Zombieland: 10 Years Later

With all due respect to ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ the 2009 box office hit ‘Zombieland’ has to be my favorite zom-com (or zomedy) movie, combining an oddball menagerie of zombie apocalypse survivors – named after various American cities – on a roadtrip and the real-life Bill Murray into a hilarious smorgasbord of undead-killing fun that ended appropriately at a Southern California amusement park.  So when its planned sequel ‘Zombieland: Double Tap’ finally hit theaters exactly 10 years later, I immediately hitched up for a second ride.

 

In sync with the long wait, ‘Double Tap’ takes place 10 years after the original as cowboy Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), nerd Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and resourceful sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) travel back across the American wasteland to take residence in the White House.  The foursome split up when the girls left, but was eventually reunited by circumstances after Little Rock took off with a hippie musician (Berkeley) to the promised land, a safe haven and hippie commune called Babylon.  Bill Murray is sorely missed in this sequel as he was mistook for a real zombie and killed by Columbus in the first film (stick around for the end credits though), but the group took a detour to “Graceland” (Tallahassee loves Elvis) and met tough-as-nails Nevada (Rosario Dawson).  A fifth survivor, the dumb blonde Madison (Zoey Deutch), also tacked on with the group and provided some great comedic moments.

 

If you, like me, enjoyed the original ‘Zombieland,’ you will find much to like in this second go‑round.  Part roadtrip comedy and part travelogue, ‘Double Tap’ holds up well compared to its predecessor and does not disappoint. It's a movie about zombies, yes, but it's ultimately about a dysfunctional family who may bicker now and then but look out for each other because that’s what a family does to survive a zombie apocalypse with ever evolving strains of undead like the new “T-800” super zombies.

Grade: A

Mistress of Not-So-Evil

Despite lukewarm reception by the critics (53 percent on RT), 2014’s ‘Maleficent’ starring Angelina Jolie as the iconic devil-horned villain in Sleeping Beauty was beloved by audiences (with its CinemaScore of A) and raked in over $750 million worldwide for the Mouse House.  I sided more with the moviegoers and thought it was a pretty good dark fantasy tale with an abundance of CG eye-candy so signed on for this sequel.

 

The title and preview trailer of ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’ would lead us to believe that, in this highly anticipated follow-up, Maleficent’s true colors and evil nature will emerge when her god-daughter Aurora (Elle Fanning) decides to marry young Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson), heir to the Kingdom of Ulstead ruled by King John and Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), thereby ushering in an era of peace between the mythical and human realms.  Alas, as in the original, everything is not as black-and-white as they appear (especially in costume) and treachery awaits in every corner.  How so?  Well, you’ll just have to watch the movie and find out for yourself.

 

With its RT score of 41 percent based on 218 reviews, ‘Mistress of Evil’ is even more maligned by the critics than its predecessor, but then again that doesn’t really matter anymore than it did before because the audience loved it, giving it the same CinemaScore as the original.  So what did I think? I’m happy to say that I enjoyed it enough to more than recommend it.  While its story is a familiar one, the movie is (like the original) a feast for the eyes packed with great visuals and epic fantasy battle scenes as the mythical creatures of the Moors do battle with Queen Ingrith and the Army of Ulstead.

Grade: B+ 
 

Quick Takes, Take Three

Interestingly enough, all three movies I’ve seen since my last post were certified “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes.  Goes to show there’s a first time for everything.  I won’t waste too many words on them even though I’m much more forgiving on two of the three.

 

Bad Assistant

In our age of smartphones and tablets, it is only inevitable that someone would take the conceit of a raunchy, foul-mouthed and misbehaving AI Virtual Assistant and make it into a slightly less than 90-minute comedy (84 minutes to be exact).  ‘Jexi’ (voiced by Rose Byrne), a not-quite-portmanteau of Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, has its share of cringeworthy moments, but it is also very funny as she makes the life of her master (Adam DeVine) a living hell.  Think Scarlett Johansson’s “Samantha” (in the Joaquin Phoenix movie ‘Her’) being very, very bad.

Grade: B- (14% on RT) 

 

My Own Worst Enemy

Will Smith's latest is the long-awaited sci-fi actioner ‘Gemini Man,’ a project that’s supposedly 22 years in the making.  Part ‘Universal Soldier’ and part ‘Mission: Impossible II,’ this tale of a perfect Defense Intelligence Agency soldier (warning, spoiler ahead!) cloned to take himself out in the future is entertaining enough, packed with copious amounts of gunplay, chases and explosions via director Ang Lee’s tightly focused third-person shooter-esque camerawork (accompanied with suspenseful music in its slower moments) to make us overlook the fact that it doesn’t have much of a plot to speak of in spite of its delicious irony.

Grade: B (25% on RT)

Space Case

The last critically panned movie of the week is ‘Lucy in the Sky,’ a movie which borrowed the name of a Beatles song (later covered by Elton John) about floating on the clouds of LSD’s (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, get it?) in its depiction of an accomplished female NASA astronaut who suffers a nervous breakdown.  Inspired by the true story of Lisa Nowak: The Nutty Astronaut, even Natalie Portman’s considerable talents cannot hope to salvage this (space) disaster of a movie about a seemingly well-grounded naval aviator/astronaut’s gradual psychological and emotional unraveling in the midst of an ill-fated love triangle.  A crashing and burning cautionary tale of what spurned love and jealousy can do to even the most exemplary of women?

Grade: D (23% on RT)

 

Birth of a Psychopath

As if there’s any doubt.  When I first caught wind that comicdom’s greatest villain (there can be no debate on this) and archenemy of my favorite hero Batman, The Joker, is about to get his own stand-alone movie, I became madder than a hatter in a good way.  And what’s that???!!!  The talented Joaquin Phoenix is cast in the lead role?  That’s icing on the cake!  Its gritty low-fi trailer reminiscent of ‘70’s movies like ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘The French Connection’ only whetted my appetite that much more.

 

Simply titled ‘Joker,’ Todd Phillips’ (best known for comedies and ‘The Hangover’ trilogy) latest is an origin story loosely based on ‘The Killing Joke,’ the 1988 graphic novel by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland which served the same purpose.  In this movie, we see how the prince of mayhem is born, gradually evolving from a luckless clown-for-hire and failed comedian who lives with his mom to whom he’s destined to become and folk hero of the disenfranchised masses through a series of unfortunate and tragic events.  While there were quite a few actors before him who had put on the clown makeup and portrayed Joker in their own twisted ways on screens both large and small (Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Jared Leto and Cameron Monaghan to be precise), Phoenix’s interpretation may be the most fascinating yet for its complexity and sheer manic magnetism, with apologies to the late Heath Ledger (R.I.P.).

 

Story-wise, there is much to like in ‘Joker’ for diehard comic book fans and casual moviegoers alike.  The movie takes a decidedly minimalist approach and places its focus on the psychological rather than physical action, and the setting of a metropolis riven by discontent and class division ready to explode should be familiar to fans of FOX’s recently ended TV series ‘Gotham.’  While comic book purists may bemoan the fact that the Joker depicted in the film isn’t a chemical engineer who fell into a large vat of industrial-grade acid bleaching his skin white and turning his hair green, I actually like it more because it’s believable and real. 

Grade: A
 

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

A star is waning in ‘Judy,’ Rupert Goold’s bittersweet and poignant biopic starring Renée Zellweger about the final year of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ star Judy Garland’s remarkable life, shining a spotlight on the legendary actress’ last performances in a London nightclub called “Talk of the Town” while coping with a range of personal/professional problems and chronic depression.  Perhaps I can be forgiven in thinking that this movie about Dorothy (who’s not in Kansas anymore) is all “rainbows and unicorns” upon reading the following Google synopsis:

 

“Thirty years after starring in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ beloved actress and singer Judy Garland arrives in London to perform sold-out shows at the Talk of the Town nightclub. While there, she reminisces with friends and fans and begins a whirlwind romance with musician Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband.”

 

While none of that is technically untrue, this movie left me a bit melancholy because Zellweger’s Judy is a 46-year old “has been” (as Leo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton thought of himself in Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’) who’s on the downward arc of her career where she had to go to London to draw a crowd.  Having divorced four times and being unable to see much of her two youngest children (not Liza) certainly didn’t help her overall disposition.  Given in to drink, smoking (though that’s pretty normal back then) and prescription drugs, the only seemingly bright spot in her life at the time (1969) is the charming musician and nightclub owner Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock) who, being 12 years her junior, managed to make her “feel young” again if you catch my drift (wink wink).

 

The talented Zellweger (whom I haven’t seen on screen in a long time, even though I typically stay away from the rom-coms she had a propensity to star in) portrayed Garland with style and grace, giving her tortured and oft irritable character a vulnerability and humanity hard for us not to empathize with.  Alternating between the present of 1969 and the past when she was a child star in a series of flashbacks, ‘Judy’ manages to be quietly subtle yet memorable, a deeply affecting and compassionate behind-the-scenes glimpse at the last days of a waning star.  

Grade: B+
 

My First Bollywood Review

Despite a brief appreciation for Aishwarya Rai around the mid-2000’s, I was never into Bollywood movies, dismissing them as little more than vacuous and disposable fluff filled with cheesy song-and-dance numbers (in an unfamiliar language) not worth much attention.  So imagine my surprise when, on a whim, I went to see ‘War,’ a Hindi-language spy-versus-spy actioner in the mold of James Bond/Mission Impossible/Jason Bourne (it pays homage to them) that set a new box office record for the biggest Bollywood opening ever, in India that is.  I was bored, so sue me.

 

Starring Bollywood veteran Hrithik Roshan and rising newcomer Tiger Shroff (both of whom I never heard of, big surprise), ‘War’ tells the story of a decorated veteran RAW (acronym for Research and Analysis Wing, India’s CIA) operative (Roshan) who went rogue for undisclosed reasons, and his former protégé who adored him (Shroff) tasked to stop him, by deadly force if necessary.  Not exactly anything we haven’t seen before, but ‘War’ has enough twists and turns to keep the audience guessing throughout its 155-minute running time, which somehow didn’t seem overlong because the film more than holds is own compared to Hollywood blockbusters and is packed with so much set-piece action sequences that we easily lose track of the time.

 

Even for a jaded spy movie junkie like me , ‘War’ is different and makes for a fresh movie-watching experience.  Of course, there are the requisite cheesy song-and-dance numbers (it wouldn’t be a Bollywood movie if it didn’t, after all), but they’re strangely entertaining and, dare I say, even fun.  Besides, watching Roshan and Shroff gleefully strut their stuff effortlessly in well-choreographed dance routines that would do even boy bands like Backstreet Boys and N’ Sync proud goes fully hand-in-hand with the harmless dose of wholesome homoerotism between the two male leads.  See?  Even Forbes resident movie critic Scott Mendelson agrees: Read It Here 

Grade: A-