Vintage

When did Liam Neeson become the best action star there is? I will take Neeson's frazzled, frenetic, yet-I-kick-major-ass when it comes down to it over your typical sculpted Vin Diesel action hero any day.  Why? I think because Neeson has an everyday type of guy appearance to him, it lends more to the action.  Like, "wow, look at this totally un-ripped dude out there beating some spy ass."  Call it the Gene Hackman cool guy factor.  Maybe the Bruce Willis cool guy factor.  I like heroes that remind me, of, well, me.  Nah, I can't even go that far.  Any of the dudes I just mentioned make me look like Fat Albert.

In Unknown, Neeson plays the lead guy who is on a trip to Germany with his wife (super hot psycho-bitch-player January Jones) , when one thing leads to another, he finds himself taxi that runs a ledge and is plummeting into an icy cold river.  He is saved by his super hot taxi driver (Diane Kruger).  He is out of it for a few days and then he decides to go to the conference and find his wife (much like any normal dude would do).  Problem is when he arrives at the hotel his wife doesn't remember anything about him. He is unknown to her. Did I mention she has a new husband with his name?

For a Coen Brothers movie, the violence in True Grit was pretty much non-violent, but in a good Unforgiven style of manner.  True Grit  features an impressive cast: Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper. Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn, a U.S. Marshall Gun-For-Hire, was iconic.  He was perhaps as iconic as a true icon that once holstered a six-shooter in this role.  Who was that?  Man, it was The Duke.  With a spot-on, Oscar-worthy performance,  Bridges not only served up justice to the coward Tom Chaney, a murderer of a little girl's dad, but to The Duke as well.

True Grit (2010) is a remake of an earlier well-known John Wayne effort of the same title  This version was as good as a western as I can remember in recent years.  Dare I say this western is probably the best of this decade, but the decade is only a year old or so...  Who knows what might come down the trail and shoot up the town between this year and another nine.

Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross was beyond charming and endearing.  She struck a highly believable chord as a 14-year old kid who was smart and merely wanted to seek revenge on a dastardly man who murdered her father to bring balance to way things should be.  However, you got the sense, that deep within her, there was buried emotion, but the emotion never surfaced except for subtle yet exceptionally poignant moments when you could see surprise and wonder sprout up in her eyes. She had "true grit" to the end, and in my opinion, this is the true grit in which the title truly refers. 

Country Strong (2011) should be titled Country Wrong.  I don't buy this sappy stitch-together one bit.  It is cliched, campy, and frankly, boring.  It is not a terrible flick.  It was filmed in a competent manner.  It has likable stars, even real country stars like Tim McGraw, but there is not much country in Country Strong.  Instead there is campy.  Hell, the music is as good as half the country crap you will hear today (this is coming from a John Cash fan - not a country music hater). 

The plot involves Gweneth Paltrow as an alcoholic singer who is perhaps in the sunset of her career.  There is an up and coming starlet that tags along with them and throw into the mix a young stud who will eventually have the hots for both of them.  Tim McGraw is the Patlrow's stage manager who obviously has feelings for her, but pushes her for the glory of the road show.

So what were the flicks biggest transgressions?  Too vanilla.  Boring.  Too nice.  Even the assholes were good people.

You want to see a better country strong movie I would suggest Walk The Line (2005) and Crazy Heart (2009).  Going back in time, check out Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) or Tender Mercies (1983).  This flick wants to be mentioned in the same breath of those but only will succeed when mentioned in terms of how it doesn't even come close to any of them. I deal it a Jack.    

Hereafter (2010) . There Before After.  Not sure that is quite witty, but wit is needed when pondering this plodding sentimental thought of a movie, of which the best part happened literally before the movie ever got started.

The tsunami scene in the opening of the flick was pretty awesome and compelling.  If that scene does not capture what is likely the horror of being swept away in a tsunami, I don't think any film can. 

In fact, for that scene alone, this film gets a queen.  If not, we are talking a Jack.  In fact, that scene alone might be worth watching the whole flick, but there again we live in the age of YouTube.

• Link to YouTube Hereafter Tsunami scene (embedded disabled by request - means we can't stick the video on our site)

Okay, now that you have seen the best part of this film, I will explain where the plot got swept away with the impressive wave.  You see we have Matt Damon as a psychic who can communicate with the dead.  He is just about the most boring dude you could imagine.  I am not sure why everyone in this film had to be boring, introspective, and pondering.  Even the boy actor in the film was for some reason boring.  Yes, it was compelling that his mother was an addict and he had a special need to not let his older brother go, but i don't know, just a boring kid.

The biggest problem with the film is it is too slow to develop and disjointed. There are three stories going on in sort of a Crash (2004) format of separate but equal stories.  We are waiting for them in Hereafter to come together, but it takes too long and for some reason, it seems contrived when it does happen.  I also was "wowed" by the idea of the film.  The French chick, quite hot, journalist pretty much gave up her career to write a book about the conspiracy of silence surrounding the hereafter.  Hmm.  I guess it has nothing to do with most such people that live for the hereafter and not the before-now are simply wacko weirdos.

Clint Eastwood directed this film and like most Eastwood directed films it is well directed.  He does have a knack for framing a shot.  I will give him that.  As for framing the hereafter?  I think he should make a film about a tsunami.