The Hundred-Foot Journey

        ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ does what it is supposed to do.  It targets the middle aged movie going crowd with beautiful exotic scenery, mature family based characters, and long lingering camera shots on food, both familiar and exotic.  It’s a nice way to spend a Sunday matinee and get your life affirming warm fuzzies.  Produced by Steven Speilberg and Oprah Winfrey, this film doesn’t exactly push the envelope, but it does paint a beautiful picture that’s comforting to watch. 

The story follows the Kadam family as they are forced to leave their life in India.  Eventually, they find their way to the South of France where they stumble across a small picturesque village which the family’s patriarch, Papa (Om Puri) decides to call home.  The whole Kadam family are restauranteurs and they decide to open up an Indian restaurant across the street from the town’s celebrity French restaurant, a mere hundred feet away, which has a coveted Michelin star.  The proprietress, Madam Mallory (played respectably French by Helen Mirren) is aghast that someone has dared set up shop next to her let alone immigrants who want to offer ethnic food to the finicky French townspeople.  She is more indignant than anything else as she is convinced that the French know good food and Kadam’s restaurant will be short lived.  

Papa has a secret weapon that even he doesn’t realize.  His eldest son Hassan (Mannish Dayal) is a great cook, but even Papa doesn’t suspect how good.  Hassan has mastered Indian cuisine , but starts to become enthralled with French culture and cuisine as he discovers a whole other world of food, ingredients, and spices.  The artist within him starts to experiment with fusing the two cuisines and the results catches everyone’s attention, including Madame Mallory’s.    Despite Madame Mallory’s misgivings, she convinces Papa to let her take Hassan under her wing to help develop him into a world class chef.  She succeeds and suddenly the culinary world notices the Indian immigrant living in the small French Village.  The village suddenly becomes too small to hold Hassan’s talent

Much of this film is paint by the numbers and predictable.  Everything from the expansive landscapes, to the clichéd love interests, to the little guy fighting the odds, to the awesome food porn, this movie takes few chances, but that doesn’t mean it’s not thoroughly enjoyable.  Sometimes comfort and beauty is a nice way to spend your movie dollar and from that stand point, this film delivers.  You always know what’s coming, but when it happens you still smile and appreciate the journey.  I would be hard pressed to remember a more picturesque film in recent memory and for those who day dream about running away to the south of France, this film is more than enough to satisfy.  For foodies out there, it doesn’t favor one cuisine over the other rather it encourages all people to leave their culinary comfort zones and explore, which I particularly appreciated,  

Not all films have to have gravitas or action or explosions. Sometimes, it’s just nice to take a long leisurely journey down a picturesque path.  I recommend this film as mature escapist fantasy.  A great date movie that will probably have you reexamining your vacation plans.  

I give this film *** stars out of four

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3660426521?ref_=ttvi_vi_1

Lucy

        I am not a huge fan of French filmmakers or French films in general. I find them pretentious, pompous, and overly stylized.  However; while I am not a great fan of Director Luc Besson, he has produced some of my greatest guilty pleasures, most notably La Femme Nikita and Colombiana. I’ve always felt he was a French Director who was trying to make American style films.  Besson has an affinity for heroines who kick-ass stylishly and ‘Lucy’ is no different.  Like most of Besson’s film’s, it is high on style and low on substance.  I will say that he did attempt to add some depth and interesting exploration of human potential, but ultimately ‘Lucy’ relies on it’s fashion show action sequences and falls flat as it tries to explore the outer rims of the human mind.

The story revolves around a young American exchange student in Taiwan (played by the stunning Scarlett Johanssen) who, due to a bad choice in boyfriends, is kidnapped to become a pack mule for a new type of street drug being developed, which they hide inconveniently inside her abdomen.  When the package begins to leak and the substance enters her system, the true nature of the drug is revealed.  As humans, we use 10% of our brain’s ability.  Through questionable science, this drug begins to expand our ability to tap the unused portions of our brain.  Of course, we have seen this type of plot many times before, most recently in Bradley Cooper’s ‘Limitless’.  This time the vision of what we are able to do while utilizing greater brain power takes us into the realm of meta-physics and into a pseudo Matrix like reality.  Lucy uses her enhanced brain power to escape and the race is on to find a way to reverse the effects before the substance kills her through overload.   Lucy seeks out Professor Norman (played by elder statesman Morgan Freeman) as he is the foremost authority on the subject of human potential.  

Another consistent item in Luc Besson films are generic bad guys and Min-sik Joi’s Mr Jang is no exception.  He is the evil crime boss who looks for ways to be even more evil with his generically evil henchman.  He pursues Lucy to retrieve the remaining substance, showing no fear of Lucy’s rising God like powers.  The chase leads to Paris France where Lucy teams up with Professor Norman and enlists the aid of local French detective, Pierre del Rio (Amr Waked).  Lucy’s abilities begin to grow exponentially until the very nature of linear reality comes into question.

I am not short changing Besson’s ability to create a stylish and visually stunning film.  I particularly liked his ‘time-clock’ method of tracking Lucy’s evolving brain capacity.  He also made some interesting flash screen choices using behaviors in the animal kingdom to reinforce points about human actions.  The film is just pleasing to the eyes and the action zips you along just quick enough to keep your mind from finding all the holes in the meta physical plot line.

This film is almost a super-hero film and  almost a sci-fi Matrix style film, but ultimately it is all a Luc Besson film and he does what Besson does best:  stylish, eye candy, action (led by hot chicks).  Despite the glaring holes in the meta-physics of the film, it does get you thinking and that has to be respected in an action film I suppose.

I give this film ** 1/2 stars out of 4

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4114984217?ref_=ttvi_vi_2

Guardians of the Galaxy

       ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy’ has been one of the most hyped and buzzed about Marvel movies in recent memories.  Not so much just for the ‘Avengers’ style team dynamic, but also that this is Marvel’s riskiest endeavor to date.  Since Marvel doesn’t own the film rights to their two flagship comic titles, The Fantastic Four and The X-Men, Marvel has quickly run out of primary characters with a general public awareness. In fact, they are tapping a moderately if not lower successful comic series that only started in its’ current form during the last decade.  Hardly a pedigree upon which to build a franchise.  In addition, ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy’ isn’t a super-hero film per se, it falls more under the Space-Western genre and those have become as rare as actual Westerns in recent years.  To make executives more nervous, Marvel, once again, picked a quirky (some say unknown) Director, James Gunn, known primarily for low-budget genre films.  However this could have turned out, I admire greatly that a big corporate machine like Disney/Marvel took a chance instead of going cookie cutter.  The film is a welcome addition to the Marvel Universe and takes us down a more comedic path than previously angst ridden and dark super-hero films.  Combine that with one of the hippest retro soundtracks ever attached to a movie and Marvel has a blockbuster on their hands…in August (slow movie month) no less.   I will say that this film isn’t as accessible to mass audiences as other super-hero movies which are more Earth based.  Once the prologue ends, it is a non-stop outer space roller coaster ride.  If you are someone who doesn’t like Space Westerns then this might not be for you, but Director James Gunn does a phenomenal job bringing every cliché in the book together and presenting them in a fresh way.  

Chris Pratt takes on the lead role of Peter Quill aka Star-Lord (a lofty name which no one except him seems willing to use).  Chris Pratt is best known for his goofy sit -com role on ‘Parks and Recreation’, but this film launches him into the leading man category.  Pratt channels and combines the roguish, yet comedic qualities of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Indiana Jones and gives us a scoundrel to root for. Quill is charming, handsome, funny, and did I say roguish? Despite his cavalier antics, he can handle himself in a fight and he would be the first one you would want to help you out of a jam.

        After being snatched from Earth as a boy, Peter Quill spends his time as a treasure hunter/salvager.  When he recovers a mysterious orb on one of his adventures, he brings the attention of several baddies he would rather not be noticed by.  The beautiful green skinned assassin Gamora (played stunningly gorgeous by Zoe Saldanna) is sent to retrieve the orb from Quill as he tries to pawn it on the planet of Xandar.  In addition, bounty hunters, most notably a grumpy cyberneticly enhanced raccoon named Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and 7 foot Groot, a walking tree (played tri-syllbalically by Vin Diesel) are trying to catch Quill in order to collect the price on his head.  During all the commotion, they are captured and thrown into a maximum security prison where they find their final member, Drax the Destroyer (played surprisingly able by former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista).  Drax has lost his wife and daughter and his sole mission is revenge on Ronan, the being responsible.

Some may roll their eyes at the thought of a talking raccoon and a walking tree being characters, but the CGI in this is flawless and they become the highlight if not breakout characters of the movie.  The friendship between Rocket and Groot is something that we empathetically feel and even though Groot can only say three words; “I am Groot’, Vin Diesel does a great job instilling emotional context in the performance.  No easy task and a tribute to the CGI team.  The anti-heroes reluctantly team up to break out of prison and once they find out the true plans for the orb by Ronan, a generic omnipotent villain for which Marvel is known, they decide to work together in order to save the galaxy.  Giddyup!

The genius of Marvel is that every character they create, no matter what the genre, exists in the same universe.  Everything is interconnected and if you have been following the films over the last several years, you will see the cross overs and connections.  Glimpses of everything from the Teserac to the Mad Titan Thanos are seen if not explored.  Also, more than any film to date, there are more Easter eggs for the comic geek than all other films combined. Races like the Kree or the Xandarian’s Nova Corps to The Celestials and even the beginnings of the Infinity Gauntlet are all in here for the über nerds like myself.  Just take a look at The Collector’s menagerie during its’ brief screen time and you will see things that will occupy you for hours. However; the further genius of Marvel is that you don’t have to know about these things to still enjoy the film.  The layman can get on this roller coaster and still enjoy the ride, while the fanboys scream the loudest at the hints of things to come. 

As most people know, all these films build on one another.  Up until now, it has all been earth bound.  It will be interesting to see how Marvel integrates this cosmic story line with the more terrestrial Avengers.  They do it all the time in comic books, so why not in film.  There is no dead weight in this film as each of the characters is fleshed out and as we learn about them we come to care about them as individuals.  Despite the bickering, they begin to care for each other as well.  As I stated before, not only is James Gunn not afraid of using clichés he embraces them.  The film makes fun of itself through the use of clichés whether it’s the ‘we-are-all-in’ rousing motivational speech or the cheesy ‘all-is-lost-before-victory’ climax.  The villain Ronan definitely doesn’t give a Loki class performance, but Lee Pace does what he is supposed to do and that is look omnipotent and pissed off.

While I don’t think this is the best film Marvel has put out, it definitely is a fun and worthwhile ride.  A star is born with Chris Pratt.  Zoe Saldanna proves she is stunning as either a blue or green alien and we actually cheer on a talking raccoon.  A tree that can only say three words touches our heart and Drax the Destroyer kicks ass even when he’s getting his kicked as well. Even if you aren’t a comic fan, go see it just for the sheer popcorn fun and visual wonderment.  As always in super-hero films, stay for the post credit scene and you will see that even Marvel has a sense of humor about itself.  If you don’t understand it, ask your favorite comic nerd to explain it.  It’s hilarious.  

I give this film ***1/2 stars to of four

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3390942489/