JMcNaughton, Author at tmc.io 🍿 watch movies with friends 42

Breaking In Movie Review

May 11, 2018 (updated May 10, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“Breaking In” is a taut little thriller that echoes back to a similar situation in the movie “Panic Room”. In this case, there is not just a single room that is fortified and protected, it is the entire house. Maybe call it “Panic House”? Like in “Panic Room”, there are thugs after hidden money, and a mother is all alone while defending her kids against the murder and mayhem. She has the willpower to overcome some evil creeps who want to make off with the money and ‘eliminate’ and problems. The power of motherly love can battle against criminal sleaze, and she might be able even the odds.

Shaun Russell (Gabrielle Union) has found out that her estranged father was killed in a hit-and-run accident. The old man was perhaps into some bad things, since he was on the radar of the DEA. Shaun must go to his estate to clear it out and get it ready for sale. He brings her two kids, teenage daughter Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and younger brother Glover (Seth Carr). She finds that the old man had taken the family home and had given it a full protective make over. There are multiple security doors and lights and sensors, plus shields that come down on the unbreakable glass windows. The place is a fortress, so nothing can get in, right?

Not so fast there, bucko. A group of murderous thieves is about to get into the house to find some hidden cash that the old man stored in a safe. Shaun’s dad was up to no good, but it did pay well. But now he is dead, and the gang of misfits and ex-cons is ready to ransack the house. But then they find that there are two kids inside, while mom is out on the phone ordering a pizza. She gets attacked by a thug but runs, and soon she gets the upper hand. She finds that the main bad guy is Eddie (Billy Burke), who found out that the money was hidden in the house from another ex-con Sam (Levi Meaden). Eddie also has with him Peter (Mark Furze), but he has been tied up by Shaun. The wild-card psycho on his team is Duncan (Richard Cabral), who could kill a real estate agent just to make sure that she does not call the police. Which he does…

Shaun is alone there with the gang holding her children hostage. She needs to find a way to get them safe and to get the bad guys removed. Eddie wants to get the money, but with Shaun and her kids there, it poses a problem. They have weapons, but she has her wits. She also has a fierce protective streak that not even polycarbon-resin based shields can resist. She uses her brains and the tools that she has at hand to play a game of cat and mouse to slowly eliminate the bad guys one by one. She only wants the safety of her family, and if there are people who get in her way – they had best beware. Her husband could not make the trip with her, so she is left to her own resources. And she becomes very resourceful…

This movie is a nice take on the ideas from “Panic Room”, with perhaps a little touch of “Die Hard” thrown in. When Shaun is first attacked and runs away, she had left her shoes behind and is running barefoot. Gabrielle Union does a very powerful job as mother put into a bad situation. She has a screen presence that shows Shaun is resourceful and smart, but she is still scared for the safety of her kids. Billy Burke does a nice job as thoughtful, yet merciless bad guy. The rest of the cast is quite good. For the brief times that they have on screen, they get across a decent idea of that character and what they are capable of doing.

“Breaking In” does take a bit of thunder from some prior movies, but it does present it in a clear and straight-forward way. The movie moves along very quickly, and you can get a pretty good idea of the layout of the entire estate and who is located where. That helps to ratchet up the tension in many scenes. It comes across as an interesting look at how one woman can become a very real nightmare for a gang of thieves. When Shaun gets her “John McClane” going, she is an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.

As Shaun might say “Welcome to the wooded estate home protected by massive security measures, pal!“

The Endless Movie Review

May 6, 2018 (updated May 10, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

Sometimes a movie can sneak up on you and take your idea of reality and throw it in the trash can. “The Endless” can do just that. It can lift out your brain, put it in the blender, and hit ‘Frappe’. But when you are finished watching, you realize that the movie that you just saw has taken you on a trip into an alternate dimension Fun House. Be careful, you still might be stuck somewhere in the Hall of Mirrors.

Two brothers have escaped ten years ago from a weird ‘UFO death cult’, as they called it. Aaron Smith (Aaron Moorhead) rememebers things much differently than his older brother Justin (Justin Benson). Being far removed from that time, they both feel isolated without contact with the cult members. They are living dull and drab lives, and they wish to make a final closing statement to the other cult people. So they head back for just single night to confront them. But at the same time, Aaron thinks they might be able to take them back.

Justin and Aaron stop at the roadside marker that shows where their mother was killed in a car crash and the cultists found the two boys alone. The cult took them in and cared for them, and Aaron has some fond memories. Back at Camp Arcadia, Aaron and Justin meet with many of the people with whom they used to live. The group has no actual leader, but Hal (Tate Ellington) is the one who talks the most and explains things to them. But how to explain that 10 years have gone by, yet the entire group seems to have not aged? There is Anna (Callie Hernandez) who is sweet to Aaron and might be using her charm to make him stay. There is Tim (Lew Temple) who is big and brawny and might be an enforcer who can make people stay.

Justin wants to get going quickly, because he feels something is not quite right at the camp. The members of the group never leave, and there are very odd things that he sees. Gravity does not seem to work in the same way. The full moon is shown to be two moons in the sky. There are things that Justin cannot explain, Aaron is not paying attention at first, but soon he also gets the idea that there are unnatural forces at work. Justin tries to leave, and he gets lost in the woods.

Justin finds a fellow named Carl (James Jordan) and he explains some things to Justin. But he does not believe Carl, until he sees the results of what happens. There is an unseen force or an entity that is controlling these people, at the camp and in Carl’s cabin. Justin goes not he finds a couple of guys in a cabin where unusual things happen with time. In some areas, there is repeating loop where time is not advancing into the future. Justin and Aaron reconnect and both decide that it is time for them to go. But will they be able to get out of the mystery location, without a way to know what the hell is going on?

Justin Benson has come up with a story that takes you and gives you a very strange tingle of your spidy-sences. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead manage to not only direct the entire film, but also two play the two key roles. As brothers who had been able to escape the clutches of a strange death-cult, they return to find things were more bizarre then they thought. The story unfolds very slowly and methodically, with just enough unexplained images and dialog to make you wonder if the two guys are just insane.

For a very small independent movie, this reaches and succeeds far better than a handful of major Hollywood releases. It explores the presence of an unseen entity better than “Annihilation”. It takes a stab at displaying time loops that can rival the movie “Edge of Tomorrow”. It takes a clever look at what being in a cult can do to mess up the brain of young kids, better than any other major movie.

“The Endless” does a credible job of breaking out of a ‘cult status’ movie and being able to become a well-respected and interesting movie that will be talked about for ages.

In Phoenix, playing the FilmBar

Disobedience Movie Review

May 4, 2018 (updated May 4, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

The movie “Disobedience” is a deep dive into the inner workings of an Orthodox Jewish enclave located in London. The focus is on two women, and how the community reacts to the sexual attraction between them. The pacing of the story is slow and methodical, as the ramifications of their forbidden love spreads even deeper. Since one of the stars is Rachel McAdams, the shortcut title might be “The Notebook for Orthodox Jewish Lesbians”. All that is missing is the kiss in the pouring rain and the swans on the lake…

Ronit (Rachel Weisz) is the daughter of the main rabbi in a small London Jewish community. The elder rabbi is much respected, and Ronit is estranged from everyone in the Orthodox group. She has moved far away and does not communicate with anyone from back home. That is, until the rabbi dies suddenly. She is informed that he has passed away, and she decides to make a trip from New York back to her old community. That is, if anyone there will put up with her. There was some undefined incident that caused the falling out with her father and the rest of the people. But she comes back and stays with a childhood friend.

That friend is Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) who is a young man getting setup to be the new rabbi for the community. He is married to their childhood friend Esti (Rachel McAdams) who is the one that secretly contacted Ronit. Dovid is surprised to see Ronit return, because he thought that nothing would make her come back to the place that caused her so much pain. Esti is secretly pleased, because she and Ronit have a hidden past of passion and love. It was this relationship that caused Ronit to leave in the first place.

Passions get reignited and emotions get all tumbled when Esti and Ronit reconnect. The community around them start to get wind of the underground love affair that has rekindled. Dovid becomes very angry and at the same time confused. The things that Ronit assumed would be part of her father’s will that he would leave to her are instead being funneled to the synagogue. So, she left with nothing, and she is coming back for nothing. Only the subversive and illicit love between her and Esti will bring her anything resembles joy. Yet the passion that connected them is tearing apart the community in which they live.

The keys of this movie are ‘The Two Rachels’, Rachel Squared as it were. Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams are very enlightening as the two leads, Ronit and Esti. They pour a lot of talent into the lost and longing looks and steely gazes of the two characters. They are the reason that a very mediocre story line can be enhanced into a higher level of viewing. Also, Alessandro Nivola does a very fine job as the poor guy who gets stuck in the middle of something that he does not understand. Every other actor is well suited to be a typical Jewish community member. Perhaps a bit too stereotypically, in some of the cases.

This will, in most cases, be a must-see movie for a very small and select slice of the audience. It does have two strong female leads. They are in a very interesting situation where they rebel against a very traditional religion. But for a clear majority of people, it might be a little languid in the pacing of the movie. It might also be a little non-specific in the final resolutions. There are many loose ends, and many times an audience likes to see most of the situations wrapped up. There is not a huge excitement factor in the plot or the pacing. The movie simply exists to give ‘Rachel Squared’ a platform to give a very powerful pair of performances.

In Phoenix, playing exclusively at Harkins Camelview…

Kings Movie Review

May 1, 2018 Published by JMcNaughton

The movie “Kings” is an attempt to tell the story of the LA riots in 1992. It zooms in to a close-up level on a black foster mother raising quite a few kids while living in the South Central section of LA. After the beating of Rodney King, there were four cops on trial for the incident. The verdict came back ‘not guilty’, and much of the town exploded in violence. Black people were outraged and took to the streets in droves.

Mille (Halle Berry) somehow has seven or so children in her care. She gets some money from the state for raising the kids, but she also gets some more cash by selling bundt cakes. Which is a very black thing to do, I hear. There are some her kids with names, but there are so many it all seems a blur of who is who. There is an incident at night where Millie pulls another young black boy off the streets, who is being stopped by the cops. She just takes him in and that’s that. Also, there is some young black girl who drops out and maybe gets involved in a gang, but it is not clear.

There is a neighbor who lives alone named Obie (Daniel Craig) and he is one of the only white men left in that part of the city. He plays classical music (it figures) and he gets annoyed when Millies younger boys play ball in the alley. There is one day when Mille is mad at the three younger boys and tells them to stay outside, because they misbehaved will not get supper. Obie sees them and takes the three smaller kids in and gets them some food and cares for them. Millie is panicked, but she sees that her grumpy neighbor has a softer side.

The weeks go on and there is a rising sense of tension, until the verdict comes in from the trial. Then a match that has been thrown onto a puddle of racial gasoline ignites the city into flames. There are roving gangs of violent gangs and multiple stores being looted. There are multiple fires across the city, and the firemen and policemen cannot come out to save structures or people. The raw power of hatred has overcome society, and Millie and Obie are trapped in the middle.

This movie very uneven and it has a place that it wants to get to. But it never seems to get to that place. In a time where there are major true stories to tell (LA race riots), this movie would rather serve up a weak fictional story of a black mother and some white guy. There is a very awkward sort-of romance that is tacked onto this relationship. But that does not feel deserved at all. The characters of each of the kids is so fuzzy that I could not tell which black teenage foster son was the ‘good son’ and which was the ‘mean streets son’.

And there is no indication of that silly movie title and what it means. “Kings’, does that mean LA Kings, the NHL team in LA? Does it mean that LA cops see all the inner-city black dudes as ‘Kings’, as in a bunch of Rodney Kings? Does it mean there was a defective deck of cards, and it contained only face cards, the ‘King’ type card? Inquiring minds what to know!

If this movie wants to see what an excellent movie about a race riot looks like, then they can check out ‘Detroit’. It is a movie from last year, but it also had some similar themes of racial injustice and black rage. This movie “Kings’ is a Hallmark version of a real gritty, down-to-earth expose of a race riot.

Playing in Phoenix area at Harkins Shea 14

Truth or Dare Movie Review

April 13, 2018 (updated April 12, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“Truth or Dare” is no longer just a game or a bad Madonna documentary. Now it is an actual movie. It is “Final Destination” for the Snapchat Generation. “Final Destination” (from 18 years ago) was an intriguing look a group of kids who ‘cheated’ death, only to have death come back to take them one by one. Now many years later, this movie says that just playing a silly game in a place possessed by a demon can be bad for your life expectancy. Play the game, or else you DIE. Tell the Truth and lie, then you DIE. Play the Dare and do it wrong, then you DIE. Hey, mind if I live stream your gruesome death?

College student Olivia (Lucy Hale) and her Best Friend Forever Markie (Violett Beane) take a Spring Break trip to Mexico. They are joined by some friends who also come along. Lucas (Tyler Posey) who is Markie’s boyfriend, Brad (Hayden Szeto) the gay Asian friend, and Penelope (Sophia Ali) and her main squeeze Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk). They are about to leave for home, but that night Olivia meets a guy named Carter (Landon Liboiron) at the bar. He convinces them all to come with min and play a little game. But soon the cat is out of the bag. Carter explains that they are all stuck in the ‘Truth or Dare’ game for life – literally.

Olivia is sort of the goody-goody type, and she wants to see everyone do well. But she is misled by Carter into the game, and now all the people in the group are involved. When they get back home, they are all haunted by an evil demon who forces them to one-by-one take a ‘Truth or Dare’ challenge. But if they refuse, or make a choice and do not deliver, then they are led to tragic end. But because it is a PG-13 movie, the death is not bloody or graphic (or the least bit interesting). But later on, the rules change, er – I guess the demon says they rules get refined. It sounds more like the four writers of this movie just kept coming up with new things to try to stick to the wall.

After a few members of their group get ‘Dared’ to death, they start doing the sleuthing thing, getting into every social media account ever (all on Apple machines, of course). They hunt down the ‘Carter’ guy who got them into this whole mess. They find some information about a ‘Dare’ murder that was in Mexico. It was done by a woman who was earlier possessed by the ‘Truth or Dare’ demon. They work their way down to Mexico and back several times. Olivia even meets with an old ex-sister who claims to know about the abandoned church in Mexico and the demon who took it over. The movie never takes a straight line in any direction. It zips and zigs and then it flips and flops over and over again.

Seeing a group of ill-defined and uninteresting characters go through the motions of getting killed off in boring ways… what else could a horror movie fan want? There is no purpose behind this movie. There is little motivation to follow anything through. There are no likable characters and you feel no loss if one of them screws up against the evil ‘Truth or Dare’ demon. There is not all that much that makes any sense, except for some Apple product placement. The story goes all over the place, and the dialog is cheesy. But it is not cheesy enough to make it a guilty pleasure. It is just bad enough to make you lose interest.

All the actors make a true effort to seem like they are on board with this movie. But everything that need to do or say goes against them. The movie winds up flat and scattered, like a cardboard box run over in the middle of a Mexican dirt back road. The visual effects are goofy and cheap looking. They give the characters who taunt the main person into ‘Truth or Dare’ a weird Snapchat face filter that gives them crazy eyes and a Joker style mouth. There are couple of final scenes that do not even try to hide the fact that the ‘green screen’ technology was broken that day.

If someone gives you a ‘Dare’ to see this movie, tell them the ‘Truth’ – you would rather see a decent movie…

Rampage Movie Review

April 13, 2018 (updated April 12, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

Movies that are based on video games have not had a high success rate. Not even “Tomb Raider’ (redone, again) made much of difference at the box office last month. So can a movie based on an old arcade-style game called Rampage bring to life the movie magic? Best be thinking that if there is anything good to be found in this movie, it will be in the work of Dwayne Johnson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Those two are the bread and butter, but the rest are just garnish.

Engyne is one very evil corporation that is conducting secret genetic experiments. Even better, the serum they produced is on the space station – which simply explodes into bits. There are three containers of genetic serum that land on Earth, ready to cause havoc. One lands in the San Diego Zoo, where Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) has spent years working with the giant apes, and teaching then sign language. One of the apes is named George, so he must have come from the Jungle (George of the Jungle?). George finds the remains of the genetic container and gets sprayed with it. He becomes a huge mutant albino gorilla.

Geneticist Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) arrives to help Davis with George’s intense growth. She was the main scientist at Engyne who help develop the substance. The owners of Engyne are Claire Wyden (Malin Åkerman) and her brother Brett (Jake Lacy). They have developed the serum to sell on the black market. Kate attempted to blow the whistle, but Claire and Brett had her arrested and ruined her life. But now she wants to help Davis control how George is taking over. But George escapes.

George does not get far when he is taken by a big Government agency. This group is lead by Agent Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who takes Davis, Kate and a sedate George into custody. They are taken in a large cargo plane but when George wakes up; he does not like his flight and takes down the entire plane. Agent Russell is saved by Davis and Kate. Then he finds there are two other mutated monster sized animals, a wolf and a crocodile. These two killing creatures are en route to Chicago, same as George. George and the other two monster-sized creatures are being controlled remotely by Engyne, led there by the Claire and her idiot brother. She wants to prove how effective her serum would be to create fighting machines. So what better way to display your wares by getting them to destroy a major city!

But Davis and Kate are on the scene and come in to save the day. With some logistical help from Agent Russell, they are able to communicate with George and calm him down. But with two other mean and vicious monsters on the loose, there are still buildings to be destroyed and lives to be threatened.

Dwayne Johnson gets a chance to play his ‘Rock-ish’ self again. He is one part human and one part giant unbreakable super guy. There is nothing that he cannot do and nothing that does not bend to his will. Except for the three big monsters. He does have his hands full with that. Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays a super bureaucrat who can get things done and never passes up a chance to serve up some snark. He plays this character with a great over-the-top attitude. This movie could be much better just concentrating in these two actors playing off each other. Now that would be great.

“Rampage” could be a bit hit, if you can ignore all of the bad science and all the utter destruction of a big city. When Hollywood finally gives up on the idea of a perfect video-game movie adaptation, then perhaps we could see a movie with Dwayne Johnson and a co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan as – whatever, it would just be fun!

Until then: “It’s Game Over, Man!”

The Miracle Season Movie Review

April 6, 2018 (updated April 5, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“The Miracle Season” is a positive and uplifting sports story of .. girl’s high school volleyball? Yeah, it is based on a true story of a small town high school and the volleyball champions who want nothing more than repeat and win the state top prize this year. But there is a tragic accident that causes the team to falter and lose their mojo for the game. But spurred on by the memory of the effervescent team captain who was has died, the team rebounds and goes all the way to “Just Win, Baby”.

In Iowa, in 2010, the West High School girls’ volleyball team became the Iowa state champions. It was a proud moment for Coach Kathy Bresnahan (Helen Hunt) and the team captain Caroline “Line” Found (Danika Yarosh). Line, as she is known, is bubbly and outgoing and she has a major positive attitude. Her friend and teammate Kelly (Erin Moriarty) does not know how Line can be so sure about the next year’s team and if they can get to the championship game. Line as other things to worry about, like a mother dying of cancer and her dad – Dr. Ernie Found (William Hurt) – who is preoccupied with his wife’s fragile condition.

But before the new season starts, Line is tragically killed in an accident. Dr. Found has lost his daughter, and soon after, also his wife. He is devastated. The volleyball team is emotionally ripped apart and unable to practice or compete. Kelly becomes the new team captain, but there is no enthusiasm. Coach Bresnahan is emotionally troubled, but she tries to get the girls to work through the pain and the grief. At first there is little cooperation. But Kelly becomes a key figure who can turn the spirit around and get into a 15-game win streak. She convinces her teammates that they all need to “Live Like Line”. That is, take a tragic life event and deal with it with passion and purpose.

And before the season ends, the West High School team is back in the driver’s seat. They have made the playoffs and they can contend for the state champion title once more. They struggled and worked through their pain, based on the affection they had for Line. But in the end, they needed to play for their own reasons; to become the best and the most effective team that they could be. But will that be enough for the scrappy little team from the small town high school? Can Coach Bresnahan break them out of the funk of losing a great friend and a really good player? Can the tough coach and the new team captain Kelly lead the way to a repeat victory?

Of course you know the answer, if you have seen any high school sports related movies in the past few decades. Take “Hoosiers” for a basketball story line. Or “Friday Night Lights” for a football based story line. Or possibly “Bring It On”, regarding cheerleading. But perhaps as a first, this is a movie about a girls high school volleyball team. I’m not sure that there are any others like that. So this is refreshing, and so is the fact that this movie works against a couple normal movie tropes. Such as: the ‘inspiring’ speech given by the coach. Here, the coach says – “Ok, we went to state last year, and here we are again. Thanks…”

Helen Hunt and William Hurt use their years of experience in making something more out the characters they have to play. Erin Moriarty likewise does a very good job as the player who need to find the leader within. Danika Yarosh has the most difficult job, seeing that her character is gone after the first 15 minutes or so, but she needs to make her portrayal very memorable. The story is very good, and it sometimes falls into the old stand-by sports movie tropes: the quick-cut training montage set to beat-heavy music, the changes between super slo-mo and regular speed during the games, for example. But one in while it finds something fresh: a scene where all the team, and the coach, stop the bus on the way to the Big Game – and they get out to make angels in the snow…

“The Miracle Season” is a well-made heart-tugger that tells the true story of overcoming the obstacles of grief by being your best. Yes, it plays many of the well-worn clichés about sports teams and life in a small town. But there is a real shining star in the memory of Caroline “Line” Found. She still urges you to “Live Like Line”.

Ready Player One Movie Review

March 29, 2018 (updated March 28, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be. Perhaps that could be the motto of “Ready Player One”, the new movie from Steven Spielberg. Based on a popular book by Ernest Cline (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Zak Penn), it dystopian look at not-too-distant future where most everyone is fixated on the past. In the extreme split between rich and dirt-poor, the greater population lives for the ‘OASIS’. It is an online virtual world of fantasy, dreams and hope for better things. The OASIS has a strange fascination for everything from the 1980’s. There is an evil corporation wanting to take over the OASIS and make just another profit center. But there are some underdog game fanatics who want to see the evil defeated and the OASIS world made safe for humanity, IRL (In Real Life).

IRL Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) is known as Parzival in the OASIS. He has a meager existence for real, living with a poor aunt and her string of abusive boyfriends. They live in ‘The Stacks’ which is a high-rise trailer park of sorts. Wade is more at ease in the OASIS, because of his comprehensive knowledge of the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday (Mark Rylance). Halliday was a cross between Willy Wonka and Steve Jobs, because his intellect was far above his social skills. Before he died, Halliday told the world that the OASIS was up for grabs, due to an elaborate Easter Egg hunt game that he devised to test each person who attempted to compete. The person who can complete the Quest will be the owner and guardian of the OASIS, and one rich dude!

The evil corporation is called IOI and it is led by Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), a weasel of a CEO who wants to win the Quest and take over the OASIS. He has plans to charge fees and sell tons of ads, and that is something Halliday would never permit. But when Parzival gets some keen insights on Halliday that gives him an advantage to the get the first Key. There are three Keys that must be found before the OASIS Easter Egg will be passed on to the winner. Parzival meets a very talented fellow Gunter (egG hUNTER) named Art3mis (Olivia Cooke). She has many good skills to use in hunting the Egg. Parzival also has a long-time OASIS friend named Aech (Lena Waithe) who looks like a huge hunky dude in OASIS (but IRL, Aech is named Helen). Aech is wonder in the tech repair department, and Art3mis (IRL, she is Samantha Cook) is now part of the ongoing Quest.

An impossible-to-win road race through the virtual streets of New York leads to the first Key. But Parzival finds Halliday’s special secret route designed to win the race. The entire main group gets a chance to score the first level of the Quest puzzle. This then leads to a new challenge, having to do with the movie “The Shining”. Parzival and Art3mis learn more about James Halliday and his early partner, named Ogden Morrow (Simon Pegg), by watching the videos stored at the Halliday Research Center. The facility is led by The Curator, who is so impressed with Parzival’s knowledge that he gives the Gunter a special coin (that will come in handy later on). Art3mis gets to the final round in “The Shining” and she gets the next Key. Now the group has only one more to collect…

The final Key is hidden on a virtual place called Planet Doom. But evil IOI and Sorrento has paid a weird bounty hunter named i-Rok (T. J. Miller) to get a special Artifact that can freeze out any other players from getting in. There is a fortress on that Planet Doom that is surrounded by the goon squads of IOI. Sorrento and i-Rok start up the Artifact (a special object with special powers) that creates a force field to protect the IOI people and keep out Parzival and his buddies. But when Parzival calls upon all the (virtual) people in the OASIS to come to his aid, he is amazed to see the support that swoops in to help them. Sorrento has run IOI with evil intentions, and there are many people willing to come to assist Parzival reach his goal.

So in the end, the final Key will be found, and the Oasis Easter Egg will be presented. But to whom will it go? Some evil corporation slug, who would want to take the OASIS system and turn it into a costly profit palace only for the rich and famous? Or will it go to some ragtag group of lovable underdogs, who can take the wealth and treasure of the OASIS and make it even more accessible and useful? Well, do ya even have to think about it? The love and affection that Halliday put into the OASIS can be made to multiply and grow, but only in the hands of the right people. That’s the way a true Spielberg movie is gonna end…

The acting is fabulous all around. Ben Mendelsohn plays the evil slimeball perhaps a bit too campy, but he is great. Mark Rylance plays Halliday as shy and socially awkward mega-genius that reminded me of Rick Moranis from “Ghostbusters”. The music score is done by Alan Silvestri, who created a sweeping and majestic sound that does John Williams proud.

Steven Spielberg has taken many an audience on a magical Quest of his own for many other movies that he directed. “Ready Player One” is no slouch in that category of being magical. It is a visual masterpiece and the story takes you into worlds that are powered by pure imagination. Except for the tad bit overlong run time, the movie is modern classic. Perhaps the ‘real life’ segments are a bit flat and not as exciting as parts inside the OASIS. But that seems by design, to show you how much more life could have to offer.

Do yourself a favor, and see this movie. Do yourself an even bigger favor, and see this movie on the biggest screen available. And if you want to double the size of that favor, see this movie at an IMAX theater. It will not disappoint you. And you can even pay the extra for a 3-D showing, and you will get even a bigger and more immersive treat.

All you have to do is be “Ready”…

Isle of Dogs Movie Review

March 25, 2018 (updated March 25, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

That eclectic director, Wes Anderson, has gone to the dogs! But that’s a good thing, because “Isle of Dogs” is a top pedigree product from Anderson. This stop-action animation was created in the same manner as his prior “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, and now this movie deserves the same recognition. This could be the next Best Animated Feature at next year’s Oscar program, because this movie is Man’s Next Best Friend. It is a visual delight and it is filled with a huge kennel of top talent.

“Isle of Dogs” is set in a near-future Japan, where the city of Megasaki is led by a grouchy old politition Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura). He dislikes dogs so much that when an outbreak of ‘snout flu’ make the canines less than desirable, he banishes them all out to Trash Island. He starts with the loyal protector dog named Spots (Liev Schreiber). Spots is the canine companion and guardian to the Mayor’s young ward, Atari (Koyu Rankin). The young Atari knows that the Mayor is up to something, when all the dogs in the city get rounded up and exiled out to the lonely island of garbage.

There are several alpha dogs that run in an Alpha Pack on the island. Starting with Rex (Edward Norton) who thinks he is the leader, and King (Bob Balaban) who was in a series of commercials, along with Boss (Bill Murray) who used to be a little league mascot, and finally Duke (Jeff Goldblum) who just hangs around spreading gossip. These dogs are sometimes joined by Chief (Bryan Cranston) who is street-smart stray, and never wants to be part of the human world again.

Atari is able to steal a small plane and fly to Trash Island, so he can start the quest to find Spots. The Alpha Pack finds Atari and they want to help him. It is difficult, because Atari speaks nothing by Japanese, and the dogs bark only in English. Rex comes up with a plan, time and time again, only to be countered by Chief. Chief always comes up with a more sensible idea, but he wants nothing to do with Atari. Back in the main city, there is a brilliant scientist who is developing a cure for the snout flu. And there is a foreign exchange study named Tracy (Greta Gerwig) who supports Atari and the dogs.

Atari and the Alpha Pack go on a search for Spots, and Atari grows closer to Chief along the way. Chief wants nothing of the sort, but he slowly sees that a boy’s love for Spots is real. They meet many other dogs in the wild of the island. There is Nutmeg (Scarlett Johansson) who was a show dog in her prior life. There is Jupiter (F. Murray Abraham) and Oracle (Tilda Swinton), two dogs in charge of a different section of the island. Each of them has found a way to cope with being banished from Megasaki. But each one would like nothing better to be back with his or her original owner.

Mayor Kobayashi becomes more fanatical in his hatred for dogs, and he begins plans for an extermination. The dogs begin an uprising and a resistance to the unyielding power of the Mayor. The Office of the Mayor has a real-time translator (Frances McDormand) who is constantly catching all of the interested parties up on the latest development. There is also a deep-voiced Narrator (Courtney B. Vance) who is very quick to explain the finer points of the Japanese local government and the various geological features of Trash Island.

But the real beauty of the movie is in the visual displays of the scenes. Each frame is hand-crafted and manipulated with precision to show stop-action puppet movement. Each character is delightfully illustrated, more than any CGI created animated cartoon could ever be. There is an aspect that looks and feels real, and that is something beyond even the best Disney animated movie. This movie can be compared to Ws Anderson’s other stop-action film “Fantastic Mr. Fox”. But that one was based on a well-known children’s book, and “Isle of Dogs” is basically all Wes Anderson.

When you see “Isle of Dogs”, you will know that Wes Anderson was not barking up the wrong tree…

Opens March 28th – in Phoenix – exclusive at Harkins Camelview at Fashion Square

Pacific Rim Uprising Movie Review

March 23, 2018 (updated March 22, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

The movie “Pacific Rim Uprising” is a sequel to “Pacific Rim” from a few years back. In the “Rim” world, the giant monsters (called ‘kaiju’) were defeated by the humans controlling giant robots (called ‘jaegers’). It was an excuse to see enormous good guy robots lay the smack down on gigantic evil beasts in order to save the world. After the world was saved, it took ten years (in movie time) to get back to the same ‘Rock-en Sock-em’ battle mode. in “Uprising” there is a new threat, and the world is ready to be saved again. This is a Science-Fiction Action movie that relies a lot more on the Action and the Fiction than it does on the Science.

Ten years ago, a brave jaeger pilot and commander named Stacker Pentecost declared they were “canceling the apocalypse!”. They did this by fighting and defeating the kaiju. But he died in the effort and he left behind his son Jake (John Boyega) and his adopted Japanese daughter Mako (Rinko Kikuchi). Mako was a famous jaeger pilot back in the war. Back then, young Jake was starting in the Jaeger Training program until he was kicked out. But after a street brawl instigated by an even younger Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny), who is a street-wise orphan and illegal jaeger scrapper, they both get (forced) into the school. There Jake meets his old partner-pilot Nate Lambert (Scott Eastwood), who wants Jake to take the training seriously this time.

There are new threats that arise, and a Chinese industrial tycoon wants to replace all human-controlled jaegers with remote-controlled drones. There is a special vote to be held in Sydney, but an unknown jaeger attacks the city and kills Mako. She was able to get out a coded message in time. The kaiju may be returning, and this time, they are getting help. There are two scientists (also from in the first movie) named Dr. Newt Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman). Newt now works for the huge Chinese company making the drones. Gottlieb is still with the team that supports the jaeger pilots.

After a sneak attack by the drones, who are secretly controlled by kaiju brains, only the Trainee Cadets are all that is left. Like I said, this movie relies very little on the Science from Science-Fiction. Trainee Cadets include Amara plus a handful of other ethnically-diverse young jaeger pilots. They are led into battle by Jake and Lambert, who have the most powerful jaeger named Gipsy Avenger. Some of the other jaeger names are Bracer Phoenix, Guardian Bravo, Titan Redeemer, and Saber Athena. These sound more like Axe Body Wash scents, but oh well…

But how are the evil kaiju still on the attack after ten years, and who is helping them to organize a new assault on humanity? I am not at liberty to say, but the culprit might say that It’s Always Sunny in Tokyo City. By the way, the skyscrapers in Tokyo take a beating from the jaeger vs. kaiju wrestling match. The whole place seems to be pretty much gets leveled, as the kaiju all combine into one super-sized monster. The thing is heading to Mt. Fuji, and the thing is not after film or apples.

The acting is relatable to the story-line, it is not fantastic, but there are a couple of standouts. John Boyega has a ton of charm and charisma, and he will not be outdone by the same attributes in Scott Eastwood. Cailee Spaeny is OK in a role that tries to make her do (and know) too much. The snide little comments from Burn Gorman as Dr. Hermann make him the best one to root for.

There is plenty of action, and it all holds together really well. That is unlike the mess that is any “Transformers” movie. The pacing is brisk and it moves from location to location with a focused goal. It does not let any fluff take over the story. You know, stuff like, a deep back-story for any character, any accurate scientific theories, any meaningful dialogue, and especially no mushy romance scenes.

To sum it up:

If you like this sort of thing, then you will sort-of like this thing…

Author: JMcNaughton