Haywire: 3 stars

Haywire is my type of movie.   The hero doesn't want to kill and maim people but they just keep poking her with a stick until she obliges them.   The star is mixed martial arts super star Gina Carano.  The critics have been hard on her, saying her performance was subpar.  I disagree, I think she did a great job and played the character perfectly.  Lot's of other stars in this movie (Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton), who pretty much just stood around or got then their butt's kicked by Ms Carano.  The story was also very well done.  When Haywire 2 shows up next year, I'll be right there to watch it.

The Artist: 3 stars

The Artist is a silent film that is the critics choice for best picture of 2011.   The movie is a little like The Star is Born where a big star is surpassed by an underling and the big star can't not deal with their change of fortunes.  I thought the beginning of the film was great.  The story moved along and it really captures your imagination.  Then as the big star starts his descent into obscurity and depression the movie slows down and I started looking at my watch to see when it would be over.   It never captures that early magic which is a shame.  If they had kept it happy and light all the way through they would have had a great movie.  It's a good movie but does not make my top 10 of 2011.

Contraband - 2 stars

Contraband could have been a good movie but the story is so bad you spend most of the movie groaning.  Mark Wallenburg is a  crook who has gone straight.  Unfortunately, his young brother in law followed in his footstep and ran afoul of the local psychopath.   This is where the story goes very wrong.  In order to set things right Wallenburg's character tells the psychopath that he will become a crook again and bring him millions of dollars in ill gotten gains and things well be square.  Even though the psycho doesn't agree to these terms, Wallenburg leaves his family hostage while he goes away to get the money....what?  Does this sound like a good plan to you?  Well that's how this whole movie is written.  One bad idea after another ensues until it's wrapped up nicely at the end with many needless deaths of innocent people.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 3.5 stars

This movie has an all star cast in Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds and John Hurt.  The problem is you never get enough of any of the actors in this movie.  They are all great and all have excellent roles so this movie could have been four hours instead of 2 to give you enough of each performance.  This movie is all about cold war espionage.  There's a soviet mole in the upper reaches of England's M6 that must be discovered.   Warning!  Like all Le Carre novels this movie moves at a glacial pace.  That doesn't make it bad but if you are expecting a Mission Impossible type of action flick you aren't going to get it here.  It slowly builds, putting the pieces together, until it all comes together at the end.   

War Horse 3 stars

Steven Spielberg does a fine job with this movie.  It's a nice family movie (even with the war scene) that is worthy of your movie dollar although just barely.   It's the story of a boy and his horse that are separated when the horse is sold to the army for their war effort (WWI).  The movie is well done but very, very slow in too many places.  They slow down to give you a chance to feel the emotions they are trying to manipulate but more often than not you are not moved by what is going on in the movie.  You can wait and catch this on TV and not feel you have missed anything but if you were looking for a good movie to take your family to then this might just be the movie for you.