I SAW THE DEVIL

By D.E.Levine

Director: Ji-woon Kim
Writer: Hoon-jung Park
Cast: Byung-hun Lee, Gook-hwan Jeon, Ho-jin Jeon, San-ha Oh, Yoon-seo Kim et al.
Producer: Hyun-woo Kim
Executive Producers: Hun-you Jeong and Greg Moom
Co-executive Producers: Kee-young Cheong, Hyung-cho II, Yeong-chin Kang, Byung-ki Kim, Kil-soo Kim, Jae-sik Moon, Bryan Song and Youngjoo Suh
Co-producer: Seong-weon Jo
Associate Producers: Jae-young Kim and Jung-hwa Kim
Cast: Min-ski Choi,
Original Music: Mowg
Running Time: 141 Minutes
Country of Origin: South Korea
Language: with English subtitles
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror

People walked out of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival screening because they thought I Saw the Devil was too brutal and horrifying, but it's actually a well-done revenge film, made in true Korean style.

The legendary actor Min-ski Choi, who played Oldboy, is cast as a ruthless, demented, serial killer.

After raping and murdering the daughter of the chief of police, the killer continues to rape and murder without remorse.

However, in addition to being the daughter of the chief of police, the young girl he murdered at the opening of the film, was engaged to a secret service agent who vows vengeance and starts tracking the serial killer.

Thus begins a tale of cat and mouse with the secret agent stalking the serial killer and the serial killer choosing victims that are explicitly hurtful to the secret agent.

The tension keeps building as the action keeps barreling along. Whenever it seems things can't get any more horrifying and crazier, they do.

The performances are really superb and the intensity builds. I did think that at a certain point the film could have been cut and that it went on longer than necessary, but it was filled with unexpected twists and turns and the suspense kept building.

It's true some people don't feel a film of this type particularly appealing, but others find it curiously satisfying

KILL THE IRISHMAN

By D.E.Levine

Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Writer: Jonathan Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters (screenplay); Rick Porrello (book "To Kill the Irishman")
Cast: Val Kilmer, Linda Cardellini, Christopher Walken, Laura Ramsey, Ray Stevenson, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio, Bob Gunton, Paul Sorvino, Robert Davi, et al.
Producers: Al Corley, Eugene Musso, Tommy Reid and Bart Rosenblatt
Executive Producers: Jonathan Dana, Peter Miller and Tara Reid
Co-producer: John Leonetti, Kim Olsen, George Perez, Tom Reid Jr., Jeff Spilman and Jeff Stern
Original Music: Patrick Cassidy
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Country of Origin:
Language: English
Genre: Drama, Action, Adventure, Mystery, Suspense

I learned a lot of history from this film. For instance, I never knew there was a huge turf war between the Italian mafia and the Irish mobsters in Cleveland, Ohio during the summer of 1976.

History, upon which this film is based, shows that during the summer of 1976 36 bombs were detonated in Cleveland.

The story is about Greene, an Irish touch working on the docks and his rise to enforcer for the local mob.

Turning on his benefactor, a loan shark, and allying himself with a local gangster, Greene stops following mafia orders and pursues his own path to power.

It seems that everyone tried to kill Greene and he kept surviving their assassination attempts. His fearlessness in taking on the mafia eventually led to the mafia's collapse throughout the United States.

PEEP WORLD

By D.E.Levine

Director: Barry W. Blaustein
Writer: Peter Himmelstein
Cast: Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverstein, Rainn Wilson, Ben Schwartz, Judy Greer, Kate Mara, Taraji P. Henson, Ron Rifkin, Lesley Anne Warren et al.
Producers: Keith Calder, Felipe Marino and Joe Neurauter
Co-producer: Paul O. Davis
Original Music: Jeff Cardoni
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Genre: Comedy

Peep World centers around the 70th birthday of a family patriarch when his four children come together with their respective spouses and significant others to throw their father a birthday dinner.

Also at the dinner is the ex-wife and her second husband, the young girlfriend of the father, and the publicist of the youngest son.

While the family is highly dysfunctional in many ways, in the forefront is the unseemly success of the youngest son because of his tell-all book entitled Peep World.

Based on the most intimate family secrets, Peep World is a tremendous success and has thrown the family members into total chaos.

Add to that the fact that the family daughter has to daily look out at the Peep World movie set, located directly across the street from her apartment. To add pain to insult, the actress playing the daughter in the movie, is the current girlfriend and future wife of the patriarchal father.

What a conundrum! In a low key way, the film is extremely funny and the casting is stellar.

THE RITE

By D.E.Levine

Director: Mikael Hafstrom
Writer: Michael Petroni and Matt Baglio (book and story)
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, Alice Braga, Claran Hinds, Toby Jones, Rutger Hauer, Marta Gastini, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Arianna Veronesi et al.
Producers: Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson
Executive Producer: Robert Bernacchi
Co-producers: Christy Fletcher and Mark Tuohy
Associate Producer: Christopher Almerico
Line Producer (Italy): Gian Paola Viani
Original Music: Alex Heffes
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Genre: Drama, Horro, Thriller

After seeing Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, one has high expectations about his performance when he's in a thriller or drama.

In this film Hopkins plays a priest who conducts and teaches exorcism. To make the story we have to believe that satanic possession exists and exorcism works to cast Satan out.

Based on the actual experiences of Father Gary Thomas, a California priest who was assigned by his bishop to study exorcism at the Vatican, in the film the priest is from Chicago (Father Michael).

Seeking to leave the priesthood before taking his final vows (since he entered the priesthood to pay for his education), Father Michael is shocked to learn that he will owe over $100,000 in student loans if he does indeed leave the priesthood.

Assigned to Rome he dabbles in a variety of priestly studies and activities until he is advised to spend some time with an experienced exorcist.

Accompanying the elder priest to his various exorcisms, they are followed by a woman journalist, but there is no hint of romantic involvement between either of the men and the woman.

Instead, the film is eerily beautiful with cinematographic images made in Hungary that are eerily ancient and scary. While not as horrifying as The Exorcist and not as good as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Rite is interesting and different than most of the gory horror films being made today, but towards the end it does become campy.

While The Rite is interesting, to fully enjoy it the viewer must buy into the concept that Satan inhabits people and can be cast out via exorcism.

HALL PASS

By D.E.Levine

Directors: Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrlly
Writers: Pete Jones, Peter Farrelly, Kevin Barnett and Bobby Farrelly (screenplay); Pete Jones (story)
Cast: Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate, Nicky Whelan, Richard Jenson, Stephan Merchant, Larry Joe Campbell, Bruce Thomas, Tyler Hoechlin, Derek Waters, Alexandro Daddario, Rob Moran, Lauren Bowles et al.
Producers: Mark Charpentier, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, J.B.Rogers, Bradley Thomas and Charles B. Wessler
Executive Producers: Marc S. Fischer
Co-producers: Kris Meyer and John Rickard
Original Music: Matthew F. Leonetti
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Genre: Comedy

What starts out as a movie about two wives giving their husbands freedom to cheat for a week turns out to be a reaffirmation of marriage.

The two wives are tsking the advice of a friend (Joy Behar) who's a successful psychiatrist, that letting her husband pursue other women strengthened her marriage, the two wives decide to give their husbands carte blanche.

Of course, the joke is that two very married men are probably too out of shape for extramarital sex, especially when they're given the okay to have it.

Hall Pass is funny and raunchy, but it's possible to relate to it totally. While it's somewhat crude, it's the type of crudeness that our society accepts.

Two middle-aged men and their friends are facing "middle age" and while they're good at ogling women other than their wives when engaged in their marriage, they aren't very successful at extramarital affairs when their wives give them permission.

THE CHAPERONE

By D.E.Levine

Director: Stephen Herek
Writer: S.J.Roth
Cast: Paul Levesque, Kevin Corrigan, Jose Zuniga, Kevin Rankin, Enrico Colantoni, Israel Broussard, Jake Austin Walker, Ashley Taylor, Cullen Chaffin, Darren O'Hare, Nick Gomez, Annabeth Gish, Ariel Winter et al.
Producer: Michael Pavone
Executive Producers: David Calloway
Co-producers: Nancy Hirami and Suzanne Lyons
Line Producer: Todd Lewis
Original Music: Jim Johnston
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Genre: Comedy, Family

This film is another World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) venture into another form of entertainment. It stars one of the WWE's top athletes.

Paul Levesque has already made a name for himself as Tiple H, the number one WWE athlete, and he has also successfully ventured into film and television.

Definitely a feel good movie with an uplifting story, the story centers around Ray Bradstone who used to be the best wheel man in the robbery business.

Just released from jail, Ray has sworn he's going to go straight and rebuild the relationships with his daughter and ex-wife that were destroyed when he went to jail. He's determined to be a good parent this time around.

Unfortunately, with a record and limited skills Ray can't find honest work so he agrees to go in on a job with his former bank robbery crew.

At the last minute he reconsiders and abandons the thieves to join his daughter's class as a chaperone on a bus trip to New Orleans. Since he's taken the bank heist money with him on the bus, the robbery crew follow the bus to New Orleans.

What follows is comedic misadventure as Ray attempts to be a Dad to his daughter, oversee her relationship with a teenage boy, and thwart the bank robbers.

You can take the kids to this film and the entire family will have a good time and enjoy both the story and the acting.

While it may not win any awards, it's good, clean, enjoyable entertainment.

CONVICTION

By D.E.Levine

Director: Tony Goldwyn
Writer: Pamela Gray
Cast: Hillary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Thomas D. Mahard, Owen Campbell, Conor Donovan, Laurie Brown, John Pyper-Ferguson, Minnie Driver, Ele Bardha, Melisso Leo,
Producers: Tony Goldwyn, Andrew S. Karsch and Andrew Sugarman
Executive Producers: Markus Barmettler, Anthony Callie, Alwyn Kushner, Myles Nestel, Tim Smith and Hillary Swank
Co-producers: Ed Cathell III and Dama Claire
Original Music: Paul Cantelon
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Country of Origin:
Language: English
Genre: Biography, Drama

It's obvious from the beginning that Kenny Waters wasn't a very nice man. However, taken from a true story, this film shows that while he might not have been nice he was innocent and yet he was convicted of murder and spent most of his life in jail.

Undeterred by the finding, his sister believed him innocent and reshaped her entire life to prove him innocent.

Railroaded by a vengeful cop, Kenny has numerous people "think" they saw him near or leaving the crime.

Working class people, Kenny and his sister, Betty Ann, had stuck together through a bad childhood and an absent father. Despite his faults, Betty Ann has unswerving faith in her brother.

In fact, Betty Ann, a married mother without a high school diploma, reinvents herself and earns a high school diploma, a college degree and then a law degree.

Along the way her marriage disintegrates and she forms a friendship with a law school classmate who also dedicates her life to proving Kenny innocent.

Based on DNA testing, which didn't exist during his original conviction, Kenny is exonerated and joyously reunited with his family.

In real life, only six months after being set free, Kenny died from a fractured skull he got in an accident.

The story is amazing and shows what perseverance, determination and hard work can do to a life. Betty Ann Warren reinvented herself and her life and although her brother is gone she continues to work to free prisoners who were wrongly convicted.