Step back and squint… or my review of “World War Z” ***

As much as I liked the roller-coaster ride of World War Z, I can also find just as much NOT to like about it. Adding to the dislike column was after first seeing it only later finding out what the novel it was based on was like. There was no super hero character(with almost super hero powers) that Brad Pitt plays with Gerry Lane, the novel delves deep into cultural, political, and religious scopes that cover a true “World War”. This movie has none of that. World War Z is a carefully manufactured “blockbuster” taking absolutely no chances what-so-ever. No chances in anything but star power, no chances on anything religious or culturally offensive, no chances on anything too gross or disgusting… despite the genre’s almost demand for it… Again, I enjoyed the movie, but I have never before in my life, felt so carefully manipulated at a movie.

The PG-13 rating is a tip off right there. Any episode of “TheWalking Dead” has ten times more frightening scare and gore to it than anything in this movie. It so heavily panders to the largest crowd that it possibly can, that I hesitate to even put it in the zombie movie genre.

Brad Pitt/Gerry Lane tries to get his family out of the city

But despite it’s prefabricated construction it still delivers quite a punch in tension and action. To further my analogy… 90% of people probably don’t care or even know they’re in an assembled house for instance, as I’m sure is the case with most movie goers. And there are some beautiful manufactured houses I’m sure… For instance, the happy family with all their MANY loving glances to each, other during your typical breakfast mayhem scene would be like a professional contractor looking at a front porch that was erected in 30 minutes…. it’s a sure sign this family is headed for trouble! But let’s go ahead and walk on in!

The walls of Jerusalem are breached

The "subtlety" only goes down-hill from there... but still, the scenes of the original outbreak of the family stuck in a traffic-jam of unknown lethal origins is played out well. Brad Pitt’s super hero Gerry Lane, first seeing people being attacked and ‘turning’ is all done with effective rising tensions leading to a truly frightening supermarket scramble and such.  So with them first trapped in an apartment building the narrow scope of the outbreak is more like all previous zombie movies going back to the first Night of the Living Dead’s defense of a simple farmhouse. But as they’re quickly lifted off the roof because Gerry Lane and his old job has contacts literally and figuratively in high places, this movie, at least taking some cues from the book, wants to take this up to a global scale, leaving the farmhouse far behind. It does that immensely, globe trotting Gerry all over the world in an attempt to find patient zero of the plague. The fact he makes it to place after place, barely ahead of the marauding masses of the infected, seen so ever briefly in the movie’s trailers and ***spoiler-alert*** they’re not seen much more in the movie either! Seeing exactly how those ant-like colony columns build would have been horrifically fascination, but the movie scenes are about as brief and hectic as the trailers. Anyway, the fact he barely makes it out time and time again, is reminiscent of John Cusack in 2012 escaping falling sky scrapers and runways dropping out beneath his plane etc… And he even survives a horrific airline crash… well not with-out a “scratch” I will say, but his miraculous speedy recovery from a pretty serious injury, or how our hero Gerry figures out what no one else can about how to combat the zombies etc… it all only goes to show you, that back to my earlier analogy you really should not inspect that “house” too closely…

Every time I try to go into detail about this movie I start finding fault with it which I think is just the nature of something so obviously pandering. So I’ll try and finish the review on a more positive note because, as I said before, over-all, I did enjoy this movie… so I do want to give it a positive star rating reluctant as they maybe…

Riding in coach really gets bad

As I mentioned with the first outbreak and the supermarket raid, or there’s a great scenes of them trying to quietly get to a plane in pouring rain on bicycles, or the breaching the walls of Jericho, I mean walls of Jerusalem... somebody's walls! (And again the wide shots are fascinating of the piling hordes but still not as effective as arms reaching through boarded up windows... just for a "classic" genre example.)  Anyway, and then there's' the really well-done scene of the first-class stand-off against the infected in coach scene, or the genuine tension of them trying to get through the infected wing of the World Health Organization building… these are all done with highly effective thrills and truly scary tensions.

So with what will probably be a failed attempt at not being insulting I will say that ANY less discerning audience will like this movie, which is obviously why it is doing so well at the box office. Playing to the lowest common denominator has it’s advantages in translating to those box-office dollars. So as much as I may feel like I should give it only two stars or less I am willingly and effectively being manipulated into giving it three stars. If you go just for the fun of it you will have fun. If you start to knock on the walls to find if there are enough cross beams? Not so much.

You’re getting sleepy…. NOT! Or my review of Trance ****

After my review of several of the summer blockbusters with their falling skyscrapers, mega explosions, burning barges, and exploding spaceships, and all that burning smoking destruction, Trance was almost literally a breath of fresh air.(Okay there was some tear gas and a burning car at the end of this movie but you get the point….) And speaking of SciFi... although there is one element that borders on science fiction I won’t reveal the twist here as it really doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the film in the slightest.

I suppose you could say the movie is slightly formulaic but it’s formulaic as a heist movie, as a gangster film, as a psychological thriller, as a film noir mystery romance. It’s the blend of all these in a masterful  interweaving of genres that makes Danny Boyle such a master film maker.

From his beginnings with his morbid masterpiece of Hitckcockian tale of normal people in situations that spiral out of control in Shallow Grave, to the hyper reality of Trainspotting and it’s excellent music soundtrack that also blended genres., Boyle has shown a deft hand at mixing things up, telling extremely engaging stories. He attempts genres and makes them his own like no one has since Kubrick. And while unlike Kubrick greatest movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, Boyle’s science fiction movie Sunshine is the only genre, that in my opinion, was his only less than success. Things like his Zombie movie 28 Days Later... or his Bollywood movie Slumdog Millionaire are some of my all time favorite movies.

James McAvoy

And while Trance is a scaled back movie in every sense, British….  It’s one of those that even though they are speaking English, subtitles would have helped immensely.  But having said that I must say that  “unknown” cast is exquisite, with a bit of IMdb.com research I was able to find things like the lead character James McAvoy was the main guy against Forest Whitaker’s Idi Amin in the excellent The Last King of Scotland, or the main gangster type guy Vincent Cassel has been the baddie in many films including the ‘baddie’ director explaining the seduction of and his own seducing of Swan Lake in The Black Swan, and Rosario Dawson I remember from Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse “Death Proof” segment, or one of the femme fatales in Sin City.  So this trilogy of excellent bit actors in the hands of a master pull off the most engaging, mind twisting, bizarre love triangles in film history.  As I mentioned before the juggling of genres start off with the excellence tension of a heist movie, and as it enters the psychological thriller, what happens after the heist is revisited in jumbled flashbacks as McAvoy’s character receives a head injury and can’t remember what happened. He visits a therapist specializing in hypnotherapy to help in remembering and quickly she’s entangled in the what happened to the stolen painting, and of course there’s the film noir elements of who’s playing who.

Vincent Cassel

an extremely British movie with relatively unknown cast, all his skills are evident. And when I say British I mean 

Rosario Dawson

I even liked how the film as it’s title suggests hypnotically takes you into the art world, particularly the world of stolen paintings. I had fun researching the stolen paintings it mentions like Rembrandt’s “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee”. But the labyrinth of revealing what was locked inside the main character’s mind is all done in a hypnotic style, with mind-bending twist of dreams with-in dreams etc.. . but also in the romantic entanglement that has you wondering who has the upper hand as guards are let down and weaknesses exposed and in one of the movie's not so obvious twists,  is the fact you actually begin to like the bad guy?  In particular, I had to track down the excellent song “Sandman”  by Kirsty McGee as it’s dreamy lilting melody perfectly underscores that feeling not quite being in control in a dream yet not caring and enjoying that floating feeling.

As I mentioned before there is some suspension of disbelief, and some major plots holes that may cause the story to fall apart if examined too closely and a more discerning skeptic might find major fault under that close of an examination, and it’s does knock off a star value for me for sure. But I found the trip through this mind maze and romantic entanglement to be most enjoyable.

Rossario/McAvoy

As I raise my fist and scream, “Abraaaaaaaaams!” Or my review of Star Trek: Into Darkness ***1/2

I remember oh so long ago in another life, Letterman actually had a The Shinning which has JUST been released( I wonder if he's ever revised his opinion in hindsight?) Anyway he said he thought Kubrick handled it like a grenade that he had to throw himself on to protect everyone else. SO!!! This long round about intro is to say sometimes I feel ol' J.J. is doing the same with the new Star Trek franchise.  Even though I enjoyed the film immensely, sometimes I actually think he's saying to the original Star Trek  fans, "This in mine now! AhHaHahaHA!!"

morning show, that I would actually drag my teenage-self out of bed for, (Obviously for the reason's I just pointed out... it failed and a Late Night version later succeeded) ANYWAY! I remember one of his guests in those early days, was Stephen King, and Dave asked him what he thought of Kubrick's 

Okay I’m going to say right here: ****spoiler alert!****,but I assume the fact it’s been out awhile won’t prevent you from reading this because talking about the specifics of what Abrams does to the Star Trek timeline is mainly what kept me from enjoying this film to it’s full extent. Now I did go back a see this movie a second time in 3D and I must admit I was a bit more forgiving without my original Star Trek expectations and thus disappointments. The idea of having a story line that neatly hooks up to where the story began in the original series was completely thrown out the window in Abrams first Star Trek movie. By having time-travel change the timeline with things like... oh I don’t know... say blowing up the entire planet Vulcan?!? The idea that you were going to have Captain Pike and Captain Kirk changing of hands that happened in the pilot and first episodes was not going to happen in these movies. I mean if stepping on a butterfly in the past can cause the entire future change, imagine what wiping out a planet can do.

In fact, in my second viewing is were I caught the fact that it was the destruction of Vulcan that caused them to find  Khan and his crew years before their “five year mission” was to have begun. And the spoiler? Yes Benedict Cumberbatch is suppose to be Khan of Ricardo Montalban fame for the series and Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. So they kill off Captain Pike,which I suppose is better than his original fate of ending up a burnt paraplegic in chair with a blinking light to communicate, but they don’t want to find a young Latino actor just to keep the surprise reveal? A reveal really makes no sense? They painstakingly have a great cast of younger versions of the whole crew who are back from the first movie with particularly fun turns by Simon Pegg as Scotty and Anton Yelchin as Chekov, but what about Vulcan being destroyed turned the Latino Khan into a British accented villain?

However brilliantly portrayed?

From "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"

And then there's the “twist” where Kirk and Spock change places behind the glass of the radiated section, and Spock screams “Khaaaaan!”instead of the iconic yet much maligned William Shatner/Kirk scream from Star Trek II. Again, in the second viewing, I started thinking of how it’s almost a time-travel/alternate universe convention that sometimes there’s just subtle difference that can change things yet they’re almost the same. A goatee or an eye patch will be on the alternate person, or this person in now in charge and the other person is his subordinate instead etc.. but that's me being extremely forgiving, when deep down it's more like I first said Abrams just want to say, “This is mine now, the TV series and Movie stories are mine to toy with too!” The fact he now has the reigns of Star Wars has me VERY concerned about how much one man can have over my Science Fiction universe!

Anyway! ALL THAT ASIDE! The action, the effects, the story of this movie makes it very enjoyable to watch. And I might add the 3D viewing with the red leaves, spear throwing in your face opening to the space debris space suit flight did make it a slightly more enjoyable experience than seeing just the 2D version.So Overall, as a stand alone film, or at least a stand alone series is very enjoyable. And speaking of this particular series I forget,but I assume Zachary Quinto/Spock and Zoe Saldana/Uhura were suppose to be an item in the first movie? It does bring an interesting dynamic of balancing emotions and lack of emotions that Zarachy really does have fun with. And this ‘balance’ really effectively extends with Chris Pine as Kirk. I guess the Vulcan destruction also wiped out the seven year cycles Vulcans were suppose to have in romantic interests? Well there I go again trying to apply the rules of the television series to the new movies.

So again, to wrap up…. aside from my reservations, this movie does deliver on great space scenes, good action, excellent villains, including some almost cameo Klingons, and a cast having some real fun with re-imagining characters that have become mainstays in the Science Fiction culture. Anytime you have a movie where actors like Karl Urban as ‘Bones’ McCoy have fun with “Dammit Jim…” and other Star Trek classics, you have a winner.

I am Iron Man!… or maybe not? Or my review of Iron Man 3 ***1/2

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone says,that he’s  “…getting Robert Downey'ed-out” and subsequently gave Iron Man 3 a less than favorable review. Well I guess I haven’t gotten there yet and when Robert Downey Jr.’s alter-ego Tony Stark says to the bi-spectacled little tote head, “I loved you in ‘Christmas Story’..” I had a real laugh. So for me, his wise-cracking loose cannon hubris can still carry the movie. Tons of well done action and mega-destruction do help though, and shows just why Michael Bay movies are such turds.

Ben Kingsley

Robert Downey Jr.

One thing I would be curious to know is how much screen time out of the suit Mr. Downey had in previous incarnations. Because it seemed to me that this movie he wanted to be out of the suit as much as possible even ending with him no longer even need the suit’s power coil to keep him alive. This apparent strive to be a Tony Stark movie and not and Iron Man movie did seem to rub me a bit the wrong way. The self assembling suit that he may or may not even need to be in, was certainly used to its full extreme as he could get in and out of the suit with lightening ease, thusly more screen time for good ol’ Robert.

Guy Pearce

But that’s really the extent of my complaints. I wasn't a big comic book fan growing up, I was too busy at the movie matinees or reading actual books if that not too snobbish to say), anyway…Iron Man was one of the few I actually followed on a very limited basis so much so I couldn't follow some people’s outrage that Mandrake was just a front in the movie. I guess the fact he was more of a stooge in the movie had some villain fans upset, which I guess I could understand but it made for one of the more enjoyable surprises for me. I thought at first there was going to be another Alan Rickman pretends-to-be-a-sniveling-coward- to-get the-upper-hand Die Hard moment, but instead Ben Kingsley/Mandrake is the stooge he appears to be, and Robert Downey’s Tony is enjoyably perplexed, giving the more scenery for Guy Pearce to chew as the formerly shunned nerd, turned super villain.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Jon Favreau

One other thing I really like was the expansion of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts character. And while she eventually does become the damsel in distress required in comic book movies, her seemingly effortless ease of building a three dimensional character that is able to handle the egomania of the Stark character creating a real chemistry that is a joy to watch and generates a genuine emotional investment that is a cheering point when Iron Man comes to the rescue.

So from the mystery movie elements of solving the unexplained explosions including putting into a coma the franchise’s former director Jon Favreau, who I think wisely gave up the reigns to ShaneBlack and was able to concentrate on the over protective friend  Happy Hogan, to the action packed duel between the genetically altered villain Aldrich Killian and his army and Iron Man and his army of suits and DonCheadle’s alternate Iron Man atop the gigantic barge, the choreography was exciting and easy to follow, and made the whole movie a nice roller-coaster ride.