For these characters, created through a complex process beginning on stages at Playa Vista and ending up largely at Weta Digital in New Zealand, Cameron and his crew realized that the success of the movie rested on the believability of the creatures, the native inhabitants of the alien world, Pandora.  “You don’t get involved in the motion of the world,” said Landau.  “You get involved in the characters.  We needed ‘emotive’ and ‘engaging.’  These are humanoid characters.  They become the protagonists for which we follow the story.”

One of the breakthroughs in Avatar was the advent of a new type of performance capture system in which live actors were translated into digital characters through a system in which cameras were attached to actors heads via a helmet device that would record the actors every facial movement.  “Instead of going with what people did in the past, [we instituted] e-motion capture,” said Landau.  “Instead of reflective markers, we used an image-based capture in a frame-by-frame basis.  On the visual effects end, it’s intensive.  But we created a paradigm for them to focus on the hard stuff. “

After six months of “e-motion” capture, running from April to September, 2007, the material was compiled by editors Stephen Rivkin and John Refoua, plus Cameron himself, who – as in Titanic – is a credited editor on Avatar, and sent to Weta for assembly onto the creatures, 10-foot tall blue beings called the Na’vi.  “We committed to Weta in January of 2007,” Landau explained.  “In the movie, there will be 3000 visual effects shots (in comparison, Jurassic Park had 50 visual effects shots).”

Certainly, there have been shows that have had more visual effects and are just as challenging as Avatar, but Weta was ideal for this particular project according to Landau.  “[Avatar] is relatively confined,” he said.  “We were limited to studio filming – we created it a whole different way.  Movies are about marriages: one wife is perfect for one relationship.  Looking where Weta wanted to take the direction of the company – image-based facial captures, we turned over templates of sequences where we wanted [facial capture].  They were open to all of this.  We went out to several different companies and spoke to them in great detail.”

During and after the facial-capture process, with Joe Letteri supervising Weta’s work, Cameron and the editorial team stateside would use a sophisticated system of interacting with their New Zealand counterparts.  “We do a live interactive video conference with them where they are viewing one of three streams right from our Avid, or they could see us, or we can see them,” Landau explained. “They are running in sync with that we are running.  Throughout this, we used the Avid as our tool for viewing visual effects.  We can put things into editorial cut sequences with multiple video streams – say take 1, 3 and 5.  We put those all in sync in our Avid.  We called it versioning.”

Of course, Avatar did not only concern computer-generated imagery.  Subsequent to the image-capture portion, Cameron went to New Zealand to soundstages and a backlot in Wellington where Peter Jackson shot scenes from Lord of the Rings and King Kong.  From October 2007 to February 2008, Cameron shot his live actors on sets using parts of the team from Jackson’s film, including Richard Taylor who supervised special props and equipment, plus the team from the late Stan Winston’s studio, who created makeups and mechanical devices.   Of note, Winston’s work with Cameron went back to the original Terminator in 1984.   “The live-action side was all studio-based filming,” Landau confirmed.  “We used that stage for cost reasons and proximity to Weta and craftsmanship – we found great artists.  Richard Taylor built our weapons and tanks.  A very small part of the show was using greenscreen.”

Following physical production in Wellington, Cameron returned to California for several months of virtual cinematography, using a camera that he co-created, where the director could create shots in the digital world of Pandora using any angle he wished.  “In production, we had two different phases – performance capture to get the actors, virtual camera to see what they were doing in the environment,” Landau said.  “We did not spend the time during [performance capture] to do the camera coverage– it was all about the actors.  Then, with our virtual camera, we would do coverage and edit those sequence in a template level.  This was the action of the sequences, performances that Jim wanted, and then Weta would work on those sequences.”

In comparing their last production to this new one, Landau crafted an interested technological analogy.  “When we did Titanic, we turned to existing real-world solutions to raise and lower the ship,” said Landau.  “Here, it felt a little more like NASA felt when Kennedy said ‘we’re going to the moon.’  Our moon is Pandora and we had to figure out how to get there.  I think it’s an evolution, just like when Jim did the pseudopod in The Abyss.

On this movie, we had to come up with terminology.  We visited Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson who are doing TinTin [with some of the same processes used on Avatar] and people are using our terminology.  Hopefully, they will evolve it, and there will be new tools to use.”

Another crucial element of Avatar is the 3D camera system that the production utilized — though in theaters Avatar will screen both in 3D and traditional 2D.  “Hopefully, 3D is the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae,” Landau related. “For us, 3D is about creating a window into a world.  Technology is what enables exhibitors to create high-tech 3D.  Our goal is to have the 3D disappear and not notice it.  We want to create an illusion of a window into a world.   We will only come out in Digital 3D and IMAX 3D.  Technology services stories.  Here, we were able to adapt this technology and apply it to this story.”

Surely, many eyes will be on Cameron as this is his first film in 12 years, and Cameron’s crew is well aware of this though they feel Avatar is a natural step for the director.  “I think Jim is uniquely qualified to make this movie – you had to have a vision to work on this virtual production stage and make camera movement genetic to filmmaking,” Landau said.  “He did not want visual effects to overcome the filmmaking.  Jim himself has the great balance of a technology understanding and story.  He brings that into directing.  He brings that technology to story. He always pushes the envelope and on this one, it pushed back.  It was the most challenging.”

Will Avatar ultimately serve as a new type of filmmaking to which all other directors will strive to achieve?  Landau isn’t concerned.  “I think Jim doesn’t look to set bars,” he said.  “He looks to conquer his own challenges.  He looks for challenges that motivate him.  It’s all about passion.  When you set it high in front of you, you find the passion to achieve what your goals.  The story is first and foremost.  He found a way to utilize technology to tell a story that would not otherwise have been told.”

Well, I was wrong. Her latest endeavor, The Blind Side, didn’t just surprise me, it actually made me tear up a little (if I was a hard-ass, I’d just say I thought it was sick). Based on the true story of current Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle, the story-line manages to grab you emotionally without pushing too hard. The narrative does most of the work, as the true- to-life story unfolds and the characters evolve through the discoveries taught from other teammates. Yes, it comes in a tad long, and some of the football sequences are over-the-top, yet it still manages to keep you engaged throughout the entire film. We begin to delve deeper into the character’s lives as we compare them to our own.

Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), is virtually homeless, and finds himself in a new school district. Oher is spotted on the street by Leigh Ann Touhy (Sandra Bullock) and taken to their home for the night. What becomes a one night refuge, grows into a new member of the family. He is faced with a new set of challenges, playing a game he’s never played before, burdened by his low academic scores. As the family helps Michael realize his full potential, the Touhy’s make some self-discoveries of their own. Sometimes the definition of family is as boundless as our own potential, especially when we choose to broaden our horizons and care more for someone else, than we do ourselves.

Bring a handkerchief, take a date, invite the family, The Blind Side isn’t profound, but it certainly is everything it’s promised to be. It demonstrates the importance in protecting those who would otherwise be helpless, by giving them the chances we take for granted. Always combat whatever challenge comes your way, and turn a blind eye towards those blocking you from your achievements. If you’re lucky, you’ll find someone who always has your back; the most noble way is getting someone else’s first.

Apparently, about an hour and a half of my time…

The story unfolds with four guys hijacking a subway train in Manhattan, led by a simple man of simple needs. Ryder (John Travolta) demands $10 million within an hour, or he’ll start shooting hostages. A plot we’ve rarely seen before– this time it’s on a TRAIN! He’ll deal only with Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) the head of dispatch for the MTA. New York City Mayor (James Gandolfini) gives the green-light for the payoff. As the news hits the wires, the stock market begins tumbling, and before the movie even has a chance to get us enticed with any sort of suspense, we see the events unfold as if we’ve already seen the film before.

The film fires out of the gates like most action films: It combines a rapid score, with even faster cinematography and edgy special effects. It tries to speed up the plot of the film using the camera and the effects, rather than using a deft story line or believable characters. Most action films can get away with this because the characters have something that makes us root for them, or at least engage us with some endearing qualities. Ryder, comes across as a guy that is angry and cusses a lot. Garber is a man that can’t seem to catch a break, and is being put into a tough situation by a man that knows the truth about his history. Even a great performance by Washington can’t salvage a character as plain as Garber. Travolta never gets a chance to ground his character in any sort of reality,  basically coming across as an angry guy with an untold history we end up not caring too much about. The film drags for an hour and a half and doesn’t serve much purpose outside of the fact we get to watch two of our favorite actors perform on the same screen.

Next…

Like all young girls in love, Bella responds to her heartbreak by living wild, endangering herself, and possibly dying young???  And….(as she’d hoped), Edward won’t let her die and always shows up to save her. Then…just like that…he disappears again. Depression begins to set in and to overcome the loneliness, Bella seeks companionship from Jacob, her childhood friend. And can you blame her?

Played by Taylor Lautner, “Jacob’s” Twilight appearance – long flowing hair/Indian native went unnoticed but this go around, with a shorter do, Lautner is up against Pattinson in the eyes of girls gone vampire wild. However, for this girl, (that would be me),  it’s Edward…It’s Robert Pattinson.

With Dakota Fanning joining the crew, New Moon has attracted worldwide attention, minus the few folks dead set on being different. It’s the saga based on Stephanie Meyer’s mentally seductive novel representing a love tale that we all dreamed of having in junior and senior high. Catching the attention of a dark, mystery man that puts, “the most popular jocks” to so much shame, Bella is one lucky leading lady!!

Entering the theater and leaving reality behind by jumping into her shoes, (with open arms, I might add), New Moon is successful in giving us the same dreamy fantasy world we all love to dive into and feel bummed when its over the the credits roll.

Despite New Moon getting negative reviews among critics, let’s keep it real.  What movie with a hot young cast and a lead male role that every woman wants ever get anything BUT  an ultra critical critic review? Think about it. Basing their thumbs down majority vote on a “weakened love story,” that is something left to be seen by the eyes of New Moon’s beholder.

Here at Acted By, we loved it! We loved Twilight. We love New Moon. We even (sort of) love the werewolves that all critics hated…Sure they lacked the look of a “real” werewolf, but…what exactly does a real one look like?

Oh, who really cares. New Moon isn’t about the wolf. For me,  it’s about the vampire that lives to protect me. Ohhh, I meant her.

Hitting theatres this weekend, New Moon is the one to see!

SCREENWRITER: Melissa Rosenberg

DIRECTOR: Chris Weitz

BASED ON THE NOVEL(S) By: Stephenie Meyer

In 2010, Eclipse (already filmed) is next….

I paused, dumbfounded.

“I…I don’t know what to say,” I replied.

“Cause it looks good,” laughed the kid. “Goats. Goats are f**king rad.”

And they are….raitle, the premise, all promise goat-filled hilarity that never quite ensues. That’s not to say the film isn’t well done. George Clooney is superb as Lyn Cassidy, an aging member of the former secret military group the ‘Jedi Warriors,’ which is an actual underground training program that teaches military men how to enhance their psychic abilities through dance, yoga, and meditation. Basically, they are the army’s top-secret hippie sector.

The film alternates between flashbacks of Clooney’s decorated past as the Jedi Warrior’s most talented psychic, and his current mission that has landed him and Ewan McGregor in the middle of the Iraq desert.

Heslov’s direction is subtle and understated, which is juxtaposed nicely with the bizarre subject matter. Jon Ronson’s book of the same title, the basis for the film, is prevalent throughout the story and almost overpowers the action. Fascinating events feature so many different characters, locations and storylines, that Heslov has difficulty creating one seamless, connected tale.

So, what about the goats? When asked if he could stop a goat’s heart simply by staring at it, Lyn Cassidy (Clooney) is surprisingly successful. He carries such guilt about the billy-goat blunder that he sets an entire barn full of army goats free in the desert. To celebrate, Ewan and Jeff Bridges spike the camp’s water supply with a healthy dose of LSD.

Bridges’ transformation from peace-loving psychic solider to debilitated drunkard is truly remarkable. Paired with Clooney’s escapist performance, The Men Who Stare At Goats is an exercise in exemplary acting.

There are no women in this film. There are no. Women. In this film. Like, at all. Ewan McGregor’s wife manages to leave him without ever speaking a line of dialogue. A few female soldiers silently giggle through their LSD trips. Is it worse to have women in crappy, so-and-so’s-girlfriend roles, or not there at all? There are ten billion of us in Hollywood, a few of us are talented and we need to work, Mr. Clooney! (Who also produced).

The story is not a tight little package, isn’t particularly satisfying and raises tons of unanswered questions. Which in theory, is a good thing, but never quite works here. The strange subject matter is admirable, and the fact that a film like this got released in theatres is pretty remarkable. Maybe it’s worth going to see just for that. Maybe.

The Men Who Stare At Goats, based on Jon Ronson’s book, was directed by Grant Heslov, and stars George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. And no chicks.

That cheering sound you hear in the near distance is the sound of millions of Harry Potter fans rejoicing, as David Yates sixth film finally hit theaters. The series has managed to sweep in on millions across the world, but somehow along the way, I managed to miss the boat. I have never read a Harry Potter book nor have I seen any of the movies. Before you denounce me as Professor Snape’s doppleganger, hear me out on this one. For whatever reason, wizards, magic, and old guys with scraggly beards has never really tooted my horn. Before Harry Potter came along, I don’t think any of these things really blew anybody’s hair back. No? Okay. So maybe, I’m just that guy whose late to the party. Does that mean I can’t still come in?

The Harry Potter experience is a little different than your ordinary film. It’s kind of like the Super Bowl in reverse. The movie itself is actually an enjoyable experience, the hoopla of the film, though, I could do without. For instance, most movies don’t draw in a long line that goes around the block. On your average movie going days or nights, you simply walk into the theater and find a seat. With Harry Potter, you don’t just have a line to stand in indefinitely, it goes half a block around the entrance to the actual theatre. That’s just one example. When you finally get into the theater, that’s when you need to look out, or in Dumbledore’s words; “Wands out!” Apparently, the only thing Harry Potter fans enjoy more than J.K. Rowling is Orville Redenbacher. If I wouldn’t have known it, every fan was buying a large popcorn. I just wanted Raisonets. I’m an American. How long should I have to wait? Apparently thirty minutes.

By the time you’ve collected your five dollar box of sugar coated raisons, you have to show the bomb squad waiting outside the theater your ticket stub. If you’re a seasoned Harry Potter movie fan, you have the thing laminated and attached to your hip pocket like a skier getting onto the chair lift. If you’re like me, you’re digging around your pant pocket trying to find the thing while everyone is walking by you like you’re the new kid in school.

Then the movie comes. I was worried that I wasn’t really going to know what was going on in the film since I hadn’t read the books or seen any of the other movies. It turns out I couldn’t have been any more right. I had no idea what was going on. But that doesn’t mean the film isn’t enjoyable. There is a subtlety to the film that creates a very real sense of humor in a world that is driven by the wildest thoughts of the imagination. Yates uses special effects the way they were supposed to be used; An effect to help bring us into the film world, not a distraction to keep us occupied, contrary to the proverbial, big budget action film occupying theaters today. If you’re like me and you aren’t entirely sure how the pieces come together, you can’t help but stare at them and admire how cool they look from anything you’ve ever seen. You don’t need notes on the previous five movies to enjoy Harry Potter, you just need an imagination.

What may be most impressive is the broad spectrum of who the film attracts. It doesn’t exaggerate reality like most children’s stories, nor does it blatantly try to shock you with unrealistic action sequences like today’s “thrillers.” Harry Potter fits in a world that is so creative, we can’t help but become immersed in it, to the point where we blur our idea of what reality means. No matter how old or how young you are, Potter fans all possess the desire to give our imaginations permission to forget about reality for a little bit. And that includes a first-timer like me.

Director Zack Snyder provided visual dynamite in 300, though somewhat less so in Dawn of the Dead, so it is with uncertain expectations that followers of genre awaited Watchmen, the most eagerly anticipated fantasy movie of 2009 until James Cameron finally unveils Avatar. All of the main characters and special makeup effects were realized by Drac Studios, whose co-creative director Greg Cannom just won a makeup Oscar for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, so cineastes also expected fireworks from this film’s visuals.

The celebrated graphic novel of Watchmen first came out in 1986, the same year as Dark Knight, and we know how that film turned out; it is currently the second highest domestic box-office grosser of all time behind Cameron’s Titanic. Back then, DC Comics writer Alan Moore was asked to bring characters from the defunct Charlton comics company into a new DC fold. Moore wrote a multi-chapter epic starring those characters, but it wasn’t accepted because it would mean killing most of them off. Still, Dick Giordano, the main DC editor, liked the story so much that he commissioned Moore to go ahead and do it, just not with the Charlton characters. So Moore wrote the Watchmen, in which at least three of the central characters are modeled after Charlton heroes, but of course Moore’s version of these heroes was much more complicated and darker than anyone at Charlton ever imagined.

As conceived by Moore, Watchmen’s complex world is a universe parallel but somehow different to ours. In this universe, America decisively won the Vietnam War, which it did with the use of its superheroes – most particularly Dr. Manhattan. Since the US won that war, President Richard Nixon went on to multiple terms and is still president into the 1980s, the time of the story. In this alternate world, there have been two generations of superheroes: the first one a group of costumed adventurers and acrobats, some of them out for justice and some simply out for publicity. They came together as a team called the Minutemen in the 1950s. Only 16 when he started, the youngest member of the Minutemen was a brash young guy called the Comedian. As the Minutemen got older and retired, other heroes took their places, most of them after the Vietnam War (only the Comedian and Dr. Manhattan were involved at that point). These new heroes considered working together but never actually did. Only the Comedian continued to operate from the original Minutemen.

However, the mood of the times turned against this second wave of heroes – the Watchmen – as people became suspicious of them, and finally, the government passed a law that forced them to retire. When the story begins, Dr. Manhattan still works for the government, but The Comedian, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre and Ozymandias have retired. Only Rorschach, the most mysterious one of the group, who sometimes worked in partnership with Nite Owl, continues to operate as a superhero in violation of the law, and the police are constantly after him. On top of all that, the United States and Soviet Union are at each other’s throats over a political situation abroad. The entire world is slowly edging toward a sharper Cuban Missile-style crisis.

Such is the setting for Snyder’s film, long rumored to be made into a movie but deemed unfilmable by many in the know. The film’s familiar characters are cleverly realized with a combination of visual effects, makeup effects, careful casting, and measured direction. In fact, aside from Billy Crudup, who is mostly unrecognizable as Dr. Manhattan, and Patrick Wilson, who has starred in some lesser-known roles, most of Watchmen’s cast are relative unknowns. Jackie Earle Haley, the best of these character actors, is behind a mask for most of the film.

Ultimately, Watchmen the movie thoroughly engrosses the typical genre completist who feels little need for traditional storytelling through its lengthy running time in its dark brooding world. One recalls Alex Proyas’ films The Crow and Dark City more so than Tim Burton’s Batman in comparison. The visual pyrotechnics that Snyder displayed in 300 are sometimes in evidence in Watchmen’s several action scenes, often brought to life in super slow-motion, but these moments are not the driving engine of the story. In fact, this film is largely more concerned with character nuances than action.

Despite the intricacies and sporadic fantasy on display, Watchmen is probably going to be best enjoyed by fans of the original graphic novel. It is far from a confusing movie, but, like the recent adaptation of V for Vendetta, is not nearly the accessible material of, say, a Batman or X-Men movie. Fans and superfans will revel in its reported faithfulness to the source material, and Snyder ably brings it to the screen. Should a viewer be on the fence about whether to see this film, one might consider Vendetta and Dark City as precedents in one’s must-see viewing experience meter.

Special thanks to comics historian Carsten Dau for his providing historical context.

And I thought I hated the suburbs.

When the dust settled on World War II, and the great cities that had been proudly erected at the outset of the 20th century started to rapidly decline due to bitter neglect, returning veterans and upwardly mobile professionals left those metropolises for the serenity of planned suburban subdivisions. They sprouted up in such locales as Levittown, New York, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Silver Spring, Maryland, Quincy, Massachusetts, Wheaton, Illinois, and Pasadena, California. What no one counted on was the ascendancy of a newly formed suburban culture onto itself, one with its own distinct dynamics, code of ethics, and preconceived notions of respectability.

Into that fray, enter a couple who hadn’t planned on any of the unpredictable behavioral modes of such unmarked territories: the Wheelers of Connecticut, who have ostensibly left New York for the greener pastures of Revolutionary Road in an unnamed town within a train ride of the city. Not only did these unfulfilled folks not expect any of the new norms to which they ought to have adjusted, they are each simultaneously hitting a premature mid-life crisis in their very early
30s.

Color Leonardo DiCaprio’s Frank as one of the lost souls stranded in his circumstance, a WWII veteran who alludes to but does not extensively comment on a war which silently devastated its returnees. But make no mistake: his wife April – in another effective turn by Kate Winslet – is equally dissatisfied and has hatched a plan that must have a better chance than the retreat to suburbia which has afforded her a life too quiet too soon. Her idea is to move to Paris so that she can work in a secretarial capacity while Frank finds his true calling, whatever that may become. Somewhat intentionally, the Wheeler’s plan is vague at best and called out as such by Frank’s co-workers and their dumbfounded friends, neighbors, and realtor, who seemingly all love 1955 suburbia and find no faults whatsoever with it.

In fact, the only person on the Wheeler’s side, and one who wholly comprehends the inherent emptiness of life in that spot between city and country, is a furloughed mental patient, the realtor’s troubled son brought to the Wheelers’ obviously stable home as a guest so that he may exorcise some of his demons. In that role, Michael Shannon tells the only truths in the entire film, a subversive poke at the belly of the suburbs, while the Wheelers cannot overcome their life circumstances to fully buy into their own plan.

Derailed by unintentional developments at home and in work, the Wheelers are divided in their adoption of the plan and all manners of loud arguments ensue, each spouse voicing equal displeasure with what life has brought them but unable to find common ground in their plight. Should there have been some manner of weaponry introduced, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD’s third act could have transformed it into a horror movie, but in lieu of a gun or knife, the only weapons left on the table are the unsettling choices that the characters make when reconciliation seems impossible. If director Sam Mendes wishes us to identify with anyone in this stagey and wordy film, it might in the end be the character whose padded cell might be a healthy alternative to a house on Revolutionary Road in the period before America’s own cultural revolution.

Nothing quite rings in the holidays like a war story, ripe with high treason and brutal execution. In case you were feeling lonely this winter, Valkyrie does its best to make you feel just a little bit more depressed, retelling the hostile, true story of the attempted murder of the Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler. While we aren’t certain how accurate the historical narrative is, we are certain that the story thrown our way won’t exactly make us reminisce of our childhood memories leaving cookies out for Santa. Valkyrie almost manages to overcome some timing flaws with its Christmas release date, delivering at times a suspenseful drama with some good performances by a talented cast. But in the end, the operation just isn’t enough to keep us longing for more.

A group of German officers, all entrusted within Hitler’s inner circle launch a plot to assassinate Hitler. Attempting to seize power of the military command to end the war, “Operation Valkyrie” is launched to try and save Germany. The emergency plan that was meant to be used in case of a revolt against the Nazi government is now a plot to remove Germany’s Fuhrer. Cruise plays the role of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the man put in charge of the assault to remove Adolph Hitler. The film begins with high ambitions to end the war in order for sacred Germany to emerge from the Germany that Hitler has created. For a film that is based on one of the most historical events in German history, a film that also portrays characters that are meant to be German, oddly enough, no one speaks German throughout the film. For those that may call themselves nitpickers when it comes to the authenticity of a film, there would be your first nit. Cruise’s first line of dialogue is in German, lasting about 15 seconds until it fades into the same dialect he spoke in Days of Thunder. It’s almost as if the film tries to show that Cruise gave German lessons a try for a week, learned a couple of sentences and then kind of gave up. For everyone of us that took piano lessons as a kid and hated it, we can sympathize with Cruise on this one. For all of us that want an authentic world within a film and feel removed from it because the most prominent German speaker in the history of Germany, Adolph Hitler, is speaking the same English that you and I speak today, prepare to feel disappointed.

Valkyrie gives us a brief insight into Cruise’s character’s family life, showing us that he has kids and a beautiful wife, but never really allows us to feel a close enough relationship to where we realize the literal life and death stakes of the mission to overtake Hitler. Again, this is another place where the film falls flat. Valkyrie brings together a great cast of talented actors, all giving believable performances. Despite the strong cast, there’s no solid relationship between characters that draws us in. The film introduces us to the important task of removing Hitler, and installing a sacred Germany, but we never quite understand how bad the lives of the characters are while trying to remove Hitler, nor do we know anything of this sacred Germany of which von Stauffenberg risks his life. The film’s premise is therefore simple: Kill Hitler or be killed. Enough to draw us into the film I suppose, but not diverse enough for our imaginations to have a lot of fun.

The film’s greatest strength is its story line. The Hitler assassination plot wasn’t exactly the first lesson in Ms. Brown’s 5th grade history class. Since many of us probably had no clue about the Hitler assassination plot, its relatively easy for us to get drawn into the fascination of an act to assassinate one of the most infamous figures in World History. Valkyrie does a good job of escorting the plot along, using the literal life and death stakes of the assassination plot, as both the internal and external conflict fueling the characters. A strength of the film is the fact that no character ever feels too big. Tom cruise, despite his persona outside of film, never overacts to steal the spotlight. Tom Wilkinson also gives a strong performance as the leader of the German Army, General Fromm. Fromm must face the complexities of choosing between German allegiance and ethical virtue, a role that personifies many of the characters throughout the film.

Valkyrie is in a difficult position given its odd release timing. While we appreciate the motion to hear the film progress in our native tongue, it loses a lot of credibility by portraying Nazi soldiers with English speakers. For the hardcore war historians that know of the “Valkyrie assassination plot,” the film probably would have been better told in a German world, and this trait alone could ruin the movie. Despite this, Valyrie will appeal to those who find any war story riveting because of the stakes of its outcomes and its impact on the way the world is shaped today. Overall, it’s one movie that will engage those looking for an alternative to Marley and Me, but will fall short of ending up on most people’s Christmas list.

After seeing weeks of previews, I have been dying to see Role Models. Alas, opening weekend came and with a group of friends, I went to go check out yet another wacky comedy written by Ken Marino, David Wain, Paul Rudd, and Timothy Dowling. Having interviewed Marino in the past, I can tell you first-hand that he is such a down to earth, genuinely nice guy! With his close group of fellow artists, they continuously bring us funny flicks like The Ten, Diggers and many, many more…This go around, Paul Rudd plays Danny and Seann William Scott plays Wheeler, two mid-thirties guys who sell green energy drinks to middle to high school students while simultaneously giving an “anti-drug” speech. Wheeler wears a costume, Danny is the speaker and they drive around in a big truck with their logo obnoxiously spelled across the side. On one high school trip, Danny loses it! His girlfriend (played by Elizabeth Banks) dumps him because of his chronic bad attitude-he hates his job, he’s unhappy and he finally flips out, landing both himself and Wheeler in the legal hotseat.

Sentenced to 150 hours of community service at a mentorship program, Danny and Wheeler are forced into becoming a “Big” to a “Little” and that is where their lives begin to change. As I’m sure you’ve all seen on the previews, the star of the movie (in my opinion) is little Ronnie (played by Bobb’e J. Thompson). This kid is a riot! He curses, acts out, throws the race card around loosely, stirs up all kinds of controversy and is straight up, cool. And then…there’s the program’s director (played by Jane Lynch). Taking on the persona of an over-the-top recovering addict, Lynch NAILS this role. If you have ever met an addict who goes to three AA meetings a day, knows the big book by heart, uses “recovery” lines and phrases in everyday conversation, lacks a few chips upstairs and chronically talks about their addiction in an inappropriate way…then you know Lynch’s character. Excellent!

The list of great roles in Role Models goes on and on…Funny, delightful, nutty, and just downright fantastic, Role Models is a must-see!