Mini Reviews (I'm Back)

In case anyone actually reads this, I apologize for my recent absence but things have been sort of crazy at work. Right now, I am going to write a few mini reviews to get caught up on the things I've seen recently (two movies in theaters you might want to check out and two on DVD that you will probably want to avoid), but then I am going to get back to updating this blog more frequently. I also have a few ideas for new funs things to do (i.e. a weekly Friday Top Five list related to new releases or actor birthdays and maybe a Best Director tournament!). But for now, here are quick thoughts on four 2013 releases (from best to worst):

The Internship
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rose Byrne, Max Minghella
Plot: Two salesmen lose their jobs and decide that despite any skill whatsoever that they are going to get a job at Google. The movie follows a summer long internship program.
Thoughts: Despite being way too long and following all the rules of romantic comedy, The Internship manages to be cute, sweet and funny. The best part about it is, of course, Vaughn and Wilson and their perfect chemistry that also worked so well in Wedding Crashers. But the real star of the show is the Google campus which is fascinating and interesting in every sense of the word.
Grade: B-

Now You See Me
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Dave Franco, Melanie Laurent
Plot: Four street magicians come together thanks to a mysterious but powerful benefactor to become the most successful magicians with a traveling show where they manage to do completely unbelievable tricks (such as stealing money from a Paris bank while in Vegas). The FBI is hot on their tail though.
Thoughts: Now You See Me benefits from having an almost unrelentless pace, which absolutely works in its favor because if you were given time to stop and think about the whole thing, you would realize how none of it (especially the far fetched, ridiculous ending) makes sense. Still, as far as fun, thoughtless entertainment goes, this is decent.
Grade: C+

Dark Skies
Starring: Keri Russell, J.K. Simmons
Plot: Aliens target a family and slowly drive them crazy.
Thoughts: Cliche, but also really terrible. Simmons is the only - THE ONLY - good thing about it and he's only in it for about 3 minutes.
Grade: D+

Stand Up Guys
Starring: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin
Plot: Val (Pacino) is newly released from prison but some powerful people are holding a 28 year grudge and send his bestie (Walken) to give him the night of his life and then kill him.
Thoughts: Remember when Pacino was one of the greatest actors of all time? That whole thing is pretty foggy to me. The more he makes crap like this, the easier it is to forget he was ever even in The Godfather. The end of this movie is actually pretty bad ass, but it's a shame you have to sit through an hour and a half of crap to get to 45 seconds of coolness. On the plus side? It's not as bad as Lords of Salem!
Grade: D-

The Great Gatsby

Disclaimer: I am not a fan of 3D, in general. I think it is unneccesary and sort of silly. It drives up prices even more and for what? A few cheap thrills as something flies towards your face? No thanks. Since there are exceptions to every rule, I have two exceptions for my I Hate 3D rule. They are: Martin Scorsese's Hugo and Ang Lee's Life of Pi. These two films are examples of brilliant directors (two of the aboslute best, really) who know how to make a goddamn movie and know how to use 3D to enhance their films. Hugo was brilliant and while Life of Pi was a flawed masterpiece, the 3D definitely wasn't the problem. Baz Lurhman is already a pretty visual director (that's probably the understatment of the year). Moulin Rouge already popped off the screen and that wasn't even in 3D. When I first heard that The Great Gatsby would be filmed in 3D, I thought it was a terrible idea. Then I saw Hugo and Life of Pi and thought I could have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Lurhman is a great director too, so maybe he will get the 3D thing right also. But here's the problem. I'm not sure Baz had any idea what to really do with the 3D. If anything, I think the 3D in this case was highly detrimental to the film. But more on that in a moment.

In case you haven't read The Great Gatsby since tenth grade English class (unlike me who reread it last month in anticipation), here is the summary. Narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) moves from the MidWest to Long Island in order to become a big wig on Wall Street. Meanwhile, he becomes obsessed with his millionaire playboy neighbor Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) who throws lavish, impossibly crazy parties in order to catch the attention of the girl who got away, and the girl who just so happens to live across the bay, Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), who also happens to be Nick's cousin, and also happens to be married to rich brute Tom (Joel Edgerton), who is having his own affair with a trollop named Myrtle (Isla Fisher), who is married to a sweet but stupid mechanic (oh, hey there, Jason Clarke with those sexy eyes). Also, there's sexy, mysterious Jordan (Elizabeth Debicki, doing her best angsty Rooney Mara impression), who is Daisy's bestie and Nick's love interest despite the fact that he's probably gay (at least this is implied in the book. They really make no mention of the fact that he's most likely in love with Gatsby in the movie, and really, why would they? It's not like it's 2013 or anything).

The acting is mostly pretty good. DiCaprio is perfectly cast as Gatsby. He's mysterious and sexy. He pretty much brings it as the pretty boy wanna be rich man. On the other hand, I'm not quite sure Maguire was the right choice for Nick. Sure, he played it well enough (and he had the hard part, what, with that excrutiating framing device), but Nick is supposed to be all wide eyed and innocent and I just didn't really get that vibe from Maguire. He seemed more confused than anything. Clarke, Debicki and Fisher are all fine but they don't really have much to do. Mulligan is fine as Daisy as well, but it's not necessarily her fault that she isn't better. The character of Daisy in the book is not written as a real person but as some sort of fantasy dream girl, so Mulligan does the best she can with a character that isn't necessarily adaptable. The problem with Mulligan's performance is just that she doesn't have any chemistry whatsoever with DiCaprio and that's sort of a problem when you are trying to make a romance movie. The highlight of the film, for me, is Edgerton who is absolutely the only subtle thing about this movie and takes Tom from being just some racist bully and turns him into this very layered, nuanced character.

And speaking of nuance, or lack there of, to say The Great Gatsby is opulent is an understatement. The party scenes are crazy and vivid, the costumes are luxorious and beautiful. But there is also the slight problem of it being all a bit much. The 3D distracts from the costumes which distracts from the music which distracts from the acting. The Great Gatsby is a feast for the eyes, but it is also just too much. The actors and the dialogue (those iconic lines written so many years ago that are still so ingrained in the minds of so many) and, even the plot!, all take a back seat to the crazy visuals.

Now, reading this, you probably assume that I hated The Great Gatsby, and it may sound that way, but it's not the case. I thought it was very flawed but by no means bad. Sometimes it's so good, it almost hurts because you realize what could have been. First things first, I loved the heavily hip hop influenced soundtrack. I guess there are a lot of people hating on the soundtrack because rap wasn't around in the 1920s. First of all, Jay-Z is timeless! Second of all, I don't remember people being all that upset about the music in Moulin Rogue - actually, quite the contrary, I'm pretty sure people loved it - and as far as I know no one was writhing around to Like a Virgin and singing songs by The Police in 1899 France. I also loved the shirt scene (which was always my favorite scene in the book) and I thought the entire sequence of Jay and Daisy reuniting at Nick's house was pretty perfect and funny. Also, you know, whenever Joel Edgerton was on screen was pretty great.

So, maybe it's just that The Great Gatsby isn't adaptable. I mean, the book is something like 150 pages long and it took 2 and a half hours for Baz to tell the tale. Maybe, people should just take 3 or 4 days and read the book again. It's widely considered the greatest American novel ever written for a reason.

Grade: C+

Bachelorette

Bachelorette wants to be the female version of The Hangover, or a much rowdier version of Bridesmaids, but unfortunately if fails on both attempts. While the cast is winning, the overall despicable nature of the characters set it apart from Bridesmaids, where everyone was sort of loveable, and the fact that the jokes fail more times than they succeed set it apart from the hilarious Hangover.

Bachelorette opens with a friendly lunch between Regan (Kirsten Dunst) and Becky (Rebel Wilson). Regan is waxing poetic about how great her life is: she works with children with cancer, she dates a doctor, she's blonde and gorgeous and skinny and ultimately seemingly has the best life ever. Then Becky drops the bomb. She's getting married... before Regan... to a super hot, rich guy. Regan is floored, but her raging jealousy doesn't get in the way of her type A personality in which she needs to control everything and ultimately spends six months planning a fairytale wedding. Fast forward to the night before the wedding, when Regan and Becky are joined by their other two besties from high school - Gena (Lizzy Caplan), a snarky cynic whose life is ultimately a big huge mess, and Katie (Isla Fisher), who does A LOT of cocaine. I mean, A LOT. While at the rehearsal dinner, Katie is more concerned with drinking and doing cocaine, while Gena is concerned with the one who got away. Clyde (Adam Scott) broke her heart in high school and neither one of them really ever got over it. The post-rehearsal dinner bachelorette party hits the skids when the hired stripper accidentally calls Becky "Pig Face" (her high school nickname). Becky gets upset, calls the whole party off and heads to bed. This leaves Regan, Gena and Katie alone with lots of drugs and alcohol and a wedding dress which they ultimately destroy and then spend the rest of the night trying to fix in time for the early morning wedding.

If this movie works at all, it's because of the cast, which is phenomenal. Kirsten Dunst is great as the control freak who wants to help her friend plan the perfect wedding, but doesn't want it to be too perfect, because she's not-so-quietly wishing this was her wedding instead. Isla Fisher is hilarious as the dumb party girl friend who, despite all her faults, has a heart of gold. Adam Scott, who I love so much, is fantastic as the object of Gena's affection. Rebel Wilson is great, but her part is unfortunately too small. I wish the movie had more of her, because she is arguably the only likeable character in the whole film. But the true stand out of the cast, for me, was Lizzy Caplan, who plays dark and damaged and cynical so, so, so very well.

Like I said, it's raunchy and wants to be The Hangover, but it's not nearly funny enough. There are a few funny parts but ultimately, most of the jokes fall short. Also, it doesn't have near enough heart to be like Bridesmaids, which succeeded because it was a very funny movie that celebrated female friendship. These girls are the ultimate mean girls, jealous, insecure and in constant need of putting someone down (in this case, the overweight bride who doesn't feel good enough for her hottie fiancee). While you do get a sense that these girls care about each other a little bit, they ultimately are terrible people who you really can't believe care that much about anything besides themselves.

Grade: C+

The Lookout

As a bank heist story, The Lookout is suspenseful and well made, albeit predictable and boring. As a story of depression and rehabilitation, it's an absorbing character study. Directed by Scott Frank, it stars (the best actor under 30) Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Chris, a rock-star like hockey player who is a bit reckless on prom night and gets into a car accident that leaves two passengers dead, his girlfriend disabled and him impaired emotionally and physically. Chris tries heroically to perform actions that we deem simple, like listing his day-to-day activities in logical sequence. Even his family, especially his father, is impatient with his arrested development. He needs to write everything in a little notebook and relies heavily on his roommate to cook for him even though his roommate Lewis (Jeff Daniels) is blind. So, he's easy prey for a group of wannabe bank robbers who try to entice him into helping them rob the rural Kansas bank where he is the night janitor.

The movie may seem straightforward, but it's more than meets the eye. If you are going to the movie and expecting a bank heist film then netflix Dog Day Afternoon instead. This movie is about Chris and his decent from popular jock to innocent, hard working janitor, to confused, misled and frustrated individual. There is a huge lack of effort being put into films these days. It seems there are less and less films worth seeing, in comparison to movies from the 70s. This is a movie that is well structured, well written, well performed and well directed. How could you possibly complain about something like that? It's a refreshing change of pace from the recent explosion of brainless action and horror films like Ghost Rider and Dead Silence. This movie veers away from Hollywood and lingers in indie territory (even though it's a studio film). The dialogue is crisp, the violence exists but is not overused, the characters are fully fleshed and well developed. Scott Frank really does deserve a round of applause for his lack of fear in really giving the audience some exposition and background to his main character. We really get a glimpse into the life of Chris and really become invested in his decisions and the repercusions they may have. However, for all the energy Frank spends letting us get to know Chris, he leaves the others behind. The supporting characters become like pawns thrown away once their utility has run out. The prime example of that is Isla Fisher and her character Luvlee who seduces Chris and then... just leaves. Is it because she really doesn't care at all or because she cares too much? And what about Ms. Lang, the helpful bank teller who ends up having no bearing whatsoever on the film? Or what about the wonderful Carlo Gugino's blink and you miss it social worker? All these women are thrown into the mix to serve as Chris' background and mindset, but are never fleshed out enough to stand on their own. Even the role of Bone, while creepy and effective enough as the silent and sadistic muscle of the team, is so out of place that it almost becomes laughable. But I'll stop complaining there. Gordon-Levitt doesn't carry the film entirely on his own. He gets some good back up from Daniels and Matthew Goode (who I loved so much in Match Point) as the charming and cocky brains behind the bank robbery plan.

While Frank may misfire a bit on the background players, he gets the plot progression and lead performances down to perfection. I am constantly waiting for a new Gordon-Levitt film (Stop Loss, anyone?) and he never ceases to impress with his film choices and his performances. There's a lot of wit in this film, a lot of zingy one liners and an absolutely breathtaking opening sequence that includes the car crash scene showing the sublime beauty of fireflies that leads to the tragedy which puts into motion the story that follows. It may not be exactly what you are expecting but it's so well done and has such great performances from Gordon-Levitt, Goode and Daniels that it doesn't really matter.

Grade: B+