The Losers
The first leg of this summer's "Action Trilogy", The Losers features one of the coolest casts assembled for a flick of this type: Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, and Columbus Short. They star as a Special Forces unit, betrayed by one of their government handlers, and must find a way to clear their names and get revenge. Director Sylvain White does a good job of balancing the over-the-top action and humor from the comic series.
The Runaways
If you can get past a grown up(and sexed up) Dakota Fanning as Runaways lead singer Cherie Curie, The Runaways is your basic story of rock 'n roll royalty gone to waste thanks to an overindulgence of sex and drugs. Toss in a little jealousy while you're at it. Kristen Stewart, looking more somber than she ever has in any Twilight film, stars as the tough as leather Joan Jett, who would later rise from the ashes of the doomed group to become a rock icon. I had this as my #1 film during its debut weekend, based mainly on the boundary pushing performances of Stewart and Fanning.
Cop Out
If you have a chance to listen to Kevin Smith's weekly Smodcast, you can hear the director waxing about how much money Cop Out made. Certainly it's his most profitable, but it's also his least personal, basically a generic buddy comedy. Smith does manage to get in some of his usual sight gags and potty humor. The real hook is the oddball pairing of Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as a pair of longtime partners in search of a rare baseball card.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Nominated for Best Documentary at last year's Oscars, and deservedly so. It tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, a high ranking Pentagon official who back in 1971 caused a stir when he concluded that the Vietnam War was basically the result of years of lies and propaganda. Hmmm...sounds familiar. And current.
Mother
If you had the pleasure of catching Korean director Bong Joon Ho's 2006 monster flick, The Host, then you know he's not in the habit of giving you what's expected. His latest film, Mother, is a mystery unlike any other. Shown from the perspective of a devoted, fierce matriarch trying to protect her son from presumably trumped up murder charges, Mother is a roller coaster ride that never slows down, and comes to a conclusion that is sure to leave you thrown for a loop. I know it did me. A must buy.
