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Release Date: February 19, 2010
Rating: R (for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity)
Genre: Suspense, Thriller, Adaptation
Run Time: 138 min.
Director: Martin Scorcese
Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson

Prepare to be put through the wringer with Shutter Island.

Dreamlike and full of haunting imagery and music, the film is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) and directed by Martin Scorcese (Goodfellas, The Departed, The Last Temptation of Christ). The movie is a spectacular downer with several moments of great emotional anguish. It ends on such a grim note that it’s hard to imagine anyone enjoying the film.

Is that a deal-breaker? By no means.

Sure, Shutter Island is depressing, but it’s also potent, with directorial nods to Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrickâ??most notably to Vertigo and The Shining. Like those films, it will disturb and unsettle viewers hoping for more upbeat fare, but it will reward others who can absorb the story’s horrors.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Teddy Daniels, a U.S. marshal who arrives at Shutter Island, site of the Ashcliffe Psychiatric Correctional Facility for the mentally unbalanced. He’s there with his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), to investigate the disappearance of a patient, Rachel (Emily Mortimer), from the facility.

The institution is tightly controlled by security staff and Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), who, in 1954â??the year the movie is setâ??is fighting battles within the medical community. He’s pushing for newer therapies to treat the mentally disturbed patients at Shutter Island, and for an end to the barbaric treatments of earlier decades.

Daniels, it’s slowly revealed, could use Cawley’s help. All business on the surface, he’s plagued by visions he can’t shake of his wife and children, who died in a fire. As he digs further into the disappearance of Rachel, he becomes ever more deeply haunted by his pastâ??not only his family tragedy, but his wartime experience and images of the death camp he helped to liberate.

The workers and inmates at Shutter Island speak to Daniels in a manner that sometimes comes across as rehearsed. Is there more to Daniels’ pursuit than even he realizes? Is Daniels pursuing Rachel or running from his own past?

The film’s conclusion is drawn out, and its horrors are so disturbing that audience members will justifiably ask if Daniels’ torment needs to be depicted at such length. But Shutter  Island‘s most disturbing images are its most memorableâ??just as Kubrick’s images of murdered children and gushing blood are among the most memorable in (and essential to) The Shining, and Hitchcock’s shots of the grief-stricken Jimmy Stewart are what linger most from Vertigo.

DiCaprio gives Daniels a fragile bravado that slowly disintegrates (his turn in Revolutionary Road, set within a year of Shutter Island, suggests that he excels at playing characters from 1950s), while Ruffalo plays it appropriately cool as his partner. Kingsley stands out as Cawley and the great Max von Sydow adds acting heft as another doctor on the island. Yet it’s several smaller supporting performances from Emily Mortimer, Jackie Earle Haley and Elias Koteas that up the creepy quotient and add significantly to the film’s spooky atmosphere.

Even better is the look of the film with production design from Dante Ferretti (Sweeney Todd, The Black Dahlia) and brilliant image-making from cinematographer Robert Richardson, who shot Scorcese’s The Aviator and Bringing Out the Dead.

This is not a film for those looking for a fun time. It’s a serious, somber tale of death and disorder, and it is not easily forgotten. Don’t be surprised if you shudder more than once, and are still shivering later, at the thought of Shutter Island‘s story.

CAUTIONS:

• Language/Profanity: Lord’s name taken in vain; multiple obscenities, including several uses of the “f” word; an inmate discusses his violent sexual encounters; racial epithet.
• Smoking/Drinking/Drugs: Liquor and cigars are offered and consumed; more smoking at several points throughout the film; wife asks Teddy if he’s ever sober; drug treatments are contrasted favorably to earlier methods of treating the mentally disturbed; an alleged conspiracy involving drug shipments; pipe smoking.
• Sex/Nudity: Naked woman in a painting; men shower and wrap towels around themselves, but nothing below the waist is shown; later, male frontal and rear nudity is briefly seen; a man urinates in public, but is photographed from behind, so nothing is visible; kissing.
• Violence/Crime: Images of bleeding, disfigured soldier; bodies piled in death camp; in an imagined scene, blood runs through Teddy’s laced fingers; an inmate tells of cutting a woman and making her scream; a woman is covered in blood, with dead children at her feet; extended shots of drowned children.
• Religion: A discussion about whether Teddy believes in God; a man says he thought God gave us moral order; a man says God gave us violence to wage war in His honor.

Release Date: March 12, 2010

Rating: R (for violence and language)
Genre: Drama, Thriller, War
Run Time: 115 min.
Director: Paul Greengrass
Actors: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Yigol Naor, Said Faraj, Khalid Abdalla, Raad Rawi

The 1980s Rambo franchise brought Sylvester Stallone more fame for his portrayal of a Vietnam vet who fights mistreatment at home and rescues POWs in Asia. Film critics criticized the movies, particularly Rambo: First Blood Part II, suggesting that the films represented a fantasy in which America had a chance to refightâ??and this time, winâ??the Vietnam War.

Much of the audience who showed up en masse to see the Rambo movies were too young to remember the truth about America’s involvement in Vietnam. Critics feared that core group may have been susceptible to the alternate history presented by Stallone’s movies. One main criticism was that the films were too war-happy, too conservative in their vision.

Green Zone, an Iraq War drama that reteams director Paul Greengrass with star Matt Damon, falls into the same trap as Rambo did, but this time from the political left. In the film, a U.S. Army officer tasked with uncovering weapons of mass destruction in Iraq learns that his efforts will never bear fruit because of shady dealings by U.S. officials who falsified intelligence. Angry at this betrayal, he confronts his adversary, rats out the official to a journalist who discovers she’s been spun by the same official, and exposes the government’s actions before the war escalates.

Set in 2003, the film stars Damon as Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, on the ground in Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that, frustratingly, aren’t turning up. He quickly concludes that the intelligence on WMD is bad and is not reassured by the insistence from haughty Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) about the accuracy of the intel.

When Wall Street Journal reporter Lawrie Dane (Amy Ryan) befriends Miller, they work together to unearth the identity of a key source on WMD intelligence. CIA agent Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson), a grizzled skeptic on U.S. Middle East policy, assists Miller in his efforts to counter Poundstone, while Freddy (Khalid Abdalla), an Iraqi, leads Miller to a group of Saddam Hussein loyalists who could form the core of an insurgency within the country.

The film, employing Greengrass’ trademark “shaky-cam” visual approach, throws viewers into the street-level dangers Miller and his men encounter as they search for WMD. However, the action is chaotic and not as coherent as some of Greengrass’ earlier films with Damon. Moreover, the timing of the film’s release is awkward, as it opens the weekend after Iraqi citizens went to the polls to participate in democratic elections that were broadly hailed as a  model for the region. Yet the movie leaves room only for scoffing whenever a character suggests that a democratic Iraq might come from U.S. efforts in the country.

More problematic is the entirely predictable storyline. Anyone who followed the debate over intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War, and in the aftermath of the American occupation, knows the story of Green Zone before it unfolds. It doesn’t help that none of the principal characters has more than one dimension. Miller, after a brief early stretch where he clings to the idea that he might turn up WMD, spends the bulk of the film barely containing his righteous fury. Kinnear exudes smarmy arrogance and nothing else. Ryan is a bit better as she slowly discovers that she’s been used, but her character isn’t in many scenes.  Best of all is Abdalla, although his character, like Ryan’s, drops out of the film for long stretches, particularly toward the film’s finale, when his presence is sorely missed.

Greengrass and Damon teamed for two of the Jason Bourne films (The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum), to much better effect. Although the third Bourne film revolved around issues that parallel some of the concerns in Green Zone, its main concern was a characterâ??Jason Bourneâ??and not a particular international conflict. Green Zone is about an issueâ??the Iraq Warâ??rather than about its characters, who are less individuals than stand-ins for viewpoints on the war. The good guys and bad guys are never in doubt.

The Iraq War hasn’t been a big winner at the box office, but this big-budget star vehicle will put that to the test. Shot by Barry Ackroydâ??who also was the director of photography on Kathyrn Bigelow‘s The Hurt Lockerâ??the film often looks great, even though the film’s rapid editing doesn’t allow viewers to linger long on any one shot.

Given that The Hurt Locker, fresh off its Best Picture Oscar victory, is being re-released the same week that Green Zone debuts, audiences have a clear choice: They can see Greengrass’ obvious, highly political film that screams, “Bush lied! People died!” or they can watch Bigelow’s apolitical depiction of soldiers in the battlefield and the complex toll such a lifestyle can take on a soldier’s psyche.

One film is preachy, one subtle. One tells, the other shows.

The better choice is obvious:  Go with the clear winner.

CAUTIONS:

• Language/Profanity: Lord’s name taken in vain; lots of foul language, including several uses of the “f” word.
• Smoking/Drinking/Drugs: Beer drinking.
• Sex/Nudity: None; poolside images of women in bikinis.
• Violence/Crime: Gunfire, explosions, bombs and other war violence; sniper fire; man hit with butt of a gun, then slapped; helicopter shot down; abuse of suspects detained on battlefield.

WOW Hits 2010 collects 30 of the years biggest contemporary gospel/Christian rock hits over the span of two discs, including “There Will Be a Day” (Jeremy Camp ), “Whatever You’re Doing (Something Heavenly)” (Sanctus Real), “Keys to the Kingdom” (Group 1 Crew), and “Yours [Radio Version with New Verse]” from CCM giant Steven Curtis Chapman.

I have always had a soft spot for Casting Crowns, even if I have a less than soft spot for the rest of the Pop Worship genre, and I was excited to be able to hear the New CD. After the first couple of songs I began to worry. The CD begins in a typical Casting Crowns Song, The Title song â??Until the Whole World Hearsâ? sounds like it belongs on their previous album â??The Altar and the Doorâ??. As I said I began to worry that this Cd  was going to be nothing more than a continuation of the previous album. This isnâ??t quite the negative that it could be. Casting Crowns has a very set and distinctive sound that I find carrying through all of their albums. When done properly it gives the Band a signature sound. When done Improperly it simply makes all the songs sound the same. â??Until the Whole World Hearsâ? walks the thin line of â??signature soundâ? while only crossing into the â??What album is this again?â? territory a couple of times.

The highest-charting Christian album on the Billboard charts since 2006, Awake could be tagged as Skillet’s mainstream breakthrough on that fact alone. Certainly, the band’s monster modern rock does sound like it could slip onto on active rock playlist — maybe not quite in 2009, but earlier in the decade, when metallic rockers heavy on the guitar downstrokes, and power ballads with chant-along vocals were relatively common. That’s not to say that Skillet sounds out-of-step with the times  there’s still a gleam to the Howard Benson production that sounds modern — and they do mange to imprint their own identity on this sometimes-generic brand of contemporary rock, thanks to their communal vocals, with male and female voices trading off, and skyscraper hooks. Skillet also don’t always focus solely on religion, as many of their songs are grounded in inspirational positivity, so that’s another reason why Awake finds the band poised to break into the mainstream.

Style: Pop country; compare to Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood

Top tracks: “He Holds Everything,” “No Changin’ Us,” “Come to Jesus”

From Nashville’s Fan Fair to the Grand Ole Opry, Point of Grace employed the acoustic affections of 2007’s How You Live to test the waters of country music. And with plenty of mandolin pickin’, fiddle chops, and steel guitar chimes percolating their latest, the Grace girls officially take the plunge. While some may criticize the shift, faith-based candor still permeates hooky choruses of life and love, and their vocals sound more at ease than ever with a rootsy approach to their signature harmonies. Having weathered changes in membership and style over the past few years, No Changin’ Us is a homecoming and a fresh start for one of Christian music’s most popular assets.

If Christian rock were like actual rock, TobyMac would be Chris Daughtry. A former member of celebrated trio DC Talk and now a solo star in his own right, he’s one of the few Christian rock artists a secularist might have actually heard of.

“Tonight,” TobyMac’s awkward, endearing new disc, wants to be everything to everyone: It’s a jumble of Auto-Tuned faux alt-rock (“Tonight”), kiddie rap (“Loud N Clear,” which features an appearance from half-pint MC/TobyMac offspring TruDog ’10), choppy funk rock (“Changed Forever”) and even reggae (“Break Open the Sky”).

Christian rock used to be justifiably notorious for its insularity and cheesiness, but after the crossover success of bands like Evanescence and Switchfoot, audiences are savvier than they used to be. They probably realize by  now that TobyMac makes for the world’s least convincing hipster, and that tracks like the Black Eyed Peas-evoking “Funky Jesus Music,” with its basketball metaphors and baffling “Jesus blazer” references, just make things worse.

TobyMac is a gifted melodicist – there may be no contemporary Christian rocker better at writing hooks – but an inconsistent stylist. “Tonight” is less an album than a collection of clashing genres that adults think “the kids” are into. The less-adorned tracks (like the hook-a-minute “Get Back Up”) can be, well, heavenly; the gimmicky ones, like the funk-ish “ShowStopper,” on which TobyMac unconvincingly sing-raps (“You came to ride the highs of this junk / Baby, we came to guarantee the big krunk”) are wince-inducing.

Recommended tracks: “City on Our Knees,” “Get Back Up”

After a four-year hiatus multifaceted singer/songwriter Michelle Bonilla readies to release her sophomore studio effort entitled In Spite of Me, April 13th on RockSoul Productions.

The recent Temple University Cum Laude graduate first came on the scene with her 2006 release “Phenomenal” where her single ‘Sin Ti’ charted on the top 20 CHR charts.

Sheâ??s back with her producer Lee Jerkins (Out of Eden, Cross Movement) with an inspirational 16-track CD–13 full songs and three diary excerpts–with strong infusions of R&B, pop and Latin melodies featuring Jamaican gospel recording artist Chevelle Franklin, and gospel hip-hop artists Lecrae, Flame, and R-Swift.  “My music is a blend of who I am culturallyâ??urban, Latin, rock and soul,” says Bonilla.

The first single, I Love You, is a fun anthem-like song. According to Bonilla, “Itâ??s a new way to praise without the traditional flare.”  Itâ??s also the cry of her heart when it comes to how she feels about God.

That’s What Love Is, the second single, is a cool mid-tempo groove that explains that Jesus is the answer, More than any diamonds you can buy me/ I want a love that can’t be measured by things/I want a perfect unconditional love/Jesus is where you’ll find unconditional love.  “ The idea of true love has been so blurred by societyâ??s mundane and selfish values that theyâ??ve sold a lie to girls everywhere, and the saddest part is that the girls believe it,” says Bonilla.  “I wanted them to see what true love looks like, and that itâ??s nothing like what theyâ??ve seen or heard on TV or radio.”

The up-beat title track, In Spite of Me, co-written by Bonilla, is filled with Christ-centered lyrics where the theme talks about a perfect God and an imperfect humanity, while the dance tune Give It Up will keep you moving and praising God.

You is a personal favorite of Michelle’s. “It  says everything I feel when I just canâ??t seem to get it together. When my world is going crazy I donâ??t need nobody else I need You

You Donâ??t Have Cry is a story-telling cut that reaches down to Michelle’s contemporary roots.  “Itâ??s like I sat down in the middle of a circle surrounded by young people who came to listen to an encouraging story. I used to love story time as a kid and I guess thatâ??s why I wrote it that way.”

Persevere is a Tina Turner/Skillet rock out song.  Bonilla says “the lyrics are very real and they talk about real life issues. Itâ??s my way of saying hey, life is not simple it has its crazy moments but we will persevere through Christ Jesus.â?

Other standout tracks include the beautiful ballads Eres El Rey(spanish for “You Are The King”), I Am, and My Story.

“In Spite of who we are, at our core, God sees what we will be.  We are free to pour out our hearts before him openly in worship and in truth, because he longs to have a relationship with us,” says Bonilla.

No stranger to the industry Bonilla has performed in the company of artists as Crystal Lewis, Nicole Mullen, Out Of Eden, and Papa San, and has been featured on Cross Movementâ??s Grammy and Dove nominated album â??Higher Definition.â?

Four years later, with a newfound understanding of who she is in Christ, Michelle Bonilla presents her sophomore album, In Spite of Me, an attempt to illustrate that being a Christian is a process of growth and a journey of becoming more Christ-like. With refreshing, strong, and stirring vocals, she shares her faith in a fun and unobtrusive way. She talks about her real life struggles and how she has been able to overcome them with Christ.