CREED

(2015) 133 Minutes, Rated PG-13

A.C.’s Review:  When Sylvester Stallone signed on to play rising boxer Rocky Balboa in 1976 he probably never dreamed 40 years later he would still be playing the character. This latest outing has him assume the trainer role to the son on his rival turned friend Apollo Creed. Creed was last seen dying at the hands of Ivan Drago a fighter from the Soviet Union who beat him to death in the cold war inspired patriotic Rocky IV.

In CREED it turns out Apollo had an affair shortly before his death which gave him a son he never got to meet. After years in foster care and juvenile detention he is found by Creed’s forgiving wife and adopted. The young man has dreams of being a fighter like the father he never knew. Leaving L.A. behind he goes to Philadelphia where he finally persuades a reluctant Rocky Balboa to show him the ways of the ring in hopes of being a champion boxer. Along the way Adonis Creed (played by Michael B. Jordan whose career is on a huge upward trajectory) finds time to romance his down stairs neighbor-a lovely woman named Bianca who is a singer trying to have a career before she succumbs to progressive hearing loss that will eventually leave her deaf.

I’ve never been a fan  of boxing movies for some reason so to date I have only seen Rocky IV which was fortuitous as it helped with the backstory for this movie. Now having watched Rocky at the end of his career I kind of want to go back and catch up on all the previous Rocky movies.

Back to CREED. This is a pretty good movie. The characters are likable. The story movies along at a relaxed yet interesting pace and it all concludes as you would expect with Adonis squaring off against a world class fighter that by all appearances outmatches him in every way in the ring.

Best Scene: When Adonis appears down for the count during a fight through a series of flashbacks he must find the strength to rise again.

A.C.’s Rating: Full Price

Mike's Review: I liked this movie.  It stayed true to the characters and flowed nicely with the whole Rocky story line. Its kind of weird seeing Rocky grow old and get sick,  But Sylvester Stallone did a pretty good job of making it believable.  

Best Scene:  Seeing Rocky become a trainer so the series can continue more naturally.

Mike's Rating: Worth the price of the ticket.

THE PEANUTS MOVIE

(2015) 88 Minutes, Rated PG

A.C.’s Review:  My favorite comic strip of all time has finally been made into a movie with modern day computer animation. And to its credit that is the only modern thing about the movie. The film retains its look of an earlier time such as people using rotary phones and cell phones, game boys and any modern tech is not found in the film nor is it missed. Heaven forbid the children in the movie actually go outside to play with one another.

The basic plot of the movie is a new kid moves to Charlie Brown’s neighborhood and she is none other than the Little Red Haired girl. The filmmakers pay a small homage to how in the comics she is never seen. Here we never really get a good look at her face until near the end of the movie. Anyway a smitten Charlie Brown must find a way to befriend this girl and spends the movie seeking ways to do just that by impressing her. Charlie Brown being Charlie Brown of course is going to struggle admirably.

Peppered in throughout the movie are riffs on some of the strips creator Charles Schulz did during the 50 years he did the strip and being a huge fan I was familiar with them all. The movie was written by Schultz son and grandson so it has the family pedigree behind it.

Less successful are the “fantasy” sequences of Snoopy battling the Red Baron. While visually striking they serve as a reminder to me  as to how starting in the 1970’s Snoopy basically “took over” the strip with stories about Charlie Brown and the Peanuts giving away to just occasionally while most of the strip focused on Snoopy, A few examples are strips being about Snoopy as Joe Cool, Snoopy as a Scout Leader for Woodstock and his friends…etc. The focus shifted away from Charlie Brown to the more merchandise friendly beagle.

But I don’t want to end the review on that note…I actually want to praise it for the simple reason it brought back many of the original characters. Violet, Patty, Shermy and Frieda (she of the naturally curly hair) were phased out in the mid-sixties as the unlikable Peppermint Patty and her bespectacled “Lieutenant” Marcie were written into the strip and dominated quite a number of strips (until they too took a back seat to the rise of Snoopy).

I would gladly welcome a follow up to this movie.

Best Scene: Charlie Brown struggles to read “War and Peace” in one weekend to write a book report due on Monday. This was one of those items lifted from the strips.

A.C.’s Rating: Matinee

Mike's Review: I agree with pretty much everything A.C. mentioned above except for a few things.  I never knew how the whole Red Baron story line came about so it was interesting seeing how it all started with a rouge toy air plane flying around the school. As for it's part in the movie it was a tad dragged out and I saw it more as a filler to the movie trying to make it longer.

I did like the throw back stuff they did.  All the little bits of the classic TV specials and seeing some of the original strips worked into the movie, I thought was a great way to showcase the overall feeling and life Charles Schulz brought to his cartoon strip.

My 6 year old daughter liked the movie and I was happy it was finally a cartoon where no one died and wasn't filled with non-stop action and violence.  It was nice seeing my daughter actually enjoying a movie and not be sad because someone got hurt or killed.  My nephew who is starting to read ended the movie on a really funny note. At the end of the movie there was a picture with Snoopy in his WWI flying ace gear and the line "Curse you Red Baron!" and my nephew saw it and said with all his might "Curse you Red BACON!" which left all of us and the surrounding movie goers in ear shot laughing out loud.

Best Scene:  The little red head girl explaining why she likes Charlie Brown.

Mike's Rating: Worth the price of the ticket.

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2

(2015) 137 Minutes, Rated PG-13

A.C.’s Review: The movie series based on the young adult book series comes to a rousing conclusion with the release of the final installment in theaters.

By now the story is well known about a young woman who is an adept archer turned warrior when forced to fight in a series of barbaric games at the whim of President Snow the ruler in The Capital of a future post-apocalyptic United States now known as Panam. Over the course of the movie she becomes the symbol of freedom known as The Mockingjay as the oppressed rise up against their totalitarian rule.

In the final movie Katniss Everdeen makes it a personal mission to infiltrate the besieged Capital to assassinate President Snow. As the evil forces retreat to the center of the city the Mockingjay and her small band soldiers find their numbers continually being reduced by traps left by Snow that were designed in the same sadistic manner as those used in the Hunger Games.

I won’t spoil the outcome but after a tragic loss Katniss realizes that not all the good guys she’s been fighting for/with are good and must take action or history will repeat itself in Panam.

What an excellent end to the movie series. For me its followed an unusual pattern. I hated the first movie and only went to second because I heard it was much better…and it was. Then MOCKING JAY Part One came out and it was not nearly as good as the presiding CATCHING FIRE. Now the last movie redeems itself by a very well done and exciting conclusion. It’s almost like the Star Trek Curse where the Even number movies were always better than the odd.

Honestly Part One was not very good because in a cash grab the studio split the book it was based on into two movies…so of course part two is going to have all the exciting good stuff as the tale reaches its conclusion. But all is forgiven with this final movie and the series can go out on a good note. I am hoping Jennifer Lawrence will be cast in one of the future Marvel Universe movies as she is always a welcome presence on screen.

Best Scene: The Mockingjay’s crew is trapped in a vast courtyard between buildings and suddenly they set off one of the traps and a wave of oil comes pouring into the courtyard threatening to kill them all…and an honorable mention to one of the last scenes where Katniss must make a bold choice and the payoff was cheer worthy.

A.C.’s Rating: Full Admission

TRUTH

(2015) 125 Minutes, Rated R

A.C.’s Review: Every city likely has a theater that plays movies in the genre loosely labeled “Art House” which in plain terms the films are likely to have subtitles as opposed to “shoot em ups”. Currently playing at our local venue is this movie based on the 2004 incident that brought about the downfall of CBS news legend Dan Rather.

It seems with only a couple months to go before the election news producer Mary Mapes and her team are contacted by a retired colonel in the air national guard who purports to have documents showing current and up for reelection president George W. Bush managed to avoid the Vietnam War by being placed in the Texas Air National Guard and basically barely went about his duties and was for all practically purposes AWOL for a year.

The team did not properly vet the information and after the story aired on 60 MINUTES II it immediately came under scrutiny. Among the many questionable things were the documents appeared to have been prepared using MS Word as opposed to an early 1970’s typewriter that didn’t have certain fonts and features as seen on the memos. Worse yet the retired Colonel reveals he was given the documents by shadowy individuals that quickly disappeared into the ether.

In short order Rather and Mapes become the bigger story as bloggers and other networks smelling blood in the water seize upon the legitimacy of the documents and ultimately Mapes and her team fall to termination and Rather himself is forced to end his storied career by having to step down as the network’s anchor.

The movie is a fascinating look not only into the behind the scenes world of TV journalism but what can happen when you do not properly do your job and the consequences there of. The movie has great star power in Robert Redford as Dan Rather and Cate Blanchett as the news producer Mary Mapes. Many familiar faces populate the rest of the cast such as Stacy Keach, Elizabeth Moss and Dennis Quaid.

All  in all it was a really well done drama that kept you in suspense even though as a fairly recent event with the outcome generally known…which is a pretty neat trick for a movie. Also its very compelling in that the movie makes a clear case that though the documents themselves appear to be forgeries their contents revolving around Bush’s time in the air guard and how he got there appear to be spot on leaving the viewer to ponder if there were indeed original documents out there that these forgeries were made from.

Best Scene: It’s really hard to pick one…I am inclined to say the second half of the entire movie as things began to fall apart around Rather and the news team as it comes to light how carelessly they vetted the story in a rush to get in on the air.

A.C.’s Rating: FULL PRICE

CRIMSON PEAK

(2015) 119 Minutes, Rated R

A.C.’s Review: Director Guierllmo Del Tora is a fairly acclaimed director in Hollywood however I have only seen one of  his films PACIFIC RIM…a CGI orgy of giant robots fighting giant creatures emerging from an interdimensional crack under the sea floor. Not exactly a great movie. Now along comes CRIMSON PEAK which is said to be a passion project he has wanted to make for some time.

The story follows early 20^th century would be author Edith, a lovely young woman who besides a gift for writing is also sensitive to the paranormal and can see denizens of the spirit world on occasion. Living with her widowed father in Buffalo, NY her life changes when an English Baron Thomas Sharpe (played by Avengers’ Loki himself Tom Hiddleston) and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) appear trying to solicit her father as an investor for their clay mining operation back in England. The father does not like the Sharpes and has them investigated especially since Thomas is romancing Edith. Before long he uncovers something unsavory in their past and pays them off to leave town. On the eve of their departure he is brutally murdered. Three guesses as to who the killer is.

With nothing to tie her to Buffalo…not even her childhood friend and wood be suitor-a doctor played by Charlie Human (from PACIFIC RIM and best known as Jax Teller on SONS OF ANARCHY) she marries Thomas and returns to England with him. Arriving at the Sharpe’s decaying ancestral home Arendalle Hall…Edith quickly comes to realize things are not as they seem and her very life may be in jeopardy…especially when she discovers the Arendalle Hall is also known as Crimson Peak which she was warned many years ago to beware of by her deceased mother appearing in spectral form.

I don’t want to give anymore away. This film was a major surprise for me. I was not enthused to see it because it looked in the previews like it was trying way too hard to be stylish (which was a major problem with THE WALK) but I went anyway and was delighted that it was an excellent film. All the characters were (no pun intended) sharply drawn and I was completely invested in them for the whole movie…anxious to see how it would turn out. Anyone going to see this expecting to see a slasher style bloodbath horror movie will be disappointed. I would label this more a supernatural thriller than a horror movie. Remove color and computer generated special effects and this could easily have been the kind of film they made seventy years ago…it had a charming quaintness to it.

Sadly it failed spectacularly at the box office on its opening weekend so it won’t be around the multiplexes for long. Everyone should see it now while they can.

Best Scene:  Not really a scene but more like a segment. Edith’s arrival at Arrendalle Hall (Crimson Peak) as she starts to see what a bizarre world she has traded her old life for. The production design on the house is very atmospheric and creepy.

A.C.’s Rating: FULL PRICE

THE WALK

(2015) 123 Minutes, Rated PG

A.C.’s Review:  The premise of this movie is very questionable. It tells the story of Phillippe Petite…a French daredevil who famously strung a wire between the twin towers of the World Trade Center and made the titular walk. What may not be known is he crossed several times turning around each time before police could nab him on either tower and doing an impressive array of tricks such as lying down on the wire. Now back to the questionable premise…the trailers sell the movie on the danger of what he is doing and how he could fall. And of course the shadow of September 11, 2001 looms over these trailers. We know Petite did NOT fall however over 200 people were forced to kill themselves when despicable terrorist left them no choice but to jump in the face of temperatures few could imagine. It seems untoward playing on the possibility he might fall when real people had no choice but to fall.

With that said…I wanted to see the film just so I could see the Twin Towers restored to life so to speak in all their glory. I had visited them two years before their destruction and wanted to re-experience them. Following  9/11 there was a knee jerk reaction where film and tv actually removed the towers which I found offensive. 

Here they are embraced as the wonders that they were. Also it being a period piece set in 1974 it kind of allows me to go back in time too.

The most positive thing about this is that director Robert Zemeckis and his visual teams did such a great job on the World Trade Center that it felt as this could have been filmed on location before 2001. It was that well done. Also the whole sneaking in, recruiting accomplishes and ultimately the walk itself were entertaining and engaging. That is the last 75 minutes.

Now for the bad. The first 75 minutes were excruciating as we learn about Petite. Zemeckis who was so brilliant in the second half of the movie ruined the beginning by using all kinds of crazy camera tricks to draw attention. Scenes would be filmed in black and white with just the objects in Petite’s hands were in color. There were crazy camera angles galore. Comic music and the strange choice of Petite narrating the film standing on the CGI torch of the Statue of Liberty. These tactics one would expect from a first time director not a seasoned pro. It made me really unsure if I had made the right choice to see this movie. Luckily the antics stopped for the most part for the second half. As for Petite himself…he must have been insane to do what he did…I just can’t imagine willingly stepping out on that wire!

The movie is struggling at the box office…I would blame part of it on the cash grab of almost all showings being in 3D or IMAX…but maybe another reason is people may still be unnerved by September 11^th and though the film never directly mentions the tragedy since it takes place long before the catastrophe as said before- the shadow hangs over the film and maybe people don’t want to be reminded. To its credit there is a subtle nod at the end of the movie that seems to honor the towers.

Best Scene: The frantic attempt to string the wire before the sun rises.

A.C.’s Rating: Matinee (should be seen on the big screen but not worth full price)

THE MARTIAN

(2015) 144 Minutes, Rated PG-13

A.C.’s Review:  Matt Damon returns as yet another stranded astronaut (See INTERSTELLAR...or rather don’t unless  you wanted to be bored by the over rated Christopher Nolan and his yawner of a sci fi opus). This time Damon is playing Mark Watney left by his crew on Mars when a frightful storm forces the mission to be aborted and Watney appears to be killed when he is carried away in the storm after being KO’ed by the satellite dish.

Watney lives however but is unable to immediately contact Earth with the communications array in shambles. After performing emergency surgery on himself he must take stock of his situation and find a way to use every bit of his scientific skills to find a way to stay alive. He’s got a habitat to live in that was designed for thirty days plus a rover vehicle and some potatoes the crew was going to have for Thanksgiving dinner. In short order he is farming spuds inside his habitat in order to make his food supply stretch until a rescue is even possibly many, many months away. 

Things fall apart after a mishap destroys his food supply and Watney must now set out across the landscape in a desperate gamble to stay alive.

Back on earth we have various subplots of NASA officials trying to aid Watney is his quest to stay alive…along with the crew of the Hermes that are stunned when they find out they accidently left their friend behind. All must come together to save Watney.

This is based on Andy Weir’s book THE MARTIAN…a surprise “self-published” hit. The kind of situation an author dreams of.  Not only is his book a hit but he also sells movie rights and its made into a film with an all-star cast. Only problem is in the book the main character comes across as very juvenile. I read the book and quickly tired of Watney’s wisecracking. I had hopes the movie would gloss over some of that. For the most part movie Watney is toned downed but he still drew plenty of laughs from the audience.

As with always there are changes with a book to movie translation but unwisely the movie drops how difficult the journey Watney makes across Mars for his rescue. The movie made it seem easy.

I wanted to like the  movie but it was just  kind of there. Nothing spectacular. Just there. Currently it’s been number one at the box office for two weeks now…I guess the hype is working but it’s just hype.

Best Scene: In a stroke of genius Watney tracks down the old Mars Pathfinder and Rover made famous in 1997 for its adventures on Mars and uses it to establish contact with earth.

A.C.’s Rating: Matinee