Colombiana - 2 1/2 smiles

Although “Colombiana,” starring Zoe Saldana, lacks any subtlety, it’s a guilty pleasure for action junkies. Saldana, whose motion-capture performance became Neytiri, the Avataran princess, is in full action mode as she demonstrates her athletic prowess and fighting skills. Cataleya (Saldana), a Colombian orphan, grows up vowing to avenge the death of her parents’ murder. In a surprising effort to develop character, director Olivier Megaton opens with a 20-minute segment that features an effective child actor (Amandia Stenberg) as young Cataleya. While doing her homework at the kitchen table, Marco (Jordi Molla) and his henchmen come for her parents. She wounds Marco with a knife and evades several heavily armed villains to seek asylum at the American Embassy. From there, she travels to Chicago and her uncle, Emilio (Cliff Curtis), who takes her in and teaches her to become a deadly assassin. While working for Emilio, Cataleya also tracks down and kills every gangster associated with Marco, which puts an FBI agent (Lennie James) on her trail.

Megaton tries hard to establish Saldana as a newer, younger, sexier action star, dressing her in tank tops and teeny denim shorts and an impossibly tight catsuit. Saldana also expertly wields a machine gun and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. She even escapes from a squad of SWAT commandos while dragging a sniper rifle that looks heavier than she is. And her culminating hand-to-hand battle with Marco looks like something from a Jason Statham movie. For the most part, “Colombiana” is showy and just a bit silly, but it’s fun nonetheless. 8/26/11

Conan the Barbarian - 1 frown

I fail to understand why studios continue to reboot movies that don’t need re-doing unless you’re going to take the time to write a solid script that develops both story and character and cast competent actors. The original 1982 Conan, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, set a low bar, but the current remake, starring Jason Mamoa, doesn’t even compare to that. Director Marcus Nispel’s latest version fails to build any emotional involvement for the audience, but that might be a lot to ask for this bloody mess. Add to that stilted acting, a weak script and lots of gratuitous violence and you’ve got a loser of a movie. After Morgan Freeman’s introductory narrative, it’s all downhill although Jason Mamoa is effective as eye candy and Ron Perlman (as Conan’s father) and Stephen Lang (as the villain) seem to be having fun. I’d say wait for cable, but that might be too much of a recommendation. 9/21/11

The Whistleblower - 3 1/2 smiles

“The Whistleblower” is director Larysa Kondracki’s gripping based-on-a-true story debut and star Rachel Weisz delivers a riveting performance. Although the movie is slow to get started and a bit jumbled in places, it ultimately reminds us that there are always people who exploit the weak and innocent and others who turn a blind eye. The movie is constructed as a relentless thriller and Weisz gives one of her best performances, portraying Bolkovac as an intensely thorough investigator who has heroism thrust upon her by the circumstances in which she finds herself. David Strathairn co-stars as Peter Ward, one of Bolkovac’s few trustworthy colleagues and Vanessa Redgrave is Madeleine Rees, a real-life official of the Human Rights Commission, who offers Bolkovac moral support. In 1999, Nebraska police officer Kathryn Bolkovac (Weisz) joins a private security company doing peacekeeping duties in Bosnia. Bolkovac thinks the peacekeepers are going to be a consortium of elite police officers, but she discovers they more closely resemble criminals with guns and diplomatic immunity. As her investigation into sex trafficking deepens, we see the true ugliness of what she’s uncovering as she gathers evidence that implicate the peacekeepers as well as their superiors. That the UN was aware of what was going on and did nothing is unbelievable.

The script, written by Kondracki and Ellis Kirwan, based on a book written by Bolkovac, is designed to make you think and to elicit outrage. The American private security firm, DynCorp International, whose operatives committed these crimes and tried to cover them up, is still employed by the US government in Iraq and Afghanistan and was used in Louisiana after Katrina. Although “The Whistleblower” is a fictional film, the facts were supported by a British labor tribunal that investigated Bolkovac’s claim against DynCorp. Unfortunately, Bolkovac was fired and has not been able to find a job in the international community. “The Whistleblower” captures the obscene violence of sex trafficking and keeps you on edge in this harrowing thriller. 8/11/11

the Help - 4 smiles

“The Help,” based on Kathryn Stockett’s blockbuster novel, has a good story, great characters, and an ensemble cast of remarkable actresses. Tate Taylor, who wrote the script and directed “The Help,” is an actor and childhood friend of Stockett’s. Both grew up in Jackson, Mississippi and both had ‘help’ who raised them. Their affection for these women is palpable. So is the absolute disgust with the white establishment, whose open racism makes for an obvious villain. The story plays out against the backdrop of MLK, JFK and Medgar Evers, but focuses on the lives of just a few households in Jackson, Miss. The first help we meet is Aibileen (Viola Davis) and the narrative plays out through her perspective. Aibileen has raised 17 children while secretly grieving the loss of her own son. Her current child is a plump cherub whose mother barely touches her. Aibileen’s friend Minny (Octavia Spencer) works for Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose ‘health sanitation initiative’ would force white families to build separate bathrooms for their black workers. Into this entrenched segregation comes Skeeter (Emma Stone), an Ole Miss graduate in search of a writing career. Quickly she zeroes in on the help, their lives, their struggles, the children they’ve raised, as the subject for a book.

“The Help” is loaded with wonderful character turns, the best of them belong to Davis and Spencer. Davis, a past Oscar nominee for Doubt, gives a masterful performance with Aibileen’s pain, anger and compassion visible in every move of her body and expression on her face. Spencer’s sassy and impudent Minny provides both laughter and satisfaction. And Stone, displaying intelligence, energy and charm, continues to show why she’s one of the best young performers in Hollywood. As Hilly, the town’s autocrat of racial propriety, Bryce Dallas Howard is truly scary. She grabs Hilly’s self-righteousness and oozy Southern charm with both hands and runs with it. And Jessica Chastain literally glows as the giddy/tragic Celia. “The Help,” one of those movies studios usually reserve for awards consideration with a November or December release, deserves to be remembered come awards time. It’s an affecting and enjoyable movie. 8/12/11

Cowboys and Aliens - 3 smiles

First of all, you have to like westerns and sci-fi to enjoy “Cowboys and Aliens.” When you get beyond this mix of genres, you’ll enjoy seeing Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford first butt heads and then join forces to rescue kidnapped people and defeat the aliens. Director Jon Favreau keeps the tone light, but never lets the humor interfere with the more serious elements. And Favreau demonstrates a deft hand at weaving familiar elements such as the Man With No Name, images borrowed from Alien and a final scene from Shane. This movie is also strong on a technical level with the CGI work on the flying space ships and the aliens although the alien close ups tend to be a little too shadowy. “Cowboys and Aliens” has a strong start and an action-packed climax, but there are times in the middle when it drags, especially during the scenes when Lonergan reunites with his old gang.

Lonergan (Craig) awakens in the middle of nowhere with a painful wound in his side, a strange metal bracelet on his left arm, and no memory of anything. But an encounter with a group of bounty hunters lets us know he’s a man to be reckoned with. When he arrives in the nearest town, he refuses to back down when Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), the arrogant son of Col. Dolarhyde (Ford), insults him. This confrontation ultimately pits Lonergan against Dolarhyde until the aliens arrive in a blaze of noise and explosions and force the two into an alliance. Meanwhile, a townswoman named Ellie (Olivia Wilde) is unusually interested in Lonergan regaining his memory and it’s apparent she knows more than she’s saying about the ‘demons’ and the bracelet that Lonergan uses to destroy them. Several instances have surprising emotional impact to mark this movie as more than typical summer fluff. “Cowboys and Aliens” is solidly engaging and another reason to see it is it’s not available in 3D. 8/4/11.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - 3 1/2 smiles

With its skillful blend of live action and motion-capture technology, “Rise of the Planets of the Apes” is an engaging prequel to a familiar story that finally answers the question, Why? This tale feels surprisingly fresh given that it is the fifth Planet of the Apes film since the original 1968. The story is told from the viewpoint of the extraordinarily intelligent chimp, Caesar (Andy Serkis). And it is Serkis’ skill, along with the technology behind Caesar, that’s so appealing. Caesar’s intelligence comes from a drug he absorbed in utero while his mother was experimented on by a pharmaceutical company. After the experiment goes awry, Will (a charismatic James Franco), the lead scientist on the experiment, takes Caesar home where he grows to love him and teaches him sign language. Because Will’s father Charles (John Lithgow) has dementia, Will is convinced that the drug he developed can help him. And, as Caesar grows and his intelligence expands, he begins to question his place in the world. And there’s lots of action in the last act of the movie when Caesar’s combative streak gets him sent to a primate shelter where he organizes the chimps, orangutans and gorillas and then engineers an escape across the Golden Gate Bridge. But at the film’s core are moral questions about genetic engineering. Caroline (Freida Pinto), a primatologist and Will’s love interest, warns Will that he is trying to control things that don’t want to be controlled.

Caesar’s nuanced performance couldn’t be achieved without Andy Serkis’ highly effective motion-capture performance and he manages to give Caesar a wide range of emotions. According to Serkis in the Miami Herald, ‘It’s a great journey of this innocent who has a profound moment of self-recognition that he’s not part of the species he’s been brought up and loved by, and so he’s this outsider, this freak who has yet to really find out who he is.’ And the key to making Caesar look real is his eyes. Weta Digital, a company in New Zealand, tracked Serkis’ pupils and relied on markers placed on his face to chart the movement of his eye muscles. ‘If you can track all the muscles of the face then you can figure out what the eyelids are doing and then you can figure out what the eyes are doing,’ said Joe Letteri, senior visual effects supervisor at Weta. And with realistic eyes comes a believable character. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is the type of summer blockbuster that you want but rarely get. See it; you’ll be pleasantly surprised. 8/7/11

Zookeeper - 1 1/2 smiles

Talking animals. That’s the reason to see “Zookeeper,” isn’t it? Surprisingly, it’s the animals that are anything but charming. With big name actors voicing the animals, it seems that director Frank Coraci and writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn go out of their way to give them all something special to do. The result is a lot of animal scenes that are shrill and noisy and not funny. Not even cute. There’s Adam Sandler as a monkey, Sylvester Stallone and Cher as lions, Maya Rudolph as a giraffe, Jon Favreau as a bear, and Nick Nolte as a depressed gorilla. Kevin James has the title role as a good-hearted zookeeper who has never gotten over being dumped by his superficial, status-conscious girlfriend (Leslie Bibb). Now five years later, with an opportunity to win her back, the animals offer their mating advice. Rosario Dawson, as the zoo’s veterinarian, also lends a hand by posing as his date to make his ex jealous. Within the comedy genre, James is effective at portraying nice guys and with his teddy-bear charm, it’s hard not to like him. Too bad the same can’t be said for the movie. 7/29/11

Crazy, Stupid, Love - 4 smiles

Although “Crazy, Stupid Love” doesn’t follow the rom-com formula, it’s one of the best comedies to come out this year, if not one of the best movies. It features an exceptionally strong ensemble cast, a witty and surprise-filled script by Dan Fogelman and perfect direction from the team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. This movie is about the crazy, stupid things people do for love and instead of focusing on one couple, it spreads the jokes, the pain and the insights around, creating a universality that everyone can appreciate and understand. There’s the babysitter (Analeigh Tipton), who’s in love with the dad (Steve Carell). There’s the son (Jonah Bobo), who’s in love with the babysitter. There’s the mom (Julianne Moore), who has an affair with a co-worker (Kevin Bacon) and then asks the dad for a divorce. There’s the smooth-talking womanizer (Ryan Gosling), who takes home a different woman every night, except the one who gets away (Emma Stone). And there’s the woman (Marisa Tomei) who becomes the first of Dad’s post-marital conquests.

After Emily confesses her infidelity, a stunned Cal agrees to move out. Depressed, Cal begins frequenting an upscale singles bar, loudly complaining about his romantic woes. After a few nights of this, Jacob pulls Cal aside and offers to teach him how to be a player. Meanwhile, Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie, is loudly proclaiming his love for 17-year-old babysitter Jessica, who is herself trying to figure out a way to seduce an unwitting Cal. At the same time, Hannah (Stone), the only woman to laugh off Jacob’s advances, is studying to take the bar exam and hanging onto her boring beau, Richard (Josh Groban). Clearly, this is the best ensemble cast of the year with Carell and Gosling having the most central roles. Cal realizes who he really is by playing who he’s not and Jacob realizes who he should be. Carell, so at home with slapstick, finds a vulnerability and sincerity in Cal. And Gosling, probably better known for his serious roles, is charismatic and hunky, proving he’s as comfortable with comedy as he is with drama. His Jacob, so full of self-confidence, reveals an underlying unhappiness and Gosling makes both elements believable. And Emma Stone lights up the screen with her humor and charisma. This is the sort of film that Oscar generally ignores. Too bad. There’s everything to like about “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” 7/31/11