Ready to LAUGH!!?? BridesMaids proves Kristin Wiig is capable of a lot more than quick SNL skits in this hilarious, raunchy comedy. What a great cast! Watch out for Melissa McCarthy as the groom's sister. She deserves her own spinoff. Worth the price of admission just for the two back to back scenes at lunch and the bridal boutique. A movie for adults with a hundred laughs and a sweet heart in the middle...who would have thought? A-

In early 1970, Director Robert Altman changed Hollywood with the release of his mega-hit "M*A*S*H*". The counter culture, anti-war comedy drew huge audiences fed up with big musicals and westerns and hungry for something revolutionary. Ten months after that massive hit, Altman released his follow up, BREWSTER MCCLOUD. One of the strangest movies ever made, it is almost impossible to describe. If M*A*S*H* broke ground be being structured like a disconnected bunch of tiny stories, buried in blood and overlapping dialogue, BREWSTER takes that to a whole new level. Bud Cort (Harold and Maude) is an introverted young man living in the cavernous realm beneath the Houston Astrodome. His dream is to complete a set of wings and fly around within the sports arena. Sally Kellerman is gorgeous and funny as the mysterious Louise. Angel? Protector? She often appears out of nowhere to help Brewster, dropping bird poop on his enemies and doing some fancy driving in an AMC Hornet during a long, fun car chase that seems to have arrived from another film. Shelley Duvall (The Shining) makes her film debut as a car thief/race car driver who falls for Brewster. Duvall is either a horrible actress or a brilliant method thespian, I defy you to decide. Her line readings are horrific, but is she playing dumb or are the cameras just rolling? Rene Auberjonois keeps popping up throughout the film as a professor teaching us about birds. Some of his input, always looking right at the camera are dull, but they get progressively more hilarious. He had me laughing out loud by the end of the film as he described how bird's mating habits are so much like humans. Michael Murphy (Manhattan) is great as a detective named Shaft. He arrives like a big city presence in a cow town with bright blue contact lenses, super sleuth moves and flashy 70's wardrobe, but like everyone else in Altman's mad exercise, he really doesn't do much. A strangling serial killer starts piling up victims, all of them found with bird poop on their face. Stacy Keach shows up in horrible makeup as a rich, senile old man with more money than brains. He's pretty hilarious too. Cort is a very strange leading man. By the end of the film, I can't really tell you what the hell happened or why I even cared, but you have to respect Altman for doubling down on M*A*S*H* with something so strange that it had zero chance of connecting with sober audiences. He said he hated the script by Doran William Cannon so much that he just filmed his actors and fed them lines, making things up as he went. Watching it, it sure feels that way. Cannon hated the movie so much that he wrote an editorial in the New York Times calling the film "shit" (without even mentioning the bird!). It famously premiered in the Astrodome in front of 27,000 people, most of whom left well before it's bizarre, circus themed ending. I love Altman movies. His classic war film is amazing, as are "Nashville", "McCabe and Mrs Miller" and "Gosford Park". This is lesser Altman, but it's an interesting failure, defying structure and common sense and covering most of its actors in bird crap. I think most audiences felt like they were splattered too. I certainly didn't escape cleanly either. At times stupid, absurd and ridiculous, there are some big laughs to be had. Kellerman was really something in the early 70's, she escapes with great appreciation. It's crap, but interesting crap. I'll give it a C+. Altman followed this up the next year with the far superior "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie.

Charles Bronson ruled the action box office in the seventies with reliable films like 1975's BREAKHEART PASS. Faithfully adapted from Alistair MacLean's book, Bronson stars as lawman John Deakin, on board a train as a prisoner and charged with murder. Being transported to a Fort in Nevada to face the charges, Deakin's surrounded by troops, a huge cache of weapons and ammunition. Ben Johnson is a Marshall, Richard Crenna is a Governor with plenty on his agenda, Ed Lauter is a Major who despises Deakin and Jill Ireland is Crenna's young girlfriend, along for the adventure. Early into their travels, the train is plunged into a major health scare, an Indian attack and a lot of intrigue as plenty of our characters have motives well hidden in their period costumes. Bronson is at his stoic best, expressing only enough emotion to get by but nailing every action scene. Allegiances change, good guys and bad guys switch sides and the fights take place all through, over and on the sides of every train car. Jerry Goldsmith provides a classic western music score that runs nearly the entire film and Lucien Ballard (The Wild Bunch, The Getaway, True Grit) photographs every snow covered frame in classic Western style. Director Tom Gries cut his teeth on classic television (Mission Impossible, Honey West, Batman, The Rat Patrol) and works well with Bronson and the stunt team to create some nice suspense. If you're a Bronson fan or love 70's action movies, Breakheart Pass is a fun diversion. We'll shoot it a B-.

Kurt Russell has had a long and hugely successful career bouncing back and forth between every-man roles and bigger than life heroes like Plissken or MacReady. In 1997, he played a New England man moving to California with his wife in BREAKDOWN. Jeff Taylor (Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan) have packed their nice new Jeep with snacks and luggage and are heading to the west coast for a new job. When a chance encounter with some desert dwelling lowlifes spins into a much more aggressive confrontation at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, Jeff and Amy get back on the road, driving quickly to get away. When their Jeep suddenly stops, the Taylors are left stranded with no town in sight and no one they know for 2000 miles. A trucker, Red Barr (perfectly played by character actor JT Walsh, who you've seen in 100 movies) stops and offers to pick them up, bet Jeff wants to stay with the car. Amy takes the ride to a diner about ten miles away, where she will call a tow truck and come back for Jeff. The day runs long, Jeff finds himself waiting and waiting for his wife. He gets the car started and then heads directly to the diner, where no one has seen his wife or the trucker. He then manages to find Barr's 18-wheeler, where the trucker denies ever meeting his bride. The film takes off from there in many directions, most of which are surprisingly believable, but I wont share any of them here. It's better that you stay on the edge of your seat just like I did as the trail twists and turns. It's fun to watch the transformation of Russell from preppie tourist to vengeful husband and the red rock landscape proves a cool setting for all of the action. Composer Basil Poledouris (Conan the Barbarian, The Hunt for Red October) had to write two completely different scores for the film when the first one was rejected, but kudos to all involved becuase his second version here is terrific. A great little thriller, BREAKDOWN is suspenseful, fast moving and gets a B.

In the mood for an old fashioned war thriller loaded with 70's stars and set in the closing days of WW2? You could do worse than 1978's BRASS TARGET. George Kennedy stars as General George Patton, and as much as I love Kennedy in "Airport" and "Cool Hand Luke" its fair to say his Patton pales next to any memory of George C. Scott in the role seven years earlier. $250 million in German gold has disappeared under Patton's watch while he was attempting to move it away from the Germans and Russians and plenty of people on both sides of the battle want his head for it. John Cassavetes is an American major who discovers an assassination plot against Patton, Robert Vaughn is a very strange Colonel with untrustworthy alliances, Sophia Loren is the love interest for several characters caught up in the plot and best of all, Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist, The Seventh Seal) is the hit man hired to take out Patton. Sydow weaves a "Day of the Jackal" style path through our characters to get to Patton and Sydow's so good he makes the material seem better than it is. OO7 fans watch for Bond regular Ed Bishop (You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever) as Patton's assistant Col Stewart. It's always interesting, not horribly well written but very enjoyable in an old fashioned war thriller kind of style. Director John Hough had done everything from "The Legend of Hell House" to Disney's "Escape from Witch Mountain" in the seventies and he brings a decent pace and an eye for international locations to the mix. Van Sydow's assassin is much more on target than the film, but I'll give it a solid B-.

After the release of Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" in 1971 (a role offered to Wayne, but he did not want to play the anti-hero) John Wayne tried his hand at a couple films as a modern day detective. 1975's BRANNIGAN was the follow up to 74's McQ. Lt Brannigan is on the trail of a mobster that killed his rookie partner back in Chicago. That path leads to London, where Commander Swann (Richard Attenborough) has agreed to hand the mobster over to Brannigan when he arrives. It's a fun, seventies fish-out-of-water tale with Wayne barreling through the scenery and the locals with brash, full throttle force. Wayne is having a good time here, bursting through locked doors with gun drawn and drawling "Knock, Knock!" to the bad guys. It's all pretty tame by today's standards and the brawl in the English Pub seems like it arrived from the set of "McClintock", but somehow Wayne and company make it work. His flirting with a young English detective Jennifer (Judy Geeson) seems awful creepy and uncomfortable (Wayne was 68 when this was filmed, playing mid-50's) but I guess no one can resist The Duke! John Vernon (Animal House) chews a lot of scenery as Larkin the mobster and a very young Lesley-Anne Down has a small role as Luana, the prostitute visited by the hitman after Brannigan. Throw in some seventies style car chases over the London Bridge, plenty of plaid sports jackets and some enjoyable Scotland Yard versus Chicago cop banter and you have a harmless, standard John Wayne flick that reeks of early seventies cops films. Knock, Knock! We'll give Wayne a respectful B-.

One of my favorite "big screen" films from the early eighties, BRAINSTORM is a brilliant concept delivered in style. Louise Fletcher and Christopher Walken play scientists on the cutting edge of new technology that records people's experiences and replays them in every detail when wearing a special headset. Director Douglas Trumbull expands the screen to Super Panavision 70MM when the recordings are replayed, which allowed theatre goers to surf in Hawaii, fly above the Golden Gate Bridge, circle Rio and drive a semi-truck off a California cliff, suddenly soaring above the coastline. Michael (Walken) and Lillian (Fletcher) are furious when the military intervenes behind the scenes and begins to hijack the technology for war applications. While telling this tale, the film also brilliantly weaves in one of the major characters having a fatal heart attack while wearing the recording device. This puts Michael on a separate quest to replay the tape (while intelligently disconnecting the heart rate and body inputs to avoid death himself). As he races to see the recording of life after death, the military closes in to shut down the project. Natalie Wood stars as Michael's wife Karen, providing a core of the film revolving around their troubled marriage. The scene in which Michael records his happiest memories of their time together and replays it is a perfect mix of Trumbull's big screen photography, James Horner's powerful music and Walken & Wood doing great work. Wood died mysteriously on a boat with Walken during the filming of "Brainstorm" and there are some signs of the story being tweaked a bit to work around her death during filming, but Trumbull brings the pieces together very well. Trumbull was a special effects pioneer, having created the visuals for 2001, Close Encounters, Blade Runner and many more. The finale in which Michael experiences the afterlife is powerful and visually amazing. I remember seeing it on the big screen at the original Cine Capri and when anyone had the headset on and turned on the replays, the screen doubled in size to fill every inch and Dolby rocked the theatre. Much of that is lost at home, but the sound effects and Horner's score still provide plenty of punch. Writer Bruce Joel Rubin would explore similar territory in a different fashion seven years later with "Ghost". BRAINSTORM is a good, old-fashioned sci-fi thriller with a big heart and an intriguing story. Walken and Fletcher are great and those "headset" moments are a lot of fun that earn the film a solid B.

Back in 1973, at 12 years old, I remember seeing THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF as the bottom half of a double bill with "SSSSSSS", which still holds up with a great cast. It was one of the last of the official "Double Features" released by Universal Studios. This mess defines the "bottom" half of a double feature. Young Richie has barely unloaded the groceries with his divorced Dad Robert when a werewolf lurking in the bushes bites his Dad. Hilarity ensues. Well, its not supposed to be a comedy, but please consider; * The werewolf makeup is the tamest of all time, with the creatures looking more like a lap dog than a ferocious monster. * At least thirty people see Richie's dad, wearing his dad's clothes as he attacks, yet not one of them calls it anything but an animal * A group of Jesus freaks figures prominently in the second half, like they wondered in from 'Helter Skelter" or an equally lame non-monster movie * At one point the werewolf grabs a shovel and starts digging a hole in the basement to bury the head of one of his victims. You haven't seen awkward until you've seen a werewolf digging a hole. It kind of throws the whole wild animal thing off.... * The music is hilariously bad in every scene. I've seen a lot of cheap horror movies with great scary music, how hard is THAT to get right? * Almost the whole movie is shot day for night, with heavy filters on the camera so it appears to be night time, but they can shoot the film all day. Unfortunately, when half your plot revolves around the sun going down or coming up, the constant daylight tends to dampen your suspense. This is some funny crap. It's not supposed to be, but it is, CRAP I mean. I've seen Life Alert commercials with better acting. Woof. This Boy gets an F. Go back and visit the top half of the double feature, "SSSSSSS", It's a winner.

1978's THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL is a crazy thriller that does nothing halfway. Laurence Olivier is terrific as Ezra Lieberman, a thinly veiled movie version of Simon Weisenthal, hunting down Nazis that escaped to South America at the end of WW2. Gregory Peck stars as Dr. Josef Mengele, whose notorious human experiments in the concentration camps are continuing with a diabolical new spin. Steve Guttenberg has a small role as a young reporter who puts Lieberman on the trail of Mengele and James Mason is excellent as a powerful Nazi determined to reignite the Third Reich. As Lieberman uncovers layer after layer of a massive plot to return the Nazi's to power in the most twisted way imaginable, Mengele heads for the states. It's always interesting, sometimes thrilling and often way over the top. Olivier and Mason are superb, but Peck is badly miscast and devours every word of dialogue. One key role is a young man played by a teenager named Jeremy Black. He's just horrible and unfortunately he keeps showing up. Jerry Goldsmith provides a bombastic, overpowering music score. By the time the film concludes in a farm house with a bloody gun battle, ferocious Dobermans and Peck & Olivier beating the snot out of each other like twenty year olds, you have to admire the sheer energy everyone threw at the screen. Based on Ira Levin's equally insane novel, this is a full tilt thriller that makes up for what it lacks in subtlety with sheer momentum. The Boys get a B-.

In a daring film experiment, Director Richard Linklater filmed his troupe of actors every year for 12 years to tell the coming of age story of young Mason. Those yearly pieces come together beautifully into the quiet little masterpiece that is BOYHOOD. Mason is portrayed by Ellar Coltrane and in this case, casting truly is everything. Coltrane's acting grows more confident with age, but he starts off just fine. As you watch Mason grow up, you experience the events and other people that come in and out of his life alongside him. The constants through the film are Mason's Mom and Dad, perfectly played by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. Arquette is a driven academic, making better choices in her career path than her romantic partners. She is terrific throughout the movie, displaying no vanity in showing the tough parts of single parenting from every angle. Hawke is terrific as the Dad, who first impresses you as the weekend Father that shows up bearing gifts and having fun but bearing no true responsibility. As the film goes by and the years pass, he becomes a very different Dad that you might expect. You also watch Mason's sister Samantha grow up as well, and the kids interaction rings true at all ages. It's easy to see a lot of your own moments with your siblings in Mason and Samantha. As played by the director's daughter Lorelei Linklater, Sam carries a self-centered attitude through some difficult times. At nearly three hours, the film unspools like real life: slowly, quietly and powerfully. It's never boring. Like real life, there are no car chases, no shoot outs and all the explosions are emotional. It's a powerful experience and you have to sit back in wonder at the audacity of Linklater 12 years ago to gather his actors and production team and tell them that they would all be committing to getting together once a year to film the next chapter in the family's life. I kept wondering throughout the film how much the script was written in advance or if Linklater let time and growth drive the storyline and its details. Either way, its brilliant. The moments between Hawke and Coltrane discussing "Star Wars" or the Beatles songs before and after their breakup are so well written they feel organic. Without bowing to more conventional things such as titles to tell us that another year has passed, Linklater rolls directly from one scene to the next, letting the characters surprise us with their physical or emotional growth to mark time. You will grow to really care about these people, their lives and their future. It's funny, I watched another three hour film this week, the horrible "Transformers: Age of Extinction". That mess was wall-to-wall action and explosions and after twenty minutes I didn't give a damn about anyone or anything in it. Richard Linklater is no Michael Bay, and that's a compliment of the highest order. Boyhood is a quiet, beautiful, heartfelt masterpiece and gets an A.

A worthy extension (not exactly a sequel or reimagining) of The Bourne film series, THE BOURNE LEGACY features an excellent new hero in Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross. Built on the events in the first three films starring Matt Damon, Legacy tracks new agent Cross as he battles his own agency, who has decided to shut down the entire Treadstone project. Tony Gilroy, writer of the first 3 films, writes and directs here and does an excellent job, bringing the same globe trotting editing and adventure of the initial trilogy to an exciting new story. Scott Glenn, Edward Norton and David Strathairn revisit their characters from the earlier films. Renner is a worthy successor to Damon, very believable in all the action sequences. The climactic foot/car/motorcycle chase in the film is excellent and the ending sets up a new potential trilogy. Great music score by James Newton Howard. The film nicely continues the intelligent action expected and lives up nicely to the Bourne Legacy of the earlier films. A-

Back in 2007, the fast paced thrill ride THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM wrapped up the original series of films until Matt Damon returned almost a decade later. This time around, Bourne is dragged out of seclusion again by a dogged London reporter whose uncovered a project that leads back to Project Treadstone. Once Bourne and the reporter meet, the film explodes (as these always do so well and consistently in this series) when both men realize their meeting is a set up. Bourne finally comes face to face with the origins of his second life as a lethal assassin. Damon manages to be superhero like in his physical battles while portraying a lot of emotion under the surface. I always felt like Damon didnt get enough credit for this role. Director Paul Greengrass is back, as are Julia Stiles as Nicky, the girl from a past adventure and David Strathairn as the weaselly government guy you love to hate. Edgar Ramirez is a terrific add as a fellow assassin, Albert Finney is perfect as the doctor behind the project and Joan Allen (The Contender) is excellent in her continuing role as Pam Landy, a CIA division head with questionable loyalties. Daniel Bruhl (Munich) goes toe to toe with Damon in some of the thriller's best scenes. Greengrass created one of the most tense films of all time with 2006's UNITED 93 and he brings the same intensity here, this one barely stops to take a breath. Like WIlliam Friedkin in "The French Connection" many key chase scenes were filmed on the fly through real crowds in international locations. It gives the film a gritty 70's action film polish. A terrific conclusion to the original trilogy, ULTIMATUM gets an A.