Pacific Rim 3D

Plot: Kaiju, giant sea monsters from the bottom of the Pacific, are destroying cities on the coasts. More and more Kaiju are coming, and the people of the world build Jaegers, giant robots, to fight them. Jaegers need two co-pilots each to run them, and the pilots need to 'drift,' or mind-meld with each other and with the Jaeger to fight effectively. Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) was a great pilot when he worked with his twin brother, but when the brother was killed, Raleigh retired. Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) drags him out of retirement to battle Kaiju in Hong Kong, and teams him up with Japanese cutie Mako Mori (Rinko Kikushi). Both Raleigh and Mako have tragic incidents in their pasts which they re-experience as they 'drift' into each other's brains. In the end, the Kaiju keep getting stronger and smarter, and the last Jaegers need to battle them in a desperate plan to "cancel the apocalypse." [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Pacific Rim gets the Summer action movie right. The visuals are striking with lots of attention to detail. The fight scenes are dramatic, and watching fight is exhausting. Having two pilots is clever since they need to communicate, so you can listen into what they are thinking, and of course it allows from the romantic tension between Raleigh and Mako.

Pacific Rim's  plot is more fantasy than sci-fi, as giant robots a cool way to fight sea monsters, but probably are not the most sensible way, and there are similar gaps elsewhere.  Within the realm of fantasy, Pacific Rim is a lot of fun.  Even though it has monsters, it is not a horror movie. I appreciated monsters not springing out of dark shadows into my face. The super-giant monsters were always easy to find.

Pacific Rim has a truly globalized setting with most of the movie in Hong Kong, and more than a few lines of Japanese from Mako. The movie is just escapist drama, but it does pack the message of cooperating to solve our common problems.

Overall Pacific Rim was fun-to-watch. The characters are engaging enough, though stereotypes. The fight scenes are gripping and actually tired me out while I was watching them.

Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Ron Perlman, Burn Gorman

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Rating: 3.0 stars: Fun-to-watch, exciting, always interesting, but still a little too campy to be rated higher. 

More: You gotta love Ron Pearlman is Hannibal Chau, the dealer in dead Kaiju parts. So tough and so cool. 

Even More:.  I liked the 3D. As I said before, this movie looked great. 

.

Lone Ranger

Plot: An old Tonto (Johnny Depp) tells a story at a museum to a young boy about a band of Texas Rangers that get ambushed, and only one survives -- who becomes the Lone Ranger. The Lone Ranger/John Reid (Armie Hammer) goes after the band of outlaws for revenge. The outlaws work for silver miners and railroad interests. The Comanche Indians are threatening the settlers including the John Reid's sister-in-law and his nephew. The story has fantasy and magical elements. The Ranger's horse Silver is magic spirit horse who rescues them in deadly situations. In the climatic battle, the Lone Ranger and Tonto battle on a train to foil an evil railroad man's scheme to get rich on Texas silver. At the end, there are some jokey references to classic Lone Ranger tropes, and after the credits Tonto returns to walk into the horizon. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: A deeply strange movie with more symbolism and absurdist humor that I expected from Disney. Lone Ranger reimagines the story centered on Tonto who is a Shaman, and who creates and aids the Lone Ranger with magic. The battles are family-friendly and campy. They are knowingly and ironically unrealistic. 

I can see why Lone Ranger was poorly reviewed; it does not fit into a movie genre. People expecting an action movie are disappointed by the comedy and the absurdity.

In many ways, Westerns can't be written in the 2010's because the white Americans are too guilty about the way Native Americans were treated. The Native Americans can not be bad guys because this triggers a chain of causation about why they are bad -- Are they reacting to just provocation? -- Are they products of white-man-created poverty that leads them to strike out in rage? Disney is not going to deal with these questions because they come too close to justifying terrorism. Here, American Indians sit out conflicts while white Americans battle each other.

In this context, Tonto has moved from being a the Lone Ranger's helper in the 1930's original radio show to being a Shaman. Now the Lone Ranger is not a solitary hero -- he used to be the LONE Ranger after all. Now he is the vehicle that Tonto is using to bring justice and advance the Indian Spirit symbolized by the crow.  This rethinking of the story to modern sensibility and the camp violence leads me to label it Post-Modern.

There are few women in the script, Reid's sister-in-law Rebecca (Ruth Wilson), and the brothel owner Red Herrington (Helena Bonham Carter) -- who is wonderful as always. Of course, prostitutes are way over-represented in movies, but that is a topic for another day. I expect Rebecca has a big role in the sequel. 

The closing battle has the William Tell Overture playing and the fighting is stylized, comic style fighting. There is almost no blood and surprisingly little injury. 

Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner, Ruth Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter

Directed by: Gore Verbinski

Rating: 2.75 stars, maybe it deserves 3.0  -- Really strange. Always interesting. I was glad I saw it. On the other hand, it was not fun-to-watch in popcorn, summer-movie sense. This movie could be a classic though.

 

More:  The crow is the spirit of the Indian. Tonto wears it on his head because he identifies with it.  The crow dies when the village is massacred, and it is nurtured when the young boy hears the story. When Tonto does something he spreads bird seed to bring the spirit of the Indian back. When he says the bird can't tell time, he is saying the Indian Spirit is timeless. They boy is supposed to carry on the mission of the Lone Ranger in modern times. When the rabbit eats the scorpion, they are saying nature is still out of balance, and needs help.  At the end Tonto walks on, indicating he is a timeless Shaman.

Yet More:  Tonto's make -up is based on a 2006 painting by Kirby Sattler.

Still More: Tonto means "fool" in Spanish and related languages. The other Indians seemed to know that.  Kemo Sabe means "trusted scout."

It keeps coming: Johnny Depp claims American Indian ancestry, but is not enrolled in any tribe.

Man of Steel

Plot: Jor-El (Russell Crowe) sends baby Kal/Superman (Henry Cavill) to Earth just as Jor-El is killed by General Zod (Michael Shannon). Kal lands on earth, and in the next scenes the young Clark Kent is keeping a low profile but saving people's lives when he needs to. Reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) notices and eventually confronts Clark, and she figures out that he is a space alien. Just then, General Zod arrives on Earth to terraform it and turn it into a new Krypton. Clark gets out his Superman costume, and goes to battle so humans are not exterminated.  From then on, buildings are smashed and smashed and smashed and eventually the movie ends. After the movie should have ended, there are extra scenes to set up the sequel.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Why did people complain about John Carter?  It was twice as good as Man of Steel. The beginning of Man of Steel was interesting, but once Superman puts on the cape, the movie is doomed. 

Man of Steel was unpleasant, especially the fight sequences at the end, which are pointless and unwatchable. By the time General Zod himself is fighting instead of his henchmen/woman, I was beyond caring about buildings falling down. 

It starts out well enough with the back story on Krypton -- it was stilted but Russell Crowe and Mom Antje Traue played the birth and then destruction of Krypton with suitable angst and emotion. I liked the early General Zod scenes on Krypton when it was unclear if he was a friend or a foe. The art direction of the Krypton set was modern and steampunk -- I thought it was interesting. 

The problem with Superman is that he too powerful to be interesting. When he is fighting with his super opponents, it was like two armored knights hitting each other with Nerf swords --  they couldn't do enough damage to hurt each other. Superman and Zod never figured this out: they kept beating on each other as if they were trying to get exercise.

The sound track was all orchestral by Hans Zimmer, and was suitably grand but not inspired.  I bought one song online, the drum-heavy, battle music 'You Die or I Do.' The special effects were OK, but got boringly repetitive. It would have been better in 3D.

Cast: Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams

Directed by: Zack Snyder, who directed 300 and Watchmen.

Rating: 1.5 stars: not recommended.

 

More: World Engine is a great name of a science fiction device. Whatever a World Engine is, it has got to be cool.

Even more: [Minor Spoiler] Why did Superman have to fly through the center of the Earth?

.

The Heat

The poster has some of the flavor of the opening credits, and it show-
cases the stars. If you look carefully, you see this is a police satire.

Plot: [Minor Spoilers]FBI Agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) goes to Boston trying to track down drug dealer. She meets tough girl Boston detective Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) and they instantly hate each other; having profanity filled fights. They run down leads, learn to tolerate each other, and after a drunken night that lasts into morning they become friends. Soon they solve the crime, and the movie ends happily. There is a sub-plot with Det. Mullins family. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This was the funniest comedy of 2013 so far.

Melissa McCarthy was really funny, her character was ten-feet over-the-top, and writer Dippold's script kept the outrageousness coming. Sandra Bullock was likable and played the straight-woman well.  

The plot was just an excuse to set up zany situations and to poke fun at both cop dramas and society. The story was to track a drug dealer through his suppliers to the big boss. 

I liked the soundtrack and bought the Isley Brother's oldie "Fight the Power."  I liked the opening credits design. 

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy

Directed by: Paul Feig

Written by: Katie Dippold

Rating: 3.0 stars: Best comedy of the year so far.

 

More: Last week we saw, This is the End, and other reviewers said it was crude but funny. It was undeniably crude, and not that funny. It was often misogynistic too, for example it had only one female costar and she ran away because she was afraid of being raped.

The Heat is crude and profane too, but funnier. Unlike This is the End, The Heat doesn't have endless sodomy jokes, but it had balls jokes and penis-envy marksmanship. I don't think the so-called misandry is as offensive, but role-reversal is hard to analyze. There is intensional satire in The Heat so it gets more leeway. One problem was when  Melissa McCarthy's character teased the police captain about the size of his balls -- that was more mean than funny because she was abusing one man instead of men generally, and the gag went on for so long. 

.

.

This is the End

Plot: Seth Rogan and Jay Baruchel (playing themselves) go to a party at James Franco's house. After a few minutes, there are earthquakes, fires, and huge sinkholes. Seth, Jay, James, and several other actors barricade themselves inside the house, but demonic forces continue to attack as the biblical apocalypse plays out.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This is the End is different and clever. It was generally fun-to-watch, and many of the jokes were outrageous or gross. This often very funny, but it was entirely "boy humor,"  heavily misogynistic and homophobic. The sodomy jokes and homosexual rape jokes got repetitive.

I liked how the characters were playing themselves, and this was even funnier for the cameo characters doing outrageous things. How did they get Channing Tatum to take that part?

There was no attempt to make the world's destruction realistic as in an action movie -- always campy and therefore never scary. The soundtrack of oldies was unexceptional. 

While there was an over-arching message of loving one another, this was pretty dilute. Generally, this was a comedy without social dimension. 

Cast: Seth Rogan, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Rihanna

Written and directed by: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Rating: 2.5 stars because I was glad I saw it, but not higher since it was pretty empty. 

 

More: The actors are playing characters based on themselves, and this give the movie some realism that isn't there in The Hangover Part III for example. 

Even More: I can believe how James Franco dies. I never expect that!

.

Now You See Me

Plot: Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt (Woody Harrelson), Henley (Isla Fisher), and Jack (Dave Franco) are scrapy young magicians who are recruited to do three big magic shows for a hidden boss. In the first one they rob a bank, and give the money to the audience. FBI Agent Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) tries investigate the bank robbery without being duped by their magic, but he is.  Old time magician turned skeptic Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman) shows up to debunk the young magicians, and Interpol agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent) shows up too for no good reason. The 4 magicians run two additional shows despite the FBI's harassment, and at the end nothing is what it seemed -- due to rapidly twisting plot.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: It starts great. Jesse Eisenberg has power and presence and clever dialog, and the first forty-five minutes are fun and cool.  The art direction and direction of the early tricks is fast paced and theatrical. Overall the first act of The Four Horseman is wonderful, but you probably saw that in the trailer already. After the bank robbery, it turns more and more into a crime drama, and this is not as good.  It is not as much fun to churn though a feasible thriller plot as it is to show tricks.

I like Mark Ruffalo in whatever he is in, and he plays a Columbo-style direct bumbling, but intelligent detective. Woody Harrelson is good too. I am tired of seeing Morgan Freemen, but I suppose he was good too.

When it is fun, it was really fun. The plot twists were cool, but not quite clever enough. The final twist is pretty cool, but why? Why??

There was a sequence in the second show where they explain the tricks they are going to use in the final crime. Good foreshadowing.

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fischer, Dave Franco, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freemen

Directed by: Louis Leterrier

Rating: 2.5 stars, 

 

More: I liked how X's (identity withheld) expression changes when the final twist is revealed. Like Christopher Reeve's bumbling Clark Kent changing into Superman. A disguise more in attitude than in costume.

Even More:  I did not understand the plot twists until I read the synopsis on Wikipedia. After you see the film you should do that too. 

Mud

Plot: A fugitive, Mud, (Matthew McConaughey) is living on a river island in Arkansas when he is befriended by two boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland). Mud is running from the law and a posse of locals from the next town who want to lynch him. Mud wants to get back together with his girlfriend, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) and run away. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: A flawed, pessimistic, and poorly-paced film about poor kids in river country and their mis-adventure with a lowlife. Early, the film is painfully hard-to-watch as unlikeable characters crawl at snail's pace through set-up details. Allegedly, Mud is a great liar, but he never shows any dynamism or charm that great liars employ. He should have been more like the Great Gatsby. Later, when the boys are stealing things for Mud, the story picks up.

I liked the child actors because their scenes never seemed fake.  The pluckiness of Sheridan's Ellis is the strongest part of the movie. The relationships between the characters are vague and the emotional tone is cool. Despite the characters saying 'I love you,' regularly; I did not understand what kept these people together. Mud's relationship with Juniper was especially undeveloped, and Reese spends the movie wasting away in her hotel. No dialog at all -- they wave at each other.

The plot has dangling ends, like there were many scenes that got edited out.

Art movies are supposed mean something. Our hero, Ellis, was idealistic -- picking fights for love, and stealing to help lovers stay together. This was to compensate in his mind for his parent's marital troubles, and  because he wanted love too. See SPOILERS section below for more. 

Despite lots of pictures of trees and riverscapes, the photography does not capture natural beauty, and maybe that is intentional since the subject is generally dreary. On the other hand, natural beauty is one reason why these river men love the life so much, and that never made it into the film. I did not think this was an "interesting portrait of a dying way of life," on a historical or cultural level.

The soundtrack was poor, especially the closing credit music.

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland

Directed by: Jeff Nichols

Rating: 2.5: My original rating is 2.0. The strong performance of the child stars can't fix the poor pacing, weak character development, and deeply pessimistic world view. The is film is dreadfully boring in places.  On the other hand, there is a lot of depth to the story as a fable or dream, see spoiler section below. On this level, 2.5 stars. 

  << The original rating was 2, and that is why the graphic is 2. I bumped it up to 2.5 after thinking about it for a while.

More: Mud was strongly reviewed. These critics are suckers for the off-beat and a little symbolism.

BIG SPOILERS:  Bad guy Mud gets rescued and floats away to start again. He does not pay for his crime. The lynch mob trying to get justice for their dead kin lay dead instead. I am sure we are supposed to be happy that Mud lives, but why?

Idealistic Ellis, is happy because he can gaze at the cute (older) high school girls across the street. It would have been so much better to have him meet girls his own age. If this is a coming of age movie, where is the advance in Ellis? Just this one detail would have changed my assessment of the film.  Instead he is turning into a peeping Tom/stalker.

Idealism is drowned in a river of troubles. This is how idealistic boys turn into burned-out, bitter, old men: where the best skill is picking off bad guys with a sniper rifle, or swimming unseen while been shot at.  

SPOILER - Let's say it was all a dream:  We know that boats are never found in trees: this should be a clue that this is a make-believe world, and Mud lives there. He also slept high in the trees like Peter Pan. No adults ever talk to Mud (except Tom Blankenship, who must also be make-believe.) This is like 2007's Bridge to Terabithia, which is best understood as a metaphor or dream.

Ellis never went out on the date with Mary Ellen either; that was also a dream. He met Juniper selling fish, and she never met Mud.  The boys find a boat on the island, get some rope to free it, patch the leak, steal a motor, but never get the motor running. At the end, Ellis dreams his house gets shot up, that is why Mud is attacked in Ellis' bedroom, and in the morning the house boat is dismantled and Ellis moves to town with his Mom. His imaginary friends cruise away on the boat to open water. In the end, Ellis sees some neighbor girls. (As mentioned above) it would have been a happier ending if they were his own age, or carrying a fishing pole, or a soccer ball, or anything to show they were real people not another daydream.

There are problems with this analysis -- why do the police have Mud's photo? Even if one believes all this, what is the hidden message. Nothing really? Just a kid "coming of age."