MOVIE REVIEW: TRANSCENDENCE

A brilliant innovator in the field of Artificial Intelligence becomes the bridge in the gap between man and machine in this sci-fi thriller starring Johnny Depp. His entire career, Dr. Will Caster (Depp) has been working toward one goal -- to create a machine possessing the entire spectrum of human emotions, and the collective intelligence of every person who has ever lived. But while Dr. Caster's unorthodox experiments have made him famous in scientific circles, a radical anti-tech group known as Rift is determined to stop him at all costs. In the midst of an attack on A.I. labs across the United States, one Rift agent manages to shoot Dr. Caster with a radioactive bullet, ensuring his death. Little did Rift realize that their efforts to destroy Dr. Caster would only make him stronger than they ever could have imagined, because before he dies, his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max (Paul Bettany) successfully transfer Dr. Caster's consciousness into a computer, where his hunger for knowledge and power transforms him into an unstoppable force of sentient energy inhabiting every computer and electrical system on the planet. Morgan Freeman co-stars. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Wally Pfister

Cast: Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Kate Mara

Release Date: Apr 18, 2014

Rated: PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, some bloody images, brief strong language and 

sensuality

Runtime: 1 hr. 59 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller

Review:

Transcendence is a movie that desperately wants you to think that it’s intelligent.  It throws so much technobabble at you that you vaguely start to think it might be smart. Until you snap out of it and realize it is a hodgepodge of sci-fi tropes and clichés is nothing but a silly Frankenstein, Skynet, Her retread.  Wally Pfister, Christopher Nolan’s long time award winning cinematographer, first film is visually impressive but thematically empty.  Pfister’s style is wasted on such a silly script and story.  Even worse it’s filled with top name talent that’s wasted throughout.  Some people might be comforted by the fact that Depp isn’t doused in two pounds of make up in this film but the trick’s on you because he disappears from the film fairly quickly with the majority of the film’s performance done by an avatar.  I had a passing thought that his contract stated he’s do this movie if he only physically had to be there at the start and end of filming.  Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany are given fairly thankless roles of looking sad and not much else, Bettany is allowed to grow a beard at one point so that counts for something.  Kate Mara, whose creepy looking enough, sports a bad blonde dye job and enough black eye mascara to give a raccoon pause.  Even worse off are poor Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy who, I assume, thought were shooting another Batman film and were thoroughly disappointed when they showed up, much like you will be when this crock is over.

D

Cindy Prascik's Review of The Grand Budapest Hotel and Rio 2

Dearest Blog, yesterday it was off for what I hoped would be a quiet afternoon at the cinema. On the docket: The Grand Budapest Hotel and Rio 2.

Spoiler level here will be mild-ish, almost nothing you haven't seen in the trailers. I do have to mention one specific thing from Grand Budapest Hotel, which, while not a plot spoiler, might be more than some want to know before seeing it.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was first on my agenda.

A former lobby boy recounts his adventures with his mentor, a concierge at the Grand Budapest Hotel.

I guess it's first and foremost important to point out that I'm neither an expert nor the number-one fan of Wes Anderson. I've seen a couple of his previous films and liked them, but none ranks among my favorites. Still, I loved the Grand Budapest Hotel trailer and expected great things.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is quirky and clever, full of humorous little twists and great dialogue. It boasts a fine cast, including Ralph Fiennes, who is phenomenal in the lead. The scenery and set pieces are so glorious they almost deserve top billing themselves. Why, then, did the movie leave me a little flat? I really couldn't say. Other than pointlessly playing a dead cat for laughs (an automatic deduction of one-half Weasley on the final grade), there wasn't anything specific I didn't like; on the contrary, I liked all of it very much...yet I didn't walk out of the theatre with that feeling I get when I've seen a really great movie. Due to my unusually high expectations, maybe that feels more disappointing than it should.

The Grand Budapest Hotel runs 100 minutes and is rated R for "language, some sexual content, and violence."

Smart and funny, well written and well acted, somehow The Grand Budapest Hotel is still less than inspiring. Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Grand Budapest Hotel gets six and a half.

Closing yesterday's double-bill was the animated sequel Rio 2.

Blu and family leave their comfortable Rio home to fly to the aid of Linda and Tulio in the Amazon jungle, but the jungle, they find, is full of surprises.

Rio is one of my all-time favorite animated films. It's not special, like How to Train Your Dragon, but it's so pretty and lively you can't help but be happy while watching it. I had high hopes for Rio 2, but, alas, it falls very far short of the bar set by its predecesser.

Rio 2 is as beautifully drawn, colored, and animated as the original. It throws in a bouncy tune here and there to keep the kids' attention, though, as an adult, it feels more like uncomfortable, contrived attempts to show off the alleged singing talents of certain cast members. Jesse Eisenberg is a delight as Blu, and would easily stand out even if the rest of the cast weren't so...meh. It was no surprise to me that a cartoon Kristin Chenoweth is just as annoying as a live-action one, but Rio 2's chief problem goes beyond petty annoyances; the sad truth is it's just plain boring. It's not an overly long movie, yet it seems to go on forever, and a few good laughs and some nice-looking artwork are by no means enough to recommend it. If I had to say one good thing, it'd be that a Friday afternoon screening spared me the eight-year-olds' birthday parties with which I've been cursed at my other recent animation outings.

Rio 2 clocks in at 101 minutes and is rated G.

An unworthy sequel to its delightful predecessor, of a possible nine Weasleys, Rio 2 gets four.

Until next time...

If I play my cards right, there might be room for me in that dragon movie!

MOVIE REVIEW: OCULUS

Two siblings haunted by a childhood tragedy learn that the source of their horror is a mysterious mirror with a dark history. Tim (Brenton Thwaites) and Kaylie (Karen Gillan) were merely teenagers when both of their parents were brutally butchered. Convicted of the killings and sentenced to protective custody, Tim serves his time while Kaylie drifts into a deep despair. Years later, a newly free Tim does his best to lay the past to rest. Meanwhile, Kaylie is certain that her brother was innocent all along, and that the antique mirror their parents used to own holds the answer to her darkest questions. Upon locating the long-lost looking glass, Kaylie's deepest fears are confirmed -- a menacing force inhabits that mirror, and it has plagued every owner who has come into possession of it. Now, as curious Kaylie reacquires the mirror, the nightmarish cycle of horror returns with a vengeance. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Release Date: Apr 11, 2014

Rated: R for some Disturbing Images, Brief Language, Terror and Violence

Runtime: 1 hr. 45 min. 

Genres: Horror 

Director: Mike Flanagan 

Cast: Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Rory Cochrane, Katee Sackhoff, Garrett Ryan

Review:

Oculus is one of those pleasant surprises that randomly pop up from time to time in the horror genre which is overrun with more crap than an old portopotty.  Oculus is a mind bender, even if it can turn rather silly at certain points, which play with time and perception.   All the while maintaining a strong tension throughout while it keeps us guessing whether things are really happening or not.  It borrows heavily from Japanese horror but make for a rather enjoyable yarn.  The cast is lead by the lovely Karen Gillan, and her bangs, who oversells her part a tad too much in the beginning but settles into her role as the film moves on.  Brenton Thwaites is a solid counter weight to Gillan’s obsessive character.  Katee Sackhoff is always excellent playing nutty and she does a good job here even though I was disappointed by where the story takes her character in the third act.  The last act is a fun trip through the fun house of terrors which messes with your perception enough to keep you on your toes even if it ends up in a predictable place.

B-

MOVIE REVIEW: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER,

Steve Rogers continues his journey as the super-powered American soldier who's grasping to find his place in a modern world after being frozen in ice since WWII with this Marvel Studios sequel. Chris Evans returns to star, with Community director/producers Joe and Anthony Russo helming. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director: Joe Russo, Anthony Russo 

Cast: Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson

Release Date: Apr 04, 2014

Rated: PG-13 for Gunplay, Action throughout and Intense Sequences of Violence

Runtime: 2 hr. 8 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure

Review:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of Marvel’s best scripted stories thus far.  That’s not to say it doesn’t have some issues but it’s a solid attempt at trying to dig a bit deeper into some complex issues with a complicated villain.  It’s rather blunt if earnest about it’s intentions.  If this all makes it sound rather dour well it is at time occasionally turning into a plodding and somewhat joyless experience that could have been trimmed by a good 15 to 20 minutes.  Personally, I might have been more impressed if I hadn’t seen a similar story line in a certain DC animated series I was fond of but I digress.  The film, when it hits its mark, delivers some excellent action set pieces and superhero action.  Evans does his best to bring some deeper layers to the Captain and he pulls it off for the most part.  Scarlett Johansson has a larger part which doesn’t require her to runaround in her catsuit and the film’s better for it as she displays some solid chemistry with Evans.  Newcomers Anthony Mackie and Robert Redford bring varying degrees of excitement to the proceedings.  Mackie is obviously having a blast throughout while Redford’s name brings some gravitas to the whole thing but he seemed as disinterested as can be.  Sebastian Stan’s Winter Solider is in the movie title but his screen time is surprisingly small in the grand scheme of things.  It’s a game changing film that does kind of blows up a lot of the establishment from the Marvel universe so it’ll be interesting to see where they from here, hopefully they’ll remember bring a bit more fun.  

B-

Cindy Prascik's Review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Dearest Blog, yesterday I chose an afternoon at the cinema over an afternoon at the office. In the common tongue, I believe that's what's known as a "gimmie." On the docket, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

Captain America finds himself at odds with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s thinking, and facing a surprising and dangerous adversary.

Well, dear Blog, first I should admit I'm not quite so much on the Marvel bandwagon as most of the world. They make good superhero movies, and I like good superhero movies, but they don't make anything that sets my world on fire like that last Batman trilogy did. A matter of personal taste, I know, but worth mentioning in the interest of full and fair disclosure.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has many positives, so we'll start with those. It's a layered story that manages to hold your attention without becoming muddled and over-complicated. The action sequences are solid, and the CGI tricks look pretty authentic. The movie is filled with familiar names and faces, and it's as comfortable as hanging with a group of old friends when they name-check other characters from the Marvel universe. Chris Evans again serves the Captain well. If he's neither as charismatic as Robert Downey, Jr. nor as interesting as Mark Ruffalo, he IS the very picture of the all-American hero, perfect for this role. For my money, though, the actor who's really worth seeing here is Sebastian Stan. I've been a fan since his work on the short-lived NBC series Kings, and am positively delighted about his jump to the big-screen blockbuster. (I'd have been more delighted with more screen time, but since I watched Black Swan for about two minutes of him, I guess I'll live.)

On the negative side: Had the action sequences been trimmed just a bit, the movie would have been sharper and better paced; as it is, it does seem to drag a bit at times. Of more concern was the reaction in my pretty-crowded cinema, almost a total flatline. No spontaneous oohs and ahhs, almost no bursts of laughter at the comic bits, no chatter or applause at the end. For a movie that's been so well received, I found that very curious, especially as the crowd seemed mostly comprised of fanboys and kids.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier runs 136 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense sequences of violence, gunplay, and action throughout."

Some folks are saying The Winter Soldier is even better than Marvel's Avengers, seemingly the current benchmark for a great superhero movie. For my money, they're about the same: fun times that perfectly fit the lighthearted summer-blockbuster mold.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Captain America: The Winter Soldier gets seven and a half.

Until next time...

 

 

Any room for me up in there?

Cindy Prascik's reviews of Sabotage & Noah

Dearest Blog, yesterday it was off to the cinema with all the Rainy Day People for a double-feature of Sabotage and Noah.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

Arnie was first on the docket with Sabotage.

An elite, undercover DEA unit comes under suspicion when ten million dollars in drug money disappears.

Dear Blog, I'm going to tell you something you might not know: Sabotage was made JUST for me. It's Hollywood's way of saying, "Look, we're sorry for all the pretentious Oscar drivel and Easter-season religious propaganda, but you've been a good sport, so here are a couple testosterone-fueled hours of mayhem for your trouble. Well, Hollywood, apology accepted.

Sabotage is yet another attempt to thrust an aging Arnold Schwarzenegger back into the leading action hero mold. Like previous efforts, the general reception seems middling, but it's once again made me a happy action fan. If Schwarzenegger is getting a bit long in the tooth, it doesn't keep him from carrying a picture with flair, and at no time is there any doubt that this is Arnold's movie. The supporting cast is comprised of actors both very good (Terrence Howard, Mireille Enos) and pretty bad (Sam Worthington, Joe Manganiello), but none really stands out either way, aside from Enos, who is ah-maz-ing.

These days most action movies have to pick a side. Either they go too vanilla to secure the coveted PG13 rating, or the gore and swearing are so extreme that shock value seems the only objective. Sabotage definitely leans toward the latter, and it suffers some laughably bad dialogue, but a well-executed, suspenseful plot saves the movie from being just a big-screen bundle of bad words and maximum carnage.

Sabotage clocks in at 109 minutes and is rated R for "strong bloody violence, pervasive language, some sexuality/nudity, and drug use."

A solid action flick with a good cast and a hero that's familiar and easy to root for, of a possible nine Weasleys, Sabotage gets seven.

Next on Saturday's agenda was the Biblical epic, Noah.

A man suffers a terrifying vision of the world destroyed by a great flood, and must battle Sauron's legions as he attempts to get the One Ring to Mount Doom. Wait, what? Sorry...wrong movie.

There's been much fuss about Noah's lack of faithfulness to the Bible story on which it's based. In the interest of full and fair disclosure, I admit that means about as much to me as a less-than-accurate adaptation of any novel or comic book. I don't say that to be offensive or provocative, merely to be clear: If the rumor is non-religious people will love this and religious people will hate it, this card-carrying heathen is here to tell ya, there's no shortage of reasons to hate this movie, whatever you believe.

Russell Crowe is one of my top three actors, and, in my opinion, the most magnetic screen presence working in movies today. Not once in his long and storied career have I seen a movie and thought, "Boy, even Russell Crowe couldn't help that." Until now, that is. Instead of a man tormented by difficult choices he feels his "Creator" has forced him to make, this Noah is a profoundly unlikable nut job who comes dead even with the movie's villain in the "I really hate that guy" sweepstakes. Then there's the bloat. Yes, that's "bloat," dear Blog, not "boat." Pared by 20-30 minutes, Noah would have been a far more bearable exercise creative license. As it stands, I had plenty of time to count ceiling tiles (I think there are 180 in theatre eight, but it was a little tricky in the dark) and ponder what I was going to eat at Olive Garden after the movie (spaghetti marinara, if you're wondering). During the interminable ark-building, I wondered why they didn't just ask Hermione to wave her wand and get it done. Hang on... Huh? Oh, sorry, there I go again. Somewhere around a halfway point that seemed to take 12 hours to reach, I wrote "TERRIBLE" on my notepad, in all caps and underlined three times, as if I'd need a reminder when I sat down to write this review.

There are positives, of course, among them some glorious cinematography and a couple time-lapsey sequences that are quite stunning...if possibly seizure inducing. The CGI procreation-ready pairs of animals look pretty great, and Emma Watson continues to be a revelation in a role that's at least half an underwater world away from the studious Miss Granger of the Harry Potter movies. There's also a sneaky pro-vegetarian message that made me think I might have had a chance of bunking with the Noah family instead of dog paddling for my life.

Noah runs 138 minutes and is rated PG13 for "violence, disturbing images, and brief suggestive content."

Whether you believe the Bible or not, Noah is a bloated mess that might as well have starred Adam Sandler for all the credibility it's got. Of a possible nine Weasleys, Noah gets two. Oh, and when someone films the book of Revelations, remind me to get high before I see it.

Until next time...

 Hands up, who's ready for that Gladiator prequel?