People are having way too much fun bashing M. Night Shyamalan. Not that they don't have good reason. His career has fallen harder than an anvil on Daffy Duck's head. But those who have dismissed Devil, the first leg of his Night Chronicles trilogy, might want to check their attitudes and egos at the door. It's a solid thriller, reminiscient of The Twilight Zone in many respects, and definitely the best film the beaten down director has been involved with in years.
2. The Town
Whether Ben Affleck knows it or not, he's doing for Boston what Martin Scorsese has done for New York. He's turned it into the hotbed for gritty crime flicks. The actor, who has also taken his share of lumps over the years, has established himself as one of the best genre directors working today. The Town features Affleck as a bank robber looking to escape the tough, violent world of Charlestown, MA. However things get messy when he falls in love with a saintly bank manager, terrorized by one of his crimes.
1. Easy A
Emma Stone is my favorite actress. Bar none. The husky voiced, crimson haired comedianne has been lighting up screens for years in mediocre comedies before making her big splash last year in Zombieland. In Easy A she gives her first real star-making turn as Olive, an intelligent but somewhat introverted high schooler who makes one drastic mistake: lying about her sex life. As rumors about her spread and blow up out of her control, Olive is forced to take drastic measures to reclaim her good name. Easy A features a brilliant supporting cast(Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Thomas Haden Church), and a witty script that evokes memories of some of John Hughes' greats.
DVD Pick of the Week: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
A half hearted recommendation during a soft week of DVD releases, Jerry Bruckheimer's sword-swinging, wall-crawling epic is like Pirates of the Caribbean of the desert. Jake Gyllenhaal might seem like an odd choice to play a Persian street urchin turned prince, but the suddenly chiseled actor more than fits the bill. Persia packs plenty of the bouncy, humorous action of other Bruckheimer flicks, and the special effects are indeed gorgeous. The script is pretty light, and the relationship between Gyllenhaal's prince and Gemma Arterton as a mysterious foreign princess, lacks any real chemistry. A solid, but unspectacular adventure.
