From time to time, I forget or not motivated enough to write a full length review for every single film I have seen in theaters.
As to catch up, here are some short form reviews:
42
Though I liked 42, the type of baseball movie that is sure to be aired routinely on television, I want to say that I'm getting sick of these black actor led films that rely strictly on past history and racism as the corner-posts of its structure. Of course, this is one of the exceptions where they need to be included in order to showcase the conflicting opinions of a white-run nation and the growing exposure of the injustices held in America. The film is a greatest hits version of the history of Jackie Robinson, roughly his year in the minor white league and his rookie year with the Brooklyn Dodgers, but it also studies the behind the scenes turmoil in the baseball offices. While Jackie (Chadwick Boseman) must stay stone face against the rising hatred unleashed upon him in the stands, streets, and the field, Brooklyn executive Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) has to keep his drive for racial equality from also collapsing under pressure. It has many moments that will have some questioning the authenticity of events but they become trivial next to the more striking examples, such as a heartbreaking sequence where the Dodgers face off against the Philadelphia Phillies and their manager Ben Chapman (a casted against type Alan Tudyk). Except for the few cloying child actors, the overall cast is genuinely great; Boseman makes a compelling lead and makes Robinson the hero he was and Ford is superb as the wise-cracking Rickey, a role that the actor really loses himself in. A nice hit from writer-director Brian Helgeland.
FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5
Pain & Gain
I'll probably be shaking my fist, raising a mighty stink once Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS 4 hits theaters, not to mention his controversial take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I will have to remember that it was worth it, in order to receive PAIN & GAIN. This is a masterfully done, hilariously disturbing crime flick, where the pulp spreads like butter and the words in the script punctuate the air. A trio of bodybuilding aficionados with nothing to look forward to in life choose to fast-forward their American Dream plans by torturing and robbing a rich slime-ball. Loosely based on a true story, the script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely pops and never stops, delivering a great line after line. Each scene is richly constructed by Bay, highlighting the corruptible human decay with the pompous modern lifestyle of Miami. The cast is amazing: Mark Wahlberg expertly walks the line between foolishly charming and unbelievable scary, a sociopath who plays with his prey yet at the same time can't take his eyes away from a shiny lawnmower. Able to overcome his performance is Dwayne Johnson; the absolute zenith of his roles this year, as well as his movie career, he steals the show with his white hot intensity and humor as a jailbird beefcake whose newly religious extremity begins to slowly chip away due to his immoral actions and helps return him to his horrific drug addicted past. The only very minor complaint is that Anthony Mackie, one of the best in the business today, isn't as important as the other two in terms of the story but that doesn't stop him from cracking up the screen with his rants about being the beef in tacos and pumping up his succulent muscles. Definitely one of the best of the year, hands down.
FINAL REVIEW: 5 / 5
From Up on Poppy Hill
The latest Studio Ghibli film to reach our shores, FROM UP ON POPPY HILL is a pleasant coming of age flick but stops quite short from the rest of the magical Ghibli library. Set in 1964, it follows Umi, a 2nd-year high schooler whose days run the same: help around the boarding house of her grandmother's, hike up some sailing flags in honor of her missing father, head to school, and return to the house to cook and sleep. She begins to break out of her shell when the school's old club building is sentenced to be demolished in order to correspond with the summer Olympics and the nation's recent approach to modernism. She helps out with the project to save it and finds companionship with the brash Shun, a sailor's son with a mysterious past. The story is very trite but it has an enjoyable vibe, whether it is the inventive animated backgrounds of 60's Japan (including a brief stop in Tokyo) or a particular sweet moment expertly set to Kyu Sakamoto's legendary "Sukiyaki". However, the main problem with accepting this feature, something that might have been why Disney didn't release it and why it is stuck in limited circles, isn't the redemptive direction of Goro Miyazaki (the poorly received TALES FROM EARTHSEA) but a plot twist that the movie even acknowledges as bad melodrama. Even with the knowledge and expectance that everything will later be straighten out, this plot point warps your feelings about the central romance. The other crucial misstep is that the film is very Japanese yet is being shown in English; that isn't a strike at the great dubbing staff and cast, particularly Sarah Bolger's performance as Umi, but to the fact that there are a lot of Kanji signs to be read aloud and moments involving a soaring chorus of singing, symbolizing the pride and honor of the nation, both of which would have better with subtitles and the actual Japanese audio respectively. Still, the film is a nice film where national and personal identity must be a cooperation of the past and the present.
FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5
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