Now You See Me (2013)

I actually saw Now You See Me several days ago, but I had a detour in Las Vegas, where money magically disappeared from my wallet.  While in Vegas I thought about the last movie based on magicians I saw, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, which was set in Vegas, whereas Now You See Me varies the locale throughout the film.

Despite having a few days to reflect on the film, I find I don't have that much more to say about it, or that my opinion has changed all that much.  I did, however, realize that despite that Now You See Me wasn't a comedy, I actually laughed more than I did while watching Burt Wonderstone.

Now You See Me is an example of a movie that I was expecting to be so awful that I'm probably giving this a little more credit than I should simply because it wasn't a disaster.  The setup alone was already something that was making me cringe a little.  Four magicians of various skill sets - played by Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson - are brought together by an unknown benefactor.  A year after meeting they perform in Vegas rebranded as "The Four Horsemen".  During their performance, they are able to rob a bank in Paris, giving the money back to the audience in attendance.

FBI Agent Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is brought in to investigate along with Interpol Agent Vargas (Mélanie Laurent).  They aren't able to make anything stick to the Four Horsemen, and charging them with the crime would indicate that the FBI now believes in magic.  Knowing there's an explanation for all of this, Rhodes and Vargas meets with Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), and ex-magician that makes a living by exposing the secrets of other magicians.  Bradley explains to Rhodes how they pulled off the first trick, but that the Four Horsemen have been planning for a long time and will likely always be a step ahead of the FBI.

You'll find that the story spends more time focusing on Mark Ruffalo's and his Keystone Cops antics than the Horsemen.  His character also seemed to be excessively angry at times, although some of that made a little sense by the end of the film.  Overall, the plot gets little muddled as it goes on and inconsistencies pop up.  I felt like resolution of the film wasn't very satisfying and a few things were left unanswered.  Oddly, this didn't bug me that much, and that's probably due to the fact that I had enjoyed the movie so much up until that point, that a few inconsistencies weren't enough to ruin it for me.

The main reason why I enjoyed the film so much is that the dialog is actually very snappy and funny.  I was really expecting a much more serious film, so the humor was a pleasant surprise.  The pace of the film is also very brisk with more action and chases than I expected.  I didn't realize going into Now You See Me that it was directed by Louis Leterrier, who's directed films like the first two Transporter films and Unleashed.  It looks like he went into his bag of tricks to add some action elements and it served the film well.  You know what I just realized?  Louis Leterrier directed Edward Norton's The Incredible Hulk, and directed Mark Ruffalo in this film, who was The Avengers' Hulk.  Does mean we should expect Eric Bana in Leterrier's next film?

Another really strong element of the film was that there's great chemistry between the Four Horseman.  The cast, especially Woody Harrelson, seemed to be having a lot of fun together and you really feel that on screen.  Despite the good chemistry, there's not a lot of character development.  At the end of the film, we really don't know nothing about this group of people. Again, I wasn't terribly upset by this, but fleshing out the foursome would have been nice.

Now You See Me is a surprisingly entertaining film, that has a great pace, funny dialog, and a good cast that plays well off each other.  The story is definitely the weak point, but I think you'll have enough fun with the film that you won't notice or bug you too much.  I think it's worth a matinee.

3 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Great Gatsby (2013)

More like the "So-So" Gatsby...

Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby isn't a terrible movie, but I found myself going through various stages of irritation and interest throughout it.  Fifteen minutes in, I was so nauseated by the visuals and music that I considered walking out.  Gatsby hadn't even shown up on screen yet.  Once he did though, I found myself taken in by his charm and story.  However, as it continued on, I started to care less and less about the characters and what was going on with them.

Let's start with those visuals.  I think part of my experience was compounded by the fact that I saw this in RPX 3D.  I heard this was actually shot in 3D, and if it was, it's one of the worst examples of unnecessary 3D I've seen.  It didn't add anything to the film, and just made the visuals that much more distracting.  Several scenes were simultaneously in and out of focus and weird digital camera tricks were used that won't help anyone that already has motion issues watching movies in 3D.  In some ways the look of the 3D reminded me of the effect that The Hobbit has with it's 48 FPS motion.  Much of the film felt and looked fake to me, whether it was wide shots of houses or cities, or scenes of cars racing around at impossibly fast speeds.  Some shots looked so clearly computer generated, that I thought I was watching a video game cut-scene version of The Great Gatsby.  I don't think I've ever said this about a film before, but I'd call it over-directed.  The whole film was just too busy and there were times I wish Luhrmann would just stop playing around with the look of the film, moving the camera around, and just concentrate on telling the story.  This did calm down a bit as the movie went on though, especially during some of the more dialog-heavy scenes.

The music I found extremely distracting as well.  In what felt like a lame effort to try to give this more of a modern feel, there are lots of hip-hop and dance songs throughout.  This is worsened by the fact that many times this is mixed with the actual background music heard, so you've got this cacophony of musical styles and songs with different tempos being played over one another.  During the credits I saw that Jay Z co-produced the score, and then it made sense.  Who else would shoehorn a remixed version of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" in The Great Gatsby?  I'm not kidding, that song is in the film.

So, what's the story about?  Nick (Tobey Maguire) is a bond salesman in 1920's New York.  He lives in a small, but comfortable house on the outskirts of town.  This house is dwarfed by a huge mansion directly next door inhabited by the mysterious and elusive Gatsby.  Little is know about Gatsby; who he is, where he got his money, what he does, but the one thing everyone does know about him is that he throws great parties.  People come from all over (uninvited, I might add) to hang out at Gatsby's mansion even though none of these people actually know him.  Nick gets a formal invite, a rarity, to one of these parties and meets Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio).  The two become friends, and eventually Gatsby asks Nick for a favor.  He wants to reconnect with an old love of his, Daisy (Carey Mulligan), who happens to be Nick's cousin.  They have not seen each other in five years, and in that time Daisy has married rich sportsman Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton).

My only real familiarity with F. Scott Fitzgerald is when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) played him in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, so yeah, I haven't read the book and didn't have any ideas about the story going in.  After hearing what a classic novel this was, I thought I was going to be in for a treat as far as depth of story and characters, but that's where I thought this adaptation really let me down.  All of the characters felt very one-dimensional to me, with the exception of Gatsby, but like with Daisy, there's just nothing to her character that makes you see why these men are in love with her (other than the fact that Carey Mulligan is very pretty).  She's just there.  In other cases, they go out of their way to make sure you don't have any reason to like them.  For example, Tom Buchanan is not only is cheating on his wife, but he's jealous of Gatsby, and he's a racist.  I've often railed against movies that romanticize extramarital affairs, and this is no exception.  Daisy and Gatsby begin their affair, and they don't appear to have any conscience about it.  It's not until Gatsby finally pushes her to leave her husband, and then you see a little bit of internal conflict.  I felt like I was watching a very slick looking soap opera.  I'm guessing that Luhrmann and co-writer Craig Pearce's script didn't capture the depth or these characters or story.  Otherwise, I'm not sure what makes this a classic.  Most of the movie hints that there's more to Gatsby than he's letting on, but when it's revealed I couldn't help thinking, "that's it?"

I'll give credit to the performances though, especially with Leonardo DiCaprio.  He really was charismatic as Gatsby, and turned in another fine performance.  He was easily the best thing about the film for me, and was the only character that went through any kind of emotional range.  I also liked Joel Edgerton's performance, despite not really liking his character.  Another standout for me was Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan.  I believe this was her first role, and I thought she looked like someone plucked right out of the 20's.  While I think Tobey Maguire's wide-eyed enthusiasm worked for his performance, I thought there were problems with his narration, especially as the movie began.  It sounded like he was speaking with a labored voice, as if to convey he's much older, but then when you finally see him, he's the normally aged Mcguire, so what's with the voice?  It didn't sound like that throughout the film, so maybe he was sick that day?  The cast is rounded out by Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke, who were fine, but not given a ton to do.

Gatsby might have been great, but The Great Gatsby isn't.  It has it's moments, but the visuals were too flashy and distracting for their own good and the soundtrack was annoying.  Leonardo DiCaprio was great as Gatsby, but found myself really not caring about anyone else in the film or what was happening.  It's another case of style over substance.  I suppose it's going to come down to whether or not you like the visual style of the film, but it didn't work for me.  DO NOT see this in 3D!  I'm calling this one a rental.

2 (out of 5) Death Stars

Rise of the Guardians (2012) - Movie Review

I never knew Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were such bad asses.

We meet Jack Frost (voice by Chris Pine) as he tells us how he got his name and power.  He's been alive for hundreds of years, but feels a little empty because nobody can see him or believes he exists.  The only joy he seems to get out of life is using his powers to mess with everyone (he actually comes off as kind of a jerk at first) or create a snow day for the kids in town.

At the North Pole, Santa Claus finds that Pitch Black, a.k.a. The Boogeyman, has returned.  Pitch's plan is to bring back fear to the children of the world.  Santa rallies the other Guardians of legend, the Sandman, the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) and the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) to stop Pitch.  However, the Man in the Moon tells the Guardians that he's picked Jack Frost to be their newest member.

One of the things I liked about Guardians is that it didn't follow into the familiar troupe of the reluctant hero. Sure, Jack's a little resistant about joining the Guardians at first, but joins the action almost immediately once he realizes how serious the threat is.  They don't have to twist his arm to join their cause, and that was a refreshing change.  His primary dilemma throughout the story is finding out what his purpose is and what it will take for people to believe in him.

I've heard more than a few people compare this to Avengers, and I didn't draw that comparison until I heard that.  It's totally true though.  You're watching a movie about a bunch of super-powered mythical figures throw down against a common threat.  On that level, I thought the action parts of the film were very entertaining.  When there's action in the movie, it doesn't feel too cartoon-ish.

The overall story felt a little thin to me though.  There isn't a ton of depth, and the story is pretty fundamental.  It's not a bad story at all, but it's message and humor is definitely geared towards kids.  There are a few clever things they do, and there are some twists to the familiar mythology that I really appreciated.  However, it was lacking that something extra to put this in that upper tier of animated stories.

The animation is fantastic though.  The character design was great, and each even had their own realm that had it's own life and uniqueness about it.  One of the cooler characters was the Sandman.  He has no spoken dialog in the film and communicates through 'thought bubbles' and facial expressions.  It was really interesting and effective. I did see this in 3D, and while it didn't detract from the film, I didn't think it added too much to it either.  Overall, it's colorful and gorgeous. Even if the story doesn't totally work for you, the animation and visuals will keep you interested.

Matching the animation was the great voice work.  I mention this a lot when reviewing animated films, while the voices might be familiar, they aren't distracting or take you out of the story.  You have familiar voices like Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher and Chris Pine, and all their voices fit their characters nicely.  I was really impressed with Jude Law's voice acting for Pitch Black.  His voice fit the character perfectly, and he wasn't over-the-top with his delivery. Equally impressive was Alec Baldwin as Santa.  He plays Santa with a Russian accent, so I had no clue it was even him until the credits rolled.

This was Peter Ramsey's feature directorial debut, and I thought it was a great first effort.  From his IMDB page, his background as a illustrator and artist really lent itself to the visuals and action here.  Guillermo del Toro was an executive producer on this, and you can see his influence on the visuals as well.  This was based on William Joyce's The Guardians of Childhood book series.  As it's a book series, I've already heard there are potentially going to be some sequels and I have to say that I'm really looking forward to what they do next.  There are a lot of different areas and characters they can bring into the series and I think that'll be a lot of fun to see.  I only wish David Lindsay-Abaire's script had just a little more edge and wit to it.  That was the only real weakness of the film for me, and the thing that prevented it from being great.

Rise of the Guardians is a great family-friendly, holiday movie.  The story and message are great for the kids, and the top-notch animation will provide entertainment for those not that into the story. This is another movie that I think your kids will want to watch over and over once it comes out on DVD and I think it will help keep their belief alive in things like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Totally worth a matinee.

3.5 (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