Day of the Falcon

Two bedouin warlords in the Arabian desert are at war in the early 20th century. They settle their differences by agreeing to a de-militarized zone between their two areas of influence. Along comes an oil prospector who discovers oil in this DMZ and old conflicts are again on the front burner. Antonio Banderas plays one of the warlords and I was unable to watch this entire film because of him alone. He seemed to be channeling an aged Clint Eastwood gravely-grumble (a la Gran Torino) as if it would add depth and stature to the character. It did not. Very bad...
1 star (out of 5)

Backwards

This is an understandably small film, since its sport of focus is rowing. Abi is a 30 year old rower who was a high school and college standout, but is only good enough to be on the bubble for the US Olympic team. Since the bubble is not good enough, she quits the team and returns home, to fall into a rowing coaching job at her old high school, with her old high school boyfriend as the athletic director. She struggles to learn how to coach at this lower level as well as how to cope with life expectations in a non-competitive life. If you don't know how this ends, then you have never seen a romantic film or a sports film. Put all your expectations for those two genres together and you get this film. This is a great late night summer rental to pass the time when you can't sleep. Pleasant, without any forced drama or annoying characters that you need to hate.
3 stars (out of 5)

Playing for Keeps

Gerard Butler plays a former Welsh soccer star who played for both country and premier club. He is now living in the Northeast US to be close to his son (and ex-wife). Since he has nothing to do, he falls into coaching his son's soccer team (which did not score a goal in the entire last season of course). A little bit of coaching and the team gets great. Butler is simultaneously fending off the single moms from the team as well as the disgruntled married moms. He is looking for work, and looking to win back the ex, and figuring out how to be responsible as a father. This is cookie cutter sports/rom-com material, and still it is fun. Butler is pretty good as a clueless single dad, and we don't overdo the sympathy factor with the kid. This is really more about adult relationships, almost a coming-of-age story for Butler. Add a couple of quirky neighbors and it is enough.
3 stars (out of 5)

Lay the Favorite

Bruce Willis plays a Vegas bookie who takes a young apprentice under his wing. The apprentice is a very ditzy, former stripper who seems to have a head for numbers (imagine Suzane Somers from Three's Company). At some point, Willis wife enters the scene to be jealous. I can't say more because the script and acting was too much like Three's Company (slapstick, ditzy, 70's) to allow me to watch more than 20 minutes. You will have to be quite desperate to watch this film completely.
1 star (out of 5)

Elysium

This film is getting pretty good reviews for a summer action flick. With the script/direction by Neill Blomkamp of District 9 fame and success along with big names Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, it has high potential and expectations. I was sorely disappointed. Damon plays a "regular guy" in 22nd century Los Angeles. That is, he was once thief and is now straightening his life out, working a factory job and keeping a low profile. The setting is quite good here, with the entirety of Los Angeles as a slum, with all manufacturing some variation of sweatshop labor conditions. The world created and visualized by Blomkamp is engaging and detailed. But the story does not fulfill expectations. Damon has an accident at work, has a few days to live and desperately works to break into Elysium, the orbiting space station for the ultra-rich, which contains medical help to cure his (or any) incurable disease. Elysium (the station) is in itself ridiculous in concept, practice and presentation. I suppose I won't even bother with the practicality since this same film gives us a Darth Maul like light saber that functions as a shield for bullets. If you accept that, you must accept everything. Even so, there was no tension and no drama. Damon's character is a working class factory man and he approaches his entire change-the-political-status-quo-for-earth as another piece of machinery coming down the assembly line. I don't know exactly what is missing here, but I left feeling flat.
2 stars (out of 5)

2 Guns

I am a sucker for a buddy cop movie. Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg are a couple of undercover cops (unbeknownst to each other) working different cases together. And when the cover is blown and everything goes wrong (of course) they begin to work together to make everything right. As the two protagonists, they are effectively the only good guys, with the DEA, Naval Intelligence, CIA, and Drug Cartel bosses all functioning as the bad guys at one time or another. The good parts of this production are that Washington/Wahlberg demonstrate a pretty good chemistry as partners and the story holds together pretty well. The expected parts are that the bad guys use machine guns in highly populated areas when they really aren't effective and a 30 second gas leak in a kitchen can cause an entire building to explode. The bad piece is the disregard for life as demonstrated by the bad guys. It is not more pervasive in this film than in anything else I have seen, but just matter of fact. Not sure that I expected different in a film titled 2 Guns, but I note it because I noticed it.
3 stars (out of 5)

The Way, Way Back

Sometimes movies are completely predictable and formulaic and you still like them. The Way, Way Back is one of those. Duncan is spending the summer with his mom and her new boyfriend at the beach house of some generic east coast beach town. It is the boyfriends house so all the friends and neighbors know him. Duncan, being a 14 year old kid who is not cool, has to figure out how to survive this awkward summer. He meets a mentor, meets the neighbor girl, confronts the boyfriend and confronts his mom. In the end is a more confident kid, mom and mentor have both recognized something deeper about themselves and in spite of the fact that life often sucks as a 14 year old kid, everything is going to be OK. Along the way, we get funny (courtesy of Sam Rockwell living like a 14 year old as well as a little bit of REO Speedwagon), we het heartfelt compassion, and quirky sidekicks. And in the end, we walk out having enjoyed laughing and feeling largely satisfied. Sometimes it is just good to embrace the formula.
4 stars (out of 5)