Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

I loved Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan book series before I drifted left and he disappeared into techno-war-porn liberal hate. Ryan was a great read: Injured marine turned CIA desk geek with deadly smarts. Blow shit up? Tougher guys did that. Clancy’s writing electrified: He foresaw 9/11 in 1994. Now comes “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” a reboot with Chris Pine as Ryan. It fizzles. It chases 9/11. It casts Russians as villains in a move politely called nostalgic. It starts strong: Young Ryan is wounded in Afghanistan, but his rehab spirit captures him a gal (Keira Knightly) and a secret boss (Kevin Costner) who hires Ryan for his vibe on tracking bad money. But fizzles. I’ll skip plot, because when the climax hits, Ryan –- injured 10 years on  -– is popping motorcycles like Knievel and punches like Bourne. Baffling. Did a reel get lost? Kenneth Branagh is director and bad guy, going full Hollywood. A missed idea screams loud: Why not recast Ryan with Knightly -- oddly cast as distressed damsel -- as female Ryan? Clancy might have been a right-wing blowhard, but he knew cool women. Disappointing. (But better than that Affleck crap.) C+

Red Dawn (2012)

The Red Scare thrived back in 1985 and we knew any day the Russians would attack. Reagan told us. So “Red Dawn” with high school kids (Charlie Sheen!) against Russian soldiers on U.S. soil seemed real. Cold War’s done, remakes thrive, and so we have a new “Red Dawn,” with North Korea as the invaders. It was China -– making sense of the “red” in “Red” -– but Hollywood blinked. A four-year delay and a lot of CGI and edits, and we have American high school kids vs. North Koreans. Even if the villainous actors are still Chinese. And the NK flags/emblems are wrong. No matter, the target audience is NRA sleep-with-your-guns Republicans, the kind who know any foreigner is bad. Fuck the details. Pre-“Thor” Chris Hemswoth is the Marine on home leave who leads his little brother (Josh Peck) and pals into gun battles, moving them from whiners to hard-core SEALs in … days. None of it makes sense. The editing and voice dubs are ugly bad. Peck’s age jumps back and forth. But the action is serviceable, and the stunts strong enough to almost make one forget … really, North Korea? I’d rather believe Martians. C-

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

“A Good Day to Die Hard” is not a “Die Hard” movie. It’s an ugly, tired, dull action flick that regurgitates everything grand from the 1988 classic. It has no soul or point. It's an abomination. A cash grab by tired people who do not care anymore. Five minutes in I hated it. A tired Bruce Willis is “John McClane” -– quotes needed -– who bolts to Moscow to save his grown CIA agent son (Jai Courtney) stuck with a murder rap. The short of it: John and John go Roy Rogers on a pack of terrorists, one of whom eats carrots. Really. It all ends in Chernobyl in a swimming pool. Not joking. Actually, nothing here is funny. What’s worse: The Tea Party way director John Moore treats all foreigners as stupid trolls, or the way he turns McClane -– long ago scared, bleeding, but desperate to do right -– into some Stallone blockhead that the first film so beautifully refused? There is not even a delicious villain to root for. Twinkies were the food choice in 1988. This is a shit served cold. Yippee-ki-yay mother F.

Anna Karenina (2012)

I’ve not read Tolstoy’s phone-book thick novel “Anna Karenina,” but I know how Russian love stories end. Not well. The same holds true for Joe Wright’s Brit-heavy adaptation with Keira Knightley (they also did “Atonement” together) as the title aristocrat who rips late 19^th century rules and has an affair with an army officer (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to the anger of her bureaucrat husband (Jude Law). This is a wild-card visual beauty that plays on the Shakespeare adage that, “All the world’s a stage...” Much of the movie is set inside a theater with the characters moving from the stage out into the audience and up through rafters and balconies, sets changing around them. Scenes set at a farm where true love and hard work abound are shot with no artifice. Yes, Wright is saying the wealthy are fake, while the people of the land are true. Pretentious? I dug it. It’s the love triangle that disappoints: Taylor-Johnson -– looking like he should be playing live guitar at the vegetarian restaurant three doors down from the theater I was at –- is miscast as the officer who women swoon for. The scandalous romance, then, pales beside the sets and music. B-

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) – A Second Look

I reviewed Thomas Alfredson’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” in January, calling it a good film, moody, with an overly complicated plot. Not worthy of a Top 10 for 2011. I just saw it again, and fell spellbound by how Alfredson frames his characters within windows, library stacks, doorways, and gates, every character boxed in, objects cut off, by the life they lead: Serving queen and country as spies. It’s the smartest, most intense spy film I’ve seen in years, taking away every thrill we expect in a spy flick. It’s a marvelous move from Alfredson, who has taken the classic novel – I’m re-reading it right now – and reworked into a drama about men not just battling the enemy, but each other for “treasure.” Absolutely perfect is Benedict Cumberbatch’s soul-crushed homosexual, dispatching his live-in boyfriend for career and country. That wasn’t in the book. Gary Oldman, as the fired spy tasked with finding a mole, marveled me all over, as a man who has spent so long repressing his own life and wife, he is left horrified at his loneliness. Give the man an Oscar. Absolutely one of 2011’s best. A

Cold Souls (2009)

Paul Giamatti is known to us as an eccentric worry wart, an unkempt guy who can’t stay happy. Or so that’s the impression. He has a long list of misfits and oddballs on screen, for sure. The comedy-drama “Could Souls” plays on this apparent perception. Giamatti plays “himself,” as he struggles through a production of famous downer “Uncle Vanya.” Through a “New Yorker” article, Giamatti learns of a soul storage business. Naturally, he figures no soul equals more freedom to act. Despite misgivings, he gets de-souled, save 5 percent. In pure irony, his soul ends up smuggled to St. Petersburg, Russia. This is a quirky little movie in line with “Being John Malkovich.” Like any good Russian story, “Cold” spills much suffering. But writer/director Sophie Barthes has enough tricks up her sleeve to make the oddities go down smoothly. The best of the sharp jokes: Giamatti acting indignant when told his soul is less valuable than Al Pacino’s. Giamatti must be the coolest guy on the planet. For real. B+