The Bucket List

3 Stars (out of four)

The Bucket List is a bit of an odd bird.  It was advertised as a serio-comedy that stressed the importance of living life to its fullest before you die.  This movie came out about the same time as As Good As It Gets and Something's Gotta Give, which I'll call Jack Nicholson's comedy period.  It seems the producers wanted to cash in on Nicholson's comedic stylings which were quite successful. But in the tradition of good movies, this has something more up its sleeve.

For those of you who don't know, Jack plays Edward, a very wealthy investor who owns hospitals.  He has been successful because he promotes efficiency over all else, highlighted in his mantra, "Two beds to a room.  No exceptions."  He becomes sick and is put into a room with Carter (Morgan Freeman), who has also been diagnosed with inoperable cancer.  The two strike up a friendship due to proximity, and one day Edward notices Carter is writing his bucket list, ie things to do before he kicks the bucket.  Edward thinks this is a fantastic idea and takes them on a globe trotting adventure to see the world.  Along the way, Carter realizes how much he misses his family and that Edward is estranged from his.  The movie takes a sudden left turn into discussing what is really important in life.  I don't want to give it away, but suffice to say it is a rumination on things left done and undone in life.  It asks the question, if you were to know the exact date of your death, how would you feel about the course your life took?  Would you change anything what would that be?  What would you cherish?  What is the worth of your life and how is that worth measured?

While it starts off a tad depressing, it gets pretty funny quickly.  But as I said, this movie, despite its promises, is not a comedy, but a serious look into the meaning of life in the face of death.  If any takeaways can be had, it's this:  1.)  Live life to its fullest every day, since we don't know when we'll die, and 2.). Learn to appreciate the small things.  It's fine and well to experience new things and people, but never forget that it's those closest to you, friends and family, that ultimately make life worth living.  You can fill it with distractions and things, but what will they matter if you are staring the great unknown dead in the face, all alone.  It is a frightening prospect.  Those you love will be the ones to face it with you, and the experiences you had with them are the most important yardstick with which to measure the worth of your life.  Get busy living, because ultimately, we're already dying.

The Edge Of Tomorrow

3.5 Stars (out of four)

Boy, I love it when I am proved wrong this way with films.  I go in with low expectations and come out totally blown away.  This is the biggest reason I love movies to this day, the surprise and fun that is possible each time.  Now, I may have gotten a little carried away by the score above because I am still on a high about this film a week later; but I am sticking by it.  When I saw the previews for this film, I thought it was entirely missable, despite my fandom of Tom Cruise.  It promised some fun effects but little else. It looked like a bad version of Saving Private Ryan meets Groundhog Day.  And you know what?  That is exactly what The Edge of Tomorrow is, but it is told with such aplomb and panache, it clamors for, and deserves your full attention.  The low expectations I went into the theater with were totally smashed by the expertise of the storytelling and the totally unexpected humorous undertones that propel this movie to greatness.  Sometimes faith is rewarded.

Tom Cruise plays Cage, a soldier a few years from now, after Europe has been ravaged by an alien invasion.  The world has united against a singular threat, the Mimics.  Scientists have devised a combat exoskeleton that makes a soldier into a badass killing machine.  Emily Blunt plays Rita, the hero from the Battle of Verdun, our first real victory against the Mimics.  We are planning a massive D-Day-style invasion of France to take our world back.  But the Mimics know we're coming and are preparing a massacre.  Cage is killed in the thick of battle and finds himself repeating the day over and over again, each time learning and becoming a more proficient soldier in order to beat the Mimics.

This movie has been been done such a disservice with its awful ad campaign.  Just look at the poster below:  Live/Die/Repeat?  How stupid is that?  There are no original ideas anymore.  Everything has to be reduced to an insulting catchphrase or else these inept dumbasses in movie studios don't know how to handle it.  This is also why they are petrified of new ideas, so brace yourself:  Paramount alone has at least 10(!) sequels or remakes/reboots scheduled over the next two years.  The whole ad department should be fired for their ineptitude in handling this movie.  They have managed to make an incredibly fun experience seem totally missable.  It's almost as if they were deliberately sabotaging the entire movie, it's that inept.  

If you have seen the Bill Murray flick Groundhog Day, you will notice a lot of similarities to it and The Edge Of Tomorrow.  The basis of the humor is the same.  He is indestructible because he will be back the next day, and we see all the reality-bending scenarios that result.  But The Edge Of Tomorrow is more than a one-trick pony.  It uses the plot device of time travel adroitly and never gets caught up in its own logic, creating one of the most paradigm-shifting experiences you will ever witness.  The movie never trips on itself, and despite the complex variables, is quite easy to follow, resulting in an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable experience.  Go see it.  You may be as surprised as I was at how much fun you will have.

Million Dollar Arm

3 Stars (out of four)

Another "Based on a true story" movie, Million Dollar Arm trades in on sentiment.  This is not a bad thing.  Disney is the undisputed master studio at manufacturing sentiment in a palatable way without condescension or a whiff of irony.  And that is what puts this movie a cut above the rest.

Million Dollar Arm starts like a low-rent Jerry MacGuire.  Jon Hamm plays JB, a sports agent, who with his business partner, left one of the largest sports agencies to set up a new, boutique agency.  They have fallen on rough times and cannot sign one star.  Realizing they cannot compete in established markets for new, young players, JB hatches a scheme to snag a young pitcher for US baseball from India.  They set up a competition in India to find a cricket bowler who can pitch as fast as a competitive US pitcher.  The search initially proves fruitless until they meet two young men, Rinku and Dinesh.  Now anyone who has seen this type of movie knows the basic plot.  They will train, have difficulty, lose once and come back in the end.  But the genius of this film is that that plot isn't what it's about.  It's about relationships and connecting and growing together.  Rinku and Dinesh are not much older than 17 in this film and they are taken from everything they've known and are thrust into a media circus with stakes they can't understand.  Bachelor JB's tenant Brenda (Lake Bell) tells him he needs to care about these kids and treat them like people, not a paycheck.  They aren't commodities and they're alone and scared.  JB starts to understand and gradually becomes a father figure to the boys.  He also begins a real relationship with Brenda, finally growing up from bachelorhood.

We've all seen variations of this story before, but in this movie, they are so deftly and smoothly woven together, it feels new again.  It is an entirely enjoyable story that just about anyone will love.  The earnestness of the whole cast, especially the Indian actors, is infectious and we grow to really love all them.  I am personally baffled as to why this film is a semi-flop, because it is absolutely charming and will put a smile on your face.  And if anyone doubts it's influence, most of the patrons on the showing I was in were Indian.  As the credits ran, the theater burst into applause, something I have rarely seen.  Considering the dreck this summer is peddling with crap like Transformers 4, I recommend you see this truly engaging and entertaining flick instead.  You'll be glad you did.

Maleficent

3 Stars (out of four)

There have been vanity projects for artists before in the movies.  It is a tradition as old as the medium.  Rarely do they come off well.  In fact, the usual definition of a vanity project is that it usually sucked, that's why no one made it before a certain artist of substance found it, fell in love, and set about moving mountains to get it done.  Usually something that is labeled a vanity project is media shorthand for something that really stinks and the Avenue of Broken Dreams is filled with such stink bombs like: Battlefield Earth, Swept Away, Glitter, Gigli, Under The Cherry Moon, Harlem Nights, The Postman, Bolero, and most recently, After Earth.  Hardly any star has not had at least one.  However, if they're good, they're labeled Star Vehicles, which include such films as: The Alamo, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Niagra or even Die Hard and Pulp Fiction.  In each case, the main actor is the centerpiece of the film and it was made specifically with that actor(ess) in mind, or at least once it was made, you couldn't imagine anyone else playing it.  Maleficent, I would argue falls into the latter category, but could easily have been in the first.

Just about anyone born after 1955 can tell you the story of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.  We all know the beautiful princess Aurora, born to King Stefan, was cursed by the the evil faerie Maleficent when she was born.  She is wakened by love's true kiss from Prince Philip after he slays Maleficent when she turned into a dragon and they live happily ever after.  But is that the real story?  Maleficent says no.  In the grand modern tradition of retreading old stories so they fit on conveniently into new (usually feminist) sensibilities, Maleficent offers a new, and I think quite fresh, take on the whole Maleficent story.  It argues that Maleficent is misunderstood.  She was angry at past slights from King Stefan, and in a moment of pure vengeance and hate, she curses the innocent Aurora to a horrible fate she did not deserve.  Maleficent watches over her throughout her life, first with disdain, then ambivalence, to finally love.  In fact, Maleficent, like the great Frozen before it, uses love as its central theme.

I myself remember seeing the original Sleeping Beauty when I was about 4, but I can't place the year because it was rereleased in 1970, the year I was born, so I must have seen it in a second-run theater or something.  But what I do know is the damn film should have been rated R, because Maleficent scared the living bejeezus out of me.  She was the first villain I ever remember being truly terrified by, the stuff of my nightmares.  Because of this, Maleficent has always occupied a special place in my heart because she was so influential in my life and ideas.  So I went into Maleficent with a great deal of expectations, because when I saw the first pictures of Angelina Jolie as the titular villain/heroine, I was instantly rapt.  If ever there was casting perfection, it is Angelina for this role.  I cannot imagine anyone else playing her save Margaret Hamilton, the actress who played The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.  But unlike her hatchet-faced features, Angelina's striking, almost angular beauty and grace infuses Maleficent with an almost regal air which gives the film added weight.  With any role, actors bring their baggage with them, the presuppositions an audience has toward them, and Angelina's gravitas in Hollywood is crucial for this movie to work, and boy does it ever.  This movie is all about her, and it works beautifully.

That said, it is nowhere near perfect.  I have two big complaints with the movie, and they aren't the myriad differences between Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent.  Yes, it is a not-so-thinly-veiled environmentalist picture, but what did you expect?  This is Hollywood, and if they can find some way to whine about the despoiling of Mother Earth, they will jam it in somehow;  it is almost instinctive by now, so I just say, as stupid as it is, get over it.  But I do have a problem with the script.  I hope it is only suffering from post-production editing, because if it isn't, it feels like it was written by a twelve-year-old.  It lurches from one scene scene to the next very unevenly.  It also ends a little too cleanly and abruptly, almost as if they didn't realize the story was over and they had to wrap up the last ten pages of the script in two sentences.  The other issue I had was with the forest creatures.  They are supposed to be cute, but are singularly unoriginal and frankly, kind of creepy.  Imagine Dobby from the Harry Potter franchise and put fur on him.  That's what they look like.  I don't know what the makers were going for, but they failed utterly.  However, the Forest and the faeries themselves have an almost sinister, dark beauty which is very effective.

As I said, the central theme is love, but maybe not exactly the kind of love you were expecting, and this is the saving grace of the script.  It is very well executed and quite effective.  A word of advice, the 3D doesn't substantially add to the experience, so save some money and watch it in 2D.  It is perfectly fine entertainment for the whole family, but I suspect younger viewers may be scared of some of the imagery, particularly Maleficent herself.  So parents, you may not want to take your younger kids to this film or you may scar them for life.  I know I was.