Unknown, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, has some interesting elements going for it. Set in Berlin and armed with an attractive and sturdy cast, Unknown is swimming in themes of mistaken identity, murder and espionage – arguably very exciting and entertaining things. Unfortunately those elements are combined with implausibly pat coincidences, clunky dialogue and a few too many plot-lines.

Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife Liz (January Jones) arrive in Berlin to attend A Very Important Science Conference, at which Martin is a noted guest of some sort. While checking into the hotel,  Martin realizes that he has left his briefcase (which contains, among other things, his passport) at the airport – so without so much as a word to his wife, he  jumps into a cab to retrieve it. The cab gets into an accident culminating with it running off of a bridge and into a river, rendering Martin comatose.

When Martin wakes from his coma he has no (or at least very little) memory of his own identity. During his stay in the hospital, he gradually begins to recollect certain things – his marriage to Liz and his purpose for being in Berlin. When he remembers where the conference is being held, Martin leaves the hospital to find his wife – who, when he does locate her, fails recognize him. Intrigue ensues.*

Note: This review may contain spoilers. You have been warned.

I have a caveat.  It’s nearly impossible for me to write about Tron Legacy (directed by Joseph Kosinski) without the veil of nostalgia clouding my eyes.  I was nine years old when the original Tron came out and a few years later my brother watched it on constant rotation at our house.

I have very fond memories of Tron that are directly tied to my siblings – and I happen to love how the animation looks even after two decades – so it is difficult for me to be objective in regards to it’s predecessor.

We are introduced to Sam Flynn as a young boy.  His father, Flynn (played by a digitally re-constructed, be-mulleted, 1982-era Jeff Bridges…more on that later), is tucking him in for the night and telling him about Tron and the digital universe known as The Grid…he tells it kind of like a bed-time story, but it’s much creepier (see Digital Bridges, Uncanny Valley).

Sam’s room is full of Tron video game paraphernalia – action figures, posters, etc. – and when Kevin says goodnight to leave for work, it is apparent that the boy desperately wants more his father’s attention.

There is an inherent twinge (and by ‘twinge’ I mean big-ass boatload) of sadness that I feel when I reach the end of a beloved book, television series or film. This is one of the reasons that I am perfectly fine with the decision to divide Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into two parts – all the better to prolong (and put-off) the end to a long, rich story.

While I heard some grumbling about the two-part split appearing to be a greedy cash-grab (and the studio does stand to earn a sizable fortune by doing so), I genuinely think that drawing out the story into two separate films serves to better adapt the original source material – which has such an epic scope.

So far, I have been very impressed with the way in which director David Yates (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) has handled the Harry Potter film series and Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1 is no exception.  As the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have matured, so have the films – which have become increasingly darker in tone as they progress.

Directed by Eyad Zahra, The Taqwacores is the 2010 film adaptation of the novel by the same name (written in 2003 by Michael Muhammed Knight).  The Taqwacores depicts the fictitious lives of several young,  Muslim-Americans, all of whom live together in a house in Buffalo, NY and who embrace the Islamic Punk Rock scene.

We are first introduced to Yusef (Bobby Naderi), a conservative engineering student who acts as both a proxy for the audience and educator for those unfamiliar with Muslim tradition, as he becomes better acquainted with his new housemates.  Each of the residents – in their own way – have come to question the traditional beliefs of their religion and actively initiate debate and critical thinking with Yusef, eventually broadening his own perspective of what it means to be a Muslim in America.

It’s a fascinating topic and one which I found easier to relate to than I would have expected.  When a person’s experiences are in conflict with the traditions and beliefs they have been raised to accept – and when that person begins to directly question the fundamentals of their religious upbringing and culture,  how do they reconcile that schism in their foundation with the person they are becoming?   Faith – of any persuasion – is a difficult subject to address, which is precisely what makes this an intriguing premise.

The residents of the Taqwacore house all identify themselves as Muslim – even as they disavow certain tenants of the Islamic doctrine.  They have wild parties at night and then hold Friday prayer in their living room, conducting the service themselves using their own voices and interpretation of the Qur’an.  For me, these were the most engaging, interesting parts of the film – each resident had their own issue of conflict (though at times, felt too much like a broad characterization) which they addressed head-on during their lecture.

Corridor, directed by Johan Lundborg and Johan Storm (Sweden), is a darkly humorous suspense-thriller, the likes of which would make Hitchcock proud.  Frank (Emil Johnsen), a socially withdrawn medical student, goes about his daily routine with as little contact with people as he can manage – such as declining the invitations made by a classmate to study together and avoiding the other residents in his apartment building.

Frank is reluctantly roped into helping Lotte (Ylva Gallon), his persistently friendly (and moochy) upstairs neighbor with increasing frequency, much to his frustration.  In spite of this, an uneasy friendship forms between the two after Frank notices signs of domestic abuse between Lotte and her boyfriend Micke (Peter Stormare, who is always awesome) and as things progress, they get increasingly more complicated.

Because much of the action takes place out of sight, Frank makes assumptions based on what can be overheard from his downstairs apartment and his conclusions and actions set up a chain of events that topple into calamity.

I was reminded a bit of Rear Window while watching it, though Frank – unlike Jimmy Stewarts’ proactive voyeur – desperately tries to avoid social interaction and involvement with the people living in his building. The use of sound in the film is hugely important, as Frank’s perception of Lotte’s relationship with Micke is informed almost entirely by what he overhears from his flat.

When I read the synopsis for Rubber – an experimental film about a psychokinetic, automobile tire that goes on a killing spree in the desert – I thought it sounded like an awesome idea for a short film.  Then I read that it was, in fact, a full feature length film (85 minutes, to be exact) and my curiosity was piqued even further.

The premise is pretty high concept, I wondered how director Quentin Dupieux would pull off a story with so much potential to end up being one-note. The short answer is that he made an engaging, funny, acerbic and captivating story about a murderous tire –  and he did it so brilliantly.

By predicating the film on the conceit that many things happen in life for no reason, the story about a tire which comes to life and possesses psychic powers (and a penchant for destruction!  And blood lust!  And vengeful rage!) can exist without any need for an explanation. It simply is what it is and as a spectator we are able to accept this and let the story tell itself without fighting the implausibility of it.

Mother’s Day, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III, IV), is loosely based on a horrific, true story that took place in Wichita, Kansas 10 years ago – as well as the 1980 Charles Kaufman film by the same name.  The setting changes from an ill-fated camping trip to a tale of home invasion in the remake – we meet the Koffin brothers when they return to their mother’s house after their attempt to rob a bank goes horribly wrong, leaving the youngest brother seriously injured from a gunshot wound.

Upon their arrival to their childhood home, they quickly discover that their mother is no longer living there (having lost her house to foreclosure) and end up crashing what will become The Worst Birthday Party Ever, which is being thrown by the new inhabitants, Beth and Daniel Sohapi.

The brothers hold the home-owner’s and their guests hostage – alternately beating them, threatening to rape them and robbing them of their money, belongings and dignity as they attempt to gain control of their situation.  It doesn’t take long for Mother (Rebecca De Mornay) and their little sister to arrive on the scene, at which point things swiftly make the shift from being merely terrifying to unfathomably shitty.

I remember when I saw the trailer for Buried (directed by Rodrigo Cortés and starring Ryan Reynolds), I thought it looked horrifying – though I was curious how the film would play out for it’s 94 minute running time.  While conceptually interesting, Buried is essentially about a man trapped inside a box – material which seems better suited for a short feature.  That conceit – and the fact that the film rests almost entirely on the performance of it’s only on-screen actor – make the fact that the film was completely engaging an even more impressive feat.

Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds), a truck driver working in Iraq, recovers from unconsciousness to find that he is buried alive inside a wooden coffin with little more than a cell phone, a zippo lighter and a knife.  Paul’s initial reaction to his predicament is to panic – understandably – and the tension is palpable as he frantically tries to escape his claustrophobic surroundings.

He is eventually contacted by his kidnappers – via the planted cell phone he is buried with – who demand a ransom for him to be released alive.  Paul desperately tries to contact his employers and family before finally making a connection with an FBI agent, during which time he is able to vaguely recall the details of an ambush led by insurgents – presumably by those responsible for holding him hostage.

As Paul works within the confines of his surroundings to garner his release from captivity, there is never a moment when you aren’t vividly aware of his time running out.  A cellular battery slowly draining or dropping calls, a lighter running out of fuel to burn, limited oxygen to breathe and a bevy of other obstacles – punctuate the unlikelihood of Paul’s survival.  Yet there are fleeting  moments of hopeful respite here and there, just enough to string you – and Paul – along.

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (directed by Ben Ketai and starring Kiele Sanchez, Diora Baird and Mia Kirshner) is the sequel to 30 Days of Night, both of which are adapted from the Steve Niles’ graphic novel series of the same name.  The film centers around Stella Oleson (Kiele Sanchez) who has coped with the vampire massacre of her Alaskan hometown (far enough north that it experiences a month of darkness, which the light-sensitive vampires take advantage of) by publishing an account of the attack which claimed the lives of many of it’s citizens – including her husband, Eben.

Stella uses her book tour to draw out and publicly expose vampires to warn people of their existence (and maybe kill one or two of them in the process). During one such tour in Los Angeles, she is contacted by a small group of fellow vampire-attack survivors as well as an unusual vampire named Dane, who still retains enough of his humanity to mourn the loss of his own family, casualities of the attack which turned him.

Acting as a kind of support group, the band convince Stella to work with them as they seek retribution for their mutual losses with the primary goal of destroying the vampire Lilith (Mia Kirshner) – who apparently has control over the other nests of vampires – believing that her eradication will aid in their plan to annihilate vampires entirely.

Shifting the setting from northern Alaska to Los Angeles creates a different tone – both in color and general atmosphere.  The first film established a helpless feeling of isolation for it’s characters with it’s remote, dark and snowy location.

To evoke a similar climate of desolation, Ketai shot the film in areas that appeared to be uninhabited or overlooked – like Skid Row – and it is very effective.  Claustrophobic, dark tunnels are utilized to establish an overall feeling of tension, particularly as characters are preyed upon and picked off one-by-one.

If you saw the trailer for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and thought to yourself, “YES.  I have been waiting for this.  The team that brought us National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets have made another film starring Nic Cage that looks a bit like Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and I totally want to see this. I am SO THERE.”, then you will not be disappointed in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  I had kind of the opposite reaction when I saw the trailer – falling somewhere between “Oh no.” and “Huh.  I think I’m going to have a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch today.”

Generally speaking, this type of movie just isn’t my cup of tea, so when I entered the theater my expectations were neutral – to say the least. That said, it was a lot better than I expected it to be.

Loosely based on The Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment of Disney’s Fantasia, the film has a relatively simple premise. The wizard Merlin – of Arthurian legend fame – is going about the business of doing battle with his nemesis, Morgana le Fay.  Though aided by his three apprentices – Balthazar (Nicolas Cage, equipped with flowing extensions), Veronica (Monica Bellucci) and Horvath (Alfred Molina), Merlin is destroyed by Morgana due in large part to an act of betrayal by of one of his followers, the amusingly named Horvath.

What follows is a little difficult to explain, but during the kerfuffle Veronica sacrifices herself by taking the spirit form of Morgana into her own body while a deeply wounded Balthazar uses magic to trap the remaining three wizards inside a matryoshka doll. Before his demise, Merlin had given Balthazar his Dragon Ring, explaining that he would eventually cross paths with a wizard whom the ring would chose to belong to and that this person would be powerful enough to defeat Morgana. For centuries Balthazar searches for his new apprentice – to no avail – collecting several other dark magicians to fill the nesting doll along the way.