The Perfect Match

Thursday Movie Picks: Movies About Time Travel

Happy Thursday, all! I'm glad you're joining me for another installment of Thursday Movie Picks, hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. Or maybe, you're reading this from the future. Maybe you're from the future and when you landed in 2014 you walked past a computer, and had to stop to check today's date. You may have even journeyed here from the past and are simply stunned that computers no longer take up entire rooms, if they even exist during the time from whence you came.

What am I babbling about?

That's easy. This week's theme is Movies About Time Travel. As has become my usual for this feature, I'm going to explore lesser traveled to pockets of time. That means no going back to November 5, 1955. You figure that one out. So I'll once again try to hip you to some hidden gems.

Deja Vu

(2006)

It's hard to imagine a Denzel Washington vehicle as a hidden gem, especially one released within the last decade. Truthfully, this one did gross about $180 million worldwide. However, only about a third of that came from here in the U.S. and the critics were not exactly singing its praises. That said, I quite enjoyed this movie where Denzel plays an ATF agent who goes back in time trying to stop a terrorist attack and save the life of the key witness played by Paula Patton. Much of the time is actually spent watching her through a device called "Snow White" which enables us to look back roughly four days into the past. Why yes, that is a pic of Denzel watching himself four days prior.

The Jacket

(2005)

We meet Gulf War Vet Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) in 1992 after he's survived getting shot in the head, but now suffers bouts of amnesia. This means he can't recall the facts of an event that led to him being charged with the murder of a police officer. He's found not guilty by reason of insanity, but ends up incarcerated in a mental institution (hey, travel back in time to when that was the theme). The doc there, played by Kris Kristofferson, does what docs in these types of movies do. He puts our guy in a strait-jacket, and injects him full experimental drugs. Next thing you know, Jack finds himself 15 years in the future. This one bends your mind as far as it can without actually breaking it.

Safety Not Guaranteed

(2012)

Of all the movies about the subject, this might have the least time travel of them all, if it really has any at all. Hmmm. Still, it's a wonderful little film about a guy who runs an ad in the paper requesting a companion to go back in time with him and the reporter sent in to see if he's cuckoo for Coco Puffs. It's much more a film about human interaction than about hopping through time, but it does happen. Or, does it? Read my full review here.

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Baggage Claim

Directed by David E. Talbert.

2013. Rated PG-13, 96 minutes.

Cast:

Paula Patton

Derek Luke

Jill Scott

Adam Brody

Taye Diggs

Jennifer Lewis

Boris Kodjoe

Trey Songz

Djimon Hounsou

Lauren London

Christina Milian

La La Anthony

When Montana (Patton) learns that her younger sister Sheree (London) is getting married soon, and before she is, her world is sent spiraling out of control. Not only is Montana not married, she doesn’t have any prospects. This is a big problem. She’s been raised to believe that she simply is not a lady if she’s not married by thirty. That her sister will tie the knot first is a travesty of epic proportions. At the very least she wants to find Mr. Right in time to escort her to the wedding which is a mere thirty days away. Obviously, this is a daunting task, but it helps that she is an airline stewardess. However, rather than meeting men as she normally would in her profession, her work buddies talk her into what they think is a genius plan. They will track down her ex-boyfriends as they travel to see if any of them has developed into the man of her dreams since they broke up.

Let’s just get this out of the way, first. That is an astonishingly dumb idea. Setting aside the fact that these are guys that she’s already found out were not “the one” for one reason or another, the execution of this plan is idiotic, at best. It involves her dropping everything the second her pals call her to let her know one of these guys is on a  flight, high-tailing it to the airport to make said flight, and trying to instantly rekindle the flames. Yes, she always makes it to the plane just in time, but as you might imagine, these guys have the same problems that caused their break-up the first time around.

In the midst of all the chaos that is her life, she has one stable relationship with a straight man. She grew up with the guy who lives across the hall. In fact, they are best friends. His name is William Wright (Luke). Hey, wait a sec…let me just repeat his name in case you somehow dodged that sledgehammer. William Wright. WRIGHT. Uh-huh.

The overwhelming majority of romantic comedies are inane, predictable affairs. This is certainly no exception. The next moment is always precisely what you think it’s going to be. It simply runs down the rom-com checklist in order and on time. This strict adherence to the formula drains the life out of most jokes. It’s hard to laugh when you already know the punchline.

Likewise, it is difficult to get wrapped up in the dilemmas on the screen when the performances of them are so plastic. Paula Patton normally does solid work. Here, I can see her ‘acting’ which is empirical evidence that the performer is doing a bad job. Her voice has the fake quality of a person trying but failing to prove that they are honest. The rest of the cast seems to be in a contest to see who can be the most photogenic. They take turns reciting their lines through the pearly whites of their megawatt smiles, just like in the pic above. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an impressive looking group of people and an accomplished bunch of actors, but to this particular production they bring all the depth of a cookie sheet. The only characters with any spunk whatsoever are Montana’s partners in romantic crime: Sam (Brody), her gay male friend, and Gail (Scott), her busty and perpetually horny gal pal. Sam is a walking stereotype, but at least he gets most of the movie’s best lines. Gail gets the best gestures and is the most interesting person in the movie. Love her or hate her, she has a zest for life and an independence sorely missing from the protagonist. A better movie could probably have been made about her.

Everything I’ve mentioned thus far makes Baggage Claim a bad movie. Regardless of how terribly they go down, all of these elements are rather innocuous. They are things that render this fit for the skyward reaching junk pile of rom-coms, all of which are indistinguishable from the rest. However, right from the start this is a potentially damaging film. It repeatedly and explicitly pushes the idea that a woman absolutely, positively must have a husband or she is a failure at life. Sam impotently tries to dissuade Montana from this notion once or twice. When Montana herself comes to understand the fallacy of this ideal, the movie’s own finale completely undermines her. Honestly, it’s baffling that she believed this in the first place given the fact that marriage hasn’t actually worked for her own mother (Lewis), the one pushing this whole mindset. Mom’s been married five times, and even Montana understands she marries simply for the sake of being married. This is not a model to live by. The entire thing is an exercise in archaic thought. Sure, we all want someone to grow old with. Branding someone worthless for having yet found that person is backwards, at best, and anti-feminist, if not downright misogynist, at worst.

To blame for this atrocity we have writer/director David E. Talbert, or Tyler Perry 2.0, as I like to call him. He’s taken essentially the same path to Hollywood as Mr. Madea. Talbert wrote and directed his own plays which he successfully toured around the nation targeting African-American female audiences. His work, that I’ve seen anyway, has a similar mix of Christianity and secularism, is thematically similar, but tends to be a bit more risqué. This holds true as their work translates to the big screen. Unfortunately, Talbert fails to realize that the time for labeling single women near (or in) their thirties as barren old maids has long since past. It’s also a terrible message for the young ladies in the audience. I’m not normally a cinematic moralist. I don’t need movies to have positive messages for me to enjoy them, but I don’t like to be brow-beaten, either. This is so persistent with its assertions, it galls me to no end.

MY SCORE: 2/10

2 Guns

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur.

2013. Rated R, 109 minutes.

Cast:

Denzel Washington

Mark Wahlberg

Paula Patton

Edward James Olmos

Bill Paxton

Robert John Burke

James Marsden

Greg Sproles

Fred Ward

We meet Bobby (Washington) and Stig (Wahlberg) Reservoir Dogs style, sitting in a diner having a fun conversation and planning a bank robbery. They also go to see Mexican Cartel boss Papi Greco (Olmos) in order to make an exchange of fake passports for cocaine. That doesn’t go quite as planned. Quickly, we find out that Bobby is not who he seems. He is a DEA agent and all of this is part of his plan to take down Papi. In his grand scheme, Stig is just collateral damage. He is to be arrested after the bank robbery. In reality, the robbery goes off without a hitch, because Bobby’s people fail to show. Additionally, what was supposed to be three million dollars, at most, turns out to be forty-three million. $43.125 million, to be exact. And everyone is trying to get their hands on it. Then, there is the little matter of Stig’s actual identity. Or who anyone is, for that matter. Basically, everyone trying to kill everyone else over this money ensues.

2 Guns hastily becomes one of those movies where all the good guys are dirtier than the bad guys, providing no safe haven for our heroes. The tougher task for the viewer is figuring out who isn’t crooked. The various angles from which the characters approach things plays out in elaborate fashion. Every few minutes gives us a new reveal which sends the movie careening in another direction. This is interesting for a while, but gets to be a bit much.

On the plus side, the movie recognizes where its strength lies. It is within the personas of our two leads. Denzel does Denzel and Wahlberg does Wahlberg. Turns out, the two have great chemistry. Together, they are just fun to watch. We laugh often at their exchanges and wonder why it has taken so long for them to work together. Because of them, as I am sure it was intended, the whole thing has a Lethal Weapon or Bad Boys vibe that works really well. Regardless of the plot’s machinations, we can enjoy watching two guys who appear to be having a blast.

The other major strength of 2 Guns is something true to the title. Between all the cheeky banter of the good guys and sinister posturing by everyone else we get lots of action. Things go boom real good and at fairly regular intervals. The best sequence, in my opinion, actually features our heroes squaring off against one another via car chase. Somehow this includes fisticuffs between them while both vehicles are moving. Please do not try this at home.

When all is said and done, 2 Guns is a fun movie that rides its two stars to whatever success it enjoys. We are spared their life stories in favor of the chatter that entertains us pretty well. As mentioned, this chatter is aided by the action. It all works to mask its over-populated and convoluted story and does a good job. If ever a movie could breeze by on charm and personality, this is it.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Directed by Brad Bird.

2011. Rated PG-13, 133 minutes.
Cast:
Tom Cruise

Jeremy Renner

Simon Pegg
Paula Patton
Michael Nyqvist
Vladimir Mashkov
Léa Seydoux
Miraj Grbic
Tom Wilkinson
Ving Rhames
Michelle Monaghan

We start on what by now seems to be a normal day in the life of extra super duper secret agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise). He busts out of a Serbian prison while dragging along a fellow inmate who may have some valuable information. He finds out that one of his buddies was killed in the line of duty. More importantly, Hunt learns that he has to retrieve a file that’s locked away in the Kremlin. Yes, an actual physical file and not an electronic one. While there, someone else blows the place up. Unfortunately for our hero and his crew, they’re being blamed so the good ol’ USA has to disavow any knowledge of Ethan and company. We learn this is called ghost protocol, hence the title. Anyhoo, not only do the good guys have to clear their own names, but that of the United States, as well. They must do this without the help of their native land, either. Of course, accomplishing this means they also must stop some Russian nut from starting a nuclear war. And you thought you had a tough day at work.

Thankfully for us, watching this particular mission is a better viewing experience that the last couple. The first movie in the series was pointlessly and aggressively convoluted making it a chore to watch. As a knee-jerk reaction to the sheer confusion of much of its audience, parts II and III turned Hunt into a superhero and dumbed everything down to seemingly random stunts and explosions. So far, the franchise hasn’t been able to strike the proper balance between sophisticated espionage and stupid action.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol takes a step in the right direction. Make that a few steps. The action is dialed back a bit. Don’t worry junkies, there’s still plenty for you to tweak on. The difference is that everything going boom isn’t the focus. The story between the stunts actually intrigues us. Occasionally, it slips into needlessly cryptic exposition but for the most part, it works. So does the comic relief, courtesy of Benji (Pegg). For that matter, the camaraderie and sometimes contentiousness of this new squad is pretty entertaining. This includes an interesting turn by Jeremy Renner as Agent Brandt. Though I must admit that I did miss Ving Rhames who only has a cameo in this installment.

If there is a problem with MIGP it’s with Ethan Hunt, himself. Mind you, I’m not talking about Tom Cruise. Haters be damned, he’s solid just doing what he normally does: giving us the Tom Cruise persona. I’m talking about the actual character. It’s the same problem that’s plagued the franchise and one I alluded to earlier: Ethan Hunt is invincible. His decision making is also infallible no matter how quick he has to make them or how stressful the situation in which he finds himself. It’s kind of hard to generate any real suspense when we know that regardless of what our hero does it will work out without any real consequences. Brandt even asks about Hunt’s extraordinarily quick wit. Hunt responds that he was playing a hunch. His hunches are always right.

Complaints aside, I have to reiterate that MIGP takes the franchise in a positive direction. In fact, it may well be the best of the four movies. In my opinion, only the first is any competition. That’s the only one that even tries to engage our brains. The other two are assaults on our senses, and not in a good way. Here, there is a well stirred mixture of the two approaches. Sure, we might still roll our eyes at some of the stuff Super Ethan pulls off, but when woven into the fabric of an interesting narrative it’s more palatable. For me, at least. If you’re already a fan of the series you won’t be disappointed. If you’re not, you might actually be pleasantly surprised.

MY SCORE: 7/10

Jumping the Broom

Directed by Salim Akil.

2011. Rated PG-13, 112 minutes.
Cast:
Paula Patton
Laz Alonso
Angela Bassett
Loretta Devine
Mike Epps
Meagan Good
Tasha Smith
Julie Bowen
Valerie Pettiford
DeRay Davis
Gary Doudan
Romeo Miller
Brian Stokes Mitchell

And the y lived happily ever after. That Jumping the Broom ends this way should not be a surprise. It’s a romantic comedy named after a centuries old wedding tradition. You should already know how it ends. Our main character is food of saying “the details make the person.” So it is in the details where JtB is made or broken. That main character is Sabrina (Patton). Tired of dealing with no-good men, she asks God to send her a soul mate and vows abstinence until He does. Don’t worry, she immediately bumps into Jason (Alonso), who is apparently “the one.” Skip ahead a bit to after what we’re told is “five incredible months” he proposes, she says yes and then the movie starts.

The nuptials are to be held at the mansion of Sabrina’s rich parents on Martha’s Vineyard. Evidently, they’ve been rich a very long time. There is one little detail that makes this movie go. Sabrina has never met Jason’s family. They’re quite the opposite of Sabrina’s folks. Jason’s family are working class people from Brooklyn. Nevermind that no one of them speaks with anything that sounds even remotely like a New York accent. Just know that they are on their way to the Vineyard fro the wedding and Mom, the widowed Mrs. Taylor (Devine) is none too pleased that she’s never met her future daughter-in-law. Rich people interacting with poor people and lots of melodrama ensues.

Details keep flying at us. How well we deal with them will determine whether or not we enjoy it. They come fast and most of them help keep this a fairly light affair, moving us quickly through the near two hour runtime. The problem is after a while there’s so much going on the movie feels cluttered. Most of these strands are amusing but not always necessary. It begins to feel like the wedding episode of a daytime soap opera. Among those things that need to be cut entirely is the language switches. From time to time our wealthy characters will suddenly start speaking French. It’s presented like its just something sophisticated rich folks do. Maybe, but it comes across as strange and certainly isn’t needed to provide us with a clear distinction between the classes. The rest of the movie does a perfectly fine job establishing this.

Still, there is another detail that could stand some fleshing out. It’s really just one line of dialogue, but its drawn from history and transcends the movie. However, it may do so in a disasterous manner. In a spiteful retort to Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Watson (Bassett) proclaims her family once owned slaves. Yes, there really were blacks that owned slaves. Most often, they purchased them as a way to get/keep them from under the thumb of white slaveowners whom, as we know, were harsh taskmasters to understate it by a couple thousands miles. To those not aware of this historical tidbit, Bassett’s line goes far beyond the villainy its trying to assign to her character. It reeks of self-hatred and shows a level of elitism even greater than I think the filmmakers are going for. A thirty second explanation would balance this. Those is charge should never assume their audience is stupid. By the same token they also should assume knowledge of any particular historic fact. This is especially true when the much more widely known and still practiced tradition that the movie is named after is explained in full.

That entire previous paragraph might be nit-picking. The more important issues to our enjoyment are the crowded feeling it gives us, as I’ve already mentioned, and the bombardment of clichés we’re hit with. The things that happen in most rom-coms happen here. In addition, it’s also heavily influenced by the Tyler Perry canon. Thankfully, it’s not as loud or outlandish as those films, but the formula of secular humor punctuated by Christian heedings is clearly visible. To this end, it should be noted that Evangelist Bishop T. D. Jakes, who’s made several movies himself, has a small role and is one of the producers.

There are some good things here. As I’ve said, much of it is amusing. It doesn’t often cause uproarious laughter, but there are some chuckles to be had. Our cast is game. The continuous sparring between Angela Bassett and Loretta Devine is enjoyable melodrama. Leads Patton and Alonso acquit themselves well enough and fans of Romeo can rejoice he’s a slightly better actor than his dad (Master P). Admittedly, that last one isn’t saying much but roll with it. In all, it adds up to one big giant package of “meh.”

Just Wright

Directed by Sanaa Hamri.
2010. Rated PG, 101 minutes.
Cast:
Queen Latifah
Common
Paula Patton
Phylicia Rashad
Pam Grier
James Pickens Jr.
Michael Landes
Mehcad Brooks

Boy meets girl. In this case, the boy is NBA superstar Scott McKnight (Common). He’s uber-rich and handsome, but is also down-to-earth with a heart of gold. By chance, he meets the girl at a gas station after a game. The girl is Leslie Wright (Latifah). She’s great, except that she’s a bit tomboyish (she even knows Scott’s high school stats) and not exactly built like a fashion model, as she often laments. The monkeywrench in her plans to really get next to Scott is her godsister Morgan (Patton), who fits the model bill to a tee.

Really, I could stop right there. You probably know exactly how the rest of this plays out, minus the dramatic makeover scene you might expect. Thank goodness, that never happens. That said, it’s still a cute little chick flick. Enough funny stuff happens to move things along as we navigate the usual peaks and valley of a rom-com. Queen Latifah’s natural charm also helps. Her male lead, Common, still has some work to do on his acting, but he’s better here than in anything else I’ve seen him in. He’s a great rapper, by the way. If you dread the current state of hip hop and are a fan, give him a listen if you haven’t. Wait, this is a movie review, right?

The film also tries to lean on recognition factor for its supporting cast. Our two moms are played by Cosby Show alum Phylicia Rashad and the incomparable Pam Grier. I’m obligated by law to tell you that after all these years I’m still in love with Ms. Grier. There have been many lonely nights…wait, what? Ahem. A number of ESPN personalities, as well as current NBA players Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade make cameos. Again, that’s not a typo, that’s how he spells it.

When it’s all said and done, it’s your typical date movie. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it’s pleasant, nonetheless. It’s just decent, light-hearted fare.

The Opposite View: Steve Persall, St. Petersburg Times

What the Internet Says: 4.0/10 on imdb.com (9/21/10), 47% on rottentomatoes.com, 52/100 on metacritic.com

MY SCORE: 6/10

Precious Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Directed by Lee Daniels.
2009. Rated R, 110 minutes.
Cast:
Gabourey Sidibe
Mo'Nique
Paula Patton
Lenny Kravitz
Stephanie Andujar
Chyna Lane
Mariah Carey
Sherri Shepherd
Armina Robinson

Plot: 16 year-old Precious (Sidibe) tries to navigate life through a maze of abuse.

The Good: Realism jumps off the screen. Every word of it simply feels true. This makes the fantasies Precious uses as a way to endure pain extremely effective and sad. Sidibe pulls off each emotion flawlessly, in the lead role. However, as good as she is, the movie would go nowhere without the powerhouse performance of Mo'Nique as her mom. She never makes a false acting choice and really brings the movie home during its closing moments. It's a role in which she could've easily pushed too much and come off as cartoonishly psychotic. To her credit, and the movie's benefit, she never crosses that line. This makes [i]Precious[/i] a true-to-life horror film and her character, a splendid villain. Also to the movie's benefit, it doesn't take the easy way out. To the contrary, when the end-credits start rolling, Precious is in a better place than when we first meet her but there is much uncertainty about her future. Her life can go in any number of different directions, some good and some bad.

The Bad: With an almost all-female cast, it falls into what I call "The Color Purple Trap." In that movie about a similarly abused woman, men generally come off as the enemy. Here, there are only a few male characters, the father, some guys that hang out in front of a building Precious has to pass every day and Nurse John. Only Nurse John, a surprisingly pretty decent acting Lenny Kravitz by the way, has any redeeming qualities whatsoever. However, even he is of needlessly ambiguous purpose. Finally, the relationship between Precious' mom and grand-mom could've been explored a little further, shedding more light on what may have happened before our hero was even born.

The Ugly: Her dad's parting gift.

Recommendation: This is a movie that repeatedly hits you over the head with its very ugly truth and it never pulls any punches. Though its qualified as a family drama, even a chick-flick, it's really an urban horror film, frightening and heart-wrenching because this may be going on next door. One of my favorite "scary" movies is Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Its power lies in the fact that Henry is not Freddy Krueger or Jason of some other supernatural killing machine but someone so unassuming you might have sat next to him at a bar or in a diner and completely forgotten about unless he were actually trying to kill you. There are no serial killers here, but the fear generated is much the same. Therefore, we feel each tragedy and triumph with our hero and our thoughts about what will happen to her next linger on, after the movie has ended.

The Opposite View: Dana Stevens, Slate

What the Internet Says: 7.5/10 on imdb.com (7/24/10), 91% on rottentomatoes.com, 79/100 on metacritic.com

MY SCORE: 10/10