Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

       Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol delivers exactly what it promises; an old fashioned, edge of your seat, popcorn munching roller-coaster ride.  I’ve said before that not all films have to be intellectual masterpieces.  Sometimes, just a well crafted adrenaline ride is all you need for a good time at the movies.  This is one of those.

Tom Cruise returns as IMF super spy Ethan Hunt.  The opening scene of a government team breaking him out of a Russian prison sets the stage for the introduction of all the characters on the new team and also sets the action tone of the movie.  Simon Pegg’s Benji is brought out of his lab rat role in previous MI films and adds comic relief as a newly minted field agent.  Paula Patton combines seductiveness and toughness as Jane, the film’s eye candy.  Up and comer Jeremy Renner as analyst Brandt (rumors that he may take over the franchise from Cruise) who has a secret past of his own rounds out the team.

The villain of the story is Michael Nyqvist, playing the rogue scientist Hendricks, who is obsessed with blowing up the world through orchestrating a nuclear war.  He feels that only the fittest would survive and make the human race stronger (very 80’s Bond plot).  Hendricks blows up the Kremlin and is able to frame the IMF team in the process.  Eager to avoid a war with Russia, the American government institutes ‘Ghost Protocol’ and disavows the entire team.  So, not only is Ethan and team trying to save the world, but they are on their own while doing it.  

Let’s be honest though, the plot is there to showcase the spectacular stunt scenes...and spectacular they are.  The one they play so over and over in the trailers that you would think you would be numb to it in the film takes place on the world’s tallest building; the Burg Khalifa in Dubai.  Reportedly Tom Cruise insisted on doing the stunts himself and not only that, but his stunt man was too afraid of heights to do it himself.  I’m not sure whether to respect Cruise’s courage or think he should be committed (I still remember the Oprah couch jumping incident).  Regardless, the trailers don’t prepare you for the intense arm rest clenching and vertigo from the scene.  Kudos to the stunt coordinator on this as it is one of the best cliff hanger scenes I’ve ever seen.

Like most of these types of movies, the action takes the IMF team around the globe to exotic locales.  This one doesn’t disappoint.  Paula Patton makes a strong impression while seducing an Indian billionaire in Mumbai (played by Indian Bollywood star Anil Kappor).  In fact, all the characters bring their action A performances.  Simon Pegg struck just the right tone of comic relief, but still indispensable as the laptop tech geek who can walk into any building and take over it’s elevators, cameras, and security systems.

There were many other spectacular stunts that are not getting the attention of the Dubai tower scene.  The scene were Benji leads Brandt through an air ventilation system by making him wear a magnetic suit that he controls from his laptop was unique, but it worked.  The fight scene in a space age parking garage where they battled atop of moving platforms was equally effective and nail biting.  The Director Brad Bird (whose previous credits were all animated films) did a great job and was a risky yet inspired choice to helm the film.  

The film was fun and time well spent.  I won’t rate it as one of the top films of the year, but i will rate it as one of the top films I had fun at this year.  If you go with that mind set then I highly recommend it.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

This is a hard review for me to write as I am a huge Guy Ritchie fan.  I really respect what he tried to do with a unique take on the Sherlock Holmes mythos.  I also have huge amounts of respect for Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law.  All that being said, I can’t say I enjoyed this film.  Maybe it’s just my hang up as the first one was popular enough to produce this sequel.  Still, there is something inherently unsatisfying about this film.  I feel it valued style over substance and action over plot.  There are lots of cool visuals and stunning action sequences, but the story left me less than impressed.

Guy Ritchie made his name on his hard edged style of movie making and I respect that.  I think it was a bold move to adapt the usually stuffy Sherlock Holmes character with a hip and more action adventure take.  All these great ingredients still needed to be brought together in a coherent format, which neither of these films do.

Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law return as the original dynamic duo of crime fighting.  This time around Holme’s most notorious adversary Moriarty (Jarred Harris) is the villain.  Moriarty is Holme’s intellectual equal in every aspect, but even more formidable as he is not encumbered with morality or  conscience.  As Holme’s investigation into the mysterious Moriarty deepens, it leads him around Europe as he uncovers a plan that has world devastating consequences.  Holme’s enlists the aid of his once constant companion Dr Watson, who is newly married with plans of retiring from his life of adventure.  

Watson’s involvement became confusing to me as I never really bought how Holme’s talked the newlywed onto the case and I never understood why Moriarty was fixated with him.  It was an odd plot device that I didn’t feel worked.  Downey’s eccentric interpretation of Holmes, while at times interesting, seemed a little over the top  and went to the excess merely for comedic value.  I liked the interpretation, but moderation would have made it more effective.

It was fun to see pre-WWI Europe which gave a sense of foreboding as Moriarty attempted to orchestrate the start of the war.  We know that no matter what the outcome of the movie, the war will indeed happen, so there is actually suspense in the inevitability of it.

A few interesting supporting characters were introduced, not the least interesting was Holme’s domineering older brother Mycroft Holmes (played by Stephen Fry who looks nothing like Holmes).  You can see that eccentricity runs in the family.  Also introduced was the enigmatic gypsy fortune teller Simza (Noomi Rapace).  Her main contribution was adding a female lead to an almost all male cast.  

There are some positive things to say about this film and I know many who have enjoyed this Guy Ritchie franchise.  For me, the dazzle and edge was not enough to make up for a rather mundane story line rife with cliche plot devices (does anyone still find it that amusing when men dress up as women for a disguise?).  I’ll still go see Guy Ritchie films, but this is not one that I will be repeating

I give this film ** stars

Shame

        Shame is a movie I have mixed feelings about.  It is an indie film that deals with the uncomfortable topic of sexual and pornography addiction, but it is in no way a gratuitous movie.  The film is rich and textured, yet does not so much follow a story or plot.  This is more of a character profile of a modern man in the 21st century.  He lives in a society where instant gratification is available with 24 hour convenience and a click of a button.

Brandon (played by the newest coolest actor on the planet, Michael Fassbender) is a New Yorker who shuns intimacy, but feeds his desires compulsively with pornography and prostitutes.  Brandon doesn’t fit the stereotype of what we would think a sex addict would look like.  He is charming and handsome and makes an above average living as an exec for a generically large corporation.  He is able to make married women swoon with just a glance and his low key cool persona makes him irresistible in the after work bar circuit.  The scene on the subway where Brandon seduces a woman (Lucy Walters playing an unnamed character) is completely without dialogue, yet one of the more powerful seductions I have ever seen on screen.  There is no physical contact between the two, yet you know that mentally, she has totally given herself to this stranger on the train.  Fassbender is able to convey seduction with just a look.

Brandon’s life begins to spin from his control with the arrival of his mentally unbalanced sister, Sissy (aptly named character played by Carey Mulligan) who needs a place to stay.  The film shows that they are both emotionally damaged and are antagonistic towards each other even as they are being supportive.  It’s interesting as we never are allowed to see the source of their emotional baggage.  It’s just there for us to see and make our own conclusions. She threatens the life of solitude that he has set up for himself.

As Brandon’s addiction grows worse, it begins to intrude upon his professional life.  Massive amounts of porn is found on his work computer and Brandon’s married boss begins to take an interest in Sissy.  The secret life intrudes upon his normal life. Brandon makes attempts at normalcy but can’t seem to make it work.  His date with an attractive co-worker (Nicole Beharie) goes astray when their conversation reveals that Brandon doesn’t see the reason for marriage or even relationships.  It seems it is a revelation for Brandon as well.  It is an intriguing conversation and it doesn’t really judge.  Like I stated earlier, it’s just profiles his life.

The director, Steve McQueen (not the actor) is an exciting new British director making a name for himself on the indie circuit.  This is McQueen’s second team up with Fassbender after the film ‘Hunger’.  His vision in ‘Shame’ is much more coherent than ‘Hunger’, but still lacks what I would call a story.  If you’re going to see this film for sexual thrills you will be in for a disappointment (even though it is very graphic).  The tenor of the film is voyeuristic, yet not arousing.  If you are going to see this film for full frontal Fassbender nudity, well that you will get.  No answers are given, no lessons are learned.  Epiphanies seem to happen, but nothing is really changed or resolved.  

I give this film ** 1/2 stars.  I feel I should give it more due to it’s boldness, but I won’t.

Young Adult

       Whatever becomes of the beautiful, self centered, most popular girl in school after high school ends?  The one that everyone hated, yet envied.  The one who casts aside her small town constraints for the bright lights and big city to become the metropolitan everyone knew she was destined to become?  Young Adult, the latest movie by Jason Reitman (who has already eclipsed his more famous director father Ivan, in terms of film making quality), provides a character profile into the disturbingly self-centered world of the high school princess who is past her glory days.

Charlize Therone, one of the most beautiful women in films today (and our favorite South African import), takes on this quintessential American caricature flawlessly.  Charlize plays Mavis Gray, a writer who has achieved some level of success as a writer of a once popular series of Young Adult novels.  Even though she is a ghost writer, her success is enough to ‘wow’ her hometown who view her as a big city success and the height of sophistication.  After Mavis’s divorce, she decides to relive her glory days and returns to her hometown with plans to rekindle romance with her high school boyfriend.  

Charlize could have played Mavis over the top, but this was a very restrained performance of a woman who never grew up past her glory days.  A woman who still feels like the princess she was in high school even though everyone else in her life has moved on with their lives (as mundane as they might be).  The director, Jason Reitman, is able to capture her depression and loneliness along with her feelings of superiority.  She returns to the small town she hates to validate her self worth.  She tries to be understood, but no one can relate (or tries to).  Even her parents think she is just being dramatic when she confides to them that she thinks she is an alcoholic. It was a funny scene, but sad as we realize that her parents are out of touch with her and would rather gloss over uncomfortable issues than deal with them.  She no longer has any human connection that she desperately seeks.

She runs into Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswald), while on a binge at a local bar.  Even though he instantly recognizes her, she cannot recall the nerdy handicapped classmate whose locker was right next to her’s for their four years of high school.  Matt’s character is there for comic relief, but their connection develops into some of the more poignant moments in the movie.  He is the unthreatening nerd who she is able to confide all her secret plans to break up her ex-boyfriend’s marriage.  He is her voice of reason, despite being totally enamored of her.  He lives the pain of the unpopular and abused, yet still retains his innate goodness despite his anger.

Mavis plans to seduce her ex-boyfriend, Buddy Slade (played with boyish charm by Patrick Wilson).  Buddy is a new father and blissfully happy in his role of family man.  He adores his comparatively plain jane wife and lives for his new born daughter.  Mavis cannot believe he is happy in his suburban life and seeks to rescue him from it.  When Buddy tells her he is happily married, she tells him not to worry “It’s something she can help him get past”.  

Again, this film had all the elements that could have made this an over-the-top silly ‘chick flick’.  However; a combination of skillful directing by Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and a smart script by Diablo Cody makes this a memorable if small film (it has an indie vibe to it).  I thought that the ex-stripper Diablo Cody would be a one hit writing wonder after the success of her indie film ‘Juno’.  She strikes again with this incredibly thoughtful and observant film and proves that she does have a voice worth listening to.  Diablo doesn’t lay it out for you.  She doesn’t allow us to make easy judgements or have tidy resolutions.  She has a deep understanding of the feminine psyche and can critique it while at the same time respecting it.  I greatly admire her talent and I will see anything she puts forward in the future.

This is a small, yet very well crafted film with lots of thought and emotion.

I give this film  **** stars

The Descendants

        There are different kinds of actors.  What I consider a true actor is someone that can transform themselves believably into different characters.  They can take on a persona or physical attribute that makes you forget that they are who they are.  Gary Oldman is one of these, as well as Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci.  These are all great actors, but there is something even higher and that is a Movie Star.  Their on screen presence, glamour and force of personality becomes the focus of the performance.  We never forget who they are. Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Katherine Hepburn; these are all Movie Stars. Add George Clooney to the list because he is a Movie Star.  That doesn’t mean he doesn’t give powerful performances, but we are aware that it’s Clooney that we are watching and his image fills box office seats.

The Descendants is a role for a more mature Clooney, still handsome and charming, but a less glamourous and more sophisticated character.  Clooney plays Matt King, a neglectful husband whose wife is in a coma as a result of a boating accident near their home in Waikiki.  Matt isn’t intentionally neglectful, but he has become complacent and distracted with the travails everyone faces in life.  A busy career, care taking of his family’s trust, troubled children who are constantly in trouble, and just the ennui of any family.  The King is a large family who are descendants of some of the original Western settlers of Hawaii.  As a result, they own large amounts of land that makes their net worth staggering, but Matt, the lawyer in the family, has been entrusted with guarding the fortune and leads a comparatively modest life administering the family assets.  he doesn’t believe any of the money should be touched and lives only off of his lawyer salary.

Matt’s marriage is troubled and with the accident that has left his wife in a permanent coma, he is forced to come to grips with his strained relationship with her and his true feelings.  He is also forced to come to a rapprochement with his two young daughters who spent the majority of their time with their mother while he worked.  I usually don’t care for child actors, but Shailene Woodley, as his in rehab/boarding school 17 year old daughter Alexandra, gave a performance that was as powerful and nuanced as Clooney’s.  She could have played it over the top and overly dramatic, but she managed to hit just the right notes of a troubled girl torn between loyalties to her two parents.  I feel in some ways she stole part of the movie from Clooney.  However, Clooney shined brightly in this and conveyed the emotion of someone who loved and hated his wife simultaneously. Their relationship caused him pain, but she was someone he loved and was at the core of a family he cherished (a big stretch for the eternal bachelor Clooney, but he captures it perfectly).

While Matt is facing the problem of the Government forcing him to sell back his land, he is also dealing with discovering his wife’s infidelities.  Despite the strained marriage prior to the accident, Matt becomes obsessed with who his wife was sleeping with.  Alexandra, who was aware of the affair all along, is more determined than even her father to find the man and prods him along when his resolution falters.  

Matt eventually finds the man (who happens to be married and has a family) and confronts him.  Matthew Lillard playing Brian Speer(in the first role I’ve ever seen him in outside of teenager movies), gives a painfully good performance of being confronted by the husband of the woman with whom he was sleeping.  His performance runs the gambit from terrified, to guilty, to defiant, to angry and then back through them all again.  I love to see actors like this evolve from their previous teen drama/comedies to become fully realized actors.  Brian’s innocent (but not naive) wife is played by Judy Greer with an equal level of complex emotions and subtlety.

The movie is heavy and emotional despite the light background of the paradise of Hawaii, but as Matt points out in the beginning of the film, that just because they live in paradise they suffer the trials of life the same as anyone else.  Clooney’s conversation and reconciliation with his comatose wife is some of his most powerful acting to date and I’ll be amazed if it doesn’t earn him an Oscar nomination.  Clooney is at a point where he can pick and choose his film projects and he has a rather good track record in recent years  (Up in the Air).  I like this Clooney much more than I like the slick  ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ Clooney and definitely much more than Jo’s boyfriend Clooney on ‘Facts of Life’.  He is a Movie Star in every sense of the word and delivers powerful, mature, and impactful performances.  

This is just a good film

I give this film **** stars  (more for performances than the actual movie)

Immortals

        Immortals is just one of those movies.  You get exactly what you expect.  It’s like an incredibly giant piece of chocolate cake.  You know it’s not good for you and you know you shouldn’t eat it, but you go ahead and do it anyway.  And just like a rich dessert, you feel slightly queasy afterward.  

Immortals is a Greek epic film that desperately wants to be the movie ‘300’.  It values style over substance and visual over story.  I have to admit that it is an optic feast of style and coolness, but alas it isn’t anything that we haven’t seen before and it wasn’t done anywhere near as well as ‘300’ (the Frank Miller masterpiece).  Whenever you have a film try to copy another film’s success it rarely provides anything satisfying.

The story recounts the quest of the mad King Hyperion (played psychotically by Mickey Rourke [he really has found his acting niche as the creepy tough guy]) to retrieve a magical bow that he will use to release the Titans (it helps to have an understanding of Greek Mythology to understand some of the motivations here).  He seeks to reignite the war between the Titans and the Olympian Gods.  Hyperion will raze every town necessary in order to acquire the bow.  He will even commit sacrilege against the Gods by pillaging one of their temples in order to acquire the virginal Oracle (Freda Pinto with an Indian accent that didn’t seem out of place) who can direct him to the bow. 

Into this tableau, we are introduced to a downtrodden peasant whose mountainside village is fleeing the onslaught of Hyperion’s armies.  Theseus (Henry Cavill [the man who will portray Superman next year]) is a scrappy young mamma’s boy with a spray tan, lot’s of coconut body oil, and apparently lots of time to spend on a Bowflex.  He does not care for the aristocracy in his village and is ultimately cast out after defending his mother’s honor.  It’s is not until he comes across the virginal Oracle (I don’t mean to keep using the word virginal but they did in the movie so I feel compelled to do so here) that he realizes that he has a greater destiny of opposing the evil King Hyperion.  The Oracle’s visions of his future guide his path that will lead to glory or despair.

The plot becomes less coherent and contrived from there.  The movie focuses excessively on the super hero like Greek gods and their epic slow motion battles.  Manly men do manly things as are wont to happen in Greek mythology and of course the Good Theseus finally meets the Evil Hyperion.  

I don’t mean to dwell on ‘300’ while doing a review of another movie, but the envy of that film in this was palpable.  Where ‘300’ was ground breaking, this film just felt recycled.  It’s the same lack of satisfaction you get when you realize you are eating a Hydrox cookie instead of an actual Oreo.  

If you want to go and be mesmerized by style and ambience  (even if a lot is creepy), then go right ahead and enjoy your dessert.  There’s nothing wrong with that; chow down.  But, if you are going expecting a main course then feast elsewhere.  This movie provides no nutritional value.

I give this film * 1/2 stars

Tower Heist

            I always approach movies with an ensemble cast with caution.  Of course there are exceptions, but most major star ensemble casts seem to produce mediocre movies that celebrate stars getting together over story line.  Tower Heist is no exception.  I will confess that I had fun, but it is an easily forgettable movie despite its’ good moments.  If you are looking for just a pleasant diversion then the movie is good enough.

                The movie’s story line fits right into the current ‘Occupy Wall Street’ and Bernie Madhoff news cycles.  It’s about the underpaid working guys getting taken advantage by the rich Wall Street guy.  Pure revenge escapism for the tough economic times we are in.  Ben Stiller plays Josh Kovaks, the affable manager of an exclusive apartment building in downtown Manhattan.  The building runs with the high tech security and precision of a military base, but Josh has an affection for all his quirky employees and richly eccentric tenants.  He even plays online chess with the wealthiest tenant, Arthur Shaw (played with left wing contempt of the character by Alan Alda).  The trouble starts when Arthur Shaw is arrested by the FBI for shady financial dealings and the staff comes to realize that Josh trustingly invested all their pensions in one of Shaw’s portfolios.  Their money is nowhere to be found.  Josh loses his job after aggressively confronting the unrepentant Shaw.

                Josh is positive that Shaw has a stash of hidden money in his apartment that the FBI hasn’t found.  Josh feels that his knowledge of the building makes him the ideal person to break in and find the money and thus return all the money that was lost to his friends.  He recruits others who were fired and even the evicted tenant Mr. Fitzhugh (played with wide eyed timidity by Mathew Broderick) to help him in his plan.  The one thing that is missing is a real criminal, so he finds the only one he knows, who also happens to be a childhood acquaintance, by the name of Slide (Eddie Murphy).  Even after all these years, Eddie Murphy can make me laugh doing the exact same things he has been doing for the last 30 years.  His character provides most of the energy and big laughs throughout the movie.  I wonder how many of his rants were ad-libbed because they seemed so effortless and spontaneous. 

                Arthur Shaw is straight out of the Wall Street Villain cliché handbook and the other characters, while enjoyably quirky, did not provide any surprises to the movie.   Even Tea Leoni, as  the FBI agent  leading the case against Shaw, is played generically and she is only in the movie to provide an unlikely love interest for Josh.  I want to spot light supporting actor Michael Pena who is quickly coming on my radar as a comedic actor to watch.  I first became aware of him in the film ‘Observe and Report’ (hilarious if not weird), but I enjoy everything he is in.  His character, Enrique Dev’Reaux, is understated but a perfect sidekick compliment to Josh.  Gabourey Sidibe as the Jamaican maid proves that she is not a one shot wonder in terms of acting ability.

                I laughed often and sometimes even hard, but the movie is incredibly predictable and there really is no doubt how everything will be resolved.   This is straight Hollywood cookie cutter movie making, but I enjoy my Chips Ahoy like everyone else on occasion.

I give this movie ** ½ Stars