It’s frightening that in the 21st century sex trafficking is becoming a bigger issue each year. The reason is simple — it’s extremely profitable. Young women are stolen and forced to pay off some imaginary debt that never ends. If they run or talk, they are brutalized. The problem is only worse in the chaos of war zones. But in the early part of the century, the sex trafficking scandal that rocked the U.N. and its contractors was beyond repulsive. Those tasked with protecting the citizens of Bosnia where participating in the rape of them.

Based on the true life scandal, this thriller follows Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz, THE CONSTANT GARDENER), a Nebraska cop who signs on to be a peacekeeper in Bosnia for the big paycheck. When she gets there she discovers that many of her fellow peacekeepers are too there for the paycheck, but nothing else. Her efforts to bring some law and order to the country are noticed by higher up human rights activist Madeleine Rees (Vanessa Redgrave, ANONYMOUS). Bolkovac is put in charge of women’s issues and soon discovers sex clubs where the “waitresses” have been forced there against their will. At first she is appalled to find that U.N. officers are frequenting these clubs, but it only gets worse the deeper she goes.

Larysa Kondracki’s film uses the structure of the tried and true internal affairs cop thriller. This makes this difficult story both accessible and engaging, but it never breaks free from the structure. This becomes very apparent toward the end when plot structure and efforts to amp up the tension force credibility to the side. The true life message loses some of its authenticity in the process.

Ever since her Oscar win for CONSTANT GARDENER, Weisz seems very suited for theses kinds of roles. It’s the kind of role Jane Fonda use to play, but Weisz doesn’t dip into the sanctimonious outrage Fonda sometimes exuded. Weisz comes off more matter of fact — like it’s just the right thing to do.

The story is given an emotional side through the plight of Raya (Roxana Condurache), a young girl sold into slavery by someone close to her. Kathryn saves her from one awful situation to put her into another one. The path to get Raya back home is filled with political landmines. Bureaucrat Laura Levin (Monica Bellucci, IRREVERSIBLE) can’t help her get back home because she doesn’t have a passport and she doesn’t have a passport because her captors took it so she can’t get home. Raya is afraid to trust the system, which we come to find is a very valid feeling when it lets her down and puts her back in the clutches of her enslaver.

As Kathryn uncovers how deep the corruption goes, she becomes more and more isolated. It goes too high and would embarrass important people at the contractor, U.N. and the U.S. government. Madeleine teams her with internal affairs officer Peter Ward (David Strathairn, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.), but how much he can protect her is in question too. Will she have time to save Raya before the powers that be crush her?

The most haunting part is that while Kathryn’s claims were validated by a British labor tribunal, nothing has happened. No one has been charged with crimes. DynCorp., the security firm that provided the peacekeepers, is still used by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. Makes you rethink a lot.

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Based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling YA series, Gary Ross’ screen adaptation has already become a mega hit. The film was supposed to be the next TWILIGHT and it has surpassed it at the box office already. But is it any good? In the categories of story and especially acting, it is certainly better than any of the TWILIGHT films. With its dystopian society and futuristic technology, it tells a compelling sci-fi yarn. But I still have a sneaky feeling that I’ve seen it before and done better.

Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence plays the heroine Katniss Everdeen, a scrappy teen who lives in a future America where the country is split up into 12 districts. Each year a boy and a girl from each district are selected to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised battle to the death. The solo winner is awarded food and wealth from the State for their home district. On selection day, Katniss’s younger sister Primrose (Willow Shields) is chosen to represent District 12. Katniss instead volunteers to take her place.

Katniss is whisked off to the Capitol, taken away from her true love Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth, LAST SONG). Her fellow District 12 competitor is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH). As Peeta says, his mother is finally hopeful that their district will win and she isn’t referring to him. Katniss is a skilled hunter and archer. She has survival skills in her blood. What Peeta has going for him is charisma and in the Hunger Games that is just as important. If a contestant can get the crowds to like them, they can gain sponsors, which provide them with advantages during that game. To say the game is rigged would be an understatement.

Helping the District 12 tributes prepare are: Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks, ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORN), an overly-made-uped government butt-kisser; Cinna (Lenny Kravitz, PRECIOUS), the tributes’ stylist, and Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson, NATURAL BORN KILLERS), the only winner from District 12. Katniss quickly learns that the Hunger Games is not just a competition, but a big show. Part of the strategy is to impress important people like show host Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci, THE LOVELY BONES) and Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley, AMERICAN BEAUTY), the game’s architect, who manipulates the rules in order to up the drama and gain the result he wants. However, President Snow (Donald Sutherland, M*A*S*H) is afraid at the popularity of Katniss. She comes from one of the rebellious districts and could bring too much hope to the people.

Once the game commences the tributes the wealthy districts team up to hunt down Katniss. The four teenage killing machines have been raised to win this game. But they’ve never faced anyone like Katniss. Unions start to form and Katniss takes the young resourceful tribute Rue (Amandla Stenberg, COLOMBIANA) under her wing. But it is these unions that start to make the world of HUNGER GAMES unravel a bit.

When I said earlier that the film seemed like I had seen it done better before, I am not saying that it is made up of well worn clichés. I’m specifically thinking of one film – BATTLE ROYALE. That 2000 Japanese film, one of the best of the 2000s, has a very similar premise where each year a group of teens are selected to compete in a battle to the death in order for the government to keep people in line. The differences between the two films, which are both based on books I have not yet read, make a world of difference.

The chief difference is that in BATTLE ROYALE the contestants are all from the same class. This makes the teams logical. Friends would team up and have reasons to not kill each other. In HUNGER GAMES, the unions between anyone are unlikely. Why would you trust anyone? Even when it seems to have a strategic reason, the characters don’t react with the dog eat dog nature that the game insists upon. For instance, if a weaker character is recruited to help hunt down a stronger tribute, why wouldn’t the weaker character be killed by his “teammates” the second the stronger character is found?

Another thing that having the contestants know each other ahead of time does is form interesting character dynamics. ROYALE had a large cast but we get to know dozens of the characters, while in HUNGER GAMES, any character other than Katniss and Peeta is one dimensional or no dimensional. This undermines big emotional moments, because we don’t know the supporting cast at all because they are given no screen time. Also, in BATTLE ROYALE, the way the contestants “play” the game highlights their character and teenage dynamics. In HUNGER GAMES, the lead up to the game and the game itself show off the personalities of Katniss and Peeta nicely, but the motivations of the rest of the tributes are in question and at times even suspect. Deaths in BATTLE ROYALE have more weight and meaning, in HUNGER GAMES, they’re too often just part of the show.

Another big difference between the worlds of BATTLE ROYALE and HUNGER GAMES is that in the former the rules never change and in the latter the rules change too often. From both an audience perspective and from a world building perspective, changing the rules diminishes the drama. If Seneca can come in and manipulate the game, giving one contestant an advantage over the other, the viewers of the film and of the game in the film will begin to feel cheated. And both audiences need to care about the world being creating. If the purpose of the game is to put fear into the population with just a little bit of hope, the more the game seems rigged with sponsors and game manipulation the less hope people will feel and only fuel resentment toward the game and ultimately the government.

Francois Truffaut is credited as saying that the best form of film criticism is to go out and make the movie the way it should be done. With that thought in mind, it is hard not to compare BATTLE ROYALE having seen it with HUNGER GAMES, because it seems to stand as a shining criticism of the weaknesses in the latter film. But the criticism doesn’t make HUNGER GAMES look awful, only highlights how it could have been better. If one were to take HUNGER GAMES as a criticism of TWILIGHT, Gary Ross’s film looks strong in comparison.

As a teen action romance, HUNGER GAMES is anchored by a powerful performance from Jennifer Lawrence. Just watch her petrified look before entering the game arena. The love triangle is nuanced even if Gale is abandoned for the games. The action sequences create real tension as strategy plays a greater role than who can punch harder. Even with the manipulation, the final moment of the games holds great emotional weight. Katniss does turn into the hope that makes President Snow scared. The hope of a real hero.

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SUPERMAN, LORD OF THE RINGS, STAR TREK, STAR WARS, AVATAR and dozens of other sci-fi and fantasy tales owe their origins to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series. This new film is based on Burroughs’ A PRINCESS OF MARS, a classic of pulp fiction. Now Andrew Stanton, who won Oscars for FINDING NEMO and WALL*E, has brought the world to the screen.

John Carter (Taylor Kitsch, WOLVERINE) is your Han Solo-esque reluctant hero type. A Civil War vet who refuses to get pulled back into a cause (Indian Wars) because he is only seeking gold. But fate has other plans and like Frodo, he gets thrust into a world he couldn’t imagine when he gets teleported to Mars. In a reverse of Superman’s tale, he, the Earthling, travels to another planet and gains superpowers because of the alien world’s environment. Like the worlds of STAR TREK and STAR WARS, various alien races are warring and the good guys must stop the superior weaponry of the villains. Like in AVATAR, Carter is a human who establishes himself as a leader in an alien culture. In this world of Mars, aka Barsoom, the giant, four-armed alien race is led by Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe, SPIDER-MAN).

In the long tradition of fantasy, there is a princess named Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins, WOLVERINE), who is being forced to marry the enemy of her kingdom. This villainous warrior is named Sab Than (Dominic West, 300). He has been waging a campaign of destruction across the planet, using a superior weapon given to him by the mysterious Matai Shang (Mark Strong, SHERLOCK HOLMES), the leader of the Therns, a bald, pale, robed species bent on shaping the future of Barsoom. But the princess has developed a new technology that could save her people, but the Thern secretly sabotage it.

At the core of the story is the romance between John Carter and Dejah. John Carter is a heartbroken man, suffering over the murder of his wife and child. The princess is a smart warrior who is trying to escape a forced marriage. A hero trying to save a princess in distress is a tried and true element of sci-fi and fantasy. In 1912, saving the princess was motivation enough, but modern audiences need more. While Kitsch and Collins’ screen chemistry sells the romance to some degree, it never fully comes over the hurdles of Carter’s relationship with his wife, who serves as his key motivation for not wanting to fight. This comes strikingly to the forefront in the brilliant sequence where Carter cartoonish single-handed destruction of an army of aliens is given emotion poignancy as the clash of his blade is cut with the strike of the shovel as he buries his loved ones. At this point, we feel the switch in him. He will not let the innocent be murdered by the horde again. However, how does this transition to love for Dejah?

Admittedly, I am not a student of Burroughs’ world. I can only judge what was presented on the screen. But it seems that it brings into play too many of the problems of an early 20th century view of the universe. Tars Tarkas and his Thark use guns, so why are they not superior to the human-like Barsoomians who are still using swords? I mean when the Thern give Sab lasers, he takes over pretty quickly. Just look back at the list of worlds that have been influence by this one. They borrowed pieces that fit into their worlds. At times, all the ideas seem crammed into this one.

All these issues weaken the experience, but never break it. Most importantly, I cared about John Carter and Dejah. While I might not have fully bought their quick romance, their motivations to save Barsoom did resonate. Carter wants to fight for Barsoom where he failed to do so on Earth. Dejah wants to lead her people, but she is forced into the position of political pawn. While their stories might be set against a muddled world, it is still endlessly inventive. Stanton honors Burroughs ingenuity with a grand scale, assured pacing and the right dose of levity.

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It was a surprise when Brendan Gleeson was announced as a Golden Globe nominee for his role as a corrupt, drug using, foul mouthed cop. Once you’ve seen it you’ll know why. He owns the role. The best statement said about his character is he’s either really stupid or really smart.

Gleeson plays Gerry Boyle, a north Ireland police officer who is investigating a recent murder when FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle, HOTEL RWANDA) comes to town on a mission to stop an international drug ring. When Everett shows the local officers pictures of the suspects, Boyle wonders to the African-American agent how they could be drug dealers when their white. Everyone knows all drug dealers are black or Mexican. Boyle’s defense for his racism is that he is Irish and it is part of his culture.

In fact, Boyle is just trying to get a rise out of Everett. He doesn’t like city folk coming into his jurisdiction. He knows that his murder investigation is connected to Everett’s drug case. The two sure make an unlikely pair. Everett just doesn’t understand Boyle’s complete lack of restraint. But one can expect anything from a man who will put a murder investigation on hold for a day so that he can have a fling with two prostitutes.

The best part of Gleeson’s performance is the slyness he brings. Is he purposely trying to be offensive or is he just really naive about black people? Or could it be a bit of both? Why does he speak so openly about his drug use and fornication with hookers around his superiors and Everett? Have the drugs and booze made him clueless or does he know something akin to the “donkey photos” that give him a free ride? Is he the worst cop ever or some kind of Gaelic yojimbo? You’ll change your mind from moment to moment.

How did he get this way? Well when you witness the f bomb filled visits with his mum Eileen (Fionnula Flanagan, FOUR BROTHERS) you’ll get a clue. When he is strapped with a young partner named McBride (Rory Keenan, REIGN OF FIRE), you get the impression that he long ago came to the realization that by-the-book police work is pointless. McBride is from Dublin and for the Galway born Boyle, he might as well be from Wisconsin. Watch how cozy he gets with McBride’s Croatian wife Gabriela (Katarina Cas). And you have to blame the movies. Boyle loves the idea of going out like the cowboys in THE WILD BUNCH, but he’s too smart for suicide.

It’s not a mystery where and when and who the drug dealers are, but Boyle’s involvement is a mystery. He’s got multiple motivations and a lot rides on which one he decides to follow. By the end though, we know for sure whether he is really flippin’ stupid or really flippin’ smart.

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Every time I see a film this good about faith I always say there should be more films about faith. I’m not talking about preachy, simplistically moralistic religious tracts, but tales about a person’s walk through life and faith with warts and all. Vera Farmiga, who most people will know from UP IN THE AIR, is a smart actress and has made a smart directing debut in adapting Carolyn S. Briggs’ memoir for the screen. This is a film about how a woman comes to faith and how she brings it through her life.

Farmiga stars as Corinne, a woman during the 1970s who struggles with her faith. As a child (McKenzie Turner), she didn’t have much exposure to religion. The most she got was when her flashy mother Kathleen (Donna Murphy, TANGLED) dumped her in vacation Bible school and flirted with Pastor Bud (Bill Irwin, RACHEL GETTING MARRIED) when she came to pick her up. As a teen, Corinne (Taissa Farmiga, TV’s AMERICAN HORROR STORY) is always writing, which draws the attention of wanna-be rocker Ethan (as teen Boyd Holbrook, TV’s THE BIG C & as adult Joshua Leonard, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT). In fast secession, she is pregnant, married and a struggling mother. After a near tragedy, Corinne and Ethan join the “Jesus Freaks” in town and never turn back.

In their Christian community, Corinne embraces her faith with a full heart, but she is a thinker and with thinkers come doubts. She becomes close friends with Annika (Dagmara Dominczyk, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO), the most free of the women. The Russian immigrant draws pictures of her husband’s penis to spice up their sex life and talks in tongues to get closer to God. Corinne wants that for herself, but it doesn’t come that easy, especially with Ethan, who has fallen into the dogma of their patriarchal church. In this world, Corinne feels confined by restrictions in her dress, counseling of other women and even thoughts. And even though Pastor Bill (Norbet Leo Butz, DAN IN REAL LIFE) stresses that the men need to meet their wives sexual needs, it’s a lesson Ethan has failed to follow.

Watch how Corinne’s faith affects her relationship with her sister Wendy (Nina Arianda, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS), who has a carefree, hippie lifestyle. Corinne’s marriage is boring, but turns volatile like the relationship her mother and father CW (John Hawkes, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE) had. That marriage ended in divorce, but Corinne’s faith influences how she approaches her failing marriage. But Corinne’s faith is most rocked when it comes to the tragic fate of Annika. Death would have been easier to understand as God’s plan.

Farmiga has brought together a great cast, working from Briggs and Tim Metcalfe’s script. She brings the same authenticity that marks every one of her performances. She understands these people and never once talks down to them. Farmiga made a great decision in convincing her younger sister Taissa to act in the film as the younger version of her character. Taissa not only shows natural talent, but seamlessly works to transition from one period in time to the next, because of how closely she resemble her older sibling. Irwin is always a joy to see and his smarmy preacher is so dead on in style and approach I felt I was back in my own Bible camp experience. Look for a brilliant moment between Hawkes and Murphy during one of their grandchildren’s birthday parties. Their non-verbal communication comments on their relationship and also hints at the pitfalls ahead for Corinne and Ethan.

While faith is the central theme, this film plays it straight and shows how faith transforms and informs its characters. This is a character piece that looks inside a religious community and how the dynamics of the group affect its main character Corrine. She entered marriage before she found religion. She was young and so many of the things she wanted from life had to be put on hold. So how does someone reconcile a less than opportune marriage and a faith that demands one not to divorce? What if you put your whole heart into something and never feel the joy you expect? What do you do when everyone around you has found something you can’t seem to find? The answer is faith. But faith in what? Farmiga has enough faith in her audience to let them come up with their own answers.

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The central mixed martial arts event in this film is called Sparta and it is a fitting name to attach to such a Greek-like drama between fathers and sons and brother versus brother. As a sports drama, it skillfully weaves together both a separate comeback and underdog tale, with the tales colliding in the end. Combining melodrama and character complexity, this simple tale has the emotional power of a piledriver.

Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy, INCEPTION) hasn’t seen his father Paddy (Nick Nolte, AFFLICTION) since he and his mother ran away when he was a teen. Now a broken man, going by his mother’s maiden name, Tommy wants something from his former alcoholic dad – train him to enter a winner take all MMA tournament. He doesn’t want to reconnect with his father, only train. In a sick way, Tommy dangling a reconnection in front of his dad is no worse than if he dangled a bottle of whiskey.

Tommy has no desire to reconnect with his older brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton, ANIMAL KINGDOM) either. Paddy tries to visit Brendan, but he too doesn’t want anything to do with his dad. He stayed behind when his brother and mother left for his then girlfriend, now wife Tess (Jennifer Morrison, TV’s HOUSE). Due to mounting medical bills from his daughter’s heart condition, Brendan has stepped back in the ring, despite promising his wife that since becoming a high school Physics teacher he wouldn’t. They need the money and he refuses to lose their home. He goes back to his old trainer Frank Campana (Frank Grillo, MINORITY REPORT), who is working with a fighter preparing for Sparta.

Brendan and Tommy’s paths couldn’t be more different and yet the same. Tommy made himself an overnight name when a YouTube video of him destroying a top contender in a sparing match went viral. He is like an animal unchained when he enters the cage, mowing down opponents like they weren’t even there. During high school, he was a promising champion wrestler until he and his mother left. Brendan, on the hand, is an underdog, who has always lived in the shadow of his younger brother. He doesn’t have the same brute force, but he has stamina and skill.

On the surface, Brendan seems like the easier of the two to root for. He is fighting to save his family and to prove himself. Tommy is cruel and cold. We know that his resentments fuel his anger and brutality in the cage. We fear what could happen if he does get his hands on his brother. But he has secrets and those secrets are key to his motivations as well. This is a story of broken men finding some resolution. Even Paddy tries to bring his family together knowing that it was he who caused them to be torn apart.

While this has melodramatic tones, the conviction of the three central performers makes it believable. Hardy is intense on a scary level. The fear that he is going to hurt someone, and himself in the process, is palpable. Edgerton, who has the geek cred of playing Luke’s Uncle Owen in the STAR WARS prequels, is emerging as a promising new leading man. Like he did in ANIMAL KINGDOM, he has a masculine quality that is still refined. In a sport where his opponents strike thoughts of unhinged beasts, his Brendan feels like a gentleman boxer from a different era. Then we get to Nolte, whose performance is his best since his last Oscar nominated performance in AFFLICTION. It’s not that he plays a recovering alcoholic so well, but the vulnerability he brings to the role that speaks volumes about his character that dialogue could not convey.

One might argue that men working out their issues by beating each other to a pulp is not very sophisticated. But others might describe it as accurate. The detail that makes director Gavin O’Connor, Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorfman’s script so solid is the actions of the brothers in the ring speak of their complex problems. On a larger level, the film is not just about family, but what family means.

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Those critics that keep writing that this or that new film from Woody Allen has brought the famed director back to form is living in the past. Yes, during the late ’90s and early 2000s, Allen was not making his best work, but it’s been six years since MATCH POINT (his best since 1989’s CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS) and in between that and now we got VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA. With this film, Allen has returned to his whimsical comedy work like THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO.

Gil (Owen Wilson, BOTTLE ROCKET) is a successful screenwriter, who works on hack material. He has always wanted to write a novel, but has never had the guts. On vacation in Paris, he finds inspiration to start. His fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams, THE NOTEBOOK) worries that he’s throwing away his lucrative career on a gamble. This would also throw away their house in Malibu. Tired of hanging out with Inez’s pseudo-intellectual friend Paul (Michael Sheen, FROST/NIXON) and his clueless wife Carol (Nina Arianda, WIN WIN), Gil takes late-night walks and gets teleported back to the 1920s.

This fantastic journey is everything Gil could hope for because as he says, he was born too late. On his first night, he visits a party where Cole Porter (Yves Heck) is playing. Then he runs into F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston, THOR & Alison Pill, MILK), who turn out to be the lively and volatile couple he always imagined them to be. Later that evening, they introduce him to their friend Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll, SALT). Gil asks him to read his novel and Hemingway says he hates it before he even reads it, because if it is terrible he will hate it and if it is good, he’ll be jealous and he’ll hate it. So he recommends that his friend Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates, MISERY) read it.

At Stein’s home, Gil meets Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo, THE MAN I LOVE), who is having an affair with the beautiful Adriana (Marion Cotillard, INCEPTION), who moved to Paris to design clothes with Coco Chanel. Gil finds her fascinating, but so does Hemingway. What does a guy do? Sit down in a café with surrealists Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody, THE PIANIST), Luis Bunuel (Adrien de Van, IN MY SKIN) and Man Ray (Tom Cordier) perhaps?

Gil finds inspiration in the past, but will he get trapped there… literally? He is always inexplicably brought back to the present where his strange behavior is questioned by Inez, who seems only interested in one thing from the past   expensive antique furniture – and not Gil’s silly manuscript about an owner of a nostalgia shop. Inez’s father John (Kurt Fuller, WAYNE’S WORLD) actually hires a private investigator to follow Gil to see where he goes at night. This could be trouble because he’s falling in love with a possible figment of his imagination.

This comedy certainly provides more laughs to those that are fans of literature and film. I’m not sure the average viewer would get the bit where Gil tells Luis Bunuel to make a film about rich people not being able to leave a dinner party and Bunuel not getting why they just don’t walk out the door. But what makes this film so good is that it doesn’t matter. It certainly rewards fans of art, but the characters are relatable. It’s not uncommon for many people to believe that they would have been better suited living in an earlier “golden” age. Gil allows the viewer to live out that fantasy and experience the joys and pitfalls that it brings. As an artist Gil’s trips to the past are inspiring, because great artists of the past are always inspiring to new artists. We live in their era every time we read their books or see their films or gaze upon their paintings.

This is certainly a lighter work from Allen, but it’s one of his best lighter films. He finds another good conduit for his “Woody Allen” character in Wilson, who, whether conscious or not, takes on Allen tics in his performance. Allen, like Gil, might love the 1920s, but he’s still making films that people of the early 21st century can relate to.

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Over the years Steven Spielberg has certainly adapted his style to fit the project. The black & white cinematography in SCHINDLER’S LIST added a grim solemnity. The desaturated colors and herky-jerky photography of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN only matched the gritty war sequences. In WAR HORSE, he tackles the first World War with a touch that matches the melodramatic nature of the source book and play. He channels the melodramas of the 1940s and 1950s like John Ford’s HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, creating an almost surreal fable.

Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan, BRAVEHEART) is a war vet who drinks away his bad memories. He’s a poor farmer who decides one day at auction to not let his rich, pompous landlord Lyons (David Thewlis, HARRY POTTER) to outbid him for a thoroughbred horse. When he brings it home to his wife Rose (Emily Watson, BREAKING THE WAVES), she gets that look that only long-suffering wives get in movies like this one. Their son Albert (Jeremy Irvine, TV’s LIFE BITES) promises to train the horse. When the rent comes due and they are short, Albert, as hard headed as his father, sets out to turn a race horse into a plow steed.

But as one might expect, Albert and his horse Joey get separated when the war breaks out and the young man is determined to reunite with his four-legged friend. Like Robert Bresson’s AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, the story of an animal allows the viewer to peek into the lives of the people the creature comes in contact with. Capt. Nicholls (Tim Hiddleston, THOR) embodies the British term of keeping a stiff upper lip. He uses Joey to challenge the snobby Major Stewart (Benedict Cumberbatch, TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY). The young fragile Emilie (Celine Buckens) and her beloved grandfather (Niels Arestrup, A PROPHET) get a new lease on life thanks to the horse. The beast’s encounters will also include helping two young German defectors, motivating an animal loving private and inspiring a momentary truce.

This lush production shines with Janusz Kaminski’s vfx assisted cinematography. Spielberg doesn’t hold back with unnatural red and orange sunsets and vast green landscapes. The Narracott’s farm is like a fairy tale cottage. These idyllic images of the home are is stark contrast to the bleak, dark trench warfare scenes. The image of Joey trapped in barbed wire in the middle of No Man’s Land between the English and German sides is classic.

Spielberg finds grand moral themes about life and death much like he did in RYAN. Albert’s friend from Devon is assigned the terrible task of shooting any of his fellow soldiers who turn back from their run across the battlefield. So often, luck determines whether one lives or dies. Grander motivations mean nothing and the soldiers are fighting for their fellow solider… and in this case that means man and horse. Spielberg brings to light the great service that horses provided in WWI and the idea of them being drafted into fighting without a choice is not a light metaphor.

WAR HORSE earns the waterworks it creates with archetypal characters that we care about. Spielberg explores one of his favor themes of family on a grand scale. Chiefly, fathers and sons reconnect over shared experiences. Albert, played with the perfect dose of innocent gumption by newcomer Irvine, doesn’t understand his father, brought to life by Mullen as a proud working class man that only Ireland and the movies can produce. But in the final shot words aren’t needed to communicate that Albert’s opinion has changed. Spielberg’s skills as a master filmmaker make this happen so well.

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Based on Stieg Larsson’s international bestseller, this film makes this the second time this story has been brought to the screen. The original Swedish version is very fresh in my mind, having made my top 25 list last year, ranking fourth, just behind David Fincher’s THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Now we have Fincher’s version of the same tale in English.

Still set in Sweden, Daniel Craig (CASINO ROYALE) plays journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who has just lost a libel suit after printing a damning report about a successful businessman. Turns out he was set up. Leaving his magazine in disgrace, Mikael takes a job offer from Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer, BEGINNERS), a retired businessman whose family operates one of the largest companies in the country. For decades, Henrik has been investigating the disappearance of his niece Harriet, who he raised like his own. The old man believes one of his family members murdered her.

As Mikael begins his investigation, we meet Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara, THE SOCIAL NETWORK), a skilled computer hacker who conducted the background check on Mikael for Henrik. She is pierced and tattooed and never wears anything that isn’t black. A goth girl with a history of violence, she is a ward of the state and has been assigned a new case worker named Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen, THE NEW WORLD), a sadistic man who blackmails sex out of Lisbeth. But he doesn’t know who he is dealing with.

Mara, a relative newcomer, was a surprise choice for the coveted role. She gives the character the right dose of vulnerability and chutzpa. For those who have seen Noomi Rapace’s performance it’s hard to not see the influence (whether intended or not) in Mara’s performance. Mara is given a more open version of the character. When Mikael takes an interest in her, she starts to drop her cool demeanor. The tough outside and quick temper is just a shield for her fractured heart. She’s just looking for a friend and an equal, which for her is difficult to come by.

Like the original film version, the story takes its time to set up its two investigators. When their stories merge, it’s like a dream team we’ve been waiting for. Henrik’s family is large so the suspect list is long. Martin (Stellan Skarsgard, GOOD WILL HUNTING) is Harriet’s brother and now runs the family company. He is the only one who supports Henrik’s investigation. Frode (Steven Berkoff, CLOCKWORK ORANGE) is Henrik’s right hand man and his protector. A protector from Henrik himself he says. Anita Vanger (Joely Richardson, ANONYMOUS) is Henrik’s niece who got away from the family the first chance she got. Cecilia (Geraldine James, SHERLOCK HOLMES) is another niece who doesn’t like the coverage of the family. Harald (Per Myrberg) is Henrik’s reclusive brother, who only leaves the house to go hunting.

Surprisingly the script from Steve Zaillian (SCHINDLER’S LIST) is not as subtle as Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg’s Swedish script. In the American version, the moral rabbit hole surrounding the conclusion is eliminated with Mikael simply siding with Lisbeth’s blood lust. I find this a very curious cultural distinction. Having not read the book I can’t say which script kept the most faithful, but what I can say is that the Swedish version handled the end coda with better economy and left Lisbeth more enigmatic.

The Swedish version made Lisbeth just as much of a mystery as the murder mystery. The American version makes her an avenging angel. Driven by a badass performance from Mara, the character remains very compelling still. Part of the joy of both versions is the contrast in investigating styles between Mikael and Lisbeth. It’s the perfect pairing of old school and new. Take from it what you will that Mikael plays by the rules and Lisbeth enjoys breaking every single one.

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Steven Spielberg has made a rousing globetrotting adventure that harkens back to his early INDIANA JONES films. Using performance capture, he brought to life Herge’s world-renowned comic strip character in a strangely realistic and surreal way. The lightning paced action scenes will be well accepted from the videogamer set, while older audiences might want it to have slowed down a bit to let us meet these characters.

The audience is thrown right into the action as Tintin (Jamie Bell, KING KONG) buys a model ship that turns out to be a hotly desired item. Along with his dedicated dog Snowy, Tintin tries to get to the bottom of why Sakharine (Daniel Craig, CASINO ROYALE) will go to great extremes to get Tintin’s model and two identical ones. Along the way, Tintin teams up with the drunken Capt. Haddock (Andy Serkis, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES), whose family is connected to the great mystery.

While there are brief mentions to Tintin being a famous reporter, we never get to see him report. There is something to be said about a story that throws the viewer right into the action, using the discovery of what is happening to pull them along. Here we don’t get to know Tintin enough to care about him more so than we care about the mystery. Capt. Haddock turns out to have a more engaging connection to the plot. He drinks due to the pressure of living up to the adventures of his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock. Even Tintin questions his usefulness when a bottle of booze is around. But when the going gets tough, Capt. Haddock gets burping. It’s far funnier than it sounds.

The film is actually based directly on several Tintin adventures Herge wrote, however they have been changed. In the comic strip, Tintin and Capt. Haddock were already friends. The film tries to make this an origin story. Because the script has some first act issues, one wonders why this was done. What if we saw Tintin as a star reporter and his friend Capt. Haddock was always getting him in trouble due to his drinking? What if discovering the mystery of the Unicorn was a way for Tintin to help an old friend redeem his pubic image? As a fan, I wonder why the filmmaker would make the relationship weaker for their big introduction to a worldwide audience? But one can only wonder and take the movie for what it is.

Despite wanting more character development, the personalities of Tintin and especially Capt. Haddock come out through the action. Haddock rattling off curse after curse at the bad guys sounded just like I imagined it to be. Tintin is smart and ingenious like a teenage MacGyver. Sakharine is pompous and ruthless. The dimwitted detectives Thomson (Nick Frost, SHAUN OF THE DEAD) and Thompson (Simon Pegg, SHAUN OF THE DEAD) make one glad Tintin is on the scene. And you can’t forget Snowy; he takes man’s best friend to a whole new level.

The use of motion-capture is a touchy issue. I found it another step forward in the stylized arena. This is far superior to an early effort like POLAR EXPRESS, but it isn’t AVATAR. What Spielberg’s tightrope walk between photo real and cartoonish does for the film is allow him to push the action. Cartoons have always allowed more latitude for the outlandish. The car chase through the streets of Morocco would not work in straight live-action. With impeccable timing, it highlights Spielberg’s skills as a choreographer of thrilling action. How he weaves together Tintin and Capt. Haddock on a motorcycle with a sidecar, a hawk, a tank and a moving hotel will amaze.

The film left me wanting more in both a good and bad way. As originally planned, this is the first film in a trilogy with Peter Jackson taking on the second installment. It might be interesting to see what he would do differently. This is like reading the “quick read” tab on a long article — you get the primary points, but not the depth. Even though I only got a taste this time, I still have a thirst for more adventures.

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