Top 10 - 2015

Because you demanded it.....wait, no you didn't.  Well, here it is anyway.  My favorite movies of 2015!

Movie Review: The Revenant

Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman) strives for the little golden man again with Oscar-nominated The Revenant.

Movie Review: The Hateful Eight

Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) brings us his eighth film.....The Hateful Eight.....see what he did there?

Movie Review: Straight Outta Compton

F. Gary Gray (Friday) gives us the origin of some of the pioneers of gangsta rap with Straight Outta Compton.

Movie Review: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) asks Tom Cruise to do some nearly impossible stunts for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.....and boy does he do them.

Movie Review: Ant-Man

Peyton Reed (Bring It On) shows us that good things can come in small packages with Ant-Man.

Movie Review: Terminator Genisys

Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) brings Ah-nold back to one of his most popular franchises with Terminator Genisys.


In 2029 we see the human resistance, led by John Conner (Jason Clarke, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), fighting against the machines/Skynet.  Skynet has sent back a Terminator to kill Sarah Conner (Emilia Clarke, Dom Hemingway), so John sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney, Divergent) back to 1984 to save his mother.  We now get scenes recreated from The Terminator only instead of Reese finding a defenseless Sarah, she comes crashing the gate to save him.  Someone had sent another Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hercules in New York) back to when Sarah was 9, to protect and train her.  Who knows who did it.  Just go with it.  Also, just as Reese was going back he saw John Conner get attacked and timelines got all skewed and now instead of stopping Skynet in 1997 they have to stop Genisys in 2017 and Arnold-nator is old and old Arnold fights young Arnold and........time travel.  Who can keep track.


Let's just get this out of the way.  Are there issues with the plot?  Yes.  But this is a time travel movie.  The original had the plot line of a man sending someone back in time to save his mother, who ended up falling in love with the mother and getting her pregnant with the son who sent him back in the first place.  If you can tell me how that makes any goddamn sense then you can bitch about time travel plot holes in this one.  Disclaimer: I'm not knocking the original....I am in the majority of people who think it is a fantastic film.  Let's get to the bigger problems.  The acting by two of the leads isn't great.  Jai's acting just doesn't do anything for me and Emilia was serviceable, but didn't bring anything stellar to the role of Sarah (and for being trained by a Terminator for so long, she didn't seem near as intimidating as Linda Hamilton in T2).  I didn't have a problem with the filmmakers recreating scenes from the first film just to alter them slightly.  The problem came from the actors just not filling the roles as well as the originals.  The other problem is that T1 and T2 are so great and iconic, that it lends a little credence to the haters complaint that it doesn't live up to the originals.  This is especially drawn to the forefront by the fact that they are recreating scenes.


All that being said, does this movie deserve the vitriol it's gotten lately?  No.  Of course it's not going to live up to the first two movies.  That is a near impossible task.  Was this sequel necessary?  No, but that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy it on some level.  If they are going to make an unnecessary sequel, at least they took it in a new and interesting direction.  It didn't bother me that they altered the history of the first movies....again, it's time travel.  That was the best thing they could have done.  However, besides the recreated scenes, I could have done with a few less nods to the other films.  One or two are great, but this film falls into the same trap as other movies of it's ilk.  There are so many winks and nods to the original that it draws your attention away from itself.  Despite that, this film moved along at a brisk pace.  I never got bored and there were plenty of fun action sequences along the way.  There was a problem with the big twist being spoiled in the trailer though.  That trend has got to stop.


One of the best things about the film was Arnold himself.  It was great seeing him back in the role.  I've been a fan of his forever and despite a few really bad post-governor movies like Sabotage, he's also been quite fun to watch in a few of his resurgence films lately, like The Last Stand and Escape Plan.  Genisys goes in the latter category.  They shoehorned in an excuse for how a robot can look older, but it worked for me simply because this movie wouldn't have worked at all without bringing him back.  I thought he was in top form with his one liners and action sequences.  Also, I would be remiss not to mention that there is a fun little performance by JK Simmons in this film as well.


This film is hard to review because it is an unnecessary sequel, but I also don't think it deserves the hate it's gotten.  It brought Arnold back into the role successfully and it took the story in a new direction to potentially distance the inevitable sequels from the great T1 and T2.  (Side note: never really mentioned 3 and 4 in this review because 3 wasn't good at all and I never saw 4.  Genisys seemed to forget those two movies existed as well).  I'd choose the first two movies over this one any day, but that does not mean that this film was devoid of any merit itself.  It's a solid rental that I think is worthy of calling itself a Terminator film.


Rating: ******---- (6 out of 10) [rental]


Memorable Quote:
O'Brien: Goddamn time-travelling robots!

Movie Review: Jurassic World

Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) revisits the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar (and even creates a new one) in Jurassic World.


Right away this movie does something a little different than the other three.  For three movies with the word park in the title, there sure were not many visitors.  Ironically, we change the title to Jurassic World, and the park finally opens.  Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard, The Help) is the operations manager of the park, and her two nephews Zach (Nick Robinson, The Kings of Summer) and Gray (Ty Simpkins, Insidious: Chapter 2) come to visit her and see the park.  She of course is the typical busy aunt who sends the kids off with an assistant.  Meanwhile in another part of the park, Owen (Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy) is off playing Beastmaster with four raptors.  He's developed a kind of bond with them.  Security guy, Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio, The Cell) sees this and decides raptors would make a good military weapon.  It seems the park has been open for some time, because they are already trying to find bigger and better exhibits for the visitors.  So, they concocted their own brand of dinosaur and called it the Indominus Rex.  He inevitably escapes.....because, duh!  The kids meanwhile had run away from the assistant and are out on their own when the rides and attractions get shut down.  Owen rounds up his merry band of raptor warriors and goes with Claire to save the kids.  Hoskins tries to get Dr. Wu (BD Wong, Jurassic Park) and his DNA samples off the island so he can build his army.  There's an awesome dinosaur fight, and Jake Johnson shows up occasionally throughout the movie to be funny, and there's death and destruction and people being eaten, and I'm assuming nobody will still learn a lesson from all of this and there will be another movie.....because dinosaurs!!


This movie had some hurdles to jump.  It was coming off of two not-so-great sequels before it.  I felt like it completely ignored the fact those even existed, but it gave many references and nods to the original masterpiece of Jurassic Park.  It already had the sequels beat just in the story alone.  I like that it changed it up and actually had a park that was up and running.  This brought back some of the fun and wonder of the first film.  There were kids riding baby dinosaurs, a crowd of people watching a giant Mosasaurus jump out of the water and splash them like Shamu, and a cool gyrosphere vehicle that allowed people to get up close to the big guys.  Did it get into familiar territory after that?  Yeah.  How can it not?  The only way to go with these movies is to have dinosaurs escape and eat people.  I felt like this one at least had a few new ideas.  Training raptors seems silly, but made for the interesting turn of having those little fellows fight with the humans.  The Indominus Rex was an unstoppable killing machine, so Howard's idea at the end for stopping him was quite fun.  There was a lot that you had to suspend your disbelief, but really, you're watching a movie about dinosaurs and humans living together....disbelief already suspended.


I will say the characters were pretty clichéd and tired, but the actors did well with what they were given.  Howard did fine as the aloof aunt.  The kids were a little overbearing at first, but it got better as the film went along.  Chris Pratt is awesome.


There are things that either don't make sense, or are just convenient.  Somehow the oldest kid knows how to fix up a jeep that's been stored for the last 22 years.  The new Rex has been spliced with other animals that make it convenient for certain scenes.  The things that didn't work were small enough that they didn't bother me.  What did work, really worked.  The effects were great.  The tension was there in all the right places.  The dinosaur fight at the end was just plain cool.  There were a lot of great little nods to the original movie as well.


Did this movie have problems? Yeah, a few.  Did it deliver on the fun factor though?  Yes.  There was just enough humor put in to keep it from getting too dark (although the Jimmy Fallon bit fell flat for me).  It was paced well with a lot of dinosaur action.  As clichéd as the characters were, they were acted well.  Will any Jurassic movie top Spielberg's masterpiece Jurassic Park?  No way.  But, here we have something that at least captured a little of the same spirit of that great film.  If you're a fan of the first film, then I really think you might find something to like here.


Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10) [matinee]


Memorable Quote:
Barry: These guys.  They never learn.

Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller (Mad Max) revs up for maximum car-nage in his franchise reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road.


Tom Hardy (Warrior) takes over the lead role (made famous by Mel Gibson way back in 1979) of Max Rockatansky.  Max is a drifter in a post-apocalyptic wasteland who gets taken by a band of cultish loonies led by resident psychopath Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays, Mad Max).  Joe controls the local population by controlling the limited water supply.  Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron, Devil's Advocate) is sick of his reign, so she steals his five breeding slaves wives to try to find a better place for all of them.  Max gets caught up in the ordeal and helps them out.  Armies of crazy cars and psychopaths are after them.  They find another unlikely companion in one of those crazies, Nux (Nicholas Hoult, X-Men: Days of Future Past).  Mayhem ensues....yada yada yada.


Let's be real, the plot doesn't matter in this film.  Hell, even Max himself is not super important to the overall story.  This should have been subtitled Furiosa Road.  It is just as much Theron's movie as it is Hardy's.  But I digress.  What does matter is everything else.  I have to preface by saying that on a re-watch of the original Mad Max Trilogy, I found them to be not that great.  There were long stretches of boring in them, broken up by some fun action.  It has been 30 years since Thunderdome, and in that time George Miller must have really been thinking about what parts of those movies did and did not work.  I have to say, if you are going to reboot a franchise, then this is how you do it.  What did work in the old films was the crazy characters and the world he created, and of course the action.  In Fury Road, he rebuilt that world, and when the insanity started from scene one, it didn't let up for the next two hours.


Most post-apocalyptic films are portrayed in bleak, drab colors.  Miller does something different here.  It is set in a desert wasteland, but it is bold, colorful, and beautiful to look at.  There are bright, fiery explosions over and over.  The vehicles are imaginative conglomerations of multiple vehicles welded together.  The characters are crazy.  You've got the cultish, suicidal followers of Joe who think that if they die for him they will be let into Valhalla.  Nux is one of these followers who becomes a main player.  Hoult does a wonderful job in this role giving just a dash of needed comedy relief without it becoming too much.  We're also given a kick-ass leading lady in the form of Furiosa who is missing her left arm and has a mechanical one in it's place.  Ironically, the only character I had any sort of problem with was Max himself.  I thought the character and his choices and reactions were all written and performed well.  It was just his voice.  Max has very few spoken lines of dialogue and what he does have is spoken in almost a caveman grunt by Hardy.  This was not a deal-breaker though.  I'm a fan of Hardy and thought everything else he did with the character was great and can't wait to see more in the sequels (of which he has apparently signed on for three more).  And I'd be remiss to not mention the man strapped to the front of a vehicle made almost entirely of speakers, playing a guitar that shoots flames....just because.  That's the type of movie this is.


What you really come to see though, is the action itself.  Go re-watch one of the trailers.  All of that car chasing and explosions?  Stretch that out for two hours and you have this movie.  And yes, this is a good thing.  The majority of the stunts and effects were done practically instead of CGI, which just makes it that much better.  If you want suicidal maniacs, car chases, and lots of explosive action, just go watch this.  You will not be disappointed.  If you don't like that stuff, first off, what's wrong with you?  Second, this is not for you.  This is a popcorn flick if ever there was one.


This film is a great example of how a reboot can be a good thing if handled right.  Miller took his own mediocre franchise and re-imagined it into something that grabs a hold of you and doesn't let go until the credits.  If you're ready for a blockbuster with a lot of action to keep your pulse racing and not a lot of plot to bog you down, then check this one out.  This also has to be seen on the big screen.  This film relies heavily on visuals that will just not have the same effect on your screen at home.


Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10) [matinee]


Memorable Quote:
Nux: Oh, what a day.  What a lovely day.

Movie Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Joss Whedon (Serenity) assembles the team one more time for Avengers: Age of Ultron.


It's been an indeterminate amount of time since the previous film, and the Avengers have been raiding one Hydra base after another looking for Strucker and the staff from the first film.  This film starts off on their final raid, where they find the staff and take it back.  They also run into a couple of twins that Strucker has been experimenting on, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen, Godzilla) and Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kick-Ass) Maximoff.  "He's fast, she's weird".  (Telekinesis weird)  Before Thor takes the staff back to Asgard, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner tinker around with it and find it has an artificial intelligence in it.  Stark has come up with a program called Ultron (without telling anyone else of course) that he was building as an ultimate guardian of Earth.  He sees this AI as a way to complete this project and downloads it.  Of course this all goes wrong and Ultron builds himself a robot body out of Stark's spare parts and decides that the best way to save Earth is by eradicating everyone and letting them start over.  Enter Noah....wait, wrong movie.  Enter the rest of the Avengers to help Iron Man stop the maniac that he created....along with the thousands of robots in Ultron's army.


This film is full of action and humor, just what you want to start kicking off the summer blockbuster season.  One advantage this film has over the previous is that it doesn't have to spend the first half hour introducing the characters to each other.  The opening battle shows that they have been doing this for a while now and are quite comfortable with fighting side by side.  This actually leads to some very fun combo moves between some of the characters.  It's apparent that Stark has slightly modified all of their "uniforms".  The only one that is distracting is Black Widow's tron suit.  I didn't really understand what blue neon lights down the side of her suit did for her.  This camaraderie made for all of the fights to be kind of cool, and there are a LOT of fights in the two and a half hour runtime.  One problem is that there is in-fighting again.  I'd like to see an Avengers movie where they were not fighting each other.  Granted some of it was mind control (which was used in the first film as well), and internal conflict in the team did lead to the Hulk-Buster being pulled out, but some of it was that Cap and Iron Man still don't see eye to eye and it was Iron Man's arrogance that caused the main conflict of the film.  We will of course see this butting of heads continue in the next Captain America, which follows the Civil War storyline.


Ironically, as well as this team works together in the field, and as long as they've been doing this, they don't know bubkis about each other.  We, as viewers, get to see watch their backgrounds come to the foreground.  This is good.  In doing this we also get a lot more focus on Hawkeye.  He doesn't have any superpowers, but we finally get the sense that he is the more grounded and "human" member of the group that holds them together.


This film, like most of the other Marvel films, is trying to expand the world building.  This is good and bad.  In the case of Cap and Iron Man, their conflict leads to the next Cap movie, but it stems from the problem that is the focus of this film, so it doesn't hinder as much.  The problem comes in with the Marvel crew trying to expand the Avengers for the future.  This leads to new characters being introduced and side characters from previous films coming in, all on top of the six core characters we already have.  It's exciting to see all of these superheroes joining the fray, but there are times when it gets to be a bit too much.  Luckily we have Joss Whedon at the helm, who keeps the issues to a minimum and manages to keep it fairly well-balanced throughout.  A lesser director, and we would have had quite the jumbled mess with this gigantic cast.


By now, the majority of this gigantic cast has grown quite comfortable in their respective roles.  This, along with that good old Joss Whedon witty writing keeps the dialogue snappy throughout the whole film.  There are one-liners zinging around all over the place.  I've seen some criticism that it's too much and too forced.  The writing kept me laughing and having a good time through the whole film, so I'm not sure how that's a bad thing.  I will say that even Ultron ended up being funnier than I thought, and that came close to making him less menacing, but I've forgiven it simply because he actually had some of the best lines, and that James Spader voice can keep things menacing even when he's making a joke.  Just like the first Avengers film, this one will require a second viewing to catch all the lines you missed because of the laughter.  Despite how bloated the cast got for this film, everyone did a great job.  The only distracting thing might be the Maximoff twins' accents.  It was like watching Boris and Natasha.  It got a little thick sometimes.  Other than that, they did a fine job too.  One of the other standouts was Paul Bettany.  He plays JARVIS once again, but his character goes further.  Most people know where it goes, but I'll avoid spoilers for those who miraculously avoided that reveal.


One last thing of note was the use Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff).  Of course this same character was used in X-Men: Days of Future Past last year, and ended up having one of the best scenes in any movie of the entire year.  I was quite intrigued to see how they used the character after such an amazing sequence in the X-Men film.  Did this new Pietro have any scene that was as cool as the other one?  No.  Did this make him a lesser version?  No.  I thought he was well used in this film.  The problem with X-Men, is that he had that cool scene and then was tossed to the side and forgotten about.  Whedon and company gave him more to do and a little more character development.  The sum of the parts add up, and they were used differently enough that you can appreciate both versions.


So, there were a couple minor flaws (including an unnecessary and distracting budding romance storyline), but don't let them deter you from seeing this.  They are minor.  This film has what you want in a summer movie.  The action scenes are great, and the dialogue is quick-paced and witty.  Also, even at 2 1/2 hours, I felt it moved even quicker than the previous Avengers film.  Go see this soon, with a big crowd.  Grab the popcorn and enjoy.


Rating: *********- (9 out of 10) [Full price!]


Memorable Quote:
Captain America: Language!

Movie Review: Ex Machina

Alex Garland (writer, Sunshine) blurs the line between humans and machines in his directorial debut, Ex Machina.


Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson, About Time) is a programmer working at Bluebook, the world's leading search engine.  Through an office lottery, he wins the chance to go meet and stay with the CEO of the company, Nathan (Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis), for a week in his secluded mountain home.  While there he learns that Nathan has other plans than just a meet and greet.  After having Caleb sign a very extensive NDA, he tells him the real reason he brought someone in.  He has created the world's first AI robot, named Ava (Alicia Vikander, Seventh Son) and needed someone to perform a Turing test on it.  In a typical Turing test, Caleb would not be aware if responses were coming from the computer or a human.  The twist is, that Nathan has decided to have Caleb talk directly to the android.  If he still forms a bond with her as if she were human, then that would be a true success.


AI is, by far, not a new concept in the world of film.  Steven Spielberg himself made a movie with that very name, A.I. Artificial Intelligence.  Somehow Ex Machina still stands out above the crowd.  It's a simple story, but it is written so well (by the director himself) that it keeps you guessing to the very end.  The story is smart and is constantly throwing twists in without feeling forced or out of control.  The characters are so well written that it is hard knowing who is testing who.


Carrying the weight of this script is our three leads.  After the opening scenes there are only four actors for the majority of the rest of the film and the three leads comfortably carry this film.  Nathan is a billionaire recluse and Isaac plays him very unpredictably.  You can feel how the loneliness and isolation may be getting to him.  He is friendly and inviting to Caleb, but almost in an aggressive way.  He drinks heavily every night and seems to be right on the edge of becoming a complete sociopath at any moment.  You don't know the entire time if he's going to stay on that thin line or fall off the edge.  He does have a bizarre dance scene that may go down as one of the best movie scenes of 2015.  It's over the top, but is worked in so smoothly that it doesn't seem out of place and actually brings a much needed laugh to the tension in the air.  Domhnall also plays Caleb quite perfectly.  He is a programmer with a very analytical mind.  At first this seems like a detriment because he questions everything and can't relax and get comfortable with his situation.  Later, when things start to get strange, he shows he is quite clever, but you wonder if he is clever enough.  The final piece of the puzzle is Vikander playing Ava.  She plays her with just the right balance.  Is she self-aware?  Is she being programmed and manipulated by Nathan?  The complexity of each character keeps you guessing until the very end.


Most of this film is set in a single, claustrophobic location.  Within this house I feel there are certain set pieces that are very deliberate and symbolic, but I'll have to leave it at that to not provide any semblance of a spoiler.  This enclosed space is broken up occasionally when Nathan and Caleb step outside of the house to give the characters and the audience a breath of fresh air with amazing cinematography of a stunning landscape in the mountains.  The movie is a slow burn because, at the core, as stated above, it is essentially a man performing a Turing test.  However the mounting tension keeps it from feeling slow.  That tension is amplified by a wonderful score.  There are just a couple of times where the score gets a little too loud and obvious.


Alex Garland has written and directed something so well-crafted that it takes a simple concept that has been used a million times before (what makes us human?) and makes it feel completely fresh and new.  I look forward to not only his next project, but also a re-watch of this film.  Domhnall and Oscar have also been having a good run of films right now, and this just solidifies that they deserve it.  They will both be seen together again in The Force Awakens.  Could they potentially be in two of my favorite movies of the year?  We'll find out in December.  Until then, do yourself a favor and check out Ex Machina.


Rating: *********- (9 out of 10) [Full price!]


Memorable Quote:
Nathan: There you go again, Mr. Quotable.

Movie Review: The Age of Adaline

Lee Toland Krieger (Celeste & Jesse Forever) gives us the best looking 107 year old you'll ever see with The Age of Adaline.

Adaline (Blake Lively, The Town) was born in 1908.  When she turned 29 she had a car accident, and by all the right elements aligning themselves (as described to us by a droning narrator....more on that later), lightning strikes the car as she lay freezing in the water and voila.....no more aging.  Science!  To keep this a secret (from the government) she moves every couple decades and doesn't get close with anybody.  This of course means that she stays away from the boys too, because she wants to avoid long term relationships.  It's a rough life being young and beautiful forever.  Then, she meets the boy whose wily charms break through her icy façade.  I'm sure you can figure out the rest.

The biggest downfall of this film is that they took some interesting ideas about not aging and how that could affect one's life and glossed over a lot of the interesting aspects of it and turned it into your basic romantic drama.  There was one thing that they did not gloss over, however, and that is her relationship with her daughter.  Most of the film takes place in 2015, when her daughter (Ellen Burstyn, Draft Day) is getting up there in age.  Some of the best scenes in the film are when Lively and Burstyn are interacting.  The other stuff that seems to get glossed over is done so by flashbacks and a series of scenes that are narrated by Hugh Ross (For Love of the Game).  The narration is just salt in the wound because it's very bland and matter of fact, like he's narrating some nature documentary on PBS.  Luckily we only get the narration for a little bit on both ends of the film.

The other thing that bothered me a little were the coincidences.  I get that the stars have to align just right to make this one person the only one in all the world to not age anymore.  I can buy that to give us the plot point that drives the story.  It's everything after that where it gets to be a bit much.  One such incidence involves who finally helps convince her to let someone into her life.  It could have been someone more random to make her new relationship feel a little less awkward.  There's no way this relationship lasts after this reveal.  That's as far as I'll go with that so as not to spoil.  They might have been trying to say something about things coming full circle or some crap like that, but for me, the sheer magnitude of coincidences just didn't work.

What does work well for the film is the bit in the middle.  Like I said before, this is essentially just a romantic drama at heart, and in that aspect it's pretty well done.  Unexplored themes aside, having the aging problem is what gives the old romantic formula just enough twist to keep it different.  Aside from the twist, it is also the acting that gives it boost.  Lively does a fantastic job at playing the conflicted Adaline who wants to be with someone, but can't get herself to come out of her shell.  The love interest, Ellis (Michiel Huisman, World War Z) does a fine job too.  Harrison Ford did not have quite as big a role, but he actually came out to play for this one.  I feel like he's just been going through the motions lately, but he looked like he actually gave a damn in this film.  This gives me hope for that next little project he's doing in December.....something about a force and some war in the stars.  But I digress.

All in all, if you're looking for some heavy commentary on how not aging would affect someone's life in our society, you'll get a little, but it will seem lacking.  If you are looking for a decent romantic film with good acting and a dash of sci-fi, then this might be for you.  A few flaws and some unexplored themes aside, this is a charming little film that is good for a date night with your significant other.

Rating: ******---- (6 out of 10) [rental]

Memorable Quote:

Adaline: If you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Movie Review: It Follows

David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover) brings us a deadly new STD with It Follows.

This is the film you show your kids if you want to deter them from having sex.  Everyone who watches horror movies know the old clichés about who's going to get killed off first in the films.  They were popularized in Wes Craven's Scream.  Don't do drugs, don't say "I'll be right back", don't assume the killer is dead, etc.  Well, the killer in this film has a laser focus on just one of the rules....don't have sex.  Jay (Maika Monroe, The Guest) has found herself in a new relationship with a boy named Hugh (Jake Weary, Zombeavers).  After a couple of dates they have sex in the back of his car, like ya do.  Only he finishes the date by knocking her out with chloroform and tying her to a chair.  She wakes up and he explains to her that he has passed something on to her through sex.  "It" will follow her relentlessly until either it kills her, or she passes it on by having sex with someone else.  "It" can take the shape of any person, but it will always be slow and always be walking directly towards her.  She will also be the only one who can see it.  The boy then skips out on her, and it turns out he was using a false name.  Jay, with the help of her friends, tries to track down the guy while also trying to escape the thing following her.

If you are looking for gore and jump scares, you've come to the wrong place.  If you are looking for a well shot, well executed film with a mounting sense of dread and tension, then this is the film for you.  There have been many films trying to give the feel of the old horror films of the 80's lately with varying degrees of success.  This is one of the more successful.  It has a weird aesthetic, in that it is set in modern day (use of a cell phone, and one character has some weird e-reader shaped like a seashell or something), but it completely feels like it could have easily been shot in the late 70's/early 80's.  I mean this in the best possible way.  It feels natural, rather than cheesy and forced.

There is one film in particular that you can see that it borrows heavily from, and that is John Carpenter's Halloween.  The killer moves slowly and yet it seems that the lead can't ever get far enough away.  Like Carpenter, Mitchell uses the space in all of his shots effectively.  He'll have wide shots panning across a crowd of people, or even an empty space, and you're constantly waiting and searching to see if the killer is there somewhere.  There is an establishing opening scene in the film that gives you a sense of just how dangerous "It" is if it gets a hold of it's victim, and that's what makes this work even when there is not much more death to be found in the film.  The other thing that makes it all work that also seems to be influenced by Halloween and countless other early slasher films is the heavy synthesizer soundtrack.  Come for the movie, stay for the score.  Being synth heavy is dated enough that it could have fallen flat on it's face, but it fit in with the aesthetic of this film so well that it just engulfs you and adds to the sense of tension.  It Follows does borrow a lot from Halloween and others, but it does so without feeling like a rip-off.  Mitchell took these influences and injected them into a film with an original and intriguing premise.

The film is not completely without it's faults though.  I thought the actors all did a competent job, but there were no standouts or anyone real memorable. Some of the dialogue was a little hokey, too.  Maybe this is something Mitchell also borrowed from earlier films, but it's something that could have been left in the 70's/80's.  Also, as well as he used the space in his shots there was still work to be done in that department.  Some of his panning shots were a little quick and also went in a complete 360 which I found unnecessary.

It's hard to say if this film is giving any sort of commentary on sex and the dangers of STDs (yeah, "It" follows you if you've had unprotected sex, but you know how you get rid of it.....more unprotected sex).  Whatever the case may be, it's a great little throwback to the horror films of yesteryear with a modern sense to it and an original idea. A solid second feature that has me intrigued to see what Mitchell does next.  Also, crank it up for the score.  Just don't take a date to this film and expect to get lucky any time soon.

Rating: *******--- (7 out of 10) [second run theater]

Memorable quote:

Hugh: Do you guys see that girl?

Movie Review: Furious 7

James Wan (The Conjuring) takes the wheel for the latest in the Fast & Furious series, Furious 7.

Brian, Dom, Letty, and the rest of the crew are back.  After taking care of Owen Shaw in Fast & Furious 6, the crew is trying to settle down and keep it low key for a while.  Well, little did anyone know, Owen had an older brother who is quite protective of him and wants revenge.  Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham, The Transporter) is furious (see what I did there) about what happened to his little brother and decides to take out revenge by trying to kill off our beloved band of misfits one by one.  This revenge plot seems to be where the film is leading, until we take a sharp left turn into crazy town.  Deckard is ex-military and has pretty much become a ghost, so the crew doesn't know where he is or when he'll strike.  They're pretty defenseless.  Enter another ghost, who's actually currently in the military.  Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell, The Thing), is a government agent who is trying to rescue a kidnapped hacker named Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel).  She's created a program called God's Eye which can hack into any and all electronic devices in the world with a camera or microphone.  Perfect for locating the ever elusive Deckard.  Because for some reason the military is not capable of doing this themselves (?), Mr. Nobody seeks out the aid of the F& F crew to help retrieve Ramsey and her program.  In return, he will let them use the God's Eye to find Deckard.  This leads to traveling the world, dropping cars from planes, crashing through the air between skyscrapers, and finally an all out war between the crew, the kidnapper (Djimon Hounsou, Guardians of the Galaxy), and Deckard that pretty much levels half of LA.

If you've seen the rest of the Fast & Furious series, I'm going to guess you've already decided whether you're going to see this or not regardless of this review.  If you haven't seen the rest of the series, I recommend it for some good adrenaline pumping fun.  There's a couple misfires in there, but for the most part it's a good time that just progressively gets better.  When the series started, it could get a little ridiculous, but still managed to stay low key.  By the time six rolled around, they were driving a tank down the interstate and holding a cargo plane down with a group of sports cars.  If you're more inclined towards the craziness of the last two films, then this one will not disappoint.  It takes all the crazy from 5 and 6 and throws in a couple kitchen sinks.

Furious 7 almost goes too far with the insanity.....almost.  It ends up giving just the right amount.  Does most of it seem completely implausible? Hell yes.  Do you enjoy every last second of the action anyway?  Hell yes.  The God's Eye storyline is a bit much, but you just have to accept it because it is the catalyst for all the crazy stunts they do with the cars.  This is James Wan's first crack at this series (and only his second non-horror feature), and I think he does a fine job with it.  There are a few lengthy fight scenes because Jason Statham and Ronda Rousey are in it.  They all seemed fairly well filmed and choreographed.  Also, tension is a big part of both action and horror, but in different ways.  Wan has now proven he can do both.  Most of the stunts are utterly ridiculous, but Wan does so well with developing tension that I found myself forgetting that and sitting on the edge my seat wondering if they were gonna make it.  This was the longest movie in the franchise and yet there were very few gaps in the action, so it felt like the quickest.

The actors in this film are a big part of what makes it work as well.  There is definitely some talent in there, but I wouldn't go out and say they are all great actors.  What they do have though is genuine chemistry.  Most of them have been doing this since the first couple of films, and it shows.  Even when the dialogue is hokey, they all seem to genuinely be having a good time just hanging out with each other, and that makes it work.  As for the newcomers, I didn't think Ramsey brought much to the table.  She felt like a third wheel since she was a hacker and they already have Tej for that role.  Jason Statham was a lot of fun as a kick-ass bad guy.  The best newcomer would be Mr. Nobody though.  He and Dom played off of each other well.  I'd really like to see him return in any future installments (which you know there will be), since, sadly, Paul Walker is no longer with us.  As for Walker, he was never bad, but he was also never the greatest actor in the world.  What he did have though, was charisma and just a naturally likeable personality that came through in his performances.  He'll be missed, and I think he left us on a high note with his performance in this film.  Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that they also give him a touching send-off at the end of the film that just felt perfect.

The story and the stunts are both absurd, but you just can't help enjoying yourself at this movie.  Between this and Kingsman: The Secret Service, the popcorn-poppin' action flicks have been a whole lot of fun so far this year.  I'm ready for the summer blockbusters.

Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10) [matinee]

Memorable Quote:

Dom: This time it ain't just about being fast.

Movie Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service

Matthew Vaughn's (Kick-Ass) vision of the world of Kingsman: The Secret Service will make your head explode.

The Kingsman are a group of international spies that are so top secret that none of the world governments even know who they are.  One of the members dies on a mission and Harry Hart/Galahad (Colin Firth, The King's Speech) feels guilty because it could have been prevented, so he presents a medal to the man's wife and small child.  He tells them, if they ever need help, to call the number on the back and give a certain coded message.  17 years later, the child is grown up.  Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton) calls in that favor of a long time ago, when he is picked up by the cops for stealing a vehicle.  He's a very intelligent, talented kid who just had a troubled childhood.  Hart knows this about him and by chance another Kingsman had just died on a mission to find a kidnapped professor (a nice cameo by Mark Hamill).  When he goes to bail Eggsy out, he also tells him about the open position.  When a Kingsman dies, the rest of them bring in a suitable candidate for replacement.  These candidates all go through rigorous training with only one victor claiming the vacancy.  Eggsy decides to go through the training.  While all this is going on a billionaire named Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) is giving the world SIM cards for their phones that would give everyone free internet access forever.  Of course, he's the villain, so there's a catch.  The training ensues, the villain's plans escalate, and it all ends in a glorious cacophony of violence.

This film is a bloody good time.  I mean that literally.  The violence in this film is not for the faint of heart.  It's a great send-up to the old spy movies, Bond in particular.  It does poke fun at them, but I feel it does it in a loving way, also paying homage to them at the same time.  If you like gadgets in your spy movie, it's got plenty.  Action, of course.  Humor, tons.  This film finds that fine line where it somehow manages to go over the top without actually crossing over into campy.  It knows it's ridiculous and embraces it.  Samuel L. Jackson plays a supervillain with a lisp, who projectile vomits at the sight of blood.  His lead henchman is a woman who bounds around on fake legs slicing people up with the swords sheathed in them.  On paper, that is absolutely absurd (let's be honest, it's absolutely absurd on film too), but you go with it.  It's bizarre, but in this over-the-top world, it somehow doesn't seem out of place.  Much of the humor plays the meta card by being jokes about what would happen in a typical spy movie.  Most of it was written cleverly enough to keep me chuckling throughout the film.

And it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, or a head, or gets impaled, or dies in one of any other multitude of ways you can think of.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, this movie drops the humor and goes balls to the wall with the violence.  I'm not sure what the death toll is, but it's fairly high, and you get to see most of them.  Like the humor, the violence is over-the-top, and you just go with it.  Most of it is pretty well choreographed and filmed.

The characters are great too.  Colin Firth plays the straight man to Jackson's crazy villain.  He gives us his best James Bond impression, and does it well.  He brings just enough seriousness to give that balance I mentioned earlier.  Because whenever Jackson is on screen, he just chews up the scenery.  Jackson pretty much gets most of the lines in the film that you'll remember later and laugh about.  Taron Egerton is fairly new to the game and he is given what is probably the most complex character in the film.  We watch him progress over the 2 hours from punk kid to spy material.  Egerton handles this progression quite well.  It will be interesting to see what this actor does in the future.  In turn we also get strong performances from the supporting cast including Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, and another newcomer Sophie Cookson (who does well as another of the potential recruits).

This film is a wild ride that will have you laughing, cringing, and just plain having a good time.  It's a well balanced film that's both serious and self-aware.  It is the first good action flick of 2015, and sets a good bar for it's followers to try to achieve for the year.  Sit back, grab a popcorn, and just enjoy the show.

Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10) [matinee]

Memorable Quote:

Valentine: Is he dead?

Movie Review: Project Almanac

Dean Israelite brings us his feature debut with Project Almanac.

David (Jonny Weston, John Dies at the End) is a senior, and super-smart inventor, who just got admitted to MIT.  He can't afford the tuition, so he and his friends start looking for something he can use to secure another scholarship.  While digging through his father's things, who died when he was a kid, he stumbles across plans for a time machine that his dad was developing for the military.  He, along with his two nerdy best friends and his sister, begin working to finish the project.  Of course there needs to be a love interest, so the only way he can give the machine enough power is with a battery from a hybrid car.  His long-time crush just happens to have one, and is going to a party in his neighborhood.  So, she gets drawn into the group as well.  They complete the time machine and start going back to redo little things from their past to make things better.  They make a pact to always travel together, but you know that's not going to happen.  Things eventually go awry and they all learn a little lesson about life.

I have to put this out there right away.  Please stop with the found footage!  This movie actually works on some levels.  Is it great?  No.  Are there other flaws?  Yes.  But, I have to say, the biggest detriment is the found footage.  This is even one of the few films that finds a legitimate reasoning behind it.  It's still a stretch, but it works okay.  The problem is that it would have worked a lot better as a straight narrative film.  Found footage was more of just a gimmick.  Why use it?  You already have the gimmick of time travel.  Time travel sells, focus on that.  The biggest problem with found footage, with this film included, is that there is always inconsistencies with static shots magically changing focus and zoom, and also times when someone is filming something that no human would ever film.  Just stop it already.

Now, off my soap box and on to other matters at hand.  The main catch of the movie, the time travel.  The mechanics are jumbled at best.  They try to explain it some, but none of it makes sense.  They build the thing out of an old X-Box 360 and control it with a cell phone.  The main point is that through some gobble-de-gook explanation, we are informed that they can only go back several weeks because there is not enough power to send them back any further.  I'm not sure if it makes sense, but it helps focus the story.  The good news is that none of that matters, because the real strength of the film lies not in how they get time travel to work, but what they do with it.  Instead of taking the drastic route, the characters in this film actually do what you would expect high school kids to do with something like this.  Quinn (Sam Lerner, Monster House) goes back to pass a chem test, Adam (Allen Evangelista, Mozart and the Whale) goes to win the lottery, Christina (Virginia Gardner) goes back to confront some bullies.  Then, of course, the whole group goes back to enjoy Lollapalooza.  David eventually realizes that Jessie (Sofia Black-D'elia, The Immigrant), whom he has a crush on, also actually likes him.  This is of course is what leads things to go awry.

I love time travel movies and shows and will watch any and all of them.  Only thing is, that no matter how well someone pulls it off, if you think too hard about it, there are holes and it's a headache at best.  With this film, not only did the director have the kids do what you would expect them to do, he also handled the rest of the headaches of time travel competently as well.  Characters meeting themselves, the ripple effect, memory issues on the return trip to the present.  All are dealt with quite well, I felt.

I didn't think there were any standout performances by anybody, but the acting was fine as well.  There is not much of anything to comment about on that.  The story is pretty simple and straightforward with nothing to really grab you.  With that being the case, it ends kind of flat.  Not bad, just not great either.  Overall, Project Almanac is not anything you need to run out to see.  The found footage really is distracting, but if you like the idea of time travel and what ideas people bring to the table, then Dean Israelite might have something here that will at least pique your interest.

Rating: *****----- (5 out of 10) [Netflix it]

Memorable Quote:

Christina: I'd go back to the original premiere of Star Wars.

Movie Review: Blackhat

Michael Mann (Heat) hacks his way into theaters with Blackhat.

A nuclear plant in China is hacked into, resulting in the explosion of the plant by overheating the pumps.  Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang, Lust, Caution), a member of China's cyber warfare division, is given the task of tracking down the hacker.  Meanwhile, in the states, a trade exchange is also hacked into.  It seems that the same virus was used in both cases.  Dawai, along with his sister Lien (Wei Tang, Lust, Caution), work together with the FBI.  It comes out that Chen had written the original code for the virus, along with his old college roommate.  Enter super-hacker, extraoridnaire, Nick Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth, The Cabin in the Woods).  He's been in prison for computer crimes, but Dawai insists that he be released to help them catch the hacker.  What follows is an hour and a half of computer typing and code.  Then we get 20 minutes of action to spice it up, which is too little, too late.

I went into this movie wanting to like it.  I really did.  I feel that Mann has more hits than misses.  This just happens to be one of his biggest misses.  Ultimately, what killed this movie for me, is what usually draws me to most of his work.  The guy brings a level of authenticity to his films.  You want to know what authenticity in hacking is?  It's boring.  Forget all those movies where people can hack into anything with the touch of a button on a cell phone.  Real hackers send a .pdf file with a virus attached and wait for someone to open it up.  It's not real exciting.  That seems to be exactly what you get for the majority of this film.

It's almost as if Mann realized this exact problem with about a third to a fourth of the movie left.  He thought, wait a minute, I've got Chris Hemsworth.  There should be more action.  So, it turns out that Hathaway is not just a super-hacker, he can also kick all sorts of ass.  The problem with this, is that he ends up going on FBI raids.  He's a criminal being used for his computer skills.  Why is he now fighting alongside the FBI in shootouts, even if he is very capable?  I will admit, some of the kills towards the end are quite brutal.  Still, too little, too late.

So, what is it that you need if your "thriller" is nearly void of any action?  How about a good script, with some engaging dialogue?  That's another thing you will sadly not find in this film.  I can't really recall any dialogue in this film that held my attention.  Lien may have had some good lines, but I wouldn't have noticed because her English was so broken that for most of the film I could barely understand a word she said.

That brings us to the actors themselves.  I thought they were all kind of wasted here.  I genuinely like Hemsworth, but he wasn't given much to do with this role.  Viola Davis was also a big wasted opportunity as the FBI agent they worked alongside.  I think she is an excellent actress, but again, was given nothing to do.  All the other roles seemed to be just as forgettable.  The hacker himself did not even get any face time until the end.  It's unclear what the motivation was for filming him with his face hidden throughout the movie.  There is no impact whatsoever when it is revealed who he is.

One thing that did work in this movie was the cinematography.  Like most Mann films, the way he sets up his shots, it feels as if you are right there with the characters.  There's a grittiness and a realness to you that just kind of draws you in.  This, again, isn't enough to save the movie though.

With the real life threat of hackers going on today, such as the big Sony hack, this film could have had some real relevance.  Instead it just kind of falls flat.  The cinematography is good and the action picks up towards the end.  I even appreciate that it gives us a realistic view of hacking. It's just not enough.  Also, if you want to know what blackhat actually means, pay close attention.  It's thrown into the dialogue almost as if it was an afterthought.

Rating: ***------- (3 out of 10) [don't go out of your way]

Memorable Quote:

Hathaway: I'm doing time.  Time isn't doing me.