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Jim Stevens | Lake Theater
'The Losers'
A bunch of guys are left for dead and are determined for revenge so they get a bunch of cool-guy weapons, which leads to death and destruction, intermixed with wisecracks and one tough lady who is easy on the eye.
"The Losers" is yet another in a long line of action movies of discarded soldiers who go rogue to set things right. This group is set up by a sadistic bad guy named Max played very well by Jason Patric, who wears a large American flag on his lapel and is doing his best to start a war.
With an extremely weak plot link, Max orders the destruction of a chopper that is supposed to be carrying our heroes Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Jensen (Chris Evans), Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Oscar Jaenada ). Each has some sort of specialty in weapons or operations.
Toss in one Zoë Saldana as Aisha and there are enough fireworks to make a 97-minute flick fly by.
Over thinking, or just thinking, is not recommended as it will interfere with a nonsensical plot.
**1/2
Down in the deep
Disneynature takes a dip into the deep recesses of the seven seas and reveals an amazing world that is teetering on the brink.
With a bit of irony, "Oceans" was released on Earth Day, one day after an explosion on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico that is spilling millions of gallons of oil and threatening the coast.
The film is taken from the 2009 French release "Océans," by filmmakers Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzau, though the new version reportedly has been sanitized a bit.
Amazing photography of the awesome beauty of life in the ocean is intermingled with the strange, bizarre, weird, and just downright ugly. From graceful porpoises dancing on the waves to armies of crabs charging into each other like some Civil War re-enactment, this nature film captures up close wonders few ever see.
Visually, this documentary is easy on the eye. As for the auditory component, narrator Pierce Bronson drones on with excruciating lifelessness and boredom.
The original film reportedly is a bit harder-hitting regarding the impact of humankind destroying species and habitats. Though there are snippets that alert the senses such as garbage floating in the sea and fish trapped in nets. A short scene of a shopping cart resting on the ocean's bottom says a lot about the impact of humanity on the fragile seas, but not nearly as the news with images of oil plumes drifting to the shores of Louisiana.
***
New DVD release
"It's Complicated" is the story of a love triangle with twists, laughs and fine acting.
Meryl Streep comes up with another fine performance as a divorcée, who hooks up with her husband, Alec Baldwin, for an affair, but then encounters a new interest in an architect played by Steve Martin. A clever, humorous, well-acted comedy that has a story to boot.
***
- 'Captain America'
- 'Death at a Funeral'
- 'Date Night'
- 'Clash of the Titans'
- 'Hot Tub Time Machine'
- 'Repo Men'
- 'The Ghost Writer'
- 'Alice in Wonderland'
- 'Cop out'
- 'Shutter Island'
- 'The Wolfman'
- 'The Lovely Bones'
- 'Edge of Darkness'
- 'Extraordinary Measures'
- 'The Book of Eli'
- 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
- 'Up in the Air'
- DVDs to warm the winter night
- 'Sherlock Holmes'
- 'Invictus'
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Posted Friday, May 18 |
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Photo of the Week by Todd Ponath: ROCKIN' IT - Fred Eide, left, and his daughter Ashley, of Eide Painting and Sandblasting, use spray guns to paint the individual rock shapes on the underside of the I-94 overpass at Highway P in Oconomowoc Wednesday, May 16. Each "rock" is painted individually and then speckled with black paint to make it look like granite.
News or Feature Story of the Week by Andrea Budde: Bigfoot sighting in Eagle turns out to be less than meets the eye
Sports Story of the Week by JR Radcliffe: Netters win 'unofficial' titles conference
Page or layout design of the week by Lisa Leonard: Drop a line and relax
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- Discover Composting
- Christ the King Church of Delafield Resumes Summer Service Schedule
- Greendale Schools June 1 Celebration of Education
- “Savvy Social Security Planning” Seminar to Detail Strategies for Maximizing Benefits
- U.S. Cellular Hosting Free Device Workshop
- Tour Our Very Special Gardens - free - June 25
- Host Daniela from Mexico at Oconomowoc HS
- Very Special Garden Tour - Free - June 23 and June 25
- Wisconsin Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Hits Home Stretch of Annual Milwaukee Man & Woman of the Year Campaign
- Neuroscience Nurse Appreciation Ceremony
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