Hercules (2014) Review

Can the Demigod fight his way to the top of this summer's lackluster box office?

The legend of Hercules is an amazing Ancient Greek myth about a child born from Zeus, King of the gods, and a mortal woman.  Knowing that this film had plenty of mythological "cannon" to draw from and such a legendary character excited me quite a bit.  Unfortunately the "cannon" they chose to pull from for this film was a Hercules comic book rather than the stories of Ancient Greece.  Rather than playing up the son-of-a-god angle they chose to stray away from the mythology and use a more historical lens to examine the possibilities of a man named Hercules who did great things, but whose feats were exaggerated by storytellers.  

The film starts with a narrator guiding us through the life of Hercules, son of Zeus, hated by Hera because of her husband's infidelity, and grew up to be an amazing warrior.  Such an amazing warrior he was sent on 12 labors by the gods.  Included in these 12 labors were the battles with mythical beasts like the Lernean hydra, Erymanthian boar, and Nemean lion. Although these scenes make great moments in the beginning of the film, the rest of the movie takes place after Herc's 12 labors when he and his small band of warriors have become mercenaries traveling Greece as hired muscle.  The group of warriors fighting with  Herc are also interesting elite fighters, however we never get a good sense of who they really are other than a few hints and campfire stories about them.  After a successful campaign of ridding a city-state of pirates, Hercules and his men are called upon to help save a kingdom known as Thrace from an evil warlord.  

Although I really wanted to like this film quite a bit, I found it falling a bit short.  The lack of character development is tough.  The warriors that surround Hercules are all interesting characters, but we never learn much about them.  Ian McShane plays a soothsayer and warrior named Amphiaraus who Hercules has befriended.  It's a great character and McShane does a nice job, however we know very little of his character.  Other notable performances come from John Hurt as Lord Cotys, the leader of Thrace, Rufus Sewell playing another warrior with Herc named Autolycus, and of course Dwayne "the rock" Johnson as Hercules.  The Rock actually does a great job playing Herc.  I typically enjoy the Rock's films, especially when he is kicking butt, and this film does not disappoint with the butt kicking.  The fight scenes were done well and were fun to watch.  Ultimately though I believe the film falls victim to its lack of myth.  Throughout the entire film they push the fact that Hercules and his band of warriors are perpetuating the legend of Hercules.  That there is no such thing as a demigod, and that Hercules is just a great man.  I like the attempt to make it more historically based, as if he was just a great man and not a god, but I came to this movie to see a full on demigod battle mythical beasts and the gods themselves.  Outside of the first 10 minutes of the film, that wish falls short.  

If you are looking for a great film based in Ancient Greece, watch Troy.  If you want a good movie based on a comic book in Ancient Greece, watch one of the 300 films.  If you want decent action and like to see The Rock kick butt, then this is the film for you.  I give this movie 2.5 stars out of 5.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Review

Can apes rein over humans at the box office?


The latest installment of the Planet of the Apes franchise has hit theaters with a nice media push and the weight of an industry on its shoulders.  Many in Hollywood feel that this is one of the last major films of the summer that could save an abysmal year at the box office.  with sales down from last year, will this film give Hollywood the boost they hope for? Probably not! 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes takes place 10 years after the events from Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  Through a media montage at the beginning of the film we learn that the human population has been nearly annihilated from a virus known as the Simian flu.  We then meet back up with Caesar, played by Andy Serkis, as he and his fellow "smart apes" have created a civilization in the forests outside of San Francisco.  Perhaps the best thing about this film is seeing the early human-like civilization that these apes have created. Eventually we learn that the small survivor population in San Fran is nearly out of fuel and will need to venture into the forest putting them at odds with the apes.  

With a film like this it would be easy to make humans the protagonists and show the apes in a bad light.  However director Matt Reeves is able to develop the apes and the main character apes into a heart warming group.  He is able to show us not only their brutal side, but the emotional family side as well.  In a film nearly devoid of major actors with the exception of a like able Keri Russell and an under utilized Gary Oldman, developing the non-human characters becomes all the more important.  I guarantee you will find yourself saying, "hail Caesar" by the end.

The question remains, can this film be Hollywood's blockbuster savior this summer?  I do not believe it can.  This is a good film, but it doesn't measure up to the Dark Knight or Avenger films which are the most recent major blockbusters. It may not be the box office savior, but it is a good film.  I give this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars.  Definitely worth your money to see in the theater if you are a fan of the first film.  

Transformers: Age of Extinction Review

Transformers: Age of Extinction Review

Can the newest Transformers movie revitalize an old and tired franchise?  

Growing up in the 1980s and 90s meant that you probably at some point played with and watched Transformers.  When I first heard that the Transformers were finally coming to the big screen and with the same voice that Optimus Prime had on the old cartoon, I was very excited.  Fast forward 7 years and four films later and my love for the once nostalgic toy and show from my childhood has dwindled.  

Age of Extinction starts out as all three previous films do, we see a sinister threat to Earth  building, and then meet our human co-stars.  The new human co-stars are a small bright spot in this film.  Replacing Shia LaBeouf's whinny & annoying character Sam Whitwicky is Mark Wahlberg playing broke inventor Cade Yeager, who is struggling to make ends meet and take care of his 17 year old daughter.  While doing his best "American Pickers" impression, Cade comes across a peculiar old big rig, purchases the broken down heap, and eventually discovers that this is no rust bucket, it is Optimus Prime in disguise.  This is when the real fun starts as we learn the U.S. government is involved in hunting down both Autobots and Decepticons with help from a mysterious third party. 

The film delivers everything we have come to expect from a Michael Bay & Transformers film, and that's exactly the problem with this movie.  Huge over the top explosions, ridiculous fight scenes where giant robots somehow manage to fight but yet not kill their human co-stars, no character development, poor story-telling, and poor acting.  Perhaps the last problem being a bit of a surprise.  With a fairly star-studded cast including Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, and voice actors Peter Cullen, John Goodman, and Ken Watanabe you would think the acting should be pretty good.  However Bay finds a way to tell us a story with zero room for human actors and even though the film runs nearly 3 hours, zero room for character development.

Ultimately, I will always be a fan of the Transformers, and there were a few small spots in this movie that I really liked.  However the storyline and franchise is just old and broken down much like Optimus Prime when this film begins.  Michael Bay had created a Transformers trilogy that started pretty good in 2007, broke down and was awful in the second film in 2009, and in what we thought was the franchise finale in 2011, ended nicely.  In Transformers: Age of Extinction we get more of the same which leaves the fans and movie-goers wanting more.  I give this film a 1.5 out of 5 stars.  Unless you are a huge fan of Transformers, I would save your money and wait for this film to hit TV or Blu-Ray.

22 Jump Street Review

22 Jump Street Review: Can Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum catch lightening in a bottle...twice?

     Two years ago when "21 Jump Street" came out I wasn't exactly rushing to the theater to see it.  It was a pretty funny movie, but nothing revolutionary.  Two years and a number of hit movies later and Tatum and Hill are two of Hollywood's rising stars.  So does "22 Jump Street" help them continue their rise or does it diminish their glow by getting caught up in the lame sequel blues?

      "22 Jump Street" starts off not long after the last film in the series.  Tatum's character Jenko and Hill's character Schmidt are still partners, but now working outside of the Jump Street program.  Right off the bat the film does something that many people wish more films in Hollywood could do today...it doesn't take itself too seriously.  After a few jokes about how their new case was "Exactly like the case from the 21 Jump Street days", they continued to up the silliness factor when Tatum suggests perhaps they go undercover as Secret Service Agents to protect the White House, a great stab at "White House Down", his own film from 2013.  From that point on the movie literally parallels the first film with the guys rejoining the Jump Street program and going back to college rather than high school.  As before, they go undercover to find a drug dealer among the student body.  This time around Tatum ends up the popular guy and Hill ends up the unpopular one.  Even though the plot is very similar to the last film, "22 Jump Street" embraces that fact and continues to deliver some of the funniest one liners and situation comedy of the year. Hill and Tatum have quickly become two of the most versatile actors in Hollywood, Hill as the funnyman turned serious actor and Tatum as action hero turned funny man.  Together on screen they deliver plenty of laughs and hilarious situations.  This movie had me laughing from beginning to end and even as the credits rolled.

     So was it possible for Hill and Tatum to turn this blah sequel into a legitimate hit?  I believe it is.  The star power and comedy that this dynamic duo brings to the big screen is great.  The story line may be old and familiar, but the actors are able to pull out one laugh after another, which is what I look for in a comedy.  If you have seen "21 Jump Street" or even if you haven't and just love goofy films, this movie is worth seeing. As far as comedies go, this was a nonstop laughter.  I give this film a 4 out of 5 "comedy" stars.

   

Edge of Tomorrow Review

Edge of Tomorrow Review: Live, Die, Repeat...
     The tag line for the movie Edge of Tomorrow seems a bit like Star Tom Cruise's career as of late.  Live, Die, Repeat.  Can Cruise bounce back from last summer's box office flop Oblivion with another Sci-Fi thriller?
     The film starts out showing us a number of news reports and talk shows discussing  a number of asteroids that have hit Earth. It just so happens to turn out that those asteroids contained aliens who have quickly attacked and taken over most of Europe.  In response to the Alien attack, the World has somehow united in a grand military alliance headquartered in London (Not Washington DC?).  Cut to Tom Cruise's character Major Cage who we quickly find out is definitely not the action hero we were expecting.  After being paged to the HQ, Cage attempts to blackmail a superior officer in an attempt to stay off the front line invasion task force.  He is promptly arrested for desertion and finds himself waking up in a military base as they prepare to invade France.  From this point on Cruise gets stuck in the tag line cycle; live, die, repeat.  At times this film falls into feeling much like that terribly difficult video game you played as a child.  You die and then have to repeat what you did hundreds of times before you get back to that spot again so you can dodge left, or duck, or jump.  The film does take a nice turn finally when Cruise and his mentor, war hero Rita Vrataski played by Emily Blunt, finally escape the beach portion of the invasion and treat us to a few new scenes and some good on screen chemistry.  The film really comes together in the last few scenes leading up to a fun shoot'em up kamikaze-like battle.
     Overall this film is a nice summer thriller and definitely a nice bounce-back movie for Tom Cruise.  It may not have the action and pure adrenaline as a Mission Impossible film, but it does have great futuristic battle scenes, sweet super-soldier suits, some nice comedic training sequences, and a surprising performance from Emily Blunt as an action hero. I give this film 3.5 out of 5 stars and believe this film is worth your cash at the box office.
    

Godzilla (2014) Review

Godzilla (2014) Review: Can the King of Monsters Win Over Fans?

     Giant creatures destroying the city...an obvious summer thriller, but does the latest Godzilla film really live up to its monstrous hype? 
     When the film starts off it takes us on an interesting journey of the lore of Godzilla and ancient monstrous beasts that once called the Earth home.   After a "natural" disaster in 1999 Japan, Bryan Cranston's "Joe Brody" lives through the harrowing disaster that sets off a major series of events.  Fast forward to 2014 when that not-so-natural disaster is discovered once again by a somewhat crazy Joe Brody and his now adult son Ford Brody played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Their discovery puts them at odds with an organization attempting to research the cause of this event with Ken Watanabe's "Dr. Serizawa" as the scientific head of this group.  Chaos ensues which will lead to our title character playing a prominent role.
     After a rather slow start and set-up to this film there is a big payoff when we finally see Godzilla appear in his full glory, which sets the stage for a great final battle sequence.  The director, Gareth Edwards, does a nice job of using the "Jaws" strategy with this monster-thriller, never giving us a great view of the beast until the end of the film.  Overall this Godzilla movie does a great job of helping to refresh and revive my love for Godzilla from my childhood and definitely helps to cleanse our palates from the terrible taste left behind by the 1998 Roland Emmerich directed film staring Matthew Broderick. (BLAH!)  Ken Watanabe gives us a nice performance as the scientist Dr. Serizawa and essentially plays informant for the audience, letting us know what is going on throughout the film.  Bryan Cranston as always turns in an emotional performance as Joe Brody, however the acting of the movie seems to fall a bit short.  The second half of the film seemed to take on the essence of a Transformers film where we could care less about the "people" costars and are enthralled by the massive characters fighting on screen. 
     Looking at this film as a  summer thriller is the best lens to use here.  I give this film a 3 out of 5 stars.  If you are looking for mindless summer destruction at the box office, or perhaps to revive your love of Godzilla, then its definitely worth a visit to the theatre.