Takers
The best thing about Takers is the cast, which features a machismo-laden group of urban action heavyweights....and Hayden Christiansen. Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Michael Ealy and Chris Brown star as the most stylish thieves you've likely ever seen, who get roped into one more big job by a former colleague. As far as heist flicks go it's no Inception, but Takers is definitely one cool flick worth checkin' out.
Stone
Ed Norton is arguably the most versatile actor of our day, but I find him especially effective when playing hardened criminals. Maybe it's because his look goes against that type so completely that it's mesmerizing to watch him bring humanity to these characters. Such is the case with Stone, a thriller that sees him as a convicted arsonist trying to convince his parole officer(Robert De Niro) to set him free early. Norton and De Niro matching wits, with a seductive Milla Jojovich in the middle, could lead to some fireworks.
Buried
Buried could be the best singular performance Ryan Reynolds will ever give us. It's his one best shot at convincing his critics that he's not just a set of six pack abs and a pretty face. The future Green Lantern knocks it out of the park in Rodrigo Cortes' claustrophobic thriller, as a contractor who wakes up discover he's been buried inside a coffin. Reynolds makes the best of limited resources and space, enough to convince me that the best for him as an actor could be yet to come.
Death Race 2
There was a lot to like about 2008's Death Race, including a ton of brutal cars that look like they were ripped straight out of Twisted Metal. Plus it knew what it was, and the performances by Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, and most especially Joan Allen were delightfully over-the-top. I had hopes that the sequel would arrive in theaters but instead it looks like Danny Trejo, Sean Bean, Ving Rhames, and Luke Goss's prequel is straight-to-DVD.
Animal Kingdom
The title says it all. There are no friends in the world the Cody clan inhabits. Animal Kingdom is just the latest in an increasing line of groundbreaking films coming from the land Down Under, but for my money this is most powerful. Going against the typical crime movie grain, Animal Kingdom gives us an empire on it's last legs. The Codys, led by their terrifying, domineering mother "Smurf" Cody(the amazing Jacki Weaver), are watching their criminal schemes picked apart by corrupt cops and dissention from within their own family.
Freakonomics
The film version of the insanely popular best-selling novel centered around incentive-based thinking, I'm less interested in the economics than I am by the people who got together to make this documentary. Basically everybody involved in most of the documentarys worth a darn over the last few years is involved: Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, Eugene Jarecki and more!
Paper Man
You don't have to wait until Green Lantern to see Ryan Reynolds don a pair of superhero tights. Just pick up Paper Man, which sees him as Mr. Excellent, the imaginary friend of a struggling novelist(Jeff Daniels). Emma Stone and Lisa Kudrow co-star in this quirky drama from Kieran and Michele Mulroney(Sherlock Holmes 2).
Jack Goes Boating
Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut sees him playing the type of believable, stuck in a rut loser he's played so well before. Amy Ryan(Gone Baby Gone) is the woman he goes out on a spec date with, only to discover that her outgoing personality may be just what he needs to set his life course on a different path.
