agp003 Reviews

The Hunger Games (2012)

Not As Good As The Book

[6/10 · 3 October 2013]

The Hunger Games wants to be the next Running Man and Twilight but fails at that. Director Gary Ross tries to capture the mood of the book, but he does not capture the sense of urgency and misses the political edge that the book so possessed.

Jennifer Lawrence is a perfect actress for the job, and posses the perfect mix of venerability and anger and heart. She makes the Hunger Games worth watching even if it overstays its 142 minute runtime and displays the nauseating shaky cam during the action sequences. Josh Hucherson is OK as Peeta but Liam Hemsworth as Gale who does not get much screen time, would have been a better choice to portray him.

Overall, the Hunger Games is a mixed bag. Hopefully, the sequel is better

The Spectacular Now (2013)

The Spectacular Now is a Spectacular Movie

[10/10 · 7 August 2013]

When I first saw the trailer for this movie I thought it was going to be another cute teen romance. But I did not realize the story's darker undertones, and the film as a whole took me by surprise. After seeing the movie, I realized that the director of The Spectacular Now, James Ponsoldt has an underlying theme in all of his movies: alcoholism (the most recent one being Smashed, which came out last year).

Sutter Keely (Miles Teller in a moving, nuanced performance) is as he says "the life of every party". He is a goofy, nice kid who goes through his life in high school focusing on living in the present rather than thinking about his future. Sutter parties hard, but does not study hard and is thinking about not going to college. He hides all his inner turmoil away with his goofiness. But inside he is a wreck. He is an alcoholic and sneaks his booze in with a small flask and spikes his drinks with it. Inside Sutter is wondering what became of his dad. What happened to him and where did he go? His mom doesn't tell him and she won't let Sutter near him either. His teacher Mr. Aster, tries to persuade him to study hard and believes in him, but sees that Sutter does not care. That all changes for Sutter when one day, he meets a friendly, and rather private girl with a warm smile named Aimee Finicky who reads science fiction and has never had a boyfriend (Shailene Woodley in an award worthy performance). Aimee and Sutter are polar opposites, yet she helps him with geometry homework and he helps her open up to the world in front of her. Their relationship as friends together grows, and they soon fall in love. But as they confront the challenges of growing up, tragedy strikes.

The screenplay, by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber based on a book by Tim Tharp, does not take the easy way out, and the end result is both hopeful and heartbreaking. The supporting roles also do very well and help add insight and humor to a film with mostly serious intentions. Also the film does not rely on stereotypical roles we see in most coming of age movies. There is no bully or stoner dude that's there for no reason at all. All supporting roles serve a purpose in Sutter and Aimee's eventual growing up, and all of them have at least one moment to shine. Of course Aimee and Sutter are not perfect, they are good people who sometimes make bad choices. And that is what appealed to me most of all. They seem perfectly plausible as people and my only compliant is that the movie was only 95 minutes long. I wish it were an eternity longer.

Somewhere (2010)

Somewhere is a delicate, moving film that is misunderstood

[8/10 · 3 August 2013]

Actor Johnny Marco (a excellent Stephen Dorff) is lost. He suffers form boredom and he looks depressed. Johnny spends days at the Château Marmont drinking, having sex, smoking, and watching choreographed pole dances from two identical blonde strippers. He goes to premiers for his new film and photo shoots with his co-star Rebecca (Michelle Monaghan) and gets the finest luxuries, yet he does not know what to do with his time. Then one day, his wife, from a failed marriage calls and asks for Johnny to take care of his daughter Cleo (a wonderful Elle Fanning) for a while. So he does, and takes her along with him. And as he is with her, he begins to re-examine his life and the choices he makes.

This is the fourth feature film by Sofia Coppola and the third one about loneliness, and like her other films (Lost In Translation, Marie Antoinette), this character has fortune and fame but feels dead inside and needs an awakening. Johnny has everything handed onto him on a silver platter and maybe that is why he feels the way he does. Their really is not a narrative arch to Somewhere, but rather vignettes showing us how he feels. Sofia Coppola gives us a lot of long shots to express the mood; the opening shot is a car circling a race track endlessly with its engine changing noise levels, a raft with Johnny on it slowly drifts out of frame and a latex mold drying over his face with only two small holes for his nose to breathe.

Johnny Marco's seems to love his daughter, but seems almost as childish as her. He seems stuck in fame, trying to have a normal relationship with Cleo, but being mobbed by fans and the press and while having sex with a random woman, passes out in mid position. But once she leaves him, he realizes his life is empty and the last shot of him getting out his car and beginning to walk is the conformation that he is willing to start over.

Somewhere is slow, but beautiful if you can sit through it. And like Lost In Translation, it has a melancholic approach but without all the stereotypical attempts at humor . Its performances by the two leads are naturalistic. In its simplicity, Somewhere is wonderful. Somewhere:***1/2 stars.

Grown Ups 2 (2013)

The grown ups in Grown ups 2 are not yet grown up

[5/10 · 3 August 2013]

Grown Ups 2 is not the horrible movie everyone says they have been watching. It is better then the first one, funnier and more focused. Which is not saying much.

This time the gang is all back together and Lenny has moved back into his old hometown and of course, his old pals join him. Kevin James, Chris Rock David Spade are back (minus Rob Schneider, god bless him) and they act exactly unlike a grown up would; Perverse, immature and stupid. Let's just say they would act more or less like a kid would.

The movie really has no plot to speak of. Instead, the movie is just a bunch of set pieces, some of them funny, some of not. The humor in this movie is an acquired taste: some will find it funny and some will find it racist, misogynistic and homophobic.

I liked the scenes with Shaquille O' Neal as the cop and Taylor Lautner as Frat Boy Andy. Their scenes were amusing and well staged. Also in one scene, David Spade goes rolling in a tire down a rather bumpy terrain, that made me laugh hard. But one wishes that Adam Sandler's comedy were more inspired and in the lieu of set pieces, create some more character driven comedy. The characters in Grown Ups 2 are barley sketched out and different events just get thrown at them.

But compared to some of the comedies released this year like Movie 43, Scary Movie 5 and Identity Thief. Grown Ups 2 is a slight, scatological good time.

The Full Monty (1997)

Amusing British comedy is fun, crowd pleasing and small in scale

[7/10 · 29 July 2013]

The Full Monty came out in 1997 with a small four million dollar budget and grossed more than forty million dollars at the US box office and also was nominated for four academy awards including best picture. More than ten years later, it rightfully obtains its cult status. The movie is set in the famous steel making town of Sheffield, England. So once people start loosing their jobs, six unemployed factory workers (Gaz,Gerald, Dave, Nathan Lomper, and Horse) decide to become male strippers, much to the disapproval of their families.

Gaz is divorced and wants full custody of his son. Gerald is lying to his wife, telling her that they can go on vacation, but he has no money, and needs the job. Dave is depressed and thinks his wife is cheating on him. Horse is an aging break dancer and wants to be back on top. Lomper is suicidal and needs something to believe in and Nathan is obsessed with Singin' In The Rain. They all decide to perform the full Monty-or completely nude.

The story is simple, and feel good, but also rather predictable. But the outcome does not matter when the ride is so much fun. The Full Monty: *** stars

Identity Thief (2013)

Identity Thief tries hard, but fails

[4/10 · 29 July 2013]

Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy are both two great comedians, and have their share of great movies. This is not one of them. When Sandy Patterson's (Jason Bateman, playing the straight man again) identity is stolen by an fat trollish woman named Diana (Melissa McCarthy, trying hard) Sandy decides to go down from Colorado to Florida track her down,and bring her to justice. Though after he gets her, Sandy and Diana both run into bounty hunters and law, who are trying to track Diana down as well.

Identity Thief should work as well as Bateman and McCarthy do, but sadly, the script lets the actors and the audience down. The film jokes about Sandy's uni-sex name, fat people, and Mexicans. But none of it is remotely funny or even inspires a chuckle. The film acts like a third rate Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Talented actors like John Cho, Amanda Peet and Jon Favreau are wasted in small cameos that serve up nothing other than to move along the story.

The only upside here is that Bateman and McCarthy work well together and they both make the horrible script's jokes somewhat bearable. Also, the movie provides some pivotal moments of well-timed poignancy, but five seconds later, those scenes are thrown away for another crude joke. The subplot involving the bounty hunters, played by Genisis Rodriguez and the rapper T.I. is unnecessary and just add to the already long 2 hour movie. Identity thief: *1/2 stars.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Ambitious, sprawling, but falls short

[6/10 · 1 April 2013]

Zero Dark Thirty is one of the years most controversial and troubling films. It begins with audio from real-life phone calls from the World Trade Center as people realize that they are trapped and doomed to die. It is a disturbing and heartbreaking opening. But is the film good? In my opinion, not really.

The movie is about the hunt for the terrorist Osama Bin Laden over the span of twelve years. The main focus though, is on a CIA operative named Maya played by Jessica Chastain and her tough-minded and determined pursuit for his whereabouts. Maya barley sleeps or even eats out, and is willing to torture suspects to get information.

Zero Dark Thirty runs at a long two hours and forty minutes. For me, that is too much to take. The movie keeps throwing different events at us. The torture methods, the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan, the list goes on and it is all is quite exhausting. Mark Boal, the screenwriter for Zero Dark Thirty is a former journalist, and he says the movie was based on a first hand account and he packs enough information for two movies. I would have appreciated more of a documentary approach. More insight into Al-Qaeda and how the terrorists think.

Not to say that the movies does not have its upsides. Jessica Chastain gives the performance of the year worthy of that Academy Award nomination and it is always good to see Mark Strong (playing an American!), Mark Duplass and Kyle Chandler. They all have small roles, but they do their jobs well and Mark Duplass, a usual indie director, injects a small dose of humor in his one scene into a stone cold film. Jason Clarke shows up as a veteran CIA interrogator in the beginning of the film and literally made me shake in fear. He makes his character believably real.

What the movie lacks is the heart pounding suspense that made The Hurt Locker so good. It also lacks some ingenuity. We have all seen this before. The last thirty minutes are devoted to the raid on Osama's compound. The sequence is well shot through the POV of night vision goggles), but their was no suspense and I felt rather bored. To me, Zero Dark Thirty was the biggest disappointment of the year.