Olympus Has Fallen

Olympus Has Fallen - Dir. Antoine Fuqua (2013)

In 1997, a small town in the Pacific Northwest and the city of Los Angeles were threatened by the sudden eruption of volcanoes in Dante's Peak and Volcano. A year later, the Earth is nearly destroyed by two cataclysmic asteroids in Deep Impact and Armageddon. In 2013, the White House is in jeopardy not once, but twice. Roland Emmerich will direct Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx in White House Down, which will be released in June by Sony. Meanwhile, Millennium Films and FilmDistrict have beaten them to the punch with Olympus Has Fallen.

One snowy night, President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) is on his way to a Christmas fundraiser when an accident causes his limo to swerve off a bridge. Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) saves the President's life, but is unable to save the First Lady (Ashley Judd). Over a year later, Banning is still haunted by his failure and exiled to a desk job at the Treasury Department. He races back into action when the nation's capital is attacked during a meeting between President Asher and the South Korean Prime Minister. In the film's most gripping and prolonged set piece, a cargo plane outfitted with Gatling guns literally causes monumental destruction. Not since Earth vs. the Flying Saucers has the Washington Monument suffered such damage. Garbage trucks doubling as armored vehicles roll up Pennsylvania Avenue while a blitzkrieg of armed assailants (disguised as tourists) breach the White House lawn killing dozens of security personnel and police responders. The ringleader is Kang (Rick Yune), a wanted terrorist who has infiltrated the South Korean government. He takes the President, V.P. (Phil Austin), Secretary of Defense (Melissa Leo), and other key members of staff hostage inside an underground bunker. Of course, there's only one man who can save them…Mike Banning.

If the plot sounds familiar, it's because Olympus Has Fallen is yet another graduate from the school of Die Hard with the White House standing in for Nakatomi Plaza. The similarities are so prominent and frequent that screenwriters Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt (in their first credit) could be charged with outright plagiarism. Gerard Butler leaps off an exploding rooftop while a helicopter crashes behind him. He also taunts the villain over radio with tired one-liners ("Let's play a game of fuck off. You go first."). There's a scene where Banning bumps into one of the bad guys who pretends to be a frightened good guy. Banning's warnings against a foolhardy attempt at breaching the terrorists' defenses fall on deaf ears. Not to mention In the Line of Fire already did the Secret Service agent in search of redemption to greater effect.

Realizing the inherently silly nature of their film, the producers have loaded their supporting cast with actors who can effortlessly convey dramatic gravitas. The obligatory command center scenes feature Angela Bassett as the head of Secret Service and Morgan Freeman as the Speaker of the House now the acting president. Robert Forster portrays a hard-assed general who fills the role of Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson. Dylan McDermott makes a scenery chewing appearance as a turncoat agent though Rick Yune fails to lend anything memorable as the lead villain. Radha Mitchell gets a rather thankless role as Banning's worried wife. Aaron Eckhart is perfectly cast as the defiant authority figure and it's nice to see Gerard Butler in an action flick after doing so many terrible romantic comedies.

Antoine Fuqua is a solid action director, but aside from the opening salvo on D.C., there are not a lot of spectacular sequences. The majority of the film takes place inside a darkened White House, one that's so dark that you can hardly see any of the fights or shootouts. The darkness may have been to just hide the poor choreography or subpar CGI.

Olympus shamelessly exploits post-9/11 anxiety and xenophobia. Some viewers will be turned off at watching an airplane crash into a landmark as debris crushes people below it. The movie tries to have its cake and eat it too with terrorists that are clearly North Korean while straining to portray them as having no allegiance. These themes are only re-enforced by an overblown "America, Fuck Yeah," attitude, including one character defiantly reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as they are dragged and beaten.

Olympus Has Fallen plays as mindless, red meat entertainment in spite of its queasy politics and thoroughly derivative script right down to a climatic countdown in massive, bold numbers. Although it's a blatant knockoff, Olympus is actually more enjoyable than the latest Die Hard sequel.

Rating: ** (*****)

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning - Dir. John Hyams (2012)

The original Universal Soldier stands as a solid entry of early-90's action cinema with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as Vietnam vets brought back from the dead to serve as resurrected super-soldiers. There's nothing particularly noteworthy about it aside from the fact that it helped launch the careers of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the purveyors of blockbuster schlock like Independence Day and 2012. Universal Soldier spawned two forgettable DTV sequels that most people don't even know exist. Van Damme wasn't in either of them, but chose to reprise his role of Luc Deveraux for Universal Soldier: The Return, a movie so terrible that it killed the franchise for nearly a decade until the arrival of John Hyams, the son of Peter Hyams, director of Van Damme's Sudden Death and Timecop.

Just like the characters, the series was brought back to life with Universal Soldier: Regeneration, a standard low-budget affair that saw the return of Dolph Lundgren, despite being ground to pulp in a wood chipper. None of what came before could prepare anyone for Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Hyams does away with conventions and boils the concept down to its horrific roots that of a government willing to resurrect dead soldiers and send them back into battle. Those expecting another cheaply made B-movie set in an abandoned warehouse because that’s all the producers could afford will be greatly surprised. Day of Reckoning is a feverish horror show of an action movie if it were directed by David Lynch.

The protagonist, John (Scott Adkins), awakens in the middle of the night to his daughter's complaints of monsters in the house. He realizes too late there are three intruders in his kitchen. They mercilessly beat him with a crowbar before executing his wife and daughter. The ringleader unmasks to reveal Luc Deveraux, the hero of the first Universal Soldier. Deveraux has become the leader of a rebellion movement of fellow UniSols seeking to strike back against the government that created them. John's search for retribution takes him down a dark path as the truth of revealed about himself and the murder of his family.

Hyams has cited auteurs like David Cronenberg, Gaspar Noé, and Michael Haneke as heavy influences in the production of Day of Reckoning. Those influences are apparent from the very beginning with a prologue that has the uneasy feel of Haneke's Funny Games with the first person perspective of Noé's Enter the Void. Another technique from the Noé playbook is a frequent shuttering effect meant to simulate a character's disorientation and blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Hyams also flagrantly borrows from Apocalypse Now with Van Damme cast as a modern day Colonel Kurtz and Dolph Lundgren as his Dennis Hopper. The third act sees John literally going up the river to confront Deveraux. Some fans may be disappointed to learn that Van Damme and Lundgren only have minor supporting roles, despite their prominent positions in promotional material. They don't even share a single scene together.

While Lundgren's Andrew Scott was well established as being mentally unbalanced, the question remains how the once heroic Deveraux grew equally mad. The film offers no clear cut answers, but posits several interesting possibilities. In the 80's, Alan Moore revolutionized the comic book industry with his bleak deconstruction of the superhero mythos. He shattered the simplistic Silver Age tales of British superhero Marvelman by revealing they were false memories of a virtual world, part of an elaborate and cruel experiment to create superhumans. The idea that previous installments may be implanted memories crafted by someone fed a strict diet of formulaic action flicks is deliciously twisted. The layers are peeled back to reveal a fatalistic reality where death gives no respite to eternal warriors locked in never-ending combat.

Don't mistake the filmmakers' arthouse aspirations as intent to create a bloodless drama. Day of Reckoning has no shame in trotting out thoroughly brutal and exploitative violence. The movie received a very limited theatrical run where it was slapped with an 'R' rating. The Unrated version available on DVD, Blu-ray, and Netflix certainly would have received an NC-17. The prologue is utterly unflinching as is a sequence taking place in a neon-lit brothel where a naked hooker takes a shotgun blast in the back. That's right after a UniSol has a prostitute casually hammer a nail into his hand. Adkins brawls with former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski inside a sporting goods store using baseball bats and barbell plates. The insane climax was filmed handheld in the style of one continuous shot with a few obvious editing cheats. John cuts a swath of destruction until he and his white wifebeater becomes caked in blood and viscera.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning isn't altogether successful due to wooden dialogue and some slow sections. However, it should be commended for wanting to be more than another hackneyed, low-budget shoot 'em up.

Rating: *** (*****)

This Is 40

This Is 40 - Dir. Judd Apatow (2012)

Judd Apatow's latest film, This Is 40, is marketed as being a "sort of" sequel to his second directorial effort, Knocked Up. Though Knocked Up turned Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl into bankable movie stars, neither of them makes an appearance in This Is 40. In fact, other than a passing reference, you don't need to see both to understand the story. The sequel is more of a spin-off focusing on Pete (Paul Rudd) and his wife, Debbie (Leslie Mann), the older sister of Heigl's character. This Is 40 has less of the zany energy and ribald humor of Apatow's earlier pictures. It's a bit more mature in the vein of his last film, Funny People. It could also be considered Apatow's most personal and semi-autobiographical since it stars his real-life family with Rudd as his stand-in.

Pete and Debbie are dealing with all the trials and tribulations of married life and middle age. Separately, they have their own issues. Pete runs an independent record label that isn't doing well and he has to cut checks that he can't afford to his freeloading father (Albert Brooks). Debbie runs a clothing store and tries to figure out which of her employees (Megan Fox and Charlyne Yi) are stealing from the register. She too has a contentious relationship with her own father (John Lithgow), a distant man who spends more time with his new family. Together, they get into arguments about finances, dieting, and parenthood. Their eldest daughter, Sadie (Maude Apatow), is going through her tempestuous teenage years and screaming at her parents and little sister (Iris Apatow).

One of the frequent complaints against Apatow productions are the lengthy runtimes. You could say This Is 40 is 40 minutes too long. Apatow's improvisational style exacerbates the problem by giving the film a loosey-goosey feel. There's no driving narrative with the movie playing out as a series of episodic vignettes. It's also difficult to feel any sympathy for the characters when they have such first world problems. Pete eats too many cupcakes while Sadie spends all her time catching up on Lost. They live in upper middle class bliss with a trampoline and swimming pool in their backyard. It's hard to relate to their money problems when they throw catered birthday parties and own every conceivable gadget emblazoned with an Apple logo.

Still, Apatow manages to glean kernels of truth from mundane everyday life. Debbie is grossed out when Pete farts in bed and feels insecure about her body in comparison to the shapely Megan Fox. Horndogs will definitely enjoy the scene where the two ladies compare the texture of their breasts. Pete's need to escape from his family hasn't waned. Rather than fantasy baseball, he hides in the bathroom and plays Bejeweled Blitz on his iPad. Pete and Debbie both suffer the indignities of invasive prostate exams and colonoscopies. That may pale in comparison to the awkwardness of reading their daughter's internet chatter. This leads to a hilarious series of escalating confrontations with an angry parent played with gusto by Melissa McCarthy. There's a satisfying emotional payoff to the subplot as husband and wife join forces against a common enemy and remember just why they fell in love.

There's a wealth of talent in the supporting cast with bit roles filled out by Chris O'Dowd, Lena Dunham, Michael Ian Black, Jason Segel, Robert Smigel, Bridesmaids co-writer Annie Mumolo, Tatum O'Neal, and Billie Joe Armstrong as himself. Megan Fox is surprisingly game in a rare comedic turn. Albert Brooks is an old hat at improve and his style meshes well with Apatow. Too bad he didn't have more scenes with John Lithgow.

Judd Apatow has successfully built himself into a brand, writing and directing his own pictures and producing dozens more. In the grand scheme of things, This Is 40 won't rank at the top of his filmography. It's not as good as Knocked Up or 40-Year Old Virgin, but leagues above Drillbit Taylor. This Is 40 is a mixed bag of mild amusements that leisurely sputters along until a pat sitcom ending where someone gives a heartfelt speech, people learn valuable lessons, and everything turns out to be okay. Unfortunately, they take far too long to get there.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Les Misérables

Les Misérables - Dir. Tom Hooper (2012)

I had a dream my life would be

So different from this hell I'm living

So different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed

One of the most popular and enduring versions of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, Les Misérables, has been the stage musical. It initially began as a concept album with music by Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyrics from Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. Cameron Mackintosh, the producer behind Broadway blockbusters Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, saw the potential and mounted a production in London before taking it to the Big Apple. Les Misérables stands as one of the longest running Broadway shows ever, opening in 1987 before closing in 2003. While there have been many movie adaptations of the original novel, the musical version has never been brought to the silver screen until now.

The story begins in 1815 with Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a recently released convict who has served nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family and attempting to escape. Branded as a dangerous man, Valjean has nowhere to stay and no chance of finding honest work. A kindly Bishop (Colm Wilkinson, who originated the role of Valjean in the London production) takes pity and gives Valjean some of the church valuables to start a new life. Under the name Madeleine, he becomes the mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer and a respected factory owner. Unbeknownst to him, Fantine (Anne Hathaway), a young woman in his employ is unjustly fired by the lecherous foreman. She is forced to not only become a prostitute, but to sell her teeth and hair to support her daughter, Cosette (Isabelle Allen), who is under the care of the cruel Thérnardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter). On Fantine's deathbed, Valjean promises to rescue only to be confronted by the relentless Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). He spends years trying to live a peaceful life with Cosette with Javert constantly at his heels until a revolution explodes onto the streets of Paris.

Les Misérables isn't like your typical musical. It's more of an operetta in that nearly all of the dialogue is sung and there aren't any dance sequences. Rather than recorded separately, the songs were performed live on set to allow a more nuanced performance. Hugh Jackman, with his passion for musicals and experience on stage, equates himself superbly as Jean Valjean. The same goes for Anne Hathaway, who earned an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as the ever suffering Fantine. Hathaway commands the screen for the show-stopping "I Dreamed a Dream," which was captured entirely in close-up and in one take. She belts a soulful rendition that will wring tears from anyone, except the most cold hearted. Though Jackman and Hathaway got the lion's share of attention during awards season, the film's best performance belongs to Samantha Barks, who made her feature film debut with Les Misérables. Barks played the role of the Thérnardiers' daughter, Eponine, on stage and reprises the role here. She can act and carry tune and does so admirably during the rain-soaked ballad, "On My Own." The one weak link in an otherwise strong ensemble is Russell Crowe as Javert whose rigid moral code allows no mercy for his prey. In a straight adaptation of the novel, Crowe would have been an excellent casting choice. However, his vocal efforts leave much to be desired. Despite his experience as a musician and frontman, Crowe's singing comes off as flat and lacking the emotional range displayed by his co-stars.

Even with a generous runtime of over two and a half hours, Les Misérables occasionally stumbles in its attempts to juggle a myriad of plotlines. The romance between the adult Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and rabble rouser Marius (Eddie Redmayne) is rushed as is the conclusion to Javert's story. Then, there's "Suddenly," a forgettable new tune composed simply to receive a nomination for Best Original Song. The passage of time isn't always properly conveyed with abrupt intertitles announce eight years have elapsed. It's hard to sense that Javert has been nipping at Valjean's heels for decades.

Les Misérables is the most expensive and ambitious project helmed by Tom Hooper, who multiple Best Director awards for The King's Speech. Be prepared as Hooper's penchant for awkward compositions and fish eye lens close-ups hasn't waned. When looking at the bigger picture, Hooper proves more than capable of handling the spectacle required of such a lavish production. The film opens right away with a collection of tattered convicts, waist deep in seawater, as they pull a warship into dry dock. The oafish Thérnardiers take the spotlight for "Master of the House," an intricately staged musical number in which the larcenous lovebirds pick the pockets of their unsuspecting guests. "One Day More" is a well-edited ensemble piece that cuts smoothly between multiple planes of action.

Les Misérables doesn't do subtle. This is a bombastic and surprisingly gritty musical full of heart-wrenching tragedy, romance, and pageantry.

Rating: *** (*****)

Oz the Great and Powerful

Oz the Great and Powerful - Dir. Sam Raimi (2013)

Walt Disney had always wanted to make an animated film based on Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz. However, MGM beat him to the punch, acquiring the rights and producing their classic musical starring Judy Garland. The closest Disney ever came was a television special featuring the Mouseketeers as various characters and the disturbing cult classic Return to Oz with a young Fairuza Balk as Dorothy. Oz the Great and Powerful is an interesting proposition since it’s a prequel to another studio's movie. Despite the books now falling into public domain, Disney is unable to use elements specifically created for the cinematic version of Wizard of Oz, which is now owned by Warner Brothers. Thus, there are no ruby slippers and even the design of the Yellow Brick Road and the shade of green on the Wicked Witch's skin had to be altered.

Spoilers Ahead.

Oscar Diggs (James Franco) is a sideshow magician in a traveling circus that has found its way to the dustbowl of Kansas. He is not only an illusionist, but an inventor with aspirations to become Harry Houdini and Thomas Edison rolled into one. A jealous strongman chases Diggs into a hot air balloon that is quickly sucked into a tornado that transports him to the Land of Oz. Taking a cue from the 1939 version, Oz opens in black and white with the 1.33:1 aspect ratio before expanding to widescreen and fading into color. There, he is greeted by Theodora (Mila Kunis), a good witch who believes Diggs is the prophesized wizard that will free them from the tyranny of the Wicked Witch. Theodora's sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz), promises Diggs he will become the new King of Oz and be rewarded the treasure of Emerald City should he defeat the Witch.

Diggs is joined on his journey by a talking monkey with wings named Finley (Zach Braff) and a living China Girl (Joey King), the only survivor of a porcelain village shattered by the Witch's army of flying baboons. But, the witch they are sent after is actually Glinda the Good (Michelle Williams) whose father, the former King of Oz, was poisoned by the true Wicked Witch, Evanora. When the truth comes out, Evanora manipulates her sister into biting an enchanted apple that turns her into the hook nosed Wicked Witch of the West.

It's clear that Disney is hoping to replicate the mammoth success of Alice in Wonderland. Both projects share a producer in Joe Roth and a production designer in Robert Stromberg, who also worked on Avatar. Those previous credits clearly shine through in the digital construction of Oz, which looks like a Technicolor melding of Wonderland and Pandora. There are enormous blossoms, river fairies with piranha-like teeth, and a glimmering art deco Emerald City. However, what's lacking is a sense of awe. The CGI environment never feels real and many scenes simply come off as actors walking in front of a green screen. The soundstages and matte paintings of the original film felt more real than the expensive special effects of Oz. Director Sam Raimi manages to inject some life into the action with his trademark flourishes of whip pans, accelerated zooms, canted angles, and cameos by brother Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell. One set piece involves a Looney Tunes-esque sequence on a cliff that is played out in silhouette. When the heroes arrive at the Dark Forest, they are assailed by snapping vines in a creepy callback to Evil Dead. Thankfully, no one gets raped by tree branches. Raimi also tosses in several cool shots of the witches hurling magical energy at each other, especially Evanora who shoots lightning bolts like a Dark Lord of the Sith. The prologue makes nice use of 3D with objects flying out of frame, but the effects become less pronounced as the movie progresses.

James Franco never rises to the occasion of convincingly portraying the young wizard as a vintage flim-flam man. You imagine the character as someone like Robert Preston in The Music Man or George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou, a scoundrel with the gift of gab. And it's easy to imagine why Raimi would be drawn to Diggs because Raimi's early days as a filmmaker required the same sense of invention, ingenuity, and salesmanship. You can also draw parallels between Oz and Army of Darkness, both of whom feature a protagonist transported to another land who must overcome their own selfish motivations to defeat an evil force with their unique knowledge.

Franco simply isn't up to the task, not surprising since he wasn't the first choice. The studio wanted Robert Downey Jr. and when he turned it down, they pursued Johnny Depp who was already committed to The Lone Ranger. While Franco could hardly be considered a consolation prize, Depp's previous turns as Ed Wood and Willy Wonka might have made him the perfect pick. Franco frequently takes a backseat to Finley and the feisty China Girl, who fill the roles of adorable sidekicks. Mila Kunis is equally out of depth as the Wicked Witch, a role that doesn't take advantage of her natural comedic skills. Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams pick up the slack and are absolutely stellar as Theodora's fellow spell-casters.

Oz the Great and Powerful was lavished with a budget of $200 million, but all that money couldn't buy this film any of the charm or timelessness of its predecessor.

Rating: ** (*****)

Jack the Giant Slayer

Jack the Giant Slayer - Dir. Bryan Singer (2013)

Fairy tales are ripe for the picking in Hollywood. They come with instant brand recognition around the world and, most importantly, they are in public domain. Studios don't have to dish out thousands of dollars for the rights. Jack the Giant Slayer is the latest to follow in that trend.

Jack (Nicholas Hoult) is a farm boy tilling the land in the kingdom of Cloister. As a young lad, he was fascinated with the story of King Erik. Long ago, a group of monks toyed with magic and created beans that would grow into stalks that reached to the heavens. They unknowingly brought down a race of bloodthirsty giants who proceeded to ransack the world of man. The remaining monks carved a magical crown out of the iron heart of a giant to grant Erik the power to control them and send them back to the land. The crown and the last of the beans were buried with King Erik and became legend.

Through happenstance, Jack trades the family horse for a pouch of those magic beans, much to the chagrin of his uncle who tosses them away. Meanwhile, Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) flees from the castle to escape her arranged marriage to the odious Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci), who has secretly stolen King Erik's crown. On a stormy night, Isabelle seeks shelter in Jack's home just as the bean sprouts and sends her into the land of the giants. Led by the two-headed General Fallon (Bill Nighy), the giants have been searching for a way to return and seek revenge for their past defeat. Jack and members of the king's elite guard climb the beanstalk to rescue the Princess while Roderick plots to enslave the giants and rule all the kingdoms.

Jack the Giant Slayer might be considered this year's John Carter as an overly expensive blockbuster that played to empty theaters. The production budget was almost $200 million and the release date was pushed back from summer of 2012 to the doldrums of February. However, Jack and John Carter do not deserve to be categorized alongside notorious flops such as Heaven's Gate or Ishtar. Make no mistake, Jack the Giant Slayer is far from a great movie, but it's more enjoyable than Bryan Singer's last two films, Superman Returns and Valkyrie. The script sticks rigidly to a predictable formula and most of the humor falls flat. The CGI is a mixed bag. There's no sense of wonder or fear when the characters first encounter the grotesque giants who burp, fart, and pick their noses.

Still, Jack the Giant Slayer is refreshingly straightforward without being wildly revisionist in the manner of Snow White and the Huntsman or Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. It's fast paced without the bloated running time of other epics, something Peter Jackson seems to have forgotten. Jack maintains a lighthearted tone throughout even while the body count rises and rises. It's a bloodless film, but little kids might be spooked at the prospect of a giant biting a man in half, despite the grisly act being committed offscreen.

Nicholas Hoult is getting to the point where he can do no wrong. Fresh off Warm Bodies, Hoult gives another terrific performance for a rather bland character. Eleanor Tomlinson does her best, but her princess gets stuck as the damsel in distress too often. Despite being written as headstrong (she sneaks out of the castle ala Princess Jasmine), she spends most of the movie screaming and waiting to be rescued. Just as Ewan McGregor did his best Alec Guinness impression for the Star Wars prequels, he does his best Errol Flynn here as Elmont, the captain of the king's guard. His Transpotting co-star Ewan Bremner is in full on Spud mode as Roderick's simple-minded toady. Stanley Tucci is a hoot as the villain. With his stringy hair and gapped teeth, he resembles an ancestor of Tim Burton. It's also nice to see Ian McShane cast as someone other than the baddie. He plays Isabelle's father, King Brahmwell. Genre fans should take note as Warwick Davis appears in a cameo and Fallon's other head is voiced by John Kassir, who also did the voice of the Crypt Keeper on HBO's Tales from the Crypt.

Singer directs the action sequences with aplomb, particularly the unique way in which the beanstalks grow. The climax is a chaotic castle siege that remains exciting and visibly coherent without all the choppy editing and shaky cam. There's also a cleverly staged sequence in which Jack rescues Elmont from being baked alive by a giant chef.

Sporting a bloated budget and a scant opening weekend, Jack the Giant Slayer will undoubtedly stand as one of the 2013's biggest bombs. Jack is no Princess Bride, but it should hardly be considered one of the year's worst movies.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Snitch

Snitch - Dir. Ric Roman Waugh (2013)

With his 6'5 frame, burly physique, and boundless charisma, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was destined to grow too large for WWE rings. He's succeeded where other wrestlers (Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin) couldn't with a willingness to expand beyond the obvious action roles he was born to play. Johnson turns in a rare dramatic performance in Snitch, a movie inspired by a 1999 episode of Frontline that weighed in on the pros and cons of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug dealers.

John Matthews (Johnson) runs a successful construction company and lives in a luxurious McMansion with his second wife (Nadine Velazquez) and daughter. His ex (Melina Kanakaredes) and estranged son, Jason (Rafi Gavron), live with modest means. Jason foolishly accepts a package of ecstasy sent by his best friend, not realizing that it is being tracked by the DEA. Jason's pal has narced on him to get out of serving a mandatory ten years in prison for drug distribution. Jason is given the same deal, except he's not involved in the drug trade whatsoever. He has no one to inform on and no desire to entrap his friends. At the mercy of Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon), an ambitious prosecutor bucking for a congressional seat, John proposes to work undercover to snare high profile dealers to earn his son's freedom. In order to get an introduction into the underworld, he enlists the reluctant aid of an ex-con in his employ named Daniel (Jon Bernthal), a former gangbanger trying hard to go straight.

Snitch is directed by former stuntman Ric Roman Waugh, who co-wrote the script with Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road and the upcoming Lone Ranger). The story strains credibility, especially when John researches drug cartels on Wikipedia than drives to a grimy street corner to chat up a random crook. Even in his deepest desperation, a sharp businessman like John should have known better.  And when John mows down members of a Mexican cartel in his 18-wheeler while wielding a shotgun, you can't help but feel Snitch giving up on its sermonizing.

Johnson equates himself well in his most dramatic role to date. Jon Bernthal, who made his name as Shane on The Walking Dead, is cast as that character's polar opposite. He gives the best performance in the film, which may have been more interesting had he and Johnson switched roles. With his bulging biceps hidden within the sleeves of his thick jacket, Johnson engulfs the frame too often to play the everyman. The supporting cast includes Barry Pepper and his tremendous goatee as the DEA agent handling Jason's case, Benjamin Bratt as a Mexican drug lord known as El Topo, and Michael K. Williams typecast as a creepy drug dealer in the vein of Omar Little.

Snitch is a pedestrian action movie masquerading as a socially conscious drama.

Rating: ** (*****)

The Impossible

The Impossible - Dir. Juan Antonio Bayona (2012)

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami stands as one of the worst natural disaster in recorded history with a death toll of nearly 230,000. There are countless tales of loss and survival and The Impossible is just one of those stories.

Maria (Naomi Watts) and Henry Bennett are flying to Thailand for a luxurious Christmas vacation with their three sons – Lucas (Tom Holland), Tomas (Samuel Joslin), and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast). Over the course of their long plane ride, we learn a little bit about the Bennett family. Maria gave up a successful career as a doctor to become a mother while Tomas has entered his tempestuous teenage phase. These problems amount to absolutely nothing when a massive tidal wave crushes their resort. Lucas is swept away with his mother who has been badly injured. Discovered by locals, they are taken to a nearby triage. Meanwhile, back at the resort, Henry makes the heartbreaking decision to leave Tomas and Simon in the care of strangers in order to search for Maria and Lucas.

There isn’t a subtle bone within the body of The Impossible. This is a disaster movie that hits its audience with almost as much force as the tsunami it depicts. Drama unfolds and tears are wrung as the bombastic score swells to manipulate emotion. The film is riddled with Oscar bait moments such as a scene where Henry makes a sorrowful call to his father while other tourists (with eyes welling up) bare witness. Luckily, they’ve cast actors of the caliber of Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, who walk the delicate balance between convincing performances and ham-fisted melodrama. The filmmakers also hired three fine young actors to play their offspring with Tom Holland being of particular note. His scenes with Naomi Watts are the most powerful as the journey of a spoiled boy into adulthood. When Maria hears the cries of a lost child in the distance, Lucas pleads with mom to press on as she needs medical attention. But, Maria cannot and reasons with Lucas that if it were his brothers calling for help wouldn’t he want someone to intervene? Later, when they arrive at the hospital, Lucas searches for any sign of his dad and winds up assisting other patients in finding their missing relatives.

The Impossible garnered some controversy for white-washing the real-life story behind the film. The lead characters were inspired by Spanish couple Enrique and Maria Belón, the latter of whom lost her leg in the disaster. Also, the screenplay was written by Sergio G. Sanchez and directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, the creative team behind the atmospheric horror flick The Orphanage. For some reason, Bayona is listed in the credits and advertising material as J.A. Bayona. Though the Belóns gave the movie their blessing, it is obvious Summit Entertainment felt a white cast with minorities in the background would appeal to a wider audience than a Spanish production. Many critics have argued that focusing solely on the story of an affluent family is a disservice to the hundreds of thousands who didn't have a happy ending. The Bennetts' experience during the tsunami is no less valid than any others. Yet, The Impossible fails to turn their story into a microcosm of the entire event. There are moments where the Thai people come off as little more than the help dutifully serving the affluent vacationers in their midst.

Bayona does a splendid job as director as he creates a thick amount of tension during the climax. The tsunami sequence is impeccably crafted and outdoes Clint Eastwood's Hereafter. Bayona taps into his horror background from the eerie silence just before the wave hits to the harrowing sight of Maria being helplessly swept away.

While Naomi Watts received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actress, it's a case of a great performance in a middling picture. Not everyone will buy into this overwrought tearjerker.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies - Dir. Jonathan Levine (2013)

Summit Entertainment has done gonzo box office with their Twilight series. Now that the franchise is wrapping up, it's no surprise that they and other studios are looking to fill the void. Summit has already found a suitable and superior replacement in Isaac Marion's novel, Warm Bodies, which casts the zombie as an unlikely romantic interest while borrowing elements from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

Warm Bodies might be the first film to take us inside the mind of the zombie. A shuffling and decaying corpse that craves human flesh could hardly be considered leading man material. Luckily, the protagonist is a handsome and introspective young zombie who goes by R (Nicholas Hoult) because he can only remember his first name began with the letter 'r.' He lives inside an old airliner and spends most of his days wandering around an abandoned airport with his fellow walking dead.

Julie (Teresa Palmer) lives with the survivors of humanity inside a walled city under the command of her father, Colonel Grigio (John Malkovich). Julie, her boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco), and best friend Nora (Analeigh Tipton) are sent out as part of a search party to bring back food and medical supplies. The kids are soon swarmed by zombies and R chows down on Perry's brains. Turns out, the reason zombies hunger for human brains is because it allows them to experience their victim's emotions and memories. It is the only way for a zombie to once again feel what it was like to be human. Spurred on by Perry's recollections, R is instantly smitten by the beautiful Julie and rescues her. At the same time, Julie is intrigued by this "corpse" that can talk, that doesn't act like the rest of his kind, and listens to vinyl records. Their romance not only stirs something within R, but the other zombies as well.

Writer/Director Jonathan Levine has a knack for capturing the heartfelt moments of youth as seen in his previous pictures, The Wackness and 50/50. Warm Bodies presents a far more interesting romance than anything from Summit's famed franchise though not without its faults. Levine's film doesn't turn the genre on its ear the way Shaun of the Dead did, which conveyed the idea that humanity was already zombified more succinctly. The soundtrack can sometimes be too hip for its own good when R tries to comfort Julie by spinning tunes like "Shelter from the Storm" by Bob Dylan, "Patience" by Guns 'N' Roses, and "Hungry Heart" By Bruce Springsteen. On the other hand, there is a cute gag using "Pretty Woman" when Levine fakes us out over an expected makeover montage. Because the zombies are the sympathetic protagonists, the movie needed a villain and Warm Bodies provides us with the Bonies, zombies who are so far gone that they have been reduced to desiccated corpses. Despite being charred and emaciated, they are somehow stronger and faster than anything living or undead. Plus, the CGI is never that convincing.

Warm Bodies is the first example of a meet cute that features mass murder and brain eating. Yet, Julie gets over the death of her boyfriend fairly quickly. The script chooses the easy route by revealing that Perry started becoming a bit of a jerk and it doesn't help that they cast Dave Franco, who has made a habit of playing douche-y characters. While someone like Emma Stone might have done more with the role, Teresa Palmer equates herself well as Julie. Despite bearing a resemblance to Kristen Stewart, Palmer has a bit wider acting range and has Nicholas Hoult to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Hoult is able to convey a great deal of emotion with the slightest change in his eyes. The best performance belongs to Rob Corddry as R's best friend Marcus. Corddry has generally been cast as loudmouth jerks, but as a zombie, he has to do a lot with very little and turns in something funny and surprisingly soulful.

Warm Bodies is a welcome change of pace from the dreary releases currently packing theaters.

Rating: *** (*****)