Nebraska

Directed by Alexander Payne.

2013. Rated R, 114 minutes.

Cast:

Bruce Dern

June Squibb

Will Forte

Stacy Keach

Bob Odenkirk

Mary Louise Wilson

Rance Howard

Devin Ratray

Tim Driscoll

Missy Doty

If you were certain that you'd won a million dollars and only had to get to a particular place to collect, wouldn't you go? That's the position Woody (Dern) finds himself in. He has to get to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim his prize. He's going to do it even if he has to walk from his home in Billings, Montana, over seven hundred miles away. However, chances are overwhelming that there is no million dollar prize waiting for him. Like many of us, he's received one of those sweepstakes in the mail that says "You have won $1,000,000 if..." and then gives some impossible condition to meet. The whole thing is just a tactic to entice you into buying magazine subscriptions. Unlike most of us, he takes off walking in the general direction of Lincoln. Since he's done this before, the local police just pick him up and call a member of his family to come to get him. In this case, it's his son David (Forte). Against the rest of the family's wishes, since the old man just won't shut up about it nor stop trying to get there, David decides to load his old man up in the car and drive to Lincoln, himself. A rather interesting road trip ensues.

The first thing many of us will notice is director Alexander Payne's decision to use black and white instead of color. I'm not sure if he ever addressed this publicly, but I have some theories on why he did this. All of them revolve around our protagonist. First, black and white conjures ideas of a simpler time. It makes the town and the world he lives in feels smaller. In that smaller world, that Woody inhabits alone, it's entirely possible to walk as far as necessary to collect his money. It is also a representation of how he sees things at this point in his life: all black and white. There are only two possibilities: getting to Lincoln and not getting to Lincoln. Needless to say, he finds the latter unacceptable. Finally, this style of shooting is an extension of Woody, himself. The man is simply not as lucid as he once was. He continues to function, but not with his faculties fully intact. The lack of color is symbolic of this. Personifying all of this is Bruce Dern. His brilliant portrayal conveys everything that I've said. Amazingly, he manages to avoid becoming a caricature. It would've been easy to give us a performance that drills one aspect of Woody repeatedly into our head. Instead, Dern gives us a fully formed man, albeit one who has a bit less of a grip on reality that he once did.

While Dern is indeed great here, the real shining star for me is June Squibb as his wife Kate. The black and white photography effectively represents her, too. More accurately, it reps her nostalgia for the good ol' days. She spends most of the movie reminiscing about the past. During these times, she provides the film with most of its humor and emotion. Whenever she appears, the movie is injected with a vibrancy lacking in the depiction of the relationship between Woody and son. It's a magnificent performance in what's meant to be a thankless role. After all, she's the one constantly wanting to tell Woody 'no.' Woody's even formulated her into a villain, in his mind. Also adding some life to the proceedings. Also adding some life to the proceedings are some low-brow laughs we get courtesy of Cole (Ratray) and Bart (Driscoll), the couple's nephews. Nothing they do is terribly consequential, but they are fun. Later on, Stacy Keach has a nice turn as Woody's old business partner.

The black and white photography, the various people we meet, and the stubbornness of the old man are all just part of the journey we take with Woody. For some, the knock may be that it's a journey with a pre-ordained conclusion. In most movies, that would be a serious detriment. Here, we realize early on that the real point is seeing how everyone involved deals with what any rational person knows is coming. Believe me, there are a number of irrational folks besides our hero to add some drama. All of those ingredients combine to make Nebraska a fun watch that becomes tinged with sadness when we think of what the rest of Woody's life holds.

Planes

Directed by Klay Hall.

2013. Rated PG, 91 minutes.

Cast:

Dane Cook

Stacy Keach

Brad Garrett

Teri Hatcher

Julia Louis-Dryfus

Priyanka Chopra

John Cleese

Cedric the Entertainer

Carlos Alazraqui

Sinbad

Anthony Edwards

Roger Craig Smith

Val Kilmer

Brent Musberger

Dusty Crophopper (Cook) is just a crop duster. That doesn't stop his dreams of being racing plane. To fulfill his lifelong wish, he decides to try to qualify for the upcoming world famous Wings Across the World race. Against all odds, and due to some funny business by another racer, Dusty snags the last available spot. Even though he's severely outclassed by his competitors, and they let him know it, he is out not just to participate, but to win. There is one other teeny, tiny problem. One leg of the race involves flying over mountains and he is afraid of heights. Yup, he's a plane afraid of heights.

If you've heard anything about Planes, it's probably that it was made to capitalize on the popularity of the Cars franchise and is pretty much a knock-off. That much is true. Where most will probably disagree with me is that, in this case, the knock-off is better than the original. Full disclosure: I hate Cars. To me, it is an overly long, poorly paced, snooze fest. Planes is on par with Cars 2, which I also like better than Cars. I place this movie as a small step below Turbo, yet another movie following the same basic template. In that one, we sub in a snail.

Planes knows something that Cars didn't and uses that knowledge to its advantage. It fully understands that the racing is the draw. Where Cars back-logged all of the fun stuff to sit behind a way-too-lengthy setup, Planes gets us to the action rather quickly. All of the other elements you'd expect to be there are incorporated into the racing. We still get the wise old sage (Keach), a love interest (Chopra), an identity crisis for our hero, and a villain. The pace is so snappy, we notice that they are present, but don't have time to dwell on them, nitpick them, or worse, become bored by them. Instead, the time flies by, bad pun intended, and we have a fun time.

The drawback to all that speed is that our characters are stuck in neutral. They all stick to the expected arcs with almost no deviation from the norm. This robs most of them of their pizazz. This is where Turbo excels. In that movie, we get big personalities that follow similar tropes, but with much more charisma. Here, I felt like I could write the dialogue. Actually, I could probably replace it all with a catch-phrase or two for each character.

As things come to a close, we've seen a movie that's fun, but ultimately forgettable. It zips through our lives covering the same basic lessons so many other cartoons have trampled to death. Without doing anything especially good or bad, it leaves nary a trace after it's gone. The silver lining is that while it's on, it's an enjoyable little plane ride.

MY SCORE: 6/10

The Bourne Legacy

Directed by Tony Gilroy.

2012. Rated PG-13, 135 minutes.

Cast:

Jeremy Renner

Rachel Weisz

Edward Norton

Scott Glenn

Stacy Keach

Donna Murphy

Michael Chernus

Corey Stoll

Joan Allen

For three movies we've watched the exploits of Jason Bourne as various secret government agencies try to get rid of him. What we didn't know was that happening concurrently with The Bourne Ultimatum, Aaron Cross (Renner) is having the same problem. Yes, he’s also one of the super soldiers created by Green Brier, Black Stone, pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers or something. By this point, I can’t keep track. The important part is that the program is shutting down which means all of the little science projects running around, including Cross, have to be terminated. This seems easy enough. They just switch the meds that made these guys and gals super with a lethal pill that kills them a short while later. Luckily for him, our hero is out in the field and through a narrow escape of cruder attempt on his life by the same people, figures out what’s going on. After getting back to civilization, he rescues Dr. Marta Shearing (Weisz). She works for the program, but the powers that be want her dead, too. He hopes she can help him “viral off,” or make it so he no longer needs the meds to keep being a bad-ass. This is Bourne flick, so you know what ensues.

Thoroughly weaving in the plot-line of the star no longer with the franchise is an interesting tactic. For the most part, it works as it fosters the idea that The Bourne Legacy takes place in the same universe as the rest of the movies. This could very well have been going on at the same time. The problem with this is that we’re reminded of Matt Damon every few minutes for much of the film. The entire series is synonymous with him and his character, Jason Bourne. The title still bears his name. So even though Jeremy Renner is good in this movie, we can’t shake the felling we’re getting the knock-off label. It’s serviceable, but not the same as that name brand product.

Nostalgia for Matt Damon aside, TBL does many of the same things well as its predecessors. Action scenes are fast and brutal, shot in the franchise’s signature style. This includes some spectacular stunts. The numerous chase scenes are, of course, interspersed with guys in suits wringing their hands and trying to figure out what to do about their headache. It’s a formula that works, and they wisely stick to it.

Formula is a key word, though. There’s hardly a second of this movie that doesn't feel like it’s part of a well-beaten path. Well, there are the very early scenes when our guy meets another agent, the first time he’s ever met one. The two men have an interesting time together where they size one another up. After this little bit of intrigue passes, we leap wholeheartedly into an attempt at duplicating the films that came before. While still a somewhat fun adventure with enough to sate the action junkies, it’s a less satisfying experience. It doesn't seem like a continuation of the saga, but something to hold us over until they figure out what to do with the titular character.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm.

1993. Rated PG, 76 minutes.
Cast:
Kevin Conroy
Dana Delaney
Mark Hamill
Efram Zimbalist Jr.
Abe Vigoda
Stacy Keach
Bob Hastings
Dick Miller
Hart Bochner
Robert Costanzo

By now, anyone at all familiar with Batman (Conroy) knows that Bruce Wayne is a troubled billionaire loner who’s parents were shot and killed right in front of him during a robbery attempt when he was very young boy. As the legend goes, he would eventually start dressing up like a bat and take to the streets at night, fighting crime throughout Gotham City. Mask of the Phantasm finds our hero reminiscing about those early days of vigilantism now that his old flame Andrea Beaumont (Delaney) is back in town. Of course, that’s not the only thing on the Caped Crusader’s plate. Another shadowy figure has been murdering Gotham’s mobsters and everyone except Commissioner Gordon (Hastings) and Bruce’s trusty butler Alfred (Zimbalist) seems to think the Dark Knight is responsible. Despite the commish’s objections, the police go on a manhunt for Batman. Not content to let the law handle things, the gangsters hire none other than the Joker to kill his arch nemesis.

As is often the case, Bruce’s love life is the topic of the day. This time around, he pines for the one that got away and what might’ve been. He and Andrea are kindred spirits, of sorts. They both spend an inordinate amount of time at the local cemetery. At least she’s cheery about it, carrying on gleeful conversations with her deceased mother. Bruce, of course, generally carries on as if suicide is his next move. Believe it, or not, of all of his whirlwind romances this might be the most fully realized entry into the canon, live-action movies included. Though it eventually follows a familiar path, it holds up pretty well.

Yes, there is plenty of crime fighting. Batman has a few near misses with Gotham’s mysterious new player and, as mentioned, he himself comes under suspicion. A number of Batfans consider this the finest movie in the franchise. After all, it does pack a lot into barely more than an hour. I won’t go that far, but I’ll certainly put it in the upper echelon.

MY SCORE: 8/10