larry David) ruins their song-and-dance routine. What seems like a normal day is disrupted by a speeding car that drops off a bag with three bundles of joy by the names of Larry, Curly and Moe. At first everyone in the orphanage can't wait to hold the three adorable babies, but soon the tide turns and the three boys are the bane of the orphanage's existence. One day a couple comes and adopts Moe, but since he's not adopted with his two friends he chooses to stay.

Years later, when they're adults, they learn that the orphanage is in a massive debt and must be shut down unless $830,000 can be raised. The boys are determined to raise the money and off they go on an adventure to try to save the orphanage they've called home since they were babies.

With all the controversy over its MPAA rating, Bully has been more newsworthy than most documentaries. The publicity has been a blessing and a curse -- while it may boost the film's box office, all the hoopla also may raise the audience's expectations beyond what the film delivers.

In some ways, Bully does live up to its promise. The documentary about bullied kids is often powerful and poignant, a heartbreaking look at schoolyard taunting and abuse carried to tragic extremes. But while the movie effectively captures the harried world of bullied children and teens, Bully's narrow focus and shallow take on its subject won't satisfy viewers looking for a more sophisticated perspective on the issue.

While the absurd nature of MPAA ratings can raise any film critic's hackles, I want this review to focus on Bully's cinematic qualities rather than its ratings controversy. That said, the months-long feud between the ratings board and Bully's producers (The Weinstein Company) bears mentioning.

The future, a federal prison ... location? Space! Guy Pearce plays Snow, a man framed for a crime he did not commit. With a carrot of freedom hanging over his head, Snow accepts a mission to rescue the President’s daughter from the aforementioned floating Alcatraz. The problem? The inmates have broken free of their cryogenic slumber and now run the asylum. Not only have the inmates broken free of cryogenic slumber, someone gave them a camera, a budget and let them make this colossal trainwreck of a movie. Welcome to Lockout!  

A concept like a floating space prison requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. It's perfectly fine to require some amount or belief suspension, but there is a level where it becomes abusive. Lockout requires the viewer to abandon all logic, reason and gray matter at the door. 

The problem with this movie starts with its initial premise. The government in partnership with "generic evil mega corporation" has spent trillions of dollars constructing a highly technical, space-bound prison. The problem is they built a technical masterpiece with a security system worse than an unattended box of Cracker Jack. No-one in their right mind would build a space station without some type of ground-based on/off switch.

I've long been a fan of foreign films, but often feel alienated by films that focus on Jewish culture due to my own ignorance and unfamiliarity. I was hesitant about viewing Footnote, which is centered around two characters involved in Talmudic studies, but as the Israeli official selection to the Best Foreign Language Film category for this year's Oscars I felt this film might provide me with much needed insight. I was pleasantly surprised not just by the content and narrative, but the filmmaking in this award-winning movie.

The main theme of Footnote is rivalvry between men -- most notably that of father and son Eliezer (Shlomo Bar-Aba) and Uriel Shkolnik (Lior Ashkenazi), both professors in the Talmud department of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Eliezer is a philologist, studying the historical language of the Talmud. On the brink of the publication of groundbreaking research that has taken over 30 years, his work is sniped by another rival at the university who proves his thesis but makes his work unnecessary. His greatest pride is having been referenced in a footnote in a manuscript by a teacher and mentor.

Eliezer's son, Uriel Shkolnik, is more successful for his studies and receives accolades and adoration for his cutting-edge theories on the de-feminization of the Jewish man. However, over-achiever Uriel also demands "constant mild flattery" and wants more recognition for himself. When a clerical error jeopardizes who is the true winner of Israel's most prestigious national award, The Israel Prize -- for which Eliezer has been passed over for 20 years -- Uriel must come to terms with the rivalry between himself and his father, and make a decision that greatly impacts both men's lives.

[Editor's note: I told Rod I'd rip his head off if proofreading his review spoiled the movie for me. It didn't, and he's still in one piece, so feel free to enjoy the review if you haven't seen the film yet.]

The Cabin in the Woods has to be one of the most unoriginal and unimaginative titles for a horror movie in 50 years. Do not be fooled by the title. It is neither unoriginal or unimaginative. This horror movie has the power to change your worldview of what a horror movie is and should be -- The Cabin in the Woods is a genre game-changer.

The cast of characters is reminiscent of an 80s horror film or The Breakfast Club. You have your requisite set of college-age kids: a jock, a stoner, a hot girl, a second hot girl and the new guy tag-along friend. This menagerie of John Hughes characters exists in a movie that starts with a typical horror-film plot line: Let's go to the woods, put ourselves into an altered state of mind and see what happens ... and a whole lot happens!

Our adventurers set out in a motor home, encounter the "creepy dude" that always seems to be employed at the last gas station on the road, finally arriving at their destination, a creepy, overgrown and dusty cabin in the woods. In quick order they find a basement packed to the rim with tons of creepy gizmos, trinkets and artifacts. It’s at this point that all hell breaks loose and we are thrown into a horror movie that defies explanation. Note to self: "If I am ever trapped in a basement full of arcane junk, never and I mean never, play the tape recorder."

This is where my review has to become vague. This vagary is for your safety and mine. I am duly sworn to protect the integrity of this film against all foes foreign and domestic.

First and foremost in this picture is the script. During the Q&A at this years SXSW, co-screenwriters Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon said that the script for The Cabin in the Woods was cranked out in a marathon three-day writing session. Each writer had a goal of 15 pages per day and what glorious pages these are. After you view this film, you will see how a script with such a unique hook could be cranked out in rapid fashion. 

They're back and at it again. If you haven't had your fill of over-boozed, over-sexed, scatological fraternological make-you-squirm-in-your-seat humor, the American Pie crew will take care of you. The franchise that began with American Pie, continued with American Pie 2, American Wedding, American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile now returns for a 13th-year American Reunion.

Actually, American Reunion is a worthy comedy, from the writer-director team of Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg who wrote all three Harold and Kumar movies. Not that a film like this could be said to have a moral, but you could say there seems to be an underlying message that "The family who plays together stays together." As series protagonist Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) and wife Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), though happily married, find their sex life waning, they decide to spice things up in one of the most unlikeliest places imaginable: on a trip to their high-school reunion.

This reunion gathers together all the old crew including Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Stifler (Seann William Scott) as well as Vicky (Tara Reid), Heather (Mena Suvari), Stifler's Mom (Jennifer Coolidge), and Jim's Dad (Eugene Levy). Newcomers to the series will enjoy it, but American Reunion is packed with inside jokes that reward fans of the previous films. There are also a few memorable cameos from the likes of Neil Patrick Harris and John Cho. While Stifler gets most of the meaty material, Levy is the most experienced comedic actor, and his scenes are the best in the movie.

In the days leading up to the reunion, Jim and Michelle just want to spend a night together recreating their first time. But Stifler keeps getting the group into wilder, hairier situations. Complicating matters is the girl next door Jim used to babysit, Kara (Ali Cobrin), who is now old enough to act out her childhood fantasies. Jim spends most of the movie trying to get out of sticky situations caused by Kara (or apologizing and trying to explain them). Naturally, by the end everything is wrapped up and ready for a future installment.

"If you will allow it, football will save your life," a troubled student athlete is told in Undefeated. This could be the motto of this documentary depicting the impact of the sport on the lives of four Tennessee residents. A deeply moving look at the 2009 season of Manassas High's football team -- which screened at SXSW 2011 -- the film won the Best Documentary Oscar in February and is back on Austin screens this week.

Situated in blighted North Memphis, Manassas High has served as a sort of punching bag for other teams; it's the kind of team that gets bused in for richer schools to beat. Bill Courtney, an area businessman and volunteer head coach, is in his sixth year of leading the guys. He is determined for the team to make the playoffs, since Manassas has never done so. "This is our season," he states optimistically. "I don't care what happens."

Courtney spends hours of his free time forming the team, coaching the kids and mentoring them. He develops strong relationships with the boys on his team. I initially worried the doc would portray Courtney as a type of "white savior" (see The Blind Side), but the strong bond he builds with the kids on the team goes beyond that. Co-director T. J. Martin told The Root, "it's completely circumstantial [that Courtney's] business happens to be in North Memphis, and Manassas High School happens to be right down the street from [his] business. [He] happens to be white, and they happen to be an all-African-American team. So if it wasn't a big deal to our characters, then [there] was no need for us to make a big deal out of it. It was not a big deal to the community or the kids."