The Brothers Bloom

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A couple of con artist brothers (Adrien Brody & Mark Ruffalo) contrive their cons to tell the stories they want their lives to be about.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell, Ricky Jay, Zachary Gordon, Max Records, Nora Zehetner

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. Highly stylized and convoluted, this is a love-it or hate-it kind of piece, that asks the question can you control the outcome of your own life, by planning the perfect con?

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: It is certainly a comedy, but in a bizarre and artsy way. Babel's Rinko Kikuchi, whose offbeat character garners most of the laughs without hardly ever uttering a word, sums up the tone in a nutshell. But then again, blowing things up can often be a more decisive way to express yourself than words.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Rather than use words to answer this, I'm just going to blow something up... [wait for it]... [wait for it]... Okay, it's done. And I think you catch my drift.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Rian Johnson's last film, Brick, was nominated for a bunch of Independent Spirit Awards, and they tend to enjoy recycling their nominees, so in that sense this film has a decent chance of getting attention over there. Unfortunately, this film is a lot more entertaining than Brick, so Johnson may have shot himself in the foot, because the Spirit Awards don't usually nominate films that are fun to watch.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Superb across the board. All the actors manage to give real feeling performances while delivering lines and concepts that are completely over the top and absurd. Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo are excellent, but it's the women who steal the show. Rinko Kikuchi with her evilly detached, yet secretly caring persona. And Rachel Weisz, who glows and bounces off the screen with a childlike joy, that makes it hard to tell if she's the conman or the mark.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: As in writer-director Rian Johnson's first film, the story blurs the lines between a realistic world and a fantasy, without ever outright defining the rules of the fantasy world. The look of the film is realistic, not fantasy, so you're never quite sure where you are in this pseudo-surreal existence. If my description isn't making this any easier for you to grasp, know that that is quite deliberately the filmmakers intention.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The story is a lot of fun, though in some ways predictable. You never know who's conning who, but you know it doesn't matter because it's all being done out of love. You also never know what the con is that their pulling, who's getting what out of it, or even what era the movie takes place in, as the characters dress and talk like they're in the 1940s, and travel to Europe by boat, despite the discovery that one of them has a cellphone. Those are the aspects of the film you will either find highly artistic and inventive or completely annoying.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-brothers-bloom/27798/trailers

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The Hurt Locker

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: An elite Army bomb squad is in constant peril, as they go around Iraq’s war zone finding and disassembling camouflaged, hand made bombs.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: : Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christan Camargo, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Evangeline Lilly, David Morse, Suhail Aldabbach

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! Plot-wise, this movie would’ve worked better as a video game. Mainly because it’s the same scene over and over: We find a bomb, we disarm it. We find a bomb, we disarm it. We find a bomb, we disarm it. At least if it were a game, we’d get to participate at levels of ever-increasing difficulty.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Why anybody would want to see a movie that tries to make you feel like you’re in the middle of the Iraq War, at this particular juncture in our history is beyond me, so if you’re going to this, I probably can’t relate to you enough to tell you if it will make you laugh…

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: …or cry.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It won several awards at the Venice Film Festival (none of which I’ve ever heard of), and it was up for 2 Spirit Awards for acting. But before you question my harsh judgment of this film, may I remind you that I’ve watched it, you haven’t.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Jeremy Renner is the most under-rated actor in Hollywood, and has been for years. Maybe because he tends to pick dark, interesting roles in dark, uninteresting movies.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: As proven by her body of work, Kathryn Bigelow is a director who feels more confident about shooting action scenes than telling a story. This frantically shot film, with only a semblance of a story, continues in the tradition.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Some of the characters are interesting, but you won’t gain much insight beyond the fact that war is Hell… And we already knew that.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: If you still want to see an Iraq war movie after reading this review, rent Traitor. Here’s a link to my review of Traitor: http://moviereviewfaqs.blogspot.com/2008/08/traitor.html

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/search/the%20hurt%20locker/trailers

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Traitor

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) is definitely a traitor. But is he a traitor to the United States or to the terrorists?

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Jeff Daniels, Neal McDonough, Said Taghmaoui, Archie Panjabi, Aly Khan, Alexandra Castillo, Raad Rawi, Lorena Gale

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! Even when you think you know whose side he's on, you don't. This double-agent, spy thriller will keep you constantly second guessing yourself.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: There is one good laugh, well into the third act, and it's really a strange thing to laugh at.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Maybe if you're a religious extremist.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: It's certainly that kind of a film.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Don Cheadle hits all the right levels as he carefully navigates the line between innocent and guilty, never quite giving away which category he falls into.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Jeffrey Nachmanoff's camera constantly moves in exciting ways, often showcasing original angles, all without distracting you from the story line.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: It starts out like a run of the mill terrorist movie, but it steadily ramps up with every frame, becoming constantly more suspenseful as it draws to an end that actually has a point.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: Even as the movie jumps from location to location, the editing is seamless. And the second-unit aerial shots of Chicago make you want to go there more than any other Chicago-based movie I've seen.

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