ROBOCOP Doesn’t Offend… But It Doesn’t Excel Either
This version of Robocop has been in the works for six years with a basic script being passed around in Hollywood and it’s been surrounded by controversy ever since it was announced. Now in 2014, it has finally been released. And it’s… okay. Directed by Jose Padilha in his first mainstream film, Robocop includes a star studded cast including: Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman, Samuel L Jackson, Jackie Earle Haley and Abbie Cornish. This time round the role of Alex Murphy/Robocop is taken by Joel Kinnaman who had a role in Safe House and the Martin Scorsese produced Easy Money. The story is set in 2028 Detroit and every country in the world has adopted droids into their streets to uphold the law, preventing the deaths of real human law enforcement officers. Except for America. Its leadership resents the concept because...
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Jason Reitman’s LABOR DAY Avoids Being The Nicholas Sparks Movie It Could Have Been
A few weeks ago, I was at a screening of Young Adult with Jason Reitman in attendance. In the post-show QA, Reitman commented that the trailer for his then upcoming film Labor Day with Rhianna’s “Stay” playing on it made it look like a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. That was Reitman’s way of saying the film isn’t the same as a Sparks movie, but he’s only half right. Labor Day very well could have played out like any of the countless Sparks adaptations we’ve endured over the last few years. Its premise, a single mom and her son taken hostage by and then developing a family-like bond with an escaped convict over the long end-of-summer weekend, certainly makes it seem like it could be. Not with Reitman at the helm, though. Instead this motion picture plays out like a thriller,...
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BEYOND THE HILLS: Another Masterpiece From Cristian Mungiu
Beyond the Hills – **** Beyond the Hills is, at its core, a film about two female friends and former lovers who are separated not literally by distance but rather the space that exists between those want to get away and those who want to stay. One, Sister Voichita (Cosmina Stratan), happens to be an Orthodox nun in a small Romanian village that she never left. The other, Alina (Cristina Flutur), is the nun’s old roommate from their traumatic days at an orphanage who ran off to Germany once old enough to flee. To the nun and the others at her monastery, Alina is a lost lamb, imbued with evil, upon her return to the village. It’s enough to drive Alina quite literally mad. Still, Beyond the Hills is as much a critique of religion as director Cristian Mungiu’s...
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Quickie Review: SAVING MR. BANKS
Saving Mr. Banks (2013) — *** Quickie Review Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) courts Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) in an attempt to obtain the movie rights to her beloved book. But Poppins means much more to Travers than just a chance to make quick cash and she won’t give her characters over to that “silly” Disney that easily. Conventional in the very best sense of the word, this behind-the-scenes drama about the making of Mary Poppins is full of just enough saccharine sentimentalism to get the heart pumping. It’s a film that will, as it did in my screening, make grown men cry. Emma Thompson is outstanding as Travers, as she deals with her own personal demons while reviewing Disney’s pre-production efforts at his Los Angeles studio. The supporting cast, including the eve-amazing Tom Hanks and a...
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Quickie Review: AMERICAN HUSTLE
American Hustle (2013) –**½ Quickie Review A con man and his equally talented mistress are forced to help an FBI agent entrap politicians and mobsters after being caught in a sting. David O. Russell’s crime comedy pulls punch after punch as it tries to figure out if it wants to be a Martin Scorsese picture or a Coen brothers one. The overarching narrative is meandering at best, and like his previous efforts, you feel like you’re laughing at characters who are too caught up in themselves to recognize their being made fun of. It’s just mean, while the story’s innate darkness is ignored in order to con people into believing it’s got heart. A period crime film like this one should barrel forward, but instead we only get moments of explosiveness, most notably Jennifer Lawrence’s outstanding performance as the...
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FROZEN Is An Instant Disney Classic
Frozen (2013) — **** I wasn’t planning to see Frozen, let alone write a positive review of this new animated Disney musical. The truth is I haven’t wanted to see a Walt Disney Animation Studios film in years. It’s been more than a decade since anything watchable came out of that studio and almost 20 years since they produced anything that could be considered a classic. Well, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee’s take on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen achieves this and more. It doesn’t just capture the spirit of the late-80s and early-90s animated musicals from the Mouse House; it reaches their level of greatness. The film tells the story of two royal sisters in the kingdom of Arendale, one of whom has the power to create ice and snow. As a child, Elsa (Idina Menzel), the...
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