The Maze Runner (2014) review (250th Post!!)

One of the big film genres currently dominating Hollywood is the ‘Young Adult’ genre AKA films based off of best-selling books. I guess you could say it really got started when the first ‘Harry Potter’ film was released in 2001. Of course we all know how successful that franchise was and in the early years of its existence, other studios tried to cash in on the success of ‘Potter’ by adapting other best-selling book series to film like the ‘Inheritance’ trilogy, the ‘Alex Rider’ series, and ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’. However, none of those series were really able to match the success of ‘Potter’. The first real franchise to do this was the ‘Twilight’ series though really that’s more from a commercial standpoint because well, to put it quite simply, those movies are straight-up terrible. And once Twilight become popular, the ‘Young Adult’ genre cycle started up again and once again we saw numerous franchises like ‘The Mortal Instruments’ and ‘Beautiful Creatures’ attempt to cash in on ‘Twilight’ and of course most of them struck out big time. Now that ‘Twilight’ is over, ‘The Hunger Games’ has become the next major successful ‘Young Adult’ film series. ‘Divergent’, released back in March, managed to be successful enough for a follow-up and this month it looks we have another new franchise on our hands in the form of ‘The Maze Runner’, based off of the 2009 book of the same name by James Dashner and I can safely say that this is easily one of the better films of the ‘Young Adult’ genre.

The film begins as a boy named Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) finds himself in a dark elevator with absolutely no memory of who he is or what has happened to him. He ends up in a mysterious grassy area where he comes across a group of other boys who have established their own community in this area, which they refer to as ‘The Glade’. Thomas learns that they have been trying to escape via the large maze surrounding ‘The Glade’. However, for the last three years they have been unable to find a way out for two main reasons. First of all, the maze changes every day but what’s worse is that at night the doors leading into the maze close. Those who end up trapped inside then have to deal with a bunch of strange creatures known as Grievers that inhabit the maze. Thomas soon manages to prove himself when he becomes one of the first Gladers to ever survive a night in the maze and as he gains the trust of the others, he soon begins to try and figure out not only why they are all here but to also find a way to escape this place with the help of some of the other Gladers, including ‘Runner’ (The term used to describe the Gladers who try and figure out a way out of the maze) Minho (Ki Hong Lee) and the one and only female Glader Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), who apparently connected to Thomas in some way.

I just want to preface this review with a quick disclaimer: I have not read ‘The Maze Runner’ so this film basically served as my official introduction to the franchise and overall I must say that it was a very satisfying first look. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the story is pretty compelling. You are as much in the dark as Thomas is when it comes to why he and the other Gladers were put in the Glade so you’re interested in finding out the truth. Without giving anything major away, the final payoff may be hit or miss for some people but I found it to be pretty intriguing even though it does sort of introduce a major plot-point in just the final few minutes of the film and from what I’ve read online, this plot-point isn’t even introduced in the books until the second novel, ‘The Scorch Trials’ (that and the film does have one of the more obvious ‘sequel-baiting’ final lines in recent memory). Still, the movie does hold your interest from beginning to end and I am very much interested in seeing how the rest of the story is going to play out. The visuals are pretty solid in regards to the overall production design, especially when it comes to ‘the Maze’. And that’s not that surprising considering that the film’s director, Wes Ball, has mostly been known for his work in visual effects. Ball makes his feature-length directorial debut with this film and overall he makes a pretty solid first impression in regards to his directing.

Another one of the film’s biggest strengths is its cast. The character of Thomas is a pretty likable lead character and O’Brien certainly has the right amounts of charm and likability that makes him perfect for the role. As for the rest of the cast, one of the big things about the story is how the rest of the boys in the Glade have established a perfectly functioning society. The arrival of Thomas in the Glade results in some of the Gladers, most notably Gally (Will Poulter), believing that Thomas’ behavior/actions will end up ruining the peaceful existence that they have been living for the last few years. It’s an interesting story dynamic and the main members of the cast do have excellent camaraderie with each other. It really does sell the whole idea of these boys having made their own personal society in a way that has been described as ‘Lord of the Flies mixed with Lost’. Also, it is pretty nice to have a Young Adult film franchise centered on a male lead for once whereas other films in the genre (especially in recent years) have primarily been led by female leads (e.g. ‘Hunger Games’, ‘Divergent’, ‘Twilight’, etc.). That’s not the case of ‘The Maze Runner’, which features a pre-dominantly male cast save for two female characters. In other words, you can sort of refer to this film as ‘Hunger Games for boys’ and I’m perfectly fine with that.

So unlike ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Hunger Games’, I went into ‘The Maze Runner’ having not read not the book beforehand. But after seeing the film, I can safely say that I am now very much interested in checking it out because ‘The Maze Runner’ is certainly one of the better films of the ‘Young Adult’ genre. Of course having not read the book I can’t really say anything about how faithful this film is to the source material. However, I can say that the film greatly benefits from having a story that is pretty compelling that will keep you wondering what’s happening until the very end. Plus, the film has a pretty solid cast, with an excellent lead in Dylan O’Brien’s Thomas and a group of boys with great camaraderie with one another. And like I said earlier, it is good that the ‘Young Adult Book Adaptation’ film genre will now be a little more balanced thanks to this film being centered on a male lead and featuring a mostly-male cast. I assure you that I will be there next year when the second film of this series, ‘The Scorch Trials’, hits theaters and I’m glad to see that one of the better films of the Young Adult genre is experiencing the success that not every Young Adult film franchise has had.

Rating: 4/5

This is Where I Leave You (2014) review

Dysfunctional families have been a key element of a lot of films. Last year, there was the multiple award-nominated film ‘August: Osage County’ and it has also been prevalent in films like ‘The Fighter’ and ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. This concept has also been a part of multiple TV shows. In fact, it’s pretty much a given that almost every major TV sitcom, whether it be live-action or animated, will center on a dysfunctional family as it has been proven by shows like ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Arrested Development’, and ‘Family Guy’. And of course, the dysfunctional family plotline is the key focus of ‘This is Where I Leave You’, directed by Shawn Levy (with a film that is a definite change of pace for him as it is his first R-rated film after working on multiple family-friendly films like the ‘Night at the Museum’ movies) and based off of the 2009 book of the same name by Jonathan Tropper. The family of this film is very much a dysfunctional family so if you’re not a fan of a whole heck of a lot of arguing, this film is probably not for you. But ‘This is Where I Leave You’ does manage to provide a really solid amount of laughs primarily thanks to its great ensemble cast. But what’s even better is how this movie manages to find a good balance of comedy and drama, something that’s not exactly that easy to do. But this film manages to do it and do it pretty well.

On the day of his 3^rd wedding anniversary, Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) unfortunately finds out the hard way that his wife Quinn (Abigail Spencer) is having an affair with his boss Wade (Dax Shepard) when he walks in on them having sex in their apartment. As if things couldn’t get any worse, a few weeks later he gets a call from his sister Wendy (Tina Fey) who tells him that their father has just died. They then return to their hometown where they reunite with their mother Hilary (Jane Fonda) and their two brothers, Paul (Corey Stoll) and Phillip (Adam Driver). After the funeral, they learn that as his last request, their father wanted them to mourn him through the Jewish tradition of Shiva, in which the family of the deceased gather and sit for a period of seven days in mourning. Even though the family isn’t actually Jewish, the siblings find themselves forced into doing it anyway when their mom ends up grounding them. So now that they’re all stuck under the same roof again having to honor the period of Shiva, the dysfunctional siblings end up starting to reconnect with one another as each member finds themselves having to deal with not only the loss of their father but also the current conflicts in their lives.

As is common in any dysfunctional family story, there is quite a lot of bickering amongst the Altman siblings and most of the film’s humor comes from the awkward moments that usually occur during these scenes. Overall, the film does have a pretty solid amount of humor though of course like with every comedy not all of the jokes hit. In the case of this film, it’s mostly in regards to the ‘gross-out’ moments in the film, like this one recurring gag in which the young son of one of the siblings keeps going to the bathroom in this little portable toilet that he always carries around. Thankfully, these moments don’t dominate the film’s humor. But ultimately the film’s greatest strength is that even amidst all of the arguing and gross-out moments, it plays things seriously when it needs to be. After all, this is a ‘dramedy’ about a family coping with the death of a loved one, a subject that isn’t and never will be funny. Thankfully this is not where the film’s humor comes from and the film manages to find a good balance of the humor and the drama, something that isn’t always easy to do when it comes to dramedies. Even though there are quite a lot of scenes where the Altman family is arguing with each other, there are also plenty of scenes in which they bond and these scenes are actually really touching and sweet.

Of course, this is mostly thanks to the film’s terrific ensemble cast. Their camaraderie with one another is superb and their relationships with each other feel genuine, hence why the scenes of them bonding are as strong as they are. Bateman and Fey’s more straight-faced attitudes help bring a nice balance to the crazier characters in the film, like Phillip for instance. Driver is easily one of the biggest standouts of the film in the role of the youngest of the Altman siblings which of course means that he doesn’t always act mature and Driver has quite a lot of charisma in the role. Fonda is also one of the film’s major standouts; most of her material is in relation to her character’s recent boob job which of course is a recurring joke throughout the film. But she also brings the proper motherly instinct that the role requires. As for the rest of the cast, some admittedly could’ve been given larger roles in the film, like Rose Byrne, who has really proven himself to be an excellent comedic talent earlier this year in ‘Neighbors’, as Judd’s former love interest from high school (Byrne and Bateman do have really nice chemistry) and even Corey Stoll, who kind of makes the smallest impression compared to his three sibling co-stars, but overall the cast is superb from top to bottom.

‘This is Where I Leave You’ can be quite wacky at times, as one would expect from a film centered on a dysfunctional family. But when it needs to, the film smartly tones down the craziness and as for this film being a dramedy, it’s one of the better ones that I’ve seen because it does do a really great job at balancing the humorous moments with the more serious moments. And those serious moments when the usually bickering Altmans start to reconnect with one another provide the heart of the film. Of course, this is primarily thanks to the film’s terrific ensemble cast. Not only do they have great camaraderie with one another but that also makes the relationships between their characters feel very much genuine from an emotional standpoint. Despite the occasional immature or gross-out moment, this is easily one of director Shawn Levy’s most mature films to date, if not the most. I haven’t read the book this was based on so I can’t say much about how faithful it is to the book (although I have heard about a scene from the book that got cut involving a cake that seems like a really funny situation but sadly it’s not in the film) but overall ‘This is Where I Leave You’ is a nice solid piece of entertainment that not only has a good amount of laughs but also a really good amount of heart as well.

Rating: 4/5

Ghostbusters (1984, 1989): 30th Anniversary Retrospective

There have been quite a few film franchises that have become iconic parts of pop culture history like ‘Star Wars’, ‘Batman’, and ‘Harry Potter’. And easily one of the most famous franchises of all time has to be ‘Ghostbusters’, which got its start in 1984 with the film of the same name. Directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd, who both starred in the film along with Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, and Ernie Hudson, the film, centered on a trio of parapsychologists who set up a ghost-catching business after being dismissed from their university, became a major critical and commercial success when it was released. It has since spawned a huge multimedia franchise that includes a 1989 sequel, two animated series (1986’s ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ and 1997’s ‘Extreme Ghostbusters’, the latter of which was a spin-off of the first show), and much more. A third film has been in and out of development for the past few years now but with the recent passing of Harold Ramis along with reports that Bill Murray isn’t that interested in returning, it doesn’t really look like we’ll ever get an ‘official sequel’. So because of that, recent reports say that director Paul Feig (‘Bridesmaids’, ‘The Heat’) will instead be helming a ‘reboot’ of the series with a female-led cast. It’ll be interesting to see how that turns out if it does get made but for now, in honor of the first film’s 30^th anniversary, it’s time to look back upon the two ‘Ghostbusters’ films and for the record, just those two films. This post will not include reviews of the two animated series, simply because I didn’t watch either of them as a kid. So now with that out of the way, here are my reviews of ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Ghostbusters 2’.

GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)

Really, what more can be said about the first ‘Ghostbusters’ film? It’s an undeniable comedic classic; a film that blends its comedy with a wide array of zany visuals and it is done to great results. It’s highly quotable with great lines like ‘Dogs and Cats living together, Mass Hysteria!’ or ‘That’s a Big Twinkie’ and of course there’s much more. This is one of those comedies that isn’t afraid to get a little ‘mature’ at times when it comes to its humor. Case in point, Bill Murray. While Aykroyd and Ramis’ dialogue mostly consists of them spewing science jargon and, as Star Trek fans like to put it, ‘techno-babble’, a lot of Murray’s dialogue is more than likely going to fly over the heads of young viewers. But when you’re older, you’re going to understand it a lot more. This film came out a month before the PG-13 rating was introduced by the MPAA, and while it isn’t as ‘violent’ or ‘disturbing’ as something like ‘Temple of Doom’ or ‘Poltergeist’, this film is still a prime example of how back then filmmakers could get away with a lot more stuff in PG films than they do nowadays. I mean when you really think about it, this is a very bizarre premise but this film joyfully goes with it resulting in a highly entertaining film with a great cast, excellent writing, and fun visuals. Simply put, when there’s something strange in your neighborhood, you know who to call.

Rating: 5/5!

GHOSTBUSTERS 2 (1989)

Like with pretty much almost every sequel that has ever come out, ‘Ghostbusters 2’ is generally considered by many to be ‘inferior’ to the first film and while I do agree that it isn’t as good as the first film, keep in mind how great of a film this one is supposed to follow up on; talk about an incredibly tough act to follow. So with that said, why is this one not as good as its predecessor? According to the Rotten Tomatoes consensus, it is because it ‘lacks the charm, wit, and energy’ that the first film had. However, I don’t entirely agree with that statement. Because while I can sort of see what they’re getting at, I don’t think that the film is entirely devoid of those aforementioned qualities… far from it, in fact. The cast still has phenomenal camaraderie, there are still plenty of lines that are highly quotable (‘Sometimes, s*** happens, someone has to deal with it, and who you gonna call?’), and there are still some pretty fun visuals, like during the finale when the Ghostbusters travel through the city of New York while piloting the Statue of Liberty. It’s true that maybe the film doesn’t have the exact same amount of charm, wit, and energy as its predecessor had but still, it’s not like it’s not there. It still very much feels like a ‘Ghostbusters’ film through and through.

Really, the main problem with the film is something that occurs with a lot of sequels; it rehashes a lot of the same beats from the first film in terms of its plot like how the Ghostbusters at one point have to visit the mayor when they get into trouble with the law or how they start off having to work to become popular again with the citizens in New York as this film takes place five years after the events of the first film as their popularity has started to dwindle. I do kind of like the idea of the Ghostbusters having to get back into the swing of things having been out of the business for a while but overall there’s not much in this film that is different from the first film save for it having different plot-points, like the River of Slime, the main villain Vigo, and for introducing Dana Barrett’s baby as a plot-point. Regardless of this, I still think that ‘Ghostbusters II’ is actually a pretty underrated sequel. Sure, it’s still not as good as the original, mainly because it copies a lot from that film. Still, I disagree with the notion that it is completely devoid of the ‘charm, wit, and energy’ that made the first film so great because it’s still here, just maybe not as much as in the first film. However, I do feel that this film deserves a second chance because it still a very entertaining film even if it doesn’t fully live up to the status of its predecessor.

Rating: 3.5/5

Before I end this post, if you ever have the chance, I recommend you check out the location tour video, ‘Follow that Marshmallow: A Ghostbusters Tour’ produced by James Rolfe AKA The Angry Video Game Nerd. It’s a really nice location video showcasing a lot of the locations in New York that were featured in both movies and it’s pretty cool to see that the filmmakers made a real effort to be as geographically correct as possible. What I mean is that a lot of the locations in the film aren’t too far apart from one another meaning that the routes that the characters take in the film are accurate to the real-life layout of New York. I’ll provide the link to the video below for your viewing pleasure.

(http://cinemassacre.com/2010/04/26/follow-that-marshmallow-a-ghostbusters-tour/)

Favorite Films of Summer 2014- As Voted by the Fans

A little over a week ago, I set up a poll on Surveymonkey.com and asked you guys to vote on what your favorite movie from Summer 2014 was and I’m really pleased with the amount of responses the poll got. In the end, 43 people submitted their votes so with that said I would like to thank all of those who voted. So now that the voting process is closed, it’s time for the fun part of all of this. Now you guys get to see which films earned your votes as your favorite films from these past four months of the year. Now despite what I said in my ‘End of Summer Announcement’ post, I’m ultimately not going to do a ‘Top 10’ list. The main reason for this is because ultimately 19 films earned votes from you all and a lot of them had similar amounts of votes (some had 2 votes each, some 3 each, etc…) so it’s actually rather impossible to do an official ‘Top 10’ list. So instead of doing that, I will be listing all of the films that got votes, going from those that earned the lowest amount of votes to the ones that got the highest. So without further ado, here are your favorite films from the Summer 2014 movie season.

9 FILMS EARNED ONE VOTE

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

If this film hadn’t gotten a mixed reaction from both critics and audiences, I’d be more comfortable in saying that this was the best year for comic book movies yet. For the record, I do think this has been the best year so far for comic book movies mostly because of the other three superhero films that came out this year which all earned glowing reviews from both critics and audiences. But Spidey wasn’t as lucky as ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ pretty much became the ‘Man of Steel’ of the year as both critics and audiences were mixed on it though overall I’ve heard QUITE a lot more negative reviews than I have positive ones. I may be in the minority here, but I really loved this film. I may have been hesitant at first about these ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ movies due to their status of being a very rushed reboot (just five years after the Sam Raimi trilogy had ended) but after seeing these films, I actually find myself preferring these two to the Raimi trilogy because I like the characters in this series more, specifically Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy, respectively.

The common complaint towards this film was that it was too overcrowded in both ideas and characters and while I do see where people are coming from with this, I didn’t really think it was that ‘bloated’. It’s clear that with this film the writers did not realize the major problem of ‘Spider-Man 3’ in that it had too many villains. Both films have three villains each but overall I feel that ‘Spider-Man 3’ is still the bigger mess in terms of its characters and plotlines. But even with that said, I don’t think that film is as bad as the entire internet is putting it out to be… and the same can be said for ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ as well. Despite the multiple villains, the film does clarify who the ‘main villain’ is, I found the story to be pretty self-contained, and while I’m not trying to compare the quality of the following films, the direction by Marc Webb is much more confident here than it was in the first film, similar to Christopher Nolan when he went from ‘Batman Begins’ to ‘The Dark Knight’. It’s clear that Sony wants to do a ‘Sinister Six’ movie and that is something that I do want to see. But if I did have any complaints about ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’, it is that the lead-in for ‘Sinister Six’ is just a minor tease during the ending. Sony, if you want to make ‘Sinister Six’ happen, actually start making it happen!

CHEF

In between all of the summer blockbusters that came out this year was this charming little indie film from Jon Favreau about a chef who quits his job at a major restaurant when he feels that he is unable to express his culinary creativity. He also becomes infamous on social media when he berates a food critic both online and in person for criticizing his food (which was because he had to stick to the ‘classics’ and was forbidden from trying new things). It’s fairly clear that this film’s story mirrors Favreau’s own frustrations with the Hollywood system. After directing many big-budget summer blockbusters like ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ and the first two ‘Iron Man’ films, he returns to the more low-budgeted films where he got his start as a director. ‘Chef’ is an incredibly charming film, with an excellent message that stresses the importance of freedom of expression. I especially loved the sequence in this film when Favreau’s character, his son (Emjay Anthony), and his best friend (John Leguizamo) go on a road trip across the country in their new food truck. Now I can’t say that it’s the ‘best film’ of the year because I didn’t really find it as funny as a lot of people were saying it was but at the same time I still appreciated the charm of this film and its strong message. All in all, ‘Chef’ was a very pleasant change of pace from all of the summer blockbusters.

MILLION DOLLAR ARM

This film, released during the weekend that ‘Godzilla’ came out, is based on a true story about a sports agent who, looking to find new talent for the Major Leagues, establishes a new contest in India in order to find new talent. His first two contenders, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel) became the first two Indian men to sign U.S. pro sports contracts. Now I didn’t see the film but from what I’ve seen online, it looks like the film got pretty decent reviews from critics. To paraphrase the RT consensus, it’s a pleasant film that benefitted heavily from having Jon Hamm in the lead role while not really adding much to the ‘inspirational sports story’ formula that we’ve seen a lot of times. But really… I don’t really mind that at all. Being a sports fan myself, I grew watching films like ‘Rookie of the Year’, ‘Angels in the Outfield’, and ‘Remember the Titans’ and while I know they all share similar plot points, I still find a lot of them to be very entertaining. In fact, the same can be said about another sports film that came out this year, ‘Draft Day’, which I did see and I was rather surprised to find that I really liked it. I didn’t end up seeing ‘Million Dollar Arm’ in theaters, but I’ll probably watch it sometime soon.

EDGE OF TOMORROW

‘Edge of Tomorrow’ unfortunately ends up being one of the most criminally underrated films of this summer season. Now I’m not saying it’s ‘underrated’ from a critical perspective because it actually got really, really good reviews from critics (something that I did not expect to happen at all). I’m referring to how the film performed at the domestic box office where it fared pretty poorly commercially. It only grossed about $100 million here in the U.S., at least $78 million under its budget. Thankfully the international box office helped it at least make its money back but still it’s sad to see that this film didn’t fare so well here in the U.S. It seems like the biggest reason for the film’s poor performance was due to lackluster marketing which might have had some people thinking that it was just a rehash of star Tom Cruise’s most recent film ‘Oblivion’. However, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ is far from that; it’s an incredibly well-made sci-fi action blockbuster with phenomenal performances from both Cruise and Emily Blunt. The first half of the film sees Cruise go against type as a general who isn’t trained in combat but forced into serving on the front lines while Blunt more than proves that she can be a Grade-A female action star. Hopefully this film’s poor performance at the U.S. box office won’t affect this film’s reputation too hard because it really was an excellent entry in the sci-fi genre.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Speaking of excellent sci-fi films, now we come to ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’, the sequel to 2011’s surprise hit ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. ‘Dawn’ is one of the rare sequels that actually manages to improve over its predecessor. Like ‘Rise’, it gives us characters that we really do care about but it also does a great job at immersing us in this ‘post-virus’ world where genetically-modified apes are living away from the human race, who is trying to survive after a virus wiped out millions of people. Andy Serkis is once again phenomenal as the lead ape Caesar but credit is also due for Toby Kebbell as the ape Koba. While he is the ‘villain’ of the film, at times you actually do sympathize with him because of how he was treated before the virus spread. The human cast is really great as well, including the fairly underrated Jason Clarke in the lead human role (the scenes between him and Serkis are phenomenal) and Gary Oldman in a role that, going in, might have had you thinking he’s the bad guy but instead they actually gave him a really good amount of depth. So all in all, director Matt Reeves delivered what could arguably be the best ‘Planet of the Apes’ movie to date; a film that is not only entertaining, but one that also quite a lot of emotional depth as well.

SEX TAPE

As the title suggests, this film centers on a couple (played by Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel) who film a sex tape in order to spice up their love life. However, instead of deleting the video when they are done, it ends up getting uploaded to ‘the cloud’ which is linked to a bunch of iPads that they gave to their friends, resulting in them trying to get them all back before anyone ever sees their video or, worse, it gets leaked to the internet. Now I didn’t see this film in theaters because of one main reason… it got TERRIBLE reviews from critics and considering that it got a C+ on CinemaScore, I’m guessing it didn’t fare too well with audiences either. My friend Matt saw it and he told me that it was ‘all right’ with the major highlight being a cameo by Jack Black as the owner of the website YouPorn. But despite that, I really have no interest in this film right now and am probably not going to bother with it.

THE PURGE: ANARCHY

2013’s ‘The Purge’ was one of those movies where, despite the fact that it didn’t fare well with critics (and from what I’ve seen online, even most audiences), it was still very successful from financial standpoint because it was filmed on a very small budget. So because of this, we got a sequel, ‘The Purge: Anarchy’. Now I didn’t see ‘The Purge’ so I didn’t see ‘Anarchy’ when it was in theaters. The general consensus seemed to be that while it still really wasn’t that good, it was at least an improvement over its predecessor. The main reason for this was because unlike the first film, this film took place in a city during the event known as ‘The Purge’, when all crime is made legal for 12 hours and all emergency services are shut down. The first film mainly took place within the home of the main characters which I’m guessing disappointed a lot of people who wanted to see a lot more of this ‘Purge’ thing but instead had to be stuck watching this family try to survive when they come into conflict with a group of Purgers. However at the same time, it seems like this film still had its fair share of stupid characters (I’m aware that most of what happened in the first film happened because of one incredibly stupid action committed by the main character’s son) and was really nothing more than a series of violent imagery trying to act like it’s smarter than it really is. But again, I haven’t seen either of these films so I don’t know how I would actually feel about these films.

LET’S BE COPS

I didn’t see ‘Let’s Be Cops’ for one main reason and it actually wasn’t because of the reviews which were pretty bad regardless. Believe it or not the main reason why I didn’t really have my interest in the film was because of what happened in one of my film classes. My professor had recently been to Los Angeles where he got to take a peek at some of 21^st Century Fox’s upcoming films, including ‘X-Men’ and this film. He responded favorably to ‘X-Men’ but not so much for ‘Let’s Be Cops’. So you can chalk this up as another comedy this summer that I didn’t see.

LIFE ITSELF

Anyone who either is a film critic or wants to become one absolutely needs to see this film, a biopic on the life of famed movie critic Roger Ebert who, even more than a year since his tragic death in April 2013, is arguably still the most famous movie critic of all time. This film gives us a poignant look back on his life. It offers some facts that you might not have known, like how Ebert’s co-host on his show ‘Siskel and Ebert’, Gene Siskel, was once a part of Hugh Hefner’s posse or that Ebert actually wrote the screenplay for a film, ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’. But in the end one thing is clear; as the title suggests, Ebert loved life and I’ll always admire how he continued to do his job and continue to write movie reviews even after losing his voice around 2006. Like many other film critics, both current and aspiring, Ebert had a major influence on my development as a film critic because I read his reviews and while I didn’t grow up with ‘Siskel and Ebert’, I have watched some of their old videos. One major thing I learned from watching him on ‘Siskel and Ebert’ and reading his written reviews is to always stand up for your opinion even if someone else disagrees with you and that is a philosophy that I still follow to this day.

R.I.P. Roger Ebert.

3 FILMS EARNED TWO VOTES

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Talk about a franchise that has successfully redeemed itself after some very mediocre entries. After ‘X-Men’ and ‘X2’ director Bryan Singer left the franchise to go direct ‘Superman Returns’, the series really started to go downhill with the highly disappointing ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ and the god-awful ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’. The series managed to get back on track with ‘X-Men: First Class’ (which Singer produced) and Wolverine even got a much better solo outing with ‘The Wolverine’. And finally, Singer returned to the director’s chair with ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, which I feel is the best X-Men film to date. The film of course is based off of the iconic X-Men storyline ‘Days of Future Past’ from the comics though from what I hear, the film doesn’t stay true to the original story that much but regardless of that, it is still a well-written film with the best ensemble cast of any X-Men film to date. Even though the film does focus on a select few of the cast, everyone does their job in this and I really have to highlight James McAvoy who is just phenomenal in this movie. Whereas Michael Fassbender stole the show in ‘First Class’, this movie belongs to McAvoy. I really like how they’ve been handing the character of young Professor X as he starts to mature more into the Professor X that we knew from the original film trilogy. But most importantly this film is pretty much the filmmakers’ apology to the fans for letting the series go the way it did with ‘Last Stand’ and ‘Origins’ as this film pretty much eradicates those films from the series’ timeline. Now we know that this series is back in the right hands now that Bryan Singer has returned to the franchise that he started back in 2000. I can’t wait for 2016’s ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’.

TAMMY

This was another summer comedy that I didn’t see in theaters. I wasn’t really interested in it before it came out and once I heard it got rather mediocre reviews, I just went to go see ‘Jersey Boys’ again during 4^th of July weekend. As for ‘Tammy’, this is Melissa McCarthy’s newest film. She of course has been on a roll ever since she got nominated for an Oscar for ‘Bridesmaids’. In this, she stars as the titular Tammy, a woman who has a really bad day (she gets fired from her job, she finds out her husband is cheating on her, etc…) so she takes a road trip along with her grandmother (played by Susan Sarandon who, despite playing her grandmother in this, is actually not that much older than McCarthy). Anyway, so the reviews weren’t all that good for it but another reason why I didn’t see the film was because I hadn’t really seen a lot of McCarthy’s work. I’m sure she’s a very funny lady but for the most part, I haven’t really seen a lot of her recent big hits like ‘Bridesmaids’ and ‘The Heat’ so I didn’t really have much interest in ‘Tammy’.

THE EXPENDABLES 3

It’s kind of sad that the newest entry in ‘The Expendables’ franchise performed pretty badly at the box office during its opening weekend. Franchise fatigue might have been the main factor in this along with the filmmakers’ failed attempt at marketing this film towards a younger audience by having the film rated PG-13 (more on that in a second) but clearly a major factor for this poor performance was because of an incident where a Digital Copy of the film was leaked online weeks before the film was set to come out. I know that if the film wasn’t leaked early, it still was at risk at doing poorly at the box office but still it’s pretty sad because this film wasn’t that bad. I’ll admit to being a fan of ‘The Expendables’ films, especially the second one which I feel was a major improvement over the first film by not taking things as seriously and for having better action sequences. So now we come to this third film and it’s rated PG-13 following the first two which were both R-rated and well-deserving of that rating. This change in rating, though, isn’t entirely a bad thing. Yes, a lot of the action sequences are heavily edited but at the same time it eliminated the use of those digital blood squibs that I know a lot of people really hate so it’s not all bad. Plus, even under a PG-13 rating, this film is still pretty damn violent. Like the two that came before it, ‘The Expendables 3’ is cheesy and pretty stupid but I still found it to be pretty entertaining.

3 FILMS EARNED (IRONICALLY) THREE VOTES

NEIGHBORS

In terms of the comedies that came out these past few months, the summer movie season got off to a pretty nice start with ‘Neighbors’, in which Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne star as a couple who end up getting into a ‘turf war’ with a local fraternity when they move in next door. The main reason why I feel this movie worked as well as it did is because while this is about a prank war between the two main ‘parties’ of the film (family vs. frat), this film doesn’t have a ‘villain’. Sure, the film is primarily from the view of the couple and they are a likable couple (Rogen and Byrne do have really nice chemistry) but at the same time it doesn’t portray the members of the frat as ‘a-holes’. They have an admirable goal; become legends of their frat and their leader, Teddy, is doubtful about his future, which is a nice bit of contrast with Rogen and Byrne’s characters who want some more excitement in their lives. So in the end, the frat members aren’t portrayed as being the villains; if they were portrayed as such I feel that this movie could’ve ended up giving fraternities a bad name but it didn’t. Two of my fellow panelists on ‘The Feature Presentation’, Matt and Alex, are in a fraternity and they agree that this film did a really good job when it came to portraying fraternities so overall, this is a fun little comedy that may not be my pick for the funniest film of the year (that honor goes to a film that’s coming up in a few moments) but it is still an incredibly entertaining comedy that has its fair share of laugh-out-loud moments.

MALEFICENT

Disney’s latest live-action fantasy film, ‘Maleficent’, is a re-telling of  their classic animated film ‘Sleeping Beauty’ but told from the perspective of its villain, Maleficent, who is arguably the best animated Disney villain of all time. Fans of the character might be a little disappointed, however, that Maleficent is not the main villain here. Instead, she’s the protagonist but it still works because unlike the original film, this film actually does give her a motive for her revenge against the King whereas in the original her motivation for revenge was that she was uninvited to Princess Aurora’s christening. In this movie, she befriended a young boy when she was younger but years later when the boy has the chance to become king, he takes it and betrays Maleficent by cutting off her wings. We do sympathize with her character, even when she acts like the ‘bad guy’, and of course Angelina Jolie is phenomenal in the role. But probably my favorite part of this whole movie is the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora. There’s sort of this ‘mother-daughter’ relationship that develops between them and this really is the heart of the film. Of course the visuals are excellent and at just 97 minutes, the film never overstays its welcome. In terms of the recent big-budget live-action fantasy films that Disney has made in recent years, I still prefer last year’s ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ but I will say that I did end up liking ‘Maleficent’ more than I did Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’. So far I’d say that Disney is doing a pretty good job in regards to these kinds of movies and I’m interested in seeing more of these kinds of films; live-action versions of their classic animated films.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

Despite the fact that director Michael Bay’s newest film, ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’, received some of the worst reviews of the year, it still became the highest grossing film of the year worldwide as it’s currently the only film this year that has grossed over $1 billion. Bay’s other major film this year, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, has faced similar scrutiny with critics. Heck, the film was controversial ever since it was first announced and not just because Bay was producing it; there was the alleged change of the origin story, the casting of Megan Fox as April O’Neil, and much more controversial developments that caused many people to predict that this was going to be a disaster. Well, considering what the reviews have been like, I’m guessing many people feel like they were right… however I disagree with that. In fact, while I do understand the criticisms towards the ‘Transformers’ films, I really don’t get the hate towards this film. Now let me be clear; I don’t think that this movie is ‘great’. In fact, compared to the other movies that we got this summer, there’s really nothing about it that ‘stands out’. But regardless of that, I still managed to have a lot of fun with it. When the Turtles are on screen that is where the movie really shines; they had great camaraderie and while I know I’m in the minority on this, I didn’t mind their CGI design.

But I want to address a complaint that I’ve heard that’s being thrown around when talking about this movie and that is that some people feel like this film ruined the TMNT franchise the same way Bay’s ‘Transformers’ films ‘ruined the Transformers franchise’. Again, I get why people would say that about the ‘Transformers’ films but I call major B.S. on the idea that this new TMNT film ruined the franchise. The main reason why is because all of those supposed controversial changes that were allegedly going to happen (e.g. the ‘alien’ origins, William Fichtner being the Shredder, etc…) are not present in any way in this film. This does feel like a Ninja Turtles movie that stayed true to what made this franchise so famous in the first place, more so than Bay’s ‘Transformers’ films ever did. In fact, despite the fact that this is produced by Michael Bay and directed by a Michael Bay wannabe (Jonathan Liebesman), this doesn’t feel too much like a Bay film. For one thing, there aren’t millions of explosions happening every minutes. Plus, even with a PG-13 rating, this film is generally harmless for younger audiences. So in short, I strongly feel that the new ‘Turtles’ film isn’t as bad as the entire internet is putting it out to be. I’ve said the same thing about the ‘Transformers’ movies but this time, I stand by that belief.

THIS FILM EARNED FOUR VOTES

BOYHOOD

The most popular film of the write-in section, ‘Boyhood’ is the highest rated movie of the summer according to Rotten Tomatoes with a 99% Tomatometer score (Given how much a lot of people are loving this film, I’d really hate to be the two critics who gave it negative reviews right now). For those who haven’t heard about this film, here’s the basic rundown about it; the film was shot over a span of 11 years so that director Richard Linklater could properly tell a ‘coming of age’ story with the same kid actor (Ellar Coltrane) as he grew from childhood to adulthood. Just a quick disclaimer; I haven’t seen this film yet so I know a lot of people are going say that ‘I must see it’ so with that in mind I assure you that I will try and see it soon. But for now, it’s safe to say that ‘Boyhood’ is one of the most popular films from this summer as proven by the fact that it was the fourth most popular film on this poll.

AND NOW… THE THREE MOST POPULAR FILMS OF SUMMER 2014 (AS VOTED BY YOU, THE FANS) WITH FIVE VOTES EACH

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

Here’s a funny little story about this film. My co-panelists on the ‘Feature Presentation’, Matt and Alex, were going to see ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ but when they went into the theater they ended up coming in during the last few minutes of this movie making them wonder if they went to the wrong theater… thankfully, they didn’t. But anyway, back to ‘Fault in our Stars’, this being an adaptation of a popular novel of the same name by John Green about a young cancer patient (Shailene Woodley) who falls in love with an amputee (Ansel Elgort) when they meet at a cancer support group. I didn’t see the film but from what I’ve heard online, it’s actually pretty good. As embarrassing as it is to admit this, I wasn’t really that interested in this film because I thought it looked like another ‘chick flick’ but thankfully it looks like I was very much wrong about that. So with that said, I probably will see this movie sometime soon; I can’t make any promises but given the fact that I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, it’s more than likely I will end up seeing it in the near future.

22 JUMP STREET

I’m just going to come out and say it… ‘22 Jump Street’ is the best comedy sequel of all time. Now to some that may not be saying much given that most comedy sequels aren’t really that good but this is one of the rare exceptions of a film that is not only as good as the film that came before it (21 Jump Street, a film that I’m pretty sure none of us were expecting would be as good/hilarious as it was) but also better. This film is filled to the brim with meta humor that heavily plays up the fact that this film is pretty much note for note rehashing the exact same plot of the first film, a mistake that a lot of comedy sequels make. However, in this case it works because they continuously poke fun at this and like the last film, the writing is superb and the camaraderie between leads Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum is terrific. Admittedly there are some jokes in the film that come off as being incredibly awkward, such as when Hill’s character keeps getting called ‘Maya Angelou’, who had just died a few weeks before the film came out as well as a scene where Tatum’s character criticizes the fact that some people are still using the ‘other F-word’ in 2014, which comes off being really awkward considering Hill’s recent incident in which he used that exact same word on paparazzi. However, the film more than makes up for that with multiple gut-busting laugh-out-loud moments, including one of the best end credits sequences ever in which they do numerous fake sequels to the film. Simply put, ‘22 Jump Street’ is easily the funniest comedy of 2014 (so far), and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller strike gold once again. At this point, having made 4 films that all seemed to be risky ventures at first but ended up being terrific, they really can do no wrong.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

It’s clear that we all got ‘hooked on a feeling’ with Marvel Studios’ latest, and strangest, film, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. Remember when everyone was saying that this would be a major risk for the studio given that odds are that most people were unfamiliar with these characters (myself included when the film was first announced)? Well, this ‘major risk’ ended up being the highest grossing film of the summer (stateside) and is currently the highest grossing domestic release of the year. Rightfully so, as it truly is a fantastic comic book film. The film feels self-aware about how this is a much more obscure franchise compared to something like ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Captain America’, resulting in an incredibly entertaining space film a la ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Serenity’. It’s also one of the funniest out of all the MCU films but at the same time it isn’t a straight-up comedy; it takes itself seriously when it needs to be but at the same time isn’t all gloomy and depressing (looking at you, DC, and your alleged ‘no jokes’ mandate). It has the best non-Avengers ensemble cast of the entire MCU with a great cast of leads and some pretty awesome villains.

But most importantly, this film really benefits from having a lot of emotional resonance because you really come to care about the ‘Guardians’. While they are criminals and, to quote a line in the film, ‘a bunch of a-holes’, they’re really just misfits trying to find their place in the universe. You really have to give Marvel a hell of a lot of credit for making us feel for a talking raccoon and a tree creature. It is because of this emotional resonance and the fact that I feel that ‘Guardians’ is actually the funniest MCU film to date (because it’s more consistent with its humor) that I feel that ‘Guardians’ is actually better than ‘The Avengers’. Now I know that’s an incredibly bold thing to say. Also, please don’t misinterpret me because ‘Avengers’ is still phenomenal but after just two viewings of ‘Guardians’, it’s now my new personal favorite MCU film because I feel it does a few things better than ‘Avengers’ (e.g. humor, emotional resonance, etc…). It’s clear that a lot of you share that same sentiment because as this poll shows, ‘Guardians’ was one of your top three favorite films of the summer.

So those are your picks for your favorite films from these past four months of this year. I’m not going to do a ‘Worst of Summer 2014’ poll, mostly because I can already tell which film(s) is/are going to win that argument. So once again, I’d like to thank all of those who voted on this poll and as the end result shows, there truly were a large number of great films that came out this summer based on the various responses you gave me.

I leave you with this... dancing Groot!

2014 Preview: September

The Summer movie season has officially come to an end and now we’re closing in on the last third of 2014. We’re not quite into the ‘Oscar season’ yet and, to be honest, there’s not that much to talk about in regards to this month but of course there are still some noteworthy releases that will be hitting theaters in the next few weeks. Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s year-long preview of the films set to come out in 2014. This is Part 8 of 11 (previously 12) and today we’ll be looking at the films that will be hitting theaters this September.

SEPTEMBER 5

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a first for me in regards to this monthly preview. There are no notable new films hitting theaters this weekend. The only thing worth mentioning is a special one-week limited engagement of the 1994 Oscar-winning film ‘Forrest Gump’ in IMAX Theaters.

SEPTEMBER 12- Now we’re getting back on track as two new films will come out this weekend.

*2011’s ‘Dolphin Tale’ fared pretty well with critics and audiences when it was released that year. This month sees the release of its sequel ‘Dolphin Tale 2’. Like the first film, it is also based on a true story regarding the dolphin Winter who had lost her tail when she ended up getting caught in a fish trap. In this film, the members of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, who helped save Winter by giving her a prosthetic tail, are faced with a new challenge as they must find a new companion for Winter after her surrogate mother dies in order for her to stay at the Aquarium. The main cast of the first film (including Henry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, and Morgan Freeman) all return for this film.

*In ‘No Good Deed’, Taraji P. Henson stars as a former District Attorney who assists a stranger (played by Idris Elba) when he gets into an accident but it turns out this man isn’t as friendly as he seems.

SEPTEMBER 19- The busiest week of the month sees four new releases, including the newest young adult novel adaptation (in fact, three of these films are adaptations of novels) and a horror film from director Kevin Smith.

*The latest adaptation of a popular young adult novel, ‘The Maze Runner’, based on the book of the same name by James Dashner, centers on a boy named Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) who ends up being put into a mysterious place known as the ‘Glade’ that is surrounded by a giant maze that is guarded by creatures known as Grievers. With no memory of his past or the outside world, Thomas tries to figure out a way to escape.

*In ‘This is Where I Leave You’, based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Tropper, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Corey Stoll, and Adam Driver star as a group of siblings who reunite with their mother (Jane Fonda) following the death of their father. The film, directed by Shawn Levy, also stars Rose Byrne, Timothy Olyphant, and Dax Shepard.

*The final major ‘adapted’ film of the week is ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones’, based off of the book of the same name by Lawrence Block. Liam Neeson stars as an ex New York cop who is hired by a drug dealer to find his missing wife.

*Closing out the week’s new releases is ‘Tusk’, a horror film from director Kevin Smith. In it, Justin Long stars as a podcaster who ends up getting kidnapped when he goes to interview a sailor. It is set to be followed by a spin-off film in 2015, ‘Yoga Hosers’, which also stars the same cast from ‘Tusk’ but is set from the perspective of two convenience store clerks (Harley Quinn Smith, Kevin Smith’s daughter, and Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of Johnny Depp, who stars in these movies as an ex-cop).

SEPTEMBER 26- Closing out the month is a pair of new releases; one a stop-motion animated film and the other an adaptation of an old TV series.

*Laika, the studio behind ‘Coraline’ and ‘Paranorman’, debut their new film, ‘The Boxtrolls’, based off of the novel ‘Here Be Monsters!’ by Alan Snow. It centers on a boy named Eggs (Isaac Hempstead-Wright (‘Bran Stark’ from ‘Game of Thrones’)) who is raised by a group of underground-living trolls known as the ‘Boxtrolls’. The film’s voice cast also includes Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost.

*To close out the month, we have ‘The Equalizer’, based off of the TV series of the same name that ran from 1985 to 1989. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (‘Training Day’), Denzel Washington stars as an ex-special ops agent who faces the Russian mob after protecting a young girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) from them.

And those are the films that are set to come out in September. Check back next month for Part 9 in which we look at the October lineup.