Why Him?

First Hit:  A couple of out loud funny bits but in the end there is nothing there.

At best, this was a mediocre film. The concept of a wild youngish video game internet programmer making it big and falling in love with a young pretty smart Stanford girl from the Midwest is not too far fetched and could have been fun. The premise is that she wants her conservative family to meet him for the first time during the holidays and that this is where the fireworks and comedy are supposed to happen.

This premise had potential but where did it fail. For me, first and foremost was the poor writing. From the beginning Laird Mayhew’s (James Franco) character was poorly based and thoughtlessly conceived. Why make him hang around shirtless most of the time? What is the point of this? How many young game, internet developers and entrepreneurs do you hear about that hang out with only their loose pants on. Yes, they might wear hoodies and baggy clothing but shirtless is not the Silicon Valley style so this was missed completely. Second saying “fuck” 3 times in almost every sentence is not only off putting but unneeded to denote edginess. Lastly, the overdone staging and home filled with stupid art (some of it Franco’s own) including a preserved buffalo submerged in its own urine tries to make the case that young rich entrepreneurs have a interesting appreciation of art.

All this is the writers’ fault. The writers didn’t want to look for subtle or interesting ways to create comedic exchanges, everything here is overt, in your face and hammer like: Things like the art which was uninteresting. The overdone characters like Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key) who is Laird’s gentlemen’s gentlemen. The sets with programmers doing little in every room in the house. The helicopter landing in the middle of the street in front of Flemings’ home – just isn’t going to happen or be allowed. All of these things were overtly stupid just like Laird’s tattoo of the Fleming family on his back. All this and more made up the lack of thoughtful intelligent comedy.

Although the cast with Bryan Cranston (as Stephanie’s father Ned Fleming), Zoey Deutch (as Stephanie), Megan Mullally (as Stephanie’s mother Barb Fleming), Griffin Gluck (as Stephanie’s brother Scotty) and Franco was strong, every scene appeared to be approached like a tidal wave which was the real failing of this film.

Franco’s character was overdone and overbearing to make him at all believable. Cranston was as good as he could be with his given script. Deutch was solid enough but the script let her down. Muallally was OK and I will continue to repeat myself the script was her downfall. Gluck was OK as the son who wanted to come out of the shadows. Key was OK as the together person behind a unhinged Laird. Jonah Hill, John Hamburg, and Ian Helfer wrote this insipid mindless script. While Hamburg made the script worse with overdone scenes that were obvious and telegraphed.

Overall:  This film is a waste of money and time and will probably not be profitable.

Passengers

First Hit:  This was an enjoyable film with wonderful visual effects and three actors and a director that made it work.

Not only was the overall film enjoyable, I walked away thinking would I sign up for a space journey like the one they were on?

To ask this question meant to me that I bought into the premise of the film that 5,000-people signed up to be put to hibernation for 120 years, loaded onto a spaceship so that they could travel to a distant habitable plant, Homestead II, and start a new life. I’d do it in a heartbeat because it would be interesting to see what people bring to the table and the reasons why they would take this risk. It would also give me a chance to use what I’ve learned to assist in the growth of a new society.

On the way to this distant planet, the starship “Avalon” passes through a massive meteor shower and collides with a very large meteor. The ship gets damaged and although it does its best to repair itself, the system overrides cause additional errors to begin, grow, and cascade. This is gets communicated to the audience by giving them a peek into the Avalon's control bridge holographic visuals of the ship's status.

The damage releases the hibernation sequence in one of the pods and wakes Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) 90 years early. At first, he’s really confused as he wanders the ships massive corridors and meeting rooms only to find out that he’s the only one alive. He makes attempts to re-hibernate himself but learns that it is not possible. He tries to break into the hibernating crew quarters but to no avail. His only friend is a robot bartender named Arthur (Michael Sheen).

After about a year of loneliness and frustration and realizing that he will live the rest of his life alone on this spaceship, he decides to wake a fellow passenger whom he thinks is attractive and interesting. Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), the person he wakes up, is a creative writer and when she shares her storyline, as to why she made the choice to go on this adventure, it is beautifully expressed.

The struggle for Jim is that he is also giving her the same death sentence he has by waking her. Again, this provides provocative questions:  Would you wake up another person? Would you tell them that you did this?

The visual effects are well done with a few being outstanding. I liked the views of space, the interior shots of the ship, when they venture outside the ship on tethers, and I was especially impressed with the scene when gravity is lost while Aurora is in the swimming pool. I liked the romance that these two created as it wasn't rushed and left to develop nicely with breath of spaciousness.

This story is unique which also adds to this movie’s appeal. When they discover the ship is dying and they have to try to fix it or the remaining passengers and crew will die, the film shifts into another gear.

Pratt was very good and probably the best role I’ve seen him in. His naturally humorous nature was used judiciously while his caring intensity was kept in check. Lawrence was mesmerizing. She has a way with her voice that allows her to seem both intelligent and sultry at the same time. It is a great combination. Sheen was fantastic as the droid bartending robot. His subtle and human nature spiced with robotic witticisms was perfect. Laurence Fishburne as Gus Mancuso a crewmember that also gets mistakenly awakened was good in this minor role. Jon Spaihts wrote a very strong script that incorporated humor, dramatic elements and a great backdrop. Morten Tyldum had a firm and confident grip on directing the actors, storyline and visuals.

Overall:  This was a very entertaining film in all ways.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

First Hit:  Could not get into the story nor did I think it was well thought out.

A franchise series of films is always challenging. Even one of the best, Star Wars, has had some clunkers or at least clunker moments; think Jar Jar Binks in “Episode I – The Phantom Menace”. Where does this film fit with the series? My guess is that it probably fits after “Episode III:  Revenge of the Sith” and “Episode IV:  A New Hope”.

Was this film needed to make the series whole? Probably not, but it was a way for Disney to make it a key component in the series as this tells the bit about the Princess Leia (Ingvild Deila) and the Rebel Alliance getting the plans to Death Star. As we know in later episodes Leia implanted these plans into R2-D2.

Although this was an OK idea, the film fell apart in one of the later opening scenes where Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), his wife Lyra (Valene Kane), and their child Jyn (Dolly Gadsdon – youngest, Beau Gadsdon – young, and Felicity Jones - adult) were found by agents of the Empire hiding on a small deserted planet Lah’mu.

I do not know how, but during the dialogue between Galen and Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) about their involvement with the design and use of the Death Star, I lost interest. Maybe it was the convoluted opening, the rip off use of the opening for the first Star Wars film or maybe it was simply not interesting enough.

My hope picked up again when Saw Gerrera (Forrest Whitaker) finds young Jyn and takes her to safety. Here I thought, OK with Whitaker we'll get some meat into this storyline, but again this fell short. I've always been able to count on Whitaker to make something better, but his role wasn't critical and I fell back into unengaged and uninterested in what was taking place on the screen.

The story leaps in time to find Jyn (now played by Jones) being an important and, at times, a despised member of the Alliance because her father's role in completing work on the Death Star. Her status as leader or rebel of substance happens, not by anything she does, but because her father sends her a message, through a hologram, that he’s made a back-door flaw in the Death Star which the Alliance can use to destroy it.

By this time the audience is treated to an elongated battle which is poorly choreographed. There are some nice CG effects, but the acting, storyline and dependence on battle scenes to create action and interest weighed this film down.

Jones does not have the chops to make a believable rebel character or leader. There is a lack of innate strength of spirit which her acting cannot overcome that makes her a weak link in this film. Whitaker is wasted in this role as a wise elder warrior for the Alliance. Mikkelsen is good as Galen, but the role is limited by the script. Diego Luna (playing Cassian Ando Rebel Intelligence Officer) gave it his best, but the script and story didn’t have this character develop. His big turning point moment is when he’s supposed to kill Galen (unknown to Jyn); what does he choose? Donnie Wen (as Chirrut Imwe) playing a blind Jedi wanna-be was OK and provided some amusing moments. Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy wrote a weak script and the lack of direction, thereby creating an uninteresting film with characters we don't care about, falls on Gareth Edwards.

Overall:  This film feels like a throwaway created for money because all the main characters die, their story ends, and it filled a small gap in the Star Wars saga sequence.

Collateral Beauty

First Hit:  Wonderful concept, wonderful cast, mediocre execution.

The idea that someone could talk with Love, Time and Death is interesting. Having a cast with Will Smith (as Howard), Edward Norton (as Whit), Kate Winslet (as Claire), Michael Pena (as Simon), Helen Mirren (as Brigitte and Death), Keira Knightly (as Amy and Love), Jacob Latimore (as Raffi and Time), and Naomie Harris (as Madeleine) all in one film is amazing. However, there was something about the script and way it was directed that had this film fall short of its potential.

The title “Collateral Beauty” was also at fault in some ways. Normally when we hear the word “collateral” we hear it with the word “damage”. This term is used in the movie as a lesson or mantra that Madeleine hears after the loss of her child. When she was in the hospital, just prior to her daughter’s death, an old woman sitting next to her outside her dying child’s room said, do not be so taken by grief that you forget to see the collateral beauty. The movie does nothing to really show what this means.

The focus of the film is that Howard, who is a brilliant advertising creative executive, loses his young 6-year old daughter to a disease. The company he’s built with Whit, Claire and Simon begins to suffer and is now losing clients because of his disengagement with work. He spends his days building domino trails then knocking them down, or riding his bike at night through the streets of New York City. To save their company and investments Whit, Claire and Simon arrange to have Amy, Raffi and Brigitte pretend to be Love, Time and Death respectively in hopes of communicating with Howard to bring him out of his deep sorrow.

Although this is done with some seriousness, the constructs and building of the story is weak. When the words and concept of "Collateral Beauty" are passed from Madeleine to Howard, the failure to engage the audience and Howard are palpable. It is at this point I realized that this film, regardless of how it finishes, would be lack luster.

Smith was OK as the once engaging advertising company creator, leader and grieving father. Norton was slightly better as Howard’s business partner. Winslet was fine as the morally caring business partner. Pena was very good as the ill business executive who cares about his family. Knightly was good as Love. Mirren was very good as Death, her style brought strength to the film. Latimore was strong as Time. Harris was very strong as the grieving mother. Allan Loeb wrote a weak screenplay in that the characters lacked depth and the story never grew. Direction by David Frankel was weak in that he never saw the failings of the story to find ways to make it have more depth. The film never really shared the beauty of a child’s depth which, in this case, was supposed to be collateral.

Overall:  Although somewhat engaging at the beginning, it fails to fulfill any beauty collateral or not.

La La Land

First Hit:  It will touch your heart with joy and sorrow because of its exquisite acting and beautiful stylistic presentation.

From the very beginning, the audience knows they are going for a ride. The partially obscured black and white “CinemaScope” logo morphing to a unobstructed full color logo gave only a hint of the amazing film to follow. The opening scene with the camera panning numerous cars and drivers stuck on a LA Freeway on ramp, with each driver listening to a different radio station, all of a sudden transforming to a big-time dance number with people using both the cars and lane dividers as props was genius and sets the tone that this film will be a musical and will be different in the ways it integrates the musical dance sequences with the acting.

We are then introduced to Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) through sequences of the work they do and the things they are interested in. She is an aspiring actress who supports herself as a barista in a coffee house located on the Warner Brothers movie lot. He’s a jazz pianist in small club, wishes to own his own jazz club playing traditional jazz improvisation.

They meet after he honks at her in the opening traffic jam, after she walks into the club he’s playing in (just after he gets fired), and again when he walks into her place of work. By the time they walk through the Warner Bros lot, the audience has a strong sense of their path and them as a couple you care about.

During the film, we are treated to a wonderful, hopeful story that segued into well-conceived dance, song, and piano scenes by Mia and Sebastian. There are two things that struck me about these scenes:  1) The dance sequences were shot full bodied and all-encompassing instead of a series of composed edits and cuts showing feet, facial expressions, and a whirl of colors and bodies. This is how musical dance sequences were shot early on by the very best (Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly) of this genre. And 2); They did their own work. They did their own singing, dancing, and for Gosling, piano playing. They were strong, real and imperfectly perfect, just like all of us.

In my book, this just why these talented two are top box office draws and are two of our best. However, a lot of the credit for this amazing film belongs to the clear direction and vision of director Damien Chazelle who showed us his abilities in “Whiplash”, another outstanding film. Lastly, I loved the old time ending by using "The End" at the close of the film, it perfectly bookended the opening,

Gosling is absolutely riveting and sublime. His extraordinary talent is so obvious in every scene he’s in. He is a excellent pianist, his suave smooth dance movements are a joy to watch and his acting is top notch. He may be nominated for an award for this turn. Stone is wonderful and clearly made for this part. Her hopeful joy, moments of moving sadness and the ability to move from a dramatic scene into a dance scene were exceptional. J. K. Simmons as Bill, in his very brief scenes, was very good. John Legend as Keith, a musical group leader, was strong and a joy to see. Chazelle wrote and directed this film. Because I was emotionally moved throughout the film, I can say he was very successful in delivering his vision. He and his film is worth an award nomination.

Overall:  Although I normally don’t like musicals, I laughed, cried and my heart was touched throughout this fantastic film.