Trailer–Transformers: Age of Extinction with Mark Wahlberg
Posted on March 5, 2014 at 11:05 pm
300: Rise of an Empire
Posted on March 5, 2014 at 10:52 pm
B-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for strong sustained sequences of stylized bloody violence throughout, a sex scene, nudity and some language |
| Profanity: | Some strong language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Wine |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Constant very graphic peril and war-time violence with many graphic and disturbing images and sad deaths |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | March 7, 2014 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B00BEJL6Q8 |
Here’s a new term: this movie is neither a sequel nor a prequel to 300, the story of the 300 Spartans who died battling the vastly greater army of the Persians. This is a “side-quel,” a “meanwhile” story about what was going on in a sea battle led by Spartan’s rivals, the Athenians. While “300” was based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller, itself based on historic events in ancient Greece, this side-quel was written at the same time as Miller’s still-uncompleted follow-up, to be called “Xerxes.”
We get a bit more backstory this time, too. In a previous battle, Athens’ great warrior Themistokles (hunky Sullivan Stapleton) killed the Persian king. His furious son, Xerxes (returning Rodrigo Santoro) traded his humanity for godlike powers to get his revenge by invading Greece. The leader of the Persian forces is the even-more-furious Artemisia (Eva Green), who can kiss the lips on the head she has just severed, enjoying the kiss just slightly less than the kill. She is tougher than any of her generals, more lethal than any of her soldiers, and even hungrier for inflicting desolation on Greece than her king. And she has the kind of fearlessness only found in those who have nothing left to lose and who will never win enough to feel that they have succeeded.
Themistokles needs to get the support of the resolutely independent city-states if they are to hold off the far greater Persian forces. He knows that his men have heart and dedication, but they are not trained warriors like the Spartans. I could say more about the story, but let’s face it — like the first film, this is about abs, swords, and lots of blood spurting in artistic slo-mo, drenching the screen.
The primary differences are the absence of Gerard Butler and the shift from battles on land to battles on water. We feel Butler’s loss, as he brought a bit more to the original in terms of acting and managed to give his character some depth and personality in the midst of the carnage. But that works for the story, as the death of his character Leonidas is felt deeply in Sparta. The only thing that stands out from the carnage, though, is Green, whose Artemisia cranks up the cray-cray as one of the most evil-relishing villainesses since Cruella De Vil. There’s a sizzling sex-and-fight scene (hmmm, Green did something very similar in “Dark Shadows“) that is way over the top of whatever point over the top used to be. Green has a blast striding around casting laser beams of hatred at everyone, and wipes everyone else in the cast off the screen more thoroughly than her character does to to the “farmers, sculptors, and poets”-turned soldiers of Athens.
Parents should know that this film has constant very intense, graphic, and bloody violence with many battles, swords, fire, drowning, executions, rapes, disturbing images, nudity, sexual references and situations, and some strong language.
Family discussion: What are the biggest differences between the Greeks and the Persians? Do we think about war differently today?
If you like this, try: “300” and “Gladiator”
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Posted on January 16, 2014 at 6:01 pm
There are three conclusions to draw from this reboot of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character. First, it plays like an infomercial for NSA access to, well, pretty much everything. Second, no matter how attractive the actors and how thrilling the score, there is no way to make it exciting to watch someone banging on a keyboard and staring intently at a computer screen as the “loading” indicator creeps along. Third, when spy movies run out of other ideas, they conclude that the fate of the United States and the rest of the world is not enough to hold our attention, so it must be time to kidnap the hero’s girlfriend.
Chris Pine (“Star Trek’s” Captain Kirk) takes over the role of Jack Ryan from Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck to play Tom Clancy’s egghead action hero, Jack Ryan, PhD. Bringing him up to date, we see him as a student at the London School of Economics, helplessly watching the terrorist attack of 9/11 on television, then enlisting in the Marines, being shot down, saving two of his men despite the gravest of injuries, and then, in rehab to learn to walk again, meeting two people who will change his life. One is Cathy, a pretty med student (Keira Knightly, with an American accent). The other is a guy in a suit named Harper who recruits Ryan to work for the CIA, deep undercover…on Wall Street. I really liked the idea that the government would recognize the threat to national security from the too big to fail financial institutions, but it turns out that isn’t it. Ryan was sent to Wall Street to spy on the same old bad guys we always spy on, Russians, this time trying to manipulate our financial markets.
Director Kenneth Branagh’s biggest mistake was in the casting of the villain: Kenneth Branagh. We know he’s evil because he has a sleek, spare, shiny black office and he sits there grimly, listening to an ethereal aria and beating up a guy who was clumsy in giving him a shot. Branagh seems to enjoy playing bad guys — most recently in “The Wild Wild West,” “Rabbit-Proof Fence,” and “Pirate Radio.” He’s better at playing the uptight bureaucratic type (or the self-important type as he did in “My Week with Marilyn”) than the larger-than-life bad guy needed for a Bond-style film. In fairness, the screenplay, originally written as a stand-alone and then adapted for the Jack Ryan character, lacks the Tom Clancy magic that makes his stories so absorbing, the authenticity of the technological details and the depth of character. Compare this pallid Russian bad guy and his generic compatriots to the superbly crafted, complex Soviet characters in “The Hunt for Red October,” from Sean Connery’s captain to Joss Ackland’s diplomat. The other big problem is the increasing ridiculousness of the storyline. The United States has such a crackerjack team in Moscow that we can send in the espionage equivalent of magic elves to secretly remake a luxury hotel room that has been shattered in a shoot-out/fight/drowning so that in less than a couple of hours it is like new, with just a little wet grout (and of course the removal of the dead body) to show that anything had been changed. And yet, when they need to do the one thing any spy team should learn on day one, breaking into a secure location, the only one who can do it is our boy Jack, the PhD from Wall Street? Once the break-in takes place, it just gets silly, with a lot of intent people banging on keyboards and getting instant access to thousands of data sources and a series of increasingly implausible bang bang with even less plausible banter. Ryan is the increasingly implausible Swiss Army knife of superspies, equally adept at hand-to-hand combat, stunt driving, and hacking.
You’ve got to grade January releases on a curve, and by that standard, it barely passes muster. In any other month, it would be strictly wait for DVD.
Parents should know that this film includes extensive scenes of spy-style peril and violence including chases, crashes, and explosions, guns, knives, drowning, fights, and terrorism, references to painkiller dependency and abuse and alcohol abuse, and brief strong language.
Family discussion: Does this make you feel differently about how much access the government should have to private data? What qualities make a good spy?
If you like this, try: the other Jack Ryan movies, especially “The Hunt for Red October,” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Torn Curtain”
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Posted on December 17, 2013 at 6:00 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 For crude and sexual content, drug use, language and comic violence |
| Profanity: | Strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Comic but graphic violence |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 18, 2013 |
| Date Released to DVD: | March 31, 2014 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B0083XXVFW |
Will Ferrell and his crew beat the sophomore slump with just the right mix of stuff we want to see again (yes, there will be jazz flute, a rumble with the other news teams featuring wildly improbable surprise guest stars and weapons, and a clueless character being yanked into a new understanding of women) and stuff that’s new (some surprisingly sharp satire about the current state of the news business and its origins in the shift to the 24 hour news cycle in the 80’s — and a twist on the infamous closet of potent man-scents featuring Sex Panther).
The first obligation of a sequel is to undo everything that happened in part one. Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), married, with a son, and sharing the anchoring duties in San Diego, find their happily ever after ending torn asunder when their boss (the first of several surprise guest stars) promotes her to a network job and fires him as local anchor. He tries working as an announcer at Sea World, and is soon on the brink of losing that job, too. Ron Burgundy was put on this earth to “have salon-quality hair and read the news.” What can he do next?
Something happens that no one could have anticipated. A zillionaire (think cross between Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch) gets the idea for a 24 hour news channel. And that means they’ll hire anyone. Soon, Ron gets the band back together (Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner) and they’re on their way to two crazy destinations: New York and the 80’s.
“Anchorman” was not a huge hit when it was first released, but it has become, well, kind of a big deal, since it came out (especially unrated) on DVD. It is one of those films that improves on repeated viewing, not because there are subtle jokes you miss the first time around but because its silly but good-natured humor make it particularly suitable for repeated viewings with friends reciting the catch phrases and acting out the goofiest bits. That primes the audience for this next one, with a lot of silly, over-the-top comedy and “what were we thinking”-music, personalities, and styles of the era as in the first film. (The terrific soundtrack includes classics like “Ride With the Wind,” “Muskrat Love,” “Feels so Good,” and “This is It.”)
In the original, the set-up was having the smug, macho world of the local anchors was invaded by a woman — and one who was vastly more intelligent and professional than they were. This time, there is a woman who is not a subordinate or a peer; Ron Burgundy and his team have a new boss, Linda Jackson (Meagan Good). She is not only a woman; she is black. This provokes a whole extra layer of fear and fascination in Ron Burgundy.
Another difference — he is not the alpha male at the new station. His team goes on the air in the middle of the night. Prime time goes to the handsome and arrogant Jack Lime (James Marsden). Ron rashly bets Jack that he will beat him in the ratings.
The sneaky genius of this movie is the way it makes sense out of Ron’s kind of genius response to this idiotic bet, and the way it explains pretty much everything that’s gone wrong with the world ever since. It turns out that the sense of superiority that keeps us laughing at Ron Burgundy may be overshadowed by his sense of superiority in laughing at us.
Parents should know that this film has very raunchy and explicit humor for a PG-13, with a lot of crude jokes and strong language, including bigotry humor. Characters drink and use drugs and there is comic but graphic violence including a suicide attempt. NOTE that there are alternate versions available including a much raunchier unrated version.
Family discussion: Why was Ron so afraid of Linda? Who should own the news?
If you like this, try: the original “Anchorman”
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Posted on December 12, 2013 at 6:00 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 For extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images |
| Profanity: | None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | None |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extensive and intense fantasy-style violence with characters in peril, monsters, weapons, and fights, characters injured and killed |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters, some |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 13, 2013 |
| Date Released to DVD: | April 7, 2014 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B00BEJL75I |
Everybody ups his game in this second of the three-part Peter Jackson version of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again
Here’s a summary of the first film to get you up to date in case you skipped it or don’t remember: Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), the title character, is accompanying a brave group of dwarves on a quest that will take them to the mountain lair of an angry dragon named Smaug who sleeps on an endless pile of stolen gold and jewels. In part one, they made it part of the way there. Part two begins in the midst of the action. They are still far from their destination but every step is treacherous and every stage in the journey brings more trouble. Middle Earth is deeply troubled by its divisions. Dwarves and Elves do not trust one another.
Martin Freeman returns as Bilbo, whose epic travels inspire an inner journey toward meaning and purpose. We see his struggle when he cannot bring himself to tell Gandalf (Ian McKellen) the truth about what he found. He wants to tell the wizard about the magical golden ring he discovered. But when the moment comes, and he can only say that what he found in the cave is his courage. That is an intriguing statement, partly true, partly self-evidently false as he does not have the courage to tell Gandalf about the ring. But as we know from the Ring trilogy, part of the power of that plain gold band is the way it works on those who — at least temporarily — possess it. Perhaps it is the ring that tells Bilbo to keep the secret.
But Bilbo, reluctant to join the dwarves in part one, is fully committed now, so in that sense he has found his courage, and finding it, now sees himself differently. And it is that inner journey that holds the story together amidst the arrows and giant spiders and swashbuckling and guy with bird poop on his head and portentous statements like, “The fortunes of the world will rise and fall but here in this kingdom we will endure” (when we know they will) and “This forest feels as though a dread lies upon it” (when we know it does), and “It’s not our fight” (when we know it is).
Purists may object to the insertion of a brand-new character, but Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel, a warrior elf, is such a welcome addition that even Tolkein should be glad to add her to the cast. And then, finally, there is Smaug, a scary monster who can see where humans, hobbits, dwarves, and elves cannot. Benedict Cumberbatch, in his fifth major film appearance this year, provides the voice of ultimate predatory evil, and a cliffhanger that leaves us eager for the final chapter.
The intricacy of the detail everywhere you look is more than gorgeous. It lends a timelessness to the story. It tells us that there is a history here, that the people who created these structures intended them to be permanent and beautiful. The fight scenes, staged as well or better than any other this year, are more than graceful violence. They, too, communicate a seriousness of purpose and meaning that these characters bring to their lives — and inspire in ours.
Parents should know that like the other “Lord of the Rings” films, this one includes intense and sometimes graphic fantasy violence with monsters (dragon, giant spiders), weapons, fights, and constant peril, and characters are injured and killed.
Family discussion: What title would you pick for yourself? Why does Bilbo agree to get the Arkenstone? Why doesn’t he tell the truth about the ring?
If you like this, try: the book by J.R.R. Tolkien and the “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy