End of the Year Blowout

Periodically in Rolling Stone magazine, Peter Travers will do a bunch of shorthand reviews.  In the interest of December 31, here are three quick ones with the proverbial 5 lines:

Hobbit:  Battle of the Five Armies

Like a 10 hour Ironman triathlon, the franchise started strong but slowed significantly at the end.  Even having seen the first 2 movies and read the book, it was hard to follow.  The CGI of the fighting was impressive, but what's a battle without blood.  An animated action flick.  More Bilbo needed.

* *


Wild

Reese Witherspoon is Cheryl Strayed, a woman beset by her obsessive/compulsive desires.  To escape or perhaps to find herself, she sets to hike the Pacific Coast Trail by herself.  As with any single woman, she has her share of near misses and crowning moments.  The scenery and basic premise is similar to Into the Wild but it becomes its own story.  Easy to describe but there's a lot more to it.  Highly recommend.

* * * *


Birdman

Michael Keaton plays Riggan, who is an 80s star famous for his superhero movies (did I mention Michael Keaton?)  In an effort to reinvent himself, he sets to produce and star in a Broadway play What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.  Truly a Producers style flop in the making, it is a  stream of consciousness inside of Riggan's head.   More imaginary than real, but it mixes things up so you never really know.  Strong performances by Edward Norton and Emma Stone make it worth seeing.

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Big Eyes

Today, Christmas Day, was a good day to see a movie with Sarah.  I had seen the trailer but didn't know much about it.  Sometimes that is best.

Margaret (Amy Adams) is a young woman on the run from an unpleasant past.   The movie opens as she takes her daughter fleeing from a past life.  They end up in San Francisco, where she hopes to put her art to some use.   At a sidewalk show, she meets Walter Keane (Christopher Waltz) who appears to be a more established artist.  After a whirlwind courtship, they get married and settle into working their art.

Walter has a knack for promotion and when he makes his first sale, the fact that it is signed KEANE he gives the impression that he Walter did it and not his wife Margaret Keane.  A whirlwind phenom grows and the two are caught in a lie of her doing the art and he selling it and getting the credit.  They split the money as husband and wife, so no harm, no foul, right?

That would be a short movie.  But tension builds and the story must resolve.  It winds up with a suitable courtroom ending to this mystery.

Taking an old story set in the 60s and making it fresh - very much like a movie from last Christmas Saving Mr. Banks.  But this is not a Disney movie.  Directed by Tim Burton, its like a PG -13 form of Disney, with drinking and family violence.   Are you sure Walt would've done it this way?

* * * of 4

A Christmas Story (1983)

This has evolved into a modern day classic thanks to cable TV.   It's even in the National Film Institute of historically significant films.  I knew some basic plot points, but only the Cliff Notes version, like a book you were supposed to read but didn't.

 It was high time to watch it - after all, Christmas is just around the corner.

Ralphie and his brother Randy live with their mother and father in a 1940-ish time.  Not broke enough for the Depression, not prosperous enough for the 50s, no mention of W W II.  In a little town in Northern Indiana.  It is Christmastime and all Ralphie wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder BB gun.  He sets about to get his parents to buy it, but in a roundabout way.  The excuse he constantly hears:  "You'll shoot your eye out!"

Ralphie has other problems as well.  His parents seem to fight on a regular basis.   His mother is a somewhat ineffective in dealing with his father, never referred to as Dad but simply The Old Man. He get picked on at school.  He's not above lying about things to cover up the fears he has.

There are some interesting subplots:  the school bully,whose name Farken.  His parents fights over the leg lamp and the furnace.  The trip to see Santa Claus in the department store.  I won't give away the ending.

Made me think after watching:  why so popular?  I'd say it was the dual sides of his parents - on one hand they seem strict and aloof to this child - but they also show a very loving side to him and his brother.  Told from the child's point of view, it's not a completely rosy look at growing up.  Definitely some truth there.   

 Who doesn't recall a Christmas story of their own?

* * * * of 5

Trouble in Paradise (1932)

Prior to 1934, Hollywood had a more free hand in its movie making.  After what was considered to be a spate of violent movies, and in keeping with that Depression era, Wickedness must be Punished view, the Hayes Codes came in.  No sex, no violence, no bad guys winning.

Getting just under the wire was Trouble in Paradise, directed by Ernst Lubitsch.   Two jewel thieves (Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall)  seek a big score by way of the rich and lovely Madame Colet (Kay Francis).  I'd call her the Geena Davis of that day - big and tall.

Lots of interesting techniques used for the story telling.  Time lapse shots with a clock in the hallway.  Sexual innuendo with lots of coming in and out of hotel rooms.  And the classic shadow silhouette on the bed.

Good dialogue too:  "A bird in hand in worth 2 in jail".  "There's more sex appeal coming on the first of the month".  Spoiler alert - they get away with the heist.  Don't see that so much in the successor genres  - To Catch a Thief, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Ocean's 11, the Sting and many others.  The Heist movie is still alive and well all these years later. 

* * * 1/2

Dumb and Dumber To

For dumb movies, they have gotten smarter since Dumb & Dumber came out in 1995.  The Farrelly Brothers are mainstream comic directors and have the resume to show.  And with the rise of the dumb comic character (Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianikis) the clueless duo is not as dumb as we thought.

Harry (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd (Jim Carrey) meet 20 years later.  Lloyd has been in a mental institution but makes a swift recovery to show that is was just a joke on Harry.  They find out that Harry has a daughter and seek to meet up with her, leading to yet another road trip, this time to El Paso for a KEN conference.  Nice touch.

On the way to the Mexican border, they have some new adventures.  It's a Farrelly project thorough and thorough, reminiscent of There's Something About Mary with a touch of the mystery of the Hangover.  Decent company to be included in - As good as the original, all these years later.


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