At The Cinema - August 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy – 7

You’ll like this movie if you like

• Star Trek light
• Star Wars light
• Chris Pratt

So this is what it has come down to.  The only box office word-of-mouth break-out hit of the year is this mishmash.  This is one of those video-game resembling movies with a decent plot and a bevy of quips and one—liners.  It stars Chris Pratt as a super-hero of the future.  He wants to be called “Starlord,” but it’s a running joke that no one takes him seriously enough to call him that.  That kind of encapsulates the movie. 

It’s mildly entertaining, but so is sitting on the beach watching the surf.  They’re both simple, and their impact lasts only until something else catches your attention.  While the impact of the movie lasts only a few minutes, don’t underestimate the effort.  There is so much packed on-screen in every scene that it is CGI overload in the way that we’ve come to expect of our videogames.  The senses are overwhelmed with information. 

If you enjoy this, you won’t have to wait long for the sequel, I’m sure.

Scanning the Satellite.

The 2014 Summer Box-office is down 25%.  There has been a long list of things that were going to bring down movie theaters.  First it was TV, then color TV, then cable, then VCR’s, then satellite, then DVD’s, then Blu-Ray DVD’s.  Pronouncements were always premature.  But maybe, just maybe, the end is near. 

Streaming is here, and Netflix is only the beginning.  What was at first a computer activity, now is big screen, big impact.  I admit, I was late to the party.  Why go the the theater and watch someone text when you can sit at home and watch someone text?

Kings of Summer – 8

This was a modest indy hit last summer and it’s a light hearted variation on Stand By Me.  Three young high school lads decide to run away from their oppressive parents.  They build a house in a remote area of some woods, and decide they’ll live off the land, if you consider sneaking to a Boston Market living off the land.  It’s all as heartwarming as it sounds.

Here’s the good news.

It’s documentary season on the Heavyweight pay channels, and there are some whoppers.

The Cheshire Murders – 9

In 2007 a bucolic Connecticut community is shattered by a horrible murder.  Two burglars take a family hostage and brutally murder the wife and two daughters then burn the house down.  The husband, a respected doctor, survives the beatings and fire and the two perps are easily caught leaving the scene.

Over the next few years the investigation is conducted and it proceeds to trial.  It takes over 2000 interviews to seat a jury in New Haven, as the residents of Connecticut are all too ready to kill the defendants themselves.  The anguish of the residents, the family, and even the jurors as they view the evidence and pictures from the murder scene is palpable.  As the trial proceeds they are visibly shaken. 

The irony is that both had confessed, and the sole reason for a trial (and the resulting millions in expense) was to determine whether or not there would be a death penalty.  While all this was going on the state of Connecticut was debating a change in their death penalty law.

This HBO documentary captures the devastating impact of a crime on a family and a community so well, that you may be shaken as well. 

Captivated:  The Trials of Pamela Smart – 8

Before there was OJ, there was Pamela Smart.  She was a teacher who allegedly got three teenagers to murder her husband.  There was a high-profile trial, one of the first with cameras in the courtroom.  This was definitely beneficial for the making of a TV movie with Helen Hunt playing Pamela Smart, then a major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman.  The witnesses today are now confused about what they said and heard.  Was it real?  Was it in the first movie?  Was it in the second movie?  How bizarre is that?  Imagine the appeals that go on to this day.

Kidnapped for Christ – 9

Parents send their at-risk teens to an enclave in the Dominican Republic for just $72,000 a year (more than Harvard.)  The camp will “swat” the gay out.  Corporal Punishment, solitary confinement, and pushups galore are just a few of the fun activities that are on-tap for the captured.  The brainwashing is high intensity, and it all resembles a concentration camp.  You can’t leave even if you aren’t buying in.  

This is religion at its scariest, and it is amazing that director Kate Logan was given access to Escuela Caribe.  She starts out as a willing advocate, an Evangelical Christian film student, excited to document the teenagers’ transformation during their stay at a “Christian therapeutic residential boarding facility.”

As she begins to witness abuse, she becomes part of the story, and this Showtime documentary focuses on 3 young people who long to escape.   Soon, her blood is boiling and yours will be to. 

The Armstrong Lie – 8

Filmmaker Alex Gibney set out to chronicle Lance Armstrong’s comeback.  Had the legendary Armstrong Arrogance not prompted the attempt to recapture the glory, we probably would’ve never known how much he’d cheated, and the lengths he’d gone to cover it up.  Gibney was there to capture the wheels coming off the Armstrong myth, as he was exposed as a doper.   It’s not what he set out to do, but talk about being in the right place at the right time.  This is compelling and fascinating and another lesson in how far athletes push themselves.  Whatever it takes.  Watch and be warned.