Category: Movie Reviews

Thor: The Dark World
Starring Christ Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston
Directed by Alan Taylor
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some suggestive content

    Set two years after the events of the last Thor film, upon learning that his lost love, Dr. Jane Foster (Portman) could be in trouble, Thor (Hemsworth) travels to Earth again to rescue her.  Upon bringing her back to Asgard, his home is attacked by the leader of the dark elves who is after Foster for an ancient evil power she has stumbled upon. 

    It’s hard for me to complain about this film too much since it feels like all of my complaints of Thor’s first outing were corrected here. 

    First I thought the first Thor was just a giant commercial for The Avengers movie.  It felt like it had little identity of its own and served as a prequel for a film yet unreleased.  This new Thor feels more epic and individual.  SHIELD and The Avengers are nowhere to be found (aside for a hilarious cameo by Captain America).

    Secondly I thought the directing and overall production was weak.  Here, relative newcomer Alan Taylor does a fine job directing the Norse super hero and Asgard has a stunning look that should satisfy his fans.  I was also deeply disappointed by the music of the first film which was written by its director’s close friend Patrick Doyle.  Doyle’s scores are typically spectacular but Thor was disjointed and so overly percussive that it distracted rather than elevated the film.  Here the very young but talented Brian Tyler gives a dramatically beautiful score worthy of such a film. 

    Where both films come up short is in the writing.  The dialog and humor are fine here, but ask me what the plot is really about and I could hardly tell you.  I know hardcore Thor fans are well familiar with the nine realms, but most normal folks are not and I was confused when I had time to stop and think about it.  Then again, they kept the action so non-stop that you really didn’t have to think it through so this complaint didn’t ruin it for me.

    And while I was satisfied that this wasn’t a setup film for the Avengers sequel, I was also plagued by the sudden lack of SHIELD or any other heroes.  This seemed to be a serious and potentially world-ending event and only Thor was there to save the day.  Hmmm. 

    Beginning directly after the events of the first Insidious movie, The Lambert family is back in the real world, but Josh (Wilson) doesn’t quite seem himself.  As strange events start happening to them again, they get a little help from some ghost hunters and even a visitor from the other side in order to get things completely back to normal again.  

    I remember seeing the original Insidious back in 2011 but honestly, it felt so generic that I couldn’t even recall much of the premise or details.  Unfortunately here they don’t really do a good job of jogging your memory so I would highly advise watching it again before tackling this one.  Then again, I’m not sure it would make much of a difference since this one seems even more generic than the first.  At least the first one provided some decent chills (from what I can remember).  Chapter 2 turns out to be rather lame and too often filled with people making bad decisions in order to further the story.  The acting is okay but nothing that will blow you away.  

    The real problem might be the rating.  It’s hard to do PG-13 horror and here it feels like those handcuffs were a real distraction.  Considering Wan’s last film, The Conjuring, was R and much more effective, I can only assume his imagination was not allowed to run wild enough here.  That being said, I hate torture porn horror like what we’ve seen in his Saw franchise, but I also need my suspenseful scary movies to be scary and this one didn’t do it.  

Jobs
Starring Ashton Kutcher, Josh Gad and Dermot Mulroney
Directed by Joshua Michael Stern (Swing Vote)
Rated PG-13 for some drug content and brief strong language

    Apple founder Steve Jobs is easily considered to be one of the most important people in modern history and telling his life’s story on film had to be a daunting challenge.  In this new biopic Ashton Kutcher takes on the iconic role telling the tale of the infamous Apple founder and what brought him to greatness.  

    I’m sure many will predict that Kutcher will be the reason for the film’s failure without even seeing it.  After all, he’s not exactly known as being one of the greatest actors in Hollywood.  Surprisingly, his performance here is good enough.  And that’s saying a lot.  He looks and talks the part just fine and doesn’t distract from the story.  Mind you, he’s not as good as the excellent Josh Gad who plays Jobs’ partner Steve Wozniak, but my level of respect for Kutcher has risen.  

    Where the film suffers greatly is in the story, or better yet, the parts of the story they decided to tell.  If you’re one of the millions who read the biography by Walter Isaacson, there are some obviously vital parts of his life that are simply brushed over here.  I agree that Steve’s college and Atari years, as well as his garage days building computers, was essential, but probably the most crucial part of his life was when he was fired from Apple and what he did next.  This part of the story is basically glossed over.          This is when he was responsible for the success of Pixar, the seeds of the modern Mac computer and the ideas that brought us what we think of when we hear the word Apple.  The humbling experience of getting kicked out of the company he created changed him in a way that sent repercussions throughout the world.  In this movie, the period is simply a title card telling us that years had passed.  Maybe the filmmakers thought that they didn’t have the time if they wanted to keep the movie to two hours, but without representing this period in his life, they really didn’t represent the part of his life that made him the man we know today.   

    Also, the film has a definite made for TV quality that seems a little out of place in a movie theater.  It suffers from having a fairly inexperienced director and a first-time screenwriter.  Under more experienced hands and with a better script, the movie would have been more impressive.  

    In 2001’s classic Pixar film Monsters, Inc., we met Mike Wazowski (Crystal) and Sulley (Goodman) and we just had to assume they were always best friends.  Now, 12 years later, we find out the truth about their past in this prequel.  What we learn is that Mike has dreamed of being a scarer since he was a little kid and that Sulley was a spoiled brat who thought his size and genetics would easily land him on the scare floor, following in the footsteps of his father.  Once in college, though, both of their dreams are crushed and they must find a way to not only respect one another but actually work together as a team.  

    When I first heard Pixar was going back to one my favorite animated films for inspiration, I was a bit disappointed.  After all, a prequel would leave out the heart of the film: the little girl, Boo.  Also, upon view of the first trailer, the movie looked like more of a kids Revenge of the Nerds than a cinematically savvy piece of animation.  Needless to say – I was worried that the Pixar creativity machine had dried up.  After all, Cars 2 wasn’t as bad as it was accused of being but it was a step down for them.  And Brave did away with all of storytelling magic we were used to from Pixar.  We expect so much from Pixar and I was afraid that now, officially, the expectations would need to be permanently lowered. 

    Fortunately, I was wrong.  While Monsters University isn’t their best film, it manages to make itself much better than it deserves to be due to a good script, great voice talent and a lot of love.  And even without little Boo, we still get a movie that hits in all of the right emotional spots.  Part of what works is that Mike and Sulley are believable as enemies.  And the fact that you know what they eventually become has no bearing.  Having Mike be the against-all-odds character full of courage but no talent and Sulley as the lazy natural, brings them together in a wonderful way that even allows for both to have a nice character arc. 

    I’ll admit that the film isn’t nearly as good as Monsters, Inc. but its strongest attribute is its comedy.  The film is just flat out funny.  And for a G-rated picture that is saying something.  As you would expect, Crystal and Goodman have a great chemistry, but here it is the script that shines.  It’s clever where it needs to be and throws in the right ingredients at the right time to deliver the best film that it possibly can.   It never forgets what it is, but what it is works well. 

    So while I would have rather seen an original and truly brilliant Pixar film, settling for this new Monsters prequel isn’t a bad way to pass the time.  B+

    With as many end of the world comedies as we’ve been hit with currently, in order to survive a film has to be two things: original and entertaining.  This is the End excels in both.  Rather than place fictional characters in a post-rapture apocalypse scenario, first time co-directors and co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg decided that they should create a universe where everyone is playing themselves.  In this story, Seth and his best friend from Canada, actor Jay Baruchel, attend a party at the house of James Franco on a night that will begin the end of life on Earth.  The huge and impressive comedic cast each play themselves, or at least a version of themselves that most people inside and out of Hollywood can go along with.  To me, that is creative, extremely original and grabbed my attention from the first time I heard of the project.

    But in order to make the movie entertaining, the story has to be solid and the writing funny and fortunately we get both here.  Behind the silliness, there is an honest story of sincere friendship in a world where phony relationships abound.  You can tell that the cast has an understanding of this and doesn’t have a problem confronting it.  And then the funny is turned on and once I started laughing, I don’t remember stopping.  I love a movie where it feels as if you just worked out your abs because you laughed so hard.  It doesn’t happen often but it happened here.  There were times I laughed over dialog that I wanted to hear but couldn’t control myself.  I will probably even go see it again just to catch some of the things I missed out on.  

    What myself and many others might find disturbing is the actual subject matter.  Most of the end of the world films we have seen have been based on asteroids, aliens or natural disasters.  This one is based on the book of Revelation in the New Testament.  While the film chooses to not be overly religious, it does offer up a scary scenario that some will be uncomfortable watching.  I’m in that category.  I was extremely uncomfortable given my beliefs, but I still managed to sit in my seat and laugh and then pray for forgiveness afterward.  At the beginning of the movie Dogma, Kevin Smith writes “even God has a sense of humor.  Just look at the Platypus.”  Not sure if that counts here, but at the very least I think the movie is positive in that it will give people something to think about, whether Christian or not.  It aligns itself with the point the bible makes in that good karma doesn’t get you into heaven, but then stops short in declaring what actually will and instead opts for a more secular viewpoint.  

    But since I seriously doubt that most folks will take the film’s philosophical teachings too seriously, if you let your hair down and just try to sit back and enjoy, this film will give you a really great time at the movies.  A-

The Hangover Part III
Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, John Goodman and Ken Jeong
Directed by Todd Phillips (The Hangover)
Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, some violence and drug content, and brief graphic nudity

    In this third and supposedly final installment of the Hangover franchise, Alan (Galifianakis) is going through some hard times after the death of his father, and his buddies Phil, Stu and Doug (Cooper, Helms and Bartha) try to convince him to check himself into a rehab center in the hopes of getting him back to semi-normal again.  Unfortunately they are stopped along the way by a gangster (Goodman) who takes Doug hostage until the others can find and bring him Mr. Chow (Jeong).  

    I was really looking forward to this movie.  Reading the synopsis I was excited about two things: the fact that they weren’t doing another drug hangover like the pointless second film and that the story actually seemed pretty good.  And it would have worked too if there was any thought put past the initial idea.  The Hangover Part III doesn’t suffer from story, but rather the inspiration to create a comedy to even come close to matching up to the first film.  

    First off, the writing just isn’t very creative and its certainly not funny.  One of the things about the first film that worked so well was that each individual scene and each little character added their own little hook.  Whether it be the stupid drug dealer or the kid tazering Alan, the film was a blast.  In this third installment, the characters they come across are boring and add nothing to the enjoyment of the film.  There is so much space here for comedy and instead its filled with a vacuum.  It also feels like room was made for improv in order to add the laughs and they forgot to fill that void.   

    Secondly, the performances are quite bad.  Sure Galifianakis and Jeong are over-the-top and fun to watch, but Cooper, Helms, Goodman and the rest of the cast are phoning it in the entire time.  It’s like they know they are in a potentially bad film but the money is just too good to turn down.  I was bored by this cast for the majority of the movie and frankly, that is a huge letdown considering how talented they are.