Action – Page 8 – Splatter: on FILM

CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER (2014) movie review

April 12, 2014October 25, 20151 Comment

This is NOT a film to take kids to.

Seizing : with purposeless violence. Sure the re-awakened Naziesque spy-game-death-threat works, but the tide rolls in and out. A long scene of heavy violence flows in followed by a casual sit down chat about what could be causing the violence. And over and over. What happened to “zero body-count” kind of films.Tons of death makes this a frustrated jaw-clencher / forehead-furrower. It has some very cool action sequences, don’t get me wrong. It passes my Dad’s BEAK test: Big Explosions and Kicking. Add bounding parkour and the cap playing skins vs. shirts, and I’m in. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by well-chorographed fight scenes. But I can’t help feeling like this film was more like gaming, earning credits for hits taken out, than an action film with character, quirk, and purpose.

Gushing: with well-meant dialogue…”They call him the Winter Soldier.”

The so-called Winter Soldier… is in the film very little. Also, Captain America, in the title role, plays a definite backseat to Nick Fury as the driver and Black Widow sitting shotgun as navigator. Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johanssen get more screen time…if you don’t count the forty minutes (or so it felt) of the Cap walking despondently through his section of the museum or talking to his old lady first love with CG lips.

Wishing: with all of my Marvel love that this film could get more than a C+, especially since it stars my first love (other than Ralph Macchio) Robert Redford, who at least can still claim to be charming.

GRAVITY (2013) movie review

March 2, 2014October 25, 20151 Comment

Value life. Value breath. Value grief and lessons learned, the voices echoing from those we’ve lost.

Film is craft, is art. It teaches and inspires. In this film by Alfonso Cuarón, we wear the helmet, floating unharnessed, fighting to survive one cataclysm to the next…for the whole film.

George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are the trustworthy protagonists. He is there for the ride, loving life, feeding hope. She is fearful until she can let go and quote, “No matter what, you’ll have great stories to tell, and it’s been one ‘hell of a ride.'” It is at that.

This film did more than offer the viewer a space suit and helmet. It begs one to know the gravitas required for survival, and it teaches us to appreciate those who keep us breathing

Tonight I am grateful for my sisters. One keeps me talking, and one keeps me breathing.

One brims with joy daily, always busy, always helping, always herding others onward toward adventures she dreams up or jumps on board with. She confessed to me recently about a night spent crying, agonizing about future and life. It humanized her, helped me to relate, saved me somehow. I found my tears and she called to keep me talking. She saved me then and on many other occasions, and I am grateful.
My youngest sister is full of deep wisdom and reminds me to allow myself to rest, to take in beauty, to appreciate silence and sunshine and music. She saves me and I breath once more.

So, who is your Clooney? To whom are you grateful for life-giving reminders? Survival is worth fighting for. Not just arrival at the next module or re-entry into the next atmosphere. Survival goes beyond the water landing and forces you to hold your breath long enough to resurface from the waters and to learn to walk again.

This film taught me that survival is in the next step and the next. It’s in letting go and moving on. It’s smiling at the future despite past pain. It’s in feeling the gravity of every moment and treasuring it as if it were your last.

JACK RYAN Shadow Recruit (2014) movie review

January 23, 2014October 25, 20151 Comment

Chris Pine becomes the next Jason Bourne as military-turned-hunted-intelligence-agent takes his own unintenitional action thrill ride.
“I’m just an analyst.”
Classic. Oldest trick in the book to turn beautiful brainiac into defensive killer.

Give him a mentor (Kevin Costner) whose old gig was Bodyguard for Whitney and a sassy rehab nurse (Kyra Knightly) with a soft spot for her patients. Then spin the wheel. Anything can happen… Jack could use math to predict the end of the world. She could refuse to marry him then question his commitment. All we know is not to trust anyone. From Mission Impossible to well…every action adventure, we know better than to trust the mentor, father figure. We even know not to trust the girlfriend. A good audience member loves playing slueth, and this one banks on that. Directors rely on dramatic irony as a tool. Sleuth or no, you’re set up to be surprised.The last thing you’ll expect is for the good guys to actually be good and to believe in each other and support until the end, and for the bad guys to be ultimately all bad. Too simplistic for Brannaugh? Not exactly. This Shakespearean stage man turned Thor director marries his two loves and acts in this as well with a decent Russian accent.

HOBBIT 2: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) movie review

January 11, 2014October 25, 20152 Comments

Peter’s pet project is a bit too precious to him, but who can complain…it’s Peter Jackson.

He makes big movies worth every lingering glance over every centimeter of middle earth.

We may presume that we would have removed those extra elfin arrow shots or that half of the dwarf scowls on the multiple could have been edited out. Jackson has built the mansion of the Hobbit trilogy, and despite it’s penchant to extended editioning, this second in the series is lovely indeed and feels more accessible than the first with the additions of human and elf characters in new locations like Laketown.

Hobbit 2 swings out from systematic book adaptation and includes information from other Tolkien books like The Silmarilian, and it adds a new character: Tauriel. This female elf heroine, a Jackson original, raises the standards as Kate from Lost glistens and fights and alights from tree to boulder with ease wielding weapons and sassing her companions. She asks pivotal questions of Legolas that will direct his future course and lead him, no doubt, on his road toward war between Middle Earth and Mordor.But nothing trumps the dragon. Bets are off. Dinosaurs no longer frighten. Monsters look like house pets in the fiendish glow of the heated snarky Smaug the magnificent and terrible.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (2013) movie review

December 29, 2013October 25, 20156 Comments

I held my breath so many times. When it was too beautiful or too shocking or when I was too worried for our hapless hero. Don’t miss this journey into adventure, into bravery and joy, into LIFE and living it.

Starring and directed by Ben Stiller, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an instant family classic reminding us to seize life and live it. It also shows the value in cherishing everyday moments that seem mundane, those unposted, ungrammed, forgettable day-to-day type events like work and meals. My friend Dan says, “No one posts pictures of themselves in their cubicles at work because they don’t seem glamorous enough for Facebook, but we all go to work and it’s okay.” Dan is wise. Flat, grey paper Mitty from side A of the film would not agree, but post-transformation Walter Mitty feels the valuable weight of each moment.

Don’t worry. It’s not a spoiler. Every character must undergo transformation. Dorothy must go over the rainbow but return to admit that “There’s no place like home.” The Grinch-heart must grow 3 sizes. The underdog must win. Even the bad guy must see his ills in a mirror and move to change and become likable. Transformation.

Life Magazine‘s humorous first motto was “While there’s Life, there’s hope.” Stiller offers another cinematic take which graffiti fonts the film and leads Mitty on his path to self-discovery. Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Patton Oswalt, and other TV funny people walk alongside Stiller holding hands with greats like Sean Penn and Shirley MacLaine. It’s a beautiful film. I went with my family after Christmas. We will most likely go again. Probably tomorrow.

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013) movie review

December 16, 2013October 25, 20152 Comments

So far, both fans of the first film and book fan purists that I have spoken to agree in favor of Catching Fire.

No spoilers here. You’ll have to see it for yourself. Avoid bringing kids. The violence is overwhelming and the storyline intense.

Finally heroism is about sacrifice. Finally mercy trumps judgement.
Finally a film allows its heroes to fight for a cause bigger than personal survival.

The build up intensifies to climax AND payoff.

Jennifer Lawrence inhabits our Katniss as bow dragging, ugly crying, Liam kissing arena queen.

Welcome new characters. Fall hard for the old. Find yourself trying to choose between team Peeta or Gale. Enjoy the fancy friend to popular book-to-film adaptations, Jena Malone.

For a while, it seems that film writers hit a dry spell and the best writing went to television. If films keep this up, there just might be a revolution, a new dawn for good films with solid characters in the writing. I like it.

THOR 2 The Dark World (2013) movie review

November 24, 2013October 25, 20159 Comments

Scandinavian heritage and curiosity regarding its folklore may have encouraged your ticket purchase, but no one can deny an attraction to Chris Hemsworth‘s beautiful body…of work. Avengerites across the globe sit theater-bound searching for clues in the connective tissues between the franchised Marvel movies.

Natalie Portman is finally allowed to laugh in Thor 2. It takes grizzly black goblin goo, but giddy Natalie trumps stern constipated Nat any day. She courageously glides into a galaxy far away without a hitch. She is scientific, pragmatic.

It is, as always, Tom Hiddleston as Loki who steals the show. He is the maniacal brother with daddy issues who woos an audience with ease.

Zachary Levi (best known as the lead in the tv show Chuck) adds contagious joy and enthusiasm to every scene he graces.

Riddled with humor, color, high action, and life, Thor 2 is as promised, a true comic book film bringing characters to life. It did not disappoint.

ENDER’S GAME (2013) movie review

November 20, 2013October 25, 20151 Comment

Heartbreaking. As essential questions go, this film delves deeper into the empathetic psyche forcing a mirror glance into beliefs about war and genocide than most want to explore.

A jocund former Juliet becomes starfighter as Hailee Steinfeld lifts lazer blaster to teach Ender, the young Asa Butterfield, how to win a very serious anti-gravity laser tag sphere game. The guarantee from the start is that it is all a game. The government recruits children because they lack the fear and hesitation that comes with a fully developed frontal lobe. Instinct and impulse rule decisions, so in the training camps they learn to lead and develop war strategies in interactive gaming scenarios.

Warning, this film is NOT for children, despite promotional ploys. Children love games until the mask is lifted and the game becomes real. Young men feel bulletproof in war until they understand the gravity of the task before them and see themselves in the reflection of those they are fighting. This film lifts the mask, albeit slowly.

The Last Starfighter is a parallel precursor film of sorts, and my favorite pre-teen film. It is fun,lively, and oh so 80’s. Alex Rogan, least likely intergalactic warrior, breaks the record on a video game at his trailer park only to be approached and recruited by the game’s creator who needs a Starfighter in space. Alex is left with a decision to sacrifice known for unknown and use his innate skills to take down the enemy in the real universe or go back to playing games.

Or is he? Where ignorance is bliss, knowledge negates choice. Just as Truman could never have continued the Truman Show once he knew the… truth. In the same way, Jack from Lost, knows he must go back and save the island and the Little Mermaid will never be content to swim for life. Heroes like these stand alone, optionless on the platform only to bow and wish the afflicters a hopeful “Good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

Innocence has its own beauty. It equates with child-likeness. Harrison Ford and Viola Davis do an excellent job in this film of grieving its loss when weighing the cost in the light of war. Highlighting defensive strategies allows audiences to root for underdogs. Good guys must win, until the plot twists and we don’t recognize the good guys anymore. Ender’s twist ending unmasks the essential question of the film, and therein his heartache as well.

WORLD WAR Z (2013) movie review

November 18, 2013October 25, 20153 Comments

They run faster, stare harder, scale walls, headbang, stick around for a quick bite, and have no feelings. Sound like your last relationship?

This zombie apocalypse has a new face. In our world, the slow moving, cannibalistic, “Walking Dead” reign. However, director Mark Forster, a favorite since his Finding Neverland (2004) and Stranger Than Fiction (2006), and WWZ‘s producer Brad Pitt have reinvented the franchise.

Some criticized the action zoom in at minute 5 or so in the film initiating the continuous conflict, but character development, schmaracter development, right? Pitt and Jolie have laid the foundation for Pitt’s trustworthy, fatherly character by adding a new child to their brood each year. We buy that he is the hatchet-wielding family man with a heart of gold whose war-shredded past shows in each line of his face and in his stringy beard. He is apt for the task, a believable and beautifully clever team player father figure rushing to save the world.

Back to nuts and bolts. To see or not to see. Despite its furious filming foibles and over budget fear-driven rewrites, they succeeded. Zombie flix can easily ring cheesy, but true to genre, it is scary. Rental was a good call for me. I can’t do gore or 2 hours of breathless intensity. So, the catchy bird-like zombie squawk that introduces each toothsome attack became my cue to get up and fold some laundry or send an email. The Zombies weren’t skip-trudging toward their next human meals; they rushed for the bite to turn the next victim. Anxiety comes in ocean waves, then pulls back long enough for audiences to breathe.

Don’t miss Jimmy Fallon’s “Yodel” interview with Brad Pitt: (linked below)

PERCY JACKSON Sea of Monsters (2013) movie review

October 6, 2013October 25, 20152 Comments

The script is smart. Logan Lerman is stellar. Certainly this film from kid-fic is kid-friendly, but like most cartoons today this one grins all teeth with proper myth, a well-written script, and likable characters.

It’s a complete story, each character given an arch. It’s dangerous. It’s an Odyssian journey, (not to confuse the mythologies).

It’s entertaining, and it boasts scenes with the two top fellows of film and tv: Stanley Tucci …

and Nathan Fillion. Deep love.

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?

Your Thoughts?