Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie questionably turns Arthur Conan Doyle's titular sleuth into an action hero in "Sherlock Holmes."

Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) must prevent the recently reincarnated Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) from taking over the world with black magic, or something to that effect. Holmes’s love interest Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) gets tangled up with dubious motives.

Downey Jr.’s performance is strong and humorous, playing Holmes as a detached genius with poor social skills. He has great chemistry with McAdams as well as Law; the two playing Holmes and Watson like a bickering married couple is a pleasure to watch. This makes it unfortunate that Watson’s betrothed is needlessly introduced in this film, driving a wedge between the two heroes. It would have been nice to see more unadulterated antics between the two.

But despite the strong casting, the film suffers under the hand of Ritchie, a director mismatched for the material. He is more concerned with making Holmes a cool action hero than providing real mystery. Ridiculous action set-pieces and bad CGI seriously detract.

Also, an elaborate set up for the inevitable sequel is laid throughout the picture, which actually feels more like a preposterous cop-out than an ingenious story arc. With the last few minutes of the picture are uncomfortably dedicated to setting up Sherlock 2.

Here’s hoping there’s more mystery next time.

- Eschew It - Two Stars

Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino reigns himself in after “Grindhouse” and the “Kill Bill” movies to make a more ordered and even more entertaining World War II picture that audaciously rewrites history as it sees fit.

Brad Pitt is effective as Lt. Aldo Raine, leader of the Inglorious Basterds, an army outfit whose military connection seems fishy at best. The Jewish troupe is an entity of their own, the best of the best at killing Nazis. Pitt is quite matter-of-fact about each Basterd collecting 100 Nazi scalps.

This is a film lover’s film. From flammable nitrate film to the appearance of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, Tarantino tucks away delightful nuggets of film history for cineastes. A central plot point even revolves around a gorgeous cinema owned by a lovely Jewish girl, Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent).

Tarantino once again divides his film into scene/character-centric chapters, this time in a near linear fashion. For carrying the film’s namesake, the Basterds don’t own the screen time. Chapters also revolve around Shosanna’s struggle with a Nazi courter and the assimilation of her cinema, and the deliciously evil, self-centered Nazi Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). The Academy had better take note Waltz’s pompous, highly watchable performance.

Light on action, the film is almost entirely dialog driven. There’s a lot of talking going on. Tarantino has always been good with interesting yet meaningless dialog and he’s gotten a lot better. Not more than half of the film is spoken in English; the German and French exchanges have a flair of exoticism that are perhaps the most intriguing.

The film clocks in at 153 minutes and definitely feels it, though it’s the film’s only major caveat. Tarantino chocked this film full of scenes that crackle with his usual tension and humor, a great story and superb acting. As one of the characters says near the end of the film, Tarantino would be justified in saying “I think this might just be my masterpiece.”

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The Hurt Locker

Director Kathryn Bigelow crafts one superb study of the psychology of war in “The Hurt Locker,” one of the best war films to be released in recent memory.

A new sergeant, James (Jeremy Renner) takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team in Iraq. He surprises his subordinates, Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), by treating each fatal situation with reckless abandon and seeming indifference to death. The men, especially the by-the-book Sanborn, struggle to reign in their new leader as they work to disarm bombs in the heat of combat.

Acting from the whole cast is excellent, particularly Renner who plays the passionate James well. This guy eats danger for breakfast; approaching unknown bombs, taking off his bulky protective suit for comfort, outstaying his welcome among potentially unfriendly locals. James only makes the already tense situations worse for his comrades.

Though he often throws caution to the wind, he can show sensibility and compassion, coaching Eldridge when he starts to crack on the battlefield. Hopefully this movie is a launches a long career for the talented Renner.

The first half of the movie is nonstop nail biting action. Bigelow masterfully builds tension and shifts moods in part with the handheld camera work. A true sense of foreboding permeates the whole picture. Characters are killed lest you forget. The Iraqis watching the troops also add a very unsettling touch. Any one of them could have a detonator in hand.

A story arc that has been set up wonderfully in the first half of the film appears in the second, though it may catch you by surprise. Set ups and payoffs are marvelously orchestrated. Character development happens on the battlefield and off.

“The Hurt Locker” is tense, well-acted, riveting entertainment. A must see.

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Public Enemies

Michael Mann is back after 2006’s god-awful “Miami Vice” with “Public Enemies,” which is thankfully an improvement. Johnny Depp stars as 30s gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale as his FBI foil, Melvin Purvis.

Depp is pretty good as Dillinger. He’s indifferent yet cool as ice when he needs to be. It’s refreshing to see Depp play a human being again as opposed to all the cartoon like characters he’s been doing lately. He gets all the best lines too. Some of them are so good they seem to be from a different movie altogether.

That is perhaps what’s most frustrating about “Public Enemies.” It has flashes of a great, Oscar worthy picture, but they’re too few and far between. The last scene in particular has an aura of going for gold.

The movie prefers settling somewhere between good and not bad. The acting is solid but never enough to get you emotionally involved. The story is interesting, but lacks direction and strong conflict. I was looking for an electric match up between Depp and Bale, but the tension was only there in one instance.

Bale does nothing with his one note performance. Billy Crudup as the slightly imprudent J. Edgar Hoover is much more interesting. The subplot of the birth of the FBI was worthy of more screen time.

The project based on Bryan Burrough’s book, “Public Enemies,” was originally pitched to HBO as a miniseries. More time could have been given to Hoover, the FBI, and outlaws Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. This would have been nice here, but the picture belongs to Depp.

Marion Cotillard as Dillinger’s girlfriend Billie Frechette is one of “Public Enemies” greatest strengths. She adds a little weight and gives Dillinger a more human side to root for.

But in the end, I guess the lead and the viewer are both detatched; Dillinger from society, the audience from emotion. Despite the letdowns, “Public Enemies” is worth seeing. Who doesn’t want to see a gangster Johnny Depp run around robbing banks?

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Up

“For every laugh, there should be a tear.”

The filmmakers behind Pixar’s newest film seemed to keep the words of the late Walt Disney in mind. Director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) may have concocted some of the studio’s wilder story concepts, but his films have had the most emotional impact on me. I’ll admit that the first ten minutes or so of Up made me cry.

We meet Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) as a little boy who’s itching to go on an adventure. He idolizes Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), an Indiana Jones type hero who embarks on a trip to South America. Carl strikes up a friendship with Ellie, a boisterous young girl who shares his idol and passions.

The pair falls in love, gets married, and grows old together. The couple talks about going on an adventure like Muntz someday, but real life gets in the way. Their story felt true, their love story sweet. I grew to care a lot about them in a short time, which made it pretty tough when Ellie dies.

Carl now lives alone in a small house amidst towering buildings. A construction company tries to evict Carl from his home so they can bulldoze his home. After a few unfortunate events, Carl is deemed unfit to live alone and is going to be escorted to a retirement home.

He decides to escape, ties a ludicrous number of balloons to his house, and floats away to finally explore South America in honor of his late wife. However, Carl discovers a stowaway wilderness explorer, eight year old Russell (Jordan Nagai), on board. From there the unlikely pair find themselves in a series of unusual adventures in a foreign landscape.

Up is by far Pixar’s most cartoony effort, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are a lot of staples of the kid’s movie here, especially the goofy talking animals. However, I will say that those characters, Dug the dog (Bob Peterson, writer and co-director) in particular, are quite funny. While this is nothing new for the genre, it’s actually new for Pixar. Also, what gets the characters from point A to point B doesn’t come as organically as it has in past Pixar films.

But at its heart, Up is a very sweet, emotional film. The film vies to make you appreciate everyday moments, and basically to not put all your eggs in one basket. And most importantly, it makes you care about its characters. And seeing them come to the end of their journey is fun and fulfilling.

You’re guaranteed at least one great movie a year when there’s a Pixar release coming up.

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Star Trek

I’m a casual Star Trek fan. I’m much more familiar with The Next Generation than The Original Series. But I still had high expectations for this film. This series has over 40 years of history behind it and a lot of detail oriented fans. It would have been easy to screw up this film. But J.J. Abrams’s version of Gene Roddenberry’s beloved series gets it just right. Star Trek should appeal to the Trekkies and win over new audiences.

The reboot does a good job of upholding the Star Trek canon. The events in this film take place in an alternate timeline to the one in TOS. And this is referenced subtly by Leonard Nimoy, the original Mr. Spock. Starting over in another timeline gives the writers room to play and respect the Trek history while not adhering to it.

Moments of nostalgia and nerd bliss abound. The red-suited guy in the away team bites the dust. The classic lines are there. “Live long and prosper.” “Damn it, Jim!” “I’m giving her all she’s got!” They all feel organic. Spock tells Sulu to turn off the inertial dampers. I’m geeking out.

Chris Pine is an excellent James T. Kirk. He doesn’t merely impersonate William Shatner, but he makes Kirk his own. Karl Urban absolutely nails Dr. McCoy. The attitude and expressions are all there. The only letdown is how Spock (Zachary Quinto) is handled, but that’s more at fault with the writers than the actor.

Without giving too much away, Spock’s arc in the film interestingly parallels the Spock from TOS. We’re set up for a different kind of Spock in the inevitable sequels, and I’m not sure I like it. And while it’s actually kind of clever, they’ve made Spock way too pouty. If he lived in our time he’d shop exclusively at Hot Topic.

New audiences are going to be lured in by all the badass action. Opening and closing spaceship battles bookend the film, and we’re treated with plenty of action set pieces strewn in-between. The most exciting scene is when Kirk and Sulu (John Cho) fight Romulans on a drill miles above the surface of Vulcan. It feels like they’re actually cheating death and not just playing around in front of a green screen.

Part of this danger is instilled by the ruthless villains, the Romulans. They cause irreconcilable, catastrophic damage that further drives this away from established Trek-lore. I was literally shocked in one instance, and had to take a minute to sort it all out. The scale of this film is massive, in story and visuals. This is the biggest budget ever for a Trek film and the images are incredible to look at.

Unfortunately, this reiteration of the sci-fi franchise skimps on Trek’s usual philosophy and ideals and throws in a couple clichéd, summer blockbuster-esq thoughts to nibble on instead. This was disappointing.

Nit picks aside, this film is a hell of a lot of fun. Abrams gives the Star Trek series a much-needed kick in the pants. Trek is fun again. Go see it right now. And if you’re not a Trekkie now, you just might become one.

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