BONE TOMAHAWK (2015)

Set in the 1890's American West, BONE TOMAHAWK is a well made low-budget western about a quiet frontier town that wakes up one morning to find two of their citizens and one stranger missing and a stable boy gutted.  What the hell happened?  The last thing anybody knows is the local doctor was treating an injured prisoner while under the watch of a deputy.  Now they're all gone and the dude tending the horses was found with his innards pulled out.

After a little investigation, Sheriff Kurt Russell discovers that (I guess, unknown to him until just now) only a few days ride away there is a tribe of cannibalistic cave dwellers!  Sounds like something that a local sheriff would need to know about, but whatever.  Finally Sheriff Russell, another deputy and two townsfolk (including the female doctors husband) head out on horseback to rescue the kidnapping victims.  Things don't go quite as planned...not that they really had much of a plan at all.

Slow pace that actually fits the story, amazing cast, nice camerawork, cannibal indians that flip around like Cirque du Soleil performers, one gruesome kill scene, an injured guy with a broken leg suddenly appearing in a cave so high up a cliff face that everybody else has to be pulled up on a rope, unsatisfactory ending that hints at a sequel, Richard Jenkins' using some kind of annoying "old man" voice that got old real quick, beautiful scenery, Zahn McClarnon with way too small of a role.

Overall, BONE TOMAHAWK is a good film with a promising story that outstretched its budget (I would have dropped the broken leg bit and changed it so it was Sheriff Kurt's first week on the job after being brought in from out of state).  Worth a watch for fans of gritty westerns, but nothing to pull yer pud over.

JACK REACHER (2012)

Like the love child of THE BOURNE IDENTITY and "Highway to Heaven", Jack Reacher is a tough as nails drifter with an almost angelic presence and strong sense of justice.  And if you don't like his sense of justice then he'll just beat or kill it into you.  After an ex-military dude is arrested for a sniper massacre, he's beaten into a coma thanks to some crooked cops, but not before he asks for Jack Reacher.  Preacher, I mean, Reacher shows up and the evidence looks pretty damning, but that doesn't mean anything when you have justice on your side!

Despite the cheesiness of the all knowing, super tough guy character I enjoyed JACK REACHER.  The fight scenes were awesome and well filmed, Werner Herzog played a interesting bad guy, the pace was quick, good acting by everybody and the angelic stuff was funny enough that it made you giggle but not roll your eyes.  Worth a watch.

Part 2 - Jack Reacher:Never Go Back (2016)

BURN AFTER READING (2008)

BURN AFTER READING is a nice little self-contained story about a bunch of dueling idiots.

Longtime CIA analyst John Malkovich has just been fired because of his drinking problem.  To combat his boredom and in hopes of getting a book deal he starts writing his memoirs about his career.  When a CD holding his manuscript and financial data ends up in a local gym locker room (thanks to Malkovich's wife's divorce lawyer's secretary) it ends up in the hands of two personal trainers, Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand, who think that they can blackmail Malkovich into paying for it's safe return.  Other equally selfish and idiotic characters included in this mess are: gym manager Richard Jenkins who's in love with McDormand despite that fact that she's a moron; Malkovich's wife who's having an affair with the sex-crazed George Clooney and two CIA higher ups who observe the whole thing from CIA headquarters.

Some viewers might be troubled by the lack of plot and likeable characters, but I think that might be the entire point of the film.  Even if it wasn't I enjoyed it and would gladly watch it again.  Extra bonus points for George Clooney's dildo machine...I think I just came up with a great name for my new punk band!

Recommended.