Despite the talent of director Ridley Scott, screenwriter Cormac McCarthy and an all-star cast, The Counselor is a mess. To be sure it’s a well-acted and well-produced mess with stand-out scenes, but it’s a mess none the less. The movie’s major flaw, other than McCarthy attempting to over-think a drug deal gone bad, is the less-than-believable dialogue from several of the film’s stars who come off as reading lines they haven’t quite fully bought into rather than delivering it naturally from the the mouths of fully-embodied characters.
Michael Fassbender stars as a character only ever referred to as “the Counselor,” a lawyer who makes the bad decision to get into the drug smuggling trade only to put the lives of himself, a friend (Javier Bardem), associate (Brad Pitt), and his beautiful fiance (Penélope Cruz) in danger.
Unfortunately for the Counselor, his friend’s crazy girlfriend (Cameron Diaz) has her own plan for the drugs, leaving everyone else to take the fall after executing her plans from the shadows.
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No matter how many times I’ve seen the film, there’s a moment in Million Dollar Baby that hits me like a jab straight to the gut, far harder than any thrown inside the ring in this film about boxing, life, death, and balancing the consequences of all three. Even ten years later with the movie now available in a new Tenth Anniversary Blu-ray release I find myself reluctant to give away the twist for those who have not yet seen the film.
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Recently released on Blu-ray, High Plains Drifter is one of my favorite Clint Eastwood films. Eastwood stars as the nameless Stranger who wanders into the lawless western mining town of Lago. After dispatching three outlaws with relative ease, the town decides to hire the Stranger to deal with three gunfighters (Geoffrey Lewis, Anthony James, Dan Vadis) on their way back to the town which allowed, and then jailed, the outlaws for killing the town’s sheriff.
The Stranger agrees, but decides to take payment for his services in unusual ways, including raping own of the women folk (Marianna Hill) who gets in his way, making the town jester (Billy Curtis) the new sheriff, and ordering the entire town to paint every building in Lago bright red.
Although High Plains Drifter isn’t exactly subtle, the allegory of vengeance works well as the audience, but not the towns folk, will soon guess who the Stranger is and what brought him to Lago.
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Although well-received by critics Ron Howard‘s last film chronicling the rivalry of Formula One drivers Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) leading up to and during the 1976 Formula One season, the film grossed just over $90 million worldwide and has been shut out at most of the major awards this year. That’s a travesty. Aside from being an engrossing dramatic tale split equally between the two leads that found a spot on my Top Movies of 2103, Rush should easily have won Oscar nominations for visual effects, cinematography, and sound.
Brühl is the standout of the piece, but Hemsworth is used better here than any any film so far (including Thor). And Alexandra Maria Lara and Olivia Wilde lead a supporting cast as the women who love them. Two character studies for the price of one, and featuring some of the most amazing racing visuals every put to film, Rush is just as good on Blu-ray as it was in the theater. For more on the film read my original review.
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini star as two divorced parents of daughters on their way to college. Their burgeoning relationship is put in jeopardy by Eva’s (Louis-Dreyfus) new friendship with the masseuse’s latest client who turns out to be her new boyfriend’s ex-wife (Catherine Keener).
The set-up of the unusual situation works well. However, rather than deal with the unique situation the three people find themselves, Eva decides to take a page from your average Katherine Heigl or Kate Hudson flick, and try to secretly carry on both relationships.
Despite an intriguing middle-age love story, a pair of likable stars, and a strong first act, the latest from writer/director Nicole Holofcener eventually devolves into predictable romcom cliche. Although I still think the film is worth seeking out for its two stars, and the subplot involving Eva’s relationship with both her daughter (Tracey Fairaway) and her daughter’s best friend (Tavi Gevinson), eventually the shenanigans of the film’s second-half overshadow the intriguing story which is buried under too many groanworthy moments.
[20th Century Fox, DVD $29.98 / Blu-ray $39.99]
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The BBC version of Atlantis comes to DVD and Blu-ray in this collection of the show’s First Season. Featuring the misadventures of lost wanderer 
