Winning the championship in a fight movie rarely seems to be the ultimate goal — it’s oftentimes a metaphor or a symbol or even a badge that a fighter receives once they’ve finally gotten it; they’ve finally become the person he/she is meant to be. Personal issues, relationships, battle scars — these must be overcome, dealt with, reconciled. Meat must be punched. Stairs must be climbed. In the end — a belt wrapped around their waist, hands raised, crowds jumping into the ring to congratulate and hoist up the new king of the ring. Warrior sets up two brothers on an unpredictable collision course as they seek personal and honorable goals. Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy) returns home to his once-abusive and now-sober father Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte). The father and son combo had been responsible for dominating the state in wrestling as coach and prodigy, but those days are long gone. Riordan hopes to train for Sparta, an MMA event with a $5-million purse while Conlon wants to restart his relationship with his estranged son. Forgiveness is hard to find, and Conlon approaches his other estranged son Brendan (Joel Edgerton) in hopes of bringing the family back together. Brendan, a retired UFC fighter turned high school physics teacher, fights for money on the side to pay the mortgage until he’s suspended without pay. He turns to fighting as his main means of making money.

The characters are presented at face value, but things are expertly handled by a film-team that feels like it had a vested interest in the script. Nolte is stirring as the gravely-voiced Conlon patriarch who has turned a new leaf that requires him to ironically show restraint in situations when others would return to violence. As the brothers, Hardy and Edgerton sport similar accents and features. There is chemistry, and the tension is thick. In one scene, Brendan, the older brother, tells his younger sibling that he has forgiven him. It’s a flinch-inducing moment that happens as quick as a jab to the eye, and like the other scenes where bones are about to break, it feels remarkably violent. It is so hard to forgive and so easy to judge. The characters of Warrior learn to forgive because they each see the incredible need for themselves to find it.

Warrior (2011)
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Writers: Gavin O’Connor, Cliff Dorfman, and Anthony Tambakis
Starring: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, and Jennifer Morrison

Rating: 4 / 5

Set a little bit into the future when science is on the verge of healing Alzheimer’s and sending a man to Mars, scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) hopes to cure his father by creating drugs and testing them on chimpanzees. A potential breakthrough turns to tragedy when a chimpanzee showing increased intelligence acts out in an apparent attempt to protect its offspring and is shot dead. Rodman takes baby Ceasar home exposing the growing and impressionable primate to human experiences. More intelligent than your average ape, Ceasar deals with being an orphan and protecting those he loves. By the time Ceasar asks Rodman, “Am I a pet?” there’s enough established tension to accept the movie’s predictable outcome.

Andy Serkis of Lord of the Rings fame is the movie’s best actor though you’ll never see his actual face onscreen. As Gollum, Serkis was lauded for what it was worth — whatever technology captured of his movements and applied to the big screen, one could only wonder whether Gollum was a shade of Serkis’ talent or the product of hours of manipulation by programmers — and after watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the former may be the more likely. Ceasar is by far the most compelling character in the movie as trauma and circumstance lead him to become the new leader of the world. Having said that, the human characters seem underdeveloped. So does the plotting which at times feels forced. Emotional scenes don’t hit quite as hard though there are moments that may produce chills, like when Caesar says his first word. That scene is better than the 2001 remake in its entirety. Also worth noting are the plot ties to the upcoming sequels which one can easily spot if they’ve seen the originals.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Writers: Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
Starring: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow and Andy Serkis

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Calling TWLitF a tearjerker would be akin to calling a tornado a breeze – it’s painful and raw. Would it hurt so much if director Suzanne Bier wasn’t so delicate in the way she keeps the camera at an eye’s distance? Some say the eyes are the windows to the soul and Bier brings the camera down, or up, to the characters’ level making eye contact over and over again. It’s stirring because, like the movie, it’s not condescending. There’s no pity for the emotionally repressed Audrey (Halle Berry) who lost her husband and has to raise two children by herself. Halle plays her character with a fiery edge – Audrey’s loss only highlights the frequent outbursts she’s in the habit of making. Heroin-addict Jerry (Benicio del Toro) whose relationship to Audrey is tensely tied through his best-of-friends relationship with her husband walks a line fraught with emotional insecurities that seem inevitable when humans are involved.

It works because the movie doesn’t gloss over the details. It’s considerate in its execution – at the dinner table Audrey answers personal questions about her deceased husband. She begins to open up and it’s apparent she has matured and healed enough throughout the course of the film to finally confront the one thing she’s been running away from. It’s finally time. And after she talks about an instance where the family has lost possessions in a garage fire, she repeats her husband’s calming words. The camera turns its gaze to newly divorced Harold (John Carroll Lynch) weighing the words in his mind before the scene shifts. Moments like those, assuming in a quiet way, carry the movie and the viewer to its last scene — Jerry recalling a recurring dream then leaving the audience with the words, One day at a time. One day at a time.

Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
Director: Susanne Bier
Writer: Allan Loeb
Starring: Halle Berry, Benicio del Toro and Alison Lohman

Rating: 4 / 5

Reese Witherspoon plays Becky Sharp, a woman working her way up the rungs of England’s class-based society. She charms her way into the lives of her marks and finally finds love in the arms of Captain Rawdon Crawley who’s due to inherit a substantial amount of money. Things don’t go as planned — Napoleon attacks, Crawley goes into debt — and Sharp gets what’s coming to her.

Thackeray’s story is hijacked by a desire to make Sharp more likeable. She’s not presented as a villain — she’s a woman who knows what she wants and it seems like her selfishness is a credit to her character even though it leads to destruction. Thackeray’s story was more allegory, a satire on a corrupt society where people could buy their way into nobility. The literary Sharp psychotically manipulated and worked her way into the good graces of her hosts. Nair’s “heroine” — Thackeray’s novel carried a second title “A novel without a hero” — is a creature of wants and desires, and the movie seems to ask, Well, what’s wrong with that? Less bark and less bite, the movie version of Sharp maneuvers through circumstance using her charms and wit only to have her greed get the best of her — she hides a stack of cash in her drawer for herself while her gambling husband works his debts off. When things fall apart, she’s left devastated only to be found later living abroad, a shell of what she used to be. Opportunity strikes again and Sharp gets her happy ending, making this reviewer think that the point of this story is that no one should suffer much or long for their crimes lest they actually learn something.

Vanity Fair (2004)
Director: Mira Nair
Writers: Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Romola Garai and James Purefoy

Rating: 2 / 5

After Amazon delivery person Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) skates through one of Scott’s dreams, he can’t get her out of his mind. He stalks her at a party and finally gets the information and nerve to stage a rendezvous at his house. Their relationship begins on at the bottom of a dramatic incline — Scott must break up with his current girlfriend and high school student Knives Chau and then take on the League of Exes, an evil group of Ramona’s past lovers who band together to keep Ramona from ever finding true love.

It’s flashy, fun, and comes with the sort of quirky humor found in Edgar Wright’s other movies (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). The material is over the top, but Wright’s direction keeps it from floating away to absolute ridiculousness. There’s plenty of eye candy, but there’s more to this movie than what’s found at first glance. When Pilgrim starts to break under the pressure, Ramona wonders if he’s turning into another one of her evil exes. It’s the movie’s most serious moment and the point where Scott Pilgrim realizes the most important battle is against self.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (2010)
Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kieran Culkin

Rating: 4 / 5

Clooney plays Jack, aka Mr. Butterfly, an assassin whose career path leaves no room for long-term relationships of any kind. Aging but still precise, he’s hunted by Swedish hitmen looking for revenge. Life as an assassin begins to take its toll on Jack during a forced vacation hiding in a hillside village in Italy. Jack comes into contact with people despite him being warned to not make any friends. Relationships become dangerous, not because they become direct threats but how they force him to choose between the life he has and the life he wants.

Camerawork consists of long, drawn out shots of landscape or prying closeups that feel like you’re looking through a sniper scope. In one scene, audiences might not understand why they’re watching two automatic doors slowly slide open and then shut. They may not care. Left to contemplate the meaning of something so at-once mundane and profound at the same time if one decides to look at it through a new perspective influenced by context, it makes me think of the avenues open and shut by our own discretions and the people entering our lives at their own risk. It’s a thoughtful film that eschews explaining itself through character dialogue, and it feels that way stubbornly so. Clooney is still on top of his game, managing to draw out a subtle and sharp performance. Jack is a conflicted mess rife with inner turmoil. Not having much dialogue to work with, plenty of talent is required to emote and bring gravity to an introvert like Jack. It’s something that requires a mature and experienced presence. I interpret the movie thus: From the film’s standpoint, America is out of place in the world. It’s destructive, cavalier, and audacious. It keeps itself aloof pretending to be an island and finds itself longing to attach itself to something meaningful only to create an end to itself.

The American (2010)
Director: Anton Corbijn
Writer: Rowan Joffe
Starring: George Clooney, Paolo Bonacelli and Violante Placido

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Gru (Steve Carell) is the world’s most famous supervillain credited with stealing Times Square’s television and some lesser known landmarks. Apparently, the world has been taken over by the villains because they live amongst the citizens of the city albeit in heavily fortified domiciles that house missile security systems and sewer swimming sharks. When the Great Pyramid at Giza becomes stolen, Gru refuses to take second place. He adopts three adorable orphans for a clever heist that will get him the shrink ray he needs to steal the moon. Little does he know that the girls will end up stealing his heart.

It’s a movie that has all the right pieces and variables for its formula — cute kids, memorable lines, a horde of lovable minions, and a good dose of drama. It’s the execution and the expressive animation that really draws out an emotional response and makes it memorable. Though the movie starts off a little rocky relying too much on weaker gags and soft punchlines, it eventually takes off. It finishes strong with a great moral ending that’s great for the kids. As for the adults who may have entered hoping to get a little bit of entertainment — if they’re like me, they’ll see a little bit of Gru in themselves wanting to be loved.

Despicable Me (2010)
Directors: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
Writers: Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio
Starring: Steve Carell, Jason Segel and Russell Brand

Rating: 4 / 5

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team specialize in corporate thought-jacking. By delving into a person’s subconscious during their sleep, Cobb and crew can populate that person’s mind with environments and events. Streets are filled with projections of people and vaults hold deep hidden secrets that companies will steal for. When Cobb gets an offer he can’t refuse, he’s tasked with doing the near-impossible: implanting a thought into the mind of a mark.

It’s some of the most intelligent movie-making in years. Director Christopher Nolan has spent his career delving into the psychological — Memento played out backwards peeling away the layers of one man’s need to mentally exist. Insomnia dealt with conception and preconception. The Dark Knight put its hero through the wringer to get him to accept and become what the people needed. Inception isn’t just a loud blustery summer blockbuster — it’s heady fare for the masses. The world of Inception is presented as an absolute: The characters lay down the rules and it’s up to the audience to accept them and follow Nolan’s lead through the rabbit hole. If implanting ideas is a crime, Nolan’s public enemy #1.

Inception (2010)
Director: Christoper Nolan
Writers: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page

Rating: 5 / 5

Adrian Brody (surprisingly well-casted) plays Royce, a mercenary waking up mid-skydive. After parachuting down to the jungle below, he finds he’s not alone — several others, armed and dangerous, have fallen into the jungle recalling last memories of flashes of light. A ragtag group held together by a common bond — they’re all violent killers in some shape or form — they must discover where they’ve landed, why they’re there in the first place and how they’ll survive the journey.As the group ventures forth, they realize they’re the game to a species of alien dedicated to the hunt.

The buildup is shaky — as characters are introduced and explored, the pacing feels rushed even as it drags. Character development, discovery, and building tension seem to struggle against each other for screen time. The result is muddy though it’s more solid than soupy. The process in which the characters come to realize they’re on an alien planet feels a little contrived but once the premise is accepted and the story moves from building its foundation to opening up for rent, Predators begins to fill. It doesn’t feel as if the writers were trying to dumb things down — it’s refreshing to see an action movie that doesn’t go over the top in order to hit the right spots. This might be a classic case of trying too hard. The back stories on some of the characters were intriguing enough that I wanted to know more about them. That the characters are developed enough to establish credibility and understanding is a strength — to remove them one by one off the screen just as we start to get to know them is an unfortunate circumstance that could have benefited from a more polished script and maybe a few minutes taken from the beginning and added to the movie’s end. It’s sincere and strong — a much needed step in the right direction for the franchise.

Predators (2010)
Director: Nimród Antal
Writers: Alex Litvak and Michael Finch
Starring: Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne and Topher Grace

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Shyamalan’s newest flick releases with the Avatar part stripped from the title to keep it from being confused with the ultra successful James Cameron movie that raked in over a billion dollars. Aang (Noah Ringer) is the titular hero who can “bend” the four elements (fire, water, air, and earth) to his will. Frozen for 100 years, he’s discovered by a brother and sister team looking for food, Sokka (Jason Rathbone) and Katara (Nikola Peltz), who end up travelling with Aang to unite the world against the imperialistic Fire Nation.

It’s one thing to try and cram an entire season’s worth of the television show into one 103-minute movie — much of the story from the television show was probably cut and left on the editing floor. Picking and choosing what’s left in, Shyamalan puts himself in the line of fire of fans who worry about things like directors taking shows and ruining them. Fears may be justified after seeing TLA because, while the special effects and cinematography are rather impressive, the rest is not. The story is stir-fry with poorly connected scenes, and dialogue is used to narrate events. The dialogue is poorly written and would sound bad enough coming from the most elite of thespians, but this film’s stock of actors and actresses don’t have the collective talent (or perhaps direction) to match the production values which is a highlight — Shyamalan still has it in terms of flash, and the action helps carry the movie. If there is a sequel, it would be best to relegate director/writer/producer/casting director Shyamalan to one-quarter of his duties, at least until he gets his swing back.

Rating: 1.5 / 5