The Dark Knight Rises

First Hit:  A real waste of 164 minutes.

The beginning of an action thriller film needs to draw the audience in with intrigue.

This film starts off with lost mediocrity and because the beginning is not set well, the rest of the film fails. Not that there aren’t fun, interesting, and exciting moments, but the slowness and overly complex development of a unexceptional plot was wasteful of my time.

Christian Bale (as Bruce Wayne/Batman) looked bored and grateful that this will be the last time he has to pretend he’s the king of Gotham’s crime fighters. That the film hinted that Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Blake) will become “Robin” in some future encounter was unfortunate. What worked? Anne Hathaway worked.

She played the petty thief Selina and every time she was on the screen, you watched her. She brought humor, intrigue, and something different than the dull overly scripted film that continued to unfold. Michael Cain as Wayne’s manservant Alfred, made an attempt to bring drama and passion to this film, but it was seen as just that; attempting to bring drama to a dying film.

One of the worst ideas in characters was having the evil enemy Bane (played by Tom Hardy), talk through a device covering his mouth which made him sound silly, not menacing. I could go on and on about how unengaged this film was with telling a good story but I won't. 

Frankly, the film was a poor semi-showcase of visual effects and overly dramatic storylines which meant little because the set-up was so piss poor.

Bale, looked and acted bored with the role and film. Gordon-Levitt was reasonably good and brought energy to a dying film. Hathaway was engaging and delightful and the only reason to sit through the bloated story. Cain was wasted in this role although he did try to bring emotion to a heartless film. Hardy’s character was minimalized by the voicing device. There are a whole host of others who were part of this film that didn’t make it any better despite their wholehearted attempts. Jonathan and Christopher Nolan wrote a wasteful overly complex lifeless script. Christopher Nolan directed this and I’ve no idea of what he was trying to give the audience but it felt as though he didn’t care a whole lot.

Overall: Bloated, overly developed and stupidly complex – don’t bother.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

First Hit:  Strangely powerful and well-acted.

I was fascinated by the strength and embodiment of the character Hushpuppy as played by Quvenzhane Wallis. This alone is reason to see this film.

The self-absorbed characters of her dad Wink (played Dwight Henry), Jean Battiste (played by Levy Easterly), Walrus (played by Lowell Landes) and Little Jo (played by Pamela Harper) was both sad and reflective of people who check out of general society.

This film is about Armageddon and/or the breakdown of society and/or survival. Hushpuppy is more or less growing up alone. She attends a school of sorts but the teaching is a mix of truth and illusionary stories. Her dad, Wink, calls out from his separate shack “feeding time” and Hushpuppy gets her food.

Hushpuppy is spiritually connected to the universe and hears the heartbeat of the planet through everything she sees or touches. She is in-touch with the all.

Wallis gives the performance of the year – she was phenomenal. Henry is also powerfully strong as the slightly touched and alcoholic father. Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin wrote a powerful and almost overly convoluted script. Benh Zeitlin did a great job of getting incredibly powerful acting performances from non-professional actors.

Overall:  A moving and powerful film that will stay with you days after you see it.

Savages

First Hit:  Overly done mishmash of drugs, violence and machismo.

Oliver Stone has done a wide assortment of films and many of them have stories based in violence.

This one is another of those violent films of his and it appears he wanted to say something about the word savages. What the point was of this movie didn’t land on me.

I found this film overly acted (by Benicio Del Toro and Salma Hayek to name too examples) while aiming to shock the audience with the type of the uncaring violence we see in the news coming out of Mexico.

My interpretation of the purpose of this film was to see what happens when two friends Ben and Chon (played by Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch respectively), have their shared girlfriend O (played by Blake Lively) is taken from them because they didn't want to do a drug deal. The three of them love their life by making, selling and using their high grade pot.

Chon is an Iraqi war vet and is a cold killer but only has to use his skills occasionally to keep the drug payments flowing to their business. Ben is a botanist and is the creator of their product which exceeds all other pot in the world. He’s kind hearted and does volunteer work throughout the world when he’s not creating a new strain.

Elena (Hayek) is the leader of a Mexican drug cartel that wants Ben and Chon’s (names reminded me of Cheech and Chong – bad choice of names) product. Elena's enforcer is Lado (played by Del Toro). The film, which early on depicts beheadings and later on with lots of uncaring machismo violence, has no real point except we get to see Ben and Chon get their girl back after Elena kidnaps her to force a deal with the weed makers. For some acting relief, Stone has John Travolta as Dennis the dirty Federal Drug Agent.

Lively is pretty and, at times, plays an effective stupid girl who is a full blown pothead. Johnson is supposed to be the smart cool one and at times he’s OK in this role. Kitsch holds his role as non-caring enforcer well enough. Del Toro is overly slimy in his portrayal of an enforcer. Hayek is wasted in her role as an accidental drug cartel leader. Travolta made the most of his role and screen time. Shane Salerno, Don Winslow and Oliver Stone wrote this poorly constructed script with some stupid lines like “went all Henry the 8th on them”. Stone looks like he found a way to imbibe himself in drugs and violence once again.

Overall:  I enjoyed seeing my old playground town of Laguna Beach, but everything else was wasted – just like how the main characters spent most of their time.

Your Sister's Sister

First Hit:  Not a great film and some situations were well acted and thoughtful.

The film begins with some speeches at a party in a living room about someone who’s been deceased for a year. The persons brother Jack (played by Mark Duplass), still hurting from the loss of his brother, gives a talk about some of the earlier and darker sides of his deceased brother.

The gathered group doesn’t want to hear it, including Iris (played by Emily Blunt) who was the girlfriend of the dead brother. She pulls Jack aside and suggests he get himself together by staying at her family’s cabin on an island in the Puget Sound. He gets on his bike and rides to a ferry, takes the ferry to an island and finds the remote island cabin. Arriving he runs into Iris’s gay sister Hannah (played by Rosemarie DeWitt).

Hannah is at the cabin because she just ended a 7-year relationship and is trying to find herself. They sit down, have a bunch of drinks and end up having sex. Iris arrives the next day to visit Jack unexpectedly and finds her sister there as well.

The untold stories begin to evolve here and the audience is along for the ride. What I liked was the process of how the sisters resolve their issue - it wasn't with a simple “I’m sorry”. There are long walks, moments of ignoring the other person in the room, and alone time. Jack has his own searching to do but his search comes to fruition when he trashes his bike.

It is within these sections of the film where I thought and felt the congruency of the remote scenery and emotional processing each person goes through to resolve what life brings.

Overall, Duplass is good but not great. There are interesting moments when we get a glimpse of an interesting character. Blunt is very good in her role and I enjoy when she is on the screen. She has an ability to hide and expose who she and her character are simultaneously. DeWitt is charming and her interaction with Blunt in the bed scenes are revealing, sweet and joyous to watch. Lynn Shelton wrote and directed this film which is very much a woman’s film with a woman’s point of view.

Overall: I fully enjoyed how the threesome under the direction of Shelton took their time to resolve the issue at hand.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

First Hit:  I liked this film although there were pieces missing.

The world is coming to an end by an asteroid that is going to hit the earth in 21 days. As Dodge (played by Steve Carell) and his wife listen to the news parked in their car, he is solemn, quite, within himself.

His wife, without saying a word, opens the car door and runs away from him. This set up lets us know that he’s not been close with his wife and they probably didn’t communicate at all. He goes home, tries to get his housekeeper to quit because of the end of the world status, but she doesn’t want to.

This is the running joke in the film. He meets up with his young neighbor Penny (played by Keira Knightley) who is crying on his fire escape because her boyfriend is leaving and she has missed the last plane available to fly home to see her family in England.

They become friends. Riots start erupting in their city so they leave in her car. He promises that he knows someone with a plane and will guide her there if she will take him to his long lost high-school love. She wants to see her family before the world’s demise and he thinks he can find love again.

Dodge is a very dour character. He has little life in him and in some cases his part feels forced. However, Penny’s character is full of emotion, juxtapositions and oddities like being able to sleep through anything.

The film doesn’t tie together all the pieces very well but it was Penny’s part that kept me engaged with the story.

Carell came across as required in his character – meaning I couldn’t feel him being the character he was playing. He was close at times, but not enough. Knightley was far more moving and interesting in her role. Martin Sheen in a small part, as Dodge’s father, was excellent. Lorene Scafaria wrote and directed this film. I’m not sure whether it was poor direction or poor acting on Carell’s part that made the film seem like it wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

Overall:  I thoroughly enjoyed moments in this film but at other times it seem overly controlled.