Catch .44 is the embodiment of style over substance.

The film looks great. Writer/director Aaron Harvey clearly has a good eye. If the budget is as low as he implies in the audio commentary, Harvey needs to marry his production designer and his cinematographer. A lot of the visual effects are a little clunky (think the fight sequences in Deadliest Warrior), but good for the budget (which bodes well for the future of indie film).

The acting is also very strong, which is not unexpected given a cast that includes veterans Bruce Willis, Brad Dourif, and Oscar winner Forest Whitaker. Most of the fun that can be squeezed from watching Catch .44 is seeing the actors play.

But the twisty crime thriller genre is all about story, and there just isn’t one here. Unlike The Usual Suspects and Reservoir Dogs, to which the marketing compares the film, Catch.44 doesn’t have any surprises, any secrets, or any tension. It’s mostly just people saying they are going to shoot each other and then, in fact, shooting each other.

The characters are poorly drawn and, with the possible exception of Whitaker’s confused psycho, unmemorable. Most have no arcs to speak of. The script doesn’t even keep you entertained with clever banter or intimidating tough-guy talk, another staple of the genre. The dialogue in Catch .44 is clumsy and lacking originality.

Continue Reading →

Hard to believe it, but with Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs nearly 20 years old, it only makes sense that up-and-coming writer/director combos are going to start making their homages to Quentin Tarantino for what’ he’s done to the cinematic community. That’s the first thing that comes to mind with the trailer for Catch .44.

The film has an interesting vibe, most of which can be attributed to several periods of Tarantino’s work, from neo-noir to grindhouse. Here’s the film’s synopsis to shed a bit more light.

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, Bruce Willis and Malin Akerman lead an all-star cast in this suspense thriller where everyone has an agenda… and a Magnum to back it up! For Tes (Akerman) and her two cohorts Kara (Nikki Reed, the “TWILIGHT” franchise) and Tara (Deborah Ann Woll, “True Blood”), the job sounded simple enough: intercept a double-cross drug shipment for their crime boss Mel (Willis) at an isolated diner.

But when an unstoppable chain of events unfolds, everyone soon realizes no one is who they seem and the job may be something other than eliminating the competition. What started as simple instructions has now turned into a deadly cat-and-mouse game – with large guns pointed at everyone.

You won’t get to catch this film in theaters, as its going straight to DVD and Blu-Ray on December 20th. Take a look at the first trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Happy Memorial Day to all those currently serving in the U.S. armed forces, and to you vets of America’s foreign wars.  This week’s pick is Oliver Stone’s 1986 Academy Award winner for Best Picture Platoon, which depicts the horrors and struggles of infantrymen figthing not only the enemy, but themselves during one of the most difficult periods of the Vietnam conflict.

The film stars Charlie Sheen (Chris Taylor), Tom Berenger (SSgt. Bob Barnes), Willem Dafoe (Sgt. Elias), Forest Whitaker (Big Harold), Francesco Quinn (Rhah), John C. McGinley (Sgt. O’Neill), Kevin Dillon (Bunny), Reggie Johnson (Junior), Keith David (King), Johnny Depp (Lerner), Mark Moses (Lt. Wolfe), Chris Pedersen (Crawford), Corey Glover (Francis), and veteran Marine and the film’s technical advisor Dale Dye (Captain Harris).

The film is an autobiographical account of Stone’s own experiences during 1967-68 as told by a fresh-faced new recruit Chris Taylor (Sheen) who dropped out of college and volunteers for combat duty in Vietnam.  The film opens with Taylor’s arrival in country as he and others deplane from an Air Force transport.  Taylor and fellow recruit Gardner (Bob Orwig) see body bags which are being loaded onto their plane.

Continue Reading →

Remakes and sequels are a dime a dozen. While Repo Men is neither of those, it bears incredible similarities with Repo! The Genetic Opera, a rock musical released in 2006. The films are very much the same in content and style, while the stories that they tell are very, very different.

Remy (Jude Law) seems like a normal guy. He’s got a wife and child, lives in a house in the suburbs, drives a fancy Volkswagon SUV. What isn’t so normal is Remy’s job. He repossess people’s artificial organs when they can’t afford their payments to The Union, the company that makes and finances the organs to people in need.

Anyone who becomes late with their payments is hunted down by The Union’s “repo men” and their artificial organs are repossessed, usually resulting in their immediate death. Remy and his partner Jake (Forest Whitaker) don’t mind being repo men, in fact they quite enjoy it. But when Remy’s wife decides maybe her husband should consider a career change, everything changes.

It’s hard to discuss this film’s plot without giving away the two major twists that make this film interesting, but I’ll just say that the Remy you meet in the beginning of the film is very, very different from the Remy at the end of the film. Think of Christian Bale’s character in Equilibrium as a comparison. Jude Law does a great job with this transformation, and Whitaker isn’t too shabby either.

Continue Reading →

Many trailers these days follow a specific formula: send the audience in one direction, give them the twist, and show everybody in the film looking really, really cool. This formula is written on trailer editors bulletin boards. Sadly, that means that when it’s used incorrectly, the trailer, and in man cases the film, become a subject for ridicule.

This happens to be the case with the trailer for Jude Law and Forest Whitaker’s Repo Men. The film follows quite close to the premise of 2007′s Repo! A Genetic Rock Opera, without any of the singing, or Anthony Stewart Head. In this film, a conglomerate puts artificial organs on an open market for people to purchase on a payment plan. When those people can’t pay, the Repo Men step in to essentially “repossess the merchandise.”

The trailer does a pretty good job for the first 90 seconds or so, but then is subject for many shoulder shrugs and “really?!!?” exclamations towards the end. We’re all aware that Law and Whitaker aren’t known for their best picks in projects (I’m looking at you, Battlefield Earth and A.I.), but do we really need a sci-fi thriller-turned-action-blowout from the two actors?

It just doesn’t seem like the best use of their talents. Like Helen Mirren playing the Bride of Frankenstein. We all know she could do it, but is it necessary?

Check out the red band trailer for yourself after the jump, and see how the preview does it justice on April 2nd, when Repo Men hits theaters.

Continue Reading →

I’ve got to give it to Spike Jonze. He took on the Herculean task of adapting one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, and mostly got it right. I remember the book vividly, and seeing the creatures in the movie brought to life is a spectacle to behold. It is absolutely breathtaking. They are exactly as you remember them, but real.

When Jonze decided to forgo the usual CGI, film followers exhaled a sigh of relief. Instead, a combination of puppetry, live action and CGI (for the facial expressions) was employed. Jonze said that he felt a physical presence was necessary for the actor (Max Richards) to interact with. I agree. However, at times I felt the creatures tread a little too close to H.R. Pufnstuf territory, and I would be jarred out of the movie.

The film begins with the hero Max displaying the typical antics of a boy his age. He’s hyper as hell as he dashes about the house, partakes in a snowball fight in his yard, and terrorizes the family dog. He tries to get the attention of his harried mom (Catherine Keener) and is upset when his sister leaves with her friends.

Continue Reading →

Now that the Summer blockbuster season has settled down and most of the tent pole films for the year have been put to bed, it’s time for the sleeper hits of 2009 to shine. The Fall is a pretty big time for films like District 9, Gamer, and of course Where the Wild Things Are to take over the box office in a substantial way.

The first trailer for Where the Wild Things Are hit a few months back, and didn’t show us very much. Still, we knew that director Spike Jonze, who was the mastermind behind this stroke of genius, would do the children’s book classic. We now get a new trailer filled with plenty of footage of the titular “wild things” and surprisingly lots of James Gandolfini.

Also starring Forest Whitaker, Catherine Ohara, Lauren Ambrose, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, and Max Records, Warner’s Where the WIld Things Are hits screens October 16th nationwide.

Check it out the brand new trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →