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.

Wanderlust

First Hit:  There are some funny moments but overall this film falls flat.

There is little chemistry, or palpable chemistry, between George (played by Paul Rudd) and Linda (played Jennifer Aniston) in this oddly constructed film.

I found the film odd because each situation they were in was overdone. His brother, his wife and their son were characterizations of people – they weren’t real. The old hippy/or commune situation was a little far fetched as well.

The funniest moments is when George is getting ready to have sex with Eva (played by Malin Akerman) and he was practicing his conversation in front of a mirror. What was coming out of his mouth was embarrassingly funny, crude yet very humorous.

The storyline is that George works at a Wall Street financial company while Linda tries different things to find herself and to make money but she strikes out often. They buy a small studio ("No it's a mini loft”) apartment near his favorite coffee house.

Shortly after her latest attempt to sell a film concept to HBO fails and he loses his job, they have to sell the apartment they just bought for a loss. They decide to go visit his brother in Atlanta. On the way they spend a night at a commune that offers a different way of life.

This film is about their decision to try something new and to more fully find each other. Nevertheless despite the good idea, this films writing, direction and acting was sub-par.

Rudd was at his best in front of the mirror attempting to get his courage up to make love with another woman. Aniston didn’t seem to connect to or even belong in the film. It just wasn’t the right vehicle for her. Justin Theroux as Seth the community leader was certainly nothing to write home about and his see through philosophy had little grounding in anything. The only time there was some hint that he was connected to a larger universe was when he played guitar but then again any good guitarist could have play it that way. Joe Lo Truglio as Wayne spent most of his time naked, but was pretty good as this annoying person who was on his own track in the community. Alan Alda as Carvin the person who founded this commune back in 1971 was at times winkingly cute. David Wain and Ken Marino wrote this marginally adequate script but Wain wrecked the good parts with less than crisp direction.

Overall:  This film would barely make entertainment on a late Sunday afternoon on DVD or Netflix.

This Means War

First Hit: Parts of this were enjoyable but mostly it was a highly improbable mindless piece of fluff.

At the beginning of the film I questioned that the disparate parts would come together and give us a film worth watching.

Reese Witherspoon plays Lauren a woman who has an old boyfriend whom she caught cheating on her. There are two awkward scenes where she runs into her old boyfriend; both of these scenes were not required for the film.

Lauren is head of some consumer protection agency and her character loves her job. She has a friend Trish (Chelsea Handler) who is happily married and really wanting Lauren to find a lover so she posts her name and picture on a dating website.

Two CIA operatives FDR Foster and Tuck (played by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy respectively) live an incorrect and improbable wealthy lifestyle for being government agents.

Their opening scene has them doing some amazing fighting and gun slinging. Tuck responds to Lauren’s website post but then she leaves the date and runs into FDR who tries (unknowingly that she just spent time with his partner Tuck) to pick her up. Tuck and FDR find out they both want to date the same girl so now we, the audience, have the film’s premise.

The boys want to stay best friends and working partners but they both want the same girl. The film attempts to test their friendship, technology, Lauren’s resolve and love. The part that works is some of the comedy.

I enjoyed Lauren’s face as Tuck took out the entire paintball war. I thought that FDR was effectively embarrassed as his grandmother shared his youthful problem with wetting his pants.

Witherspoon is her usual lighthearted character but this film isn’t going to further her career. Pine is a good pretty boy and he did show some depth. Hardy seemed the most comfortable in his role and when he gut punched the karate instructor it was perfect. Handler was one of the more interesting characters as she kept pushing the film along. Timothy Dowling and Simon Kinberg wrote this somewhat mindless script. McG (Joseph McGinty Nichol) directed this and maybe if he owned his full name he might make a fully integrated film.

Overall:  Although enjoyable this film is forgettable within a half hour after walking out of the theater.

Rampart

First Hit: Outstanding acting performance by Woody Harrelson in a non-glorious role and story.

Set in 1999, love the cell phone and antenna, this story is about a renegade cop from the Rampart Division of the LAPD.

This division was going through extremely tough times from internal mismanagement, theft, and public scrutiny of their police practices. Dave Brown (Harrelson) smokes all the time, never eats, drinks too much and numbs himself with drugs.

His family includes two ex-wives Catherine and Barbara (Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon respectively) and two daughters, one from each. They all live together while Dave lives in a small apartment unattached from the house the others live in. This is his family and he thinks he’s responsible for everyone in this family.

His police department moniker is Date Rape Dave for his hand in killing what was perceived as a date rapist.

The opening scene, where he is speaking with two other cops from Rampart Division at a parking lot food stand, sets up Dave perfectly. He thinks he’s king of the hill, all knowing, in-charge and operating almost as an independent contractor. At one point he is driving in his car and is hit broadside. He gets out of the car, seemingly to find out what is going on and the driver of the other car abruptly opens his door and hits Dave. Then the perpetrator starts running away. Dave catches him and is filmed beating him almost to death.

This makes all the news stations and becomes yet another PR nightmare for LAPD. Dave is smart, won’t retire and doesn’t back down from his departments’ investigative team.

They are after him. It is clear that they can make him part of the Rampart problem and they can make him the focus of other problems as well. His family wants him gone because they cannot stand the public scrutiny and all things are stacking up against him.

There are some shots here in this film I found fascinating, specifically; when Dave and LAPD department heads and Dave’s lawyer all are talking in an office and the camera just goes in a circular clockwise motion from person to person. This was extremely effective in relaying the tenseness of the discussion and the circles we can create in conversations and the way conversations can go round and round.

The scenes, dialogue and references to actual issues of the time created a well focused film.

Dave’s belief that he is the guardian of our time and LA is profound and extremely well done by Harrelson.

Harrelson shows why he is an amazing actor. Look at his resume from "Natural Born Killers" to "Zombieland" to "Friends with Benefits" to "The People vs. Larry Flynt" to "White Men Can’t Jump", he has a wide range and each time the audience knows he is invested in the part. Heche is great as one of Brown’s wives, the one who is more emotional about the relationship. Nixon is good as the other, more centered, wife. Brie Larson as Helen, one of the daughters is very strong is reflecting the life she has. Sigourney Weaver as Joan Confrey and part of the LAPD team investigating Brown is powerful in her role and a great addition to this film. Robin Wright as Linda Fentress is an attorney who tricks Brown into sex and information is great. Ned Beatty as Hartshorn a former police officer is downright great as a puppeteer pulling the strings. James Ellroy and Oren Moverman wrote a very strong script. Moverman really nailed this script and the characterization of this real life character.

Overall:  This film is dark, has little joy, but is relentless in providing a strong and clear picture of a man digging deeper into his own hole.

Norwegian Wood (Noruwei no mori)

First Hit: Amazing and extraordinary cinematographic shots in a long drawn out mediocre story.

From the very opening scene in the pool hall, to scenes in falling snow, to scenes in various dwellings, to scenes in the countryside this film captures some of the best pictures I’ve seen, on screen, in a very long time. It is too bad that the story didn’t hold up as well.

I’m sure that much of my ability to not engage in this story is cultural, however it didn’t help that this 133 minute film dragged on about how love isn’t necessarily returned by the person you love. It was expressed here in a different way. Naoko (played by Rinko Kikuchi) couldn’t “get wet” when she was with her long time (from childhood) love Kizuki.

Feeling despondent Kizuki commits suicide probably because he could get his girlfriend "wet". Their mutual friend Toru (played by Ken’ichi Matsuyama) is in love with Naoko. When she visits him on her 20th birthday she makes love to him and is wet. She is now so confused that she runs off to a center in the mountains to get well.

Her friend there, Reiko (played by Reika Kirishima), has been there for 7 years and is estranged from her husband and daughter. Toru meets Midori (played by Kiko Mizuhara) who has a longtime boyfriend but doesn’t really like him. She tells Toru that there may be a chance for them, but that because of her current relationship and that Toru is dedicated to Naoko it may take some time. 

So what we have is a lot of people who are with people they don’t want to be with and wanting to be with other people. The reality is that they are looking for a feeling within by looking outside themselves and this is confused by sex.

This story gets overly complex complicated resulting in time-consuming behavior of people refusing to let go of what they are holding on to and wanting something to be different than what is.

Kikuchi is convincing as the deeply saddened Naoko. Matsuyama is effective as Toru. Kirishima is good as Naoko’s friend and support in the retreat; she was especially effective in her last scene with Toru. Mizuhara was mesmerizing as Midori which a kooky reasoning as to what constitutes love for her.  Haruki Murakami and Anh Hung Tran wrote a very long script which needed trimming and additional focus. Anh Hung Tran did a stellar job of cinematography but he needed to tighten up this film.

Overall: The pictures were definitely worth watching, however the story lagged and felt uncommitted.