Man of Steel (2013)

Kneel before him...

I was a little nervous when I heard that Zack Snyder's Man of Steel was going to be based around yet another origin story for Superman.  Even with David S. Goyer's writing and producer Christopher Nolan's involvement, I didn't think it needed to be told again.  Is there really anyone out there that has no familiarity at all with Superman's origin?  Even the recent "All-Star Superman" comic was able to beautifully summarize his origin in a single page.

This might have some minor spoilers, so be warned.  It's a lengthy review, so strap in...

Despite my reservations on another reboot of a well known superhero, I enjoyed the few twists and changes made to the origin told in Man of Steel.  Beginning on Krypton, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) warns Krypton's leaders regarding its destruction.  General Zod (Michael Shannon) stages a coup, and Jor-El uses the opportunity to launch a ship containing Kal-El and Kryptonian data to Earth.  Zod's coup fails, and he and his followers are banished to the Phantom Zone.  Kal-El lands on Earth, and well, you know the rest.

Superman's origin as told in All-Star Superman

Where Man of Steel differs is rather than give you a linear backstory, we catch up with Clark (Henry Cavill) as a 33-year-old wanderer, occasionally using his powers to save those in need before moving on.  We get flashbacks of Clark growing up and dealing with the manifestation of his powers, as well as his relationship with Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane).  Much of the film's emotional depth comes from these flashbacks, not just because they give you more insight into why Clark is who is, but because of the great performances of Costner and Lane.  Jonathan is convinced the world is not ready for Clark to reveal himself, and Clark has been spending much of his life trying to figure out what his purpose is and where he fits in.

Another departure from the Superman mythos was how Lois Lane was handled.  Lois, a journalist for the Daily Planet, is following a related story when she encounters Clark.  She investigates further, and is able to determine his true identity.  If you've ever been bugged by the fact that an investigative journalist never figured out that Clark Kent and Superman were the same person, then I think you'll really enjoy this twist.  She even actively protects his identity once she realizes the threat to him and his family.  Amy Adams was an inspired choice for Lois as well.  She had the right combo of smarts, maturity, toughness and ambition for the role.  The movie shines every time she's on-screen.

Zod eventually catches up to Kal-El and the promise of a super-powered smackdown between multiple Kryptonians is finally realized.  If you're like me and complained that Superman Returns didn't have enough action, Man of Steel makes up for that, and then some.  The last 40 minutes of the movie is all action, and it's the type of spectacle you hope for in an action blockbuster.  There's so much action, that it's a little exhausting to watch, but I still enjoyed every minute of it.  It was a joy to see Superman fly around and punch people at super speed.  The effects are fantastic, and there were only a few times where I thought the characters had too much of a CG appearance to them.  They are really getting the look of this stuff down!

Man of Steel is not perfect though.  I thought some of the things it does with the powers regarding atmosphere were a little odd.  Also, I was kind of bugged that the other Kryptonians seemed to be as powerful as Superman.  Superman has been absorbing solar energy for decades, as opposed to days for the other Kryptonians.  While he does show a greater mastery of his powers, I still think he should have had a bigger advantage as far as overall strength, while the Kryptonians should have had an advantage with combat skills.

Another issue I had was that the dialog isn't particularly good.  There's not a ton of dialog in the first place, but some of the lines are really clunky to the point where you'll hear something said and just go, "Huh?"  It definitely could have used a little punch up, as the film is so serious from beginning to end.  There's really much in the way of humor, but I also appreciated the fact that it wasn't silly.  I'm surprised that David S. Goyer didn't find more of a balance in his screenplay.

As much I loved Michael Shannon as Zod, I was a little disappointed he didn't get to have a great line that can be associated with his performance.  We don't even get a 'kneel' reference.  On the other hand, Zod's henchman, Faora (Antje Traue) was totally badass and sexy.  I wish there would have been a little more depth to her character though.  It was awesome to see someone hold their own against Superman like she did.

I also thought the romance between Clark and Lois wasn't handled well.  It happens way too quick without much in the way of flirtation.  I get them being attracted to each other, but it doesn't seem like there's any reason for them to get together other than convenience.  This is the one angle where the changes to the story didn't work as well.  Rather than see their relationship develop over time in the workspace, they are just kind of thrown together and it didn't feel natural.

I enjoyed Henry Cavill as Superman.  I said after seeing him in Immortals that I thought he had the right stature and commanding presence to play the Man of Steel, and I'm glad to see he proved me right.  First off, credit to Cavill and his trainer.  He clearly bulked up for the role, and physically speaking he's the best we've seen to date in the suit.  He's not playing the Clark Kent we're used to seeing, so there's not much of a true comparison to Christopher Reeve or even Brandon Routh's performances.  It's a different role as far as I'm concerned.  It's like comparing Michael Keaton's Batman to Christian Bale's.

The rest of the cast is strong.  I liked the choice of Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, but he's not in the film much.  They try to shoehorn a moment for him toward the end in an effort to give him something to do, and that felt a little odd.  I'm sure in the sequel he'll have a little more screentime if they spent more time at the Daily Planet.  Christopher Meloni as Colonel Hardy was good, and I also liked Ayelet Zurer as Lara Lor-Van.

Some will complain about all of the city-wide destruction and how Clark doesn't really appear to be too concerned about saving anyone, but that didn't really bother me.  While I would have liked to see him save a few people here and there, most of the time he's fighting multiple, super-powered people at once, and these fights happen at hyperspeed.  Man of Steel doesn't really show Superman as having full mastery of his powers yet, so it may not have been possible for him to avoid damaging his surroundings.  You don't see a lot of the Kryptonians directly threatening humans while he's around, so with the speed of the battles, his immediate surroundings might not have always been on the top of his mind.  Plus, he just put on the suit, so he's still growing into the role while attempting to earn the trust of humanity.  I would suspect we'll get more of that in the sequel.

Another thing I liked, and this will probably bug the Superman purists out there, was the fact that they show him conflicted.  I've read the comics off and on, watched the various cartoons and movies, and sat through all ten seasons of Smallville, and the one thing that's always bugged me about Superman is how much of a humorless, sometimes emotionless, boy scout he is.  I love the idea of seeing him start from a darker place and then eventually becoming that ideal.  Some will argue that I or the movie doesn't understand the character of Superman.  Okay, fine, go watch a different Superman cartoon or movie then.  In case you're wondering, I'm old enough to remember seeing Donner's Superman in the theater, and watch Donner's cut of Superman 2 frequently.  I like them all.

There's nothing post-credits, by the way, despite seeing online that there was supposed to be.  This was probably leaked by the effects crew that just wanted everyone to sit through the credits so we could see their names.  I didn't see it in 3D either, but since it wasn't shot in 3D you can go in knowing that's it's not going to add anything to the movie anyway.

Speaking of the visuals, this is another area where I thought the film excelled.  Man of Steel is gorgeous, and I'm not just talking about how dreamy Henry Cavill is.  Some shots may linger on a little too much, but I thought it was a vibrant film and creative looking.  You can always tell what's going on, even during the faster paced fight scenes.  I think Zack Snyder's style and aesthetic really lent itself to the film, and he even avoided his excessive use of slow motion, which I actually wouldn't have minded if he had thrown a little more of that in.  I'm probably in minority of people that enjoy just about all of Snyder's films.  I even like Sucker Punch on a certain level.  I loved the redesigned Krypton.  It looked suitably alien without being a direct copy or reference to previous films.  Also, the suit looked much better on screen than in photos.  The texture of the suit worked well, and I stopped noticing the lack of red trunks pretty early on.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention Hans Zimmer's score, which is hard to believe since he really outdid himself this time.  The score is practically a character all on it's own.  I've been listening to the full soundtrack on Spotify and I really love it.

While somewhat flawed, Man of Steel delivers on the promise of a Superman movie with more emotional depth, and the super-powered smackdown we've been waiting to see in the modern era.  Zack Snyder and co gave us a Superman that's more relatable and realistic for our time.  It would have benefit from a little more humor, but this is made up for by the cast and their performances.  I anxiously await a sequel.  Full price for me.

4 (out of 5) Death Stars

This Is the End (2013)

If this really is the end, I can't think of many better ways than being trapped with a group of your best friends, or a bunch of funnymen.

This'll be a quick one as there's not much to say about the film.  Not that This Is the End is a bad movie, but it's because there really isn't that much to the plot.  Even that's not really a bad thing as sometimes that's not the point.  It's clear that writers, and first time directors, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg just wanted to make a fun film with their friends that exists strictly to make us laugh.  That's This Is the End in a nutshell.

There's so little to the story, that they didn't even bother with creating characters.  All of the actors are playing exaggerated versions of themselves.  In some cases extremely exaggerated versions of themselves - I'm looking at you Michael Cera - to hilarious effect.  I enjoyed the fact that I could take the night off as far as paying attention to character names.

Jay Baruchel arrives in L.A. to visit Seth Rogen.  They've been friends for a long time, but Jay's not a big fan of L.A., so he doesn't visit much.  Seth wants Jay to bond with his group of friends more, so they head to a party at James Franco's new house.  Much like you'd expect in Hollywood, the party is full of celebrities, and while it's funny to watch, you'll spend as much time seeing how many cameos and people you recognize.  Jay and Seth step out for cigarettes, and all hell breaks loose, literally.

They get back to Franco's house, where they haven't noticed what's going on around them yet, but it quickly catches up.  The remaining group - Seth, Jay, James, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson - board up in Franco's house while they wait for rescue.  Jay believes this is the apocalypse, while the rest think he's overreacting and it's just a bad earthquake.

That's all there is to it.  This Is the End is all about the frenetic pace and rapid-fire jokes.  This is one of those films where the laughs happen so frequently that many times the laughter of the crowd drowns out the next thing said.  Multiple views are likely going to be required.  However, I'm betting this is a release that will have a nice unrated cut.  If not, the deleted/gag reel on the Blu-Ray is going to be insane.

Anothing thing I loved about the film is that most of the best moments of the film are not spoiled by the trailer or commercials.  Rogen stated this in an interview recently, which I was skeptical of, but he was not bullshitting us.  Hallelujah!  It's so refreshing to see a movie that doesn't ruin every gag before you've even seen it.  Part of the reason is that many of the funniest moments are not suitable for trailers or commercials, but at the same time I didn't find the movie that crude.

A majority of This Is the End felt like improv, and you're watching a bunch of friends ripping on each other.  Considering the company that's a good thing.  These guys have done plenty of shitty movies that give them lots of ammo to make fun of.  They probably filmed hours of material and then realized they need to advance the plot, or something, so they started editing the film down to keep the runtime bearable.  About an hour into the film my friend finally leans over to me and goes, "I think that's the first plot related thing they've done."  Despite that there's not much of a story, it never really bugged me.  I was too busy laughing.  I've said recently that this is a weak year for comedy, but this is the funniest film I've seen this year.  I feel like I'm giving a lot of back-handed compliments here.

Rogen and Goldberg have hit home runs before as far as writing, so it's natural they step into directing the same genre.  I'm happy to say they seem to have the same sensibility directing as they've had when writing films like Superbad or Pineapple Express.  They know who their audience is and taylor the movie to that crowd.

I know I'm not giving you much to go on, but This Is the End is the easily the funniest film of the year.  I said last week that The Internship was going to be the most successful comedy of the summer, but this deserves that title.  If you're a fan of films like Superbad and Pineapple Express, then this is going to hit with you.  Full price all the way, and definitely a film that lends itself to an 'altered state' with some friends.

4 (out of 5) Death Stars

V/H/S/2 (2013)

I was somewhat critical of last year's V/H/S.  While I appreciated the return of "Anthology Horror", I felt that the stories were too much of a mixed bag, featuring too many unlikeable characters.  Horror works better when you aren't actively rooting for the people on screen to get what's coming to them.

V/H/S/2 doesn't completely address all of my issues with the first, but it is definitely a step up across the board this time around.  The overall format is the same, you have a 'framing story' that contains the main arc, with several short stories shown throughout.

The framing story, "Tape 49" (written and directed by Simon Barrett), is already an improvement over the framing story from first film.  This time, we follow two private investigators hired to find a missing student (as opposed to following a bunch of punks vandalizing and committing sexual assault).  They break into his home and find a stack of TVs with various VHS tapes.  As Larry (Lawrence Michael Levine) searches the rest of the house, Ayesha (Kelsy Abbott) starts watching the tapes hoping they may have more clues.  Also left behind is a laptop with a video recorded by the missing student saying the tapes need to be watched in the correct order in order to have an effect.

The first tape, "Clinical Trials" (written and directed by Adam Wingard) is about a man (also played by Wingard) that gets an experimental eye transplant after an accident cost him his sight.  The eye also has a recording device implanted in it, so they can track him for the experiment.  It's not long after he arrives home before he starts seeing things.  I thought this was the most effective story as far as actual scares go.  It's just a man alone in his home, and that generally gets to me when watching alone with the lights off.  Plus, this story has boobs (provided by Hannah Hughes), so bonus.

The second tape, "A Ride in the Park", features a mountain biker with a helmet-mounted cam getting in a quick ride before meeting with his fiance.  He's not on the trail before too long before he's stopped by a hysterical woman covered in blood.  She's screaming about her boyfriend, and then the rider notices a pack of zombies approaching.  Yes, zombies!  Written by Jamie Nash and Eduardo Sánchez and directed by Gregg Hale and Sánchez, it seems like a bit of overkill considering this is basically a short zombie film shot.  It's suitably gory and fun, but I don't find zombie stories all that scary these days.  At least they are traditional, slow moving zombies.  The highlight of "Ride" is it's perspective, which is all I'll say about it (no spoilers).

The third tape, "Safe Haven" (written and directed by Gareth Evans and Timo Tjahjanto), features a film crew interview the leader of a cult.  They travel to his compound to conduct further interviews.  As you may guess, it's not long before shit hits the fan and all hell breaks loose.  I'd say this one was the creepiest of the stories for a few reasons, which I won't go into to keep it spoiler-free.  It's also the most involved as far as character details and overall scope of the story.  You could easily see this one being expanded into a full length film.  This is one also has some good moments of gore.

The final tape, "Alien Abduction Slumber Party" (written and directed by Jason Eisener), pretty much says it all.  A boy and his friends are having a slumber party while their parents are out of town, playing various practical jokes on his older sister and her friends.  When they plan to retaliate, aliens show up and attempt to abduct the group.  It's pretty straightforward, but this story probably bugged the most with how it was filmed.  There were lots of strobe effects and too much shaky handheld camera stuff.  The aliens would randomly appear and disappear at various distances for no real reason.  I think I would have enjoyed this one a little more if it was filmed differently.  I've said this before, but why are aliens always naked when they attempt to abduct humans?  I'm starting to believe this is all done by drunk aliens that think it would be funny to strip naked and then abduct and probe us.  They're just messing with us like jocks picking on nerds.

We come back to the conclusion of the framing story.  Again, there are some creepy elements, but I was a little irritated with some of the character decisions at this point.  Just typical horror stuff where you can't help but wonder why the guy doesn't call the police or get out of the house.  Instead he hangs around and watches more tapes.

I still want to know who's putting these digital formats back onto VHS.  Some demonic hipster who insists that the curse from the VHS tapes have more warmth to them?  Outside of that point, many of the technical aspects of the first film were handled more elegantly this time, where it makes sense that people would be filming or have hidden or mounted cameras for a reason.  However, with all of the handheld camera work, you have a lot of really bad shaky-camera moments.  It made a few of the stories hard to follow or watch at times.

Overall, I felt the quality of the stories was better than the first V/H/S, and they weren't quite so random.  There's more humor and personality, and I found myself actually liking many of these characters and wanting to see more of them.  Each story was much tighter and the overall runtime has been cut down, which was another improvement.  At over two hours, I really thought the first started to drag as it went on, where with V/H/S/2 the pacing is brisk.  It's kind of ironic as many of the short stories in V/H/S/2 could be fleshed out into full length films, but I'm glad they stuck with the short format.

V/H/S/2 is a great horror film to watch with a group of friends, as there's a little something for everyone.  Both creepy and gory, it also manages to be scary and fun.  It's the rare example of a sequel being a definite improvement over it's predecessor.  Fans of horror should definitely check it out.  It's likely going to be the best horror of 2013.

4 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Purge (2013)

In the year 2022, unemployment is down to 1%, crime is at an all time low, and the economy is booming again.  There's a catch for all this prosperity though: once a year, from 7 PM to 7 AM, all crime is legal.   "The Purge" allows for members of society to get all their pent up anger, frustration, or whatever out.  You don't have to participate though, and many just bunker up in large homes with elaborate security systems.  One interesting point of the film is how the poor, the homeless, etc. don't have the means to protect themselves and are usually the most likely victims of "The Purge".  I guess it's easy to eliminate unemployment and homelessness if the wealthier can just kill them off once a year, eh?

It's a shaky premise, but I can accept it as long as they commit to it.  The problem is that too many things are referenced that aren't explained, and these ideas aren't explored enough.  Like they constantly make reference to the New Founding Fathers, but never elaborate on this.  And this is set is just 2022?  Society has crumbled such a short period of time to allow for a different form of government or something?  This isn't the first Purge either.  It's clear that his has been going on for at least a few years.  The points they make about the poor are barely glossed over, and are thrown by the wayside once the story decides it wants to be a home-invasion thriller.  I know I'm overthinking it a bit, but these are the things that I can't help but ponder while watching, especially when the characters are so flat and uninteresting.  Sometimes a movie's flaws aren't apparent until you reflect on it afterwards.  Other times, a movie slaps you in the face with them. The Purge made me feel like I spent an evening at a bar delivering bad pickup lines.

Oh yes, there will be spoilers, and I apologize if this post reads as a little ranty.  This movie just bugged the hell out of me.

James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) is an wealthy security system salesman that's clearly benefit from this new society with all the need for ultra-home security.  He has a loving wife (Lena Headey), and two kids - older daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane), and younger son Charlie (Max Burkholder) - that right off the bat you know are going to cause problems as the movie goes on.

We barely meet the family before "The Purge" begins, and shortly after that a bloody stranger (Edwin Hodge) pleading for help is let in by his son.  I had a hard time getting my head around why the son would have the ability and passcode to disable the security and let this guy in.  You'd think a security system owned by the very guy that sells them would have some built in safeguards or something, right?  He should have the top of the line model, too.

Shortly after letting the bloody stranger in, a masked group of weirdos shows up and asks James to give up the stranger.  If they give him up, they'll leave the Sandins alone.  This lynch mob has reinforcements on the way, and assures James they'll be able to get into the house.  The leader of this group (Rhys Wakefield) looks like a combination of Ralph Fiennes, John Malkovich and Crispin Glover, but somehow creepier looking.  The first thing the mob does though after giving this ultimatum is cut the power to the house.  Um, hey idiots, did you consider that the motorized door barricades might require power to operate?  Also, the stranger is now hiding, so without lights, he's proving difficult to find, as the house is quite large.  This is made more frustrating by the fact that James never communicates to the mob's leader that it might be easier to find the guy if they could use the lights.  Also, the idiot son that let the stranger in is continuing to help him hide, and seems to have zero guilt about the danger he's put in family in.

Time runs out and the mob is able to get into the house.  This also bugged me because they were able to simultaneously pull every heavy metal door off the house.  How did they even attach the chains to all the metal doors?  Did they all have convenient hooks on the outside?  Anyway, despite not knowing anything about the home, they run around making all kinds of noise without any care in the world.  Aren't they concerned about charging into a home where the occupants are likely armed (and they were), don't know how many they are up against, and don't know anything about the layout of the house?  Why the Sandins weren't hiding in strategic points in the house waiting for them, I don't understand either.  I also don't get how this security system wasn't designed with any defenses or ability to shoot at trespassers while they're still outside.  The Sandin family should have been able to take out half of these guys before they even got in.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Just as they let the bloody stranger in, we see that Zoey's much older boyfriend (Tony Oller) was hiding inside the house.  He tells Zoey he wants to take advantage of the lockdown to confront James and convince him he loves his daughter.  Only when he goes to do this, he immediately pulls out a gun and attempts to shoot James, 'cause you know, the best way to impress your girlfriend is to kill her dad, right?  The dumb boyfriend gets shot, and for some reason his daughter runs off with him as if on his side or protecting him.  She's upset when he dies.  Huh?  Your boyfriend just tried to kill your dad.  Do you even understand what is going on?

Ethan Hawke does get to kick ass a little during one scene, so that part was cool.  The movie takes a lot of predictable turns otherwise.  The Purge is guilty of one pet peeve of mine where when a bad guy is killed and they don't take his weapon or ammo.  I can't stand that!  The bloody stranger is also seen wearing dog tags, so you can assume he was in the military.  He likely has some weapons training, and may be able to help you defend the house, but that never even comes up.  However, the most irritating thing about the film is that there are three distinct times (which I won't spoil) at the end the film where they could have done something really cool that would have at least let me leave on a high note and somewhat satisfied, but none were taken.  It just ends and everything goes back to normal.  Whatever...

Written and directed by James DeMonaco, The Purge is a complete misfire.  This is something that would have worked much better if it was under an hour and you didn't have as much time to pick it apart as it happened.  The setup is an attempt at social commentary, but it's not developed.  For example, they show that despite living in a affluent, gated community, the Sandin's neighbors appear to be deeply resentful of their success and how they have more than they do.  Well, maybe you guys should have gotten into the home security business then.  It's not like Sandin invented "The Purge" as a scheme to get rich.  He saw an opportunity to make money and took it.  He doesn't even own the company he works for.  He's just an employee.  It's not like he's doing anything illegal.  He has too much so we don't like him!  Jealousy is an ugly color, bank-farter.

Then, I thought about the actual Purge and how it's supposed to create some catharsis, post-Purge, but are you really creating a better society when you're basically rewarding people that are harboring deep psychopathic urges or need to commit violent crimes?  Do you really think one night is going to get it completely out of their systems?  Don't you watch Dexter?  The Dark Passenger doesn't just go away.  I think it would have been interesting to show that after a few years, law enforcement started secretly killing anyone they saw participating in "The Purge", removing those with violent tendencies from society.

The Purge is a mess of a film, and I wish I could purge it from my memory.  The setup has a kernel of an interesting social commentary, but it's dropped as the film devolves into a lame home-invasion thriller, relying on cheap jump scares, and typical conventions where characters do incredibly stupid things.  Finally, it has a terribly unsatisfying ending.  I could see this being slightly more effective while watching at home, but it's such a stupid film that it's really not worth the watch.  If you must see it, save it for rental, but otherwise, there's no need to watch this.

1 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Internship (2013)

My old, cynical self watched the first 20 minutes or so of The Internship with my arms folded across my chest, without so much as a smile on my face.  It's not that The Internship wasn't funny at all, it was that nearly every laugh during this time were all things I've seen in the trailer.  Then I thought, is that really the movie's fault?  Everyone else is laughing, and I'm betting these people don't see nearly as many movies as I do.  Would I be laughing more if I hadn't seen that trailer like 20 times this year?

After The Internship blows its trailer-wad, I warmed up to it a bit.  Don't get me wrong, it's not a great film, but I found myself chuckling a few times.  The humor's a little one-note though, and some gags are repeated a few too many times.  It's easy to say that the film is really trying to get by on the charm of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.  I'm sure that's what Vaughn thought when coming up with the story and co-writing the screenplay (co-wrote with Jared Stern).  The Internship hits all the typical beats, and busts out every underdog, and some rom-com, cliche they could throw at you.  Even the soundtrack has a cheesy, familiar feel to it.  Director Shawn Levy's resume doesn't exactly strike you with the number of huge hits, and he really doesn't take any chances here.  It's all very paint-by-numbers.

The Internship recycles so many plot elements that you'll have the whole movie figured out within that first 20 minutes.  I realized around that point that I was basically watching a retread of any high-school or college comedy where competing cliques or frats go at each other.  It's like a mix of Revenge of the Nerds, only the jocks are just type-A nerds, and Old School, where the dean is replaced by a snooty, disapproving boss (Aasif Mandvi).

Watch salesmen Nick (Wilson) and Billy (Vaughn) find themselves out of work after their owner (John Goodman, who's in everything these days) decides to close up shop without warning.   Unsure what to do next, Billy decides to dream big and takes a chance at getting an internship at Google.  The condition of the internship at Google is that they are grouped up and given a series of challenges.  The team with the best score gets guaranteed jobs.  Nobody wants to get paired with the old dudes, so Nick and Billy end up with a group of cast-offs.  Even the cast-offs aren't wild about being grouped up with fast talking guys with no tech skills.  Do you think the group will eventually come together and rally?  Oh, the suspense...

On a side note, I live fairly close to Google (as well as use their blog software), but I've never heard anything about their actual internships being as cutthroat or competition based as in the movie.  My research shows that while they got the culture part right about Google, the competition is mostly a fabrication likely added for dramatic purposes.  Everyone I've ever talked to has said it truly is the most amazing place to work.

What needs to be said about Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson at this point?  They give you exactly what you expect from them: Vaughn's hypercharged, stream-of-consciousness rants, and Wilson's aw-shucks charm.  They are pretty much playing the same characters they've always played.  At one point there's a reference to the fact that they've known each other since they were kids, and I couldn't help but think that wasn't that also the case in Wedding Crashers.  They might as well have named the characters the same and just called it John and Jeremy go to Google.  The next film can be John and Jeremy join the Army and it can be a retread of Stripes.

The rest of the cast is fine.  The group rounded out with Dylan O'Brien, Tiya Sircar, Josh Brener and Tobit Raphael.  I thought Raphael was funny, in particular.  Max Minghella effectly plays the main antagonist, and you want to just punch his character in the face the whole film.  Rose Byrne also stars as Owen Wilson's main crush.  I could have used a little more Byrne in the film, but that's probably due to my crush on her.

The Internship isn't reinventing the wheel, and for some of you this may feel all too familiar.  I do think that it's a crowd-pleasing film, but a lot of it is going to come down to whether or not you're tired of Vaughn and Wilson's act, or this formula in general.  I warmed it up to it as it went on, and got a few laughs out of it, so I guess I can't quit these guys just yet.  This hasn't been a good year for comedy, but I'm guessing this is going to likely to be the most successful of the Summer due to it's mainstream appeal.  I call it a matinee.

2.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

(Note: Originally I gave this 3 Death Stars, but upon reflecting, I'm knocking this down a bit.)

Now You See Me (2013)

I actually saw Now You See Me several days ago, but I had a detour in Las Vegas, where money magically disappeared from my wallet.  While in Vegas I thought about the last movie based on magicians I saw, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, which was set in Vegas, whereas Now You See Me varies the locale throughout the film.

Despite having a few days to reflect on the film, I find I don't have that much more to say about it, or that my opinion has changed all that much.  I did, however, realize that despite that Now You See Me wasn't a comedy, I actually laughed more than I did while watching Burt Wonderstone.

Now You See Me is an example of a movie that I was expecting to be so awful that I'm probably giving this a little more credit than I should simply because it wasn't a disaster.  The setup alone was already something that was making me cringe a little.  Four magicians of various skill sets - played by Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson - are brought together by an unknown benefactor.  A year after meeting they perform in Vegas rebranded as "The Four Horsemen".  During their performance, they are able to rob a bank in Paris, giving the money back to the audience in attendance.

FBI Agent Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is brought in to investigate along with Interpol Agent Vargas (Mélanie Laurent).  They aren't able to make anything stick to the Four Horsemen, and charging them with the crime would indicate that the FBI now believes in magic.  Knowing there's an explanation for all of this, Rhodes and Vargas meets with Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), and ex-magician that makes a living by exposing the secrets of other magicians.  Bradley explains to Rhodes how they pulled off the first trick, but that the Four Horsemen have been planning for a long time and will likely always be a step ahead of the FBI.

You'll find that the story spends more time focusing on Mark Ruffalo's and his Keystone Cops antics than the Horsemen.  His character also seemed to be excessively angry at times, although some of that made a little sense by the end of the film.  Overall, the plot gets little muddled as it goes on and inconsistencies pop up.  I felt like resolution of the film wasn't very satisfying and a few things were left unanswered.  Oddly, this didn't bug me that much, and that's probably due to the fact that I had enjoyed the movie so much up until that point, that a few inconsistencies weren't enough to ruin it for me.

The main reason why I enjoyed the film so much is that the dialog is actually very snappy and funny.  I was really expecting a much more serious film, so the humor was a pleasant surprise.  The pace of the film is also very brisk with more action and chases than I expected.  I didn't realize going into Now You See Me that it was directed by Louis Leterrier, who's directed films like the first two Transporter films and Unleashed.  It looks like he went into his bag of tricks to add some action elements and it served the film well.  You know what I just realized?  Louis Leterrier directed Edward Norton's The Incredible Hulk, and directed Mark Ruffalo in this film, who was The Avengers' Hulk.  Does mean we should expect Eric Bana in Leterrier's next film?

Another really strong element of the film was that there's great chemistry between the Four Horseman.  The cast, especially Woody Harrelson, seemed to be having a lot of fun together and you really feel that on screen.  Despite the good chemistry, there's not a lot of character development.  At the end of the film, we really don't know nothing about this group of people. Again, I wasn't terribly upset by this, but fleshing out the foursome would have been nice.

Now You See Me is a surprisingly entertaining film, that has a great pace, funny dialog, and a good cast that plays well off each other.  The story is definitely the weak point, but I think you'll have enough fun with the film that you won't notice or bug you too much.  I think it's worth a matinee.

3 (out of 5) Death Stars

After Earth (2013)

Is the twist that M. Night Shyamalan and George Lucas are really the same person?

That's the thought that kept running through my head through most of After Earth.  It has many elements that reminded me of the Star Wars prequels: weird accents, flat characters, bad dialog, overreliance on CG, and it centers around an annoying teen you never really care about.  Is there a typical M. Night twist in the film?  If you count a totally predictable plot/character development that's telegraphed from the opening scene of the film, then yes.

After Earth takes place 1000 years in the future.  Humanity has relocated to another planet outside the solar system called Nova Prime.  While on Nova Prime, they encountered an alien force that operated on sensing human pheromones, especially fear.  Cypher (Will Smith) was able to defeat these aliens, as he has no fear, so he's effectively blind to these aliens since he doesn't give off any fear pheromones.  This is all explained in the first five minutes with a really awful narration delivered by Cypher's son Kitai (Jaden Smith).  What makes it awful is that he's speaking with a weird, made-up accent that made it very difficult to understand what he was saying at times.  The other characters in the film spoke with it as well (Will Smith's seemed to disappear as the movie went on).  It was a totally unnecessary detail thrown in the film that added nothing to the story, other than make it harder to understand the characters.  It's odd that they even spent so much time creating an accent for this society (even though they are from Earth), and desigining all of these cites when they spend maybe five total minutes on this planet.

Cypher and Kitai don't have much of a relationship, so his wife (Sophie Okonedo) urges him to take Kitai along on a routine mission.  The ship is damaged in flight, however, and they are forced to crash land on Earth.  Coincidentally, Cypher and Kitai are the only two survivors.  Their ship is beyond repair and Cypher is hurt and cannot move.  Kitai must get to the tail section of the ship to activate an emergency beacon, but it's several days away.  Earth is a much different and dangerous place since humanity left it, but if Kitai follows Cypher's instructions he believes they will succeed.

That's pretty much all there is to the story, which is a problem as it slugs along.  It's never very exciting or even all that interesting.  We're forced to follow Kitai as he continues to disobey his father's direct orders for no reason.  He even falls asleep at crucial moments.  Part of the problem is that Jaden Smith is just not a strong or charismatic enough actor to carry the movie in the first place.  It's worsened by the fact that his character is written as a typical, annoying teen.  Plus, he always looks like he's about to cry.

If you think his Dad could save this, he doesn't.  In fact, Will Smith barely even feels connected to the film.  Since he can't move, he spends the entire film sitting in a cockpit delivering instructions through a communication device.  If this was supposed to be a movie about a father and son bonding, it would have been more effective to keep these two together for the duration of the adventure.  There's no connection or chemistry between the two as a result.

The CG was terrible.  Most of the creatures looked completely fake, and was of the quality you'd expect to see on an original movie on SyFy.  The main threat not only had a bad design where you can't tell its head from his ass, but it does that thing I can't stand where it moves so impossibly fast that there's no way anyone would last in a fight for more than two seconds against it.  It's as if the CG was almost an afterthought, and then I find out that when Will Smith came up with the story for this, it wasn't even originally conceived as a sci-fi film.  In fact, the title itself is misleading as this could have taken place anywhere, or at any time.  It didn't need to be in the future, or even on Earth.  It could have taken place in just a random forest for all it mattered.  It's like Smith, Shyamalan, and co-writer Gary Whitta randomly decided to set in the future simply because they thought it would be cool.  Plus, they could pump up the budget with unnecessary CG.  Instead, they created a world that we're all totally detached from, when it could have been an uplifting stroy about a father and son.

After Earth is a boring, lifeless, uninspired sci-film that seems to serve only as a vehicle to push Jaden Smith on us again.  It also shows us that M. Night Shyamalan is completely out of gas as a director.  This was not worthy of a release during the Summer blockbuster season.  Skip this one.

1.5 (out of 5) Death Star