Movie Nation

Paramount and the black business community in at least 25 cities has arranged to give away over a quarter million student tickets to see “Selma” for free. Since young people are the ones who need to know this history (adults could stand a reminder, too), this is a righteous bit of outreach by the studio and a ringing endorsement of the film from people most directly impacted by the events depicted in the movie, civil rights movement marches of the mid-1960s.

Theaters all over Orlando, in Bradenton and other locales in Florida, are participating.

Here’s where you go to see if your city has theaters and business owners signed up to do this.
Great thing to do, sending kids to the MLK movie on MLK weekend.

“The Wedding Ringer” is “Wedding Crashers Redux,” a “Hangover Lite” that softens manic funnyman Kevin Hart’s persona into someone almost as funny, but more sentimental than abrasive. That helps “Ringer” work as a bromantic comedy that feels like a romantic comedy.
Like “Crashers,” it’s built on a killer conceit. It’s about a guy who hires himself out as a rent-a-best man. Jimmy Callahan (Hart) rescues grooms who have failed to create and hang onto long-term friendships. In our overworked and digitally-isolated culture, who has time for a “posse,” “my boys,” or a BFF close enough to stand up with you at the altar?
First-time feature director and co-writer Jeremy Garelick flips through scenes of Jimmy wearing a yarmulke or a wig, the life of the party at weddings of all races and genders. He does his homework and gives a tender, moving wedding reception toast. He’s so good at pretending to have been in someone’s life for decades, at knowing the groom’s heart, that he leaves the room in tears — every time. Occasionally, a client is so overcome he suggests they pal around afterword. But Jimmy keeps his distance.
“You know the rules. No contact after final payment.”
Sure, that can make for a lonely life. But Jimmy’s a professional.
Enter sad sack Doug, played by Josh Gad (“Jobs,” Frozen”) in a breakout role. Doug is about to marry the bombshell, Gretchen (Kaley Cuouco-Sweeting of “The Big Bang Theory”). Doug knows how lucky he is, but he’s so hapless he doesn’t just need a best man, he needs a team of groomsmen — groomsmen named for assorted famous athletes, the only names Doug could think of when grilled by Gretchen about his half of the wedding party.
And he’s rich enough to afford “The Golden Tux” — that’s Jimmy’s full service treatment. Jimmy proceeds to hire a motley crew that includes a stammering stripper, an ex-con, a TSA agent (Affion Crockett) and a Roto-Rooter man (Jorge Garcia). Jimmy coaches one and all about Doug and his background, stages fake boy-bonding photos and teaches tricks — blurting out “random words,” questions or compliments — for avoiding awkward conversations that will give away their con.
Hart cranks up his R-rated bug-eyed comic bark a few times. He amps up the energy and makes Gad, a funny guy, funnier. Gad, in term, brings out Hart’s sweet side. Cuouco-Sweeting has only a single scene that allows us to think she wasn’t hired for the short-shorts/tight tank top that have been the keys to her TV success.
There’s a a disastrous first-meeting dinner in which granny (Cloris Leachman) has to catch on fire to keep the bride’s grumpy-wary dad (Ken Howard, hilarious) from uncovering the ruse. The show-stopping moment might be when Jimmy discovers Doug’s hidden skill — think “Napoleon Dynamite.”
And there’s a touch football game with the family of the bride that doesn’t quite one-up the “Wedding Crashers” version of that gimmick.
So there’s not much new here. But a savvy, sassy script, smart casting and genuine “I feel sorry for this white boy” chemistry between Hart and Gad make “Wedding Ringer” an R-rated bromance that will touch you as often as it tickles you.

MPAA Rating: R for language

Cast: Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Ken Howard, Olivia Thirlby, Cloris Leachman

Credits: Jeremy Garelick, script by Jay Lavendar and Jeremy Garelick. A Screen Gems release.

Running time: 1:41

“Timbuktu” is a picturesque nightmare, a quiet, beautiful and chilling account of a city under the rule of Islamic jihadists. They briefly seized the ancient city in Mali a couple of years back, but the conflict and events depicted in this fictional tale could be set anywhere across Islamic Africa. Racial strife between Arabs and Africans and arguments over whose interpretation of the Koran are moot when one side of the argument has guns.
The foreigners come armed with AK-47s, piled into Toyota pickups and on the back of motorbikes.
One has a bullhorn.
“Smoking is forbidden,” he announces, in Arabic and local languages. “Music is forbidden!” “Women must wear gloves!” “Women must wear socks!”
The fashion police are literally in charge, and remember, they have guns.
These backward redneck fundamentalists, an Islamic answer to Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, instantly push this backward backwater into some fantasy Islamic State past. Sharia law applies, but not the same to everyone. They’re armed hypocrites who change the rules to get the women they want and the world they want to live in.
Because as remote as it is, Timbuktu makes for a perfect crucible for Islamic Arabs to impose their values on Islamic Africans.
Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako (“Life on Earth”) lets his camera stroll through random postcards of life in this place under these conditions — the fishwife who gets into a shouting match over being forced to wear gloves, the Imam (Adel Mahmoud Cherif) who chastises the militants who stomp into the mosque during prayers.
“You cause harm to Islam and Muslims,” he preaches. “Where is leniency? Where is forgiveness? Where is God in all this?”
The polyglot of languages in Sissako’s film hints at the conflicts raging from Sudan to Nigeria — armed Arabs who don’t speak the local tongue (Tamasheq), forced to use translators in French and English to get their edicts across to the stunned locals.
The central story is that of Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed), a rural cattle farmer whose wife, Satima (Toulou Kiki) is desired by one of the hypocritical jihadists. Abdelkerim (Abel Jafri) may ban soccer (kids continue to the play the game, without a ball) and enforce bans on music and smoking, but he’ll sneak off to take a few puffs when he thinks no one is looking.
“Timbuktu” depicts an odd clash of cultures, even without the intra-Islamic squabbling. Barefoot shepherds with cell phones, video-savvy propagandists who administer an ancient decree’s 40 lashes to a single woman who dared be in the same room with men. There’s a langor about the place, and an air of oppression hanging over the locals (most have fled) that does little to prepare you for the moments of violence — shocking, brutal and sudden.
And when it’s over, there’s nothing more to take from the film than the uneasy feeling that what we’ve seen is either intolerant and biased, or a warning. It’s not Islamophobic to fear the spread of this primitive oppression, be it in Syria or Nigeria.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violence and thematic elements

Cast: Ibrahim Ahmed,Abel Jafri, Toulou Kiki, Adel Mahmoud Cherif, Cheik A.G. Emakni, Layla Walet Mohamed

Credits: Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, screenplay by Abderrahmane Sissako and Kessen Tall. A Cohen Media release.

Running time: 1:36

The Golden Raspberry Awards, trashing the worst in cinema in a given year, and once an amusing antidote to Hollywood’s self-celebration, pretty much totally jump the shark this year, turning their “announcement” into a video event, their website into an ad-overloaded click-bait temple.

Even so, there’s something to be said for beating poor Kirk Cameron’s hate filled latter day career into the ground. “Saving Christmas” seems like some sort of early favorite for worst picture and worst actor.

They’ve added a “Redeemer” award, too, which suggests they’re trying to get movie stars to regularly show up for their presentation.
So yeah, the Razzers have sold out and kind of suck, in their own way. Their website is cursed with Comingsoon.net and Mapquest disease — “improved” until it’s infuriating, time consuming and unusable.

But here are the nominations, culled from Digitaltrends.com, because they had the time to sit through all that self-congratulatory garbage and advertising on razzies.com.

WORST PICTURE

Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Left Behind
The Legend of Hercules
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers 4: Age of Ex-STINK-Tion

WORST ACTOR

Nicolas Cage / Left Behind
Kirk Cameron / Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Kellan Lutz / The Legend of Hercules
Seth MacFarlane / A Million Ways To Die in the West
Adam Sandler / Blended

WORST ACTRESS

Drew Barrymore / Blended
Cameron Diaz / The Other Woman and Sex Tape
Melissa McCarthy / Tammy
Charlize Theron / A Million Ways to Die in the West
Gaia Weiss / The Legend of Hercules

THE RAZZIE REDEEMER AWARD (New Category!)

Ben Affleck (From RAZZIE “Winner” for GIGLI to Oscar Darling for ARGO and GONE GIRL)
Jennifer Aniston (From 4-Time RAZZIE Nominee to SAG Award Nominee for CAKE)
Mike Myers (From RAZZIE “Winner” for LOVE GURU to Docu Director of SUPERMENSCH)
Keanu Reeves (From 6-Time RAZZIE Nominee to Critically Acclaimed JOHN WICK)
Kristen Stewart (From RAZZIE “Winner” for TWILIGHT to the Art House Hit CAMP X-RAY)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Cameron Diaz / Annie
Megan Fox / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Nicola Peltz / [Transformers: Age of Extinction]
Brigitte Ridenour (Kirk’s Sister) / Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Susan Sarandon / Tammy

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mel Gibson/ Expendables 3
Kelsey Grammer / Expendables 3, Legends of Oz, Think Like a Man Too and [Transformers: Age of Extinction]
Shaquille O’Neal / Blended
Ah-Nuld Schwarzenegger / Expendables 3
Kiefer Sutherland/ Pompeii

WORST DIRECTOR

Michael Bay / [Transformers: Age of Extinction]
Darren Doane / Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Renny Harlin / The Legend of Hercules
Jonathan Liebesman / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Seth MacFarlane / A Million Ways To Die in the West

WORST SCREEN COMBO

Any Two Robots, Actors (or Robotic Actors) [Transformers: Age of Extinction]
Kirk Cameron & His Ego / Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Cameron Diaz & Jason Segel / Sex Tape
Kellan Lutz & Either His Abs, His Pecs or His Glutes / The Legend of Hercules
Seth MacFarlane & Charlize Theron / A Million Ways To Die in the West

WORST SCREENPLAY

Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, Written by Darren Doane and Cheston Hervey
Left Behind, Screenplay by Paul LaLonde and John Patus,
Based on the Novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Sex Tape, Screenplay by Kate Angelo and Jason Segel & Nicholas Stoller
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Written by Evan Daugherty and Andre Nemec & Josh Applebaum,
Based on Characters Created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman
[Transformers: Age of Extinction], Written by Ehren Kruger, Based on Hasbro’s Transformers Action Figures

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF OR SEQUEL

Annie
Atlas Shrugged #3: Who Is John Galt?
The Legend of Hercules
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
[Transformers: Age of Extinction]

As focused as the blurred, often random moments of unsteady steadicam shots and as coherent as co-star Wei Tang’s indecipherable Chinese accent, Michael Mann’s “Blackhat” is a classic January fire sale thriller.
Mann’s worst film since he transitioned into the pantheon of “major directors,” the best reason Universal had for rolling it out at all must have been some misguided attempt to pander its way into Chinese favor. Is there a theme park deal we haven’t heard about that was at stake here?
A hacking thriller starring Chris “Thor” Hemsworth, it would seem can’t-miss, just from its timing. The villains might not be North Koreans, but that’s not obvious as we see a Chinese nuclear power plant cyber-hijacked into a near meltdown, and the U.S. commodities market manipulated to a near crash.
Somebody’s behind both incidents. The lone Chinese investigator, Capt. Chen (Leehom Wang) insists that the U.S.  Justice Dept. get his former M.I.T. roommate (Hemsworth) out of prison to help crack the case. Hathaway co-authored the RAT (remote access tool) code that compromised the targets and now threatens world stability.
Viola Davis, the movies’ Queen of No-Nonsense, is the F.B.I. agent in charge of the ankle-braceleted Hathaway, someone trying to give the Chinese just enough cooperation to crack the case. Anything more, it is NOT said, would compromise national security. Because the Chinese have massive hacking efforts all their own.
Chen has a willowy, computer-savvy sister (Wei Tang) and she falls, hard, for the chiseled, buff convict hacker with a lock of hair always draped over one eye. Even that fails to generate friction in Mann’s movie, a film where the villains are unseen for the first hour, and seem designed by a political correctness committee when they do arrive.
The Chinese are all stoic cops or intrepid investigators, with Hathaway the lone American who has a clue about what’s happening, and why. Mann makes tension-killing mistakes dating back to his “Miami Vice” days — wasting long sections of screen time on people traveling by car, boat, helicopter or private plane, losing himself in dialogue as banal as “Cash money doesn’t have a trail,” lines he cares so little about he lets his actors swallow the last words, adding to the sense of missing information.
It’s not that “Blackhat” is hard to follow. The extreme close-ups of computer info traveling down circuits, brooding shots of Hemsworth thinking, sometimes with his shirt off, the shoot-outs where agents with pistols out-shoot bad guys with automatic weapons, tell us enough. And if you’ve ever wondered what a keyboard looks like, inside, looking up at the keys as they’re struck, this is the movie for you.
Davis has little to do, the Chinese players are set-dressing and Hemsworth isn’t much without his hammer.
Maybe that theme park deal will materialize, and Mann taking one and making one for the team will pay off. Otherwise, “Blackhat” will serve no purpose other than deflating the “Heat” director’s reputation and the star’s chances of ever starring in anything that doesn’t involve a helmet with horns on it.

MPAA Rating: R for violence and some language

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang, Leehom Wang

Credits: Directed by Michael Mann, screenplay by Morgan Davis Foehl. A Universal release.

Running time: 2:13

The grief must have drained out of the families that lost loved ones at Bonford Coal Company’s mine disaster. Or else the locals, God fearing Southerners along the West Virginia/Kentucky coal belt, have grown numb to this sort of loss. They’ve lived through “Little Accidents” before.
And then there’s the fear. Too much weeping, the wrong conversation with the press or a lawyer and the town’s sole big employer could up and close down.
Short-cuts were taken and people died. No sense telling the Feds that. Everybody needs “to put food on the table.” That’s what they tell Amos, the lone survivor of the accident, a guarded, crippled young man compellingly played by Boyd Holbrook (“Gone Girl,” “The Skeleton Twins”). His friends and neighbors may slap Amos on the back and congratulate him on his survival. But he knows the subtext. The town’s survival is now in his hands, and he dare not become the “big shot that closes down Bonford Coal.”
Sara Colangelo’s coal country drama is about several “Little Accidents.” Owen, played by the wonderful Jacob Lofland of “Mud,” lost his dad in the mine. He doesn’t mean to kill the bossman’s bullying son (Travis Tope), even though most of the town secretly blames the kid’s dad (Josh Lucas) for a lot of deaths. Owen buries the boy’s body and orders his mentally challenged little brother (Beau Wright) to forget what he saw.
Owen and Amos are both covering up accidents, not telling officials what they know. And both are drawn to the dead kid’s mom, played by Elizabeth Banks. She’s the one character in town to allow her grief to slip out, the one person to show remorse. She and her family are outsiders, and she fears her neighbors and feels guilt at what she suspects her husband’s role in all of this to have been.
Colangelo’s film gives us a world that feels lived-in, with non-actors mixed in with the professionals, and convincingly so. The coal dust that might have caused the mine explosion seems to cover the town and people in it in grit, and adds to their fatalism. Colangelo is sure-handed with scenes that depict a younger boy trying to fit in with older teens, behavior that we used to call “rite of passage” tests crosses over into bullying. She takes into a Bible study meeting that serves as group therapy, into bars as dimly lit as the mines the men who frequent them work in.
But it’s a little unsettling, the lack of grief the players bring to this situation. Chloe Sevigny, as Owen’s widowed mom, and others never let us see them crack. And they should. Even Banks’ reactions to the disappearance of her son seem unnaturally muted.
The melodramatic turns the script takes — far-fetched relationships, a poker-faced kid doing chores for the mother of a guy whose death he caused — tend to take you out of the movie.
With so much promise in the setting, the situation and the cast she signed to play her characters, it’s a pity Colangelo had to resort to soap opera. It scrubs the grit right off what could have been a fine film and a great showcase for Holbrook and Lofland, young actors on the rise.

MPAA Rating: unrated, with violence, sexual situations, profanity

Cast: Elizabeth Banks, Josh Lucas, Boyd Holbrook, Jacob Lofland, Chloe Sevigny

Credits: Written and directed by Sara Colangelo. An Amplify release.

Running time: 1:45