Transformers

Transformers - Dir. Michael Bay (2007)

Any child of the 80's will remember how their Saturday mornings and after-school afternoons were spent watching mind numbing cartoons based around toylines. For girls, there was My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and Rainbow Brite. For the lads, there was G.I. Joe, Thundercats, He-Man, and Voltron. Without a doubt, one of the most popular franchises was Transformers. The concept was pretty simple. Boys love playing with cars and robots. What if they had a toy that was both? Hasbro bought the rights to several toylines in Japan and merged them into one brand for distribution in the States. They created an entire world of colorful characters with assistance from Marvel Comics and tasked Sunbow Productions with animating the TV show. Hasbro, Marvel, and Sunbow were also the Holy Trinity behind the G.I. Joe series. Over the next three decades, the original Transformers (dubbed by fans as G1 or Generation 1) would return in various incarnations like Beast Wars, Transformers: Armada, Robots in Disguise, and numerous shows that aired only in Japan. The original series was also spun-off into Transformers: The Movie, a feature film version that traumatized countless children due to the death of the heroic Optimus Prime.

Fans have clamored for a live-action adaptation and they finally got it thanks to Michael Bay, master of mayhem and entrepreneur of explosions. Bay knows how to construct spectacular action sequences (or at least he thinks he does) and screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman have become Hollywood's go-to guys, but it was executive producer Steven Spielberg who knew how to crack the story. It was his idea to inject a little E.T. flavor to the film by making the movie revolve around the story of a boy and his car.

In this case, the boy is Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), a dorky high schooler who has the hots for the insanely gorgeous Mikaela (Megan Fox). Hoping to make some extra cash to get a car, Sam sells paraphernalia belonging to his great-grandfather, a famous explorer. Among those items include a pair of glasses with a map etched into them that leads to a powerful source of energy known as the Cube. Two tribes of alien robots from outer space are after the Cube. The benevolent Autobots wish to use the Cube to restore their dying homeworld, Cybertron. The evil Decepticons want to use it to conquer the universe.

Transformers weaves together several plot threads with the central story being Sam and Mikaela making first contact with the Autobots. We also follow a detachment of American soldiers in the Middle East as they are being pursued by Decepticons. Finally, there's a subplot involving government officials investigating the possibilities of an alien invasion.

The cast also includes Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson as two of the lead soldiers. Jon Voight co-stars as the Secretary of Defense with John Turturro as an eccentric man in black, and Aussie actress Rachael Taylor as the world's hottest computer analyst. Fans of the original cartoon will be pleased to hear Peter Cullen once again provide the voice for Optimus Prime. The late-Bernie Mac appears in a bit role as a car salesman while Hugo Weaving is the voice of Decepticon leader, Megatron.

As the director of shlock like Bad Boys and The Rock, Michael Bay was probably as good a choice as any to helm a movie about giant robots. The action sequences are chaotic and loud enough to make the toughest ears bleed. The special effects by ILM are impeccable and there's never a moment when the Transformers looked phony. The transformation sequences are incredibly detailed with shifting panels and whirling cogs. While the visuals are amazing, the story leaves much to be desired.

First of all, the film is called Transformers, not 'Lame Humans We Don't Care About.' The picture spends far too much time with bland cardboard characters, despite the fact that the Transformers are far more interesting. Many of the scenes involving different government departments could have been cut and the less said about Anthony Anderson's annoying hacker, the better. Speaking of which, what is it with Michael Bay and juvenile humor? Black people always seem to be wacky comic relief in his films. If I go to see a movie about giant robots, I want to see them smashing stuff, I don't want to see them spend ten minutes playing hide and seek while a dog pees on one of them. Finally, who came up with the brilliant strategy of leading the death metal robots into a heavily crowded city in the middle of the day?

MICHAEL BAY RAPED MY CHILDHOOD!!! That was the rallying cry for Transfans the world over after Transformers hit theaters. It can still be heard to this day. Optimus Prime has flame decals. Michael Bay raped my childhood! Bumblebee is a Camaro. Michael Bay raped my childhood! While I wouldn't break out the torches and pitchforks, I will say Bay's Transformers is all sound and fury with a distinct lack of substance.

Rating: ** ½

Megamind

Megamind - Dir. Todd McGrath (2010)

Dreamworks Animation always seems to play second banana to the juggernaut known as Pixar. It's not surprising that Katzenberg and company would be drawn to the story of an ingenious protagonist forced to constantly live in the shadow of a more popular rival.

Will Ferrell heads the all-star cast as the titular Megamind, a blue-skinned, cranially-enhanced supervillain who has plagued Metro City for years. The one person who stands in the way of Megamind's quest for world domination is the heroic and square-jawed Metro Man (Brad Pitt). Their feud has been raging since they were babies. On a far away planet, a couple launches their infant son towards the Earth in a rocketship shortly before their solar system is destroyed by a collapsing star. Meanwhile, another couple on a nearby planet has the same idea. Baby Metro Man lands safe and sound in an opulent mansion where he is raised by loving parents. Baby Megamind's ship is knocked off course and lands in a prison yard. There, the inmates teach the young lad their own twisted sense of right and wrong. Their rivalry extended to grade school as young Metro Man is praised by his classmates and teacher while young Megamind gets quiet time in the corner due to his malfunctioning inventions.

Cut to present day where Metro Man is honored by Metro City with the grand opening of a Metro Man museum. The festivities are interrupted when Megamind once again abducts news reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey). As the Lois Lane of the story, she's grown a blasé attitude to playing the damsel in distress, especially knowing Megamind always loses. That is, until now. Megamind traps Metro Man inside a dome made out of copper, which turns out to be the superhero's one weakness. A death ray fires from above and blasts Metro Man into smithereens.

Along with his right-hand fish, Minion (David Cross), a talking piranha who moves about in a robotic gorilla suit, Megamind struts through the streets of Metro City to the tune of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell." However, his elation turns into a melancholy funk when he realizes evil isn't as much fun without someone to challenge him. Megamind devises a scheme to create a new costumed do-gooder to replace Metro Man. The plan goes predictably awry after Roxanne's goofball cameraman, Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill), is given superpowers. Now known as Titan (though he misspells it as 'Tighten'), Hal decides that destroying the city would be way more cool. Thus, Megamind is forced into the unfamiliar territory of playing the good guy.

Just as Shrek had a fractured take on fairy tales, Megamind plays fast and loose with the conventions of the superhero genre. Director Tom McGrath ("Madagascar") and screenwriters Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons crib the Superman mythos frequently, from the opening origin sequence to the archetypes of the main characters. Ferrell even gets to riff on Marlon Brando as Jor-El when he dons a holographic disguise to play Tighten's "Space Dad." The disguise looks more like Ted Kennedy with a pompadour than it does the late-Brando though. Comic book heroes aren't the only ones to get jabbed as the writers sprinkle plenty of pop culture references into the film. Some are obscure (Minion's body is meant to evoke the 1953 B-movie Robot Monster, the name Hal Stewart refers to two popular Green Lanterns) and others will get a chuckle (there's a twisted take on the iconic Obama posters and a quick Donkey Kong inspired action scene), but most fall flat, such as a final dance montage set to Michael Jackson's "Bad." Do all of Dreamworks' animated movies have to end with a dance party?

The story may not be particularly captivating, but the animation in Megamind is exceptional and the character designs are reminiscent of Monsters vs. Aliens. I found myself noticing minor details that I normally don't such as skin tones and the sheen of Megamind's bald, blue skull. Another scene featuring Metro Man flying between the skyscrapers of Metro City is almost breathtaking as are the action sequences. The titanic tussles cause mass destruction and it is all exceptionally detailed. The color palette of Megamind still managed to be bright and sharp, despite the fact that the 3D process tends to dull the images. While I'm not a huge proponent of 3D, the work here is very well done. The animators have created a clear depth of field without the 3D becoming obtrusive.

Megamind features some lush visuals and if eye candy is what you crave, I'd say see it at a theater armed with an excellent 3D projector. The kiddies will likely have a good time as evidenced by the happy rugrats that attended the same screening as I did. However, if you're looking for substance over style and you don't have children, then Megamind should be considered rental material. The animation is great and the voice work solid (with Ferrell bringing his trademark inflections and humor), but the script substitutes real jokes with the same type of tired pop culture references that sunk another Dreamworks' production, Shark Tale.

Pixar already said all there needed to be said about animated superhero movies with The Incredibles. In terms of 'supervillain turned good' movies, Megamind pales in comparison to Universal's Despicable Me. Ranking Dreamworks' 2010 slate, Megamind rates well above Shrek Forever After, but fails to reach the quality of How to Train Your Dragon, one of the year's best films. A mish-mash of unrealized ideas, Megamind lacks the heart and the wit to truly succeed on those levels.

Rating: **

Going the Distance

Going the Distance - Dir. Nanette Burstein (2010)

Is there a genre more asinine than the modern romantic comedy? I don't have anything against the rom-com in general; I just have an aversion to the copious amounts of crap churned out by studio execs and filmmakers who seem to construct from a stock set of elements. Going the Distance attempts to change up the staid formula while still incorporating frequent clichés with an Apatow-style sense of lowbrow humor.

Justin Long is Garrett, a low-level talent scout for a rinky dink record label in New York City. He's just been dumped by his girlfriend (Leighton Meester) and decides to go out on the town with his buddies Box (Jason Sudeikis) and Dan (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Charlie Day). He meets Erin (Drew Barrymore), an aspiring journalist, over a game of Centipede. She wants to keep the relationship light because she's only in the city temporarily as a summer intern for the fictional New York Sentinel. However, Garrett doesn’t want to end things so quickly even after Erin has takes a job in San Francisco. The young lovers attempt to make it work long distance via text messages, Skype, and a very awkward session of phone sex. The usual insecurities and frustrations begin creeping in to threaten their relationship.

Going the Distance is the first produced script by Geoff LaTulippe who wrote it after learning of producer Dave Neustadter's own long distance relationship. LaTulippe tries to address the poor economy with Erin and Garrett unable to scrap the funds to fly out to see each other while working in dying industries. The film also marks the first narrative picture from documentarian Nanette Burstein who directed The Kid Stays in the Picture and American Teen. For the most part, Burstein's direction is perfectly pedestrian though it didn't need to be anything more. Some shots during a dating montage do have a documentary feel turning the audience into mere observers.

Some think that real-life couples don't translate well to the screen, but Long and Barrymore have good chemistry together. Both play characters that are merely extensions of themselves and their previous characters, Long as the wise-cracking geek and Barrymore as the free-spirit. Christina Applegate brings the funny as Erin's overprotective sister with the understated and dry wit of Jim Gaffigan as her husband.

At the very least, Going the Distance avoids the usual contrivances that come up as setbacks. One's uptight, one's spontaneous. How will it ever work out? Yet, the movie is still cluttered with the ubiquitous detritus that comes with your average romantic comedy. There's the obligatory airport scene where the man rushes through the terminal to catch his lady love although, this one takes place at the end of the first act rather than the climax. Sudeikis and Day fulfill the roles of the protagonist's wacky best friends. The humor fails to elicit anything as slight as a chuckle or a smirk. There's a labored slapstick sequence involving Long at a tanning salon, a gag that was already done on Friends years ago. The film gets worse with a scene where Applegate picks pubic hair off her dining room table after a late-night session of sex by Erin & Garrett. Just when you think they couldn't sink any lower, here comes the Hitler joke.

Going the Distance is leaps and bounds above god-awful atrocities like The Ugly Truth and Did You Hear About the Morgans? thanks to a pair of likeable leads. But, it fails to place them in anything that is remotely interesting or humorous.

Rating: * ½

Leaves of Grass

Leaves of Grass - Dir. Tim Blake Nelson (2010)

An actor playing his own twin is a tricky proposition. Some actors can't pull it off, for example Jean-Claude Van Damme in Double Impact. Some pull it off with flying colors, Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers and Nic Cage in Adaptation come to mind. Edward Norton is more than capable of playing dual roles, even if the film isn't on the level of his talents.

Norton stars as Bill Kincaid, a professor of classical philosophy at Brown. He's a well-respected scholar and has an offer to head up his own department at Harvard. Bill's life takes a severe left turn when he receives word that his twin brother, Brady (also Norton), was murdered. Shot by a crossbow to be exact. Bill is actually from a Podunk town in Oklahoma called Little Dixie. He considers his background and family rather embarrassing.

Arriving home for the first time in years, Bill is shocked to find Brady is still alive, his fake death a ruse to lure him back. He may not act like it, but Brady is just as smart as his more articulate brother. While Bill has devoted his life to academia, Brady has devoted his life to marijuana. He grows copious amounts of pot using a high-tech system of hydroponics he designed himself. He needs Bill to go around town pretending to be him to establish an alibi. Brady is off to Tulsa to meet with a crooked Jewish businessman named Tug Rothbaum (Richard Dreyfuss), who is owed a substantial sum for financing Brady's operation.

Writer/Director Tim Blake Nelson co-stars as Bolger, Brady's right-hand man. The cast also includes: Susan Sarandon as Bill's estranged mother, Melanie Lynskey as Brady's pregnant girlfriend, Modern Family's Ty Burrell as a Harvard administrator, and singer/songwriter Steve Earle as a rival drug dealer.

As the twin leads, Norton is very good. He's more or less himself as the intellectual Bill. As Brady, he's more a caricature than a real character, but no less entertaining. Norton affects a cartoonish southern drawl and a quicker speech tempo to define him.

The film's failings lie not with the actors, but with Nelson's script, which attempts to merge disparate elements into a dysfunctional narrative. Leaves of Grass starts off as something akin to a quirky indie movie crossed with a stoner comedy. The story unfolds in a laidback manner as Bill reconnects with his family and friends. He engages in a sweet romance with the bubbly Keri Russell as a high school teacher who quotes Walt Whitman and wrestles 50lbs. catfish. Their scenes are some of the best in the film. The second half of the picture veers into darker territory with the introduction of death and violence. The dramatic turn doesn't gel with the light-hearted moments that were previously seen.

It seemed as if Tim Blake Nelson (who starred in O Brother, Where Art Thou) was going for a Coen Brothers feel with the black humor and criminal subplots. A dash of Fargo and a sprinkling of Raising Arizona, I suppose. As a fanboy, I thought it was cool that Norton was reunited with two of his Incredible Hulk cast members, but there's not enough to the movie to earn it a recommendation. The drastic tonal shifts make Leaves of Grass an uneven blend without potency.

Rating: * ½

Saint John of Las Vegas

Saint John of Las Vegas - Dir. Hue Rhodes (2010)

Next to Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi has to be my favorite character actor ever. His unconventional facial features and unique inflections make him stand out from the majority of actors working today. He's had so many memorable roles: Fargo, Reservoir Dogs, The Big Lebowski, Ghost World, and a dramatic turn in last year's The Messenger. No matter how bad a movie is, you can at least depend on Buscemi to be entertaining. Never has he had to work so hard to make such subpar material work than with Saint John of Las Vegas.

Saint John marks the feature debut of writer/director Hue Rhodes who took inspiration for the movie from Dante's Inferno. Buscemi plays John Alighieri, a former compulsive gambler now working as a claims adjuster for an insurance company in Albuquerque. He's engaged in a relationship with perky co-worker, Jill (Sarah Silverman), who has an infatuation with smiley faces and is carrying on an affair with their boss, Mr. Townsend (Peter Dinklage).

After bucking for a raise and a promotion, John winds up being sent on the road to investigate the claim of a stripper named Tasty D. Lite (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who lives outside of Vegas. She was supposedly left confined to a wheelchair with a neckbrace following a rear collision with another car. John is paired up with a veteran investigator in Virgil (Romany Malco). John is apprehensive about all this because he fears he will fall back into old habits the closer he gets to Sin City. While on the road, John and Virgil encounter all sorts of oddballs, such as a nudist colony of gun toting cowboys and a carnival worker (John Cho) sealed inside a flame-retardant suit. His scenes are as witty as the film gets to referencing Dante. No one can help the poor guy until the incendiary rig he's hooked up to, which engulfs him in flames every few minutes, runs out of fuel. Ironically, all he really wants is a cigarette.

Saint John has a hard time focusing on what it wants to be. The beginning of the movie has potential to be an amusing work place comedy ala Office Space due to the eccentricities of John and his co-workers. However, the rest of the film unfolds as a derivative indie road movie. The run-ins with all these strange characters are supposed to suggest the various Circles of Hell described by Dante, each one representing Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, etc. This is all well and good, if not for the fact that there is no flow in the story. The plot feels like a series of random vignettes tied loosely together without any sense of cohesion. There's not a strong enough character arc to carry the audience through the journey either. It's all just quirky for quirky's sake.

It's a credit to Buscemi's wealth of talent that he's able to make Saint John vaguely watchable. Peter Dinklage and Sarah Silverman are also very good in their supporting roles. Buscemi's sourpuss act contrasts well with Silverman's sunny disposition. But, they aren't enough to make Saint John of Las Vegas worth your time.

Rating: * ½

Paper Man

Paper Man - Dirs. Kieran & Michelle Mulroney (2010)

Indie films sure love odd, emotionally damaged characters. First-time filmmakers Kieran & Michelle Mulroney throw their lot into the mix with Paper Man, which started as a script they workshopped at the Sundance Institute.

Jeff Daniels plays Richard Dunn, an author struggling to write his second novel, a book about the extinction of the heath hens. His wife (Lisa Kudrow), a successful vascular surgeon, rents him a cottage in a seaside town in Long Island to give him a chance to clear his writer's block and a break from their rocky marriage. However, Dunn spends most of his time wallowing in self-pity and talking to his childhood imaginary friend, Captain Excellent (Ryan Reynolds), a garishly-clad superhero. He also builds a couch out of copies of his first novel and rides around on a children's bike because it's all so wacky. Dunn bumps into the resident brooding teenager in Abby (Emma Stone), who has a mopey best friend (Kieran Culkan) and a Neanderthal for a boyfriend (Hunter Parrish). He hires Abby to be his babysitter for the night, despite the fact that he has no kids. When Abby learns the truth, she shrugs it off as well as any form of common sense. And thus begins a strange and platonic friendship between two fellow outsiders.

Paper Man is like a patchwork cobbling of Lost in Translation with a 21st century hipster version of Harvey. It's filled with indie movie clichés like the quirky, paper-cut title sequence and the Elliot Smith-esque, sullen guitar score. Daniels is solid in the lead, but he's already portrayed the stunted, intellectual writer in The Squid and the Whale and The Answer Man. We're supposed to feel for his crumbling marriage, but it's a difficult proposition to sympathize with a couple of whiny, well-off Manhattanites. Emma Stone basically plays the Kat Dennings/Olivia Thilrby role. To her credit, she brings a warmth and soulfulness to an ironically paper thin and stereotypical character.

Ryan Reynolds certainly looks the part of a superhero with his bleached blonde hair and goofy looking tights. He does his best, but the Captain Excellent scenes are just a car wreck. They are just astoundingly unfunny and simply shoehorned into the narrative. He could have easily been cut from the picture, if not for the fact that the Mulroneys deemed it necessary to add another eccentric layer to their film.

Paper Man deserves to be tossed into the recycling bin. It recycled ideas from better movies without capturing any sense of raw emotion.

Rating: * ½

Hereafter

Hereafter - Dir. Clint Eastwood (2010)

At the age of 80, Clint Eastwood hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. He may have retired from acting, but his output as director remains prolific. Whenever awards season rolls around, you know a new Eastwood picture will be released. His films have been in varied genres, whether they be crime thrillers (Mystic River), war movies (Flags of Our Fathers, Letters to Iwo Jima), or sports dramas (Million Dollar Baby, Invictus). His next project will be a biopic about J. Edgar Hoover with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead.

Eastwood ventures slightly out of his comfort zone with Hereafter, a trio of stories centered on death and the afterlife. Eastwood is joined by Peter Morgan, a screenwriter known more for politically charged films like The Last King of Scotland, The Queen, and Frost/Nixon. Morgan was apparently inspired to write the script following the death of a close friend.

Hereafter begins with the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. French television personality Marie LeLay (Cecile De France) is vacationing in Thailand with her producer/boyfriend (Thierry Neuvic) when the tidal wave hits. She is swept away and nearly killed by a careening automobile. Marie is barely revived, but not before having ethereal visions of white light and ghostly figures. From then on, she has trouble reconnecting with her normal life. She attempts to take time off by writing a book on former French president Francois Mitterrand. Instead, she winds up researching a new book on the afterlife. Her newfound fascination alienates her from her boyfriend and colleagues.

George Lonegan (Matt Damon) was once a psychic of some renown with the legitimate ability to speak with the dead. Imagine him as the kid from The Sixth Sense all grown up. George has retreated from the spotlight, making a modest living as a forklift operator in San Francisco. His brother, Billy (Jay Mohr), keeps trying to convince George that they can both make a lot more money by exploiting his powers. George disagrees, believing them to be a curse, rather than a gift. We see just how these psychic talents interfere with his life when he is introduced to Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard) at a cooking class. It's a meet cute straight out of the romantic comedy playbook, but the budding relationship doesn't get the chance for a happy ending.

The third storyline is set in London and follows twin brothers Marcus and Jason (Frankie & George McLaren who alternate roles). Marcus depends on the wiser and more mature Jason, who is twelve minutes older, to take care of him and their heroin-addicted mother. When Jason is killed in a tragic car accident, Marcus is placed in foster care and struggles to go on with his life

Eastwood excels at making these types of prestige pictures. He has an old-fashioned sense of storytelling. He is content to give his characters room to breathe and never resorts to superfluous camera tricks. Hereafter marks the first time Eastwood has used extensive special effects. The opening tsunami sequence is a remarkable achievement in CGI that is shot in a very intimate manner. Eastwood shoots this massive natural disaster at a human level by focusing on Marie as she is battered and thrashed about. Eastwood is more concerned about capturing the harrowing emotions of the event rather than creating widespread destruction, a lesson that Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich could learn.

The rest of the film doesn't quite live up to the promise of the start. Cecile De France is wonderful and I admit to having a crush on her since High Tension (just something about a French girl wielding a chainsaw). However, her storyline remains the weakest of the three. The scenes dealing with her disconnect are mundane and fail to convey the existential turmoil she faces. Damon appears in the strongest storyline and he gives a powerful, yet understated, performance. Unlike films such as Babel and Crash, Hereafter doesn't unite its characters through tenuous strands or contrive to intersect its various plots. The storylines run parallel and only converge in the final act. The resolution remains unsatisfying and the convergence of plot threads feels more like an obligation rather than a germane end to the journey. Eastwood is known for his preference to shoot the script's first draft, choosing not to tweak the writer's words. Perhaps, that's exactly what Hereafter needed.

In the end, Eastwood has created a film about metaphysical subject matter that is grounded in a down-to-earth reality. The performances of the cast are good enough to overcome the meandering plots and the occasional bluntness of Eastwood's direction.

Rating: **

Stone

Stone - Dir. John Curran (2010)

The first line of dialogue uttered in the film Stone is, "You keep my soul in a dungeon." If you thought the movie couldn't get any cheesier, you thought wrong.

Robert DeNiro stars as Jack Mabry, a parole officer on the verge of retirement. He's been married to his wife, Madylyn (Frances Conroy), for over forty years. The Mabrys attend church and read bible passages together but, it all seems like an empty act. In the opening prologue, it is a young Madylyn who speaks that line as she intends on leaving Jack. His response is a shocking and frightening threat that keeps Madylyn locked by his side. The years have clearly taken their toll on a woman who is practically zombiefied.

Jack newest case is Gerald "Stone" Creeson (Edward Norton) who has served eight years for a botched robbery that led to the deaths of his grandparents. Stone is what some would call a 'wigger.' He has cornrows and speaks in a faux language of the streets. Desperate to get out of prison, Stone sends his smoking hot wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) to seduce Jack. What happens next isn't a steamy potboiler, but a turgid character study in hypocrisy and spirituality.

Jack merely pays lip service to God. He goes through the motions and constantly listens to Christian talk radio while driving to and from work. But, for all his superficial self-righteousness, God has yet to touch his heart. Stone is merely interested in telling Jack what he wants to hear. He chats with Jack about Zukangor, a New Age religion he discovered from a pamphlet in the prison library. However, Stone has an honest-to-goodness spiritual awakening while witnessing, of all things, a brutal stabbing. For Jack, it is unthinkable that this low-life con gets a direct line to God while he struggles. Lucetta never deals with these sorts of existential quandaries, but she too maintains a façade. By day, she works as a schoolteacher, at night; she's a raging nymphomaniac though still dutiful to her incarcerated husband.

Throughout the film, director John Curran hammers home the themes as bluntly as possible. The talk radio commentators act as a Greek chorus reiterating what we've seen already. The dialogue lacks any semblance of subtlety and the plot just sputters along until it reaches a less than satisfying conclusion. It's a shame since the screenplay was written by Angus Maclachlan who penned the far more engaging Junebug, which introduced the world to the wonder that is Amy Adams.

Stone does feature a solid turn from DeNiro. It's a low key performance from a man who has been spinning his wheels with self-parodying roles in Meet the Fockers and Machete. Norton is good as well playing a character similar to the one from his big screen debut in Primal Fear. Some critics argue that Norton's performance (which he based on actual prisoners he met in Detroit) is too labored, but I believe that is the point. Stone is mimicking the type of persona he needs to survive in prison. Jovovich is also surprisingly good (not just because she gets naked) and tries to put on a performance that is a bit better than the movie will allow.

The cast is talented, but the characters just aren't compelling. Stone is shallow melodrama and when it's over, you'll wonder what was the point of it all.

Rating: * ½

Conviction

Conviction - Dir. Tony Goldwyn (2010)

Literary adaptations and true-life stories are par for the course come awards season. Conviction falls into the latter category.

Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell star as siblings, Betty Anne and Kenny Waters, who live in Ayers, Massachusetts. As kids they grew up with a neglectful mother, spent much of their childhood stealing candy from the grocery store and breaking into people's houses. They were eventually split apart and put into foster care, but remained devoted to each other. Even when Kenny becomes a husband and father, he doesn't straighten up. While partying with his family, Kenny picks a fight with a guy, to everyone's consternation, and then puts them back at ease with an impromptu strip show.

The story really begins in 1981 when a neighbor woman is brutally murdered. As the local troublemaker, Kenny is picked up by the cops, questioned, and released. Two years later, he is arrested for the killing. Kenny maintains his innocence. It seems his only crime was being a smartass to the police and, in particular, the investigating officer, Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo). Kenny's wife (Clea DuVall) and ex-girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) give damning testimony and he is sentenced to life in prison.

Betty Anne spends the next decade earning a GED, Bachelor's, and a degree in law in order to defend her brother. Throughout that time, she attempts to maintain a delicate balance being a mother, wife, student, and crusader while working as a bartender at night. Her unwavering determination costs her a marriage as well as custody of her sons. However, Betty Anne's hard work pays off due to advances in DNA evidence during the early-90's. She also receives help along the way from Minnie Driver as a law school friend and Peter Gallagher as a high-powered New York attorney.

Hilary Swank really excels at portraying these types of blue-collar characters having already won two Oscars for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby. It's not the most memorable performance of the year, but it's the exact type of inspirational role that the Academy loves. Sam Rockwell is probably my favorite actor working today and he is great in Conviction. Rockwell arms Kenny Waters with a disarming charm that makes you overlook his shortcomings. But, that inner spirit is withered away from years of false imprisonment. Melissa Leo is solid as the cop who railroads Kenny while Juliette Lewis tends to overact as a walking white trash nightmare. The acting is what really lifts the film above the trappings of a made-for-TV movie of the week.

Director Tony Goldwin and screenwriter Pamela Gray (who previously worked together on the romantic drama A Walk on the Moon) take an incredible real life story and tell it in a conventional manner. The plot sticks to a basic screenwriting formula with setbacks that seem to come at predetermined intervals. For most moviegoers, this will be a negligible critique.

Conviction ends with a final denouement that gives us an update of what happened to the main characters. The real Betty Anne Waters continues to work with the Innocence Project to clear the wrongly convicted. Not mentioned is the tragic fate of Kenny Waters who died from an accidental fall only six months after being released from prison.

Rating: **

Please Give

Please Give - Dir. Nicole Holofcener (2010)

Independent filmmaker Nicole Holofcener crafts interesting, three-dimensional roles for women and has a strong ear for believable dialogue. This has been evident in her three previous films - Walking and Talking, Lovely & Amazing, and Friends with Money. If you were to find flaw in her work, it would be that Holofcener tends to focus on women of privilege who some may find hard to sympathize with. That's certainly the case with her newest film, Please Give, a story about bourgeois New Yorkers and the liberal guilt that comes with their lifestyle.

Please Give starts with an unconventional opening montage featuring a series of breasts being laid out for their mammograms. These aren't the firm, silicone enhanced type you'd find in Playboy. These breasts come in all shapes and sizes, big or small and young or saggy. Catherine Keener, a frequent star of Holofcener's, plays Cathy who runs a vintage furniture store with her husband, Alex (Oliver Platt). They purchase their inventory from the children of the recently deceased who are generally too distraught or ambivalent to care where their parents' things go. Cathy's teenage daughter, Abby (Sarah Steele), struggles with insecurities about her body image and the onset of acne.

Cathy and Alex live next door to the 91-year old Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), a crotchety grandmother who finds fault in everyone and everything. Cathy and Alex have already purchased her apartment and will annex it upon her death. Andra is cared for by granddaughter, Rebecca (Rebecca Hall), the mammogram technician handling the breasts seen earlier. She's dutiful in performing chores for her grandma. Rebecca fetches her medication, buys her groceries, and does all the laundry, even if Andra isn't very grateful. Rebecca's sister, Mary (Amanda Peet), is a well-tanned and irresponsible spa worker. She doesn't share the same tolerance for granny as Rebecca and is quite tactless about her forthcoming death.

Cathy feels guilty for profiting off the death of others. She attempts to assuage those feelings through volunteer work and giving money and leftovers to the homeless. Abby is appalled that her mom won't buy her those $200 designer jeans she wants while having on problem handing a twenty to the bum they always pass on the streets.

As a character study of upper-middle class New Yorkers, Please Give has a distinct Woody Allen feel to it. There's no driving plot to the film instead, Holofcener gives us a slice of life affair, dropping us right into their everyday routine. She also imbues her film with a restrained sense of humor. The acting is strong, especially from Keener and Guilbert. What holds back the movie is your level of empathy for its characters. It's hard to identify with whiny, insecure people when they are well off and their main problems involve how to decorate their big-ass apartment.

Rating: ** ½