ATOMIC BLONDE

While Atomic Blonde is being advertised as "a female James Bond," it doesn't go into fancy gadgets and gimmicks.  It does have a solid plot, some very good (and brutal) fight scenes, and lots of fun for star Charlize Theron.

The movie opens in 1989, days before the collapse of the Berlin Wall.  We see British agent James Gasciogne (Sam Hargrave) killed by KGB agent Yuri Bakhtin (Johannes Haukur Johannesson), who steals his watch.

Next we jump to an office, where British spy Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is being debriefed by MI6 execitive Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and CIA agent Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman).  Gasgiogne has obtained a list of all covert British agents, which he had on microfilm in his watch; the list also had the identity of Satchel, a British double agent who had been providing information to the Communists.  Lorraine (who had been Gasciogne's lover) was sent to both East and West Berlin to get the list and learn the identity of Satchel.

Unfortunately, the mission is a disaster almost from the start.  Lorraine is quickly identified and attacked.  Her British contact is David Percival (James McAvoy), an agent who's gone native and seems more interested in drinking and partying than getting information.  Agents from numerous governments are after the list, and going to and from East Berlin is a challenge.  Then there's Spyglass (Eddie Marsan), a nervous man who claims to have memorized the entire list.

Atomic Blonde is a decent spy movie.  Charlize Theron does a great job as the title character, an agent who always seems to keep her plans, ideas, and suspicions very private; she also does quite well in the numerous fight scenes.  As for the rest, the plot is a fairly standard spy setup -- who can be trusted?  Who will survive?  Who's the double agent? -- with some twists but no big surprises; and the near-constant pop hits from the 1980s get overdone somewhat quickly.  This is an action movie that's not revolutionary but is satisfying.

Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE

So, is it psychological horror or an extraterrestrial menace?  This is the central question of 10 Cloverfield Lane, a claustrophobic suspense film that could almost be a three-person play.

The movie opens with Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) rapidly cleaning out her city apartment (but leaving her -- engagement?  wedding? -- ring behind) and driving off.  Driving in the countryside, her car is rammed by another vehicle, and when she wakes up she's in a room made out of cinder blocks, hooked to an IV and handcuffed to the wall.

She soon meets Howard (John Goodman) and learns that she's in his underground bunker.  He tells her that there's been some sort of attack on America -- maybe the Russians, maybe Martians -- the air is contaminated and everyone above ground is dead.  He rescued her from her wrecked car and expects -- sometimes demands -- her thanks and obedience.  He keeps the keys to outside on him at all times, along with a gun.  He expects them to be in the bunker for at least a year or two.  And the only other person in the bunker is Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.), a local guy who helped Howard build his bunker.

Naturally, Michelle is skeptical.  She wonders if Howard caused her car accident, she wonders if there really was any attack, and she swears she hears cars and other sounds from outside.  But while Howard's stability seems to come and go, there are also plenty of warning signs outside as well.  The trio soon find themselves bouncing back and forth between paranoia and being an impromptu family.

10 Cloverfield Lane has a simple and effective setup, as the three characters are forced together in a waiting game whose rules seem to keep changing.  The cast is good, especially John Goodman, and there's plenty of suspense generated by their "what if?" situation.  The resolution isn't quite as interesting as what happens beforehand, but 10 Cloverfield Lane is interesting and entertaining.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

TRUMBO

The United States had a long and unofficial war with Communism -- but at what cost to the nation's beliefs and soul?  Trumbo is a look at that time's impact on a man and his friends and family -- and what he did to fight back.

In 1947, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was on the top of the world.  He was about to become Hollywood's biggest-paid screenwriter.  He had a beautiful wife Cleo (Diane Lane) and three young kids, plus lots of friends in Hollywood.  He even had a beautiful lakeside home in the California countryside.  Dalton was also a Communist, seeing that as simply wanting to share with those who had less.

Unfortunately for Dalton and his Communist (and even liberal) friends, the House Un-American Activities Committee was busy fanning the flames of anti-Communist paranoia, calling people before them to identify themselves as Communist, demanding those suspects name names of fellow Communists, and jailing those who refused to comply.  The Committee was also assisted by Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren), a former actress-turned-gossip columnist who gladly threatened to boycott any studio who hired or worked with an identified Communist -- and to label anyone in Hollywood as a Communist sympathizer.

Dalton refused to cooperate with the Committee, leading to a prison term.  Possibly worse, when he was released he was on the Blacklist, a list of Communists whose hiring would be toxic to any movie studio.  But Dalton kept writing and working, whether writing for his friends and giving them the credit (his buddy Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan Tudyk) won an Oscar for Trumbo's screenplay for Roman Holiday) or churning out scripts and rewrites for sleazy movie producer Frank King (John Goodman).  And as Dalton keeps working in secret, he gets the chance to make a screenplay for a movie called Spartacus...

Trumbo is a film that is both inspiring and frightening.  Bryan Cranston makes Dalton Trumbo into a flawed hero, someone passionate about his beliefs, even when that impacts his family and friends.  More striking is the time -- from the 1940s well into the 1960s -- when anyone suspected of being a Communist or having even rumored ties to Communism could be prevented from working and publicaly shunned and hated or even imprisoned solely for their beliefs.  Trumbo has a terrific cast (including many actors playing, well, other actors, directors, and producers from the past) and manages to be at times amusing, sad, and tense -- all revolving around a man writing and writing.  Trumbo is a truly impressive film.

Overall grade: A+
Reviewed by James Lynch

ARGO

I'm always wary when I hear the phrase "based on a true story" applied to a movie -- it's so broad it can be applied to just about anything -- but in the case of Argo it comes closer than most.  The movie tells the incredible story of a covert rescue amidst an international standoff.

Argo begins with the tense situation between America and Iran in late 1979.  The Iranian Revolution had put the Ayatollah Khomeni in power, and the country's former leader fled to the U.S. -- with Iran demanding his return for trial and execution.  An angry mob overrab the U.S. embassy in Iran, taking the personnel there hostage and claiming they were spies.  However, six Americans managed to escape, hiding out in the home of the Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).  The six were still in danger, both from the Iranian government that knew six embassy personnel were unaccounted for and from Iranian mobs ready to kill any Americans they find.

The rescue plan for the six comes from CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck, who also directed Argo): He'll travel to Iran as a Canadian filmaker scouting locations for a sci-fi B-movie called Argo, provides cover stories and forged documents for the six Americans making them out to be his film crew, and they'll all fly out together.   After working with special effects expert John Chambers (John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to build up some real Hollywood buzz for the fake film, Mendez travels to Iran.  But there are numerous dangers, from U.S state department doubts about the plan (Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston), Mendez' boss, describes it as "the best bad idea we have, by far") to the Iranian government literally piecing together pictures of the six Americans from shredded documents taken from the embassy.  And there's still the very difficult task of getting past customs in Iran to get on a plane and head home...

Argo works well as both a historical document and a drama.  Speaking as someone who was around during the hostage crisis, I can say Argo captures the feel of the time, from the yellow ribbons everywhere in support of the hostages to the inflamatory statement from both the American and Iranian public condemning the other side.  There's not a lot of character development here, but Argo works better as a political and espionage procedural, showing how a desperate plan was put together and executed very quickly.  There's also a surprising amount of humor, namely from Goodman and Arkin as they navigate Mendez through the treacherous world of Hollywood (and their crude, funny slogan for their fake film).  Argo is solid, suspenseful movie magic revolving around a real operation during a tense time in American history.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

Death Sentence (2007)

While I did expect Death Sentence to be a B rated movie, I didn't expect it to sink as low as it did. It stars Kevin Bacon and John Goodman.

It starts out with a decent enough plot. Bacon is the mild mannered, insurance risk, numbers man, Nick Hume. He lives the boring suburban life, and is perfectly satisfied with his family of two children and his wife. This all changes in a heartbeat when he stops at the proverbial gas station in the bad section of town. Faster than we can say "roll up the windows kids" his firstborn child is knifed, the victim of a gang attack, while his father watches by helplessly. Thankfully the murdered is caught, but justice does not prevail as the DA wants to make a deal for 3 to 5 years for murder because there was no other physical evidence to support the eyewitness. So far, the film was gruesome, but it hadn't sunk yet beyond retrieval.

Next thing we know, Bacon decides to take the law into his own hands, which consists of dusting off a hunting knife from the shed, and getting into a knife fight with this trained killer. Yeah right, like this insurance number cruncher was going to be able to take on this gang banger? Who writes this stuff?

Next thing we know, it's an all out gang war with Bacon on one side, and a whole gang of thugs on the other. At least Bacon stops by the neighborhood gun salesman, Bones Darley, played by John Goodman in his departure from his usual happy go lucky roles where he is known for his belly laughs. After trading in his life savings for a small arsenal, he's off to settle the score once and for all. Along the way, it's total violence, with the bodies piling up including his own family that get taken out along the way. I was particularly dismayed to see the shotgun, with one shot, go through inches of reinforced concrete. Seriously, aren't there any technical experts on these films?

I suggest you take my word for this. While Death Sentence starts out ok, it simply goes in a downward spiral, and every time I'm thinking we've reached rock bottom, it dropped another notch. While at least I got through this one, I was all to happy at the end to end the experience. This film reminds me of why I don't watch horror films.

Overall Grade: D-

Reviewed by Jonas

Evan Almighty (2007)

It always takes some work to build a sequel that is better than the original (but few are even as good as in the end). The goal of Evan Almighty was to further the story of Bruce Almighty, and the original title of this film was Bruce Almighty 2. While Morgan Freeman reprises his role as God, the comedy of the original was mostly provided by Jim Carrey, who does not return for this sophomore effort of the Almighty franchise. Instead, Steve Carrell, who was only a minor player in Bruce Almighty, is the comedic engine this time out, and it's pretty clear that he's more than a few cylinders short of Jim Carrey's V10 comedic power.

The premise is actually pretty clever. Carrell is Evan Baxter, a family man who arrives in Washington DC as a newly elected congressman with the self appointed manifesto of changing the world. His wife Joan is ably portrayed by Lauren Graham, although she wasted her time with this film. One day, Evan is given the task by God to build an ark in his Virginia housing development. Reprising the Biblical story of Noah, at first he resists, then he reluctantly proceeds as his family and neighbors look on at someone in need of psychiatric inpatient therapy. You know, the whole prophet not believed in his own time thing. His family eventually comes on board as the animals line up two by two, and the onlookers heckle even louder. This modern twist on a well known ancient tale should have proven fertile ground for plenty of comedy and plot.

Instead, Evan Almighty injects another superficial story on top of this timeless tale. They put Goodman in as crooked Congressman Chuck Long who attempts to get the freshman Evan to sponsor his bill that caters to big business. This turns into an utter sideshow as the attempts at humor are summer campish with doses of bird droppings and groin trauma are way overutilized, and not even funny in the end. Add in characters, that aside from Evan, are fairly unidimensional, and you can see why this film was made for ten year olds only.

While considerable effort and expense went into building a 450 foot ark in a Virginia housing development under construction, this is all undone by subpar special effects once the ark is underway. It's always a challenge to do waves and water with computer animation, but a decade after Titanic, and how many generations later of computer hardware and software, I would expect something to look a lot more convincing than Super Nintendo level graphics.

While there were a few details, like the Ark Building For Dummies book, that could have almost redeemed this film, in the end, they don't. There's too many cliche's, not enough depth, and you can see everything that's going to happen from a mile away. Unfortunately, the acting talent was wasted on Evan Almighty, and I really wish that it was simply a totally different film.

Overall Grade: C+

Reviewed by Jonas