X-Men Origins: Wolverine **1/2

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will.i.am, Lynn Collins, Kevin Durand, Dominic Monaghan, Taylor Kitsch, Daniel Henney, Ryan Reynolds
Director: Gavin Hood
Running Length: 1:47
MPAA Classification: PG-13

In Canada, in 1845, two half-brothers named Logan and Victor, go on the run after Logan kills his father. They go on to fight in all the major wars, both being able to heal quickly and being just about indestructible. In the 1970’s, they are recruited by William Stryker (Huston) who is putting together a mysterious team. While Victor (Schreiber) is comfortable doing the team’s dirty deeds, Logan (Jackman) isn’t, and breaks from the team to lead a normal life. Eventually, Victor and Stryker come looking for Logan, so they can return him to his place in that team, but Logan won’t go easily, and soon pays the price.

With the success of the “X-Men” movies, it was only a matter of time before Wolverine got a solo movie, this time in the form of a prequel. In “Wolverine”, we get his origins, as well as a look at a number of other new mutants. We see the bond that Wolverine and Sabertooth have, and we see a glimpse of further X-Men movies to come. Jackman is clearly comfortable in the role he has played three times before. He does nothing special here, but he doesn’t disappoint either. Schreiber gives depth to Victor/Sabertooth that wasn’t there in the first X-Men movie. That being said, “Wolverine” falters due to an enormous amount of other mutants and a story where the ending is pretty much a given. It has to get to “point B” to stay in continuity with the first X-Men movie, and so there is never any real doubt as to who will live between the characters we have seen before. X-Men fans will be pretty happy though regardless.

21 Grams ****

Cast: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Danny Huston, Clea DuVall, Marc Musso
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Paul is a man with a bad heart and a failing marriage. Jack is a born again ex-con who sometimes takes things a little too far. Christine is happily married and has two daughters. All three have nothing in common until one fateful day that binds them together in a way that none expect. 21 Grams is a great movie that I would hate to spoil with further plot points. It is told in a haphazard way, jumping forward and backward in time, that really works and is part of the reason for the movie's greatness. It is confusing at first, but then things start to fall together and make sense. The acting is top notch from all three leads as well -- all could easily be nominated come Oscar time.