"Derailed"

Clive Owen
Jennifer Aniston
Vincent Cassel
Melissa George
RZA
Xzibit
Addison Timlin

R           112min          2005

“Derailed” is about an ordinary man caught in a chance meeting with a woman on a train and the disruption to his life that ensues from a one night stand with her.

Derailed is a thriller starring Clive Owen and in a stark departure from anything else she’s done, Jennifer Aniston. Once it set the story up for you it grabs you by the balls. Anitson’s makes this believiable. Most of this film is predictable until the end.

This movie is a moral tale. Put in this situation what would you do. It’s an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstance because of the choices he made. It’s the moral choices that grab you and keep glued to the table. It’s compelling but in a rarity facing many Hollywood films the hero actually pays for his crimes.

This movie can be dismissed but its Aniston’s acting departure that really gets you. You looking at Jennifer Aniston stretch her acting range. You know she could to do it but its amazing to see her go there. If given the chance she could be a strong dramatic actress. She can truly play a femme fatale.

The first third of this movie is slow, its setting up the tale. Setting the characters into their profiles and setting you for the turn. The rest of the movie is a predictable psychological thriller until end.
Some may see it coming but most will not.

I give it 3/5 Gs.

"Doom"

Karl Urban
The Rock
Rosamund Pike
Dexter Fletcher
Ben Dainels
Al Weaver

Unrated           113min           2005

“Doom” is a first-person shooter video game of the same name. An elite Marines special op team is sent to a scientific research sent on Mars to find out what went wrong on the planet.

I watched the Unrated and Extended version of the film. It’s a mind numbing video game adaptation done for the MTV post Matrix demographic. It lacked definition. Marketed as a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson film he got outshine by Karl Urban, previously found in “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Chronicles of Riddick”. It had some cool and gimmicky special effects.

Doom was done because it could be made not that it should have been made. Step-into this film and leave your brain at the door. The video game was a slaughter fest and this no exception. The characters were not flushed out. You were given this group of bad-ass Marine, “the best at there job” and that was it. They started dying and you could care less. You couldn’t wait for the final showdown to come.

“The Rock” may have been running the show but it was Karl Urban’s film. Marketing had “The Rock” plaster everywhere. It was Karl Urban portray of Ben Grimm gave this movie any kind of emotion or drive. Urban’s Grimm is the only character you care about whether by design or accident; he deserves a sequel.

The special effects in this film are top notch. Nothing revolutionary but its gives you some whoa moments. Near the end it goes into ”Doom” Mode in which the entire segment of the film is done from a first person perspective just a the video game. Put in there entirely for the “Doom” fans it’s cute but a little distracting.

Doom is your typical special effects Sci-Fi action-adventure. A film marketed as The Rock’s film when actually it was Karl Urban’s. It was flat shoot-em with cool action sequences.

I give it 2/5 Gs

"Dirty"

Clifton Collins Jr.
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Keith David
Cole Hauser
Wyclef Jean
Amiee Garcia
Brittany Daniel
Frank Alveraz
César Garía Gómez
Robert Flores

R           97min           2005

“Dirty” is a film about two cops, one that has lost is moral compass, played to perfection by Cuba Gooding Jr., and one trying to find his way back, played engagingly by Clifton Collins Jr.

This movie doesn’t reinvent this dirty cop genre; it takes it from a psychological perspective. Which makes this film so entertaining and gripping. This cast acted superbly from the stars to the supporting cast. It shows how corrupt you can become in a world the real.

You constantly thinking as the characters are: “What’s the angle?” From the beginning you are wondering what’s going to happen. This is a thinking man’s “Training Day”. It makes you put your guard up and never let it down. These character profiles grip you at your moral compass and squezze tightly.

Top notch acting from a least than known cast. A lot of the actors you see before but you never known their names. Cuba Gooding Jr. is stellar as always but its Clifton Collins is the compass and his plight during this day drives this film, The supporting cast of characters, from real life former gangers to season actors finds this film giving a true representation of life for cops and gang-bangers set in Los Angeles.

The psychological turns of the characters grounds this film in reality. Life for these characters is this violent and dangerous. It makes you realize if you are psychological strong enough to handle the corrupting pressures of life on the streets of LA. Even when there is a glimmer of hope its stolen away.

A bleak somber tale of cops facing the crime of LA and corrupt it is on the street and how when your doing the right thing is sometimes not the right thing. It’s a brutal action filled world that grips you and doesn’t let leave your brain at the door.

I give it 4/5 Gs.