Divergent

Plot: In a post-apocylpsic Chicago, people are divided into five castes according to their personality. Keeping similar people together makes them easier for the Government to control. Tris (Shailene Woodley) doesn't fit into one of the castes, making her unpredictable, and "Divergent." She has to hide her divergent nature and try to fit in. Helping her fit in, is drill instructor Four (Drew Roy) who is to be too cute for Tris to resist. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Okay, that five caste system is dumb, and the technology is more magic-fantastic than science fiction, but besides all that, it is a pretty good story about a young woman, who doesn't fit and wants to. Screenwriters Daugherty and Taylor made a human story about teens who want need to hide their inner selves -- and everyone can relate to that.  Shailene Woody was up to the acting challenge, and seemed appropriately scared, tense and brave. Her performance made the movie entertaining with help from co-stars Drew Roy and Ashley Judd. I liked all the Ashley Judd scenes.

Highlights were the images of post-apocolypsic Chicago and some music. Weaknesses were the fight scenes and the military training camp which were cheap and amateur. The computer control center looked like a TV news room. 

Divergent would have been better movie with a few more quirky characters, and a more realistically imagined world.  This is a case where the movie was better than the book. 

Divergent is fun-to-watch, and what is the matter with that?

Cast: Shailene Woody, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Zoe Kravitz, Kate Winslet

Directed by: Neil Burger

Based on the novel by: Veronica Roth -- Link to Barnes & Noble

Rating: 2.5 stars:  Saddled with a weak story, director Burger and actress Woodley made a fun-to-watch movie by focusing on her character Tris. We cared about her, and her mom, brother and father too. It gets 2.5 stars because I recommend people see it despite its weaknesses. 

 

More: The story could have supported some examination of hiding our true nature and our inner secrets -- like Spiderman broods on; We don't get any of that. This was dumbed down, and that hurts the movie.

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Non-Stop

Plot: Air Marshall Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) is getting threatening texts from a passenger on a trans-Atlantic flight. He tries to hunt down the bad guy, but as the body count rises, he is suspected as being the terrorist himself. All the characters with speaking parts become suspects at some point.  [imdb]   [photos]

Review:  Bill Marks has a lot of problems including lying to everyone and drunkenness. As the terrorist begins to make threats and Marks learns what is going on, Non-Stop is an engaging whodunit. Later, the not-so-bright Marks tries some interesting ideas to catch the bad guy, but gets outsmarted. This leads to the best part of the movie, where we wonder whether he both a schizophrenic killer and a sky marshal at once.  The last part is noisier and louder with more violence in the aisles, but less interesting and more predictable. The climatic ending has a particularly stupid rescue that wrecks the moment.

Liam Neeson plays a dim-witted cop, but big hearted cop pretty well. No problem with his performance. Julianne Moore plays a self-absorbed, but ultimately friendly passenger for Marks to talk to. Michelle Dockery is engaging as the head stewardess. 

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o has a bit part as a stewardess. I am sure she'll be getting bigger roles soon. 

The soundtrack was fast-paced, orchestral music -- OK, but nothing special. Visually, all the scenes are inside an airplane.

Cast: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Lupita Nyong'o.

Directed by: Jaume Coliet-Serre

Rating: 2 stars, but still recommended for a boring March weekends

 

More: Real life flight attendants were not happy when Liam showed everyone how to disable the lavatory smoke detector -- not funny because a fire in the bathroom could kill people. 

<<MINOR SPOILER>> Even More: Turns out there really is something called the Least Risk Bomb Location.  Its location varies from plane-to-plane, and the flight attendants are trained to locate bombs there and pack in the luggage around it. Also, Liam chose the wrong location, it would have been on the opposite side from the exit, and the bomb is not placed directly on the floor. 

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Blue Jasmine

Plot: Broke socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) comes to San Francisco to live with her working class sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins). Both Jasmine and Ginger find new boyfriends, but it all goes wrong. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: .This is a drama about two sisters and their different expectations and standards. It has good dialog, but differs from other Woody Allen movies where the dialog is the star. Here the ideas of wealth vs balance are the most important, and some of the scenes have sitcom humor. 

Some of the characters are not that likable. While Cate Blanchett is up for an Oscar; her performance was not as good as Sally Hawkins -- good but less showy. 

Cast: .Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Louis CK

Written & directed by: Woody Allen

Rating: 2.5 stars:  I saw it home on pay-per-view, and often I don't like movies in the living room as much as at the theater. 

 

More: Blue Jasmine put me to sleep. Good movies shouldn't put you to sleep. 

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The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu)

Plot: A Japanese aircraft engineer, Jiro Hirokoshi,  strives to design beautiful planes that end up being used as fighters in WW2. It is basically a true story of how the Japanese Zero fighter was made. Jiro is kind young man who helps people, and who falls in love with a pretty Japanese girl.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This colorful animated film is distinctive in two ways, it tells the story of a hero engineer striving to make something beautiful and functional, and it tells the human story of Jiro growing up, falling in love, and dealing with sorrows. Director Miyazaki shows us images we don't see in animated or conventional films for example, there is a dramatic rainfall that starts as a pitter-patter in the weeds and becomes a downpour. There are beautiful scenes of nature, and wonderful images of railroads. 

It is a common style in Japanese media for the love story to be sincere and not ironic.  One reason to see a Japanese movie is for this sincerity.  I find a sweet romantic story refreshing, but if you were not ready for it, you might find it corny. When was the last time you saw an American story (or song, or novel or TV show) this sweet and non-ironic? 

There are dream sequences where Jiro meets Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Caproni, and they talk about life and love, and also the corruption of technology to war. Caproni is a mentor, and at the end Jiro's friend. 

There is another scene where Jiro goes to Germany to see the German heavy bombers, and meet its designer. The scene shows the aircraft as beautiful, but also as far out of reach of the poor Japanese. 

The Oscars are tomorrow, and The Wind Rises is up against Frozen. While I liked The Wind Rises, I like the liberating message of Frozen more. Both movies have interesting messages, but Frozen feels better, whereas The Wind Rises is more intellectual. 

Written and directed by: Hayao Miyazaki

Rating: 3.25 stars: same rating as Frozen, which we saw last week. 

  1/4

More: I know that old-time Japanese engineers smoked cigarettes, but there is a lot of smoking in this movie, and I can't figure out a reason for it. Later one of the characters gets tuberculosis, and I was trying to figure out a connect, but I couldn't. I did not like Jiro smoking in front of the tuberculosis patent. Bad, Bad, Bad.

Even more: If I had middle school kids, I take them just to get them interested in math and science. American movies never have hero engineers -- except perhaps Star Trek. You might even have to explain how a slide rule works. 

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Frozen

Plot: Princess Elsa can turn things into ice, and when her parents die, she becomes Queen. She is endlessly guilty about freezing her sister Anna when they were young, and so she exiles herself to a frozen mountain. Anna goes up there to bring her back, but Elsa sends her away; and Anna freezes on the way down the mountain. Meantime Anna's old boyfriend has seized power, and drags Elsa to prison. Elsa frees herself, and goes to rescue Anna which sets-up the ending twist. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Frozen has a sentimental story with several good songs, and a heart-warming ending. The old princess fairytale gets modernized again, and spunky & irreverent Anna is an interesting heroine.

The quick-moving story is easy to understand, and stresses girl power and independence.  We get the fun of fairy tales without the patriarchal baggage -- the male characters do strangely little.

The visuals are solid but sometimes the generally realistic scenes are jarred by the cartoony characters. Like other Disney films were sidekicks for comic relief and as expeditionary devices.

I liked it because the sisterly love theme is sentimental and sweet. 

Directed by: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee

Directed by: Jennifer Lee; vaguely based on The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen

Rating: 3.0- stars: worthwhile, heart-warming, 

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More: Here is a good song. I like the solitary feeling on the mountain, and then she builds a fortress of solitude, just like Superman -- but for a princess. 

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Even More: "The cold never bothered me anyway."

Dallas Buyers Club

Plot: Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) gets AIDS in 1985 when the first generation of anti-AIDS drugs had just come out. He can't get into a drug trial, so he buys anti-viral drugs in Mexico, and opens up a "Buyer's Club" in Dallas to skirt drug importation laws. As he distributes drugs he meets the cross-dressing, fellow HIV-positive Rayon (Jared Leto) who helps him distribute to the gay community. Dr Eve (Jennifer Garner) at a Dallas Hospital is his doctor, and who provides a window to the medical establishment.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: A serious movie about a scary time: Dallas Buyers Club surges with emotional energy early as Ron learns he is HIV positive and then goes deep into denial. This is when McConaughey's acting is best, and he is fun to watch as he struggles to stay alive and cope with the disease. When Ron switches from patient to drug distributor and then AIDS activist, the story is less personal and less interesting.

Jared Leto's Rayon begins as an entry point into Gay culture, and some comic relief; later we see the sad backstory and some emotional energy returns. Jared Leto is fun to watch the whole time, and he is a highlight.

Jennifer Garner has a less interesting role; as a hospital doctor she has no backstory, and needs to introduce medical facts to the story. This makes her character dry. I am glad she doesn't get romanic with Ron at the end:  there are too many doctor-patent ethic problems in the movies. 

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jered Leto, Jennifer Garner

Directed by: Jean-Marc Vallee

Rating: 3.0 stars: well acted, dreary, and a bit preachy

 

More: Matthew and Jered sure lost a lot of weight!

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The Lego Movie

Plot: Emmet is a Lego construction worker in a Lego town, and he tears down old buildings and builds new ones exactly according to plan. President Business runs the town, and he wants to glue all the Lego's together in place. Emmet thinks that's okay, but he meets Wyldstyle --think of Trinity from The Matrix,  who rescues him and takes him to a prophet Vitruvius, who calls him "The Special", who will stop the glue with a special Lego piece called the Piece of Resistance. Emmet gets this piece quickly, but President Business keeps trying to take it away. They visit several Lego worlds different themes, just like the play sets have different themes castles, pirates, fantasy, superhero, and planes. Soon President Business corners them, and then the movie takes an unexpected twist. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Very clever script that is ironic on multiple levels.  Most generally, it is a satire on American consumer society, and the mindlessness of work and the corruption of politics. It has time to parody of pop music, TV sitcoms, action movies, and the unexamined life generally.

While Lego kits all come with directions, the film ridicules directions, and builds toward a bohemian ideal. At one point, the character just says "plot point" and "backstory," to explain a plot twist. I thought it was cute, and the kids in the audience seemed to think it was OK -- dumber than most kid's movie plots.

The visuals are gimmicky; generally slight animations on CGI Lego blocks, but the animations are fast, and the scenes are creative, colorful and dynamic. There are many visual jokes like a room being flooded by Lego water, made of little blocks. I like the surface of the Lego ocean as the waves cast to and fro. On the other hand, the character's faces are too pretty plain, and unexpressive.

Besides the irony and the satire, I liked the twist ending, which is just a perfect ending.

The characters are voiced by celebrities. I wish they'd hire regular actors and not an endless list of cameo celebrities. Morgan Freeman's voice was distracting. Will Farrell is one-of-a-kind though. I liked him.

Cast: Will Ferrell, many voice actors, many animators

Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Rating: 3.25 stars: Clever, Fun, Funny, and I want to see it again. On the other hand, not so great in character development. I liked the satire. There is lots to talk about. Although I loved it, I don't love it as much as the 3.5 star movies from last year, so 3.25 is it -- although I hate giving the quarter star ranking.

  1/4

More: Amazon has 17 Lego sets based not the movie.  President Business lives on.

Even More: "Everything is Awesome" is the vacuous and infectious pop that fills the minds of the populous in Lego land.  Earworm.

There are two other versions on the soundtrack. This version has rap; but rap is too rebellious for the movie.

Yet More: I love Princess Unikitty's monolog.