Thursday, November 15, 2012

"Lockout" (2012)

Starring Guy Pierce, Maggie Grace and Peter Stormare
Written by James Mather, Stephen St. Leger and Luc Besson
Directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger
Rated PG-13 - Violence, language
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Trailer

In the future, the daughter of the President, Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace) visits a new orbital maximum security prison, looking for human rights violations. During her visit, a prisoner manages to steal a weapon from her Secret Service detail and release a number of his fellow inmates.  Now Emilie is trapped alone aboard a space station full of vicious criminals.

Only one man can save her.

That man is Snow (Guy Pierce), a government agent wrongfully convicted of treason and killing an undercover agent.  The idea of a frontal assault on the complex is vetoed, and the plan is concocted for Snow to infiltrate the base alone in exchange for the chance to prove his innocence.  Luckily, the prisoners don't know that Emilie is the president's daughter, and therefore an extremely valuable hostage.  But that only means that there's limited time before they do find out, and the situation escalates.

Friday, November 9, 2012

"Skyfall" (2012)

Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem
Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan
Directed by Sam Mendes
Rated PG-13 - Intense sequences of action and peril, language, sex
Running Time: 143 Minutes
Trailer

James Bond (Daniel Craig) and a fellow agent, Eve (Naomi Harris) arrive at an MI6 safehouse in Turkey to retrieve a highly-classified hard drive containing a list of names of undercover agents in terrorist groups throughout the world.  But they're too late - the agents have been killed, and Bond is soon on the trail of the thief.  Before he can retrieve the drive from the thief, M (Judi Dench) orders Eve, acting as sniper, to shoot, and she accidentally hits Bond, sending him tumbling into a river and losing the mission and the list.

Months later, Bond is living a quiet life of alcoholism and addiction to pain pills in a beach hut somewhere when he sees on television that there has been a terrorist attack on MI6 headquarters.  Drawn back by his allegiance to M, he returns to London and to MI6.  Unfortunately, the loss of the list and now this attack, has brought M under scrutiny by civilian oversight.  Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) informs M that she's being retired, and M vows to complete the mission.

She sends Bond to Shanghai, where he will come face to face with the man who stole the hard drive. But Bond is unable to learn from him who he works for, who is behind the attack on MI6 that seems strangely personal to M, and who is releasing the names of MI6 agents across the world.  With the bodies piling up, Bond comes face to face with Silva (Javier Bardem) a ghost from M's past with a plan for vicious retribution, and the possibility that for all his loyalty to her, M may not be who or what Bond thinks she is.

Monday, October 22, 2012

"Quantum of Solace" (2008)

Starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko and Mathieu Almaric
Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis
Directed by Marc Forster
Rated PG-13 - Violence, language, sex
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Trailer

Following immediately on from the events of "Casino Royale," "Quantum of Solace" opens as James Bond (Daniel Craig) is transporting Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) to be interrogated by MI6 agents, including M (Judi Dench) herself.  After Bond eludes White's agents, he's shocked to discover that White has people everywhere - including inside MI6, as one of their own agents is revealed as a traitor and tries to kill M.

Bond chases him down, but kills the man in the process.  M sends Bond to follow the agent's money trail, which takes him to a hired killer in Haiti.  Unfortunately, Bond kills him, too, and is forced to impersonate the man in order to learn more about his job. Bond meets Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), the lover of one Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric), a powerful businessman and philanthropist.  It seems Greene wants her dead, and she doesn't particularly have happy wishes for him in return.

Bond suspects that Greene is part of White's organization, and vows to dig deeper.  But M, frustrated with Bond's inability to bring back leads alive, cuts him off.  On his own, in need to help and contacts, Bond goes to a former ally, Rene Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), and his friend in the CIA Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), in order to discover Greene's plans and shut down the mysterious organization that seems one step ahead of MI6 at every turn.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

"Casino Royale" (2006)

Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Mads Mikkelson
Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis
Directed by Martin Campbell
Rated PG-13 - Violence, torture, sex
Running Time: 144 Minutes
Trailer

After making his first two kills as an MI6 agent, James Bond (Daniel Craig) earns his "00" status, becoming agent 007.  M (Judi Dench) sends him on his first mission, to surveil and capture a bombmaker in Madagascar.  Unfortunately, Bond not only kills the man, but he does so after storming a foreign embassy and getting caught on camera, causing an international incident.

Infuriated, M puts Bond on suspension, wondering if she's made a huge mistake promoting him.  But instead of going on vacation as he's ordered, Bond tracks the bombmaker's contacts to the Bahamas where he discovers that the man was involved in some kind of terrorist scheme to blow up a prototype new airliner set to be unveiled in Miami.

After he stops the attack, M decides to bring Bond up to speed on what's really going on: MI6 is interested in making contact with a man named Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelson), a banker for a mysterious terrorist organization.  Bond's new mission, if he can learn to control his temper and not go off half-cocked blowing things to smithereens, is to engage Le Chiffre in a game of high-stakes poker at Casino Royale in Montenegro.  It seems Le Chiffre likes to use his clients money to bet with, and if Bond can clean him out, then he'll have no choice but to turn to MI6 for protection and give up everything he knows.

Bond is paired with veteran agent Rene Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) and treasury agent Vesper Lynd (Eva Green).  As the game grows more desperate and the stakes more dangerous, Bond finds himself drawn more and more to Lynd, and she to him.  But all is not as it seems, and if Bond can't beat Le Chiffre and keep Vesper safe, his first mission might be his last.

Friday, October 19, 2012

"Enemy of the State" (1998)

Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman and Jon Voight
Written by David Marconi
Directed by Tony Scott
Rated R - Violence, language
Running Time: 131 Minutes
Trailer

Robert Dean (Will Smith) is a successful lawyer at a law firm in Washington DC.  One day while buying Christmas gifts for his wife and son (Regina King and Jascha Washington) he runs into an acquaintance from college, Daniel Zavitz (Jason Lee).  Zavitz has stumbled upon evidence that a powerful congressman recently found dead was actually murdered, and Zavitz is now being chased by NSA agents who don't want that evidence seen by anyone.  Zavitz drops the video into Dean's bag without him noticing, and is promptly killed by a fire truck while running from the NSA.

Soon enough, Dean finds himself under surveillance by the same NSA agents.  His phones are tapped, trackers are placed on his clothing, and more.  Worse, the NSA has planted evidence that Dean may be in bed with the mob, and cheating on his wife.  But that is only the beginning.  As Dean attempts to clear his name, he discovers the evidence about the congressman's murder.

With the government after him and his family and friends in danger, Dean has no choice but to track down a mysterious man called Brill (Gene Hackman), an investigator he's hired in the past through a mutual acquaintance.  Brill is a former NSA agent who Dean believes is the only one who can help him clear his name.  Now they'll have to get over their mutual dislike of each other in order to turn the tide on the corrupt NSA director (Jon Voight) who is responsible for everything.

"Mean Girls" (2004)

Starring Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams and Tina Fey
Written by Tina Fey
Directed by Mark Waters
Rated PG-13 - Language, teen drinking, sexual themes
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Trailer

Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is a young girl who for most of her life was home-schooled by her parents, (Neil Flynn and Ana Gasteyer) who were zoologists working in Africa.  Now that they have returned to the United States, they've decided that it's time Cady went to high school and had a social life. So Cady enrolls at North Shore High and instantly has no idea how to deal with people.

She soon falls in with outcasts Janice (Lizzy Caplan) and Damien (Daniel Franzese).  They inform her about the various cliques in the school, including "The Plastics" - the ultimate queen bitches who rule North Shore with an iron fist.  First is Karen (Amanda Seyfried), the dumb blond.  Second is Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), the suck-up.  And finally, Regina (Rachel McAdams), the leader.

When Janice learns that the Plastics have taken an interest in Cady, she convinces Cady to join them in order to get dirt on them.  Cady develops a crush on Aaron (Jonathan Bennett) who just happens to be Regina's ex.  When Regina finds out, she sabotages things between Cady and Aaron, taking Aaron for herself.  Cady and Janice concoct a plan for revenge, but unfortunately, Cady has begun to go native.  She's spent so much time undercover amongst the Plastics, that she's actually become one of them, and starts hurting everyone around her.

As things get worse and worse, the entire school begins to turn against Cady and against each other.  Without her friends and her family, Cady has no idea how to fix things.  Unfortunately for her, Regina isn't going to take her humiliation sitting down, and her revenge could tear the entire school apart.

Monday, October 15, 2012

"Argo" (2012)

Starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and Alan Arkin
Written by Chris Terrio
Directed by Ben Affleck
Rated R - Violence, strong language
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Trailer

"Argo" is based on the incredible true story of six Americans who managed to escape the US embassy in Tehran as it was besieged by rioters in 1979.  The six took refuge in the nearby home of the Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor (Victor Garber).  As the hostage crisis wears on, the "houseguests" continue to hide from the Iranians, but their situation is growing precarious.

CIA agent Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a daring plan to rescue them by flying into Iran and posing as part of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a new science fiction movie called "Argo."  The plan is preposterous, but Mendez manages to get the higher ups to sign off on it because it's "the best bad idea we've got."  To wit, Mendez flies to California and enlists the aid of John Chambers (John Goodman) an Oscar-winning Hollywood makeup artist.  Chambers helps Mendez construct an elaborate ruse to make "Argo" seem like a real film.

The two get a big-shot producer, Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to put together their fake film.  Siegel begins casting the picture, setting up office space, doing all the things that real Hollywood movies do in pre-production.  With a script, storyboards, and fake credentials in place, Mendez must make his daring entry into Iran, coach the houseguests on their new identities and pray that their cover story is good enough to get them through the airport alive.