Black Mass (2015)

Black Mass is one of those movies that I really look forward to. Even from the trailer, you can see it checks all of the boxes: movie about a real gangster, set in the 70's, a great cast and great actor diving deep into the main role. Black Mass delivers on all of this. Mostly...

Black Mass, from this point in the review will be abbreviated to BM, which will certainly not cause any confusion with anything else, starts off with great dialog and a compelling story. I had no familiarity with Whitey Bulger before seeing BM, but it took no time at all to get into it. The story builds and builds, but then due to the nature of how the real life events played out, it loses steam towards the end. I won't spoil it here, but if you're familiar with Whitey Bulger, you might already know what I'm referring to. It doesn't necessarily ruin the movie necessarily, but it's an unsatisfying climax.

Welcome back, Johnny Depp. We missed you. After a series of shitty movies and silly roles, it's nice to see Depp return to serious acting. He's freaking fantastic and unrecognizable at times. Colored contacts usually weird me out, but here they were used to great effect. It really made his performance of Bulger that much more chilling and creepy. Don't be surprised if gets nominated come awards time. Joel Edgerton is great as well (supporting actor nod?). Just when I thought The Gift was the best I've seen him, he takes it to another level here. Jesse Plemons also really surprised me at well. The cast overall is fantastic. It's so stacked that there just isn't enough time to dedicate to everyone. How often can you say that guys like Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon and Corey Stoll were underused?

BM also does one of my favorite things where at the end they show you pictures of the real people, and in some cases you'll see how much they really nailed the casting and look. They also use this to wrap up the loose ends to the story that they don't show you in the film.

Overall, Black Mass is an entertaining gangster drama and worth watching just for Johnny Depp's performance as Whitey Bulger. It's nothing you haven't seen before, but totally worth a matinee. If you wait for video, it would make a good double feature with The Departed or The Town.

3.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is brought to you by Papa John's, eHarmony and Cinnabon.

I've never had huge problem with product placement in a film, and I understand the need for it.  In some films it can actually help sell the setting when you see businesses and brands that are common.  "Oh, this is taking place in our world."  Then there are times where it's just so in your face that it becomes distracting or takes you out of the film.  In one particular scene Walter Mitty and eHarmony Customer Service Rep Todd (yes, an actual character in the film played by Patton Oswalt) are scarfing down some Cinnabon while commenting about how great it is and it's sex/drug like qualities or something to that effect.  Earlier on, they make a point to have Walter say his first job at 17 was at a Papa John's.  This is interesting since Papa John's was founded in 1984, which if Walter was the same age as Ben Stiller's actual age, the earliest he could have got a job there was at 19.  However, I'll allow them that Walter Mitty could have been in his early 40's rather than pushing 50.

I'd have an easier time with this kind product placement if the companies featured weren't so awful.  Cinnabon can barely be called food, and Papa John's is one of the worst pizza chains around.  Don't get me started on eHarmony.  When I was on eHarmony there wasn't any wink functionality (it's actually called "Send a Smile" now).  In fact, eHarmony didn't even give you the ability to browse users.  I suppose their customer service policy has changed as well, as eHarmony service reps will call you at any time to help you out.  I'm sure much has changed since I last wasted my time there though.  I'm was just surprised with such an overbearing presence that they got little details like this wrong.  Oh, and if it's not clear, I really dislike online dating.  I did it for a lot longer than I should have and found it to be a giant waste of time, but that's a conversation for another time and place.

Anyway, if you're still reading after another one of my tangential rants, then I thank you for your patience.  Based on what I've written so far, you're probably thinking I really didn't like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but I probably liked it more that most considering all of the mixed and negative things I've heard about it.  Then again, you know how it is going in with really lowered expectations.

When Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) zones out, wild fantasies play out in his head.  In the real world, Walter is a pretty shy person that knows how little he's done with his life.  He's not a complete loser, working a good job at Life Magazine for 16 years, but that's in jeopardy now that Life has been bought out by a company that intends on turning it into an online magazine.  They have the privilege or publishing the final issue, and are expecting the cover photo to be provided by ace photojournalist Sean O'Connell (Sean Penn), but this photo seems to have gone missing. Walter needs to find it asap or it's going to cost him his job.  Using clues from other recent photos, Walter sets out to track down Sean and recover the photo.

In essence, we have a story about a guy that daydreams of doing amazing things that finally gets an amazing adventure of his own. While some of Walter daydreams were interesting to watch, they weren't grounded in any kind of reality, and some felt like they were done more for laughs.  Walter's real adventure was much more engaging and inspiring.

It is also a gorgeous looking film, and a lot of it is due to the Earth's natural beauty.  I thought the visual effects were a little rough in a few parts, like a bad looking great white shark (and I'm pretty sure white sharks don't migrate that far north).  However, it's the kind of film where I can forgive some lackluster CG due to the rest of it looking so good.

Unfortunately, as we get towards the end some pretty glaring plot hole and consistency issues arise.  You may want to skip ahead to the next paragraph if you want to avoid anything spoiler-ish.  Throughout the story, I thought the whole missing photo was set up intentionally by Sean to get Walter out of his head and out in the real world, like a final gift to him.  Instead, it turns out to be a misunderstanding that makes you smack your forehead with it's simplicity.  A lot of trouble could have been saved if Walter had just been thorough with a particular item.  Another issue arises when the final image is revealed.  When you see that image, you'll wonder why Sean didn't recognize Walter when they meet.  Was he playing dumb?  Was Sean also not able to piece it together?  Plus there are also some issues with time and distance in respect to Sean and his photos.  Finally, calls are made by people without regards to timezone or location when you'd think they'd likely be asleep.  It all makes the ending feel a little too forced and tidy rather than have the emotional payoff it could have had.

I liked Ben Stiller's performance though, and I tend to forget he's a capable actor when forced to something dramatic.  While I get a little tired of when he plays these meek, ineffectual types, it worked well for the type of person Walter was and to show some growth.  As much as I love Kristen Wiig, she's really underutilized and there's just not that much to her character.  One of the interesting things about Adam Scott, other than sporting one of the oddest looking fake beards I've seen, is that he's pretty convincing being able to play a nice, affable guy on something like Parks and Recreation and then pulling off a character like he does here where you want to him get hit by a bus.  I would have liked seeing a little more of a dynamic between his character and Walter, but he's not much more than a one-dimensional bully.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an ambitious, mixed bag of a film.  There are some great visuals and nice messages about getting out there and living life, but ultimately there's not much to connect to and some plot issues that were a little too messy for my tastes.  It's still a pleasant enough family film that makes for a decent matinee or something to rent.

3 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Guilt Trip (2012) - Movie Review

I think the moral of the story is that if you're mean to your mother, you look like a dick.

Andy (Seth Rogen) has invented a new cleaning product that he's having difficulty selling.  He's about to embark on a cross-country trip to pitch his product to several different companies.  He begins by returning home to see his mother, Joyce (Barbara Streisand).  In the short interaction before the trip, you learn that Joyce hasn't dated since Andy's father died when he was 8.  She also reveals that she had a love interest before she married her father.  Andy tracks this mystery man down and figures a way to fit a visit to this guy while on his trip.  He invites his mother along, which already kind of contradicts the title of the film, as I never felt like he invited her out of guilt or that she guilted him into coming along.

The actual 'Guilt Trip' begins and then the movie became tedious to watch.  I was squirming in my seat and was actually considering leaving, which is something I don't think I've ever done.  It wasn't insulting, but there was barely a laugh to be had and there wasn't anything particularly interesting about it.  The first half of the movie kind of hinges on setting up Joyce as a nagging and overbearing mother, and while her character is as cliched as they come, you don't have any reason to dislike her. So then your focus turns to how Andy's behavior towards his mother really doesn't make him all that likable. Andy craps on any suggestion Joyce gives him even though it's clear to everyone she's right.  It's not very entertaining to see him be extremely inflexible and rude when she's just basically being a normal Mom.

To The Guilt Trip's credit, there's a scene about halfway through the movie that changes the course and tone of the film.  From that point on it actually got funnier and I started to enjoy it more, as well as sympathize with everyone a little bit.

As I mentioned, one of the main issues of the film was that there weren't any laugh-out-lout moments.  Even a small chuckle here or there would have been nice.  The sad part is that Rogen and Streisand had good chemistry, but lacked the kind of banter that really would have driven the movie, pardon the pun.  You'll really notice this during the credits when they show you a series of deleted scenes that did show exactly that.  It also didn't help these scenes got the biggest laughs from the audience.  It's a shame and it illustrates what a missed opportunity The Guilt Trip had to really be a good comedy.  The supporting cast is also wasted in that they have several comedic actors (Casey Wilson, Adam Scott, Ari Graynor) in straight roles with barely any dialog.  I'm not sure why you'd go through the trouble of getting funny, recognizable actors and then not use them at all.

I'm surprised they decided to roll this out a week before Christmas, as there's nothing holiday-themed about it at all.  The performances from the leads, while not bad, aren't exactly going to blow you away either.  I actually enjoyed Streisand, and I can't really call myself a fan of hers.  The film does wrap up nicely and has some heartfelt moments towards the end, but the first half of the movie doesn't have a strong enough setup for those scenes to really have much of an emotional impact. You've seen many other movies do a better job with similar family themes.

I'm kind of surprised with how this turned out, because director Anne Fletcher had a fairly modest hit with her last film The Proposal.  Writer Dan Fogelman has written movies like Bolt, Tangled, and Crazy, Stupid, Love., so he's got a pretty good track record as well.  I even hear he based the story off a real-life trip he took with his mother from New Jersey to Vegas.  You'd think drawing from experiences would give the film a more personal feel to it, but it's about as generic as they come.

The Guilt Trip is a harmless, but formulaic and forgettable film.  It wastes a good cast by not having any significant laughs, and doesn't have enough heart to warrant seeing this over the holidays.  You can save this one for rental.

2.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

Bachelorette (2012) - Movie Review

Have you ever watched Bridesmaids and wondered what those girls would be like if they were bitchier and on lots of cocaine?  Bachelorette gives you a look at this world.

Four high school friends are reunited when one of them finally gets married.  Immediately, jealously starts to rear it's ugly head, as the others all thought they would get married before their 'fat friend'.  The only positive they seem to take from this is that it means they can have a bachelorette party.

Other than the actual bride, Becky (Rebel Wilson), it doesn't take long to figure out why the bachelorettes are still single.  Regan (Kirsten Dunst) is a Type A, pushy business woman, Gena (Lizzy Caplan) is a barely employable, druggie that sleeps around, and lastly Katie (Isla Fisher) is a ditzy girl that seems too dumb to function.  These girls call themselves 'B-Faces', which is short for 'Bitch Faces', a name they seem to have earned. Based on their self-absorbed behavior, one of the things I had a hard time wrapping my head around was how the bachelorettes were friends with Becky in the first place.  Their personalities don't seem to fit and these girls seemed like the type to make fun of her back in high school. Becky has grown up, but the others haven't.

Becky wants a low-key party, but the girls insist on partying it up and getting a stripper.  There's a incident with the stripper, and the bride and the rest of the girls go home, leaving the B-Faces to drink more, do lots of coke and complain about why they aren't married yet.  While screwing around, something happens to the wedding dress, and now they have to scramble to get it fixed before the wedding the following morning.  It's as if the movie knew we wouldn't be able to sit through 90 minutes of nasty girls drinking and doing coke, so they had to give them a goal.  Now we get to watch them run around frantically as they try to make things right.

Much of what you see in Bachelorette are cheap drug and sex related jokes that you've seen many times before.  There are some funny moments, but they were too infrequent to make up for the unlikability of the characters.  As the movie progresses, they try to show you that there's more to the bachelorettes, but the problem is that what I learned about them didn't make me sympathize with them more.  As I mentioned in my For a Good Time, Call... review, one of the things I enjoyed was how I could see myself being friends with those people.  In Bachelorette, I wouldn't want to know these people or hang out with them.  I was actually kind of surprised at how catty these girls were, and how willing and capable they were of stabbing their friend in the back.

What I could relate to was a wild bachelorette party and getting crazy, but think about all of the times you gotten hammered with friends.  It's funny to you, but you know how you tell someone a story that doesn't get a laugh and then say, 'Well, you had to be there.'  That's Bachelorette.

The positive I got from the movie was the good cast and the performances.  Kirsten Dunst continues her career renaissance playing flawed characters.  Lizzy Caplan is always great, but this is a role she can play in her sleep.  The same for Isla Fisher, who gets the majority of the laughs.  There's nothing wrong with either of their performances, but neither of them had to stretch much here.  Rebel Wilson seems to be a star on the rise as she continues to get roles in higher profile films, but she's more of a side character and doesn't take part in the festivities as the night goes on.  I realize the contradiction of liking the performances, but not liking the characters, but it was more that I didn't find them interesting or relatable.

Adam Scott and James Marsden are once again underused and these guys deserve better.  They are both on my "most under appreciated actors" list.

Written and directed by Leslye Headland, Bachelorette is a good idea, but it never quite takes off. I felt that the ending was too predictable and unearned, where they try to give everyone a happy ending and everyone learns a lesson.  A riskier, darker ending would have fit better with the tone of the film and been more satisfying, even if it wasn't a happy one.

Bachelorette isn't as funny as it thinks it is.  It tries to one up Bridesmaids, but it ends up being a less funny version of The Hangover.  It wastes a talented cast with tired jokes and bits, and then tries too hard to make you sympathize with characters that really don't seem redeemable. It's a rental at best.

2 (out of 5) Death Stars

Friends With Kids - Movie Review

This is going to be a quick review as I find that I'm probably going to echo a few sentiments about this movie from my Jeff, Who Lives at Home review.

The premise of Friends With Kids might be a little out there depending on your perspective: two old friends, Jason (Adam Scott) and Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt), after seeing how having kids have affected the relationships of their mutual friends, decide that maybe the best course of action is to just have a kid together.  The hope is that this will get them past any messy divorce issues and allow both of them to still date and play the field.  The movie shows that they are both still looking for 'the one', but understand that their window of opportunity for having a kid is closing.  They agree to split responsibility down the middle.  What could go wrong, right?

Initially, it works out well for them, as it's treated almost as a business arrangement between friends.  They are both rational and mature about it.  This irritates some of their married friends, as they think it's a bit of a slap in the face to their relationships and wonder if they will be able to keep over the long haul.  As you may have already guessed, emotions do get invested and the relationship gets complicated.  This the main flaw of the film.  What starts out as a subversive look at 'traditional' relationships and having kids, ends up becoming just kind of a standard romantic comedy aimed at people over 30.

One thing that kind of bugged me was when characters talked about New York like the audience is all from New York.  I know movies can't 100% appeal to everyone, but there's a part of me that feels left out when very specific references are made to living in a certain city.  I imagine people from NY though might feel the same way about movies based in San Francisco or LA.  This is a minor point though and it didn't make or break the movie for me.  It's just a pet peeve of mine.

The movie is basically carried by Adam Scott.  If you've been a fan of his from Parks and Recreation and his other various movies, then this movie is the one you've been waiting for.  I think it's going to be a breakout role for him as far as being in more films.  He's kind of like a more serious, less snarky, Paul Rudd.

The cast is very strong.  It's essentially a Bridesmaids reunion with good performances from Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig and Chris O'Dowd.  They are all very funny in parts.  Although, I'm actually mad that Don Draper wasn't in it more.  He's shown that he has the comedy chops and I didn't feel like he got a chance to really show it.  Maybe because Jennifer Westfeldt his is real life girlfriend she avoided putting him in the movie too much.  I dunno, but I think we could all use some more Hamm.

It's runs on a bit too long, especially once you figure out how the movie is going to play out.  I think about  5-10 minutes needed to be trimmed to tighten it up.  Overall I thought Jennifer Westfeldt's story and direction were fine.  This is her directorial debut, but I think many may be fans of her previous writing for Kissing Jessica Stein (haven't seen it).  I hate to criticize her, but I think as far as the cast goes she might have been the weakest link.  I didn't think she was bad, I just think there a missing element between her and Scott as far as the chemistry goes.  Oh wait, Westfeldt could never be the weak link in a movie that features Megan Fox in any role.  Megan Fox just bugs me.

Despite the way the film wraps up, it does avoid a lot of the usual conventions of weaker romantic comedies.  How many times have you seen a romantic comedy where there's a conflict that would be resolved if the characters just had a five minute conversation.  Well, in this movie, characters actually communicate once there's conflict.  Because Friends With Kids avoids that flaw, it's conclusion does feel a little more earned.

I did enjoy Friends With Kids despite my issues with it, which really are minor compared to other films.  It's very funny in parts and has a great cast.  It's an above average romantic comedy with it's subject and setup, but the ultimate conclusion is what prevents this from being rated higher.  I do think it's worth watching, but maybe saving for a rental.

3.5 (out of 5) Death Stars