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Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

July 20, 2015

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow
Director: Elizabeth Banks

Bottom Line: Pitch Perfect 2 is a worthy follow-up to the surprisingly enjoyable original. This time the Barden Bellas enter an international competition after embarrassing themselves in a performance at the Lincoln Center. Elizabeth Banks’ directorial debut is a safe one: more of the same with characters and actresses she’s already familiar with. The girls are just as funny as they were the first time around and there are plenty of welcome additions. Hailee Steinfeld fits right in with the rest of the group and the German group the girls battle throughout the film make for a worthy, often hilarious foil. The best addition to the cast is Keegan-Michael Key who absolutely kills it as Anna Kendrick’s boss at the record company her character works for.

The weak parts of the film are the same as the first one. The two announcers, played by Banks and John Michael Higgins, are Dodgeball clones and they just aren’t that funny. In a movie where everyone else is naturally amusing it feels like these characters are trying way too hard – and not succeeding very often. Also, just like in the first film, the male leads are indistinguishable. Obviously this is a female driven film, but since that’s the case, why even have these pointless male characters? At least Adam Devine’s Thumper continues to steal some scenes.

Pitch Perfect 2 doesn’t switch up the formula of the first film, but if you liked the original, this is a fun, satisfying sequel with some nice additions to the cast, more quality mashups, and a pretty sweet finale.

Replay Value: I could sit through both movies again and I’d watch a third one.
Sequel Potential: Pitch Perfect 3 is due out in 2017 with Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson already aboard.
Oscar Potential: None.

Grade: 6/10 (Recommended)

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Terminator: Genisys (2015)

July 19, 2015

Starring: Emilia Clarke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke
Director: Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World, Game Of Thrones)

Bottom Line: I was pretty disappointed with Terminator: Genisys as it was up there with Jurassic World as one of my most anticipated movies of the summer. Granted, the Terminator franchise hasn’t been particularly riveting since James Cameron left it behind more than 20 years ago after T2: Judgement Day. But with Game Of Throne‘s Emilia Clarke taking over as Sarah Connor and what looked like a strong trailer, I was pretty stoked.

Terminator: Genisys starts off just before the first movie began, with John Connor (Jason Clarke) sending one of his soldiers back in time to protect his mother. This time, just before Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) time jumps, it looks like John Connor is taken by surprise and when Reese arrives back in 1984, Sarah Connor is ready for him – and so is a T-800 model she has affectionately named “Pops.” I thought this was a pretty unique twist and was looking forward to where the story would go from there. Unfortunately, the movie keeps twisting and turning until it twists so absurdly that I practically lost all interest in what I was watching.

Emilia Clarke was predictably awesome as Sarah Connor and it was fun to see Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his most iconic role, but the casting of Jai Courtney and Jason Clarke was just atrocious. Courtney gave an extremely limp performance as there was no believable chemistry between Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor and I don’t know what it is about Jason Clarke, but he has a face I just want to punch. I really felt like these two casting decisions brought the overall quality of the film way down.

Terminator: Genisys has some good action sequences and plenty of call backs to the first two films, but I suspect fans of the franchise will feel pretty mixed about this entry. The story is just a bit too hokey for me, personally, and the critics have ripped this movie to shreds. Proceed with caution.

Replay Value: This was slightly more appealing than the last two Terminator movies, both of which I only watched once.
Sequel Potential: The franchise is over 30 years old, but Arnold isn’t getting any younger. Still, Arnold’s retirement won’t stop Hollywood from making these movies.
Oscar Potential: Maybe some visual effects.

Grade: 5/10 (Watchable)

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Inside Out (2015)

June 29, 2015

Starring: Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black
Director: Pete Docter (Up, Monsters Inc.), Ronaldo Del Carmen

Bottom Line: Boy, I hate to say it, but Pixar’s Inside Out is one of the most overrated movies I’ve ever seen. It’s at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.8 on IMDB with a top 60 ranking in their top 250 of all-time. Those are extremely strong ratings and with Pixar’s nearly flawless track record (I’m looking at you Cars 1 and 2) the superlatives being tossed around concerning this movie seemed quite reasonable. When my wife turned to me about thirty minutes into it and asked “is it almost over?” I had a sad moment of realization that Pixar had dropped the ball on this one.

Now, I don’t want to say Inside Out was bad, but it was dangerously close to bad – and it certainly wasn’t the borderline classic critics have made it out to be. It’s the story of a young girl named Riley and the emotions in her head (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear) as her family moves from Minnesota to the busy city of San Francisco, leaving behind friends, memories, and the frozen lakes she used to play hockey on. It’s actually a pretty good concept, but the setting of a girl’s head is tough terrain and I really didn’t think the execution was all that great. Inside Out is at its best when all the emotions are together in “Headquarters” interacting with each other hilariously, but Joy and Sadness quickly get separated from the rest of the crew and things get… quite a bit messy and surprisingly boring. During their quest to save “Friendship Island,” “Hockey Island,” “Family Island,” etc. from collapsing and disappearing from Riley’s memory forever, the duo encounter Riley’s old imaginary friend Bing Bong, a cotton candy/elephant/dolphin hybrid that is about as pleasing as Jar Jar Binks was. Seriously. Once the conflict starts in Inside Out and Joy and Sadness take a tour through Riley’s head when the depressing reality of moving to San Francisco really kicks in, the movie’s momentum halts and the story feels like a drag. The best moments of the movie take place outside Riley’s head and that’s a problem.

As usual, Pixar does a good job in the animation department. It’s little wonder that the Bay Area-based company could bring San Francisco to life with such amazing detail. I particularly liked Riley’s encounter with broccoli pizza and SF’s ubiquitous dedication to organic foods – an especially funny touch considering I visited SF last week and the one restaurant I ate in offered only organic food. The voice talent is also well cast and does a good job. The concept and story here are pretty good, I just expected it to be better.

Overall, I found Inside Out to be funny at times and I liked Riley’s story, but I didn’t much care for what was going on with the emotions inside her head – those were the scenes where you just want it to be over already. The themes of growing up were somewhat touching, but they were so much more powerful and well done in Toy Story 3. I also felt like Inside Out was more tailored for kids only than almost any Pixar movie I’ve ever seen. Inside Out isn’t terrible – I would definitely recommend it to families – but it was a massive disappointment for me personally.

Replay Value: I don’t know if I can watch this movie again, but I feel like I might owe it another viewing.
Sequel Potential: Highly likely.
Oscar Potential: Basically a shoo-in for Best Animated movie based on the critic’s reviews.

Grade: 5.5/10 (Watchable/Recommended)

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Theory Of Everything (2014)

June 22, 2015

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones
Director: James Marsh (Man On Wire)

Bottom Line: It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what didn’t sit right with me about The Theory Of Everything, but I just can’t say I loved it. It’s a biopic about the relationship between renowned scientist Stephen Hawking and his first wife Jane Wilde – and maybe that’s my problem. This is a movie about falling in and out of love, while Stephen’s remarkable achievements in science and his impossible fight to stay alive with ALS feel like background music. That’s not to say the story isn’t interesting or touching – the performances from Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are nothing short of remarkable – I just wanted the movie to help me understand what makes Hawking so important to scientific theory, how he defied the odds of ALS, and how he was able to author what is arguably the most notable book of science in our history despite all his physical limitations. The Theory Of Everything skims over all this, at best. What we are left with is two great performances in a mildly moving romcom about a man that is noteworthy for so many other reasons. For 2014 biopics about historic scholars, The Imitation Game is much more my speed.

Replay Value: Feels like a one and done film to me.
Sequel Potential: Biopic, so no.
Oscar Potential: Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor and the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score, as well as Felicity Jones for Best Actress.

Grade: 6/10 (Recommended)

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Jurassic World (2015)

June 13, 2015

Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Vincent D’Onofrio
Director: Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed)

Bottom Line: I remember when rumblings of a Jurassic Park 4 first started and there were rumors of dinos with guns in the plot and I can’t say I was excited about the prospects for that film. I am happy to report that while some aspects of that concept made it into Jurassic World – in the form of trained raptors and Vincent D’Onofrio’s character wanting to use dinosaurs for military purposes – this movie is much more in the spirit of the first JP film.

From the moment I heard that Jurassic World would feature a functioning park, I couldn’t wait to see it on the big screen. As a huge fan of amusement parks, an operational version of John Hammond’s vision from the first film really intrigued me and the creators of this film bring Jurassic World to life in stunning detail – it looks and feels like a combination of Universal Studios, a high quality zoo, with a splash of SeaWorld. Indeed, the scene-stealing Mosasaur is set up very much like Shamu. The set designers do an incredible job and the park is set up exactly as it looks on the impressive Jurassic World website. We have a petting zoo with young dinosaurs, kayaking down a prehistoric river, and venturing into the fields with live dinos in the (not so) indestructible Gyrosphere. The dinosaurs also look great, but it’s an interesting testament to Steven Spielberg’s original visual effects team how little improvement there has been in that department since the 1993 film.

The plot is similar to past films – a couple of kids make the trip to the island to visit their aunt and tour the park before all hell breaks loose when the Indominus Rex escapes its paddock. The what? Ah yes. In this movie, the park has been open for ten years or so and attendance has dropped while watching a T-Rex feed has become as ho-hum as checking out a tiger at the local zoo. So much like our real world would, the powers-that-be ponder how to turn things around and come up with the idea of creating their own dinosaur: the Indominus Rex, a combination of the tyrannosaur and something else everyone will be able to guess before they even realize it’s supposed to be a surprise. Watching the I-Rex cause carnage is great summer blockbuster fun and seeing velociraptors respond to human training was far less lame than I was expecting.

Like all the Jurassic Park sequels and quite unlike the original, the cast plays second fiddle to the dinosaurs. Chris Pratt is always enjoyable, but as Owen Grady, the raptor whisperer, his usual welcome charm and sense of humor is far less prominent than it has been in most of his other roles. Bryce Dallas Howard is okay as the kids’ aunt and park operations manager; I can’t think of any role of hers that I’ve ever thought she’s been particularly good in and this one is no different. The best addition to the cast has to be Jake Johnson (of “New Girl”), who plays a control operator rocking a vintage Jurassic Park t-shirt he found on eBay and gets most of the films laughs.

Jurassic World was about as satisfying as I could have hoped for. It’s visually stunning, action packed, and plenty of fun. Michael Crichton and John Hammond would be proud.

Replay Value: I already want to see it again and I think it’s a minor travesty that I didn’t watch it in Imax 3D.
Sequel Potential: This franchise probably won’t die before I do.
Oscar Potential: Set design, visual effects, and sound all have strong chances through the first half of 2015.

Grade: 7/10 (Must See)

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Headhunters (2011)

May 10, 2015

Starring: Aksel Hennie, Synnove McCody Lund, Nikolaj Colste-Waldau
Director: Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)

Bottom Line: My parents have been hassling me to watch Headhunters for months, bringing it up every time I see them and posting on my Facebook page, so I was going to have to raise hell if it wasn’t any good. They’ve been known to put some staunch praise on questionable films (see: August Rush) so it’s not like Headhunters was a lock to be awesome.

I am happy to report that it is – very awesome. It’s a 2011 film that hails from Norway and is directed by Morten Tyldum, whose The Imitation Game was recently nominated for Best Picture. Aksel Hennie, who looks like a Norwegian cross between Billy Crystal and Christopher Walken, stars as Roger, a short man that works as a headhunter – someone that recruits suitable candidates for open positions at various corporations – and steals valuable paintings in his spare time. I say he is short because the whole film seems to revolve around this insecurity. He states at the beginning of the film that he “overcompensates in other ways,” and uses the extra income he gets from stealing paintings to project a lavish lifestyle he otherwise could not afford. It all helps make him feel worthy of his trophy wife played by Lund. It’s a system that seems to work for Roger until he steals a highly valuable painting from Jamie Lannister (of Game Of Thrones), who quickly turns Roger’s world upside down by having an affair with his wife and trying to kill him.

From there, Headhunters quickly becomes a game of cat and mouse (and dog), with Roger on the run for his life. And it gets absurd – fantastically absurd. Part of the reason Headhunters works so well is because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s listed as a crime thriller, but comedy could easily be added to its genre specifications. As awful as the situation was at times, I couldn’t help but laugh at Roger’s elusive tactics. There’s a scene that involves an outhouse that makes the one in Schindler’s List seem tame by comparison.

Headhunters is smart, funny, and plenty entertaining. The acting is good in general, but Hennie is particularly amusing as Roger, although he probably wouldn’t make the best poker player. For someone with so many secrets, he wears his displeasure plainly on his face whenever he is unhappy about something – such as running into a law enforcement agent who is tracking art thieves. I’m not surprised that this film propelled Tyldum to Hollywood success. It’s an enjoyable ride and somewhere in this crazy movie there’s a message about being yourself, but it’s difficult to take away anything serious from such a fun film.

Grade: 7.5/10 (Must See/Excellent)

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It Follows (2015)

April 5, 2015

Starring: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe
Director: David Robert Mitchell

Bottom Line: It Follows is hands down the best horror movie I’ve seen in a movie theater in many a year. That’s partly because I’ve been mostly skipping horror movies for the past decade, but mostly because it was very good. The concept is unique – a curse is passed on via intercourse and the monster follows that person until it kills them or they pass the curse on to someone else, but if that person dies, the monster follows the previous again. The film gets most of its scares out of building tension and the fact that literally anyone could be a potential threat – the monster has the ability to look like anyone, including friends and family, so any person in the background shot is worth keeping an eye on. It’s admittedly creepy and plenty fun.

It Follows benefits from the fact that everyone involved seems to be taking things seriously. Often in horror movies the actors seem to be playing caricatures of people rather than actual human beings, but the kids in It Follows feel like genuine teens and, although they occasionally make questionable decisions, they don’t come across gregariously dumb. Maika Monroe, who plays Jay, the girl with the curse, is especially good and this movie should propel her to future stardom. While her acting range remains to be seen, she certainly can crush the horror genre and I’m looking forward to whatever she does next.

It Follows is essentially director David Robert Mitchell’s debut film and he will be another name to look out for. It Follows is one of the more original horror films to come out in years and Mitchell deserves all of the credit as writer and director. The monster is scary and quite a bit ambiguous – everything is pretty mysterious here. Mitchell also creates plenty of tension through his wide lens shots and a score so prominent it might as well be part of the cast. It Follows takes a big cue from John Carpenter’s Halloween, relying on small scares, music, and a slow, methodical threat.

I thought this movie was great. It’s everything you’re looking for in a scary movie and it delivers on all levels. It Follows is the first must see film of 2015 and has potential to be a classic in the horror genre.

Replay Value: I think this will be good over multiple viewings.
Sequel Potential: There is a lot left to be explored here – it’s perfectly set up for both sequels and prequels.
Oscar Potential: I would say no.

Grade: 7.5/10 (Must See/Excellent)

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Big Hero 6 (2014)

April 1, 2015

Starring: Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Jamie Chung
Director: Don Hall (Winnie The Pooh), Chris Williams (Bolt)

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?”

Bottom Line: Big Hero 6 is solid animated entry from Disney that explores the world of San Fransokyo – a hybrid of the two obvious cities that is beautifully rendered here – and a group of young, genius-level student/inventors. At it’s core, it’s a film about the relationship between brothers Hiro and Tadashi, tragically cut short by a fire and explosion at a convention, but continued on through Tadashi’s invention Baymax – a loveable, inflatable robot programmed to serve as a walking, talking first aid kit and medical assistant. Watching Baymax and Hiro bond – similar to John Connor and the T-800 20 years ago – is the highlight of the film. When Hiro bands the group of inventors together to form a high-tech superhero team, things get a bit less focused and therefore less interesting. The film works better as a character study than as the superhero team origin story that it actually is. As is, I thought Big Hero 6 was a fun movie that lost a bit of steam in its climax.

Replay Value: Not the keeper I was expecting it to be.
Sequel Potential: Lots of potential for further adventures here.
Oscar Potential: Winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar – but really not even as good as The Lego Movie, which wasn’t even nominated.

Grade: 6/10 (Recommended)

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Dumb And Dumber To (2014)

April 1, 2015

Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Rob Riggle
Director: The Farrelly Brothers (Dumb And Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, Hall Pass)

“Wanna hear the second most annoying sound in the world?”

Bottom Line: I knew this was going to be bad because of the total lack of word of mouth and poor scores from critics and audiences alike, but, man, it was even worse than I was prepared for. I laughed out loud one time that I can remember and the rest of the “funny” parts were relegated to a courteous chuckle. It seems like over the past 20+ years this film has been simmering in the crock pot of the Farrelly Brothers’ collective imaginations that they could have found time to write some genuinely funny material, but it almost all falls flat. It doesn’t help that Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels feel like ghosts of their previously iconic characters; there is literally no soul in their performances. I was just looking at Carrey’s resume and he hasn’t made an above average comedy since Bruce Almighty all the way back in 2003, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that this movie was a bust. It’s a lot of the same gags from the original with very few of the laughs and none of the heart. Too little too late.

Note: I suspected I had maybe grown out of the humor that made Dumb And Dumber so special, but prior to this film’s theatrical release, I watched the original again and that movie is a true comedy classic. It’s 20 years old and I’m in my thirties now, but I was still laughing my ass off. So, yes, Dumb And Dumber To really does just suck.

Replay Value: I tuned out about two-thirds of the way through my first viewing.
Sequel Potential: The world would have loved a Dumb And Dumber sequel 20 years ago… but in 2014, it was a pretty bad idea. In 2015 and beyond, a third movie sounds even worse.
Oscar Potential: None – but Dumb And Dumber To is another movie that got an undeserving pass from The Razzies.

Grade: 2/10 (Horrible)

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Gone Girl (2014)

February 17, 2015

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike
Director: David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network, Zodiac)

“Am I supposed to know my wife’s blood type?”

Bottom Line: Gone Girl is a pretty faithful adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel – a biting depiction of married life that will scare the crap out of you long before things get crazy. I always prefer reading the book first when a blockbuster novel is being adapted into a film, but in this case, I feel my enjoyment of the film may have suffered a bit since I knew everything that was going to happen – and this is a movie where the surprises probably add to one’s enjoyment. I know there were numerous what moments in the book that didn’t have the same affect on me when I saw it on screen. That being said, the film is perfectly cast and David Fincher continues to be one of the best filmmakers working today. Rosamund Pike in particular is brilliant in this movie – and the fact that she’s Oscar nominated for her role almost feels like a spoiler in itself. Gone Girl is definitely must see cinema – fans of the novel will like it and those that haven’t read the novel might even be blown away. It’s good stuff.

Note (Spoiler Alert!): Amy Elliot Dunne is the definition of an unreliable narrator, but her recollection of discovering her husband’s affair strikes me as genuine. In this memory, Amy sees her husband walking out of his bar with a college student he’s having an affair with and sees them kissing in a similar fashion to their first kiss. Rewind: I said his bar… that he (well, Amy) owns… where his sister tends bar… where everyone presumably knows him… where everyone likely knows Amy. Elsewhere in the movie, after it’s discovered that his sister’s woodshed is one of the spots where Nick and his secret lover did their business, Nick states helplessly: “we had limited options.” I’m guessing their own bar probably wasn’t one of them. This seems like a pretty big oversight by Fincher and Flynn, but perhaps it’s just Amy being Amy. Not a big deal either way, but something I couldn’t help but notice.

Replay Value: Knowing the twists made it less enjoyable for me. Take away the wow factor and it’s still a good movie, but not mind-blowing.
Sequel Potential: None
Oscar Potential: Best Actress nomination for Pike. Kind of surprised to see the lack of nominations as I enjoyed it considerably more than some of the Best Picture nominees.

Grade: 7.5/10 (Must See/Excellent)

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