Movie Review: Contraband (2012)

Universal Pictures

Runtime: 109 minutes

Rated: R (for violence, pervasive language, and drug use)

Director: Baltasar Kormákur

Writers: Aaron Guzikowski, Arnaldur Indriðason

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Beckinsale

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

In Contraband, “Chris Farraday” (Mark Wahlberg) is a retired top-level smuggler who has put away playing the dangerous game for a life with a wife (Kate Beckinsale) and two kids. His brother-in-law, “Andy” (Caleb Landry Jones) who used to roll with him in those more fun and

2011's Top 15 Best Films Round-up

2011 wasn't really a superb year for heart-stopping movies. We were entertained, made to cry and laugh, but we weren't shaken until dizzy from a dazzling array of cinema like we were in the last several years. C- seems to be the most common grade of the year, but we did have some jewels that stood out. Maybe some of your favorites made it here, or maybe they didn't. But good, bad, or indifferent, they break down like so...

2011's Top 15 Worst Films Round-up

No year gets off without its share of stinker flicks...the bad, the really bad, and the ugly, those films that should never have seen the light of day. And while 2011 proved to be a year of average to lesser-than average films, it didn't have too many really big bombs. But the sad truth is that bad films do too often see the light of day, and at the cost of money paid for the tickets. 

So, in the spirit of trying to get that money back, we again pass out the awards for those works of suckitude unequalled in a 365-day period.

Searching meticulously, the list finally came together. We begin the countdown with...

Drive-Thru Review 2011 (August - December)

And finally, we bring 2011 to a welcomed close with the last of the fly-by reviews...

Warrior
Grade: C- (2 stars)
Rated: PG-13 (for sequences of intense mixed martial arts fighting, some language, and thematic material)

Warrior stars Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy, two brothers who wind up renowned fighters going head to head in mixed martial arts. Their father, “Paddy” (Nick Nolte) is an alcoholic ex-fighter who is approached by his estranged son, “Tom” (Hardy) about being trained in the sport.

Movie Review: A Separation (2011)

Sony Pictures

Runtime: 123 minutes

Rated: PG-13 (for mature thematic material)

Director: Asghar Farhadi

Writers: Asghar Farhadi

Starring: Peyman Moadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat

Drama

Directed by Asghar Sarhadi, A Separation is about an Iranian husband and wife seeking a divorce because the husband, “Nader” (Peyman Moaadi) wants to stay in Iran to care for his aged father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi) who has succumbed to Alzheimer’s Disease while wife

Movie Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Runtime: 158 minutes

Rated: R (for violent content, including rape and torture, strong sexuality, nudity, violence, strong language)

Director: David Fincher

Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard

Drama | Crime | Mystery

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes to us as the first of a Swedish novel series, but before that, it came from the gutter of one man’s regret.

Late creator Stieg Larsson shared that having once witnessed the rape of a young girl named Lisbeth, his lifelong regret has been not trying to stop it. The result of that regret has culminated in a three-part novel series called Millennium and a number of movies based on it