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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (Blu-ray)

June 10, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated, Romance Leave a comment

PrideandPrejudiceandZombiescoverGrade: B-/C+
Entire family: No
2016, 107 min., Color
Sony Pictures
Rated PG-13 for zombie violence, action and brief suggestive content
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 5.1
Bonus features: B+
Includes: Blu-ray, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

While watching Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, our college freshman groused that you can’t introduce the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and then not do much with it. “D for dumb” was the grade he said he’d give the film. Our teenage daughter, who’s more the target audience, said she thought it was a B but admitted it wasn’t as good as she had hoped. My wife, a big Jane Austen fan, agreed. She liked that, minus the zombie sequences, the historical drama stayed fairly close to the book, but she didn’t think this particular Darcy (Sam Riley) charismatic enough to sell the romantic angle. As for me, I found myself less impressed by this variation on a theme than I was by the Bollywood version, Bride & Prejudice.

If Pride and Prejudice and Zombies disappoints—and my family wasn’t alone, given that only 42 percent of Rotten Tomatometer critics liked the film—let me suggest one main reason why. It’s a romance and it’s an action-horror film, and sometimes one genre gets in the way of the other. The concept works against itself.

PrideandPrejudiceandZombiesscreen1Though the zombie premise is woven into the plot, the actual insertion of zombie scenes can sometimes feel inorganic or heavy-handed. Hearing myself say that I have to chuckle: of course when you insert battles with zombies they’re going to be jarringly head-snapping (sometimes quite literally). But it does take away from any romantic simmer, and the dramatic, romantic interludes are just enough to make people squirm and wish for more zombie action. I think my daughter nailed it when she said the characters and the historical treatment were good, but the writers could have done more with the plot and included more action. As much as she loves romance, she’s a fan of shows like Supernatural, and the action-violence in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is both tame and minimal by comparison. Disappointing, in other words.

The novel by Seth Grahame-Smith was a parody, but the comic elements seem diminished in this film adaptation from director Burr Steers. In it, Darcy is like a 19th-century version of Homeland Security. In the opening scene, he visits a rich family to expose a rumored, recently infected zombie that, if unchecked, might start another mass outbreak. Meanwhile, Mr. Bennet (the incomparable Charles Dance) sends his daughters to China to learn martial arts and better defend themselves against those pesky zombies, who seem to have no social graces—turning horseback rides and elegant balls into tests of survival.

PrideandPrejudiceandZombiesscreen2You’ll probably need to watch this film several times to grasp an appreciation of the IZS (Integrated Zombie Structure), which includes a trip to the In-Between zone outside of walled London in which zombies feed on pig brains and are somehow kept from going completely savage. Ala Austen there are proposals and good and bad manners. The handsome Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth) is here, of course, as is Parson Collins (Matt Smith), himself a suitor who indeed “settles” after being turned down by his first choice. And a soldier named Mr. Wickham (Jack Huston) turns up with a story about Mr. Darcy that he’s reluctant (but dying) to tell. And in this version, Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine, is a famous zombie killer who wears an eye patch and seems resistant to any idea of a brokered peace with zombies that haven’t gone savage. Got that?

As the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, Lily James (Cinderella) charms not only all the suitors but teenage girls who will recognize in her that rare combination of natural behavior and poise. Without her, this film would languish a lot more in the IZS.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies took in a worldwide gross of just $16 million against a reported $28 million production budget, despite plenty of advertising and social media buzz. It could be that Austen fans expect romance to be at the core of this classic, no matter what the permutation, and zombies ate away a little too much of that chest-heaving unrequited love.

Language: n/a
Sex: Apart from heaving bosoms (a Victorian trope), there’s one instance where a man and woman tear at each other’s clothes
Violence: A woman’s head is shot off, heads explode, a man’s hand is slashed off, people are stabbed, and there’s plenty of other zombie violence
Adult situations: Lots of pus and decomposing flesh and lots of wine-drinking, once to intoxication
Takeaway: Could have been funnier, could have been more romantic, and could have had more zombie action to satisfy those with a craving . . . .

HAIL, CAESAR! (Blu-ray combo)

May 30, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Comedy, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

HailCaesarcoverGrade: A-
Entire family: No
2016, 106 min., Color
Universal
Rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 5.1
Bonus features: B
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

I’ve often thought that there are two main types of comedy: joke- and gag-filled ones that go for nonstop laughs, whether high brow or low, and the more subtle offbeat satires that make you smile with recognition, whether dark or infused with the positive energy of nostalgia and homage. The latter is the preferred style of people like Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers, so don’t be misled by a Hail, Caesar! trailer that was edited to showcase all the laugh-out-loud moments in the film. People who see the term “comedy” and think ha-ha funny, be warned: Hail, Caesar! isn’t as much LOL as it is a gentle satire and loving tribute to the final years of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and the genre films that were mass produced on big-studio back-lot sound stages.

That means, for families wondering if this PG-13 movie is just the ticket for home movie night, the answer is yes—but only if your kids are older and have an intellectual curiosity that delights in seeing flawed individuals making their way through a life that offers moments of absurdity. It’s a yes, too, if your children can appreciate period films and the stories they tell that differ so much from our contemporary world. Tonally, Hail, Caesar! is like Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel with less quirkiness, and visually it’s like watching movies made in the early 1950s. That makes for a winning combination unless your kid thinks old movies (and facsimiles like this) are boring.

As they did with Barton Fink (1991), Ethan and Joel Coen revisit the world of Hollywood unmasked, where left-leaning intellectuals and powerful desk jockeys are funny in themselves, as politicians were in Daumier’s time—so much so that the 19th-century political cartoonist had only to draw them as they were and trust that it would be enough to make his audience smile. Hail, Caesar! operates along the same lines.

HailCaesarscreen1Trailers and the title make Hail, Caesar! look more Roman epic than it is. This film isn’t about the making of a single picture, as we saw in Hitchcock or My Week with Marilyn. The plot follows a day in the life of studio executive Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), the head of physical production at Capitol Pictures whose main job, it seems, is “fixer”—the troubleshooter who keeps the cameras and publicity juggernaut rolling. Eddie has been approached by Lockheed Corporation to take an executive position with them, but he clearly loves being a part of the movie business—enough to make him stay? That’s the $50,000 question.

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ZOOLANDER NO. 2: THE MAGNUM EDITION (Blu-ray combo)

May 25, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Comedy, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

Zoolander2coverGrade: C
Entire family: No
2016, 102 min., Color
Paramount
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, a scene of exaggerated violence, and brief strong language
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: DTS: X, DTS-HD MA 7.1
Bonus features: C+
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

Fifteen years after Zoolander (2001) registered somewhere around the B- range on the cult comedy scale, along comes the sequel that fans never thought would happen. Yet Zoolander No. 2 feels like an uninspired knockoff rushed into production to take advantage of the first film’s popularity.

Oh, there are a few wickedly funny gags—as when Justin Bieber is hunted down and machine-gunned to death by an assassin who, like a true dis-Belieber, keeps firing much longer than necessary. And Bieber, in cameo, provides the punch line: using his dying moment to Instagram a photo of himself. But for the most part the jokes fall flat, and even the comedy of character seems cramped by the script’s far-fetched plot and pedestrian dialogue.

The original Zoolander probably worked as well as it did because the outrageous characters were balanced by a satiric plot that at least made some sense. Egotistical male model Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) lost his top male model crown to the upstart Hansel (Owen Wilson), and lost his marbles in the process. Enter the evil fashion designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell), who, teamed with modeling agent Maury Ballstein (Jerry Stiller), act on behalf of the entire fashion industry, which will collapse if they can no longer obtain cheap child labor in Malaysia. And that’s just what could happen after a new progressive Prime Minister wins election in that Asian country. They decide to program a brainless assassin, and who’s more vacuous, and, since his rapid decline, more ripe for manipulation than Derek Zoolander?

Zoolander No. 2 begins with both former top male models in seclusion following the collapse of a building that Derek built with “popsicle sticks and glue,” during which Derek’s beloved wife Matilda (Christine Taylor) was killed and Hansel, who had just been hanging out, was horribly, facially disfigured. Many years afterwards both receive a visit from Billy Zane, who Zoolander2screenpersuades them to attend a House of Atoz fashion show. For Derek, the added incentive is to resume living a productive life so he can regain custody of Derek Jr., whom he lost because of parental neglect (he couldn’t make spaghetti sauce—seriously). But someone is also systematically killing the world’s pop stars, and an apparent Interpol agent (Penélope Cruz as Valentina) asks for their help. Meanwhile, Mugatu has been in a special prison, and somehow Derek waltzes in and Mugatu waltzes out. And new models like the androgynous All (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the hipster Don Atari (Kyle Moody) have taken over the runway.

Stiller, who directed and produced this sequel, has a lot of friends, and almost all of them make an appearance. Yet even the cameos, which are normally a source of delight, seem to be more of a “huh” moment, again because the whole sequel seems to fall flat. Appearances by Katie Couric, Jim Lehrer, Christiane Amanpour, Jane Pauley, Justin Theroux, Mila Jovovich, Matt Lauer, Kristen Wiig, Susan Boyle, Andy Dick, Olivia Munn, Naomi Campbell, Ariana Grande, Willie Nelson, Katy Perry, Sting, M.C. Hammer, John Malkovich, Tommy Hilfiger, Kate Moss, and a host of fashion icons don’t seem to add any effervescence. And there’s no hilariously stupid-but-energetic scene to match the one from the first film, in which Derek’s equally dim-witted male model friends have a gasoline war at a gas station, frolicking as if for a photographer, only to explode when someone decides to light a match.

Is Zoolander No. 2 bad enough to take the second half of its title as an ironic appraisal? No, because there are still a few scenes that will make you smile, and if you’re a fan of the first film there’s still Wilson and Stiller in character that are fun to watch. But laugh-out-loud moments are harder to come by in the sequel, and for that you can thank the writers: Stiller, Theroux, Nicholas Stoller, and John Hamburg. For whatever reason, their “wouldn’t it be funny if” gauges were malfunctioning.

Language: one muttered f-bomb and milder swear words (bitch, bastard, damn, hell, whore) used throughout
Sex: Talk of orgies and masturbation, a woman puts a man’s hands on her breasts
Violence: Bieber’s gun-down, several stabbings
Adult situations: In addition to what’s been mentioned, just a weird everybody’s pregnant in Hansel’s family scene
Takeaway: You’d think after 15 years they could come up with something a little funnier. As is, Zoolander No. 2 is really really really ridiculously average at best.

A ROYAL NIGHT OUT (DVD)

May 3, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Comedy, PG-13 rated, Romance Leave a comment

RoyalNightOutcoverGrade: B
Entire family: No
2015, 97 min., Color
20th Century Fox
Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and brief drug elements
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus features: C
Trailer
Amazon link

Here are four words you have to keep in mind when watching A Royal Night Out: “Inspired by True Events.” In Hollywood, that means a wholesale revision of the facts, if not a pure fiction. So this 2015 historical comedy-romance-adventure is truthful when it says it’s only inspired by the story of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret being allowed to venture incognito outside the gates of Buckingham Palace on V.E. Day to listen to their father’s speech from the other side of the fence. Twentieth Century Fox quite accurately describes it as “a fanciful tale about two real-life princesses who long to feel normal on the most extraordinary night of their lives.” While critics have taken this WWII-era film to task for its blatant historical inaccuracies and eyebrow-raising plot, I feel compelled to say, Relax. This isn’t The King’s Speech. It’s Adventures in Babysitting meets Roman Holiday.

RoyalNightOutscreen1The action takes place on a single night in which all of London is euphorically celebrating Hitler’s demise and the end of the war in Europe. After the king (Rupert Everett) countermand’s the queen (Emily Watson) and gives his daughters permission to leave the palace on the condition that they report back to him what the “real” people have to say about him and his speech, the sensible Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) and her wild younger sister Margaret (Bel Powley) leave the gates with two military chaperones. They think they’re headed for a night on the town, but at the king’s orders the escorts drop them off at a stuffy hotel ballroom celebration with England’s upper-crust old fogies the only ones in attendance. But, tempted by women and liquor, the chaperones decide to leave their post at the closed door and watch from afar.

Of course Margaret manages to slip out first, and then Elizabeth, with the latter’s entire night spent trying to track down and take care of her wild but naive sister, who drinks her way across London with a group of naval officers that has no idea she’s the princess. To catch up with her RoyalNightOutscreen2Elizabeth boards a bus and, having no money for fare, is about to be tossed off when a young R.A.F. bomber seated next to her offers to pay. From that point on, he becomes her reluctant, unwilling, and finally devoted accomplice as the two of them continue their pursuit of Margaret . . . and of course draw closer to each other in the process.

A Royal Night Out is fast-paced fun if, like the princesses, you allow yourself to get swept up in the manic euphoria of one of history’s biggest celebrations. Director Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane, Brideshead Revisited) and his set and costume designers do a fine job of selling the period atmosphere, and the cast is perfectly charming. It’s the kind of film that princess-crazy daughters would love, if their own kings and queens would let them watch. Be aware, though, that there’s celebratory drinking, drunkenness, some brawling, hookers, opium dens, and overly aggressive military men.

Language: Surprisingly little, and when it’s used it’s British
Sex: One topless woman with pasties is shown the background, a man sleeps between two women, and another man, though fully clothed, is in a coital position
Violence: Several fistfights
Adult situations: A den of iniquity, hookers, and lecherous behavior
Takeaways: Surprisingly fun. Hollywood loves to project the longing that royalty has for a “normal” life, but I’d bet it’s nothing compared to the longing that “normal” people have for leading a life of leisure and luxury. Just sayin’.

DORIS DAY AND ROCK HUDSON ROMANTIC COMEDY COLLECTION (Blu-ray)

May 2, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater PG-13 rated, Romantic Comedy Leave a comment

DayHudsoncoverGrade:  B+
Entire family: No
1959-64, 310 min., Color
Universal
Not Rated (Would be PG-13 for drinking, smoking, and innuendo)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1, 2.35:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 2.0
Bonus features: B-
Trailer (Pillow Talk)
Amazon link

Back in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, the romantic comedy was synonymous with two names: Doris Kapplehoff and Roy Sherer Jr., better known to audiences as Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Though the pair only made three films—Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, and Send Me No Flowers, all included on this Doris Day and Rock Hudson Romantic Comedy Collection—they helped define the genre for a generation.

Are the films dated? Of course. These are sex romps without the sex, innuendo without the indecency. One of the funniest quips ever made about Doris Day came from comedian-pianist Oscar Levant, who remarked, “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.” Her onscreen performance was virginal, even in Send Me No Flowers, when she and Hudson played a married couple. The writers and directors changed, but all three films followed a tradition that dates back to Shakespeare by incorporating double entendre, confusion over disguises, mistaken identities, or misunderstandings, and minor characters whose job it is to prod and push the main characters toward a chaotic quasi-screwball climax. The colors are deliciously oversaturated compared to today’s color films, and the lifestyles and the moral values are pure ‘50s. Yet, as my teenage son said—and he gave all three films high marks for entertainment value—“These are great!”

Pillow Talk (1959) A-
DayHudsonscreen1The one that started it all is still the best, but the concept might take some explaining. An interior decorator (Day) who shares a party line with a womanizing songwriter (Hudson) ends up being romanced by him as he pretends to be a shy Texan, first to have fun at her expense, and then to seduce her. But of course love and decency win out. As Brad begins to fall for her and realizes he has no chance with her if she finds out his true identity, the plot twists even more so.

It helps to know that in the age of rotary dial phones there were only so many private phone lines available. As a result, many people had to share a line—a party line—and sometimes work out use patterns between them, while others opted for the party line to save money.

The script is clever and all of the actors have a lot of fun with it. Tony Randall is hilarious as a rich client of Day’s who also happens to know Hudson’s character and serves as his confidante, while Thelma Ritter plays Day’s maid, the obligatory hungover heavy drinker that turns up in almost every ‘50s and ‘60s comedy. TV’s Johnny Yuma, The Rebel, appears as an all-hands college boy, while Hayden Rorke (who played Dr. Bellows on TV’s Bewitched) also has a small role. In 2009 Pillow Talk made it into the National Film Registry because of its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.”

Lover Come Back (1961) B+
The formula returns in this follow-up, with Day and Hudson playing rival Madison Ave. ad executives competing for accounts. Always the wholesome one, she pitches ideas, while he uses women and booze to DayHudsonscreen2win accounts and has plenty of “conquests” himself. To keep one of them from going to the ethics board he invents a product (VIP) and keeps her in line by telling her he’ll make her the VIP girl. When Day’s character gets wind of the new product, she tries to find out more about it and goes to a Nobel Prize-winning chemists that she suspects her competitor has hired. Here’s where the mistaken identity comes in: Day walks in just as the chemist went into the back room, leaving Hudson in his lab coat. And Hudson decides to play the part, again to have some fun at her expense and to keep her occupied so she can’t cause him any trouble.

The bonus for fans of classic TV is that Donna Douglas (Ellie Mae on The Beverly Hillbillies) appears as the secretary of the CEO (Tony Randall again) at the firm Hudson’s character works for, while Ann B. Davis (Alice on The Brady Bunch) plays Day’s secretary, and other familiar faces also turn up, like Joe Flynn (McHale’s Navy) and Jack Albertson (Chico & the Man). Lover Come Back is slightly more risqué (though nothing is shown) insomuch as the two main characters wake up in bed together after a wild party. There’s more drinking and smoking in this one than in the first, but the mistaken identity formula works just as well, and in the end, it’s awfully tame compared to today’s movies, yet just as entertaining.

Send Me No Flowers (1964) B+
DayHudsonscreen3Universal decided to switch it up for the third outing. In this one, Hudson plays a hypochondriac who, after overhearing his doctor talk about the x-rays of a dying man, thinks he has only two weeks to live. His first thought is, of course, for his wife, and after talking to his best friend and neighbor (Tony Randall) he decides the best thing to do is to try to find another husband for her, so she won’t be all alone after he’s gone.

There are plenty of twists and allusions in this one, with TV’s Cheyenne (Clint Walker) riding on a horse to save Day from a runaway golf cart. It turns out that he’s her old college sweetheart, and a little too familiar with her for the jealous Hudson, who nonetheless reminds himself that he is, after all, looking for a replacement husband. Norman Jewison (Moonstruck, Fiddler on the Roof) directed this one, which also offers a fun amount of familiar faces. The acerbic Paul Lynde plays a cemetery director, while veteran character actor Edward Andrews (who guest starred in so many TV sitcoms it’s hard to name them all) also appears.

All three of these films share the same winning formula, and while there are dated elements, the core ingredients are timeless. Families with older teenage children should enjoy these together. They’d probably merit a PG-13 rating today, for their use of tobacco and alcohol and sexual innuendo—though again, it all seems so tame compared to today’s movies. But all three of these romantic comedies still work. Fans might hope that the next “collection” Universal releases will be the Doris Day and James Garner Romantic Comedy Collection. Though the pair only did two films together (The Thrill of It All, Move Over Darling) they’re as much fun as the Day-Hudson romps.

RIDE ALONG 2 (Blu-ray combo)

April 16, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

RideAlong2coverGrade: B-/B
Entire family: No
2016, 102 min., Color
Universal
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, sexual contact, language, and some drug material
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 5.1
Bonus features: C
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

Most critics didn’t like Ride Along 2 as much as the 2014 original, which they also didn’t like. Then again, most critics don’t watch the films with their families, approaching each one as a night of entertainment. And my family (two adults and two teens) thought Ride Along 2, starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, was plenty entertaining.

This sequel follows the buddy cop action-comedy formula with a few nods to previous films in the genre. As with Lethal Weapon 2, Ride Along 2 tosses a non-cop third party into the mix. Instead of Joe Pesci sitting in the back seat we get comedian Ken Jeong, who plays a hacker with information about a top crime kingpin (Benjamin Bratt). And like Beverly Hills Cop and Running Scared, Ride Along 2 takes the cops out of their jurisdiction into a more exotic location, where they end up working with local law enforcement officers. In this case, Miami provides the upbeat location and an excuse for some pretty decent soundtrack music, with Olivia Munn starring as Maya, a homicide detective.

RideAlong2screenA year after the events of Ride Along, Ice Cube is still the tough Atlanta undercover detective James Payton who is still tormented by his annoying brother-in-law to be and probationary cop Ben Barber (Hart). James’ sister, Angela, loves Ben but wants him out of her hair for a while to plan the wedding, so she talks her brother into taking Ben along to Miami, where he’s following a lead on a drug case. If you’re keeping score, that makes two main characters who find Ben Barber/Kevin Hart’s non-stop chatter and high-energy enthusiasm at least partly annoying, and I’m guessing that people who don’t like Hart’s schtick will find Ride Along 2 tedious. We found it hilarious.

Ride Along 2 offers plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, some fun action scenes (the most memorable of which involves Hart’s character piloting a fork lift and creating havoc in a portside storage container area), and a plot that’s just good enough to support the banter and antics of the two stars. Meanwhile, the kids will like video game scenes and Ben’s encounter with a humongous alligator.

There isn’t much in the way of surprises, but the thing about buddy cop pictures is that the chemistry between the two stars is what matters most, and Ice Cube and Kevin Hart are fun to watch. Director Tim Story doesn’t seem to think audiences will wonder why it takes a major false bust of a local respected businessmen (ala The Naked Gun) before two cops out of their jurisdiction are finally restricted, but logic isn’t the focus: action and comedy are. Ride Along 2 is an appealing crime comedy for families with children 13 and over . . . if you don’t mind Kevin Hart and Ken Jeong screaming a lot.

Language: Two “f” bombs” (I thought PG-13 only allowed one?) and a few sporadic uses of “shit” and similar expletives
Sex: Just a quick glimpse of a woman in bra and panties and some sexual references
Violence: Yep. But it’s all crime comedy violence, nothing even as traumatic as the opening murder in Beverly Hills Cop
Adult situations: Some drinking and drug mention
Takeaway: Ride Along 2 may not be one of the best in the genre, but it’s in the same class as other buddy-cop films like 21 Jump Street and The Other Guys

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

April 9, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated, Reviews (by Genre), Sci-Fi/Fantasy Leave a comment

ForceAwakenscoverGrade: A-
Entire family: No
2015, 135 min., Color
LucasFilm/Disney
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 7.1
Bonus features: B+
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Bonus Disc, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

These are exciting times for Star Wars fans, who can be forgiven if they start to think of the seventh film in the series as Star Wars: The Franchise Awakens. In effect, Disney has launched Star Wars 3.0, a glorious reboot that’s the first of six films planned for release over the next five years: three stand-alone spin-offs and a trilogy begun by The Force Awakens, according to Business Insider.

Never mind that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the highest grossing film of 2015. The exciting part is that with this film, a trio of writers led by Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark) put the fun and fast-paced serial adventure back into Luke Skywalker’s galaxy, and, just as importantly they give us new characters that we care about. Under the capable direction of J.J. Abrams (Lost), The Force Awakens also combines the best of both worlds. Fans get the slick technical wizardry of Revenge of the Siths and the otherwise ho-hum Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, combined with the lighter tone and occasional humor that made A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi so much fun. It’s fun, too, seeing Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher reprise their roles as Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia—even if, as Hamill joked, he’s onscreen for less time than Finn drinking with a hippo.

ForceAwakensscreen1Some might say it’s just a little too tidy having offspring of those beloved characters turning up as “players” in this new struggle of resistance fighters trying to stop the First Order, as the imperialists are now called, but there are plenty of instances in real life where children of politicians also become main figures on the world stage. Fruit doesn’t far fall from the tree, and that probably goes double for people with Jedi blood.

The Force Awakens recycles elements from the main storyline of A New Hope, the film that introduced Star Wars in 1977. The emperor may be long gone, but a new one who speaks via hologram has taken his place. Each film begins with someone on an arid, isolated planet finding a droid that has been given an important piece of information. In the case of The Force Awakens, a scavenger named Rey (Daisy Ridley) who is all alone in the world comes across a BB-8 that’s even more endearing than R2-D2. She meets her own version of a bad boy/antihero (a stormtrooper defector named Finn played by John Boyega) and the two of them seem destined to create movie magic together.

Four main characters are introduced—six, if you count a diminutive goggle-eyed Yoda substitute voiced by Lupita Nyong’o and that cute new BB-8—and while Oscar Isaac is engaging enough as resistance pilot ForceAwakensscreen2Poe Dameron, he doesn’t have the same on-screen presence as Ridley and Boyega, or maybe isn’t able to insert enough of his own personality into the role to make him memorable. The costume design took me a bit by surprise, as Disney tried for a Darth Vader update with Adam Driver playing the simpering Kylo Ren wearing a mask that looks a cross between Vader and something Hannibal Lector would wear, and the new stormtrooper helmets flatten out at the bottom so that they look a little like the goalie mask on the old Annaheim Ducks uniforms. But the production design is slick while still appearing realistic and not 100 percent CGI-looking, the way so much of Menace or Clones did. That’s just how far CGI special effects have come.

What makes Star Wars: The Force Awakens a winner is that those state-of-the-art CGI effects accompany a return to old-fashioned storytelling and the lighthearted tone of the serial-inspired original films. That combination guarantees The Force Awakens will get plenty of repeat play. It’s a great popcorn movie that announces this series is back on track again. And does it look phenomenal in Blu-ray! A disc of bonus features is included, and while the deleted scenes aren’t as tantalizing as fans might expect, a full-length documentary is satisfying and there are plenty of excellent shorter features as well. Shop around if you want to add this title. Best Buy, Target, and Walmart all have exclusive releases. This is the general release, available through Amazon and other outlets.

Language: Two “hells” and one “damn” is pretty tame.
Sex: n/a
Violence: This film’s PG-13 rating comes solely because of sci-fi violence. Lots of blasters, lots of explosions, and lots of characters being killed . . . or in the case of an opening sequence, murdered. An attack by multiple-tentacle creatures can be pretty intense for younger children, but the film’s most haunting moment of violence comes when a stormtrooper is shot and as he dies he leaves his bloody handprint on another trooper. It’s so we can identify which trooper to watch, but still….
Adult situations: Some background characters smoke and drink in the cantina, but nothing more.
Takeaways: The Force is back . . . in force! And with new characters, Disney and LucasFilm are well positioned to finish this new trilogy as impressively as they began it.

THE MARTIAN (Blu-ray)

March 26, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

MartiancoverGrade: A-
Entire family: No
2015, 144 min., Color
20th Century Fox
Rated PG-13 for some strong language, injury imagery, and brief nudity
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 7.1
Bonus features: B
Includes: Blu-ray, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

Once is an incidence, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.

It’s official, then. Hollywood has re-discovered NASA.

First came Gravity (2013), then Interstellar (2014), and now The Martian (2016), which is just as compelling a film as the first two—so good, in fact, that you wonder if it and the others will help to promote an American space program that has lapsed into relative obscurity. Gone are the glamour days, but a still-active NASA has been quietly concentrating its efforts on the International Space Station, as well a program to launch exploratory surveys of Mars and other planets.

It’s hard to say whether this renewed interest will have any effect, but like the first two space films in Hollywood’s rediscovery mission, The Martian makes space travel look both harrowing and heroic. And it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Martianscreen1The Martian isn’t the first foray into space for Matt Damon, who plays an astronaut stranded on Mars in this film and also starred in Interstellar—nor for director Ridley Scott, who previously thrust beyond Earth’s gravity to make Alien and Prometheus. You sense a confidence at work in this production.

Don’t be misled by the Golden Globe nomination it received in the Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy. The Martian is neither. There are probably a half-dozen funny moments, but The Martian is mostly a one-man survival drama in the manner of Castaway or The Revenant that’s broadened by intercut sequences involving a Mars mission in space and mission control back on Earth.

Except for the language it’s mostly a family movie, but there are a few adult moments—as when botanist Mark Watney, (Damon), left for dead after the crew saw him felled by a massive object during a nasty storm, pulls a projectile out of his stomach and staples himself while in great pain. Or when we briefly see his buttocks as he strides through the station on Mars, or when he talks about using his own “shit” to farm inside the station to provide enough food to survive until rescue comes.

Martianscreen2Jessica Chastain plays the mission commander for Ares III (Ares was the Greek name for Mars, god of war), and other crew members who had to abort their mission and left Watney behind were the pilot (Michael Peña), systems operator (Kate Mara), flight surgeon (Sebastian Stan), and navigator (Aksel Hennie). Sean Bean plays the mission commander on the ground, with the believably bureaucratic Jeff Daniels taking on the role of NASA chief administrator Teddy Sanders. Kristen Wiig is also on the ground, and maybe that’s why people automatically thought this must be a comedy. But she doesn’t even get any of the funny lines.

The famed Wadi Rum desert in Jordan, with its red-orange sand and stark, towering rock formations, is a believable stand-in for Mars, and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (Pirates of the Caribbean) does a fantastic job of shooting visuals to match the mood, the atmosphere, and the action.

Mostly, though, The Martian is compelling because of the story, and it stands as yet another tribute to American ingenuity and world cooperation—since China also gets involved in the rescue mission. It’s also just plain fascinating to see how a person would survive alone on another planet, and it proves the adage that necessity really is the mother of invention. Like Tom Hanks before him and Leonardo DiCaprio, Damon doesn’t shrink from the burden of being alone onscreen for so much of the film—he owns it, which is why he earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination to add to the film’s seven. I’m still not sure why The Martian won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical, though music is a running gag. And unless your sense of humor is as dry as the soil on Mars, it’s tough to fathom why Damon’s performance was entered in the Best Actor—Comedy or Musical category. But he won, and despite the spuriousness of the category, he deserved at least one honor. The Martian is his best performance since Good Will Hunting. Recommended for families with teens.

Language: A surprising number of f-bombs, mostly bleeped or mouthed, plus a few other curse words
Sex: Mild innuendo and one brief long shot of a man’s buttocks
Violence: The storm sequence and its aftermath is the only violence
Adult situations: Other than the above and general peril, not much
Takeaway: If I had to watch only one of the three recent space movies over and over again, it would be The Martian, because of the wonderful details

THE HUNGER GAMES COMPLETE 4-FILM COLLECTION (Blu-ray)

March 25, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated, Sci-Fi/Fantasy 1 Comment

HungerGamescoverGrade: B+
Entire family: No
2012-15, 548 min., Color
Lionsgate
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, some language, some suggestive elements, and thematic material
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: Dolby TrueHD Atmos / Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Bonus features: B+
Includes: 6 Blu-ray discs, Digital HD
Amazon link
Trailer

If you don’t already have the 15th highest grossing film franchise of all time, read on.

The Hunger Games movies are based on the young adult novels by Suzanne Collins, whose inspiration for her teen heroine Katniss Everdeen was probably Thomas Hardy’s Bathsheba Everdene, the strong main character of Far from the Madding Crowd—a young woman who also finds herself torn between different admirers.

In the movie version, Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss, an accomplished archer from the coal-mining District 12 in the futuristic dystopia of Panem, which is run by an autocratic president-slash-dictator named Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland)—a name derived from Shakespeare’s tragedy of Coriolanus, about a Roman general who rises to political leadership after successfully quelling uprisings against Imperial Rome. Teens won’t know or get any of this, but it does make the series a little more literate than most.

HungerGamesscreen1Mockingjay Part 2 (included here) is the climax of a series that began with Katniss taking her younger sister’s place in nationally televised “tributes,” in which two teens from each district fight to the death in a broad, natural arena in a futuristic and more violent version of Survivor. She distinguishes herself and, with fellow District 12 acquaintance-turned-friend-turned-love-interest Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), finds a way to beat the “only one winner” rule.” On their victory tour Katniss senses revolution brewing, and Mockingjay Part 1 finds her being recruited by the underground movement to be their PR heroine. Though Part 2 begins with her accompanied by a film crew advancing to the district closet to Capitol to make another rouse-the-rebellion film, Katniss has other ideas. Liam Hemsworth stars as Gale, who complicates Katniss’s emotional terrain, and a star-riddled cast includes Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Julianne Moore.

Hollywood expanded Collins’ trilogy into four installments, and fans that faithfully purchased the previous three films in HD can pick up The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 on Blu-ray, while The Hunger Games Complete 4-Film Collection seems geared for people who were waiting for the series to conclude before adding the films to their collections. The wrinkle is that the 4-Film set contains a bonus disc that includes exclusive features that haven’t appeared in earlier releases. Is it be enough to entice real fans to double-buy?

HungerGamesscreen2Maybe. But The Hunger Games Complete 4-Film Collection is a great set except for one thing: to package the six discs so that they overlap, Lionsgate had to go with DVD packaging. That’s right. If you’ve adjusted your shelves to fit Blu-rays only, this one won’t make it . . . as is. But if you buy inexpensive replacement double-disc Blu-ray cases at Amazon and photocopy, then cut out, your covers from the previous three releases, it works pretty well: The Hunger Games consists of two discs, like the first release, and they fit in one case; Catching Fire was a single disc, but if you switch to a double disc case you can put that film plus the bonus disc for this collection in that case; and that leaves The Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2 for the third case. Then you can take your first three Blu-rays to the local second-hand video store to get a few bucks for them.

Wait, you’re thinking. That’s a lot of work. Are the bonus features worth it? Well, that can be confusing, because the bonus disc also contains previously released material. But new to this release are “Stories from the Tributes,” an 18-minute feature on the actors and clips from the film; “Casting the Tributes,” an 11-minute behind-the-scenes look; “Tribute Video Diaries,” which is 17 minutes of just what it sounds like; a photo slideshow that runs about 3 minutes; a 15-minute feature on the stunts; an 18-minute feature on the costume design; a 7-minute short on the weaponry; a 10-minute feature on the visual effects; a 7-minute look at the food created for the film; a 5-minute clip of the premiere; a 14-minute look at the returning cast members for the second film; an 18-minute look at new cast members; two 3-minute shorts on the production design of the second film and the Quarter Quell cast; a five-minute look at the weapons of Catching Fire; a 5-minute location tour of Hawaii; a Coldplay music video; another 5-minute foodie feature; a 2-minute look (fast) of The Hob; a miniscule scene that was deleted early in production; a “Battling the Clock Arena” feature that runs 5 minutes; a catch-you-up 9-minute summary of Mockingjay; a 13-minute look at the Mockingjay art design and set decoration; a 12-minute feature on “The Propos Team”; a 12-minute look at the broader war that emerges in the series; and a “Picturing Panem” photo gallery that runs around 8 minutes.

Uber fans will probably want to upgrade, because the additional bonus features are indeed substantial and worthwhile, but if your family is only into the films, there’s no need to buy this collection if you already own the first three films on Blu-ray—the only way to watch this series, by the way. The Hunger Games 4-Film Collection is solid sci-fi entertainment that does what all good fiction attempts: it appeals to more than its intended audience, and offers a compelling plot and cast of characters, some great action and CGI special effects, along with some pretty good messages for teens and anyone else who will listen.

Language: No swearing in the first installment, but a few bleeped-out f-bombs and lesser curse words pop up in the second film
Sex: In the second film the side of a bare breast is glimpsed as people watch a woman undress
Violence: People are killed, but in the first film the crucial moment is either so brief or the camera quickly cuts elsewhere to avoid reveling in violence; the violence is more on-screen and increases in intensity as the series goes on
Adult situations: In Catching Fire one character is often drunk, but there are also plenty of emotional scenes all through the series; in Mockingjay reference is made to a character being forced into sex slavery and that character is traumatized by it
Takeaway: Sorry Divergent and Maze Runner fans, The Hunger Games is the superior young adult novel-on-film, and a rousing finale puts the exclamation point on that

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (Blu-ray combo)

February 28, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

IntheHeartoftheSeacoverGrade: B/B-
Entire family: No
2015, 122 min., Color
Warner Bros.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and peril, brief startling violence, and thematic material
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Featured audio: Dolby Atmos
Bonus features: C
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Amazon link
Trailer

In the Heart of the Sea is a terrific special effects movie and a great atmospheric, period adventure. But it does drag near the end of the second act, and there isn’t as much drama among the men as there could have been. They get along remarkably well for a disparate group of individuals who have to brave the dangers of the sea together on a voyage that lasts roughly a year and a half.

IntheHeartoftheSeascreen1Before oil, it was whale oil that fueled lamps everywhere, and the demand for it was great. If you read Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and didn’t skip over the cetology chapters, you know that whaling ships were floating factories that not only pursued whales, but also processed them right there on the spot.

It’s one thing to read about it, but director Ron Howard creates a film that graphically shows the process, from the harpooning of a female while her calf swims next to her to the eventual killing and processing—which at one point requires the smallest sailor onboard to crawl inside the fetid whale to make sure every bit of it is harvested before the sharks come to take the rest. It’s fascinatingly realistic, but if you’re an animal lover it can be painful to watch.

In the Heart of the Sea is rated PG-13, and it’s the kind of film that could traumatize youngsters if they see it before they’re able to handle it—and not just because of the whale harvest, or the violence that ensues when a rogue white whale seems to understand what the whalers are doing and tries to destroy them. This film is based on the book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick, and it doesn’t just tell the story of an 1820 incident that became the basis for Melville’s famous novel. It’s what happens after the whale cripples the Essex that will leave a permanent impression on young viewers. You can probably guess the spoiler I won’t share, but when the frame for the story involves Herman Melville visiting the remaining survivor of the Essex and trying to get him to tell his story of survival, if it’s something so unspeakable that the man kept it secret for all his adult life, well, that’s the kind of thing that will leave an impression on children. So the PG-13 rating is mostly because of “thematic material.”

IntheHeartoftheSeascreen2Moby-Dick was all about Capt. Ahab’s obsession with capturing a white whale, and there’s none of that here, and nothing that comes even close to the tension that came between Ahab and his whalers. There are no tattooed harpooners here and nobody builds a coffin—though there is a character named Coffin. While there isn’t a specific point of view, we mostly see things as they affect veteran first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth), who is justifiably angered when the fleet owners renege on their promise to make him captain and instead assign him to be first mate again to a rookie whose family is prominent in the whaling business.

Curiously, there’s not nearly the conflict between Capt. George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and Chase as you might expect. Even the men get along fairly well, partly because Charles Leavitt’s screenplay focuses on the man-versus-nature main plot and all but ignores side plots involving conflicting personalities. But when the film drags at one point you find yourself wishing he had developed minor conflicts. As is, In the Heart of the Sea is a straightforward sea adventure, and the device of leaving the action to return to Melville and survivor Thomas Nickerson (Tom Holland) isn’t as successful as the filmmakers think it is. Some of the dialogue in those scenes gets a bit syrupy, hokey, cheesy—pick an adjective—and you get the feeling much more could have been done to explore the attitudes of the young and old Nickersons. Those are my complaints, but give Howard credit for creating some of the most realistic whaling scenes ever to be shown on the big screen. The characters may seem shallow as pawns in an existential chess match, but the action is something else.

Language: Not much, really, besides a few damns and hells
Sex: n/a (unless you count a scrimshaw drawing of a topless woman)
Violence: Harpooning and whale violence against the ships
Adult situations: Atrocities committed while surviving adrift. (SPOILER: we’re talking Donner Party)
Takeaways: Moby-Dick may be the more compelling story, but this tale of the incident that inspired it is still pretty darned good as a period adventure.

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