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Movie Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Posted on February 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

Saving Mr BanksTitle: “Saving Mr. Banks”

Director: John Lee Hancock

Writers: Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith

Starring: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Annie Rose Buckley

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

In 1961, P.L. Travers (played by Emma Thomspon) went to Los Angeles to discuss adapting her series of children’s book about a magical nanny named Mary Poppins to the silver screen. But she has no intention of making it easy, especially when she feels that the people working on the adaptation don’t understand the point of the books, including Walt Disney himself (played by Tom Hanks in a role that I’m sure was intimidating). Thus begins a battle between the two over the movie adaptation that would eventually become the classic “Mary Poppins.”

This film is cute, but not revelatory. There are a lot of in-jokes with this movie, so for the two of you who haven’t seen “Mary Poppins,” you might not get them. While the performances are very good, as you would expect from such a high quality cast including Colin Farrell who plays Travers’ father, the editing becomes troublesome and the cuts happen too often. Switching back and forth between the “present day” Travers of 1961 and her earlier life following her relationship with her parents (and the real-life inspiration for Mary Poppins) happens often and without warning, and doesn’t give the actors enough continuous screen time to truly appreciate their performances.

From a technical perspective, this movie is fine, but artisticly it’s just okay. It’s a cute backstory, but like other movies based on a true story of a high profile event, we know how it ends, so the audience doesn’t get the feeling that there’s much at stake. The real drama comes from the scenes of Travers early life and what happened to her family, something that isn’t as widely know. But the focus and fun with this movie lies in the 1961 scenes and the making of “Mary Poppins,” so each era depicted on screen does something the other one doesn’t and fails to combine them into a single cohesive and dramatic whole.

It’s okay, but this film has its problems. What it does in terms of individual elements it does well, but it fails to combine them to make a singular well-made movie.

“Saving Mr. Banks” earns 3 out of 5 stars.

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Movie Review: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Posted on February 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

Mandela - Long Walk to FreedomTitle: “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”

Director: Justin Chadwick

Writers: William Nicholson

Stars: Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Terry Pheto

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” is one of those movies that makes you feel guilty because you feel that you should like it, but you don’t. Based on Nelson Mandela’s autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, this biopic shows Nelson Mandela from his days as a lawyer up to being elected president of South Africa in 1994.

Nelson Mandela was a great man, and frankly he didn’t deserve this mediocre treatment of his life. While Idris Elba does his best to sell the role of Mandela, and he does a respectable job, various events are glossed over. For example, very little background is given to describe what was so bad about apartheid, or even what apartheid was (while it did amount to suppression of the black population, the actual answer is rather complex). For the most part, the film mostly says “Black good, white bad,” with a few exceptions. It’s a simplistic treatment of a complicated political era, especially as apartheid was ending.

The editing is another annoying aspect of this film. The film jumps around and shows parts of a tribal ritual with little to no context. The cinematography and editing giving the film a very stylized look, especially in the beginning. But it feels out of place. Stylizing the story of such a remarkable human being feels unnecessary and at time even disrespectful.

This is one of those films that you go into really wanting to like it, but you feel hard pressed to do so. It takes an effort to find things to like or truly commend the filmmakers for, and ultimate, this movie is a major disappointment.

“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” earns 2 out of 5 stars.

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Movie Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Posted on February 26, 2014 | 2 comments

The Hobbit - The Desolation of SmaugTitle: “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro

Stars: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I’ll start off this review by saying that I’m not unbiased towards this movie, both good and bad. I’m a huge fan of Tolkien’s work and enjoyed the “Lord of the Rings” movies a lot, and I enjoyed the first movie in this series based on The Hobbit, although I’ve been apprehensive about some of the production choices such as making this one book into a trilogy of movies.

“The Desolation of Smaug” picks up right where “An Unexpected Journey” ends. Bilbo and the dwarves are continuing to make their way towards Erebor, being chased by orcs the whole way. In the meantime, the Necromancer is continuing to exert his influence on the world.

This movie has some great moments and some bad ones, both more extreme than the first film. The visual effects, especially in regards to the dragon Smaug, are fantastic, and Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice was perfect. However, the story expansions such as the addition of Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) to this movie didn’t sit right. These expansions feel like a desperate attempt to pad these movies into a trilogy, a complaint I had with the first movie, and it’s even worse here. This film also ends on a cliffhanger so inappropriate that some people in the audience actually yelled out, “Come on!” when it ended.

At the same time, the movie is still fun, if slow. While it has better visuals than the first movie and the action sequences are exciting, the actual plot is much slower and a victim of heavy padding. I’ll definitely be seeing the third movie, but this movie needs to be taken with a grain of salt and understood that this probably should not have been a trilogy of films because this padding is making “The Hobbit” movies pale in comparison to the “Lord of the Rings” movies.

“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” earns 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Movie Review: Lone Survivor

Posted on February 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

Lone SurvivorTitle: “Lone Survivor”

Director: Peter Berg

Writers: Peter Berg

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

“Lone Survivor” is based on the book by Marcus Luttrell, which is his story of being the only survivor of a mission to capture or kill a notorious Taliban leader, a mission that went south very fast.

Now, I’m not a military man. I’ve never been in a firefight. I wasn’t there. So, I can’t say anything as to the authenticity of this movie.

What I can tell you that this movie has a lot of annoyances. First, almost from the very beginning, they play up the whole brotherhood aspect of the Navy Seals. It’s played up excessively. After the first ten to fifteen minutes, you’re ready to through up your arms and scream, “Okay, we get it already!” The villain is not compelling. We’re not given much more of a reason for why we should hate him other than “Taliban bad!” And the heartstrings are pulled in the most obvious and unimaginative ways, like playing up how one of the characters is getting married. Frankly, this movie is an insult to the intelligence. Finally, if the title doesn’t give it away, the ending of this movie is blatantly obvious, so its plot isn’t compelling. Only the latter part of the movie, where Luttrell is on his own and taken in and protected by some villagers is interesting leaves some questions as to how it will play out.

As a military movie, it’s okay. You expect a lot of shooting, and you get that. You expect a lot of military jargon and strategy, and you get that. What I don’t like is the sound. This film is nominated for sound mixing and sound editing for the Oscars. The problem is that while the sound is not out of place, the impact noise hits you like a punch in the gut, but not in a good way. Now, one might argue that the heavy impact noise makes the audience feel the impact. But in this case it pulls the audience out of the film. The sound is so jarring that it stands out and doesn’t feel like a natural part of the film. So, while the sound editing is quite good, the sound mixing doesn’t work.

This movie will only appeal to a specific audience, mostly the military and political right. It tries to be another “Zero Dark Thirty” and fails. As a military movie, it’s okay, but not compelling and a bit shallow.

“Lone Survivor” earns 2 out of 5 stars.

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Movie Review: All Is Lost

Posted on February 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

All Is LostTitle: “All Is Lost”

Director: J.C. Chandor

Writer: J.C. Chandor

Starring: Robert Redford

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Barebones and yet strangely compelling, “All Is Lost” stars Robert Redford and only Robert Redford as a man on a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean who wakes one morning to find that his boat has collided with a loose shipping container and is taking on water. While he manages to patch the boat, a series of disasters cause his situation to get worse and worse. What does a man alone do when all is lost? (See what I did there?)

J.C. Chandor clearly wanted to make a powerful film, and to do that he went for a minimalist film. His follow-up to “Margin Call,” this film shows that Chandor is a diverse director and is not afraid to try different things, even as risky as this movie arguably is.

The entire film is nothing but Redford playing an unnamed character as he tries to fix a series of problems as the situation gets completely out of hand. We are entirely dependent on Redford’s incredible skills as an actor to show us anything or give us feeling as Redford has almost no lines during the entire 106 minutes of this movie. We are told nothing about his background or why he out here sailing alone. All we know is that he’s here and he’s in trouble. So this film may not be for everyone.

However, if you can sit through that, you actually get a compelling story. While it seems that this movie has an overly long runtime, and it can feel like that, the runtime becomes a necessary component to make us identify with and care about this man. It’s a man alone with nothing but his wits against nature, even if it is a man-made object that starts the conflict. With no background provided, the audience needs the time within the movie to grow to like and root for this character. We don’t feel much in the beginning, but by the end, we find that we care what happens to this man. We admire him and his courage for sailing alone. And we hope he ultimately triumphs. We don’t want him to die. If this were a short film done in the same style, it wouldn’t work.

Like I said, this film can feel a bit long, so while the time is a necessary component, by the time it’s done, you’re ready for it to finish. Another problem is that we watch Redford go around the ship doing stuff. The problem here is that, if you don’t know anything about sailing, that’s all it looks like: Stuff. You don’t know half of what he’s doing and you don’t get any explanation for it. It can get frustrating.

Stark and minimalistic, this movie is still powerful and real, but it requires patience and the right mindset before seeing it.

“All Is Lost” earns 4 out of 5 stars.

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