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.  

August: Osage County

Plot: Violet (Meryl Streep) abuses both prescription drugs and her super-dysfunctional family. At the beginning of the film, her husband Beverly Weston (Sam Shepard) commits suicide. Her sister and her three daughters come for the funeral with their husbands & boyfriends. What follows is conversation at the house between the women where they are very tough on each other, and justify it because they have had sad, sad lives.   [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Crazy, twisted people are more interesting than normal people, and these characters are exceptionally so, especially with this all-star cast and Pulitzer-prize winning writing from Tracy Lett: Osage County  was pretty great. Great because the acting was so good, and the emotion was so deeply wrought.

Meryl Streep's Violet is the central character, but because she was so deeply strange and usually high, Meryl's performance was showy and over-large. Better were the co-stars especially Julia Roberts, Margo Martindale, and Julianne Nicholson whose performances were more restrained and interesting. The script and dialog are clever enough to keep the emotions boiling.

Highlights of Osage Country are the great acting and the emotional content. The main characters were so melancholy, and they articulated their issues in a way that made the movie cathartic. I am a sucker for movies about death, heartbreak and loneliness. I also liked the girl-power ending of the child abuse scene. I liked how grand daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin) rolls up her car window to avoid saying good-bye to Barbara (Julia Roberts.) The story has enough depth that 121 minutes is not too long. 

On the negative side, the story starts slowly, the soundtrack is weak, and the set-design and photography aren't so great. 

Cast: Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Juliette Lewis, Julianne Nicholson, Margo Martindale, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor

Directed by: John Wells

Written by: Tracy Letts, based on the stage play

Rating: 3.5 stars: Best chick-flick of the year. A showcase of women actors.

 

More: Tracy Letts is a great writer, so why is the title is so terrible. The month of August is not important. Who knows where Osage County is?  Wanna know where Osage County is?  (Watch for the buffalo gif while the flash is loading.) 

Even more: I was very surprised Tracy is a male writer. 

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Plot: This the prequel where future rogue spy Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) gets recruited into the CIA. It starts when Jack is recovering from a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, where he meets cute med student Cathy (Keira Knightley), and gets recruited into the CIA by shadowy guy Tom (Kevin Costner.) Soon he is snooping on Wall Street banks and their international trading. He finds some fishy Russian trades and suddenly he and Cathy are in Moscow meeting Viktor (Kenneth Branagh), a Putin-like Russian businessman and FSB officer. They uncover a Russian plan to collapse the US economy with a fake terrorist attack timed with selling lots of US bonds. With wild chase scenes and colorful computer hacking, the movie reaches its predictable end.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Shadow Recruit kept moving, and was fun to watch. We learn that Jack Ryan is just as shallow when he was young as he is in later Clancy movies. The shallow characters means that Shadow Recruit is nothing special, even though the fast-moving plot keeps the action humming along.

Happily the plot is easier to understand than other Clancy stories-- probably because this script was not based on a book.

 The dialog is wooden and the characters have a leaden sense of duty that overwhelms whatever emotion they might be feeling. The best dialog by far is the dinner scene with Cathy and Victor -- here they talk about Russian literature, hope and disappointment in triple entendre about flirting, the secret mission, and literature.

Chris Pine does a nice job with the stilted tough-guy style acting. He seems likable because of his boyish looks and facial acting.

Visually, we see cool architecture, especially the glassy Russian office building set. The scenes of passing secrets from one agent to the other on the street are cool because they are so well choreographed. The soundtrack by Patrick Doyle is nothing special with no songs that I wanted to download.

The movie has no attempt at a message, but I was happy to see that Cathy, Keira Knightly's character, didn't date her patent. Nice to see a little professional ethics.

Cast: Chris Pine, Keira Knightly, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh; based on the characters of Tom Clancy, but the story was not based on a book

Rating: 2.5 stars: entertaining, but nothing special to distinguish it from similar spy thrillers.

More: Nice to see a scene set in Dearborn. The businesses mentioned have new names. The Dearborn East Assembly plant is the Ford River Rouge truck plant, and Michigan Bell, has been calling itself AT&T since 2005. 

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Anchorman 2 - The Legend Continues

Plot: Ron (Will Ferrell) gets fired from his job in San Diego, and lands a job on a cable news channel. Set in the 1970's and 1980's, Ron rounds up his old news team, and they engage in childish rivalries with the other anchors. He divorces Veronica (Cristina Applegate), and hooks up with his new boss  (Meagan Good). With phony patriotism, sex, animal stories, and car chases, Ron's news broadcast becomes a huge hit. Just as he is celebrating his success, he goes blind. Embittered he retreats to an old lighthouse, but in time he reunites with Veronica and renews his relationship with his son. This sets up his return to broadcasting, and yes, the final battle. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Anchorman 2 is funny. The humor ranges from slapstick to absurd to satire. The self-absorbed, dim-witted characters that are not likable but we see them in fresh and surprising sitcom scenes. The comedy is uneven, and not all the gags hit -- especially the racial jokes. The funny parts are very funny. 

We get some great comic performances from Will Ferrell. I am not sure who else could pull off the funny-faced, self-assurance that he does in so many gags, especially songs and shark wrestling.

I liked the satire on CNN and Fox News. I also liked the owner who is a cross between Ted Turner and Rupert Murdock. I also liked how simple-minded, lowest common denominator news was successful. All of the cable news graphics were pretty funny too.

I recommend Anchorman 2. It was funnier than expected, and the offensive parts were clearly intended to be satirical.

There is some good music, and many many cameos. 

Cast: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell

Directed by: Adam McKay 

Rating: 3.0 stars: Not high brow entertainment, but funny. And I was in the mood for funny. Needs more likable characters. 

More: Champ Kind: I believe in two things: Chicken, and that the census is a way for the UN to make your children gay.

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Her

Plot: Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) an AI artificial intelligence embedded the operating system of his phone & desktop. Although Theodore has relationships with several real women, his ex-wife, a blind date, his childhood friend, and a random girl from the internet, he begins to prefer Samantha.   Samantha is helpful and sympathetic, and she wants phone sex. As time passes, Samantha and Theodore's relationship is stressed by their obvious differences, and Samantha's jealousy of human women. This and advancing technology lead to the final scene. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The core relationship between Theodore and Samantha works -- in large part because of outstanding voice acting from Scarlett Johansson. Her could have been dull because vast sections are Joaquin's face talking -- but it isn't dull, because the relationship seems real -- mostly due to Johansson's great vocal inflections. Theodore is seduced rather than just a sad loser -- mostly because we see his sweet emotional side when he writes poetic letters at work.

Building on this, Her asks questions like "What is a relationship?" and "What is a person?" 

The electronics of Theodore's office makes the technological leap to the anthropomorphic AI more reasonable. I liked the moving wallpaper in the elevator. In the future, everyone wears high-waisted pants -- I don't know why; maybe they are sexually repressed.

As Theodore lets his friends know he has a computer for a girlfriend, we get some sitcom humor as the friends react with political correctness, analogous to race or sexual preference.  In one scene, Samantha & Theodore go on a double date with another couple.

Later, we see a subway full of people, packed together talking to their OS's. Everyone is together, but alone, or perhaps less alone with their computer friends.

Her has a few interesting images like the cityscapes, the aforementioned moving wallpaper, and the murals in Theo's office.  There are a few good instrumental songs, but there is no soundtrack album.

Her is less fun-to-watch than it is interesting to talk about later.  

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson (voice), Amy Adams

Directed by: Spike Jones

Rating: 3 stars: thoughtful, well-acted, not so fun-to-watch. 

More [Major Spoiler]: Why does Samantha dump Theodore?  Because she is growing, and he stays in all the time playing video games and talking to his phone. 

Even More: When do you think we will get AI as intelligent as this? 

Yet More: If you had an OS like this, how would you react?