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.
I did not hate Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland from 2010, a film that made a surprising billion (yes, with a b) dollars worldwide. When a film reaches the billion dollar level, a sequel is unavoidable. Now, a lot of people dislike the last film, but, looking back, I gave it 3 stars (which is a fresh review, but at the lower end). Alice Through the Looking Glass is not as good as Burton’s film, but it is not as bad as many people are making it out to be.
Johnny Depp returns at the Mad Hatter, but this time, he has become depressed. So depressed that his friends believe that he was dying. In a hope to help him, Absolem (voiced by the late Alan Rickman) leads Alice, who had just returned from sea as a captain of her father’s old ship, The Wonder, back through the looking glass. Alice is shocked at seeing what had happened to The Hatter, but she dismisses his story connected to his family.
This plot point was questionable. Why would The Hatter’s family being alive be impossible to Alice? She did just move from one plane of existence to another through a mirror. She had talked to a purple moth and a smiling, disappearing cat. Why is it impossible for Alice to believe that The Hatter’s family may be alive? The reason was that the script needed her to believe that to continue the downward spiral of The Hatter.
In a desperate attempt to save him, Alice comes up with a cockamamie plan to steal a device from Time (Sasha Baron Cohen) and go back in time to save Hatter’s family from death at the hands (or fire breath) of the Jabberwocky. Sasha Baron Cohen, who was in one of the worst films of the year a few months ago, is perfect in this role, and his Time is one of the absolute highlights of Alice Through the Looking Glass. Time warns Alice that her attempts are for naught, but the girl ignores his warnings and steals the device anyway.
Time then chases Alice back through time to try and return the device to its rightful place before it caused the destruction of time. Alice was shown as a very inconsiderate and dangerous individual, tossing aside apocalyptic warnings from Time all for her own personal reasons. One could say that she was no different than Iracebeth, the Queen of Hearts (Helena Bonham Carter) with her selfishness. Did this make Alice the villain of this story?
There was a ton of CGI, and, although the colors were fun to look at and entertaining, much of it felt fake, almost cartoony. Maybe that was what the producers were going for, but the CGI was distracting at times.
There was also an inane story showing the origin of Iracebeth and why she became such an evil, head-chopping off villainess. And it had to do with eating tarts. Yes, you read that right. Her sister Mirana (Anne Hathaway) had a deep dark secret she was hiding. She lied about something as a child and Iracebeth was blamed, leading to her falling and hitting her head, causing it to swell up. Apparently concussions are an even worse thing in Wonderland. This whole origin story was ridiculous and drew away from the parts of the story that did work.
Johnny Depp was decent as the Hatter, but he really did not have a lot to do. They tried to make the emotional center of the movie the loss of Hatter’s family, but there was not enough interactions with the family to really make the connection with the audience.
Alice Through the Looking Glass is sitting at 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, and, while I think that is too low for this movie, I do understand why some people have found this film rotten. Technically, my review would be a rotten review as well, but I did not hate the film. It was a little over long, and it lacked a real emotional story, but there were enough parts that I enjoyed to say that I did not waste my time.
Ok…for the moment, I am going to have to use this format for the movie reviews as I am having technical trouble with my normal home over at EYG. This should work fine for now.
X-Men: Apocalypse is the latest in the X-Men franchise, bringing one of Marvel Comics’ biggest and baddest X-villains to the big screen. The world’s first mutant, En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) is accidentally brought back to the world and he picks right up with his plan on devastating the world, leaving only the strong, those who follow him. The X-Men step up to oppose him and his Four Horsemen in a massive CGI slugfest at the end of the film.
Now, I have heard some negative comments on X-Men: Apocalypse, so my expectations, which would have been sky high after the excellent X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, were managed. Because of the lower expectations, I found myself enjoying this story of mutants, despite several flaws and times when they dropped the ball.
I will continue telling you about what I liked and didn’t like, but it will need to be under the guise of SPOILERS from now on. If you have yet to see the film and you do not want to be spoiled, please skip to the end. You have now been warned.
The best part of this film is the character development of Magneto (Michael Fassbender). Magneto is living a quiet life, with a wife and a daughter, as a metal worker in Poland. He had left the international terrorist lifestyle behind him and he was happy. However, after using his powers at work to save the life of a co-worker, Magneto was exposed. The following scene where Magneto is confronted by law enforcement and his wife and daughter are unintentionally killed packs a powerful emotional wallop and is the heart of the film. We see Erik trying his best to stay on the side of the heroes, only to be faced with such a horrific tragedy, and his resumption of hostilities. Michael Fassbender is heartbreaking in this scene as the man struggled with the loss of his family and the feeling of fate pulling him back to the dark side. You knew those cops didn’t stand a chance with a pissed off Magneto.
This anger and vengeful attitude opens Magneto up to be recruited by Apocalypse, who is looking for his new Horsemen. Now, this is one of the weak parts of the film. Not Magneto, but the other three Horsemen. Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Angel (Ben Hardy) are woefully underused and really are just here to stand beside Apocalypse. However, these two characters are done perfectly when compared to Psylocke (Olivia Munn). This was such a wasted use of one of the top female X-characters that is was embarrassing. She had nothing to do and she was nothing more than a henchman. Psylocke was the worst character in the film.
On the X-Men side, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has set up his Xavier Institute for the Gifted and everything seems to be going smoothly. McAvoy is fantastic as Professor X, though I must say that some of the attempts at humor with Charles seemed to fall flat for me. Xavier discovered the return of Apocalypse with the use of Cerebro and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) returned to the school with Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) in tow. She told the X-Men about the troubles of Magneto. Jennifer Lawrence did not show her best level of acting skills in this film, looking as if she were bored. She was almost never in the blue makeup, instead choosing to have her own blonde haired visage almost exclusively. I am not sure that I would go as far as to say that she phoned her performance in, but she has certainly had more effort in other films.
The new (old) X-Men- Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) were great additions to the cast, and I could have used more of them. I really liked how they displayed Cyclops’ powers and how destructive they were. They made these powers appear to be a real burden for the young hero. This was a way to connect Scott and Jean together as we found out that Jean has had many of the same kind of issues. A scene late in the film with Jean unleashing what appeared to be the Phoenix was a highlight of that final battle. I also enjoyed the reintroduction of Nightcrawler, who was provided with not only some major things to do, but also delivered some of the film’s better humor.
Speaking of the final battle, honestly, it was underwhelming. There were some awesome moments inside the battle (ex Phoenix force, Professor X battling Apocalypse inside his mind), but most of the rest of the fight was basically standing pat. When you compare this battle with the airport scene from Captain America: Civil War, this looks all the more weak. Then, Magneto and Storm both turned their backs on Apocalypse, and I am not sure the motivations. I did not buy the reasoning for either of them to turn their back on Apocalypse.
Quicksilver (Evan Peters) made his return. In Days of Future Past, the Quicksilver scene was an absolute standout moment,and everyone was expecting more here. And we got it. Quicksilver saved all of the mutants from the exploding mansion. This is a great use of the character of Quicksilver, who is shown with a great personality. Not only was he portrayed well, the use of his powers helped develop his personality more. This was done extremely well in Civil War. Every scene in that airport scene served character. This was not always done here, but Quicksilver was a good example of doing this well. However, I did have a little bit of trouble accepting that Quicksilver was THAT fast. Still, the scene was highly entertaining and shot well.
The appearance of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) was predictable,but fun. And man, did he go berserker? He butchered those men. As a comic fan, I appreciated the use of the actual Weapon X helmet and look for Logan. There was also a cool moment between Logan and new Jean that could help explain why Logan always felt such a connection to the redhead.
END OF SPOILERS
X-Men: Apocalypse is not at the same level of the last few X-Men movies, nor does it reach the excellent that was X2, but it is an enjoyable time at the movies, especially after I lowered my expectations. Sure, there are some problems with the film, including having some characters there for simply window service, a simplistic story and a questionable finale. However, fans of the X-Men should find enough here to be pleased with Bryan Singer’s latest installment.
Italian director Luca Guadagnino does a wonderful job of providing us with a dazzling view of the Mediterranean landscape. There was also a powerful cast of actors including Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton.
However, I was pretty bored.
Thankfully, there was a lot of nudity to perk me up and keep me awake. I did almost doze off twice during A Bigger Splash, which is not a good sign.
Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) was an internationally famous rock star on vacation with her lover Paul ( Matthias Schoenaerts) and she was nursing a vocal condition that did not allow her to speak above a raspy whisper. Things were going great until Marianne’s former flame Harry (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson) inserted themselves in on the couple.
Fiennes brought an energy to this film that was undeniable. He was really over the top with this character, and at times he was as abrasive as he was entertaining. It was clear that he had an agenda for his relationship with Marianne. It was revealed that Harry had introduced Paul to Marianne, trying to provide a way out of their relationship.
Even with the supposed friendship between these three characters (not counting the unexpected daughter), the bounds of friendship seemed to be pushed to its breaking point several times and this really made me wonder why Marianne and Paul put up with the eccentric actions of Harry.
Plus…everybody is naked.
This might be a very European way to look at the human body, but every time Harry stripped naked to jump into the pool in front of everybody (including his daughter) I found it odd.
There was very little in way of a story involved in this movie, relying on the performances of the actors to carry the movie. This meant that when the film seemed to make a right turn near the end, it felt very weird and out of place. The last 30 minutes of this movie was very bizarre and does not pay off. There are several questions left to answer, that the film leaves to the viewer to determine. And while I would usually not be opposed to that technique, in this case, I needed to know the answers to really know how to react to the unexpected character swaps that happen in the conclusion.
Overall, A Bigger Splash was kind of boring and lacked a story, but bragged some good performances by some really talented actors who are almost able to save the film.
If you are a dedicated fan of the original TMNT cartoon and characters or if you are eight years old, you might enjoy this sequel to the 2014 rebooted franchise.
Otherwise, this sucked.
We find ourselves back in New York City with the Turtles hiding in the sewers, doing what they can to help at night. They are afraid that the public could not handle knowing the existence of giant, monster-like turtles, and, to protect society from that fear, the turtles stay in the shadows. Meanwhile, scientific idiot Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry) is putting together a plan to break out Shredder (Brian Tee) from captivity. The plot is needlessly complicated and ends up, somehow, involving one of the TMNT’s biggest villains, Krang.
Let’s talk Krang for a minute. There was a lot of excitement among Turtle fans when it was revealed that Krang would appear in this new film. I am sure they are all disappointed because Krang is worthless in this film. He is nothing more than a brain sticking out of a giant robot. There is not one ounce of set up or reason for Krang to be involved. He appears from out of nowhere. He is ridiculous looking. Raphael called him Bubblicious at one point in the movie, and that was a perfect description of what he looked like…a giant wad of chewed, pink bubble gum. I can’t imagine anyone would enjoy the use of this character.
Add to it that Krang really takes away from Shredder and his viability in TMNT: Out of the Shadows. Shredder becomes an afterthought once again.
Casey Jones also arrives here, only to be wasted. Stephen Amell played the hockey stick carrying vigilante, but he really does nothing important. He just seemed to be there to have someone standing beside April O’Neil (Megan Fox) who is as attractive as she is. Plus, he only appears once in the whole film with the iconic hockey mask. This was not the proper use of the character.
There was very little that was done well here. I found myself bored in the first five minutes and it never recovered. I was not a fan of the 2014 reboot of this franchise, and this film actually took a step back.
Now, there may be some things that a more well versed fan of the TMNT franchise than I am may find entertaining. I will admit that the Turtles themselves are done pretty well as characters. However, the angst among the team of heroes in a half shell seemed to be overcome pretty quickly.
The ending battle was very reminiscent of The Avengers, with a portal open in the skies above the city, and our heroes needing to stop the villains evil plot. The action here was not like The Avengers. This one was dull and uninspired.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows tried to address some of the fans’ wishes (Shredder is not a giant robot, BeBop and Rocksteady etc) but most of the time, they failed with the execution of the wishes. This was not a good time at the movies.
I will say that I did not dislike this as much as I was expecting to. From the previews, this felt like a Nicholas Sparks love story with the tragic events just ready to tug on the heart strings. I was unaware that this was based on a New York Times bestseller by Jojo Moyes.
Louisa Clark (Emilia Clarke)is a sweet young lady who tends to chatter on too much. But she is needed to help bring money into her home because her father cannot find work and her sister is heading to college. So when she loses her waitress job because of tough economic times, her family was feeling the pressure.
Lou had to find something new, despite not having a deep skill set. She applies for and gets a job as a caretaker for a wealthy English man who had been paralyzed from the neck down. Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) was depressed about the turn of events and was feeling as if he did not want to continue to live. However, he had promised his parents (played by Charles Dance and Janet McTeer) that he would give them six months with him before he took any further steps.
The quirky Lou had trouble getting close to Will at first, but as time passes, the pair of them start to form a bond, and Lou attempts to show Will that he has a lot to live for.
Starting off, this film is dreadfully formulaic and predictable. Of course, Will does not like Lou at first and then they grow to care for one another. Lou’s boyfriend Patrick (Matthew Lewis) is shown as taking Lou for granted at best and downright selfish at worst. The relationship grows over time. All of these tropes are very much shown in most movies of this ilk.
What makes this film better than most of those films is the strength of the relationship between Will and Lou. These were two charismatic people who you can’t help but like, even when Will was doing his best to push people away. They make a sweet couple and you want to root for them amidst the sappy, romantic claptrap that encircles the film. The two actors do an admirable job of staving off that sappiness for much of the film.
However, the film’s controversial ending is a challenge. SPOILERS from here on out. When Will decides that, despite his discovery of love for Lou, he is still going to end his life, he is in danger of sending a negative message that life is not worth living if you cannot use your arms and legs. Will’s argument to Lou was remarkably selfish and a slap in the face of everything that they had done together. Now, I am not saying that I wanted them to live happily ever after, and I do believe that this ending was risky, but I think another manner of death, something less intentional and more accidental, might have made this message moot.
Me Before You was better than I thought it was going to be, but it is not without its flaws, some of which were be glaring. By the end of the film, I felt my emotions were being manipulated more than I felt any real emotions to the result of the story. The choices made by Will tainted my opinions on the coupling and made it feel less organic and more exploited.
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.
Let’s start out with my stating that I have never played Warcraft or World’s of Warcraft. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this movie more had I been a player. However, I should not have to know anything to enjoy the film.
The Orcs, led by the evil, Fell-ridden leader Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), needed to find a new world as their world was dying. The world was dying from the power called “The Fell”, which was also consuming Gul’dan. They opened a portal to another world, a world of humans. The conflict immediately struck up between the humans and Orcs. Orc tribal chieftain Durotan (Toby Kebbel), whose wife is pregnant, worries about Gul’dan.
Meanwhile, the humans are led by King Llane (Dominic Cooper) and his friend and top right hand man Lothar (Travis Fimmel). There is also a character named The Guardian (Ben Foster), who is a wizard. They are preparing to fight against this new threat that is destroying cities in the land to grab people. See, in order to open the portal, Gul’dan needs to use their life force. So they need people.
In an initial conflict, Garona (Paula Patton), a half-Orc, half-human, is captured and joins with the humans to attempt to stop the Orcs from reopening the portal and bring the rest of the Orcs to this land.
Now, this plot becomes very convoluted. There are way too many storylines happening in the movie. Everything is crammed into the film. Way too much.
The imagery in this movie was great. The Orcs looked fantastic, even though I had a lot of trouble because, when Durotan was on screen, all I could think of was The Hulk and Garona made me think of She-Hulk. Still the stop-motion capture work was great.
That was about where I stopped with this movie.
The beginning of Warcraft was dull. I was bored. I was also pretty confused about what was happening much of the time. The film does not take much time explaining things, which is not the worst thing in the world. I do not want an overabundance of exposition in a film, but a little more in a film that has such a deep mythology to it would have been appreciated. The middle of the film did pick up a little bit and I saw some promise. However, then the ending came along and it was so stupid that it ruined what little promise that I had seen.
What am I talking about? Well…SPOILERS…. at the end, King Llane tells Garona that she had to kill him so that she can bring peace between the humans and Orcs. Huh? How was that going to work? I can see how it made Garona respected by the Orcs, but how was that supposed to make it okay with the humans? It made absolutely no sense and really took me out of the movie. END OF SPOILERS
The relationship between Garona and Lothar was shoehorned into this movie and it did not feel organic at all. The film wants to make this relationship a vital component, which would work with the ending, but it just did not work.
In fact, none of these characters are developed at all. Durotan was the most developed character in the film, but most of the rest of the characters were so one note. Because these characters were not involving, I did not care much about the action because I did not feel any concern for what could happen to the characters.
I’m not even going to go into the whole “Baby Orc Moses” story, except to say that anyone finding that floating green, fanged baby is going to drown that little monster or stone it to death. I’m guessing that is not what is going to happen, although I can see that scene in the “How Warcraft Should Have Ended” video that will invariably be appearing on YouTube.
It very well be that a sequel to this film will be considerably better since much of this film was used to set up the world, something that would have helped this movie. It looked great and it had some decent action, but the characters were one dimensional,the story was overly convoluted, and the ending took any promise out of it for me. Warcraft did not become that great video game movie that some people had hoped it would be.
One of the most highly buzzed about independent films of the year, The Lobster starred Colin Farrell as David, who has checked himself into a specialized hotel looking to find himself a mate.
Thing is… if he doesn’t find a mate in an allotted time frame, he is turned into an animal. Yes, that is what I said. In fact, he brings his brother Bob, the dog, along with him as a reminder.
The Lobster is a futuristic, science fiction film with some examples of a dystopian world; however, the film really is a film about love and the relationships that we struggle to maintain while finding love in unexpected places.
The setting itself is very strange. There are plenty of hints about what the world is like (such as it being a law that single people must find someone to marry), but the movie does not stop to explain these hints or tell you how they came to be. I like that fact. It is like the film is telling you to pay attention and that you will be able to piece together a reasonable explanation if you just listen. There are too many films, particularly of this genre, that feel like they have to explain every little minute detail instead of trusting that the audience is smart enough to figure it out on their own.
The Lobster is also extremely dark and extremely funny. There were a couple of times when I thought that I shouldn’t have been laughing, but there I was doing it. Humor can be found in many unfortunate situations, and The Lobster displays this expertly.
At one point, David ran away from the hotel to join up with a group called The Loners in the forest surrounding the hotel. The Loners was the group that was being hunted by guests of the hotel. Killing a Loner gave you another day onto your timeline to find a mate. It is here where David actually finds someone to love (Rachel Weisz); ironically, breaking the rules of the Loners prohibiting flirting, sex or kissing.
One of my favorite things from the forest was seeing all of the weird animals walking around these Loners. We see a camel, a flamingo, a peacock etc. These are obviously people who have failed to find a match and have been turned into animals and let loose in the wilderness. These animals are just there in the background, and their inclusion is very funny.
The film is wholly original and unlike most anything you have ever seen. It is weird, warped, tragic, funny and droll. The ending of the film is up in the air to what has (or will) happen and you will be sitting in the theater wanting to know, yet not wanting to know, what does happen.
Colin Farrell is excellent as the Milquetoast David and Rachel Weisz is his perfect match as the short sighted Loner. John C. Reilly’s Lisping Man provides a new and disturbing deterrent to masturbation while Ben Whishaw’s Limping Man spends time smashing his nose into objects so he can have something in common with one of the women (Jessica Barden) at the hotel whose nose bleeds without warning. Some of the most brutal (and at times funniest) material is provided by Heartless Woman (Angeliki Papoulia), Farrell’s first attempt at a hotel relationship.
The film is the study of why people get together and why they fail with relationships. It is one of the oddest experiences you will have at the movies this year, and yet, somehow, one of the most relatable.
I have conflicting thoughts on Now You See Me 2, the sequel to a film from a couple years ago that I liked. Despite liking the original, I was not sure that a sequel to it was truly required.
Still, I went into this hoping to like the movie.
We pick up a year after the events of the previous movie where our Horsemen were in hiding, being pursued by the FBI, and awaiting orders from the powerful magic group, The Eye. When there is a product reveal of a phone that a company called Octa is releasing that will target people’s privacy, the Horsemen jump into action.
The problem is… it is a trap. The trap is set by our villain of the film, the bearded Daniel Radcliffe. Playing Walter Mabry, who previously faked his own death, Radcliffe kidnaps the Horsemen in order to use their magic/thievery skills to steal a chip that would allow someone a way to get into any computer on the planet. The Horsemen agree to steal the chip, all the while planning on turning it over to The Eye instead.
Meanwhile, Dylan (Mark Ruffalo) is trying desperately to find the Horsemen, despite being outed to the FBI as a mole. Dylan heads to see last film’s villain Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) because he indicated that he had information to be had. Breaking him out, the pair go in pursuit of the Horsemen.
The actors seem to have a good time here. Lizzy Caplan’s Lula replaced Isla Fisher’s Henley in the cast. I was not overly enamored by the dialogue the script had Caplan delivering. It made her sound very forced and fake. There was also some trouble brewing within the Horsemen as there was some problem between Dylan and Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg). This plot point felt like it was included because they needed a reason for some stuff to happen. It never felt true or organic.
And there is a twin that shows up in this film for absolutely no reason and is absolutely the worst part of this movie. I hated just about everything that this twin was involved in. (I won’t spoil it for you, but I really disliked that character.)
Having said that, I found myself becoming invested in what was happening during the film. Sure, the magic tricks were completely ridiculous and they stretched believably, but I was able to suspend that disbelief for most of them, and they never really pulled me out of the narrative.
However, the ending of Now You See Me 2 really pushed the envelope with me. The biggest problem I had with it was it completely undid the story of the first movie for really no reason. It felt like this film just wanted a twist ending, and what they did changed the first movie for the worse.
Mark Ruffalo had the best performance in the film as his character had the most effective character arc. Ruffalo never fails to deliver in his roles and he brings everything he can to Dylan as well. Looking back on the loss of his father was an effective way to bring more to the character of Dylan, and to show us why he made the choices that he had made.
Daniel Radcliffe is okay in the film, but his character’s motivation was lacking. The only reason I can find is that he lost some money because of the Horsemen. It is also never really shown why he wants this chip stolen. Radcliffe is charismatic and you can hate him pretty easily here so he works as a one-note villain, but there could be so much more.
Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco were all good here as well. They seem to be comfortable with these characters.
The film really is just a big, dumb movie that asks its audience to accept some outlandish situations at face value. Some of that works and some of it does not. I found myself enjoying more of this movie than I thought I would, only to be bothered by other parts. There are some stylish moments, but many of them lack substance.
Midnight Special came out earlier this year, but never came to a theater around here. The closest I came to this film was when I was in Des Moines for a conference for work, I saw that this was at the theater there. Sadly, I did not have the opportunity to get out of the conference to see a movie.
However, I found it on YouTube the other day, so I rented it there and gave it a look.
An Amber Alert was issued for a young boy named Alton (Jaeden Lieberher) who was taken from a cult-like compound by his birth father, Roy (Michael Shannon) and Roy’s friend, Lucas (Joel Edgerton). Right away, we know that there are special things about this child. He wore goggles all the time, they had to travel by night, and Alton could not be in the sun.
Roy reunited Alton with the birth mother, Sarah (Kirsten Dunst) and the three of them were trying to keep Alton away from the cult. However, there was more to worry about than just the cult. The Federal government had become interested in the boy and were in pursuit of him as well. Sevier (Adam Driver), from Homeland Security, was brought in as an expert, though he seemed as confused as anyone.
We would find out that Alton had special abilities that included eyes that lit up, the ability to control electronics, and to pick up radio transmissions. Eventually, Alton realized where he belonged, and his mother and father struggled to get him there.
We have seen this story in many other science fiction movies before. There are elements of ET the Extra Terrestrial here, with Alton playing the role of ET. There are also similar concepts in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Tomorrowland.
The strength of this film is in its ensemble cast. Michael Shannon is exceptional as a father desperate to save his son from all of the people who are determined to control the boy. Shannon brought a heart wrenching performance here, as it was clear that, in order to save the boy, he was going to have to give him up.
Also, this film would not work if Alton did not work as a character. Fortunately, Jaeden Lieberher, fresh off a great performance opposite Bill Murray in St. Vincent, brings it to this role. The young boy plays the confusion of Alton beautifully, and really transforms as he realizes where he belongs. Lieberher dominated a scene later in the film with Adam Driver and the young actor showed a great presence on screen.
Although, having the federal government chasing after the family seems kind of cliche for this movie. Maybe if it were only Adam Driver’s character doing the chasing, sure of what he believes, the plot element wouldn’t feel so used.
Then, the cult aspect of this film was a real failure. It seemed to be an important part of the first act, but the cult story fell along the sideline without any real pay off. It would have been more interesting to see the cultists, who believed that Alton was the key to their religious beliefs, pursue the boy and become a bigger piece of the story instead of the government.
Though much of this film feels like we have seen it before, the performances of the cast do a great job of overcoming some lapses in the story to create an emotional journey for Alton and his family. I am definitely glad that I finally had a chance to see this.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 