NO ESCAPE (2015)

Rated: R

STARS: Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Pierce Brosnan
DIRECTOR: John Erick Dowdle
GENRE:Action-Thriller


Appreciate a good plot? Not the movie for you. Enjoy character development? Not the movie for you. Like balls-to-the-wall action in an edge of your seat thriller?  Si, senor, this da movie for you! Which means that after the prologue and the who, what, when, and where have been established, No Escape is essentially one long continuous action sequence.

Texas businessman Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson), his wife, Annie (Lake Bell), and their two young daughters have arrived in an unspecified southeast Asian country, where he has been transferred by his company. Just in time for the assassination of the prime minister and a revolution in the making. Bands of roving killers sweep through the streets, invading the tourist hotels and executing Americans and their sympathizers on the spot. (It seems they don't like us.) 

 Jack finds himself careening through the streets with an angry mob in pursuit. He must make it back to the hotel and collect his family and get the hell outta Dodge. If they can. And that's what No Escape is about. They run and jump from rooftop to rooftop, from alleyway to alleyway, dodging bullets. An expatriate they have befriended, named Hammond (Pierce Brosnan), falls in with them and is able to provide some cover fire. He may be ex-CIA. Or he may just be M.I.A. In a rare moment where the five of them are able to catch their breath, he intimates--in so many words--that all the stink is a reaction to American Imperialism. (So what else is new?) 

A deeper film might have explored some of the politics behind the turmoil, but that is not the intent here. The movie knows what it wants to do, and it's good at what it does. The only story question being: Will they survive? (Much like Robert Redford in All Is Lost.)  Unfortunately, it is telegraphed who is going to make it and who isn't (for anyone who has seen three movies and can put two and two together). Predictability in a film can be a bummer and make it just another ho-hummer, but things are moving so fast, and you came here primarily to get your adrenaline pumping anyway, so you're not going to dwell on it. 

Owen Wilson, with his basset hound mug (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), seems a peculiar choice for the part of a man who will be thrust into the role of becoming a do-or-die hero, but he grows on you. Lake Bell grows on you too. She doesn't possess Angelina Jolie features, but she has a presence that I find appealing, and sexy even. So I'm going looking for more of her work. 

Grade:  B

JILL'S TAKE

A nail-biter from start to finish. (And if you don't bite your nails? You will by the time this film ends.) The thing that impressed me was how the suspense kept building. And speaking of buildings, the scene where they have to heave their kids onto another roof to escape the angry mob is truly heart-stopping. (It's in every trailer of the movie so I'm not ruining anything.) Usually in these chase movies, I get bored after awhile. Not this time. Whether Owen Wilson's terrified family is running through an unfamiliar city, a blown-up hotel, or a bombed out American Embassy, the tension created is relentless.   

Who is director/screenwriter John Eric Dowdle and what has done in the past? Not much. A third place award from the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for directing and writing As Above, So Below (2014). This tells me he knows his way around cinematic scariness. And he's only 42. So I look forward to more of his directorial efforts.

As for what I didn't like? At one point, the Pierce Brosnan character gives a lengthy explanation of why American corporations are to blame for all this unrest. Ho hum. When I'm on the edge of my seat, completely wrapped up in a "will-they-or-won't-they-escape" drama, I don't need a sermon. Another thing that made No Escape great escapist entertainment was the use of silence. Although Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders are credited with writing the musical score, it was sparingly used -- to great effect.

Grade: B +

RICKI AND THE FLASH (2015)

Rated: PG-13

STARS: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Rick Springfield, Audra McDonald
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Demme
GENRE: Comedy-Drama

Meryl Streep's alter-ego has long wanted to be a vocalist (she has sung in several of her other films), but most of us probably didn't realize to what extent. Well, here we have it in Ricki and the Flash--upchucked from her inner being like a late night bar stool confession.  It's a total vehicle for the purpose of showcasing Streep's musical talents, with a plot that weaves in and out between sets as filler. So let's bring in Rick Springfield to give some cachet to the project, and to play Streep's sometimes lover. And let's add Meryl's real life daughter (Mamie Gummer) to play her daughter, Julie. Now there's a stroke of genius, as the physical resemblance is scary (think of the various ways that can be interpreted).

So Ricki is a sorta hippie, sorta redneck mother of three--two sons and the aforementioned daughter--who, when she's not working as a cashier at the local supermarket, fronts a rockabilly band called Ricki and the Flash. Her kids aren't exactly welcoming to her when she comes a calling for the purpose of consoling Julie over the dissolution of her short-term marriage. Julie is so pissed off about being dumped, it's ugly. And she's all too happy to take it out on mom with recriminations of why weren't you there when we were growing up. Well, Ricki was off following her musical dream, and as she states in her clueless way, you can't follow two dreams at the same time.

One of Ricki's sons is gay, and he seems to have it in for mom just on general principles. The other is about to be married, and that will set up a riotous, rockin' climax at the reception where the band gets to let it loose full bore. Speaking of bores, Kevin Kline is Ricki's anal-retentive ex-husband--ostensible played for laughs at the ridiculousness of two polar opposites coming together in connubial bliss. But it only made me think of how the icy family dynamic was done so brilliantly and more convincingly by Streep and Julia Roberts in August: Osage County.

As for Meryl Streep's musical abilities (she sings and plays guitar for real), she's a decent vocalist, and her ragtag band--an over-the-hill assemblage of guys who could be related to Willie Nelson--is good enough to pass for your average redneck barroom house band. But that made me think of how that scene was pulled off with more sincerity and straight ahead musicianship by Jeff Bridges and company in Crazy Heart.

But so what if Ricki and the Flash is a piece self-indulgent "slumming" by one of our greatest acting talents, who enjoys living out her dreams in the roles she plays? At this point in the game, she must feel she deserves it. 

Grade:  D

JILL'S TAKE

Before I share my impressions of this ridiculous movie (oh-oh, I gave myself away), I'd like to mention a scary reality I encountered this time: as I handed my ticket to the ticket taker in San Marcos, California, he asked to see the contents of my tote bag. It took me a minute to figure out why but I'm all for it. "Better safe than sorry."

And speaking of sorry, Ricki and the Flash qualifies. I don't know what it is lately about movie scripts but they have definitely forgotten the three act formula or how to follow through on the main theme. The author of this turkey is someone whose previous work I have loved. Both Juno (Best Writing Oscar, 2008) and The United States of Tara (Golden Globe winner, 2011) were brilliant. But Diablo Cody's work in Ricki is inconsistent at best and downright lazy. Once the family drama erupted, I quickly lost interest in Meryl Streep's rockabilly warblings. Yes, she's in great shape for her age. And if anybody can get away with a May-December romance, she can. But who cares? Once her daughter's suicide attempt is introduced (and quickly glossed over), another rendition of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" seems trivial indeed.

I always like to find something positive to say in these reviews. It's a challenge this time. But let's give credit where credit is due: The casting director. (Those aging band members were painfully real-looking!)

Grade: D -

  

TRAINWRECK (2015)

Rated: R

STARS: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Tilda Swinton, LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire
DIRECTOR: Judd Apatow
GENRE: Romantic Comedy

If anything, the Amy Schumer vehicle, Trainwreck, will be remembered as the movie that turned sports legends LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire into comedic actors!  They pick up a surprising amount of "playing time" in this satirical romantic comedy written by Schumer and directed by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Bridesmaids).

As of late, Amy Schumer has grown in stature (if not baby fat) to be one of our most popular comics, her onstage routines embracing all things sexual and perverse in that deadpan self-deprecating style. She blows the cover off the blonde all-American girl next door to reveal what we secretly suspected all along--that she has a dirty mind. Trainwreck is her attempt at branching out from being typecast as a potty-mouthed one trick pony into something of a serious (at times) actor, with mixed results.

Not all of the humor flies, but enough of it does to keep theater audiences tittering at regular intervals. Schumer--playing a girl named Amy--is a writer for a Cosmo/National Enquirer type magazine, assigned by her snarky boss (Tilda Swinton) to do an interview piece with sports surgeon to the star athletes, Aaron Conners (Bill Hader). The stage is set for these two to fall for each other, but Amy has been a boozer and a naughty girl, going through men like they were bon-bons on Valentine's Day, and she naturally begins to mistrust her unaccustomed feelings of giddy attraction.

One of the cuter sketches is where Schumer turns the tables, doing a parody on men who can't stand to spend the entire night with their one night stands. Placing a pillow between them to mark her territory after she and Conners have officially become bed-buddies is just the start of some clever and funny OCD playing out between them.

NBA mega-star LeBron James heads up a contingent of sports personalities who are clients of Conners.  James displays some decent acting chops along with his phenomenal athletic prowess in some extended screen time that shows Amy Schumer did not intend to train the spotlight solely upon herself.  Amare  Stoudemire also gets more than a cameo role, in a scene where a distracted and addled Conners is preparing to operate on the athlete's knee, but Stoudemire decides he wants no part of it and clambers out of his hospital bed, staggering down the hall and going BOOM!

Another surprising sketch has tennis legend Chris Evert, Matthew Broderick, sportscaster Marv Albert, and LeBron James all together riffing off one another. CHRIS EVERT EVEN UTTERS A NAUGHTY WORD!  

Never saw that train coming.  


Grade:  B

JILL'S TAKE

Wow. Tim pretty much covered all the bases in this R-rated romp. If he hadn't already gone there, I was planning to praise LeBron's acting chops. He had a lot of zippy dialog and interacted well with both Hader and Schumer. Trust me, it won't be the last time we see him on screen. (Let's hope he's better at it than former athlete-turned-actor Jim Brown!)

I was also planning to mention Schumer's zaftig bod – well not exactly zaftig – as a realistic alternative to the usual anorexic actresses we watch doing the sexy. (Or, god forbid, Melissa McCarthy!) Her character's potty mouth and one-night-standish behavior may not be the norm but her figure sure is.

I guess the only other thing Tim didn't mention was Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl," played throughoutTrainwreck, because it's   Hader's character's favorite song to perform during surgery. Wonder what BJ got paid for letting them use it?

Sadly, I didn't enjoy this flick nearly as much as director Judd Aptow's other two contenders: The 40-Year-Old-Virgin and Knocked Up. It felt forced in places and played-for-laughs rather than reality. Maybe my objectivity was compromised because I couldn't find parking for nearly half an hour! (God bless southern California...)

Grade: C +

TED 2 (2015)

Rated:  R

STARS: Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Morgan Freeman
DIRECTOR: Seth MacFarlane
GENRE: Comedy

From the flashy Busby Berkeley-esque dance number at the get-go, I had the feeling that Seth MacFarlane was going to pull out all the stops for Ted 2, and I wasn't wrong. The teddy bear that came to life one day (thumpety thump thump...thumpety thump thump--oh wait, that was Frosty) is back, with his favorite human pal, John (Mark Walhberg). And they are up to more of the same hijinks that made the original Ted a smash.

Ted has married his gum smacking sweetheart, Tami Lynn  (Jessica Barth), and now they want to have a child. But being as Ted isn't properly "equipped" for the job, John agrees to become a sperm donor. I'll spare you the details of the havoc John and Ted wreak at the sperm bank. Let's just say it takes the gag that everyone remembers from There's Something About Mary to its furthest extreme! When Tami Lynn turns out to be infertile, she and Ted decide to adopt. But during those preliminary proceedings, Ted is declared not to be a person, and therefore disqualified from obtaining a child.. (In an era when even corporations are persons, there's something egregiously unfair about that.)

The plot thickens, and Ted and John look for an attorney to represent Ted in court so he can be declared a person, and they find one in the person of young Samantha (Amanda Seyfried). She's inexperienced and smokes a lot of weed, and though she's not exactly Atticus Finch in the courtroom, she and Ted will have their day, waxing poetically about the struggles of the oppressed throughout history.

MacFarlane never lets the action or the plot get in the way of a good sight gag, which he drops in totally out of the blue, wherever and whenever, giving the film a kind of haphazard, devil-may-care, batshit crazy kind of feel, but you gotta forgive him anything if it makes you guffaw like Goofy...least that's the way I look at it. The gags are often dirty, or biting, with pop culture references galore, and he's taking aim at plenty of targets. Several star cameos, from Tom Brady to Liam Neeson, add to the fun and merriment.

Despite it all, MacFarlane knows how to make you open your fanny pack and fish around for that tissue at the end. Ted just seems so real at this point...in fact, I would say to any young person who might ask: Yes, Virginia...there is a Ted...he exists as certainly as political incorrectness and fart jokes...

You get the picture.

Grade:  A

JILL'S TAKE

Seth MacFarlane is definitely an acquired taste. It's easy to imagine some folks being deeply offended by his sophomoric sight gags and in-your-face humor. Fortunately, I am not one of these individuals. And anyone who chooses to see Ted 2 should know (from the first Ted and A Million Ways to Die in The West) that there'll be lots of cameos (One Tim didn't mention is Jay Leno), lots of profanity, and lots of out loud laughter.

Did I think the sequel was as good as the first one? No. Did I thoroughly enjoy it? Absolutely. The original concept of a toy teddy bear turning into Mark Wahlberg's buddy bear was brilliant. By the second version, Ted is still endearing – in a crude, wise-cracking way. But I felt some of the situations were forced, that MacFarlane (along with the other two screen writers, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild) was trying a little too hard to be outrageous. This was particularly evident with Donny, played with appropriate madness by Giovanni Ribisi. Hellbent on kidnapping Ted so he could steal his stuffing to produce more talking teddies, Donny's chase scene – peppered with comic book characters – was a little too over-the-top for me. Still, it didn't stop me from lapping up most of this campy cartoon of a movie.

Grade: B+

LOVE AND MERCY (2015)

Rated: PG-13

STARS: Paul Dano, John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Giamatti, Bill Camp
DIRECTOR: Bill Pohlad
GENRE: Biopic


Mental illness is a scary thing. And make no mistake, Love And Mercy is a scary movie about mental illness--a biopic addressing critical periods in the life of Brian Wilson, co-founder and creative genius behind The Beach Boys. It's a tale of redemption. Of walking through the fire and coming out whole again. 

Wilson, who is played in his formative years by Paul Dano, and in middle-age by John Cusack, had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic by his doctor, Eugene Landy-- portrayed here with escalating creepiness by the brilliant Paul Giamatti.  Dr. Landy had been appointed as Wilson's legal guardian. He dominated and controlled every aspect of Wilson's life, eventually revealing himself as the actual sick puppy in the story. When a budding relationship develops between Brian and Melinda Ledbetter--a woman who had sold him a car--Landy does everything in his power to quash it. He is over medicating and overprotecting his "sick" client. And then there is Brian's abusive father.

Through it all, Wilson writes and goes into the studio to record new music for the Beach Boys, taking the band in a different direction creatively that not all--especially cousin Mike Love--are happy about. We hear the ethereal music that's playing inside his head. It's eerie, yet beautiful. That sums up the film as well.

Elizabeth Banks, as Melinda, shows off her acting chops as the woman who first falls in love with, and then becomes Brian Wilson's champion--the true hero of the story.

Under the inspired hand of director Bill Pohlad, Love and Mercy is a root-for-the-good-guy, packs a wallop with no punches pulled, yet ultimately touching film experience. 

 In fact, I'd say that anybody who isn't touched by this film is probably crazy. 

GRADE:  A


JILL'S TAKE

Call me crazy then. I absolutely hated this flick. I agree that Paul Giamatti's performance is outstanding – along with his ill-fitting toupee. But in my opinion, Love & Mercy deserves an "F." Why? When a main character, real or fictional, is as self-absorbed as Brian Wilson's character was, I lose patience. Just because someone is considered a musical genius (questionable in my opinion!) doesn't give them license to behave as erratically as Wilson did. Granted, mental illness isn't the same as a common cold. Still, even madness gets pretty boring after awhile. (I felt the same way about Ed Harris' portrayal of Jackson Pollock.)

But the other beef I have with this self-indulgent piece of drivel is the concept of two actors playing the same role. The viewer gets hooked on one story line and resents being pulled away from it by the other. At least the casting of Paul Dano as the younger Brian Wilson had some vague resemblance to the real person. But John Cusack with dyed black hair as the older Wilson? Gimme a break.

I didn't see this particular movie with Tim but I just knew he'd love it. And it's always a lot more fun to disagree on these reviews.

One last bitching point. During the end credits, we see Brian Wilson as he is today, singing "Love & Mercy." He looks as miserable and unhappy now as he did back when he was being manipulated and over-medicated. So much for mental health!

GRADE:  F

ALOHA (2015)

Rated:  PG-13

STARS: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin
DIRECTOR: Cameron Crowe
GENRE: Romantic Comedy


If I had to sum up Aloha in one sentence, it would be: Impressive cast does what it can with what it had to work with.

Brian Gilcrest (the bankable Bradley Cooper) is an ex-military private defense contractor with a checkered past, coming home to Hawaii to help facilitate, in conjunction with the Air Force, the launching of a satellite--the pet project of billionaire Carson Welch (Bill Murray). While there, he steps into a romantic triangle involving his now married former girlfriend (Rachel McAdams) and the young Air Force assistant assigned to him (Emma Stone). In one scene, he is standing right between the two of them, and you can almost hear the refrain from that old song, "Three Coins In The Fountain" (which one will the fountain bless?) There is nothing terribly subtle about this movie.

There are a couple of nice scenes, though, and an appealing soundtrack. One where Emma Stone's character, Allison, is dancing with Bill Murray. I've always liked Bill Murray, so whatever he does, I'm grinning or smirking.  Even if it's contrived and too cutesy-poo to be believable. The other scene is the teary-eyed feelgood ending, which is worth the price of admission. Along the way we find out what Carson Welch's real reason is for wanting that bird up there, briefly touching on the what ifs of the militarization of space (currently there are treaties in place among the major powers to prevent that stuff from happening, but here it looks just too plausible for someone with deep pockets and an agenda to take matters into his own hands).

Aloha is getting panned by the critics, saying it's not up to director Cameron Crowe's other work (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous), but you can't judge a rom-com by the standards of a serious drama. That's apples and oranges.  So we're grading on the curve. The question is, does Aloha fulfill the basic tenets of romantic comedy? Well yes it does. It follows the standard rom-com format of  boy gets girl--boy loses girl--boy gets girl back again. And when there is a  romantic triangle, it takes you to the last possible minute to delay which way things are going to go, to keep ya guessin' and on the edge of your seat. I, of course, had it figured out early on.... but then I'm a trained professional... DO NOT ATTEMPT ON YOUR OWN!!!

Aloha fits the definition of a "guilty pleasure."  You can see the marionette master's hands pulling the strings, pushing your buttons and manipulating your emotions,  but you are powerless to stop him...you old softy!

Grade:  B -

JILL'S TAKE

I've been taught that guilt—whether you're giving it or getting it—is unhealthy. But when it comes it "guilty pleasures," count me in! As I watched Aloha, I knew I was being manipulated, rooting for the right girl to get the wrong guy. (Who will transform into the right guy under her tutelage!) Sure, Alec Baldwin played Alec Baldwin. And John Krasinski played a monosyllabic husband that, in real life, no wife—military or otherwise—would tolerate. But romance is romance. And I'm as helpless as the next gal when it comes to staring into Bradley Cooper's blue, blue eyes. (Are they contacts, I wonder?)

I also loved the Hawaiian touches. The folklore and magic they played up. The music, the magnificent scenery. Hell, I even bought into the idea that blonde, Nordic-looking Emma Stone was part native. But then I watch ABC's "The Bachelorette" so I can't be trusted when it comes to liking syrupy schmaltz. Yes, I'm ashamed that I enjoyed Aloha as much as I did. But I never said I was Albert Einstein. (Or even Pauline Kael!)

Grade: B+