Laggies

Laggies - Dir. Lynn Shelton (2014)

As many indie directors do, Lynn Shelton became a recognizable name following the heralded debut at Sundance of her first film Humpday. She avoided the sophomore slump with her next (and best) picture, Your Sister's Sister, though she stumbled with her third feature Touchy Feely, which received a tepid response from critics. Shelton finds her stride once again with Laggies, which is the first film she did not also write. The screenplay is credited to Andrea Seigel, a YA author now trying her hand in the movie business.

Laggies is Shelton's version of the man-child comedy that Judd Apatow and Adam McKay have mastered with a feminist touch. Keira Knightley stars as Megan Burch, a highly educated 28-year old who lacks any ambition. She hasn't changed much since high school. Megan still hangs out with the same circle of friends, dates the same guy, and retains the same puerile sense of humor. She earns a quick buck by occasionally twirling a sign for her dad's accounting firm.

Megan's world is rocked during the wedding of her best friend, Allison (Ellie Kemper). Her nice, but bland, boyfriend Anthony (Mark Webber) proposes to her just before Megan catches her father (Jeff Garlin) receiving a handjob from another woman. Megan feels the scene and winds up at a convenience store where she agrees to purchase alcohol for Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her friends. Next thing you know, Megan decides to lay low at Annika's house after telling everyone she's going away to a career counseling retreat. In an improbable turn of events, Annika's single father, Craig (Sam Rockwell), seems all right with this stranger staying at his home. Romance predictably blossoms between the unlikely housemates.

The central plot of Laggies strains credibility with a premise straight out of a hackneyed sitcom. It's quite the jump in logic for a dad to be so blasé about an adult sleeping in his teenage daughter's bedroom. Everything wraps up in a neat little bow though it takes longer than half an hour and it's left in the air if the protagonist learned any valuable life lessons. Credit goes to Shelton for treating her characters with such a gentle hand that you become invested in their stunted emotional journey.

A winning cast also helps. Keira Knightley's American accent is a bit off-putting and it requires a leap of faith to imagine the British beauty as a slacker on a street corner spinning a sign. Still, she throws herself into the part and it's satisfying to see her in something so light after the heavy duty lifting in A Dangerous Method or the overwhelming schlock of Pirates of the Caribbean. Knightley's casting is doubly ironic since actresses of her age are generally cast in the Chloe Moretz role. Moretz herself is a natural. She and Gretchen Mol, as the mother who abandoned her, share a low-key scene that is simultaneously tender and heartbreaking. It's one of the best moments of Laggies alongside just about anything with Sam Rockwell, who shines as the glib and somewhat awkward father.

Laggies is such a slight film that you are bound to forget it just as soon as the end credits roll. Yet, Shelton gives us enough of a refreshing take on the romantic comedy to consider this worth a rent.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

The Equalizer

The Equalizer – Dir. Antoine Fuqua (2014)

It's been well over a decade since director Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington first collaborated on Training Day, a movie that earned the latter an Academy Award for Best Actor. While Washington has been churning out a combination of action and drama, Fuqua's output hasn't been quite as fruitful. He's helmed a couple of arguably decent action flicks (Shooter, Olympus Has Fallen) and some forgettable fare (King Arthur, Brooklyn's Finest). Now, the pair has teamed up for the second time for a film that is most definitely not Training Day.

The Equalizer is based on the 80's television series about Robert McCall (originally played by Edward Woodward), a former CIA agent, who became a freelance troubleshooter for anyone in need. Think of him as a one man A-Team. Washington easily steps into the role with McCall's background much more mysterious this time around. What we do know is that he's retired from his former life and now living in a Spartan, one bedroom Boston apartment. He's the manager at a Home Mart (a Home Depot-esque megastore) and offers kindly advice to those around him. He spends many sleepless nights drinking tea and reading all those novels people tell you to read at a 24hr diner straight out of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks." There, McCall befriends a young girl named Alina (Chloe Grace Moretz) who is forced to work as a prostitute for particularly nasty Russian gangsters.

McCall quickly dispatches with the villains after Alina is nearly beaten into a coma. Too late does he find out that they weren't lowly pimps, but integral cogs in the east coast arm of the Russian Mafia. The powerful head of the organization, Mr. Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich), sends in his chief enforcer Teddy (Marton Csokas) to clean up the mess. Meanwhile, McCall keeps himself busy dealing with a stick-up man and two dirty cops.

The Equalizer isn't about shattering genre conventions, but wallowing in them in the best possible manner. This is the type of movie where cargo ships and oil tankers explode as Denzel calmly walks away without ever looking back. He dispatches bad guys quickly and efficiently with the fighting style we've seen plenty of times in the Taken and Bourne films. In a nice touch, McCall generally uses whatever is handy to kill his enemies. This is especially spotlighted during the climax inside the Home Mart, which plays out like an R-rated version of Home Alone.

While the action is fun, there's no flair to it. Fuqua's direction is surprisingly pedestrian. Even the sequences where McCall goes into Equalizer-vision, slowing things down and assessing the situation, were done far better by Guy Ritchie in Sherlock Holmes. Only occasionally do the visuals pop, such as when Fuqua references Rear Window in a scene where Teddy claims another victim. The screenplay by Richard Wenk (The Mechanic, The Expendables 2) doesn't grasp the concept of subtext. The novels McCall reads, like The Old Man and the Sea and Don Quixote, serve as obvious commentary for the various acts of The Equalizer.

At 59, Denzel doesn't look his age at all. Along with Liam Neeson, he's got the presence and instant credibility to serve as an action hero. Here, Denzel dials it down and underplays the role to enhance the character's cool demeanor and ordered lifestyle. It's a stark contrast to Marton Csokas playing it as an old school, menacing Bond villain with tattoos of devils across his torso. Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman are a welcome sight as they pop in quickly as McCall's former CIA handlers. There's definitely a Taxi Driver element to the friendship between McCall and Alina, but Chloe Moretz disappears for a majority of the movie when it decides death and destruction are more interesting.

The Equalizer is a perfectly acceptable compliment to similar action movies such as Man on Fire, Taken, and Jack Reacher. The basic elements are enjoyable enough to forget that Fuqua and Denzel do little to transcend clichés.

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

Kick-Ass 2

Kick-Ass 2 - Dir. Jeff Wadlow (2013)

Scotsman Mark Millar is one of the top writers currently in the comic book industry. He's able to find a unique slant to traditional superhero tropes. Millar's magnum opus, Superman: Red Son, is a brilliant look at what would have happened if baby Kal-El had landed in Stalin Russian instead of Smallville, Kansas. Millar's talent as an author is frequently lost by his proclivities for being a provocateur. His works, such as Wanted and Nemesis, are known to frequently use profanity and violence for shock value. Millar has also come under fire for his cavalier attitude towards the depiction of rape. This leads us to Kick-Ass, which initially debuted as an 8-issue mini-series in 2008 and gained notice for Hit-Girl, a 10-year old vigilante described as a cross between Rambo and Polly Pocket. Hit-Girl casually cursed like a sailor and eviscerated bad guys with a variety of deadly weapons. When it came time to turn the comic into a live-action movie, director Matthew Vaughn raised the $30 million budget himself when studios balked at the violence and the young age of the character that caused most of it. The first Kick-Ass film didn't do blockbuster numbers, but it did enough off a modest budget to warrant sequels.

Kick-Ass 2 is based on the second mini-series and the Hit-Girl spin-off that bridges the gap between the two stories. Some time has passed since the events of the previous picture in which geeky Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) donned a green wetsuit to moonlight as the superhero Kick-Ass. He mostly got the crap beaten out of him while pint-size dynamo, Mindy Macready aka Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), did all the real damage. Dave has hung up the tights, but dons them once more to escape his dreary existence as a high school senior. His past exploits as Kick-Ass have inspired dozens of other New Yorkers to put on their costumes, including Dave's best friend Marty (Clark Duke), now known as Battle Guy. Together, they join Justice Forever, a superhero team founded by Col. Stars & Stripes (Jim Carrey), a grizzled ex-mob enforcer who went legit after finding Jesus.

Now that he's playing in the big leagues, Dave receives further training from Mindy, but the sparring sessions end when her guardian and late-father's former partner, Marcus (Morris Chestnut), catches her in costume during a Ferris Bueller race to the house. Forbidden from being Hit-Girl, Mindy must acclimate to civilian life and dealing with one of her most fearsome foes ever, mean high school girls. Meanwhile, Dave's archenemy, Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), vows revenge and transforms himself into the Motherfucker, the world's first supervillain. He gathers his own team of thugs and killers led by a buff KGB assassin dubbed Mother Russia (Olga Kurkulina).

There were mixed message with Kick-Ass. It wanted to deconstruct the superhero genre and show real world consequences to costumed crime fighting. Then, it ended with the title character flying around on a jetpack and blowing a man up with a bazooka. Still, it was a fun action movie that hung on a bravura performance from young Chloe Moretz. Kick-Ass 2 is just a mess.

Matthew Vaughn had a flair for action, but he only serves as producer for the sequel. The reins are handed over to writer/director Jeff Wadlow, whose uninspiring resume includes Cry_Wolf and Never Back Down. Somehow, he's also managed to land X-Force as his next picture. Wadlow has no knack for action, employing the same choppy approach that too many American filmmakers adopt. A sequence where Mindy clings to a van full of mobsters is the movie's most poorly constructed set piece. Close-ups of Moretz in front of a green screen are embarrassingly obvious.

Kick-Ass himself has regressed as a character. He's less competent and less interesting in Kick-Ass 2 with his primary motivation being boredom. No, the true star of the sequel is Hit-Girl. Moretz manages to convey all the heartbreak that comes with bullying and adolescent awkwardness. However, Wadlow has embraced Millar's preoccupation with juvenile humor. Any emotional payoff from that storyline is tossed out in favor of a sight gag involving projectile vomiting and diarrhea. In fact, any time Kick-Ass 2 tries to inject some semblance of gravitas; it's undercut by jokes done in poor taste. Two deaths are expected to be taken seriously, yet the movie has such a casual attitude toward death that we feel nothing, except maybe nausea. Mother Russia brutally kills several police officers to a rock version of the Tetris theme and an attempted rape scene is played for laughs. This is tame stuff compared to the source material, which featured a gang rape, children being gunned down, and a decapitated dog.

It's also a shame that Kick-Ass 2 doesn't fully utilize its fantastic supporting cast. An unrecognizable Jim Carrey gives his liveliest performance in years in the small role of the Colonel. Carrey really disappears into the part thanks to some prosthetics and thick New York accent. Taking on these character roles can really revitalize his career. Too bad they aren't in better movies. John Leguizamo and an exuberant Donald Faison are wasted along with Iain Glen from Game of Thrones in a throwaway cameo.

Kick-Ass 2 is an out and out disappointment rife with abrupt tonal shifts and sloppy storytelling.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows - Dir. Tim Burton (2012)

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are almost synonymous with each other. Their partnership as actor and director have resulted in great films like Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. Recently, Depp and Burton's efforts have been hit and miss. While I enjoyed Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd, their version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory left much to be desired and lacked the charms of the Gene Wilder film. Alice in Wonderland was a soulless exercise in stylized CGI, despite the fact that it made over a billion dollars at the box office. For their eighth film together, Depp and Burton have chosen to remake Dark Shadows, an ABC soap opera that aired between 1966 and 1971. It's been a passion project for the two as both were huge fans of the series. The original Dark Shadows was a low-rated daytime program until it introduced the character of Barnabas Collins, an ageless vampire played by Jonathan Frid. Afterwards, the show became a cult classic and a staple of the early Sci-Fi Channel.

Frid recently passed away in April, but not before filming a cameo in the picture alongside several former cast members.

Succeeding him in the role is Johnny Depp, who recounts his tale of woe in the opening prologue. Beginning in the late-1700's, the Collins family emigrates from Liverpool, England to Maine where they found the seaside city of Collinsport and a successful fishing business. All is well for Barnabas until he spurns the love of servant girl, Angelique (Eva Green), for chaste Josette (Bella Heathcote). Angelique places a curse on them, causing Josette to jump off a cliff and turn Barnabas into a vampire. The townspeople lock him into a casket and bury him alive for nearly two hundred years when some unsuspecting construction workers release him.

Awakening in 1972, Barnabas is confounded by fashion, automobiles, and the Carpenters. His beloved Collinwood manor has fallen into disrepair as have his descendents. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) struggles to keep the family business afloat and control her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Moretz). Elizabeth's shiftless brother, Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), spends most his days stealing from his relatives and womanizing. Roger's son, David (Gulliver McGrath), has been withdrawn ever since his mother's death years ago. The family has a live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help him cope though she's made no progress at all. The Collins family has also hired a new governess for the boy in Victoria Winters (also Heathcote), who is the spitting image of Barnabas's lost paramour. Rounding out the Collins household is Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis, a drunken caretaker who looks like he previously worked at the Overlook Hotel.

Barnabas is shocked to discover that Angelique is still alive, having transformed herself into a pillar of the community having founded a rival fishing cannery. She has vowed to win Barnabas's love or destroy him.

As one would expect from a Tim Burton film, Dark Shadows features visually stunning costumes and production design. It's all captured handsomely by cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, who previously shot Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie and A Very Long Engagement. The gothic atmosphere makes Dark Shadows seem like Beetlejuice with a budget, except it lacks any of the allure or originality of Burton's classic comedy. The fault lies within the scattershot screenplay by John August, which was rewritten by Seth Grahame-Smith, the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It's as if Grahame-Smith and Burton decided to cram several seasons' worth of storylines into a single movie.

Following the prologue, the film opens with Victoria's narration as she arrives in Collinsport by train. Logically, she should a main character and serve as the audience's point-of-view, instead she disappears for nearly forty minutes. She pops in and out of the third act with the love story addressed at the last minute. The same goes for Barnabas's relationship with David. It's said that David looks up to the immortal one, but none of that comes out because they only share one or two scenes together. The writers focus more time on how silly the 70's were with lazy gags about lava lamps and dirty hippies though there is a funny joke involving a McDonald's sign. The score by the great Danny Elfman lacks any memorable hooks while being drowned out by a soundtrack that includes Barry White, the Moody Blues, and Alice Cooper, who cameos as himself.

The weak story means the actors have to work that much harder. Michelle Pfeiffer, who hasn't worked with Burton since Batman Returns, gives a strong performance as do Jonny Lee Miller and Helena Bonham Carter, but none of their characters are fleshed out enough. Chloe Moretz is good as the sullen teenager with a deadpan delivery reminiscent of Christina Ricci in The Addams Family. Johnny Depp gives another quirky performance as the immortal vampire with the chalk white face and elongated fingers ala Max Schreck in Nosferatu. Eva Green is perfectly cast as the sultry witch Angelique and she's easily the highlight of Dark Shadows. Green plays it big in a sexy, over-the-top manner befitting the film's soap opera roots.

It may be time for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp to call a break, or, at least, devote their time to an original concept rather than an adaptation or remake. Dark Shadows pales in comparison to their past work. Dark Shadows has a hard time deciding if it wants to be a gothic romance, a dark drama, or a slapstick comedy and it fails at every instance.

Rating: ** (*****)

Texas Killing Fields

Texas Killing Fields - Dir. Ami Canaan Mann (2011)

Texas Killing Fields was inspired by the unsolved disappearances and murders of over thirty young women along a lonely stretch of highway between Galveston and Houston, Texas. Of particular note is an abandoned oil field outside the small town of League City, colloquially known as "the Killing Fields," where four of the bodies have been found. These crimes have dated as far back as the 1970's.

Tough guys Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Sam Worthington are Brian Heigh and Mike Souder, two gruff detectives patrolling Texas City, a rural burg surrounded by desolate bayous and rusty oil derricks. Heigh is a weary veteran, who has moved from New York with his wife (Annabeth Gish) due to unspecified reasons. Souder is a hothead and often clashes with his partner.

Heigh also looks after Little Anne Sigler (Chloe Grace Moretz), a girl who is usually found wandering the streets because her drug addicted mother doesn't want her around while she's entertaining male company.

The detectives are investigating the murder of a young prostitute and Souder believes it's an open and shut case against her accused pimp. Heigh isn't so sure, especially when the mutilated body of a missing woman is discovered in the Fields by Souder's ex-wife, Det. Pam Stall (Jessica Chastain). Souder believes they shouldn't get involved as the Fields are outside their jurisdiction, but Heigh feels differently.

Texas Killing Fields was written by Don Ferrarone, a former DEA agent who has worked as a technical advisor on films like Man on Fire and Miami Vice. Speaking of which, Michael Mann served as producer while his daughter, Ami Canaan Mann directed. Her style certainly shares similarities with her father judging by the way she composes a shootout and car chase. The tone of the film is closest to Manhunter, Michael Mann's oft-forgotten adaptation of an early Hannibal Lecter novel. Don't expect Texas Killing Fields to follow in the relentlessly dark footsteps of Seven or Silence of the Lambs.

The film had been in development hell for a while with Danny Boyle once attached as director. Boyle once stated that the script was so dark, it might never be made. It's quite clear that many concessions were made to make the final product more palpable to mainstream audiences. Instead of an unsettling thriller, Texas Killing Fields is more of a dreary procedural littered with half-finished subplots. Much like Seven, the story veers towards a pessimistic view that the bad guy can get away and that darkness can consume even the best of us. Yet, these themes are undone by a tacked on happy ending.

Luckily the cast is talented enough to elevate the material slightly above mediocre levels. With his deep, gravelly voice, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was an excellent choice to play the burdened Brian Heigh. Sam Worthington doesn't fare as well. The Australian-born actor sometimes has a difficult time pulling off an American accent; a Southern one was too much to ask. His speech is all over the map. Then, there's the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain, who had hear breakout year in 2011. She won rave reviews for her roles in The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, and The Help. However, her work here and in The Debt was overlooked, likely because both films were rather subpar. Still, she's the best thing in either picture. Also present in Fields is Chloe Moretz in a role more subdued than her turns in Let Me In and Kick-Ass. She has the air of a young Jodie Foster here and it's a shame she wasn't given more to do as Little Anne served as the heart of the movie.

Despite an excellent cast and an intriguing true crime premise, Texas Killing Fields can't muster up the suspense of an average episode of CSI.

Rating: ** (*****)

Hugo

Hugo - Dir. Martin Scorsese (2011)

Martin Scorsese has become synonymous with crime films and gritty urban dramas. When he has ventured outside his wheelhouse, it was to make pictures like The Age of Innocence or The Last Temptation of Christ. Needless to say, Scorsese is one of the last names you’d expect to direct a children’s movie, let alone one shot in 3D. But, he does just that with Hugo, based on the illustrated novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick.

Set in post-WWI Paris, the film follows an orphaned boy named Hugo (Asa Butterfield), whose father (Jude Law) died in a museum fire. Hugo was sent to live with his alcoholic uncle (Ray Winstone), who worked at the Montparnasse train station. There, Hugo was taught how to maintain the clocks until his uncle’s disappearance. On his own, he survives by stealing food and avoiding the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). One of Hugo’s few possessions is a mechanical man left abandoned in his father’s museum, which they attempted to restore before his death. It has the ability to write and once repaired, Hugo hopes it will lead to some message from his dad. In order to do so, he steals parts from a toy store run by a man referred to by his granddaughter Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) as Papa George (Ben Kingsley).

Spoiler alert.

I knew almost nothing about Hugo aside from a trailer depicting a boy living in a train station where something vaguely magical happens. That is where the film seems to head in the first act until Hugo learns Papa George is actually Georges Méliès. The former stage magician saw the potential in this newfangled contraption known as the movie camera. Méliès was the first to create elaborate sets and special effects in his pictures. He was the first to make fantasy and sci-fi movies. Méliès could even be considered one of the earliest victims of piracy as Thomas Edison exhibited his most famous film, A Trip to the Moon, in the States without giving Méliès a dime. Méliès made close to 500 silent pictures, but the majority has been lost over time. As depicted in Hugo, his studio eventually went bankrupt and most of his film reels were recycled into boot heels. The real-life Méliès really did work as a toy salesman in the Montparnasse station though he never met an ingenuous boy. Together, they forge an unlikely friendship as kindred souls lost in the clockwork machinery of a modernizing society.

Hugo acts as a love letter to early cinema and an impassioned plea for film preservation. Isabelle, who has never seen a movie, is introduced to the medium by Hugo with wide-eyed wonder. Together, they learn everything they can about Papa George and try to repair fix his broken spirit as Hugo has been doing with his automaton. Through Hugo and Isabelle, Scorsese looks to introduce a new audience to silent film. He makes sure to sprinkle in plenty of references to many of the most renowned works, such as Harold Lloyd's famous clock hanging sequence from Safety Last. This is when Hugo really shines, but it takes a while to get there. With a runtime of over two hours, Hugo is about twenty minutes too long with a first half that is meandering and unsure.

The train station becomes Hugo's movie screen as he observes the lives of the other workers in the station, such as the awkward flirtations between an elderly couple played by Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour as well as the one between the Inspector and a flower girl (Emily Mortimer). This is when Hugo gets bogged down with subplots that don't really add anything to the overall narrative. The Inspector himself is portrayed alternately as a foreboding villain and bumbling comic relief. Though he's played wonderfully by Sacha Baron Cohen, Scorsese never strikes the right tone for the character. Scorsese may have mastered many aspects of filmmaking, but physical comedy isn't one of them and most of the slapstick gags and wacky chases fall flat.

Visually, Hugo is nothing short of a masterpiece. Scorsese has immaculately crafted the world of Hugo with long-time collaborators like cinematographer Robert Richardson, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, and production designer Dante Ferretti. Scorsese's vision is so detailed that he even throws in background cameos by actors resembling James Joyce and Django Reinhardt. The movie's opening tracking shot that glides through the station platform and inside the clock tower will immediately bring to mind the iconic tracking shot from Goodfellas. Scorsese also makes better use of the 3D process than any other film aside from Coraline or Cave of Forgotten Dreams, even if it isn't essential to tell the story. He has created an immersive environment with a clear range and depth of field while adding a sense of wonder to all the moving gears and machinery. Even some of the subtler moments are given a little extra oomph thanks to the 3D, such as a sequence in which Sacha Baron Cohen's enormous head emerges from the screen to symbolize how the Inspector has grown a new awareness of the happenings around him. There's also something very strange about watching A Trip to the Moon in 3D.

Chloe Grace Moretz adds another fine performance to her resume as Isabelle and she often overshadows Asa Butterfield as the titular lead. The adults are all great with Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, and Michael Stuhlbarg as a film historian (and Scorsese's stand-in) all rounding out the excellent ensemble. However, the film lives and dies by the commanding and heartfelt performances from Ben Kingsley as Georges Méliès and Helen McCrory (better known as Narcissa Malfoy) as his wife Jeanne.

Hugo has received glowing reviews from many critics. Unfortunately, I don't share the same love for the film, which I found to be moving, yet uneven and overlong. As a tribute to silent cinema, Hugo, might have appeal more to adults and cinephiles than children.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Let Me In

Let Me In - Dir. Matt Reeves (2010)

It's rare when a remake equals the original and even rarer when it surpasses its progenitor. Unfortunately, most remakes just don't need to exist. Let Me In is just such a remake. The original film, Let the Right One In, is easily one of the best vampire movies ever made. Its only crime was apparently having subtitles, which means it doesn't exist in Hollywood's mind. Based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In examined the darkness inside humanity through a chilling, unconventional love story that puts the teenage soap opera pap of the Twilight Saga to dire shame. The rights for the American adaptation were picked up by Hammer Films, producers of many classic Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. The reins of the remake were handed to Matt Reeves, the director of Cloverfield, a Blair Witch-style take on the giant monster movie. Despite talks that Reeves would re-interpret the Lindqvist's book, Let Me In is simply a rehash of its predecessor.

Let Me In is set in the far removed town of Los Alamos, New Mexico in the year 1983. The Road's Kodi Smit-McPhee plays Owen drifting through the awkward pangs of pre-adolescence. His parents are in the midst of a messy divorce. Dad is never seen and is only ever heard during one phone call. Mom is always working and when she's home, spends much of her time soused on the couch. To say Owen is being bullied at school is an understatement. He is being tormented by a trio of cruel bullies and the adults seem blissfully ignorant of it all.

Enter a strange young girl named Abby, played by Hit-Girl herself, Chloe Moretz. She moves into the apartment next door to Owen in the middle of the night with her "father" (Richard Jenkins). There's something odd about this little girl and not just because she walks around barefoot in the dead of winter. Owen comes to learn she is a vampire. The "father" acts as her Renfield stalking his prey and draining them of blood. Despite his initial fears, Owen grows closer to Abby as she encourages him to fight back against his antagonists.

Let Me In manages to be a surprisingly effective thriller by using the original film as its blueprint. Many of the best scenes are lifted directly out of Tomas Alfredson's version, including the climatic sequence at the gymnasium pool. Some scenes are ramped up for an American audience accustomed to blood or existential quandaries. One of the big changes in the remake is a harrowing auto accident as Abby's guardian attempts to take his latest victim. It is one of the few times in which Matt Reeves asserts his own identity as takes the camera along for the ride in the backseat. While Alfredson favored long shots to accentuate the loneliness of his lead characters, Reeves goes for close-ups to capture their alienation directly. He also excises the subplots involving Owen's neighbors thus turning them into faceless fodder for Abby's hunger.

Let Me In also lacks any of the subtleties of the original film. Abby doesn't simply feed on her victims, but practically mauls them. She climbs onto their bodies like a spider. Reeves heavily relies on unnecessary CGI for the attacks, which is blatantly obvious even though they are mostly hidden in the shadows. Reeves also hammers in the themes of good and evil. An unnamed detective (Elias Koteas) believes the murders to be the work of Satanists, the religious nature of Owen's mother causes the rift in her marriage, and everything is set under the specter of Ronald Reagan. Reeves further familiarizes the movie's setting by referencing 80's pop culture throughout. Owen's love of Culture Club and Now & Later candy belies the darkness that surrounds him, just as the cheesier aspects of the 80's served as a stark contrast to its Cold War politics. Reeves serves up a cute juxtaposition to Abby's vampirism when Owen introduces her to the gameplay of Pac-Man.

The film's young leads are both excellent and each brings a heavy soulfulness that isn't commonly found among actors of their age. The other main roles are filled by veteran character actors Richard Jenkins and Elias Koteas, the latter of whom is less creepy than usual.

Let Me In will surely serve as an enthralling thriller for those who have yet to see Let the Right One In, a truly unique twist on the vampire genre. However, the burden of knowledge will rear its head for anyone familiar with the original. The remake can't escape its feeling of 'been there, done that.'

Rating: **

(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer - Dir. Marc Webb (2009)


(500) Days of Summer is the breath of fresh air sorely needed in the stagnant world of the romantic comedy. The booming voice of an omniscient narrator states, ”This is not a love story,” before we are taken on a fractured journey through the highs and lows of a whirlwind relationship.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Tom, a button-downed hipster who aspired to be an architect, but now writes sappy greeting cards to pay the bills. He falls for Zooey Deschanel’s Summer Finn, the office’s new assistant. She’s infuriatingly free-spirited and does not believe in love or soul mates, much to the dismay of Tom, the old-fashioned romantic. As the prototypical “manic pixie dream girl,” Deschanel’s character isn’t far removed from her previous roles in Yes Man or Gigantic.

The film unfolds in non-chronological fashion as the 500 day courtship of Tom and Summer is revealed. The narrative jumps from the budding moments of the relationship to its slow disintegration. We watch the young lovers bonding over karaoke where JGL croons “Here Comes Your Man” by The Pixies and Deschanel covers Nancy Sinatra’s “Sugar Town.” Tom lists all the tiny features he loves about Summer, then lists those very same features as what he hates about her the most. Director Marc Webb, working off a script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, juxtaposes the couple’s happier moments with a sullen post-breakup Tom. From time to time, Tom seeks advice from his nerdy roommates (Matthew Gray Gubler and Geoffrey Arend) or his exceedingly wise younger sister (Hit-Girl herself Chloe Moretz).

Throughout the film, they utilize inventive ways to play out the highs and lows of their love affair. After consummating their relationship, Tom engages in an elaborate dance number to Hall & Oates. Staring at his reflection, he only sees a dashing Han Solo wink back at him. A split-screen sequence shows us the heartbreaking gap between Tom’s hopeful expectations to the crashing reality. A gag involving a tired spoof of Godard and Bergman falls flat.

(500) Days of Summer breathes new life into a familiar story through visually inventing means.

Rating: ***

Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass - Dir. Matthew Vaughn (2010)


”With no power, comes no responsibility.”

Comic book superheroes in a real world setting have been a hot topic for many recent action films. Iron Man and Christopher Nolan’s Bat-films have attempted to ground larger-than-life heroes in a more realistic setting. Watchmen took a heady approach in its depiction of the socio-political impact of costumed individuals while Hancock went a more comedic route. Now, Kick-Ass brings us a hero for today’s MySpace generation.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is your everyday, run-of-the-mill comic book fanboy. He’s geeky, gawky, and dutifully hits his local comic shop every week with the only two friends he’s got. Dave’s only superpower is the self-described ability to be invisible to girls, especially his long-time crush, Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca). One day, Dave orders a green scuba suit off eBay and fashions himself a pair of batons in order to fight crime as a masked vigilante. Thus, Kick-Ass is born, not out of a childhood trauma or intricate revenge fantasy, but merely out of an idle musing.

As Kick-Ass, Dave’s first foray into crime fighting leads to him being stabbed and struck by a car. Unperturbed, dons the outfit once more to defend the victim of a gang beating. This time around, eyewitnesses record the fight via camera phones and upload the footage to YouTube. Suddenly, Kick-Ass is a viral sensation inspiring others to follow suit, no pun intended. Chief among them is former cop Damon Macready and his pig-tailed daughter Mindy who become the dynamic duo of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. Together, they wage a brutal war against mob boss Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong). With a pair of caped crusaders taking apart his drug operation, D’Amico turns to his nebbish son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who becomes the Red Mist in order to lure the other heroes out into the open.

Kick-Ass was based on a creator-owned mini-series published by Marvel, written by Mark Millar (who also wrote Wanted) with art by John Romita Jr. Anyone familiar with Millar’s work will recognize his fingerprints all over the property, which was originally pitched as Spider-Man meets Superbad. Employing shock and awe tactics in his writing techniques, Kick-Ass is profane and unrepentantly violent. So much so that director Matthew Vaughn financed the picture independently after being turned down by every major studio. After raising the $30 million budget himself, footage was screened at Comic-Con to an overwhelmingly positive response and the film was picked up for distribution by Lionsgate.

At the center of the controversy is the character of Hit-Girl, played by a then 11-year old Chloe Moretz. She’s a scene-stealer with a confident presence rare in such a young actress. Plenty of comparisons to Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver have been made. She’s a pint-size, death dealing dynamo. She’s Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, but small enough to fit in your pocket. The fact that someone so one is inflicting violence and having violence inflicted upon her has gotten many in an uproar. Roger Ebert has labeled the film as “morally reprehensible” for its depiction of Hit-Girl. It may churn some stomachs, but it’s hard for me to take any of it seriously when she’s hacking and slashing baddies to the theme song from The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.

Hit-Girl is a logical extension of the slightly creepy comic book tradition of the kid sidekick. DC Comics introduced the first kid sidekick in 1940 as a way to include a character for children to identify with. Never made sense to me, why would anyone want to be Robin when they could be Batman? In any event, Robin was a huge hit and pretty soon nearly every superhero leapt into action with a pre-pubescent costumed cohort with names like Sandy the Golden Boy and Stuff the Chinatown Kid. Kick-Ass brings the idea of reckless child endangerment into the 21st century with a young girl raised completely on comics, violent video games, and John Woo movies. The point is hammered home during one of Hit-Girl’s flurries as the film switches to the POV of a first-person shooter.

Most of the actors understand the over-the-top tone of the film and play it so, especially Nicolas Cage and Mark Strong. The always idiosyncratic Cage brings his own flourishes to the character. In his civilian guise, he’s Damon MacCready, an ex-cop bent on revenge. Rather than playing him as Dirty Harry, Cage gives him a Ward Cleaver quality with a Revenge of the Nerds-like laugh and a penchant for referring to his daughter as “child” and “baby doll.” As Big Daddy, he speaks with a deliberate, uneven staccato in a clear-cut homage to Adam West. The go-to-guy for villains, Mark Strong is excellent once again as the bad guy. He’s everything you expect from a mob boss.

The action sequences are handled well. Vaughn doesn’t rely on the usual quick cuts and tight close-ups that only manage to obscure the on-screen action. Vaughn had previously been attached to direct X-Men: The Last Stand and Thor, but finally gets to cut loose on a comic book movie with Kick-Ass. Vaughn formerly worked as Guy Ritchie’s producer on Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch before making his directorial debut on Layer Cake (after Ritchie declined). He’s become a far more versatile director than Ritchie.

The main weakness of Kick-Ass lies in the love story between Dave and Katie. Under the false assumption that he is gay, Dave becomes Katie’s BFF and the pair engage in ludicrous activities like rubbing tanning lotion on each other while nearly nude. The end result is equally unbelievable and departs from the source material. A light spoiler for the comic, but the hero does not get the girl.

Kick-Ass subverts the trappings of the superhero genre then revels in them becoming pure nerd wish fulfillment in the end.

Rating: *** ½

Bolt

Bolt – Dir. Byron Howard & Chris Williams (2008)


Bolt began as the brainchild of Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch). The story involved a dog (the star of a hit TV show) getting lost in the Nevada desert with a one-eyed cat and a mutant rabbit. Sanders left the project after butting heads with Pixar CEO John Lasseter, now in charge of creative for Disney Animation. The final product definitely has touches of the Pixar brand, but doesn’t reach the heights of their last two efforts, Ratatouille and Wall-E.

The eponymous lead character, Bolt, remains the same, a white German Shepherd who believes he has superpowers and everything on his show is real. He’s accidentally shipped to New York City and must make his way back to L.A. in order to rescue his "person," Penny (voiced by teenybopper sensation Miley Cyrus). Along the way, he picks up a sassy street-smart cat, Mittens, played by Susie Essman, best known as the foul-mouthed wife of Jeff Garlin on Curb Your Enthusiasm. She’s essentially a G-rated version of that character. Rounding out the group is a tubby hamster named Rhino who’s even more delusional than Bolt.

The film opens up with a rousing action sequence, a chase through the streets of L.A. It’s wonderfully paced and animated, the type of sequence you might find in a Jerry Bruckheimer production. The rest of the film is derivative of other pictures such as The Truman Show, Incredible Journey, and even Toy Story 2. The cute animals eventually make their way home and Bolt learns he doesn’t need extraordinary abilities to be special. We learn that good old-fashioned, Midwest values are better than those found in gaudy, superficial Hollywood.

Still, Bolt is both entertaining and heartwarming. Unlike the majority of generic CG animated movies, Bolt isn’t relying on snarky pop culture references and stunt casting in its celebrity voice actors. Kids will definitely enjoy themselves and so will the parents and older audience members.

It’s been approximately a decade and a half since Disney’s modern-era glory days of Aladdin, Lion King, Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. Bolt seems like a step in the right direction and an indication that the House of Mouse is on an upswing. It’s a refreshing treat after the stale taste of flops like Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. Hopefully, we’ll see more films like this and less of the awful, needless direct-to-video sequels.

Rating: ***