The Reel World

"All of human history has led to this moment. The irony is we created you. And nature has been punishing us ever since. This is our last stand. And if we lose... it will be a Planet of Apes."

I was always a fan of the original Planet Of The Apes series of films. While they often flirted with a camp style, I was impressed with John Chambers' makeup effects and the performances of Roddy McDowall as both Cornelius and Caesar. Then came the television show, and I was just as enchanted, and that was helped along by McDowall's appearance as a third ape, Galen. The show didn't last a season, and before long the Apes franchise was left in some kind of limbo. Then along came Tim Burton, and I was excited to see what he could do with the material. Could this be the beginning of a new series of films? No, it was horrible, and the franchise suffered another lingering death. I had now given up hope that the Apes would ever return. Then came Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, and I was suddenly enchanted once again. Little did I know that combined with Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and now War For The Planet Of The Apes, science fiction's greatest trilogy would emerge. Where will they go from here?

"If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it."

Email hacks have taken over a big part of our nation's conversation in recent times. Lost in the election leaks is the fact that Sony executives were also hacked, with many embarrassing emails released on the internet. The result was that the Sony Spider-Man plans for an extended universe of their own fell victim to the reveals. Executives were out of jobs, and suddenly Marvel and Sony were at the negotiating table, and while Sony still retains certain film rights to the friendly neighborhood, the character himself has now joined the combined MCU, and all is now right with the universe. We saw flashes of that integration in Captain America: Civil War. Now it's time for our favorite webslinger to headline a movie of his own, and in more ways than one, this truly is a Spider-Man: Homecoming.

For the most part it seems the summer blockbusters tend to be sequels, superhero films, or CGI bonanzas that are simply eye candy to get us to films in the dark auditoriums to escape the heat. It’s rare that something comes along that is so clever and as fresh as Baby Driver.  Personally I’ve been a fan of Edgar Wright from the moment I first saw Shaun of the Dead, he was a writer and director that I felt knew how to make films fun. When he was set to direct his dream project Ant-Man, I was excited to see him finally get a chance to do a giant tent-pole studio film, but weeks before filming was set to begin he got pulled away and replaced. When it got announced he was working on an action-comedy named Baby Driver well I was excited but the film’s title had me scared, fears of him doing something along the lines of Baby’s Day Out ran through my mind, but then as the cast started to assemble I couldn’t help but get excited. Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal and these were simply the co-stars.  Then when the first trailer dropped this became the title of the year for me to keep an eye on. While this might not be the kind of film that gets nominated for best picture, for me this had potential to simply be an experience, the kind of fun you hope to have when you see a movie.

So who is Baby? Ansel Elgort heads this film with the title name and for most he’s a guy that’s come out of nowhere. He’s been in The Divergent series and The Fault in our Stars, but Baby Driver is his first step into the spotlight and as I mentioned above he is surrounded by some major talent. The casting of Baby is key. Picking up a relative unknown works because the audience doesn’t know what to expect from this guy, and this works in the film as he’s surrounded by some dangerous heavy hitters in the crime world and they see this kid with his I-pod, they can’t help but wonder what’s up with this guy. Our intro to Baby Driver, wastes no time at showing us just what Baby can do as he is the getaway driver for a bank heist in Atlanta.

The Despicable Me series that includes Minions never seems to get tiring as they extend their comedy one more time with Despicable Me 3, opening this weekend. The key to the filmmaker’s success is the handling of the characters and inserting them into the animated movie with a plan in mind. That plan consists of starting with a little comedy involving the Minions, then working into some intense action that leads to a champion who either succeeds or fails. In the meantime there are multiple stories going on with each one targeting certain audience members.  Sounds complicated? Well, the best comedy adventure is intricate, and Illumination Studios does that very well.

The lovable characters are back again with a new twist on Gru’s (Steve Carell) employment.  It seems that the government has hired him as a partner for Lucy (Kristen Wiig) in the secret service following their marriage. Gru, now an agent looking for the bad guys instead of being one himself, seems to have found his goal in life.

“These movies that I’ve done, they are massive movies. They take a lot out of you.”

That’s director Michael Bay talking about his decade-long work on the Transformers franchise on the eve of the fifth(!) film’s arrival. The movie also doubles as Bay’s swan song in the director’s chair, so when he says, “They take a lot out of you,” the filmmaker is presumably talking about the massive amount of energy and manpower (and horsepower) these big-budget bonanzas require. The problem is “They take a lot out of you” has also applied more and more to each subsequent movie in this series. Transfomers: The Last Knight isn’t just a bad movie…it is painful and exhausting to watch.

"I'm about to commit a moving violation."

When I go to a Pixar film, I always find myself in a situation where I'm predisposed to love the movie. There have been so many greats like Toy Story and Monsters Inc and so few horrible examples like Ratatouille. So, I never really expect a Pixar film to be bad, and Cars 3 certainly wasn't bad. There are more than a few things to love about the latest collaboration between Disney and their Pixar division. The animation company also continues to push the boundaries of digital animation technology. You can expect some very nice emotional moments. It's also nice to revisit old friends from previous movies. Cars 3 has all of that, but it still falls a bit short when you compare it to the impressive library of movies Pixar has brought to the Magic Kingdom table. It will certainly be the Cars film that adults will be able to relate to the most. The best that could be said for the effort is that it neatly caps that particular franchise in the stable and will allow the talent led by John Lassiter to turn their attentions elsewhere. I'm really looking forward to The Incredibles sequel. I'm even looking forward to Toy Story 4. But was anyone really anticipating Cars 3?

It’s summertime, and that means it is time for those bikini-clad bodies to start decorating the beaches and become bait for everyone’s favorite predator of the ocean. For those who don’t tan and manage to only burn in direct sunlight, there is a safer alternative to the beach, and that is your local theater with the new film 47 Meters Down.  Last year we had the surprise hit The Shallows that made a valiant attempt at making the beach terrifying once again. I love a fun, cheesy shark film; it’s one of those cinematic pleasantries I feel we just don’t get enough of. With the wait for Meg being another year off, it seems 47 Meters Down is going to have to tide me over till then. Is it worth taking a dip?

Lisa (Mandy Moore) and her sister Kate (Claire Holt) travel down to Mexico for a vacation.  The trip was originally supposed to be with Lisa and her boyfriend, though we find out early on that he broke up with her not long before the trip, and Kate was a quick backup guest. Though I had a hard time believing the pair are sisters, they could be best friends, and it would really do nothing to change the plot.  We know these young women are simply soon to be bait for the sharks, and that’s what matters in these kinds of films.

I think we can all agree that at some point we’ve all managed to make a fool of ourselves in the name of love. It’s almost a rite of passage so to speak. As for that forbidden love, well, I’m not so sure how many people will be so eager to admit to this one. When it comes to the film My Cousin Rachel, it’s a love story, but far from what you’d find on the Hallmark channel. Instead this is a film about the nightmare of what love can be and what it can do to you. Back in the 90’s, Roger Michell directed one of the sweetest and optimistic romances of that decade when he did Notting Hill.Now it’s 2017 and his return to romance could not be any more bleak, but how beautifully bleak it all is.

Philip (Sam Claflin) gets us up to speed in the film’s opening narration where he discusses becoming an orphan and being taken into custody by one of his cousins, Ambrose, a cousin who seems to have embraced the novel idea of bachelorhood. Philip manages to be raised just fine by his cousin, that is till things change and Ambrose falls ill and has to move from the English countryside to Italy, and during his recovery he meets a mysterious woman, Rachel (Rachel Weiz). His cousin continues to write Philip and tell him about his growing relationship with Rachel, till things take a turn for the worse and in the following letters his cousin goes on to believe Rachel is attempting to kill him. Concerned for Ambrose, Philip ventures off to see what has happened to his cousin, and upon his arrival he discovers that he is too late and that Ambrose is dead.

A large majority of horror fans would agree that when sitting down to screen a horror film, they are not accustomed to being challenged intellectually. Sure, horror films might have a message that you can theorize about, but you can just as easily turn off your brain and watch the carnage mindlessly. That is not the case with It Comes at Night:  it demands your full attention from the start and then intensifies like a white-hot light. Cut from the same cloth as The Babadook and It Follows, It Comes at Night is a film that confronts you with very real anxieties that permeate our modern-day societies. Where its predecessors are concerned with maternal guilt and vulnerabilities involving sexual intercourse (respectively), It Comes at Night asks audiences to confront their anxieties about the unknown, what it means not to know, and how we make a choice to remain ignorant, or attempt to understand what is just beyond our reach.

The film tells the story of Paul (Joel Edgerton) and his family (Carmen Ejogo and Kelvin Harrison Jr.), and the trials they must endure to survive a world doomed by a mysterious virus. As they try to enjoy what little peace they can muster in their home, they are confronted with a new threat: a new family looking for water. Adhering to the horror genre, Paul and company are immediately suspicious of their new guests, as “you can’t trust anyone but family.” Over time, tensions rise between the families, creating an inescapable rift of terror and paranoia.

Armies have been using dogs in battle for thousands of years. The Romans would turn the dogs on their enemy as a signal of the approaching legions, hence the expression “Let loose the dogs of war”. But in recent decades dogs have found a new, perhaps more noble calling during wartime. Dogs have been used to search for lost soldiers. They have been trained to assist wounded soldiers. They have also learned to sniff out explosives, helping to clear mines and saving the lives of their handlers and hundreds of soldiers and civilians. That's the kind of dog Rex is. And you'll fall in love with him just as the titular character Megan Leavey did. The movie Megan Leavey is a bit of a character study, and one of those characters is a German Shepherd.

Kate Mara stars as Megan Leavey. Her life has been pretty much a screwup, and she's facing pressure to get it together. She decides to join the Marines. At first it appears she's going to fail at this choice, too. But slowly she begins to get her training on track and starts to make the grade. Her inspiration? She is attracted to the canine unit, where she is first sent for punishment, but discovers Rex. Rex is a dog the vets don't think is trainable. He's aggressive, and very much like Megan, has a mind of his own. So Megan puts in the extra effort in the hope she can join the unit and work with Rex. Of course, she ends up getting her wish, and the two are sent to Iraq, where they are able to save lives by finding mines so they can be disarmed. It's a dangerous job, and their number ultimately comes up. It seems the enemy targets these dogs to protect the minefields. Wounded, the pair return home where the true battle is fought. The vet has labeled Rex unadoptable, and Megan fights to allow him to retire with her.