2015 - PIXELS, stunningly bad comedy

Invaders from outer space in the form of early arcade video games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders, for reasons to ridiculous to explain come to earth to destroy it.  Only some loser video game players from the 70's and 80's can stop them.

Why write about a film that was a critical and commercial flop?  Because it's yet another example of the downfall of Hollywood commercial film entertainment. The film is essentially a ripoff of Ghostbusters without any of the cleverness or humor that film had.  Pixels is so obviously trying to copy the Ghostbusters formula.  However the lack of humorous situations and characters completely kill this film. 

 

Adam Sandler's production company was behind the origin of this film.  The director Chris Columbus a one time protege of Steven Spielberg had clearly seen better days.  His specialty was making safe mainstream films like Mrs Doubtfire and Adventures in Babysitting.  Where he got in to trouble was when he took on projects like Rent and Bicentennial Man.  Clearly Pixels was an attempt at a mainstream action comedy with strong commercial potential.

What can you say about this cast? Adam Sandler plays the old slacker video game expert. His part was clearly modeled after Bill Murray but without the sly humor in Ghostbusters. A so called comedian named Josh Gad goes from one unfunny piece of business to another he is very tiresome and seems to be in every scene. They even have a computer character named Q Bert who is modeled after Slimer.  Michelle Monaghan has the thankless role as the romantic interest for Sandler.  There's even a little kid who is in the film to manipulate the audience's emotions. 

The computer generated special effects are good, but so what. The film was not the super box office success everyone was looking for and the critics deservedly killed it in the reviews.  As they say imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery, it's stealing.

The film was written (if that's the word) by Tim Herlihy and Tim Dowling,  The running time is 106 minutes,

2015 - BAAHUBAI: THE BEGINNING, amazing epic Indian film.

 If you enjoy large scale action epics than Baahubali: The Beginning is the film for you.  This Indian epic was one of that country's highest grossing films and extremely popular films

The film was directed by S. S. Rajamouli a specialist in this epic film stuff.  Baahubali: The Beginning is set in ancient India and features the actor Prabhas in a dual role as a father and son who fight corruption in their kingdom over several generations.

It wouldn't be an Indian film without the inclusion of several musical numbers which actually seem to add to the narrative for a change instead of just stopping the story cold.  This film is long and flips back in forth in time to tell it's story. 

 

Particularly amazing are the action and large scale battle scenes throughout this film.  Obviously computer imagery played a big role in bringing these scenes to life.  For some reason Indian filmmakers seem to do a better job integrating this enhanced imagery with their actors, something Western filmmakers always seem to be struggling with.  Let's face it a lot of the CGI in western films always ends up looking very cartoonish.

This is an impressive action epic with an epic running time.  Baahubali: The Beginning is the first part of a two part story.  you can sit back and enjoy the  fabulous action scenes and the stunning imagery throughout the film.

The screenplay was by S. S. Rajamouli, the running time is 158 minutes.

2015 - SICARIO, good tough crime film

A good film about the US Government's fight to bring down a very tough Mexican drug cartel.  Emily Blunt plays the tough but rather clueless FBI agent assigned to a team of rule breaking cops who include Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro.  Needless to say she is in for a very rude awakening about how things run in a crime infested border town.

The film is well directed and photographed.  The story is interesting and the acting is at a very high caliber for this kind of film.

 

Taylor Sheridan , a good writer for this type of genre film did the screenplay, the running time is 121 minutes.

2015 - BLACKHAT, a techo thriller (whatever that is?)

 Usually a Michael Mann film is a rigorously made story with excellent visuals and tight controlled performances.  This film seems less effective than his previous efforts.  His lead Chris Hemsworth seems to restrained in the role of a brilliant computer hacker and frankly all the computer double speak he proclaims doesn't really help his performance.

The film follows some cyber criminals who plan to destroy a large dam in Malaysia by flooding that country's tin mines thereby raising the price of tin or something like that.  This just happens to be the same plot of the James Bond film A View To A Kill.

 

The compensations in this film are the action scenes which Mann films with his usual intensity and the on location filming in Asia.  Otherwise, the film is somewhat of a disappointment considering the talent involved.

Screenplay by Morgan Davis Foehl, running time 133 minutes.

2015-SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO, tough followup to the original film

 Pretty decent sequel to Sicario.  The action is tough and there is more of an emphasis on the personal stories of the criminals and cops this time around.  Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro repeat there roles as off the grid (to put it mildly) DEA agents.  This time they are trying to provoke a war between competing drug cartels.

The film was shot in New Mexico, the technical credits are at a high standard.  If there is any problem with the film it's probably the loss of Emily Blunt who played the rather clueless FBI agent in the first film.  It would have been interesting to see how they planned to develop her character.

The film was written by Taylor Sheridan and runs 122 minutes.

2015 - DE PALMA, a documentary about the director Brian De Palma

The director Brian De Palma sits down for some interviews where he reviews his films and career.

For one of these documentaries about about a film director this is pretty good.  De Palma is a pretty good raconteur and is probably a little more truthful about the way films are made in Hollywood.  

De Palma with the directors of this documentary

The film ends rather poignantly with De Palma who is now in his 70's acknowledging that his best movie making days are probably behind him.

An interesting film about a controversial director who calls himself the true heir to Alfred Hitchcock.

110 minutes.

2015 - PITCH PERFECT 2, more of the same

My spouse liked it.

115 minutes

2015 - SPECTRE, more of the same

Daniel Craig, the actor who couldn't crack a joke if his life depended on in is back in his 4th and hopefully last Bond film.  This time the writers tried to give Craig a sense of humor with some Sean Connery or Roger Moore type of wisecracks but it's just not in him to have a light touch with a line of dialog.

The film itself is kind of a mess story wise, with the production team trying to tie together all of Craig's previous films into some kind of story telling epic, that doesn't succeed.  In fact the whole series seems just completely exhausted from a story telling point but what are they going to do but keep making Bond films.  The films still make money.

As with all Bond movies the production values are high.  The films are good to look at and the action stuff is fairly well done.  However there is an uncomfortable call back to previous Bond films particularly the Sean Connery films with many scenes borrowed and reworked for SPECTRE.

 

The film has take some heavy hits from some critics but really this is the same old stuff told in a rather pedestrian way. The last 20 minutes are probably the worst part of the film and it's a long film as well.

148 minutes, written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth.

2015 - THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. hasn't anyone seen a James Bond film?

An attempt to film a 60's James Bond type of spy thriller with a 21st century vibe.  This film seems more concerned with dressing it's cast up in cool looking clothing ensembles than actually chasing the bad guys who are (what else) an evil band of leftover Nazis looking to purchase (what else) an atomic bomb.

The cast certainly tries to be super cool in that old Sean Connery kind of way and I guess they sort of pull it off.  Again, everyone is dressed to the "nines" and the lead Henry Cavill looks good in a three piece suit.  The female lead someone called Alicia Vikander has a cool pair of sunglasses and the Russian guy sports snappy looking semi casual clothing.

I'm not sure why this film was called The Man from U.N.C.L.E since the U.N.C.L.E. organization is not even mentioned until the end of the film.  In fact the film could have easily been titled "Son of Bond" or Operation Kid Brother, although that title has already been taken.

The director Guy Ritchie films every scene with as much zippy style as he can muster which is probably more to the detriment of the film.  It seems he isn't content to just tell tell the story he wants to smother it with lots of kinetic editing.  Maybe that's for the best since the film actually doesn't have much story.  It's just three actors walking around in sharp looking 60's outfits.

116 minutes, screenplay by Guy Ritchie and Lionel Wigram.

2015 - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION, number 5 in the series

If you've seen the first four films in this series you've seen this one since it's basically the same film.

 

131 minutes.

2015 - SAN ANDREAS. the disaster film is alive and well

Not too much to say about this one.   The Rock must save his family from a couple of earthquakes as the big one finally hits California.  In the good old days of movies our here was always a special ops guy who had been stationed in Vietnam.  Nowadays he's a former soldier who was stationed in Iraq.  The more things change the more they stay the same.

Well anyway after numerous warnings from earthquake specialist Paul Giamatti who's big time slumming for a paycheck, the computer effects kick in and they are very superior computer effects I will grant that.

Will The Rock save his big breasted daughter and big breasted wife?  The bigger question does anyone remember Earthquake in Sensurround of which this movie is essentially a remake.

San Andreas is another film in that strange genre known as "disaster porn."

114 minutes.

2015 - ALOHA, trying to be fair to this comedy/drama

With this cast, it seemed only fair to give this film a chance.  However critics just killed this film when it came out particularly heaping their ire on the writer/director Cameron Crowe.  Sadly this is a case where the bad reviews are well deserved.

It seems that Cameron Crowe can't seem to do anything right these days.  At one time he was the golden boy with films like Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.  He's apparently in movie hell with junk like We Bought a Zoo, Elizabethtown and Vanilla Sky.  Although I would have to say I have never really cared for any of his films after Jerry Maguire.

I suppose a plot recap would be in order but suffice it to say the film isn't worth it.  The film shows signs of some serious editing and it's well know that Sony Pictures hated the film.  But honestly picking on this film is like stepping on ants, it's easy to snuff them out.

Cameron Crowe is know to be a devotee of Billy Wilder and even wrote a book about him.  Crowe sure didn't seem to learn the any lesson from Wilder, the chief one being "if you have trouble in your third act you better go back and see what's going wrong in your first act."

105 minutes.

2105 - TRAINWRECK, they got that right

"Dirty little girl"  comedian Amy Schumer attempts to move to a mainstream audience in this updated romantic comedy.  Certainly there is nothing wrong with giving the "romcom" genre a kick in the pants but this film just doesn't know when enough is enough.

Schumer's character "Amy," apparently a very thinly disguised version of herself is suppose to be a "modern" woman, which in this case means she parties a lot and sleeps around with a lot of guys.  Her wit and humor are what attract guys to her but deep down she is a empty and hollow person who can't find the right guy to settle down with.  No cliches in that character.

Into this mix comes a doctor who is attracted to her but Amy's commitment phobia eventually destroys the relationship.  Fear not because this is still a romcom and it all will work out for the best with the doctor and Amy reunited at a basketball game after Amy dresses up as a cheerleader and jumps around in her little outfit.  So much for the modern woman angle.

The film was directed by Judd Apatow who is usually criticized for making overlong comedies but the stuff I liked best were the little touches of humor that Apatow allowed the other characters to run with in scenes that really didn't move the plot along but were kind of delightful.  As for Schumer her potty mouth humor is in danger of overexposure and her dirty girl act is getting to be a little old.

By the way it is highly unlikely this couple would ever stay together in the real world.

124 minutes

2015- AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON - more of the same

Successfully marketed and hyped as one of the must see summer films, this film isn't that bad and in fact is rather entertaining although way to long.

The gang is back from the first film and this time they are fighting an evil robot who has decided to destroy mankind and take over the world for reasons that aren't entirely clear.  The dialog isn't too bad the action scenes while not really exciting are pretty decent and the whole cast seems to be into the spirit of this superhero spectacular.

So what's the problem.  Well the law of diminishing returns may be starting to kick in.  Ultron the evil robot while evil,  is actually kind of a charming fellow with a personality not unlike the Robinson robot from Lost in Space.  Actually it would have been fun to see his evil plan succeed because if would have at least moved the series into a different direction rather than the usual superhero's save the world stuff.  After all there is only so much you can do with these comic book story lines.

Probably one of the major reasons I enjoyed this film was that it was showing at a decent 2nd run movie theater.  Paying $3.00 a ticket is certainly less painful than full first run prices.

141 minutes

2015 - TOMORROWLAND - Disney's big summer movie bust

The critics hated it, the public stayed away from it and admittedly this film has some major story problems but it's hard to understand why this film was so disliked this is an entertaining summer film with a positive message. 

The film was directed by Brad Bird who was one of the leading animation directors for Pixar.  Bird moved into live action filming with one of those Tom Cruise Mission Impossible films which made a lot of money.  Bird actually does a very good job of keeping Tomorrowland moving along and sticks lots of inventive visual gags that make the film fun to watch.

The film stars George Clooney but the real lead is a young actor named Britt Robinson.  Robinson plays a female character who for a change isn't falling in love with vampires or is some sort of nymphomaniac.  It's hard enough to get major studios to make films with female characters as the main lead and since this film is considered a failure it will probably be a long time before it's attempted again.

Let's jump to the chase.  This is an entertaining film with story structure problems.  At least this film attempted a story.  When you compare this to something like Jurassic World which didn't even bother with a story the message for Hollywood is screw the attempt at intelligent summer films and bring on the people eating dinosaurs.

130 minutes

2015 - JURASSIC WORLD - DINOMITE!!!

A big stupid audience pleasing summer movie.  This rehash of Jurassic Park and mostly a lot of Toho Godzilla movies is making lots of money.  As producer George Pal proved many years ago, special effects can be the real stars of a movie.

The director is some guy named Colin Trevorrow but make no mistake the real directors of this film are the special effects computer guys who render all of these dinos in a computer. 

Nobody goes to these kinds of movies for the plot and characterizations but even for something like this the story telling seems might weak.  Contrived situations are created mostly for the purpose of watching the scary dinosaur eat lots of people but it's that PG-13 kind of violence so we don't actually see anyone really ripped apart.  This is after all a film for the entire family.

The actors are pretty much next to nothing as far as leaving an impression.  This won't be the career jump starter that Bryce Dallas Howard is looking for and the oddly unhumorous Chris Pratt is walking through this film mostly on the good will he got from The Guardians of the Galaxy.

Still when you get down to it, this movie is making a lot of money.

124 minutes.

2015 - MAX MAX: FURY ROAD, violent rehash of the previous Max Max films.

After a long pause Mad Max is back in a film that has a lot of kinetic energy and lots of cars and people getting smashed and flattened.  The director George Miller uses his old visual references and tricks from his previous films and if the viewer has seen these shots before in Miller's other car chase films, he sure knows how to use them.

Tom Hardy takes over for Mel Gibson whose presence is frankly kind of missed.  Charlize Theron wa very stunning woman is actually the star of the film and it's not a glamour babe part for her.  Miller has even perversely used computer trickery to remove one of her arms and put a prostethic gripper in it's place.  Next to Theron, Hardy is more of a reactor than driver in this film as she basically beats the crap out of him and any other man that gets in her way.

Fury Road has a lot of scenes and situations from the other films.  The chief villain, Immortan Joe is definitely a call back to The Humungous from The Road Warrior.  Immortan Joe's fortress, The Citadel is clearly Bartertown from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.  The car chases in this film are extremely well done, but they do remind me an awful lot of the final chase in The Road Warrior.  In fact the weirdo's in this film could be related to the other weirdo's that populated the first three films.

Probably the most interesting thing about this film is the strong feminist slant the runs throughout the film.  This is one of the few ''balls to the wall" action films where the women call all the shots fighting a testosterone dripping bunch of violent crazies.

120 minutes