Creed

Who would have thought, back in 1976, when the world was introduced to Sylvester Stallone in the movie, Rocky, that we would’ve had sequels to that film up until 2015?  After the abysmal Rocky V in 1990 (although I liked it), I didn’t think we’d ever see that character again.  Auspiciously, we do get another upshot of the Rocky saga, this time as a spinoff, making the son of Apollo Creed the centralized character of the story.

I’ve got to admit, when I’d first heard of this film being made, I thought it wouldn’t have seen the light of day, mainly because I didn’t think Stallone was going to be a part of the film.  Even when the movie was released, I really didn’t have any intention of going to see it, thinking that maybe Sly was going to make an appearance in the form of a cameo or that the story was just going to be a rehash of the first movie, only with the son of Apollo Creed as the boxing character.  I really can’t put my finger on why I decided to sit this movie out, but I can say, now, it was a mistake that I had.

As Oscar season had come around and the buzz surrounding the movie became prominent—not to mention the whole snubbing of black actors making headlines—I had become interested in seeing the film.  Not only had I paid attention to Stallone being nominated for his supporting role in the film, but I’d also kept tabs on the discussions encompassing the performance of Michael B. Jordan.  By the time the Academy Awards had come and gone, I really wanted to see Creed.

Finally, the film made its way onto the home media platform of DVD, so I placed it at the top of my Netflix queue and awaited its arrival (which was the other day).

Here’s the synopsis, with a little help from IMDb.com…

In Creed, the former World Heavyweight Champion, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), serves as trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), who is the son of his late friend and former rival, Apollo Creed.  As Adonis tries to make a name for himself at first, he eventually takes on the name of his father when he’s given the chance to fight ‘Pretty’ Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew) for the belt of the Light Heavyweight Championship.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie at home (that isn’t a comic book movie) in which I’ve been enthralled from beginning to end.  I guess it helps that I’m a huge Rocky fan and have seen all the movies in the saga multiple times.  When I’d first watched the first two movies in my preteen years, I’d wanted to pursue boxing and couldn’t get enough of it, constructing makeshift boxing gloves from tisse-paper-padded socks and making my brother be my sparring partner.  I’d given our first family dog the name of “Rocky” back in 1981 which shows how much I’d loved the first two films.  With all that said, it’s not hard to believe that I’d enjoyed this movie entirely.

Now, I’d mentioned earlier that there was a lot of talk about Stallone’s performance as Balboa, but my attention was focused on Jordan’s take as the son of Creed.  Let’s face it, Sly has been this character for 40 years…it’s not a stretch to see him put on the fedora, bounce a rubber ball around, and speaking Philadelphia-street slang.  Seeing this outsider, Michael B. Jordan—who was born in 1987 and, like the character he plays here, after the character of Apollo Creed was killed off in Rocky IV—take on this role and did it so brilliantly, shows you what a wonderful actor Jordan can be.  I really take umbrage with the Academy to snub this individual, but I’ve never paid attention to the Oscars and feel it’s all a sham of a bunch of self-absorbed and out-of-touch people who hardly ever get it right, in my opinion.  One day Michael B. Jordan will be up on that stage, accepting an Oscar for some performance, I really can see that coming for him.

It’s good to return to the world we’d seen in the 1976 film—man, the streets of Philadelphia haven’t changed in all these years, huh?—so it feels like a Rocky movie through-and-through.  I know we’d kind of got that feel from the previous movie, Rocky Balboa, but that movie—as good as it was and I loved it—it was too much a downer as we saw it as a melancholy piece and the character’s goodbye to the franchise, but this film is a breath of fresh air as we can see this as a new saga to continue.

I like the story they tell here, although it’s a bit convenient to add the exposition that Apollo Creed had an extramarital affair before he died that produced a son of the right age for this film (the kids we’d seen in Rocky and Rocky II must be in their forties by now).  When I’d first heard about this film being made, it was said that the film was going to center around the grandson of Apollo Creed, so that might’ve been one of the earlier drafts they’d been looking into to solve the appropriate age problem of the main character.

If I’ve got any nits to pick, it would be the background of Adonis character.  It seemed like he wasn’t really that down-and-out when he arrives in Philly to start his career in boxing, looking like he could’ve returned to his life back in Los Angeles with his adopted mother, Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad), at any time…maybe even going back to his financial advisor job he’d previously quit to pursue boxing.  I never really thought he had anything to lose as we even see, in the beginning of the movie, how he travels to Mexico on the weekends to fight matches.  But that’s a minor observance and certainly has no bearing on the story as a whole.

The chemistry between Stallone and Jordan is great—and I mean GREAT—from the moment they meet and get to know one another.  I like how they bring the secret match between Balboa and Creed we’d seen at the end of Rocky III into their first encounter, which they finally give us an answer as to who’d won that fight.  Certainly, there are a lot of props given to Carl Weathers during this film—you really can’t have this movie without the character’s mention—and Stallone shows, both in character and probably in real life, his respect for the actor/character, Carl Weathers/Apollo Creed.

Like the previous movie, the movie brings in a real boxer, Tom Bellew, to play the part of the adversary, Ricky Conlan.  Unlike the previous movie, however, Bellew has some pretty good acting chops and you truly gain a hate for him, making you root for Jordan’s character to beat the shit out of him in their fight.  Yet, we really don’t see Bellew’s character all that much, and I feel that might be a detriment to the story, especially comparing it to the 1976 film where we see the personal side of the antagonist in that story.  It would’ve been nice to see a more three-dimensional representation of his character, giving us some insight into his anger issues he displays early on in the film, maybe showing us a closer look into his personal life.

The romance between Adonis and his neighbor-turned-girlfriend, Bianca (Tessa Thompson)—the local singer he discovers her to be when visiting the club where she performs—was a nice touch, letting us see Adonis is just not all about boxing.

And speaking of music, the film showcases some familiar nods, but goes into quite a few unique cues to help this movie establish itself as an original feature.

Lastly, I was very surprised to see that this movie wasn’t written by Stallone, but was penned—as well as directed by—by Ryan Coogler.  I’ve heard some good things about him, especially the docu-

drama, Fruitvale Station, which was the story of the young unarmed African-American who was shot and killed at a BART station a few years back.  Coogler is also set to direct the comic book movie, Black Panther, which is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I’m pretty excited about that one and to see where he goes from there.

So…my final “bit” on Creed?

A well-rounded film, Creed is full of nostalgia if you’re a Rocky fan and has enough to care about for the younger generation.  The camera work is phenomenal, putting you in the ring so close to the fighters you almost can smell their sweat, and it’s amazing that they performed many of the shots without any edits.   The film is packed with inspiration and is thoroughly entertaining.  The interaction Stallone and Jordan have with each other is reminiscent of the Stallone/Meredith chemistry within the earlier Rocky films.  The cast is superb…the interaction never feels contrived, but believable.  The film, as a whole, should not be missed…especially if you’re a diehard Rocky fan like me.

Thanks for reading!

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

Being in the shadow of Marvel Studios, especially with the creation of the cinematic universe it has managed and controlled so well, we finally get a glimpse of what’s to come with the superhero ensemble on DC’s side of things over at Warner Bros. 

Most of you may not recall or even remember, but DC almost beat Marvel from the word go.  Whether it would’ve worked or not, Warner Bros. was set to introduce us to the ensemble right at the beginning instead of the solo movie introductions Marvel constructed so perfectly.  George Miller (director of all the Mad Max films) was to direct Justice League with already a cast signed on to play the heroes.  Signed on, was D.J. Cotrona to play Superman, Armie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Adam Brody as The Flash, Common as Green lantern, Santiago Cabrera as Aquaman, and a few others to round out the cast.  Production went as far as having costume fittings for the actors and actresses, with a lot of created concept art, but the Writer’s Guild Strike may have played a part in the film production’s downfall.  We’ll never know.

As doubt was casting a shadow on whether or not we can take a Superman film seriously nowadays, 2013 brought us a return to glory with Man of Steel.  The film, directed by Zack Snyder, gave us a more resolute Superman—no camp or outright comedy, just a no-nonsense heroic movie of a character most households are familiar with.  I enjoyed the hell out of that film and felt it was just the right push Warner Bros. needed to go forth with their plan to bring The Justice League onto the big screen.

So, questions began to arise regarding how the filmmakers were going to fit Batman into this cinematic universe.  Is Christian Bale returning as Batman?  Will Joseph Gordon-Levitt take over the role?  Will there be a new Batman?  Were they just going to reboot once more?  But word came about that the next movie—not necessarily a sequel to Man of Steel and not necessarily a Batman film, but a “versus” film that would pit the two heroes against each other.  Fanboys—myself included—were ecstatic and couldn’t wait to feast our eyes on such an epic movie.

As time went on, word also escaped that Bale would not reprise his role, but that the Batman in this film will have a new actor under the cowl.  It was also mentioned that the Batman in the movie is going to be an older, grizzled hero who has been crime-fighting for a long time. 

Not long after this news was out, the announcement came about that Ben Afflick would be the man wearing the bat ears in the movie.  I guess it’d be an understatement to say a lot of comic book fans weren’t happy.  It all harkened back to a little film Afflick starred in called Daredevil.  So many people have panned that movie, but I really don’t think it was Afflick’s fault.  I felt he did fine in that flick and I’d enjoyed watching it, even to this day.

Well, the photo of Ben Afflick in the suit popped up on the Internet.  Then, the first trailer…the second trailer…finally, the third trailer…I was chomping at the bit to see this movie and did not see anything wrong with Afflick in this role.

So, enough of the history on how this movie came to be…let me synopsize Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, shall I?

Per IMDb.com—Fearing that the actions of Superman (Henry Cavill) are left unchecked, Batman (Ben Affleck) takes on the Man of Steel, while the world wrestles with what kind of a hero it really needs.

 

Shortly before seeing the movie, I’d read an online article that a screening of the film was shown to the studio executives and at the end of the presentation, they all had given the film a standing ovation.  Some may read that and think it was a flattering endorsement to a great movie, but I had thought just the opposite.  Let’s not forget how much studio execs have ruined movies in the past.  Staying within the genre of comic book movies, the ones that come to mind are Superman II (the firing of Richard Donner after he’d already filmed 75% of the sequel), Spider-Man 3 (their insistence that Sam Raimi—against his better judgment—include Venom in the story), and, most recently, 2015’s Fantastic Four.  So to hear that studio execs loved this movie didn’t give me hope, it gave me despair.  I couldn’t help but think of Kevin Smith’s story of how Jon Peters wanted Superman to fight a giant spider in the climax of the Tim Burton/Nicolas Cage film that had never (thankfully) been made.  So, going into this, I had mild-to-low expectations.

Now, right off the ‘Batman,’ I have to say that Zack Snyder did a wonderful job with directing a multi-superhero movie.  Of course, recent history has told us that it could’ve gone one way or the other.  On one hand, it could’ve looked like a Batman & Robin or Spider-Man 3; on the other hand, it could’ve gone the way of The Avengers.  With BvS, however, I think it fell in the middle somewhere, but more toward the good than the bad.

Let’s start with the setup, the part of the plot that gives us the first part of the movie’s title—Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  It doesn’t give too much away to say that Bruce Wayne was near Metropolis when the climactic battle between Superman and General Zod went down toward the end of Man of Steel and it pissed him off royally.  Snyder excellently shows us that battle from a different perspective—as the defenseless populace who were scared and hurt due to the damage caused throughout that mêlée, watching everything from ground zero.  Seeing those images during this first act of the movie unquestionably conjures up memories of the devastation the country witnessed on television (or up close and personal) back on September 11th, 2001.  Needless to say, this is what starts Batman’s mission to bring down Superman.

So…about the Batman role...it’s funny…the one uproar fanboys had about this film—before any photos were released or any trailers were seen—was the casting of Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman.  I say it’s funny because he’s the one who does best in this movie, making the dual character the most interesting piece of this film.  As the story moves along, you become mesmerized by his presence on the screen, even as Bruce Wayne and it leaves you wanting more.  Personally, I can’t wait to see the stand-alone Batman film that is set to be released in 2017 with this aged and cynical persona of the caped crusader.  The suit is awesomely reminiscent of the Frank Miller era in comic books and even has better gadgets that we’d seen in the Nolan films.  Affleck, in my mind, has totally redeemed himself since his role in 2003’s Daredevil.

Henry Cavill seems to fit right back into his role of Superman as easily as he fits into that costume, but he doesn’t say or do much in the part, only broods and looks dejected at times.  He seems to

play the part this time around almost like Brandon Routh had played it in the forgetful Superman Returns.  With the hero’s Clark Kent persona, there’s not much development there either.  Overall, I was expecting to see more of the hero’s attitude he had shown at the end of Man of Steel, how he’d crashed a drone that was following him and basically told the general “tough shit” after he informed Superman he destroyed a very expensive piece of military equipment.  During that conclusion in Man of Steel, it was looking like he finally found his place on this Earth as a protagonist, but in BvS, he’s back to the unsure-of-himself hero.  But I can’t fault his performance too much because it seems the movie cuts away before we get any reactions from him—this happens quite a few times, I’d noticed.

The one casting choice that had gotten under my skin and I just could not accept was Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.  When the decision was announced, I had my reservations but held off to see how he’d play the role.  Even as the trailers showcased him as a little goofy, I waited to see the movie.  Now, as I’ve seen the film, I really must say that his part in this flick was the thorn in its side.  As we’d all seen in the trailer, where Lex Luthor greets Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, as he acts a bit off kilter…well…that’s what you’re going to get throughout his performance.  During the course of the Superman and Batman comics, there have been many evil-doers or villains with their specific personalities.  Lex Luthor has always been a powerful-looking man with a serious way about him.  Eisenberg almost seems to be getting him confused with the Joker, reciting his lines like a forgetful buffoon.

Above all else, the mixed feeling I have about this film is that it appeared to be a Batman movie that happened to feature Superman.  Although it’s supposed to be sort of a sequel to Man of Steel, it seemed to be focused more on Batman than Superman.  The good part of this musing is that it helps Affleck in his continuation of the Batman role, but it lessens the impact of Superman’s character.  Where we see a lot of setup into everything Batman does within this story, we only see a montage of Superman’s heroics, not understanding what led to them.  For instance, the scene in the trailer, where we see him save the rocket from being destroyed plays out in the movie just like in the trailer.  We don’t see who’s in the rocket, we don’t even know if there’s anybody in it—for all we know, he just saved an unmanned rocket from being destroyed.  All of Superman’s bravado is just given to us like snippets from a news reel.

As for the music we hear within the film, a lot of the Man of Steel cues are there, some original

music for Batman’s scenes were enjoyable as well.  Wonder Woman’s entrance, however?  The theme was unusual and strange, not really fitting and I kept on thinking, what is up with her entry music?  I take it, seeing that the score was shared by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL, Wonder Woman’s cue was created by the latter.  I know there are fans of Junkie XL, so I won't hate on them...I just don't think the music they composed works in this particular scene.  Who knows?  Maybe Zimmer's the one who came up with it.

Lastly, we all know this film leads up to a Justice League movie, featuring a lineup of heroes to get together for a big movie.  I guess to give us a taste of that, it was decided to give us glimpses of these heroes within this film.  I won’t go into it, especially to avoid spoilers, but the inclusion of the few they show in this movie was forced and unneeded.  We know the ensemble movie is coming, we know there are going to be a number of stand-alone films to introduce them, so there was really no need to show the cameos or excerpts that they did here in BvS.

My final “bit” on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?

Overall the movie is enjoyable, with the right amount of action between the two title characters and even when they fight together with the inclusion of Wonder Woman going up against Doomsday (as seen in the trailers).  However, the editing seemed a bit uneven, giving us a lot of emptiness of certain subplots or characters.  After the film was over and I thought about what I’d seen, I couldn’t help but think there were missing parts that would explain certain details or expand on the character development a bit.  Maybe we’ll see a much better film with the release of home media—it was announced that a director’s cut with an extra 30 minutes will be added to the movie.  I’ve heard the complaints that some people have had with the story—some I agree with, some I don’t—but putting reasons for battles and reasons to stop battling aside, I’m going to reserve my views until I see the director’s cut in four or five months.

By the way, there is no stinger scene, so don’t bother staying after the credits roll.  I looked up this info before seeing the movie, but I’d noticed quite a few people remaining planted in their seats, waiting for that Marvel-esque extra we’ve all come to expect in this day and age, so just a word of advice…don’t bother to wait.

Well, that’s all I’ve got to say about Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice without divulging too much about it.  Perhaps I’ll update this post when the DVD/Blu-Ray is released to see if my view has changed.

Thanks for reading!

Pixels

It’s time to save the world.

Being a child—and subsequent teen—of the 1980s, there are a lot of memories I treasure and sometimes wish could go back to on a daily basis.  It might sound clichéd, but I’ve always felt it was a better time, a more relaxed and unforgettable era, a period where kids could go out on their bikes and play outside for hours on end.  It was before or after meeting with the guys to play football or baseball, and there were many video games to be mastered, saving up quarters for a trip to the arcade, and just having good times wasting those coins away.  Roughly, between the years of 1982 and 1985, that’s just how my days were spent—further into the decade, I used a car to get to the arcade instead of a bike, but what I’d done with my time didn’t change. 

Nowadays, as I reminisce about those years, I have to recognize that time cannot be reversed.  Not only that, but I don’t think any of today’s demographic would want to visit that era.  People under the age of 20 would probably find it horrifying that there was no Internet, no cell phones, and no video games that equaled or were better than what you’d find in the arcades (Are there still arcades?).  In the 80s, there was no texting, no emails, no YouTube uploads… What did we children of the 80s do for fun?!  Listened to vinyl records or cassette tapes, talked to our friends through a phone hard-lined to the house, watched TV on just a handful of networks…MTV actually played music videos!  There were no DVDs, but we had a few outlets to rent a VHS (What’s a VHS?) or two, if we had a VCR.  What kind of hell did we live in???!!!

Yes…that was the 80s.

But back to the subject at hand…

I might be blasted by some people for admitting that I’ve never really been a fan of Sandler’s films.  Probably the one film I can watch repeatedly, and regard as one of his best, is Big Daddy.  I know a lot of his other films have a cult following, especially Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, but they’re not my favorites in any way.  If anything, Adam Sandler seems to share my nostalgia for the 80s (although the music aspect of that decade is something I can do without), starring in The Wedding Singer back in 1998 and, recently, in 2015’s Pixels.

Straight off, when I first viewed the trailer for Pixels, I thought it was a novel idea, particularly when they were explaining the time capsule sent off into space back in the 80s (I suppose the story’s

borrowing from the two “Golden Records” that were sent off with Voyager 1 & 2 back in 1977…but it’s close enough), which included the popular video games of that time.  The aliens viewing it as a threat and invading Earth with the guise of those videos games seemed original and unique, certainly a plot that could work into a full feature film.

So, in case you couldn’t decipher what the synopsis was in that last paragraph, here it is…

When aliens misinterpret video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth in the form of the video games.

The movie had gotten into a great start, showing us life in 1982 for Sam Brenner (Anthony Ippolito, playing the young version) and his best friend, Will Cooper (Jared Riley, playing the young version as well), collecting quarters and riding their bikes over to the local arcade to play video games.  Like in real life back when I was a teen, there was always someone declared the best at certain games.  Here, we have Eddie (Andrew Bambridge), shown a little exaggeratedly as arcade royalty, but the message comes across and it brought back memories for me.

Even the showdown between the young Sam and Eddie, as they are the two contestants in a video game face-off, Eddie mentions that there is a pattern to the game to help you win.  It always seemed like a myth to me, when I was in my teens, because you always heard other kids saying that.  The one big one I’d heard back then was that there was a location in the Pacman maze where you could hide and the ghosts wouldn’t see you.  I guess I’ll never find out if that was true or not, but I had a smile on my face when that was mentioned.

Well, when the movie cuts to present time, that’s when it loses me. 

Now, I don’t mind seeing Sandler playing the Brenner in his 40s, holding a “Geek Squad” type of profession…I don’t have to suspend disbelief for that.  But Kevin James as the older Will Cooper—President Will Cooper?—is too far-fetched for me.  Maybe if he was a White House assistant or clerk or…just anything but the POTUS, I’d buy it.

The choice for Will Cooper’s profession aside, the story just seems to stop in its tracks and gets really boring, giving us some impossible exposition on how Brenner just schmoozes his way into a woman’s life that happens to be a lieutenant colonel for the U.S. Army (played by Michelle Monaghan).  But I guess they needed that threadbare subplot to make sure Brenner has backing from someone in the military when the time comes for him to help out in the attack.

Although the film has some interesting special effects, it really doesn’t save this film.  But I did like seeing a giant Pacman wreaking havoc throughout the streets, the Centipede and Galaga attacks, and especially the Donkey Kong climax.  It’s just a shame they couldn’t work these scenes into a good movie.

The story relies on knowledge of the video games of the 80s, but a lot of young viewers won’t be able to relate to what they’re seeing on the screen (they may know Madonna—which was clever to CGI her lips to give Earth a warning message—but most kids won’t know many of the other 80s icons).  The only humorous parts I’d noticed when watching Pixels were the ones featured in the trailer.  In fact, the only real laugh I had was when the inventor of the Pacman Game, Professor

Iwatani (Denis Akiyama), walks up to the giant Pacman only to get his arm bitten off by pixilation (by the way, the filmmakers should’ve reversed this feature of the film because the ghosts were always the bad guys of the game—but I guess you wouldn’t be able to showcase that gag if you didn’t make Pacman the bad guy).  But there were so many parts that fell flat and made me feel sorry for the actor who was featured in such scenes and one of those is when Josh Gad is singing “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”  It was just an unfunny scene and was unnecessary.

So, my final “bit” on Pixels?

It’s sort of interesting, like I’d mentioned about the beginning of this movie, taking place in the early 80s.  The references throughout might put a smile on your face or even make you want to break out some of your classic video games if you’ve got your Nintendo stored away in the attic.  But it’s not very funny and even less entertaining.  I really can’t recommend it, but if you’re a big Sandler fan, maybe you’ll enjoy it…

…maybe.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

Shortly before October of 2009, a movie was furtively making the rounds as being one of the scariest movies people had ever laid eyes on.  Although the film was only circulated as a limited feature in larger cities, word had gotten around that this was a film to be reckoned and it spawned a following that caused an uproar with people around the country who couldn’t see it because their local theater didn’t carry it.  It went as far as to initiate online petitions to have it play in smaller cities, even being largely publicized in social media. 

Well, either it worked or Paramount Studios conducted a brilliant strategy to get people enthused for this film, aptly titled, Paranormal Activity.  Whatever the case may be, the social media advertisements and TV spots brought out the audiences in droves to see this flick.

I’ll admit…that first film absolutely worked for me, especially seeing the preview footage of test screenings in that eerie green night vision, watching people jumping out of their seats and screaming…I just had to see what this film was all about!  Even though, at this point, the “found footage” genre had “jumped the shark,” I relied on the word-of-mouth I’d been hearing and reading about, and went to see it when it finally played in my region.  I was hooked with this new horror movie franchise.  Let me tell you, a very few number of people have said it’s not that scary…and if you think that’s true…try sitting alone at night while watching this.  Believe me, I’ve tried and I always shut it off by the time it shows the subtitle stating that it’s the first night.

After the success of that initial film, with a pretty successful two sequels, an iffy third sequel, and a Latino spin-off, we now get the sixth film in this series…Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.

Using a special camera that can see spirits, a family must protect their daughter from an evil entity with a sinister plan.

Now, from the outset, I’ll just have to say that Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension decided to use something throughout the whole film that people had complained about in the first film (which, by the way, was only used for a second at the end of the film)—computer generated special effects.  See, just about everyone loved that first movie, but complained about the final seconds of it, where the character of Katie (Katie Featherston) looked straight into the camera and her face turned into a demon (via CGI).  The consensus of movie-goers didn’t really care for that, and neither did I—it just took away from the realism that had been displayed throughout the entire story and

just plunged you right back into fantasyland, where the audience became cognizant once again and knew they were only watching a fictional account.  But the filmmakers had gotten away with it, seeing that it was the very end of the film and served as a final nail hammered into the story.  Like I’d said, some liked it, some didn’t.  But, overall, that last second is not what everybody had remembered if you were to ask.  What most people, including myself, recall is the eerie and spooky feel that most people experience when they’re all alone in the house.  The feeling of not knowing when, or if, something is about to happen…the quiet that gets under your skin…the creaks, the unexplained sounds you hear within your home…that’s what that first film gave us.  In Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, they use these special effects as a crutch and it’s very noticeable.

Now, it’s a very novel idea, how this new character, Ryan (Chris J. Murray), finds an old modified camera that, when filming, can pick up visuals not seen with the naked eye.  The only problem is who modified it?  Was it Dennis from the third film?  Since this film features home movies of the younger versions of Katie and Kristi, it must be.  But we’d never seen him create this camera in that movie—he only used a normal one and the only modifications applied was utilizing an oscillating fan’s motor so the camera can pan side-to-side when used unattended.  Right away, this “special” camera is a huge plot hole.

Other than that original idea, there’s really nothing much more this film gives us; there’s nothing new, nothing fresh, just the already-treaded-upon plot we’ve seen in the previous movies.  The family has someone—in this case, it’s Leila (Ivy George), the young daughter—that the demon attaches itself upon, someone video records every single second of everything and way beyond reason, a family member makes excuses for the recorded evidence, and it all climaxes at the very end where some extraordinary moment happens that’s supposed to shock the audience.  With the previous five movies, it worked; with this film—the sixth in the series, I might add, and we know what the typical track record is for a movie of that succession—it didn’t.  The story didn’t give us anything new, nothing was in this movie that we hadn’t seen before, it's just a banal movie that incites boredom within the audience.  It’s too bad because I’d really thought we were going to get something better, especially seeing that we had to wait a bit longer than the other sequels (each one came out a year later than the previous one).

The only thing that comes to mind when remembering this film is that it seemed the filmmakers were diagnosed with Lucasitis and felt the need to put in all kinds of CGI in place of a story, taking away that pensiveness we’d all felt during the first three (part four had it as well, but the story was so convoluted, I don’t want to count that one here).   Even the spin-off was pretty eerie and gave us a fresh take on the subject.

With the other films in this series, I was totally enthralled, waiting to see what would happen next, even though there was a lot of downtime and nothing happening in sections of the film.  Here, in Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, I did go into another dimension.  The dimension of being zoned out and not paying attention to the film because there was nothing to keep me interested.

My final “bit” on Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension?

Skip it.  There is no saving grace here…it’s a rehash of what we’ve seen, a threadbare story, nonsensical actions by the main characters, a gaping plot hole I’d mentioned earlier, and it’s just a plain old boring movie.  Instead of having the subtitle, The Ghost Dimension, it should have been The Final Chapter.

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Terminator Genisys

He’s back.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has returned to the role that had made him famous back in 1984 as the unstoppable killing machine, but here, as it’s been since T2, he’s the hero and thanks to the ever-evolving technology of special effects in movies, we actually have a couple of versions of Arnie in here, at different age ranges to match the time-bounces shown and referred within this film.

I’ll admit, I’m a big Terminator fan and will probably see anything related to the franchise.  I love all the movies—regardless of the plot-holes in Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation—as well as “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” which was the short-lived television series that had aired on Fox for about two seasons from 2008 to 2009.  I’ve even read a few books that ventured into alternate timelines and collected a number of comic books based on what might’ve happened after Terminator 2. 

So, you can just imagine my glee when I had heard the announcement a couple of years ago that they were going to start filming another chapter in the series.  My imagination went wild, thinking about where they can take the story and what they can do to make things better.  Because one thing I’ve always thought about, since the day I had seen the first movie in theaters back over 30 years ago, was how awesome it’d be to see an entire Terminator movie set in the future.  Showing everything Kyle Reese talked about in the first movie would be incredible if they were to give us that vision.  Well…they gave us a taste of it…a little more than we’ve seen in previous movies.

As the future war against the machines comes to a close with Skynet being destroyed, the leader of The Resistance, John Connor (Jason Clarke), has to send back one of his men, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from a cyborg Skynet was able to send back in time to the year 1984.  But when Reese arrives, things don’t turn out as he’d thought they would.

It seems as if continuing on from James Cameron’s story has always been an impossibility.  The third part was just a rehash of part two and Salvation was just a blow-em-up flick written by someone—or a few someones—who just didn’t do their homework.  I’d mentioned the comic books I’d read in the 90s, taking the story from part two and going in a crazy—yet original—direction…why couldn’t they borrow from that?  For instance, the arm that the cyborg breaks off and leaves stuck in the giant gear (in Terminator 2) is discovered, not to mention the government had been watching and backing up Dyson’s work, and multiple terminators had been found, nonfunctional, all of the world, as if they were failed attempts from Skynet trying to send back a machine to kill Sarah Connor.  There was so much more, so many ways they could’ve expanded the franchise, taking place both in the present and the future.  But the problem was the story took place right after T2 and would’ve required Schwarzenegger and Hamilton to reprise their roles right away, before Father Time took over.

But what we’ve got here is a good flick that’s head-and-shoulders above the last two outings. Though the excuse of how the machine’s flesh ages just like a human’s is very convenient to include today’s Arnold Schwarzenegger into the cast.  I, for one, would’ve been all right with a different person (or multiple people) in the role of the killing machine.  Besides, the cyborg we’ve gotten in all these flicks have been the model number 101…what about all the other models?  Maybe model number 96 looks like Dwayne Johnson…or 104 looks like Brock Lesnar…or 46 looks like Terry Crews...or just stick in some other body builders and have them speak limited lines throughout the movie.

Well, suspending disbelief aside, I guess you can go with this cyborg that has been around since the 70s and is the equivalent of a forty-something-year-old at the beginning of this flick to a sixty-something-year-old in the second half.  So, with that out of the way, you may be able to enjoy this movie.

What the movie does, in a clever way, is to sort of make this into a reboot of the first film, but making it its own here.  We get the view from the future, how The Resistance beat Skynet and was able to gain access to the inside of its workings, finding the time displacement machine and making it work to send back Kyle Reese after figuring out that Skynet sent back a terminator right before it was shut down.  So, as we’re watching this, we’re still in very familiar territory, albeit with a minor surprise that comes to light later in the movie.

The filmmakers do a fabulous job of recreating the Terminator’s entrance into the year of 1984.  I almost thought they put in the footage from the original movie here, but it turns out they recreated every aspect of it.  The digital mapping of Schwarzenegger’s face onto a digitally-created body is magnificent and makes you want to pause and rewind here to take it all in.  The monumental scene of Schwarzenegger’s naked body walking to the edge of the Griffith Observatory to take in the Los Angeles cityscape is there, although altered for a PG-13 audience, and it’s amazing.  The altercation he gets in with the three delinquents begins here as well and that’s where the fun commences between the older Arnie with this new arrival.

Kyle Reese’s entrance into 1984 is reestablished just like the original film—he steals the pants from the homeless man, ends up in the department store to retrieve the Nike sneaks and trench coat, but is changed up here as well with the inclusion of a T-1000 (played by Byung-hun Lee) disguised as a cop.  The tables are turned when Sarah Connor shows up to save Reese instead of the other way around.

So from here on out, it’s an original story and may take a viewing or two to completely understand how everything happens and fits into the franchise’s history.  But it appears to be an alternate timeline, different from the first films we’ve seen thus far, and basically gives the filmmakers reason to get away with changing everything we know.  They kind of borrow from the “Sarah Connor Chronicles” with the time jump they attempt in the film and gives them the same reason to have this film take place in the present (or near future).

So…the good:  Schwarzenegger jumps right back into the role he’d made famous so many years ago with gusto and determination, giving us that grim-demeanored and robot-like performance that we’ve enjoyed over the years.  Yet, he still insists (and I’m sure Arnie did) to include a little too much humor into the role.  It wasn’t as much as his T3 outing, but enough to make you groan here and there (ugh...the smiles...we don't want to see the smiles).

The bad:  I really didn’t see the chemistry between Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke like I had with Michael Beane and Linda Hamilton all those years ago.  I know that they’re different characters in this one, reacting to a whole different situation as we see that Sarah’s already supposed to be a strong-willed fighter and doesn’t want to take shit from anyone.  But even when it seems Sarah’s softening up to Reese, it doesn’t feel real.

More good:  Jason Clarke as John Connor seemed to be a good fit and I’d wished we’d gotten a little more of him as the leader in the future.  What we do get is credible enough and you can go with him being able to lead these soldiers into an impossible battle with machines at the beginning of this story. 

My final “bit” on Terminator Genisys?

Though the film is interesting on how they handled the recreations throughout the beginning of this film—in fact, they’re phenomenal—the film just goes into the same old plot on trying to stop Skynet from forming and taking over.  However, the film is packed with action and newer special effects, introducing us to a supposed deadlier cyborg—James Cameron set the bar so high with the introduction to the T-1000, there really hasn’t been anything to beat it.  All in all, the movie is fun and exciting…hell, it even garnered a blessing from Cameron himself (which he’d never done with T3 or TS, so it’s definitely worth a watch.  But as a diehard Terminator fan, this film leaves a lot to be desired and you’ll certainly see a lot of plot holes the first time you see Terminator Genisys.  I still enjoyed it for what it was and really didn’t have many problems with it.  Though, if plot holes are not very important to you and/or you’re not a Terminator extremist as I am, just sit back with a bowl of popcorn and enjoy.

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The Visit

If there’s any one director out there who’s had a rough decade of criticism—some I agree with, some I don’t—it would be M. Night Shyamalan.  The acclaimed and admired director of The Sixth Sense would fall flat, with critics, a mere seven to nine years later (depending on what movie was cited)  and was peddled as never returning to his glory days.

I’ve agreed with most of the critics when discussing Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender, or After Earth, but I still stand firm on The Happening being not such a bad movie as most people think.  And even out of the three I thought were terrible, I don’t think you can really blame Shyamalan for After Earth, but rather fault the father/son performances of Will and Jaden Smith (more from the latter and not so much from the former).

Last summer, Shyamalan produced—as well as directed one episode of—a ten-episode mystery television show called “Wayward Pines,” which was based on a book series by the author Blake Crouch.  The show had a great dark atmosphere and every episode kept you enthralled and wanting more.  I was mildly surprised by the success of it and found that Shyamalan deserved more chances behind the camera for theatrical features, in my opinion.

So, almost as a follow-up to the TV show, September of 2015 brought us Shyamalan’s first motion picture since 2013’s After Earth called The Visit.

Agreeing to give their mother, Loretta (Kathryn Hahn), a vacation break with her boyfriend, siblings, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), go to visit their grandparents for a five-day stay.  Having never met their grandparents due to a falling out their mother had with them fifteen years prior, they decide to film the visit as a documentary.  Soon after Becca and Tyler meet “Nana” (Deanna Dunagan) and “Pop Pop” (Peter McRobbie), they start to witness abnormal behavior from both grandparents, becoming more and more disturbing each day.

At first, I was a little taken aback that the film was presented in the “found footage” category, with the siblings each video recording everything.  More often than not, that type of sub-genre fails and makes the feature seem less enjoyable.  But Shyamalan was able to present this nicely, making you forget about it soon after the movie begins.  Especially when the brother and sister get to their grandparents’ house, the story gets so interesting, you don’t even think about that aspect anymore.  You begin to see it—if noticed—as a directed set-up of shots (which I’m sure that’s exactly what they were—I doubt Shyamalan just gave these kids a couple of camcorders and told them to shoot whatever they wanted).  The views exhibited what you needed to see and gave you just enough to make it credible as shots filmed by these children.

With the exception of one, the cast kept me very interested up until the end of the story. 

I’ve got to give props to Peter McRobbie and especially Deanna Dunagan for their performances.  Shyamalan really had to tread softly on the subject of dementia and senility because this could’ve gone terribly wrong if the performances were a little overblown.  But, as demeaning as the portrayals were, the two elder actors pulled it off. 

Even though we don’t see much of Kathryn Hahn in this flick, her short interviews conducted for the documentary were moving and felt authentic.  Seeing that I only know her from her comedic roles in Anchorman, Stepbrothers, and We’re the Millers, I kind of doubted we’d feel any empathy for her, but she’s a more versatile actress than I give her credit for and felt her performance really helped the story.

Olivia DeJonge as the older sibling had a huge responsibility in this film, being the one to express the needed narrative throughout the story—disguised as the documentary’s exposition—and she was well cast in the part.  If we’d gotten your typical teen (one that’s consumed with one’s looks, fashion

or the popular boy bands), this film would’ve went downhill fast.  But because she was articulate and was shown as a well-adjusted adolescent, more concerned about her future than the here and now, she served as the film’s catalyst and helped with keeping the audience’s interest as the film went on.

Now, let’s talk about the thorn in everyone’s side—in my opinion—of the movie, the character of Tyler…the little 13-year-old rapper who had gotten on my nerves from minute one.  Whose idea was to have this kid pretend he was some rap master?  How does it help the story?  Because I can tell you how it hinders the story.  I cringed every time this little white-bread urbanized sprog opened his mouth to speak as it was, so having him spit rhymes here and there was ridiculous.  I didn’t see this film in theaters, but I’m sure the audience groaned every time this kid started with his raps.  However, regardless of those setbacks, I thought he did fine as the concerned little brother with mysophobia.  And let me say, that fear of germs gets put to the test at the end of this film…don’t eat while watching the climax.

You know, the one thing everybody knows M. Night Shyamalan for is that he includes ingenious twists at the end of his movies—the ending for The Sixth Sense was really the only one, with Unbreakable and The Village having only derivative twists at best—and although this film had one, it still wasn’t up there in shock value like the 1999 film had achieved.  I can’t say that I saw it coming here in The Visit, but I had kind of gotten the gist of it.  And even though I had, it still was a very satisfying ending.

So, what’s my final “bit” on M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit?

The director seems to be back on track, writing better dialogue and does a great job bringing in the eerie vibe into this flick.  The movie will keep your interest as you’ll want to know where everything leads and how it’ll end.  With the exception of the one character’s musical representation, all the cast meshes well together and you can believe you’re really experiencing these accounts as it unfolds.  I’m very happy for Shyamalan as I really didn’t think he was washed up, only tried to put too many titles on his plate.  Hoping he stays on track, I’m looking forward to his next film, Split, as well as anything he’ll come up with after that.  I highly recommend The Visit so take a gander and let me know what you think.

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Deadpool

Being a comic book collector for a good portion of my life, any time a film adapted from one of the series I’ve enjoyed certainly brings a smile to my face.  I had already been delighted in 2002 when Spider-Man was brought to life and even more ecstatic when it was announced the character was going to be placed within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so the ultimate possibility had already happened.  However, the comic book character of Deadpool was an interesting one that I’d appreciated as well and never expected any studio—especially Fox—to give this character a stand-alone movie. 

In 2009, I’d thought that scrutiny would be unearthed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but the character was a far cry from what fans saw in the pages of their favorite issues.  At first, it seemed like the film was going in the right direction, presenting a pre-costumed Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) as he showcased his skills with a couple of Katanas, deflecting bullets and killing the bad guys with them.  All the while, Reynolds gave a perfect performance as the Merc with a Mouth, cracking one-liners here and there, as us fan boys were just waiting for him to put on his signature red and black costume.  But he didn’t and the character was ruined in more ways than one (see my 5/6/2009 review here for more details) during the climax of that film.

Things started looking good back in 2014 when some leaked test footage was introduced into the World Wide Web and to the public, giving us an idea of what a Deadpool movie might’ve looked and sounded like.  The footage was a complete motion-captured animated reel of the title character—voiced by Ryan Reynolds—in an exciting scene where he jumps from a freeway overpass to go after some bad guys.  Although the action is intense and fast, it still featured a bit of comedy from Reynolds, but that’s exactly what us comic book fans saw in the series of books over the years.  Well, the gamble paid off (obviously someone purposely leaked this footage to have the fans voice their desire to get a movie made) and Fox greenlit the movie.  Only one little item needed to be announced—at least to most fans of the character—and that was the decision on whether the film would be rated PG-13 or R.  It wasn’t until April 1^st, when a video was released to the public showing Mario Lopez interviewing Ryan Reynolds about the movie (a nice April fool’s joke that you can see here) when they announced the film would be rated R.

So here we are, almost 7 years later since the first abysmal incarnation of Deadpool was shown in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and we get the film we’ve been waiting for.

Per IMDb.com:

A former Special Forces operative turned mercenary, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter ego, Deadpool.

The film is helmed by Tim Miller, who has really never had much experience in directing, only directing a couple of short films before taking the job to oversee this movie.  Miller has worked on some special effects in video games and was an assistant director in the opening sequence to Thor: The Dark World, but not much else—but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.  That, along with the miniscule budget, tells you the confidence Fox had in this film (not much) and it kind of scares me when I think about what they might do with the sequel (which has already been given the greenlight).  But, for now, let’s just talk about Deadpool.

From the moment the movie begins—and I’m talking about the opening credits right after the 20^th Century Fox logo and fanfare—it is hilarious.  Instead of seeing “starring Ryan Reynolds,” you read stuff like, “starring some hot guy” or “produced by a bunch of ass hats” and many others I can’t recall right at this moment.  Knowing the source material, I was expecting a lot of humor and got more than I’d expected.

Ryan Reynolds, for one, is completely in his element here—his natural motor mouth, spitting out humor, where in other movies you’d wish he’d shut up, but here, you want more and more of it.  You can tell he’s really trying to please the comic book fans and completely doesn’t give a shit about who he might offend.  He’s constantly mouthing off about how little the budget is for the movie, as well as poking fun of the X-Men franchise, which is pretty brave seeing that the franchise’s movie rights are owned by Fox…who is producing this movie. 

The humor is all very self-referential and you have to be in on the joke, especially when you hear Deadpool poke fun about the actors who play characters in the X-Men movie universe.  I know…it doesn’t make too much sense, but you have to just sit back and enjoy this ride and not worry about the logistics of anything said or done in this flick.  The movie borrows a lot of these themes from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, where the main character is always narrating straight to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, but completely keeping everything in check.  The only difference in Deadpool is that it goes beyond that, pointing out that this is a movie and the main hero is self-aware of that fact.  A scene that hits that home is when Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapicic, motion captured by Greg LaSalle) is trying to bring in Deadpool, telling him he needs to brought to Professor Xavier and he asks, “McAvoy or Stewart? These timelines can get so confusing!”

In between the comedy is a lot of great action that can get quite gory at times.  We see Deadpool jumping and flipping around, shooting bad guys dead, sometimes using one bullet to shoot three guys at a time through their heads…it’s all such a rollercoaster ride that you may want to see the movie again just to catch what you’ve missed. 

You can see that Reynolds really has a bone to pick with the first time he’d played Wade Wilson as he makes quips about how there’ll be trouble if the lead baddie, Ajax (Ed Skrein), sews his mouth shut.  The film even goes as far as to feature an action figure of that sad rendition of Deadpool from that first stand-alone Wolverine movie.  Also, most of us had heard his comments in the trailer where he says, “please don’t make the super suit green…or animated,” obviously poking fun at the Green Lantern film he’d starred in a few years ago.

 

It was interesting that the filmmakers decided to feature Colossus in this story, but depicted the character as he’s portrayed in the comics instead of just bringing in Daniel Cudmore to reprise his role from the X-Men movies.  In the comics, he’s a huge guy and has a Russian accent and that’s how he’s shown here.  It just makes me wonder what they’ll do with the X-Men franchise now.  Which Colossus will they feature?  The smaller American?  Or the big Russian?  Thinking that it was only going to be a cameo, I was also mildly surprised that Colossus had such a big part in this story.  And not only him, but Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) also had a bit of screen time as well.  Reynolds’s scenes with her are so funny and memorable, it’s a wonder Hildebrand was able to keep a straight face in those scenes.

So, my final “bit” is…YES.  Go see this movie!  You’ll get a bit of X-Men, a lot of humor and laughs, action galore, a bit of romance…everything you’ll want in a movie.  I had a great time with it and I expect that the superhero movies coming up are going to have a tough time beating Deadpool at the box office.  So what are you waiting for?  Go now!

Thanks for reading!