Sunday, June 26, 2016

Zootopia (2016), Indepedence Day: Resurgence (2016), Begin Again (2013), I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

Zootopia (2016)

I didn't have high expectations for this film going in, I thought a world full of anthropomorphic animals, how is that any different from half the other animated films out there? But Zootopia is easily one of the better Disney animated (non Pixar) movies of this century. It's a kind of buddy cop movie, refreshingly smarter then it needs to be for its target audience, and while I was expecting another eco parable the movie is really about race relations. Jason Bateman should think about doing voice work more often. I was really impressed, I thought this would be more of the same but I think Disney really went in some unexpected directions with this one. Thoroughly enjoyed. ****

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Much belated sequel to Independence Day, the 1996 film that inaugurated Hollywood's 2nd disaster movie cycle (the first being the one Irwin Allen started in the 1970's) and which has arguably never stopped. This retread is simultaneously trying too hard and not hard enough in its efforts to one up the original film, but in the end a big screen rerelease of the first film would have been more satisfying. I remember watching the first movie in the theater 20 years ago, at that time this kind of large scale disaster film was something I hadn't seen on the big screen before, I remember being kind of moved by the size of it, today that's all old hat. Written by committee this film shoe horns too many plotlines, characters and other elements in ways that don't seem natural. I imagine this film really could have been something if more care had been put into it. As is its watchable, but at times just barely. **

Begin Again (2013)

This is the more "Hollywood" style film that Irish director John Carney got to make because of the success of Once (2007). It is the story of a struggling singer/songwriter (Keira Knightley) and a struggling music producer (Mark Ruffalo) who meet in New York and decide to make an album together. This is director John Carney's unique little nitch in filmmaking, non documentary films about the making of albums, and he really knows how to do them. Ruffalo is ruffled, Knightley proves to be an acceptably good singer, and musician Adam Levine has his first acting role and its tailor made for him. The good supporting cast even includes Catherine Keener, Mos Def and Hailee Steinfeld. But the stars of the film are the songs by Carney, Gregg Alexander, and Once star Glen Hansard. I may end up getting this soundtrack. Enjoyable and refreshingly different for a wide release film. ***1/2

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

Feature film debut for both director Robert Zemeckis and his writing partner Bob Gale. The film tells the story of six New Jersey teenagers (just out of high school) who travel to New York City in February of 1964 in the hopes of seeing The Beatles who were in town for their historic first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Lite comedy works better then it probably should given its even liter premise. The film is perhaps most interesting in its foreshadowing of the later and much better known Zemeckis/Gale film Back to the Future. There is the strong element of nostalgia (strange to think that the event this film is built around happened only 14 years before it was released), an remarkably similar early version of what would become the famous 'George punches out Biff' scene, and even two of the films stars Marc McClure and Wendie Jo Sperber were later cast as Marty McFly's siblings. Not a remarkable film, but if you watch it you can certainly see the promise. ***

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016), Pixels (2015), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Weiner (2016), Keanu (2016), Spy (2015)

Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

Perhaps the funniest thing about Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping, the mockumentary film staring Andy Samburg and his The Lonely Island bandmates Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone as former members of a boy band called The Style Boys, is the movies long form name. That is not to say that the film doesn't have its funny moments, it does, but they are unevenly spread over a film that feels like a SNL sketch played out too long. The movie is overloaded with celebrity cameos from the music field, and the new The Lonely Islands songs, of which there are a goodly amount, just aren't as funny and memorable as their better SNL digital short work. Too crude for my taste with a surprising amount of F-bombs, Pop Star would probably be a good example of why I don't go to see many contemporary comedies in the theater, if it weren't for my strong suspicion that most contemporary comedies are considerably worse. The movie made me want to re-watch the also crude, but superior mock music bio Walk Hard, which like this movie was also produced by Judd Apatow and featured Tim Meadows in a supporting role. **1/2

Pixels (2015)

I went into this film with very low expectations, I am generally not an Adam Sandler fan, and I had heard some very bad reviews for this thing, yet I was really surprised how much I liked it. I mostly watched it in the first place because there was a time when I would have absolutely loved its premise, aliens attacking the Earth with recreations of 1980's video games such as Pac-Man and appropriately Space Invaders, which they had encountered and misinterpreted from a digital time capsule of sorts lunched into space. The conceit is ridicules, yet charming in a retro way for this child of the 80's. In fact besides the obvious 80's references which abound in the film, including the aliens communicating with the Earth through altering the dialogue of period pop culture video such as Fantasy Island, Max Headroom and the immortal Hall and Oats, this movie felt like an 80's movie, taking on the form of the period genera most dear to my heart, the family adventure comedy. Even what crudity there is in the movie is very toned down from what I associate with Adam Sandler and is more implied then overt, on a similar level to the original Ghostbusters whose cruder elements didn't even register when I first watch it as a little kid. I wouldn't have a problem showing this to my seven year old nephew, in fact I kind of want to. This movie is inherently ridiculous, full of plot holes and logical leaps (Kevin James as the President), stupid really, but I must admit I quite enjoyed it in a guilty pleasure sort of way. Michelle Monaghan looks particularly gorgeous in this and there is something oddly charming about how annoying Josh Gad can be. Wow I disagree with 83% of Rotten Tomatos reviewers on this. Again guilty pleasure for a nostalgia nerd. **1/2

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

If you had asked me to sum up my feelings about Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen brothers film about a week in the life of a struggling Greenwich Village folk singer in the year 1961, I probably would have responded with something like "Huh". I quite Frankly did not know what to make of this movie, I think I probably liked it but I'm not sure that I could tell you why. (Though the film is memorable for among other things a fine early lead performance for Oscar Isaac and another quirky supporting part for John Goodman.) A friend of mine subsequently told me that he had the same reaction upon first seeing the film but now considers Inside Llewyn Davis to be his favorite Coen brothers movie. I can see a potential to love this film inside of myself, but right now its so hard for me to categorize what this movie is that it will take some time to sort through it. I plan on giving it a second watch after I've had some time to absorb the thing, but for now I'm giving Inside Llewyn Davis ***. I did also quite like the music.

Weiner (2016)

When Anthony Weiner, the former New York congressman who had left office in disgrace following a now infamous sexting scandal, invited film makers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg to follow him around in his 2013 bid for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City, he no doubt hoped that they would catch on film his political rebirth. What they ended up getting on film is both more complicated and more interesting then the redemption tale Mr. Weiner likely anticipated. Early in the film things are going well for Weiner, he is leading in the polls and his marriage to Hillary Clinton confidant Huma Abedin seems to be healing nicely, in fact in the personal interplay captured on film they are kind of cute together. However these good times end when the media discover that that the extent of Weiner's sexting scandal was much broader then he had previously let on, and that he continued in these ill reputable ways for some time after he had publicly said and/or implied that he had stopped.

The remainder of the film is the slow implosion of his campaign, Weiner ended up with only about 6% of the Democratic primary vote, as well as his relationship with his wife becoming quite frosty in a veritable ice storm of cold shoulders. I expected to hate Weiner by the end of this film but I didn't, in fact in a strange way I kind of respected him. Anthony Weiner is a very flawed, very human person, a narcissist and a grand stander, a self righteous prick, but he is also a man who is very talented, smart, passionate about his political beliefs, more then capable of critical self examination and introspection, and who in his very worst, most embarrassing, scandalous act, at least never physically had sex with a woman other then his wife, never even actually met his 'partners', didn't misappropriating funds, didn't sell out to corporate interests, betray his stated political beliefs or break any laws. Again in a strange way that's kind of impressive, as is the fact that Weiner kept letting the cameras role, presumably he could have stopped them at any time. This film is a fascinating and perhaps unique political document and one of the best films so far this year. ****

Keanu (2016)

Key and Peele comedy about two cousins who attempt to retrieve a cute kitten caught in the middle of a drug war between rival gangs. This has got to be one of the most ridicules concepts for a movie I have ever encountered, buts its really funny and shockingly well structured. It does earn its R rating however. ***

Spy (2015)

Fish out of water spy comedy is nothing we haven't seen many times before, except maybe that Melissa McCarthy's character is presented as being competent from the very beginning, though of course kind of awkward. Film is very well structured though seldom that funny, with many of the best scenes in the film being those between McCarthy and Rose Byrne's characters, those two should make another movie together. Jude Law and Jason Statham play self satirized versions of their typical screen personas, Miranda Hart a kind of less funny female John Oliver. Ivy Levan's theme song for the film "Who Can You Trust" sounds like it could be a legitimate James Bond theme song. **1/2

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Masters of the Universe (1987), Calvary (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Masters of the Universe (1987)

Like any self respecting American boy of the 1980's I was a huge fan of He-Man and completely oblivious to its homosexual undertones. I had wanted to see this movie when it first came out but it just didn't happen, so now almost 30 years later I have finally gotten around to seeing the live action Golan/Globus adaption of the Mattel media franchise. Masters of the Universe came out as Cannon Films was starting its decline, the film is a campy mess but that is what makes it fun. The plot concerns He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) and a small group of companions escaping Skeletor (Frank Langella) and landing on earth with the aid of a tonal based intergalactic transporting device which they become separated from, and which a couple of high school seniors played by Courtney Cox and Robert Duncan McNeill find and mistake as a music synthesizer, hijinks on budge ensue. Not nearly as great as I though it would at 7, but better then I suspect it would be at 35. Kind of a guilty pleasure. ** 1/2

Calvary (2014)

When an art film falls something short of its potential its always more disappointing then if a 'studio' film did the same. Calvary has a very intriguing premise going for it, a Catholic priest in Ireland is visited in his confessional by a parishioner who informs him that in a week he will murder said priest because he was sexually abused by another priest (now dead) as a child and feels that it will send a stronger message to the Church of he murders an innocent priest rather then a guilty one. Given a week to put his life in order before the end Father James (Brendon Gleeson) spends the week given him both preparing for his possible death, and dealing with the personal dramas of his flock. It is unfortunate that these supporting characters overwhelmingly feel more like 'types' then real people, this to me substantially lessened the potential impact of this movie, it needed to feel real to be truly effecting and it simply didn't. Gleeson is excellent however and the film has a few genuine moments, including Father James interactions with a visiting French woman whose husband dies in an accident while they are on vacation. Also the film features an actress named Kelly Reilly who is basically a stand in for Jessica Chastain, so that's a plus. A decent enough flick, but it had the potential to be great. ***

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

A desire to see this movie in the theater (which was rooted in the large scale disaster sequences, the 1980's setting, and the presence of Olivia Munn) is the reason why I recently watched the other X-Men prequels, yet X-Men: Apocalypse is probably the weakest of these three. First Class was the freshest, and Futures Past had the best story, while Apocalypse is probably the most summer movie-ie. So while its the least inventive yet its still entertaining, and while Apocalypse is the kind of villain that can easily be done very poorly, Oscar Isaac's performance in the role was strong enough to ground him, and I'd say the picture more generally but its really the better then they need to be stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence who do that. There will be a 4th prequel movie in the near term, this one set in the 90's and featuring Mister Sinister as the villain, who I didn't care for in the animated series so well see how that goes. Still X-Men: Apocalypse is perfectly acceptable summer movie fair. ***