Movie Reviews: Broken City and Gangster Squad

I recently saw a couple movies that I DVR'd that are tangentially in the same genre:  Gangster Squad and Broken City.

Gangster Squad.  This story tells the true life story of how LAPD Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) brought together a group of fellow police to bring down gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn).  Though the movie is based on a true story, it takes a lot of liberties as can be read in the following link.

Mickey Cohen rules Los Angeles.  He has all the top city officials in his back pocket -- well, most of them.  Sgt. O'Mara wants to protect and serve his community.  A young woman arrives in Los Angeles via train.  A man posing as a Hollywood agent approaches her and convinces this young woman to come with him.  The intent is to gang rape her.  Sgt. O'Mara is also at the train station and follows the two all the way to an apartment tower (which if I know my Los Angeles is the apartment tower at Franklin Ave and N. Bronson Ave).  This is Mickey Cohen territory.  Sgt. O'Mara's partner refuses to go in to save the young woman, but Sgt. O'Mara feels it is his duty and into the apartment tower he goes.

Sgt. O'Mara does save the young woman and is soon given the authority to bring down Mickey Cohen.

This is a fun popcorn movie.  If you happened to click on the link that I mention above, you know that a lot more bullets flew in this movie than did in real life.  So one has to realize that you're really just seeing a movie that was inspired by real events and has decided to take a significant amount of liberties.  I did get a kick out of seeing an Officer Darryl Gates (Josh Pence) make a couple appearances.

Broken City.  I tend to enjoy watching movies and television shows that have complex plot lines, but for Broken City I soon found myself lost in the real estate dealings that were flying around as the back story.  Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) murders a known rapist of a 16 year-old girl.  The rapist happened to go free and Taggart took things too far.  Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe) decides to ignore the evidence, but forces Taggart to resign.
  

Seven years later (Biblical number, no doubt), Mayor Hostetler employs Taggart as a private detective.  His job is to determine if the Mayor's wife, Cathleen Hostetler (Catherine Zeta-Jones), is having an affair.

For me, this movie had too much going on.  This might have made a great HBO television series where a deeper dive could take place, but I think this less than 2 hour movie throws too much at the screen.  There is political corruption.  There is a mayoral race.  Two relationships are falling apart.  This is a movie that you probably need to watch three times to understand all the different story plots, but why would anyone want to do that.

Endless Bummer and Feels at The Smell

I headed over to The Smell to catch one of my favorite bands, Feels.  Along the way, I was able to catch Endless Bummer.  This band plays punk with screaming abandon.  Add in some flying hair mixed in with their sound and the output drove The Smell crowd into mosh pit heaven.

Feels.  If Endless Bummer caused a mosh pit heaven to form, I think it is appropriate to say that Feels created meditative bliss.  The new member, Amy Allen, on bass fits in quite nicely with the remaining members of Raw Geronimo.  She strikes a pose in the middle, making a statement that she's there to set the beat to your thoughts.

Magnolia Memoir and Dreaming Bull at Silverlake Lounge

Magnolia Memoir.  Mela Lee, the lead singer, at times sings with tender care and at other times turns on the dynamic vocals.  Add in the theatrics of the pianist and the coolness of the occasionally inserted stand-up bass, and you get one enjoyable 30 minute set.

Dreaming Bull. They have that Southern Rock down solid.  One really doesn't know if you're supposed to be dancing in New Orleans' French Quarters or at a gospel revival tent series.  The two dancers on the stage were surely possessed by the music.  

Movie Reviews: We're the Millers and Grudge Match

We're the Millers.  David Clark (Jason Sudeikis) is a small time pot dealer.  Unfortunately for him, he is robbed of his pot stash and cash.  He owes his supplier for the pot.  To cover his debts, David is told he has to go to Mexico to transport pot back into America.  He decides that it might make it easier to cross back into America if he could act like he was returning from a family vacation.  The problem:  he doesn't have a family.  And so he goes about trying to put together a family.  His wife, a stripper named Rose O'Reilly (Jennifer Aniston).  His daughter, a runway named Casey Mathis (Emma Roberts).  His son, a rather strange young man named Kenny Rossmore (Will Poulter).

I found this movie to be surprisingly entertaining.  I'm not really into drug comedies.  How High?  Harold and Kumar?  These movies generally don't do it for me.  But this movie's comedy doesn't really revolve around folks getting high.  It is really about four nearly randomly selected individuals slowly coming together as a real family and the random fun that results from all of that.

Does this movie rank up there with some of the better comedies of recent years such as This Is the End?  No way, but if you're looking for a few laughs, why not spend time with this made-up family.


Grudge Match.  Henry 'Razor' Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen (Robert De Niro) were once boxing rivals equivalent to Dempsey vs. Tunney.  Thirty years have passed since their famous bout.  McDonnen lives a successful life as a restaurant owner (hey, that sort of sounds like Dempsey).  Sharp meanwhile has just found out that he is getting laid-off from his manufacturing job (this doesn't exactly sound like Tunney, oh well).

In comes wannabe boxing promoter, Dante Slate, Jr (Kevin Hart), who wants to put on a rematch between Sharp and McDonnen.  Sharp wants nothing to do with this idea, but a confrontation with McDonnen results in a fight date being set.

This movie has the occasional Rocky joke to make it amusing, but it really isn't worth one's time.  Yes, Alan Arkin, Kim Basinger, Jon Bernthal, and LL Cool J provide this movie with a great supporting cast, but it just isn't enough.  The problem isn't the actors, it's the script which just doesn't hit us with enough amusing moments.

Note:  Stallone is in much better shape than De Niro so the fight and the tension regarding who will win the fight makes no sense.  Yes, this movie is a comedy and so realism (see We're the Millers) isn't a requirement, but seriously.

A Movie Review: Interstellar

Interstellar.  This movie provides the viewer with an engrossing story line and stunning visuals.  At 169 minutes, I didn't even feel the time pass though a person to my left did as he moaned and groaned more than a handful of times.  Part of me thinks that guy was a physicist who just couldn't deal with the creative license that movies are given.

The movie starts with our world in obvious demise.  Though not featured on a global scale, we are able to see on a local scale that traumatic environmental disaster has hit the earth.  The disaster is so great that the world is forced to make certain decisions dictated by government.  Here are a couple examples:

On the good side, nations have dismantled their armies.  There is world peace.

On the bad side, freedoms are limited.  Individuals can no longer decide their own destinies.  The government dictates careers.  Since farmers are needed, individuals are forced into farming.

Also, in order to encourage cooperation between nations, text books are cleansed of subject matters that might offend other nations.

Cooper (Matthew McConaughhey) is a farmer (though it would appear he chose that career versus it being forced onto him).  Prior to this, he was a test pilot/NASA astronaut.  He has two children Murph (Mackenzie Foy/Jessica Chastain/Ellen Burstyn) and Tom (Timothée Chalamet/Casey Affleck).  His father-in-law also lives with them, Donald (John Lithgow).  His wife died a few years back.  They head off one day to catch the equivalent of a bush league baseball game.  A massive dust storm starts to approach so folks hurry off to get back home.  There isn't any panic as this is just normal life.

Once home, Murph realizes that she left her bedroom window open.  Cooper and Murph rush up to her bedroom, which is covered in dust.  Interestingly, there is a gravitational anomaly that has happened.  The dust leaves a distinct design on the bedroom floor.  Cooper studies this for hours and realizes that there is something there, coordinates.  He uses this to discover the all to conveniently close black budget NASA facility.  NASA is attempting to save mankind.  "They" (unexplained beings) have opened up a worm hole that provides passage to a new Earth.  Humanity just needs to find this new planet(s).  

Matthew McConaughey does a brilliant acting job in this movie.  The emotions he displays when he catches up with years worth of videos sent to him from Tom is gripping.  And as we hit the final minutes of the movie, his acting becomes intense.

Though I don't think this is a Best Picture quality movie, I do think it is well worth the price of admission.

Now I'm not saying this movie doesn't have flaws and so (along with potential spoilers) . . .

As a note, the reason for the global environmental disaster isn't placed on over-dependency on fossil fuel, but on over-population.  The movie mentioned via Professor Brand (Michael Caine) that NASA refused to use the space technology to destroy a large segment of the global population.  A very noble refusal and yet (SPOILER) Professor Brand purposely sets things up so that Plan B is really the default and only option (Plan B being that humanity is left behind and frozen human embryos are used to re-start the human race on another planet), which brings up a degree of hypocrisy that is perhaps unrealized by Professor Brand.  On the other hand, if I understood correctly, one reason for NASA's refusal to destroy a large segment of the world's population was that it wouldn't have reversed the cycle of disappearing oxygen supplies, which I guess if you follow that path Professor Brand is a genocidal maniac anyways.  Instead of immediately having blood on his hands, he decided to just focus on the species and let the rest of humanity suffocate to death.

I am not an Anne Hathaway hater.  Well, okay, initially I was when she was doing The Princess Diaries movies, but then she turned me into a lover.  So I love that Anne Hathaway is in the movie; however, what was a touch annoying about this movie was the feeling that Christopher Nolan was bringing back the old gang:  Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, William Devane and perhaps one or two others.  Even Topher Grace sort of reminded me of a placeholder actor for Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Cooper doesn't appear to have had any rust after a number of years away from flying space ships.  Mercy, if I'm away from something for more than 3 months, I quickly start to forget procedures and such.

That scene where Cooper has to separate from Brand:  ah, too much like Gravity, maybe?!?  I understand the need, maybe just write the script differently.

"They" end up being the future us.  My problem:  humanity is supposed to suffocate in the not to distant future so how can there be an us?  Of course, I suppose, the idea of all humanity eventually suffocating was a dire prediction and not the actually outcome.  I understand the Terminator movies use the same SciFi technique, but in the Terminator movies there is a future us whereas in Interstellar there isn't supposed to be a future us.

And technically, when the new planet was found, how many of the billions in human population actually were able to travel to this new planet?  How many spacecraft needed to be built?  Hundreds of thousands?  How is that even possible?  How many were left behind on Earth?

The sound editing/score is so loud that I often had a hard time hearing the dialogue.  I was; however, able to make out the gist of things until the final concluding sentence or two where I didn't catch a single word, which is a real shame as I suspect that it was supposed to provide an over-all philosophical conclusion to the movie.  I have spent time searching the Internet to find what those concluding words were with no luck -- though I did find out that others also had the same issue hearing those words.

A Movie Review: Fury

Fury. This movie tells the World War II tale of a Sherman tank crew led by Sergeant Don Collier (Brad Pitt). His team includes Boyd Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Trini Garcia (Michael Pena) and Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal). Their alternate driver was killed in action and they are assigned a trained typist, Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman).  This doesn't sit well with Collier, but he has to work with what he has.

The crew doesn't have much time to get Ellison up to speed.  The Allies at this point are assured of victory, but this has resulted in a desperate Germany that has its back against the wall and has decided to go out fighting versus surrendering.  Since the war is now in Germany, the Allies supply lines are extended. Making stands that will protect the supply lines are essential.  Having someone who doesn't wish to kill the enemy just won't due, especially when it puts American lives at risk.  Ellison is forced to take an action that ranks as a war crime (technically he didn't commit the war crime).
My one psychological problem with this movie is Ellison.  Could someone who is an office-level army grunt find it within himself to adjust to the battlefield as quickly as he did?  Within what is perhaps two days, he's off killing Germans without qualm.  I don't know.

I did enjoy watching the crew dynamics.  The crew is tight and Ellison is the outsider.  They give him a hard time, melding him in the best way they know how into an effective member of their crew.  There is also jealousy that results when Collier takes Ellison solo up to an apartment where eggs are exchanged for sex.  (I think there is a flaw in this scene.  I believe I saw 6 eggs exchanged; however, seven individuals are eventually eating those eggs.)  The other members of the crew show up to the apartment and are not that pleased with the situation.  Of course, two of the members had found their woman (perhaps three) so it seemed to me that Collier was simply trying to get Ellison some sex.

Part of me suspects that this movie tries to walk a tightrope in one respect.  I think we have a gut feeling that Germans, Japanese and Italians were not the only soldiers who committed war crimes during World War II.  Germans who surrendered are executed.  The one thing the movie won't do is showing potential rapes happening.  Instead, women are treated as temporary prostitutes where food is exchanged for sex.  Did rapes happen, I suspect so, especially by slightly mentally unstable individuals like Travis.

Do I recommend this movie:  yes, definitely worth your time.

A Movie Review: A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange.  Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is a psychopathic delinquent.  We meet him as he and his gang are off beating up a homeless man, getting into a fight with a rival gang and driving off to a random home where they beat up a Mr. Alexander (Patrick Magee) and rape his wife Mrs. Alexander (Adrienne Corri).  This all happens during one night of violence.

He has a falling out with his gang.  When they are in the middle of a home robbery, the police arrive.  As he runs out of the house, one member of his gang smashes a bottle across his face.  They then take off, leaving him as the scapegoat.

The woman dies and he is sentenced to prison.  There, he volunteers for aversion therapy.  If it works, he is promised his freedom.

This isn't a violent movie in the sense of violent movies we now see in the theaters.  We don't see faces blown apart with rapid gunfire.  It is violent in the sense that the movie deals with a violent society and we see folks being violated physically (including rape).

The movie also deals with the topic of free will.  Even if we are able to "heal" a person from their violent behavior, is it appropriate?  And even if one can take away a person's free will, does free will eventually re-assert itself?  Before being released from prison, Alex is put through a couple of test before an audience.  One test has a beautiful naked woman brought before him.  He becomes ill.  Then in the final scene, Alex's free will has returned and so has his original character.  That character would surely have molested that young woman and then taken the beating he no doubt would have gotten from the jailer.

Also, I think a theme in the movie is that prison is a way to protect society from improper behavior.  When Alex is released he ends up at the house of Mr. Alexander (via an unfortunate encounter with his former gang).  There isn't any initial recognition by Mr. Alexander, but he eventually realizes who Alex is.  He concocts a scheme to torment Alex.  So here we have a model citizen who when given the opportunity turns into a version of Alex driven by a desire for vengence.

Movie Review: The Children's Hour

The Children's Hour (1961).  Karen Wright (Audrey Hepburn) and Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine) run an all girls boarding school that caters to the upper-middle class.  The two have a relatively nice life.

They are best friends.  Karen is being wooed by Dr. Joe Cardin (James Garner), which causes some concern with Martha (that she will no longer be an important part of Karen's life).  Perhaps their one major glitch is that Martha's aunt, Mrs. Lily Mortar (Miriam Hopkins), also works at the school.  It is more of a pity hire, a person who must be tolerated.  She is a former actress who would be indigent if not for this position.  She's also a tad unstable or let's just say over-dramatic.

Though Lily might be just a glitch in their life, they do have a major problem.  The major problem is problem child Mary Tilford (Karen Balkin) who ranks right up there with the girl from The Bad Seed as one of the most evil girls in film history.  Mary is constantly disciplined.  In revenge, she puts together a rumor based on two facts:  Lily (being over-dramatic) calls the friendship between Karen and Martha "unnatural" and Karen and Martha often talk with each other in their separate bedrooms.  Though the word lesbian is never spoken, you know that this is the accusation that Mary spreads.  Within hours, all the girls are pulled from the school.

This movie might appear dated, but perhaps not.  Something like this could happen in 2014 at say a religious school.

Since this is a movie that was made in 1961, I'm not sure this should be considered a spoiler, but it is revealed that Martha does have "unnatural" feelings towards Karen.  And in the end, she commits suicide.  One could say that even though this movie argues against small town morals and gossip, it also takes an anti-homosexual stance in those final scenes.  I don't know the movie statistics, but I do believe that it is standard that individuals considered to have moral/ethical short-comings are the ones more likely to die versus those who live in virtue.  On the other hand, one could argue that the meaning of those final scenes is that Martha just couldn't handle the societal condemnation and this was her attempt to free herself.  The final scene of the movie is focused on Karen as she walks away from the funeral.  She ignores the others that are there, as well, perhaps there out of their own moral shame.  I think this is the key scene to debate.  What exactly does it mean?

Do I recommend seeing this movie?  Yes.

Movie Review: Love in the Afternoon

Love in the Afternoon.  This has to rank as one of Audrey Hepburn's worst movies.  I barely made it through the movie.  The most irritating moments in this movie were the musicians that constantly followed Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper) around everywhere.  Though it is meant to be amusing, it just gets tiring after awhile.

Ariane Chavasse (Audrey Hepburn) is in college majoring in Music.  Her father, Claude Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier), is a private detective.  He is approached by a Monsieur X (John McGiver) who is convinced that his wife is having an affair with a middle-aged playboy, Frank Flannagan.

Ariane begins to track her father's research and becomes infatuated with Frank Flannagan.  She learns that Frank is having an affair with Monsieur X's wife.  She also learns that Monsieur X plans to take things into his own hands (he has a gun).  So she heads off to the hotel where she warns Frank about the impending danger.

Ariane and Frank then carry on a brief affair.  Then off he goes.  Do they eventually re-connect?

The major problem I had with this movie was the idea that Frank could woe Ariane.  If I did my math right, when this movie was released, Gary Cooper was 56 while Audrey Hepburn was 28.  That's a 28 year difference.  In reality, Frank looks 56 while Ariane looks like she is a 20 year-old college student, which makes the age gap look more like 36.  Of course, these romances do occur in real life, but it is not the norm.

Also, even though Frank is portrayed as a playboy via news clippings, it really never feels that way via his interactions with Ariane and his various other female lovers.  Instead, he appears to just be a well-mannered, wealthy individual who loves women, many that he probably shouldn't be wooing.  That hardly makes him a playboy in my mind (the women, yes; the lifestyle, no).

Unfortunately, for those Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn and Billy Wilder (director) fans out there, I think you can take a pass on this movie.

Down and Outlaws/Great White Buffalo/The Diamond Light at The Satellite

I was out of town for ten weeks due to work.  I did return on the weekends so I got to catch the occasional weekend music festival, but this was essentially my first time at a local music venue in a couple months.  Where did I decide to go?  I decided to head off to The Satellite.

Down and Outlaws.  This San Francisco band reminded me of Amnesia, a music venue up there.  The lead vocalist has a distinct pitched sound that gets the crowd dancing.  Of notice, their second to last song was beautifully improvised.  Pure rock.

Great White Buffalo.  Serious smooth rock beats along with earnest vocals had the gals standing right up next to the stage, singing the words to every song.  There was love in those eyes.  There was just this calm confidence throughout the 30 minute set.

The Diamond Light.  This band reminded me of a favorite band, The Lower 48, in terms of fashion.  The three band members came out in custom made suits.  And much like The Lower 48, they wore those suits with flair and tore into rock and roll.  Their sound blasts out like Marty McFly's head turning prom invasion.

A Movie Review: Gone Girl

Gone Girl. Nick Dunne (Ben Afflect) leaves his house and heads to a bar that he co-manages with his sister, Margo Dunne (Carrie Coon). The bar is owned by his wife, Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike).  It is the day of his 5th wedding anniversary.  It doesn't take long to figure out that his marriage is on the rocks.  Nick and Margo quickly start blasting Amy.

Nick heads back home.  When he enters his home, he looks to the right.  A coffee table is smashed in the living room.  This doesn't look right.  He calls out for his wife.  There is no answer.  He quickly calls for the police.  Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) and Officer Jim Gilpin (Patrick Fugit) show up.  Based on the evidence in the house, they declare Amy a missing person.

Via flashbacks we learn that Amy and Nick had a great three year run.  Then the aftermath of the Great Recession caught up with them and their marriage started a downhill trend.  Nick lost his job.  Amy's parents were very wealthy (part of the one percent), but they were in heavy debt and Amy's million dollar trust fund needed to get drained to cover that debt.  The last straw to there wonderful marriage was when Nick's mother came down with cancer.  They moved back to his small hometown, a situation that Amy just couldn't handle.    

The answer to what happened to Amy is answered by the middle of the movie, but that doesn't take away from the thrill of this movie.  Nick's character is complex.  He comes across as always being under control, but we start getting a different feel for him as the movie progresses.  He's prone to bursts of anger.  He has a thing for a hot young twenty one year old.  Amy, meanwhile, has subtle psychological issues, driven by her mother.  Her mother wrote a series of books called Amazing Amy that tracked Amy's life.  The problem was that Amazing Amy was way more successful than the real Amy was.

This movie has all the makings for a best picture nomination.  Great acting.  A story line that keeps you engaged.  And a nice toss to how society manipulates these situations.

My one problem:  There is a scene in the movie where Nick is in his house, getting ready for an interview.  Then there is another scene where he is at his sister's house.  Then we go back to where he is back in his house, moments before his interview.  I'm assuming that the scene at his sister's house is a flashfoward.  My problem is that this is the only time this technique is used and I think it causes a touch of confusion.  We're used to the flashbacks, but this one flashfoward seems out of place.  

 

A Movie Review: The Skeleton Twins

The Skeleton Twins. Maggie (Kristen Wiig) and Milo (Bill Hader) are twins. They’re known as the Skeleton Twins, driven by the fact that their father gave them toy skeletons when they were young. As the movie starts, they haven’t talked to each other in ten years. What brings them together is a hospital call. Milo has just attempted suicide in California. Maggie flies in from New York to be with her brother. She, in fact, was considering suicide when the call arrived. We also later learn that their father jumped off a bridge. There are some serious mental health issues within this family.

The complexities of this family just grow throughout the movie. We learn that Maggie and her husband, Lance (Luke Wilson), are attempted to have a baby. Well, only one of them is attempting to have a baby. The other, Maggie, is lying about this desire and is taking birth control pills. Meanwhile, Milo attempts to hook up with a former lover, Rich (Ty Burrell), who was his high school teacher at the time.

This movie feels like the comedic take on “August: Osage County.” Perhaps the big fail is that we don’t get to see Academy Award winning actresses going one on one. Add in a wacky mother, Judy (Joanna Gleason), and maybe this movie goes beyond “August: Osage County.” Luckily, we don’t have any incest going on in this movie.

Okay, sorry if it isn’t obvious, I’m not a fan of “The Skeleton Twins.” Yes, the acting is great. Yes, you do get drawn into the movie. My one minor problem with the movie throughout: you have Maggie trying to heal a mentally ill Milo while we all know that she’s just as mentally ill. My one major problem with the movie: the ending. You get this American feel good ending. Hey, I love the American feel good ending, but there is no way these two have even come close to solving their problems as the movie comes to an end and there is no way they deserve the American feel good ending.

Flashlights at The Crepe Place (Santa Cruz)

Flashlights.  I only caught the last couple songs.  As usually happens when I show up in the middle of a set, I ended up thinking:  I wish I had caught the whole set.  What can I say about the band:  high energy and fun.