Yet Another Delayed Movie Post

Maybe I need to hire someone to write blog posts for me so there aren't these gaps between posts. Anyone want the job? Keep in mind that I can't afford to offer you actual compensation so you'd be, in effect, an unpaid intern. The good news is that some of these are Oscar nominees so if I work really hard this will be posted before the awards are given out.

Three late-year releases took on serious events in different ways. The Big Short tried to inject humor into the story of the 2007-2008 financial meltdown caused by Wall Street shenanigans and the federal government's failure to regulate the financial industry, with wry narration and interludes where celebrities explain financial concepts. The most-discussed of the latter is actress Margot Robbie in a bubble bath (playfully sexy if you're into women in bubble baths). Amusing, but ultimately what happened is still too confusing, and it fails to enlighten or enrage viewers into pressuring politicians to prevent another fiscal disaster. My grade: B-minus.

Concussion is much more earnest. The National Football League would have you believe this movie is a menace to the sport's existence. The real menace: the fact that as more and more players are discovered after their deaths to have suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), parents may not allow their kids to play the sport, meaning the pool of talented athletes dries up. The NFL need not worry. The movie didn't have much impact. It's a good movie, but gets a demerit for depicting an incident involving ex-Eagle Andre Waters -- who killed himself and whose autopsy found he had CTE -- that didn't occur in reality. Despite Roger Goodell's awful record as commissioner, players beating women and children, killing dogs (and people, for that matter), fighting in bars, etc., and all the concussion worries, TV ratings and revenues continue to rise. The money will ensure the kids keep playing football. Unlike some of the financial institutions bailed out in the aftermath of the events in "The Big Short," the NFL may actually BE "too big to fail." My grade: B.

By far the best of these three is Spotlight, about the Boston Globe's 2001-2002 investigation into the cover-up by the Boston Archdiocese of sexual abuse by its priests. The film focuses not on the crimes themselves, but all the work the editors and reporters do to get the story published, even as their work on the project was temporarily derailed by the September 11th attacks. The film is superbly acted all around, and the story is so compelling. Yet it also makes me a little sad. Good investigative journalism requires dedication, passion, a desire to fight to find the truth -- and resources. Sadly, the state of the newspaper industry is such that we're going to see fewer and fewer reports such as this, unless the NFL wants to finance it. My grade: A-plus.

As for the rest...

Sisters was a little disappointing at first, even though Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are a winning duo, playing sisters throwing one last party before the house they grew up in is sold. It took quite a while into the film before I started seeing the humor in it. My grade: C-plus.

Joy is carried by the wonderful Jennifer Lawrence in the title role, telling the story (with some embellishments, naturally) of the woman who invented the Miracle Mop, among other items, becoming a QVC mainstay and a wealthy woman in the process. The film is really uneven, though. My grade: B-minus.

The first film I saw that was released in 2016 is Hail, Caesar!, a comedy with an mostly all-star cast from the Coen brothers set in the 1950s, when the Hollywood studio system still ruled, where "fixers" (in this film, Eddie Mannix, played by Josh Brolin) keep scandals such as pregnant, unwed starlets and homosexual actors under wraps. (Oh, the 50s! The era the GOP nuts want to take us back to!) It drags a bit at times but is mostly entertaining, especially the film-within-the-film segments. Do not miss the song-and-dance number starring Channing Tatum and a bunch of guys in sailor suits for a film called "No Dames!" My grade: B-plus.

Next time I do a film post: Deadpool!

More Movie Catching Up...

I actually wrote this on my phone, the same way I took notes at the doctor's office the other day. I actually wanted to just post the note itself, but I haven't figured out to get a full image of it because it's so long.

So some of these movies are more recent than others, obviously. When I went back to work my movie attendance dropped off, but I got to see a few during my recovery from surgery before I went back to work. The older ones...well, they're probably available in some format or other.

The Visit - M. Night Shyamalan with a scary movie...with a small budget and cast with no real "name" actors? But the story of 2 teenagers spending a week with grandparents who turn out to be really creepy is very effective. My grade: B-plus.

The Intern - Robert DeNiro plays a magical elf who shows up and fixes everyone's lives. Well, he's not really an elf but basically that's what happens when this bored, retired widower applies for a senior-citizen internship at a growing e-commerce firm owned by Anne Hathaway. Advice on whether to hire a CEO? Bob's on it. Help young coworkers with dating advice and getting more appreciation from the boss? Bob's on it. Help fix his boss's marriage and even an afternoon babysitting? Bob's...you get the idea. It's not a bad movie but the lack of significant dramatic tension (even comedies need a little of it) doesn't help. My grade: B-minus.

The Martian - It was visually great, well-acted, had some nice character touches...but ultimately lacking a bit in real intensity. There was no doubt WHAT would happen to Matt Damon's astronaut, stranded on Mars and presumed dead after his fellow crew members are forced to prematurely return to Earth. The only question is HOW it would happen. My grade: B.

Spectre - The latest Daniel Craig-as-James Bond outing followed up on events in Skyfall, with a much talkier villain and more backstory for Bond. Neither trend is great. Craig is under contract for one more Bond flick but is said to want out. Kinda hope he gets his wish unless they can come up with a better plot and villain. My grade: B-minus.

The Peanuts Movie - It's basically a greatest-hits collection with modern-day animation, frantically racing through recreations of, or at least winks and nods to, just about every famous joke or scene they've done over years of TV specials and previous films, all serving an updated plot in which Charlie Brown tries to overcome his Charlie Brown-iness and win the heart of the Little Red-Haired Girl. But they did it so well, even if I saw the ending coming from miles away. My grade: A-minus.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 - Upon some reflection, it's good this is ending so Jennifer Lawrence can return to the rest of her increasingly fine career. This was kind of meh, rather bleak, and the split of the final book into 2 movies was poorly executed. My grade: C-plus.

The Night Before - I walked out about halfway through. Unfunny, especially Seth Rogen. And a movie that makes me NOT like Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Unforgivable. My grade: F.

Creed - Superb. They rebooted, or restarted, or whatever you want to call it, the Rocky franchise almost perfectly. Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), son of the late former heavyweight Apollo, determined to follow in his father's footsteps, moves from LA to Philadelphia and sells Rocky Balboa on training him. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone are brilliant - well, just about everyone is, really. With acknowledgments to the original films and updates to reflect the current day, parallels between young Creed's journey and that of Rocky, the way Philadelphia looks, the diversity...just one or two minor quibbles keep me from a perfect grade. My grade: A.

Krampus - I was a little tired and briefly fell asleep early on, but didn't really miss anything important. Family tensions two days before Christmas causes a boy to lash out at everyone; when he tears up his letter to Santa. Enter Krampus, the anti-Santa, a demon who punishes the naughty at Christmas. Krampus has minions (no, not those Minions), and that aspect gave it a "Gremlins" vibe, which really helped. My grade: A-minus.

Three Semi-Recent Quick Reviews

Okay, so I haven't written lately. And out of the blue, I got called back to work at the seasonal job with the state, so I'll be working five days a week through approximately May. With that and the travel time to and from work, it leaves me less time to procrastinate. But I really want to try and keep this going on some sort of regular basis.

I haven't seen many movies lately, but now that I'll have some spending money I'm going to make more of an effort there as well. Meanwhile, here are the three movies I've seen but haven't written about. I saw two just before Thanksgiving and the other the day after Christmas.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1: Another of these franchises splitting the final chapter into two in order to squeeze every penny out of its fans. So there's lots of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) agonizing over things and people but she's not really doing a whole lot. I was amused by the attempts to use her in propaganda films for the revolution, but this isn't what helped the first movie catch on. My grade: B-minus.

Interstellar: Looks great, well-acted, surprise guest star with an agenda, interesting premise (finding a new planet to colonize as Earth is dying somehow) but lots of WTF. I mean, society just gives up on technology? Can you imagine this happening to our smartphone/videogame/HDTV-obsessed society? And the science of it all just went over my head...although I figured out who the "ghost" from early in the film was so quickly I'm almost embarrassed. My grade: C-plus.

Into the Woods: I would like to have seen -- or see, if it's around somewhere -- the stage version, because I get the feeling the film version didn't do it justice. The fairy tale plots seemed very rushed to start, and once they converged, there was still quite a bit of movie to get through. Songs weren't bad, though. For me, on my personal scale of filmed musicals, it's not nearly as bad as Les Miserables but not nearly as good as Moulin Rouge. My grade: C-plus.

Quick Reviews: Silver Twilight Pi

Now that I've returned from DC and joined the 21st century of cell phones (with a new Samsung Galaxy SIII), I suppose I should get back to blogging. So here are two movies I saw before I left for DC and one that I saw while I was down there.

I mainly saw "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" because I saw the previous films and I felt it important enough to see how the whole thing ends. (If they announced that "Paranormal Activity 4" was the last movie of that franchise I might have bothered to see it as well.) It kind of went off the rails in the last film, plot-wise, and the first two-thirds of this one was basically filler while waiting for the final showdown between the Volturi and the Cullens and their supporters (over Edward and Bella's daughter) to play out, including introducing a bunch of other vampire clans. When that final conflict occurs it's somewhat interesting, until one of the worst plot twists ever is revealed. It's a twist that probably works for the Twihards, but not for anyone else. My grade: D-plus.

"Silver Linings Playbook" is being hyped as Oscar-worthy. I didn't find it quite that great. In fact, after seeing the trailers play up the humor and romance angles a little more than the mental health issues of Bradley Cooper's character, the first portion of the film is rather jarring in its intensity. Then it settles into a nice groove, and then finally turns into a more predictable film thanks to a large wager on the final Eagles game of the 2008 season and the results of the dance contest in which our hero and Jennifer Lawrence's character are participating. Lawrence is terrific and Cooper is fine (although never shirtless). And it was rather cool to have the Eagles figure so much in the story, despite their current travails. By the way, I'm very proud to have spotted a blooper in the film: at one point we see fans arriving at the Linc for a game, and one of them is wearing a Nnamdi Asomugha jersey. The film is set in 2008, but Asomugha didn't join the Eagles until 2011. D'oh! My grade: B.

While in DC I took advantage of proximity to a multiplex to see "Life of Pi." There's been a lot of talk that it's the best-looking 3D movie since "Avatar," but I only saw it in 2D. Looked fine just the same. It spends a surprising amount of time setting up the story, that of a teenage boy somehow surviving being lost at sea for 227 days (after a storm sinks the freighter he and his family are traveling on) and sharing a lifeboat with a tiger. Then, after we see his rescue, we're given an alternate version of events and are asked to choose which one we believe. So the whole thing is something of a metaphor about the existence of God. Not really my cup of tea, but not bad. My grade: B.

Quick Review (Oscar Edition): Winter's Bone

At the end of this post I'll rank the Oscar Best Picture nominees, now that I've seen them all. The one I had missed, "Winter's Bone," wasn't rereleased to theaters after its nomination, so I had to rent the DVD. (Not only is it the first time I've ever rented a DVD, although way back in the day I did rent VHS tapes, I got it for $1 from a Redbox machine. It would've cost $4.99 for On Demand rental from Comcast.)

The tension-filled "Winter's Bone" mostly held my interest well. I got up just once, to get a drink. (Being able to pause the movie just isn't possible in theaters, dammit!) 17-year-old Ree (Jennifer Lawrence, nominated for Best Actress) is taking care of her mother, younger brother and sister in severe poverty in a rural area. She has to set off on a desperate quest to find her missing father, out on bond after an arrest on meth-making charges; he signed over their house as part of his bail, and if he doesn't show up for court they'll lose the house. The search won't be easy; meth labs are a big business in these areas and those who may know her father's whereabouts, including his own brother (John Hawkes, also a nominee as Best Supporting Actor), keep warning her to keep her mouth shut. I kept waiting for some typical dialogue and action and overacting that we usually get from big-budget Hollywood films. It never came. This is a quiet but rather powerful story. My grade: B-plus.

So, now that I've seen all ten Best Picture nominees, here is how I'd rank them, although my hunch is that "The King's Speech" will actually win the Oscar:

1. Toy Story 3
2. The Social Network
3. Black Swan
4. Inception
5. Winter's Bone
6. The Kids Are All Right
7. 127 Hours
8. True Grit
9. The King's Speech
10. The Fighter