The Lincoln Lawyer **

Director: Brad Furman

Cast: Matthew McCounaghey, Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei

Josh Lucas, Frances Fisher, John Leguizamo, Michael Peña

William H. Macy, Bryan Cranston

It's not that The Lincoln Lawyer is a bad movie per se, it's just so forgettable that throughout its running time you try hard not to wander around looking for something more interesting. McCounaghey plays Mickey Haller, the title character, a lawyer who specializes in getting guilty people out of jail. That is until he has to defend playboy Louis Roulet (Phillippe) who has been accused of beating a prostitute. Haller detects the slimy heir might have a connection to one of his previous cases and you guessed it, a change of heart occurs.

There is nothing in this movie that we haven't seen before and while McCounaghey is charming enough to carry the movie, the rest of the cast never really clicks.

You can't help but feel bad for McCounaghey who obviously is pushing his "serious actor"chops here (he doesn't even show his abs!) but the plot just becomes less interesting by the twist and who would ever believe that Marisa Tomei ever was married to him?

The Lincoln Lawyer often demands your attention but some will object to its dull pace and thrill-less ride.

Battle: Los Angeles *

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez

Ramón Rodríguez, Michael Peña, Ne-Yo, Bridget Moynahan

Cory Hardrict, Noel Fisher, Jim Parrack

How can a movie where things explode very two seconds, be so freaking dull? That might be the biggest mystery in Battle: Los Angeles, and not why the leading characters never get hit by bullets, why the virgins die first and why are the aliens bothering with physical combat when they have such amazing weapons.

The film is essentially a handheld version of every war movie made during the last decade. Only difference is that the Middle Easterners have been replaced by aliens who have come to Earth to steal all the water (yes, a thinly disguised allegory for water replacing oil as the ultimate element of survival).

The characters include all the usual suspects, including Eckhart who plays an officer who just happens to announce his retirement the day aliens invade, Ramón Rodríguez as a newbie with a pregnant wife at home, Fisher as a geeky virgin and Michelle Rodríguez as a tough, butch chick with a heart of gold i.e. she plays Michelle Rodríguez.

The film was supposedly inspired on a WWII episode concerning mysterious lights that appeared above Los Angeles and watching this torturous film, you honestly have time to think that maybe filming that story would've been a much better idea.

The action scenes in the movie are deft but shockingly forgettable, the characters are under developed and other than Eckhart and Peña (who are always reliable) everyone else seems to not even bother with putting on a show.

Perhaps what results more vomit inducing about this movie is how biased it is about the idea of military forces being the families of the future.

We always wonder what keeps this people together as they travel the streets of the city trying to find civilians. Why aren't they more interested in their own lives? Since the performances are so poor, the only thing that bonds them is the actors' contract.

This forced love for the army the characters talk so much about comes off looking as a silly, even subversive method of drafting, not very different from what people in the 1940s would've thought.

At least this lack of soul, makes it easy to believe that no intelligent extraterrestrial force would bother with conquering a bunch of mechanical beings.