Runner Runner

Runner Runner refers to a Poker hand drastically improved by the turn or the river cards. Runner Runner could have used a Runner Runner, as the only thing it had going for it was a pair of Aces. I couldn't resist. Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck lend their faces to a movie that in any other case should be straight to DVD. I imagined Nicholas Cage, Val Kilmer, or Christian Slater in the same roles, and it's not a stretch to think that you could find it at the bottom of a Netflix queue.

We are introduced to Richie Furst (Timberlake), a wunderkind financial rising star who just happened to be on the wrong side of the banking crisis. He goes back to get his Masters in finance at Princeton, but despite being on the cusp of being a millionaire just a few years ago, he is struggling to pay the tuition. Likely story. He turns to online gambling to try and build his dwindling tuition fund, and while playing, his flawless mathematical analysis captivates a party-going audience, and after building a sizable fortune, he loses it all to a shadow poker site that he suspects is cheating. His suspicions are confirmed by his computer nerd friends at Princeton, and he embarks on a mission to get his money back from the man who runs the sight; Ivan Block (Affleck).

The film plays out extremely predictable and induces more than a few eye rolls. No get-rich-quick cliche is spared in this Wall Street/Boiler Room/ PG version of Scarface. Affleck and Timberlake seem to be having fun playing out the billionaire fantasy in an island paradise that just so happens to have a dirty underworld that they just can't resist. There is even a gung-ho, reckless FBI Agent (Anthony Mackie) who tries desperately to corner Block, convinced that he is running a shady business.

As the film reaches its climax at a premature, but welcome 90 minutes, we find as an audience that essentially nothing has happened except for two actors running around a Central American country looking cool and pretending to matter. The problem is that they don't matter. We're given absolutely no development of characters, and don't care about the outcome. Anthony Mackie is wasted as a federal agent running and gunning all alone; it would have been much better if the FBI had partners. That's an opportunity for some give and take, maybe some witty dialogue. Nope, he's alone. Affleck is an enigma as Ivan Block. A hard and soft man who is perhaps too simple to have developed a multi-billion dollar empire. Where did he come from? Why should we care? Timberlake looks the part for Richie. He's just not believable as a man who would leave everything to follow a hunch to Costa Rica. It doesn't make sense. Nor does it make sense that his father is... shocker alert... a gambling addict in too deep.

Everything about the writing is disappointing. I'm embarrassed that I listened to the hype in early 2013 and listed this as one of the possible Oscar contenders of the season. Absolutely not. The story was written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who worked together to write Rounders, Knockaround Guys, Oceans Thirteen, and a few others. Gambling is their wheelhouse, but they just can't really hit the mark with this one. Online gambling is an area of the genre that hasn't been explored too in depth, and they could have milked it for all it's worth. Instead, they polished a turd.

Brad Furman directed, with his big break coming with 2011's The Lincoln Lawyer (not even that good). He's got a few straight to DVD's under his belt, so I can't really knock him for doing what he does.

All in all, the film isn't even worth any more of my time, and it certainly isn't worth yours. How bad was it? I should have gone to Machete Kills. that bad. 5/10.

Captain Phillips

Tom Hanks is back after a long, strange sabbatical of fun projects, critical misses, collaborations with old friends, and voice work. In this critic's opinion, Hanks hasn't been performing at his peak acting ability since 2007's Charlie Wilson's War, and even that was a step below his last truly great performance, 2002's Road to Perdition. A six year hiatus is long enough (or 11 if you're counting at home). Hanks is a little paunchier, a little grayer, but he once again shows why he is the current Great American Actor.

Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, and Road to Perdition showed what he is truly capable of when delivered a strong script and complex character. Captain Phillips is the next great performance in his impressive and already distinguished resume, and it will likely earn him his third Best Actor Oscar, putting him in stratospheric territory with Daniel Day-Lewis, Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, and Jack Nicholson. He deserves it. The only hiccup in this plan might be his role as Walt Disney in December's Saving Mr. Banks. His duplicitous acting year may tear voters between two great roles, in turn sabotaging his chances of winning one. We will see. The only legitimate contender might be Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave. Hanks is a lock for a nomination.

On a side note, Hanks recently divulged that he has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and he feels it was likely brought on by the pressures of constant weight adjustment for roles. It's clearly unhealthy to go through so many weight changes throughout a lifetime, and so many great actors and actresses do it regularly to show a more picture perfect portrayal of the character. It makes you wonder how many of our other stars are suffering health complications behind the scenes because of the increasing demands of bulking up and slimming down. It will be interesting to learn more about this over time.

Captain Phillips (spoiler alert!) is a commercial cargo transport captain and was taking the Maersk Alabama through dangerous waters off the Horn of Africa on a routine route from Oman to Kenya in 2009 when he was captured by four teenage Somali pirates. A series of events orchestrated in part by Phillips led to the safety of his crew and his eventual rescue a few days later, but the news made headlines at the time more for the valor of the Navy SEAL's than the bravery of Phillips himself. This is the story of what Phillips had to endure and how his decisions helped save himself and the men under his command.

A recent article claims that piracy in the Indian Ocean off the coast costs the commercial global economy about $18 billion per year in lost cargo or increased insurance premiums. My question is: why don't they carry weapons in a strong box? Throughout the intense boarding scene, I kept thinking "how easy would it be to keep pirates off your ship if you had a gun? Even a pistol?" Maersk may have the answer, but one thing is for sure, the film is causing buzz from two different camps. Phillips has gone on record as saying that the film is more or less an accurate account of what happened. Maersk on the other hand, who have been sued for $50 million by 9 of the crew members saying that the route shouldn't have been taken and that they were in unnecessary risk, said through their lawyer that "Forrest Gump was also a really good movie starring Tom Hanks, but like Captain Phillips, it was highly fictionalized." Although Phillips isn't implicated in the lawsuit, some of his crew hold him responsible for what happened saying he didn't follow orders as he should have. Whatever the case, it's a terrific story of courage, cultural extremism, and survival.

Paul Greengrass is known for his realistic style in films like United 93, and Bloody Sunday, but shows his action chops in 2/3 of the Bourne trilogy (Damon, not Renner) and the underexposed Green Zone. The film was written by Billy Ray with input from Rich Phillips and his memoir from the harrowing events. It's almost a documentary with some flair, and that's what makes it such a compelling and suspenseful film.

We begin with dual preparations. Two sides of the globe which may as well be on other planets. Hanks' Phillips is packing, checking emails, and doing paperwork in preparation for his upcoming trip in his comfortable Vermont home with his wife. Meanwhile, Muse is trying to get sleep on a dirt floor in a hut in the sweltering heat in Somalia when he is awoken by warlords sending him out to sea to bring them back money. This is the real beauty of the film. The diametrical different universes that the two opposing forces live in. The civilized West, and the broken and impoverished East. OK, maybe the analogies are a stretch, but Greengrass does a wonderful job of showcasing the differences. The pirates aren't just a rag-tag band of bad guys. They are given a glimmer of personality and we can empathize with their hopeless situation in life. They are also given a bit of humanity as the film progresses, which clearly added to the emotional charge.

As the ship goes through its pre-launch checks in port, we are comforted by Phillips' professionalism, but also given a peek into the life of a captain. It is captured with just enough detail that we see that his men love and respect their captain, but there is a sort of underlying feeling of annoyance to the protocols and procedures as viewed by the union men. They want to do their jobs and then sit and drink coffee and aren't interested in doing anymore than they have to, and that adds to the suspense when the emergency drill become reality. Phillips finds that his crew really come together in time of crisis, and it's fun to watch the high stakes game of cat and mouse play out on the massive freighter. In the end though, the Somalis escape in a lifeboat with a prized cargo (Phillips), and it's up to the US Navy to rescue him.

The Somali pirates are unknowns, and were kept segregated from the rest of the cast until it was time for them to meet, which really amped up the authenticity. Their pivotal There is buzz developing for Barkhad Abdi, who plays the pirate in charge, and he is frightening as a very contemplative young man, but unpredictable. He uses his thousand-mile stare in such a natural way that he is really an intimidating foe.

It's really a three part film that picks up speed early and never really shuts down until the end, and even then, as an audience, you are in awe of the spectacle that you just saw. Act one is setting the table, act two is the confrontation, and act three is the resolution. All masterfully done in what all in all is the best film of 2013 so far. I predicted this months ago, but after viewing Captain Phillips, Hanks wins Best Actor and it wins Best Picture.

The final ten minutes may be some of the greatest emotional acting I have ever seen, not just this year, but ever. If Tom Hanks wins it is because of his single final scene in the movie. Absolutely amazing. Hanks takes you inside of his mind and body and you experience all of the shock, grief, fear, pain, and sadness all at once in an overwhelming barrage of emotion. It may be the five to ten minutes that define his career one hundred years from now.

Captain Phillips is intense, but done so well that you don't want to look away. There are no tricks played by the director in lulling us into complacency and then shocking us back to reality with a jump. Greengrass is too professional for that. It's full-steam ahead realism. The best film of 2013. 10/10.

Gravity

Every once in awhile, and film comes along and it puts the rest of the genre to shame. In 2009, Avatar revolutionized the cinematic experience and changed the way we look at film. Paving the way for 3D and IMAX to become the norm as opposed to the exception for major events. And although Gravity isn't quite to that scale, it is magical, beautiful, and by far the most realistic look at space that we've ever seen on fictional film. Alfonso Cuaron is a master of his craft, and audiences have anxiously been awaiting his return to directing since 2006's Children of Men, which was quietly one of the most remarkable films of the year, and might even make my 21st century top 10 list.

Gravity opens with some facts and figures about space. How it fluctuates between burning and freezing, and how there is no sound due to no oxygen. This is something that Cuaron obviously took great pride in replicating, and is done nicely throughout the film with the absence of music at well-timed moments of crisis. We find a handful of astronauts and scientists doing some upgrades and improvements to the Hubble when a smattering of debris changes their plans. Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) and Astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) find themselves battling fear and the claustrophobic infinite expanse of space in a race against time and odds to make it back to Earth safely.

Clooney delivers a typical Clooney performance. Charming and verbose, there is a light air of flirtiness between him and Bullock, but done so effortlessly that it seems natural enough. The role of an Astronaut would be a stretch for most actors, but it seems like Clooney can assume almost any identity he chooses, and doesn't need to try very hard. That's not the compliment it may appear to be. Clooney is on cruise control as the super cool alpha male. He is a raconteur in space, cracking jokes and telling stories as he floats around in a jet pack trying to break the space-walk record. It actually alleviates some of the natural tension that the film builds with the environment and the realism with oxygen and gravity fighting against the main characters. I love Clooney as much as the rest of the country (maybe world), and his roles in Syriana, Michael Clayton, Up in the Air, and The Descendants are the hallmarks of his potential, but Matt Kowalski was written too much like George Clooney for George Clooney to make it a meaty role. Unfortunately, for me, it deflated the film a bit.

Bullock on the other hand, is fantastic. The film focuses on her, and there are numerous scenes where she is in solitude, floating through space or in another gravity-free environment, and she delivers the emotional urgency of the role. The only knock I have doesn't directly go against her, but instead is the writing of dialogue. Some of her monologues as she's trying to either distract herself from the situation, or try to make levity of her dilemma is a bit bland and maybe even out of place. Even some of the conversations between Clooney and Bullock seem a bit blanched. Lots of opportunity for emotional enrichment, but it's dropped a bit.

Cuaron is outstanding in his recreation of the environment and his attention to detail. This film to date is the most sincere look at outer space that we've ever seen. There is just one scene that I can recall that seems a bit unrealistic, and even that can be forgiven because of the following events. The destruction of satellites is brilliantly done in silence, and the visual effects that he oversees are majestic. Aurora Borealis, cloud patterns over recognizable landmasses, meteors and splintered metal careening toward the atmosphere, it's all done beautifully. He is a master of his craft and has outdone himself in what is his best work to date. Ironically, his IMDB blurb states that he had ambitions of being an astronaut when he was younger, and he has come about as close as you possibly can without traveling to space with Gravity.

The music, or lack of music when the time demands it is terrific. Building crescendos reaching a zenith at suspenseful moments resulting in sheer silence. After all, there is no oxygen to carry sound in space. Until the film's climax, the music is great, but then the tribal artsy chanting ruins it. It's unfortunate, but I'm sure Cuaron has his reasons. It's beyond me though, and didn't fit the tone of the rest of the film. The visual effects are top-notch with meticulous attention to detail and realism. It truly raises the bar for all future sci-fi films (that don't involve aliens). I'm curious to see how Chris Nolan's 2014 potential juggernaut Interstellar portrays space. No doubt he will take a lesson from Cuaron and make it as realistic as possible. (here's hoping at least).

Gravity is another one of the plethora titles recently that have a fun and fitting double entendre, like my favorite film title, Cast Away (2000). Bullock and Clooney are battling the force of nature that we so easily take for granted for better or worse, but the seriousness of their dire situation keeps getting more and more suffocating. It's truly a great title. The film goes from unfortunate to improbable as events unfold placing our cosmonauts in deeper and more hopeless peril. It's a thriller, a character study, a survival tale, and has just enough explosions to make it somewhat of an action film. It's hard to say where the film fits, but one thing is for sure, there will be at least 4 Oscar nominations, with one likely winner to this point. Bullock gets a nomination, the film will end up on the Best Picture ballot, and the special effects will get at least one nod while Alfonso Cuaron will likely pull an Ang Lee and win Best Director this year. This is the type of film that is awe-inspiring and showcases the genius of the man behind the lens. I'm excited to see the next big thing that he attaches himself to, but unfortunately it might be another 7 years. Great thrill ride with a beautiful view. 8/10.

Rush

The competitive drive of two polar opposite enemies in a relentlessly dangerous sport is always entertaining, but add to that the high-octane adrenaline of Formula One racing in the safety-devoid 1970's, and you've got something pretty cool. The sport compared with Nascar is like the global soccer fan-base compared with American football. F1 racing is huge. Or was huge. I'm not sure, in fact, I didn't really know the full scope of the sport's appeal, but these guys are the International Jeff Gordons and Dale Earnhardts of the 70's. If that makes any sense.

Austrian Niki Lauda (Played by Daniel Bruhl) and Brit James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) jockey for speed supremacy through the 1975-76 international racing season, during a time when the sport was undergoing a sort of renaissance and entering a technological revolution that pushed the limits of man and machine. As the season progresses, we find these two divergent personalities atop the leader boards, each bringing a flair for the dramatic, but in two wildly different ways. We find that their relationship as a rivalry is endearing and has more depth it probably should, and impacted the sport more than we can possibly know.

Ron Howard returns to directing in his first solid outing since 2009's Frost/Nixon. He's the king of obscure biopic, and Lauda/Hunt is no exception. I had never heard of either of these guys, but Howard portrays them on the screen as if they were Thor and Schwarzenegger (OK, Thor's not technically British, but Lauda and Hunt are larger than life in Rush). You begin to develop a real sense of concern for them every time they get on the track and the suspense of knowing how the final act will turn out is absurd considering the obscurity of both of these racing legends. As the film comes to an end, there is an authentic feel of legitimacy to the film that only Ron Howard could create.

Hemsworth is perfectly cast as the playboy lothario James Hunt. He's from a successful family and has turned his privileged back on law and medicine for an opportunity to go fast and bed women. It looks like quite the party, but below the surface there is more than just an opportunist. There is a competitor. He proves himself on the track, and is true to his nature through all of his ups and downs, and Hemsworth conveys his passion through his ridiculous blue eyes and shaggy locks. He does a really nice acting job, but it's not much of a stretch if we're being honest. I like Hemsworth and I hope he gets some good, dramatic roles down the road, but he's still in his breakout/action star stage of his career. Playing James Hunt might be the first peek through that door. It's almost like the Brad Pitt curse though. He's too good looking to be taken seriously, so we might just have to wait until he's in his late 40's before we get a ripe, award-worthy role. Let's hope not.

Bruhl is fantastic as the subdued and reserved, depressed and meticulous Lauda who has a natural instinct for the sport and mechanics of automobiles, but just can't quite let go of the rigid and serious demeanor that ostracizes him from the other drivers. Of course, it's that same demeanor that garners him the respect of his peers as well, but Bruhl plays it very well from the moment he enters the sport, until he reflects back on his life. It's a modest change of heart through the process, but it's noticeable. His respect for the sport carries the seriousness that is diminished by Hemsworth's loose, playful attitude. It's Bruhl that keeps the film on track and maintains the serious tone, even though he's somewhat of a supporting member.

All in all, it's a two man show that is about so much more than just racing. It's passion, tension, regret, and a magical era captured in a time capsule and released to race cars, the visionary eye of Ron Howard, and the backdrop of the best score of the year so far (Oscar winner Hans Zimmer - Lion King). For the record, Zimmer also scored Gladiator, the recent Batman films, and Inception, which received a handful of nominations, but should have won awards.

Rush is a well done film. A bit of a head-scratcher if you think about it; a competitive duo racing cars in 1976, and there isn't a miracle moment, or any narrative describing the impact on the sport at the end. But, Ron Howard does that well. The scenes in the rain evoke a palpable tension and are remarkably executed. It's a great film with two great, perfectly cast lead performers. Ron Howard is back, ladies and gentlemen. 8/10.