5 More Quickie Reviews

Knight and Day
Action / Comedy
Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz
Directed by James Mangold

June Havens (Diaz) is accidentally brought into a massive conspiracy with the (crazy?) secret agent Roy Miller (Cruise) in the center of it.
If you like Tom Cruise, you need to see this movie, because he really owns it. He is quite cool as the super charismatic and questionably nutty agent. It is definitely an action movie, though, and the storyline feels like it was pasted on after the idea of teaming up a secret agent with a normal girl and throwing them into these crazy situations. It's a pretty fun movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't ask forgiveness for blatant plot holes and just assumes the audience will roll with it.
Final Score - 6.5/10

Shutter Island
Thriller / Mystery
Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Directed by Martin Scorsese

In the 1950's, two US Marshals (Teddy - DiCaprio and Chuck - Ruffalo) are sent to Shutter Island, a home for the worst kind of criminally insane criminals, to find an escaped patient. When a hurricane hits while they are on the island, dark conspiracies are revealed as Teddy faces his dark past. The storm may not be the only thing keeping them on Shutter Island...

Very enjoyable movie, but a little too long. It felt like there was a bit of filler which could easily have been removed to eliminate 20 minutes or so. The filler was the only thing that kept this from a 10 for me, as the acting, writing, directing, cinematography, music, etc were all top-notch. I -kind of- guessed the ending at the beginning, but there were some details that definitely surprised me, and I wouldn't mind giving it a second viewing.

Final Score - 9/10

The Crazies
Horror
Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell
Directed by Breck Eisner

A plane crash in a small Iowa town releases a disease into the water which causes its victims to become criminally insane before dying. Avoiding "crazies," other survivors, and the government blockades, David (Olyphant), his wife (Mitchell), and a few others attempt to reach Cedar Rapids where rescue may await.

This movie was a pretty pleasant surprise. Don't be fooled by the silly sounding title, the film is quite serious. You could consider this a zombie movie, and it kind of is. However, the "zombies" of this movie are just insane people with veiny rotten faces. They can talk, run, drive, and use guns, making them extra deadly.
I usually don't care for the type of zombie movie where "PEOPLE are the true monsters" (this is one), but it pulls off that sub-genre quite well without being overly annoying. It dragged a bit at times but overall it was satisfying...even the ending.

Final Score - 8.5/10

Sorority Row
Horror (Slasher)
Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis
Directed by Stewart Hendler

After a prank leads a college student to accidentally murder one of their "sisters," 5 girls of Theta Pi Sorority hide the body and swear each other to secrecy in the style of "I know what you did last summer." 8 Months later, as graduation occurs, strange messages are received by the sisters as people start to die around them.

Quite typical college slasher flick. A bunch of hot girls and frat guys party and drop dead. I'm glad they didn't go with the super cliche (by now) ending of "the killer is chasing her but it turns out she WAS the killer!!" end, but I really didn't like what they did with the end. It felt like it didn't make any sense and the murderer was "that" person ONLY so that the audience would never have guessed the true identity of the killer before the end. In reality though, I totally called it...I'm getting way too familiar with typical film maker red herrings...

Final Score - 5.5/10

The Road
Drama
Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Directed by John Hillcoat

In this post-apocalyptic world, there is no food, no electricity, no vehicles, no animals, no trees, and no hope. The sky is perpetually gray and civilization ceases to exist in any form. A man (Mortensen) travels with his son (Smit-McPhee) south towards the coast where there may or may not be hope. Along the way, the encounter vicious cannibals, other scavengers, deserted towns, and corpses of those who gave up. Knowing he is dying, the man attempts to teach his son how to survive while retaining some shred of humanity.

As soon as I was finished with this movie, all I could think was Wow...I can't remember the last time I saw such a bittersweet movie. From beginning to end, depression and a sense of existential worthlessness are the only feelings. Sure from time to time there are highlights, but they are quickly shot down by a new problem. In a world where suicide is the best option for every scenario, what is there to live for?
The movie never says why the world ended, and it actually doesn't really matter. The only clue is the ocassional earthquakes, but I don't know why that would end the world
EVERYTHING about this movie is amazing: the setting, acting, writing, cinematography, music, storyline, etc are all top-notch. Some say that the film is slow, and they may be right, but at no point did I feel bored.
This film embodies the same feeling of hopelessness that Grave of the Fireflies gives off...Turns out post-apocalyptia isn't as fun as Mad Max, Zombieland, or Fallout 3 would have us believe.

Final Score - 10/10