Win Win

3 Paws
Seen recently at the Dundee Theatre (still musty, still open)

I'm no celebrity stalker, but I do love the glitz and glam of Hollywood on occasion. You could find evidence of neither in Win Win, which is the secret of its success. You can't get any more ordinary than Mike (Paul Giamatti) and Jackie (Amy Ryan) Flaherty, who are just doing their thing, family style, in New Jersey until a whopper of an unethical decision on Mike's part brings a newcomer into the household.

The storyline, if you think too much about it, won't hold up after one watching. The performances - all across the board - do. It's a little too early to talk 2011 Oscar nominations, but 71-year-old Burt Young has set the bar pretty high as far as supporting actors go. Contrary to popular belief among those who finance films, you don't always have to blow things up or cast your lead from the pages of People's 50 Most Beautiful People list to get American butts in movie theatre seats. We'll show up for Burt.

Bonus Bones: 0
Nada, zip, zilch - not even a four-legged cameo.

Hanna

2 Paws

Seen recently at Aksarben Cinema

I don't have kids, but if I did, I'd like a Hanna - minus all the killing. She's a younger, darker version of Jaime Sommers, one of my early television heroines. Saoirse Ronan (Hanna) is mysterious, magnetic and other worldly - it looks like someone plucked her straight from one of the Lord of the Rings film sets. Maybe it's her name, or maybe it's the country she comes from. Here's hoping she makes wise film choices going forward so her 15 minutes of fame last a while.

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett seemed to phone it in as the stereotypic government bad seed with a syrupy southern drawl. I did get a kick out of her ruthless attention to dental hygiene, though. The other star of the film was its score. I felt like I was watching a series of great music videos from back in the day when MTV actually showed music videos instead of bad reality television. (Remember a-ha's Take On Me?)

Bonus Bones: 5

The wolf pups were cute, the guard dog in one of the pivotal chase scenes represented, and viewers even got a brief history lesson (complete with visual) about Laika, the first dog in space.

Jane Eyre

3 Paws
Seen recently at Film Streams

I hate good movie trailers. All too often they get your hopes waaaaaaay up until you're finally seated in the darkness with your popcorn, where said hopes are then bashed all to hell before you're 15 minutes in. The trailer for Jane Erye - with all of its darkness and intrigue and clash of wills - seemed too good to be true. It wasn't.

If you're a fan of great filmmaking, make it a point to work this one into your schedule. Those Bronte sisters sure could put pen to paper, and director Cary Joji Fukunaga's take on one of the world's most popular books was gripping, spooky and just plain inspiring. I'll be on the lookout for more from Mia Wasikowska (Jane) and Michael Fassbender (Rochester), who - both separately and together on screen - were so compelling I was afraid to move for fear of missing something.

It has transfixed me quite.

Bonus Bones: 5
Not only was there a dog in this movie, but he had a name. Here's to Pilot, Rochester's friend and companion in times good, bad and more than a little bit cuckoo.

Source Code

2 Paws
Seen recently at Aksarben Cinema

Note to all writers, directors and producers currently involved in script negotiations: people love a good character. He or she doesn't have to be heroic good - evil also works (think Severus Snape or Martin Burney in "Sleeping with the Enemy") - just someone you care enough about to find out how things end up for them.

Jake Gyllenhaal's Colter Stevens is one of those characters. I loved him the minute he showed up on the train, dazed and confused and full of questions that didn't seem to have any answers. So is Christina Warren, Colter's modern-day Mary Tyler Moore-ish traveling companion who eventually becomes the object of his self-imposed "mission."

I can't say I loved the plot, a ghoulish remix of the "Groundhog Day" premise, a stomach-turning military experiment and any number of "we must stop the terrorist before he strikes again" flicks. Sandwiched in between all the billows of smoke, though, are some great moments, scenes filled with a simple humanity that made me downright weepy.

I never really did figure out what the source code was. I was too busy worrying about how far our real military would go in meeting a stated objective.

Bonus Bones: 0
I guess dogs aren't allowed on commuter trains in Chicago.

Rango

2 Paws

Seen recently at Rave Motion Pictures Westroads 14

This is no movie for kids. I don't think the mom, dad and passel of youth who sat in front of us knew that going in, based on the amount of time different configurations of them spent in the lobby during the screening. A lot of it was creepy and downright gross - who needs to hear about conjunctivitis while they're eating Jujubes? The cast of characters reminded me of a cross between those in that famous bar scene from Star Wars and the townspeople in the George Bailey-less section of It's A Wonderful Life, just dirtier. (I didn't get the shout-out to Chinatown until it was pointed out to me.) I also thought Bill Nighy was miscast as the voice talent for Rattlesnake Jake - perhaps James Earl Jones and Alan Rickman were busy with other projects.

It's a must-see for those who admire the art of animation, though, and the owl Mariachi band was - yes, I'm going to say it - a hoot.

Bonus Bones: 0

I guess the desert is too hot for dogs.

The Adjustment Bureau

2 Paws
Seen recently at Rave Motion Pictures Westroads 14

Great hats, great building architecture, great chemistry between the two leads. Not so great - the hokey plot (I would have preferred magic beans as a transport device), the hokey performance by the guy from Mad Men (who also dated Carrie Bradshaw in several Sex in the City episodes - he's the one who wanted Carrie to, well, relieve herself on him), the hokey ending. I'd like to see Matt Damon and Emily Blunt meet again in a better film. Better yet, I'd like to see Nebraska produce a political candidate with the brashness and honesty of Damon's David Norris. He or she would get my vote.

Bonus Bones: 0
No dogs? In a city of more than eight million? I don't think so.

Cedar Rapids

3 Paws
Seen March 12 @ Rave Motion Pictures Westroads 14

Aaaaaaah, Cedar Rapids. I think I went to a party there once when I was in college, but the details are a bit sketchy now. With a film title like this, I was prepared for a series of sight and sound gags based on the usual Midwestern stereotypes - we dress funny, we're confounded by the miracle of modern transportation, we view the world as black or white, no in-between hues allowed.

Truth be told, there was a bit of that. But it didn't matter, thanks to a cast of characters that make you feel better about the world and your place in it. It was like "Rudy" minus the football stuff. You just don't get any better than John C. Reilly, who can gross you out, make you laugh and get you all verklempt in the same scene. I dare you not to love Ed Helm's Tim Lippe, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.'s Ronald Wilkes is a scene stealer - look for him when they retrieve Tim from (insert stereotypic redneck accent here) one a' them dangerous backwoods Iowa house parties. The film was filled with lots of great one-liners - I'll be using the "I'm from Omygod, Nebraska" one from here on out. Chalk one up for the rubes.

Bonus Bones: 0
People without dogs in the Midwest? Nah.