Seth Rogen, Patriots and The Angry AMERICAN SNIPER Reactionaries

A tweet for your consideration:

"American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that's showing in the third act of Inglourious Basterds." 

Actor/writer/director/producer/comedian Seth Rogen.

Actor/writer/director/producer/comedian Seth Rogen tweeted on Sunday, January 18 at 12:05 PM.  INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, of course, is Quentin Tarantino's pulpy, violent, Nazi-killing masterpiece from 2009.  In the Tarantino film, two different assassination plots against the top officials of the Nazi Third Reich, including Adolf Hitler and Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, revolve around the glitzy Paris premiere of a film called Stolz der Nation, or in English, Nation's Pride.  Nation's Pride, a fictional film within the film that is INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, is about the "heroic" exploits of Private First Class Frederick Zoller (played by Daniel Bruhl), a German sniper who becomes a celebrated war hero for killing 200 Allied soldiers while holed up in a church tower.  While the eponymous "Basterds" prepare to blow the Nazi premiere sky-high, and the secretly Jewish theater owner prepares to set the extremely combustible silver nitrate film stock aflame, the audience watches with delight and reverence as Private Zoller takes out man after man in the name of his country.
Following intense backlash from the far right and associated media (don't tell them, but there's actually a very substantial and influential conservative media empire), Rogen backtracked or perhaps more accurately, clarified his meaning with the following tweets:

"I just said something "kinda reminded" me of something else.  I actually liked American Sniper.  It just reminded me of the Tarantino scene."

 "I wasn't comparing the two.  Big difference between comparing or reminding.  Apples remind me of oranges.  Can't compare them, though."

"But if you were having a slow news day, you're welcome for me giving you the opportunity to blow something completely out of proportion."

 The "apples remind me of oranges" sentiment is kind of funny, but what was really interesting was his original statement more or less comparing AMERICAN SNIPER and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, coupled with the reaction.  It was a surprisingly concise and fairly insightful review of the Clint Eastwood-directed biopic, whether Rogen intended it to be or not.
What is it that audiences have responded so strongly to in AMERICAN SNIPER?  It's not particularly well-made, and some notable film critics have gone so far to declare it one of the worst movies of 2014.  In terms of artistic merit, it might not quite deserve such a decisive label, but for a film that presents itself as a 'prestige picture', it is more than a little ridiculous.  It's a movie that is severely hampered by a combination of cheesy and very poorly structured screenwriting, indifferent direction and aimless editing.  It's quality has not made a dent in its box office success though, as the film shattered January box office records by grossing $107 million over the four-day Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend (compared to the vastly superior SELMA, a movie actually about Martin Luther King, Jr., which, to date, has only managed a modest $40 million).  That's not just big for January.  That would be big in the summer blockbuster season, and bigger than any opening weekend for any movie released in summer 2014 (not accounting for three-day and four-day weekend differences).  It could be attributed to advertising, considering that its distributor, Warner Brothers, did a hell of a job selling their product, producing trailers that emphasize a sense of ambiguity and high-stakes intensity in the career of a U.S. military sniper in the Iraq War.  But audience surveys by CinemaScore, which surveys opening day audiences in five randomly-chosen major cities across North America to determine audience demographics in regards to age and gender and how much and why they liked or disliked the film, rated the film an exceptional A+ (on an A+ to F letter grade system; a rating matched by SELMA).  If nothing else, a positive CinemaScore indicates that the audiences most drawn in by the marketing campaign felt that they received a product as good or better than they expected.  So audiences did not feel misled by the previews that were superior to the film itself.
For most mainstream audiences, it's most likely that they admire its hero.  In any case, AMERICAN SNIPER doesn't show anything particularly heroic about its real-life subject, the late Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle, at least, nothing that patriotic Germans in the 1940s wouldn't have found just as heroic in a movie like Nation's Pride.  The primary interest that AMERICAN SNIPER holds in Kyle's life is the killing, 160 human beings, or as Kyle may have preferred, 160 "savages".  That's not to disparage Kyle, who, in the film, in interviews and in his memoir, openly and unabashedly referred to the particular persons he killed as "savages".  He actually described his first kill, a woman bearing a grenade, as being "already dead", while he made sure that she didn't take any Marines with her.  It's dehumanizing, but it's also how a Navy SEAL like Kyle would be trained to see his targets, which is a question of morality in itself.

THE RESPONSE:

"Hollywood leftists: while caressing shiny plastic trophies you exchange among one another while spitting on the graves of freedom fighters who allow you to do what you do, just realize the rest of America knows you're not fit to shine Chris Kyle's combat boots."

The words of former Alaskan governor-turned political pundit and Tea Party idol Sarah Palin, part of a statement on Facebook, posted the day after Rogen's initial tweet regarding AMERICAN SNIPER.  Palin knew Kyle personally, and he performed security detail for her on occasion.  [The Academy Award for Merit is comprised of gold-plated britannia metal, by the way.]

"Seth...I like your films, but right now, I wanna kick your ass. Chris is an American Hero. Period. Go to war. Then we'll talk."

B-list actor Dean Cain, best known for Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997), who tweeted in response to Rogen.  Cain was teamed up with Kyle for the short-lived NBC reality TV series, Stars Earn Stripes, in which celebrities paired with active of former members of the military would compete in challenges based on actual military training exercises.  He has not, however, been a member of any of branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

"You are fortunate to enjoy the privilege and freedom of working in and living in the United States, and saying whatever you want (regardless of how ignorant the statement) thanks to people like Chris Kyle who serve in the United States military. Your statement is inaccurate and insensitive to Chris and his family.
I'm sick and tired of people like you running your mouth when you have no idea what it takes for this country to maintain our freedoms. If you and anyone like you don't like it, leave."

Part of a Facebook post by country music singer and Army veteran Craig Morgan, addressed directly to Rogen.

"Seth Rogen, your uncle probably molested you. I hope both of you catch a fist to the face soon."

Part of a statement from singer-songwriter Kid Rock, "both" referring to documentarian Michael Moore as well, who tweeted a disparaging comment about snipers, but Moore is not pertinent to what I want to say.

"And what's super weird is that @KidRock IS my uncle."

Seth Rogen's comeback to Kid Rock.

Multiple news and media outlets picked up on Rogen's initial tweet and then ran like hell with it, as Fox News accused Seth Rogen, identified as an "actor & liberal filmmaker," of "likening the film [AMERICAN SNIPER] to Nazi propaganda," and USA Today described Rogen as, "essentially comparing Eastwood's film to Nazi propaganda."  My personal favorite was the fiercely hard-line conservative news site Breitbart, which went with the headline: "Seth Rogen: American Sniper is Equal to Nazi Propaganda," and then went on to call AMERICAN SNIPER a "patriotic masterpiece" and Rogen "grossly overweight."  Yeesh.
CHRIS KYLE, THE MAN AND HIS MYTH
I don't know too much about Kyle personally.  The movie encouraged me to read up on him and watch a lot of interviews, mainly because Kyle, while well portrayed by Bradley Cooper, was such a dull and unpleasant movie character.  As a movie character, strictly speaking, Kyle is not believable; he's a boy scout without a conscience and an approximately 160-person body count.  In interviews he gave prior to his death in 2013, publicizing his books; American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, co-written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFlice and adapted for AMERICAN SNIPER, and American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms, co-written with William Doyle; Kyle is friendly and confident but soft-spoken, with a quiet sort of charisma.  He spoke in a soft Texan accent, regularly addressing the interviewer, whether it be Conan O'Brien, Bill O'Reilly or Belinda Luscombe, as either "sir" or "ma'am".  There's very little to dislike in Kyle as he presented himself to the press, excepting the reinforcement of his less savory writing, such as defending the use of wording like "savages".  But between television and radio appearances, interviews with magazines and other personal statements made by Kyle, a split portrait appears of two very different men, and neither to stake a stronger claim on the truth.
In 2012, Kyle commented on an incident described in American Sniper involving an individual he referred to as "Scruff Face".  In interviews with the Opie and Anthony Show and Bill O'Reilly, Kyle confirmed that the real life individual he was referring to was Jesse Ventura, a Petty Officer Third Class in the U.S. Navy's Underwater Demolition Team (precursor to the modern-day Navy SEALs) in the 1970s, as well as a former professional wrestler and former governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003.  Kyle claimed that Ventura, then an outspoken critic of the George W. Bush administration, was at McP's Irish Pub & Grill in Coronado, California in 2006 around the same time as a wake for Michael Monsoor, a SEAL who had thrown himself on his own grenade, and that Ventura was "bad-mouthing the war, bad-mouthing Bush, bad-mouthing America."  Kyle said he then told Ventura to keep his opinions to himself, to which Ventura retorted that the SEALs "deserved to lose a few guys."  According to Kyle, he then punched Ventura to the floor and bolted.
Trouble is, it was a story that Kyle simply couldn't back up, and when he sued for defamation, Ventura was awarded $1.8 million ($500,000 in defamation damages from American Sniper-publisher HarperCollins' libel insurance, which also paid for the Kyle estate's legal fees, and $1,345,477.25 in unjust enrichment from Kyle's estate) by the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota last summer.  Kyle's estate was denied an appeal by the District Court and has filed intent to appeal with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, while Ventura filed suit against HarperCollins itself last December.
Then there was the story he told to D Magazine, in which he claimed to kill two men who tried to carjack him at a gas station in Cleburne, Texas in January 2010.  Kyle said that he waited for the police to arrive, who ran his driver's license, which brought up a phone number for the Department of Defense.  When the police called the number and reviewed the surveillance footage, Kyle was free to go.
But when journalist Michael J. Mooney, who wrote the adoring biography The Life and Legend of Chris Kyle: American Sniper, Navy Seal, tried to follow up the story, he concluded that "there's no evidence whatsoever."  The Fort Worth Star-Telegram checked with the medical examiner's office, which "reported no such deaths in Cleburne in January 2010".
In the June 2013 The New Yorker, a story was reported in which Kyle claimed to have gone to New Orleans with a fellow Navy SEAL during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and while perched atop the Superdome, shot down thirty looters.  When The New Yorker tried to confirm the story with U.S. Special Forces Operations Command (SOCOM), they were told "there were no West Coast SEALS deployed to Katrina."  One of Kyle's own officers responded to the story, saying "it defies the imagination."
As far as the evidence seems to show, Kyle was not unknown to build on his own myth.  His soft-spoken persona in interviews suggests a humble, good-natured man, but his stories and the evidence or lack thereof in his stories betrays a the ego of a man who saw himself as the hero of old cowboy movies.  Maybe that's how someone in his situation has to see themselves, or maybe there are still pieces of the puzzle unaccounted for.

Navy SEAL, Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle

THE MANY FAILURES OF AMERICAN SNIPER
Regardless of who Chris Kyle was in real life, why do people see the man portrayed by Bradley Cooper, written by Jason Hall and directed by Clint Eastwood, in the movie AMERICAN SNIPER as a hero?  If Chris Kyle is a "true American hero," does the movie do a proper job depicting him as a hero?  The answer is a resounding 'no.'  As a movie, it's morally problematic on many levels.  It's essentially the early westerns brought back, when the indigenous people they called "injuns" or "redskins" rode on their horses, whooping and hollering until the Aryan man, sometimes a cavalry soldier, sometimes a simple settler, shot them from their mount with little regard.  Only now, the natives are Iraqis, or as Kyle, in the movie and in real life, called them: "savages."  It's one thing to take life for the sake of protecting others, but to have a protagonist doing so without a second thought or respect for the implications of that action is immoral and irresponsible.  Life seems to have little value for AMERICAN SNIPER's Kyle, except for the live of those Marines that he "couldn't save," but when a friend is killed in combat, not long after expressing doubts about the war, Kyle solemnly blames it on his having lost faith.  AMERICAN SNIPER doesn't give a hoot in hell about the complexity and nuances of war, and it cares even less about anyone who does care.  In this, and other ways, it is a very lazy piece of filmmaking.  In the end, Hall's script and Eastwood's direction do the same disservice to the character of Kyle, using his death as a cheaply emotional bow on top of the whole, without any interest in the implications or effects of his death.  It's hollow but dreadfully heavy-handed.
Kyle was shot and killed while trying to help Eddie Ray Routh, a troubled veteran, by taking him out to a shooting range at the Rough Creek Ranch-Lodge-Resort in Erath County Texas.  Routh was arrested and charged with murder, awaiting trial this February.  AMERICAN SNIPER does not show his death, and while it wants to have the emotional beat, it refuses to actually deal with it.  The final scene is one of multiple unintentionally comical moments, dwelling so heavily on Kyle leaving with Routh in his truck, while his wife Taya (played by Sienna Miller) attempts a world record for the longest time to shut a door, as if everyone knows that Kyle is heading for his death, like a lamb to the slaughter.  It's an unfortunately missed opportunity, a rich vein of dramatic irony that Chris Kyle, a man who truly lived by the sword (a warrior by trade, and an undeniable gun fetish), died by the sword.  Even after his death, Taya Kyle spoke at the 2013 NRA show to continue advocating for gun ownership.  One of the most important questions of Kyle's legacy is, what is the importance and place of firearms in our society?  What does it mean that a man who was a huge proponent of firearms, died by one?  Or that his wife stood by the principles of gun ownership even after his death?
In Taya Kyle's NRA speech, she related Chris' desire to be remembered as "a guy who stood up for what he believed in and helped make a difference for veterans, someone who cared so much about them that he wanted them to be taken care of."  That is something heroic.  You'd think that would be the primary character arc of Kyle in AMERICAN SNIPER, learning to readjust to civilian life after the war and his work to help veterans.  Instead, Kyle's work helping veterans is treated like a grace note to all the 'heroic' carnage of the Iraq War, depicted with one or two short scenes of him mingling with disabled veterans.  Finally home for good, Kyle helps veterans, has shower sex, plays with his kids and then leaves to his death, all in the course of ten or fifteen minutes.
If skillfully killing in the name of your country is enough to make a man a hero, then AMERICAN SNIPER and Nation's Pride are all too comparable.  Ask yourself, why stand up and cheer at 130 minutes of xenophobia-charged killing, nationalism and cheap emotional beats?  Eastwood calls AMERICAN SNIPER "the biggest anti-war statement," depicting what war does to families and soldiers struggling to re-assimilate into ordinary society.  His acclaimed 2006 film LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA proves Eastwood's interest in anti-war sentiments, but if he's being honest about his intentions in AMERICAN SNIPER, then his direction of the film is an even greater failure than it appears.  Eastwood's a high-profile name and so has been a lightning rod of criticism for the film, but he's less culpable than some, such as Jason Hall, who took Kyle's autobiography and loosely adapted it with cringe-worthy dialogue and a dreadfully inept structure.  While most of the film takes place within war scenarios, there's rarely sufficient context to provide stakes or objectives to the scenes, while the film bumbles about aimlessly in a sea of self-important violence and jingoism.
What are we to make of AMERICAN SNIPER?  It's a poorly crafted movie, rendered important by a successful awards campaign and a massive box office success.  Whether or not it is intended to be, it has become propaganda, made so by the audiences who accept Kyle as a hero on the film's troubling terms.  It would not have been imprudent to title it Nation's Pride.

Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in AMERICAN SNIPER.

ONE MORE THING...
Since when does does a vested interest in one's country make them unpatriotic?  The suggestion of it is absurd, and yet that's a major sticking point for AMERICAN SNIPER's political champions (there are legitimate critics of film who champion it for apolitical reasons, which can be chalked up to varying tastes).  Chris Morgan says: "I'm sick and tired of people like you running your mouth when you have no idea what it takes for this country to maintain our freedoms. If you and anyone like you don't like it, leave."  Freedom is not defended by militaristic force alone.  Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were not warriors, and not everyone should be.  A free society requires a balance of varied ideas and opinions, and being "proud" to be an American, while neither good nor bad in itself, is not necessarily crucial to an individual's sense of patriotism.  National pride can be a dangerous thing if left unchecked (see: World War I), and national interest, and even more so, human interest are more conducive to a healthy society.  I'm not going to leave my country just because I thing AMERICAN SNIPER is a bad movie.

Monthly Movie Preview: February 2015

February is another slow month for movies, mostly comprised of low profile movies looking for a less competitive field, although it tends to be more eclectic than January, especially this year.  There's a big-budget space opera transfer from last summer's blockbuster season (JUPITER ASCENDING, Feb. 6), a high-profile erotic melodrama (FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, Feb. 13), a stylish spy action-thriller from a proven director (KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE, Feb. 13), a hard-R comedy (HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2), a couple of very different family films (THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER, Feb. 6, and MCFARLAND, USA, Feb. 20), a couple of wild cards (THE DUFF, Feb. 27, and FOCUS, Feb. 27) and one guaranteed super-bomb (SEVENTH SON, Feb. 6).  Nothing stands out as a must-see, but there appears to be something for just about everyone.

February 6th
JUPITER ASCENDING  (SCI-FI/ACTION-ADVENTURE)

Directed by The Wachowskis; Starring: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton
Rated PG-13 for some violence, sequences of sci-fi action, some suggestive content and partial nudity.
This one is a tough sell, but maybe the crowds will turn out for Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis.  Originally scheduled for a July 25, 2014 release, Warner Bros. pushed it back almost half a year, citing the visual effects as requiring further time, although it's no secret that an original sci-fi "space opera" is an even tougher sell in the heat of the busy summer blockbuster season.  Written, directed and produced by the Wachowskis, siblings Andy and Lana, by far best known for 1999 sci-fi landmark THE MATRIX and its sequels, JUPITER ASCENDING hopes to follow in the footsteps of the definitive space opera, STAR WARS.  The film is centered around Jupiter Jones (Kunis), an unassuming young housemaid, who happens to be the heir to an ancient alien race, but she has rivals, including the warlord Balem (Eddie Redmayne).  Balem sends Caine (Channing Tatum), a genetically-engineered warrior, to dispatch of her, but he chooses to defend her instead as an intergalactic war mounts.  It's potentially an awful lot of information to take in, and the tone looks a little overly serious, but if nothing else, JUPITER ASCENDING looks interesting.

February 6th
SEVENTH SON  (FANTASY/ACTION-ADVENTURE)

Directed by Sergei Bodrov; Starring: Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Olivia Williams, Antje Traue, Djimon Hounsou
Rated PG-13 for intense fantasy action and violence throughout, frightening images and brief strong language.
SEVENTH SON has been bouncing around for a while, prolonging its inevitable crash and burn, which its distributors are striving to make as low-profile as possible, especially since it's owned by Universal, which was forced to do the same with the hugely expensive bomb 47 RONIN in 2013.  It's not merely a lack of faith in the movie however, but also the result of a split between Legendary Pictures (which produced the film) and the original distributor, Warner Brothers, when it was intended to be released a year ago on January 17, 2014.  By that time, the date had already been changed twice before, from February 15, 2013 to October 18, 2013, then to January 17, 2014.
Based on the young adult fantasy novel The Spook's Apprentice (published in the U.S. as The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch), it's a typical swords & sorcery adventure about a young man, the seventh son of a seventh son, who becomes the apprentice of John Gregory, the Spook (Jeff Bridges), a crotchety old knight of an elite order.  Then they fight witches and monsters.
It's grossed $60 million overseas, where it was released in December.  That's actually pretty good, but while there aren't any credible sources on the production cost, it's almost definitely in the range of $100-$150 million, and it doesn't appear to have any traction in the United States.  Plus, it looks really dumb.

February 6th
THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER  (FAMILY/ANIMATED-COMEDY)
Directed by Paul Tibbit & Mike Mitchell; Featuring the Voices of: Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence, Mr. Lawrence
Not Yet Rated
I really like Spongebob's first big screen outing, 2004's THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE.  That was over a decade ago when Stephen Hillenburg's Nickelodeon animated series was at the height of its popularity, as well as the peak of its brilliance.  I still enjoy the movie and those older episodes, but I can't help but feel a sense of disappointment at the cynical decision to convert the hand-drawn characters to computer-animated monstrosities.  Spongebob and other denizens of Bikini Bottom are threatened by the dastardly pirate Burger-Beard (played in live-action by Antonio Banderas), so they become superheroes and go to the surface to fight Burger-Beard and his crew of super villain pirates.  Hillenburg gets a story credit, but Paul Tibbit, showrunner since Hillenburg resigned in 2004 (just before the show really took a downturn in quality), has taken on the roles of director, producer and co-writer.  Co-writing the script with Tibbit is the team of Glenn Berger and Jonathan Aibel, who wrote the excellent KUNG FU PANDA, as well as the dreadful ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL and ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED.

February 13th
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY  (EROTIC DRAMA/ROMANCE)
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson; Starring: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Eloise Mumford, Luke Grimes, Rita Ora, Victor Rasuk, Max Martini, Dylan Neal
Rated R for strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity, and for language.
What started as an internet-published fan fiction serial based on Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series attributed to "Snowqueen's Icedragon", and went on to be re-written as an original erotic novel that was a lurid sensation among middle-aged women (earning the label "mommy porn" in the press), is now a $40 million, R-rated, Hollywood porno aimed at women.  Not that there's a problem with that, it's just weird in so many ways.  Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, whose only other feature film to date is the independently-produced teen John Lennon biopic NOWHERE BOY, Anastasia "Ana" Steele (Dakota Johnson), a mild-mannered young woman who meets a wealthy, ultra-douchebag, Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) who is super into sadistic sex, and helps Ana realize that she is super into masochistic sex.  The character names alone are so hilariously on-the-nose, and the setup is super contrived, it might not be so bad if approached in the appropriate, tongue-in-cheek way.  There's simply no getting around the fact that the appeal of the books is in sexual arousal, which is the very definition of porn, but nobody wants to spend $40 million making an NC-17-rateed movie that most theaters and stores won't carry anyway, so it's R-rated porn.  What a crazy world we live in. 

February 13th
KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE  (ACTION-COMEDY)

Directed by Matthew Vaughn; Starring: Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson, Sofia Boutella, Jack Davenport, Sophie Cookson, Mark Strong
Rated R for sequences of strong violence, language and some sexual content.
It may be an unpopular opinion, but KICK-ASS was barely okay, and of all of Matthew Vaughn's films which I've otherwise liked a great deal, KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE is clearly meant to emulate KICK-ASS.  It'll probably be a ton of fun, but I'm still a bit cautious.  Based on the comic book series The Secret Service by Mark Millar, who also wrote the source material for KICK-ASS, KINGSMAN is a tongue-in-cheek spy thriller in which a veteran badass (played by Colin Firth) takes an uncouth youth under his wing to teach him the trade, just as a new and formidable villain (played by a lispy Samuel L. Jackson) emerges with a plot with worldwide implications.  Expect stylish and over-the-top violence, cool catchphrases and wry comedy.

February 20th
THE DUFF  (COMEDY)

Directed by Ari Sandel; Starring: Mae Whitman, Robbie Arnell, Bella Thorne, Bianca A. Santos, Allison Janney, Ken Jeong, Skyler Samuels, Chris Wylde
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual material throughout, some language and teen partying.
According to this teen comedy, the DUFF stands for "Designated Ugly Fat Friend", which is just ridiculous, because anyone whose ever been to high school knows that a DUFF is a "Dumb Ugly Fat Friend", but you'll just have to get past that for this movie.  Mae Whitman (Parenthood, SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER) stars as Bianca Piper, an unsuspecting high school student who discovers that she is the DUFF in her social circle and resolves to reinvent herself or overthrow the whole school social hierarchy.  The high school labels and social upheaval angle has been done many times before and regularly comes off as trite, while Whitman is starting to get a bit old for high school roles, but her inherent likability could be THE DUFF's saving grace.  If all else fails, it at least seems to have its heart in the right place.

February 20th
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2  (COMEDY)

Directed by Steve Pink
Starring: Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Clark Duke, Adam Scott, Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Christine Bently, Kellee Stewart, Jessica Pare
Rated R for crude sexual content and language throughout, graphic nudity, drug use and some violence.
I still haven't actually seen the first HOT TUB TIME MACHINE, but the previews for this sequel make me more interested than I was before.  It's an unlikely sequel; the original wasn't exactly a box office disappointment, but it certainly wasn't anything remarkable or of the sort that typically precedes a sequel (it did better sales on home formats).  But because it's a sequel that Hollywood doesn't actually care that much about, and has largely come about thanks to the efforts of the less financially-invested talents, the result is wildly unpredictable with great potential.  Initially titled Hot Tub Time Machine 3: Because Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Hasn't Happened Yet (according to Rob Corddry, the marketing department forced the change), HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2 returns to Nick, Lou and Jacob, three of the four buffoons who traveled back in time to the 1980s in the first film, now immensely wealthy after exploiting their time traveling knowledge to invent the internet and write successful pop songs.  When Lou is shot by an assailant from the future, they travel ten years ahead to stop the attacker meet their friend Adam's (John Cusack from the original, not returning for this film) grown-up son, played by Adam Scott.  It looks very funny, but very unhinged, for better or worse.

February 20th
MCFARLAND, USA  (SPORTS DRAMA)

Directed by Niki Caro; Starring: Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Morgan Saylor, Carlos Pratts, Martha Higareda
Rated PG for thematic material, some violence and language.
Recipe for a Disney sports drama:
1 true sports-related story with adversity to be overcome (preferably with a dash of eccentricity)
1 prolific and marketable star with adult appeal
A portion of 'PG'-appropriate social issues
A dash of humorous culture clash
Another Disney family sports drama, MCFARLAND, USA is the story of Jim White (Kevin Costner), a job-hopping coach who is hired as a P.E. coach at the high school in a predominantly Latino farming community and recognizes the running prowess of some of his students.  Forming a cross-country running team, Mr. White helps inspire his team and builds a new legacy for the community.  You can probably guess pretty well what you'll get with this.



February 27th
FOCUS  (CRIME-DRAMA/COMEDY)
Directed by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa; Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro, Gerald McRaney, BD Wong, Robert Taylor, Dominic Fumusa
Rated R for language, some sexual content and brief violence.
Will Smith stars as a seasoned conman finds himself going up against an old flame, played by THE WOLF OF WALL STREET's Margot Robbie, as they both try to scam a dangerous billionaire in Buenos Aires.  It's written and directed by the team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who previously directed CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE, which I like quite a bit, and has a good pair of leads, but something about this feels all over the place and not particularly interesting.  Watch for the reviews on this one.

February 27th
THE LAZARUS EFFECT  (HORROR/THRILLER)

Directed by David Gelb; Starring: Olivia Wilde, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger, Mark Duplass, Donald Glover
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of horror violence, terror and some sexual references.
The narrative feature film directorial debut of David Gelb (JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI), this horror film involves a team of scientists working on a serum to bring the dead back to life, when one of the lead researchers dies in a lab accident.  Having already had successful tests on animals, they bring their co-worker back to life with the Lazarus serum, but when she's revived, she may have turned super evil and has telekinetic powers.  The trailers for this movie are unintentionally very funny, which is rarely a good sign.

Review: AMERICAN SNIPER

AMERICAN SNIPER  (WAR DRAMA/BIOPIC) 
1.5 out of 4 stars
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller
Rated R for strong and disturbing war violence, and language throughout including some sexual references.
132 minutes
Verdict: A disappointingly bland and awkward biopic more interested in worshiping its subject than telling his story, AMERICAN SNIPER features a fine central performance by Bradley Cooper, but it's not enough to elevate the film above its lackluster direction, haphazard editing and a corny script.
YOU MAY ENJOY AMERICAN SNIPER IF YOU LIKED:
LONE SURVIVOR  (2013)
ACT OF VALOR  (2012)
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT  (2000)
THE HURT LOCKER  (2009)
ZERO DARK THIRTY  (2012)

The teaser trailer released last October for Clint Eastwood's AMERICAN SNIPER, a two-minute scene taken directly from the film, of U.S. Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) deciding whether or not he has to take out a woman and child holding a grenade, possibly preparing to use it against a U.S. military convoy.  These two minutes on their own were searingly tense, thought-provoking and ambiguous, and it could have been a pretty good two-minute short film.  In comparison, the 132-minute film itself is incoherent, poorly written and awkward.  It's very disappointing.
Based on Chris Kyle's controversial best-selling memoir American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, co-written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice, the story follows Kyle from his childhood in Texas and a brief career as a rodeo cowboy, before he enlists to become a U.S. Navy SEAL upon seeing news coverage of the 1998 United States embassy bombings.  While on leave, he meets Taya Renae (Sienna Miller), the woman who becomes his wife shortly before Kyle is deployed to Iraq.  Over four tours of duty, Kyle accumulates an unprecedented 160 confirmed kills out of 255 reported as a sniper, earning him the nickname "Legend" from the Marines and general infantry who he protects by taking out Iraqi insurgents from a distance.  However, his devotion to the war puts a strain on his family, who rarely see him, and when they do, his interests are elsewhere.
In a truly odd plot device, a villain has been inserted, a Syrian-born sniper for the Iraqis called "Mustafa" (Sammy Shiek, whose IMDb profile is a list of typical villainous Hollywood Arabs), who seems to show up sniping U.S. soldiers at every other spot that Kyle is.  Mustafa is supposed to be the "big bad", but beyond a couple brief mentions that he was in the Olympics for Syria prior to the war, he's almost comically arcane as a character (using the word "character" loosely).  There's no meat to the non-American presence, no motivation beyond them being "evil" and "savages", no point.  It is simply the vaguest possible representation of opposition; they're evil so they do evil things.
Kyle, on the other hand, is frustratingly vanilla, a boy scout of a man who kills dozens of people, including women and children, but only regrets how many people he can't save, and everyone except the cardboard cutout bad guy insurgents worships the ground he walks on.  He's not a man, he's a myth, and what could have been a really interesting character piece is a bland advertisement for Navy recruitment lacking in credible perspective.  As Kyle, Bradley Cooper gives a committed performance that plays against type, and it's nice to see him branching out, but it's difficult to get on board with the actual character.  Watching the grandiose, heroic vision of war, it brought to mind the words of Jesus of Nazareth, "...all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword," words that unfortunately are all too appropriate in this case.

 Sometimes it's difficult to differentiate between certain shortcomings of a film that can be attributed to either the director, editor or writer, but it's safe to implicate all three in the case of AMERICAN SNIPER.  The screenplay, written by Jason Hall (whose other writing credits are SPREAD (2009) and PARANOIA (2013)), is clumsy and ham-fisted in its adoration of its subject, and the dialogue, perhaps not helped by some of the deliveries, is blunt and occasionally silly.  The editing, by Joel Cox (who's been Eastwood's regular editor since 1977's THE GAUNTLET) and Gary Roach, is fine in terms of individual scenes, but the picture as a whole lacks any clear through-line, mostly assembled out of assorted war scenarios and marital tension without any context to make it mean something.
Steven Spielberg was originally signed on to direct the movie before dropping out, reportedly due to budget concerns, and one thing that Clint Eastwood definitely is, for better or worse, is an economical filmmaker.  Eastwood can direct a good movie, in fact, he can direct great movies, and has, in particular his revisionist westerns like THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES and UNFORGIVEN.  Lately though, a lot of his filmmaking is lacking in passion or investment; he's become famous for his fast-and-loose shooting style, rarely doing more than a single take for a scene.  There's been some talk of a scene in AMERICAN SNIPER involving an infant that looks less than convincing, and while it doesn't look as bad as it's been cut out to be, it definitely looks weird and could have been fixed with multiple takes.  This is not an isolated case either.
The only totally competent aspects that keep AMERICAN SNIPER from being an actual disaster are Cooper's performance and the production, which makes the most of its $60 million budget, including some solid, if generic, battle action.  There's a fascinating story to be told from the life of Chris Kyle, but AMERICAN SNIPER refuses to tell it, and instead is too busy going through the motions as an excuse to worship its subject in a bland and bullish disappointment.

Review: PADDINGTON

PADDINGTON  (FAMILY/FANTASY-COMEDY)
3.5 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Paul King
Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Ben Winshaw (voice), Madeline Harris, Samuel Joslin, Julie Walters, Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Matt Lucas
Rated PG for mild action and rude humor.
95 minutes
Verdict: It's the same story that we've seen many times before in low-rent "family" films, but now done with witty British humor, endearing charm and playful imagination that combine to make for superb family entertainment.
YOU MAY ENJOY PADDINGTON IF YOU LIKED:
CURIOUS GEORGE  (2006)
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE  (2001)
STUART LITTLE  (1999)
MATILDA  (1996)
CHARLOTTE'S WEB  (2006)

There have been plenty of family movies about otherwise ordinary families and an accident-prone computer-animated character who wrecks their lives but ultimately becomes one of the family.  STUART LITTLE, GARFIELD, ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS, the list goes on, and they're all cut from the same cloth, ranging in quality from terrible to mediocre.  By all rights, PADDINGTON, adapted from the classic "Paddington Bear" children's book series written by Michael Bond, ought to have been the same, and frankly, it looked like it would be.  The day that the first publicity image featuring the CGI bear was released in June 2014, it became an internet meme called "Creepy Paddington", placing the bear in the background of classic horror movie scenes and other images.  In fact, PADDINGTON, for the most part, follows the well-worn formula of those other movies, but the crucial difference is that PADDINGTON is a very funny, imaginative and hopelessly endearing family film.
Years ago, in the deep jungles of darkest Peru, an English explorer discovers a family of intelligent bears who he teaches to speak English and introduces to orange marmalade and English manners.  When he leaves, he tells the bears, that they will always be welcome when they visit London.  Years later, in the present day, the bears are raising their nephew, Paddington (voiced by Ben Winshaw, after the original voice, Colin Firth dropped out, feeling his voice did not fit the realized character), making marmalade and listening to the explorer's old recorded social lessons.  When an earthquake destroys their jungle home, they tell Paddington to go travel to London, where he'll surely be taken in and given a home by a kind English family.  It turns out though that London has changed a good deal, and is not the friendly place that Paddington had expected, but he catches a break when he encounters the Brown family.  Mrs. Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins) is sweet-natured and eager to help, but her husband, Mr. Henry Paddington (Hugh Bonneville) is more apprehensive, especially when Paddington proves to be particularly accident-prone.  They take him in temporarily, while Paddington tries to find the explorer who promised his family a home in London years ago, but an spectacularly evil taxidermist (Nicole Kidman) hears about the remarkable bear and is desperate to get him for her collection.

The movie covers plenty of well-worn family movie territory, and I'm not going to pretend that the British accents don't significantly contribute to the sense of legitimacy that American voices might not, but what really matters is that the makers of PADDINGTON aren't lazy about it.  The familiarities have their own twists, and the humor is charming with a sharp, dry British wit.
It's a movie with a delightfully weird sensibility, in tone, content and visual style, managing the tricky balancing act of delivering storybook-styled charm and whimsy with over-the-top comic set-pieces; the best of the latter involving Nicole Kidman's excellent turn as the super villain taxidermist, Millicent, and the message about tolerance and immigration is smartly handled and never heavy-handed, treated in an insightful but playful manner.
It's all something we've seen before, the classic children's character updated for the modern world in a formulaic story with slapstick and easy morality, but it excels by virtue of imagination, humor and heart.

Review: SELMA

SELMA  (DRAMA/BIOPIC) 
4 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Ava DuVernay
Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Common, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Oprah Winfrey, Niecy Nash, Colman Domingo, Keith Stanfield
Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material including violence, a suggestive moment, and brief strong language.
128 minutes
Verdict: A riveting historical drama and a contemporary call to action, Ava DuVernay's biopic of Martin Luther King, Jr. is an unqualified success with a breathtaking powerhouse central performance by David Oyelowo.
YOU MAY ENJOY SELMA IF YOU LIKED:
MALCOLM X  (1992)
LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER  (2013)
LINCOLN  (2012)
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT  (1967)
JFK  (1991)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of the towering figures of the 20th century, a citizen and a pastor, who organized non-violent protests to help defeat the oppressive Jim Crow laws that continued to hold black people under the thumb of the American South's white establishment for a century after the end of the Civil War.  A non-politician, but nonetheless an American icon of tremendous proportions, Dr. King is a figure that represents change by peaceful but stalwart means even in the light of brutal adversity, and his "I Have a Dream" speech continues to stand for the goal that our nation has not yet achieved.  A controversial figure during his lifetime, Dr. King is one of only three persons for whom a federal holiday has been named (the others being George Washington and Christopher Columbus), and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, and memorialized by hundreds of city streets, monuments, buildings, etc.  Outside of the archival footage or dramatized "cameo", Dr. King as a person has largely been avoided by Hollywood, because if you're going to take on Dr. King's legacy in anything other than an after-school special, you've got to get it right.  Civil rights-themed movies have an additional burden to deal with the importance of their subject and not trivialize or whitewash, while also paying tribute to the legacy.
SELMA not only gets it right, but it knocks it out of the park with gravity, fervor and raw, riveting power.  It's both inspiring and infuriating, headlined by an astounding performance by David Oyelowo (LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER, JACK REACHER) as Dr. King.

David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in SELMA.

The story begins in the midst of Dr. King's civil rights work, in 1964, when he received the Nobel Peace Prize, already following some of the most significant landmarks of his life and the civil rights movement, like the March on Washington, 1963, when King gave his most famous speech, the "I Have a Dream" speech, and President Lyndon B. Johnson's singing into law of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or nation origin" in employment practices and public accommodations, ending segregation.  This is juxtaposed, however, with the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963, an act of terrorism by white supremacists that killed four girls aged 11-14, and until the 1970s, the only charge held against the perpetrators was for possessing the explosives without a permit.  It's a world where progress has been made, but there is still much more to be done.  It is King's priority to campaign for black voter registration, voting being a technical right, but one being obstructed by discriminatory practices by southern territories requiring poll taxes, literacy tests or similar methods of disenfranchising black persons.  Meanwhile, President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) is prioritizing the implementation of his "Great Society" with the War on Poverty, and is reluctant to expend the political capital on voters' rights (a plot point that has been controversial in the press accompanying this film).  So King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Dallas County Voters League, organize a march along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol of Montgomery, against the violent opposition of the brutish Sheriff Jim Clark (Stan Houston), Selma police officers and Alabama Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth).

Tim Roth as Alabama Governor George Wallace in SELMA.

Central to the film is David Oyelowo's performance, commanding the screen with power and pathos, portraying the man and the icon, with raw, crackling energy befitting one of the great orators of American history.  Conflicted over his priority to get the vote for black Southerners and putting this above the similarly noble cause of reducing poverty, and attempting to balance his duties as a husband and father with the responsibilities taken on as the leader of the SCLC, Oyelowo walks the line between a man and a historical titan, one with frailties, but also immense strength.  Having premiered in November, SELMA comes on the tail-end of awards contenders for 2014 and its unclear whether it can build the "awards buzz" in time, but in addition to an assortment of other categories, recognition for Oyelowo's performance is wholly and unequivocally deserved.  The rest of the central cast has no weak spots, with Carmen Ejogo as MLK's wife, Coretta Scott King (the second time Ejogo has played King, having previously in the 2001 TV movie BOYCOTT) and Tom Wilkinson, always a welcome presence, as LBJ, and surprisingly fitting to the role.  Four major characters in the film are played by British actors, Oyelowo, Ejogo, Wilkinson and Tim Roth, as Gov. George Wallace; Roth is an unexpected choice for Wallace, and may cause some hesitation when he first appears onscreen, his distinct British accent swapped for a Southern one, but he proves also surprisingly well-adapted to the role.  There's an assortment of recognizable faces in the cast of SELMA, but director Ava DuVernay disperses them judiciously and appropriately, so that no one sticks out, while also casting them according to their strengths.  This is a cast that includes Oprah Winfrey (also a producer on the film, along with Brad Pitt through his company, Plan B) in a role that feels nothing like "Oprah".
DuVernay, a black woman (a double-minority in the industry) is not a particularly familiar name, although she was awarded the Directing Award for U.S. Dramatic Film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 for her film THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, but hopefully SELMA will provide her more mainstream opportunities in the future.  Her direction contributes heavily to the film's strength, wrangling an unwieldy topic without mitigating its gravity, showing the best and worst of Americans in the intimate and grand.  She has crafted a film about our history with all the relevance of the present, full of emotion and complexity.
SELMA is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest Americans, one that shows a legacy that brought us so far, but remains crucial to our progression.  I wholly encourage people to see this riveting, powerful film, and then do something about it.

Review: THE IMITATION GAME

THE IMITATION GAME  (DRAMA/BIOPIC) 
3.5 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Morten Tydlum
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Allen Leech, Matthew Beard, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, James Northcote, Jack Bannon
Rated PG-13 for some sexual references, mature thematic material and historical smoking.
114 minutes
Verdict: A moving and romanticized tale of one of the 20th century's most influential figures in a little known piece of history, THE IMITATION GAME is a solidly-made biopic with an ideally-cast Benedict Cumberbatch as the eccentric genius Alan Turing.
YOU MAY ENJOY THE IMITATION GAME IF YOU LIKED:
A BEAUTIFUL MIND  (2001)
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING  (2014)
A SERIOUS MAN  (2009)
WAR HORSE  (2011)
ATONEMENT  (2007)

Alan Turing was easily one of the most influential minds of our time, but his name is largely unrecognizable to swaths of young people living in a world built on his work.  Considered to be the "father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence", Turing helped design one of the first electromechanical computers to help decode the "unbreakable" German Enigma Code in World War II, but was publicly disgraced in 1952 when he was charged with "gross indecency" for homosexual acts.  THE IMITATION GAME is the story of Turing's life told through three separate episodes, during his adolescent years as a student at a boarding school, his years breaking Nazi codes for the Government Code and Cypher School in WWII, and his post-war prosecution.
Turing is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, perhaps best known as the eponymous character in the BBC's acclaimed series Sherlock, and plays him like a milder, somewhat more human variation on Sherlock.  With his deep, cold and calculating vocals and piercing eyes, Cumberbatch naturally lends himself to 'eccentric genius' roles, playing off others with a snappy asocial demeanor, but he also gets to show a more clearly sympathetic side as Turing.  Central to the film is Turing's platonic relationship with fellow codebreaker Joan Clarke, played by Keira Knightley, making a peculiar sort of screen couple, neither of whom are the love of the others life by any stretch, but who rely on one another nonetheless.  Their relationship holds the heart of the film, not negating the importance of Turing's sexual identity in his story, but enhancing it.
Norwegian director Morten Tydlum, best known for HEADHUNTERS (2011), makes his English-language debut with THE IMITATION GAME, providing solid, deft direction, but without a lot of flash.  Intercutting the three periods throughout, the various episodes inform each other efficiently and entertainingly.  It does fall victim to certain tropes of biographical films, notably the character of Commander Alastair Denniston (Charles Dance), a very typical obstructionist supervisor with little motivation given, and for the cynically-minded, some moments of the movie could be written off as overly romantic Hollywood flourishes.
Like the character of Turing himself however, at least in the sense that the film presents him, THE IMITATION GAME is about mathematics, method and misery on the surface, but peering through from beneath is a very moving film with powerful pathos and sympathy.  This too little known piece of history deserves a spotlight, and this movie does so as engaging entertainment and an emotionally affecting tribute.

Review: TAKEN 3

TAKEN 3  (ACTION/THRILLER)
1.5 out of 4 stars
Directed by Olivier Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott, Famke Janssen, Sam Spruell, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, Jonny Weston
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and for brief strong language.
109 minutes
Verdict: Lazily written and poorly acted with the exception of a very welcome Forest Whitaker, TAKEN 3 is ill-conceived and in poor taste with little to offer as entertainment.
YOU MAY ENJOY TAKEN 3 IF YOU LIKED:
TAKEN  (2008)
TAKEN 2  (2012)
THE TRANSPORTER  (2002) 
TRANSPORTER 3  (2008)
COLOMBIANA  (2011)

Let's face it, Bryan Mills is no John McClane.  Bryan Mills is a stupid man who's lucky that he lives in a stupid world, otherwise he wouldn't get away with being so unintelligent.  He happens to be very good at talking on the phone though.
In the second sequel to the surprise 2008 smash-hit, TAKEN, Mills (Liam Neeson), a nondescript ex-government operative with a specific set of skills, is framed for the murder of his ex-wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen), and forced to go on the run.  Meanwhile, he works to protect his daughter (Maggie Grace) from the killers that are still out there and solve the mystery, while Franck Dotzler (Forest Whitaker), a police inspector is driven to catch him (THE FUGITIVE much?).  In the process of proving that he didn't kill his wife, Mills goes on a comical crime spree with thousands of dollars in destruction and more than a few lives, killing people (it's okay, mostly just Eastern Europeans), beating the living hell out of police officers, blowing stuff up.  Sometimes it's a little tough to tell who the real bad guy is.
Liam Neeson is an excellent actor, but he's just phoning it in here (so to speak).  Not that he sounded particularly American in the earlier installments, but he's not even bothering to not sound Irish this time, and one has to wonder how much of the action Neeson is doing himself, given the severely over-edited nature of the action scenes.  Not a bad deal for him though; for as little as he does, he gets a handsome $20 million of the $48 million budget.  Maggie Grace, as his daughter, is reliably irritating, and I do wish her dad would stop saving her.
As the inspector tasked with bringing Mills in, Forest Whitaker is the only pleasant part of a pretty unpleasant film.  His role is not a very active one, but he seems to at least have an interest in what he's doing, giving an interesting and gently humorous performance.
No one is well-served by the script, written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, which is comically lazy at times.  Who has time to explain how Mills survived an obviously fatal explosion, when everyone knows that no matter how silly the explanation, the point is that he survived?  It's not even consistent at that though, when there are lengthy, unintentionally humorous stretches of exposition.  Everything rings false, and in the rare case that there's some attempt to convey emotion, it is in the most ham-fisted way possible, with thuddingly obvious musical cues.
It's a movie in poor taste like its predecessors, a brain-dead white man's revenge-fantasy for all those guys who can see the bright side of something terrible happening to their family as being an excuse to go on a rampage.  Worse, it's dull in practically every way.

Monthly Movie Preview: January 2015

January is commonly referred to as the "dumping ground."  The dumping ground usually includes February as well (although you might get a couple of higher-profile romances for Valentine's Day), and mirrors August, which is a bigger budget dumping ground.  No one sets out to make a bad movie, but sometimes that's just how it turns out, and Hollywood still wants to get them out in some way or other, and January is the perfect time to do it.  The holidays are done and over, people are getting back into the routine, and all the big studios have generally agreed to share this time to put out fare they're less proud of, creating a mostly level playing ground.  There are a couple sequels that can do sturdy business, although the studios would rather not pit them against peak season fare (THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2, TAKEN 3), a couple of movies for the reliable family demographic (PADDINGTON, STRANGE MAGIC), some loopy comedies (THE WEDDING RINGER, MORTDECAI), and a few of what have come to be called "January thrillers" (BLACKHAT, THE BOY NEXT DOOR and PROJECT ALMANAC).  Just because it's a dumping ground doesn't mean you won't find a few gems thrown out with the trash, but you've got to look.  On the other hand, it's also the time of year that a bunch of prestigious awards fare that got limited releases in December make their way into theaters nationwide.

January 2nd
THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: ANGEL OF DEATH  (HORROR-THRILLER)
Directed by Tom Harper; Starring: Phoebe Fox, Jeremy Irvine, Helen McCrory, Adrian Rawlins, Leanne Best, Ned Dennehy, Oaklee Pendergast, Genelle Williams
Rated PG-13 for some disturbing and frightening images, and for thematic elements.
For as few and far in between as really good sequels are, there are two genres that stand-out for bad sequels, and those are comedy and horror.  So much in both genres relies on timing, and a really good comedy or horror movie can be like catching lightning in a bottle; by the time they make the sequel, the surprise factor is no longer there.  THE WOMAN IN BLACK was an okay horror movie, but what was most interesting about it was seeing the Harry Potter series' star Daniel Radcliffe step into an adult role, to see how he would function outside of his most famous role.  Radcliffe has not returned for this sequel, set during WWII, when a group of children escorted by a young schoolteacher are evacuated from London during the Blitz, to a particular old house in Eel Marsh, the one haunted by the "woman in black", a horrifying specter that preys upon children.  Produced by Hammer Film Productions, it promises at least a few basic supernatural scares, but THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2 probably won't be worthwhile for most, except for horror-buffs without something better to do.

January 9th
TAKEN 3 (aka TAK3N)  (ACTION-THRILLER)
Directed by Oliver Megaton; Starring: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Dougray Scott, Sam Spruell, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, Jonny Weston
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and for brief strong language. 
The original TAKEN was an unexpected smash-hit back in 2009, redefining Liam Neeson's career, somewhat to the chagrin of those who liked him before he became a generic Rambo-styled bad-ass.  Actually, Neeson was far and away the best part of the lurid, schlocky action-thriller written by Luc Besson, but at least TAKEN was invested.  TAKEN 2 was a dreadfully dull, shameless cash-grab, and now TAKEN 3 doesn't even have any "taking" in it, because this time, they decided to remake THE FUGITIVE.  Neeson's ex-special agent Bryan Mills is framed for the murder of his ex-wife by old enemies and is sent on the run with a driven cop, played by Forest Whitaker, in pursuit, while also trying to protect his annoying and abnormally unintelligent daughter, played by Maggie Grace, from the foreigner bad guys.  I'm sure Neeson is payed well, but he deserves better material.

January 16th 
BLACKHAT  (ACTION/CRIME-DRAMA)
Directed by Michael Mann; Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Viola Davis, Manny Montana, William Mapother, Holt McCallany
Rated R for violence and some language.
Prior to recent news events, this upcoming cyber-terrorism thriller was being derided as a throwback to the now-dated internet paranoia thrillers from the 1990s like THE NET and HACKERS, but lo and behold, it is now extremely relevant.  Chris Hemsworth stars as a convicted cyber-criminal recruited out of prison by the U.S. government to help put a stop to the devastating attacks launched by an untraceable hacker.  The idea of Hemsworth as a genius coder is still a little far-fetched, but anything directed by Michael Mann is worth a look, and it's his first film since PUBLIC ENEMIES came out over five years ago.  If it's a "January thriller", it looks like it could be a pretty good one.

January 16th
PADDINGTON  (FAMILY-COMEDY/FANTASY)

Directed by Paul King; Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Ben Winshaw (voice role), Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Nicole Kidman
Rated PG for mild action and rude humor.
The advertising for PADDINGTON, originally slated for a Christmas release in the United States, has ranged from lackluster to "creepy" (the teaser poster spawned a meme called "Creepy Paddington"), and the move to a January release date was no more reassuring, but following its release in the UK, it has been receiving rave reviews in a very surprising turn of events.  Based on the beloved classic series of children's books, it's the story of a friendly, anthropomorphic bear named Paddington, who originates from the jungles of darkest Peru, loves marmalade and has penchant for causing mischief, in spite of his good intentions.  Based on the response of those who have already seen it, PADDINGTON looks like an unusually promising January release.

January 16th

THE WEDDING RINGER  (COMEDY)

Directed by Jeremy Garelick; Starring: Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Alan Ritchson, Cloris Leachman, Mimi Rogers
Rated R for crude and sexual content, language throughout, some drug use and brief graphic nudity.
Kevin Hart (RIDE ALONG) and Josh Gad (The Book of Mormon), two of the hottest names in comedy at the moment, star in this buddy comedy about a friendless nerd (Gad) who hires a professional best man (Hart) for his impending wedding.  Despite a pair of likable and proven comic leads, it is a little troubling that this is a feature directorial debut for Jeremy Garelick and getting released in January, and the previews haven't done much to assuage these concerns.  Hart fans will probably be pleased nonetheless, and RIDE ALONG (released to unexpectedly big success on the same weekend last year) proves his name is enough to carry a film to success for now.

January 23rd
THE BOY NEXT DOOR  (THRILLER)
Directed by Rob Cohen; Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Guzman, Kristin Chenoweth, John Corbett, Ian Nelson
Rated R for violence, sexual content/nudity and language.
J-Lo gets FATAL ATTRACTIONed in the latest from modern exploitation-meister Rob Cohen (director of the original THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS and ALEX CROSS), about a high school teacher who gets it on with her juvenile but hunky neighbor (Ryan Guzman, of STEP UP REVOLUTION fame), but after she tries to put it behind her, he goes all crazy-stalker-bitch on her, so to speak.  Think what you will, but this at least sounds a little amusing to me, in an "WTF" sort of way.

January 23rd
MORTDECAI  (ACTION-COMEDY)

Directed by David Koepp; Starring: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Olivia Munn, Jeff Goldblum, Aubrey Plaza, Oliver Platt
Not Yet Rated
On the whole, Johnny Depp's dress-up-based schtick has grown a bit tiresome, but the previews for this new comedy in which he stars as a distinctly mustachioed English aristocrat are unexpectedly funny. Directed by David Koepp, director of amusing and off-kilter but formulaic movies like GHOST TOWN (2008) and PREMIUM RUSH (2012), but better known as the screenwriter of JURASSIC PARK and SPIDER-MAN, MORTDECAI is an action-comedy based on a book by Kyril Bonfiglioli about the eponymous, roguish aristocrat's adventures pursuing a stolen painting reputed to feature the coded location of a Nazi treasure trove.  Looks fun and funny, though potentially messy.

January 23rd
STRANGE MAGIC  (ANIMATED-FANTASY)

Directed by Gary Rydstrom; Featuring the Voices of: Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph, Sam Palladio, Alfred Molina, Elijah Kelley, Peter Stormare
Rated PG for some action and scary images.
Somehow, this animated film from Lucasfilm with a story credited to George Lucas himself managed to fly well below the radar right up until it was practically finished and Disney registered the website, which initially fueled far-fetched speculation that it was a FROZEN sequel.  Reportedly inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream, it revolves around a first contact incident between elves and goblins in a fairy tale mold, but looks more than a little similar to Blue Sky Animation's 2013 movie, EPIC.  It's very possible it's just the Disney marketing machine, which has the ability to make good movies look stupid and somehow I guess it works, but this looks like pretty stupid, formulaic kiddie fair.

January 30th
BLACK OR WHITE  (DRAMA)
Directed by Mike Binder; Starring: Kevin Costner, Gillian Jacobs, Jennifer Ehle, Octavia Spencer, Bill Burr, Andre Holland, Mpho Koaho, Indigo
Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, thematic material involving drug use and drinking, and for a fight.
Kevin Costner is still struggling for a comeback in this probably soapy race relations drama in which he stars as a widower raising his granddaughter, when his late daughter's black mother-in-law (Octavia Spencer) sues for custody with her drug-addicted son.  While I'm sure there are good intentions, it sounds really terrible.

January 30th
PROJECT ALMANAC  (SCI-FI/THRILLER)
Directed by Dean Israelite; Starring: Jonny Weston, Sofia Black D'Elia, Amy Landecker, Michelle DeFraites, Ginny Gardner, Sam Lerner, Patrick Johnson, Gary Grubbs
Rated PG-13 for some language and sexual content.
This found-footage time travel thriller was originally slated for release in February 2014, under the title WELCOME TO YESTERDAY, when Paramount pulled it a few weeks before the release date, and after a month announced the new title and release date nearly a whole year later.  Not that this ever looked particularly enticing, but that kind of behind-the-scenes drama rarely bodes well.  The feature film debut of the director and screenwriters, the primary selling point has been producer Michael Bay for this story about a group of teenage friends who build a time machine (just go with it) and use it to fix some of their past mistakes, unaware of what effect their actions will have on the present as they know it.