When did it happen? When did the car crash chaos of The Fast and the Furious franchise turn in The Automotive Avengers (copyright owned by yours truly)? No, seriously. Up until this latest installment of the street racing series, the plots usually revolved around amped up vehicles and individuals with vendettas driving them at very high speeds. Then, Fast Five discovered you could alter the formula to include actual plot (in that case, a full blown heist from a drug dealer). Suddenly, the franchise became a collection of combustion engine experts, each with their own special skill set which, when combined, can take down any annoying enemy.

Perhaps no single sequence in a movie maximizes the strength of the human spirit better than an escape. It’s almost always a question of resolve, of making peace with who we are while pushing our otherwise untapped talents to their very, very limits. It’s about recognizing that, beyond the basics, we all have the mantle to survive, we just don’t know it until the time comes to truly test it. Of course, there are the other ends of the escape spectrum where the wicked and evil try to avoid paying for their crimes through violence and mayhem. For them, it’s not a question of extremes. It’s an attempt to avoid responsibility by any means necessary.

Alernative titles: Get the Raid; Ants in My Pants

POSITIVES:

Terrific opening scene, with nicely understated cops and little girl.

Atmospheric sequences in New Mexico—spooky Joshua Tree landscape.

Sense of impending doom throughout.

Claustrophobic underground scenes in New Mexico and L.A.

Nice performances by James Whitmore and a fine ensemble cast.

A rare film that manages to effectively use child actors (!)

Dear J.J. (I hope I can be so informal…):

Just wanted to let you know that I have really enjoyed your revamp of the whole Star Trek thing. Yeah, I’m one of the geeks. One of the nerds. One of the Trekkers, or Trekkies, or Trek-heads, whatever they want to call us. I was a bit too young to enjoy the original series the first time around (I was five when it premiered on NBC) but I do remember seeing bumper stickers on cars suggesting that the network “save” the show. By the time the crew of the Enterprise went cartoon, I was 12 and a huge sci-fi fan. I enjoyed these animated adventures, but it made me hungry to go back and see what came before.

There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. There’s an even finer one between revolutionary and terrorist. Sitting somewhere in between these various definitions is the late political pundit and media crusader Andrew Breitbart. Adopted by the so-called “Tea Party” as their primary advocate against big, intrusive government, the former firebrand and current source of sacrosanct documentary treatment by Andrew Marcus sure knew how to stir things up. His goal? Bring more transparency and accuracy - and as a result, truth - to the clearly left-leaning liberal press machine that kept conservatives down for decades. Sadly, like the film featuring his often insightful diatribes, his ‘assertion equals fact’ foundation grows tiresome and very one sided.