LONG SHOT Review

Pairing schlubby, messy men with women who are out of their league in regards to looks if not always intelligence is not a new concept or novel idea, but it is something that has been done to the point that, to do it again without any sense of awareness would in and of itself feel like a parody. This is why Long Shot immediately placing this same situation in the realm of political campaigning-where outward appearance and perception is critical-is what makes re-visiting this trope both funny and worthwhile. Rogen, who rarely seems to work from a concept or screenplay where he's not involved in some capacity has thrown himself at the mercy of screenwriters Dan Sterling (The Office, The Interview) and Liz Hannah (The Post) as well as frequent collaborator, director Jonathan Levine (50/50, The Night Before). This R-rated romantic comedy not only deals with your typical conundrums of opposites attracting, falling in love, and making it work in the face of what societal expectations tell our characters they should ascend or not ascend to, but it also gets into the weeds when it comes to our current political climate and is able to round out both of these objects of very strong affections with the idea that one shouldn't compromise their desires or feelings towards a topic or person just because some people may not approve of them. It's been nearly fifteen years since movie-going audiences were introduced to Rogen's disoriented stoner/slacker of a caricature and in that time Rogen has managed to somehow both mature yet remain the same. There is a natural level of humor Rogen brings to his projects that is gleaned simply from the actor laughing at a joke either he or another character has made. Whether Rogen is working with the likes of Judd Apatow, someone like Levine, or writing and directing with creative partner Evan Goldberg each pairing seems to always find a way to carefully balance the vulgarity and gross out gags that are inevitable with a sweetness and sincerity in story that reassures the audience there is more here than dick and drug jokes.

LEGEND OF TARZAN Review

Say what you want, I certainly would have prior to walking into the new live-action adaptation about the lord of the apes, but The Legend of Tarzan is a welcome surprise in a sea of lackluster, would-be summer blockbusters. Taking keys from Chris Nolan and Sam Mendes in their grand but grounded takes on mythological heroes like Batman and Bond director David Yates (the last four Harry Potter films and this November's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) has created a Tarzan film that is very much in line with the origin stories of these larger than life figures while simultaneously steeping itself in some of the politics of the time all the while remaining self-aware enough through the presence of one Samuel L. Jackson to remind us we shouldn't take things too seriously as we're still talking about a man who was raised by apes and travels by vine. In short, The Legend of Tarzan is kind of everything one could want out of a big-budget summer blockbuster as it features not a re-tread of the same story Disney animation told seventeen years ago, but more a re-structuring of the origin tale through a brand new adventure that lends the action some purpose and includes some unexpected weight in its story. Some will list this new incarnation of Tarzan as empty spectacle, but I'm hard pressed to understand the reasoning as not only does the screenplay by Adam Cozad (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) and Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan) feature some templates for what Yates orchestrates as pretty impressive action sequences without relying too heavily on visual effects, but it also features scenes of crisp dialogue where what could have easily been stock characters have real, intelligent conversations that not only move the plot forward, but acknowledge the larger world that their actions exist within and will ultimately effect. Maybe it is due to the lack of expectations when walking into the film, but it quickly proved to be more than another summer tentpole to come off the blockbuster conveyor belt. Bringing us into this world and to these characters we thought we knew there are added layers that enthrall. Becoming invested in these familiar names as played by a top notch cast we come to care about the somewhat complicated if not familiar plot that is still able to put just enough of a spin on what was expected that the reality of what we've received is so much more fulfilling than what I could have imagined prior to sitting down in the theater. In all honesty, I'm not sure one could make a better Tarzan movie than what we have here.

Teaser Trailer for THE LEGEND OF TARZAN

It looks as if Warner Bros. will attempt to get back in on the game of adapting well-known Disney animated properties into live-action spectacles after the utter failure that was Pan this past October. And while, like Peter Pan, Tarzan's history is much richer than the 1999 Disney film that is the frame of reference from which much of the target audience for this film will have and recall. In our first look at director David Yates (Harry Potter's 5-7.2) new take on the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic we are introduced once again to the "Lord of the Apes" through what seems to be an origin story as there are glimpses of his parents deaths as well as his abandonment in the jungle where a gorilla takes him in and turns him into the legend the title is proclaiming him to be. It's undoubtedly a difficult task to turn this tale of a man in a tiny loin cloth who swings from trees and talks to apes into something credible, but at the very least Yates seems to have landed on a tone that will work for the story. Some of the shots in the film are really intriguing and distinctively beautiful, but some of the CGI looks a little questionable and hopefully they will polish much of this up in the remaining seven and half months they have before the film's release. It will be interesting to see how this Tarzan film does given many of the other live action versions of Disney classics have fared well and in all fairness this seems to hue closer to that material a la Cinderella than the daringly different approach that was taken with Pan. It will also be interesting to see if the live action Jungle Book that comes out in April will have a positive or negative effect on this film as they share a similar aesthetic. The Legend of Tarzan stars Alexander Skarsgard, Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie, Djimon Hounsou, Christoph Waltz, and opens on July 1, 2016.

THE GIVER Review

I somehow managed to make it through all of middle school, jr. high and high school without ever cracking open a copy of Lois Lowry's The Giver. This wasn't due to the fact I was trying to avoid the work; I can remember seeing other kids reading it all around me in my seventh grade year and the cover with the old man and his wiry beard is an image that will always strike me as intriguing, but for one reason or another I was never made to sit down and read it and by the time I was in high school it was a distant memory. Why a feature film adaptation hasn't been made before now is quite curious, but with the recent wave of young adult adaptations it is also pretty clear why we are getting a version of this story now. Unfortunately, despite the fact Lowry tapped into exploring the themes and ideas present here in a way that younger audiences might understand first this doesn't automatically mean the film version will be as appealing or revelatory. Today, we live in a world of Harry Potter and Twilight where books that teens actually read are turned into massive franchises ultimately marginalizing the literature. In this world every quasi-popular series has been taken, given the Hollywood treatment in an attempt to launch a franchise and if they fail they're never heard from again. It is a vicious game won only if you have a large enough, pre-determined fanbase. There have been some unfortunate casualties (Beautiful Creatures) and some that were dead on arrival and deserved to be (The Mortal Instruments). Still, as the pack exists right now it is The Hunger Games and everything else. There is an air of earnestness about this version of The Giver though from the construction of its aesthetic to the performances given by actors that would widely be considered above this material that it doesn't have to be the big kid on the block. Sure, it is another cautionary tale set in a dystopian future (though the Chief Elder would have you believe it's a utopia) where one young person who has grown accustomed to a certain, strict way of life is declared different and breaks the societal rules that eventually lead him/her to discovering what the adults couldn't, but there is something sincere trying to be said here. There is an honesty to the production and a conviction in its story and ideas that is hard to shake while completely satisfying as a movie-going experience.

First Trailer for THE GIVER

The Giver was the 1994 novel that I never made it around to reading despite the fact everyone around me was talking about it in my seventh grade reading class. I don't know how it slipped by me and feel really bad about having never caught up with it, but I guess the fact there is now a movie adaptation heading our way is as good a motivation as any to finally dive in. As I said yesterday when posting the first trailer for The Maze Runner, the race to find the next big Young Adult franchise spun from the pages of hit novels is in full speed, but while this initial teaser trailer wants you to believe The Giver is some kind of companion piece to Divergent (which opens this Friday and where you'll likely see this playing prior), the nature of the novel itself feels very different than the dystopian trilogies that have saturated the market as of late. This is a single novel that only recently received a sequel, but still, not in the common sense of the word and one that studios might find both difficult and rather pleasing to adapt into a straightforward film series. As for this first look at the footage though, I'm impressed with what scope the film seems to take on, but as we've seen so many versions of the "perfect futuristic society" lately they are all beginning to blend together and this trailer does nothing to say that The Giver has anything new to offer. I want to believe the narrative and the characters alone will be enough to set this apart and that the rumors about major changes being made when adapting the book for the screen are false as the original novel was a slim work and one I am definintely keen on diving into before August. The Giver stars Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Cameron Monaghan, Taylor Swift and opens August 15th.

DISCONNECT Home Video Review

Crash dealing with technology. This simple four word description is what I believed Disconnect to be before sitting down and giving it a shot. I liked Crash when it arrived back in 2005. Do I agree with it winning best picture? No, not necessarily, but it was a solid movie nonetheless and it elicited some genuine emotion from me and clearly other audience members throughout the film going community. This piece isn't about Crash though, but what I thought about that film likely informs how I feel about Disconnect because though it is not the carbon copy my expectations believed it to be it certainly has many of the same intentions and goes about accomplishing them in somewhat similar ways. In all honesty, I was engaged in this film from very early on. There are some films in which you embark on and immediately know you aren't ever going to really get into the material this visual interpretation is exploring and yet there is the other end of the spectrum where you become so wrapped up in the events of what is happening to the characters on screen that you hate to see the signals that the film will soon be coming to an end. That latter reaction is what happened with Disconnect. It was a very interesting play because it opens with the storyline that ends up becoming the least resolved, but is the most immediately shocking and gets your attention only to segway into the main title sequence that introduces us to our second set of characters against the backdrop of Awolnation's "Sail". Whether it was due to the use of this familiar yet still powerfully resonant song or simply to the supreme confidence director Henry Alex Rubin (Murderball) and writer Andrew Stern seem to have had in their material there was something immediately gripping and slightly epic about the way the film presented itself and to say the least, I was intrigued. Disconnect is a sprawling film that never loses its footing and digs deep into the human psyche and past the technology that its title suggests is the main cause of the rifts in the relationships documented here. That not only are these tools that are intended to keep us all connected separating actual human contact further, but allowing us to take advantage of one another in the least humane of ways.

THE EAST Review

Brit Marling is officially three for three in my book. After first seeing the actress and writer in director Mike Cahill's 2011 film Another Earth it was not necessarily her acting skill that was intriguing, but the way in which she gravitated towards projects. Yes, she was good at playing guarded and mysterious, but she was also able to invoke a sense of real intensity that continues to carry through not only the characters she plays, but the films she has a hand in making. Last years Sound of My Voice paired her with friend and director Zal Batmanglij to produce one of my favorite films of 2012 while reassuring me and everyone else that science fiction didn't have to necessarily be big, bold new worlds and fantastic technology to be engaging, but it simply had to have a precise goal and Sound of My Voice was a film very specific in what it wanted to accomplish and did so with a perfect balance of mystery and intrigue. while I completely adore that film and was happy to see Marling re-team with Batmanglij again this year I was thankful they weren't treading the same ground, but were instead moving on to different subject matter completely while still looking to strike up a conversation. With The East these two young, but equally wise artists bring our attention to moral dilemmas. Though the film will grab you in advertisements by purporting to be a slick espionage thriller that follows a rookie agent on her first assignment there is so much more to the film than this generic sounding synopsis. The film is ultimately about deciding what is worth doing that many see as wrong for the greater good of what you believe is right. That is the purpose of the titular-named group that Marling's protagonist Sarah is pulled into and while we certainly expect her to make some type of connection with these people who genuinely feel they have to do these wrong things for the right reasons it comes as a surprise where Sarah ends up going on the arc this movie gives her. There is a balance here that doesn't lean too far in one direction so as to present a slanted view, but in all earnestness wants to create a big picture while getting the small details right in order to make it feel as honest as possible.

BATTLESHIP Review

I get it, I really do, but even the most casual of movie-goers seem to have caught on to what "Battleship" really is. First off, it is a movie based entirely on a board game and not one that readily lends itself to any kind of plot. With that in mind Hollywood has turned it in to what else? An alien invasion flick. That is what they know how to do best now isn't it? Why the makers thought the "Transformers" series wasn't sufficient in this area is beyond me especially as "Battleship" tries to dutifully make itself a carbon copy of those films. When I say that movie-goers who only venture out to the theater every once in a while have picked up on the scheme "Battleship" is trying to get away with I mean that it has become extremely obvious that pure B-movie fun has now become even more of a genre for critics to blast as it is apparent little real thought has gone into the production of this film. Some people may let this movie off easily as it is nothing more than an excuse to have a big summer popcorn movie but I can't help but hold "Battleship" more accountable for its actions. It has its moments, sure. It was even able to conjure up some tension at certain points, but the underlying fact that this spectacle was completely unimaginative and lacked originality in every sense of that word would not leave me alone. Director Peter Berg has certainly crafted a great looking film that follows a well worn format to a T, but the best special effects money can buy are no substitute for actual substance or, at the very least, interesting characters. "Battleship" is devoid of either of these and rather than being a pleasant surprise it turns out to be exactly the type of movie everyone expects it to be. A $200 million plus extravaganza that will dazzle your eyes while leaving your brain dumbed-down.

Sam (Brooklyn Decker) and Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) share
a perfectly-lit embrace

While I can occasionally get past the lack of story or plot consistency for the sake of fun, I have felt a harbored kind of dread for "Battleship" ever since the first trailer premiered. What the writers have added to the premise of moving ships around on a grid while the opponent attacks you and you they with strategy and reasoning are a few pretty people and some nice tributes to the brave folks that serve and have served in the U.S. Navy. We are introduced first to Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) a troublemaker who has no ambition for where his life is going while his decorated Commanding Officer brother Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgard) is always giving him speeches about how he needs to get his life together. One fateful night Alex lays eyes on a beautiful blonde named Sam (Brooklyn Decker) who happens to be a physical therapist and who also happens to be the daughter of Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson). Alex tries desperately to impress Sam and when we fast forward a few years it looks as if it has paid off. Alex is now a lieutenant in the Navy, and ready to ask the intimidating admiral for his daughters hand in marriage. Let us not also forget there is a really cool and unafraid petty officer on Hopper's ship that looks alot like Rihanna and Japan Navy Captain Yugi Nagata (Tadanobu Nagata) who begins as Hopper's enemy but will clearly become his friend by the end of the film that will somehow resolve the lingering feelings still left from Pearl Harbor. In the opening of "Battleship" we get some quick insight into a group of scientists who have found a "goldilocks" planet that has the capability to sustain life as earth does. They send up some transmissions and lo and behold we get visitors right about the time Hopper needs to prove himself.

The aliens have arrived and they look the same as the ones
in the last movie.

While it may seem like I absolutely hated this film, I can't stand by and say that is completely true as it does offer some nice moments in the 10-minute cold opening sequence that establishes Kitsch's character with a kind of hopeless charisma that is better used here than it was in his box office bomb "John Carter" earlier this year. I wasn't sure I understood the appeal of Kitsch as I haven't seen an episode of the TV-series that launched his career, "Friday Night Lights" though  I have heard nothing but amazing things about it. Here though, Kitsch has a better arc to play and makes a fine attempt to naturally move Hopper from irresponsible youth to a determined and confident adult that is able to make his way in the world. This is a blessing for the film as most of its other big names including Skarsgard and Neeson have limited screen time and nothing much to do when they are present. While most of the action takes place within the Rimpac military exercises that contain 14 Navy's from around the world (which allows for the Japanese and the Americans to work together) there is also the unnecessary subplot that focuses on Decker's Sam and her patient Lieutenant Colonel Mick Canales, played by former field artillary officer Gregory D. Gadson who is actually a double above the knee-amputee. Again, this is a nice nod to those who have served in the armed services and all that they have done for the country, but it doesn't necessarily serve the best purposes of the film. While Gadson is fine for the most part, his inexperience shows especially when he spends the majority of the film with an amateur like Decker. Luckily comic relief in the form of Hamish Linklater (who you might recognize from The New Adventures of Old Christine) keeps these two safe from causing too much cringing in the audience.

Hopper relies on Rihanna to take out the alien forces.

What I really don't understand though is why aliens? I can understand that the writers wanted to give an impression of community and collaboration between the Navy's of the world and thus they bring in extra terrestrials to be the baddies, but really? That is the best you could come up with? It just feels so commonplace in today's movie going experience that audiences have become accustomed to it. After last summer's bomb that was "Cowboys & Aliens" you would think that studios might understand that just because you throw something in your movie that is out of this world doesn't mean it will make it a hit. It certainly doesn't always make it a better movie and if anything "Battleship" serves as a clear demonstration of why this is true. I have no problem with having fun at the movies with a product that serves no other purpose than pure escapism, in fact I enjoy many of these summer blockbusters just as much as anyone else. I think most critics do, they are simply afraid to let their scholarly facade down in fear their credibility may be damaged. I can admit to liking a brainless action movie but that is not what "Battleship" is. This is a film that doesn't defy all logic with a wink to the audience and an eye for satire, but it instead takes itself completely serious and is in many ways studio propoganda to make the movie-going droves believe it is okay to take a familiar title and create a film that bears little relation to those memories the inspiration came from. There has to be a line drawn somewhere and when a talented director like Peter Berg resorts to a copy cat of Michael Bay to produce a loud film based on a board game I think I've found where I'll put the pen to the paper.

BATTLESHIP Review

I get it, I really do, but even the most casual of movie-goers seem to have caught on to what "Battleship" really is. First off, it is a movie based entirely on a board game and not one that readily lends itself to any kind of plot. With that in mind Hollywood has turned it in to what else? An alien invasion flick. That is what they know how to do best now isn't it? Why the makers thought the "Transformers" series wasn't sufficient in this area is beyond me especially as "Battleship" tries to dutifully make itself a carbon copy of those films. When I say that movie-goers who only venture out to the theater every once in a while have picked up on the scheme "Battleship" is trying to get away with I mean that it has become extremely obvious that pure B-movie fun has now become even more of a genre for critics to blast as it is apparent little real thought has gone into the production of this film. Some people may let this movie off easily as it is nothing more than an excuse to have a big summer popcorn movie but I can't help but hold "Battleship" more accountable for its actions. It has its moments, sure. It was even able to conjure up some tension at certain points, but the underlying fact that this spectacle was completely unimaginative and lacked originality in every sense of that word would not leave me alone. Director Peter Berg has certainly crafted a great looking film that follows a well worn format to a T, but the best special effects money can buy are no substitute for actual substance or, at the very least, interesting characters. "Battleship" is devoid of either of these and rather than being a pleasant surprise it turns out to be exactly the type of movie everyone expects it to be. A $200 million plus extravaganza that will dazzle your eyes while leaving your brain dumbed-down.