The Reel World

The eyes are the window to the soul, or so we have been told. I Origins is about a scientist studying the evolution of sight in organisms. Part of his research seems to be focused on countering creationists who claim that eyes are an obvious indication of a creator in life on this planet. The scientist, Ian Gray (Michael Pitt) is working on proof that the development of eyes is a process of evolution. His new research assistant, Karen (Brit Marling) surprises Ian with intuitive brilliance and fanatical commitment to the task. They find a species of worm that is an origin species which might be able to prove his theories and make his career. He becomes somewhat distracted by a mysterious woman at a masquerade Halloween party. They have sex in the bathroom and she disappears, but not before he has taken pictures of her eyes, which is an obsession as well as part of his research.

Through a series of almost otherworldly coincidences, he is led to a billboard featuring eyes identical to the ones he photographed. He has become obsessed with that encounter on Halloween and manages to hunt down who he believes is the woman. The mysterious relationship blossoms into a full-blown courtship that leads to going to the courthouse to get married. It turns out they have to wait 24 hours. His impetuousness and fascination is tempered by the fact that they seem to be polar opposites in many ways. It culminates in an argument in a broken-down elevator. He pushes the door open halfway between floors and climbs out. He wants her to climb out as well, but she is nearly hysterical in fear. He thinks she is acting like a child. She agrees to take his hand and climb out. What happens next changes everything.

“Odds against you? Need help? Call the Equalizer.”

That familiar classified ad — which receives a clever update toward the end of this film — and a hero named “Robert McCall” are about the only things this bloody, big-screen adaptation has in common with the TV show that (allegedly) inspired it. And that's fine, especially when you consider a large portion of this movie's audience is probably not slavishly devoted to a CBS crime drama from the 1980s. (Assuming they've seen it at all.) The bigger issue is that, beyond it starring one of the world's best and most charismatic movie stars, there's not a ton that's new or particularly interesting about The Equalizer.

What if two radio guys sat around and made up a movie on the air? In this case, it actually wasn't radio guys, because they weren't broadcasters, but podcasters. I guess the fine distinction between broad and pod is that pod goes out to the world through the internet. It's kind of like Indie radio. Kevin Smith is a very indie guy and even calls his podcast a smodcast. Smith and his buddy, producer Scott Mosier, were doing their smodcast and talking about a post on GumTree.uk about roommate advertisements. It evolved into crazy talk about what might happen. The guy in one ad said he would like his roommate to wear a walrus suit from time to time.

Kevin Smith is synonymous with the advent of the modern independent film movement since his film Clerks opened 20 years ago. Smith has always been a clever writer and an interesting geek/nerd hero deeply immersed in all things lowbrow and counterculture. He runs a comic book store among other things and even had a reality series based in the store. He does seem to be going a bit crazy over the last few years, and part of that seems to be his dive into heavy marijuana use. I believe he wasn't always a heavy user. I don't mean to imply that marijuana makes you crazy, but in his case it led him down some strange and paranoid roads. Smith did a movie a few years ago called Red State which was part of a rant against Hollywood. He was taking that movie on the road and releasing it by himself. With Tusk, Smith is going back to normal, but only in the broadest sense of that word.

Martin McDonagh is an extremely important and respected playwright. He is also a pretty good filmmaker. His films are In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths. His plays have won too many awards to mention, but some of the titles are The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lonesome West, The Pillowman, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Skull of Connemara and others. His brother is John Michael McDonagh, the writer/director of The Guard and Calvary. All of these works are very good. Calvary might be my favorite. The word Calvary (also known as Golgotha), not to be confused with cavalry, is the place where Jesus dragged the cross to his final execution. In Calvary, a modern day Irish priest is informed in confession that he will be shot dead in a week. This opening scene is shocking in many ways, so if you are not interested in being challenged, do not bother going to see this film.

Brenden Gleeson is our priest, and he deserves an Oscar nomination. If nothing else materializes between now and the end of the year, he should win. Father James (Gleeson) is in charge of the souls of this pleasant seaside town. The problem is that most of the people he ministers to are not exactly pleasant. They are challenging, difficult, weird or completely out of control. It's not what you would expect from a quiet and picturesque corner of the world. It's also not what you would expect a parish priest to have to deal with. Father James doesn't exactly shake the threat off, but he does go about his business in what may be his last week on Earth. He has many people who need him, and he is being targeted despite being innocent. In fact, he is being targeted because he is innocent. The potential executioner was abused by a priest for many years, but that priest is dead. The soon-to-be possible killer thinks it would be more noteworthy to kill someone who is innocent for the crimes of others. If you happen to be Christian, you know that that is what Jesus Christ did. This analogy is not belabored, but it should definitely be noted. There are many good men who truly follow in the footsteps of Jesus. The movie makes it clear that Father James is not perfect, but he is a good man who makes every effort to face his many challenges with good humor and good grace.

The pleasure of The November Man is seeing an ex-James Bond come out of retirement being all cool and mean and efficiently lethal. The ex-James Bond is Pierce... Pierce Bronson. He's not as old as Sean Connery, but he's pretty old, and too old to look this good killing people. The November Man is nothing but a cheap and easy, end-of-August bit of popcorn fodder, but it works well. It works so well it already has a sequel planned. I don't think the budget on this is very large, so it probably was a no-brainer. The locations are all over middle Europe and Russia, but I think that's cheaper than New York City or London. Pierce is clearly enjoying doing all his old Bond tricks, except this time he's Patrick Devereaux, which really isn't as cool a name as James Bond, but we all know that this all about Bond. We like to see Pierce bash guys with lead pipes and shoot henchmen, because we know he's getting too old for this stuff. But truthfully, Devereaux is not Bond. He's a different character with a completely different set of motivations for his actions. Bond seems to have suppressed nearly all human emotions; Devereaux knows he shouldn't care about people, but for reasons I won't mention, he does care. He even tells a young protege not to care, and then Devereaux doesn't follow his own advice. So Devereaux  isn't James Bond, but don't tell Pierce that, because he's bringing back the famous squint with every fiber of his being.

There are lots of familiar faces supporting Pierce in this movie, but not necessarily familiar names. Will Patton (Falling Skies, The Postman) and Bill Smitrovich (Without A Trace, Life Goes On) are high-level CIA managers who are both closely associated with former field agent Devereaux. Olga Kurylenko is probably best known as Vera from the TV show Magic City but was also a Bond girl in Quantum of Solace. Olga plays Alice and is the woman that everyone wants in the movie, because she has some information. Devereaux needs to protect her so no one gets the information. Luke Bracy is fairly new on the scene and will soon be playing Johnny Utah in the Point Break remake. Luke plays the young protege who screwed up a mission and got on Devereaux's bad side. When that mission went bad, Devereaux quit. Now a few years later, things are getting personal. There are many twists and turns and double-crosses and triple-crosses. There are many bad guys and even more henchmen. All of this would play like a spoof if Pierce wasn't so darn serious. It's a little reminiscent of the recent Kevin Costner crazy spy movie Three Days To Kill, but not as over-the-top goofy. Spy movies are either pure entertainment or super-serious. We've had some of the serious kind recently, like the two recent John Le Carre adaptations, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and A Most Wanted Man. The November Man is safely in the middle.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For marks the return of the iconic graphic novel since it first splashed across the big screen in 2005.  Sin City set out to make the ultimate comic book adaption in which the audience would see the panels move directly from the page and onto the screen.  For me Sin City was a celluloid masterpiece that blended the Noir stories beautifully with all the Hollywood tricks that were at Robert Rodriguez’s disposal.  Frank Miller’s beautiful black and white imagery was more striking than I could have imagined, and it was the film that had me rooting for the big lug Marv (played by Mickey Rourke who seems to have been born for the role).

Nearly a decade later, Rodriguez and Miller have finally gotten back together to create the long-awaited followup and in the process take on my favorite graphic novel story, A Dame to Kill For.  For those unaware about the graphic novel but who saw Sin City, some of the imagery may be confusing, since certain characters who died in the previous film have managed to re-emerge for this prequel/sequel.  Though the story does tie together more tightly this time around with its characters, the sequel just isn’t as much fun this time around.

“Welcome to the 21st century!”

Sylvester Stallone has dedicated the better part of the last decade to giving moviegoers what they wanted 20 years ago. It started with 2006's Rocky Balboa, which closed out Stallone's signature franchise in the satisfying manner fans have been craving since 1990's Rocky V debacle. We’ve also gotten another Rambo sequel, as well as long-awaited team ups with icons both real (Schwarzenegger in Escape Plan) and cinematic (Grudge Match was “Rocky vs. Raging Bull”). But Stallone's biggest recent success is the veritable fantasy team of action stars he's assembled for the Expendables films.

“Are you telling me that the fate of thirty million inhabitants is in the hands of these criminals?”

Now that we are in the middle of phase two of Marvel’s movie universe, a new batch of characters have been given a movie of their own to help set the stage for what is to come in the ever-expanding Marvel cinematic universe.  The Guardians of the Galaxy announcement for many left fans scratching their heads; after all, just how would a talking raccoon, a lumbering tree and various other space aliens fit in with the established Avengers team comic and film fans have grown to love already?

Lucy is good science fiction. Good science fiction challenges scientists to think about the possibilities. Good scientists think they don't know and want to seek the answers and learn more. Bad scientists will tell you the answers because they know. But they don't know. Science is made by making mistakes and learning from those mistakes and then making new mistakes and learning from them. Through that process myths and half-truths are passed along. For a hundred years science said that we only use about 10% percent of our brain, but now we are told that that was a mistake. They say we can map the brain's electrical activity through advanced medical technology. The truth is we still don't know much. We probably only know 10% about how the brain works. There could be endless investigation into storage capacity, the speed of connections, the purpose of electrical activity, dreams and the subconscious, perceptions, personality and self-awareness. 90% of the brain is made of glial glands which we know nothing about as opposed to the neurons which are what we try to track. There is not even a glimmer of an understanding of how to duplicate how the billions of cells interact.

Lucy has revived controversy over science like no amount of superhero movies have done. It asserts the reality of science instead of the fantasy of Superman and Spiderman. Lucy is a superhero, except she doesn't care much about human concerns. It seems there are more important things than our petty concerns.

Zach Braff had a nice long run on the sitcom Scrubs, but he showed the world he was more than that by writing, directing and starring in the indie hit Garden State. Braff starred in some other movies but didn't get much traction. He's not really a leading-man type. He did have a nice supporting part in Oz the Great and Powerful, but Braff had already demonstrated he can do it all. Hollywood is not too friendly to original ideas, so Braff went to Kickstarter and had success. He asked for $2,000,000 and got $3,105,473 from 46,520 supporters.  From there he got Hollywood money, and he has a movie.

Wish I Was Here starts with a typical suburban family arguing over breakfast. The head of the family, Aidan Bloom (Braff) is generally dissatisfied with many things. Soon we learn he's not really head of the family. He's an out-of-work actor who has to worry about his kids’ Hebrew school payments. Sarah Bloom (Kate Hudson) holds down the steady job. 12-year-old Grace Bloom (Joey King) cherishes her heritage much more than her younger brother and is mortified she might have to go to public school. It turns out the school is part of a deal he made with his dad, Gabe (Mandy Patinkin). Gabe was paying for the school because it was important to him, but he won't be able to do it anymore, because something serious is happening that he needs to deal with.