Movie Review: The Purge

Horror movies have a certain draw to them.  In each movie, the story is basically the same: picture of normal life, something erupts to challenge this, people in story must band together (or against one another) to survive, the end.  It isn’t rocket science, but it has been done down to a science.  In this Ethan Hawke movie, this is my second Hawke movie in about a year (two more than any other year), he plays a family man who sells security systems to protect people from an annual activity called The Purge.  The US government has decided that people are violent and if they have one evening to expend that energy over one night, no repercussions.  When Hawke and his family go to bed that night, with the house safely locked up, a threat emerges from within and outside the house, both attributable to the children.  The dangers compound and run into one another and the family that would normally avoid participating.

Without revealing the hooks in the story, the execution comes off at such a wonderful pace that the passable acting can be overlooked.  Hawke plays an excellent father, but the story doesn’t give him great range.  The best performances come from Game of Thrones alum Lena Heady.  The conflict ramps up again and again and her reactions are both expected and yet still come off as a surprise.  At one point, when the house is being bombarded, she is asked to defend one side of the house, but as a woman who hasn’t wielded a weapon before, she predictably acts skittish and endangers herself and children.  While the scene is expected in a horror movie, it still came off with a good amount of tension.

The story was really unusual, something that could have been taken to great heights.  Instead, as seems to be usual with horror movies nowadays, the story backs off as it slows down.  The idea that the government would allow a no-holds-barred evening of killing opens up a variety of stories, and yet this horror movie did little with it.  I often wonder if there is something wrong with Hollywood, other than the obvious and this movie convinces me that original thought isn’t permitted.

Movie Review: Now You See Me

Movies about magic often take the fun out of magic, take the illusion and turn it into a spectacle of its own.  This movie is little different, but with less involving characters and a shoe-string plot, the thing that brings you to the theatre are the special effects and little more.  At the time, I found myself very entertained, but as the day wore on, I felt the movie had less and less staying power.

The story follows four magicians who have hit hard times, none able to deliver the tricks they had in the past, all of them suffering from a bad economy and a public that doesn’t believe in magic, or believes in paying for quality magic.  Each magician has his own skill, together putting together a trick that sees a bank being seemingly robbed and money materialise into bank accounts without their involvement.  The tricks are increasingly elaborate, none truly explained to a satisfactory manner, but enough to keep the audience sated.  The story uses a multitude of narrators, a washed-up magician who is working with the police as well as the magicians themselves.

Without giving away the ending, the movie keeps you engaged, but doesn’t give you anything that truly makes the story stand out.  I thought a lot about other movies about magic I’d seen and still Prestige is the best.  The actors were truly remarkable and the magic tricks were truly magical.  In this movie, the acting was passable, the story draining with its convoluted twists and turns. I respect Hollywood for trying to produce something new, but with no payoff at the end, the movie fell flat.  The current fare in the theatre isn’t great, making this movie worth seeing, but overall, it was mediocre at best.

Movie Review: Fast and Furious 6

I sometimes wonder why I go to these movies, and then I remember, it isn’t for the plot.  Fast and Furious is a series based on thieves that steal things and do so to maintain their high=speed life-styles.  The cars and men in the movies are really to die for.  The cars are enough to tune in for $7, but check any other expectations at the door.

In this latest instalment, Dom and co are roped into helping Hobbs (the Rock) into taking down an international thief.  Unsurprisingly, the crew is given a carte blanche to create mayhem and destruction in London as they discover Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is alive and working with above thief.  Without fail, the crew manage to save the day though they lose two of their crew that no one really remembers doing so.

Fast and Furious is a fun movie.  The cars in the movie are one reason to go, but the men in it are easy on the eyes as well.  The story is derivative and predictable.  I never felt very involved in the story and the characters are hardly more than archetypes that have been so worn down there’s little left.  The ending set up perfectly for a sequel.  I can’t be excited about it, but I’ve no doubt I’ll be in the theatre for FF7.

Movie Review: Pain and Gain

Stories based on true events are often tough to swallow.  Hollywood loves to truss up a story, make it into something it never was, make things funny when they weren’t.  While I may not know the original story that this was based on, I did read the news report posted online and was unsurprised to read that the people who had been kidnapped in the actual story were disgusted with the changes made.  I can’t imagine anyone being happy with a Hollywood comedy about a tragic event in their lives, but it is unsurprising.

The story follows an anti-hero named Lugo played by Mark Walberg.  Lugo is a personal trainer, working hard, wanting more from life, like many of us, no doubt.  After attending a self-help seminar, he realises he can’t continue doing what he’s doing.  Instead he sees one of his clients, Victor, has more than he deserves.  Lugo convinces two friends to help him with a ‘simple’ kidnapping scheme that will make them rich.  As expected, things go off the rails from the beginning.  The kidnapping is never executed well and it takes three tries before they finally acquire the target in any capacity.

The acting was superb, Dwayne Johnson, the Rock, may seem like a meat-head, but he stole practically every scene he was in.  Guest appearances from Rebel Wilson and Ken Jeong were perfect.  I feel like Mark Walberg has been playing the same two characters in every movie I’ve seen him in: the tortured, tough guy or the funny, buff guy.  While I have been impressed with his work, this one felt very forced.

The story ends as you might expect, but I found myself not feeling sympathetic for the tough guys, who were the main focus of the story, but the resiliency from the hateable victim Victor.  Tony Shaloub is absolutely detestable as Victor.  You hate him the moment you meet him, but truthfully, you should feel sorry for him.  This allusion may be poorly placed, but the movie reminded me of Cogan’s Way, the recent Brad Pitt movie Killing Them Softly.  The basis for that movie was about the American Way, getting what you want and working hard for it.

This movie cuts from the same cloth.  Lugo wants the American life, the one that is feasible in this country, but few others.  If you work hard, if you stay the course, you will be rewarded.  What Lugo forgets is that he isn’t working hard, he’s stealing.  Victor wins because he is dogged in his efforts, as he was on his way to success.  The crux of the story is if you cut corners, you won’t get to the finish line.  While we may not like it, despicable people are successful because they don’t give up, they don’t let someone beat them.  Victor was literally run over by a car, narrowly escaped being caught several times and managed to have his story taken seriously by one person, and that is all it takes.

Many reviewers felt this movie was vapid, but I found the moral hitting home.  I want to succeed, as we all do, and more like Victor than Lugo, I’m not cutting corners, putting in the time to be see the fruits of my labour.  If nothing else, the movie emboldened my focus, confirming that hard work does pay off.  Go forth and take that dream, no one will give it to you.

Movie Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

The story of the wizard of Oz is only known, for most folks, from the viewpoint of Dorothy through the age old movie the Wizard of Oz and the many revivals it has seen.  In the new movie, Oz the Great and Powerful, the audience sees the story from the role of the wizard who becomes the Great Wizard of Oz.  The wizard is a less than savoury man, a con artist to the highest degree, wanting to be more, but not willing to put the time and effort in to be better.  Though this kind of character isn’t new, he still seemed compelling and interesting.  When he gets whisked off by a tornado, he lands in a new world, meeting a woman who helps him to the emerald city.  Her name is Theodora, and she believes he loves her.  As a con man, he loves himself the most.  Her sister, Evanora tells Oz he must kill the evil witch so that their world can be free of her evil.  When he finally meets her, she resembles a woman he loved back in Kansas.  He soon realises that one of the two of the witches are lying to him.  The story unfolds in somewhat predictable fashion, but this doesn’t detract from the story or experience in any way.

Without giving away the end, the story ends with a perfect opening for Dorothy to arrive in the Land of Oz.  The acting was passable, at times, not as great as the breath-taking special effects.  James Franco and Mila Kunis were good, but not great.  I felt like I could hear ‘Meg’ every time Kunis got upset or agitated.  It is silly, I know, but it pulled me out of the story each time she did it.  Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams were absolutely amazing.  Both delivered what I’ve come to expect, knock-out performances.  I’m still amazed Williams didn’t win an Oscar nomination for her role in My Week with Marilyn, but such is life in Hollywood.  The story was quite good, the execution decent.  I can see why many critics felt it fell flat.  There were points where I felt like Franco was giving his trademark grin, phoning in the performance for our benefit.  Sometimes, I’m not sure I take him very seriously.  The 3D effect was incorporated well into the story, not making it seem overzealous as many kids movies tend to.  This is worth seeing, but I’m not sure I’d see it in the evening.  Many theatres have matinee specials, I’d go for that if I were you.

Movie Review: The Last Exorcism Part II

A fan of horror movies must often suffer through really bad movies to get really good ones.  The Last Exorcism was a ‘found footage’ style movie that placed viewers with a preacher who claimed that no one was ever really possessed and proved it by taking a film crew along.  As luck would have it, he stumbles upon a real possession and faces his own death as he tries to save the girl being taken by a demon.  In the sequel, we pick up where we left off, so to speak.  The possessed girl, Nell, has finally been found, doesn’t remember much of what happened and is trying to lead a normal life.  The demon who possessed her loves her and wants her back.

In what can only be typified by your garden variety low-class attempts, the story groans and sputters, leading from one predictable sequence to the next, never providing anything of interest or anything compelling save for the consistent innocence from Nell, performed quite ably by Ashley Bell.  She personifies confusion and panic in a way that makes the terrible story almost bearable for an hour and a half.  What is more disappointing with this sequel is not the heavy-handed writing, the mediocre acting or the banal acting from most of the cast, it departed so heavily from the original, save for Nell, the story almost lacked any cohesion.  The first movie was terrifying for the twists and turns, for the unpredictability.  The sequel was tired and underwhelming, the ending worthy of walking out.  Of all the bad horror movies I’ve seen, this is one of the worst.  I forgot it almost as soon as I got to my car.

Movie Digest: Academy Awards 2012

Like many of you, I watched the Oscars, which is to say I watched the first thirty minutes of it before my DVR changed the channel to Walking Dead and I went to bed.  In the morning, much to my dismay, did I see the expected winners win.  Daniel Day-Lewis I can’t argue with.  I have yet to hear how Lincoln spoke, but I suspect he became Lincoln for that movie.  Christoph Waltz was the same person from Inglorious Basterds, if you ask me, but I guess that’s how things shake out.  Anne Hathaway probably does deserve an award for just losing that much weight and being able to sing, but you’d have to pay me to watch Les Mis. 

The most confounding moment was Jennifer Lawrence.  I don’t even mean the falling on your face, though good on Hugh Jackman and Bradely Cooper for coming to her aid.  But really, since when has playing in a romantic comedy earned someone an academy award nomination, let alone a sweep through the Golden Globes and Oscars?  I mean, really?  I think I may have lost all respect for the reputable institution after this move.  Yes, JLaw was great in Winter’s Bone, but that doesn’t mean you need to give a ‘make-up’ award for a laughable performance in a mildly diverting rom-com.  I just can’t understand it.

After sitting through many of the best picture movies this past weekend, I found my mind unable to wrap around how anyone in that cast, let alone the writers and producers, getting any credit for writing a romantic comedy.  I do realise that ‘As Good As It Gets’ did this exact same thing years ago, but really, the Academy was just giving Nicholson an award, and his trip down mental illness seemed much more believable than either Lawrence or Cooper.  Jessica Chastain deserved that award and while I’m happy she’s happy, I’d be spitting nails if I were her.

And while I have your limited attention, despite what the Huffington Post tells me, I don’t think Seth McFarlane was that bad.  I thought his monologue could have been shorter, sure, but I think it was entertaining and didn’t steal from the show.  Yes, his jokes can be off-putting, but if you’ve never seen anything he’s done, then that might surprise you.  He isn’t Billy Crystal, no one is or ever will be.

If you want, here are links to all the movies I reviewed over the weekend: Beasts of theSouthern Wild, Dark Skies, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero DarkThirty.