I’ll say this about “Red Lights,” the Cillian Murphy- and Robert De Niro-starring thriller that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday night (January 20): I don’t think I’ve talked as much with people about a movie after seeing it since “Inception.”

Which is not to suggest writer/director Rodrigo Cortés’ feature (his follow-up to 2010 fest fav “Buried”) is anywhere near as perfectly conceived and executed as Christopher Nolan’s escapade within the dream world. In fact, “Red Lights” is honestly not a very good movie, though it’s difficult to say why without giving away all the twists, turns and what-the-eff moments.

While there is plenty to admire and scare during the film’s 119-minute running time (and much more to debate afterwards), there remain a handful of unintentionally hilarious moments that left the audience awkwardly laughing in the presence of the film’s talent, plus some head-smacking plot turns and a final montage that manages to be both pretentious and utterly vacuous — not an easy feat.

“Red Lights” begins with a compelling premise and cast of characters. Murphy and Sigourney Weaver play academics specializing in debunking paranormal activity. After a mysterious 30-year absence, De Niro’s world-famous blind psychic emerges back on the scene, drawing Murphy and Weaver into…well, we really should just leave it there. Because “there” is tense, uncomfortable and occasionally jump-out-of-your-seat scary — and it’s best to know as little about the plot specifics as possible.

You might not know much about the plot afterwards either. There are a few twists that make not a lick of sense. There are long stretches of monologue that, when subjected to any sort of Lit-101 scrutiny, crumble under their own substance-free inanity. There are plot strands that are picked up and dropped, especially at the end, seemingly less out of a sense of maintaining mystery than of purely shoddy storytelling.

Murphy, predictably, plays the obsessed investigator with aplomb. Weaver, after all these years, has the sci-gal thing down. De Niro, it seems, will take on any project so long as he gets to deliver a fiery monologue at some point. And Elizabeth Olsen, who was a breakout star at Sundance last year, is given nothing to do and almost less to say as the investigators’ research assistant.

It’s not the performances you’ll be talking about afterwards. It’s the odd choices in supporting cast. It’s the plot twists. It’s the plot holes. It’s the ending. Like it or loathe it, you’ll be talking afterwards. There’s not much more you can ask of a film than that.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially underway, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked to MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance.

Beautifully shot and with a memorable, tough-guy-meets-vulnerable-dad performance from Joel Edgerton, “Wish You Were Here” keeps threatening to become a first-rate mystery tale about secrets, lies and sex.

Its story flits back and forth through time, unspooling a tale about a Cambodian holiday gone bad and the ramifications of an ecstasy-fueled party that leaves one man missing and the lives of his vacation mates in shambles. But there are a few weakly drawn characters and a rushed ending that leaves the timeline-hopping plot strands in an unsatisfying cinematic heap. It all made for an entertaining opening to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday (January 19), but one that left us itching for some truly great festival films in the days to come.

Edgerton plays Dave, an Australian boat builder and father of two, who jets off to Southeast Asia with his pregnant wife, Alice (Felicity Price), her sister, Steph (Teresa Palmer) and Steph’s boyfriend, Jeremy (Antony Starr). They tour Cambodia’s towns, beaches and flea markets. The handheld camera work and rocking score make for a compelling travelogue in these opening scenes. One night, though, they pop pills (save, wisely, for Alice, who heads to bed early). The next day Jeremy is gone, and the remaining three are forever changed. What exactly happened on that drug-addled night is the mystery at the heart of “Wish You Were Here,” and first-time writer/director Kieran Darcy-Smith expertly builds suspense as secrets are revealed through flashbacks and emotional, present-day confessions.

Dave clearly knows more than he initially lets on about what happened in Cambodia, and Edgerton perfectly conveys, often with one glance as the camera stays locked on his gaze, the extent of his anxiety-ridden guilt. Price, too (a relative unknown on American shores), delivers a layered, affecting performance as she learns, along with the audience, the brutal truths at the center of the film. Palmer, though, is given little to work with in the script, a problem not only of character but of storytelling, since her actions are so integral to driving the drama forward.

Yet “Wish You Were Here” still manages to be a taut mystery — until, that is, the film’s final act, as Darcy-Smith rushes to wrap everything up, leaving plot holes aplenty and a healthy dose of confusion. We won’t give anything away, but we will say this. If the lessons of films like “Midnight Express,” “Brokedown Palace” and “Return to Paradise” weren’t already clear, let “Wish You Were Here” be the final word: travel abroad for the towns, beaches and flea markets — and skip the drugs.

FROM MTV SPLASH PAGE: “Cowboys & Aliens” gallops into theaters this weekend chased by an armada of gold seeking monsters from space. On the surface, all the ingredients are in place for an all-out wall-to-wall actioner for the books: the director of “Iron Man,” the stars of “James Bond” and “Indiana Jones,” and a seemingly impossible mash-up of genres. Nothing could possibly go wrong there, right?

Make no mistake, there’s a lot to juggle in “Cowboys,” and Jon Favreau’s task is not an enviable one — so how did he hold up under the pressure? Your mileage may vary, but for this movies writer, I walked away quite pleased with the wild, wild west’s suddenly slick space-born sheen.

Check out five reasons you should see “Cowboys” below!

The Man With No Memory
No matter what role or movie he’s in, Daniel Craig is one of the most reliably watchable actors in the business. But he takes his badass quota up a few notches in playing Jake Lonergan, a man who wakes up in the desert with a wound on his side, without a memory in his head and a whole lot of questions. Don’t expect him to ask nicely, either: Jake’s just as likely to punch you in the groin as he is to shut you up with one look from that cool, icy gaze. Lonergan is one of the great Daniel Craig roles, and it’s a character I’d love to see explored further somewhere down the line.

Read the full review at MTV Splash Page!

“Super 8” isn’t a perfect movie — really, no movie is — but for my money, it’s pretty darn close. J.J. Abrams has lovingly crafted the exact kind of summer blockbuster you wish you could see more often these days : plenty of action, one hell of a train crash (trust me, the trailers and commercials don’t do the real disaster justice), and a whole lot of heart.

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding the new Amblin Entertainment movie, yes, so I’ll do my best not to spoil any of the big surprises for you. But for now, I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to say this: cheesy as it sounds, “Super 8″ really is (wait for it) super great. Check out five reasons you need to see this movie past the jump.

The Nostalgia Factor
The comparisons to “E.T.,” “The Goonies” and other Spielberg-approved movies of yesteryear are more than fair. From plot and premise to performances and execution to its very heart and soul, “Super 8″ feels like a movie that was made 30 years ago, today, if that makes sense. This is a deeply personal effort for Abrams, who’s quite clearly digging back to his childhood roots as a filmmaker and coming back out of the hole with some great new stuff. By necessity, “Super 8″ is a movie that’s always looking back — but it doesn’t do so at the expense of barreling forward.

The Kids
The kids of “Super 8″ absolutely steal the show. Joel Courtney is perfect as doe-eyed protagonist Joe Lamb, delivering a character that’s one part Mikey Walsh, one part Elliot, and several parts of… well, himself. He’s a great character surrounded by equally memorable children, the kinds of kids I expect many of you found yourselves hanging around with in grade school. (Or maybe that’s just me.) Oh, and Elle Fanning — if you don’t fall in love with her (in the non-creepy way) during the train scene, well, perhaps you just don’t have a heart. The young lady has a fantastic career ahead of herself.

Kyle Chandler
Though the kids are the central focus of “Super 8,” this is also the story of Jack Lamb, the deputy with the weight of his town and his family on his shoulders (perhaps in that order, at least to start) played by Kyle Chandler, late of the excellent “Friday Night Lights.” While the story doesn’t always serve the character — indeed, his arc is probably the one I found most problematic — the nuanced performance that Chandler gives as Jack is really something to behold. To put it crudely, Chandler acts the crap out of “Super 8.” If this guy isn’t a consistent big-screen leading man over the next several years, then Hollywood casting agents simply aren’t doing their jobs right.

The Monster
No, I’m not going to tell you what it is. No, I’m not going to tell you what it wants. While I’m not sure that the complete veil of secrecy shrouded over the “Super 8″ antagonist is entirely necessary, there’s no question that this thing works best in bits and pieces — not just in terms of marketing, but within the movie itself. That said, when you do see what’s plaguing this quaint Ohio town… well, for me, it did not disappoint.

The Credits
Trust me, I do not say this lightly: “Super 8″ has the best credits sequence I’ve ever seen in any movie. Stick around. You do not want to miss it. If you really need to know why, watch the video below — the cast will explain everything. But it goes without saying… SPOILERS ahead!

Tell us what you think of “Super 8″ in the comments section and on Twitter!

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If you’re the kind of role-playing gamer who attempts to have sexual intercourse with every random NPC you come across, then ‘Your Highness’ was made specifically for you. This is the multi-million-dollar physical representation of a late night Dungeons and Dragons game with friends, one that’s gone way past the point of anyone taking it seriously and sinking into that kind of “Who cares?” anarchy that happens when you’re up way past your bedtime. You’ll have to bring your own 20-sided die, but director / Dungeon Master David Gordon Green provides the rest.

There’s a very specific kind of vibe that Green is attempting here — it’s loose, ribald, silly, and no one really seems to care how it all turns out in the end, but the film also wants to show respect to the sword-and-sorcery genre. The balance is such that the action sequences are meticulously staged to hold their own with any sword-clanging B-picture, while the comedy is so off-the-cuff that it’s almost immediately forgettable. It doesn’t help that there’s basically only one kind of joke in ‘Your Highness,’ and the novelty of hearing co-writer and star Danny McBride utter anachronistic F-bombs is only slightly amusing the first time. By the 20th time, it’s downright grating.

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Maybe we’ve gotten too accustomed to movies with plots. ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ was loose and episodic, but little schemer Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) had a mission — to scale his social ladder by any means necessary. It wasn’t complicated, but there was at least some measure of structure. ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules’ has no beginning, middle, or natural end, playing out less like an actual movie and more like a marathon viewing of a season’s worth of a cheap, unfunny kids’ television show.

“Unfunny” is key here. Screenwriters Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah return, this time for director David Bowers (‘Astro Boy’), and they’ve lost whatever grasp they had on the material the first time out. Their slapdash script, coupled with Bowers’ flat, point-and-shoot direction, make for a series of inconsequential scenes that go nowhere, their calculated wackiness punctuated in all of the wrong ways by Edward Shearmur’s too on-the-nose score.

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Filed under: Hot Topic, Reviews, New Releases, Sci-Fi, Cinematical

Zack Snyder’s ‘Sucker Punch‘ is the cinematic equivalent of Max Fischer, the main character of Wes Anderson’s ‘Rushmore:’ it may be in all of these really awesome and interesting after-school clubs, but it’s barely passing its regular classes. As a longtime fan of Snyder, I was excited to see a completely self-generated project after four of them which were derived from existing works, but the film exemplifies both the director’s strengths and weaknesses: as a visual stylist, his proficiency is almost incomparable, but he really seems to need an existing story, or at least story structure, to use as a foundation upon which to build those movie moments. A work of unsurpassed style but frivolous substance, ‘Sucker Punch’ is Zack Snyder‘s first misfire and ultimately, and for fans, unfortunately, just not a great film.

The film stars Emily Browning (‘The Uninvited’) as Baby Doll, a young woman committed to a mental institution after assaulting her stepfather with a pistol. Although she’s watched closely by the administrator, Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac), and his resident psychiatrist, Dr. Gorski (Carla Gugino), Baby Doll soon meets fellow inmates Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung), and forms a tenuous friendship as their world transforms from an insane asylum into a brothel where they’re the main attraction. But when Baby Doll discovers that the High Roller (Jon Hamm) is coming in five days to perform a lobotomy/ take her innocence, the five of them hatch a plan with the help of the Wise Man (Scott Glenn) to acquire a series of items which in theory should help her escape to freedom.

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Have you ever heard of the restaurant El Bulli, and do you know anything about its secluded location in Spain, its 35-course meals and jaw-dropping prices? Is the term “molecular gastronomy” familiar to you? If so, you will certainly be fascinated by the documentary ‘El Bulli: Cooking in Progress,‘ an immersion into the research and experimentation undertaken by the restaurant’s chefs. If not … you might feel a little lost.

The conceit of this German documentary is to drop you right in the middle of the chefs’ work, with the barest minimum of context, explanation or information. The only set-up consists of a little bit of text informing you that every 12 months, chef Ferran Adria closes El Bulli for six months to develop a new menu for his restaurant.

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Filed under: Reviews, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical

One of the nicer surprises of SXSW this year was discovering that the movie ‘F*** My Life‘ (‘Que Pena Tu Vida’), despite the title, was a downright sweet and practically adorable romantic comedy. Chilean writer/director Nicolas Lopez’s previous film was a comic-book superhero film, ‘Santos,’ and this is quite different in story but with the same light touch.

Javier (Ariel Levy) is a young advertising professional whose best friend since childhood is Angela. They text each other almost continually, asking for advice and support … or in Angela’s case, cracking wise. Javier falls for Sofia (Lucy Cominetti), a lovely singer, and while the beginning of their relationship is a bit rocky, they have two years of bliss until he feels stifled and breaks up. He regrets this almost immediately, so most of the story is about his attempts to win her back, to mourn, or to get over the breakup. The title of ‘F*** My Life’ reflects the way he feels throughout most of the film.

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Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a writer, which is to say that he’s a loser. His girlfriend, Lindy (Abbie Cornish), has just thrown in the towel, and who can blame her? But Eddie just bumped into his ex-brother-in-law, a drug dealer with a new pill to push. It’s called “NZT,” it’s clear, it’s allegedly FDA-approved, and it allows the user to take full advantage of their brain’s capabilities (as opposed to the rumored 20% we only tap into now).

In essence, it transforms Eddie into Bradley Cooper, a beyond-suave math whiz who’s finished his novel with ease and is now the toast of Wall Street. The drug’s benefits are — wait for it — ‘Limitless,’ but it’s not without some side effects…

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