Quick Takes March 30, 2011

Limitless [Dir. Neil Burger] (Full Price)

     Based off of the preview, the premise of this looked interesting.   A guy down on his luck takes a pill, turns his life around, then discovers oops there's some problems brewing in the background.  Yet despite that premise, I was not looking forward to this movie very much.  I think maybe it had something to do with seeing the preview at least 20 times in the theaters.  Well color me surprised, because I liked this movie quite a bit.  The acting was solid, Bradley Cooper shows he can be a convincing leading man without having an entourage to carry a movie.  The preview thankfully left out some of the more interesting aspects of this movie, which is something that will remain unspoiled here.  I'd definitely see this film again if given the chance, and give it a solid Full Price.  

The Lincoln Lawyer [Dir. Brad Furman] (Matinee)

     A high priced, yet still relatively unknown defense attorney gets involved in a high profile case and opens up a whole can of worms on his personal and professional life.  Matthew McConaughey is solid here as Mick Haller.  He comes off as sleazy yet likeable at the same time.  The rest of the cast is solid here, it was nice seeing William H. Macy and Marissa Tomei in something again.  My only complaint comes with the story.  I don't know if it comes from the screen play or the source material, but there was a plot point in here that was predictable and yet didn't quite gel with the rest of the story.  Despite this complaint, this is a fairly solid film and gets a high Matinee.

Paul [Dir. Greg Mottola] (Full Price)

     Two friends on vacation in America decide to take a road trip across the Southwestern United States, stopping at all the famous UFO tourist spots.  Along the road they discover Paul, who's not from this planet, and the chaos ensues.  This is another fairly solid Simon Pegg and Nick Frost buddy film.  The main characters were fairly likable, especially Paul.  The jokes and references in this film mainly come from some of the more popular Science Fiction films of the late 1970s and into the 1980s.  For the most part they were solid and really funny.  If there were any gripes I had about this movie, was that the film is slow out of the gate and doesn't really pick up until Paul shows up.  Despite that, I really appreciate a more adult comedy that focuses more on the humor and less on the gross out, so I give this a solid Full Price.

Red Riding Hood [Dir. Catherine Hardwicke] (Some Old Smelly Shoes) 

    After years of peace, a small town's peace is broken when an old enemy of the town returns to wreak havoc on poor unsuspecting townspeople.  Oh if only this film were just that, it might have been bearable.  Unfortunately they have to throw a whole unnecessary romance angle and family drama to boost the film along because they have to cash in on the Twilight buzz.  What those elements add to the story in addition to bad storytelling, is absolutely horrendous acting from talented actors.  The only actor I thought saved any face was Gary Oldman because he came in chewing up the scenery and didn't stop until his part was finished.  The rest of the cast just didn't seem to act like they cared enough to do even that. The screenwriters did try to add a layer of mystery to the film surrounding the identity of the wolf, but even those efforts fall flat.  An unintended consequence of this movie was I found myself snickering at some of the corniness that comes out of here.  That only saves the film from getting the lowest rating, and just gets Some Old Smelly Shoes.  It was a waste of time and money to sit through this.

Battle Los Angeles [Dir. Jonathan Liebesman] (Matinee)

     At first glance this looks like an Independence Day rip-off.  Aliens invade the planet, we fight back and eventually win the day.  Thankfully, this is not that film.  This movie focuses almost entirely on a Marine Squad initially tasked with rescuing civilians from the invasion zone and how they deal with what's going on around them.  The movie unfolds almost like watching an extended cut scene on a video game, which in this case actually works.  The biggest downside to the movie is the script, the dialogue is exceedingly bad.  It only works in the film because Aaron Eckhart takes the movie seriously and doesn't acknowledge that it's weak script writing.  Still, I had a good enough time to give this a solid Matinee.