Salt

Salt is is an intelligent, sleek, suspenseful thriller about a CIA operative who is suspected to be a double agent for Russia with plans to bring down the United States (Ohhhhh the drama!). It stars the unmistakable Angelina Jolie, in her first movie role since Wanted. She is anchored by co-stars Liev Schrieber and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

The marketing behind Salt was intentionally vague, with a tag line, "Who is Salt" and a trailer showing Jolie performing "Jason Bourne-esque" narrow escapes and hand to hand combat, also repeating the line "You think everybody is who they say they are?". It's not a shock that execs at Columbia Pictures wanted to play up the enigmatic theme behind this action flick, because it certainly evokes feelings of the Bourne franchise. But, during a period of July where virtually the whole country was trying to figure out what happened in Inception, Salt managed to have a very healthy weekend at the domestic box office, taking in $36 million. It's definitely already looking like a success for Columbia, especially with the global recognition that Jolie has and the fact that FX has already purchased the rights to broadcast the movie on it's network in 2012.

Like I touched on earlier though, Salt, is an enigmatic thriller that will keep you guessing till the very end. It includes solid performances from Schreiber and Ejiofor. It also showcases some pretty incredible stunt work and has the "#1 bad ass action movie woman in the world" sporting two incredible looks (Yeah, I had to give her that title). It goes without saying, but Salt is certainly worth seeing.

Inception

Inception is well on its way to being the most talked about film of the summer. It doesn't really matter if you've seen it and were completely lost, or you haven't and you detest when movies receive so much hype and critical acclaim so early after their release, but it's difficult to deny my earlier statement because the movie has certainly been a major talking point over the last week and a half.

It's already garnering a bit of Oscar attention, and some are anointing Christopher Nolan, the movie's director, as the next "big thing" and potential candidate for Oscar's best director next March.

The performances were very much on point with DiCaprio leading a cast including Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Tom Berenger, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, and Cillian Murphy. But, it was arguably the plot and imagined world that Nolan created, that so satisfyingly and enigmatically immersed millions in that has movie-goers singing its praises.

Inception is without a doubt worth seeing, maybe even worth seeing twice to fully digest and understand the plot progression and conclusion.

Despicable Me

Despicable Me, is a humorous, heartwarming animated movie that depicts the life of Gru, the self-proclaimed nastiest villain in all the world and his evil plan to steal the Moon. Gru, is voiced by none other than comedic genius, Steve Carrell. The movie also features the voices of Kristen Wiig, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Russell Brand, Jermaine Clement, Danny McBride, and Julie Andrews.

Vile Gru, is forced to get rather creative in acquiring a shrink ray, which he needs to carry out his moon capture plan. He must adopt three orphan girls, who are being forced by the equally despicable, Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), to sell cookies.

Carrell’s accented voice performance is great because at times the audience isn’t aware it’s him, and it’s pretty easy for them to get lost in it. It is a solid cross between a crazed Nazi and a Russian Mafioso (Props to Roger Ebert on that one), which is just funny in itself. But, it’s the voices done by Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher, the three orphans that pretty much take the cake. Their playful, needy, and "frighten-able" (Spell check's telling me that's a word) toward Gru basically from the time they meet him. The best part of the movie may be the transformation that Gru undergoes through the presence of the girls and the affect that he has on them.

But, Despicable Me is definitely worth a watch, even if it doesn't make you laugh your pants off it should put a warm feeling in your heart.

Clash of the Titans

I recently read an article that discussed how the summer blockbuster has essentially ruined Hollywood. I'm not sure what news outlet released it or who wrote it really, but those details aren't too necessary to the point I'm trying to make with this "movie review". The article credited George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, the orchestrator's of blockbusters like Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and countless others, with seemingly putting into motion the deterioration of studios releasing films with any substance during the summer months. The author of the article certainly has a leg to stand on, when you see studios shelling out loads of cash to make movies like MacGruber or Jonah Hex, but to rebut this argument, just look at Toy Story 3 or The Karate Kid, movies that lack originality, but are solid popcorn flicks that allow audiences to re-live some of their childhood fantasies (While having massive amounts of exposure, both films opened at close to 4,000 theaters). I'm not sure what better time of the year movies like this would have to reach the audiences that they do, but that is definitely an opinion worthy of more discussion.

Anyways... Clash of the Titans, falls very definitively into the category of summer blockbuster fodder, or in other words Warner Brother's unsuccessfully attempting to capitalize on the warm weather and entertainment-hungry, minds of the masses. The screen-writing is pretty cliche and acting isn't memorable, but the set designs partially make up for this. The storyline is rather predictable and the action/battle scenes weren't that impressive to me (Sorry to the stunt men who I'm sure worked hard on this). The blame should be put on the cinematographer though, because the angles and camera direction during a lot of these scenes, just flat out blew.

Gemma Arterton was absolutely stunning again and Sam Worthington played the role of, Perseus, rather well. I was actually pleasantly surprised by Mads Mikkelsen's role of Draco, Mikkelsen played the villain in the James Bond movie Casino Royale. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were without a doubt the highlights of a generally mediocre ensemble cast (If only one of them took more responsibility as a producer or consultant to the movie).

I could certainly dedicate a lot more time to discussing this topic, but time is not something I have a lot of right now. If your reading this though, comment and I'll respond when I can.

Cyrus

Cyrus, is a comedic drama that focuses on a divorced man, John (John C. Reilly), meeting the woman of his dreams, Molly (Marisa Tomei), and falling hard for her at a party, subsequently later meeting her grown up son, Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill. The movie was produced by Scott Free Productions, Ridley Scott's production company, and distributed domestically by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Jay and Mark Duplass are the creative minds behind the writing and directing of the picture, and Jas Shelton is the guy responsible for the shaky camera work prevalent throughout the movie. So, now that your familiarized with some of the players lets get down to brass tax.

This movie isn't what many will expect from the trailers, it's a semi-dark, dramedy that examines an unhealthy co-dependancy between a mother and her twenty-something year old son, Cyrus. The trailers might have you believe you'll be watching a combination of Step Brothers and The Forty Year Old Virgin, but that isn't really the case. It's definitely much lighter in laughs than I expected, but it exposes some compelling emotional acting from Reilly and Hill that will certainly have critics applauding the "heart" of the film.

Jonah Hill adds further evidence to the case that he wants to break away from being typecast as the chubby, silly, practical joker, and delivers a much more serious performance in this film (Although, I wasn't so easily convinced by his more serious role in this movie, and found myself laughing out loud at times when that was definitely not the intended audience reaction). Reilly is near perfect at bringing vulnerability and desperation to his character, and he further demonstrates his prowess of making an audience laugh on several occasions. Tomei, also gives a memorable performance blending the ability to blindly see no wrong in her son while showing the desire to balance multiple relationships in order to make things work for a forty-something year old single mom (My apologies for how garbled that sounds, but it took too long to get out, so it stays). Catherine Keener turns in a good performance as a supportive ex-wife, that maybe should do better at creating borders between former partners. Matt Walsh, who plays her husband, gave a perfectly sarcastic depiction of the fiance, who loves his future wife enough to put up with her sometimes idiotic, overly needy ex-husbands constant needs.

Overall, Cyrus, is a funny movie that might not be what moviegoers are expecting to see going into it, but it's emotional ups and downs, interesting subject material, clever improvisation, and great acting are enough to satisfy.