Fantastic Four

Posted on August 6, 2015 at 4:53 pm

Three things a superhero movie should not be: dreary, dull, and tedious. Three things this movie is: see if you can guess. I am a huge fan of the comic book series Fantastic Four, which I first read as a teenager, ready for something with a little more edge and attitude than my beloved Superman. I have suffered through previous efforts to make their stories work on film, and dared to hope that this one would be better. It is awful in every category. The script is terrible, wasting much too much time on a revamped origin story that goes back to 5th grade(!) and the high school science fair(!) and still does not tell us anything interesting about the characters or how they got their powers. The characters are dull and all seem to be acting in separate bell jars, with no indication that there is another human being in the scene. Even when they are supposed to be friends, siblings, parent and child, or possible romantic partners, they act as though the other person was a tennis ball hanging in front of a green screen.

People who are supposed to be super-smart do things that are super-stupid. Like constantly. One thing scientists understand very well is that empirical data matters. So when things go terribly wrong when you try something, what’s the deal with doing the same thing again without taking any new steps to prevent further disasters? And Reed Richards’ only complaint is that the new pod is not as pretty as the old one and needs ten minutes of corrections to the code?

The dialog is filled with appalling clunkers like, “Do you ever think about what would have happened if you never came to the science fair?” “We cannot change the past. But we can change the future.” It even has locker-room style pep talks like, “He’s too much for each of us, but if we all work together we can beat him!” And many of the comments are just pointless and there are developments that have no logic of character or plot, indicating that the movie was even worse at some point and was cut like someone was slicing the bruises off a banana. The special effects look like they were created on Fiverr. The action scenes are muddy and static. At just over 90 minutes, it still feels endless.

And another boneheaded decision: while the comic book characters are adults, somebody decided to age them down into teenagers for this version so we could add in some adolescent angst, a love triangle that is about at the level of who will ask Sue to the prom, and, I am not making this up (I wish I were), the whole superpower thing happens because those darn kids get drunk one night and take the dimensional traveling machine thing out for a tipsy joyride. Think “Fantastic Four 90210.” We’ll have fun, fun, fun ’til Daddy takes the dimensional traveling pod away!

And what is the number one requirement for a superhero movie? A great villain. No such luck here. The bad guy is just a moody misfit who likes the same girl as the other guy and just might blow up the planet over it. And somehow when he’s abandoned for a period of time in another dimension on what looks like another planet with no life forms of any kind, somehow he manages to eat enough to stay alive AND come away with a really cool new cape and hood, sewn for him I guess by little elves? And unless Sue Storm’s new powers include hairstyle changes, the continuity people on this film have some ‘splaining to do.

There is a legendary Fantastic Four movie, available only on bootleg, made in 1994 as an “ashcan” film, not intended for release, just to preserve the studio’s rights to the characters. My bet is that it is better than this version. There is no bad guy in the history of the characters who has inflicted as much damage on the F4 as this sorry, soggy mess. (Thankfully, the plans for the sequel have been scrapped.)

Parents should know this film features extended sci-fi/comic-book peril and violence, some disturbing images of characters getting fried and exploding, parental death, domestic violence, some strong language, and drinking and drunkenness.

Family discussion: Why did Reed run away? How are Reed and Victor alike?

If you like this, try: “The Avengers” and “Iron Man” and the Fantastic Four comics, especially those featuring Galactus

Trailer: Secret in Their Eyes with Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, and Chiwetel Ejiofor

Posted on July 16, 2015 at 8:00 am

The Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010 was The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), an Argentinian film that is part cold-case detective story about a missing, perhaps murdered, girl, part love story.

The remake stars Oscar-winners Julia Roberts, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Nicole Kidman, written and directed by Billy Ray (“Shattered Glass”).

Far from the Madding Crowd

Posted on April 30, 2015 at 5:45 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for some sexuality and violence
Profanity:	Mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and drunkenness
Violence/ Scariness:	Some violence including gun, character killed
Diversity Issues:	Class issues
Date Released to Theaters:	May 1, 2015
Date Released to DVD:	August 3, 2015
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00ZRBQTXO

Copyright 2015 Fox Searchlight — Copyright 2015 DNA Films

It may be a British costume drama based on a classic novel, but Thomas Hardy’s saga of a headstrong woman and the three marriage proposals from very different men is not the usual corsets and teacups. Far from the Madding Crowd is the story of Bathsheba Everdene (a radiant Carey Mulligan), an orphan who inherits a farm and announces to the staff, “It is my intention to astonish you all.”

What gives the story a vital, even modern tone is the independence of its heroine, who is often wrong, but who has good instincts and accepts the consequences of her mistakes and learns from them. There is romance and drama in the story, tragedy and betrayal, but it engages in a bracing fashion with issues of class, honor, and values. It is not much of a spoiler alert to say that Hardy favored those who were most connected to the land and nature.

It begins in 1870, when Everdene is at first a poor relative living on her aunt’s small farm. She had intended to take on the favorite profession of literary heroines: governess. But “she was far too wild,” nothing like the meek Jane Eyre. She rides straddling her horse, no sidesaddle. The very handsome farmer next door is Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts, radiating quiet integrity) who presents her with a lamb and asks her to marry him. She likes him very much but turns him down. “I shouldn’t mind being a bride and having a wedding if I didn’t have to have a husband.”

Their positions are suddenly and dramatically changed. She inherits a farm, rising to the lower levels of the landed gentry. He loses his flock in a calamitous accident and is unable to keep the farm. As he is looking for work, he stops to put out a fire in what turns out to be Everdene’s new farm. She offers to hire him if the change in their positions will not be too awkward for him, and he agrees. Her next proposal is from her neighbor, a reserved and lonely older man named William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), who is not bold at all, but who was encouraged by a valentine Everdene sent him impulsively, not thinking he would take it seriously. Her third proposal is from an officer named Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), who tells her she is beautiful, shows off his swordsmanship, and introduces her to sensual pleasures. He does not tell her he was supposed to marry someone else.

David Nicholls, who wrote the excellent miniseries adaptation of Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, would have benefited from miniseries length for a story of this scope. It is rushed and abrupt at times. But Nicholls and director Thomas Vinterberg never let the story get musty or dated. It is firmly grounded in the most literal sense, always returning to the land as the source of what is good and true, and to the people who understand that as the real heroes and the ones who know what love can be.

Parents should know that this film includes sexual references and a non-explicit situation, violence, and sad deaths including a murder.

Family discussion: What was Bathsheba looking for? Why did it take her so long to figure that out? What appealed to her about each of her suitors? Why do you think this heroine inspired the name of “Hunger Games” heroine Katniss Everdeen?

If you like this, try: the earlier version with Julie Christie and the book by Thomas Hardy, and “My Brilliant Career”

Cinderella

Posted on March 12, 2015 at 5:58 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for mild thematic elements
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Fantasy violence, tense confrontations
Diversity Issues:	Class issues
Date Released to Theaters:	March 13, 2015
Date Released to DVD:	September 14, 2015
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00UI5CTE2

Here’s what’s magical — a fairy tale told in 2015 that is true to the spirit of the classic story by Charles Perrault but is still fresh and real despite the dozens of re-imaginings and the seismic shifts in culture in more than a century since it was first published.

Director Sir Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Chris Weitz have done just that, and the result is enchanting. Recent post-modern versions like Drew Barrymore’s “Ever After” and Anne Hathaway’s “Ella Enchanted,” deftly took on the question of why Cinderella stayed in a home that had become abusive and added a bit of “Shrek”-style post-modern air quotes. But as its title suggests, this version of “Cinderella” is fundamentally traditional, neither po- nor mo-, and entirely comfortable as a fairy tale.

They get a lot of help from the design team including triple-Oscar winners Sandy Powell on costumes and Dante Ferretti on the sets and overall look of the film. This is Disney at its Disney-rific best, a magical setting so arrestingly imaginative and comprehensively envisioned that it is easy to imagine that it is a peek into a gloriously gorgeous world that really exists, if we could just find out way to it. And Ella herself is a winning heroine, kind and wise.

For a fairy tale, though, the actual magic is pretty limited. In the early scenes, magic would be superfluous, as Ella lives a real-life happier and more filled with love than any wish could grant. Her doting parents (Hayley Atwell and Ben Chaplin) make her feel cherished and understood. Her natural sweetness is enchantment enough, and the world around her seems safe and understandable.

But her mother becomes ill, and has just time to give Ella one piece of advice before she is gone: kindness and courage will bring her anything she needs. It is her natural generosity and her wish to obey her mother as well as her longing for family that lead her to stay with her wicked stepmother, Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett), and simpering, mean girl stepsisters (Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger), after her father’s death.

We get a brief glimpse of what is behind Lady Tremaine’s misery and why she takes it out on Ella, but this is no revisionist “Maleficent.” Lady Tremaine may be more angry and desperate than evil but she is all villain here as she insults and humiliates Ella and forces her to wait on her spoiled, arrogant stepsisters.

When her kindness is met with cruelty, Ella does not know what to do. And then, just when she is utterly devastated at being left behind on the night of the prince’s ball, her mother’s dress torn to shreds. Her fairy godmother (Helena Bonham-Carter) appears just in time to transform the servant girl into a radiant princess. The special effects for the transformation are dazzling, especially the pumpkin coach and the lizards and mice who become her human attendants. No more magic is needed after that. She’s on the way to happily ever after.

Be sure to arrive on time as before the film there is a seven-minute mini-sequel to “Frozen,” complete with new song, and it is pure joy. I won’t spoil it; I’ll just say that when Elsa gets a cold, she has very funny frozen sneezes.

Parents should know that this film includes sad parental deaths and an abusive stepmother.

Family discussion: Why did Ella allow her stepmother to treat her so badly? Why didn’t Ella’s fairy godmother come back to help her again? How can you show courage and kindness?

If you like this, try: other versions of the story including Disney’s animated “Cinderella,” “Ella Enchanted,” and “Ever After”

Annie

Posted on December 18, 2014 at 5:59 pm

The story of the plucky little Depression-era orphan with the curly red hair has been not just re-booted but re-imagined into the world of rent-a-bikes, viral videos, DNA tests, YOLO, corporate privacy invasions, and Katy Perry tweets. There are some nice shout-outs to the original version, with a character named for Little Orphan Annie creator Harold Gray and a music group named the Leapin’ Lizards after the redhead’s favorite way to express surprise.

A cheeky opening briskly bridges the decades. It begins with a red-headed girl named Annie giving a school report, concluding with a tap dance. She looks like the Annie we remember. But then the teacher calls on another Annie, and we meet our Annie, played by “Beasts of the Southern Wild’s” Quvenzhané Wallis. She gives a rollicking report about Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal that sounds like a call to action from Occupy Wall Street. The whole classroom bangs on their desks along with her. Annie is all about the 99 percent. (The famously very right-wing Gray would be horrified.)

And, as she repeatedly reminds us, she is not an orphan. She is a foster kid. Every Friday evening, she waits outside the restaurant where her parents were last seen, in hopes that they will return. She was four when they left her with a note and half of a locket, and since then she has gone from foster home to foster home, now living with Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz), a bitter, abusive, alcoholic woman who once sang with C&C Music Factory and was almost a Blowfish. She resents the girls who are her only source of income, and makes them do all the work in the apartment.

Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) is a cell phone company billionaire running for mayor of New York. (That’s “Stacks” as in “stacks of money,” with “Warbucks” a bit too on the nose for our more euphemistic times.) When he grabs Annie to save her from getting hit by a truck, his approval numbers spike, and his aides encourage him to spend some time with her to give him a more relatable image. Grace (Rose Byrne) is his all-purpose, super-efficient second-in-command and Guy (Bobby Cannavale) is his whatever-it-takes spin-master campaign advisor. Annie, about to be thrown out by Miss Hannigan, persuades Stacks to let her stay in his mega-luxurious apartment, promising that her “game face” will get him good press, combating his image as “a rich elitist who can’t relate to regular people.”

It works for a while until some unscrupulous people hire a couple to pose as Annie’s real parents.

Some of the updates work well, and there is a nice energy in the opening scenes as Annie uses the last ten minutes of a bike share to navigate the city, passing street performers riffing on the well-known score. Co-writer/director Will Gluck keeps things bright and bouncy, but his filming of the dance numbers is clumsy to the point of incompetence, undermining even the nearly unkillable numbers like “It’s a Hard Knock Life” with angles and edits that take the energy out of the songs instead of boosting it.

Wallis is inconsistent, occasionally appearing checked out of the scene. She is better in the few scenes with the other girls, but she has very little chemistry with Byrne or Foxx. And one barfing scene is bad, but four? Plus a spit take? And a hooker joke? There is a movie-within-the-movie that is very cute, but the cameos are a distraction. The tweaking of the script works better in individual scenes than in the overall plot, which feels slapped together and unsatisfying. Ah, well, the sun will come out tomorrow, so maybe next time they’ll get it right.

Parents should know that this movie has themes of child abandonment and abuse, a character abuses alcohol and there is a joke about alcoholism, and there is some mild peril and potty humor.

Family discussion: What did Annie mean when she said Stacks did not know he was good yet? How is Annie different from the other girls?

If you like this, try: the other musical versions and “Game Plan”