20161117: Comedy Review--Night of the Living Deb

Name: Night of the Living Deb (2015)
IMDb: link to Night of the Living Deb page

Genres: Comedy   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:

Maria Thayer as Deb Clarington, Michael Cassidy as Ryan Waverly, Chris Marquette as Chazz Waverly, Ray Wise as Frank Waverly, Syd Wilder as Stacy, Julie Brister as Ruby.

Directed by: Kyle Rankin.  Written by: Kyle Rankin, Andy Selzer.

Deb and Ryan

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
In Portland, Maine, Deb and Ruby are at a bar the night before the American Fourth of July celebration.  Ruby encourages Deb to hook up with the tall fellow at the bar.  Deb does that.  But after hitting on Ryan, Ryan's fiancee Stacy shows up.  Stacy is not pleased with Deb's presence.

Deb wakes up in Ryan's bed.  Ryan is on the phone trying to figure out how to separate himself from Deb.  Deb and Ryan have a rocky conversation, then decide to split up, to see the people they expect to see, and do the usual July 4 activities.

Unfortunately, there are a huge number of zombies about town.  All the parties seem to have been cancelled.

Delineation of conflicts:
The zombies like to eat regular humans.  Humans don't really care for this.

Deb and Ryan look for news and help.  Both are hard to find since the Internet is down, the local television station is down, and the local radio is down.

Their attempts to connect with people fail until they make it to Ryan's father's house.  They soon discover the source of the zombie infection, but have little idea of how to survive the outbreak, despite Ryan's father's wealth.

Resolution: This is a comedy, and there are a lot of unexpected outcomes.

One line summary: Comedic take on the zombie apocalypse.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 10/10 Well shot.

Sound: 8/10 The dialog was easy to hear.  Music was not much of a factor.

Acting: 5/10 Good grief.  Ray Wise did what I expected in terms of acting, and I appreciated that.  The other actors seemed insistent on delivering the lines like they were meant to be taken seriously, which was off-putting to say the least.

Screenplay: 6/10 I laughed fairly regularly at the one liners and the bizarre situations.  The light approach was taken throughout, so I tossed this one in the silly hipster apocalypse bin.

Final Rating: 6/10 I watched this once on Netflix; that was probably enough.

20161116: Documentary Review--Zero Days

Name: Zero Days (2016)
IMDb: link to Zero Days page

Genres: Documentary   Country of origin: USA.

Principal Speakers:
David Sanger wrote a full-fledged article on Stuxnet for the NYT, and the book, Confront and Conceal (2012).
Eric Chien and Liam O'Murchu at Symantec discuss finding the Stuxnet infection, deciding to investigate it thoroughly, then unpeeling many layers.
General Michael Hayden was the director of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) from May 2006 to February 2009, and director of NSA (National Security Agency) from March 1999 to April 2005.  The general could only say so much, but what he did say was insightful.
Colonel Gary Brown is the staff judge advocate for US Cyber Command, Fort Meade.
Emad Kiyaei is the Executive Director or the American Iranian Counsel.
Gary Samore is the Executive Director for Research of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Eugene Kaspersky is a Russian cybersecurity expert and the CEO of Kaspersky Lab.
Ralph Langner is the director of Langner Communications, an independent cybersecurity consulting firm that he founded in 1988.

Directed by: Alex Gibney.  Written by: Alex Gibney.

One of way too many code graphics

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
The Middle East, Europe, Israel, and the USA have a long history together: disagreements, wars, negotiations.

Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear program out of existence.  In more current times, Israel's bombing Iran's nuclear program out of existence seems infeasible.

Delineation of conflicts:
The USA, UK, and Israel hatch a secret program for ending Iran's nuclear program, or at least slowing it considerably.  The film details how this secret program was brought to light through journalistic inquiry, geopolitical competition, and investigation.

Israel and the USA have a serious disagreement about how to use Stuxnet, or Olympic Games, its internal name.  Because of this, the effort does not stay secret, and the mission fails.

What to do in light of this is open to a lot of discussion, especially after it becomes partially public.

Resolution: All the issues are ongoing.  Iran survived Stuxnet, and its nuclear program is doing better than ever.  Our Cyber Command arm of NSA is little known but well funded.  Iran's cyber warfare program is also well-funded and quite energized.  Other nations have joined the race to cyber warfare leadership; for instance, North Korea and mainland China.

One line summary: Stuxnet: origins, consequences

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 The filming of the interviews with experts were professionally done.

The computer graphics were overly repetitive.  For instance, the 3-D code representations were interesting to look at but were only of use three times: showing the expiration date for Stuxnet in the code, showing the PLC model number in the code, and illustrating the Israeli overwrite that fouled up so many things.  However, the code animations were shown a couple of dozen times; most of these showed no purpose other than to move away from talking heads.

The spread of virus maps were shown again and again and again.  The only times they meant much was when the isolation of the target to Iran was shown, and when the Iranian revenge instances hit America.

Sound: 7/10 I could hear the dialog.  The music used tended to be ominous to the point of seeming manipulative.

Acting: z/10 Not applicable here.

Screenplay: 10/10 Nicely assembled.  The solving of the original mystery was nicely done, and the analysis of the consequences of Israeli overwrites was well-presented.  The exposition of the future of cyber warfare was the scariest of them all.  The block of interview time devoted to Homeland Security's wasted efforts was so discouraging.  So many person-hours were lost due to secrecy (right hand does not know what the left hand is doing), along with the taxpayer dollars wasted.

Final Rating: 8/10

20161115: Fantasy Review--Guardians of the Galaxy

Name: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
IMDb: link to Guardians of the Galaxy page

Genres: Fantasy   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Chris Pratt as Quill, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Djimon Hounsou as Korath, Lee Pace as Ronan, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Groot (voice), Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta, Karen Gillan as Nebula, John C. Reilly as Corpsman Dey, Glenn Close as Nova Prime, Benicio del Toro as The Collector, Brendan Fehr as Corpsman Dey's partner.

Directed by: James Gunn.  Written by: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman (screenplay); Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning.

the main five

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
1. Young Peter Quill listens to music on his Walkman in 1988 at a hospital where his mother is dying of cancer.  His mother gives him a gift and asks for his touch.  He refuses, and she dies.  He runs away, only to be captured by parties unknown in a starship.

2. Twenty-six years pass.  Peter Quill still has his Walkman and his 80s music.  Currently he's landed on a planet to obtain an artifact of some sort.  Other parties want the object as well.

Delineation of conflicts:
Thanos wants as many of the Infinity Stones as possible.  The wielders of the Stones can express huge powers, but also can be overcome by the Stones.  Unfortunately, Thanos seems strong enough to wield the Stone, and possibly all six of them.

The Ravagers, who kidnapped Peter some years ago, want the Stone to sell it.  Ronan, a leader of the Kree Empire, wants the Infinity Stone to give to Thanos, who promises to destroy the central planet  Xandar.

Quill's friends in all this mess are Gamora, a 'daughter' of Thanos, who is upset with Dad.  Drax, a large powerful warrior whose wife and daughter were killed by Ronan.  Rocket, an illegal raccoon-cyborg construction, wants Quill for the bounty on him offered by the Ravagers.  Quill manages to gain his loyalty through a variety of misadventures.  Groot is Rocket's ally.

Quill manages to enlist the help of the Ravagers (as long as Yondu gets the Infinity Stone afterward) and the Nova Corps who defend Xandar, to breach Ronan's ship and stop the destruction of Xandar.  Nebula, Thanos' other daughter, wishes to stop them.  Korath, one of Ronan's officers, has the same goal.

To make things more fun, when Ronan gets the Stone, he decides to keep it, rather than let Thanos wield it.

Will Ronan be stopped?  Will Thanos get the Stone anyway, or will Yondu make off with it?  Will Gamora and Nebula ever be friends again?  Will Xandar remain in one piece?  Will Thanos fry Ronan?

Resolution: There is a lot of fighting at the end.  Many, but by no means all, of the issues are settled, and not without significant losses.

One line summary: Comic space opera from Marvel.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Much as I do not like CGI, this was rather good.

Sound: 9/10 The dialog was clear.  Some of the old Earth music was good to hear again, even though it was usually wildly inappropriate and disruptive.  Of course, that was its purpose.

Acting: 1/10 Utter and complete scat.  Chris Pratt is a thousand tons of bad.  I've liked Michael Rooker in the past, but not this time.  I would say the same of Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, John C. Reilly, and Glenn Close.

Screenplay: 1/10 Oh, goodness.  This came from a third-rate, bottom of the barrel Marvel comic.  The first class production values did not make up for the flimsiness of the script, the bad casting for Peter Quill, or the direction that did not make proper use of the good actors who were cast.

Final Rating: 5/10

20161115: Comedy Review--Zombieland

Name: Zombieland (2009)
IMDb: link to Zombieland page

Genres: Comedy   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus, Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee, Emma Stone as Wichita, Abigail Breslin as Little Rock, Amber Heard as 406, Bill Murray as Bill Murray, Derek Graf as Clown Zombie.

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer.  Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick.

Travelling Family

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
1. We start in Texas, post zombie apocalypse.  A neurotic nerd whom we will later call Columbus (his city of origin) narrates the coming of the apocalypse and the many rules he has used to survive so far.

2. Columbus meets Tallahassee, a middle aged redneck who enjoys killing zombies and is on a quest for the world's remaining intact Twinkies.  At first they are wary of each other, but the fact that they are both human helps them get over that.  They decide to team up, and to go looking for other people.

Delineation of conflicts:
The few remaining human survivors would like to continue living.  The zombies would like to eat them.  Those humans who do survive would like to find missing loved ones, or try to find a new family.

When the two men meet Wichita and Little Rock (a young woman and her tween sister), they get schooled, losing vehicles and weapons more than once.  This goes on for a bit, until the foursome decide to operate together.  They decide to visit a theme park in California where Little Rock thinks there are no zombies.

Resolution: Both surviving and finding lost loved ones is between hard to impossible.

One line summary: Zombie film both humourous and trenchant.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 10/10 Well done.

Sound: 8/10 Competent.  I liked Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls as an intro song.

Acting: 8/10 Woody Harrelson was brilliant.  His delivery of one-liners was good for many a laugh.  Jesse Eisenberg is not one of my favourites, but this was a good role for his particular talents.  Also, he and Harrelson work well off one another.

Screenplay: 7/10 Just what is this property?  I laughed at it, so it's getting a favourable rating from me.  I liked it as a comedy.  As a road picture, it was not too bad, at least if one is OK with sudden, numerous life-and-death fights popping up along the way.  The side trip to Bill Murray's house was a bit too meta for me, but it still had some good lines in it.

Also, the film decidedly had its somber side.  Columbus wonders whether he will find his parents, whether he will find a mate, whether his rules will keep him alive.  By the end of the film, the answers are no, perhaps, and perhaps.  Tallahassee is bound to the loss of his son, and substitutes the quest for Twinkies as his meaning in life.  Wichita and Little Rock just wanted to get to the illusionary place without zombies.  Do they have any other plans?

So, For Whom the Bell Tolls seems quite fitting.  None of the characters have any real vision of the future save dealing with murderous sub-humans.  This does make sense, since there are no longer enough humans left to sustain the race.

Final Rating: 8/10 Watch it for the laughs and the performances done in the moment.

20161115: Thriller Review--Executive Decision

Name: Executive Decision (1996)
IMDb: link to Executive Decision page

Genres: Thriller   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Kurt Russell as Dr David Grant, Steven Seagal as Lt Colonel Austin Travis, Halle Berry as Jean, John Leguizamo as Captain Rat,  Oliver Platt as Dennis Cahill, Joe Morton as Sgt 'Cappy' Metheny, BD Wong as Sgt Louie, Whip Hubley as Sgt Baker, Len Cariou as Sec Defense Charles White, JT Walsh as Senator Mavros, Marla Maples as Nancy, Richard Riehle as Air Marshall George Edwards.

David Suchet as Nagi Hassan, Andreas Katsulas as El Sayed Jaffa, Robert Apisa as Jean-Paul Demou.

Directed by: Stuart Baird.  Written by: Jim Thomas, John Thomas (screenplay).

Cahill and wounded Cappy with bomb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Col Travis and his team lead a mission to recover a large quantity of DZ-5, a neural poison.  The mission fails.  Travis is nonplussed plus.

David Grant takes the flying lesson before his first solo flight.  He's hesitant, but his instructor talks him through it.

El Jaffa is kidnapped by agents friendly to the US.  Nagi Hassan and Jean Paul Menou execute a plot to force the West to release Jaffa.  With a half dozen or so other terrorists, they skyjack a 747 with Senator Mavros aboard.

Delineation of conflicts:
The terrorists announce their demands.  Intelligence analyst Dr Grant gets the call while at a black tie affair.  Soon he's in a situation room led by the Secretary of Defense.

The terrorists want Jaffa released.  SecDef and his experts devise a plan to use a stealth plane to insert commandos on the skyjacked 747.  Col Travis and his team volunteer as the commandos.  Dennis Cahill readies the stealth plane and the unique boarding tube.  Dr Grant gets dragooned into going with the commandos to identify Hassan.

Just to make things more interesting, the DZ-5 that Col Travis' team did not extricate is on the airliner attached to a sophisticated bomb.

Just when the plan looks like it will succeed with high likelihood, some unexpected harsh conditions break the boarding tube.  Col Travis and the stealth plane are lost.  With the smaller team, with Col Travis lost, with bomb expert Cappy severely injured, Captain Rat takes tactical command, and Dr. Grant drives the effort to learn what they need to learn to find the leader and accomplish the mission.

Flight attendant Jean is assigned by Nagi to keep the passengers as calm as possible.  The commandos made contact with her to get more information.  She manages to help the commandos and to keep the identity of the air marshall secret.

Senator Mavros thinks he can negotiate with the terrorists.  Will that work out?  The president springs El Jaffa, who asks Nagi to call off blowing up the nerve gas.  Does that go as planned?  Well, no.  The bomb with the nerve gas payload is more complicated than first expected.  Can Cappy get the bomb defused using Cahill's hands?

Resolution: Just about everything that could go wrong, does go wrong.  The decimated commando team, however, has more skill and luck than anyone might hope for.

One line summary: Well-crafted skyjacking thriller.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Nicely shot.

Sound: 8/10 The dialog was clear, and the incidental sound was fine.  Music was not a big plus.

Acting: 10/10 I liked the big cast that had quite a number of good performances.  David Suchet was chilling as the lead villain.  Steven Seagal was just right for his unexpectedly short role.  Kurt Russell gave one of his best performances as a man who was hesitant and scared, but also intelligent, expert, and inventive.

John Leguizamo and BD Wong were excellent as the commandos determined to finish the mission despite the adversity.

Oliver Platt was great as a man delivering beyond his usual skill set and level of courage.  Len Cariou, JT Walsh, Halle Berry, and Joe Morton were solid in smaller roles.

Screenplay: 8/10 The film was 133 minutes in runtime, but did not drag.  The plot moved right along, and had no moments where writing stupidity broke through suspension of disbelief.

Final Rating: 9/10

20161115: Horror Review--Dark Shadows

Name: Dark Shadows (2012)
IMDb: link to Dark Shadows page

Genres: Horror   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Jonny Lee Miller as Roger Collins, Helena Bonham Carter as Dr Julia Hoffman, Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis, Gulliver McGrath as David Collins, Chloe Grace Moretz as Carolyn Stoddard, Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winter, Christopher Lee as Clarney.

Directed by: Tim Burton.  Written by: Seth Grahame-Smith (screenplay, story), John August (story).

Barnabas and friends

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
1. Young Barnabas Collins and his family leave Liverpool, England for the Americas in 1752.  Young Angelique Bouchard tries to assert a connection with Barnabas, but her mother forbids it.  The class animosity is present from the beginning.

2. Years pass, and the Collins family prospers strongly in what would become Maine.  Angelique has followed them to the new world.  Angelique seduces Barnabas, but his family would never allow them to marry.  Angelique, now skilled in magic, kills Barnabas' parents for revenge.

3. Barnabas takes over guiding the family fortunes, and Angelique continues to try to be his significant other.  Barnabas becomes enamored of Josette, and rejects Angelique, despite their history.  Angelique takes revenge by killing Josette and turning Barnabas into a vampire.  She engineers his being buried in a strong coffin bound with thick chain.

4. We jump forward in time to 1972, when Barnabas is released by a construction company.

Delineation of conflicts:
Angelique, in one of several identities that she used over the previous 200 years, runs most of the fishing business in Collinsport.  The Collins family is in decline in terms of wealth and influence.

Barnabas contacts Elizabeth, and reveals who he is.  He uses hidden assets to reassert the wealth and influence of the Collins family.  Together they refurbish Collinwood, the family estate.  They recruit fishing captains and modernise the family's cannery.

Angelique tries again to unite with Barnabas, but he will not have it.  After that, the conflict between them resumes in deadly earnest.  Victoria, David's nanny, reminds Barnabas of Josette, which enrages Angelique all the more.

Resolution: Barnabas and Angelique take their feud to extremes.  Collinsport would never be the same.

One line summary: Film version of the 1960s horror soap opera.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 10/10 Beautiful.

Sound: 10/10 I could hear the dialog clearly, and I enjoyed the musical selections, including original music by Danny Elfman.

Acting: 10/10 I loved the cast and their performances.

Screenplay: 8/10 I liked the humour very much.  I thought the plot development moved right along, as it had to in order to cover so much material.  I wish Jonny Lee Miller had gotten more time as the next to insufferable Roger Collins, and that Dr Hoffman's arc might have had more development.

Final Rating: 9/10 I followed the original soap opera, which I enjoyed quite a bit.  This presentation was much better in all aspects: better actors, better script, better performances, better production values.  It was beautiful to watch, witty to listen to, and its ending was delightful.

20161115: Fantasy Review--Day of Reckoning

Name: Day of Reckoning (2016)
IMDb: link to Day of Reckoning page

Genres: Fantasy   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Jason Hurst as David, Heather McComb as Laura, Jay Jay Warren as Tyler, Hana Hayes as Maddy, Barbara Crampton as Stella.

Directed by: Joel Novoa.  Written by: Gregory Gieras.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Fifteen years ago, flying carnivorous monsters emerged from a drilling site, then from several more sites around the globe.  The human population eventually beat them back, but not without huge losses.

In the current day, the signs of their coming are repeated.

Delineation of conflicts:
Humans would like to live.  The monsters would like to kill the humans and eat some of them.

Some humans fight each other to live.  Other humans think the monsters are a sign from 'beyond' or whatever, and that humans need to be judged; such humans seem to prefer the monsters to other humans for this reason.

Resolution: Elimination derbies take their tolls.

One line summary: Another fine offering from the Epic Pictures Group.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 4/10 Most of the CGI footage was terrible.  As the film progressed, this got worse. The design of the monsters is chaotic, as if there were dozens of different kinds of monsters.

As for the natural footage, the second half was in the off-white, grey, green, black palette while barely being in focus.

Sound: 4/10 Usually I could hear the dialog.  Music seldom seemed to be an asset.

Acting: 1/10 Few of the people in the film showed any acting experience or skill.

Screenplay: 0/10 Terrible.  Going scene to scene to scene, the monsters might be (a) in the millions and invincible (b) a half dozen that look beatable (c) creatures that are destroyed by contact with water.  This endless inconsistency is pretty tough unless one is in the 'point and laugh' mood.  The minor theme of divine retribution on humans was just thrown in now and then.  Its development never went anywhere.

Final Rating: 2/10 I would not recommend this film to a friend or a stranger or an enemy.

20161031: Drama Review--Magnolia

Name: Magnolia (1999)
IMDb: link to Suspicion page

Genres: Drama   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Tom Cruise as Frank TJ Mackey, Jason Robards as Earl Partridge, Julianne Moore as Linda Partridge, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Phil Parma, John C. Reilly as Jim Kurring, Henry Gibson as Thurston Howell, William H. Macy as Donnie Smith, Alfred Molina as Solomon Solomon, Philip Baker Hall as Jimmy Gator, Melora Walters as Claudia Wilson Gator, Melinda Dillon as Rose Gator, Jeremy Blackman as Stanley Spector, Michael Bowen as Rick Spector.

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson.  Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson.

Tom Cruise as Frank TJ Mackey

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
The film opens with voiceover describing three silent vignettes shot in sepia.  Each vignette describes a situation that involves coincidences that one sees are not coincidences upon explanation.

We step forward to the actual motion picture, with no voiceover, full colour presentation, and modest camera work.  There are a small number of groups of people living their lives in Los Angeles toward the end of the twentieth century.

Frank Mackey is a speaker for hire who specializes in charging lots of money to help men hone their skills at finding women willing to have sex with them.  He has support staff for his presentations, and people who answer the phones for him.

Earl Partridge is busy dying.  His young wife Linda is not handling it well.  Male nurse Phil Parma tries his best to listen to what Earl wants as the end nears.  The four dogs stay near Earl and Phil.

Jimmy Gator has a long running game show that pits three adults versus three children in a contest of depth of knowledge about anything under the sun.  The star of the show is young Stanley Spector, whose depth in so many areas is marvelous. His father, however, is just demanding.  Jimmy's daughter Claudia is a bit of a lost soul.

Donnie Smith was once a game show wunderkind.  However, he was struck by lightning in early adulthood, and lost his mental coherence.  To make things worse for Donnie, his parents absconded with his earnings and frittered the money away.  He has difficulties retaining a job.

Delineation of conflicts:
Frank has a media interview which proves difficult, and which pushes him toward his past, including Earl, his biological father.  Phil tries to get in touch with Frank to let him know that Earl is dying.

Jimmy tries to patch things up with Claudia and to come clean about a few issues with Rose.  Jimmy also has health problems, which come out sideways on his game show.  The unnatural pressure placed on Stanley causes a huge disruption in the game show, and gives Stanley some much needed courage.

Claudia goes on a drug binge after a loud screaming match with her father Jimmy.  The noise she generates on her stereo prompts calls to the police by her neighbors.  Jim Kurring catches the assignment from LAPD dispatch.  Jim's civility and calm decency confront Claudia's seemingly limitless rage.

Donnie tries to connect with his unadvised romantic target, who is a handsome bartender at a local bar.  He has no leverage, and looks incredibly stupid versus Thurston Howell, who is rich and has better success vis a vis the same target.  Donnie's drunken failure sends him off to another even bigger act of desperation.

Linda's guilt from mistreating the much older Earl during their marriage sends her down the road of desperation as well.  Can this be fixed?

Frank finally gets done with his interview and hears that his dying father wishes to see him.  Does he make it in time?

Intervention, in the forms of the LAPD and a rain of frogs, stops and reverses some of the foolishness.

Resolution: The threads come together skillfully.

One line summary: Clever ensemble piece.

Frogs falling from the sky

Statistics:

Cinematography: 4/10 Bucket of shit.  Why the hell do I have an HD monitor for this VHS crap?

Sound: 10/10 I could hear the dialog, and much of the background music was delicious.

Acting: 10/10 Fine acting by a at least ten of the fine cast coupled with skillful direction.

Screenplay: 10/10 Nicely done.  The concluding actions appear a little weird at times, but not silly or preachy.  The three hours and eight minutes did not drag.

Final Rating: 8/10

20161027: Comics Review--Mad Max Fury Road

Name: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
IMDb: link to Mad Max: Fury Road page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: AU, US

Cast:
Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe, John Howard as The People Eater, Richard Carter as The Bullet Farmer, Nicholas Hoult as Nux.

Directed by: George Miller.  Written by: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris (screenplay).

Max, Furiosa

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Max gets caught by a colony (the Citadel) which exists in a desert of heat and nothing.  The colony has water, and produces edible food.  It trades with the Bullet Farm, which has lead and gun technology, and Gas Town, which has petrol and the like.

Imperator Furiosa decides to take a new direction.  She leads a run to Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, but takes five young women capable of breeding with her instead of produce.  She gets off the usual routes.  Her home colony sends warriors against her, and gets reinforcements from the Bullet Farm and Gas Town.

There is a long fight.

Delineation of conflicts:
Furiosa wants the young women to be free and not breeding slaves.  Everyone else disagrees. There is a large scale fight in which perhaps 20% of all the resources of the three towns is destroyed.  Brilliant.  No one cares about that; winning is everything, even if it means cutting your own carotid artery.

Max starts as a portable supply of untainted O-negative blood.  Max would like to free himself of his nightmares; he did not save his wife and child from all this badness.  Max eventually joins Furiosa as a badly treated slave.  He would like to be free.

Furiosa heads into a giant sandstorm and more or less escapes for a while.  The pursuit is far from over.  What will end this nonsensical behaviour?

Resolution: There is change in leadership after many deaths, the loss of much water, petrol, food, and mechanisms that still work.

One line summary: Visually engaging, logically stupid.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 2/10 Ugly, garish, ridiculous.  Absurd camera filters, vile makeup, stupid closeups.  Some of the 3D effects were just plain terrible as well as terribly stupid.

Sound: 2/10 Ugly, garish, pointless, irritating, jarring.  It sucked.  Electric guitars on a road trip?  These stupid sods don't have enough resources for such extended displays of conspicuous waste.

Acting: 2/10 Were there actors?  I read somewhere that Charlize Theron was in this, but she reputedly is a better actor than any of the women I saw in this POS.

Screenplay: 2/10 Pointless absurd dystopian crap.  Much of the fight choreography was too embarrassing to be performed by the Keystone Kops.

The opening is in voiceover with irrelevant inter-titles.  That is always a bad sign.

This whole abomination is set against strong politics of scarcity: water, food, oil, petrol, steel replacement parts for vehicles clearly too old and decrepit to run at all, and medicine, and so on.  Despite this, everywhere the leads go, the local people have enough food, water, gasoline, bullets, and, when needed, brand new motorcycles with just the right equipment. But of course, they do not.  The entire film is infeasible, even though it's not supposed to be a fantasy.

There is practically no dialog in this steaming pile of dung.  What dialog there is entirely stupid.

Final Rating: 2/10 I would recommend this film to no one, unless I wanted their IQ to drop.  I felt disgusted by the director's hatred of reason and of viewers.

Of course, if one is just looking for a popcorn movie, this one is fine.  Many people die.  Huge amounts of precious scarce resources are lost without any goal being achieved.  Brand new hardware shows up out of nowhere (around 15 brand new motorbikes in perfect condition in just one scene).  It's like a sort-of realistic Transformers movie.  That is, it is complete and utter bullshit.

20161026: Comedy Review--Deadpool

Name: Deadpool (2016)
IMDb: link to Suspicion page

Genres: Comedy   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle/Copycat, Ed Skrein as Ajax, T. J. Miller as Weasel, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Karan Soni as Dopinder, Brianna Hildebrand as Ellie Phimister/Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Style Dane as Jeremy (Pizza Guy), Gina Carano as Angel Dust.

Directed by: Tim Miller.  Written by: Rhett Reese (screenplay).

Deadpool

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Deadpool tries to take out Ajax on a crowded bridge setting: gunfire, blades, cars crashing, motorcycles being destroyed.

Then we have a massive flashback.  Wade is a former Special Forces member who had 41 confirmed kills to his credit while on active duty.  He's a bit down on his luck, and scrounges money by terrifying local scumbags of minor repute.  He meets Vanessa, the woman of his dreams, and they fall in love.  Unfortunately, he contracts cancer, and does not have long to live.

Vanessa looks for cures.  Wade tries out an offer that seems too good to be true, but he goes for it anyway.  The shady group offering the service forces his body to mutate.  Good news: Wade recuperates extremely rapidly from almost any injury, including the cancer.  Bad news: his new normal state is just as ugly as hell.

Ajax, the fellow in charge of the mutating, was not doing it out of the goodness of his heart.  He intended to sell Wade as a high value soldier of fortune.  With a superhuman effort, Wade escapes Ajax.  He finds Vanessa, but cannot bring himself to show his face for fear of losing her.

Wade cannot be with Vanessa, so he decides to take revenge on Ajax.  This brings us back to the beginning of the movie.

Delineation of conflicts:
Ajax wants to control and sell Wade, even with his new name, Deadpool.  Deadpool wants to retain his freedom (might work), get revenge on fellow mutant Ajax (maybe; seems difficult), and get his old good looks back (nope).

Complicating this are Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, two strong warrior mutants who work with Professor Xavier.  They wish Deadpool to settle into the community that Xavier fosters. Deadpool regards this as just another form of slavery.

Resolution: We have a typical no holds barred massive cliche fight at the end.

One line summary: Cure is worse than the disease.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 Too much CGI, too much slow motion nonsense, too much absolutely fake looking X-Men bullshit.

Sound: 7/10 I can hear the dialog, which is good.  Music seems to be poorly chosen or mixed; I got zero enjoyment from it, especially the music I like when heard on its own.

Acting: 5/10 This was a real mixed bag.  I liked TJ Miller, Morena Baccarin, Leslie Uggams, and Ed Skrein (though to a lesser extent).  Ryan Reynolds was hiding behind a mask for most of the film, and he might as well have been a cardboard cutout with an attached speaker.  His whiny voice was a grating irritation.  Gina Carano was better than I expected, but that is not saying much, since I expected nothing good from her, based on past performances.

Screenplay: 4/10 I liked the opening credits.  I got more laughs from them than I got from the rest of this film.  In general I dislike flashbacks.  Finishing the giant, oversized flashback took us into the second half of the film.  Breaking the fourth wall is another of my strong non-favourites. This film is full of that.  The relentless PC horseshit (any women can beat up any man, children can beat up adults, and so on) was as boring as it was predictable.

Final Rating: 5/10 Perhaps if the jokes had been funny, or if Ryan Reynolds had not used that falsetto voice, I might have liked the film better.  The property did well at the box office, so perhaps the sequels will be better than the first one.  As a popcorn movie, it was fine: people get killed by unthinking bastards, things blow up, valuable things get ruined, lives are shot to hell.

20161016: Action Review--Bourne Identity

Name: Bourne Identity (2002)
IMDb: link to Bourne Identity page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Franka Potente as Marie Helena Kreutz, Chris Cooper as Alexander Conklin, Brian Cox as Ward Abbott, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Wombasi, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, Clive Owen as The Professor, Gabriel Mann as Danny Zorn.

Directed by: Doug Limon.  Written by: Tony Gilroy, W. Blake Herron (screenplay),  Robert Ludlum (book).

Outside Embassy

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
On a rainy night after a card game, Italian fishermen spot a man's body floating in the Mediterranean Sea. They reel him in, attend to his medical needs, and take him to Marseilles.  He has amnesia.  He also has clues: two bullet holes in his back, and an implant that tells him he has an account at a bank in Switzerland.

His safe deposit box proves helpful.  He has passports from various countries under a host of names, lots of currency of different countries, a modern pistol and other odds and ends.

His opening the safe deposit box triggers all sorts of reactions.  His going to the US Embassy does not help, since the Marines and the CIA are now after him, as well as the local police.

Delineation of conflicts:
The CIA wants Jason Bourne (at first just a name on one of his passports) to be dead, or to come in peacefully to their deadly embrace.  The CIA wants him silenced and covered up quickly and completely.

Jason needs to figure out who he is.  Marie is drawn into helping him after he pays her handsomely just to give him a ride to Paris, where one of his aliases lived.

The CIA, lead by Conklin, Jason's former boss, continues to hunt Jason.  Jason continues to unravel his past and evade capture.  Jason wants to know much more.

Resolution: The CIA manages to bury much of the project that Jason was involved in.  Jason figures out why he got shot and why he was floating in the Mediterranean.

One line summary: Best of the Matt Damon versions of Bourne.

Jason and Marie

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Mostly well done, but with some shades of shaky cam.

Sound: 7/10 I could hear the dialog.  Music was a minor asset; the best part was the music over the end credits.

Acting: 7/10 I liked the performances of Franka Potente, Clive Owen, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Julia Stiles.  Matt Damon was a mixed bag, which is much better than usual.

Screenplay: 7/10 Amnesia has been done to death, but this was a well-written take on it.  Bourne discovers all sorts of things about himself due to external situations triggering muscle memories, which was a well used but nice touch.  The scenes where Bourne confronts the people he trusted, the people who tortured him, the people who bamboozled him were discouragingly bad.  This would continue into the next two films unfortunately.  The good parts of the film, which seemed fresh and interesting in 2002, were just copied over in 2004 and 2007.  Those parts (fighting choreography, chase scenes, evasion) were a bit stale in 2004 and off the cliff bad in 2007.  The writing about Bourne's dealings with those who screwed him over were bad at the start (film 1, 2002) and got worse.

Final Rating: 7/10 I watched it again this past week and still liked it.

20161026: Action Review--Bourne Supremacy

Name: Bourne Supremacy (2004)
IMDb: link to Bourne Supremacy page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Franka Potente as Marie, Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, Karl Urban as Kirill, Karel Roden as Gretkov, Brian Cox as Ward Abbott, Oksana Akinshina as Irena Nevski, Gabriel Mann as Danny Zorn, Chris Cooper as Conklin.

Directed by: Paul Greengrass.  Written by: Robert Ludlum (novel), Tony Gilroy (screenplay).

Matt Damon

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Pamela Landy is closing in on a mole in Berlin, Germany.  She hopes to identify and capture the mole, and possibly recover some 20 million USD in CIA funds from a past misadventure.  The operation goes awry in a big way, and Pam has some explaining to do.  Fake evidence is left that implicates Jason Bourne.

In Goa, India, Jason Bourne and Marie enjoy a simple life together.  Jason has headaches and nightmares about his Treadstone days.  Marie helps him make some slow progress on making sense of this.  Crashing this idyllic scene is the hitman Kirill, who kills Marie early on.

Delineation of conflicts:
Various CIA elements want to kill Jason to finally close out Treadstone, to get the person responsible for the Berlin mess, and to cover for the CIA official responsible for the lost CIA funds.  Pamela Landy keeps point on the expanded operation.  Nicky Parsons is re-engaged in the matter.

Jason would like to know what is going on.  He would like to find Kirill and dispose of him.  He would like to straighten out his memory of his first (unofficial) assignment in Berlin some years back, involving the botched assassination of the Russian Nevski.

Resolution: The need for secrecy, which seems to justify anything, wins out in several cases.  The need for the exposure of truth gets a couple of victories.

One line summary: Not as good as the first film.

Dream Diary

Statistics:

Cinematography: 6/10 This was a mixed bag.  Much of the film was a treat for the eye.  The claustrophobic rats' nests that were the CIA operations centers were dingy and ugly and off-putting as one might expect.  The film is a chase film, with moments of discovery regularly mixed in.  Sadly, the chase parts were weakened significantly by the shaky cam method.  Screw that misuse of resources.

Sound: 7/10 I could hear the dialog.  The music was occasionally (like the closing credits) engaging.

Acting: 5/10 I enjoyed the performances of Joan Allen, Karl Urban, Brian Cox, Franka Potente, and several of the actors with smaller roles.

Unfortunately, Matt Damon was in the film, and his character was its center.  The fight scenes were well done, but were nothing new over the first film.  As with many of Damon's performances, his wooden lack of affect was not interesting.  Rather, it forcefully demonstrates his inability to show any inner life in his character, Jason Bourne.

Screenplay: 8/10 This was a great story.  However, the film is badly weakened by the choice of lead actor and by the shaky cam trash footage.

Final Rating: 6/10 Although I liked the screenplay, I thought the divergence from the books was a serious mistake.

20161026: Action Review--Bourne Ultimatum

Name: Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
IMDb: link to Bourne Ultimatum page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, David Strathairn as Noah Vosen, Scott Glenn as Ezra Kramer, Paddy Considine as Simon Ross, Edgar Ramirez as Paz, Albert Finney as Dr Albert Hirsch, Joey Ansah as Desh Bouksani, Colin Stinton as Neal Daniels.

Directed by: Paul Greengrass.  Written by: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z Burns, George Nolfi (screenplay), from the books by Robert Ludlum.

Jason Bourne, Nicky Parsons

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
In London, UK, reporter Simon Ross hopes to expose Operation Blackbriar, considered an upgrade to Project Treadstone.  Unfortunately for Ross, both the CIA and Jason Bourne catch wind of this.

Bourne tries to protect Ross, but the CIA murders Ross.  The CIA sets about to find Bourne and Ross' source.  The CIA brings in Pamela Landy and Nicky Parsons, who have previous experience with Bourne.

Delineation of conflicts:
People with weapons are chasing Bourne.  He wants to get away.  They want to catch him or kill him.

Resolution: Can Jason find something that will get the bastards off his tail?

One line summary: Worst of the Bourne films.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 0/10 Endless shit.  The shaky cam never ended, and the editing was extremely choppy.

Sound: 4/10 I could hear the dialog.  The music over the end credits was good, but mostly useless during the film.

Acting: 4/10 I liked the performances of Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, and Scott Glenn.

However, Matt Damon was in the film, which was a huge downside force.  His action sequences were believable about half the time.  His mind swamp of angst was a bad cross of irritating and boring.  His transformation from fighting superman to quivering spineless whipping boy for the likes of Dr Hirsch was just nauseating, and seemed to have little or nothing to do with the rest of the film.  So who cares?

Screenplay: 2/10 It's a chase film.  Again, who cares?  The delineation of conflicts section above was the shortest I've ever written.  What did it add beyond the second film?  Answer: ridiculous chase footage, fight scenes we've already watched, more angst nonsense, and some terrible film work.

Final Rating: 3/10 Unneeded pile of nonsense.

20161026: Action Review--Bourne Legacy

Name: Bourne Legacy (2012)
IMDb: link to the Bourne Legacy page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross (Outcome #5), Rachel Weisz as Dr Marta Shearing, Scott Glenn as Ezra Kramer, Stacy Keach as Adm Mark Turso, Edward Norton as Eric Byer, Michael Chernus as Arthur Ingram, Corey Stoll as Zev Vendel, Donna Murphy as Dita Mandy, Dennis Boutsikaris as Terrence Ward.

Oscar Isaac as Outcome #3, Albert Finney as Dr Albert Hirsch, Louis Ozawa Changchien as LARX #3, Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, and David Strathairn as Noah Vosen.

Directed by: Tony Gilroy.  Written by: Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy (screenplay),  inspired by Robert Ludlum (books).

Dr Shearing, Aaron Cross

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Aaron Cross walks through rough northern Alaskan landscape to a safe house.  He gets to know his fellow member of the Outcome program, #3, before he treks off to his next destination.  Aaron has been out in the cold for so long that he is short of the medical supplies that the Outcome program uses to keep him in fine fighting shape.

About the same time, large structural breakage has occurred because of the information made public by Jason Bourne and Pamela Landy.  The powers that be decide to shut down the programs Treadstone, Blackbriar, and Outcome programs for creating superb warrior agents.  To complete the job, these powers authorize the murders of all the agents.

Those murders include Outcome agents, in particular #3 and #5 (Aaron).  Beyond that, many of the scientists who do research and monitor agents end up dead.  This almost includes Dr Shearing, but not quite.

Delineation of conflicts:
Aaron escapes the first murder attempt.  He regroups, knowing that his bosses are no longer his allies. He needs to find a new source for the chemicals that keep him whole.

Rachel would like to stay alive; the powers that be think she knows too much to live.  Aaron connects with Rachel and presses her to help him find his chemical boost.  Aaron and Rachel attempt to free Aaron from his chemical dependency, and attempt to get clear of the murderous pursuit.

The powers that be press hard to kill any and all who know too much or disgrace those with public personas, such as Pamela Landy.

Resolution: Both sides get partial success.

One line summary: Best installment of the Bourne series.

Three of the murdering bastards.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 Often spectacular, occasionally grainy.

Sound: 8/10 I could hear the dialog.  The music over the closing credits was excellent.  For most of the film, the background music was useless.

Acting: 7/10 I liked the performances of Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Scott Glenn, Oscar Isaac, Dennis Boutsikaris, and Stacy Keach. However, the presence of the always disappointing Edward Norton and ever useless Corey Stoll almost ruined that for me.

Screenplay: 8/10 Rather good, better than the first three Bourne films.  The story moved right along, and motivations were mostly clear.  Normally I would rate this as 9 or 10, but the repulsive acting of Norton and Stoll blunted the clarity of the narrative.

Final Rating: 8/10

20161013: SciFi review--Ascension

Name: Ascension (2015)
IMDb: link to the Ascension page

Genres: SciFi, Fantasy   Country of origin: USA, Canada.

Cast: Tricia Helfer as Viondra Denninger, Gil Bellows as Harris Enzmann, Brian van Holt as Captain William Denninger, Andrea Roth as Dr. Juliet Bryce, Brandon P Bell as Aaron Gault, Al Sapienza as Councilman Rose, Jacqueline Byers as Nora Bryce, Ellie O'Brien as Christa Valis, Laura Lee Smith as Samantha Krueger.

Directed by: Mairzee Alma, et alia; see IMDb link.  Written by: Adrian Cruz, Philip Leven.

Ascension cast

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
In 1963, a 100 year mission to a near star is launched with a select crew of 600 people.  The main action takes place around 2013, or 50 years into the mission.

Over time all sorts of challenges arise, but have been handled, for the most part.  However, certain internal pressures have started to break things.

In 2013, outside the project, not everyone is happy with the Ascension project, mostly because it is far from transparent.

Delineation of conflicts:
Those who work on the lower decks (the 'lowers') resent those who lived above (the 'uppers') and have more privileges and resources to use.  Not everyone gets permission to reproduce; this does not engender confidence and satisfaction.

The ship's crew seems to be hated by just about everyone.  The Stewardesses (led by Viondra) help buffer disputes among groups and gather intelligence.  They have more privilege than many, which is cause for resentment.

Councilman Rose spars with the Captain, both for fun and to get a more pliable Captain in place. Viondra, the Captain's wife, tries to blunt Rose's attempts and keep the Captain in place.

In the real world outside the ship, things are busy as well.  Harris Enzmann fights to keep control of Ascension, and to handle problems as they arise.  Samantha Krueger is hired to find out just what is going on in Ascension.  Enzmann and Krueger naturally butt heads.  Can Ascension actually continue without Enzmann's guiding hand?

Resolution: Given the faults of the setup, the resolution is pretty clear.  This is one more cliche implementation of 'the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.'

One line summary: Fake multi-generational space flight.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 9/10 No problems.

Sound: 8/10 I can hear the dialog.  The music occasionally adds tension.

Acting: 5/10 I liked Tricia Helfer and Gil Bellows.  I disliked the performances of Laura Lee Smith, Al Sapienza, and Brian van Holt.  The rest were indifferent.

Screenplay: 4/10 Meh.  There were too many cliches.  The hugely expensive experiment is riddled with obvious flaws.  The whole project is set up without sufficient oversight and transparency.  The goals of Ascension were known to a much too small set of individuals.  Worse yet, these were stupid goals.

Most of the show is about the nuts and bolts of real world science and engineering.  Then there is a jump shift.  Producing individuals gifted with massively strong occult powers is absurd in this context.

The entire final hour was a complete waste of time since the property bounds out of SciFi into the realm of bullshit fantasy.  (There is plenty of good fantasy in film; this just was not it.  This property was 5 hours of SciFi that is straight-laced to the point of being ho-hum.  This is followed by 1 hour of fantasy.  Forget this!)

Final rating: 5/10 The butt of this joke is the viewer.

20161004: Action Review--Skinwalkers

Name: Skinwalkers (2006)
IMDb: link to Skinwalkers page

Genres: Action, Fantasy, thriller   Country of origin: Canada.

Cast:
Jason Behr as Varek/Caleb Talbot, Elias Koteas as Jonas Talbot, Rhona Mitra as Rachel Talbot, Natassia Malthe as Sonja, Kim Coates as Zo, Sarah Carter as Katherine, Matthew Knight as Timothy Talbot, Barbara Gordon as Nana, Tom Jackson as Will.

Directed by: James Isaac.  Written by: James DeMonaco, Todd Harthan.

Rhona Mitra

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Young Tim starts a walk through town with his tall, alert Nana.  In parallel, some biker thugs ride toward town.  Two or so minutes later, everyone in the town and all the invaders are in full-on deadly combat.

The invading murderers claim loudly, "We just want the boy."  Everyone in town would like to live, but each of them is willing to die to protect Tim, especially if they can kill the damned bikers first.

Delineation of conflicts:
The bullet-ridden dialectic reaches an impasse which enables a bit of narration.  The local werewolf (skinwalker) population has been present for quite some time, but it has become divided and polarized. There is a prophecy that a hybrid (Tim) will be born.  There will be three nights in which the blood moon will shine near the thirteenth birthday of the boy.  On the midnight of the third such night, the power of the hybrid will be manifest.

That power is the ability to end the curse that werewolves suffer.

Some of the werewolves embrace the power and bloodlust that the curse brings.  They want the boy dead.  The other faction cherishes their humanity, and wishes the hybrid to survive, to flourish, and to completely fulfill his destiny.

Resolution: Much of the prophecy is fulfilled while each of the two factions quite effectively reduce the numbers of the opposite side.  As the witching hour draws nigh, secrets are revealed and the plot moves forward from one last minute fight to the next.

One line summary: Not your typical werewolf elimination derby.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 This is a good-looking film, especially the daylight shots.  The dark inside and night time shooting was better than most in this genre.  The skinwalker masks were pretty poor, though, and there was a lot of werewolf footage.

Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 8/10 Rhona Mitra, Tom Jackson, Elias Koteas, and Barbara Gordon gave fine performances. I never expect much from child actors, but Matthew Knight was pretty good.  Jason Behr was better than I thought he would be.

Screenplay: 7/10 Daybreakers (2009) owes the current film for some of its concepts.  Daybreakers had a bigger budget, a more highly regarded cast, and a more detailed script.  Daybreakers was more on the science side of fantasy, while Skinwalkers was more in the traditional fantasy horror side.

In any case, I liked the film's energy, its nice combination of plot elements, and its ending.  Right up until the finish, I thought this was one of the usual bloody 'kill them all' movie.

Final Rating: 7/10