Hope Springs 3/4

Hope Springs has the unusual distinction of providing a sample of what an Ingmar Bergman movie might be like if made for mass American consumption…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

The Bourne Legacy 2½/4

The total worldwide box office gross for the first three Jason Bourne movies (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum) is nearly one billion dollars (more if adjusted for inflation). Read more

The Dark Knight Rises 3½/4

For most superhero franchises, the third movie is a trap…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Rock of Ages 3/4

Rock of Ages, based on the musical play of the same name, is a celebration of ’80s excess and, especially, music..writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Ted 3/4

Ted is essentially a one-joke movie… writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Take This Waltz 3/4

Michelle Williams must have an affinity for appearing in movies about melancholy relationships…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Brave 2½/4

At first glance, Brave seems much like an old-fashioned animated Disney princess film done using new-fangled technology…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Movie Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen ***

Arguably, the biggest hurdle to clear for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is its title…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Movie Review: Dr Seuss – The Lorax ***

“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.”

Considering the brevity of the average Dr. Seuss book, it’s no surprise that many of his best-known stories have been satisfactorily adapted into half-hour TV specials…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Movie Review: A Dangerous Method ***

Reduced to its essence, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method is little more than an historical romantic tragedy…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Contraband **

Contraband is the kind of thriller that offers just enough in the way of effective elements to assemble a two-minute trailer…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Killer Elite **+

Despite having a perfect cast for a title like Killer Elite, Gary McKendry’s feature debut comes across as little more than a generic Jason Statham movie with two high-profile guest stars…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ***+

For one reason or another, there have been few quality movies made about 9/11. Maybe it’s because the event is too recent and the wound too fresh…writes James Berardinelli. Read more

This Means War **+

Sometimes it’s hard to recognize the importance of seemingly inconsequential element like “tone” when it comes to a romantic comedy. This Means War is a case study in what happens when the filmmakers mess this up. The movie is being marketed as an “action romantic comedy,” but the “action” aspect is really just a little flavoring that shows up at the beginning and the end. It’s jokey action – a would-be parody of over-the-top spy situations like those in Bond movies and the recent Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. But it’s clumsily presented, generating neither excitement nor humor. At the heart of the movie is a romantic triangle between three impossibly good-looking people who are so uninteresting that we keep hoping the sleazy bad guy will show up and shoot them all.

Maybe I’m being unreasonable. Maybe I’m asking too much that a romantic comedy makes me feel something other than apathy. Maybe it’s wrong of me to hope the most sympathetic character ends up with more than a throw-in consolation prize. I can’t say whether the biggest problem with This Means War lies in the direction, the acting, or the screenplay, but all three elements are contributors. Romantic comedies, especially those that overdose on steroids, are supposed to uplift. This one is just depressing.

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The Grey ***

Some would argue that the best way to see Alaska is through the images captured by an expert photographer. As breathtaking as the views may be, the climate can be unforgiving, with weather, terrain, and fauna that might give even notable survival expert Bear Gryllis pause. InThe Grey, director Joe Carnahan’s man vs. nature epic, the filmmaker strands seven characters in the midst of some of the most inhospitable territory on earth and shows that, when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles to survival, human beings have a tendency to look inward. The Grey is about raging against the dying of the light but also about accepting it with peace once the fight has been lost.

January and February, while not considered a prime market for motion pictures, have been good to Liam Neeson. Clad in the mantle of The Everyday Action Hero, Neeson has capitalized on his stolid reputation and a weak release schedule to burn up the box office withTaken (in January 2008) and Unknown (in February 2011). That is likely the reason Open Road Films elected to distribute The Grey to theaters in the dead of winter, and to open it in multiplexes when one could easily argue it is art house fare.

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My Week With Marilyn ***

At first glance, My Week with Marilyn might seem like a salacious behind-the-scenes look at a mostly forgotten (yet high profile at the time) movie that had its share of off-camera drama…write James Berardinelli. Read more

Shame ***+

Spoiler warning: In discussing the movie, I have revealed more about the plot than I normally do, including a brief, oblique reference to the ending. Although Shame is not narrative-driven, those who want a “pure” experience may wish to read no further than the first paragraph before seeing the film. Read more

The Muppets *** 2011

The Muppets is a rare family film likely to appeal more to parents than to their offspring. Although it’s true that most kids today know a thing or two about Jim Henson’s creations (the movie’s premise – that they have vanished into obscurity since the early 1980s – is an exaggeration), the Muppets are ingrained in the older generation’s DNA. It’s hard to imagine anyone between the ages of 35 and 50 who didn’t grow up with the loveable puppets, either on Sesame Street or The Muppet Show, or in the early movies. Technically, The Muppets is classified as a “musical comedy,” but this is essentially a 97-minute exercise in nostalgia. It’s the Muppets as they haven’t been since Jim Henson died, a throwback to the time when their TV show was popular and their first movie, 1979’s The Muppet Movie, was a bona fide hit. Kids today will have the same kind of fun at The Muppets they have at all films of this kind. Adults, however, will connect in a deeper way.
The storyline, as has always been the case with the Muppets, is an excuse for singing, dancing, witty exchanges, high-profile cameos, and the magic that happens when the old school felt-and-fuzz creatures come together on screen. Like the television program, this is more variety show than traditional narrative, and it has been assembled with obvious affection by all those involved. Despite the passage of decades, the Muppets have not noticeably changed. Advances in technology have not impacted them. They have not been “enhanced” by the use of CGI. And, although two of the original “voices” are no longer participants (Henson having died and Frank Oz having retired from puppeteering), Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and the rest of the gang sound pretty much the same. The Muppets proves that sometimes the best approach is not to tinker with a successful formula.

 

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Hugo ***+ (Jan 2012)

With Hugo, Martin Scorsese has accomplished what few in Hollywood are willing to try: make a movie for adults that arrives without sex, violence, or profanity and earns a PG-rating. It’s a fairy tale for mature viewers, but the airy exterior hides emotional depth. Hugo is appropriate for young viewers, but it’s questionable how much they will derive from the experience and, because the pace is more leisurely than frenetic, it’s likely the average child’s attention will wander.
The style is nothing like what we have come to expect from Scorsese. The whimsical approach with its Dickensian overtones and interludes of magical realism recall Terry Gilliam and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. For at least one film, Scorsese has left behind much of his baggage and accomplished what David Lynch did with The Straight Story and David Mamet did with The Winslow Boy – use his considerable behind-the-screen prowess and apply it to a different kind of story. The result is often magical.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) ****

The dark seeps out of the screen like living thing, evidence that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is more than a paycheck to director David Fincher, who has improbably affixed his own imprint on a movie that comes weighted down with possibilities and expectations no filmmaker should have to contend with. Aided by a tightly-wrapped screenplay adapted from Stieg Larsson’s global best-seller by Steven Zaillian, Fincher strips the material to its skeleton, then adds back the sinew and tissue to create something that is unmistakably The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but in no way a carbon copy of the earlier Swedish movie or the book itself. This is what a movie adaptation should be: a film whose base narrative has its roots in the source material but whose soul can be identified through the images that unfold on screen.
When, in early 2010, Columbia Pictures announced their intention to film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the question that crossed many lips was, “Why?” After all, there was already a very good adaptation available, a 2009 Swedish production directed by Niels Arden Oplev with a star-making turn from Noomi Rapace. The intention to “remake” The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in English with an A-list star smacked of a cash-grab. Whatever the motivations, however, this interpretation of Larsson’s story can stand proudly alongside the Swedish version. Both tell the same basic story, but there are enough differences – some subtle, some significant – that each can be enjoyed on its own terms. And, although Oplev will always have the distinction of being first, the strengths of Fincher’s film reminds us that first is not always best.

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Young Adult **+

Diablo Cody has a distinctive voice. You can hear it in Juno. You can hear it in Jennifer’s Body. You can hear it in United States of Tara. And you can hear it in Young Adult. After a while, however, the uniqueness of what Cody has to say and how she says it can grow tiresome. Juno was cheeky, edgy, and fun. It mixed humor and drama, fantasy and reality, love and sex in just the right mix. It was also the sole unqualified success on Cody’s still-growing resume. There was something about Juno that made it appealing. Some have wondered whether director Jason Reitman deserved more credit than he was given. Perhaps to test the theory, Cody and Reitman have re-teamed (without Ellen Page) for Young Adult. On the surface, it looks and sounds a lot like Juno. But there’s a big difference in tone. Juno showed affection for its characters, and the audience shared that love affair. In Young Adult, the attitude toward the protagonist is thinly-veiled contempt. For most of the movie, Cody and Reitman jape at her until, in the last 20 minutes or so, they attempt to turn her into an object of sympathy. It doesn’t work and, on balance, neither does Young Adult.

It’s tricky business to make a movie in which the lead character is detestable. It can be done, but it requires a deftness of touch not on display here. Reitman and Cody are trying for a black comedy, but the screenplay’s numerous “pithy” lines aren’t all that funny and its “insights” are rather obvious, especially the “revelation” of how lives shift in the reality of post-high school life. Geeks rule the world. Jocks often end up working minimum wage jobs. And popular girls get stuck with a couple of kids before they turn 25. For a reminder of this, one would do better to listen to Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” than sit through Young Adult. At the very least, it would save about 90 minutes.

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The Descendants ***+

The Descendants may be director Alexander Payne’s finest outing to date. The man who began his career behind the camera with withering satires (Citizen Ruth, Election) has moved into dramatic comedies (About Schmidt, Sideways) that simultaneously observe and comment upon the human condition.

In The Descendants, Payne has provided a sympathetic, heartfelt look at the myriad forces pulling apart a man standing at life’s crossroads. The film works because it eschews the melodrama that could easily creep into a film addressing issues of mortality and family and because, by keeping its sense of humor intact, it never devolves into a means to boost Kleenex sales.
The movie is set in Hawaii, a surprisingly underused location for motion pictures. (Many movies shot there are set elsewhere, like Jurassic Park, for example.) Payne does not dwell overmuch on the beauty of the surroundings (an understandable temptation, one would assume), although The Descendants has its share of pretty images. Although the setting is important – a crucial subplot involves the potential sale of a large parcel of “unspoiled” land – it does not hijack the production and the focus never wavers from the lead character, whose relationships, motivations, and growth as a person form the skeleton and flesh of the story.

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War Horse ***

Over the last 20 years of his career, Steven Spielberg has often coupled a crowd-pleasing would-be blockbuster with a more serious-minded project. Thus, in 1993, he released Jurassic Park in tandem with Schindler’s List. In 1997, there were The Lost World and Amistad. 2005 brought War of the Worlds and Munich. Now we have The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse (released within weeks of each other, and possibly competing for the same audience). Of the dramatic films Spielberg has released over the years, it can be argued that War Horse is among the least successful. Call it “lesser Spielberg” and put it alongside Always and Hook. War Horse is by no means a bad movie, but it feels less like the epic it strives to be and more like a loosely connected series of World War I-era vignettes. Its emotional punch doesn’t deliver much force; War Horse‘s primary attraction is not the story of how it makes us feel but its impressive re-creation of the Great War’s battlefields and some stunningly beautiful camerawork by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski.

War Horse follows the adventures of Joey, a horse born and bred in Devon, who is the lone equine owned by Albert (Jeremy Irvine); his father, Ted (Peter Mullan); and his mother, Rose (Emily Watson). When the landowner (David Thewlis) threatens to foreclose on the farm unless the rent is paid, Ted sells Joey to army major Stewart (Benedict Cumberbatch), who rides the horse into the early battles of World War I. After Stewart is killed in action, Joey is taken by the Germans. Over the next few years, he ends up pulling ambulances and gun wagons, and being the pet of a lonely French peasant girl (Celine Buckens) and her grandfather (Niels Arestrup). Once Albert becomes old enough to join the British army, he never ceases scouring the front lines for Joey, even though the odds of him finding his beloved horse are worse than those of finding a needle in a haystack.

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Avatar ****

Avatar has been described as a “game-changer,” and perhaps it is. I’ll leave that for future historians to determine. What I can say with some assuredness is this is the most technically amazing motion picture to have arrived on screens in many years – perhaps since Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King. It’s also among the most anticipated openings of the decade. Expectations can be a double-edged sword; ask George Lucas. But when a filmmaker meets or exceeds them, the results are tremendous, and that’s the case with Avatar. James Cameron has a lot riding on this film, his long-delayed follow-up to Titanic (which came out an even dozen years ago), the all-time box office champion in unadjusted dollars. Under “normal” circumstances, at stake would have been only Cameron’s reputation and future autonomy with astronomical budgets. But Cameron has hitched his wagon to 3D and declared this to be the wave of the future. Watching Avatar, I can almost believe it. If every filmmaker could do with 3D what Cameron achieves, I’d gladly wear the uncomfortable glasses to every screening.

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Precious ***+

Precious (saddled with the unwieldy subtitle: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire) manages the task of being both heartbreaking and heart-warming, all without resorting to the kind of manipulation so often evident in dramas about underprivileged kids trying to improve themselves. There are pitfalls inherent in this kind of story, but indie director Lee Daniels sidesteps them, crafting a feature that is both emotionally honest and stirring. Precious spends time in the urban trenches that are often used as a colorful backdrop for other less true films; here, they are integral to the essence of the characters, places where acts of supreme horror are dismissed matter-of-factly. Ultimately, Precious is a story of one young woman’s embrace of self-worth in these circumstances, but that discovery does not come without a price.

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Invictus ***

With the election of Barack Obama, we have apparently entered a kinder, gentler world in which films about racial harmony and goodwill to all men are becoming commonplace (at least during awards season). How else to explain the presence of both The Blind Side and Invictus within the first year of Obama’s term? Both are transparent Oscar bait – they are inspirational and earnest, but each preaches a little too loudly. That’s one of two problems with Invictus: it makes its point early about the power of sports as a force of unification then beats us over the head by repeating that idea ad nauseam. The second issue is that the movie is poorly edited; the inclusion of too much extraneous material adds about 20 minutes to the length and results in parts of the story feeling unfocused. Still, the overall experience is uplifting and enjoyable. History has pre-determined the outcome but, flaws aside, Eastwood has crafted something that works both as a sports drama and as an examination of the birth pains of the racially unified South Africa.

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Law Abiding Citizen **

The premise of Law Abiding Citizen – angry father seeks revenge on the system when his daughter’s murderer gets off with a light sentence – probably sounded great in the pitch meetings but, as with all high concept motion pictures, the devil’s in the details. For a while, F. Gary Gray’s thriller works on a purely visceral level, offering a degree of guilty satisfaction to viewers as one sleazy individual after another gets eliminated in a gruesome, Saw-esque manner. Unfortunately, Law Abiding Citizen isn’t content to be a Death Wish for 2009. It wants to be bigger and bolder. So it takes a simple revenge fantasy and uses it as the core of an elaborate high-stakes game that, in shooting for “inventive,” ends up hitting “preposterous.” The more Kurt Wimmer’s screenplay reveals about the lead character’s scheme, the more difficult it is to believe that Law Abiding Citizen is intended to be taken seriously.

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Edge of Darkness **

Considering the talent involved and the strength of the source material, there’s no way Edge of Darkness should have been this disappointing. Part of the problem is a direct result of condensation – there’s no way to cram six hours of the dense mini-series upon which the movie is based into about 110 minutes without paying a penalty. More surprising, however, is the inconsistency of some of the production elements – acting, dialogue, direction – and these are delivered by seasoned veterans. Edge of Darkness has earned its January release date – this movie deserves to be dumped into theaters with little fanfare.

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Daybreakers ***

Daybreakers argues there still may be some new terrain to be strip-mined in the rush to exploit the bloodsucking undead. As far removed from the Twilight series as possible (with more in common with Children of Men), Daybreakers brings its vampires closer to the “classic” breed. Although no indication is provided of whether they’re crucifix-shy or have a pathological distaste for garlic, they do not cast reflections, can be killed by a stake through the heart, and burst into flame when kissed by the sun (no sparkling here). It’s unclear whether Daybreakers’ creatures fall in love or have sex, but that’s not relevant to what’s going on in the film.

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