Valentine’s Day has the bare resemblance of a plot, is filled with annoying characters exchanging tried cliches and leaves one with nothing to remember. Yet, I enjoyed it. As a hodgepodge of love and all the things that comes with it on the ridiculous holiday, the film manages to entertain for it’s two hour run-time. With a cast filled out by (take a  deep breath) Bradley Cooper, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Ashton Kutcher, Julia Roberts, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Kathy Bates, Jamie Foxx, Patrick Dempsey, Topher Grace, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, Taylor Swift, George Lopez, and Emma Roberts there leaves little time for any personal connection amongst the characters, nor the audience. Though, this smorgasbord of characters is a good thing for a film of its kind. Read the full story

Overture Films | USA | 108 mins

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

It’s a good thing one man revenge stories are in these days (see amnesiac hitmans and Jigsaws for reference), because this schlocky, overwrought, sloppy, patronizing, unintelligent, non-factual, blood-soaked, wrong-sided bastardization of a film will (and already has) made a killing at the box office (pun only halfway intended).

All this critic wanted upon entering the theater Friday night, having paid my $8.75 to see F. Gary Gray’s latest, Law Abiding Citizen, a Blacklist screenplay from Kurt Wimmer, was something fun even if it was a little silly. After all, the film’s been brewing for a few years now, with talent the likes of Frank Darabount attached at one point or another.

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Entertainment Tonight has released the trailer for F. Gary Gray’s latest film Law Abiding Citizen. The film stars Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. It is “a thriller about a brilliant sociopath who orchestrates a series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia – all from inside his jail cell – and the prosecutor assigned to his case who realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror.”

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Identity is defined as the individual characteristics by which a person or thing is recognized. In the films Collateral and Miami Vice Michael Mann explores how identity is always fluctuating and that the “individual characteristics” by which we define ourselves are always changing, but our core selves remain the same. Almost like a computer, the software may be constantly changing but the hardware running it never does. Through the characters, story, and cinematography Mann exemplifies this.

In the mini documentary Miami Vice: Undercover from the Miami Vice DVD Michael Mann states “the best fabricated identity is yourself.” This idea that identity, though always changing, has a central core can be seen both in Collateral and Miami Vice. Mann’s main tool to portray this to the audience is through his characters. In the case of Max and Vincent, Mann shows us that even though they have the capability to take on each other’s personalities; their central selves remain the same. In the scene where Max plays Vincent in order to get Vincent’s hit list back, Max takes on the anti-hero role. While changing his attitude and confidence level, Max is simply using what he learned as a cab driver in a different circumstance. In the beginning of the film we see Max’s gift of observation when he immediately identifies Annie as a lawyer due to her appearance and actions. Later in the restaurant Max immediately knows that the body guard is reaching for his gun and warns him to put it away before he attacks him, Improvising to the set of his surroundings, his identity changes accordingly.

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