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-

The Black Dahlia: I wish it were better but...

Based upon the true life crime that occurred in 1947, L.A. cops Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchard are assigned to uncover the person or persons behind the murder of Elizabeth Short, a wannabe actress whom the media dubs The Black Dahlia after her death. It is a case that will alter their lives forever.

Usually if a crime thriller tries to take an audience on a twisted ride in the hero’s attempt to uncover the truth behind a crime, it is a welcome change from the predictable junk Hollywood puts out. However The Black Dahlia’s story was so confusing, muddled and unsatisfying that it was more of a chore to watch than anything. Famed American aueteur Brian De Palma did his best to make The Black Dahlia look stunning, invoking a number of filming techniques and paying homage to the movie whose influence was evident throughout. For her part Mia Kirshner nailed her role of Elizabeth, making her an innocent and fragile girl whose desire to “make it” in the picture business was twisted so that only her horrifying death gave her the celebrity she ached for. The audience was given way too much information about Bucky and Lee (two characters that were not very likeable) and not nearly enough on Kirshner's Dahlia. Heck, it was a half an hour into the film before she was even mentioned. Instead of watching a film which dug deeper into the how’s and why’s of one of the most famous murders in American history, the audience just got some crappy acting, (Aaron Eckhart needed to switch to decaf and Hilary Swank was never going to be believable as a femme fatale), a convoluted story and little to no action. Where are those predictable Hollywood thrillers when you need them?

Grade: D+