Reviews

'Eye in the Sky' is a timely, tension-filled story of a joint British/US operation to neutralize members of a terrorist cell in Kenya. The mission parameters change from capture to kill when the threat level rises, but things are complicated when a young neighborhood girl sets up her makeshift bread shop directly next to the building the terrorists are holed up in. Pretty much the entirety of the movie involves preparing for and the attempt to authorize the drone strike that the British military leaders (Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman) are determined to carry out. We see the physical, practical details (involving some technology that seems straight out of a James Bond movie) as well as the legal and political protocols that must be adhered to. The movie is so successful in immersing the viewer in the dilemma the military characters face that you feel their frustration at being thwarted by military protocols and indecisive politicians while simultaneously being terrified for the fate of the little girl. 'Eye in the Sky' shares many similarities with 'Sicario' in that it deals with a war, portrayed very graphically, in which the major characters largely travel in the gray areas of legality and morality.

The thing that I found most compelling about 'Nightcrawler' was not that it plays as an evil, Bizarro-world rags-to-riches success story, although that is part of its subversive appeal, certainly. Rather, Jake Gyllenhaal's absolutely riveting performance as the predatory, small-time hood turned news videographer is what sets this movie apart for me. It is a nuanced performance. Little things about his performance, from his mannerisms to odd turns of phrase emphasize that Louis Bloom is a stranger to normal human interaction. The way Bloom laughs at times when nothing is remotely funny is frankly chilling. The fact that one oddly admires Bloom's professionalism and perfectionism in his chosen avocation makes for an unsettling, if unforgettable movie experience.

'Whiplash' is the story of two men. One is a young music conservatory student determined to be as good as his idol, Buddy Rich, on drums. So single-minded is he in this pursuit that he largely ignores other aspects of a normal, well-adjusted life, including personal relationships. The other primary character (J.K. Simmons in a career-defining role) is the most hard-ass music instructor ever. He curses, cajoles, intimidates and physically assaults his students, buffered by the philosophy that if he does not, they will never achieve greatness. Neither lead character will yield, and from that premise and tension flows the drama and some incredible jazz music.

'The Martian' is a generally entertaining survival story following the "Murphy's Law in Space" formula established in 'Gravity' (2013). Unlike 'Gravity' no great effort is made to give the characters any real depth and there is no philosophy. It was obviously written by a science nerd and no doubt some of the solutions to the main protagonist's problems were better explained in the novel. The movie features amazing and believable realizations of Martian landscapes achieved by the special effects team. I would have to deduct points for cheap laughs, gratuitous pop culture references that seem out of place in the film's context, and some really groan-worthy one-liners from the main character.

'SPECTRE,' the newest installment in the venerable James Bond franchise is the inevitable end of a progression that began when Daniel Craig took over the lead role in 'Casino Royale' (2006). Although the Bond franchise clearly needed a fresh start/reboot, I felt that movie went too far in the direction of bringing Bond down to earth (as 'Batman Begins' had with its titular hero) and stripping away the mythology of the series. 'Skyfall' (2012) took great steps in restoring classic elements of the Bond mythology. 'SPECTRE,' while a quite enjoyable installment in its own right, leans a bit too much to Bond as "superhero assassin who blows up secret underground base and lands without a scratch in the arms of a bodacious foreign babe" version of the character. In this sense, it's a very safe movie. Christoph Waltz is adequate as the villain, but the attempt to create a personal relationship between and him and Bond seems a dead end story-wise and nothing comes of it.

'Our Brand is Crisis' is based upon the apparently true story of the wholly cynical manipulation of a presidential campaign in a Latin American country. With such subject matter, one would expect it to come across a lot more dark but unfortunately, this movie has a fairly laconic, wishy-washy feel to it. The promised head-butting between the two leads (Thornton and Bullock) comes across more as half-hearted ironic flirtation. The attempt at sentimentality at the end seems forced. I believe this movie would have played better as an unrepentant dark comedy, and also get the sense that it should have been a made-for-t.v. movie. There are some terrific location shots, apparently filmed in Bolivia, where the movie is set.

'Concussion' was somewhat hard to watch, not only because it depicted the sad decline and death of several football players I had watched over the years, but also because of the graphic nature of some scenes; apparently the only way to diagnose the disease/condition these players were afflicted with is through autopsy. The movie tries not to be anti- football, but for the sake of ramping up drama and for the sake of emotional impact, the NFL and its fans to an extent have to be made into villains (although probably no more so than in past motion pictures such as 'Any Given Sunday' and 'North Dallas Forty'). The story of the main character's struggle to get the NFL, medical world, and general public to recognize this condition makes for fairly gripping viewing. It seems counter-intuitive that a sport involving giant men smashing into each other repetitively could produce a condition that was largely unknown or unacknowledged until historically very recently, but I suppose this is a testament to the institution that tried so long to ignore or discredit any such connection.

'The Revenant' is more a survival story than a revenge story, where the surrounding (and amazing) landscape often dwarfs the story. Tom Hardy turns in the role of his life to date, playing an antagonist whose point of view can be argued reasonably enough that he doesn't come off entirely as a cartoonish black hat villain. There are several scenes that are pretty much instant classics, including the opening one, where the director's "follow the ball" tendencies serve well to capture a sprawling battle in an open wooded area. Leonardo DiCaprio obviously suffered for his role, as one could easily surmise based upon some of the shots filmed on freezing and harsh locations, and certainly earned his "Best Actor" Oscar.

'Joy' features plenty of commendable elements: good performances by Lawrence and Rossellini in particular, and it tells an engaging underdog story. As expected DeNiro provides an entertaining performance, but the cranky, foul-mouthed grandfather character seems a bit cliché. The tension and uncertainty of the business world is portrayed well and provides most of the dramatic tension here, at least until a final anti- climactic scene that is somewhat of a let down. 'Joy' offers two lessons: (1) Business is hard, so be ruthless, but (2) treat your business partners well. Otherwise, 'Joy' comes off a bit too polite and trite and designed to please holiday viewers. The "Joy is a magical fairy who is destined to give the world wonderful gifts like special mops and coat hangers" theme was a bit too much for me to swallow.

'The Big Short' seems to want to play off the same vibe as 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' with characters directly addressing the audience and even explaining which scenes are dramatized and which really happened. There is even a series of celebrity appearances inserted solely for the purpose of explaining the core financial concepts to laymen. Although trying to explain the housing market bubble of 2007/2008 using blackjack bet, Jenga tower and seafood cuisine analogies is only marginally successful, the fact that nearly every single scene in this movie involves the various characters discussing, debating, delving into or otherwise taking action related to this bubble basically gets the picture across to the audience. But that, and the fact that it's a long movie and about 95% of it is these same characters waiting for said bubble to burst, also makes it a rather one-dimensional movie, and a bit on the dull side at times. Still, it's worth it for the interesting subject matter and a particularly entertaining performance by Steve Carrell.

'Mermaid,' the new offering from director Stephen Chow is a breezy fantasy romantic comedy in which a group of mer-people (the sub-titles only refer to them as "Mermaids," even though some are clearly men) decide the only way to save their lives is to assassinate the mega-tycoon behind the exploitation and destruction of their undersea home. They teach one of their young, erm, school-members, how to walk like a human (sort of) in order to turn her into a honey-pot trap for the tycoon, and the plot is off and running. This movie features some hilarious slapstick comedy as you would expect from this director, some beautiful visuals, sets and locations, and not an especially subtle pro-conservation/anti-whaling message. However, it's still fun enough that you don't feel you are being preached at the whole time, at least.

'The VVitch' is a creepy and atmospheric psychological horror movie. Although there are no "hard" scares, certain scenes will haunt you long after the closing credits have run. The tension and horror only works in the context of people who are entirely convinced that Satan is real and striving every minute to trip innocents up with their own carnal urges, even in the most mundane, everyday situations. Due to the movie's use of authentic period dialogue, spoken in English/New England accents, sometimes mumbled or whispered and further hampered by the iffy enunciation by child actors, you have to pay close attention to follow the thrust of the dialogue in certain scenes.

'Hail Caesar' may have been marketed as a zany caper movie, but is more of a tribute to the golden age of Hollywood featuring wonderful period detail (including recreations of lavish song and dance numbers and stereotypical scenes from various Cold War-era popular film genres) than anything else. The main "action" plot, involving the kidnap of an air-headed leading man (George Clooney) doesn't follow any conventional course or resolution, instead amounting to a comic series of dead ends and blunders in classic Coen Brothers fashion. Scarlett Johansson turns in a fun performance as a swimming movie star in the mold of Esther Williams, but is somewhat wasted in a sub-sub-plot that only furthers the subplot of the studio head (Josh Brolin), and his dilemma in deciding whether to stay in charge of his chaotic cinematic circus or to take a cushy job with an aerospace company. Overall, 'Hail Caesar' is entertaining film, but as a comedy it provides only a few laugh-out-loud moments.

'Batman v Superman' has an air of arrogance about it. The filmmakers seemed so confident that their "God versus Man" conceit was so riveting that they filled a good two hours of screen time with overwrought apocalyptic imagery and people shouting about Superman being a God or not being a God, and pretty much forgot about any other element that moviegoers actually enjoy. The tone is unrelentingly bleak. None of the scenes have any cinematic energy, whether in dialogue or in plot driving, and there is a dearth of interesting set pieces which you would expect at a bare minimum in this type of film. The result is a numbing, frustrating wait until the fairly anti-climactic battle promised in the title.

'Race' is an overall entertaining movie hampered by some fairly predictable flaws. It features pretty standard sports movie clichés, e.g., hard-ass coach with heart of gold, rival who becomes best friend, etc. The personal (melo)drama seems pretty mundane, and, as to be expected in historical dramas, certain liberties are taken with the facts for dramatic purposes. But there is interesting dramatic tension in the scenes in which the US Olympics commission debates boycotting the '36 games, and in Owens' personal struggle over whether to compete in the face of certain factions of the black community entreating him not to. The actual scenes of competition are presented in an exciting fashion. My favorite scene captures Owens' P.O.V. as he enters Berlin Stadium at the height of pre-War Nazi pageantry, Hindenburg flying overhead, Hitler waving in the stands to a thunderous chorus of "Sieg Heils." It must have been overwhelming. Carice van Houten plays Leni Refienstahl as a sympathetic character, defying Goebbel's orders to tell the true story of the 1936 Olympics, and Stephan James as Owens provides an enjoyable leading performance.

'Boyhood' is not presented as a fake documentary, but the dry, chronological presentation of various episodes in the life of the movie's subject over the course of 12 years does make it seem like one at times. The strength of the movie, besides the various performances, is how familiar these various episodes, whether happy, awkward, comic, tragic, or mundane will feel to the viewer. The important moments are not especially emphasized over those less so, and taken individually, most of the scenes seem fairly trivial. But the sum is greater than the parts, and well illustrates the movie's central theme of life being a series of random moments interspersed with the occasional milestone that you share with the family members, friends, enemies and other people that come in and out of your life.

'Fearless Freaks' is an excellent documentary that's sure to please longtime fans like myself as well as newer fans, and will probably win them a fair batch of new followers. As 'Watch me Jumpstart' does with Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices, it paints an intimate portrait of head Lip Wayne Coyne as a family man and member of his community. We get plenty of interesting background into Coyne's early family life and nascent artistic aspirations. Interviews with band members, family members, and friends are inter-cut with raw live footage of the group's often very visually fascinating performances. The pace is just right to keep the viewer always entertained and never bored, but not at a breakneck, highly edited MTV-ish pace. My only complaint about the movie is that details on the band's history and specific works by them are rather skimpy. I would have liked to have gotten more details such as Wayne explaining his inspirations for various songs, discussions about their creative process, studio stories, and the like.

Drummer Steven Drozd becomes the other major character in this movie when his addiction to heroin is frankly and almost shockingly discussed and portrayed on film. Without giving too much away, this subplot comes to an apparently happy ending, and the movie concludes on a high note, with The Flaming Lips on stage playing before their enthralled fans, on the verge of another artistic triumph. Here's to The Flaming Lips.

Well, I loved the books when I read them almost 20 years ago (and I read them 3 times), and I loved the movie adaptation of "Fellowship." I can understand that some things had to be changed for pacing reasons, and commercial reasons, not to mention political correctness (for example, the Wargs look more like boars than wolves, because we couldn't have our heroes killing wolves, could we?). Frankly, the new stuff thrown in didn't really bother me. I felt a little disappointed that we don't have as much humorous interaction Merry and Pippin and Treebeard, but I can see how Ent-lore might have bored audiences. Also, I thought Treebeard's nose looked silly.

The parts that I really had problems with were the Gollum/Smeagol argument ("I'm not hearing this!"--way corny), and the "Exorcist" bit they did with Theoden (I almost expected him to say "Your mother s---- c--- in Hell!!), not to mention his amazingly quick recovery. Also, they could have made the end of the battle of Helm's Deep more definitive. We see the tide turned, but no real conclusion after all the fighting. Maybe Jackson could have included scenes of fleeing Uruk Hai to better illustrate the victory. And the over-use of Gimli as comic relief, not to mention revisiting the dwarf-tossing gag was somewhat annoying, I thought.

I agree with other posters and reviewers who have said that this feels more like a bridge, or the middle of a great film, than a great movie in its own right. I disagree with reviewers who have said that the huge battle scenes are not true to the spirit of Tolkein. The massive battles, blood, and gore were always part of the original books. Even "The Hobbit," a children's book, has its share of gore and lopped-off goblin heads. Still, I think this movie somewhat lacked the human element of "Fellowship," and the original books.