Cindy Prascik's Review of How to Train Your Dragon 2

Dearest Blog, yesterday I braved the opening-day kidlet rush to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Spoiler level here will be as mild as possible for a movie that spoils its own biggest reveal right in the trailer.

Having shown Berk the error of its ways as per human/dragon relations, a more mature Hiccup faces a new challenge with his trusty dragon Toothless.

Well, dear Blog, in all the history of film, there are four movies that I name my "favorite," since it's impossible for me to choose among them. The original How to Train Your Dragon is one of the four, so I could be excused for being a bit skeptical when people (many not involved with the production) started saying the sequel was even better than the original. For as long as I've known that was going to be my opening to this review, I always hoped the next sentence would involve me admitting the error of my ways, but....oh well, let's just get on with it.

The opening scene of How to Train Your Dragon 2, an overlong sequence of dragon games, is the most annoying thing I've ever seen that didn't involve Adam Sandler. Its primary purpose appears twofold: an immediate showcase for the film's stunning digital technology, and an excuse for each character to call his or her dragon by name, so pointedly that I could only assume we'd really need to know the names later. (That never happened.) The scene goes on forever, and by the end I was ready to stand up, shout, "On Cupid! On Comet! On Donner and Blitzen!" and walk out.

Getting the rest of the bad news out of the way: The new characters left me totally flat, and, my dear Cate Blanchett, where on Earth are you going with that accent?? While the first HTTYD boasted clever humor and a sincere charm, the sequel's laughs are few and far between, the good ones mostly poached from the original. Any charm is buried deep by a busy storyline that never quite finds its way. Even John Powell's score seems blah this time around.

Now, the good news: I was afraid that the kids no longer being kids would make the characters somehow less fun, but the returning Vikings are as lovable as ever, just a little more grown-up looking. The dragons also retain their charm, with even more types this time around, and if you're a pet owner you're sure to see your favorite dog or cat in at least one of them. How to Train Your Dragon 2 is also the most beautiful thing I've ever seen onscreen, hands down.

Even when I was getting a little bit bored or annoyed with whatever it was I was getting a little bit bored or annoyed with at the time, the movie quickly brought me back around to its side just by being so damn gorgeous. (I imagine this is what it must be like when Matt Bomer's being a jerk...if Matt Bomer is ever a jerk, which I highly doubt.) I'm not schooled in the art of making movies, so I have no idea what technology filmmakers used to make HTTYD2 so good looking, but full marks are due the art department, VFX, and animators. And the colors...oh, the colors!! Even Rio--my benchmark for visual excellence--might as well be sepia-toned compared to HTTYD2. Time constraints forced me into a 2D show this time, but you may rest assured, dear readers, I'll be seeing this in 3D as soon as possible!

Normally I go to the cinema on Saturday afternoons, when the most pressing thing on my agenda is where I'm having dinner afterward. I saw HTTYD2 after a miserable day at work, with a couple even-more-miserable weeks looming ahead, so I have to admit that may have left me unable to put the world aside to enjoy it as I should. I make that disclaimer only to clarify: the movie's probably better than I'm ready to give it credit for at this writing. Still, to suggest it's even as good as--let alone better than--the original is absurd.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 clocks in at 102 minutes and is rated PG for "adventure action and some mild rude humor."

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is such a glorious feast for the eyes you'll have no problem forgiving its other shortcomings.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, How to Train Your Dragon 2 gets seven and a half.

Until next time...

 "Hail Hydra."

MOVIE REVIEW: 22 JUMP STREET

After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don't have to just crack the case - they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them.~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director: Christopher Miller, Phil Lord     

Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Peter Stormare, Ice Cube. 

Release Date: Jun 13, 2014

Rated: R for Language Throughout, Drug Material, Brief Nudity, Sexual Content and Some Violence     

Runtime: 1 hr. 49 min.     

Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy     

Review:

22 Jump Street is pretty much 21 Jump Street with a bigger budget.  Something the movie literally tells you within 10 minutes of watching it.  Its self aware humor peppers the film as it plays up the bromance that’s part of every cop flicks.  All the while it’s skewering bloated sequel while being one at the same time.  That’s not to say it isn’t funny because it is but it could have used a tad bit of trimming.  Thankfully, Hill and Tatum continue their fantastic chemistry from the first, each playing up their parts to perfection.  Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, yes the same guys that made The Lego Movie, keep the action rolling at a steady pace with just a smattering of dead spots.  The third act might feel a tad bit tacked on but as a whole it’s a really fun film.  Be sure to stick around for the credits as they posit what countless sequels would look like, something Ice Cube might know a little something about..

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: EDGE OF TOMORROW

Tom Cruise stars as a soldier who lives out the last day of his life over and over again in this Warner Bros. sci-fi production from driector Doug Liman. Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton co-star, with Dante Harper and Joby Harold providing the script. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director: Doug Liman 

Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Jonas Armstrong, Kick Gurry.

Release Date: Jun 06, 2014

Rated PG-13 for intense seq. of sci-fi action, brief suggestive material, intense seq. of sci-fi violence and language 

Genres: Action/Adventure 

Review:

Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow maybe the biggest surprise of the summer.  An odd thing to say considering it stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, believably badass throughout, during the middle of blockbuster season.  Cruise’s last sci-fi epic, Oblivion, failed to impress because of how much it borrowed from other sources while never really adding much to the mix.  Edge of Tomorrow also borrows heavily from other sources, think Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers, but it’s just a film that’s a lot more enjoyable to watch especially the first 2 acts.  Cruise and Blunt are wonderful together with the latter really leaving you with a different impression of her overall.  Cruise isn’t overly serious, having fun with the role that doesn’t place him in the hero role right away, instead making him earn it.  Massive set pieces are revisited various times but some sharp editing keeps it from becoming too tedious.  The last act falters a tad because it falls into some standard sci-fi territory which gives you time to start nitpicking the story’s premise and the endless plot holes at play.  That’s when you kind of wish Liman would have trimmed the film just a tad.   

B+

Cindy Prascik's Review of The Railway Man

 



Dearest Blog, yesterday I took a pass on the weekend's big releases to spend some quality time with Colin Firth and The Railway Man.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't get from the trailer.

Years after World War II, a tormented former POW comes face to face with one of his captors.

Well, Blog, you know me. I'm a blockbuster kinda gal. I like monsters and superheroes and have, on more than one occasion, called The Expendables "all the movie I'll ever need." (Don't judge!)

Sometimes, though...sometimes there's a different kind of movie that tells a story I want to hear, and tells it in such a way that I'm willing to put off my date with a wicked witch and shoot-em-ups and even Sharlto Copley to see it.

The Railway Man is an extraordinary true story of love and redemption and forgiveness. The horrors of war are depicted in brutal detail, but never gratuitously. The pace is deliberate--this movie is in no hurry to get anywhere--but it never feels like it's dragging. It would be easy to single out the always-remarkable (and, by always, I mean even in St. Trinian's!) Colin Firth as worth mentioning, but the entire cast is so extraordinary that wouldn't be fair. Even Nicole Kidman, a perennial member of my "Most Hated" list, manages to shine. Sadly, the fact that the film's been released in May, when everything about it screams "awards season," tells me Someone Very Important has already deemed it unworthy of next winter's accolades. That's a real shame.

The Railway Man is a wonderful, terrible, beautiful, painful story that's easily the best movie I've seen this year. With a new blockbuster landing every weekend, it won't stick around long, so I enthusiastically encourage you to get out and see it as soon as you can.

The Railway Man runs 116 minutes and is rated R for "disturbing prisoner of war violence." (Is that a thing?)

The trailer for The Railway Man closes with the line, "Sometime the hating has to stop," and the movie is just great enough to inspire viewers to go out and try to make it so.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Railway Man gets eight and a half.

Until next time...

MOVIE REVIEW: A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST

Mild-mannered sheep farmer Albert Stark (Seth MacFarlane) feels certain that the Western frontier is trying to kill him, then he loses his girlfriend, Louise (Amanda Seyfried), to the town's most successful businessman. However, a beautiful, pistol-packing woman named Anna (Charlize Theron) rides into town and helps Albert find his inner courage. Then Stark must put his newfound bravery to the test when Anna's outlaw husband arrives with plans to plant him in an unmarked grave.

Director: Seth MacFarlane 

Cast: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Liam Neeson

Release Date: May 30, 2014

Genres: Comedy Western, Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film, 

Comedy, Western 

Review:

After the surprising success of Ted, my expectation of Seth MacFarlane next live action film were fairly high.  Sadly, A Million Ways to Die in the West doesn’t live up to expectations.  It plays out like an extended “Road to…” episode of Family Guy with very little in the way of innovation, satire or even laughs.  It will bring a grin to your face from time to time but MacFarlane seems to forget he’s making a comedy and seems more interested in making a clichéd western.  Outside of the occasional MacFarlane riffs on how horrible the old west was, there isn’t a ton to the plot.  As a result the story as a whole lacks forward momentum with noticeable dead spots spread across the bloated run time, most obvious during the climax of the forced storyline with MacFarlane and Theron.  A Million Ways to Die in the West is one of those films that has a few false endings and then it drags on for another 20 minutes longer than it should, essentially wasting  Liam Neeson’s screen time.  A few laughs here and there will never replace Blazing Saddles.

C-

Cindy Prascik's Review of X-Men: Days of Future Past

Dearest Blog, today it was off to the cinema in the hope that X-Men: Days of Future Past would live up the hype. I am pleased to report I was not disappointed.

Spoiler level here will be mild, limited to one very specific, non plot-related...um..."asset" that I must mention.

Logan travels to the past to try to change history and avoid a terrible fate for mutants and humans.

Well, dear Blog, whenever the 70s are in play, one thing's for sure: the fashion is going to be good for laughs, whether intentional or not. While Days of Future Past doesn't go full American Hustle, it's fair to say the ascot is not Michael Fassbender's best look.

I love the cast of X-Men: Days of Future Past like I've loved few others. Were I to make a bullet list of the acting awesomeness, we'd be here all night. Suffice to say everyone is just great, and it's worth mentioning that Evan Peters--who is routinely terrific in American Horror Story--is every bit as good as his better-known castmates in his sadly limited screen time.

With its wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey plot, Days of Future Past could have ended up a convoluted mess, but instead it's handled expertly, a clever story that never bogs down. If the movie feels a little too long, I can't say there was so much as a minute I wasn't engaged. The effects are solid and--yes!!--we do get one (1) "pants optional" scene with the ever-fit Mr. Jackman. (The movie gods have heard my prayers!) If I had one complaint, it's that I kinda feel like what's the point of anything happening if you can just go back and make it un-happen, or what we'll call "The Heroes Effect."

That sounds like a pretty huge problem, but it diminishes my enthusiasm for neither the film nor the franchise.

I did not see this in 3D, and I can't say I felt like I was missing anything.

X-Men: Days of Future Past clocks in at 131 minutes and is rated PG13 for "sequences of intense sci-fi violence and action, some suggestive material, nudity, and language."

X-Men: Days of Future Past gets full marks for writing, acting, directing, and effects, and a few small quibbles won't stop me from calling it a truly great movie.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, X-Men: Days of Future Past gets eight.

Until next time...

Your argument is invalid.