Warrior

Two men are at crossroads in their respective lives. One, Brendan, is a schoolteacher and family man whose bills are starting to swell up so high they may well sink his ship. The other, Tommy, is a recently returned war veteran who’s gone AWOL with nowhere to turn. Simultaneously a very wealthy industrialist has decided to stage an ‘all comers’ ‘winner takes all’ MMA tournament in Vegas with a $5million purse. Both men have a history of fighting and decide, if they work hard enough at it, they just might make it deep enough into the competition to come away with enough prize money to help keep them afloat. They also happen to be estranged brothers.

Brendan’s father and brother left he and his mother some years ago. The mother has since died and neither came to the funeral, which led Brendan to cut his father and brother out of his life completely. Tommy has always regretted his older brother for throwing him out with the bathwater and uses his dad, a retired fight trainer, to train for the bout. The big event is not just an opportunity for the brothers to finally have it out, but also a chance for the family troubles to finally crescendo.

This movie is one cliché after another. Everything about it is formulaic and predictable. That said, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Imagine a musician you really like, a really talented musician covering a song you’ve heard a thousand times. It’s like a really great cover of Mary Had a Little Lamb. You know exactly what is going to happen and the plot has clearly been copied and pasted from a billion other movies, but it’s shot well, scored well and acted very, very well. In the end, it lacks real substance and isn’t going to be earth shaking, but if you like a good, inspiring sport flick, you will dig this. Watch the arch of these sport characters unfold and while you know where it’s all going to end, you’ll enjoy the ride.

SA

Dolphin's Tale

An inquisitive dolphin learns the hard way what happened to the curious cat, when she gets caught up in a crabber’s line. She washes up on shore in bad shape. A fisher and a young boy happen upon her. The boy seems somehow to soothe her and the dolphin is soon whisked off by a nearby animal hospital. There, the doctor realizes he must remove the dolphin’s tail. Realizing that hope is her only hope, the doctor enlists his daughter and the boy from the beach to help lift the dolphin’s spirit. Through that spirit, the dolphin begins adapting and swimming without a tail. The doctor realizes, however, the dolphin is doing damage to her spine by swimming this way and, if she does not stop doing so soon, she may damage her spine to the point of paralysis. So, do they give up, say their goodbyes and let it go, or do they put their heads together and find a solution?

Well, if you’ve seen the trailer and know what sort of movie this is, you will not need to guess very hard to hit on the right answer. It’s a story of friendship, perseverance and hope against all odds. It’s also a true story. Just like in the movie, the real dolphin, Winter, moved many in the small Florida town to use her as inspiration to keep hope alive in their own lives, whether they are injured vets, little boys whose fathers are missing, disabled children or veterinarians who recently lost their wives. Winter seems to lift the spirits of anyone she meets.

Like Winter, it’s hard for this movie to not lift your spirit, no matter who you may be either. It’s not the best movie in the world, not by a long shot. It drags at times, plays too much on easy sentimentality at times and occasionally seems way too much like a Hallmark movie. But that said, I’ve yet to meet someone who has seen this movie who didn’t have at least something fond to say about it. In short, it’s a sweet, uplifting flick that is almost certain to pick up your mood. It’s certainly not groundbreaking, but it’s not a bad watch either.

SA

The Secret in Their Eyes

The Secret in Their Eyes catches up with Buenos Aires police detective Benjamin Esposito as he is a bit into his retirement. He’s writing a novel based around one of his more memorable, and unsolved, murder cases, from 25 years ago. He starts by looking up Judge Irene Menéndez-Hastings, who was a clerk on the case and was mad for Benjamin at the time. His showing up and poking around into this closed case opens up more than a can or two of worms. The film goes back and forth between the then and now in an attempt to fill out the cracks in the stories of the victim, the perpetrators and those involved in the investigation. Will they find the killer? Will Judge Menéndez-Hastings and Benjamin ever unite?

This film won the best foreign language Oscar, has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and won a Goya. I say that to fully admit that I’m going to be in the minority in not digging on this flick. So, note that this is how it struck me, but keep in mind that most of the world loved this movie. To me, it was just too melodramatic. There were holes in the character development that the filmmaker clearly thought would go unnoticed because of a hope that people would just get swept up in the emotion of it all. It’s a love story and a crime drama done in a very, very Spanish fashion. If your heart goes all aflutter for the passion of a good Spanish melodrama, then this movie is squarely in your wheelhouse. However, if, like me, you’re a more practical bloke, then this movie is bound to do little more than serve as cause for a good eye rolling. There are undeniable holes to the story that require a bit too much stretching for me. But if you’re the type who can get lost in a good romantic crime story, knock your socks off.

SA

Haywire

Mallory Kane is a Marine Devil Dog whose idea of relaxing is a glass of wine while cleaning her guns. She’s a baddass at kicking ass and she’s lent her talents to a private government contractor for the last three years. Her company, however, is falling apart and she wants out. As she puts it, she’s not going down with the ship, but leaving a covert organization is not as easy as she may think. Things get bad fast. Now, she must find a way not only to get out, but survive.

I really liked this movie. It’s nothing groundbreaking, a very cut-and-paste plot that’s even visually generic, but it’s a solid good time. The fight scenes are well thought out and well coordinated. Soderbergh populated the movie with professional fighters rather than actors, usually a bad idea, and it worked well, lending a level of authenticity. You can’t fake those fighters eyebrows and ears. The acting was solid, the story was fun and the action was Bourne-level good. So, while it’s not going to change your life, it’s definitely worth seeing if you’re in the market for a good action flick. I certainly enjoyed it and it’s the first the first mainstream action flick I’ve seen in a while that I didn’t leave feeling like my money was robbed and my intelligence insulted.

S’good

Winter's Bone

Winter’s Bone tells the powerful tale of a daughter who has had enough. Ree is the daughter of a meth dealing lowlife who lives with her mother and two siblings in the rural Ozarks. One day a sheriff’s deputy arrives at the house looking for dear ole dad to remind him of an upcoming court date. Well, that date comes and goes and dad never shows up. Soon after a bail bondsman comes by and says they’ve had enough too and are going to take the family’s home and timber property that dad put up as collateral on his most recent bond. Ree is but a teenager, the other kids are little and mom is a space cadet. If they lose the home and the timber, well, that’s the end of the line. So, Ree sets off to find ole dad, come hell or high water and she will not stop until he’s home paying his dues.

I gotta confess, this movie just didn’t do it for me and I really don’t know why. It had many of the elements of movies I love (strong female protagonist, journey story, right prevailing over selfish evil), but for whatever reason, it just never sucked me in. It’s a good story that is well shot, but I was never all that engaged and the movie quickly left my mind. Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic as Ree and John Hawkes was good too, but the rest of the actors were pretty forgettable. So, in the end, I’m not sure what to say. It’s a well-made movie with an interesting story, it just wasn’t for me.

P.s. Is it weird that Debra Granik has now made two features and both have the word bone in them?

S’good

Mary and Max

Mary and Max is an Australian clayamation drama about, you know what, I’ve lost some of you already, haven’t I? Ok, well, if you know from the first clause of that sentence that this isn’t the flick for you, I understand, and you’re probably right. For the rest of you, here goes. Mary and Max is an Australian clayamation drama about a middle-aged man with crippling mental disabilities and a young girl with a devastating and unfulfilling home life who find enrichment and friendship through a pen pal relationship. They are from different ends of the world, but they serve as the sole shining lights in their otherwise dark worlds. They yearn for and dread the letters from the other, as the letters end up being both escapes and painful reminders of their own oddities and shortcomings. There isn’t much more to it than that.

The movie is sweet, odd and interesting. It would be as painful as a root canal if it weren’t for the stop motion animation, which allows for beautiful moments of illustration and exposition that wouldn’t be possible with a live action shoot. While the movie is certainly unique, it also doesn’t have a great deal of depth and would have been much better if it were like a 45-minute bit for television or a short. So, in short, if you find matters of mental health and personal issues of family function interesting, you may dig on this movie. If you, like me, are a total sucker for stop motion animation, then there is no chance you won’t at least enjoy the craft of this movie and enjoy watching it. Even if you are both of those things, however, I think you’ll agree that the story of the film could have made more of a substantial point and been told in a more concise manner. Not a bad movie, fairly forgettable, but worth a watch.

SA