Unbox Video Downloads Recommend

Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin star in Rendition, a thriller from director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi). Witherspoon stars as the American wife of an Egyptian-born chemical engineer who disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington.

 

The woman desperately tries to track her husband down, while a CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man?s unorthodox interrogation.

 

Timely and intelligent political thriller, November 5, 2007

This movie has it all: Superb direction (by the masterful Gavin Hood of "Crash" fame); a great cast (Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Omar Metwally); a riveting and harrowing plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat; even an interesting twist at the end (which I won’t give away) that had us all discussing the movie for an hour afterwards.

And if all of that isn’t enough, this is an extremely timely topic. Our government’s participation in torturing people at secret prisons around the world is something that all American citizens should be discussing and debating. Unfortunately, this engaging thriller is not getting the audience it deserves. The fact that "Saw IV," a warped glorification of brutality, has earned four times as much at the box office as Rendition suggests that for many Americans, out of sight is out of mind and escapism is the name of the game.

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Michael Clayton   : The Bad and the Beautiful

Michael Clayton, a former prosecutor, takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen’s “dirty work.” The firm’s top litigator sabotages a case and the firm sends Clayton to tackle this disaster.

The Bad and the Beautiful, October 12, 2007

Tony Gilroy has already proven that he can weave/write a great story via his writing for the "Bourne" franchise. And the striking thing about "Michael Clayton" is how Gilroy has written ironic, conflicted, complicated characters that are at once "good" (and in the world that Gilroy has created here…this is in itself a term that is up for interpretation) yet are often bad as in unethical, mean, misanthropic.

These characters can and do betray themselves and others: There’s no one to truly love or hate, from Sydney Pollack’s quietly devious law firm CEO, to Tom Wilkinson’s holy madman of an ace courtroom defense attorney, to Tilda Swinton as a tricky senior partner in nice suits that peel off to reveal sweaty armpits and a gift for rationalization.

Even our hero, Michael Clayton as portrayed by George Clooney is a loser: a 12 year veteran at his law firm who is utilized as a bag man, a fixer usually dispatched to do what amounts to private eye work.: cleaning up the firm’s client messes.

Clayton is a failure both professionally and personally: a failure as a father, brother, husband and Clooney strikes just the right notes here as Clayton struggles, fights to regain his dignity both as an officer of the court and more importantly as a father and a human being.

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