First Class is literally, a fresh start for the X-Men franchise, as it works as a prequel, and is rumored (maybe rightly so) to be a reboot of the series that died down with X-Men Last Stand. There really aren’t a lot of great prequels out there, largely for the reason that you know for sure that the big name characters will survive. This is cleverly avoided as the strongman Wolverine is largely absent from the movie, save for a hilarious Hugh Jackman cameo in a bar.
This tells the story of Magneto (Michael Fassbender) the archnemesis of the last three movies who spent his youth in a concentration camp, where the Nazis discover his ability to move metals with his mind and plan to use him as a weapon. After the war, he tracks down his captors, now living in Argentina as fugitives and defeats them in a showdown in a bar with machetes that gives Magneto his trademark: swift retribution for a society that condemns mutants. The bulk of the movie is set in the early 1960s, when Area 51 and Roswell were fresh in everyone’s mind and the idea that mutants wandered among us, didn’t seem too unlikely, with the country steeped in a Cold War.
Magneto and a young Professor X at first join forces to protect the mutants, an up-and-coming group of very “gifted individuals.” As the friction between them increases, so do spectacular battles, in which mutants play an active role in averting the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Horrible Bosses Review
Probably one of the funniest movies of the year, Bosses revolves around a situation that we’ve probably all thought about one time or another. The jobs of best friends Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and Jason Bateman couldn’t be more different, yet they share a common problem: hating their boss.
One day over drinks, they decide life would be better if their respective bosses were gone, and yes, this time they aren’t just talking about it. The idea of hiring a hit man sounds easy enough, but dental assistant Charlie, whose boss (Jennifer Aniston) is an evil seductress, can’t even manage that. Instead he finds a male prostitute because the Craigslist ad said “wet work.” Unable to find a reliable hitman, they arrange quid-pro-quo murders and decide to off each others’ bosses.
The other bosses are sadistic exec Harken (Kevin Spacey) and cokehead Bobby (Colin Farrell.) After disastrously staking out their bosses’ homes, which results in spilling $10,000 worth of coke in Bobby’s living room, it seems as though the mission will be called off. They have bigger problems to worry about, however, when Harken murders Bobby, leaving Charlie and his friends as the only suspects and they’re further in over their heads than we could possibly hope. If the cops won’t get them, Kevin Spacey, playing his first psychopath in a long time, will.
The movie gives a new twist to crime gone wrong, and the performances, much of the dialogue improv, are astounding.
One day over drinks, they decide life would be better if their respective bosses were gone, and yes, this time they aren’t just talking about it. The idea of hiring a hit man sounds easy enough, but dental assistant Charlie, whose boss (Jennifer Aniston) is an evil seductress, can’t even manage that. Instead he finds a male prostitute because the Craigslist ad said “wet work.” Unable to find a reliable hitman, they arrange quid-pro-quo murders and decide to off each others’ bosses.
The other bosses are sadistic exec Harken (Kevin Spacey) and cokehead Bobby (Colin Farrell.) After disastrously staking out their bosses’ homes, which results in spilling $10,000 worth of coke in Bobby’s living room, it seems as though the mission will be called off. They have bigger problems to worry about, however, when Harken murders Bobby, leaving Charlie and his friends as the only suspects and they’re further in over their heads than we could possibly hope. If the cops won’t get them, Kevin Spacey, playing his first psychopath in a long time, will.
The movie gives a new twist to crime gone wrong, and the performances, much of the dialogue improv, are astounding.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Midnight in Paris Review
Woody Allen goes for a change of scenery, moving from Manhattan to Paris with great results. This is quite possibly the best late-career effort from the legendary director. Here, his nebbish onscreen character is played by Owen Wilson, a literature professor turned screenwriter contemplating his upcoming marriage to Inez (Rachel McAdams) while vacationing in Paris.
One night, taking a stranger’s advice, he gets into an antique cab, finds himself transported to 1925, and stumbles into literary giants Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) and Ernest Hemingway. Imagine his surprise when they offer to critique his work. Wilson spends much of his time dreaming of the past.
His novel is about a man who runs a “nostalgia shop,” and he finds himself mingling more and more to the roaring twenties, among the Lost Generation. Inez’s family suspects something, and not without good reason (after all, she’s having an affair with a former college boyfriend, the stuffy pseudo-intellectual Michael Sheen.) Not sure about his future with Inez, or even his future as a writer, Wilson falls for freespirited Adriana (Marion Cotillard) in 1925, content with living in the past.
Wilson playing Gil is lovably neurotic with the sharp one-liners that only Woody Allen can write, and he’s perfectly at home speaking and thinking them. Instead of the overly silly, sometimes sentimental stuff that Allen’s been serving up lately, comes a pretty good and thoughtful movie about living life in the present and moving forward.
One night, taking a stranger’s advice, he gets into an antique cab, finds himself transported to 1925, and stumbles into literary giants Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) and Ernest Hemingway. Imagine his surprise when they offer to critique his work. Wilson spends much of his time dreaming of the past.
His novel is about a man who runs a “nostalgia shop,” and he finds himself mingling more and more to the roaring twenties, among the Lost Generation. Inez’s family suspects something, and not without good reason (after all, she’s having an affair with a former college boyfriend, the stuffy pseudo-intellectual Michael Sheen.) Not sure about his future with Inez, or even his future as a writer, Wilson falls for freespirited Adriana (Marion Cotillard) in 1925, content with living in the past.
Wilson playing Gil is lovably neurotic with the sharp one-liners that only Woody Allen can write, and he’s perfectly at home speaking and thinking them. Instead of the overly silly, sometimes sentimental stuff that Allen’s been serving up lately, comes a pretty good and thoughtful movie about living life in the present and moving forward.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Kill the Irishman Review
Based on a true story, but did the opening from Casino really happen to Danny Greene? It’s impossible to describe Irishman without referencing some classic gangster testosterone-fest. That’s because the movie, based on real life Irish-American working class hero Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson), who became president of his union and clashed with the mob in Cleveland, recycles pretty much all of Scorsese and Coppola’s best.
You don’t have to be a movie buff to realize that the opening of this movie is almost shot for shot the car bomb scene in Casino, complete with the driver surviving unharmed, and the sequence afterwards is Henry Hill’s childhood in Goodfellas. Those movies really explored what it meant to be in the mob, or to deal with them. Sure, Danny Greene is as likable as Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill or DeNiro’s Rothstein, but that’s where the similarities end. What follows is an assembly-line gangster movie, where Greene gets power (he becomes the new union president by slapping his corrupt predecessor, I’m not kidding) and a fearsome reputation, then loses his wife and family (that we never really knew much about).
There’s dialogue that tries hard to be witty, like Greene’s rant about haggis, after an employee calls him a “potato-eater.” There’s a lot of people killed with car bombs, which quickly become boring and lose their shock value. There’s plenty of familiar faces: Vince D’Onofrio, Paul Sorvino, and Christopher Walken, but this is a not a movie that’s as good as its cast.
You don’t have to be a movie buff to realize that the opening of this movie is almost shot for shot the car bomb scene in Casino, complete with the driver surviving unharmed, and the sequence afterwards is Henry Hill’s childhood in Goodfellas. Those movies really explored what it meant to be in the mob, or to deal with them. Sure, Danny Greene is as likable as Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill or DeNiro’s Rothstein, but that’s where the similarities end. What follows is an assembly-line gangster movie, where Greene gets power (he becomes the new union president by slapping his corrupt predecessor, I’m not kidding) and a fearsome reputation, then loses his wife and family (that we never really knew much about).
There’s dialogue that tries hard to be witty, like Greene’s rant about haggis, after an employee calls him a “potato-eater.” There’s a lot of people killed with car bombs, which quickly become boring and lose their shock value. There’s plenty of familiar faces: Vince D’Onofrio, Paul Sorvino, and Christopher Walken, but this is a not a movie that’s as good as its cast.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Super Eight Review
Watching this movie you almost feel like you’re watching an old, forgotten Spielberg classic from the days of Goonies and E.T. Set in Ohio in the 1970s, Super 8 is the story of 13-year-old Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) and his friend, aspiring filmmaker Charles (Riley Griffiths) whose lead actress is also Joe’s love interest, Alice (Elle Fanning).
It is as if director J.J. Abrams is recalling his own childhood, the days when he probably staged toy train crashes with his parents’ super-8 movie camera. Through his characters we remember the innocence of early adolescence. Charles and his friends sneak out at midnight to make a movie, for probably no real reason except that it feels like they’re getting away with something. The shoot is rushed as usual, Charles takes his role as director seriously, making sure makeup and plastic explosives are in order.
Then, a chemical train suddenly derails in front of them, an explosion of metal and fire so horrific that Joe knows to keep the camera rolling. Something was on the train - and the U.S. Air Force is quick to send damage control to make sure their loss stays secret. Whatever it is, it’s a creature more terrifying than the zombie movie Charles is determined to finish, and not even the military will stand in his way.
Is it Nostalgic moviegoers will notice many tasteful nods to Amblin Entertainment’s early movies. Make sure to stay after the credits for a complete screening of Charles’ Super 8 home movie.
It is as if director J.J. Abrams is recalling his own childhood, the days when he probably staged toy train crashes with his parents’ super-8 movie camera. Through his characters we remember the innocence of early adolescence. Charles and his friends sneak out at midnight to make a movie, for probably no real reason except that it feels like they’re getting away with something. The shoot is rushed as usual, Charles takes his role as director seriously, making sure makeup and plastic explosives are in order.
Then, a chemical train suddenly derails in front of them, an explosion of metal and fire so horrific that Joe knows to keep the camera rolling. Something was on the train - and the U.S. Air Force is quick to send damage control to make sure their loss stays secret. Whatever it is, it’s a creature more terrifying than the zombie movie Charles is determined to finish, and not even the military will stand in his way.
Is it Nostalgic moviegoers will notice many tasteful nods to Amblin Entertainment’s early movies. Make sure to stay after the credits for a complete screening of Charles’ Super 8 home movie.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Thor Review
It’s a comic book movie, I guess, a safe one. I never really understood all the hype or acclaim that Thor got. Watchable, sure. But it’s predictable for the most part. When we first see Thor and his brother Loki, it’s no contest guessing which twin will grow up to be evil. Thrown out of Valhalla (located somewhere in space), for his vanity, Thor finds himself stranded in the desert near Scottsdale where he befriends attractive researcher Natalie Portman and true Swede Stellan Skaarsgard.
The effects aren’t terrible - the ultimate battle between Thor and a giant armored knight, fought out in a desert town is pretty impressive and not without a lot of explosions, but the movie ends leaving us wanting something more, without tying up its many loose ends, namely the relationship between Thor and Natalie Portman, when he returns to Valhalla as a god.
Thor comes off as arrogant, and isn’t really likable until we see him with human counterparts: the scene where he drinks Skaarsgard’s meteorology professor under the table with boilermaker after boilermaker. Rene Russo is Thor’s mother Frigga, whose role really amounts to nothing.
Aside from Thor, everyone else seems to be in this movie to either serve as comic relief (such as Natalie Portman’s sidekick, or Ray Stevenson as the gluttonous Viking warrior) or a villain who creates confusing but obviously evil schemes that don’t affect Earth directly, only so Thor and his friends can have fun vanquishing them.
The effects aren’t terrible - the ultimate battle between Thor and a giant armored knight, fought out in a desert town is pretty impressive and not without a lot of explosions, but the movie ends leaving us wanting something more, without tying up its many loose ends, namely the relationship between Thor and Natalie Portman, when he returns to Valhalla as a god.
Thor comes off as arrogant, and isn’t really likable until we see him with human counterparts: the scene where he drinks Skaarsgard’s meteorology professor under the table with boilermaker after boilermaker. Rene Russo is Thor’s mother Frigga, whose role really amounts to nothing.
Aside from Thor, everyone else seems to be in this movie to either serve as comic relief (such as Natalie Portman’s sidekick, or Ray Stevenson as the gluttonous Viking warrior) or a villain who creates confusing but obviously evil schemes that don’t affect Earth directly, only so Thor and his friends can have fun vanquishing them.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Hangover 2 Review
A by-the-numbers sequel to what was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Comedy in 2009. I was never a big fan of the first movie, but it had its moments, and plenty of rapid fire dialogue and jokes to keep my attention.
What distinguishes this from its predecessor is that nearly everyone can relate to waking up with a nasty headache after a night of heavy drinking and not knowing the details of what embarrassing situations we might have gotten ourselves into just a few hours earlier. Nearly everyone can also relate to an out of control bachelor/bachelorette party.
This time, however, the goal seemed to be to trump up the jokes and vulgarity of the original as much as possible. For example, instead of having an affair with a Vegas stripper while intoxicated, like in the first movie, Stu spends the forgotten night with a transvestite (no prosthetics were used.) The gang from the first film fly to Thailand, where Stu (Ed Helms) is getting married. Inevitably, after meeting for “one drink,” they wake up in a sleazy Bangkok hotel room. Most of us have never been to Bangkok, and what follows, seems like a long tirade against Thailand’s culture.
I don’t know if I could say fans of the first movie will enjoy this, as it keeps the same formula as the first movie (putting together clues to find someone missing), beat for beat. Anyone else, I’d recommend sticking with the original. Nothing’s new or improved.
What distinguishes this from its predecessor is that nearly everyone can relate to waking up with a nasty headache after a night of heavy drinking and not knowing the details of what embarrassing situations we might have gotten ourselves into just a few hours earlier. Nearly everyone can also relate to an out of control bachelor/bachelorette party.
This time, however, the goal seemed to be to trump up the jokes and vulgarity of the original as much as possible. For example, instead of having an affair with a Vegas stripper while intoxicated, like in the first movie, Stu spends the forgotten night with a transvestite (no prosthetics were used.) The gang from the first film fly to Thailand, where Stu (Ed Helms) is getting married. Inevitably, after meeting for “one drink,” they wake up in a sleazy Bangkok hotel room. Most of us have never been to Bangkok, and what follows, seems like a long tirade against Thailand’s culture.
I don’t know if I could say fans of the first movie will enjoy this, as it keeps the same formula as the first movie (putting together clues to find someone missing), beat for beat. Anyone else, I’d recommend sticking with the original. Nothing’s new or improved.
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