Elizabeth Mitchell was awesome in LOST as Juliet. Her relationship with Sawyer was one of the highlights of the last few years of the series.  I will always love her as an actress, even when she is in terrible movies like The Purge: Election Year.

To be fair, Elizabeth Mitchell is easily the best part of this film.  She and Frank Grillo (the dearly departed Crossbones from Captain America: Civil War) really hold together this film, but there are so many other issues here that even two extremely likable figures such as these two can save it.

The Purge: Election Year is the third movie in the Purge series, focusing upon the upcoming race for President of the United States (which, by the way, happens in May, according to the movie.  The sequence at the end with the election coverage really was weird.)  Elizabeth Mitchell’s character Senator Charlie Roan was a survivor of a horrible Purge incident when she was a child which framed her into the person she was now… a crusader against the Purge.  She is running on the platform of repealing the Purge.

This, of course, puts the Purge supporters into a tizzy, and they plan on sending some Neo-Nazi bad guys to grab the Senator and kill her on Purge night.  Frank Grillo reprises his role of Leo Barnes (at least I think he reprises the role, as he was only ever called “Sergeant” in The Purge: Anarchy), who is the head of Senator Roen’s security detail.

We also meet Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson), a local deli owner, whose shop lost its Purge insurance the day before the Purge commences and he decided that he had to protect his property.  There were several other characters in Joe’s orbit, but none of them are worth the time to talk about.  Joe was okay, but he felt like a catch-all character.  When they needed a funny line about white people, he spit it out.  When he needed to be a former gang member (which isn’t stereotypical at all…sarcasm), he was breaking out the gang whistle.

That is, of course, except for the worst of the worst:  Candy Bar Girl.  This girl who tried to steal a candy bar from the store, was downright hilarious.  I know that wasn’t what they were going for here, but everything about this woman was laughable.  It was an insult to amateur actors to call this acting amateurish.  Watching her eyes bulged out, covered in blood, Candy Bar Girl showed everything that was wrong with this movie in just a few scenes.

The dialogue of the film was horrendous.  Outside of Senator Roen and Leo (and maybe Joe), there is not one developed character.  I was pretty surprised that the members of the NFFA (the organization that was in power and brought the Purge to America) didn’t twirl their villain mustaches like the villains of old.  These villains were nothing more than people to be evil and to say “Purge and Purify.”  There was not one shred of character development from any villain, including Senator Roen’s presidential opponent, Minister Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor).

There really wasn’t any horror here.  As I said, I found myself laughing quite a bit.  There was no tension.  Even when Leo had to pull a bullet from his own shoulder, there was little tension (and the bullet from the shoulder was done 100 times better by Sawyer on LOST- pre-Juliet days.  Bringing the review back to LOST.)  This would be a perfect film for the RiffTrax gang to riff.

None of the action stood out in my mind.  Sitting here, I cannot think of one exciting scene of action that took place in The Purge: Election Year.  The only things that I remember are the over-the-top cartoon aspects of the movie.  And that might be okay if the film doesn’t try to take itself so seriously.  However, this is not a spoof or a parody.  It is intended as an action film with horror aspects.  And it failed in that.

Hopefully, we can all purge from this series of films from now on.

1.8 stars 

WTF????????

I mean….

WTF????????

The Neon Demon is one weird ass movie.  There is just no denying that.

16-year old Jesse (Elle Fanning) is in Los Angeles, looking to begin her career as a model.  And Jesse has that something special that everyone is after.  They describe it in the film as beauty, non-tampered with and real.  She becomes the belle of the ball immediately, drawing the ire and the jealousy of the other models with their plastic surgery induced faces.

Then, the film takes a rapid nose-dive into territory that might befit a horror movie, including some huge eyebrow raising moments.

Yes, there was a cougar (literal cougar, not an older woman on the prowl for younger men) that broke into Jesse’s room at the rundown hotel where she lived.  Thankfully, she was able to get her landlord, Keanu Reeves, to take care of the animal.

Yes, Keanu Reeves is in this movie as a lowlife landlord.  He is not on screen for long, but we really grow to have a severe dislike for the man.  The film was not trying to be subtle with the characterization of Reeves’ character, that was for sure.

Actually, there was very little in characterization.  The models were all stereotypical, shallow and superficial.  The agents and photographers were all one-note.

The only character who had anything of interest besides Jesse was make up artist Ruby (Jena Malone), but she descends into a spiteful and horrid creature for little reason, completely spoiling the seemingly caring woman that she had displayed.  She dove directly into the weirdness with one of the more disturbing scenes of her and a dead body.  Yes… that is what I mean.

Now, the film may have been narratively challenged, but the visuals were astounding.  Every shot was beautifully compiled and photographed, the colors and shades a perfect balance.  Director Nicholas Winding Refn created a feast for the senses in The Neon Demon. Even though there were some scenes that I had no idea what was happening, it always looked amazing.

Even with the lack of characterization and the questionable story (we never did really find out why a 16-year old was alone in LA), I was enjoying the visual storytelling going on and would have probably recommended this…until… the end.

To say that the last 20 minutes of this film altered everything would not be too strong of a statement.  I assume that Refn was using the events of the ending of this film as an analogy for how the modeling perfection eats up the young and innocent, requiring the girls to become something not quite human to  survive.  However, he took this analogy into too much literal ground for me, robbing the film of any subtly it may have had.

The image at the end of this film with the model and the eyeball that was laughable, if it weren’t so grotesquely shocking.

Elle Fanning is a beautiful young actress that has a great career ahead of her despite this weird movie.  The film has amazing visuals throughout (especially Fanning), but the lack of characterization, story and too many WTF moments really dragged down anything that The Neon Demon was trying to accomplish.

2.5 stars

Matthew McConaughey has been having a great stretch of films and performances.  All good things have to come to an end.

I was bored with most of Free State of Jones.  In fact, I may have nodded off at least once during the exceptionally long run time of 2 hours and 19 minutes.

Matthew McConaughey played Newt Knight, a Confederate soldier/nurse who decided that the philosophical ideals of the Civil War was not for him and he deserted.  Taking up residence in a swamp in the county of Jones in the state of Mississippi, Newt starts aiding other deserters and runaway slaves, forming a tight-knit community.

Based on a true story, Free State of Jones never really reaches the level that it seemingly was trying to reach.  It saw itself as a Revenant, but came up very short.

Matthew McConaughey was pretty solid in this role, though many times he felt like he was just playing Matthew McConaughey.  I kept waiting for an “alright alright alright” to break out.

There really wasn’t that much that happened in this movie.  Characters would talk for a while and then someone would have their farm burned down.  Then some more talking.  If the film had dynamic dialogue like a Hateful 8, all the talking might not have been bad, but the dialogue was anything but compelling.

There were also way too many irons in the fire.  We are about a half hour into the movie and then suddenly, we time jump ahead into the 1950s for a trial of one of Newt’s descendants.  Those future scenes really threw me for a loop at first, and, although I kind of dug the story those scenes were telling, it did not correspond with the story being told in the 1860s section of the film.  I think there might have been a story that could have been told about this true story Mississippi trial, but it needed more focus to include it.  As it is, this is a section that could have easily have been edited out to trim some of the time off the film.

There was an interesting dynamic between Newt and Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Newt’s first wife Serena (Keri Russell), but this plot line was not expanded upon.  This was another story element that could have carried a much bigger chunk of the film, and is an example of the film trying to tell too much story.

I did kind of enjoy the history lesson feel that parts of the film went for, but I could not shake the idea that I would have enjoyed this movie more as a documentary.

Moses (Mahershala Ali) was one of the stronger characters in this film, and his fate was one of the most emotional beats of a film that struggled to connect emotionally with its audience.

Free State of Jones could have done with a sharper focus on what story they wanted to tell instead of trying to tell everything.  It is overlong and leaned toward dull (as my power naps may attest) but it has an intriguing story with a good performance from several of the cast.  This could have been so much better.

2.65 stars

Director Roland Emmerich recently made some negative comments directed at super hero movies, specifically to Marvel, calling them silly.  After seeing Independence Day: Resurgence, Emmerich’s comments makes him look like the ultimate glass house owner throwing stones everywhere.

This film wishes it could be a Marvel movie.

A sequel to the big time, albeit corny, 1996 Independence Day, Resurgent focuses on a futuristic world where the citizens of planet earth have taken the alien technology and advanced their society with the expectation that the alien attackers would, one day, come back.   Fortunately, the aliens choose the 20th anniversary celebration to launch their return to earth, sending out earthlings into a tizzy.

Will Smith did not return for this sequel and you can feel his absence.  His character, Steven Hiller, is said to have been killed in a training exercise with the alien tech, and now his son, Dylan (Jesse T. Usher) stepped up to replace him.  At least, that is what the movie wanted, but this character is one of the weakest characters you will find, unlike Steven Hiller.

We also had new character Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), the typical rascally sci-fi hero.  Liam Hemsworth is at best average here, playing a character as cliched as you get.

This is a big problem with this sequel.  There are a ton of science fiction cliches here.  You hardly go five minutes without another cliche rearing its ugly head.  There is nothing new or original here, and the movie suffers for it.  In fact, if you look closely, the beats of this movie very nearly match the original.  There really is not much difference.  The biggest difference is that the original had characters that you could connect with.  This one, not so much.

There were returning characters in this sequel.  Bill Pullman returned to the film as former President Whitmore, now damaged mentally from his experiences of the first film.  I thought there was some interesting aspects to be told from this story, but in the end, he basically became the replacement for the Randy Quaid character for the sequel.  Also back was the “not-dead” character of Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner), who came out of his coma for this story.  Spiner was so over the top and ridiculous that I hated every moment he was on screen.

The only returning character that I felt was done somewhat okay was Jeff Goldblum’s David Levinson and that was because of Goldblum’s presence.  David’s father Julius (the never aging Judd Hirsch) is here as well, somehow surviving an event that should have easily killed him only to wind up driving a bus full of random children to Area 51.

Not only were the characters weak, the dialogue was unbelievably campy and poorly written.  Sure, the original film had campy dialogue as well, but this one sure seemed to take that camp to a whole new level.

Some of the CGI was not bad, but I definitely got a Star Wars: Episode I vibe from the film.  You know, a load of crap on the screen at once, nothing that stands out as amazing.  There were lots of ships shooting lasers through the sky, but none of it meant anything.   And then, the ending sequence  with the SPOILERS Queen looked as sloppy as you will get in CGI.

The film is really stupid and has little fun, unlike its predecessor, which took the campy, dumb action flick and gave you characters that you could care about.  Go and watch the original if you want. It is considerably better.

1.9 stars

A killer shark has returned to the big screen with the new film The Shallows, swimming into theaters this weekend.  There have been a ton of big screen killer shark films, done to perfection with Steven Spielberg’s 1975 Jaws.  The Shallows is not Jaws, but there are plenty of good thrills and tension to make this film worth a view.

After the death of her mother, Nancy (Blake Lively) went on a personal trek to find a special hidden Mexican beach that her mother had found while pregnant with Nancy.  Nancy wants to escape the pain of her life and do some surfing.  However, she is attacked by a shark and becomes stranded on a rock just off the coast of the beach.  She attempts to survive against this vicious beast.

The film is beautifully shot.  The water around these islands is astonishingly beautiful, full of amazing colors and shades of blue.  No matter what else, this film is wonderful to watch.

Blake Lively is also as beautiful as the surroundings.  Blake Lively is a gorgeous woman, and she fills the screen with her beauty.  She is also very strong in this film.  She has a compelling background that we get a flavor of and she portrays her pain and her fear.  She is also very believable as a determined fighter not willing to give up despite the overwhelming odds.

The shark was very scary.  The CGI of the shark really stood out to me as this creature looked awesome.

I enjoyed much of this film, but there were some problems.  In particular, the ending (which I will not spoil) just seemed pretty dopey.  In fact, it was almost unintentionally funny, which kind of spoiled a lot of the stress and suspense that had built up throughout the film.

Of course, there is required suspension of disbelief to make this believable and, at times, it might need to be stretched too far.

And there was a beginning surfing montage that was ok for a bit, but got long pretty quickly.

In the end, I was entertained by The Shallows and I found it suspenseful where they wanted the suspense to be.  The ending was too laughable and made the previous parts less effective.  If you approach this film with the proper mental preparation, you should enjoy our new deadly shark.

3.75 stars

The next Pixar movie goes back to a familiar character from one of the movie studio’s most popular films.

Some recent animated movies have not been as good after taking secondary characters and trying to spread them out as the leads of their own films (I’m looking at you, Minions), and I was worried that Dory would fall into the same category.

However, Dory fit beautifully as the lead character in Pixar’s new film, Finding Dory.

Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the charming blue tang fish from Finding Nemo, steps front and center as she travels the oceans in search of the family that she has forgotten.  Aided by Marlon (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence), Dory tries to piece together random flashes of memory of her mom (Diane Keaton) and dad (Eugene Levy) to find clues of where they were.

Along the way, Dory meets a crew of new and creative characters including Hank the Octopus (Ed O’Neill), Destiny the Whale Shark (Kaitlin Olson), Bailey the Beluga Whale(Ty Burrell), and Fluke the sea lion(Idris Elba).

The story does a great job of advancing without being too cutesy or sweet.  It also does a really great job of  using the technique of Dory’s short term memory problems without it feeling like it was overused.  The writing was very strong with this character.

And because the writing of Dory was so strong, you can’t help but become invested in her attempts to find her family, despite so many overwhelming odds.  We see Dory as more than just a comical sidekick as she was used in Finding Nemo, but a challenged hero who refuses to be defeated by her shortcoming.  Dory is a true role model to any person whose disability causes a loss of balance in their lives.

Another example of the exceptional writing is how many times they took something that Dory did in Finding Nemo and gave it a reason.  Writer  and co-director Andrew Stanton, who wrote Finding Nemo, did a beautiful job of weaving everything together into a well fitting narrative without anything feeling forced.

The film also has Pixar’s normal humor and emotional depth.  There were a few times that I had some wetness in the corners of my eyes.  Now, I would not compare the emotional impact of Finding Dory to other brilliant Pixar films such as Inside Out or the Toy Story series, but it does have its moments.  I would say especially with the times that Dory was alone and questioning her ability to accomplish what she wanted, Finding Dory truly comes through.

The animation is, once again, an amazing Pixar specialty.  The colors of the fish and the ocean and the Oceanic Institute is wonderful.

Ellen Degeneres is magnificent as the voice of Dory.  She brings a heartfelt and humanity to this fish that makes you want to root for her.  You feel for her with her memory problems and you admire her for her courage.

Pixar proved that a secondary character could carry a sequel film and they have made yet another wonderful film that both children and parents will enjoy.

4.1 stars

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart team up for the latest buddy cop film in this weekend’s Central Intelligence,a  film that has many similarities to other films of this ilk.  However, there are two big things that take this from typical fare to an entertaining movie: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart.

Johnson and Hart are fantastic together, sharing an effortless charisma and chemistry, making what is truly an average film around them something better than it ever hoped to be.

Bob (Dwayne Johnson) was a loser in high school, a fat kid who was bullied and laughed at by most of the student body.  Calvin (Kevin Hart) was the big man on campus, the homecoming king, the sport stud, the dramatic actor, dating the most beautiful girl in school… he had everything.

One day near the end of their senior year, a group of bullies grabbed Bob from out of the school shower and tossed him, butt naked, onto the gym floor in front of an assembly of the entire school.  Everyone laughed, except Calvin, who gives Bob his letter jacket to cover up with.

Fast forward twenty years and Calvin, who had been named the student most likely to succeed, found himself in a job that he did not like, being surpassed by people he trained, and feeling like his life was a disappointment, despite being married to his high school sweetheart Maggie (Danielle Nicolet).  On the eve of the 20th class reunion, Bob approaches Calvin for some help.  However, Bob was fat no more, displaying a surprisingly muscle bound look.  Even more surprising for Calvin was that he found himself smack dab in the middle of a CIA mission as Bob reveals to him that he is an agent of the CIA.

Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are the reason to see this movie.  They are really great together.  They are funny, and surprisingly complex, considering the rest of the movie.  Bob has never really gotten over that defining moment at the assembly and he wears the scars fully.  It is shown that, despite his remarkable transformation, Bob has yet to overcome the psychological aspects of the moment, remaining an innocent, childlike man, mountain though he may be.  Meanwhile, Hart is considerably more subdued in this film than he is in other film vehicles (ex. Ride Along etc).  Yes, he still does too much screaming, but it is not as much.  It is as if he can tell that the smoothness between him and The Rock was special.

I did have some problems with Central Intelligence.  As a teacher, I found that initial scene at the assembly to be so far fetched that it almost pulled me out of the film.  Something like what happened would never be allowed to be treated as a joke and the students involved in this terrible incident would be treated severely, which is not the impression this film gives.

I do like the fact that the film does take an anti-bullying message, and I can certainly understand how an event like this could make Bob the way that he was.  It was just that the whole situation stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit far.

Which is done many times throughout the movie.  The action scenes are extremely out there.  Many of them are good and, especially, funny, but that does not change the fact that they are stretches.

The film is very predictable.   Now, in order to effectively talk about this, I am going to have to go into spoiler talk, so…

SPOILER

In a flashback, we are introduced to Bob’s partner who Bob said was murdered by a shadowy figure known as The Black Badger.  As soon as I saw that Bob’s partner was being played by Aaron Paul, I knew what the story was leading to.  You don’t get a star the caliber of Aaron Paul to kill him in a one-off flashback.  So I knew he would turn out to be alive and the villain in the end.

Now, having said that, the film does an adequate job of making you wonder if that really was the case.  The film plays it as if Bob was actually the villain behind this entire plot, and that he had killed his own partner.  It did this “twist” so well that I was even questioning whether or not The Rock was our film’s hero.

END OF SPOILER

Bob did get kind of annoying at times, but I enjoyed the choices made for the character.  He was a remarkably sad man, who claimed that Calvin was his best friend, despite not seeing him for 20 years.  Calvin was the only person who ever treated Bob with respect and Bob found a connection.

Yes, this movie is predictable, and you have seen everything here before.  The script was nothing special and the action was okay.  The reason this film succeeds at all is because of its two main stars.  Every time they are together on screen, it pops (including some very funny outtakes just prior to the credits).  If this was any other two people, Central Intelligence would not work at all, but it is not two other people.  It is Ke3vin Hart and Dwayne Johnson.  And they are great.

3 stars

Mark Twain wrote, “To me his prose is unreadable — like Jane Austin’s [sic]. No there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane’s. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.”
– Letter to W. D. Howells, 18 January 1909

Now, that might be a bit harsh.

Love & Friendship is a movie based on a Jane Austin novella “Lady Susan” and this felt like an odd film.  It was a funny film with some impressive dialogue.  However, it felt like it thought it was a better film than it actually was.

Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) is a widow who goes to her sister’s-in-law home with tons of machinations, looking to get herself married, as well as her daughter, Frederica (Morfydd Clark).  She targets Reginald (Xavier Samuel), the brother of her sister-in-law Catherine (Emma Greenwell) while trying to match up her daughter with the goofy Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett).

Kate Beckinsale is radiant in this movie.  She is amazingly beautiful and she delivers her lines with a brilliant dryness.  My problem with this film is the story becomes a tad convoluted whereas Lady Susan’s plotting goes all over the place.  This causes her machinations to pull me out of the story.

And, the music in the background made me feel like I was watching a Monty Python movie, and this is not a Monty Python movie.  This film has amazing dialogue, not a slapstick comedy.  It did not feel like the correct tone.

And the ending seemed to come out of nowhere.

So while I found this funny at times and I loved watching Kate Beckinsale every time she was on screen, I did not like these characters and the plot was hard to accept.  Great dialogue, but there needed to be more.

2.8 stars

2.5 stars

END OF SPOILERS

3.5 stars

2.4 stars

1.25 stars

2.7 stars

Historically, making a satisfying sequel to a horror movie is a challenging affair. I truly enjoyed the first Conjuring movie. It caught me off guard and it was as unexpectedly great film, not just horror film, but film. However, we have seen other horror movie sequels fall flat (ex. Insidious 2, Sinister 2).

Fortunately, The Conjuring 2 does not fall into that trap. It is a tense and edge-of-your-seat film, controlling the tone with excellent direction by returning director James Wan and top notch performances from Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson.

This is another case from the files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real life “ghost busting” couple who were connected to the Amityville Horror situation in Long Island. The “true” story this time took Ed and Lorraine to England to try and help the Hodgson family with their own haunted house. Known as the Enfield Poltergeist, this case is one of the most documented cases of paranormal activity in history.

The film does start with Ed and Lorraine in the Amityville Horror house, dealing with the fallout of that situation. Lorraine was having psychic flashes of the demon that was in that house, who seemed to be following her.

Meanwhile, young Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe) was having to deal with more than bullies and troubled teen angst. She was being possessed by a spirit claiming that the house her family lived in was his house. Janet’s mother Peggy (Frances O’Conner) sees the furniture flying around the house and reaches out for help for her family of four.

The church, uncertain about the validity of the Hodgson’s claims, asked the Warrens to go and find out whether or not this case was a hoax. Lorraine, who was worried about her premonition, did not want to go, but Ed convinced her that they had never let a family suffer that needed their help.

One of the aspects of this story that I really liked was how there was question throughout the film whether or not this was actually happening. Questions arose making everyone believe that it could be a hoax, and the film played those doubts up very well. And even though, we as an audience were shown the ghost, I couldn’t help but wonder if this whole thing was an act.

What really makes The Conjuring work though is the outstanding relationship between Ed and Lorraine, portrayed perfectly by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. This couple grounds the film, keeping its outrageous antics in balance with the love story between them. Without these characters, The Conjuring 2 would really devolve into just another horror movie with all of the basic cliched tropes. The Warrens make this something more. You care about these characters and, because of that, you care about the cases that they work.

And here I will mention a specific scene that some may felt was odd, but I absolutely loved it. Ed Warren, trying to bring some music into this haunted house, takes a guitar and sings Elvis Presley’s “ Can’t Help Falling In Love” for the kids. I thought this was just amazing. It was such a human moment that showed so much heart and love. This was a fantastic scene inside this horror movie. Some may claim that it did not fit, but it was a scene that developed characters, Ed Warren in particular.

James Wan also has to be mentioned as a reason this film works so well, because his shots are done specifically well, and he knows how to build the stress level of the audience without the typical jump scares. Sure there are some jump scares here as well, but they are woven beautifully into the story, and they wind up creating suspense. There is practically no let up in the suspense of this film from the beginning until the very end. He also has some of the greatest images you are going to find. The look of the evil nun, the Crooked Man, among other shots are really great.

Then, there needs to be a shout out to the young actress Madison Wolfe. If she does not have the chops to pull off this role, The Conjuring 2 would be stopped in its tracks. She does a remarkable job as this possessed little girl. She should have a great career ahead of her.

Now, The Conjuring 2 did feel a little long, and at 134 minutes, you aren’t going to find too many horror films that long. There are a few scenes that could have been trimmed down to make it a little more compact, but that is a minor nitpick.

I enjoyed this film a great deal. Yes, there are things that you have seen before, but, with the use of Ed and Lorraine, The Conjuring 2 creates a fearful story and a scary mood. It was as suspenseful of a time at the movies. This is the best horror film I have seen in a while.

4 stars

2.3 stars