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April 22, 2014

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Rated PG for some crude comments, language and action violence
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This story has been in the works for years with directors like Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Gore Verbinski attached to direct icons like Jim Carrey, Sacha Baron Cohen and Mike Myers.  But finally Ben Stiller got a hold of it to both helm and star.  For all of the hoopla, the film, which follows a photography lab rat who goes on a world-wide adventure to find a missing photograph, sure plays poorly.  It’s a beautifully produced picture that looks epic from the trailers but ends up being much smaller than it should be.  While Stiller is a good fit for the role of Mitty, many of the actors seem miscast.  The typically great Adam Scott is just annoying as the unbelievable bully and I sensed zero chemistry between Stiller and Kristen Wiig.  While Stiller is typically a great comedy director, this film doesn’t give a sense of that.  It is poorly paced throughout and brushes over some huge plot holes.  Sure it’s a fantasy, but it lacks the necessary authenticity needed to hold it together.  C

Earth Day Movies: Tapped and Greedy Lying Bastards
Available on DVD
You don’t have to be a hippie to appreciate the planet we live on and want to do what is possible to take care of it.  On Memorial Day weekend I love to watch old war movies.  In December I love to watch Christmas films.  And in late April I love to take in documentaries about what kind of damage we are doing to the planet.  This Earth Day I’d like to encourage you to check out a couple that have impressed me.  Tapped tells the story of big corporate water companies and what they are really up to.  It is shocking to think about the fact that bottled water costs more than oil in this country.  It is a challenging film that will make you think twice about how you are getting your fluids.  Even more frightening and angering is Greedy Lying Bastards which shows the length that corporations will go to cover up and make the public doubt the real causes of global warming.  While the narration by the director sounds a bit too much like Mr. Garrison from South Park, the message is clear and unfortunately very frustrating.  Tapped A-;  Greedy Lying Bastards B

Mr Magoo: The Theatrical Collection 1949-1959
Available on DVD
The Mr. Magoo I remember watching as a kid was a funny bumbling old man, but I kind of thought that the show would be a little stale by today’s standards.  These shorts that were made exclusively for movie theaters prove this theory false as the cartoons now could be considered extremely insensitive and remarkably funny.  It’s a show that could not be made today the way it was then.  This new DVD set from Shout Factory presents all 53 theatrical cartoons much of them in in their original Cinemascope aspect ratio, plus the feature film 1001 Arabian Nights.  While it will be a nice piece of nostalgia and humor for older audiences, due to its nature, it’s probably not the best cartoon to demonstrate to your kids what your childhood was like.  B+

The Nut Job
Rated PG for mild action and rude humor
Available on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D
The last several months have been filled with some very quality animated features such as Frozen, The Lego Movie and Mr. Peabody and Sherman but there have also been a lot of really terrible movies like this stinker from Universal about a group of city park animals who attempt to rob a nut store in order to feed themselves.  They got together some big names like Will Arnett, Brendan Frasier, Liam Neeson and Katherine Heigl, but the story is weak and the animation is embarrassingly bad given today’s accepted level of artistry.  This is the work of a group of studio hacks who are trying to capitalize on a lack of family entertainment and hoping that their pic can sneak in and sneak out of theaters in time to make a little money.  D

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Rated R for pervasive language, some violence, graphic nudity and some drug use
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This 5th chapter in the Pararnormal Activity franchise follows the “found footage” concept like the previous ones but this time a new set of characters in a Latino neighborhood in Southern California communicate with the demon from the other films and a new set of scary troubles ensue.  I’ll admit that I was scared senseless by the first two films in the franchise.  Even to this day the hair stands up on the back of my neck just thinking about them.  But with the last few additions my neck hair has remained dormant.  This newest pic has some good ideas and is a nice new direction, but the scares are few and it fails to deliver a good punch to the gut.  C+

The 400 Blows: The Criterion Edition
Available on Blu-ray/DVD Combo
French with English Subtitles
It’s hard to describe what makes Francois Truffaut’s first full-length feature film such a classic but simply put it is an exhilarating ride that is hard to take your eyes off of.  An early example of the French New Wave, The 400 Blows is a semi-biographical look at the director’s young life, telling the tale of a young pre-teen who just can’t seem to make home-life or school-life work for him but all the while has wonderful adventures playing hooky through the streets of Paris.  After watching this marvelous 1959 classic, you must take in the fantastic audio commentary featuring cinema professor Brian Stonehill as he discusses the real life events that formed this fictional work.  A

King Kong vs. Godzilla
Available on Blu-ray
Making its blu-ray debut is this classic monster movie from 1962 which has the great King Kong facing the horrible Godzilla in a legendary brawl.  Okay, its not legendary, but it is fun to watch two dudes in really bad creature suits going at it over a cheaply built set.  Honestly, the movie works like a comedy better than it does a monster movie.  My family and I had a blast watching the silly battle and the irregular and awkward story.  This definitely falls into the “so bad its almost good” category.  B-

Frozen
Rated PG for some action and mild rude humor
Available on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D
I would have never thought that Disney’s latest princess flick would be the avalanche that it has become, but it has turned out to be the mouse house’s biggest animated hit in years.  Now it enters homes hot off its two Oscar wins (best song and best animated feature) and will most likely fly off of the shelves to become a record-breaking dvd/blu-ray release.  The music is extremely catchy and the story, about a princess with the power to freeze her surroundings and her sister who longs to have a relationship with her, is as touching as it is entertaining.  It is highly aware of itself as it tries to debunk the old-fashioned notion of love at first sight and the power of true love’s kiss, but this does not distract from the enjoyment in the least.  A-

Saving Mr. Banks
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements including some unsettling images. 
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
While I was surprised that Frozen has become such a hit, I was even more surprised that Saving Mr. Banks was such a miss.  After all, it has Tom Hanks as Walt Disney trying to woo Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers into allowing him to make one of his all-time classics, Mary Poppins.  It’s a fantastic story with amazing performances by a very talented cast including Hanks, Thompson, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Collin Farrell and others.  I hope that on DVD this one gets the crowd it should have gotten in theaters.  A

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, brief strong language, intense sequences of violence and sexual content
Based on Nelson Mandela’s very thick autobiography, Long Walk tells the story of the man who has been given the credit for ending apartheid in South Africa.  The performance by Idris Elba as Mandela is really fantastic, but as with many biopics, the movie suffers under its own weight.  I finished watching feeling educated about some of the major events of his time, but the story and script were less than impressive.  C+

Monsters: The Complete Series
Available on DVD
From 1988-91, the Sci-Fi channel brought us 72 half-hour episodes of this cult classic show which revolved around all sorts of monsters starring all sorts of stars like Steve Buscemi, David Spade and Lili Taylor.  While it could be extremely cheesy at times, it has surprisingly good creature effects for its time.  While I didn’t get to see all of the 26 hours contained within, what I did see proved to be a gloriously campy way to spend a night eating pizza and popcorn.  B

Out of the Furnace
Rated R for strong violence, language and drug content
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Christian Bale plays a struggling blue-collar worker who is forced to take the law into his own hands when his brother (Casey Affleck) turns up missing and the law won’t do anything about it.  This indie is quite ambitious for a quiet little rust bowl picture.  The story isn’t that unique but the performances stand out, especially from Woody Harrelson who plays one heck of a mean villain.  All of the characters are more complex than they let on, though, making for an interesting watch.  But while the film is a decent enough drama, it is ultimately pretty forgettable and really only worth a rent and not a buy.  B-

The Book Thief
Rated PG-13 for some violence and intense depiction of thematic material
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Based on the book by Markus Zusak, The Book Thief tells the story of a young girl who is adopted by a German family during WWII who is hiding a Jewish refugee.  After she learns to read, she begins stealing books from a local home in order to entertain herself and keep her illegal guest company.  While the film has good intentions, it just isn’t interesting enough to hold your attention.  Sophie Nelisse, who plays the young girl, isn’t a particularly great actress, and the script by Michael Petroni even makes the performances of Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson look stale.  The one saving grace the film has is a magnificent score by the infamous John Williams, who hasn’t done a non-Spielberg film since 2005’s Memoirs of a Geisha.  While the music doesn’t make the film worth watching, it certainly is a soundtrack worth owning.  C

The Grandmaster
Rated PG-13 for violence, some smoking, brief drug use and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Ip Man, Bruce Lee’s legendary martial arts instructor, has been a major subject of asian cinema over the last few years.  Once again his story is being told, only this time with iconic director Wong Kar-wei (In the Mood for Love), big stars like Tony Leung (Lust, Caution) and Ziyi Zhang (Memoirs of a Geisha), and action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (Kill Bill).  The production is very good and deserving of the two Oscar noms for cinematography and costume design, but the story is difficult to follow and frankly quite annoying.  I really wanted to like the movie but I was just too distracted by the lousy writing and narcissistic excess.  I’m sure there is something lost in translation here, but I love martial arts films and I couldn’t enjoy this one at all.  C   

Narco Cultura
Rated R for grisly graphic images of disturbing violent content, drug material , language and brief nudity
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Very similar to the violent rap that penetrated the mainstream culture in the 90s, there is a subculture of Mexican music that has found a new popularity amongst Mexicans and Latinos both south and north of the border.  Glamorizing the lives of violent cartel members, the music sounds like positive tunes to those who don’t speak Spanish, but those who do understand are told stories of drugs, bazookas and beheadings to a friendly  rhythm.  This documentary chronicles this music and its relationship to the horrible violence seen in Mexico and has you scratching your head at why it has had such little effect on American violence.  It follows both a singer in the musical movement who worships the cartel leaders as well as a member of the CSI unit in Juarez who struggles to rid his country of the senseless violence.  In 2012, Juarez saw over 2000 homicides while across the border in El Paso the number was 14.  While these rates seem to be going down, the music heralds the very criminals at the source of the epidemic and has found its way into pop culture.  While there were many scary movies in 2013, this was by far the most horrifying to me.  A