The Replacements

This is one from the "Can't believe I haven't watched this previously" file. Keanu Reeves is Shane Falco, a former college star quarterback who washed out of football after a disastrous showing in the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State. He and a host of other misfits are recruited to be replacement players when the regular NFL guys go on strike. What follows is a completely paint-by-numbers sports movie that nevertheless remains entertaining throughout. There's the obligatory bar fight, the hot girlfriend, the miracle comebacks, the whole ball of wax. The football scenes themselves are not particularly well-done, consisting entirely of ridiculously over-the-top collisions and tackles, combined with incorrect rules (one scene shows Keanu's team advancing an onside-kick, which you can't do) and stupid timeouts (Keanu's guys call timeout after that on-side kick when the clock would already be stopped), and so on. Still, this is nice light, easy entertainment. Keanu is Keanu for 2 hours, there's some funny moments, a hot girl, and football stuff. Good enough. 6/10.

Smash His Camera

Documentary on famed paparazzi photographer Ron Galella. Galella was a pioneer in his field and made a big name for himself with his photos of Jackie Kennedy. This movie covers much of Galella's early career juxtaposed with scenes of his current work and life. We also get interviews from those that are for/against Galella in general. It's pretty remarkable how famous Galella became for his work (and rich too - he's got quite the palace he lives in). Anyway, this is a mildly interesting, at times disturbing, look into the career of a guy for whom "invasion of privacy" has no meaning. 4/10.

Joe

Nicolas Cage is Joe, a dude with a sketchy past now in charge of a crew that poisons trees on behalf of lumber companies. Gary is the abused 15-year old who shows up at Joe's work site one day looking for a job. Joe puts him to work and he works hard. They develop something of a father figure relationship as we see more of Gary's troubled background - his abusive father, his indifferent mom, etc. And we learn more about Joe too - his penchant for creating trouble for himself for no reason, his frequenting of prostitutes, and so on. The idea here is obviously to be something of a deep, emotional movie leading us to care about the connection between Joe & Gary. It fails in that regard. Instead we're just left with a bunch of seemingly random scenes and a movie that kind of pinballs all over the place. Another disappointment for me. 3/10.

Dead Man Down

Colin Farrell is a gangster. Terence Howard is a gangster boss who apparently has made an enemy and that enemy is picking off his associates. Noomi Rapace is Colin's girlfriend and she blackmails him into killing somebody for her. And...yeah. This a movie that's supposed to be a tense, revenge thriller and it's not. Instead it's a disjointed mess. You'll end up not caring about Farrell's motivations long before he drives his truck into a house without knowing if he'll run over his girlfriend in the process - and then throws a grenade that could blow her up. Good grief. Was expecting so much more from this one. 3/10.

Basic

John Travolta is a DEA agent with a sketchy past brought in to investigate a shooting during training at an army base. If that premise alone doesn't tell you how off-the-rails this movie is, well... let's just say this movie is a mess. There's a shooting and all the people involved tell their story and we learn that there's drug running going on with a doctor and other army folks. And then there's a twist. And another twist. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And soon you just give up. And then we get an ending that makes absolutely no sense and contradicts most of the rest of the movie. This movie sucks. 3/10.