Tomorrowland (2015)

** out of ****

I wanted to love this movie – the trailers were so compelling and intriguing that it seemed I absolutely would. Unfortunately, it tries to be too many things, fails to be many of those things, and sends a message that is so blatant it is like being beaten over the head with a dead fish.

George Clooney and Hugh Lawrie get top billing which is pretty comical – Clooney only appears as a narrator until the movie is more than half over, and Lawrie's screen time probably adds up to less that 15 minutes. Britt Robertson is the star of this film, and she is unquestionably the best thing it has going. Robertson is best known as the attempted suicide in “Delivery Man” (2013) and as Angie in the TV show “Under the Dome”.  She absolutely shines in this movie - too bad she didn't have more to shine with.

In “Tomorrowland” Robertson is Casey Newton, one of those teens that is a real gift to the world. She sees everything that humanity has done to screw things up, but rather than simply rail on and on about how it stinks, she wants to affect change to make it better. She is “chosen” by Athena, a recruiter from Tomorrowland who tries to find the best and brightest for a better future for all mankind. She leaves her a trinket that allows her a glimpse of Tomorrowland, an interdimensional place where the geniuses of the world congregate. Casey becomes obsessed with finding a way to get there.

One problem – Tommorrowland has given up on humanity. Having passed some point of no return, the people of Tommorowland have established a 100% certainty that humanity will destroy itself in about two months, and have closed all the gateways between the worlds to make sure they don't get taken down with us. But after Casey finds Frank Walker (Clooney), the one person who knows how to get to Tomorrowland, he discovers that she is kind of like Neo in “The Matrix” - she is the one that can change that 100% certainty of armageddon and give us all a fighting chance.

I understand that this film is meant to be hopeful, to be an anti-theme to all the post-apocalyptic and Dystopian future stuff we find in the movies today. It's “message”, that humanity is destroying itself through it's many questionable endeavors – global warming, nuclear fission, etc. - is just way too “in your face” for my taste. Messages in movies need to have subtlety, not be something you see coming a mile away and end up feeling, “I get it - enough already”.

Of course, it isn't all bad. The performances are excellent (not surprising, considering the quality of the cast) and the special effects are wonderful. The first half of the film does offer some intrigue and you get caught up in it. But when we explore the places the film eventually goes, we find them pretty hollow. I thought that they could have offered a much more interesting look at the alternative universe, because when we got there I just didn't see anything at all appealing about it.

My biggest problem with the film was that it tried to be all things to all viewers. An action movie, a spy-thriller, robots and ray guns, anti-freedom/government control film, revolutionar, family drama.... there is too much going on. A greater focus on the need for action to save humanity, rather than have all these extraneous subplots, would have allowed the message they want to be conveyed to be clearer, more compelling, and less jammed down our throats.

This film isn't awful, but it comes pretty close. They could have done so much more with it that I think it is a disappointment more than anything else.

Black or White (2014)

*** out of ****

Back when Kevin Costner was a mega-movie star, he did a couple of films I really loved. “Bull Durham” (1988) and “Dances With Wolves” (1990) are timeless in my opinion. Unfortunately, I usually found the rest of his movies to be pretty one-note, predictable and run-of-the-mill Hollywood pulp. Then as his star faded, he did a couple more films I found really wonderful. “For Love of the Game (1999) and “Open Range” (2003) are classics of their respective genre (sports film and western). Still, he did a lot of junk.

So now, as he hits his 60s and has lost much of his box office appeal, I find myself enjoying his new films on a much more consistent basis. He hasn't made an earth-shaking film in quite some time, but the movies he is choosing to be the star of are more frequently interesting and likeable than at any point in his career. I honestly loved “Mr. Brooks” (2007) and “Draft Day” (2014), and enjoyed “The Company of Men” (2011) and the new Jack Ryan movie. Costner seems more inclined to take films that are less Hollywood these days, and I like that about his choices.

But “Black or White” is a bit of a “safe” move for him. It's more of a straight Hollywood type film, but for once that doesn't really detract from its quality. Costner plays Elliot Anderson, a successful attorney whose wife has just died in a car crash. Elliot and his wife have been raising their granddaughter Eloise, and he is left now to look after her on his own. Like many men his age he doesn't really know a lot about how kids are raised (having left it mostly to his wife), and now has to learn fast and hard.

But there are a few problems. Elliot drinks too much, and the loss of his wife exacerbates his drinking. Add to this the fact that he is raising his Eloise because her mother (Elliot's daughter) died in childbirth, and Eloise's father is a recovering crack-addict with violent tendencies. Eloise's paternal grandmother (Octavia Spencer) can't see her son's problems and is determined to pry Eloise away from Elliot and bring her home. And Elliot isn't exactly good at holding his tongue, so things get pretty ugly between all the parties.

So yes, “Black or White” is a bit predictable and designed to create very specific feelings in the viewer, but that doesn't mean it can't work. Costner plays the part extremely well, and Spencer is gleefully narcissistic and self-obsessed. Jillian Estell plays Eloise, and though her part is critical to the plot there isn't a lot for her to do – that being said, she does everything she needs to.

....I just realized I have left out a supposedly “key” theme – Eloise is half black. Eloise's father is a black man, her mother was a white woman, and while this shouldn't mean much it becomes a key issue in the film. The paternal family decides that to get Eloise they need to show Elliot as a bigot in court. Elliot is stuck between a rock and a hard place – he isn't a bigot but does intensely dislike Eloise's father, and has said a few things over the years that could be used against him. The crux of the film becomes will he be able to keep Eloise, and even more importantly given his personal issues, should he be allowed to?

Score it another winner for Costner in my book. It won't be remembered as a significant film, but it should be remembered as an entertaining one that will make you think, hope, and maybe even look at a few things in a different way.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

*** ½ out of ****

Ten minutes into “Fury Road” I thought I had been sucked in by Rotten Tomatoes again. I went to see this film because it has a ridiculously high 98% rating on the review site, so I figured it must really be something. But ten minutes in I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable with the decision, thinking I was watching a cross between “The Road Warrior”, “Silent Hill” and “The Descent”. The sped up freaky action and bone-white villains, not to mention the frenetic camera motions and bizarre hallucinations made it seem pretty friggin' bad.

…..but then something happened.....

Thirty years ago we last saw Mad Max in "Beyond Thunderdome", a really poor effort of a film after the masterful “The Road Warrior” (1981). Big budget and blockbuster, it was a canned formula movie totally unlike the Indie-feeling original two Mad Max films. Now that Mel Gibson is getting up there (and burning Hollywood bridges like California brushfires) it would figure that Mad Max had gone the way of the dodo.

We now find Max played by Tom Hardy (who I last saw as Bob in the wonderful “The Drop”-2014) and he continues to roam the post apocalyptic wasteland. But he is captured by a community of outlaws, who belong to a city they call “The Citadel”. This aspect was intriguing because The Citadel is like Waco, Texas complete with a David Koresh-like leader, Immortan Joe, who his followers believe to be a new Messiah. They also believe that if they die doing his bidding, they will immediately find themselves in Valhalla, a heaven-like concept that Joe has resurrected in full form from Norse legend.

Kept alive only because his blood is found to be a “universal donor” for the ill “war-boys” (nobody ever says what they are ill from, but radiation poisoning seems the safest bet), Max is a prisoner in chains and unable to fight. And when he is dragged along with a war party (to keep pumping blood into Nux, a war-boy), he is so completely bound his eventual death seems inescapable.

What the war parties are chasing is “The War Machine”, a big rig taken from The Citadel by Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Stowed away on the War Machine are Immortan Joe's wives, all young nubile things he uses for breeding. Seeing their chastity belts will make the most rugged man squirm.  The war parties are to catch up with and kill Furiosa, then return the wives unharmed.

Now let me first say that this film is risky. Mad Max is not the star (Furiosa is), there is minimal CGI (a lot has been made of the fact that 90% of the stunts are real), there are uncomfortable religious overtones throughout and the key character of the war-boy Nux is played by Nicolas Hoult (R from “Warm Bodies), painted white, shaved bald and pretty revolting throughout. The most accurate description of the last 100 minutes of the movie would be a long, adrenaline-soaked car chase – much like the last 15 minutes of “The Road Warrior” dragged out much longer.

And it works. MAN, does it work.

The tension throughout this thing is mind-blowing. The chase is so intense you are literally on the edge of your seat the ENTIRE TIME. The performances are fine (which is all they need to be in something like this), and the storyline is remarkably coherent and enjoyable despite the discomfort of some of the themes.

If you love pure action, no-holds-barred, butt-puckering pressure and destruction on a grand scale, this is your movie. Despite the oddness of that first ten minutes, this is something really wonderful, and surely good enough to hold it's own with “The Road Warrior”. If there was ANYTHING you liked about the original trilogy, don't miss this movie. In my opinion it is the best of the bunch, and not by a small margin.

The Boy Next Door (2015)

*1/2 out of ****

Over the past few decades there have been a lot of stalker movies. “Fear”, “The Crush”, “Fatal Attraction, “Unlawful Entry”..... they all have the same basic theme. Person comes along who seems very nice. Hero (or heroine) gets involved in an inappropriate relationship with said person. Person turns out to be nuts. Nutty person stalks.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

“The Boy Next Door” isn't the worst of these, but it isn't very good. Jennifer Lopez is a high school teacher who is recently separated from her cheater of a husband, and a ripped, handsome 20-ish lad moves in next door. She finds herself attracted to him, and due to her lack of ability to hide it, he sees it. She is, of course, JLo, so he is attracted too. But despite the fact she knows he may be attending her school in the fall, she loses herself in a moment of weakness and ends up rolling in the hay with him.

Unfortunately, he's a psycho. He starts to obsess about her and when she tries to make it all go away he starts to terrorize her. She is borderline retarded (if she had involved the authorities at the first threat she would have been fine and her job not at risk), but instead she tries to cover everything up and then solve the problem on her own.

It's a thriller. There's just no way it can end well.

For the bubble-gummers, this is an okay film. Borderline soft-core porn for the sex scene (I guess JLo wants to flaunt it while she still has it) that will turn on the teen boys, and a good looking shirtless guy for the gals.  The “thrills” are utterly predictable but deliver if you have no imagination to see what's coming. Even the ending is right out of “how can I make this exactly what people expect” textbook.

Not utterly dreadful. But don't expect much.

The Gambler (2015)

*** ½ out of ****

Mark Wahlberg might be the nicest surprise I've ever had as far as an actor's career. Starting out as a poor imitation of a hip-hop artist (Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch – come on come on – feel it feel it), when he made the transition to the movies I expected him to suck as an actor as he did as a musician.

At first, he was surprisingly adequate. In “The Basketball Diaries”, “Fear” and “Three Kings” I didn't find him to actually be good, but he didn't stink, which alone made it a bonus. He got a lot of accolades for “Boogie Nights”, but again, I felt he was adequate – it was the script that shone there, not his performance. But then along came “The Perfect Storm”, where he was almost great as a novice deep sea fisherman. And he just kept turning in good performance after good performance until “The Departed”, where I finally had to concede – this guy's the real thing. He had evolved into a really talented actor.

In the films since, he has continued at the same high level. His most recent film released to DVD is no exception. “The Gambler” finds him playing Jim Bennett, a poor-little-rich-boy with a terrible gambling addiction. You can tell he sees himself kind of as the Matt Damon character in “Rounders”, but he gambles really poorly. Crazy risks, stupid moves and a total lack of accountability have seen him drop hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt (and to guys that kill you if you don't pay it back) and stretched beyond any limits.

His mother is a rich widow, and he (as well as his creditors) expect her to bail him out. Unfortunately, she is as far past the end of her rope with him as everyone else is. Things don't look very promising for Jim, and given his understanding of his gambling addiction and his clear self-loathing, he appears to feel it would be better for everyone if the guys he owes just kill him. At one point he even has the money to pay everything off and just pisses it away in an effort to make it clear to everyone that he has given up on himself.

Wahlberg isn't getting a lot of attention for this role, but I feel it is one of his best. He has the character down, and he doesn't play him at all as a sympathetic character. I felt that was the right move, as guys like him aren't very sympathetic in real life. They are hard, cruel, self aggrandizing and have little or no regard for the feelings or needs of other people. He play Jim just like this, and the manner in which he drives anyone's good feelings about him away is extremely realistic.

Other noteworthy performances are by Jessica Lange as his rich but cold mother, Brie Larson as a college student who see a chance for redemption for Jim, and John Goodman as an end-of-the-line loan shark – the kind of guy who is into risk management and murder when the risks don't pay off.

This isn't a feel good film. It's cold, brutal and cruel. It's also very real. I loved it.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)

** out of ****

I have to admit, “Hot Tub Time Machine” was one of the most wonderful surprises of 2010 for me. Being roughly the same age as the primary characters, all the references and associations the movie made about 1986 had me in stitches. Add to that the absolutely reeeeee-diculous characters and dialogue, I spent a good half the time in tears from laughing so hard. Lightning in a bottle for sure.

But as is so often the case in movies, they decided they could reimagine it and catch the same lightning again. So let me first say they have failed, and failed miserably. It isn't nearly as clever or hysterically funny as the original. However, being a big fan of idiot behavior, I have to admit the sheer stupidity of the lead characters left me laughing and mildly entertained.

This is a bad movie. But it's a GOOD bad movie. “Evil Dead 2” or “Drop Dead Fred” kind of good bad movie. No attempt is made to legitimize the film, just to have the dumbass characters say dumbass funny things throughout. For instance, there is a scene where the leads are looking in a mirror and seeing themselves as they will look in 10 years. I was dying over some of the comments:

“You look like Gandalf the poor.”

“You look like the least-popular kid in the cancer ward.”

“You look like you've never made a correct decision.”

“Ever.”

“I have definitely given a back alley blowjob.”

So Lou (Rob Corddry), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Jacob (Clark Duke) travel 10 years into the future to stop an assassin from coming back in time and killing Lou. Conspicuously absent is John Cusack's “Adam”, but I guess his career is still too good to commit to a clearly bad film. They get into lots of utterly silly misadventures, but their incessant insulting dialogue keeps it funny throughout.

I'm not going to lie – if you don't laugh at Beavis and Butthead, the Jackass movies or David Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks, you won't get much out of this movie. But if you do, you will laugh and even though you'll agree it's a very bad movie, you'll watch it every time it pops up on AMC in a few years.

Yeah, it's one of those.

Get the Gringo (2012)

** ½ out of ****

Mel Gibson has had an incredibly interesting film career. Notwithstanding his admittedly weird behavior outside the movies, he has gone from a lengthy start in “art-house” type films to becoming an enormous action movie star, to a reliable comedic actor to a bona-fide directing and producing monster. He's even co-written a few worthwhile films, but “Get The Gringo” is the first he has written completely on his own.

Gibson is a bit of a “man with no name” in the film – though he gives several names we have no idea what is real name is. He and a partner are, at the start of the movie, in full dress as clowns and have robbed someplace of $2 million. They crash through a border wall into Mexico but are immediately apprehended. But when the Mexican cops find the money, Gibson goes straight to prison, the partner to a shallow grave (having already been badly wounded) and the money vanishes with the cops.

The Mexican prison Gibson goes to is a pretty unique one – other than the fact the inmates can't leave it's barely a prison at all. There are wives and kids, an entire outdoor criminal marketplace and a booming economy. Gibson uses his skills as a thief to be able to provide himself with the necessities, but he becomes familiar with the “Boss”, Javi, who keeps a 9 year old kid around because he has a failing liver and the kid is a suitable donor. The kid knows he's just marking time until Javi kills him for his liver.

To make a long story short, Gibson sets about a multi-tiered plan to escape, get his money back, get revenge on those that have wronged him and to save the kid. It's not terribly believable, but it is fun to watch and Gibson makes full use of his comedic timing in many situations. Overall it is nothing momentous but surely an excellent time killer.