Deputy Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) search for Tom Chaney

Since almost everyone in the free world is at least somewhat familiar with the storyline (14 year old girl leaves home to track down her father’s killer, a former hired man named Tom Chaney, who has since joined up with a gang of thieves lead by Lucky Ned Pepper. To aid her, she hires a US deputy marshal, Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn. A Texas ranger, LaBoeuf [pronounced "La Beef"], becomes the third of their party. The story covers the elements of this adventure), this review will cover the quality and value of the 2010 version.

In short, this is an excellent, excellent movie. Bridges is powerful as the drunk, irascible Cogburn, while Steinfeld is top-notch as Mattie Ross. Bridges interpretation of Portis’ hero is worthy and screen filling. Whether a blank stare with mouth agape, slurred, guttural speech, point-blank testimony in court, or griping about LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), Bridges is every bit as worthy as The Duke to wear Cogburn’s eye-patch. Josh Brolin (Tom Chaney) plays the part of stupid so well, you’d swear he was a guy you used to work with or live beside. The real shame is that there is so little screen interplay between Cogburn and Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper). Pepper’s Pepper, with spitting, drooling speech spluttering through the worst set of teeth since 30 Days of Night, is as strong as any supporting character of late. It seems Best Supporting Actor nominations usually go to those with large amounts of screen time, but a nod in his direction would surely not be misplaced.

As one might expect from a movie shot in Texas and New Mexico, the scenery, when featured, is stunning. Much of the movie, however, takes place at night, in town or in close quarters, so those shots are few. The courtroom scene near the beginning is quite lengthy, which is a direct draw from the book. It works well to explore the Cogburn character, and Mattie’s analyzing of him.

Still, there are departures from the book. The tension between Cogburn and LaBoeuf erupts, as in the book, but ends in ways very different. It seems as if the directors went to the trouble of removing him for extended periods to allow the relationship between Cogburn and Mattie to develop more fully. While this might be important, it makes for an entirely different scenario when the two of them happen upon the cabin inhabited by two of Pepper’s gang. The Texas lawman’s decision to leave allows for the introduction of another character (not in the book), whose purpose seems to be little more than another strange personality to meet on the trail.

One thing that remains constant is the young 14 year-old Arkansan’s repeated, unintentionally humorous references to her “lawyer Daggett.”

The biggest thing I miss from the book, and which I wish the Coen’s would have found a way to work into the film, either through conversation or through narrative pieces, is Mattie’s constant reflection on Scripture and her thoughts on whether a particular person is Methodist, Baptist, Catholic or “Cumberland Presbyterian.” While the biblical overtones are not completely omitted from the movie, neither are they as strong or prominent as in Portis’s work.

True Grit, from Paramount Pictures, and Skydance Productions, is rated PG-13 for language (a dozen or so swear words) and violence (by rope, knife and bullet). There is also a segment featuring rattlesnakes. You’ve been warned.

True Grit by Charles Portis can be purchased through the link below. You pay the same low Amazon price and I get a small commission.

The long awaited, much hyped, latest effort from The Dark Knight director, Christopher Nolan, hit screens across America at midnight this morning. Inception is an incredibly fun film driven by an off the edge of reality story line and physics bending special effects (see here for official movie site). Having already been described as “Amazing,” “Mind blowing,” and “Astounding,” by Peter Hammond, Peter Travers and Mark Istook, respectively, it seemed there might be nowhere to go but down. Never mind that it currently has a 9.6 of 10 rating on IMDB since these are generally people who have not yet seen the movie. Thankfully, the 8-9 range is about what it deserves.

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed, Shutter Island) stars as Dom Cobb, the Extractor, a man who specializes in security issues surrounding his client’s subconscious. He also has the ability to plant ideas in the mind of a target. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Miracle at St. Anna) is Arthur, the Point Man, responsible for finding targets for the team. Tom Hardy (Bronson) is Eames, the Forger. He impersonates people within the dream world in order to forge a physical form and identity. Instead of forging with ink and paper, think more flesh and blood. Ellen Page (Juno, Whip It) is Ariadne, the Architect, whose responsibility it is to create the levels where the dreams will be played out, somewhat akin to a Dungeon Master in the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons.

Image: Warner Bros.

Unlike Nightmare on Elm Street, people seemingly move and interact purposefully only when they are sharing a dream. Cobb’s team is each conscious of their actions, but people on the street, for instance, are merely projections of the one who is filling in the dream field (the Extractor). Shared dreams are achieved when multiple people go to sleep at the same time, usually with the assistance of a Chemist. How all this occurs is taken for granted; there is no discovery phase to the film. So well understood is the ability to have ones dreams invaded that some people choose to take training so that their sub-conscious is trained to fight off any attempted invasion.

Inception owes more to The Matrix than to James Bond or Jason Bourne from the slow motion action sequences to the concept of being plugged-in to another reality, though this one is a dreamscape rather than a Matrix. The most mind bending comes from the concept of dreams within dreams where each level is entered just like the initial level allowing for action on multiple levels at the same time. This nested framework also means that action on one dream level affects activity on a deeper dream level; this is especially well done. Different from The Matrix, Inception‘s dreamers do not die when killed in the dream, they merely wake up (with a major exception better explained in the film).

Be prepared: the ending is the best film ending I’ve seen in years. Enough to elicit both stunned moans and applause at 3:00 AM.

Not content to leave it at a sci-fi/fantasy adventure, Nolan, who wrote, directed and produced the film, included two meaningful personal story lines effectively woven into the 2 hour and 28 minute adventure. Inception does not explore the depths of depravity as TDK did, but nor does it ignore the realities of life including broken dreams that sometimes can and sometimes cannot be changed.

Inception, from Warner Brothers, is rated PG-13 for violence and intensity. There are 15 or so swear words spread throughout. There is no nudity or sexuality.

Probably the best movie of 2010 that you’ve never heard anything about. Perhaps a further explanation as to why things are as they are seen in this account of super-lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

Ennio Morricone (Image: wikipedia.org)

Though there are certainly many movies with outstanding scores (not “soundtracks”), three that always come to mind are the “Dollars Trilogy” directed by Sergio Leone and scored by the brilliant Italian composer Ennio Morricone. In one segment that comes to mind, Morricone, composer and arranger of more than 500 movie and television scores, wrote and arranged a musical piece so perfectly matched to the visual that one can hardly imagine one without the other. The music alone is so rich, so well conceived and executed that it has been covered live in concert, complete with film excerpt, by the band Metallica, used as a concert closer by the Ramones and recorded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and orchestra leader Hugo Montenegro.

The music in mind comes near the end of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly when the long-searched-for-gold is close at hand. Blondie (Clint Eastwood), who harasses Tuco (Eli Wallach) through the entire film, begins firing cannon shots at him as he rides on a horse. Tuco is thrown from the horse and rolls into a headstone marking the cemetery which holds the gold. Tuco’s subsequent search is the visual accompanying Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold.” Enjoy.

Concept art for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Image: Disney

Based on the Lewis Carroll books, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, the story takes place 13 years after Alice’s first trip through the rabbit hole. Alice (Mia Wasikowska, Amelia) is set to be wed to a sniveling, digestively challenged Lord Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill). The reappearance of the white rabbit gives Alice the moment she needs to think about her impending engagement. Thus, another trip to Underland.

Much of the story follows the original stories: Alice’s shrinking and growing, the Mad Hatter’s tea party, the March Hare, the Tweedles, the Queen of Hearts, flamingo croquet mallets and the Jabberwocky. A Hollywood A-list fills out both the acting and vocal talent with Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena-Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd, Harry Potter movies) as the Queen of Hearts, Michael Sheen (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) as the white rabbit, Alan Rickman (Die Hard, Harry Potter movies) as Absalom the caterpillar and Christopher Lee (Lord of the Rings) as the Jabberwocky.

The Tweedles, the white rabbit and the Mad Hatter. Image: Disney

At its heart, Alice is a girl-empowerment movie. She is the only one who can slay the Jabberwocky; it has been foretold. Her facing off the with dragon brings to mind Eowyn’s victory against the Nazgul in The Return of the King. Alice is the strongest character, besides her deceased father, in the whole of the “real world.” It’s a dream big, swing for the fences, do not let anyone tell you that you can’t kind of film, but the packaging is much more fantastical than, say, The Blind Side.

While Alice in Wonderland is a kid’s movie, it will be enjoyed by adults as well and would not be a bad date movie.

Alice in Wonderland is rated PG for animated and human violence, some suspense, use of the word “bloody” and another word that I cannot remember.

Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) opened today. A creepy, dark (not to mention windy and rainy) adaptation of an exceptionally good novel, the 2+ hour faithful rendering will be a surprising movie to those who have not read the book but might be underwhelming to those who have.

Oscar-nominated Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond, The Departed) plays U. S. Marshal Teddy Daniels who, along with his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo, Collateral), are called upon to investigate the disappearance of a female patient at the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane located on Shutter Island. Shrouded in mystery and located some 12 miles from the Massachusetts coast, Ashecliffe houses the most violent of society’s criminals. Experimental treatment means that chemical lobotomies are not given first choice, rather genuine reform is attempted before psycho-pharmacological solutions are advanced.

The investigation would seem straightforward enough, except that the patient escaped from a 8×12 room having a single, barred window with the door locked from the outside. After escaping she managed to walk past seven orderlies playing cards in the break room before leaving the building.

Daniels and Aule begin their investigation immediately upon landing on Shutter Island, but find the doctors, nurses and orderlies less than cooperative. Individual questioning of the psychiatrists get almost nowhere and questioning of staff in a group results in more answers with attitude than answers that advance the investigation. Questioning of the inmates proves fruitless after a near flip-out by Daniels and a cryptic message from one murderess.

Set in a former Civil War fort, dorms and housing, the Ashecliffe complex is almost breathtaking, while the grounds, manicured by the inmates, are spotless. Escape from the institution is foolproof. Until a hurricane hits, that is.

Taking advantage of fractured walls and downed power lines, Daniels and Aule use the distractions to enter the locked down area of the campus, Ward C, where the most irredeemable criminals are located. It’s in Ward C that Daniels hopes to find the person that is the focus of his “off the books” investigation: the man who set the fire in which his own wife died.

Much of the story is told in nightmares as Daniels repeatedly sees the murdered children of the escaped woman whom he hunts. He also combats visions of both his wife and her murderer which, combined with stifling migraines, almost render him unable to run the investigation effectively.

The movie has a significant number of twists and turns and does have a mind-bending conclusion.

Still, I feel Shutter Island is a good movie, not a great one. The first half hour has editing that can only be described as jittery. At one point, DiCaprio swallows a couple of aspirin with some water, but the scene is cut too quickly, only to reveal him in a different position with the glass apparently gone. Another oddity is the film’s score. No music at all in some places where it might have helped the mood or the tone, heavy handed in other places and ham-fisted in a few places. Near the beginning is a benign scene of a car driving a few yards to approach a gate. It seems the score is trying to create a feeling of foreboding, but it has the effect of making the viewer wonder if a meteorite is about to hit.

Having skimmed some other reviews, I find myself somewhat in the minority. Roeper, Ebert and Rolling Stone are all quoted as duly impressed on the shutterisland.com site; I was not as impressed. (SI currently rates only 69% on Rotten Tomatoes-significantly less than stellar.) Though it has been several years since I read the book, I still felt it was far superior. However, when the plot twists are known in advance, it might just take away from the movie watching experience.

Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity, Shutter Island also stars Michelle Williams as Daniel’s wife, Dolores, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Max von Sydow and Emily Mortimer. Viewer be warned that the movie does have a scene of full male nudity. Although played in a decidedly non-sexual way and shot in shadow, genitals are clearly visible.

Shutter Island in paperback and in graphic novel can be purchased from Amazon.com below. You pay the same low price and support martyduren.com.

Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes Image: Warner Bros.

The theme of the story is the apparent resurrection of a Lord Blackwood, a murderous cult member convicted in the ceremonial death of five women. After being pronounced dead by hanging (by Watson himself) Blackwood’s tomb is found empty and more deaths ensue, especially some who might stand in Blackwood’s way of becoming the not-so-rightful leader of both England and America. Everything that Blackwood does gives the appearance of the dark arts which, combined with his apparent resurrection, strike fear into the hearts of Londoners with the police depending on Holmes and Watson to bring things to a solution.

Chris Strong as Blackwood (l) and Robert Downey, Jr, as Holmes in Sherlock Holmes

Overall, Sherlock Holmes is a fun film, but not a completely satisfying film. Much dialogue was unintelligible due to accents, mumbling or comments made under the breath of the one speaking. Since Holmes always-always-finds a logical reason for everything that he investigates, the supernatural aspect of the story could be dismissed at once by the viewer, while the explanations offered by Holmes depended on so much arcane information (which is typical of Doyle’s creation) that I thought, “How in the world is anyone supposed to figure this out?” Realistically we are not supposed to figure it out; we are supposed to be in awe of Holmes. All in all the film is worth a single viewing, though I will not buy the DVD when it becomes available.

Sherlock Holmes, from Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow Pictures, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of suggestive material. There are no swear words that I remember.

Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) in Avatar Image: 20th Century Fox

Moviegoers looking for deep meaning will likely be disappointed; this story has been told a thousand times in a hundred ways: underdogs win the day. Sam Worthington plays Jake Scully, a paraplegic, ex-Marine who, upon the death of his identical twin brother, finds himself on a five light-year mission from earth as part of a diplomatic effort. Diplomacy was needed on the distant planet of Pandora, where an abundance of “Unobtainium” (or that’s what it sounded like they were saying) is needed to power Earth which has been stripped of her own natural resources. A few humans had “avatars” developed which mixed their own DNA with that of the host race, the Na’vi, then, through a cerebral link, a la “The Matrix,” the human is able to control their avatar in the toxic atmosphere of Pandora.

Trained by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver, Alien Series), for working with his avatar, Scully is simultaneously recruited by the corporate security chief, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang, Public Enemies), to infiltrate the Na’vi and attempt to move them from their dwelling place, Hometree, underneath which lies the largest deposit of Unobtainium for “200 cliques.” Predictably, Scully falls in love with one of the natives, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana, Star Trek), and ends up rallying the troops to fight the invading bulldozers, tractors and other pillaging equipment.

Scully (Worthington) and Quaritch (Lang) takes a look at a schematic of the Na'vi Hometree Image: 20th Century Fox

The Na’vi themselves are twelve or so feet tall with long tails, carbon fiber skin and feline agility. In fact, they look like the cross-bred offspring of a jamboree of jaguars with The Blue Man Group. Culturally, they are African complete with Shamans, communication with dead ancestors, bows and arrows, adulthood rituals and loin cloths. Similar to Tolkein’s Elvish language for LOTR, an entire language system was developed for the Na’vi and it sounds like an African dialect. At its core the Na’vi could be any people whose land has ever been taken by a stronger people and exploited for the availability of some natural resource, whether that be the land itself (the American Indians), oil (Nigeria) or diamonds (Sierra Leone).

Generally the movie is anti-imperialistic and pro-environment; be forewarned, when you see the ultra-lush, spectacularly rendered vistas of Pandora, you’ll be pro-environment, too. Otherwise the human acting is nothing outstanding (other than Lang, who is the best of the bunch) and the storyline was obviously a vehicle for the special effects, rather than the effects carrying the story.

Also, I think it important to note that there is a very heavy pantheistic bent and open promotion of goddess worship. This is not an undertone; it makes up the central spiritual thread of the movie. Though Cameron may not believe these things himself, their presence mitigates against any real biblically redemptive quality.

(Lang is a largely under appreciated actor having played Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals but is better known for a significant part in one of the most quoted movies of the 1990′s. See if you can figure it out by his voice and features. I’ll put it on the first comment, so don’t look if you don’t want to know.)

Avatar, from 20th Century Fox, is rated PG-13 for language, violence, and scant CGI clothing on some most Na’vi.

Image: Alcon Entertainment

Having opened November 20, The Blind Side has already grossed nearly $150M in telling the story of Baltimore Ravens left tackle, Michael Oher (pronounced “oar,” Quinton Aaron), a former homeless high school kid from the projects of Memphis, who is brought into a family of a rich white people, the Tuohys (pronounced, “Two-ee”) and given a home. If that were the extent of this movie, then it would have easily and inevitably veered off into a sappy, Hallmark Channel vehicle, capturing only the attention of some bored kids on Saturday afternoon. But this is not a movie about white guilt or Republican racial angst. In the end, it’s a movie about the gospel.

The movie begins with a dozen or so replays of the Monday Night Football Lawrence Taylor hit on Joe Theismann that shattered the leg of and ended the career of the latter. This wince inducing video (I did not watch the replays then and I do not watch them now) is necessary to explain why Oher’s eventual football position, left tackle on the offensive line, is so important: it protects the quarterback’s blind side. Thus, the movie reasons, since the quarterback is generally the highest payed player on the team, the left tackle is the second most important player on the team.

We are quickly introduced to “Big Mike” as a hulking, but gentle presence whose worldly belongings are a light blue golf shirt, a pair of shorts and some old high top sneakers. His other shirt is kept in a grocery bag. He “borrows” dryer time at a local laundromat after washing his shirt in the sink for free. In another scene Big Mike is seen picking up leftover popcorn after the school volleyball game. He’s been away from his crack addicted mother since he cannot remember how old and ran away from every foster home he had ever called home. His case worker calls him “a runner.”

Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy in 'The Blind Side' Image: Alcon Entertainment

Interestingly, nearly the entire first half of the movie is devoted to telling the story of the relationship between the Tuohy’s and Oher: Thanksgiving dinner shared around the table instead of in front of the TV, being the only black kid in an all white Christian school (“the fly in the milk” as he is called at one point) while dealing with both his social and learning struggles. When the football portion of the movie comes to the fore, it does so well-the relationship story is not jettisoned for a bunch of hitting and grunting. On the contrary it works to strengthen it. (I will say that many of the real life coaches, Nick Saban especially, are woefully stiff on camera making Mark Richt’s turn in Facing the Giants seem downright Oscar worthy.)

It’s as Leigh Anne is drawn into Michael’s life, trying to peel back the layers of the onion that the movie becomes a picture of the gospel. She’s simply unwilling to be a bystander on the edge of his life. She drives him to the projects where he grew up in a vain attempt to find his mother, then endeavors to find her without him at another time. The end of that encounter says more without words than many scenes say with pages of dialogue. Instead of cutting to another scene when it would be easy, the director stays with it allowing it to reach a poignant climax.

The ministry of the gospel is so real in this movie that it does not depend on it being preached. It truly is an effort at Assisi’s, “Preach the gospel at all times and, when necessary, use words.” This is not a story specifically aimed at the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but whether the results of those momentous events can be lived out and how. In those words of Jesus that we love to proclaim, yet are usually loath to live, “For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me” (Matthew 25:35, 36).

When we exited the theater, Abigail and I were discussing the movie itself, that this is what a “Christian movie” should be, people in all their flaws. This is not the silly, shallow “the wind stops blowing so my kid can make a field goal” type of spirituality of Facing the Giants where “God’s in control” and everything works out in the end. While Oher is rescued and makes the NFL in real life (a fact saved almost until the credits), that revelation is preceded immediately by vivid reminders that many do not make it out of violent, gang related lives. It is the triumph and the challenge. The Tuohy’s both swear; not incessantly, but some. Leigh Anne wears skirts so tight you wonder how she gets any circulation in her butt. These are realities that make some Christians very uncomfortable, but it’s where people are–even believers. People are a mess–even believers. But, as Tuohy notes, reaching out to Michael changed her. Her family and Oher are alternately being the presence of Jesus and receiving His presence, which, I think, is why Jesus said, “Give expecting nothing in return.” It is not in the changing of another person that we are changed, it is in being like Christ that we are changed.

The Blind Side, by Alcon Entertainment, stars Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, Jae Head, Lilly Collins, Kathy Bates, and Ray McKinion. It is rated PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references.

Image: Dimension Films

With no explanation given, the earth has been reduced to a fire-prone, earthquake producing disaster area. All animals are gone, food is the most valuable commodity (as evidenced in one scene by a cash box still containing money, all of which is trodden on) and survival is a goal second only to remaining “good.” Director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) takes us to places most would rather not go as it, in the best tradition of the medium, causes us to consider what we would do in those same situations: Would we learn to eat bugs? Would be stoop to eating humans? Would we share with those in need if we knew our own resources were limited? Would be use our last bullet to kill our child if the only alternative was him being taken by cannibals? Would we disappear into the elements so the remaining supplies would last longer for the ones who remain?

Charlize Theron as The Woman in the film version of Cormac McCarthy's, The Road

The Man and The Boy, with cart, in The Road

Themes in The Road are far and wide and one that intrigues is how people will respond to other people in times of utter hopelessness and futility. Will Christians “love their neighbor” who is starving all the while knowing where a store of food is located? Will people become tribal, closing ranks with those who think like, look like and act like them to the opposition of everyone else? Would thievery become acceptable in the eyes of God, since no one would despise a man who stole bread to satisfy his soul when he was starving (Proverbs 6:30)?

Early on, The Man tells The Boy,

There are not many good guys left, that is all. We have to watch out for the bad guys. And we have to talk. Always. We have to just, you know, keep carrying the fire.

“Carrying the fire” is an image that hits home with The Boy as we see him remain all that we ourselves would hope to be, while watching The Man struggle with all that we would likely become.

Followers of Christ need to be aware, this is a dark and sometimes disturbing film. As our host, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary said, “This isn’t Fireproof. It’s No Country for Kirk Cameron.” It is a tale that uses the most base elements of fallen humanity and the ultimate corruption of a fallen creation to teach the value of hope, love, purity and sacrifice.

The Road is rated R for violence, language, nude rumps and thematic elements including murder, torture and cannibalism. It also stars Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Momento), Michael Kenneth Williams (Gone Baby Gone, Law and Order) and Robert Duvall (oh, just start naming films).