Spider-Man: Far From Home

Ranking the Shaft Movies

Shaft (2019)

Captain Marvel

Incredibles 2

xXx: Return of Xander Cage

Thursday Movie Picks: Movies About Addiction

Chi-Raq

Thursday Movie Picks: Downstairs People

Thursday Movie Picks: Journalists/Reporters for Print/TV

Thursday Movie Picks: Teachers

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Django Unchained

Women in Film Blogathon Part II: Kasi Lemmons

Oldboy (2013)

Thursday Movie Picks: Movies Featuring Amnesiacs

What day is it?

Oh, that's right, it's Thursday. Yeah, I'm at the age where I'll forget simple stuff like that. Most annoying, I'll walk into a room and stand there like an idiot because I can't remember what I went in there for. My wife swears up and down she's told me things of which I have no recollection whatsoever. I almost forgot to create this post.

Almost.

Luckily, I saw a couple other posts for this week's topic in Wanderer's Thursday Movie Picks meme: Movies Featuring Amnesiacs. In those posts, there were some great movies that I fully intended to pick and, yes, even a movie I'd nearly forgotten about. To check out those posts and get the ins and outs of participating, swing by Wandering Through the Shelves. Use the link, you know, in case you forgot the way. While you're here, check out the movies I've retrieved from the dark corridors of my memory. These aren't exactly hidden gems, so we'll just call them favorites.

Total Recall

(1990)

Douglas Quaid, our hero in Total Recall has some strange, but rather vivid dreams about being on Mars. They're so strong, he goes to a place that specializes in virtual vacations and decides to "go" to the red planet for himself, have a grand adventure with a beautiful woman by his side and get it out of his system. Since things are never as simple as they seem, he might really be on Mars, and it might be true that his memories were actually removed and he really is a secret agent named Hauser. Maybe. How it plays out is perhaps the finest adaptation of any Philip K. Dick writing. Sorry, I hate Blade Runner. Just had to slip that in there. It's certainly one of the best movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger's career. The 2012 remake starring Colin Farrell is okay, but I'd advise checking out this version. (Full Review)

The Long Kiss Goodnight

(1996)

When most people think of Geena Davis, they first think of her driving off a cliff with Susan Sarandon in Thelma and Louise or, perhaps, playing catcher in A League of Their Own. Me? I see her as regular old soccer mom Samantha Caine, who is completely thrown for a loop when some very dangerous people show up trying to kill her. She completely forgot that she was badass super secret agent Charly Baltimore. Bring Samuel L. Jackson along for the ride and we get one of the best action movies ever to have a female protagonist. And she's a lot more fun character than Jason Bourne. Yup, I said that.

Finding Nemo

(2003)

In this case, our amnesiac is not actually the protagonist of the film. She only kinda-sorta qualifies as an amnesiac. She's not even human. However, the movie is so good I can't help but include it. Dory, played wonderfully by Ellen DeGeneres, is a Pacific regal blue tang who suffers from short-term memory loss. She literally can't remember things that just happened. Still, she hangs with our hero Marlin every step of the way in an effort to find his son Nemo. As far as I'm concerned this is one of the great animated movies of all time. And yes, I'm extremely excited that 2016 will bring us Finding Dory.

Click here for more Thursday Movie Picks!

Robocop (2014)

Directed by Jose Padilha.

2014. Rated PG-13, 117 minutes.

Cast:

Joel Kinnaman

Gary Oldman

Michael Keaton

Samuel L. Jackson

Abbie Cornish

Jackie Earle Haley

Michael K. Williams

Jennifer Ehle

Jay Baruchel

Marianne Jean-Baptiste

Aimee Garcia

Around the world, American company OmniCorp employs robots of various sizes to take the place of actual U.S. soldiers, thus saving the lives of many American men and women. However, the practice is banned here in the states. Despite deep pockets and powerful lobbyists, the company can't persuade the powers that be to lift the ban. CEO Raymond Sellars (Keaton) believes the key to getting it overturned is by actually putting a man inside one of his machines. This is where Detroit detective Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) comes in. Alex and his partner Jack (Williams) are working undercover on a big case. When things go south, Jack winds up in the hospital after having been shot. Since the bad guys want to finish the job, they soon come after Alex, by blowing up his car with him right next to it. Without some form of life support, he will die. However, he is deemed to be the perfect candidate by head doctor Dennett Norton (Oldman) and is soon given his very own technologically advanced suit of armor that doubles as his body and becomes Robocop. Trying to get him just right before sending him out on the streets ensues. In case you've somehow never heard of it, this is a remake of the 1987. original.

Right off the bat, there is a major problem with this movie. That problem is Alex Murphy. What it is about him that makes him the perfect candidate for such a daring experiment is never sufficiently explained. We're never shown, either. What we do see makes him more likely to go on the reject pile. He's hot-headed, impulsive, reckless, and has a problem with authority. On top of that, he's not the most likable guy. All of these are things that should disqualify him from such a program. Matters aren't helped by the fact that even though we know there must be something more to him, we're never really given the chance to find out what that is. He is basically the same hard-boiled cop we've seen in hundreds of movies that barks at everyone and is going to do things his way and then suddenly he's Robocop. That type of character works in a movie where the hero following his instincts serves him right while it becomes obvious that following protocol would work to his detriment. It doesn't work when the movie depicts a big corporation looking for someone to walk the company line and present a good face to the public. It's something that keeps us from becoming invested in the character.

Once our hero is in the suit, Robocop takes its cue from comic book origin movies, and spends lots of time on the training of our hero. We get lengthy scenes of conversations about what should be done with him followed by us witnessing the implication of whatever strategies Sellars and Norton come up with. At least the latter usually shows some type of showdown between Robocop and Rick Mattox (Haley), the guy that works with all the machines. Eventually, we get to the actual police work part of the movie. When we do, it rather quickly becomes a revenge flick as our hero is simply out to get the people responsible for his condition. The action showing this is mostly fun, and exciting stuff. Unfortunately, because of what has or hasn't transpired to this point, it is lacking any sort of heart. All we've done is connect the dots that we're supposed to in this sort of film. It simply goes 'life changing event, training, loud stuff, end.' We see it, but never care about it. Action junkies won't dismiss it, but even they aren't likely to embrace it, either. It simply becomes stuff happening on the screen while time passes.

Those of us who have seen the original, of course, get a double whammy. Not only is what we're seeing not all that compelling, but it removes the elements that made the original work. We first have to revisit the portrayal of the protagonist. The Alex Murphy played by Peter Weller in '87 is a genuinely likable guy. We see how important his family is to him. We also know that he not only wants to do the right thing, but to accomplish it the right way. This new version also wants to do what is right, however, it's clear he's willing to cut corners to do it. Once he's in the suit, it's made worse by the handling of the functionality of his artificial parts verses his natural ones. Namely, we're talking about how his psyche is handled. The original understood that for him to be at all believable the parts of him that made him distinctly human must remain intact. This is what creates the conflict between himself and the machine he's trapped in. The remake pays lip service to that idea, explicitly stating that what makes a person a person is their brain, not the parts surrounding it. Then, a few minutes later, when that brain is causing a problem it's simply shut off. How much of his own thought process is in play can literally be controlled by the turning of a dial. It's an artificial, not to mention arbitrary, obstacle that didn't need to be there. The idea of a man merged with a machine is already hard to swallow, but something we can buy into. Being able to just shut off the human side, especially without sufficient buildup to this, is not. It's an added layer of silliness that detracts from the movie rather than adding to it.

The other big differences between this and its predecessor are the tone and the visuals. In the original, these two things work in concert to create a hyper-violent dark comedy. Tonally, it is mostly tongue-in-cheek and takes aim at our insatiable consumerism, among other things. From that end of it, we get a razor sharp satire. From the visual end, we get a fairly gory movie. To keep from going into a lengthy description of it, let's just say it makes you familiar with the term splatter. The remake goes in the opposite direction. As far as satire goes, this version will have none of it. It takes itself overly serious and just trudges forward. If there is any attempt at it, it's wrapped in the scenes featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Pat Novak, a political talk show host. Essentially, he's a shill for OmniCorp. The situation is ripe for examining corporate influence on both the media and the government. However, the opportunity passes unexamined. In the violence department, the amount is reduced quite a bit and what we do get is sanitized to fit into its PG-13 box. So, while that part of it is fun in the way lots of action scenes are, it's not a visceral experience. Nothing about it makes us sit up and say 'wow.'

That lack of a wow factor is the biggest problem with this movie. Even if you're not at all familiar with the original, it just doesn't have much pizazz. For those of you in that category, it'll probably be a passable action flick, nothing more. Instead of standing out from the crowd, it fits snugly within it. The all-star cast can only help so much because they are all working in service of an unmemorable hero. The best thing about him is the design of his suit. Compared to the old one, it's sleeker and sexier, even if it inexplicably (and weirdly) includes Murphy's actual right hand. For those of us that have seen the original, the suit is the only thing this movie does better. Most things, the old one does better by a large margin. That was an inventive and gutsy movie. The 2014 version of Robocop is a re-imagining without much imagination.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.

2014. Rated PG-13, 136 minutes.

Cast:

Chris Evans

Scarlett Johansson

Samuel L. Jackson

Robert Redford

Anthony Mackie

Sebastian Stan

Frank Grillo

Cobie Smulders

Emily VanCamp

Hayley Atwell

Like Thor and Iron Man we find Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Evans), trying to piece his life back together "after New York," or the events of The Avengers. In case you haven't kept up with what's going on, Cap has an additional hurdle. He's not long been woken after having been frozen for nearly seventy years. He has a lot of catching up to do. Of course, that has to wait because there's a world to save. Some bad folks, I won't say who, have taken over SHIELD. They plan on restoring world order, and running things, by eliminating every person in the world they deem to be a threat. This numbers some twenty million people. Yes, Captain America, Black Widow (Johansson), and Nick Fury (Jackson) are included in that group. Superhero stuff ensues.

One thing we notice early on is that the tone of this movie is different from just about every other in Marvel's shared universe, with the first Captain America being the closest one. The rest go out of their way to make us laugh. While there is some humor here, that certainly isn't the case. Things don't quite veer into The Dark Knight territory, but it is a fairly serious minded superhero flick. The movie uses this to tremendous advantage by creating tension sooner and rarely diffusing it. Action scenes are given more oomph. Combine all this with the fact that neither our hero nor the people helping him are actually invincible and that tension is increased a bit more. We feel like there's something on the line.

Captain America himself is a big asset. Chris Evans has found the hero he should be playing. As The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four series, he was too much. He got to be real annoying, real fast. In other things, I've usually found him too bland to make me care about whoever he was playing. The character of Captain America calls for a certain level of blandness. Like Superman, he represents the cheesy ideals of a simpler time. He is also a physical specimen superior to the rest of us. Evans embodies all of this. We believe him when he expresses confliction over the politics at play within SHIELD and elsewhere. Unlike Superman, and what ultimately makes him a better fit for the movies, is that he is not indestructible. As enhanced as he is, he will still succumb to many of the same things we will. Granted, none of us are jumping out a plane with no parachute and landing unharmed, but he can still be taken out by a gunshot or be cut by a knife.

Helping us psychoanalyze our hero are Black Widow and Sam Wilson, aka Falcon (Mackie). Both ask him tons of personal questions. Black Widow does so mostly in an effort to help him kick start his love life. Meanwhile, Falcon tries to help him fill in the blanks created by seventy years of sleep. It's a cool way for us to get to know a little more about Cap, and inject some laughter into the proceedings. Johansson gives her best performance of the character, to date, and Mackie does a very nice job with his role. He is an actor I've admired for a while now, so I'm happy he's getting a chance at becoming part of a huge franchise on a recurring basis (hopefully). Speaking of our supporting cast, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Samuel L. Jackson. He continues to make Nick Fury his own.

All of these performers come together to tell us an intriguing story. It's the saga of a prodigal son returning, but not sure what to, and if he still belongs. It's the self-examination of a man who is struggling with his sense of right and wrong. His feelings are egged on by his lack of trust in the powers that be. These are issues he never had to deal with during his World War II days. Eliminating the enemy was easy because everyone knew who they were. With evil-doers more clandestine than ever and their identities rapidly changing, Cap has a lot tougher job than he once had.

Examining our hero's mental state is fine and dandy, but it all would be for naught in a boring movie. See Ang Lee's Hulk for proof. Luckily, this one not only has tons of action, it has tons of good action. The battles Cap gets into are some doozies. His hand-to-hand combat is shot in a way that owes a lot to The Bourne Identity. The camera is a bit shaky and closer than normal. It works to emphasize the force and speed at which our hero is moving. His best fight is one with a person who has a very interesting identity. However, the best action scene of them all might be one that doesn't include Cap at all. Instead, it features Nick Fury trying to escape with his life. It's Fury's finest scene in any movie, period.

One of the negatives in all this awesomeness is something this movie imposes on itself and wouldn't change. That problem is that it's "just" a Captain America flick. Marvel's shared universe concept comes back to bite them. By that, I mean we already know that this is a world where Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk exist. The conflict of this movie certainly seems like a big enough issue to get their attention. Alas, none of them are even doing a fly-by to see if Cap is okay. This is by no means a deal breaker. However, it just feels a bit odd that so big a problem get such a limited response. On the technical side, there were a couple of hard to ignore continuity issues. These mainly involve just when and where Falcon is able to access his wings. He seemed to just get them out of nowhere on occasion. Again, not a deal breaker, but an annoyance.

The bigger negative is Captain America's abilities. I mentioned them as a positive, earlier. I also exclaimed how great it is that he isn't immortal. Still, just how enhanced he is is a bit vague and inconsistent. Remember that chuteless sky-dive? It looks really cool, but leaves us a bit puzzled when something of much lesser impact than landing that jump hurts him. It's a problem the character has been dealing with since long before he made the leap from the comic book pages to the big screen. Therefore, I won't knock the movie too much. It's really hard to. To be honest, this is arguably the best Marvel movie of this whole shared universe thing.

Turbo

Directed by David Soren.

2013. Rated PG, 96 minutes.

Cast:

Ryan Reynolds

Paul Giamatti

Samuel L. Jackson

Michael Peña

Snoop Dogg

Maya Rudolph

Michelle Rodriguez

Luis Guzman

Bill Hader

Richard Jenkins

Ken Jeong

Mario Andretti

Ironically, Turbo (Reynolds) is a snail. He loves Formula One racing, especially his hero Guy Gagné (Hader) and wants nothing more than to go really fast. As you might imagine, being a snail makes this rather difficult. Still, a boy can dream. Unfortunately, that dreaming makes it hard for him to perform the mundane tasks of daily life. This includes doing his job for which he is under the supervision of his much more cautious brother Chet (Giamatti). Frustrated with life, Turbo finds himself looking over the freeway. Somehow he finds himself on it, barely surviving the harrowing ordeal. When he comes to, he discovers that his shell is suddenly a high-powered engine that enables him to travel at ridiculous speeds. One thing leads to another and Turbo and Chet wind up in the care of Tito (Peña), a taco salesman/snail racer with big ideas. Trying to get Turbo into the Indy 500 ensues.

Following Turbo on his quest is a fun adventure that is well paced and breezes by easily. The racing scenes are all exciting and should bring the youngsters to the edge of their seats as a decent amount of tension is created by them. The story between them holds together pretty well, also. As nonsensical as it sounds, we buy into it. We get caught up in whether or not this little snail can do the impossible.

Helping to sell all of this to us is a remarkable cast. To me, this begins with two wonderful actors doing superb voice work, Paul Giamatti and the incomparable Samuel L. Jackson. Both are just plain amazing. Giamatti provides a persistent naysayer who makes his opinions clearly known. Jackson brings his familiar persona to the role and somehow makes it all the way through the film without dropping F-bombs. Between the two of them, they get most of the movie’s best lines. However, they are not alone. Michael Peña, Bill Hader, Snoop, and Ken Jeong are all excellent, as well. Luis Guzman shines in the very nearly thankless role of Tito’s big brother Angelo, but not given nearly as much to do. All of them overshadow leading snail Ryan Reynolds. It’s not that he is bad, it’s that they are so good.

By the end, we have an easily graspable film about chasing your dreams and never giving up. This message is telegraphed pretty far in advance so that might lessen some of its potency, but it still works. Best of all, it’s not something we have to dwell on. Things are kept lighthearted enough so the kids don’t feel brow-beaten when it’s over. It stands a bit ahead of most animated kiddie fare, but is not quite special.

MY SCORE: 7/10

The Dellies - 2012 Best Supporting Actor

For me, this next category is probably the toughest. So much great work was turned in by guys portraying secondary characters. Whittling it down to five nominees proved a difficult task, one that makes me begrudgingly admit The Academy almost got right. Almost. With that tantalizing tease, let's move on to...

2012 - Best Supporting Actor

The Real Nominees: Alan Arkin (Argo), Robert DeNiro (Silver Linings Playbook), Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

My Nominees:

Alan Arkin, Argo

In Argo, Alan Arkin is particularly exceptional. He can proudly add this to a long list of fine supporting roles.

Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained

Jackson breathes an unbelievable amount of life into his character. He is funny, conniving, deliciously evil, and perhaps the smartest person in the movie.

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

When neither Daniel Day-Lewis nor Sally Field are on the screen, the movie is carried by a magnificent Tommy Lee Jones who give his most inspired performance in years.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Hoffman is perfectly charismatic as the leader of a budding way of thought, no matter how out there it may be. In an exemplary manner, he pulls off his character’s ability to instantly adapt his explanations to most lines of questioning and knack for shouting down anyone not persuaded by his answers.

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Christoph Waltz switches sides of the coin, going from playing the unapologetic villain in Inglourious Basterds to a kinder, gentler man in Django Unchained, albeit one still capable of mowing down whoever stands in his way. He gives a moustache twirlingly fun performance.

Honorable Mention:
Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Jeremy Irons, The Words
Jude Law, Rise of the Guardians
Ezra Miller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Hugo Weaving, Cloud Atlas

The Real Winner: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

And My Winner Is...

Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained

The portrayal I thought was best of all in a movie filled with great ones is that of Samuel L. Jackson. Every word he says, every movement of his body and shift of his eyes feels true. It’s nothing less than masterful.

Click here to see all of The Dellies!