On the surface, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher might not seem like a good subject for a biopic. She wasn’t flamboyant; there’s no romantic back story, and she was more known for her steel will than her diplomacy. In these politically charged times, however, “The Iron Lady” is surprisingly timely with its profile of the greengrocer’s daughter who fought her way through the British political ranks to become one of the most powerful women in the Western Hemisphere.

Meryl Streep is a towering presence as former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” a time-hopping biopic that sees her reunite with “Mamma Mia!” director Phyllida Lloyd. The movie itself doesn’t live up to Streep’s magnificent turn, instead sweeping through the key moments in Thatcher’s life to assemble a surface-level portrait of one of Britain’s most divisive leaders.

The narrative roughly follows her personal history, starting with her school years and showing how she rose to become the first female Member of Parliament, then Prime Minister of Britain for 11 years, during which time she wrestled with the recession of the 1980s, the birth of the European Union, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, a massive miner’s strike, the Argentine fight over the Falkland Islands and rebellion of the Irish, including frequent bombings – emotionally portrayed in the film – from the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

As Thatcher, Meryl Streep is superb. From her makeup and wardrobe to her speech and the behaviors and mannerisms of a woman in her forties, fifties and older, Streep vanishes in her portrayal of the “iron lady,” and it’s a wonder to behold.

In addition to a fascinating and reasonably neutral political narrative that focused on Thatcher and the cost her family paid in her single-minded devotion to her service to Britain, “The Iron Lady” was surprisingly touching, and more than once I felt a wave of emotion sweep over me as her children fought for attention, a beloved advisor was killed in an IRA bombing, and her long-suffering husband, Denis, sat on the sidelines as he realized yet again he couldn’t compete with her passionate love of service.

Still, the best part of “The Iron Lady” is Streep’s performance. It’s truly that good. The film itself is a touching and engaging biopic, but will ultimately be of more interest to students of history and those who seek a sense of the battles she had to fight as the first woman Member of Parliament and the first female head of a Western Power. Well worth watching in this context, it’s a reminder of the power of cinema to let us peek into the life of a powerful, amazing woman.

The slogan for the new crime comedy movie Tower Heist promises ordinary guys conducting an extraordinary robbery and the movie delivers just that.

The movie stars Ben Stiller as a building manager of a high-end apartment building called The Tower. When the entire staff falls victim to a Ponzi scheme, Stiller’s character brings together an odd group of people to get back at the manipulative multi-millionaire Arthur Shaw.

Tower Heist does not offer the most believable plot and for some reason seems to be revolving around a chess move that does not make much sense. The plan Stiller and his extremely nervous group of accomplices devise can be described in one word, wacky. No robbery ever goes according to plan and what I enjoyed throughout the movie were all the twists and turns that the characters had to fight through.

Perhaps screenwriters Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson were thinking from the perspective of an ordinary man, not a genius when writing down exactly how the robbery would go down. The credit here goes to the actors, all of whom did an amazing job with their individual parts and made it seem partially realistic.

Eddie Murphy does exactly what he is good at, acting and making his audience laugh. It will come as no surprise though that six-time Emmy winner and former MASH star, Alan Alda, was the most impressive with his acting. Alda portrayed his character with the utmost condescension. He literally becomes the villainous New York businessman mad about his money and willing to do anything to protect it. Ben Stiller fits perfectly into the good caring guy persona he has played before, in case you remember Night at the Museum.

Director Brett Ratner, from the “Rush Hour” trilogy, is no stranger to coordinating frenetic exploits. He stages a doozy involving a vintage Ferrari, an elevator shaft and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, complete with its giant inflatable Snoopy and Shrek.

The movie relates to real-life situations of several New Yorkers though who have lost their finances and property at the hands of Wall Street businessmen. The timing of the movie seemed right especially with the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Overall, Tower Heist does what a comedy is supposed to do, entertain and make you laugh and at certain times keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you are looking for a relaxed time with friends then Tower Heist is good pick. If you have too high of an expectation though, I would pop in next door to Puss In Boots.

Picking up where the 1982 classic let off, director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. puts a modern spin on the scientific thriller serving as a prequel to John Carpenter’s original.

The newest version of the film, released Oct. 14, does not stray from the original. American paleontologist Kate Lloyd, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, is requested to join a team of Norwegian scientists to research a mysterious aircraft discovered under the ice of Antarctica.

While the team attempt to dissect what they have discovered they stumble upon yet another unknown specimen that appears as though it was once living. Little does the team know, it is still alive.

Hell breaks loose from the ice when the unknown life form attacks one of the team members, taking over the cells and tissues of the human.  The creature morphs into a complete replica of any life form that it comes in contact with.

Surviving team members struggle to stay alive and protect themselves from the extraterrestrial demon while suspicions run high about each other; any one of them could be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or in this case a monstrous alien disguised as a familiar face.

One by one the team members are engulfed and duplicated by the “Thing” that is terrorizing their small, icy cabin shelter. The only way to completely eliminate the creature is to burn anyone that it has had contact with and destroy the off brand version of the human body it has taken over.

Our heroine, Kate, is faced with the task of ruling out what’s real and what is fake, and even at the end of the film she still has to live by the creed of trusting no one in order to solidify her own protection and survival.

Overall this film is a bone-chilling thriller, filled with gore and a substantial amount of action. The special effects are believable and audiences will be surprised at the graphic images that seem to literally gush and splatter across the screen.

Though the dialogue is a bit basic and mundane, it sufficed for the plot of the film. A largely engaging element of the film is the foreshadowing provided from scene to scene; much like a mystery, it will keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

Collectively the director and cast were able to breathe new life into John Carpenter’s cult classic with an edgier approach that will rip across movie screens. After seeing this film you may find yourself looking out the corner of your eye and wondering who’s who.

The number of sexual partners a person possesses has never been so comical as shown in “What’s Your Number?”,  a movie starring Anna Faris and Chris Evans. This movie was released on Friday, Sept. 30 in theaters across the country.

Ally Darling (Faris) reads a magazine article about the nation’s average sexual partners. According to the article, women who exceed twenty partners have a slim chance of getting married. Finding that her number is almost twice the norm, Ally goes searching for her ex-boyfriends in hopes of still being marriage material.

Along her journey, Ally is joined in her search by her philandering neighbor Colin Shea (Evans) and her seemingly perfect sister Daisy Darling (played by Ari Graynor). Colin, who was raised in a family of policemen, has a talent of researching people’s lives that helps him locate Ally’s exes.

Ally has charismatically given her ex-boyfriends nicknames such as “Disgusting Donald” or “The Puppeteer.” Despite these charming monikers, she still wants to give them all a second chance.

Through her trips down memory lane, Ally realizes that she continuously focuses on others’ pursuit of happiness instead of her own. Shea had to tell Ally her flaw in the course of the film, as if the audience didn’t catch on when Ally visibly changed herself around each ex.

The movie has all the classifications of a romantic comedy – a light-hearted, funny movie where two people overcome all obstacles to become united. In true rom com fashion, Ally spends the film trying to conquer her personality flaws in hopes of ending up married.

With a predictable storyline, the movie caters to a female audience. They are drawn in by the sexually based jokes and Chris Evans’ often semi-nude scenes. It was the perfect combination of romance and vulgarity.

Faris, who often plays the unintelligent ditz, sufficiently played a well-educated, unemployed, artistic marketing personnel. Despite being handed roles beneath her acting abilities, Faris is finally in a role in which her character can be taken seriously.

The movie is rated R for its sexual content, language, violence, and nudity. I don’t know about you, but those are all the things I look for when seeing Chris Evans on the big screen.

Make sure you wash your hands.

“Contagion,” released September 9, 2011 is a film that everyone is talking about. Its gritty film style coupled with the nerve-wracking subject matter will definitely stay with you.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, “Contagion” tells the story of how easily a disease can turn into an epidemic.  It also follows the lives of six central characters, all somehow fitting in to the development of the disease.

A team of doctors, affiliated with the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control, try to deal with the destruction of this disease, which is transmitted simply by contact. An ambitious blogger, played impressively by Jude Law, also has a part to play in the overall effect and spread of the disease, which does not fully expose itself until close to the end of the film.

All in all, this film is great. It is directed well and the script is to the point. The fact that “Contagion” does not stray away from the main plot with pointless romances or violence, makes this film very real. It goes from fact to fact, population to population, and illness to illness.

Richard Heiden, a junior Aerospace Engineering student at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, agrees of the “realness” in the film.

“It almost seemed like a documentary about the spread of an epidemic. It was uncomfortable to think how possible and easy it could actually happen,” he said.

Easy is right! The disease starts so simply that it is horrifying to think of how conceivable a situation like this could be. For the sake of spoiling the film, the source of the disease will not be revealed in this review.

All of the characters played a vital role in the film and had unique, believable performances; however, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Laurence Fishburne stole the movie. Each of these actors played their parts so effortlessly, that it was easy to feel that we actually knew them.  One of these characters does not see the end of the film, and their death is one of the more haunting moments in “Contagion,” which is more proof of how much their performance helped the film.

Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Marion Cotillard rounded out the principal cast with wonderful performances, too…just not quite as noticeable as the others. Their roles seemed to be sometimes forgotten, lost in the more immediate plot. However, all of the characters still work together, keeping the film and plot consistent.

Carolina Conte, the assistant professor of film here at Jacksonville University, agrees with the way the movie is put together.

“It has different stories that intertwine, creating a very interesting plot. Soderbergh is really good in making this work in film,” she said.

While “Contagion” wasted no time getting to the point and telling a story (which is refreshing-since films tend to beat around the main point), it also used great aesthetics.

Almost all the time, “Contagion” maintained an ashy and gray feel to it, certainly highlighted by the almost constant gloomy weather. The sun rarely makes an appearance in the film, and when it does, it is beautiful. The seemingly dull and dark shots in the film help to maintain the bleak subject matter of the film, which was super effective.

The shots were intelligently done as well. So many close-ups focused on objects, hands, and touching (which obviously is what spreads the disease). It makes the viewer expectant, sure, but also incredibly nervous and aware of how quickly an outbreak like this could become reality.

To sum it up, “Contagion” is smart. The script is sharp and undeviating, which definitely keeps the viewer intrigued and on the edge of their seat. If you are looking for a love story, or action adventure, go see something else, but if you want to prepare yourself for an epidemic, you could probably learn a thing or two. Remember, wash those hands.

The saying goes, “a person can only use around twenty percent of their brain.” If this is indeed the case, then what if someone was able to use all of his or her brainpower? Would they become successful or crash and fail? Well, you can explore all the possibilities in director Neil Burger’s latest techno-thriller “Limitless.”

Bradley Cooper plays aspiring author Eddie Morra who is suffering from a serious case of writer’s block. He was recently dumped by his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) and resorts to drinking during all hours of the day to make the time pass quicker. His ex-brother-in-law then introduces him to NZT, a drug that sparks up all the synapses in the brain making a person intelligent, focused and on the fast track to success. Morra finds himself with a large amount of money in a short amount of time and is soon employed by powerful New York businessman Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro) who needs an important contract signed. There is a downside for Morra however, for every pill has its side effects.

“Limitless” is a new type of thriller. It takes you far into the fantasy world of what-ifs and keeps you guessing at the edge of your seat. It is a film that offers thrills and twists around every corner. The overall story line may be a little weak but watching the movie itself will keep you interested till the very end.  The pill lasts only a few hours, but addiction causes grotesque side effects. Burger cleverly uses the movie to question what if a person suddenly became intelligent to his full capacity. Cooper’s eccentric character responds with a simple ‘make myself rich.’

The movie even begins with a sketchy scene that has the audience wondering until the very end. However, some loose ends were evident. At the end of the movie try not bothering yourself with questions of why and how the pill actually works. There is little indication that Leslie Dixon gave it much thought when penning the screenplay. All the audience knows is that it works; it’s a sort of magic pill. The acting was decent, and as always DeNiro is a delight added to the cast of the movie.

The movie runs around an hour and forty-five minutes and that really is how long a person can hold on to complete fantasy tale that leaves people feeling smarter in their seats. The special effects weren’t completely distracting, but rather woven into the right scenes. As the movie closes in on the climax, it has the entire audience shrieking in disbelief and horror proving itself a proper thriller.

“Limitless” is fresh in the sense that it turns a person’s intelligence into his superpower and curse at the same time. The movie will probably not gross as high as expected but all in all is a good watch. It is flashy, flawed and highly entertaining. As absurd as the plot may seem, the movie holds all the answers, except anything about the pill, to the very end when it signs off with another big question mark.

With movies like “Limitless” all that really matters is that people leave entertained and get their money’s worth.

Due Date

February 4 – 6
Due Date follows the adventures of two men with two completely different personalities, father-to-be Peter (Robert Downey Jr.) and an aspirant actor Ethan (Zack Galifianakis), as they take a cross- country road trip to witness the birth of Peter’s child. The movie is at times a laugh-out-loud comedy and at other times simply an “awww” moment.

Megamind

February 11 – 16
Metrocity’s infamous villain has finally defeated his biggest rival. Now lonely, and without a purpose, Megamind is ready for another superhero to come his way. Megamind does an excellent job making its audiences laugh and relate to the characters at the same time.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)

February 18 – 20
The first half of the seventh and last installment of the Potter series. Deathly Hallows is fun, full of action and complete with brilliant story telling. Judging from the first part, the Potter series is on its way to a wonderful send-off.

For Colored Girls

February 25 – 27
Tyler Perry has done it again and this time without any help from his beloved Madea. Based on the play, the actresses do a wonderful job portraying their characters. However, like all of Perry’s movies some exaggeration is expected. The plot is laid out so thick that one wonders if it is even real at times.

Tangled

March 4 – 6
Tangled shows the story of Rapunzel with a twist that entertains to the fullest. From the beginning to the end the movie keeps its audiences interested and laughing. As with most Disney flicks, a light tragedy is forthcoming.

Show times for the movies are:
Friday: 6:00 & 8:30pm
Saturday: 3:30, 6:00 & 8:30pm
Sunday: 2:00 & 4:30pm

“The Green Hornet”, a 3D action comedy that grossed $34 million it’s debut weekend, placing itself atop the box-office rankings, is what you would get if you crossed “Pineapple Express” and “Superbad” with “The Dark Knight”.  It’s not as lame as most would think and is actually sometimes quite fun, just as long as you don’t expect much out of it.

The movie follows Britt Reid (Seth Rogen-“Knocked Up”), a 28-year-old hard-partying slacker who resents his father, James Reid (Tom Wilkinson- “Batman Begins”), a wealthy newspaper publisher, for not being there for him and ignoring him during his childhood.  After a wild night of debauchery he finds out that his father died of an allergic reaction to a bee sting. After the funeral he meets a young man by the name of Kato. Kato, who is a skilled martial artist and mechanic, worked for Britt’s father by fixing his cars and making his coffee. They become friends and come to realize that they both hated James due to the fact that he never showed them any respect. They go out to vandalize a statue of James that was made in his honor. After vandalizing the statue Britt and Kato discover a young couple being attacked by muggers. Still under the influence of the alcohol, they decide to rescue the couple and succeed. Britt makes the suggestion that they should become superheroes and fight crime, believing that it will enrich their lives. Kato agrees and modifies Britt’s father’s favorite car with weapons and other high-tech gadgets, naming it “The Black Beauty”.  While fighting crime Britt and Kato discover that a Russian mobster by the name Benjamin Chubnasky (Christoph Waltz- Inglourious Basterds) wants to unite all the crime families in Los Angeles under his command. Of course as in every superhero movie ever made, Chubnasky wants The Green Hornet dead, believing that he is a threat to his master plan. As you can guess the rest of the movie has Britt and Kato fighting more bad guys and trying to stay one step ahead of Chubnasky, before he kills them.

“The Green Hornet” is a lot of fun. It has some very cool action scenes, especially ones involving Jay Chou’s martial arts skill and has some very funny one-liners from Seth Rogen. Unfortunately the movie had quite a few flaws, namely the story. Britt and Kato’s reason for becoming superheroes is selfish, making their characters very unlikable. Chrisoph Waltz’s lines consist of him complaining and not giving his character any sort of substance, and Cameron Diaz is just in the movie for eye candy. Of course if you put these factors aside you might find yourself having more fun then you thought you would. Remember its only January, I’m sure 2011 will have a slew of great movies coming our way. I give this film two-and-a-half dolphins out of five.

The general public may have mixed opinions about a ballet performance. The general male population will avoid going to one; whereas, the general female population will thoroughly enjoy going to the ballet. However, for director Darren Aronofsky ballet is more of a bleeding art, literally. In his highly acclaimed movie, “Black Swan” Aronofsky mixes a graceful dance genre with horror, absurdly dark themes.

“Swan” follows innocent Nina, played with complete passion and charm by Natalie Portman, who is crowned as the new swan queen. The lead in the play Swan Lake and she could not be more excited. The hard worker she is, Nina gives it her all. However, the company director Thomas, portrayed by Vincent Cassel, is not sure if Nina can also be the black swan. At one point in the movie he even asks her to “go home and touch yourself.” As she tries desperately to gain his praise and attention, Thomas’ eye wanders around to her rival dancer Lily, played by Mila Kunis. Most performers lose themselves in their art; however, Nina finds herself losing her entire mind in the coveted role as Swan Queen.

To become a ballerina requires years of training to overcome the fight with gravity, the art of gesture, and perhaps the deception of art over reality. Portman’s character Nina seems to have completely lost sense of the difference between illusion and fact. When Lily comes along, she confuses Nina even more and throughout the entire movie, she fights with herself and her mother, Erica (performed by Barbara Hershey). Erica used to be a dancer at one point but now lives with her daughter in a tiny apartment that more often feels like a cell rather than a home.

Aronofsky mixes the traditional backstage competitiveness with eerie psychological disturbances. Both actresses did a wonderful job, turning the movie into somewhat of a guilty pleasure keeping you hooked and guessing.

Portman and Kunis dedicated several months of training and vigorous workout regimes before and during filming. Both leading ladies dropped considerable weight and even suffered from broken limbs and dislocated shoulders. Nevertheless, all their hard work was completely worth it. Every little movement of theirs was carried out with extreme perfection and their performances, beauty and grace surely left the mass audiences charmed.

If you are looking for an unforgettable movie with a little bit of art, lust, beauty, revenge, and thrill, “Black Swan” is the perfect movie for you. Even if you aren’t looking for all that, the movie promises to be a good watch that will leave its audiences thinking “Wow that was just too damn out there.” Some of the best films of 2010 were not the ones with the exceptional 3D effects, but the ones with real actors that actually made the audience feel and move with their jaw- dropping performances.

Arriving in theaters this February, DreamWorks new movie “I Am Number 4” is a story about John Smith (played by Alex Pettyfer), and the discovery of his hidden powers. Playing his girlfriend, Sarah, is Dianna Agron, with Callan McAullife playing his best friend, Sam. John Smith is also known as Number 4, the fourth of nine children brought to Earth from an alien planet. Number Six also plays a big role in the film, played by Teresa Palmer.
On Nov. 20 the director and stars of the film participated in a conference call to college and high school students throughout the country.

D.J Caruso-Director
[Operator] And at this time, I would like to introduce D. J. Caruso. Let’s go ahead and start with our first question. It’s from Zach Schwartz, Westside Story of West Boca Raton Community High School. What was it like to work with a duo like Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg?
[D. J.] It was quite an honor because you have two really different type of filmmakers, but both who are very successful and very, very astute in the craft. So, it was really, really helpful for me on one aspect to have sort of the traditional strong, storytelling element of Steven Spielberg and his use of sort of blending and special effects with real human stories and Michael’s expertise and really how to execute these sort of the vision and sort of how to blend physical effects with visual effects and really sort of kinetic sort of elements of the story where the action sequences take place. So, I was really blessed to have both these sort of iconic guys on my team. It was really a lot of fun and I definitely learned a lot. It was very educational.

Alex Pettyfer-Number 4
[Operator] I’d like to welcome Alex Pettyfer to the line. Alex.
[Alex] Hey, guys.
[Operator] The first question. Could you please tell us a little bit about your character, John Smith in the film?
[Alex] Yeah. He’s this guy who comes to a point in his life where he is faced with choice like any of us are and he has two roads and he can either pick to go down the road that he wants, which is all he wants is normality in his life or he has to go down another road where, you know, he essentially becomes this warrior that he’s destined to be and what makes this movie so great is that, you know, it’s such a real situation where, you know, he doesn’t want to be the warrior. He doesn’t want his destiny. All he wants is normal life, but he realizes that he has to go down that road to get everything that he wants.

Dianna Agron-Sarah
[Operator] On the line with us is Dianna Agron and let’s go ahead and begin asking you some questions, but to begin with, first, can you tell us a little bit about your character, Sarah, in the film?
[Dianna] Sure. What attracted me to Sarah initially was I felt that she had the qualities of somebody, you know, a character with an old soul and kind of the will and want to explore things outside of her town because she’s fascinated, as you’ll see. She’s a photographer. She’s fascinated with studying people and things around her not so much as being the studied and she meets this character, John, who is so fascinating to her because he’s open and real and different than any of the boys that she’s met at school and they form this very strong bond and this journey together and she realizes how strong she really is.

Callan McAulliffe-Sam
[Operator] Welcome to the call, [Callan McAullife]. Our first question is from Gabriela Stern Happening Now Everywhere of the A. D. Healy School in Boston. First, can you tell us a little bit about your character, Sam, in the film?
[Callan] Alright. Well, Sam is sort of the… He’s that kid that gets picked on a lot by the cool or the more popular kids at school and but because both he and John, is Alex Pettyfer’s character, They’re both outsiders in different respects. They both… They both bond and so I become his friend and then I follow him throughout the entire movie and annoy him.
[Operator] Okay and our next question is from Melissa Hoon with the Daily Titan of California State. What was the most difficult and most memorable scene for you?
[Callan] I would say the most difficult scene and the most memorable at the same time was there was a part where I had to jump away from an exploding door with Dianna Agron and there were these huge cannons on the other side of the door that had rubber glass, like transparent rubber to simulate glass and they had smoke coming out, and we had to dive at just the right moment or we would be showered… We’d be shot with this… these little rubber pellets, which would apparently hurt a lot. So, there was a bit of a dangerous aspect in filming that scene, but we got it right most of the time and, of course, after that if we got it slightly wrong, they’d have to clean up for about half an hour and clean us off and clean the floor off and reload the cannons and so that was quite a challenging scene, but it was definitely the most memorable.

Teresa Palmer-Number 6
[Operator] Wonderful and speaking of, could you tell us a little bit about your character, Number Six, in the film?
[Teresa] Yeah. Sure. So, I play Number Six and she comes from the same world as Number Four. They’re from the planet Lorien and she’s equally as intimidating as she’s enchanting which really makes her a force to be reckoned with. She used to surviving on her own and that makes her a very enigmatic and mysterious character and she tracks down Number Four so that they can form a team and they end up becoming a perfect weapon to defend themselves against enemy alien.
[Operator] Wonderful. Okay. Our next question is from Bryan Jones. He’s with the Jacksonville University Navigator and how did you get started in the film industry?
[Teresa] Look, I actually fell into it. I never actively pursued a career in the film industry. I was at school and I just had graduated and I met a director who was 18 at the time and he asked me to be in his movie and I shot the film in 2004 on like next to nothing budget and the movie had its premier at the Cannes Film Festival. So, it was really a snowball since that time and I met a manager at Cannes and he took me out to Hollywood and that was it.