BROKEN CITY || With players like Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, this doesn’t feel like your average January release. This time last year, Wahlberg had “Contraband”, which was also a pleasant surprise, so I will be giving him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Playing a cop in a city with Russell Crowe as mayor, Wahlberg is contacted to find out who Crowe’s wife, played by Catherine Zeta Jones, is cheating on him with. When that man turns up dead, its on Wahlberg to fix his tarnished reputation.	THEATER
	THE LAST STAND || For starters, “The Last Stand” has a great cast. For what it’s worth, Johnny Knoxville is perfectly cast as the gunning collecting, bumbling idiot. Peter Stormare and Eduardo Noriega are both great villains, built up effectively to face the protagonists of the film, played completely convincingly by Jaimie Alexander, Forest Whitaker, Luis Guzman, and of course, the star of the show, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The action scenes sell the film better than anything else, with plenty of car chases, close calls, and showdowns to rival Kim Jee-Woon’s previous feature “The Good, The Bad, and The Weird”. With a nicely paced plot progression and with the impending final battle looming over the characters most of the film, the payoff is everything you’d hope it to be, with no expense (or bloodshed, thanks to the R rating) spared. Had “The Last Stand” not embraced its humorous nature, this would be a completely different review. But with a comical, redneck town mentality, and Schwarzenegger’s self-assessed aging, this is one of the best mixed action-comedies in recent memory.
	MAMA || Of all the releases this year, alongside “Gangster Squad”, “Mama” is the one I’m most excited for. Guillermo Del Toro produces yet another thrilling looking horror film where two little girls are found living in the wild and are brought to live with their aunt and uncle back in civilization. Apart from assimilating to everyday life, these girls are convinced that their birth mother is still around. With one of my favorite actresses Jessica Chastain and what looks to be some of the best child acting in recent memory, you’re damn right I’m gonna see this film in the theaters.	THEATER

	OFFICER DOWN || More of an episode of NYPD Blue, “Officer Down” is your run-of-the-mill, cop thriller where someone gets away with murder and the hopped up police officer with “nothing to lose”, in this case played by Stephen Dorff, goes to get revenge. I’ve seen enough of these films to last me a lifetime.	PASS
	OUTSIDE SATAN || As much as the cinematography looks well done, “Outside Satan” appears a little too artsy for my taste, with no discernible plot exposed from the trailer and a lot of stares and plodding music. What I did get from the trailer is that is death and nudity. That’s about it. Unless I hear more or find out more about this film, I pass.	PASS

THEATER

• Broken City
• The Last Stand
• Mama

RENT

STREAM

PASS

• Officer Down
• Outside Satan