Category: Theatrical Review

As our story begins, we’re told that this is puled from over 7 hours of video footage shot by three Norwegian film students.  These students are shooting footage first around what seems to be a rash of killings caused by bears around Norway.  As they dig deeper, they find out about one particular hunter who’s not quite like all the rest and in fact resented by the bear hunters.  The students, Thomas, Johanna and Kalle decide to follow this one hunter around and find out what’s up. This hunter, Hans, only goes out at night and so one evening the students follow him and get way more than they expect when they find that Hans hunts for Trolls, the great creatures of Nordic myth.

That’s the premise of TrollHunter and this is one hell of a lot of fun.

Now, I already see something with it that’s a potential turn off to a lot of folks, and that’s the fact that this film is the type that’s made of “found footage,” the same type of movie as films like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity. Some out there have a definite bias against these types of movies immediately.  Mostly, at least from what I understand, it’s because of the rampant handheld photography and the idea that there’s something inherent in them that doesn’t always seem “true.”  Well, I love these sorts of films, I love their sense of immediacy and Iove the tricks that they play with some of the visual effects to pull off the reality of their situations.  I tend to think that TrollHunter could be a movie that’s more appealing to the naysayers of this style, mostly because of the film’s actual story content and also by the fact that’s use of “found footage” seems to be more measured.  Yeah, there are those scenes of people running with the camera out of position, they need to be here, but it’s not as rampant as one would think.

More importantly though are just the ideas that are present, the nods to Nordic myth are true, but as things are uncovered, its set against a Men In Black type of milieu.  Finding out the “true” story of the existence of Trolls is just fun as can be, and hearing the measures that are taken to keep them under control is even more entertaining.  It may be presented as “found footage,” but there’s a tongue-in-cheek quality that creates a very entertaining offset to that.

Another potential turn-off that I could see is in the look of the Trolls.  Now again, for me, this isn’t any problem at all.  I absolutely loved the look of the Trolls and I’m quite amazed by the visual effects used to bring them to life.  Their look, at least to me, is more rooted in fantasy illustration than anything else and thus they may not be “real” enough for some viewers.  But as I said, I loved their look, putting me in the mind of Jim Henson creations on a massive scale.  It’s a lower budget film, but it doesn’t look it at all.

Now there are also some distinct tonal shifts, and if this was an American made movie, they’d probably bother me more.  Because it is Norwegian and me not being a part of that culture, I’m way more forgiving of that here.  It can also be explained away as well, simply by the fact given at the start that it’s taken from over 7 hours of footage and so whoever “assembled” this footage, just didn’t see that as a necessity to what they wanted to tell.

Otto Jesperson plays Hans and I can only imagine that right now in Norway, he might be as big as say a Russell Crowe or Christian Bale is here.  His Hans is just so cool, this is his everyday life and it’s his job, but there’s still something to the guy that makes these students want to follow him around.  But that “something” isn’t just confined to the kids, as I certainly thought he was extremely magnetic and as this goes along, there’s way more revealed in subtle ways beyond the surface.

The young actors who follow him are also quite good, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck, and Tomas Alf Larsen (Thomas, Johanna and Kalle, respectively) play the students with real interest and a good nature that I found appealing.

TrollHunter is currently being offered by Magnet Releasing as a Pay-Per-View movie through most cable operations and just got a limited release theatrically as of June 10th (only showing up here in St. Louis this weekend).  Magnet also did this with what I think is the best movie I’ve seen all year (so far) with Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins. My cable company is offering this up at $5.99 to watch at home in High Definition.  I think that’s great if you’ve no other avenue to see the film (and more than likely, much like more of Magnet’s releases, this should show up on Netflix Instant Play in a few months), but if you have the opportunity to see it theatrically on a big screen, that’s the way I’d urge you to see it.  I would expect that If I saw this at home first, I still would’ve enjoyed it.  Seeing it theatrically on a large screen without the distractions of home viewing makes it even more special.

TrollHunter is just one hell of a good time.  American director Chris Columbus has the rights to remake this for American audiences and who knows, it may very well be a good movie when it happens.  I can’t help but have visions though of a Robin Williams in the part of Hans and all of the kids having this snarky side that at least to me might kill some of the charm that’s in the Norwegian original.  But like I said, who knows?  I’ve been surprised before and Columbus certainly might surprise me with a remake. Still, if you have interest in this, then I’d urge you to seek out the original and see this the way director André Øvredal has intended.  TrollHunter is highly, highly recommended.

Race car Lightning McQueen has returned to Radiator Springs following a successful race tour.  Once there, he’s reunited with his best buddy, the reliable and folksy tow truck, Tow Mater.  Lightning’s ready for some rest and relaxation, but thanks to Mater, that’s a little short-lived.  Mater sees a TV program announcing a big race sponsored by Sir Miles Axelrod promoting his new alternative fuel, Allinol.  On this same program, champion Italian race car Francesco Bernouli starts to make some disparaging remarks about Lightning McQueen.  Mater, of course being Lightning’s loyal friend calls in to the program and starts to defend his pal, which of course leads to McQueen getting involved with the race.

For the first time, Lightning decides to take his buddy Mater with him on a race tour.  Soon, Mater finds himself getting involved with two secret agents, Finn McMissle and Holley Shiftwell as they uncover a plot to discredit Axelrod and Allinol.

That’s the basic premise behind Cars 2 the latest movie from Pixar Studios.  I enjoyed the previous Cars film quite a bit, though not to the same lengths as such films as the Toy Story movies, The Incredibles, or Wall•E. The first Cars, along with Monsters, Inc., are to me, the weakest of Pixar’s impressive filmography.  Inevitably, whenever I make this remark, someone is always quick to defend these movies and that’s fine, but I’m not saying they’re bad movies at all.  In fact, I enjoy them quite a bit, they just don’t have the same resonance with me as other Pixar movies.  And weaker Pixar movies are still tons better than most other computer animated efforts out there.  So please, when I say that, I’m not insulting those movies by any means.

Cars 2 actually changes things up quite a bit and really this time around, this is Mater’s movie, with Lightning McQueen more as a supporting player, with even the new secret agent cars, Finn McMissle and Holley Shiftwell getting (at least in my eyes) more screen time than Lightning.  Larry the Cable Guy provides the voice for Mater, and while I’m not exactly a Larry The Cable Guy live-action fan, he does a pretty good job with Mater and makes him a character that you do care about, though it’s one that I don’t think is as universal as say Woody from the Toy Story films.  Most of Pixar’s movies have a great universal appeal to both adults and children, but in the case of the Cars movies and Monsters, Inc., I think they’re just a touch more geared towards children, and that’s fine, I think kids will absolutely love this.  I think adults will too, but again, not to the same extent as other Pixar efforts.

I like Cars 2 more than it’s original, and actually like the idea of changing things up a bit, with a different character getting the spotlight and adding all of these James Bond-like secret agent elements.  But what amazes me more is how Pixar always raises the bar technologically with each of it’s films.  Some of the visuals here are just astounding.

The voice casting is certainly well done.  Owen Wilson returns as Lightning McQueen, as do most of the previous Cars cast.  New to the cast this time though are Emily Mortimer as Holley Shiftwell and Eddie Izzard as Sir Miles Axelrod.  The real standouts for me in the voice work though are Michael Caine as Finn McMissle and John Turturro as Francesco Bernouli.  Turturro in particular sounds like he’s having a great time here.

Cars 2 is, pardon the expression, a fun ride and for children, I expect it’ll be a really fun ride.  A word of warning though to parents taking their kids to see this, there is a good deal of, for want of a better word, violence, in the movie.  Lots of scenes with guns, explosions and even a couple of car “deaths.”  Now, it does all move pretty quickly, so none of it ever seems like it’s dwelled upon for too long, but still these scenes are there and you might want to keep that in mind depending on how you think your child will handle it.

As is common practice with a Pixar movie, we also get a short in front of this under the banner title of Toy Story Toons. Yes, the Toy Story characters are back for a short titled “Hawaiian Vacation” and it’s just terrific.  The real surprise for me out of the short is that it takes place after Toy Story 3, so now Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the gang are part of Bonnie’s toy collection.  This short is just a lot of fun, and the entire voice cast, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, everyone is back for this, including Michael Keaton as the Ken doll, who’s also the standout for me in that short.

I chose to see Cars 2 in 3D, and much like the the 3D use in other Pixar films, it’s used more for a sense of immersion rather than going for in-your-face effects.  I think it’s pretty nicely done, but not really essential to your enjoyment of the film.  It’s more of an enhancement than anything else, still some of the scenes really do shine with that enhancement.

So anyway, I’ve been a huge Green Lantern fan for over 40 years now, so when it was first announced that Warners and DC Comics were readying a movie based around the character, I was pretty excited about it.  The more I kept seeing about it along the way, the more enthusiastic for it I got.  This was a big leap for Warners and DC as far as their movies go, even bigger than making movies of such comic characters as John Constantine or Jonah Hex and chancier than the past movies made of Superman and Batman.  Green Lantern was going to fully embrace it’s comic book roots, and as a comic property that’s not as publicly well-known as Superman and Batman, that was a huge gamble.

These days, DC and Warners are really no strangers to taking a huge chance.  They’ve made recent news with the announcement of relaunching their entire line with 52 new first issues with the idea of bringing in newer readers.  The idea here being to give anyone who wants to try their books out a fresh jumping on point, and further with a day and date release of all of their books in the digital playground as well.  This news has been met with both anger and joy.  As a lifelong fan of DC Comics, and one who’s used to seeing these characters got through a lot of drastic changes over this time, I’m actually looking forward to what DC has planned and hope for the best, not only for them, but the comic book industry on the whole.  The Green Lantern movie looks to be the first concerted step in advancement of this plan.  It helps get the word out in it’s own way, even though from the early things I’ve read with fan reactions, it didn’t look like things were going to fare to well.

Green Lantern is the latest movie from director Martin Campbell.  Campbell’s no stranger to taking heroic properties and giving them a fresh movie sheen.  He’s done it previously with James Bond with both GoldenEye and Casino Royale and he’s also done it with Zorro with The Mask of Zorro. Armed with a high-powered cast and a huge budget, could he do the same with this untried comic book property?

Well, I think he has, but more as we go along the way…

As our story starts, we’re told of the Guardians of the Universe and how they’ve managed to harness the emerald energy of the emotional power of Will.  They’ve used this energy to create a galactic peacekeeping force called the Green Lantern Corps made up of alien beings of all sorts.  The Corps does this with energy contained within mystical rings.  The Guardians tried to further their power by harnessing the yellow energy of Fear but with disastrous results.  A being known as Parallax came into possession of the power and caused chaos, but was ultimately brought to justice and imprisoned by the Green Lantern known as Abin Sur.

Parallax has been planning his escape, and when the opportunity presents itself he strikes back at Abin Sur causing mortal damage.  Abin Sur desperately escapes and finds himself dying on a young planet within his space sector, the planet Earth.

From there, Abin Sur uses his power ring to seek out a successor with the biggest qualifier being that the being chosen must have no fear.  The ring finds that successor in a brash test pilot named Hal Jordan.  And from there, the inevitable hijinks ensue…

As I said above, I’m a huge Green Lantern fan and I just had a ball with this movie and I only hope it does well enough in the end for more to come.

Some of the early complaints that I’ve read of involves there just being too much told in this and that it was hard to follow because of that.  Sure, there’s a lot crammed into this first film, but the only way it’s hard to follow is if you’re just not paying attention and either texting or Twittering while you’re watching it.  I had absolutely no problems at all following this.  The only faults that I thought it had were a couple of plot holes here and there (minor in my estimation) and a little bit of a pacing issue with some scenes.  But the sheer enthusiasm of the rest of the film, at least for me, overcomes that.

I’d also read in a few places about a cartoon-ish and cheesy quality to it’s visual effects.  Well, I absolutely loved the look of the movie.  I like how it embraces it’s bright color palette and made for something that looks quite lively. I love the theatricality of it’s visual effects, it doesn’t necessarily look “real” (though what the frame of reference for what is “real” with aliens who use power rings to fight injustice is, I’ll never know) but it does look like a comic book brought to life.  To me, the look of this movie has a real sense of wonder which is what a good comic book should have.

And what a joy to see these characters brought to life.  Ryan Reynolds has the plum role of playing Hal Jordan.  Right off the bat, he looks just like how Hal Jordan looked when he was first drawn by artist Gil Kane and some shots of him in his full Green Lantern regalia bring to mind the work of artist Neal Adams, who made his own historic mark in the comics.  Reynolds’ enthusiasm and drive are evident in every scene he’s in- he looks like he’s having fun with this and for this Green Lantern fan, that was just infectious.

Reynolds is backed up with an extremely strong cast.  Blake Lively plays Carol Ferris, who’s both Jordan’s boss and love interest.  Now Hal and Carol have never had what has been a traditional relationship by any means and I think that’s evident here as well.  Lively looks terrific, has her own drive and certainly has chemistry with Ryan Reynolds.

Mark Strong plays Sinestro, who as this movie starts is considered the greatest of the Green Lantern Corps.  Strong is solid as a rock and I just loved his look.  Green Lantern fans know that more is coming when it comes to Sinestro, and Strong has the right qualities to make that a reality.  Peter Sarsgaard plays Hector Hammond, a brilliant scientist who’s brought in by a mysterious government organization to examine the dead body of Abin Sur and along the way gets infected by Parallax.  Like the rest of the cast, Sarsgaard looks like he’s having a great time here and I thought he was quite effective as one of our two villains.

I made the choice to go ahead and see this one in 3D even knowing that it really wasn’t made with that in mind (and even finding out later that Martin Campbell wasn’t for it at all) and fortunately had the opportunity to see this in a room that was using 4K projection.  The 3D is hit and miss, but still I was glad I saw it that way.  I peeked into a room that was showing it in 2D and even with wearing 3D glasses, the projection in the 3D room was much brighter and sharper than how it looked in 2D.  I don’t think you really need to see it in 3D to enjoy it and if you have reservations and do want to see it, the certainly take the 2D route.

I had a ton of fun with Green Lantern. As a big fan, I appreciated all of the nods to the comics and the incredible look of the movie, which really does bring a comic book to life.  I think it’s cast is terrific and the set-up is there for more films.  For a Green Lantern fan, this is a lot of fun.  Will that fun transfer to someone who has no idea at all of what they’re getting into?  I have absolutely no idea, but I certainly hope that it would.  Regardless, I had a fantastic time with this and as a word of warning, there is one additional scene that runs after the end credits get rolling, so don’t quite walk out right away.

Our setting is a small Ohio town of Lillian in the late 70s.  Young Joe Lamb has just suffered through the death of his mother and has difficulties dealing with his father, who’s one of the deputies on the town’s police force.  Joe has a group of friends who he makes short movies with shot with a Super 8mm camera.  He and his friends are currently making their own zombie movie, somewhat inspired by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. One night, Joe and his friends are out by an old train station shooting a scene.  As they’re getting ready to shoot this key scene, a train passes by.  Joe looks out in the distance and sees a truck driving towards the tracks.  The driver of the truck takes his vehicle right on the tracks on a direct collision course with the train.  A devastating impact occurs that in turn unleashes some unknown entity upon this unsuspecting community.

That’s the basic premise to Super 8, the newest movie from director J.J. Abrams, the creator of the TV show Alias, one of the creators behind TV’s Lost and the director of such movies as Mission: Impossible III and the wildly successful Star Trek reboot.  This is the first time, as far as I know, that Abrams has teamed with producer Steven Spielberg.  With a pedigree like that, you certainly hope for the best with this movie, the promise is certainly there.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t quite all come together in a satisfying way.

I was really looking forward to this movie.  In a summer filled with sequels and comic book movies (not that there’s anything wrong with that), Super 8 looked like it was going to be something a little bit different than what was coming down the road.  Abrams has basically stated that this was somewhat autobiographical for him and working with Spielberg, it gave him the chance to homage some aspects of Spielberg’s 70s films.  The early trailers for the film were very promising being mostly pure teaser and not really giving a whole lot away.

Super 8 references other movies that Steven Spielberg made both as a director and a producer.  Those movies include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E. T., The Goonies and Poltergeist. On the surface, there’s really nothing wrong with doing that but the way it’s mixed together here just never quite comes together for me.  As the events unfold, there’s a pretty hard terror aspect involved which actually is quite nice, but it’s resolution tries to put a heartwarming spin to the whole thing that just feels forced. A very clunky explanation is given to the true nature of this entity that terrorizes the area.  That story in itself is a little too big to be satisfyingly told in the space of this film and still have a proper emotional resonance.  This would’ve worked better had Abrams decided to go either all the way with either pure terror or with heartwarming sense of wonder.  As it is, he’s trying to mix the two and both get short-changed.

The kids themselves are fairly engaging when they’re all together.  It’s when we’re seeing a couple of them deal with their own personal issues is where things start to fall apart.  Joe (played by Joel Courtney) and a young girl who he’s attracted to, Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning), both have issues with their fathers (Kyle Chandler as Joe’s father and Ron Eldard as Alice’s) as a result of what caused the death of Joe’s mother.  Neither relationship has a whole lot of perspective attached to it in regards to what things were like before Joe’s mother was killed.  Things are somewhat resolved between both parents and their kids by the film’s end, but that resolution feels entirely forced without having any sort of idea of what it used to be.

Noah Emmerich plays Colonel Nelec, the leader of a military force that’s been sent to Lillian to contain what’s happened.  Now there’s really nothing wrong with anything that Emmerich does, but it’s the general portrayal of the military that gives me some issue here.  They’re pretty much presented as nearly the same sort of malevolent force that they’re trying to quell and it’s all just on one simplistic note.  Again, I think that’s a result of trying to mash-up two distinct tones for the overall movie and not having enough time to get them all to adequately pay off.

To it’s credit though, I think the movie does have a good look to it, even though sometimes I think Abrams takes things a little too far in trying to reference the look of a Spielberg movie from the 70s.  Michael Giacchino produces another terrific score for the film and the visual effects are pretty well done.  The initial devastation with the train is particularly well done.

But still, I cannot give this Super 8 a recommendation.  The premise is certainly decent, but it goes to the extremes for the two tones that it’s trying to mix without the proper filler to make it all seem really cohesive.  I’m sorry to say that as I’m a big fan of J.J. Abrams.  Here’s hoping things fare better when he returns to the future with the ext Star Trek movie.

X-Men: First Class is a prequel film to Marvel’s and Fox’s highly successful X-Men series.  The first two movies (X-Men and X-Men 2), both directed by Bryan Singer, are terrific films.  While I like the third film in the series, directed by Brett Ratner, I’d also be the first to tell you that it falters behind the first two movies.  I also include X-Men Origins: Wolverine directed by Gavin Hood, with this bunch as well, and like X-Men 3, I thought it was entertaining, but nowhere in the same league as the first two movies.

Now director Matthew Vaughn has been given a chance at the reins of the series, working under a story with Bryan Singer as part of the credits.  Matthew Vaughn has previously directed Kick-Ass, Stardust and Layer Cake. Prior to this, he was first connected to Thor which he dropped out of to be replaced by Kenneth Branagh.  But still it looks like someone was bound and determined to get him connected with a Marvel Comics movie…

…and thank goodness they did.  X-Men: First Class is a winner and I can’t wait to see it again.

As our movie opens, it’s the 40s and we’re shown the parallel stories of Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier as young boys, first learning about their mutant abilities.  Lehnsherr is being forced by the Nazis to use his talents, while Xavier has more academic concerns, including meeting the mysterious Raven as a little girl (who later becomes Mystique).

We move to 1962, and now both have grown to young men.  With the war long over, Erik Lensherr is in pursuit of the Nazis who killed his parents.  Charles Xavier and Raven are following their academic roots, until they’re contacted by CIA operative Moira MacTaggert for help with the CIA’s work.  Eventually Xavier and Lensherr finally meet, and both discover common ground in their pursuits with mutantkind.

Looming in the background though is Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club and their plans are at extreme odds with those of the CIA.

Now, I know I’m being real vague here about the overall story, but honestly, I don’t want to spoil a thing.  X-Men: First Class is a movie, for an X-Men fan, to be savored.  There’s nice little story turns and Easter eggs throughout this film and remarkably it all ties in well with the previous movies.

X-Men: First Class absolutely looks terrific.  Matthew Vaughn isn’t afraid to play with bright colors here at all and setting this primarily in the 60s also plays with the shooting style of the film, including some nice montage areas.

This is one packed film and nothing feels wasted.  The pacing is terrific and right when you think something’s been forgotten about, they come right back to it.  Henry Jackman’s musical score is perfectly suited to this film and nimbly helps with the pace.

It also helps that you have a terrific young cast.  James McAvoy plays Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender plays Erik Lehnsherr.  McAvoy is both smooth and smart, and right from the word “go” ably projects the same authority that Patrick Stewart did in the prior movies.  I’ve become quite the fan of Michael Fassbender and he does not disappoint in the slightest here.  He manages the same sort of regality that Ian Mckellan had in the prior films, but also brings a real physical joy to playing a character with super-powers.  I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Rose Byrne plays Moira MacTaggert and Jennifer Lawrence plays Raven.  Both ladies are fantastic in their parts and I really like just how well lawrence works with McAvoy in the early parts of the movie.  Oliver Platt plays an unnamed (but important) CIA liason to this crew and delivers the right amount of authority.  Rounding out the rest of Xavier’s core team, you have Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy, who’s also the mutant who becomes known as the Beast, Caleb Landry Jones as the sonic-powered Banshee and Lucas Till as Alex Summers, also known as Havok.  All are great, but I really have to give some high marks to Hoult, who in many ways to me seems almost the heart of this film.

On the villains side, we’ve got Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, and he just looks like he’s having a great time being part of this film.  January Jones plays Emma Frost, extremely loyal to Shaw and really quite the knockout.  Alex Gonzalez and Jason Flemyng round out the villain side, as the mutants Riptide and Azazel respectively, and though they don’t get the lines that everyone else has, they both have real physical presence.

And there’s even more, especially two very nice cameo appearances, but I don’t want to say any more than that.  Matthew Vaughn has assembled a terrific ensemble cast and you can’t help but want to see this same assemblage come together again.

Like I said, X-Men: First Class is a winner, and I even enjoyed it more than Thor.  Out of the big four comic book movies announced for this summer, I thought X-Men; First Class was the sleeper of the bunch.  The more I kept seeing of this in trailers and the news, the more I was looking forward to it.  The sheer idea of taking this series back in time to the 60s is brilliant and to me anyway, really helps bring in huge sense of wonder.  Don’t miss this one…

At the end of Japan’s feudal era, peace reigns across the land, though that is starting to be abused by the Shogun’s brother, Lord Naritsugu.  Naritsugu abuses the people for his own sport and is on the fast track to ascension within the hierarchy.  Sir Doi, the minister of law, wants to stop him but can’t overtly due to political conflict.  Doi seeks to do so through covert means, contacting a legendary samurai, Shinzaemon. to do so.  Shainzaemon puts together a group comprised of eleven other samurai and with their guide, the feisty Koyata, seek to overcome impossible odds and assassinate Naritsugu while he’s under the protection of 200 men.

13 Assassins is the latest movie from Japanese film director Takashi Miike.  Miike, has directed all sorts of different genres of film and at a prolific rate, many times directing as many as four or five films a year.  In the United States, Miike is best known for his twisted cult movies, first (at least in my mind) rising to fame with his brutal horror story of a relationship gone awry, Audition (2000).  Audition was my own personal gateway to Miike’s movies and after that I actively sought out other films like Dead or Alive, Fudoh, Gozu and of course, Ichi the Killer. More recently, he’s been part of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series with the intense episode Imprint and directed the western Sukiyaki Western Django, which I still have yet to see.  These movies are not for the faint of heart, so if you’re new to the world of Takashi Miike, consider yourself warned…

13 Assassins is a much more conventional film than those listed above, but that doesn’t mean that it’s any less special.  Last year, we saw a spate of “men on a mission” movies with films like The Losers, The A-Team and The Expendables and there’s certainly varying degrees of fun to be had with all three of these, but there’s still a bit of a quality of winking at the audience with all three of them.  13 Assassins is the real deal when it comes to this sort of film having more in common with movies like The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven. I’d take this a step further, and add that after seeing this, in my mind, it was like Miike made his version of Sam Peckinpah’s immortal classic, The Wild Bunch.

It’s a straightforward story of good versus evil.  Evil with Lord Naritsugu gets set up quickly and brutally, and right from the start we want to see this guy meet an extremely violent end.  Shinzaemon and his group of men all get their chance in the spotlight and as much as we hate Naritsugu, we grow to like and care for this group of samurai.

The first half of the movie is all set-up, not just with the characters but with the intricate set-up that Shinzaemon comes up to take out Naritsugu.  The second half of the movie is a glorious pay-off with an epic battle between these 13 men and the 200 who protect Naritsugu.  This is spectacularly played out with no special effects tricks to highlight the action.  It’s just pure and logical action and it’s just glorious to watch.

I honestly can’t say that I’m familiar with any of the cast, though I’d expect that in Japan, they’re probably all pretty big deals.  Regardless, their performances are absolutely fantastic.  Kôji Yakusho plays Shinzaemon and just by force of his character, you’re ready to follow him into glorious battle.  Amongst his men, standouts include Tsuyoshi Ihara as the heroic Hirayama, Yusuke Iseya as their guide Koyata and Takayuki Yameda as Shinzaemon’s nephew Shinrouko.  Ihara’s Hirayama commands the screen when we see him in action and you could almost imagine an entire movie made around this guy alone.  Iseya’s Koyata puts the whole thing in perspective for a common man and at the same time offers up some of the film’s comic relief.  Yamada’s Shinrouko goes through the most personal growth, starting this adventure preoccupied with losing himself in gambling and women and uniquely transformed by the film’s end.

On the other side, Gorô Inagaki plays Lord Naritsugu with an aristocratic snideness that makes him a perfect villain.  Naritsugu is protected by Hanbei who leads the 200 men.  Hanbei, played by Masachika Ichimura, is Shinzaemon’s opposite number, but just as crafty and cunning in his own right.  A final battle between Shinzaemon and Hanbei is foreshadowed early in the film and when it comes it’s fantastic and very, very satisfying.

13 Assassins is a masterpiece, it really doesn’t get any better than this.  Takashi Miike’s maturity as a filmmaker is in full evidence here.  It is an extremely violent movie though, so it’s not for everybody.  I have to confess, this is the first time that I’ve ever experienced one of Miike’s movies on the big screen and I was literally blown away by the experience.  It makes me wish that I could’ve experienced some of his other movies like Audition or Ichi The Killer on the big screen.  Oh, I was certainly impressed by them watching them at home, but I imagine the experience would’ve been amplified considerably with the theatrical experience.  Magnet Releasing is currently offering this through OnDemand viewing, so if you want to pursue this, the opportunity is surely there (and most of Magnet’s movies also eventually find their way to Netflix Instant Play, so if you have that, 13 Assassins should eventually be available).  But honestly, if you have the chance to see this on the big screen… do it.  Easily, 13 Assassins is one of the very best movies I’ve seen so far this year and obviously this is highly, highly recommended.

Our setting is a post-apocalyptic world that’s been ravaged by a very long conflict between the Church and a strange vampire race. To fight the vampires, the Church has created The Priests, a group of specially trained warriors who’s specialty is vampire killing. The struggle is supposedly over, and most of the remaining citizenry is protected by the Church in walled-off cities.  But unknown to the Church, the vampires live on.  Outside of the city walls, in a frontier settlement, the daughter of a couple is abducted by the vampires.  Word gets back to one of the Priests (know simply here as Priest) about what has happened, with special significance to him because the abducted girl is actually his niece.  Priest leaves the city to try and find his niece, though it could mean excommunication from The Church.  Unbeknownst to Priest, there’s even more going on, involving a specific moment from his past.

That’s the basic premise to the new movie, Priest directed by Scott Stewart adapted from the Tokyopop comic series Priest by Hyung Min-woo. I am a big comic book fan, but sad to say, I don’t have any familiarity with this series.  I do have familiarity with Scott Stewart though as he directed last year’s Legion (also starring Priest’s lead actor Paul Bettany) and I wasn’t too thrilled by it, to say the least.  But, I thought the trailer to Priest looked pretty cool and so I was certainly open to giving it a chance.

And I’m glad I did.  I thought Priest was quite a bit of good, old B-Movie fun.  It mashes together a lot of familiar genre concepts with an overall Western feel.  The movie has a great look to it, and while it’s characters are somewhat simplistic, there’s still enough there that I wanted to follow their story.

I really liked the look of the film.  Since seeing the movie, I’ve now seen some little bits and pieces from the Tokyopop comic and overall it looks very faithful to the book with it’s actual production design.  Seeing this in live action though, I was also put in the mind of the art of Enki Bilal a French comic creator (and film director) whose work is best known (at least to me) for being run in the pages of Heavy Metal magazine.

I thought the visual effects were really nicely done, though for some, I know they’ll be biased against the use of CGI for the vampires and a reliance for Matrix-like techniques used in action scenes.  Personally though, I don’t mind the use of either, and as I said, I thought they looked quite cool here.  In addition, there’s a good bit of traditional animation used at the start of the film to immediately give us the history of the situation.

Priest is very nicely paced, briskly running under ninety minutes in time, without any real wasted space.  This is setting itself up as the first in a series of films, but honestly, I don’t know if it will have the chance.  We had a very small audience in attendance and with bigger releases like Thor and Fast Five out there right now, and even bigger movies to come, I don’t know if this will really succeed.  Regardless, I had a great time with it, as did the friends of mine who I saw it with.

As mentioned above, the cast is headed by Paul Bettany as Priest ad he serves the part well, with the right intensity but also with being believable in the film’s stylized action scenes.  He’s given some solid support with actors Cam Gigandet and Maggie Q.  Gigandet plays Hicks, the sheriff of the settlement who also has a personal stake in this.  Maggie Q plays the part of Priestess, who’s first assigned the duty to bring in Priest back to the Church, but as things unfold she joins him o his mission.  There’s some nice solid work from Brad Dourif, Christopher Plummer and Alan Dale for strictly set-up purposes.  Karl Urban plays the villain of the piece, known as Black Hat, and I’m just continually impressed by him with each part I see him in and he doesn’t disappoint me here either.

I chose to see this movie in 3D.  When I first saw the trailer for the movie it was in 3D and being promoted as being “shot in 3D” that certainly helped seal the deal for me.  Overall, I think the 3D is pretty good with this film offering up some real depth in scenes as well as doing a few in your face effects.  It does suffer some in some of the darker scenes.  Seeing this in 3D isn’t essential to your overall enjoyment though, and while I don’t regret seeing this in 3D by any means, I won’t give it a blanket recommendation either.  I liked it, but I wasn’t blown over by it.  As an aside though, the theatre that I saw this at, part of St. Louis’ Wehrenberg chain, had just added another 3D room, which of course was the one that we saw Priest in.  We actually had the pleasure of talking with one of the Wehrenberg higher-ups who was there to check everything out and he gave us quite a bit of insight into Wehrenberg’s plans for that particular theatre.  This was thoroughly fascinating to say the least and I certainly think it added to my overall enjoyment of the evening, but I digress…

Priest won’t change anyone’s world when it comes to it’s overall effect in the end, but still it is a fun diversion that’s very well made, looks great and has some solid performances.  I hope it does well enough for sequels, but I’m not holding my breath.  It’s good B-Movie fun though, and for that, I certainly recommend it.

Kenneth Branagh was definitely the right man for the job for directing Thor.

Ever since Marvel started their own film adaptations, their choice of directors for each film have certainly been interesting.  Neither Jon Favreau or Louis Letterier would’ve been the first guys to come to mind to helm Iron Man and Incredible Hulk respectively.  Joe Johnston, who’s directing Captain America coming in July, is a little more obvious choice, thanks to a lot of his previous movies with their special effects drive.  Joss Whedon, who’s doing next year’s Avengers is the only one so far that is overtly obvious, being a huge fan favorite for his previous genre work.

But Kenneth Branagh on Thor? On paper, with his Shakespearean background (which includes the film adaptations of Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, my personal favorite, his four-hour epic version of Hamlet, and non-Shakespearean films like the thriller Dead Again and the Coppola-produced Frankenstein), he certainly seems interesting, but would he get it?  Would he be able to come in and make a big-screen adaptation that could capture the awe of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s work and still retain some humanity?

Oh hell, yes.  He certainly gets it and I just hope this isn’t his only time to get to handle the character.

Thor tells the story of this god of Norse Myth, who in his arrogance and defiance of his father, Odin, is cast out of the fabled realm of Asgard and sent to Earth to learn a lesson in humility.  While on Earth, Thor meets with a small team of scientists, led by an astrophysicist named Jane Foster in who he finds an almost immediate attraction.  Upon being cast out from Asgard, Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir is also sent to Earth where no one can lift it, thanks to a spell put on it by Odin.  The Hammer becomes an object of definite interest to the secret organization known as SHIELD.  Now, Thor must retrieve his hammer and all the while, his brother Loki plots to take control of Asgard.

Now I have top admit, out of all of Marvel’s characters, Thor wasn’t always a big favorite of mine.  That changed when writer/artist Walt Simonson took over the comic back in the early 80s, and later I started to develop a better appreciation for him, in particular the earlier works by the aforementioned Stan Lee and jack Kirby.  This movie combines a lot of previous comic book elements to cast a new origin of sorts for Thor, though to be honest, I have no idea of what really counts for his origin in the comics these days.  There are some things here I could certainly quibble with (primarily Jane Foster being an astrophysicist and Loki not quite being as initially malevolent as I’ve known him to be), but overall, I think Branagh and company have presented something that could be palatable to both comic fans and non-comic fans.

Where Branagh really shines for me is when he’s dealing with Thor on Asgard.  This might be the closest I think we’ve ever seen, or could hope to see, the grandeur of Jack Kirby’s artwork translated to a live-action movie.  From battles with Frost Giants to the climactic battle with Loki, Kenneth Branagh looks like he’s having a great deal of fun creating this world.

Now it’s not perfect, there’s a few plot holes here and there and on a personal level, I would’ve liked to have seen more of the look of the comics show up here with some brighter yellows in some of the costuming and more use of Thor’s winged helmet.  But other than the plot holes, that’s a personal preference and doesn’t really affect the overall look of the movie.

Branagh skillfully weaves in other factors of this Marvel Universe being created for film and sets the huge scale for Thor. But it wouldn’t matter a lick if it’s title character wasn’t appealing.  Chris Hemsworth plays Thor and he carries this movie and does it quite well.  His Thor is both arrogant and charismatic and as this story progresses, he starts to display some real humanity as well.  Hemsworth is really a guy to watch and look forward to seeing what he does next, not only with Thor but with other movies as well.

He’s backed up with a huge cast which includes Oscar-winners Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and Anthony Hopkins as Odin.  Portman has a real infectious drive as Foster, but more importantly she has great chemistry with Hemsworth, making their attraction quite believable.  Hopkins has great presence as Odin, and there’s nothing really wrong with what he does here, but I almost would’ve preferred to have seen someone like a Max von Sydow in the part, as I just think his booming voice would’ve played better.  But still, Hopkins does good, solid work here.

Stellan Skarsgård and Kat Dennings play the parts of other members of Jane Foster’s team and they’re both good, with Dennings getting the funny lines (though they’re not obnoxious by any means).  Clark Gregg keeps the continuity with the other Marvel films as SHIELD Agent Coulson.  On the Asgard side, Idris Elba is a real standout for me as Heimdall, the guardian of the “bridge” Bifrost.  Elba is just as stoic as can be and with that, you get the idea of real power behind this defender.  Jaimie Alexander plays the warrior woman Sif and Josh Dallas, Tadanobu Asano and Ray Stevenson play the Warrior’s Three, Fanrdral, Hogun and Volstagg.  These four are solid support for Hemsworth and certainly eat up their parts.

The only bit of casting that I have a little issue with is with Tom Hiddleston as Loki.  Now, to be fair, Hiddleston doesn’t really do anything wrong here at all and certainly plays out to the vision of Loki that this film has.  That vision though is not necessarily the one I’m used to from the comics.  I’m used to Loki being a touch more sly and arrogant than what Hiddleston gives off here.  Now he does get there by the film’s end, but I would’ve liked to have seen a little more of that from the start.  I think someone like an Adrien Brody might’ve pulled that off a little better.  This isn’t meant as a slam on Hiddleston at all, just a personal preference based on what I know of Loki through the comics.

Thor is currently being shown in both 3D and 2D.  I opted to see this in 2D. I’ve seen a 3D version of the trailer and just wasn’t impressed by it at all.  As dark as the film gets in some places, I’d almost expect that the 3D would just fall flat.  And further, this wasn’t filmed in 3D so that certainly left me very wary of the whole thing.  Before our showing of Thor started, I peeked in to one of the 3D rooms at our theatre showing this.  It was a large room, with maybe fifty people or so in to see it that way.  By contrast, our 9:15 showing of Thor had almost four times the amount of people in to see it.  Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come with movies that just have the 3D tacked on.

Another note, do not walk out as the end credits begin to role.  As has been the case with the other Marvel movies, there is another scene at the end and this one is major in the set-up to The Avengers.

Thor is a whole lot of big fun.  While it’s not the same sort of fun that I had with Fast Five, it’s no slouch either.  Kenneth Branagh clearly gets it and delivers another facet to this expanding universe of Marvel films.  This has a star-making performance from lead Chris Hemsworth and his support is very, very solid.  The look of the movie is fantastic and I was left in awe of what Branagh did with Asgard.  if this is a sign of things to come, I cannot wait to see Captain America in July and I certainly hope Branagh gets the chance to fly with Thor again.  Highly, highly recommended.

Following the events of the fourth movie in the series, Fast & Furious, Dominic Toretto once again finds himself facing a very long prison sentence.  As before, this doesn’t last long.  Dom’s sister, Mia, and his former adversary, now ally, former Federal Agent Brian O’Connor stage a daring escape putting all three once again on the run.

The trio have made their way to Rio de Janeiro and soon find themselves having to take a major car theft job.  In the process of the theft, DEA agents are killed and the blame is given to the Torettos and O’Connor.  They’ve obviously been framed and now seek out revenge against the man who framed them, crime boss Reyes, who controls Rio and has most of the police in his back pocket.  They plan a major heist to take 100 million dollars from Reyes and in order to do that properly they need to assemble a team.  All of this needs to be done while dodging the attempts of a ruthless federal agent, Luke Hobbs, who’s in full pursuit.

That’s the basic premise to Fast Five, the latest film in The Fast And The Furious series and the third time out for director Justin Lin.  I imagine that when some saw the trailers for this, there were a lot of eye rolls, oh no, not another one of “those” movies.  Well, not from me, I absolutely love these films and was very much looking forward to Fast Five. Justin Lin and his terrific cast and crew did not disappoint me in the slightest.  Fast Five is terrific fun.

Oh sure, I’ll grant you that they’re over-the-top and not the most complicated of affairs out there.  That’s OK, they’re pure entertainment always filled with some terrific stunt work and very comfortable characters who their audience enjoys returning to.  You get that in spades with Fast Five, and with this movie, the franchise is making a transition from not just being about the street racing culture but also incorporating heist film elements.

The stunt work is incredible with the capper being an amazing 20-minute chase through the streets of Rio involving nearly 200 cars without any overt CGI involvement.  But it’s not all about the chase.  There are real advancements of character here, and all of the characters who are part of this team get their due.

Justin Lin has really matured as a filmmaker with Fast Five. This is the longest movie in the series weighing in at 130 minutes, and Lin doesn’t waste a moment of screen time.  It’s paced just right with plenty of action and the right amounts of subtle comedy and character in-between.

Fast Five has a great cast.  Returning, of course, are Vin Diesel and Paul Walker as Dom Toretto and Brian O’Connor respectively.  These guys are rock solid here and it’s obvious watching this that their relationship has matured.  Jordana Brewster also returns as Dom’s sister and Brian’s love interest, Mia, and she also adds a new element to the mix.  In addition, we’ve got a slew of returnees from the previous films to make up the team.  These returnees include Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Tego Calderon and Don Omar.  All of them get their moments to shine, but the best of the bunch is Tyrese Gibson who gets off some genuinely funny lines throughout the movie.  This is a good group and to me the only thing missing is Lucas Black from the third film in the series, Tokyo Drift. I certainly hope eventually they see fit to get Black back in the series, and the opportunity certainly looks like it could happen.

Joaqim de Almeida plays Reyes, the villain of our piece, and it’s certainly nothing new for him.  My own first exposure to de Almeida came with the Tom Clancy film, Clear And Present Danger. While he doesn’t quite have the depth here as he did in that movie (and others since), his presence alone still gives the part credibility.

New to the series is Elsa Pataky who plays a rookie Rio cop Elena who’s tasked with helping the federal agents in pursuit of the team.  She even has her own back story that’s pretty well established here and leads to further involvement with Dom Toretto.  And of course, there’s Dwayne Johnson who is just terrific as Luke Hobbs.  It is so cool to see Johnson back in these straight-up action films.  He’s hard-edged and imposing in every scene he’s in.  I’ve heard that there’s the possibility that they might spin him off into his own movie after this, and that would be great, I’d certainly pay to see that.  But, it also looks like he’ll be involved with the sixth film in this series as well.

Yes, already a sixth is in the planning stages.  If you’re planning to see this film, then stay through the end credits because we do get one more scene tacked on which sets up the next movie and brings back two more characters from the previous films.  This was icing on an already delicious cake and already I cannot wait for the sixth movie in the series.

Fast Five is just a fantastic piece of total entertainment.  If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll probably have a great time with this.  It’s all there, amazing car stunts, engaging though simple characters, and a well-paced and packed story.  If you’re one of the eye-roillers, I doubt I can ever convince you that Fast Five is a great movie.  Still, I and the group of friends that I saw this with, had a terrific night.  If you’re a fan of this series, you don’t want to miss this.  Highly, highly recommended.

I really was not planning to see this.  When I first saw the trailer to Super, it looked to me like it was going to this geek reference comedy with Rainn Wilson doing his thing from The Office, which had become extremely tired for me (I quit watching The Office a couple of seasons ago).  Even knowing that this was written and directed by James Gunn, who has previously made Slither which I had a good time with, wasn’t enough.

What made me want to see it was the recent review that Ignatiy Vishnevetsky and Christy Lemire gave it on Ebert Presents At The Movie. Their review convinced me that there was more to Super than what it’s trailer gave off, and it certainly intrigued me enough to want to seek this out when it came to St. Louis.  Awhile back, I’d posted on a messageboard about one of the original iterations of At The Movies going away, and it was followed by someone talking about the idea that the concept for this show was going the way of the dinosaur thanks to the internet and the barrage of reviews that you can get through that.  I thought that was just kind of sad.  Yeah, sure, you can get reviews all over the internet for everything, but they’re faceless, they have no sound or inflection and unless it’s someone you trust completely, they’re all over the map.  Of course, there’s a lot of good reviewers out there on the internet, who you know you can completely trust, just due to their consistency.  But with that said, nothing will ever really replace for me the idea of an actual television show devoted to it.  I can’t begin to tell you how many movies I was opened up to by actually seeing and hearing intelligent conversation thanks to the various iterations of At The Movies. Sorry for the long digression in the midst of this, but I can’t push Ebert Presents At The Movies enough.  You may not agree with every review in the end, but the one thing that it does have is a consistency of voice and intent.  To me anyway, that’s invaluable in deciding what to see.

But back to Super. This opened here in the St. Louis area this past weekend at one of my favorite theatres in town, the Tivoli.  When I heard it was coming, this got fast-tracked for me right away, thanks to the above.  I saw this last night, and think it’s one of the best movies that I’ve seen so far this year.

Frank D’Arbo is seemingly just your average ordinary guy who at the start of the film tells you about the only two perfect moments in his life- marrying his wife Sarah and pointing out to a policeman where a criminal went.  Frank’s devoted to Sarah, but Sarah’s got a past history of substance abuse.  That history begins to catch up to her when she gets involved with a slick guy named Jacques.  In a matter of days, Jacques leads Sarah back to her old ways, and soon she out-and-out leaves Frank, leaving him hopelessly distraught.  Frank’s at the end of his rope and doesn’t know what to do until a divine vision comes to him.  This vision inspires Frank to become a costumed crimefighter named The Crimson Bolt and from there, the inevitable hijinks ensue.

As I said above, writer/director James Gunn is best known for 2006’s Slither. But before that, he had a long association with Troma Studios, known for their low-budget, extremely over-the-top exploitation films.  A lot of Super is a flat-out salute to those movies, but there’s a lot more to this as well.  It’s really difficult to pin any sort of singular label on this movie.  On it’s surface, it looks like it’s going to be a broad comedy, when in it’s actually an extremely black comedy.  With Rainn Wilson’s presence, I at least originally had the feeling that he was going to be of one note, but he goes to some places emotionally that are extremely dark, so this could also carry the label of being a psychological investigation.  And then there’s the whole super-hero element that initially gets compared to Kick-Ass, but combined with other factors more puts this on the same plane with what I think Sucker Punch was trying to achieve.  The difference being that Super actually does achieve it.  The end result, to me anyway, actually has more in common with Taxi Driver more than anything else.

Oh, there’s certainly some broad comedy, and it’s not ineffective.  It’s also not what this will be known for, that gets overshadowed by the very dark overall tone and the extreme violence within.  The violence is quite graphic and feels “real” and that is certainly something to keep in mind if you decide to see this.  That factor alone is something that could be a huge turn-off for someone coming in and expecting this to be like what I’d originally thought it was going to be.

Gunn’s Troma roots are certainly on display in the shooting style.  The look of the film feels like there was a lot of guerilla filmmaking going on while shooting this, and it definitely works.  It’s authentic feel makes the evident darkness even more pronounced.

There’s even more to it than that.  Other highlights include a terrific animated opening sequence, a very Troma-esque way in which Frank gets his divine vision, and a great score from composer Tyler Bates.  I’d mentioned Sucker Punch above.  Sucker Punch does something with it’s ending that tries to flip the whole thing that just doesn’t work primarily due to just not being set-up that well.  Well, Super does the same sort of thing, but when it happens it’s not forced and it does still come back to Frank, making for quite the poignant ending.

The big revelation for me here though was Rainn Wilson.  This isn’t Dwight Shruite by any means.  Frank is off-balanced, to be sure, but he’s also, at least to me highly relatable.  He’s had his life turned upside-down, with one of his perfect moments tarnished.  He externalizes a lot of pain that I know I can certainly relate to.  Those scenes might at first seem a touch over-the-top, but I thought they were very honest and certainly made him to be a much more sympathetic character than what I had originally expected.

Liv Tyler plays Sarah, and Kevin Bacon plays Jacques.  At first, the big question looms, how does someone who looks like Liv Tyler get involved with a guy like Frank?  Another movie might be very superficial with something like this, but James Gunn actually goes there and tells you how.  Tyler shines in these scenes, and again, it feels honest.  Kevin Bacon is very slick and right off the bat you know that Jacques is going to be this sort of scum that everyone has come across in their lives in their own way.

Ellen Page plays Libby, a comic book store employee who helps Frank get on his track and later becomes his “kid” sidekick, Boltie.  I tend to think that Ellen Page is one of the best young actresses out there today and seeing her in Super further supports that.  As unbalanced as Frank is, there’s even darker stuff at work for Libby, she’s just not as cognizant of it as Frank is.  Page is quite good at subverting that making this part something that has more in common with the first movie I saw her in, Hard Candy.

The casting also includes some other nice touches.  Veteran actors Gregg Henry, Michael Rooker and Nathan Fillion (all also in Slither) have key roles here and play perfectly into Gunn’s big picture.  Other nice acting touches include William Katt (from TV’s The Greatest American Hero as an on-screen police officer and Rob Zombie as the voice of God.  Their appearances are really brief, but very nice winks to the intended audience.

Super is a terrific movie and just this extremely huge surprise.  It’s not for everyone, for instance if you’re a parent who’s seen the trailer and think that this will be something your children will enjoy, you just might want to hold off.  It’s dark tone and extreme violence could also be very off-putting to some, so I can’t give this a blanket recommendation.  But if you think you can get into the combination of blacker-than black comedy, psychological unbalance and a very big heart, then you might find something very special with Super.  I know I did.