The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

There should be some sort of rule that movies with foregone conclusions aren't allowed to run past the two hour mark. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford drags for over two and a half.

When just from your title and setup your audience already knows the who (Robert Ford), the what (kills Jesse James), the when (somewhere towards the end of the movie because that'd be more dramatic), and the how (probably with a gun considering the time period and the fact that these guys were train robbers) - all you have left is the why, and even that is partially answered (because he's a coward). The challenge is to fill in the details and the rest of that "why" in a gripping manner for the rest of the film. And that's where this film fails. It's no small undertaking but anyone would be hard pressed to sustain tension with this story for two and a half hours.

It's too bad because it is such a striking film visually. Grain shines in the sunlight and sways in the wind. The sky is full of appropriately threatening and tumultuous-looking clouds. The train lights fall on Brad Pitt's Jesse James creating a perfect silhouette before a moment of action. The men disappear through the steam like ghosts. The cast is an array of familiar and vaguely-familiar faces (Brad Pitt, Mary Louise Parker, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, Jeremy Renner, Paul Schneider). They all do a fine enough job but everything is too subdued for anyone to shine through like the aforementioned grain.

Rating: 2/5

Recommended for: lulling yourself to sleep

Moon (2009)

Moon centers around Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), who is two weeks away from the end of his 3-year contract running mining operations on the moon. He's desperately looking forward to seeing his daughter and wife in person again after not being able to get a live connection to them his entire term. He gets in an accident while out checking on broken down equipment. He wakes up back at his station and is taken care of by the station's robot Gerty (Kevin Spacey). Sam discovers things he's not supposed to and then it starts to get weird.

There's so much to like about this film, but in the end it's ever-so-slightly off balance. This is Duncan Jones' first full-length feature film. His background is more so in commercial work and he and his crew are very good at using models to make things seem realistic and do more effects in camera without having a huge budget. While the story is interesting and Sam Rockwell deserves major props for all the acting he did in the film (where was his due at awards time?), there's an imbalance between the love and attention to detail put into fantastic lunar sequences and the story itself. The good news is the imbalance isn't so large it ruins the film.

I won't say much more regarding the plot because I could easily dive into spoiler territory and I think, if you're going to watch this film, you should learn all the info as you go. Knowing the ins and outs will definitely ruin the allure.

So here's what I will say... With such obvious allusions to 2001, this film manages to still be fresh. The plot raises questions about general human behavior even in the most unusual of situations. And the film-making itself is rugged and hands-on. It makes me look forward to what else Jones has up his sleeve.

Rating: 4/5
Recommended for: Anyone who'd like to see some good sci-fi that doesn't involve people in alien masks or rely on CGI