FILM REVIEW OF ''PRIEST'' (2011)

"Legion" director Scott Charles Steward and actor Paul Bettany have teamed up for sloppy seconds in the supernatural/horror/fantasy action chiller "Priest," with Karl Urban, Christopher Plummer, Maggie Q, and Brad Dourif. This grim $60 million cinematic adaptation of Korean author Min-Woo Hyung's graphic novel shares comparatively little in common with its multi-storied source material. The novel takes place in three settings: modern times, the Crusades, and the Wild West. Meanwhile, Steward's film confines itself to modern times. Nowhere in Hyung's graphic novel do vampires lurk so this Screen Gems' release departs radically with its choice of supernatural creatures. Interestingly, the graphic novel boasted zombies rather than vampires. What "Priest" does share is the off-beat and unusual mingling of the Western with supernatural horror and dark fantasy themes.

"Priest" (**½ out of ****) concerns a daring mission to rescue an innocent damsel-in-distress that bloodthirsty vampires have abducted. This far-fetched but interesting actioneer occurs in an alternate universe where mankind and vampires have been killing each other for centuries. The premise that Steward and freshman scribe Cory Goodman conjure up seems contradictory. This anonymous replica of Earth spawned vampires and the vampires proved so formidable an adversary that they defied flame-throwers, field artillery, and automatic weapons. Basically, these primeval creatures routed the best that modern science could forge to combat them. Mankind teetered on the brink of annihilation until the Church deployed the warrior monks. Although it doesn't dominate the elaborately-knit narrative, the heroes are comparable to martial arts warriors imbued with a religious ideology. In an interview, Steward compared the Priests to the Jedi Knights of the "Star Wars" franchise. The primary drawback to "Priest" is that Steward and Goodman never adequate develop the subhuman vampires. They merely provide a glimpse and rely entirely on dynamic CGI to make them look intimidating as opponents.

The “Priest” protagonist (Paul Bettany of “Legion”) belongs to an elite cadre of ninja-like warriors. These men and women dress like medieval monks in cassocks. They wear a cross tattooed on their foreheads and their noses. The Catholic Church commissioned them to destroy the vampires after all conventional military industrial methods failed. They saved society, but they were cast out when hostilities concluded and their services were no longer required. The enemy vampires aren't a romantic breed like the "Twilight" fangsters. Instead, they are a pasty-faced bunch of blind creatures, reminiscent those monsters in "Descent," that leap and lunge. Indeed, these mutants can tear a man in half. Often, Steward springs them out of nowhere for maximum fright effect. Some stand upright, but these shun evening clothes. However, they don’t turn men into vampires. The only one capable of this is the Queen Vampire; she is a creature, too. The vampires remain mankind’s mortal enemy, and sunlight is mankind’s best weapon.

The humans in “Priest” reside within dystopian cities enclosed in towering walls like a medieval castle. The cities inside resemble those in the seminal sci-fi thriller "Blade Runner," while the lands beyond the city look like something out of a Sergio Leone Spaghetti western. When the story unfolds, the vampires are all believed dead, and the autocratic Monsignor Orelas (Christopher Plummer of "Dracula 2000") has disbanded the priest units for fear they might turn against them. The Catholic Church rules this amoral world and maintains that all vampires have been destroyed. Our eponymous hero suspects this may not be entirely true and discovers first-hand not all the vampires were killed. He is haunted by an episode from the war when he lost a comrade (Karl Urban of "Red") during an attack on a vampire hive. After Monsignor Orelas dismisses him, our hero learns that his brother’s 18-year old daughter, Lucy (Lily Collins of "The Blind Side"), has been kidnapped when vampires raided her house and slaughtered her parents. This scene evokes the vintage John Ford western "The Searchers." Monsignor Orelas refuses to endorse our hero’s mission because it would make the Church appear flawed. Orelas sends out four priests to arrest the protagonist. A local lawman (Cam Gigandet of "Easy A") accompanies the Priest on the search because he loves Lily. Meanwhile, three of the priests who served with our hero are killed by a mysterious vampire who calls himself ‘Black Hat.’

Essentially, "Priest" qualifies as an entertaining pastiche of far better films. In fact, Steward has acknowledged his debt to the John Wayne classic "The Searchers." For the most part, Steward does a splendid job of recycling surefire elements from those films and inserting them in his own movie. Comparisons between “Priest” and the “Underworld” franchise are inevitable. The movie poster has Paul Bettany perched high up on a ledge just as Kate Beckinsale was in “Underworld.“ These two heroes are warriors who have taken a vow to destroy their enemies. They work for a dictatorial boss who serves as their father. Despite its appalling dearth of originality, this polished supernatural horror epic looks terrific. “Forrest Gump” lenser Don Burgess makes “Priest” appear like a cross-between of a Spaghetti western and the “Mad Max” movies. Burgess maximizes the grit in the rugged, dusty, and dirty ‘wastelands’ scenes, while he delivers a film noir like look to the cityscapes. “Priest” has all the trappings of an art-house epic. The use of 3-D adds little to the action, particularly since "Priest" had been converted to 3-D rather than lensed in the process. The settings are pretty creepy, especially the portal toilet like confessionals that armed guards patrol. The CGI-vampires make an intimidating adversary because they strike so swiftly without quarter. Happily, the cast maintains a straight-face in spite of these incredible, larger-than-life shenanigans. The producers were undoubtedly hoping to milk the material for a sequel since the ending leaves things wide open for something else. No, “Priest” isn’t as good as the earlier Steward & Bettany campy opus “Legion.” Nothing that happens in the above-average “Priest” can top the gnarly old lady crawling on the ceiling like a human fly.

FILM REVIEW OF ''FAST FIVE" (2011)

As the fourth sequel in "The Fast and the Furious" franchise, "Five Fast" (***1/2 out of ****) combines elements of a Tom Cruise "Mission Impossible" epic as well as the George Clooney, Brad Pitt & Matt Damon "Ocean's Eleven" outings. Our high-octane protagonists have fled south to Rio de Janeiro. They plan to steal a fortune in cold cash from Brazil’s most dangerous man because he framed them for murder. Swift, swerving, snappy reflex driving constitutes an integral part of this careening carefree narrative. Mind you, the larger-than-life heist and the way our heroes not only prepare but also pull it off absorbs about half of the film’s brisk 130 minutes. Justin Lin and his three-time “Fast and Furious” collaborator scenarist Chris Morgan have raised the stakes again so they can top “Fast & Furious” and they’ve done a splendid job of topping the previous epic. When Dominic Toretto and Brian O‘Conner aren’t tangling with murderous Brazilian thugs, they must contend with an incorruptible good guy. Tenacious Federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson of “Doom“) vows to hunt them down and apprehend them and he never quits. Literally, our heroes are between a ‘Rock’ and a hard place!

“The Fast and the Furious” franchise has evolved over the last decade from illegal street racing done in conjunction with some crime. Initially, the speeders hijacked eighteen-wheelers for their loads. Since “Fast & Furious,” they have involved themselves in bigger crimes. The life & death heist here is as outlandish as it is audacious. Indeed, “Fast Five” surpasses “Fast & Furious” for no other reason than its final 30 minutes overshadows everything before it. No, Toretto and O’Connor couldn’t have gotten away with their ambitious scheme in real life any more than they could navigate those tunnels without accident in “Fast & Furious.” Nevertheless, Lin and Morgan make their strenuous efforts look like a lot of fun, something that the tunnel racing sequences lacked.

“Fast Five” opens where “Fast & Furious” ended. Dominic ‘Dom’ Toretto (Vin Diesel of “xXx”) has been sentenced to 25 years in Lompoc prison. Former FBI agent Paul O’Connor (Paul Walker of “Into the Blue”) and Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster of “Annapolis”) along with another driver wreck the prison bus in route so Dom can escape. Incredibly, nobody is hurt in the accident. The opening gambit in the previous movie “Fast & Furious” was so good it made the rest of it appear anti-climactic, but this isn’t the case in “Fast Five.” The idea of a convict escaping in a moving prison bus was done better in the Jean-Claude Van Damme escapade “Nowhere to Run.” Nevertheless, by not showing what actually happened when the bus flipped, the filmmakers probably saved a bundle on eliminating the aftermath of the crash. Make no mistake, Lin and Morgan top themselves in “Fast Five.”

Once O’Connor and Mia have Dom sprung, they are approached by Dom’s childhood friend Vince (Matt Schulze of “Blade 2”) about a railroad heist where they will steal some sports cars. This heist is more like the opening gambit in “Fast & Furious.” A wrecker cruises up alongside a train and the thieves cut an oblong hole in the freight car containing the vehicles. They propel the cars sideways out onto the wrecker’s ramp and then lower the ramp so the drivers can back down off it and peel away in a cloud of dust. Of course, nothing can go smoothly in a heist movie. Our heroes discover that the DEA have impounded the cars and their native gun-toting accomplices refuse to let the DEA thwart them. The Brazilian gunmen kill the DEA agents without a qualm, while our heroes are incriminated for the killings. Dom helps O’Connor get off the train, but Dom plummets his convertible into a river.

The Feds dispatch Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson of “Faster”) to capture Toretto and O’Connor. Meanwhile, Dom concocts an incredible plan to take over a $100-million from the man whose killers gunned down the DEA agents. In South America, crooked entrepreneur Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almedia of “Desperado”) rules the country. Reyes gets whatever he demands. Our heroes find a computer chip in a sports cars that contains a treasure-trove of information about all of Reye’s cash stashes. Dom urges them to pull ‘one last job’ and rob Reyes blind. Our protagonists assemble a racing team that includes O’Connor’s childhood friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson of “2 Fast 2 Furious”), Tej Parker (Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges of “2 Fast 2 Furious”), Han Lue (Sung Kang of “Tokyo Drift”), former Israeli intelligence agent Gisele Harabo (Gal Gadot of “Fast & Furious”), and a couple of others. Dom and company strike the first of Reye’s safe houses. Reye’s men watch in horror as our heroes burn the money. Immediately, Reye relocates his fortune to the downtown police station. He locks it up in a vault that can only be opened with his hand print. If you’ve seen the trailer for “Fast Five,” you know they steal the entire vault and then drag it like a wrecking ball through town so the finale looks like a demolition derby.

Ultimately, “Fast Five” is about having a good time. Again, the heroes are the underdogs, while the villains are thoroughly treacherous. The Rock shows up as a good guy caught in the middle. He is wants to capture our heroes because they are his quarry. Of course, the fast driving scenes thrive on adrenalin-pacing. The numerous gunfights, however, lack the spontaneity that somebody, like gifted British director Paul Greengrass brought to the last two “Bourne” thrillers and “Green Zone” with Matt Damon. Naturally, the Brazilian scenery is fabulous, and “Fast Five” serves as a travelogue when Lin and Morgan aren’t wrapping expository scenes about the heist around our ears. Like most energetic big, dumb action films, “Fast Five” packs several surprises that change everything and make you yearn for a fifth sequel. Be advised, don’t leave the theater until the entire end credits roll, you’re definitely in for a surprise. “Fast Five” reunites virtually everybody and then some who have survived all previous epics.

FILM REVIEW OF ''DEATH RACE 2" (2010)

"Pistol Whipped" director Roel Reiné's straight-to-video sequel "Death Race 2" serves as a prequel to Paul Wes Anderson's "Death Race." Consequently, although it bears the numeral 2 in its title, "Death Race 2" (**1/2 out of ****) is actually the first "Death Race." Reiné and "Chaos" scenarist Tony Giglio, working from a story by Paul W.S. Anderson and Giglio, establish the origins of this amoral auto carnage epic that takes place in a maximum security prison. Fans of the first "Death Race" will be gratified to know that Reiné and Giglio have made conscientious linkages to the theatrical 2008 Jason Statham actioneer by foreshadowing the presence of the future female warden of Terminal Island, Hennessey (Joan Allen), while both Frederick Koehler as Lists and Robin Shou as 14 K reprise their roles from the first film. Of course, director Roger Corman's ultra-low-budget futuristic thriller "Death Race," which co-starring both David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone from 1975, inspired the brawny Anderson remake and this direct-to-video release. Although it lacks the budget of its predecessor, "Death Race 2" ranks as an above-average epic that delivers enough careening thrills and vicious villains to distract you from the fact that it is a quickie fueled by the success of the first film. It doesn't hurt matters that Anderson and Giglio co-wrote the story and Giglio stuck around for this prequel/sequel. The cast is solid, with Luke Goss making a believable as well as sympathetic hero, while Sean Bean, Lauren Cohen, and Deobia Oparei make dastardly villains. They are the kind of bad people that you enjoy watching as they go down for their crimes. The other two big names, Ving Rhames and Danny Trejo occupy the sidelines and don't figure prominently in the hard-hitting action.

As "Death Race 2" opens, the following preamble appears: "In the future, the U.S. prison system reaches a breaking point. Private corporations take over all Federal Correctional Facilities. They are now run for profit. The Weyland Corporation is the new owner of Terminal Island Penitentiary." When we see the Terminal Island lock-up for the first time, a riot breaks out fueled by racial tension and it is broadcast on television. The action shifts to the heavily-guarded estate of crime boss Markus Kane (Sean Bean of "GoldenEye") who is paying off a wager to his long-term employee Carl 'Luke' Lucas (Luke Goss of "Charlie") while they discuss a bank heist that Kane's nephew Vinnie has brought to him. Kane treats Carl like a brother. He goes so far as to give him a money clip; according to Kane, the money clip was first thing that he bought when he immigrated to America. Afer they discuss the bank job, Kane present Carl with an aggressive looking Orange Ford Mustang that has undergone the Shelby conversion so it looks terrific. When Carl questions the concept of driving such a conspicuous car, Kane observes that the one who stand out the most are the least conspicuous. While the impromptu bank robbery is going down, Carl waits for Vinnie and company outside the bank. Carl spots trouble when two uniformed cops park in front of him and enter the building. The cops interrupt Vinnie and company in the middle of the hold-up, but Carl distracts them and ends up killing one. Afterward, Carl leads the cops on a careening auto chase, finally depositing Vinnie and his partner when he can safely do it before resuming his flight from a growing number of black and whites. Before he drops Vinnie off, Vinnie lobs several hand grenades into the on-coming police cruisers and flips them. Eventually, Carl winds up on a freeway that hasn't been completed and the authorities corner him. Presto, he winds up in Terminal Island. The district attorney makes Carl and talk and walk offer to inform on the notorious Markus Kane. Our honorable protagonist refuses to rat out his boss. Meanwhile, a paranoid Kane decides that he cannot trust Carl now that he is an inmate because prison exerts changes on a man over which he has no control.

Initially, the Weyland Corporation begins broadcasting pay-per-view gladiatorial showdowns dubbed 'Death Matches' between two prisoners who fight to the death or submission so the corporation can net high ratings. During these matches, the prisoners are provided with opportunities to arm themselves with weapons if they step on shields that allow them to appropriate those weapons. Virtually, every one of Weyland's businesses is floundering, except his pay-per-view competitions on Terminal Island. When these broadcasts fail to yield consistently high ratings, unscrupulous Weyland Corporation employee September Jones comes up with an idea for the races. September Jones is an interesting character. She is a beautiful woman who won the Miss Universe beauty pageant title, but she lost it when she was accused of having used her charms on all five judges. The corporate head (Ving Rhames) modifies Jones' proposal so that any convict—no matter how reprehensible--who wins five races will have their sentence commuted. Goldberg (Danny Trejo of "Machete") serves as Carl pit team crew chief. Goldberg—a Mexican Jew—is assisted by Lists (Frederick Koehler) and Rocco (Joe Vaz of "10,000 B.C."). Jones assembles the convicts and explains that there are only nine cars and everybody scrambles to acquire a ride. What they don't know and what neither Reiné nor Giglio do an adequate job of explaining is how the woman wind up acting as the riders with the drivers.

Carl winds up driving a 5-speed manual Fifth-generation Ford Mustang, armed with dual M134 Miniguns for offense, and a smoke screen, napalm, and oil slick for defense,[6] as well as a 6-inch-thick (150 mm) detachable steel plate on the rear bumper called 'The Tombstone.' Triad driver 14 K (Robin Shou) commandeers a Porsche 911. This is five-speed manual vehicle with a stock 2.7L six-cylinder engine, enforced with dual World War II German MG-42 belt-fed general purpose machine guns, four hood-mounted missiles, and four missiles on the roof. The worst convict of them all, African-American prisoner Big Bill (Deobia Oparei)steers a 5-speed automatic truck with a 5.7L V8 Hemi engine, armed with a cowcatcher, four hood-mounted Browning M1919s, two side-mounted Vulcan cannons, and Russian RPG-7s. At one point, Bill blows up his own pit crew. Xander Grady drives a Buick Riviera turbo three-speed automatic with a 430C.I. V8 engine. Grady’s Riviera is enforced with German MG-34s, Uzis, and PPSH-41 submachine guns. Hill Billy drives a four-speed, BMW automatic with a six-cylinder engine, built out of bullet-resistant steel. The rest of the competitors drive equally elaborate vehicles with an arsenal of weapons.

Reiné manages to keep the muscular action snapping along at a breakneck pace with minimal nudity and profanity. All of the villains richly deserve the demises that they get and "Death Race 2" ends just as our hero is converted into the metal mask wearing adversary. The screenplay contains more nuance that this kind of exploitation nonsense usually boasts, especially in the rivalry between the Triad inmate and a white supremacist. Luke Goss resembles Jason Statham with his shaved head and muscular pared down physique. Oddly enough, Danny Trejo is given nothing brutal to do; he stands around and makes jokes about being the last Mexican Jew. Compared to most straight-to-video sequels, "Death Race 2" is worth watching.

FILM REVIEW OF ''SCREAM 4" (2011)

The "Scream" film franchise carved a memorable niche out of the slasher movie genre between the years 1996 to 2000. Not only did the original "Scream" trilogy qualify as a hoot because it ridiculed genre classics such as "Halloween," "Friday the 13th," “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," but it was also a holler since it delivered its sadism with smarts that the grisly classics shunned. "Scream" director Wes Craven and scenarist Kevin Williamson have waited a little over a decade to reboot the franchise with the latest installment. Judging from its dearth of creativity, “Scream 4” (**1/2 out of ****) doesn't deliver enough of anything to whet our appetite for a fifth entry. Mind you, the production values are solid and the gore is more than adequate, it's primarily the story that leaves something to be desired. Craven and Williamson have bled the franchise of its cutting edge spontaneity while other more potent franchises, such as the hilarious "Scary Movie" series and the sadistic "Saw" sagas, have emerged to make the "Scream" movies appear prudish by comparison. Although original survivor Neve Campbell, small-town Barney Fife sheriff David Arquette, and savvy news reporter Courteney Cox reprise their roles, their presence adds only minimal novelty to this thawed-out, run-of-thrill chiller. Nevertheless, the insightful cinematic criticism that permeated the original trilogy remains just as razor-sharp in "Scream 4." The new technology, such as Twitter, web streaming, and smart phone applications that enable callers to garble their voices like Ghostface, is clever, but none substantially strengthen the threadbare plot. Chiefly, the motive that the new killers espouse to resume their homicide for the hell of it is hopelessly lackluster. Indeed, sitting through the thoroughly repetitive "Scream 4" is like attending a high school reunion where your old classmates have invited their offspring to enliven the occasion.

Craven and Williamson jump start the action with five startling murders that follow one another in rapid succession with harrowing twists. Indeed, the filmmakers rely on those creepy phone calls from an anonymous caller (voiced by Roger L. Jackson) to the girls about their favorite scary movies. Actresses Anna Paquin of "X-Men" fame, Kristen Bell of TV's "Veronica Mars," and Heather Graham of "Scream 2" pop up in cameos during these opening gambits. Basically, they have modified a skillful tactic that director John Landis deployed with considerable effect in his legendary 1981 chiller "An American Werewolf in London." After the opening credits subside, we find ourselves back in the bucolic small town of Woodsboro as Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell of "The Craft") returns as a part of her publicity tour for her new self-help tome "Out of the Darkness." Remember, Sidney was the sole survivor girl in the original trilogy. We learn that Deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") has been promoted to sheriff, while investigative journalist Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox of TV's "Cougar Town") has given up her old job to settle down with Dewey as his wife while she writes exploitation novels about the Woodsboro murders. No sooner has Sidney shown up for her book promotion tour than Dewey and his deputy Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton of "Never Been Kissed"), careen up in their cruisers to find the cell phone of a recently slain Woodsboro teenager in the trunk of our heroine's rental car.

Although Sheriff Riley and Deputy Hicks struggle to keep a tight lid on the double homicide of high school teens Jenny Randall (Aimee Teegarden of TV's "Hannah Montana") and Marnie Cooper (Brittany Robertson of "Dan in Real Life"), everybody at Woodsboro High School knows about the murders before lunch. As tragic as the news is, the scene in a classroom where virtually the entire student body responds to their chiming cell phones is rather amusing. Since Sidney is a material witness in the case, Dewey demands that she stick around until he can clear up the mystery. She winds up staying with her aunt Kate Roberts (Mary McDonnell of "Dances With Wolves") and cousin Jill (Emma Roberts of "Nancy Drew") while a psychotic murderer decked out in a black cape with Edvard Munch mask stabs its way through hapless teens. The most likely suspect is Jill's ex-boyfriend Trevor Sheldon (Nico Tortorella of "Twelve") who cheated on her. Jill's two friends, Olivia Morris (Marielle Jaffe of "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief") and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere of TV's "Heroes"), run interference for her against the ubiquitous Trevor who appears to be stalking her.

Like previous "Scream" epics, "Scream 4" boasts two nerdy characters, Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin of "Signs") and Robbie Mercer (Erik Knudsen of "Beastly"), who serve as trivial pursuit connoisseurs on horror movies. The charm of the original "Scream" trilogy was that everybody suspected who was going to die next based on the conventions of the slasher genre. If you pay careful attention to the characters and the action, you can figure out who is behind the murders, but Craven and Williamson do a good job of seeding the plot with red herrings to throw you off the scent. The running joke here is that gay characters enjoy a greater chance of survival than heterosexual characters. Ultimately, this isn't the case. Everybody who congregates around the new Sidney--Jill--and her ex-boyfriend Trevor stands an excellent chance of dying. The problem with all this shrewdly staged nonsense is that none of the old rules apply. None of the teens is involved in illicit relationships that make them vulnerable to a serial killer. Primarily, they become victims when they are isolated in a house, and the sheriff deputies sent to protect them fare no better as our killer doesn't discriminate against them when it comes time to stab. The biggest problem is that none of the new teens make very interesting characters and the thespians that portray them lack charisma. Finally, the last quarter-hour is worse than a classic slasher as things grow repetitively far-fetched, and "Scream 4" draws this finale out to absurd lengths. Although it isn't a total waste of time, "Scream 4" suffers from over-familiarity and needless self-referentialism.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE WILD ONE" (1953)

“Death of a Salesman” director László Benedek’s crime melodrama “The Wild One” (**1/2 out of ****) qualifies as the first outlaw motorcycle movie. Columbia Pictures released this seminal Hollywood epic, and Benedek and two-time Oscar winning cinematographer Hal Mohr lensed it primarily on the studio’s backlot, using a setting that was featured in many of its Randolph Scott westerns. Brooklyn-born producer Stanley Kramer, who sought to raise social consciousness throughout his career by tackling controversial subject matter, is remembered for several acclaimed films, such as “The Defiant Ones” (1958), “On the Beach” (1959), “Inherit the Wind” (1960), “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961), “Ship of Fools’ (1965) and “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner” (1967). “Murder, My Sweet” scenarist John Paxton based his screenplay on a true-life, Fourth of July weekend incident in Hollister, California, in 1947. Ostensibly, “Harper’s Magazine” published author Frank Rooney’s short story about the event, “The Cyclists' Raid,” in its January 1951 issue. Like most true-life stories, Kramer, Benedek, and Paxton dramatically enlivened events because little of what they depicted occurred during the actual event. This tale of rebellion was so intense when it first came out that the British Board of Film Censors banned it from being shown in England until the late 1960s! Indeed, the filmmakers open the film with a forward that states: “This is a shocking story. It could never take place in most American towns - but it did in this one. It is a public challenge not to let it happen again.”

Marlon Brando plays Johnny Strabler and sports sideburns. He wears a black leather bomber jacket with epaulets and his name stenciled across the left side. All of Johnny’s riders have the symbol of a skull with two pistons criss-crossed beneath it on the backs of their leather jackets. Johnny leads the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. After they disrupt a motorcycle rally race in the nearby town, Johnny and his gang roll into the sleepy little town of Wrightsville where most of the action transpires. While they are in town, the BRMC riders guzzle lots of beer at Bleeker’s Café, cause a wreck on main street, and brawl in the street. An elderly man, Art Kleiner (Will Wright of “All the King's Men”), tools into town in his Ford when a group of cyclists plan to drag for beers. As they roar into the street, Kleiner swerves to avoid them and smashes his front fender on a telephone pole. One of Johnny’s riders, Crazy (Gene Peterson of “Hiawatha”) slams into Art’s Ford and injures his ankle. Initially, the locals embrace them, but the BRMC wear out their welcome quickly when they enrage a high-profile citizen, Charlie Thomas (Hugh Sanders of “The Pride of St. Louis”), when they tip his car over. Somebody mentions that Charlie has always been a bully since the third grade and he uses his standing in the town to respond to the threat that he feels the bikers pose. By the time that this has happened, a rival motorcycle gang, the Beetles, lead by Chino (Lee Marvin of “The Big Heat”) cruise into town. Chino steals a second place trophy that one of Johnny’s riders stole for him from the race. They are beating each other up when Charlie decides to move his car through the crowded streets. The local lawman, Sheriff Harry Bleeker (Robert Keith of “Duel of Champions”) does his best to look the other way, but he is forced by the townspeople to throw Chino in jail. Johnny complains about Charlie Thomas, but Charlie is such a big-wig that Harry refuses to jail him.

Marlon Brando plays Johnny Strabler and sports sideburns. He wears a black leather bomber jacket with epaulets and his name stenciled across the left side. All of Johnny’s riders have the symbol of a skull with two pistons criss-crossed beneath it on the backs of their leather jackets. Johnny leads the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. After they disrupt a motorcycle rally race in the nearby town, Johnny and his gang roll into the sleepy little town of Wrightsville where most of the action transpires. While they are in town, the BRMC riders guzzle lots of beer at Bleeker’s Café, cause a wreck on main street, and brawl in the street. An elderly man, Art Kleiner (Will Wright of “All the King's Men”), tools into town in his Ford when a group of cyclists plan to drag for beers. As they roar into the street, Kleiner swerves to avoid them and smashes his front fender on a telephone pole. One of Johnny’s riders, Crazy (Gene Peterson of “Hiawatha”) slams into Art’s Ford and injures his ankle. Initially, the locals embrace them, but the BRMC wear out their welcome quickly when they enrage a high-profile citizen, Charlie Thomas (Hugh Sanders of “The Pride of St. Louis”), when they tip his car over. Somebody mentions that Charlie has always been a bully since the third grade and he uses his standing in the town to respond to the threat that he feels the bikers pose. By the time that this has happened, a rival motorcycle gang, the Beetles, lead by Chino (Lee Marvin of “The Big Heat”) cruise into town. Chino steals a second place trophy that one of Johnny’s riders stole for him from the race. They are beating each other up when Charlie decides to move his car through the crowded streets. The local lawman, Sheriff Harry Bleeker (Robert Keith of “Duel of Champions”) does his best to look the other way, but he is forced by the townspeople to throw Chino in jail. Johnny complains about Charlie Thomas, but Charlie is such a big-wig that Harry refuses to jail him.

Later, Charlie mobilizes a vigilante committee, and they track down Johnny and beat him up. Things turn ugly when the motorcycle gangsters run Dorothy, the telephone operator, out of her office and nobody can get through to the state police. By this time, Frank Bleeker (Ray Teal of "Ace in the Hole") regrets having had anything to do with Johnny and his ruffians. Frank owns the local café and his niece Kathie Bleeker (Mary Murphy of "Live Fast, Die Young") has attracted Johnny's attention. During a scene in the café, a hair stylist dancing with one of Johnny's riders asks him what he is rebelling against with his outlaw gang. Johnny has no clue, "What do you got?" At one point, a gang of motorcyclists corner Kathie in a back ally, but Johnny roars in to her rescue and they later have brief romantic entanglement where they kiss. After Johnny has dropped her off, the vigilantes attack him. Eventually, Johnny escapes, but he is pursued by dozens of townspeople. Johnny races onto main street and somebody slings a tire iron at him. The tire iron strikes Johnny and knocks him off his cycle. The unmanned cyclist careens into a crowd of spectators and an old man, Jimmy (William Vedder of "The Senator Was Indiscreet"), dies when the bike hits him. Johnny barely misses going to jail when Sheriff Stew Singer (Jay C. Flippen of "Jet Pilot") arrives with two carloads of deputies. Based on some last minute testimony, Singer releases Johnny, but warns him, "I don't know if there's any good in you. I don't know if there's anything in you. But, I'm gonna take a big fat chance... and let you go." Johnny and the two motorcycle gangs leave town. Later, Johnny slips back into town alone and gives Kathie the stolen trophy. They smile and "The Wild One" concludes.

“The Wild One” went on to inspire a number of outlaw motorcycle gang movies, including “The Wild Angels” (1966), with Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, and Nancy Sinatra; “Hells Angels on Wheels” (1967) and “Rebel Rousers” with Jack Nicholson; “The Born Losers,” and the most prestigious biker movie “Easy Rider” (1969), with Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson. Eventually, all-female biker gang movie appeared, including “The Hellcats,” (1967), “She-Devils on Wheels” (1968), “The Miniskirt Mob” (1968), “Sisters in Leather” (1969), “Angels' Wild Women” (1972), and “Cycle Vixens” (1978). Mind you, although it was pretty disturbing for 1950s' audiences, "The Wild One" is so tame now that it will be difficult for 21st century viewers to wonder how such an insignificant film could have sparked the genre.

FILM REVIEW OF ''SUCKER PUNCH" (2011)

Watching “Sucker Punch” (**1/2 OUT OF ****) may feel like the equivalent of a frontal lobotomy. “Watchmen” director Zack Snyder’s bizarre, babes-in-bondage, fantasy epic imitates Terry Gilliam’s far darker, Orwellian, science-fiction satire “Brazil.” Like “Brazil” (1985), “Sucker Punch” taps into the fertile imagination--where anything goes--of an individual--a single, white, female here--before a doctor performs a lobotomy on her at a corrupt mental institution. This ensemble, female-empowerment, chick flick arms Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jamie Chung to the teeth with samurai swords, sub-machine guns, automatic pistols, and attitude galore as they slash, shoot, and kick their way through a hellzapoppin' variety of “Heavy Metal” escapades with wizen Scott Glenn briefing them about each mission. Of course, their fetish costumes and make-up are as immaculate as the situations that they encounter. This PG-13 rated movie rarely grovels in blood, guts, and gore, and the crisply staged violence is nowhere as savage as “Saving Private Ryan.” Meanwhile, the adventures that Baby Doll and her accomplices embark on before her lobotomy will make you feel like you’ve been plunged into a swirling vortex of popular culture imagery. This imagery ranges from doll-faced manga-influenced comics to high-stepping musicals like “Moulin Rouge,” to strange sword & sorcery sagas with vengeful mother dragons, to actual events like World War I trench warfare with Zeppelins air ships that burst into high-octane orange explosions. The soldiers in the World War I sequence are thoroughly ominous-looking, steam-powered German zombie-cyborgs. Every time that either a bullet strikes them or a sword blade gashes them, steam erupts in pneumatic jets from their uniformed bodies.

“Sucker Punch” takes place in the 1960s. The prologue that establishes our heroine’s predicament blends the creepy look of E.C. Comics with gritty Hollywood B-movies about woman behind bars. Baby Doll (Australian actress Emily Browning of “Ghost Ship“) and her younger sister discover their mother dead in her bedroom. Later, Baby Doll’s wicked stepfather (Gerard Plunkett of “2012”) flies into a rage when he reads his wife’ will. He gets nothing, while the two daughters get everything. The furious stepfather decides to rape the younger daughter. First, he locks Baby Doll in her bedroom. Second, he kicks down the door to the younger girl’s room. After she breaks out of her room on the second floor during a storm, Baby Doll grabs a gun from downstairs to kill him. Accidentally, she misses the stepfather and tragically blasts her young sister. In no time at all, the stepfather has Baby Doll committed to the spooky Lennox House for the Mentally Insane in Vermont. Snyder films this entire opening gambit as if it were an extended MTV rock video. An asylum orderly, the slimy Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac of “The Nativity Story”), demands that the stepfather pay him $2,000 to forge the signature of asylum psychiatrist Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino of “Sin City“) on the form to authorize Baby Doll‘s lobotomy. Mind you, the stepfather neither wants for the authorities to discover what really happened at home nor does he want Baby Doll to receive her mom's fortune. Initially, Baby Doll learns that she has five days before the lobotomy is scheduled.

The first jarring thing about “Sucker Punch” is the abrupt change of settings. Once you have resigned yourself to watching a movie that takes place in a mental asylum like the one in “Shutter Island,” you find the setting shifted to a classy bordello where the girls perform exotic dances for the well-heeled customers. Each time that Baby Doll dances, she mesmerizes her audiences. She imagines that each dance is like completing a larger-than-life mission. During the first mission, she meets a sword master (Scott Glenn) who furnishes her with an arsenal of weapons to battle three gigantic samurai warriors who have piercing red eyes. Baby Doll behaves like an invulnerable heroine. She survives blows from these humongous samurai warriors that would kill ordinary people. Later, she makes friends with the first inmate/dancer when she saves Rocket from being raped by a porcine cook. Eventually, Baby Doll assembles a “Fox Force Five” unit of dames -- Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish of “Limitless”), Rocket (Jena Malone of “The Soloist” ), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens of “High School Musical”) and Amber (Jamie Chung of “Sorority Row”) -- to cavort in the strip-club fantasy costumes with a combination of S.W.A.T gear and samurai swords to obtain four crucial things. Sweet Pea is the hardest of them to convince because she is the most hopeless member of the quintet. Once they come together, they act like a team until the villains whittle down their numbers.

Three far-fetched, outlandish sequences with our glamorous ensemble carrying out a mission occur in the episodic “Sucker Punch.” Mind you, each mission yields rewards that will enable our heroines to escape from the dreadful insane asylum. According to Baby Doll, they need an asylum map to get past the guards. Furthermore, they need fire--in the form of a butane lighter, a knife, and a special key. Obviously, the special key is a master key that will open any asylum lock. Naturally, none of the imaginative, over-the-top missions that transpire on screen apart from those opening and closing moments aren’t remotely realistic. Compared with “300,” “Dawn of the Dead,” and “Watchmen,” “Sucker Punch” delivers lightweight blows, but deploys them out with greater sophistication. The characters are as stereotypical as the set-pieces are formulaic. Of course, our heroines are constantly out numbered. Ironically, our heroine surmounts her bigger-than-life obstacles, achieves her incredible goal, but she pays a dear price for it in the long run.

Director Zack Snyder immerses our ear drums with atmospheric chart-topping tunes for more than the sake of their rock’n roll cult status. This music propels Baby Doll into her different states of mind. Moreover, Snyder observed that the music thematically holds the film together. Listening to “Sucker Punch” is like grooving to golden oldies such as "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," "White Rabbit," and two Queen songs “I Want It All,” and “We Will Rock You.” Despite its one-dimensional characters and formula-scripting, “Sucker Punch” qualifies as a suspenseful, above-average, metaphorical, but downbeat fantasy about gals with guns, guts, and get-up & go!

FILM REVIEW OF ''LIMITLESS'' (2011)

Scientists have been assuring us for years that we use only about 10 to 20 per cent of our brain. What if you could mobilize more than 80 per cent of your mind to solve your problems? Would you be happier? More productive? "The Illusionist" director Neil Burger and "Mrs. Doubtfire" scenarist Leslie Dixon explore this 'what if' premise in witty but speculative saga "Limitless" (***1/2 out of ****), based on Irish novelist Alan Glynn's 2001 techno-thriller "The Dark Fields." Some of the details have changed during the transition from page to screen, but the imaginative plot remains reasonably intact. When an aspiring novelist afflicted with writer's block resorts to an experimental opiate—kind of like Adderall--that enables him to not only finish his novel ahead of time but also emerge as a savant of sorts, he discovers addiction may be the least of his woes. This out-of-the- ordinary futuristic murder mystery about a slacker who learns that the sky is no longer the limit generates considerable charisma throughout its nimble 104 minutes because leading man Bradley Cooper makes the hero sympathetic despite his sardonic personality. A couple of movies about men who acquired higher brain power through either pharmaceuticals or surgery have been made, including "The Lawnmower Man" (1992) with Pierce Brosnan and "Charly" (1968) with Cliff Robertson. In both of these movies, the protagonists were mentally challenged, but the "Limitless" leading man isn’t handicapped. Instead, he is a hopeless procrastinator who lacks the ability to focus his energy and efforts to complete tasks in a timely manner. The odyssey that our hero embarks on puts "Limitless" in the same offbeat category as the Brad Pitt & Edward Norton movie "Fight Club" with its innovation use of computer generated imagery. Burger uses the CGI here primarily to reflect the paranoid-inducing impact of the drug, but he doesn't flaunt it to the extremes of most contemporary melodramas.

“Limitless” opens with our protagonist dramatically poised on the ledge of his ultra-high-rise Manhattan apartment as he contemplates performing a header into the street hundreds of feet below. A group of Neanderthal thugs are trying to break down the door to his super-secure apartment because he has something that they want. They are prepared to kill him without a qualm and he can do nothing to stop them. Eddie Mora (Bradley Cooper of “The Hangover”) takes a jaundiced view of his predicament and then he explains how he wound up in this tight spot as “Limitless” shifts gears into flashback mode. In the beginning, Eddie was an author who landed a book contract. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to conjure up a single sentence. No matter how long he stares at his computer, he cannot get his creative juices to flow. Eddie’s girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish of “Sucker Punch”) decides that she would be better off without him and they split. Not only does she get a better job, but also she has grown tired of footing their bills. Our unhappy protagonist is wandering the streets when he runs into his former brother-in-law, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth of “Empire Records”), and they grab a drink at a bar. Vernon tells Eddie that he is no longer a small potatoes drug dealer. Indeed, he works for a pharmaceutical firm that has developed an $800-a-pop miracle pill called NZT-84. Vernon adds that the drug is on the verge of receiving FDA approval.

Initially, Eddie is leery of Vernon’s hype, but he decides to try it. Presto! Eddie polishes off his book, and his prose blows his editor’s mind. Eddie asks Vernon for some more, but somebody kills him before our hero can get the pills. Nevertheless, Eddie finds Vernon’s stash, borrows thousands from a Russian mobster, Gennady (Andrew Howard of “Revolver”) and parlays it into an overnight fortune. Eddie’s exploits bring him to the attention of a legendary Wall Street tycoon, Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro of “Goodfellas”), and our hero helps him acquire even more millions. Eddie even wins back Lindy, but he cannot get the Russian off his back. The Russian gets a taste of the drug and wants more. Moreover, another mysterious man is tailing Eddie everywhere, and this ruffian doesn’t mind wielding a knife to get what he wants. Suddenly, everything good that happened to Eddie turns really bad. At one point, he collapses in Lindy’s office and explains what has happened to him. Eddie has exhausted his stash of NZT and he needs Lindy to get him some more from a stash in her apartment in a sea shell. Lindy agrees and then realizes that the knife-wielding man is following her. When she tries to stall him with the help of two husky guys in Central Park, the knife man stabs them both. Frantically, Lindy calls Eddie on her cell phone from a hiding place as the knife man scours the terrain to find her. Eddie instructs her to take a pill. Despite deep misgivings, Lindy gobbles one and experiences the sharp high and outsmarts her dangerous assailant by leading him down to a ice-skating ring and using the blade on a skating shoe to slash him and then flee.

"Limitless" describes the exciting arc that Eddie traverses in his journey from ‘nobody’ status to ‘somebody’ status. Typically, this kind of materialistic movie degenerates into a heavy-handed Faustian morality play. In other words, the hero experiences a meteoric rise, only to suffer the consequences of a tragic downfall. The downfall occurs because he relinquishes his power to control his destiny. Meaning, at some point, he sells out for the short term and pays for it with his life in the long term. John Travolta made a similar movie, "Phenomenon" (1996), where he manifested mental powers beyond anything he had experienced. The toll that these powers exacted ended up killing him. He was no more irresponsible than the "Limitless" hero. Nevertheless, Hollywood rules dictated that the Travolta character had to perish. The people who made "Limitless" don't subscribe to this mentality. Bradley Cooper's heroic character fares much better that the John Travolta character. Although our hero boasts mental powers beyond anything that anybody else has, Eddie refuses to abuse his gift and "Limitless" allows him to reap the rewards. Indeed, he winds up enjoying the last laugh on villainous Robert De Niro. Mind you, this represents De Niro’s best work since “The Score” in 2001. Happily, Burger and Dixon use Eddie’s rambling voice-over commentary to deliver lots of humor, a technique that only Martin Scorsese usually gets away with in his mafia movies. Burger stages a bravura subway fight scene and intercuts it with footage of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. Altogether, "Limitless" qualifies as an incredibly original film about our prescriptive, self-medicating society that goes where most Hollywood movies don’t dare!