Short Take: Rock'em Sock'em Robots meets 'Rocky'

Director: Shawn Levy

Screenwriters: John Gatins, Dan Gilroy

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Hope Davis

Length: 2h 7m

Synopsis: Charlie (Jackman) is an ex-boxer who, since an evolution into robot battles, has been unfortunate enough to see the sport nearly pass him by. Down on his luck, stuck in the past, and in deep debt to all kinds of scum, Charlie is doing anything he can to just keep fighting. One random day he’s told he has full custody of an 11 year old son named Max (Goyo) he’s never met, but if he wants to he can grant custody to the boy’s wealthy aunt (Davis). Taking advantage of the situation Charlie sells his custody rights, but cannot complete the transaction until he and the boy spend some quality time together. Over the next several months the boy tags along as his father tries to regain relevancy in the ring. While initially seeming like a burden, Max discovers ways of helping Charlie exceed both his and others’ expectations. Together they work their way up the ladder of popularity by winning fights with a scrappy sparring robot named Atom, eventually earning the right to challenge the reigning champion bot named Zeus. Along the way they make up for lost time by bonding over their venture, and come to realize that they’re fighting for more than just money or pride. Side by side, the duo become a one-two punch that demonstrates some real steel.

Read the rest of this entry »

Although it might be a bit untimely to talk at length about Drive nearly three full weeks after it opened on Sept. 16th, we at Movie-Thoughts thought it to be an even worse idea to not talk about it at all. Our Marisa Carpico did of course write a glowing review of the film, directed by Nicolas Refn (Bronson) and starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, and it appears her sentiments match that of the critical majority (RottenTomatoes rating is 93%), and because of these reasons we thought it was downright necessary to devote more time toward inspecting this refreshingly stylized action thriller. We tried to elaborate more on some of the angles explored in Marisa’s review, and took the opportunity to also bring up topics we felt hadn’t been addressed as often or thoroughly by other critics. We hope you find our discussion intriguing, and we of course encourage you to throw your two cents in at the comments section below. For those of you who have been debating internally about going to see Drive we hope our musings give you the extra incentive you need to give it a go and experience it for yourself. And for those of you who simply don’t wish to see it… well, you’re missing out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: The kind of intimate experience that doesn't come around all that often

Director: Jonathan Levine

Screenwriter: Will Reiser

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston, Philip Baker Hall

Length: 1h 39m

Synopsis: Adam (Gordon-Levitt) and his best mate Kyle (Rogen) are two late twenty-somethings just living their lives and trying to get by. Adam and his longtime girlfriend Rachael (Howard) are beginning to hit a rough patch in their relationship, but for Adam the real bad news comes soon after getting a pain in his back checked out by a doctor. He’s hit with the big “C” word that none of us are ever prepared for. The size of the growth and its proximity to his spine gives him about a 50/50 chance of survival, and as it turns out that even split comes to define his world over the months to come. Part of his treatment, aside from torturous chemo therapy, is to see a psychiatrist named Katherine (Kendrick), whom he unintentionally begins to grow close to. With such people around him, in addition to a rather worrisome mother (Huston), Adam tries to do what he can to deal with the confusing and unexpected circumstances. While doing so, he discovers a lot about himself, as well as the close relationships he thought he understood.

Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Underwritten and poorly acted. What has happened to John Singleton?

Director: John Singleton

Screenwriter: Shawn Christensen

Cast: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Sigourney Weaver

Length: 1h 46m

Synopsis: Nathan (Lautner) is a teenage boy who after finding his photo on a missing persons website has begun to suspect that his parents Kevin (Isaacs) and Mara (Bello) aren’t who they claim to be. The night they come clean is when strange men break into their house and try to kidnap Nathan, however he and his friend Karen (Collins), who just happened to be visiting, are able to escape. The strange men work for a Russian mercenary group and believe Nathan holds something of value to them. Because of their involvement Nathan and Karen are also being chased by the CIA, who claim to want to help. Not knowing who to trust the teenaged duo decide to do what they can to stay alive on their own and discover the truth for themselves. Unfortunately, they aren’t bound to like what they find.

Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Has more tension than contemporary horror, thanks to spot-on acting and directing

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Screenwriters: Hossein Amini (Screenplay), James Sallis (Book)

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaacs, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks, Kaden Leos

Length: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Synopsis: By day, Driver (Gosling) is a mechanic and stunt driver just trying to get by, but at night he moonlights as a getaway driver, selling his services for five minutes at a time and executing his work with cold confidence. He lives almost entirely behind the wheel of a car—until he encounters his sweet, pretty neighbor Irene (Mulligan) and her son Benicio (Leos). A mutual attraction grows between them, but before they can act on their feelings Irene’s husband, Standard (Isaacs), returns from prison. Suddenly, Driver’s personal and criminal lives collide when he decides to help Standard do a job and pay off his debt to a dangerous group of men. However, when the job goes wrong, Driver must resort to violence in order to protect Irene and Benicio.

Read the rest of this entry »

The impetus for this list came from simply re-watching Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film Casino, during which time I could not help but think of the number of movies which prominently feature the goings on of casinos – or at least the alleged goings on. And being that I didn’t quite agree with the listing of the Best Casino Movies at CasinoTop10, I decided to tackle the challenge of ranking them myself. Interestingly enough, though, casino movies aren’t even considered a subgenre, as few if any thematic or aesthetic similarities can be found amongst the movies which significantly feature a casino setting. Not to be discouraged, however, I took advantage of this leeway and simply considered any film which takes place in a casino or casino-like locale either for a substantial portion of the running time or during a particularly important or memorable scene. And now that we’re armed with these criteria let us get on with the rankings, which may contain a few surprises.

5. Casino Royale (2006) 

It seems almost too fitting that a James Bond movie be on this list considering how many times we’ve seen 007 sitting sharply dressed in a tuxedo at a green-felted table over the decades, and the question that immediately comes to mind is what separates Casino Royale from the lot. The answer is that, more than any other Bond flick, it made card games both a significant part of the plot and exceedingly exciting. Not only did James win his Aston Martin in a poker game, but he bested the film’s main villain by the same means. The scenes where the dapper double-o goes toe to toe with Le Chiffre demonstrate the full extent of the secret agent’s wit and savvy, successfully substantiating the notion that he is not just a physical force to be reckoned with but a cerebral one as well. No doubt, it’s as civilized a showdown as you’re likely to find in an action movie from any era, and that it’s as exciting as the film’s car chases speaks volumes about the writing quality.

Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Pretty to look at and different, but only mildly interesting

Director: Olivier Megaton

Screenwriter: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen

Cast: Zoe Saldana, Lennie James, Cliff Curtis, Jordi Mollà, Beto Benites

Length: 1h 48m

Synopsis: An assassin named Cataleya (Saldana), who is alarmingly proficient at her job, has been making her mark on the victims of her last couple dozen “assignments,” leaving a calling card meant to catch the attention of a certain someone from her past. That person is Don Luis (Benites), who when Cataleya was a child ordered to have her and her parents murdered. Narrowly escaping her own hit, Cataleya has dedicated the twenty years since to seeking revenge on Don Luis, receiving special training from her connected uncle Emilio (Curtis). The Don has in fact finally noticed Cataleya’s handiwork, but so too has the FBI. The driven avenger is now tasked with making good on her vengeance without being caught by the authorities or killed by the Don’s protectors. To her credit, neither deterrent is threatening to quell her earnestness. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Has a grindhouse feel, exploitation style, and dark humor to spare

Director: Jason Eisener

Screenwriter: John Davies, Jason Eisener, Rob Cotterill

Cast: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Brian Downey, Gregory Smith

Length: 1h 26m

Synopsis: An anonymous hobo (Hauer) turns up in a new city where crime is ubiquitous – people get murdered in the streets in broad daylight, honest storeowners get robbed at gunpoint, and all the cops are dirty. For sure, it is a place where hope goes to die. Every corner of this city is controlled with muscle that’s owned by The Drake (Downey), whose power comes purely from the fear of the innocent (and even not so innocent). At one point the unnamed hobo snaps and decides to take justice into his own hands, upsetting the status quo by shooting every despicable criminal he sees. Indeed, many of those criminals were owned by The Drake, and so almost overnight the hobo becomes the most hunted man in town. As fortune would have it, though, the hobo manages to get help from a forlorn young prostitute named Abby (Dunsworth) whom he saved from certain death, and together they attempt to fight their way out of the city so they can pursue a better life elsewhere.  That pursuit, they find out, will be even more dangerous than they imagined.

Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Has the best combination of humor and horror since "Drag Me to Hell"

Director: Craig Gillespie

Screenwriters: Marti Noxon, Tom Holland

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Toni Collette

Length: 1h 46m

Synopsis: Charley (Yelchin) is a normal teenage boy whose suburban town has recently welcomed a new neighbor named Jerry (Farrell), who Charley’s friend Ed (Mintz-Plasse) is convinced is a real-life vampire. Ed tries his hardest to convince Charley of this truth, but the absurdity of the accusation is just too great. Soon after pleading for assistance in killing the preternatural being Ed goes missing, and with little hints here and there Charley cannot help but come to the incredible conclusion that his missing friend was right. Unsure of what to do he consults a Las Vegas stage celebrity named Peter Vincent (Tennant), whose forte is the magical and the gothic. Vincent, it turns out, has long since been obsessed with vampires, and so he agrees to help Charley in his dangerous mission to rid his quiet town of the undead predator who threatens to feed on everyone he cares for. Jerry’s cunning and resilience are not to be underestimated, however, which makes Charley’s and Vincent’s task all the more dangerous.

Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Contains satisfyingly creative deaths, and nothing else

Director: Steven Quale

Screenwriter: Eric Heisserer

Cast: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, David Koechner, Tony Todd

Length: 1h 32m

Synopsis: Sam (D’Agosto) is an office worker who in his free time is trying to pursue his passion for the culinary arts and win back his ex-girlfriend Molly (Bell), who is also an office coworker. The two join some fellow coworkers and their slimy boss Dennis (Koechner) on a bus to an office retreat, but while in route they narrowly survive a terrible bridge collapse that, were it not for Sam’s advisement to abruptly leave, would have caused their untimely and gruesome demises. The days following this divine intervention, however, prove to be no less perilous. One by one each survivor meets a grisly, macabre fate, leading the remaining few to assume that Death has intentions of correcting his oversights at any given moment.

Read the rest of this entry »