White House Down

Directed by Roland Emmerich.

2013. Rated R, 131 minutes.

Cast:

Channing Tatum

Jamie Foxx

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Richard Jenkins

James Woods

Jason Clarke

Joey King

Nicolas Wright

Michael Murphy

Rachelle Lefevre

Agent John Cale (Tatum) works on the security detail for Speaker of the House Eli Raphelson (Jenkins). Through some favors, he got that job and finagles his way into an interview for a position in the Secret Service at the White House, because that's really how you get a job guarding the most powerful men in the free world. It so happens that the person interviewing him, Agent Finnerty (Gyllenhaal), is an ex-girlfriend from college. Given that, and a spotty work history, he doesn't get hired. Since his daughter is a political buff and absolutely adores Pres. James W. Sawyer (Foxx), he brought her along and she gets separated from him because she has to make a trip to the restroom. Wouldn't ya know it? This is precisely when all hell breaks loose as terrorists storm the property, guns blazing. Pretty soon, Cale realizes he's the only one who can save both his daughter and the Chief Executive.

To my surprise, White House Down takes a little longer to kick into high gear than expected. This is actually a good thing. These early scenes establish our characters nicely and are fairly funny. The mood is kept light and wee see the bad guys moving into position. During this time, star Channing Tatum exudes the easy charm, and yes ladies, the movie star looks that have made him famous. Co-star Jamie Foxx isn't bad, but seems to be caught in a bit of a conundrum. It appears he is unsure how much Pres. Obama should be in his character. He vacillates between impersonation and doing his own thing. Like Tatum, though, he has a natural charm that pulls him through without being too big a detriment.

Once the fireworks start, this is solid turn-your-brain-off fare that never threatens to get too heavy. It doesn't attempt to brow-beat you into a flag waving frenzy, either. That last thing is a huge problem with this movie's barely older twin sister, Olympus Has Fallen. I am an American, proud to be one. Still, movies that are relentlessly heavy-handed tend to leave me cold, regardless of how great its message. Thankfully, that isn't the case with WHD. Sure, there is some overt patriotism going on, but it feels organic to the plot, not the product of overbearing propagandists. It just follows two guys, one of whom happens to be the President of the United States, as they try to maneuver their way out of the White House even though bad guys control the premises. They have a nice chemistry which certainly helps. And yup, not only does everything go boom all around them, they make plenty of things go boom themselves.

The villain does the usual ranting and raving, plus their is plenty of in-fighting with his team. Meanwhile, the secondary characters on the good side do the prerequisite hand wringing. It's all pretty much par for the course. The only standout being the overall quality of the cast. Even though it is just a big, dumb action flick, they bring the goods.

Where the movie strains just a bit is when it over-twists itself. It spends lots of time building up one character as our bad guy, giving him a detailed backstory and the whatnot. Eventually, as must always be the case, we switch gears and find out there's someone else involved. Normally, this would be fine. Here, it occurs so late in the proceedings we get almost nothing about him that matters. It's not quite a deal breaker, but it does take some air out of the balloon.

Plot malfunctions aside, we still have a fun ride on our hands. It's got loads of action, it's goofy at times, and genuinely humorous at others. Our two leads work together very easily. I wouldn't mind seem them together again. Maybe they can do a buddy-cop movie or something, not a sequel. We don't need a part two. However, I did have a good t ime watching this. Without the Kong-like chest-thumping of Olympus Has Fallen, I felt free to just enjoy it, not be brow-beaten by it. I understand lots of people didn't like WHD. After all, it is loud and stupid. You know what, though? It works for me.

MY SCORE: 6.5/10

Best Man Holiday

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee. 

2013. Rated R, 123 minutes. 

Cast: 

Taye Diggs 

Morris Chestnut 

Nia Long 

Terrence Howard 

Melissa De Sousa 

Monica Calhoun 

HaroldPerrineau 

Regina Hall 

Sanaa Lathan

When last we saw our gang of friends, way back in 1999, things culminated in a beautiful wedding for Lance (Chestnut) and Mia (Calhoun). All these years later, they've all moved on to bigger and better things. We pick up the story with Lance and Mia inviting the whole crew over to their place for the week of Christmas. Everyone is on board, no problem, except Harper (Diggs). It turns out things between he and Lance haven't been so good in the intervening years. The events of The Best Man, seems to have irreparably damaged their friendship. Nonetheless, he agrees to go because he has an ulterior motive. His last few books have flopped. His next one may not see the light of day. He has also lost his teaching job at NYU, his wife Robin (Lathan) is pregnant with their first child, and the bills are piling up. At the urging of his agent, he plans on writing a biography on Lance, the football hero. One slight problem. He hasn't actually mentioned this to Lance. The playing out of this situation and a number of others ensues.

In case you were wondering, the entire cast does indeed reprise their roles from the original. Julian (Perrineau) really did marry Candy (Hall), the stripper. Though she no longer does that sort of thing, her past comes back to haunt them in a big way. Jordan (Long) is a media mogul of sorts, still incredibly driven and beautiful. I just had to mention the beautiful part. I mean, it is Nia Long, dammit. I digress. She is also still single, but dating Brian (Cibrian), the only newcomer and only Caucasian. Both of these matter for at least a few minutes. Quentin (Howard) is a successful ad man and still a mischevious button pusher. Finally, Shelby (De Sousa) is a reality TV star more concerned with building her brand than anything else. In true sequel fashion, each person plays a bigger, badder version of themselves. Their most memorable traits take center stage and never leave. In general, this works. The one issue is that leves the characters with a flatter feel to them.

Even if the players aren't as well-rounded as they once were, they are still a fun bunch to be around. They make us laugh on a fairly consistent basis as each member of the ensembl, usually two at a time, takes turns in the spotlight. When their turn is done, they fade into the background just enough to still be seen until they are either tasked to give counsel to one of the others, or take over the proceedings once more. It essentially becomes a game of hot potato with the cast quickly passing our attention our their circle.

All of that tossing us around is where the movie gets into a bit of trouble. Director Malcolm D. Lee might be a world class juggler. However, even the best have limits. At times, it feels as if he's reached his, but threw one more ball in the air anyway. To his credit, he ties the stoires together organically and in a manner that is never confusing. It can just feel as if the system is dangerously close to overloading. Thankfully, a cast which is more than game makes it all a joy to watch. They are uniformly excellent. Even so, Terrence Howard and Melissa De Sousa stand out as doing particularly nice work. They help maintain a sense of fun, even as things start to get heavy during the final act.

This last portion of Best Man Holiday is where it might lose some of you. Though what's going on with Mia is telegraphed practically from the moment people start arriving at her house, the movie still shifts hard into tear-jerker mode. It pulls mightily at our heartstrings. Judging by the crowd I watched with, including my wife and a cousin of hers, it's effective. If, like me, you're not prone to crying over movies, it can start to feel very manipulative. What was a fun, occasionally raunchy ensemble comedy devolves into a profit driver for Kleenex. I say this fully realizing that people who do cry over movies are much more inclined to love the films that move them to tears. Personally, I like it a good deal. I just don't love it.

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

Prisoners

The Lives of Others

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

2006. Rated R, 137 minutes.

Cast:

Ulrich Muhe

Sebastian Koch

Martina Gedeck

Ulrich Tukur

Thomas Thieme

Hans-Uwe Bauer

Volkmar Kleinert

Matthias Brenner

In 1984, East Germany is still fiercely ruled by the German Democratic Republic, The GDR, and is a strictly socialist nation. The ruling party expends lots of resources spying on citizens they suspect of working against their interests. Many are jailed while many others are coerced into becoming informants. Not surprisingly, many of the people they are keeping tabs on are heavily involved with the arts. After all, creative endeavors require the freest thinkers. We're told every writer in the country is under surveillance except one, Georg Dreyman (Koch). He is the only one whose work is not considered subversive. That all changes after some higher-ups take in a performance of his latest play. The decision is made to bug his apartment and see exactly what he's up to. This is where Cpt. Wiesler (Muhe) comes in. He heads up the operation and soon finds out there is a lot more going on than making sure Georg is being a good socialist.

Wiesler is a fascinating character. On the surface, he's all about strict adherence to the party and its protocols. Beneath that, we can see where he's lacking and how this affects him. Over the course of the movie, our task becomes deciding whether we're watching him unravel or merely get in touch with his own humanity. Maybe he's doing both. Ulrich Muhe displays this through a wonderfully understated performance. Without the showy moments of some of his co-stars, he conveys everything necessary for us to understand his character.

Muhe is far from alone in his effectiveness. Martina Gedeck is thoroughly conflicted as Crista, Georg's girlfriend who finds herself in a tricky situation. As Georg himself, Sebastian Koch is perfectly confused by all that's going on around him while trying to maintain several facades of his own. Thomas Thieme and Ulrich Tukur play Minister of Culture Hempf and Lt. (?) Grubitz, respectively. They give us the villain and his top henchman. Both are intimidating, made more so by the conviction of their beliefs. The movie itself doesn't share them, but is smart enough to show that these men truly feel they are doing what is necessary to maintain the order of things as they feel it should be.

The Lives of Others, or Das Leben der Anderen in its native German, may lose some viewers along the way. This is because this film is a slow burn and not a spontaneous combustion. It seems to meander where it is really establishing the various dynamics at play. It can appear random where it is actually giving us important information about the behavior of the characters. Most of all, it comes across as just a political thriller. Bubbling just beneath the surface, however, is a very human tale. Sure, it makes a somewhat obvious social comment by the time it ends. What's more important than that is that it studies the people involved and their understanding of the world.

What About the Razzies?

With all the buzz over the Oscars this past weekend, the Razzies were once again overlooked. I mean, it's understandable. One show honors Hollywood's best and brightest while the other takes a look at the smelly stuff you stepped in.

You can check out their site by clicking here. For those of you who are lazy like me, here's a quick rundown of the nominees and "winners" (in red):

Worst Screenplay
Movie 43
After Earth (my review)
Grown Ups 2 (my review)
The Lone Ranger
A Madea Christmas

Worst Director
The 13 people who directed Movie 43
Dennis Dugan (Grown Ups 2)
Tyler Perry (A Madea Christmas and Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor)
M. Night Shyamala (After Earth)
Gore Verbinski (The Lone Ranger)

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel
The Lone Ranger
Grown Ups 2
The Hangover Part III (my review)
Scary Movie 5
The Smurfs 2 (my review)

Worst Screen Combo
Jaden Smith and Will Smith (After Earth)
The entire cast of Grown Ups 2
The entire cast of Movie 43
Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen in Scary Movie 5
Tyler Perry and either Larry the Cable Guy or that worn out wig and dress in A Madea Christmas

Worst Supporting Actress
Kim Kardashian (Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor) (my review)
Salma Hayek (Grown Ups 2)
Katherine Heigl (The Big Wedding)
Lady Gaga (Machete Kills)
Lindsay Lohan (InAPPropriate Comedy and Scary Movie 5)

Worst Supporting Actor
Will Smith (After Earth)
Chris Brown (Battle of the Year)
Larry the Cable Guy (A Madea Christmas)
Taylor Lautner (Grown Ups 2)
Nick Swardson (Grown Ups 2)

Worst Actress
Tyler Perry (A Madea Christmas)
Halle Berry (The Call and Movie 43) (my review of The Call)
Selena Gomez (The Getaway)
Lindsay Lohan (The Canyons)
Naomi Watts (Diana and Movie 43)

Worst Actor
Jaden Smith (After Earth)
Johnny Depp (The Lone Ranger)
Ashton Kutcher (Jobs)
Adam Sandler (Grown Ups 2)
Sylvester Stallone (Bullet to the Head, Escape Plan, and Grudge Match)

Worst Picture
Movie 43
After Earth
Grown Ups 2
The Lone Ranger
A Madea Christmas


Okay, who else didn't realize that Lindsay Lohan appeared in three movies in 2013? That astounding fact aside, it looks like Movie 43 was the big "winner," here. Other than my lack of actual hate for Grown Ups 2 and the fact I thought Halle Berry was pretty good in The Call, I've got no qualms with these. Well, I would like to have seen some representation of Baggage Claim, A Good Day to Die Hard, and Beautiful Creatures, but maybe that's just me. Any thoughts on these?

Jack the Giant Slayer

Directed by Bryan Singer.

2013. Rated PG-13, 114 minutes.

Cast:

Nicholas Hoult

Eleanor Tomlinson

Ewan McGregor

Stanley Tucci

Eddie Marsan

Ewen Bremner

Ian McShane

Christopher Fairbank

Bill Nighy

Mingus Johnston

Ralph Brown

By now, you've probably heard the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack (Hoult) is a poor farm boy and things aren't going so well. He is sent out to sell his horse so his family can buy some food. Instead of money, he swaps the animal for some supposedly magic beans which is none too pleasing to the person who sent him. Lo and behold, the beans get planted accidentally, resulting in a beanstalk that stretches to the sky. At the top of this beanstalk is a man-eating giant and a princess to save. If my memory serves correctly.

Basically the same thing happens, here. The first difference is that we're dealing with an entire race of giants. Another is that along with Jack, King Brahmwell (McShane) sends a rescue party after Isabelle (Tomlinson), the princess. Among them is his top advisor, Lord Roderick (Tucci), and his top guard Elmont (McGregor). Elmont is a faithful soldier, but Roderick wants to take over both realms as he is in possession of a magic crown enabling him to do so. Oh, almost forgot something you probably already know. Jack is falling hard for Isabelle.

There is another difference more major than any I've mentioned thus far. In this world, the magic beans and the giants are part of a famous legend on par with the boogeyman in the eyes of many. A select few, the king and Roderick for sure, know the stories to be true. This adds a misplaced and unnecessary layer of self-awareness. Instead of the tale just being, we have to hear constantly about how they all thought it was just a myth. By itself, that wouldn't be terrible, but it's talk that goes nowhere and doesn't enhance the film. It just pads the run time with more needless exposition than we already get from the rest of the movie.

Everything else that happens is paint-by-numbers. It's a fairy tale told from Prince Charming's Jack's point of view, but that's hardly enough of a change in perspective to make a difference. In fact, it's only a very slight change. Normally, these are male-centric stories told through the eyes of the damsel in distress and the wicked person who put her there. This dispenses with any faux-girly pretenses yet still gives us the same outcome. We know what's going to happen, when it's going to happen. The kids in the target audience know it, too.

What all of this menas is Jack the Giant Slayer is a movie that has its worth resting completely upon its spectacle. At being one, it's a modest success. The beanstalk itself is fabulously rendered and causes all sorts of mayhem. The giants are also pretty well done. A few of them even have personalities which helps the cause a bit. The action scenes, which almost always involve the stalk, work out solidly. Our hero, portrayed by Nicholas Hoult of Warm Bodies is rather bland, here. As the villain, Stanley Tucci is typically excellent. Neither is enough to save or sink this movie. It can only be what it is: pretty, somewhat fun, and entirely derivative.