Brave

Pixar has been one of the most brilliantly run studios in Hollywood for some time.  They churned out movie after movie which grossed them over 100 million dollars, sold more in toys, garnered critical acclaim, and won awards.   Their last endeavor Cars 2 was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect record.  It seemed that everyone who worked there was passionate about their projects and wanted to be there. The only complaint really being that it was considered kind of a boys club, so what do they do, with their 13th movie they put in a strong female protagonist that's central issue deals with the relationship between mother and daughter.  From the outset Brave looked like a home-run but a major plot point in the second half changes this movie's fate and it becomes something different entirely.

Any of the first teasers that came out made it seem like it was going to be an intense mixture of adventure and magic.  But then those behind the scenes decided to not use any of the footage from the trailer in the movie.  Despite that even the first sequence laid the groundwork for an epic adventure tale.  The visuals are absolutely stunning in this movie and the music is enchanting.  It places you in the exact mood you need to be in for a movie that is all about a princess who changes her fate.

Nothing about the plot is all that ingenious when it comes to daughter being forced to marry against her will (On a side-note: I have been seeing a lot of female empowerment movies recently, you go girls).  Merida is an independent girl with the heart of a warrior and does not want to be married off just because of some tradition, while her mother has been training her to be queen her whole life.  Merida would much rather explore the outdoors and practice her archery on horseback all day.  From here the movie still has all the potential in the world to be something great and could very well be.

But then something happens, about halfway through the movie a major plot point occurs and throws any credibility the movie was building towards into the water.  I don't want to give the plot point away, as it is supposed to be a twist I think, but if you would like a hint please click here for everyone else just move on.  All of a sudden the movie moves away from female empowerment into a slapstick session, which was completely unnecessary as there are plenty of laughs everywhere else in the movie.  The toughest part about the plot point is it becomes the main focus of the story, so while I can say I liked everything about this movie except this one detail it becomes a MAJOR detail.  From here on to the end it seems that everything the movie was building to is forgotten in order to wrap the story up.

It almost feels as if Pixar doesn't care anymore.  Whether it is giving Larry The Cable Guy a whole movie, finding out where Sully and Mike matriculated from, or frankly giving the boys club a story about female empowerment. It seems there is less effort being put in at the studio to come up with groundbreaking ideas.  All of Pixar's movies before this have been about guys and boys and growing up and been told from that point of view.  Pixar's movies have been great in the past because they were writing from somewhere they know; you could feel a personal investment in the story.  While Brenda Chapman wrote the story and helped direct, the rest of her main staff are men.  So a story about a mother-daughter relationship being told from the perspective of boys may have been one of the problems with developing the full potential of the story.

The movie does come back around and the climax of the movie features some very touching scenes.  Plus I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up just a little bit with the Scottish music playing in the background and a little girl coming over to give her Mom a big hug and tell her that she loves her.  There is a beautiful movie in here somewhere evidenced by these last moments, the sweeping Irish landscape, and the beautiful music, but that one moment really turned off any momentum the movie built towards.  Even the plot points that occur following the twist are more believable.  It really is just frustrating they took the movie in that direction.  And after that there was no coming back for Brave.  B-

Rock of Ages

For those of you who were live blogging the TONY awards the other night I imagine Rock of Ages  is a movie for you.  If you can't get enough "Back to the Eighties with Joe Cortese" you are going to LOVE this movie.  If you do not feel passionately about either you may want to sit this one out.  Rock of Ages brings all the music of the eighties back to life, and at times you may find yourself singing along with the music.  But the movie has trouble deciding if it wants to be campy fun or be taken seriously.  If you still find yourself excited about Def Leppard, Foreigner, and Journey going on tour then get prepared to rock out and have a great time at the movies.

The movie opens up on a distinct note as we see Julianne Houghas who plays Sherrie traveling on a bus to LA to become rich and famous.  All of a sudden she starts singing "Sister Christian" and the bus joins in with her.  It is a surreal moment that makes the audience laugh and believe that this is what can be expected the rest of the way.  But the movie is all over the place and jumps around from scene to scene.  Director Adam Shankman, who also did Hairspray, seems to be a little bitout of his comfort zone in this one.  Where as Hairspray was intended for people who loved the show, Rock of Ages also has crossover appeal to an entire decade of music lovers.  So he seems to divide his interest. In fact it is split down the middle in terms of moment of hilarity and tense moments of drama.  But fans of the Broadway show may notice that it doesn't quite develop the same way the original show did.  But let's not lie you are here for the songs, not the story.

There are a couple of numbers that stand out, one of them being the performance that has been on all the promotional videos and that's Tom Cruise doing "Wanted."  He actually does a surprisingly good job.  Now don't mistake that for it being anywhere near as good as the original, but he certainly holds his own and they do a great job with the scene.  There is also a mash-up in the opening 15 minutes of "Just Like Paradise" and "Nothin But A Good Time" which shows just why Diego Boneta gets his feature film debut as the male lead.  But the show stealing may go to Alec Baldwin and Russel Brand for their duet in the latter half of the movie.

But just as there were good numbers there are also ones that fell flat.  Haven't we all had enough of "Don't Stop Believing" yet?  It is the movies final song and is written as the ultimate rock song but when I think of rock, Steve Perry is not the first man to come to mind.  With shows like "Family Guy," "The Sopranos" and "Glee" all using this song can't we all hold hands and agree this song has jumped the shark.  However the song that sticks out the most is Catherine Zeta-Jones doing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot."  It stands out because of just how out of place it seemed, as the characters broke out into dance during the number which didn't really happen the rest of the movie unless there was already dancing going on.  In fact the inclusion of Zeta-Jones and Bryan Cranston seemed unnecessary to the movie and probably detracted from the main plot, which is unfortunate as she has clearly proven herself as a Broadway babe before in the likes of Chicago and A Little Night Music. The movie also slows down a lot during the second act of the movie, and not that I don't appreciate the power ballads of the eighties, it probably would have served the story better if it didn't ruin the pacing of the movie.

While perhaps Catherine Zeta Jones character wasn't necessary to the quality of the story the other supporting characters were pretty good.  Alec Baldwin and Russel Brand were fantastic in their roles supplying some much needed comic relief.  As soon as Mary J. Blidge popped on the screen I kept wishing for more of her. I'm sure she had a much deeper story and better connection with Sherrie but we never see it developed.  A lot of the story focuses on Paul Giamatti as the slimy band manager and Malin Akerman as a Rolling Stone reporter who was never in the play but plays an important part to the development of Stacee Jaxx.  Jaxx as you no doubt know is played by Tom Cruise, and if there is one thing Cruise knows how to play is out of touch crazy.  To date his best role may be Magnolia and is a prime example of just how crazy he can play, but more recently he was awesome in Tropic Thunder.  I expected very little out of him in this Broadway hit, but he actually does really well and even worked with Bret Michaels and Axel Rose's vocal coach to nail the part.  You may also want to keep a look out for the numerous cameos in this movie as eighties rock stars can be seen throwing their support behind rock and roll.

It is good they had a strong supporting cast of veteran actors because the lead characters are relative newbies.  Julianne Hough has been in other movie musicals, namely Burlesque and Footloose, but may be best known for her work on "Dancing With The Stars." She is a natural on camera on stands as an equal to the other actors she performs with.  She has a fantastic voice and is a great dancer and fits the part well.  Diego Boneta as Drew Boley struggles though, while a perfect pick for the songs that were selected, namely songs similar to Journey, it would have been nice to see someone with a little more rock to his voice.  He also doesn't quite have the same presence as those around him which is why it is so important for him to have a quality ensemble to work with.  I would have loved to see Constantine Maroulis from American Idol and the original Broadway lead get the part, but at the age of 36 he may have been too old for the producer's taste.

Fans of the show may object to the changes made to the movie, and they certainly have grounds to the objection.  The movie takes all the characters in complete different directions.  But it was Chris D'Arienzo who made the changes to the movie and since he wrote the book for the musical the changes he makes still fit, they all just end up in different spots than where the musical took them.  And for those who have not seen the musical they may actually prefer the changes as they fit the medium better.  Overall this is a fun, campy movie and fans of the music will walk away with a smile on their face and a tune on their lips.  The rest of you, well at least you get to walk away. C (For my eighties fans B)

Prometheus

It is tough to tell what, if anything anyone has heard about Prometheus going into it.  The biggest talking point of the movie though is that Prometheus is a prequel to Alien.  But I suggest you get that idea out from your head.  Any fan of the original will remember how beautiful and spine chilling that movie was.  Alien deserves to go down as one of the best science fiction movies of all time.  Prometheus really isn't anywhere near that level of excellence but it certainly stands on its own as a really good movie.  Ridley Scott make his return to science fiction in his latest movie Prometheus as one space crew attempts to go and meet its maker.

Of course there are nods and references to the original movie, but this truly is its own movie.  One of the biggest differences being the way the scares come at you.  In the original Alien, the movie was steeped in silence and that is where the terror came from, the feeling of isolation while fearing for your life.  Where the original movie thrived in the silence, Prometheus relies more on action. In this movie Scott has adapted to the times and includes monsters popping out of nowhere, grissley violence and true to the franchise one moment sickeningly similar to the original (and actually a better made sequence).  You can hardly blame Ridley Scott for the shift in tone from the original movie, a film like Alien probably would not be as successful as it was then because the audience demands certain level of pacing.  You need to hook an audience quickly or they could just as easily go to their phones and start trying to find out whats happening after the movie.  While it would be unfair to expect an outcome like Alien when the movie needed to be made to appeal to modern audiences, it does a wonderful job telling its own story.

Visually the movie is striking.  Scott uses 3-D well here and enhances his project and really makes his visuals pop.  He doesn't appear to be throwing it in there just to add to the weekend gross, he uses it effectively and seamlessly to  enhance his project.  In fact all of the technical aspect of the movie are stunning.  Nothing seems out of place and it is hard to think that even the wildest imagination could have crated a more fitting landscape to the movie.  And while some of the movie needs to be computer generated he films as much as he can using live action, and using this technique always allows the movie to come to life, even if it is taking place trillions of miles from Earth.

True to the franchise Scott gives us two strong female leads in Noomi Rapace, from the Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series, and Charlize Theron who will be competing against herself in Snow White and the Huntsman.  Rapace plays Elizabeth Shaw, one of the scientists who discover alien drawings and believe they will help answer man's greatest questions, where did we come from?  She does all that is asked of her and is a completely believable hero.  Backing her research is Meredith Vickers, played by Theron, who has her own agenda on this space trip.  She is cold and calculating in this movie, and leaves nothing to chance, and much like Snow White plays in intimidating force very well.  The other stand out character in the movie is David played by Michael Fassbender who reminded me more of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey  than anything else.  Another perfect piece of casting, despite his character having no emotion he is able to play every feeling perfectly from dry humor to the subtle threat.

Independent of anything else this is a really good movie.  In fact some of the weaker parts of the movie come towards the end when they try and tie the movie back to its 1979 counterpart. But had the movie not had the backing of the original I doubt there would be so much excitement surrounding this project.  Prometheus does a better job standing alone as an independent movie, than any prequel has done recently.  B+

Snow White and the Huntsman

This will be the second of the Snow White movies to come out this year. While Mirror Mirror was considerably more campy and fun Snow White and the Huntsman takes a considerably darker tone to the story. With that in mind this will not be a movie for young children to go see, but may be a nice lesson in female empowerment for the young ladies in the audience. While it takes a while to get there and takes a long look around at all the visuals that surround it Snow White and the Huntsman does become a decent movie.

 A lot of faith and money were put behind a director who is making his feature film debut. Prior to this movie Rupert Sanders had previously worked on commercials and video games. This shouldn't be a deterrent though as many famous directors such as Michael Bay and David Fincher both came from directing commercials before getting called in to do Bad Boys and Aliens 3 respectively. And with the technology now being available to so many, when a studio sees what a director can do on a budget they are willing to take a gamble. Coming from the world of Halo he knows how to make his action scenes visually stunning and he creates a very beautiful movie. At times though he gets lost in his computer generated world and focuses on the scenery more than the action.

Sanders is more than okay with updating the Walt Disney version, especially with the success ABC's recent hit "Once Upon a Time." While taking this story to a darker place, where the Brothers Grimm would no doubt be comfortable, he also empowers his leading ladies Show White and the Queen. Charlize Theron uses her beauty to take the throne from the right and just king and holds the kingdom in her hand. She is undoubtedly the fairest in this movie, but the academy award winner tends to go over the top as her powers begin to wean. Opposing her is Twilight star Kristen Stewart, who does not come into the movie with quite the same accolades as Theron but definitely holds her own. This is most likely due to the limited time she is given to speak, despite being the star of the film Snow White doesn't have a whole lot to say which may be a credit to Sanders knowing what his leading lady can handle.

While the women carry the story and overarching themes on power the savior of the movie may be the men. Chris Hemsworth comes in as the Huntsman, traditionally a very small part and really makes it his own. Obviously comfortable with the science fiction role, Sanders makes his character a drunkard who morphs into a hero. He is able to deliver some of the few laughs that occur throughout the film in the early goings. While dealing with a more adult version of the movie Sanders still decides to keep in the dwarfs which help the movie finally hit its stride. A plethora of who's who in British character acting are cast and shrunk down for the role. It is actually kind of fun when you see Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan and Toby Jones; while you may not recognize all the names, you should get most of the faces. I am sure that there are people that will be offended by not casting small people. But these actors were the right casting choice as they really transformed the movie into something different. They were the only ones that were able to blend the action with the comedy and really helped to move the story along.

Where Snow White and the Huntsman struggle the most is maintaining interest over the long period. The movie tends to drag and all the romanticized visuals that Sanders tends to cut away to does not help. His characters tended to be a bit one dimensional, and there was no real love interest but instead mere mentions and hints at it. The latter I actually found refreshing and fitting as the movie is all about woman empowerment. While they were able to show Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron as two women who could handle their own due to poor development they did need a man's help to stay engaging. C+

Men In Black 3

It has been 15 years since J was recruited by K to join the Men In Black and a decade since the last time we heard from these agents.  Time has not been kind to this franchise, which really should have just stopped after the first movie.  But after such a successful original story, and huge star power from Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones you can't blame the producers for trying to recapture the magic from the original.  That is what Men In Black 3 feels like, an attempt to recapture the magic of the original instead of attempting to coming up with an original story.

Anytime a movie attempts time travel or goes to a tropical island viewers enter at their own risk, especially when the movie is a sequel.  Here J, must go back in time and save his partner from getting killed and put history back in its proper place.  So in this movie all of the fish out of water jokes from the first one are in relation to going back in time rather than learning about alien life on earth.  I can not think of a time traveling sequel that has ever been rewarding, so this movie is already up against a wall. 

The movie's humor relies on everything being dated.  That means that all the technology the agents use in the sixties are antiquated and bulky and therefore must be funny.  There are moment where it looks like there could be some genuine moments of levity, and they even touch briefly on the race issues of the sixties but are too quick to move on to a new device before any joke has the chance to settle in.  You can tell that the writing team for this movie had too many cooks in the kitchen and Etan Cohen tried pulling the best of the best instead of making every moment flow into the next one.

The bulk of the movie rests on Will Smith's back, because while K is a big piece of the puzzle, the role is shared by two different actors.  Smith seems like he is phoning this one in and is merely getting a paycheck to help his children do more projects.  Meanwhile Tommy Lee Jones literally disappears for half the movie, which may be due to the aging actor not being able to handle an action blockbuster like this anymore.  In his place is one of the few bright spots of the movie in Josh Brolin.  Brolin plays a dead ringer as a younger Tommy Lee Jones, with the good ole boy drawl and dry delivery down pat. Even if the younger actor is supposed to be in his late twenties and not his early forties the casting still works.

While Brolin was a nice surprise, what I was looking forward to most was Jermaine Clement as Boris the Animal.  I don't know what I was expecting out of him but I didn't get it.  Vincent D'Onofrio just did so spectacularly in the first one that I think they tried to replicate it.  Maybe I just wanted him to be a little goofier and I don't know bust out into song with Bret (Hi Bret), but that would be too much to ask for, I guess.  It seemed like they missed an opportunity with a brief appearance by Nicole Scherzinger or maybe I just wanted to see more of her leather dominatrix costume.  The most important part though may be Michael Stuhlbarg who provides some nice support as the last of his species who can see all the different possible futures which adds a little bit to the time traveling plot line.

Everyone keeps referencing a major past event in K's life, a moment which would turn out to be the climax of the movie.  With all that build up there was an expectation for a bigger moment.  That is this movie in a nut shell - bigger expectations.  And expectations weren't even that high for this movie, after all it was the third movie 15 years removed from the original that featured time traveling.  If you do go and see this movie, it may be a better idea to bring a neuralizer along and replace the two hours with a more pleasant memory like the one below.  D+

Battleship

No doubt when people heard they were coming out with a movie based on the board game battleship there were a lot of eye rolls and heavy sighs.  Director Peter Berg of Friday Night Lights fame and the writing team of Jon and Erich Hoeber, who also wrote the Bruce Willis movie Red, heard the heavy sighs and decided to roll with it.  If people are already going into this movie thinking it is going to be ridiculous then why not just go full tilt.  Battleship is an overly computer generated action movie that follows every cliché in the genre, and the only thing that makes the movie enjoyable is just how ridiculous the movie becomes.

The movie feels a lot like Transformers and in a lot of respects it is, aliens coming down to earth with a plan to destroy it.  Actually I think once the aliens landed we were the ones who fired first, but that is not the point.  Where Michael Bay and Peter Berg differ is Bay took his action movies much more seriously.  Berg has seen a summer blockbuster before and knows that the demand for action is much higher than the demand for story.  So he makes the premise completely ridiculous and decides to not take the movie based on a 60's board game too seriously.

The movie opens on Lieutenant Alex Hopper played by Tim Riggins.  With no real direction in his life his brother played by Alexander Skarsgard from True Blood, forces him to join the navy under his command.  And I kid you not almost as soon as Skarsgard delivers the line "Do you think this is a game?" the title card for the movie flashes on the screen.  I have to believe they did that intentionally to set the tone for just how ridiculous the movie was going to be.  Because if they didn't, then really, just wow.  With a rocking soundtrack playing in the background that is just one of the many laughable moments of the movie, and I would love to give them away, but doing that would be like telling you the punch line to a joke before giving you the set-up.  Just know that during some of these moments the entire audience let out a bellowing moan, they are just that bad.  Thankfully no one in the movie says anything to the effect of "You sunk my battleship," but as soon as the reference to the grid board comes into play the movie becomes something so awful it just loops right back around to being awesome.

That being said it does take a while to get there.  The first half of the movie drags.  It may even be more than half the movie, it really is just that difficult to tell how long and how far the movie drags.  There are a lot of clichés the writing team need to set up first and the Hoeber brothers take their time getting to the point.  They always have a tough time getting all the information out in the first act like in their previous films Whiteout and Red.  But this then lets the duo put all the best action sequences and comedy at the end.  It wasn't till the action picked up that they seem to excel with pacing and finding the correct dialogue to fit the scene.

Since the movie was so hoke not much was demanded from the actors, which is important because none of the main actors have too much to offer.  You may be saying to yourself, but Liam Neeson is starring in the movie he is not really there.  While his name may be on all the advertising, really he is just there to collect a paycheck, he gets left out of most of the action as the commanding officer.  Most of the heavy lifting is done by Taylor Kitsch who some of you may remember, or most likely remember hearing about from the recent bomb John Carter.  It makes sense that Berg would go back to cast one of his biggest actors in his critically acclaimed television show, but in Friday Night Lights he was asked to be soft spoken off the field, and intense on it.  That soft spoken nature, which was captured well in the series, does not translate when you are asked to be the lead star in an action movie.  Rihanna also makes her feature film debut and while I went in wanting to make fun of her, she does fine in the movie as the spunky private with attitude.  Brooklyn Decker is always a great choice as eye candy, and she even gets her own storyline to stop the alien invasion.  All the actors do exactly what is expected from them and deliver all their lines with a smile on their face, everyone is in on the joke.

Unless you are a glutton for punishment, you probably shouldn't be paying the exorbitant ticket prices to see this movie.  The only relief to the movie is all the action doesn't come flying at you as they chose not to put the movie in 3-D although the visuals to the movie would certainly justify it.  A lot of the people walked out of the theater with a look of disgust on their face.  But I had a huge smile on mine.  The movie is laughably bad, and I can't remember a major blockbuster recently released like this. I loved this movie, but could see why people would hate it if they had expected something more.  I suppose they will have to wait for the theatrical release of Crossfire, because if it’s anything like the commercials, that movie would be epic. C+

Dark Shadows

Remember when Tim Burton had some indie cred, and his emo movies were something new that brought credibility and something different to the movies.  Remember seeing his remake of Planet of the Apes, how he had them wear those stupid hats, just how upset you got seeing it, and wishing things could go back to the way they were.  It hasn't.  You would think a movie based on a sixties vampire soap opera would be right up his alley.  And maybe it was.  And Burton just had so many ideas for his new movie; he couldn't bear cutting any of them out.  That is probably what happened to Tim Burton's most recent passion project. Dark Shadows suffers under the weight of having too many ideas with no idea how to bring them together.

This is the eighth time Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have teamed up and by now there really is nothing left the duo can do to surprise their audience.  Burton goes for a Gothic look while trying to provide a balance of horror and comedy; while Depp rocks a ridiculous wardrobe and a funny accent.  Nothing we haven't seen these two try before.  And just as predictable is Burton shifting his tone as often as he changes his scenes.

No doubt feeling the need to pay homage to the series, Burton tries to include too much with his story and doesn't give enough attention to any of his many subplots.  He does fine with the first act of the movie, and setting up the story.  Even once we get to 1972 the movie has some solid jokes delivered by Depp who always does so well as the fish out of water.  To no surprise Depp was the one of the few bright spots of the movie, and did very well in the roll, but nothing we hadn't seen countless times before.  The movie gets lost in itself once we meet the rest of the family.

While it looks like a large cast really there are only two players in this production.  Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins and his immortal rival the witch, Angelique Bouchard, played by Eva Green.  Their lust/hate relationship is the main plot line throughout the movie and the only one given any real attention.  Both characters are fully realized and play well off each other.  The only other character that possesses any semblance of depth is Michelle Pfeiffer's matriarchal, Elizabeth Stollard Collins.  All the other characters seem thrown into the mix just to honor the source material of the sixties soap opera.  It wouldn't surprise me if Alice Cooper in a brief cameo had more lines than the rest of the family including a completely underused Chloe Moretz and Jonny Lee Miller who probably should have just been written out of the story entirely to better develop the young son played by Gulliver McGrath.  Even Burton's muse Helena Bonham Carter couldn't gather any real screen time as she would appear briefly as the live-in psychologist and then be completely forgotten about for chunks as a time.

Not only that, but the movie flip flops from comedy to horror at the drop of a hat.  Becoming lighthearted and cheery underscored by some classic hits from the early seventies and then almost immediately shifting gears to murder and death.  While the Burton look to the movie helps reflect whatever mood the audience should feel he shifts too many times, and doesn't do great with either the comedy or the horror.

The movie really loses its momentum by introducing too many characters with too many story lines.  Burton seemed to have a very distinct idea of how he wanted the movie to begin and end but no real road map on how to get there.  By the end of the movie you could almost see Burton throwing his hands in the air and just tossing in ideas that he meant to build towards but never actually mentioned.  And just as I'm sure the production crew was getting frustrated with their ending, the audience did as well, with people in the screening walking out at the end already knowing how the movie was going to end but not caring to see it themselves.  D