Good Day for It (David's title: Rose's Cafe)

Good day for it?  Strange title!  The better title would have been Rose's Cafe.  For it's there that all the action takes place.  And there's a lot of great action!

Robert Patrick stars as the bad-guy father who, after abandoning his family years ago, returns to see his daughter.  Remember him as the liquid-man terminator in Terminator 2?  He's never achieved A-list billing as a movie star, but he's really skilled in acting.

The plot?  Never the spoiler, I'll say a few words to entice you:  Bad Dad was once a strong-arm for a gangster who has long done evil.  Jason Patrick's character has returned after fifteen years on the lam, seeking reconciliation with his embittered daughter.

The reunion takes place at Rose's cafe.  It would be a complex-enough family meeting, were it not for the old gangsters showing up at the cafe to square old debts!

Oh wait...now the ex-wife is there too!  And a cop!  And the nice couple in the kitchen!

Get the idea?  Like a taut stage play, the cafe serves as the focal point for all the emotional--and bullet-filled--action!

Lest I sound cynical, this movie really grabs you and holds on.  The tension never relents.  We root for the father and daughter, but we wonder how payback day will end!

Grade of A.  Well worth the visit to Rose's Cafe.

Seeking Justice

For those of us with a macabre taste for the thriller genre, vengeance plots hit the spot!  Viewers often wonder, what if a loved one were brutally attacked and the law could do nothing about it?  Would I seek my own brand of justice?  OK, you've got the basic premise of the film.

But there's a twist.  A secret group of justice seekers go around town finding guys who dream of revenge and do the job for them.   Never the spoiler, I'll only say that the hero finds himself sort of consenting, with the emphasis on SORT Of,  to let the splinter group do his dirty work for him.  But there's a price to pay!

OK, no more on the plot!

Let me say that the actors are great.  Nicholas Cage has never been a favorite of mine, but he steps up and delivers a fine performance as the guy who's wrapped up in something beyond his control.  Guy Pearce is wonderful as a bad dude, with snide looks and sly smiles that make him truly evil.  January Jones, stunning as usual, is a far cry from her nasty self in Mad Men.  She plays the victimized wife with skill and tact.

Final thought:  If groups of vigilantes were allowed to mete out justice as they saw fit, they'd no doubt bypass the expensive and often flawed legal system and sometimes get it right.  But vengeance films wisely point out that splinter groups develop into cults, with their own brand of despotism.  Laws protect us from the baddies...and from those who would take justice into their own hands.

If you see this flick, you'll be thinking about justice and the American Way well after the film is over.

Gone

With a spouse and daughter with modern feminist values, I am big on female empowerment movies.

Trouble is, they are few and far between.  Most Hollywood films still portray women as helpless underlings, dependent on males for protection.  This sad fact is most true of crime and thriller genres, where women find themselves the victims of ruthless attacks.

Recently, the Hunger Games gave us a nice new view of today's female: bold, cunning, wise, fearless, and above all, a warrior supreme!  Jennifer Lawrence...you go, girl!  We might have to go way back to Jennifer Lopez' portrayal of an abused spouse in Enough to find an equally empowered heroine.

Step aside, you wannabe female toughies!  Here comes Amanda Seyfried!

Amanda?  Isn't she the one who plays the sweet young rebel on Big Love?  Isn't she the one who does soppy love stories, like Mama Mia, Dear John, and Letters to Juliet?  Isnt' she the helpless victim in the wild sci-fi flick, Jennifer's Body?

NO, folks!  Here comes a new Amanda Seyfried!  Check her out in the picture above.  Doesn't she look tough?

OK, no spoiler, as usual, but here's the basic gist of the film:  The young female protagonist has been terrorized by a bad guy, and darn it, the police just don't buy her story!  So she has to take matters into her own hands.  And does she ever!  Can't give anything away, but suffice it to say that Amanda metes out justice in her own special way!

For viewers who like revenge motifs, and for those who seek strong female characters, this film is a must.  Don't expect profound messages or sophisticated dialog.

Mostly, the gun does the talking!  Haha!

Man on a Ledge

I'm not big on heights.  I could not watch Man on a Wire....so I had a tough time seeing a guy teetering for hours on a ledge high above Manhattan!  However, if you can stomach the many shots intended to give you vertigo, you might enjoy this action flick!

No spoiler, of course.  Suffice it to say that a man stands on a ledge and announces he will jump.  New Yorkers who enjoy a good street show gather below hoping for a bloody spectacle.  Good thing the beautiful blonde officer gets out there and tries to stop him!

Why does he threaten to jump?  Well, that's where the plot gets a bit convoluted.  See, he's an ex-cop and it appears he needs the audience to get folks to take him seriously!  The female cop, played by Elizabeth Banks, believes him...we think!

But there's more.  Can't give the plot away, but I can say that a very large amount of viewer "suspension of disbelief" is required to appreciate the twists and turns of the story.  Subplots take us inside a prison, a bank vault, and high up on rooftops!

I'd have to say this film is mostly mindless action, in spite of efforts to make it something more sophisticated.

Grade of A-.   It's a nail-biter if you don't throw up your popcorn!

Fahrenheit 450

This is my homage to Mr. Ray Bradbury, writer extraordinaire, whose contributions to American literature include The Martian Chronicles, Twilight Zone, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, and whose life ended this week at age 89. Of all his works, my favorite remains Fahrenheit 450, a horrifying (to this English teacher) look at a futuristic society that burns books. O.k., I trust you know this whole story. I had the pleasure of teaching the novel for many semesters, and showing this 1966 film, directed by Francois Truffault, with Oskar Werner and Julie Christie. Bradbury's sobering warning to us about the dangers and consequences of censorship and the squelching of individual thought, shocks the reader/viewer into a new appreciation, even reverence for intellectual and creative freedom. Heavy stuff. I also had the privilege of meeting Mr. Bradbury following a talk he gave in Scottsdale years ago. I treasure my signed copies of The Martian Chronicles and F450. Do yourself a favor this week: watch this film. It's a goodie. RIP, Ray.

Safe House

Check out the two major stars in the picture above, Ryan Reynolds and Denzel himself (he needs no last name!)  With these two power hitters in a flick advertised as an action movie, you'd think I would have rave reviews...NOT!

OK, before I turn critical, I'll try to be positive:   The film has lots of action sequences, including state-of-the-art car chases, shootouts, running pursuits, and more.  You'll get to see lots of cars squished and more than fifty baddies taken out....fun!  You'll no doubt enjoy Denzel's solid acting, which never disappoints.

But every film needs some kind of interesting plot, and scripting, and dialogue.  There was just very little story to support all the gunfire.  I am often one to view mindless violence...some of the really stupid films make no pretense about a good tale and just take you into back alleys for solid, old-fashioned violence with no redeeming value...I can handle, and enjoy, these works of "art!"

Safe House purports to be something else.  No spoiler, of course.

Basically, you've got good-guy CIA agent chasing allegedly bad guy CIA agent, and both on the run for their lives.  From whom?  How?  Why?  We eventually get our answers.  But the whole plot is so unbelievable that we feel hey, just give us violence and don't try to be so sophisticated!

Was it entertaining?  Yes.  Was it profound?  No.

Should you see it?

Ummmmmmm......

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Imagine Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Tom Wilkinson together...it's pure magic!  Dev Patel, the young star who rose to fame in Slumdog Millionaire, is also great.

The story?  Simple, really.

No spoiler, of course.  But it's about folks finding themselves in their twilight years.  A ragtag group of Brits and Americans face crises at home, either of a financial or personal nature, and all happen upon an ad for a cheap stay in India.  While there, the travelers interact and move forward with their lives.

The film centers on love themes and some very new and unusual friendships.  At the heart of it all, the characters must adjust to common living in a run-down hotel, as they seek answers to their various dilemmas.

As we viewers watch the protagonists move through the crowded streets of New Delhi, we get caught up in a struggle that we all share: the search for meaning in a sometimes confused world.

The dialog is delightful, and in this reviewer's opinion, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench steal the show, as you might expect.

Grade of A+.   A superb film for anyone who seeks a meaningful and memorable experience.