Inside Man (2006)

My Rating : 4/5 STARS

MovieStudio Quote >> “A Movie with a Killer Ending!”

It all starts out simply enough: four people dressed in painters’ outfits march into the busy lobby of Manhattan Trust, a cornerstone Wall Street branch of a worldwide financial institution. Within… It all starts out simply enough: four people dressed in painters’ outfits march into the busy lobby of Manhattan Trust, a cornerstone Wall Street branch of a worldwide financial institution. Within seconds, the costumed robbers place the bank under a surgically planned siege, and the 50 patrons and staff become unwitting pawns in an airtight heist. NYPD hostage negotiators Detectives Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Bill Mitchell (CHIWETEL EJIOFOR) are dispatched to the scene with orders to establish contact with the heist’s ringleader, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), and ensure safe release of the hostages. Working alongside Emergency Services Unit (ESU) Captain John Darius (WILLEM DAFOE), all are hopeful that the situation can be peacefully diffused and that control of the bank and release of those inside can be secured in short order. But things don’t progress as planned. Russell proves an unexpectedly canny opponent—clever, calm and totally in command—a puppet master with a meticulous plan to disorient and confuse not only the hostages, but also the authorities.

insideman

Outside, the crowd of New Yorkers grows as the situation becomes increasingly tense, with Frazier’s superiors becoming more concerned about his ability to keep the standoff from spiraling out of control. The robbers appear to consistently be one step ahead of the police, outwitting Frazier and Mitchell at every turn. Frazier’s suspicions that more is at work than anyone perceives are justified with the entry of Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a power player with shadowy objectives, who requests a private meeting with Russell. The chairman of the bank’s board of directors, controlling entrepreneur Arthur Case (CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER), is also uniquely interested in the moment-to-moment happenings inside the branch. But just what are the robbers after? Why has nothing worked to alleviate the standoff, which stretches on hour after hour? Frazier is convinced that invisible strings are being pulled and secret negotiations are taking place as the powder keg situation grows more unstable by the moment. With loyalties and motives called into question, the detective engages in a risky game of cat-and-mouse—but with the rules of the game ever changing, one wrong move may take the volatile match closer to a disastrous and deadly conclusion.

insideman

Joining Lee behind the camera is a cadre of cinema craftsmen—many of whom have previously collaborated with the filmmaker—including director of photography MATTHEW LIBATIQUE, ASC (Requiem for a Dream), production designer WYNN THOMAS (Cinderella Man), editor BARRY ALEXANDER BROWN (Do the Right Thing) and composer TERENCE BLANCHARD (Malcom X). Inside Man is executiveproduced by DANIEL M. ROSENBERG (Novocaine), JON KILIK (25th Hour), KAREN KEHELA SHERWOOD (A Beautiful Mind) and KIM ROTH (Insomnia).

Trade (2007)

My Rating : 5/5

MovieStudio Quote >> “The best Trafficking movie made so far in every way!”

At once soft-hearted and hard-edged, TRADE provides a compassionate look at an ugly world. In Mexico City, men kidnap13-year-old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) with the intent of selling her virginity to the highest bidder. Young Polish beauty Veronica (Alicja Bachleda) is held captive by the same men, and they threaten her young son across the ocean. As the criminals mistreat their victims, Veronica is Adriana’s only solace as she is taken farther and farther away from home. Meanwhile, Adriana’s older brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), begins to track his sister across the Mexican border into Texas and through the United States.

trade

On his mission, he runs into a Texas cop named Ray (Kevin Kline) who agrees to help him without ever really saying why. TRADE isn’t escapist fare: it’s a socially conscious film that doesn’t flinch from the most painful of details about the sex trade.

trade

There’s rape, pedophilia, and suicide, and the film doesn’t look away or glance over the horrors. This is German director Marco Kreuzpainter’s first film on these shores, but he works like an assured veteran. After working for decades in the film industry, Kline is often most highly praised for his work in comedies such as DAVE and A FISH CALLED WANDA, but he’s quite adept in this serious drama.

trade

Young actors Ramos and Gaitan are making their major feature debut with TRADE, but they both communicate the fear and frustration of their characters with remarkable skill.

Passengers (2008)

My Rating : ****

MovieStudio Quote >> “When you know less, you tend to learn more!”

After a plane crash, a young therapist, Claire (Anne Hathaway), is assigned by her mentor (Andre Braugher) to counsel the flight’s five survivors. When they share their recollections of the incident – which some say include an explosion that the airline claims never happened – Claire is intrigued by Eric (Patrick Wilson), the most secretive of the passengers.

passengers

Just as Claire’s professional relationship with Eric – despite her better judgment – blossoms into a romance, the survivors begin to disappear mysteriously, one by one. Claire suspects that Eric may hold all the answers and becomes determined to uncover the truth, no matter the consequences.

Breach (2007)

My Rating : ***.5

MovieStudio Quote >> “Professionally Crafted, one great FBI Masterpiece”

Chris Cooper (ADAPTATION) gives a remarkable performance as complicated and bitter FBI agent Robert Hanssen in BREACH. Hanssen is a computer specialist who, after 25 years of service, is put under… Chris Cooper (ADAPTATION) gives a remarkable performance as complicated and bitter FBI agent Robert Hanssen in BREACH. Hanssen is a computer specialist who, after 25 years of service, is put under surveillance as a suspected sex offender. Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe, CRASH) is the ambitious young upstart they put on the job, assigning him to pose as Hanssen’s new clerk in order to win his trust and keep an eye on his every move. Eric is dismayed to be put on such low-priority detail, accustomed as he is to investigating high-profile terrorism suspects.

breach

His reluctance is multiplied as he gets to know the subject of his inquiry; Hanssen is at first harsh towards his young secretary, but as he opens up, Eric gets to know and respect him as a family man of strong Catholic faith. Soon, however, Hanssen is infiltrating Eric’s personal life and causing problems between him and his wife, Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas, HOLLYWOODLAND), and just when Eric is about to give up the case, he discovers that it is much bigger than he ever imagined. Eric finds himself in the middle of an investigation into the biggest security breach in U.S. history, forcing him to resort to dramatic and ingenious tactics in order to bring down the suspect. Director Billy Ray’s first directorial effort was the dramatization of the Stephen Glass scandal at the D.C. magazine The New Republic in SHATTERED GLASS, and here he once again turns his eye–with great success–to a true story with a complex villain. Cooper’s excellent characterization invites pity and horror in equal measure; his performance is well supported in this character-driven thriller by Laura Linney (KINSEY) as the hard-nosed agent leading the investigation, and Phillippe as the resourceful and introspective O’Neill.

Derailed (2005)

My Rating : ****

MovieStudio Rating >> “Clive Owen in his Best Thriller Ever!”

Coming off the series finale of FRIENDS, Jennifer Aniston sets out to prove herself a serious actress with DERAILED, a tense thriller that is anything but funny. While the film gives most of its screen time to Clive Owen, Aniston proves, as in THE GOOD GIRL, that she is capable of pulling off a dramatic role. Meeting on a commuter train one morning in Chicago, ad executive Charles (Owen) and financial analyst Lucinda (Aniston) have an immediate connection. Worn down by his job, strained marriage, and a sick child, Charles finds himself drawn to the escape Lucinda can offer. A lunch meeting, followed by dinner and drinks, leads the way to a rendezvous in a sleazy motel, where no sooner have the adulterous lovebirds ripped each other’s clothes off than a sadistic thief (Vincent Cassel) breaks into the room and puts them through hours of nightmarish horror.

Derailed

Because of their relationship’s illicit nature, the two are unable to go to the cops, and are thus virtually powerless to their attacker’s every whim, leaving themselves open to blackmail as he threatens their families and lives. Choosing momentary gratification and the excitement of the unknown over the values he generally holds dear, Charles more than pays the price for his indiscretion. Playing off his audience’s greatest fears, director Mikael Hafstrom creates some scenes so horrific they are sure to haunt viewers for hours after the credits roll. A morality tale of sorts, DERAILED explores the terrible effects of lying and infidelity, while the film’s most powerful scenes leave viewers with the paranoid feeling that the only person you can trust is yourself.

John Q (2002)

My Rating : *****

MovieStudio Quote >> “There are no limits a father can’t cross, for a Son!”

John Q. Archibald (Denzel Washington) is struggling through a recession trying to provide for his son Mikey (Daniel E. Smith) and his waitress wife (Kimberly Elise). Mikey collapses at a Little League game and is rushed to a hospital. The situation is bleak. Only a heart transplant will save Mikey’s life. John’s HMO refuses to cover the expensive surgery.

John Q

With the hospital and his insurance provider unwilling to help and his wife pleading with John to act, he takes matters into his own hands, holding the hospital’s renowned heart surgeon (James Woods) and several others hostage in an emergency care wing until the surgery will be performed. Nick Cassavetes directed this attack on the American health care system. Like his previous feature, SHE’S SO LOVELY, Cassavetes proves adept at mining the political ramifications out of human drama. The film criticizes hospitals and health care providers for working in collusion against the working class. This moving drama is propelled by the intense lead performance by Washington as one man against an unjust system.

Population 436 (2006)

My Rating : ****

MovieStudio >> “Terrifying Countryside Thriller!”

Steve Kady (Jeremy Sisto) is a travelling census taker on his way to tiny Rockwell Falls, whose population has mysteriously stayed at 436 over the past 100 years.

population 436

When he arrives, he is drawn to the idyllic nature of life there, until the truth that lurks beneath the peaceful veneer begins to emerge. Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst costars.

Burn After Reading (2008)

My Rating : ****

MovieStudio Quote >> “Confusing, Funny and Confidential!”

With their overtly comedic follow-up BURN AFTER READING, the Coen Brothers return–about a third of the way–from the dark, dank recesses of the human psyche they traversed in their Oscar-winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. For those unfamiliar with the landscape of modern movie psychoanalysis, this puts the fraternal filmmakers square in the cruel, misanthropic, and farcical realm of their 1990s-era body of work, somewhere between the tragicomic crime thriller of FARGO and the disconnected noir-homage anti-storytelling of THE BIG LEBOWSKI, with 2007’s NO COUNTRY retroactively adding new nihilism-tinged dimensions of smart skepticism to the proceedings.

Burn After Reading

In a more linear trajectory, BURN AFTER READING also stands as the third entry, after BLOOD SIMPLE and FARGO, in what could be an unofficial Tragedy of Human Idiocy trilogy, wherein characters make the most outlandishly moronic moves to devastating consequences simply by adhering to true human behavior. Indeed, Carter Burwell’s emotionally weighty score, which washes over biting scenes of explosive, anesthetizing belly laughs, is very reminiscent of his FARGO work. BURN is ostensibly structured and propelled by a spy-thriller plotline involving a classified CD lost by a disgraced CIA spook and found by two simple gym employees. But, in actuality, it’s simply–amazingly–a collection of brilliant caricature studies interwoven by veracious, if Coenesque, social interactions, as epitomized by the pathos of the Frances McDormand character’s precipitous quest for cosmetic surgery.

Burn After Reading

The CIA superior who learns of the film’s events (always second-hand and sometimes along with the viewer) doesn’t know what to make of it, and why would he? This is the first Coen film in almost 20 years not shot by cinematographer Roger Deakins, yet the “new” guy, Emmanuel Lubezki (CHILDREN OF MEN), has created as visceral and emotionally fraught a high-definition cartoon as any since BARTON FINK.

Conspiracy (2008)

My Rating : ***.5

Val Kilmer stars opposite Jennifer Esposito in this psychological thriller as a senior special operations officer for the U.S. Marines. After being wounded in Iraq, MacPherson returns the the states and retires.

conspiracy

Once home, he decides to visit a friend who’s living on a ranch out west. But when he arrives, his friend is nowhere to be found. And with no one acknowleding he ever even lived there, all signs point to conspiracy or worse.

Silent Hill (2006)

My Rating : ***.5

It’s always been said that a video game cannot be successfully adapted into a film. With SILENT HILL, director Christophe Gans (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) and screenwriter Roger Avary (KILLING ZOE) have the benefit of the atmospheric and… It’s always been said that a video game cannot be successfully adapted into a film. With SILENT HILL, director Christophe Gans (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) and screenwriter Roger Avary (KILLING ZOE) have the benefit of the atmospheric and often terrifying game series of the same name. With a budget reportedly in excess of $50 million, they wisely eschew dense plot in favor of a kaleidoscopic nightmare–culled from several volumes of the game series–designed to give horror fans what they crave.

silent hill

Radha Mitchell (PITCH BLACK) stars as Rose Da Silva, a young mother whose adopted daughter Sharon speaks of the eponymous West Virginia mining town as she sleepwalks. Rose decides to take Sharon there in an attempt to discover why it haunts her dreams–but Silent Hill has been a ghost town since a series of underground coal fires in 1974, and the residents who stayed behind are the stuff of nightmares. SILENT HILL is notable for having a largely female cast (the male characters were reportedly added at the studio’s behest), with Mitchell, Deborah Kara Unger, Alice Krige, and Laurie Holden in the principal roles.

silent hill

But the film’s real star is production designer Carol Spier (known for her frequent work with David Cronenberg), whose work makes the deserted town into a true vision of hell. Utilizing an effective combination of CGI and latex makeup effects, several of the creatures on display may upset more sensitive viewers, as will some of the carnage, which is strong for an R rating. On the other hand, seasoned horror fans and gamers who have been waiting to see a joystick-free version of SILENT HILL are likely to come away feeling like they’ve just taken a nightmare vacation to the spookiest town in America.