Drive

First Hit:  A perfect role for Ryan Gosling and a very good film.

When an actor fits the role and it's within their wheelhouse, then add an interesting story, it is a pleasure to drop into the story and let it go.

Drive does this because the film is perfect for Gosling who plays the “Driver”. There are times when a character needs to have a historic storyline to make his character believable. However great acting, as delivered in this particular role, doesn't require this type of development to make the character and film work. In Drive we have the later. 

Driver is a mechanic at a small garage run by Shannon (played by Bryan Cranston). Driver also works as a Hollywood film stunt driver, and does odd driving jobs for robberies. He runs into a neighbor woman named Irene (played by Carey Mulligan) who has a young son. He is immediately attracted to Irene and her boy. The chemistry between them is obvious. There are lots of moments of silence between them, but they say so much.

Irene is married to a Standard (played by Oscar Isaac) who is in prison and when he gets out he owes money to the mob that protected him while he was in prison. For payback, the mob asks him to do a job and he solicits Driver to help him.

The job goes bad and the local mob is now after the money that Driver is holding. Driver wants to give the money back to protect Irene but Bernie (played by Albert Brooks) and Nino (played by Ron Perlman) want everyone eliminated that know about this blown job.

Gosling is perfect as the quiet, private, intelligent and remotely caring Driver. This is a grand performance because he says so very little but provides so much information. Mulligan in a role that matches her age is wonderful. Her ability to play off of the quiet Driver is amazing. Cranston is very good as they guy beholding to too many people and continues to have “bad luck”. Isaac has the right look and feel of the guy scared and tough at the same time. Brooks is the surprise here. He’s great as the local mob ringleader with a dark heart. The defining moment is when he kills Shannon in a caring, subtle, and decisive way. Perlman is just right for this off-handed second in command guy who at “59” continues to screw things up. Hossein Amini wrote a very good screen play including when to have silence in a character’s role. Nicolas Winding Refn directed this with a great feel for LA and the type of characters which reside there.

Overall: I fully enjoyed this film but I would have like just a little more driving.

Colombiana

First Hit: Zoe is beautifully lithe and athletic, but I’m not sure this form was the best vehicle.

Zoe Saldana was the best character in the film Avatar; sublime in every way. In Colombiana she plays another physical character and she is great at it.

The problem with this film is the subject. It starts in Columbia when a young 10 year old Cat (Amandla Stenberg) watches the death of her father and mother. They were killed because her father who was an assassin for a Columbian drug lord and decided he wanted to retire. 

After her parents are killed, she is questioned about something her father might have left behind, she stabs the interrogator in the hand and bolts out the window. The foot chase in these opening scenes sets up Cat's character as an adult.

Older Cat (played by Saldana) is now an assassin for her uncle who sets her up with the people she kills. She leaves a calling card which assists the FBI into finding her, but she’s good and has been baiting the FBI to publicize her calling card so that the Columbian a drug lord will try to come find her to kill her. She gets her wish.

Unfortunately as the film unfolds towards its obligatory ending I realize how preposterous the assassinations are. First there were too many killings unrelated to the point of the film, and these scenes were create just to show the audience that Cat is fully capable of getting into any place and completing her assignment.

The saving grace of this film is watching her move.

Saldana is fun to watch and therefore I enjoyed what she did. The story line wasn’t the best so from an acting point of view this was a good physical role for her. Stenberg was fantastic as young Cat She showed great athleticism and determination when running away from her father’s assassins. Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen wrote the screenplay which was, to me, just obviously grouped setups for for the final scene. Oliver Megaton directed this film and from an action point of view it was well done, from a storyline point of view is suffered.

Overall: It was entertaining and well worth a look on pay per view or on DVD.

30 Minutes or Less

First Hit:  A haphazard attempt at comedy and action ending up somewhat lifeless.

Jesse Eisenberg is Nick a lost intelligent young man who delivers pizza for a living. His roommate Chet (played by Aziz Ansari) is a school teacher. They’ve been friends for a long time and the sense is that they are together because they tolerate each other when nobody else can.

Nick is captured by Dwayne (played by Danny McBride) and Travis (played by Nick Swardson) on one of his pizza delivery runs. They tell him that he will rob a bank for them because they've strapped a bomb to him and if he doesn't do this they will detonate the bomb.

Dwayne wants the money so that he can hire Chango (played by Michael Pena) to kill Dwayne’s father “The Major” (played by Fred Ward). Sound a little dumb? It is, and outside of Pena, the scenes and much of the acting in this film is atrocious.

There are some funny lines in this film but for the most part, this film is lost from the get go and stays lost all the way until the end. An example of its stupidity, given Travis' character, where would he get the inkling, intelligence, and know how to build a sophisticated vest bomb which is Nick’s motivation to rob a bank?

Eisenberg is a wonderful actor when in a role that is of intelligence. He was miscast here. Ansari’s first tool of comedy is to be loud and sarcastic. It is more annoying than anything else and there wasn’t anything on the screen that told me that he and Eisenberg had any real friendship chemistry. McBride was painful to watch. It is difficult to act that stupid (as the character called for) and he wasn’t up to it. Swardson was better as he seemed to understand and act his role as both the conscious and supporting friend to McBride. Pena was the only actor that I felt was believable in this unbelievable movie. Dilshad Vadsaria as Kate (Nick’s girlfriend and Chet’s sister) was fine to look at but there is no way that she and Eisenberg made a believable couple. Michael Diliberti wrote this poorly conceived screenplay and Director Ruben Fleischer didn’t help things as all.

Overall: Outside of some funny lines and scenes, this film had no guts or intelligence. It isn’t even worth an “On Demand” look.

Cowboys and Aliens

First Hit: An odd idea turned into an action packed fantasy.

Jake Lonergan (played by Daniel Craig) wakes up in the middle of nowhere. He doesn’t remember anything from his past, his name or why he has a large metal bracelet on his left wrist.

He does remember that he speaks English (one of my favorite lines). Three guys come up and start to harass him and he takes them out quickly. This sets up his character.

He is generally quiet, fast and strong on his feet, fearless and has an unknown purpose. He takes one of his accoster’s horse and rides into town where the sheriff arrests him because he is Jake Lonergan (thief and killer).

Confused by what is going on, he goes along with the sheriff until spaceships swoop down on the town to steal bodies of the towns’ people. During this attack he discovers he can control this bracelet on his wrist with his mind because it becomes active and a powerful weapon. With this weapon he shoots down one of the spacecraft which gets the attention of the townspeople.

Woodrow Dolarhyde (played by Harrison Ford) the town bully, witnesses Jake’s powerful wrist weapon and because Woodrow’s son Percy (played by Paul Dano) was one of the people kidnapped by one of the spaceships, he wants Jake to go with him to find his son.

Jake also meets up with Ella (played by Olivia Wilde) who thinks he can help her on her mission (which we find out later is strangely different than the rest of the town’s folk). Together with other town-folk and a tribe of Indians, they go off to find their missing relatives. When the Indians give Jake some visioning drink, he remembers who he is, why he has the weapon bracelet, and where the alien mothership is located.

The group finds the alien mothership and together, Cowboys, Indians and an Alien, they save the stolen people the invading aliens.

Craig is curiously stoic and adept in this heroic part. Ford is great as a crusty overbearing rancher. Dano is good as the whiny gutless son. Wilde is ethereal and beautiful as Ella, an alien in disguise. The whole host of 9 writers created an interesting story out of a bizarre and plausible story line circumstance. What I mean by that is, why wouldn’t aliens have invaded our planet during the 1800’s? Jon Favreau kept it interesting when this film could have fallen off course at any point in time.

Overall: This was an entertaining film made well by a fine cast and director.

Thor

First Hit: This attempt at complicating a simple story resulted in a thud.

Kenneth Branagh has never been an actor or director that touched me with his work. I found his work pretentious and felt I could see through his acting. This attempt by Branagh to make money will probably succeed, but for storytelling, it just was overwrought – like Branagh.

The overt complicating of stories or characters doesn’t make great acting or directing. Clarity of vision with clarity of execution does tend to make good and watchable films.

In Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth), the arrogant namesake acts like most cocky kids, strong, idealistic, and quick decision making. Experience and wisdom, which cannot be willfully passed on through generations, is what he lacks. He has a brother, Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) who obviously is not of the same blood, that Thor truly loves and admires.

Their father, Odin (played by Anthony Hopkins), banishes Thor and his hammer to Earth for his exuberance in killing people and displaying his power. Because of the 9 vectors in space (yeah right), he gets banished to Earth via a wormhole. After Thor is banished, Odin falls into a coma like sleep and Loki decides to seize the throne from his father.

Loki plots to have his father assassinated by the Ice Giant people who are from another planet. But his real plan, we think, is that he wants to be seen as saving his father at the last minute from this assassination. This act, he believes, will make him worthy of the crown. Loki also discovers that he is originally from the Ice Giant planet that his father conquered years earlier. Odin found Loki as a baby and saved him as an act of humanity. 

All the while, Thor meets up with some scientists who are studying phenomena in New Mexico. The scientist, Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman), finds Thor roaming the desert. He happens to speak English, as do all the characters do no matter what planet or solar system they reside, and continues with his arrogant ways on Earth. The havoc from Thor and his hammer landing on the ground bring in a secret government agency to find out what is going on.

The government agency steals Jane’s materials, Thor likes Jane so he tries to get the materials back, Loki visits Thor and tells him Odin is dying, Thor gets humble and saves the day by fighting an all metal flame belching 20 foot tall robot sent by Loki to kill Thor, Thor goes back home through the wormhole promising to return but ends up killing Loki by destroying the wormhole machine.

Finally, Odin wakes up from his coma, is proud that Thor learned his lesson, and they are all sad that Loki ended up being dead because of his lust for power and wanting to prove to Odin he was deserving of being King.

Hemsworth made a good Thor. Being well built and self-effacing enough, he did a good job with a screwed up story. Hiddleston was OK and was a good enough villain. Hopkins was a great king and ruler of their kingdom – simple voice inflections and inner strength made his character work. Portman was not very believable but funny enough in this throw away role. Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz wrote a screwy script. They could definitely take some lessons from other Marvel stories which have been more interesting and fun to watch. Branagh doesn’t really know what to do behind the camera and his intelligence should have given him a better feel on how to make this character and story come alive.

Overall: Some nice special effects but beyond this the film is a flat liner.