Movie Reviews

Kingsman: The Secret Service

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  • Title: Kingsman: The Secret Service
  • IMDb: link

Kingsman: The Secret ServiceKingsman: The Secret Service isn’t the first time director Matthew Vaughn has signed on to bring a Mark Millar comic to the big screen. Like Kick-Ass, Kingsman: The Secret Service centers on the life of a young punk who enters a world of violence, ridiculous adventures, and even more ridiculous villains. This time, however, the subject of spies rather than comic book heroes is both celebrated and lampooned.

Based on Millar’s comic The Secret Service, Taron Egerton stars as a working class kid from a bad neighborhood raised by a single mother after his father died in mysterious circumstances working for a secret organization of spies (and tailors?) known as Kingsman. Recruited by the same agent (Colin Firth) who recruited his father, Egsy spends most of the film proving himself against other candidates (Sophie Cookson, Edward Holcroft, Nicholas Banks, Tom Prior, Fiona Hampton) working to take the place of the latest Kingsman (Jack Davenport) who died investigating a link between a kidnapped professor (Mark Hamill) and an eccentric billionaire known as Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) who has some extreme ideas about lowering the population of the Earth.

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McFarland, USA

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  • Title: McFarland, USA
  • IMDb: link

McFarland, USAMiracle. The Rookie. Cool Runnings. Remember the Titans. Walt Disney Films has a talent finding true stories and adapting them into surprisingly moving films. Hell, even Eight Below was better than it had any right to be. Sure sometimes the efforts limp to the finish line (remember Secretariat?), but more often than not the tales of struggle, perseverance, and overcoming great odds turn out to be solid family films.

Based on the true story of troubled sports coach Jim White who took a job in the only place that would hire him, Kevin Costner stars as a man struggling with not being able to better support his family who, despite their initial distrust of the predominantly Mexican-American town, eventually come to think of McFarland, California as home.

The story follows a basic pattern as White and his family (Maria Bello, Morgan Saylor, Elsie Fisher) come to embrace the town made up of mostly fruit pickers including a group of young kids (Carlos Pratts, Johnny Ortiz, Ramiro Rodriguez, Rafael Martinez, Hector Duran, Sergio Avelar, Michael Aguero) who White will turn into a cross country team.

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Fifty Shades of Grey

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  • Title: Fifty Shades of Grey
  • IMDb: link

Fifty Shades of GreyWell, at least the foreplay was mildly entertaining. The attempt by director Sam Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Kelly Marcel to adapt E.L. James‘ novel of the same name feels every inch a Hollywood adaptation of a trashy romance novel.

Fifty Shades of Grey, which could just as easily been titled “Porn for Women” or “Wild Orchid 3: The Seduction of Anastasia,” offers us the ridiculously named duo of college student Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and businessman Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). Despite their initial attraction through a random plot device involving Anastasia’s roommate and an article for a school paper Ana doesn’t work for, the pair struggle to get together because of Christian’s aloof manner and odd sexual proclivities.

Through a mix of celebrated bad dialogue and nonerotic and unromantic sex scenes shot like music videos we, along with Ana, learn of Christian’s sadomasochistic tendencies as he offers her a way into his world. Overwhelmed by the attention of a hunky millionaire, Ana fights back her doubts in order to be with a man she’s quickly fallen for.

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Two Days, One Night

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  • Title: Deux jours, une nuit
  • IMDb: link

Two Days, One NightThere’s a little bit of Don Quioxte in Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne‘s French film Two Days, One Night. Marion Cotillard stars as a factory worker ready to return to work following a nervous breakdown only to discover that her coworkers, after being given the option by their boss, have decided they would rather have their yearly bonuses than her return.

Allowing Sandra to plead her case, her boss schedules another vote on the following Monday giving her two days to convince a majority of her 16 coworkers to change their minds and allow her to return. Championed by her husband (Fabrizio Rongione) and best-friend (Catherine Salée), Sandra begins a series of heartwrenching conversations with coworkers who, like her, need the money.

There are no real heroes or villains (with the exception of Sandra’s boss and one angry young man) in the film. Many simply are relying on their bonus to make ends meet and others simply don’t wish to give up money they feel they earned during her absence.

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Jupiter Ascending

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  • Title: Jupiter Ascending
  • IMDb: link

Jupiter AscendingJupiter Ascending is insane (and only occasionally in a good way). The latest from the Wachowskis casts Mila Kunis in the starring role as an illegal immigrant house cleaner who is actually the resurrected matriarch of one the galaxy’s richest families. Despite being born on Earth, and having no memory of her previous life, based on her DNA Jupiter is entitled to her former estates and riches which her galactic progeny (Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton) will do anything to prevent from happening.

Saved by a soldier spliced with a wolf on rocket shoes (Channing Tatum), Jupiter eventually finds her way into space to accept her inheritance which includes the planet Earth and everyone living on it.

Did I mention this movie is insane? Jupiter Ascending jumps the tracks fairly early, after a slow introduction to our protagonist’s pre-space-faring life, and becomes a constantly exploding runaway train that no one involved in the project lifts a finger to gain control of for the remainder of its 127-minute running time. Visually intriguing, the film is a mess of mashed-up sci-fi ideas borrowed from better films.

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