Rental: Flight Plan 1... Maybe. This gets a soft 1 only because I'm not entirely sure watching an hour and a half of the Weather Channel late at night in a dive motel is really any better than this. But that's the only reason. First the nitpick.... Hello? Hollywood? Nobody is making big budget pictures 1.5 hours long any more. Nobody. Let's get on board here, shall we? OK, that was the easy part. Now I have to actually think about this dog again. Directors need to realize that even actors like Jodi Foster need direction in movies, otherwise they get to run wild like Foster did in this... and nobody needs to see that. Foster chewed so much scenery in this airplane thriller, it's a wonder there were still wings on the plan by the time she was through. Her character reached such a level of hysteria that on any real flight she would have been handcuffed, sedated, and locked in a closet before she'd gotten half as far as Foster progressed. But no, instead we let this woman scamper wildly about the plane, crawling into mechanical and electrical spaces looking for her missing daughter.... a little girl not a single one of the 500 other passengers and crew on the flight even saw during the 3 hours they'd been flying to that point. A full hour and 10 minutes of this movie is spent with this frantic, tired plot device and with making Foster seem like a nutball.... No problem there. The last 20 minutes of the show is spent unfolding the actual plot, a story of carefully yet wildly-contrived extortion. Then, BOOM (literally), it's over. No real build, just a climax. I thought "Huh?? well, ok... At least it's over." Sadly, this could easily have been trimmed down to a 20 minute short and might have made a pleasant addition to some film festival somewhere. Now I just have a fear of flying.... movies.  ¶ 1:23 PM 0 comments

  Firewall 3. I have a strange relationship with Harrison Ford. I really enjoy watching him in movies... and I really cringe when I see him in candid appearances (talk shows, promotional appearances, award shows, etc). I think he's a decent actor and very likable on screen. But live, he comes across as kind of a nutjob and, based on characteristic mannerisms and the fact that during the SAG Awards he made his co-presenter hold his drink, one might get the impression he has a drinking problem. Who can say (except perhaps his stick figure wife)? The alternate reality that Hollywood success creates for each actor is different from the next. In Mr. Ford's case, I just hope it never affects his carreer. And we've got to get that next Indiana Jones movie done before Ford crosses that "just too old to pull it off" line..... which, seeing him in Firewall, could happen sometime next Tuesday.

As for Firewall, it's a pleasant enough diversion, fairly predictable with no (unexpected) surprises. There was one unexpected "Dumbass." moment on the part of the main villain which I kind of enjoyed. The "villain on top"/"hero on top" ratio was a little skewed in the villain's favor, making the first part of the movie a little long. When we get to Ford's "oh ho! I have the upper hand!" moment, the movie becomes much more enjoyable (but I have a vindictive personality, so take that into consideration). While I like Ford in almost everything I've seen him in, he almost feels miscast in this role a high tech computer security guy. He always feels more down to earth than high tech to me. So, while Firewall brings nothing particularly thrilling to the table, it's certainly better than Ishtar.  ¶ 7:41 PM 0 comments