Unifnished Song - 2 smiles

I was hoping for another Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but what I got, at best, is a shallow facsimile. “Unfinished Song,” like other ‘oldster comedies’ has, as its guiding principle, that aging adults can discover it’s never too late to learn something new. In good movies, this idea is the starting point. In lazy ones, all we get are stereotypes (the grump, the free spirit, resentful children, loving caregivers) and a predictable narrative. So what do we have in this movie? Our free spirit is Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) and her husband Arthur (Terence Stamp) is the grump. James (Christopher Eccleston) is their resentful son and Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton) is the cheerful music teacher at their local senior center and you really don’t learn much more about these characters. And writer-director Paul Andrew Williams’ script is way too manipulative as he all but demands that you pull out your Kleenex to sop your tears.

Though dying of cancer, Marion remains a dedicated member of the center’s chorus, which is enthusiastically practicing for an upcoming musical competition. The always cranky Arthur, of course, doesn’t approve, but you know that somehow he’ll become involved with the group. Redgrave imbues Marion with a beautiful luminosity and a heart that understands and loves Arthur. Stamp is understandably bitter as he contemplates life without Marion. They really do seem like a lifelong couple and they elevate the material. Watching them turn their clichéd characters into living, breathing people is the main reason to see “Unfinished Song.”

Note: 2007’s wonderful documentary Young@Heart, about an actual senior chorus, is a much better movie. They, too, sing contemporary songs, overcome obstacles and grow together. And no one tries to elicit cheap laughs. 

The Kings of Summer - 2 smiles

I wanted “The Kings of Summer” to be better than it is. The movie’s success, about three boys who decide to run away and live in a house they build in the woods, hinges on the relationship between the two central characters, Joe (Nick Robinson) and his best friend, Patrick (Gabriel Basso). The chemistry isn’t there, perhaps because they aren’t able to convey the depth that life-long friends would have. The third character, Biaggio (Moises Arias), acts weird and says weird things, adding comic relief, but you never learn much about him. And although I think director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and writer Chris Galletta want the building of the house to represent a sort of coming of age, the boys build it too fast, leaving the story to devolve into shallow sitcom.

Joe (Robinson) is the high school-age son of a single father Frank (Nick Offerman). Frank is strict to the point of being dictatorial and Joe can’t wait to get out from under his thumb. Patrick (Basso) also has parent problems. In his case, it’s because his mom and dad are forever hovering. When Joe suggests he and Patrick run away and build and live in a cabin in the woods, Patrick reluctantly agrees. They are joined by Biaggio (Arias), a weird kid who attaches himself to their project. The three successfully build their home, but getting dinner becomes a challenge. And when Joe’s would-be girlfriend Kelly (Erin Moriarty) accepts an invitation to the cabin, the spark between her and Patrick puts the boys’ friendship in danger. “The Kings of Summer” is passable entertainment, light and insubstantial. 6/20/13

Man of Steel - 2 smiles

Although Iron Man 3 had its hero suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Tony Stark retains his sense of humor. And even though The Avengers are busy defending the world from Loki, they manage to balance the action with humor and fun. I wish the same could be said for Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel.” The script, written by David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan, contains too much angst and not enough enjoyment. The movie is entertaining in parts and hits some satisfying notes, especially the first half about a young man discovering who he is and what his purpose is. The second half focuses on a mind-numbing (and tedious) battle with an overload of CGI that literally bludgeons the viewer.

The movie begins with a lengthy prologue on the doomed planet Krypton. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) load their newborn son, Kal-El, into a pod and send him to Earth. Before Krypton explodes, Jor-El faces off with General Zod (a fiercely effective Michael Shannon), whose genetically-encoded obsession with ensuring that Kryptonians survive gets him and his cohorts arrested, frozen and blasted into space. We jump 33 years later as Clark Kent (Henry Cavill), a rootless wanderer taking odd jobs, searches for the meaning of his existence. Clark’s heroic impulses continually conflict with the advice of his adopted father, Jonathan (Kevin Costner), to delay revealing his powers for fear mankind won’t accept him. Reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams, effective in any role), whose Daily Planet is now edited by Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, has grit and swagger, but little gift for banter. She mostly regards Clark as a source. And, of course, we know we haven’t seen the last of General Zod. Brit Henry Cavill successfully conveys Clark’s confidence and vulnerability and he looks great as the next iteration of Superman. We don’t learn much about Lois Lane (Amy Adams) other than she’s the reporter who chases a story that results in her meeting Clark. Lois utters the name ‘Superman’ one of the few times it’s mentioned.  Bottom line? Way too much blow everything up in CGI spectacle and not enough fun. “Man of Steel” is a cold, barren movie. Too bad. 6/14/13

The Internship - 1 1/2 smiles

I don’t like stupid comedies and the trailer for “The Internship” plays up all of the stupid parts so it was with some trepidation that I went to see the latest from Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. It’s better than I was expecting, but that’s not saying much. This movie places a lot of its hope on the likability of its stars, but this can only carry a two-hour movie so far. There has to be character, story and, most importantly, an emotional core and all are missing. The story is mostly a cliché about the wise older generation teaching life lessons to the youngsters and any emotional response is a manipulated tack-on at the end. And it’s unsettling to see two reasonably gifted comic actors play clueless oldies who just can’t get the hang of this brand-new Internet thing.

As the movie opens, a client tells longtime pals and business partners Billy (Vaughn) and Nick (Wilson) that the company that employed them has gone out of business. While Nick goes to work in his brother-on-law’s mattress store, Billy searches the Web and somehow lands an online interview with the Google people. The internship committee takes pity and before long, Billy and Nick land at the company’s ultra-slick, wildly fun San Francisco headquarters, where they’re forced to attend corporate brainwashing sessions and participate in group competitions.  They fall in with a crew of bright social misfits (Dylan O’Brien, Tiya Sinclair, Tobit Raphael and Josh Brener) and teach them life lessons by taking them out for Chinese food and then to a strip club. All the while a haughty tech snob (Max Minghella) taunts them cruelly, but you know he’s going to get his just desserts by the end credits. “The Internship” is formulaic in its humor and smug and self-congratulatory in tone. What’s to like? 6/10/13

Much Ado About Nothing - 2 1/2 smiles

I have to admit, I liked Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing more than I liked this current rendition, adapted and directed by Joss Whedon. The main reason is the actor cast as Benedict. Whereas Emma Thompson and Branagh were equal in their war of wits and passion and the current Beatrice, Amy Acker, successfully portrays a woman too smart and too strong to be shoved to the altar, Alexis Denisof’s Benedick never matches her fire. Without a Benedick that is up to her level, we don’t want to see Beatrice fall in love. I was also disappointed when the police clown Dogberry (Nathan Fillion) shows up. These scenes, full of buffoonery and malapropisms, just aren’t that funny. The cast, otherwise, is strong, from Clark Gregg (The Avengers) as the magnanimous Leonato to Reed Diamond as Don Pedro. The young lovers, Hero and Claudio, who provide a contrast to Beatrice and Benedick, are less interesting although newcomer Jillian Margese and Fran Kanz handle the story’s most dramatic scenes well.

Whedon’s Santa Monica mansion provides a beautiful setting for Shakespeare’s comedy. And although the actors are sometimes clearly having even more fun than we are, the movie has its charms. There’s an atmosphere of endless party, with women in summery frocks and bottles of wine within easy reach. And after the usual mistaken identities and near calamities, everything comes together. The good end happily and the evil are punished. Virtue is rewarded and true love triumphs. “Much Ado About Nothing” is slight, sweet and generally entertaining. 6/7/13

After Earth - 1 frown

“After Earth,” directed by M, Night Shyamalan, isn’t awful, awful, awful. It’s just awful.  It’s hard to find things it does well and at 100 minutes, it moves slowly and takes itself way too seriously as it sends a boy out into the wilderness on his own in a hostile environment prowled by bad CGI animals and stupid plot contrivances. And, interesting enough, Shyamalan’s name appears nowhere in the trailers. The script, co-written by Shyamalan and Gary Whitta, provides characters without personality and a journey to the obvious. There’s never a sense that Kitai (Jaden Smith) is in any real danger. When he’s chased by a large number of baboons, we know he’s going to get away. When a parasite poisons his blood, we know he’s going to inject the antidote. The problem isn’t that Kitai survives the ordeal but that his survival is never in doubt. And it’s hard to determine how much of Jaden’s clumsy performance is a result of limited ability and how much in the result of a bad screenplay and poor directing. (Contrast his performance in The Karate Kid.) As Kitai’s father, Will Smith isn’t required to do more than spend 75% of the film trapped with two broken legs and alone in a wrecked spaceship. His usual Will Smith charisma is AWOL. You can’t blame a father for wanting to help his son in the business. Perhaps one day Jaden will have the ability to carry a movie. But given all of the problems with “After Earth,” it’s a little premature to expect him to shine. 6/2/13

Epic - 1 1/2 miles

If you’re going to call a movie “Epic,” it better be an exceptional one. Unfortunately, this one isn’t….epic, that is. The lesson that life is ‘many leaves connected to one tree’ is sprinkled throughout like an after thought though it can provide discussion fodder for the very young. And then there’s a three-legged, one-eyed old pug dog and you wonder why? The screenplay, which is credited to about a half-dozen writers and was adapted from a children’s book, is slow and uneven, with no surprises and little suspense, but the animation is adequate and the voice acting fine. It’s just that everything is so underwhelming that it’s hard to get excited.

The story suggests that the forests of the world are inhabited not only by birds, small mammals, and bugs, but also by two-inch tall human-like beings who are locked in an unending battle between life and decay. The ‘good guys’ are led by Queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles), her captain of the guard, Ronin (Colin Farrell) and the brash youngster Nod (Josh Hutcherson). The ‘bad guys’ are headed by the malevolent Mandrake (Christoph Waltz), whose life’s ambition is to strip away all the green from the forest. Meanwhile, there are a couple of normal sized humans who enter the story: teenager Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried) and her bumbling naturalist father, Bomba (Jason Sudeikis). Through magical means, Mary Katherine becomes small and she’s instrumental in the war between Ronin’s Leaf Men and Mandrake’s boggins. Director Chris Wedge falls into the common animator’s trap of making the human characters a lot duller than the creatures. In this case, a slug and a snail steal all of the scenes they’re in. 5/29/13

Now You See Me - 3 1/2 smiles

“Now You See Me,” helmed by Louis Leterrier, is an entertaining heist thriller with comedic overtones. If the Robin Hood-esque redistribution-of-wealth capers its protagonists perform remains a bit under-sketched, its barely noticeable because you’re having such a good time trying to figure out this puzzle box. The movie opens with cocky magician Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), his ex-assistant-turned illusionist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and hustler magician Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) each receiving cards summoning them to a mysterious location. Cut to a year later, when the quartet, supported by millionaire benefactor Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), has gathered to perform under the moniker of the Four Horsemen. After a daring show in Las Vegas in which they shower stolen cash from a Parisian bank their cheering audience, the group heads to New Orleans and repeats the feat with a similarly baffling public heist. On their trail is FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) paired with Interpol Agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent). While authorities are intent on solving the crimes for which they feel the Four Horsemen are responsible, professional magic debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) is interested for different reasons.

Various characters drop out of and back into the story as it progresses although the script doesn’t have enough time to satisfactorily develop all of those involved in this pleasurable adventure. And, contrary to the previews, the Four Horsemen are not always the stars of their own wild tale. Still, all of the head games and various feints lend themselves to some enjoyably charged scenes of confrontation, especially the interrogations between Rhodes and the suspects. And the script, by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt, throws in enough MacGuffins to keep audiences happily guessing. Eisenberg takes a one-dimensional character and makes him a compelling individual as does Woody Harrelson. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman lend considerable gravitas and their characters’ mini-payoffs enhance the overall satisfaction with the movie. “Now You See Me” is an intriguing escapade revolving around a magician’s deliberate misdirection. ‘The more you look, the less you see.’ You just might have to see this one a second time……or a third.   5/31/13