The Wolverine

First Hit:  Convoluted story but it is somewhat amusing.

Someone in movie land felt it was important for the “The Wolverine” to have his own movie – again. The past film “X-Men Origins:  Wolverine” focused on his earlier life. Here Logan (Wolverine – Hugh Jackman) is lost because he killed his love interest accidentally.

Here the film’s story is a vehicle for Wolverine to find himself and get out of the self-imposed isolation of the Pacific Northwest. The story the writers chose is one that dips back to where the Wolverine saves Japanese General Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) from dying during the bombing of Nagasaki. Right before his eyes, General Yashida watches The Wolverine melted and scarred from the heat and radiation of the bomb, heal right before his eyes.

For the rest of his life the General attempted to find ways for his body to reproduce itself and respond to damage, just like the Wolverine's. He wants immortality. To get it from the Wolverine, the General sends Yukio (Rila Fukushima) to find him and bring him back to Japan. The General’s granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto), who is the one who’ll inherit the General’s company when he dies, becomes a foil and someone the Wolverine opens his heart to, to love again.

But the story (outside of the bomb blast, which I thought was really good), lacked a reason to care much about the characters.

Jackman as the Wolverine was strong (physically looking) and portrayed his suffering well enough, but some scenes were just senseless and unnecessary (think 100 arrows in his back, each with a rope to the arrow shooter). Okamoto was very good and her model’s beauty was an asset while portraying the granddaughter of the General. Fukushima as the protector of the General was the most fun and interesting of the film’s characters. Mark Bomback and Scott Frank wrote an overly complex storyline to introduce bring forth the Wolverine character. James Mangold directed the film which was, at times was well choreographed, and at the other times meandering with forced action.

Overall:  This wasn’t the worth price of admission but maybe something to stream when bored some Sunday evening.

R.I.P.D.

First Hit:  Just didn’t work.

Nick (Ryan Reynolds) is in love with his wife.

He’s a Boston Police Detective and gets tempted to steal some gold they find on a drug bust. He confronts his partner Hayes (Kevin Bacon) about the “rightness” of this. Hayes doesn’t want Nick to turn in the gold so he shoots his partner. Nick dies but ends up with other dead law enforcement officers who are living in this “other sort of world”.

In charge of this group of these dead officers is Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker). Why does this group of R.I.P.D. officers exist? To fight crime of people who really haven’t died and who attempt to make havoc on the world as it is.

Nick gets assigned to a new partner named Roy (Jeff Bridges) who has such a forced accent that it is nauseating. He was wronged just like Nick so there are here to work together to fight the undead. What makes it even worse is that people in the real world see Nick as a old Asian man and Roy as a voluptuous blond.

This story is such a reach and then to add that Hayes is one of these characters who are collecting enough gold to reign havoc on the world is simply an out-of-bounds reach. It is a stupid story although amusing at times.

Bridges is mediocre in this role and his accent is horrible. Bacon is the most amusing and interesting character in the film – his darkness prevails. Reynolds is stuck between a rock and hard place in this role and my guess he wishes he never took it. Parker is the best part of the film; her tongue in cheek approach was fun. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi wrote this mindless script and Robert Schwentke directed it, and I’m not sure why.

Overall:  A couple of laughs but overall a real waste of talented actors.

Red 2

First Hit:  Tongue in cheek fun, watchable and entertaining.

During the cold war Bailey (Anthony Hopkins) created a nuclear device, which was hidden in the Kremlin. He is also the only one alive that may know where the device was hidden.

The issue is that he's been lock up in a semi-insane asylum/prison. A team of retired black-ops people is reunited get him released and track down this bomb and return it to the US. This team, led by Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), is cobbled together and includes an aging Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) and Victoria (Helen Mirren).

In a tangential way the team also includes Han Cho Bai (Byung-hun Lee) and Frank’s wife Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker). Frank is in love with Sarah and spends a lot of film time trying to protect her. However, Sarah is up for adventure, and is quirky enough in character to make her role very fun.

Trying to subvert the team is Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who wants the bomb as well. What everyone doesn’t know is that Baily is not crazy, just a man on a mission to make right a wrong he thought was done to him.

The actors here appear to have had fun in their roles and there is always a sense that there was a slight wink and an nod as they did their scenes together.

Hopkins is the most brilliant in his role as he switches from off his rocker to singularly focused to right a personal wrong. Willis is always a bit tongue in cheek and here he’s in his swim lane. Malkovich is great as the sidekick that is always one hair away from being off his rocker. Mirren is fabulous as the unsuspecting older refined woman that has a "take no prisoners attitude". Parker is sublime as the quirky wife looking for adventure in her life and marriage. Zeta-Jones hams it up and is in her glory. Lee is really good as the guy who switches sides for just a moment to gets what he wants. Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber wrote a fun and entertaining script. Dean Parisot married the actors and script in a way that made all this work well. 

Overall:  This is a fun film but don’t look for everything to hold together, it wasn’t meant to.

The Lone Ranger

First Hit:  This film is a waste of the audiences’ time and Walt Disney would have never approved of releasing something like this.

The plot is mediocre, the acting is mediocre, the characters are poorly drawn-out, the concept is second-rate and it is painful to watch.

Briefly; John Reid (Armie Hammer) is an intellectual guy who grew up in the in the southwest and gets deputize by his brother to find a killer named Bruce Cavendish (William Fichtner). He gets shot and is left for dead.

Tonto (Johnny Depp) is a Comanche ousted by his tribe but decides to save Reid. Together they make up a team that tries to write the wrongs of Cavendish, railroad builder Cole (Tom Wilkinson) and the US Government’s actions towards the Native Americans.

Through a convoluted story line, we have Tonto being somewhat smart and serious, working to assist a slightly dimwitted Reid (AKA Lone Ranger) to right these wrongs. Yes, the concept is poor and way too big for the characters.

Hammer is not interesting in this leading role. And, although he's in the leading role, he is not the leading character. Depp is more interesting, appears to be the leading character, but seeing high-tech tattoos (his back and front) in a couple of scenes, made me realize that even good makeup doesn’t always work. This showed part of the flaws and the lack of carefulness of this film. Fichtner is meanly good enough to be a villain. Wilkinson is OK as someone who is only to get as much as he can. Ruth Wilson (as Rebecca Reid – John’s brothers’ wife) is one of the better characters and holds her part of the film together very well. Justin Haythe and Ted Elliot wrote a convoluted, unmanageable, and almost unfilmable screenplay. Gore Verbinski directed this like he did Pirates of the Caribbean films and the problem is he forgot that the Lone Ranger is a TV legend while the pirates weren’t.

Overall:  This film can be passed over and it will not matter except to the people who invested in it because they will probably lose money.

White House Down

First Hit:  A very entertaining action film that touches on our political subjects in a sometimes humorous way.

I’ll be open in saying; I didn’t have much hope for this film because it arrived in the theaters so shortly after another recent White House takeover film previewed.

However, this film is heads and tails above the other one. Black President Sawyer (played Jamie Foxx) has a quirky way of arriving to the White House when coming home by helicopter; he requests that the crew do a fly-by of the Lincoln Memorial. This is something that could be congruent with President Obama because of the association of Lincoln and slavery but highly unlikely.

This is why this film is interesting. It gives us a view of our President that makes him human. Cale (played by Channing Tatum) is a member of the Speaker of the House’ security crew, is divorced, doesn’t spend enough time with his daughter Emily (played by Joey King) and wants to get his life together by becoming part of the Presidential Secret Service.

The President is not liked by the head of the Secret Service as well as multiple Republican leaders in the Senate and House. Overall, the film is somewhat suspenseful, except there are clues early in the first few moments of the film telling the audience who the two main opponents to the President are. One specific scene told me exactly who was spearheading the take-over of the White House and to me it wasn't subtle enough.

This film, explores in different ways, the control of the government by special interest groups (arms makers), race perceptions (black President), party differences (Democrats and Republicans), gun use and laws surrounding gun use, computer sabotage, and our governments’ chain of command.

The essence of this film is, through motive of revenge, certain government officials want President Sawyer out of office so that his call for getting out of the Middle East can be reversed.

Foxx is really very good and funny, at times, and I just loved the line, “let go of my Jordan’s”. Tatum is very good as the guy who has been lost but is doing what he can to make it all right. King is sublime. She is amazing as the President admiring daughter of Tatums'. Maggie Gyllenhaal is very good as the number 2 person in the Secret Service. James Woods brings the right amount of intensity and strictness of belief to his role as head of the Secret Service. Richard Jenkins is effective as Speaker of the House Raphelson. James Vanderbilt wrote a strong, funny, and politically astute screenplay. Roland Emmerich did a very good job of making this unrealistic scenario fun, topical, and interesting.

Overall: This film is worth the price of admission on multiple levels.