The Reel World

“I need to know what you are worth when I leave you nothing.”

These are the parting words that Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) is left with from his dying grandfather.  At first these words may seem a bit harsh but after the more time we spend with Bennett we start to understand the grandfather’s intentions.  The Gambler, a remake of the 1974 film with same title, follows Bennett along his downward spiral as his gambling addiction drags him down to the point where death is imminent, yet death seems to be the escape Bennett so desperately craves.  In other words this is not exactly the film you watch to get into the holly jolly spirit of the holidays.

It took a while for Hollywood to finally venture Into the Woods. On one hand, the delay isn’t surprising given that the popularity of live-action musicals at the box office has ebbed and flowed many times since Woods made its Broadway debut in 1987. Then again, the story’s free-wheeling mash-up of Grimms’ fairy tale characters fits perfectly with the current obsession with shared cinematic universes. As a result, Disney — which has a storied past with fairy tales, and a lucrative present with cross-platforming popular characters — seems like the perfect landing spot for an Into the Woods movie.

“Be careful what you wish for.”

Well, it’s that time of year when the studios make that extra push for awards season, and with Angelina Jolie at the helm directing her second film, Unbroken is the kind of film where after one viewing of the trailer you just know this is Oscar bait.  I love this time of year, and I love seeing the best of what the studios have to offer, but sometimes these films with high hopes just don’t deliver as expected.  Unbroken takes us on a journey through the life of Olympian Louis Zamperini (Jack O’ Connell) from his early years as a troubled child on through his torturous years as a prisoner of Japan during World War 2. The front portion of the film jumps from Louis as a soldier and working inside a bomber to flashing back in time to what inspired Louis to become America’s fastest high school runner.  Having Louis reflecting back on his early years is understandable while his plane is taking fire, but the scenes we flash back to just don’t seem to have any real connection with the story, but seem to only serve the idea of putting action in the front half of the film to get the viewer’s attention.  As the film progresses, and the flashbacks seem to suddenly cease.  If this jumping back and forth through time isn’t too jarring, what turns out to be most off-putting is the film’s script.  Even with Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, No Country For Old Men) as well as Richard LaGravenese (The Horse Whisperer) and William Nicholson (Gladiator) sharing writing duties, what seems to work best for this film is when the characters are saying little to nothing at all.

Very little attention is paid to Zamperini and his journey to receive a medal in the Olympic games in Germany. Instead most of the film focuses on the physical and mental abuse Zamperini endures from the moment his plane crashes into the Pacific on through the punishing time he is prisoner in a detention camp.  Fellow soldiers come and go throughout the film, but the one constant, and in my opinion the most intriguing character in the film, is that of The Bird (Mutsushiro Watanabe), a ruthless commander of the detention center Zamperini first arrives at.  It doesn’t take long to see that all The Bird wants to do is break Zamperini’s spirit, but as we know by the title of the film, this man just can’t be broken.

- “There she is, our little orphan Annie.”

- “I'm a foster kid!”

"Will you follow me, one last time?"

It's time to say goodbye to Middle Earth, at least from a cinematic perspective. The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies marks the last time we shall see Peter Jackson's version of Middle Earth. Sure, Ian McKellen has told us he wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of a return. I would. There is certainly enough work from Tolkien to support future adventures, but the rights to anything beyond these books belongs to the Tolkien estate. To say they are not very fond of Jackson, New Line, Warner or the six films themselves would be an understatement. There is great animosity there, and no amount of money is going to change that.

When it comes to the modern epic, director Ridley Scott is the go-to guy to pull off the sprawling and mega-budget storylines.  From Gladiator to Kingdom of Heaven, Scott has constantly proven himself behind the camera in executing tales with lavish sets and battles involving hundreds to even thousands of extras.  With the release of Exodus: Gods and Kings, a retelling of the Bible story where Moses frees the slaves of Egypt, Ridley Scott would seem the perfect choice for this film.  Unfortunately this is a Bible story that is sure to anger religious scholars and put some general audiences to sleep.

Let me jump ahead and say I’m an unapologetic fan of Ridley Scott; this is my favorite working director.  From his early work like Alien, Blade Runner and Legend on into his later films like Gladiator, Matchstick Men, Black Hawk Down and Prometheus, he has entertained me for years.  But lately I feel he’s been swinging for hits but missing more than he has delivered.  Last year’s release of The Counselor was a misstep that should have been a knockout hit but instead just was a disappointment in many ways, which brings us to Exodus: Gods and Kings and its frustrating retelling.

"All we need now is the perfect message".

It has almost become expected. When a successful franchise based on a series of books reaches the end of the published material, studios start to think about the approaching end with some dread. One way to put off the inevitable is to split the final book into two films. It worked for Harry Potter and Twilight. Peter Jackson managed to squeeze three long films out of one Tolkien book. For most of these cases it was a severe case of milking those final chapters for all that they're worth and then going beyond that. That's simply not the case with Mockingjay Part I. The book itself has two very distinctive parts, and telling this story in a single film would not have done justice to the material. Trust me when I tell you that you'll feel like you've gotten a complete story, but one that has more story left to tell. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I is the beginning of a payoff that has been promised since the first film debuted just two years ago. Yes, any film that contains Part I in the title might appear a little intimidating with promises of an untold story and a portent to a feeling of dissatisfaction. Don't let any of that keep you from the best film in the franchise. Take the risk. You'll be well rewarded for your two-hour investment.

Most movies are just not very good. Lots of money goes into turning out boring repetitive garbage. You watch it and then dispose of it and make room for the next thing. There are some who do more, but the more you do, the greater the risk. Most filmmakers are not given the freedom to take really big risks, but someone who has been given the opportunity to take the big risk is Christopher Nolan. Interstellar is $165,000,000 gamble shooting for the moon.  Actually Nolan is shooting for something way past the moon. He wants to take us to another galaxy. There is so much speculative science in this film that it is mind-boggling. The cutting edge of real science is, frankly, getting crazier and crazier. The average person really has no idea how crazy, but Interstellar is going to try to show us just how crazy. The true nature of some of the elements of the theory of relativity and other related theories is that they defy all logic.

One of the most important things in Interstellar is its attempts to deal with some of the properties of time. The laws of physics tell us time acts differently in different situations. In this movie time rules everything in people's lives, but the main character is given the power to do something with time that most of us don't even imagine. It's important to know some of these situations are described in actual scientific theory. In fact, real science is getting closer and closer to God all the time. Most people who don't believe in God don't expect science to contradict that way of thinking. Interstellar doesn't talk about God, but it comes close to doing something similar. It is science's contention to state statistically there are millions of planets with intelligent life out there. Some of those intelligence forces will seem like God to us. This is simple science, but people have such a wide range of beliefs that no one will ever agree on what is the truth. The reason we don't agree is because mankind is just not smart enough to have real answers.

A jittery, strikingly blue eye is shown in extreme close-up. It belongs to a woman named Christine, who finds herself naked in bed with a strange man’s arm draped around her waist. She stumbles to a nearby bathroom, where she finds clues about her identity taped to a wall. The man appears shortly after and introduces himself as Christine’s husband. It’s an effective little opening that succeeds in making the viewer feel as disoriented as Christine. The problem with Before I Go To Sleep is that — even as the truth is unpacked — the disorientation turns into disengagement and (worst of all) disinterest. In other words, this is a thriller that isn’t particularly thrilling.

“My name is Christine Lucas. Tonight, as I sleep, my mind will erase everything that I know today.”

“On TV it looks so real.”

When I first walked out from the theater after watching Nightcrawler, the thing that stuck with me the most is how great Jake Gyllenhaal was in this film.  This isn’t the first performance he’s caught my attention in; he’s an actor who pretty much any time I see him in a film he’s one of the most memorable aspects of the film.  Whether it’s his moody performance in Donnie Darko, his offbeat portrayal as a cop in Prisoners, or even him taking a risk as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, every role he does something more with the character where we can believe he is this person we see on the screen.  Nightcrawler is no exception, and in this role Gyllenhaal is simply terrifying as Lou Bloom.