NYC Film Critic

I don’t remember watching full episodes of The Equalizer during its ’80s heyday, but I do have a dim memory of the ads that played between the shows I actually watched. As I recall, the generally featured lots of gunplay, the occasional explosion and the show’s gray-haired star, Edward Woodward, glowering into the camera. While I can’t accurately say if those “Next time on…” teasers accurately reflected the content of the show, they do more or less sum up what happens in the movie version, which offers two full hours of gunplay, explosions and Denzel Washington (taking over from Woodward) glowering into the camera. In that respect, The Equalizer could be considered an entirely faithful adaptation of its source material…or at least, the advertisements for its source material.

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The Iranian-born, London-based screenwriter Hossein Amini (his credits include Snow White and the Huntsman and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive) adds “director” to his resume with The Two Faces of January, a ’50s-era psychological thriller based on one of the lesser-known thrillers penned by Patricia Highsmith (author of The Talented Mr. Ripley among others). The movie, which is currently available on VOD and opens in theaters on Friday, stars Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst as a married couple who get in hot water while vacationing in Greece and Oscar Isaac as the low-level street criminal who lends them a hand…mainly so that he can cozy up to Dunst. I spoke with Amini before sitting down to talk with Mortensen for a Q&A that’s posted over on Yahoo Movies and you can read some excerpts from our conversation below.

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Liam Neeson takes aim at a brainier kind of action movie in A Walk Among the Tombstones.

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Quick takes on two smaller movies, now in theaters.

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Bryan Singer gives the X-Men franchise, and his own career, a much-needed adamantinum shot in the arm.

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Some thoughts on two very different movies currently playing in theaters.

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X-Men: First Class
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Screenplay by Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence
***

Fifth in production order but technically second in terms of continuity, X-Men: First Class, the latest feature starring Marvel Comics’ not-so-merry band of mutants, acts as a prequel to the first three X-pictures while running vaguely parallel to that Wolverine movie that stunk up theaters two summers ago.

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The Tree of Life
Written and Directed by Terrence Malick
Starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Sean Penn
****

Terrence Malick’s reclusive nature coupled with his infrequent forays into filmmaking guarantees that when he does make a movie, the anticipation level amongst his modest, but devoted fanbase will run high.  Even by Malick’s standards though, the excitement surrounding the director’s fifth feature The Tree of Life has been particularly intense.

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Kung Fu Panda 2
Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger
Starring Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan
***

When they first opened their doors in the late ‘90s, DreamWorks Animation initially tried to match Disney and the newly ascendant Pixar prestige picture for prestige picture.  Than a little blockbuster called Shrek came along and the studio promptly developed a new M.O.: creating pop-culture savvy comedies packed with big-name vocal talent.  2008’s Kung Fu Panda was one of the more successful of their post-Shrek efforts, a fleet-footed and cheerful send-up of chopsocky martial arts movies starring a menagerie of cute animals led by the titular kung fu fighting panda, Po (voiced by Jack Black).

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Bridesmaids
Directed by Paul Feig
Written by Kristen Wiig and Anne Mumolo
Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy
***1/2

There’s no way to say this without sounding hyperbolic, but the new Judd Apatow-produced, Paul Feig-directed comedy Bridesmaids is the closest I’ve seen a studio comedy come to channeling the Marx Brothers in some time.  Now mind you, I don’t mean to place Bridesmaids in rarefied company of such classics as Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera or Animal Crackers.  But what this movie has in common with those classics is the skillful way it escalates its comic set-pieces, upping the ante as the scene unfolds.  Take the immortal stateroom sequence from A Night at the Opera, which opens in a perfectly ordinary way, with Groucho, Chico and Harpo crammed into a tiny cabin aboard a big ocean liner.  Gradually, more and more people start entering the space (maids, janitors, manicurists) and attempt to go about their tasks despite the lack of room.  The energy and choreographed chaos of the scene continues to build until it reaches its final punchline—Margaret Dumont opening the door—and the audience erupts in laughter.

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