Movie Review: "Eagle Eye"

This action thriller throws together Jerry Shaw, an intelligent young rebel who works at “Copy Cabana” and Rachel, a single young mother working as a paralegal. Their sad lives include the recent death of Jerry’s twin brother and Rachel’s young son’s departure for a band field trip. A female calls the duo with very explicit instructions- threatening to kill them and their loved ones. Their every move is tracked and controlled by everyday technology.

The action is so intense and rapid, that it is difficult to keep up with who and what is being threatened and destroyed. The plot is a little above average in sophistication. If you’re looking for an action flick without a lot of bad language and people doing the wild thing on screen - this is it.

Movie Review: "Babylon A. D."

This latest Vin Diesel Sci-Fi Action flick is set in the near future earth. Diesel plays the invisible American mercenary Toorop who is hired by Russian mobster “Gorsky” (played by a greatly made up Gerard Gipardeu) to escort a mysterious orphaned female empath from a secluded monastery to New York City. The film is action packed and has great special effects. The movie starts out with great promise, but by movie’s end, more questions remain unanswered than answered.

Movie Review: "Frozen River"

This Indie is currently showing at Malco Studio on the Square. Mid South native, Courtney Hunt, both wrote and directed this film. The plot concerns the interplay between two single mothers in a rural upstate New York border town. One is white and the other Mohawk. Both struggle to keep their families together in difficult financial and social circumstances by smuggling across the frozen St Lawrence River. The overall mood of the story is dark and depressing. In the end, both learn how to sacrifice self to serve each other. Unfortunately, the overarching principle of their decisions is post-modernist and willing to sacrifice honesty and integrity to meet the basic needs of their respective families.

Movie Review "Tell No One"

The wife of Alexandre Beck, a French Pediatrician, is brutally murdered by serial killers. Eight years later, Beck receives an Email with a short video of his wife, older and alive. Grieving and withdrawn after the death of his wife, Beck becomes totally immersed in his work with children. Like a good Hitchcock movie, the plot has many twists and turns before the mystery of her death and murderers are uncovered. This film is in French with English subtitles.

Review: “Around Tennessee, 1820-1920”

This current exhibit at the Memphis Brooks Museum showcases Memphis and local produced silver, firearms, furniture, quilts and paintings produced from 1820-1920.

A number of fine silver pieces on display were made by Memphis Silversmiths, F.H. Clark and J. S. Curtis. Part of the collection included two early 19th century mint julep cups designed for Memphis co-founder Marcus Brutus Winchester.

Also featured was an 1820 flint lock muzzle-loader by Fort Pickering gun smith “Joc” Bean. At the time, Fort Pickering was an Indian Trading Post located just South of today’s downtown Memphis. His uncle, Russell Bean, was the first marshal of Memphis.

Several intricate Nonconnah pottery pieces are also being shown. They were produced from unusually colorful clay that lay along the banks of Nonconnah Creek.

Other interesting items include a number of quilts by Eva Lena Harrington of DeSoto County Mississippi and an ornate ladies vinaigrette made from silver and a Tennessee Black Bear’s claw.

This exhibits runs from July 5 through September 7.

Movie Review: "Roman de Gare"

The movie starts and ends with Judith Ralitzer, successful French novelist, being interrogated by police regarding the disappearance of her ghost-writer. Multiple vaguely connected sub-plots- including the prison escape of a pedophile, a jilted hairdresser and a missing school teacher- revolve around the relationship of an unattractive middle aged man and a young French country girl. This films plot contains nested stories within stories. The surprise ending ultimately unifies and clarifies the role of each story and true identity of it’s characters.

"JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH"

This movie is a well done extension of Jules Verne's classic Journey to the Center of the Earth. It's premise is that Jules Verne's book was documentation not fiction.

One may be tempted to look upon this movie as light weight science fiction, premised on Hollywood special effects. OH CONTRAIRE. It is a metaphor in 90 minutes that challenges deeper thought for the astute. While one can go to the center of the earth and back in 90 minutes (how do they do that? What exactly is the radius of the earth?) it takes a lifetime to journey to the center of God's will.

The special effects and graphics are worth the price of admission. Special 3-D glasses are provided but are expected to be returned at the end of the movie. The 3-D technology has vastly improved over the cardboard throw away's of times past. Neal Aguillard slipped her glasses into Suzy's purse and snuck out with a pair. He wanted them to watch his collection of Chips episodes on his new HD Flat screen television. He reports the motorcycle chase scenes in 3-D are almost as breathtaking (he is a lung doctor) as his beautiful wife riding on their camel in the summer heat at20the Frazier compound (morning occurrence). Even now he is hard at work in his underground laboratory cloning the technology for mass marketing at the Big One Flea market when it moves from the fairgrounds to Frazier.

The 3-D effects prompted our own one-dimensional Dr. Rick Jordan to opine "this almost makes me want to live in a 3-D world". (Rick, stick to your one dimensional world. Ann is living in 5 or 6 alternative dimensions. That is enough for one house).

Overall this movie is worth seeing but only at a theatre to maximize the special effect. Some theatres show it in 2-D. Save your money. Only see it in 3-D.

-Larry "The Lobster" Dormois