Review: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY  (SCI-FI/ACTION-COMEDY) 
3 out of 4 stars
Directed by James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel (voice role), Bradley Cooper (voice role), Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio del Toro, Peter Serafinowicz
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language.
121 minutes
Verdict: Fast, furious and immensely quotable, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY features a star-making lead performance by Chris Pratt and a talking raccoon, and in all its whack and weirdness, it's a lot of fun, although Marvel's standard third-act bombast is wearing thin.
YOU MAY ENJOY GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY IF YOU LIKED:
THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013)
MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS (2012)
PACIFIC RIM (2013)
STAR TREK (2009)
SLITHER (2006)

Ever since it was first announced, people have been proclaiming GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY to be Marvel Studio's riskiest venture and the film that may break Marvel's nine-film critical and financial streak of success.  The critics have already proven part of those doubts to be wrong, and in the past several months, I think its become fairly clear that this film isn't going to hurt at the box office either, despite the surviving trend of labeling the film a 'huge gamble' for the Disney-owned film branch of the legendary comics publisher.  Marvel has been building up a great deal of capital over the past six years, and they have room to try things even weirder than THOR, which you might remember was being anticipated with similar doubts prior to its release in 2011.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY opens on Earth, the Southern United States, in the year 1988, when young Peter Quill is abducted by an alien spacecraft.  Flash forward an unspecified number of years, and Quill (played as an adult by Chris Pratt) is now a womanizing scoundrel and a thief, indoctrinated into a roving society of thieves and scavengers light-years away from Earth, living amongst alien races and calling himself "Star-Lord".  After obtaining a mysterious orb from an abandoned planet, and keeping it for himself rather than sharing the spoils with his boss, Quill is beset by bounty hunters, assassins and terrorizing warlords who all either want the orb or Quill himself.  Among them are Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a genetically-modified raccoon and bounty hunter, with his muscle, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), an inarticulate tree-man, and Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a genetically-enhanced assassin sent by the fanatical warlord Ronan (Lee Pace) to obtain the orb, but intent on betraying her cruel master.  After an incident lands them in a deep space prison, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a warrior hell-bent on revenge against Ronan, is added to the mix, and the quintet comes to form an uneasy alliance in pursuit of monetary gains and personal glory.

Pratt, best known for his role as the lovable and dimwitted schlub Andy Dwyre in NBC's mockumentary-style sitcom Parks and Recreation, recently voiced the main character Emmet in THE LEGO MOVIE and is currently filming next year's reboot/sequel JURASSIC WORLD, in which he also plays the lead, making him an unlikely new action star.  Here, he even gets to show off his newly ripped torso, which was explained in Parks and Rec with a throwaway bit about his character no longer drinking soda pop.  He makes an excellently likable lead as Star-Lord, a loosely Han Solo-esque space ruffian with a good heart and he sells the humor-laced action as well as Harrison Ford himself.  The obvious and inevitable standout however is Rocket Raccoon, a CGI creation voiced by Bradley Cooper (director James Gunn's brother Sean stood in for the character on set).  There's an old Hollywood maxim that says you should never share the screen with children or animals, because they'll get all the attention, but that goes double for animals that walk, talk, adjust the crotch of their pants and wield oversized firearms.
Wisely, Marvel has acknowledged the markedly more ludicrous nature of these characters and adjusted the humor factor accordingly, and when this film goes for laughs, they are big laughs.  In fact, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is well-poised to become the next "quoting" phenomenon, with a heaping assortment of memorable one-liners and exclamations.  The internet is going to have a heyday.  Unfortunately, the movie works better as a comedy than it does as an action movie.  The first half of the movie, similarly to what seems to be becoming a trend in Marvel's output, works a lot better in the action department, where the set-pieces are of a smaller scale, laced with humor and ingenuity while establishing characters' personalities and abilities.  There's some cool bits in the latter half, but too much of the extended climax wallows in unrestrained pyrotechnic display and destruction.  This a very visually loud film, garish at times, and although I'd kind of like to see a return to a simpler, restrained science fiction world-building (today's sci-fi is constantly teetering on the edge of detail overload), it doesn't become an issue until the third act when so many laser bolts are criss-crossing the screen that its impossible to tell who they're coming from and where they're going.
While there are multiple connections to tie this new "sub-franchise" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to previous films, especially with appearances by characters teased in MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS and THOR: THE DARK WORLD, GUARDIANS OF GALAXY is largely disconnected from the happenings of such other films, primarily interested in telling its own story and, incidentally, expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe well into the cosmos, daring audiences to cast away their cynical notions.  We've come a long way since the X-Men traded in yellow and blue spandex for black leather tactical suits, for better or worse, and while GUARDIANS may not be as big a gamble as it's been made out to be, time will tell how far audiences are willing to go into the weirdness of comic book worlds or if the bubble will ever burst.  The standard post-credits scene that viewers have grown accustomed to in Marvel's movies takes a really fun and whacky turn that I'd love to gush about, but obviously counts as "spoiler," so in any case, be sure to stay through the credits.  It really is worth it.

Monthly Movie Preview: August 2014

August is typically referred to as the "dumping ground" of the summer movie season, which is mostly true, as the major Hollywood studios tend to level out the field for each others "lesser" movies, movies with a less-proven audience or those that are summer blockbuster sized but lacking the potential to hold their own against better movies once word-of-mouth gets out and critics have had their say.  That said, August is also a month known for turning out a few big surprises, including RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (August 2011) and THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (August 2005), and add to that the further spreading of blockbuster releases that THE HUNGER GAMES encouraged after becoming a summer-sized hit in March 2012, no doubt influential on Marvel's decision to kick off the month with GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, in addition to that movie's "less-proven" audience.  There's also the usual low-key dramas, like GET ON UP, THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY and WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL, which will likely range from cheap cliches to solid entertainment for older audiences.  August also plays host to a couple of horror films (AS ABOVE, SO BELOW; JESSABELLE), surprisingly neither of which looks terrible, and a few potentially problematic sequels and would-be franchise reboots with THE EXPENDABLES 3, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (which will likely compete with GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY for #1 movie of the month), SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR.

August 1st
GET ON UP  (BIOPIC/MUSICAL) 
Directed by Tate Taylor; Starring Chadwick Boseman, Nelson Ellis, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, drug use, some strong language, and violent situations. 
Tate Taylor, director of the low-key hit THE HELP (2011) directs this musical biopic about "The Godfather of Soul", Mr. James Brown, as played by Chadwick Boseman (best-known for playing Jackie Robinson in last year's sports-drama 42).  Unfortunately, nothing about this suggests that it has anything new to introduce to the rote musician's rise to fame formula that we've seen far too many times before.  Older audiences with a taste for that sort of thing and James Brown fans will probably be satisfied nonetheless, but nothing about this looks unique or worthwhile for most others.

August 1st
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY  (SCI-FI-FANTASY/ACTION-ADVENTURE) 
Directed by James Gunn; Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel (voice), Bradley Cooper (voice), Lee Pace, Karen Gillian
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language.
There's been a lot of talk about GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY being the film that makes or breaks the "Marvel Cinematic Universe", but if you really think about it, there was similar talk about THOR back in 2011, and Marvel's proven an aptitude for even further weirdness since then.  It probably won't be any sort of box office sensation, but it's very unlikely to be a box office flop.  They are the most obscure superheroes to be brought to the big screen on this scale, and they include a talking raccoon, a tree-man and a green girl, but the marketing is wisely aware of its gonzo nature.  Director James Gunn, while a little hit-and-miss, has an aptitude for the material, and the ensemble cast is led by the charming but unlikely leading man Chris Pratt, who until recently was best known for playing the good-natured dimwit Andy Dwire on NBC's Parks and Recreation.  At the very least, audiences should check it out just for the sake of knowing just what the end result is.

August 8th
THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY  (DRAMA) 
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom; Starring Helen Mirren, Manish Dayal, Om Puri, Juhi Chawla
Rated PG for thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality. 
Academy Award-nominated director Lasse Hallstrom, along with the double-whammy producing team of Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, aims to court the audience of 2012 surprise indie hit THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL with this low-key adaptation of the novel by Richard C. Morais.  An Indian family emigrates to a small French town and open a new restaurant across the road from a prestigious French restaurant run by the icy Madame Mallory (played by Helen Mirren), naturally leading to a collision of culture, culinary arts and industry, but perhaps also budding relationships and partnerships.  I hate the trite, syrupy previews that I've seen for this, but I'm not at all convinced that they accurately represent the product, so I'm not going judge it too harshly by the advertising.  Still, it's very much for a certain audience, mostly older, reserved types looking for something gentler than the standard summer fare.

August 8th
INTO THE STORM  (DISASTER-THRILLER) 
Directed by Steven Quale; Starring Richard Armitage, Jeremy Sumpter, Sarah Wayne Callies, Nathan Kress, Matt Walsh
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense destruction and peril, and language including some sexual references.
Storywise, this "found-footage" thriller seems to be in service of a visual effects showcase, because the plot as issued by the marketing department at Warner Brothers all focuses on the idea of a few different people surviving (or perhaps not surviving), fleeing from and/or tracking the biggest tornado of all time.  There have been some cool images released of the tornado mayhem, but there are very few cases that the "found footage" gimmick is justifiable, and despite an obviously substantial visual effects budget, the whole thing has an aura of being slight.

August 8th
STEP UP ALL IN  (MUSICAL-DRAMA)
Directed by Trish Sie; Starring Briana Evigan, Alyson Stoner, Ryan Guzman
Rated PG-13 for some language and suggestive material.
Apparently there are still people watching these things, because now there's a fifth one, with no attempts show any progression in the series.  This time, a bunch of angsty young people take part in a dancing competition in Las Vegas, but because the story and filmmaking have nothing to do with, the director is a dance choreographer.  So, you know, if you're a choreography fan, go nuts.  
 
August 8th
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES  (ACTION-ADVENTURE/FANTASY) 
Directed by Jonathan Liebesman; Starring Megan Fox, William Fichtner, Will Arnett, Johnny Knoxville (voice)
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence.
I realize that the pizza-loving, anthropomorphic, sewer-dwelling, teenaged, mutated giant turtles with ninja skill sets are silly, childish and a phenomenon very much of the 1980s, but I am confident that in the right hands a genuinely entertaining and smart action-comedy could be adapted from the characters.  Unfortunately, the hands that have pieced this reboot together belong to Jonathan Liebesman (known for WRATH OF THE TITANS, BATTLE: LOS ANGELES and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING) and Michael Bay (the biggest bad filmmaker in Hollywood, known for the Transformers film series), and the results don't look great.  Is it supposed to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Transformers?  Is it for the Nickelodeon crowd (being co-produced by Nickelodeon Movies, which now owns the rights and has an animated television show aimed at young boys) or the hardcore destruction, mayhem and innuendo-loving fans of Bay's blockbusters?  Megan Fox is the human lead as ace reporter April O'Neil, who uncovers a conspiracy involving the evil Foot Clan who have the New York City establishment in their grip, and becomes involved with four unusual ninja warriors fighting to rid the city of crime.

August 13th
LET'S BE COPS  (ACTION-COMEDY)
Directed by Luke Greenfield; Starring Jake Johnson, Damon Wayans Jr., Andy Garcia, Nina Dobrev, Rob Riggle, Keegan-Michael Key, James D'Arcy
Rated R for language including sexual references, some graphic nudity, violence and drug use.
Two friends are mistaken to be real police officers after going to a costume party, so for kicks they decide to milk the idea, buying and refurbishing a used police car and heading out on self-appointed beats.  What I don't understand at all is how this is supposed to be a feature-length film.  It seems to be one of the clearest cut cases ever of a SNL-style comedy skit stretched to movie length.

August 15th
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW  (HORROR-THRILLER) 
Directed by John Erick Dowdle; Starring Ben Feldman, Perdita Weeks, Edwin Hoge
Rated R for bloody terror/violence, and language throughout. 
In this original independent "found-footage" horror film, a team of American and British archeologists venture into the massive real-life Catacombs of Paris, the twisting maze of tunnels beneath Paris, France, wherein are entombed the remains of an estimated six million people dating back to the Dark Ages.  Exploring uncharted tunnels, the archeological expedition becomes entrapped and subjected to horrific visions of their pasts by a supernatural threat, and in order to survive they must overcome their fears and come to terms with their troubled pasts.  The idea of a horror film set in the Catacombs of Paris is very appealing to me; by only big reservation is the "found-footage" technique, which I don't care much for, but doesn't necessarily make or break a film.

August 15th
THE EXPENDABLES 3  (ACTION)
Directed by Patrick Hughes; Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Rated PG-13 for violence including intense sustained gun battle and fight scenes, and for language.
The best thing about the otherwise unremarkable Expendables series to date has been the ridiculously over-the-top, hard-R-rated action scenes, but now even that's been given up in favor of a PG-13 rating.  What Stallone and his pals might not realize however is that while for many movies a PG-13 rating allows for an even wider audience, his fans are more likely to be put off by the appearance of a "watered-down" version, while the "PG-13 audience" won't have any invested interest if they skipped the previous installments because of that R rating.  In the end, everyone loses.  It might still turn out to be a pleasant surprise by what is apparently a shift in approach, which could be for the better, but that's not likely.  For this round, the titular mercenary team, the Expendables face off against the team's co-founder, played by Mel Gibson, who was thought dead but is now an arms dealer (of course) with vengeance on his mind.  The all-star cast adds on Antonio Banderas, Harrison Ford and Gibson to the roster of action movie veterans, as well as THE LEGEND OF HERCULES/TWILIGHT star Kellan Lutz as the leader of a younger team that joins forces with Barney Ross' (Stallone) Expendables.

August 15th
THE GIVER  (DRAMA/SCI-FI) 
Directed by Phillip Noyce; Starring Brendon Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgard, Odeya Rush, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift, Cameron Monaghan, Emma Tremblay
Rated PG-13 for a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action/violence.

Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal award-winning novel The Giver has been around for over 20 years now, a dystopian science fiction fable for young adults that came long before The Hunger Games and other YA novels that have since made the leap to the big screen.  It's been about that long that Jeff Bridges has been fighting to get this film made, but by now it's finally seeing the light of day within a sea of similar adaptations and it may sink.  On the other hand, Bridges has managed to pull together a really impressive cast and crew with veteran action director Philip Noyce (director of PATRIOT GAMES and SALT, although smaller films like RABBIT-PROOF FENCE are closer to this tone), "Miss Oscar" herself, Meryl Streep, and Bridges in the titular role of "The Giver", a role he originally intended for his father Lloyd but has since aged into.  The story revolves around a young man played by Brendon Thwaites, recently seen as Prince Philip in MALEFICENT, who lives in a futuristic society where people have sacrificed their humanity in exchange for stability.  This could turn out to be a case of JOHN CARTER-syndrome (movies based on much-imitated material that are ironically misconstrued as derivative), but it has Meryl Streep in it, so that's got to count for something.

August 22nd
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR  (CRIME-THRILLER)
Directed by Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller; Starring Jessica Alba, Powers Boothe, Josh Brolin, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Dennis Haysbert, Stacy Keach, Jaime King, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis
Not Yet Rated
Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller return to the extraordinarily violent, lurid, visually-stylized neo-noir world of Miller's Sin City comics nearly a decade after the arguably overrated first film with a similar collection of loosely interconnected episodes of sex and violence within the crime-ridden Basin City.  Like the first film, they've assembled an impressive ensemble cast, including returning players Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis, while adding fresh faces like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Eva Green (who was the subject of a controversially revealing poster a few months ago, making some free publicity for the film).  I didn't like the original much; it was a bit too sick even for my tastes.  This probably be more of the same, but without the surprise factor.

August 22nd
IF I STAY  (DRAMA)
Directed by R.J. Cutler; Starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Lauren Lee Smith, Liana Liberato, Jamie Blackley, Aliyah O'Brien, Joshua Leonard, Jakob Davies
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and some sexual material.
Chloe Grace Moretz, the 17-year old actress known for playing the ultra-violent vigilante Hit-Girl in KICK-ASS, the young vampire Abby in LET ME IN and the precocious granddaughter of filmmaker Georges Melies in Martin Scorcese's HUGO, is one of the most talented child/teen actresses in recent memory, but this young adult adaptation looks like little more than THE LOVELY BONES meets an assortment of teen romance cliches.  I'm sure people who liked the YA novel by Gayle Forman will appreciate this apparently sincere adaptation, and the target demographic of teen girls might show interest (I don't think even they will be unanimous), but it all looks derivative of things that most people didn't enjoy the first time.

August 22nd
WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL  (SPORTS-DRAMA) 
Directed by Thomas Carter; Starring Jim Caviezel, Laura Dern, Michael Chiklis, Alexander Ludwig, Gavin Casalegno
Rated PG for thematic material, a scene of violence, and brief smoking. 
"Inspired by a true story", this melodrama from the director of COACH CARTER tells the story of the De La Salle Spartans high school football team that smashed the winning streak record for any high school football team from 1992-2003, during which time they won an astounding 151 games in a row.  But the story is also about what happened after that, when the streak ended and the crushing pressure led a young man to commit suicide, leaving a community to grapple with the tragedy and how to move on.  Despite the iffy sports melodrama material that's been done to death, the story sounds interesting.  Sony is releasing the film through its AFFIRM Films arm, which although the trailer has little emphasis on anything specifically religious, is a little concerning, considering we have them to thank for cheesy sermons like FIREPROOF and SOUL SURFER.  I think less discriminating audiences will appreciate this "inspirational" sports drama regardless, and it'll probably be decent at least.

August 27th
THE NOVEMBER MAN  (ACTION-THRILLER) 
Directed by Roger Donaldson; Starring Pierce Brosnan, Olga Kurylenko, Luke Bracey, Bill Smitrovich, Will Patton, Lazar Ristovski, Eliza Taylor, Caterina Scorsone
Not Yet Rated 
Pierce Brosnan joins the collection of older male actors who play ex-CIA operatives with specific skill sets in this book adaptation about a retired spy called back into action on a personal mission that pits him against his former protege and friend.  I really don't know what to think about this, mainly because Relativity Media hasn't marketed it very strongly up to this point, but it looks like it could be cool, albeit slight.

August 29th
JESSABELLE  (HORROR-THRILLER) 
Directed by Kevein Greutert; Starring Sarah Snook, Mark Webber, Joelle Carter, David Andrews, Amber Stevens, Ana de la Reguera, Laris Oleynik, Chris Ellis
Rated PG-13 for sequences of horror violence and terror. 
A young woman returns to her childhood home in a run down bayou mansion in Louisiana while recovering from a car accident that killed her boyfriend and left her in a wheelchair.  She finds a gift from her long-dead mother in the form of a VHS tape that informs her of other gifts with supernatural consequences, while a malevolent spirit may be intent on entrapping her.  There's plenty of spooky bayou scenery and voodoo in the previews, which is a fun and underutilized ground for spooky stories in film, so I hope this turns out to be good.

Review: HERCULES (2014)

HERCULES  (ACTION-ADVENTURE) 
1.5 out of 4 stars
Directed by Brett Ratner
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Rufus Sewell, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Reece Ritchie, Joseph Fiennes, Tobias Santelmann, Rebecca Ferguson, Peter Mullan
Rated PG-13 for epic battle sequences, violence, suggestive comments, brief strong language and partial nudity.
86 minutes
Verdict: A few fleeting moments of fun and even the considerable charms of The Rock can do little to elevate this messy, idiotic and occasionally incompetent swords-and-sandals b-movie to something worth its mercifully short running time.
YOU MAY ENJOY HERCULES (2014) IF YOU LIKED:
THE SCORPION KING (2002)
300 (2006)
THE LEGEND OF HERCULES (2014)
TROY (2004)
X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (2006)

Nobody has a right to expect anything more than "dumb fun" from Brett Ratner's new big-budget action flick, HERCULES.  Ratner and his cast and crew themselves don't appear to have any illusions about aspiring beyond that, and yet, that's a harder target to hit than you might think.  But they do their darnedest, taking the Greek legend back to his classical look despite how that may differ from today's typical clean-shaven, dashing heroes; bearded with a lion skin hood and wielding a big-ass club, and then even throwing in a few CGI monsters, fleeting female nudity, vulgar banter and an f-bomb into the Ancient Greece setting for good measure.  So it's really a bummer that HERCULES misses the dumb fun mark by as much as it does.  It's rarely fun, and "dumb" isn't quite the right word for what this is.  HERCULES is stupid.
Former pro-wrestler and now the most charismatic he-man action movie star this side of the 1980s Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson follows in the footsteps of fellow muscle-heads Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno (but with notably more significant acting talent than either of them) as the most memorable of the legendary Greek heroes of myth, Hercules, the strongman said to a demigod, born of a human mother from the seed of Zeus, King of the Gods, and cursed as a bastard son by Zeus' wife, Hera.  They say he carried out the famous Twelve Labors, among them slaying the Hydra, the Erymanthian Boar and the Nemean Lion, and even in repeated passing reference, acquiring the Girdle of Hippolyta (cleaning the Augean stables is pretty much ignored, because nobody wants to see The Rock shoveling horse crap, I guess).  At least, that's what the legends say.  After the deaths of his wife and child, Hercules now fights as a mercenary for gold, alongside a squad of elite warriors willing to kill for the right price, and the King of Thrace, Cotys (John Hurt), has a proposition that will deliver each man their own weight in gold.  To earn their prize, Hercules and his warriors must train a Thracian army for Cotys, an army that fights like Hercules, to help defeat a warlord wreaking havoc on the countryside.
The screenplay is based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars by Steve Moore, adapted by Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos, the latter having substantial experience in writing straight-to-home-video sequels and spin-offs for Disney, which is not surprising at all.  The story is very slight (thankfully, the movie clocks in at a merciful 86 minutes, unlike TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION, which ran for eternity), with little in the way of plot and little in the way of character development, but with extra cheese like warriors who stick together because they're family and the "Scumbag Steve" of the group telling an oracle that he should share his "herbs".  Yeesh.  And then there's the repeated theme of the purpose and nature of the myths, as Hercules' nephew (Reece Ritchie) invents fantastic stories about his uncle's exploits, while everyone they encounter must vocally assess the truth of the stories.  It's an utterly useless attempt to give some layering to the story, because while the myth vs. reality themes are repeated regularly throughout the movie, it's merely repetition, with no commitment and no payoff.
There's plenty of action, but it appears that Ratner's ability to orchestrate battle scenes and other such large scale action has not improved since X-MEN: THE LAST STAND.  He sets up large pieces, like marching armies and big set-pieces, but he's entirely incapable of establishing a sense of scope or a sense of any other ongoing action while he focuses on one altercation after another, as if the battles are stopping so that people can fight two at a time.  All the set-up feels like pointless pre-show flash.  He certainly gets his worth for the PG-13 gore quotient though.  This is the kind of movie that reminds you just how far the PG-13 rating can be stretched, or perhaps introduces a new level to which it can be stretched, with plenty of gruesomely decaying severed heads on spikes, substantial blood splatter and bodily mutilation.  It may be stupid and cheesy, but it's not kid-friendly.
The Rock certainly devotes himself to the role, adequately beefed-up to play the such a role and playing it just straight enough, without taking the character too seriously.  Ian McShane, co-starring as a comrade-in-arms to Hercules and an oracle who can read but not necessarily interpret visions of the future, is one of the more fun characters in the mix, while the rest are mostly bland archetypes, like Ingrid Bolso Berdal as Atlanta, a Amazonian warrior woman who dresses like a sex doll but casually proves the misogynistic men around wrong again and again, or Rufus Sewell as Autolycus, the grumpy guy only in it for the gold but sure to come through at the end.
For some viewers, it's sure to be cheesy fun, and it thankfully it knows that it's supposed to be dumb fun and has at least some idea of what dumb fun is supposed to be (again, unlike the recent TRANSFORMERS movie), but too often it misses that target.  This is truly a b-movie, akin to the Saturday matinees of yesteryear, but a crushingly sub-standard one at that..

2014: Halftime Report- The Best So Far

2014 has not been a great year for the box office, not by a long shot.  It has the unfortunate distinction of being the year that comes before 2015, the supposed 'biggest year for movies' in recent memory.  But while financially the film industry has been lacking this year, it hasn't been uniquely lacking for quality.  In fact, while there haven't been a lot of full-blown "wow" moments (not to negate the few there have been), there has been a steady stream of films that range from decent to great, many of them coming from unexpected places.
Note: This list is of films only from January 1, 2014-June 30, 2014, the first half of the year, and does not include films that I have not seen as of this writing but might otherwise have been in consideration according to their reputations such as THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, UNDER THE SKIN, LOCKE, OBVIOUS CHILD, SNOWPIERCER, STRANGER BY THE LAKE, etc., art-house films.  They can be hard to get to during their theatrical runs.

THE BEST MOVIES OF 2014: Part 1 

THE LEGO MOVIE  (ANIMATED/FAMILY) 
Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Featuring the Voices of: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Liam Neeson, Charlie Day
Rated PG for mild action and rude humor.
There were signs that we were in for a treat with THE LEGO MOVIE.  Although at first glance, the idea of a movie based on LEGO construction toys is a bad, bad idea, the directing team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller had twice taken abysmal concepts and defied expectations by turning in excellent movies with CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, based on a thinly-plotted picture book, and 21 JUMP STREET, based on a ludicrous 1980s television series.  So who was to say that they couldn't do it again?  But, good hell, nobody had reason to expect a masterwork.  A multi-layered, hilarious, exciting and intelligent visual spectacle, it's not just a movie that finds a way to work in the concept of being based on LEGOs, but it's legitimately a movie with the right to call itself "THE LEGO MOVIE" and much more.  Few family films have this level of reward for repeated viewings.
THE LEGO MOVIE is currently available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download

NOAH  (FANTASY/ADVENTURE) 
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Anthony Hopkins, Douglas Booth
Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and brief suggestive content.
Controversy is typically expected to some degree for major movies based on religious texts, but a lot of the lashing out came from the target American demographic of NOAH; Christians, especially the orthodox, in addition to right-wing radicals and Young Earth Creationists.  It's not necessarily the film that the average American Christian would have in mind, but unlike religious films like HEAVEN IS FOR REAL and GOD IS NOT DEAD, which were other big box office hits, NOAH has the ability to reach the otherwise "less devout".  As a piece of filmmaking, it's definitely very bold, dark and unique in its vision, and to those who are open to the spirit of the story, rather than the literal interpretation, the theological value in this agnostic director's film is immense.  It tells the traditional story of Noah and the Great Flood, incorporating details not only from the Bible, but also Apocryphal texts, the Quran and Jewish midrash, along with original concepts in an epic that works not only as the story of Noah, but as a story of The Creation.  The performances range from good to amazing, the visuals are astounding, the emotions are resonant and the action is brutal.  It's a taste that might take a little time to acquire, but it's another movie that rewards repeated viewing.
NOAH is now available on digital download and will become available on Blu-ray and DVD on July 29

EDGE OF TOMORROW  (ACTION/SCI-FI) 
Directed by Doug Liman
Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Noah Taylor
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and brief suggestive material.
Previously much-more awesomely titled ALL YOU NEED IS KILL, after its Japanese young adult source novel, I wasn't expecting much from EDGE OF TOMORROW.  I suppose I was making a connection to last year's Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi OBLIVION, which was bland and boring, but this was leagues above that.  Tom Cruise plays one of the more interesting characters he's played in a long time as Major William Cage, a weaselly coward of a U.S. Army officer who's gone well out of his way to avoid the war zone in Europe where the world's military forces are waging a losing battle with an invading alien race.  After being shanghaied onto the frontlines, Cage is killed by a splatter of alien blood, but he immediately wakes up, caught in a time-loop GROUNDHOG DAY-style, reliving the same day's combat and figuring out how to use this to his advantage with the help of Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a war hero who's lived through the same phenomenon.  It's like a brilliantly fun blend of James Cameron's ALIENS with GROUNDHOG DAY and has some of the most awe-inspiring action of the summer.
EDGE OF TOMORROW is currently playing in theaters everywhere

Honorable Mention: 

HER  (ROMANCE/COMEDY-DRAMA)
Directed by Spike Jonze
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson (voice role), Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde, Rooney Mara, Chris Pratt
Rated R for language, sexual content and brief graphic nudity. 
Technically, HER is a 2013 film, having been released in major cities in December 2013 in order to qualify for the 86th Academy Awards (where it won a very well-deserved Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay), but the rest of us didn't get to see it until January 10, 2014.  A warm, funny (occasionally hilarious), imaginative and extremely touching science fiction love story, HER is the story of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a good-natured recent divorcee who unexpectedly falls in love with his state-of-the-art computer system's personality (voiced by Scarlett Johansson in an astounding vocal performance) in the near future.  Thoroughly original while at the same time familiar, Spike Jonze's ode to human love uses its unique premise to explore love and relationships in their many forms, with respect, insight and dignity, and you won't be able to wipe the stupidly genuine smile from your face for its entire running time.  I know I couldn't.

HER is currently available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download

Review: DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES  (SCI-FI/ACTION-THRILLER) 
4 out of 4 stars
Directed by Matt Reeves
Starring: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Toby Kebbell, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Gary Oldman, Nick Thurston, Judy Greer, Karin Konoval, Kirk Acevedo
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief strong language.
Verdict: A sturdy piece of blockbuster spectacle rooted in stellar characters, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES is a piece of meaty science fiction drama with emotional understanding and lush visuals, even if it may be something you weren't expecting.
YOU MAY ENJOY DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES IF YOU LIKED:
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES  (2011)
CLOVERFIELD  (2008)
LET ME IN  (2010)
DISTRICT 9  (2009)
PLANET OF THE APES  (1968)

I wasn't looking forward to RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES back in 2011.  It was an August release (usually the "dumping ground" of the summer movie season), the visual effects looked distractingly unfinished in the advertisements, and the 2001 remake wasn't good.  The 1968 film PLANET OF THE APES is a science fiction classic, full of interesting ideas and nightmare visions of a topsy-turvy world.  Against the odds, RISE OF THE... turned out to be a worthy reboot of the series, something related to the original series in concept, but with its own interesting ideas, new and exciting characters and plenty of room to grow.  Now we get to that growth.
Even if you missed RISE OF THE..., you shouldn't have trouble keeping up with DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, which builds handsomely upon its predecessor but establishes the basics from the get-go with an opening sequence recounting the spread of the ALZ-113 "Simian Virus" that decimated the human race after Caesar, a chimpanzee, led an exodus of apes exposed to an intelligence-enhancing virus created in a laboratory from San Francisco.  Ten years have passed since the ape rebellion, and now the apes are thriving in a forest city within the Redwoods National Park, where Caesar (Andy Serkis) governs as a benevolent and thoughtful chief, with his close counselors Koba (Toby Kebbell), a bonobo chimpanzee disfigured by years of lab experimentation, and Maurice (Karin Konoval), an former circus orangutan who acts as tribe educator.  No humans have been seen for two years, but when a small group of humans accidentally stumbles into the ape territory looking for an old dam to power their small community of genetically immune survivors of the virus, the encounter threatens to erupt into an all-out war as each community harbors intense resentments and certain parties have conflicting ideas on how to address the situation. 

While the marketing has emphasized the action element of the film, and the film sports great action, it is more a character drama than anything else.  What makes DAWN OF THE... work is how well the film understands its characters, never resorting to the cheap shortcuts of villains with simple prejudice or ambition for the sake of ambition.  Its heroes are flawed and deeply layered; everyone has noble and appreciable intentions, but even when sharing common motivations, each character acts through their own frame of understanding.  When a character goes wrong, you always can understand why they do what they do, even while understanding that they're wrong.  Ironically, you're reluctant to these characters eventually come to blows.
Because the characters are so strongly formed, the action works; there's a clear sense of toll to the battles.  Even the extras are not merely cannon fodder, and when they go down, you feel it in the light of the major characters' interests.  The stakes are high and the action is in service of the characters.
One of the weak points of RISE OF THE... were the CGI visual effects, mostly due to time constraints, but the powerful motion-capture performances overcame any weaknesses in the renderings.  In DAWN OF THE.., this shortcoming has been remedied, even with many more visual effects shots, and while they're not all altogether "flawless", they are a vast improvement and often downright stunning.  Yet again, however, the true power of the visual effects are in the motion-capture performances, in particular Andy Serkis as Caesar, who continues his reign as the king of motion capture acting, a technique he revolutionized as Gollum/Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.  While petitions continue to demand Academy Award recognition of Serkis' work, the lack of clarity on how much of an actor's performance translates to the CGI rendering (it seems to vary, but in Serkis' case it's probably most of it) means a nomination in a competitive acting category is unlikely, but one day, he will inevitably be honored with a Special Achievement award, and his performance as Caesar is one of the reasons why he deserves it.
Matt Reeves, director of CLOVERFIELD and LET ME IN, replacing RISE OF THE... director Rupert Wyatt, is an ideal fit for this series, adept at creating tension, visual spectacle, terror and emotional depth, so lucky for us, 20th Century Fox has already tapped him for another Apes film, scheduled for release in 2016.