Mark Wahlberg, Michael Pena, Danny glover, Kate Mara, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Ned Beatty. Action/drama. Written by Jonathan Lemkin. Directed by Antoine Fuqua.
FILM SYNOPSIS: This action/thriller has Mark Wahlberg as a former army sniper who leaves the military when a mission goes bad. After he is reluctantly pressed back into service, he is double-crossed. Hunted and wounded, he begins his revenge, which will take down powerful people in the government. PREVIEW REVIEW: The Sea Chase stars John Wayne as the skipper of a boat that becomes infested with rats. They land on a deserted island and come up with a unique method of getting the vermin to leave the ship. As they sail off, one of the crew says he’d hate to come back in twenty years – the implication being that the varmints would take over and destroy the once beautiful isle. Objectionable content has been allowed to do the same to movies in about the same period of time. In some films, savage style has taken precedence over substance (Kill Bill, Sin City), while lewdness masks itself as comedy in others (American Pie), profane and obscene language infest some (Glengarry Glen Ross), and desensitizing violence has become the main element in still others (The Departed). I mention those films because they were actually considered acceptable movie fare by both critics and audiences, alike. A generation before each of these films was released moviegoers would have been shocked had the studios been allowed to make them. Now moviemakers are more apt to place their focus on excessive content than on story or moral. This leads up to the nail-biter Shooter. Mark Wahlberg is a cross between Rambo and James Bond, a killing machine constructed by the U.S. government to sniper kill those who threaten world peace. Production values, direction and star all come together to give audiences an engrossing espionage thriller. But the filmmakers incorporate graphic violence to the point that it overwhelms both story and viewer. Heads bust apart like melons from the bullets of a sharpshooter, necks are broken by stealth-like assassins, and lots of folks get incinerated by fire bombs. Baddies torture innocents, a rogue soldier rapes and beats the heroine, she in turn kills a wounded, helpless villain and the lead dispassionately shoots a wounded man begging for his life. In the end justice is left to a renegade because the law has become impotent. What becomes somewhat amusing is the fact that the producers couldn’t refrain from making this a “political” action adventure. While killing off an army of no-goodnicks with all the zeal of Rambo, the writer also jabs the present administration, and America in general. It’s a cynical, conspiratorial movie where the military and covert services sacrifice their best people for no apparent reason other than the release of their barbarous nature. And of course, the really, really bad guys are the political leaders – the ones who wear the lapel flags. In other words, those nasty old hypocritical conservatives. Well, who knows, maybe the filmmakers are justified. Maybe the FBI, the Secret Service, the Military and our President are all controlled by Rupert Murdock or Karl Rove or Bill O’Reilley. Must be, because anti-leadership movies never seem to get made when a Democrat is in the Oval office.
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Hugh Dancy, John Hurt, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Nicola Walker. Written by David Wolstencroft. Directed by Michael Caton-Jones.
FILM SYNOPSIS: Beyond the Gates concerns a young man who has come to teach at a Catholic secondary school during the Rwandan genocide. A non-religious man, he is nonetheless an admirer of the priest who heads the school. As danger nears, hundreds of Rwandans take refuge behind the gates of the school, while the UN does nothing to help them. Another tribe waits outside to slaughter these people. They know the UN soldiers guarding the compound will leave. They wait in order to kill their fellow Rwandans. It is a story about love, the sacrifices we make for others, and the choices we make when our faith is tested. The film will begin opening in select theaters March 9. The story was written by producer and former BBC reporter David Belton, and is based on a Catholic priest he met, and whom he credits for saving his life and many others, during his time as a reporter in Rwanda. Additional information can be found at: http://www.alrcnewskitchen.com/beyondthegates. PREVIEW REVIEW: A powerful, deeply moving film, maybe the most important one you’ll see this year. Director Michael Caton-Jones (City By the Sea) skillfully involves the viewer, as we grow to know and care for the characters, and the script by first-time screenwriter David Wolstencroft addresses faith and presents a man of God as truly that, a man who reverences God and embraces Christ’s command to love others. Rated R for some language and for violent imagery, but the content is not exploitive. Too often we see films featuring the foibles and evils of men who proclaim to be Christians while living an immoral life. Here, in the face of death, the priest shows courage, while expressing compassion and love for his assailant. It is a very effecting moment. Indeed, it reminds us to draw closer to Christ in order to find that love for our fellow man.
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Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney, Dennis Haysbert, Caroline Dhavernas, Gary Cole, Kathleen Quinlan. Written by Adam Mazer & William Rotko and Billy Ray. Directed by: Billy Ray
FILM SYNOPSIS: Inspired by true events, Breach is set inside the halls of the FBI—the gatekeeper of the nation’s most sensitive and potentially volatile secrets. When young Eric O’Neill (Phillippe) is promoted out of his low-level surveillance job and into the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, his dream of becoming a full-fledged agent is on the verge of becoming reality. Even more impressive, O’Neill is hand picked to work for renowned operative Robert Hanssen (Cooper) within “information assurance,” a new division created to protect all classified FBI intelligence. But O’Neill is quickly confronted with the true reason behind his hire: Hanssen is the sole subject of a long-term, top-secret investigation, a suspected mole made all the more dangerous by the sheer global import of the information he is charged with protecting. The Bureau asks O’Neill to use Hanssen's growing trust and slowly draw the traitor out of deep cover. Engaged in a lethal game of spy-versus-spy without the benefit of a cover story or backup, O’Neill finds himself fighting to bring down Hanssen before the treacherous double-agent can destroy O’Neill, his family and the nation they are both sworn to serve. PREVIEW REVIEW: Lively, suspenseful and completely engrossing, this is a first rate espionage thriller. Sadly, the villain, a traitor to his country, is portrayed as a deeply religious man. This is not portrayed as merely a cover, but a part of his beliefs. I suspect this delights some unbelievers as it adds to a misguided portrait of all Christians secretly being hypocrites and phonies.
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Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Nia Long, Kate Nelligan, Amber Valletta, Peter Stormare. Psychological thriller. Written by Bill Kelly. Directed by Mennan Yapo.
FILM SYNOPSIS: A woman’s perfect life is turned upside down when she receives devastating news that her husband had died in a car accident. But the next morning, she wakes up with him by her side, alive and well. She assumes it was a bad dream. But the nightmare is not over. The surreal ordeal keeps happening, with new information given after each terrifying wake-up. PREVIEW REVIEW: Though a few scenes were clumsily directed, overall, I found myself engrossed by the film’s cleverness. However, there are some silly moments. At one point, for instance, hearing someone in the shower after her husband is dead, she slowly (and I mean slowly) creeps up to the curtain. With the music building to a jolt, she reaches out and nervously pulls it back, revealing the hubby. He turns to her ala Bobby Ewing in TV’s Dallas, as if he’s been home all along. The filmmaker would have been wise to set up this situation differently, as the missing-husband-in-the-shower motif has been spoofed numerous times since the Dallas days. There are other scenes that didn’t ring true, but generally it is an involving film, with a strong performance by Ms. Bullock. What’s more, there are several positive messages, including the sanctity of marriage and fighting for what’s important in your life. And the film presents a man of God in a positive light (very rare in movies). Disturbed to near madness by the strange occurrences, Ms. Bullock’s character goes to see her priest. She has turned to a man of faith for guidance. What’s more, she takes his advice. The film addresses issues of the need for faith, forgiveness, realizing what’s important and other spiritual aspects. Though the ending is not the happy one we associate with Sandra Bullock movies, it does offer hope and inspiration.
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Jeffrey Donovan, Bruce Dern, Samantha Mathis. Sports drama. Written by Harold Keith and Robert Collector. Directed by Robert Collector.
FILM SYNOPSIS: Based on the novel Brief Garland by Harold Keith, Believe In Me tells the story of Clayton Driscoll, a boy's assistant basketball coach who accepts his first head coaching assignment in tiny, drought-riven Middleton, a backwater on the Oklahoma panhandle. Fortune sours immediately, though, when Driscoll discovers he's coaching girls, not boys. It is 1964 and, though the Civil Rights Amendment just passed and winds of social change swirl, time stands still on the prairie, where girls' athletics are merely a trifle, an afterthought, especially the woeful Middleton Lady Cyclones, for years an unfunded laughing stock. Driscoll's embarrassment with the girls' ineptitude, however, is soon tempered by their character and families: these are decent, tough, uncomplaining farmers' and ranchers' daughters, desperate to please their determined young coach. Encouraged by his wife, Driscoll gives his team "permission to be who they really are" on the court, as hard-nosed and passionate about winning as boys. Believe In Me is based on the true story of coach Jim Keith, the novelist's nephew, who became a legend in Oklahoma high school basketball by inspiring girls to believe in themselves PREVIEW REVIEW: As I’ve said before, no other genre suffers more from sameness that the sports film. They are the equivalent of a by-the-numbers painting. Believe In Me fares no better. Even the ending has the last second winning point, like so many other sports flicks. But despite the same themes and character definitions, some of these films stand out due to style, message or just from an engaging performance. Believe In Me has all those qualities. It speaks of determination, team work, looking out for others and becoming the best you can be. Those precepts have been in every good sports film from Knute Rockne All American to Hoosiers to Remember the Titans. But those elements never seem to grow tiresome because they are elements hot-wired into the makeup of mankind. Though differing on political, social and religious dogmas, underneath we all desire the same things: to be warm, fed, loved and respected. This same movie gets made over and over because they acknowledge those fundamentals. Believe In Me is entertaining, filled with tender moments as well as humorous ones, with a satisfying, uplifting ending.
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