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Halloween Movie Reviews from GRITZ

Film Reviews by Michael Buffalo Smith

SAW IV

You really can’t keep a bad man down. At the opening of the film, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dead, and the doctors are performing an autopsy. Of course, being dead doesn’t stop Jigsaw, as you will see minutes into the movie.

SWAT Commander Rigg (Lyriq Bent ) is sent on a wild gore chase by the long deceased Jigsaw, who has the sick idea of recruiting a police detective to follow in his blood stained footsteps.

As the plot plays out, we are also shown the very beginnings of Jigsaw’s psychosis and his move from civil engineer to psycho killer. Betsy Russell turns in a rather spooky role as the killer’s ex-wife Jill, with eyes as dark as a moonless night. Sure it’s bloodier than a rare steak, but there is an element of genius to the Saw films that keep me coming back to view these psychological thrillers. Great for halloween.

Four and One Half Stars

30 DAYS OF NIGHT

For 30 days every winter, the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska is plunged into a state of complete darkness. This year, they have company, in the form of some nasty vampires. Seems like a good idea, in theory.

The only thing is,. I have seen all of this many times before, from the asmatic who no doubt loses his inhaler before being frightened to death, to the long nasty fingernails just like Gary Oldman’s Dracula, to the ending that is a direct rip-off of the Blade movie. I wasn’t scared a bit. Bored maybe. Scared, nope.

One Star

RENDITION

Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal ), a CIA analyst based in North Africa, is forced to question his assignment after he witnesses the brutal interrogation of an Egyptian-American by secret North African police. 

His pregnant wife, Isabella El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon), does everything in her power to find her missing husband, who has seemingly disappeared during a flight from Cape Town, South Africa to Washington, DC. She ultimately discovers that her husband has been been shipped off to a third world country be tortured and interrogated, on the orders of the CIA’s head of terrorism, Corrinne Whitman (Meryl Streep).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Abasi Fawal (Omar Metwally ), the head of the secret prison who has personal problems of his own with a rebellious daughter and her Islamic fundamentalist boyfriend Khalid.Thrilling, exciting. The torture scenes could stand up alongside Saw IV. Pretty heavy stuff, but a great film.

Five Stars

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE

Benicio Del Toro stars as  Jerry Sunborne, alongside Halle Berry  as Audrey Burke. Audrey’s husband Steve (David Duchovny) is dead at the beginning of the film, but is seen in many flashback sequences. Jerry is Steven’s best friend, and a major junkie, who is trying desperately to recover.

When his best friend is killed defending a woman whose husband is beating her to a pulp outside the grocery store, Jerry becomes close with the widow and her children.

Both Del Toro and Berry turn in Oscar caliber performances in this highly recommended film.

Five Stars

WE OWN THE NIGHT

It’s 1988, and Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix ) is the manager of a Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn. He has changed his last name and concealed his connection to a long line of distinguished New York cops.

He and his beautiful Puerto Rican girlfriend, Amada (Eva Mendes), are having the time of their lives in a cloud of cigarette smoke, cocaine, and disco music. But when his brother, Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) leads a sting on the nightclub, everything begins to crumble, and (spoiler alert) when their father, the legendary police chief (Robert Duvall) is killed by drug mafia folks, everything changes for Bobby.

Another good one with lots of excellent character acting.

Four Stars

MICHAEL CLAYTON

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house “fixer” at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. He cleans up clients’ messes, handling anything from hit-and-runs and damaging stories in the press to shoplifting wives and crooked politicians. When the firm’s top litigator, Arthur Edens, has an apparent breakdown and tries to sabotage the entire case, they send  Michael Clayton to tackle the disaster and, in doing so, Clayton comes face to face with the reality of who he has become. I love Clooney as an actor, but this one kind of dragged for me. Not bad, just not as good as I had hoped for.

Three Stars

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