Couple of late entries hot off the presses; one decent but lukewarm and one truly tragic.  First the bad…

Paranoia
In a word; wow! Where to even begin.  This mind numbing tale of young corporate climbers from the outer burroughs attempting to make it in the cut throat world of high tech Manhattan telecom companies (uh, what?) seems to have been written by folks who have never lived in New York,  never worked for a corporation and have less technical knowledge than a typical 8 year old.

How it was even possible for a script like this to see a green light, and more incomprehensibly how legends like Oldman and Ford (and is that Richard Dreyfus!? Good lord it is) could have gotten sucked in is well beyond my ability to imagine.  Maybe they each owed a big favor? This one will luckily be quickly forgotten and fade away.  I might have to start giving stars just so I could give this one a zero.

Closed Circuit
A paint by numbers afair still infinitely better than the movie that shall not be named again, Closed Circuit is a legal thriller set against the backdrop of a high stakes government cover up following a terrorist attack in London.  Great delivery by Bana and Hall keeps your attention despite the highly technical plot.  What I found especially interesting was seeing this type of story (“big brother” cynicism, nefarious governmental misdeeds) set in the UK for a change.  The very literal “surveillance state” that is modern London is a perfect fit for it and this reality tie in is used by the director to great effect. Not a big movie by any means, it could almost have been a particularly good episode of Suits, it still hits its target solidly and should please fans of this genre.