Post Christmas Double Feature Short Reviews: 2014

Well folks, for the third year in a row, me and my co-panelist on ‘The Feature Presentation’, Matthew Goudreau, embarked on a cinematic double-header as we did our third straight post-Christmas double feature, as we went to go see a pair of potential award contenders yesterday, which has basically been the case with every film we’ve seen in this fashion since we started doing this. In 2012, we went to go see the musical epic ‘Les Miserables’ and Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, ‘Django Unchained’. Last year, it was Martin Scorcese’s hilarious, and in some cases rather underrated, black comedy ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘American Hustle’, the film that unfortunately I wasn’t as big a fan of compared to most critics; I was more in the line with the general reaction from most audiences. Like I did these last two years, I’m not going to do full reviews of these two films, only because I’m currently busy prepping my end-of-the-year ‘Best of’ list. So instead, I’m just doing a pair of quick short reviews for each of the two films that Matt and I watched yesterday. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

INTO THE WOODS

Disney has been known for some truly iconic movie musicals, from animated films like ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Frozen’ to live-action classics like ‘Mary Poppins’. Their latest musical, ‘Into the Woods’, certainly has quite the pedigree in terms of talent both behind and in front of the camera. It’s based off of the multi Tony Award winning musical of the same name by famous composer Stephen Sondheim and writer James Lapine. It’s directed by Rob Marshall, who helmed 2002’s Oscar-winning musical ‘Chicago’, and it’s got an all-star cast from top to bottom… and overall it’s a pretty damn good musical with stunning visuals and a nice light-hearted atmosphere that contrasts solidly with the darker turns of the second act. As some have joked, it’s sort of the fairytale equivalent of something like ‘The Avengers’ as it brings together many famous characters from classic fairytales, from Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) to Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) to Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone). It’s primarily focused around a Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who embark on a journey to lift a curse of infertility that was set upon the Baker’s family years ago by an old witch (Meryl Streep) by bringing her four items; “a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold”. And while they’re on this journey, they come across all of the aforementioned fairy tale characters who just so happen to have the items that they need.

There’s been much talk about whether or not Disney would ‘tone down’ some of the darker parts of the musical, like the sexual undertones of the scenes between Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf (Johnny Depp, who I kid you not is literally in the film for only about five minutes). And it’s true that certain parts were definitely toned down to maintain a family friendly PG rating. But, for the most part, I think it’s for the better. While the story certainly does get dark near the end, this is, for the most part, a fairly light-hearted story with a lot of humor and some fairly over-the-top moments but it’s ‘over the top’ in a good way as it’s a fairly heightened reality being that it’s a fairy tale. The musical numbers are solid and the cast is spot on from top to bottom. A lot of people have been focusing on Meryl Streep as the Witch and while she is great in the role, I have to say the biggest standout of the cast would actually have to be Emily Blunt as the Baker’s Wife, as she provides a much more ‘down-to-earth’ persona compared to most of the other characters in the story. My only real complaint about the film is that sometimes it feels like the story rushes through some moments, like when Jack climbs the beanstalk. I mean, this was probably the case with the musical as well but I do kind of wish that we could’ve gotten to see some of these moments. Still, ‘Into the Woods’ is a solid musical and while I can’t really say how much it stays true to the original musical due to the fact that I haven’t seen it, I have the feeling that this film at least does it justice.

Rating: 4.5/5

THE IMITATION GAME

Then we have ‘The Imitation Game’, based on the true story of Alan Turing, the famous computer scientist who was one of the key figures in cracking the Enigma Code of Nazi Germany during the Second World War by developing a special deciphering machine known as the ‘bombe’ that could encrypt these secret messages much faster than any human can. This story is truly fascinating and in some cases fairly sad due to some key events that happen near the end. I mean, this was a man whose work saved countless lives during World War II and, as some have predicted, it shortened the length of the war by at least two years. And yet unfortunately, in 1952, he was prosecuted for being a homosexual, a way of life that was outlawed in the UK at the time. He died only two years later in 1954 on account of suicide, and it wasn’t until recently (just a year ago, in fact) when his work was finally given the proper recognition it truly deserves. With that in mind, this is without a doubt a must-see ‘true story’ film as Turing was a man who truly left a major impact on all of our lives. You know those devices that you and I use every day… computers? His work is what laid the groundwork for that technology and the fact that he was prosecuted just for being gay (which is just total BS) makes this film even more important in today’s society, where currently only 35 states in the U.S. (and the District of Columbia) allow same-sex marriage.

The main highlight of this film is easily Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance in the role of Turing. I can definitely see a bit of Cumberbatch’s version of Sherlock Holmes in this performance as both men have this sort of awkwardness to them. But while Sherlock is more confident in what he’s doing despite the fact that he seems awkward and strange to everyone around him, Turing is fairly shy in terms of his awkwardness, which makes sense due to the fact that he’s holding in a big secret from everyone around him. Keira Knightley is also superb here as well as Joan Clarke, a fellow code-breaker who Turing gets into a romantic relationship with before finally revealing his secret to her. Not only are the performances great, but the film is really captivating as we see Turing and his team in a race against time to break the Enigma Code as they only have a set amount of time each day to figure it out before it switches at the end of the day. All in all, ‘The Imitation Game’ is a well-acted and well-directed film that truly shines a light on a man who thankfully has begun to receive the recognition that he truly deserves and the struggles that he went through near the end of his life will certainly resonate for many people today.

Rating: 5/5!

Annie (2014) review

Originally, this new adaptation of the 1977 musical ‘Annie’ by Thomas Meehan (which in turn was based on the comic strip ‘Little Orphan Annie’ by Harold Gray) was to star Will Smith’s daughter Willow in the title role of Annie (Smith himself serves a producer on this film alongside his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and Jay-Z). However, Willow ultimately dropped out of the role due to the fact that she was now too old for it. She ended up getting replaced by Quvenzhane Wallis, who was fresh off of becoming the youngest actress in history to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for her work in 2012’s ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’. This film hasn’t been getting a lot of good press recently, though, mainly due to the fact that on November 27^th the film ended up getting leaked online along with a few other unreleased Sony films and the already released ‘Fury’. Thankfully though, because this is a kids film (and with that said hopefully most kids don’t pirate movies off of the internet), it probably won’t impact the film’s performance at the box office too much, especially compared to what happened when ‘The Expendables 3’ got leaked earlier this year. But what of the film itself? Well, I’ve heard some people say that it’s one of the ‘worst of the year’ but after seeing it for myself, I’m not really one of those people. For the record, I’m not saying that this is ‘that good’ of a movie either but ultimately I think that for kids it’s pretty harmless.

Like in the previous adaptations of the story, this film centers on the titular Annie (Quvenzhane Wallis), a young orphan girl living in a foster home in Harlem with her fellow foster sisters under the care of the bitter and cruel alcoholic Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). While the other foster girls aren’t very optimistic about their chances of getting adopted, Annie is hopeful that one day her parents will return for her. While this is going on, cell phone mogul Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) is in the middle of trying to run for mayor. However, due to his generally dissenting attitude, he finds that he is unable to maintain a good public image amongst the people of New York. That changes, however, when one day he rescues Annie from getting hit by oncoming traffic. Not only does it go viral but it also boosts his ratings. With the encouragement of his campaign adviser Guy (Bobby Cannavale), Stacks invites Annie to lunch in order to capitalize on the whole situation. But then Annie suggests that Stacks become her temporary guardian as a way to boost his ratings even more. So Stacks agrees and Annie moves into his penthouse and as the two of them start to spend more time together, they start to bond and grow closer.

First, I want to note that at the time I’m writing this, I haven’t seen the original 1982 ‘Annie’ in quite some time (I think I saw the 1999 version as well, but I’m not as sure) so I won’t be comparing this film with its predecessors, which I wouldn’t have done anyway had I recently seen the other films. What I will say about this film is that if you’re not a fan of modern references and overly cheesy ‘family film’ moments, then you’re really going to like this movie as it is chock full of both of those. Still, despite the fact that the film does try a bit too hard in trying to be hip and appeal to newer audiences, there are some legitimately good things about this movie. For one thing, and you can call me sentimental all you want, I do feel that are some genuinely heartwarming moments in this film, primarily due to the relationship between Annie and Stacks which of course is the heart of the story. As for the songs, while I can’t say that all of the new renditions of the classic musical numbers are good, some of them are actually not that bad, namely ‘Maybe’, ‘It’s a Hard Knock Life’, and of course what is arguably the musical’s most iconic song, ‘Tomorrow’.

As far as the cast goes, the two biggest standouts are easily Wallis and Foxx. I haven’t seen ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ but it is very much clear that Wallis is definitely a genuine screen talent for her age, as she has great amounts of charisma and likability, proving that she really was a good choice for the role of Annie in this new adaptation of the story. Her chemistry with Foxx is really good and you really do see that they are bonding in a ‘father-daughter’ sort of way as Foxx also exhibits a lot of charisma in the ‘Daddy Warbucks’ role. The other main members of the cast, unfortunately, aren’t so lucky. I wouldn’t say it’s their faults as to why this is the way it is as it’s more a case where they didn’t really have much to work with, namely Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. And then there’s Cameron Diaz and I’m just going to put it out there… I have no idea what is up with her performance in this movie. I mean, I know that the role of Miss Hannigan is supposed to be over-the-top but Diaz tries way too hard to reach those levels of camp, especially in the beginning of the film. Thankfully, this isn’t the case throughout the entire movie as she does dial back the camp factor in the latter half of the film but that doesn’t really excuse what we saw in the first half of the film. Thankfully in the scenes where she’s with Stacks, Jamie Foxx perfectly personifies our own thoughts on what is going on with her performance.  

All in all, I’ll say this about this new version of ‘Annie’. I’m not saying that it’s technically a ‘good’ film as there are some noticeable big problems with it, namely that it does try too hard to appeal to modern audiences (that and Cameron Diaz’ questionable choices in her performance as Miss Hannigan). Still, despite all of that, I do feel that there are some truly good things about this movie. Some of the new renditions of the songs are pretty good, Quvenzhane Wallis and Jamie Foxx both do pretty good jobs and work off each other well, and there are some genuinely touching and emotionally poignant moments in regards to the relationship between Annie and Stacks. Ultimately, I’m not the target audience for this film as it is geared towards kids and as such, I don’t think that there’s really anything in this film that’s necessarily bad for kids. And really, considering that this year has been rather lacking in terms of ‘family films’, this is a nice little bit of fresh air after all of the much more mature films that we’ve seen this year. I have the feeling that kids will like this new take on this famous story okay. But as for the parents, there really isn’t much for you here. Still, as far as family films go, I’ve seen worse.

Rating: 2.5/5

Jersey Boys (2014) review

This is one of those cases where you have a movie that is directed by someone that quite frankly you would have never expected to make a movie that was a part of that genre given the director’s previous filmography. I mean, with a movie like ‘Jersey Boys’, based off of the four-time Tony Award winning Broadway musical of the same name which debuted in 2005 dramatizing the rise and fall of the famous 60’s rock group ‘The Four Seasons’, who would you think would have been a good choice to direct the film? Maybe someone who has directed musicals before like Rob Marshall (‘Chicago’), but would you have ever guessed that we would see a musical directed by Clint Eastwood… yes, the Clint Eastwood, the same man known for directing movies such as ‘Unforgiven’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby’. That alone made me interested in seeing this film. And I have to say that for a movie that’s currently getting rather mixed reviews right now and one that wasn’t too big of a hit at the box office during its first weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed it. While I do have some minor issues with the film’s length, I found the film to be very enjoyable and while it may sort of be your typical musical ‘biopic’, it benefits heavily from some great music, a good cast, and a pretty laid-back pace.

It all started in 1953 in Newark, New Jersey when Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza), a native of the area who constantly found himself getting into trouble with the police, forms a band called ‘The Variety Trio’ with his brother Nick and their friend Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda). Around that same time, Tommy befriends Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young), taking him under his wing and eventually letting him join the group where he ends up taking the place of Tommy’s brother. However, the three-man band continues to find little success up until they recruit a fourth member, singer/songwriter Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), change their name to the ‘Four Seasons’, and sign a contract deal. While at first they find themselves as back-up singers, they soon release a couple of number one hits, including ‘Sherry’ and ‘Walk Like a Man’, propelling them to superstardom. However, the relationships between the four members of the group start to become strained after it is revealed that Tommy is in serious debt having owed $150,000 to a loan shark.

The film does take a little bit to get going, about twenty minutes or so, but once the four main guys actually get together, that was when the film really started to pick up. I do sort of feel like the movie was ultimately just a little bit too long, but at the same time, there wasn’t really any instances where I started to get bored because I was really getting into the film. I felt that the four main guys had a really nice camaraderie/group dynamic, which really shows in regards to the music, which of course is fantastic. Call me an old-timer all you want, but I just love this kind of music and while the movie is sort of more focused on the behind-the-scenes developments of the group rather than their music, I guarantee you that this movie has its fair share of toe-tapping musical moments. I’ve heard a lot of critics say that this film could’ve had a bit more faster pace but I did kind of like that the film went at a pretty relaxing speed. For the record, I haven’t seen the musical itself so I don’t know the kind of pacing that it had compared to the film and yes, this film’s pacing probably is the main reason why I did feel that the movie went on just a bit longer than it needed to be but again, I didn’t think that the movie was ‘overlong’, per se.

Aside from Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito, pretty much every member of the main cast were all stage actors who had played these roles before, whether on Broadway or on national tours. Most notably John Lloyd Young returns to the role of Frankie Valli having originated the role when the musical first debuted, which won him a Tony in 2006. Some might say that because of this, the actors give off a bit too much of a ‘Broadway’ vibe but overall I think they all did a really good job. As I said earlier, Young, Piazza, Bergen, and Lomenda have a great camaraderie and they all did a great job performance-wise with the music. I won’t go as far as to choose the ‘standout’ of the four, though I will say that out of the four guys, I liked Young and Bergen the most in regards to their performances, not because these two are probably focused on the most in regards to the members of the group, but because I found that both came off as being pretty likable. Christopher Walken also has a nice minor role in this as Gyp DeCarlo, a mob boss with whom Frankie and Tommy have a good relationship with. He’s only in the movie for a few scenes, but of course, he’s Christopher Walken and he commands the stage whenever he’s on-screen.

I never thought that we would ever see Clint Eastwood direct a musical, but now he has and overall I’d say that it turned out to be pretty good. I’ve never seen the actual Broadway musical so I can’t say whether or not this movie is faithful to it, but I still found it to be an entertaining movie. Not only did I love the music, but I did actually like the fact that this movie didn’t try to speed through everything and that it had a pretty nice relaxing laid-back pace. And while I do feel that the movie was just a little bit too long, I’m not going to hold that against it because while the film did take a little bit to get going, after twenty minutes or so I was really getting into it and that is because I felt that the four main guys were really good and I found the story of the ‘Four Seasons’ to be pretty interesting, though I am aware that because this is a dramatization of their story, not all of what happened in this movie is ‘true’. Still, I do recommend this film, especially if you love this kind of music. It’s not exactly doing well right now at the box office though I do want to note when I did see this movie, the theater that I saw it in was actually packed so this film at least does have an audience though if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth checking out.

Rating: 4/5