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Archive for the ‘Popcorn movies’ Category

“STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS”: Forgettable fun

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , on May 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

star-trek-movie“STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS” My rating: C+ (Opens wide on May 17)

132 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Well made and amusingly acted, there’s really nothing you can say against “Star Trek Into Darkness,” except that in the end it really doesn’t matter.

As is usually the case with franchise movies, the pleasure comes in being reunited with old friends. As for actually learning anything, for taking away an emotion or a thought or an idea…well, that’s the purview of other, less busy movies.

J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” reboot three years ago was a hugely clever prequel that introduced us to those iconic characters as young people. Much of the fun came in seeing Kirk, Bones, Spock and the others as Starfleet cadets feeling their way toward maturity.

But to tell the truth, I cannot remember the plots of any of the many “Star Trek” movies I’ve seen over the decades. One had whales, I know, and another had the Borg. Spock died in one of them and came back in another.

But were there messages in any of them? If there were they quickly evaporated. These were momentary diversions — a few laughs, a whole lot of special effects. Nothing to stick to the ribs or the brain.

And so it  is with “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

Though no Trekker, I recognize that Abrams and his writers (Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof) are having fun mucking about with the mythology of the series. Indeed, the entire movie may be viewed as a prequel to “The Wrath of Khan.”

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“IRON MAN 3”: Confessions of a geezer

Posted in Popcorn movies on May 3, 2013| 3 Comments »

iron-man-3-downey“IRON MAN 3”  My rating: C (Opening wide on May 3)

130 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

It’s official.

I’m too old to be watching superhero movies. Or most of them, anyway.

The itchy feeling that nagged me throughout “The Avengers” came back with double intensity during a preview of “Iron Man 3.”  Basically it told me I didn’t care any more.

I didn’t care about the special effects, the lavish extravaganza of destruction, the fanboy-friendly in-jokes.

The things I do care about in movies are nowhere in evidence or so pushed to the periphery they have no weight or impact. Apparently there’s a rule that a comic book movie can’t have anything like genuine feeling, that this would be a violation of the pact with the audience.

It’s getting to be like masturbation. Something to get you through until the real thing comes along.

This is not to say that “Iron Man 3” — it was directed by action screenplay writer Shane Black — is terrible.  As an example of the genre it’s pretty solid stuff.  I’s precisely the kind of action-filled eye candy that makes American superhero movies popular around the globe.

It’s just that I don’t care.  I now feel about the whole business like I do about Three Stooges shorts.  The first one is fun. After that it’s…meeeeh.

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“42”: Conspiracy of decency

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , on April 12, 2013| 5 Comments »

42 at bat“42” My rating: B (Opening wide on April 12)

128 mintues | MPAA rating: PG-13

The race-redefining rise of Jackie Robinson from the Negro Leagues to the long-segregated majors is the best American sports story ever.

So I wish I could report that the new movie “42” is among the greatest sports movies ever.

It isn’t.

Oh, it’s not a bust. Newcomer Chadwick Boseman gives a star-making performance as the young Jackie and the picture establishes an authentic sense of time and place. It shows all the racist b.s. Robinson  had to put up with as the first black man to play in Major League Baseball.

It’s just that this effort  from writer/director Brian Helgeland (whose resume runs from penning the screenplay for “L.A. Confidential” to directing the brutal noir thriller “Payback”) is is generally effective but rarely inspired. It’s so sincere and straightforward that artistry hardly figures into the equation.

Helgeland clearly wanted his  movie to bring Robinson’s story to a younger generation that most likely never heard of the Dodgers’ No. 42. He hasn’t dumbed things down, exactly, but it’s  a conservative approach — more a teaching moment than a fully-committed cinematic immersion.

The movie does a good job of delivering  the sailiant points of the Jackie Robinson legend, but overall it’s a cautious movie, one that goes out of its way to be nonthreatening, to hold the young viewers’ hands, to guide them through a world they are ignorant of or have avoided learning about.

The film boils down to a conspiracy between two men.

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“THE SAPPHIRES”: Down Under soul

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , on April 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

sapphires no. 1“THE SAPPHIRES” My rating: B (Opens April 5 )

103 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Even with its flaws “The Sapphires” is a charmer. Heck, the flaws even make it more loveable.

This Down Under comedy from Aussie TV director Wayne Blair is based on real events: In 1968 a quartet of aboriginal women went on tour in Vietnam performing soul music for American troops .

“The Sapphires” (that’s the name they gave themselves) isn’t a terribly polished effort…and that’s a good thing. There’s a slightly ragged, hey-kids-let’s-put-on-a-show quality to the proceedings. Most of the performances are low-keyed and unforced – borderline nonprofessional, in fact – but that only makes the experience more realistic.

And if the filmmakers display an occasionally heavy hand in serving up some social issues, at least the movie has more on its mind than just  chucking us under the chin.

Best of all, at the center as the group’s hustling manager  is Irish import Chris O’Dowd, a master of drollery who steals his every scene.

Even in a cast heavy with comedy talent, O’Dowd stood out in 2011’s “Bridesmaids” (he was the funny/sweet and wholly original state trooper who stalked Kristen Wiig’s character). In “The Sapphires” he cements the deal. 

As Dave Lovelace, a pop music fanatic and all-around reprobate, he’s a slacker before there was a name for them, a deep pool of generally useless musical trivia, and an earnest romantic when the right woman comes along.

He does all this without even trying.

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“OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL”: Not in Kansas any more

Posted in Popcorn movies on March 7, 2013| 3 Comments »

OZ 1“OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL” My rating:  C+ (Opening wide on March 8)

130 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” was a movie for kids that – by virtue of its wit, music, and the universal emotions it evokes – has become a movie for everyone.

Seventy decades from now, “Oz the Great and Powerful” will remain just a movie for kids.

Providing it is remembered at all.

This non-musical 3-D prequel from Disney and director Sam Raimi (the “Spider-Man” franchise) has some terrific visuals and a few moments of effective humor, but overall it’s a letdown. And not just when compared to the Judy Garland classic.

The yarn centers on Oz (James Franco), a turn-of-the-century stage magician working the Kansas fair circuit. He’s a scrambilng, womanizing con artist who, blown by a tornado into the Land of Oz, finds himself  hailed as the wizard who will free the realm from the depredations of an evil witch.

Think Han Solo undergoing a metamorphosis from selfish space smuggler to fervent revolutionary warrior.

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“A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD”: “A hard man is good to find” — Mae West

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , on February 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Bruce Willis, Jai and

Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney and Sebastian Koch

“A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD” My rating: D (Opening wide on Feb. 15)

97 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“A Good Day to Die Hard” hits the trifecta.

Bad writing.

Bad directing.

Bad acting.

Actually, I was looking forward to the latest in the perennial series about NYC cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) who seems always to find himself in over his head with one crisis or another.

His last outing, 2007’s “Live Free or Die Hard,“ was a superior action film, thanks to the effective direction of Len Wiseman (of the “Underworld” franchise).

But “A Good Day…” finds the suddenly-ham-fisted John Moore in charge, and the thing is so goshawful from the first frame that I was tempted to get up after 10 minutes and call it a night. Alas, professional responsibility kept me seated.

At least this “Die Hard” is relatively short.

Skip Woods’ screenplay (his previous credits include the execrable “A-Team” and the barely better “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) begins with John McClane saying goodbye to his daughter at an airport. Apparently his estranged son Jack has  gotten into some legal problems in Russia.

Once in Moscow John witnesses a terrorist attack on a courtroom where Jack (Aussie actor Jai Courtney) and the billionaire Russian dissident Komarov (Sebastian Koch), are on trial.  Turns out that far from being a criminal, Jack is a CIA agent assigned to rescue Komarov from the inside. (Why Komarov is important to the US is never explained. Get used to it.)

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“WARM BODIES”: Star-crossed lovers

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , on February 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

warm hoult“WARM BODIES” My rating: B- (Opening wide on Feb. 1)

97 minutes | Audience rating: PG-13

The zombie romance “Warm Bodies” probably shouldn’t work.

In fact, for the first hour I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to work.

Well, that’s what I get for underestimating Jonathan Levine, maker of “The Wackness” and the sublime cancer comedy “50/50.”

“Warm Bodies,” you see, is a “Romeo & Juliet”-type romance about kids from two warring factions. Seriously, it even has a zombie-human balcony scene.

R (he can’t remember the rest of his name) is a hungry zombie wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland.  Julie (short for Juliet, naturally) is a human survivor, one of several hundred who live behind a walled-off section of the city.  Her dad is the guy in charge.

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“QUARTET”: The old folks at home…

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , on January 25, 2013| 1 Comment »

Billy Connolly, Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Pauline Collins

Billy Connolly, Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Pauline Collins

“QUARTET” My rating: B- (Opens January 25 at the Tivoli and Glenwood Arts)

98 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

“Quartet,” the movies’ latest exercise in geriaxploitation, is about old folks living in a not-for-profit British community for retired musicians.

It’s  “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” with operatic solos instead of sitars and tablas.

It’s also the feature film directing debut of actor Dustin Hoffman, who doesn’t appear on the screen but proves himself more than capable of calling the shots behind the camera. “Quartet” isn’t astoundingly cinematic, but Hoffman clearly knows how to work with actors.

Of course it helps to have an A-list cast of graying Brit thesps on hand.

Set in a formerly grand English country house which now has been divided up into apartments, Ronald Harwood’s screenplay (based on his stage play) centers on the arrival of Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), a once world-famous soprano whose shaky finances have forced her to give up her London townhouse. Now she’s come to Beecham House to live among her aged peers.

Not that she’s looking forward to it. Group living is a real comedown for the imperious Jean, who spends the first few days taking her meals in her room and listening to old LPs of her performances.  There’s a touch of the imperious Lady Violet Crawley (of “Downton Abbey,” natch) in Smith’s performance, but also a welcome vulnerability.

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“BROKEN CITY”: Fractured movie

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , on January 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

broken-city 1“BROKEN CITY” My rating: C (Opens wide on Jan. 18)

109 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Yawn.

Not even an A-list cast can do much with “Broken City,” this year’s indifferent released-in-January thriller from Mark Wahlberg.

Written by first-timer Brian Tucker and directed by Allen Hughes (half of the directing Hughes Brothers who gave us “From Hell” and the solid doc “American Pimp”), this overcomplicated mashup of film noir elements and Big Apple misdeeds never finds its voice or presents a story compelling enough to grab our interest.

Private eye Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) used to be a cop — until he shot to death a homeboy who raped and murderd the sister of Billy’s girlfriend. Billy beat the rap but at the insistence of NYC’s garroulous Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe) and Police Commisioner Fairbanks (Jeffrey Wright) resigned from the force.

Now, years later,  Billy specializes in chasing cheating husbands.

Still, he’s surprised when  Hostetler offers him $50,000 to follow the Mayor’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and prove she’s having an affair. Billy finds that New York’s First Lady is indeed hanging around with another man (Kyle Chandler, late of “Friday Night Lights”). Not just any man, but the campaign director of a city councilman who hopes to unseat Mayor Hostetler in a fiercely contested election. (more…)

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“DJANGO UNCHAINED”: Tarantino unhinged

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , on December 24, 2012| 1 Comment »

django“DJANGO UNCHAINED” My rating: C (Opens wide on Christmas Day)

165 minutes | MPAA rating: R

As a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, it gives me little pleasure to confess that “Django Unchained” gave me little pleasure.

Tarantino, who spent his formative years as a video store clerk immersed in cult cinema, has made a career of taking cheesy filmic subgenres and elevating them into something like high art through the sheer transformative genius of his imagination.

Here he tackles two chestnuts from the cinema cellar.

First there are the Italian “Django” movies (there are at least 30 of them) about a surly drifter in the Old West who leaves behind whole towns of festering corpses.

More importantly, “Django” references the mid-‘70s blaxploitation movie.  But instead of raising the genre to a new level, Tarantino seems content to kick around in the basement.

“Django” isn’t so much a clever comment on blaxploitation as it is a genuine blaxploitation film with all the usual atavistic violence and cartoonish drama intact.

It is technically more sophisticated than the films it emulates, but not much deeper. And while it contains enough subversive ideas about race to keep the thesis mills churning out papers for the next decade, it never becomes a satisfying dramatic experience.

Initially, at least, “Django Unchained” looks like “Inglourious Basterds” redux. Both films are minority revenge fantasies. In “Basterds” (2009) Tarantino cleverly hypothesized a group of Jewish-American commandos who succeed in assassinating Adolf Hitler.

In “Django” a slave in the antebellum American South becomes a gunfighter and kills a lot of white racists on the way to rescuing his wife from the clutches of a sadistic plantation owner.

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