Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters (2016)

This movie mildly met my expectations. As a package it was fun to watch and in many ways nostalgic. Anyone who saw the iconic 1984 version would be naturally curious. Some performances were weak while others acceptable, but none were wickedly funny. The problem with a “reboot” is it wants to hang on to its linage but at the same time has the challenge to be fresh. The director and writers played this movie safe. Cast chemistry was very good. No one character dominated.

Melissa McCarthy has two basic personas, Tammy (wild woman) and Maggie from Saint Vincent.  Here Maggie as the lead scientist appeared. McCarthy was too low keyed and mostly unfunny. Her signature physical antics were absent. A subdued Melissa McCarthy is like watching strippers dance with their clothes on.

Kristin Wiig was the other scientist. Aside from some horny physical attraction to Hemsworth she was relegated as a mumbling worry worth. She is a very witty actress and could have contributed more to her role.

Kate McKinnon was the ordnance maven. She fabricated all sorts of ghostbusting weaponry (reminiscent of the 1984 movie). She sported a frozen a mad scientist look. Even with a limited guise she was funny in several spots even with little dialogue.

Leslie Jones has been described as a force of nature (I describe her as the last person you want to be stuck in an elevator with). Her performance in SNL is aggressive and wild. Here she was relegated to being a mere human. She was essential to the film but restraining here character was a mistake

At first I was not enthusiastic with Chris Hemsworth. The beefcake blond bird brain stereotype was obvious and unimaginative.  But his role grows on you and he has some funny skits. If the writers had more nerve they would have exploited sexual angle with Wiig. A three some with a ghost would have been edgy; calling Patrick Swayze. 

The movie was more effective when it was physical. Being slimed is still fun and fighting specters is what ghostbueters do. There are some end of the world battles. Chaos was done well.

Interestingly the special effects were not much different from the 1984 original. After thirty-two years you would expect some significant innovations. May be the director wanted to connect with the past.  Sadly, the Marshmallow Man did not appear.

There were some wonderful  nostalgic cameos from the 1984 movie.  The big names all seemed to have a good time and boosted the movie. Missing was the “Key Master”, Rick Moranis. He was asked but declined to appear.

This movie has its weak points, but there is enough to make it watchable. For those over sixty this s a nostalgic walk. Hey, for the rest of you can do worse. Until the “Suicide Squad “opens.

p.s. Theme music is the same as the original-why mess with perfect.

Tarzan

Tarzan

As a boy I was a Tarzan fan. My Tarzan was Johnny Weissmuller. He was German American and a five-time Olympic gold medal winner in swimming. He was not great actor, but the shows were action packed. Swinging from vines, riding elephants using his famous jungle call (which he patented). The focus of the films was action sprinkled with accidental acting.

This action flick this film was slow to get going. There was plot set up, convincing Tarzan to return to Africa, flash backs explaining the back story (done well). It dragged on a bit, but the pace quickened later on with human and non-human battles.

The 2016 Tarzan is a blond Swedish actor named is Alexander Skarsgard (before acting he was a model-dah). He is an obvious departure from traditional Tarzans but it does not detract from the action. His acting a bit stiff, but what he lacks in nuance he makes up in physicality. It took an hour and sixteen minutes before he took his shirt off. The guy is ripped. I stopped counting abs at twelve. He fights apes (not too well), natives and evil white men. He looks great on the vines.

 Margot Robbie is Jane. She is bubbly. Even in dire situation she remains rosy.  Whatever happens she knows Tarzan will come for her. This is a theme of the film, Tarzan’s devotion to Jane. There are geopolitical crises afoot and Jane is used as the bait.

Christoph Waltz is the villain who is in the service of King Leopold of Belgium. The plot is to enslave the Congolese natives and plunger their diamonds. Waltz is an admired actor but when he plays the bad guy with Natizi characteristics, you just want to punch him in the nose. He gives a solid performance absent repartee. This made his performance dower. Some levity would have been most welcomed.

Samuel L Jackson is an American named George Washington Williams who accompanies Tarzan back to Africa. Jackson does not even try to use of 19^th century speech cadence. He is still talks like the man on the plane with does M….F…. snakes. His performance grows on you as he tries to keep up with Tarzan. In part It becomes a buddy movie.

Poor Dijmon Hounsou, someone had to go native and he pulled the short straw. He plays the chief of fierce tribe and is Tarzan’s mortal enemy. His fierceness is compromised by wearing a little leopard skin skull cap and mittens with claws. He is intimidating any disguise, but the mittens kill it.

A problem of the movie is actors seem to be on different planes. Skarsgard is too serious, Robbie is too bubbly, Jackson seems to be playing in another movie and Waltz is graven. For movie to coalesce there needs to be some acting consistency.

For $180m production cost I think more action was expected. With some of the disappointing cinematic fair out there this is not the worst movie you can see. Just calibrate your expectations

Spoiler Alert- No loincloths are worn. Anyway who wants to see Samuel L Jackson in a loincloth.

Independence Day-Resurgence

Independence Day-Resurgence

In 1996, the day before leaving for Switzerland, I went to the midnight show of Independence Day. It was a highly anticipated film. The special effects were impressive (who can forget the Empire State building exploding). The story was transparent and the film had humor.  It was also very lucrative.

This movie is a mess. It uses five writers. The more writers used the more chaotic the film becomes. With all the destruction, this film resembles a demolition derby rather than a movie. Destruction is pervasive; it is the hallmark of the film. No landmark on any continent is spared. The original film also used destruction but the director had a purpose, to use it as the catalyst to fight the aliens

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The actors were mere props. Some of the acting was stilted and others uninspired. There were actors from the original film: Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsh, Vivica A. Fox (the striper mom).  They did not energize the film. Pictures of Will Smith were plastered on the walls of the White House so he must be dead (Actually he was filming Suicide Squad). His grown son was his stand in. Liam Hemsworth (Thor’s brother) is one of the leads. No one’s acting was memorable, including Harmsworth’s, but good looks forgive many sins.

The essence of the plot is “let’s get them before they get us”. Same as the other flick but here bedlam highjacks the film. The movie wallowed in excessive and expensive CG. This is a weakness of the poor writing and feckless directing.  The production cost is $165m (plus advertising= $330m). I hope the Chinese (their market rivals ours) have a large appetite for schlock.  

p.s.-To kill time I snuck into the movie “The Shallows” with Blake Lively. I was more curious than interested. I caught the last third of the film. From what I saw It was very good; tension was palatable with Blake trying to outwit a shark. The setup is she is stuck on an out crop of rocks and only a few yards from shore and high tide is rising. The shark waits. The shark made human sashimi of some errant surfers. Jaws is the holy grail for this genera. This film is a worthy candidate for shark movies.

X Men Apocalypse

 X Men Apocalypse

This probably is the worst written superhero film to date. Four writers are credited for this mess implying there were several rewrites and they still didn’t get it right. The divergent subplots did not coalesce. The overall plot is simple, world domination (it took four guys to figure this out!). Getting there was overly complicated. The disappointment is this film follows the last film” X Men First Class” which was a critical and financial success.

The cast is voluminous, with major and minor characters. The stalwarts are:

James McEvoy as professor Charles Xavier

Michael Fassbinder as Magneto

Jennifer Lawrence as Mystic

Nicholas Hoult as Beast

Having so many characters strains the cohesiveness of the film and sometimes is a distraction. Utilizing these characters was a challenge the director and writers failed. Some performances are brief and lacked impact. Remembering their names and powers is challenging for anyone over 60. Please refer to Wikipedia. 

Jennifer Lawrence is out of costume and looked especially fetching with blond tendrils falling on her shoulder. But when duty calls she releases her inner Smurf and transforms into Mystic blue and nude. Wolverine makes a cameo appearance. He is a human Cuisinart shredding soldiers with his talons. McEvoy and Fassbinder rekindle their love hate relationship. As the bad boy Fassbinder does little talking but much damage. McEvoy reprises his savoir of mankind role. There acting was a snooze,

The villain En Sabah Nur, the “First Mutant” (I thought that was Keith Richards?), is played by Oscar Isaac. With makeup and prosthesis, he is nearly unrecognizable, which for the sake of his career is a good thing. His star trajectory is on the rise (Star Wars, Ex Machina) so this role hopefully will just be a bump in his career

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For the most part the film was dower. Repartee was serious and not light hearted.  This movie is another downward spiral for the superhero genera. What hold the presses, to date the movie has made $402m (production cost $178m). Forget what I said!

Captain America-Civil War

This is my 100^th review

Captain America-Civil War

One of the best things about this movie was absence of Batman. Contrasting Civil War (CW) with Batman vs Superman frames what makes CW a financial and critical success. The plot is understandable, with a few twits, as opposed to the fog of B v S. The actors have good chemistry even when they fight each other. Relations in B v S turned toxic. Robert Downy Jr.’s sarcastic repartee and sharp comments from other actors lightened up the drama. Humor was sorely absent from B v S, making it grim. CW has an unfair advantage using two directors, Antony and Joe Russo. Given the mess B v S, even with a lifeline from a second director, the movie would still have drowned. One thing both have in common is former allies battling each other; hey just like the Republican Party.

Captain America is the leader of the rebellious faction, opposed by Ironman and his team. There are guest appearances by non-Avenger super heroes making solid contributions to the movie. Chadwick Boseman (a.k.a. James Brown, the perfect preparation for his role), stars as Panther the first black Marvel super hero.  He is in neither camp, but mainly fights Captain America with his steel claws. The return of the Winter Solider, Sabastian Stan, provides a pivotal role. He is the childhood best friend of Captain America and is cast as villain. Captain America’s conflicted loyalties create the underlying tension of the movie.

 CG is the back bone of the film and done well. The stunt work was impressive and garnered positive responses from the audience.  The unrelenting explosions and pyrotechnics hastened the movie’s two and half hour run time (much appreciated by the elderly and their bladder).

A big part of the movie is the battle royal; some scenes were quite intense.  The steam of insults and witticisms hurled by the actors provided comic counter point to the mayhem.  Scarlett Johansson is skilled at deflating male egos. Robert Downy Jr.’s motor mouth runs on.

The film’s production cost is $250m ($500m with advertising). Internationally the movie made $291m, and prospects for domestic box office are huge. This means Hollywood will be churning out more superhero movies.  “Nothing succeeds like success”.

At the end of the movie the audience applauded as did I; the producers were delighted.

p.s.- Make sure to check out the credit ending.

Hardcore Henry

Hardcore Henry

Do not see this movie. It is a kinetic orgy of ultra-violence. The movie’s shtick is filming using a GoPro Hero 3 camera strapped to Henry’s forehead. What we see are Henry’s arm and legs flaying around. This unique cinematic technique is good for about two minutes, then it gets boring (the extreme sports crowd does GoPro better). Without this gimmick this film would just be another splatter film.

Henry is a cyborg, part human part machine. The movie is nonstop battle between Henry and a telekinetic mercenary leader and his army. The whole movie rotates on the different ways of killing and maiming people. One interesting aspect of the movie is it is shot in Moscow and you see its grand old buildings and in contrast the filthy underbelly of urban decay littered with drugs and graffiti. There are scant subtitles translating Russian.

There are two actors of note. The South African actor Sharlto Copley (he was in District 9 and Elysium) who plays Jimmy a cyborg who helps Henry. There are many copies of Jimmy and when as one gets killed another pops up. The other actor is Tim Roth. Roth’s screen time is brief I think out of embarrassment.

At the theater they gave out Hardcore Henry comic books. I left mine in the bathroom, which is an apt metaphor for this film.

Midnight Special

Midnight Special

This film is a modest sci-fi movie with a small cast of actors. The story is about a boy with mysterious powers who is abducted   by his father and driven to a secret location.  Bits of the boy’s powers are revealed during the journey and with every new revelation suspense grows. The trip to the final destination is littered with peril because the federal government wants to integrate him and members from an apocalyptic church, from which he escaped, are hunting him and believe he is a spiritual compass.

Michael Shannon is the father. This is a different role for Shannon. Blessed with a face of a stone cold killer he usually plays bad guy. He was General Zod in Man of Steel and played a vicious hit man in the Iceman who actually froze his victims. Here he plays a loving father willing to risk his life for his son. His affection was genuine.

Joel Edgerton joins Shannon on the journey. Edgerton is usually in leading roles so this supporting turn is a bit unusual. The role is not demanding. Kristin Dunst plays the mother. She comes in half way through the movie. She gives her usual sleepy laid back performance.

The boy is played by Jaeden Leiberher (Oliver in St. Vincent). He is very good in this role keeping a level of composure during the high risk journey. For the most part he controls of his powers but things do get out of hand on the road.

Adam Driver is not a big box office draw yet but he gives yeoman’s work in this film. From his appearance in Girls to Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens his resume is growing impressively. Here he is an NAS agent trying to decipher information from the boy.

Computer Graphics do not play a big role in the film which is unusual for a sci-fi movie, except for the end which is fantastic. This movie has a definite feel of Close Encounter of the Third Kind . The ending is spectacular and tender. A good movie for the whole family.