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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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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What if upon your mother’s death you learned that your father was still alive and that you had a brother you never knew about? Then you were asked to find them. Through the process you learn shocking details of your mother’s past. What if the woman that always seemed a little weird was actually a legend in her native country?

Jeanne (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin, TAKING THE PLUNGE) and Simon Marwan (Maxim Gaudette, CHEECH) are faced with these questions when their mother Nawal (Lubna Azabal, PARADISE NOW) passes away suddenly. He doesn’t want anything to do with his mother’s surprising last request, but Jeanne knows that she will be haunted by it if she doesn’t go looking for her father. As details, she will pull her brother into the search, simply because it is too emotional to do it on her own.

Nawal grew up in a fictional Middle East country that is not far of from Lebanon. She was a Christian and made the mistake of falling in love with a Muslim. The rest of the details of her journey that led to her to move with her twin children to Canada I will leave  secret. What she experiences through war will test her faith and beliefs. She will endure torture and rape to the extents her children couldn’t imagine. But she comes through it with a surprising perspective.

Some of the revelations might be seen as lurid, but they actually work profoundly in support of the grander theme. Director Denis Villeneuve shows the cycle of violence that radicalizes generation have generation in the war torn parts of the Middle East. In setting the action in a fictional place the story envelopes the entire region in the message. Violence breeds violence. But it’s hatred for those different than you and your family that really starts it all. Any action can be justified if it’s being conducted by your side.

Azabal gives a heart wrenching performance as a woman who sings to free herself from her hardships. Through everything, her will is strong, partly fueled by a quiet rage. Only late in life does she find unexpected closure and ultimately forgiveness. A chance encounter makes her rethink how we are connected to all humans even our enemies. Her character might be dead from the start, but this is her story.

Desormeaux-Poulin and Gaudette are given witness roles. But their journey to discover their mother’s past and fulfill her final wish adds mystery and tension to the story. The more they learn the more we wonder if it is safe to continue. Villeneuve does a brilliant job letting the audience in on a bit of information before the characters to make us fearful for them, but keeps back the big bombshells so we witness the explosions with the characters. In the end, it makes us wonder how much do we really know our parents? What secrets do they plan to take to their graves? Who in the world knows these secrets and how different is their view of your parent from yours?

The Canadian film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The darker material must have been a turn off compared to the easier humanistic message of winner IN A BETTER WORLD. That film is a more conventional Hollywood drama while this film has more in common with a Korean shocker. Though it was nominated last year, it didn’t get a U.S. release until this year. So now it gets to be a 2010 Oscar nominee and one of the very best films of 2011.

At the core of the story, the film argues that anyone, due to their circumstances, can be driven to hate and violence. At some point someone has to break the cycle. Many people who hate have mothers that love them.

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Paul Verhoeven’s adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s celebrated young adult sci-fi novel is a curious production. Like Verhoeven did with ROBOCOP, he weaves dark satire and extreme violence into the story. In the way he portrays the gung-ho soldiers and the government they serve he is essentially making us root for the Nazis. For the most part it works, but is it fair?

Set in the distant future, humans have colonized planets across the universe. They are having great difficulty putting down the Arachnids species living on the planet of Klendathu. Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien, SLEEPY HOLLOW), his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH) and best friend Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris, TV’s HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER) are privileged teens living in Buenos Aires, who want to earn their citizenship. The only way to do so is to contribute to society or join the military. The threesome chooses the latter. The only problem is that Johnny doesn’t score high enough to become a pilot like Carmen or the military intelligence like Carl, so he is relegated to mobile infantry and sent to the front lines to slaughter The Bugs or be slaughtered by The Bugs.

In paralleling the stories of Johnny and Carmen, the film looks at the differences between the military experience of the officer and the grunt. Johnny quickly impresses his hard-as-nails commanding officer Lieutenant Jean Rasczak (Michael Ironsides, TOP GUN), Johnny’s former teacher and was never impressed with him before. Fellow grunt Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer, SAW) is greatly attracted to Johnny’s heroics (or stupid luck depending on your perspective). The Roughnecks talk about the Bugs with loathing and have no qualms killing them in the most savage ways possible. This results in a lot of green goo and blood squirting across the screen.

The plot might follow conventions of war films in many ways, but there are surprises. The story is not on autopilot. The turns give some weight and tension to the material, because the audience can expect anything to happen, because the uncommon has already happened. This lasts right up to the very end with a humorous note to the randomness of war and irony of war heroes.

Whether it’s supposed to be part of the satire, the acting is melodramatic to the point of making it campy. Van Dien and Richards provide the biggest suds in this area. That said the love triangle formed between their characters and Dizzy works well, because it highlights the divergent paths their lives have taken.

Heinlein was a manly type who felt a man became a man through violence. He also advocated for a military-controlled global government, which sounds fascist to me. I wonder what this film would be like if Sam Peckinpah had directed it?

But under Verhoeven we get a sly spoof of everything that Heinlein valued. The director has said that his theme was that war makes fascists of us all. He never expands this satire further than that, taking on the obvious targets. You can almost see the conflict on the screen between an all out skewering of totalitarianism and a rousing action flick. Which is curious that this R-rated film was based on a film for kids, doesn’t that already take it out of the range of the core fan base? By not going all the way one way or the other, the film isn’t fair to its characters at times. War might make people act fascist, but not all soldiers are fascists. Like I said the film is curious. Verhoeven is trying to have it both ways, making a film for Heinlein fans and Heinlein detractors at the same time.

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I’m not the first person to draw the parallel between this Israeli film and the German classic DAS BOOT. Instead of a submarine, the story takes place inside a tank. The claustrophobic environment creates tension by limiting our view of the horrors going on outside. While its use is more as a gimmick than DAS BOOT, it certainly makes for an engaging experience.

Shmulik (Yoav Donat) is the new gunner brought into the tank. It’s his first taste of combat and he is scared out of his mind. Assi (Itay Tiran, BEAUFORT) is the commanding officer in the tank, but he is weak and his nerves are rattled. Hertzel (Oshri Cohen, AGORA) is the loader who questions every decision that Assi makes and only thinks about getting out of the war. Yigal (Michael Moshonov, LATE MARRIAGE) is the young driver who just wants his mother to know he is okay. Riding them every chance he gets is the commanding officer on the ground Jamil (Zohar Shtrauss, BEAUFORT), who makes it abundantly clear that the lives of the ground troupes are in the hands of the tank crew.

What is supposed to be a simple mission turns into a nightmare when the soldiers end up in the wrong area, which is controlled by a Syrian commando. A Syrian prisoner (Dudu Tassa) fighting for the Lebanese is stowed away in the tank. If he gets hostile, the tank crew is informed to give him morphine to calm him down. Word comes in that two Phalangists, Arab Christians fighting with the Israelis, will help them get out of the city. The Phalangist leader (Ashraf Barhom, CLASH OF THE TITANS) doesn’t even seem to be able to read the map and after he talks to the prisoner morphine is certainly needed.

Director/writer Samuel Maoz, basing the film on his own experience in the Lebanon War in 1982, puts the viewer in the tank and into the POV of the crew at times. When they look out the scope, we see what they see. When a BMW comes racing toward them, Shmulik has a hard time firing because he can actually see the whites of the driver’s eyes. At one point a Lebanese mother (Reymond Amsalem, RENDITION) stares directing into the scope and it puts chill over the scene, especially after the harrowing experience we just witnessed her go through.

Driven by a bombastic soundtrack, this war film doesn’t really enlighten the audience on what it takes to operate a tank, but what it is like to be a scared young man stuck in one. Where DAS BOOT watched men doing their jobs, LEBANON watches men trying to simply attempt their job. They might be inside an armored vehicle, but it really doesn’t make it any less frightening. Death can still come from anywhere. It’s fitting that on the inside wall of the tank is painted this phrase — “Man is steel. The tank is only iron.”

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Steve Rogers is a 90 lbs weakling, but he has the heart and guts of a warrior. He keeps getting rejected at recruitment centers trying to join the fight in World War II. Chris Evans, who has experience playing superheroes, as he was the Human Torch in the FANTASTIC FOUR films, is an excellent choice to play this hero in the making before and after a super serum is injected into his veins to turn him into Captain America.

Evans is made the bullied Steve Rodgers through some remarkable visual effects. His heart and passion is what attracts the eye of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci, THE LOVELY BONES), who is working on the U.S.’s super soldier program with Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones, MEN IN BLACK) and investor/entrepreneur Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper, MAMMA MIA!). But instead of going to the frontlines, he is used as a propaganda tool to sell war bonds. But on an USO tour, he discovers that his best friend James “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan, BLACK SWAN) has been taken prisoner and goes it alone to save him.

And like any good man of the 1940s, he needs a good woman to believe in him. Here is where the film meets its second casting perfection. Hayley Atwell (THE DUCHESS), who plays British agent Peggy Carter, could easily become a star after this performance. She is plucky and determined. She holds her own with the boys so well; we don’t question for a moment why she’s right there in the fight. A perfect match for Evans’ Rogers.

I really wanted to like this film more than I did, because so many parts work so well. Rodgers story is inspiring in an old fashioned kind of way war films use to be. Erskine tells him the night before he becomes Captain America that he needs to make sure not to lose his compassion when he becomes a superman. Does the film test Steve’s resolve when put up against the horror of WWII? Not really. He’s simply a force for truth, justice and the American way (which I guess is now his motto since Superman has given up his U.S. citizenship).

Still his journey to become this iconic hero is compelling, because he is a man who acts on principle, which is rare these days. But often a hero is only as good as the villain he is pitted against. This is where the film suffers the most. Johann Schmidt, aka Red Skull (Hugo Weaving, THE MATRIX), is a weapons developer for Hitler. But the egomaniac has plans for his personal concurring of the world. A villain that is established as a bigger threat than Hitler would be a great adversary for Captain America, but the film never develops him to be much of a threat at all. The iconic look of the character with his bright red head is wonderful, but a great design alone does not make a great villain. We see him develop weapons fueled by the power of the gods, but we never see him use those weapons to lay waste to the inferior human developed guns and tanks. Captain America runs over his “secret” weapons plants like he’s knocking over cardboard cutouts. So when the Red Skull’s crony Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones, THE PAINTED VEIL) trembles at the idea that his boss could actually take over the world, we don’t believe it for a second.

Despite his character’s underdevelopment, Weaving does an excellent job giving the character presence on screen. He sure looks iconic. There are a lot of good performances here. Jones is another great presence as the gruff military leader who wanted an army of Captain Americas and not a single chorus girl. Tucci makes Erskine a nice father figure for Rogers. A man who doesn’t like bullies either.

The film takes its time developing the origin of Captain America. Too long. I wanted more time with Captain America and his Howling Commandos as they take out Red Skull’s HYDRA operations. I kept getting reminded of great WWII “men on a mission” films like GUNS OF NAVARONE and THE DIRTY DOZEN. But outside of Bucky, the rest of the team doesn’t get developed more than their looks. Gabe Jones (Derek Luke, ANTOINE FISHER) is the black guy. Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi, STREET KINGS) is the Japanese guy. James Montgomery Falsworth is the British guy (JJ Field, CENTURION). Jacques Dernier (Bruno Ricci) is the French guy. Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS) is the Irish guy. At least Dum Dum gets a bowler hat to give him one more identifier.

Just because CAPTAIN AMERICA misses greatness, doesn’t mean it’s not good. The problem is, especially with Howard Stark (Tony Stark’s dad) in the film, one remembers IRON MAN, which set the bar pretty high. That film worked so well because it brought the internal conflict of its flawed hero up against an external conflict that played on the internal. This film could have done the same, but it never really connects the internal with the external with a knock out punch. But for all its weakness, the worst thing I can say about the film is that I wanted more. With nods to INDIANA JONES and WWII war flicks, what the film does become is a rousing Nazi-smashing serial-like adventure.

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There have been many documentary films made about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. None of them put the viewer into the war from such a first-hand perspective as this one. American journalist Sebastian Junger and British photojournalist Tim Hetherington embedded themselves with the Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team for an entire 15-month deployment. They went on missions with the soldiers in the Korengal valley, which was called the deadliest place on Earth.

The film’s title comes from PFC Juan S. Restrepo, a Colombian-born naturalized American soldier who was killed early in the deployment. One of the goals of the deployment was to build an advanced outpost, which the soldiers named OP Restrepo. For a year and a quarter, these soldiers are under fire on a daily basis. They’re official mission is to clear the area of insurgents and build relationships with the locals. But it’s clear that the individual soldiers have a different mission — do their job and get out alive.

Many of the surviving soldiers are interviewed afterwards. They are in agreement that the worst part of their deployment was Operation Rock Avalanche where they went strong into a Taliban controlled area and took fire from every direction. Only one of the men actually saw a Taliban fighter on the mission and he was pointing a rocket launcher at him. Junger and Hetherington put he viewer in several firefights throughout the film. We never see where the bullets are coming from. It’s frightening.

Some of the soldiers emerge as characters. Prominently to me was Capt. Dan Kearney. He gives his men pep talks that would sound canned only if Kearney didn’t believe every word he was saying. He rallies his men with revenge. They will hunt down the men who killed their friends and get even. When he meets with local elders, who look like they live in their harshest conditions in the world, he shows off his frustration with constant insurgent presence in the area. They’re all supposed to be working together for God’s sake. Something makes me think his unmovable, curse-filled approach to dealing with respected men twice his age isn’t going to win hearts and minds to his way of looking at things. But his focused approach seems paramount to surviving firefights when others start succumbing to emotion.

One incident underlines the uphill battle the soldiers are dealing with. An elder comes to complain that one of his cows has gotten stuck in the American’s razor wire and died. He wants a cash reimbursement. A soldier asks his superior about the request. The best the U.S. is willing to do is give the elder rice, beans and sugar that amount to the value of the cow. From the American perspective this is no different than cash. But from the Afghan perspective that rice, beans and sugar will be consumed in months, while a cow could produce milk and village status for years.

The Oscar-nominated film doesn’t take political sides. It shows soldiers doing the job that has been given them. Under great danger, the soldiers build OP Restrepo from nothing to a strategic outpost that takes the high ground on the enemy. After it’s over, the men have a hard time talking about those they lost, knowing that it so easily could have been them. As the film closes, we are told that U.S. troops withdrew from the Korangal valley in 2010. It’s hard not to wonder what the point of it all is.

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The original TV series was one of my favorites growing up as a kid. I eagerly tuned in each week to watch what new adventure these soldiers of fortune got themselves wrapped up in. You knew they’d get themselves in deep and need to use whatever they had to get out of a pickle. And who could forget that badass theme song? As the feature began and team leader Hannibal Smith was introduced, I thought I might be getting a cool iconic soldier of fortune flick. Then I got past the first five minutes.

This origin story of sorts begins with Hannibal (Liam Neeson, TAKEN) freeing himself from corrupt Mexican cops who have taken his partner Face (Bradley Cooper, THE HANGOVER) hostage. Apparently Hannibal’s master plan to save his friend is to walk across the desert and hope someone drives by. Luckily the person who drives by is B.A. Baracus (UFC fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson), who has just retrieved his beloved van from some thugs. Hannibal shoots B.A. in the arm and then convinces him that he needs to go on a mission to save a fellow ranger. Arriving just in time to save Face from being burned to death, the trio races across Mexico to an insane asylum where they have lined-up patient Murdock (Sharlto Copley, DISTRICT 9) to fly them to safety. If you think that is preposterous, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The foursome are now working as a covert team for the U.S. military and are currently serving in Iraq. How B.A., who said he was dishonorably discharged, was reinstated into the service is never explained. Word comes down that Saddam loyalists have gotten their hands on $100 printing plates and are forging millions in counterfeit bills. Face’s former flame Capt. Charisa Sosa (Jessica Biel, THE ILLUSIONIST) comes to warn Face to stay out of Baghdad and away from the plates. A private contractor named Black Forest (doesn’t that sound just like…), led by Pike (Brian Bloom, JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS) has been assigned the task. Hannibal, meanwhile, petitions Gen. Morrison (Gerald McRaney, TV’s MAJOR DAD) to go on the mission, but the general warns him against it. However, that doesn’t stop the A-Team from going after the plates on the orders of CIA agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson, WATCHMEN).

Having both of these adventures back-to-back creates a dilemma. They bog down the narrative for anyone who knows that the A-Team was convicted of a war crime they didn’t commit. The mission in Mexico is like the TV series, but for this film, it’s just fat that could have been trimmed. The feature is not about the A-Team as soldiers of fortune, but as fugitives on the run trying to clear their names. I guess they’ll get around to all the stuff we’re accustomed to them doing in the sequel.

So if this isn’t the ultimate iconic solider of fortune flick in the vein of DIRTY DOZEN or THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN then what is it? It’s a cartoon. And I say that not to insult cartoons. One ridiculous action sequence follows another. At one point, the foursome fights off drone fighters in a plummeting tank. Face pops out of the hatch and starts shooting like Charlie Sheen did when he went crazy in the foxhole in PLATOON.

Hannibal is supposed to be this brilliant planner, but when he leaves the doors open to a trailer full of millions and doesn’t expect it to walk away, or if part of one plan is to use fake passports and he mixes up B.A.’s with Murdock’s, or if a key element of a plan is to catch a kidnap target thrown from a window with a helicopter, one starts to believe that Hannibal might want to relinquish his planning duties to someone else. Oh wait, Face isn’t any better. Just wait to you see his brilliant plan with fireworks and all to close the film. And I’m serious about the fireworks it’s part of a distraction. Now I’m not saying the TV series wasn’t over-the-top in its own right, but the feature makes the series look like BLACK HAWK DOWN.

But the ridiculous action is just summer fun. If all you’re going into this film is to see cigars smoked, fools pitied and things explode than that might be the case. But you can do that and make a movie that engages the audience as well. Early on the film steals a gag from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and one could say that film is the model on how to do over-the-top action while keeping the audience engaged. In A-TEAM, there is zero tension because Hannibal, B.A., Face and Murdock are superheroes up against mere humans. The bumbling CIA agents after them can’t even shoot a handcuffed man sitting next to them in a car. Ha, ha, funny gag, but it makes the A-Team’s chief adversary seem like a chump. The A-Team outsmarts its opponents almost every step of the way. And when they don’t, it never seems like the bad guys have the upper hand, only that the A-Team are idiots.

One thing the film has going for it is casting. Neeson, Cooper and Copley are perfect. Neeson brings devilish charm. Cooper brings good looks and a suave confidence. Copley is off his rocker. Rampage is no Mr. T though. He brings the right dose of menace, but not the star charisma. And what’s with B.A.’s prison conversion to pacifism?

I wouldn’t ask for nuance in an A-TEAM movie, but something to care about would have been nice. The one thing I clearly remember about the TV show was the A-Team championing the underdog. Kind of like the seven samurai with mohawks and blowtorches. It made you instantly care about them and their mission. The underdog in the film is the CIA. And when are we ever supposed to root for those guys?

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Nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay, this psychological look at the effects of war understands what we feel and what others believe we should feel are completely different sometimes. Returning soldiers deal with this more acutely. Soldiers at war deal with death directly and sometimes often, while civilians see it at a distance until it hits them personally. So how does it feel to be the soldier that has to tell the next of kin about their loved one’s death?

Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster, 3:10 TO YUMA) is a returning soldier from Iraq and a decorated war hero. The military has assigned the recovering soldier to deliver death notices for the remainder of his enlistment. He is partnered with Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLINT), a recovering alcoholic who served in the first Gulf War. Stone’s single-mindedly adheres to the military manual on giving notice. He doesn’t want any confusion like the time a solider told a next of kin, or NOK, that their son was no longer with us and his mother thought he had defected.

Stone has a method to delivering the bad news. He doesn’t park close to the house, because he doesn’t want the NOK to see them approach and suffer that extra minute while they walk to the door. He knocks, never rings the bell, because fancy rings throw him off. You give the news to the NOK only, not their fiancée or a neighbor. The job is an in-and-out mission. You never linger. And never, under any circumstances, do you ever touch the NOK.

Montgomery’s first assignment goes as bad as it could. Still, he’s determined to give the news on the next one himself. Dale Martin (Steve Buscemi, FARGO) is furious when he sees them show up at his door. He takes his anger out on them, wondering why they’re still alive and his son is dead. Then they have an odd experience with Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton, MINORITY REPORT), who is fairly calm about their arrival and essentially wants the two officers to leave.

Stone is convinced that Pitterson is banging some other guy because of her reaction. Montgomery sees something else. A wounded woman perhaps? He begins following her and incrementally begins to help her where he can. Her young son Matt (Jahmir Duran-Abreau) is very standoffish to this new soldier popping up in their lives. His reasons might be more complex than they first seem. Montgomery is struggling himself with the soldier-civilian love problems. When he went off to war, he broke up with his high school sweetheart Kelly (Jena Malone, SAVED!). They still have passion for each other, but she is now engaged to be married.

The term, hero, is thrown around a lot. Montgomery struggles with that distinction being put on him. He’s supposed to feel good about what he’s done, but he’s just angry. Foster gives the character his usual intensity mixed with tenderness. He is a kind man who wants to help people, but also struggles with deep rage. Harrelson’s Oscar nominated turn as Stone is a complex performance. He’s a lifer in the army. He struggles with his legacy at war. When you want something so badly and things don’t turn out as you planned, it’s hard to deal with it all. He’s a bit of a wild man who uses the military’s rigidity to keep himself in line. That wild energy pops out when his uniform is off, which gives the film a nice dose of humor. His beeper rings out a death march when he gets a new call. Morton brings a flood of conflicting emotions to Pitterson. We feel her struggle and how war has touched her. There are some things worse than death.

This marks an extremely strong directorial debut for Oren Moverman, who wrote JESUS’ SON and I’M NOT THERE. Along with co-writer Alessandro Camon, he dedicates his story to the characters and not the plot. He is unafraid to go where the characters need to go without following standard plot structure. In the process, he keeps us guessing about where the story is going and how Montgomery will ultimately handle his return home.

Montgomery and Stone are tasked with a great burden. Stone tries to use cold military protocol to distance himself from the reality of his mission. But protocol cannot change that they are men who could have easily been on the other side of the news they are giving to loved ones. But who would cry for them? Soldiers have a hard time relating to civilians and visa versa. That’s their new battle. If they’re lucky they’ll have someone by their side.

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Robin Hood and his Merry Men fight for justice for the little man. They live as outlaws in Sherwood Forest. They steal from the rich and give to the poor in opposition to Prince John’s oppression and taxation of the people while King Richard is away on the Third Crusade. These are the conventions one might expect from a Robin Hood film. Don’t expect any of them from this Robin Hood film.

In this version there is a Sir Robert Loxley (Douglas Hodge, VANITY FAIR), but he is not Robin Hood. In this version Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe, GLADIATOR), an archer in the army of King Richard (Danny Huston, EDGE OF DARKNESS), becomes the outlaw of legend. This version is the story of how he became that legend. While fighting in France, Robin is challenged by the king to tell him the truth about the crusade. Robin’s answer ends him in the stockades. As fate would have it, King Richard dies on the battlefield and Sir Loxley is assigned the task of taking his crown home. On the way, he is ambushed by English double agent Godfrey (Mark Strong, SHERLOCK HOLMES), who is looking to assassinate King Richard for France. Now free Robin and his friends come upon the plot and run off Godfrey. He takes a vow to Loxley to return Loxley’s family sword to his father Sir Walter (Max von Sydow, THE EXORCIST).

Posing as Sir Loxley, Robin presents the crown to the new king John (Oscar Isaac, BODY OF LIES). After, he proceeds to fulfill his promise to Loxley. He finds the Loxley estate in poor condition, driven to poverty by King Richard and now John’s taxes. Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett, ELIZABETH) barely knew her husband Robert before he went off to war, but the news dashes her hopes that help is on the way. Sir Walter tells Robin that he knows his past and where he came from, something Robin has been searching for his whole life. Walter instantly trusts Robin and presents a plan to pass him off as his son so that when he dies Marion will not lose their land.

Meanwhile, Godfrey and his band of French troupes is seeding rebellion in England. King John looks like a fool having placed his trust in the traitor and pushing out Richard’s advisor William Marshal (William Hurt, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE). Word that France plans to invade comes to John’s mother Eleanor of Aquitaine (Eileen Atkins, COLD MOUNTAIN) who persuades his wife Isabella of Angouleme (Lea Seydoux, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) to tell him the news, because she is the only one he will believe. The new king is not equipped to deal with a civil war and foreign invasion simultaneously.

As you have read, the film has a great deal of political intrigue in it. Notice I haven’t even spoken of Little John (Kevin Durand, TV’s LOST), Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes, TV’s BAND OF BROTHERS), Allan A’Dayle (singer Alan Doyle), Friar Tuck (Mark Addy, THE FULL MONTY) or the Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen, PRIDE & PREJUDICE). Real life characters play a bigger role in this tale of 12th century England. So why call it Robin Hood?

Director Ridley Scott isn’t new to bringing the history of the crusades to the screen, having made the very good KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The best elements deal with the folly of the crusades and John’s terrible decisions as king. For the most part, these plot points are all based on true fact. Meanwhile, the legendary character of Robin Hood is weaved into this history. That’s where the confliction begins.

In Scott’s version, Robin Longstride is an honest common man disillusioned with the grand plans of kings. But he’s a blank slate. He has no direct personal gripe against the state… as far as he knows. He arrives at the Loxley estate and is taken in without question and told of the inspiring words of his philosopher father, which for some reason he has forgotten completely about until reminded by Sir Walter. When the barons meet, he pops up and gives a speech about Magna Carta-like rights and now he’s some grand leader that every one wants to follow. The film spends a great deal of time establishing the state of English under which a Robin Hood character would arise, but then makes huge leaps in developing Robin Longstride as that man.

The story also makes leaps in developing the love story between Robin and Marion. He steals some grain, plants her fields one night and now they’re in love? Seems like a macho fantasy to me. All puns aside, he is a stranger to her when her father-in-law decides to force him upon her as her substitute husband and she doesn’t find this disturbing? I know, I know, she’s strong woman who threatens to cut off his manhood if he tries anything and she really wants to save her estate, but if she were really a strong woman would she not question the safety of this impetuous plan? And another thing, the PC desire to make women of the 12th century fight alongside men needs to be believable. In a film that tries to be period authentic, a woman riding out in full chainmail into battle is about as out of place as if she wore Kevlar and rode out in a Humvee.

Those uninterested in 12th century English politics will miss the conventional elements of the Robin Hood legend. There is one brief scene where Robin and his Merry Men steal grain to help plant the fields of Nottingham. But this isn’t the film’s focus. The action is more of the BRAVEHEART variety where Robin Hood joins in an army with King John. This would be all fine if it were the conclusion of act one. A quick peek at the Robin Hood we know at the very end seems like a cruel cliffhanger. It’s hard to completely write this film off as a failed experiment, because it’s excellently executed and entertaining. But it’s not fulfilling. If it’s successful than maybe we’ll get a sequel and get the Robin Hood film this film should have been.

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