One of the things I took advantage of at the end of 2012 was signing up for MoviePass. I hit the theater regularly enough but with this, it sort of forces me to make sure I take advantage of it to get the value of it. In February, we hit up seven movies across the twenty-eight days that the month ran and have compiled a summary of what we saw.
Our plans for March are pretty extensive as well. We’ve got 21 And Over, Jack the Giant Slayer, Stoker (if it goes wide), Oz The Great And Powerful, The Call, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Spring Brakers, Upside Down (if it goes wide), Admission, The Croods, Olympus Has Fallen, GI Joe: Retaliation, The Host and Tyler Perry’s Temptation. Hoo boy.
Snitch
While the commercials and trailers for this push it more as an action film than anything else, which you halfway expect from Dwayne Johnson, it’s anything but. The final act has its action and that takes up a small but solid chunk of time. What the majority of the film is about is a tense family drama revolving around a son who ends up in jail for something stupid, gets caught up in a system with a series of laws designed to take down crime/drug syndicate people and has to pay the ten year prison term price unless he rats out on people in the drug supply chain. The problem of him being just a stupid kid with no knowledge of anything – and entrapped by a fellow friend in the same situation – just makes it a horrible trap that you can’t find any way out of. The film does a decent job of showing how his father, played by Johnson, tries to take on the challenge of bringing in some bigger fish for the district attorney to get his son out of the problem he’s in. While it could go all big and explosive (and it does in its own way), it’s not like an 80’s action flick where it’s over the top. It’s restrained, tense and has that layer of realism to it that definitely allows it to work very well. The movie is what’s advertised, but it’s only a fraction of that. The real story of the family and what Johnson does is a lot more engaging and is like a “citizen procedural” in a way.
In development since 2007, the release of this film is about what’d you’d expect based on the trailers. Provided you saw any, or any commercials. An under the radar release from The Weinstein Company, the film made out well during its release simply because it was the only kids fare available during winter break from school. Which is also why I went as I took my two kids to it. The film is the epitome of kids CG animated film entertainment in that it’s completely by the numbers as it deals with a cocky guy who gets stuck on Earth trying to do his job and his straightlaced brother who has to come and save the day after getting out from behind his desk job. That they’re aliens is the hook of course, but it’s a tried and true plot concept. The film has a good cast to it that definitely does their best to have fun with the idea and it goes for the bright colors, wacky incidences and slapstick comedy that will make kids laugh. And it did accomplish that goal as even on the Thursday afternoon show we went to which was half packed, the kids were laughing repeatedly throughout it, making it just right for the target audience. The film left me a bit cold to say the least because it was so predictable and it lacked any real charm to hook an adult audience, but it did make me smile at times and I enjoyed seeing the kids enjoying something so “safe” and simplistic since I throw more complicated things at them at home regularly. But in the end, Escape From Planet Earth is mostly just a time-waster, which is why it was an ideal February release.
While you can see this as a bit of a transitional movie if they attempt to shift anything further with Jack McClane, it’s not something I can actually see happening, no matter how much I like Jai Courtney after his run as Varro in the first season of Spartacus. This feature is a kind of mild send off to the franchise that really put Bruce Willis on the map in the feature film world and part of me is glad that he can still get out there and do all of this. But because of the dialogue used, the pacing and the weaker script, it ends up making him feel even older than he is and more of a Murtaugh here than anything else. The pairing has its awkward moments as it works towards the inevitable coming together of the two men as father and son. While we had reconciliation in a previous film between John and his daughter Lucy, it makes sense to add this little touch here, even if the character was barely seen across the previous four films. Yet in the end, A Good Day To Die Hard just doesn’t feel like it lives up to the name of the franchise with what came before. It had a lot of potential but the poor script which feels like it would have worked better outside of this particular franchise just hamstrings it far too often. In the end, it just makes me want to go back to the original again and enjoy that while mostly forgetting about this one.
With movies like this, the way I feel that you can tell whether they succeed or fail is in how the audience reacts, which is why I try to see some of these in the theater. I can still vividly remember the heaving and sobs at the end of Titanic by the audience and other films over the years. With the Friday night screening I went to, filled largely with younger women and plenty of teenage girls, there was a lot of gasping at the right scenes, sighs at others and a good bit of sobbing style words to be said after the surprise ending twist is revealed. It hits the right notes, not as high as The Notebook for me, but definitely very well done. What movies like this do, if you really and trulygive yourself over to being manipulated like you should, you experience something that may not come into your life often and find yourself engaged in a new way that could renew your view on life and your own relationships. Films like this are meant to be romantic and dramatic, without being overdramatic, and has you taking some of it with you out of the theater and into your life. Safe Haven has some really good things in it with a very good cast and solid direction from Lasse Hallström, who has done some fantastic things before like Chocolat, The Cider House Rulesand Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. This is the kind of very, very good date movie that should hit both men and women the right way, in different ways.
While I wasn’t hugely enthused for the movie going into it, I had some hope for it since it’s working with some decent ideas, a different locale than usual for these things and there’s a solid fandom behind the books. I had taken my two daughters with me and my eldest had just finished the novel (and the manga) the week before we saw this. While they enjoyed it, and hated all that was lost from the book, I found myself halfway through checking my watch to see how much was left in it. There’s some good ideas in here, and I can see that they’re likely explored more, and clearer, in the novel form, but the adaptation of it dropped too many crucial things. While you can attribute plenty of things to the way teenage romances go, and even add a bit more with this one since it seems predestined, there was no chemistry here. The special effects largely felt weak, the soundtrack was forgettable and the dialogue was cringe inducing at times with the way they played up the Southern cliches so much, just coming shy of being offensive. The main positive for me was Emma Thompson’s performance simply because she was the only one that felt like she was having fun with it. While I can imagine that this might do well enough to give a sequel a green light, I can’t imagine this doing well enough to really sustain anything significant. There’s just not enough to it, though perhaps under a different director it could be something more.
Side Effects has a lot to offer and it has a lot of areas it could have delved into that might have made for a bit more of an engaging movie. That said, it is an engaging movie as we get the two halves that come together well, though not without weaknesses. Films that involve thriller material like this where it pivots can change the flow and feel of it in a heartbeat and ruin it, but I liked the pivot here. I just wanted more of a cleaner look about how these facets fit together and I would have liked to have seen a bit more exploration of the heavy pill use side that’s such a problem within society in this country. Rooney Mara brings a strong performance here with someone dealing with depression and drives the role home in a big way. Between her and Jude Law, there’s a lot to get into and both have strong performances with a situation that slowly turns surreal. This is a movie where a second and third viewing will definitely reveal more of the quirks and truths and that’s always a big plus in its favor. But it’s not a movie that demands a second viewing right away to find them, which reduces the impact overall.
When I first saw the concept for Warm Bodies, I was wholly behind it and really started looking forward to it. The trailer sold me more, though it felt like it told too much of the storyline, and then getting the first four minutes just added to how much I wanted to see it. While it may play out predictable in some ways, and they may not really be zombies in the classic sense, it’s a fun twist on the undead craze that continues on in so many ways over the last few years. It doesn’t feel like it lingers too much on things, there aren’t a lot of stupid moments that make you roll your eyes and the narration aspect of it worked better than one might expect. What largely made it work for me was the performance that Hoult turns in as the lead. It’s not an easy role and it’s one that you can see change over the course of it, even if it is just a touch uneven at times. There’s a lot to like here and it’s the kind of movie that you’re surprised got made, but will definitely make you smile and enjoy it in the midst of so many more violent works out there, engaging as they are. I’d easily recommend this for a rental and would encourage a theatrical viewing of the concept sounds like it’s up your alley.
