The Great Gatsby

​I didn’t read the book. (Although we all know films can’t quite compete with your imagination.) I saw the 1974 movie and couldn’t stand it. I saw this movie and realized that even with Baz Luhrmann’s stylistic visuals, and Jay-Z’s monopoly of the soundtrack, “The Great Gatsby” is really average. 

The film is about...wait you didn’t read the book, the cliffnotes, or see any of the two prior films before this one? (There is a third film but it was made in 1926 and there are no existing prints.) Alright, there’s an illusive man named Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) who has built himself up from nothing to “something”. He really loves a married woman named Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan). He buys a house across the lake from Daisy and her husband Tom (Joel Edgerton) in a grand plan to rekindle his lost love. Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is the narrator and liaison between his cousin Daisy and new neighbor, Jay Gatsby.  

With all the myths, rumors, and legends surrounding Gatsby, Nick can’t help but to want to get close to Gatsby. Gatsby throws wonderful, grandiose parties full of women, music, and booze. So when Nick receives a personal invitation from the legend, he feels special and is enamored himself. Gatsby eventually asks Nick to host a tea with his cousin Daisy so that they can meet. From there the film is a love triangle with familiar twists and turns from your favorite soap.

DiCaprio is the bright spot of the film. He plays the enigmatic Gatsby with charm. He’s able to flip back and forth between confidence and the lack thereof, and madly in love to plain mad with ease. Joel Edgerton does a great job as the pompous cheating husband.  The climatic showdown between him and DiCaprio is unsettling and a dramatic joy to watch. I had a conversation with co-workers prior to seeing the film about why I thought Carey Mulligan was a bad choice for Daisy. Could her face really launch a thousand ships? I know/knew she is one of the better actresses of this generation, but it didn’t sit right with me. I was wrong. The girl next door warmth made it understandable why Gatsby would love her. As for her cousin, he may have been the wrong call in casting, giving Nick Carraway a dopey portrayal. 

Luhrrman did a good job in keeping the dialogue moving, bringing the visuals of 1920‘s debauchery to screen, and an uncanny way of making beautiful things become scary with the flip of a musical note. Unfortunately, the movie as a whole has a slow start and a decent ending. It’s like a long train ride that when you finally get to your destination your more excited that it's over than the ok views you saw along the way.

Rating: C-

"Pain & Gain" Review

I’m perplexed by “Pain & Gain”. It was a pain to sit through at times during those two hours and nine minutes, but it made some profound statements on the American Dream and greed that I don’t think it even knew it made. Or did it? So therefore I may have gained appreciation for Michael Bay in that he used his stylistic direction to take an unbelievable real life crime story and show us how stupid criminal activity can be.

Mark Wahlberg is Daniel Lugo, the brains of the criminal operation, and that’s not saying he has much brain power. All of his heroes are self made, and he believes in working hard to make something of himself. Tired of being where he is in life, Lugo comes up with a plan to relieve millionaire Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub) of all of his assets through a kidnapping scheme. In order to do this, he has to recruit other people in his plan.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is Paul Doyle, a former coke addict inmate turned to Christianity, and Anthony Mackie is a wanna be muscle man with an impotency problem as Adrian Doorbal. The three men have two common bonds, a love of fitness and the desire to achieve their own version of the American Dream. To them, the goal of having what they see on TV, in movies, and other forms of media is worth having to the point that they’re willing to kidnap and eventually kill for it. 

Every major character gets their own voiceover and tells their side of the story as it’s unfolding. Lugo is envious of Victor but when Victor tells his story he had equal tenacity and desire to be where he is in his economic status. As much of a rich snob that Victor is, he worked extra hard to get there. While Lugo’s hero Scarface inspires him to take, and as the movie’s one liner goes, “be a doer!” The parallels to Lugo and company’s rise and fall is very similar to that of Scarface in that their pride and lust for more becomes their downfall.

The fine line in society between thinking about major crimes and acting it out is for a small percentage of people (I’d like to think). So how do you show the insanity of crossing that line? Give Michael Bay the director’s seat and let him use every tool in his bag of low angle, slow motion, spinning camera moves to make these three men look as dumb as their plans. Bay is known for his larger then life filmmaking and something about his slick style and this stupid/sad but true story does a great job of showing the glamour of the American Dream and the pitfalls of achieving it illegally. Whether he’s using the camera to objectify women in this film’s world, give the zeros their hero shot, or emphasize their stupidity, Bay does it well. While this may not be one of his best films, it does seem like one of his most- dare I say- thought provoking.

Wahlberg leads his cast of merry men as you’d expect with the usual solid performance. Mackie, who undoubtedly has acting talent, was poorly cast in a role that should have gone to a loud mouth comedian. Yet it’s Johnson who gives one of his better performances taking the role of a dumb jock man-child to new heights. He’s aware of his physical stature and uses it to his advantage with subtlety in his acting decisions to make his character a comical but complex “weak link” as he’s called in the trio.

Overall I wasn’t expecting to have my mind blown in seeing this film and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s one of those films that you walk out of the theater, greeted by the light of day, and everyone is collectively in silence thinking about what’s for dinner, or what’s next on their plate for the day. An unmemorable film with a few profound statements on society.

Rating C-

"Oblivion" Review

They say there’s nothing new under the sun, and it’s true with this film. If you’ve seen “Moon”, “Independence Day”, “The Matrix” or “Wall-E” you’ve seen some theme from this film before. What you haven’t seen is the depth of this post-nuclear Earth and the technology that’s used in the film. 

Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) live and work together as a technician/watcher duo charged with the task of repairing drones on Earth. It’s been decades since aliens destroyed our moon, sending the planet into environmental chaos.  After nuking and killing most of the aliens, all of Earth’s inhabitants now live on one of Saturn’s moons. Earth’s water has to be drained and transported to Saturn in order for our race to continue. The only issue is that Scavengers (the aliens known as Scavs) still inhabit the Earth. So the drones roam the Earth to kill any Scavs that may tamper with the drainage system. 

If that sounded complex, don’t worry, Jack explains it all with visuals as he gets to work in the beginning. Day in and out they do the same routine, but Jack wants more. Even though his memory has been wiped clean as a security measure against Scavs, he still has these images of a woman and questions he can’t get out of his head. He finally gets what he’s been yearning for in the form of a ship crashing on Earth with a load of humans. 

From there the film is a journey to discover why the woman of Jack’s dreams has landed. As questions are answered the film starts to take a nose dive from its suspenseful beginnings. All the sci-fi films you’ve seen before crash together for an ending that you probably saw coming. 

Cruise is one of those actors that have been doing this for so long, it’s easy. Unfortunately, his character is on cruise control as Jack isn’t developed very well. Morgan Freeman gets an awesome entrance to the film as Beech, but (in Forrest Gump’s voice) “that’s all I have to say about that”. 

There’s no question that director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) had a vision for this Earth, the environment, and it’s one that we’ve never seen before (for the most part). The synthesized score is reminiscent of Vangelis (Blade Runner) but it works for the movie. Overall the visuals and suspense of the beginning of the film make it worth your hard earned cash to see a recycled story that entertains. 

Rating: C

42

I was hesitant in going to see “42” because I thought it would be another super sappy “Disneyed” bio pic. I wasn’t looking forward to sitting through that. After all, my first memory of doing a report on a character in history was Jackie Robinson. I still have the Dodgers jersey I wore that day (it was big at the time). Writer-Director Brian Helgeland delivers a solid homerun  in the film that covers Jackie Robinson’s heroic tale of breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier. 

Part of the problem that I have with films that show African American’s struggle in history is that it generally plays out as a victory blessed by a white person. Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) was undoubtedly the one who made the decision to bring Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) to the Major Leagues. Yet the film admits that a part of Rickey’s decision was based on money. It’s honest moments like that in the depiction that makes the movie.  

The film covers from Rickey’s search for a negro player to the Dodgers win of the National League Penant in 1949. Ford seems to have fun in his old age playing the gravel voiced Rickey. He brings an enjoyable campy style to the character who pulled a gutsy move in bringing the first African American into the Majors.   

Although a 128 minute running time could never cover the totality of everything the real Jackie Robinson endured, one of the most powerful scenes in the film is when Philadelphia Philies Manager played by Alan Tudyk uses everything in the racial slur handbook against Robinson. The scene is uncomfortable, but authentic and Boseman does a great job of showing the weight of racial prejudice and restraint that many African American pioneers had to possess in order to successfully open doors for others. Ultimately drawing back on a quote from Harrison Ford’s Branch Rickey the movie gives its audience the reason Jackie Robinson’s legacy should be respected.

Symbolism is big in this film. Robinson’s number 42 jersey becomes a symbol of change. A baseball thrown to a young boy by Robinson becomes a symbol of hope. Another memorable scene in the film is when Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black) famously puts his arm around Robinson to show the world he too is accepting change.

Some of the writing is on the nose, it’s the characters that really go beyond what the script calls for to make this film great. Boseman’ depiction of Robinson is a magnificent performance due to his natural reserve. He nails the air of self confidence, wit, and charm that Robinson had to have in order to endure. They say behind every great man is a great woman, and Nicole Beharie as Rachel Robinson was another great choice with just as much innate restraint to bring a refreshing embodiment of the hero’s better half to the screen. The film becomes as much about telling Rachel’s story due to Beharie’s contribution. 

I enjoyed the film, and so did the audience I saw it with. Jackie Robinson’s story is one that should be told, especially to new generations that live in a totally different world from the 1940’s. It’s worth remembering and celebrating. It’s a good choice in paying your hard earned money to see a film on the big screen. “42” in theaters now.

B

Premium Rush

In a year when Joseph Gordon Levitt has been in “The Dark Knight”, “Looper”, and "Lincoln”, “Premium Rush” had to have been his fun paycheck. A movie in which his physical caliber was put to the test, “Premium Rush” is no magnum opus, but it’s a literal thrill ride through the streets of New York City. 

Levitt plays Wilee, an adrenaline junkee who would rather cycle with no breaks than finish law school.  Upon the opening ten minutes of the film, it seems that we’ll be in for a cheese fest with bad CGI. After a routine package pickup, Wilee soon discovers that the letter sized envelope he’s carrying may be worth more than he bargained for as a dirty cop chases him through the city. A “French Connection”-like chase of bike versus car ensues and the rush begins.

Michael Shannon plays Bobby Monday, the corrupt cop who needs to clear his gambling debts. Intercepting the package means repaying his debt and saving his life. While the delivery of the package to the rightful place means Nima (Jamie Chung), its rightful owner, can have her son brought in from China.

As the movie pulses forward, Wilee calls on the help of fellow riders Vanessa (Dania Ramirez) and Manny (Wole Parks). Each biker brings their own set of skills to the table as they zip around curves, up ramps, over cars, and do all kind of maneuvers we could only dream of doing. 

Director David Koepp delivers a well paced, visually stunning film that puts the viewer in the rider’s seat. The non-linear style of editing does what every film should do, leave the  audience wanting to know the answer to a question. What’s in the package? Why is it so valuable? Will our hero survive? 

Even though the ending is typical, the film is fun. Ultimately, it’s nothing but a good time on two wheels. 

B

Dark Knight Rises

Trilogies rarely stay consistently solid, increasingly entertaining films. In fact, most tend to go from great to poor. With Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Rises”, a glimmer of light shines in a dark world of third installments. This is how you end a series! 

The film starts as a moving train going slow enough for you to jump on, but steadily moving forward so you can’t think twice. Picking up eight years after the death of Harvey Dent, Gotham is a city of peace and fat cats. The film’s main characters are introduced to us quickly.  Tom Hardy’s Bane is a hulking terrorist, with a vader-like voice, and chilling controlled intensity. He’s the embodiment of everything we fear about terrorism, the lack of conscience, focus on achieving a goal at any means, and a disregard for order.  In a suspenseful extraction scene, Bane and his henchman take a doctor for a reason we’re waiting to have solved, and it’s off to the races to put the puzzle together. 

A shell of his former self, we first see Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in a silhouette, blanketed by night itself, with a can in hand at a dinner gala. When I first saw the photos of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, I had my doubts. However, Ms. Hathaway prances into her role as Selena Kyle with confidence and earnestness. Taking the role to a different height mixing femininity and sass in just the right way. When Bruce and Selena meet the chemistry is apparent and makes for a fun tango throughout the rest of the film. 

With the evil on the horizon, Bruce’s father figure Alfred (Michael Caine), tries to be the mirror of wisdom and knowledge for Bruce. It’s a conversation with orphan turned cop, Officer Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt) that puts wind to the low burning ember that is Batman. When the Bat returns to Gotham, the spectacle that we all want to see from the franchise is turned on with a chase scene through the city. One character says “You’re in for a show tonight son”, as Batman wizzes by in our first glimpse of caped crusader.

From there it’s off to the races as our hero must defeat a seemingly unstoppable villain bent on the destruction of Gotham. Nolan’s pacing of the film is superb as we jump from action to dramatic scenes. The Bane vs. Batman fight is what every fan boy waited for, suspenseful, dramatic, and action packed. As Bane schools the Bat like Apollo Creed did Rocky, the back break is like an act break, marking the dawn of a new Gotham. 

As Gotham is plunged into anarchy, all hope seems lost as evil slowly takes over. Innocence in the voice of a young boy singing the national anthem is blended in a montage of explosions going off around the city. The city’s terrorist watches from the sideline and seems to delight in inflicting pain on the community at large. In an almost ominous montage of Gotham City’s finest rushing into the sewer to thwart off evil, only for the city above to come crashing down on them, as if it’s Nolan’s nod to 911 and our current fights with terrorist acts in the real.

The movie’s statement on good versus evil, terrorism, economic collapse and truth are noticable but not over the top. In fact, truth seems to be the thing that each character is searching for throughout the film. Whether it’s Kyle’s desire for a clean slate to stop living lies, Commissioner Gordon’s wrestling with telling the truth about Harvey Dent, or Bruce coming to grips with his fear of letting go of the past. Every character has some vulnerability and inner discovery that they have to find. That’s what makes Nolan’s take on the franchise great. He understands what makes Batman a great hero. The fact that a mortal man can become more, and fight for truth  

The movie’s final thirty minutes puts a nice ribbon on the series. Leaving room for spinoffs while concluding the series, Nolan can walk away with his head held high. My only gripe is that Bane’s persona takes somewhat of a nose dive in the wrap up. There are more than a few plot holes throughout the film that have to be overlooked, but they’re not big enough to fall through.

The “Dark Knight Rises” may be the weakest of the three films in the trilogy, but after establishing the new take on Batman, and Heath Ledger’s legendary performance, the stakes were high. Even so, Nolan delivered an outstanding end to the Caped Crusader’s reign. 

A