Devil

Five people are trapped in an elevator. One by one they are being killed. The killer has to be in the elevator because there is no way in and no way out. But why is he or she killing and how are they pulling it off? This is the mystery facing Detective Bowden. He must discover the means and motive while the fire department works furiously to get them out. But according to security officer Ramirez it doesn’t matter. He has seen the face of the devil and he knows that all their efforts are useless. Everyone is there for a reason and the devil always gets his due.

Devil is M. Night Shyamalan’s latest venture into the metaphysical world of good and evil. According to him, all things are connected and the devil never does his work without a witness. The question is can he hold our attention until all is said and done? The answer is yes. I was intrigued and the film kept my interest to the very end.

Rating: First Run An intriguing closed door mystery

Bran Nue Dae

When I travel I like to buy things that are unique to that specific area such as handcrafts, local products or items found no where else in the world. When it comes to film, Bran Nue Dae is just like that. This film is so Australian that it could come from no where else on the planet. Bran Nue Dae is a romantic musical comedy celebrating the cultural pride of the aboriginal people. It stars Rocky McKenzie as Willie, a native boy who is sent off to boarding school to please his ultra-religious mother. The head priest, Geoffrey Rush (Shine) takes him under his wing but Willie doesn’t want to be a priest. He wants to embrace his aboriginal life and marry his girl Rosie.

At school Willie lets temptation get the best of him and he participates in the theft of some candy bars and Coca-cola. Rather than let another boy be punished for the deed, Willie stands up and takes responsibility. But when the priest makes a racist remark, he rebels and runs away. He is ashamed of his theft but cannot stay in a place where his people are not respected. He is determined to make it back home anyway he can.

What makes this film so unusual is that it frequently stops and tells its story through song including dancing school boys and tap-dancing priests. On the road Willie comes across an aboriginal relative and together they venture off to return to Broome. Along the way they encounter singing hippies, dancing foot-ballers, abusive policemen, a jolly prostitute and a horny shop keeper all while being chased by Father Benedictus. This film is so strange that I doubt you’ve ever seen anything like it.

Bran Nue Dae was based on a popular play in Australia and contains original songs and joyful musical numbers. I can’t imagine everyone liking it, but it is good-natured and a lot of fun. So if you are the adventurous type, give it a try. It is not often that you will find an aborigine romantic musical comedy. It is one of a kind.

Rating: Rent It A film like no other

Heartbreaker

After a series of disappointing American movies it is a nice change of pace to go to a foreign language film to cleanse the palette. It is not because foreign films are any better, oftentimes the production values are quite inferior. It is because they are so different that they become refreshing, especially when they are French comedies. There have been several French comedies lately that have been made into American films but somehow they did not survive the translation. Sometimes you have to go back and see the original.

Heartbreaker is a French romantic comedy starring Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis (Johnny Depp’s wife). It is about a unique team that hires themselves out to purposely break-up couples. The team consists of Alex, Romain Duris, his sister Melanie, Julie Ferrier and her husband Marc, Francois Damiens. Let’s say that you are a rich man and you hate the guy that your daughter is marrying. You would hire this team, and using a combination of research and psychology they would break up the romance and stop the wedding.

This little band of heartbreakers is a principled lot. They will never break up a couple who are truly in love and Alex as the seducer will never sleep with the target. To quote his brother-in-law, they are there to open eyes, not legs. Everything is achieved through the art of seduction. Their job is to show the young lady that she has other options and in some cases exposing her lover’s true personality helping her to move on.

Like spies, Alex is the frontman while his sister and brother-in-law provide the background support. Marc is a whiz at surveillance and Melanie is a master of disguise and languages. Alex will take on a character, interject himself into the target’s life and Marc and Melanie take care of all the details. Once Alex gets the target to fall in love with him, he graciously sets her free. You see, he is a broken-man and there is no hope for him. While she is young, vital and deserves so much more. If she goes back to the boyfriend, the client gets a full refund. But this has never happened, yet.

Heartbreaker is a lot of fun when Alex meets Juliette Van Der Beck, Vanessa Paradis. She is a handful and immune to his charm, but since the money from this gig is crucial to pay off his loan-shark, he breaks out his A Game and pulls out all the stops. This means ditching his tried and true routine’s and going on personal instinct. This makes him vulnerable to her charms and the situation gets dangerous.

Julie Ferrier and Francios Damiens are hysterical as a happily married couple who make their living breaking other people up. Marc is in awe of Alex and his powers of seduction. He is anxious to emulate them and enhance his own skills. Melanie is content to let him try. She finds his efforts amusing and endearing.

I haven’t enjoyed a romantic comedy this much in awhile. Especially the scene where Alex recreates a number from the film Dirty Dancing. He has never seen the film but it is Juliette’s favorite. He must study all of Patrick Swayze’s moves in order to woo her. When he finally gets his chance to bust out his dance moves it is both funny, romantic and completely effective. Even in France, those dance moves still work.

I’m pretty sure that once again Hollywood will take this film and do an American remake. It could work if they cast it well, avoid the cliches, and keep the appropriate tone. But I recommend you see this one now. It is fun, refreshing and a nice change of pace. Think of it as a cinematic vacation. A little change of scenery will do you good.

Rating: First Run Heartbreaker will seduce you

You Again

For years Disney has been cranking out family friendly films using the basic Disney formula and being fairly successful at it. But the problem with using the same recipe over and over, if you don’t add a little spice now and then it gets bland. With You Again, all the ingredients were available to make a really great film. You have Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Kristen Bell, a charming James Wolk, a dashing Victor Garber and even Betty White, yet this recipe, which should have been yummy, was flavorless. Although mildly amusing in parts, most of the time I was bored. I kept waiting for something to surprise me and it never did.
 
In You Again, Kristen Bell (When In Rome) plays Marni, a girl who with a torturous high school past. Shunned by popular society she was singled out for persecution by the head cheerleader J.J., Odette Yustman (Cloverfield) creating her most embarrassing high school moment and ruining the game winning shot made by her basketball star brother. Will, James Wolk (Lone Star) was furious with her for ruining the game, but when he heard about the abuse inflicted on her he offered her some advice, don’t let others define who you are. She took his advice, changed her outlook and became a successful businesswoman. But she also left home as fast as possible. Her memories of high school were truly painful.
 
It is now years later and Marni is returning home for her big brother’s wedding. He is marrying a beautiful girl named Joanna and the entire family loves her. Marni is very excited to meet this wonderful girl. But when she discovers that Joanna is really J.J her former high school tormentor, all her insecurities return. She is determined to let her brother know exactly who Johanna really is. The problem is that Joanna is now the perfect young lady and has won over her entire family. Once again, Marni is on the outside looking in.
 
Like a Disney channel kid-com, all kinds of twists and turns occur but none of them are very surprising and most of them are predictable. Jamie Leigh Curtis and Sigourney Weaver turn out to be old rivals so we are asked to laugh at their competitive antics. Kristen Bell is trying to expose the real Johanna, but her family is too self involved to notice or really hear her. Then when we discover the reasons behind all the poor behavior we are supposed to be touched and sympathetic over everyone’s misunderstandings and insecurities. Instead I felt that their actions were pathetic and ill conceived. Not a very good source for comedy.

Although I applaud anyone who makes family friendly films please don’t short change or underestimate your audience. We can take a little depth and even a little darkness now and then but parents really do care about the underlying messages. If I took a child to this film I would have to follow it up with myriad discussions on why their behavior was inappropriate and wrong. Apparently the women in this family have been letting envy and jealously get the better of them for generations. That is not a trait that I’d like to see passed on. In Marni’s generation she was the victim and not the perpetrator so now maybe the cycle can stop. I wish I could say the same about morally shallow family films. Disney, you can really do better.

Rating: Rent It The women in this film need a time out

Easy A

Is it possible to fall in love with Ojai? After watching Easy A, I kind of did. I even fell in love with Olive’s family. Of course these people aren’t real, but I really liked Olive’s zany parents. Played hysterically by Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) and Patricia Clarkson (Cairo Time), I wanted to hang out at their house and have dinner with them. Their offbeat parenting style and unconditional love gives Olive the confidence to act freely and make some tough decisions. I really liked her and this film.
 
Emma Stone (Zombieland) plays Olive. Olive is the kind of well-adjusted student that never gets in trouble. So in other words, in high school she is invisible. When her best friend invites her to go camping, Olive makes an excuse to get out of spending the weekend with her strange hippy parents. But when her friend presses her for details, she says that she has a date. Her next lie is that the boy is a college freshman and then she is accused of sleeping with him which she doesn’t deny it. In a matter of seconds her fabricated sex-life is all over school and now people are looking at her in a new way. At first she’s kind of enjoying the attention so she lets it go, but lies have a way of snowballing. Soon her phantom sex-life becomes a farce.
 
Olive’s next lie involves a gay friend of hers. Brandon, Dan Byrd (Cougar Town) is tired of being a punching bag at school so he convinces Olive to fake sleeping with him. If his tormentors thought he was straight, they might leave him alone so Olive once again pretends to have sex. After a staged tryst at a party, Brandon is now a respected hetero and Olive is the school tramp. This event looses Olive her best friend and the scorn of the school’s celibacy club. It’s leader Marianne, Amanda Bynes (She’s The Man) becomes her new persecutor so now Olive is mad and decides to embrace her wanton identity. She begins to wear a scarlet letter on all her clothes, a nod to the book they are reading in class, and she also dresses accordingly. Olive is now infamous and her notoriety takes unexpected turns. She starts having fake sex with other boys longing to change their image. In her mind it is all about perception and since she is still a virgin, it doesn’t count.
 
When the adults at school get involved, Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) and Lisa Kudrow (Friends), the consequences of her actions start to get serious. Especially when she gets the attention of an old crush. Penn Bagely (The Stepfather) plays Todd and he may be her only friend left. Her lie is now causing damage to other people and she wants it to stop. It is time to clean up this mess before she loses Todd too.
 
Easy A has a fun farcical tone with witty banter, pop culture references and an irreverent air. This mythical version of Ojai presents a town in a bubble protected by its beautiful hills and isolating it from the rest of the jaded world. Only in Ojai could Prince Charming come riding up on a lawn mover. I loved this film and had a lot of fun with it. If you enjoyed Fired Up, Mean Girls, or even Amanda Byne’s, She’s The Man, you’ll probably enjoy this film too. Go Woodchucks! Sorry Blue Devils.

Rating: First Run A teenage sex farce that started with a lie

The Town

This may be a global phenomena, but in America we identify ourselves by the neighborhood we grew up in. For example in Los Angeles if you say that you're from the Valley or 818, people immediately associate you with a stereotype. You can even pinpoint things further by stating a specific neighborhood or cross-street. In The Town, Ben Affleck (Hollywoodland) presents us with a story about Boston, more specially Charlestown. Charlestown is famous for its heavily Irish population and bank robberies. You can say that knocking off banks and armored cars is the neighborhood vocation.
 
Like many American towns, demographics are changing. In Charlestown other cultures are moving in and the long-time residents are feeling pressured. This pressure translates into tension and The Town has plenty of it. Sometimes when you grow up in a close-knit community there is a feeling of bring trapped or boxed in. Ben Afflick’s Doug MacRay feels this way. He escaped once and made it onto a professional hockey team, but things didn’t work out and now he’s back in Charlestown. With his father in prison for armed robbery, Doug is taken in by the family of his best friend, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker). James Coughlin (Jem) has done some time himself and he’s relying on Doug as the mastermind to get them back into the money. Doug learned the trade of bank robbing from his father, Chris Cooper (Seabiscuit). But Doug has lost the taste for crime. He had a chance at a normal life and now he’s looking for something better.
 
When their next bank robbery goes bad, Coughlin is concerned about a bank manager witness that they took hostage. The plan did not call for a hostage so Doug is worried that James is becoming a loose cannon. Jem is showing impulsive tendencies which is not a good quality for a precision crew. Doug has been taught to abort a heist rather than to kill. It’s better to never put your team at risk. Murder or hostages complicate matters and turn up the heat. Jem’s behavior is becoming a liability. To pacify Jem, Doug promises to check on the witness himself. He doesn’t trust Jem not to hurt her, but while watching Claire, Rebecca Hall (Frost/Nixon) they accidentally meet and after spending some time with her they fall in love.
 
Jeremy Renner is excellent as the hothead bank robber. His behavior is like a man living a fast-forward life. It was like he was in a hurry to fulfill his destiny or make-up for lost time. Also good is Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) as Coughlin’s sister. She is a drug addict strapped with a young daughter, looking for a way out. The changes in her environment frighten her. John Hamm (Mad Men) as a FBI agent uses these fears against her. The problem with small neighborhoods is that everyone knows everyone’s business. If he can crack Krista Coughlin, he can destroy the gang. Krista is the weakest link in this equation.
 
This is Ben Affleck’s second film as a director and he reminds me of an early Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood likes to keep his films small and personal, using locations that he grew up with. Unfortunately as an actor, Ben is not quite as iconic as Eastwood was by the time he started directing. Ben still hasn’t cemented a signature style, but as a director he shows great promise and I look forward to his next film. As for The Town, it is an intense, gripping and effective heist film. The performances are good and Renner especially is worth seeing. The Town is a worthy sophomore effort.  
 
Rating: First Run   An intense heist film with some scene stealing performances
 

Going The Distance

I felt very strange watching Going The Distance. I felt like Garret’s roommate Dan who has the room on the other side of a very thin wall. I was allowed to listen to this relationship but I wasn’t allowed to participate. This film made me feel like a voyeur.
 
Going The Distance is the story of Garret and Erin, Justin Long (Drag Me To Hell) and Drew Barrymore (Whip It). They meet at a bar when neither of them is looking for a relationship. Garret just got dumped and Erin only has six weeks left on a summer internship. They start the evening with animosity but soon find that they have a lot in common. They begin dating but at the end of six weeks neither of them wants to let go. So they begin a long distance romance full of inconvenience, disappointment and frustration.
 
I believe that the reason that this movie made me fell so uncomfortable is that Justin and Drew are dating in real life. Their date scenes had an improvised feel and I felt like a paparazzi hiding in the bushes. Also, a lot of the comedy came from discomfort and crudeness. Instead of laughing at the awkward moments, I squirmed, especially with Christina Applegate. When she walked in on her sister having sex on the dinning room table, her disgust was so convincing it was like she walked in on the actors having sex instead of the characters. I was right there with her.
 
Before attending this film I heard a lot of good things about this script from other sources, but the movie did not work for me. Others may be fine with this style of comedy, but I’ll pass. I don’t like crudeness as a comedy choice. In order to work, that type of behavior must be grounded and come from the character. Maybe Drew Barrymore does cuss, smoke pot, and hold her own belching with the boys, but it didn’t seem natural on her. I really didn’t enjoy this film at all.

Rating: Rent It Not worth the frequent flyer miles

Flipped

I’m going to create a new genre. I am going to label it, the “Personal Film”. A Personal Film is a low budget movie, usually nostalgic, that tells a story from a child’s perspective. It is often narrated by an adult, looking back at a pivotal time in their childhood, recounting a life changing moment or a time that formed their character. An example of this type of film is Liberty Heights, an early film of Adrien Brody and Ben Foster, or That Night starring C. Thomas Howell and Juliette Lewis. Another good one is The Sand Lot.
 
These Personal Films are often called coming of age dramas, but the reason that I think that Personal Film describes them better is that the success of the movie depends on the director’s ability to get you to connect personally with the material. If the story is told in such a way that you can identify with the activity, way of life, or emotion of the characters, then you are hooked. And when these films are done well, they are very memorable.
 
The best example of a Personal Film is Rob Reiner’s, Stand By Me. This small film struck a chord, and even though most of us have never experienced seeing a dead body or peeling leeches off of our private parts, we could identify with the friendships. It was those inane conversations, like who would win in a fight, or why some cartoon characters don’t wear pants that we all connected with. We’ve all experienced these unguarded exchanges in clubhouses, tree forts or hanging around the campfire. It is how we learn to reason and form our own opinions away from the influence of our parents. In these conversations we can argue or rebuff without fear of adult intervention or moralizing. It is for this reason why Stand By Me is a very personal film.
 
In Flipped, Rob Reiner tries once again to create a Personal Film, but this one is not nearly as successful as Stand By Me. Flipped tells the story of Juli and Bryce who meet when they are in second grade. Juli played by Madeline Carroll takes one look at Bryce as he is moving in across the street and her heart flips as she falls in love with his beautiful eyes. Byrce on the other hand, played by Callam McAuliffe is very annoyed by her constant attention. He becomes a joke at school and cannot escape her adoration. The situation however flips when they reach high school. Juli’s feelings cool towards Bryce when he lets her down at a critical moment. Whereas Bryce learns how to appreciate Juli and admire her virtues when Bryce learns to see Juli through his grandfather’s eyes.
 
The flipped theme is also carried out in the mode of story telling. Each event is told twice, once from Juli’s perspective, and then through Bryce’s. It shows how two people can be at the same place at the same time and see things completely different. It is an interesting approach, but it also slowed the story telling down. It also causes you to choose sides. Which character do you identify with more?
 
Another thing that affected my connection with the movie was the parents. Madeline Carroll and Callam McAuliffe came off so natural and their characters were nicely developed, whereas the adults oftentimes came off as stereotypical or cartoonish. Anthony Edwards (ER) was very unlikable. I couldn’t relate to him at all. And Rebecca De Mornay (Risky Business) was almost unrecognizable as a 60’s housewife. Aidan Quinn (Jonah Hex) had some nice moments as a sensitive and understanding father, but when you compare him to Anthony Edwards it was like they are in two different films. Penelope Anne Miller (Men of a Certain Age) looked like she just walked out of an episode of The Waltons. She completely reminded me of Mary Beth McDonough. I was even doing the math in my head to see if the actress could have been her.
 
Overall, I enjoyed Flipped. It is a sweet story with some nice life lessons. John Mahoney (Fraiser) as the grandfather becomes the catalyst in both children’s lives and teaches them to see the world differently by noticing things about them that everyone else was too busy to see. If anything this film shows us that there is a least two sides to every story and that when we make judgements it is because we are only seeing one side. As a Personal Film I think that Flipped missed its mark. The focus should have been on the children and their lives. When it ventured off to the parents and their issues, the story lost momentum, although the parents were being misjudged too. Flipped has a good message, I just wished that it was stronger story telling device. The lessons are worth learning.

Rating: Rent It A story about seeing things from both sides

Machete

For the past 25 years, journeyman actor Danny Trejo (Predators) has been paying his dues playing convicts, criminals, bikers and miscellaneous bad-asses. Now in Machete he finally gets top billing. What started as a fake movie trailer in the film Grindhouse has blossomed into a full fledged feature playing homage to Mexican Exploitation films and spoofing hot-button topics like immigration and border laws.

Trejo plays a Mexican Federale who is betrayed by corrupt cops and the reigning drug lord Steven Seagal (Under Siege). Unbeknownst to them, he survives their assignation attempt and has resurfaced in the United States as an undocumented day laborer. Not one to blend in with the crowd he is spotted by Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four) an immigration cop and by Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar) who runs an underground assistance league for illegal aliens.

When Trejo is picked up for work by a man in a business suit, Jeff Fahey (Grindhouse) he is coerced and threatened into shooting a Texas state senator. Machete plans on missing his shot but once again he is betrayed. The senator is clipped intentionally by a second shooter to boost his campaign ratings and prove that Mexicans are a threat to American life. Machete is set up as the fall guy and with his face all over the media, his enemies in Mexico now know that he is alive. Machete is out gunned and out numbered but to quote his biggest opponent, he is hard to kill. Machete must defend himself and heads will roll, literally!

Machete is bloody and full of naked women but the graphic aspects are done respectfully as a homage to a very specific genre. Believe it or not, I did not find these scenes gratuitous. They belonged in the film like sailors and swearing and cops and hookers. They were needed for authenticity. It wouldn’t be a Grindhouse film without them.

What I loved about this film was the tiny visual details. For example if the camera lingered too long on a sharp object, you knew that pretty soon it would become a weapon. Also there are many little touches of humor. For instance when the Mexicans are called to arms they grab whatever is near by. Scanning the mob you will find weed whackers, pruning shears, a plunger and even a guy pushing an ice cream cart. Machete plays on all the stereo types and no one is immune. These little sight gags are like a rim shot at the end of a joke. They are funny, but they bring the point home.

There are many worthwhile cameos in this film. Lindsay Lohan plays a troubled drugged-out daddy’s girl (big stretch) and Cheech Marin plays a not so holy priest. Don Johnson portrays an over-zealous border vigilante and Robert De Niro really works it as a bigoted politician. With Machete, the parody cuts both ways. No one is safe from a little satire.

I really enjoyed this film and I liked what Robert Rodriguez was trying to do. I probably wouldn’t be comfortable in a true Grindhouse film, but as a vehicle for making a statement, it was much appreciated. Most of all I liked this film because it gave Danny Trejo a chance to shine. As a young man in prison he turned his life around and now dedicates his time in helping others. It’s nice to see him in the spotlight for a change. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. But don’t let that get around. Danny has to keep his bad-ass imagine.

Rating: Must See Danny Trejo is Machete

Mesrine: Public Enemy # 1

Mesrine: Public Enemy # 1 is a much tighter and more intense film than part one. Mesrine is now a hardened criminal due to the torture and rough treatment he received while interned in a maximum security prison. After his escape he manages to return to France and continue his number one occupation, robbing banks. He feels completely justified robbing banks because that is where the money is and they are bigger crooks than he is.

Mesrine continues with his flirtation with the press. When he is eventually captured, he beguiles his jury and entertains the media by demonstrating how corrupt the judicial system is. While serving a twenty year sentence he is appalled when someone else steals his front page status. He responds by writing a book chronicling his adventures and admitting to forty murders.

While in prison he meets another convict who has escaped prison three times. Mesrine respects anyone who can match his record so together they plan their fourth escape. After succeeding, Mesrine is Public Enemy #1 again, but this time he has illusions of grandeur. He nows sees himself as a kind of revolutionary. His partner Francois, Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) robs banks for the money. But Mesrine wants to bring the justice system down. While outside, the two of them become masters of disguise and experts at eluding the police. Mesrine even poses as a doctor to visit his dying father and later the two of them impersonate police officers and actually inspect the local police station. As they are questioning the officer in charge as to their number of staff and readiness, their wanted posters are just over the police officer’s shoulder. Their boldness is really astonishing.

Like Mesrine: Killer Instinct we get to see Mesrine as a personal man. We see him as a son, a father, a friend and a lover. He takes pride in his reputation and he considers himself a man of honor. After Francois parts with him over differences in ideology, a reporter accuses Mesrine of being disloyal and abandoning his partner. Mesrine’s reaction is to confront the reporter and to beat him within an inch of his life.

We know all along that Mesrine’s life is going to end up in a bloody ambush, but we are captivated while we watch the ever entwining pieces fall into place. The book that Mesrine wrote about himself has been studied by the very police who hunt him. One detective, Le Commissaire Broussard (Oliver Gourmet) has already captured him once. He is determined to do it again and he is using Mesrine’s own words against him.

Like part one, Vincent Cassel puts in a fine performance as Jacques Mesrine. It is almost like he has a duel personality. When he is at rest or with a loved one his face is light and his sense of humor is sharp. He is truly a charismatic man. But when he is cornered, he becomes dark, menacing, animalistic and dangerous. His hubris is his public image and he even goes as far as to grant a magazine reporter a full interview including photos. No wonder he became a fascination with the public. Anyone that bold and arrogant gets a begrudging respect. He entertained the people during a dark economic and political time. Like other anti-heroes before him, he had charm and panache. All said and done, he is a criminal to remember.

Rating: First Run The fascinating demise of a notorious criminal

Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Every once in awhile a foreign language film will blow me away. Reading subtitles can divide your focus, so when this is accomplished, I’m especially impressed. But when I saw Mesrine: Killer Instinct, not only was I appreciative of the film, I witnessed one of the best performances that I’ve seen so far this year. It is the performance that I had hoped to see when Johnny Depp played John Dillinger. I was disappointed with that film, but with Vincent Cassel (Oceans Twelve) as legendary mobster, Jacques Mesrine, I was completely captivated. It won him a Cesar Award in France. I only hope to see him at our Academy Awards this year.

Mesrine is a famous French criminal from the 70’s who continued his crime spree in Quebec, Canada. He was flashy, charismatic and a bit of a media darling. With his female accomplice they were called a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. His spectacular capture was followed by a even more spectacular prison escape. And this is where the first film ends. Part Two will continue the saga ending with Mesrine’s violent death. The film begins with this ambush and then takes us back in time to fill in the details of his notorious rise. I was very interested in getting to know how a man’s life can end up in such bloody place.

Vincent Cassel remembers Mesrine’s death. It happened when he was just a little boy. What makes this movie so fascinating is the line that Vincent Cassel walks. On one hand Mesrine is sensitive, loving, a caring father and a charming ladies man, but on the other hand he is racist, has problems with authority, beats his wife and is a cold-blooded killer. Vincent Cassel walks this tightrope and shows us all sides of Mesrine’s personality. Yet, even after that, you still like the guy, even when his actions shock and repulse you.

I was unfamiliar with Mesrine going into this film, but like Che Guevara or Scarface in America, he is a popular anti-hero in Europe. If he was as familiar to me as Jesse James, or John Dillinger, I may know how the story ends. But since I did not grow up with his legend, I guess I’ll have to see the other part of this film. The movie is not much different than many of the gangster stories that we’ve seen in the cinema or on TV, but makes this film special is the performances. Gerard Depardieu (Cyrano de Bergerac) is also in this movie as a mob boss who initiates Mesrine into his life of crime. The other supporting parts are also nicely rendered. I especially like the peek at Mesrine’s parents. We often wonder how killers are made. Are they born that way or does society create them? Mesrine is a fascinating, if bloody subject.

Rating: First Run A bloody good performance by Cassel

Soul Kitchen

Imagine being a small child and you are sitting in a kitchen watching someone making a fabulous dessert. There is a sense of anticipation and fun as you observe the ingredients being measured out. You are enthralled as the eggs are being cracked and the flour is being sifted. You’re not sure what the final result is going to be, but it has to be sweet based on all its parts. For now you are enjoying the process. If all goes right, you’ll have a tasty treat in the end. That’s how I felt watching Soul Kitchen.
 
Soul Kitchen is not a great movie, but it is a lot of fun. Adam Bousdoukos plays a Greek-German dreamer who has bought an industrial building and doing all the work him self, has converted it into a restaurant. His menu is uninspired, mainly fried fish and hamburgers, but his working-class clientele keep coming back for more. He’s barely getting by, but he is making it work. It is his love life that needs resurrecting.
 
Zinos is distressed because his girlfriend is leaving soon for China. She wants him to follow her, but he can’t find anyone he trusts to run his restaurant. During a family farewell dinner thrown by her rich parents at an exclusive eatery, the chef quits when a guest insists that his gazpacho be served warm. Zinos follows the surly chef outside to praise his fine cooking. On a lark, he hires him and his entire life is turned upside down. This crazy knife throwing chef (Birol Unel) is temperamental, but a genius. Soon the Soul Kitchen is the hottest place in town and now Zinos really can’t leave. He desperately wants to be with his girlfriend but his restaurant keeps getting in the way.
 
Like a screwball comedy, everything happens at once, Zinos injures his back, his ex-con brother shows up, an old school friend is trying to steal his property and a gangster is trying to force him out. Add to that a high maintenance chef, a surly waitress, a rock band employee in need of a place to practice, and a determined tax collector and Zinos has more than he can handle. The script is all over the place, but it is fun, if a little too messy. And I enjoyed the process even if the final result was not as sweet as I hoped. At least we don’t have to clean up the kitchen.

Rating: Rent It A pleasant way to spend an evening, bring snacks

The Switch

When I went to view The Switch I was expecting a light romantic comedy, but instead I got a heartfelt performance by Jason Bateman (Couples Retreat) and I didn’t mind the exchange at all. This film does have its moments, but it is not the kind of comedy that will have you rolling on the floor. The Switch is emotionally grounded and most of the humor comes from the characters themselves.
 
Jason Bateman plays Wally, who is Kassie’s Jennifer Aniston (The Bounty Hunter) best friend. He’s in love with her but has been relegated to “friend territory”. According to Kassie, he is neurotic and a hypochondriac, but he always has her back. He is the most reliable thing in her life and she loves him for it. But Wally is a bit of a sad sack and has yet to tell her how he really feels. He’s just happy to be a part of her life and is content to live in her shadow.
 
One evening over dinner Kassie announces that she is going to have a baby. Wally is surprised and even more so when she explains that she is not pregnant yet. She has decided to take matters into her own hands and find a donor. Wally is hurt when she asks for his help but doesn’t consider him as a father. When he tells her how he feels Kassie says that it would be too weird. He is her best friend after all. What she wants is a stranger, but someone she could meet and look in the eye. Kassie is tried of waiting for fate. She wants a baby now.
 
After a fight with Wally, Kassie goes on to find a donor on her own. Patrick Wilson (Watchman) is handsome, educated, athletic and a professor of womens studies. This sends Wally on a jealous binder, but Kassie is forgiving and invites him to her insemination party anyway. When he inadvertently finds himself in a room with Roland’s biological contribution, Wally accidentally spills it down the sink. In a drunken panic, he replaces it with his own sperm and then blacks out. It isn’t until years later that he remembers what he has done. It is only after he meets six-year-old Sebastian (Thomas Robinson) that he starts to put things together. Kassie moved after the birth of her son and has just now returned to the city. Sebastian looks just like Wally and is as much of a hypochondriac as his father. As these similarities become more apparent, it jogs his memory and Wally remembers what he has done. He confesses to his friend (Jeff Goldblum) who recalls a drunken 4:00 AM visit that same night years ago. His intoxicated mumbling now makes total sense. Wally really is Sebastions’s father.

The rest of the movie is about revealing the truth and how people will take it. But the heart of the film is the relationship between Wally and his son. Sebastian is a weird kid, but Wally understands him. They form a bond and this is what makes the lie even more dangerous. If Kassie takes Sebastian and leaves, or marries another man, Wally will lose the most precious thing in his life, his son and the mother who bore him. But if Wally tells her the truth, he may lose her anyway. His dilemma is what to do.

This is more Jason Bateman’s film than Jennifer Aniston’s. Although she is good, Bateman really shines. The scenes between him and Thomas Robinson are precious and you look forward to seeing them together. I also liked Jeff Goldblum. He was this quirky voice of reason trying to talk Wally down. His reactions are as funny as the situations themselves. He was a really nice addition to the film.

Rating: Second Run A warm-hearted comedy about one bad decision