Tuesday Movie Reviews

Gunless
Starring: Paul Gross, Sienna Guillory, Tyler Mane, Callum Keuth Rennie, Dustin Milligan, Graham Greene
Directed by William Phillips

I've never been a huge fan of the Western genre, although I love a few of them. I enjoy the rich characters, mostly with a secret hidden well in their past. Gunless has this in the character of The Montana Kid, an American outlaw on the run finding himself in the unfamiliar territory of Canada. He's a bad man, or at least he has come to think so. When he meets a small town of polite Canadians, none of whom have handguns, his world is turned upside down. He has "called out" the blacksmith for a duel at sundown, but he is a man of honour and will wait until an old gun is repaired for the blacksmith to use. In the meantime he becomes friendly with the townsfolk and a certain woman that has asked for a favour. The beauty of this film is in it's simplicity. It is a comedy, and every joke seems to work very well. The characters in town are just this side of quirky, but each one has something going for them. Paul Gross is great as the American cowboy, invoking a bit of Clint Eastwood and Paul Rudd into his character. I really enjoyed this movie, more than I ever would have thought. Easygoing and light, and completely satisfying.

GRADE: B+

Me And Orson Welles
Starring: Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Christian McKay, Ben Chaplin, Eddie Marsan, James Tupper
Directed by Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater has long been a favourite director of mine. He has done some real gems (Slacker, Dazed And Confused, Before Sunset, A Scanner Darkly) and a couple of duds (Bad News Bears). I find that he can tell a very good story while making his actors perhaps better than they are by giving them a "real" quality. This latest film is perhaps one of his best. A young man wants to be an actor, so he ditches school and heads to Broadway to try his luck. This is around 1937 or so. He happens to meet Orson Welles who is putting on an updated version of Julius Caesar at his Mercury Theatre. The boy says all the right things and is thrust into the play, in a small role, but with one of the biggest names in town. The story is about the boy's ups and downs, the boy played very adequately by Efron. The real treat of the movie is the performance given by McKay as Orson Welles. Not only does he look like a young Welles, but he IS Welles! His performance was remarkable. The film reminded of the times I was in theatre in high school...the anticipation of putting on a good show, the fear that went with it, the unparalleled joy of having everything come together for the premiere. All of this was captured beautifully by Linklater and the cast. If you have even a mild interest in theatre and/or Orson Welles, this is a must see.

GRADE: A

Cemetery Junction
Starring: Christian Cooke, Matthew Goode, Ralph Fiennes, Ricky Gervais, Jack Doolan, Emily Watson
Directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant

We find ourselves in the small town of Cemetery Junction in Britain circa 1973. Three friends, who have grown up together and have roused their share of trouble, are starting to look towards the future. One in particular, Freddie, played by Cooke, has decided to work for an insurance company instead of the steel mill that everybody else seems to work for. He wants to better himself, but he is often pulled back to the troublesome friends he loves. It's a coming of age story that works very well. There are moments of drama, perhaps melodrama, mixed with very funny scenes. A little romance sneaks in, and any movie that plays on the final scene from The Graduate is OK by me. The performances are good, especially Matthew Goode's, and Gervais makes a few scenes funnier then they should be. A real British delight that all can enjoy...if you're OK with the swearing that is.

GRADE: B+

The Assassin Next Door
Starring: Olga Kurylenko, Ninette Tayeb, Vladimir Friedman, Henry David
Directed by Danny Lerner

I saw this movie at the store and thought it looked like a cross between La Femme Nikita and Bound. After watching it, I was sort of right. Kurylenko, playing off her success as a Bond girl in Quantum Of Solace, finds herself in the company of some very bad men. She is forced into being a prostitute, but for some reason is trained as an assassin (we never really know how that comes about). She is doing this in order to one day be reunited with her estranged daughter. She finds a friend living next door to her that makes her temporarily forget all her problems. The friend has problems of her own, being an abused wife and all. The scenes that include the two women together are quite good actually. Tayeb, as Elinor, is very good indeed. But the action sequences are sub par and the story seems to run over itself too often. I understand what the director was going for, but he seems to lose interest half way through, which, obviously, made me lose interest. Too bad, because if this was strictly a dramatic tale without the high octane action sequences, it may have worked.

GRADE: C-