Snowpiercer

First Hit:  Odd story, interesting scenes, and generally unsatisfying.

Global warming has us (humans) attempting to fix the problem with a pill (sort of speak). We spray stuff into the atmosphere to cool down the planet and we send ourselves into a deep freeze. All but a few hundred people remain, alive, on a perpetual motion train on an endless loop. Odd story – yes.

The train is divided into different sections, by classes, whereas the first class people get real food, alcohol, and have a good life as this train drives around this year long circle. However, the people in the back of the train get blocks of protein to eat, live in squalor and lose their limbs with infractions against the other classes. Wilford (Ed Harris), who is the person in charge of the train, believes that everyone has their place and their duty/job. Cutis (Chris Evans), who lives in the rear of the train wants to get control of the train and create a more equal environment among its passengers.

The film is about a social revolution. Some of the scenes where Mason, (Tilda Swinton) Wilford’s speaker and emissary, speaks to the trains’ passengers are priceless. 

Although many of the characters are interestingly unique like, Namgoong (Kang-ho Song), Tanya (Octavia Spencer) Yona (Ah-sung Ko), and Gilliam (John Hurt) and a number of the battle scenes to overtake the train are of interest, it was generally unsatisfying story and execution of the story.

Harris does a good job of being arrogantly omnipotent yet there was a lack of depth in his performance that took away from the film. Evans did a very good job of carrying his character through this odd story and making it work. Swinton was unique, flamboyant and engaging when on the screen. Song was enigmatically interesting in his role as the one who thinks he knows what is going on outside the train. Spencer was wonderful as the mother and lover of the movement to change the status quo. Ko was incredibly engaging in her role. Hurt was excellent as the knowing old man who was once the partner of Wilford’s. Joon-ho Bong and Kelly Masterson wrote this imaginative and unfathomable story. Bong also directed the film.

Overall:  Although it was an interesting film, I left the theater not thinking much about the experience of watching it.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

First Hit:  The story didn’t hold together and was simply a place to display CGI’s.

The best character parts of the film were in the interchanges between Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). And although Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, brought a level of sophistication to his part, this film was all about creating HUGE computer generated imagery and having people do battle with the images.

The other interchanges that were engaging were with Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and the Captain. Didn’t have the same sense with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and other characters – he seemed removed from them (or the story) although he was a key piece. I had no interest in the story about CGIs because they are non-characters – only machines.

The film appeared to feature the technology that was being created but so what – it was uninteresting. Was any part of this story believable? Yes, the greed and lust for power. But, after just 12 hours of seeing the film and writing this, I can’t remember anything positive outside of what I’ve mentioned.

Evans is a good but the screen play written for him is rather lame and uninteresting. The scenes with his co-star Johansson were the best part of the film. I suspect it was Johansson that made those scenes work – she was really good. Mackie was perfect as Evans’ right hand guy. Redford was good with what he had, which wasn’t much. Jackson just seemed like he was in a film of his own. Although the scenes included him, he also seem detached from them. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote a week character screen play while the direction by Anthony and Joe Russo seemed disjointed and without life.

Overall:  One of the worse Marvel produced films – they cannot make CGI be a character in this way.

Divergent

First Hit:  Not very believable, a little long, some good acting, therefore this film is all over the place.

The future looks grim if you think this film has any modicum of truth. If it is, then I’m not interested in being there.

Basically, the story is that one city, Chicago, is surrounded by a very high concrete wall topped by metal fencing that looks more like antennas. Is Chicago the only society left and how do we know? Society is made up of five different types of people. Really! Is it really possible to take 10’s of thousands of people have them predetermined and predisposed to fit into 5 or 6 personality types? No. These personality types are designed to fulfill certain societal roles.

The personality types (I won’t bother using the names they used as these words are as bad as the story) are:  People who govern. People who are brave. People who are peaceful. People who are intelligent. And, people who are truthful. Right, as if one is predisposed to truth, why can’t they be predisposed to also be peaceful? Oh, that’s where Divergents come into play.

The Divergents have no one predisposition. There is a “test” every young person takes which tells them what they are. Then after learning the results of their test, in a public presentation, each chooses a group to associate with. Although everyone can chose another role than the one they are predisposed, they don’t often pick something different.

However, once they chose a role they are stuck with it and cannot go back to their families or anywhere else. When someone fails the test, they are labeled a Divergent because they have no one predisposition and are considered a threat to society. Tris (Shailene Woodley) learns she is a Divergent but chooses to be in the brave group because they seem to have more fun and are active. As a recruit she excels at some things and struggles at others like fighting. She is mentored by Four (Theo James). Her mother Natalie (Ashley Judd) who is a govern (or is she?) tries to support her.

Her best friend is Christina (Zoe Kravitz) and her help each other pass the test to become a full fledge brave person. If one fails to pass their initiation test they become homeless. There is other stuff about a faction wanting to take over control of the government as led by Jeanine (Kate Winslet) as well but all this is part of an unclear story.

Woodley is very good and does her best with the role, but the whole thing is preposterous. James is good and the chemistry between him and Woodley is good. The downside of his acting or the screenplay is that his difference is telegraphed throughout the film. Kravitz was actually one of the best things about the film – I enjoyed the energy she brought to her role. Winslet was lost in this useless role. Judd was OK as Woodley’s mother and hid her secret well. Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor wrote a poorly conceived script from a published book. Neil Burger directed this and given the script and story it was OK.

Overall: This was so poorly strung together that the result was; it was too long and unbelievable.

Need for Speed

First Hit:  The cars were cool and fun to watch.

The story line was lackluster – except for the excitement Monarch (Michael Keaton) brought with his fervor for promoting his annual race. How we get there to this race is supposed to be a dramatic story that we’re interested in.

But, most of the acting and scenes are simply a bunch of clichés strung together. Small town guy Toby Marshall (Aaron Paul) who comes from a racing family is going to lose the garage his father left him because... . And that question is left open and unanswered.

He probably put himself in this predicament because it appears to the audience he likes hanging with his friends working only on stuff he likes to work on - race cars. And because of this the business is going under with no real effort to change his business model. So they do a Hail-Mary pass by fixing a rare Carol Shelby car that was never finished and owned by Dino (Dominic Cooper).

The plot twist is that this arch enemy (who also stole his girlfriend) is the person offering him this opportunity. Interesting thing is that they created the illusion that this was an unfinished Carroll Shelby car which we know couldn’t have a body because Shelby died many, many years ago. But because Ford is promoting their new 50 year old Mustang model in the film this is the draw.

Yup, we got a new Mustang body on a Carol Shelby chassis and engine designs. He fixes up the Mustang, gets pulled into a street race and loses his best friend in the process. For revenge he gets into the cross country street race that involves "winner takes all" (cars that is). The race is orchestrated by Monarch.

The cars: A Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, Koenigsegg Agera R, Bugatti Veyron Super Sports, Saleen S7, GTA Spano, and a McLaren P1. Of course the hero wins and gets basically nothing because the cars get destroyed in the film, but all’s right with the world because he settles a debt, and gets a new girlfriend Julia (Imogen Poots).

The cars were the stars – loved seeing them and wanted to drive them all. Paul was OK as the quiet type hero who does his talking through driving. Cooper was good as the guy who didn’t care much about how his actions hurt people. Keaton was great – the guy still brings so much energy to every role his does. My favorite today is still is role as Beetlejuice. Poots was really enjoyable and I enjoyed her role as it progressed in the film. George Gatins wrote a predictable script. Scott Waugh directed this and I thought it might have been better with less police interference and more open-street driving to see each car’s ability to perform because it was all about the cars.

Overall:  Just wanted more cars and less people.

Non-Stop

Hit:  The generally unbelievable premise was kept interesting because of Neeson’s intensity.

Liam Neeson plays Bill Marks, a distraught US Air Marshal who hates flying and is caught up in a hijacking/blackmailing of a flight from New York to London. Sitting next to him is Jen Summers (Julianne Moore) who needs to sit next to the window.

During the flight Marks receives a text message on a secure communications channel. He suspects the other Air Marshal but ends up killing him – in accordance to the information and plan shared on the text messages. Every 20 minutes someone dies. The pilot and the entire Air Marshal team on the ground, think Marks is really the instigator to the hijacking.

The audience knows Marks is the good guy. Eventually we discover the real plot and the world is right. Although early in the film one doesn’t really know who the culprit, there are things one can read during the film which point the way. The best part of the film is Neeson and his ability to keep the audience engaged.

Neeson is strong and intense which is the best part of the film. Moore is good as a woman who is living life fully for the now. Michelle Dockery was OK as the flight attendant who assists Marks the most. Lupita Nyong’o was OK in a very minor role as another flight attendant. John Richardson and Christopher Roach wrote an unfathomable script. Jaume Collet-Serra did a reasonable job of directing this unrealistic film with some interesting shots of fighting in an airplane restroom and scenes where the plane dove and the passengers got tossed about.

Overall:  It was watchable but not because of the plot, script, or direction.