Abduction - 2 smiles

When you’re watching an action movie, you don’t really expect top-notch acting. If you did, there’d be a lot of actors out of work, especially Arnold Schwarznegger (in his heyday), Jason Statham and Keanu Reeves, to name a few. So it seems unfair of critics to point out that Taylor Lautner, in his first starring role since appearing in the Twilight series, is too wooden in his acting. Give him a chance to learn more of his craft. Unfortunately, the script for “Abduction,” written by Shawn Christensen, leaves a lot to be desired and that you can criticize. It rarely makes sense with its complex back-story and the fact a teenager continually eludes Russian bad guys and the CIA. And the end is total deus ex machina. You don’t even get the satisfaction of Nathan (Lautner’s character) defeating the villain. However, director John Singleton surrounds his young leads with ‘star power’ in secondary roles. There’s Maria Bello and Jason Isaacs as Nathan’s parents. They lend gravitas, but don’t stay around long enough to help the movie. Alfred Molina appears from time-to-time as the CIA task force leader out to save/capture Nathan. Michael Nyquist, star of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, is an effective bad guy and Sigourney Weaver plays Nathan’s therapist.

The film begins with a typical high school party where Nathan (Lautner) drinks too much and is grounded by his parents (Bello and Isaacs). Things turn complicated when Nathan stumbles on his picture on a website for abducted children. By the time he realizes his life has been a lie, he’s in danger. Nathan and his neighbor, Karen (Lily Collins) are on the run, uncertain of whom they can trust. The preposterous premise involves a stolen list of US government officials selling secrets to enemy agents. Nonetheless, Singleton’s fight and chase scenes are effective, especially the ultimate showdown at a Pittsburgh Pirate’s baseball game at PNC Park. Although Lautner doesn’t embarrass himself with the action portions of “Abduction,” neither does he win any acting awards. And the poor box office demonstrates that, for his next action movie, he needs a better script. 9/28/11

Dolphin Tale - 3 1/2 smiles

“Dolphin Tale,” inspired by the true story of Winter, a south Florida bottlenose dolphin who lost her tail in a crab trap, is a heart-warming movie, one children and adults will enjoy. Although the story is predictable and a bit clichéd, the cast is delightful and the direction solid. Raised by a single mother (Ashley Judd), Sawyer (Nathan Gamble), a shy, lonely, 11-year-old boy, comes to the aid of a dolphin that has washed ashore, tangled in ropes, her tailfin severely damaged and near death. Sawyer bonds with the dolphin while waiting for a rescue team from a local animal hospital. Worried about the dolphin, Sawyer skips summer school to sneak into the hospital, where he’s befriended by young Hazel (Cozi Zuehisdorff), whose dad, Dr. Clay Haskett (Harry Connick Jr.) runs the facility. Sawyer is so shy he can barely speak, but the people working with Winter encourage him to help with her care. This involves an attempt to preserve her swimming ability after infection requires her tail to be amputated. A prosthetics specialist (Morgan Freeman) at a nearby VA hospital agrees to design an artificial tail, a task that requires several models, before he finds one that works.

There’s also an uplifting subplot involving Sawyer’s cousin Kyle (Austin Stowell), a champion swimmer, who enlists in the Army and returns with a back and leg injury that affects his swimming. He’s depressed until he, too, gets involved with Winter’s recovery. And when word about Winter’s amazing resilience gets out, people with disabilities, children and adults alike, flock to see her. Although Nathan Gamble gives an effective performance as Sawyer, the real star of the movie is the wonderful Winter, who plays herself and steals every scene. The closing credits note that visitors can see Winter at Florida’s Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Director Charles Martin Smith, who starred in Never Cry Wolf and directed Air Bud, knows family fare and guides his capable cast with a sure hand. The script by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi not only tells an amazing story but also includes life-affirming lessons. If you see “Dolphin Tale,” stay through the end credits, where the director includes news footage and videos capturing Winter as she interacts with children and poses for photos with military veterans who sport similar limbs made from artificial materials. You might also want to check out Winter’s own Web page. 9/24/11

Moneyball - 4 smiles

If you’re a baseball fan, you’re going to enjoy “Moneyball,” starring Brad Pitt. If you’re not a fan, you’re still going to like this movie that’s about baseball and much, much more. You see, it’s also about innovation and transforming a system. Pitt gives a strong, nuanced performance as the temperamental Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics; the supporting cast is strong, especially Jonah Hill; and the script is sharp and insightful. Pitt and Hill make for an endearingly odd couple – the 40-something baseball player turned manager and the portly 20-something nerd and their chemistry is surprisingly effective. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s turn as Art Howe, the gruff and insubordinate A’s manager, proves that he’s good at playing nasty. Director Bennett Miller, who directed Hoffman in Capote, has a deft hand with the sports material and Brad Pitt is outstanding under his guidance. The movie is about 15 minutes too long as it attempts to include a father-daughter subplot that doesn’t fully work, but the acerbic humor and memorable dialogue of the script, written by Steve Zaillan and Aaron Sorkin, more than makes up for this.

Because Oakland is a small-market team, Billy Beane (Pitt) doesn’t have the money to spend on players that teams like the Yankees or Red Sox do. In fact, richer teams eventually steal all of his good players. Then Beane meets Peter Brand (Hill), a young man with a Yale education working as a statistician in Cleveland. Brand has taken to heart the statistical calculations championed by Bill James, who wrote The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. Beane brings Peter to Oakland to help him find some talent that he can afford. In the process, Beane throws out the way he had assembled teams in the past that were based on the assessments, hunches and prejudices of his veteran scouts. (One scout didn’t like the way a player’s girlfriend looked.) He also locks horns with team manager Art Howe (Hoffman), but Beane’s controversial methods result in a record-breaking 20-game winning streak. “Moneyball” takes a dry story about numbers and turns it into something enjoyable and illuminating. It’s one of the best movies of the year. 9/23/11

Killer Elite - 1 1/2 smiles

You’d think “Killer Elite,” a movie starring Jason Statham and Clive Owen (two of my favorite action actors) plus a cameo by Robert Di Niro, would be a sure-fire hit. And while their presence does help, there’s not much that can save this mess of a movie directed by Gary McKendry. The culprit appears to be the script by Gary McKendry & Mike Sherring, based on The Feather Men by Ranulph Fiennes, which has resulted in a confusing, lack-luster story. The opening caption informs us that the movie is ‘based on a true story’ so we’re supposed to accept what we see as factual. While there might be a kernel of truth lurking somewhere “Killer Elite,” to say that the whole story is true would be a mistake. And the more interesting aspect of the plot, that of a group of shadowy ex-SAS officers heading a kind of cabal that does things the British government wouldn’t sanction, is glossed over.

The focus is on Danny (Statham), a professional assassin, who is called back into action when his partner, Hunter (De Niro), is kidnapped by a sheik in Omar who wants Danny to avenge the deaths of his three sons at the hands of SAS operatives. Hunter will be released when Danny has completed his task. To make matters more difficult, Danny is required to obtain videotaped confessions from each man and to make their deaths look like accidents. Danny is aided by Davies (Dominic Purcell) and Meier (Aden Young) and opposed by an ex-SAS operative named Spike (Owen). There’s enough action to keep adrenalin junkies happy and it's interesting to see Statham and Owen in face-to-face combat, but the lack of a compelling story makes “Killer Elite” unfulfilling and disappointing. 9/25/11

Drive - 3 1/2 smiles

If “Drive” didn’t have so much gratuitous violence, I would have had no reservation about giving it a 4 - because it has so much going for it. First, and foremost, it has Ryan Gosling, who continues to demonstrate that he is one of our most talented and versatile actors. It has a creative noir script that keeps you guessing about what’s going to happen next. It has a capable cast of supporting actors including Carey Mulligan who gives her Irene an air of poignant sadness (although I would have liked a little more chemistry between her character and Gosling’s; Albert Brooks, a mild-mannered thug one minute and evil incarnate the next; Ron Perlman whose volatility is the only predictable element in the film. It has a compelling electronic soundtrack and visions of contemporary Los Angeles filled with mini-malls, cheap apartments, run-down garages and rides along the Los Angeles River. It has Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn who punctuates his deliberate pace with punches of violence.

Although Gosling says very little, he manages to dominate every scene with a look, a gesture. His name is Driver and by day, he either works in a garage or is a stunt driver in movies and he moonlights as a wheelman. After befriending Irene (Mulligan), a neighbor whose husband is in prison, and her young son, Driver finds himself in an awkward position when the husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), is released and comes home. Driver impulsively offers to help Standard in a scheme to help steal $1 million from a pawnshop to pay back a prison debt, but when things go wrong, he follows his own code of honor. Unfortunately, violence, lots of it, drives “Drive.” A heist gone bad puts blood on the walls. So does a beating Driver delivers with a hammer at a strip joint and with his foot in an elevator. There’s a death caused by a fork and a wicked-looking knife. Needless to say, there’s a lot of blood and gore and it didn’t have to be so obvious. “Drive” is worth seeing. You might, however, want to avoid looking at the blood and gore. 9/17/11

My Afternoons with Margueritte - 3 smiles

“My Afternoons with Margueritte,” starring Gerard Depardieu,is a French feel-good movie about a middle-aged, and often outspoken lout, who encounters an elderly intellectual (97-year-old Gisele Casadesus) in the park. They are lonely souls who find, in each other, kindred spirits. And although there’s predictability in the story, it’s still heartwarming to watch a man, with the help of a caring individual and a good book, move from ignorance to knowledge and from the malice he was raised in to self-confidence. Director Jean Becker showcases strong performances from Depardieu and Casadesus.

The overweight Germain (Depardieu) meets Margueritte one sunny afternoon on a park bench as they watch the pigeons and they become fast friends. Soon Margueritte is introducing the uneducated Germain to such highbrow literature as Albert Camus’ ThePlague. Though Germain calls himself a loser, he has a lot going for him. He’s gentle, compassionate, reads the dictionary to his cat and has a sexy young (perhaps too young) girlfriend, bus driver Annette (Sophie Guillemin). In flashbacks, we learn more about his dysfunctional family. His mother continually humiliated him as a child as did his teacher and he never knew his father. Plus his mother lives next door to him now and she still yells and berates him. “My Afternoons with Margueritte” is sentimental, but it clearly shows about how a chance encounter can have unexpected, although positive, consequences. Subtitles. 9/16/11

Our Idiot Brother - 3 smiles

“Our Idiot Brother,” starring a very likable Paul Rudd, is charming, optimistic and funny, a rare mix in an end-of-summer movie. Plus it’s just quirky enough to be enjoyable without being annoying. Paul Rudd is Ned, a laid-back organic farmer and idealist who’s so trusting he sells pot to a cop while the cop is in uniform. After he gets out of jail, Ned discovers that his nasty/hippie girlfriend (Kathryn Hahn) has replaced him with another space cadet, Billy (T.J. Miller) and, to add insult to injury, she won’t let Ned have is dog, Willie Nelson, back. Ned returns to New York, where he takes turns living with his three sisters, Liz (Emily Mortimer), married with children to egocentric Dylan (Steve Coogan); ambitious Miranda (Elizabeth Banks); and ditzy Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), who is partnered with lawyer Cindy (Rashida Jones).

“Our Idiot Brother, written by Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall and directed by Jesse Peretz, is refreshingly unpredictable. Initially, Ned disrupts everyone’s lives with both alarming candor and social cluelessness. Yet in the end it turns out everyone would be better off if they were just a bit more like Ned. But none of this works if you don’t buy Ned’s mix of naïveté and goofiness and Paul Rudd walks a fine line in bringing him to life. Ned has to be nice, but not a fool. Sweet, but not saccharine. Honest enough to cause trouble, but always with the best intentions. Not only doesn’t Ned lie, but he also never knows when he has been lied to. While there might be some awkward transitions and some implausible events, “Our Idiot Brother” is such a likable movie that you really won’t mind. 9/1/11

Warrior - 3 smiles

Although “Warrior” manages the fight scenes effectively, when the focus is on the story, there are way too many contrivances to result in an altogether satisfying movie-going experience. Two Pittsburgh brothers, both in their 30s and estranged for years, are in desperate need of money. The elder, Brendan (Joel Edgerton), a mild-mannered, much loved physics teacher at the local high school, has mortgage problems. He fights to earn extra money so he and his family won’t lose their home. The younger brother, Tommy (Tom Hardy), is an ex-marine and a brooding hothead. Though you’re not sure why Tommy needs money at the start of the movie, he asks his father, Paddy (Nick Nolte), to coach him as he prepares for ‘Sparta,’ a $5 million mixed martial arts tournament in Atlantic City.

What are the odds that they’ll end up in the ring together? No manipulation here, right? Is it believable that these two amateur fighters could land two out of only 16 spots in a multi-million dollar competition of world-class fighters? As the movie progresses, you can predict plot points long before each happens. However, the two leads, Edgerton and Hardy, rise above plot contrivances and melodrama to give powerful performances as damaged men. And although we know nothing about Nick Nolte’s character other than he’s their father and he’s full of regret for his past behavior as a drunk and abusive father, Nolte, too, is moving as a man trying to win a reconciliation with his sons. In addition, Director Gavin O’Connor handles the brutal fight scenes well.  Tommy, seething with anger, demolishes his opponents in brutally short order while Brendan, less physically talented than his brother but incapable of quitting, endures endless abuse in the ring while waiting for an opportunity to pin his opponent. Their progress to the inevitable conclusion, while implausible, is, nonetheless, compelling. Too bad “Warrior” ends abruptly without giving the audience time to savor the victory. 9/9/11

Contagion - 2 1/2 smiles

Instead of getting to know (and care about) various characters in intersecting storylines, “Contagion” is surprisingly bloodless and detached, much like news reporting. It is more procedural with circumstances forcing the characters to do most of their work in isolation or by cell phone. So if you’re hoping for a horror movie, you’re in for a surprise. “Contagion’s” success is making you think twice about what you touch (like elevator buttons, credit cards and door knobs) and the lightening speed with which germs can spread. The movie opens on Day 2 with Victim 1, a Minneapolis businesswoman, Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow), who has just returned to the US from China. Soon anyone who came into contact with her gets the chills, a cough and a fever with death following quickly, but Beth’s husband (Matt Damon) is oddly immune. Once Beth dies, the movie jumps to a CDC official (Laurence Fishburne) in Atlanta trying to figure out the disease to his employee (Kate Winslet) doing dangerous work gathering information in the field. Then to a San Francisco blogger (Jude Law), who becomes famous by running an alarmist website and a World Health Organization scientist (Marion Cottillard), who goes to China.

A lot of characters come and go. Some, like Jennifer Ehle’s CDC doc, are important while others, like Elliott Gould’s rogue scientist, disappear quickly. John Hawkes’ janitor appears a few times. Someone is kidnapped and then we don’t see her until the end. And we’re never told why Damon’s character is immune while millions are dying. Director Stephen Soderbergh is obviously more interested in the progression of the disease because other practical considerations are also glossed over. Everyone seems to have electricity because lights and computers work. Isn’t everyone sick or staying home? What happens to the world’s economies? At least we have an idea of the conditions that might cause Cormac McCarthy’s The Road to happen. And be sure to stay for the epilogue, a clever re-enactment of how the virus started and what happened during Day 1. There’s a sense of dread in “Contagion” and the close-to-factual presentation of information will scare you silly. Nonetheless, “Contagion” doesn’t touch your soul or move you to tears. It should have. 9/10/11

The Debt - 3 smiles

Although the storyline for “The Debt,” is relatively easy to understand, director John Madden keeps his scenes crackling with tension as he jumps back and forth between events in 1966 and 1997, but the segments that transpire in Cold War East Berlin are especially compelling. Madden gets the paranoid feel of 1960s Berlin perfectly. Whereas the sequences in 1997 have less urgency and the climax feels too contrived and less believable. In 1966, three Mossad agents, Stephan (Marton Csokas), David (Sam Worthington) and Rachel (Jessica Chastain), are brought together in East Berlin to capture Nazi war criminal Bernhardt (Jesper Christensen), the ‘Surgeon of Birkenau’ and deliver him to Israel for pubic trial. Unfortunately, things don’t go according to plan and nearly 30 years later, these three gather once again. Stephan (now Tom Wilkinson) has a secret that needs to be kept; David (now Ciaran Hinds) is weighed down by guilt, and Rachel (now Helen Mirren) may have to return to fieldwork after decades of retirement.

The acting is outstanding, especially the three younger performers. Marton Csokas, Sam Worthington and Jessica Chastain display a chemistry that marks them as confederates and sometimes lovers, but never friends. And while there’s nothing wrong with their older counterparts, they aren’t necessarily the best fits for the parts even if Chastain and Mirren had discussions about using similar gestures. They just don’t look enough like their younger ‘selves’ to be effective. In addition, there are several instances in 1997 that strain credibility, especially the long note that Rachel writes even though she has seconds to write it and get out of the hospital room. And she writes it in Russian, no less! Even so, “The Debt” is definitely worth seeing. 9/4/11

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame - 3 smiles

“Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame” is a lavish historical whodunit set around the coronation of China’s first empress and focuses on Di Renjie, or Detective Dee (Andy Lau), a real-life Tang Dynasty official who has been popularized in mystery novels and TV series. When the film opens in 689 AD, Dee has been imprisoned for eight years for opposing Wu Zetian (Carina Lau), who is about to take the throne as empress, an event being commemorated by the construction of an enormous Buddha statue that towers over the palace. The soon-to-be empress orders Dee’s release from prison so he can investigate the murders of two high-ranking court officials, both of whom burst into flame upon being exposed to sunlight. While most assume the killings to be the work of divine intervention, Dee, along with Wu’s most trusted servant, Jung’er (Li Bingbing) and judicial officer Pei Donglai (Deng Chao), eventually determine that a specific poison was used. From there, they must get to the bottom of a very elaborate plot.

“Detective Dee” is full of visual splendor and creative imagination. Every scene is packed with ornate detail from beautiful costumes to Wu’s ornate hairstyles to the spooky underground Black City. And Director Tsui Hark enhances his intricate narrative with flamboyant sets, and all-star cast and action director Sammo Hung’s amazing fight choreography. It’s unfortunate that with flying arrows, talking stags and deadly insects, it’s too easy to get lost in the convoluted plot. All of this is entertaining, but after a while, sensory overload sets in. Subtitles. 9/1/11