"Safety Not Guaranteed" but a great movie is.

DVD Movie: "Safety Not Guaranteed"

"Safety Not Guaranteed" is a movie that as you’re watching will continuously make you wonder if the filmmakers knew exactly what kind of movie it was they set out to make. The beautiful thing about this movie is that the writer Derek Connolly and director Colin Trevorrow knew exactly what type of movie they were making and their twist and turns only heighten our curiosity of how this story will conclude.

The movie starts with a discovery of a newspaper advertisement from someone wanting a partner to go back in time with them. The ad proclaims that the partner will be paid when they return and they must supply their own weapons while it warns that "Safety is not Guaranteed." A Seattle magazine sends one of its writers, Jeff (Jake Johnson), along with two interns, Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni), to find out who placed the ad hoping to get an interesting human story from it.

Darius takes the lead in the investigation since Jeff has only taken the assignment to look up an old flame he was once involved with. Darius is a loner and outsider who carries the burden of losing her mother. The potential story gives her a much needed distraction. She discovers the owner of the ad is a Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass) who acts suspiciously which strikes her curiosity and odd which draws her toward him. They meet when she tells him she is answering his ad. He is weary of Darius as only someone paranoid would be but her genuine interest wins him over. He takes her in and integrates her into his training.

Mr. Connolly has created an intelligent and sensitive character in Darius while arming her with a sharp wit that makes her enjoyable company. Ms. Plaza is wonderful bringing Darius to life. She is excellent at showing how she feels about the people and situations swirling around her without saying a word. It is a heartfelt performance that turns touching when she falls in love with Kenneth whom she recognizes as another lost soul. She senses that Kenneth was one of these little boys who kept to himself in the playground wanting only the company of his imagination rather then that of the other children. He still carries the scars of being bullied and teased from which he developed his paranoia.

Mr. Duplass does a convincing job of setting a good first impression of a paranoid nut and then developing him into an intelligent sensitive loner. He brings Darius into his amateurish training but his intensity and focus on the mission is anything but trivial. It is the Kenneth character who makes the first sharp turn away from a light romantic comedy into something that could become dangerous and tragic. And as the movie moves forward you begin to suspect that it is a character study of what happens to those shy, intelligent boys who seemed odd in school but prompted the question of what ever became of them.

A story that runs parallel with Darius and Mark’s is Jeff’s quest for his old girlfriend. Mr. Johnson is quite entertaining as a jackass who rants about his sexual conquests. He plans to track down his old girlfriend Liz (Jenica Bergere) for a quick fling. When they meet he is disappointed she’s not as attractive as he led himself to believe but falls for her after they dine together. The next morning instead of running he decides to build the relationship. Liz turns the tables on him by rebuffing him. To ease the sting of rejection Jeff goes on a bender taking Arnau with him. Jeff is determined to help Arnau, an Indian tech virgin nerd (cliché anyone?), have his first sexual experience. The Jeff and Arnau story is filler for the movie since both stories don’t even make it to the ninety minute mark. It is simply done and doesn’t distract from the main story but what makes it work is when Jeff shows he has a heart under all that bravado.

The ending doesn’t begin to materialize until the final minute of the movie. Mr. Connolly adds a couple of FBI agents to make the potential time-travel more urgent. But even though Darius and Mark elude the FBI and make it to their time traveling machine the ending is still up for grabs. Only when the conclusion plays out can the viewer love it or hate it. As I’ve said we are never really sure what type of movie this is but it helps when the ending fits. Or maybe not. I thought it would have ended a different way and I think my way would have had a better pay off. Other opinions liked the ending just fine. But one thing is for sure, it will keep you thinking about this movie a lot longer then it took you to get through it.

 

Directed by Colin Trevorrow; written by Derek Connolly; director of photography, Benjamin Kasulke; edited by Franklin Peterson and Joe Landauer; music by Ryan Miller; production design by Ben Blankenship; costumes by Rebecca Luke; produced by Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf, Stephanie Langhoff, Mr. Connolly and Mr. Trevorrow; released by FilmDistrict. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.

WITH: Aubrey Plaza (Darius), Mark Duplass (Kenneth), Jake Johnson (Jeff), Karan Soni (Arnau) and Jenica Bergere (Liz).

Tom Cruise portrays a classic character in forgetable film.

DVD Movie Review: "Jack Reacher"

Once in a generation a movie comes along with an ideal American character out to dispose the world of criminals, villains and transgressors only to be handcuffed by the legal system. The most famous of those heroes was Dirty Harry, who in his pursuit of taking down the deranged killers of San Francisco found out his greatest nemesis happened to be City Hall. Today against the back drop of abandoning due process in favor of an invasion of privacy before potential terrorists attack comes a hero for the twenty-first century: Jack Reacher.

Jack Reacher, created by Lee Child, is a wandering ex-military police investigator. He has the skills of a police detective but also the experience and principals of a military man, which is, not to negotiate with but to take the enemy down. Luckily for honest citizens he’s on their side.

The first movie to come from the seventeen book series is "Jack Reacher" based on the ninth novel in the series, "One Shot." The most important step in bringing a popular literary character to the big screen is casting. Tom Cruise is the right choice. For a character whose countenance is similar to that of a hanging judge’s, Mr. Cruise brings Reacher an undercurrent of good humor and wit.

The next step in a successful adaptation is to throw the hero into a challenging puzzle that forces him to show off his skills. Here to the movie is successful. A former military sniper is being accused of killing five random victims in downtown Pittsburg. The evidence is stacked against him. Reacher arrives in Pittsburg and looks over the crime scene. His view of the crime and his acquaintance with the sniper has his instincts telling him something is amiss. The third step is to surround the hero with interesting and intelligent allies who help him solve the case and a cunning foe that forces Reacher and his allies to stretch their collective intuitiveness making the drama interesting. On this third step the makers of "Jack Reacher" have bumbled badly.

Written and directed by the Oscar winning screenwriter (for "The Usual Suspects") Christopher McQuarrie, "Jack Reacher" had the potential of becoming a classic action film. Instead Mr. McQuarrie has littered his screenplay and surrounded Reacher with nincompoops. The lead detective (David Oyelowo) and District Attorney (Richard Jenkins) seem at times to act more like fraternity brothers then law enforcement officials. It’s demeaning to their characters and we stop taking them and the movie seriously. Mr. Jenkins is a wonderful character actor and at times gives the District Attorney the dignity and intelligence he deserves but Mr. McQuarrie’s writing and direction turn him, at times, into a whinny and immature spoiler of scenes.

Reacher’s only ally is the sniper’s defense attorney Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) who also happens to be the District Attorney’s daughter. Ms. Rodin is poorly written. Some scenes she’s intelligent and courageous. In other scenes she’s lazy. She cannot see the connection between any of the five victims and doesn’t do the work to try and find out who would want to kill any of these people. She tells Reacher that the investigation is useless and that he’s crazy for trying to find a motive for setting up her client. It is frustrating to see the defense attorney give up so easily and try to discourage Reacher from looking at every angle especially when he is there to help her client. It doesn’t make Reacher look smarter; he just looks like an average guy who has to navigate around a lot of idiots.

The script was written without any imagination and uses too many gimmicks to make a point. For the first half of the movie women stop and gawk at Reacher as he walks past them. Why do we have to know that women think Reacher is attractive? You’ve cast Tom Cruise. But the device is meant to set up a bar fight. Eating alone Reacher is approached by a twenty-something girl, Sandy (Alexia Fast) who means to lure him outside so her cronies can rough him up. I guess we would have a hard time believing a twenty-something girl would want to pick up Tom Cruise in a bar. After the scene no other woman seems to think Reacher is worth stopping for and smiling at. Several scenes should have been left to the viewers’ imagination or just discarded. One is when Helen tries to learn the histories of the victims. She interviews a distraught father of a young victim and in the middle of the interview he reveals to be in the possession of a hand gun. The scene was crafted to be suspenseful but it’s a scene that doesn’t move the story forward and in that setting it becomes disturbing. Another scene we could have avoided was when the real sniper needs to dispose of Sandy. Not only do we see him in the act- he’s a two hundred pound killer, she’s a hundred pounds soaking wet, his success rate will be high- but we have to watch as he picks her up beginning with the old pick-up line, "Haven’t we met before?"

The most disappointing part of "Jack Reacher" is it had a chance to be a classic. Just like "Bullitt" or "The French Connection" it has a car chase. Unfortunately it is the laziest cinematic car chase you’ll witness. I don’t remember a car chase where the protagonist’s car zigzags through cars that are laid out perfectly for him to go around. Mr. McQuarrie would have served his movie and audience better if he just copied any of the chases from the afore mentioned movies. The other blown chance is a hand to hand fight between Reacher and the real sniper. The first mistake is making Reacher act against his character. The real sniper loses his weapon during a shoot out. Reacher throws his weapon away so they can go mano a mano. The character written in the book would have just killed him on the spot. What follows is an unimaginative fight scene, in the rain no less. Again, steal from the best: Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones movies, the sixties James Bond movies or anything coming out of Hong Kong today. This was underachieving at its finest.

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie; based on the novel “One Shot” by Lee Child; director of photography, Caleb Deschanel; edited by Kevin Stitt; music by Joe Kraemer; production design by James Bissell; costumes by Susan Matheson; produced by Tom Cruise, Don Granger, Paula Wagner and Gary Levinsohn; released by Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes.

WITH: Tom Cruise (Jack Reacher), Rosamund Pike (Helen Rodin), Richard Jenkins (District Attorney Rodin), David Oyelowo (Detective Emerson), Werner Herzog (the Zec), Jai Courtney (Charlie), Joseph Sikora (Barr), Alexia Fast (Sandy) and Robert Duvall (Cash).

DVD Movie Review: "Les Miserables"

"Les Miserables" the epic novel from Victor Hugo is a tale of morality, right and wrong, sin and penance, redemption, fate, greed, compassion and other components that stir the human soul. The movie is based on Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg’s operatic stage adaptation. The movie, directed by Tom Hooper, is the retelling of the stage musical. But it seems that Mr. Hooper lost his far sighted glasses during the production because what he has made is a two hour and thirty-eight minute YouTube video.

The number one job of a film director is to tell a story that stimulates emotion from an audience whether it be a comedy, musical, drama, thriller or horror. The director must light an emotional fuse within each scene that carries the audience through the movie. This includes the development of the characters and their connection with each other in a way that moves the plot forward. The major discrepancy with Mr. Hooper’s movie is that every scene is done in a close-up. A close-up should be used as a tool to extract a certain emotion such as surprise or anger but for it to be used effectively it must be used sparingly. And when it is continually used the audience misses the connection between characters as well as a sense of mood and place since we are up close in a character’s face. This tactic dulls an emotional and epic story.

If there is any story that should bring out the craftsmanship in a director "Les Miserables" is it. It is the story of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) who is released from prison after nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread. He has the plague-like status of a parolee which keeps him from being hired. He finds shelter in a chapel run by the Bishop of Digne (Colm Wilkinson- the original Jean Valjean from the stage). Loathed to go back out into the world with nothing he steals the bishop’s silver but is caught. The authorities bring him back to the bishop to verify that it was his silver which was stolen. In an act of kindness the bishop informs the authorities that he gave Valjean the silver and adds more to the loot. Valjean is deeply moved by the bishop’s response and makes a promise to God to do good deeds for others and to live an honest life with his new found wealth. In accepting his new life he breaks parole setting loose Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) who vows to bring him back to justice. Javert is a man who is incorruptible as an officer of the law which makes him a good man unless he is unable to see that some parts of the law might be unjust. Fantine (Anne Hathaway) is wrongly dismissed from her job in a factory owned by Valjean. Her only means of supporting her daughter, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried, young Cosette- Isabelle Allen), afterwards is through prostitution. Valjean discovers the wrong that forced Fantine out into the streets and he adopts Cosette as his own daughter when Fantine dies.

The movie starts out strong enough with a great visual of prisoners doing slave work by pulling in a damaged battleship onto a dry dock. The action takes place in an impressive digitally reimaging of nineteenth century Paris. But after the introduction we are only able to catch glimpses of the city in between all of the close-ups. It would seem that if a production was going to spend its time and money recreating in minute detail a place that plays an important part of the story they would show it. Emotional moments are continually lost throughout the film from the continual use of head shots. When Fantine informs Valjean that she fell into prostitution due to his factory kicking her out into the streets the news fills him with guilt and alters his destiny. But cutting from one face to another we are robbed of watching two wonderful actors play off of each other during a devastating scene. During certain songs Mr. Hooper gets it right when he does a nice job of framing his actors so they have an opportunity to deliver the full emotional impact of a song. He does this with Ms. Hathaway when she sings "I Dreamed a Dream." He puts her off center against a white back drop. It is beautiful to watch. The only problem is that we’ve seen Ms. Hathaway and the rest of the cast members in close-ups before the scene and he has them in close-ups after the scene so the impact is flat.

The lack of emotional weight brought by continual close-ups lends the first half of the film a redundancy that doesn’t go away until the second half begins with a young group of rebels. As young rebels are wont to do they are enthusiastic about condemning the old guard while crying out for revolution in the name of justice and thank goodness for that as they appear just in time to give the movie a must needed shot of adrenaline. The rebels almost dare Mr. Hooper to use his close-up technique on them and he makes the attempt but the group’s infectious enthusiasm cannot be confined to one head shot. The group is led by the actor Eddie Redmayne who has an affair with the camera while his singing turns any song into electricity. The actress Samantha Barks makes her debut here and it’s a shame that musicals aren’t as prevalent as they once were. If they were Ms. Barks, who presents a striking figure on film and whose voice is angelic, would have laid the first brick toward building her legacy.

Others, whose legacies are all ready well establish, do their best but are ill-served by Mr. Hooper’s filming technique. Mr. Jackman carries the film. He is the right Valjean. Ms. Hathaway is multi-talented and is proving her acting prowess can cover anything whether action, drama or comedy. Mr. Crowe is a great actor but miscast as Inspector Javert. The Javert character is a good man who is dedicated to his job and the law; dedicated so much so that he does not see any room for compromise. Mr. Crowe, whether by his choice or Mr. Hooper’s, turns Javert into a brooding avenger instead of a man devoted to God and righteousness who discovers that his mission in life was wrong and cannot handle the burden of that mistake so he ends it.

The story has many emotional layers to it and the songs are important emotional blocks to the piece but when Mr. Hooper fails to show his characters together so we can see what effect they have upon each other he leaves the scenes emotionless. "Les Miserables" is a classic tale of human foibles as well as human triumph but the biggest foible is the director’s filming technique.

Directed by Tom Hooper; written by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer; based on the novel by Victor Hugo and the stage musical by Mr. Boublil and Mr. Schönberg; music by Mr. Schönberg; lyrics by Mr. Kretzmer; director of photography, Danny Cohen; edited by Melanie Ann Oliver and Chris Dickens; production design by Eve Stewart; costumes by Paco Delgado; produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 2 hours 37 minutes.

WITH: Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Russell Crowe (Javert), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Samantha Barks (Éponine), Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thénardier) and Sacha Baron Cohen (Thénardier).

Review of "Oz Great and Powerful"

Review: "Oz the Great and Powerful"

Anticipation comes in many degrees for Disney and director Sam Raimi’s "Oz the Great and Powerful," a prequel to the classic "The Wizard of Oz." The curiosity from fans of the original, Mr. Raimi’s reputation as a director of blockbusters and Disney’s stock all have a stake in this movie. The story, in most ways, mirrors "The Wizard of Oz" but without the original’s charm, memorable scenes or creative story-telling. Technically the movie holds the attention but the storytelling bates the intellect to ask many questions.

It’s the story of a philandering magician (James Franco) who found himself in Oz and managed to wrestle the Emerald City from two wicked witches. The magician had just completed a botched performance when he is threatened by a jealous husband who is unappreciative of the attention paid to his wife. Preoccupied with his getaway, the magician doesn’t notice the change in weather and jumps into a hot air balloon. Caught up in a tornado he is swept away to the Land of Oz. There he is greeted by a beautiful woman, Theodora (Mila Kunis). She believes him to be the wizard of the prophecy who will rescue the land from the wicked witch. Theodora escorts the wizard back to the Emerald City to meet her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz). Along the way the wizard saves a winged monkey, Finley (voice of Zack Braff), who pledges his life long devotion as repayment. During the trek Theodora falls for the wizard’s advances and they plan to marry so she can rule Oz by his side.

Evanora offers the wizard all of Emerald City’s gold if he can destroy the wicked witch’s wand- the source of her power. Aroused from a chance at a comfortable living the wizard sets off with Finely to find the wicked witch. They make it to the Dark Forest and find Glinda (Michelle Williams) whom they were told is the wicked witch but turns out she is a good witch and explains that it is Evanora who is the true wicked witch. Glinda introduces the wizard to the Munchkins, the Tinkers and her people the Quadlings- all of who live in fear of the witch- and although they cannot offer the wizard a secure future they convince him to assist her in disposing of the evil sisters. Through her crystal ball Evanora shows Theodora the wizard and Glinda growing closer. Jealousy overcomes Theodora and Evanora offers her a special apple to harden her heart. The poisonous apple (apples need better PR representatives when appearing in fairy tales) sets off a transformation in Theodora and she becomes the wicked witch we know from the original "Wizard of Oz." The rest of the movie shows how the wizard and Glinda, by using ingenuity, sleight of hand and a little old fashion modern technology (it is 1909), defeat the witches and set the stage for "The Wizard of Oz."

It is an odd and unfortunate choice to make the wizard such an unappealing figure. The origin of the Wicked Witch of the West is made possible because of the wizard’s womanizing and he is given a chance to redeem himself at the end but I wish the screenwriters David Lindsay-Abaire ("Rabbit Hole," "Rise of the Guardians") and Mitchell Kapner ("The Whole Nine Yards") would have built the story around an honorable man especially in a children’s fable based on the books of L. Frank Baum. Luckily Mr. Franco’s performance keeps our attention spans interested in the wizard. Mr. Franco comes equipped with an entrancing smile that would get him an acquittal from any jury. Ms. Weisz and Ms. Williams are wily veterans who bring their characters to life without much effort. Ms. Kunis is game playing the wizard’s hurt lover. None of the characters stand a chance, however, when the best written character happens to be a winged monkey and along with Mr. Franco’s smile keeps the movie watchable.

"Oz the Great and Powerful" is eye candy with a story littered with distractions. The film is fun to watch in 3D but not necessary unlike "Avatar" or "Hugo." The production design is beautiful and imaginative. The Emerald City, the wizard’s room and throne, Munchkin Land and even the poppy field where the Yellow Brick road travels through to the Emerald City seem to have the same landscape shaped precisely as in the original movie. But bits and pieces of the production and script distract attention from a scene and the movie as a whole.

Mr. Lindsay-Abaire and Mr. Kapner didn’t outline the world they were writing about and many questions spring from the holes they created. When the wizard first encounters Theodora she walks out to meet him from the middle of a forest. The first thing that comes to mind is not where she came from - this is the place where Kansans regularly fall from the sky- but how did she get that big brimmed red Edwardian hat and those black leather pants she’s wearing? Evanora and Glinda are dressed in traditional fairy tale dresses, one black and one white. The Munchkins and Tinkers are dressed similarly to early 1900’s American Midwesterners that correspond with the original movie. So it becomes distracting trying to figure out how Theodora became a fashion diva. Another production decision that becomes distracting is to figure out where the Asian and African-American Munchkins and Tinkers came from. And then we watch the wizard addressing them about their rights to be free while holding his stove pipe hat and wearing a black frock coat. Is he campaigning for the wizard of Oz or the sixteenth president of Oz? Then there is the missing piece of a major plot point. For years Evanora has been able to convince her sister that Glinda is the wicked witch. How? Glinda’s behavior doesn’t arouse suspicion. She doesn’t even look like a wicked witch.

The movie throws enough money on the screen to make it visually enticing. Unfortunately there are no characters around that we would want to spend over two hours with even though Oz is full of wizards, witches, Dark Forests, china girls and Munchkins- with the exception being a winged monkey.

 

Directed by Sam Raimi; written by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire, based on a story by Mr. Kapner based on the works of L. Frank Baum; director of photography, Peter Deming; edited by Bob Murawski; music by Danny Elfman; production design by Robert Stromberg; costumes by Gary Jones and Michael Kutsche; visual effects supervisor, Scott Stokdyk; produced by Joe Roth; released by Walt Disney Pictures. Running time: 2 hours 9 minutes.

WITH: James Franco (Oscar Diggs a k a Oz), Mila Kunis (Theodora), Rachel Weisz (Evanora), Michelle Williams (Annie/Glinda), Zach Braff (Frank/Voice of Finley the Monkey), Joey King (Girl in Wheelchair/Voice of China Girl) and Tony Cox (Knuck).