New Film Review: Sisters

SISTERS
Directed by Jason Moore
Screenplay by Paula Pell
Starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey



Two sisters decide to throw one last house party before their parents sell their family home.

I do not know who Paula Pell is. I looked her up and apparently she is a writer for Saturday Night Live. I really do not understand why Paula Pell is the writer here. You have two wonderful female writers in Poehler and Fey. So not only is Pell guilty of this awful mess...but both Poehler and Fey are just as guilty for not seeing how bad this is and making adjustments.
This film is shockingly bad. Shockingly not funny. Shockingly unrealistic. Shockingly irritating.
Lets watch a bunch of 30..something...40 something adults act annoying and throw a party.
Soooooooooooo many jokes fall flat.
Bright spots? The second time this year John Cena shows up in a comedy (Trainwreck) and gets many a laugh. In this film he gets the only laughs.
This film is really bad and I wanted to walk out half way through. Then out of desperation they try to throw in the I learned to be a good mother card. No!!!
1/2 a star out of 5. Not even worth a look on home video when it comes out.

From the shadows thanks for your time.

New Film Review: Spoiler Free Star Wars The Force Awakens

STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS
Director J J Abrams
Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan; J J Abrams; and Michael Arndt
Based On The Characters by George Lucas
Starring Daisy Ridley; John Boyega; Oscar Isaac; Domhnall Gleason; Adam Driver; Harrison Ford; Carrie Fisher



30 years after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat rises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of Heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance.

"Real sets. Practical effects. You have been here before but you do not know this story. Everything has changed but nothing has changed". As the above video noted that was viewed at Comic-Con.

It all starts and ends with J.J. Abrams. He is the master here and it works.
I was worried in the beginning that the story was  familiar with an individual finding a droid. At that point it moves, thankfully, in a different direction.
I am spoiler free here...so I am going to do my best at getting my points across. J.J. Abrams.
Did I mention J.J. Abrams? I can write so much about this film but I will stick with J.J.. It is all him.

His casting. Was just spot on:
From Names from past Star Wars films: Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
To people we know from other movies:
Adam Driver (Girls)....Deliciously evil as Kylo Ren
Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina).... as the brave fighter Poe Dameron. Who plays the dry straight man here very well.
Domhnall Gleason (Harry Potter films/Brooklyn/ExMachina) Is soooo well cast as the evil General Hux. It is against type because we are so use to seeing him as a stuttering, bumbeling kind of character.
 To casting faces we never have seen before:
John Boyega as Finn is fantastic as the every man hero played with dry humor. He becomes us. Tackling certain situations with a hold your breath...I have to do this...with fear and lack of enthusiasm.
Then we come to Daisy Ridley. She is the film. She is the star. This Kierra Knightly look alike carries this film (with BB-8--the cutest thing in movies this year). I hope she gets at least some Oscar consideration. She is strong. She is funny. She is a ball of emotions. I can not note enough how amazing she is. It is a credit to J.J. by just finding her.

The look.
This film is beautiful. Some scenes are breathtaking. So again credit goes to J.J. for bringing in Cinematogropher Daniel Mindel. There were a couple times in this film where I thought..."Oh that will make a great poster!" I would avoid 3D here to get the scope of the colors and landscapes.

The music:
He brought back John Williams!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean you get chills from the start when the score plays and he sets the tone throughout the film.

Negatives?
I was shocked by how stiff Carrie Fisher is as an actress. Maybe I just did not notice it before.
A couple big parts you clearly can see what is going to happen. J.J. Telegraphs a little too much including what may becoming in future episodes.
And my final negative which is a common complaint of mine when dealing with films that are set up for future episodes. Every film should have a clean ending. There are some loose strings here that left me wondering who is alive and who is not. I always feel you pay your money you should get a clear ending for a film that you paid to see. You should not have to pay for another film to see what happens. Each film should be go clearly from beginning to end on it's own.

Well 4 1/2 stars out of 5 for this almost perfect film. May be the best film I have seen all year. It is amazing that it actually lives up to its hype. Great for the whole family. The torch has been passed. Starts with J.J. Abrams...did I mention that before?

Now some fun spoilers to look for:

J.J.'s favorite actor friend is in another of his films....Greg Grunberg. Look for him. In all of J.J.'s film Greg is like where's Waldo.
Listen and look for the stormtrooper who says "I'll tighten those restraints scavenger scum!" That would be Bond James Bond. Yes Daniel Craig is that stormtrooper!!!

From the shadows as always may the force be with you!!!

This Weeks New Releases For Home Video featuring MI Rogue Nation

With four movies to mention this week why not start with Four...meaning the Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four
Directed by Josh Trank
Screenplay by Jeremy Slater; Simon Kinberg; and Josh Trank
Based on the books by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Starring Miles Teller; Kate Mara; Michael B Jordan; and Jamie Bell



Four young outsiders teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe which alters their physical form in shocking ways. The four must learn to harness their new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.

This will not be a review but a look back at why things went wrong.
1- It starts with this and because of this...every thing else snowballs down a cliff. Just look at the Avengers. They each had their own films. Thus during those said films they had plenty of time for character development. So we come to The Fantastic Four. We have four main characters played by four of the best young actors in Hollywood. There is just no time for character development and we almost do not care about them.
2-Because 1, we get more talking then action.
3- Because of 1. when we get action we see a lot of just watching, then throw in bad special effects.

I did not hate the film as much as most critics, and on for home watching it is worth a look see..2 stars out of 5 for one of summers biggest disappointments. After many tries at The Fantastic Four, it may be a film that just cannot be made properly.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ROGUE NATION
Directed and Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie
Starring Tom Cruise; Jeremy Renner; Simon Pegg; Rebecca Ferguson; Ving Rhames; Alec Baldwin; and Sean Harris

Alec Baldwin, representing the CIA, wants to disband the IMF. Why? I don't know, but I can tell you this spy vs spy movie is better than any new James Bond film (And recent Bond films have not been that bad). It's exciting, and funny, and full of energy.There are great and fun action sequences on an airplane; in an opera house; under water and on a motorcycle, that can put those CGI filled Fast And Furious films to shame. Plus knowing Tom Cruise likes to do his own stunts it leaves you holding your breath. Director Christopher McQuarrie should also get a lot of credit for this excellent  and intense action thriller. From London to Morocco the film looks great, and the action sequences with a shaky cam puts you in the action.
As for the plot? I was confused often but I went with it because the film kept pushing forward at high speed. There are betrayals and deceptions around all the turns in this spy thriller, you really do have to just pay attention and hope it gets cleaned up and understood in the end.

One of the big differences in this film is Cruise lets his costars take center stage often. We see a lot more of Simon Pegg, which means a lot more humor, in fact there are some very funny moments. We also see a strong female character in Isla Faust a British Intellgence Agent played by a new comer, a fantastic Rebecca Ferguson. We also have Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames playing, well, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames. And most important it would not work without a really good bad guy in Sean Harris.

Negatives? Maybe a few plot holes and maybe the film could have been shortened (maybe cutting short some chase scenes).

Still.....4 out of 5 stars for MI Rogue Nation. The best Mission Impossible yet...hands down. Real fun.
 

TED 2
Directed by Seth McFarlane
Screenplay by Seth McFarlane; Alec Sulkin; and Wellesley Wild
Starring Mark Wahlberg; Amanda Seyfried; and SethMcFarland (Voice)



Newlywed couple Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but in order to qualify to be a parent, Ted will have to prove he's a person in a court of law.

I have to start off by saying Ted, the first film, I was not a big fan. In fact I thought it was a one joke lazy screenplay of a film. I was pulled into Ted 2 because I thought the trailer was funny. Well I was kinda right. TED 2 I thought was a little bit funnier. Still....not a very good movie.
Problems: The film is all over the place with tone. It goes from a foul mouthed Teddy Bear to a long love song being sung by Amanda Seyfried to a funny bit with a pot field with the Jurasic Park score.
I think the problem is that McFarland's writing is more appropriate for television, where it is a 22 minute episode usually surrounded by one joke. With feauture length films, he sticks to a joke and runs it into the ground and over a span of two hours (he needs better editors) it falls flat. The bear jokes; the pot jokes; the running of movie stars in and out of the movie just falls flat.
The positives? Wahlberg should get more credit playing off a bear who is not really there, he makes it believable, it must be hard to do. Seyfried as a young pot smoking lawyer, is really funny in her second outing in a McFarland film (A million ways to die in the west).
Ted 2 I give 2 out of 5 stars for another McFarland disappointment. Maybe I just do not get his, pounding a joke to death humor. Well, at least I got more laughs in this one than the first Ted, just not as many as I hoped.

MAZE RUNNER THE SCORCH TRIALS
Directed by Wes Ball
Screenplay by T.S. Nowlin
Based on the book by James Dashner
Starring: Dylan O'Brien; Ki Hong Lee; Kaya Scodelario; Dexter Dafdan; and Thomas Brodie Sangster



In this next chapter of the epic "Maze Runner", Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow runners face another challenge: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with the smell of death. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD's vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.

I was surprised by how much I liked The Maze Runner. I think it may be because of O'Brien. He is so damn likable. He has no special powers by creating fire or jumping and climbing off buildings, he is just a smart kid that happens to run fast. And yes there are a bunch of effects in each of these films but O'Brien makes it work.
They find out the Maze was just a test and now they must decide who is with them or against them. I love everyone of the characters including two new "Runners"  Jacob Lofland and Rosa Salazar. Also they added three great adult actors into the mix in Lili Taylor; Barry Pepper; and Giancarlo Esposito. Throw in the return of Patricia Clarkson who I still cannot decide whether she is good or bad, which adds more tension to the series.
As for the film and screenplay. It is a exciting yet violent film. Almost shockingly violent for a youth film with zombies (that really freaked me out) and many a bloody gun battle. The film was 2 hours and 20 minutes, maybe a little long but it kept me interested, again that goes back to the likability of O'Brien.
A negative would be what most of these adapted youth novels have a problem with. They do not have an ending with the second book or film. It shows maybe how great of a writer J.K. Rowling is because she was able to create a resolution or ending to all her books. In this film and Divergent and Hunger Games there really is not an ending in the second round, so comes across as a place holder without a defining ending. This is a problem we do not put money down for a film without an ending.
4 out of 5 stars for this exciting and well acted scary film.

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.        

The Shadows Thoughts On The Golden Globe Nominations

Well the Golden Globes nominations came out on Thursday and there were some thumbs up and some down from me. I will ignore the SAG award nominations which seemed pretentious. So here are my thoughts on this years nominations.
First I have to pat myself on the back.....over and over this year I have been posting this is the year of Alicia Vikander. Thursday she received two nominations, for The Danish Girl and for Ex-Machina. In my opinion Testament Of Youth was her best performance,,,and that was not nominated. Yes it was the year of Vikander.
Well any way, enough of me bragging...

Best Motion Picture – Drama
“Carol”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Revenant”
“Room”
“Spotlight”

As strange as it sounds I do not have a problem with any of the nominations here. I was not a huge fan of Mad Max...however..I understand the passion for it. I may have left out Mad Max and added Creed. Or Brooklyn!! Also people seem to forget the wonderful The End Of The Tour!!

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
“The Big Short”
“Joy”
“The Martian”
“Spy”
“Trainwreck”

Well unlike the drama category, I have a lot of problems with this one. Spy???!!! The Martian??? A comedy??!!
Left out? How about Inside Out? How about Ex Machina...It could be a drama also. As a comedy, a pure comedy, Trainwreck should win this hands down.

Best Director – Motion Picture
Todd Haynes (“Carol”)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu (“The Revenant”)
Tom McCarthy (“Spotlight”)
George Miller (“Mad Max: Fury Road”)
Ridley Scott (“The Martian”)

I think Ridley Scott should win this...I have no problems with the list.

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Bryan Cranston (“Trumbo”)
Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Revenant”)
Michael Fassbender (“Steve Jobs”)
Eddie Redmayne (“The Danish Girl”)
Will Smith (“Concussion”)

Bryan Cranston I would have left out. It seemed like a one note performance. I would have added Jacob Tremblay for Room. I know he was nominated for a supporting role by SAG. However he is in every scene!!! He is the lead!!n He carries the movie!!
Also did the Hollywood Foreign press forget Jason Segel in The End Of The Tour? He was incredible!

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama Cate Blanchett (“Carol”)
Brie Larson (“Room”)
Rooney Mara (“Carol”)
Saoirse Ronan (“Brooklyn”)
Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl”)

All very good performances.  I would have given some thought to Blythe Danner for I'll See You In My Dreams. However I do not know who I would leave off this list.

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Christian Bale (“The Big Short”)
Steve Carell (“The Big Short”)
Matt Damon (“The Martian”)
Al Pacino (“Danny Collins”)
Mark Ruffalo (“Infinitely Polar Bear”)

Very weak group. I do admit I have not seen The Big Short Yet. Matt Damon should win this handedly. Even though it was not a comedy. I am glad Al Pacino received a nomination for Danny Collins, his best performance in years.

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy
Jennifer Lawrence (“Joy”)
Melissa McCarthy (“Spy”)
Amy Schumer (“Trainwreck”)
Maggie Smith (“The Lady in the Van”)
Lily Tomlin (“Grandma”)

Schumer and Tomlin should be the front runners here. McCarthy? Really? How about Mae Whitman in The Duff?! How about Patricia Clarkson in Learning To Drive?!

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Paul Dano (“Love & Mercy”)
Idris Elba (“Beasts of No Nation”)
Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies”)
Michael Shannon (“99 Homes”)
Sylvester Stallone (“Creed”)

Love some of the nominations in this catergory!!!
Stallone!!! Well deserved!!
Dano!!! They did not forget his performance!!
Shannon!! This film, if you have not seen it, kind of falls in line with The Big Short. It is available for home viewing. It is disturbing but true. Shannon is great.
Rylance, of this group is the favorite I imagine. Just a great soft performance.
I would have left out Elba. Nothing against him but this movie was released wide on Netflix and was produced by Netflix and only showed once in the theater for it to be eligible. I am old school!! This should be up in the TV category not the movie category.
I would replace him with either Del Toro for his amazing performance in Sicario! Or Oscar Isaac for his performance in Ex Machina.

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Jane Fonda (“Youth”)
Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight”)
Helen Mirren (“Trumbo”)
Alicia Vikander (“Ex Machina”)
Kate Winslet (“Steve Jobs”)

Winslet is probably the favorite.
I would have considered Olivia Cooke in Me And Earl And The Dying Girl. She was wonderful. I fact, except for Vikander, youth is not being served in many categories.

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Emma Donoghue (“Room”)
Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer (“Spotlight”)
Charles Randolph, Adam McKay (“The Big Short”)
Aaron Sorkin (“Steve Jobs”)
Quentin Tarantino (“The Hateful Eight

All good choices but I would have left out Steve Jobs just because a lot of it was not true and went with The End Of The Tour.

Best Original Score
Carter Burwell (“Carol”)
Alexandre Desplat (“The Danish Girl”)
Ennio Morricone (“The Hateful Eight”)
Daniel Pemberton (“Steve Jobs”)
Ryuichi Sakamoto Alva Noto (“The Revenant”)

I would have considered The Martian. Great score. Also Spectre. Or even Inside Out.


Best Animated Feature Film
“Anomalisa”
“The Good Dinosaur”
“Inside Out”
“The Peanuts Movie”
“Shaun the Sheep Movie”

The Hollywood Foreign press not giving a best picture comedy nod to Inside Out makes me feel like there will be an upset here. Shaun The Sheep out of England I predict will win. I am glad that Minions did not get a nod.

Well there are my Golden Globe thoughts. The Globes will be January 10th.

As always, from the shadows thanks for your time.

New Film Review: Ron Howard's In The Heart Of The Sea

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA
Directed by Ron Howard
Screenplay by Charles Leavitt
Based on the book by Nathaniel Philbrick
Starring Chris Hemsworth; Cillian Murphy; Brendan Gleeson; Benjamin Walker; and Tom Holland



Based on the 1820 event, a whaling ship is preyed upon by a giant whale, stranding its crew at sea for 90 days, thousands of miles from home.

Well I hoped you watched the trailer. The film looks like it is filled with action. Well not really. The film is about two hours long and only about a half an hour has action in it. The rest of the film feels like kind of a shell of a film. Like there is something there but it seems as distant as they are out in the water away from land. There really does not seem like a connection. I think the film lacks character development. So we are on the boat with these men but we are not really vested in their well being.
The good?
The film looks amazing!! Every scene we know is filled with CGI, but Howard does a fantastic job of making every frame look real and beautiful.
Also, Cillian Murphy is fantastic in this film, as he is in most films, as Matthew Joy. He is the one you care about the most. He draws you in, with you as the viewer only knowing a little about his past. He probably draws you in because next to the incomparable Gleeson, Murphy is the best actor on the screen.
It is just a hard film to like. Watching a bunch of men suffer. Well 2 1/2 out of 5 for a great looking film. I would say wait to see it at home and until then read the book.

As always from the shadows thanks for your time.

New Releases For Home Viewing This Week: Minions And Ant-Man

Well this week there are only two releases worth noting. We will start with Minions.

MINIONS
Directed by Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin
Screenplay by Brian Lynch



Minions Stuart, Kevin and Bob are recruited by Scarlet Overkill, a super-villain who, alongside her inventor husband Herb, hatches a plot to take over the world.

Well! Like everyone else in the world I agree, the Minions are cute.
Problem here is...they are cute in short spurts. In a 91 minute film? Waaaaay too long!!!!
They became annoying at the 20 minute mark. Around the 45 minute mark I atarted losing interest. Around the 60 minute mark I wanted to shut their mouths, I had to stop myself from walking out of the theatre.
The story line is kind of cute but, like noted, I started hating them at 60 minutes so I stopped caring.
Maybe in short spurts at home they may not be so annoying.
2 stars out of 5 for Minions for the adults.
3 stars out of 5 for Minions for the children.


ANT-MAN
Directed by Peyton Reed
Screenplay by Edgar Wright; Joe Cornish; Adam McKay; and Paul Rudd
Starring Paul Rudd; Michael Douglas; Evangeline Lilly; and Corey Stoll



Armed with a super-suit with the ability to shrink, but increase in strength, former criminal Scott Lang (Rudd) is asked by Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas), plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

I did not look forward to seeing another superhero film, they are starting to run together in my head and they all seem to come close to having the same plot lines. Then here comes ANT-MAN. This is much different and it works.
What works?
First, the script. It is more of a heist film, where the ANT-MAN and his helpers of insects and people are ploting to break into a lab to destroy a dangerous agenda. Think Oceans 11, but much weirder.
Casting! The casting was spot on, Douglas as a mentor. Lilly as the instructor of sorts. Stoll as a great bad guy. Michael Pena, who is always good, as Lang's friend. We even get Anthony Mackie showing up as the Falcon. Still, best of all is Rudd, perfectly cast with his everyman good looks and his comedic timing which is much needed with the ridiculousness of, well, being the size of an ant. It all works.
Negatives? The plot moves slow, in fact the first hour is all about the training of Lang to be the ANT-MAN. It takes awhile for things to happen.
Also there is a fight scene at the end that seems to go on waaaay to long, and as opposed to crushing office building which most superhero fights are these days, this one just destroys a house.


Well 4 out of 5 stars for ANT-MAN. Also, make sure you watch the middle and end of the credits.


As always thanks for your time from the shadows.

New Releases This Week For Home Viewing

Only two new releases to note for home viewing this week.

AMY
Directed by Asif Kapadia



"You are only as good as the people you hang out with". We have all heard this line. The strange thing after watching this documentary is...I think she was a good person and yet the people around her were not so much.
There has to be someone trustworthy in charge of the machine as it moves at full speed, be it the Beatles (they had Freda); Rolling Stones; New Kids; Backstreet Boys; One Direction; and Taylor Swift. They all have that one thing in common, they became/become more than their music. The sad thing is...Amy Winehouse had no one to control the machine and sadly at 27 she passed away after years of alcohol and drug abuse her body just gave out.
I went in to the documentary not really knowing much about Amy. I knew a couple of her songs that is about it. In fact I felt out of touch after seeing how popular she was in the film, especially in England.

 The film is remarkable for the fact that there is so much to see. Music videos, photo sessions, concert footage, paparazzi shots, TV interviews, smart phone footage. She always seemed to be watched some how some way. Of course no one wants to take the blame for her health issues, from managers who say, "we could have slowed down if she said so". To friends who wanted to be in her presence at parties. To husbands/boyfriends (Blake Fielder-Civil) who seemed to always be pointing her in the wrong direction and no one around her stepped in. To a father who cashed in on her daughters fame. The machine had no one in charge to watch out for her.

I took away from the documentary that Amy was an overrated singer. To me most of the jazz songs seem to be all in the same tone or rhythm. However at the same time I found her to be an underrated writer where she seemed to be a Taylor Swift of that time writing about personal issues and relations. In fact it seemed like director Kapadia was also taken aback by her lyrics and made a very good decision of showing all her lyrics while she sang on the screen almost like in subtitles.

Like I noted I did not really know much about Amy going in but it left me close to tears because she seemed so overwhelmed and it is sad...you want to reach through the screen and stop the machine. I  wish there were more Andrew Morris's in her life, Andrew was her bodyguard and saw everything, the look of sadness on his face is heartbreaking at the end.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars for Amy.

 

MISTRESS AMERICA

Directed by Noah Baumbach
Screen play by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
Starring Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke



A lonely college freshman, Tracy,  (Kirke) life is turned upside down by her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke (Gerwig).

I love Greta Gerwig. In  fact I was disappointed when they decided not to film How I Met Your Father with Greta starring. However here, shockingly, she is the weak link in this film. Yes her character is hard to like, she is very self absorbed and she seems to be living in a world where she is caught between dreams and the reality of a cruel world. So yes, she is hard to like, but the main problem is she seems to be just reading her lines. It was odd, a couple times I just shook my head wondering what was that, she seemed to be reading and not showing emotions. She was one of the writers of the film, maybe she got caught up in her own words, almost like she was doing a table reading.
The film is odd, New York is a big character in the film, however while they were in NY, this film is annoying, then it changed. It changed when they went to visit Brooke's ex-boyfriend and his wife who stole said boyfriend away! That part of the film takes place in that house for about 40 minutes of the short 82 minute film, and it turns the whole film around. At that point it turns into a stage play and everyone of the actors led by by newcomer Lola Kirke give fantastic performances. There are about 7 people in that house and they all attack their roles/characters. Funny, sad, desperate, lonely, and even snotty. Loved it!! When they do finally leave the house I was kind of sad, and then, back to New York, and.....it felt a little lame again.

3 1/2 out of 5 for Mistress America. Highlighted by newcomer Lola Kirke. 

As always thanks for your time from the shadows.