The Reel World

"Hi, little guys."

There was a time, decades ago when Walt Disney Studios was doing quality documentaries on a pretty regular schedule. Many of them appeared on the television show The Wonderful World Of Disney, and more than a few were released as feature films. And while that tradition has continued somewhat, it's been a while since I was truly impressed by a Disney documentary. That all changes with the release of Bears.

Just about any project that Christopher Nolan has any attachment to is going to get my attention.  And from the first glimpses of the film in the early teasers, Transcendence always felt like a film Nolan would seem right at home making.  Instead taking the helm for the first time as director is Wally Pfister.  Though this may be his first time in the director’s chair, Pfister is no stranger to working on pictures of large scale; after all, he’s been Nolan’s director of photography since Memento back in 2000.  So how does Pfister do with his first at bat?  Well, it could be a lot worse…

The film opens up in the not-too-distant future where technology has become a thing of the past.  Man is now forced to go on with their lives without the use of computers, and the relics of technology are nothing more than doorstops.  But what could have happened to make this world technology-free?  Well, to answer that the film jumps back five years, and that is where the story begins.

When I saw the trailer for this film a while back, I was intrigued by what I saw.  Sure, we’ve seen the haunted mirror film before, but that doesn’t bother me; I actually enjoy the notion of haunted mirrors and the notion that what we see in the reflection may not necessarily be real.  With Oculus they take the idea of altered perception and play with us the viewer, and I have to admit I liked everything that this film had to offer; unfortunately what the film actually delivers is something entirely different.

When we first meet Tim (Garrett Ryan) and Kaylie (Annalise Basso) they are simply little kids hiding and scared of something in their home.  Peeking out through the safety of their room, they see a man walking around with a gun.  These are only glimpses to the story that will later unfold for us.  With a jump to present day we meet an older Tim (Brenton Thwaites) who is finally being released from a mental facility; after all these years of therapy, he’s come to terms with these terrible event from his past and simply needs to accept there are no monsters or ghosts.  Unfortunately for Tim his sister (now played by Karen Gillan), who has led what appears to be a privileged life yet obsessed over the past, believes that a mirror that once hung in their home is evil, and it’s her mission to reveal the truth and kill it.

When I first experienced The Raid it was a film that simply put my jaw to the floor in awe of the action spectacle.  The Raid was everything I could have wanted in an action film, fun gun play and intense bare-knuckle martial arts brutality just about from start to finish.  This is the kind of film that after you see it you simply have to tell your friends about it and simply gush over simply how awesome and cool this movie is.  So when I first heard about a sequel in the works, already I was excited.  And when the first trailer dropped for the sequel, it teased us with visuals that promised not just an escalation of action but a film that was on a much larger scale.  And just what has director delivered us?  A film that not only exceeds in scope, but this time he brings us a story about family, honor, and revenge.  It’s a tale so cleverly told and through the eyes of a director who seems to challenge himself from one film to the next, where if you were to compare Gareth Evens to Sergio Leone, The Raid would be his Fistful of Dollars and The Raid 2 could stand right up there with The Good The Bad and The Ugly.

The Raid 2 opens up just hours following the events that occurred in the first film.  Rama (Iko Uwais) wants to take down his Captain but instead finds himself caught up in an undercover investigation that puts him in position to take down more dirty cops, only to get Rama where he needs to be he is given a new identity and is thrust into the prison world where he needs to forge a connection with Uco, the son of a crime boss.  Making matters worse, Rama discovers his brother has been killed, but there is no time for revenge since the man responsible for killing his brother also happens to be connected to Uco.  This thirst for revenge is what drives Rama.  His time behind bars isn’t easy as we see him singlehandedly taken on a horde of prisoners kicking and pounding on his bathroom stall.  But in these films I don’t really see him as a simple man; he’s a force of nature who takes on all comers and leaves them broken and bloody.

“There’s no such thing as a sure thing.”

That’s the mantra used by the people tasked with evaluating “can’t-miss” college prospects each year. But there’s no surer thing in sports right now than this: if the NFL puts something on TV, people are going to watch it. Regular season games on Thursday night? Sign us up! College prospects running and jumping? Tune in to the NFL Scouting Combine! Even the friggin’ Pro Bowl gets massive ratings, which proves the product doesn’t necessarily have to be worth watching to draw eyeballs. And that brings us to Draft Day.

“Who cares about a bunch of birds?”

Well, judging by the fact that the original Rio grossed $484 million worldwide, it seems more than a few people are invested. The avian adventure from Blue Sky Studios may not have soared as high as Disney/Pixar or DreamWorks Animation’s best efforts — or even Blue Sky’s own Ice Age juggernaut — but it proved to be a dazzling, lucrative diversion in the spring of 2011. This charming sequel, which arrives almost three years to the day later, retains the disposable, toe-tapping charm of its predecessor.

"It's called compartmentalization. No one spills the secrets because no one knows them all."

I was lucky enough to grow up during Marvel's wonderful rebirth of the 1960's and 1970's. Of all of the comics they produced during that time, I was always least impressed with Captain America. I don't think I ever read an issue of any of his mags with the notable exception of The Avengers. So how can it be possible that after dozens of Marvel films, and I'm including the Fox and other-studio-produced stuff, that Captain America: The Winter Soldier can end up being my favorite? Could it be that I've warmed up to the Cap under the compelling performances of Chris Evans. Nah! Could it be I've grown and matured a lot since I was a teenager? Anyone who knows me is certain that can't be the answer. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, this just happens to be their best film yet. No maybe’s or could be's about it. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is even better than The Avengers. It's too early to tell if it'll be my favorite tent pole film of the summer, but it's starting in the pole position, to be sure.

Wes Anderson is not quite a real person. He is more of a concept. He is more of a myth or an approximation of reality, much like Citizen Kane was an approximation of the infamous newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Anderson is real, but has built up a kind of fantasy world around himself. It is full of precisely detailed artifice. His films all have the meticulous perfection of an alternate reality. If the average uninitiated person were exposed to all of Anderson's films, they wouldn't quite know what to make of it. Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, The Royal Tannenbaums, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom all exist somewhere other than the real in some degree. It is a close approximation of reality, but it seems far more precious and rare. They are all fables of a sort. The early films like Bottle Rocket and Rushmore seem a little more normal, but more and more it becomes clear that Wes Anderson is creating a world of his own. This makes him special.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is probably the most grandiose, complex, involved, convoluted, yet simply enjoyable and lighthearted of all his films. One sure sign of the labor of love a Wes Anderson film becomes is to see how many great names that take small but integral parts of the story, and they include Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Lea Seydoux, Mathieu Amalric, Bob Balaban and Jason Schwartzman, to name a few. The cast is led ably, one could say brilliantly, by Ralph Fiennes as M.Gustave, the concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel. The story is intricate with many layers that are unfolded and uncovered as the mystery is unfurled. It is far too elaborate to relay in a simple review. In fact, each and every shot is full of enough information to fill a whole movie on its own. I will try to cover some of the basics.

Jason Bateman was born in 1969. He was working as an actor in 1982 on Little House on the Prairie. Then he went on to Silver Spoons and The Hogan Family (also known as Valerie). His sister, Justine, was doing well on Family Ties. Jason went on to become an adult. He grew up and became well liked on Arrested Development. That is always the hard part in the career of a child actor; making the transition to becoming a successful adult actor. He has been careful with his career, taking good supporting roles in films rather than stupid and unconvincing starring roles. Some of the roles he has done recently include Horrible Bosses (and Horrible Bosses 2), Juno, The Switch, The Kingdom, The Break-up, Hancock, Couples Retreat, Extract, The Change-Up, Paul and Identity Thief. It's a good run which has led up to what he really wants to do: direct.

Bad Words is the first film Jason Bateman has directed. He also stars, but he did that because that's how he gets the movie made. It is, actually, one of his best performances. He had a good director.

In the wake of the Hunger Games and Twilight studios have been snatching up the rights to young adult fiction and gearing up for franchises all in the name of capturing the hearts and wallets of the legions of fans of these book series.  Though there have been a few hits, the failures have been plentiful i.e.: City of Bones, The Host, and The Vampire Academy.  As a guy approaching his mid-thirties, it’s safe to say I’m nowhere near being the target audience for this film, but call me crazy, I actually dug it.

Where the Hunger Games has its heroine Katniss, Divergent has us following Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) along for her journey of not just self-discovery but finding where she truly belongs.  In this new world, Chicago, a city in ruins and surrounded by an epic wall to keep any possible dangers out.  But it is within these walls where are story unfolds, the city is divided into five factions, each based on the people’s moral aptitude.  Each year a day is set aside where all those that have turned 16 must decide what faction they want to join, which means they may have to leave their families never to see them again.  But to help these young adults with making their decision they are each given an aptitude test that tells them where they “should” go, but in the end the choice is up to them.