Movie review

Review of “Inside Out”

Growing up is never easy even if your parents don’t move you across the country far from everything and everyone you’ve ever known. My folks lived in the same house for 50 or so years. The year after I got married my wife and I moved to a small town in the Florida Panhandle. It was a less than pleasant experience for the three years we were there but we look back on it with a fondness that comes with hindsight and maturity as we realize everything we experienced there helped make us the people we are today. Your whole life is like that from, to paraphrase from literature, the best of times and the worst of times, you learn how to deal with both success and failure. It’s the pain that makes us appreciate the good times. Learning that lesson seems a bit unfair when you are young as we all want just the positive and feel the negative is something to be avoided. I don’t go looking for failure so I can appreciate success that much more but it usually finds me whether I like it or not. In the latest from Disney/Pixar, “Inside Out,” a young girl learns some valuable lessons and the parts of her personality that color her memories learn even more.

Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) is your average 11 year old girl. She loves her parents, loves to play hockey with her friends and loves her life in Minnesota. That all changes when her mom and dad (voiced by Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) move the family across the country to San Francisco for a business opportunity, forcing Riley to leave her friends and everything she’s ever known behind. The move throws Riley’s emotions into turmoil but they try to make the best of it. Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) is the self-appointed leader of the team made up of herself, Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling), Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Fear (voiced by Bill Hader) and Anger (voiced by Lewis Black). Together they make up Riley’s personality and oversee the creation of her memories. Joy believes every memory should be a happy one especially the core memories that make up the base of Riley’s personality. Just after the move, Sadness touches one of Riley’s core memories turning it from happy to sad. Trying to correct the problem, Joy and Sadness, along with all of Riley’s core memories, get sucked up into the pneumatic tube that transfers memories into long-term storage. Now only Disgust, Fear and Anger are left in the control room and try as they might, they cannot keep Riley on an even keel. She begins to act out, argue with her parents and withdraw from the world, saddened by leaving her old life in Minnesota. Joy and Sadness must be careful navigating their way back to the control room so they don’t lose Riley’s core memories in the giant chasm where old memories go to die. They get some help from Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong (voiced by Richard Kind) but still struggle to get back where they belong and thanks to a misguided idea by Anger, Riley is planning to runaway back to Minnesota…alone.

We expect any Disney/Pixar film to be entertaining and nice to look at but they usually surprise us with the amount of depth and intelligence these “kids’ movies” contain. “Inside Out” is no exception to this and may be the smartest film in the studio’s long and illustrious history. Without talking above the heads of the core audience but not talking down to the adults, “Inside Out” manages to tell a simple tale in a way that is illuminating and far more clever than one usually gets from an animated film. It doesn’t hurt that it is beautiful to look at and more than a little funny.

While the entire voice cast is great the stand out has to be Lewis Black as Anger. Best known for his aggressive standup style and his rants on “The Daily Show,” Lewis Black is perfectly cast as the stumpy, red-bodied Anger. His line delivery mixed with the perfect animation makes Anger, who could have been grating and annoying, the character you wish had been the focus of the film. You may have seen a trailer where Anger asks if he can use the curse word Riley knows. In the trailer it’s funny but in context it is much funnier. You would think Anger, stomping around with the top of his head glowing then bursting into flame when he reaches his limit, should really be the one in charge of the group. I understand why he isn’t since this is a movie for children and that would send the wrong message. Maybe if there is a sequel, Anger and Joy will have a power struggle over who is running things. Lewis Black is certainly the reason many adults will enjoy the film.

Parents will also appreciate the story as it develops during the course of Joy and Sadness journey through Riley’s mind. The two learn lessons about their place in Riley’s life and their relationships to each other. While many people think and speak in absolutes such as, “Everybody thinks like this” and “Nobody wants that,” that simply isn’t how life works. While a majority of people may think one way or the other or do one thing or another, there are always those that have differing opinions and preferences. Joy believes all of Riley’s memories should be happy and is most contented when, at the end of the day, the group of memories transferred to long-term storage shares her color of bright yellow. Any that are Disgust’s green, Fear’s purple, Anger’s red or Sadness’s blue means to Joy she is a failure. The story shows that life isn’t just happiness. Sometimes, other feelings make up our memories and hence our personalities and that’s the way it should be. It’s a lesson many adults could stand to learn as well.

Prior to “Inside Out,” the short “Lava” played. It tells the story of a volcano in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that watches the pairs of animals in love and wishes he had a companion as well. Pixar is terrific at telling heart wrenching stories in just a few minutes and they do the same with “Lava.” When it ended there were sniffles scattered around the theatre and it wasn’t allergies. If either “Lava” or “Inside Out” doesn’t at least make your eyes misty you have no soul.

“Inside Out” is rated PG for mild thematic elements and some action. The concept of upheaval and moving across the country to a scary house with a dead mouse in the corner might upset especially sensitive children. There is a train wreck shown that exposes some characters to a chance of physical danger. A character makes the ultimate sacrifice to save another and that was quite a gut punch for me personally. Foul language is, of course, not an issue.

From its imaginative depiction of the mind and the fairly realistic portrayal of a preteen girl in turmoil to some especially perfect voice acting, “Inside Out” may be Disney/Pixar’s best film for both a combined child and adult audience. It is so good, so funny, so well rendered, so moving, it should rank right up there as one of the greatest Pixar films in its history. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

“Inside Out” gets five glowing bright yellow stars out of five.

Three new movies open this week. I’ll see and review at least one of them.

Dope—

Max—

Ted 2—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Juassic World”

For some, older movies are like a warm blanket: Once you’re wrapped up in it you don’t want to move. My wife and I have a personal combined favorite of “Sixteen Candles.” If we are flipping around on the channels and see it pop up we’ll watch it no matter where we come in. We often quote lines from the film to each other when they happen to fit in the conversation. Personally, I have a warm spot in my heart for 1993’s “Jurassic Park.” While computer generated effects had been used in prior films, Steven Spielberg incorporated them both sparingly and perfectly. The scene where Sam Neill and Laura Dern’s characters first spot the three Brachiosaurus gave me the chills as it appeared to be as lifelike as one could have hoped. Many other scenes of dinosaurs were done with giant animatronic puppets and looked as good as the CG. What really sells that movie is the relationship between Neill and the younger characters he is forced to look over when things begin to go wrong. That gave what could have been a fairly average monster movie a bit more heart. In the franchise reboot “Jurassic World” we once again have impressive creatures running amok and a couple of younger characters in need of saving. In this film, the heart comes more from the relationship between a human and four velociraptors and the movie suffers a bit for it amongst other reasons.

Zach and Gray Mitchell (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) are brothers headed out on an adventure by themselves to visit their Aunt Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) who manages day to day operations at Jurassic World. Claire and the head of the conglomerate that owns the attraction Simon Masrani (Irfan Khan) are preparing to open a new feature with a hybrid dinosaur called Indominus Rex. The combination of T-Rex and other DNA has created a massive beast bigger than the T-Rex. Masrani wants Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), a former military man that now works for the genetics company InGen that created the dinosaurs, to inspect the enclosure and make sure it can hold such a beast. Claire and Owen have a bit of history that makes the thought of working with him unpleasant for her. Owen and InGen’s head of security Vic Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) are working on a project to teach velociraptors to follow commands and that appears to be making progress. Hoskins wants to use trained raptors to replace some ground troops and go on search and destroy missions for the military. Owen thinks it’s a bad idea and unlikely to work. During his inspection of the enclosure, the I-Rex can’t be found on any of the heat sensitive monitors. Scratches on the wall appear to show the animal has climbed out. Owen and two others enter the enclosure and soon discover the I-Rex is still inside. Owen survives but the other two men are killed and the I-Rex breaks down a partially opened gate and escapes. Not wanting to cause a panic and hurt future revenue, Claire begins a partial shutdown of the park closest to where the I-Rex is but Zach and Gray break off from a tour in a rolling geosphere and go where they shouldn’t. Owen needs to know more about the kind of DNA used to make the I-Rex but is told the information is classified. Owen can tell by its behavior the I-Rex is far smarter and more adaptable than any other creature and fears all the measures taken to subdue it will fail.

“Jurassic World” makes a valiant attempt at recapturing the magic and wonder of “Jurassic Park.” Showing us the park through the eyes of young Ty Simpkins’ character along with the soaring music of the soundtrack which recycles John William’s original theme initially establishes a nostalgic connection with Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic. Using Chris Pratt as a kind of mashup of both Sam Neill’s dino expert and Jeff Goldbloom’s mathematician is also a smart play. The super popular Pratt as the voice of calm and reason in the midst of either cold-hearted business decisions or deadly dinosaur chaos helps keep the audience grounded in at least a realm of reality in this very unreal situation. Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard work well together and have a chemistry that really shines when they are sniping at each other. The more they fall for each other (as inevitably happens in nearly all movies) their spark begins to die a little.

Initially, the idea of Pratt as the savior and protector of the two boys seemed to be a major plot point based on the first film; however, for most of the movie, the boys are on their own even after the park begins to fall into chaos and that actually works pretty well. They show some smarts and bravery that appears to be lacking in their relationship initially. Zach being the older and a teenager shows the prerequisite lack of interest in his younger brother. When the world begins to fall apart they become closer and while it’s cliché it was also nice to see as these two young actors seem to mesh quite well. Unfortunately, that also leaves Pratt’s main character stuck with playing daddy to four velociraptors.

The idea that these animals could be trained in a way that they would never kill someone they shouldn’t is just one of the film’s logical flaws. That even plays out early on when a worker falls in the raptor pen and Owen must save him. Any time watching the “Walking with Dinosaurs” series on the Discovery Channel or streaming it will show the viewer that the smartest dinosaur ever had the IQ of a chicken. It makes for an interesting subplot but it also could cause you to concuss yourself slapping your forehead with your hand. The entire set up of the park seems to be designed to get people killed. One scene shows families in canoes rowing down a stream next to large plant-eating dinosaurs. One slip on a rock and there’s a multi ton creature falling on a boatload of guests. The lawsuits for wrongful death and injury would bankrupt that place in a matter of days. Also, keeping the pterosaurs in a glass building seems like a terrible idea and it is shown to be in the film. Also, the park is on an island that can only be evacuated in mass by cruise ships. While keeping the creatures on the island is a good idea, getting people to and from the island seems like it would be a nightmare in an emergency situation. Everyone is stuck until a boat shows up. They don’t exactly move that fast and take even longer to get docked. While the island is accessible by helicopter they cannot handle that many passengers and we never see a landing strip or airport on the island for fixed wing craft. As much as I would love to see dinosaurs in real life, if Jurassic World actually existed and I could afford it, I’m not sure I’d want to go.

All that said, I’m making the mistake I encourage others not to by applying too much logic to a movie. It’s a film about dinosaurs eating people and each other and it’s a great deal of fun. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard work well together in roles that don’t really ask much of their abilities. They breathe a little humanity into their characters when they could have been just Hollywood standard issue action movie leads. Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins aren’t annoying kid characters but characters who happen to be kids. They are allowed to grow and mature a bit as the story goes along and while it is all stuff we’ve seen before they do it very well. Vincent D’Onofrio is slimy from the first frame of film he’s seen in and you know he’s going to be the cause of some trouble. While not the nuanced performance of his recent work in Marvel’s Netflix series “Daredevil,” D’Onofrio gives the movie a bad guy that isn’t a dinosaur. We see his desire for power and prestige and he believes in his cause with a fervor that borders on religious. We know we shouldn’t like him but it’s hard not to be drawn in to his enthusiasm. All these films must have a bit of comic relief and that’s supplied by Jake Johnson, best known as Nick on the TV comedy “New Girl,” who plays a control room operator named Cruthers. He’s trying hard to be the conscience of the corporate entity that runs the park and he’s constantly ignored. His brief appearances are usually quite funny and his character is the everyman who feels unnoticed and unknown. The only character from the original film that makes an appearance is Dr. Henry Wu played by B.D. Wong. Dr. Wu has largely been an exposition machine explaining about how the dinosaurs were made. Now, his character has been upgraded into a borderline bad guy. Wu is a geneticist with no ethics. He’s constantly trying to build a bigger, meaner dinosaur and doesn’t care about the consequences. He sees his research as a boon to mankind that will have applications outside the park. My guess is he will learn he is merely a pawn to corporate greed as we will see him in any future sequels.

“Jurassic World” is rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi violence and peril. Basically dinosaurs eat people and each other. They chase and attack people and each other. If you’ve ever seen a documentary about crocodiles in Africa waiting for the animals to drink at the river’s edge and then attack them, you’ve seen most of the violence in “Jurassic World.” Foul language is mild and minimal.

While it lacks the awe and wonder of “Jurassic Park,” “Jurassic World” is a perfectly fine summer blockbuster that provides lots of CG eye candy and thrills. Don’t invest a huge amount of thought in what’s going on and the experience will not be spoiled. While ignoring the clichés and some of the sillier aspects of the story might pose a larger challenge, “Jurassic World” will likely provide a couple of hours enjoyment in a cool theatre on a hot summer day or evening.

“Jurassic World” gets four stars out of five.

This week, the trials of being a musical genius, the voices in your head and the making of a 40 year tradition all hit screens and hope you’ll spend your money to see them. I’ll see at least one of them and review it.

Inside Out—

Live From New York—

Love and Mercy—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Spy”

Bradley Fine (Jude Law) is one of the CIA’s top agents; but he admits he couldn’t do his job without the support of CIA analyst Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) who feeds him information through an ear piece.  Fine is sent on a mission to apprehend Raina Boyanova (Rose Byrne), the daughter of an Eastern European arms dealer that Fine recently killed by accidently shooting him in the head when Fine sneezed.  Boyanova has a tactical nuclear device that is available to the highest bidder.  To keep it from falling into the wrong hands, the CIA sent in Fine; however, Boyanova gets the drop on him and kills him.  She knows someone is listening and rattles off the names of all the CIA’s top agents, warning them to leave her alone or they will meet the same fate.  Susan sees and hears the whole thing and cries because she has a crush on Fine.  During a meeting with CIA Director Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) and other CIA agents including the hotheaded Agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham), Cooper offers to go into the field since no one knows who she is outside the agency and track Raina to her meeting with arms dealer Sergio De Luca (Bobby Cannavale) who has contacts with a particularly dangerous terrorist group.  Ford is livid and insists on going in guns blazing to get the location of the bomb from Raina.  Crocker disagrees and puts the wheels in motion to put Cooper into the field.  Ford quits in disgust.  Cooper is given a new identity that is decidedly not as sexy as she had hoped and is paired up with another analyst who is also her friend, Nancy (Miranda Hart), who will guide her through an ear piece just like Cooper did for Fine.

This is going to be a short review because “Spy” is just about a perfect action comedy.  Melissa McCarthy is perfect in the role of Susan Cooper, a behind-the-scenes gal who just needs that one break to shine and show what she’s got.  McCarthy is a fearless performer who doesn’t mind looking goofy and sometimes unsympathetic in order to sell her character.  McCarthy is given more than just humorous moments in “Spy.”  There are scenes where she must express painful emotions and even announce her unrequited love for a spy that she believes betrayed her and the agency.  McCarthy is able to convey a far more nuanced performance than one might expect from a broad and raunchy comedy.

The rest of the cast is also asked to deliver complex performances and they all shine bright.  Rose Byrne as the main bad guy is brilliant.  She’s supposed to be a cold, aloof and deadly socialite who also is taking over her late father’s criminal empire; however, that veneer of icy perfection is always on the edge of cracking if things don’t go exactly to her liking.  This usually leads to a sting of expletives and some very funny business.  Byrne proved her comedic chops in “Neighbors” with Seth Rogen last year and merely added to her humorous resume with “Spy.”

If there is a surprise from any of the performances it comes from Jason Statham as the powder keg of an agent Rick Ford.  Statham’s performance isn’t that much different than what he did in “Fast and Furious 7” or his “Transporter” movies or any other of his films.  That’s precisely why it’s so funny.  Statham’s Ford is constantly bragging about how he has suffered incredible injuries and everyone he’s ever loved has been killed by the object of his investigations and yet he still manages to get the job done.  The interactions between Ford and Cooper after his stories reach a point to extreme silliness are some of the film’s best scenes.  While these two characters are at constant odds with each other the chemistry between McCarthy and Statham is undeniable.  They obviously enjoy playing with each other and I’m sure the DVD will be filled with outtakes featuring the pair.  Those may be the funniest parts of the movie we’ll have to wait for.

If the film has a weakness, and it’s tiny, it’s the stunt work during some of the action scenes.  The actual stunts themselves are great; however, when the action is supposed to be carried out by McCarthy’s character and it’s obviously a stunt person wearing a wig and matching outfit, it pulled me right out of the film.  This only happens a time or two but it is so obvious it is jarring.  There is also a stunt near the end of the film where the replacement of McCarthy is far more seamless but the stunt itself makes it clear someone other than the star is doing it.  It’s a tiny quibble but I wanted to point it out so you can be on the lookout for more bad stunt doubles when you see the film.

“Spy” is rated R for language throughout, violence, and some sexual content including brief graphic nudity.  There are several fights mostly of the acrobatic variety.  Some are bloody including seeing a knife stabbed through a woman’s hand.  There is also a fight scene where a man has his ankle graphically broken when it is stomped on.  There are also a couple of vomit scenes.  There are a couple of scenes where a foreign agent gets very handsy with McCarthy’s Cooper.  There is also a sex act briefly shown but there is no nudity.  I cannot remember any nudity in the film at all.  Foul language is common throughout the film.

“Spy” is about the most consistently funny film I’ve seen in a long time.  While there are some action scenes and shots of the skyline of whatever European city the story takes us to, there is very little wasted time getting to the next set up of jokes or physical humor.  The entire cast is given a chance to show off their comedic abilities and no one disappoints.  Even the characters that are playing it as straight as possible deliver significant laughs regularly.  It is the kind of action comedy that should be studied by everyone in Hollywood and copied relentlessly.  Writer/director Paul Feig should receive every possible award for this gem of a film.  See it then see it again so the movie industry knows this is the kind of film they should be making more of if they want to have a nice fat bottom line.

“Spy” gets a very enthusiastic five stars.

Next week only one film opens in wide release, so I’ll be reviewing “Jurassic World.”

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send email to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Tomorrowland”

Frank Walker (played as a child by Thomas Robinson and as an adult by George Clooney) was a dreamer that, as a child, made a jet pack out of an old vacuum cleaner and other spare parts and entered it into an invention competition at the 1964 World’s Fair. The judge, David Nix (Hugh Laurie), was unimpressed since it didn’t work; but Athena (Raffey Cassidy) was taken with Frank’s enthusiasm. She secretly gave Frank a pin and told her to follow Nix and a group of other inventors as they took the Small World ride through the fair. Doing so transports Frank to an amazing world called Tomorrowland. A real place filled with dreamers like him who are allowed to turn those dreams into reality. In the present, Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) is also a dreamer who lives with her dad Eddie (Tim McGraw), a NASA engineer who will be laid off soon since the space agency doesn’t launch rockets for the foreseeable future. Casey tries to put off that future by sabotaging the cranes used to dismantle the launch pads at Cape Canaveral. Casey is arrested for her actions and when she gets bailed out finds in her belongings a pin like the one Athena gave Frank. When she touches it, she sees Tomorrowland; but it is an interactive virtual reality recording. Desperate to get there, Casey begins a search that takes her across the country, to a sci-fi/fantasy memorabilia shop run by murderous androids, meeting Athena and a decidedly grumpy grown up Frank. Casey is determined to get to Tomorrowland even if nearly everyone she encounters is equally determined to stop her.

“Tomorrowland” is a political statement delivered in the mildest of terms. It encourages public action wrapped up in a package of light entertainment. It is radical manifesto from the people who brought you “Snow White” and “Dumbo.” It’s a call to action that is delivered far too subtly to actually lead to any change. Perhaps the mild delivery was a compromise in an effort to not anger certain segments of the political spectrum but it may have been a waste of Disney’s $190-million investment. Sometimes you have to kick the bee’s nest to stir up the queen. Otherwise, “Tomorrowland” is pretty good.

What will strike audiences most is the visuals of the film. Director Brad Bird has dipped into his Pixar history to make “Tomorrowland” look absolutely amazing. From jet packs to rocket ships, everything in the city of the future looks retro cool. Based in part on the look of the attraction in Disney’s theme parks, “Tomorrowland” is glistening spires, levitating swimming pools and hover scooters all in a land surrounded by golden wheat fields, glowing trees and clear blue skies. It is the kind of utopia that writers have been dreaming of for over a century. Bird’s visual effects team is likely to receive an Oscar nod for their work and it would be much deserved.

Just behind the look of the film is the tone: Hope gushes forth from “Tomorrowland” like a geyser. There’s innocence and wide-eyed wonder infusing most of the movie that I must admit was infectious. Leaving the film, I felt good and like anything was possible. That lasted about half an hour as reality crushed my buzz. That may be the film’s biggest weakness: It doesn’t have much staying power. While it offers hope, it’s in the form of those old musicals starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney where the clichéd line, “Hey kids! Let’s put on a show!” comes from. In this case, “Tomorrowland” wants us to come together and save the world. The movie implies we can do that with technology and cooperation. I don’t argue that point but I do question the film suggests to get the ball rolling. In the movie, dreamers are introduced to Tomorrowland and are invited to take part. Here in the real world, the only way things happen is with political action. Political action appears to only happen when it appeals to the base supporters of a politician. Politicians appear to only involve themselves in real change when the lobbyists support it. Lobbyists support it only if it makes their client’s money. Sadly, nobody makes any profit from the “Tomorrowland” idea hence it will never happen. Sorry if I just crushed your buzz but at my age I’ve seen too many good ideas buried under political rhetoric and inaction. It appears our leaders lack the ability to dream, to ask “what if.” Had I the power, I’d force every member of Congress, the Supreme Court and the President to watch “Tomorrowland.” I’m sure it would be fodder for the talking heads on cable news channels to rail against the filmmaker’s agenda and draw unflattering comparisons to communism, socialism, environmentalism and any other –ism they can think of. I didn’t used to be so cynical but time and experience has beaten much of my own dreamer out of me. I guess I’m far more like Clooney’s character than I am Robertson’s. That’s sad.

Sorry this hasn’t been much of a movie review and more of a diatribe. Please forgive me and I’ll try to do better next time.

“Tomorrowland” is rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and peril, thematic elements, and language. As violence and action go, the film is very mild on both counts. Younger children might be troubled by the various bits of danger young Frank gets into when he enters Tomorrowland the first time. There is a fight between two characters at the end of the film. One character is crushed to death by falling debris. Another character is shot by a ray gun of some sort and knocked across a room. Various androids are dispatched in various violent ways including being beaten by a baseball bat repeatedly. There is some foul language that is widely scattered and gets no fouler than the “S” word. There is also a British slang term for testicles used once near the end of the film.

While it tends to drag at times and could have been shorter, “Tomorrowland” is visually stunning and chocked full of hope. It is also simplistic and offers no real answers as to how to solve the world’s problems. Maybe that’s asking too much of a Disney movie but it seems like we have to start somewhere so why not in a darkened theatre.

“Tomorrowland” gets four hopeful stars out of five.

Three new films open this week ranging from classic literature to disaster porn and I’ll see at least one of them.

Aloha—

Far From the Maddening Crowd—

San Andreas—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Most of Australia is a desert that is roamed by gangs looking to steal from others or make them slaves. In this harsh world is Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), a former cop who is dealing with the deaths of his wife and daughter at the hands of the aforementioned gangs. Max hallucinates seeing and hearing his wife and daughter. Max is captured by War Boys who are the soldiers of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Joe controls both the water and food for his followers, making him their king whether they like it or not as both are in short supply. Also a valuable commodity is gasoline used to fuel the various gangs modified cars and trucks used as war machines. Going out on a run to collect gas from a nearby refinery is Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who was kidnapped from her clan when she was a child. Max is discovered to be a universal blood donor and is used as a living blood bag for one of the War Boys named Nux (Nicholas Hoult). Nux is a dedicated soldier of Joe’s and is willing to die for him to receive salvation in the next life in Valhalla. Furiosa has helped Joe’s five breeding wives escape his compound and deviates from her route trying to take them to her old home territory called the Green Place. Joe’s people are watching and see her change course. Joe checks and finds his wives are gone and gives chase along with several War Boys, including Nux who has Max strapped to the front of his car giving him a constant transfusion. The wives all begged Furiosa for her help and she believes this is the best chance she has to escape Joe’s domination and return home.

There’s very little story or dialog in “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Most of the film’s two hour running time is filled with a massive car chase through the desert that is punctuated with incredible stunts, huge explosions and the occasional brief bit of discussion between the characters. Most other films that follow this formula would receive a fair amount of criticism but director and co-writer George Miller has delivered an action picture that succeeds despite what for many other movies would be shortcomings.

For his first trip back to the dystopian world he last visited 30 years ago, Miller has populated “Mad Max: Fury Road” with his most twisted and distorted group of characters yet. Most are freaks in some very obvious way. The War Boys have very pale white skin with many scarred with massive images on their chests and backs. Nux seems to be suffering with an ailment that causes large tumors just under the skin. He mentions that either the tumors or the night fever will probably kill him. Immortan Joe is covered with open boils and wears a breathing apparatus. Other secondary characters have ailments ranging from facial deformities to massively swollen legs and feet. The only people who look fairly normal are Max, Furiosa and Joe’s wives. Furiosa has an artificial arm that straps on with leather belts. My guess would be she ran afoul of Joe in some way and the loss of her arm below the elbow was her punishment. Joe obviously selected the five young women with which to breed due to their apparent lack of physical deformities. He also protects his property, as he calls them, by equipping each one with a chastity belt. Joe is willing to risk everything to get his wives back, even leaving his compound largely undefended to chase after them.

Joe’s dominance over his people is a bit puzzling. He requires a great deal of physical assistance from his inner circle as well as equipment to help him breathe. It doesn’t seem like it would take much to overthrow his regime by someone with a little courage. All the various gangs appear to be led by people who could be easily deposed. While these characters are certainly colorful, the world they populate seems to be geared toward those who are physically able to take and hold power. None of the primary gang leaders appear to be up to that. Something else that strikes me as odd is the availability of gasoline. If the world economy has completely collapsed it would seem that industry would be the most vulnerable. It isn’t easy to find and pump crude oil and it takes a fair amount of technology to refine it into gas and diesel. All this takes infrastructure, manufacturing, skilled labor, transportation and more. The world of “Mad Max: Fury Road” appears to be lacking most of the things needed to keep an industry producing yet there are dozens of gas guzzling vehicles running at full throttle over vast stretches of barren desert. I’m probably trying too hard to apply logic to a movie but these things stuck out to me.

My issues aside, “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a visually spectacular film that should sate the appetite of action fans. The number of vehicles that must have been destroyed is likely enormous. Modified cars and trucks are flipped end over end and rolled numerous times right after they’ve been hit with an explosion. The stunt coordinator and stunt performers should all receive any and every award there is as bodies are sent flying in these crashes. Riders are shot off of motorcycles while flying 20 feet or more in the air. Gang members are swaying back and forth from tall polls and are dropping into moving vehicles during a lengthy fight scene near the end of the film. Many of the stunts were performed live with a minimum of computer effects making this one of the more dangerous shoots for stunt performers. This is action filmmaking the old fashioned way where there’s a chance people could die. No one did but that’s beside the point.

Aside from the stunts, the vehicles of “Mad Max: Fury Road” will catch your eye. Volkswagen Bugs covered in spikes, sawblades mounted on swing arms, trucks outfitted with dozens of speakers and a guy playing a flame-throwing guitar, a car running on tank treads, it all is on display and much more. If there is a backyard mechanic with ambition watching this film, it will likely make him or her start looking for a beater that can be modified into one of these automotive visions from Hell.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” is rated R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images. There are of course numerous car crashes and more than a few people being run over by vehicles. We see several people shot by various weapons. There is also a scene of a baby being cut from the womb of a woman who has died. The baby is also dead. It isn’t gory but it may be disturbing to some.

Tom Hardy isn’t given much to do in “Mad Max: Fury Road” other than to look angry or concerned. It sounds like most if not all of his dialog was overdubbed adding more bass to his brief speaking parts and grunts. It’s a bit of a reminder back to the original “Mad Max” when Mel Gibson’s and most of the other actor’s dialog was replaced with American actors covering up the Australian accents. In that instance, it was done since no one in the film was a well-known star and the script contained Australian slang terms. This time, the slang has been left intact but Max’s voice has still been overdubbed but by the same actor as playing the role. I suppose this was done to set the character apart and make him seem somehow special and almost supernatural. To me, it just stuck out as odd. Of course, this movie is populated by the odd who in the world they inhabit are the normal ones. That probably makes the action of the film just another day in the Australian outback even if it isn’t your usual fare in American movie theatres.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” gets five stars out of five.

The summer movie season rolls on with two highly anticipated new films: One is a remake of a classic 1980’s film while the other is a project that was kept tightly under wraps until recently. I’ll see at least one of them and let you know what I think.

Poltergeist—

Tomorrowland—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “The D Train”

Have you ever heard the expression, “He/She peaked in high school”? It isn’t meant as a compliment and suggests every aspect of that person’s life since graduation has been less than spectacular. Some people (i.e. me) wish that fate on their fellow students. At one of my reunions the jock that had made my life miserable since fourth grade was sitting alone at the bar. He had gotten fat and while everyone else was dressed for a night on the town he had on cutoff jean shorts, a t-shirt, flip-flops and a ball cap. I secretly smirked at how his life appeared to have gone in the gutter but then realized how petty that was. He and I are now Facebook friends and he appears to have a very nice life. The point of all of this is that we sometimes carry our high school personas through our lives while also applying what we thought of classmates to theirs. It isn’t until we’ve grown up some that we let these trivial resentments fall away and accept classmates for what they are now instead of who they were then. In “The D Train,” one person who is in a near constant state of delusion approaches the king of the class to attend the high school reunion. The affect it has on both their lives is profound.

Dan Landsman (Jack Black) is the self-appointed head of his high school graduating class’ alumni committee. He and a group of fellow alumni are making calls to other classmates as the date of their 20 year reunion approaches. They aren’t having much luck getting commitments and it looks like very few, if any, will attend. Sitting at home watching TV one evening, Dan sees classmate Oliver Lawless (James Marsden) doing a commercial for Banana Boat sunscreen. Oliver was who every guy wanted to hang out with and every girl wanted to sleep with. Dan thinks if he can get Oliver, a big-time actor in Hollywood, to come to the reunion it will encourage others to attend. Telling everyone on the alumni committee he is a good friend of Oliver’s, Dan concocts a plan to head out to L.A. on a bogus business trip to get Oliver to commit to coming to the reunion. He tells his boss Bill Shurmur (Jeffrey Tambor) at the small consulting firm for whom he works that he has been in contact with at possible new client and needs to fly out to L.A. to meet with him. Bill surprises Dan and says he will go as well. Dan does everything to get Bill to stay home but he insists. On the trip, Dan calls Oliver and the two meet up for drinks. Oliver loves to drink and uses cocaine as well. Dan jumps in with both feet to impress Oliver. Dan still has to take care of the fake business meeting Bill expects and Oliver agrees to pose as the prospective client. Oliver tells Bill that while he’s impressed with the company they don’t have the budget to make any deals. Bill agrees to cut their consulting fee by 50 percent and, caught up in the moment and his performance, Oliver agrees. After a second night on the town, Dan convinces Oliver to attend the reunion. The pair, drunk and strung out on cocaine, return to Oliver’s apartment where their friendship takes a significant turn that leaves Dan questioning everything about his life. The trip to L.A. has spun wildly out of control. The only good thing that has happened is Oliver has agreed to come to the reunion. That should go off without a hitch, right?

Don’t go to “The D Train” expecting to see Jack Black be his usual wild and crazy self for the entire film. While he shows some of his wide-eyed enthusiasm and take-no-prisoners humor for part of the film, the trip to L.A. causes a change in his character that can only be described as dark. Black plays a man whose entire world is teetering on a knife’s edge. He’s close to losing his comfortable life with a wife, two kids, a nice house and steady job just to get a classmate that he idolizes to come to the reunion and reap the reward of respect and adulation he expects from his friends at home. “The D Train” is a study of a man melting down due to the heat of his own insecurities. While Black’s performance is riveting, the story that surrounds it is disappointing.

Jack Black is one of those actors I can usually only take in small doses. His manic energy and machine gun delivery tends to wear thin for me fairly quickly; however, Black is both bouncing off the walls and fascinating to watch as Dan scrambles to keep all the flaming batons he’s juggling in the air without getting burned. Dan isn’t a bad guy but he is a bit delusional. In his phone calls to former classmates, Dan has to go to great lengths to remind people who he is and most of them never do remember. Dan wants to be remembered as the life of the party and friends with everyone. Sadly, he was the guy who was always in the back of the yearbook photos for any club or group pictures. Black makes us feel Dan’s desperation and while it is often annoying, we feel for him as he just wants to be liked. That need for approval is at the core of all Dan’s bad decisions and lies. He needlessly involves his boss in his lie and ends up costing the company thousands of dollars when Bill decides to expand when Oliver agrees to the deal. Black is firing on all cylinders in “The D Train.” Later in the film, his jealousy of Oliver leads to all his dirty secrets coming out in front of everyone at the reunion. It is a painful scene to watch and will make you cringe in your seat. Watching as Dan is eviscerated in front of all the people he so desperately wants to impress is heartbreaking as you watch his ego and self-worth drain away with every word. If this was a better film and came out later in the year, Jack Black might have gotten nominated for some awards.

James Marsden, Jeffrey Tambor and Kathryn Hahn as Dan’s wife Stacey are all very good. Tambor plays Bill as a befuddled businessman who is stuck in the 1980’s. He doesn’t trust technology so he has very little in his office. Bill isn’t an annoying technophobe, he just likes things simple. Dan thinks this gets in the way of the business and eventually leads to some of the fallout over his lies. Kathryn Hahn is the much put upon wife of Dan. Several times in the film, Dan wakes her up out of a sound sleep and this annoys her greatly. Hahn isn’t given the chance to be funny like many of her movie roles have been; however, she is given opportunities to do some serious acting and she handles it very well. James Marsden plays a convincing burnt out actor. Marsden’s eyes always appear kind of sleepy and his constantly tousled hair gives Oliver the look of someone who has given up trying to look perfect. Oliver is just looking for the next good time because the next job is way down the road. Dan thinks he’s living the dream but, without telling us with words, Oliver makes it clear he’s it’s not nearly as idyllic as Dan thinks. Much of Marsden’s performance drips with a false bravado that barely hides his desperation. It’s only late in the film that Oliver admits to Dan what the audience has known the whole time. That’s part of what brings the film down in my opinion.

My biggest issue with the film is how the story chickens out with a hopeful ending. After all Dan’s shenanigans the movie ends with the implication that everything is forgiven. Considering all the lies he’s told his wife, his boss, his friends and himself, it seems unlikely Dan would escape largely unscathed. While the film is fairly confident in itself most of the time, it takes the easy way out in its conclusion. Maybe someone with the studio or one of the financiers wanted there to be some hope at the end of “The D Train” so the co-writers/co-directors Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel gave Dan a neat and tidy ending. Considering what comes before, the ending feels dishonest and like the filmmakers don’t trust the audience with the consequences Dan’s choices would likely bring.

“The D Train” is rated R for strong sexual material, drug use, nudity and language. There are discussions of sex that are sometimes rather crude. There are two sex scenes: One is merely glimpsed in flashbacks while another comes off as mostly comical. Both prescription and illegal drugs are shown being used to enhance the characters night on the town. We briefly see a couple of naked male backsides as well as topless women at a strip bar. Foul language is common but not overwhelming.

As the film ended, I found myself feeling conflicted about the movie. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or if I hated it. The movie is certainly unlike many summer films and is aimed squarely at adults. The tone feels a bit flat and the ending is too kind to Dan. I wish those who made the film had been willing to give the audience an honest ending; however, the performances make “The D Train” worth seeing although you may feel conflicted as well about how the film affects you.

“The D Train” gets a C…or three stars out of five.

Three new films open this week and I’ll probably see “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Then again, who knows?

Mad Max: Fury Road—

Pitch Perfect 2—

Where Hope Grows—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Avengers: Age of Ultron”

While raiding a HYDRA base in the small eastern European country of Sokovia to retrieve Loki’s mind control scepter, the Avengers, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in the form of the Hulk, encounter the Maximoff twins Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen).  He possesses super speed while see can manipulate minds and emit energy pulses.  Their powers have been enhanced due to HYDRA experimentation that has killed all other test subjects.  The raid is ultimately successful and the scepter is recovered but Wanda plants the nightmarish image of all the Avengers dead in the mind of Stark.  This leads him to restart a program to create, in his words, a suit of armor around the world.  The Ultron program was stalled due to software issues but Tony believes he and Banner can use the mind-control stone in the scepter to rewrite the program and create an automated defense system.  Tony’s helpful computer program J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Bettany) continues working on various configurations of the program and it comes to life.  Confused, J.A.R.V.I.S. tries to aid Ultron (voiced by James Spader) in understanding his existence.  Ultron quickly overwhelms J.A.R.V.I.S. and takes control of Tony’s robotics lab, creating a rudimentary body for himself.  Ultron has misinterpreted Tony’s intensions and decides the only way to protect the Earth is to destroy all human life.  During a celebration party in the Avenger’s tower, Ultron makes his presence known and attacks the team but they are able to defeat him; however, the program of Ultron escapes into the Internet and finds facilities to create more versions of himself.  Ultron also approaches the Maximoff twins about helping him destroy the Avengers.  The pair has a particular hatred for Tony as their parents were killed by weapons from Stark Industries.  They agree to help and the three, along with several robots, head to the African nation of Wakanda to meet with arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) who possesses a huge amount of the super strong metal vibranium.  The Avengers show up as well and a major battle ensues.  Wanda is able to place spells on nearly all the Avengers and each is shown devastating images of either their past or their greatest fears.  Banner is transformed into an out of control Hulk causing him and Tony, in his Hulk-Buster armor, to battle and nearly destroy a Wakandan city.  The world is turning against them due to all the property damage they cause, the team is in shambles and questioning if they can still be an effective fighting force and if they can defeat Ultron.

If you see “Avengers:  Age of Ultron,” strap in and leave the large soft drink at the concessions stand as you are in for a 140 minute rollercoaster of action and special effects.  You may also want to bring ear plugs as the film is quite loud with all the metal clanking and various things exploding nearly all the time.  It is a visual spectacle that works well within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU); however, if you are looking for meaning on a deeper level you may be disappointed.

The early trailers made it appear “Avengers:  Age of Ultron” would be a dark and serious affair.  That worry is unfounded as the trademark banter between the characters is fully on display even in more serious moments.  Each character has a chance to lighten the mood with the interplay between Stark and Rodgers delivering the most lighthearted moments.  Thor, Natasha, Barton and Banner also get opportunities to make the audience smile and chuckle.  Even the newly added Maximoff twins get a chance to throw off a quip.  It can’t be considered a full-on comedy but the film is much less dour than first looks suggested.

The quality of acting is about what you expect in any Marvel film but having Spader provide the voice of Ultron raises the quality of the villain’s performance.  James Spader gives Ultron a level of gravitas that might have been missing from another actor.  Ultron’s commanding baritone voice ringing with condescension, his ease in dancing verbal rings around Stark and the others and the cold calculation of his ultimate plan puts him head and shoulders above most other Marvel villains.  Plus, the robot Ultron is literally twice as tall as anyone on screen.  That physical dominance of the frame only adds to Spader’s voice acting.

The acting of Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo is put to the test in the film’s biggest flaw:  The will-they-won’t-they romance of Natasha and Banner.  While an unknown length of time has passed since “The Avengers,” the notion of these two becoming a couple seems a bit out of left field.  Perhaps this is writer/director Joss Whedon’s attempt to humanize these bigger than life characters.  Since we know very little of their lives outside of teaming up to fight a world-threatening evil, this might have been an effort to bring these demigods down to our level.  Quite frankly, it feels a bit tacked on.  Banner and Natasha are probably the two most dangerous members of the team.  She has been trained practically since birth to be an assassin and he fears he will hurt innocent people when he transforms into an out of control rage giant.  The two of them together strike me as a disaster waiting to happen.  It also doesn’t help that she was flirting with Rodgers in “Captain America:  The Winter Soldier” and in the comics has been romantically connected to him and Barton.  Of course, I don’t understand how anyone could turn down the affections of Natasha who is probably the sexiest woman in any of their lives, but that’s just me.  While the romance sections of the movie pay off by the film’s end, they tend to bring the story’s momentum to a halt.  They probably could have been incorporated in a different way to fit better within the narrative.

Then there’s the problem with all the Marvel movies and superhero films in general:  The concept of meaningful stakes for the characters.  So far, nearly every MCU film has followed a predictable pattern of a worldwide threat bringing out the hero or heroes, that threat nearly defeating the hero then with one final effort the hero wins.  Marvel has a slate of films mapped out over the next decade that involves these characters.  Since we know they will be around in 2018 for whatever sequel, where is the danger to the protagonist?  It simply isn’t there.  We know Iron Man, Captain America and the rest will live to fight another day since they have a contract calling for them to appear in however many more movies.  The only mystery is how the villain will be defeated and that’s not nearly as satisfying as truly being in doubt as to if the hero will survive the final attack.  This formula make get a shakeup in coming films as both Robert Downey, Jr. and Chris Evans are nearing the end of their contracts.  Also, the next Captain America film is based on the comic book storyline of a battle between factions within the superhero community where not everyone survives.  The fiscal realities of increasing star salaries and actors desire to work on different projects may be what puts some real threat into the evil plans of the villains.

“Avengers:  Age of Ultron” is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, and some suggestive comments.  There are fights throughout the film between robots and Avengers, Avengers and Avengers and Avengers and others who are not robots or Avengers.  It is all fairly mild as film violence goes.  There is very little blood and no gore unless you count the robot guts that are displayed when one is destroyed.  During the Hulk vs. Hulkbuster fight, a building under construction is demolished, some people in an elevator are nearly killed and the Hulkbuster suit has a piston-action fist that repeatedly punches the Hulk in the face.  All the suggestive comments are between Natasha and Banner except for one ancient reference by Stark during the scene where each Avenger tries to pick up Thor’s hammer.  Foul language is widely scattered, very mild and used as the set up for a running joke.

The weirdness of business agreements between companies is on full display in the film.  In the comics, the Maximoff twins are the children of main X-Men villain Magneto; however, since Marvel sold the movie rights for the X-Men and the use of the term mutant to Fox, their heritage could not be mentioned.  You might wonder how the characters could be used at all.  It comes down to the fact that the pair has been in both the X-Men and the Avengers so the lawyers decided both companies could use the characters.  Clear as mud, right?  Then, here comes Spider-Man who had been the cinematic property of Sony but can now appear in both Marvel and Sony movies.  It is enough to make one’s head spin; but if the complicated storylines of superhero movies don’t induce vertigo then legal issues between movie companies should be a piece of cake.  What does this have to do with whether “Avengers:  Age of Ultron” is worth your time and money?  Nothing, I just thought it was interesting.  Since most Marvel movies are critic proof, it really doesn’t matter what I think.  I will offer this one bit of advice:  Don’t pay for the 3D.  There is a few times it makes items on screen really pop out but most of the time it is hardly noticeable.  See the standard version and enjoy the ride with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.  It isn’t art but it’s fun.

“Avengers:  Age of Ultron” gets five stars.

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Just a couple of new films this week and both are comedies.  Maybe I’ll review one of them or maybe it’ll be another film.  Stay tuned.

D Train–

Hot Pursuit–

Review of “Ex Machina”

Several luminaries, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, have recently warned against the development of artificial intelligence. Hawking even going so far as to warn it could begin the end of the human race. Despite these dire predictions, researchers continue to explore the frontier of creating a machine that can think or, as the Merriam Webster dictionary defines it: a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers. In science fiction films, the definition of artificial intelligence, or AI as it’s commonly referred to, is expanded to include the notion that the machine is in fact alive, self-aware and capable of all human behaviors including evil. Adding the evil element is crucial to use AI as the main driving force of a story. In “Ex Machina,” the AI is incased in a synthetic brain and housed in an android that could be considered very attractive, even sexy; but as the old saying reminds us, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) writes code at Bluebook, the top search engine in the world. Bluebook’s billionaire creator and owner Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) is conducting a lottery amongst his employees with the winner getting to spend a week with Bateman at his secret compound. Caleb wins and soon finds himself in a helicopter flying to his eccentric boss’ home. Inaccessible by any other means, Caleb is left by the chopper and must walk along a river to a sleek home that can only be accessed by a security key card which is made for him at the entrance. Walking in, Caleb finds Bateman working out with a heavy bag. The two exchange small talk but it is stilted and uncomfortable. Bateman encourages Caleb to relax and consider this as two buddies hanging out at a really cool house for the week. Bateman tells Caleb the reason he’s there is to perform a Turing test on a new artificial intelligence program Bateman has created. The Turing test is designed to determine if a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior is equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. The next morning, Caleb is surprised when an Asian woman walks into his room and delivers his breakfast. Bateman says her name is Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno) and that she doesn’t understand any English. It’s a way to maintain security as Bateman’s home is also a research facility. Other than Kyoko, they are alone. Caleb is put in a room with a glass wall that looks into a larger suite of rooms. Soon Ava (Alicia Vikander) walks into view, sees Caleb and approaches. Ava is an android housing Bateman’s artificial intelligence. Her face is the only part of Ava that has skin. The rest of her body appears to be a metal case and transparent areas where you can see her inner workings. Ava is curious about this new person, only the second she’s ever met. Caleb is amazed at her grasp of language and her ability to learn. Caleb and Bateman discuss his impressions of Ava and Bateman shows a propensity for megalomania as he turns something Caleb said into implying Bateman is a god. The next day as Caleb and Ava are talking, the power goes out and the facility goes to emergency batteries. The outage also knocks out all the security cameras and microphones recording their interactions. Ava warns Caleb not to believe anything Nathan says. Confused, Caleb doesn’t report what Ava said to Bateman. Over the course of their talks, Ava puts on clothes and a wig to appear more human and Caleb begins to feel pity for the android that is locked away from a world about which she is so curious.

“Ex Machina” is a subtle tale of life, love, loneliness, deception, ego and what exactly it means to be alive. The U.K. film written and directed by Alex Garland is a quietly riveting tale. It is accessible sci-fi that asks hard questions and offers no easy answers. It is the kind of movie audiences will either love or hate but won’t be able to walk away from without having a strong opinion either way.

Aside from the somewhat creepy performance of Oscar Isaac, the standout role here is Alicia Vikander’s Ava. Vikander doesn’t do the expected stilted, emotionless performance that is the standard interpretation of artificial lifeforms. Ava is slightly emotional. You can see it in her face as Caleb describes the loss of his parents in a car crash when he was a teenager. The mixture of pity and concern on Ava’s face was a surprise as one might expect an unchanging expression from an android. Instead, Ava gives a minimal indication of anguish. It is enough to get the point across but not so much as one would expect from a person. Ava is in the wasteland between humanity and machinery. Vikander’s performance is a tour de force of subtlety. It is a subtlety the audience believes as Ava is an unknown that could behave in a million different ways from overly emotional to completely blank. Since Ava is an AI, perhaps she would misinterpret what was expected of her reaction. Vikander and director Garland play this scene and many others perfectly with a “less-is-more” philosophy. They let Gleeson and Isaac handle the big emotions while Vikander has the harder job of showing what a new consciousness would do. Ava’s movements, accented with quiet, slightly mechanical-sounding effects, are also measured and economical. There are times when Ava is shown lying down, curled up in a fetal position. In looking back, I now wonder why? Ava doesn’t sleep and can’t tire in the traditional sense so why is she lying down? Is it an effort to show us just how human she is? Is it motivated by Ava’s desires to be accepted as human so she does the things humans do? The fact I am asking these questions a full day after seeing the film speaks to the impact of the story.

Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson are fantastic as Bateman and Caleb. Their initial uncomfortable interactions give way to an uneasy friendship which slowly dissolves. Isaac plays Bateman as someone who is constantly on the line between normal, average person and complete psychopath. Isaac turns Bateman on a dime, making a simple discussion into an uncomfortable showdown. Bateman always seems to have other motives behind his actions and Isaac is able to show the audience that he’s scheming without making it obvious. Bateman is not a mustache-twirling villain, he’s much more dangerous. Gleeson plays Caleb as a goldfish thrown into Bateman’s shark tank; but Caleb soon learns to have as dangerous a bite as his boss. Gleeson has Caleb wear his heart on his sleeve when it comes to Ava. It is a quick trip from considering her a science project to a person in trouble that needs his help. The cat-and-mouse game between Bateman and Caleb is just as interesting as the Ava storyline.

Ava’s look is as much a character as Ava herself. The mixture of metallic frame, transparent limbs, skull and midsection and a lifelike face make it nearly impossible to take your eyes from her. The effect is mechanical and futuristic without being so completely alien as to make Ava distracting. Her face, often shown in close up during her conversations with Caleb, is her only normal-looking human feature; yet it’s enough for the audience to quickly join Caleb in thinking of her as a person. There are other moments in the film without spoiling anything that show just how different a creature she is. All of the visual effects in the film are flawless.

“Ex Machina” is rated R for graphic nudity, language, sexual references and some violence. There are several times we see fully nude women. There is a brief scene where a character describes how it’s possible to have sex with Ava and that she would enjoy it. The violence comes at the end of the film. I don’t want to spoil anything but I will say it is brief and rather graphic. Foul language is common but not overwhelming.

After Star Wars came out back in the late 70’s, science fiction enjoyed a brief renaissance. Sadly, many of these films were merely repackaged plots from westerns and other genres that were now set in space. Many studios thought if their films had spaceships and ray guns they would make money. They were wrong as they didn’t try to make the stories they were telling compelling enough for the public to part with their cash. That has always been the problem with science fiction: If you peel away the special effects is there a story worth telling and being seen by an audience? Often the answer is no; however, “Ex Machina” is compelling and asks the kinds of questions that may need answers in the next 50 years. In the meantime, go see the movie.

“Ex Machina” gets five stars.

After all the hype and publicity it’s finally here: “Avengers: Age of Ultron” hits theatres this week as the only wide release. Normally I don’t say which film I’m going to review next; however, I don’t see any point in being coy when one of the most anticipated movies in the last 20 years is opening. So, next week you can be assured of what I’ll be reviewing. Here’s the latest trailer:

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send email to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “Unfriended”

The concept of cyber bullying and cyber shaming are relatively new. When I was in high school, if you did something stupid only the people who were there could see it and there were no smartphones to record and upload your faux pas to the internet since that didn’t exist either. You might have a few days of embarrassment as your friends and a few others ribbed you about your stupidity but it would soon pass. Now with YouTube, Snap Chat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and the rest of social media, poorly chosen words and drunken misbehavior can be seen by the entire world with an internet connection in just a few minutes. Author Jon Ronson has written a book about how once a bit of blood hits the online virtual water, the sharks and piranha of public shaming gather for a feeding frenzy. His book covers mostly adults who have faced real-world consequences for a post that if said IRL (In Real Life) to one or two people would have generated no backlash at all; however, with the lack of context and the inability to transmit tone via a tweet or Facebook status post, jobs have been lost and lives have been ruined to the point of suicide. In “Unfriended,” the ugly side of social media and how it can affect young lives is the subject told in the genre of found-footage horror. It’s an interesting idea that is ruined by a dull movie.

Blaire (Shelley Hennig) is watching a video on Live Leak of the suicide one year earlier of her friend Laura (Heather Sossaman). Laura had been the subject of a YouTube video shot at a party showing her drunk, bullying other girls at the party and then passed out and apparently having soiled herself. Blaire receives a Skype video call from her boyfriend Mitch (Moses Jacob Storm). They discuss the upcoming prom and how Blaire wants to have sex for the first time with Mitch after the dance. Their video chat is interrupted by Ken (Jacob Wysocki), Jess (Renee Olstead) and Adam (William Peltz) joining their Skype call. There is a sixth person on the call but they have no video feed and their user name of Billie227 is unknown to the group. After a couple of attempts to remove Billie227 from the call the group decides it must be another of their friends Val (Courtney Halverson) playing some kind of trick. They call Val but she is not the one behind Billie227. Soon, pictures of Val showing her drunk and smoking pot from a bong begin to show up on Facebook and it appears Jess is responsible. Jess claims she’s innocent but a huge shouting match between the two breaks out. During the argument, Blaire is able to connect Billie227 to Laura’s old Skype account. Blaire tries to take the steps to memorialize Laura’s Facebook page to prevent anyone from using it to harass her and her friends but she finds that’s impossible. Soon, Blaire begins receiving direct messages from someone claiming to be Laura, warning her to stay on the Skype call or she will die. The rest of the friends also receive similar messages with Billie227 using the chat function to talk to them all. Billie227 claims to be Laura and posts a video on Facebook of Val telling Laura she should kill herself. Val calls the police but her video feed goes out. It reappears a little later showing Val but it looks like the image is frozen as it just shows Val looking at the laptop camera. Blaire tries to call her cell and they can hear and see the phone vibrating on the table next to the motionless Val. A sudden boom is heard and the camera falls over. The group can hear the police entering the home and communicating with dispatch that they believe Val has killed herself. Ken, the resident hacker, tries to get rid of Laura by sending everyone a program that will block her from being in the Skype call. It works for a few seconds but Laura soon reappears and is unhappy with Ken who is attacked by an unseen force that makes him kill himself. Now Laura says she wants to play a game of Never Have I Ever with the loser dying.

“Unfriended” mixes social media with found-footage horror. It’s an interesting idea that is poorly executed. The movie takes place entirely during a Skype call. There are no scenes of the characters in their homes or at school. It is all shown from a computer screen. I think the idea was to give the film a feeling of claustrophobia, locked into the space of a laptop display with no way to escape. After a few minutes I wanted to escape as this singular view gets dull quickly. While we get a look at websites like Live Leak, YouTube, Facebook, Chat Roulette and a paranormal webpage, the static image of web browsers and Skype video chat isn’t terribly interesting past a point. While I am way outside the target audience for “Unfriended” I can’t see how viewers in their teens and 20’s would find this visually interesting.

The other major problem with “Unfriended” is it isn’t terribly scary. The thumbnail images of the characters in the Skype call don’t give us enough information about their surroundings to convey the feeling of dread and suspense when the entity or spirit or ghost is about to attack them. There are also times when the images become distorted and there are large amounts of digital junk making seeing the characters difficult. I believe this is a way to hide edits since the film is supposed to be shot in real time. This is also a way to show a character just fine one moment and being attacked the next. Since the digital garbage shows up randomly throughout the movie it doesn’t really do anything to heighten the suspense. When a character believes there’s someone or something in the house, they pick up their laptop and carry it with them giving the audience a lovely close up view of that character’s shirt or throat. It just looks stupid and, again, does nothing to build up tension. While there are a few mild scares you won’t have to worry about any undiagnosed heart conditions if you see the movie.

It doesn’t help “Unfriended” that none of the characters are terribly likable. Only Blaire and Mitch at first come off as relatively decent people and even they have secrets exposed that show they aren’t any better than the others. None of the characters are developed past their basic stats and the types that are expected in a teen horror flick. Once some secrets are exposed the characters often begin arguing, shouting over each other. During one of these I wished the ghost would just kill them all simultaneously to put me out of their misery. “Unfriended” is a largely unpleasant experience.

“Unfriended” is rated R for some sexuality, pervasive language, drug and alcohol use by teens and violent content. There is some sexually suggestive talk early in the film that is tinged with some violence. Video and pictures of sex acts between some of the characters is very mild and has no nudity; however some of the video makes it clear what is happening. One character is shown using a bong in a picture while another is shown using one during the video chat. Alcohol use is both suggested and shown. The film starts with video of a girl committing suicide using a gun. We see another person who is killing themselves by mangling his arm in a blender. We see the aftermath of a suicide where a curling iron is shoved down their throat and it appears to be on as smoke is seen coming out. A character stabs himself in the head with a knife.

For the second week in a row I’ve seen a teen-focused horror film with an interesting premise that is ruined by the execution. “It Follows” looked cheap and had an overbearing musical score. “Unfriended” is worse because it is locked on one view of a laptop screen with wonky images of the unlikable characters and very few scares. For a while the horror genre has been blessed with cheaply made movies that are still able to deliver the scares; but lately it has been proving more and more difficult to find these gems and the last several have been lacking.

“Unfriended” gets two stars out of five.

Several new films hit theatres this week to get out of the way of the “Avengers: Age of Ultron” juggernaut. I’ll see and review one of them.

Age of Adeline—

Danny Collins—

Little Boy—

True Story—

While We’re Young—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.

Review of “It Follows”

It seems like the things we enjoy the most are only in our lives to kill us. If you’ve watched my video reviews, you know I’m very overweight. I enjoy foods that are for the most part not the healthiest. Many people enjoy driving way above the speed limit on the interstate or they may partake in some extreme sport like BASE jumping or performing acrobatic tricks on a skateboard. As I was entering college, the threat of AIDS exploded into the headlines. Despite its early saturation in the gay and IV drug abusing community, it was also creeping in to the heterosexual population as well. Even having sex seemed like it was too dangerous an activity. Over the decades, things have changed on that front with an emphasis on prevention and improvement in drugs to suppress HIV. In the film “It Follows,” sex is how a person becomes infected with a demon that stalks them wherever they go. It may be frightening to think about how we are all being followed by death no matter where we are; but the movie only provides minimal scares.

Jay (Maika Monroe) lives at home with her mom and her sister Kelly (Lili Sepe). Her friends Paul (Keir Gilchrist) and Yara (Olivia Luccardi) are frequent guests. Jay has briefly been dating Hugh (Jake Weary) and they seem to be hitting it off. One night at the movies, Jay teaches Hugh a guessing game requiring one person to randomly select a person in the crowd and the other to try and guess which one was picked. When Hugh tries guessing which person Jay picked he seems to be seeing someone who isn’t there. Panicking, Hugh tells Jay he would like to leave as he’s feeling sick. On their next date, Jay and Hugh have sex in his car near an abandoned building. Afterwards, Hugh renders Jay unconscious with a chloroform-soaked rag. Jay wakes up in the parking garage of the abandoned building in a wheelchair, her arms and legs bound. Hugh tells Jay he has infected her with a curse. He got it from having sex with someone and she can pass it on to the next person she sleeps with. The curse is an entity that can take the form of a person who may or may not be familiar. It is constantly walking towards you but can only move at a walking pace. If it catches you, it will kill you. Both Jay and Hugh see a naked woman walking towards them but they are able to drive off and escape it. Hugh drops Jay at her home and quickly drives off. The police investigate and discover Hugh was lying about where he lives and his real name. Jay tells Paul, Yara and Kelly about the curse but they are reluctant to believe her. Paul and Yara offer to spend the night with Jay to protect her. A window is broken by a rock in the middle of the night. Paul doesn’t see anything but Jay sees a woman walking towards her. Locking herself in her room, Jay opens the door for Yara and Paul, but a very tall man with gouged out eyes also enters the room. Jay runs out of the house, gets on a bike and rides to a local park. Her escape is seen by her neighbor Greg (Daniel Zovatto). Kelly, Paul and Yara quickly find Jay in the park and Greg soon catches up, offering to drive the group around and try to figure out what to do next. Going to the house where Hugh was supposed to be living, the group breaks in and finds all the windows covered in newspaper with cans and bottle hanging on the inside of the glass to act as a low-tech early warning system. Paul finds a picture of Hugh wearing a letter jacket from a local high school. At the school, they discover Hugh’s real name is Jeff and they find out where he lives. They visit Jeff hoping to learn of a way to get rid of the curse that’s following Jay.

“It Follows” is in my opinion and homage to 1980’s slasher flicks. It has the same lo-fi look and feel of “Halloween” or the early “Friday the 13th” films. It has a cast of mostly attractive but otherwise unremarkable unknown actors and looks like it was shot on an old camera borrowed from a friend who wanted it back as quickly as possible or their mom and dad would be angry. It also has a soundtrack that was created on synthesizer that warns you well in advance that something is about to happen…or not. “It Follows” has all the qualities of a great drive-in movie from 30 or 40 years ago. Sadly, I saw it in a theatre in the 21st century and despite all of its retro charm, it lacks having enough scares to overcome its cheap look and sound.

One has to credit lead actress Maika Monroe for her performance. She is able to infuse Jay with the right amount of vulnerability mixed with determination to make the character more than a screaming and crying victim of circumstances. Monroe has all-American good looks but also looks like an average young woman that you would see at your school or work. Monroe takes a part that could have been just another scream queen role and turns it into something that actually wrings the emotion and empathy from the audience. You feel bad for Jay and the situation in which she find herself. That doesn’t come from the script but from the actress. Monroe deserves to be in better movies and not just better horror flicks. The rest of the cast is passable at best with a slightly more favorable opinion of Keir Gilchrist as Paul. His nebbish look and quietly longing expressions make his the second most sympathetic character behind Jay. While not a particularly great performance in “It Follow,” Gilchrist has done good work in the past. He was amazing in the woefully under seen “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” with Zach Galifianakis and Emma Roberts. Here, he’s not asked to do much other than look hurt, annoyed or with longing at Jay.

There are some aspects of how the movie was shot that played on my nerves. Writer and director David Robert Mitchell employs a 360 degree panning shot on a couple of occasions that at times made me feel a bit queasy. I understand the reasoning behind these shots: It allows the camera to see Jay then a person walking in her direction from a distance then back to Jay then the person closer than before giving us the clear idea that this is the entity. I suppose it’s better than having five or six edits to give us the same information but using more than once became a bit taxing.

The soundtrack to the film is also an issue. The synthesizer score sounds extremely dated. Part of my comparing the film to “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” comes from how the “It Follows” music would have fit perfectly into those movies. The score is also overbearing, pressing down on the audience like a lead weight. It is often distracting and demands more attention than the events on screen. The film also uses building sound to imply or warn of a coming event. Sometimes it sounds like a low rumble building to nearly deafening volume. Sometimes it’s a hiss. No matter what the sound used is, it is used like a neon sign telling the audience to pay attention and prepare for mayhem. Sadly, the film lacks enough mayhem to make the soundtrack worth the distractions it causes.

Finally, when you get down to brass tacks, the film simply doesn’t deliver enough scares. There are a few moments when you might jump but they are few and far between. The premise of a demon passed from person to person via sexual contact is a unique one and could have been a mind-blowingly scary movie. Unfortunately, the film works harder on building tension than paying it off. It’s a movie that is mostly atmosphere with little solid ground.

“It Follows” is rated R for graphic nudity, disturbing violent content, disturbing sexual content and language. While there are a total of three sex scenes in the film, none shows as much nudity as the entity in its various forms. There are at least three or four fully nude or partially nude women and at least one nude man. An early scene in the film shows a young woman dead on the beach with her leg broken at the knee and her foot pointing at her chest. There are a couple of bloody gunshot wounds to the head. There is also a scene where the entity is having sex with one of the infected it captures. It’s brief but weird. Foul language is common but not overwhelming.

“It Follows” caused quite a stir when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was quickly snapped up for distribution by a subsidiary of the Weinstein Company. It has received a great deal of critical acclaim and has already made nearly seven times its budget in only a month. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to see the subtle aspects of the film but I just didn’t find it to be that great. It’s an okay low-budget horror flick and not much more.

“It Follows” gets three stars out of five.

As the countdown to “Avengers: Age of Ultron” continues, there are four new movies coming out this week. I’ll see and review at least one of them.

Child 44—

Monkey Kingdom—

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2—

Unfriended—

Follow me on Twitter @moviemanstan and send your emails to stanthemovieman@comcast.net.