HERE COMES THE BOOM - hell nah

Hmmm. The preview made this film look quite good, as most trailers do. I guess I was hoping for a slightly more comical Warrior part 2. They should have laid off the silly factor and gone for more respectability.

Kevin James has acted in a number of non-witty slapstick comedies as of late. I like the guy but his films are relatively puerile and adolescent for the great majority elapsed screen time. He has fallen in the pit with Adam Sandler—a less raunchy pit that is. I would like to see if he could handle a dramatic role, maybe as a crazed gangster of some sort.

I would say that Here Comes The Boom comes in with a bang and goes down with a bang without too much of anything interesting in-between. Is it inspirational? Maybe on some level—it's hard not to be taken in by the magic of cinema no matter how lame the attempt at manipulation might be. Salma is looking as hot as ever so if that be your only reason to check it out, then so be it. Enjoy the Spanish poster!

Here Comes The Boom is a Kevin James movie. Nuff said.

Recommended Viewing: Warrior - Raging Bull - Our Hospitality

              Bob Scale: The Critic: 5.2   -   The Fan: 5.4

             MetaCritic: 41

 Rotten Tomatoes: 44

                    IMDB: 5.9

ARGO - naught in Iraq the other one

Ben Affleck has little left to prove. He has again brought us another first rate thriller. That being said I don’t believe it was quite as good as the hype. It was a well made film for sure but nothing terribly special—maybe people are so used to mediocre Hollywood films that when a good film comes along it goodness gets blown out of proportion. Duh, you might utter, but this concept always seems to surprise some.

Argo chronicles a brief tumultuous period in Iran—very surprising I know. A coup has currently caused the American embassy to be a hot spot for nationalist rebels. A few American employees escape the embassy and hide out with a Canadian Ambassador. This will not be safe for long. So the Americans back home at the CIA find a guy who gets people out of tight spots. His idea is to come up with a fake film, script and all, to present to the foreign government so that he can pretend that the clandestine Americans are filmmakers and subsequently get them out of the country because they were only there on a location scout to begin with. If this weren’t a declassified true story it probably would be too weird of a concept for the regular Joe to buy. Myself included.

However, the film succeeds on many levels. The story takes you in rather quickly and of course your always rooting for the good guys in this riveting scenario. The last quarter of the film really shines as Affleck gets you on the edge of your seat without really seeming to try—as all good directors can. If you’ve seen the preview nothing much will surprise you in how the film plays out, which is to it’s advantage, yet, somewhat geared towards my view that it may not really exceed your expectations—it’s just simply a very good thriller.

Recommended Viewing: The Town - Syriana - The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

              Bob Scale: The Critic: 8.0   -   The Fan: 8.0

             MetaCritic: 72

 Rotten Tomatoes: 94

                    IMDB: 8.0

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS - verily surely quite extremely highly absolutely indeed yes

Seven Psychopaths was Martin McDonagh's second attempt at glorious filmmaking. His first film, In Bruges, was in my view, one of the 10 best movies of 2008. His new film tries really hard and succeeds on some level but misses the mark slightly.

The movie almost feels like it was directed by a psychopath. Your taken on a speedy journey through the lives of several men and women, of which, nearly all happen to be psychopathic murderers. But you knew this already. The film tries hard to be clever and funny and on some occasions succeeds beautifully but generally you end up coughing on your laugh midway through.

At first, I thought this was a bad thing. The director just couldn't find his way. Then I thought, well, this guy knows what he's doing. I think he wanted you to just bask in the presence of a few psychopaths for an evening. Their stories are bizarre, their jokes don't always work, they have odd quirks and really you don't want to be around them for too long. So if that was his vision—he succeeded. All in all, I enjoyed the actors and the fun they seemed to have—you probably will too. Don't expect the high quality of In Bruges, though.

Recommended Viewing: In Bruges - The Rundown - Pulp Fiction

              Bob Scale: The Critic: 7.2   -   The Fan: 7.6

             MetaCritic: 66

 Rotten Tomatoes: 84

                    IMDB: 7.9

FRANKENWEENIE - a return to form

Tim Burton is back with his best film in a long long time. Frankenweenie was a concept short that Burton produced about 30 years ago. The full length realization has now finally come to see the light of day.

He chose black & white cinematography (excellent decision) and a mixture of stop motion and claymation. The film looks great! A supremely apt voice cast was also chosen for this mini masterpiece. The animation felt Burtonesque, without going overboard like he has done with Alice In Wonderland, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride etc. Burton fell back on his roots and made a film worthy of his macabre talents. 

The film contains myriad references to the original Frankenstein of 1931 and it's sequel, Bride of Frankenstein. Frankenweenie becomes a clever spin on these familiar tales. This movie eclipsed the other stop motion goth fairy tale of this year, Paranorman, by quite a leap and no doubt a shock!

Some quick facts: Igor, the hunchback, doesn't show up till the third Universal Frankenstein sequel. Frankenstein is the last name of the scientist not the name of the creation—that is simply dubbed 'the monster'. Tim Burton did not direct The Nightmare Before Christmas!

I also viewed Pitch Perfect: mediocre high school piece—it wishes it could be anything like the Breakfast Club. They knew how to make sentimental films in the 80's without feeling mawkish. 

Recommended Viewing: Frankenstein - Bride of Frankenstein - Vincent 

              Bob Scale: The Critic: 8.0   -   The Fan: 8.5

             MetaCritic: 74

 Rotten Tomatoes: 86

                    IMDB: 7.3

TAKEN 2 - good god

Wow, ok so I guess what we have here is just one crazy step in the wrong direction—literally. Luc Besson again proves that he has absolutely zero talent in writing and producing for other filmmakers—despite his own genius as director. 

This has got to be the worst movie of the year so far, next to Lockout which was also produced by Besson. Taken 2 was directed by Olivier Megaton?, a Frenchman, whom also brought us vertiginous masterpieces such as Transporter 3 and Columbiana. It is no surprise that this movie was just one banal scene of atrocity after another. The movie started poorly with ridiculous editing and mise en scéne. Liam Neeson looks disheveled and uncool for most of his time onscreen and really just becomes his own fatuous caricature. I feel that his voiced track was raised to an obscene level so that we, the audience, could bask in his gritty ferociousness. Effing Daft. 

This film was so bad that it might one day become a cult favorite. That is to say, it actually was enjoyable—jocular in the extreme. My favorite part has to be when Neeson's daughter roams around the streets of Istanbul launching grenades with relative abandon to give him an idea of her location—classic just classic. The lines are delivered so poorly and abstractly, even in normal dialogue scenes, that it makes one wonder how this director has survived till now. It's films like this that make you appreciate good direction, like the first Taken (however silly), and how it can make all the difference. Taken 2 was plain sloppy, amateur detritus.     

Recommended Viewing: Taken - The Next Three Days - The A-Team (Yes I enjoyed this)

              Bob Scale: The Critic: 3.0   -   The Fan: 5.5

             MetaCritic: 44

 Rotten Tomatoes: 19

                    IMDB: 7.4!!!-holy crap

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER - apparently rape, death and madness

A depressing teen movie with slight fluctuations of joy and angst perpetuate within this one. I liked it—kinda.

I find myself relating quite a lot to the main protagonist—the Logan Lerman character. He is quite shy and really just fearful of being unliked by anyone that surrounds him. He is smart but does not put on an ostentatious display. He is also quite troubled because of two devastating past tragedies. You feel bad for him and are happy he finally finds some friends that like him and make him feel... infinite? It's a touch corny and is one of those movie epiphanies that seem cathartic and nice for the character but if it were to be translated into real life—it would just be silly. 

The film tries hard at bringing us into a teenage universe of veracity. It does a pretty good job. Although, why do these movies always contain outrageous bullying—have you ever seen anyone walk by another person and just rip a cover off their book and then laugh at them? This kind of thing seems to be a filmic fabrication but maybe I'm wrong—I just find it rather funny. The overall story is decent as well. Just please don't celebrate mediocrity for it's own sake—come to a subjective realization of the truth of your abilities, for better or worse, and make the best of it. We are not all Einsteins and Newtons, Mozarts and so on but we all are cognitively distinct in some fashion and that is cause for celebration. 

Recommended Viewing: Heathers - Clueless - Flirting

              Bob Scale: The Critic: 6.8   -   The Fan: 7.0

             MetaCritic: 66

 Rotten Tomatoes: 84

                    IMDB: 7.9

WONT BACK DOWN - an agreeable sentiment

Won't Back Down is an inspirational mother daughter story. For every part I liked, I further hated two parts but nevertheless was made to be poignantly engaged. 

Waiting For Superman and The Lottery would be two apt prerequisite contemporary documentaries that would clarify necessary subtext for this film. They both contain the real life difficulties many people have, especially in inner cities, with getting their children into educational heuristic institutions of excellence or even abject mediocre ones. Won't Back Down was inspired by real events of a down on her luck, regular mom who was fed up with the poor education available for her daughter. She decided to appeal to the parents and teachers for change to the system by the radical notion of creating their own school. Viola Davis radiates—Maggie Gyllenhall sexes it up.

The difficulties in opening your own school are enormous. The system is set up to make it difficult for change. The well established union makes this clear. The most interesting aspect of the movie was the questions it poses for long standing unions. Many were established with the good intentions of protecting the workers within them concomitant with certain rights. The problem is that these statutes have become a right of passage to act substandard in your job. Once you have tenure, why try as hard? Your set for life. It's easy to see why these union laws have become readily abused. It's time for massive social change in lot of areas; especially in our capitalistic economics and the plutocratic government. 

Once well thought out and executed ideologies are no longer working as well as they should. We are in much need of a biological and ecological software update as the futurist Ray Kurzweil states. Thomas Jefferson, himself, said that revolution is sometimes needed to keep a government in check. I know I'm making some heavy extrapolations but if you ask me the only change that is likely to occur, with significant long term benefits for humanity, will be the likely need of a massive coup d'état. This will surely cause a valley in Sam Harris' morality scale for some time but if done with the right leadership, will yield untold boon. America is sinking and we had better put on a life vest and slowly die or pull the plug out of the drain with a sword. 

Recommended Viewing: Waiting For Superman - Blackboard Jungle - Dangerous Minds

              Bob Scale: The Critic: 6.0   -   The Fan: 6.2

             MetaCritic: 47

 Rotten Tomatoes: 33

                    IMDB: 4.9