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“PACIFIC RIM”: The world’s best train set

July 11, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

PACIFIC RIM“PACIFIC  RIM” My rating:  C + (Opening wide on July 12)

131 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

There is absolutely no reason why a reasonably intelligent, over-30 lover of the dramatic arts needs to slap down $10 or so to watch “Pacific Rim.”

That said, if such an aforementioned individual does find himself in a theater watching this noisy (as in rock-concert loud) romp, he’ll be okay. Might even enjoy himself.

If you’ve seen the trailers you know that “Pacific Rim” is a lot like a Transformers movie mated to a Godzilla movie and injected with steroids – a description that sounds impossible (louder and busier than a Michael Bay movie?), but there you have it.

The pitch: Giant robotic figures battle giant saurian creatures.

But “Pacific Rim” was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, the Spanish horror/sci-fi aficionado who has given us two flat-out masterpieces set in the Spanish Civil War  (“The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”)  and the devilishly enjoyable (thanks to Ron Perlman’s monumental perf in the title role)  “Hellboy.”

Del Toro is in summer blockbuster mode here, which means you won’t get a whole lot in the way of character development, complicated motivations or subtlety in just about any phase of this production.

But I gotta admit, his childlike enthusiasm is infectious.

Orson Welles once described a movie set as the greatest toy train a boy could ask for. Only for del Toro a movie is a 60-story mechanical man using a seagoing oil tanker as a baseball bat.

The story? Well, apparently big lizard-like aliens called Kaiju have been entering our world through a time/space rift at the bottom of the Pacific. These critters seriously ravaged the adjacent coastlines before being held at bay by the Jaegers, huge robots piloted by two humans who must meld their minds in something called the “drift” in order to operate these massive fighting machines.

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“THE ATTACK”: What we don’t know

July 7, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

ATTACK1-articleLarge“THE ATTACK” My rating: B (Now at the Tivoli)

102 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Amin Jafaari is leading the good life. Though an Arab, he has carved an enviable niche in Israeli society.  He has a beautiful wife, a fine home, and an illustrious career as a hotshot surgeon. As the film begins, in fact, he is accepting a prestigious award…the first Arab to ever receive it.

The buzz won’t last long. The next day a suicide bombing sends dozens of victims — mostly children attending birthday parties in a Tel Aviv restaurant — to Amin’s emergency room. With professional cool he patches together bodies (although one bloody victim refuses to be treated by an Arab).

The nightmare is just beginning. He’s called back in the middle of the night to identify the body — or the half that’s still recognizable — of the suicide bomber. It is his wife, Siham.

Amin is rocked. He protests that his wife — she was off visiting relatives — would never do such a thing. Before long he’s in handcuffs being manhandled by a scary cop (Uri Gavriel) who seems determined to make him an accomplice to the crime. After three sleepless nights (his cell rocks to high-volume death metal) Amin finds himself out on the street.

When a goodbye letter from his wife arrives in the mail, Amin must admit that Siham was, indeed, the bomber. But why? How did she hide this part of her life from him? How could he be so clueless?

That confusion and angst is perfectly captured by Nazareth-born actor Ali Suliman. He’s terrific…and he needs to be, because I can’t help feeling that this psychological study from Lebanese writer/director Ziad Doueiri is a bit of a cheat. Continue Reading »

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“STUCK IN LOVE”: Love hurts

June 28, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

Lily Collins, Greg Kinnear

Lily Collins, Greg Kinnear

“STUCK IN LOVE” My rating: B (Opens wide on July 5)

97 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Stuck in Love” isn’t wildly original, but for a writing-directing debut it hits its marks cleanly and effectively, gives a talented cast an exhilarating workout, and leaves its audience convinced that newcomer Josh Boone has great things in his future.

Boone‘s comedy-drama centers on the Borgens, a family of writers living along the Atlantic Coast in New England. And I don’t mean a few blocks from the Coast…I mean in a three-story beach house overlooking the dunes.

The place was purchased with money generated by the first several novels penned by William Borgens (Greg Kinnear). Alas, Bill is now in a slump.  His wife of 20 years, Erica (Jennifer Connelly), left him three years ago for another man, and lately the depressed Bill hasn’t written a word.

For excitement Bill hides in the bushes outside the house where Erica and her new husband live. He’s never happier than when he can eavesdrop on them fighting.

(Kinnear almost seems to be channelling a character he played a few years back in a similar romantic drama, “The Feast of Love.”  He’s good at these roles, but let’s have a bit more diversity, eh?)

Meanwhile Bill has his sexual needs met by a neighbor lady (Kristen Bell) who stops by on her morning run, services him in record time, and delivers unsentimental advice while tugging on her jogging outfit.

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“DIRTY WARS”: Institutionalized ruthlessness

June 28, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

Jeremy Scahill...looking for the story

Jeremy Scahill…looking for the story

“DIRTY WARS” My rating: B (Opens June 28 at the Tivoli)

90 minutes | No MPAA rating

“Dirty Wars” might be termed a “documentary thriller.”

Rick Rowley’s film follows freelance journalist Jeremy Scahill, who has covered Iraq and Afghanistan for The Nation and written the book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army).

Scahill is attempting to get the story behind an increasing number of disturbing execution/massacres of apparently innocent civilians in Afghanistan and, later, Yemen.

Unlike most embedded journalists, who live with American troops and tend to unconsciously adopt their perspective, Scahill is fiercely independent. He talks to the villagers who have lost family and friends in mysterious nighttime raids or sudden missile strikes. He tracks down local warlords. And through his dogged reporting, he clearly is a threat to this unseen conspiracy.

At one point we see footage of a TV appearance in which Jay Leno asks Scahill: “Why are you still alive?”

The first half of “Dirty Wars” takes place prior to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. It is during this time that Scahill catches wind of a massive secret U.S. apparatus taking directions from the White House.  This Joint Special Operations Command apparently operates free of the usual rules of engagement, shrugging off civilian deaths — even massive ones — as simply an unavoidable by-product of the War on Terror.

With Ben Laden’s death, however, the JSOC stepped into the spotlight and took its bow. And with its new semi-transparency Scahill realizes that the organization’s efforts are far more massive and widespread than even he imagined.

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New on DVD: RICHARD PRYOR…a freakin’ genius

June 24, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

Richard-Pryor_Live-in-Concert-2On the cover of his 1975 comedy album is a photo of Richard Pryor tied to a stake and surrounded by hooded figures  (the Inquisition? Klansmen?) holding burning torches.

The album’s title: “Is It Something I Said?”

Well, yes, Richard. It’s something you said. It’s everything you said.

Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce and George Carlin form the Holy Trinity of American comedy. They broke rules, they went where they weren’t supposed to, and they changed the laugh-generating landscape for everyone who came after them.

Bob Newhart, no slouch when it comes to laughs, calls Pryor “the seminal comedian of the last 50 years.”

Pryor died in 2005 at the age of 65, and by that time poor health had kept him out of the spotlight for many years. Which means that a sizeable percentage of the young folk who today make up the audience for live comedy in this country are probably unfamiliar with his standup work. Oh, they may have seen him in movie roles, but at best those offered watered-down Pryor. To get the dude full strength you’ve got to look at the live routines.

And that’s just what you’ll find in “No Pryor Restraint: Life in Concert: Richard Pryor,”  a massive new boxed set out on the Shout label.

There have been other Pryor boxed sets – 2000’s “And It’s Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968-1992)” and 2004’s “Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966-1974).”

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“MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING”: Halfway there

June 23, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

and Amy Acker as Benedict and Beatrice

Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker as Benedict and Beatrice

“MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING”  My rating: B- (Now showing at the Glenwood Arts)

107 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Making superhero movies with budgets bigger than the GNP of a Third World country is undoubted an amusing pastime.

But apparently after a while even a legendary geek-pleaser like Joss Whedon (TV’s ”Buffy,” the big screen’s “Avengers” and “Thor”) feels the need for a simple, uncomplicated palate cleanser.

Thus “Much Ado About Nothing” which is, of course, Shakespeare’s great comedy about a bickering duo who are cannily manipulated into each other’s arms by their amused friends and relations.

Twenty years ago Kenneth Branagh gave us a more-or-less definitive film version (inasmuch as any performance of Shakespeare can be definitive). Whedon’s isn’t that good, but it’ll do.

A recap for the Bard-deprived:  Don Pedro (Reed Diamond) returns victorious from war and decides to spend some time chilling out on the estate of Leonato (Clark Gregg). Accompanying him are his officers Benedick (Alexis Denisof) and Claudio (Fran Kranz), as well as Don Pedro’s rebellious brother  Don John (Sean Maher), who is their prisoner.

Claudio immediately falls for Leonato’s daughter Hero (Jillian Morgese) and a wedding is planned.

Meanwhile Benedict and Hero’s cousin Beatrice (Amy Acker) carry on a war of insults.  It’s pretty obvious to everyone but themselves that their verbal sparring is a form of foreplay, and before long there’s a conspiracy afoot to drive these “enemies” into each other’s arms.

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“WORLD WAR Z”: Tsunami of teeth

June 21, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

WW Z“WORLD WAR Z” My rating: B- (Opening wide on June 21)

116 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Even before it hit theaters Brad Pitt’s “World War Z” was making headlines for its behind-the-scenes drama: a mid-production change in direction, major rewrites, more than $20 million in reshoots, a nine-month delay in releasing the picture and, finally, the disowning of the finished film by Max Brooks (son of funnyman Mel), on whose novel it is based.

True, fans of the book will scarcely recognize it in the final version of director Marc Forster’s film. But as a pure movie experience “World War Z” is generally satisfying: breathlessly-paced, competently acted and audacious in its efforts to give us zombies of the sort we’ve never seen before. (Face it…the whole zombie thing was running on creative fumes.)

What makes “World War Z” really interesting is its “macro zombie” approach to the genre. The zombies in this film aren’t treated as individuals but as a part of a huge voracious hive which moves and attacks like a swarm of insects.

Rather than giving us the usual close ups of zombies chowing down on the necks and limbs of screaming victims, the film offers a tsunami of the undead pouring over walls and flowing down streets like unstoppable floodwaters.  This makes for a very different zombie flick, one that got a relatively tame PG-13 from the MPAA ratings board yet still packs a big visceral punch.

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“THE BLING RING”: That sense of entitlement

June 21, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

Emma Watson On The Set Of 'The Bling Ring'“THE BLING RING” My rating: B (Opens June 21 at the Alamo Drafthouse)

90 minutes | MPAA rating: R

The juvenile delinquents depicted in Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” are neither impoverished nor uneducated. They are the beautiful children of Southern California, privileged numbskulls who wear classy clothes, drive expensive cars and party hearty.

In 2008-09 a half dozen of these handsome young people went on a burgling spree, entering the homes of the famous people—Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton — whose lives they experienced vicariously through the Internet and  TV’s ”TMZ” celebrity gossip show. On their nocturnal prowls they made off with more than $3 million in clothing and cash.

In Coppola’s hands their fictionalized story has become a deadpan comedy about really stupid kids (who consider themselves smart) whose sense of entitlement is so complete and moral compass so nonexistent that they assume the rules just don’t apply to them. 

It’d make a hell of a double feature with “Spring Breakers,” though I doubt audiences are prepared for quite that much adolescent idiocy and arrogance.

We’re introduced to the Bling Ring through Marc (Israel Broussard), a baby-faced teen and a new student at Indian Hills High School (a sort of high-class dumping ground for rich kids who been booted from other schools). Marc is sweet and unassertive and totally bowled over when he’s befriended by the beautiful, catty Rebecca (Katie Chang).

It’s not about sex. Marc is pretty obviously gay. He thinks of Rebecca as his sister.

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“BEFORE MIDNIGHT”: Love that cuts to the bone

June 16, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

before midnight

“BEFORE MIDNIGHT” My rating: B (Now showing at the Rio)

109 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Think of “Before Midnight” as a romantic bouquet laced with poison ivy.

It is, of course, the third chapter of the long-running exploration of love — from director Richard Linklater and actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy — that began with “Before Sunrise” in 1995 and continued with “Before Sunset” in 2004.

Once again Hawke and Delpy reprise their roles of Jesse and Celine.  In the first film, which took place overnight in Vienna, the vacationing young American and the French girl met, walked the city, and had a fling (in a park, as I recall) before parting with the rising of the sun.

The second film, taking place a decade later in Paris, found them both in relationships but thrown together once again when Celine attends a reading of Jesse’s novel…a novel inspired by their long-ago night together. They wander Paris until it is time for Jesse to head to the airport…only to find their love is rekindled in what had to be one of the sexiest moments in movie history.

“Before Midnight” finds Jesse and Celine now a couple (though unmarried). It unfolds on a picturesque Greek Isle where they are vacationing with Jesse’s 13-year-old son (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) and their twin daughters (Jennifer and Charlotte Prior).

Anyone who’s gone on a family vacation with young children could predict that the eroticism-charged romance of the first two films would be supplanted by a humdrum reality of kids and responsibility. What you might not anticipate is that before it’s over we’ll be questioning whether Jesse and Celine are going to make it as a couple.

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“THE EAST”: Making of an eco-terrorist

June 14, 2013 by butlerscinemascene

Britt Marling (in blindfold) in "The East"

Britt Marling (in blindfold) in “The East”

“THE EAST” My rating: B (Opens June 14 at the Tivoli)

116 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Perhaps Brit Marling is a visitor from another planet sent to Earth to remind us of just how much fun a smart movie can be.

So far this blond girl-next-door type has co-written and starred in “Another Earth” (a sci-fi relationship movie) and “The Sound of My Voice” (about a cult leader who claims to come from the future). She played Richard Gere’s daughter in the fine Wall Street meltdown drama “Arbitrage.”

Now Marling and her usual collaborator, director Zal Batmanglij, give us the topical thriller “The East.” As you’d expect from these two, it’s a very thoughtful but emotionally gripping yarn – this time about eco-terrorism.

Sarah (Marling) is a former FBI agent now in the employ of a huge security firm representing big-time corporate clients. Recently American mega-corporations have been under attack by a shadowy group of eco-warriors known as The East. Sarah’s boss (Patricia Clarkson) sends her undercover to locate and infiltrate the organization.

The assignment requires Sarah to do more than merely change her hair color and wardrobe and say farewell to her boyfriend (Jason Ritter), who thinks she has a job abroad. She has to put herself in the shoes of a disaffected and outraged tree hugger. And along the way she begins to experience the sense of persecution and futility of that mindset.

Eventually she does find herself admitted as a provisional member of The East. The group’s leader – to the extent that it has one – is Benji (“True Blood’s” Alexander Skarrsgard), a trust-fund kid using his fortune to wage a war on behalf of Mother Earth. Other members include the suspicious Izzy (Ellen Page), the scholarly Doc (Toby Kebbell), and the gender-bending Luca (Shiloh Fernandez).

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