Super, Sucks, or Surprise . . February 24th releases

Focus

This one has the potential to be a fun grifter movie.  It's good to see Will Smith (Hitch) in a new role where his comedic and dramatic talents can be put back to use.  In this film, Smith plays a veteran grifter who is training a new recruit Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street).  Against his better judgement, and perhaps at the peril of the con, Smith begins to fall for his trainee.  This will most likely be a lighthearted comedy/action/romance.  It could be a non-entity, but I doubt it.  It should be a fun flick to see.

Potential? . . . Super!

Map to the Stars

Starring Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson, and John Cusack, this movie's casting made it interesting to me.  However, what could have been an interesting look into the life of a struggling has-been movie actress flops into a horror-style film based on what audiences see in the trailer.  Wasikowska has some grief with Julianne Moore's character and is trying to get to her, beyond that, it just gets weird.

Potential? . . . Sucks!






'71

Starring Jack O'Connel (Unbroken), this movie is about the Protestant/Catholic wars in Ireland, specifically Belfast, in the 1970s.  In this action/thriller, one of the men in the British military unit assigned to stop riots is accidentally left behind.  His mission is to survive the night with both Catholic and Protestant Irish out to stop them.  This movie looks intense, but good.  I hope it's as worth the price of admission as it looks.

Potential? . . . Super!




  The Salvation

Mads Mikkelsen stars as a man in the 1870's American West trying to hunt down his family's murder. When he kills the murderer, the man's brother, a gang leader, comes looking for him in town.  Rather than defending him, the townspeople betray him to the gang leader.  Also starring Eva Green, this movie looks to have a lot of potential.  In fact, it looks like they're trying to bring back the traditional western.  Hopefully they won't get bogged down in special effects for this kind of movie and that they have developed a storyline that isn't too wrote.  I guess we'll see soon!




Potential? . . . Surprise!

  Everly

I like Salma Hayek as an actress, but this movie looks like another cheesy shoot-as-many-bullets-in-an-hour-as-you-can action flick.  Apparently, Hayek's ex - a mob boss - is after her, and sends people to get her while she's in her apartment.  Lots of shooting ensues.  If it's your kind of movie, have fun, but this is not one I'm going to see.

Potential? . . . Sucks!

The Kingsman = Kingsmuck

  You would think that with a cast as stellar as the one in this film it would be a complete knock out!  I really, really wanted to like this movie.  Seriously.  I was hoping that it would have the ingenuity for its genre that Shaun of the Dead had on the zombie movie genre.  The more I watched, the more I realized I just wanted not to cringe so much at the poorly edited stupidity.

The only word people seemed to know was the F-bomb, scenes that could have been poignant were stretched out by so much redundant violence that you just wanted to roll your eyes and say, "when is this part over? I get it.".  I appreciated the fact that this riffed on every kind of spy movie and novel out there.  There were various and sundry recognizable references.  I also appreciated the fact that in riffing on one aspect of society, no aspect was safe: politics, race, or religion.  If you're going to slam it, slam it all, but it needs to have a point, not senselessly hitting, slamming, shooting, and blowing up people's heads to music.  The way they filmed the scenes had so much graphic overlay and editing that it looked incredibly fake a lot of the time, almost like someone had a video game they wanted to make and created a movie just to make those effects.  The ending was horrible.  I'm going to leave it at that.

I had labeled it surprise . . . and it did . . . it sucked.  If I could re-edit it I would buy it, but as is, it's not worth it.  It really is a shame.  Colin Firth had a likeable character, Mark Strong was playing a refreshingly different role as the Quartermaster and was fantastic.  Michael Caine played a traditionally stuck up member of the old vanguard who is in charge - the sort of "M" character.  Mark Hamill, who I was extremely excited to see in a film again, didn't really hold up against the likes of playing opposite Jackson and Firth.  Samuel L. Jackson's  character Valentine's riff on stereotypical villain roles and black male villains as being portrayed as gangsters who are both smart and stupid at the same time was poignant, together with the fact that his character believed that because he didn't have his hand on an actual weapon, he wasn't responsible for the violence created by his own device.  Those kinds of references made the film more watchable, but not worth wasting time and money.  I am so disappointed in this movie.

Super, Sucks, or Surprise . . . February 20th releases

What a start we've had to an insanely epic line-up for 2015!  With all of the superhero movies coming out, the new Star Wars movie, the new Mission Impossible movie, and Jurassic World, this is the year for big-budget sequels!  So where is the room for originals or indies?  There are a few, but overall, it's going to be interesting to see how they fair in this monster line-up.  Here's a look at the February 20th edition, with the addition of Kingsman, of Super, Sucks, or Surprise...


  Kingsman: The Secret Service

This movie looks funny and very interesting.  Colin Firth's (The King's Speech) character reminds me of a combination of James Bond and John Steed from the original Avengers. The cast of characters looks intriguing as it includes, in addition to Firth, Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), Mark Hamill (Star Wars: Episodes IV, V, &VI), Michael Caine (The Prestige), Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean) and newcomer Taron Edgerton (Legends).  It has the potential to be lots of fun with an entertaining twist on traditional British spy plots.  It also has the potential to be just another cheeky plot.

                                      Potential? . . . Surprise!



 Hot Tub Time Machine 2

There's only one question: WHY?  The first one was pointless.  If at all possible, this one is less than pointless.  The title should be Hot Tub Time Machine 2: Soaking More Stupid.  Enough said. I will not be going to see this movie if you handed me the tickets and paid my gas to go.

Potential? . . . Sucks!





The D.U.F.F.

A teen flick about social hierarchy in schools, this movie is about the "Designated Ugly Fat Friend" or DUFF who tries to create a social revolution in her school.  Not new material, but this is the first time someone has actually entitled a movie so brazenly.  What bothers me most about this particular movie is that the role of the actress playing the "DUFF", Mae Whitman (The Perks of Being a Wildflower) is not even close to being fat.  If they try to imply that kids can be mean just because you're not the skinniest person in the room, then that's one thing, but if it comes off implying that she's fat because she's not as skinny as the super-model skinny teens they've hired to play the popular girls, then we have a problem.  We'll have to wait and see.
   
                                      Potential? . . . Surprise!



McFarland, USA

I am impressed with the movies that Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves) has been involved in recently.  This movie, too, looks to be an inspiring one.  Working with a group of hard-working Hispanic youths from the high school where he has just been hired as the P.E. teacher, Costner sees that the families all work very hard and as a result, a group of young men in his class show the potential to be competitive cross-country runners. With the Nki Caro, director of North Country and Whale Rider, directing this, it could be a classic.

Potential? . . . Super!

That's about gist of this week's releases.  The remaining two films: Gloria, about a rock star Gloria Trevi, and Wild Tales, a foreign film about six stories of revenge, look like horrible films and BOTH rate the EPIC Suck! level - particularly the one about Trevi.

Taken 3

  The big debate that everyone has been asking about Taken 3 is what is there left to take?  They took his daughter in the first one. They took both him and his wife in the second one.  What now?  Why even make this movie?  My response: it's a fun movie.  People can't go in expecting this to win best original screenplay, or even get an Oscar nod.  Let's face it, if the first one didn't, the third one certainly won't.  That being said, it really had a great cast with with the addition of Forest Whitaker to the already talented Liam Neeson and Maggie Grace.

In this film, Brian Mill's wife is "taken" from him permanently - by being killed and then his daughter is taken again.  Overall the film was fun and entertaining, although there was one point where I felt that the director just wanted to film henchman Malakov in his briefs.  I would recommend that you watch it, knowing that it's not meant to be a philosophical conundrum.  Forest Whitaker's performance as the police detective is interesting and Liam Neeson continues to step up to the plate with his action sequences.  Add to all of that a great twist at the end and you've got a good formula for cinema entertainment.

Into the Woods

Finally glad to be back watching movies!  And wow what a wonderful one to start back with!  I was skeptical going into these woods with a cast that is not known for it's singing abilities with the exception of Anna Kendrick (I don't count Meryl Streep's singing performance in Mama Mia! as a good singing performance).  As we've seen in the past, with Les Miserables, it can make for great acting but much lower-quality vocal abilities (ala Russell Crowe as Javert).  Similar to reading a book before watching a movie, watching a quality vocal performance before seeing its movie counterpart can destroy the movie experience.
Happily, this was not the case with Into the Woods.

I was very impressed with the costuming, singing, and acting from all members of the cast.  Meryl Streep is definitely deserving of her Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for this role.  Emily Blunt is a surprisingly good singer, and Chris Pine was both devilishly handsome and just an outright devil in the role of Cinderella's Prince.  Together with Billy Magnussen, the song "Agony" was as funny as ever!

The younger actors, Daniel Huttleston's "Jack" from Jack and the Bean Stalk and Lilla Crawford's "Little Red Riding Hood" were refreshingly brilliant.  Holding their own with seasoned actors, these youth added to the story with their intensity and innocence that lent to their characters' ignorances - ignorances which contributed to the problems that the storyline portrays.

Kendrick's singing was great, her acting was somewhat overshadowed by Blunt, Corden, Streep, Pine, Huttleston, and Crawford.  The stepmother and step-sisters were a bit cliche in the casting - particularly since Lucy Punch was reprising her role as the more evil of the two step-sisters. I will give Christine Baranski credit for being a more evil step-mother since she performs the role as intended by both Sondheim and the Brothers Grimm.

With the casting, the cinematography, music, and costumes, this really was a wonderful film.  I would highly recommend seeing it! (Regardless of whether or not you've seen the stage version).