Recycling is a major issue these days. In Hollywood it seems to be the latest mantra – what’s old is new again. In the case of “21 Jump Street” not only has the idea of the the original young cop concept TV series been given a new life but it has been done with a comic flair and juxtaposition of characters that manages to poke fun at the way things were while still delivering a reasonable police drama… uh… comedy… no… make that dramedy.

Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are the typical high school nerd and dumb jock. Then they graduate and as it turns out each has joined the police academy. They form an alliance to get them trough and become friends. Assigned to bicycle patrol duty in a park, their first bust turns out to be a bust due to a Miranda issue. Next assignment – “21 Jump Street”. It’s back to high school to track down the source of a new synthetic drug.

This Jump Street pokes fun at the the difference that just seven years can make between going to high school and going back to high school. What’s cool and what’s not. The new peer pressures and environmental enlightenment. And many of the same old problems. Well worth looking in on. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum make a good team even with some old high school issues haunting them.

Something to watch for is Johnny Depp’s cameo as his original character Tom Hanson. Turns out it hasn’t been all pirate adventures for him since his 21 Jump Street days.

Rated: R (1 hour, 50 min.)

The third annual Knickerbocker Film Festival will be only at the Spectrum this year, according to a statement issued by the festival’s organizers Monday afternoon.

According to the organizers, the Madison Theater canceled the encore screening on the festival, scheduled for Thursday night at 6:30 p.m., early Sunday morning. The Madison Theater, along with the Spectrum 8 Theater on Delaware Avenue, were schedule to host a screening each to present, as the organizers promoted, “Albany’s only citywide film festival.”

“I think it’s really disappointing, for us on the board – but especially for the artists. I’m just upset that this is suppose to be a community event, not about business. I’m very sad that’s not going to happen now,” said Kat Broadus, co-chair of the festival’s awards committee.

The festival, now in it’s third year, screened its first short film competition at the Madison for an entire week in February of 2010. In it’s second year, the festival was scheduled to be at the Madison, but due to a last minute booking change, was moved to an alternate date, in which the festival approached the Spectrum to present the festival as well.

The festival itself issued the following statement:

“In the past three years, the Madison Theater and Knickerbocker Film Festival have enjoyed a working relationship that originally brought a film festival to Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood, followed by bringing a capital city to life,”

“However, the Madison Theater – in an erratic, unprofessional, and disappointing move – canceled our scheduled Thursday night screening late Sunday evening without provocation or discussion. This move comes as we’ve been promoting this year’s festival as bringing the world stage to Albany and celebrating film through presenting at Albany’s two premiere movie houses,”

“The biggest victims in this situation are not us – the festival organizers – but the aspiring filmmakers, fans, and friends who come out to grow and support the Capital Region’s filmmaking community. We applaud the Spectrum for being a strategic partner in presenting these short films and we are confident in our success this year.”

The festival will still be presented at the Spectrum 8 Theaters on Wednesday, Mar. 21 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at knickfilmfest.com for $10.

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Alas, if that is true, then Eddie Murphy’s latest movie effort “A Thousand Words” falls short. Way short. Opening with literary agent Jack McCall’s (Eddie Murphy) mouth duct taped shut this film quickly goes downhill once the tape is removed. McCall is a fast-talking word waster who will say anything to get a deal done. When he tries to hook spiritualist Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis) who has just written a book, he cuts his hand on a very special tree.

His life and the tree are now intertwined. The tree loses a leaf for each word McCall speaks or writes. When he asks Dr. Sinja if he has ever heard of a case like this he finds out that there was one but the person died when the last leaf fell. Dr. Sinja looks at McCall’s tree and pronounces that it looks like McCall has about a thousand words left. Sadly, still too many for most of what is to come.

As McCall learns that he cannot even write words without losing leaves, he is forced into pantomime, drawing pictures and making animal sounds to communicate. At a business meeting McCall has his assistant Aaron Wiseberger (Clark Duke) do the talking for him. In the guise of how McCall would supposedly talk, Wiseberger behaves and speaks like a bad mannered Gangsta Rapper in a way that seems sure to conjure up some of Murphy’s worst movie moments.

By the time McCall learns to chose his words wisely, the film is almost over. A real pity since this last portion is the most endearing part of the film. It is a shame that the viewer must endure so much to finally see a truly enlightened McCall. Overall “A Thousand Words” seems like a variation of Jim Carrey’s “Liar Liar” but with worse language, mostly weak or boring acting, and a goal that is reached only after an audience has considered asking for a refund.

Rated PG-13 (1 hr., 30 min.)

In conjunction with the Knickerbocker Film Festival’s awards show, the Knickerbocker Ledger will be hosting it’s ’30 Under 30′ reception, honoring the winners of this year’s list of under-30 leaders, at DeJohn’s on Thursday, March 22 at 8:30 p.m.

Tickets are available online at knickfilmfest.com for $17.50.

The program will include awarding the winners of the third annual Knickerbocker Film Festival and light fare. Note that space will be limited.

“Act of Valor” is a film with problems starting with: What is it? It is not a war movie in the traditional sense or about a specific military engagement. It is not about a mission against a specific enemy. To treat it as a war movie would seem to be a disservice to the many films that have been made about real wars and real engagements. It is NOT Hollywood at its best.

The main goal of “Act of Valor” appears to be to showcase what real SEALs do in a “day at the office”. It is pseudo-typical of the type of missions that the Navy SEALs (SEa Air Land) elite counter-terrorist unit (formerly known as SEAL TEAM Six) was created for.

It is a mostly well made film about a military training exercise which explores how to respond to a plausible threat/potential threat scenario. It is about a fictional mission to extract a CIA operative after a bombing incident. The extraction yields information about a terrorist plot to set off bombs on U.S. soil.

This leads to the follow up mission to interdict the terrorists. The real SEALs do well in the action scenes but most of the down time scenes are stiff and wooden with dialogue delivery that makes one wonder if they couldn’t have sent these guys to a few more acting classes.

The story is told through a first person recollection of a father writing a letter to a son. Immediately it is clear that someone will die since this type of letter in a military film is always written either in advance by someone who doesn’t survive the mission or later by someone who did return as a legacy for the offspring left behind. Then it just becomes a question of who is writing about whom. Later in the film it becomes obvious who isn’t going to make it. When the time comes their demise is seen a classic act of valor that has long been a staple of military films. It is a bit strange to see in such a high tech weaponry film and yet somehow always seems to be a fitting end for a movie hero performing that last selfless act.

The fictional Seal Team Seven (composed of real life Navy Seals) is introduced as they are about to go out on a HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) training exercise. Shown as they are about to jump out of their transport, this is where things start to become slightly inaccurate. No one is likely to have their mask open to have a conversation just before jumping. But it does work for the camera.

Advance screenings of the film began with a preface piece from the directors Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy about how the film was made (this may not be part of the general release). Of note were the comments about the very real mission submarine shown in the film and how they were given co-ordinates to meet the sub when it would surface. If their SEALs failed to make rendezvous they would lose their four hour window to film. Admittedly it brings a different desired realism into the film. But the question is if they had missed the window of opportunity would they have built set pieces to film?

Most of the action sequences look like they could have come from a Navy recruiting advertisement. This is because “Act of Valor” began as a project to make a recruiting film. Unfortunately, Hollywood tends to win out in the end resulting in grander explosions and louder gunfire (usually muffled in real missions). The result is that many of these scenes look like tighter shot, close-ups of what has been seen before in films like “Apocalypse Now”.

With promotional materials making statements like “Real SEALs. Real Bullets. Real Heroes.” one has to wonder if the marketing team ever saw some of the nightly news broadcasts from the Vietnam era or some of the CNN coverage of Desert Storm. In their efforts to claim that you have never see anything like their film they have glossed over a lot of real history and real imbedded filming.

Many of the worlds counter-terrorist units including the United State’s Delta Force and Seal Team 6 were created in the wake of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games Massacre and other terrorist actions.  Subsequently the first well known film about the extraction of hostages from terrorists was the Israeli “Operation Thunderbolt” about the mission to recover the hostages of Air France’s Flight 139 which was hijacked on June 27, 1976 from Entebbe Airport.

“Act of Valor” is definitely geared for the post 9/11 war video gaming generation and current military who are more likely to be familiar with much of the technical jargon and high tech equipment used in the film. It is, however, a film that is accessible to anyone of age interested in seeing a military film. It is not a film for kids, even if they are used to the language and settings of their video games.

Worth seeing? Definitely. But with a proper understanding of what you are walking into.

Final note: Is this “film is like no other in Hollywood’s history” as promoted? Perhaps. After all, they did get normally secretive clandestine Navy SEALs to step in front of a camera and into the limelight in a way that is likely to limit their future SEAL opportunities while potentially landing them in a whole new series of recruiting materials.

Rated: R (1 hour 41 min)

Take two parts “I-Spy”, one part “Sweet Home Alabama”, add in liberal amounts of Mad Magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy”, finish off with a dash of Mission: Impossible techno gadgetry and… Voila! You have “This Means War” – the latest spy/love/relationship/comedy. The screwball comedy is back.

CIA agents FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) are best friends and partners assigned to a routine covert mission. Unfortunately the mission goes awry becoming very overt leaving dead bodies everywhere. Result – FDR and Tuck are grounded to desk duty at CIA Headquarters. Meanwhile at Smart Consumer, Inc. flamethrower wielding Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) is busy doing her job – testing products. When Lauren’s best friend  Trish (Chelsea Handler) sets up a profile for Lauren on dating website ItsFate.net the stage is set for an all out war for the favor of the affections.

Tuck responds to Lauren’s profile, they set up a date, and of course FDR has to cover his back from nearby… “one ring means extraction, two rings – cleaners, three rings and everything is okay”. Great plan except it leads to FDR accidentally meeting Lauren. From then on its a fight to the finish. Who will Lauren pick?

Director McG’s pitting of Chris Pine against Tom Hardy in seeking the affections of Reese Witherspoon has a feeling mildly reminiscent of the comedy of the classic “Road To” pictures of Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour. The result is an enjoyable interlude that makes for a fun date movie.

The price of admission also includes the cartoon “Scrat’s Continental Crack Up Part 2” which continues the misadventures of nut crazed ice age squirrel Scrat.

Rated: PG-13 (1 hour 37 min)

Mediocrity has a name and that name is “Safe House”. Despite high hopes for a strong, intense spy story, “Safe House” delivers performances that at times seem like they were phoned in with a premise that has been seen many times before and many times better. Spies lie – often to each other. Sometimes they go rogue and become traitors. Sometimes the real explanation is muddled in gray areas.

“Safe House” presents Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) as a “housekeeper” of a low priority CIA safe house in Cape Town, South Africa. Having been at his post for one year, he speaks to his superior about moving up and how he seems to passed over because of his lack of accomplishments. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Cape Town, a rouge CIA agent is making his way to a meeting to collect information from a British Intelligence officer. The meeting is compromised and the rouge agent flees for his life. He finds his way to a U.S. Consulate for shelter. The man is Tobin Frost (Denzil Washington) wanted as a traitor and a terrorist. He is taken into custody and subsequently to Weston’s safe house by a team of interrogators. As soon as the interrogation begins, the house is compromised and the interrogators are killed. Weston is faced with the toughest decision of his career – what to do with Frost?

What follows is a sloppy mess of chase scenes, loss of control, regaining control, avoiding killers, avoiding police, and of course the now overused running across rooftops through a slum or ghetto area until someone finally falls through a tin roof. The pacing jumps from fast to slow to are they trying for comedy? and back again. “Safe House” fails to be the film it should have been. It is at best okay where it should have tended toward great.

Director Danial Espenosa and writer David Guggenheim would have done well to study CIA story films that actually work extremely well such as the 1975 film “Three Days of the Condor” in which Joe Turner (Robert Redford), a low level research officer, goes to lunch and comes back to find his team had been assassinated. After that he was out in the cold with everyone is trying to kill him. They could have studied any of the Matt Damon as Jason Bourne films and might have found a way to work in the subtlety and intensity that are lacking in “Safe House”.

Is “Safe House” worth seeing? Sure. Just don’t expect too much from a film that doesn’t really live up to the level of action and spy thriller intrigue that the trailers imply.

Rated: R (1 hour 55 min)

Ghastly… er… I mean Ghostly… Actually more like not a Ghost of a chance… “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”, a supposed sequel to “The Ghost Rider” is that rare film that is so bad that it is likely to develop an instant cult following and little else. Unfortunately, the vengeance of the spirit appears to be aimed at audiences hoping for a good movie.

The first time around we learned the history of the Ghost Rider and how motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) became The Ghost Rider. This time out Blaze has been trying to hide from society to keep the Ghost from coming out and killing. At the same time he is going insane or at least schizophrenic from the internal battle to keep the Ghost hidden while he tries to maintain control. He sort of succeeds until he is tracked down by the priest Moreau (Idris Elba) who wants him to find and protect Danny (Fergus Riordan) and his mother Nadya (Violante Placido) from Satan/Roarke (Ciarán Hinds). Turns out that Danny is the devils son and slated to become the part human vessel for the devil to transfer to so he can continue to roam the earth.

If you’ve seen the trailer then you have already seen most of the best parts of the movie including what happens when the Ghost Rider has to pee (A.K.A – the flame thrower). Nicolas Cage’s performance is nothing new or particularly exciting. His conflicted arguments with the Ghost over who is in control is augmented by pathetic CGI effects that keep bringing out and putting back parts of the Ghost’s skull imposed on Cage’s face. Choppy editing and a weak, almost lame script result in fare that is quite foul. Perhaps it’s time for Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights/Marvel Universe to stop making films for a while. Hardly worth paying the price of admission, this one barely rates watching when the inevitable DVD comes out. If you feel you must see it in the theater at least do yourself the favor of seeing it in 2D and save the 3D money for popcorn.

Rated: PG-13 (1 Hour 36 min)

It’s coming. The end of The Twilight Saga movies.

But along the way there will be events big and small and…disappointing.

Friday, February 10th was marked as the night that the DVD/Blu-Ray editions of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1” would be released at midnight. Earlier in the day people lined up in  various locations for pre-release events. Promoted for weeks as the “Big Event”, 500 Target stores promised a special sneak peek of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2”. Their Sunday, February 5 advertisement included a front cover fly sheet inviting all Twilighters to the 11 p.m. show.

Lasting about six and a half minutes, the sneak peek fell short of expectations. Advanced rumors had it that as much as the first 15 minutes of the movie would be shown. Instead, it was mostly a fast recap of the prior films and a promo for the “Part 1” release in less than an hour. When the subject matter finally turned to “Part 2” the three principle actors, Kristen Stewart who plays Isabella “Bella” Swan, Taylor Lautner who plays Jacob Black, and Robert Pattinson who plays Edward Cullen, provided some introductory comments which were finally followed by an approximately two minute scene from “Part 2”.

The scene presented:

Bella sits down on the sofa in a house and looks at words written on a piece of paper. Edward comes in from behind and sits down next to her. Bella says “It’s strange… Physically I feel like I could demolish a tank… and mentally I just feel… drained.” Edward asks “How about a bath?” Bella smiles. She glances again at the paper then looks at Edward as he says “I’ve had a bad habit of underestimating you. Every obstacle you’ve faced… I’d think you couldn’t overcome it… But you just did… You have given me something to fight for… a family.” They kiss. Edward then gets up and goes off to draw her a bath. She looks again at the words written on the paper - “Gather as many witnesses as you can before the snow sticks to the ground. That’s when they’ll come for us.”

When she turns over the paper she sees that it was torn from a copy of William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”. Going to the bookcase she finds a copy of the play. The page was torn out of the front. Flipping through the book, Bella finds the inscription “J. Jenks, Seattle – destroy this”…

END OF SNEEK PEAK.

William Shakespeare also wrote “Much Ado About Nothing”. Many of those who attended the Target super short sneak peek show felt like they had wasted hours waiting for something that was practically nothing. If they had gone to select Walmarts they would have at least been treated to a proper showing of “Twilight: Eclipse”. Based on Target’s sneak peek, weakness will Part 2 be a significant film? Will a major war break out? Or will there just be a lynching as the note tends to imply? Perhaps a better clue will be found when the Official “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” trailer premieres with the release of “The Hunger Games” on March 23.

The Innkeepers is Ti West’s (The House of the Devil) take on a good ol’ fashioned ghost story, and it’s a really fun time.  The writer/director/editor has the unique ability to convey an homage and at the same time make it feel new (sort of like a horror movie equivalent of The Artist).  The story is simple – the creepy old Yankee Pedlar Inn is on the verge of closing, and the two bored employees decide to try and contact the spirits that haunt the place in the last few days it’s open.  The film comes complete with a psychic former actress (Kelly McGillis), a mysterious old man (George Riddle), and retro, yet strategic camera dollying.

West takes his sweet time getting to the actual haunting, but it’s A – well worth the wait, and replete with suspenseful and startling moments throughout, and B – totally okay because the characters are good and the dialogue is often funny and feels like a better, more engaging and empathetic version of the trite, predictable dialogue of the older horror flicks West is pulling from.  Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are believable small town inn employees; their dynamic is realistic.  It’s not unpleasant or useless to watch them on their downtime – in fact, it creates tension to see them comfortable in a place they shouldn’t be comfortable in at all.  And I have to say, I much prefer Claire and Luke’s subtle characterizations through humor to the either melodramatic or non-existent character development that occurs (or doesn’t) in most recent American horror films.  The main characters of The Innkeepers didn’t have to suffer a trauma years ago that they repressed but that didn’t fail to infiltrate and ruin every part of their lives before they started to get terrorized by spirits.  They could just sort of be slacker, small town kids who work at an inn and are interested in ghosts.  It’s refreshingly simple, though still well-crafted and well written.

Lena Dunham, the indie wunderkind known for her film, Tiny Furniture, makes a funny cameo as a truly annoying coffee shop barista.  The film has that sense of self-awareness and is somewhat outwardly reflective of its own indie cred, but manages to not be at all pretentious about it.  The Innkeepers is just a pure, solid, and super fun ghost story that is entertaining throughout and feels classic without sacrificing any of the scare, getting good and frightening at the end.