[Review] Demolition

Director Jean-Marc Vallée has been on a solid roll with Oscar-contending films like Dallas Buyers Club and Wild, each one containing excellent lead performances from Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon, respectively. Another person bringing the goods is Jake Gyllenhaal (Prisoners, Enemy, Nightcrawler). So this is a perfect match, right? Well, Demolition has plenty of room for Gyllenhaal to work in, but the rest of the film comes up short.

Davis (Gyllenhaal) is a successful investment banker, who is involved in a car accident that kills his wife Julie. And the guy just can't bring himself to feel anything. While all his acquaintances are shedding tears, he acts as if nothing happened. On the surface, he appears to be cold and unsympathetic, but as the film unfolds, it becomes clear that his non-grieving is a form of grieving.

His focus shifts toward seemingly trivial things, like, writing in-depth letters (which double as the film's voiceover narration) to a vending machine company concerning his Peanut M&M's that got stuck. Anyway, Davis forms a friendly relationship with the customer service employee on the other end (Naomi Watts). And he also becomes fixated with disassembling every object in his life--clocks, computers, TVs... his entire house. (Cue the metaphors.)

Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts are both really good with what they're given, but the performances aren't enough to overcome the repetitiveness of the bland tone and underwhelming story. There comes a point about midway through the duration where it's just difficult to care about where any of this is going. The film isn't searing enough to be a dark comedy. It isn't unconventional or ironic enough to be a subversive character study. And it isn't emotional enough to be a moving redemption story, which is where the film ultimately attempts to end up, but crumbles in the process.

( 6/10 )

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[Review] Ice Age: Collision Course

The first Ice Age movie holds a dear place in my heart, with its fuzzy characters and warm story. The second one (The Meltdown) is a huge step back, and the third one (with the Dinosaurs) is even worse. The fourth one--Wait there's a fourth one? Anyway, the new Collision Course crashes and burns as the fifth "Ice Age" piece to enter theaters, and it's seriously time to put an end to it.

Woolly Mammoth mates Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are back, and their daughter is now grown up and planning to get married. After a slow start, we learn that an incoming asteroid is just days away from destroying the planet. So with some help from a Weasel named Buck (who comes off as a hyperactive, bootlegged Jack Sparrow), the group plans to somehow stop it.

Even considering the apparently high stakes--this film is boring, uninspired, and frankly obnoxious. The majority of the characters begin to annoy. Sid has gone into full Jar Jar Binks mode. The two little opossum brothers... just awful. Sabertooth Diego isn't bad, but he has absolutely zero to do here. And Manny, who was once a lovable giant, spends the whole duration being a crazy overprotective father while mocking his daughter's boyfriend (who actually seems like an alright dude).

The script is full of shoddy dialogue, trite gags, and puns that don't even deserve to be called puns. Any notion of humor is virtually extinct. The only amusing element is the Wanda Sykes-voiced grandma of Sid. As for the story, it contains enough plot holes and leaps in logic to fill a colossal crater. This thing makes this year's Angry Birds movie look like frickin' The Godfather.

It's best just to pretend Ice Age: Collision Course doesn't exist. Maybe the asteroid should've struck.

( 3/10 )

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[Review] Star Trek Beyond

Following the fantastically rebooted Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (although I've heard that some hardcore Trekkies have a few beefs with them), Star Trek Beyond doesn't reach the stellar levels of its predecessors or launch the franchise into a new direction, but it's still a fun ride.

966 days into the voyage, and life has gotten a bit monotonous on the USS Enterprise. So it's only logical that the crew embarks on a new mission to an uncharted area in order to save a stranded ship of allies. But in the process, they're forced to face off against an alien military led by the menacing Krall (played by an unrecognizable Idris Elba).

The first two installments of the series succeed largely due to their adept screenplays--wrought with universal conflicts, dilemmas, and narrative layers--and anchored with nicely developed characters and genuine human emotion. They also showcase some solid dialogue of wit, optimistic wisdom, and thought-provoking philosophy. Even when the script pops off a bunch of exposition, the films manage to remain engaging. Star Trek Beyond keeps all of these aspects in tact--just to a lesser extent.

Krall mostly suffers from a severe case of one-dimensional villain syndrome, and it feels like a waste of the great Idris Elba, though it isn't nearly as bad as Oscar Isaac's unfortunate venture as En Sabah Nur in this year's lackluster X-Men: Apocalypse. Director Justin Lin (Fast Five) packs in a robust amount of choppy phaser battles and frenetic spacecapades that come awfully close to inducing motion sickness. Sure, it might capture the turbulent perspective of the characters, but it's a little sloppy and incoherent on the big screen (the motorcycle sequence was cool, though). And the uniquely strong dynamic between Kirk and Spock isn't as compelling this time around.

What the film excels at is its lighthearted humor that hits with precision at a relatively frequent rate. Simon Pegg serves as co-writer, which must explain all the funny banter. It's also really amusing to see Bones getting stuck in situations he wanted no business being apart of. And in an awkward but refreshing bit of levity, the Scotty discovers an old radio device that blares jams like Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" and "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys. The crew refers to it as "Classical" music.

Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto) Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho), Uhura (Zoey Saldana), and Chekov (Anton Yelchin, RIP), round out the usual cast and they're as likable as ever. Joining the squad is the butt-kicking, invisibility-utilizing Jaylah (Sofia Boutella). In a welcomed tie-in, the story incorporates a touching tribute to Leonard Nimoy. And thankfully, Anton Yelchin gets a couple sweet moments in one of his last on-screen roles.

In Star Trek Beyond, it's those elements that transcend stars and time that truly shine, embracing the hopeful spirit of placing trust in humanity, and remembering the things that leave a positive impact.

( 8/10 )

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[Review] Lights Out

Considering how an audience member literally died during a recent screening of The Conjuring 2, I'm afraid to find out how many people might kick the bucket during Lights Out. In other words, if you're a fan of the thrill from abrasive jump scares, then David F. Sandberg's debut feature is one to see.

It begins with a late night at the office, and the manager Paul (Billy Burke) abruptly gets murked by a pitch-black spirit who we will come to know as Diana. Flash-forward and we meet Paul's surviving wife Sophie (Maria Bello) as she down-spirals into psychosis (she has ominous chats with Diana), along with their insomniac son Martin (Gabriel Bateman). Martin's older sister Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) becomes his unofficial guardian, and they try to figure out what the hell the deal is with Diana.

That petrifying intro sequence lets us know that Diana is not only a very physical presence--she's frickin' lethal. The creepy entity possesses the lurching demeanor of those Yurei ghosts from Japanese horror films like Ringu (the ghoul from 2013's Mama also comes to mind), and she thrives in the shadows and disappears in the light. Oh yeah, and she has some really wicked, scratchy nails that I might as well call claws. Anxiety builds with the slow-gliding camerawork and the uneasy peaks through cracked doorways, then the jump scares land with jolting imagery and blaring horns. There's also a lot of nifty craft with the 'electricity on/electricity off' concept, as the characters struggle to achieve sources of light. At one point, Rebecca's smug Avenged Sevenfold-ass boyfriend gets caught in a dark room and whips out his cell phone in a desperate attempt to ward off Diana.

The story's themes of familial dynamics and coping with grief, trauma, and mental illness were more artfully explored in 2014's Australian horror masterpiece The Babadook, but we at least care about the well-being of the characters (actually, probably not Rebecca's boyfriend--he can be taken or left), as opposed to some of the other less-than-savory mainstream horror efforts that enter theaters nowadays. It also helps that the acting here is surprisingly solid. Teresa Palmer is particularly impressive, delivering an assertive and convincing performance that is actually quite reminiscent of Blake Lively's commendable turn in this year's summer shark hit The Shallows.

Even though some people will write off the shock tactics as a cheap gimmick, and while The Conjuring 2 is the better overall film, Lights Out still successfully taps into the prevalent fear of darkness, and it reminds us why we love (or hate) to watch horror flicks with, well--the lights out.

( 7.5/10 )

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[Review] The Boy and the Beast

Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda charms and tugs at the heartstrings with this fantastical animated tale, The Boy and the Beast.

An angsty orphan named Kyuta (voiced by Aoi Miyazaki) stumbles into Beast World--a realm inhabited by anthropomorphic mammals. There, he meets a bearish warrior named Kumatetsu (Koji Yakusho), who takes the boy under his wing, er--furry arm. The two develop a 'father I never had / son I never had' relationship, and train together for an impending battle against an evil force.

It's a familiar dynamic, but an endearing one nonetheless. The story is a testament of strength, courage, confidence, learning, teaching, and unconventional bonds. As Kyuta transports back and forth between beast world and the real world, plenty of soul-searching occurs--along with some melodramatic moments (the good kind) of forgiveness and acceptance, reunions and departures.

The great animation is crafted with hair-thin lines, smooth tertiary colors, and lush layers of depth. Sprinkled in are some pretty scenes of blossoming trees, sunsets, and enchanting illusions. The climax erupts in an epic sword fight and some cataclysmic action sequences of luminous proportions. All of the imagery is assisted by a beautifully elegant musical score. I also need to mention the tiny little critter that hangs out with Kyuta--it's never really explained, but the thing is adorable.

I think some time could've been shaved off of the film's two-hour length, but I'm not complaining too much, because The Boy and the Beast is rewarding in the end.

( 8/10 )

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