Chappie (2015)

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Never before have I written about a movie that made me feel so conflicted. Neil Blomkamp has made only one film, District 9, that has been an overall critical success. His others, Elysium and now Chappie, have been generally critically panned. Chappie follows those two films with a very identical visual language and theme. I wanted to like Chappie desperately, but it ends up being more of a hot mess than an enjoyable film.

Chappie follows the story of a robot designer, Deon (Dev Patel), working for an international arms company. That company has hit it big selling mechanized “scouts” to augment South Africa’s fledgling police force. Crime is falling, and large sums of money in the form of government contracts are rolling in. It feels very Robocop, right up to the giant two-legged robot laden with a bunch of guns that still doesn’t quite work right. Deon wants to focus his efforts on creating the world’s first true artificial intelligence but is rebuffed by his corporate boss. Hugh Jackman plays a bad guy this time, and seems to enjoy being cartoonishly evil for a change. Sigourney Weaver also shows up to read lines and collect a paycheck. Eventually, the AI robot does get made, but things go awry when he is kidnapped by two gangsters looking for a means to pull off a big heist.

We’ll start off with the good. One thing Neil Blomkamp does well is style and atmosphere. His movies always have a certain level of industrial grit to them. Two of them take place in inner city slums of South Africa, while one takes place in a futuristic slum of Mexico that looks just like a modern day slum of South Africa. The tech looks really neat, the robots in this film have a great design, even if they feel a bit recycled from Elysium. (I imagine that there’s some credence to the idea that all of Blomkamp’s movies take place in their own shared universe). The effects for the robots are also fantastic. Its nearly impossible to tell if they are CGI or some type of practical effect at any given time. Some of the action scenes are fun.

Unfortunately, that’s about it. My biggest issue with the film was the South African rap duo Die Antwoord, which play two gangsters that kidnap Chappie the robot. They have a huge role in the film, and are mostly just really super obnoxious. Every scene they are in is cringe worthy. I can imagine some others being forced to turn this movie off. Not to mention they were apparently a huge nightmare to the cast and crew, resulting in rewrites after certain actors refused to film scenes with them.

The plot, while trying to pretend it’s trying to do something interesting, really isn’t. It’s like a backwards Robocop: A police robot gains sentience, and must discover his humanity through conducting crimes. Or, if you will, a more violent South African remake of Short Circuit. I also wasn’t sure why an AI had to behave like an infant or child. I can understand having to learn to understand human motivation, but to have the robot start out like a literal babbling baby was an odd choice. There were a couple odd plot devices as well- Chappie is able to interface with a computer using a neural helmet designed for a human. If he doesn’t have any brains, how does it work? Why doesn’t he just plug himself into the computer? Are we supposed to believe it’s a “soul” detecting helmet? There’s some other head scratching scenes as well, including the silly computer code typed on a keyboard that makes the AI program run.

Bottom Line- 2 out of 5- Mostly style over substance, and mostly just loud noise instead of any type of intelligence. It’s a fun type of dystopia until you really meet your main characters. If you liked Blomkamp’s other films it’s at least worth a rent, but it’s the least strong out of the bunch.

Big Hero 6 (2014)

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Like most movies these days, it takes me too long to get round to seeing them. Or it takes me too long to getting around to writing about them. In this case, it was the former. Its a fun, beautifully animated, and surprisingly emotional picture that deserves the praise it got. Big Hero 6 is a Disney adaption of a Marvel comic book. Which blows my mind, considering it there have been no solid sequel plans announced. Usually anything Disney multiplied by Marvel results in a spreadsheet of sequels and spin offs planned for out in detail for the next 15 years. 

Big Hero 6 takes place in the fictional city of San Fransokyo; a futuristic blend of two already visualy interesting cites. Young prodigy Hiro (Ryan Potter) is pulled away from a career of back alley "bot fighting" by his older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney). After tragedy strikes, Hiro sets out on an adventure aided by the robot Baymax. 

I shouldn't have doubted the ability of a Disney animated picture to make be feel feelings, but it did. The trailers portrayed it to be fairly light hearted but it makes a pretty serious emotional turn right off the bat. (Note: I cried at the end of Toy Story 3). It manages to be the best of both Disney and Marvel; combining a fun adventure with plenty of heart and fun action. The animation and art direction are also fantastic. Baymax really steals the show, pulling plenty of heartstrings and providing plenty of the film's laughs. 

The plot isn't overly complex, and a lot of the beats in the third act can be predicted before they happen. However, the heart of the characters and the overall beauty of the visuals make up for this. 

Bottom Line- 4 out of 5- The best parts of a Disney animated pictured blended with the best action hero action Marvel has to provide. 

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)

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Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation is the 5th outing of crazed, rich cultist Tom Cruise as secret agent Ethan Hawke. This time, Hawke is up against another secret evil organization, only this time its secreterer and evilerer than before. Can Cruise (and friends) complete the mission? 

Well, yes, because that's how things work in these kinds of movies. What follows is a series of loosely connected set pieces that are enjoyable, but not nearly up to the level of sheer fun as the last entry in the series.

The plot is... well, typical for this type of movie. Bad thing happens. Secret agents get blamed. Secret agents must battle both good guys and bad guys to clear their name and stop more bad thing from happening. Set piece in exotic locale. Set piece in another exotic locale. Product placement! Another exotic locale. Motorcycle chase. Expensive underwater set piece. Climax. More product placement. Resolution.

In fact, the main thing that I noticed about this movie was all of the shameless product placement. Some of the things I noticed (Full list taken from brandchannel)

Airbus (A400)- The plane Tom Cruise dangles from on the poster.
BMW- Make sure the logo is in focus at all times
Dell- Lots of Dell Monotors and laptops with logos perfectly visible and centered in frame.
Microsoft Windows- Close up on screens, gratuitous. Shots that linger on surface tablets with large Microsoft logos for long amounts of time.
Nokia- Windows phones!
And plenty of others that I can't really remember. The biggest one do I remember, that I'm not sure many others would have noticed, is the Zoll X Series Cardiac Monitor/Defibrillator. Its used to revive Tom Cruise in one scene, and to knock out another character in the same scene. These big studio franchises are a big business, and I understand that. However, there is a point where the product placement becomes groan worthy and stands out a bit too much.

Revive your own action hero, starting at $15,358 MSRP. 

The mission impossible films, at least the last two, really survive on their unique tone. Its somewhere in between the Jason Borne modern, dark spy thriller; and the old-school, wacky 1970s era James Bond adventures. It keeps itself serious enough to keep us invested in the plot and its consequences, while at the same time being just tongue-in-cheek enough to keep the action fun and entertaining. While this outing was less fun than the Brad Bird directed Ghost Protocol, its still a serviceable outing. The main set piece, this time inside of a giant, water cooled computer core, certainly is thrilling. But its still no comparison to the Burj Khalifa sequence in the last film. While I'm sure it involved Tom Cruse risking his life in some kind of giant underwater pool it still ended up looking like a video game with all of the CGI spliced in. In contrast to the Burj Khalifa sequence, where the only thing that CGI was used for was to erase the wires holding the studio's $50 million plaything Tom Cruise in the air. 

Bottom Line- 3 out of 5: An enjoyable action film, especially if you like millionaire cultists Tom Cruise. Worth a rent, but not as fun as the last outing. 

Sicario (2015)

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Sicario is Spanish for “hitman” or “assassin”. I learned this from watching the trailer. For the majority of the film, I was waiting to find out what its significance was. It paid off in a very slow, tense, and anxiety ridden way that subverted the usual type of plot twist that tries way too hard to “blow your mind”.

Sicario starts out by using tropes we’re very familiar with in crime dramas or police procedurals. Some examples:

-Rookie FBI agent recruited for extra special secret dangerous mission.

-Sassy partner/sidekick.

-Super clean, futuristic government offices with glass walls, glass tables and lots of flat screen monitors.

-Viewing security cameras in the back of an unmarked van.

-Black government SUVs with tinted windows.

-Mysterious, unconventional mentor.

-Don’t touch that, it’s going to- Yep, it blew up.

 It uses those tropes very well, though, and drops most of them by midway through the film. Emily Blunt stars as Kate, an up and coming FBI agent working the drug trade routes along the southern border. She is recruited by the unconventional (He wears flip flops in the office! So unconventional!) government agent Matt, played very well by Josh Brolin. The real star is Benicio Del Toro, who is a shady government “consultant” working on the team. I won’t go much more into plot details, because its best if you go in fresh, but the overall plot is relatively simple.

Where Sicario really shines is pacing and the building of tension. The score is extremely minimal, and gives a sense of dread the minute it starts. The type of tension is also something that’s rare now-a-days; it’s not “edge of your seat” in the “wow this is an exciting, fun adventure” sense, its edge of your seat in the “wow I’m scared, I feel sick to my stomach and am actually sweating right now” sense. Director Denis Villeneuve has demonstrated with great skill how he can impart a sense of pure dread on an audience.

My one and only gripe with the film is that the main character felt relatively flat up until the third act. She just goes along for the ride, literally, for the first 40 minutes of the film. This is explained away in the end but sort of feels unrealistic to add an FBI agent to your team just to have them do nothing. Blunt plays the character very well, and an arc is apparent by the end of the film. Josh Brolin does a good job in his role, but is overshadowed by Benicio Del Toro. Del Toro’s performance starts out benign and kind of mysterious, but slowly morphs into something you’d check under your bed for before going to sleep at night.

Bottom Line- 4 out of 5: Like I said, the plot and overall lesson of this film has been done many times before. How far will you go to stop the bad guys, will you risk resorting to immoral means to win, etc. Where Sicario really shines is in pacing, tone and casting. Overall a very good crime thriller that subverts some genre tropes to make for a memorable experience. 

Format Change... And hopefully more posts.

If you follow at all (and you probably don't), you know my posts here happen with the frequency of a lunar eclipse. I'm hoping to change that and begin posting more often again.

I'll also be including a slight format change in how I rate movies. It will still be in a 10 point scale, but this time I'll be splitting the 10 points into two different categories. The first will be the technical quality of the film- cinematography, editing, and effects to name a few. The second will be story, pacing, and characters. I don't think this will change the overall ratings I hand out, but it will help you differentiate between a film's technical failings and things that are just my opinion.

Trainwreck (2015)

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Directed By: Judd Apatow

Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader (many other celebrities) 

I'll start out my review of Trainwreck by saying this: Its not usually my type of movie. You can look back at my older reviews full of sci-fi/action/corny remakes to realize that. I had no intention of going to see it, but was invited by some friends to a showing. So if rom-coms are your deal, maybe you'll appreciate it more than I did. 

Amy Schumer is a very funny standup comedian. Her show on Comedy Central is pretty funny and equally insightful. Trainwreck, on the other hand, is peak mediocrity. 

This stock image lady feels the same as I do. Three "mehs" out of five. 

Trainwreck follows the sexual exploits of Amy (Amy Schumer). Taught by her father that monogamy is unrealistic, she leads a life of one night stands. Trainwreck is played out as a "reverse" rom-com in the sense that its the promiscuous female that needs to be tamed by the noble male, not the other way around. Working for a magazine, Amy is assigned to do a story on a high profile sports medicine physician (Bill Hader). It quickly progresses into a one night stand instigated by Amy. The good doctor wants something more, so he seeks to tame Amy's wild streak and form a more serious relationship. 

Many of the promos marketed this as a "different" romantic comedy. Besides the role reversal I mentioned above, it is about cliche a rom-com you can get. Two unlikely souls meet. Fall in love. Fall out of love. Both have moments of somber introspection. Both realize they were meant for each other. Roll credits. To me, its a flaw. To others, it could just be a normal rom-com genre plot. Like I said, not usually my type of movie. 

But is it funny? Sometimes. Its usually funniest at its raunchiest, I could not have enjoyed this movie in the slightest if it had gone with a PG-13 rating. (If you ever wanted to see a 98% naked John Cena, this is your flick) Where the funny bits fall flat are the bit celebrity parts. Some of the cameo roles are not actors and it shows, big time. Other celebrities, actual actors, feel shoehorned in and serve no purpose, kind of rendering the scene pointless (I'm looking at you, Mathew Broderik). The presented style feels odd too, like they couldn't settle on the style of comedy they wanted to do. Sometimes its played straight, sometimes there's a narration, sometimes theres fourth wall smashing jokes that did nothing but make me confused. 

Honorable mention: Even if it was a bit part, I was surprised to see comedian Mike Birbiglia as Amy's Flanders-esque brother in law. He was pretty funny. 

Bottom Line- 5/10: Those who are die hard fans of Amy Schumer and rom-coms will appreciate this flick. Otherwise, its just another tired, if a bit raunchier than average, romanic comedy fare. 

Elysium (2013)

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Directed By: Neill Blomkamp

Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga

Elysium is director Neill Blomkamp's second chance at directing a feature film. His first was 2009's District 9, which still remains as one of my favorite movies of all time. Elysium seems to share a lot of traits with D9: a gritty/dirty setting, a not-so-subtle political message, and badass looking future tech. So, now that Blomkamp has had a chance with a bigger budget and Hollywood star power; did he pull of another sci-fi masterpiece? 

Elysium is set in the year 2154. The earth has become a desolate wasteland, with future LA taking center stage looking like a sprawling third world slum. The ultra-super rich have retreated to a space station called Elysium. They have robot servants that cater to their every need, and space magic medical beds that can cure any aliment in seconds, including severe cases of "exploded off face". Mat Damon stars as Max, a reformed car thief and thug. Max suffers an accident at work, leaving him with only days to live. Rather than die in a slum on earth, max decides to enlist the help of his old gangster friends to get him to one of Elysium's magic medical beds. 

Elysium gets a few things right- Blomkamp comes from a visual effects background, and it still shows. All of the future tech is incredibly cool looking. Not only does it look slick, but it looks feasible; from the cobbled together tech of the gangsters that live in poverty, to the shiny (and scary) looking security droids of Elysium. You can tell a lot of attention to detail went into creating this world. The action scenes are also well done, even if they don't last that long. 

Apart from that, Elysium falls into a deep pit of mediocrity. The villains in the film, both the rich soulless bureaucrats and the evil mercenaries that protect Elysium, are totally one demential. There is more substance in the average Scooby Doo bad guy. Jodie Foster seems totally out of place as Elysium's defense secretary, it almost feels the only reason she was cast was so they had another cool name to put along side Matt Damon on the poster. 

The bad guys aren't the only ones that suffer from poor character development. Max, the main character, is little more than a blank slate. He has no arc, remaining totally flat throughout the entire film. He never has any kind of revelation or change of heart, and never really faces any difficult decisions. This rings true for the other protagonists as well. The film' message and conclusion is just as hollow as the characters. 

Bottom Line- 6/10- Blomkamp's second film is far more forgettable than his first. It has the same fun visuals and action, but fails on the most important things that make a movie: characters and story.