Killing Them Softly
If looks could kill – ★★★
Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) has teamed up once again with Brad Pitt to present a black comedy State of the Union address.
It tells the story of two deadbeats Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) who stick up a card game, having what they think is the perfect fall guy. Unfortunately things don’t go according to plan and when the people in charge call in Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) to solve the problem, it means someone is going to pay the price – regardless of their perceived security.
Blackthorn
The nostalgia will probably kill you - ★★★
Suppose Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid never got shot in that gun fight in Bolivia? Suppose your aunt had balls, well then she’d be your uncle. Supposing don’t make it so, but supposing is what Blackthorn is all about.
Sam Shepard plays James Blackthorn – Robert LeRoy Parker to his mother and Butch Cassidy to the law. Luckily for him he wasn’t shot dead and has escaped to the hills of Bolivia to live out his life in peace and tranquillity. The film opens with Shepard narrating a letter he has written to his nephew informing him of his return to America having learnt that the boy’s mother had died. The boy’s mother happens to be Etta Place, Sundance’s sweetheart, himself having died not long after the escape to Bolivia. So Butch sets about putting his affairs in order for the trip north, but when he comes across Eduardo (Eduardo Noriega) who is on the run from a band of “cowboys”, Butch finds himself getting into more scrapes than a man of his age would like.
Safe House
Sun, sea, sand and the CIA - ★★★½
Poor old Ryan Reynolds.
2011 was meant to be his big break-out year. Picked to front DC’s last big untapped comic-book franchise, The Green Lantern, and co-star in one of the summer’s most-anticipated comedies, The Change-up, hopes were high for Vancouver’s biggest export since Pamela Anderson and her red swim suit hit primetime.
