Minions - While Minions made a buttload of money, it
really isn't as good as either of the Despicable Me films it spun off from. A large
part of this rings true for any spin-off of a popular character. The minions
brought a silly level of comic relief to offset the dark humor of Gru, and in
smaller doses it worked amazingly. However, when your protagonists don't
really speak English, it limits how effectively you can tell the story and what
humor you can get across to the audience. With Minions, it was mostly slapstick
and a lot of silly humor.
That said, I did enjoy Minions for what it was. It was funny
and there were some really clever jokes throughout. There was a good voice cast
and (SPOILER)...
...a young Gru does appear at the end. It makes me wonder if
future installments of the franchise will be about Little Gru and the Minions.
I'm sure there will be more installments as this is a cash cow that just keeps
giving.
Ant-Man - Jonny Prophet is convinced that Ant-Man
would have been better if Edgar Wright had stayed with the project. While I
think he may be right, we will never know... unless maybe Wright's original
script is someday released. As it stands, Ant-Man was entertaining, funny and
pretty good.
I have two big complaints about Ant-Man. The first is that
there are moments were the humor style seems out of place. An example of this
is at the beginning when Scott Lang (Rudd) is seemingly about to be in a very
bad fight against a large gentleman while in prison, only to find out it's all
some friendly ass-kicking ritual to commemorate Lang getting released. I felt
like this clashed with Wright's usual mix of witty dialogue and physical humor.
Paul Rudd and Adam McKay, two more of the overall seven credited
script-writers, definitely added a lot of their own style of humor. Usually
this wasn't a big deal, but occasionally the humor fell flat as it seemed out
of place. With seven screenwriters and changing hands from one director to a
new one (Wright had worked on Ant-Man for years), honestly I am surprised the
movie was as good as it was.
The other complaint is one that I have heard a lot about
this movie and many other Marvel superhero films... the villain. I really feel
like Corey Stoll was underutilized. He seems like a good actor and definitely had
a great screen presence, but his Darren Cross was nothing but a cliché. He was
sick of being in Hank Pym's shadow and did unethical and outright illegal
things to become the greater scientist. Worse yet, his Yellowjacket persona was
basically just another evil reversal of the hero like Iron Monger to Iron Man
and Abomination to Hulk. It would have been nice to have more from
Yellowjacket, he looked cool, but we never see his transformation into a
villain. If not for Pym saying once that repeated use of the shrinking power
messes with your brain and personality, I never would have known why Cross
would have gone into full on lunatic mode by the end of the movie. We needed
more, it was too jarring of a leap even for him to go from megalomaniac
scientist trying to best his mentor to "I'm going to go to this guy's
house and kill his daughter"!
Like I said, though, I enjoyed the movie for the most part.
The cast worked. Paul Rudd is great as the "trying to go straight"
ex-felon and in certain moments you can genuinely feel for the guy and
understand why he and so many other reformed criminals would go back to a life
of crime. Evangeline Lily played well off of him and makes me eager to see her
as Wasp someday. Michael Douglas was surprisingly good as Dr. Hank Pym, the
original Ant-Man and current bitter asshole scientist. You can imagine that Pym
is what Tony Stark will become in another twenty years. Oh, I also want to
poiunt out that this was the first movie I have seen Bobby Cannavale not be a
bad guy... he is a really good actor, loved him on Boardwalk Empire. Ant-Man
was also really funny at points, especially when Lang is training to use the
shrinking suit and the final fight against Yellowjacket in Scott's daughter's
bedroom.
So maybe Edgar Wright would have given us a better Ant-Man
movie, maybe not. The one we got, while far from perfect, was definitely what
the makers aimed for... a funny superhero movie that doesn't take itself too
seriously.
Paper Towns - My wife and I are fans of
'coming-of-age' movies and Paper Towns was... alright. It wasn't great,
certainly not as good as The Fault in our Stars, which also had Nat Wolff in a
supporting role. However, it wasn't bad either. It hit a lot of the points for
those coming-of-age teen movies, some feeling like clichés such as the hot girl
that wants to be known for more than looks falling in love with a loser. Paper
Towns was well acted, Cara Delevingne has real potential as a successful
actress beyond her modeling career. It was funny and it had heart. So what was
the problem?
My problem with Paper Towns is that I don't think the
translation to film ended up well. Granted, I have not read the book so I don't
know for certain, but it feels like there was a lot cut out from the story that
would have made a more well rounded film. I got the impression that we were
missing something, like if I had more time with these characters, I might have
understood why the main character Quentin was obsessed enough with Margo that
he would set out on a quest to find her when she disappears. Maybe it would
have felt more natural for hot girl Lacey to fall for Ben, the rambunctious
loser with limited social skills.
If the film had another twenty or thirty minutes, I think it
would have made a lot of difference in the overall result. As it stands, it
isn't bad, but falls far short of more classic "coming-of-age" films
like Stand By Me and The Sandlot, or more recent films like The Perks of Being
a Wallflower or It's Kind of a Funny Story.
Mission
Impossible: Rogue Nation - The fifth movie in Tom Cruise's one successful
film franchise was the best I have seen of the set. Now to be fair, I didn't
see the third or fourth films, but Rogue Nation was better than the first two.
The addition of a crew for Ethan Hunt to work with really adds to the film; it
takes a lot of the focus off of Cruise and allows for more levity. This was my
biggest gripe with the original... the movie started with Hunt having a crew including
Emilio Estevez, Jean Reno and Ving Rhames. By the end of the movie only Rhames
was still with him and thankfully has appeared in every movie since. Now we
also have Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg, who between them provide a lot of comic
relief. That's nice because let's face it, two hours of Tom Cruise is a lot to take.
Rogue Nation felt like a non-stop action roller coaster.
This had two effects. The first was the exciting movie experience, full of
pulse-pounding stunts and sequences. The other was that there was never a time
where the story felt like it could take shape. Right off the bat we are thrown
into the plot, a situation that Cruise's Ethan Hunt has been tracking for
months. We, the audience, are just sort of expected to root for the good guys
and boo the bad guys without really having a firm grasp of what was going on. I
would compare it to starting to watch the series Breaking Bad eight episodes
in. Yeah, they give you a recap and it isn't impossible to learn what's going
on, but getting invested in the story at that point will be pretty difficult.
I enjoyed Rogue Nation. It was the fast-paced popcorn movie that
I figured it was. However, if you are
looking for a spy movie with real substance... look somewhere else.
The Gift - I have to say I am really liking Joel
Edgerton. Not only is he a good actor, but his work behind the camera is
impressing me as well. He came up with the story to the film The Rover, which I
enjoyed, and he wrote and directed The Gift.
The Gift is a psychological thriller that keeps you guessing
and actually has a few good twists thrown in for good measure. I don't want to
go into the plot too much, just know that it involves a married couple (played
by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall) that start getting frequent visits from the
husband's old classmate, a man that may be mentally unstable.
One thing I really liked about The Gift was Bateman's
performance. Jason Bateman shows that he has a lot of range, playing a role
that I have never seen him play before. Like I said, it's a pretty good
thriller, worth checking out if you get the chance.
Shaun the Sheep Movie - At times it seems like
Aardman Animations can do no wrong. They are certainly masters of stop-motion
animation and make some extremely clever and funny films. Consider this, the
Shaun the Sheep Movie is feature length (85 minutes) and features absolutely no
dialogue. That is not an easy task, especially for a film ,marketed for
children!
I really enjoyed the Shaun the Sheep Movie, but then again I
like the show itself. This was like a really long episode, but never felt long
on the story or had tired humor. It was a fun movie and definitely one we will
be owning. It was also the first movie we took the Little Toaster to, twice
actually. He saw it with TivoGirl first and when I expressed interest in seeing
it too, Little Toaster was willing to see it again. (He fell asleep when he saw
it with me.)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - I was bound to see this
movie simply because it's a Guy Ritchie movie and I will see any Guy Ritchie
movie (unless it features his ex-wife Madonna). I really liked this movie. It
was a stylish 60's retro spy movie with some great action sequences and some
hilarious moments.
I agree with many critics that the plot was a little thin.
It was the basic rinse and repeat story involving terrorists trying to get
nuclear weapons and the love interest whose father is a scientists being forced
to work for the bad guys. However, I would argue that the plot is pretty reminiscent
of plots from 60's spy shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., even down to the on
screen establishing text that looks like it came straight out of an episode.
The movie actually does an amazing job with setting the tone
of the early 60's cold war era with the cars, fashions and music. When you
combine that with the great performances of Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer and
Alicia Vikander fluently mixing action with comedy, it makes for what I felt
was a highly entertaining movie... easily one that can be added to my list of favorite
films adapted from television shows.
Seriously, some of the comedy in the movie is uproariously funny, I don't want
to spoil anything, just trust me and see the movie. Oh, and I also want to add
that I want to see more of Jared Harris and his tough guy New Yorker accent. Hell,
just more Jared Harris in general would make me happy.
So that's it for now. Until next time, Stay Strange.
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