Tomorrowland. Dir. Brad Bird.  I guess many reviewers (Sandy Keenan, ABC News; A. O. Scott, NY Times; Stephen Whitty, NJ Star Ledger; Justin Chang, Variety; Christopher Orr, The Atlantic; and others) won’t be receiving one of those little medallions for being a genius!  Clearly they didn’t understand this film.  It’s very Clooneyesque: there can be a bright future for the human race if we only get off our butts, get our act together, and do something about making it happen.  That’s the important message these reviewers missed.

Clooney does a fine acting job too as the old geek Frank, a super-MacGyver who screwed up a few things along the way.  Hugh Laurie tries to shrug off his Dr. House role and does a good job as the evil Gov. Nix.  The child actors are fine too (Thomas Robinson as young Frank, Britt Robertson as Casey Newton, and Raffey Cassidy as Athena the Android), but I had trouble understanding Raffey at times and Britt was a bit too histrionic.

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[Note from Steve: Every year in Montclair, NJ, during the first week of May, people in the tristate area can enjoy seeing mostly unreleased new films, meet directors, producers, and actors, and participate in Q&A discussions.  Here are the three movies from the Montclair Film Festival I chose to see this year.]

The Armor of Light.  Dir. Abigail Disney.  This documentary is the story of Rev. Rob Schenk, a preacher who fought and is fighting to cure the schizophrenia of evangelicals who think they can love their guns as much as Jesus Christ.  The movie is full of gun fanatics, as you can imagine, but it’s also full of conscientious Christians who are beginning to recognize this mental aberration.  I keyed in on another interesting point, though: Ronald Reagan, whose Sherman’s march through American politics left a number of political sins in his wake, was responsible for another, creating the incestuous marriage between born-agains and the NRA.  Documentaries are always learning experiences, and this was no exception.  Fascinating, and a A- (the minus is because control is much more than the moral issue presented in this film).

Time Out of Mind.  Dir. Oren Maneiman, and starring Richard Gere and Ben Vereen.  This narrative film is a ponderous, painful, and powerful look at homelessness in America in general and in NYC in particular (it’s not a big-city problem, to be sure).  Gere and Vereen and other actors take you into the world of the invisible homeless.  Gere plays a homeless man so down on his luck that he often forgets who he is.  If you think homelessness isn’t a problem, you should catch this film.  I give it a B+ and not an A- or better because it’s slow but still a great example of understated acting and how fiction can point its finger at significant and serious social problems.

Holbrook/Twain.  Dir. Scott Teems.  The title is a good summary: Hal Holbrook is Mark Twain, Mark Twain has become Hal Holbrook.  This documentary is filmed in black and white to underline the historical importance of both men as much as how the actor in his one-man show has brought Mark Twain to life.  Holbrook is 90+ now and still presents the show that started in 1954 (there was a brief hiatus when his beloved Dixie Carter passed away).  The film also presents a candid look at Holbrook’s relationship with his children and step-children (one of Dixie’s kids sat in the row in front of us).  This film should be seen by everyone who wants to experience two iconic American institutions.  Moreover, it is an insightful reminder that Twain was much more than the writer of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, classic novels that nowadays might be called YA or coming-of-age.  Twain was an acerbic critic of what he saw wrong with America and the world, and many of those comments resonate today.  I’d start out with Letters from the Earth, commentaries that relate to the subject of the first film reviewed above (I “discovered” them in the eighth grade, and these, and other commentaries like “The Silent Lie” considered in the film, rank right up there with Vonnegut’s Man Without a Country as great curmudgeonly criticism)—or go see Holbrook’s “Mark Twain Tonight.”  It’s always been on my must-see bucket list.  You guessed it: this documentary gets an A+.

In elibris libertas….  

Focus.  Will Smith and Margot Robbie star in this story about a con-man training a con-woman.  There are some fun moments in New Orleans when the scam-jam takes place, and Smith’s character even surprises the con-woman (and me as well).  The whole thing is a bit unrealistic, though, especially the ending, a twist gone wrong.  Newcomer Robbie, an Aussie, is a good foil for the rapidly aging Smith, but she’s a failure as a con-woman, never graduating beyond stealing watches.  Really a mixed bag, in spite of Smith and Robbie (was Smith brain-damaged by the After Earth fiasco?)  I’d give this one a B-, but you might want to wait for the video.

Chappie.  AI-construct and artificial boy Chappie is annoying [added just before posting: one reviewer said he’s akin to Jar-Jar Binks, the flop-eared jackass character in the worst Star Wars episode ever—I disagree, because nothing could be that annoying!].  Dev Patel is his usual annoying self as the brilliant roboticist.  Hugh Jackman plays a different role but is equally annoying as one of the villain.  Sigourney Weaver continues her love of mediocrity that makes one wonder if Alien was just an accident.  Rappers Ninja as Chappie’s Daddy and Yo-Landi Visser as Chappie’s Mommy were refreshing, adding both comic relief and some seriousness—they might have saved the movie.

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Item: Black or White.  The first Kevin Costner film we saw recently is a mixed bag.  White lawyer who drinks too much wants to keep his mixed-race granddaughter in his custody.  Her father’s family (the father appears later in the film) wants the child to be raised in the African-American tradition.  There’s a strong if screeching banshee performance by Octavia Spencer, but it’s better than Kostner’s.  Too many stereotypes, racial and otherwise, make this a flawed flick, including the arrogant black lawyer relative defending the kid’s dope-addicted father.  Race relations are bad enough in this country; we don’t need to reaffirm bigoted and non-productive stereotypes.  The actors are too often over-acting too.  C-grade, and not recommended.

Item: McFarland USA.  Does Costner have a monopoly on sports movies?  He plays a coach with anger-management problems in this movie, a role that isn’t too far from the white guy in Black or White, but he morphs into someone more likable here.  The Hispanic kids and their families are great.  I related because I felt a bit nostalgic.  You’ll relate most likely because this is an inspiring story.  It’s the true story of McFarland High’s cross-country coach Jim White as he prepares reluctant Hispanic teens for the first of nine championships.

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Selma.  I suppose it would be politically correct to join many reviewers, including WABC’s Sandy Keenan, and call this the “movie of the year,” but I don’t have to be politically correct in these posts.  Having lived through these events (the film focuses on those leading up to the Votings Right Act of 1965) and previous ones leading up to integration (they’re more important, but not covered in the film), I will still acclaim that this is a pretty damn good documentary (that justifies the lack of Best Picture and Best Director Oscar nominations in my mind, though).  I’m not one to cry about quotas either because I don’t believe in them, especially when it comes to talent, but, akin to The Theory of Everything, there’s one actor here who should have been nominated for the Oscar corresponding to Best Actor.

I’ll also have to disagree with some pundits: this documentary doesn’t belittle LBJ.  It shows him to be a savvy politician whose actions were determined by political realities.  I have more of a quarrel with him about his prosecution of the Vietnam War than his against-stereotype promotion of civil rights (he was a Texas politician, for pete’s sake!).  He knew that the future of the Democratic Party could reside in the black vote.  (His prescience was limited, but he had no way of predicting the increasing importance of the Hispanic vote.)  The GOP’s attack on the right to vote still continues for that reason—with voter ID reqs, shortened times for absentee voting, gerrymandered districts, and so forth.  Vietnam taints Johnson’s legacy, not civil rights.  The war on poverty—and now the growing divide between haves and have-nots—isn’t a black and white issue, it never was, and it’s our most pressing domestic challenge right now.  Johnson’s War on Poverty only encompassed the first skirmishes in that war.

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[Disclaimer: I’m not paid to see these movies, and I’m not paid for these reviews.  They only represent my opinion about what I’ve seen on the silver screen.  Use these reviews as an independent and objective source for your movie-viewing activities.  You might disagree with me—if so, comment.]

Birdman.  From what I’ve read and heard outside the theater, people either love this movie or hate it.  I’m in the second camp.  It’s an awful movie where talented people overact, both in the play within the movie, and in their “real lives.”  It’s ironic that Michael Keaton, the first Batman, plays a washed-up movie superhero trying to make a big splash on Broadway.  His rampage in the dressing room reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor’s overacting in Virginia Woolf.  The only saving grace is Lindsay Duncan, as scurrilous Broadway critic Tabitha (great name for a witch, right?), who reminded me why I hate most critics who exemplify this twist on the teaching adage, “Those who can act, do so; those who can’t, offer scathing and unfair critiques, usually with zero content and obvious bias.”  (I guess I’m the latter too, but I don’t get paid for being acerbic.)   She does manage to say something positive, though; to say more about when and how would be a spoiler.  Don’t waste your money on this one, though: F–.

My Fair Lady.  I can almost see the eyebrows rising.  I commented somewhere (my blog maybe?) that this play and West Side Story are the Broadway musicals I measure all Broadway musical plays by.  So I jumped at the chance to watch the Hollywood movie version yet again, even though I have it on VHS somewhere in my man cave (probably brittle with age by now, but I still have a VHS tape player).  It was listed by the NY Times last Saturday as the top thing to watch, so I went to TCM (TMC?  I can’t keep all the cable acronyms straight anymore) and watched.  I then reflected on the Times blurb (to be fair, maybe provided by TCM?).  The tone in that blurb started rankling me.  There were too many kudos for Warner Brothers Studios, how great the movie was (true), and what a great service the studio, producer, and director performed in bringing the great Broadway show to the silver screen (mixed bag).

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Gone Girl.  OMG.  Some good acting (the woman detective and the shyster lawyer) mitigate the pain, but this is still a slog—bad plot, stereotyped characters, some ridiculous dialog, and a hackneyed score make me wonder, why bother?  You shouldn’t.  Because the author of the book wrote the screenplay, I assume the book is just as bad (never read it—too damn expensive—and now I never want to).  Maybe all those fans see something I don’t, but my knee-jerk reaction was that this was the stereotypical story of the excessively jealous spouse.  The entire universe is contained in that microscopic black hole—no problems important to society are permitted in.  Typical of Hollywood, I guess, and too many books in this genre—boring pablum for the masses!  Not recommended.

Interstellar. Another slog, almost three hours of it!  A real bladder-buster where you keep wondering, “Is this going to get any better?”  Forget the fact that the herky-jerky screenplay should have been trashed like the one of Ishtar.  I hate to admit that the outline of this movie loosely follows the first two books in my “Chaos Chronicle Trilogy,” a journey from a dystopian Earth to star colonies, but all resemblance ends with its mind-numbing technobabble and bad acting—or maybe good actors wasted by a bad screenplay (why I don’t mentioned actors’ names here)?  Only hard sci-fi addicts will understand what the Nolan duo is trying to do and realize they fail miserably.  Everyone else will wonder why they wasted almost three hours of their lives on this drivel.  If you want some good hard sci-fi, watch Avatar, Alien (not its sequels), Blade Runner (and most other movies based on Phillip K. Dick stories), and possibly a few others that Hollywood didn’t succeed mutilating.  Not recommended. (more…)

[The first three movies below share a common feature—an aging protagonist who can really kick some butt!  They’re also representative of what I most like to watch, read, and write.  Sure, I read and write sci-fi too, but I split the time with the mystery/suspense/thriller genre.  The last movie is a comedy…of horrors!]

Hostage.  Robert Crais’ books, Hostage (2001) and Taken (2012), are definitely material for movie screenplays.  Hostage is a stand-alone; the movie stars Bruce Willis in a role that’s more serious—he isn’t the flippant smart-aleck so common in his other films.  He doesn’t quite master the suffering hound dog face of Harrison Ford, but he comes close.  He’s an ex-hostage negotiator from LA who left there seeking peace and quiet in the boonies because he lost a hostage—he doesn’t find the peace and quiet, though.  Probably because it’s based on a book, the plot here isn’t half bad.  Some neat twists too.  There’s lots of action and violence, very little romance.  I saw this on Encore, but most people will probably watch it on Netflix.  Recommended.

The November Man.  In this Hollywood version of Bill Granger’s There Are No Spies (1981), from the November Man series, Pierce Brosnan is an ex-spy who has to return to the game.  Speaking of Willis, this is what the movie Red should have been.  Brosnan as the ex-spy is an older version of Damon as Bourne, tough and lethal, but also a man with a heart.  Some strange geo-political maneuverings are going on as we learn yet another version of how the Chechen War started (I presume the book had some other international kerfuffle—never read it).  May Putin suffer the same fate as the Russian villain in this film.  Spoiler alert: there are American villains too!  Don’t look for Le Carre here—this is more action and thrills than intrigue.  Very enjoyable, though.

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Calvary.  Irish pathos…great acting.  Highly recommended.  We have at least two interpretations of this one, a film where John Le Carre’s noir intensity meets Catholic Irish angst.  Excellent and highly recommended, but not for the squeamish.  It will become a classic.

Land Ho!  Two old guys travel around Iceland.  You have to fill in the blanks here—a lot isn’t shown or seen—but it’s a pleasant little trek albeit much ado about nothing.  The irascible, old guys are lovable old curmudgeons, but it was all a bit tedious.  I can only recommend it if you want to see some beautiful scenery.  Iceland is the main protagonist here.  With that volcano acting up there now, I’d stay away from Iceland, though—safer to see it in a travelogue like this film.

One Hundred-Foot Journey.  Based on Richard Morais’ novel of the same name, this movie is a little delight.  The title coincides with the fact that Spielberg and Winfrey are American producers: France is metric (the home country of metric, in fact), but these two still think British (OK, that’s Morais’ fault, not theirs).  Beyond that, I had a few problems.  The plot is too predictable.  You’ll also be frustrated if you’re a purist about your ethnic cuisine.  (I’m not—that omelet even sounded yummy, and I walked out hungry.) (more…)

Lucy.  A far-out concept featured in a disjoint and confusing plot, but a kick-ass Johansson make this sci-fi thriller entertaining to watch.  The only character who’s really developed is Morgan Freeman’s, though.  He has an unfair advantage, of course—he develops any character he’s portraying by his mere presence on the screen.  Gotta love the guy.  Sci-fi addicts will want to see this one.  Others with broader tastes might want to wait for Interstellar.  Or, just read a good sci-fi trilogy (like mine).

Magic in the Moonlight.  Woody reads Pygmalion; Woody writes screenplay.  After The Railway Man, this is a come-down for Colin Firth.  Of course, his filmography is a wee bit up-and-down, albeit prolific.  After high points like The King’s Speech, The Railway Man, and Tinker, Tailor, and low points like Mamma Mia and Fourplay, this is about average, I guess.  However, it’s Woody at his most boring.  Great old cars, though, and I loved the aunt.  Filmed with an annoying light filter (made me want to clean my glasses) to add ambiance to the 1920s setting.  Not recommended, unless you’re a die-hard Colin or Woody fan.

Frozen. This isn’t a review.  It’s a request: turn that damn song off!  Just for the record (no pun intended), I have another vision of hell: sitting in a bar that only serves Shirley Temples, shaken not stirred, and continuously listening to that song playing on an old jukebox.  And, just for those parents who want to continue bludgeoning the creativity out of their kids, Disney is supporting a venture where some Big Five publisher will release two children’s books based on the movie.  Commercial ventures tied to kids’ movie cartoons are capitalistic exploitation at its finest.  Today’s parents—GenXers and Millenials—will do anything to pamper their kids. (more…)