Critical Dan

Just finished watching Guardians of the Galaxy in 3D. Overall, a great ride, with the DNA of space epics past, and held together with irreverence. The cast is wonderful, spare a few duds (I’m looking at you, Bautista), and I’m excited to see the next installment. The light-hearted attitude was perfect. With unknown characters and an intimidatingly expansive world, it never got bogged down with detail. At the same time though, I kept getting told the stakes were higher than they felt. If you have to reiterate that the bad guy is going to do a bad thing, you should’ve done a better job telling us the first time. Overall, I count this as a win, and recommend it to folks.

We open on a young boy–hello, protagonist–and immediately grow emotionally attached as we watch his mom die. Do I smell a hero? Sounds like the beginning of Star Trek: Into Darkness. On her deathbed, she gives him a present that gets tucked into his knapsack and she talks of his father, who was supposedly made of light, but that’s just babbling, right? Her final action is trying to grasp her son’s hand, but when he shies away, she dies. Looks like he’s got a good helping of motherly guilt for the rest of his life. As he’s runs outside the hospital, distraught, an alien aircraft arrives and abducts him. Surprise!

Cue the standard comic book page-flipping Marvel opening. Now we encounter the adult Peter Quill, AKA Star Lord, in a scene reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with a fun soundtrack pouring from Quill’s walkman cassette player. He’s listening to a mix titled Volume 1. Is there a volume 2 somewhere? Unlike the academic Mr. Jones, our Star Lord is a common thief, and prepared to sell this weird orb for a pretty penny and betray his former partner, Yondu, who places a bounty on his head.

Meanwhile, in a vague location somewhere in the galaxy, the villain stomps onscreen. Basically a life-size Smurf with black paint to compensate for facial hair, Ronan the Kree is hell-bent on destroying Xandar because they did something to his people before some peace treaty, but this movie isn’t about politics so just know that he wants to kill all the white people. Having made a deal with some other big bad, Thanos, Ronan tasks Gamora with retrieving the stolen orb from Star Lord.

Star Lord ends up on Xandar (which could’ve just been called Xearth) to sell the orb. Following an unsuccessful sale, Gamora tries to steal it, and two bounty hunters, Rocket the raccoon and Groot the living tree, try to capture him for the money. Instead, their large fight in a public place lands them all in space jail. And when we learn that Gamora intended to betray Ronan, we know the team’s all together, so the story will begin its uphill climb. At least that’s what every piece of news and advertising told me. Once in prison though, we discover Drax, a burly man with black skin and red tattoos who has it out for Ronan. Seriously the worst character ever, although that’s likely due to the stultifying way wrestler David Bautista delivers every single one of his lines, I had no clue he belonged with the team and just kept waiting for him to die. That moment never came.

Instead, these five break out of prison to sell the object to another buyer, the Collector. Here we get a one-minute cameo from Benicio Del Toro, before he cracks open the orb to reveal some nonsense that contains energy from right after the big bang or whatever. As always, when it comes to primordial space energy, handle with care. Del Toro’s lady slave decides to say fuck it and grabs the primordial space energy, basically committing suicide. But as the slave of a private space zoo owner, who can blame her?

Frustrated after a fight with the team, a grumpy Drax calls up Ronan’s entire fleet because people aren’t rational when they’ve been drinking and trying to avenge the deaths of their families, but Ronan’s team sweeps in and collects the orb, while Star Lord and Gamora are forced to board Yondu’s ship to avoid freeze to death in space. After Rocket, Groot and Drax rejoin the party, they join forces with Yondu’s team to defeat Ronan and prevent his destruction of Xandar.

Ronan, now equipped with the magic cosmic energy doodad, is ready to lay some waste. But before he can try, the Guardians swoop in with a plan. The whole fight takes place above Xandar, more specifically above what appears to be the only major city on the planet. At least from our perspective. As the fight breaks out, the Head of Xandar, or whatever Glen Close’s character’s job was, orders evacuation of the city. Seems a little late in the game for that, but no judgment. Gotta get those good pedestrian fleeing sequences in.

After the long sky battle, the enemy’s ship comes crashing down with the heroes and Ronan inside. On the ground, the crash site is quickly surrounded my civilians from the city, because apparently no one actually listened to the evacuation orders. Before Ronan can start killing, the team rend the cosmic magic rock from his possession. Star Lord, grabbing hold of the rock bare-handed, starts to glow purple, but doesn’t die like the girl from before. Could it be he’s not entirely human? Who’d have guessed? Gamora reaches out for Star Lord’s hand, just like his mom did. Joining hands with his team members to control the rock’s power, he uses it to destroy Ronan, and save the world.

Afterward, the Xandarians congratulate him and confirm that Star Lord is only half-human, but cannot identify the other half, because that’s relevant to what just happened. Sounds like a plot for…another movie. The Xandarians provide Star Lord with a repaired ship and the team sets off on an aimless adventure, likely to the set of Guardians of the Galaxy 2: Daddy Issues. As the set off, Star Lord unwraps his mom’s present going completely full circle (as every good hero’s journey should). Any guesses on the contents? That’s right! a mixtape. Volume 2 to be precise.

Like I said, a good ride, but with a few holes here and there. If you’re interested in inconsequential fun, totally head to this movie. There aren’t many heavy emotions, although there are plenty of heavy story beats, but Zoe Saldana and Chris Pratt, with the voices of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper, keep it alive and kicking until the very end.

Identity Thief came out this weekend and being one of the first formulaic comedy movies of the year to pique my interest, I caught a showing. This movie stars Jason Bateman of Arrested Development fame, and Melissa McCarthy, known to most as the actress from Bridesmaids. As the movie opens, McCarthy steals Bateman’s identity, and what follows are the comedic escapades of a buddy-comedy style cross-country journey to justice.  While Bateman and McCarthy play off of each other brilliantly, the movie seems more focused on providing a stage for their repartee than telling a quality story, a disservice to the film’s potential and the cast.

It’s apparent the plot is secondary to the performers early on because the writer clearly made little effort in even building a believable opening. Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Bateman) is a corporate financial accountant who doesn’t have enough sense to withhold his social security number from an obvious phishing ruse perpetrated by “Diana” (McCarthy). Diana proceeds to have an outrageous spending spree in Florida as Sandy goes on with his life in Colorado, until the police get involved. Sandy is met with useless Colorado law enforcement who won’t aid in the arrest of Diana because she’s across the country, but have no qualms when Sandy embarks on a kidnapping (kidnapping almost surely being a crime). Finally, Sandy flies to Florida, and he and Diana are thrust together as two members of the local drug cartel (assumption) start trying to kill Diana for selling them bad fake credit cards. And somewhere along the way, a bounty hunter joins the chase too. What follows is absurd and cheesy, gives no depth or detail, and marches out too many ancillary characters to care about or remember, including Sandy’s wife and kids.

There weren’t too many scenes that elicited a hearty laugh, but I absolutely loved Bateman and McCarthy’s on-screen chemistry. Bateman is a perfect straight man for McCarthy, as he lets her run wild with the jokes before reining it in with a biting commentary. And honestly, I’d just love for him to throw on a slim-fitting suit more often. McCarthy definitely hits the mark in this performance,  bringing complexity and realism to an otherwise lackluster film, and demonstrating she desperately needs a quality comedy to sink her teeth into. She is slightly garish at times when hamming up the lowly comic jokes she’s given, but still deftly employs her acting skills to reveal her character’s deep loneliness and desire for human connection. Through her, the audience can access the few honest and serious moments available. Within the strong-willed exterior, Diana is a troubled woman with no family or friends of any sort. She tries to fake friendship through money, but instead deepens the sorrow she feels, and it isn’t until Sandy comes along that she believes anyone could even notice her, let alone value her. McCarthy gives such a genuine performance, the scenes where she tackles serious content never feel forced or false, and it’s apparent why this woman’s past credits include an Oscar nomination.

In spite of the quality performances, the movie is still chock full of schlock. The majority of the jokes stem from physical comedy and stereotyping, certainly not where the comic skills of the actors lie. There are countless moments of McCarthy getting knocked around in a haphazard manner, and terrible jokes about different pockets of American culture. Sandy and Diana, after passing into Georgia (welcome sign reading: “Welcome to Georgia: Home of Adventure”), arrive at a diner so lurid, I’m suspicious the screenwriter has never been through the southern United States before and just used his vague recollections of that one time he watched My Cousin Vinny, although nothing much (or at all) can be expected of the screenwriter that penned such gems as Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, and The Hangover: Part 2.  The movie tilted between broad and bizarre in the comedy department, and never embraced either. The most unsettling scene of the entire film, a moment that stunned the audience into silence and made me question the credentials of the filmmakers, was the snake attack. They find themselves battling a cheaply CGIed snake, with a stick wielding McCarthy attacking said snake as it tightly wraps around Bateman’s neck and sinks its teeth into him. This scene, more fear than farce , was completely out of pace with the rest of the film and belonged much more in a survival narrative than a comic one. In the bizarre vein, near the end of the film Diana meets Trish, Sandy’s wife, and delivers one of the most unusual and confusing speeches I’ve ever heard. Instead of offering any sort of apology, it is a monologue assuring Trish nothing untoward happened between Sandy and Diana on the open road. It is utterly unintelligible. Disappointingly, neither of these scenes fit the tone or style of this movie’s comedy, and only help to illustrate the larger issue of this heavily disjointed story.

A bumpy ride with more “bathroom break” moments than riveting ones, this movie will join the mediocre pantheon and probably find its edited way to TBS, but for now I’d just look past it to the other projects these actors have headed their way. Jason Bateman will reprise his role as Michael Bluth in a new season of Arrested Development, and Melissa McCarthy is co-directing and producing, with her husband, a film she co-wrote, with her husband, and starring in it alongside Shirley MacClaine, both promising endeavors. If you are a serious Bateman or McCarthy fan I recommend you grab a seat, but otherwise, don’t worry about it.

Zero Dark Thirty is the story of hunting and killing Osama bin Laden. The centerpiece of this story is Maya, an agent recruited by the CIA directly after high school, and her focus on the destruction of bin Laden, with the audience following her journey from the repercussions of 9/11 to bin Laden’s death. This film portrayed a captivating story, posed serious questions to the audience, and contained a stunning performance by Jessica Chastain as Maya. Even if I did perceive a few hollow moments, I highly recommend it to all.

The opening sequence, a collage of 911 calls from 9/11, is a bleak start to a harrowing movie. While frightening, I believe this device is deployed exquisitely as it manipulates the audience to accept jingoism in regard to torture during the following scenes. This torture does not last long, and we’re taken away toward other parts of the story rather early, but I think Kathryn Bigelow’s depiction of is especially complex, and I wouldn’t have been averse to a longer meditation on the subject.  Unlike the thriller genre which often contains tense and exciting interrogations, these interrogations were terror laced with psychopathy, and I was drawn to sympathize with the detainee, regardless of his crimes or knowledge. Chastain nails the internal struggle of the subject matter with her body language in the opening scenes, but she deftly manages to don cold indifference, a mask she must wear throughout the film.

As we move away from torture, the pace picks up so quickly that we’re more given snapshots of moments than a cohesive story. When Maya first meets her colleagues in Pakistan, the audience is thrown into an incomprehensible roundtable discussion filled with confusing military terms, names, and abbreviations. The exposition seemed non-existent, as if the director assumes every viewer enters with the cultural knowledge and understanding of 9/11. This hurts the film because the audience must start out deconstructing jargon and determining where in the post-9/11 narrative we are, instead of seeing character or relationship development. As we travel through the movie, a rotating door of characters assume the usual positions for Maya to act at. I can honestly say I do not recall a single character’s name besides Maya.

At seemingly regular intervals the film jumps forward, usually to a new act of terrorism. I think these scenes rapidly achieve predictability, as apparently everything in Bigelow’s world goes eerily silent moments before an explosion. Even if predictable, the handling of the violence was masterful, showing that Bigelow can display such acts without a sense of voyeurism or emotional exploitation, and I think the scene at the Afghanistan army base involving Maya’s single female friend was the only heavy-handed attempt at an otherwise successful portrayal of true violent events. Between the terrorist attacks and torture, I’d argue this film is less the hunt for Osama bin Laden and more a depiction of the complexity of torture and war in the Middle East.

Torture and war are ever-present topics in our culture and Bigelow excels in confronting the viewer with conflicting views on these topics. The movie’s first bout of torture produces helpful information for Maya, but at what cost. As the film progresses and the political views on torture transform over the years, we’re shown the difficulties placed on these agents as they try to gather intelligence without what they consider a most useful and necessary tool . Instead of allowing the audience to leave the theater with a completely vindicated opinion on the horrors of torture, Bigelow forces viewers to consider opposing perspectives they’d perhaps not previously considered. The most memorable of these moments is the strike of Seal Team 6. As we watch these men descend on the house, we’re aware of not only the terrorists behind the walls, but also the women and children. This stark difference between how these two different groups are treated in the raid illuminates the conflict inherent to this war, that of terrorists as people, not simply targets, and those scenes full of terrified children and dead bodies resonate long after the viewer has left the theater. Through Chastain’s final scene, the audience understands this conflict has taken its toll on all involved. Sitting alone in a military aircraft preparing to fly home from Pakistan, the final line is a question posed to Maya from the pilot. “Where do you want to go?” Sadly, this is unanswerable. This woman’s sole purpose the past twelve years has been realized and now the death of this terrorist might imply the death of her purpose. The unfathomable relief is tempered with that loss, and the final moments leaves the viewer with an uncertain future for both Maya and the Middle East.

More character piece than depiction of truth, this movie is a modern myth that succeeds in stirring my American patriotism and consideration of complex moral issues surrounding torture, and I think it you should seek it out. I don’t expect it will win the Oscar, but I think it deserves a place on the nomination list, unlike others. See this movie, you won’t regret it.

Last night I caught Gangster Squad with some friends and while it had moments of fun, overall I wouldn’t recommend paying full price for a ticket.

Gangster Squad is about a Los Angeles cop, played by Josh Brolin, recruited by the Chief of Police to form a SECRET task force, the Gangster Squad, to take down the powerful gangster Mickey Cohen, played by Sean Penn, before he takes over the city. The movie moves so quickly that Brolin recruits his crew: an old cowboy type, a nerd, a black guy, a Mexican guy and Ryan Gosling, and has the operation running within the first thirty minutes or so. They’re an odd combination, the squad, but it seems to work as they go about trying to take down different Cohen businesses in montage. The essential line using their colloquial title, the gangster squad, isn’t even an important or cinematically interesting moment, with one of them throwing out the name in a drunk toast, nothing more. Throughout the movie, the characters are constantly mentioning “the war” just so it’s obnoxiously clear to the audience that these men have “seen some things”, even if they all look fresher than a new deck of cards. This clunky plot device is only one piece of the terrible puzzle, but when all the pieces clunk, ineptitude is hard to tune out. I don’t want to blame the actors because the substance simply isn’t there for them to work with, but they all felt on auto-pilot. I suppose much is never expected from the first major movie of the year; it’ll be forgotten by March and once these actors deliver better quality work in other features, this won’t even be a blip on their resumes. With all the predictable and ordinary story developments leading to the film’s expected conclusion, I left feeling like I’d seen the most generic gangster film ever made.

The entire movie seemed to work consciously to throw as much violence on screen as possible. The opening scene shows a man torn apart by two cars and it doesn’t relent, with the completely arbitrary decisions from the filmmakers of which acts of violence warranted graphic detail. Faced with the gruesome violence ever-present in this film, my mind is drawn to a comment made on a recent episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour. Concisely, the point made was that violence seems to be moving out of the cultural zeitgeist and that we’ll see a tiring of violence in popular culture in the near future. I must agree and hope we’re headed in a more enlightened direction. I’m not trying to be a prude; I just think filmmakers use violence gratuitously and in ways that allow them to avoid serious story and character development. This entire movie felt like a quick sprint from one piece of action to another and the audience almost never had a chance to delve into any character too deeply. Poor Emma Stone was so ancillary to the plot my guess is they shot her scenes in one day. If anything, I wish we’d at least had more scenes with Brolin’s character’s wife, played by Mireille Enos, because I found her internal conflict with her husband’s work and safety, although well-worn territory, the most in-depth story available.. Trust me, that isn’t saying much.

I must say though, the most unsettling aspect of the whole affair was Sean Penn’s prosthetic face. More disconcerting than Joseph Gordon Levitt’s in Looper and Mickey Rourke’s in real life, Penn’s face seemed better suited among the cast of Dick Tracy or a nuclear waste facility. I don’t know how well I handled Sean Penn’s performance for that matter either. While a highly skilled dramatic actor, in a role like this he’s an intolerably comic character. Even as a vicious monster, he character is such a joke I can’t take his evil actions seriously on any real level and it immediately starts to slide into the world of Camp.

Best of luck on your next projects to all of those involved.