Bovie Movie

Co-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor betray their roots in commercials with this nonstop barrage of flashy tricks and breakneck action in which visual and narrative absurdity vie with each other on an insanely epic scale. Trash antihero icon Jason Statham (The Transporter) plays a retired hitman injected with poison. If he slows down for a second he’ll die — something that must not happen until he’s slain the LA crime syndicate responsible. To keep his adrenaline up he ingests every drug going and, in a hilarious highlight, has public sex in Chinatown with girlfriend Amy Smart. It’s Speed with a man instead of a bus, and nothing is sacred or even realistic — from Statham performing motorcycle stunts naked to calmly using his mobile while freefalling through the air. As fun bad movies go, this split-screen, hyper-kinetic comic strip revs up the entertainment value to lunatic “anything goes” levels. Taken seriously, however, the violent and vulgar distraction stops stone dead. 

When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, then-Captain Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened — or didn’t happen — in Kuwait. As Marco (now a Major) investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.

Taking Lives director DJ Caruso returns to the thriller genre with this engaging teen flick that plays like Rear Window for the MySpace generation. Rising star Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) plays a troubled adolescent who’s put under house arrest for punching his teacher. After he befriends the cute newcomer next door (Sarah Roemer), the duo pass their time spying on their neighbours. However, an innocent game turns nasty when they begin to suspect that one of them (David Morse) is a serial killer. After a slow-burning set-up that milks the comedy value of home incarceration, the film swings slickly into suspense mode. Events that follow are predictable yet tension-packed, delivering a satisfying quota of genuine jolts. LaBeouf is particularly affable, with an emotional honesty that papers over many of the plot cracks. But it’s Morse who quietly steals the show, walking the fine line between shy and sinister with commendable ease.