Movie Reviews: Getting High on Adrenaline in 'American Sniper' and 'Inherent Vice'

American Sniper (2014, directed by Clint Eastwood. U.S.A., English, Color, 134 minutes) The story of the military's most lethal sniper is what we get fixated on in "American Sniper", which is just as much about post-9/11 patriotism as it is its titular character, Chris Kyle. Bradley Cooper gives his best performance to date as Kyle, who is portrayed as a lovable, modest and true incarnation of Captain America. After each of his four tours in the Iraq War we see just how he is slowly being broken down from everything he has witnessed and how with each tour he still stays focused on the task at hand: saving soldiers (killing the enemy).

The success of the film is because of its helmer, Clint Eastwood, who has done countless war films before this, but takes a sensitive approach to Kyle's story. There is plenty of gritty war violence which is beautifully balanced by the war's effects on his own mental health and his family's well being. Sienna Miller was truly effective as his wife, and my heart ached almost every time she had to cry, especially when she hears nothing but a hail of bullets during a phone call Cooper.

If anything bad to say about the film is that it felt very rushed in the beginning. Not staying long in one situation or another and rushing anxiously to the next moment. It found its footing in the second half, luckily.

Rating: B+

Movie Review: Big Girls Don't Cry, But 'Jersey Boys' Do

Jersey Boys (2014, directed by Clint Eastwood. USA, Color, 134 minutes.) "Jersey Boys" isn't the typical Clint Eastwood film, or is it? Sure, no one would expect the Man With no Name who has been the epitome of masculinity to adapt a Tony Award-winning musical for the screen, but here it is, draped with all of that obnoxious chiaroscuro lighting that is typical of Eastwood's films.

The jukebox story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons won four Tonys, including best musical, when it premiered on Broadway in 2005, and, to me, is another cautionary tale of the politics and frustrations of the '60s music scene.

Young Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young reprising his Tony-winning role) is a babyfaced teenager from a Newark, New Jersey suburb who gets caught up in the bad boy Tommy DeVito and his musical group. Through mob connections and a brilliant songwriter, the boys from Jersey eventually become a staple of that generation's pop music. Eventually that all crumbles as the group falls apart when a mountain of debt, and tears, falls into their laps.

Maybe this was a better show to see on the stage, but there was something about this film that worked more as a comedy/drama and less as a high-energy musical. There were some performance scenes where your toe was tapping and  the audience would clap afterward, but that was few and far between. Previous Broadway shows adapted for the screen, like "Chicago" and "Dreamgirls", could do both, especially the former.

This brings me back to Eastwood. For a man who never directed a real musical before it shows. The choreography was pretty basic and repetitive, the sound mix he approved on the final cut was crazily uneven and he added an unnecessary encore performance as the credits rolled. Really? Do people even do a final medley as the credits go at the end? Without the music, it's a well-paced and interesting drama, but if the movie is about the music, don't make it seem like an extra lingering in the background.

Rating: C