Being able to identify the genre of a film is a lot like eating comfort food—it allows us a chance to find what fits our mood and know what we’re getting into before we sit down for a couple of hours with our buttery box of popcorn and sweets. When it’s not clear what you’re about to get, sometimes it can be uncomfortable and other times it can be plain dreary, especially when the film itself doesn’t even really know for sure. Is it a crime drama? A drug smuggling thriller? A snooze fest? Herein lies the main problem with Ridley Scott’s new film, The Counselor, which never answers that question with much authority, wanting to be all of those things (well, maybe not a snooze fest, but I digress) without a clear purpose. Don’t Stop — There’s Plenty More

It’s not a secret that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were action movie rivals throughout the eighties and early nineties, squaring off against each other at the box office with films including The Terminator, Tango and Cash, Total Recall and Stop, or My Mom Will Shoot… okay, maybe not so much the last one, but the closest the boys ever got to teaming up was poking fun at each other within their films (Stallone as the terminator in Last Action Hero, or President Schwarzenegger in Demolition Man). That all changed with Stallone’s successful attempt to bring the eighties back to the big screen with The Expendables, but Schwarzenegger only made a minor cameo, which was more an inside joke than anything else. With the prison-escape movie, Escape Plan, we finally get to see the two team up for real. Don’t Stop — There’s Plenty More

Back in 2006, I listed United 93, Paul Greengrass’s captivating look at the events of 9/11, as my number one film of the year. The way in which Greengrass genuinely conveyed the emotion, the claustrophobia, the intensity and the fear of those several heart-pounding and incredible hours was nothing short of mesmerizing (and he did so with mostly unknown and non-actors only five years after the events). With Captain Phillips, Greengrass once again takes on a very recent true event and creates an emotionally compelling film. The only difference this time is that he had a little help with the likes of Tom Hanks as the title character. Don’t Stop — There’s Plenty More