Inside Man (2006)

Spike Lee goes as mainstream (mostly, kind of) in the off-kilter bank-robbery crime drama Inside Man (2006) that dares be honest about all that pent-up hostility we Americans of every stripe, color, language, religion, and tax bracket bury deep. The shit we don’t admit to. Post 9/11. It’s sizzling, like a James Ellroy book on screen, popping with glorious visuals, thank you cameraman Matthew Libatique (“Black Swan”) and music men Terence Blanchard and A.R. Rahman (well before “Slumdog Millionaire”). It’s NYC and Clive Owen has led a group of thieves into a high-end bank to rob it, holding hostages, while NYC dicks Denzel Washington and Chiwetel Ejiofor investigate and keep their careers; see, Denzel’s cop’s nose maybe is unclean. Or maybe it is. The more I watch “Inside,” the more I grove to its trickery and its commentary on America right now. Near 9 years on, it crackles fresh. It is as much a movie within a movie as “The Game.” And who exactly is the title character. Is it even a man? Hello, Jodie Foster. A

Non-Stop (2014)

“Non-Stop” is not a comedy. I laughed my ass off. Not a good sign for a thriller that stars Liam Neeson in Angry Action Figure Mode and plays on 9/11 fears of hijackings and police state surveillance. Neeson is Bill Marks, suicidal fuck-up air cop with a booze problem and a tragic life who should never hold a gun, much less be issued one by Uncle Sam for work at 30,000 feet. But here Bill is anyway, sweating buckets as he texts back and forth with a psycho who threatens to down the plane unless $1.5M is delivered to a Swiss bank account. One in Bill’s name. Cue drama! Cue the scenes where Neeson’s hero types. And types. And types. And calls his boss. Bill also kills a man, beats random passengers, screams, and waves and fires his gun like a madman. Why? This is “Taken” in the air. A cell phone and a gun, if those are in a script does Neeson just sign on? As stewardesses, Michelle Dockery of “Downton Abbey” and Lupito Nyong’o of “12 Years a Slave” do just about nothing. I’d watch a movie with them as the heroes. C-

A Most Wanted Man (2014)

One cannot watch Anton Corbijn’s ultra-tense “A Most Wanted Man” without mourning Philip Seymour Hoffman’s shocking death. “Most” is Hoffman’s final lead role, a notion that undeniably hovers over every dark frame. This story is rooted in futility and a man facing certain doom, likely eternal loneliness. Hoffman is chain-smoker German spy chief Gunther Bachmann, suffocating under the pressure of his job: Tracking suspected Middle Eastern terrorists in Germany post-9/11. The trick: Bachmann wants his suspects walking free to lead him to larger, more dangerous targets. His latest mark is a maybe innocent son (Grigoriy Dobrygin) of a war criminal who may want to truly dissolve his father’s ill-gotten future. The man brings into his circle a banker (Willem Dafoe) and a lawyer (Rachel McAdams) who quickly realize there are no bystanders in terrorism. More so, Bachmann is being hounded by bureaucrats to make arrests now, forget logistics. Who’s right? Who’s innocent? Nothing matters, and from the John Le Carre book from which this comes, that mindset can only lead to another dark day. The finale is a pulverizing gut punch. Hoffman truly marvels as a tired man crumbling before us. See it nonetheless. A

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+

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Marvel Studios ups its game like never before with “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which puts the red, white, and blue-sporting, square-jaw Greatest Generation super soldier hero (Chris Evans) back solo after the Earth-in-peril hoopla of 2012’s “The Avengers.” 

Last round, in “First Avenger,” Cap fought Nazi mad scientist Red Skull. It was pure World War II adventure, Burt Lancaster or Indiana Jones style, with pop art know how, I dug it. Mostly. (Damn the PC moves.) 

In this better sequel, Cap’s up against post-9/11 American paranoia, where we gladly trade up privacy rights for better security. Think body scan at the airport. Think Patriot Act, Bush, Obama, drones, and the NSA. Marvel and directors Joe and Anthony Russo -– guys who have only done comedy as far as I know -– give it all a solid F.U. 

I was giddy watching it. I almost applauded. Should have applauded. Nerd drop: It all reminded me of Nick Fury vs. SHIELD. Look it up. 

Speaking of, Cap and the Avengers’ employer, one-eyed super spy SHIELD boss/ grump Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is all about “security first,” and he argues, “This is how we do it,” showing off to Cap three massive autonomous airship/attack drones from hell that will patrol the world 24/7, squashing sabers before they rattle, bad thoughts before they form. 

A mad Cap bounces back, I paraphrase, “Not in my day.” 

Despite the bravado, Fury knows better, too. Then his life goes bad, and in comes a bigger SHIELD honcho, played by none other than Robert Redford, who 40 years ago basically was Captain America. Think “All the President’s Men,” et al. 

Yes, his role is all too obvious, but the irony is deliciously morbid. Who do we trust now? Captain America, in short, is battling America. The man who played Bob Woodward and corrupt power-made presidents is now …. Just watch it, folks, comic book nerds and American history nerds alike. 

Intense, smart, grisly violent for a PG-13, action packed, “Winter Soldier” is classic ’70s conspiracy flick filtered through super heroics. “Parallax View” with tights and sci-fi.

As for the title? Look to the first film and one death we didn’t see, and work from there. I won’t dish spoilers, but that plot and the return of Toby Jones’ quack scientist in … non-human form again shows Marvel’s reach for just all-out kicks, rooting back to impossible crazy 1950s drive-in films and the comics I grew up on. 

This wowed me. Comic book film herd Americana fun with a bang. Yes, it sets up sequels and plays comic book rules (no one really dies, do they?), but, man, more of this, please. A 

2 Guns (2013)

“2 Guns” has Denzel Washington doing that cool swagger that he does and Mark Whalberg pelting out words like a machine gun, with Edward James Olmos and Bill Paxton as villains, one quiet and the other all show and tell. The quartet sell “Guns” well, because its plot is a mess that blows itself apart -– with a literal bang -- when our antiheroes storm a Navy base and firebomb an office building, and the act is never mentioned again. Post-9/11 that gag falls flat dead, no matter who’s selling. Washington and Wahlberg play undercover agents (DEA and Naval Intel) who are unaware of each other’s identity as they try to nab a drug lord (Olmos). When the duo pulls off a questionable bank robbery to take EJO’s $3 million fortune, they wind up taking $43 million. Why? Just because. Thusly, all hell (with Paxton as Satan) breaks loose. I like an overblown buddy flick, but “Guns” has its leads brag, “Bet you didn’t see that coming!,” on repeat before doing something I did see coming, because I saw “Lethal Weapon” and “ButchCassidy.” Two guns? Give us two new ideas. B-

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)

“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is a feel-good 9/11 movie. It opens with a body falling pretty-like from the World Trade Center, and ends with a similar motif, intercut with a boy on a swing. It’s made with Oscar in mind with Stephen Daldry (“The Reader”) behind the camera, and Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and Viola Davis on screen. The boy is Oskar Schell, a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome (he claims the tests were inconclusive) grieving the death of his beloved father (Hanks). One day Oskar finds a key in his father’s closet and sees it as a last gift from dad, who used scavenger hunts to bring the boy out of his shell. Schell. Get it? So the boy hunts, seeking an answer as to why dad died that Worst Day. The story is intriguing, but halfway I near bolted. Oskar clearly is in desperate need of psychological care – he fears everything and self-tortures his own body -- but the movie treats his illness as a quirky plot device, worsened by clueless, impossible-to-exist adults. As Oskar, newcomer Thomas Horn shines with majestic soul, but that doesn’t make anything here OK. A feel-good 9/11 movie is not quirky, it’s insulting. The grade is for the boy. C-

The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)

Relax. This isn’t “Inglourious Basterds.” Tricky Dick survives “The Assassination of Richard Nixon.” But back in 1974, Samuel Byck – failed salesman, rejected husband and nut-job loser -- did try to off Nixon. The method: Hijack a commercial jet with the intent of crashing it into the White House. Some 26 years before 9/11. This spooky drama is a fictional take on the unraveling of Byck, played by Sean Penn, and re-named Sam Bicke for full “Taxi Driver” homage. (Wait, was Travis Bickle named in honor of Byck?) When Bicke’s ticking time-bomb bell rings, the violence is shocking. To us, post 9/11. And to Bicke. Penn is brilliant in the role, of course. But even at 95 minutes, the film seems long. This dirt clod could have remained under the rug, forgotten. B+