Martin Cuff Consulting

The Debt takes as its center-piece a fictional 1960′s era attempt by a trio of loyal Israelis to kidnap a hideously unrepentant Nazi war criminal out of East Germany and spirit him back to Jerusalem for trial. The attempt goes awry, and the three are forced into a series of course-changes and compromises that effectively [...]

So here’s the plot of The Darkest Hour: Aliens blow shit up – score! They blow shit up in Russia – bonus! Gnome-y Emile Hirsch leads a bunch of hapless foreigners to salvation – good to go! And yet, yet…. what an utterly numbing disappointment. Moscow looks awesome on film, but the plot, and worse, [...]

Arriving at LAX yesterday, I was handed the keys to a bland 2011 Chevy Impala, a not-Jetta automobile that is apparently the most common car on the road in Southern California. However, it’s also the getaway vehicle for a fantastic opening scene in the movie Drive, so by now I’m feeling pretty damn fly behind [...]

So here’s what I understood from Fincher’s English-language re-telling of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: James Bond (great titles by the way) has retired from the secret service and is now living and working in Sweden where he’s surrounded by perfectly cast Europeans with great accents. He is hired by a wealthy industrialist to [...]

It’s pretty hard to write an update for an animated film on this locations-based blog, but with the Spielberg-directed, Peter Jackson-produced The Adventures of Tintin I’m going to try. Because the digital locations – from the Sahara to the historic Caribbean to muddy Belgium to the palaces and narrow streets of the Caliphate of Bugghar [...]

It’s been said that Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol is the movie that can make you forget quite how icky Tom Cruise is. True. Revisiting the role of Ethan Hunt, he’s lithe and agile and handsome and tight-panted and surprisingly compelling – ok, he’s hot: there, I said it – especially considering he’s turning fifty next [...]

Serbs, white South Africans and Colombians – they’re the kind of tripartite alliance of Hollywood bad guys. They’re the go-to nations for cartoon-ish stereotype, the people you portray when you can’t be bothered to create any characters with genuine emotions or motives or personality. Ah well. In Colombiana, the lithe, balletic Ms. Zoe Saldana plays [...]

Crazy Stupid Love takes no time with set up, it goes straight for the sucker-punch. Steve Carrell plays Cal, a middle-aged Dad whose life falls apart quite spectacularly when his wife asks for a divorce. He’s jarred from his melancholia by the friendship of a handsome young player called Jacob (a pitch-perfect turn by Ryan [...]

Immortals, the latest mind-blowing Tarsem Singh extravaganza produced by the same guys who made 300, is the most brutal, bloody, violent movie I’ve ever seen. It is also, by far – and I mean, far – the most phenomenal fight choreography I have ever seen too. The styling and art direction and costumes are astounding, [...]