A Walk Among the Tombstones ****

Short Take: Grim, powerful crime drama about a private investigator and the unusual serial murders that he is trying to solve. Contains several strong performances especially from Liam Neeson.

Reel Take: The transformation of Liam Neeson from leading man to solid character actor to aging action hero has been an interesting one to follow. He’s gone from someone who enhances the films he appears in to being a box office draw all by himself. While I’m happy for him, it cannot be denied that he has been coasting of late in such vehicles as the two Taken movies. This is definitely not the case with A Walk Among the Tombstones.

What was advertised in the trailers as another Liam Neeson badass saga turns out to be anything but. Yes, Neeson is tough but he is also flawed and vulnerable underneath the toughness. As he broods and recalls a tragic incident in his past it’s hard not to think of the real life counterpart involving the tragic death of his wife Natasha Richardson in a skiing accident in 2009.

Unlike the Taken series where he’s dealing with terrorists giving him carte blanche to settle the score in true action hero style, in Tombstones he is dealing with a pair of psychopaths who enjoy mentally and then physically torturing their victims before killing them even after the ransom is paid. The interesting twist is that all the women are related to upscale drug dealers who have money but obviously don’t want publicity.

Neeson is a former cop turned private investigator who is brought in by a “respectable” drug dealer to find the murderers of his wife so that the dealer can exact revenge. At first he refuses to take the case but the brutal nature of the crime and an emerging pattern intrigue him and so he does. What he uncovers is dark, twisted, and very frightening.

A movie of this type needs to have a worthwhile villain and in Tombstones we have two of them. David Harbour and Adam David Thompson are the most stylishly twisted psychopaths to come along since Anthony Hopkin’s Hannibal Lecter and Ted Levine’s Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. In fact the movies are similar in that extremely unsavory material is handled with taste and comparative restraint.

Helping out Liam is Brian “Astro” Bradley who plays a street kid with an artistic bent and with sickle cell anemia. He also wants to be a private detective ala Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. In a real departure, Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame plays the drug dealer who engages Neeson and sets the plot in motion. Also noteworthy is Olafur Darri Olafsson as a frightened bystander who knows more than he is willing to say.

Writer-director Scott Frank whose previous work includes The Lookout with Joseph Gordon-Levitt has crafted a genuinely chilling story which keeps you on edge throughout. If you enjoy character driven urban crime dramas and don’t mind the occasional burst of over-the-top violence then you will find A Walk Among the Tombstones an absorbing experience that will stay with you long afterwards.

Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images, language and brief nudity.
Review by Chip Kaufmann

The Equalizer ***1/2

Short Take: Director Antoine Fuqua’s stylish remake of the 1980s TV series is overlong and over-the-top violent but it is solid entertainment thanks to Denzel Washington.

Reel Take: Once again we are in retread territory as the old 1980s CBS television series The Equalizer with Edward Woodward has been completely revamped and tailored for the talents of Denzel Washington who is basically reprising his role in Man on Fire with just a few modifications.

If you remember the TV show, Robert McCall was a retired intelligence agent turned private detective who people called on when they had no one else to turn to. If he took your case, you knew what the final result would be. After all, it was network TV. The same is true of the movie although it takes over twice as long and the bad guys are disposed of in graphically violent ways (a corkscrew underneath the chin for example).

The new spin is that McCall has put his violent past behind him and is quietly and happily working in a home improvement store. He is methodical to the point of obsession, timing out everything he does, trying to read a book a week from the library of his dead wife, and eating at the same late night diner.

One night a young Russian hooker (Chloe Grace Moretz) he has been conversing with at the diner is severely beaten up by her “employers”, a gang of Russian mobsters who control Denzel’s area of New York City. He tries to buy her from them and when they refuse, cross a few mobsters off the list as they are singlehandedly dispatched by McCall in just a few seconds using their own weapons.

Back in Moscow the head of the organization is none too pleased so he brings in a brutal enforcer (Marton Csokas) who is sent to get McCall and to restore order. His arrival results in an ever increasing body count of gangsters and bystanders until there is an epic final confrontation inside Denzel’s home improvement store (think of what you could do with the wide variety of tools there).

The Equalizer has the pace, the episodic structure and the basic incredulity of the TV show as McCall is always ahead of the game, dispatches whoever needs dispatching, and has everything all wrapped up neat and tidy by the movie’s end. What it doesn’t share with the TV show is length as it’s over twice as long and the violence quotient has been upped considerably.

Denzel Washington is obviously having a great time and why not? He’s John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Charles Bronson all rolled into one and he doesn’t need a gun. Throw in a little of Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes (his ability to envision how something will play out before it does) and you have an unstoppable fighting machine.

Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) moves things along with a nice but calculated neo-noir style. Be advised that this film comes by its R rating honestly. It is extremely violent as nameless Russian bad guy after nameless Russian bad guy is killed in the most gruesome manner possible. This didn’t bother the older audience I saw it with one bit. In fact some of them actually cheered.

Rated R for strong, bloody violence and language throughout.
Review by Chip Kaufmann

Fury ****

Short Take: A violent and gritty WWII drama about a battle-hardened, war weary tank crew in Germany in the last days of the war.

Reel Take: David Ayer’s Fury is not for the faint of heart. Its violence suits the story, but I assure you, you’ve never seen the horrors of war painted quite like this. Earlier this year George Clooney gave us The Monuments Men, a WWII drama that was a cinematic throw-back to the era of the story – patriotic and sentimental. Ayer’s Fury is also old school, but in a different vein – unsentimental, disillusioned stories born from the carnage of war. The difference between those films and Fury is that it’s 2014, and we are now so desensitized to depictions of violence, we can show the brutal ravages and vulgarity of war in an unfiltered lens.

It’s April of 1945 in Germany. The war is almost over. Brad Pitt stars as Don “Wardaddy” Collier. The role is reminiscent of his character in Inglorious Basterds, but sans the Tarantino-esque character quirks and eccentricities. He is a skilled and battle hardened tank commander and it’s been a long war. His crew is equally hardened: Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LaBeouf), “Gordo” Garcia (Michael Pena) and “Coon-ass” Travis (Jon Bernthal).

At the start of the film they’ve lost a member of the crew and his replacement is a fresh out of boot camp, misappropriated paper pusher, named Norman (Logan Lerman). No sooner does Norman clean the fractured remnants of his predecessor from the tank and they are back in action. It should be noted that this story takes place post D-Day. As Collier says to young Norman, “The war will end soon, but a lot more people have to die first.” Norman is horrified by the inhumanity of war. But when his sense of humanity causes other Americans to die, he learns quickly.

There is very little character development or story arc in Fury. The film is more of an episode or an experience. Pitt’s Collier is clearly more intelligent and educated than his weathered crew. In the film’s only real momentary respite from battle we see his longing for civilized normalcy, but can also see how alien it has become in their world. Said scene also allows Collier and Norman to bond a bit. This is about as deep a character dive as we get.

The rest of the character development is implied. LeBeouf’s “Bible” comes by his nickname naturally, spouting proverbs and psalms and spiritual conversation at every turn. He may be the most interesting character in the film, even though he is secondary to Pitt and Lerman. Pena is ok, but not given a lot to do. As for Bernthal’s aptly-named “Coon-ass,” I’d have fed him to the Nazis. That said, I guess you could say he wasn’t afraid to get ugly on the inside and out.

While the film has a few missteps (and it could definitely have been a bit shorter), the battle sequences do not. Ayer crafted them masterfully and they are riveting and brilliantly executed. The dance between tanks in combat is something to behold. And the climatic scene is gut wrenchingly suspenseful, even in its seeming inevitability.

If war is hell, then Fury may be one of the best depictions of hell to date.

Rate R for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.
Review by Michelle Keenan

The Judge ***1/2

Short Take: A by-the-book. father/son family drama saved by the merits of its lead actors, Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall

Reel Take: The Judge is the kind of film that will fare better with its audiences than it will with critics. And at the end of the day, a happy audience is what it’s all about. As for this critic, I confess I was annoyed by the contrivances of the by-the-book father/son family drama plot, but the performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall, though not revelatory, keep the film afloat.

Downey plays Hank Palmer, a big city lawyer, renowned for successfully defending the truly guilty. When he returns to the Indiana hometown he left decades ago for his mother’s funeral, things go as expected with his estranged father. Joe Palmer (Robert Duvall) is a respected circuit court judge with more than 40 years on the bench. Father and son have scarcely talked in more than 25 years. But when Joe suddenly finds himself as the primary suspect in a hit and run murder case the only person who can help him is Hank.

From there the story trods on familiar territory. What happened to drive Hank and Joe apart? Is Hank guilty? Will Hank and Joe be able to put aside their difference? The only vaguely grey area here is Hank’s guilt or innocence. Otherwise, the story unfolds predictably, including Hank’s rekindled connection with his high school sweetheart and his hometown.

Downey Jr and Duvall play well off of one another. Each brings what’s needed to the role including, in RDJ’s case, good comic timing for the lighter moments of the film. The supporting cast, including Vera Farmiga as Hank’s high school sweetheart and Vincent D’Onofrio and Jeremy Strong as Hank’s older and younger brothers respectively are all spot on as well. This ensemble compensates for the film’s missteps.

The Judge marks a departure for Director David Dobkin, who helmed The Wedding Crashers and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. The good news is Dobkin made a beautiful film. The bad news is he doesn’t know how to edit or how to direct his editors, and the film’s running time at 2 hours and 22 minutes is too long and seems longer.

For me what really holds this film back is the paint-by-number, cliché riddled story by Nick Schenk (Gran Torino and RoboCop) and first time screenwriter Bill Dubuque. There’s nothing wrong with familiar territory. After all, there’s a reason why father/son stories live on generation after generation.

Bottom line, The Judge is likeable mediocrity, but for me it’s aggravating to see something be mediocre when it could be so much more. Oh – and one last petty grievance – Shelbourne Falls, Masschusetts is a lovely shooting location, but it doesn’t look remotely like Indiana.

Rated R for language including some sexual references
Review by Michelle Keenan

Laggies ***1/2

Short Take: Slight but winning romantic comedy is a lot better than it should be thanks to the performances of its three leads.

Reel Take: Laggies is a textbook example of a movie that consists of shopworn material that is elevated by the performances of its principal leads. In this case there are three…Keira Knightley, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Sam Rockwell. Each brings something to the table to make Laggies (a terrible title by the way) a surprisingly enjoyable movie experience.

Keira Knightley, taking a well deserved break from period pieces, is delightful as Megan, a 28 year old who has never moved on with her life since high school despite the best efforts of her family and friends. When her boyfriend of 10 years (Mark Webber) proposes, she freaks out and winds up staying in the home of a sensitive teenager (Chloe Grace Moretz) whom she has recently befriended.

Knightly hangs out with Moretz and her teenage friends acting as a sort of mentor while being able to relive her high school days. In classic rom-com fashion, Moretz has a world weary father (Sam Rockwell) who just happens to be divorced. After a series of get togethers and misadventures, Megan has to face reality and get on with her adult life. Will it be with the old boyfriend or with the slightly older father? Something tells me you can probably guess the answer to that question.

Director Lynn Shelton, whose previous credits include Your Sister’s Sister (2011) and Humpday (2009), moves the film along at a good pace (it’s only 99 minutes w/credits) which helps to not only keep things moving but keeps us from focusing on how familiar the story is. Most of the blame for that goes to first time screenwriter Andrea Seigel. She tries to inject some fresh air into the stale plot and manages to for a while, but she runs out of steam a little over halfway through.

That being said, it should also be noted that the predictability of the final act of Laggies is where its appeal will lie for the vast majority of people. We seem to be resurrecting more positive endings to mainstream movies now which, I confess, doesn’t bother me one bit.

I’ve already talked about how good Knightley is playing against the type of roles she has become associated with but I also want to mention the contributions of Chloe Grace Moretz and especially Sam Rockwell. Moretz, who is all of 17 and has already racked up 51 film credits including star turns in Kick-Ass, Let Me In, and Hugo, is basically playing herself but she has enough personality to keep her character interesting.

Sam Rockwell, on the other hand, is pretty amazing. While this role isn’t much of a stretch for him considering some of his recent work, he invests it with an effortless charm and grace and he has us in his corner after his first scene. Nobody can focus their eyes on you the way Rockwell can.

Long story short, Laggies is a predictable, feel good movie that is made more than watchable by the chemistry of its three leads. In fact it’s the kind of solid well made movie that we’ll be watching years from now when other, heavier, more critically acclaimed movies have been forgotten.

Rated R for language, sexual material, and teen partying.
Review by Chip Kaufmann

St. Vincent ***1/2

Short Take: Predictable, cliché ridden movie is raised a couple of notches by a strong supporting cast and the one and only Bill Murray.

Reel Take: St. Vincent is barely a step above a Hallmark Channel special or a Lifetime movie-of-the-week, take your choice. Just about every cliché’ you can think of can be found here…the grumpy old man, the precocious kid, the single mother, the hooker with the heart of gold, and the ending where everything works out.

In spite of all that or perhaps because of it, the movie mostly worked for me and I’m sure it will work for you as well. The primary reason for this is, of course, Bill Murray and I say this as someone who hasn’t cared much for Murray over the years.

The movie opens with Murray indulging in his trademark obnoxious, loutish character only older. Think Caddyshack or especially Stripes but with a different set of circumstances. Melissa McCarthy as the single mom holds her own against him but then she knows a thing or two about being obnoxious and how to react to someone being it.

Naomi Watts as a pregnant Russian prostitute is saddled with the worst fake Russian accent since Natasha of Rocky & Bullwinkle fame. I realize that it was meant to be broad but sometimes she overdoes it. The accent, coupled with the fact that she really has nothing to do, made me wonder why Watts took on the project other than to work with Murray which I guess is reason enough.

Murray plays Vincent McKenna, a loud mouthed, drunken Vietnam veteran who seems to have no redeemable qualities whatsoever. Of course as the film unfolds we are given his back story so that we realize that there are several reasons for his behavior being what it is including a secret sorrow. This gives Murray a chance to actually act and to create a character with some depth.

Newcomer Jaeden Lieberher, who plays Oliver the precocious kid next door, is more than a match for Murray and gives a very fine performance, possibly the movie’s finest. He isn’t cute and is never annoying and his small size adds to his stature as we watch him evolve before our eyes from a bullied, introverted geek into a confident young boy who is more than able to take care of himself.

First time writer-director Theodore Melfi takes a remarkably predictable story and turns it into a variation of Hugh Grant’s About A Boy. It works more often than not although some facets like Terrence Howard’s loan shark seem little more than a plot device. Irish actor Chris O’Dowd is very engaging as a hip Catholic priest which is miles away from the character he played in Calvary. Next to Murray he gets the best lines.

In the end St. Vincent is an unashamedly manipulative movie that cashes in on the popularity of Murray and the strength of the cast surrounding him. Audiences should love it especially older members who will embrace its feel good qualities. It may be maudlin and mundane but that is of no consequence when it’s done this well.

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, alcohol and tobacco use and for language.
Review by Chip Kaufmann