Elysium , Review 2

Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Matt Damon as Max DeCosta
Jodie Foster as Secretary of Defense Delacourt
Sharlto Copley as Agent Kruger
Alice Braga as Frey
Diego Luna as Julio
Wagner Moura as Spider
William Fichtner as John Carlyle
Brandon Auret as Drake
Josh Blacker as Crowe
Emma Tremblay as Matilda
Fran Tahir as President Patel
Maxwell Perry Cotton as Young Max

Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Review:
Fans and creators of sci-fi love to talk about the power of the genre being in its ability to use analogy to depict our current, using its fantastic backdrop to push modern mores and conventional wisdom to extremes in order to test how accurate or worthwhile they really are. When done well it does work, but the problem with a message built on going to extremes is that extremes are very hard to make believable and very easy to get away from a storyteller for just that reason. Case in point: Neil Blomkamp's "Elysium," or what I like to call "When bad analogies happen to good filmmakers."

About a century from now rabid overpopulation has reduced much of the Earth to a third-world slum, with not enough food, medicine or hope to go around. The richest one percent, seeing this coming, have pooled their resources and built their own space station—Elysium—where they live in mostly ignorant luxury and indolence, leaving people like car-thief-gone-straight Max (Matt Damon) to fend for themselves.

Which is all well and good, as far as it goes. Blomkamp's visual creation of an Earth falling apart (focused, like any good Hollywood film should be, on the urban hell of Los Angeles) is a feast, telling you all you need to know about the world people like Max live in and why they would be willing to take their chances to attempt to fly up to Elysium on illegal shuttles in an attempt to partake of the wonders of civilization horded there. Wonders like medical beds that can instantly heal anything up to and including a grenade to the face.

And then the harsh Secretary of Defense (Jodie Foster), who seems at least partially based on Christine Lagarde, orders the ships full of illegals to be shot down on their way up and the film begins its long slow slide into ridiculousness.

Part of that is because Blomkamp obviously has a better feel for the down-trodden Earth he has created, partly because much of it is recreated from some of his previous shorts over the year's right down to the brutal obnoxious robot police force which for some reason has been programmed to act exactly like brutal obnoxious human police officers.

In fact, most of the downtrodden of Earth are treated at arm's length, when treated at all, by robots and mechanisms, built by the likes of billionaire John Carlyle (William Fichtner) who somehow manages to stay a billionaire by selling everything he makes to Elysium (which he built) seeing as the bulk of ‘consumers' live in abject poverty and can't possibly afford anything he makes.

For the most part though, little things like that can be forgiven, initially, as Blomkamp builds his world around Max, an everyman trying to stay on the straight and narrow. Then Max gets hit by a blast of deadly radiation and has only five days to live at which point nothing seems over the top to him, including getting bolted into a cybernetic exoskeleton and a computer drive inserted in his head if it will get him up to Elysium and one of the magic healing pods.

This is good and bad news. On the one hand it is when Blomkamp really gets into his action movie element as Max and a gang of ne'er-do-wells attempt to kidnap Carlyle and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a power struggle by Foster and her top goon (District 9's Sharlto Copley as a crazed super-soldier) who are attempting to reboot Elysium's computer in order to tell it she is the president in some sort of electronic coup [see she hates politicians but she's the Secretary of Defense in some sort of government which controls both Elysium, which seems to operate as its own country, and of the Earth itself and you know what I give up; the more "Elysium" explains, the less believable it gets].

This wouldn't be a big Hollywood action movie without a cute kid to spur the hero on, so naturally the daughter of Max's childhood friend (Alice Braga) is dying of cancer and needs to get up to Elysium, too. Max fights against his own heroic nature, and against Copley and his men, for as long as he can but in the end he is trapped in an action movie which means one thing. Showdown on the space station.

When the ham-handed socio-political commentary takes a breather, "Elysium" actually isn't a bad action movie, buoyed by a decent performance from Damon and some extremely well-put together set pieces from Blomkamp (though like with his previous films the best is saved for the very end and you've got to wait a while for it).

The problem is the better the dumb action movie elements get, the worse the smart commentary parts get, right up to the denouement where it is revealed that no citizen of Elysium can be arrested for anything, ever (just follow that train of thought to its logical conclusion). This would be, well not forgivable, but at least expected if "Elysium" were the dumb movie trying to look smart it pretends to be, but it's not. It's trying to be the opposite, a smart movie playing dumb in order to get its own point across and that incongruity will make your head explode, raining bloody giblets down on all of the people unfortunate enough to be sitting next to you.

Now, that all does sound much worse than "Elysium" really is – as a roller coaster it is pretty good fun and if that's all you want and/or you know or care nothing at all about the politics and policies surrounding the developing world it probably is one of the better film experiences you'll have in the theater this summer. But if you can't ignore the ham-handedness of the message, which moves quickly from not far off-base to way, way over the top, it might be just too much for you.

Elysium ,Review 1

Rating: 8 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Matt Damon as Max
Jodie Foster as Delacourt
Sharlto Copley as Kruger
Alice Braga as Frey
Diego Luna as Julio
Wagner Moura as Spider
William Fichtner as John Carlyle
Brandon Auret as Drake
Josh Blacker as Crowe
Emma Tremblay as Matilda
Jose Pablo Cantillo as Sandro
Maxwell Perry Cotton as Young Max
Faran Tahir as President Patel
Adrian Holmes as Manuel
Jared Keeso as Rico

Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Summary:
Cool world-building and gritty sci-fi action make "Elysium" a film worth checking out for genre fans.

Story:
In the year 2154, the Earth has been ruined by pollution, population overcrowding, poverty, crime, and disease, but the wealthy class has found a solution by leaving Earth and living on a luxurious space station called Elysium. The rest of humanity must fight over the scraps left behind to survive on the planet.

Max grew up dreaming of living on Elysium along with his childhood friend Frey, but that dream disappeared as he fell into a life of crime. Now on probation, he is trying to straighten up his life even as he's harassed by police, bosses, and his former partners in crime.

When Max is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation in an industrial accident, he only has one hope for survival – Elysium. Medical machines there can save his life if he can manage to sneak onto the highly-guarded station. Max makes a deal with local crime lord and smuggler Spider to get there.

Spider forces him to be surgically attached to an exoskeleton that enhances his strength. But as Max soon discovers, there's a lot more at stake than his own personal health. The leaders of Elysium will do everything in their power to stop Max from accomplishing his mission.

"Elysium" is rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout.

What Worked:
Neill Blomkamp is hitting the sweet spot of what I like each time. My movie tastes were formed by films like "Terminator," "Predator," "RoboCop" and "Aliens." They were all sci-fi stories with spectacular elements and gritty action, but they were still very much grounded in reality. That seems to be Blomkamp's forte and "Elysium" is another example of why.

One of my big problems with sci-fi is that they often have an unrealistic depiction of the future. They tend to show flying cars, lightspeed travel, and jetpacks only 20 years from now. "Elysium," set in 2154, shows technology and environments that are entirely believable for 140 years from now. Cybernetic implants are no more unusual than an iPhone. Flying ships capable of space flight are as common as everyday cars. Medical miracles are as ordinary as penicillin. Robots are as much of a nuisance as automated phone messages. But it's not all jetpacks and chrome in the future. Los Angeles is just as believable as a ruined hellhole as it is a futuristic Mecca. Division of the social classes is the same as it has been throughout the rest of history. And political conspiracies are as alive and well as they were in ancient Rome. Blomkamp, in his world building, has found the right balance between futuristic elements and the same familiar problems that have plagued mankind since the dawn of history. (Anybody saying this film promotes socialism needs to look back at thousands of years of stories about class warfare.) The end result is a great backdrop for a much more personal story about Max.

You could very easily take Max's story and put it in any time period. It's a story about a man trying to set his life right, both spiritually and physically, and Matt Damon sells it well. He makes a great everyman that is likable even though he has a criminal past. It doesn't hurt that he's also believable in the action scenes. And that is yet another trademark of Blomkamp – brutal sci-fi action. Every time a character grabs a gun, you wonder what creative and spectacular way the target will no doubt gorily die. It's like a Cracker Jack box of sci-fi carnage.

Damon is supported by a relatively small supporting cast. Alice Braga plays Frey, his childhood friend and love interest. The two have good chemistry on the screen. Diego Luna also plays Julio, Max's partner in crime. Like Damon, he's likable despite his criminal lifestyle. Then there's Wagner Moura as Spider, the crime lord that Max must make a deal with. He sets the events in motion for the story and becomes a bigger and bigger player as the story progresses. Finally, there is Sharlto Copley as Kruger. Few actors could play a pencil pusher (like in "District 9") and a psychotic trained killer equally convincingly, but Copley does it well. I never doubted for a moment that he was a cold-blooded, cyborg mercenary.

What Didn't Work:
As far as the story goes, there weren't all that many surprises. The trailers told me most of the plot and it wasn't hard to fill in the rest. Fortunately the world is exciting enough to be immersed in that it made the trip to space and back worthwhile. It also seemed unusual that early in the film, Elysium is portrayed as an impenetrable fortress. Then, by the end, people come and go from it with relative ease and there only seems to be a skeleton security force on the station. For a film otherwise firmly grounded in realism, it felt unrealistic.

My next complaint is something I never expected to complain about – the accents. I work with people from China, Korea, the UK, Greece, India, Malaysia, and Mexico on a daily basis. I have no problem listening to foreign accents. Yet as Spider and Kruger spoke, more than once I had a hard time understanding what they were saying. Copley's accent, for the most part, is pretty cool, but I think he does lay it on a bit thick. At one point when he said "wife" like "woyf," I heard several chuckles in the audience during an otherwise serious scene. But the worst accent in the film belongs to Jodie Foster as Delacourt. She seems to be channeling Martha Stewart as she speaks. We're so familiar with her real voice that when she tries to vary it, it comes across poorly. I wish she had simply played the role with her everyday accent because it would have been less distracting.

The Bottom Line:
People have been saying the "District 9" is better than "Elysium" and I would agree with them, but "Elysium" should still please any fans of sci-fi or Matt Damon. It's a nice dose of gritty sci-fi to the summer movie lineup.

Disney's Planes ,Review

Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Dane Cook as Dusty Crophopper (voice)
Stacy Keach as Skipper (voice)
Brad Garrett as Chug (voice)
Teri Hatcher as Dottie (voice)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Rochelle (voice)
Priyanka Chopra as Ishani (voice)
John Cleese as Bulldog (voice)
Cedric the Entertainer as Leadbottom (voice)
Carlos Alazraqui as El Chupacabra / Additional Voices (voice)
Roger Craig Smith as Ripslinger / Additional Voices (voice)
Anthony Edwards as Echo (voice)
Val Kilmer as Bravo (voice)
Sinbad as Roper (voice)
Gabriel Iglesias as Ned / Zed (voice)
Brent Musburger as Brent Mustangburger (voice)

Directed by Klay Hall

Summary:
"Planes" has some cool flying animation and should please children, but the unoriginal plot and bland characters make it pretty forgettable for adults.

Story:
Set in the world of "Cars," "Planes" features Dusty Crophopper, a crop dusting plane that dreams of one day becoming a racer. Determined and optimistic, nothing gets this plane down… except his fear of extreme heights. Through skill and good fortune, Dusty manages to qualify for a race around the world, but he's going to need to get over his fear of heights if he has any hope of winning the race. He might just do it with the help of his friends including an old WWII fighter by the name of Skipper. Dusty will need the experienced plane's expertise if he's going to defeat the reigning champion Ripslinger.

"Planes" is rated PG for some mild action and rude humor.

What Worked:
For me, the highlight of "Planes" was the 3D animation. It worked quite well as the airplanes flew in and out of the screen and they gave you a first person view as Dusty flew through canyons, between trees, and around other obstacles. The end result is a film that makes the most of the big screen medium.

While much of the film was rather bland, a couple of scenes did stand out. The first was when El Chupacabra, in an attempt to woo the Canadian plane Rochelle, starts singing "Love Machine" with a blaring boom box. But then Dusty helps him and he ends up singing a great acoustic version of the song along with a Mariachi band. It turns into an unexpected and fun musical moment. Another scene features a flashback by Skipper to his WWII days. We see him and his squadron in a rather brutal air battle against some ships in the Pacific. It was an unexpected moment in an otherwise 'safe' movie with no surprises. I probably could have watched an entire film of nothing but the WWII planes.

While there are no bonus scenes in the credits, there is a logo for the upcoming "Planes: Fire and Rescue." So if you or your kids liked this film, you'll be glad to see that.

What Didn't Work:
The big problem with "Planes" is that it feels completely phoned in. Other than the fact that it features living airplanes, there is no other novelty to this story. It's your typical underdog sports story with all of the usual clichés and it is utterly predictable. You can look at the movie poster and trailer and figure out the entire plot of this film. It's that by the numbers.

Besides the familiar plot, none of the characters are real standouts. Dane Cook was perfectly adequate as Dusty Crophopper, but anybody could have played the role and done an equivalent job. All of the other characters are similarly dull which is a surprise considering the cast includes Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and John Cleese. They even have a fun "Top Gun"-themed cameo by Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards, but you don't even realize it was them until the credits rolled. Overall, it does not feel like the cast was used to their full potential.

The Bottom Line:
I'm sure "Planes" will make Disney a lot of money and kids under 10 will love it. And while it is severely lacking in many respects, there are a lot worse films that parents could sit through. "Planes," fortunately, is tolerable.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, review 2

Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson
Brandon T. Jackson as Grover Underwood
Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase
Leven Rambin as Clarisse La Rue
Jake Abel as Luke Castellan
Anthony Stuart Head as Chiron
Stanley Tucci as Dionysus
Nathan Fillion as Hermes
Douglas Smith as Tyson
Robert Maillet as Polyphemus
Missi Pyle, Yvette Nicole Brown and Mary Birdsong as The Graeae

Directed by Thor Freudenthal

Review:
With a complete change in creative personnel, and adjusted expectations, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" is a noticeable improvement over the first "Percy Jackson" adventure, but it's still awkward and unsure of itself like the teenagers it purports to be about. And still doomed to continue living in Harry Potter's shadow.

That's not entirely "Percy's" fault. Some of it is the compelling nature of the Hero's Journey archetype, which invites imitation, and some of it is the desire among film executives to keep making films for teenage boys about finding your place in the world and developing agency over your own life, over and over again, under the assumption audiences have the memory and attention span of gold fish.

Which is all fine and dandy the first time out, but once you start making sequels you have to confront the reality that you've covered that ground already and doing it again will just be repetitive and boring. To their credit, the "Sea of Monsters" filmmakers resist the urge to shrug, say they don't care about that, attempting to advance the characters as much as they can within the trap of the youth-oriented effects film.

Among other things, that gives us a markedly more likeable Logan Lerman as Percy himself. Not only is he a better actor now than he was three years ago, Percy himself has aged and matured as well. Though still frustrated over the lack of communication with his father, the sea god Poseidon (played by Sir Not Appearing In This Movie), much of the teenage angst of the first film has been left behind, giving us a Percy more confident in his abilities and his place in the world of Camp Half-blood.

Or he would be if he wasn't continually being shown up by Clarisse (Leven Rambin), daughter of Ares, whose more evolved killer instincts begin to foster doubts in Percy about his abilities as a hero. Doubts he'll have to face when the magic shield which protects the camp and its inhabitants from monsters threatens to fall, forcing Percy and his co-horts to go on a quest for the legendary Golden Fleece which may be able to heal the magic tree which casts the shield and save the camp.

Which happens pretty quickly in this much more action-oriented sequel. With all the set-up of the world out of the way in the first film, new director Thor Freudenthal ("Diary of a Wimpy Kid") is free to jump right into the adventure itself; and jump he does with introducing several new characters including Clarisse and Percy's one-eyed half-brother Tyson (Douglas Smith) and a fight with a giant mechanical bull, right off the bat.

In fact, "Sea of Monsters" spends quite a bit of time introducing and developing new characters and their relationships with Percy, pushing returning players like Alexandra Daddario's Annabeth and Brandon Jackson's Grover to the sidelines. Grover himself disappears from the film fairly early on and does not reappear again until the last act, while much of Annabeth's feistiness has been transferred to Clarisse, offering her little to do but get pushed around and grouse about how much she distrusts Tyson.

It seems years earlier when she and Grover were young children--as opposed to near thirty-year-olds … I mean … teenagers--they were attacked by a band of Cyclops on their way to Camp Half-blood, saved only by the sacrifice of their friend Thalia, daughter of Zeus, whose sacrifice resulted in the tree which protects the camp in the present day.

This will all be very important later on, and by later on I mean in a third Percy Jackson film which is continually teased throughout "Sea of Monsters" to the point of becoming a little distracting (and which will require the stars of the film to be teachers at the Camp instead of students by the time they get to it at the rate they've been going).

There is a prophecy, you see, that the human child of one of the three Great Gods (Zeus, Hades and Poseidon) would either save or destroy Olympus by his 20th birthday, and young Percy is the only one fitting that bill, causing him to regress somewhat to worrying about his destiny and ability to chose his own path in life through much of the film (and I assume through a third film if they actually make it).

That's something Luke (Jake Abel), son of Hermes, would happily like to see come to pass as he returns to both antagonize Percy again and prove that he is the better actor of the two and would probably have made a better star than Lerman. Though he has gotten more self-assured as an actor, Lerman continues to spend most of his time getting upstaged by more flamboyant personalities, like Nathan Fillion's Hermes, who seems to be channeling Alec Baldwin from "30 Rock."

That said, "Sea of Monsters" is still a genuine improvement over the tepid "Lightning Thief." Freudenthal and screenwriter Marc Guggenheim ("Green Lantern") have pushed aside any supporting characters not directly related to the goings on, creating a more focused narrative. Combined with a better sense of Percy as a character, and actually attempting to grow him as a person, results in a noticeably better film.

"Percy" is still, however, its own worst enemy. It's difficult to make a move for the juvenile without becoming juvenile--it's a balance filmmakers fight and lose against all the time--and "Sea of Monsters" bounces around that line quite a bit. Unfortunately, neither Freudenthal nor Guggeheim is particularly good at being whimsical and the attempts at levity or comically showing the godly world inside the real one fall hopelessly flat.

Still, the fact that they were able to improve so much from the first film shows there's life in the "Percy Jackson" boat yet. Yeah, it's still living under a big, lightning bolt shaped shadow, but there's room to grow and at least some desire to attempt it. Here's hoping they make that third film after all.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, review 1

Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson
Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth
Douglas Smith as Tyson
Leven Rambin as Clarisse
Brandon T. Jackson as Grover
Jake Abel as Luke
Anthony Head as Chiron
Stanley Tucci as Mr. D
Connor Dunn as Tereus
Paloma Kwiatkowski as Thalia
Nathan Fillion as Hermes

Directed by Thor Freudenthal

Summary:
"Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" has a few fun action sequences, but weak characters and plot leave it with little to offer to anyone over 12.

Story:
“Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” is based on the novel by Rick Riordan.

Sometime after the first film, Percy Jackson and his friends continue to train at the camp for demigods. But Percy's starting to doubt himself, especially as rival Clarisse goes out of her way to bully him. Maybe saving Olympus was just a fluke? And maybe he has to rely on his friends since he may have no real talent of his own?

Percy's doubt is interrupted when the camp is attacked and the magical tree that generates its protective barrier is sickened. The attack is led by Luke who, it turns out, wasn't killed in the first film. As the magical tree begins to die, Percy and his friends discover that the only thing that may save it is the Golden Fleece located in the Sea of Monsters (i.e. the Bermuda Triangle). But Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Percy's newly discovered cyclops half-brother Tyson will have to risk life and limb to recover it.

"Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" is rated PG for fantasy action violence, some scary images and mild language

What Worked:
The best thing in "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" is easily the action. It's a lot of fun to see monsters from Greek mythology terrorizing our heroes in modern settings. You see a mechanical bull destroy the demigod camp, a massive sea creature devour ships, an attacking giant Cyclops, and more. It was the highlight of the first film and it remains the highlight of the sequel. Combine that action with some pretty good 3D and you have a mildly entertaining popcorn flick.

The cameos are another highlight of the latest Percy Jackson film. Nathan Fillion appears as Hermes and provides some much needed comic relief. He throws yet another modern twist on Greek mythology by playing a UPS executive (Get it? He's the messenger of the gods.) Stanley Tucci also has a small role as Mr. D, or the god Dionysus, the god of wine. He's one of the headmasters of the demigod school and has some fun interaction with Percy and the crew while he rocks yet another impressive wig. Tucci does look a tad like Ron Jeremy which is unsettling, but I think that’s what he was going for.

I took my two young sons to this film. Only the older one had read the books, but both were quite happy with the movie. I must admit that I was looking for something more substantial, but if I was going to have to sit through a movie geared for kids, this at least kept me somewhat engaged.

What Didn't Work:
While "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" does have some highlights, it is ultimately quite bland. Percy is kind of dull as a character on the hero's journey. Grover, the main comic relief of the first film, is largely absent from this sequel. Conflict with Annabeth is now substituted by conflict with Clarisse, and she's largely unlikable. And the new Cyclops half brother Tyson is simply a mild-mannered oaf with little depth. Combine the bland characters with a very basic plot and you have a story that serves little purpose other than linking action scenes together.

The first movie was compared to Harry Potter a lot. And while that was OK on the first outing, nothing is done to distance it from the Potterverse in the sequel. In fact, it seems more like a Harry Potter rip-off now. You have the obvious comparisons between the demigod camp and Hogwarts. You have ineffective adult instructors. You have the trio of teens breaking the rules to go on a quest to save the school. You even have a magical taxicab that draws obvious comparisons to the knight bus in Harry Potter. These increasing numbers of similarities make it all seem very familiar and very done to death.

As fun as some of the special effects were, some of them just made you question why they even bothered. Hermes carries a staff with a couple of bickering CG animated snakes. They're painful to listen to but thankfully short-lived. The other scene with the Gray Sisters and the taxicab was also incredibly overdone and, as previously described, unoriginal. The witches are played by Yvette Nicole Brown (from "Community"), Missi Pyle, and Mary Birdsong, but their talents are not put to good use here. Later in the film, Clarisse captains a Civil War era steam ship crewed by zombies that is actually pretty cool. But the zombies are so unthreatening that you can't help but think a great opportunity was missed. (And why are there zombies in a movie about Greek mythology? Surely there was another option!) Anyway, the movie is filled with hits and misses and these are some of the misses.

The Bottom Line:
I'd only recommend "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" to fans of the book and anyone 12 and under. Parents will find it tolerable family fare if you have to entertain the kiddies over the summer, but it is overall pretty forgettable.

We're the Millers

Reviewed by: Edward Douglas
Rating: 8 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast: 
Jason Sudeikis as David Clark
Jennifer Aniston as Rose O'Reilly
Will Poulter as Kenny Rossmore
Emma Roberts as Casey Mathis
Ed Helms as Brad Gurdlinger
Nick Offerman as Don Fitzgerald
Kathryn Hahn as Edie Fitzgerald
Molly C. Quinn as Melissa Fitzgerald 
Tomer Sisley as Pablo Chacon
Matthew Willig as One-Eye
Luis Guzmán as Mexican Cop
Thomas Lennon as Rick Nathanson
Mark L. Young as Scottie P.
Ken Marino as Todd - Strip Club Owner
Laura-Leigh as Kymberly

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

Story:
Small-time drugdealer David Clark (Jason Sudekis) has gotten himself into a fix with his distributor (Ed Helms) and is forced to travel down to Mexico to act as a mule to bring back a large shipment of marijuana. Realizing what would happen if he gets caught at the border, Clark recruits Rose (Jennifer Aniston), a stripper who lives in his building, to act as his wife and a couple of kids to help create the illusion of them being a family on an innocent vacation to Mexico. What could possibly go wrong?

Analysis:
With any comedy, whether it's good or bad, high concept or low brow, there's usually a point where you can figure out where it's going, or at least you think you do, and in the case of "We're the Millers," that point comes fairly early on, literally the moment drugdealer David Clark meets one of his married friends on the street and for a brief second ponders what it would be like to have his own family. That moment is fleeting, because Dave is a fairly selfish guy, basically just wanting to continue selling pot and making money. When he's robbed by some street kids, Dave's forced into take a risky job smuggling drugs across the Mexican border and comes up with the brilliant idea of pulling together a group of similarly-damaged individuals to pretend they're a family on vacation. 

As with any journey or road comedy, the things you see while traveling to your destination are often far more memorable and "We're the Millers" is so irreverently and consistently funny that it's easily forgiven for telegraphing its motives so early on. Once the set-up is readily out of the way in the first 15 or 20 minutes, you're quickly pulled into the idea of this mismatched foursome trying to pass themselves off as a makeshift suburban family and that's where the movie generally offer the most laughs as they pile into an RV full of marijuana and try to drive it across the border. 

Much of the reason why the movie works is due to how well Jason Sudeikis has honed what he does to the point where he can make anything he says funny rather than just relying on written jokes, as he seemingly is able to tap into an unlimited resource of ad-libs and asides that keeps things moving at a good pace. Regardless of whether you're a fan of Jennifer Aniston's or not, there's no denying she has a way of committing to a role like the smart stripper Rose that really works well with what Sudeikis does, but the real standout has to be "Son of Rambow" star Will Poulter, who actually plays off his awkward teens so well as the virginal Kenny that he becomes the heart of the movie. 

"Dodgeball" director Rawson Thurber's return to comedy proves to be a welcome one as he creates a great space for his cast, knowing exactly how much room to give them to play up each scene for the best laughs. The movie never gives you much of a chance to tire of the dynamics between the core foursome, since they're constantly being thrown into situations with new characters, whether it's Luiz Guzman's Mexican cop looking for a bribe or the movie's biggest scene stealers, Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn, who take things so far and beyond as a couple the family meets on their trip one might wonder whether a spin-off movie might be in order. The movie's only real weak point in terms of casting is Ed Helms' portrayal of Dave's wealthy but shady supplier who we cut back to every once in a while to see what sort of indulgences he's up to. It probably was an easy gig for Helms but not a particularly well-developed character.

The problem with many comedies these days is trying to keep some surprises for the actual movie and in the case of "We're the Millers," a lot of the major beats and situations have been used to sell the movie in trailers and commercials. Fortunately, there are more than a few moments that end up being even funnier in the movie as well as one particularly hilarious moment that you won't see coming. 

Eventually we're back on track to the story and you'll already have guessed that the Mexican cartel eventually catches up with the family, Aniston takes off her clothes to distract them, and the action starts to pick up. The last act might not offer too many surprises for the astute who already know the general formula for these kinds of movies, but things are generally pulled together in a satisfying way. And even with the amount of foul language and jokes about anal sex, there's still a fairly heartwarming message at the film's core where it never feels as mean or snarky as other similar movies, and that's a very hard thing to do indeed.

The Bottom Line:
There isn't a ton of heavy thinking involved with the high concept premise behind "We're the Millers," but it works better than one might expect and ultimately it's a winning comedy that leaves you wanting to see more of the Millers.

The World's End

Reviewed by: Edward Douglas
Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Simon Pegg as Gary King
Martin Freeman as Oliver
Nick Frost as Andrew Knightley
Eddie Marsan as Peter
Paddy Considine as Steven
Rosamund Pike as Sam
David Bradley as Basil
Angie Wallis as Peter's Wife
Thomas Law as Young Gary
Zachary Bailess as Young Andy
James Tarpey as Young Peter
Jasper Levine as Young Steven
Luke Bromley as Teenage Oliver

Directed by Edgar Wright 

Story:
While best friends in high school, Gary, Andy, Oliver, Peter and Steven spent one night doing a pub crawl of 12 local pubs on the "Miracle Mile" of their small town of Newton Haven—they never finished it. 20 years later, Gary King (Simon Pegg) wants them to reunite to complete the crawl they gave up on as kids. Unfortunately, all his friends are now mature adults with wives and families and jobs and they want nothing to with Gary's quest, but he convinces them to reunite with a lie with his former best friend Andrew (Nick Frost) still angry about an incident that happened which drove a wedge in their friendship.

Analysis:
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright have created quite a cottage market of British comedy for themselves with the show "Spaced" and two wildly-acclaimed movies in "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz." The question going into "The World's End"--an idea they've had since the "Hot Fuzz" days--is whether after six years, the trio are able to recreate the magic of their earlier movies, especially having moved onto other things in between their collaborations. Fortunately, they have a great premise that fits in with the themes of the other two movies, essentially everyday people dealing with other-worldly occurrences and they've surrounded the proven pairing of Pegg and Frost with another solid British cast.

While "Shaun" played with the archetypes of George Romero zombie movies and "Hot Fuzz" did the same for Michael Bay buddy cop movies, "The World's End" is really its own thing, though it does feel more like an ensemble piece than those movies with Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Paddy Considine being as big a part of the story as Pegg and Frost. Essentially, the film opens with Gary in an AA meeting telling the story of the pub crawl and being convinced that finishing it might offer the closure he needs, so he revisits all his old friends, all of whom are happy and successful in their lives. Somehow he manages to convince them to begrudgingly return to Newton Haven where all but Andy--now sober for 16 years--try to humor Gary. Things only really start moving about thirty minutes in when the friends realize there's something wrong with the townspeople - something we won't go into too much detail about though it does offer some fun creatures that wouldn't have been out of place in '70s era "Doctor Who." 

Gary King is the only one of the friends who hasn't really grown up or changed since the friends were last together, still living in the past with the same car he drove back then. He's actually a great character for Pegg to play, not too far removed from Shaun or other characters but just different enough from some of the other things he's done, both with Wright and without, to make him just the right fit. Frost plays it so straight-laced for most of the movie, bringing a lot of the drama to the story as he is still smarting from an incident decades earlier where a drugged-out Gary rolled a car putting him in the hospital for months. Frost's fans will probably be more thrilled when he gets into the action and later when he spouts a few one-liners more in-line with his characters from "Shaun" and "Hot Fuzz," since that's what most of the fans will be waiting for.

Even so, neither of them is quite as funny as a drunken giggling Eddie Marsan while the other two--Martin Freeman and Paddy Considine--both play it straighter even though they have some funny lines and get in just as much on the action. Rosamund Pike shows up as a mutual love interest of Steve and Gary's although she quickly disappears and feels like another wasted female character in a summer full of them. 

The action sequences are so much fun you'll probably quickly set aside the question "How are all these businessmen so adept at martial arts moves?" and just go along with it, although it is quite a jarring change in tone and direction for those enjoying the buddy comedy aspect of the movie. Things start getting somewhat surreal when they arrive at a pub where they seem to be holding some sort of school disco and three of the friends are seduced by three of the girls from high school who haven't gotten older due to the alien tampering. 

Whlie Wright uses many of his distinctive directing trademarks, this isn't the fast cut joke a minute movie that was "Hot Fuzz," instead feeling more like other standard comedies just with a stronger plot and characters yet not feeling the need to fill every frame with a gag. In some ways, it feels like the script just isn't nearly as well developed as some of those other movies maybe because they were all doing other things.

The other thing that didn't quite work this time was the soundtrack with Wright mostly using British hits from the early '90s by Primal Scream, Happy Mondays and others. They're great tunes for sure, but the music in Wright's previous movies always added another clever level to the humor in some way and that's sorely missing. 

Where things start to go really wrong is when the movie cuts to an odd flash forward epilogue that's such a strange departure from the tone of the rest of the movie that it takes you out of what you've just seen and not everyone will be on board with it.

The Bottom Line:
"The World's End" is a very different movie from its predecessors, feeling almost like two movies in one, and as much as the genre elements offer some fun action and jokes, it's hard not to feel that the movie would have worked just as well with the six actors doing a straight pub crawl without all that. It's still funnier than 90% of the comedies you're likely to see this summer but maybe fashioning it as a trilogy with "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" wasn't a great idea since it leads to comparisons it can't possibly live up to being such a different movie.

the lone ranger

Release Date: July 2, 2013 (7 p.m.) 
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Justin Haythe
Starring: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Ruth Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter
Genre: Action, Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of intense action and violence, and some suggestive material)
Review: 5.5/10 rating | 5/10 rating | 7/10 rating
DVD Review: Not Available
DVD: Not Available
Movie Poster: One-Sheet | Johnny Depp Poster | Armie Hammer Poster | Tom Wilkinson Poster | Helena Bonham Carter Poster | Poster | Ruth Wilson Poster | William Fichtner Poster | Teaser

Plot Summary: From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, the filmmaking team behind the blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, comes Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films' "The Lone Ranger," a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.

Cast:
Johnny Depp as Tonto
Armie Hammer as John Reid / The Lone Ranger
Helena Bonham Carter as Red Harrington
Barry Pepper as Captain Jay Fuller
William Fichtner as Butch Cavendish
James Badge Dale as Dan Reid
Ruth Wilson as Rebecca Reid
W. Earl Brown as Stache
Tom Wilkinson as Latham Cole
Mason Cook as Will
Harry Treadaway as Frank
Timothy V. Murphy as Fritz
Bryant Prince as Danny Reid

Directed by Gore Verbinski

Summary:
"The Lone Ranger" has some good action and some fun elements thanks to Johnny Depp, but portraying John Reid as a bumbling dandy and a feuding relationship between the Lone Ranger and Tonto prevents the film from living up to its full potential.

Story:
When John Reid returns to Texas after attending law school, he finds his former hometown changed. The railroad is breaking through Comanche territory to connect the East Coast to the West Coast and his brother, Dan Reid, is now a tough, no-nonsense Texas Ranger.

Dan is hot on the heels of a recently-escaped outlaw by the name of Butch Cavendish. Feeling partly responsible for Butch's escape, John joins the posse as a deputized Texas Ranger. Little do they realize that they are walking into a trap. Soon enough the entire group of Rangers is ambushed and killed…or are they?

An eccentric Comanche outcast by the name of Tonto, who has long been hunting Cavendish, finds John still alive. Convinced he's a ‘spirit walker' who cannot be killed, Tonto joins the lone surviving Ranger on a mission to hunt the outlaw down and bring him to justice. But the duo will soon find that the task is easier said than done.

"The Lone Ranger" is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, and some suggestive material.

What Worked:
On paper, "The Lone Ranger" has all the elements you could want for a fun film. It reteams the original "Pirates of the Caribbean" cast and crew. It features a longtime pulp hero prime for a comeback. And, of course, it features Johnny Depp who is always a pleasure to watch. Yet, for a variety of reasons, it simply didn't work for me. But let's first focus on what did work.

The movie starts out rather unexpectedly in 1933 San Francisco. That's not exactly where you would expect to see a Western begin, so it immediately pulls the audience in. At a carnival, we meet an elderly Tonto who proceeds to tell a young boy about his adventures long ago. It's a fun way to frame the narrative and it's interesting to see the contrast with Tonto in his prime. The way they created the elderly Tonto is also quite impressive. I don't know if it was prosthetic effects or computer animation, but it was very effective. I'll be interested to hear more about how they accomplished it later.

The action in "The Lone Ranger" is the main reason to watch this film. There are some impressive sequences early in the movie involving John Reid and Tonto chained together on a runaway train. You've probably seen it in the trailers. In fact, you've probably seen almost all of the action sequences in the trailers. They spoil many of the highlights of the film. Still, they're worth seeing in their entirety on the big screen.

What Didn't Work:
The biggest problem with "The Lone Ranger" is how they portrayed John Reid. He is whiny, wimpy, bumbling, and generally unlikable. You keep expecting to see him evolve into the hero he eventually becomes, but there's almost no transition whatsoever. He fumbles around, acts scared, and even refuses to shoot a gun, then he abruptly becomes a supremely competent hero in the big final action scene. It doesn't work. Now, I like Armie Hammer and I think he's a good choice as John Reid, but the script and director Gore Verbinski lead him in the completely wrong direction for his character. They needed some shred of likability in him and there is none.

The other problem is the relationship between the Lone Ranger and Tonto. It is more akin to Bert and Ernie than, say, Batman and Robin. The two constantly feud and never have a moment where you could see them actually bonding and becoming the team we know and love. Like Bert, John Reid is tightly wound, prone to panic attacks, and is constantly chiding his partner. Like Ernie, Tonto is laid back, eccentric, has an obsession with a bird, and puts up with John's freak-outs in a good-natured way. But unlike Bert and Ernie, this pairing doesn't work.

This film also goes out of its way to be politically correct with respect to guns. That's easy to understand in light of the fact that this is a Disney movie and it comes in the wake of various shooting tragedies, but it doesn't seem true to the character of the Lone Ranger. For example, John Reid is about to ride into a canyon as part of a posse and they are aware they could be ambushed by outlaws….and he refuses to take a gun to defend himself. It's pretty stupid. And while they're tap dancing around the gun issue, we see one character rip out a man's heart and eat it, another man get scalped, and other horrific acts. "The Lone Ranger" can't seem to make up its mind with respect to violence. But returning to the Lone Ranger himself, the film seems to opt to trash everything that makes the character unique. He refuses to use a gun throughout the film and when he eventually does accept it, he does so reluctantly. That's like taking away Luke Skywalker's lightsaber or Batman's batarang. I think it could have been handled better. In fact, the movie feels like it goes out of its way to strip from the Lone Ranger everything that sets him apart. He doesn't use guns, he's a wimp, everyone makes fun of him for wearing the mask, and he is even ridiculed for saying "Hi-Ho, Silver!" What's left for Lone Ranger fans?

As for Johnny Depp's Tonto, for 80% of the film his performance works perfectly. Tonto brings a lot of comic relief to the movie and much needed life. (As the movie points out, "tonto" in Spanish means foolish, silly, or dumb.) But there are times when it feels like he's trying a little too hard to be silly. There's a running gag of him trying to feed the dead bird on his head which is run into the ground. Then he does a few other things that start making him feel more like Captain Jack Sparrow in Native American attire than an entirely new character. It just overall feels like he never fell into the final groove with Tonto.

The tone of "The Lone Ranger" is all over the place, too. For example, the Lone Ranger's horse Silver is initially portrayed as some supernatural symbol of the spirit world. Yet later we see the horse in a tree wearing a hat. (No, I'm not kidding.) There are other times in the film where it seems like they are going to throw some supernatural elements into the story since Tonto keeps talking about nature being out of balance. We even see hissing, seemingly possessed rabbits attack scorpions and each other in a cannibalistic fashion. Yet by the end of the film, there is no supernatural element whatsoever. It's like the story runs down one path, changes its mind, then runs down another path.

But besides that, the overall story just doesn't work. It's a very clichéd plot with the evil railroad baron, the damsel in distress, and the hero saving the day on a runaway train. Using clichéd stories can be perfectly OK, but you have to bring some unique twist to it all. Johnny Depp alone is not enough to bring that needed twist.

The Bottom Line:
Overall, I was pretty disappointed by "The Lone Ranger." It didn't live up to its potential. However, it's still worth checking out at some point as a rental or on TV.

pacific rim movie Review

Release Date: July 11, 2013 (10 p.m.; 3D/2D theaters and IMAX) 
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Screenwriter: Travis Beacham, Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, Clifton Collins, Jr., Burn Gorman, Larry Joe Campbell, Brad William Henke, Diego Klattenhoff
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief language)
Review: 9.5/10 rating | 6.5/10 rating | 8.5/10 rating
DVD Review: Not Available
DVD: Not Available
Movie Poster: One-Sheet 2 | One-Sheet 1 | Poster | Comic-Con Poster

Plot Summary: When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity's resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi)—who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse. 

Cast:
Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket
Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost
Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori
Robert Kazinsky as Chuck Hansen
Max Martini as Herc Hansen
Charlie Day as Dr. Newton Geizler
Burn Gorman as Dr. Hermann Gottlieb
Clifton Collins, Jr. as Tendo Choi
Ron Perlman as Hannibal Chau
Ellen McLain as voice of the Jaeger AI
Robert Maillet as Lt. Aleksis Kaidanovsky
Heather Doerksen as Lt. Sasha Kaidanovsky
Diego Klattenhoff as Yancy Beckett

Review:
Who doesn't like giant robots? That is the deep, philosophical question at the heart of Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim." If the answer is yes, then it is definitely the movie for you. If you need a little bit more …

Years ago, giant monsters (Kaiju) started to arise from an interdimensional portal in the depths of the Pacific Ocean to ravage human cities. When traditional armies proved unequal to the task, the governments of the world combined to build equally giant robots (Jaegers) designed to give the people of the world the choice between having their cities destroyed by giant monsters or giant robots.

The main point of this thing is to get giant robots fighting giant monsters as often and violently as possible and that is where all the effort in the making of it has gone. And gone to good effect. By his own admission, Del Toro is only good at making two things, scary monster movies and action monster movies and "Pacific Rim" is clearly one of the latter not just in outlook but in execution with a quality level reminiscent of "Hellboy II" and "Blade II," and a similar mix of world-building and action.

As quickly as the Jaeger program is built up, it is just as summarily shut down so that we can have our self-described "rock star Jaeger pilots" quickly reduced to has-beens forced to scrounge parts where they can or work construction on the "Life Wall" humanity's survivors intend to hide behind.

That way, we can have our rock star heroes be the underdogs big budget action films tend to require, focusing on two underdogs in particular—Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam), once one of the program's best and brightest until his brother was killed before his eyes, and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), a Jaeger expert with reasons of her own for wanting to fight monsters. Because it takes two pilots working in tandem to handle such a machine, the pilots must share their thoughts and minds, potentially even their personalities, completely. It's an intriguing notion, one opening up all kinds of possibilities for character interaction and conflict.

And one almost completely ignored, barring its ability to allow backstory exposition, in favor of far more clichéd meanderings that have wandered over from a repeat of "Top Gun." There are those who call cliché's battle-tested storytelling devices, and fair enough, but at a certain point they just become repetitive and if you've ever seen another action movie before, there is nothing new or interesting about the people who live in the "Pacific Rim" universe Del Toro has so meticulously created. And that's the ones who actually get to speak - most of the robot pilots are defined entirely by their look and the country they come from.

It's abundantly clear what everyone is most interested in are the robots and the robot fighting. The colorful battles and fantastic visuals courtesy of cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic are excellent, though they might give you epilepsy, particularly the fight in a downtown Asian metropolis.

But for all the sturm und drang, the robots can only remain on screen for so long and when the people show up the lack of depth or humanity drags "Pacific Rim" way down. It's particularly disappointing from a director like Del Toro who has frequently shown a preference for developing well-rounded, often surprising characters to inhabit his intricately-detailed worlds.

But not this time. This time it's all about the giant engines of destruction pounding on each other – like the recent torture porn craze of horror films expanded to city level scale – covered over by elements pulled from dozens of other movies. It's enjoyable enough on a visceral level—Del Toro is too skilled a craftsman for it to be otherwise—but underneath all the destruction, there's very little to "Pacific Rim" at all.

Grown Ups 2 movie

Distributor: COLUMBIA
Running Time: 100 mins.
Color: Color
Production: A Columbia Pictures presentation of a Happy Madison production.
Genre: Comedy
Film Width: 1.85
Sound: Datasat Digital, Dolby Digital (AC-3), SDDS


Cast:
Adam Sandler | Chris Rock | David Spade | Kevin James | Salma Hayek | Maya Rudolph | Maria Bello | Nick Swardson | Steve Buscemi | Colin Quinn | Tim Meadows | Jon Lovitz | Shaquille O'Neal | Alexander Ludwig | Taylor Lautner | Georgia B. Engel | Oliver Hudson

Credits:
Director(s) Dennis Dugan
Screenplay by Adam Sandler | Fred Wolf | Tim Herlihy
Producer(s) Jack Giarraputo | Adam Sandler
Director(s) of photography Theo Van De Sande
Production designer(s) Aaron Osborne
Edited by Tom Costain
Music by Rupert Gregson-Williams
Costume designer(s) Ellen Lutter

It would be dishonest to call Grown Ups 2 the most repellent high-profile comedy in recent memory. But that's largely because few moviegoers have memories kind enough to have already erased 2010's Grown Ups—which offered almost every loathsome quality of this installment, plus Rob Schneider. A water-treading rehash even on its own terms, the sequel is unlikely to attract an audience to match that of the first film, which was one of the biggest (if least-deserving) hits of co-writer/co-producer/co-star Adam Sandler's career. (Both films are directed by Dennis Dugan, who owes his career to Sandler's patronage.)

Sandler returns as Lenny, a Hollywood player who, since the first film, has moved his family to his rural hometown, where the kids can bike to school and Dad gets plenty of Guy Time with pals Eric (Kevin James), Kurt (Chris Rock) and Marcus (David Spade). Happily, this film's conception of male friendship is less reliant on insults and abuse than its predecessor and doesn't need to paint the men's wives as shrews in order to give the motley bunch something in common.

Which is not at all to say that the humor has matured. The opening scene, in which a deer wanders into Lenny's house, offers two separate occasions where the beast rears back on hind legs to urinate on someone; the second goes on long enough to suggest someone has a fetish to indulge. Throughout, gags are cartoonishly broad and afforded so little time for setup and delivery we seem to be watching less a story than a catalog of tossed-out material.

Set on the last day of school, the script follows as Lenny commandeers his kids' bus (the driver, played by Nick Swardson, is high on pills) and, after dropping them and their schoolmates off, makes a day of it with his hooky-playing pals. Together they pioneer new bodily functions (Eric's "burp-snarting," which may sound more amusing than it is) and fantasize about those they don't get enough of: Attending their daughters' dance rehearsal, they can't stop gawking at an educator the credits helpfully dub Hot Dance Teacher.

Soon the fellows are trying to make old bodies do what young ones never did. Visiting a favorite swimming hole so Eric can dive off the cliff he always feared, they cross paths with a band of frat boys (led by Taylor Lautner), whose collective loutishness makes Sandler & Co. look like Knights of the Round Table. A rivalry is born, though the adults don't know they're being targeted for destruction. Instead, they spontaneously decide to throw an ’80s-themed yard party, and in a couple of hours half the town arrives in costumes that would have taken a week to assemble.

Like the first film, this one is built upon the seriously misguided idea that five or ten minutes of sentimental family-values talk can coexist with an hour and a half of burp-snarting and the like. Here, Lenny must contend with the news that his wife (Salma Hayek) wants to have a fourth child; Eric, inexplicably, must keep his wife (Maria Bello) in the dark about how much time he spends keeping his elderly mother company; Marcus must make peace with the thuggish son he never knew he sired; and Kurt...well, Chris Rock gets to ad-lib one or two funny lines and spend the rest of the film waiting for something better to come along.

Sandler, whose best work tends to be his least rewarded at the box office, has never before made a sequel. (One could argue, of course, that his early hits were the same movie in different clothes.) That he would make an exception for Grown Ups says nothing good about his trajectory as an artist—at this point, even combining those five words may provoke snickers. He and Rock, more than their co-stars, may yet have good movies in them about embracing adult responsibilities after years of playing the fool. But Grown Ups 2 and a dozen other half-hearted productions suggest they won't succeed with such statements while they're trying to succeed commercially.

Now You See Me movie Release Date May 31, 2013

Release Date: May 31, 2013 
Studio: Summit Entertainment (Lionsgate) 
Director: Louis Leterrier 
Screenwriter: Boaz Yakin, Edward Ricourt, Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Ed Solomon 
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Caine, Common, Dave Franco 
Genre: Crime, Thriller 
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for language, some action and sexual content) 
Official Website: NowYouSeeMemovie.com | Facebook 

Plot Summary
"Now You See Me" pits an elite FBI squad in a game of cat and mouse against "The Four Horsemen," a super-team of the world's greatest illusionists. "The Four Horsemen" pull off a series of daring heists against corrupt business leaders during their performances, showering the stolen profits on their audiences while staying one step ahead of the law. 

Cast

Jesse Eisenberg as J. Daniel Atlas
Mark Ruffalo as Dylan Rhodes
Woody Harrelson as Merritt McKinney
Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves
Dave Franco as Jack Wilder
Mélanie Laurent as Alma Dray
Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley
Michael Caine as Arthur Tressler
Jessica Lindsey as Hermia
Caitriona Balfe as Jasmine Trassler
Michael Kelly as Agent Fuller 
Common as Evans
Stephanie Honore as Atlas Groupie
David Warshofsky as Cowan
Laura Cayouette as Hypnotized Woman

Directed by Louis Leterrier

Story
Four magicians from different walks of life with different skill sets--J. Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Henley Reeves and Jack Wilder--are brought together as the Four Horsemen to stage elaborate magic shows together. For their first big show in Las Vegas, they send an audience member to a bank vault in Paris, stealing all its contents and distributing it to the audience. This gets the attention of both the FBI and Interpol in the forms of agents Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) who work with a magic debunker named Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) to put a stop to the Horsemen's robberies.

Analysis
"Now You See Me" isn't the first movie of the year involving magic, although it is the one that treats the craft far more reverentially than movies like "Oz The Great and Powerful" and "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," which is definitely a plus for what ends up being a twisty crime-thriller that doesn't feel like your typical summer movie fare. 

After introducing each of the magicians that would make up the Four Horsemen, we're right into their big show in Vegas where they seemingly rob a bank vault and are immediately arrested afterwards at which time they first encounter Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, a tough by-the-books G-man who doesn't believe in the magic they're selling. 

What might be surprising to some is how much of the movie's focus is then transferred to Ruffalo's character and his attempt to stop the Horsemen, which is fine since Ruffalo is very good in this role. But those going into the movie thinking they're watching a movie about magician thieves may start wondering where the stars of the movie are at times, since they're gone for large chunks of the movie. Because of this, we never spend enough time learning much about their characters or relations off-stage and we don't really get a sense of their personalities when not performing. On stage, Eisenberg shows off a lot more confidence than we've seen from him in the past, while Harrelson and Franco add a lighter and more humorous touch to their magic and Fisher gives her character just the right amount of sass and sex appeal – her solo escape in the beginning is better than anything she does with the group though. Other than the intro, their magic shows and a couple of chases, we don't really see the actual Horsemen that much, which means we leave the movie not really knowing much about them.

Instead, we learn more about their benefactor Arthur Tressler, played by Michael Caine, and the man trying to debunk their magic to help the FBI, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman). Few will need to be reminded what fine actors they are and their few scenes together are worth the price of admission even though it adds to the talkie nature of the film. As such, more time is spent building the relationship between Ruffalo and Laurent's characters, which is fine, except that a movie about FBI agents chasing after magicians is not nearly as interesting as the magicians themselves.

Visually, the film has a great sense of style with enough moments where you're not sure if they're doing tricks for real or enhancing them with CG, although there isn't a ton of action in the movie, mostly a couple chase sequences and a cool magic-enhanced fight between Ruffalo and Franco. It's a surprisingly subdued film from a director whose specialty has been doing big action set pieces, but it's nice to have a movie where the action isn't too over the top as well.

Things do start to come together at the end as things are explained, although there's one too many twists thrown in and at least one of them that might not feel justified, especially if you were to go back and rewatch the movie from the beginning and try to assemble the pieces. As with many movies that try to be clever, there's essentially too many ideas at play and whenever it starts to deal with "The Eye," a legendary group of magicians that the Horsemen are trying to join, the story starts to go off the rails and loses any sense of reality.

Abandon movie details

Starring
Katie Holmes as Katie Burke
Benjamin Bratt as Detective Wade Handler
Zooey Deschanel
Melanie Lynskey
Gabriel Mann
Gabrielle Union
Fred Ward
Charlie Hunnam as Embry Langan
Will McCormack

Summary
"Dawson's Creek" seems to have placed a curse on its four leads. After a successful turn in the "Texan" film "Varsity Blues," James Van Der Beek's 'Rules of Attraction' slid poorly into twelfth place in the box office this past weekend. Joshua Jackson hasn't made a memorable film since "Mighty Ducks 3" and I'm still reeling from Michelle William's turn in "Dick". Katie Holmes may have bared herself in "The Gift" (giving any males the joy they'd been craving since seeing her promos for Creek), but Holmes has been going downhill since that supernatural thriller. Her newest, "Abandon," keeps her in line with her fellow Creek-ers; the movie is mindless and is set for the quick trip to home video.

Story
Catherine Burke (Katie Holmes) is on her way to a cushy job, as she is a senior at an elite college, hard at work on her thesis and has great friends (Zooey Deschanel and Gabriel Mann) that she can always rely on.

Detective Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt), a recovering alcoholic, is thrown a case involving the disappearance of Catherine's ex-boyfriend Embry Langan (Charlie Hunnam). Embry was the campus rich-boy hothead, who staged bizarre theatrical productions because he could. He vanished two years prior to the start of the film and his whereabouts are still unknown, until Catherine begins seeing him around campus. Catherine goes to Wade for help, but is Embry really stalking her or is the stress of school just taking its toll?

Critique
"Abandon's" premise isn't a horrible one, but the execution is dull and extremely tedious. During the many flashback sequences to Embry and Catherine's "happy days", all I could think about was watching a cell phone commercial (as they were rolling in the green grass, laughing and ice skating on the pond). Oscar- winning writer Stephen Gaghan (for "Traffic") takes over directorial duties and does a tidy job. He steals a page from Soderbergh's book; all the scenes set in the library are lit in a dense blue shade, just like the Washington scenes in "Traffic". One scene, in which Holmes and her friends lie in a bed with a green strobe light blinking, looked like it belonged in another film because of the superior filmmaking techniques employed. The film loses its scary guise about halfway and from then on, there's absolutely no tension.

The script is where the problem lies. It's not original and there is nothing that invites the audience to like Catherine. She is a humdrum heroine that doesn't merit any involvement from the audience. There was some unintentional laughter during the film's finale because of the immense number of clichés that are piled upon the last thirty minutes. The ending twist that can be seen a mile away, but the audience seemed to get a kick out of the last shot of the film. The movie is also about twenty minutes too long (one too many flashbacks). The most appealing character in the film is Embry and he's hardly in it.

The acting is nothing special, but the pairing of Bratt and Holmes is odd. Holmes still looks like she is in high school and Bratt looks a shade over thirty, which makes for a strange on-screen coupling. Katie Holmes can hold her own and carries the movie well, but the material isn't much different than her TV show making her character not much of a departure from Joey Potter. Benjamin Bratt still isn't sure how to play a leading man; his charm is totally lost in his downtrodden Handler character.

Charlie Hunnam, who shined in last year's short-lived show "Undelcared," throws in a stock performance, sporting an American accent instead of his native British. He isn't given many well-written scenes and looks like he's just there to pick up a paycheck. The supporting cast is impressive enough, but the source material isn't strong enough to create any kind of full characters.

I recommend "Abandon" only if you aren't able to get your Katie Holmes fix on the WB because this movie offers nothing more than a boring, rehash of her "grown-up" Dawson's Creek character.