Movie Catching Up, Part Two

Welcome back to the return of regular blog posts! Hmmmm...well, that may be asking for a bit much, but at least I'm getting these movies out of the way. After this I have three more that I saw in theaters and two more via On Demand.

So Jason Bourne came out of hiding. Just skipping over whaterver happened in the Matt Damon-less C-less "Bourne Legacy," this sequel finds him in hiding but recovered from his amnesia. What brings him back this time? He's contacted by the former CIA operative (Julia Stiles) who helped him in the past and is now also on the run. Through computer hacking she's discovered files about how Bourne became part of the program that turned him into a killing machine -- and it involves his father. Soon they're both being hunted by CIA assassins. The action sequences are what you'd expect, but the film gets bogged down a bit by a subplot involving privacy rights and a secret deal in which the CIA is funding a social media venture to use it to spy on everyone. My grade: B.

Suicide Squad is one DC comic book that I've never been interested in, and in the wake of the film that hasn't changed. The premise: government operative Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles a team of imprisoned villains, either wiith special skills (Deadshot, Will Smith), metahuman powers (El Diablo, Jay Herndandez), or just plain psycho (Harley Quinn, Margot Robbie), who are coerced to participate The team's job is to do whatever it takes should someone like, say, Superman (currently still dead in the movies) decided to destroy the planet. Soon there is such a threat and the "team" is sent into action. But secrets and lies threaten everything.

Having Harley Quinn in the mix led to adding the Joker, and there are a couple of cameos by Ben Affleck's Batman. (Meaning all of this takes in the DC movieverse DC Extended Universe alongside Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, etc.) And Jared Leto's Joker is awful, annoying in every scene in which he appears. Oh, Heath Ledger, why did you have to die?

And too many of the Squad members leave no impression as characters. They're just along for the ride or to serve to move the plot a bit. Fortunately, Robbie's Harley Quinn is a live wire, and Amanda Waller proves to be a total badass -- a term that fits Viola Davis as well. And a scene inserted into the credits makes me glad she's part of the DC movieverse DC Extended Universe. My grade: C.

P.S. I suddenly want to go see it again.

Quick Reviews: Four Most Recent

Yeah, I keep procrastinating instead of writing about a movie right after I've seen it. It's a good thing I don't get paid for this. Of course, if someone would like to pay me, I'd be sure to stick to deadline. Anyway, I'll be pretty brief with these. Mostly not bad, but not really worth a ton of analysis.

The real selling point of 2 Guns is the Denzel Washington-Mark Wahlberg pairing, as law enforcement officials (undercover, but each thinks the other is an actual criminal) trying to bring down a drug lord. It gets much more complicated, with double-crosses galore. I just let go of trying to keep up and rode the wave of the two stars' having fun. My grade: B.

Speaking of drug lords, there's one in We're the Millers, and he forces a low-level drug dealer (Jason Sudeikis) to make a pickup of pot in Mexico. To do this successfully, he decides to take family with him in order to avoid suspicion at the border. As he has no family, he recruits a stripper (Jennifer Aniston) and a couple of teenagers, one a latchkey kid and one a runaway, to act as his family. At times raunchy but generally pretty funny. I can't entirely buy Aniston as a stripper, though. She's just too...nice. My grade: B-plus.

Elysium is a sci-fi film and a lesson. In 2154 the world is a real mess, and the wealthiest people have gone to Elysium, a space station/satellite/mini-world where life is perfect and disease is cured instantly with a short lie-down in a machine that looks like a tanning booth. Elysium is visible in the Earth's sky, like the moon, taunting those left behind with no hope of getting up there. So this is all a commentary on current events and the need for universal health care. Poisoned by an industrial accident and with five days to live, Max (Matt Damon) hooks up with a group who smuggles people onto Elysium to get their own diseases cured. Damon's fine, but Jodie Foster as a government official defending Elysium from the illegal immigrants is kind of a misfire. Still, it's watchable and food for thought, although the Tea Party nutjobs might disagree. My grade: B-plus.

And then there's Paranoia, which is pretty much a mess. It's about a guy (Liam Hemsworth, pretty but vapid; I think he has a total of one facial expression) who gets himself entangled in corporate espionage between two tech companies, run by a pair of former friends (Harrison Ford, with head shaved(!) and Gary Oldman). Ridiculous script and plot, and not particularly well-acted. What really got me was how some of it was filmed in Philadelphia but it's set in New York. But there are times when it's so obvious it's Philadelphia. Street signs, local establishments, the concourse under Broad Street that obviously isn't a New York City subway concourse -- and not only did they film inside the Comcast Center, but at one point you actually see the building's name. Really sloppy work. Fortunately, not many people will see it. When I saw it on Friday, it's first day of release, only one other person was in the theater with me. My grade: D-plus.

Quick Reviews: This Is Promised Guidance

Okay, so these movies may not even be in theaters by now, but I don't want to just ignore them. And, if anyone really wants my opinion before renting or buying the DVDs, it'll be here.

What surprised me about This Is 40, the sort-of-sequel to "Knocked Up" focusing on the married couple Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann), was how much bickering they did. Between their own issues, business problems and dealing with their children and parents, there were times when I was wishing there was more comedy and less drama. A nice amount of shirtless Paul Rudd, though, and there's the cameo with current (Scott Hartnell, now-retired Ian Laperriere) and former (James van Riemsdyk, Matt Carle) Flyers in a bar with Mann and Megan Fox. My grade: B-minus.

I started out really liking Promised Land, the film about natural-gas "fracking," with Matt Damon and Frances McDormand trying to get farmers to sign mineral-rights leases to drill on their land. Then an environmental advocate (John Krasinski) hits town and Damon's character is so completely flustered by this development it rang extremely false. And the big twist near the end was just stupid. My grade: C-plus.

I'd compare Parental Guidance to "The Guilt Trip" in that it's a somewhat safe and predictable comedy, in which a long-married couple (Billy Crystal, Bette Midler), called upon to hop on a plane and mind the grandkids for a week, have difficulty with how their daughter and son-in-law are raising the children. But the baseball subplot (Crystal's an announcer needing a new job) helped, the ending made me cry a little (whether I'm just easily manipulated by films or I'm getting mushy in my advancing age is yet to be determined) and Crystal and Midler have old-pro charm. My grade: B.

Quick Reviews: Bourne Legacy, ParaNorman

There's an inspired line of thinking in this article I came across the other day. It discusses the Simpsons episode where the "Itchy and Scratchy" studio, trying to reinvigorate the ratings of their tired cartoon, introduce a new character: Poochie, the rapping dog (voiced by Homer). Poochie is an amalgam of test-marketed "hip" cliches. The first "Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie" show gets tons of eyeballs, but everyone (except Homer) hates it. The studio ends the Poochie experiment quickly.

The article points out that Hollywood has taken the "Poochie" strategy to heart. Desperate to keep franchises alive, new (or sort of new) characters have been introduced in the most recent "Indiana Jones" and "Men in Black" sequels, and even a plot twist at the end of "The Dark Knight Rises" can be seen as an introduction of such a character for future films, although since Christopher Nolan is done with Batman, it's not too likely that anyone will follow up on that particular twist. But the article's prime example is the just-released "The Bourne Legacy," in which we learn that there's more than one black ops program in which super-soldiers were created. This is convenient because there's no Jason Bourne to hunt down, as Matt Damon refused to sign on for another sequel. So we have Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross, who has to take pills to enhance his physical and mental abilities, on the run after Bourne's actions lead to the elimination of Cross's program -- and his life, if he's caught. The movie looks less jittery but is more confusing and generic, despite Renner's best efforts. And they still had the nerve to use that same Moby song at the end. My grade: C-minus.

On a brighter note, despite being somewhat darker in tone than the trailers led us to believe, is the animated (and 3D) "ParaNorman," which ostensibly is about a kid who talks to dead people, and has to use this ability to save his town from an ancient curse. Yet, while there's all that, and a good amount of humor, at its heart it's really an anti-bullying, we-should-embrace-our-differences movie. Whether it's the witch whose death leads to the curse, or Norman himself, seen as a weirdo because, to everyone else, he's talking to himself, the bullying angle is prominent. The film works on pretty much all levels, though, except for that 3D crap. I really dislike 3D. Wearing 3D glasses over my glasses is not particularly comfortable. 3D is not necessary except in rare cases -- the only film I've seen where the 3D really impressed me was "Avatar," which had other problems, such as plot silliness -- and it's mainly a way for the studios to make more money. My grade: A-minus.

Quick Review: Contagion

Because of circumstances (both beyond and within my control, to be honest) it took me a while to get around to seeing "Contagion." It wasn't really worth the wait. It's competent enough, the acting is mostly good, and for some reason I laughed at Gwyneth Paltrow getting sick, dying, and being cut open and autopsied...well, her character did, anyway. But it's rather boring and cluttered with too many characters. Paltrow's character, married to Matt Damon's character, is probably in the film the least. She picked up a new, deadly disease while on a business trip in Hong Kong, stopped in Chicago to cheat on her husband (thus passing on the virus there) and then returned home to Minneapolis, dying days later. As the virus spreads both in the United States and worldwide, scientists race to try and contain it while society starts falling apart. We're supposed to follow various plots and characters in Minneapolis, Hong Kong, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and probably some other places as well. After a while I just sort of stopped caring. That's a little scary since the events come off as rather plausible. My grade: C.

Quick Review: The Adjustment Bureau

Although "The Adjustment Bureau" is a science-fiction tale on the surface -- the titular bureau guides people into certain actions that affect their lives and the lives of others -- it's really a love story. A young candidate for U.S. Senate from New York, David Norris (Matt Damon), loses the 2006 election due to a scandal (not much of one, but then again I'm not as prudish as some). On Election Night he meets Elise (Emily Blunt) hiding in the men's room -- she was crashing a wedding held in the same hotel where David was giving his concession speech. Their encounter leads him to ditch his speech and speak from the heart, and that catapults him back into favor with the voters, setting him up for another run in 2010. It also leaves him enthralled with Elise, whom he never thought he'd see again until they happen to meet on a bus. Then he stumbles upon the Adjustment Bureau in mid-manipulation, and is warned by one of the higher-up "caseworkers" (John Slattery) that he was never meant to see Elise again. Their plan for David is to be elected to the Senate and go on to bigger and better things, while she is to become a world-famous ballet dancer, but if he continues to pursue Elise none of that would happen and they'd be forced to "reset" him -- something like a lobotomy. The movie delves into the conflict between man's free will and God's plan (essentially, the caseworkers are angels and God is "the Chairman," although they don't explicitly identify themselves as such), and what happens if the plan changes, but at its heart it's about the romance between David and Elise, fighting to stay together even as the forces of heaven try to keep them apart. Conveniently, the angels -- sorry, caseworkers -- have some weaknesses that affect their power, giving David a fighting chance. The ending was kind of a cop-out, though. My grade: B-plus.

Quick Review: True Grit

I'm not sure if it's good that, when someone remakes a movie, either I never saw the original or saw it so long ago that it's not fresh in my mind. So I can't compare the new version of "True Grit" to the original. I can say that it's very, very good but I can't quite put it in the "exceptional" category. There's strong acting from everyone -- Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon as LaBoeuf. the Texas Ranger, Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney and young Hailee Steinfeld as 14-year-old Mattie Ross, whose father was killed by Chaney, leading her to hire Cogburn to track him down. It was just a bit slow to start, and there were a few times when I had trouble understanding what Cogburn was saying (not sure if this was something Bridges was doing or a sign of hearing loss/lack of paying attention on my part -- yikes). But there are moments when it truly rises to the occasion. Just not quite enough to raise this grade...My grade: B-plus.

Quick Review: Hereafter

There are three parallel plots running through "Hereafter," directed by Clint Eastwood. The first involves a French TV journalist who is nearly killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami (graphically depicted, by the way; I can't imagine the horror of trying to survive that). She has a near-death experience that isn't very specific. She just sees bright light and shadowy figures. She tries to return to her normal life but is so affected by what she saw that she takes a leave of absence to research a book on the subject of the afterlife. The second plot features twin brothers in London, one of whom is tragically killed. The survivor, who by now is in foster care since his drug-addicted mother is hospitalized, desperately misses his brother and tries to find someone who can help him contact his brother. The third revolves around George Lonegan (Matt Damon), who lives in San Francisco and is making a meager living in a factory, to the consternation of his brother (Jay Mohr). George, you see, is psychic and can communicate with the dead. He used to give readings professionally, but couldn't cope with the reunions of loved ones with their dearly departed, or something, so he quit. It doesn't seem to be that bad, except for his annoying brother trying to push him back into giving readings. Naturally, predictably, there has to be a way for these three storylines to come together into one. It's well-acted but doesn't really go out on a limb spiritually about what exactly happens to us after we die. I expected a little more. My grade: B-minus.

Quick Review: Invictus

The casting of Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in "Invictus" was certainly not unexpected. What is unexpected is the film in which he plays Mandela. It's not a straight-up biopic. Instead, it tells a specific story while touching on the entirety of Mandela's life, including his release from prison and rise to the presidency of South Africa. Shortly after becoming the nation's leader in 1994, Mandela attends a rugby game and notices that blacks in the crowd cheer against the South African team, the Springboks, seen as a symbol of prejudice and apartheid. With South Africa set to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Mandela sets out to change that, in order to help unite the nation, starting with a meeting with the captain of the Springboks, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon). Needless to say, Freeman is excellent, as is Damon (who bulked up for the role to look more like a rugby player -- see photo). There's a somewhat predictable sports-movie aspect to the World Cup results, but it's offset by the fact that it's a true story and one I wasn't familiar with. My grade: B-plus.

Quick Review: The Informant!

The opening credits for "The Informant!" have this cheesy 70s-style look! The movie also has a campy score by Marvin Hamlisch! Who knew he was still alive?! Plus there are separate cameos from both of the Smothers Brothers! (One of them plays a judge! The other, I'm not sure because I didn't recognize him when he appeared earlier in the film! Or maybe I dozed off!) What the hell was Steven Soderbergh thinking?! The trailer made it seem like this would be wildly funny! However, it's not! It actually ends up in a rather sad place! Okay, I'll stop with the exclamation points now!

Matt Damon wore a lame mustache and put on some pounds to play Mark Whitacre, who blew the whistle on a price-fixing scandal at Archer Daniels Midland in the early 90s (which makes me wonder why it looks and sounds more like the 70s). We find out as we go along that there's more than meets the eye. Mark's off-the-wall narration isn't just a sign that he's a goof. Damon plays it very well; the acting in general is fine. The movie could have been a lot better, but the whole thing just falls kinda flat as we learn what else Mark Whitacre was up to and why. My grade: B-minus! Okay, one more exclamation point.

Reminder: there's a link on the home page that leads to a list of my grades for every movie I've seen in 2009.