FILM REVIEW OF "ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK" (1981)

Director John Carpenter didn’t make “Escape from New York” into the iconic cult hit that he did with “Halloween.” Although this futuristic tough-guy thriller inspired only one sequel and several knock-offs, it didn’t forge the numerous sequels and remakes that “Halloween” spawned. According to Box Office.Mojo, the low-budgeted “Escape from New York” (**1/2 out of ****) coined $50 million worldwide on a mere seven-million dollar budget so it qualifies as a solid hit. Carpenter manages to put every cent on film. When you consider that most of the film was lensed in St. Louis rather than Gotham, this is impressive. Carpenter was limited to what he could show so he conceals well enough. The only time that Manhattan in totality appears as a prison is in the map scenes. The scenes in New York City appear realistic enough in what constituted a prison hellhole lighted with fires that cast ominous shadows. Interestingly, nobody but Carpenter saw Kurt Russell as integral to the lead role as Snake Plissken. The studio preferred Charles Bronson, but Carpenter thought Bronson was too old. Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Donald Pleasance, Adrienne Barbeau, and Harry Dean Stanton co-star.

“Escape from New York” opens with some expository narrative that Carpenter said they decided to incorporate to give audiences a leg up on the setting and background of the story. Graphics accompany the following narration: “In 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. The once great city of New York becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire country. A fifty-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline, across the Harlem River, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline. It completely surrounds Manhattan Island. All bridges and waterways are mined. The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped around the island. There are no guards inside the prison, only prisoners and the worlds they have made. The rules are simple: once you go in, you don't come out.” Basically, World War III is drawing to a close, and the anonymous President (Donald Pleasance of “Halloween”) is flying in Air Force One when a terrorist masquerading as a stewardess hijacks it. She broadcasts a defiant proclamation: “Tell this to the workers when they ask where their leader went. We, the soldiers of The National Liberation Front of America, in the name of the workers and all the oppressed of this imperialist country, have struck a fatal blow to the fascist police state. What better revolutionary example than to let their president perish in the inhuman dungeon of his own imperialist prison.” Before Air Force One crashes, the President climbs into a pod and the pod is expelled from the aircraft.

Police Commissioner Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef of “For Few Dollars More”) discusses a plan with the Vice President to send in a hardened criminal facing a life sentence in Manhattan to rescue the chief executive. He chooses a former war hero, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), because Snake has flown an ultra-quiet glider called the Gullfire during the war in Leningrad. When Hauk went in earlier to save the President, the thugs in the street warned him that they would kill the President unless Hauk and his men took off in 30 seconds. Hauk offers the reluctant Plissken amnesty for all his crimes if he will bring the President out in less than twenty-four hours. You see, Snake had been arrested for trying to rob a Federal Bank. Snake doesn’t exactly leap at the offer and Hauk explains that time is of the essence. The President was scheduled to appear at the critical Hartford Summit to deliver an audio cassette that had a message on it about nuclear fusion. It is essential that the President appears with that message.

Plissken agrees to fly the Gullfire and bring out the President. Nevertheless, the suspicious Hauk takes special precautions to ensure Snake’s loyalty. He explains how he will keep Snake from flying the other way once Snake is airborne. “ Two microscopic capsules lodged in your arteries. They're already starting to dissolve. In 22 hours, the cores will completely dissolve. Inside the cores are a heat-sensing charge. Not a large explosion, about the size of a pinhead, just big enough to open up both of your arteries. I'd say you'd be dead in 10-15 seconds...” Predictably, Snake is not thrilled at this revelation, but he manages to take it in stride. Our rugged hero flies the Gullfire into Manhattan. Although he lands atop the World Trade Center, he almost plunges over the side. Snake locates the wreckage of Air Force One and finds no survivors. He consults the tracking device that receives signals from the President’s electronic wrist bracelet. Eventually, Snake tracks down the signal, only to discover that a drunk (George ‘Buck’ Flower) is wearing it instead of the Chief Executive. Snake is taken on a tour of the city by the loquacious Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), who has been cruising the city streets in his yellow cab for 30 years. Snake learns from the ‘Brain’ (Harry Dean Stanton) that the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes) has captured the President. Snake tries to rescue the President, but neither are free for long. Snake takes an arrow in the leg and is forced to fight a giant (Ox Baker) in an arena with clubs. Snake defeats the giant and gathers ‘Brain,’ the President, and Maggie and they make a break for the 69th Street Bridge. Earlier, the Duke had planned to lead his army of convicts and storm the bridge. The Duke needed the ‘Brain’ because he had a diagram of where all the land mines where placed.

The formulaic action is dark, hard and gritty, and Carpenter stages the violence with reasonable aplomb. However, Carpenter’s work as music composer, along with Alan Howarth, overshadows his work as director. The opening “Escape from New York” theme is classic stuff! The music invests the film with a palpable sense of atmosphere. Clocking in at 99 minutes, this “Dirty Dozen” type genre film never wears out its welcome. The best parts are the opening twenty minutes and the concluding twenty minutes. Knowing that gigantic wrestler Ox Baker wasn’t trying to throw his punches, but connect them with Russell makes their memorable in the arena as they clobber each other with clubs more realistic. The snake tattoo that Snake wears and his eye-patch look thoroughly believable and Snake’s refrain “Call me Snake” bolsters Russell’s performance. Van Cleef contributes an intimidating mongoose performance. Kurt Russell looks suitably tough as Plissken with a raspy voice, a black eye-patch, and a beard.

“Escape from New York” emerges an above-average but threadbare thriller.

FILM REVIEW OF ''NIGHT NURSE'' (1931)

"The Public Enemy" director William Wellman tackles the issue of medical ethics in this blue-collar melodrama from Warner Brothers, "Night Nurse," (*** out of ****) about an unsavory quack trying to starve two vulnerable pre-school children to death to get his grimy hands on their trust fund. A young Barbara Stanwyck stars as the crusading nurse heroine who sets out to save the kids from the despicable likes of Clark Gable--in a loan-out role--as a slimy small time hood who has no qualms about slugging women. This snappy, Depression-era, 72-minute, black & white expose about hospitals and nurses qualifies as gripping but often sordid tale. Wellman doesn't foreground the usual romantic conventions by focusing primarily on the relationship between the heroine and the hero. The romantic scenes between Barbara Stanwyck and Ben Lyon as they flirt take a backseat to the subversive plot about children-in-jeopardy. Barbara Stanwyck's performance as a young nurse seems callow and uncertain at times, nothing as fierce some as she was later in "Baby Face," but Joan Blondell is her usual jaunty self. It is exciting to catch Clark Gable at this point in his illustrious career before he made good at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He delivers an electrifying performance as a thoroughly loathsome hood who stands out above everybody else. Interestingly, James Cagney was the first choice to play the thug that Gable would incarnate, but Cagney had ascended the stairs of stardom and the studio sought somebody else.

"Night Nurse" emerged as a departure from the typical Hollywood production in the wake of the silent picture era. When you watch "Night Nurse," pay attention to all those tracking shots as well as other where Wellman moves the camera. Early Hollywood sound pictures were primarily static because producers and directors were fearful of generating sound when they moved their cameras. Indeed, in some early sound pictures, the camera operator was sealed in a soundproof box with the camera and had to hold his breath since there was on air in the sealed up camera. Moreover, Wellman recorded live audio when he moved his cameras which was something of an innovation, too. He was one of the first filmmakers to dangle a microphone from a boom above his actors and actresses as they delivered their dialogue. If you have any doubts about the use of boom mikes, look at all those tell-tale shadows of the boom mikes on the walls. The opening shots lensed through the windshield of an ambulance careening down one street and then another to a hospital emergency room is invigorating, enough so that Wellman repeated the same sequence at the end.

Lora Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) wants to be a nurse. She nearly misses the opportunity because she lacks a high school diploma. Wellman and his scribes make her heroine sympathetic from the start because her mother's death forced her to drop out of high school. Since she doesn't have the diploma, a stern-minded nurse refuses to accept her as a probationary nurse. Fortunately for Lora, the man hurriedly entering the revolving door at the hospital's front entrance catches her on the way out and knocks her handball to the floor. This callous fellow turns out to be Dr. Arthur Bell (Charles Winninger of "Nothing Sacred") and he persuades the Superintendent of Nurses, Miss Dillon (Vera Lewis of "Intolerance") to give Lora a chance. "Rules are important," Dillon dictates from the get-go, and "Night Nurse" is about about breaking rules, not only in the medical field but also the movies. Dillon assigns another nurse, Maloney (Joan Blondell of "Three on a Match"), to show Lora the ropes, and those ropes are tightropes.

First, Maloney warns Lora not to fall in love with either doctors or interns. Cynically, Maloney recommends patients with dough. Second,the nurses must follow strict rules to keep their respective jobs. For example, she has one hour to herself and must work until 7 pm. As long as she is in bed with lights out by 10 pm, she has nothing to fear. Moreover, if they are caught out of bed after 10 pm, they face the prospect of additional night shifts. Later, Lora learns that she earns a paltry $56 per week. A cocksure intern, Eagan (Edward J. Nugent of "Prison Shadows"), pulls a practical joke on Lora. Eagan stashes a human skeleton in her bed. Lora screams and he pokes his head in to laugh at them. Meanwhile, the scream has awakened Miss Dillon who storms into their room. Maloney mistakes Dillon for Eagan and flings a slipper at her. Dillon makes Lora take two weeks on the night shift at the emergency clinic. One evening, Lora patches up a wounded bootlegger, Mortie (Ben Lyon of "Indiscreet"), who persuades her not to report his bullet wound. They become friends, and Mortie saves Lora later when she finds herself in a tight spot.

Eventually, Lora graduates from the nursing program and gets a night nurse job with an unscrupulous Dr. Milton A. Ranger (Ralf Harolde of "Killer Shark") who explains that the best nurses is keep her mouth shut. Maloney handles the day shift, while Lora works the night shift, attending to two children, Nanny (Marcia Mae Jones of "The Champ") and Desney (Betty Jane Graham of "Alias the Doctor"), suffering from malnutrition. One evening, when she tries to help the drunken Mrs. Ritchey (Charlotte Merriam of "Alimony Madness"), Lora is assaulted by the drunken boyfriend and Nick, the Chauffeur (Clark Gable of "Gone with the Wind") intervenes. Lora is about to call the police, but Nick clobbers her on the chin. When Mrs. Maxwell, the Housekeeper (Blanche Friderici of "Thirteen Women") lets slip that Dr. Ranger and Nick, the Chauffeur are in cahoots to kill them for their trust fund money, Lora goes to Dr. Bell. Bell warns her that nobody will believe her hysterical accusations about Ranger. When Lora wants to quit, Bell convinces her to continue to work so she can gather evidence to be used against Ranger and Nick. Lora and Mrs. Maxwell are trying to save Nanny with a milk bath when Nick intervenes. There is a wonderful close-up of the bath tub being emptied out into the silk with the doll that Nanny had that sums up the old saying do not throw the baby out with the bath water. Anyhow, things are touch and go until Mortie shows up with a pistol in his pocket and sends Nick packing.

"Night Nurse" is an interesting and entertaining Pre-Code film.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THOR'' (2011)

Although the newest addition to the Marvel Comics’ cinematic super hero pantheon boasts superlative production values and a serviceable cast, “Hamlet” director Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor” (** OUT OF ****) qualifies as nothing special. This preposterous, larger-than-life, 115-minute, PG-rated drivel shifts scenes between contemporary New Mexico and the legendary realm of Asgard where Norse royalty reside in Wagnerian grandeur. “Agent Cody Banks” scenarists Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz along with “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer” scribe Don Payne gave “Thor” their best shot based on a story by “Ninja Assasin” scenarist J. Michael Straczynski and “Poseidon” writer Mark Protosevich. Despite those best efforts, “Thor” amounts to an undistinguished ‘origins’ epic about Odin’s arrogant offspring. No surprises lurk in this predictable, cookie-cutter opus about the famous hammer wielding Norse champion.

Basically, “Thor” boils down to a boy-gets-hammer, boy-loses-hammer, and boy-gets-hammer back. During this tedious process, our hero has to acquaint himself with the meaning of humility and compassion. Handsome Aussie stud Chris Hemsworth, who played Captain Kirk’s father in “Star Trek” reboot, provides the appropriate brawn and blond hair as the eponymous hero who wrestles with anger management issues. Incidentally, the real Thor of lore possessed red hair and a red beard. Meantime, Academy Award winning actress Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, and Stellan Skarsgård co-star in the Earth scenes, while Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins lords it over the Asgard scenes as the one-eyed Odin. Of course, Thor and leading lady Jane become an item, but the film dwells on family woes more than romantic wooing.

“Thor” opens in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico. Astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman of “Black Swan”), her mentor Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård of “Good Will Hunting”), and their wisecracking assistant Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings of “Defendor”) are in the middle of nowhere searching for an atmospheric anomaly at night. All hell breaks loose and Jane collides with somebody when they plunge their vehicle into a storm-like phenomenon. Before we learn who they’ve struck, the plot propels us back in time to Norway in 965 A.D. Odin has triumphed over the imperialistic Frost Giants, led by King Laufey (Colm Feore of “Chicago“), and thwarts them from conquering Earth. Odin loses an eye and exiles these icy blue dastards to their frozen world of Jotunheim. Furthermore, Odin confiscates the Casket of Ancient Winters that serves as their source of power. Later, when Odin is about to crown Thor, some Frost Giants infiltrate Asgard to recover the casket. Although Odin dismisses the attempt as a botched effort, Thor wants to wage war on the Frost Giants. Odin and he call each other names. Afterward, Thor slips away with his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston of “Midnight in Paris”) and a quartet of his warrior comrades to storm Jotunheim. When Odin learns about Thor’s insubordination, he banishes him to Earth. Thor is sucked into a wormhole and hits planet Earth about the same time that Jane bumps into him with her vehicle.

Meanwhile, the devious Loki learns a disturbing secret about his past from Odin. The truth is that Loki was born a Frost Giant, but Odin adopted him in hopes that someday Loki might bring peace to the warring adversaries. They quarrel about it, and Loki causes Odin to fall into a deadly sleep. None of this deep sleep nonsense is clarified, but the implication seems to be that Odin is hovering near death. Back on Earth, Thor finds out ‘Mjolnir' has crashed to Earth and embedded itself in bedrock. Everybody tries without success to wrench the hammer from the rock, shades of "The Sword in the Stone." This scene qualifies as one of the funniest, featuring Marvel Comics guru Stan Lee in an amusing cameo as he struggles to extract the hammer. Eventually, the Norse god scrambles to the site for his treasured hammer. Thor has no luck with ‘Mjolnir’ and fears the worst. As Odin lies in a coma-like rest, Loki takes over his father’s duties. Now, he dispatches an enormous robot called Destroyer to complicate matters. Destroyer virtually wipes out the entire town where Jane and company live.

As superhero movies go, nobody in “Thor” is in immediate jeopardy, and you know the hero will survive no matter how intimidating Destroyer looks. The combat scenes never generate any excitement. Sure, several characters experience some close scrapes with mortality, but nobody dies. Worse, some characters get away with more than others because Branagh and his quintet of writers don’t make us privy to their special powers. Watch Loki and you’ll see. As villains rate, Loki is more deceitful than menacing, and Thor never performs anything picturesque, like the heroes in “Iron Man,” “The Incredible Hulk,” and “The Fantastic Four” franchise. Surprisingly, neither Jane nor her friends are kidnapped by the villains. Ironically, none of those eponymous protagonists share Thor’s supernatural powers.

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.