Everest (2015)

Beware of a movie that begins by telling you how difficult it is to climb Everest and how many people have died trying to do it. You actually want me to watch this movie, right? Throughout they continue to hammer home how dangerous it is and how things can go south quickly. Are you sure you want me to sit through this whole thing? Guess how the movie plays out?

Everest is rough to watch at times. You're seeing a group of people struggling with this feat, and then it continues to get worse and worse. It's no surprise that it's not going to end well for a lot of them. If you like seeing lots of people die or frozen solid, then this is for you. Joy and triumph are not words I'd use to describe Everest. I get the whole man against nature element, but I can't help but wonder why anyone bothers with such an extreme. Why not just do those Spartan Races, and I don't even like those things.

Ultimately. the biggest problem with the movie is that it's hard to feel sympathy for the characters. They never give much more motivation than, 'because it's there'. Nobody's making them do this. It's not like anyone's got a gun to their heads, and they are offered multiple times to turn around when it looks like it's going to be too risky. At the end, I was as cold as as Everest.

Just like how Black Mass shows you pictures of the real people involved, Everest does that too. Normally that helps me connect to the characters, but even seeing them I still couldn't. I also found it a little funny that the makers of the film weren't as concerned for nailing the look. Aside from being much better looking, most of the actors looked nothing like their counterparts. It's kind of irrelevant though, since most of the actors are unrecognizable through much of the film. If it's not their facial hair, then it's the layers and layers of clothing and facial covering obscuring their identity. I was usually confused as to who was who most of the time, unless they had a really distinctive voice. They could have cast a bunch of unknowns and gotten the same effect. Having said that, the performances are good even though it seems like a waste of a lot of big names. I thought Black Mass underutilized a great cast, but in Everest they are completely wasted. Jason Clarke and Josh Brolin stand out for the most part, but I think in her limited screen time I think the only performance I connected with was Keira Knightley's.

Great, great cinematography. Everest is a gorgeous film, even when it's at it's most perilous. I know there was some CG used, but it was used to good effect. I saw it on IMAX 3D. While IMAX was a good format for the film, the 3D did absolutely nothing for it. If you're gonna experience this on the big screen, opt for a larger format, but see if you can avoid 3D.

Everest is a great looking, well-made movie, but it's ultimately a downer. This is one of those movies you'll put in that category of a good movie that you'll never want to see again. I can't recommend anything above a matinee.

3 (out of 5) Death Stars

Prisoners (2013)

The moral of the story is that you are so gonna get your ass kicked if you steal Wolverine's kid.

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is a family man who runs his own carpentry business.  His family attends Thanksgiving dinner at the house of his neighbors, the Birch's.  After dinner, the youngest daughters of both families, Anna and Joy, take a walk back to the Dover's home, only they never return.  While looking for the kids, Keller's son recalls a parked RV the kids were playing on, but is no longer there.  When the police find the RV, they arrest the driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but can find no trace of the kids.  Making this more difficult is that Alex has the intelligence of a 10-year-old, so getting any kind of useful information out of him isn't likely.

Not having any real evidence to hold Alex, the police are forced to let him go.  Convinced that Alex knows the location of the kids, Keller kidnaps and plans to torture him until he reveals where they are.  Meanwhile, the detective that's in charge of the investigation, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), looks into every possible lead, even Keller.

Prisoners is a super intense film that had me on the edge of my seat throughout.  Hell, I jumped more times watching this than I did when seeing Insidious: Chapter 2, and that's a horror film.  I heard several gasps from those sitting around me.  The reactions from the audience added to the experience, and is why I love seeing movies like this.

I was a little nervous when I saw that Prisoners was two and a half hours long.  Considering the weight of the subject matter, I thought it might drag.  While I did notice the length in a few parts, overall it didn't feel like a two and a half hour movie.  It's barely 5-10 minutes into the film before the kids are abducted, and once that happens the tension escalates and never lets up.  Prisoners is also not bogged down with needless exposition.  For example, you get closeness of the Dover and Birch families without having to be told how they met or how long they've known each other.

Much like the characters, you'll go through a range of emotions and opinions throughout the film.  There are times you'll feel bad for Alex as Keller is torturing him, but then you'll think he's hiding something, so maybe this needs to be done.  Franklin (Terrence Howard) struggles with the morality of what they are doing to this guy, where his wife, Nancy (Viola Davis), goes along with it as a necessary evil to get their kids back.  Meanwhile, Keller's wife Grace (Maria Bello), has taken to medicating herself as she can't deal with it at all.  Even your opinion of Detective Loki will change.  At the beginning, he's a little cocky and seems like he's going through the motions.  He even does that patronizing, "Sir, what I'm gonna need for you to do for me is calm down", when dealing with the raw emotion of Keller. Then you see his own emotional investment in the case develop the longer he works on it.

However, the character I most identified with was Keller.  While his methods are extreme, I look at it from the angle of the father.  I don't have any kids myself, but I have two nephews roughly in the same age range.  If they ever went missing, I would tear the world apart to find them.  That's Hugh Jackman's Keller Dover, and I totally understood the lengths he was willing to go to get his daughter back.

Hugh Jackman may have been nominated for an Oscar for Les Miserables, his role in Prisoners is easily his best.  It's such a passionate performance that I couldn't help but get wrapped up in it.  As we're getting towards the end of the year there's already Oscar buzz about Prisoners and expect to see Jackman's name in the mix again.  While Jackman is going to get the lion's share of the buzz, I wouldn't be surprised to Gyllenhall's name thrown around, too.  The entire cast is fantastic and there isn't a weak link in the bunch.  Even Melissa Leo has a small role, and once again she proves to be chameleon.  I don't know what it is about her that I never realize she's in a movie until I see her name in the credits.

If there's anything about the film I thought was a little weak it was that there a bunch of red herrings, and it all wraps up a little too neatly.  Some of them are obvious from the outset, like when they go out of their way to mention that Keller has an old, abandoned building left to him from his father.  I wonder where he's going to hide Alex away?  Others are a little more subtle and don't pay off until much later.  It's a minor complaint though, and they weren't handled in a clumsy way.  I thought Aaron Guzikowski's screenplay was very smart overall.  I also have to applaud director Denis Villeneuve, not just for the pacing, but how balanced everything was.  Even how many shots were framed were very well done.

Prisoners is an emotional, haunting ordeal.  It's the kind of intense and disturbing that makes you feel like the film punched you in the gut after.  Despite the weight of the film, it features powerhouse performances that make this a must watch.

4.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

End of Watch (2012) - Movie Review

End of Watch gives a different look into the lives of cops working in South Central Los Angeles.  Imagine an episode of COPS where you really get to know the officers and see the grisly side of their job.

An opening narration by Officer Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) describes his thoughts on the job as you are watching a POV car chase shot by a dashboard cam.  It really puts you in the action and was one of the more interesting car chases I've seen in a while  Taylor is filming a documentary for a film class, which basically serves as an excuse for use of the many handheld camera shots used throughout the film.  It felt at first that this may be yet another found footage film with lots of shaky cam work (even the villains are seen using cameras), but as the movie progresses you get more standard camera angles.  It might be a little off putting if you're someone that notices that kind of thing, but it didn't detract from the strengths of the film. Having said that, I think the movie would have been even better if they had ditched all the handheld work and just shot it as a standard film.

Officer Taylor has been with his partner Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) for years.  These guys are so close that they are essentially family.  Zavala is expecting his first child and Taylor is just starting a relationship with Janet (Anna Kendrick).  Seeing this adds to the depth of their characters and it's impossible to not care as you learn more about them.  What really sells this is the natural and authentic chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Peña.  Their banter is so funny that without even trying, it ends up being on of the funnier buddy cop movies that I've seen, and keep in mind that End of Watch isn't even a comedy.

When you see them at work, you get a gritty and realistic look at a day on the job.  Be warned that there are some extremely gruesome and shocking things in the movie.  Officers Taylor and Zavala aren't interested in giving out traffic tickets, something their superiors seem to be annoyed by.  They prefer to get in the middle of things and are pretty much super cops, even earning medals for their heroics.  However, they make a few busts that put them in the crosshairs of a Mexican cartel.  This sets up the explosive and emotional end of the film, which I won't spoil here. I will say that because you get so invested in Taylor and Zavala you just hope everything works out.

Jake Gyllenhaal has been doing great work for years, but I think this might be the most I've enjoyed him in a film.  Michael Peña has always been a favorite of mine, but this is easily the performance of his career.  Their performances carry the film, and I would not be surprised to see some nominations come their way come award season.  The movie is fleshed out with a great supporting cast of people like Natalie Martinez, America Ferrera, Frank Grillo and the always appealing Anna Kendrick.  Kendrick doesn't have a large role, but makes the most of her screen time.

Writer/director David Ayer, who's given us many other cop-driven films, with Training Day at the top of that list, gives a change of pace from his previous work.  Instead of a film about dirty or hugely flawed cops, we get a movie about two good cops and humanizes them in a way we don't normally get to see on the big screen.  Yes, cops are people, too.  They have family, friends, and actually want to do good in the world.  I'm so used to seeing the opposite of this that I kept waiting for one of these guys to do something questionable or immoral.  I'm glad the film never took us in those directions.  Another aspect of the film that really came through to me is how much the entire police force is one big family and how much they have each other's backs.  If I had an army like that at my back, I'd feel like I could take on all the evil in the world, too.

End of Watch is one of the better cop films in years, from a director that pretty much the current master on films about the boys-in-blue.  It's anchored by fantastic performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña and they elevate this to something more than just another cop film. It's also a tense thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.  I strongly recommend checking this one out as soon as you can.

4 (out of 5) Death Stars