Edge Of Darkness: B-

Edge of Darkness could essentially be titled "Mel Gets Mad V." We've seen Mel as the righteously pissed off warrior out for justice and out for blood more times than we can count. But he always brings just enough of a hard edged some might say masochistic twist to the proceedings as it seems the only way to get this guy fired up is to let him wallow in agony.

Here Mel is a Boston police officer who sees his only child gunned down on his front porch right in front of him. Now his daughter may or may not be invovled in some shady dealings involving a powerful defense contractor and government corruption.

And after a little staring at the wall with his dead daughter's blood still all over him, Mel decides to act. Now Director Martin Campbell is able to put together a very tightly constructed thriller. There's lots of dark alleys, underground meetings, and Mel beating people up to get them to talk. But to be honest Mel doesn't kick as much ass here as the trailers make him out to.
Most of the time its a flash of violence that shocks you out of your seat, and then its over and Mel's back looking for more clues. The big bloody climax is appropriately action packed, but it tended to drag a little in between Mel's encounters.

And on a side note, Danny Huston needs to get himself a new agent. He's played the shadowy government type one too many times, and his very presence lets the whole audience know that he's up to something and he's gonna get his ass kicked by mel by the end.

Edge of Darkness: B-

Youth In Revolt

"Youth in Revolt" is a collection of half baked, yet interesting, ideas in search of a movie. Based on a well known cult novel, the film casts Michael Cera as a horny yet shy teenager who wants nothing more than to have sex, but has absolutely no idea how to go about it.

But he seems to meet his soulmate at a trailer park in young Portia Doubleday. She's just as literate and nerdy as he is, but she longs for someone with a little more of an edge. She wants the rebel who will simultaneously fulfill her fantasies of freedom, and help her rebel and form a clean break from her domineering fundamentalist parents.

To win her heart, Cera concocts a rebelious alter ego for himself that seems tailor made to win her heart.
Cera is such a poster boy for shy awkward nice guys that it's inherently a little amusing to watch him try to be bad. And his particular vision of a bad boy is a french white loafer wearing playboy with an inspector clouseu like moustache who smokes incessently and cares little for the inconsistent rules imposed by his divorced dysfunctional parents played by Jean Smart and Steve Buschemi.

But unfortunately the idea sounds a lot more fun on paper than it actually is up there on the screen. In the task of trying to condense the 400 page novel down to feature length, they've unfortunately lost the spirit in the shuffle. So subsequently scenes that should have built up to a fulfilling climax are left to kind live or die on their own in a vaccum. And they don't add up to much in the end. It's just a story that kind of meanders along jumping from one misguided exercise in revolt to another.


Youth In Revolt: C