Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Sin City: Fall of a Franchise matches 300.2’s weird chronology, imitative superficiality and nude (albeit black and white) Green.  Rourke’s Kirk Douglas is a better match than Brolin’s Owen.  Could certainly have benefited from insurance against tragic deaths of Murphy, Duncan and character development.  SinCity: Are you in gold eye?

The Place Beyond the Pines

Cianfrance’s bloody valentine is a three headed mutant character study, with slow deliberate pacing, kept entertaining through some of the curviest curveballs ever thrown and a cast who knock them out of the park.  Powerful and shocking drama boldly introduces hyper-Aristotle’s 3x3 act structure.   Awfully long run-time, but squashes it.

Killing Them Softly

The Assassination of Great Performances by the Complete Lack of Structure.  Dominik’s attempt at Drive is less well shot, less intriguing, and horribly paced.  Excellent actors play arc-less character’s whose conversations feel longer than the film.  Hyperviolent moments and newsreel soundtrack feel equally meaningless in a crock that doesn’t work.

Observe and Report

Tonally confused. Paul Blart got Knocked Up by a Taxi Driver. Empathy with Rogen is only possible because everyone else is even worse. Pena gives best performance but Faris is barely bearable. Scenes of occasional violence are ironically funniest parts in film where reporting is more enjoyable than observing was.