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Haywire: Bourne’s Big Sister Takes The Screen

image from upcoming-movies.com

by Luke Goldstein

The choice she is referring to in the poster is her hair accessories. She might have overreacted a little bit.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Once a mold is created for a certain genre of film, it can be hard to make anything to rattle the cages again. Anything stepping past that invisible line is referred to as “not really a horror movie” (even though it is), “not quite a sci-fi film” (except that it was), or “a film that defies genre” (which likely means it is just a good film firing on all cylinders). The challenge here is how we as an audience react to a film that dares to peek outside our tiny genre box; every so often we need to just stretch our fingers over the lip of the box to feel for something more. In Haywire, we get our newest example of stretching those boundaries to see what happens when you try to film something “more than just an action movie.”

Haywire is the tension-filled tale of Mallory, a soldier for hire under a private contractor. She is sent on an assignment that goes south fast. Dodging enemies and former colleagues from all sides, she has to find out who burned her and why.

The first thing pulling Haywire out of the box is its director, Steven Soderbergh. Well known for his award-winning films, Traffic and Erin Brokovich, he also found huge success with his rat pack team of A-list actors in the Oceans series. With the dollars he made in the big budget world, he also found time to keep his imagination on its toes with experimental films like Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience. In that last film, Soderbergh tried out a formula, which he continued in Haywire, filling your lead role with someone outside the acting world, someone who actually lives much closer to the part in real life. In Girlfriend, he hired porn star Sasha Grey as the emotionally complicated high-priced escort. In Haywire, he filled the role of ex-marine Mallory with MMA fighter Gina Carano. Obviously this tactic does not always work (just look at 99% of the movies WWE Studios puts out), but when you have an eye for quality and depth like Soderbergh’s, your rate of success is bound to be higher.

Carano is straight street toughness all the way from the first moment we see her on screen to the final intense stare in her eyes. Her real life fighting abilities helped Soderbergh craft a much deeper sense of realism in the action movie violence. No double twisting backflip kicks, no catching swinging sword blade between the palms of your hands, just straight up hand-to-hand, gun-toting reality. He even pulled down the sound effects that we are used to with muted gunshots and thick sounding punches. All of those choices brought together helped you look at the action on screen and say, “Yep, she could totally do that (and likely kick my ass to boot).” He also surrounded her with talented help, like Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton and the recently unstoppable Michael Fassbender (seriously, how many movies has this guy had waiting to come out at the same time?). Even Channing Tatum comes in to give her a reasonable love interest for a moment, a guy who might be able to go toe-to-toe with her in a fight.

While the movie succeeds in the action and tension department, it also falls a little flat in an area not uncommon to Soderbergh films: it just stops. The story plays nicely with the subtlety of the situation Carano finds herself in, but takes so much time showing all the intricacies that it fails to feel completely wrapped up when it goes to black. Making it even worse is the movie clocks in around ninety minutes, meaning there really was plenty of time to give this a more well-rounded ending.

The End of the Page recommendation: Haywire is a fun, smart action film starring a hero not for us to believe in, but to believe actually exists.

Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol: Cruise Is Back!

Seriously, how hard is to not make a Scientology joke here.

Rating: 9 out of 10

There are moments when a new franchise trailer premieres in the theater and you can feel the audience sink in their seats, silently ashamed they are even being exposed to it. That is when you know the franchise has pitched into a nosedive, frantically attempting to make major and mostly useless changes to the equation in hopes of restarting it (and its profits). I remember feeling that way when Mission Impossible III rolled out. I went in predicting it would be bad, hoping only for some popcorn entertainment, but was denied even that small request. When Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol peeked around the bend,I had my doubts, but (as always) I gave it a shot. Dear readers, this is why I always take the chance, because it just might be everything it is cracked up to be.

I took a deep breath when I sat down for this one and rechristened my hope for some mindless action and big explosions. What I got was even better.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol picks up our master spy leader, Ethan Hunt, in a Russian prison for an unknown crime. He is extracted by the IMF to once again lead a team of agents into near certain doom as a crazed Russian patriot is trying to get his hands on nuclear launch codes to bring about Armageddon and the next phase of evolution. The chase leads the team across the globe, from the desert paradise of Dubai to the colorful opulence of India. From one step to the next, the action never ceases as the seconds tick down on the fate of the world.

The top of the bill talent alone is a who’s who list of grand slam Hollywood talent. Directed by Brad Bird, this Pixar native is bringing nothing but gold with The Incredibles and Ratatouille already under his belt. Produced in partnership with J.J. Abrams, who actually directed the unfortunate third chapter of this franchise, has hit a major stride while directing Star Trek and Super 8 and acting as Executive Producer for a slew of hit TV shows dominating the airwaves right now (Fringe, Person of Interest, and the upcoming Alcatraz).

In front of the camera, we witness the resurgence of the living legend, Tom Cruise. After a score of years where his personal life completely overwhelmed his on-screen persona, Cruise erupts back on the screen with the fierce intensity the audience has missed for so long. Coming on the heels of some rather underwhelming performances (Knight and Day, Valkyrie), Cruise slides back into the comfortable spy shoes of Hunt like he had never left at all. From the high-kicking fight sequences to the awe-inspiring stunts, Cruise does it all with such enthusiasm you might come to believe the man is made out of pure adrenaline. For Ghost Protocol, Cruise’s intensity and commitment truly lead this cast in the direction of success.

Riding high on the wake Cruise leaves behind, the rest of the cast keeps the momentum going. Jeremy Renner, continuing a meteoric rise to fame after his Oscar nominated turn in The Hurt Locker, gives the crowd a little taste of what we will see in the new Bourne movie (which he took the reins over from Matt Damon). Renner holds onto a lot of that emotional depth we saw in Hurt Locker, but also kick ass in the fashion we have come to expect in the big budget blockbusters. Simon Pegg brings the hilarity, showing once again his subtle style and dry wit, perfectly fitting into the silent moments between explosions and catchphrases. Pegg also got a little extra training for this when he worked under the guidance of Abrams in the recent Star Trek reboot. Rounding out the super spy team is the one real newcomer, Paula Patton, who simmers in virtually every scene she inhabits. Her performance in incredibly layered, something we are not entirely used to in the normally flat eye-candy action roles for women.

From the opening moments to the final fade, Ghost Protocol brings back the action movie genre to what it once was and reinvigorates a sliding franchise. This chapter has the style and intelligence of the original Mission Impossible, while still giving us something bigger and more exciting. So a final kudos must be given to the writers, Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec, who created a story that held together even under the pressure of stunt sequences which exceeded the ridiculous.

The End of the Page recommendation: Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol brings the franchise back to its former glory. An action movie worth the ticket price.

Hugo: Finding the Magic in Dreams

The key chain holding this thing must be massive.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Yes, this 3D trend has gotten a little more than annoying recently, but mainly my rage about it is focused at studios that purposefully add this gimmick only to jack up the ticket price and bring nothing additional to the movie experience when the film wasn’t shot in 3D. I avoid tempting my anger over this issue by mostly seeing everything in 2D when offered (unless I know for a fact it was shot in 3D) and this tip keeps me calm and content during my numerous cinema trips. Yet, when a legend in the industry, like Martin Scorsese, decides to shoot his new film in 3D, that can be enough to tempt me into dropping the few extra dollars. So I went, I watched, and I fell into his fantastical world.

Hugo is the story of a small orphan boy who lives in the train station. His sole obsession is to finish fixing a small robotic person that his father found. Hoping to build himself a new friend, Hugo slowly gains the support of a young girl and together they chase after the breadcrumbs of a mystery that very well may link them together in ways they never dreamed of.

Since I led this review with my feelings on 3D, let me first congratulate Scorcese on achieving a beauty and simplicity for this technology seemingly avoided by most other directors (James Cameron gets a pass on this too, since the 3D in Avatar was insanely well done). Right off the bat, the snow falling in the foreground was amazing and added a rich texture to the scene. That straightforward approach to the use of 3D held on through the rest of the film, not overdoing it with overtly sensationalized moments, but using the technology to enhance the depth and reality of the story on screen. Chalk this up as another point for those directors and studios who choose to use 3D from the outset to enrich the experience instead of after the fact in order to enrich their pockets.

** Spoilers ahead – Hard to avoid when talking about the story on this one. **

Now comes the story, or I should correctly say “stories”, both rich enough to be their own movie. You have the original story of Hugo and his mysterious machine boy, then later comes another adventure about legendary film auteur, George Melies, who was believed to have died in the war, but turns out to be living in an apartment in Paris trying to forget everything about those magical movie-making times. Screenwriter John Logan captured exactly the magic I feel when I sit in that darkened room and am transported away to an unlimited number of worlds. I relished those touching moments where Melies waxed poetically about where dreams came from and how we could all live better lives by helping bring those into reality. I loved both story lines, but found the connection between them a little forced and unfinished.

Another portion of Hugo’s personal story, the one about the machine, which strongly resonated with me was his desire to always fix things. There are few things in this world more pure than a desire just to see everyone and everything working at their utmost intended perfection. We all want to be the best versions of ourselves and most of us would also lend a hand if it meant bringing someone else to their pinnacle as well. It rang a touch similar to Pay It Forward, but not nearly as heavy-handed.

Scorcese and Logan did an amazing job in creating a rich and lavish landscape of characters inside the train station, but I ended up wanting Hugo to interact with them much more. Since he really doesn’t, it makes all those layers feel superfluous and unnecessary.

The End of the Page recommendation: Hugo is a 3D triumph visually and makes up for some less-than-stellar threads of the story.

J. Edgar: The Crown Weighs Heavy On This One

I have to see myself on that boat AGAIN! In 3D this time?!

Rating: 6 out of 10

Every director certainly has a style and while some may try to shake things up every now and again, keep people on their toes, others stay the course and deliver time and time again what you have come to expect from them. That’s not always a bad thing, especially when you have serious accolades and awards already under your belt, but it can also set up a certain type of expectation about the quality and depth of each story you bring to the screen, which sometimes can be a lot to overcome. The truth is there is no end to the sophomore curse. Your last fantastic picture is always quickly overshadowed by your current less than stellar outing. Clint Eastwood is the man under the spotlight right now and what he brings to the table is another tale of power, passion and persecution, all inside one continuously conflicted person.

J. Edgar is one theory of the story behind the story, the man behind the machine that created the F.B.I. and reportedly had the skeletons of scores of American citizens, including the presidents he served under. The film follows his rise to power, his curious relationship with his number two man, and his own seemingly unquenchable need to be feared and revered, leaving a legacy that could never be tarnished.

J. Edgar offers a scenario of what might have went on behind closed doors between Hoover and Tolsen, his number two man, and what motivated Hoover to push himself as hard as he did. Much of it is based on circumstance and conjecture though, so it’d be best to view this film as an imaginative or (at best) a mildly educated guess about the truth behind the most feared man in decades.

Eastwood delivers yet again another deep, layered and complex narrative about a troubled protagonist, someone who you are never really sure whether you want to root for. The film is extremely slow paced and at times drags in its repetition, showing Hoover in one situation after another where his power is called into question. Jumping back and forth between his later life and his early years was a nice touch in the beginning, but by the end, it felt disjointed, like you were being dragged back into the past or thrust into the future just at the moment when things were getting good right where you were. I might have thought about just using the older version of Hoover as bookends to the story and play it out more along a traditional timeline, but who knows, that very well could have dragged as well.

The performances are always the most important part of these types of biopics. You need to be able to lose sight of the actor, usually someone incredibly well known, and truly see the person he is trying to represent. Look at Frank Langella as Nixon in Frost/Nixon, Will Smith as Muhammad Ali in Ali, even our man here, Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in The Aviator, these are invested performances that elevate the movie beyond just a mere educational stroll in the cinematic park. Yet, DiCaprio falters this time in capturing his past fervor, not for lack of trying, just due to a lack of foundation underneath the moments. Naomi Watts also struggles to really find footing as the dutiful secretary, Helen Gandy. The true breakout here is Armie Hammer as Tolson, who brings a magical assured quality to his early life and a beautiful gentleness in his senior years. Hammer truly burst onto the scene last year in his dual performance as the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network, but in J. Edgar he shows he can handle much more than just overconfidence. Tolson is really the moral compass of the film and the only avenue for the audience to navigate their way in, but even with such a virtuoso performance from Hammer, it wasn’t enough to pull the whole film together in the end.

Eastwood’s decision to use younger actors in dramatically older roles also may not have worked to the film’s advantage. I understand it allows a connection, both physical and emotional, between the two versions of the character on screen, but sometimes it can also feel jarring. While we have come light years ahead in the technology of makeup, truly transforming these early birds into aged senior citizens, the one thing that remains is the sound and tenor of their voice. There is something so unique and distinct about a voice that has been speaking for seventy or eighty years, something that is nearly impossible for these youthful actors to capture. Once again, Hammer seemed to outshine DiCaprio in this arena as well, but I still feel it might have been more powerful to have actual older actors in those roles.

The End of the Page recommendation: J. Edgar has some punch to it, but fails to reach the heights of Eastwood’s past or the power of Hoover’s legacy.

The Rum Diary: Love Letter From One Icon to Another

Somebody outside this window has an idea what happened last night. Likely, they have my clothes as well.

Rating: 6 out of 10

When you come across someone like Hunter S. Thompson you do either one of two things: allow yourself to be drawn into his hyper-vivid world of words and violent expression or you can run screaming. When Johnny Depp took on the role of Thompson for the epic drug trip Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Depp not only went willingly inside that world, he became its new champion, vowing to carry on the legend after what everyone knew would be the inevitable death of its creator. While Depp hasn’t tried to transform himself into Thompson outside the silver screen (thank god, I don’t think another human being could ever contain that level of energy) he has attempted at length to let people know who the real man was, the forever beating heart behind the literary lion.

The Rum Diary reports the semi-true story of Paul Kemp (Thompson’s pseudonym for this tale), a struggling novelist looking for his true voice, mostly in the bottom of various bottles of alcohol. He finds himself in Puerto Rico working for the local paper, The San Juan Star, where the publication was already sounding the death knells, but he tries to make the best of it by making friends with locals and criminals alike. Finding himself embroiled in a land grab scheme and madly in love with another man’s fiancee, Kemp fights to keep himself on the right side of his own ethical boundaries. The pressure may have crushed some men, but instead it only crystallizes his purpose in life.

There is a message in the film, but before we get to that, let’s take a look at the package the message is wrapped in. Most people will remember Depp from his first foray into the mind of Thompson and likely come to the theater expecting more of the same drug-fueled insanity. That would be a dreadful mistake. With only one mildly hallucinogenic scene in the entire film, this is largely a straight forward story, with only a mild level of drunkenness in comparison to Fear and Loathing. While there is an inordinate amount of rum imbibed by nearly every person on screen, the core is really two love stories, one between Thompson and his femme fatale, the other between Thompson and his writing. Depp smoothly portrays the deeper and more thought-provoking side of Thompson, but I imagine many audience members left feeling disappointed by the absence of sheer lunacy which they have come to recognize as Thompson’s foremost personality trait. Aaron Eckhart is seamless in his white collar criminal role, pillaging the pristine land of South America for the richest of the rich businessmen, but what is missing is a catharsis or closure to his storyline. By the time he turns, back to the camera and walks away, it lacks any real sense of importance. The other main role goes to Amber Heard (recently seen heading the now defunct TV show, The Playboy Club). She steals Thompson’s heart (both on screen and in real life, she went on to become his wife, one of them) but her on-screen counterpart fails to really bring anything to the table except her looks. There was a wild impetuousness which helped frame the character, but it got old as the film ran on.

Now that we have firmly stomped some some of the reasons for this not being a wild success, let’s look into what is really done well here and where the true heart lies. This is less of a traditional story and more about the formation of a moment in time, the moment where Hunter S. Thompson became the raging, unafraid, unabashed lunatic of the literary world. What you witness on screen is a depiction of the moment when he finds his real purpose, his true voice, and for a fellow writer like myself, this is a awe-inspiring and beautiful thing to see. The character ponders halfway through the film about where he is in his life as a writer, lamenting that he has not learned to write like himself yet. For aspiring writers there are few things more painful and frustrating than that. It is the key to our literary lives and once Thompson found his, he didn’t just walk through the door, proud of his accomplishment, nay, he kicked the door off the hinges with a size thirteen and told everyone else in the room (past, present and future) to get the hell out of his way. There were few like him before and I imagine there will be even fewer after.

The End of the Page recommendation: The Rum Diaries is really there for the true fans of Thompson. Those unaffiliated with the ranks of the Gonzo overlord, please feel free to step out of the way.

Moneyball: Pitt Swings for the Fences

by Luke Goldstein

Yeah, I came five days early to the game. So what? I like front row seats. 

Rating: 9 out of 10

As we start heading into the commonly known “Oscar season”, I just get more and more excited each weekend. There is always some movie sparking my interest just around the corner, a new film I’ve been reading about for months and trying with all my powers to not let the bar of hope get raised too high. There are always going to be disappointments, even when they are good films, because I was waiting for great, but what keeps me going are those films who look up at the bar and say, “Oh yeah, not a problem.”  Welcome to one of those films…

Moneyball is based on the true story of Billy Beane, a one-time possible superstar in the MLB who turned general manager of the Oakland A’s. After missing once again on his chance for the World Series crown, Beane went rogue, adopted a new system and went after players using a statistical model instead of banking on superstars. It threatened everything the game was built on, it threatened the way things were done in sports, and worst of all…it worked.

Aaron Sorkin‘s name on the poster was the first thing to catch my eye. I sat there as the lights went down and wondered if he could keep his winning streak going (his last two, Charlie Wilson’s War and The Social Network being two of my favorite all time movies). So without wanting to, my bar was already set high into the stratosphere, but as the credits rolled, I felt the film had touched the clouds. Maybe it didn’t hit open space, but still miles above most of what we see on a week-to-week basis. You could feel his power in the dialogue; some classic Sorkin work. I could almost feel particular scenes the way they would have been played on stage. The film wasn’t loaded up with as many quick witted tit-for-tat moments as his last two films, instead it flowed with much more subtlety, using a more even keel in order to lead the audience through an entire season of baseball. I don’t want to give all the credit to Sorkin, since the writing credit is split between himself and Steven Zallian (an Oscar winner himself), but I really don’t know how the work balanced out between them. That split might also be some of the reason why Moneyball doesn’t have that normal Sorkin whip-crack pacing.

Yet, no matter how well the words are written, they still have to be delivered by someone with the skill and sincerity to make them land and Brad Pitt did not disappoint. Without knowing too much of the original story beforehand I was a little concerned with seeing Pitt in this role, which I previously only thought of as a general manager of a baseball team. What really saves him and grounds it in believability is the history of Billy Beane being a failed baseball superstar. Pitt brought the subtle sorrow, the underlying regret he always had nipping at his heels, which helps fuel his desire not only to win, but also to see the game fundamentally changed. What I found most impressive was somewhere along the way, I forgot I was watching Brad Pitt. He disappeared into a dip-spitting, hand-nosed gambler just trying his damnedest to pull off the greatest underdog victory in history. Those are rare performances and they should be recognized as such.

Jonah Hill came along for the ride, playing Peter Brand, the young economics genius who helped develop the formula Beane uses to build his new championship-hopeful team. It definitely is the most dramatic role Hill has tackled so far and put him toe-to-toe with a modern-day film legend in Pitt. Hill held his own and refused to settle for sitting in Pitt’s shadow. In terms of the performances, my only disappointment was with one of my favorite living actors, Philip Seymour Hoffman. It has nothing to do with his take on Art Howe, the coach of the team under Beane. It was more to do with him barely being a part of the story. He got a precious few scenes early on in the film and then disappeared completely almost halfway through the movie. I just wish we could have gotten more of him and Pitt dueling, as he did so brilliantly with Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson’s War.

In the end, Moneyball did reach my bar of hope and expectation, but it didn’t blow if off the chart as his past two films have.

The End of the Page recommendation: Moneyball is a solid crack to right field. For some it will clear the back wall and make some fan in the bleachers very, very happy. For others, I think it will come in as a good film, but not quite the game winner they were hoping for.

The Help: A Delicate Dance

by Luke Goldstein

“Oh look, I’ve got a little piece of dignity under my nail. Must’ve scratched it off someone in a cat fight.”

Rating: 8 out of 10

There are many stories in our sordid and sorry history that deserve reverence and a delicate hand when talked about. They should all be told, absolutely, and hopefully learned from, but we must always remember that how the story is told can influence the listener almost as much as the story itself. It can be a tightrope walk along the line between pride and piety and you want to be careful which side it falls on.

The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the central part of the civil rights movement. A young white woman named Skeeter wants to write something real, something special and she finds it in the socialized and institutionalized mistreatment of the African-American hired help. She ventures to gain their trust and their stories in a dangerous effort to give a voice to the silent underbelly of high Southern society.

This film has been #1 at the box office for three weeks and already is a huge success for the studios. It marches along each weekend as the little movie that could. Some will credit that to the original book already being a best-seller, but we’ve seen plenty of best-seller adaptations that fizzle sadly on the big screen. Even a well-told story needs excellent execution in order to swing a whole new audience and The Help is boiling over with just that.

Emma Stone, as the stubborn and righteous Skeeter, delivers her most dramatic turn to date and does not fail to impress. Yet the real power comes from the surrounding cast, packed with outstanding performances ranging from beautifully heart-wrenching to disgustingly evil. Starting with the two maids, shown with touching grace and power by Viola Davis (as Aibileen) and Octavia Spencer (as Minny), these wonderful actresses anchor the film in layers upon layers of honesty and courage. On the complete other side of the spectrum, Bryce Dallas Howard delivers a stunningly devious performance as Hilly Holbrook, the resident alpha Stepford wife, clinging to the old ways and old hatreds, fighting the oncoming social change with each of her pearly white teeth and perfectly french-tipped nails. Her quietly controlled rage reminded me constantly of Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil, such poise built around such poison. Jessica Chastain also did a splendid job as Celia Foote, trying desperately to get acceptance from anyone at all, even if it comes from her maid.

As director, Tate Taylor, tried to softly, but honestly, capture the time and place of 1960s Mississippi. There was tension throughout the movie, keeping the audience wondering when the violence of racism was going to strike, but Taylor always kept it just off screen, tempting the horror without needing to show it up close. He also crafted some wonderfully delicate scenes with the character of Celia, shedding light on yet another part of women’s history kept in the dark for far too long.

However, as I mentioned earlier, it is a delicate dance and this story can be seen from the angle of another “white person ends racism” story, but I feel that would be shortchanging the core of the story. Stone’s character doesn’t free the maids from servitude, she just gives them a voice, an outlet which was up to that point held far out of reach.

One of the few things I found unnecessary was Stone’s boyfriend Stuart (played by Chris Lowell). Stone feels much more natural and relatable as an gawky outcast, never fitting in with all her married high society friends. The need to show her swing back and forth in the world of troubled relationships just felt like a step too far.

The End of the Page recommendation: The Help is filled with touching moments, bound to bring smiles to faces and thoughts to minds.

Captain America: The Real Hero Lies Beneath the Mask

If I just act like nothing is blowing up behind me, maybe it will all go away.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Yes, this is yet another comic book superhero movie. Yes, this is another Marvel comic big-budget franchise trying to get off the ground. You might start to wonder why you should bother seeing any of these if a new one just hits the screens one month later. First off, it definitely helps to be a comic book fan from the start, but beyond that, in terms of pure movie magic and box office trending, this newest chapter gets a little boost from being the last in a long line of films leading to a culminating epic fanboys have been frothing over for years now…The Avengers! But, I’ll dip more into that later, for now, let’s look at the throwback hero of the group who takes us back to a time when heroes were not only cheered for their strength, but also for their conduct.

Captain America: The First Avenger details the transformation of a skinny kid named Steve Rogers into the national icon (and medically-induced super-soldier) known as Captain America. Rogers is created into this new evolution of man in order to combat Hydra, the deep science/black arts division of the Nazi army, led by a ruthless tyrant named Johann Schmidt, who is more frighteningly referred to as The Red Skull (you know, cause his face fell off and such). Captain America must prove to the people who gave him his powers, and to himself, that he was the right man to do the job of saving the world from utter annihilation.

I had fairly muted expectations going into this movie, mainly because Captain America is essentially a retro-hero, a classic clean-cut good guy with no character flaws. He always does the right thing, or at least attempts to, no matter the cost to himself. It flies in the face of everything we have been seeing in terms of comic book heroes over the last decade. The grief and anger of Batman, the drunken power trips or Spider-man, the ego and pride of Thor; all these traits give the characters layers that assist in making them human, someone the audience can try to relate to. Captain America really doesn’t have any of those flaws, but here’s the surprise…they made it work anyway. The opening thirty minutes of the film we see Steve Rogers pre-magic-roid-juice, where he is a ninety-pound poster boy for the “Before” shot in workout ad campaigns. In those early scenes his struggle is how to find a way to match his frail muscles outside with his unbreakable drive inside. We find ourselves in the hopeful spot of routing for the little guy (and I mean really, really little, like me in high school) and those opening scenes help pull the crowd in, hopefully holding them there through what comes later.

Once we lose the physicality of the “before” picture and it’s replaced with superhuman “after” shot, it loses a bit of the charm. Chris Evans should take no blame for this, in fact I think he was cast perfectly. He held on nicely to the innocence of his smaller self and truthfully brought to life the heroic nature of those comics from the late 40′s and early 50′s. The real downfall was that he didn’t face any real obstacle after he got his new physical form. We never really felt he was ever in any real danger because he could basically accomplish anything that came to mind, no matter how insane.

On the topic of the shield, our iconic piece of comic book memorabilia, I was torn on it. I liked the design and the fact it could get scuffed up, dirtied and otherwise sullied, but I would have appreciated one scene where we got to see him learn to throw it. Within one scene of him picking it up for the first time, he was chucking it around like a world-class discuss champion, fully expecting it to return to him, instead of wondering how the hell that worked. The minor flaw sort of mirrors the bigger issue that the latter half of the movie was really just a long montage of Captain America jumping, swinging, shield tossing and otherwise being heroic (lots of it in slow motion). The heart fell out of it and the movie descended into flashy colors and catch phrases.

In terms of the cast, as I said before, Chris Evans did a hell of a job and I look forward to him building up the character even more, hopefully with more internal struggles in movies to come. Sadly gone after the first thirty minutes, Stanley Tucci was wonderful as Dr. Abraham Erskine , the scientist behind the super-serum, which made the man out of the molehill. Tucci worked in such charm and natural flavor into his German accent and characterizations, I really wish he could have stayed on screen much longer.

Getting back to the real buzz around this movie, the next film in line for Marvel Studios is The Avengers, the first time any studio in the recent decades has tried to tie together a handful of other movie franchises into one single film. The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Hawkeye (who Jeremy Renner cameoed as in Thor) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2) will all assemble on screen for the eagerly anticipated culmination of Marvel’s long term film plan. The genius inside is they are using all the original actors who made these roles so popular (with the exception of Hulk, who was played by Edward Norton in the franchise film and now replaced by Mark Ruffalo). For me, as a movie junkie, this is where the franchise will become something truly special. Just to see all those actors on screen playing off of each other is immediately worth the price of admission (and maybe a box of Raisinettes too).

The End of the Page recommendation: Captain America is a light-hearted throwback to the heroes of before, but the back half of the movie doesn’t hold up the charm and warmth of the opening. Matinee on the big screen could be valuable though, just for the special effects.

Thoughts? Are you looking forward to The Avengers?

Transformers – Dark of the Moon: Some Things Never Change

This was when they stopped asking Shia to bring his friends to Show-and-Tell at school.

Rating: 3 out of 10 (adult rating)

Rating: 8 out of 10 (12-Year Old rating)

I’m going to commit what to many will seem like film geek treason, I will now connect Michael Bay and Terrence Malick into one theory of filmmaking.

Yep, deal with it.

Malick and Bay share one important thing and that is a completely unabashed tunnelvision for the type of film they want, damn the naysayers, critics and crowds. They both make movies mainly for themselves and in truth, there is nothing wrong with that. As an audience member you need to know going in exactly what you are going to get. It is the only way to really enjoy anything that falls from the cameras of these two (and some other notables). With that said, let’s dive headlong into the metallic masterpiece of summertime popcorn, Transformers!

Transformers: Dark of the Moon continues the story of Sam Witwicky and his Autobot friends. While Sam struggles to gain a purpose in life outside of Decepticon attacks, the Autobots are off helping the government on secret missions. Then everything is torn apart by the discovery of the original Autobot escape ship, known as The Ark, and the captain of that ship, Sentinel Prime. He alone holds the key to technology that could either help reshape the Transformers home world or completely destroy ours. The Decepticons, completely aware of this discovery, make an immediate power play and the war is back, bigger than ever.

Kids buying the Transformer toys today only want one thing, huge robots in spectacular 3D slow motion destroying each other and every building in sight. From this narrow viewpoint, Bay delivers in bulk. The highway fight sequence brought back memories of other high-speed terror scenes like in Matrix Reloaded and The Island (maybe a little too reminiscent of that last one according to some eagle eyed movie nerds). Since Bay actually filmed these scenes in the latest and greatest 3D technology, it was admittedly pretty amazing to watch. In other scenes, some of the CGI was so intensely crisp that it actually started popping too far from the live footage, making it stand out, which ruins a little of the illusion.

So the special effects is where it was at. Big robots, big explosions, big buildings falling down. Those were the high points.

The low points were pretty much everything else.

Standing in the center of all the toys-on-roids insanity is Shia LaBeouf, who in my opinion is a really good actor banking inside really bad movies. I can’t fault him for taking parts in some of the biggest franchises in movie history (Transformers and Indiana Jones) because the exposure and paycheck are nearly impossible to pass up, but in terms of showing his skills as an actor, those hefty titles have done him nothing but a painful disservice. He made his big splash on the scene in the Disney TV show Even Stevens and then on the big screen in the Rear Window update, Disturbia. Many people also don’t remember one of my personal favorite performances in the Project Greenlight-sponsored film, The Battle of Shaker Heights. Shia has the chops, but gets surrounded by weak emotional performances, both from CGI and real people. In this outing, Megan Fox‘s eye candy character was replaced by Victoria Secret’s model (and current Jason Statham girlfriend), Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Whiteley was an improvement in sense of acting ability, but the part was written levels below what Fox was given. The original love interest had layers, depth and some edge, while Whiteley was given virtually no background, no emotional outlet and nothing to do but stand there and be hot. Sure, the 12-year old in the audience doesn’t want or need more, but to them I say, “Go grab a Victoria Secret’s catalog from your parent’s bathroom and stay out of my movie.”

Beyond the magical pair of leads, Bay brings back the regular tough guys, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson, to keep on keeping on. They both do fine jobs and don’t try to make this more than it is. Coming in for the first time in the franchise is Frances McDormand, an Academy Award winner to class up the joint. While she was amusing and brought a little more skill to the screen, her part was borderline over-the-top, even in a movie with three story tall robots, because she had to balance out John Tuturro who drifts somewhere off to Hunter S. Thompson land. As if they weren’t enough, Bay decides to bring in an unusual amount of big name cameos, including John Malkovich (who does a decent job in his few scenes) and Ken Jeong (who seems to be acting in a completely different movie, possibly thinks he’s filming Hangover 3). I saved the best for last though, my personal favorite and the only person I was actually thrilled to see appear on screen, Alan Tudyk (who plays Tuturo’s assistant/bodyguard). Tudyk is a cult TV and film legend to his legions of fans spanning from the days of Firefly, Dollhouse and other projects not created by Joss Wheedon. Tudyk was the one person I actually cheered form when he magically appeared on screen.

I could go into a section now where I talk about the story, the plotlines, the connective tissue of the writing, but in reality, Bay didn’t really care and neither do the younger members of the crowd, so let’s just skip it.

The End of the Page recommendation: Transformers: Dark of the Moon starts slow, goes out with a bang and delivers surface entertainment for the middle school crowd.

Green Lantern: Shines Dimly Behind Reynold’s Charm

This suit is powered by sheer will (and a fanny pack of 9-volt batteries)

Rating: 5 out of 10

Every trend in the movies goes through the same motions. They come out of left field when no one thought it would be a viable idea, then instantly becoming the most watched genre in years, finally over-extending itself to the point of pure silver screen saturation and the profits nose dive off the celluloid cliff. You can usually mark the first movie going over the edge by how far it pushes the genre out beyond the norm. For fans of the comic book genre, even knowing that Iron Man 3, Captain America and The Avengers are still on their way, this weekends superhero offering gave many pause, wondering if this was one spandex’d crusader too many. Did the curtain begin to fall?

Nope. Not quite yet.

Green Lantern tells the story of Hal Jordan, a reckless flyboy who is chosen by a magical ring to protect his planet from destruction. Never one to follow through on anything, Jordan must struggle to discover the hero he never imagined was waiting inside.

I was going to start with some of the struggles and hardships that this story and script had to work through, but really, let’s get down to the green, glowing tacks here…Ryan Reynolds. He is not just playing a superhero, the man actually is one. No matter how bad the dialogue, no matter how convoluted the script, no matter what crazy situation you put him in, his charm and nearly flawless ease on screen allows him to raise that bar a little higher. I’m not saying that all these things were necessarily terrible here, but they could have been and Reynolds still would have found a way to make it work. Following his career since the Van Wilder days, Reynolds has never failed to enliven each and every project and provide at least one or two solid moments of wit and enjoyment on screen. For his generation of actors, I believe he is the closest they will get to George Clooney, a man who can truly balance comedy, action and drama all while looking like he was born to play that part.

Now that we have that out of the way, back to the problems. With all the comic book movies capturing the audiences recently, most are earth-bound or at least set mostly in an environment we can all easily recognize. Thor was the first in the new battalion of superhero flicks to test the waters of magical landscapes and far away universes and it succeeded fairly well. Without that preceding it, Green Lantern might have suffered more by spending so much time in outer space, but Thor built a bridge to that arena (and then busted it at the end of the movie…*in-joke*) so Green Lantern flew right over and pushed even farther out into the cosmos. Instead, the surrounding characters and subplots became the weakest links. Sadly the first half of the movie had to do so much of the heavy lifting: establishing the universe, literally, and giving some foundation for all these new and outlandish creatures, while still getting enough time to bring in their human counterparts back home. Peter Sarsgaard pulled out some decent angst and rage, but was never given enough time to really fuel the fire. Even worse was Blake Lively, who was given absolutely no room to breathe in a virtually lifeless character. Her introduction as a fellow fighter pilot was painfully unnecessary and forced her to try and work her way back into relevancy, which might have worked if given time, but she really wasn’t. As for the arch-villain CGI cloud creature, Parallax, the effects were impressive, but the story behind him felt flawed and unstable, so he never brought a whole lot of weight or tension to the scenes.

Overall, I still give this a five rating because it brings us back to those true summertime carefree flicks that didn’t try to give more than we bargained for. People who say this is a failure because it isn’t Dark Knight are making unfair and outlandish comparisons. Director Martin Campbell (who helmed two of the more successful recent Bond chapters, Goldeneye and Casino Royale) wasn’t going for grit and bones, he wanted light, fun and entertaining for the few moments he had you trapped in the theater. In that context, and with the effortless abilities of Ryan Reynolds, they achieved their goal, albeit one set far lower than what audiences may have envisioned.

The End of the Page recommendation: Green Lantern may hold a little more light for the comic book enthusiast, but for the mainstream moviegoer, this is only a mildly flickering flame, not a bright light of the summer.