Netflix Pick: LAST ACTION HERO

LAST ACTION HERO  (ACTION-COMEDY/FANTASY, 1993)
Directed by John McTiernan
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O'Brien, Charles Dance, Robert Prosky, Tom Noonan, Frank McRae, Anthony Quinn, Bridgette Wilson, F. Murray Abraham
Rated PG-13 for strong action sequences.

I didn't like LAST ACTION HERO so much the first time I saw it years ago, but just a few months ago, I decided to give it another look, and, my goodness, it's pretty great in a special, so-much-dumb-fun way.  It's a meta-comedy that parodies the he-man action movies that were popular in the late-1980s and 1990s, like DIE HARD, LETHAL WEAPON, the Rambo series and just about everything that Arnold Schwarzenegger had starred in.  Fittingly, Schwarzenegger fills the shoes of the leading man, and John McTiernan, the director of DIE HARD and PREDATOR, directs, and Shane Black, writer of LETHAL WEAPON is one of the credited writers on the script.
Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien) is a young boy who spends his time hanging out at the old movie house with Nick (Robert Prosky), the theater's friendly old projectionist.  Danny's favorite movies are the big action movies, specifically the Jack Slater series, which star Arnold Schwarzenegger (as in actually Arnold Schwarzenegger) as a Dirty Harry-style rogue cop who deals in bullets and cheesy one-liners.  The newest Jack Slater flick is coming out soon, and Nick invites Danny to a private screening while he tests the theater's print, and in a moment of theatricality, Nick gives him a supposedly magic ticket originally given to him by Harry Houdini.  It turns out that the ticket is magic, and Danny is transported into the world of the film, which naturally wreaks havoc on the film's story structure and soon leads dangerous interaction between both worlds.
It's chock-full of fun commentary on action movie tropes and goofy showbiz references, with actors in the Jack Slater film also appearing as themselves, including some hilarious moments between Schwarzenegger and his then-wife Maria Shriver, as well as a cartoon cat and Ian McKellen as "Death".  It isn't exactly tactful or subtle, but that's arguably in the spirit of the films that it pays homage to.

Monthly Movie Preview: July 2014

July is the third of the four months of the summer movie season, and the point where the pickings tend to dry up some before descending into the dumping grounds of August  July is the month most subject to what we call "blockbuster fatigue", after two months of big-budget, typical summer action fare has left audiences feeling weary of all the CGI destruction and longing for something smaller to shake it up.  Hollywood doesn't tend to take advantage of this though, instead throwing a last few blockbuster epics at the screens in hopes that one of them becomes a sweeping sensation across the nation, a la THE DARK KNIGHT or PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, which both opened in July and grossed a billion dollars worldwide.  But even while this summer so far hasn't had any big sensations or a presence of the action genre on the level of recent years, this July is pretty slight and eclectic.  Perhaps owing to the surprise success of last year's very scary THE CONJURING, released in July, this month has two horror offerings (one of them a sequel), plus a few comedies and a couple of low-rent sequels.  The only summer blockbuster-style films this month are DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, which looks amazing, and HERCULES, which looks less so.

July 2nd
DELIVER US FROM EVIL  (HORROR/CRIME-THRILLER) 
Directed by Scott Derrickson; Starring Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Olivia Munn
Rated R for bloody violence, grisly images, terror throughout, and language.
This allegedly truth-based supernatural horror follows a New York cop played by Eric Bana who teams up with a priest, played by Edgar Ramirez, when a case he's working on takes on a demonic nature.  Director Scott Derrickson's last film, SINISTER, certainly had its fans, but the combination of Derrickson's unreliable batting average, the source material and Jerry Bruckheimer as a producer, it doesn't sound promising to me.

July 2nd
EARTH TO ECHO  (SCI-FI/ADVENTURE)
Directed by Dave Green; Starring Teo Halm, Astro, Reese Hartwig, Ella Wahlestedt
Rated PG for some action and peril, and mild language.
An unlikely family film addition to the tired "found-footage" sub-genre, EARTH TO ECHO is by all appearances an E.T. rip-off about a group of kids who discover a friendly alien who they then help to get back home.  The film was made by Walt Disney Studios, but then sold to Relativity Media, which seems to have taken a Disney poster concept and just replaced the studio logos.  I'm not sure that there's much interest in this film, which uses the "shaky cam" handheld technique mostly used for cheap horror films and applies it to a brazenly unoriginal story aimed at preteen boys.  In all likelihood, the film will flop at the box office.

July 2nd
TAMMY  (COMEDY)
Directed by Ben Falcone; Starring Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Dan Aykroyd
Rated R for language including sexual references.
Comedienne Melissa McCarthy stars as the title character in her husband Ben Falcone's directorial debut, about Tammy, a luckless woman having a very bad day with the loss of her job, her husband and her car.  Without money or transportation, she reluctantly teams up with alcoholic grandmother, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), for a slapdash road trip to see Niagara Falls.  If you're a fan of McCarthy's big-mouthed, brash persona, this will undoubtedly deliver, and depending on how Sarandon interprets her potentially contrived role, it could be a lot of fun.

July 11th
AND SO IT GOES  (ROMANTIC-COMEDY/DRAMA) 
Directed by Rob Reiner; Starring Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton, Yaya Alafia
Rated PG-13 for some sexual references and drug elements.
Rob Reiner's newest romantic comedy reunites him with both Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton for a "feel-good" story of a crotchety old realtor (Douglas) who finds himself saddled with a nine-year old granddaughter, leading him to turn to his neighbor (Keaton) for help, and everything we already know will happen, probably happens.  It sounds foul, but you know, if it's your thing, that's fine I guess.

July 11th  
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES  (SCI-FI/ACTION-THRILLER)
Directed by Matt Reeves; Starring Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action,
This follow-up to the surprisingly good 2011 film RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is one of the most exciting releases this summer, even, and perhaps because of, a change in director, with accomplished horror director Matt Reeves (of CLOVERFIELD and LET ME IN fame) taking the reins with only the motion-capture ape performers returning.  Mo-cap pioneering actor Andy Serkis returns as Caesar, chimpanzee leader to a rising nation of genetically evolved apes in a dystopian future where most of humanity has been wiped out by virus ten years earlier.  Some of the surviving humans have befriended the apes and formed a fragile peace, but others blame the apes for the virus, threatening to explode into all-out war for domination of the planet.  With an excellent cast including Jason Clarke and Gary Oldman, and the promise of speaking apes wielding firearms atop horses, it looks even better than its predecessor.  Plus, 20th Century Fox has had such positive reactions to early cuts, that they've already signed Reeves on for another installment.

July 18th
PLANES: FIRE AND RESCUE  (ANIMATED/CHILDREN)
Directed by Roberts Gannaway; Featuring the Voices of Dane Cook, Julie Bowen, Ed Harris
Rated PG for action and some peril.
Were there people over the age of five who liked the first PLANES?  Not that it matters, because the tykes dragged their reluctant parents into theaters and made the movie a success, but that doesn't even account for the millions of dollars made from toys that snot-nosed kids begged the parents for.  This sequel (to the original which had originally been intended as a straight-to-DVD release) brings back Dusty Crophopper, the cropduster racing plane voiced by every junior high boy's second-favorite favorite comedian, Dane Cook, who now ventures into the world of wildfire air attack.  Hopefully, there will be a veteran firefighting plane who goes down in flames for a poignant second act slow point.

July 18th
THE PURGE: ANARCHY  (THRILLER/HORROR)
Directed by James DeMonaco; Starring Frank Grillo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez, Michael K. Williams, Carmen Ejogo, Billy Parker
Rated R for strong disturbing violence, and for language.
Because last year's THE PURGE made back it's tiny production cost more than ten times over in just its opening weekend, a sequel was inevitable.  In the future United States, the annual "Purge" is a 12-hour period in which all crime is legal, including and especially murder, as a form of population control and an allegedly cathartic release of criminal urges.  This sequel follows five people who come together on the night of the Purge, stranded outside in the hellish landscape.  Despite its success, the first film has a generally negative reputation with audiences due to its slow and confined low-budget approach.  The sequel is attempting to address that concern, and the advertising emphasizes that THE PURGE: ANARCHY takes its characters out into the world of the Purge, but the fact that the budget is staying the same negates that potential.

July 25th

HERCULES  (ACTION/FANTASY)

Directed by Brett Ratner; Starring Dwayne Johnson, Irina Shayk, John Hurt, Ian McShane

Rated PG-13 for epic battle sequences, violence, suggestive comments, brief strong language and partial nudity.

Brett Ratner, or The Rock?  Brett Ratner..., or The Rock?  Much-loathed filmmaker Brett Ratner (the RUSH HOUR trilogy, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND) teams up with irresistibly charming muscle-head Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for the second, and more prolific, film this year inspired by the legendary Greek hero, following January's THE LEGEND OF HERCULES.  Based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, the story finds the legendary Greek hero/demigod, as played by Johnson, at the completion of his famous twelve labors, living as a sword-for-hire, who finds purpose again in fighting for the King of Thrace against an evil warlord.  Initially, it was marketed as being "grounded in realism", without mythological elements, however, the trailers seem to refute that entirely, with hydras and gargantuan lions.  In any case, it's a big b-movie, but the question is, is this more Johnson's movie (good) or more Ratner's movie (bad)?

July 25th
SEX TAPE  (COMEDY)
Directed by Jake Kasdan; Starring Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz, Rob Corddry
Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use.
Director Jake Kasdan re-teams with his BAD TEACHER stars Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel, with a script from the writer of THE BACK-UP PLAN, for this raunchy comedy about a couple who attempt to reintroduce some spice to their love life by filming themselves, but when the video is accidentally let loose on the internet, they rush into damage control mode.  The premise is predictable, but the previews have had a few laughs, and Kasdan's films come in varying degrees of success.

Review: TRANSFORMERS 4

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION  (ACTION-ADVENTURE/FANTASY) 
1.5 out of 4 stars
Directed by Michael Bay
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Li Bingbing, Titus Welliver, Sophia Myles, T.J. Miller, Peter Cullen (voice), John Goodman (voice)
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, language and brief innuendo.
Verdict: An almost entirely perfunctory and uninspired piece of commercial filmmaking, TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION is simply too much of what it is to even give it much thought.
YOU MAY ENJOY TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION IF YOU LIKED:
TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (2011)
TRANSFORMERS (2007)
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)
PAIN & GAIN (2013)
ARMAGEDDON (1998)

I don't care enough about TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION to hate it.  I almost wonder if director Michael Bay, returning for his fourth outing with the franchise, even cared much, given that he seems to be on cruise control, checking off boxes on the Michael Bay movie checklist with mechanical indifference.  At least previously, the Transformers films were guaranteed smash-hits, beloved by young and unfortunately impressionable persons across the nation, even when TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN was deservingly called "the worst movie ever to gross over $400 million".  Surprisingly, some audiences have been showing apprehension about the change in casting, even though we all know it was always the giant robot battles which people were shuffling in to see.  But the action is even less coherent and less inspired than before.  Perhaps Paramount is aware of the decreasing popularity in the United States, but they've already solved that problem by jumping on the bandwagon of catering to the international audience, especially the lucrative Chinese market, where practically the whole second half of the film takes place.
At some point, it just becomes worthless to criticize Bay's filmmaking, because there is a real audience for his films, and they don't care so much.  If you enjoy a certain type of movie, that's great, because that's the point, but it's too bad that Bay's primary audience of teenage boys is being fed these morally problematic, sexist, racist excuses for pyrotechnics.  What's super strange about the Transformers series, and this installment in particular, is that while the movies are aimed at teenagers, the characters and plot, such as they are, are vastly more typical of a cartoon television show aimed at a five-year old audience, in spite of the excessive violence and PG-13-safe profanity.  That said, by now, I just don't care.

None of the human characters from previous films return in AGE OF EXTINCTION, which is set four years after the climactic battle in DARK OF THE MOON.  The United States government has severed all ties with the Autobots, and with the assistance of Lockdown (voice of Mark Ryan), the CIA is carrying out black ops missions to take out all Autobots and Decepticons alike.  Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), a struggling eccentric inventor, an average "nutty professor" except with massive biceps and a Texan's outlook, discovers a rusty old semi truck that turns out to be Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen), the highly sought after leader of the Autobots.  When federal agents come looking for Optimus, Cade, his teenage daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) and her secret race car-driving Irish-Texan boyfriend (Jack Reynor) are sent on the run with Optimus, who calls in the remaining Autobots on Earth.  Also in the mix, cooperating with the feds to obtain Transformers tech is Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci), an arrogant corporate tycoon to whom less-than-subtle Steve Jobs parallels are drawn, who is attempting to build his own Transformers, but is himself being manipulated by extra-terrestrial objectives.
The story is kind of all over the place, and it doesn't help that none of the characters have clear objectives; it's a very plot-driven movie where no one took the time to establish a clear through-line.  It's not the worst movie in the series, having nothing to match the aggressive badness of REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, but it can't even evoke the interest that that film did by being such a negative experience.  AGE OF EXTINCTION is just there.  It exists, and it exists for a very long time.  It isn't painfully dull, but it feels like the people making the movie didn't care much, and why should I?  Tucci is alright, but he doesn't have anything real good to work with, and Wahlberg just goes through the motions.  Peltz and Reynor are equally ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as their characters could allow.
When Bay's movies are good (and they never really are, but sometimes even people with good taste find themselves entertained by one), it's always chalked up to being "dumb fun".  The problem with that excuse is Bay's films almost all have obscenely extensive running times, and no movie longer than two hours should get a pass as dumb fun.  At that length, a movie has to have a little more to offer, but AGE OF EXTINCTION is almost three hours long before you include previews!  AGE OF EXTINCTION doesn't go by fast; you can feel the three hours passing, but you can't hate it, because it doesn't matter enough to deserve hate.  It's just a airy, vapid three hours of extremely loosely-defined characters doing things for reasons, while some things blow up and at the last minute, the Dinobots that have saturated the film's marketing show up for a short, perfunctory appearance.  It's not boring, or exciting or interesting in any way.  It's just...there.

Netflix Pick: SHORT TERM 12

Spend more time browsing Netflix than you do watching movies?  This new recurring column may be able to help with that by recommending movies available on Netflix instant streaming; not the big recent releases that the casual moviegoer is likely to have seen already, but not necessarily the littlest, obscure arthouse movies either.  These are movies that are likely to appeal to wide audiences, but are small enough that they may have passed by the wayside of major mainstream success, or are fairly older and unfamiliar to contemporary audiences.
 
SHORT TERM 12  (DRAMA, 2013) 
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
Starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, Keith Stanfield, Kevin Hernandez, Melora Waters, Stephanie Beatriz
Rated R for language and brief sexuality. 
96 minutes

This ultra-low budget independent drama follows Grace (Brie Larson, also seen in 21 JUMP STREET and SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD), a young woman who acts as a supervisor at a group home for troubled teenagers.  Emotionally troubled herself, Grace spends her time sharing work stories with her fellow supervisors, including Mason (John Gallagher, Jr., seen in The Newsroom), who she has an on-and-off intimate relationship with, and Nate (Rami Malek, seen in NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM), a new hire who she's showing the ropes to.  Grace has recently discovered that she's pregnant, despite her apprehension at the idea of being a mother, while she does her best to create a safe environment for the angry and disadvantaged teens under her care, including young people about to be thrust out into the real world and a young woman who may have an abusive relationship with her father.
SHORT TERM 12 is very heavy film that deals with very heavy, real-world themes, but it also picks you up with images of resilience and hope, and while never glib or disrespectful, the characters approach their lives with wry humor, so it's never overbearing.  But it feels real, and reminds you of the hopeful possibilities in which damaged people can overcome the real darkness of the world and come into their own as successful adults.  I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

THE LION KING: The King of 20 Years

THE LION KING    (ANIMATED/MUSICAL)
Release Date: June 15, 1994
Directed by Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff
Featuring a Voice Cast of: Matthew Broderick (Adult Simba), Jeremy Irons (Scar), James Earl Jones (Mufasa), Nathan Lane (Timon), Ernie Sabella (Pumbaa), Moira Kelly (Adult Nala), Rowan Atkinson (Zazu), Robert Guillaume (Rafiki), Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Young Simba), Nikita Calame (Young Nala), Madge Sinclair (Sarabi), Whoopi Goldberg (Shenzi), Cheech Marin (Bonzai)
Supervising Animators: Ruben Aquino (Adult Simba), Andreas Deja (Scar), Tony Fucile (Mufasa), Mark Hehn (Young Simba), Anthony de Rosa (Adult Nala), Aaron Blaise (Young Nala), Michael Surrey (Timon), Tony Bancroft (Pumbaa), James Baxter (Rafiki), Ellen Woodbury (Zazu)
Rated G -General Audiences

Facts Sheet:
Running Time: 88 minutes
Estimated Production Cost: $45 million
Domestic Total Gross from Initial Release (June 1994-Spring 1995): $312.8 million
Worldwide Total Gross from Initial Release (June 1994-Spring 1995): $768.6 million
Total Gross from 2002 IMAX Re-Issue: $15.6 million
Total Gross from 2011 3D Re-Issue: $177.6 million
Total Domestic Gross to Date: $422.7 million
Total Worldwide Gross to Date: $987.4 million
All-Time Highest Average Per Theater Gross on an Opening Weekend: #1 ($793, 377 per theater)
All-Time Highest-Grossing Films (Domestic): #11
All-Time Highest-Grossing Films (Worldwide): #18
All-Time Highest-Grossing Films, Adjusted for Money Inflation Rates: #18
All-Time Highest-Grossing Animated Films: #2
All-Time Highest-Grossing Hand-Drawn Animated Films: #1

Academy Award Nominations: 4 (Best Original Score, Best Original Song- "The Circle of Life", Best Original Song- "Hakuna Matata", Best Original Song- "Can You Feel the Love Tonight")
Academy Award Wins: 2 (Best Original Score, Best Original Song- "Can You Feel the Love Tonight")
Other Notable Accolades: Golden Globe for Best Picture- Musical or Comedy, Grammy Award for Best Male Performance (Elton John for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"), American Film Institute- Best Animated Film #4, 100 Years...100 Songs #99 ("Hakuna Matata") 

THE LION KING was a B-picture.  This was the prevailing attitude at Walt Disney Animation Studios when the film began production in the early 1990s, simultaneously with the more "prestigious" POCAHONTAS.  Back then THE LION KING was called KING OF THE JUNGLE, and was not only the first Disney animated feature not based on a previously existing story, like the folklore and little-known books that had long provided a reliable starting point for Disney's animated features, but also the first Disney animated feature since 1942's BAMBI not to feature any onscreen human characters.
Disney was an entertainment company that was rapidly growing in output quality and value, having come a long way since a close-call with a hostile takeover bid in 1984, after a long stretch of creative stagnancy in a company hampered by restrictive family brand expectations that resulted in an unsustainable business model.  With the business in the hands of Walt's aging colleagues, each of them living by a creed of "What Would Walt Do?", and Walt's son-in-law, Ron Miller, who was creatively uninspired and further restrained by a board of businessmen with archaic tastes, it fell to Walt's nephew, Roy E. Disney, to save the company from being bought and stripped of its resources by the ravening wolves on 1980s Wall Street.  With the help of his friend and white knight investor, Stanley Gold, Roy wrested control of the company from "the Walt side of the family", and installed new leadership in the form of new CEO Michael Eisner, new company President Frank Wells and new President of Production Jeffrey Katzenberg.  Roy took control of the expensive and failing animation division, and by 1989, with the release of THE LITTLE MERMAID, a Walt Disney Animation Studios renaissance had begun.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, an aggressive executive who served as President of Production under Michael Eisner during their years at Paramount, had taken a special interest in the possibilities of animation.  As THE LITTLE MERMAID neared completion in 1988 (or in 1990, at the European premiere of THE LITTLE MERMAID, depending on accounts), Katzenberg, Roy Disney and President of Animation Peter Schneider discussed the possibilities for upcoming projects.  The credit for certain details vary, but the notion of a coming-of-age story in Africa came in to play.  Regardless of whose idea it was (Katzenberg claims it, but other accounts say he only built on it), Katzenberg felt a strong personal connection with the idea, and carved out a rough semi-autobiographical story about a lion cub who experiences loss, tries to avoid his troubles and is forced to come to terms with responsibility.  At one script meeting during early development, Katzenberg related a story from early in his career while working as an advance man on John Lindsay's 1972 presidential campaign, where one of Lindsay's aide described Katzenberg as "kind of a weasel".  Katzenberg told of how he accepted hundreds of thousands dollars in unrecorded campaign contribution on behalf of his boss, which were not all technically illegal, but some later came under suspicion of bribery.  As a result, young Katzenberg was subpoenaed by a grand jury to testify during the court proceedings, a traumatic and humiliating experience for Katzenberg, and a lesson in the dirty dealings of money and politics.
THE LION KING underwent a series of script drafts and few titles, such as KING OF THE KALAHARI and KING OF THE BEASTS before KING OF THE JUNGLE was decided.  The film was considered something of an "animated nature documentary", but for the first couple years of development, the story remained unfocused and unsatisfactory.  The breakthrough moment occurred during a story meeting where a story artist compared the idea to William Shakespeare's Hamlet.  At that point, the story flow became more clear, with the big plot turning point of Mufasa's spirit appearing just before the 'point of recognition' finally coming into being.  A substantial dose of Old Testament mythology was also injected into the story with plot elements inspired by the biblical stories of Joseph in the Book of Genesis and of Moses in the Book of Exodus.
Seemingly contradictory with all other information, Katzenberg is been said to have been dismissive of the KING OF THE JUNGLE project at the beginning of production, while playing up POCAHONTAS as a "grand American epic" comparable to GONE WITH THE WIND.  Although Katzenberg's statements are consistently reported, his reasoning is unclear and inconsistent given that KING OF THE JUNGLE was also cited as Katzenberg's "baby", but it is undisputed that POCAHONTAS was considered the high profile picture on the slate.  POCAHONTAS drew most of the top names at Disney, such as Glen Keane, known for animating Ariel for THE LITTLE MERMAID, Aladdin for ALADDIN and the Beast in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and Eric Goldberg, known for animating the Genie in ALADDIN, as well as other high ranking animators, story artists and character designers signed on to POCAHONTAS.
THE LION KING became a soapbox for those feeling stifled or under-appreciated to prove their worth and shine.  Brenda Chapman, one of the few women working in the "boys club" of animation, who had proven an aptitude for sensitive and emotionally-driven storytelling as a story artist on BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, was made the first woman head of story on an animated film, on THE LION KING.  Chris Sanders, a story artist who had worked on Disney's past three animated feature films, was made production designer on THE LION KING (he's since gone on to direct LILO & STITCH and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON).  Roger Allers, the head of story on BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and Rob Minkoff, who directed a 7-minute Roger Rabbit short, ROLLERCOASTER RABBIT, to play before DICK TRACY, were signed on as directors of the film.

"You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me.  Look inside yourself Simba.  You are more than what you have become."

A research trip of top crew members was sent to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya to get a feel for the environment and draw inspiration for the film's imagery.  About the time they realized that lions don't actually inhabit jungle environments as cartoons had led the animators to believe (lions live on the savannahs), KING OF THE JUNGLE became THE LION KING.
With the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), developed by the fledgling computer animation technology studio Pixar, Disney was able assemble their films in a digital environment.  The animators' drawings would be scanned into the computer program, where they could be "inked" and colored, then arranged in a multi-layer format in that would have cost the pre-digital age studio millions of dollars more.  Furthermore, advances in computer animation allowed the film to utilize elements of three-dimensional animated elements, most exemplified in the wildebeest stampede sequence which involved several computer-animated wildebeests multiplied into hundreds and set on randomized paths to simulate the movements of an actual physical herd.  Technological developments that were made to create this effect were integral on the path to creating the vast CGI crowds in GLADIATOR and the sprawling armies in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, both of which won Academy Awards for their visual effects.  THE LION KING was the most visually elaborate and advanced film that Walt Disney Pictures had ever made at the time, taking full advantage of resources that had only become available within that decade and taking them places that would have been prohibitively expensive only five years earlier.
There has been much speculation that the film pilfered from a famous Japanese anime cartoon of the 1960s called Kimba the White Lion, which has resulted in a lot a parodies emphasizing the similarities, including a scene in The Simpsons.  Kimba was created by Osamu Tezuka, best known in the United States for his character "Astro Boy", and was popular with children worldwide.  In interviews, Matthew Broderick, the voice of Adult Simba in THE LION KING, has stated that he initially thought the film was an adaptation of the Tezuka cartoon, assuming that the Disney people meant "Kimba".  The most obvious similarity between the two of course is between the names "Simba" and "Kimba", however, Simba is taken from the Swahili word for "lion".  There are other, more suspicious similarities though, in particular, the image of a lion named Panja standing on a rock, which was shown during the opening tiles of each episode for Kimba, and the image of the lions standing on Pride Rock in THE LION KING.  Naturally, Disney insists the similarities between the properties are coincidental, and Tezuka Production never dared to sue that formidable power of the Disney Company.  It's unlikely that THE LION KING is a knowledgeable copycat of Kimba, especially on the level that some conspiracy theorists proclaim, although it's also highly unlikely that the similarities were wholly unrecognized by the hordes of animation buffs working in the Disney Studios.  Tonally, the products are thoroughly different, but the difference of greatest note between the two is the absence of humans in Kimba, which very much involves the relation of humans to the animal kingdom.

Comparison between stills of Kimba the White Lion and THE LION KING.

THE LION KING is actually the only Disney animated feature film entirely void of any human characters.  BAMBI has no onscreen human characters, but the human being plays a prominent role in the proceedings nonetheless, enough so that "Man", from BAMBI, was listed at number 20 on the American Film Institute's 50 Great Movie Villains.  The lack of a literal human presence in THE LION KING was undoubtedly one of the major factors in its being dismissed as a film of lesser prominence.  It may be animation, but it was thought that audiences wanted to see people, relatable human characters.  The animals were supposed to be side elements.  On the technical side of things, THE LION KING presented a unique challenge, requiring the animators to act through characters that in were in most cases void of hands, most were quadripeds and all generally lacking in particularly humanoid anatomy that regular dramatic acting relies directly on.  Andreas Deja, the most experienced supervising animator on THE LION KING (supervising animation for the villain Scar), previously animated King Triton in THE LITTLE MERMAID, Gaston in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and Jafar in ALADDIN, and expressed interest in the project due to its lack of human characters, having first been inspired to come to Disney animation thanks to a long-time love of Disney's 1967 JUNGLE BOOK.

"Oh yes, the past can hurt. But from the way I see it, you can either run from it, or... learn from it."

Since the project's inception as an animated nature film, THE LION KING was not intended to follow the Disney tradition of musicals, but when the production crew began to entertain the idea, they made an offer to lyricist Tim Rice, who had been at the studio writing new songs with Alan Menken for ALADDIN after Menken's songwriting partner Howard Ashman passed away in 1991 due to complication related to AIDS.  Rice, whose illustrious career included multiple collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, accepted but requested on finding his own composition partner (frequent Disney composer Menken was unavailable due to obligations on POCAHONTAS).  His suggestions were high profile and unconventional to say the least; his first choice was the Swedish pop group ABBA, with whom he had worked on the stage musical Chess, but in part due to previous obligations and also general disinterest in the project, ABBA passed.  Rice's second pick was even more unlikely, and he was doubtful that his suggestion would bring about anything at all.  Elton John, like most talent that comes to work for Disney, it turned out, was a lifelong fan of Disney animated films and accepted the offer to compose music for Rice's lyrics.
Unlike most musical Disney animated features, a separate composer was assigned to write the orchestral score for the film.  German-born composer Hans Zimmer was chosen based on his previous work on two Apartheid dramas, A WORLD APART (1988) and THE POWER OF ONE (1992), in which he utilized African-inspired musical elements.  Zimmer had already composed musical scores for dozens of films, including Academy Award for Best Picture-winning films like RAIN MAN and DRIVING MISS DAISY, as well as scores for films by high-profile auteurs like Barry Levinson and Ridley Scott, but he was far from the composer of iconic soundtracks for films like PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and THE DARK KNIGHT that he is today.  His work on THE LION KING would win him an Academy Award for Best Original Score.  For THE LION KING, he again collaborated with Lebohang Morake, best-known as "Lebo M.", a South African singer/composer/man-of-multiple-trades who teamed up with Zimmer on THE POWER OF ONE.  At the time, Lebo M., who had been going around between assorted low-paying odd jobs and even had to resort to panhandling, was parking cars and according to Zimmer, Lebo appeared at his doorstep right at the nick of time.  After having the film's story explained to him in brief, he scribbled down a few notes, and they recorded the iconic opening chant which Lebo had just written down: "Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba; Sithi uhm ingonyama," which in Swahili translates to "Here comes a lion, Father; Oh yes, it's a lion".

"A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new king."

In November 1993, a special teaser trailer for THE LION KING played before Disney's live-action adaptation of THE THREE MUSKETEERS.  The 4-minute preview contained the entire opening "Circle of Life" sequence, ending with the title and notice promoting the film coming in summer 1994.  Audience response to the extended trailer was so positive that it caused concern that the finished film couldn't possibly live up to the expectations set by the opening scene.  The film was finally opened on Wednesday, June 15th, 1994, but only in two theaters, the Disney-owned El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles and the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, as part of campaign to spread word-of-mouth and to build interest before the filmed opened across the country on June 24.  Only playing in those two theaters, THE LION KING nonetheless ranked as the tenth highest-grossing film for the weekend of June 17-19, 1994, with $1.5 million.  The following weekend, THE LION KING expanded into 2,550 theaters in North America, and hit the number-one spot with $40 million.  It held again with an additional $34 million the next weekend, before it dropped into #2 by a miniscule margin of $25,000 behind FORREST GUMP, opening that weekend.  At the domestic box office for the year of 1994, THE LION KING came in a close second to FORREST GUMP, but worldwide, THE LION KING held the lead by a massive $200 million.  It became the highest-grossing Disney movie of all time, at the time, and the highest-grossing animated film of all time until FINDING NEMO nearly a decade later.  For the Christmas season of 1994, LION KING toys were the most popular, accounting for approximately $214 million in sales, and for the year of 1994, LION KING merchandise alone earned about $1 billion.  It was a full-fledged phenomenon.
The official soundtrack of the film hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 (#4 for the year of 1994) and sold 7.8 million copies to become the only soundtrack for an animated movie to be certified "Diamond" by the Recording Industry Association of America.  The nearly-deleted love song, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (the filmmakers had difficulty justifying its place in the film, and at one time attempted to use it as comic piece, all sung by the characters of Timon and Pumbaa, much to the chagrin of Elton John), became a runaway hit winning an Academy Award or Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance.  In addition, Hans Zimmer's orchestral score won the film a second Academy Award, for Best Original Score, and the songs "Circle of Life" and "Hakuna Matata" also received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song, a grand total of four Academy Award nominations.

"I can't marry her. She's my friend."  "Yeah, it would be so weird."

Film critics were generally positive in their reviews of the film, although most deemed it a qualified success and juvenile and minor in comparison to THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN.  If those were "four-star" films, then THE LION KING was, in comparison, a "three-star" film.  In any case, it was undoubtedly a different turn to take after that streak of Disney animated features based on classic tales and told in a more consistent vision.  THE LION KING was a more eclectic product, combining traumatic themes of parental death (dead parents are a trope of animated Disney films, however, THE LION KING made it up close and personal in a way that others wouldn't have dared), Shakespearean weight and mythic stature, with juvenile gross-out humor and talking animals.  Then the film's immense popularity resulted in a cultural saturation that to the more cynical critics didn't help the film's reputation.  At the time of the film's release however, the Walt Disney Company was undergoing a great many changes, mostly not for the better, following the death of Company President Frank Wells (to whom THE LION KING bears a dedication).  The studio was ruled by three titans: Company CEO Michael Eisner, Studio Chairman Jeffery Katzenberg and Studio Chairman Roy E. Disney, son of company co-founder Roy O. Disney and nephew of Walt Disney.  Between those three, Wells was considered the "Great Mediator", the glue that held together the clashing egos and the lubricant that kept them functioning smoothly.  Eisner was a great leader, Katzenberg was a great force and Disney was a great heart, but without Wells, they were bound to tear each other apart in the battle for control and credit.  When Eisner refused to promote Katzenberg to the position of company president, it led to a very bitter and very expensive ouster of Katzenberg, who then immediately went on to found DreamWorks Studios with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.  Katzenberg left the Disney Company at the same time the THE LION KING was becoming the biggest Disney movie ever, and in future years, it became clear that Disney's streak, the "Disney Renaissance", was in decline.  Now, looking back, THE LION KING is widely considered the peak of that Disney resurgence, not only financially, but artistically; certainly it is considered so by the public, if not yet by all critics.
Following the success of a 2002 IMAX re-release of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE LION
KING was released into IMAX and large format theaters later the same year, although at $15 million, it grossed less than the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST re-release.  Something very unexpected happened when THE LION KING was re-released for a special two-week engagement nationwide in September 2011; it opened #1 at the domestic box office!  It was the first a theatrical re-issue of a film opened at #1 since STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI (SPECIAL EDITION) in March 1997, but with twice as much, grossing $30.2 million in one weekend.  The re-issue, a 3D conversion but which played on both 3D screens and traditional 2D screens, was intended to promote the Blu-Ray "Diamond Edition" release of the film which would follow the the film's two weeks in theaters.  The film's unexpected success resulted in a great deal of discussion throughout the industry and box office analysts over the value of theatrical 3D re-issues, and how the 17-year old film outdid Hollywood's newer offerings, a lot of that discussion revolving around the slim pickings at the box office and the shortage of family entertainment at the moment.  Box office analysts at BoxOfficeMojo.com had predicted that THE LION KING would open at #1, but a far more conservative amount, half of what the film grossed that weekend.  The second weekend of THE LION KING re-issue introduced a high profile and highly-anticipated  new release starring Brad Pitt in the form of MONEYBALL, and it was projected to take the number-one spot on its opening weekend.  When THE LION KING again claimed #1 ahead of MONEYBALL, adding on $21.9 million, again ahead of estimations, the conversation hit an all new level.  But it wasn't merely the family entertainment angle either, because a new family film, DOLPHIN TALE, also came out that weekend and came in close third.  With the unexpected success of the re-issue (at far less the cost of producing an all-new film), Disney announced that the film would carry on in the pattern of a traditional release, rather than the originally planned two weeks.  The Blu-Ray release remained the same, however, and the final weekend before the Tuesday of the Blu-Ray release, THE LION KING dropped to third, behind DOLPHIN TALE and MONEYBALL, respectively.  Even after it was again widely available in stores, it ranked in the top ten films for another two weeks.  3D re-releases that followed in its wake failed to recapture the success of THE LION KING, which eventually added a total of $177 million to its worldwide gross, making it the second highest-grossing animated film of all time behind TOY STORY 3, until FROZEN recently bumped it down to third place.

I love, love, love (and infinite times over) THE LION KING.  It is the earliest memory I have of seeing a movie in a theater, way back when I was a mere two-and-a-half years old, in a cinema in Salt Lake City.  It factors in largely to my early childhood memories in other ways too, such as a LION KING Viewfinder, and the VHS cassette tape that my brother cut his hand on while removing the shrink wrap.  It was the first movie that I would have considered my "favorite movie", and it was that way for many years, occasionally returning to that spot in my heart in rotation with various STAR WARS movies.  Where I'm at today, with an increased understanding and maturity about movies, and certainly hundreds of more movies in my viewing history, I realize that I can't really have a "favorite movie".  That's not due to any sort of standard or principle, but because I can now have different movies that resonate more strongly with me in some moods and times than in others.  That said, THE LION KING is undoubtedly as close to the average viewer's "favorite movie" as any movie can possibly get.  I realize that it isn't perfect, and I tend to pick out little things here and there that I think could be better, but those almost all come down to nitpicking.  It also has a huge nostalgic power over me, probably more than any other movie, so I could never look at it "objectively".  For me, it is one of the, if not the, most important movies of my life experience, both a comfort food and a weighty emotional exercise.  I took full advantage of the 2011 theatrical re-issue, watching it seven times in those first two weeks and then watching it again once I had it on Blu-Ray.  It is a movie that makes me love movies, perfect or not, good or great, it doesn't matter.

Review: 22 JUMP STREET

22 JUMP STREET  (ACTION-COMEDY) 

3.5 out of 4 stars
Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller 
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Peter Stormare, Ice Cube, Amber Stevens, Wyatt Russell, Jillian Bell, Nick Offerman, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle
Rated R for language throughout, sexual content, drug material, brief nudity and some violence.
Verdict: The exceptional comedy sequel that holds its own alongside its unexpectedly good predecessor, 22 JUMP STREET proves that the directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller may be even more talented than we gave them credit for, creating an unexpected surprise (albeit less so) out of a sequel to a wholly unexpected surprise.  The high-octane bromance of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum returns in fine form for a deliriously funny response to the original.
YOU MAY ENJOY 22 JUMP STREET IF YOU LIKED:
21 JUMP STREET  (2012)
NEIGHBORS  (2014)
THE LEGO MOVIE  (2014)
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS  (2014)

Comedy and horror are often cited as the most subjective of film genres, because so much of what we find funny or scary has to do with our own personal experience and state of mind, and when a film manages to win the laughs or terror of audiences, it's almost always a lightning-in-a-bottle case.  They say the sequel is never as good as the first, but we all know that that isn't true, thanks to the likes of THE GODFATHER PART II, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and both TOY STORY 2 & 3.  What people really mean is that comedy and horror sequels are never as good as the originals, which is what makes 22 JUMP STREET such a strange duck, and why it has a legitimate claim to be one of the best comedy sequels ever.  Don't misunderstand; that kind of statement should be taken in the context that there is so very little worthy competition, however, 22 JUMP STREET is an abnormally intelligent laugh riot nonetheless.
Officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are back working the streets and chasing down narcotics, but after losing notorious drug kingpin "Ghost" (Peter Stormare) in a disastrous pursuit, their chief re-assigns them to the 21 Jump Street program under Captain Dickson (Ice Cube), now re-located to 22 Jump Street.  Too old to go undercover as high school students again, Schmidt and Jenko are now going undercover as college students at MC State, where they are yet again to "infiltrate the dealers, find the supplier," this time for a drug known as WHYPHY (WiFi).
With total self-awareness, director Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (who've already had one hit this year with THE LEGO MOVIE) run Schmidt and Jenko through the same beats as the first film, with enough sly tweaking to make a witty commentary on the nature of sequels, winking directly at the fourth wall, if not quite breaking it.  It's more of the same...but then again, not really.
It's relationship to its predecessor is unique though, because 21 JUMP STREET was a pleasant and almost wholly unexpected surprise, adapting a television series from the 1980s with a ridiculous premise, and reinventing it as a self-aware R-rated comedy that bounded well above the low expectations.  Even so, we've seen plenty of sequels to unexpected hits that were highly anticipated and failed spectacularly, and the idea of a sequel to something as surprising as 21 JUMP STREET shouldn't sound any better.  It's a brazen cash grab, except that the Lord & Miller team has made their reputation for crafting excellent comedies out of low-rate concepts, such as CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS and THE LEGO MOVIE.  The question is, can they make a pleasant surprise out of a sequel to one of their own pleasant surprises?  And the answer is a resounding yes.

Review: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2  (FAMILY-ANIMATED/FANTASY-ADVENTURE) 
3.5 out of 4 stars
Directed by Dean DeBlois
Featuring the Voices of: Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Djimon Hounsou, America Ferrara, Kit Harington, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig
Rated PG for adventure action and some mild rude humor.
102 minutes
Verdict: More thrilling, darker and more interesting, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 improves on the original handily.
YOU MAY ENJOY HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 IF YOU LIKED:
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON  (2010)
KUNG FU PANDA 2  (2011)

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON was a fine film, one that may have relied too heavily on a formulaic and overly familiar story where the wimpy misfit proves himself to his macho dad and the rest of his community just by being himself, but it got by with ingenuity and a sense of grand spectacle.  It's a really good movie, but probably not quite so good as its reputation would suggest.  It connected with audiences though, so now we get to delve further into the established world of HTTYD, and we can now see and even grander, more satisfying vision than before.
The title, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, is a misnomer; our viking heroes have pretty well finished training their dragons as we saw at the conclusion of the 2010 original.  Five years later, the viking inhabitants of Berk now co-exist in a symbiotic relationship with the dragons that used to be the scourge of their island village.  Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), son of the legendary chief Stoick the Vast (voiced by Gerard Butler), is now a young man at the age of 20, and while his peers, including his girlfriend/fiance Astrid (voiced by America Ferrara), spend their days dragon racing, he explores past the edges of the known map atop his dragon mount and best friend, Toothless.  Just beyond the edges of the map though lies a burgeoning conflict between a maniacal conqueror called Drago Bludvist (voiced by Djimon Hounsou) who is amassing a dragon army, and the mysterious dragon rider Valka (voiced Cate Blanchett), who is fighting to thwart Drago at every turn.  As Drago's malicious intentions regarding the dragons and vikings of Berk become clear, Hiccup and his fellow vikings, along with Valka, find themselves on the frontlines of a war with a ruthless madman who possesses a powerful influence over dragons.
What HTTYD2 does best is letting its characters grow and develop, and they've already come a ways from when we saw them last.  It's a pleasure to see this familiar characters return as adults, finding their places in an adult world with adult problems and adult feelings.  They are active players in their own stories, and far more interesting than the stereotypes in the first film.  The new characters add a whole new dynamic themselves; Valka, with an... interesting vocal performance by Cate Blanchett, is something of a radical environmental activist, Jane Goodall with martial arts training, and although his character and background are minimal, Drago, as voiced by Djimon Hounsou, is a startling creation with a very raw, unnerving energy, and a brutal nature that suggests genuine threat.
This sequel is not a tightly constructed as its predecessor, but it's more interesting and more fun.  This is an animated film that, while certainly different in nature from its summer action movie competition with its whimsy and diversified nature, embraces action and spectacle on a summer blockbuster level.  The visuals are truly astounding at times, and although it made a lot of sense once i saw his name in the credits, it was surprising to realize that eleven-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins was a visual consultant on the film (apparently he held that position on the first film as well).  The animation, while whimsically designed, has an air of physical presence throughout it, which is a weird and fascinating effect.
Summer 2014 got off to a rough start with the less-than-amazing THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and a disappointing GODZILLA, but we've been spoiled since then by three very good sequels (X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, and this weekend's HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 and 22 JUMP STREET), a not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been MALEFICENT, and the excellent EDGE OF TOMORROW.  After this weekend, it's pretty dry until DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES in July, but with this weekend's offerings, it might be enough to tide us over until then.

Review: EDGE OF TOMORROW

EDGE OF TOMORROW  (SCI-FI/ACTION)
4 out of 4 
Directed by Doug Liman
Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Noah Taylor, Kick Gurry, Dragomir Mrsic, Charlotte Riley, Jonas Armstrong, Franz Drameh, Tony Way
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and brief suggestive material.
113 min.
Verdict: A practically perfect summer blockbuster with thrills, chills and laughs galore, EDGE OF TOMORROW is a streamlined piece of smart spectacle.
YOU MAY ENJOY EDGE OF TOMORROW IF YOU LIKED: 
ALIENS  (1986)
OBLIVION  (2013)
MINORITY REPORT  (2002)
SOURCE CODE  (2011)
AVATAR  (2009)

The world is an occupied territory in intergalactic war, and the battle being waged between humanity's united military and the invading 'Mimics' is a hellscape that spans the continent of Europe.  For five years now, Earth's forces have been beaten down by the relentless Mimics, but then a new war hero arrived in the form of Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), known in the media as "The Angel of Verdun", and within the ranks as the "Full Metal Bitch".  Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is a sniveling officer and media spokesman who finds himself oh-so-reluctantly wrangled into service, strapped into mechanized exoskeleton battle suit and dropped with the first wave on the frontlines of a D-Day-style beach landing to invade alien-occupied France.  It isn't long before he's killed in the mayhem, but he's then instantaneously returned to the morning before, when he first arrived at base.  The two days play themselves out yet again, right up until he's again killed in combat.  Then it happens again, and again and again, al a GROUNDHOG DAY.  Finally he confronts Rita, who it turns out, had been through a similar experience in her victory at Verdun, but it ended for her, and now she knows how to use it to finally defeat the Mimics once and for all, if she and Cage aren't killed permanently first.

Although the title EDGE OF TOMORROW makes more sense, it still isn't as cool as its original title, borrowed from its source material, a Japanese young adult novel titled All You Need is Kill.  Its characters always at the "edge of tomorrow", Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt make a much more "effective team" than Cruise did with Andrea Riseborough in last year's sci-fi disappointment OBLIVION.  Seriously though, Cruise and Blunt are in peak form in this movie, each in parts that play to unexpected strength, with Cruise as a multifaceted hero who begins his journey as a sheepish coward, but grows into an alien-slaughtering god of war, and Blunt as a hardcore and ruthless harridan, layered with believable vulnerability, likability and sincerity.  She is one of the more effective depictions of a strong female action hero who remains likable and believable.
Beyond its savvy feminist portrayals and of course the powered suits reminiscent of ALIENS' famous exo-suit power-loader, EDGE OF TOMORROW reminded me a lot of James Cameron's early films, something I would not expect of a Doug Liman film.  Liman's films are usually adequate, like THE BOURNE IDENTITY and MR. & MRS. SMITH, but here, no doubt helped by the screenplay written by Christopher McQuarrie and John-Henry and Jez Butterworth, Liman has almost certainly his best movie to date.  It's a practically perfect summer blockbuster, smarter than average and efficiently carried out in its time-loop format, with thrills, chills and laughs galore. 
The repeated D-Day-esque beach battle is one of the most energetic battle set-pieces in recent memory, with chaotic pyrotechnics on an epic scale and great acting in the midst.  And the aliens.  The "Mimics", a name that's never fully explained, are some of the most unnerving alien creature creations in recent memory; nightmarish clusters of slimy tentacles that spin at high-speed across the battle field like some horrific combination of a spider, an octopus and the black goo from SPIDER-MAN 3.  Those things are effed-up, and as they pounce on the soldiers, it's impossible to avoid that shiver down your spine.
I was not especially interested in EDGE OF TOMORROW, until I heard some of the early buzz, and the movie just sucked me right in with startling visuals, real but not overbearing emotion, and clever efficiency.  Not only is it the biggest surprises of the summer so far, but it's one of the best, arguably the best, film of the summer so far.  It's not expected to do much in the states, up against the unexpectedly formidable THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, but this may be one of the rare cases where an expectedly disproportionate international box office performance is deserved.  So go see THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, because it's good.  But then go see EDGE OF TOMORROW, because it's great.

Review: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS  (ROMANCE/DRAMA)
3 out of 4 stars
Directed by Josh Boone
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Nat Wolff, Sam Trammell, Willem Dafoe, Lotte Verbeek
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some sexuality and brief strong language.
125 min.
Verdict: Those outside of the book's devoted fandom may be at a bit of a loss for what all the fuss is about, but THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is, regardless, a smart and entirely sufficient teen romance with a twist, anchored by two excellent leads, and potent sincerity.
YOU MAY ENJOY THE FAULT IN OUR STARS IF YOU LIKED:
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER  (2012)
THE SPECTACULAR NOW  (2013)
50/50  (2011)
DIVERGENT  (2014)
STUCK IN LOVE  (2012)

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is already dealing with inherently problematic themes, so it's quite an accomplishment that it manages to avoid becoming a syrupy, schlocky tearjerker altogether.  Instead, it rises above to be a decent and occasionally insightful tearjerker.  I have not read the bestselling book by John Green, and cannot compare it to the source material, nor would have an interest in doing so.  I have absolutely no doubts, however, that the film will satisfy the book's legions of fans, all of whom are conspiring to turn this into a rare chick flick summer blockbuster.
Newly-minted young Hollywood starlet Shailene Woodley, last witnessed in DIVERGENT, stars as Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teenaged young woman whose constant companion in life is a portable oxygen tank, on account of her cancerous lungs.  Diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 13, Hazel coasts through life on a steady diet of reality shows, existential literature and acerbic commentary.  Pressured by her mother (Laura Dern), Hazel starts attending a support group for youths with cancer, where she meets Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), a "manic pixie dream boy" if there ever was one.  Charming and terrifically odd, with an insufferably optimistic outlook on life, Augustus is forthright with Hazel about his attraction to her, and before long, they're dating, going on wacky misadventures together with mortality ever looming.

There are a lot of movies that have my interest early, and then lose me in the later half, but THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is one of the very few movies that didn't grab my interest until near the middle mark.  Up until that point, it was perhaps a bit twee, but a merely adequate little movie.  To explain what happens at the middle mark and then what follows would constitute a "spoiler", but suffice it to say that it is when the film finally reveals its true complexity.  The themes about learning to live with pain, with yourself and with others, are all very warm and wise, but much of the time, the film is walking on a razor's edge as it deals with real-life issues that at this point have been so cheapened by so many manipulative, sappy dime-store romances, issues that now possess negative connotations in movie form.  To this movie's credit, it tells this familiar story with plenty of sincerity and just enough originality to get away with it.
The performances are undoubtedly the strongest factor of the film, particularly the two young leads, Woodley and Elgort, who played siblings in DIVERGENT.  Especially early into the movie, Elgort's role is basically Maude from HAROLD AND MAUDE, Natalie Portman's character from GARDEN STATE and basically everything Zooey Deschanel has ever done, but he's an ever likable screen presence with charisma to spare.  However, it isn't until fairly later in the film when he really gets to show his acting chops in some really tough scenes.  Woodley, who was a standout in last summer's excellent THE SPECTACULAR NOW (which was also written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who teamed back up for this), continues to impress, and while I'm unsure if a movie released this early has a strong chance of major awards attention, I would not be surprised if she gets an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, not just because it's the kind of thing that the Academy eats up, but she really is deserving.
Ultimately, the most refreshing thing about THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is that it's a deviation from the summer barrage of sci-fi action and destruction porn, providing a mainstream but very different sort of entertainment.