Monday, September 30, 2013

Rush - 3 smiles


“Rush,” directed by Ron Howard, is an entertaining way to spend two hours. Formula One fans who remember 1976 will no doubt thoroughly enjoy this movie about the competition between James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), who went head-to-head for the championship. Technically, “Rush” is a sports movie in that it’s about competitors struggling against one another to win. However, Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan take a different approach. The story is balanced between Hunt and Lauda, with Hunt depicted as a superficial, preening, self-obsessed party boy and Lauda as a stuffy, unpleasant misanthrope. Hence, we become invested in both men’s lives and the winning of the championship becomes secondary. Lauda’s accident, which is foreshadowed in the opening scene, is a defining moment of their relationship. He is goaded into participating in a dangerous race because he can’t bear to lose face in front of Hunt and other drivers. Then, as he’s recovering, Hunt’s successes during his absence become his motivation to return.

Howard’s production values are top notch. The racing sequences are expertly filmed and there’s plenty of tension in the various contests, especially during the rainy finale in Japan. “Rush” features no A-list stars although Chris Hemsworth is close. He’s very good here, exhibiting personality and range when freed from the constraints of a comic book Norse god. Olivia Wilde is another recognizable name, but all she’s allowed to do is look beautiful. Daniel Bruhl gives the best performance, melding righteous indignation, arrogance and an asocial personality. In addition, Howard clearly demonstrates that winning Formula One drivers must be obsessively driven because why else would they willingly encase themselves in a potential fireball? Although “Rush” isn’t a particularly deep film, it’s an affecting film and a good lesson in sports history. 9/28/13

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (3D) - 3 smiles


It’s a rare sequel that can take the best of the original and come up with a creative follow-up.  “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” has an engaging voice cast and hordes of ‘Foodimals’ that keep this movie rolling along (as long as you don’t think too hard about story coherence). The movie picks up moments after the conclusion of the first Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. After stopping a natural disaster from wiping out his home of Swallow Falls, Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is ready to start his own lab with his friend Sam (Anna Faris), his father (James Caan), local cop Earl (Terry Crews), the local bully now a friend Brent (Andy Samberg) and Sam’s cameraman Manny (Benjamin Bratt). But then Flint’s childhood hero Chester V (Will Forte doing is evil best) arrives to recruit Flint for his tech conglomerate LIVE Corp. Soon Chester’s motives become apparent: he wants Flint’s food machine (the FLDSMDFR), capable of producing any good out of a few drops of water, for himself. Since it’s stuck in the middle of Swallow Falls, Chester sends Flint to get it and a journey into an edible Jurassic Park begins.

Swallow Falls is overrun with animal/food hybrids with predictably groan-worthy names: Bananostriches, Wildabeets, Watermelephants and flocks of Fruit Cockatiels. Then there’s Barry, an anthropomorphized strawberry who speaks adorable gibberish and a crew of fishing pickles (who are quite cute). But my favorites are the Tacodile, Shrimpanzee and Cheespider. There’s a lot going on and kids especially will appreciate all of the food puns (e.g., there’s a leek in my boat!). The colors and animation are engaging and it’s certainly worth seeing in 3D. “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” is strange, colorful and wildly cute. 9/21/13

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Prisoners - 1 smile


“Prisoners,” starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall, is preoccupied with torture, imprisonment, death and a sense of foreboding and at 153 minutes in length, it’s hard viewing. The movie, directed by Denis Villenueve, is supposed to be about something significant, but if you strip away the pedigree of the people involved, what’s left is a twisty kidnap flick filled with the obligatory creepy suspects, red herrings and icky visuals.

Essentially, “Prisoners” is about a decent man (Jackman) turning vigilante when his young daughter and her friend are kidnapped. When the police (Gyllenhal) get nowhere questioning the suspect, our hero abducts the creepy suspect (Paul Dano) and holds him in an abandoned house and attempts to beat the information out of him. And beats him and beats him…… Jackman tries hard to be Everyman who may be as deranged as any child molester, but he’s given ludicrous lines, such as when he whacks Alex (Dano) and screams, ‘Why are you making me do this?’  so it’s often hard to take his character seriously. “Prisoners” would have been a better movie if it were 60 minutes shorter. 9/23/13

Friday, September 20, 2013

The Family - 1/2 smiles


I was hoping that “The Family” would be a good movie. After all, with a cast of Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Michelle Pfeiffer, you’d think the chances are pretty high. This is the latest effort from French action director Luc Besson, who mixes violence and comedy with jarring results and it takes a long time to establish the story. De Niro is Giovanni Manzoni, an ex-mob boss from Brooklyn who’s snitched on his former cohorts and must disappear, along with his wife and two kids. Newly named the Blakes, they set up in a picturesque Normandy village. There, Fred and the kids Belle and Warren try to assimilate. They’re not very successful since they all have varying degrees of anger management issues. However, the villagers all seem to speak fluent English as do the kids at school. But this is a mainstream movie and we all know how American audiences don’t relish reading subtitles so of course everyone speaks English. Watching over the family are a couple of FBI handlers and their boss, played by Jones at his cranky best.

The main problem with this movie is the violence. Fred can’t refrain from beating people to a pulp or to death even, if he feels disrespected. Maggie (Pfeiffer) tries to rein in her husband, but even she’s not above blowing up the local market when she feels slighted. As for daughter Belle (Dianna Agron), she also beats up fellow students as a way to deal with her problems. Brother Warren (John D’Leo) has the most self-control, but he’s involved in other criminal activities. So even in the name of black comedy, the intermittent violence is grating. “The Family” is un-funny and filled with Italian-American stereotypes and Mafia clichés. Nothing is original. It should be better.  9/15/13

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

You Will Be My Son - 4 smiles


“You Will Be My Son” begins as a domestic drama set at a family-owned vineyard and slowly morphs into a tense thriller. French director and co-writer Gilles Legrand shows great mastery of tone and pacing with a clear sense of foreboding at the start. Death appears everywhere, from the stark opening image of a coffin entering a crematorium to the daily discarding of grapes that don’t make the grade. At its core, though, Legrand’s film is about fathers and sons and the power of passing down a legacy. Niels Arestrup gives a commanding performance as Paul de Marseul, the respected veteran winemaker in charge of the estate. His wines are renowned worldwide for their quality, thanks in large part to a 40-year partnership he’s had with his quietly loyal vineyard manager, François (Patrick Chesnais). But when Paul learns that François is suffering from pancreatic cancer and doesn’t have much longer to live, he must make plans to continue the business. It seems natural that Paul would pass along François’ responsibilities to his own son, Martin (Lorant Deutsch), but it’s clear from the start that Paul has nothing but disdain for his only child. Martin seems quite capable of running the administrative side of the business and he has a happy marriage with beautiful and strong Alice (Anne Marivin). Martin is eager to step up, but Paul is determined to keep him in his place. Enter Philippe (Nicolas Bridet), François’ son, who’s everything Martin is not: good looking, stylish, suave and worldly. It’s clear that Paul sees in Philippe the son he wished he had and François becomes mistrustful of Paul’s intentions after decades of stoic service to this man.

Legrand tells a tale of Greek tragedy proportions, especially with the formidable Arestrup’s towering presence at its center. Paul is clearly a terrible human being, selfish, soulless and manipulative. The supporting performances are equally effective, with Deutsch movingly conveying Martin’s mounting anguish and Chesnais delivering a subtle turn as a father fighting for the soul of his son. Legrand takes advantage of the beauty of the French region of Saint Emilion and he clearly loves wine himself. He takes great care to make the texture of the soil seem tangible and to show the rich hue of an especially spectacular bottle that’s been pulled with pride from the cellar.  You’ll want to have a glass of wine after as you discuss the merits of “You Will Be My Son.” Subtitles. 9/13/13

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Riddick - 3 smiles


If you like sci-fi and Vin Diesel, you’ll enjoy “Riddick,” which works as a stand-alone film. However, it’s really the third after Pitch Black (2000) and The Chronicles of Riddick (2004). And Diesel is in fine growling form. The first third of the movie is probably the most engaging. It has Diesel’s character, Riddick, marooned on a truly inhospitable planet and for 30-40 minutes, it’s all about survival. Riddick inoculates himself against the venom of the planet’s vicious pincer-mouthed serpents and domesticates a jackal-like beast that becomes a stalwart companion. The middle portion occurs after Riddick sets off a distress beacon and bounty hunters arrive. There are 11 of them in total, but only a few merit mention: the greedy Santana (Jordi Molla), who wants to put Riddick’s head in a box; the no-nonsense Johns (Matt Nable), who wants him captured alive so he can be questioned and John’s right-hand woman Dahl (Katee Sackoff), who can kick butt as good as any of the men. The rest of the bounty hunters fill the role of victims to be killed off, one by one. In the final third, circumstances force the remaining survivors to band together to face an alien menace, but this late development feels a bit rushed. But with a 2-hour running time, I’m glad director David Twohy didn’t drag out the movie any longer.

Much of the film is over-the-top, but if you saw the first two, you won’t be surprised. And even though Twohy had a relatively small budget, it has the look of a mega-buck summer spectacle. (Just don’t look too closely at the futuristic bikes that go zipping across the alien terrain.) While “Riddick” is unquestionably Diesel’s film, there are some effective supporting performances. Jordi Molla is the kind of sadistic character whose come-uppance you relish and Katee Sackoff is the embodiment of a strong female character. “Riddick” isn’t perfect, but it’s a good high-octane sci-fi action thriller. 9/6/13

Friday, September 6, 2013

Closed Circuit - 1 1/2 smiles


“Closed Circuit” is supposed to be a mystery-thriller. Unfortunately, it’s neither mysterious nor thrilling. And the central characters, played by Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall, while adequately acted, are not very interesting. The first half of the movie is more than adequate, but the last half falls apart with too many coincidences and an implausibly weak ending. The movie begins with security-camera footage of a London bombing, then dives into the closed-door trial of the suspect, Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto). After his lawyer dies, hotshot Martin Rose (Bana) is named his replacement. Martin will work parallel to special advocate Claudia Simmons-Howe (Hall), but because of the top-secret evidence in the case, the two are forbidden from having any contact. But they once had an affair.

Every character, from the investigative journalist (Julia Stiles) to the shadowy attorney general (Jim Broadbent) to the faithful friend (Ciaran Hinds), turns out to be exactly who you expected. Plus our heroes are not interesting enough to hold our interest and for a couple that once had an affair, there’s absolutely no chemistry, their meaningful glances not withstanding.  “Closed Circuit” aims to raise viewers’ fears about surveillance, showing us how Martin and Claudia can’t escape the watchful eye of Big Brother. But this never feels menacing and the conclusion is about as unsatisfying as it can be. 9/4/13

Monday, September 2, 2013

The Grand Master - 1 smile


If you decide to see “The Grand Master,” Wong Kar-wai’s biopic about martial arts legend Ip Man (1893-1972), it would help if you know something about Man. Because you’re going to get a chopped up version of his life and it doesn’t even cover the one area that American audiences would want to know: he was Bruce Lee’s teacher. It is, however, one of the most gorgeous films you’ll see this year. The camera moves lovingly on such details as the weave of a white hat or embroidered flowers on a pair of slippers. The movie opens with a beautifully choreographed kung fu fight in the rain, a virtual ballet of moves.

The US version is some 20 minutes shorter than the one that played in China, which might explain why many sequences are confusing.  The biggest disappointment is that Wong, for all his genius in capturing mood, seems unable to integrate the action. The result is a conventional chunk of narrative followed by a fight followed by more narrative.  Tony Leung displays old-school charisma as Ip Man, but even he plays second fiddle in the latter part of the film as his character is constantly pushed to the background to make room for supporting characters. For those who aren’t ardent martial arts fans, “The Grand Master” is lifeless and uninteresting. Subtitles. 9/1/13