Spectre – 8
James Bond has become a measure of time, and I’ve been
married for 11 installments. We’ve seen
them all. You can usually count on some
good stunts, a ridiculous story, a couple of Bond girls, at least one martini,
and an ending whereby the world has been saved again, all in a movie that goes
on about a half hour too long.
One other thing you can count on with the current Bond, Daniel
Craig. He is the most clean shaven dude
in the history of cinema. A que ball
would be jealous. He looks like he has
had every facial hair surgically removed.
A five o’clock shadow must be a matter of national security. I found myself saying throughout the movie,
“man, did he shave again?” Of course,
when I go to a George Clooney movie I enjoy watching his stubble change from
scene to scene. So, there’s that.
Spectre delivers on the tried and true 24 picture
formula. After the heaviness of Skyfall,
which I did not terribly enjoy, I was not expecting much from 2nd
time director Sam Mendes. In fact my
thinking was that with the additional seriousness of Skyfall, there was nowhere
to go, from a story telling standpoint.
Bond’s past had been revealed, dissected, and resolved, so now what?
Well, spoiler alert – what’s love got to do with it? Yes it had appeared that Bond had done some
serious relationship time in the past, but leave it to Mendes and Craig to
surprise me.
The villain here is played by Quentin Tarantino go-to baddie
Christoph Waltz who is as convincing as he is conniving. The Bond Girl here is played by Lea Seydoux
and she brings something extra to the role, and I’m not the only one that
noticed – Bond notices too, and when the damsel is in distress, Bond ramps up
his intensity. Maybe that’s why he keeps
shaving. So, in a plot that is almost
identical to Mission Impossible 5, it’s soon them against the espionage world,
and the world doesn’t stand any more of a chance than stubble would.
Truth – 8
This is an often fascinating portrait of CBS 60 minutes
producer Mary Mapes and anchor Dan Rather, the team that tried to tell the
story of George Bush’s alledged AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. Mapes was fresh off breaking the atrocities
of Abu Ghrabi, so she was a hot journalist looking for her next Pulitzer.
There’s a 2 part allegation here. The first is that Bush got preferential
treatment in being allowed to enroll in the Texas Air National Guard rather
than be subject to the draft and a Vietnam tour.
The second is much worse.
It alleged he went AWOL for a long period. The second part falls apart under scrutiny
after Rather breaks it on the evening news.
The shaky nature of the research eventually costs Mapes her job, and
Rather is soon ousted from CBS after a long and distinguished career.
The movie tries to be a great journalism expose like All the
President’s Men, but it falls well short of that masterpiece. The movie leaves you with the impression that
Bush probably did something wrong, but we didn’t really know what. It’s an interesting part of American history
that doesn’t get solved here, probably because only one man knows the truth,
and he’s not about to talk about it.
On a personal note, I was never a Dan Rather fan until about
a month ago, when I discovered his show on AXS (Mark Cuban’s channel – 340 on
Directv.) It’s called The Big Interview,
and he does 1 hour sessions with a wide variety of famous people like Carlos
Santana and Aaron Sorkin. He asks the
questions I would ask, so naturally I like it.
Certainly a better way to go into the sunset than his expulsion from
CBS.
The Hunger Games – Mockingjay part 2 - 3
Finally, it’s over.
In a finale that is as excruciating as having your wisdom teeth put back
in, just so you can have them pulled again, the 9 lives of Katniss Everdeen
comes to a merciful end. I will, and I
suggest you do as well, equate the 8 hours or so that you may have invested in
the Hunger Game series as just a day at the office, one that went from bad to
worse, and by the end of the day you were ready for several of James Bond’s
martinis. Just one of those horrible
work days that will fade from memory, after it sits in the pit of your stomach
for a few days.
The series, which was mildly interesting at first, jumped
the moat when the money grubbers decided to split the finale into 2 parts,
effectively stretching one movie into two so that they could dip into the wallets,
well mostly purses, of the gullible public just one extra time and enhance the
stock price of whatever studio funded this repetitive repetition.
Even Jennifer Lawrence, who became a star over the course of
the series, looks bored by the elongated end.
She should get not an Oscar for this, but some kind of lifetime
achievement medal of honor, for giving so much time and effort. And poor Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He’s still appears in this blotation device,
even though he’s been dead for years.
So, what’s so bad about this installment? First, the ending of the movie is obvious in
the first five minutes. If you don’t see
the ending arrow coming a mile away, well you don’t get out much. Secondly, halfway through the movie, a new
species (I think – it all kind of runs together) is revealed, turning it into a
horror movie. It’s like we were suddenly
transported into a different movie, Night of the Living Halloween Evil
Dead. I wanted to run for my life, into
another movie, any movie. The only thing
like it I’ve ever seen was when the Ark of the Covenant was opened in Raiders
of the Lost Ark and it suddenly became a supernatural movie. Not that I’m comparing this to Raiders, oh
no.
Now I was assured by a woman of the female persuasion that the
book was great, and I’m sure it was. But
I’ve never cared a whit about how a book compares to a movie, and all I can say
is I’m glad it’s all over. Hats off to a
terrific cast that performed diligently as the script(s) unraveled. Now let’s go to the dentist for some real
fun.
Brooklyn – 9
Movies are best when they do just a few things well. Transport you to a different time and place,
tell a simple story well, and stay on the appropriate pace. Check, check, and check on this beautifully
crafted story of an Irish immigrant in the 1950’s who has a job waiting in
Brooklyn.
In a time when immigration is a most volatile word, we sometimes
forget the simple reason our great nation was built with immigrants. They wanted to leave where they were and come
to America for a better life. That was
the goal. Just a better life.
Eilis Lacey, played impeccably by Saoirse Ronan, (and the
whole cast is perfect) is a young girl who will find love as she comes out of
her shy, homesick shell while she adjusts to her new home. The conflict will be when she has to return
home for family reasons. Does she commit
to her new life in America, or retreat to the comforts of home? This is a gentle movie, a real movie that
bears no resemblance to the video game clones in the other stalls of the
Cineplex. My suggestion would be to go
see this on throw-back Thursday. That
would be perfect. It will return you to
a simpler time, when immigrants believed the inscription on the Statue of
Liberty was sincere, and movie makers believed you could tell a good story
without computer assistance.
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