Lawless

The Good Fight

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Rated: R  Some sexuality/nudity, language and strong bloody violence
Release Date: August 29, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 55 minutes

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Director: John Hillcoat
Writers: Nick Cave, from the novel by Matt Bondurant
Cast:  Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Gary Oldman

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SYNOPSIS:  In 1931 Depression-era Prohibition Franklin County, three bootlegging brothers' business is threatened by a new special deputy targeting moonshining operations in the hills of Virginia.

REVIEW: Director John Hillcoat, known for the bleak apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road, return with another adaptation from multi-talented Nick Cave (The Proposition) based on the novel 'The Wettest County in the World' by Matt Bondurant. Looking at Depression moonshining based on the actual lives of three real-life brothers should make for fine drama. 

In 1931 Franklin County, Virginia, three brothers make their living distilling 'White Lightning' moonshine in the rural foothills. Led by Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises), a man who cheated and overcame death in both the Great War and a bout of fever that took the lives of both of the brothers' parents, he remains a quiet but stern businessman of the local alcohol trade. Older bear of a brother Howard (Jason Clarke, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) like the product a little too much but is devoted to his brethren. Younger brother and runt of the litter Jack (Shia Lebeouf, Transformers: Dark of the Moon) looks to follow in his brother's footsteps but lacks the stature and intestinal fortitude to do what sometimes must be done. Operating without problems from the local constables, the Bondurant brothers suddenly find themselves up against sterner authorities in the guise of special deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce, Lockout) who looks to shut down all of the stills operating in the back wood Virginia hillside. Unwilling to back down, the Bondurant clan continue to distill the illegal alcohol while the other moonshiners are bought out or run out. While Forrest deals with keeping what he has, Jack starts running his own part of the business and making enough money to buy fancy cars and clothes, and try to woe the beautiful daughter of a town minister named Bertha (Jessica Chastain, The Help).

What could have been just another drawn out early 20th Century period drama, turns into a gripping character-driven tale of loyalty, power, and love. With great performances by Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, and the rest of the cast, plus a phenomenal story from Nick Cave from the Matt Bondurant, Lawless will entertain and enthrall.

At the end of the second decade of the Twentieth Century, the United States government decides that the ills of the country were due to the evils of alcoholic spirits, passing the Amendment to the Constitution for Prohibition. As the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression tore through the country, those with the strength of character and convictions were able to remain or become successful in spite, and because, of the decisions of the government. Bootlegging and moonshining became the cornerstone of prosperity for both those who produced the spirits and those who sold them, and survival for those who consumed them.

Taking place in the the hills of Virginia, the opening shot pans over the luscious orange, red, and golds tree tops of the forests of the commonwealth. An old Ford truck rumbles down a single lane dirt road and Shia LeBeouf's character Jack sits behind the wheel of the old jalopy filled with White Lightning. In voice-over, Jack describes his brothers and the business they share. As they travel through the county, selling crates of mason jars filled with moonshine to both the locals and the local constables, we get a glimpse that maybe selling moonshine during Prohibition is not as illegal and detrimental to the country's morals as it was supposed to be. The cinematography is sweeping and gorgeous, adding a beauty to a story that at times is bloody and hard.

The performances are exceptional. Tom Hardy's Forrest Bondurant is both eloquent and quiet, saying more with a clenched-jaw stare and a 'hmmm' than long monologues. Shia's Jack, the center of the story in some regard, shows he carry himself with characters other than talking robots. Guy Pearce, as the special deputy Charlie Rakes appointed by the Commonwealth of Virginia, presents his character as a Chicago operative who fancies the finer things in life, has a perchance for wearing gloves, and has no problem getting his hands dirty. Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska bring a softness and maturnal climate to the brother's, Jessica as the minister's daughter that Jack tries to woe and Mia as the displaced Chicago showgirl who just wants to find a more quiet life. Dane Dehaan stumbles through life as the Bondurant Brothers' mechanic and gimpy boy Cricket with a heart of gold. And Gary Oldman cameos as the crime boss Floyd Banner, both friend and foe to the back-woods bootleggers.

Lawless is a fine period drama, corner stoned by superior performances by everyone on the cast, strong stark visuals, and a solid story. Violent and beautiful, Lawless entertains and enthralls. The brothers may be outlaws, but their loyalty to each other is beyond the rules.

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WORTH:  Matinee or DVD

The Dark Knight Rises

Knightfall

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Rated: PG-13  Intense sequences of violence, language, some sensuality and intense sequences of action.
Release Date: July 20, 2012
Runtime:  2 hours 45 minutes

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Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. Goyer, based on characters created by Bob Kane
Cast:  Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Liam Neesn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Matthew Modine

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SYNOPSIS: After the Batman is held responsible for District Attorney Harvey Dent's death, the caped crusader disappears from the streets of Gotham. Some years later, when terrorist leader Bane takes over the city, Bruce Wayne again dons his cowl as the Batman to protect the city that had forsaken him.

REVIEW: Christopher Nolan, the man who wrote, directed and breathed new life into the man behind the mask and the scourge of the streets of Gotham City with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, returns for the last installment of his trilogy of films with The Dark Knight Rises (see the The Dark Knight Trilogy: The Road So Far for the full story of the first two films of the trilogy). With Jonathan Nolan (The Prestige, Memento) and David S. Goyer (Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance), Christopher Nolan scribes a fully realized dramatic actioner from the characters created by Bob Kane that takes the Batman to the next level - as well as setting the bar higher for all other superhero films.

After the Batman (Christian Bale, The Flowers of War) and the new Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) defeat the two-faced Harvey Dent, they take it upon themselves to cast the Batman as the villain and leaving the memory of Harvey Dent as the shining example of the righteousness of good in the city of Gotham. Pursued by the Gotham Police Department, the Batman abruptly disappears from the city streets. In addition, Bruce Wayne becomes a recluse, not even bothering to take part in the goings-on of Wayne Enterprises. Some years pass and the city of Gotham, with Commissioner Gordon at the head of the police department and the Dent Act in full effect for the criminals of the city, has become a town with low crime rates and no villainous underbelly. As Gotham City enjoys a period of tranquility and peace under The Dent Act, a new threat emerges in the guise of Bane (Tom Hardy, This Means War), a terrorist who shares the cleansing vision of his one-time mentor Ra's Al Ghul Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson, Battleship) as the leader of the League of Assassins. When the mechanical masked Bane hatches a plot to cut off Gotham Island from the rest of the country by declaring marshal law under his rule, the Batman must come out of retirement to confront and attempt to defeat the skilled and vicious man. With only Commissioner Gordon, a new GPD detective named John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50), the devious alter ego of Selina Kyle as the leather-clad Catwoman (Ann Hathaway, Alice in Wonderland), Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman, Dolphin Tale), perspective business partner Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard, Contagion) and his trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), the Batman fights an uphill battle that may break him physically and spiritually.

Christopher Nolan completes his vision of the Dark Knight with The Dark Knight Rises, the third in his trilogy of Batman films. Where Tim Burton's vision turned Gotham City into an abstract landscape filled with darkness and a little camp, and where Joel Schumacher lit up that darkness with iridescent color and a cartooned version of the Caped Crusader and his trusty side kick Robin, Nolan grounds his Bruce Wayne and cowled hero into a reality-based Shakespearean tragic drama centered around real architecture and deep symbolism. Throughout his films, Nolan denotes the Batman as a symbol to the city's denizens. In Batman Begins, when the Scarecrow rules the city with the symbol (and gases) of fear, the Batman became a darker, more dangerous symbol of real fear is. In The Dark Knight, the Joker hopes to mar the shining symbol of the city by corrupting Harvey Dent and his accomplishments as the city's district attorney. Instead of letting the Joker win, the Batman became the villain to shoulder the weight of the city's fury against his alleged murderous atrocities. In The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce Wayne and his alter ego must face difficult decisions and dire consequences to become a symbol for the city again. Can he rise up against the more skilled Bane to save the city he cherishes, and save himself in the process?

In The Dark Knight Rises: Prologue, the first six minutes of film was marred with the unintelligible rants of the mechanically respirator Bane. In the finished product, there are no more issues with his speech for the most part. With an elegant, raspy accent, Bane stands above his minions as a dangerous and driven man - bent on the destruction of Gotham City as per his one-time mentor Ra's A Ghul. Where Heath Ledger's Joker was a brilliantly psychotic maniac, Tom Hardy's Bane is a powerful and driven menace. Is Bane a better villain than the Joker? I am sure that many would find it blasphemy to speak ill of Ledger's last role. The brilliance of Nolan manages to set the characterizations of each rogue so far apart in scope and mission as to not warrant a comparison. In the comics, the Joker has been a mainstay menace to the Batman since the caped crusader's beginnings. Bane, although turned into a silly trench coated henchman in Joel Schumacher’s effort for Batman and Robin, was a critical component in a surprising and successful Knightfall story arc to the destruction and eventual resurrection of the man who would be Batman.

Many believe that Nolan may spread the story too thin by the introduction of too many characters. Before Batman Begins, the thought was that using minor rogues in the form of Ra's Al Ghul and the Scarecrow would undermine the success of the film, but its success spurred a sequel. With Bane, Cat Woman, and the possible return of Ra's Al Ghul, the same critics thought the same dilution of story might occur. Although long with a runtime coming in at 165 minutes, Nolan crafts a solid and dramatic tale that redeems Bane as a major pivotal villain in the canon of the Batman's rogue gallery and history, and cements all of Nolan's films of the Dark Knight into a carefully crafted, interwoven and tragic tale that borders more on fine drama than superhero fare. If you are looking for a super-powered follow-up to The Avengers, look elsewhere. If you are looking for too-human drama, The Dark Knight Rises is for you. Nolan's trilogy could be considered a saga in three acts. Act 1 in Batman Begins is Bruce's birth from man into the flawed, anti-hero and protector of the city. Act 2 in The Dark Knight takes the Batman from anti-hero to hero to villain. Act 3 in The Dark Knight Rises is Bruce returning as the reviled anti-hero to fight against odds he cannot overcome.

The Dark Knight Rises is a continuation of the foundation of what Nolan and his writers had already built in the first two films. Adding in elements from the Knightfall story arc and a dash of No Man's Land story arc, The Dark Knight Rises is both a telling of the physical breaking of the Batman and the spiritual breaking of the Gotham's citizenry. Equal parts Bane and Bruce, the Batman takes somewhat of a back seat to both. There is plenty of story and action, but the cowled avenger is relegated to the end of the first act and the sensational climax last act. For lovers of the dark detective, some story elements will be more obvious than for non-readers. This first-hand knowledge will not deter from the story, but will serve to foreshadow surprises later on.

The cast is stellar as always. Christian Bale gets a chance to just be Bruce for a majority of the film, but still managed to engage his gravelly deep voice of the Batman when needed. While Tom Hardy is barely recognizable behind Bane's mechanical mask, he does exude a fierce obsession of the destruction of Gotham that mirrors that of Ra's Al Ghul machinations from the first film. Ann Hathaway's Selina Kyle/Catwoman returns to the skin tight bodysuit and the razor's edge of doing for herself and doing for others. New character John Blake, played by Gordon-Levitt, steps out from the shadows of the GPD to become a detective in his own right. Oldman is still perfect as the ragged, war-weary, and determined Commissioner Gordon.

Similar to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy where I enjoyed Spider-Man 2 the most with its established hero and superior villain, the performance of Ledger's Joker and the story in total stands out as the best of the Dark Knight trilogy for me. The Dark Knight Rises is a dramatic story with a sensational ending, working perfectly into the Nolan hero narrative. We can discuss and debate the merits of each film all day, but in the end all I can say is - 'why so serious?'.

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WORTH: Matinee and BluRay

This Means War

Spy Against Spy

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Rated: PG-13  Some sexual content and action.
Release Date: February 17, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

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Director:  McG

Writers: Timothy Dowling, Simon Kinberg, Marcus Gautesen
Cast:  Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Til Schweiger, Chelsea Handler, John Paul Ruttan, Angela Bassett, Rosemary Harris, Abigail Spencer

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SYNOPSIS:  After two top CIA operatives discover that they dating the same woman, they make a pact to let the best man win but look to outdo and undermine each other's romantic efforts at every turn.

REVIEW: Charlie Angels and Terminator: Salvation director McG comes back to the big screen for a action-packed romantic comedy, mixing covert CIA expertise and technology with a quirky love triangle.   Based on a screenplay by Timothy Dowling (Just Go With It, Role Models) and Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) from a story by Dowling and Marcus Gautesen (Carboy), This Means War combines the kinetic style of McG's music video roots and television and big screen action efforts with Dowling's romantic comedy and Kinberg's action comedy chops.

FDR Foster (Chris Pine, Unstoppable) and Tuck (Tom Hardy, Warrior) are a top-notch CIA team, versed in extractions, surveillance, and all matter of wetwork. As close as brothers, FDR and Tuck are inseparable as teammates and friends. When they are relegated to desk duty after a botched operation in Hong Kong against Heinrich (Til Schweiger, New Year's Eve) and his brother, Tuck decides to take a run at online dating. He meets Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon, Water for Elephants) for lunch and finds an instant connection with her. Unfortunately, the same day, FDR runs into Lauren by accident and decides to pursue her as well. When FDR and Tuck discover that they are dating the same woman, they make a gentleman's agreement to not get in each other's way and let Lauren choice for herself who she wants to date. Of course, when jealousy gets the better of them, they both use their CIA resources to sabotage each other's efforts. In the meanwhile, Heinrich uses his own resources to smuggle into the country and take revenge on FDR and Tuck for what happened in Hong Kong.


McG does what he does best. Using the style he perfected with his directing efforts on Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, McG mixes and balances comedy and action perfectly with This Means War. Reese Witherspoon and Chelsea Handler provide the quick wit with their dialogue and interplay, Handler's married boring Trish verbally pushes Witherspoon's workaholic Lauren outside her comfort zone to pursue both FDR and Tuck in order to live vicariously through Lauren's escapades with the two men. On the other side of the relationship battle field, Pine's FDR and Hardy's Tuck use their capable physical prowess, innate intelligence, and government training to fill in the film's fast and fine action sequences with fun. Bring the two sides together and you get something as tasty as peanut butter and chocolate (as long as you are not allergic!). In fact, the best combination of action and comedy comes at the barrel's end of a paintball gun as Tuck tries win the flag against an army of pint-sized soldiers. 

The comedy is good and the action is good. The only way the film could have been better would have been upping the evil presence of Heinrich. As he plans to eliminate the duo who ruined his Pacific Rim plans Heinrich systematically makes his way closer to FDR and Tuck, but remains too much in the shadows to be much of a threat until almost too late in the film. Til Schweiger does shed the anxious father figure of New Year's Eve with a rough exterior and a steely glare.

Notable actresses make their way onto set for This Means War. Angela Bassett (Jumping the Broom) cameos as CIA superior Collins. Rosemary Harris replaces her Aunt May role from Sam Raimi's Spider-man film trilogy to appear as FDR's matriarch Nana Foster, serving as the example for Tuck and FDR for how to live a fulfilled existence with a life partner. Tuck certainly takes her example to heart, longing for a new meaningful relationship with Lauren after a sad divorce from ex-wife Katie (Abigail Spencer, Cowboys & Aliens).

This Means War is a fun, romantic, light thrill-ride. Part romantic comedy, part action comedy, This Means War is all fun. McG infuses plenty of action gunplay to counter the romantic foreplay, making this film a worthwhile covert operation of heart extraction.

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WORTH: Matinee or DVD

The Dark Knight Rises Prologue

Knightfall

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writers: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer, characters from Bob Kane
Cast: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Liam Neeson, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine

SYNOPSIS: Murderous villain Bane arrives in Gotham City, bent on destroying the myth and the body of the Batman.

REVIEW: The DC Universe has only improved with the addition of Christopher Nolan's vision of the Batman and the city of Gotham. In Batman Begins, the writer and director remade the image of the Bat with a new origin of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) as he loses his family to a mugger's bullets and the rise of the Batman as the scourge of villainy throughout the alleyways and dark corners of Gotham. Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson), the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), and an underworld mob boss named Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson). In The Dark Knight, Nolan and Bale return to find the citizens of Gotham demanding for the head of the Batman, all the while he, Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and the district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) look to solve the riddle of his latest and craziest adversary, the Joker (Heath Ledger). Soon in the heat of 2012, Bruce and the Batman will return with the closing entry of the trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises.

It is called Operation Early Bird. Across the country, hidden clues and a viral campaign led the intuitive among us to the www.operationearlybird.com website. On the site's homepage a countdown clock wound down to an inevitable conclusion. Once the last number turned into a zero, the counter gave way to a map of the country with glowing dots scattered across the nation. Upon closer inspection, each dot represented an exclusive showing of The Dark Knight Rises prologue. Servers soon crashed, and browser sessions timed out. And once the fog and bandwidth cleared, every showing across North America was sold out.

For those who hunger for vengeance in the darkness, the summary of the prologue follows below.

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The Warner Bros. logo and the Legendary logo displays on a black ice background, followed by the glacial cracks forming the Batman icon. 

Commissioner Jim Gordon is heard as a voice over as the logos fade to black. The next scene fades in to show Commissioner Gordon outside at a podium touting his remembrance and belief in what Harvey Dent meant for him and stood for the city of Gotham. Pictures of Harvey Dent adorn the stage beside and behind the podium. Gordon moves away from the podium and sits down. The scene fades to black.

The next scene springs to white as we see a Lear jet on a desert mountain tarmac, a Land Rover bouncing on a dirt road toward the plane. In the back seat of the vehicle are three hooded figures in restraints. Leonid Pavel is led from the vehicle to who seems to be a CIA field agent. Another agent informs the special agent in charge that the hooded prisoners are believed to be associated with the terrorist Bane. All are led onto the plane in preparation for take off.

As the plane flies low over the rolling hills and jagged rock outcroppings, the CIA agent tells the prisoners that the flight manifest only has room for his staff, the guards, Pavel and one of the prisoners. If one of them tells him about the terrorist known as Bane, he will let that snitch stay on the plane. The other two are destined to be thrown out of the open side door into the empty air. Neither of the first two hooded prisoners say a word as they are interrogated with the threat of a jump without a parachute. The third hooded prisoner speaks up in a gravelly synthesized voice. The CIA agent pulls off the hood to reveal the prisoner is Bane himself. Talking with a mechanized voice modulator, he confronts the agent. 

As Bane does rants, a multi-prop cargo plane flies in over the Lear jet. The jet stream from the cargo plane bucks the Lear around in its wake. The rear cargo ramp opens and four black-clad soldiers repel out of the opening, into the air and descending to the Lear. They land hard on both sides of the plane over the wings and start shooting the CIA guards through the windows. Catching the agents by surprise, they attach powerful magnets or spikes to the side of the Lear's fuselage. The more powerful cargo plane, now connected to the smaller plane, pulls the Lear out of its flight path and up-ends it in mid-flight. The Lear's wings, from the cargo plane's jet stream and the air speed, shear off the craft completely. The Lear is left looking more like an up-ended missile than an airplane. Meanwhile, the agents are thrown to the front wall between the cabin and the cockpit. Eventually they are all killed. Bane's soldiers on the outside of the plane add det cord to the hull and blow out the tail of the plane.

A body bag descends from the cargo plane and into the now open hull. The bag is open to reveal a seemingly dead soldier. Bane sticks a IV feed tube in Pavel's arm to start the extract of blood from his arm to a blood bag, and possibly to the soldier in the body bag. A quick camera shot makes it look like someone is trying to perform CPR on the dead gray man. As Bane's extract team ascends their ropes back to the cargo plane, the last soldier starts to tie up for his escape. Bane tells him he is to stay behind. As he unties himself from the gear, the soldier seems to revel in the sacrifice Bane has asked him to make for the cause. Bane ties Pavel to his ascent rig. The plane suddenly falls away to earth as Bane and Pavel are pulled back to the cargo plane. The scene fades to black.

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The next minute or two shows a montage of scenes of Batman, Catwoman, the Batpod, a new aerial vehicle, and more... ending with Bane walking away with a cracked Batman helmet that he tosses away nonchalantly.

The six to seven minutes of prologue blazed by more less it was three to four minutes. The action was quick and inspired. In a compressed span of film experience, Bane's reach and audacity was fully established. Batman will have his fists full if he intends on going man to man against Bane. My only complaint is that Bane's mechanized voice was difficult to decipher at times. Otherwise, that six minutes proves that Nolan is going to take us on a hell of a ride next Summer.

Audiences were given an advanced look at the film's prologue prior to its July 20th, 2012 opening next Summer. Christopher Nolan states, in a Warner Bros. Pictures news release, that "Our experience on 'The Dark Knight' shooting and projecting IMAX 15 perf 65mm/70mm film was inspiring. The immersive quality of the image goes beyond any other filmmaking tool available, and in revisiting Gotham, we were determined to shoot even more of the movie in this unique format."

Warrior

Gripping and Powerful

Director: Gavin O'Connor
Writers: Gavin O'Connor, Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo

SYNOPSIS: A huge Mixed Martial Arts tournament puts a financially struggling family man on a collision course with his ex-boxer, ex-alcoholic father and his driven, hate-filled ex-Marine younger brother.

REVIEW: Gavin O'Connor, director of Miracle and Pride and Glory, takes a script he wrote with Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman for Warrior. A drama based on two brothers, their ex-boxer father and a quest for one brother to proof his worth and the other to provide for his family. Is it the upbringing of violence that drives these men to make the decisions they do - or something else?

Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton from Kinky Boot and the upcoming The Thing prequel), the oldest son of ex-boxer Paddy (Nick Nolte), struggles to keep his family afloat on his salary during the depressed economy. Youngest son and ex-Marine Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy from Inception and the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises) returns home a reluctant hero and looks to train for a Mixed Martial Arts tournament with a huge pay day. Returning to the sport as an amateur to make extra money, Brendan finds himself on a collision course to face his brother in the tournament and deal with all of the bad blood between his father and brother.

A gripping, exhilarating and powerful sports drama, Warrior shows the extent a man will go to protect and provide for his family, and well as the possible physical and emotional implications of a broken, dysfunctional upbringing. Can Paddy gain forgiveness from his sons for the drunken abuse he dished out on his wife and sons? Can Tommy let go the hatred for Brendan and his father for the deep-seated feelings of abandonment and being forced to become a man too soon to protect his now-deceased mother? Can Brendan gain the respect of his brother? Although Warrior is being touted as a uplifting sports drama, the film delves deep into the psyche of a broken, near-irreparable family whose only only emotional release seems to come from violence and brutal physical contact.

The cast is superb. Nick Nolte, with his piercing eyes, worn face and gravelly voice intact, embodies an old weathered broken man haunted by his past sins looking to gain even a small measure of forgiveness from his sons. Almost 1,000 days sober when the movie begins, Paddy has turned to listening to Moby Dick on audio book - a direct parallel of a man chasing something that may be at once both unattainable and ultimately the source of his own destruction. Tom Hardy, as Tommy, bulked up to the Nth degree, casts a unnerving and unflinching shadow against his father and brother, driven to the tournament to atone for his own past sins. Every scene between him and the men in his family is an instruction on conveying a bottled-up rage. Joel Edgerton, as Brendan, remains stoic, knowing that fighting is the only way to ensure that his family will not be forced into foreclosure due to bank recommended over-extension and an upside-down mortgage.

Warrior is akin to the original Rocky in that the film is as much about the drama between people as it is about the sport of fighting. Dramatic, empowering, brutal and, at times, funny, Warrior is an example of how a film extends past what its commercials claims it to be. A brutal, hard look at a family's dysfunction, Warrior shows how the healing of old deep jagged wounds can only be achieved by the opening up of new ones.

WORTH: Matinee or DVD

Inception

Is It All In The Mind?

[Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy]

RANT: Today was both a annoying and endearing trip to the theater. My seat back was banged about several times during the film when people got to go to the bathroom, come back, go to the bathroom again, and come back again. Then the three of them left before the end of the movie anyway. Of course, another couple of people snuck in to those same seats, banging my seat on their way, then proceeded to blurt out some crazy nonsense, seemingly tackling the seat back on the way out and left. The worse part was that the most crucial line of dialogue in the film was missed because of the couple. On the flip side was the quality of the film and the line of geese that crossed in front of my car as I left the parking lot.

SYNOPSIS: In a world such as ours, the technology exists for people to invade dreamscapes. Once there, ideas can be extracted and, on the rare occasion, planted.

Christopher Nolan, the architect and visionary of "Memento", "Batman Begins", "The Prestige" and "The Dark Knight" comes back to the screen with the much anticipated Leonardo DiCaprio effort "Inception". And what a effort it is!

I could talk about the acting all day, but the real star of this film is the film. Every sequence is shot as beautifully as if it were a dream. The script adds such complexities with every layer and with every moment of celluloid running behind of the projector's lens. This film was written and directed more as craft than as a high budget movie. But for the audience, this film delivers on all levels, dreamscapes and reality alike.

It is hard to describe the film without giving much of the plot away. Leo DiCaprio plays Cobb, person with the special ability to enter a person's dreamscape to extract the secrets that the mind' subconscious locks away. Originally an 'architect' of the dreamscape, Cobb is forced to change his role due to a personal incident in his past. Offered an opportunity to return to his family by Ken Watanabe's Saito, Cobb assembles a team including a new 'architect', Ellen Page's Ariadne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Arthur, a 'forger' named Eames played by Tom Hardy, and Dileep Rao's Yusuf providing the compounds to keep them all down the rabbit hole..

The visuals that the architect Ariadne (and Nolan) create are stunning. It serves to propel the story, evolving and unraveling. The story has many slower sequences, but you never get tired of it. As the story's tapestry is woven longer and tighter, the audience starts to lose itself in it. Eventually, even we cannot decipher what is real and what is not. I wish I could lay it all out for you, but I know that being able to see the threads for yourself will be rewarding.

Worth: Friday Night & DVD

I am also trying out a new rating system shown below based on reader reaction to my somewhat complex monetary rating scale. I will give both ratings and see what kind of reaction I muster. A movie can receive up to 5 popcorn buckets. Why popcorn buckets? Because I am a slave to the thousand + calorie delight! Enjoy!