By PATRICK HALL
Special to The Wilson Post 

With no major releases this past weekend, I started my anticipation for this weekend’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” by taking part in a Saturday marathon of all three “Lord of the Rings” films in theaters, and Director Peter Jackson can’t possibly outdo himself.

Of course, Saturday was the first time I had experienced the “Rings” films in a movie theater since I last saw the third installment, “Return of the King” on the big screen in 2003. It was a marvelous time, even though it took over 12 hours to watch all three (11:15 a.m. to 12:45 a.m. the next day, with 45 minutes in between the films).

This weekend, Jackson returns to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth for “The Hobbit,” which will be the first in another trilogy taking place in Tolkien’s fictional world. Based on the novel, “The Hobbit,” Jackson and New Line Cinemas decided to draw the story out into three films.

I had hoped Jackson would just stick to a two-part story, as was originally announced, but with the addition of a third film for “Hobbit,” I can’t help but think there’s no way it can live up to what Jackson achieved with “Lord of the Rings.”

That trilogy is easily the greatest film trilogy of all time and over the weekend I couldn’t possibly think of any other trio of films that could stand up to them, except maybe George Lucas’s original “Star Wars” films, if for no other reason than the cultural impact they had.

By PATRICK HALL
Special to The Wilson Post

In rain-soaked New Orleans, Director Andrew Dominik uses the collapse of the local criminal economy as a blatant depiction of the recession in America and paints a grim, nihilistic view of the current American landscape and creates a film that will only improve with age.

“Killing Them Softly” tells of two criminal screw-ups, Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russel (Ben Mendelsohn) are chosen by Johnny “Squirrel” Amato (Vincent Curatola) to steal money from a mob-run poker game. After the caper, the trio runs into trouble when the mob brings in Jackie (Brad Pitt) to clean up the mess.

From a startling opening set to then-Senator Barack Obama speaking about the 2008 election, the film uses its mob-poker game to parallel the economic ruin of New Orleans following Katrina and America in the grips of recession.

Dominik abandons all subtlety as politicians are everywhere, on radio, televisions and voice-overs. The images and constant reminders of economic conditions permeate virtually every scene.

When the poker game is hit, the mob roughs up the game’s keeper Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) and use him as an apparent scapegoat to return confidence in the criminal community. The references to economic confidence from speeches by then-President George W. Bush make it impossible to miss Dominik’s message.