cult film freak: mark walhberg

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Written by James M. Tate / 1/13/2012 / No comments / action , heist , mark walhberg , suspense , tens

CONTRABAND

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJnkOd4r-iBsRJCg7yadzLFAxdjh_ORXmhFIU8V3asZ08XwZa61UUPaoXQhyphenhyphenm6glskB30N27oM1VTToDXl1OTgTYw1t-Bq4iZXtPFeniSSWhn0XmOEDQNQU2OGizM2snAvjjDemAIFzv_Z/s1600/WFTCRMImageFetch.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697384283529998450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJnkOd4r-iBsRJCg7yadzLFAxdjh_ORXmhFIU8V3asZ08XwZa61UUPaoXQhyphenhyphenm6glskB30N27oM1VTToDXl1OTgTYw1t-Bq4iZXtPFeniSSWhn0XmOEDQNQU2OGizM2snAvjjDemAIFzv_Z/s200/WFTCRMImageFetch.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 184px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a>title: CONTRABAND 
year: 2012 
cast: Mark Walhberg, Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Foster 
rating: ***1/2 
 
Give us an antihero that’s gonna break the law for a substantial reason and not only can anything happen, but the audience will embrace it with open arms. But prepare to sustain disbelief through this action/suspense yarn involving a freshly retired contraband smuggler who, because of his brother-in-law's involvement in the same trade but with unlucky results, returns to his old life to straighten things out. It’s a piece of cake… with exploding candles… as Mark Walhberg goes from ship to land back to ship: dodging bullets, tricking drug dealers, and getting smashed up… after which the real fun begins. Old school melodrama envelopes the b-story as his wife and two children, vulnerably at odds with grimy, over the top mobster Giovanni Ribisi – but the suspense relies on how the ex smuggler can figure to sneak stuff through without being caught, and most importantly, to save his family as the goons move in. Wahlberg carries the movie with more cool than edge, and even when the story gets mazy and convoluted, he’s a genuine enough protagonist to make everything seem precisely clear: exactly when it needs to be. And veteran actor William Lucking looks perfectly gruff as Walhberg’s imprisoned father.

action, heist, mark walhberg, suspense, tens

CONTRABAND

title: CONTRABAND year: 2012 cast: Mark Walhberg, Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Foster rating: ***1/2 Give us an antihero that’s gonna break ...

Written by James M. Tate / 1/04/2012 / No comments / eco-horror , m. night , mark walhberg , suspense , zeroes

THE HAPPENING

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJ6kE18Vb52ry5sZ1baULIgK9Ri5oZG7Cz_f20BvP0mSUP-gr9gZNW_3Axmb04hlilE-OcEGJ7l7HMOqq5yZG9Es2aF9vJlXAld-Zfy92c-ixHCL0JRdS413LooIuBuguPOvu1t87fuQ/s1600/happening-teaser-trailer.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455949679065318642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJ6kE18Vb52ry5sZ1baULIgK9Ri5oZG7Cz_f20BvP0mSUP-gr9gZNW_3Axmb04hlilE-OcEGJ7l7HMOqq5yZG9Es2aF9vJlXAld-Zfy92c-ixHCL0JRdS413LooIuBuguPOvu1t87fuQ/s200/happening-teaser-trailer.jpg" style="float: right; height: 112px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a> 
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title: THE HAPPENING</div>
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year: 2008</div>
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cast: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, Betty Buckley</div>
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rating: *</div>
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To quote the iconic Buffalo Springfield tune, "There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear." These lyrics sum up half the film, where people back East are mysteriously going crazy and soon-after committing suicide. After the cause is known, something having to do with the environment "fighting back," it's a lot of running around... And the once prolific writer/director M. Night Shyamalan seems to have run out of ideas and creativity. Relying on cheap camera work and cheesy dialogue, he himself claims this as an intentional b-movie liken to the early work of George Romero and David Cronenberg; low-budget classics relying heavily on character-development: something this film has little to nothing of. Eventually the survivors end up in a rural house inhabited by an old creepy woman played by Betty Buckley (Sissy Spacek's coach in CARRIE), providing the only chilling moments that don't last long enough.

eco-horror, m. night, mark walhberg, suspense, zeroes

THE HAPPENING

title: THE HAPPENING year: 2008 cast: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, Betty Buckley rating: * To quote the iconic Buffalo Spr...

Written by James M. Tate / 6/02/2011 / 1 Comment / action , comedy , mark walhberg , ray liotta , steve carell , tens , tina fey

DATE NIGHT

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbMTrAmA71ApAWsshG7IvrlA4Tk_tJwYdisOIJ-OROS-MxREGb11KcQWKmOFdTcLELpdBgSJ1_wx_dwU94D3_mHOWYkyAX1zIAgisO_Nv07SICHjbtpYVeOx2hRejwqdGx0gm_9XT3tw/s1600/dd.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613854990951179442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbMTrAmA71ApAWsshG7IvrlA4Tk_tJwYdisOIJ-OROS-MxREGb11KcQWKmOFdTcLELpdBgSJ1_wx_dwU94D3_mHOWYkyAX1zIAgisO_Nv07SICHjbtpYVeOx2hRejwqdGx0gm_9XT3tw/s200/dd.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 183px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a>title: DATE NIGHT 
year: 2010 
cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Ray Liotta 
rating: ** 
 
The tale of a husband and wife who’ve been married too long. They have kids, a scheduled routine, and no sex life. So they go out on a "date" to a fancy restaurant, but there are no tables… Until the waiter calls out the name of a party with a table for two, and when no one shows up, Steve and Tina pretend be the couple. Thus the adventure begins as two thugs, thinking they're someone else, escort them into an alley and, at gunpoint, want a flash drive containing… Well that’s the plot, or what Hitchcock calls the “McGuffin”: an essential element the audience needs but doesn't really care about. With Steve Carell and Tina Fey, they’re most likely hoping for a lotta laughs. Well there aren’t too many. The look of the film is grainy, the colors blown-out like a modern thriller, and with car chases and gun-toting, nasty (though not very formidable) villains, you’ll forget it’s a comedy for more reasons than not being very funny. Although Carell and Fey have a few chucklesome moments, it’s an uneven ride. And Mark Walhberg contributes a glorified cameo as a shirtless secret agent providing imperative information much too easily. But thankfully his shortcuts bring the screen-time to a minimum, because the running-around gets tiresome, quick.

action, comedy, mark walhberg, ray liotta, steve carell, tens, tina fey

DATE NIGHT

title: DATE NIGHT year: 2010 cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Ray Liotta rating: ** The tale of a husband and wife who’ve ...

Written by James M. Tate / 5/24/2011 / 2 Comments / biopic , boxing , christian bale , courtroom drama , docudrama , mark walhberg , melissa leo , oscar nominated , tens

THE FIGHTER

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6MOOqoAkmEnpO7Tv7ITqM2RZ8WHvFFQD4POeD5dafmHf3Nu1wLQHQeYAk3zC1wVbB-ZFZih1LzdO1fbiWIcfJINKS7GpxDdhbNuoUluHuEcodeHAoXKS4T4A871RWlChuTcN4xt-A46I/s1600/rrr.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610352339952831826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6MOOqoAkmEnpO7Tv7ITqM2RZ8WHvFFQD4POeD5dafmHf3Nu1wLQHQeYAk3zC1wVbB-ZFZih1LzdO1fbiWIcfJINKS7GpxDdhbNuoUluHuEcodeHAoXKS4T4A871RWlChuTcN4xt-A46I/s200/rrr.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 141px;" /></a>title: THE FIGHTER 
year: 2010 
cast: Mark Wahlberg, Chritian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams 
rating: **** 
 
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Within the first ten seconds it's apparent, as the film begins with pseudo documentary footage about two brothers – one, Dicky Eklund, a has-been boxer who had, years earlier, knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard and the other, Micky Ward, a climber in a slump – that Christian Bale (as Dicky) not only deserved the Oscar but is so in-character, it seems too real a performance to be one at all. 
 
But that shouldn't take away from the quieter, soft-spoken Micky, played with deft subtlety by Mark Wahlberg, who absorbs his older bro’s training and experience to continue fighting, although it’s not easy: Dicky’s an emaciated, motor-mouthed drug-addict with wily charm, and can’t be bogged down to any structure – which is what Micky needs to move to the next level i.e. win an important fight. 
 
Melissa Leo, as the brother’s gloriously cranky mother, a character filmed to be loved, plays more for an audience than the frighteningly genuine Bale… though her frantic diatribes are something to admire. The only drawback is that the documentary approach (a film being made of Dicky within the actual movie), while balancing the street savvy structure, makes more mainstream moments – like Micky’s relationship with a local girl, a police chase, and the falling out (and reconciliation) between brothers – seem somewhat contrived in comparison. 
 
But this is a great film that envelops boxing as if it were not only a sport and/or devise, but a character in itself: Bale and Wahlberg, both inside the ring and out, impeccably channeling that medium.

biopic, boxing, christian bale, courtroom drama, docudrama, mark walhberg, melissa leo, oscar nominated, tens

THE FIGHTER

title: THE FIGHTER year: 2010 cast: Mark Wahlberg, Chritian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams rating: **** Within the first ten seconds...

Written by James M. Tate / 3/07/2011 / No comments / mark walhberg , michael keaton , modern , samuel l. jackson , tens , will ferrell

THE OTHER GUYS

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpao1KtG_RwekrUnIGB5cxnIa8v1ax4kah37GgMl1Gcisq_xcKqmCSgFpLsPM9m2RpDxeD9tXS9OYWRZEROUdGZEweGkgAJSBLQWuUux905seucHJYivq1AoP245DnlYr5jNDYGVtEIU/s1600/the-other-guys-motion-poster-25-3-10-kc.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581529346805647186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpao1KtG_RwekrUnIGB5cxnIa8v1ax4kah37GgMl1Gcisq_xcKqmCSgFpLsPM9m2RpDxeD9tXS9OYWRZEROUdGZEweGkgAJSBLQWuUux905seucHJYivq1AoP245DnlYr5jNDYGVtEIU/s200/the-other-guys-motion-poster-25-3-10-kc.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 106px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: pointer" /></a>title: THE OTHER GUYS year: 2010 cast: Mark Wahlberg, Will Farrell, Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes, Samuel L. Jackson rating: **1/2 There have been so many buddy cop movies throughout the years, any new attempt is usually tongue-in-cheek satire: a plot riding backseat to what makes the genre work: the contrary personalities of the duo and how they bicker back and forth, eventually making up to take on, and then defeat, the villain. This is no different, giving ample time for Mark Walhberg, as a frustrated, hard-boiled jerk who wants to make a difference, and mellow, passive desk-jockey Will Farrell, to clash and clash some more. Farrell does his usual clueless, sweet-natured airhead while Walhberg tries his best to counterbalance with sporadic intensity, making up for the fact his role, if more comedic, could have fit John C. Reilly. Not bad, and not too great, but entertaining enough to wile away the time.

mark walhberg, michael keaton, modern, samuel l. jackson, tens, will ferrell