MOVIE REVIEW: American Hustle

Set in the late 1970's- early 80's and loosely based on the Abscam scandal wherein con artists and FBI

agents joined forces to bring down corrupt politicians, American Hustle is a crime film in which from the first scene where Christian Bale's character con artist Irving Rosenfeld was trying to fix his balding hair with a nasty comb over, you know that this would be different from any real life crime film set in the 70's. Director David O. Russell's wisely set up the film as a comedy that well matches the bad hairdos and outlandish outfits from that era.

With a cast that came from his last two films (all of them got Oscar nods for it as well as 2 wins): Bale and Amy Adams from The Fighter, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from Silver Linings Playbook plus Jeremy Renner, they never disappointed and all of them had excellent chemistry for it shows that they had fun doing the film. The ensemble is reminiscent of the great Robert Altman films that also echoes Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights.

Rosenfeld found his match with Amy Adams' character: a fellow con-artist with different names and accents, you really don't know who she is. After being caught by Bradley Cooper's ambitious yet impatient FBI agent Richie DiMaso, the three join forces to bring down a New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who may or not be corrupt. Jennifer Lawrence after her Oscar winning turn in Russell's Silver Linings Playbook, continues to surprise us with a role that's far beyond her age. As Rosenfeld's neglected wife Roselyn, she brings despair and kookiness to it. Her kitchen scenes with Bale stands out.

For two hours and nine minutes, American Hustle is an intelligent film that shows that in crime, there's also comedy.

MOVIE REVIEW: Captain Phillips

Tom Hanks is perfectly cast as Captain Richard Phillips, who is 2009 was the skipper of the US flagged MV Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked by Somali Pirates along their country's coastline. As one of the most recognized and loved actors in the world, you will feel nothing but sympathy for Hanks character as to how he and his crew were able to survive the ordeal of having pirates take over your ship. 

But the best thing about the movie was that you too will comprehend the plight of the Somalis, who due to the desperate economic situation in their country, are forced to join groups that take hostage ships passing thru its shore and steal valuable cargo from it. From their gaunt built and dark color, the Somali pirates, who are all first time actors, could end up as mere caricature of a villain. Fortunately, the ever reliable director Paul Greengass (United 93 and The Bourne Ultimatum) aided by a tight script by Billy Ray (The Hunger Games and State of Play) makes you ask the question: What has the government of Somalia done for it's people to them to resort to piracy? It will also make you aware that there is more to the typical news reports than what we had heard before about them.

Playing the pirates de facto chief Muse, Barkhad Abdi stands out among the Somali actors in the film. His performance is remarkable given the fact that this is only first film. Abdi as Muse held his own against Hanks and not since Gary Sinise in Forrest Gump has an actor accomplished the feat. A supporting actor Oscar nomination is a possibility. 

Captain Phillips is Tom Hanks best film as a lead actor since Cast Away. It is also notches above Paul Greengass last film that he directed,, the way too complex yet muddled Green Zone and a star is born in the person of Barkhad Abdi.

MOVIE REVIEW: Gravity

Images of astronauts in space always gives us a sense of awe and wonder. Working literally on top of us with the greatest view of our planet as their background. What if there was imminent danger to their line of work? The movie Gravity shows that in the most beautiful yet terrifying way.

On her first mission to space, mechanical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) installs a new system on the Hubble Telescope. Her cocky yet suave mission commander Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) is right by her side. Totally in command, Kowalski is in constantly comunication with Mission Control (voiced by Ed Harris in a fitting homage to Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff) and cracking up jokes at work to ease the complex job that they are doing.

When there was imminent danger up ahead, it's up to them to figure out how to survive and director Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Y Tu Mama Tambien) does compress a great tale of survival in a place that we know little of  in 90 minutes.

Gravity is Sandra Bullock's film from start to finish and she does what only a few actors have ever accomplished: she gave a performance that complimented the visual effects in the film. She is on her way to her second Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Gravity is well worth your hard-earned money to see and experience on the big screen one of 2013's best films. Better yet go see it in 3D and even on IMAX to fully appreciate this great film.

MOVIE REVIEW: Fruitvale Station

The title of the film comes from the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Station in Oakland where on the early morning of New Years Day 2009, Oscar Grant, a 22 year old was shot and later died after allegedly resisting arrest after an altercation inside the train coming from San Francisco where he and his friends celebrated the New Year. Witnesses were able to document the incident by their cellphone cameras and other recording devices. The film focuses on the last hours before the shooting and it begins with one of the eyewitness video that was uploaded online.

Running in only an hour and 24 minutes and using a handheld camera most of the time, Ryan Coogler delivers the goods in his full length directorial debut that echoes another young African-African first film, John Singleton, who in 1991 directed the groundbreaking Oscar nominated Boyz n The Hood. The film  does not waste its time on unnecessary dramatics and goes straight to the point. Michael B. Jordan in a star making turn humanizes Oscar Grant. He is not a saint, has flaws and a bit thuggish often times. The good thing though is that the film showed through Jordan's breakthrough performance is that he tries to straighten up his life in a harsh world that he's in. Regardless of what kind of a person he was, Grant did not deserve to die that way. Melonie Diaz as Grant's girlfriend Sophina and Ariana Neal who portrays their daughter Tatiana gave sympathetic performances to counter Grant's perception of some people to him. Fruitvale Station showed Oscar Grant to be a loving family man and would do anything for them.

Academy Award Winner Octavia Spencer as Grant's mother Wanda proved that her Oscar winning turn in The Help wasn't a fluke. She is one mom who is fed up with all the petty things his son but the unconditional love shows.

Fruitvale Station is a hard movie to watch for we know what happens, but it is also a feel-good one for it shows that Oscar Grant was loved by his family and friends.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Conjuring

We go to the movies to be entertained and it's a bonus if it's from a true story, well made and you learn something. new. Based on a little known incident in Rhode Island during the early 70's, The Conjuring has all those qualities that I mentioned and it's quite a surprise that it comes from the guy who directed the now infamous first\ Saw movie: James Wan.

Set in the early seventies with some flashblacks, The Conjuring featured noted New England husband and wife demonologists who first gained prominence in the Amityville New York incident Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) who after a talk in some university were asked by Carolyn Perron (Lili Taylor) to check out her house she and her family moved  in Rhode Island after some restless spirit continues to bother her family there. Together with Carolyn's husband Roger (Ron Livingston) and their five daughters, what they have encountered is something extraordinarily demonic.

Without the use of special effects, The Conjuring is a throwback to the classic horror movies that rely on sound, motion and the use of camera angles. It all worked well. The use of the gadgets in those era to capture an image of the spirits inside the house is well thought off and the soundtrack, production design and soundtrack does evoke that era. The bureaucracy of the Roman Catholic Church on exorcism cases which is a hassle for it takes so long before a priest can perform on a possessed being is also mentioned in the film. The ensemble cast also have excellent rapport with Oscar nominee Farmiga as the standout. Her Lorraine is restrained yet she shows dignified strength in moments she sees which we most fear. It is arguably an award worthy performance.

This is James Wan's best film so far and it's very gratifying for us avid moviegoers that from Saw to Insidious (which some people I know say that it's the scariest movie that they have ever seen) , he was able to evolve as a filmmaker and now The Conjuring, his masterpiece. He has found his niche in the horror genre and I hope that award giving bodies will notice his talent. It is one of 2013's best movies and it joins the ranks of The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror and The Sixth Sense as the greatest horror/suspense films released during the US summer season.

MOVIE REVIEW: Pacific Rim

When a channel opens underneath the Pacific Ocean that serves as a passageway for the Kaijus (strange beasts) from another dimension to wreck havoc on surrounding cities around it, mankind has no recourse but to create Jaegers (hunters) - robots almost the same size as the Kaijus to protect the planet from total apocalypse.

Pacific Rim is director Guillermo del Toro's love letter to those Japanese monsters movies and as he proved in his Oscar winning Pan's Labyrinth, he knows his mystical creatures. The film has the 50's-60's monster/alien invasion B-movie vibe while making very good use of  3D technology. This is the first film since Avatar that is worth the price of it.

Since the film mostly focuses on the battle between the two gigantic creatures, cities with skyscrapers are virtually destroyed. It is heartwarming for a movie fan like me to have two of the cities I love prominently featured in the film: San Francisco and Manila. Both were destroyed in the film but hey Manila in a science-fiction robot-monster movie? Only in our dreams before, but Guillermo del Toro fulfilled it. We have seen those scenes before in Michael Bay's Transformers films and most recently in The Man of Steel, but it is better executed in Pacific Rim and not as tedious to watch in the previous movies that I mentioned. Michael Bay can learn a thing or two on how to make the perfect summer blockbuster and he can start by watching this film. The lead role of Jaeger operator Raleigh Becket is played by British actor Charlie Hunnam (2002's  Nicholas Nickelby and TV's Queer as Folk) and he has great chemistry with the prominent names of the cast members such as Idris Elba, Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) and Charlie Day (TV's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Ron Perlman (Del Toro's Hellboy) also has a prominent supporting role. 

Pacific Rim is so far the pleasant surprise in the summer movie season of 2013 dominated by the comic book franchises. A visual treat that has a story too!!

MOVIE REVIEW: World War Z

Loosely based on the book by Max Brooks (son of comic great Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft), World War Z is from my memory, the first zombie film that treats the undead as victims from a global plague like it was some sort of a disease. TV's The Walking Dead, Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and the 2004 movie remake of Dawn of the Dead - were arguably the best ones among the zombie genre in recent years, then mix it up with plague films like 1995's Outbreak and 2011's Contagion. The result is one highly entertaining summer blockbuster that despite its deviation from the original source, the effort and labor of love of actor/producer Brad Pitt, director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Quantum of Solace and Monster's Ball) and their crew with all those rewrites and reshoots did not go to waste.

United Nations worker/troubleshooter Gerry Lane (Pitt) has the unenviable task of saving the world from a global pandemic that turns people into zombies at a fast rate!! From virtually wiping out the population of the eastern United States (Philadelphia, Newark, New York, D.C) to horror at a US military base in Korea, a Lord of the Rings like invasion scene in Jerusalem and a tight suspense filled climax at all places Cardiff, Wales. World War Z delivers the goods. It also helped that Brad Pitt is the only recognizable star in the film so the concentration and empathy of the audience is with him being a loving family man to his wife Karin (Marielle Enos) and their two daughters Constance and Rachel (Sterling Jerins and Abigail Hargrove) and in real life, the world's most famous father to his and partner Angelina Jolie's six kids.

I saw the film in 3D and I say that it was more of a distraction watching it with an extra pair of glasses in the cinema.Good old regular 2D is okay with the film.

MOVIE REVIEW: Fast and Furious 6

One of the unexpectedly successful movie franchises in recent years now veers towards James Bond and The Dark Knight territory in Fast and Furious 6. What used to be a series about car racing, now also includes gadgetry and some world domination minded villains thanks in part to the film before it, 2011's Fast Five, easily the best in the series which reignited the already fading movie franchise and became both a critical and a box office success - the highest grossing one so far.

After Five's Brazil, the gang led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Ryan O'Conner (Paul Walker) already lead luxurious lives and go around the world using the money they got from the previous film's villain, except in the US where all of them would be put behind bars. They are asked by their erstwhile adversary Federal Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to help track down a British mercenary (Luke Evans) who led a terrorist incident in Russia. How some stunt drivers were able to stop a madman is absolutely ridiculous in every sense in the world, but amazingly director Justin Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan delivers the good in the sixth installment of the series. 

Some of the favorites from the other films are also back such as Han (Sung Kang), Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and as fans of the series know, at the end of Fast Five, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), whose character was killed in a previous film, amazingly comes back with a twist of her role. Haywire's Gina Carano is the newest member of the cast playing an agent alongside Hobbs.

London is a more subdued setting compared to the much colorful and sunnier Brazil in Fast Five, but there is a James Bond vibe into it. The climax in Spain is one action sequence well done but one would wonder how long is the runway when the crew tried to take down a cargo plane where the villains were. One must just suspend it's disbelief when you think about it.

Highly entertaining, Fast and Furious is a well made follow-up to the best film in the series, and after the end credits sets up a well-made epilogue featuring the newest member of the series, to the seventh installment of Universal Pictures money making franchise.

OFFICIAL TRAILER: August: Osage County

Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts team up for the first time in the film version based on the Broadway play by Tracy Letts. Looks like an Oscar contender to me.

MOVIE REVIEW: Iron Man 3

After The Avengers exceeded expectations last year and became both a critical and commercial success, most were wondering, if Marvel can top that off, well, Iron Man 3 can't match the starpower of all the superheroes combined, but it is one entertaining comic book film and is way much better than the second installment of the Robert Downey Jr.led series.

Tony Stark (Downey)'s flashiness is no match for his latest nemesis The Mandarin played by Ben Kingsley. By disrupting TV and cable signals by sending his message across the world through some well made video presentations, The Mandarin is part Osama Bin Laden part Vegas Showman. Characters added to the film such as Aldrich Killian played by Guy Pearce and Stark's former flame Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) provide some connections from Stark's past that would set the tone for the rest of the film. 

The two allies of our lead superhero Col. James Rhodes aka War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow)'s lives would also be in danger due to some of the new villain's enhancement and the way in which Iron Man saves the day made the film such a treat to watch.

The ensemble cast is excellent. There's no doubt that Robert Downey Jr. was born to play Tony Stark. Paltrow's real life healthy lifestyle is also played well here in the filmand the great Oscar winning Ben Kingsley is perfection as The Mandarin. 

The only minor thing about Iron Man 3 is that right on the heels of The Avengers movie, some of the other superheroes should have made an appearance here and not just after the end credits. Putting that aside, the film is entertaining, engaging and because of that, I'm eagerly waiting for Tony Stark's fourth installment.

MOVIE REVIEW: G.I. Joe: Retaliation

How do you make a follow up to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra a worldwide box office hit but reviled by critics and fanboys alike. Simple: add in some star power in the cast (Bruce Willis), someone who can reinvigorate a stale franchise (Dwayne Johnson who as one of the cast members of Fast Five, made the fifth installment of The Fast and The Furious series the best of them all), get a younger director (34 year old Jon M. Chu of the Step Up 2 and 3D) and add more ninjas. G.I Joe Retaliation got them all!

The premise is nothing new - someone wants to rule the world by destroying it to gain power and it's up to  the G.I Joe team to save it even though the President of the United States (Jonathan Pryce) unexpectedly terminated their service after being framed by the usual suspects (Cobra Commander, Zartan and Firefly). Channing Tatum as Duke has more better chemistry with the new cast members. Willis and Johnson are at their usual selves when acting on an action flick and Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow was better utilized in this film rather than in the first. Some scenes are also fun to watch, the meeting of world leaders for one was inspired. It even puts North Korea in an unexpected good light.

The movie is beautifully shot too and some scenes were greatly executed that serves it's purpose in watching it in IMAX and/or in 3D but unless you're a die core fan, it's fine to watch the film in the regular format.

There's nothing groundbreaking about G.I. Joe Retaliation but it is entertaining and it is way better than it's predecessor and the other sequel based on another of Hasbro's toys: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

MOVIE REVIEW: Mama

Fresh from her Oscar nomination and Golden Globe Best Actress win for Zero Dark Thirty, Jessica Chastain is turning out to be both the new Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett  in Mama with a role that is a complete opposite of her award winning turn in the Kathryn Bigelow real-life action thriller.

She plays Annabel, the rocker chick girlfriend of Lucas played by Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau whose 2 nieces Victoria and Lilly were discovered in a cabin in the woods five years after a financial turmoil that led their father Jeffrey also played by Coster-Waldau to shoot and kill their mother and run off to the woods to also kill them as well. They miraculously survived in such rugged and harsh conditions and as the kids went to live with their Uncle after the court granted custody, the paranormal guardian "Mama" came along as well and that's where the fun part begins.

Executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), his signature touches are abundant in the movie and therefore it is one beautifully shot horror movie, very rare for the genre. Be wary though, Mama is still a horror movie so if you have kids, most especially daughters, the film will give you nightmares.

The performance of Chastain elevates the movie more. Her Annabel character sees a transformation in the film, from a satisfied girlfriend after finding out that she's negative on a home pregnancy test to a mother figure for her boyfriend's two nieces. After Cate Blanchett, she's the only actress I know of from my generation who can easily sink into a role and she does it well. If she is the main reason that you wanna watch Mama then you won't be disappointed.

MOVIE REVIEW: Broken City

Whether you're in public office or in the police force, Broken City is an action-thriller that shows survival, by all means possible on a job that requires the public trust. On that premise alone, the film directed by Allen Hughes (The Book of Eli), delivers with a solid cast led by Mark Wahlberg as Billy Taggart, an ex NYPD cop, who after being involved in a questionable shooting incident a few years back, turns into a private detective hired by the fictional Mayor of New York City 

Nicholas Hostetler played by Russell Crowe, to investigate his wife Cathleen's (Catherine Zeta-Jones) infidelity and Taggart finds out that there's more to that.

Mostly set on the days before the city's mayoral election, Broken City effectively shows the dirty politics both on the stage and behind the scenes. After Les Miserables, Crowe is on a streak playing villainous characters and he's way better here playing the corrupt mayor than the Inspector Javert even though LesMis earned 8 Oscar nominations.

Mark Wahlberg plays the usual variation of a Mark Wahlberg character in most of his similarly themed films (We Own The Night, Four Brothers, Shooter and Contraband) all come to mind but nevertheless he and Crowe have chemistry together in the film.

Zeta-Jones brings out the right glamour and beauty as New York City's first lady but she is underutilized in the film but the one who comes up with the best performance in the film is Jeffrey Wright as the police commissioner. He is the conscience of the film.

Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan), Kyle Chandler (Zero Dark Thirty), Alona Tal (TV's Supernatural) and Natalie Martinez  (End of Watch) round up the supporting cast of Broken City.

VIDEO: Announcement of the 85th Academy Awards nominees.

The most entertaining announcement ever. Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone were funny!! Can't wait to watch MacFarlane host the actual show on the 24th of February.

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) List of Nominees for 2012

The complete list of nominees for the 2012 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to be presented on February 10, 2013 in London. 

BEST FILM

• ARGO
• LES MISÉRABLES 
• LIFE OF PI 
• LINCOLN 
• ZERO DARK THIRTY 

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

• ANNA KARENINA
• THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL                                                  
• LES MISERABLES
• SEVEN PSYCHOPAT
• SKYFALL 

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

• BART LAYTON (Director), DIMITRI DOGANIS (Producer) The Imposter
• DAVID MORRIS (Director), JACQUI MORRIS (Director/Producer) McCullin
• DEXTER FLETCHER (Director/Writer), DANNY KING (Writer) Wild Bill
• JAMES BOBIN (Director) The Muppets
• TINA GHARAVI (Director/Writer) I Am Nasrine

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• AMOUR 
• HEADHUNTERS 
• THE HUNT 
• RUST AND BONE 
• UNTOUCHABLE 

DOCUMENTARY

• THE IMPOSTER 
• MARLEY 
• McCULLIN 
• SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN 
• WEST OF MEMPHIS 

ANIMATED FILM

• BRAVE 
• FRANKENWEENIE 
• PARANORMAN 

DIRECTOR

• AMOUR Michael Haneke
• ARGO Ben Affleck
• DJANGO UNCHAINED Quentin Tarantino
• LIFE OF PI Ang Lee
• ZERO DARK THIRTY Kathryn Bigelow

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• AMOUR Michael Haneke
• DJANGO UNCHAINED Quentin Tarantino
• THE MASTER Paul Thomas Anderson
• MOONRISE KINGDOM Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
• ZERO DARK THIRTY Mark Boal

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• ARGO Chris Terrio
• BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin
• LIFE OF PI David Magee
• LINCOLN Tony Kushner
• SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK David O. Russell

LEADING ACTOR

• BEN AFFLECK Argo
• BRADLEY COOPER Silver Linings Playbook
• DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Lincoln
• HUGH JACKMAN Les Misérables
• JOAQUIN PHOENIX The Master

LEADING ACTRESS

• EMMANUELLE RIVA Amour
• HELEN MIRREN Hitchcock
• JENNIFER LAWRENCE Silver Linings Playbook
• JESSICA CHASTAIN Zero Dark Thirty
• MARION COTILLARD Rust and Bone

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• ALAN ARKIN Argo
• CHRISTOPH WALTZ Django Unchained
• JAVIER BARDEM Skyfall
• PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN The Master
• TOMMY LEE JONES Lincoln

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• AMY ADAMS The Master
• ANNE HATHAWAY Les Misérables
• HELEN HUNT The Sessions
• JUDI DENCH Skyfall
• SALLY FIELD Lincoln

ORIGINAL MUSIC

• ANNA KARENINA 
• ARGO 
• LIFE OF PI
• LINCOLN
• SKYFALL 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• ANNA KARENINA 
• LES MISÉRABLES 
• LIFE OF PI 
• LINCOLN 
• SKYFALL

EDITING

• ARGO 
• DJANGO UNCHAINED 
• LIFE OF PI 
• SKYFALL 
• ZERO DARK THIRTY 

PRODUCTION DESIGN

• ANNA KARENINA 
• LES MISÉRABLES 
• LIFE OF PI 
• LINCOLN 
• SKYFALL 

COSTUME DESIGN

• ANNA KARENINA 
• GREAT EXPECTATIONS 
• LES MISÉRABLES 
• LINCOLN 
• SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN 

MAKE UP & HAIR

• ANNA KARENINA 
• HITCHCOCK 
• THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY 
• LES MISÉRABLES 
• LINCOLN 

SOUND

• DJANGO UNCHAINED 
• THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY 
• LES MISÉRABLES 
• LIFE OF PI 
• SKYFALL 

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

• THE DARK KNIGHT RISES 
• THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY 
• LIFE OF PI 
• MARVEL AVENGERS ASSEMBLE 
• PROMETHEUS 

SHORT ANIMATION

• HERE TO FALL 
• I’M FINE THANKS 
• THE MAKING OF LONGBIRD 

SHORT FILM

• THE CURSE 
• GOOD NIGHT 
• SWIMMER 
• TUMULT 
• THE VOORMAN PROBLEM 

THE RISING STAR AWARD 

• ELIZABETH OLSEN
• ANDREA RISEBOROUGH
• SURAJ SHARMA
• JUNO TEMPLE
• ALICIA VIKANDER

MOVIE REVIEW: Gangster Squad

1949 Los Angeles is the setting for Gangster Squad, inspired by the true story of how boxer turned mob boss Mickey Cohen played by Sean Penn tried to control the City of Angels through his drug dens, brothels and casinos  by paying off judges, police officers and even the media.

LAPD Chief of Police Parker (Nick Nolte) thinks the only way to stop the total control of Cohen's underground crime empire is to put up a group to destroy it. Led by WWII Vet Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), he recruited a team of non-corrupt LAPD men with the help of his pregnant wife Connie (Mirreille Enos) that includes ladies man Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), whiz Officer Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi), sharpshooter Officer Kennan (Robert Patrick), street smart (Anthony Mackie) and a last minute addition (Michael Pena, who seems to be monopolizing the Hispanic LAPD police officer whether in current time (End of Watch) and this movie's post war era).

Sean Penn is effortless as well as enjoying his showy villainy role  as Cohen and Brolin plays in straight as the team of the team. Gosling brought his roles in Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Ides of March into this era and it works as well. Emma Stone is lovely to look at as Cohen's muse who falls in love with Gosling's officer character but she's a bit underutilized in the film.
Taking a break from directing comedies, most notable is the brilliant Zombieland, Ruben Fleischer loves to play with the camera with modern touches such as slo-mo, freeze frame and stylish editing that can easily be converted to the 3D if they wanted to (Thankfully, they did not).
Gangster Squad is not as brilliant and complex as LA Confidential but it is a fun and entertaining thrill ride in an era in which Hollywood could have been ruled by the mob the same way that Vegas did in that time. 

MOVIE REVIEW: Django Unchained

After his own interpretation of Nazi Europe in 2009's highly entertaining Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino is back at the director's chair with Django Unchained, his own version for the good old Spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone mixed with some African-American Slavery issues in the 19th Century Southern United States.

Jamie Foxx plays the titular character, a slave who gets rescued by a German dentist Dr. King Schultz played by Christoph Waltz who also is a bounty hunter. As they are chasing for some murderous brothers, Django is solely focused on one thing, finding his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) whom he lost in the slave trade. Leonardo DiCaprio portrays the ruthless landowner Calvin Candie who owns Broomhilda.

As with other Tarantino movies, Django boasts of smart writing  (the white mask and the skull scenes comes to mind) beneath the excessive and flashy B-Movie like violence and gore. Waltz who won the Supporting Actor Oscar in 2009 for his marvelous portrayal of Nazi officer Hans Landa in Basterds looks destined to nab his second nomination in the same category for this film. All in all, he gives the best performance in the movie and it also helps that he is the heart of soul of it.  Foxx and Washington, in their second team-up of a married couple after 2004's Ray have chemistry together and you can feel their pain for all their trials in that cruel era of American history.

DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson are both cast against type and they also succeed. Also look out for some cameos from celebrities in the film.

Great action, witty script and a love story hidden underneath all that gore makes Django Unchained Tarantino's most heartfelt film. This is clearly one of 2012's best films!!