Great review. Paul Thomas Anderson is a talent!

You and me both. Nothing special with this one.

Great review - I have much more faith in this movie now. And now I know to stay until the real end of the film... groovy.

After watching the regular version - I have to admit I think the 3D probably works out remarkably well for this film. I don't know if it would have swayed my opinion any more, but it's a film worthy of 3D. I agree with the cast have a lack of energy - one of the main reasons I couldn't rate it any higher than I did. Loved the look of the film, though.

While his first film, "In Bruges" was black, fresh, and funny--Martin McDonagh's follow up comedy crime caper is a bit of a misfire. The compellingly named "Seven Psychopaths" feels as though it is trying a little too hard. Notwithstanding, there are some good things about the film, it is essentially a brain-teaser that is ultra black, with a gee-wizz cast and a schlock of set ups that work in varying degrees."Seven Psychopaths", a self-reflexive black comedy where the main punchline is that its script is being written before our very eyes. An alcoholic writer with limited imagination, Marty (Colin Farrell) spends more time slumming with hyper pal Billy (Sam Rockwell) than he does tending to his own professional woes. Stuck trying to pen a screenplay called "Seven Psychopaths", Marty finds himself caught up in Billy's mess, when the latter and his associate Hans (Christopher Walken) are fingered for kidnapping the dog of ruthless mobster Charlie (Woody Harrelson). Forced to flee with the pooch in tow, Marty finds a surprising amount of inspiration in being hunted, especially given that his company, Hans and Billy, may themselves also be psychopaths. The entire film is centered around the kidnapping of Bonny, a shih-tzu belonging to chief mobster Charlie (Woody Harrelson), and here's where all hell breaks loose. The violent nature of Charlie, usually involving shooting anyone he encounters without remorse--trails the trio of Marty, Billy and Hans, inflicting collateral damage as he gets closer to retrieving his dog. The conversations between characters are in rapid fire--containing a wealth of information, anecdotes, and heavy on the black comedy. McDonagh has a mastery of dialogue, a streak of outrageousness and the power to surprise, and these attributes buoy the early part of the film, and keep the rest of it from degenerating entirely. The cast is rich in recognizable names, and that transfers smoothly into the quality of acting. This time Colin Farrell is the straight man for McDonagh (he was the opposite in "In Bruges") and it's just the performance the Irishman needed to deliver after the summer's lethargic "Total Recall" rehash. Rockwell and Walken are of tremendous value as the canine thieves--Walken bringing his turn down to a Zen whisper, while Rockwell is entertaining as hyperactively playful, despite his murderous tendencies lying just below the surface. Where "Seven Psychopaths" begins to unravel and lose it's way is in the third act. For the first two acts, the film is wild, exhilarating and just plain fun. The promising beginning and set-up give way to a meandering film that takes a long time to go nowhere. The space between laughs becomes greater, and twists and turns become increasingly puzzling and extraneous. The last act slows down and the tone of the film is thrown off entirely--and rather suddenly, the film ventures out of dark comedy and into the realm of something else entirely. Instead of expanding, "Seven Psychopaths" contracts, becoming less outrageous-even as it reveals itself as trivial. The filmmaker's ambition gets the better of him as the number of subplots begins to rival the body count. Despite promising more than it can deliver, "Seven Psychopaths" still boasts a handful of funny, finely-staged sequences that attest to McDonagh's talent and vision.

Despite an Oscar worthy performance by Denzel Washington, the films too heavy-handed, redundant, and never quite takes full flight. The title of the film is deceiving in that it is more so about the descend (in more ways than one), and the resilience of the human spirit. For the first half-hour or so, "Flight" keeps us rapt with thrilling action and a troubling moral quandary. You strap yourself in for the next two hours and prepare to give yourself over to the in-flight entertainment. But after "Flight" descends from its high-wire act, the film reshapes itself into a fairly standard story about substance abuse, and the life-long endeavor of maintaining sobriety. Not incredibly entertaining or consistently compelling, but Denzel's Oscar worthy performance alone makes this worth the watch. Denzel does a perfect job giving us just enough to empathize for him but never enough of a reason to condone him either. To Robert Zemeckis credit, he directs a well-crafted film, loosely based on actual events. An interesting character study of a flawed hero we sympathize with throughout despite reoccurring disappointments. This flight reaches it's destination, but I don't think I want to get the round trip. For additional reviews visit: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/member/Nesbitt10

"Mama" succeeds in generating some genuine scares and leaving some lingering, creepy images--despite indulging into numerous cliches. It's a well-made horror film that actually contains a story, and delivers the chills and thrills with a solid cast to gloss over the expected bag of tricks. It also tremendously helps to have Guillermo del Toro as an Executive Producer. In the prologue to "Mama," we learn of a shooting at a financial firm after an economic crash. A distraught executive named Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) arrives home, quickly collects his two young daughters, Victoria and Lilly, and speeds off. They end up in an abandoned house deep in the forest, where Lucas apparently intends to shoot his daughters before he can kill himself. But that's not quite how it works out. Five years later, Lucas' brother Jeffrey (also played by Coster-Waldau) has never given up hope. His team of searchers finally come across the abandoned house we saw a century ago in the nightmare. Dad's long gone, but the girls are still there - crawling around on all fours and making noises like wild animals. How could they have survived on their own? They are taken into the care of their dead father's brother and his rocker girlfriend away from the cabin they've called home all this time. Mama is none too pleased about this development, as I'm sure you can imagine. The girls are kept in isolation for a few months as Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash) records their every move while helping with their assimilation. Given that Victoria keeps making cryptic references to an unseen Mama. Lilly sleeps under the bed, still occasionally eats bugs, and screams whenever anyone tries to touch her. The girls hardly seem ready for ice cream and bedtime stories, but Jeffrey is determined to give them a normal life. The second act is when the fun begins for fans of horror films to be entertained with the a roller coaster ride of scares. Muschietti and his story collaborators Neil Cross and Barbara Muschietti, managed to keep an entire back story up their sleeves to reveal them in teasing fashion, which worked to keep you engaged throughout. In addition, there are creatively chilling nightmare sequences, a highly stylized dream set in which we see a crazed young woman screaming bloody terror before leaping off a cliff with her newborn. The real mother in the story is Annabel (Jessica Chastain), who slowly sheds her tough-talking exterior from "Zero Dark Thirty", as her nurturing instincts take over displaying her incredible range as one of the finest at her craft. There are ideas and themes present in "Mama", but they are not quite fully-flushed out and developed, as the film does confuse at times when it seems to suggest that the idea of settling into a normal family unit could in fact be the real horror. Come the end, Muschietti may not have worked out all his own unresolved issues, but he does manage communicate his fears effectively. And besides, that's what sequels are for.

"Side Effects" begins as if it were a modern-day problem movie, but then transforms into a murder mystery--in which the question is not who did it--but why? It's just one of the jagged turns this movie takes on its road to resolution. The twists are many--changing the lanscape, that it makes it difficult to discuss with people who have yet to see it. When Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) is spotted by a friend of her husband's crying at a part. She immediately suggests a drug that once helped her out. Although the film is shot mostly in bright, sharp, spring like colors--the yellowish filter and off-kilter camera angles give the entire film a haze of unreality--as though seen through the fog of a "medication haze". The film's ad campaign hinted at something vaguely related to "Contagion", playing up the fact that both movies share a director (Soderbergh) and screenwriter (Scott Z. Burns), and that they are structured around a specific modern-day fear. "Side Effects" is really a sleekly constructed noir where the pharmaceutical industry is the backdrop for the most part. Taylor is a 28-year-old graphic designer who looks somewhat adrift in her Manhattan apartment. She is awaiting the return of her husband Martin (Channing Tatum), sentenced to prison four years before for insider trading. The film starts up just before his release, a day she's eagerly awaiting. Once he's out, though, she seems unable to control her depression. The crying at work is one thing--ramming her car head-on into a wall is another. Taken to the hospital, she's examined by a psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law). He's concerned about her suicidal tendencies, but takes Emily's word that she'll start coming in for therapy and take her medications, so he lets her go. Her psychiatrist Dr. Banks, after conferring with her old doctor, Dr. Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones), eventually prescribes her an experimental new medication he's consulting on, Ablixa. At first, "Side Effects" looks like it's going to be Emily's story--following her through the withering exhaustion of adjusting medications, and dealing with the increasingly horrendous conditions they cause. That's where the script flips--when a crime is committed--and the story shifts to Dr. Banks. Dr. Banks must explain to an ever-widening circle of questioners-why he gave Emily what he did. Dr. Banks' practice in ruins, and the case seems closed. However, Dr. Banks cannot accept he was at fault and investigates to clear his name. Banks shows few signs of empathy. Why is he a doctor in the first place? Rooney Mara ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo") and Law are particularly well-cast. She seems as dispassionate -- as he seems taut and stressed. And then, just as you become resigned to "Side Effects" blitz against our society's willingness to seek personal solutions in pills, the narrative veers sideways into the investigation of a murder--and you never really see any of it coming, This is what makes this film such a marvel - and so difficult to discuss. From there on, it's a game of shifting narratives and re-examined assumptions that contains more than a couple of decoys. "Side Effects" points out--but never overtly, just how broken our systems have become--whether it be medical, governmental, or economic. Soderbergh has claimed that this is going to be his last feature film. Anything is possible, of course-he also hinted at that after finishing Che in 2008, but he's knocked out another seven features since then. It's a curious choice for a concluding film. Instead of straining for a great and career-defining epic, he's settled for a cool and professional piece.