The Gift

First Hit:  The audience has moments of being shocked and the point of the film, impact of bullying, is well made.

The set-up is that a couple has moved from Chicago to LA. Simon (Jason Bateman) because of a new job opportunity and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) because as a designer she can work from anywhere and that they lost a baby while in Chicago.

The story and script try to have you believe that she’s gets too anxious and may be struggling and as the film moves on, you find out differently. The seed for the story heading a different way from the setup is Gordo (Joel Edgerton) a hold high school buddy of Simons.

There is tension during each interaction and as it builds the actual reasons for the tension become known towards the film’s ending. The misdirection is handled fairly well and the script (by Edgerton) is filled with hanging truths.

Bateman is really good as being the man who wants to take care of his wife and does this a little too strongly. Hall is excellent as portraying a level of dependency to her husband, but also with and empathy and compassion for Gordo to inquire why he is the way he is. Edgerton is really strong as the affected man who continues to deal with the events of his high school days. He carries and expresses the burdens he obtained from his earlier years very well. Edgerton wrote a strong script and did a good job of directing the actors, including himself.

Overall:  I enjoyed suspense created in this film and appreciated the point of the film about bullying even more. 

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 Great Gatsby

First Hit:  Visually arresting at times, but the story lagged and acting was spotty.

A good actor can create believability in a character. Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby had me believing. I like how he’s matured and the lines in his face are giving him an air of reliability.

Carey Mulligan (as Daisy Buchanan) didn’t quite make it for me. She appears too intelligent and strong to make me believe she would choose to stay with her husband given the love she had for Gatsby.

Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, the storyteller, is good at showing vulnerability, intelligence and obsessiveness. One thing that perplexed me from the beginning was how I was expected to believe that Nick and Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) went to school together – the perceived age difference between the two characters didn’t work for me.

I sat there and said to myself multiple times, these two guys didn’t go to college together. Baz Luhrmann directed this film with visual flash at the expense of substance and the real Fitzgerald story is about substance in the world of flash. The choice of using modern attempts at music from the 20’s was extremely poor and seemed way out of place. DiCaprio wanted me to know more about his character and there is where the film could have spent more time.

I did like how the filmed opened with black and white Warner Bros logo and moved into the beautiful 3D world of the film. Another strong aspect of the film was the way we (the audience) were introduced to the story – by having Nick writing his experience while in a mental hospital.

DiCaprio was the strongest character in the film and I wanted to know more about him and the script and director didn’t quite deliver. Mulligan didn’t quite make me believe she was as weak as her character was made to be. Edgerton was a strong Buchanan and was solid. Maguire was good and I believed his character and way of telling his story. Craig Pearce and Luhrmann wrote a good, not great, script but Baz overdressed this film and relied on the glitz and left the story behind.

Overall:  The film was a letdown although some of the performances were very good.

Warrior

First Hit: Even with its ring violence, this is a great film.

UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotional organization.

I’ve watched a few of the television bouts and for the most part they are very difficult to watch. People get hurt. People are in the ring to hurt the other person. Although it isn’t particularly my cup of tea, it doesn’t mean it cannot be used as a background for a good film.

Paddy Condon (played by Nick Nolte) is a retired old drunk with a penchant for listening to Moby Dick on cassette recorder. He’s got 1,000 days of sobriety when his youngest son Tommy (played by Tom Hardy) shows up at his doorstep. The relationship is filled with sadness and hate. Tommy is silent, brooding, and is a soft spoken volcano.

His oldest son Brendan (played by Joel Edgerton) is married but he and his wife Tess (played by Jennifer Morrison) are barely making a living. Brendan is a physics high school teacher and also fights in parking lot MMA fights. He needs the extra money or he will lose his home because of the medical expenses incurred by his daughter.

The brothers haven’t spoken for almost 15 years and there is animosity between both brothers and their father. Their life as kids in the same house with Paddy, their mom was hell.

To make some money and gain some pride, they both enter a single elimination UFC bout of the top 16 MMA fighters. Both brothers are in it to win.

What made this film work is that the characters were well defined, they had difficult and compelling stories, and the acting was superb.

Nolte is perfect as the sober father who really hopes to be forgiven for his past indiscretions. Hardy is amazing as the brooding, pent up volcano, younger son. Edgerton is very dynamic and wonderful as the somewhat wiser older brother who will do anything to keep his family in their home. Morrison is both sexy and beautiful while being supportive and loving as Brendan’s wife.  Gavin O’Connor and Anthony Tambakis wrote a wonderful and strong screenplay. O’Connor did a fantastic job directing this story and using MMA fighting as a backdrop.

Overall: This is a very good film with strong performances.

The Square

First Hit:  One of those films which got worse the more it went on.

With my senses heightened by the very intense and shocking film short that previewed before the main attraction, I was sorely disappointed by the uninteresting main feature, The Square. 

A film requires me to care about or engage with one or more characters so that I connect and watch it with engaged interest. The Square did nothing to invite me in. Why should I have cared about Raymond Yale (played by David Roberts)?

The perpetually frowning man doesn’t speak to his wife, is having an affair, cuts construction preference deals behind the owner’s back, and treats his workers rather badly.

The film makers ask us to care because he is having an affair with Carla Smith (played by Claire van der Boom) who is married to a mullet haired tow truck driver named Greg “Smithy” Smith (played by Anthony Hays) who is hiding ill begotten money in their house. Are we supposed to feel sorry for her? She doesn’t have any kids, has a job and could leave anytime she wants.

But no, she only wants to leave her husband for another man who ignores his current wife. Are we supposed to like Smithy? No, because Smithy invites sorted friends over to the house (one who wants to have an affair with Carla), and then orders Carla around like she is his slave (“get some food up the boys are hungry"). 

Do we have any history about either marriage? No, nothing. We’re supposed to take it on face value that we are to care about Carla and Raymond because they have great front seat car sex. As they make plans to run away together, they end up accidentally killing Smithy’s mother in a arson attempt to burn Greg and Carla’s house down to hide the fact that Carla is stealing the hidden money. 

As the film moves on, the accidental killing causes a chain of events which result in more hurt people, deaths and other stupid un-thought out actions. Sitting in the theater, I realized that writer and actor Joel Edgerton and director Nash Edgerton forgot a cardinal rule of filmmaking; get the audience to buy into the premise at the beginning of the film.

Roberts wasn’t given a chance to be effective because the script was restricted. Boom was better in her role but I found it difficult to get why she was married to Smith (Hays) in the first place. Hays was good as a jerk and a demanding chauvinistic Australian husband. Joel Edgerton wrote an ineffective script and Nash Edgerton's direction didn’t make it any better.

Overall:  This film was generally a waste of time, mostly predictable and poorly conceived and executed.