The Reel World

Stars grow old and die. I don't know what they do in the afterlife. Maybe they look over the shoulders of studio executives, mouths open in horror at the scripts they are reading. Stars do die, and they need to be replaced. The torch needs to be passed, and I don't always think studio heads give these matters enough thought. Stars aren't born. They need to be made. Sanded down, left out to dry, buffed and polished so hopefully they shine really bright. Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds are the names above the title of R.I.P.D. Jeff Bridges, the baby and the brother of movie stars, has shone bright over the years. Bridges just picked up his first best actor Oscar a couple of years ago after a number of tries.  He has done it all and is now a leathery, grizzled veteran of the Hollywood landscape. Ryan Reynolds is a smart, hardworking and appealing actor who seems always on the verge of superstardom.

Ryan Reynolds has been around. He's been engaged to Alanis Morrisette, then married Scarlett Johansson and then married Blake Lively. You get the impression that he's a nice guy, and both Alanis and Scarlett expressed regrets about the breakups. Comedy seems to be his forte, but he clearly has made attempts to do intense dramatic roles, most notably in Buried which consisted of him emoting alone in a coffin for the entire length of the movie.

James Wan is simply a director who continues to impress me.  Ever since Saw was released I’ve been a fan of his visual style that he brings to every film.  Let’s face it, Saw is pretty much the biggest horror franchise of the past decade, and it all started with a simple little indie film that took place mostly inside a dirty bathroom.  When Death Sentence came out, I was floored by how well he managed to construct a Death Wish film for a new generation.  The parking garage scene was just freaking awesome.  Then along came Insidious which was another massive smash for Wan.  Sure, the movie had its creepy moments, but for me the final act just fell apart.  Now Wan is set to release The Conjuring upon the masses; is it another smash hit like Saw and Insidious, or will this be destined to fall flat as Dead Sentence did?

The Conjuring is based on a true story about famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren who are staples of the paranormal investigation history and made famous for their “findings” with the Amityville investigation in Long Island.  With ghost hunting shows saturating the cable channels, it was inevitable that we would finally get a tale about the investigators who somewhat started it all.  But this isn’t so much just about the Warrens, but instead about the most terrifying case of their lives.

“It’s important to enjoy life while you still can.”

My word, Bruce Willis must be exhausted, helming three movies this year so far and six last year alone; jeez, I know I’d be in need of a serious break. Luckily in RED 2, Willis doesn’t have to hold down the fort alone. Not when you have Malkovich, Mirren, and Parker available to help pick up the slack. That’s right, like Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman’s character from RED) said in the original, “The band is getting back together.”  And this time they are picking up some new members as Catherine Zeta-Jones and Anthony Hopkins join the cast. RED was great, but RED 2 is epic.

Every once in a while a film comes along that looks like it could be interesting, but you don’t really expect to like it all that much. It’s simply meant to be filler, something to kill time until something better comes along, but somehow you get drawn in and become so engrossed in the story that you forget everything else. That is the most apt description of my experience with The Way Way Back, a socially awkward dramedy with a ton of heart featuring Steve Carrell, Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, Liam James, and many more.

Duncan (Liam James, The Killing) is an introverted, slightly awkward fourteen-year-old. After his parents’ divorce, his mother Pam (Toni Collette, United States of Tara) starts dating Trent (Steve Carrell, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone), a single father who masks his disdain for Duncan with thinly veiled accusations and comments. For the summer, Duncan is dragged along with the couple and Trent’s daughter Steph (who treats him like a pariah) to Trent’s family beach house.

"We always thought that alien life would come from the stars, but it came from deep beneath the Pacific."

The only thing we seem to love more than giant monster movies are movies about giant dudes going a few rounds with said giant monsters. It was huge television fare in the 1960's and 1970's. We had Ultraman, Space Giants, and Johnny Socko. All of them were Japanese imports that gave us daily or weekly monsters doing the old "Tokyo Stomp", and just when things appeared at their darkest, the giant hero would arrive and give us a show more akin to the weekend wrestling shows than anything else. We'd get choke-holds and body slams that would make the rubber suits jiggle as they fell. It was all in good fun and appears to have pretty much disappeared from the television and film landscape. That is, until Guillermo del Toro brings us one of the summer's eagerly awaited tentpole films: Pacific Rim.

In 1988 a movie by the name of Die Hard became a worldwide commercial success and helped launch the career of one of Hollywood’s most prominent action stars. The legend of the film transcends time and space as it is still to this day a beloved film, and its name has become synonymous with what an action film is. In 2013, another film looks to capture that same type of glory, a film I believe has the potential to become this generation’s Die Hard, and not because both film’s main character’s first name is John. White House Down is an explosively entertaining experience brought to life from the director that brought us Independence Day, 10,000 B.C., and 2012.

John Cale (Channing Tatum) is a former decorated soldier turned U.S. Capital police officer assigned to the protection detail of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Eli Raphelson (Richard Jenkins). Divorced with one daughter, Emily (Joey King) who once idolized him, but continuous disappointments and absenteeism on his part have caused a strain in their relationship. Calling in a favor, John scores an opportunity to interview to join the Secret Service and join President James Sawyer’s (Jamie Foxx) protection detail. To earn some brownie points as well as repair the rift between him and his daughter, he takes Emily with him to the White House, an opportunity that Emily jumps at due to her borderline obsession with all things politics.

The boys are back, and I only have one question. What the heck took so long? I have a lot of respect for Pixar and the groundbreaking films they've created over the last couple of decades, but I have to question someone's marketing good sense when they get a sequel to Cars out before anyone bothered to look towards what is arguably the studio’s best creation to date. For me it's all about Monsters, Inc. I hadn't fallen so hard for an animated film since The Lion King, and so I was thrilled when I got the invitation to graduate early from Monsters University.

Who are "the boys", you might ask. If you're serious, then you might actually be reading the wrong piece. For the rest of you, "the boys" are Mike Wazowski (Crystal) and James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (Goodman). And it's been a dozen years since we last saw them in Monsters, Inc. A sequel to that film might be a bit problematic. We learn that laughs provide far more power than screams, and we leave the power structure of Monsteropolis on its head. Pixar's imaginative team took the best route available to them and decided to go the prequel pathway, and we get to see Mike and Sully as college students. Both have their sights on becoming master scarers. For Sulley, it's in the blood. He comes from a long line of successful scarers, and he's not really taking the college scene very seriously. For Sulley it's about fun. Mike, on the other hand has stars in his eyes and works harder than anyone else on campus. But he might have to come to grips with the fact that he just might not have what it takes.

“Most people don’t believe something can happen until it already has.”

Walkers. The Living Dead. Zombies. Whatever you call them, you can’t deny they’ve shuffled their way into the forefront of pop culture. Once relegated to niche horror movies, zombies have crossed over into multiple genres, be it comedy (Zombieland), romance (Warm Bodies) or drama (The Walking Dead). The latest offering of the undead is World War Z, an action/horror film based on Max Brooks’ best-selling novel of the same name.

“Let’s go shopping.”

Proof that the internet in the wrong hands can be a dangerous tool; it was the highlight of celebrity news in 08 and 09; a rash home invasions and robberies committed on the residences of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Rachel Bilson, Audrina Patridge, Megan Fox, and Orlando Bloom. As reported by TMZ and news outlets alike, the group broke into the celeb’s home stealing cash, jewelry, and apparel quickly earning the name “The Bling Ring.” News of their actions and their ability to avoid detection despite being caught on caught on a security cameras fueled the crime ring’s boldness as it was reported that the group returned to Hilton’s home several times after the original robbery. Ultimately, an anonymous tip lead to the arrest of the group’s ringleader and her original co-conspirator and when  it was discovered that this crime ring was nothing more than a bunch of teenagers, their story became so big that there was only one inevitable resolution: to make a movie about it.

"What if a child dreamed of becoming something other than what society had intended? What if a child aspired to something greater?"

It's appropriate that exactly 75 years ago this very month Superman was born at the hands of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. He was born to be the patriotic hero symbol for a nation on the brink of a devastating world war. The war came and went as many others would since the hero's inception. Styles would change. Technology would come and go. Superman would find himself invading each and every medium that has come along since. Television shows, cartoons, comics, novels and even previous films have all continued the ongoing adventures of the man from Krypton. In those years styles have changed so much that the symbols of the hero himself have become quite dated. But in any time there will always be a need for larger than life heroes. They don't come any larger than Superman, The Man Of Steel. Can he be as relevant today as he was in 1938?