"Jason Bourne": Older Damon, Old Formula
Matt Damon is back in arguably his career defining role as Jason Bourne. The new film, re-teams Damon and director Paul Greengrass (Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum) and the formula still works. It’s the action and set pieces that make this spy thriller pop, while it tastes like bubble gum on it’s way out. You know, the kind that started out great but you’re getting a couple final chews out of it before you spit it out?
Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), embedded in a hacktivist group, hacks into the CIA and finds information that’s just good enough to bring Jason (Damon) back on to the grid. Or maybe, it’s the fact that she in particular contacts him to meet. Whatever the case, the two meet in Athens, Greece amidst an uprising, bringing the agency to the party as well. Armed with new information about his past, a chain reaction kicks off for Bourne to follow the trail.
In this installment, we’re introduced to the new CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and the head of the CIA’s cyber ops division, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). Lee is put on the case after using her skills to prove she can keep up with Bourne’s moves. Vincent Cassel is also introduced as the knew Asset from the program, who just may have a tie to Bourne’s past as well.
Greengrass knows how to build tension visually. He gives us the lay of the land in a wide and then twists our focus with mids and close-ups as to keep us on edge with the characters. He offers us two amazing chase sequences in Athens and on the Las Vegas strip! It’s the type that will have you hold your breath, and if you need a reminder that it’s just a movie, you have to salute the choreography of it all!
While the film is stacked with a talented cast, everyone seems to have either dialed in their performance, or been written into a stereotypical corner. Vikander’s Heather Lee is fresh off the cookie sheet of other driven, elite hackers who have risen to the top of the bad guy class. She’s cold, calculated, but bland personality wise. Which is sad because Vikander is such a talent as evidenced by her recent Oscar win. Tommy Lee Jones just got paid for this one. He picked up a check and paid bills. It’s in Damon and Cassel, the two characters who do the least talking, that we get the heartfelt performances.
Jason Bourne is a solid entry into the franchise as far as giving us another chance to see Matt Damon as Jason. The action sequences alone are reason to see it in theaters on the big screen. It’s unfortunate that the overall story and some of its characters don’t get the same care!
Rating: C+
"Star Trek Beyond" Review
In today’s world, where daily demonstrations of violence, hatred, and fear offer us an uncertain vision of our future, we need an escape. We need movies that take us to worlds that are not our own. Movies that depict people of different races, backgrounds, and sexualities working together in harmony. Movies that thrill us, make us laugh, dazzle us.
We need movies like Star Trek Beyond.
Taking over the captain’s chair from previous series director J.J. Abrams, Justin Lin (Fast and Furious) has crafted a vessel that’s just as sleek, fast-paced, and exciting as its predecessors. Make no mistake: this is not cerebral, thought-provoking sci-fi; it’s a full-speed-ahead action flick. However, there is something notable about Star Trek Beyond in how it celebrates the series’ fifty-year history and how it honors its enduring characters. This film was made with so much love, warmth practically radiates from the screen.
While on their five-year mission to explore the far reaches of space, Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto), and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise fall under attack by a hostile alien threat and find themselves marooned on an uncharted planet. With a damaged spacecraft and no means of rescue, the crew must find a way to get back home while evading the grasp of Krall (Idris Elba), a mysterious enemy who will stop at nothing to destroy them.
This film really is the total package. It has terrific action set pieces orchestrated by Lin, a witty script co-written by Simon Pegg (who also plays Scotty), and an impressive new character in the form of Jaylah (Sofia Boutella, Kingsman: The Secret Service), a badass alien warrior who aides the crew on their journey.
Beyond also has something unexpected: genuine heartstring tugging. In touching ways I will dare not spoil, the film pays tribute to the memories of two legendary Star Trek actors: our Spock Prime, Leonard Nimoy, and our Chekov, Anton Yelchin. Seeing Yelchin, who tragically died just last month, onscreen—so youthful, so energetic—is melancholy indeed.
But Beyond also engages us emotionally in another way: it furthers the development of these characters we love so. There is a very tender and heartwarming scene involving Spock and Bones (Karl Urban) that reveals layers to each character that were not even hinted at in the previous entries. And Captain Kirk, Scotty, and Sulu (John Cho), who were all so lacking in any kind of character growth in the last film, Into Darkness (2013), all have their moments to shine here. These actors embody their characters so thoroughly and work with each other so well that they transcend any shortcomings the film might have.
And Star Trek Beyond does, indeed, have its shortcomings.
While it is an entertaining and well-made film, Beyond doesn’t seem bold enough to break away from the established formula. Spock and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) continue their lover’s quarrel that seems to never end, and we are treated to the now-routine sight of seeing the Enterprise get totally wrecked yet again. Idris Elba’s Krall—at first an imposing screen presence—is drained of all menace or intrigue once his “motivation” is revealed in the third act. It’s here where the film completely deflates, for what begins as a tale of adventure and survival takes a turn for a plot we’ve seen before.
Despite these flaws, Star Trek Beyond is still a rousing—and as I said before, necessary—entertainment, and until that third act twist, it’s true to the spirit of discovery and camaraderie established in the original series. When Gene Roddenberry first created the Star Trek television series in 1966, he envisioned a future of unity and optimism. Fans will be happy to discover that Star Trek Beyond is very much in keeping with that vision. It encourages us to boldly go… and to look beyond to a bright and beautiful tomorrow. Happy fifty years, Star Trek. Here’s to fifty more.
Grade: B
"Ghostbusters" (2016) Review
There is a beautiful scene in Ghostbusters in which Melissa McCarthy’s character gives the other members of the team a pep talk after the citizens of New York denounce them as frauds. I’m paraphrasing here, of course, but she essentially says that even though everyone is doubting them, they know what they’re doing and should ignore the vitriol and save the day anyway.
It’s a fitting metaphor for the film itself, when you think about it. From the moment it was announced, Paul Feig’s reboot of Ghostbusters received backlash and bile from fans of the original film from 1984, making it the subject of untold amounts of rage-filled comments. Its trailer has become the single most down-voted trailer in YouTube history.
So, even though the angriest denizens of the Internet were counting them out, director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy) and the four talented comediennes he chose to be our new Ghostbusters were so sure-handed and confident, they rose above the hatred and won the day in the end.
Of course, this new version of Ghostbusters is nowhere near as good as the classic original. It was never going to be. But it’s not worth all the fuss, and it’s far from the disgrace to the original film’s legacy that the angry commenters were expecting (and probably hoping for). When all is said and done, it’s a scrappy, good-natured summer blockbuster that, while not perfect, delivers a lot of laughs, a few chills, and a ton of thrills.
When a book about the paranormal that she co-wrote resurfaces, Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) is let go from her teaching position at Columbia University. The at-first-skeptical Dr. Gilbert soon realizes that all her theories were true when malevolent ghosts begin to invade Manhattan. Teaming up with her former friend, Dr. Abby Yates (McCarthy); eccentric engineer Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (the particularly outstanding Kate McKinnon); and New York history enthusiast Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), Dr. Gilbert forms a paranormal extermination team called the Ghostbusters in order to save the world from a demonic entity.
While the story hits a lot of the same beats as the original, it’s the chemistry between these four women, as well as Feig’s unique sense of comedic timing, that keep this reboot feeling fresh. Wiig, McCarthy, McKinnon, and Jones bounce off of each other to great effect, giving us a sense of camaraderie that harkens back to how well Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson worked with each other in the original. There is genuine wit and inventiveness in the design of the ghosts, and there are even a couple of creepy sequences that sent chills down my spine.
However, even though Ghostbusters gets a lot of things right, that makes the things that it gets wrong all the more frustrating. The film needed some more time in the editing room to tighten up the baggy pacing. As demonstrated in his previous works, Feig encourages improvisation in his cast. While this often leads to some very funny bits, it keeps scenes dragging on for far longer than necessary. There are scenes that begin and end very abruptly, and quite a few of the jokes land with a resounding thud. Additionally, there are several surprise cameos from some recognizable faces, but their presence just serves as a distraction as it takes the focus away from the core group.
But once the team gets to busting, the proton packs get to firing, and the jokes get to flying, the film is an absolute joy to watch, especially in a 3D presentation that ranks among the best I’ve ever seen. The 3D effects go out and over the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, so it creates the illusion that slime, ghosts, and laser beams are invading the theater and jumping right at you. It’s a truly effective technique, and it made me wonder why more 3D movies don’t take advantage of it.
So after all that hullabaloo over this new Ghostbusters destroying the integrity of the original and insulting the memory of its co-writer Harold Ramis… it’s time to relax. Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters is not an insult to the original. Harold Ramis, God rest his soul, is not spinning in his grave. The original Ghostbusters is still readily available to watch and enjoy, and is probably on your home video shelf right now. I know it’s on mine. And when the reboot is released on Blu-ray, it will not replace my copy of the original. It will have earned a place right alongside it.
Grade: B-
Super Hero Films Won't Be The Same: "Deadpool" Review
Burnt butt naked fighting, a nude sex scene, and enough f-bombs to flatten New York. The latest installment in Fox Studio's X-men Universe has certainly taken things to a whole new realm in its world and ours. Super hero movies now have an option of fun for the whole family or 17 and up only thanks to Deadpool. So since they’ve taken it there, did they get it right?
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no comic book fanboy. I’m a film head, but I love talking with my fanboy friends about the accuracy of the movie versus the comic book. When it comes to the tone of the film directed by Tim Miller, Deadpool certainly has its own. From the opening credits, rather than seeing actors’ names we see “A Hot Chick”, “British Villain”, or “A Gratuitous Cameo”. So, yes, the film is on point tonally as it plays with credits, the fourth wall, our sense of what a super hero movie should be, and knowing itself.
The film starts out in the middle of an action sequence on a high rise bridge with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) in the midst of taking out bad guys. He quickly makes us aware of his awareness of our presence by talking into the camera and takes us back to when he was just Wade Wilson, a former Special Forces operative turned mercenary, who spent his time intimidating people for money. He’s the anti-hero we can get behind because we see him putting pressure on a teenage pizza boy who’s stalking a female classmate. The first half of the film intercuts between the present day fight and Deadpool’s backstory.
Surprisingly in a world full of sarcastic humor and quick whit, the film does have an emotional heart. As Deadpool constantly reminds us, his film is a love story. After meeting Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), a woman who is every bit his equal verbally and mentally, he learns that he has terminal cancer. Rather than letting her watch him die, Wade leaves under the cloak of night to become a part of a government program that will cure him and give him super powers...after they torture him for months to awaken his mutant gene.
Once he is able to escape, Wade vows to get revenge on the people who left him with deformed skin and the ability to rapidly heal from anything (which is kind of ironic in itself). His enemies have names, Francis (Ed Skrein) who has no physical feeling due to lost nerves and Angel Dust (Gina Carano) who is a super strong woman. Deadpool desires to tell Vanessa he’s still alive but believes his disfigurement is so bad a mother wouldn’t even love him so he vows to stay away. Yet, your worst enemy and the love of your life have to meet at some point in a super hero film right?
Deadpool almost feels like a sitcom at times, throwing out jokes every thirty seconds. The likelihood of each joke sticking is slim, unless you like sophomoric humor, but many of them work. We’re constantly reminded that we’re in a world comprised from other films with Deadpool making jokes about Green Lantern, the Blade franchise, and Wolverine (all films in which Reynolds was in). As Deadpool is visited by Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), two X-men in the film, Deadpool manages to get off an excellent comment about how large their mansion is but we only see the two of them as though the studio couldn’t pay for more characters to be in the movie. The combination of developing Deadpool’s tender heart beneath all of the jokes, the love between Wade and Vanessa that is certainly all their own, and being pummeled with well thought out humor (outside of potty jokes) makes Deadpool work as a stand alone film/character.
As Marvel movies continues to grow (no matter the studio it comes from), an occasional off-beat character serves well for two reasons: it gives audiences a break from the major tent pole characters, and allows the studios to bring in new characters down the road. Deadpool is definitely an original and fresh character that I probably would have rather spent an hour and a half with rather than its almost two hour running time. However, for a fresh face every few years, I don’t see him going anywhere anytime soon! Just remember parents with kids under 17, this film is rated R for a reason!
Rating: B-