Source Code: Make every second count, by checking this movie out!

US Army helicopter pilot Colter Stevens wakes up on a commuter train in Chicago. His last memories were of flying sorties in Afghanistan but soon he realizes not only is back in the United States, but he has also assumed the identity of another man. Eight minutes later his train blows up but he does not die, he awakens to discover himself in a pod where a woman named Goodwin tells him he must go back to that train and stop the bomb from blowing it up or else the entire town of Chicago will be destroyed.

Source Code was another example of a sci-fi thriller that not only attempted to blow the audience away with its high tech premise, but also use that unconventional storyline to explore the human condition.

The futuristic premise, which featured Gyllenhaal's Stevens reliving another man's reality in order to stop a terrorist attack on Chicago, might seemed far fetched but writer Ben Ripley and director Duncan Jones did it right by setting the story in modern times. This grounded the story in a reality that the audience was acutely aware of. Ripley and Jones also did a good job of roping the audience into the plot by keeping the mystery of who planted the bomb and their ultimate motives in foregound of the story, not buried in the back in favor of more special effects bells and whistles.

The story was intriguing (some have described it as Groundhog Day meets 12 Monkeys) but what truly set it apart from other films (sci-fi or otherwise) was the humanity Jake Gyllenhaal brought to his role. If handled in the wrong way the film could have easily become laughably cheesy, like Jean Claude Van Damme's Timecop, in that the action would have swallowed the narrative whole. But Gyllenhaal brought emotion and soul to his performance, a set of talents sadly lacking in most action heroes nowadays. Through his struggles in trying to understand just what was expected of him in his attempts to locate that bomb, he came to realize a number of things about his life, deeper personal realizations which caused him to rethink and question just who he was and what he stood for. Source Code challenged the audience to rethink along with Gyllenhaal, a quality not seen in most recently released films.

Source Code is an intelligent and emotionally satisfying sci-fi thriller that you should not miss.

Grade: B+

Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Action, yes...Story/Plot....not so much

When the Autobots learn that a secret Cybertronian spacecraft was discovered on the Moon by the United States back in the 1960's, they race to recover what was on the ship before the Decepticons can.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon delivered the kind of breathtaking and grandiose action one would expect for a summer blockbuster. The finale of the film (where the Autobots attempted to retake downtown Chicago from the Decepticons) in particular was superlative not only for the robot on robot fights, but also the action taken by the human cast members (or their stunt doubles), including some very cool "flying" suites and a sequence in which a high-rise building collaspsed on its side with Sam Witwicky and the rest of the human heroes still trapped inside.

What was missing from the film was any semblance of plot, story or character development. After the credits started to roll and even upon reflection the following day after seeing Dark of the Moon, the audience will probably find it hard to remember just why Sam was running around again trying to save the world. Although this is Shia LeBeouf's third turn as Witwicky, he seems to have lost his edge or even credibility with the part (the inferior script from Ehren Kruger didn't help). He has a new girlfriend in this one in Carly (a shoddy Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) whom he is trying to keep around by getting and holding down a job but that was all the audience was given to work with as the rest of the screen time was spent following Optimus Prime and the other Autobots around as they attempted to save humanity (again). The only time there have been believable/relatable characters in this film series was in the original Transformers, when director Michael Bay had to give the audience Sam's backstory in order to establish his character. The story for Dark of the Moon lured the audience in at the beginning with the whole U.S. Moon landing that doubled as a chance to uncover the Cybertronian ship which crashed but shortly thereafter Bay develled into his old tricks of lame jokes, useless characters and an over-abundance of scenes which served no other purpose but to kill time until the next big action sequence. It's not like an audience goes into a film like this expecting to see Shakespeare but it would have been nice to have something more than what Bay and the rest of the crew delivered.

Brainless, summer blockbuster entertainment, they name is Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Grade: C

Chicago: Yes, I liked a musical.

Men are usually as enthusiastic to see a musical as they are to get a root canal from their dentist, I know that's how I was feeling when my date suggested we check out Chicago instead of doing something, you know, fun. As we walked into the theater it was easy to spot the bemoaned looks upon the faces of the other men in the seats, longing to be somewhere, anywhere other than where they were. As the film started, I prepared myself for the worst, but then the strangest thing happened, I actually found myself enjoying the movie.

In the town of Chicago, murder is just another form of entertainment. So when Roxie Heart murders her lover she finds herself in the middle of a media circus which she gladly accepts in order to boost her fledgling singing career. With the help of a hotshot lawyer named Billy Flynn she hopes to not only beat the murder rap, but make a name for herself as an entertainer as well.

The film was bolstered by a provocative mix of catchy songs, vibrant sets and stellar acting performances. The songs that were performed throughout not only entertained, but carried the dual purpose of relating parts of the story and moving it forward rather than bogging it down. Also the story, though set in the days of speakeasies and flappers, had a message that translated well into the modern world. Roxie’s obsession with getting her fifteen minutes of fame, even if it was via the murder of her lover, is something that is still prevalent in today’s world. Plus there is still the media infatuation with creating instant celebrity for all those types of people like Roxie, all in the name of profit. And while both Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones excelled with their performances the true star were Richard Gere as lawyer Billy Flynn and John C. Reilly as Amos Heart (Roxy's long suffering husband). Gere's singing and dancing as the slick talking attorney in particular was a totally unexpected and welcome surprise. Chicago was an entertainment extravaganza.

Grade: A