Monsters University (2013) ***

U.S. Release Date: June 21, 2013

Running Length: 1:42

Rated: G

Cast: (voices) Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Charlie Day

Director: Dan Scanlon

Screenplay: Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson, Dan Scanlon

 

There has been a bit of a drought of good product coming out of the marriage of Disney and Pixar as of late. A few years ago the name Pixar meant that the film was going to be an instant family classic that would entertain families for generations to come. Then Pixar got interested in making sequels. The first of the bunch, long before things really turned sour, was Toy Story 2. Now we have Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Planes (not really a sequel but it is tied to Cars), and an upcoming Finding Nemo sequel. Tied into all of this is the prequel to Monsters Inc, a 2005 film that was an instant classic.

 

Monsters Inc was the perfect solo film. It ended in such a way that there was really nowhere for it to go in a sequel. But when a studio is determined to mine a well more than once they can find a way to go back to it. In this case it is through the art of a prequel. This time around we get the college days of Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sully (John Goodman) as they attend Monsters University intent on finding work as scarers. Naturally they don't start out as friends, but rivals that are forced to work together in order to find their own strengths as well as learning how to work together as a team.

 

While there are scenes that aim for the adults in the audience it is nowhere as prevalent as it was in the original film. This one is aimed more towards the kids which is odd considering the college setting. There is very little comment about college and no humor taken from this setting. It could have happened at summer camp or any other social gathering where large numbers of teenagers are forced to co-habit. This is a lost opportunity that could have further brought in the adult demographic. There is also a rather obvious message to the film that is heavy handed at times and more than a little obvious.

 

Once you get past its flaws though this film is tremendously fun to watch and it can easily ride the coattails of its two stars who still have chemistry, even when they hate each other. These two struck gold in the original film and they continue to shovel it here. They work during the comedic scenes as well as the more emotional films. Both sell the emotions of insecurity that were mostly absent in the earlier film but feel organic in this earlier setting. Neither has an easy job here as both have their emotional hangovers that they must work through to get to the climax.

 

It was a risky endeavor to go the route of the prequel. For one the ending in inevitable and the challenge is to get there in a surprising way. This film succeeds in doing this and making it worth the journey there. It is in no way superior or even equal to the original but it is still a very good film. It needed to be a little more adult friendly but its definitely not strictly kiddie fare. If only I had the same feelings about the upcoming Planes and Finding Dory.

This is the End (2013) **

U.S. Release Date: June 12, 2013

Running Length: 1:47

Rated: R (Profanity, Sexual Content, Violence, Drugs, Nudity)

Cast: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride

Director: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg

Screenplay: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg

 

While it is not entirely original for actors to be playing themselves i.e. Wes Craven's New Nightmare, it is still somewhat of an anomaly in film, especially when everybody in it is basically playing themselves. It is this conceit that is one of this films sole saving graces. It is dark, crude, and at times hilarious, but it is also overly long and meandering at times, presenting too many stops and starts to maintain the momentum needed to propel this film to its conclusion.

 

The basic story revolves around Seth Rogan and Jay Baruchel, childhood friends who have drifted apart as Rogan finds success in Hollywood. While Jay is visiting Seth in L. A. they attend a party hosted by James Franco who has also invited numerous other celebrities including Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride. While taking a brief break from the party the end of the world, or at least L. A. (That part isn't really fleshed out), bright lights come from the sky and whisk away lots of people and then fire and brimstone reigns down on the rest, killing most and setting the entire Hollywood hills area in flames. Most of the party goers are sucked into a sinkhole and the rest (Seth, Jay, James, Jonah, Craig and Danny) hole up in Franco's house afraid of what is going on outside. What comes afterwards is mostly a believable scenario of what would happen when these type of people are forced to survive without their luxuries and a fear for their lives. Eventually they'll have to venture outside for water and food but it is surprising how long it takes to get there and what happens when they do.

 

Being a Seth Rogan film, writing, directing and starring, this film is filled to overflowing with gross-out profanity and sex related humor. Some of this is hilarious but most of it is just there to satisfy Rogan fans. Some of it is hit over the head over and over again, losing its humor only to find itself suddenly funny again when it comes back for an encore at unusual moments. This film is loaded with callbacks, only some of them that really pay off.

 

The films biggest strength is its self aimed humor. There is a very brief moment early on when a paparazzi photographer corners Rogan and accuses him of always playing the same character. That goes for this film as well. Jonah Hill is perfect as the overly nice person who tries to be nice to everyone no matter what happens to him. What eventually happens to him hits things right on the head.

 

What ultimately makes this film ineffective is the references to religion and what is really going on outside Franco's house. It is heavy handed and telegraphed early on and is a bit disappointing how it is portrayed. It is also puctuated by some really shoddy CGI work that is so bad at times that I wondered if it was intentionally done that way. Intentional or not it took me out of the film and damaged my enjoyment of it.

 

Ultimately this film is overlong and more than a little self-indulgent, but what can be expected from a film written and directed and starred by Seth Rogan. It needs some better writing and a more polished direction. It also needs a clear direction to go instead of feeling like it was meandering all the time as everyone is bumbling around the house bickering and going nowhere.

World War Z (2013) **

U.S. Release Date: June 21, 2013

Running Length: 1:56

Rated: PG-13 (Violence)

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Ludi Boeken, Fana Mokoena, Pierfrancesco Favino

Director: Marc Forster

Screenplay: Matthew Michael Carnahan and Drew Goddard & Damon Lindelof, based on a screen story by Matthew Michael Carnahan and J. Michael Straczynski, based on the novel by Max Brooks

 

World War Z is an ambitious novel. It tells the story of a worldwide zombie apocalypse from the first person narrative of several different people relating things as they saw it. While this is not entirely a unique approach to war (M*A*S*H did this a time or two) it is unique to the zombie genre. Summer tent pole films are not the same beast as a television show like M*A*S*H, nor are they as intimate as a novel. They are meant to be a visual feast and that is exactly what this summers World War Z film is. That in and of itself is not a problem. What is a problem is that the film doesn't try to be more than that. It settles for being nothing more than a visual gluttony without having any real heart or logic behind the whole proceedings.

 

The film starts out with the Lane family, Gerry (Brad Pitt), his wife Karin (Mireille Enos) and their two daughters. It is hinted at that Gerry spent some time in war torn areas but nothing specific is given out until much later in the show. While out for a drive in the city chaos breaks loose and people start attacking each other, biting at random and spreading a decease that quickly kills their victims and transforms them into zombies. Gerry manages to get himself and his family rescued and transported to a military vessel off in the Atlantic Ocean but is informed that if he wants to keep his family there then he must accompany a team of soldiers and a scientist on a mission to find patient zero in an attempt to find a cure for this plague. This leads him to Korea, then to Jerusalem and finally to the World Health Organization.

 

There is well documented drama going on behind the camera including some last minute editing that make this film seem unfinished. For starters there are several things that come up during the course of the film that seem to be forgotten midway and abandoned by the wayside, things that feel like they should be explained or resolved and yet don't amount to anything. This is a film begging for an extended video release to allow things to be resolved in a way the theatrical version has not. The character of Gerry seems unreal most of the film as well. He makes leaps of deduction that would have left Sherlock Holmes puzzled. He also manages to survive everything while everyone else around him is getting massacred. The only thing that saves him from being a complete wash is the superb performance given by Brad Pitt who makes Gerry the only character not hewn from cardboard.

 

World War Z had the potential to be a bigger film than it ends up being. It cribs much from smaller, more effective films like 28 Day Later. But unlike 28 Days it suffers from too much eye candy and not enough believable story to keep it from collapsing under its own weight. The most effective scenes in the film happen during the final thirty minutes where it takes a sudden minimal approach that is creepy and enjoyable at the same time but it takes too long to get to that point. It also ends abruptly with a few disjointed scenes to wrap things up that are ultimately unsatisfying.

 

This is not the greatest zombie film of all time like it would like it to be. It has too much wrong with it to elevate it to that level. It is watchable, thanks to Pitt, but, aside from the last set piece, it never gets above that which is too bad. It advertises itself as the most expensive zombie movie ever made. 28 Days Later was low budget and proves that more money doesn't make a film better. It just makes it look sharper, something that doesn't always help a movie about zombies.

Man of Steel (2013) **1/2

Running Length: 2:28

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, Sexual Dialogue)

Cast: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne

Director: Zack Snyder

Screenplay: David S. Goyer, based on a story by David S. Goyer & Christopher Nolan

Sigh!

That one word pretty much describes my feelings coming out of Zack Snyder's reboot of the Superman franchise. It is hard for me to express beyond that just how underwhelming the experience was, especially considering my trepidation going into it.

Let me put things into perspective. While I was just one year old at the time Superman the movie came out in theaters I was old enough to remember, barely, seeing its sequel a few years later and loving it so much that I made my parents sit through a second screening of it back to back (you could do that in those days, how times have changed). I also got to watch both films over and over throughout my childhood and even have a copy of the first film on Blu-ray. I am not a slave to Christopher Reeve's interpretation of the Man of Steel but I do recognize that he captured the imaginations of children the world around and made me believe a man could fly. Brandon Routh did much the same thing in 2006's Superman Returns. That film was weak and full of problems but Routh wasn't one of them.

Henry Cavill is stone faced and an enigma most of this new film. His interpretation of Superman is hard to read because he shows no real depth. Most of the character development for him comes in the form of flashbacks, relegated to other actors playing him at various ages of his growing up years. Cavill himself is as cold and emotional as the steel he is compared to.

The story is pretty threadbare. There is the standard cacophonous opening sequence that depicts the destruction of Krypton. This includes a rather lengthy action sequence involving Jor-el (Russell Crowe) fighting off the army of General Zod (Michael Shannon), hopping on a giant winged creature and flying through firefights and massive destruction. This ultimately leads to Jor-el and his wife sending their son, the infant Superman, to earth. Zod is captured and sent to the phantom zone where he immediately escapes and tracks down Superman.

Flash forward thirty-two years later (that number should excite Christians who are once again bludgeoned with the Christ allegory presented in the Superman mythos) and Supes is a wandering loner randomly saving peoples lives and attracting the attention of a reporter for the Daily Planet, Lois Lane (Amy Adams). Zod shows up, threatens the earth if they don't turn Superman over to him, then plots to terreform  earth into a new Krypton killing everyone there already.

I know this is not the late seventies or early eighties, decades that fostered the image of Superman that Reeves played, but that doesn't mean Superman has to be portrayed as a brooding loner. It also doesn't mean that the characters around him need to be one dimensional and spouting crude dialogue laced with sexual comments and profanity. This may be the 21st century but Superman is still looked at as a family friendly superhero and Snyder has taken him away from that and added unnecessary potty humor to the mix. Christopher Nolan (Whose name is added to this film in a producer roll) made his Dark Knight trilogy aimed at an older audience and managed to not stoop to the potty humor and gratuitous profanity to bring his superhero into the modern era.  

Amy Adams is all wrong in the roll of Lois Lane. She has made a career of playing soft hearted love interests in mostly forgettable films. Her take on Lois is much the same and never conveys the hard edge needed for a top level journalist like her character is supposed to be. This isn't as bad as Denise Richards's Nuclear Physicist in The World is Not Enough but it is almost as ineffective. She is in way over her head here, relegated to playing follow the leader rather than striking out on her own and amounting to more than just a love interest who is along for the ride. She has screen presence but it is wasted on a roll that does her no favors and suffers from poor direction.

Michael Shannon is equally ineffective as General Zod, spouting about how he was genetically created to do what he does, eliminating choice from his character. Watching him I kept thinking that I would have much preferred the filmmakers bring Terrence Stamp back. Terrence can act circles around Shannon and would have brought a nuance to the character that Shannon fails at. Shannon has one expression, hatred. I have seen him in a few other films and this seems to be his default look for every roll. He is the worst character of the bunch, including an equally wooden Lawrence Fishburn.

There are tremendous visuals in this film. The problem is that they accompany uninteresting scenes. The action is so frenetic and destructive that in short order my mind was numb from the experience and I just sat there getting a little bored and saying to myself that it looked pretty but I'm checked out of it all. I had much the same experience in a previous Snyder film Sucker Punch. Cool visuals but somewhat lackluster nevertheless.

It is truely a missed opportunity to take the legend of Superman to a new place and make him more complex as well as up to speed with modern sensibilities. The Reeve Superman films are not perfect, especially the abysmal 3rd and 4th ones, but they are still regularly revisited with nostalgia and excitement. Man of Steel will probably make money and spawn a sequel but twenty-five years down the road it won't hold up the way the Reeve's ones do. That's because they had heart and real excitement, not just a bunch of cut-out characters and CGI.