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The best compliment I can pay Tony Scott’s film is that it’s SPEED on a train. Once the runaway train starts rolling the suspense just keeps climbing to the very end. This is one of Scott’s best films for its craftsmanship alone.

Trainer conductor Dewey (Ethan Suplee, MALLRATS) leaves his train thinking the breaks are on, but he was wrong. His expression as the train starts down the track without him tells it all. The nearly half mile long train is in full throttle racing away at over 70 miles per hour headed toward heavily populated areas. Its cargo is highly toxic.

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Read my review of THELMA & LOUISE

MGM’s 20th anniversary release of THELMA & LOUISE is simply gorgeous looking. Part of what makes Ridley Scott’s outlaw classic so good is the rustic painterly cinematography. The deep color palette is captured wonderfully. I so clearly remember watching the film back in the day on VHS and thinking, “this film is too dark and murky looking.” Even compared to the DVD, the picture quality is a big step up. Now we get to see in our homes what the filmmakers intended. The picture is rich with texture, balance and detail, while retaining its film quality. I’m not a die-hard “film” purist, but if all films shot on film where like this one I’d say digital has a long way to go. When it comes to digital compression problems, you have to be looking for them.

The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track represents the film well. This is a dialogue-focused film and the lines are clear throughout. The more bombastic moments, such as the tanker truck explosion and the final chase, are spread across the soundscape well. The back speakers are predominantly used for the classic score from Hans Zimmer, but for crowd scenes, they create an immersive quality that puts the viewer in the room.

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Twenty years after its release Ridley Scott’s female crime tale has become a part of the pop culture. But upon its release some critics called it as morally bankrupt as Hollywood can get. The film was attacked for being too violent and man bashing. And yet the film emerged as a strong statement on female empowerment.

Thelma (Gina Davis, THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST) is an Arkansas housewife and her best friend Louise (Susan Sarandon, DEAD MAN WALKING) is a waitress. They have planned a weekend getaway to the mountains. Louise is trying to put some distance between her and her boyfriend Jimmy (Michael Madsen, KILL BILL) for a bit. Thelma doesn’t even ask her husband Darryl (Christopher McDonald, QUIZ SHOW), because she knows the controlling jerk won’t let her go anyway.

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LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, on which this film is based, is one of the best vampire films ever made. Rarely do English language remakes live up to the original. CLOVERFIELD director Matt Reeves doesn’t match the 2008 Swedish original film, but pays it do respect. The film has been Americanized for better and for worse. That said, outside of doing a shot for shot redux in English, I don’t see how it could have been done any better than this.

Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee, THE ROAD) is a tween who is bullied at school by Kenny (Dylan Minette, TV’s SAVING GRACE). Owen fantasies about getting even, but doesn’t have the courage to fight back. On the jungle gym at his apartment complex one night, he meets the new girl, Abby (Chloe Moretz, KICK-ASS), who tells him straight out that she cannot be his friend. Over time though, she opens up to him and takes a great liking to the strange girl who doesn’t wear shoes in the snow.

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We are told right from the start that this is inspired by a true story. But we quickly discover that it’s not inspired by true characters. It’s not surprising that a survival film like this would be populated with stock characters, but there is nothing surprising about anything that happens with them. The filmmakers wanted to make an underwater cave story and that is the only part he gets right.

Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh, MOULIN ROUGE!) is the best cave explorer in the world. He’s a cold, no-nonsense taskmaster. His son Josh (Rhys Wakefield, TV’s HOME AND AWAY) hates him for it and slacks off on his responsibilities at the latest expedition into a massive cave system that stretches miles into the Earth. The billionaire funder/adventurer Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd, FANTASTIC FOUR) arrives to check out the latest discoveries. He has brought his new girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE), who he met on a climb of Everest. While down in the cave, a freak storm hits and quickly begins to flood the caverns. The crew must follow the water down and hopefully discover its exit to the sea in order to survive.
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Michael Douglas has made a career of playing morally reprehensible men. In 2010, he played two. Here and in the WALL STREET sequel, he plays a powerful man who has fallen from great heights and is trying to claw his way back to the top. The main difference is that Ben Kalmen is no Gordon Gekko. Kalmen is his own worst enemy.

Kalmen owned one of the most successful car dealerships in the North East. In his ads, he billed himself as the honest dealer. Turns out he was a crook. Now clear of his legal problems, he is trying to rebuild his reputation. He’s finding it impossible to gain another franchise license, because the car manufacturers don’t want to be in business with someone who screwed them royally in public.
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