Review: "21 Jump Street" (2012) R
Two little know directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (not seen) take on the buddy cop comedy genre in a movie adaptation of the comedy-drama series, 21 Jump Street, from the 80s, and cast Channing Tatum and Johah Hill in it, like it's Superbad meets Lethal Weapon meets Police Academy. Like the Starsky and Hutch adaption a few years ago, the story merely pokes fun at the original and makes a sort of follow up, including cameo appearances by characters from the show. Hill and Tatum are ridiculous cops who can't remember even the Miranda rights, who are ordered to shape up, and must pose as brothers in a high school off Jump Street in order to stop a designer drug ring. It's also a bit like The Other Guys from just a few years ago. And it has some Slackers and Fast Times (including the silver muscle car). The story doesn't really try to be like the show like S and H did and it succeeds in being a farce, and somewhat enjoyable in a dumb sort of way. Literally, it's Arresting Development. Mixed up immediately upon admittance into high school, the big jock must take on smart classes while the brainy fat dude has no choice but to be in drama and dress up garishly. The formula has been done so many times they call it the 'buddy formula' and it goes back to silent movies with Laurel and Hardy. Here it works though. The 'young looking' cops attempting to fit into 2012 high school, knowing only 2005 idioms is fun, but actually it's likely they would have known. The car and bike chase was hilarious, especially the gag with the blast proof gas truck, and the guns that fire multiple rounds, like out of Lethal Weapon, and the cameos. Ha. The Peter Pan gag was a little too much unless you think of this as a sort of alternate universe Superbad where Hill's character knew a jock instead of another nerd. Had they had Aptow direct, what would it have been like? And really if you're going to have Tatum in a movie, cast some of his costars too. Come on. The horny chemistry teacher should have been played by Bynes! Even so, it really ins't a bad movie if taken as a buddy cop film. True there are some parts where montages and shots with just Hill don't work. Reviving old stories is even brought up in dialog, probably ad-libbed, including references to Hollywood rehashing old TV shows, and 'Glee' confusing them. Ha.And although the original series which made Johnny Depp a household name was actually more of a teen cop drama, with occasional quirkiness, and die hard fans will likely hate this, since I was not all that much a fan, I don't mind it. Just don't get me started on how Hollywood has ruined some of my favorite 80s shows, like Dukes of Hazzard. At least this is trying to be a farce about 21 Jump Street and how it has gone downhill since, which is kind of funny. It's worth a rental or even a bargain DVD down and then.
Review by Adam Browne
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Review: "The Descendants" is textbook Hollywood peril drama-comedy
Review: "The Descendants" R
George Clooney stars in a weepy picture set in Hawaii where his wife is a coma and he learns of her sordid past and attempts to come to grips with two rebellious daughters. Naturally critics fawned over this, a crowd pleasing weepy with some occasional jokes and a cursing child in it. Not in wide release until Oscar time, it made a good amount when people finally saw it, but it is not the best of the year. Standing on the fence with this one, as it pushes the buttons to get in an Oscar, it is nothing original. Terms of Endearment far exceeded it a generation ago, and even Places in the Heart, or some of the various 'my wife is dying' movies from the 1980s. It is a bit more honest than 50/50, another drama comedy with some ailment (that time cancer, but because he lives in that movie, it's not Oscar bait). Actually Clooney isn't half bad, playing the usual sad sack but a little spunky, essentially doing a take on his aged E/R character. If this had been an E/R TV movie it would have been fine, and may have garnished an Emmy. But this isn't supposed to be E/R and Clooney nature ally can only play...Clooney. It is funny one of the girls is wearing a shirt with his name on it. Talk about breaking the fourth wall. (That's when you as an actor make a reference to the audience about your role). So it's not a bad movie. It has moments. It is probably not worth owning though, unless it happens to be on the bargain bin sometime next year.
It really didn't need to be rated R. The swearing normally doesn't bother me in movies, but really here it totally wasn't necessary.
Review by Adam Browne
George Clooney stars in a weepy picture set in Hawaii where his wife is a coma and he learns of her sordid past and attempts to come to grips with two rebellious daughters. Naturally critics fawned over this, a crowd pleasing weepy with some occasional jokes and a cursing child in it. Not in wide release until Oscar time, it made a good amount when people finally saw it, but it is not the best of the year. Standing on the fence with this one, as it pushes the buttons to get in an Oscar, it is nothing original. Terms of Endearment far exceeded it a generation ago, and even Places in the Heart, or some of the various 'my wife is dying' movies from the 1980s. It is a bit more honest than 50/50, another drama comedy with some ailment (that time cancer, but because he lives in that movie, it's not Oscar bait). Actually Clooney isn't half bad, playing the usual sad sack but a little spunky, essentially doing a take on his aged E/R character. If this had been an E/R TV movie it would have been fine, and may have garnished an Emmy. But this isn't supposed to be E/R and Clooney nature ally can only play...Clooney. It is funny one of the girls is wearing a shirt with his name on it. Talk about breaking the fourth wall. (That's when you as an actor make a reference to the audience about your role). So it's not a bad movie. It has moments. It is probably not worth owning though, unless it happens to be on the bargain bin sometime next year.
It really didn't need to be rated R. The swearing normally doesn't bother me in movies, but really here it totally wasn't necessary.
Review by Adam Browne
Friday, March 23, 2012
Review: 'The Hunger Games' is good nod to reality TV as dystopia
Review: "The Hunger Games" PG 13
Gary Ross directs the movie adaptation of the popular Suzanne Collins teen series, The Hunger Games. (I have not yet read the books). This dystopian society that comes about following a world war features the formation of 13 city states in what was North America, now called Panem, where the Capital controls the other 12 and forces two teens from each one to compete in an annual gladiatorial Roman type fight to the death. The twist is they're teenagers and that they are on an island like structure. The capital apparently has a late 21st century society where they are sufficiently advanced such as medical salves, although incredibly barbaric considering they kill children in gladiator blood sports. When the girl from 12 is chosen, her older sister, Katriss, and a boy from the same, are picked in her place, to serve in the 74th games. The rich production company/evil societymakes like Roman and Greek myth in the reality TV vein, pitting the teens in a battle to the death. They also set up the guy second string as the love interest. The story should be true to the book as the author was a consultant. It's a good story if not similar to others. It's a genre thing.
The movie seems to be a good blend of American reality TV, Lord of the Flies, George Orwell's 1984, and a number of older dystopian stories that probably aren't even known to the teenagers reading the books. Now that they are, go read them also. Also there is a series and movie based on a book called Battle Royale, although the producers deny they knew anything about that one. Ha. Anyway, the idea is similar but the execution is not. The premise is that the North America has been destroyed and rebuilt as a central capitol city and 12 districts, the lesser of which appear to be set back into the early Industrial time period depicted in the TV series the Waltons. (Another series these kids have never seen). But to take the TV theme farther, other districts have different themes, such as the 11 one having a lot more cameras and stages and looks like Universal Studios, looks like WW2, cowboy stuff and modern stuff, like concert stages and concrete bunker things, and cops running around in white suits, a little. The capital is a highly advanced city state with mag-lev trains, even though ti does resemble an advanced Washington DC crossed with the New Hollywood in Blade Runner. It looks a lot like Blade Runner. They even have a few nods to Death Race 2000, the original, and it is highly influenced by American Idol, Fox news colors, and the Survivor series, including an island complex with millions of cameras. The similarities to other stuff doesn't ruin it though because the source material is different enough that it isn't distracting.
The story is recommended.
Review by Adam Browne
Gary Ross directs the movie adaptation of the popular Suzanne Collins teen series, The Hunger Games. (I have not yet read the books). This dystopian society that comes about following a world war features the formation of 13 city states in what was North America, now called Panem, where the Capital controls the other 12 and forces two teens from each one to compete in an annual gladiatorial Roman type fight to the death. The twist is they're teenagers and that they are on an island like structure. The capital apparently has a late 21st century society where they are sufficiently advanced such as medical salves, although incredibly barbaric considering they kill children in gladiator blood sports. When the girl from 12 is chosen, her older sister, Katriss, and a boy from the same, are picked in her place, to serve in the 74th games. The rich production company/evil societymakes like Roman and Greek myth in the reality TV vein, pitting the teens in a battle to the death. They also set up the guy second string as the love interest. The story should be true to the book as the author was a consultant. It's a good story if not similar to others. It's a genre thing.
The movie seems to be a good blend of American reality TV, Lord of the Flies, George Orwell's 1984, and a number of older dystopian stories that probably aren't even known to the teenagers reading the books. Now that they are, go read them also. Also there is a series and movie based on a book called Battle Royale, although the producers deny they knew anything about that one. Ha. Anyway, the idea is similar but the execution is not. The premise is that the North America has been destroyed and rebuilt as a central capitol city and 12 districts, the lesser of which appear to be set back into the early Industrial time period depicted in the TV series the Waltons. (Another series these kids have never seen). But to take the TV theme farther, other districts have different themes, such as the 11 one having a lot more cameras and stages and looks like Universal Studios, looks like WW2, cowboy stuff and modern stuff, like concert stages and concrete bunker things, and cops running around in white suits, a little. The capital is a highly advanced city state with mag-lev trains, even though ti does resemble an advanced Washington DC crossed with the New Hollywood in Blade Runner. It looks a lot like Blade Runner. They even have a few nods to Death Race 2000, the original, and it is highly influenced by American Idol, Fox news colors, and the Survivor series, including an island complex with millions of cameras. The similarities to other stuff doesn't ruin it though because the source material is different enough that it isn't distracting.
The story is recommended.
Review by Adam Browne
Monday, March 19, 2012
Review: "Space Battleship Yamato" movies
Review: Space Battleship Yamato (1977)
Originally this was the movie that tied into the 1970s animated series that became Star Blazers in the US, a Japanese space opera war anime movie about 2199, in an alternate universe, where the Gaminlans, clearly an archetype for the US, bomb the Earth with radioactive asteroids in order to invade the planet. The story has been retold several times and expanded into a series of episodes which became Star Blazers in 1978. So it actually predates the US release because the Japanese one came out in 1974. The film version should be treated as a slightly other timeline, as all of the Yamato movies should be. It is meant as kind of a strange love letter to an old battleship that the US sank in World War II. The ship is rebuilt as a space battleship cruiser and launched into space for a 1 year journey top another galaxy, using an engine and gun designed by the powerful Stasha of planet Iscandar. The planet shares a common past with planet Gamelus, and the battle for peace is fought with war and the eastern honor spirit. The movie also implies a fatalistic logic where the heroes face unstoppable odds and must win or die, and in some ways want to die in the end, but then they achieve their aim of finding the device that can restore the Earth. US cartoons of the time were sanitized, as is Star Blazers, so that the whole fatal thing never really happens, and it appears to be an all out superiority story where this little ship can take on millions of warships and survive. Sound like Robotech? It should. Macross becaome Robotech and both were heavily influenced by Space Battleship Yamato.
Review: Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978)
The second season of the 1970s animated series gets chopped up into another movie, or so it would seem, as a new commander, Kodai, flies the Yamato into battle with the White Comet Empire, which does sound like the second season, but isn't. This is yet another timeline because the heroic crew actually has to sacrifice itself to destroy the comet battle station before it crashes into the Earth. Evidently the director was feeling some kind of intense loneliness or something. Or maybe he was simply trying to be ironic. The Comet Empire revives Desslar to actually fight them. The story was then reworked as the series second season, and is likely actually a bumper for it, as they made the second season after the movie and threw away the part where Kodai destroys himself. Maybe it was a little too much even for the producers. The movie was likely actually produced in 1975 just after the first season.
Review: Yamato The New Voyage (1979)
The Kodai brothers are back in this sequel to the other films, and the series, where the Bolar wars also happen, similar to the third aired season from 1977. The story is slightly an alternate timeline where there is a daughter born from Kodai's brother's union with Teresa, and Desslar is back, looking for a new planet, and there are strange battles, warping planets, and a lot of that honor spirit going on. This time the ending is virtually a take on the comet one, except this time, they borrow for Star Wars, which is irony at best consider Star Wars ripped off The Hidden Fortress. Same idea. But this time our heroes need not die with honor.
Review: Be Forever Yamato (1980)
Meant as a prequel to the voyage story, it is treated here as a sequel, as Be Forever has an older Sasha, the daughter, serving on the ship, and the new threat is the Dark Nebula Galaxy, and it is not at all like other empires, snicker. Actually it is pretty much the same story as Bolar and even uses similar battle scenes, but it is distinctly a Yamato story and Kodai is in it, and another captain too. So apparently that time he died a few sequels ago never happened. Earth is again threatened with an atomic device, but the heroic forces manage to prevent the ultimate doom. Again.
Review: Final Yamato (1983)
Several years after the series, the supposed final movie in the series returns the original commander, Akita, from being in 'suspended animation' to battle the Gamilans, the remnants of the Dark Nebula, and a giant water planet headed for Earth. The crew must fight on using elements from the other movies and series, a lot of explosions, a raid on another space battle station, and a clear nod to Star Wars, and various other ideas. Also Akita must sacrifice himself alone to destroy the water planet bomb, using the Yamato as a bomb. That's pretty messed up to have the same kind of ending twice in two movies, but to do it three times is just like, wow. Guess this is another timeline again. Kodai will marry his sweetheart (in the unedited version).
Later variations of the series including an unfinished 'rebirth' not reviewed, feature the rebuilt ship, so it just won't die.
Also some of the aliens, blue skinned guys living on floating islands on water planets, indeed are ripped off by James Cameron in Avatar. Also he ripped off the space marines directly from this movie series, in Aliens, in 1986. And Star Trek ripped off this series several times. But hey, why not have inspiration. As Desslar said, 'Resistance is futile'! Oh, so did Star Trek, years later. Got to love something that inspires so much copying. The Bolar are clearly the Cardassians. Ha.
The oddity of this series of movies is that in the middle the producers seem either bitter about family issues, possibly a divorce, or losing a child also, and are projecting their angst onto the characters, making it really quite bleak. It is not a children's movie series at all. They even have a kid get killed accidentally, as well as multiple deaths with honor of characters, and blasting of people to ashes.
The series takes place between 2199 and 2204, too short a time for there to be a grown Stasha on the ship, but explain this away by saying she is half alien and aged to an adult in just one year.
Well planets can't warp through space and the rest of the science fiction is fantasy more than science, so okay.
But still, the fleets manage to rebuild in mere yearlong time spans, including as vast type 2 civilization like the Gamalans or the Bolars, and it is nothing for them to rebuild millions of ships, only to have Yamato destroy them all and reset it again.
The goddess imagery repeats a lot as there are three types of this, all of them fair haired, and all possessing powers which would have been used to prevent the series from even happening.
The reset button angle was often ripped off in Macross, Robotech, and Star Trek.
Macross handled the decimated Earth angle a little better though.
Still this is kind of where it all began. Shows like that would have never been made it it weren't for Space Battleship Yamato.
Review by Adam Browne
Originally this was the movie that tied into the 1970s animated series that became Star Blazers in the US, a Japanese space opera war anime movie about 2199, in an alternate universe, where the Gaminlans, clearly an archetype for the US, bomb the Earth with radioactive asteroids in order to invade the planet. The story has been retold several times and expanded into a series of episodes which became Star Blazers in 1978. So it actually predates the US release because the Japanese one came out in 1974. The film version should be treated as a slightly other timeline, as all of the Yamato movies should be. It is meant as kind of a strange love letter to an old battleship that the US sank in World War II. The ship is rebuilt as a space battleship cruiser and launched into space for a 1 year journey top another galaxy, using an engine and gun designed by the powerful Stasha of planet Iscandar. The planet shares a common past with planet Gamelus, and the battle for peace is fought with war and the eastern honor spirit. The movie also implies a fatalistic logic where the heroes face unstoppable odds and must win or die, and in some ways want to die in the end, but then they achieve their aim of finding the device that can restore the Earth. US cartoons of the time were sanitized, as is Star Blazers, so that the whole fatal thing never really happens, and it appears to be an all out superiority story where this little ship can take on millions of warships and survive. Sound like Robotech? It should. Macross becaome Robotech and both were heavily influenced by Space Battleship Yamato.
Review: Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978)
The second season of the 1970s animated series gets chopped up into another movie, or so it would seem, as a new commander, Kodai, flies the Yamato into battle with the White Comet Empire, which does sound like the second season, but isn't. This is yet another timeline because the heroic crew actually has to sacrifice itself to destroy the comet battle station before it crashes into the Earth. Evidently the director was feeling some kind of intense loneliness or something. Or maybe he was simply trying to be ironic. The Comet Empire revives Desslar to actually fight them. The story was then reworked as the series second season, and is likely actually a bumper for it, as they made the second season after the movie and threw away the part where Kodai destroys himself. Maybe it was a little too much even for the producers. The movie was likely actually produced in 1975 just after the first season.
Review: Yamato The New Voyage (1979)
The Kodai brothers are back in this sequel to the other films, and the series, where the Bolar wars also happen, similar to the third aired season from 1977. The story is slightly an alternate timeline where there is a daughter born from Kodai's brother's union with Teresa, and Desslar is back, looking for a new planet, and there are strange battles, warping planets, and a lot of that honor spirit going on. This time the ending is virtually a take on the comet one, except this time, they borrow for Star Wars, which is irony at best consider Star Wars ripped off The Hidden Fortress. Same idea. But this time our heroes need not die with honor.
Review: Be Forever Yamato (1980)
Meant as a prequel to the voyage story, it is treated here as a sequel, as Be Forever has an older Sasha, the daughter, serving on the ship, and the new threat is the Dark Nebula Galaxy, and it is not at all like other empires, snicker. Actually it is pretty much the same story as Bolar and even uses similar battle scenes, but it is distinctly a Yamato story and Kodai is in it, and another captain too. So apparently that time he died a few sequels ago never happened. Earth is again threatened with an atomic device, but the heroic forces manage to prevent the ultimate doom. Again.
Review: Final Yamato (1983)
Several years after the series, the supposed final movie in the series returns the original commander, Akita, from being in 'suspended animation' to battle the Gamilans, the remnants of the Dark Nebula, and a giant water planet headed for Earth. The crew must fight on using elements from the other movies and series, a lot of explosions, a raid on another space battle station, and a clear nod to Star Wars, and various other ideas. Also Akita must sacrifice himself alone to destroy the water planet bomb, using the Yamato as a bomb. That's pretty messed up to have the same kind of ending twice in two movies, but to do it three times is just like, wow. Guess this is another timeline again. Kodai will marry his sweetheart (in the unedited version).
Later variations of the series including an unfinished 'rebirth' not reviewed, feature the rebuilt ship, so it just won't die.
Also some of the aliens, blue skinned guys living on floating islands on water planets, indeed are ripped off by James Cameron in Avatar. Also he ripped off the space marines directly from this movie series, in Aliens, in 1986. And Star Trek ripped off this series several times. But hey, why not have inspiration. As Desslar said, 'Resistance is futile'! Oh, so did Star Trek, years later. Got to love something that inspires so much copying. The Bolar are clearly the Cardassians. Ha.
The oddity of this series of movies is that in the middle the producers seem either bitter about family issues, possibly a divorce, or losing a child also, and are projecting their angst onto the characters, making it really quite bleak. It is not a children's movie series at all. They even have a kid get killed accidentally, as well as multiple deaths with honor of characters, and blasting of people to ashes.
The series takes place between 2199 and 2204, too short a time for there to be a grown Stasha on the ship, but explain this away by saying she is half alien and aged to an adult in just one year.
Well planets can't warp through space and the rest of the science fiction is fantasy more than science, so okay.
But still, the fleets manage to rebuild in mere yearlong time spans, including as vast type 2 civilization like the Gamalans or the Bolars, and it is nothing for them to rebuild millions of ships, only to have Yamato destroy them all and reset it again.
The goddess imagery repeats a lot as there are three types of this, all of them fair haired, and all possessing powers which would have been used to prevent the series from even happening.
The reset button angle was often ripped off in Macross, Robotech, and Star Trek.
Macross handled the decimated Earth angle a little better though.
Still this is kind of where it all began. Shows like that would have never been made it it weren't for Space Battleship Yamato.
Review by Adam Browne
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Review: "The Lorax" is ad for save the trees campaign for some reason
"The Lorax" PG
Cartoons and movies dealing with saving the environment are nothing new, as Fern Gully, Captain Planet and Wall E, (save the earth) Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home, (save the whales) and many others have gone there. The Lorax seems to do it even more than Wall E though, and perhaps it suffers from the obvious tree hugger mentality. Like Fern Gully (save the rainforest) decades ago, the theme is if you cut down the trees you are evil and society will die, but in Lorax society goes to live in a faux town made of plastics, Thneedville the (need, get it). where people drink artificially created air, and a little Napoleon like troll with Beatles hair rules from behind an iron curtain, er wall. When a young teenager tries to impress his redhead lady friend, she tells him if he could plant a tree she would give him a kiss, but the problem is there are no more trees. Even so, the boy heads off therough a secret door in the wall and goes into the smog choked dead forest of fluffy tree stumps. He finds a miserly old hermit who lives in a strange house who apparently had been responsible for the town, and the cutting of every single tree, decades earlier. As a young hick American boy, the person explained, he had come to the forest to create 'thneads', a kind of all purpose garment, but his greed, and his insane capitalist family, overwhelmed him and talked him into destroying the forest. The odd fusion of cronie capitalism, communist idealog living in a palace, and industrial powers destroying the environment seems like a blatant commercial for the liberal hippie party. It at times is a little too much. The children watching the film didn't care because it had pretty colors to see and a lot of fast paced stuff, and cute jokes, but the adults were scratching their heads. Eventually the old hermit gives the boy the last seed and instructs him to plant it, and it's a madcap chase to the end. The story though is so similar to Wall E one might call it a rip off. In Wall E, humanity destroys Earth and heads off in a lavish spaceship and forgets what happened to their planet, (unlike in say, Avatar), and returns to reestablish plants on Earth after a seed is discovered. Same idea here. It is also like Never Ending Story in some sense, and like Fern Gully (which would be a bad movie to copy), and it is like Captain Planet. The writers clearly thought unabashed capitalism is bad, which it is, but that it becomes somehow communist, hence an isolated walled city, a distopia in utopian guise). the hard right in politics probably will hate it. I thought it was a little too preachy and a little long, and didn't entirely have to hit the audience over the head with the ideas to be a good movie. It isn't bad. It just isn't great.
Review by Adam Browne
Cartoons and movies dealing with saving the environment are nothing new, as Fern Gully, Captain Planet and Wall E, (save the earth) Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home, (save the whales) and many others have gone there. The Lorax seems to do it even more than Wall E though, and perhaps it suffers from the obvious tree hugger mentality. Like Fern Gully (save the rainforest) decades ago, the theme is if you cut down the trees you are evil and society will die, but in Lorax society goes to live in a faux town made of plastics, Thneedville the (need, get it). where people drink artificially created air, and a little Napoleon like troll with Beatles hair rules from behind an iron curtain, er wall. When a young teenager tries to impress his redhead lady friend, she tells him if he could plant a tree she would give him a kiss, but the problem is there are no more trees. Even so, the boy heads off therough a secret door in the wall and goes into the smog choked dead forest of fluffy tree stumps. He finds a miserly old hermit who lives in a strange house who apparently had been responsible for the town, and the cutting of every single tree, decades earlier. As a young hick American boy, the person explained, he had come to the forest to create 'thneads', a kind of all purpose garment, but his greed, and his insane capitalist family, overwhelmed him and talked him into destroying the forest. The odd fusion of cronie capitalism, communist idealog living in a palace, and industrial powers destroying the environment seems like a blatant commercial for the liberal hippie party. It at times is a little too much. The children watching the film didn't care because it had pretty colors to see and a lot of fast paced stuff, and cute jokes, but the adults were scratching their heads. Eventually the old hermit gives the boy the last seed and instructs him to plant it, and it's a madcap chase to the end. The story though is so similar to Wall E one might call it a rip off. In Wall E, humanity destroys Earth and heads off in a lavish spaceship and forgets what happened to their planet, (unlike in say, Avatar), and returns to reestablish plants on Earth after a seed is discovered. Same idea here. It is also like Never Ending Story in some sense, and like Fern Gully (which would be a bad movie to copy), and it is like Captain Planet. The writers clearly thought unabashed capitalism is bad, which it is, but that it becomes somehow communist, hence an isolated walled city, a distopia in utopian guise). the hard right in politics probably will hate it. I thought it was a little too preachy and a little long, and didn't entirely have to hit the audience over the head with the ideas to be a good movie. It isn't bad. It just isn't great.
Review by Adam Browne
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