Pain and Gain

We can stop right here. And the winner for best use of advertising to alter the true nature of a movie to draw in an audience is… “Pain and Gain.” Michael Bay couldn’t be with us tonight to accept the award, but he wanted me to thank Josh Duhamel and Optimus Prime. “Pain and Gain” tells the (relatively) true story of the “Sun Gym Gang,” who murdered two people in the early 90s while trying to extort money. Someone somewhere thought it would be a good idea to make this film a dark comedy, but the result is a creepy movie with a conflicted audience that feels bad for spending money on a film that glorifies murderers. This has happened before with films like Bonnie and Clyde and Public Enemies, but Pain and Gain is in poor taste.

Mark Wahlberg stars as the leader of the gang and provides his usual humor in the beginning of the film. But after it’s clear that everyone isn’t making it out of this debacle alive, it’s just not funny anymore. The same goes for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who is both perfect and out of place in the role. A big softy fits the actor’s filmography, but the guy has built a career on being a moral compass, so watching him give in to drugs and murder takes a while to digest. Antony Mackie, who plays the third of the gang follows suit with a decent performance as a strange character.

Dark comedies can be done well, but when a film keeps boasting that it is a true story and has the protagonists getting more heinous by the scene, it’s difficult to enjoy. The plot moves along well, but the character development stalls about halfway through. The three leads do their best with it and they should be recognized for that. But ultimately, the trailers are much funnier than anything that ever happens on screen. I guess the thing to do would be to blame director Michael Bay. Isn’t that what everyone else does?

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

Oblivion

The most tired discussion in film comes from whether or not Tom Cruise is still a box-office draw. Well with Oblivion it doesn’t really matter because the movie is really good. Released a few weeks short of the powerhouse genre films, Oblivion stars Cruise as one of the last people left on Earth after a war with aliens. The humans won, but the planet is so messed up the population has moved on. Cruise’s character and his partner/love interest played by Andrea Riseborough stay behind to fix drones and help with pulling Earth’s remaining resources. What a straight forward plot. Not quite!

The film has a handful of major twists, each one bigger and more surprising than the last. These developments are tough to advertise since they are major spoilers, but they are definitely worth considering when judging the film. I have said before that Cruise’s sci-fi pedigree is a strong one. So his involvement in Oblivion did bode well for the film. His performance fit with what we have come to expect from the A-lister. He is consistent and convincing. Other than Riseborough, his costars like Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo and Olga Kurylenko are mostly underutilized and uninteresting. I know it’s almost blasphemous in 2013 to do anything but blindly praise Freeman. But anyone could have played his role.

The film is a CGI heavy spectacle that showcases sweeping landscapes and a number of very memorable moments. The fact that Oblivion deals with only a handful of characters among an equal number of inanimate drones speaks to Cruise’s ability to easily carry a film on his shoulders. I don’t know if the movie is a classic and it probably won’t be remembered as one of Cruise’s best, but it definitely stands up as a quality lead-in to the summer blockbuster season.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

42

It seems that every interview Harrison Ford was a part of while trying to promote the Jackie Robinson movie 42 was dominated by Star Wars and Han Solo questions. You can’t blame everyone for trying. Unfortunately, I don’t have Ford here to ask him about Chewbacca’s availability for the sequels, so I’ll discuss this film. Starring Chadwick Boseman as the legendary player, the film follows Robinson leading up to and during his improbable signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Ford plays gruff team executive Branch Rickey, who was largely responsible for bringing the player in.

A film based on an inspirational true story of a character that is collectively loved by most sports fans virtually writes itself. But 42 doesn’t take the easy way out. Robinson is not portrayed as the mild-mannered civil rights hero history remembers him as. Instead he’s a real human who gets angry, frustrated and actually makes mistakes. To be honest, they’d probably have to do quite a bit to turn an audience against the character, but he’s relatable while be being brave. Boseman definitely deserves a lot of the credit for that.

Creative license does play a part in the film. It seems like quite a coincidence that all the teammates who were nice to Robinson ended up being hall of famers and those that were mean got traded to the timeless baseball joke that is the Pittsburgh Pirates. I hate to bring up the elephant in the room, but I imagine some of the racists at the time were probably good at baseball. 42 is inspirational, exciting and entertaining. The jury is still out on how much of a sports classic it will turn out to be, but it follows the formula and humanizes one of the greatest achievements in American sports history.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

The Croods

If you were stranded on a desert island and you were given the choice to watch either Pixar or Dreamworks animation, which one would you choose? For me, after pointing out how asinine a question that is since I am stranded on a desert island, I would pick Dreamworks in a second. The latest from Disney’s rival stars Nicholas Cage and Emma Stone as cave people in The Croods. The family Crood is forced to travel across the dangerous wilderness after their cave is destroyed. Along the way they begin to trust each other and learn that all risks aren’t bad things. You know, typical teach us a lesson stuff.

The voice cast proves to be a good one with the rest of the family being played by Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke and Catherine Keener. Ryan Reynolds plays a new guy who gives the group that push to go outside of their comfort zone. To be honest, most of the plot goes along this way with the film’s message being overly obvious throughout. But funny takes on caveman culture, like the family seeing fire for the first time, breathe life into the film. Kids will like it, even if it doesn’t have the adult appeal of other titles like Shrek

The Croods is a fine movie, don’t get me wrong. It’s visually impressive with the type of animation Dreamworks has built an empire on. But with the success the studio has had, the films are held to a high standard. So the fact that the story is full of obvious life lessons makes it sound like it belongs in a picture book a kindergarten teacher would read. The Croods have literally been living under a rock and missing out on the world. I, for one, would love to explore nature with Nicholas Cage, Emma Stone and Cloris Leachman though. Best vacation ever!

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

Olympus Has Fallen

The first of two movies this year based on the hypothetical capturing of the White House by enemy forces, Olympus Has Fallen sets a very gory tone. Starring Gerard Butler as a disgraced secret service agent, the White House is attacked by North Korean terrorists and occupied with the President, played by Aaron Eckhart, taken hostage. When all of those on duty at the White House are killed, Butler’s character must take charge and stealthily fight the enemy from inside the landmark building.

Obviously action films have a lot of violence and in a story like this, it’s necessary in order to build the dire situation. But I must admit I found the killing in Olympus to be especially brutal. Off the top of my head, I can think of four separate head stabbings. One is probably too many. Then the initial conflict, which is quite dramatic, sees secret service and police officers meet their end in huge numbers. The film definitely earned its R rating. But beyond the violence, the film keeps a high level of tension with only appropriate moments of reprieve so the audience can catch their breath.

There is definitely a level of belonging with Butler in the big action role. After taking a break from these types of roles that made him famous, it’s clear that he fits as an action lead. With that, I have to ask why the decision was made to feature Morgan Freeman as the prominent figure on the poster. He plays the Speaker of the House, who becomes acting President when those ahead of him in the line of succession are taken hostage. But this is Butler’s film through and through as he takes on the brunt of the action and the emotional sympathy from the audience. He actually does have more of a dynamic performance than you’d think. But when the film is resolved, it’s clear that the massive body count means this isn’t as tidy a resolution as the script intends it to be.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

The Host

Remember The Twilight Saga? What good times we had with our buddies Bella and Edward. Well it turns out author Stephanie Meyer didn’t end her assault on literature with “Breaking Dawn.” The Host, based on the novel by Meyer, is about an Earth where aliens have invaded and take over human bodies in order to perfect the world. The humans understandably aren’t too pleased about this and resist. The story begins as there are only small pockets of resistance left. Saoirse Ronan plays Melanie, one such human who is caught and taken over by an alien. But she finds she can resist in the mind of the intruder.

The plot actually works relatively well, not going too in depth for a single installment. But it mirrors Twilight by emphasizing poorly written one liners and taking itself too seriously. The entire film is obviously meant to be some large commentary on life and love, but who really knows. The aliens live completely peaceful and generous lives, but they rid humans of free will. So I guess it means that we need to fight for the ones we love. But for the most part the “enemy” comes across as perfectly pleasant to be around. The result is the supposed good guys looking like jerks when they kill the blue eyed invaders.

Ultimately, the movie is fine. The actors do pretty well. Well except for young Chandler Canterbury, (Jamie) who gives a performance like he’s trying out to play Jake Lloyd in Star Wars: Episode I. The film’s drama level is low except for a handful of moments. When the most nervous you get for the characters is when they’re afraid a helicopter will see their secret crops, maybe it’s time to add something a bit more compelling to the script. Well we can keep talking about how the acting was decent.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

GI Joe: Retaliation

In a little bit of What’s Up History, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra was actually our first review back in the summer of 2009. So what does that mean about the release of the sequel, GI Joe: Retaliation? Absolutely nothing. But it’s fun to remember the olden days. Retaliation switches gears as a (mostly) new group of Joes must deal with their terrorist nemesis Cobra infiltrating the White House. What does a Cobra operative impersonating the President do? Obviously they label the GI Joes traitors and order an attack on all of them.

The advertising pushed this attack heavily signaling a changing of the guard from the poorly received first installment. Presumably the viewers are then supposed to disregard the original characters. But what’s odd is that the scene also kills off new characters that have storylines introduced and never developed. The rest of the film follows the surviving GI Joes as they try to solve the mystery of the presidential imposter. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays the lead, Roadblock, and takes on most of the film’s heavy lifting. But beyond him, all of the minor characters go undeveloped. There is a possible love interest brewing between Flint (DJ Cotrona) and Lady Jaye, (Adrianne Palicki) but nothing is ever explained or comes from it. The same goes for Jaye’s friendship(?) with Bruce Willis’ character, Joe, a retired colonel.

But the film’s most glaring issue comes in relation to two of the most interesting characters. Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) continue their awesome ninja rivalry from the first film, but in a very weird way. Storm Shadow gets injured and goes to heal in the mountains (obviously). Snake eyes pursues him with Storm Shadow’s cousin, Jinx (Elodie Yung). But not before they go and waste time with Blind Master played by RZA. The few scenes with RZA are terribly written, terribly acted and completely halt the film’s momentum. I would have preferred they end up on the cutting room floor.

GI Joe fans will be happier with this effort than Rise of Cobra, but it’s clear that the series will not earn the notoriety of other franchises like their Hasbro neighbors Transformers. But that should be okay. The Rock came aboard and gave a performance that steadies the ship a bit. GI Joe has always been about keeping track of a ton of characters, but it would seem they were all killed off. This is Roadblock’s franchise now. It’s a shame he doesn’t speak in rhymes like he did in the original cartoon.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.

Admission

Let’s take two of the most popular comedic actors today and put them in a movie that doesn’t really try to be funny. That is a quote from no one. But it could be in relation to Admission. The film stars Tina Fey as a by the book Princeton admissions officer. After being contacted by the head of a school (Paul Rudd) that has an interested student, (Nat Wolff) she learns the student may be her son that she gave up for adoption in college. The plot mainly focuses on Fey’s character being forced out of her comfort zone. But it isn’t all that exciting.

When I say the film isn’t funny, I think I laughed twice. It’s not a traditional comedy in that sense. But I would describe it as nice or happy, I’d even throw in a sweet. But that definitely means Fey and Rudd are underutilized. Rudd has been known to make movies like this before so I guess they’re just branching out. Wolff and Lily Tomlin, who plays Fey’s character’s mother, do well in their supporting roles. Tomlin is far from likeable but it’s an interesting performance for the relatively minor role.

Admission is not a stand-out movie because of its lack of memorable moments. Both Fey and Rudd already have a bunch of higher-profile films we can think of them for. The script is well-written, developing with a surprising number of twists and turns for a “sweet” movie. Fey definitely has star power carrying the film’s entertainment value firmly on her shoulders. With that being said, the movie is definitely entertaining. The difficult part was getting into the theater after its trailers were obviously showing the funniest moments. Let’s get this pair of jokers back together soon though. F-udd works well together. That’s my Tom-Kat style nickname for Fey and Rudd. Fudd.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.