The Incredible Shrinking Ant-Man

The latest offering from the MCU (and final release in Marvel Studio’s "Phase 2" schedule) is ‘Ant-Man,’ a comic book superhero who's familiar enough to die-hard Marvel fans but otherwise relatively unknown to the mainstream audience.  Although ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (Extra! Extra! read all about it here: http://www.moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2014/08/rise-of-guardians-of-galaxy.html) proved that obscure titles can strike box office gold if done well, ‘Ant-Man’ is still a tough sell for Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios.  As a third-tier character, Ant-Man is often overshadowed by the more glamorous and popular Marvel properties like your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man and Thor.  Can Disney repeat its unexpected GotG success with ‘Ant-Man’?

 

Development of the film got off to a rocky start when "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy” director and fanboy favourite (he’s British, so suuue me) Edgar Wright left and was replaced by Peyton Reed, who up til now is best known for the Jennifer Aniston-starred romcom ‘The Break-Up’ and the bubbly cheerleading guilty pleasure ‘Bring It On.’  Well, I don’t know how they managed it, but they overcame this "setback" in brilliant fashion.  Wright had a hand in the final script, and Reed’s background in comedy paid off handsomely.  It’s fun (and funny) watching Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man battling Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll) on his kid's “Thomas the Engine” railroad track, but in addition to the visual pizzazz ‘Ant-Man’ also boasts great storytelling and solid character development. 

 

After witnessing the latest orgy of epic carnage and destruction in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ it’s a breath of fresh air to enjoy something smaller and more personal.  Scott Lang (Rudd), Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly, looking almost unrecognizable with short hair and even hotter than she did 10 years ago in 'Lost') and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) are eminently relatable characters who complemented each other perfectly.  The movie also features some very funny moments, the highlights of which are when Luis (Michael Peña), a friend of Lang's when they were in prison, would go on about how he caught wind of their latest caper like some gossipy school girl who happens to speak ghetto while the various scenes are played out in perfect lip-sync pantomime.  To coin a cliché, 'Ant-Man' proves once again that "good things come in small packages."

 

Grade: A

 

Minions save Queen and Country

Those adorably loony, mischievous and cute little yellow critters finally get to headline their own feature-length movie in ‘Minions,’ a prequel which seeks to address their origin and backstory before their employment by the villain mastermind Gru.  Having enjoyed both ‘Despicable Me’ and its sequel (reviewed here: http://www.moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2013/07/adorable-me.html) immensely, following the latest shenanigans of these one- and two-eyed minions in denim suspenders is a no-brainer for me.

 

Having served countless masters throughout history since the dawn of time including Napoleon Bonaparte, the subservient minions (think of them as a tribe) find themselves masterless and without purpose when they were exiled after helping one to an early demise through their bumbling incompetence.  In a last ditch effort to bring their tribe out of its malaise, three minions (Kevin, Stuart and Bob) embarked upon a perilous trek to find a new master and ended up in… London circa 1968.  What started as a promising new minion-ship under female supervillain “Scarlet Overkill” (voiced by Sandra Bullock) became a God-Save-the-Queen misadventure as Kevin, Stuart and Bob foil Scarlet’s dastardly plan to fulfill her life-long dream of becoming a princess by stealing the royal crown worn by the young Queen Elizabeth II (remember, this was back in 1968).

 

While Minions can be funny in small doses and in film shorts like ‘Minion Madness,’ they struggle to maintain the momentum when asked to carry an entire movie on their tiny shoulders (not surprising, since they don’t have any to speak of).  Nevertheless, ‘Minions’ delivers a fun and enjoyable experience for the young and old, more so if you’re already a fan of the little terrors.  What I didn’t expect was that the movie is also a homage to the Fab Four era and features classic Brit rock from the period.  There’s even a rather obvious reference to the 'Abbey Road' album cover.  It's a shame that a good chunk of the audience won't be able to connect the dots.

 

Grade: B+

 

Terminator Re-Genisys

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paramount Pictures pushed the "reset" button on the ‘Terminator’ franchise with ‘Terminator Genisys,’ the former governor of California’s first major role in a ‘Terminator’ film since ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ 15 years ago.  T2 was also the last good movie in the venerated sci-fi series, as follow-ups ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’ and ‘Terminator: Salvation’ were ripped by critics and aficionados alike despite holding up well at the box office (the ‘final arbiter’ where Hollywood is concerned).

 

In light of the fact that the first two films are the best ones, perhaps it should come as no surprise that this fifth entry would try to bring back the elements that worked so well in those movies.  TG starts off in the dark future of 2029, when Skynet is reeling from the human resistance and their messianic leader, John Connor.  In a last ditch effort to save itself, it sends a Terminator Model T-800 Endoskeleton back in time to assassinate Connor’s mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke) and prevent him from being conceived in the first place.  In response, Connor sends his top lieutenant and right-hand man Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) to protect his mum.  Holy Déjà vu, Batman!  Fret not, my dear readers, for while the story starts in familiar territory it develops and ends quite differently.

 

Schwarzenegger is "old but not obsolete" as the fatherly bodyguard of Clarke's teenage Sarah, whose feisty and headstrong manner gives us a glimpse of the older version played by Linda Hamilton.  And while TG appears to fit in the canon of the first two movies, it's also saddled with sterile action scenes, a convoluted alternate timeline plot and gives us the feeling that something is missing despite its trappings.  On top of that, director Alan Taylor’s execution wasn’t nearly as fluid or sure handed as James Cameron’s.  Still, TG represents a marked improvement over the disappointing third and fourth entries, even as it falls short critically and commercially to ensure a sixth installment in the long-running franchise.  I'll be back?  Don't be so sure.

 

Grade: B

 

Bad Ted(dy)

Seth MacFarlane’s bong-smoking, potty-mouthed, misbehaving and politically incorrect (but cuddly) teddy bear is back for a second go round in ‘Ted 2,’ the sequel to the oft hilarious R-rated comedy smash from 2012 reviewed here: http://www.moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2012/07/drop-dead-ted.html.  Warning: Seth MacFarlane isn’t for everyone, certainly not for kids.  Fans of ‘Family Guy’ and ‘American Dad’ need no introduction to MacFarlane’s off-beat, offensive and crude brand of humor, but those with more delicate sensibilities and “refined” tastes might find the idea of sitting through two hours of potty humor and gross-out gags a bit less appealing. 

 

Teddy bears are “people” too.  T2 (no ‘Judgment Day’ here) sees our beloved stuffed PITA (pain in the ass, that is) married to a hottie with a Boston accent  (Jessica Barth) and trying to have a kid in order to save his disintegrating marriage beset by constant bickering, but because he lacks the requisite uh, appendage, Ted was forced to explore artificial insemination.  While his frequent partner-in-crime and previous owner, John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), was willing to make a donation for such a worthy cause, Ted hit another snag when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts saw fit to declare that he is not legally a “person” but rather property. T2, then, is the story of a disenfranchised teddy bear’s fight against discrimination and injustice in the world, with the help of a couple of bong-smoking friends like Wahlberg and Sam L. Jackson (Amanda Seyfried), as well as a late assist from Morgan Freeman as a prominent civil rights attorney.  Giovanni Ribisi’s Tiffany-loving Donny also returns to exact his revenge on Ted, and like the original the many new and recurring cameos are a veritable “who’s who?” including Sam J. Jones (Flash Gordon), Patrick Warburton (The Tick), Michael Dorn (Worf), Dennis Haysbert, Liam Neeson and Tom Brady.  

 

Okay, so T2 wasn’t quite the equal to its predecessor in the originality and humor departments (nor did it have Norah Jones), but how many sequels could truly claim to hold up to the original?  This follow-up is nonetheless an irreverently humorous romp and a loving tribute to geek culture that speaks to our fanboy (and fangirl) hearts.

 

Grade: B+
 

Franken rex

‘Jurassic World’ is the third sequel and fourth installment of the popular dinosaur-in-our-time series which began with ‘Jurassic Park’ 22 years ago in 1993, when Steven Spielberg adapted the late doctor-turned-novelist Michael Crichton’s suspenseful bestseller to the big screen and thrilled audiences worldwide.  While its two follow-ups stumbled in matching the intensity and suspense of the first film, ‘Jurassic World’ came pretty close and managed to recapture some of that lost magic. 

 

Keeping with our own timeline, JW takes place 22 years after the events of ‘Jurassic Park.’  The dinosaur theme park is now a reality and doing quite well, but the tyrannosaurus rex and velociraptors have lost some of their luster and just aren’t cutting it anymore because, as one investor bluntly put it, people need to be “thrilled.”  The solution?  Modern biotechnology and the sheer audacity to play God, of course.   To this end, Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong, who also appeared in the original 1993 movie) and his team of bio-geneticists created a new cocktail designer super dinosaur by mixing the DNA of t-rex, velociraptor, cuttlefish, tree frogs and God-knows-what-else.  They even gave it an easy-to-remember and cool sounding name, indominus rex.  Whoo boy, just what could possibly go wrong?

 

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are competent actors, and Vincent D’Onofrio did a decent enough job as the obligatory corporate a-hole villain, but JW’s real stars are the meticulously CG-rendered dinosaurs: the t-rex, the raptors (now tamed) and of course the indominus rex.  Producer Steven Spielberg even managed to throw in a tongue-in-cheek reference to ‘Jaws’ near the end when indominus rex finally met his mosasaurus, uh, maker. While JW is a tad too predictable and lacked the nail-biting tension of the 1993 original (largely because raptors hunting kids indoors is pretty hard to beat) with its mostly outdoors mayhem, it still provided enough science-gone-bad chills to put it well above the disappointments of ‘The Lost World’ and ‘Jurassic Park 3.’

 

Grade: B+

 

Secret Agent Fat Lady

James Bond flicks are the subject of yet another spoof in rotund funny-woman Melissa McCarthy’s latest starring vehicle, the R-rated action-comedy ‘Spy’ from Paul Feig, who previously directed two of McCarthy’s most successful films, ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘The Heat.’  “Do we really need another dumb spy parody?” was my big question heading into this movie, but ‘Spy’ turned out to be quite the surprise (considering that past McCarthy films are a mixed bag) and is as fun and entertaining as the critics are saying.

 

McCarthy is Susan Cooper, a desk-jockey CIA analyst and the sedentary lesser half of an inseparable team with tuxedo-wearing superspy Bradley Fine (Jude Law), whom she pines for like a geeky high schooler daydreaming about dating the star quarterback.  Alas, after things went horribly wrong for her partner while he's on a mission to prevent the sale of a suitcase nuke on the black market by sexy Bulgarian villainess Raina Boyanov (her ‘Bridesmaids’ co-star Rose Byrne looking babe-licious), the most unspylike Susan was thrust into the deadly mission and finds herself globe-trotting through Paris, Rome and Budapest to stop the nefarious Boyanov from selling her WMD to the highest bidder.  Much hilarity ensues as we follow Susan's misadventures.  Jason Statham was also excellent and funny as the tough and garrulous (albeit dumb as a bag of hammers) agent Ford.

 

‘Spy’ worked on numerous levels and got the most out of its simple premise of a sad sack, middle-aged overweight woman as ass-kicking superspy.  And boy, did she kick ass!   Defying stereotypes has seldom been so funny and McCarthy carried the movie with ease and aplomb without becoming annoying like she did in some of her other roles, making ‘Spy’ her best movie to date.  With the successes of ‘Spy’ and ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service' earlier this year, the spy spoof is back in a big way.  Groovy baby, yeah!

 

Grade: A
 

Something Insidious This Way Comes

In the wake of my recent disappointment with the ‘Poltergeist’ remake (reviewed below), I wasn’t sure if I’m ready to jump into another like-minded PG-13 ghost story in the same James Wan tone and style.  Regardless, like the ever dutiful critic I marched into the theatre for the third chapter of the ‘Insidious’ saga which began back in 2010 about the Lambert family and their unfortunate run-in with the forces of supernatural evil.  97 minutes later I’m happy to say that ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ wiped off the bad taste in my mouth left by ‘Poltergeist 2015.’

 

I:Ch3 is not a sequel but a prequel along the ‘Insidious’ timeline and focused on a different family, in this case a struggling single father (Dermot Mulroney) whose wife recently died and his two kids, the elder of whom is the teenage Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) who’s targeted by a malevolent spirit from "the beyond" sporting a breathing mask and sounding a bit like Darth Vader who’s after (what else?) her soul.  Coming to her aid against this insidious presence are characters ‘Insidious’ fans should be familiar with: the grandmotherly spiritual “medium” Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) and the nerdy online ghostbusting duo of "Specs" (Leigh Whannell) and "Tucker" (Angus Sampson).  Leigh Whannell pulled triple duty as the film's director and writer in addition to playing "Specs."

 

While I:Ch3  isn't exactly groundbreaking or offered anything particularly new, the story is nonetheless engrossing and the key characters are interesting enough to make I:Ch3 a solid addition to the ‘Insidious’ franchise.  And unlike most franchises, ‘Insidious’ also managed to get better with each new installment.  That’s a phenomenon strange and supernatural in itself.

 

Grade: A-