Gojira: King of the Monsters and...... Box Office

Truth be told, the eagerly anticipated American reboot of the long-running Godzilla franchise had me a little worried.  After all, the previous attempt by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich to bring our beloved kaiju monster to the mainstream American audience was a dismal failure on every level and made 'Godzilla 1985' seem like a masterpiece by comparison.  That 1998 travesty's greatest sin wasn't its horrible plot or the laughable characters in it but that it deviated from Toho's Godzilla and turned our beloved 'King of the Monsters' into a giant velociraptor with no bearing whatsoever to the original.  They might as well have called it by another name.
 

It turned out that my apprehensions were unfounded.  Brit director Gareth Edwards' 2014 update is not only a faithful and respectful contribution to Toho's Godzilla canon but also an intensely personal and visceral viewing experience.  With the cutting edge visual effects that a $160 million budget can provide, never before had Godzilla been brought to life with such realism and immediacy.  While there is something undeniably endearing and nostalgic about the old-school, 'man in a suit' Godzilla we grew up watching, that doesn't mean we shouldn't appreciate if not fully embrace what modern technology can bring. 
 

Keeping both the (anti-)nuclear theme and ambiguous 'is he good or bad?' force-of-nature quality of the giant lizard monster, 'Godzilla 2014' maintained the spirit and style of the original.  Godzilla-philes might even recognize a reference to the original 1954 film in the Japanese scientist played by Ken Watanabe.  The creature designers also thankfully kept the classical thick-in-the-middle look of the original monster as well as his trademark "atomic breath" attack, but that didn't mean they can't exercise creativity elsewhere.  The MUTO's (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) are new creature designs that are cool, unique and frightening, and the climactic monster mash between Godzilla and the tag-team duo of MUTO's in downtown San Francisco is both unrivaled in realism and exciting to behold. 
 

Eschewing camp and cheesiness for realism and sheer destructiveness, 'Godzilla 2014' is apocalyptic in scale, serious in tone, suspenseful in a 'Jurassic Park' kinda way and a visual spectacle never before seen in the kaiju genre.  Sorry, but not even 'Pacific Rim' came close.

Grade: A
 

Bad Fences

In movies like 'Knocked Up,' 'Pineapple Express,' 'Observe and Report,' 'Zack and Miri' and 'This is the End,' Seth Rogen has established himself as something of a lovable schmuck as well as a talented comedic actor.  Rogen did it again with his latest film, 'Neighbors,' in which he plays a responsible dad 'married' to Rose Byrne (if we're to believe that Katherine Heigl and Elizabeth Banks found him 'attractive' in previous movies, why not?).  His middle-class suburban American Dream with his hot wife and cute baby girl takes a turn for the worse when the house next door becomes the new frat-house of Delta Psi Beta, the 2014 version of Delta Tau Chi of 'Animal House.'  Led by pretty boys Zac Efron and Dave Franco (James's little brother), Delta Psi Beta becomes the Radners' worst nightmare after they betrayed their trust by calling the police instead of telling them to "keep it down" first.  Things escalate quickly and what we get is the best payback comedy since 'Revenge of the Nerds.' 
 

First, a warning.  If you're unfamiliar with Seth Rogen comedies of the 'Judd Apatow' school, you should know that they can be R-rated raunch-fests that are offensive, degrading and politically incorrect.  If your sensibilities are easily offended, AVOID THIS MOVIE AT ALL COSTS!  However, if you enjoy feeling a bit guilty while laughing your ass off, 'Neighbors' might just be the ticket for you.  We're all entitled to our guilty pleasures.
 

Yes, 'Neighbors' is raunchy, offensive, degrading, irreverent and just plain wrong, but it is also riotously funny.  Rogen played the same schmuck as he usually does in Mac, but Rose Byrne's Kelly is a housewife whose transformation from a loving and caring mother to a scheming, vicious She-Devil is quite the revelation.  Zac Efron is the 'Rico Suave' party animal with perfect abs while Dave Franco absolutely shined as his second-in-command and ambiguously gay 'Robin.'

Grade: A-
 

Webb of Mediocrity

There was a time in my days of youth when I couldn’t get enough of Spider-Man.  I watched the cartoon series with the catchy theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8GLoDHZMZQ every day after school, and not only did I read ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ comic but also its spin-offs ‘Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man’ and ‘Web of Spider-Man.’  It’s easy to like Spider-Man because his alter ego is an unassuming underdog we can’t help but root for.  Peter Parker is a high school science nerd who overcame adversity and ended up with the hot girls (Gwen, Mary Jane, Felicia Hardy), right?  He’s the ‘Archie’ (not Archie Bunker) of superhero-dom.  And while most superheroes come off as serious and a bit stiff, Spider-Man’s sense of humor and wisecracks are a welcome breath of fresh air.  Even so, I cannot recommend the utterly sterile, depthless and vacuous mess that is ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’

 

TASM2, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2012’s tepid ‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’ is a study in contrast.  Over its bloated 2 hour, 22 minute length our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is mostly either: (a) battling one of the many villains featured in the movie or (b) sweet-talking to his on-again off-again girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.  As a result the film is unevenly paced, with mind-numbing, loud, sense shattering set-piece scenes of CGI overkill when Spidey is battling his foes punctuated by glacially slow periods of doe-eyed puppy love between Andrew Garfield’s Peter and Emma Stone’s Gwen.  The famed writing team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci crammed too many characters and threads into the movie, as Peter not only had to save NYC from the ravages of Electro, the Green Goblin and Rhino but also reconcile the demands of his heart with the dying wishes of Gwen’s father (Denis Leary), reconnect with his beloved Aunt May (Sally Field) and solve the mystery of his parents’ disappearance when he was little.  Jamie Foxx’s talents were wasted as the bioluminescent blue freak Electro, and his transformation from a shy and socially inept outcast who owed Spider-Man his life to a hater with anger-management issues seemingly at the flip of a switch (no pun intended) was unconvincing.  Dane DeHaan, as Harry Osborn/Green Goblin, did a better job than James Franco from the Sam Raimi version, with his young David Bowie looks and the quiet intensity of Christopher Walken.  Paul Giamatti played the Rhino with a manic glee, but there’s otherwise little of note in that one-dimensional character.

 

Not surprisingly, director Marc Webb, whose only directorial effort is the wistful and quirky rom-com ‘500 Days of Summer’ before he took on the new Spider-Man franchise, is more at home with chick flicks than mega-budget action blockbusters.  The romantic scenes between Peter and Gwen are genuine and heartfelt (Garfield and Stone being real life boyfriend and girlfriend didn’t hurt to say the least), while the action sequences suffered from being overloaded with CGI and rendering us insensate with their been-there-done-that rote repetitiveness.  I mean, really, did we actually even think for a second that our agile web-slinger wouldn’t somehow gracefully weave and dodge through those lightning bolts Electro’s hurling at him with his ‘amazing’ acrobatics?  And how many times do we have to see NYPD squad cars get flipped over and slammed into the ground before we start yawning in sheer boredom?  Much of the movie is nothing more than ‘wink, wink’ teasers for upcoming movies in the Spidey-verse to fanboys, including the ‘Sinister Six’ movie Sony Pictures recently announced along with the 'Venom' spin-off (http://variety.com/2014/film/news/sinister-six-and-venom-movies-to-be-released-before-amazing-spider-man-4-1201156518/).  Oh lookee here, Felicia Hardy 'The Black Cat' (Felicity Jones) is Harry Osborn’s personal assistant!  And check this out y'all, Harry just walked by the cool gear of ‘Doc Ock,’ ‘Vulture’ and ‘Rhino’!  Enough already.

 

Grade: C+

  

Rama-kable Fighter

‘The Raid 2: Berandal’ picks up two hours after the events depicted in ‘The Raid: Redemption’ (reviewed here: http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2012/04/raid-die-hard-indonesia-style.html), 2011’s ‘Die Hard’ actioner starring Iko Uwais which gave the world a glimpse of the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat.  Well, not exactly.  While the first scene of the movie did pick up two hours after rookie-SWAT team cop Rama’s harrowing ordeal in the apartment complex, he wasn’t immediately thrust into another life-or-death struggle as we might expect.   Rather, he’s recruited by the super-secret Internal Affairs division of the Jakarta Police and sent on a deep-cover mission infiltrating Jakarta’s top organized crime syndicate to root out corrupt high level police officials.  Most of the events of this sequel actually occurred two years after ‘The Raid: Redemption.’

 

Welsh director Gareth Evans’s follow-up to his surprising sleeper hit isn’t as good as the original, but it is still an action-packed, chop-socky martial-arts film that managed to thrill and dazzle.  While the original was a gripping and tightly plotted movie from beginning to end, this sequel had pacing issues and was burdened with an overly convoluted plot.  At two-and-a-half hours, it took a while before the movie revved up the pace, and what saved it for me was that the payoff was well worth the wait.  Once again, Iko Uwais’s Rama/Yuda is a pencak silat force of nature, a ‘human tornado’ who, with his lightning fast flurries of blows and kicks, is simply irresistible to watch in action.  It’s hard to believe the fight sequences are choreographed ballets of bloodshed and death. 
 

Whereas ‘The Raid: Redemption’ is a martial arts ‘Die Hard,’ ‘The Raid 2' a hard-boiled crime thriller reminiscent of ‘Infernal Affairs’ and early  John Woo films.  Even more of a bloodbath than its predecessor, this movie exists in its own universe because the law-of-the-jungle world it portrays is incongruous with what we expect in a civilized society of law-and-order, but such is the nature of Asian action movies.  'The Raid 2' also has characters bordering on caricatures like those you would see in the most indulgent Quentin Tarantino movies, including a homeless bum contract killer and a pair of young assassins whom I call ‘Bat Boy’ and ‘Hammer Girl.’  Gratuitously bloody and gory, 'The Raid 2' aims to satisfy our appetite for violence on a primal level even as it mesmerizes us with its whirlwind martial-arts mayhem.

Grade: B+
 

Mirror, Mirror

‘Oculus’ is one of those movies that reflect a deep disconnect between professional movie critics and the movie-going audience.  This indie, R-rated and low-budget psychological shocker starring BSG’s Katie Sackhoff earned a 72% ‘Fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus that: “With an emphasis on dread over gore and an ending that leaves the door wide open for sequels, 'Oculus' could be just the first spine-tingling chapter in a new franchise for discerning horror fans."  Regardless, its Audience rating is a lackluster 56% and Cinemascore gave it an even worse grade of ‘C,’ proving that movie watchers have no clue what a good horror movie looks like, right?

 

Wrong.  ‘Oculus’ is as limp and futile an exercise in suspense-building and horror filmmaking as I’ve seen in quite a while.  The subject of the movie is a not-so-scary antique mirror which purportedly has the ability to alter people’s behavior and twist their perception of reality.  However, the movie shifts so much and so confusingly between reality and what is merely perceived as ‘real’ by the movie’s two main characters, the brother and sister who try to prove that the mirror is the culprit that caused their dad to murder their mom 10 years ago while they were kids, that I stopped caring which is which halfway into the movie.  'Oculus' also recycles horror movie tropes.  The flashback scenes portraying the father’s descent into madness took a page right out of Jack Nicholson’s character in ‘The Shining,’ and the siblings’ elaborate set-up to ‘outsmart’ the mirror borrowed heavily from recent 'documentary horror' such as ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘The Conjuring.’ 

 

These transgressions might have been forgiven if writer-cum-director Mike Flanagan managed to make Kaylie and Tim Russell remotely relatable or likeable, but they're such grating personalities that it is all but impossible to even minimally invest in them sympathetically.  The siblings constantly bicker and second-guess each other throughout the movie, and rather than being paralyzed with fear or suspense I find myself paralyzed with mind-numbing apathy instead.  When the ‘shocker’ of an ending finally occurred, it actually came as something of a relief.

 

Grade: C-
 

The Rogers Ultimatum

I always liked Captain America.  Like Superman in the DC universe (at least, until 'Man of Steel' made him darker), Cap represents a world view from a bygone era, one that's almost naively simple and black-and-white in today's world.  However, I was disappointed with Joe Johnston's 'Captain America: The First Avenger' back in 2011.  Even for one unfamiliar with Captain America's WWII-era backstory, the movie seemed to drag on and on.  There's also a certain malaise and perfunctoriness to the action scenes in which the good Captain led his dirty dozen, the 'Howling Commandos,' in their fight against HYDRA henchmen and their leader Red Skull, sapping any sense of excitement. 

When I saw the trailer for this second installment in the Captain America trilogy, I knew it is a completely different animal from its predecessor.  And boy, was it ever!  'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' delivers the goods, folks.  It is suspenseful, action-packed and doesn't shy away from tackling topical political issues in our post-911 world.  It's 'Three Days of the Condor' meets 'The Bourne Ultimatum' in the Marvel Universe.  Tapping into our fears of Big Brother Government, TWS is a conspiracy/espionage thriller, fugitive movie, and superhero film all rolled into one.  After a slow burning-but-suspenseful initial build-up culminating in a thrilling car chase involving Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the movie shifts into non-stop overdrive as Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and (later) Sam Wilson try to unravel the Grand Conspiracy in order to save the world in the name of Freedom and Justice for All.

Unlike 'The First Avenger,' the action sequences in TWS are gritty and realistic, filled with brutal close-in hand-to-hand combat like those you've seen in James Bond and Jason Bourne movies of recent vintage.  There's also a more interesting cast of characters in TWS, as Chris Evan's Cap is joined by Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, whom we've seen previously in 'The Avengers' and Falcon (Anthony Mackie), not to mention HIMYM's Cobie Smulders and Emily VanCamp of 'Revenge' as S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives Maria Hill and Sharon Carter/Agent 13, respectively. Then there's the villain of the movie himself, the titular master assassin known as 'Winter Soldier' (Sebastian Stan), who proved to be a match for Captain America and then some. 

Grade: A
 

Quick Bites

They're back!  It's been awhile since I posted one of these mini-reviews.  Because sometimes I don't feel like writing long rambling reviews any more than you want to read them. 

The Grand Budapest Hotel:  Wes Anderson’s latest film retelling the unlikely adventures of a hotel concierge and his lobby boy protégé is a joyous and delightful piece of cinematic confection set in a fictional winter wonderland that is not in any part of Hungary, despite the movie’s name.  A rollicking tale with a great ensemble cast including Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum and Harvey Keitel, TGBH is also an homage to old-fashioned moviemaking.  Take note of the silent film-style ‘title cards’ used to delineate the various parts of the movie, for instance.  With the too-quirky-for-some TGBH, director Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore) has firmly put himself in the company of other eccentric visionaries like Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton and Tarsem Singh. 

Grade: A

 

Bad Words:  Jason Bateman’s directorial debut is a surprisingly good indie black comedy with an interesting premise, even if it’s short on guffaws: A 40-year old proofreader of product fine prints and warranties exploits a loophole to enter a spelling bee intended for kids.  What a douchebag he is, too.  It’s not enough that he’s nearly 30 years older than the average contestant, but he will also stoop to any level to win (like putting ketchup on the chair of a chubby girl and telling her that she’s ‘blossoming' in somewhat less flowery words).  As despicable as his character Guy Trilby is, it’s refreshing to see Bateman portray someone who's the exact opposite of what we’ve seen him play mostly thus far: straight-arrow, middle-aged tie-wearing office drones who were victimized in ‘Identity Thief,’ ‘Horrible Bosses’ and ‘Arrested Development.’  Luckily, Trilby turned out to have a heart after all when he befriends a 12-year old Indian-American boy, and their final head-to-head match-up for the spelling bee title is one for the aegis. 

Grade: B+

 

Sabotage:  Arnold Schwarzenegger just can’t catch a break.  ‘Sabotage’ marks his third straight box-office stinker since his return to Hollywood from politics, following ‘The Last Stand’ and ‘Escape Plan.’  I had high hopes for ‘Sabotage’ because it was directed by David Ayer (‘Training Day,’ ‘End of Watch’) and its preview trailer displayed the same gritty  ‘Cops’-style docudrama vibe of the underrated mean-streets-of-Los Angeles cop thriller ‘End of Watch.’  Unfortunately, this movie was sabotaged by a bad script, unbelievable plot, bad acting and one-dimensional characters whom you despise, including Schwarzenegger’s John ‘Breacher’ Wharton, the leader and father figure of an elite Drug Enforcement Agency SWAT team comprised of foul-mouthed, maladjusted white-trash (and one black in Terrence Howard) who constantly bicker and can't stand one another.  The elements that made ‘End of Watch’ so likeable (the chemistry and camaraderie between Gyllenhaal’s and Peña’s LAPD cops, plus the sweet romance between Gyllenhaal and Anna Kendrick) are sorely missing in ‘Sabotage,’ leaving this movie little more than an empty exercise in über-violence and gore. 

Grade: C