Skyline

I like what Colin and Greg Strause set out to do in Skyline. As aliens invade Los Angeles and start harvesting humans it only focuses on one small group of friends and a concierge who helps them out (David Zayas as Oliver). Arguments regarding how they should proceed are introduced, some wishing to stay put in a high rise apartment, others seeking to make a break for the ocean and escape on a yacht. With no means of communicating with the outside world and discovering the extent of what is happening, they need to employ their best judgment and rapidly decide what must be immediately done.

Before they're transformed into inhuman monsters.

And when the unknown zealously threatens your survival what should you immediately do? Remain hidden in your inconspicuous shelter, cowering behind a bookcase in a corner, or directly engage the unforeseen, if necessary, as you attempt to navigate your way through its treacherous set of destructive circumstances?

On your way to freedom.

Freedom obviously isn't guaranteed but its appeal generates a degree of unquenchable hope in the breasts of its proponents who think the aliens won't scour the high seas as vigilantly as they harvest the city.

Skyline's streamlined specific focus would have been smoother had the group's internal interactions possessed a greater flair.

For what lies beneath.

But I suppose that's the point. When a crushing external force prevents you from accessing your terms of reference, nothing but a suffocated trepidatious version of those terms remains, anxiously clutching the surface.

That's the point I swear.

The Grey

A plane crashes in the sub-arctic Alaskan wilderness and its survivors find themselves hunted by a pack of blood thirsty wolves. Who knows why this particular pack decides to suddenly start attacking Liam Neeson (Ottway) and his co-workers (Neeson theorizes that they have crashed too close to their den) but they uncharacteristically do and Joe Carnahan's The Grey unreels in their pursuit.

Thinking they'll be safer in the woods and that a rescue team will never find them, this group of rugged drifters and loners leaves the crash sight and struggles to make their way across a barren stretch of frozen ground amidst brutal winds and freezing temperatures, one of them devoured en route.

After the rest of them make it, the wolves continue to circle and prey and in between confrontations we learn more about their troubled lives. They continue to move forward with the pack at their backs, arguing and conversing along the way.

In the end only one remains, having shockingly persevered longer than his fallen brethren.

Ready to battle the alpha.

Ignoring the logistics of everything that actually takes place in The Grey and focusing on how it recklessly pits a wild and brazen group of freewheeling hard-living workers up against their grizzled natural counterparts in a ludicrous unforgiving clash of human versus animal kind, may make the film more digestible.

In terms of the absurd.

Figuring that Neeson would be given the majority of the lines, I was interested in seeing whether or not his dramatic flexibility was still capable of motivating an entire film, from beginning to end. But my calculations were incorrect and the supporting cast is given plenty of room to manoeuvre, giving Neeson time to sit back and carefully structure his lines with shrewd deliberate nuances whose intermittent interjections and patient intonations carefully unify the supporting cast's dynamics in a thoughtful cohesive heterogeneity.

While the wolves constantly disrupt their unity.

Some of the lines seem like they came straight from an oil rig as well which gives them an endearing authentic quality.

In terms of what to do should your plane crash in a remote location, The Grey offers little practical advice.

Unless wolves begin to insatiably stalk you.

But as far as films celebrating derelict itinerant dispositions go, The Grey's not that bad, and perhaps by making its subject matter foolish, Carnahan tries to lure us into the narrative unconsciously, by harnessing the helpless qualities of our disbelief, thereby making us feel more like the characters in his film.

The Curse of Frankenstein

Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is at it again in Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein, a Hammer Films production. Having grown audacious after reanimating a small dog, the Doctor sets his sights on the construction of the perfect human being, to be made up of parts cut away from fitting lifeless specimens. His partner and former tutor Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) contends that his path can only lead to evil but Frankenstein refuses to heed his warning and proceeds unabated. But the local crop of corpses will not supply a top rate brain which leads Victor to wine and dine a revered scientist (Paul Hardtmuth as Professor Bernstein) before murdering him later on in the evening. Krempe discovers what he has done and in the ensuing struggle damages the sought after material. Is this what causes Frankenstein's creation to act childishly and violently or was it the fact that it was brought back to life in the first place that guaranteed its inability to cognitively function?

Having subverted the laws of nature.

Fisher's film doesn't answer this question but does provide those searching to see Peter Cushing play someone besides Grand Moff Tarkin with the chance to watch him at work early on in his career. His performance is convincing enough even though several scenes could have benefited from additional takes, and more crafty editing, and another round of dialogue adjustments, and a keener insight into the logical timing of key events which move the action along. But The Curse of Frankenstein isn't about editing and dialogue and presenting captivating enticing scenes. It's about shooting a readymade script in as little time as possible in order to capitalize on the product, reinvest, and do it all over again and again while cultivating a receptive audience and slowly learning to enhance your constructions as time steadily passes.

And spending most of the budget on the lab, wherein there are many pretty scientific instruments and bubbling beakers and frothing 'fermentations' and a Frankenstein (Christopher Lee).

Desperately seeking life.

Careful

Oedipal values. Strict discipline. Polished refinement. Unyielding dedication.

The Alpine village of Tolzbad is stricken with alimentary sentiments whose counterproductive yearnings threaten its cohesive fortitude. Silence and obedience are resolutely inculcated as objective reminders of embryonic resuscitations remain cast off and docile. Dreams serve to lacerate adhesions, while palpating intoxicating allegiances, whose nostalgic loyalties resist ethereal pressures and condemn those seeking both forbidden and propitious pleasures, arduously seek satisfaction.

In the flesh.

The vocal chords of animals must be cut. Hearts punctured after death ensure eternal sleep.

I will do anything for you.

Relinquished yet stilted rebirth.

A comedic sense of terror is dramatically worked into a stifling set of immutable characteristics which maintain a supple lighthearted generosity in Guy Maddin's imaginative Careful.

Multilayered scene after dynamic scene segregates its narrative from the realm of conscious production while providing a template for the remodelling of the expected whose boutique would most likely remain concealed.

Purposefully frustrating or frustrated with a purpose, Careful introduces a disengaged sense of disingenuous perplexity whose recalcitrant creative ethos should be heuristically taken seriously.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Can't say I've spent too much time watching the Mission: Impossible films, but as far as thrilling, accelerated, turbulent action movies go, Ghost Protocol is a success, as Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) improvises his way through another set of death defying circumstances, this time without the assistance of IMF.

Split-second decision making is instantaneously necessitated as plans see their counterpoints meticulously materialized through the systematic art of strategic vivisection.

Such decisions are supplied with as much logic as can be rationally fastened to their temporal limitations in order to obtain their furtive objectives.

Such logic need not be brilliantly qualified, but must possess enough cohesive extensions to readily trick its antagonists into falling for its deception.

If these extensions lose their psycho-material appeal, the related temporal limitations become increasingly restrictive.

Requiring an ass kicking.

Hunt and his innovative team still manage to move undetected from Moscow to Dubai to Mumbai with enough resources at their disposal to technologically infiltrate seemingly inextricable defensive infrastructures without being backed up by headquarters.

Agilely keeping an ace in the hole.

We Bought a Zoo

What do you do after your partner dies, you quit your job, your son is expelled, and it feels like your thirst for adventure is wantonly drying up?

You move your family to the country after buying yourself a zoo, that's what you do, and do everything in your power to turn its fortunes around.

This is precisely what happens in Cameron Crowe's lively new film We Bought a Zoo, based on the true story of Benjamin Mee's purchase of the Dartmoor Zoological Park in Devon, England.

Full of entrepreneurial grit and zoological tenacity, Mr. Mee (Matt Damon) doesn't let minor details like having no experience at all in regards to zoo management get in his way, as he risks his remaining capital and gets to know his dedicated staff.

Will taking care of a wide variety of animal species in the hopes of bringing his zoo up to code so that the public can wonder at their ferocious longevity and provide him with the funds to stay in business enable him to get over his wife's death and develop stronger bonds with his two children?

Will the charms of stunning young feisty zoologist Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson) play an integral role in his personal transformation and demand that he learn to let go?

Will prickly zoo inspector Walter Ferris's (John Michael Higgins) dismissive demeanour teach him that the biggest adventure of all is learning how to play by the rules?

And will an escaped grizzly bear function as the catalyst that displaces one means of production for another?

Through the passage of time.

We Bought a Zoo makes me wish I could buy the shit out of a zoo and manage it and take care of all the animals and slug beers with my staff and analyze the porcupines etc.

It's an evocative enlivening testament to the strength of the human spirit which is challenged at every turn and rejuvenated through the art of sociozoology.

The Descendants

An Hawaiian lawyer's textbook life is adulterously disrupted after his wife has a boating accident rendering her comatose and their eldest daughter reveals the secrets of her infidelities. Her coma forces him to take an active role in the rearing of their two daughters to whom he has remained patriarchally aloof for most of their lives. His family is incredibly wealthy however his relatives have squandered most of their fortune and hope to sell off 25,000 acres of coastal land holdings in order to continue to support their lavish lifestyles. He is the sole trustee of the family trust which controls the land and has the final say in how it is managed.

Alexander Payne's The Descendants follows him closely as he gets to know his children, seeks to meet his wife's love interest, and decides what to do with his family's inheritance. As much of an exploration of shock as it is an examination of improvisation, the knowledge Matt King (George Clooney) relies upon to ensure his success in the legal realm finds itself curiously deconstructed when confronted with that of the domestic.

As he struggles to comprehend.

Acknowledging that the cookie-cutter approach to living has its share of unforeseen non-transmissible calisthenics, he still finds a means through which to visualize permanence. Less a reflection on the self-absorbed behaviour that results in partners seeking attention elsewhere than a thorough elevation of frugality, void of risk, The Descendants offers scene upon scene of pristine Hawaiian imagery without making them seem beautiful.

Not turning 25,000 acres of coastal land into a resort because you believe some wilderness areas should be protected from commercial development for future generations would be beautiful. Not turning 25,000 acres of coastal land into a resort because you believe its permanence represents your smug superiority is not beautiful.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A murderer has avoided detection for decades. A journalist's reputation has been publicly ridiculed. A brilliant young researcher's incredible talent flourishes. A family's dark secrets seek revelation.

Patterns lie hidden within eclectic sources. Technological expertise facilitates their synthesization. The resultant thesis can be investigated with meticulous precision. Alternatives and subterfuges staggeringly structure the aggregate.

David Fincher's version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a sombre subterranean endeavour. Deeply digging into clandestine contrivances frenetically attempting to function without restraint, it descends into the feverish dementia affluently prospering beyond the restrictions of amicability.

And exorcises demons.

Ostracized individuals use their resourcefulness to disentangle an established privileged network from within and bring its mastermind to justice.

Having recreated a foothold within their culture's social fabric, divisions remain which prevent them from socializing on their gains.