The Five Year Engagement

Plot: Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) met, fall in love, and get engaged. But then, Tom's brother Alex (Chris Pratt) hooks up with Violet's sister Suzie (Alison Brie), and Suzie gets pregnant. Because of the awkward timing they cancel the wedding. Violet gets accepted into grad school at U of Michigan, and next they are living together in a bungalow in Ann Arbor. Tom is making sandwiches at Zingerman's, but he'd rather open a restaurant. One delay leads to another, and soon five years pass. [imdb link]    [photos]

Review: This is cheerful and likable movie with clever dialog and strong characters. 

Emily Blunt is engaging and likable. Jason Segel is serviceable, and likable enough. 

The movie has a lot of silly little episodes at parties, engagements and funerals. 

They show Emily doing psychology experiments, and it concerns "the famous marshmallow experiment." Emily does these experiments at school, and soon we see the whole plot in terms of the experiment. The bottom line is that they waited five years to get married, so they must be the virtuous ones.

A highlight is when Suzie and Violet have an argument in the voices of Elmo and Cookie Monster to keep the kids from getting alarmed. It was silly and funny: "C is for Condom."

The was some mixing of Northern Michigan culture with the Ann Arbor culture that felt a little odd to me. As much as the town fathers like seeing their town on the screen, they must cringe at the near-wedding in the lodge with polkas and accordions. 

Cast: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie

Directed by: Nicholas Stoller; written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller

Rating:   3.0 stars: maybe a little lower since it was not ambitious, but for a romance, this is about as good as they come. 

I have this personal connection with the story. I made my wife move with me to school and then to a series of jobs, that latest of which in Michigan. Like Suzie who gave up being a kinesiologist, my wife has been moving around a lot. So the parallel of the story with my life makes me like this movie more. 

More:  Suzie and Alex sing a wedding song in Spanish. I could tell from the audience reaction that the lyrics were funny, but my Spanish wasn't good enough to get the joke. Here is the English translation of the lyric. It is deeply romantic, but also completely wrong at a wedding. Click here for English lyrics.

Even more: [MINOR SPOILER] It is unclear where Tom and Violet end up at the end of the movie. Where did they movie to? I suppose the viewers are free to imagine whatever outcome they like the best.

Yet more: [MINOR SPOILER] Critics who complain that the end was predictable are not thinking clearly. The movie is called, "The Five Year Engagement."  

.

.

Bully

Description:  Bully is a documentary about four middle school students who were bullied. One of them is dead. Another, Ja'Maya pulled a gun on her adversaries, Kelbe is gay and lives in a small southern town; and Alex has physical and emotional issues that make him seem odd to others. The film's end shows parents getting involved in protests and political events against bullying. link to imdb   photos

Review: Bully is thought-provoking, and we meet some interesting people. That is the best part.

It focuses on the victims in the beginning and leads to a call-to-action at the end. The call-to-action is stilted and uninspiring.  They should have stuck with victims and their stories, especially how their situations were resolved in those cases where they were. 

 For a Weinstein film, Bully is very poorly edited and the video is awful. A true amateur job. Honestly the teaser before the credits was impossible to watch because it is so fuzzy and shakes so much. Really, I closed my eyes. Shaking hand-held camera work does not make movies trendy and realistic -- it shows disrespect for the viewers.

The message of the film is hidden by the bad production. This documentary might have made a better radio show than movie. Certainly in a radio show, they could have edited the dialog to make it faster. Some of the parents were from the South, and they just talk so slow. 

Everyone watching this movie thinks about his or her own growing up. Most people get bullied some and most people did some teasing and bullying too. I know that institutions like schools could stop bullying with extreme discipline like only walking in single file and without talking. Perhaps that is better -- I don't know.  There was this one guy who picked on me; but I used to tease him when I was bored.

Directed by: Lee Hirsch

Rating:   2.0 stars:  A worthy topic, but very poorly made. It is a good conversation starter.

More: Kelbe is cool. I like her. 

.

.

21 Jump Street

Plot: Two cops (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum) go undercover at a high school trying to catch drug dealers, but end up partying and falling for girls. link to imdb   photos

Review: When I see a movie that I expect to be bad, and it turns out to be pretty good, then I am thrilled: that is the magic of low expectations.  21 Jump Street is exactly that; I thought this was going to be a stupid boy movie like The Hangover 2, but it was actually a little better and pretty funny.

What saved it was that the high school students were more realistic and intelligent. I liked that the cool kids had "crunchy, hippy" ideas, and made officers Schmidt and Jenko feel awkward and out-of-place. Instead of being competent and cool the cops were the subject of the jokes. Jonah Hill is especially good at that. 

Most of the jokes were about Channing Tatum trying to be a nerd, and Jonah Hill trying to make friends with girls, especially Brie Larson's Molly. Ice Cube as the police captain was great too.

This was not high cinema, and it was there was no love story. There were a lot of gay jokes, many dick jokes, but happily no fart jokes. The shooting scenes were surprisingly bloody. 

Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson

Directed by: Phil Lord, Chris Miller

Rating:   2.5 stars: pretty funny.

More: The original 21 Jump Street ran from 1987 to 1991 and it had Johnny Depp, who did a cameo in this film.  

.

.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Plot: Salomon Fishng in the Yemen is light drama or dry comedy about a silly venture to make a fly-fishing river in Yemen funded by an  oil sheik. Fishery expert Albert (Ewan McGregor) is brought in by Harriet (Emily Blunt) a cute British employee of the Sheik. Albert is convinced this will never work, but with lots of irony, British Prime Minister's press aid (Catherine Steadman) causes the project to go forward anyway. Soon Albert and Harriet are in Yemen getting to know each other, and developing love triangles.  link to imdb   Photos

Review: This is a pleasant movie with likable characters going through silly almost sit-com situations. It is helped by a British serious but absurd tone that includes defending against a terrorist attack by casting a fishing fly in the attacker's face.

Ewan McGregor plays his character realistically with suitable skepticism about such an outlandish scheme. The romance between Harriet and Albert is slow to develop, but of course inevitable.

I liked the political satire between the press secretary, the press and the prime minister.

We had to drive across town to the art theater to see this movie, and it was the best movie I have seen there lately. On the other hand, had the cast been American, I am sure it would have played at every multiplex, as it was not arty or daring or anything except pleasant.

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Catherine Steadman

Directed by: Lasse Hallstroem, Based on the novel by Paul Torday.

Rating:   2.5 stars: Good, but not fine cinema; Could this contend for a 3 stars? Not really.

More: Unlike the movie, there is not a lot of well water in Yemen, nor is there abundant seasonal rainfall for sport fishing. There is a fishing industry in the ocean however accounting for 1.5% of Yemeni GDP. 

.

Mirror Mirror

Plot: This is the famous story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves told as a winkingly ironic comedy. There are departures from the story to make the story more modern and a better foil for the ironic humor. In this version, Snow White (Lilly Collins) escapes from stepmom, the Queen (Julia Roberts,) and is sheltered by the Dwarves. The Queen is vain and in need of a husband to buttress her finances. She targets Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer.) Soon Snow White meets Price Alcott, and next Snow White is battling the Queen for his affections. The movie ends with Bollywood-style singing and dancing.  link to imdb   Photos

Review: From its first moments, the ironic tone is the dominant element of Mirror Mirror. The Queen's monolog gets us into her head, and the comic motivations of her vanity and lust for power. Meanwhile Snow White is as nice as can be, and not at all helpless -- no 21st Century Princess is helpless. Lily Collins makes Snow White cute and likable, when she is not stabbing with her dagger or swashbuckling with her sword.

The love story is pretty weak, and the Prince is just going through the fairy tale motions. The art direction is strong and the scenes are fancy, but never really inspired. In many places it looks like a stage show. I wonder if there was a stage version.

There were some reoccurring jokes; like the dwarves stealing peoples clothes, and leaving them in elaborate under-ware. I don't think this is a movie for children, since I don't think they'd like it. I don't think it is for adults either since it is not dark enough. It is hard to tell what effect they were going for. 

Cast: Julia Roberts, Lily Collin

Directed by: Rarsem Singh

Rating:   2.0 stars: this movie is cute, and kinda fun-to-watch.

More: I did not see the twist ending. 

Even more: I liked Snow White and the Huntsman better. See my review.

The Hunger Games

Plot: In a distopian future nation, rebellious districts send two kids each to fight to the death as a punishment for their failed revolution. The bloody battle is shown on TV as a reality show. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) leaves boyfriend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and goes to the arena with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson,) whom she pretends to love and maybe really does love. Once in the arena, its like Survivor where kids kill the people they want to vote off the island. link to imdb   Photos

Review: This is the rare movie that is better than the book. I am a big fan of the Hunger Games, and this movie is everything I wanted it to be. I wish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had cast Jennifer Lawrence.

The fake reality show playing againt the political oppression and the deadly consequences provides so much natural drama and opportunity for satire.  I loved the giant faces of Ceasar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) on the TV set as he mugged for the cameras.  I especially liked the master control room full of Gamemakers pulling the strings in the background -- another great allegory.

The actual arena battle was more like hunting and being hunted -- a deadly hide and seek. It was suspenseful and not too violent. 

I thought the story in the movie was better than in the book. I liked the added scenes with Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) arguing with Seneca (Wes Bentley.) I thought the politics was clear without taking up too much time. 

Jennifer Lawerence was nicely restrained. In her situation, screaming and crying would have been appropriate almost continuously, but you can't have that all the time. She handled the emerging love triangle with nice ambiguity.

Top notch art direction and costumes. Realistic special effects.  The music in the movie isn't much. The soundtrack album has two good songs that aren't actually in the movie. I endorse Arcade Fire's Abraham's Daughter and One Engine from the Decemberists. 

Cast: Jennifer Lawerence, Josh Hutcherson, Stanley Tucci, 

Directed by: Gary Ross; based on the book by Suzanne Collins

Rating:   3.5+ stars: Really fun to watch. Full of clever ideas.  For an action movie, it is about the best there is: better than last year's Harry Potter or Hanna -- almost as good Inception, but not as good as Avatar. 

More: Seneca's beard! That was outrageous.  

.

John Carter

Plot: John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a former confederate officer who stumbles on a Thern, an advanced space alien, whom he shoots and then teleports himself to Mars. Mars has two nations of human people and one nation of 4-armed green people. John Carter has super-powers due to having grown-up in earth gravity. There is a war between the human races, and the Helium nation is about to be defeated by the Zadanga nation. A princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins,) has to marry Zadangan leader Sab Thane (Dominic West) as part of the terms of surrender. Dejah does not like this, and she leads an winged attack on the Zadanga. The Thanes are helping the Zadangas in win the battle when John Carter shows up and with his super powers stops the bad guys. In time, John Carter falls in love with Dejah, and he tries to prevent the wedding with Sab. This leads to the final battle, and post-climax scenes that set-up the next sequel.  imdb   Photos

Review: John Carter is enormously uneven, with a complicated plot. It has some great individual scenes, and it has a lot of connecting scenes that are less interesting. Like Avatar, it is a science fiction with a tall alien race that fights human people overlaid with a love story and it has 3D flying scenes. It lacks the beauty of Avatar and the depth of character development. The best scenes are the fighting scenes. The scenes with the animated green people never really worked because their range of expression was so narrow. They also have those stupid horns. I was always distracted by them.

A lot of the action scenes seemed very fast, which might have been deliberate to make the film move faster, but it made the movie less cool to watch. The idea of a walking city is kind of cool, but the appearance of it was not. It should be interesting to fly underneath the legs of the walking city, but somehow it wasn't.

In the end the love story was interesting, and John Carter's final triumph over the Thanes at the end was clever too. 

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins

Directed by: Andrew Stanton; based on the book by A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Rating:   2.0 stars: Not so bad, especially for SciFi fans.

More: I loved Woola, the six legged dog, easily the best character in the movie.

..

.