Men in Black III (3D)

First Hit:  Excellent third installment of a 15 year old franchise. This film starts a little slow with conversations between Agent J (Will Smith) and Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) which seemed to be on purpose, or is it Jones getting older?

This is the question I had in mind while I watched the beginning one way dialogue. Although there is some intrigue with Agent O (Emma Thompson) and K, it never really realizes itself and then when O speaks a lengthy squeaky alien language segment, it ruins her presence as an austere and intelligent agent.

I started to think that MB III wasn’t going to be interesting, that it was going to be worse than MB II, but then J jumps into the past and Bingo!!! - the whole film takes on a new and exciting story line.

The venue is a memorable time in my life – 1969. It focuses around our first moon launch, I was in Vietnam when we sent a rocket to, and landed on, the moon. What boosts the excitement for the film is the repartee between a young Agent K (Josh Brolin) and J. There is the back and forth that J doesn't have from old K, and this becomes the running joke.

J has gone back in time to kill Boris The Animal (played by Jemaine Clement). In current time Boris has escaped the high security moon prison and is bent on destroying earth and he is also really angry at K for shooting off his arm back in 1969. Boris also decides to go back in time to help his earlier self and get his arm back. J's mission is to change Earth's future by fixing the past.

What makes this film fulfill the audience's emotional aspect is the ending. J sees why he and K are connected. The item to note is that Brolin was dead on great at channeling the energy and clarity of Jones as a young K.  By the end of the film, everyone was in full gear and it was definitely a joy to watch.

The 3D is excellent as it is used to enhance the film.

Smith is great and the maturity he’s gained as a person over the last 15 years shows up with more subtle and deeper characterization of his role. Jones has a more minor role here but as the well-grounded senior agent he is very good as the film ends. Thompson is OK and I’m not sure why the scriptwriter and director minimized her involvement. Brolin was the star in that he had to channel a young K but with a challenge to give us the reason why the older K acts the way he acts in the future. Clement was strong as the enemy. Lowell Cunningham wrote a wonderfully full script. Barry Sonnenfeld directed this film with clarity and focus to create a really enjoyable adventure.

Overall: Sequels are hard because they can never match the freshness of the original but here you have a really good and worthwhile film.

The Hunger Games

First Hit:  A tad long but a satisfying storyline, some great acting and visually enticing.

This is an age old story about the have and have-nots.

The haves living their life of opulence and self-aggrandizing while they abuse the have-nots by making their young kill each other for their pleasure and television amusement. Remind you of history? 

If this is a picture of how we could end up, it is very sad. Oppression of another human being is not the way out of our inability to see each and every human being as our equal.

In this version of this old story, Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to step in for her younger sister who was selected, in her first year of eligibility, to be one of two warriors from the depressed area called District 12. From age 12 to age 18, once a year each district (there are 12) must submit two warriors to compete to the death as homage to their society and/or religious beliefs.

Her partner from District 12 is Peeta (played by Josh Hutcherson) a quiet unassuming boy who has had a difficult history. Together they are take a modern train to a very modern opulent city where they are groomed and trained to kill each other and the other 22 participants.

They are coached by a heavily drinking guide named Haymitch (played by Woody Harrelson) and kind stylist named Cinna (played by Lenny Kravitz). The behind the scenes producer for the television program which everyone watches is Seneca Crane (played by Wes Bentley). He is under the guidance of President Snow (played by Donald Sutherland).

The MC for the television program where they are interviewed before being set out to kill each other is Caesar Flickerman (played by Stanley Tucci). One character which stood out for me besides the main characters was Rue (Amandla Stenberg) who was one of the 24 selected to be part of the killing. Her soft kindness and presence was one of the hopes of a better generation.

The visual shots, at times, were stunning the utopian city was well crafted to reflect both future and totalitarian Nazi like symbols. However, some of the hand-held stuff was just jerky stupid. One does not see the world in this jerky way and makes me wonder about the overuse and intentional camera movement.

Lawrence was, as she was in “Winter’s Bone” driven, clear and with feeling and kindness. She has an ability to emote strength and heartfelt empathy in one look. Hutcherson was solid as the guy who knew he was going to die, was self-effacing and yet let it be known he was in love. Harrelson was, again, superb. Kravitz was very strong as someone who cared about the participants. Tucci was on the edge of being over the top as the MC – wonderful job. Bentley was good but I was very distracted by his beard. Stenberg was sublime. Sutherland was very good as the President who controlled the games uncaringly. Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray created a strong script from the book of the same name. Gary Ross allowed this film to unfold well but some of his choices of camera shots – especially the jerky ones were ill advised and take away from being engaged with the film.

Overall:  This was enjoyable if a bit long and made me wonder why this film and the books are aimed at and popular with teens.

The OSCARS and Other Notes

It is that time of season again and although this year wasn't an especially great year for films, a couple of interesting and outstanding "out of the box films" caught my eye: "The Artist", The Tree of Life" and "Melancholia".

On the other side of the coin, I'm grateful that the Harry Potter series has ended as they became painful to watch. And the Sherlock Holmes film was also very bad.

Some performances I would have like to have been honored but weren't would include: Michael Fassbender in "Shame", Kirsten Dunst in "Melancholia", Charlize Theron in "Young Adult", Carey Mulligan  in "Shame" (cannot give enough credit for her singing "New York, New York" as though she was standing on the edge of a cliff ready to fall at any moment), Christoph Waltz in "Carnage", and Albert Brooks in "Drive". 

Given the selected honorees by the academy, here are my picks for some of the categories:

• Best Picture: "The Artist"

• Actor in a Leading Role: Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer in "The Beginners"

• Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

• Cinematography: "The Tree of Life" Emmanuel Lubezki

• Directing: Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"

• Film Editing: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

• Adapted Screenplay: "The Descendants" Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

• Original Screenplay: "Margin Call" J.C. Chandor

To all of you: Thank you for coming to my site and reading my reviews. The number of views has grown tremendously over this past year. There are now over 550 reviewed films and it is fun for me to post and read your comments.

May this new year bring on better films with new ideas tested and old ones enhanced. I know I'll be there in the 5th or 6th row center ready to suspend belief into someone else's story.

May you

Be Well...

Michael

Melancholia

First Hit: Although slow and at times meandering, it stays with you long after it's over and evokes deep feelings of melancholia.

The pacing of this film is known from the get go. It is going to be a slow unwinding piece. At the very beginning we know the outcome, but because it is represented like a smooth ballet, this knowledge is almost forgotten until the very end.

The end of the world may or may not come the way it is depicted here, but the way people react to the end may be far closer in these frames than how other apocalyptic films present the end.

Justine (played by Kristen Dunst) is getting married to Michael (played by Alexander Skarsgard). They are very late on arrival to their wedding festivities in very remote country club. Claire (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg) is Justine’s older sister whose very wealthy husband John (played by Kiefer Sutherland), is paying for this event.

Michael, Claire, and John all seem to be trying to manage Justine as she sways in and out of sadness, hopelessness and sparks of joy. They want her to be happy but the history is etched on their faces as to the futility of this management. Then Justine and Claire’s mom is heard from at the wedding table.

Gaby (played by Charlotte Rampling) is a severe pessimist when it comes to love and happiness. Her look tells you, that she’s disliked, or maybe hated, herself her whole life. However, there is enough going on for the audience to see that Justine’s melancholy is not only based on her upbringing by this mean spirited person. Her innate sensitivities to all that’s around her is probably a large factor in how she thinks, feels and acts.

As everything falls apart, the film's extraordinary cinematography envelops the audience into its fold for the final ride to the end.

Dunst shows us she wants to be taken seriously as an actress and and here she shows why. A very strong performance. Her fluctuations between melancholy and fleeting moments of joy and love towards others were very honest. Skarsgard, was perfect as the guy who hoped he could “save” Justine from her depressions and when he tells her he cannot believe someone so beautiful is with him, he’s right. His nuances of hopefulness and sadness were dead-on. Gainsbourg is an actress that I enjoy watching because I feel that in any moment she will explode, like dynamite. She never does but how she contains the energy in this film of being the smart squared-away sister until she realizes it is all going to end was wonderful to watch. Sutherland as Gainsbourg’s husband fit the role very well. There was enough arrogance and “how dare you” in his character which was rounded out by his obvious love and thoughtfulness towards his son. Rampling was the kicker. Her performance as the sarcastic fatalist was pitch-perfect. John Hurt as Justine and Claire’s father was the optimist in their family but he also liked his own life his way. Lars von Trier wrote and directed this film. He clearly knew how he wanted it to look and feel and he got strong performances from his choice for actors. About one third of the way through the film I thought, “jeez this is slow” and wondered “where this was going”. However, in the end it was very satisfying.

Overall: The images, thoughts about, and contemplations from this this film will stay with you for days after you see it. This is the character of a very strong film.

In Time

First Hit:  The concept of this film is outstanding and the acting very good; however the film isn’t memorable.

What would you do if you knew that you only had 1 year to live?

What would society do if everyone only had 1 year to live after reaching age 25? How hard would you work to gain more time? What would it be like to always look 25 no matter how old you really are? What would you do to live longer if you could get other people’s remaining time?

These are the primary questions this film asks audience members to think about. To keep you posted on your remaining time everyone has a digital clock imbedded in their left forearm. The clock stars the day you turn 25 years old. Your remaining time is always on your arm.

Will Salas (played by Justin Timberlake) is 3 years over his 25th birthday. He lives day to day. He gets other time by working hard. He never steals or inappropriately takes anyone else’s time. Other people rob people for their time. He meets up with Henry Hamilton (played by Matthew Bomer) who is over a century old and is done with living. He wants to die.

Will saves him from being shot. While hiding out Henry gives Will all his remaining time (hundreds of years) while Will is sleeping and then goes out and commits suicide. Chasing Henry are Timekeepers, led here by Raymond Leon (played by Cillian Murphy).

The Timekeepers track people who are giving away too much of their time and also track people who pass through time zones. In this world time is the only currency and is used for everything (instead of money), people trade time for food, coffee, and bus rides. If the master planners think there are too many people alive, they raise the price of everything thereby reducing the available time for individuals.

With his new gained time, Will travels to a fancy part of the city and meets Silvia Weis (played by Amanda Seyfried) who has a very rich (time wise) father Philippe Weis (played by Vincent Kartheiser). Philippe is a controller of time in a specific geographical area and he has a lot of time. In fact he has a 1,000,000 years in a bank vault in his office. Silvia falls in love with Will and because the timekeepers are after him, he has to run and she decides to run with him, living day by day for time.

The lesson Silvia imparts to the audience is that loving someone and living fully may require her to only live each day at a time. Good films need to stay with me and have me think about them a day or two (or even weeks or months) after I see them.

This film left my memory banks within 24 hours. And even though it was a great subject, and wonderfully acted, there was something missing – real questions about the real mystery of life, like what is time (outside of a human “concept by which we measure our pain” – John Lennon)?

Timberlake was excellent and really seemed to embody the part. Bomer was good as the disillusioned guy with more time than he needs. Murphy was excellent as the driven Timekeeper who just did he job the best he could and had a difficult time changing his point of view. Kartheiser was strong as Seyfried’s father although he almost looked younger than her. Seyfried was very good as the girl who needed to wake up from her sheltered existence. Andrew Niccol wrote and directed this. He did get strong performances and the film was well put together and crisp. It just seemed to lack the depth necessary to make it memorable.

Overall: In Time was good to watch and very entertaining, but with such a meaty subject why did it fade from my mind so quickly when a film like "Margin Call" still has me thinking. If you want entertainment this is a very good film to go see.