Due Date: Nothing funny about this one

Peter has a problem. Thanks to an unfortunate set of events in the Atlanta airport, he is placed on the “no fly” list and unable to make to back to Los Angeles to be with his pregnant wife. He reluctantly accepts a ride from Ethan, the man responsible for his troubles at the airport, and begins the cross country trek with the hopes of getting back to see the birth of his first child.

Director Todd Phillips is to be commended for trying to break from his gross-out comedy past with Due Date. The man responsible for Frank the Tank in Old School and the ultimate Vegas movie in The Hangover wanted to take those same over-the-top ideas and blend them with some serious emotional stuff for his main characters to deal with in his new film. Regrettably, the result was a movie that was neither funny nor emotionally fulfilling. Robert Downey Jr. did his best to try and bring something memorable to the screen in his role as Peter, an architect with some “minor” issues, and to be honest, his bits were the funniest. They were the funniest because his anger was usually directed at Zach Galifianakis, who played Ethan, and Ethan was so grating and distracting that one wished Peter would have left him on the side of the road and continued his journey home by himself. Ethan was so hard to stomach that it made no logical sense for Peter to stick around him, let alone befriend him, but three quarters of the way through the film it was like a switch was flipped (or rather the duo enjoyed using some recreational narcotics), and they were best buds. Those serious issues that Phillips wanted to explore (dealing with the loss of a parent and impending fatherhood) got lost in the shuffle of a bad note buddy road film that never really got going.

As a result, Due Date was an uneven, unfunny mess.

Grade: D

Unstoppable: More like unbearable

An out of control train carrying deadly chemicals is set to derail in a highly populated part of Pennsylvania unless an engineer and conductor can stop it.

In some ways, Unstoppable reminded one of the movie Speed. The narrative was driven by the fact that there was a large out of control vehicle that was endangering the lives of others, and this afforded the director (Jan de Bont in the case of Speed) the opportunity to use quick edits and fast camera movements to build tension and make the action palpable. Unstoppable had these same qualities, but it was missing any and all kind of character development or story arc. Denzel Washington played his part of Frank like he was on autopilot throughout the entire film and Chris Pine was never given a chance to show any kind of acting depth because his character (Will) had only one purpose (he was the new guy on his first day at the job and had to prove himself to the old guy Frank). With Speed, there was not only an out of control bus, but an excellent on-screen dynamic between Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock that kept the audience engaged in the film whereas in Unstoppable, the audience was never shown enough interaction between Frank and Will to get to know and root for them. And for all of the dynamic shots, quick edits and explosions within the film, director Tony Scott was never able to thoroughly captivate the audience and get them to gasp and cringe as the runaway train sped toward its ultimate fate.

In the end Unstoppable was just another loud, dull action thriller that failed to connect.

Grade: D+

Battle: Los Angeles; Humans vs. Aliens, guess who wins?

Alien forces have invaded Earth. When they attack Los Angeles, California it's up to a platoon of Marines to stop them. But will they be able to?

Battle: Los Angeles played out like every other war film you have ever seen in your lifetime. The audience was introduced to a group of Marines, just enough so that their particular caricature (be it the shiny new Lieutenant who does not know what he is doing, the grizzled veteran Staff Sergeant who has a troubled past, the Corporal who is about to get married, the one badass female soldier (played by Michelle Rodriguez, of course), etc.) was easily recollected. Next they face the imminent threat, in this case it’s an invading alien force, which at first seems overwhelming but just might be defeated if they are able to band together and fight as a team. If you realize this is what awaits you with Battle, then you should be able to enjoy it for the action filled adventure director Jonathan Liebesman intended it to be. The film was almost like War of the Worlds meets Black Hawk Down as the Marines engaged in urban combat with the alien menace while the city of Santa Monica burned around them.

Sure, there were some obvious flaws which took the film down a couple of notches. The script, for example, seemed like it was cut and pasted together from various World War II, Vietnam and even Gulf War films and featured some rather trite dialogue and “forced” moments of emotion. Most of these emotional scenes involved the soldiers interacting with a group of civilians they were trying to rescue from behind enemy lines. But instead of making the soldiers seem more human and give them some other purpose aside from kicking alien butt, these scenes slowed down the action and felt completely out of place. Had Liebesman really wanted to get at the emotional core of the film, he should have concentrated more on the relationships between the soldiers (and he should have got another screenwriter too). Thankfully Aaron Eckhart (as Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz) worked through the cliché ridden lines and delivered a convincing enough performance to keep the audience engaged between shootouts and explosions.

Battle: Los Angeles is not another Saving Private Ryan, but the visceral thrills and nonstop action were enough to keep most entertained for its two hour running time.

Grade: B-

Buried: Too bad it didn't stay there.

Civilian contractor Paul Conroy, a truck driver working in Iraq, wakes up after his convoy was attacked to discover he has been buried alive in a wooden coffin. With only a limited amount of oxygen, a cell phone and a candle, he must keep his wits about him in order to escape and survive.

The film certainly featured an original (and timely) premise which could have led to a thoroughly engaging and thrilling cinematic experience. However for all of the inventive shots inside the cramped wooden coffin and an intense turn by a guy who is better known for his comedic or action hero roles, Buried was flawed in its presentation and the logic of its story. Suspending disbelief for a film is something of a necessity (especially for all those big budget, cgi-laden blockbusters in the theaters nowadays) but when a director ask the audience to buy into a number of plot devices that are realistically implausible (while having that story grounded in the “real world”), they run the risk of straining credibility and ultimately (as was the case in this film) the devices are so unrealistic that they distract from the film as a whole. Director Rodrigo Cortes had the best intentions with the film but the aforementioned lack of realism and vague nature of the script and story made it close to agonizing to watch.

There will be others who champion this film and point to its minimalist approach or sociopolitical underpinnings regarding the United States war in Iraq as welcome signs of a film that breaks from current Hollywood film trends of more guns and more cgi in order to focus on the story or the idea that Cortes was making a deeper statement with the movie but don’t believe them. Buried felt more like an over-hyped student film than a classic claustrophobic thriller.

Grade: D+

The Town: Double duty done right by Affleck.

Doug MacRay heads a successful bank robbery crew in Charlestown, Massachusetts. But after he kidnaps and subsequently falls for a bank manager named Claire during their most recent heist, he begins to rethink his life and plans on getting out of the bank robbing business.

While certainly drawing its inspiration from one of the better action/crime dramas made in the past 20 years (the visually stunning and thematically complex Heat with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino), The Town falls short of surpassing it. However this does not mean the film was a vapid waste of time, quite the opposite. Ben Affleck not only showed a great deal of emotion and depth as Doug, but proved himself to be a more polished director as well. He let the cast (including an explosive Jeremy Renner and stoic Jon Hamm) evolve into richly, complex characters that helped to bring the story of a bank robbing crew from Charlestown to life. Affleck also took the time to properly craft the love story between Doug and Claire, which was central to the film. If that part of the film failed to reach the audience then the entire story would appear vacuous for the main plot device was Doug's desire to get out of the game and start something more with Claire. Thankfully their interaction on screen felt real, which made it easier for the audience to root for them in their attempt to get away from a town which was a breeding ground for armed robbers and criminals in general.

Where The Town fell short was in its action sequences (which were gripping but reminded one a little too much of the ones in Heat) and time spent (or a lack thereof) developing the relationships within Doug’s crew, but those drawbacks should not dissuade you from checking out The Town for it is an emotionally thrilling crime drama.

Grade: B