THREE SENTENCE DVD REVIEW: THE DUCHESS (***)

Beautifully designed and gorgeously photographed, Saul Dibb's The Duchess (***) boasts remarkable production values and a sturdy narrative concerning 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (the always lovely Keira Knightley) and her loveless marriage to the extremely despicable Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes). The film functions as a sad reminder of how terrible women had it back in those times and how men of power could control anyone's life that entered their orbit. It's a thematically dark movie but the sharp performances and rich atmosphere keep the movie from becoming a completely depressing enterprise.

MINI REVIEW: TAKEN (***)

"Don't make a mess!" That instantly hysterical line of dialogue spoken by a secondary character to Liam Neeson's Bryan Mills in Pierre Morel's shamelessly entertaining (and often sleazy) actioner Taken (***) sort of sums up the entire picture. A total retread of the Schwarzenegger 80's programmer Commando, Taken is a quick (89 minutes) and completely predictable time-waster that has done surprisingly brisk box office. Not that it's a terrible film -- it's well done for what it is and offers people fast, undemanding entertainment. The set-up is incredibly simple: Mills, an ex-CIA operative, has to rescue his 17 year old daughter Kim (an unconvincing Maggie Grace, who is 26 years old) from Paris-based sex-slave traffickers. Kim and her friend are kidnapped almost immediately upon landing in France, and Mills, a "preventer" who knows about 50 ways to kill a person, goes on a one-man vengeance spree, tracking down the Arab and Albanian baddies and sending them to their graves. The film, from the Luc Besson factory line of European-flavored action movies, is nowhere near as exciting as Morrel's previous outing, the boldly dynamic District B-13. Dialogue, by Besson and usual co-writer Robert Mark Kamen, is flat and drab, and the plotting is highly preposterous. But what keeps the film chugging along, aside from the visceral fight sequences and numerous shoot-outs (which Morel stages with solid craftsmanship), is Neeson's steely and manly performance as a father who will stop at nothing to get his daughter back. It's a hoot to see him, at 56 years of age, kicking ass and taking names. The action cinematography goes to great lengths to show that Neeson is doing all (or most of) his own stunts, and the film is refreshingly free of CGI trickery (though some process shots of characters driving in cars are pretty awful). There are shades of Man on Fire and many other revenge flicks all throughout Taken; it's as derivative as it can be. And as the body count rises, you get the sense that Mills could out do Jack Bauer in a game of "Let's see how many terrorists I can off in one day." Taken has been blessed with a dynamic trailer that has lured people into the theater for some easy, revenge-motivated entertainment. Molded by the Bourne series, the film doesn't have half the brains of that franchise, but if all you're looking for is a fun and forgettable action movie to fill up an evening, Taken will fit the bill.

QUICK THOUGHTS

Henry Selick's acid-trip-of-a-film Coraline (****) is amazing. In every way.

Taken (***) was an average action movie with above average action scenes and a manly performance from Liam Neeson.

The Duchess tonight.

PAUL BLART'S DEMONIC COUSIN?

The film is called Observe and Report and it's from Jody Hill, the director of The Foot Fist Way. Looks hysterical.

MOVIES FOR THE WEEKEND

Coraline in 3-D on Sunday afternoon.

Got The Duchess from Netflix for sometime over the weekend.

Would like to see Taken as well -- next week on that probably.

THREE SENTENCE DVD REVIEWS

Something new for 2009: three sentence DVD round ups. I might do full DVD reviews for some titles, but in the interest of time, and teaching myself to write in a concise manner, I'm gonna start doing super-short reactions to some of the flicks I see. Here's a bunch...


John Crowley's incisive and thought provoking drama Boy A (***1/2) goes to some dark places but the end result is worth the wrenching journey. Andrew Garfield gives a power-house performance and is matched by Peter Mullan, who turns in yet another sensitive and totally believable portrait of a man caught in the middle of conflicting emotions. The film can't help but take one contrived detour, but overall, this is an extremely well crafted and written piece of work about a hard-to-believe law in England that is the very definition of controversial.

RocknRolla (***) is a stylish return to form for gangster movie auteur Guy Ritchie, who in the past few years has stumbled (the disastrous Swept Away and the incomprehensible Revolver were his previous two efforts). A gaggle of entertaining performances stud this comically violent and typically convoluted crime story which moves along at a hurtling pace. While never reaching the heights of Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, RocknRolla is a solid piece of entertainment.

Cop movies are my thing, which is one of the main reasons why I enjoyed Pride and Glory (***) a lot more than most critics did. There's nothing uniquely special about this efficient genre entry, but at the same time, director and co-screenwriter Gavin O'Connor imbues his film with a lot of gritty integrity and the performances, especially those of top-lining stars Ed Norton and Colin Farrell, crackle with intensity. It's a grim, nasty world conjured up by O'Connor, co-scenarist Joe Carnahan, and cinematographer Declan Quinn (who shoots with a darting, jolting intensity), so if you like these types of movies, Pride and Glory will do the trick.

Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (***) was fun for as far as it went, but considering the hype, I expected a better, richer film. There is a ton of chemistry between all of the super-attractive actors in this sexy movie: Jarvier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Scarlet Johansson, and Rebecca Hall all deliver the goods. It's just that I figured there'd be more in store for the viewer by the film's conclusions, and the mystifying nomination that the Academy bestowed on Cruz for a totally one-dimensional piece of acting grates the nerves, especially when considering that the far more deserving Rosemarie DeWitt from Rachel Getting Married was left out in the cold.

MICHAEL BAY IS OFF HIS ASS