Women are terrible at making plans to see movies. I'm not blaming the opposite sex for my lack of reviews these past 5 months, but they definitely have had something to do with it. My silence is the sum of female indisicion and individual preference: I really like movies with aliens, robots, and vampires. After 4 days of negotions, a compromise was reached. Rather than see The Help, a feel good, civil rights tale about maids in the south featuring Emma Stone's hairpiece, or Fright Night, a remake of the 1980's camp classic about a suburban Dracula with Colin Farrell in place of Chris Sarandon, we found a middle ground. From the previews, The Debt had all the makings of great unisexual cinema: A retro thriller with Helen Mirren (chicks think she's disinguished, dudes think she's a silver fox), Jessica Chastain (Hollywood's new 'It' girl) and Nazis (everyone hates em'). If only I remembered nobody does unisex like Hanes.

A remake of an Israeli film, the story is told in lengthy flashbacks. We follow three Mossad agents in 1966 East Berlin and 1997 Tel Aviv on their mission to capture 'The Butcher Of Birkenau', a concentration camp surgeon who's been hiding since the war under the cover of a creepy gynecologist. Feeling like a girl power version of Munich, well made plans go awry in their attempt to smuggle the old Nazi out of Germany to face trial. The bulk of the drama plays out with the heroes stuck in an apartment holding the doctor hostage, feeding him in shifts while he pits them against each other with mind games. The film paints the villian as a two-dimensional monster, only lightly touching on the complexity of a man who delivers babies as well as multilates them.

There is the obligatory love triangle, and a somewhat clever twist in the final third of the film. Still it ran dry for me, the only shocks coming with people jumping out from behind corners and really loud sound design. My companion was thoroughly engrossed. She thought it was a "really good movie". As far as Nazi horror/thrillers go, this pales in comparison to Bryan Singer's underrated b-cinema masterpiece. Apt Pupil. More importantly, I now realize there is no compromise. Just go to chick flicks with the girl and save the vampires for yourself.