Emma Stone

The Croods: A New Age

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Croods: A New Age
  • IMDb: link

The Croods: A New Age movie reviewThe sequel to 2013’s The Croods returns the cast of the original for a new adventure. The prehistoric family meet the more evolved Hope (Leslie Mann) an Phil Betterman (Peter Dinklage), friends of Guy’s (Ryan Reynolds) parents, who have created a safe zone that all the Croods except for Grug (Nicolas Cage) immediately fall in love with (although their hosts aren’t all that keen on their guests staying longterm).

The sequels offers much the same humor of the original with its conflict coming from the deepening relationship between Guy and Eep (Emma Stone) which threatens Grug’s pack and the Bettermans’ plan to steal Guy away from Eep for their daughter Dawn (Kelly Marie Tran). Eventually, danger will come to safe oasis and the two families will learn to work together.

There’s some fun here, I did appreciate the choice to make Eep and Dawn friends instead of rivals, but for all its wackiness there’s not much substance. The Croods: A New Age is a so-so sequel to a so-so film. Fans of the original will likely enjoy themselves, but the sequel doesn’t do much to evolve past the limited appeal of the original.

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The Top 10 Movies of 2014

/ / Top Tens & Lists

The Top 10 Movies of 2014

Family, friendship, and the struggle to find oneself’s place in the world were the big themes on my list this year. Looking back the year might not have offered me the clear winner to top the list (I gave out no perfect score for any film this year), but it still offered a solid list of ten movies worth noting and celebrating. As always, I tried to see as much as possible but there are a few films, most notably Whiplash and Gone Girl, which eluded me. Others like Foxcatcher, Inherent Vice, and American Sniper won’t release in my home market in 2014 (and which I was unable to view and/or review before the publishing of this list) are also not included (although you might see a couple of them turn up in my mid-year list of Best Movies of 2015 So Far next year). Enough with what didn’t make the cut, here is my list of the Top Ten Movies of 2014.

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Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Birdman
  • IMDb: link

BirdmanWriter/director Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s tale of a washed-up celebrity’s last chance to reclaim his career is a bizarre look at the life of a man who may, or may not, have super-human abilities who has bet his entire career on a Broadway production that is in continual struggle as opening night looms.

Making good use of Michael Keaton‘s role of Batman back in the early 1990s, Iñárritu casts the actor as Riggan Thomson best known for his role as a super-hero film series star who no one inside the industry takes seriously. Riggan is haunted by his former alter-ego Birdman who continues whispering to him in a gruff Batman tone voicing displeasure about the current state of the star’s life. In a script that ebbs and flows (and often gives us too many first-person walking shots down halls where nothing happens), Keaton keeps Birdman on track delivering his best performance since donning his own tights.

The rest of the cast and crew of the production fall into unremarkable (workmen, staff, etc.) or hopelessly neurotic (Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Andrea Riseborough) and egomaniacs (Edward Norton).

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Croodly Entertaining

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Croods
  • IMDB: link

The CroodsTo be honest there’s not much to DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods. The simple premise of a scared family of cavemen braving a world of uncertainty they are ill-prepared for does, however, offer some laughs along the way.

The Croods consist of the curious and precocious teenager Eep (Emma Stone), her more obedient and dimwitted brother Thunk (Clark Duke), her feisty grandmother Gran (Cloris Leachman), her terror of a baby sister, and her parents Grug (Nicolas Cage) and Ugga (Catherine Keener). All of Eep’s life Grug has kept the family safe by hiding in their cave from anything new which could be dangerous, only allowing The Croods into the light to gather food when necessary. Even Grug’s bedtime stories underline his philosophy for his family’s need to be obedient, cautious, and fearful every day of their lives to stay alive.

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The Amazing Spider-Man

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
  • IMDb: link

After the trainwreck that was Spider-Man 3 Sony decided, rather than allow director Sam Raimi to continue with the character, to reboot the entire franchise. Together director Marc Webb and screenwriters James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves were chosen to return Peter Parker to high school.

The result, The Amazing Spider-Man, at times feels very much a retread of Raimi’s Spider-Man as it focuses on a very similar plot and villain. However, Webb’s film makes a number of different choices that make it at least the equal of Raimi’s first Spidey film.

Andrew Garfield is cast in the role of science nerd Peter Parker, a Midtown Science High School student and loner. The film begins with a scene of Peter’s parents (Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz), scientists for Oscorp, leaving Peter with his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) just before they disappear.

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