Big Eyes

First Hit:  Captured the era in a great way and was effective in telling this story.

Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) painted the “Big Eye” paintings that captured the hearts of many. The question is would the paintings have been so well known, distributed, and sold if it weren’t for her husband?

Probably not, however Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) also took credit for painting his wife’s paintings. Walter wanted to be a painter but his skill was in selling. And because he could sell his wife’s work, he also wanted to feed his ego and take credit for painting them as well. Why Margaret agreed to this deception wasn’t explored very deeply.

Although the story was interesting, noteworthy, and gave credence to the power of owning one’s own power, what I liked about the film, were the cars, dress, and representation of the 1950’s and early 1960’s. The brightness and newness of the time after WWII was palatable. To me the defining scene about the time period was early when Margaret and daughter Jane (young Jane – Delaney Raye) escape in the green Ford and head out across the country. The roadside signs, the car and other cars on the road was representative and magical of the time.

Adams was very good as Margaret. She really embodied the time and spirit of a woman wanting to own her power in a societal time where it was felt that men ruled the roost. Waltz was delightfully deceitful, charming and snarky. I loved the courtroom scenes where he ranted, raved and showed that he struggled to paint anything. Both Raye and Madeleine Arthur were wonderful as Margaret’s child Jane. Danny Huston as the reporter Dick Nolan, from which this story is told, was very good as well. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski wrote this dialogue rich script. Tim Burton, as expected, focused on the cinematography, rather than creating interest in the characters.

Overall:  Although I really liked the story, there was something missing from it to make it memorable.

The Gambler

First Hit:  Didn’t hit the mark in many ways, but there were some wonderful performances.

When playing certain characters, Mark Wahlberg definitely hits the mark and does it well. Here as Jim Bennett an Associate Professor in Literature, it doesn’t really work. It wasn't believable to me.

As an obsessed gambler, attempting to find a way to care about anyone including himself, he’s rather good. Mixing the two didn’t work for me, although I enjoyed is pointed stabs at the students in his class. His negative and sorrowful attitude didn’t play well with this students as well.

Whereas the classroom was full when the film starts, in the seven days over which the film takes place, the ending count of students was about 12. His relationship with his mother Roberta (Jessica Lange), his dying grandfather (George Kennedy), and everyone else is toxic, antagonistic and indifferent. What makes all this worse, is that he starts a relationship with Amy (Brie Larson) one of his students. I got that he was searching for a way to learn how to care about himself and others, but getting to this point was not well done.

However, I really liked that the director did not overuse mainstream gambling casinos, but focused more on private gambling dens.

Wahlberg was great as a non-caring gambler but the rest of his role didn’t seem to fit very well. Lange was interesting and well placed as the well-to-do mother running out of patience and willingness to support her self-destructive son. Larson was interesting and good as the brilliant student writer. Michael Kenneth Williams (as loan shark Neville Baraka) was very good and, at times, riveting. John Goodman (as Frank another loan shark) was absolutely commanding and it was him that elevated this film. William Monahan wrote an, at times, interesting, playful and poignant script. Rupert Wyatt directed this film and I’m not sure Wahlberg was the best choice to be the lead.

Overall:  The interesting gambling scenes did not make up for the overall mediocre plot execution.

Top Five

First Hit:  Although there were some funny bits, this film was disappointing.

I’ve been a Chris Rock fan for as long as I can recall. I, unfortunately, came to this film with hopes of seeing something interesting and good.

What I felt was bored about 1/8 of the way in until the last ¼ of the film when it got interesting and with some traction. That is not to say that there weren’t parts in between those two points that I didn’t laugh or enjoy – it is just that they were few and far between. To point out one of those segments was when he was with family or the people he grew up with – they had some funny riffs.

Here “Top Five” refers to the top five rappers each character is asked to state. The film is about Andre Allen (Rock) who is trying to promote what he thinks is a serious film about a black slave uprising in Honduras. The small clips the audience sees of the film shows that it is horrible. He’s also marrying Erica Long (Gabrielle Union) a reality TV star with no discernible talent.

To use a vehicle to discover where Allen is in his life the film uses a reporter Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson) who also masquerades as a male New York Times critic by another name who always bashes Allen’s “Hammy” films. Her interviewing him gives context to discover Allen's state of mind. We know what is going to happen at the beginning of the film and the path to the end is predictable and lacks imagination. What is worse the whole “Top Five” bit isn’t strong enough to create a touchstone or transition touchstone.

Rock only stands out when he does a brief standup routine. It is also where he discovers what he’s good at doing. Else Rock is monotone and appears bored. Union is fine as the reality star that wants to marry Allen because she has nothing else going for her. Dawson is the best thing about this film and there are scenes where she shines. J.B. Smoove is strong as Silk, Allen’s bodyguard. Rock both wrote and directed this film and although he had good intentions, it fell flat.

Overall:  This was a poorly constructed film although the intention might have been good.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

First Hit:  I couldn’t help but compare Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” with this film and in many ways this film is more touching and it was also very slow at times.

This is a long and grandiose type film.

It does its best to create characters we can either like or dislike. Ramses (Joel Edgerton) has the look and feel of the antagonist but there is something missing and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Christian Bale plays Moses the adopted brother (of sorts) of Ramses both of whom are guided by Ramses father Seti (John Turturro).

Viceroy Hegep (Ben Mendelsohn) overhears that Moses is really a Hebrew and tells Ramses. Moses is ousted from the Egyptian royal family and finds his roots. He comes back to Egypt to free his people (600,000 Hebrews) and lead them home. Guided by a young boy, who represents the almighty, he witnesses the plagues and then leads the slaves through the Red Sea and to their ancestral home. This film was slow most of the time.

The 3-D version of the plagues was very good and it surpasses the previous film in realistic spectacle. Funny that I still liked the previous version of the parting of the Red Sea because the way the walls of the water jumped up. However, this film’s version is far more realistic and was very good as well. I don't think this film will do very well at the box office because the story telling here just isn’t very compelling.

Edgerton as Ramses is effective but doesn't carry the energy to make us want to find him the villain he's suppose to be. Bale does his best in this role and at times is really good, but the material slows him down. Turturro is really good as Seti because he carries the air of supremacy and intelligence perfectly. Mendelson in a smallish role is fabulous. He makes the most of this part. There were other big name actors in the film but their minor roles are not worth mentioning. Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine, and Steven Zaillian wrote this over full script. Ridley Scott directed this overly full script. The best part was the effectiveness of creating great plagues.

Overall:  This was a long film that only begins to pick up during the plagues.

The Imitation Game

First Hit:  The amazing acting tells a truly amazing story about belief and perseverance.

This is the amazing story of how Germany’s Enigma machine was decoded and used to assist the allies in winning World War II.

Alan Turing is featured here as the father of machines that think (the way machines think/process information – today we call them computers). As a young boy Turing (young Alex play by Alex Lawther) is a smallish, nerd who is picked upon by his fellow classmates. He’s smart and begins to discover his homosexuality through caring about, of, and for his one true school friend – Christopher.

During the war he’s asked to participate in decoding the German Enigma machine. He’s grouped with Hugh (Matthew Goode), John (Allen Leech), Peter (Matthew Beard), Jack (James Northcote) and then Alan finds and adds Joan (Keira Knightley) to the team. Each of them are good puzzle solvers, chess players and/or mathematicians.

Problem with this team is that Turing (adult Turning played by Benedict Cumberbatch) doesn’t work well with others. He believes that he can build a machine that will solve the problem and thinks trying to decode Enigma manually is a useless endeavor. He thinks working with a team will slow him down.

This is an amazing story and the acting is top shelf. However, the problem I found with the film is that it tells this story in three different time frames and juggles them in a way that didn’t work for me. I was fascinated by the young Turing, and as I begin to fully drop into this child’s experience, bang we’re in the 1950’s and he’s being arrested for homosexuality, then bang we’re back into the story of him building a machine to decode Enigma.

All three stories are great and the acting in them is great – it is the jostling of my emotions that I didn’t like by the way it moved from one story to another. However, all told it was an amazingly acted film that told a wonderful and powerful story.

Lawther is absolutely mesmerizing as the young Turing. His expressions and soulful eyes told a huge story. Cumberbatch as the adult Turing is stunning and embodied a man who understood problems and math far more than people. I loved the scene where he stated that he was always decoding because people never said what the meant. Knightly is, again, sublime. She’s perfect as the only bright light in Turing’s relationships with people. Goode is very strong as the chess master who learns to respect what Turing can do. Leech, Beard and Northcote are great in their supporting roles as code solvers. Mark Strong as the MI6 manager of this team is cunningly strong. Charles Dance is perfect as Commander Denniston the man who wanted to run a tight ship. Graham Moore wrote a strong script but he and director Morten Tyldum could have, in my opinion, made a better film if it was more chronological in nature.

Overall:  This was an excellent film sharing an amazing story about how World War II was shortened.