Movie Nation

The new movie “Diana,” about “The People’s Princess,” has not been greeted with open arms. Well, not in Britain. Not by British critics. The huffing and sneering from the chattering-reviewing classes has been deafening, and downright personal.
“Atrocious and intrusive,” complains The Times of London.
“Her every utterance sound as though it has been culled directly from the pages of Hello! magazine,” fumes The Observer.
It’s as if the film, which stars Naomi Watts (an Australian, the nerve!) and depicts the arc of the last two year’s of Diana’s life — a marriage ended, a secret love affair with a Pakistani doctor, much of it beyond the reach of the ever-present paparazzi — is some sort of personal affront. The reviews suggest a sense of ownership of the princess that perhaps director Oliver Hirschbiegel had not anticipated.
“The U.K. press did not want to see this sort of intimate portrayal of her,” he says. “In their mind, they had a different picture of her. Our research was pretty close to the facts, but they just don’t care. They want THEIR version of her. Other countries don’t seem to have that problem.”
Scathing remarks about makeup, moments of tears and the like mostly spare the film’s star, Watts, recently Oscar nominated for “The Impossible.” But Time Magazine’s reviewer’s puerile rip — “Cryana, Princess of Wails” — suggests some sort of wound that the movie reopens.
“She was the most famous woman of our times and her legacy lives on,” Watts says. “It’s such a tragic way to die and she was so famous that we feel that we knew her and this can’t be all. It’s very hard to reconcile sudden, tragic death like that. That keeps her saga alive.”
Watts laughs.
“But in any case, it’s good practice, to be defending your movie as it comes out.”
Hirshbiegel says that their intention was to “redraft the legacy, because at her death, she was done this disservice with all these stories of her yachting with Dodi (Fayed, the millionaire playboy), and jetting around the world with him. The other aspects of her life got forgotten.”
Hirschbiegel’s film focuses on her connection to Dr. Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews in the film) and her crusade against land mines — which linger in former war zones, killing and maiming the innocent years after the combat has ended. “Diana” details “the game” she played with the paparazzi, with disguises, driving her butler’s car to sneak out, after hours, for dates and assignations. And it plays up her utter isolation.
“She had some desire to be ‘normal,’ just for a bit,” the director says.” I understand, now, why this legend lives on. She chose to be a rebel from the royal family. She was very emotional and spiritual, where the English character is all about irony and sarcasm, especially in that family. She did not have that..
“She knew how to enter a room. She had presence, a real movie star quality. Nobody in that family, not even Princess Kate, has that. The tragic thing is the minute she died the world realized how special she really was.”
And he’s not sweating the reviews. Hirschbiegel, 55, has a veteran filmmaker’s thick skin in that regard.
“I did ‘Downfall.'” the German Hirschbiegel chuckles, remembering the acclaimed 2004 Hitler-in-the-Bunker drama that has become a favorite Internet meme in the intervening decade. “The response that I got in Germany to that movie (about Hitler’s final days) was pretty similar. I’m used to it.”

(Roger Moore reviews “Diana” here).

“Ender’s Game” — the 1985 novel by Orson Scott Card — finally makes it to the big screen in a Summit (“Twilight”, and they had “Hunger Games”) release, a potential franchise in the making.

The reviews for this sober-minded slog into the future have been decent, but not breathless enough to be a big boost to the picture. Decent enough cast, good looking picture. Reviews won’t hurt it.

“About Time” is a “Groundhog Day” variation from Mr. “Love Actually.” Mushy, overlong, but touching and romantic and sweet. It would have worked better as a PG-13 picture, but whatever. Solid reviews for this one.

Very curious to see how “Ender’s Game” does at the box office. I sense a LOT of interest from the OS Card crowd, not so much from the sci-fi loyalists. It could do quite well.

“Free Birds” is the first animated offering from Relativity. The first animated film since the soggy “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.” Pretty bad. Will it blow up the box office? Maybe.

“Diana” goes into limited release this weekend. This was supposed to be an Oscar contender. And though I liked it more than most, it most certainly isn’t. Now.

“Man of Tai Chi” is a competent martial arts actioner that Keanu Reeves directed and star Tiger Chen fight-choreographed. Generic, in the extreme.

“Mr. Nobody” goes into very limited release — 4 years after premiering at Toronto. A Hard sell, a fascinating movie. Jared Leto’s profile is at long last on the rise.

“Free Birds” is more proof, as if 2013 needed it, that Hollywood has almost killed the animated goose that laid the golden egg.
No matter that in this case, the goose is a turkey. You didn’t need to be told that. But a year which has produced the clever and heartfelt “The Croods” and the passably amusing “Despicable Me 2” has also had a healthy dose of sausage factory about it. “Epic,” “Monsters University,” “Planes,” “Escape from Planet Earth,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” and “Turbo” — all major pictures that hint at a talent pool spread absurdly thin and an industry with sneering contempt for its audience.
“Animate it, charge 3D prices and their parents will grit their teeth and bear it.”
In that spirit, Relativity now gives us “Free Birds.” They make the same mistakes that generations of animators made before them, having a cute idea and a feeble script to go with it, lining up a “name” voice cast to tell the tale of dizzy yet heroic turkeys who time travel to change the main entre at “The first Thanksgiving.” 
Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler and George Takei — funny folks, one and all. And yet there’s barely a laugh in it. The strain shows, right at the opening credits, when a title tells us this “is loosely based” on a true story — “unless, of course” you take into account the talking turkeys who talk turkey.
Well, guffaw.
Wilson voices Reggie, a scrawny Jeremiah at his turkey farm, the one guy to figure out why he and his flock are being fattened up. “Turkeys are dumb,” he narrates as his peers clap as friends and family are dragged off to “turkey paradise.”
But Reggie is that lucky bird who wins a presidential pardon. The gag writers thought it would be cute to make this Southern president with the bratty daughter Clintonian.
Reggie has barely settled into a pampered life of pizzas and TV watching at Camp David when the demented Jake (Woody Harrelson) shows up to birdnap him and enlist Reggie in his mission — to steal the secret Camp David time machine, travel back to early America and change Thanksgiving history, “to get turkey OFF the menu.”
In 1621 Plymouth, the Pilgrims are starving — save for the portly Governor Bradford (Dan Fogler). Miles Standish (Colm Meaney) is a trigger-happy menace who figures he can turkey-hunt the colony to safety.
And the turkeys themselves? They’re natives — as in painted up like Washington Redskins mascots. Jake and Reggie must win over the native flock (Amy Poehler and Keith David among them) to save them and turkeys of the future.
The few gags there are seem borrowed from better, earlier films — short attention span turkeys inspired by Dory of “Finding Nemo,” “Braveheart” battle scenes, mismatched “buddies” from a hundred buddy comedies.
The odd throw-away line works. The president’s daughter is a six year-old blabbermouth who points out this general “has issues” and that overweight maid “eats her feelings.” And Governor Bradford is forever minimizing his responsibility for the dying colonists.
“He was sick on the boat, so that’s not on me!”
But the sight gags fall flat and much of the screenplay seems like a rough draft that the filmmakers — Jimmy Hayward helmed the superior “Horton Hears a Who” — expected the actors to fix. And they didn’t.
Casting George “Oh my!” Takei as the time machine will amuse adults. Giving him little more than his catch-phrase to say won’t.
Frozen, undercooked and sorely lacking much in the way of “all the trimmings,” this turkey isn’t ready to serve.

MPAA Rating: PG for some action/peril and rude humor
Cast: The voices of Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Amy Poehler, Keith David, Colm Meaney
Credits: Directed by Jimmy Hayward, screenplay by Jimmy Hayward and Scott Mosier. A Relativity release. 
Running time: 1:31

Yeah, I watched “How I Met Your Mother” up to and past the point where it jumped the shark. I a checking in on it, still, to see how they resolve it and wrap things up at the end of this season.

They’re still managing the occasional new catch-phrase — years past the days when they put Legend–“wait for it” — dary out there. “What the damn hell?” was the one that popped up the other night.

But TV heartthrob Cobie Smulders is making the transition to movies, easing into an “Avengers” supporting role, in support of Vince Vaughn in “Delivery Man” which is coming up in a couple of weeks. That’s mainly what I’ll be talking to her about. Got questions for everybody’s favorite knockout Canadian? Comment below, and thanks for the help.

Paddy is a widower who spends his lonely days watching TV in his bathrobe.
Sam can barely summon the energy to wisecrack about the aged wrecks who share the pool in his jazzercise for seniors class.
Archie has a post-stroke regimen of pills and a son who nags him to take it easy “at your age.”
And Billy wears the decades of too-much California tanning and the stress of keeping up with a fiance half his age.
Yeah, you’ll want to PARTY with these guys. Especially after you learn that they’re played by Oscar winners Robert DeNiro, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman and Michael Douglas, respectively. Especially after you learn that they’re about to cut loose at a bachelor party.
“Last Vegas” is an on-the-nose, on-the-money “Grumpy Old Men with Hangovers” set in Sin City. It’s a comedy that, thanks to its Oscar-studded cast, leans more toward the sentimental than the sinful. So there’s no tiger, no Mr. Chow, the “Hangover” debauchery is more mild than wild. And instead of crazed encounters with Mike Tyson, our quartet, friends since childhood, cut loose with a Cirque du Soleil troupe.
Back in their doo wop music past, they were the “Flatbush Four,” pals who stuck together against bullies, swiped booze together and pined for the same girl. Now pushing 70, they’re reunited when Malibu Billy (Douglas) finally ties the knot.
Each has a hurdle to clear before making the trek to their bachelor gathering. Sam’s wife (Joanna Gleason) gifts him a condom and suggests he (Kevin Kline) get busy, just to get his game back. Archie (Freeman) has to dodge his son (Michael Ealy) and sneak out. And Archie and Sam both have to trick Paddy (DeNiro), who bears some ancient grudge against Billy.
They do what people do in Vegas — play blackjack, do a little dance, fall in love with a lounge singer (Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen), crack jokes.
“We’re here to watch Billy marry an infant.”
Oh, and get down tonight.
There are great pleasures in being in the company of seasoned pros who know how to sell a punch line. How old’s your bride, Billy?”
“She’s almost 32.”
“I’ve got a hemorrhoid that’s almost 32.”
Or “You look good.”
“You LIE good.”
Freeman sings a little and dances a little. An ornery DeNiro cracks wise and scowls. Kline riffs and Douglas plays the straight man with a wistful (Yeah, he knows the bride’s too young) charm.
And Steenburgen positively beams. After years of playing moms and straight-laced wives, she croons a few standards in the Vegas vein and holds her own with the big boys.
“This is the first bachelor party I’ve ever attended that could be covered by Medicare.”
Turteltaub (“National Treasure”) captures the garish, cleavage-friendly setting, sets up the senior citizen sight gags with skill and mostly just lets his high-mileage cast score laughs and pass along tidbits of wisdom to assorted sinning youngsters in between sentimental reveries.
“Last Vegas” isn’t “out there” in a “Hangover” sense. It’s comical comfort food, with actors doing the sorts of things they’ve done for decades. But even if this is the safest Vegas romp of them all, this cast never lets us forget that we’re in very good hands.

(Roger Moore interviews the director and cast of “Last Vegas” here)

MPAA Rating: PG-13 on appeal for sexual content and language
Cast: Micheal Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Mary Steenburgen, Kevin Kline
Credits: Directed by Jon Turteltaub, written by Dan Fogelman. A CBS Films release.
Running time: 1:40

Will “About Time” turn Domhnall Gleeson into a movie star?
At 30, the redheaded son of the great Irish actor Brendan Gleeson, brother of Brian (“Snow White and the Huntsman”) seems on the cusp of it, parked front and center in a Richard “Four Weddings and a Funeral” Curtis romantic comedy.
In the film, in which he plays a young man who uses his inherited ability to travel backward to some specific point in his life for a “do over,” Gleeson courts, re-courts and wins Rachel McAdams and earned “agreeably quirky leading man” (The Hollywood Reporter) notices in doing it.
“It’s the first time I’ve been front and center in a film that was bigger than something tiny and filmed and shown in Ireland,” Gleeson says from Australia, where he appeared at the film’s premiere (it opens in the U.S. Nov. 8). A ginger-haired veteran of the “Harry Potter” franchise — he was a Weasley sibling, naturally — Gleeson hasn’t had the sort of a career or life that begs for its own “do overs.”
“I’m sure I’ll get up to plenty later on that I’ll regret at a later date,” he jokes. “The message of the film is that if you’re living your life properly, you shouldn’t need to do anything over. Hopefully, you’ve paid attention to things as they were happening. Pay attention. When life surrounds you with beautiful things, realize it. Be there for it.
“Despite that message, the lovely reality of it all is that every day, you probably do ten things you wish you hadn’t done. That’s where the comedy lies.”
Following in his father’s footsteps, Gleeson has worked with the great Irish playwright turned screenwriter-director Martin McDonagh. The younger Gleeson picked up a Tony nomination for his work in “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” had a bit part in “Six Shooter,” the Oscar winning short film that put his dad and Martin McDonagh on the film industry’s radar, and has a role in the next Gleeson-McDonagh team-up,”Calvary,” which Martin’s brother John Michael McDonagh (“The Guard”) wrote and directed. The Irish McDonaghs (“In Bruges,” “Seven Psychopaths”) aren’t shy about tying their fates to the Gleesons. And that offers Domhnall (the Gaelic version of “Donald”) more chances to pair up with Pop.
“Acting with my dad is one of the great pleasures of my work,” he says. “Any day you get to go on set and spend time with a friend, a family member and one of your acting heroes is a pretty good day. I’m lucky to have had plenty of those.”
That helped him connect with his “About Time” dad, played by Bill Nighy, at his most sage and sanguine.
“Bill makes you cherish every moment on the set. You’re paying attention to the greatness of every day in your life because that’s what the movie is about…Playing father and son can be a very stressful thing, because it’s meant to be a great, positive father-son relationship. Those are rare, in film, because drama comes from the stress in such a relationship. You’ve got a lot to live up. My relationship with my dad is so special. Bill felt, in an instant, somebody you could turn to for advice, somebody you could have a drink with. You feel you’ve been made better just for being around him.”
He’s all bubbly, positive energy about the film and what it might mean to his career. Yes, there are “Hugh Grantisms” (The Guardian newspaper) in Gleeson’s “About Time” performance. But that’s a given, considering the track record of screenwriter and sometimes writer-director Curtis (“Love Actually,” “Notting Hill”). But there is great chemistry with Rachel McAdams.
“That’s all on her. Can you think of a film where she didn’t have great chemistry with the leading man? I can’t.”
And hit or miss, he hopes to take the life lessons, on and off screen, that “About Time” gave him into his acting future and into his heart.
“If you’re not learning from people — my dad, Bill, Rachel, Richard — you’re wasting your time.”

(Roger Moore’s review of “About Time” is here)

Some movies are simply too strange to put into theaters. That seemed to be the fate of “Mr. Nobody,” a trippy, existential sci-fi romance that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival — in 2009.
But with Jared Leto’s turn in “The Dallas Buyers Club” earning Oscar buzz, and Sarah Polley and Juno Temple seeing their profiles rise, this Euro-Canadian production finds itself on North American screens, as ethereal, quirky and inscrutable as ever.
Framed within the flashbacks of “the last mortal on Earth,” a 118 year-old man, Nemo Nobody (Leto) interviewed by both his future (2092) shrink (Allan Corduner) and a journalist (Daniel Mays), it’s about love and life and entropy and decay and the fateful choices you make and what you might could if you could choose again.
“If you never make a choice, anything is possible,” Nemo Nobody says. And he’s right.
If he doesn’t choose to pursue the wounded Elise at 15, he’d never struggle to contain her manic depression as the mother (Sarah Polley) of his three children.
If Nemo isn’t smitten by tiny Anna, then teen Anna (Juno Temple) wouldn’t be so darned alluring that he can’t resist her, even though her dad has taken up with Nemo’s mother (Natasha Little). And Nemo and adult Anna (Diane Kruger) wouldn’t take up things as adults — maybe take off to colonize Mars.
Or maybe he didn’t dash to that train and decide to live with his mother, at nine, when she ran off and left his dad (Rys Ifans) alone. Maybe Nemo grows up to care for his father, who becomes an invalid shortly after cheating mom flees.
Love might take a back seat and see him settle for the sensible Jean (Linh Dan Pham). But he’d still wonder what might have been.
Nemo seems to meet his end — dying of old age, murdered in a bathtub, drowning in a car wreck. But he doesn’t.
It’s all somewhat confusing and utterly absorbing. Is everything a dream within a dream? Surely the name “Nemo,” as in “Nemo in Slumberland,” isn’t a coincidence.
The always amazing Polley, playing manic depression in all its extremes, has the most to work with, here. Leto’s Nemo has all manner of future possibilities — TV science show host, rich businessman, homeless guy, all manner of hopeless romantics. None of them really stick with you the way Polley’s Anna does.
Writer-director Jaco Van Dormael (“Toto the Hero”) spins flashbacks and time-lapse photography, stunning montages, whirling, circling cameras and stunning underwater, deep space and Martian landscape photography into a film that is as intentionally opaque as it is overlong.
“Mr. Nobody” takes a good 70 minutes to get to the point where you guess where it’s going. And that’s only the halfway mark.
But it is fascinating to chew on and mull over, a cryptic “puzzle picture” set in the playground of the psyche, a movie about the present, the past and the future and the wonder of how any of us is strong enough to make a choice, a decision, about anything.

MPAA Rating:  R for some sexuality/nudity, brief strong language and violent images
Cast: Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans
Credits: Written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael. A Magnolia release. 
Running time: 2:20

Who knew that what Keanu Reeves really wanted was to play the villain in a movie Jean-Claude Van Damme made and remade half a dozen times? And direct it?
“Man of Tai Chi” is a martial arts actioner that has the formulaic plot of a score of other films, many of which starred Van Damme, with Reeves playing the mysterious rich guy who stages private off-the-books brawls matching fighters of various styles.
“No referees, no rules,” he purrs, explaining his contests to a young Tai Chi master (Tiger Hu Chen).
“It’s dishonorable,” Tiger (his character’s name, too) complains. We’ve seen the guy train with his Tai Chi master (Yu Hai), who tries to strip rage and passions out of Tiger’s regimen even as he turns this ancient exercise martial art into something that will make Tiger a national champion in legitimate competitions.
“You are not controlling your Chi,” the old man intones. “Your Chi is controlling you!”
But whatever Donako Mark (Reeves) wants, Donako gets — be it Bugatti Veyrons, Bentleys or brawlers. He puts the squeeze on Tiger’s teacher and spies on his family. Tiger is forced to do his courier job during the day, his televised, sanctioned tournaments on the weekend and Donako’s for-profit tussles after hours.
Millions of practitioners of Tai Chi use it as exercise, a slow, balletic dance of choreographed moves that improve limberness, circulation and lead to — they hope — longevity. But the martial arts’ name translates to “boundless fist.” The pitiless Donako wants to see if the ultimate master of this serene fighting form can be turned into a ruthless thug in the ring.
“Man of Tai Chi” has more fights than you can count as Tiger battles all manner, race and creed of mixed martial arts brawlers and boxers.
“Tai Chi’s for show,” one trash-talks him. “You’ve already lost!”
Tiger’s “Dude, I am SO going to mess you up” face helps change his mind.
The bloodier fights for Donako soon infect Tiger’s sanctioned bouts, and we wonder how low he will sink and when the inevitable fight with you–know-who will wrap this up.
Reeves is a competent director, packing this stylish-looking picture with well-staged and filmed fights. The magical martial arts stuff is kept to a minimum, the gravity-defying wire-work less obvious.
As an actor, he never quite got over his “Matrix” inspired need to be “inscrutable.” His clothes are black (he wears a black mask, in some scenes), his dialogue clipped and punchy.
“What’s the matter? Are you afraid of what you can do to him?”
But the script here is pretty stale stuff, with an under-developed side story of the cop (Karen Mok) on Donako’s trail and dialogue (in English and Chinese) that is often banal.
Take away Reeves’ involvement, and “Man of Tai Chi” would be indistinguishable from scores of martial arts program pictures, brutally efficient, in its way, formulaic in story and execution.

MPAA Rating: R for violence
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Tiger Hu Chen, Karen Mok
Credits: Directed by Keanu Reeves,written by Michael G. Clooney. A Radius/TWC release.
Running time: 1:45

The creator of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Love Actually” wanders into “Groundhog Day” territory with his latest romance. “About Time” is about time travel and how it might be applied to finding and winning over Miss Right when Love at First Sight needs a second chance.
Who wouldn’t like a second or third shot at making a killer first impression with a potential mate? That’s the possibility that Dad (Bill Nighy) presents to his son Tim (Domhnall Gleeson). The men in their family can sneak off into a closet or somewhere hidden, clench their fists, and wish their way back to a moment they’d love to relive.
“Try and do something…interesting,” Dad suggests. No, you can’t assassinate Hitler.
The magic of this Richard Curtis movie is in both the comical ways that gift comes in handy, and in the romantic and emotional ones.
Clumsy, awkward Tim tests this out on his sister’s pal, hot Charlotte (Margot Robbie). That’s when he — and we — realize that we could all use a do over, here and there. Fix that first impression, avoid letting a friend or relative down, re-jigger your plans so that a hoped-for first meeting takes place (or is avoided). Make that first sexual encounter one for the ages.
Rachel McAdams is Mary, the American lass Tim almost meets at one of those gimmick restaurants where the diners eat in the dark. The sparks fly. In the dark. But the meeting doesn’t quite come off. And Tim, a true romantic, stumbles and struggles and plots to get a second chance at his perfect match.
“About Time” takes us into the life they might share, and finds ingenious ways to test love and the dilemma of choices as Tim keeps discovering all these “rules” about his time traveling. Go back too far, and she won’t remember you’ve met. Don’t go back far enough, and your troubled sister (Lydia Wilson) will still end up with a creep who ruins her life. Misuse this gift and you’re no better than a stalker.
“All the time in the world can’t make someone love you.”
Gleeson — he was a Weasley sibling in the Harry Potter movies — is the son of the great Irish actor Brendan Gleeson. He has a winning screen presence and clicks with McAdams, whose gift for chemistry with a wide array of leading men makes her the most under-rated romantic comedy actress of her generation. It’s funny that this is her third crack at time travel romances (the little seen “Time Traveler’s Wife”, the hit “Midnight in Paris”), and that, like Tim’s efforts, she improves on things this time around.
The film has the usual collection of cute Curtis supporting players, with Vanessa Kirby hilarious as Mary’s best friend and Tom Hollander killing as a playwright and old friend of Tim’s family who takes the ginger-haired boy under his wing.
Bill Nighy gets his best roles from Curtis, with his father figure here maybe the sweetest performance in his career.
As in most Richard Curtis films, things go on too long and turn a trifle gooey, here and there. It doesn’t have the big heart-tugs of “Groundhog Day.” It’s a needlessly R-rated romance that would have worked better as a PG-13.
But “About Time” is a most romantic way to spend your time at the movies this fall, a “date picture” about do over dates that works, this time around.

(Roger Moore’s interview with Domhnall Gleeson is here)

MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexual content
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander
Credits: Written and directed by Richard Curtis. A Universal release.
Running time: 2:03