Ricky and the Flash

Plot: Ricky (Meryl Streep) is 60-year old rock singer who plays in bar band with her boy friend Greg (Rick Springfield), and she works a day job as a grocery checker. She has three grown kids in Indiana. Her daughter Julie (Mamie Gummer) attempts suicide after she gets dumped by her husband. Ricky's ex-husband Pete (Kevin Kline) tells Ricky to come back to help Julie, and she does. Lots of family drama ensues with tough conversations with each kid, Pete, and Pete's new wife Maureen (Audra McDonald). Ricky goes back to California, and plays some music, and then decides to come back for her son's wedding. After more family drama, it all ends Bollywood-style with line dancing to Ricky's pop rock music. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This is an art movie built around the final wedding scene where the long-lost Mom shows up at the wedding reception, and everyone recognizes how she lived a worthwhile life too -- also how cool she is.

If you come to the movie looking for a light comedy, a rock 'n' roll biopic, or a musical you will be disappointed. This is a artsy, dark comedy where dark means absurdly funny not haha funny.

The film plays with the contrast between the artist's lifestyle in California, and an upper-class professional lifestyle in the Midwest. (The Midwest being a symbol for not creative or enlightened.) The dialog scenes move quickly, and they are the point of the story.

The musical portions have a function in the story and are not simply performances, however, the music scenes are hit-and-miss when judged as music. Meryl gets a few songs right, and a few made me want to take a nap. She has a good voice. I wished there was less music and more dramatic action. Meryl always looks like she is having fun.

There were several good scenes. I liked the scene when Meryl rants to her bar room audience about how women rockers are considered bad mothers but male rockers are never judged as fathers. Another great scene is with Audra McDonald playing Pete's new wife. It was classy cat-fight with great dialog.

This movie could have benefit from a few sad scenes. We scarcely see regret from Ricky, and everyone feels regret about paths not taken. Ricky has had a sad life, but it is spun as happy & free rather than bittersweet. 

Cast: Meryl Streep, Mamie Gummer (Meryl's real life daughter), Rick Springfield, Kevin Kline

Directed by: Jonathan Demme

Written by: Diablo Cody

The Music: Not embarrassing. Generally serviceable. Too many songs.

Rating: 2.5 stars:.

More: They did not edit out the joke about gay marriage being illegal. The news moves faster than the movies.

Even More: Meryl's acting method gets deep into her characters even off camera, so acting against her daughter was probably interesting.

Yet More: I am getting tired of gay children coming out in every movie, and then after 20 minutes everyone is so accepting. How many movies has that happened in? 

Mission Impossible -- Rogue Nation

Plot: Congress defunds the IMF, and the CIA director (Alec Baldwin) shuts down Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and fellow IMF spies Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and Benji (Simon Pegg). Ethan ignores congress and continues to track the shadowy Syndicate, a band of spies, the so-called "Rogue Nation" of the title. He meetings mystery woman Ilsa (Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson) on the way, and it is never clear what side she is on. 

Ethan chases them through colorful locations around the world. Double-crosses, high tech burglary, rubber masks, and motorcycle chases lead to the happy ending. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Rogue Nation has exciting action sequences, and good chemistry between Ethan and Ilsa keep things interesting. Unfortunately, the plot is thin and the villain is weak: tough to get interested in more good spy/bad spy drama. Movie spies don't for fight real reasons, just other spies.

There is top notch motorcycle chase sequence that is fun and gripping. I loved it.

The publicity for the movie plugs the open sequence with Tom Cruise hanging on the side of a plane. It is an exciting scene, and now I think better of Cruise than actors in more CGI oriented roles. The action scenes are martial-arts fighting done fast and generally bloodless. Unlike the recent Bond films which are low tech, there is plenty of computer-hacking.

In the middle, I wondered what this was all about. Yes, the IMF is abolished, but that had nothing to do with the adventure that Nathan & Benji were on. The villain Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) didn't seem like a mastermind, and the motivation for the Syndicate is mushy.

I liked Tom Cruise -- he pulls out the charm and carries the role. He has a little romantic chemistry with tough-girl Rebecca Fergusson, who does a nice job with her character who is on both sides at once. Simon Pegg is also fun. He gets some of the more humorous roles.

Cast: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie

The Music: The soundtrack of blood-stirring orchestral music by Joe Kraemer is great, and sounds fresh -- unlike all the other action flicks. He weaves in a few familiar notes from the franchise theme, but mainly it is new melodies.

The Visuals: Great special effects. Some fun chase scenes. The fights may be pointless sometimes, but they are fast and fun to watch. How does Rebecca keep jumping on the shoulders of the bad guys?

Rating: 2.5 stars: Recommended because it is fun to watch. On the other hand, it isn't about anything except killing bad-guy spies. It got a little repetitive too. Good performances. After the movie, all you can talk about is the stunts since the story is thin.

More: Not as good as Ghost Protocol, even though I gave them both 2.5 stars.

Even More: Does anyone use the word "disavowed," besides Mission Impossible?

Impossible? Ethan Hunt is planning to be back for Mission Impossible #6.

Trainwreck

Plot: Amy (Amy Shumer) has been cycling thru guys in NYC partying lifestyle. She works at a style magazine, and she gets assigned to write a story about a sports medicine doctor to big-name athletes. She hates sports but quickly ends up in bed with the new doctor, Aaron (Bill Hadar). We meet Amy's sister (Brie Laron) who is worried about their institutionalized father. There are many cameos including Lebron James. Aaron & Amy's relationship cycles hot & cold while Amy broods about what she really wants. It ends Bollywood style with dancing. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Trainwreck was entertaining; it is a rom-com where the gimmick is female-oriented raunchiness: sex jokes, sex with disposable guys, beefcake butt shots, a tampon joke. It is joke-filled, and some are funny.

While Amy Shumer is funny, her character does not take her own life seriously enough for us to care about her; similarly with Bill Hadar's character. I would have liked more relationship-oriented drama; but the high joke count weakened the dramatic action.

Cast: Amy Shumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson

Directed by: Judd Apatow

The Visuals: Nothing special

Rating: 2.5 stars:.

More: Who knew LeBron James could act? He did great. He had some excellent lines and some wow delivery. Somebody should put LeBron in an action movie. 

Even More: Amy is not really a trainwreck. She has a big time job, and was up for a bigger time promotion. She can pay the rent. Is she a train wreck because she drinks too much? If so, she seems to be managing it. I wonder if she was a bigger wreck in an earlier draft. This movie does not work as a redemption story, perhaps it would have been better if it did. 

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Terminator Genisys

Plot: In the future, the war is ending, and John Conner (Jason Clarke) is sending his father, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back in time to "mate" with his mother Sarah Conner (Emilia Clark). The old Terminator (Arnold Schwarznenegger) is still around to protect Sarah from the fresh terminators from the future. In a twist, a new enemy appears for Sarah and Kyle to battle as they try to prevent Skynet/Genisys, the evil computer, from being born. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Terminator Genisys was pretty exciting. If you remember the plot from the previous movies, then this story all makes sense. The nearly indestructible bad robots keep coming, and our heroes are always in a high stakes battle.

Emilie Clarke and Arnold Schwarzenegger carry the action and the emotion. Even though 68 year old Arnold is a robot, he is still emotive and funny. Having an older body, make him an underdog, which makes him sympathetic. Sarah's character is serious the whole time, but because she is 5'3" she is also an underdog.

Cast: Emilie Clark, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke

Directed by: Alan Taylor

The Music: Lorne Balfe

The Visuals: Generally great. Not too bloody to keep the gore factor down. It is mostly robot on robot violence. 

Rating: 3.0 stars: Very exciting and fun to watch. It helps to remember the plot from the previous movies. 

More: Notice that Arnold became a shape-shifter. This opens the character up to being played by a different actor in the inevitable event of a sequel. 

Even More: Rumor is that there will be still more sequels as Skynet is still alive in other timelines. The Skynet character (Matt Smith) and the JK Simmons will both be in it. 

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Inside Out

Plot: Inside Riley's brain is a control center staffed by five emotions, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger. When Riley is a little girl, Joy runs the show, and Riley is happy and builds happy memories. Later Riley's family moves to San Francisco because Riley's dad gets a job at a start up company. Making new friends and starting a new school creates a crisis with Riley's emotions. She gets depressed, and both Joy and Sadness get sucked away -- deep, deep in Riley's brain while Disgust, Fear and Anger run the show. In the end Joy and Sadness work together to help Riley adjust to her new situation. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This movie is the best. Original, entertaining, emotional, and with something to say.

I loved how they dissected the emotion life of a young girl with these different characters. I like how real the different voices felt. The movie starts slowly and one sees how the emotions and Riley interact. By the end of the movie, the very emotional conversation makes a relatively mild event in the plot very emotional. I was teary eyed. It is a great device for playing out interior dialog.

The characters are well drawn and the voice actors were strong, especially Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith. Phyllis Smith plays sadness with a lot of subtlety.

Directed and Story by: Peter Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen

The Music: Stellar soundtrack by Michael Giacchino. I bought two songs from it. 

The Visuals: I liked the sparkliness of the emotions faces and hair. It made them less corporal. 

Rating: 4.0 stars: Top notch, entertaining, original and thoughtful. 

More: Afterwhile we see the inside the heads of Mom and Dad, where the little emotional characters are acting out a whole different play. Very funny. 

Even More Sadness says: "Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life's problems." 

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Spy

Plot: Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) works in the CIA as a computer-based fixer, like Augie on Covert Affairs, but more like Tank in The Matrix. When agents get outed, she has to go on field assignment, and gradually becomes a bad-ass. She tracks down a nuke, and tries to bring in the black market bad-guys selling it including Rayne (Rose Byrne). She gets help from fellow spooks played by Jason Statham, Jude Law and Miranda Hart. After double-crosses and triple-crosses Cooper saves the world using girl-power. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Spy is a spoof of a spy movie from the James Bond-like intro montage to spies-in-bed ending. It's not just that Melissa is a fat girl doing cool spy moves -- it is also that cool spy moves are kinda silly already. 

Melissa McCarthy is great. She is both relate-able and over-the-top. She is insecure, and a big time striver. 

I liked Jason Statham who is always trying to prove how macho he is -- very funny and way over the top. 

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Miranda Hart.

Directed by: Paul Feig

The Music: Great. I loved the big Bond-like opening song Who Can You Trust  by Ivy Levan. It recalls the Goldfinger theme by Shirley Bassey. Ivy's got the big voice. During the music, there is a spoof of a Bond-like open. 

The Visuals: Nothing special.

Rating: 3.0 stars: Fun.

More: So its funny, but is it a great movie. Does it have any other themes besides fat girl makes good? No not really. Maybe it does not need that. At bottom this is a summer comedy not an Oscar contender. 

Even More: Stay for the blooper after the end credits. The end credit graphics are kind-of entertaining anyway.

Jurassic World

Plot: Two kids,  Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson), go on vacation at Jurassic World where their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) works along with dinosaur trainer Owen (Chris Pratt.) Jurassic World is the fully realized theme park contemplated in the original Jurassic Park movie. 

As soon as they get there, guess what? Dinosaurs escape, and they are meaner and bigger than ever. Monster movie action ensues. [imdb]    [photos]

Review:  I liked it. It was predictable and simply a monster movie, but it was fun. A good monster movie. It has a lot in common with San Andreas, last week's action flick.

I also liked Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt who played entertaining and imperfect people. 

The special effects are flawless, and there were enough references to the original movie to be interested without being stupid. The pre-disaster scenes of the tourists milling around with the dinosaurs was jarringly realistic -- so much that it seemed like animal abuse.

Being the fourth movie in the series, it is not surprising that the wonder of bringing dinosaurs back from the past is gone. That was the best part of the original. The science was for the kids, for a roomful of nameless white-garbed minions, and for the morally questionable scientist. 

It is fun to compare Chris Pratt with San Andreas' Dwayne Johnson. Chris is the reluctant hero -- more emotive and a more bad ass. Dwayne is the eager hero -- all duty & honor overlaid with concern for his kids. In Jurassic World, concern for kids was with Bryce. Bryce was on the screen as much as Chris, where as San Andreas' Carla Gigano's part was smaller.

Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt

Directed by: Colin Trevorrow

The Music: Great. Like the original John Williams score, but not exactly.

The Visuals: Great. It looks like dinosaurs. Especially the multiplicity of dinosaurs interacting with people.

Rating: 2.5 stars: fun to watch; well made. As I left the theater, I was thinking 3 stars, but the next morning -- I am thinking Jurassic World is a little forgettable. The characters aren't memorable and there were no any big ideas. 

More: The message was a little more anti-military and anti-corporate, rather than straight anti-science and Luddite. I see that as an improvement.

Even More: A lot has been written about the sound design for earlier Jurassic movies -- how the sounds were composites of many animals designed to be evocative and emotive. Three times I was thinking how the roaring was suggestive of words. I wonder if that was really in there -- I bet it was. 

Yet More: It is pretty obvious a sequel is coming.

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