Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Margin Call: how Wall Street crashed the economy - 5 stars

Margin Call is a tense drama about how Wall Street investment bankers caused the 2008 economic collapse, prompting worldwide recession. J.C. Chandor’s suspenseful feature debut is now streaming.

Vivid dialogue and action reveal exactly how the crisis might have happened. Writer-director Chandor captures every nuance with merciless objectivity. His father was a Merrill Lynch executive.

Kevin Spacey gives one of his best performances as Sam Rogers, a world-weary trading manager who frets over his ailing Labrador. After a massive layoff, Sam congratulates the survivors. “Now they’re gone,” he says. “They’re not to be thought of again.”

Impeccably acted, Margin Call has the power of a play. Actors enter and exit. They face one another and themselves. They maneuver. They lie. Trapped in a glass tower, each holds self-preservation dear. Frank DeMarco’s cinematography is by turns stark and shadowy.

Concerned but not caring, the bankers learn about the impending crash from junior analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), a former M.I.T. rocket scientist. Laid off risk analyst Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci)  alerted Peter before he left.

Peter is horrified to discover that the firm is fatally over-committed to risky loans. It has 24 hours to exploit this knowledge – or lose trillions. The tale is loosely based on the now-defunct Lehman Brothers.

Owners arrive by helicopter in the night. Each minute is precious. Decisions must be made. Jeremy Irons plays ruthless CEO John Tuld. “Be first. Be smarter. Or cheat,” is his motto. Tuld orders the sell-off.

Self-interest has many faces. They’re providing for their families. They’re living the American dream. They’re hooked on big thrills and bigger risk. Nathan Larson’s score deepens dread.

Chilling and sad, Margin Call is precise and efficient. The players move like automatons. Watching them, you’ll ask yourself, “What would I have done?”

Demi Moore is exquisitely cagey as Chief Risk Manager Sarah Robertson. She reminds Tuld that she did warn the firm repeatedly. Still, heads must roll, he tells her. Hers is one of them.

Also excellent are Paul Bettany as charismatic playboy and manager Will Emerson; and The Mentalist’s Simon Baker as terse, unsmiling leader Jared Cohen.

Tucci is marvelous in a scene on a Brooklyn Heights stoop. Eric tells Will about his engineering career. He once built a bridge that saved drivers commuting time. He yearns to do something real again, to find rewarding, meaningful work.

Margin Call complements Wall Street, where Michael Douglas fills the screen with charismatic greed, and Inside Job, the Oscar winning documentary explaining the meltdown.

Pain and angst eats away at Sam. He hates who he has become. He delivers one final speech to his team, urging them to sell worthless, mortgage-backed securities for million dollar bonuses. True empathy is never shown in Margin Call, except by Sam for his dog.

Fuld coaxes Sam to stay on for awhile. There’s still plenty of dough to be made. Sam confesses: “I need the money.”

In a David Mamet-inspired moment, Peter asks Sam if he’s told his own son about the impending crash. “No, I … didn’t even think …” Sam sputters.

If you like Margin Call, you might enjoy: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; The Company Men; Casino Jack.

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Margin Call    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 45 min

Cast Overview: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci

Director:  J.C. Chandor

Genre:  Drama, History

 

Martha Marcy May Marlene: Elizabeth Olsen flees cult trauma - 4 stars

Elizabeth Olsen bursts into stardom in Martha Marcy May Marlene. Her dynamic and restrained performance marks writer-director Sean Durkin’s astounding feature debut.

This indie psychological thriller disturbed and fascinated me as much as The Exorcist, where evil ensnares a privileged and morally vulnerable victim.

After her daring escape from a creepy cult in upstate New York, Martha (Olsen) is rescued by her sister. She struggles to recover herself and become whole. Her progress is tortuous.

Zombie-like Martha looks serene. Inwardly, she’s falling off a cliff. She hides what happened to her, not asking for help. When confronted she screams, “I’m a teacher and a leader,” parroting the words of a cult leader Patrick (John Hawkes) who she can’t forget.

Martha’s confusion deepens as she stays at the Connecticut lake house of her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law Ted (Hugh Dancy). The sisters grew apart after their mother died, and Lucy now feels responsible for Martha.

How could someone disappear for two years without a word? Lucy and Ted are stunned when Martha strips at the public lake. She even creeps into their bed one night while they make love.

Through flashbacks that blur place and time, we glimpse Martha’s life at a ramshackle farmstead. She confuses memory with the present, and so do we. In the cult she befriends Zoe (Louisa Krause) and Watts (Brady Corbet).

Revering their leader, the residents follow bizarre rules. They do chores but eat only once a day, at supper. The men finish eating before the women can begin. Wearing tattered hand-me-downs, they believe they will prosper someday.

Hawkes (Uncle Teardrop in Winter’s Bone) plays Patrick with skeevy menace. Slowly, his deranged beliefs emerge. He rapes the women by turns in the night. New women are dressed, drugged and coached before their first rape.

"You're my favorite," Patrick tells her. Martha struggles, then submits. Later, she coaches newcomer Sarah (Julia Garner) before her “first night.” Patrick plays Marcy’s Song on the guitar for the group. “Well she, she’s just a picture that lives on my wall / Just a picture, that’s all” he croons.

The isolated community must surrender body, mind and spirit. Fatherly and quiet, Patrick suddenly threatens individuals. They must be willing to kill for him.

Jody Lee Lipes’ cinematography and Zac Stuart-Pontier’s editing enhance the introspective drama.

Durkin told Filmmaker Magazine that his early years in a religious school inspired an interest in cults. He won a Directing Award for this film at Sundance 2011.

Olsen will appear in several films in 2012, including Peace, Love and Misunderstanding with Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener; Silent House with Adam Trese; Red Lights with Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver; and Liberal Arts with Josh Radnor. Olsen studies theater full time at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

A Silkwood-like ending is deeply unsettling. Oscar nominations are likely for Olsen and this film.

If you like Martha Marcy May Marlene, you might enjoy:  Take Shelter; Somewhere; Winter’s Bone.

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Martha Marcy May Marlene    2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 41 min

Cast Overview: Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner, John Hawkes, Louisa Krause, Sarah Paulson

Director:  Sean Durkin

Genre:  Indie, Drama, Psychological Thriller

 

Take Shelter: Michael Shannon digs deep to save family - 5 stars

Take Shelter is a fever dream of a thriller. It plunges you into anxiety and hope, victory and defeat. With humanity in trouble, sensitive everyman Curtis LaForche (brilliantly played by Michael Shannon) is plagued by hallucinations and nightmares.

Director Jeff Nichols lets you decide what this film is about. In an age of uncertainty, Curtis’ dark night of the soul feels universal.

Suspenseful and exciting from start to finish, Take Shelter portends the end. Depending on how you see, it will sweep you away with dread or faith. References to “the economy” and “fresh motor oil” lend timely foreboding.

A construction foreman in northern Ohio, tormented Curtis hides his condition from his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain). He seeks help from a doctor and a counselor, trying to quash his visions.

Shannon (Revolutionary Road; Bug) surrenders onscreen. Gangly, enigmatic and tortured, he remains a loving husband and devoted father to a hearing impaired child Hannah (Tova Stewart, sweetly perceptive).

Curtis wants to save his family at any cost. After visiting his mother (Kathy Baker), who’s institutionalized with paranoid schizophrenia, the quiet man understands that his curse is a gift.

March in step, Curtis’ best friend Dewart (Shea Whigham) and his brother Kyle (Ray McKinnon) tell him. Instead, he secures a home improvement loan to build an elaborate storm shelter. Curtis risks everything – home, family, and the health insurance needed for Hannah’s cochlear implant surgery.

Samantha (Jessica Chastain) takes refuge in family, friends and community. Love grounds and guides her. She sells her embroidery at tag sales to finance the family’s annual vacation.

Prolific Chastain (The Debt; The Tree of Life; The Help) creates yet another excellent character here in a spree of recent big screen roles. Samantha struggles to understand and stay with Curtis.

Natural disaster never looked so breathtaking. Adam Stone uses widescreen photography to see beauty in menace. Flocks of starlings, clouds and twin tornadoes loom. Real and impending catastrophes are colored by mystery and mental illness.

Nichols (Shotgun Stories) captures inner and outer worlds with authority and immediacy. His work is reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan’s, but with more ambiguity. It’s impressive that this is only Nichols’ second feature.

Tight, flawless editing by Parke Gregg enhances drama. David Wingo contrasts darkness and normalcy with his music.

End or beginning? The perspective of nature as a benevolent force ready to help humanity is missing here. It’s a worthy premise for another film.

If you like Take Shelter, you might enjoy:  The Tree of Life; Insidious; The Debt.

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Take Shelter    2011  /  R  /  2 hours

Cast Overview: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Ray McKinnon, LisaGay Hamilton, Rogert Longstreet, Kathy Baker, Tova Stewart

Director:  Jeff Nichols

Genre:  Drama, Thriller, Suspense, Horror

 

Apollo 18: man vs. moon rocks in sci-fi thriller - 3 stars

 
 
 
Baby boomers and sci-fi fans, prepare for a retro space exploration thriller. Apollo 18 reveals a chilling double cross on the moon. Found footage of the Apollo space program and a faux-documentary style are used.

Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego’s clever, low budget sci-fi thriller exposes secret agendas, ulterior motives and brave heroes. NASA’s cancellation of the Apollo 18 moon mission sets up the premise.

What if the announcement was just a hoax? A top secret 1974 blast-off is shown. Commander Nathan Walker and Captain Benjamin Anderson plant early warning devices for the Department of Defense. They collect moon rocks. Suddenly, the mission goes awry when they discover an abandoned wreck and evidence of alien activity.

A bare-bones plot and scant character development make this a modest mission. The special effects are on par with the 1970s, but creepy enough. Apollo 18 is suspenseful good fun.

 
 

In fact NASA did plan Apollo 18, Apollo 19 and Apollo 20 missions. Congressional budget cuts and lack of public interest in the lunar voyages caused each to be axed.

Apollo 18 recalls a nation united to achieve a lofty aim. I got chills watching President John F. Kennedy announce the goal of reaching the moon. Lopez-Gallego succeeds in conjuring a sense of American idealism and entitlement.

The American heroes (played by Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen and Ryan Robbins) display death-defying character lacking in some government officials. Flashbacks show the trio drinking beer and goofing around at a family picnic. The archival footage is scratchy and realistic.

Cold War paranoia prevails, along with a curious insistence that only man lives in the universe. The crew can’t imagine peaceful coexistence with extraterrestrials because they can’t even acknowledge their existence.

One day, we will watch Apollo 18 and laugh at our own arrogance.

If you like Apollo 18, you might enjoy:  Insidious; Splice.

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Apollo 18     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 28 min

Cast Overview:  Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, Ryan Robbins

Director: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego

Genre:  Thriller, Sci-Fi, Horror, Mockumentary

 

 

 

Missing Pieces: Mark Boone Junior kidnaps his way to love ****

 

Kidnapping meets romance in the indie psychological drama Missing Pieces. Director Kenton Bartlett’s feature debut asks big questions and answers them with mind-bending originality. I want to feel something real. I want to feel happy. Why is this happening? It's now streaming online.

Missing Pieces investigates the brink of wholeness. Impressively crafted on a low budget, it’s a tale of dissolution and survival, a sly mix of Criminal Minds and the spiritual genre.

Mark Boone Junior (Memento; Batman Begins; Sons of Anarchy) is fascinating as David Lindale, a man whose life implodes after a head injury. With his mind and emotions fractured, he poignantly struggles to win back his exasperated ex-girlfriend Delia Greenly (Melora Walters). Soon his actions take a disturbing turn.

David seems gentle, but we don’t know what he’s capable of. Recovering from an accident, he has stopped taking his medication. While making his rounds as a delivery man, David meets Maggie Anderson (Taylor Engel) and Daylen Gordon (Daniel Hassel). With the sure insight of a damaged human being, he immediately recognizes that the two are missing pieces of their lives, too.

Using sparse, strong dialogue, Bartlett (who also wrote and produced the film) weaves in excerpts from a self-help tape. These represent David’s efforts to heal and to reclaim his life. The effect succeeds with preachy truisms like, “The only way to be happy is right here in this moment.” Loneliness becomes tangible.

David devises a plan: observe love. The world becomes his laboratory. If he can isolate two people and provide them with the right questions and instructions, can he reproduce the formula for happiness and love? Boone Junior reveals the monster within all of us.

Constant cuts to different lives and characters obscure the narrative. The logistics behind David’s grand experiment stretch belief. The harrowing journey runs a bit too long. Still this is a film worth seeing for its rich storytelling, challenging and original premise, and compassionate vision.

 

A turning point is reached when David realizes, “I need to give more.” He approaches Delia again.

Boone Junior creates an arresting portrait of despair and hope that anchors the film. Walters (Boogie Nights; Magnolia; Big Love) convinces as an aggravated woman who knows when it’s time to give up. Engel and Hassel debut with fine performances as Maggie and Daylen discover themselves and each other under extreme conditions.

Cinematographer Jonathan Arturo uses the camera in a full, free way that captures small, personal worlds in the context of sweeping, natural landscapes. Longing, fear and anger are evoked with a beautiful, understated color palette. Several scenes come to life like Andrew Wyeth paintings. Filmed primarily in Birmingham, Alabama, Missing Pieces was also shot in Colorado, South Dakota and Utah.                 

Richey Rynkowski (orchestrator assistant on Black Swan) creates original music that resonates and adds dimensionality.

Missing Pieces is a cry from the depths, a demand for answers from a seemingly indifferent Universe, a creepy trek towards self-actualization and love.

 If you like Missing Pieces, you might enjoy:  The Ledge; The Perfect Host; The Tree of Life.

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Missing Pieces     2011  /  NR /  1 hour, 57 min.

Cast Overview:  Mark Boone Jr., Melora Walters, Daniel Hassel, Taylor Engel

Director:  Kenton Bartlett

Genre:  Indie, Psychological Drama, Suspense

The Double Hour ****

 

When a hotel maid sees a guest leap to her death, her own identity fractures in the romantic thriller The Double Hour (La Doppia Ora). Giuseppe Capotondi's first feature film flashes back and forward with shadowy twists and genuine passions that dovetail perfectly.

Known for his music videos, Capotondi expertly crafts intrigue in the tradition of Hitchcock, Scorsese and Polanski. He’s a director to watch as he joins a new generation of psychological thrill-weavers including the Coen brothers, Christopher Nolan, Juan Jose Campanella and David Fincher.

A robbery. A coma. An old priest. A red bedspread. The action unfolds in Turin, Italy, yet it’s already happened. The future is uncertain – or is it? The director creates a landscape of furtive glances, secrets, lies and surprises. Vivid recollections may be real – or not. There is violence, but the film does not rely on it. Suspense is based firmly on direction, acting and editing. By the final scene, it all makes sense.

Russian actress Ksenia Rappoport achingly portrays Sonia, the hotel maid who goes speed-dating to forget the grisly suicide she witnessed. Guido (Filippo Timi of Vincere), a widowed, former cop now running security at a secluded mansion, is the last man she meets that night. He’s handsome, soft-spoken and honest, a far cry from the others. The two continue their conversation in an evening stroll along the riverfront. Both Rappoport and Timi won awards at the 2009 Venice Film Festival for their stirring, enigmatic performances.

 

A double hour, Guido tells Sonia, is the moment when hour and minute are identical. When a digital clock at the opulent mansion displays 23:23, Guido praises that magical time when wishes can be made and granted. As the plot unravels, several double hours mark turning points for the pair.

Capotondi cleverly manipulates man-made and naturalistic details to build suspense. Guido shows Sonia the long-distance mic that he uses to detect intruders. He has recorded afternoons of bird song at the estate too. Guido offers to create a relaxing, sensuous DVD just for Sonia.

Lending fascination are Antonia Truppo as Sonia’s co-worker and friend Margherita; Giorgio Colangeli as the old priest; Gaetano Bruno as the thug Riccardo, and Michele Di Mauro as persistent detective Dante.

The Double Hour was filmed on location in Carmagnola, Turin and the Piedmont region of Italy.

Outstanding writing by the team of Alessandro Fabbri, Ludovica Rampoldi and Stefano Sardo makes The Double Hour a modest gem where everyday life holds drama and yearning. Guido Notari contributes superb editing.

If you like The Double Hour, you might enjoy:  Shutter Island; The Ghost Writer; The Secret in Their Eyes.

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The Double Hour     2009  /  NR  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Ksenia Rappoport, Filippo Timi, Antonia Truppo, Gaetano Bruno, Fausto Russo Alesi, Michele Di Mauro, Lucia Poli, Giorgio Colangeli

Director:  Giuseppe Capotondi

Genre:  Thriller, Crime Thriller, Romance, Mystery, Foreign Film

Language: Italian with English subtitles

The Perfect Host ****1/2

 

Do we ever really know someone? Emmy and Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce stars in a twisty, stylish crime thriller The Perfect Host, now playing on demand before it opens in theaters. Aussie director-writer Nick Tomnay’s fascinating romp explores misleading appearances and the jagged edges of personal psychology.

Hyde Pierce powers the low budget film’s comedic horror, showing the full range of his incredible acting talent. Best known as neurotic, ever-frustrated Dr. Niles Crane on television’s Fraiser series, Pierce (Nixon, Full Frontal, Spamalot and Curtains) is nice and oh-so-naughty here, transcending metrosexuality as he plays Warwick Wilson, a refined gay man throwing a dinner party.

Just as Niles desperately seeks the love of Daphne, Warwick burns for unconditional affirmation of his own worthiness. “Love me. Love me,” he says during a kinky scene.

Premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, The Perfect Host is a chess game of moves and countermoves. The story turns surreal in a posh, Los Angeles suburban home. The straightforward is suddenly turned on its head. We’re challenged to decide what’s real and what’s illusion. Survival is at stake as “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Also excellent is Clayne Crawford (A Walk to Remember, 24) as John Taylor, an unlucky bank robber on the lam who rings Warwick’s doorbell. John steals a postcard from Warwick’s mailbox, pretending to be a friend of a friend. The crook is in for the surprise of his life. Crawford deepens his character with surprising humanity.

The first plot twist leads to surprising revelations about Warwick, John and Simone (Megahn Perry), the bank robber’s girlfriend. As characters veer into the unexpected, Tomnay skillfully keeps the Hitchcock-like action on track in this darkly funny exploration of human idiosyncrasy.

John Swihart’s original score suits the movie’s many moods and adds to the fun.

 

Grammy winner Helen Reddy, who topped the Billboard charts in 1972 with her women’s lib tune I Am Woman, delivers a strong supporting role as Mrs. Knight, Warwick’s concerned neighbor. Also starring are Nathaniel Parker as Detective Morton, and Joseph Will as Detective Valdez. Morton wants to take a cold case one step further.

The Perfect Host (on Twitter @perfecthost) turns into a who’s who of crime and punishment. Based on Tomnay’s short film The Host, it maintains edgy action and bizarre fascination until the very end.

If you like The Perfect Host, you might enjoy: Shutter Island; The Ghost Writer.

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The Perfect Host     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 34 min

Cast Overview:  David Hyde Pierce, Clayne Crawford, Helen Reddy, Nathaniel Parker, Megahn Perry, Joseph Will, Tyrees Allen, Annie Campbell, Indira G. Wilson, Cooper Barnes

Director:  Nick Tomnay

Genre:  Thriller, Suspense, Indie

Insidious ****1/2

 

Murky monsters. Out-of-body travel. A kid in a coma. Deliciously weird Insidious thrills us through the final violin note.

It’s carefully crafted horror and suspense without visceral violence from the team who brought us the original Saw slasher film, director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell. Menace hovers like a thunderhead. There’s plenty to curdle the blood, without bloodshed.  

Poltergeist meets Paranormal Activity as Insidious delves into paranormal science with it-could-happen-to-you realism. Like The Exorcist, it shows possession. Like The Shining, it conjures a spooky past that encroaches on the present. Like The Sixth Sense, it’s filled with I-see-dead-people moments to raise the hairs on your neck.

Non-stop tension and sympathetic characters add to foreboding. There’s a slo-o-o-w buildup as normal couple Josh and Renai Lambert move into an old Victorian home with sons Dalton and Foster, and a baby sister. 

Gruesome voices cackle over a baby monitor. Spirits stalk the rooms. Boxes of belongings vanish and reappear. Caution: these images may linger with you for days.

Wan takes advantage of darkness and light, silence and cacophony. Nicely imagined and realized ghouls are worthy of a Vincent Price movie. Creepy, under-lit visuals entertain.

Dalton (Ty Simpkins), like his sensitive mom Renai (Rose Byrne), sees and hears things in the old house. After an accident in the attic, Dalton falls into a medical coma.  No one can explain it.

Byrne is wonderful as a terrified, overwhelmed mom who yearns for a peaceful moment so she can compose music at the piano. Playing school teacher dad Josh, Patrick Wilson is perhaps too low key as the drama unfolds. Renai sleeps upstairs while Josh retreats to the couch to prevent a break-in. Later we learn why he is so tuned out.

Foster (Andrew Astor) sheds light on his brother’s nighttime activities. Renai despairs. “I feel like the universe is just seeing how far I’ll bend before I break,” she tells a visiting nurse.

The Lamberts have moved before to escape ghostly turmoil.  After Renai’s close encounter with a man pacing the bedroom, she begs Josh for another family move.

Josh’s mom Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) listens to the harrowing tale and believes. A doctor (Ruben Pla) and a priest (John Henry Binder) try to help. Finally the Lamberts turn to Lorraine’s friend Elise (wise, determined Lin Shaye), who just happens to be a paranormal expert.

 

Nerdy Specs and Tucker (Whannell and Angus Sampson) resemble vintage ghost-busters in their black and white outfits with odd gadgets in tow. The two spar playfully until their esteemed boss shows up for the serious work of saving Dalton.

Guided by Elise, Josh embarks on a mission into The Further to rescue his son. Tiny Tim’s Tiptoe Through the Tulips never sounded so ominous. 

The movie’s best scenes include Dalton’s foray into the attic, and the intervention (complete with black mask, gaseous vapors and raging demons). John R. Leonetti and David M. Brewer provide cinematography. Joe Dzuban is supervising sound editor.  

Like the best horror films, Insidious lets us indulge in our worst fears, and leave the theater feeling that we can face them.

If you like Insidious, you might enjoy: Shutter Island; The Ghost Writer; Splice.

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Insidious   2010  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 42 mins

Cast Overview:  Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey

Director:  James Wan

Genre:  Horror, Supernatural, Psychological Thriller, Fantasy

Sucker Punch **

 

Emily Browning fights back in the violent, psychosexual teen odyssey Sucker Punch.  

Wrongly imprisoned in an insane asylum, Babydoll is the hero who convinces four other inmates to overcome their fears and escape with her. 

Babydoll is betrayed by her evil stepfather (Gerard Plunkett). To save her sister Babydoll shot – but didn’t kill – the Stepfather, who had already killed the sister. He checks her into the asylum.

Police are scheduled to investigate, but evil orderly Blue Jones (intense Oscar Isaacs) promises to bribe them.

The asylum is plenty creepy and way illegal. Blue rules the criminal enterprise where his girls perform exotic dances for prominent criminals such as the mayor.

Wise Man (Scott Glenn) instructs Babydoll to use her mind to change her life.  She must obtain five items to secure their release: a map, fire, a knife, a key, and a mystery.

A macabre dance musical within a nightmare, Sucker Punch is filled with game-like battle scenes that evoke comic bookish, 1950’s noir.

Nazi zombies, cyborgs and dragons threaten in different chapters of the film. With endless battle scenes, there is no real progress in the plot. A mishmash of images and pop metaphors engineers confusion.

A Matrix-wannabe, the film exploits women as high-heeled, mini-skirted actors blast and shoot their way through four different tests of character.

The choreography is good. The escapees display superhuman powers amidst Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-like special effects.

Ear drum drilling music is drawn from Annie Lennox, the Eurythmics, Jefferson Airplane and Queen.

 

Rounding out the escape team are Rocket (Jena Malone, solid here), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), Sweet Pea (talented Abbie Cornish with a good performance), and Amber (Jamie Chung).

Glenn is quite good as he lends gravitas, enigma and humor. A shape shifter and time traveler, he booms out corny, homespun wisdom. “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” 

Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino), a psychiatrist with a comically thick Polish accent, is conflicted. Part mother, part exploiter, she too is dominated by Blue.

Jon Hamm’s talents are wasted in his brief appearance as High Roller, a lobotomist with a conscience.

While the film could encourage youth at risk, its violence gives a warped view of real personal power. It’s all fight. Loving oneself and others is an afterthought.

Director Zack Snyder (300; Dawn of the Dead) is set to direct Superman: Man of Steel.

If you like Sucker Punch, you might enjoy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Black Swan; The Runaways.

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Sucker Punch  2011  /  PG-13  /  2 Hours

Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn

Director:  Zack Snyder

Genre:  Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Crime

Limitless ****

 

Imagine getting literally everything you want, a life of ease and power with the world at your command. Bradley Cooper wins love, money and success – for a price – in the fast-paced mind-bender Limitless.    

It happens to struggling writer Eddie Morra (Cooper) one day when he bumps into his former brother-in-law and hears about a designer drug called NZT. Vernon (Johnny Whitworth) gives him a free sample, along with his business card.

Eddie is an ex-junkie, but it doesn’t take long for the bedraggled, down-on-his luck dude to pop the clear disc into his mouth. Nothing is ever the same.

Director Neil Burger (Interview With the Assassin; The Illusionist), known for his meticulous plotting, doesn’t disappoint.  Eddie’s girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) breaks up with him. His editor has been waiting months for a manuscript. The bills are piling high.    

The drug opens a door for Eddie.  His mind is unlocked. Everything becomes clear. Colors brighten. Senses sharpen. Innate abilities surge.

Overnight, Eddie almost completes the novel.  His editor begs for more. Now he can zoom through Manhattan, knowing where he’s going, meeting the right people, connecting every dot.

A super-everyman, Eddie is able to speed read and access a photographic memory.  He learns to speak French, Italian and Mandarin – in days. His hair is styled now, and his trendy suits are fitted.  Lindy notices and decides to see him again.

Cinematographer Jo Willems uses double fish eye lenses to enhance Eddie’s viewpoint as he zips along. The crowds part for him as they would for a king. His leaps and bounds are physical as well as mental.

The downside? Eddie needs more of the drug. The wonder boy seeks out Vernon.  He must borrow from a Russian loan shark (Andrew Howard) to buy enough. Eddie gets his paper bag of money with a warning. Then he finds Vernon with a bullet through his head.

Cooper is terrific as the hero keeps it going.  NZT’s side effects prove deadly for those who are hooked.  The desperate are willing to kill to steal Eddie’s stash.

 

Next Eddie gets entangled with corporate titan Carl Van Loon (commanding Robert De Niro), who showers Eddie with millions as long as he can exploit his visionary ideas on the stock market.

This stylish intrigue captures our imaginations. It warns about prescription drug mania.  It shows the price to be paid for voracious greed.

The upside? We get to see a mere mortal achieve transcendence – and maintain it.

Limitless has been called an Inception for the rest of us. A bit slow early with distracting voiceovers, the thriller takes off when Eddie meets Vernon.

Leslie Dixon adapted the smart screenplay from Alan Glynn’s novel The Dark Fields.

Cooper's real-life breakup with Renee Zellweger, according to published reports,  is attributed to how hard he worked to achieve mega-success in The Hangover and Limitless.

If you like Limitless, you might enjoy: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Inception; The Adjustment Bureau.

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Limitless  2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 45 min

Cast:  Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro, Anna Friel, Johnny Whitworth, Andrew Howard

Director:  Neil Burger

Genre:  Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Crime