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First Hit:  This film felt disjointed, lacking depth in character development, with moments of laughter. A good romantic comedy is a wonderful and fun to watch. It is also one of the easier genres to do poorly. Despite having Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, two funny people who can make a romantic comedy work – it doesn’t work here. Yes there are very funny parts but they are few and far between. The failure here is that this film also wants to be taken seriously as a drama as well. The result is a film looking for a base/home genre and therefore lost. When Portia (Fey), who is a Princeton Admissions Director, is with her partner (living together for 10 years) Mark (Michael Sheen), the scenes were not believable. There is no way I bought that they even liked each other – let alone lived together for 10 years. In fact this whole part of the story and script could have been scrapped and the film would have worked. The basic premise is that Portia likes stability and not getting close to anyone. Rudd as John Pressman (a director in an alternative school) pushes for not being stable; he travels with his adopted son and lives in countries all over the world. Both of these people are rebelling against their parents. Portia’s mom Susannah (played by Lily Tomlin) is a rebel of society and stable life – she wants to push the envelope. Mrs. Pressman (Lisa Emery) is old school conservative money and her son John wants to be free and always keep moving. This could be enough for a romantic comedy, but then add Portia may have a son she’s never known and that Rudd might have to settle down – we mix too much drama and it fizzles.

Fey is occasionally good, but mostly neither funny nor dramatically interesting. Rudd is better as he doesn’t have as many hurdles to jump to make his role work. Travis Bratten (as Rudd’s adoptive son Nelson) is excellent. Nat Wolff is very good as a smart lost young man who wants to become part of something. Tomlin is good as Fey’s troubled and inspirational mother. Sheen was wasted in this role that wasn’t needed to make this film work. Karen Croner wrote an inadequate screen play that didn’t know what it wanted to be. Paul Weitz directed this an probably knew it was failing as he filmed and edited it together.

Overall:  Not really worth the money but there are enough laughs to want to watch this for free on a Sunday evening.

Ginger & Rosa

First Hit:  Elle Fanning is brilliant in a strong but a little too long film.

Ginger’s father Roland (Alessandro Nivola) has a particular view of life, is verbally manipulative and wants to change the world’s perception of how to act and be. His philosophy as a Pacifist and freedom to be and act as he sees fit, runs into boundaries that cause pain.

Ginger (Fanning) grows up with a best friend – Rosa (played by Alice Englert). Together they experience their own lives and homes lives - together. Rosa’s father leaves her mom when she is young. Rosa is partly a rebel who is willing to try and experience new things. She is darker in her life views.

Ginger is lighter but equally troubled by the nuclear crises of the mid 1960’s. As 17 year old girls, they are both finding their way. They go to protest meetings, they meet guys, they drink booze, and they smoke cigarettes while  experimenting with sex.

Their paths begin to separate as Ginger gets more involved with the anti-nuclear movement with her family friends Mark (Timothy Spall), Mark Two (Oliver Platt) and Bella (Annette Bening). Rosa thinks she can heal Ginger’s father’s sadness and empty heart.

Nivola is very good as the rebel pacifist. Fanning is extraordinary as Ginger. Her subtle facial expressions and expressive voice solidified her strength as a young actress to watch. Englert was very strong as Rosa. Although her role is more quiet and darker it was no less powerful and her place in the film was solid. I would expect to see her again - soon. Spall, Platt and Bening were all great in their roles in this film. Christina Hendricks as Natalie (Ginger’s mother) was very good in her performance and provided a great juxtaposition to Ginger’s father. Sally Potter wrote and directed this film and although the it was a very good film, it needed trimming to make it more crisp.

Overall:  This was a very good film to watch especially because I remember the nuclear war threat of the 1960s.

Dead Man Down

First Hit:  I was pleasantly surprised that the story was different than I thought it would be – it was about revenge and maybe revenge not being the; be all end all.

Alphonse (Terrence Howard) is having his organization being picked apart, person by person. He’s being sent clues of small square sections of a larger picture.

The picture shows who's doing the killing. Part of his crew of people, who take over buildings and get rid of people who try to hang on in the building, is Victor (Colin Farrell). The crew forces people out of buildings and re-rents them for higher rent.

Although Victor seems engaged with the group, he has other things going on but has gained Alphonse’s trust. From his apartment he can view another section of the building that has a resident to whom we waves at from time to time.

This resident (Beatrice played by Noomi Rapace) convinces him to go out with her one evening and she tells him she wants him to kill the guy who drove into her car which caused massive facial scars. She wants revenge. But why would he do this? She has a film of Victor killing someone and is it using blackmail.

As the film unfolds we learn more about Victor and why he’s doing what he’s doing and his ultimate plan.

Farrell is, as usual, very strong as the troubled, focused man and here he wants revenge. Howard is very good as the frightened but powerful leader of a bunch of thugs. Rapace is phenomenal as the damaged woman who slowly is letting herself care. I loved how the subtle movements in her face brought forth such a plethora of feelings and emotions. Dominic Cooper was strong as Farrell’s thug friend. Isabelle Huppert was wonderful as Valentine, Rapace’s mother.

Overall: Being pleasantly surprised was good and overall the film delivered a satisfying result.

Snitch

First Hit:  That Dwayne Johnson didn’t break out into a fist fight and violent rage added to this films intrigue.

Johnson  has shown in numerous films he has some range. Here, because of this size and build, I expected him to beat the crap out of his antagonists, but he didn’t.

Playing John Mathews in this film as a once divorced father of two children. His son Jason Collins (Rafi Gavron), by his first wife, gets into trouble and his integrity won’t let him rat out someone else for a lighter prison term. Seeing his son beaten from an altercation while in prison, Mathews decides to assist the government’s prosecutor Joanne Keeghan (played by Susan Sarandon) catch a bigger fish so that he can get his son’s sentence reduced.

To do this he befriends Daniel James (played by Jon Bernthal), an employee who has a felony history. Through this connection he finds himself in the think of a drug deal. How he decides to make the deal work for everyone requires him to create his own plan to save his family.

Johnson does a really good job of not using his size and bulk to make the role work; he uses his head and heart to make his character real enough. Gavron does a very good job of being the forgotten son that also wants to do right. Sarandon is OK as the prosecutor. Bernthal is really good as the guy who’s trying to do right for his family. Barry Pepper is wonderful and powerful as a federal agent. Melinda Kanakaredes is almost a bit over dramatic as Johnson’s first wife. Justin Haythe and Ric Roman Waugh wrote a fairly strong script from what based as a true story. Waugh also directed this film and generally it was well paced.

Overall:  Entertaining and shows Johnson’s willingness to continue to grow as an actor.

Quartet

First Hit:  An overall entertaining film and at times truly enjoyable, but at times, it also suffered from being slow and without focus.

The setting is a home for retired English musicians of all types. Although the grounds of this home are immaculate as well as the home, the storyline has you believe that they are next to closing if they don’t get more money.

Despite that this storyline isn’t believable; it does provide a reason for these retired musicians to put a show to collect money. As they meet and practice, the film audience gets an opportunity to glimpse what their life is like as they age. The clarinet player suffers from heart problems but his love for playing music is all he wants to do. Voices of these aging opera singers don’t quite have the tonal quality nor do they hit the high notes like they use to but their love for the music and memories of how they use to be are ever present.

The story is mainly about Jean Horton (Maggie Smith) coming to live in the house. Her former husband Reginald Paget (Tom Courtenay) lives there and is upset that he wasn’t consulted about her coming to live there.

There is a strong story line about their history. Reginald’s friends Wilf (Billy Connolly) and Cissy (Pauline Collins) come up with an idea to have the four of them, including Jean, to sing as a quartet, like they did years earlier.

Resolving their differences is what brings the drama and the comedy is about how they see each other, act towards each other and how they see themselves.

Smith is resurrecting a roll she had in “Marigold Hotel”, grumpy and somewhat mean at the beginning then comes out of her shell. Overall it was OK. Courtenay was good as the former jilted husband of Smith. His most touching sequence was when he as teaching young kids about Opera. Connolly was the funniest of the actors and his shtick was to be a romancer or a wanna be romancer. Collins was very enjoyable as the memory challenged woman with a big heart. Michael Gambon as Cedric Livingston was a lot of fun as the directorial arrogant ringleader of the show. Ronald Hardwood wrote the screenplay and although uneven, overall it was good. Dustin Hoffman directed this and generally it was OK.

Overall:  This was an fun film to watch although a bit uneven.