Matthew Liedke

Haywire review

Director:
Steven Soderbergh
Cast:
Gina Carano
Channing Tatum
Michael Angarano
Michael Douglas
Antonio Banderas
Ewan McGregor
Rated: R

It was almost surprising not seeing Angelina Jolie in this.

“Haywire” is the latest film from director Steven Soderbergh, it follows the character Mallory (Carano), a spy for hire who is on the run after being betrayed by the company she works for, in particular, her boss Kenneth (McGregor). Because of this she is forced to leave a small diner abruptly with a young man by the name of Scott (Angarano). During their get away she begins to go into flashbacks about how her life got turned upside down.

The first hour of the film is devoted to telling the flashbacks where the second half goes into how she will try to set the record straight. During this time she continues to be hunted and has to be careful and watch her step.

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The Iron Lady review

Director:
Phyllida Lloyd
Cast:
Meryl Streep
Jim Broadbent
Alexandra Roach
Rated: PG-13

I wonder if this film was made because Meryl Streep made a call saying she wanted another Oscar.

The Iron Lady follows the life of Margaret Thatcher in her later years after her time as Prime Minister of England. The focus was on her dealing with loss of her husband and wanting to still be the strong woman that led England through the 80s.

As the film goes on, it has many flashbacks to her as a young woman getting into politics to eventually running to be the Prime Minister. It then shows times of her running the country including many moments including the good, the bad and the ugly.

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Top 10 Movies of 2011

1. Midnight in Paris
2. The Artist
3. The Descendants
4. Drive
5. The Ides of March
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
7. Martha Marcy May Marlene
8. Crazy Stupid Love
9. 50/50
10. The Lincoln Lawyer

Honorable Mentions:
Warrior
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Super 8
X-Men First Class
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Kung Fu Panda 2

The Artist review

Director:
Stephen Daldry
Cast:
Jean Dujardin
Berenice Bejo
John Goodman
James Cromwell
Rated: PG-13

This film, takes audiences back to the 1920s in every way possible. Not only is the story told about an actor in this time period, it’s also shot and stylized the exact way that a silent film would be in that time. The film follows George Valentin (Dujardin), a major actor with great success in the silent era of film-making.

Things take a turn for his career, though, as films with sound begin to be released and new movie stars, including a beautiful girl he once worked with, Pepper Miller (Bejo), take the spotlight away. This starts a downward spiral for not only Valentin’s career, but his life in general.

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Contraband review

Director:
Baltasr Komakur
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg
Ben Foster
Kate Beckinsale
Giovanni Ribisi
Caleb Landry Jones
Rated: R

Maybe the main character in this story was cousins with Wahlberg’s character in “The Italian Job.”

The story of Contraband follows the character Chris Farraday (Wahlberg), a former smuggler who has now turned to making an honest living and having a family.

Unfortunately, his younger brother-in-law Andy (Jones) didn’t quite get the message and decides to try smuggling himself, this goes wrong though as Customs catches him in the act and he has to get rid of the drugs he was bringing across.

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The Devil Inside review

Director:
William Brent Bell
Cast:
Feranda Andrade
Simon Quarterman
Evan Helmunth
Ionut Grama
Suzan Crowley
Rated: R

Oh goody, another exorcism movie, and even better, it’s found footage.

“The Devil Inside” tells the story of Isabella (Andrade), a young woman who has come to the Italy to see her mother. When Isabella was a young girl her mother Maria (Crowley) killed three people who were trying to perform an exorcism, after the event Maria was taken to a hospital near the Vatican.

Because of the mystery surrounding the event, Isabella has a documentary filmmaker named Ben (Quarterman) go along to capture footage. During their time in Italy, they meet two young priests who do a type of vigilante exorcism service, unfortunately they don’t have a Commissioner Gordan at the Vatican. At any rate, the two priests become interested in Isabella’s story and decide to see if Maria’s possession is real or not.

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My Week with Marilyn review

Director:
Simon Curtis
Cast:
Michelle Williams
Eddie Redmayne
Kenneth Branagh
Rated: R

My Week with Marilyn follows the story of a young man named Colin (Redmayne). Colin is a major fan of the movies living in the 50s. His dream is to work on the set of major productions and he finally gets his chance when he gets to work for Sir Laurence Olivier (Branagh) for the film “The Prince and the Showgirl.”

The film is to star Oliver as well as the majorly famous Marilyn Monroe (Williams). However, upon her arrival to the production, Oliver finds Monroe very hard to work with. Tensions flare up and make the film hard to make at times, because of this, Colin tries to help calm things down with Marilyn who just happens to be one of his favorite on-screen performers. During this time he has a bit of an affair with the legendary actress.

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We Bought a Zoo review

Director:
Cameron Crowe
Cast:
Matt Damon
Scarlett Johansson
Thomas Haden Church
Colin Ford
Elle Fanning
Rated: PG

Out of all the investments a person can make…

We Bought a Zoo follows the true story of Benjamin Mee (Damon), a man who is trying to cope with the loss of his wife and still trying to raise his kids right. He finds this difficult to do though since every place in the town he lives in reminds him of his wife. To deal with this he decides to take a leap of faith and buy a new house which happens to be a zoo.

Benjamin and his two kids soon learn that the zoo is in bad shape. Most of the facilities are not up to regulation standards and the zoo has a chance of being shut down. So Benjamin decides to make the best of the situation and roll up his sleeves and work together with the head zoo keeper Kelly (Johansson) to keep the place open, during this time, he also has to reconnect with his son.

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Young Adult review

Director:
Jason Reitman
Cast:
Charlize Theron
Patton Oswalt
Patrick Wilson
Rated: R

For the record, I’ve never called Minneapolis the “MinnyApple.”

Young Adult is the latest film from “Up in the Air” director Jason Reitman. The movie follows Mavis Gary (Theron), a book writer living in Minneapolis who has had most of her success from writing teen novels. However she is unhappy with her life and has become a heavy drinker.

Upon being updated on an old high school romance, Mavis decides to go back to her small home town and try to reconnect with her old boyfriend even though he is married. During her time there she meets up with some of the other people from the town and learns what other people have done with their lives.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo review

Director:
David Fincher
Cast:
Daniel Craig
Rooney Mara
Christopher Plummer
Stellan Skarsgard
Rated: R

James Bond was able to relax a little, working on a case without a super villain and all.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the American adaption of a popular book series. The film follows the character Mikael (Craig), a disgraced journalist who was accused and found guilty of writing false accusations against a wealthy CEO type. Because his investigative reporting skills are not in high demand in the news business, he is then hired by an old rich man who would like Mikael to research and find new evidence on a cold case that holds many secrets for the wealthy family.

Meanwhile, a poor yet brilliant woman named Lisbeth (Mara) who helped the CEO with his case against Mikael eventually starts to help Mikael on the case. Together the two begin to find clues and more and more mysteries begin to unravel about what really happened behind the scenes with the wealthy family.

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