TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

Mystery, suspense

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Mark Strong: Jim Prideaux, field agent in Czechoslovakia
Tom Hardy: London based field agent Ricki Tarr
Benedict Cumberbatch: his immediate superior Peter Guillam
Simon McBurney: Oliver Lacon, the Civil Service officer responsible for the Intelligence Service
Gary Oldman: George Smiley, retired former Deputy Head of the Service
Toby Jones: Percy Alleline, Chief of the Circus.
Colin Firth: one of his deputies, Bill Haydon Commander of London Station
Ciarán Hinds: Roy Bland, Second in command of London Station
David Denick: Toby Esterhase, one of four who ran Witchcraft

REVIEW
Based on the novel written by John le Carré, seeing it as a movie requires you to be more alert to what is going on regarding people and events because you do not have the luxury of turning back the pages to refresh your memory when things get confusing. And things get confusing very quickly: to begin with a lot of jargon is used so it takes some figuring out to realize reference to “the circus” is the name for the British secret service agency MI6 and not some place where you find animals and clowns performing. Similarly the cousins are not relatives of these agents, that is the name they have given for the C.I.A. and Control is the person at the head of the agency rather than some kind of device.

Some of the other terms are less difficult to figure out (such as a mole and a honey-trap) but you have to have your wits about you simply to understand what is being said. But that's not all: trying to keep track of all the people coming and going is nearly impossible. The end credits list a cast of 44 people and these are just the “principal actors”.

Somewhere along the way I lost track of who the good guys were and which ones were the bad guys (or was it the other way around?) and so I left after two hours feeling totally overwhelmed and at a complete loss. Not a nice feeling I can assure you.

CLASSIFICATION

for violence, some sexuality/nudity and language.

GET LOW

Drama, mystery

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Robert Duvall: Felix Bush, a reclusive carpenter
Lucas Black: Buddy Robinson, Quinn’s only employee
Gerald McRaney: Reverend Gus Horton, Felix’s long time friend
Bill Murray: Frank Quinn, proprietor of Quinn Funeral Home
Sissy Spacek: the widow Mattie Darrow

REVIEW
Right from the get-go it is apparent that Felix harbours a secret. And he hangs on to it until almost the very end.

Along the way there are more than a few humorous moments with excellent acting by both Duvall and Murray. With great attention to detail (except for a few things noted below) it looks good. A most enjoyable film.

CLASSIFICATION
for mature thematic material and brief violent content.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• While driving to Felix’s house the car windows are closed but when Buddy steps out he puts his left hand around the window frame that is now conveniently open.
• Felix gives Frank a sheet of paper with the top right hand corner folded over but when viewed from Frank’s point of view it is perfectly flat.

P.S.
In the parlance of the backwoods “to get low” means to get down to business.

EDGE OF DARKNESS

Murder mystery

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Mel Gibson: Boston Police Detective Tommy Craven
Bojana Novakovic: his 24-year-old daughter Emma
Jay O. Sanders: Whitehouse, one of Tom’s friends
Shawn Roberts: Emma’s boyfriend David Burnham
Danny Huston: Jack Bennett, CEO of Northmoor nuclear facility
Ray Winstone: CIA agent Darius Jedburgh
Damian Young: Republican Senator Jim Pine
Denis O’Hare: his advisor Moore
Caterina Scorsone: Emma's friend Melissa

REVIEW
What a mess: it starts off in a straightforward manner as a murder mystery then adds more and more characters to the point it is very difficult to keep things sorted out. And one of these characters (Jedburg) is impossible to understand what with the combination of a British accent and a propensity to mumble. So most of what he has to say is incomprehensible. Yet he is a key figure in all of this.

There are lots of twists and turns, frequently poorly explained so we are left wondering “what the heck is that all about?” Pretty well describes the whole thing.

CLASSIFICATION
for strong bloody violence and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• Jedburgh is sitting on bench in bright sunlight coming across diagonally. Tom joins him and after just few minutes together when Tom leaves the sun has shifted 90° and the orange colouration indicates it is near sunset.
• Tom asks to see John Bennett; is name is Jack.
• The make of the semi-automatic pistol most commonly carried by law enforcement in the USA is a Glock. The Model 22 magazine holds 15 bullets and the Model 23 has a capacity of 13. During a shootout beside the parkway Tom fires off at least 18 shots without reloading.

IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH

Murder mystery

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Tommy Lee Jones: Hank Deerfield, retired military police officer
Susan Sarandon: his wife Joan
Jason Patric: Lt. Kirklander, officer at Fort Rudd army camp
Jonathan Tucker: Mike Deerfield, veteran of the Iraq war
Wes Chatham: one of his platoon buddies Corporal Steve Penning
Jake McLaughlin: Specialist Gordon Bonner
Mehcad Brooks: Specialist Ennis Long
Charlize Theron: police detective Emily Sanders

REVIEW
What sets this movie apart from some of the others is the terrific acting by the three principals (Jones, Sarandon and Theron) coupled with a well-developed story that provide clues on a piecemeal basis.

Although there is one subplot involving a woman who’s dog got hurt, for the most part things stay focused on the main task at hand, finding out who done it. And that they do in a most satisfactory manner.

CLASSIFICATION
for violent and disturbing content, language, some sexuality and nudity.

P.S.
According to the National Flag Code, chapter 10, section §176 governing the display of the United States Flag:
“it should never be displayed upside down except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”

SCOOP

Mystery

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ian McShane: former investigative reporter Joe Strombel
Scarlett Johansson: Sondra Pransky, an American student journalist
Woody Allen: Sid Waterman, a vaudeville magician, the Great Splendini
Hugh Jackman: prominent wealthy aristocrat Peter
Julian Glover: his father Lord Lyman

REVIEW
It is usually not a good sign when someone has more than one role in the production of the movie: in this instance, Woody Allen is writer, director and actor. He does none of them well. The writing is replete with goofy one-liners that are mildly amusing at best and the story line seems déjà vu. As the director he should have reshot many scenes with Scarlett Johansson in them because her acting is not up to par, seemingly just going through the motions (at least for the first half). And as actor, what can you say? Woody Allen does his thing and it’s often annoying, especially his habit of repeating himself ad nauseam.

CLASSIFICATION
for sexual situations, profanity

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
While Sondra and Sid are walking quickly past the dental office you can catch a glimpse of the cameraman’s reflection in the windows behind them.

While having breakfast, Sondra’s glass of orange juice is one third empty when viewed from Sid’s perspective. But seen from behind Sondra, it is almost completely full.

BRICK

Mystery

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Brendan Frye, a smart high school student not into drugs
Emilie de Ravin: his ex-girlfriend Emily
Matt O'Leary: Brenda’s friend Brian (aka The Brain)
Richard Roundtree: Assistant Vice-Principal Gary Trueman
plus others I didn’t get to see

REVIEW
A teenager sets out to find out who killed his ex-girlfriend. This kind of murder mystery patterned after the movie style of the ‘40’s sounds like an intriguing idea. But the mystery to me is why anyone bothered to spend money or time making it?
Who wants to listen to potty mouth dialog, rapid-fire hip-hop slang and watch frequent fights amongst the males while Brendan goes about solving the mystery. After four bloody fights I had seen enough and left.

CLASSIFICATION
for violent scenes and drug content