Category: Film Review

After five motion pictures, two television series, and a 2001 Tim Burton remake, it seems a prequel is the only logical place to go in the exhausted “Planet of the Apes” saga. The origin tale of apes and their early stages of domination is surprisingly fertile ground for the producers, who loosely rework 1972’s “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” into “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” a frequently thrilling, emotionally resonate reboot that takes advantage of today’s vibrant motion capture technology to help articulate the complexity burning within these damn dirty apes.

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Thanks to various works from Judd Apatow and the smash success of “The Hangover,” the summer of 2011 has played host to a resurgence of hard R-rated comedies, each sharing the same improvisational DNA while declining a cheery spirit of punchline imagination, more content to primitively shock than organize surprises. While the bar was set low by the intolerable June belch, “Bad Teacher,” the body-swap extravaganza “The Change-Up” stumbles into August to claim its prize as the worst feature of the new batch.

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It’s difficult to ascertain exactly what story director James Marsh is attempting to tell with his latest documentary, “Project Nim.” Part bio-pic, part animal cruelty call to arms, and part scientific study, the feature is an engaging, horrifying look at the life and times of a special chimpanzee, but doesn’t quite bundle the reveals and the revulsion in a tight cinematic package.

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“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” features a sensitive story of bittersweet separation, reportedly altered quite a bit from author Lisa See’s original 2005 novel. A tale of patchy sisterhood and the circular patterns of betrayals and mistakes, director Wayne Wang has his hands full with melodrama and historical reflection, exploring China’s foot-binding past while returning to the intricacies of Asian culture, which served him well in the 1993 hit, “The Joy Luck Club.” Wang’s also made perhaps the most flavorless, outright boring picture of 2011, breaking down the plot into tiny, inert pieces of meaninglessness.

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Director Jon Favreau has quite a playground with “Cowboys & Aliens,” permitting the filmmaker a big-budget opportunity to stage classic western encounters while banging away with large-scale sci-fi elements. Although it lacks an extraordinary pace that would normally accompany the collision of two disparate genres, the picture is a comfortably entertaining slice of summer escapism, blasting away with a blissful discharge of six-guns and lasers.

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The best compliment I can pay the comedy “Crazy, Stupid, Love” is that it works extremely hard to maintain a vital oxygen blast of vulnerability to an otherwise stiflingly sitcom plot. Actually, there are numerous compliments I can pay this hilarious, poignant motion picture, which mounts a tremendous effort to keep the audience guessing, undermining as much formula as it can. It’s a sharp movie, layered with impressive performances and a generous heart, yet it’s the sensation of surprise that truly matters.

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“Good Neighbors” is suspenseful, but oddly unfulfilling. A distinctly Canadian production taking place during the 1995 Quebec referendum, this serial killer/psychological thriller relies on mood and stylistics to conjure a critical feeling of dread. However, writer/director Jacob Tierney is spun dizzy by the complex narrative of deceptions and confessions, laboring over moody particulars while the tension gradually dries up.

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There are several abyssal melodramatic pits “Sarah’s Key” has difficulty avoiding, but it proffers a tale of breakthrough that’s engrossing, shedding light on a few dark corners of French history. Guided by Kristin Scott Thomas’s focused performance, the picture depicts disturbing, paralyzing feelings of loss and guilt, though it achieves a few too many moments through clumsy hysterics.

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Being the fourth superhero offering of the summer, “Captain America” arrives in theaters without the benefit of a fresh launch, stuck trying to assemble thrills in a costumed crusader farmland already picked clean. The upside here is a distinctly retro adventure that feels like a funny book page-turner, playing up its WWII setting with obvious joy and care for the character’s origins. The downside is the influence of modern technology, shining up a 1940’s hero with glossy 2011 filmmaking tools, making the picture resemble more of a video game than an epic realization of jumbo comic book details.

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There was a visit to this comedy realm already, with January’s “No Strings Attached.” It wasn’t funny or particularly romantic then and a second pass at the trials and tribulations of the young and loveless yields pretty much the same entertainment value. “Friends with Benefits” isn’t simply charmless, it’s poorly scripted, edited with a butter knife, and features two lead actors turning blue as they frantically flail to overcompensate for their lack of chemistry. Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis look swell with their clothes off, but does it really matter when they generate a sibling-like sense of sexual connection?

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“Submarine” is certainly a humane picture, but it’s often so affected, a mouthguard should be issued with every ticket to prevent oral damage from all the reflexive teeth grinding triggered when writer/director Richard Ayoade blasts the screen with unrelenting quirk. It’s a film that commences with fidgets and concludes partially asleep, yet between the artificial moments lies an astute comedy about teen anxiety and the cruel realities of first love.

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What began as the story of a boy’s wondrous introduction into a limitless world of magic ends in an epic display of war, death, and desire for peace. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” is the final chapter in the longstanding fantasy series and it’s a fitting conclusion to the legend, marrying the extensive exposition of “Part 1” with an intermittently furious finale that satisfies and rouses in all the proper ways. I'm certain few will want to say goodbye to the admired franchise, but the production has secured a superb finish that’s elegant and carries significant emotional heft.

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Simplicity reigns supreme in “Winnie the Pooh,” which isn’t a reimagining, reconstruction, or reevaluation of a classic character. Instead, it’s just a breezy, endearing, humorous romp with everyone’s favorite stuffed bear, going back to the basics of traditional animated feature filmmaking. Imagine that, an entire motion picture built around the innate charms and feisty personalities of its cast of characters, without the need for bathroom humor or story padding. This movie is downright huggable.

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Kevin James and talking animals. Doesn’t seem like a particularly extensive screenwriting challenge, yet “Zookeeper” features an extraordinary amount of outside interference for a picture that shouldn’t stray from the essentials. More amusing than funny, but only when it includes the antics of the wild kingdom, the picture drags unnecessarily, trying to convince viewers that the human elements of the script have value when all anyone really wants to see is a talking gorilla in a polo shirt.

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Any film endeavoring to survey the wreckage of the newspaper industry is sure to play like a eulogy, yet Andrew Rossi’s “Page One: Inside the New York Times” stay remarkably composed. Granted access to the inner working of the world’s most iconic newspaper, Rossi doesn’t weep, he carefully observes the downward spiral, coming to the conclusion that perhaps there’s no decline at all. Riveting and surprisingly communicative, “Page One” supplies a rich understanding of print journalism as it stands on a high-rise ledge, looking down while members of the online media implore it to jump for their entertainment.

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“Horrible Bosses” is a missed opportunity. Handed a darkly comic premise of revenge, and the producers turn the proceedings into a clumsy “SNL” skit. Following in the wake of the rancid “Bad Teacher,” “Horrible Bosses” also seeks approval by establishing a sloppy routine of shock and improvisation, slapping viewers with pedestrian acts of misbehavior when something far more macabre was in order. Unless you happen to find Indian call centers, the act of spilling cocaine, and Jennifer Aniston being self-consciously filthy hilarious. If so, boy do I have a film for you.

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Although marketed as tween-baiting pap to secure Disney Channel generation attention, “Monte Carlo” is a softer romantic fantasy, providing a few unexpectedly human moments in the midst of its mischief. Solidly acted and sturdily constructed, the picture offers a mellow display of wish fulfillment, more interested in the inspection of feelings than distributing vapid monkey business.

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Though the credits do not list the original incarnation of “The Ledge,” I’m going to assume this material was at one point intended for the stage, where its mix of monologues and hysterical characters could be broadly articulated by live actors. As a film, it’s an inconsistent, flavorless psychological thriller, trying desperately to come across provocative when it’s truly about as deep and challenging as a television movie.

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“The Perfect Host” is a film strictly for fans of actor David Hyde Pierce. The former “Frasier” star is the only element of the picture worth paying attention to, bringing a faint flicker of verve to an otherwise tedious and poorly constructed thriller. Writer/director Nick Tomnay should thank his lucky stars he was able to secure Pierce’s participation, otherwise there would be no reason to pay attention to anything this feature has to offer.

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“Larry Crowne” is a breath of fresh air in a summer moviegoing season polluted with superheroes, family film fart jokes, and battling robots. Serving as its co-writer/director/star, Tom Hanks presents a portrait of betterment, taking on cynicism with a motion picture that revels in its mild-mannered corniness, making a friendly feature that’s amusing, approachable, and largely unexpected, keeping formula distracted with a special directorial spin Hanks hasn’t displayed since his marvelous 1996 effort, “That Thing You Do!”

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