Safe

First Hit:  An action packed violent film, which was fairly well executed.

The premise of this film was that a young girl named Mei (played by Catherine Chan) is without a true family, is intensely intelligent and can remember any assortment of numbers numbers.

She is being used by a Han Jiao (played by James Hong) to memorize his businesses in NYC’s Chinatown. In a separate story Luke Wright (played by Jason Statham) is an out of place cage fighter who wins and loses based on what he is told to do. He is a lost man, but intense.

You know he has a intense background because he displays intelligence along with wise grit. However, he’s on the edge and he’s about to kill himself because some rough Russians killed his wife – his life. The Russians and Chinese are tempting the police for protection of their illegal gambling, drug and money laundering operations. Sound convoluted?

It is but the object of this film is to throw together two unlikely people, the little girl and Wright, as a way to save themselves and each other. They do this through some action packed scenes, some with fists, some with guns, all with guile.

Chan is focused and very believable as the young girl with a special talent combined with bravery. Statham is perfect as the intelligent rough focused caring protector. Hong was his usual outstanding character. He rarely gives an under-the-radar performance. Boaz Yakin wrote the convoluted screenplay which actually works in the end. Yakin provided strong direction, which meant he made his convoluted script work.

Overall: This films had a lot of violence, portrayed people in a generic way (Chinese and Russian), which may have deterred from the film but overall it was entertaining.

The Raid: Redemption (Serbuan maut)

First Hit:  The focus of this film is great martial arts fighting – nothing more and nothing less - and in this realm it is great.

"The Raid: Redemption" is a flimsy story about a building being run by a criminal who leases rooms out to drug manufacturers, drug dealers, crooks and other poor unfortunates and the police decide to take the building back for the community.

There is an understory about one of the police raid leaders being connected in some way to the leader of the building (payoffs), but this is downplayed.

The choreography in most of the fight scenes is top-notch – some of the best I’ve ever seen on film. Even though there is a touching moment at the beginning of the film where Rama (Iko Uwais) is saying goodbye to his pregnant wife, and she tells him to be safe and come home soon, nothing else in this film is about life outside of the fight.

Therefore, be warned - if you want more than great staged fight scenes see something else.

Iko Uwais is the star of this and his abilities are amazing. His serene inner place and physical abilities were nothing short of sublime. Yanyan Ruhian as Mad Dog is equally amazing in his physical abilities. Gareth Evans wrote and directed this film.

Overall:  Although the dialogue is not really important, the martial arts choreography is A+.

The Hunger Games

First Hit:  A tad long but a satisfying storyline, some great acting and visually enticing.

This is an age old story about the have and have-nots.

The haves living their life of opulence and self-aggrandizing while they abuse the have-nots by making their young kill each other for their pleasure and television amusement. Remind you of history? 

If this is a picture of how we could end up, it is very sad. Oppression of another human being is not the way out of our inability to see each and every human being as our equal.

In this version of this old story, Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to step in for her younger sister who was selected, in her first year of eligibility, to be one of two warriors from the depressed area called District 12. From age 12 to age 18, once a year each district (there are 12) must submit two warriors to compete to the death as homage to their society and/or religious beliefs.

Her partner from District 12 is Peeta (played by Josh Hutcherson) a quiet unassuming boy who has had a difficult history. Together they are take a modern train to a very modern opulent city where they are groomed and trained to kill each other and the other 22 participants.

They are coached by a heavily drinking guide named Haymitch (played by Woody Harrelson) and kind stylist named Cinna (played by Lenny Kravitz). The behind the scenes producer for the television program which everyone watches is Seneca Crane (played by Wes Bentley). He is under the guidance of President Snow (played by Donald Sutherland).

The MC for the television program where they are interviewed before being set out to kill each other is Caesar Flickerman (played by Stanley Tucci). One character which stood out for me besides the main characters was Rue (Amandla Stenberg) who was one of the 24 selected to be part of the killing. Her soft kindness and presence was one of the hopes of a better generation.

The visual shots, at times, were stunning the utopian city was well crafted to reflect both future and totalitarian Nazi like symbols. However, some of the hand-held stuff was just jerky stupid. One does not see the world in this jerky way and makes me wonder about the overuse and intentional camera movement.

Lawrence was, as she was in “Winter’s Bone” driven, clear and with feeling and kindness. She has an ability to emote strength and heartfelt empathy in one look. Hutcherson was solid as the guy who knew he was going to die, was self-effacing and yet let it be known he was in love. Harrelson was, again, superb. Kravitz was very strong as someone who cared about the participants. Tucci was on the edge of being over the top as the MC – wonderful job. Bentley was good but I was very distracted by his beard. Stenberg was sublime. Sutherland was very good as the President who controlled the games uncaringly. Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray created a strong script from the book of the same name. Gary Ross allowed this film to unfold well but some of his choices of camera shots – especially the jerky ones were ill advised and take away from being engaged with the film.

Overall:  This was enjoyable if a bit long and made me wonder why this film and the books are aimed at and popular with teens.

John Carter

First Hit:  This was a painfully dreadful film.

It starts off with a confusing story which segues to a battle between 1 or 2 or 3 societies living on Mars – right.

Then jumps back to some guy hunting gold in Arizona but who comes from Virginia. Oh, the guy in Arizona, its John Carter (played Taylor Kitsch).

Then we’re in some mansion, then we’re back to Mars, then were in Arizona, then were…. The acting was stiff, the story made little sense and direction made it overly confusing.

The trick the filmmakers used to make the film language move from Martian to English was really stupid – he drinks some liquid?

There were a couple of funny moments with the Mars “dog” character but overall it was basically they film makers wasted a lot of money making this.

Kitsch was, at times, watchable but mostly it was just him doing some big jumping around which amazed the Martians. Lynn Collins played the Princess Dejah Thoris and it was truly wasteful. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a story on which Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews wrote a fully flawed and mindless script. Andrew Stanton had no clear vision in his direction and therefore there was a lot of wasted money in visual effects supporting a story that just didn’t work.

Overall: This film has little value and shared no new story or visual technology.

Act of Valor

First Hit:  I could barely sit through this extremely poorly acted vapid film spinning tales that killing for America's version of what is right is admirable.

After the first 2 minutes of dialog, I picked up my water bottle and said to myself, am I willing to do something I’ve never done before – walk out of a film?

My personal practice is, no matter how bad a film is, try to find something in it by which I can hang my hat and stay. I stayed but in the end, probably would have had a better time doing something else.

This is one of the few films, which had nothing of good to note. Not even the technology they were using to locate their next victims was interesting.

The acting was all bad. There wasn’t one good acting scene in this film.

The dialogue was stilted and filled with obvious emotional hooks that were stale beyond belief, and a rampant concept that killing for and dying for America was good, made me sad. Yes, I know I’m not of the majority, but killing, regardless of the reason and who is doing it, is wrong. And making a film that promotes the best killers in our armed forces shows just how unkind, un-thoughtful, and narrow minded we can be.

This isn’t to say I condone any acts of terrorism by any group; I don’t. What I don’t like is that we make our acts honorable and picture theirs as not. Their reality is, they picture their acts as honorable and ours as not.

Who gains in this mindset – no one. Who survives and lives in this mindset – no one. It made me less hopeful for the future to hear some of the audience clap at the end.

The ending scene which promotes how great it will be for a dead man’s new baby coming into the world to never know his dad because he will know that his dead dad died honorably is stupidly mindless.

Having a dead dad will not do a lot of good when the boy needs to learn about right and wrong and how to make these decisions wisely.

None of the acting and actors were any good. Kurt Johnstad wrote a insipid script. Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh directed a uneven lifeless mess.

Overall: Nothing about this film is worthy of a watch.