Cinematic Considerations

Year: 2016

Risen: Faith-based feature bridges gap between substance, style

Even if you’re a non-believer, the Christian story of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection is a familiar one cinema has told incredibly well with “The Passion of the Christ.”

Seeking to put a new twist on a familiar tale, the new release “Risen” approaches the story of Jesus’ crucifixion from a refreshing new angle, focusing on Roman Tribune Clavius and his search for Christ’s body following the resurrection.

Approaching the film from the perspective of a minor character evokes playwright Tom Stoppard’s fantastic comedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” which views Shakespeare’s masterpiece “Hamlet” through the eyes of two messengers.

By centering the film around Clavius – an ardent skeptic – the plot allows “Risen” to appeal to a broader audience base and is not limited to a strictly evangelical message.

Played by “Shakespeare in Love” lead Joseph Fiennes, Clavius is methodical in his pursuit of the body of Jesus, known as Yeshua the Nazarene in the film. Fiennes brings a refined authority to the role and his stoic command is the most complex acting found in several years within the faith-based genre.

Much of the film feels like a TV crime procedural leading hacky film critics to dub the film things like “CSI: Jerusalem” and especially has the plot structure of a typical serialized television show from start to finish.

It’s in scenes led by Fiennes that “Risen” is strongest, especially as Clavius struggles with reconciling his skepticism with things he witnesses first-hand. Much of his performance is in the eyes, where viewers can get lost as viewers can almost see the wheels turning in Clavius’ head. Acting of this caliber is a rarity within the genre.

Tom Felton, best known as Draco Malfoy in the “Harry Potter” film series, stands out like a sore thumb in a much too large role as Clavius’ second in command Lucius. A casting disaster, Felton isn’t able to provide any level of counter-balance to Fiennes on a scene-to-scene basis and can’t elevate the script beyond words on a page.

Though audiences only catch glimpses through much of “Risen,” the film’s final act is almost entirely devoted to Cliff Curtis’ surprising, yet stirring portrayal as Yeshua. The stoic calm Curtis portrays in the world’s most famous religious figure is subtle, yet effective. Casting the New Zealand born actor of Maori descent helps keep the conversation about “Risen” on its actual merits and not about larger diversity issues in film.

Waco native Kevin Reynolds, best known for directing “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “Waterworld,” does a remarkable job of elevating the film visually, especially in close-ups of Fiennes as he tracks down Jesus’ disciples. The choice to shoot the movie in Spain and Malta gives “Risen” vast, picturesque landscapes to increase authenticity.

Reynolds approaches the inherent violence necessary at the beginning of the film – a centurion battle to establish Clavius and the crucifixion itself – with remarkable tact. Opting to minimize the brutality, “Risen” cuts away from each death blow in battle just before it’s struck while implying the inevitable.

This method also makes watching Jesus’ death more tolerable as an audience member. While “Risen” does not come close to the graphic nature of “Passion of the Christ,” it indeed earns its PG-13 rating for violence and disturbing images.

From a cinematic perspective, the only major flaw of “Risen” is its depiction of Jesus’ final moments with the disciples, which comes across rather amateurish. This important moment in Biblical history should have been storyboarded out better by the directorial team in pre-production.

Instead, viewers are left with a poorly lit, cinematically stale ending that undercuts Curtis’ performance in the movie and Yeshua’s importance to the film’s final act.

Affirm Films, a division of Sony Pictures, has found recent financial success in the faith-based genre thanks to films like “When the Game Stands Tall” and “War Room,” helping pave the way for increased budgets and better quality filmmaking. “Risen” represents a continuation of this growing trend and stands as Affirm’s best film released to date.

Reynolds’ film serves as a bridge in the vast cinematic canyon between big budget Hollywood epics that treat Christianity in an overly callous secular way and smaller Christian films valuing message over storytelling.

Certainly not a perfect film, “Risen” represents yet another step forward for an up-and-coming genre and definitely a movie worth checking out over the Lenten season.

February 24, 2016
How to Be Single: Leading ladies make middling rom-com work

Dakota Johnson breaks up with a boyfriend to find herself.

Rebel Wilson wants to teach her how single life – and sexual promiscuity – can be really fun.

Leslie Mann puts her job as an OB-GYN over relationships and the possibility of motherhood.

Alison Brie thinks she can manipulate the 10 online dating services she uses to find Mr. Right.

It’s in this vapid, unoriginal “Sex in the City” rip-off premise that audiences find themselves thrust into with “How to Be Single,” a film that unabashedly promotes Singles Awareness Day over Valentine’s Day in a Valentine’s Day weekend release.

What makes this rom-com work, however, is the general likeability of its female stars, which help keep audiences engaged during moments when viewers begin to realize just what shitty people the characters are poorly written to be for much of the nearly two-hour movie.

Johnson shows glimmers of star power and can be very good when given quality material, but scenes where she is able to flex her acting muscles are few and far between in “How to Be Single.” Her Alice has the same innocent charm and charisma Johnson displayed to great effect in “Fifty Shades of Grey” and her beguiling presence works as the film’s central character.

Wilson continues her run of playing the same, tired comic relief sidekick audiences have seen her meander through since “Pitch Perfect.” It’s beyond time to see if she’s capable of playing anything else and take the next step in her career as Melissa McCarthy did with “St. Vincent.”

By now, writers pitching scripts have to be describing similar roles as “a Rebel Wilson-type” so as not to make it sound offensive when they really mean “a fat, overtly sexual best friend type who doesn’t seem to mind being called slutty.”

Criminally underrated as a comedic actress, Brie makes the most of a limited part as desperate for love Lucy. However, the film’s poor plot structure renders her character almost completely useless and leaves viewers wondering how the hell she gets invited to Alice’s birthday party when she’s never spoken to her once.

Brie could have been better served playing Alice and giving the film added comic timing that Johnson never really seems to nail down.

The stereotypical elder stateswoman, Mann cruises through her part with relative ease, especially once her character takes the inevitably rom-com stereotypical step of going through in-vitro fertilization and getting pregnant on her own.

The men of “How to Be Single” especially come off as terrible people, save for the exceedingly sweet Jake Lacy as a relentless suitor for Mann’s Meg. Nearly all of the choices made by the male characters – and to a large extent, the female characters as well – are reprehensively terrible decisions. It’s as if director Christian Ditter and the screenwriters want viewers to think these people are all assholes.

The script penned by Dana Fox, Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein based off a book of the same name by Liz Tuccillo aims for something higher than the usual romantic comedy fare, but largely misses from a structural standpoint as viewers bounce around from character to character.

It’s a plot device used in recent Garry Marshall films like “Valentine’s Day” and “New Year’s Eve,” though “Single” is a much better movie than both those
ensemble comedies. As much as the film derides “Sex and the City” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” “How to Be Single” is indeed the cinematic heir to that style of rom-com, with Johnson’s Alice as close as it may come to a new age Carrie Bradshaw.

Perhaps not enough credit has been given to how much “How to Be Single” overcomes its glaring flaws and is largely entertaining throughout. The four leading ladies are able to carry an otherwise lackluster film and keep audiences engaged when another cast of the same characters could not.

It might not be the second coming of “When Harry Met Sally” or “Sleepless in Seattle,” but “How to Be Single” is worth checking out as a date night for couples or a girls’ night for all the single ladies the film attempts to inspire.

February 17, 2016
Zoolander 2: A #Oops of a movie

I feel like ridiculously good looking male model Derek Zoolander.

I just don’t know the words.

It’s almost impossible to accurately describe what an absolute disaster of a film the Ben Stiller-Owen Wilson sequel Zoolander 2 is.

It’s not JUST that people once again weren’t really banging down the doors for a follow-up to the 2001 comedy which saw Stiller catwalk down the runway as part of the attempted assassination of a prime minister.

Zoolander 2 just plain isn’t funny.

There I said it.

From the opening seconds of the film where pop star pipsqueak Justin Bieber gets gunned down outside of Sting’s house, Zoolander 2 revolves around tired, bland jokes similar in vein to the ones you and your friends might have told in middle school when you were deliriously exhausted.

This is a film so unnecessary, disappointing and time-wasting that Leonard Maltin, one of the best film critics around, walked out of a press screening early. Mind you he NEVER does this.

Stiller, as co-writer/director/star, is a future triple threat nominee at next year’s Razzie Awards for Worst Actor, Worst Director and Worst On-Screen Duo with Wilson. The laziness he displays as a comedic director is only worsened by the fact that as both star and director he’s simply cashing a paycheck schmaltzing his way through his own abhorrent script.

Most of the rest of the ensemble cast – including Wilson, Penelope Cruz and the lamentable Benedict Cumberbatch – all deserve better than they’re given with in the script.

Wilson, following his turn as part of the fantastic Wes Anderson comedy romp The Grand Budapest Hotel, especially needs material above the in ridiculously poor taste material which finds him cheating on one orgy full of men, women and animals for another orgy full of men, women and animals. The fact that they compound this by having him supposedly impregnate all 11 members of his first orgy – including a really sad Kiefer Sutherland playing himself – is deplorable.

Will Ferrell, who apparently is the only one realizing how insanely terrible this sequel is, throws all caution to the wind and just lets it fly in the closest thing to humor there is. I often found myself wanting to like his performance, but unable to enjoy it given the rest of the comedic excrement on screen.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLVjwdZylAT2nWqRzbwtt_ebKSjGpVwVbS&v=CXKx9uT9bb0
Fashion icon after fashion icon stroll through the scenery as Zoolander 2 gratuitously thrust cameo upon cameo into audiences’ faces as if to say, “See, all these people like us just because. You should too.”

There are numerous times throughout the movie where audience members will wonder “Hey, wasn’t that (insert name of famous person here)?” Yes, yes it was.

The only redeeming quality about Zoolander 2 is that it further accentuates the widening gap between popular comedy and good comedy. For every Trainwreck, there are 40 Zoolander 2s, Ridiculous Six-es and Pixels-es cluttering up the big screen.

Independent filmmakers are killing major box office studios in the number of truly great comedies by a large margin. Go watch Sleeping with Other People starring Jason Sudekeis and Alison Brie or Night Owls with Adam Pally and Rosa Salazar or The Overnight with Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling. Take a chance on Sundance comedy hits like Obvious Child with Jenny Slate and Jake Lacy or Dope with Shameik Moore and Tony Revolori.

Be original with your comedy choices.

Zoolander 2 can’t hold a candle to any of these smaller, streaming or VOD movies you probably have never heard of.

Don’t go see this movie. Don’t spend a nickel or a dime. It only encourages major movie studios that there’s enough money in poorly written, bad comedies to justify green-lighting dozens more.

At one point during Zoolander, Stiller and Wilson are taken to a hotel built entirely out of repurposed excrement. This is a film built the same way.

Enter at your own peril.

February 13, 2016
Deadpool: A violently, snarky good time

The third time’s the charm for Ryan Reynolds.

After two failed runs at superhero glory, the Canadian-born actor finally strikes gold with this weekend’s release of Deadpool, a film more than 15 years in the making.

Reynolds has already had one crack playing Marvel Comics’ resident “merc’ with a mouth,” but this iteration – essentially a complete reboot – feels much more authentic Wade Wilson, the Special Forces operative turned self-healing renegade and occasional vigilante.

While a Deadpool origin film has been in the works since 2000, it wasn’t until the secret leaking of screen test footage spread like wildfire across the Internet during the summer of 2014 that the ball really got rolling.

Reynolds and his band of misfit toys – including first time director and visual effects guru Tim Miller – propelled a once-dead character to what could very well be an Iron Man like fame, though Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark would never say half the s*** that comes out of Deadpool’s mouth (including s***)

Deadpool is the perfect star vehicle for Reynolds, who can maximize his wry wit and charm (applied in the film as snark) within the comic book world’s most wisecracking anti-hero. The passion Reynolds exudes for the character radiates every minute he’s on screen, elevating even the more generic superhero scenes crafted out of a cookie-cutter superhero script.

Reynolds’ previous two outings in comic book movies – a CGI-laden turn as Green Lantern and an universally derided first go round as a different version of Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine – are frequently lambasted by screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (though Reynolds probably had to get some jabs in himself).

Ironically, Deadpool doesn’t fully learn the lesson of bad CGI heroes, leaning heavily on a poorly computer generated metal monstrosity – the X-Man Colossus – to provide some muscle and moral compass for anti-hero Wilson.

It’s clear that 20th Century Fox wanted to tie Deadpool in with its X-Men franchise as soon as possible – and even insists on pushing the issue by having Colossus repeatedly beg Wilson to join the mutant super group. As all the other studios attempt to play catch up to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what they all too often forget is that franchise building takes time and each film and major character need time to breath on their own.

Colossus – and to a lesser extent the much more enjoyable Negasonic Teenage Warhead (aka the girl who tweets) – don’t really have a real place in the first Deadpool film and feel incredibly crammed in.

Ed Skrein, most famous for his role in the recent reboot The Transporter: Refueled, underwhelms beyond even the low bar he has previously set for himself as Deadpool’s primary villain, Ajax. More a casting issue than an acting one, Skrein simply isn’t capable of matching wits with Reynolds.

For as good as so much of Deadpool is, a terrible villain limits just how good a superhero movie can be. Simply put, Skrein can’t cut the mustard (and yes, there probably should be some double entendre joke here to keep in with the film’s snarky sex humor, but it just isn’t in me.)

Not all the supporting cast underwhelms as veteran comedian TJ Miller is on point playing Wilson’s equally snarky bartender/best friend and Morena Baccarin is a solid simple choice to play an overly generic damsel in distress girlfriend who may or may not be in distress.

Both actors are able to go toe to toe with Reynolds trading verbal jabs, which is proving essential to the success of any major characters in the franchise moving forward.

The film enters a much more fan-friendly environment for cruder, darker subject matter thanks to the cult hit status of British indie dark comedy Kick-Ass and Marvel’s two Netflix miniseries – Daredevil and Jessica Jones – which are considerably more violent than the Avengers’ solo and team-up movies.

Parents of younger potential audience members need to take caution and probably should view the film first before allowing their child to see this hard R-rated film. While not as overtly crude as the subpar Dirty Grandpa with Zac Efron and Robert De Niro, Deadpool has more than its fair share of double entendre sex jokes, hardcore violence and general “potty humor.”

The sheer amount of Easter eggs and random pop culture references – akin to the tone of Marvel’s surprise smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy – lends itself to multiple viewings, though the monotone plot line will likely become tiresome midway through a second screening. There’s signs of greatness within Deadpool, especially when Reynolds isn’t tied down by CGI metal men or hacky, second rate villains.

An inevitable sequel is already in pre-production and should be fast-tracked for a quick turnaround with a possible $65-70 million opening four-day weekend on track. Stick around through the credits for just enough more snark and a possible spoiler for Reynolds’ second go round in red spandex.

Grab some chimichangas and head to theaters for an unsurprisingly fun time. If you can handle the gore, language and snark, you won’t be sorry.

February 11, 2016
Room: A whole world in a small space

Odds are good that audiences don’t know much about Brie Larson before stepping into a theater to watch the critically acclaimed drama Room.

Larson, who’s been a scene stealer in comedies like Trainwreck and an indie darling with Short Term 12, takes a major step toward stardom in director Lenny Abrahamson’s drama as Ma, a 24-year-old woman kidnapped and held in a shed for seven years.

Constantly raped by her captor Old Nick – played by an efficiently creepy Sean Bridgers – Ma’s world changes with the arrival of her son Jack, portrayed by the stunning Jacob Tremblay, who singlehandedly keeps Room from becoming too dark and twisted for a wide audience. The film will easily remind viewers on an emotional level of the famous kidnappings of Elizabeth Smart and Amanda Berry, but does not approach this fictional account on as harrowing a level.

Screenwriter Emma Donoghue – adapting her own 2010 novel for film – finds the right balance by placing audiences in Jack’s shoes, following the young boy as he lives in the only world he knows, unaware of the wide world outside nor how Ma came to live in the shed, which he simply calls Room.

The scene early in the film where Ma attempts to explain how things really are after years of tricking Jack is one of 2015’s five best moments in cinema. Equally touching and heartbreaking, Larson’s performance in this scene is what will likely lock up a win later this month for Best Actress at the Academy Awards.

Nine-year-old Tremblay is an absolute revelation as Jack, offering up the best performance by a child actor since Natalie Portman’s turn as a young girl taken in by a hitman in 1994’s Leon: The Professional. The entire film hinges on having Tremblay guide viewers through his world – which to audiences seems like a cramped room, but to Jack, is an entire universe.

Tremblay gives Jack such an authentic wonder and innocence that it’s impossible not to be taken in by Room, a film made with such finesse that otherwise dark subject matter doesn’t weigh down audiences.

The family dynamic between Ma and Jack works because of Larson’s undying commitment to follow Tremblay’s lead wherever the material takes them. The balance between the pair is refreshingly dynamic. More reaction than action, Larson plays off Tremblay with absolute ease and subtlety, offering harrowing realism to Jack’s childhood wonder.

As an audience member, there’s an immediate sense of constraint early in Room, but never to the point of feeling trapped, which is a massive credit to Donogue as writer, Abrahamson as director and Tremblay as performer.

The cinematic twist that occurs midway through Room, heart-wrenching and gripping as it may be, should be left unspoiled for first-time audiences, though the welcome addition of veteran character actors Joan Allen and William H. Macy in the second half of the film give Abrahamson’s film added dimension. Allen especially gives a gripping performance as Ma’s mother living outside of Room, providing a terrific emotional counter-balance to Larson.

Confined to such a small space, Abrahamson and cinematographer Danny Cohen make the world of Room come alive with nuanced camera work and production design that make individual elements of the room feel like their own worlds, reinforcing Jack’s attachment to individual items in the room like (in Jack’s words) wardrobe, sink, skylight and chair number one.

The use of ultra wide angle lenses when shooting inside Room allow viewers to see Jack’s world the way he sees it, allowing audiences to remember how the small places where children often grow up don’t feel small, but rather large to children.

When the entire world fits inside a 10 by 10 box, everything grows proportionally larger in scale. Pulling that off cinematically is a difficult thing to do, and the team of Abrahamson and Cohen nail it perfectly.

With a star-making and likely Oscar-winning performance from Larson, a tremendous young actor in Tremblay and subtle, effective direction from Abrahamson, Room is one of the 10 best films to be released in 2015 and a must-see in theaters before the Academy Awards on Feb. 28.

February 10, 2016
Ranking: Super Bowl trailers live up to potential

Sunday was the biggest night of the year for professional football fans, but the annual Super Bowl once again proved to be pretty pivotal for Hollywood as well with studios pumping up some of the year’s biggest releases with TV spots during the game.

Eleven different films were directly featured throughout Super Bowl coverage with spots ranging from 30 seconds to a full two-minute trailer. Here’s my countdown of the best (and worst) movie trailers and TV spots from last night’s game. Largely, this ranking is based on how much I’m anticipating the films featured, but also includes some subjective thinking about the actual trailers themselves.

Honorable Mention:

Two different franchises promoted their characters in commercials touting other products, so it doesn’t feel right to rank them on the list. Consider these bonus clips.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TReIozZ1b10
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qpk8eSpRBnY
Apparently, if you run an airline, you can be the official airline of a movie or movie franchise, which is what I guess Turkish Airlines was going for with these dueling spots for Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. A really neat premise featuring Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and Ben Affleck as Batman in commercials touting the airlines’ new stops in Metropolis and Gotham City, respectively. This would have ranked very high on the trailers list if it were eligible.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OlZqBR3yTiw
Marvel got in on the act themselves, promoting the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and not really their two new movies coming out this year) with this really fantastic spot featuring Paul Rudd’s return as Ant-Man stealing a Coke Mini from Dr. Bruce Banner aka The Incredible Hulk. This is probably the best movie related spot of the whole night, but doesn’t specifically promote a movie, so off the list it goes.

11. Gods of Egypt

What can I really say about this trailer except that it looks like the spiritual brother to last year’s sci-fi train wreck Jupiter Ascending? This movie is so incredibly over the top and a terrible idea that it’s more likely to lose 50 million dollars than make it. You won’t even need to read my review to know that you should not see this movie.

10. Independence Day: Resurgence

From the world of film sequels nobody asked for stumbles Independence Day: Resurgence, which is on track to be this year’s Terminator: Genisys. Trading out Will Smith for Liam Hemsworth is a major, unforgiveable downgrade and only the interesting jet flyover turned alien battle to open the spot puts it above Gods of Egypt.

9. Eddie the Eagle

It’s a nice idea to prop up what looks to be a mediocre sports movie in the vein of Rudy, but about British ski jumping, by bringing top NFL quarterbacks who have nothing better to do than screen a movie and give it praise. There’s no elite stars in this spot – a Tom Brady or Tony Romo or Aaron Rodgers – so I guess they all thought the movie sucked.

8. The Secret Life of Pets

This TV spot is pitch perfect for what it’s trying to accomplish, being memorable and adorable at the same time. It’s an ideal teaser trailer for this venue with lots of little kids watching the early part of the game and getting excited after watching this spot. Connecting the film with the Despicable Me franchise (made by the same studio) through the use of a Minion was a nice touch.

7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2

This might be a contender for worst film of 2016, but gosh darn it if they didn’t put out one heck of a TV spot. I vividly recall hating the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, but this spot made me interested in the sequel in spite of that fact. Job well done.

6. 10 Cloverfield Lane

In the last month, the full trailer for this Bad Robot production and possible sequel to 2008’s monster epic Cloverfield arrived and nobody could quite figure out what the heck was going to happen.

This TV spot does a good job of furthering interest and yet not giving too much away, a marketing strategy that definitely worked well the first time around. 10 Cloverfield Lane could be a big hit or an absolute disaster, but it’s too soon to tell.

5. Deadpool

Now we start getting to the good stuff. Deadpool, which is currently sitting at 86 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes in advance of its opening on Friday, doesn’t really need to overwhelm audiences, especially since Ryan Reynolds and the crew have been promoting the heck out of this movie for several months and doing a killer job of it. With a spot that adds just enough excitement to peak interest at the right time, Deadpool is definitely a must see film this Valentine’s Day weekend, which is an incredibly weird thing to write.

4. X-Men Apocalypse

Finally, Jennifer Lawrence is going to star in the action-heavy movie we all thought Mockingjay Part 2 was going to be. Equal parts destruction and devastation, we get to see Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse do some heavy damage and then get a surprise (at least to me) with the debut of Olivia Munn’s Psylocke slashing through a car with her psychic sword. Badass.

3. The Jungle Book

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qgAaxB_pc
The only full trailer we got last night delivered in spades. Jon Favreau’s live action remake of the classic Jungle Book gives audiences a much clearer picture as to what the world of the jungle will look like, a couple more action sequences and a bit more of Bill Murray singing The Bare Necessities. It’s also important to note that there wasn’t a trailer for the new Tarzan movie last night, so that helps set The Jungle Book apart as well.

2. Captain America: Civil War

If you’re like me, you’ve been trying to avoid finding out which Avengers are on each side of the titular “Civil War” between Captain America and Iron Man, but there’s no avoiding it now after last night’s teaser trailer for what is sure to be an epic superhero overload. Another Black Panther sighting and confirmation of Ant-Man being a fighting member of Team Cap make this one to watch and my personal anticipation for this film drug it way up the list.

1. Jason Bourne

Many will disagree with this ranking, but on pure personal anticipation alone, the debut teaser trailer for Matt Damon’s return to the Jason Bourne franchise tops the list of Super Bowl trailers. How can you not get behind a Damon-led Bourne movie given how great the original Bourne trilogy was? Hopefully we’ll get some answers behind questions left unanswered at the end of the Bourne Ultimatum, including Bourne’s relationship with Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) and what all Bourne remembers. Pairing Damon with Supremacy and Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass is a recipe for success. Jason Bourne looks like an absolute asskicking good time.

February 8, 2016
Hail, Caesar!: A big swing and even bigger miss

Joel and Ethan Coen don’t owe us anything.

The writing/directing brothers and masterminds behind some of cinema’s best films over the last few decades – from The Big Lebowski and Fargo to No Country For Old Men and Burn After Reading – are allowed a pass every once in a while to take a big swing for the fences on a prestige picture and miss.

Hail, Caesar! is a huge swing and an even bigger miss.

In the big-budget Hollywood movie about big-budget Hollywood making big-budget Hollywood movies, we find Josh Brolin star as Eddie Mannix, a Michael Clayton-esque fixer who keeps the scandals of his top actors out of the press in a vague 1950s Los Angeles.

Since the film is ostensibly centered around Mannix, viewers are propelled alongside Brolin as he ping-pongs from one studio lot to the next, fixing issues with major stars and directors to try and keep a theatrical adaptation of a smash Broadway play, a cowboy western, an aquatic musical, and an Roman epic on par with Spartacus on track.

If that’s not enough, his biggest film’s biggest lead – George Clooney’s Baird Whitlock, star of film within a film Hail, Caesar! – has been kidnapped by an unknown group of rogue who may or may not be Communists.

Clocking in at well under two hours, Caesar! attempts to cram far too much into far too little time, leaving major stars like Scarlett Johansson and Jonah Hill with nothing more than extended cameos as a Esther Williams-type actress trying to hide her illegitimate pregnancy and a studio stooge, respectively.

This doesn’t even begin to question the decision to limit the screen time of Ralph Fiennes – perhaps Caesar’s best actor – who perfectly fits the comedic bill of what the Coens were trying to achieve with the film, their take on Wes Anderson’s fantastic The Grand Budapest Hotel.

For what actually appears on screen, Clooney does the best work of the film as an over-the-top, neurotic and complicated version of a Kirk Douglas-type actor kidnapped by an organization known simply as “The Future.” Audiences are largely left waiting for Clooney to reappear on screen to advance the real major storyline of the film while the Coens have Mannix meander throughout Hollywood and question whether or not he enjoys his job.

Channing Tatum offers an uneven performance as singing-dancing-acting triple threat Burt Gurney, a Gene Kelly knockoff starring in a picture about sailors about to go off to war. The musical number audiences see filmed midway through Caesar! is the single best scene in an otherwise muddled script and features Tatum at his finest since the original Magic Mike.

If there’s a true winner in Hail, Caesar! – since it certainly isn’t audiences – it has to be Alden Ehrenreich, a relatively unknown actor with minor screen credits before landing the part of cowboy actor Hobie Doyle, the singin’, lasso tossin’, gee shucks-iest kind of actor around. His welcome fresh face among the talented cast of veteran actors is refreshing and Ehrenreich performs with gusto enough to call it a breakout performance.

Visually, Caesar! works in the respect that everything feels vintage Hollywood, from the costuming to the sets and performances within each film. The 50’s vibe is definitely there, but the Coens don’t really seem to have a firm grasp on where they want to go with this movie, dragging viewers all over the place in order to come to a middling conclusion at the end.

While there’s all the pieces for a fantastic film, nothing really seems to come together in Hail, Caesar! – an early favorite for the year’s most disappointing movie. From top to bottom, the entire production feels out of sync and in need of major structural repair to a confusing, all over the map script that holds Caesar! back from being something better.

It’s massively frustrating to see some of Hollywood’s best talent wasted like this, but the Coens have earned a well-deserved pass like Hail, Caesar!

February 7, 2016
The Finest Hours: Riveting film on sea gets waterlogged on land

Capturing true heroism – and not simply the superhero-ism of Marvel movies and the like – on film is a tricky task.

Directors must find a difficult balance between effective cinematic storytelling and staying faithful to the real life events, which proves troublesome when the events a film is retelling can’t make up the entirety of a two-hour adventure.

It’s a problem that Michael Bay struggled with early in “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” and one director Craig Gillespie tackles in the uneven “The Finest Hours,” now in theaters from Walt Disney Pictures.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R-XsppzuH-k
Chris Pine and Casey Affleck star in the “based on a true story” account of a small four-man Coast Guard team tasked with rescuing the crew of a large tanker boat broken in half by torrential weather on the high seas outside of Boston.

If there’s a reason to make sure and see “The Finest Hours” in theaters, it has to be the stunning special effects work done to create the film’s biggest character, a near-hurricane level storm called a nor’easter that rips apart several large T-2 oil tankers, including the S.S. Pendleton carrying Affleck’s Sybert and 32 other men.

“The Finest Hours” does the most effective job of visually capturing seafaring tales since 2000’s “The Perfect Storm,” a similar film about Boston-area fishermen trapped in a nor’easter and a hurricane. Moments on the Pendleton’s deck as well as on the Coast Guard’s small motor life boat achieve a pitch perfect level of tension and anticipation as viewers are thrust right into the heart of the storm, even though we never really get to witness the full fury of the sea that led to the Pendleton breaking apart.

The film suffers in its darkest lighting, with the deep blacks of the sky and ocean at night making it almost impossible for viewers to fully grasp the depth of the crewmen’s plight.

Pine offers a competent performance as young Coast Guard officer Bernard Webber, tasked with leading a team to save the stranded crew of the Pendleton, though in scenes out of the water, it often feels as if Pine is coasting through the material on cruise control, especially when it comes to his halfhearted attempt at Boston cadence.

Affleck, on the other hand, feels right at home in a quiet, yet powerful effort as Sybert, an engine room technician thrust into a leadership role when his captain goes down with the other half of the ship.

His workmanlike gravitas gives a sense of authenticity among a crew filled with stereotypes – the cook singing “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat” from “Guys and Dolls,” the young hand afraid of water and the brash veteran who disagrees with decisions just to be disagreeable. Affleck proves to be the best actor in the film by a wide margin and it shows in nearly every scene.

Veteran character actor Eric Bana muddles his way through a lackluster performance as the film’s secondary antagonist (behind the storm itself), a U.S. Coast Guard officer who orders Pine’s Webber and his crew out and sports an ineffective, lazy Southern drawl. Needless to say, outside of Affleck’s natural Boston intonation, accents aren’t a strong suit among the cast.

In order to tie everything happening on the water back to the loved ones waiting on shore, “Finest Hours” screenwriters Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson insert a mild romantic element into the film, unnecessarily driving a third storyline into the mix to pull screen time away from the men aboard the Pendleton and the Coast Guard crew desperately trying to save them.

This isn’t to say that newcomer Holliday Grainger isn’t effective in her role as Webber’s love interest turned fiancée Miriam, but rather that this extraneous portion of the film slows “The Finest Hours” down and adds a good 20 minutes to an already long two-hour running time.

“The Finest Hours” is a competently, largely effective historical drama of survival and bravery, though largely un-memorable outside of the most harrowing moments of the storm.

While a trip to the theaters to experience the power of the seas shouldn’t be out of the question, viewers could just as easily wait to catch Gillespie’s film on basic cable by the end of the year and not miss out on much.

February 3, 2016
Kung Fu Panda 3: Sequel gives families something fun in slow January

DreamWorks Animation, a studio that’s struggled to find success in the last five years aside from 2014’s How to Train Your Dragon 2, burst back onto the scene in a major way last weekend with the release of Kung Fu Panda 3, which returned unlikely hero Po and his gang of do-gooder friends back to action.

While Pixar has been at the forefront of innovative animation with the visual marvels that were Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur, DreamWorks succeeds with a film that looks like a hand-drawn comic book brought to life rather than computer generated cinema.

What makes the Kung Fu Panda series flow – aside from the top-notch animation of course – is the talented and deep cast of voice actors led by the lovable Jack Black as Po.

Black brings such a warm effervescence to the role that it’s nearly impossible for kids and adults alike not to enjoy scenes featuring Po being silly or a tad slow. The effortless way Black is able to elevate the third installment’s poorly written script from Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger well beyond what the film should have been capable of is truly remarkable.

In addition to returning voice talent including Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, David Cross and Seth Rogen, Kung Fu Panda 3 also sports a trio of new characters to the mix with varying degrees of success.

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, who wowed audiences as a villainous jazz band leader in Whiplash, proves he can bring the bad with only his voice as the evil Kai, a bull on the rampage who comes back from the dead to steal everyone’s chi. As ridiculous as that sounds, Simmons makes the character work by not taking things so seriously and just letting Kai flow out of him. Simmons, an expert character actor, was a pitch perfect choice for the role.

In the other major plot line of the film, Po finally learns he’s not the last panda on the planet and meets his dad Li, voiced by Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, and a host of other pandas, including a pseudo-love interest in Mei Mei, voiced by Kate Hudson.

Of the two, Cranston’s Li is much more successful, mainly because Cranston is given a much wider berth from which to work with and is a central part of moving the story along. Hudson’s Mei Mei feels rather pointless in the grand scheme of things, since directors Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh opt to back off from a connection between Po and Mei Mei as soon as they establish one. The film would have been better off saving Mei Mei for the inevitable fourth installment and featuring a possible romance storyline front and center.

Look, this is an animated film with a target audience of elementary and early middle school students, so we’re not talking about a future Oscar winner here,
though a nomination for best animated film wouldn’t be out of the question based on the visual merits of the movie alone.

The script is sparse and bland and there’s too many pop culture references (including a homage to Imagine Dragons’ song “I’m So Sorry” and a way outdated and super obvious “Kung Fu Fighting” leading into the credits), but the third installment lives up to expectations and more.

It’s early in the year, but Kung Fu Panda 3 is one of 2016’s best releases and something children and adults of all ages can enjoy together.

February 1, 2016
Jane Got a Gun: Embattled western uneven, but rewarding

Jane Got a Gun, a new western starring Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton, never really stood a chance – at least not to get a fair share of the audiences cramming into theaters to see things like Ride Along 2, The Boy, The Forest and The Finest Hours.

Originally slated to come out almost a year and a half ago, this slow-burn thriller has sat on the shelves in Hollywood when its original distributor, Relativity Media, went belly up and lost their rights to the film. By July 2015, nearly a year after its initial expected release date of August 29, 2014, Jane Got a Gun fell into the hands of The Weinstein Company, who put the completed movie back on track for release.

It’s a film that could have starred Michael Fassbender or Jude Law or even Bradley Cooper, all of whom signed on for the film at one point or another before having to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.

Jane Got a Gun is a cursed film, to say the least.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XsTWArbgeD8

Last year’s embattled and shelved western, Serena starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, was far less entertaining that the Portman and Edgerton led Jane Got a Gun, which certainly isn’t quite on the same level as the Coen brothers’ remake of True Grit or the Russell Crowe-led 3:10 to Yuma, but is the best traditional western in several years.

Portman has been out of the limelight for a while, with a handful of appearances in Marvel movies and second rate comedies littering her IMDB page since her Oscar winning turn as ballerina Nina Sayers in the psychological thriller Black Swan in 2010.

In Jane, Portman finds herself a compelling, yet underdeveloped character who has a singular need to protect her daughter, and by extension, her outlaw husband from a bandit gang led by an unrecognizable Ewen McGregor. Unfortunately, Portman shows little romantic interest in her bed-ridden, bullet-riddled husband, played by a game Noah Emmerich, but much of Jane Got a Gun glosses over the husband anyway.

Though Portman is a producer, star and the title character of what was supposed to be a female empowerment western, the real standout in Jane Got a Gun is the underappreciated Joel Edgerton as Dan, Jane’s former fiancé and gunslinger reluctant to come to her aid. A true character actor, Edgerton melts away, leaving viewers watching Dan struggle with Jane’s unclear choices and

While John Bishop isn’t a ground-breaking villain, Ewen McGregor portrays the bandit gang leader so effortlessly than most audiences will fail to even recognize the Scottish star best known for his roles in Moulin Rouge and as a young Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Within Jane Got a Gun, director Gavin O’Connor does an admirable job of keeping things interesting visually despite the slow pace of the film, with several moments within Jane being downright gorgeous cinema.

Much better suited for at home audiences streaming on Netflix, Jane Got a Gun is a competent, yet misunderstood western done wrong at every turn in the production process that ends up being better than the sum of its parts, but can’t overcome all of the hurdles thrown at it. Portman’s the big name on the poster, but Edgerton’s the real show to see in this up-and-down film for hardcore western fans only.

February 1, 2016