Cindy Prascik's Reviews of The Gunman and Insurgent

Dearest Blog, yesterday it was off to the pictures for The Gunman and Insurgent, a pair of action-packed movies sure to get the blood moving. Or not.

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

First up: Sean Penn in The Gunman.

A former assassin's misdeeds come back to haunt him.

Dear reader(s), if we're being honest, my first reaction when The Gunman's credits started rolling was, "What the hell did I just watch??" Not that it was a bad movie, or even a terribly strange movie, it just wasn't what I expected from the trailer. I went back and re-watched the trailer and, in hindsight, I'm not sure why I didn't get it. Luckily, it's a pretty good movie anyway.

Pluses: Sean Penn is on point in the lead. For me, he's one of those guys (like Tom Cruise) who, when I hear his name I think, "I don't really care for that actor." Then I watch him in something and say to myself, "Self, what were you thinking? That guy is awesome!" Though he's crippled on occasion by awkward dialogue, Penn is solid here, which is a good thing, because it's mostly on him to carry this one. Idris Elba and Ray Winstone are very good with limited screen time, and the movie is noticeably better when they're around. The story is interesting, with plenty of action, and there's an angry sex scene that, while not especially long or graphic, is pretty hot. Finally, at just under two hours, the movie is smart enough not to wear out its welcome.

Minuses: Javier Bardem is a total clown...thinking his mugging may even upstage Captain Jack Sparrow in that new Pirates movie. As for the female lead, Jasmine Trinca, both the actress and the role are entirely forgettable; you could have plopped pretty much any woman of an appropriate age in that slot and she'd have been no better, no worse, and no more important to the movie. A bunch of obvious soap-opera glances in the opening scenes reveal the baddie long before you should have any idea; in fact, the whole thing, while entertaining, is extremely predictable. Finally, Idris Elba appears twice in a two-minute trailer and exactly the same number of times in a two-hour movie. I LOVE Elba, and was really hoping to see more of him.

Distractions: Penn's newfound buff-ness and Trinca's funky front teeth.

The Gunman runs 115 minutes and is rated R for "strong violence, language, and some sexuality."
As is kinda the norm for this time of year, it's a passably entertaining, but ultimately forgettable, afternoon at the cinema.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Gunman gets five and a half.

Up next was the second installment in the Divergent series, Insurgent.

Tris and Four continue fighting the good fight against Jeanine and the faction system.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, literally every single review I saw of Divergent, the first film in this series, contained some version of the sentiment, "Well, that was way better than I expected!" It is, perhaps, for that reason that Insurgent is something of a disappointment.

Though it runs about 20 minutes shorter than its predecessor, Insurgent seems slow and long. I was pretty bored with it for major chunks of time. The action is decent, but repetitive, and much of the dialogue just seems silly.

Shailene Woodley remains (for me) nothing more than a poor man's Jennifer Lawrence...now with new dopey haircut!! I still have a crush on Theo James (curse you, lady Mary, for your deadly bed!!), and I shallowly found the movie far more interesting whenever he was onscreen. Aside from Kate Winslet, who is always reliable, this series has one of the more boring supporting casts I've ever seen, with a bunch of interchangeable actors who could be swapped out with barely a ripple.

Even having said all that, my chief annoyances were a weirdly made-up and bejeweled Naomi Watts (is that really how you picture the leader of your revolution??) and the awkward giggles drawn from my teenage audience by the non-starter love scene and a single almost f-word. (Hardly the movie's fault, but it still set my teeth on edge.)

Insurgent clocks in at 119 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense violence and action throughout, some sensuality, thematic elements, and brief language."

Sadly, the middle frame of the Divergent series is exactly what I expect of most Y.A. adaptations. Here's hoping next year's finale is more like part one.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Insurgent gets five.

Until next time...

 

Note to filmmakers: More Idris Elba is always better than less Idris Elba.

Cindy Prascik's Review of Run all Night

Dearest Blog, yesterday it was off to the pictures for the latest in a seemingly-endless series of "Liam Neeson Kicks Butt" movies, Run all Night.

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

Well, dear reader(s), I have to be honest with you: with two major new releases on the weekend's docket, this was meant to be a double review. Yes, I love you all enough that I was going to force myself to see that damn princess movie.

However, when I got to the theatre and found it crawling with little girls--all of whom were queuing up to have their ideas of life and romance irreparably warped by some fool in a glass shoe--I had to dodge and go with a fourth screening of Kingsman: The Secret Service instead. It was the only responsible thing to do.

Liam Neeson...yadda yadda yadda...family in danger...yadda yadda yadda...guns, explosions, carnage...yadda yadda yadda...my hero!...yadda yadda yadda...the end.

Look, this is one of those movies where I have little sympathy for anyone who sees it and doesn't like it. It couldn't possibly be more exactly what you'd expect, so shame on you if you buy a ticket and then complain about it. Neeson is once again in fine butt-kicking form, perhaps a little rougher around the edges than in some of his other, similar films, but no less convincing as the guy you want to be hanging around with when there's trouble...ANY sort of trouble.

Joel Kinnaman does a terrific job as the neglected son, dragged into the very chaos he's worked his whole life to avoid, and Ed Harris is, of course, great as that guy you'd really be rooting for if only the movie weren't expressly designed to make you root for that other guy. Harris undoubtedly could pull off something like this in his sleep, but it sure is fun watching him.

The movie itself is a bit more grim than some others of its ilk. Not suggesting for a minute that the Taken movies and Non-Stop and A Walk Among the Tombstones are a barrel of laughs, but this one has virtually no lighter moments, and the few it attempts are so crass and abrasive that they don't do much to lift the tone.

The movie is set at Christmastime, and the omnipresent Christmas decorations are a stark contrast to the film's miserable atmosphere. The timing did leave me curious about a thunderstorm towards the beginning of the movie and the coloring trees at the end, though. In New York, in December?

Like the famous ghosts, I think Liam did this all in one night. We really shouldn't have experienced changing seasons, but I guess it's hardly the sort of movie where I'd expect perfect attention to detail. On a personal note, I was delighted to see Bruce McGill (a favorite in our house), Common, and the many, many New York Rangers references scattered about the movie.

Run All Night clocks in at 114 minutes and is rated R for "strong violence, language including sexual references, and some drug use."

It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but if you like watching Liam Neeson kick ass (and who doesn't?) you should be decently entertained. Of a possible nine Weasleys, Run All Night gets five.

And sorry about the princess.

Until next time...

(not my graphic)

MOVIE REVIEW: UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Ken Scott's comedy Unfinished Business stars Vince Vaughn as a struggling businessman trying to get his fledgling company off the ground. To do so he must travel with his partners (Dave Franco and Tom Wilkinson) on a foreign business trip in order to land a huge client. Unexpectedly, our hero discovers that he is competing against his former boss, and his attempts to show the prospective clients the best night of their lies leads to a number of unexpected complications. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Director: Ken Scott     

Cast: Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco, James Marsden, Nick Frost

Release Date: Mar 06, 2014     

Rated R for some strong risqué sexual content/graphic nudity, language and drug use    

Runtime: 1 hr. 31 min.     

Genres: Workplace Comedy, Comedy     

Review:

Unfinished Business is a lazy uninspired comedy that’s a mish mash of various things while never really coming together at all.  The film seems like its fertile ground for the comedy but it just never pulls itself together.  As a result you’re left with various dead spots which make the relatively short film seem incredibly long.  Throw in an oddly shoehorned anti-bullying subplot and you have a strangely unfunny film even though Dave Franco and Tom Wilkinson are trying their hardest to pull something out of the film.  Vince Vaughn does his usual shtick looking more haggard than usual, probably how you’ll feel by the end of the film.

D

MOVIE REVIEW: CHAPPIE

Neill Blomkamp expands on his 2003 short film Neill Blomkamp in this futuristic sci-fi saga written in collaboration with screenwriter Terri Tatchellmore

Director: Neill Blomkamp 

Cast: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman

Release Date: Mar 06, 2015

Rated R for Language, Brief Nudity and Violence

Runtime: 2 hr. 0 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Review:

Chappie is a worrisome film, not because it’s an awful film by any stretch but because it lays bare Blomkamp’s flaws as a director.  Chappie is filled with big ideas but mired by substandard execution and cartoonishly drawn characters.  Casting South African rappers from Die Antwoord is an odd choice made even worse by the fact that they are main characters.  If they’d been supporting characters it might have worked out a bit better for everyone involved.  Dev Patel, Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman (who’s sporting Wolverine’s hairdo in reverse) are saddled by poorly drawn characters who are types instead of well formed characters with depth.  As for Chappie himself, he’s a well formed creation even though he leans a bit too much on the cutesy side than he should.  When all the explosions have ended and the film has run its course you can’t help but wonder if you’ve watched sub par Short Circuit remake.

C+

Cindy Prascik's Reviews of Chappie & The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to the cinema--or, as it's more rightly called this weekend, "The Dev Patel Film Festival"--for a pair of unlikely bedfellows: Chappie and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

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

First on the agenda, Neill Blomkamp's latest, Chappie.

In the not-too-distant future, human police in Johannesburg have been replaced by a robot force. A young programmer poaches a decommissioned police droid and creates the world's first true A.I.
Chappie is no District 9, however hard it might be trying. With that out of the way, it's not the disaster some early notices would have you believe, either.

Starting with the positives: The robot looks great...beautiful motion capture work, with natural movements that should be the envy of those ridiculous Apes movies. Sharlto Copley turns in a fantastic performance as Chappie, completely sympathetic even when he's behaving like the world's most annoying toddler. The story is entertaining, even though it's never too hard to guess what's coming. As a "message" movie, it's a bit ham-handed, but as an A.I. movie, it's waaaaaaay better than Transcendence. (Talk about backhanded praise!) Dev Patel is his usual wide-eyed, earnest self, perfect for a role like this, and Sigourney Weaver...well...especially when it comes to sci-fi, I guess having Sigourney Weaver is always better than NOT having Sigourney Weaver, and at least she hasn't been saddled with a random weird accent (lookin' at you, Jodie Foster!). Hans Zimmer provides a fantastic score, and the interspersed Die Antwoord tunes are ideally suited to the movie's harsh, ugly landscape.

On the negative side, I have to start with Hugh Jackman. Yes, THAT Hugh Jackman, arguably one of the world's most gifted all-around performers. Can we actually be meant to take him seriously here, a silly one-note baddie, stomping about in a mullet and goofy shorts, shooting the camera his best Snidely Whiplash looks?

Did he really read this script and think it was a good idea? I can't imagine. The movie throws a ton of screen time at Die Antwoord's Ninja and Yo-Landi, relying heavily on viewers finding the two super cool and awesome. In fact, they are anything but...unless you're a 14-year-old boy who is endlessly amused by vulgar t-shirts and tattoos of tiny men with giant penises, then, hey, they're super cool and awesome. In fact, all the characters are essentially caricatures of what they're meant to be, and the movie would have done well to dial everyone back a tick. Finally, though the movie never lost my attention, there's no denying the story is predictable and derivative, with a terribly contrived finish that left me rolling my eyes.

Chappie clocks in at 120 minutes and is rated R for "violence, language, and brief nudity."

It's got more problems than a calculus textbook, but I still kinda liked it. Of a possible nine Weasleys,
Chappie gets five.

Next up was The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

(Or, "The further adventures of Heaven's Waiting Room.")

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a fantastic film, sweet and sincere, with more feels than the average teenager's Tumblr.

Did it need a sequel? Of course not.

Did it do well enough for everyone to know it was getting a sequel? Well, hey, when this whole group is still kicking three years later, you gotta take it as a sign, eh? There's nothing I can say about the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that you don't already know, whether or not you've seen it. The movie features more wisdom from Mrs. Donnelly, more adorableness from Mr. Ainslie, more cougaring from Mrs. Hardcastle, and more well-intentioned shenanigans from Sonny. The age jokes never get old (see what I did there?), and the beautiful colors of India make it a joy to watch. If we're being honest, of course, you could take all that away and still there'd be no going wrong with this cast; they are the most perfectly perfect bunch of perfect to ever grace the silver screen. Special perfection marks to Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy; minus her deadpan delivery and his lovable awkwardness, the movie would definitely be missing its most special pieces.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel runs 122 minutes and is rated PG13 for "some language and suggestive comments."

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a charming, funny, moving film, and, if it never takes a turn you didn't expect, maybe you never wanted it to, anyway. Of a possible nine Weasleys, the

Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel gets seven.

Until next time...

I may look harmless, but I'm taking over your cinema!!

Cindy Prascik's Review of Focus

Dearest Blog, yesterday it was off to the pictures for Will Smith's latest, Focus.

After a couple weeks' weather-enforced cinema break, I'd probably have dragged out for a rom-com starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Tyler Perry (*shudder*), but luckily this seemed more promising. (PS: I get royalties when somebody makes that rom-com!)

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

Life is a series of scores for a couple con artists, until they cross a dangerous mark.

Getting the bad news out of the way first, the chiefest and greatest flaw of Focus is that it just HAS to be smarter than it is. If we, as viewers, are to buy these two as the world's greatest con artists, then we, as viewers, must be as victims...we can't ever guess what they've got up their sleeves.

Unfortunately, the exact opposite is true...it took me longer to figure out No Good Deed! That's not to say the plot isn't interesting--it's good fun--but if you're waiting for that "A-ha!" moment...well...you're gonna leave the theatre still waiting. For a relatively short movie, it also seems to take very long getting anywhere. I checked the time about an hour in and couldn't believe it wasn't further along.

On the plus side, the movie IS smart enough to lean heavily on the appeal of its two leads, and Will Smith and Margot Robbie have to be among Hollywood's most likeable. Smith, in particular, is just impossibly appealing for me; I root for him no matter what.

This is the sort of role that allows Robbie to run around in all manner of clingy cocktail dress and skimpy swimsuit, and I doubt anyone's got any complaints with that, either. Among the supporting cast, Adrian Martinez plays for laughs, while Gerald McRaney blusters his way through. The movie is thoroughly enjoyable, if never fully engaging.

Focus clocks in at 104 minutes, and is rated R for "language, some sexual content, and brief violence."

It's nothing special, but Focus is a perfectly passable afternoon of entertainment.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Focus gets five.

Until next time...

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