Going in Style

Overall:  This film was enjoyable and its nice to see acting veterans ply their trade. Willie (Morgan Freeman), Joe (Michael Caine) and Albert (Alan Arkin) are three buddies who spent a lifetime working together in a manufacturing factory and live across the street from each other in Queens. They’ve all retired and are collecting their pensions.

However, the money flow has stopped and the bank wants to foreclose on Joe’s home. At the time, Joe’s daughter and granddaughter Brooklyn (Joey King) are living with him and he’s afraid to let them down as well as himself.

Albert and Willie are living together and have an interesting and supportive relationship. However Willie has a kidney problem that he’s not told his buddies’ about and he finds out that if he doesn’t get a transplant soon, he’s going to die soon.

They are all going broke so they decide to rob the very bank that has Joe’s mortgage and is managing the refinancing the sale and closure of the factory. They practice by robbing a local grocery store and it is hilarious. The stuffing of food in their jackets and pants followed by the getaway Joe and Willie make in an electric scooter and Al trying to out run a younger man lasting about 100 feet and gives up is very funny.

Donning Rat Pack masks they rob the bank of enough money to cover their pensions. Pursing them is FBI Special Agent Hammer (Matt Dillon) who suspects the three men and builds up a solid case. However, the guys have done their homework and have their stories and alibies down pat. The clincher comes during a line up when a little girl, who recognizes Willie, decides to protect him.

This film is about loyalty, connection, and family. To this end, it is very good as it has small side stories that make it work. There’s the story about how Willie gets his kidney, how the grumpy Albert gets involved with an admirer named Annie (Ann Margaret). The lodge buddy’s, Milton (Christopher Lloyd), odd view of the world. And finally, Jesus (John Ortiz) who shows these old guys the ropes to rob the bank.

Caine was wonderful, and my favorite scene was when he got angry and gave Jesus a piece of his mind. I could see the how Caine’s real and documented difficult scrappy upbringing was used to make this scene effective. I wouldn't want to mess with him. Freeman was gracefully effective as the selfless friend. He supports and takes care of Albert and doesn’t bother anyone with his critical kidney issue. He effectively portrayed his longing to see more of his daughter and granddaughter. Arkin is perfectly cast as the grumpy curmudgeon of the three. He’s the downer guy and doesn’t want his world mussed up much, however, when he’s in, he’s a force and gives it his all. Loved his interactions with Annie his admirer. King was fantastic as Joe’s granddaughter by being interesting, loving, and engaged making her grandfather proud. Margret was amazing as the woman who sees past Albert’s gruff exterior and wants to create something more. Ortiz was strong as the guy who teaches the “rat pack” how to rob the bank. Dillon was very good as the agent who knows who the robbers were and tries to build a case against them. Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Mitzi their favorite waitress was superb. She embodied the part perfectly. Theodore Melfi wrote a really good script and screenplay. Zach Braff had a great handle on the actors and screenplay. I think he knew exactly what he wanted and got everyone engaged to his vision.

Overall:  Although I think there could have been more laughs, this film was lighthearted and very enjoyable.

Now You See Me 2

First Hit:  Very convoluted and moderately interesting story to show large scale illusions.

I would have settled on a film that had big magical illusions by tricking banks, Wall Street, a crooked company or something of that nature. In other words, more like the first film.

The story attempts to make a computer chip have the power to get past any security on any computer. Insurance tycoon Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) wants this chip badly because anyone breaking into his computers will find out he’s committed fraud. He enlists Walter Maybry (Daniel Radcliffe) to do what it takes to get the chip that the four horsemen have stolen.

Just to get here, the horsemen J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and new horseman Lula (Lizzy Caplan), are in hiding from the last film and being chased by the FBI including the horseman’s insider Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo).

The film spends too much time making as issue of Atlas’s wanting to be in charge of the horseman, trying to make a connection with the mysterious “Eye”, and how they got to China.

Then there is the questionably antagonist Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) who appears to be against the horseman but more specifically, Rhodes, but is he?

The film does come together in the end but the magic and illusion (the reason I wanted to see the film) of the last trick was telegraphed and I knew it was coming. In other words, it didn’t work on me.

Caine was appropriately stoic and arrogant. Radcliffe didn’t help his resume any. I didn’t think he was powerful enough to make his role work. Eisenberg was OK but not his best stuff. Harrelson had two roles, his twin and Merritt. I enjoyed their (his) interplay from time to time. Franco had a more minimal role in this film and I’m not sure that was the best move. Caplan as the new horseman was good and brought a more positive energy to the cast. Freeman was his ever present steady self. Ed Solomon wrote a convoluted uninteresting screenplay from his own story. Jon M. Chu probably did his best with this film but the story was weak.

Overall:  My guess there will be another film but if it is based on a story like this one, it will be a not be very good.

Youth

First Hit:  A sometimes odd, yet compelling film that created a beautiful ending allowing the audience to hear and see the soul of Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine).

Ballinger is on vacation in the Alps with his best friend Mick (Harvey Keitel) and daughter Lena Ballinger (Rachel Weisz). He’s a retired orchestra conductor and seems tired and disenchanted. As these elder men watch the younger people, they see the difference of today’s youth and their own youth.

Their kids are struggling in their relationship, Mick is trying to write a new screenplay, Fred is being asked to conduct again for the Queen of England, and Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano) is attempting to find his character for a new film by watching the people at the hotel.

There are odd acts each evening in the backyard of the hotel as entertainment and as a distraction. The conversations between everyone are abstractly shown sometimes with context other times without. As Fred begins to come to grips with his feelings towards how music was his true love, not his wife or daughter; he slowly is able to discuss his poor parenting and his lack of being a good husband with his daughter. In the end, the performance he leads is beyond beautiful – it is the expression of his love.

Caine was excellent in his quiet way. His way of showing his character growing through this story is fantastic. Keitel is great as a friend and coming to grips with his fading director and writing talents. Jan Fonda, as Keitel’s actress muse Brenda Morel, is fantastic. Her biting cynicism is amazing. Dano is amazing as an actor finding a way to play a part and then letting the part go because he cannot relate or honor the character. Weisz is wonderful as the daughter learning to love her dad. Paolo Sorrentino wrote and directed the film. His dialogue, at times, is sublime. Other times some of the scenes came off a bit disjointed with the film’s purpose.

Overall:  The ending was worth the intermediary flaws.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

First Hit:  Tongue in cheek fun while being oddly good.

I didn’t know what to expect when the lights went down. The previews had me believing it was more serious than it ended up being.

That’s not to say it was a comedy, but there are times when either the visuals (heads exploding into a colorful fireworks display) or the lines the actors said (“this is my gun”) were spot on funny.

The film is about a group of wealthy gentlemen who decide they can make things right in the world through intervention, usually armed. The group makes it clear they are not part of any government and have only allegiance to what they believe is right. Michael Caine (playing the group’s leader Arthur – think King), gives each member a historical nickname such as Jack Davenport is “Lancelot”, Mark Strong is “Merlin”, and Colin Firth is Harry Hart AKA “Galahad”.

The opening sequence has a terrorist group holding a global warming expert Professor Arnold (Mark Hamill) hostage. A Kingsman comes in to save the day but gets killed by Gazelle (Sophia Boutella) who is an agent for Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson). Valentine decides that he cannot fix global warming and because people are the issue, if he gets rid of most the people on the planet global warming can be reversed.

The Kingsman are out to stop him and with the death of a Kingsman, they have to recruit a new one. Here is how we meet the next generation of Kingsman, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Roxy (Sophie Cookson). I liked having the front for their organization being an English haberdashery in London. The fighting scenes were well choreographed and it was fun to watch Firth be so agile, yet sophisticated in his actions.

Firth was excellent as the prime Kingsman and mentor. Caine was good as Arthur. There is a sophistication he brings that works for this film. Egerton was very good and strong as the young street kid who learns what it takes to become a Kingsman. Jackson was great and embodied the role as the guy who wants to kill (although indirectly) most everyone on the planet. Hamill was fun to see again – it has been years. Boutella was very good as Jackson’s henchman (woman). Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn wrote a fun and amusing script and Vaughn directed this strong cast and story with surety and fearlessness.

Overall:  I enjoyed the film when I saw it and it still resonated the next day. It was violently fun.

Interstellar

First Hit:  Beautiful pictures, very long and, at times, a confusing film.

I walked out of the theater unsatisfied by the film. It meanders between philosophical, spiritual, pragmatic, and scientific. Example:  The earth is dying and is being encumbered by dust storms but we only see Midwest of the United States. Where is the rest of the world?

The focus of society is on growing food, but corn is the only surviving food. Is that what they are growing in Asia? Another hole  was that NASA is a secret unit of the government because no one would authorize spending money on rockets to find a place for earthlings to re-populate. Why would we want to repopulate a new planet when we screwed up our own?

The holes in the initial setup of this story are huge and gaping. Because there were so many questions from the beginning the story was confusing. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former NASA pilot, turned farmer who has two kids Murph (10 Yrs – Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain as mid-aged, and Ellen Burstyn as the older Murph) and Tom (15 Yrs - Timothee Chalamet and older Casey Affleck).

Because his wife is deceased, also living with him is his father-in-law Donald (Jon Lithgow). He improbably (gravity helps him discover where it is) finds NASA’s working headquarters and because he’s there, Professor Brand (Michael Caine) decides to ask him to fly a space vehicle into a wormhole near Saturn.

The film wants us to believe that some super being placed the wormhole there for our use to figure out how to save the planet. Professor Brand’s daughter Brand (Anne Hathaway) is part of the scientific crew as well. The story spins off into different planets (worlds) for the crew to explore as a way to “save earth”.

McConaughey was good (and no better than that) as the cowboy-ish pilot of the space vehicle and father of two children he misses. Although he is fun to watch, I don’t think his character was believable and really a tad too self-righteous. Hathaway was good, but again believability in her character was questionable. Foy was one to the highlights of the film as was Chastain in the role of Murph. Lithgow is effective in the brief role as father-in-law. Caine was mediocre as the professor who is neither brilliant nor conniving. Matt Damon as Dr. Mann a pilot who had previously gone through the wormhole stuck on a planet was very good in his role. Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan wrote a script that was too large to film well without it being a 4 hour film. There were too many holes (black or worm) in the story to be believable. Overall, the story was disappointing. Christopher did a very credible job of filming space and creating various worlds, but the ambitiousness of the story left me lost in space.

Overall:  Although there were great pictures this film was too ambitious for its own good.