ElectroBoy

I don't really know what to say about this, so I'll just say it like Sammy Jackson.

This was fucking shit, mother fucker!

With the action confined to a cramped passenger jet for most of the film's running time, there's no room for the kind of relentlessly over-the-top action that many Hollywood thrillers peddle. Instead, Craven and screenwriter Carl Ellsworth keep the focus purely on the power-play between Jackson and Lisa, keeping the tension high, and never lingering for too long before moving on to the next suspense set-piece.

The director's aided in his task by the excellent work of the two leads, with Rachel McAdams proving that she can carry a movie as she portrays a realistic and three-dimensional character without becoming an action heroine stereotype. Murphy also excels, managing to be convincingly charming in the early scenes and resisting the urge to chew the scenery once Jackson's menacing agenda becomes clear.

The script exploits the surreal nature of a life-or-death situation taking place in such a banal environment (most notably, when Lisa is menaced by Jackson in the airplane toilet, and one of the hostesses misinterprets it as an attempt to join the Mile High Club), while the efficient direction pastes over the more obvious holes in the plot.

Sadly, Red Eye eventually falls prey to the kind of overblown climax that unseats many Hollywood suspense thrillers. In the same way that Speed faltered once it left the famous wired-to-explode bus, the film doesn't quite recover from letting the characters leave the confines of the plane, and opening out into a more traditional action thriller environment.

Thankfully, it's still sensible enough to play the more ridiculous moments with its tongue firmly in cheek (thanks largely to the entertaining Jayma Mays as Lisa's mousy co-worker at the hotel). Even an extended sequence that's essentially Craven re-treading ground from the Scream movies can't completely derail what remains a surprisingly tense and satisfying thriller.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets starts off on a gloomy night in April 14th, 1865. We aren't exactly sure where we are just yet with the camera panning around, but by the date alone it suggests that the Lincoln assassination is just around the corner from happening. We are immediately introduced to Thomas Gates who is a relative of Ben Gates played by Nicolas Cage. Thomas is offered a cipher from the diary of John Wilks Booth to try and decipher. Thomas begins to ponder over the clue of "The Debt That All Men Pay" when he suddenly notices his guest needing his service might be a bad guy. A struggle ensues and then we cut to seeing John Wilkes Booth in an amazingly well realized recreation of the Lincoln assassination. Mr. Booth kills Mr. Lincoln and then jumps onstage and shouts Sic Semper Tyrannus (Thus Always to Tyrants) before fleeing.

We then cut to present times with Ben Gates and his father Patrick Gates (Jon Voight) giving a lecture on their brand new Civilian Heroes Exhibit. It's quickly established that since the first film the Gates family name has been cleared and is recognized with new prestige and honor. They are clearly basking in a newfound limelight and glory.

However, no sooner than the audience is allowed to take this when Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris) enters the scene proclaiming that their great great grandfather Thomas Gates was one of the main people behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Due to the initially establishing to the audience that Thomas is innocent, we immediately react with the same shock and aplomb. How can this possibly be? Who is this rabid dog Mitch character and what are his true intentions?

Mitch produces a page from the John Wilks Booth diary that has a list of all the men behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This page he claims has been passed down throughout his families history. We are immediately shown this page seems to be very real and certainly seems to somehow cast Thomas as a ringleader in something we know he didn't do. The plot certainly thickens right out of the gate before there is even any hint that a quest for a treasure might happen. With the rapid pacing of the first film the audience isn't left hanging too long before the film morphs into familiar ground of also being a quest for a treasure in addition to being a quest by Ben and Patrick to vindicate Thomas.

The main characters for the first film are all back for this outing. Harvey Ketiel is back playing the role of The Wolf, I mean FBI badass. Justin Bartha returns in the films Han Solo role as Riley Poole, the wise cracking everyman. Although, we quickly see him lose his red hot sports car early on while noting of this unfortunate turn of events: "You know what taxes are for 5 million? 6 million!" I find it odd in general that frisky single people always seem to opt for red sports cars. Jon Voight also returns as the cranky father figure. This time around he seems to have lightened up some. Diane Kruger reprises her strong female character of Abigail that while dressing prim and proper can be just as gritty and no holds barred as any male. Nicolas Cage of course is back as the cryptographer and historian extraordinaire Ben Gates. This is certainly a role that Mr. Cage shines in, yet I never quite understand why he runs like a retired NFL football player in both films. Mr. Cage is the right mix of classic movie hero charisma and quirky offbeat charm. He is a happy puppy like character with brains that won't bite you, but will certainly find a way to beat you or sneak out of the backyard. New to the cast of particular note are Ed Harris and Helen Mirren. Mr. Harris is effective in a limited role. Helen Mirren seems to just revel in being in a silly role as the mother of Nicolas Cage.

Just like the first film, the film is just as interested in the main characters figuring out each clue as it is with them finding the treasure at the end. In many treasure hunting films the clues merely serve as a small plot device to keep the main plot moving forward or to place the lead character in another exciting location. The National Treasure series aims to have each clue and the solving of it as its own unique set piece. Most sequences of sleuth and solving the clues do seem to be too greatly simplified, in comparison to the first film. The massive screenwriting team the film boasts clearly doesn't want the audience to have to think as much as it did in the first one. While this certainly works to give the audience more time to sit back and enjoy the ride, it results in it having large set pieces with even less things to do in. And with less things to do, things do feel more padded out than they should be. The padding mostly comes in the form of character development, so if you like the characters and really enjoy them, then you have nothing to worry about. We spend more time exploring the characters, what makes them tick and how they respond to adversity. The themes of adventure, history, patriotism is still there, but it is themes of family and global harmony that mark this second outing and set it apart.

Just as in the first film we get to travel to and explore locations tantamount to American history. Book of Secrets unlike the first film sweeps through American history on a global scale and more national scale, we aren't just stuck on the east coast of America. This serves to make the new outing even more sweeping and epic. We also once again get to see historical locations with an all access type insiders' glee, which adds some additional excitement in seeing areas we in our real lives would never be able to.

The set design like the first film is just amazing to take in. One of the huge selling points of this series to date is how rich accurate they try and craft their set designs. History from the past is wonderfully realized through massive and imaginative sets and finished out with digital effects. The blending and balancing of the two creates a magical universe we get to travel into with our characters. In addition the film once again makes incredibly fun use of actual historical places that civilians would never in real life get to explore in this fashion. I think many people have often visited a historical place and wondered what was behind roped off or closed areas. The National Treasure films play into this curiosity very well.

Book of Secrets is constructed into two parts. The first part works as more of a traditional spy film. As we see our main characters chart across the globe as they try to unravel each subsequent clue and riddle. The second half of the film really switches in into more traditional action and adventure film territory. An over the top heist is still on the menu along with a car chase and some escape scenes.

Despite the fact the film features many more locations than the first outing, it seems to be much more about exploring the characters themselves than everything else. So if you like the main characters from the first film, then chances are you will really like this one. If your looking for more action and adventure this time around, then you might walk away disappointed. It's less about being a cat and mouse thriller or adventure and more character driven.

Book of Secrets is a film crafted for the entire family to go out and see and have fun this holiday season. As such it's easily the most thrilling family adventure of 2007.

Overall, I think Book of Secrets is a way too simplified version of the previous film on a much grander scale. I think what the ending really gets wrong is not introducing any mythical, supernatural or resonating moments of transcendence in its final act. Some combination of these elements and themes at the end would have certainly taken it to another level of spectacle. We get to a spectacularly realized set piece that gives us and the characters little more to do than just yawn, which is an odd way to go out of an otherwise often exciting film.

Nicolas Cage stars in his fourth Jerry Bruckheimer production (after The Rock, Con Air, and Gone in 60 Seconds), and while this is far from his best work as an actor, his presence does offer some credibility to his otherwise wafer-thin character. Toss in Jon Voight as the stern, unappreciative father (albeit a rip-off of Sean Connery's portrayal of Henry Jones in The Last Crusade), some welcome eye-candy in Diane Kruger, and a thankfully subdued performance by Sean Bean and National Treasure gets a check in the plus column for a relatively likeable cast.

It's also a good looking film, with quality economical direction by Turteltaub and sumptuous cinematography from Caleb Deschanel. Nice locale work, top-notch special effects and sound effects, and good work on the sets and costumes, all make this an appealing film, if only on a visceral level.

Falling under the Disney moniker, it's a relatively decent family film, and even if not anything new, it is served well in the role of mindless popcorn movie.

Laced with horribly clichéd secret society mumbo jumbo and unintentionally funny homoerotic undertones, "The Skulls" is a laughable thriller about a pre-law Yale student (Joshua Jackson) so shallow and ambitious that he's willing to throw over his best friend and the girl he loves just to be accepted in an underground campus club of power-hungry blue bloods.

The Skulls, you see, are an indomitable, clandestine handful of the country's social and political elite -- all Yale men -- who the movie tells us founded the CIA among other ominous undertakings. Members are members for life. They get branded and paired up with other members as "soul mates." They live by a musty, leather-bound, 200-year-old book of rules. They cover up each other's scandals.

When this brotherhood accept new members, money is deposited money in their bank accounts, they're given expensive cars, tuxedos (which are worn to frequent Skulls dinner parties), nice wrist-watches, nights with call-girls in a Christian Dior gowns, and -- most importantly as far as young Luke McNamara (Jackson) is concerned -- they pay their conscripts' tuitions and see to it they get into the law school of their choice.

But above all, they keep each other's secrets. So once Luke is in -- following an funhouse initiation ritual so ridiculously cabalistic and ostentatious it's reminiscent of "Phantom Of the Opera" -- he finds himself in a tight spot when The Skulls murder his now-estranged best friend, a campus paper cub reporter looking to expose them.

Caught in a slow-witted, collegiate retread of "The Firm," Luke realizes (a bit late) that The Skulls aren't such a swell bunch of guys after all and has to run for his life while looking for a way to blackmail himself out of the organization and bring the murderer to justice.

Got all that?

Helmed by journeyman director Rob Cohen (Daylight, Dragonheart) and aimed squarely at easily entertained teenagers with eight bucks to burn, "The Skulls" isn't a bad idea for a movie. But when Cohen started casting weightless heartthrobs like Paul Walker (Varsity Blues, She's All That) as Jackson's well-to-do rival, and Wonderbra hotties like Leslie Bibb (TV's "Popular") as his scholarly arm ornament, it became a project with plenty of looks but no brains.

Most of the movie's budget seems to have gone into presentation. It's well-paced and edited, the photography is crisp, clean and exciting and the sets are ludicrously spectacular. The Skulls meet in an ceremonial underground chamber lined with marble pillars, and even Luke's 400-square-foot dorm room has vaulted stone ceilings.

But the characters are deadly dull and the Swiss-cheese scenarios so frequently laughable that the crowd at the preview screening -- enlisted by a local top 40 station, the picture's target audience -- couldn't stop snickering through the whole show.

Without a single moment of genuine suspense and with a climactic confrontation that seems to ignore many of the plot revelations, the movie's biggest problem remains that its main character is fundamentally unlikable because he's so utterly selfish, turning his back on his friends until he needs to be rescued.

Based on some of the same historical events as Chen Kaige's 2000 epic drama "The Emperor and the Assassin," the film stars Jet Li as a nameless assassin (referred to as "Nameless") whose goal is to kill a Napoleon-like warlord, the King of Qin (Chen Daoming), who has brutally conquered six other kingdoms to unite China for the first time. But to get close to the king, he must first defeat three dangerous killers, Long Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung), and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) -- the king's most dangerous enemies.

These scenes, however, take place in flashback. In the present, the king has granted an audience to this warrior who has done him such a great honor, and Nameless's heroism allows him to move closer than the security-regulated 100 yards from the throne.

But the king is no fool. He quickly deduces that Nameless's story is a fabrication and questions the assassin, trying to figure out what really happened. What follows is a "Rashomon"-like narrative, relying on the distorting nature of storytelling, in which the king and his would-be killer each spin their own version of the preceding battles, trying to throw each other further and further off-guard.

Director Zhang Yimou ("The Road Home," "Raise the Red Lantern") presents each of the various tales drenched in their own bold colors: red, blue, green and gold. But unlike "Rashomon," the true story does ultimately come out -- only to lead to a much tougher decision on which the very future of China hinges.

The film's real selling point is what happens within these extraordinary swatches of color. These breathtaking action scenes threaten to virtually rip the screen apart.

In one, Nameless and Flying Snow ward off a veritable hailstorm of arrows while balletic Broken Sword feverishly paints a calligraphy scroll. Other scenes feature Broken Sword's jealous apprentice (Zhang Ziyi) attacking Flying Snow in a forest full of swirling dead leaves, and a fight that takes place while the players sprint and dance across the surface of a serene lake.

Zhang Yimou is not a kung-fu director by nature, but he knows beauty and tragedy when he sees them. "Hero" eschews his recent, neo-realist work ("Happy Times") and harkens back to his earlier films like "Ju Dou," in which brightly colored cloth hanging in the breeze made for similiarly stunning visuals.

He was also smart enough to hire Christopher Doyle, the celebrated Australian-born cinematographer who has worked almost exclusively in Hong Kong, lensing such classics as Wong Kar-wai's "Ashes of Time." Doyle understands not only the concept of making fight scenes clear, but also how to move his camera with the action, heightening it rather than obscuring it with cuts and shakes as most American filmmakers do.

The film's cast comes from the uppermost echelon of Hong Kong elite. But unlike "Crouching Tiger's" Chow Yun-fat, Jet Li is an accomplished martial artist who can actually perform the stunts required for this film. "Hero" fits him perfectly, calling upon his stock-in-trade steely-eyed stoicism. When the king hurls a sword directly at his face, the actor does not flinch a millimeter as the weapon sticks in the table directly in front of him.

Zhang takes his great cast and crew and celebrates with them. Rather than a pretentious attempt at turning kung-fu into high art, "Hero" is a film of movement and color and poetry, an all-time cinema classic that deserves our unrestrained applause, with or without Miramax's help.

The last place one would expect to find hope would be a prison. Likewise, the last movie in which one would expect to find hope is a prison movie. However, in The Shawshank Redemption, hope is exactly what we get. The Shawshank Redemption is the story of Andy Dufrense (Tim Robbins); a man accused of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. He is shipped to Shawshank Maximum Security Prison, in Shawshank, Maine, to spend the duration of his life. Over the next years (two hours, movie time), he finds his way to inner peace and holds onto great hope in the midst of the terror of the prison system. The Shawshank Redemption is one of those films that is a true work of both art and magic. It is a work of art in the fact that it can so perfectly paint the picture of a man who will not relinquish the only thing someone cannot directly take away: hope. It is a work of magic in the fact that you are completely enveloped in Shawshank. From the first shot of Shawshank prison -- an utterly gothic structure that permeates you with a sense of just how frightening the prison will be -- you are enveloped inside of the world of Shawshank. You experience a prison life composed of routine after routine after routine. The performances in Shawshank are top notch. The commentary upon the justice system is both thoughtful and thought provoking. Yet, despite all of its greatness, Shawshank's script leaves a little to be desired. I suppose such happens when one is using Stephen King as the source for a serious movie. Shawshank's characters are cliched. There is Red (Freeman), the convict who gets things, who says at one point "I suppose there's a convict like me in every prison." Also, Andy plays the stereotype of the innocent man, doing time for a crime he did not commit. The story is basically predictable. The dialogue has a propensity to get preachy. Despite these flaws, The Shawshank Redemption is a film with remarkable staying power. It is able to sustain itself throughout its duration and to keep you enraptured with its remarkably hopeful story. Basically, it's freakin' awesome!

Synopsis: Tuscany, as the Allies pursue the Germans north at the end of WWII: traumatised by loss and carnage, Canadian nurse Hana (Binoche) decides to stay behind in an abandoned, bombed monastery and care for her dying patient (Fiennes). He seems to recall little of his life, but when Caravaggio (Dafoe), a vengeful, morphine-addicted thief, turns up and quizzes him over past dark secrets, and as Hana reads from his beloved Herodotos, memories return of the pre-war years when, as an archaeologist/cartographer in the Sahara, he had a passionate affair with Katharine (Scott Thomas), wife of a British colleague. My verdict: Though Anthony Minghella's adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel simplifies, jettisons and changes certain elements of the original story, it remains a rich, complex, entrancing piece of work. Part poignant romance, part suspenseful adventure, part enigmatic mystery, it's essentially a study in different responses to love and war, honour and betrayal, nationality and identity, falsehood and forgiveness, which sounds subtle echoes as the narrative flashes to and fro between two main time frames. Needless to say, the performances are flawless; more surprising is the fluency, poetry and scale of Minghella's direction (John Seale's sensuous desert photography is superb), equally eloquent whether depicting boudoir intimacies, bomb-disposal skills, drunken dementia or a deadly sandstorm.

After Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, it was clear that George Lucas had something hot in his hands. At this point, Lucas was under some pressure, and it would've been easy to produce a followup that was a disaster and let everyone down. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi shows Lucas' ingenuity: he combines the best elements of the previous two episodes and produces a movie that is not only technologically advanced, in terms of special effects, but ties the loose ends together in a consistent whole. The plot is similar to Star Wars: A New Hope. The Evil Empire has built a new killing machine, much more powerful than the Death Star (even though it has the same weak points as far as blowing it up is concerned). The Rebel Alliance must destroy it before it destroys them. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), along with Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), C3PO (Anthony Daniels), and R2D2 (Kenny Baker) tie up the first loose thread by rescuing Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from the clutches of the evil Jabba the Hutt (Toby Philpott). Then Luke returns to the Dagobah system to finish his training (thread number two) with Yoda (Frank Oz) and makes it there just in time. The nine-hundred-year-old Jedi Master dies and joins Obi-Wan Kenobi in the great beyond. Luke learns from Yoda that he has a twin sister and must confront Darth Vader before he can become a proper Jedi Knight (and that's two more threads tied up for you). Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance begins planning their attack on the Empire's weapon. Luke and his friends are responsible for destroying the shield protecting the new weapon so Lando and the Alliance crew can destroy the revamped Death Star. As they approach Endor, the moon containing the shield controls, Darth Vader (David Proust, voice of James Earl Jones) and Luke sense each other's presence. Luke then confronts Darth Vader and tries to convert him to the good side. Up till now, the most fearsome villain in the Star Wars movies was Darth Vader. But Lucas manages to create an even more impressive one, just as he begins to change Darth Vader into a good guy. The new villain is Darth Vader's master, the evil Emperor (Ian McDiarmid), who looks feeble and old but possess extraordinary Jedi powers (presumably from his alliance with the dark side). When the Emperor realises he cannot convert Luke to the dark side, he begins to slowly and painfully kill Luke. Darth Vader, seeing Luke lying helplessly on the floor while the Emperor exhibits pure evil, feels a spark of compassion and kills the Emperor (a little too easily, but it's better than having a sustained fight). In doing so, he finally redeems himself and joins Obi-Wan and Yoda.

The Empire Strikes Back continues the Star Wars saga in exciting fashion, with the Empire now having driven the Rebels from their secret base to another on an ice world called Hoth. The Empire eventually finds them on Hoth, forcing an evacuation, whereupon Luke is told by the "spirit" of Obi-Wan Kenobi to seek out a Jedi instructor named Yoda for training. Meanwhile, romance is brewing between Han Solo and Princess Leia, but Han has problems of his own as he is plagued by bounty hunters and the Empire out to nab him. Excitement erupts as Luke and Vader meet face to face, and some startling revelations occur. The Empire Strikes Back is not only a terrific sequel to Star Wars, it's one of the best sequels of all time, and some people even think it's better than the first of the series. I don't totally agree with that assessment, but admittedly the special effects are better, the characters more three-dimensional, the artwork more beautiful, and the John Williams score still absolutely amazing. The film leaves more questions than answers, and sets itself up in the end for the eventual sequel to tie up all the loose ends. Empire may ultimately be just a set-up film, but what a setup! It's grand scale and top-notch entertainment of the highest order, and a must-see for anyone who saw Star Wars. The pace and editing of this film is nothing short of perfection...this is how to keep action tight and suspenseful!

A couple of robots shuttle to a desert planet after their rebel spaceship is taken over by an Imperial starcruiser, capturing everyone on board including the rebel princess, Leia (Fisher). Leia has sent the robots to convey a message to a man named Obi-Wan Kenobi (Guiness), who she claims is the only hope left for the rebels to beat the evil Empire. A pair of farmers buy the droids after they are captured by some scavengers to use on their farm, and after the farmer boy, Luke (Hamill) discovers the princess' message, he heads to Obi-Wan to deliver it. While he is away, his family is killed by the Empire seeking the droids, as they make their escape from the planet with the aid of a space pirate named Han Solo (Ford), and make their way to help the princess, who is now aboard a space station powerful enough to destroy an entire planet in seconds, the Death Star. Star Wars is truly one of the all-time greatest cinematic experiences ever created. A modern day equivalent of a fairy tale, masterfully and lovingly created by writer-director George Lucas. Combining elements of narratives of the past with modern-day westerns and Japanese cinema, it is a breathtaking endeavor, with an absorbing universe of richly-defined characters. It's bolstered by a memorable score by John Williams, beautifully created costumes and sets, and a tightly constructed plot that never strays off course, this is nothing short of a sci-fi/fantasy masterpiece.

Clooney plays Danny Ocean, a recently released big-time thief, who has big aspirations of knocking over the owner of three big Las Vegas casinos, Terry Benedict. Terry is not only a major a-hole with plenty of enemies, but also happens to be sporting Ocean's former wife on his arm, which makes him an illustrious target in Danny's eyes. Danny pulls together a gang of ten other players, each with their own skills which are needed to bust in the high-security vault which hold the millions taken in by the casinos. Soderbergh squeezes more juice than one could have thought could be had from the material, and the actors provide oodles of chemistry and amiable performances which make Ocean's Eleven one of the hippest and most fun films of 2001. With grainy film stock, a hip funk-jazz score, well-choreographed camera movements and segues, plus good use of Las Vegas scenic locales, it's a treat for the mind as well as the funny bone.