RIO

Animated action/adventure

PRINCIPAL VOICES
Leslie Mann: Linda, owner of an independent bookstore
Jesse Eisenberg: Blu, her male domesticated Macaw
Rodrigo Santoro: Túlio, a Brazilian ornithologist (a zoologist who studies birds)
Anne Hathaway: Jewel, a female Macaw
Jake Austin: Brazilian teenager Fernando
Carlos Ponce: exotic bird smuggler Marcel
will.i.am: Pedro, a red crested Cardinal
Jamie Foxx: Nico, a yellow Canary
Georger Lopez: Rafael, a Toucan
Tracy Morgan: Luiz, a bulldog
Jemaine Clement: Nigel, a Cockatoo

REVIEW
The story pitting good guys vs. bad guys is frequently put on hold for a musical interlude most often the samba that is so much part of the vibrant city of Rio de Jeneiro. It’s charming, very colourful and there’s a realistic rendering of the animals and birds.

Anyone older than 10 will probably find the humour to be mildly amusing, not the laugh-out-loud sort. It lacks the jokes geared to the adults that goes over the head of the kids so children will get a bigger kick out of it, this despite the absence of the rude body noises they have come to expect.

CLASSIFICATION
for mild off color humor.

P.S.
The producers have gone to great lengths to capture the reality of Rio even to the extent of the wavy sidewalk pattern along the beach front and correctly showing the Rio Samba School Parade taking place within the grandstand area rather than out on the city streets.

SOURCE CODE

Science fiction thriller

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Jake Gyllenhaal: U.S. Army helicopter pilot Captain Colter Stevens
Michelle Monaghan: 28-year-old Christina Warren
Vera Farmiga: Air Force Capt. Colleen Goodwin
Jeffrey Wright: Source Code inventor Dr. Rutledge

REVIEW
Sci-fi fans will immediately recognize the time loop plot device in which time runs normally for a set period (in this case 8 minutes) then resets to the beginning and repeats as many times as required.

Couple that with the newest technology that allows the US military to use “time reassignment” that sends the subject to a place in time as someone other than himself and you have the makings of a very entertaining hour and a half.

There are some really good performances, the action is fast paced and the CGI quite good. My only one serious complaint is the fact the 8 minute sequences soon become a bit tiresome. Fewer sometimes is better.

CLASSIFICATION
for some violence including disturbing images, and for language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
1. The Rotating product placement is one of my favourite nitpicks: from one shot to the next the item in question moves about without being touched so that the brand name is clearly seen. In this instance it is the Dunking Donuts bag on the seat beside Christina.
2. Colter gets off the Chicago-bound commuter train at the Glenbrooke station (the thinly disguised real Glenview station) and the platform clock behind him correctly shows the time to be 7:43 (the scheduled time for train #2116) the but the clock in the trackside station tower reads 4:10.
3. Colter passes by several bikes getting to the exit door; bikes are not permitted on this early morning train.
4. Given that the train is travelling north to south and he alights on the left hand side he would be in early morning shadow not bright sunlight.
5. The crane shot above the platform clearly shows downtown Chicago to be reasonably close; Glenbrooke station is a good 20 miles from the city.
6. Later with the train speeding towards its destination seeing Lake Erie on the right hand side means our point of view is from the East whereas train # 2116 is coming from the north.
7. Colter Is given a phone number to call beginning with 465. There is no such area code in the United States.

P.S.
Canadian comic Russell Peters plays it mostly straight but does have one stand-up routine worth a chuckle.

JANE EYRE

Romantic drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Mia Wasikowska: 19-year-old Jane Eyre (pronounced jane air)
Jamie Bell: Reverend St. John Rivers
Holliday Grainger: one of his sisters Diana
Tamzin Merchant: the other sister Mary
Michael Fassbender: wealthy Edward Fairfax Rochester
Judi Dench: his housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax
Romy Settbon Moore: 10-year-old or so Adele

REVIEW
Full disclosure: the story definitely has more appeal to women so keep that in mind when considering the following “unbiased” review.

This latest effort from the BBC Studios proves once again that no one does period drama better than the British in terms of high production values.

However it comes up short in four other areas:
1. The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that “if a writer could infuse human interest and a semblance of truth into a fantastic tale then likely the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative”. Certainly that is a requirement with regard to the romantic aspect of the story. In a word, it does not ring true.
2. The acting is all over the place: Wasikowska and Judi Dench are great, Fassbender does a decent job but Sally Hawkins is rather lacklustre.
3. The film goes on far too long at just over two hours.
4. But worst than that they squandered away a key element as one audience member so succinctly put it “the ending is far too abrupt and not nearly as satisfying as in the original novel by Charlotte Brontë”.

CLASSIFICATION
for some thematic elements including a nude image (it’s a painting for Pete’s sake, why so harsh?) and brief violent content (very brief and not very violent).

WINTER IN WARTIME

War drama
Some dialogue in Dutch and German with English subtitles.
Original title: Oorlogswinter

F.Y.I.
In May 1940 Germany attacked France though the Low Countries. Thus began the occupation of Holland by the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Martijn Lakemeier: 14-year old Michiel van Beusekom
Jess van Driel: his friend Theo
Raymond Thiry: Michiel’s father Jacob, the town mayor
Jamie Campbell Bower: Jack, downed British paratrooper
Yorick van Wageningen: Michiel’s Uncle Ben
Melody Klaver: Michiel’s sister Erica, a nurse

REVIEW
No doubt based on a true story the plight of the Dutch during the occupation created conflict and questionable loyalties even among families. Seen from the perspective of a 14-year-old makes it even more difficult to completely understand the situation.

The unhurried pace allows time to better appreciate the seriousness of the situation and the great attention to detail makes it all that much more believable.

CLASSIFICATION
for some language. This is hardly justified: two, maybe three f-words to me is not sufficiient reason for such a harsh rating. PG would be more appropriate.

THE LINCOLN LAWYER

Murder mystery

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Matthew McConaughey: Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Mick Haller
Laurence Mason: his chauffeur Earl
John Leguizamo: bail bondsman Val Valenzuela
Ryan Phillippe: Beverly Hills playboy Louis Roulet
Bob Gunton: the Roulet family lawyer Cecil Dobbs
Frances Fisher: Louis’ mother Mary Windsor
William H. Macy: private investigator Frank Levin
Marisa Tomei: Mick’s ex Maggie
Josh Lucas: assistant D.A. Ted Minton

REVIEW
I don’t know if there are street-smart wise-guy lawyers like Mick in LA but there should be. It’s refreshing to see a lawyer who comes across as somebody you’d like to sit down and have a drink with. Perhaps it’s the way McConaughey plays it but it makes for an entertaining outing.

The well written story plays out quickly with enough clues for solving the mystery rather than leaving the viewer totally befuddled; that’s worth the price of admission alone.

The acting is uniformly very good and the characters more-or-less believable. Something you don’t see too often in movies of this sort.

CLASSIFICATION
for some violence, sexual content and language.

UNKNOWN

Thriller

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Liam Neeson: Dr. Martin Harris
January Jones: his wife Liz
Diane Kruger: taxi driver Gina
Karl Markovics: Dr.Farge
Eva Löbau: Nurse Gretchen Erfurt
Bruno Ganz: former Stasi agent Ernst Jürgen
Sebastian Koch: seminar host Professor Bressler
Frank Langella: Martin’s longtime colleague Professor Rodney Cole

REVIEW
It is far too complicated to make any sense of it. And too long at almost two hours in part because the chase scenes go on forever.

But back to the storyline: there are far easier ways to accomplish the task at hand than this convoluted mishmash round-about method involving at least a half dozen people on both sides. It gets to the point there is no way of knowing what is real or not, why the bad guys (or are they the good guys?) are out to harm our hero.

After a while you just give up trying to figure things out because it does not make any sense, hoping that at the end the dénoument will clarify things. Well sorry to tell you but it doesn’t.

CLASSIFICATION
for some intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sexual content.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• While in the taxi on their way to the hotel Dr. and Mrs. Harris pass a roadside clock that shows the time to be 8:37 but moments later he checks his cell phone and the time shown is 9:03.
• While checking in he tells the receptionist his name but she addresses him as Mister Harris, something that would never happen in a five star hotel.
• The Band-Aid he has on his forehead changes position from one scene to the next
• When Martin takes the subway he checks his watch; it reads 2:18 but a minute later when he alights the platform clock shows it to be 9:30.
• Unlike the real thing his Canadian passport has a clear film covering the photo page.

RANGO

84th Academy Award for Best Animated Feature film

Animated Western

PRINCIPAL VOICES
Johnny Depp: Lars, a pet chameleon later known as Rango
Alfred Molina: Roadkill, an armadillo
Isla Fisher: the rancher's daughter Beans, a desert iguana
Ray Winstone: Bad Bill, a gila monster
Ned Beatty: Mayor Tortoise John
Bill Nighy: Rattlesnake Jake
Abigail Breslin: Priscilla, a mousy schoolgirl
Harry Stanton: Balthazar, leader of the robber gang

REVIEW
Although the movie poster would have you believe this one is for kids, that is deceptive because it definitely is not for young children. In fact, some older children will be frightened by the sight of the ferocious hawk swooping down on the townspeople about 15 minutes into the film. And if that is not scary enough wait until the western diamond back rattlesnake shows up with its menacing fangs threatening evil to all.

Although the animation is state-of-the-art, most of the creatures are unpleasant to look at, particularly the extreme close-ups with warts and all. And how about trying to focus on the storyline while some poor bird is walking around with the shaft of an arrow sticking out of one eye?

There’s no shortage of violence to keep the kids amused including shooting off someone’s unmentionables to settle the score. But there definitely is a shortage of humour, at best the odd groaner from time to time.

CLASSIFICATION
for rude humor, language, action and smoking.