DOCTOR STRANGE

The Marvel superhero universe has now added sorcery to its world of super-powered beings.  Doctor Strange adds magic to the universe with a familiar reluctant hero premise that also has some truly trippy visuals and a surprising amount of humor.

Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, whose Englishman-with-American-accent maked him sound like Hugh Laurie as Dr. House) is a brilliant and renowned neurosurgeon.  He's also conceited, hated for being a know-it-all by his colleagues, and tends to select cases based on how much fame they'll get him.  He also works with his ex-girlfriend Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), an e.r. doctor who wants Strange to help more people.

When a car crash leaves Stephen with uncontrollable trembling in his hands, he goes into a depression, pushing everyone away and spending all his money searching for experimental cures.  When he gets a file of a patient who had a seeming impossible cure for spinal damage, it leas Strange to a secret location in Nepal.  There, select people learn everything from magic (astral projection, using "Sling Rings" to create teleportation portals, summoning and controlling energy, visiting different dimensions) to martial arts, to sentient artifacts that choose their users.  This place is led by the Amcient One (Tilda Swinton), Strange is taught by Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and Wong (Benedict Wong) runs the library of ancient knowledge.

Of course, villainy is afoot.  The evil sorcerer Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) has stolen some pages from the library.  He and his disciples plan to destroy the three sanctuaries -- in New York, London, and Hong Kong -- that protect the Earth from magic threats from other dimensions.  Once they're gone, the powerful entity Dormammu will absorb Earth into his Dark Dimension.  Strange still just wants his old life back, while the others push him to be a hero.

While Doctor Strange is a somewhat familiar story of selfish turning to redemption, it's still a pretty fun movie.  This may be the most visually impressive movie, with landscapes seeming to fold onto themselves, astral forms battling through the real world, and a hellish CGI universe in the Dark Dimension that seems disturbingly real.  While there's plenty of action, there's also a surprising amount of humor: Strange's levitating cloak acting more or less on its own for some slapstick humor, Wong listening to Beyonce on an iPod, or Dr. Palmer's incredulous reaction to learning that magic exists.

Doctor Strange is a worthy addition to the Marvel cinematic universe.  It has good acting, a nice blend of action and comedy, and (again) some amazing special effects.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

Talk To Me (2007)

Ahhh, the stormy sixties. Talk To Me Focuses on the end of the 60's in Washington, DC, and the role that Petey Greene, ably portrayed by Don Cheadle, plays during this turbulent time. Martin Sheen plays the radio station owner, and Cedric the Entertainer is fellow DJ, Bob "Nighthawk" Terry.

Greene is down on his luck- big time. He was in prison for armed robbery, and had to overcome drug addiction. His one attribute is his big mouth, and he puts it to use in prison as their DJ. After he gets out early from the slammer, after talking a prisoner down (which he sent up in the first place), he fast talks himself into a position at the local DC radio soul station, WOL (these days he would probably do a podcast...). While his fellow DJ's are content to just spin the discs, his knack for "telling it like it is" resonates well with the local urban community, and he becomes a success story. Along the way, programming director, Dewey Hughes (actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (say that one ten times fast!)), has to shield Greene and his developing "P-Town" from the radio station owner. Greene also plays a pivotal role during the riots that ensued after Martin Luther King, Jr's assassination in calming the masses down, and avoiding further loss of life and destruction to DC.

I enjoyed Talk To Me. It is well acted, and told a story with a beginning, middle, and even an end, which I guess we can't take for granted anymore. Along the way, there is even some character development, and the period soul songs don't hurt one bit to keeping the entirety authentic and moving. If you want a film that's not the same old thing, than Talk To Me will likely fit the bill.

Overall Grade: B+

Reviewed by Jonas

Kinky Boots

I must admit that the title, Kinky Boots, did give me pause for a double take, but my local public library had it on the shelf, so I figured it wasn't X rated.

The plot was rather different and unique for this British flick, based on a true story (how could anyone make this up?!). A hundred plus year old British shoe factory is in dire straits. While they make fine men's shoes to last a lifetime, with increased foreign competition, they're on the verge of shutting down. The fourth generation factory manager, after a random encounter with a drag queen, decides to bet the factory on a risky gamble. The idea is to make women's styled boots for men for the niche market of transvestites. If the whole thing sounds zany enough to work, you get the idea of the film.

Kinky Boots combines the themes of tolerance and understanding for cross gender folks,with the business idea of understanding your customer and making a product that he wants to buy. I wish that the American car companies would watch this movie and learn this lesson. The realism of the film is enhanced by shooting it on location in a British shoe factory, and using the factory workers as extras.

What Kinky Boots lacks in star power, it makes up for in realism, and uniqueness. If you're looking for a different film, in a good way, then this is it.

Overall Grade: B+

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Inside Man (Universal Pictures, 2006)

Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is having a rough day. Four hooded, masked criminals have taken control of a major New York City bank and are holding hostages. Yet somehow, this does not appear to be a typical bank robbery. The head robber (Clive Owen) appears to be motivated by something more than just money, and deftly manipulates Frazier, the police, and the hostages so that nobody can figure out what he's up to. Elderly bank owner Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), considered a pillar of the community, acts as though he has something to hide. Complicating things even further is the presence of smug, smarmy Madeline White (Jodie Foster), who does "favors" for the rich and powerful and is hired by Case to make sure his interests are protected.

This is the backdrop of Spike Lee's thriller Inside Man, an excellent new take on the concept of the "perfect crime." Every breakthrough Frazier makes in the case poses more questions than it answers, and only at the very end do most (but not all) of the pieces fit together in a tidy fashion. Lee keeps the film very well paced from start to finish, inserting a handful of moments of levity (the best of which involves a young child explaining the point of a rather violent video game to an appalled Owen) to lighten the otherwise constant tension. All of the blue ribbon cast of actors perform to their reputations as well. The payoff comes as the details of the crime and the true motivation of the perpetrators are uncovered, revealing a brillianty thought out plan that's plausible enough to satisfy any sticklers for detail.

Inside Man is well conceived, well executed, and thought provoking, with a carefully designed plot that holds strong throughout the two-hour length of the film. It's been a while since I've seen as good a movie in the suspense genre.

Overall Grade: A-
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Four Brothers

Four Brothers focuses on this hodge podge family of four grown up kinds that their mother adopted off the streets of Detroit. What initially appears as a senseless murder, takes us into a complicated web of underworld relationships. At times, the plot seems thinly glued together by a series of progressively violent scenes. For aficionados of gangster movies, they'll find a lot to like here, but for the rest of us, the parts do not add up to anything greater.

Overall Grade: C+