Review – Page 187 – We Are Movie Geeks

CRIMINAL – Review

The incoherent mess known as CRIMINAL is rescued from disaster by a game cast. Seasoned pros join hot younger stars to elevate a ridiculous script, keeping what could have (and should have) been a train wreck mostly on track and lending CRIMINAL far more credibility than it deserves.

CRIMINAL opens with a gritty chase through the streets of London that ends with CIA agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) murdered by having a cattle prod shoved down his throat by the sinister “Spanish Anarchist” Heimdahl (Jordi Molla) and his vicious moll Elsa (Antje Traue). But Pope’s now-dead mind is full of critical, earth-saving info involving his interactions with “The Dutchman” (Michael Pitt), a nut who has hacked his way into the controls of U.S. nuclear missile silos and will start WWIII unless his demands, mostly involving a passport and a big bag of cash, are met. Pope’s CIA superior Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) hires Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones), the brains behind a secret mind transference project, to plug Pope’s memories into the brain of someone else. When Wells asks Dr. Franks (as in Frankenstein) if he has a subject in mind, the answer is “Yes, but you’re not going to like him”. That’s because, according this movie’s dopey logic, the only candidate in the world to be on the receiving end of Pope’s thoughts is death-row inmate Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner), a lunatic sociopath so dangerous he lives shackled, Hannibal Lecter-like, in double-secret solitary confinement (we’re never told why a more stable subject isn’t chosen, or one already in London, since they have to fly Jericho there from the U.S. even though time is running out). The operation is a success but Jericho tricks Wells and Dr. Franks into thinking it’s a failure and on his way back to prison, escapes and goes hunting for that satchel of cash that Pope’s memories tell him is stashed somewhere near a row of vintage George Orwell novels. He visits Pope’s widow Jill (Gal Gadot) who immediately buys his farfetched tale (Him: “Tonight is chicken and waffles night” – Her: “Wow! My husband’s mind really has been injected into that scar on the back of your neck!”) She and her young daughter Emma (Lara Decarro) join Jericho for a series of progressively incomprehensible plot developments.

CRIMINAL is initially audacious and intriguing – but ultimately bogged down by its preposterousness as the overstuffed narrative become more and more ludicrous and confusing. It’s never clear how exactly Heimdahl and his goons fit into the Dutchman’s plans. Neither Kevin Costner nor the script ever seem to have a real grasp on how much of Pope’s mind Jericho is sharing his noggin with at any given time. Jericho is a step ahead of the CIA and Heimdahl’s army of well-organized villains on his tail one minute, and mumbling dumb like Billy Bob Thornton in SLING BLADE the next. There may be philosophical questions lurking beneath the surface of CRIMINAL, but they’re mostly avoided in favor of bloody action sequences with blazing guns, car chases, explosions, action and plot directions that make the head spin. The only fantastical aspect of the film is its brain-transference concept, and everything beyond that is taken from a conventional action film template (spoiler alert: Jill and Emma are kidnapped by Heimdahl !).

It’s the cast however, that makes CRIMINAL watchable, though perhaps in a sort of ‘guilty pleasure’ way. Costner is never convincing as a man in another man’s body, but he doesn’t have to be. Scowling and growling like a grumpy Clint Eastwood, Costner has a lot of fun with the role and the audience has fun along with him, watching Jericho bashing in teeth and even murdering innocents just to steal their food or their cars. Gary Oldman, a long-term devotee of the art of ham, screams and spits and rolls his eyes like a champ. Challenging him in the overacting department is Michael Pitt who delivers his character’s manic dialogue with nutty aplomb but he spends almost the entire movie alone in a hotel room which just makes his approach that much odder. Tommy Lee Jones is the laid back one, but he disappears for much of the film while Jordi Molla makes for a hissable villain and gets to deliver some of the film’s best howlers like “If you’d kept better track of the Dutchman, we’d have the wormhole by now!” Gal Gadot looks good in a standard part but isn’t given much to do. Alice Eve is wasted as a doomed CIA agent, while Antje Traue makes the best impression of the three women as a sadistic henchwoman. After THE CHANGE-UP and SELF/LESS, this is the third Ryan Reynolds body swap film. You’d think he’d know better but this one won’t hurt his career. Keep expectations low. CRIMINAL isn’t good…..but it’s a good time.

(a generous) 3 of 5 Stars

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL – Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

The entire world of MIDNIGHT SPECIAL seems to be built on an allegory for the fears of writer/director Jeff Nichols. The entire world, and film, seems to be built on the fear of raising a child in the modern world. In a world of that’s more technologically advanced than you could ever dream. A world where the government is prevalent but not dangerous, but a world where religion ultimately can be.

The opening of MIDNIGHT SPECIAL has little concern with these things, but that’s only because of its set up. Two men on the run with a boy. Roy, Lucas, and Alton. The introduction of these characters is brief, but extremely memorable. Nichols has always been an excellent writer when it comes to characters coming fully formed into films, and his regular Michael Shannon is a spectacular enough character actor to sell Nichols’s fully realized characters. Shannon plays Roy, a father protecting his son. The car’s engine bellows as the music does the same.

Nichols has always known how to create memorable scenes like that. The increasing noise of the car ramping up tension as the speed only prompts an accident. An explosion of violence. MIDNIGHT SPECIAL starts poetic, and beautiful. It’s a film that doesn’t bother with exposition and lets memorable and emotional moments show us the world that has shaped around the characters. Shannon and Joel Edgerton both shine through this part of the film. The intensity that can be seen on their faces as the audiences is brought through the twists and turns is palpable. The sheer ferocity of the performances here is astounding.

But the movie changes, and becomes ever the more interesting. The world mechanics start to kick in, and the allegory reveals itself.

Those two halves of MIDNIGHT SPECIAL are differentiated very much from each other, but that’s not a bad thing. The intensity of the first act could not have gone on forever without everything eventually tiring (though with the direction that Nichols employed it might have). The story needs to go somewhere. To some,where it goes may seem disappointing and shallow, but that mistake can be made for much of the movie. Some could in fact say that the characters of MIDNIGHT SPECIAL are shallow when in fact they’re complete characters from moment one. They’re just not exposition dumps. Reading into the performances is required to understand them, and the rich complexities that they represent.

There are so many complexities that MIDNIGHT SPECIAL has to offer if looked at in the right way. It’s a film that transcends the normal standards of filmmaking, and becomes, in a sense, real art to be delved into and interpreted. Sure, it’s art with guys shooting off shotguns, and that’s just awesome, but through sheer force of will Nichols has created a wondrous, hard-bitten, whimsical blast of a film. Go see MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, and interpret for yourself.

5 of 5 Stars

HARDCORE HENRY Review

In the action thriller HARDCORE HENRY, a man wakes up in a high-tech lab and is told by a woman in a lab coat he has been brought back to life as a human-robot hybrid. He can’t remember anything but she tells him his name is Henry and she is his wife, slipping a wedding ring on his finger. But as she is preparing to restore his ability to speak, the lab is attacked. Shortly, Henry is running for his life in Moscow and hoping to rescue his wife from the attackers who have taken her.

The twist with this high-octane thriller is that it is shot in first-person point-of-view, where the audience sees through Henry’s eyes as he battles to stay alive using his considerable skills. Since he cannot speak, the viewer is completely immersed in his role, which is shot like a GoPro video where we sometimes see his legs or arms but not his face. HARDCORE HENRY is a wild-ride, high body-count, science fiction action thriller, so it also resembles a first-person shooter video game. The result is immersive and intense – at times, too much so for some viewers and making one glad the film is not in 3D.

HARDCORE HENRY claims to be the first film shot entirely in first-person view. That claim may or may not be true but, of course, it is not the first film to use the technique. We have seen similar effects in several “found-footage” films and the technique was used to great effect in the beach landing sequence of “Saving Private Ryan” and in several film noir classics including the Bogart and Bacall mystery “Dark Passage,” which uses the technique in the first half.

HARDCORE HENRY’s use of GoPro cameras gives it a wild and exhilarating feel. The non-stop pace is almost as breathtaking as the dizzying P.O.V. camera-work. The film has plenty of shooting and violent action, especially in the early scenes, and it is relentlessly fast but it also has a mystery plot and actually includes a fair amount of dark humor. The film’s producers include Timur Bekmambetov, director of the vampire-themed “Night Watch,”who knows a thing or two about action films, and it is directed by Ilya Naishuller. The action takes place in Moscow and surroundings, but characters speak English, as they do in the lab where Henry awakens, or subtitled Russian, as do the army of thugs who pursue Henry.

Since the viewer is essentially Henry, much of the storytelling is carried by another character, Jimmy, played with great flare by Sharlto Copley. The versatile South African actor is perhaps best known for his role in “District 9,” where he transformed from a man into a shrimp-like alien. Here Copley plays an eccentric Brit who shows up on a Moscow street, saying he is there to help Henry. Haley Bennett plays Estelle, the woman who awakens Henry. Henry’s attackers are under the control of Akan (Danila Kozlovsky), a mysterious wealthy madman with his own special powers.

Bennett and Kozlovsky are fine in their roles but the real acting fun and showcase goes to Copley, who appears in a number of disguises, and supplies plenty of humor along with the backstory. Basically, it is really his film and Copley is great fun in the role.

HARDCORE HENRY has an innovative approach but it is hardly a perfect or profound film – it is just entertainment. The film is heavy on action, having a blast with its unusual visual technique, but a bit light on story. However, it is a lot of fun for fans of science fiction action thrillers, with a nice performance by Copley – assuming the viewer has the iron stomach for the roller coaster visuals.

HARDCORE HENRY opens in St. Louis on April 8th, 2016

OVERALL RATING: 3 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! Review

It’s not easy to make something seem so effortless… so easygoing. Twenty-five years after his breakout hit SLACKER, Richard Linklater still proves he’s a master of the “hang-out” film. Even when you may not even like the characters – as might be the case with this outing – Linklater has a way of showing characters simply hanging out, shooting-the-shit, and being themselves, and yet presenting them in a way that is absolutely fascinating. And what makes it all the more remarkable is that with films like SLACKER, DAZED AND CONFUSED, THE BEFORE TRILOGY, and now EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!, he hits it out of the park every time. He makes it look like a game of T-ball, when really it’s a lot harder to nail than that.

On the surface, EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! is a film about a bunch of college jocks in 1980 drinking beer and trying to pick up girls the weekend before the semester and baseball season starts up. But within the banter and playful ribbing are hints of Linklater examining this group’s need for competition. Even off the field, these guys are making it a game to score with chicks or cutting a baseball in half in the backyard with an axe or playing a game of knuckles in the dining room right next to someone playing an early handheld videogame. It’s all a testosterone-fueled game.

With a large ensemble cast made up of almost entirely men in ringer tees, short shorts, and mustaches, it’s a little tricky to stand out in the lineup. However, one standout player is Wyatt Russell as Willoughby. He’s a burst of energy every time he’s on screen with his affable demeanor and quick remarks. Although she’s the only female lead, Zoey Duetch makes the most out of very little. Beverly’s the artistic and theatrical type but goes beyond the singing in the street, jazz-hands stereotype. That being said, her introduction shows that she’s not afraid to fire back at unwanted advances from the boys. Having been immersed in the theater and art world, I can attest that she feels more authentic then the script gives her credit for. I only wish that her scenes opposite our leading man Jake (Blake Jenner) didn’t feel so shoehorned in at times. As a result, the film only kinda looks like a boy’s club.

Even with the strong air of puffed chests and machismo, EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! isn’t endorsing the troubling excuse that “boys will be boys.” In fact, Linklater is more keen to emasculate their inflated personas and confidence by showing them strike out with the ladies and even play dress-up – revealing that they are actually less like macho men and more like a group of lost and unsure boys. You see the gang go to a country line-dancing club, a punk show, and even a costume party with the theater kids, all of which they dress in specific outfits and act the part to fit a certain mold. Nevertheless, the homoeroticism undertone never comes to a complete boil.

In the end, much like so many of his best films, Linklater shows that a person is more than a stereotype. With DAZED AND CONFUSED, a stoner is more than the funny things he says when he’s high. With BERNIE, a killer can have a mild mannered heart of gold. With BOYHOOD, a young boy can be more aware of his surroundings than his age would imply. With EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!, the jocks are more than just meatheads. Sure, they might not know what’s going on in those heads, but maybe after a few more rounds of beer they might figure it out. And even if they don’t, it’ll be a lot of fun to hang out with them as they try to win at life.

Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5

EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! is now playing in limited theaters

THE BOSS Review

Ready for another ride on that now revered cinematic stand-by, the “riches-to-rags-to-riches” story? This seems to be more popular now, although the “rags-to-riches” tale of triumph occasionally pops up, as in last December’s inspired by true events crowd-pleaser JOY. And once more, this up and down and up scenario is mined for laughs, just as in the comedy from nearly a year ago, GET HARD. Oh, and what a coincidence, one of the stars of that film, Will Ferrell, is one of the producers of this new film. But neither he or one of the other kings and princes of current movie mirth star. Rather, this is another starring vehicle for the reigning (nearly five years now) queen of cinema comedy, Melissa McCarthy. In between last summer’s smash SPY and next summer’s much talked-about reboot/re-imagining of the GHOSTBUSTERS, she has re-teamed with hubby Ben Falcone on this script (along with actor Steve Mallory) which Ben also directs. Now the last time the couple collaborated like this was two years ago on the wildly uneven TAMMY. Can the duo rebound from that much-maligned effort with THE BOSS?

The title refers to Michelle Darnell, who we first encounter during several rejections occurring during her childhood. Several prospective parents drop her back off at a “sisters of mercy”-type orphanage, returning her to Sister Aluminata, and speeding away. Teenage Michelle vows, ala Scarlett O’Hara, that she’ll show them by being rich and successful. Jump cut to today as the adult version (McCarthy) packs a huge Chicago stadium for her motivational seminar on how to attain great wealth (after all, she’s the 47th richest woman in America). Later, as she berates her stressed-out assistant Claire (Kristen Bell), Ms. D gets a call from business rival (and ex-lover) Renault (Peter Dinklage). Seems she has screwed him out of a big stakes company acquisition and boasts of her “inside info”. But Renault (pronounced “Rey-no”), has something up his petite sleeves and contacts his man at the SEC. As she leaves her high-rise HQ the next morning, she is arrested for insider trading. After a quick trial she is found guilty and sentenced to a “minimum security” prison (more like a country club). Claire continues to aide her, but soon quits since the feds have taken every bit of the Darnell empire, and the single mom takes an investment job at a small firm, in order to provide for her pre-teen daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson). When Michelle is released, no one is there to welcome her back to society. Desperate and destitute, Michelle arrives at the modest apartment of Claire, who agrees to let her ex-boss crash on the couch for a few days. This stretches into weeks. Claire insists Michelle help out by taking Rachel to an after-school meeting of the Daffodils, a national girls’ club. As Michelle learns of their highly profitable cookie sales drive, a light bulb goes off. Claire has a fantastic brownie recipe, so…Michelle creates a rival to the Daffodils, Darnell’s Darlings, in order to sell the treats door to door. Will this be her ticket back to the big time? Or will Renault thwart her once more?

Once again, the talented McCarthy completely commits to a comic character (one she helped create years ago during her stint with the Groundlings, an LA-based improv comedy troupe) and is the film’s energetic power-source. From the moment we see her gliding atop a golden phoenix, her turtleneck nearly stretched to her mouth like a ginger sister of Bazooka Joe’s pal Morty, she commands our attention even in Darnell’s most outrageous behavior. Somehow, we continue to root for this vain whirlwind, a credit to McCarthy’s considerable acting chops (shown best in 2014’s low key supporting work in ST. VINCENT). She’s got a gifted comedy partner in Bell (though not quite the zenith of Sandra Bullock in THE HEAT). Ms. Bell doesn’t have as many chances to really cut-loose, although the bra debate is one of the film’s highlights. Often, she’s merely there looking aghast at Darnell’s antics. And she’s saddled with a dreary romantic subplot with office cubicle neighbor Tyer Labine, so funny in TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL. Here Labine is merely the needy puppy, trying to woo Claire, until he finally gets to wig-out briefly during the film’s final act. The film has its share of villains conspiring to stop Darnell and company. The supremely gifted SNL current cast member Cecily Strong is given little to do as Claire’s new boss Dana. Dinklage wrings a few laughs as the pompous and effite Renault, especially when his martial arts obsessions provide a ludicrous final fight. Timothy Simons (another HBO vet from “Veep”) make a solid grinning servant who towers over his master, but the battle of the fawning syncophants might be won by the very funny Cedric Yarbrough as Darnell’s driver Tito, who shamelessly flatters her while disparaging Claire. The film’s most worthy adversary is the hysterical Anne Mumolo (co-writer of BRIDESMAIDS) as Daffodil parent Helen who’s unafraid to go nose-to-nose with Darnell in several altercations. It’s a funny fearless performance that matches McCarthy’s bravado. As for the rest of the cast, Anderson is an adorable heart-tugger, Kristen Schaal (A WALK IN THE WOODS) is the “PC” Daffodil leader easily steamrolled by Darnell, and Kathy Bates (another TAMMY co-star) has a brief cameo as Darnell’s mentor.

Speaking of TAMMY, this new vehicle is the better film, but some might consider this to be a perfect example of the old adage “damning with faint praise”. Falcone seems to be a more confident director, although he relies too often on characters speaking directly into the camera (perhaps to allow for more improv). He still lingers on reaction shots which contribute to the film’s sluggish length (along with all the slow motion on the big street smack-down). The main faults are in the script’s structure. When the one hour lull creeps in, an attempt at pathos sneaks in to try and make Darnell a more sympathetic character (she’s still that rejected lil’ girl watching another family speed away). It’s as though the screenplay lost its courage and wanted to smooth out Darnell’s rough edges in order to prep us for a feel good fade-out. And it doesn’t help that the film’s best jokes and gags have already been given away in the trailers and TV spots. The cartoonish caper climax seems out of place also (suddenly it’s OCEANS 14?). McCarthy’s best collaborator is still Paul Feig who truly plays to her great strengths while dividing up the laughs equally amongst her co-stars. There’s lots of great set pieces, but the story just looses its comic momentum as they bypass the funny bone for the heart strings. Though the script attempts to bind her, Melissa McCarthy remains a fractious force of nature as THE BOSS.

3 Out of 5

DEMOLITION – Review

Jake Gyllenhaal takes a sledgehammer to his grief in the flawed but well-acted DEMOLITION. It’s the story of Manhattan investment broker Davis Mitchell (Gyllenhaal), whose wife, Julia (Heather Lind), is killed in a car wreck while they’re arguing about a leaky refrigerator. Davis is uninjured and, while waiting in the emergency room’s lobby, has an encounter with a vending machine there that fails to properly dispense his peanut M&Ms. He feels little in terms of anguish over the sudden loss of his wife, even returning to work the next day. It’s that denied bag of candy that really gets under his skin so he begins writing to the vending company’s customer complaint department — long, personal letters that become a narrative device illustrating Davis’ state of mind. On the receiving end of his rants is the vending company’s owner’s wife Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts), the pot smoking mother of foul-mouthed 15-year old Chris (Judah Lewis). She calls Davis in the middle of the night to tell him that his letters made her cry. Davis and Karen are destined to meet, but not before they stalk each other for a while. Davis gets out his toolbox and begins taking things apart; the furniture, the computer, the coffeemaker, and the bathroom stalls at his office. Then starts demolishing – first a house being torn down by a construction crew, then his big-screen TV and eventually the home he shared with his late wife.

This is where DEMOLITION becomes muddled – and all over the map in its tone -mawkish melodrama one moment, dark comedy the next. Davis looks cool smashing things, but the audience fails to share his catharsis. Gyllenhaal is superb, especially in the early scenes, but the movie is not as good as its star. As Davis gets weirder and weirder, DEMOLITION begins to feel like therapy. Anything meaningful Bryan Sipe’s script may have to say about mortality or grief is impeded by its focus on the strange specifics of this one man’s situation and the unbelievable way he handles it. Chris Cooper as Phil, Davis’ boss and the father of his late wife, balances the weirdness with a heartbreaking portrayal of a man dealing with the sorrow of a child’s death in a more conventional way – and he puts up with his son-in-law’s crap a lot longer than I would’ve. Less successful is Naomi Watts, who fails to make her wacky character seem real. Her husband’s a jerk but she’d rather build a fort out of couch cushions and make shadow puppets with Davis than start a romance (maybe it’s all that weed she smokes).

The most promising part of DEMOLITION is the friendship that forms between Davis and young Chris, who’s having his own issues with his budding homosexuality. Those scenes have a nice amusing awkwardness but there’s soooo much that’s hard to swallow in the film. Why is this customer service rep calling Davis at 2am? Is any bonded construction crew really going to let a complete stranger off the street start swinging sledgehammers alongside them? Wouldn’t the police at least show up if you were suddenly demolishing your own house with a bulldozer you bought on eBay? Would you walk away laughing after being shot twice in the chest at point-blank range, Kevlar vest or not (did he get that on eBay too?)? If DEMOLITION had been better, these things wouldn’t have bothered me, but it’s all so heavy-handed. In an early scene, Davis says in voice-over, “Everything I see now is a metaphor” as he drives by an uprooted tree. You eventually realize this is a warning about how overly-symbolic the film will be. Yes, Davis is tearing his life apart so he can figure out how to put it back together. We get it. We also get the shot of Davis strolling in slo-mo through the crowded streets of NYC while everyone else is walking backwards. And of course we get Julia’s ghost in countless visions and dreams (the actress playing her has a resemblance to Katy Perry that was a distraction to me). DEMOLITION is technically artful and director Jean-Marc Vallee (DALLAS BUYERS CLUB) handles certain scenes with exceptional grace. Yves Belanger’s cinematography is handsome, and the soundtrack is outstanding with great use of pop songs – especially Heart’s Crazy on You. DEMOLITION has its strengths but falls just short of recommendation.

2 1/2 of 5 Stars

TUMBLEDOWN Blu-ray Review

A rock journalist (Jason Sudeikis) obsessed with the death of musical idols and their legacy – a compelling argument could be made that Chuck Klosterman served as inspiration for the character – discovers that there is more to life than extending adoration long after death. Hannah (played in a strong and stern manner by Rebecca Hall) is the widow of the popular folk hero. Now with his passing, she has more time to focus on herself and her own writing without having to be in the shadow of her great singer-songwriter husband. When Andrew approaches Hannah about writing a biography about her late husband, she’s initially reluctant, but the two eventually agree and take a stroll down memory lane.

Desiree and Desi Van Til along with director Sean Mewshaw have written a tender story that occasionally waxes philosophical about the artistic process and life after death through two different viewpoints looking at the same person – Hannah who views him as a friend and partner and Andrew who sees a fallen musical idol. It’s a role that could have come across as too slimy and manipulative if it weren’t played delicately by Sudekis. He comes across as genuine and affable, thanks to him toning down his typically boisterous personality. I never really saw Sudeikis as a leading man type before – he always seemed more like the crude and obnoxious best friend in a sex comedy – but he really earns his romantic-lead stripes here.

Even though TUMBLEDOWN avoids some of the romantic pitfalls in lieu of a more thoughtful display of a woman coping with a terrible loss while attempting to find her own path, the film finally succumbs to a quintessential trope in the end. Sure, the path that the characters eventually go down was hinted at, but it would have been a far more compelling finale (not to mention, one that would be better fitted to Hannah’s personality) if she would have took the road less traveled.

The quaint Maine town creates a lovely backdrop for a story that mainly focuses on where to go next when you’re seemingly lost in the woods. Hannah’s strong survival instinct masks the vulnerable side that she hides away in her cabin isolated in the woods. Sean Mewshaw’s modest picture isn’t afraid to deal with real emotions and conflicting feelings about love, loss, and moving on. For the majority of its breezy duration, TUMBLEDOWN sidesteps being the type of book you read on an airplane to pass the time. To put it in musical terms given the subject, it would be like going to a concert and witnessing a carefully staged and crafted performance, and then the band ending on the greatest hits song that everyone knows and can sing along with that you have heard so many times before.

TUMBLEDOWN Blu-ray bonus features:

The Making of Tumbledown : A look at the film’s accurate portrayal of small town life, real-life inspirations for the film, core story details and themes, casting and performances, character details, Director Sean Mewshaw’s work, and the movie’s photography.

The Music Behind Tumbledown : A look at Damien Jurado’s work as the voice of Hunter Miles, the music’s emotional resonance and place in the movie, and more.

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

TUMBLEDOWN is now available on Blu-ray and DVD

STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS Blu-ray Review

STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS

Wow. Just the sound of it rolling off the tongue… Who would have thought this would happen? We all dreamt about the possibility of the saga being taken further than six episodes, even if as secretly closeted fans, but did we ever truly believe it would happen? Now it has and I do not feel I am alone in saying it’s been worth the wait. Even those who found the film little more than average have to admit, this is something truly special, even generational, for some.

I’ve admired J.J. Abrams as an all-around, fully immersed filmmaker for some time now. From his original content on television and the big screen to revamping STAR TREK and now STAR WARS, he’s a special kind of movie geek. No one can argue that his heart and soul isn’t in every fiber of making a fantastic movie and doing it right. This, more than anything else, is why I personally have looked forward to being able to revisit this film at home, in depth and experience it on a more intimate level, separate from but equally thrilling as the experience of seeing it in a packed theater.

For some of us, the Saga took a heartbreaking turn to the dark side with the “prequelogy,” a time of lost hope and shattered dreams. An era we yearned for so deeply that, for many of us, ended up stabbing us so cruelly, so heartlessly in the backs. We had our strong moments, our proud moments in that clouded age of anger and disappointment, but the journey was long and wrought with banality and shame. One word… midichlorians. One name… Jar Jar Binks. Oh, the sounds still send shivers down my spine.

If Star Wars were a religion, one could make the argument that Abrams is the messiah. That’s not my outlook, but I can see the case taking a solid foothold with a segment of the fandom. Every epic yarn has it’s peaks and valleys, a dark age followed by a renewed renaissance. Who better to usher up the new enlightened period than Abrams?

Wait… I can hear them now. I hear the groans and poorly annunciated digs on THE FORCE AWAKENS as simply being A NEW HOPE recycled. Fair enough. There is some merit in that argument, on the surface. I encourage those that feed on this, however, to look within the ancient lore that has so heavily influenced this and so many other modern fables and make a case that this is, at it’s core, a traditional and proven method of storytelling. The Buddhists believe in reincarnations. The Christians believe in the resurrected savior. Why not, then, can we not have our Jedi come in familiar cycles of discovery and enlightenment?

On with the story… darkness reigns and the secretive, ruthless Sith influence once again threatens freedom and peace throughout the galaxy. Once again, the bad guys have a nasty toy, only this time it’s way bigger and meaner. They call themselves the First Order, are eerily reminiscent of the Nazi Third Reich, and are led by a psychotic, ill-tempered sociopath who blames others’ for his own shortcomings. Kylo Ren has daddy issues as well as anger management issues, struggling to fit into grandaddy Vader’s big black boots. Meanwhile, a spunky young loner girl named Rey scrapes out a meager existence on a desert planet as an under-appreciated scavenger while the force lies dormant within her.

Yoda, Qui gon and Obi-wan are dead, Luke has gone AWOL and there seems no hope of a Jedi resurgence to save the day. Instead, Princess Leia leads her rag tag resistance against unsurmountable odds until a cowardly storm trooper gets cold feet on his first day, helping the best pilot in the resistance escape captivity in the process of defecting and thus begins the dawn of a renewed fight.

All of this is shot in breathtakingly beautiful, larger than life scope and accompanied by yet another impressively iconic score from the legendary John Williams. Much to Abrams’ credit, the film utilizes as much practical special effects as possible and it pays off. The detail and immense realism, placing the audience amidst the action and eerily familiar foreign landscapes allows us the immerse ourselves deeper into the childlike fantasy of the Star Wars saga. Abrams understands this and succeeds in rekindling that youthful flame whereas the prequels were more focused on attracting the fresh young flickers while greatly ignoring the long-glowing embers.

Rich in color, design and detail, the sets and the locations alike are painstakingly evident when taking the time to study the blu-ray edition of THE FORCE AWAKENS. The initial home release of the film, which included both the blu-ray, the DVD and the digital copy, opens up the new chapter to fans in all it’s unencumbered theatrical glory. We need not be concerns about which version or re-edit we’re stumbled upon. It’s the one, the only, the intended version.

New creatures and characters, a fresh young cast, reminiscent of what we were given in the original trilogy, whereas these relative unknowns prove two things: first, that Abrams is a casting genius, and second, that these “rookies” nailed it, especially Daisy Ridley as Rey. Giving a jaw-dropping, fully convincing performance of emotion, physical ability and adaptiveness shows me we are in for a real treat as certainly she will pursue her connection with the force and train to become Jedi. When it comes to girl power, Rey is right up there with Weaver’s Ripley and Theron’s Furiosa. Converse to this is Finn’s unheroic reluctance to anything noble or courageous, but in contrast to Rey is strangely fitting and the two rub off an one another, leading Finn to have a change of heart and mind.

THE FORCE AWAKENS is, in many ways familiar, but is in just as many ways fresh and invigorating as well. While this initial home release does contain some worthwhile extras, by the current modern standards is fairly basic. Certainly, future editions will reveal existing golden nuggets being held back in secrecy and new ones to be mined from the archives, a la Special Limited Anniversary Collectors’ Editions, et al. With that said, this one is far from bare-boned and has merit amidst it’s menus.

My own experience, having revisited the film at home on blu-ray with my boys, 11 and 8 years old, was a wealth of revelatory glory. Glued to the events unfolding on hi-def, these three pairs of eyes were, and as the film ended, I found myself not forsaken, but accompanied during my quest to conquer the bonus features by my 8-year old, equally glued to the documentarian escapades as myself, when he turned to me and said “we’re just a couple of movie geeks.” I wipes a tear from my eye and realized all is well in the world and Star Wars has returned in a way with which we can all be proud.

Bonus Features:

Secrets of the Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey — Having originally premiered at SXSW to help promote the film, this documentary is as much a marketing tool as it is an engaging, light-hearted glance behind the scenes of the film. This documentary s longer than most made for home release, is not so long as to intimidate a viewer. The film also unveils some lesser realized casting choices that non-die hard fans may not have otherwise known. A good chunk of the film does feel a bit like collected junkets, but one ting that certainly was not lost on me while watching this was how grateful and humbled the cast and crew involved with this filmmaking experience are to the fact that this is a story of meteoric cultural significance and should be treated as such.
The Story Awakens: The Table Read — A rather truncated, brief but revealing feature that gives the audience a fascinating insight into the actors’ journey of discovering, adapting and becoming a role as part of a larger story.
Building BB-8 — Perhaps my favorite bonus feature of this release, the research, time and skill that went into bringing this little guy to life in awe-inspiring. Not since No,5 from SHORT CIRCUIT have a connected so fully with the cuteness of a self-aware robot.
Crafting Creatures — What’s a Star Wars film without the obligatory featurette about how they created the monster/creature makeup and effects? Nonetheless, well worth viewing as a standard option available on most similar genre films.
Blueprint of a Battle: The Snow Fight — Kylo Ren, Rey and Finn, and how they made this fight look so darn good! It takes a lot of practice time and hard work to perform a convincing, realistic, emotionally-charged, thrilling light saber fight and this helps to explain.
John Williams: The Seventh Symphony — Basically, a short, but well-deserved tribute to a living legend.
ILM: The Visual Magic of the Force — A short, but insightful glimpse into what ILM does and what puts them at the top of their game.
Deleted Scenes — There are only a handful of relatively short deleted scenes, but undoubtedly there are many more that may likely reveal themselves in future releases. With that said, these are some interesting omissions and are curious to consider.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS will be available on a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo Pack on Tuesday, April 5th, 2016

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

BORN TO BE BLUE – Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

There are two types of biopics out there: 1: Ones that try to accurately tell the story of the subject, and 2: The ones that try to accurately represent what it was like to be around the subject. The latter ones usually work better as movies because there’s feeling and emotion at the base of them rather than just a good story. BORN TO BE BLUE for most of its running time is not that type of movie. It’s the first kind. A straightforward, and interesting take on the interesting life of an interesting man. When it does try to become the second kind, it doesn’t really work.

In the first 30 minutes the film tries to be the second kind of biopic, but stumbles in doing so. Most of it just ends up looking like unstructured and meaningless serialism. It seems like the filmmakers realized that they were making a pretty good, but shallow film and at the last minute tried to shoehorn in some artistic flare. Sometimes artistic depth just doesn’t fit the screenplay.
That’s not to say the film is a bad movie though. The rest of it is harmless, but extremely engaging biopic material. It’s the story of the jazz trumpeter Chet Baker as he tries to recover from a heroin addiction, and get back into the jazz business. Those who know anything about Chet Baker will know how the film ultimately ends up, and it’s actually refreshing to see how it does so especially since the rest of the film is played so much like an inspiring biopic.

This type of movie though is usually fueled simply by one great performance, and luckily Ethan Hawke is here to pick up any slack the screenplay leaves. Hawke has always been such a likable charisma on screen that he’s immediately sympathetic, and the soft spoken simpleton that he’s playing Baker as is a new angle for him. The real glory of his performance is in the way he changes Baker’s ticks as he tries to adapt to certain situations. For such a lively actor it’s impressive he could play a role so strung out. There’s also some weight in mentioning that Hawke did all the trumpeting, and vocals heard in the film, and while they come in short bursts the performance is impressive all the same at these moments. BORN TO BE BLUE also focuses on Baker’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend Jane Azuka played by SELMA’s Carmen Ejogo. Ejogo is here as a plot device, mainly serving as the one thing keeping Hawke’s Chet from backsliding into drugs. Ejogo is a great actress, and makes sure that Azuka doesn’t ever feel too much like a plot device (even though she most definitely is), and helps Hawke sell the tougher aspects of the ending.

BORN TO BE BLUE feels like it might have been a little too ambitious for it’s own good. It works when it’s playing the first type of biopic by telling a great story. That said, it fails to be the other kind for about a third of its running time. Still recommended though for Hawke and Ejogo.

3 1/2 of 5 Stars

BORN TO BE BLUE is currently playing in St. Louis exclusively at Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater

PANDEMIC – Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

Pandemic is a found footage film that never manages to feel like one because of it’s passion. Every little detail has been looked after here, and that might be half the reason it works. The beautiful sense of place, and gory action makes for a piece of worthwhile piece.

The plot here is simple. A few operatives are sent into a quarantine zone to retrieve a lost team. Lauren (Rachel Nichols) is the protagonist, and the audience POV character (quite literally) but is hiding something

The fact is found footage is best used to either allow for creeping horror (as in Paranormal Activity 1) or putting the audience in a full on immersive intense situation (as in Cloverfield). Pandemic might benefit from falling a little bit into both. Pandemic does have a fast pace allowing only some of the suspense to really pay off, but when it does the film rewards you with a dynamic shot of gory action. It’s the meshing of these two genre styles that make Pandemic such an intense watch.

A thin straight to the point screenplay also helps the proceedings. Each element of exposition is built into specific moments of the plot allowing the audience to gain more information as time goes on.The small scale production and found footage shooting of the film allows it to become split up into sections each providing a new clue as to the rich world right beyond the frame. That’s how a horror film should be structured, and it’s nice to see a film that world builds excitedly through these small vignettes.

The actors are a perfect fit for this project as well. Pandemic is a quieter work of zombie fiction, and it’s nice to see acting in a film like this played straight and not self aware of the inherent and violent frenzy that comes with a zombie film. The screenplay the cast is given is a little heavy-handed skewing off the more consistently engaging world building, but these actors are turning in reliably good work, and have bright futures if they continue too.

Acting and inherent ways in the screenplay for the film’s success sound like the only things that could really make a film like this good, but it’s still not what the film is advertising. The gory POV action is what they’re advertising, and while it’s not quite as important (or well executed) as the trailers suggest it occupies much of the film, and manages to be consistently gory and in its moments scarily effective. A zombie escape in a gym locker room should be held as an example for how found footage action sequences should be filmed. It all comes off a little like “guilt free Maniac” another film that used a first person perspective, but was in the eyes of a serial killer. For better or worse the context of zombies allows the audience to sit back and enjoy the ride as the operatives of the film mow down the hordes that come after them. The direction of these scenes is better executed with the camera acting less shaky and more agile. When it needs to stop and show a kill shot it does without shaking the camera. The filmmakers also made the good decision not to tie the camera down on one person allowing for a perspective from all sides of the action. The hard “R” action combined with well executed camerawork keeps the production from seeming like another cliched, violent, and unnecessary film.

Why Pandemic works so well as a film can be boiled down into one thing. There’s effort put into every part of it. It’s a silly found footage zombie movie with a lot of gore, but someone bothered to make the world interesting, the actors bothered to make the characters however thin they are well rounded as could be, and screenwriter Dustin T. Benson bothered to make his screenplay build a consistently engaging world. Effort goes a long way.

PANDEMIC was on the 2012 Blood List and Hit List. It’s in theaters April 1st and and iTunes April 5th

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OVERALL RATING: 3 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

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Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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