Salt

Director: Phillip Noyce
Writers: Kurt Wimmer, Brian Helgeland
Starring: Angelina Jolie
Release Date: July 23, 2010
Length: 1 hour 40 minutes

Angelina Jolie is a fantastic Academy Award winning actress, with films such as Girl Interrupted and Changeling in her career. However she continues to lessen her reputation as an incredible actress each time she comes out with a stupid action movie. Obviously it’s good for an actor to have a variety of films in their career, but if not for all these shoot ‘em up movies, Jolie might be known as one Hollywood’s most talented actresses. That being said, this isn’t the worst of Jolie’s films, in fact it’s almost enjoyable. Jolie is Evelyn Salt, an undercover CIA agent, who has a cover life with a husband and job to hide what she really does. While Salt is interrogating a Russian defector, he accuses her of being a Russian spy and says she will assassinate the Russian president in a few days. Shocked by this accusation, Salt ends the interrogation and leaves the building. Although her co-workers believe her at first, Salt escapes quite quickly and radically out of the building and to her home. We think this is because she is afraid of being caught and taken to prison, however as the film progresses, the audience is forced to question Salt’s true identity. I Surprisingly only have one problem with Salt. Just one. About 3 quarters of the way through the film or maybe even a bit before, I thought the film was finished and should have ended there. If this were the ending, it would have let us hanging and lead to a sequel. Instead, the film itself included a sequel. Right when I thought the problem was solved…Oh, wait, there’s another problem we are going to deal with for no reason whatsoever. If the film had ended where it should have, I would be giving it a generally good review right now. I quite enjoyed the first half and thought it was a lot of fun. The second half though, just kept on getting more and more ridiculous and unfortunately lead me to dislike this movie. I didn’t have high expectations of this film to begin with, so my expectations were raised and then lowered again. I can’t even judge anyone’s performances in this film because I couldn’t pay attention to them, when I was wondering why this film was still going. Salt could have been a great idea for two fun, exciting action movies, but was quickly ruined when two ideas formed one never ending movie. I hope to see Jolie in a better film soon. For now, I think you can understand by now that I do not recommend this movie. 

The Kids Are All Right

Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Writers: Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
Starring: Annette Benning, Julianne Moore
Release Date: July 9, 2010
Length: 1 hour 44 minutes

The Kids Are All Right is a humorous look at a midlife crisis in a modern family. Nic (Annette Benning) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are a lesbian couple with two teenagers, Joni (Mia Wasikowska), who is 18 years old and Lazer (Josh Hutcherson), who is 15 years old. The two siblings decide together that they want to contact their mom’s sperm donor, who is their biological father before Joni heads off to college in the fall. Their donor turns out to be commitment-phobic restaurant owner Paul (Mark Ruffalo), who lives a reckless hippie lifestyle. Nic and Jules are surprised to find out their kids contacted him and even more shocked to find out that Joni and Lazer want to get to know Paul, who seems the farthest thing from a father figure. Julianne Moore and Annette Benning are two of the most brilliant actresses in Hollywood and were both perfectly cast in this film. The two work off each other so well that the relationship seems completely natural, as it should. It also helps though that their characters are written with such contrast from screenwriters Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg. These two actresses also worked well off the actors that played their kids. Australian actress, Mia Wasikowska from Alice In Wonderland, is quickly making a name for herself, starring in film after film. She was great in The Kids Are All Right, but her character was not incredibly unique to play, as the mature teenager who is being suffocated by her parents. However, not doing anything insane with that character may have added to the film’s authenticity. Josh Hutcherson is a young face we haven’t seen in a while, not since Bridge To Terabithia in 2005. I felt the same way about his character, Lazer, which I did about Wasikowska’s, but he performed excellently as well. It felt completely natural to see Mark Ruffalo in that slacker hippie kind of role, even though he has never played a character like this before. He was hilarious and gave a fantastic character performance as Paul, the family’s sperm donor. The Kids Are All Right isn’t a life changing film, but is a funny and touching story. The script is written with so much realism and real life everyday humor, that it felt so comfortable to watch. The writers did a great job of showing the audience that families with gay parents are just the same as other families. They didn’t make the movie seem like they had a whole different set of problems because they were gay. Parents will be able to relate to the two main characters because this family faces problems that all families do. This is one of the few really good movies of this disappointing summer. It’s not necessary, but try and see The Kids Are All Right. 

Inception

Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo Dicaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Release Date: July 16, 2010
Length: 2 hours 28 minutes

When has Christopher Nolan ever disappointed? Batman Begins, The Prestige, and let’s not forget The Dark Knight all caught the world’s interest. Now he can add Inception, another groundbreaking film to his small, but incredible list. In Inception, people can be put into dreams using drug-filled machines. These aren’t just any ordinary dreams though, they’re dreams that are designed by architects. These are dreams that, besides whoever is put into them, are filled with projectionists of that person’s subconscious. When you see the film, you will understand this parallel dream world far more than me explaining this to you in a review, so let’s discuss the people who have these dreams. Cobb (Leonardo Dicaprio) is an extractor, which means he is hired by his clients to go into other people’s dreams and find information. He and his co-worker, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are now being asked by a rich Japanese businessman to do Inception, which is to plant an idea in somebody’s mind, a task that is almost impossible. In order to fulfill this task, Cobb must assemble a team. He hires a bright college student, Ariadne (Ellen Page), an old friend Eames, to study the people in their subject’s life, and a drug specialist, Yusuf (Deelip Rao). His job may be harder though, with his dead wife, Mal (Marion Cottilard) appearing in all the dreams. People won’t rush to the theatres just because Christopher Nolan’s name is attached to it. They will rush to theatres because it looks like an extraordinary film, whether or not they know who is directing it. It’s almost as if Nolan’s ideas are a big piece of meat and we are starving, panting dogs begging for more. It seems that all it takes is for Nolan to snap his fingers and we are all intrigued. Every one of Nolan’s films is nothing short of brilliant and unique. Each time I walk out of one of his movies, I either think that this was one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen or that this was his best film yet. Right now, I believe Inception to be his greatest film, but I will have to wait a few months for the impact of it to wear off and realize that each of his movies are as innovative as the last. Now, it’s not just the way Nolan wrote the script or directed the film that works so effectively, but his casting has always been nothing short of perfection. He has always used ensemble casts which have always worked in his favor. There is always a major star (Leonardo Dicaprio), a few rising stars (Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon Levitt), an old face (Michael Caine), and a completely new face (Thomas Hardy). Apparently Nolan’s first and only choice for the role of Cobb was Dicaprio and rightly so. Dicaprio has always been a fantastic actor, but with age, he has gathered an enormous power and confidence to his roles. At the same time though, Dicaprio beautifully portrays this strong character mentally falling under the memory of his deceased wife. I couldn’t have been happier that one of my favourite Canadian actresses, Ellen Page was to co-star in this movie. After seeing Whip It last October, I became worried that Page’s quick humor and raw talent would be wasted on a type casted teenage role she would be replaying for the next couple of years. Her performance in Inception was extremely captivating. Page may not be the best actor in this film, but she is the most authentic. She has always been a genuine actor and made me believe everything that is happening to her character. There was a great balance between the actors in Inception, with different kinds of great performances. A surprise acting turn came from Joseph Gordon Levitt, who most people know from the romantic comedy 500 Days Of Summer. It wasn’t a surprise to see Gordon-Levitt in a dramatic, slightly kick-ass role, when you think of his past films Brick, Stop-Loss or The Lookout, but I almost didn’t recognize him without his cute, dorky grin on his face. A newcomer to North American audiences, Thomas Hardy almost stole the whole movie for me, with his suave, debonair performance as Eames. In the scenes with the whole ensemble, I found myself drawn toward him just as much as I was drawn toward Dicaprio.  With any cast however, I would have been drawn into the concept of Inception. The story was extremely creative and original, the writing was smart and attention grabbing, and the technical aspects of the film were done perfectly. It was enough to keep the action of this film alive and not too much for it to overshadow the story. My attention did not turn away from the film once during the two and a half hours in the theatre. Inception is not just a great movie, but a great movie experience. You won’t want the movie to end. You’ll see it again and again and again until you are sick of it. Inception is this summer’s must see.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Director: Jon Turtletaub
Writers: Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Matt Lopez
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel
Release Date: July 14, 2010
Length: 1 hour 51 minutes

Nicolas Cage teaming back up with the director of National Treasure, Jon Turtletaub in a part-fantasy? Oh no, who will save us now? Well, looks like Jay Baruchel can. Dave (Baruchel) is a geeky NYU student who is obsessed with physics and technology. When he was 10, he had a mysterious encounter with an ominous figure named Balthazar. Now, ten years later, this Balthazar claims he is a sorcerer and that Dave will be his apprentice. Dave learns from him how to be a sorcerer and the two work together against Balthazar’s evil sorcerer enemy, Maxim (Alfred Molina). With this new apprentice job and his blossoming relationship with Becky (Teresa Palmer), a fellow NYU student, Dave starts to have trouble juggling both lives and staying sane. Truth be told, the only reason I had interest seeing this movie was because of Jay Baruchel. I knew even in a terrible film like this, his awkward, geeky persona would make me laugh again like it does in all his films. Every expectation I had of this film came true, and I left the theatre with the same critique of the film that I thought I would. I saw this movie because of Baruchel and I left being satisfied with what he gave to the film, but nothing else. Some parts were cute or giggly, but I knew before watching it that this would be a terrible movie. I obviously take into account that I was not the target audience for this family film and that kids would probably enjoy it a lot more than I did. However, most family films that come out these days have some jokes for the parents or are just likable to any age group. I almost felt like I should have brought a little kid I know to the movie, just so that I could at least be satisfied that they enjoyed it. Usually if Nicolas Cage was attached to a movie, I would probably never consider finding out what the film is about, especially if he was teaming up with the same director of National Treasure again. This last year though, Cage has been slowly gaining back his respect with films like Bad Lieutenant and Kick Ass. When I thought about seeing this film, I remembered how much I loved Kick Ass and that he wasn’t just in a decent film but he performed well in it as well. The tall, blonde, beautiful Teresa Palmer played Becky, Dave’s love interest. There was nothing wrong with her performance; it was the writing between her and Jay Baruchel’s character that bugged me. Here is this beautiful girl who ends up with a geeky, unattractive guy, which was the premise of Baruchel’s last film, She’s Out Of My League. All in all, this film was cheesy and ridiculous, but harmless as well. There would be nothing wrong with renting this film for your kids when it comes out on DVD.

Despicable Me

Directors: Sergio Pablos, Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Writers: Sergio Pablos, Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio
Starring: Steve Carell, Jason Segel
Release Date: July 9, 2010
Length: 1 hour 35 minutes

Steve Carell is known for being hilarious for an adult audience with The Office and The 40-year-old Virgin, but he has a repertoire of making kids laugh as well. In the last five years, Carell has lent his voice to films like Over The Hedge, Horton Hears A Who and now Despicable Me. Despicable Me is no different from any other hilarious kids movie like The Incredibles, Shrek or Toy Story, except for the fact you will leave the theatre completely touched by this innocent children’s film. Steve Carell is Gru, a Russian supervillian living somewhere in the United States. When competition arises in the form of another supervillian, Vector (Jason Segel), Gru plans to pull the most evil stunt ever, stealing the moon. After he sees three sisters selling cookies from an adoption agency go inside Vectors house to give him his cookies, an idea sparks in Gru’s mind. Gru decides to adopt these three girls, named Margo, Edith and Agnes, so that he can put electronic cookies in Vectors house, which he will need to find his shrink machine to shrink the moon. The girls don’t exactly love his house filled with sharp objects, almost no food, and a scary dog. As time goes on in planning to steal the moon, Gru gets to know these girls who he is taking care of. Soon enough, Gru becomes emotionally attached to these cute innocent beings, which complicates his goals in being a supervillian. The voices of Despicable Me were all authentic and well cast. There is never a problem with hiring Hollywood’s funniest comedians for a kid’s movie like Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Russell Brand and Kristen Wiig. Jason Segel’s high-pitched flamboyant vocal performance as Vector was surprisingly his first time he lent his voice at all to any animation film. His performance probably made the audience laugh the most next to Steve Carell’s. Probably because he has kids of his own, Carell knows how to make kids laugh and make them love him as well. Steve Carell used his voice to portray a character that needed to be evil, but lovable enough for kids to like. Carell and the writers completed this task beautifully. Screenwriters Sergio Pablos, Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul came up with such an original idea with clever writing, funny jokes and not to mention, a touching storyline. Somewhat of my love for this film came from the adorable characters of Agnes, the youngest adopted girl and Gru’s “minions”, who also can be indentified as small yellow creatures who work for Gru and speak gibberish. The 3D effects were done perfectly, meaning the film was a lot of fun to watch at some points, but the effects were not thrown at the audience every minute. Most importantly, the 3D effects weren’t used to compensate for a bad script, which often happens. Despicable Me is not my favourite kids film of the year or the summer even (that would be Toy Story 3), but it is a funny, touching, original movie that everyone in the family can fully enjoy.

Solitary Man

Directors: Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Writer: Brian Koppelman
Starring: Michael Douglas
Release Date: July 2, 2010
Length: 2 hours

60 year old, promiscuous car dealer, Ben Kalmen (Michael Douglas) lives an easygoing, comfortable life in New York City with a different woman every night. He is constantly unfaithful to his 20 years younger girlfriend, Jordan Karsch (Mary Louise Parker) who he is only really going out with because of her father who is a big name in the car dealing business. When Jordan asks him to accompany her 18-year-old daughter, Allyson (Imogen Poots) to her college interview at the same college he went to, he agrees reluctantly knowing neither he nor Allyson wants him to be there. After seeing the campus and meeting locals, Ben and Allyson have a few drinks and end up sleeping with each other. Let’s not forget the 42-year age difference. When they arrive back in New York, although Ben and Allyson had an agreement they wouldn’t say anything, Allyson tells her mother about what happened out of frustration with her. Using her Dad’s power in the car dealing business, Jordan makes sure Ben has no job and never will again in that area of business. This causes Ben to reevaluate his life, realizing what an inconsiderate father he is to his daughter, Susan  (Jenna Fischer), what a terrible boyfriend he was to Jordan and what a bad guy he is in general. Despite Michael Douglas always playing himself, he is always extraordinary to watch on film. His presence has always captured the camera and he continuously intrigues the audience. Solitary Man had a good enough story to be a great film on it’s own, but it would have never been nearly as amazing as it was without Douglas. Moving on from Douglas, literally everyone else in the cast was incredible as well. Newcomer Imogen Poots was captivating as Allyson, not to mention beautiful as well. It certainly helped that her and Douglas shared a strong chemistry as creepy as that may sound. Jenna Fischer from The Office gave a wonderful dramatic performance as Ben’s daughter, which is something we are not used to from her. She has always made me laugh in The Office, but I hope she pursues more dramatic roles because she is clearly strong in that genre as well. As for the rest of the cast, Mary Louise Parker was hilarious and it was nice to see Susan Sarandon and Danny DeVito again. What was so nice about Solitary Man was the realism of his life. The audience never felt the need to sympathize for him because he was the main character, but at the same time, we didn’t hate him for being a pervert or a jerk. It was just understanding this character that made this film so easy and nice to watch. Although it probably won’t be in theatres for long, make sure to see Solitary Man.