PARKER (Rated R)

The big guns have arrived in January, and this has nothing to do with the NRA. Guns galore run rampant at the movies, from “Gangster Squad” to this week’s “Parker.”

Even Hansel and Gretel are in the gun business, toting weaponry that would be the envy of mercenaries fighting battles from the sands of North Africa to the jungles of South America.

When he was a vampire hunter, Abe Lincoln didn’t use machine guns, as I recall, but the titular characters in “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,” having escaped the gingerbread house, rely on the massive firepower of automatic weapons.

The gun culture is more comfortably at home (if it can be stated this way) in “Parker,” only because Jason Statham is by now a very familiar figure as the tough guy in a string of action pictures, most of them requiring the use of you-know-what.

“Parker” is notable because it is based on one of the many crime novels from prolific author Donald E. Westlake, who created the hard-boiled noir environment in which a professional thief became an iconic anti-hero.

A veteran of hard-hitting action thrillers, Jason Statham is just right as charismatic bad boy Parker, a ruthless criminal who surprisingly operates under his own stringent ethical code.

Parker is not your ordinary thug, though he will beat an adversary into an unrecognizable pulp. He operates by a code of honor to only steal from those who can afford the loss and to bring no harm to the innocent bystanders.

Above all, Parker is a thief, capable of extreme violence, but he’s not a psychopath, like some of the desperate criminals with whom he has to regrettably associate to get the job done.

The action begins brilliantly with a large caper at the Ohio State Fair, where an elaborate plan is in place to steal the $1 million take from the weekend gate receipts.

Parker is recruited to the heist by Hurley (Nick Nolte), his crime world mentor and father of his girlfriend Claire (Emma Booth), to whom Parker is extremely devoted.

An expert at planning and executing seemingly impossible heists, Parker is daring and meticulous but all he requires from his crew is absolute loyalty and strict adherence to the plan.

The Ohio State Fair robbery turns deadly because of a crew member’s reckless behavior, and as a result, Parker declines to join vicious crime boss Melander (Michael Chiklis) and his gang for their next big job.

Not willing to take no for an answer, Melander’s gang of thieves turns on Parker with a brutal attack, leaving him for dead by the side of a deserted road.

The most inept member of the Melander crew is Hardwicke (Micah Hauptman), the spoiled nephew of a ruthless Chicago mob boss. And he’s the one who supposedly administered the coup de grace to Parker.

But Parker survives the attack (the first of many such encounters), and after a quickly miraculous recovery, he is bent on vengeance against the men who betrayed him and made off with his share of the loot.

Melander had boasted that the proceeds from the state fair heist were meant to finance a really major score of stolen jewelry. And so Parker traces the gang to the glitzy confines of tony Palm Beach.

Posing as a wealthy Texas oilman, complete with the ten gallon hat and cowboy boots, Parker feigns interest in buying a big piece of local real estate.

As luck would have it, Parker meets struggling real estate agent Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), who happens to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the island and its wealthy socialite inhabitants.

The extremely attractive Leslie tells Parker that she’s pushing 40 and still living at home, after a nasty divorce, with her soap opera-obsessed mother (Patti LuPone).

Believe it or not, Parker keeps everything strictly professional and does not fall for Leslie’s obvious romantic interest in him, even after he’s seen her stripped down to her underwear.

With her unexpected help, Parker uncovers the gang’s plan to make off with more than $50 million worth of jewels that are part of a famous estate auction.

That Parker is a crisp, proficient killing machine is all the more reason that Jason Statham landed the role. This movie is a perfect fit for the British actor, all the better for his gruff physical nature.

With minimal dialogue, Statham’s anti-hero is the lone wolf vigilante who will go from one ferocious fight scene to the next with single-minded tough guy intensity.

Not surprisingly, given Statham’s natural talent for considerable action, “Parker” is a coolly efficient action thriller that gets a lot of mileage from its protagonist.

Full of bone-crunching fights and profusely bloody battles, “Parker” is a bare-knuckles thriller that pumps the action adrenaline to a high level.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

It’s wonderful when a very young person discovers the pleasures of poetry and gives it a try.

Here’s a poem by a first grader, Andrew Jones of Ferndale, Wash., who, if we’re lucky, will go on to write poems the rest of his life.

The Softest Word

The softest word is leaf
it zigzags
in the air and
falls on the yellow ground

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2011 by Seattle Arts and Lectures, from their most recent book of poems, Our Beautiful Robotic Hearts, Seattle Arts and Lectures, 2011. Poem reprinted by permission of Seattle Arts and Lectures. Introduction copyright © 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Harmonicist/vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Charlie Musselwhite, touring in support of his Grammy-nominated Alligator Records CD, “The Well,” will perform live at the Raven Performing Arts Theater in Healdsburg on Thursday, Feb. 14.

Showtime is 8 p.m.

“The Well” is an authentic slice of Musselwhite’s deep blues roots with musical flavors from Mississippi to Chicago to California, including help on one song from legendary vocalist and friend Mavis Staples.

Tickets cost $50 per person.

The concert is presented by the Healdsburg Sunrise Rotary.

The Raven Performing Arts Theater is located at 115 North St., telephone 707-433-6335.

Visit the theater online at www.raventheater.org .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Theatre Co. actors are in rehearsals for the upcoming production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”

The play, adapted from the Ken Kesey novel for the stage by Dale Wasserman, will open Friday, Feb. 22, and run three weeks through Sunday, March 10, at Gard Street School Auditorium in Kelseyville.

“We are starting to believe that these characters we play are real,” said new actor, Jesse Hollar. “It’s fun to try to get inside the head of someone else and react the way they would instead of the way you would. I’m really beginning to know ‘Dr. Spivey’.”

Hollar is one of several new actors in this production. Another one is Jim Steward who plays Chief Bromden.

“If you told me a year ago that I would be doing this, I would have told you that you were crazy,” said Steward. “I like this character, though. He’s caught between the beliefs of his heritage and the people who have failed those beliefs. He withdraws … but he doesn’t go away entirely. He’s still in there.”

Mike Williams is not new to theater. He has actually had a lead role in several productions before real life employment schedules got in the way.

“My character is not that good a guy but it is fun bringing him to life, particularly with the other great actors around me. This cast has real talent,” he said.

Being an actor was not what Larry Richardson had in mind when someone talked him into auditioning for “To Kill a Mockingbird” in Ukiah, but here he is, one year later, performing in his third play within a year.

“I like this play because my wife is in it with me,” Richardson said. “And I get to play a guy with two personalities – and he isn’t even one of the patients. This play has a bunch of twists and turns in it. It’s funny and wild and sad, all at the same time. I really like it.”

Tickets to this dark adult comedy will go on sale Friday, Feb. 1, at locations to be announced.

For more information, call 707-279-2595.
  

THE LAST STAND (Rated R)

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once famously uttered the unforgettable line: “I’ll be back.” Of course, you have to hear those words spoken in a heavy Austrian accent, just to get the full flavor.

Well, he’s now returned to his first starring film role since slinking out of Sacramento with a lot of personal baggage. Aptly named for its climactic action, “The Last Stand” is undoubtedly not final for Arnold.

As an action hero, Arnold, now eligible to carry a Medicare card in his wallet, still has the physical chops, even when he has to acknowledge being old in the occasional obligatory witticism.

Schwarzenegger’s Ray Owens once had a stellar career in the LAPD narcotics unit, but a bungled operation somehow wracked him with remorse and regret, and so he settled in a sleepy Arizona border town to become the sheriff.

In Sommerton Junction, Sheriff Owens has little more to do than to threaten the town’s unbearable mayor with a parking ticket for leaving his fancy sports car in a red zone.

Meanwhile, up in Las Vegas, federal law enforcement officials, led by FBI Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker), are transporting big-time drug cartel boss Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) to a federal prison.

The most lethal and wanted drug kingpin in America makes a spectacular escape from the FBI prisoner convoy, a daring mission that one would find in a James Bond or “Mission Impossible” film.

In his break from federal custody, the fearless Cortez takes a female agent hostage and makes his getaway in a souped-up Corvette ZR1, capable of blowing past state troopers at about 200 miles per hour.

Back in Sommerton, the home front is especially quiet because most of the town has followed the high school football team to an away game.

Yet, a suspicious gang of lawless mercenaries led by the icy Burrell (Peter Stormare) have set up camp outside of the Arizona border town, mainly for the purpose of assisting Cortez to get across the border into Mexico.

The feds realize that Cortez is headed toward the border but don’t figure that Sommerton is the logical place to make the crossing. As a result, they are a little slow to bring Sheriff Owens into the loop.

Before Cortez is even on the Sheriff’s radar, Owens and his small band of deputies run into a violent showdown with the mercenaries. They are not really equipped to handle this initial encounter.

The sheriff’s crew consists of the pudgy Mike (Luis Guzman), a source of comic relief; the earnest rookie Jerry (Zach Gilford); and pretty yet brave Sarah (Jaimie Alexander).

It takes Sheriff Owens to figure out that Cortez is headed to Sommerton. At first, FBI agent Bannister dismisses Owens as a backwater official way out of his league.

Realizing that he is out-gunned and out-matched, Owens decides to beef up his fledgling force by deputizing two locals, one of them a current resident of the town’s only jail cell.

As the town drunk and local troublemaker, Frank (Rodrigo Santoro), who served in the Iraq War, is an obvious choice to be a reluctant recruit – sort of like Gene Wilder in “Blazing Saddles.”

The other newly-appointed deputy is goofy gun museum owner Lewis Dinkum (Johnny Knoxville), who just happens to have a load of assault weapons and other heavy artillery that comes in handy in a “High Noon” type of showdown.

Of course, Knoxville is channeling his “Jackass” persona by engaging in comic mischief and crazy stunts for which his unhinged humor is most suited.

In the same spirit as “Vanishing Point” and “Two-Lane Blacktop,” much of the action under South Korean director Kim Jee-woon’s command is a high-speed chase across the expansive wasteland of the Arizona desert.

Cortez blows through the occasional state and local police roadblocks as if his car was a bowling ball knocking down pins to score a perfect strike.

The inevitable showdown on the streets of sleepy Sommerton, where Owens and his crew decide to make their last stand, should come as no surprise to anyone mildly familiar with the action formula.

“The Last Stand” is a good old-fashioned shoot-‘em-up with the sensibility of a vintage Western, except that horses have been replaced by high-speed cars and the weapons have a lot more firepower than six-shooters.

Schwarzenegger may be an aging action icon, but he still has enough kick that might serve him well for a couple more of these adventures before he rides off into the sunset.

With a nice comedic flavor, “The Last Stand” proves to be goofy fun with its explosion of violence, car chases and general sense of mayhem.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Scottish singer Jim Malcolm returns to Lake County to perform a benefit concert for KPFZ 88.1 FM on Friday, Feb. 1.

The performance will take place at the historic Gunn House, located at 3780 Main St. in Kelseyville.  

The concert starts at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $22 or $20 for KPFZ members.

Space is limited so call to reserve tickets; call 707-262-0525.