It is fair to assume that most people walking into this movie would expect a quirky, humorous satire of the ineffectual, bureaucratic heart of the United States military. The trailer, available below, certainly forwards this message.

The military decides to begin a program designed to create super soldiers through the use of telepathy, telekinesis and other odd, unproven mental skills. George Clooney fronts the film which seems to have been made with a Coen Brothers vibe.

That vibe isn't there. Neither is the story.

Yes, some aspects of the story are true. The government did have a time when it delved into alternative concepts like remote viewing. Unfortunately, being true doesn't always translate into being watchable.

In all of its attempts at being zany and too cool for the room, this film commits one of the unforgivable sins: it is dull. It is open-mouthed, broadly announced yawn kind of dull. Start daydreaming about the household tasks that remain undone kind of dull. Kevin Spacey ten years past when he gave up trying kind of dull.

Have you ever seen a Coen Brothers movie like Burn After Reading or The Hudsucker Proxy where they just can't make it work? Their cobbled together plot is too creaky and loose to function properly? This leaves them with a bunch of scenes that feel under-worked? This whole movie is one of those scenes. Quirky jokes that aren't amusing. Not good.

Skip this one. It wasn't done cooking before they served it up.




Related Reviews:
George Clooney movies
Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
Ocean's 11 (2001)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Los Angeles Times
Roger Ebert





Click here to buy your copy of
You Are What You See and learn
to change the world from your couch

Labels: Ewan McGregor, film, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, movie review, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, Stephen Root

Who doesn’t love a wandering movie following the vile adventures of a bunch of junkies?

This is a bitter film wallowing in the ugliness of humanity. Yes, it offers a very effective look at the issue of addiction, but it does so through the lens of stylized coolness that cheapens the impact. The film barely summons the strength to condemn the characters save the worst of them, played by Robert Carlyle.

Granted, Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) is at the helm so this a well constructed film. Of course, you will have to suffer through amoral portrayals of drug use, death, full frontal nudity, and stark violence.

This film wants to be smart and cool. It’s not that, it’s just a sick yarn that offers little for the audience except clever editing and titillation.


Related Reviews:
Danny Boyle movies
28 Days Later (2002)
Sunshine (2007)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Need Coffee.com
Roger Ebert

Labels: Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, film, Johnny Lee Miller, Kelly MacDonald, movie review, Robert Carlyle

This is a very good trailer. It does a wonderful job of selling the film and the performances. George Clooney does have a goofy comedic side which doesn't get utilized enough. As this trailer displays, he has a particularly good knack for double-takes.






Screenwriters: Jon Ronson (How to Lose Friends & Alienate People)
Director: Grant Heslov
Actors: George Clooney (Burn After Reading), Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting), Jeff Bridges (The Fisher King), Kevin Spacey (21), Stephen Lang (Avatar), Robert Patrick (Terminator II: Judgment Day), Stephen Root (Office Space) and Waleed Zuaiter

Labels: Ewan McGregor, film, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, movie trailer, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, Stephen Root

It's National Treasure in the Vatican. Or is National Treasure, Angels and Demons taking place in Washington DC? Either way...

For those who were all whipped up over the blasphemy of The Da Vinci Code, you have little to complain about with this production. With this prequel, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is brought into the Vatican to investigate to thwart a possible terrorist attack involving the Illuminati.

Like The Da Vinci Code, director Ron Howard, who normally is a very strong film maker (watch the completely under-rated Cinderella Man to see his best work) but he is hindered by his source material. This is a strained film that can't quite make itself work in an organic fashion. I never lost the feeling I was watching a movie, that I was being manipulated and pushed from scene to scene.

Unlike The Da Vinci Code, this production is watchable and not unbearably boring. The conspiracy at the heart of the narrative at least makes some sense in the context of the story and even the absurd conclusion works if one doesn't think about it.

Hanks has little to do and pretty much replicates his previous performance. He is a master actor, one of the great communicators known in Western Civilization, but here he is left ignoring his talents and simply playing out typical Hollywood scenes of peril. It is like watching a young Michael Jordan playing a game of horse.

If this is the kind of film that sparks your interest, you may like it. For the Catholic readers, there is still plenty here that will annoy you, but most likely it won't offend (at least not deeply). This isn't an attack on your faith, it just uses your religion for a while and then goes away.

In the end, I can't recommend this film because I am sensitive to the continued attack on the Catholic faith. I am not a Catholic, but I am a Christian. Any production that reduces one of us reduces all of us. Even if we set aside the casual use of the Catholic faith for cheap thrills, the dismissive use of the Illuminati still gives me pause. I know a counselor who has personally deprogrammed former members of the real Illuminati and this film underplays the organizations real life dangers. The way this film portrays the evil organization is no different than if they showed Nazis as being really committed socialists. This is serious stuff Howard is messing with and his lack of care with this element is troubling to say the least.




Related Reviews:
Tom Hanks movies
Big (1988)
The Terminal (2005)


Other Critic’s Reviews:
Need Coffee
ReelViews

Labels: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ewan McGregor, film, movie review, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Hanks

Screenwriters: David Koepp (Spider-man) and Akiva Goldsman (The Da Vinci Code)
Director: Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon)
Actors: Tom Hanks (The Green Mile), Ayelet Zurer (Vantage Point), Ewan McGregor (Miss Potter) and Stellan Skarsgård (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End)

Labels: Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, film, movie trailer, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Hanks

Maybe they should also advertise that you'll have plenty of choices of seats at the theater as a selling point.

The team that brought you the gibbering mess that was The Da Vinci Code is back to bore you some more. The problem with this trailer is that many non-Catholics aren't going to understand the relevance of the smoke and probably couldn't place the location, let alone define the Illuminati. Effectively, the trailer simply says, hey it's dark and we're going to show something creepy.

Its possible this is the Dan Brown adaptation that will translate to the screen. Personally, I doubt it, but I've been wrong before. I'm willing to bet this will be The Da Vinci Code with a little more pepper in its step but not a great work. Take a look, watch the teaser below and let me know what you think.





Screenwriter: Akiva Goldsman (I am Legend)
Director: Ron Howard (Cinderella Man)
Actors: Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan), Ayelet Zurer (Vantage Point), Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) and Stellan Skarsgård (Beowulf & Grendel)

Labels: Ewan McGregor, movie trailer, Ron Howard, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Hanks

Screenwriter: George Lucas (American Graffiti)
Director: George Lucas (Willow)
Actors: Ewan MacGregor (Robots), Hayden Christensen (Life as a House), Natalie Portman (Garden State), Samuel L. Jackson (The Incredibles), Christopher Lee (Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse) and Ian McDiarmid (Dragonslayer)

Labels: Ewan McGregor, film, George Lucas, Hayden Christensen, movie trailer, Natalie Portman, Samuel L Jackson, Star Wars

Screenwriter: George Lucas (American Graffiti) and Jonathan Hales (The Scorpion King)
Director: George Lucas (Willow)
Actors: Ewan MacGregor (The Island), Hayden Christensen (Shattered Glass), Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta), Samuel L. Jackson (1408), Christopher Lee (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) and Ian McDiarmid (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)

Labels: Ewan McGregor, film, Hayden Christensen, movie trailer, Natalie Portman, Samuel L Jackson, Star Wars

Screenwriter: George Lucas (American Graffiti)
Director: George Lucas (Willow)
Actors: Liam Neeson (Kinsey), Ewan MacGregor (Trainspotting), Natalie Portman (Leon: The Professional), Terence Stamp (The Limey), Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane), and Ian McDiarmid (Sleepy Hollow)

Labels: Ewan McGregor, film, George Lucas, Liam Neeson, movie trailer, Natalie Portman, Samuel L Jackson, Star Wars

Screenwriters: Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard)
Director: Marcel Langenegger
Actors: Ewan McGregor (The Island), Hugh Jackman (The Prestige), Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain), and Maggie Q (Balls of Fury)

Labels: Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, Maggie Q, movie trailer