Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

Anomalisa
Charlie Kaufman’s first foray into the world of animation doesn’t bring anything new to the table with regards to his writing. As with many (if not all) of Kaufman’s other films, this is a movie about a talented man who is dissatisfied with the mundane world around him, but finds a new lease on life in the form of a manic pixie dream girl who helps him see things from a different perspective. But Anomalisa stands apart from Kaufman’s other works by being rendered in a truly unique stop-motion world of tiny dioramas and sets. What’s really interesting about Anomalisa is the fact that all of the settings and people in the film are mundane, normal stuff, but the detail with which they’re constructed on a small scale is breathtaking. A simple cab ride or hotel room suddenly becomes a masterful work of art just because of how much thought has been put into capturing every little piece of it. Because I’m a sucker for good stop-motion animation, I really enjoyed this movie, but viewers might get hung up on how much of a sad sack douchebag the main character is. But the quirkier moments in the script and the beautiful animation were enough to make me overlook the film’s flaws.
3.5 out of 5

The Witch
Fans of jump-scare horror probably won’t like The Witch, but if you enjoy classic slow-burn horror, then I highly recommend this one. A group of puritans in the 1600’s have been banished from their New England colony and move to the edge of a big, dark wood to start their lives anew. Shortly after their arrival, however, the family’s baby goes missing, and we discover that he was stolen by a witch who has designs to torment the entire family. Accusations fly, lies are told, the family begins to be torn asunder, and it all culminates in a truly satisfying ending. The Witch‘s greatest achievement is feeling authentic to the time and place in which it is set. Writer/director Robert Eggers apparently took dialogue chunks from real written accounts from the time period, and thus it feels as though we’re looking at something that is, in part, a historical document, enhancing the moments of horror with a strange kind of temporal realism. The production design and camerawork in The Witch are also top notch, and though modern horror fans may be unimpressed, I really enjoyed this movie.
3.5 out of 5

Deadpool
Wade Wilson is a foul-mouthed mercenary with a heart of gold who discovers he has cancer, and so undergoes a superhero overhaul treatment to cure it. But when the treatment leaves him horribly scarred and ugly, he vows revenge on the British villain who kidnapped his girlfriend. This plot description sums up one of my major complaints about Deadpool. This film is clearly trying to bring some fresh, new ideas to the superhero movie trend that has now overstayed its welcome. Its protagonist can break the fourth wall, he’s prone to filthy yet funny turns of phrase, and there’s way more blood, violence, and mayhem than any other Marvel movie to date…but if you boil it all down, this is just yet another superhero origin story. The villains are uninspired, there are only a couple of action sequences, and the settings (mainly a freeway and a junkyard) are so generic that you can barely tell them apart. Furthermore, the cartoonish aspects of the movie often don’t go far enough, and Deadpool’s ability to speak directly to the audience is never really taken advantage of. I can see why people would flock to Deadpool in response to being tired of getting a half-dozen superhero movies every year, but in a way, I feel as though we’ve had the wool pulled over our eyes, because this movie is only “fresh” and “new” on a superficial level. If you look a bit closer, you’ll see that it’s just another Marvel superhero origin story. That being said, the duo of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead were great, and I would much rather have watching a whole movie about them.
2.5 out of 5

See you next Sunday for three more thrilling short reviews!

Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

Sicario
Denis Villeneuve’s film about corruption and drug cartels plays like a cross between Traffic and Zero Dark Thirty. Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent recruited by a government task force to help put a stop to the escalating drug war between Mexico and the United States, under the command of Josh Brolin, and alongside a silent, terrifying Benecio Del Toro, her idealistic views are challenged as she sees first hand how things really work. Sicario does a good job of balancing more political moments with personal character moments, and you feel like you are both getting insight into a real problem as well as experiencing the life of Emily Blunt’s character. But the star of the show here is Benecio Del Toro, who brings a quiet menace to his character that helps increase the tension with every scene he’s in, finally culminating with a climactic moment that actually made me gasp. Combine these elements with Richard Deakins’ trademark gorgeous cinematography and you have a movie that has action and thrills, but which doesn’t fall into simply being an “action movie” or a “thriller.” I highly recommend Sicario.
4 out of 5

The Revenant
Alejandro Inarritu brings the same long-take steadicam cinematography that helped make Birdman so memorable to a different kind of story altogether, and in doing so creates a visceral experience that feels so real, you’d swear you could feel the bitter cold that the characters on screen suffer through. Dicaprio plays a tracker named Hugh Glass who is part of a group of fur trappers on the frontier in the 1800’s. After an attack from a tribe of Native Americans who are searching for a kidnapped girl, Glass and his trappers (among them Tom Hardy and Domnhall Gleeson) decide to head back to civilization rather than risk further losses. But when Glass is mauled by a bear, he threatens to hold everyone back, and so Tom Hardy’s character John Fitzgerald and Glass’s son Hawk stay behind to tend to Glass’s wounds. Fitzgerald quickly grows irritated, however, kills Hawk, and leaves Glass for dead. But this is only the beginning of Glass’s journey, as he has to overcome his injuries and brave the weather and harsh landscape to try and get home…to have his revenge. The Revenant is more of an experience than anything, with the aforementioned long takes making every moment feel real and palpable. More than once I found myself marveling at what the filmmakers had accomplished, and the use of only natural lighting makes the wild frontier both gorgeous and terrifying. I feel as though the story was a bit light on plot and character development – Glass mostly just screams and drools throughout the film – but this is like the movie Gravity. We’re on board for the ride, and it’s an incredible ride.
4 out of 5

The Hateful Eight
Say what you will about Quentin Tarantino, but the man knows how to tell a story. The Hateful Eight is one part Reservoir Dogs, one part The Thing, and one part Agatha Christie mystery, all set in a small hotel/candy shop in the Old West. Kurt Russell is a bounty hunter transporting his prisoner, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, to the town of Redrock to hang. But with a blizzard close behind them, it’s clear that the hunter and the prisoner will have to stay the night in close quarters with a group of unsavory characters at Minnie’s Haberdashery. No sooner is the door to the hotel closed (and nailed shut, in a hilarious running gag), than Russell’s character begins to suspect that some, or all, of the people around him are there to set his bounty free and kill him in the process. The film then becomes a lengthy kind of whodunnit, with everyone a suspect and no one above accusation. At this point, Tarantino’s brand is pretty obvious. He loves to use the same format for all of his stories, and while the subject matter of those stories can be wildly different, they all feel quite similar because of his preferred grindhouse style. Thus, your enjoyment of The Hateful Eight really comes down to whether or not you drink the Tarantino Kool-Aid. Fans will probably enjoy it, everyone else will probably find it a bit too self-indulgent. But regardless of your opinion on Tarantino’s style, you will most likely find yourself wrapped up in the story, always wondering what will happen next. This, to me, was The Hateful Eight‘s greatest strength: it kept you guessing the whole time, and even though the film is three hours long, those three hours flew by for me because I was rivetted to the screen, excited to see when the violence and bloodshed would inevitably break out. This isn’t Tarantino’s best film, nor is it his worst, but even when he’s not delivering a masterpiece, he still knows how to entertained, and I was quite entertained by The Hateful Eight.
3.5 out of 5

See you next Sunday for three more thrilling short reviews!

Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

Inside Out
Inside every living being there is a control room operated by five emotions: Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger. When 11-year-old Riley’s family moves to a new city, her memories, personality and emotion are thrown into chaos. It’s up to Joy, the most optimistic of her emotions, to travel into Riley’s subconscious to restore the balance. Inside Out is at once too complicated and too simple. The workings of the internal world in all of us are a mess. We create new memories every moment of the day, which are represented by coloured orbs. Beyond our short-term memories, we each have five core memories which generate subconscious islands of personality. But if those core memories are disrupted, the islands of personality sink into some kind of memory pit from which there is no escape. It’s all over the place, but at the same time, Inside Out oversimplifies in other areas. Why do only five emotions exist? When Joy falls into the memory pit, why would there be any danger of her being erased? Can you erase an emotion? The fact that the characters are represented by emotions is also a bit of a hindrance because they all become one-note. Sadness is always sad. Joy is always happy. Don’t look for personality traits beyond those because they don’t really exist. This was the conflict I felt while watching Inside Out; I didn’t dislike any particular aspect of it, I just felt that it was surprisingly shallow for a movie about the depths of emotion. All in all, Inside Out is funny and sweet film, and would be great to watch with kids, but it is only second-tier Pixar, belonging alongside the likes of Up, Brave, and A Bug’s Life, instead of with the classics such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.
3.5 out of 5

Bridge of Spies
Steven Spielberg’s Cold War thriller is a spy movie without much in the way of actual spying. Tom Hanks plays a lawyer recruited to defend a Soviet spy in court and then oversee the exchange of the spy for a capture American pilot, and it is Hanks’ performance that makes this film feel much more dynamic than its plot material would imply. It would be easy for a movie set around a negotiation table to become quickly dry, but Spielberg and Hanks handle the script from Ethan Coen with their trademark talent. The result is one of Spielberg’s quieter films, but one that still crackles with tension in every scene. I was not a fan of Spielberg’s previous negotiation film Lincoln, finding it far too long and snore-inducing, but Bridge of Spies keeps the plot moving forward at a deliberate pace. It’s not Spielberg’s best, but it’s my favourite of his in over a decade.
3.5 out of 5

Pan
Quick, name something you like about Peter Pan. Did you say Wendy? Captain Hook? The crocodile? Too bad! None of those things are in Pan – at least, not in the way you want to see them. Sure, Captain Hook is a character in Pan, but he’s not a pirate, not a captain, not a bad guy, he has both his hands, and he’s played by Garrett Hedlund with a truly bizarre accent. Wendy is completely absent, and the crocodile only makes a brief appearance in one scene. So what is Pan about, if it’s not a Peter Pan adaptation? It’s an origin story along the lines of Oz the Great and Powerful or Maleficent: a live-action prequel to a classic childrens’ film, dolled up with CGI and full of bad choices. Pan follows an orphan named Peter as he’s kidnapped by Cirque du Soleil performers (they’re supposed to be the pirates, but they aren’t dressed as pirates and do all kinds of acrobatics) and brought to Never Never Land where they are to be forced into slavery under Blackbeard (played by Hugh Jackman). Blackbeard is abducting kids from earth and putting them to work mining fairy dust so that he can live forever. Eventually, Peter and his new friend James Hook escape the mine and encounter Tiger Lily and a tribe of…natives? Indians? The tribe is a mixed bag of different races and design choices, but ultimately it looks like a bunch of people from Burning Man moved into an Ewok village, and the fact that J. M. Barrie’s “Indians” were a racial stereotype is only made more awkward by the fact that the extremely white Rooney Mara is playing their leader. As all of these new live-action gritty prequel-reboots do, the whole thing culminates in a war, after which Peter wins, returns to London, and frees his orphan buddies – whom we know will become the Lost Boys. Pan is an utter mess, and I find myself at a loss to describe how strange it is. At one point, shortly after we arrive in Never Never Land, Blackbeard leads the slave boys in a rendition of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – one of two anachronistic musical moments, the only two musical moments in the film. Over and over, I found myself asking “Why is this in here? What does this have to do with Peter Pan? What does this have to do with anything? WHY?!” Pan is bewildering, overproduced, and dumb. Avoid it. I expected so much more from Joe Wright.
1.5 out of 5

See you next Sunday for three more thrilling short reviews!

Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

Rocky
Rocky is one of the original, classic underdog stories, and even if you don’t like boxing – or sports in general – Rocky manages to be heartwarming and inspirational in a way many have tried but few have succeeded in imitating. Rocky Balboa is a down-on-his-luck, everyday Joe who works as an enforcer for a loan shark, but who dreams of becoming a boxing champion. When the opportunity to face off against the heavyweight world champion Apollo Creed presents itself, Rocky rises to the challenge. With the help of his coach Mick, he goes the distance and makes a name for himself, turning his life around in the process. Sylvester Stallone gives his career-defining performance in the title role, and I don’t think he has ever topped himself. Rocky isn’t smart, but he has a heart of gold, and he’s great at what he does. We can’t help but cheer as he ascends to fame and fortune. Rocky isn’t a complex movie, or even a particularly deep one, but it’s the perfect underdog tale and has great performances across the board. What more could you want?
5 out of 5

Rocky II
This is the ultimate example of a sequel doing exactly the same thing as the original, and in the case of Rocky II, it’s not really a bad thing. Once again, Rocky is challenged to a fight against Apollo Creed, and once again he trains with Mick until the climactic fight where he wins the day. Rocky II does a fine job of rehashing the same plot as the first one, and it even gives Apollo Creed some more characterization, but in the end, it’s the same film. And thus, I don’t have much more to say about it. A worthy sequel to Rocky that doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
3.5 out of 5

Rocky III
Now that Rocky is a world champion, he has to defend his title against the brutal up-and-comer Clubber Lang. Rocky III is where the Rocky franchise finally perfects its movie structure. It does enough different from the first two films that it feels fresh, while at the same time including all the stuff we love about Rocky movies like Mick barking at Rocky, training montages, and some badass boxing matches. Clubber Lang is a formidable antagonist who you love to hate, Apollo Creed changes his role to that of Rocky’s mentor (and is awesome in the part), and the movie introduces Survivors “Eye of the Tiger” to the series, which is one hell of a great song. The ending is also top notch. Rocky fans may think I’m nuts, but I liked Rocky III just as much as Rocky, but for slightly different reasons. Had the film series ended here, it would have made for a damn good trilogy.
5 out of 5

See you next Sunday for three more thrilling short reviews!

Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

Casino Royale
The start of a new era of James Bond, Casino Royale does some interesting things to the franchise – some of which work, some of which do not. Casino Royale serves as a James Bond origin story, detailing 007’s first mission as the top secret super spy we know and love. But this Bond shuns gadgets in favour of hand-to-hand combat, and isn’t afraid to get brutal with his murdering of bad guys. In order to defund an underground terrorist organization, Bond takes part in a high-stakes poker tournament against Le Chiffre, a high-ranking member who is in charge of the group’s funds.  The result of this plot is that Casino Royale feels weirdly paced, slowing down for about an hour in the middle to watch game after game of Hold ‘Em Poker. The inclusion of Hold’Em Poker makes this movie feel rather dated now, since it was made at the height of the poker craze in the mid-2000’s, and any Bond fan worth his salt knows that baccarat is Bond’s game of choice. Outside of the poker games, though, the action is great, raw and plentiful. This iteration of Bond was clearly emulating the modern spy hero Jason Bourne (who was, in turn, emulating Bond), so there aren’t any gadgets to speak of. Just gunplay, martial arts, and spectacular chase scenes, including a 20-minute opening foot chase that is terrific fun. Daniel Craig, Eva Green, and Mads Mikkelsen are all good in their roles. Craig’s Bond is still charming, but much more thuggish and sinister than we’ve ever seen the character before. Eva Green is sultry but also funny as Vesper Lynd, and Mads Mikkelsen was born to play this kind of villain. Ultimately, this is not even especially close to being my favourite James Bond movie, but it does what it sets out to do: introduce us to a modern Bond unlike any we’ve seen before.
3.5 out of 5

Quantum of Solace
A rare direct sequel in the James Bond franchise, Quantum of Solace picks up right where Casino Royale left off: with Bond investigating a terrorist organization, which we learn calls itself Quantum. And honestly, that’s about it. Quantum of Solace is nothing at all to write home about. I’ve seen it multiple times now, but trying to recall anything noteworthy about it is proving quite the task. I remember that there’s a solid boat chase, and I remember Bond fighting the bad guy as a building blows up around them…and something about stealing water? Ask most Bond fans and this is the description that they will give you. The only thing worth taking away from Quantum of Solace is the character of Mr. White, who will turn up again in Spectre. But since White appears very briefly at the end of Casino Royale, you could honestly skip this movie altogether if you wanted. It neither adds nor detracts from the James Bond franchise.
2.5 out of 5

Spectre
After Skyfall blew everyone away by being the badass, elegant, perfect James Bond film we were all waiting for, Spectre undoes a lot of that good will by pulling the same clunky trick as Star Trek Into Darkness: teasing audiences about whether the villain will be revealed to be a classic villain from the golden age of the franchise. This is one of those movies that tries to unite a bunch of previous movies by having the bad guy claim to have been behind everything, and it just feels shoehorned in. Because the Craig-era Bond films failed to establish Christoph Waltz as (spoiler alert) Blofeld, lurking behind the scenes over the long term, it comes off like Spectre thinks its marketing campaign can do that work instead. By the time Waltz is revealed to be Blofeld, we no longer care, and dangling to mystery over so much of the film just detracts from the better moments. The opening scene is solid, and technically impressive, and there’s a great fight on the train with Dave Bautista against Craig, but the rest is just silly. Bond is given a love interest that we don’t care about, most of the action doesn’t feel organic within the story, and both the set up and reveal of Blofeld and Spectre fail to land with anything but a thud. In the end, Spectre isn’t a terrible movie, but it’s only better than Quantum of Solace by a hair. After Skyfall, I expected so much more from Sam Mendes.
3 out of 5

See you next Sunday for more thrilling short reviews!

Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

The Green Inferno
After a lengthy hiatus, Eli Roth returns to the director’s chair for the much-delayed homeage to Cannibal Holocaust, titled The Green Inferno. After a group of college activists travel to the middle of the Amazon rainforest to stop a logging crew from displacing a local tribe, they find that the tribe might be the greater threat. They’re soon captured and slowly tortured and eaten by the cannibalistic natives, and there’s really not much else to the movie. The biggest problem with The Green Inferno isn’t that it doesn’t deliver the goods – Eli Roth is back to his old torture-porn tricks, and there’s loads of gore and buckets of blood for horror fans to go nuts over. The problem is that Roth doesn’t try to stretch his boundaries as a filmmaker. The structure of The Green Inferno is a lot like Hostel: a group of priveleged kids from the USA travel to a foreign land but get savaged by the locals in horrific and gruesome ways. Eventually one escapes. The end. There are a few brief moments of Roth’s dark humour that managed to elevate the film above your average torture porn horror movie, but ultimately I was a bit disappointed that Roth didn’t try anything especially new. There are some moments in The Green Inferno that horror fans will really enjoy, but in the end, it’s exactly what it says on the box, and nothing more.
2.5 out of 5

Crimson Peak
I enjoy the majority of Guillermo Del Toro’s work, and I’m a big fan of Hammer Horror films, so when it looked like that’s exactly what Del Toro was making with Crimson Peak, I was pretty excited. Sadly, Crimson Peak was a major letdown for me, and the reasons are numerous. Edith Cushing is a young aspiring author whose life becomes entangled with a mysterious clay baron named Thomas Sharpe and his weirdo sister. Together they all live at a spooky, gothic mansion that the locals nickname Crimson Peak because it sits upon a plateau of red clay. Oh, and the house is haunted, of course. All of the elements of a great movie exist within Crimson Peak. The setting, production design, and costumes are all fantastic. Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain as the creepy Sharpe siblings are terrific in their campy roles. But beyond those things, I don’t have a lot to recommend here. The ghosts in the movie do not factor into the story whatsoever. You could remove them completely and nothing would change. The movie is filled with abandoned plot threads. The fact that Edith is an aspiring writer plays no role in the plot, and you don’t even get to hear an excerpt of the story she is working on during the first five minutes (and then never again). Charlie Hunnam’s character is a wooden block, and Mia Wasikowska’s Edith is as cold and pale as the slab of porcelain that her skin resembles. The biggest disappointment, however, is the reveal of the villains’ motivations. They are dull and mundane, and feel completely out of place when surrounded with bloody ghosts and murder mysteries. This is the most frustrating kind of movie; the kind that’s obviously a wasted opportunity where you can see a great movie bubbling below the surface. As it stands, though, I think this is one of Del Toro’s weakest movies.
2.5 out of 5

Horror Express
Sometimes the best way to make a movie is to take two plots and smash them together into one, and that’s what you’ll get with Horror Express! This little-known, little-seen and highly underrated horror film starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing could best be described as a mashup of John Carpenter’s The Thing and Murder on the Orient Express, and it’s executed perfectly. Lee plays a British anthropologist who discovers a bizarre creature frozen in a Manchurian mountain. He loads it aboard a train to transport it back to Britain for study, but along the way the creature thaws out…and starts assuming the forms of other passengers. It’s up to Lee and his professional rival played by Cushing to stop the creature before it kills everybody! With a bizarre cameo from Telly Savalas as a Russian military man, Horror Express is great fun from start to finish. You could easily complain that the special effects are bad, but to me, that just enhances the perfect grindhouse feel of this movie. And guess what? By some miracle, Horror Express is in the public domain, so if you haven’t seen it already, it’s easy to find a copy to watch online. And you should do that immediately.
3.75 out of 5

See you next Sunday for more thrilling short reviews!

Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

Black Mass
If gangster movies are your thing, then you’ll find a lot to like about Black Mass, for the film offers up a whole heap of gangster film trappings. A true crime tale rife with sinister characters and violent deaths, the real standout of Black Mass is Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the notorious Whitey Bulger. It’s been some time since we last saw Depp disappear into a dramatic role, and after several movies where he seems to let his makeup and costume do the acting, this was a breath of fresh air that reaffirmed to me that Depp is a good actor. However, I feel as though I’ve seen too many gangster movies at this point to really appreciate Black Mass, because while it ticks off the right boxes for a good gangster movie, I felt like I might as well have watched Goodfellas instead. Beyond Johnny Depp’s performance, Black Mass doesn’t bring much new to the table, but it’s still a solid film that will no doubt bolster your confidence in Depp’s abilities.
3.25 out of 5

The Martian
In my opinion, Ridley Scott hasn’t made a great film in at least a decade, but thankfully The Martian seems to have broken that streak. This is the movie that Gravity and Interstellar wanted to be, presenting a realistic space adventure in an entertaining way, with a great performance from its lead actor. The Martian‘s plot amounts to little more than Castaway on Mars, but watching Matt Damon’s character Mark Watney science his way out of problem after problem is immensely satisying, as is watching the NASA team (consisting primarily of Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig and Chiwetel Ejiofor) figure out how to communicate with him and get him home safely. And on top of those two factions, there’s also a ship of Watney’s crew mates (among them Kate Mara and Jessica Chastain), doing their jobs perfectly. One of the most refreshing things about The Martian is that there is no antagonist beyond the situation the characters are in. No scientists suddenly reveal themselves to be assholes, no rival nations try to sabotage the mission, there’s no cliched love triangle. This is a movie about intelligent people solving problems in the face of insurmountable odds, and it’s extremely satisfying in that regard. I wouldn’t call The Martian a masterpiece, but it’s a great piece of blockbuster science, and I would gladly go on this adventure again.
3.75 out of 5

Knock Knock
When family man Keanu Reeves is left alone for the weekend, two young women unexpectedly turn up on his doorstep looking for help. They force themselves upon him, and when he tries to make them leave, their motives turn evil as they tie him up and begin to torture him in physical and psychological ways. It’s basically Funny Games, but with the captors as women, and with a little less creativity. However, Knock Knock is the perfect movie for Eli Roth to make, for he’s built his career on channeling exploitation films and video nasties of old. If you’re not a fan of Roth’s work, this won’t change your opinion. If you are, you’ll probably enjoy it on some level. There’s the odd bit of dark Eli Roth humour, and whenever it popped up, I found myself wishing there was more in the movie. But overall, it’s a passable thriller, and it’s fun to see Keanu Reeves in this role.
3 out of 5

See you next Sunday for more thrilling short reviews!

Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

Big Hero 6
Since Disney now owns Marvel, it was only a matter of time before the studio attempted an animated superhero movie (The Incredibles doesn’t count – that’s Pixar), and Big Hero 6 is that attempt. Sadly, I found the film to be something of a manufactured product, a movie made using committees and checklists that never bothers to justify a lot of its decisions. For example, our protagonist Hiro is an orphan, and yet the fact that his parents are dead doesn’t factor into the story at all. Once he decides to become a superhero with the assistance of his late brother’s medical robot, he recruits a bunch of his brother’s friends to also become superheroes. And yet, their hero names don’t really factor into their powers or anything else about them. There’s a Jamaican guy whose superhero identity is called Wasabi. Why? Well, he spilled wasabi on his shirt one time. Yup. The villain wears a kabuki mask, but it doesn’t relate to his secret OR supervillain identity at all. The action scenes are cool, and Baymax the robot is a great character, but ultimately, Big Hero 6 is pure cinematic fluff. You’ll enjoy it while you watch it, but like cotton candy, as soon as it’s done, you’re left with nothing to digest.
3 out of 5

Spy
I went into Spy expecting to see Melissa McCarthy in the type of role that she has become known for: that of the obnoxious, loud, “gross” fat woman who falls down a lot. So imagine my surprise when Spy (brought to us by Paul Feig, whose films are largely responsible for McCarthy’s image as the fat woman who falls over) allowed McCarthy to play not only a tough character who kicks loads of ass, but a character with a vulnerable side and issues of self-confidence in spite of her talents. The character of Susan Cooper is funny, badass, and well-rounded, as are many of the characters with whom she shares the screen. For example, Rose Byrne’s character Rayna could easily have been a template villain, but instead she becomes more of a bitchy-but-lovable friend to the main characters. On top of that, all of the James Bond-esque spies in the film, portrayed by the likes of Jason Statham and Jude Law, are hilarious buffoons. Statham steals every scene he’s in, and this movie convinced me that he needs to do more comedies. Add Peter Serafinowicz as a pervy Italian secret agent and you’ve got a movie that’s the funniest spy caper film since the original Austin Powers. Don’t let the mediocre marketing for this movie fool you – I would gladly watch a sequel.
3.5 out of 5

American Ultra
American Ultra is another case of a great premise with a poor execution, as the idea of a stoner version of The Bourne Identity has some great potential. Unfortunately, the end result is merely passable. Jesse Eisenberg is solid as an anxiety-ridden pot-smoker who discovers that he’s actually an experimental sleeper agent, and he’s surprisingly good in the action sequences, but he isn’t given enough material to work with for his character to feel fully-formed. The chemistry between him and Kristen Stewart, like in their previous collaboration Adventureland, is believable, but again, they just aren’t given much to do until the final act. Topher Grace and Bill Pullman are completely wasted in their roles as government spooks, and in the end the film felt about a half hour too long. I’ve quite enjoyed screenwriter Max Landis’ work on the internet and on Chronicle, so I can’t help but wonder if this script would have been better handled in different hands. But we’ll never know. All we’re left with is a movie that fails to leave an impression. To be fair, though, American Ultra has an awesome trailer.
2.5 out of 5

See you next Sunday for more thrilling short reviews!

Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…

Terminator: Genisys
After the atrocious Terminator: Salvation, I don’t think anybody was really asking for another Terminator film, but we got one anyway in the form of the terribly-named Terminator: Genisys. This is a movie with the deck stacked against it. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the only returning cast member from the franchise, and he’s gotten so old that plot contrivances and half-decent CGI are used frequently to explain why this version of the T-101 is so wrinkled. Linda Hamilton has been replaced by Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, and although I enjoy Clarke’s work on Game of Thrones, she just doesn’t have the badass intimidation factor that Hamilton’s Connor exuded. Jason Clarke takes over for Christian Bale as the adult John Connor, and he does okay, I suppose, but the worst piece of re-casting comes in the form of Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese. Whereas Michael Biehn managed to give Reese pathos while also making him seem threatening and possibly insane, Courtney’s Reese is just perpetually befuddled and lacking in charisma. The plot of Terminator: Genisys is as messy as its casting, jumping around in time every few minutes and never really explaining what it’s doing. It’s one of those “Just go with it!” movies, where it doesn’t matter how or why any of the events happen…they just do; enjoy the ride. I don’t know if they movie would have been better had the big twist that John Connor is now a robot not been revealed in the trailers, but I doubt that surprise could have saved anything. It’s big, it’s loud, and the ending is dumb, but for all that this wasn’t a great movie, it was never boring. I will admit, I was entertained for the duration. But check your brain at the door. If this is the last Terminator movie ever made, I wouldn’t be sad.
2.25 out of 5

Ant-Man
The first origin story since Phase 1 of Marvel’s cinematic universe, Ant-Man isn’t a bad movie, but it never seems to do enough to justify its own existence. Scott Lang is a burglar with a heart of gold who was put in jail because he was stealing stuff to pay for his daughter’s medical bills…or something like that. He robs the wrong guy – Hank Pym – and comes into possession of a suit that allows Lang to shrink to a tiny size while simultaneously enhancing his strength. Oh, and he can command ants. After some hijinx, Pym takes Lang under his wing and teaches him to become the superhero Ant-Man. Together they plot out a heist to get the shrinky technology out of the hands of the insane and evil Darren Cross, who of course wants to use it for nefarious purposes. There are a lot of clever moments in Ant-Man. Some of the jokes hit nicely, and the action setpieces use the shrinking gimmick in innovative ways. But we’ve seen so many superhero origins at this point that this film just feels extraneous to me. The biggest problem I had with Ant-Man was that a much better movie in this story seems to have already happened before the opening credits. I would have loved to see young Hank Pym as a Cold War James Bond-type spy, accompanied by his badass partner Wasp. The flashback scenes to when Pym was Ant-Man are the best moments in the movie, and every time we cut back to the present, I felt a bit disappointed. This isn’t a bad movie – Marvel succeeded in cobbling together a good time from Edgar Wright’s script – but I don’t feel like it brought enough new stuff to the table for it to catch on in a big way. But we’re talking about Marvel here, so expect a whole bunch of Ant-Man sequels, regardless.
3 out of 5

Jurassic World
One of several belated sequels to beloved franchise to come out in 2015, Jurassic World has performed better at the box office than anyone could have anticipated. But is it really that good? Jurassic Park is finally open, having rebranded itself as Jurassic World, but business is starting to dwindle as people become bored with dinosaurs. So Ingen, the company behind all these shenanigans, decides to created an entirely new species of dinosaur by combining DNA from a bunch of different sources. The result is a crazy monster-dino. Shortly after two useless child characters arrive on the island (and we follow their story…for some reason), the Indominus Rex gets loose and goes on a rampage, setting several other species of dinosaur free in the process. The only man who seems to know what to do is a raptor trainer named Owen, who proceeds to predict every disaster shortly before it occurs and eventually rounds up his raptor squad to try and take down the I-Rex. Jurassic World is a big, fun, dumb movie. The plot is full of holes, contrivances, and pointless characters. There’s an executive assistant character with no personality who is in the movie only to be eaten. Claire is a shrewd, bitchy businesswoman. Owen is a rugged manly-man with a soft spot for animals. The two kids don’t serve any purpose to the plot, and their own story arc about their parents getting divorced is never concluded. It seems to me that everything besides the dinosaurs only serves as a bridge to get to more dinosaurs, and you could probably remove all of the human characters from the movie without damaging any of the good stuff. Ultimately, Jurassic World was a fine time, but without the Spielberg magic of the first movie (and even the second one), this just feels like someone doing a paint-by-numbers.
3 out of 5

See you next Sunday for more thrilling short reviews!