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 (*****)

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: *** (*****)

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class - Dir. Matthew Vaughn (2011)

X = $

It’s a simple formula that has worked out for Marvel Comics for decades. Put the letter ‘X’ in the title and you’re almost guaranteed high sales figures. Development began in 1989 for a feature film based on Marvel’s biggest franchise, but it wouldn’t be until 2000 that an X-Men picture would finally see the light of day. X-Men came at the cusp of a new age where comic book movies are now a staple of the Hollywood machine. Its sequel, X2: X-Men United, was even better and widely considered to be one of the best comic book adaptations. The franchise lost steam with the third installment, X-Men: The Last Stand, and spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The behind-the-scenes drama seemed more interesting than either of the later films.

Director Bryan Singer defected to Warner Brothers to helm the disappointing Superman Returns. Fox rushed production on Last Stand with Matthew Vaughn as director. However, Vaughn would drop out a month before principal photography and Brett Ratner replaced him. Singer and Vaughn have returned with X-Men: First Class, a prequel/reboot that ties into the first two films while ignoring the events of Last Stand and Wolverine. The screenplay passed through numerous hands with the original draft by Josh Schwartz, the creator of teen-centric TV dramas like The OC and Gossip Girl. Elements from a proposed X-Men Origins: Magneto project by Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air) was merged with a new draft by Jamie Moss (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), which was rewritten by the Thor duo of Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz and again by Vaughn & Jane Goldman.

First Class takes us back to the opening sequence of the first X-Men with a young Erik Lehnsherr utilizing his magnetic powers for the first time as a concentration camp prisoner. Meanwhile, in affluent Westchester County, a very young Charles Xavier meets a shapeshifting girl named Raven, who he adopts as a sister. Years pass and an adult Xavier (James McAvoy) attends Oxford to study genetic mutations while Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) works as a waitress. While Xavier uses his telepathic powers to pick up women, Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) hunts down fugitive Nazis. At the top of his hit list is the sadistic camp doctor who murdered his mother. That doctor has reinvented himself as Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a millionaire playboy with the power to absorb and channel energy. Shaw is manipulating the Americans and the Russians in order to trigger a nuclear holocaust that will wipe out mankind and allow mutants to rule the Earth. Xavier and Lehnsherr eventually join forces with CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) to stop Shaw from igniting World War III.

Shaw has assembled a group of powerful mutants to aid in his quest for genetic supremacy. They include: Emma Frost (January Jones), a telepath who can transform into diamond; Riptide (Alez Gonzalez), who is able to summon powerful winds; and Azazel (Jason Flemyng), a demonic looking teleporter who comic fans will know as the father of Nightcrawler.

The good guys enlist their own band of young recruits including: Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), who can emit sonic screams; Havok (Lucas Till), who is able to fire plasma beams from his chest; Dr. Henry McCoy aka Beast (Nicholas Hoult), a scientist with prehensile feet; Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz), a go-go dancer with insect-like wings; and Darwin (Edi Gathegi), who has the power of reactive evolution.

As you can tell that's quite the roster of characters for a movie a little over two hours long. Don't forget Oliver Platt as an unnamed Man in Black and various military personnel played by veteran character actors like Michael Ironside, James Remar, Glenn Morshower, and Rade Serbedzija. Fox has a penchant for overstuffing their comic book movies with more characters and subplots than they can handle and First Class is an unfortunate victim of that philosophy. Characters like Angel and Darwin are hardly given any chance to develop or even matter to the overall story. Riptide doesn't even have a single line of dialogue in the movie; he's just there to be the silent and menacing henchman. Despite dropping Marvel's merry mutants hip deep into the Cuban Missile Crisis, First Class doesn't fully utilize its unique 60's setting aside from giving Kevin Bacon the excuse to grow some awesome sideburns. Xavier and Magneto have been compared many times to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in their differing philosophies. Yet, civil rights barely factors into the film. Ironically, the only mutants of color are either killed or turned evil.

Notoriously picky fanboys won't be pleased with the way First Class takes liberties with the source material. These aren't the original X-Men from the comics. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, and the other Angel (Warren Worthington III) are nowhere to be found. The movie Havok isn't intended to be Cyclops's brother though changing his beams from white to red is likely meant to be some sort of concession. Moira McTaggert has gone from Scottish scientist to American secret agent. As a life-long comic book reader, I had little issue with the changes made in First Class. The X-Men books were known for their convoluted mythology as storylines were lost and found on the whim of an ever-changing line-up of creative teams. First Class isn't set in the world of the comic books, but the one created for the movies.

Fans of the entire series may be confused as First Class doesn't completely gel with events depicted in the previous films. When it does, it feels as if Fox wasn't sure a sequel would be possible, so they felt obliged to throw in as many recognizable elements as they could. We find out the origins of their codenames, the creation of Cerebro, and how Professor X winds up in a wheelchair. The movie inevitably feels rushed with the Xavier-Magneto relationship put in fast forward. The filmmakers do throw in a few references and in-jokes for the hardcores. There are also a couple clever cameos, including one from a familiar face who is the best there is at what he does.

Despite a few flaws, X-Men: First Class stands as the second best entry in the franchise with X2 ranking as number one. The primary reason for the prequel's success is the casting of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as the friends turned enemies. In the past, McAvoy has played reactive characters. As Xavier, he's more aggressive, growing from a cocky prat to a responsible mentor. However, it is Fassbender's Magneto who truly anchors the film. The solo Magneto movie was largely cancelled because Fox didn't believe he could carry a picture alone. After First Class, I would love to see a Magneto: Nazi Hunter starring Fassbender. No pun intended, but the actor is absolutely magnetic in the role of the tortured villain. One of the film's best moments is a Boys From Brazil-esque scene with Lehnsherr tracking two former SS officers to a tiny bar in South America.

Jennifer Lawrence is equally phenomenal as the young Mystique, making her more than just the naked blue chick. She becomes a vulnerable girl desperately searching for her place in a society that finds her ugly. Kevin Bacon is also great and it makes you wonder why it took so long for someone to cast him as a supervillain. Bacon is deliciously over-the-top in the beginning of First Class as the mad scientist looking to exploit a teenaged Lehnsherr's burgeoning powers. The same cannot be said for January Jones as Emma Frost, a sexy and manipulative femme fatale in the comics. Her diamond form is poorly realized and when she's not made of jewels, she's made of wood. Jones is practically robotic in the role. Is this the same Betty Draper we've come to know and love?

Kick-Ass proved that Vaughn could handle high-octane action sequences and First Class has plenty of cool set pieces. The film's climax juggles multiple battles without descending into a jumbled mess of special effects. There are also several unique displays of power such as Azazel's gruesome method of dispatching humans. A telepathic battle involving rotating rooms was cut when Inception beat them to the punch. Vaughn was heavily influenced by classic James Bond films while making First Class and it shows. Sebastian Shaw is the archetypal Bond villain with his secret headquarters and tricked out submarine. The prequel is a globetrotting adventure with higher stakes than any other X-film. The first act is hardly over and the audience has already been taken to Poland, Switzerland, New York, England, Las Vegas, and a Kubrickian war room underneath the Pentagon. It's also fantastic that they put the X-Men in their classic blue and yellow uniforms.

X-Men: First Class gives the X-Men franchise the vital jumpstart it needed and heals the damage done by the awful Last Stand and Wolverine. With a fresh, new cast in place, the X-Men are opened to new possibilities such as a film set in the 70's based on Giant-Size X-Men #1, a redux of the Dark Phoenix Saga, or Days of Future Past.

Rating: *** ½ (*****)

Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans - Dir. Louis Leterrier (2010)


”Release the Kraken!”

The original 1981 Clash of the Titans played fast and loose with Greek mythology and is more renowned for being the swan song for effects guru Ray Harryhausen. The master of stop motion effects, Harryhausen went on to inspire a generation of top filmmakers including Tim Burton, James Cameron, and Sam Raimi. But, his brand of special effects was put out to pasture by the rise of the modern day summer blockbuster heralded by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

With CGI and digital 3D in full effect, it was only a matter of time before Clash was remade and updated with today’s technology. Sam Worthington is Perseus, the son of a human mother and Zeus (Liam Neeson), the king of the gods. At the beginning of his journey, Perseus knows nothing of his parental lineage. He is abandoned at sea and found by a kindly fisherman (Pete Postlethwaite). Perseus’s life is forever changed when Hades (Ralph Fiennes), god of the underworld, kills his adopted family.

Perseus is taken to the city of Argos where its rules have incurred the wrath of the gods with their insults. Hades issues an ultimatum for Argos to sacrifice its princess, Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), or he will release the monstrous Kraken (”Release the Kraken!”) and destroy the city and all its inhabitants. Perseus is sent on a mission to find a way to stop the Kraken and is accompanied by Draco (Mads Mikkelsen), leader of the royal guard, and the beautiful demi-goddess Io (Gemma Arterton). From them, Perseus learns how to fight and be a hero. Being half god, he learns in no time and without the assistance of a montage set to 80’s power rock.

This version of Clash is definitely not your father’s Clash of the Titans. Fans of the original are made well aware of that fact when one of its stars, Bubo the mechanical owl, makes a quick cameo only to be tossed aside like a bit of refuse. Pegasus, the gleaming white and winged steed, is now a badass black stallion who scares away the other horses.

As the film’s hero, Worthington is slightly generic, but nowhere near as bland as the well-tanned Harry Hamlin. While the original featured Sir Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, and Bond girl Ursula Andress among its pantheon. In the remake, the denizens of Mount Olympus are headed up by Liam Neeson who equates himself well to the overly bombastic dialogue that always seems to pop up in these period pieces. As Zeus’s brother, Fiennes is all dark and raspy voiced, not too far off from Lord Voldemort. Danny Huston’s Poseidon only gets a couple of lines while the rest of the gods are mostly reduced to just standing around in glowing armor.

Despite some shortcomings, Clash is a rousing popcorn movie. The majority of the action is fun even if director Louis Leterrier has trouble with letting the camera stand still. The film’s best sequence is a battle against a group of giant scorpions keeping in spirit with Harryhausen’s work. An exceedingly phony looking CG Medusa knocks things down a notch. There are also some odd characters new to the remake in the Djinn, desert dwellers who look like leprous versions of the Tusken Raiders from Star Wars.

If you get the chance to see Clash of the Titans in theaters, save your money and skip the 3D version. The picture was shot in 2D and quickly converted afterwards to cash in on the 3D craze. Much of the film is flat with scenes barely registering as 3D. Secondly, this is a very dark movie and the 3D glasses darken the movie even further. Finally, Leterrier’s frenetic shooting style does not lend itself to the 3D process. The constant camera movements during the action scenes negate it.

Rating: ***

A Single Man

A Single Man - Dir. Tom Ford (2009)


If A Single Man were to win any awards this year, it would definitely get one for Artsy Fartsy Trailer of the Year. Fashion designer Tom Ford makes his directorial debut with A Single Man, based on the acclaimed 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood. Ford, along with co-writer David Scearce, adapted the source material into a poetic portrait of loss while offering a glimmer of hope and a touch of humor at all the right moments.

Colin Firth (usually cast as the stiff love interest in almost every romantic comedy) plays the titular single man, George Falconer, an English professor who has not gotten over the death of his long-time lover, Jim (Matthew Goode). They had been together for sixteen years and he was killed in a car accident eight months ago. It is now November 30, 1962, a month into the Cuban Missile Crisis. As most of the country worries about nuclear annihilation, George simply stares into the mirror and wills himself to ”…get through the g-damned day.” He means to commit suicide once it’s over.

George goes to the university where a class on Aldous Huxley leads to a lecture about fear and thinly-veiled allusions to homophobia. It falls mostly on deaf and perplexed ears save for a handsome, young student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) who can sense the deep seeded loneliness in his teacher. George stops at a liquor store and converses with a Spanish hustler (Jon Kortajarena) in front of a billboard for Hitchcock’s Psycho, the wide eyes of Janet Leigh upon them. The evening is spent dining and dancing with his best friend and former lover, Charley (Julianne Moore), a lush of a divorcee who yearns for the carefree days of the past in swinging London.

Ford directs the film with mechanical precision. He is immaculate in composing his shots and meticulous in the way he moves his actors through each frame. Ford certainly seems to have been inspired in his style by Wong Kar-Wai even bringing on Shigeru Umebayashi (who worked on In the Mood for Love and its pseudo-sequel 2046) to compose several tracks for the score. Ford has created an overly ordered world mirroring the structured, well-mannered lifestyle George lives within the rigid confines of 60’s suburbia. However, behind the stoic face he shows the world, he is heartbroken. George lives in a home that looks to have been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is flawlessly made, a shelter ironically lined with large windows. A ”glass house,” as George jokes to Jim in a flashback.

The repressed despair is symbolized in the cold color palette Ford has chosen for the majority of the film. The gray tones warm from time to time reflecting George’s change in mood. Littered throughout the movie are extreme close-ups of lips and eyes, a slow motion pan up on a little girl in pig tails and blue dress. In the face of mortality, George finds new beauty in the tiniest of things.

The results are a striking picture though slightly artificial, sometimes bordering into the territory of a bad 80’s perfume commercial. A Single Man’s most memorable images occur at the beginning of the film as George floats naked in the water, a symbol of death and rebirth. It cuts to him walking across a snowy road towards an upturned vehicle with Jim’s body lying beside it, a dead fox terrier lying next to him. George calmly lies next to Jim, gently planting a kiss on his lips before waking in a start. And this is how his day starts.

Firth offers a sublime restraint in his performance as George. He is the centerpiece and it truly makes the film. He’s already received nominations for the SAG Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, and Golden Globes. He will surely receive a nomination at the Oscars. Julianne Moore provides strong support and television fans should watch out for Big Love’s Ginnifer Goodwin as George’s next-door neighbor, Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace as a fellow professor, and the uncredited voice of Mad Men’s Jon Hamm.

Rating: *** ½