Not Safe for Work (2014)

An office worker is trapped inside the building where a killer is on the loose.

Director:

 Joe Johnston

Writers:

 Simon Boyes (screenplay), Adam Mason (screenplay)

Stars:

 JJ Feild, Max Minghella, Eloise Mumford | See full cast and crew »

"An office worker is trapped inside the building where a killer is on the loose." This is the summary for Not Safe for Work that is on IMDb. Nothing more is given about the plot and I assumed this film was sort of like a Halloween or Friday 13th movie with some maniac chasing a poor guy about the building trying to kill him. Fortunately, this is NOT what this film turned out to be and the plot is MUCH more complex and satisfying than just some maniac murdering folks. Instead, it's a pretty good little film—one that is not all about gratuitous violence. In fact, several times the film did have people killed but the director, Joe Johnston, chose not to show the violence in all its nastiness— something I really appreciated. Instead, this film is also about WHY all this was occurring instead of just about the killing—a smart decision in my opinion.

The film is told from the viewpoint of Tom (Max Minghella)—a lowly paralegal at a HUGE law firm. Because Tom is ambitious, however, he's gotten on the bad side of his bosses. They just want him to shut up and do his job. His desire to rise above the masses of paralegals gets him fired early on in the film. However, as he's leaving the RBE law firm for, supposedly, the last time, he notices something strange—a hand off between two folks in the lobby. In other words, as one guy is leaving the building, another brings him an attaché case and 'accidentally' leaves it behind and the guy entering picks it up and proceeds up the elevators to the firm. That's certainly odd and Tom follows to see what's happening. Once there, he's shocked to see it's MUCH more serious than he thought, as he sees this man with the briefcase shoot one of the office workers in cold blood. Fortunately, the place is just about empty and the body count is low…and perhaps that is why the man is there at that time. Regardless, Tom is scared to death but cannot leave as well because the killer somehow has managed to disable most of the electronics in the building. The killer's very systematic and he clearly is NOT some random maniac—some sort of conspiracy is clearly afoot. So how is poor Tom to survive—especially when the killer realizes that there is someone else in the office?

Not Safe for Work turns out to be a very taut and well executed thriller that is much more like Die Hard than Friday the 13th! The direction is very nice and the acting quite believable and I do recommend you see it. I especially appreciate the rather dark conspiratorial angle about the film and the ending that is a bit reminiscent of the old Warren Beatty film The Parallax View. 

My only complaint, and you may not notice or care (since I am an obsessive detail person when it comes to film plots), but at one point in the film another woman is shot and killed by the killer. However, she tried to fight back and tried to shoot the guy a gun hidden in her purse. The killer did not know that Tom was hiding in the room. So after the killer left the room, why didn't Tom bother to get the gun from the dead woman?!?! This is the sort of thing that doesn't ruin the film but makes me wonder how they missed this. Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens a lot in films and it's a cliché I really dislike.

Despite my small rant, see the film. It's worth your time and is awfully good and just goes to show you that you don't need mega-stars and mega-budgets to make a good film.

3 Days to Kill (2014)

A dying CIA agent trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter is offered an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment.

Director:

 McG

Writers:

 Adi Hasak (screenplay), Luc Besson (screenplay),1 more credit »

Stars:

 Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen |See full cast and crew »

A dangerous international spy is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter, whom he's previously kept at arm's length to keep out of danger. But first, he must complete one last mission - even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world's most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out of town.

Lone Survivor (2013)

Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.

Director:

 Peter Berg

Writers:

 Peter Berg, Marcus Luttrell (book), 1 more credit »

Stars:

 Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch |See full cast and crew »

Peter Berg seems to be trying to hard to imitate Michael Bay. Whereas Battleship was effectively a Bay version of a film based on a toy, here we see the same type of bombastic and patriotic tones that Bay likes to indulge in.

Based on true events, Lone Survivor follows Marks Wahlberg and his Navy SEAL team try to hunt down a Taliban Leader. However they encounter some goat herders and decide whether to kill them or not. However these scene itself causes discomfort as the herders are civilians and therefore killing them is in breach of the Geneva convention, yet the film wants to enter a debate on war ethics. These are professional soldiers, surely this was mentioned in their training? Hold on it was mentioned in the mission briefing a few minutes earlier!

As they have to abort the mission the SEALs encounter the Taliban forces and get involved in a brutal and visceral gunfight in the wild Afghan terrain which suspiciously looks like somewhere in America.

Mark Walhberg, Ben Foster and Taylor Kitsch give strong performances but the film although starts off slowly then becomes scenes of constant blood-soaked fighting and running or more accurately falling down the mountain from the Taliban.

There is an element of war porn in this film with the prolonged battle scenes as the SEALs are repeatedly getting shot. It starts as soldiers goofing around but once the action begins there is an emphasis of a band of brothers but there is something hollow about this film even with the latter storyline of getting help from Pushtun villagers does not overcome.

Copperhead (2013)

An Upstate New York family is torn apart during the American Civil War.

Director:

 Ronald F. Maxwell

Writers:

 Harold Frederic (novel), Bill Kauffman (screenplay)

Stars:

 François Arnaud, Lucy Boynton, Casey Thomas Brown | See full cast and crew »

All of the characters are well drawn and express their views without restraint. The movie is built around a love story between a boy (Casey Thomas Brown as Casey Brown) whose father (Billy Campbell as Abner Beech) opposes the war and a girl (Lucy Boynton as Esther Hagadorn ) whose father (Angus Macfadyen as Jee Hagadorn) is a religious abolitionist fanatic. The boy volunteers to join the army, along with many other young men from the town. With the young men off at war, conflicts threaten to tear the town apart and in some respects do.

The war itself is far away, but shows up as casualty lists are posted in the newspapers (and eventually as the dead and wounded return). The scenes of family members scanning the lists of dead, wounded, and missing looking for their sons, brothers, fathers, etc. are as sad, as they historically accurate.

The battles in the town end with both tragic and positive consequences. The movie if beautifully filmed and well acted. A great piece of American history. Well worth seeing.

Vampire Academy (2014)

Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human-half vampire, a guardian of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discreetly within our world. Her calling is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi.

Director:

 Mark Waters

Writers:

 Richelle Mead (novel), Daniel Waters (screenplay)

Stars:

 Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Danila Kozlovsky |See full cast and crew »

Rose Hathaway is a dhampir, half-vampire and half-human, who is training to be a guardian at St Vladimir's Academy along with many others like her. There are good and bad vampires in their world: Moroi, who co-exist peacefully among the humans and only take blood from donors, and also possess the ability to control one of the four elements - water, earth, fire or air; and Strigoi, blood-sucking, evil vampires who drink to kill. Rose and other dhampir guardians are trained to protect Moroi and kill Strigoi throughout their education. Along with her best friend, Princess Vasilisa Dragomir, a Moroi and the last of her line, with whom she has a nigh unbreakable bond, Rose must run away from St Vladimir's, in order to protect Lissa from those who wish to harm the princess and use her for their own means.