Movie Reviews

John Wick: Chapter 2

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  • Title: John Wick: Chapter 2
  • IMDb: link

John Wick 2 movie review2014’s John Wick was a thoroughly-enjoyable throwaway action flick. A simplistic revenge story with style and some unforgettable stunts, director Chad Stahelski‘s film knew exactly what it was and just how to deliver. A callback to 80s-style of gun-toting heroes who shot first and asked questions later, the movie ignored modern trends of cutting action scenes into an unrecognizable mess and kept the camera still to allow us to see the awesome unfold on screen. Stunts we could actually watch and enjoy, imagine that.

The sequel is a little more muddled than the original. After the pre-credit sequence wraps up the lone outstanding piece of John Wick’s revenge murder spree, the film slogs through a good 15-20 minutes of exposition, world building, and over-convoluted plot before remembering what it is and why it exists. Once the action ramps back up the film runs full blast to the closing credits, and perhaps beyond. John Wick: Chapter 2 ramps up the headshots and body count to an absurd degree with a handful of memorable kills that even put those from the first film to shame. At its best, it’s running 180 MPH with its burning rubber on fire, but when it idles the vehicle nearly stalls. Okay, no more car metaphors.

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The LEGO Batman Movie

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  • Title: The LEGO Batman Movie
  • IMDb: link

The LEGO Batman Movie movie reviewA sequel of sorts, The LEGO Batman Movie may not be quite as good as The LEGO Movie but it still proves to be a hell of a good time. Centered around Batman‘s (Will Arnett) inability to trust and rely on others, the film’s plot throws the Dark Knight Detective several curveballs including an adopted son in the energetic Dick Grayson (Michael Cera) combined with the retirement of Commissioner James Gordon (Hector Elizondo), who is replaced by his daughter Barbara (Rosario Dawson), and a new plot by the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) which throws Batman’s life into turmoil.

Without spoiling the plot, the Joker’s plan is actually ingenious given the pair’s relationship (which Batman refuses to acknowledge). The Crown Prince of Crime’s coup de grâce is perfect in its simplicity and leaves Batman completely without direction as even the solitary comfort of Wayne Manor is disrupted both by Dick and Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) who will no longer indulge Master Bruce’s solitude. While longtime Bat-fans are likely to get more out of the movie’s in-jokes (including references to every Batman movie ever made and the 60s television show), the high-action film with a good message for kids is fun for all.

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Boys are from Mars, Girls are from Foster Homes

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  • Title: The Space Between Us
  • IMDb: link

The Space Between Us movie reviewHere’s the thing, anybody brave enough to head to the theaters in the dog days of February knows to lower their standards. The perennial post-Oscar dumping ground is the home of clusterfucks and misfit toys which studios either couldn’t or wouldn’t put the money behind. Keeping this very important caveat in mind, The Space Between Us is marginally entertaining as it wraps up your standard romantic dramedy in sci-fi trappings while hoping the strength of its cast will obscure its obvious flaws.

Director Peter Chelsom delivers an undeniably schmaltzy movie of a teenager (Asa Butterfield) born and raised on Mars returning home in search of a father he never knew and to spend time with his Internet girlfriend (Britt Robertson) who had to look across the solar system to find a boy to date. The story begins with a mission to Mars where a female astronauts’ unexpected pregnancy leads to the first baby born on another world. Rather than heralded as a major achievement, the child’s existence is hidden. Embarrased by the event and believing the child could never survive on Earth, the company sidesteps the PR landmine by forgetting about him… for about 16 years.

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20th Century Women

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  • Title: 20th Century Women
  • IMDb: link

20th Century Women movie reviewI was a big enough fan of writer/director Mike Mills‘ 2011 film Beginners to include it on my best of the year list. In his first film since Beginners, Mills reuses themes of nostalgia and the awkwardness of life along with some of the same structure (including inter-cut stills and narration to frame a time and place), but although 20th Century Women features a strong cast it lacks the intimacy and magic of his previous movie.

Set during the 1970s, the film focuses on single mother Dorothea (Annette Bening), her teenage son Jaime (Lucas Jade Zumann), and the other women in their lives, Jaime’s longtime best-friend Julie (Elle Fanning) and Dorothea’s friend and tenant Abbie (Greta Gerwig), who Dorothea enlists to help raise her son to grow into a proper man.

The strength of the script is the film’s characters and their interactions (even if Mills struggles a bit a making some of these women, based on the real women who raised him, a bit too cute and quirky for their own good). A notable weakness is the size of the cast leading to a less focused film that while enjoyable isn’t necessarily all that memorable.

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Elle

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  • Title: Elle
  • IMDb: link

Elle movie review

Isabelle Huppert is marvelous as the sixty-something head of a successful video game company who is raped in her apartment by a stranger in a ski mask. Refusing to tell the police, Michèle instead continues on as if nothing happened even as she begins to suspect that one of her resentful employees may be her attacker. Filled with mostly depressed and confused characters, somehow the film is never as bleak as its subject matter might lead you to believe.

Despite being raped in the movie’s opening scene, Michèle is anything but a victim; she’s smart, successful, and in complete control of both her company and libido. Elle isn’t a revenge fantasy or a drama focused on our protagonist coming to terms with the attack. Director Paul Verhoeven, no stranger to erotic or psychological thrillers, has something much different in mind in screenwriter David Birke‘s adaptation of Philippe Djian‘s novel. And Michèle is no angel, sleeping with the husband (Christian Berkel) of her best friend (Anne Consigny), and lusting after her neighbor (Laurent Lafitte) despite their age difference and his wife (Virginie Efira).

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