The Butler

Plot: Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) saw his father shot on a cotton farm, and was taught to be a house servant by the shooter's mom. When he was older, he worked in a hotel, and then eventually joined the staff at the White House, serving Truman and all the presidents until Reagan. He was married to Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) and had two kids. One son, Earl (David Banner), became a Black Panther and later a politician. The work life of Cecil Gaines is based on the life of Eugene Allen, a former White House butler, however most aspects of his personal life are fictional.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The Butler tells the story of a movement, and a whole people's struggle through the story of one man. The scope of the story gives epic sweep and therefore power. Being a white guy, I experienced it in my own way. It made me think about how difficult it was to be a black person in the south immediately in the 40's, 50's and 60's. It was interesting to see the civil rights struggle through this lens. 

There apparently was a tradition of black house servants in the White House, and it is interesting that this tradition lasted so late into the 20th Century.  

I liked first 90 minutes a lot. The interesting parts were the little things in how black and white people treated each other. Whittaker's butler has so much dignity, and seems true to character. Oprah has a fine performance including some excellent physical gestures and emotional reaction; a great job for an inexperienced actress. 

Writer Danny Strong wove in the Martin Luther King and the civil rights struggle using the device of an invented son. This generational aspect gave the movie a nice flow, and allowed the older generation to react to the younger. The invented character helped the story telling, and made the movie more impactful and enjoyable. On the other hand, I felt tricked when I found this fundamental aspect of the plot was fake. They should not have claimed it was based on a true story.

There are a few great visual images. The soundtrack was mostly from the period, and not very noticeable.

The tone is interesting and epic, but at the end it gets preachy, and voice-over narration is used to make sure the audience gets the points. I wish it would have ended with the same tone it started with. 

Cast: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey

Directed by: Lee Daniels

Rating: 3.0 stars: A grand story with epic sweep that makes me feel good at the end. 

 

More: [SPOILERS]  As mentioned, there were numerous fictional liberties taken in the screenplay. Part of the power of the movie is that it teaches history. To the extent, that the history is false, I feel cheated.

For example, the older son, who went into the Black Panthers, was fictional. The actual butler, Eugene Allen, grew up in Virginia rather than Georgia, which makes his job in DC, more understandable. The younger son did not die in Vietnam, and is still alive. There is no record that Allen asked for a raise on behalf of the staff.  

Even More: Director Lee Daniels seems to have negotiated to have his name in the title as in "Lee Daniel's The Butler", but that is not right. The writer's name can be in the title, but not the director. The director's name can be advertised on the poster with the title, or whereever the graphic designer can put it. The director did not create the movie, s/he only stages it. The screenwriter created it, thus Danny Strong's The Butler would have be OK.  

.

The Spectacular Now

Plot: High school senior Sutter (Miles Teller) just broke up with girlfriend Cassidy (Brie Larson), and he quickly gets involved with the less popular, less flashy Aimee (Shailene Woodley), who turns out to be interesting and attractive in her own way.

Sutter drinks a lot, doesn't study, and lives in the Now, in the Eckhart Towle.  sense of the word. Because of his short term focus, he does not manage his affairs well, but people love him because he has such a big heart. Eventually he learns that "each Now leads to another Now tomorrow, and it is time to start making them count," which is a lot like living in the Future instead of the Now, and that is the point.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Spectacular Now is an indie film about high school romance that has an overlay of pop psychology -- specifically rejecting the Eckhart Towle New Age precept to "live-in-the-Now." Spectacular Now is a morality play showing that, at least for teenagers, it is important to live in the Future too. 

The film is almost entirely conversation about relationships between the teens and with their parents. There is a heart-pounding, first-time, sex scene that is done well.

Near the end, suddenly the cinematography steps up a notch. There are a few great images of Aimee through a  window, and some great driving sequences. I am not sure why the change in style, but that was welcome.  

The best part was the performance by Shailene Woodley, who shows us some excellent facial acting. Miles Teller has a more than adequate performance. The dialog is solid but not exceptional. 

Spectacular Now is about the importance of planning along with the importance of loving people. The story is pleasant. The characters were likable. It is not super-fun to watch, but it is worthwhile and interesting.  

Cast: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley

Directed by: James Ponsoldt based on the book by Tim Tharp.

Rating: 2.5 stars; the purposeful message gives this pleasant film extra points. 

 

More: I am not sure what the title means, that is "What is spectacular about Now?" 

Even More: Spectacular Now has Sundance Festival buzz since it is an indie film and because it has a clear meaning and purpose. It is trying to take part in a societal conversation.  While old people can benefit from focusing on the Now; young people need to focus more on the Future. 

.

The World's End

This poster is shown small; to avoid
showing spoilers. Click it
if you need to know!

Plot: Gary King (Simon Pegg) gets his old friends together to reenact a bar crawl from their youth. They are old friends who don't see each other much starting a night of drinking. As they go from bar to bar, they find their old town is stranger and stranger. Soon they are being watched, then chased, then worse.  (If you need to know more -- look closely at the movie poster.) At the final bar, called The World's End, the movie reaches its comic, absurdist, sci-fi climax. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The  ramp-up from drinking movie to strange craziness is so perfectly smooth; that is one of the best features.  At the beginning The World's End feels just like a hundred other drunken comedies, and it is funny too, but slowly it takes a right turn into delightful strangeness. Simon Pegg plays a great party animal who is fun and also pitiable. 

The dynamics between the guys is strong through out the movie, and the fact that the characters keep changing just adds to the tension. 

I liked how the names of the bars foreshadow the scene to come. I wondered what the Two Headed Dog was, going to be and it was great. Cool and funny.  The Bee Hive was also clever and cool. 

The soundtrack is very good. I bought four songs. The special effects were initially humorous, but steadily more menacing.  I noticed that several of the actors were amputees, which shows these were old-school, low budget special effects. 

Overall, I loved this movie. Funny. Fun-to-watch. Lots of interesting dialog. 

Cast: Simon Pegg 

Directed by: Edgar Wright

Written by: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg

Rating: 3.5 stars: Loved it. This movie will never stop rotation on late night TV. Not quite weighty enough for 4 stars though. 

 

More: Did you notice the down arrows in the last bar's tap? 

..

Elysium

Plot: In 2154, the 1% have moved to an orbiting satellite called Elysium, and the working class on earth is kept in line by robot soldiers. Max (Matt Damon) lives in a run-down, police-state version of Los Angeles, and the movie starts with robot police breaking his arm him at a bus stop for no good reason. He has the bone set by his childhood friend Frey (Alice Braga,) although Frey works at the hospital, she can't get health care for her daughter who is dying of leukemia. Max goes to see his parole officer, who turns out to be a robot too, and then he goes to work where he builds robots. He suffers an industrial accident, gets irradiated, and has only five days to live. Max goes to see his underworld friend Julio (Diego Luna), who is a crime boss, a hacker and a revolutionary. Julio sends Max to steal secrets from the brain of defense executive John Carlyle (William Fichtner.) He does that, and is immediately  hunted by human agents from Elysium Defense Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) to get the secrets back. In order to capitalize on the secrets, Max, Julio, and Frey fly up to Elysium, and this trip leads to the movies final scenes. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Elysium is a heavy political satire with left-leaning class warfare. The visuals are always great, dark, creepy and cool. The visuals are the best part -- much like District Nine. 

Matt Damon does a good job with the role; Max is the everyman upon whom this crazy situation is thrust, and gradually he rises up and starts a revolution. Jodie Foster is outstanding. She is steely tough; I just wish she were in the movie more. The acting is always good.

Despite the good performances, the thought-provoking themes, the movie isn't that fun-to-watch. The relentless dreariness never stops, and the few attempts at humor don't work -- like the unfunny scene at the parole office with the robot agent. 

Elysium makes no effort to have the science make sense. (Someone called it Lazy Science Fiction.) Everytime something happens in the movie that can't really happen, it is distracting, and it reminds me that I am watching a movie. Then I tell myself, yes, this detail does not matter-- but it interrupts.  For example, no one would have screwed the exoskeleton in over Matt Damon's T-shirt. They would have take the T-shirt off first. Not to mention that they wouldn't have left the bolts sticking out and bleeding. 

Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, 

Directed by: Neill Blomkamp

Rating: 3.0 stars: Cool visuals, solid performances and a thoughtful subject matter make this a good movie. Yet it is less than the sum of its parts. A little too preachy.  

 

[Minor Spoiler] More: After the revolution, the first thing is free health care for the masses. 

..

.

Despicable Me 2

Plot: Gru is raising the three girls from the first movie when he is recruited by Lucy to find a villain who happens to be hiding out at a local shopping mall. Gru and the Minions interrogate the shop owners. Gradually Gru develops a crush on Lucy, just as daughter Margo develops a crush on a boy at the mall.  Later some Minions get kidnapped, and this leads the final scenes.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Despicable Me 2 is a cheerful movie that has both funny parts and sincere parts. It has a big heart that I liked. Having said that, it has a number of dumb parts too.

The Minions are the best, and I like the cleverness of the Minions' slapstick physical humor. I also like whatever language they are speaking. Almost gibberish, but with enough recognizable words to make it fun. It is like Jabberwocky in Alice in Wonderland. The internet tells me in addition to English, French, Italian and Spanish words, DM2 had Filipino words. There is a link to one of their songs below.

Directed by: Pierre Louis Padang Coffin, Chris Renaud

Lead Animator: Pierre Avon
Voices: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig
Rating: 2.0 stars: perhaps close to 2.5 on the strength of its good heart, but maybe not since it is a little too much of a kids movie. Recommended.

 

More: Here is a link to the Minions singing the YMCA song on Youtube.

..

.

The Way Way Back

Plot: Duncan (Liam James) rides in the way way back of an old station wagon on the way to his Mom's/Pam's(Toni Collette's) boyfriend's/Trent's (Steve Carell's) beach house. At the beach, the adults spend the whole time flirting and drinking, while the teen girls ignore Duncan. Duncan goes to a water park where he meets the cool manager Owen (Sam Rockwell) who trusts Duncan, unlike his family. The other water park workers are nicer and more agreeable than his relatives too. This is a summer vacation movie, so you can probably guess how it ends.   [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The first half of the movie, where Duncan's awful  family life is set-up, is nearly unendurable. I was thinking about leaving the theater. It is not funny, or cool, or interesting, or clever. It is one cringe-worthy scene after another where the stupid adults say stupid things and Duncan just sits there radiating hate with a sneer on his face.  Woody Allen could make these awkward adult conversation scenes interesting and cute, but writer directors Faxon and Rash weren't up to it. 

In the second half, Duncan gets to the water park, and we are entertained by the fun-loving antics of Sam Rockwell's Owen. Owen is like a big brother to Duncan, and the writers intended to make these quirky characters into a substitute family, but that never really works.  

Steve Carrell's acting is probably OK, but he played an unfunny jerk, so it was wasted on me. Toni Collette is likable -- and she has some good facial acting. Sam Rockwell is funny, but he more of a cartoon than a character. Really all the characters are pretty cartoon-like. 

Way Way Back has elements of a good movie, but it didn't work for me. I don't understand why the Sundance Film Festival endorses weak movies like this, but it seems to be a pattern.

There isn't much of a message in the movie -- perhaps to develop more self-confidence. While promo materials called this a 'coming of age movie,' Duncan does not deal with any adult issues or do anything more adult than learn to use his powers as a water-slide monitor to ogle girls' asses. Seriously, I thought the ass ogling was insensitive, distasteful and not funny. Is that really what coming of age means? 

Cast: Liam James, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, 

Directed by: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash

Rating: 2.0 stars: not recommended.

 

More:  Did this movie occur in the past or in the present? That old station wagon with rear facing seat was from the past. Certainly all the music was old, and the Star Wars action figures too. On the other had, Duncan had an iPhone. The whole film could have been in 1985 except for that iPhone.

The movie is called the Way Way Back which might imply it is from the distant past of the writers. I expect there is a draft of the movie somewhere, that actually was set in the eighties. 

.

RED2

Plot: Frank (Bruce Willis) and Marvin (John Malkovich) get involved with a plot to detonate a bomb in Moscow. Frank's civilian girl friend Sarah (Mary Louise Parker) come along, and is jealous of Russian spy Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones). We meet former English spy Victoria on the way to rescue crazy, genius scientist Bailey (Anthony Hopkins) who is locked up in London by MI-6. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: RED 2 is a spy comedy where the ridiculousness of senior citizen tough-guy spies combine with spoofs of the CIA, MI-6 and Russian bad guys for a light and funny movie -- with a high body count. It's not a spy movie or an action movie; so don't come expecting that. 

For example, one of the big gags is Victoria (Helen Mirren) cooling killing men, always men, by the roomful. 

My highlight is Anthony Hopkin's Bailey acting like he is having psychotic delusions of a roomful of people -- very funny. 

Good soundtrack. Solid special effects, but I am hard to impress since I saw Pacific Rim last week. 

Cast: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins Bryng-hun Lee, Catherine Zeta-Jones

Directed by: Dean Parisot, who has generally directed TV in the past. 

Rating: 3.0 stars; one of the better comedies 

 

Cover of Red 3 Comic

More: The title RED2 is not very imaginative. It is based on a three part comic book series from 2003-4. 

.