Cindy Prascik’s review of 42

Dearest Blog, having survived a bout with the Death Flu on Friday, today I rewarded myself with a trip to the cinema. On the docket was my much anticipated baseball drama 42.

Spoiler level here will be as mild as possible for a story about a super-famous person who's been dead for four decades.
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson becomes the first man to break Major League Baseball's color barrier.

Well, dear Blog, there's no sense denying it: I'm stupidly sentimental about baseball, and therefore stupidly sentimental about baseball movies. Not once did I get through the 42 trailer sans tears, so needless to say I expected the film to be the emotional equivalent of a 15-car freeway pileup.

Chadwick Boseman, who isn't quite a newcomer but certainly is new to headlining a project of this caliber, carries 42 with flair. A weaker performance easily might have been overcome by Harrison Ford's strong turn as Brooklyn Dodgers' general manager (then titled "business manager") Branch Rickey; depending on how strong the field is, I won't be surprised if voters remember his performance come awards season. Supporting players include a few of my faves: Brett Cullen (too briefly...again), Christopher Meloni, Hamish Linklater, and Steve the Pirate Alan Tudyk as the bigoted jerk manager of my beloved Philadelphia Phillies. The cast is almost uniformly strong, with only Nicole Beharie coming off a bit too dewey-eyed and perfect as Robinson's wife Rachel. (In fairness, writing may be to blame there; more on that later.)

Though I loved it overall, 42 does have a few faults worth mentioning, the first being that it is, at times, too earnest with its message. There are two kid scenes at the ballpark (which I won't spoil here) that are played way too hard for tugging the heartstrings, and it was absolutely unnecessary; the film speaks for itself and needn't have hit viewers over the head. Secondly, the movie portrays Robinson's wife (now widow) Rachel, and therefore their relationship, as just a bit too perfect. Remember a few years back when VH1 did that Temptations biopic? At my house, we call it "The World According to Otis." The only surviving Temptation at the time was Otis Williams, and the mini-series went out of its way to make sure viewers knew Otis was the good guy in...well...everything. I'm not sure how much of a hand Mrs. Robinson had in this film, but it definitely skews towards making her look brave, flawless, and pretty much responsible for Major League Baseball not being an all-white sport to this day.

Finally, my two favorite teams, the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates, are portrayed as dicks and laughingstocks, respectively, a view many hold of both teams to this day. History is what it is, but they didn't have to keep saying, "Pittsburgh??" like it was some big damn joke. (Though I did laugh anyway.)

While 42 successfully tells what's ultimately an uplifting story, the racism that was the norm for the time is more than uncomfortable to watch...all the more so for knowing we aren't entirely past it a half-century later. Still, the fact that we keep telling the story leads me to believe we'll get there someday, and that the movie earned a houseful of applause in my not-necessarily-progressive little town lets me hope we're closer than I think. Oh, and to the staff and management at the Highlands' Marquee Cinemas, that flood in room 12 was just my tears. Sorry about that.

42 clocks in at 128 minutes that’s as deliberately-paced as the game of baseball itself, though it doesn't feel long. It's rated PG13 for "thematic elements, including language." (At one point, dialogue prompted a little boy at the back of my cinema to ask, "Dad, what's adultery?" to which his father hastily replied, "NOTHING!")

42 is a great movie about the great sport of baseball. If it comes on a bit strong with its message, well, that's easily forgiven when the message is this important.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, 42 earns seven and a half.

Now, dear Blog, if you'll excuse me, my flu-decimated self needs a nap. Until next time...




Thank you.

MOVIE REVIEW: TRANCE

A thieving art auctioneer seeks the help of an alluring hypnotherapist in order to repair his damaged memory and recover the treasured Goya painting that he stashed following a brazen heist in this kinetic thriller reteaming Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle with Trainspotting and Shallow Grave screenwriter John Hodge.. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director: Danny Boyle

Cast: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson, Danny Sapani, Tuppence Middleton.

Release Date: Apr 05, 2013

Rated R for language, Graphic Nudity, Sexual Content, Some Grisly Images and Violence

Runtime: 1 hr. 41 min.

Genres: Suspense/Thriller

Review:

Danny Boyle’s pulse pounding techno noir film Trance is a mind bending assault on the senses. It starts off with a wonderfully shot heist that provides the mcguffin for the plot. Once Rosario Dawson’s character is introduced it’s easy to wonder what’s real and what’s not. It’s a film that’s best during the journey down the rabbit hole. It’s a bendy journey which borders on directorial excess but it’s never boring. The film and performances are all incredibly engaging even if the actual plot is a poorly built match stick castle which relies a little too much on chance. James McAvoy gives a wonderfully frazzled sweaty performance as the sort of lead. Rosario Dawson, sporting an impressive hair bun, is just luminous as the hypnotherapist. Dawson just commands the screen every time she’s on it regardless of how ludicrous the situation. Vincent Cassel character is underwritten but he’s always dependable. Boyle’s film would have faired better if it’d been left open ended since it’s so intent on playing games with our senses. Still it’s the type of film that’s probably worth revisiting.

B-

MOVIE REVIEW: EVIL DEAD

The Deadites return in this revamp of the Evil Dead franchise from newcomer director Fede Alvarez. The action centers on a group of friends who head out to an isolated cabin in order to clean up their drug-addicted friend (Jane Levy).. The helmer wrote the script with Rodo Sayagues. Film series veterans Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, and Bruce Campbell handle producing duties on the Ghost House Pictures production for Sony Pictures Entertainment. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director Fede Alvarez

Cast: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Jim McLarty

Release Date: Apr 05, 2013

Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, some sexual content and language

Runtime: 1 hr. 31 min.

Genres: Horror

Review:

Stilted acting, outrageous gore and inventive camera work made the original Evil Dead a horror camp classic. A remake of that film is terribly unnecessary just like all the other unnecessary remakes but it’s a trend that won’t stop so I will. This re-imagining focuses on the same cabin with a group of pretty 20 somethings expect one of them is trying to get clean this go around. When the action starts it engages in a full throttle assault on the senses. Fede Alvarez gives the original it due with a ton of winks and nods but while delivering an over the top gross out that’s as campy as the original. The trailers suggested a more serious tone but the film is just as stupid as the original. The characters are intentionally idiotic and moronic. The FX are notch though, delivering some of the best gross out gore I’ve seen in a long while. Jane Levy, in heavy make up for the better part of the film, does her best to add a little something to her character but it’s not really required for carnival of carnage that borrows heavily from all kinds of horror sources even recalling The Exorcist on occasion. It all builds to a rather thrilling 3rd act that’s rather insane but satisfying at the same time.

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: ROOM 237

Filmmaker Rodney Ascher examines the many conspiracy theories surrounding Stanley Kubrick's controversial 1980 horror classic The Shining by speaking with fans of the film, and scholars who claim the director had a hidden agenda in adapting Stephen King's bestselling novel to the big screen. In-depth conversations with Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan, and Jay Weidner (Kubrick's Odyssey) reveal a wide spectrum of theories pertaining to Kubrick's film, including speculation that it was a cinematic allegory for the slaughter of Native Americans, the Holocaust, or perhaps a cleverly-constructed confession that he was in fact the filmmaker responsible for faking the 1969 moon landing that placed the U.S. at the cutting-edge of the international space race against the former Soviet Union. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Rodney Ascher

Cast: Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, John Fell Ryan, and Jay Weidner

Release Date: Mar 29, 2013

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr. 42 min.

Genres: Documentary

Review:

Room 237 is like a speaking tour into a conspiracy theorist slightly insane mind. Connections are made from the slightest misinterpreted detail and extrapolated into infinity. The funny thing is that after a bit of listening to some of these people it starts making sense until reality seeps in. It’s a fascinating adventure into these people’s minds. At its center is Kubrick’s The Shining. I’m personally a massive Kubrick fanboy who just adores everything the man ever did. His style and attention to detail are something that’s always left an impression on me. His films are just masterworks, at least in my humble opinion. That being said The Shining, as a straight up horror movie, really never did anything for me. It never terrified me or sent me home weeping like The Exorcist did. That not to say I didn’t enjoy it, I still do, but it’s a totally different animal than a standard issue horror flick. Listening to the variety of theories set forth on this documentary kind of speaks to that. Having read the King book, I can tell you the movie bears little relation to the book outside of major plot points. Kubrick’s creation was something more of a cipher leaving the door open to all kind of crackpot theories, some slightly more sensible than others. As a film fan and Kubrick diehard I enjoyed listening to even the craziest connections, Moon landing and Minotaur being my favorite. Rodney Ascher stays as neutral as possible with only a few condescending displays thrown in here or there. We never see any of these people, only stock footage or clips from Kubrick’s catalogue repurposed along with a lot of clips from The Shining, sometimes played backward, in super slow mo and well you get the idea. It’s all great fun for movie lovers and when it starts to drag a tad it wraps up and lets you come back to reality.

B+

Cindy Prascik’s reviews of The Host / G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Dearest Blog, on Good Friday I set out for the cinema, hoping religious observances coupled with a warm spring day would give me the place to myself.

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

Since we didn't get The Place Beyond the Pines, my leadoff batter on Friday was The Host.

Alien beings inhabit human bodies and take over the Earth, leaving only small pockets of human resistance.

The Host is a profoundly bad film. It's based on a novel by Stephanie Meyer, of Twilight fame, who writes at about a fifth-grade level. I never assumed this'd land among the alltime greats, but I hoped by this point filmmakers were pumping enough cash into her garbage to make it halfway tolerable. That hope was misplaced.

The premise of The Host is fine, if nothing new, but the execution is awful. The dialogue is painfully awkward, particularly exchanges between the lead girl and the alien that occupies her body. Poor writing doesn't help the young cast shine, but the actors have to shoulder some of the blame for their uninspired performances. Every turn is predictable, and, at a bloated two hours and five minutes, this disaster is easily 125...er...30 minutes longer than it should have been.

The Host runs 125 minutes and is rated PG13 for "some sensuality and violence." The whole thing plays like a bad (but overfunded!) film school project, and if I hated it less than Twilight, that's only because I don't love aliens like I love vampires. Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Host gets two.

Next on my agenda was G.I. Joe: Retaliation, admittedly one of my most-anticipated movies of the year. Go ahead, laugh!
Framed and branded as traitors, the G.I. Joes must save the world from destruction while restoring their good name.

Dear Blog, let me admit to you that I'm not well-versed in Joe Lore, and I did myself no favors by failing to re-watch the last G.I. Joe film before I saw this one. I spent a lot of time wondering, "Now what's this guy's deal again?" but that didn't dampen my enthusiasm for the movie one teensy bit.

Dwayne Johnson may never win an Academy Award, but he's certainly one of the more engaging leading men making movies today. After a more subtle turn in Snitch, G.I. Joe sees him back in full ass-kicking mode. The enjoyable supporting cast includes Channing Tatum, Jonathan Pryce, Ray Park, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, Joseph Mazello, and two folks who make me giddy whenever they turn up: Ray Stevenson and Walton Goggins. I found them a very likable group, with nice chemistry.

I did not see this in 3D, but I have no doubt the mountain scenes alone would be absolutely worth the upcharge and 3D-glasses headache.

As you'd expect, G.I. Joe: Retaliation is heavy on big action and light on pretty much everything else. It could fairly be compared to last summer's Battleship, but, unfortunately, G.I. Joe lacks that surprise bit of heart and sincerity that made Battleship more than it had to be.

Still, it's good, dumb fun, and no doubt will be counted among the summer's monster hits, even though we've barely made it to spring.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation clocks in at a fast-paced 110 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense sequences of combat violence and martial arts action throughout, and for brief sensuality and language." I loved it every bit as much as I expected to. Of a possible nine Weasleys, G.I. Joe: Retaliation earns seven.

So, dearest Blog, that's about all the news that's fit to print for this lazy Sunday. Since I had my cinema fun on Friday, I guess that makes tomorrow closet-cleaning day. Ugh.

Until next time.......




*shameless fangirling*

MOVIE REVIEW: G.I. JOE: RETALIATION 3D

Veteran dance-film director Jon Chu takes a crack at G.I. Joe in this sequel to Stephen Sommers' blockbuster 2009 film. Dwayne Johnson stars as Roadblock in the sequel, with Channing Tatum returning as Duke, the leader of the Joes, and Ray Park joining them as mute ninja Snake Eyes. Bruce Willis, Ray Stevenson, Adrianne Palicki, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Byung-hun, Elodie Yung, and RZA co-star. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, D.J. Cotrona, Adrianne Palicki, Jonathan Pryce.

Release Date: Mar 28, 2013

Rated PG-13 for Intense Seq of Combat Violence, Brief Sensuality, Language and Martial Arts Action

Runtime: 1 hr. 39 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure

Review:

I’m still trying to remember when I’ve ever had the desire to watch a sequel to a movie I avoided like the plague. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra looked like garbage and everything I read after the fact confirmed that fact. Unlike Transformers, whom I loved as a child, G.I. Joe never connected with me as a kid, even if it was pretty much the same cartoon except one starred robots. Regardless, the trailer for this sequel looked like stupid fun and thankfully it’s incredibly stupid but fun in a toy box kind of way. The nonsensical plot is almost besides the point here. This movie is about highly choreographed and staged action and it works for the most part. There’s very little if any depth to any characters and the actors are all aware they’re in a silly movie. The cast, led by a very manly muscled Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson provides his usual charisma with an over the top delivery that appropriate for the film. Channing Tatum has a brief role in the film, disappearing quickly and quietly. Adrianne Palicki, the woman that would have been the new Wonder Woman, has a noticeable sass to go along with a seemingly endless supply of beauty products. Ray Stevenson, a personal favorite from HBO’s Rome, has a small role but still leaves an impression even with one of the worse southern accents in recent memory. Bruce Willis pops up because he has a little time on the set of RED 2 and continues his self parody tour with unabashed sincerity. It sounds like a mess and it is but it’s a fun mess especially when they stop trying to build a story or have the RZA try and act. That’s not what this film is about; it’s about 3D mountain climbing ninja fights which are surprisingly fun. The 3D, one of the better post conversion jobs, is spotty with some sequences like the aforementioned ninja fight working well and others coming off as too dark and jittery. It’s at best when the extreme action sequences take center stage something director Jon M. Chu obviously feels a lot more comfortable doing.

C+