Quick Review: Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

So while everyone else was rushing out to see "Guardians of the Galaxy," I took advantage of a bit of extra cash to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the second chapter of the reboot. It takes place ten years after the events of "Rise of the..." The virus that gives apes an intelligence boost has wiped out human civilization. The apes, led by Caesar (Andy Serkis), have built a community in the Muir Woods north of San Francisco. They eventually discover that a colony of humans, immune to the virus, remains in San Francisco and some of them are trying to access a hydroelectric dam that could restore power to the city. The story plays out under a cloud of distrust. The humans don't entirely trust the apes. The apes don't trust the humans. There's some dissent in the ranks of the human leaders (Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman), as well as among the apes. Oh, and there's a point to be made about guns, as the humans have a stash of weaponry. I enjoyed it all, but not overwhelmed. Maybe it was because there was only a cameo from James Franco? My grade: B.

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 Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

I'm behind in writing my movie reviews again -- two movies I saw over two weeks ago and two more I saw this week -- so I'm going to try and do four short posts over the next day or so, starting with the animated "Kung Fu Panda 2." For some reason the box office figures for the first weekend weren't as high as those for the first KFP (even factoring in money from 3D showings), and I really don't know why because the sequel is right up there, quality-wise. Our hero, Po (voice of Jack Black), the Dragon Warrior, and the Furious Five are tasked with stopping the evil Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), who has developed a powerful weapon that seemingly can't be stopped even by the most skilled kung fu practitioners. But Po is troubled by flashbacks of his mother, and needs to achieve inner peace before the fight is hopelessly lost. Lovely animation and, rare for a sequel, real character development. My grade: A-minus.