It took decades of increasingly mediocre TV series and Data-dull movies to beat Star Trek to death. But J.J. Abrams brings it all back to basics, and back to life, with a rousing “How Scotty Met Sulu” prequel about how the intrepid crew of the Enterprise became shipmates. Abrams has delivered a not-too-reverent space opera that follows the Trek canon even as it reinvents what made generations fall in love with this saga.
As frightening as the word is, you don’t put “cancer” in a movie’s title if you want people to come see it.
Thus, the serio-comic “I’m With Cancer” was renamed “50/50.” Those are our hero’s odds of surviving the malignancy that he’s just found on his back. As Adam, Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes the news the way most human beings would — like a punch to the gut. No hysteria, no wild weeping. Just shock.
It’s interesting to track the growing cinematic sophistication of those preaching/filmmaking brothers of Sherwood Baptist Church from “Facing the Giants” to their breakout hit “Fireproof” to their latest film.
Writer Stephen Kendrick and writer-director-actor Alex Kendrick have mastered building suspense, hiding surprises, action beats (chases, shootouts) and even humor, and that makes their latest faith-based drama, a cut and many, many edits above “Fireproof” is simple movie terms.
But it also has signs of that sophomore jinx that so many start-up movie-makers suffer after making a box office hit. It’s preachier. It mimics moments and the story arc of their last hit. Like a pastor so caught up in the moment that he can’t see that the air conditioning has given out and the congregation wants to go home, the film travels far beyond its dramatic climax, aiming for an altar call finale.
And in a significant step backward, Alex Kendrick, an adequate actor, returns as star. He has yet to recognize that ineffable spark that makes even a Kirk Cameron (“Fireproof”) more interesting to watch than a fellow who is comfortable in the pulpit, perfectly in sync with his story’s message, but not charismatic.
Bad timing allowed “What’s Your Number?,” a mildly raunchy romantic comedy about a woman lamenting her sexual history as she resolves to finally save herself for Mr. Right, to come out mere months after the too similar “Bridesmaids.”
Whatever its shortcomings, director Jim Sheridan and stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts deserved better than the give-away-the-store trailer that Universal delivered for “Dream House.”
Screenwriter David Loucka? Oh yeah, HE deserved a trailer that drops the film’s big reveal on you before you buy your ticket. They would have done us all a favor by hinting at the eye-rolling lulu of a finale he cooked up for this faintly spooky semi-supernatural thriller.
Emilio Estevez wrote, directed and took a supporting role in “The Way,” an easy-going road picture that plays right into his father, Martin Sheen’s wheelhouse.
The rules of screen romance don’t change much, from country to country, culture to culture. The cinematic language of love is universal.
Thus the French romance “The Names of Love” plays with conventions that American filmgoers will find familiar and fun. He (Jacques Gamblin) is a scientist who investigates bird deaths, warning the public of the next avian flu outbreak. He’s a French fuddy duddy.
She (Sara Forestier) is a manic, seemingly dizzy free spirit, free with her body, a sensualist and a leftist who figures she can sexually convert any “fascist” she brings to her bed. She calls lots of guys fascists.
“Real Steel” is “Transformers” meets “The Champ,” a cute, occasionally sentimental father-son bonding picture with Rock’Em Sock’Em boxing robots as its backdrop.\
Gus Van Sant’s “Restless” is predicated on an old movie truism — the quirkiest romances begin at funerals.
That’s where Enoch (Henry Hopper) meets Annabell (Mia Wasikowska). He’s a morbidly curious funeral-crashing teenager who lives in a rundown mansion, wears black clothes from another era and plays “Battleship” with the ghost of a Kamikaze pilot (Ryo Kase).
Naturally, Annabell, who tells him she volunteers in a local hospital, is drawn to him. She wants to tag along to the funerals. And when she bails Enoch out of a tight spot with a funeral director, she’s in. But we think that funeral director is right on the money.
“Either you are the world’s unluckiest boy, or a sick prankster!”
Thus, does an odd and oddly touching romance begin, a film that pays faint tribute to the ’70s death-obsessed dark comedy “Harold & Maude,” but one which grasps the doomed nature of all love affairs, even among the young.
Stephen Myers knows his boss’s talking points so well he can stand in for him, reciting them as technicians adjust the lights for the next presidential debate.
“My religion, what I believe in, is called the Constitution of the United States of America.”
Myers (Ryan Gosling) knows the line because he’s heard it a hundred times before, because he believes it and believes in the man who says it, his presidential candidate-boss, Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney).
“The Ides of March,” George Clooney’s latest civics lesson as actor and director, is a down and dirty politics-behind-closed-doors tale. It’s about a campaign professional (Gosling) letting his idealism get in the way of his professionalism. And it’s about disillusionment, ugly pragmatism, back-room deals and maneuvering in this mass media/social media/no secrets age.
