The Reel World

What a difference a year makes. It was just last summer that The Purge came out of nowhere to become an unexpected smash. The film piqued my interest with a killer marketing campaign that smartly sold its outrageous concept: for one night out of the year, any and all crime is legal in the U.S. Unfortunately, the filmmakers squandered that novel idea by making the most cliched, claustrophobic thriller imaginable. A little more than a year later, this follow-up arrives under considerably different circumstances. Instead of canny summer counter-programming, The Purge: Anarchy is the latest sequel in a summer that seems particularly heavy on franchise films.
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“Apes together strong!”

When French author Pierre Boulle first wrote his novel Monkey Planet, I’m sure he never imagined a film like Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. While I was enjoying the five films that made up the original franchise run, I couldn’t have imagined a movie like Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. When Tim Burton made his pitiful attempt to revive the franchise, it was downright impossible. In fact, the franchise appeared dead and gone by the time that film ran its destructive course
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“Missed it by that much.” Never before was that Don Adams/Maxwell Smart catchphrase more appropriate to a movie. Sometimes there is a very thin line between instant classic and near miss. Earth To Echo is the best example in decades of a film that could have, should have, would have been so much more if not for just one bad decision. The film has all of those coming-of-age moments that exist in those 1980’s classics like Goonies, Explorers and, of course, ET. The film sports a wonderful cast with plenty of nuance in characters.
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In a summer that has been taken over by giant lizards and robots, it is a little odd to find a little sweet film like Begin Again playing on the screen and competing with the heavy hitters of summer. From the writer/director of indie smash Once we get a film that isn’t just about musicians trying to make their big break, but instead it’s about the heart and pain that goes into the creation we later hear and become fans of.  When we first meet Greta (Keira Knightly) she is nursing some heartbreak in a bar, and her friend drags her up on stage to perform her new song.
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When I was a young boy I loved playing with my toys. We didn’t have Transformers in those days, but we did have Major Matt Mason, plastic dinosaurs, Hot Wheels and Creepy Crawlers Thingmaker sets. Yeah, in those days a toy could cause third degree burns, and no one really worried about getting sued. Kind of takes the fun out of being a kid today. You know who else, I bet, loved to play with his toys? Michael Bay. I bet he had the coolest toys in his neighborhood. He probably wasn’t the best guy to be friends with, however. He didn’t invite the kids over to play with his toys. He likely charged you a nickel to watch him play with them
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“You sell 100 million records, and see how you handle it.”

If you’ve ever seen an episode of Behind the Music — or followed popular culture at all in the previous century — then you probably know artists tend to not handle that level of success very well. However, the rise and (inevitable) fall of the original Four Seasons lineup is unique for a number reasons. Unfortunately, very few of those reasons are captured in Jersey Boys, Clint Eastwood’s oddly lifeless, workmanlike adaptation of the joyous, wildly-popular Broadway musical.
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“You should never stop thinking about a life you’ve taken.  That’s the price you pay for taking it.”

In 2010 David Michod directed his first full-length feature Animal Kingdom. It was a critical success, and he went on to pick up a Best Director award with the Australian Directors’ Guild.  Now Michod has completed his sophomore effort, The Rover, which does explore some familiar ground with criminal families, but the film takes a more introspective approach to life and what matters most in the world when you believe you have nothing left to lose.
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When I see films I don’t like, I tend to dismiss them. I have seen many, many movies over the years, and I have seen many, many terrible movies. In the last few years, there have been an increasing number of post-modern, self-referential meta-movies full of smarmy irony. So many of these films have been made that it seems that I don’t see simple un-ironic movies that are just plain funny anymore. It is actually a great skill to create something really funny. 22 Jump Street is supposed to be a stupid comedy that one can enjoy without thinking.
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“What I am about to tell you sounds crazy. But you have to listen to me. Your very lives depend on it. You see, this isn’t the first time.”

No, this isn’t the first time. Tom Cruise seems to be making a habit of these science fiction action movies of late. There was Oblivion and War Of The Worlds, and quite frankly Edge Of Tomorrow looked to be pretty much more of the same. But there’s a huge difference between this film and the previous two. Edge Of Tomorrow is actually good. What looks on the surface to be just Groundhog Day with futuristic toys turns out to be a redemption story that I actually never saw coming.
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“I believe we have a choice in this world about how to tell sad stories. On the one hand, you can sugarcoat it. Nothing is too messed up that can’t be fixed with a Peter Gabriel song. I like that version as much as the next girl does. It’s just not the truth.”

With its beautiful leads and an impossibly romantic European interlude, I wouldn’t exactly say The Fault in Our Stars gets at the truth either. But the film has enough authentic touches — and, more importantly, treats its characters with enough unvarnished affection — to make it one of the most effective tearjerkers in recent years.
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With the exception of Blazing Saddles and City Slickers, it’s not easy to come up with a successful western/comedy.  But leave to Seth MacFarlane to venture into this territory with his irreverent humor in tow as he looks to beat the odds and make a successful western with his new film A Million Ways to Die in the West.  Following the success of Ted, I was looking forward to seeing what MacFarlane would do next; after all, I feel he’s the comedian who speaks to my generation better than anyone else out there.  As one of the comedy greats of the time, I had little doubt about his ability to write and direct another hit, but where my concern mainly fell is on how he would fare as the leading man.
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If Christopher Nolan’s take on The Joker isn’t the very best example of modern cinematic villainy, then it’s near the top of the list. Obviously, a tremendous amount of credit goes to Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance in The Dark Knight, but I’d argue the real thrill comes from the character’s arbitrary, inexplicable approach to evil. By having its Joker invent tragic (fake) backstories on the spot, the film made a mockery out of the notion of having to explain a movie monster’s past. Disney’s Maleficent, on the other hand, is the latest misguided attempt to redeem a character who was better off being unredeemable.
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Vampires have been popular since Bram Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu started writing about them nearly 200 years ago, but vampires have been around much longer than that. That seems to be how the story goes. That’s part of the problem. In Only Lovers Left Alive, it’s difficult for a vampire to overcome  his boredom and disappointment with “zombies”, as he calls the human mortals. These vampires try to subsist on blood banks. Not only is it more humane, but that way they know the blood is tested. They don’t like blood-borne pathogens
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Chef has a fantastic cast having fun, being sexy and making us happy. It must have been a blast for everyone involved. Everyone is probably involved because they love writer/director/star, Jon Favreau. Favreau’s directorial efforts are varied and include Iron Man I, Iron Man II, Cowboys and Aliens, Zathura, Elf and Made. He made an early impact in 1996 by writing and starring in Swingers. He is also familiar to audiences as Happy Hogan, Robert Downey Jr.’s security chief, in the Iron Man series
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There is a famous painting from 1779 of Dido Elizabeth Belle with her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray which is owned by the present Earl of Mansfield and rests in Perth Palace. It is the inspiration for the movie Belle. The history of events that swirled around Belle are pertinent to this day. The film doesn’t always hold to historical accuracy, but mostly in matters that do not aid the excellent story being told. The historical inaccuracies are minor and mostly irrelevant. Here is what is true. Belle is the daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay and an enslaved African, Maria Belle. Lindsay had his uncle, William Murray, take care of her at his estate
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“You and I have a lot of catching up to do. What’s the last thing you remember?”

In 2006 director Bryan Singer appeared to have turned his back on the film franchise he had brought to life. After two successful runs at the X-Men universe Singer was primed and ready for a third when a certain Man Of Steel caught his eye. At seemingly, the last minute Singer dropped out of the third X-Men film to direct the dubious return of Superman. I actually like Superman Returns better than most. I wonder how much of the film’s hatred might have been directed at its director, considered a traitor by many fans. I never really looked at it quite that way. It’s a business, after all, and people come and go.
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“It’s not the end of the world.”

I still remember the night I walked out of the screening of the Roland Emmerich version of Godzilla.  I can’t remember a time I had ever been so angry at a film.  It was a film that was an insult to the monster that I had held in such high regard right alongside King Kong.  Sure I had seen the trailers, but when I saw that first reveal of their “Godzilla” I cringed; I hated it.  Had the film been called anything else perhaps my loathing towards it would have been different, but it was a film that was foolish enough to hold the name of Godzilla.
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Baseball is huge, and Bollywood is huge, so imagine if you put them together. In many ways, Million Dollar Arm is about Indian culture and what a separate world it is from ours. The film starts out in Los Angeles where J.B. Bernstein (Jon Hamm from Mad Men) is a sports agent who has broken off from a big agency to start his own firm. His partner, Aash (Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show), is very nervous about where their next client is coming from since they lost a big one right at the start of the film.
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Walking out of Neighbors one thought struck me, and I haven’t been able to shake it since seeing the film.  I’m getting old.  It’s the revelation we all deal with at some point or another, and it seemed to be the overall theme of Neighbors.  Since Judd Apatow came along I think he has firmly created a new sub-genre the coming of middle-age film.  Seth Rogan seems to be the poster child of this new genre, and with his characters he is somewhat the ambassador of all man-children out there. 
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“War leaves a mark.”

Even the people who manage to escape war with all their limbs intact feel its impact for the rest of their lives. Of course, it’s much trickier to spot the emotional and psychological wounds veterans like Eric Lomax carry with them. The Railway Man is based on Lomax’s harrowing World War II experiences and the day of reckoning, decades later, with one of his tormentors. In turning Lomax’s real-life story into a dramatic movie, the film doesn’t so much ask if revenge is good for the soul; it argues that it might be necessary.
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“There are dark days ahead.”

When Marc Webb took over the reigns of Spider-Man over at Sony, I had very mixed feelings. I was a pretty big fan of the comic as a kid, and the Raimi films were a pretty exciting time for me. OK, maybe not the third one. Webb came along and he put a fresh spin on the web-spinner by returning much of the story to its roots. I liked his first film, although it hasn’t aged as well for me as the Raimi films did. But you can’t get much better than Spider-Man, and I watched with diminishing anticipation as word leaked out bit by bit what Webb and Sony had in store for Peter Parker beyond The Amazing Spider-Man.
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They don’t make good romantic comedies anymore. The Other Woman is not a romantic comedy. It is a comedy…about three women having a romance with the same man. But the three women find out about each other and bond together in a “Sismance”. That’s not a word, and it doesn’t sound as good as bromance, but there you have it. Part of the problem is they don’t make enough movies just for women, and that’s what this is. It’s a charming trifle along the lines of The First Wife’s Club. There is always a creepy guy at the center, so creepy guys beware. It’s a revenge comedy part of the time.
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Being the last film completed by Paul Walker before his passing, fans are getting the chance to see their star up on the big screen before he takes his final bow in Fast & Furious 7. The only Paul Walker film that managed to get me excited was Running Scared. It was dark and gritty, and I feel director Wayne Kramer pulled a great performance out of Walker. Looking to Brick Mansions, a remake of the parkour French hit District B-13, it seemed like Walker could possibly have another teeth-cutting performance. But that’s not the case.
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I have to be honest. Director Richard Shepard probably lost me in the first 10 seconds of Dom Hemingway. I can’t help believing that my opinion was shaded a bit as I watched Jude Law as the titular character rambling some nonsensical dialog while having himself “taken care of” by a fellow inmate in prison. It’s an image that lives with you long after the scene is done. Surprisingly, I did start to settle in for what looked like a more promising ride than I had first believed. And for about 40 minutes it actually became an almost good film.
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There is nothing wrong with your movie screen. Jonathan Glazer controls all that you see and hear. That tiny speck of light you see is just the beginning. The beginning of an experience you will not soon forget. The light appears distant…cold… foreboding. It’s coming closer to us, or we are coming closer to it. The distant star grows while you are assaulted with some of the most bizarre sounds you have ever heard. It’s somewhat uncomfortable. You squirm in your seat. The light grows; its alien forms finally settles into an unexpected familiar form. Still, it’s all rather unsettling. Jonathan Glazer controls more than all you see and hear. For the next two hours he controls your sanity… your very humanity.
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