Catching Up On Reviews (Now That the World Series is Over) - Maze Runner, Box Trolls, Alexander and the Very Bad Day, Fury, Book of Life, St. Vincent

Yes, I got behind, but Royals Mania took everything I had for awhile there...now, back to reality.  During that time, I still managed to see 6 movies, I just didn't have time to write about them for you.  Thankfully, I am happy to report that none of them were bad.  None of them made my Oscar short list either, however.

Maze Runner

Based on a recent YA book in the vein of Hunger Games and Divergent, but not as good.  I actually read the entire series, mostly because the books are each one long adrenaline rush combined with an apocalyptic mystery and I just had to keep reading to solve it, but there is absolutely NO character development in the book or as it turns out, the movie.  Relatable characters made HG and D worth reading/watching, so I'm afraid Maze Runner is really just for the video game set.  Given that assessment, the strangest variation from the book to the movie is that there is only one monster and it isn't even that scary.  The book had many more opportunities to explore gore and maiming, which I would have thought appealing to gamers, but that change did make it more palatable for the PG-13 crowd.

2.75 out of 5 stars

Boxtrolls 

This is a dark (in shade and theme) animated film whose story defies description.  It's atypical in every way, which made it more enjoyable than most children's fare.  The plot involves trolls who kidnap and eat children...or do they?  Sometimes the worst villains turn out to be the adults in these films, teaching dubious lessons to kids when put together as a group of parables.  However, the music is good, the story is ultimately sweet and it had enough humor for kids and adults alike and it's easier on little ones than anything Tim Burton does.

2.75 out of 5 stars

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

 

With an all-star cast including Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner and Dick Van Dyke and a charming little newcomer in the lead role, this beloved modern children's classic comes to life on film.  It is overall a bit too sweet with its string of First World Problems including childcare interfering with job interviews, one child's very expensive birthday party conflicting with another child's very expensive birthday party, failing your driver's (spectacularly) and getting a cold on opening night of your school play, but it has equally as many laugh out loud moments along the way for the entire family.  I'm just going to throw my favorite quote from the movie, that comes from the mouth of the white, middle class working mom in the suburbs, in a family packed mini van, "I've seen every penis in this car!".  We even get to hear DVD himself tell children to "take a dump in the pool".

3 out of 5 stars

Fury

 

I'm not a fan of Brad Pitt's straight man roles and I don't run out and see every war movie that comes out, but I happily accompanied my husband to see this movie, if just to contrast all the family fare I've seen of late.  Let me just say that my husband found it not as good as he expected and I found it better than I expected, so I think we made a fare middle of the road assessment of it in the end.  A rag tag group of tank soldiers who just happen to have the best record in their battalion at the end of World War II are sent on a series of missions, ultimately leading to their final, heroic mission.  Along the way, they acquire a fresh replacement gunner who had only rode a desk until that day.  The requisite number of macho bonding experiences ensue and we soon find ourselves believing their friendships and even understanding their blood-thirsty, misogynist ways (the theme very much evoked The Big Red One for me).  The battles themselves often look like a first person gunner video game, which has to be satisfying to the younger men who would be attracted to the film. Brad Pitt has moments of inspired acting, mostly when he seems on the edge of losing his mind (which is my favorite version of BP - see Inglorious Bastards, Fight Club or 12 Monkeys).  The young gunner played by Logan Lerman, previously relegated to YA movies like Percy Jackson and Perks of Being a Wallflower, really blossoms in this role, so much so that I commented to my husband that he could be one of this generation's next great dramatic actors (much like fellow castmate Shia LaBoeuf used to be).  A final note about the music - it was distracting because it sounded like the Damian from the Omen was approaching, not the Nazis.

3 out of 5 stars

Book of Life

 

The Book of Life is a family feast for the eyes, ears and heart.  The classic lifelong love triangle is given a Day of Dead twist in a spectacular modern take on both music and animation.  It is beautiful to behold, even if the plot or jokes are a bit predictable at times. Zoe Saldana voices the lead female character, one of the strongest females in children's film today.  My only note is that the initial storytelling conceit is unnecessary and the weakest part of the film.

2.75 out of 5 stars

St. Vincent

 

This movie isn't sure if it wants to be a neat little family film tied up with a bow, an exploration of the darker side of life and Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy's dramatic acting skills or a Wes Anderson ripoff.   For that reason, it is a bit uneven, but in the end succeeds in doing each of those things well enough to be a worthwhile project.  Bill Murray plays the grumpy old man to new neighbor Melissa McCarthy and her sheltered son.  You can see this one coming.  Of course the boy and the old man warm to each other, but St. Vincent takes a few unusual twists along the way as we, the audience, piece together what made Bill Murray so grumpy in the first place.  Naomi Watts' turn as a pregnant Russian stripper/hooker is completely over the top and out of place, although I'm sure she was glad for the opportunity to explore her own range as an actress.  Overall, the film is a bit too sentimental and tidy and learning to find the good in the bad (people, situations) is the unsatisfying and obvious lesson of the film, which is also what makes it mediocre instead of what it strived to be. 

3 out of 5 stars

3 To See This Weekend!!

Rich Hill is a documentary that follows three disadvantaged young men who live in a town called Rich Hill, which is about 70 miles southwest of KC just on the MO side.  It won the U.S. Documentary prize at Sundance, but I’m not sure why.  There doesn’t seem to be a point.  It’s interesting and mostly sad, but it didn't look at a random set of kids in that town, it focused just on the most troubled and there was no arc or analysis at all.  It wasn't quite a commentary on poverty or parenting or mental illness either...but it is still in my thoughts so I can say it was absorbing.  The best contrast that was drawn in the film was between those kids and the annual 4th of July pie auction that brings in thousands of dollars each year. Clearly someone in that town has money to spend, so I think it would have been a better portrait if it also showed a child from the wealthier part of town and would be more of a real image of small town (or anytown) America - the haves AND the have-nots, living side by side yet ignoring each other and just going about their business. Ultimately, I think it just makes the “haves” who are watching it (and going to Sundance) feel like they are looking at the poorest town in America and when the lights come up, they can go about their normal lives.  I grew up in a very poor town myself, but there is always more to the story. There are recent updates on the three kids online too and it seems to only get worse for them, if you’re interested.

2.75 out of 5 stars

Guardians of the Galaxy is based on a comic book, but don’t let that scare you away (or draw you in).  Let it stand on its own, which it does very well.    This comic scifi adventure story of a ragtag set of thieves and assassins is thoroughly charming and enjoyable.  It has the feel of a modern Red Dwarf or Spaceballs, with all the necessary parallels with Star Wars thrown in.  Bradley Cooper as the Rocket the racoon is my favorite, but not for his sometimes spot on, if accidental, Gilbert Gottfried impression.  Unencumbered by his own good looks on screen, he seems free to express himself in ways not yet seen.  In this film, he essentially leads a successful version of the A-Team, for all his folly in the previous film of the latter.  For those of us of a certain age, the multitude of 80s references to music, toys and other pop culture of that time period abound in a very detailed way – not just your run of the mill allusions.  One final note, see the movie for this at least: Glenn Close (doing her own impression of herself from 101 Dalmations) says the word, “prick”.

3.25 out of 5 stars

Dolphin Tale 2 is a sequel to Dolphin Tale 1 (surprise!), which itself was based on the book which was based on the real life story of an injured dolphin who washes ashore and is taken in by a marine mammal hospital in Florida and helps tell the coming of age story of a young boy.  The story here is pretty much the same, but the boy is 3 years older.  This one tugs at the heartstrings just as well as the first, and the acting is just as bad, but it’s got that certain something anyway, darn it.  The two young leads are so bad they seem almost real, unlike their adult on screen counterparts (Ashley Judd, Harry Connick, Jr.  and Morgan Freeman), who must have signed on just to do something educational for children, because it wasn’t for the Lifetime movie dialog.  The real draw is the animals and new twist is somewhat reflective of the recent hullabaloo surrounding Sea World and last year’s documentary, Blackfish.  There are several plot developments focused on making sure the audience knows the hospital is doing everything by the book and putting the animals first, over humans or even money, and not doing anything against nature by keeping them there.  It wasn’t subtle, but I guess I prefer it to the reality of Sea World.

3 out of 5 stars

The Giver is a Gift

Yes, I've read the book by Lois Lowry.  I've read the whole series in fact.  I loved it.  I was eagerly anticipating this movie, without much hope actually, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It's another futuristic dystopian story, but this one was written long before Hunger Games, Divergent and Maze Runner (which I have also read) and it has a slower pace that may be what seems to be keeping movie goers away.  This film is more thoughtful and meant to make you think, with the look and feel a bit reminiscent of Logan's Run and other much older movies.  The film is mostly in black and white, so "color" in all its forms and meanings can be on full display when encountered.

As usual, many things were changed from the book (not because of length, which is usually the case, because it was a short book to begin with - I read it in just a few hours), but I tend to see books and movies as separate forms of art and can appreciate them separately as well.  One of the things I found unique about the book was that the main character is a boy whose love for an infant consumes him - we're used to seeing this from a female character.  That is still true in the film version, but someone in Hollywood felt compelled to make the central love story a romantic one, with a girl who was a minor character in the book.  I know the reasons behind it, and it worked alright on film, but that kind of thing irks me anyway.

The young, beautiful cast (including a brunette Taylor Swift) is a little wooden overall, but that also seems to fit the stiffness of the society they are in.  The older cast members are used effectively with Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep having some fun and all of their relationships setting up multiple sequel opportunities that seem to have nothing to do with the sequels in book form unfortunately.

Overall, the film asks the same questions as the novel and the same questions as all dystopian fiction: "If we get rid of all the bad, does all the good go with it?", "How do we get rid of all the bad in the world and at what cost?", "What makes us human and life worth living?", "Will we always eventually rebel and return to our animalistic beginnings - is that better?".  Here in the Western World, and especially in the U.S., it's clear that we are taught that individuality is best and freedom is fundamental, but elsewhere in the world, this film and others like it would be considered blasphemy or simply incomprehensible. 

All of these questions and issues are why I love to read these books and see these movies myself, attempting to see it from every angle.  The Giver is much  more open ended than most, ending almost exactly the same way the book does, which caused debate for more than a decade until the "sequel" was published.  I liked that the film reminded me of that feeling from the book and why I liked the story in the first place.  It may be too much to hope for a sequel to this version, since it's all financially based, but I would welcome the "gift".

3.25 out of 5 stars

Movie Review: If I Stay

Chloe Grace Moretz is the heart of this movie and thank goodness she's gifted, because in movie form at least, there isn't a lot to the story.  The well-loved book is the story of a teenager on the verge of womanhood who is put into a coma by a car accident that takes the rest of her immediate family and explores her internal turmoil of whether to "stay" or go.  I haven't read the book, so I can only imagine what's missing, but the movie does manage to stand on its own.  The central unanswered questions in the movie are presumably the same ones that interested readers of the original novel: What would you do if you got a choice like that?  What would it be like to stay without your family?  What would it be like if you "went"?

Unfortunately, the film essentially turns out to be just a love story (The sequel, "Where She Went" looks to be even more so), but her male counterpart is a worthy actor as well.  Told mostly in flashbacks, the parts of the story about their developing relationship are perhaps the least compelling, but the exploration of relationships in general make up for it (although in an effort to make her parents seem too perfect to lose to death, they are made a bit cartoony in contrast).  There is definitely enough there to make you cry at the appropriate moment.  Stacy Keach as her grandfather has a small Oscar-worthy speech and it's refreshing to see Moretz play a self-conscious character, since most of her breakout performances have been powerful and self-possessed (Hugo, Kick-Ass).

I won't avoid the inevitable comparison to the recent young adult novel turned movie, "The Fault in Our Stars", but I will just say that Fault was simply better overall.  A better comparison might be to the "non-fiction" book turned movie called "Heaven is For Real", because the only thing about "If I Stay" that keeps coming back to my mind is the questions about comas, death and the after-life, the rest of the movie is basically forgettable.

3 out of 5 stars

Happy Birthday Melissa McCarthy!



On the occasion of Melissa McCarthy's birthday, I thought I would post some pictures from a recent adventure Heidi and I had in Hollywood.  I had read that Melissa McCarthy would be getting her handprints in cement at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and hoped it would fit into our family vacation schedule, because Heidi and I are huge Melissa McCarthy fans (Heidi from Gilmore Girls and me from that and her SNL performances and general versatility).  Well, it did and here are the results!

Heidi at the World Famous TCL Chinese Theatre

Heidi waiting patiently and adorably in line



Susan Sarandon's introduction of Melissa McCarthy.



During her speech.  She was gracious, funny and adorable.  Much more like her Gilmore Girls character than her recent hit movies.

The Big Moment, standing barefoot in wet cement.

Melissa with her husband and director of Tammy.

 

Love this pic of Susan laughing with Melissa

Oscar winning screenwriter and co-star in Tammy, Nat Faxon.

O...M...G...here she comes!

Susan: "YOU haven't seen this movie, have you?!" LOL

Such an honor to meet Susan Sarandon.  Heidi didn't know her as well, but I just about died!

Melissa's husband Ben Falcone and director of Tammy.  Heidi knew him as an extra on Gilmore Girls :).

Sarah Baker, co-star in Tammy.

Look how impossibly adorable the two of them are!

Very successful autograph session :).

For the record, I did not at that time plan to take Heidi to see that particular movie because it was rated R and the previews made it look like a cheap knockoff of the worst of Bridesmaids, but I broke down and took Heidi last month and just reviewed it the other day.  Read it here (http://simoniesmovies.blogspot.com/2014/08/catching-up-2-to-see-this-weekend-and-2.html).

Catching Up: 2 to See This Weekend and 2 to Miss

I know I am woefully behind due to vacation and moving house, so I'm going to put my most recent reviews into one here.  Luckily, two of them don't warrant much attention anyway ;).

 

Diane Keaton's schtick has finally gotten old and tired and Michael Douglas has simply gotten old and tired.   The story of an grumpy old man forced to evolve by having a young cherub thrust upon him is an overused gimic. Combine that with poor dialog and a total lack of direction and you get this movie. It's like "How Do You Know - the Golden Years". Skip it.

 

2 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

 

Tammy was actually a pleasant surprise from what I expected, but still didn't qualify as "good".  This is a case of mis-marketing.  The commercials made it seem like a crude spin off of Bridesmaids, capitalizing on what some think is Melissa McCarthy's only appeal to audiences: being bawdy.  (Here is where I insert my objection to movies being rated R just for language again, probably done in this case just to attract the Bridesmaids crowd as well). However, it turns out that her character is the most sympathetic and Susan Sarandon as her grandmother is the somewhat repulsive secondary character. It's a bit of a madcap road movie (much of it in the midwest and Missouri in particular) with colorful characters and circumstances thrown in along the way, but the acting is far too real to allow it to be funny in most cases. This movie had heart and a good cast - see it for that...or don't see it all.

 

2.5 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

The Hundred Foot Journey must have looked tremendous on paper to get the likes of Helen Mirren, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg involved, and it almost is, but that doesn't count in movie making.  It's a pleasant story combining cultures, generations and palates, the third subject being my favorite part, which includes a sequence of competitive chopping and beautiful cinematography, but it never quite achieves the right chemistry of the three genres together. There are a few moments of humanity that pull at the heart strings, but the only greatness is Helen Mirren who is wonderful as a starched French restaurant owner. The rest of the cast cannot rise to her level and those mismatched feeling lingers throughout the film.  The leads are very appealing and could do better on their own, so a spinoff might be called for.

 

3 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

 

Boyhood is a fairly bold experiment in movie-making.  Filmed for a week or two each of 12 consecutive years, we actually see the actors age and evolve almost in real time - the most pronounced being the young boy who we see turn into a man.  The barely scripted improvisational style of the film also lends to this heightened reality.  It's not a reality show or a documentary, but at times feels that way.  (Also, in reality, people curse, even children, so this is how even this movie attains the R rating). My favorite aspect of this approach is that when they made current pop culture references to ground the film, they actually WERE current.  They didn't need to look in the archives and go figure out what would have been popular at the time - it simply was.  However, with such an open minded approach to making this story of a boy growing up, the (very long) movie at almost 3 hours doesn't end up having a story arch or even a climax.  At the end there is no lesson behind the plot, or even a plot.  So again, I applaud new ways of evolving the cinematic experience, but I would think most audiences would not appreciate that aspect alone enough to consider it one of the best films of the year.  Perhaps the Oscars should add a category for "Most Innovative Filmmaking Endeavor".  I would definitely sign up to see all of them.

 

3.25 out of 5 stars

 

Planes: Fire & Rescue S'Movie Review

Full disclosure: I did not see the first Planes movie.  I was miraculously able to pawn that task off on another family member.  That said, I kind of really enjoyed this second movie.  It had a great story, with the heart and subtle humor of the first Cars movie, which it’s loosely based on.  Cars was so well written, I never expected much from sequels or spin offs, but somehow they managed to make another quality film.   

I’m a fan of puns and this movie was full of flying related humor that most children would miss, but is a prerequisite tongue-in-cheek aspect of these anthropomorphic animated films.  The fire fighting aspects of the plot (these planes are essentially fire jumpers) are actually pretty intense and with the current forest fires in the Northwest, I worried that even my 11 year old would be a little scared by it.  The soundtrack lends a hand to the enjoyment of the movie as well, in particular with the use strategic use of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”. 

Overall, it’s no 3D Dragon, but  I almost regret not seeing the first Planes movie…almost.

 

3.25 out of 5 stars