Lawless

In the hills of Franklin County, Virginia during Prohibition, a trio of brothers distill moonshine in the woods and smuggle it into the big city and sell it to organized crime. When a new special deputy is appointed for the area, things begin to get heated. Violence and drama ensue as the brothers struggle against the law and try to romance the ladies, all in the course of trying to build their white lightning empire.

It’s a pretty basic story, but all of the performers do a pretty admirable job, and the combination of period piece and gangster element is always a plus in my book. “Lawless” is no threat to make my Top Ten this year, by any means, but it did wind up a surprisingly entertaining time at the movies for me.

The 2012 Fall Movie Preview – Part I

With this weekend’s release of “The Expendables 2” and “ParaNorman”, the summer movie season is pretty much over. One weekend remains in August, and those movies wont have much room to run before school is back in session.

Nope, the season of the big blockbuster is behind us. It’s time to look ahead to the fall.

Not to despair, though, the fall brings sharp movies for the thinking movie fan. Movies which may have more selective box office appeal, but which may be some of the best movies all year.

So click through to take a look at the first part of this year’s fall preview. Today we’ll look at the last week of August, plus September, and then we’ll come back tomorrow with October and the first week of November. Together they’ll take us right up to the start of the Holiday movie season, and the November 9th release of Skyfall!

The Dark Knight Rises

“The Dark Knight Rises” is the concluding chapter to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, the movie series that resurrected the moribund Batman franchise. Having given us the excellent “Batman Begins” and the legendary “The Dark Knight Rises”, the bar was set high for the grand finale, so one can hardly blame Nolan for wanting to give us something grandiose and epic for the final chapter.

And to a large extent, he succeeds. There’s plenty of Batman angst here, a sprawling cast of characters, a worthy adversary, and the city is certainly in peril. Yet the movie is so serious it’s smothering, there’s a dearth of action, and the “epicness” occasionally crosses the line into bloat.

There’s a very well made movie here, but I didn’t enjoy it half as much as I had hoped to.

This Means War

So.

A romantic comedy, directed by McG.

Released in February.

The warning signs were there for me on this one, I was not looking forward to this flick at all, I pretty much had to drag myself in. As way of proof, I offer my tweet from about 7:25 or so est, last night:

But then. A funny thing happened on my way to hating it.

I started laughing.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an espionage thriller based on the 1974 novel by John le Carré. It focuses on the efforts of a “retired” intelligence officer to ferret out a mole at the very highest level of the British intelligence community.

The movie is thoughtfully paced, which is good… because it gives you a LOT to think about. It creates an atmosphere thick with intrigue and suspense, then lays out one of the most intricately detailed plots you could wish for.

Do some Sudoku or crossword puzzles or something to warm your brain up before heading into the theatre on this one folks. This is the antithesis of the “dumbed down” movie. It’s a thinking person’s movie through and through.

2011 Holiday Movie Season Preview!!

This year, the start of the Holiday Movie season is November 18^th. That’s NEXT weekend already folks!! That’s when Hollywood releases “Happy Feet Two” and “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1”, two movies with valid expectations of large takes at the gate. The start of the second blockbuster season of the year!

Here are the movies coming up this Holiday Season that I’m most excited for. Check out Wednesday, December 21^st! “The Adventures of Tintin”, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, and “Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol”! That’s going to be a busy day!