Whiteout

Whiteout - a movie I picked up at the library. I like Kate Beckinsale. She's cute. You can't deny that. So whenever she's in a movie, I try to make sure I see it.

Whiteout stars Beckinsale as Carrie Stetko, a U.S. Marshal stationed at a research base in Antarctica. She is nearing the end of her stay as winter closes in, but someone turns up dead. It's up to her to investigate the crime. Her friend Dr. John Fury (Tom Skerritt) tells her to send the body home and worry about it later. However, there are only 3 days left until Antarctica's 6 months of darkness begins and everyone wants to leave, but the killer is amongst them. If she cannot solve the case, she may get stuck there for those 6 months.

While investigating the crime with the help of pilot Delfy (Columbus Short), she stumbles upon U.N. operative Robert Pryce (Gabriel Macht) who's doing his own investigation. Having a dark past, she now trusts no one and wonders what his real motive is.

Tension heats up when the masked killer shows up attacking and slashing people with an ice ax. However, while Carrie is investigating, she turns up more murders and more clues. It reads like a classic Scooby-Doo movie.

The cover of the DVD indicates that it's a murder mystery and the murder occurs fairly early in the movie, so the whole time my natural inclination is to figure our who did it. And this one is not that difficult to figure out. And one thing that I don't like is an easy mystery.

Directed by Dominic Sena, Whiteout is 96 minutes long and Rated R for violence, some mushed up dead people, language, and a frosted glass view of Kate naked, but too frosted to get excited about it.

I was not too impressed with Whiteout. It's not terrible, but it's way too predictable and convenient. And when people get injured, you can't expect them to get back up again and start running. It's just not realistic. And so for the fakeness, I can give Whiteout no better than 2 stars.

Everybody's Fine

Recently released to DVD and sent to me by Netflix, Everybody's Fine is Robert De Niro's latest movie.

De Niro plays Frank, a recent widower, who plans a big family weekend at his house. Unfortunately, his four kids are spread out all over the country and he hasn't seen them since his wife died 8 months ago. After all of them cancel their visit, he decides to visit them individually. After dropping in unexpectedly at his first son David's he finds that he is not there, so he head's off to his daughter Amy's house, then the other kids. But each child has an excuse as to why they can't spend time with him.

At each house he finds that things aren't quite what he expected. He is slowly learning things about his children that he didn't know. His high expectations of them were shielded by his wife, but without her the truth starts to be revealed, and all is not rosy. Many scenes are accompanied with flashbacks to his children as he remembers them when they were younger. Pay attention to the details of this movie because many of them come back to you at the end.

Robert De Niro is great in this movie. If you are in your late 20's, 30's, or even early 40's - this is your dad. His little idiosyncrasies and total lack of acceptance of today will totally remind you of your father. I think this is one of his finest performances in a while.

Judging the movie by the cover you would think it was a comedy. After all they are all smiling, right? While there are funny parts to the movie, this is no comedy. This is a gut-wrenching tear-jerker. At the end of the movie my wife said it sucked. Then this morning she commented that she can't stop thinking about it. This made me think that it wasn't the movie that sucked, it was the sad situations that she didn't like. The movie definitely has a lasting impression.

In addition to De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, and Kate Beckinsale star as his children. Directed by Kirk Jones (who also did Nanny McPhee and Waking Ned Devine), Everybody's Fine is 99 minutes long and Rated PG-13 for "thematic elements" and some brief language, but also many scenes that will bring you to tears unless you absolutely have no heart.

Though not what I expected, the movie definitely had a solid impact and was sad and depressing. For bringing out these emotions, I think this movie deserves 4 stars.

Nothing But the Truth

Government conspiracies and corporate shinanegans always make for good movies. Remember Barbarians at the Gate or Thank You For Smoking?

Nothing But the Truth sort of fits that vein. The movie stars the lovely Kate Beckinsale as Rachel Armstrong, a reporter for the local D.C. newspaper who has just exposed a C.I.A. agent who recommended that the United States not invade Venezuela after an assassination attempt on the President, but the agent is the wife of a writer critical of the White House Administration. Does this all sound familiar? It should. There's a strong similarity between this movie and the Valerie Plame / Scooter Libby / Bob Novak incident during the Bush 41 Administration.

Armstrong knows that the government will probably come down hard on her, but she has no idea of the intensity of their persuit. A rocky relationship with her husband and an unfettered obligation to conceal the truth behind her source drives her to unimaginable emotional and physical pain. Additionally, her Pulitzer Prize nominated article not only exposes the government for its shinanigans, but may unintentionally ruin the lives of many involved.

Federal prosecutor Patton Dubois (Matt Dillon) goes after Armstrong and will not back down until she exposes the leak that gave her the information. Armstrong refuses to back down.

This drama had me furious and hating the federal prosecutor, getting pissed off at Armstrong's arrogant attorney Alan Burnside (Alan Alda), and sympathetic to the pain and betrayal felt by the CIA agent, Erica Van Doran (Vera Farmiga). Furthermore, throughout the movie and into the night and again this morning I kept running through the story in my mind trying to see if I could resolve the dilemna before I could remind myself that this was just a movie.

Nothing But the Truth was directed by Rod Lurie who also brought us the infuriating movie with Robert Redford, The Last Castle. Nothing But the Truth is an hour and 40 minutes long and is rated R for language, violence, and sexuality.

(--Slight Spoiler Alert--)
I was not able to figure out the movie, which means it is a good movie in my book. The answer is provided to the viewers, but not to the characters, and in retrospect, you probably could have found it.

(--End of Slight Spoiler Alert--)

I enjoyed this movie and it kept my attention throughout. I attached emotions to all of the characters, including the seemingly primodonna Rachel Armstrong. I thought the actors did a fine job with their portrayals and it made this a great movie. On an interesting side-note, I read that this movie had very limited release in the theaters before it was released onto DVD because it ran into financial trouble, probably because of the economy. Another victim of the recession, though Nothing But the Truth did not get a bailout.

I give this movie 4 stars. I would definitely watch it again.