Murder Is E-asy: Review for "Untraceable"

Untraceable is one of the newest in the "torture porn" collection; which includes gruesomely graphic films as the Saw movies, The Hills Have Eyes remake, and the Hostel movies. FBI agent Jenifer Marsh (Diane Lane) tracks down the crimes that are comitted on the World Wide Web. She finds this new website called killwithme.com (it's not real; however if you do go to the address, you will play a game and shut down one of the killer's websites). What people have found there is a man killing and torturing people on live streaming video. Every time a person logs on to the website, it kills the person faster. The film (supposedly) promotes anti-torture porn movies, when, in fact, it features graphic torture which would make you think "What was the MPAA ratings board thinking when it gave this an R?". I will, however say that Diane Lane's performance was good. I have to say the Saw movies do have a reasonable plot line (yes, including Saw IV, which I gave a bad review. Click here to read.) It was about a guy who was teaching people life lessons, yes, by torturing people, but even so, the plot made sense. This film does not give a reason why he is torturing people and broadcasting it on the Internet. Sure, his father died, but making the public look like hypocrits just sounds like that Austrian film Funny Games. One blurb that was on a TV commercial for the movie was "The Silence of the Lambs for the Internet age!". I'm not sure who said that, but only one thing here resembles Silence of the Lambs and that is Diane Lane's hair. This has neither the great storytelling nor the great suspense that Silence had. Instead of making you scared, it just makes your stomach turn.

Grade: C-

Footballers' Lives: Review for "Leatherheads"

Set in prohebition era 1925, Leatherheads stars two of the biggest stars in Hollywood: Renee Zellweger and George Clooney. It also stars John Krasinski, whom you may know from NBC's The Office. Clooney plays a pro football player, Dodge Connelly, during an age where pro football had no rules and almost no audience. the public's eye was on war hero/boy wonder Carter Rutherford, who, it is said, single handedly made a troop of German soldiers surrender. He happens to be a star at his college. He's handsome, a college football player, and a war hero (nicknamed "Bullet"). But Chicago Tribune writer Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) and her superiors suspect that this guy isn't all he's made out to be. Dodge, meanwhile, wants to set up a brand new team. He thinks hiring Carter will bring money and people to his games.Under the public's scrutiny is hard for a kid that young. He fesses up to Lexie one night and she writes all about it. It becomes a big scandal and Carter vehently denies the allegation. Clooney and Zellweger trade funny repartee. At the end, there are rules in football, much the Dodge's dismay. Enjoyable, though not perfect, film. Sports fans will enjoy. The script was written by two writers from Sports Illustrated. Kransinski does much better off in his second film than his first, the turkey called License to Wed.
Grade: B