The new Roar Uthaug/Alicia Vikander TOMB RAIDER offers slick, fast, entertaining fun

Few mainstream movies of late have so thoroughly divided critics, if not so much audiences, as has the new version of TOMB RAIDER. According to Rotten Tomatoes (yes, a notoriously unreliable site), the good/bad vote comes in at 50/50. But, of course if RT allowed what used to be known as a mixed review (which many reviews tend to be), rather than one that must be rated either all good or all bad, this would change everything.

The first thing to be said about this latest, newest version of the original Angelina Jolie two-movie "franchise" is that Alicia Vikander, shown above, together with the movie that surrounds her, is in every way the better Lara Croft: leaner, meaner, stronger, more believable, a lot less bloated and a lot more fun.

The film's director, Roar Uthaug (shown at left) was responsible three years ago for the much smaller, tighter and very exciting Tsunami-hits-Norway thriller, The Wave. Here, he is again able to marshal his skills to make another fast-paced film that moves halfway across the world, introduces a load of various characters, has a number of terrifically handled action/special effect sequences, and ends up being a surprisingly enjoyable adventure film with a heroine so skilled and obsessive that she would no doubt find a movement such as our current Me2 quite unnecessary. No man in his right mind would mess with this young woman.

In fact, unless I missed some small moment in the film, no man makes even a slight sexual advance on our Lara. They may want to kill her, and do try their level best, but as for verbal innuendos, unwanted "touching," let alone rape -- better forget it, guys.

Laura, in fact, is father-fixated, and while any decent psychiatrist would have a field day here, the movie simply sees this as loyalty and love. Dad disappeared a decade or so back but Lara refuses to believe he's dead and so, rather than signing some papers that would allow her, him, and his business connections to move on, she instead insists that she must somehow find the old codger.

Since Dad is played (often in flashback) by the wonderful Dominic West, above, you'll hope that Lara will indeed find him. Her nemesis (at least the one she's mot conscious of earliest on: there will be more  to come!) is played with savoir faire and sleaze by Walton Goggins (below, right).

The fellow who might come closest to anything approaching a bit of romance is the young boat captain played by Daniel Wu, below, who manages to be simultaneously sexy, charming, drunk and funny and helps the movie along enormously via both his acting and his action skills.

The sturdy if fairly prosaic screenplay comes via Geneva Robinson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons, and it proves serviceable to a fault. Mainly, it's the immaculate pacing and cinema sense of director Uthaug, his three editors (click and scroll down) and cinematographer George Richmond that make the movie such a fleet-footed and entertaining adventure.

In the rather starry supporting cast are no less than Kristin Scott Thomas (above) and Derek Jacobi, so, yes, folk -- you'll be getting a smidgen of "quality," too! Mostly though you'll be getting pretty much non-stop Vikander and plenty of action. That ought to be quite enough.

From Warner Brothers and Metro-Goldywyn-Mayer, the movie opened nationwide last week and should still be playing in a theater near you. Click here to find one.

In Nolan's idiotic but watchable INTERSTELLAR, all you need is... (What? He's got to be joking.)

What is the point, I wonder, of inundating us with quasi-scientific folderol if what you really have up your sleeve is an approximation of "All you need is love"?  The Beatles managed that in a four-minute song, but Christopher Nolan, in his latest overlong epic INTERSTELLAR, takes nearly three hours to tell us the same thing. What amazes me most about Nolan's films -- three Batman movies, each worst than its predecessor, and the love-and-loss sci-fi nonsense, Inception -- are how uninvolving they finally seem, for all their attempts at profundity and technical prowess.

His latest (the filmmaker is shown at left) is on track to be as successful as his others, and his fan base is certainly not disappointed. In fairness, I must admit that my spouse loved the film and was in tears during one particular scene, while I sat there, totally unmoved but along for the ride. The movie's plot -- all about the end of us humans' life on earth and what happens after -- is not uninteresting but grows tiresome past a certain point, even though Nolan and his co-writing brother Jonathan do have some surprises in store along the way.

A fine -- and major -- cast has been assembled, and the actors come through as well as they can (that's Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, above), though it is Jessica Chastain (below) and Matt Damon, the former as forceful and appealing as ever, the latter in a small but telling role, who shine the brightest.

But, as usual, when I finish one of Nolan's portentous "blockbusters," my immediate reaction is always a yawn and then the thought: Once again, it's way too much ado about damn little. The real crime of this movie, however -- thanks to Nolan and the film's US distributor, Paramount -- is contractually preventing Ms Chastain from doing any promotion for any other of her films coming out this awards season. She's got at least two more small, independent movies that she would and could be helping, and that would greatly benefit from her help. But, oh, no -- the big boys won't let her. As though Interstellar needs more publicity? Just another sleaze story out of Hollywood.

The movie will be playing your nearest multiplex for some time, at least, so no hurry to make that visit. In any case, Interstellar is sure to look good and/or put you to sleep on Blu-ray, too.

With SNOWPIERCER, Bong Joon-ho teaches Hollywood how to make a smart blockbuster

There are probably half a dozen ways to approach SNOWPIERCER, the first English-language feature from noted South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, shown below. You could certainly call it an action movie, which it is. The action is terrific and practically non-stop, save for one surprising expository speech from star Chris Evans (on poster, above, and two photos down) that is so out of nowhere and rather charming and tender that it stops the movie in its tracks for a couple of sweet minutes.

Or simply call the film a blockbuster, since it offers two full hours (plus credits) of enjoyment, a starry cast, explosions, near-non-stop thrills, and lots of gun play and violence -- all wrapped within an intelligent plot that gives us a hell of a lot more than mere special effects. Attention, Hollywood: This is how your blockbusters ought to be delivered -- with the usual hotshot trimmings surrounding some genuine content for a change.

But wait: Snowpiercer is also a sci-fi movie, taking off from the point at which our world has finally come to terms with global warming by shooting into the atmosphere some new derivative that overdoes things hugely, turning the world to ice. All surviving citizens have been herded aboard an enormously long train that has been designed to keep the inside temperature within a livable range.

Ah, yes, but this movie is also a nifty political parable about class in our society. The train, you see, is a microcosm of the world in which we already live. How this "new" world is organized turns out to be one of the delightful treats that Mr. Bong, as director and co-writer, has up his sleeve -- a sleeve, by the way, that is continually surprising and politically astute. This filmmaker has already gifted us with three very different, though equally successful, films: the police procedural, Memories of Murder; an unusual monster movie, The Host; and the character-study-cum-criminal-justice tale, Mother.

Snowpiercer is like nothing else Bong has done, and I think it's his best film yet, certainly his most accessible to western audiences. Oh, yes: And did I mention that this is also one of those newly popular contained-space thrillers, in which everything we see and experience, save a couple of minutes, takes place inside this speeding train. Bong has found a way to keep things moving so fast and so intensely that the pace never lags. One surprise after another awaits us as our set of beleaguered heroes -- think of them as the 99 per cent -- makes its way from train car to train car in its quest to reach, and wrest power from, the one per cent.

These train cars and what they hold are too much fun to spoil with any give-aways here (my personal favorite is the schoolroom, with a well-used Allison Pill, above, as the teacher). Instead let's talk about the crack international cast that Mr. Bong has assembled and that brings his movie to amazing life. Mr. Evans, always good, is light years away from his Captain America image (think of this performance as a cross between his super-hero work and his role in The Iceman).

Evans is well abetted by a fine and action-prone Jamie Bell, above, as his second-in-command. His "mentor" is played by the wonderful John Hurt (below, left with Luke Pasqualino), who brings his usual charm and precision to the proceedings, as well as a little more melancholy and hesitation that we're used to from this excellent actor.

A word must be said for Ed Harris, who does his typically commanding job, as well as for Octavia Spencer (below) who brings her enormous humanity and luminosity to the film, as a fighting mother.

The scene-stealer of them all, however, is Miss Tilda Swinton (below, center), who walks away with the acting/performing/knocking-your-socks-off award. She is unlike anything we've so far seen in her evidently vast repertoire, and she staggers us, while entertaining us royally, as always.

Mr. Bong is from South Korean, so it only seems fair that he include a couple of good Asian actors into his mix. He does, and Song Kang-ho (below, of Secret Sunshine and Thirst) comes through with flying colors. He is -- as character, actor, and action hero -- every bit the equal of Mr. Evans.

As the young woman who accompanies him, Ko Ah-sung proves delightful and daring in her own way. Ms Ko, below, right, gets a particularly suuculent moment in the film, as she and another species eye each other interestedly, warily.

Another of my critical compatriots noted, after the press screening, that he was concerned that director Bong might have made too many concessions to Hollywood's need for feel-good. But no: both of us agreed that the filmmaker has given us his usual dark vision, in which some of the very characters we care for most do not make it to the film's finale.

That finale is something, all right: different from anything else we've seen in this movie, both hopeful and frightening. Snowpiercer is one hell of a ride. Anyone interested in learning what a smart blockbuster looks, sounds and feels like should not miss it.

The movie, from Radius-TWC, opens this Friday, June 27, here in New York at the film centers Angelika and Elinor Bunin Munroe, as well as making its NYC debut as part of BAMcinemaFest 2014 the The BAM Cinemateque in Brooklyn tomorrow, Wednesday, June 25. (This BAM screening will feature a Q&A with director Bong Joon Ho and actor John Hurt, moderated by Scott Foundas, chief film critic for Variety.) Where is the film playing elsewhere across the country? Well, try clicking here, and then entering your info under TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES and see what happens....

Toledano/Nakache's French Box-office bonanza THE INTOUCHABLES opens....

First seen in New York City nearly three months ago -- via RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA -- the second most popular movie in French cinema history, THE INTOUCHABLES (Intouchables), proves one of those rare, audience-pleasing hits that deserves every penny it rakes in. Why? Because it takes what some of our more cynical critics are happy to call "stereotypes," turns them on their head and then opens them up into living, breathing and above all surprising human beings.

If you appreciate foreign films already, you'll have no problem; even if you're resistant to subtitles, Intouchables may win you over because it moves fast and possesses a simplicity and charm that clearly grabs audiences and doesn't easily let them go. It's a lovely piece of film-making, a model of classy discretion compared to movies of the "buddy" genre that are made over here.

To begin with, the main characters -- one of France's richest men, now a paraplegic, and a hunky Black African from the banlieues -- are so much more than the usual oil and water types that people this genre. In the typical version the movie always takes us -- and its characters -- from "They hate each other now" to "They've grown to love each other over time."  Not here.

These two guys -- played superbly by the gifted François Cluzet (above, right, of Tell No One and In the Beginning) and Omar Sy (above, left, who walked away with this year's Best Actor award in France, beating out even Jean Dujardin) -- are in each other's corner from almost the beginning. They can help each other, and they know it. So they do. While this might weaken the suspense and anticipation in a lesser film, here it simply allows the filmmakers, Eric Toledano (below, right) and Olivier Nakache (below, left), to concentrate on how all this happens and to give us the succulent, enjoyable details. These details are handled, by the way, with the kind of brevity, subtlety and wit that you do not often find in American "buddy" movies.

Among the many details, I'll just mention two: the movie's wonderful use of art -- appreciating it and creating it -- and the burgeoning interest (sexual, romantic) of the caretaker in the beautiful young woman who acts as secretary to the paraplegic. How these are handled by the filmmakers combines surprise, humor and credibility in equal doses. Each scenario plays out to a satisfying, though not necessarily expected, conclusion.

Above all Intouchables is a great love story, albeit one without sex or even much eroticism (well, ears do get rubbed erogenously, as above). Yet it puts you on cloud nine and keeps you there for most of its near-two-hour running time, as it bonds classes, races and men. No wonder it has raised the ire of a slutty and racist politician like Jean-Marie LePen. More power to it! Though based on reality (these two characters do exist; they helped each other in this manner and remain friends today), the movie is still a lovely fairy tale, one that has a lot to teach us. That combination, of course, is one of the prime reasons that we love -- and trust -- movies.
Some of 'em, anyway...

The Intouchables (112 minutes from The Weinstein Company) open tomorrow, Friday, May 25, in the Los Angeles area at The Landmark and the Arclight Hollywood, and in New York at the Paris Theatre and the Angelika Film Center.

Spielberg's WAR HORSE--90 minutes, at least--proves a genuine holiday blockbuster

Ah, WAR HORSE! Well, 90 minutes of it, anyway. Because of being given the wrong starting time for the advance screening, and a prior commitment to interview French filmmaker Cedric Klapisch, TrustMovies simply had to leave with nearly a full hour left to view. Now that the film has officially opened -- today, in theaters everywhere, as they say -- he will certainly go back and catch that last hour (he did: see final paragraph below). So, consider the following not exactly a review but a recommendation -- because that first hour-and-a-half is supremely entertaining, beautiful to view and full of strong performances (from animals and humans) that pull you in and keep you there. (Post-screening, TM's daughter and ex-wife both claimed the last portion of the film to be even more powerful than the first.)

Steven Spielberg (shown at left), the film's director, is no stranger to blockbusters nor to family films. This one, rated PG-13, is not for the younger children (or any older ones or adults) who may grow upset seeing beautiful animals put in harm's way. For the rest of us, the movie works, as much because of this director's love of cliché and how to use it as anything else. Few filmmakers are so able to give us the tried-and-true as though it were new -- and then succeed in making it so. Much of the time, anyway.

In this tale of the love of a boy for his horse (adapted, from Michael Morpurgo's novel by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis), though we know just about everything that's going to happen from our consumption of so many earlier movies, this does not make most of what occurs any less engaging or lively.

Only the section involving a Frenchmen and his granddaughter (played by the ever-reliable Niels Arestrup, above, right, and newcomer Celine Buckens, at left) seems particularly heavy-handed and unbelievable. Fortunately, this ends rather abruptly, and we can get on with the show.

Once we finish with the necessary initial family scenes -- that's father (Peter Mullan), above right; son (Jeremy Irvine), center; mother (Emily Watson, center left) and their landlord (David Thewlis, seated left) and the procurement of the horse and its training, we then go to war, along with that horse and, eventually, the son.

As this is World War I, death is everywhere, but Spielberg manages to gloss it whenever possible. There's an initial strange, gung-ho attack (above) that begins in tall grass and ends with riderless horses as the main indication that the men are dead. Later, a pair of young deserters are executed, with the blades of a huge windmill obscuring their actual moment of death.

Other directors would do all this differently and might please a smaller section of the public, but Spielberg knows how to do it in a manner that will rake in the largest audience, giving it both what it wants and what he wants. My personal favorites among his films are the two least successful at the box-office: Empire of the Sun and A.I., but when I see something as accomplished as War Horse, I am able to appreciate what this director can do, even if the film may not be among my favorites of the year.

I'll have to see that final hour to know for sure. And I will. Meanwhile, consider this "sort-of" review a genuine recommendation. War Horse, a co-production of Touchstone Pictures and Dreamworks, opens today, Christmas 2011. Click here to find a theater near you.

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As good as his word, TM did indeed head back to see that last hour of War Horse (on the heels of watching SHAME -- more on that movie later -- so thank you, AMC Empire 25, for the chance to catch it gratis).  It's every bit as fine -- if occasionally too explicit (this is part of what you get, in exchange for Spielberg's thrilling film knowledge and ability, with each of his packages) -- as the first 90 minutes. I was moved to tears a few times by the beauty, joy and/or sadness of certain scenes (that horse, of course, and how it brings supposed enemies together on the battlefield; the German gas, sudden and overwhelming, causing one of our sweet characters to disappear within it). So stick this on your list -- in a theater, first, as it's on film, rather than hi-def video; or eventually on Blu-ray/DVD.