Movies: James Bond Fights Nazis and Celebrates a Bloody Valentine
By Erik Samdahl
The onslaught of movies continues with a mixture of expanding releases and January dreck.
Those who like James Bond and hate Nazis (I know, there’s not many of you) may find solace (as in quantum solace? Nevermind.) in Defiance, the new action-drama from the director of Blood Diamond. In it, three brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell) decide it’s a nicer thing to help a bunch of Jews than assist Nazis. Good choice in my opinion.
Defiance is my movie of choice for the weekend, as it is receiving generally good reviews and promises some exciting action.
For the kiddies, there’s Hotel for Dogs, a movie that looks to trick parents out of their cash so that their kids can go see a bunch of cute dogs. Oh, and Julia Roberts’ niece, Emma Roberts. I’ll pass.
For older kids who want to watch equally crappy movies, Paul Blart: Mall Cop arrives with Kevin James playing a security guard who has to defend his mall against a bunch of hoodlums. It’s likely that all of the good jokes are in the previews, and there aren’t that many in the previews to begin with.
For all the wannabe rappers, there’s Notorious, which explores the short life of B.I.G. The performances are receiving critical notice, but all I see is a January release, which in other words means I see a sad attempt to glamorize a womanizing thug.
Lastly, for the horror fiends, My Bloody Valentine 3D opens way too early for Valentine’s Day, looking to scare people with knives and pickaxes waving in your face. Sounds like a blast to me – I’ll be going next week, even though the flick looks as generic as store brand Cheerios.
Steven Soderbergh’s Che also opens in limited release – with a whopping four hour running time.
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Erik Samdahl writes movie reviews and articles for FilmJabber.com
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