Like, Four Months Of Movies. Part One

If you read my last post, and according to Google 269 of you at least clicked on it (yay, but not for the best of reasons, and also a couple of those clicks may be my own), you know it's been a rough patch. Between what went on healthwise in both April (while I was still working, to boot) and June, I had some sporadic movie attendance for a while. And I haven't talked about any of them. Tsk. So the first few of these, which I saw between mid-March and early June, have already gone to blu-ray, Netflix, etc. But I'll mention them anyway. After my surgery, though, I've really picked up the pace, so I'm splitting this into two posts. (I was thinking I could also check out some I missed via On Demand or my Amazon Prime subscription's Instant Video feature, but that's for the future.)

The Lazarus Effect: Some researchers accidentally discover a formula that can bring people back from the dead. Naturally, there are consequences. A bit interesting but ultimately more boring than scary. C-plus.

Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron: Bigger, louder, not as interesting nor as well-plotted as the first Avengers film. And no shawarma. B-plus.

Hot Pursuit: Sofia Vergara and Reese Witherspoon, a comedy duo for the ages. Well, the Age of Ultron, maybe. But towards the end it seemed to be trying to pull things together a little. C.

Pitch Perfect 2: Sequel. Meh. A couple of interesting quirks but disappointing. C-plus.

Tomorrowland: Best film so far this year, hands down. For all the sci-fi stuff, it really is a film about how we can still make the word a better place. It made me think of people who I see doing good work (such as this guy) and gave me a hopeful, optimistic feeling. Please see this film. A.

Spy: Melissa McCarthy seems to walk a tightrope with movie roles, at least those I've seen. Bridesmaids, awesome. Identity Thief, not nearly so. Spy is a return to fine form, with a strong supporting cast. A-minus.

Mad Max: Fury Road: Having never seen any of the previous Mad Max films, I still wasn't really lost by this reboot's plot. The future's all gone to hell and Max, now played by Tom Hardy, is fighting to survive and ends up helping some others. Lots of action and mayhem. B.

Next post: everything I've seen since my surgery.

Quick Review: The Dark Knight Rises

I suppose this is a not-so-quick review. Then again, the movie was 2 hours, 40 minutes long. (And I managed to sit through it without running to the bathroom. Woo-hoo!)

It seems impossible to discuss "The Dark Knight Rises" without mentioning the mass murders in Aurora, Colorado. I'm still angry that much of the hoopla and excitement for this movie was wiped out by the actions of an evil individual -- not to mention our nation's pathetic excuse for gun laws. Since it happened, I haven't seen a single advertisement for the film. (On the other hand, we also got a respite from those slimy political ads, as the Obama and Romney campaigns, and the super-PACs supporting them, suspended their advertising.) Still, it only slightly tainted my enjoyment of the film.

Looking at the trilogy as a whole, Christopher Nolan did a masterful job of telling what is really one long story with multiple themes. "The Dark Knight Rises" goes back to plot points and themes in "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" and weaves them into the film coherently, tying everything up extremely well. It even borrowed some from various story lines in the Batman comic books. (Does Bane break Batman's back? I'm not telling, just like I'm not telling whether or not Batman dies, as has been hinted and rumored.)

Specifically concerning the finale, it lived up to all of my expectations, particularly in regard to two of my fave actors. Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle was her usual marvelous self. She's never actually called Catwoman in the film; no mention of cats at all, only her master skills as a thief, thus avoiding the campiness usually associated with the character. (I'm not complaining about the camp: I adore Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman.) And Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a cop -- the trailers gave away nothing about why he was important to the story at all, but it pays off, especially with a hat tip to another Batman character at the very end.


To be honest, though, I think "The Dark Knight" was slightly better than "TDKR," mainly because of one aspect: Bane. No complaints about Tom Hardy, and I even was able to understand most of what he was saying under that mask with that weird voice, which still wasn't as annoying as Christian Bale's Batman voice. But even before Bane's motives were somewhat undercut by a plot twist near the end, as strong and powerful as he is, there's a little lacking when compared to the brilliant madness of Heath Ledger's Joker. My grade: A.

Quick Review: Inception

If you're looking for a complex film that will make you think, "Inception" may be your film. Honestly, though, while there's much to like about it, the extreme complexity at times worked against it for me. Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb, a thief who, because of something that happened involving his late wife (Marion Cotillard), is unable to return to the USA to be with his children. What he steals, it seems, is ideas. With the help of some sort of device and some sort of sedatives, he and his team are able to enter a target's dream and manipulate things in order to learn some piece of information that the target is trying to keep secret. Cobb's team (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy) is hired by a businessman named Saito (Ken Watanabe) to do something different -- instead of taking an idea from someone's mind, implant an idea instead. This is what the title refers to. The target is a rival businessman (Cillian Murphy), and if Cobb and the team are successful, Saito will arrange things so that Cobb can reenter the country and be reunited with his kids. There are various levels of dreams, and time advances more quickly in deeper levels, and...well, I can't do it justice. It is, as I think I've made clear, really complex. It kind of takes a leap of faith to accept everything without wondering about the rules of the dream states that are presented. Also, normally in a film you're rooting for the protagonists to succeed. In this case the protagonists are essentially criminals. As it went on I wasn't sure if I wanted them to succeed or not. Still, it is visually brilliant and well-acted, and the ending is certainly worthy of debate...although just before the very last scene played out, I knew exactly what would happen. My grade: B-plus.