Two Minute Eggs (soft-boiled reviews)

No End in Sight evenhandedly reveals how U.S. screwed up after Iraq War

**** (out of 5)

This documentary written and directed by an MIT professor named Charles Ferguson is eye-opening in showing how we made a colossal mess in the aftermath of the Iraq war, and how it didn't have to happen. This is not a film about why we should or shouldn't have gone to war there, that is never even brought up as an issue, but rather what we did wrong once we got there. And the subjects interviewed for the film are not some eggheads or for the most part journalists, but veteran people on the ground. CIA and State Department people who have years of experience in planning for such tasks and a couple of soldiers and a few local Iraqis. The man who worked directly under Colin Powell is amazing, because like many in the film, he's a lifelong Republican who could not be listened to by the Bush Administration. The war is less the problem in this film, than the occupation which was mishandled so badly and the subjects in this film see no good way out of it.


American Gangster--enjoyable, very fast 2:37, Crowe, Washington are great

****1/2

I think American Gangster is a better movie than The Departed and holds its own as a great movie. But it is not a classic, mostly because it wears its inspirations on its sleeve. There are moments that are very Godfather-esque, more so there are plenty of French Connection moments. One of my favorite scenes in FC is when Popeye Doyle is staking out the "Frog" from a freezing doorway across the street from a fancy French restaurant. As Popeye eats cold pizza and drinks cold coffee, the drug runner is eating an exquisite 7-course meal. A very similar scene shows up in AG, when heroin kingpin Frank Lucas (played by Denzel Washington) and his family sit around a big table in his Westchester mansion eating a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, while struggling narcotics cop, Russell Crowe makes a very unappetizing-looking tuna sandwich in his tiny apartment. But just to add to the moment and sort of make it director Ridley Scott's own, he shows how the heroin addicts who use Denzel's junk are spending their Thanksgiving. Living in filthy apartments with screaming, hungry babies while they lay in half a coma with needles still hanging in their arms. Not subtle, but it gets the point across. Denzel is very good here, but plays this drug runner with such nobility that you almost forget what a scumbag he truly is. And Crowe's cop, like the filmmakers, is a little too enamored of Lucas by the end. The filmmakers even whitewash a bit of Lucas' history to make him more appealing to the audience.


Before the Devil Knows You're Dead excels at giving audience new information

***1/2

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead has one great thing going for it. An out-of-sequence timeline which piques your interest and never lets go. It is especially mindblowing when you think you already know what occurred, but then see it from a different point of view. Pulp Fiction restarted this trend, but it was Stanley Kubrick's The Killing which started it.
But I had two problems with the movie, the ending is a little too melodramatic and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman is in three movies this fall, and while I haven't seen The Savages yet, I expect this to be his least successful effort. He plays, Andy, the oldest of three Irish-American children who has become a semi-successful real estate agent while the rest of his life is falling part. His even less successful brother, Hank, played by Ethan Hawke, is a drone at his job and divorced from his incredibly nasty wife. His 10-year old daughter has been trained to be spoiled by the mother and is quickly growing away from him.
With their two lives a mess, these two geniuses decide to pull off the "perfect heist". They will rob their parents strip mall jewelry store on a Saturday morning when an old lady is running the shop. Things go wrong when Hank hires a loser to actually do the robbery and a shootout occurs. Hawke always skeeves me with his unwashed hair and slimeball eyes, so it's hard to generate any sympathy for him, but his character does ring true. Hoffman's performance on the other hand feels like a performance. Rather than seem tough, he seems like he's acting tough, acting like he's crying, acting crazy. I guess when it's done, I don't believe him in this role. As their father, Albert Finney gives a great performance and has the best little scene when he slaps his daughters hands for cutting his meat. Perfect example of an elderly parent who refuses to be babied.

Bob Dylan-inspired film I'm Not There--It Ain't For Me, Babe

**1/2

There are certain artists and groups like The Who and Bob Dylan who have maybe 25 great songs in their catalogues and then there is a precipitous falloff after that. In I'm Not There, many of those great songs are heard, but it's the lesser songs which make up the bulk of what you can call a story line. The idea behind the film is great, have six actors portray six different version of Bob's personas over the years. The best of the bunch is Cate Blanchett as the mid-60s Highway 61 Revisited Bob. Unfortunately, she shows Bob for what he truly is-a pretentious prick. So nasty and condescending to all around him. Having seen him numerous times in concert I know that's how he acts towards his fans, but it doesn't make you want to watch a movie about him. After the first 30 minutes or so, the movie becomes so aimless and shapeless that it made me start looking at my watch. Earlier this fall, Julie Taymor made a beautiful movie using The Beatles songs for the clay in shaping her story. That movie is light years ahead of this one.

Bug will make you want to grab a can of Raid

**

Ashley Judd put on a little weight for this role as a seriously depressed, formerly abused Texas woman who lives in a fleabag motel and waitresses in a honkeytonk bar. Based on a play by writer Tracy Letts, Bug is the story of how this lonely woman allows a stranger into her life (Michael Shannon) and her motel room and how after a quick love affair falls deep into his psychosis. They begin to see bugs which we're sure aren't there and their mania starts to get the better of them. I understand how he might be a deranged Army vet, who sees these things, but I'm never convinced at how he convinces her. When a horror movie starts to lose your interest it just becomes an exercise in gore. This movie took 94 minutes to watch and you start to count every last one.


Hitman-decent action movie, but not up to standards of the two main actors

*1/2

Movies based on video games lean toward the horrible, but this one is not that bad. It has a few big things on its mind as a boy is trained by a monk-like group to become a stone-cold assassin. But Agent 47 (Live Free or Die Hard's bad guy Timothy Olyphant) has a crisis of conscience and looks to save his intended victim. Some silliness abounds as Interpol searches all over Europe for this killer, even though he never tries to disguise himself. This despite always wearing a black suit with his cue ball white head with a bar code tattooed to the base of his skull. Not hard to spot. The shootout scenes are well-choreographed, but I will never be able to take seriously a stationary target who still manages to avoid being hit by machine gun bullets. Mission Impossible II's bad guy, Dougray Scott is ordinary here as the special agent in charge of tracking 47.


The Freditor