Money Monster

Plot: On a network like CNBC on a show like Jim Cramer's, a viewer who lost money following the host's advice takes him hostage on live TV. Host Lee Gates (George Clooney) is afraid, and steely director Patty (Julia Roberts) keeps the cameras running while the gunman Kyle (Jack O'Connell) demands answers, and the SWAT team prepares. In the background, network reporters dig into back story of the company involved.    [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Money Monster is primarily suspense with a sprinkle of satire and farce.

Highlights were Julia Roberts' acting which had equal parts determination and fear. I liked the tightly focused story; it keeps moving. Low-lights were the unrealistic story which reduced the intensity of the action, and kept reminding me I was watching a movie. Perhaps this was intended to be farce comedy, but it didn't work.

Bad guy Kyle is a bumbler, and not someone to be scared of. This is because he is victim not a real villain, and by implications all the investors are also victims. Kyle's girlfriend Molly (Emily Meade) comes on TV and tells him off on TV with plenty of funny insults; welcome humor at Kyle's expense.

I thought Money Monster was trying to be educational about high-frequency trading in the way The Big Short was about the 2007 crash, but then it undercut itself with the its ending that had a different kind of bad guy. I suppose the message is that Wall Street is crooked -- like Bernie says. There was a bit of satire of the TV business, but primarily the cast is shown as sincere good people. 

Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell

Directed by: Jodie Foster

Written by: Alan DiFiore, Jim Kouf

The Music: Suspenseful electronic & acoustic music by Dominic Lewis

The Visuals: OK

Rating: 2.5 stars: I liked it OK. I'd recommend it to people, but it isn't a great suspense.

 

More: Director Jodie Foster says the film is about the rage people feel in America. People who work hard and are taken advantage of. More here. 

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Sing Street

Plot: Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) lives in poor neighborhood in Dublin in the 1980s, and starts at a new school. At the new school he meets Raphina (Lucy Boyton) who says she is a model. He lies that he is in a band, and then needs to form a band to cover his lie. He meets Darren (Ben Carolan) and Eamon (Mark McKenna) who start writing songs, and then producing a video with Raphina in it. Soon Cosmo is writing songs and flirting. It ends with a big concert at the high school.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Sing Street is a musical sitcom. The best part are the songs, and the you-can-do-it-optimism that only kid's movies have. The movie has go-for-it theme. It reminds me of my favorite song from the movie: Drive It Like You Stole It, which I bought immediately after I got home. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo can sing, and he is likeable.

The low points are the acting which wasn't engaging, both the kids and the adults. I am tired of sex abuse jokes about priests too. Even though Brother Baxter (Don Wycherley) was a highlight, especially when he washed the make-up off Cosmo.

 I found many of the boyish high school scenes cringe-inducing because of the embarrassing situations the kids find themselves in.

The positive, you-can-do-it attitude comes organically, so it does not feel like an afterschool special -- except in hindsight.

Cast: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Lucy Boynton

Directed by: John Carney

Written by: John Carney

The Music: Some songs were composed by writer director John Carney with Gary Clark, an 80's producer

The Visuals: OK. I liked the fantasy dance concert, otherwise its obviously low budget. 

Rating: 2.5 stars: Maybe two stars? My wife Jenny, loved it, and wants me to give it 4 stars. 

 

More: I liked seeing Maria Doyle Kennedy. She also play Siobhan from Orphan Black -- one of my favorite shows.

Even More: As you might have guessed, the film is a semi-autobiographical version of writer John Carney's life. I wonder who is Raphina was?  Carney says that he did form a band, and it did get the bullies of his back. And he says [he] "got the girl that I fancied." More here.

Yet More: Oh and the real life Eamon had rabbits, just like in the movie.

MAJOR SPOILER: Director Carney said that having Cosmo and Raphina drown in the sea might have been a better ending. "He is like the brave captain, but it is all in his head." More here.

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Captain America Civil War

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Plot: The United Nations create a treaty prohibiting the Avengers from fighting bad guys unless invited. Strangely soldier Captain America (Chris Evans) rejects the government control, but bad boy Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) is all in. The other characters split up with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) & War Machine (Don Cheadle) with Iron Man, and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) & Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) with Capt'n. There are some funny fight scenes with Ant-man (Paul Rudd). An incident happens and Captain America's team springs into action, and then Iron Man's side tries to arrest them.     [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Entertaining, but weak. Weak because why are they fighting? Really they are going to kill each other about a treaty -- I never believed they hated each other -- it was just play fighting. Even in the climax with Iron Man boiling mad, the fighting was half-hearted.

This film was the weakest Avengers movie and the weakest Captain America movie too. The fighting got old, even though it was well-spaced with dialog.

I liked the relationships between the characters, like in an X-Man movie. The plot was easy enough to follow. The initial fight scene in the market was the best. Fast paced and visually interesting.

The special effects are top notch. The actors are good super hero types, and I like how the characters show their face when they talk.

Spiderman (Tim Holland) shows up, and he's in high school -- like Spiderman is supposed to be. It was too transparent that this was a launch for a new Spiderman franchise at Disney rather than it Sony.

Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlet Johansson, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd 


Directed by: Anthony and Joe Russo

Written by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely based on the comic book by Mark Millar.

The Music: Horn-heavy orchestral music from Henry Jackman

The Visuals:Top notch

Rating: 2.0 stars: An entertaining movie experience, not as good others in the series. Probably won't see it again. 

More: 

Tony Stark: Captain? You seem a little defensive.

Steve Rogers: Well, it's been a long day.

Tony Stark: If we can't accept limitations, we're no better than the bad guys.

Steve Rogers: That's not the way I see it.

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Keanu

Plot: Rell (Jorden Peele) finds a cute kitten on his doorstep and adopts him. He goes to visit his friend Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key), and when they comes back to Rell's house, it has been burglarized. Their neighborhood drug dealer says that the boss drug dealer Cheddar (Method Man) robbed his house and took the cat. Rell and Clarence, who are middle class black men, impersonate tough guys from the hood to get the kitten back. They end up telling big lies to boost their cred, and soon are delivering drugs to rich clients with the tough but cute Hi-C (Tiffany Haddish.) Thinks go poorly and soon many thugs are chasing them. This leads to a plot twist, and in the end everyone gets their just deserts.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Good parts and bad parts. I liked the Clarence character. I liked his fast talking lies, and his background intellectualism. Gotta like rocking out to George Michael.  As you can imagine, most of the movie is sitcom action about two normal guys pretending to be the toughest of the tough guys. Some was funny, but some was cringeworthy -- watching our heroes do such stupid stuff. Cringeworthy gags can be fun, but this got repetitive.

The kitten gimmick was clever with all the tough guy posturing, gun-play, and high body count the movie could be too heavy to be funny, but every time a tough guy would pick up the tiny kitten -- the whole movie instantly got ridiculous again.

I liked the ending too. Not too Hollywood, but Hollywood enough. 

Cast: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Tiffany Haddish

Directed by: Peter Atencio

Written by: Jordan Peele, Alex Rubens

The Music: Never noticed it. I sure there was some. I liked the George Michael lip-sync.

The Visuals:  The violence isn't bloody. I wonder how they got the cat to do all that.

Rating: 2.0 stars; I had fun at the theater, what more do you want? The humor was a little repetitive, but the characters were likable. 

More: There were seven kittens used in the production, boys and girls.

Even More: .

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The Jungle Book

Plot: A boy named Mowgli is being raised by wolves in the jungle, watched over by Bagherra, a panther. A large tiger says that Mowgli must leave the jungle because he will grow to be a man, and men are bad. Bagharra agrees to take Mowgli to a jungle village so he can be with other people. On the way he meets Baloo, a bear, and decides he does not want to go the village. He goes back to confront the tiger, and that leads to the final scene.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Jungle Book looks great, but it takes more than pictures to make a fun movie. This is one of the best animal action CGI movies in terms of technical achievement. The animals are rendered if not realistically, because they talk, but with realistic imagination. The scenes of Mowgli running in the trees at the beginning and the end are great. It is a shame the visuals were wasted on such a bad script.

The movie's story (as distinct from the book) is just another menacing bad guy to run away from. The movie's platitudes fall flat, and some of the humor is for just for kids. (Though happily no fart jokes.)

Once I got tired of the pretty pictures, I wanted a story to engage with. I got bored by 35 minutes in and was wishing for the movie to end quickly. 

Cast: Frequent readers may recognize that I don't credit voice actors since it slights the animation artists who are at least as important. Bill Murray's voice is distracting. His mannerism were too much like his other roles; it pulls me out of the film, to thinking about why Bill Murray is playing a jungle bear.

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Written by: Justin Marks, based on the book by Rudyard Kipling

The Music: Orchestral music by John Debney, with a song by Bill Murray and another by Christopher Walken. Both sing in old-school, honky-tonk jazz songs with lots of horns. 

The Visuals: Tops. Best animation of this kind. 

Rating: 1.5 stars: I wished I could leave early. 

 

More: You can't trust critics to review kids movies. They get it wrong so frequently.

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Zootopia

Plot: Judy Hopps wants to become the first rabbit cop in Zootopia, but isn't given an opportunity to prove herself. Soon she stumbles on a scandal, and with the help of a fox named Nick, she catches the baddies. At same time she acts out a 21st century allegory about ability and discrimination. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Zootopia has some good moments and an positive message while not being too preachy. The detective drama is only ok, but the visual humor is always there. I loved watching the tall giraffes. I liked the concert at the end with dancing tigers. The best parts show a happy community with many animals living peacefully together.

The scene at the DMV is a classic -- too bad they spoiled it in the trailer.

Perhaps an anti-discrimination message is never out of date, and this one has a twist. On the other hand, Zootopia doesn't have the fun of Cars or Frozen. 

Directed by: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush

Written by: 9 people. How long does it take 9 people to write a movie?

The Music: Just average, but I liked the Shakira song at the end. Made me want to play Shakira when I got home. 

The Visuals: Top quality animation, but no dramatic visual scenes. 

Rating:  2.0 stars: It was OK.

 

Bizarre Spoiler Alert: The Chinese People's Liberations Army Daily called Zootopia propaganda: they say wolves eat sheep -- it is a corruption to have sheep menacing wolves. More here.

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Concussion

Plot: Pittsburgh Medical Examiner Bennet Omalu (Will Smith) does autopsies on two Pittsburgh Steelers players, and finds an unusual brain disease that he attributes to head trauma while playing football.  Meanwhile Bennet marries his wife Pema (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and together they experience harressment from the NFL and fans. In the second half of the movie he meets physician Julian Bailes and together they battle the NFL. ([imdb]    [photos]

Review: It starts with personal stories of the players and their minds slipping away. This is linked with the sympathetic Dr Omalu discovering the problem. Will Smith and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are great. Will Smith disappears into the character. Early on the dialog is wonderful and the photography is dramatic. I loved it.

Then it changes from a medical movie to a legal movie. Oh, the NFL -- so bad. Oh, just like the tobacco companies. This part of the movie should have been compressed to 15 minutes. 

Cast: Will Smith, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin

Directed by: Peter Landesman

Written by:  Peter Landesman based on the article in GQ called Game Brain by Jeanne Marie Laskas

The Music: Solid early. What the heck was the country tune at the end credits? 

The Visuals: Some well staged and dramatic shots. 

Rating: 3.0 stars: Half a good movie, kicked up for great performances by Will Smith and Mbatha-Raw, and because the story has a social valence. 

More: Here is photo of the real Dr Omalu.

Even More: .

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