John's quick-hit film reviews: Winter 2014

[Apollos]

Allow me to extend two quick film recommendations. Jon Favreau's Chef is just a barrel of fun. A well-respected L.A. chef quits his prestigious job after a public spat with a popular restaurant critic. He travels to Miami and purchases a food truck, rekindling his love for cooking and reconnecting with his son in the process. The film is very much an analogy for Favreau's career (he went from indie darling to critically panned for soulless blockbusters like Cowboys and Aliens). Chef feels like a welcome return to Favreau's roots. It's funny, touching, and has one of the best soundtracks of the year (if you Latin music, you'll have a hard time staying in your seat). Chef comes out in limited release today.

An even more enthusiastic recommendation for Edge of Tomorrow, which comes out June 6. An army officer lacking any combat experience is thrown into an all-or-nothing battle against an alien enemy spreading across Europe. Within five minutes of landing on the beach where the battle takes place, he dies, only to reset to the morning before the battle. Forced to relive his death over and over, he begins to learn how to fight an unstoppable enemy. I adored this film! It's the kind of fun yet intelligent blockbuster you wish Hollywood filled its summer season with. The script is fantastic. Tom Cruise carries the film brilliantly. The action is thrilling. I laughed more than at most comedies. If I had seen this film as a child, it would probably be a referential part of my youth; yes, it's that good. Make a point to see it when it comes out in two weeks.

Those sound like two pretty strong recommendations, I guess I'll have to see both! Was already planning on seeing Chef if for no other reason then I really like Favreau. Thanks for the tip, John.

[John]

I had the pleasure of watching Edge of Tomorrow with a couple of friends who happen to be professional film critics. They were as blown away by it as I was. Craig and I came away calling Edge of Tomorrow our favorite movie of 2014 to this point. For Chris, only X-Men: Days of Future Past tops it. If you'd like their take, click here for Chris's video review, and click here for Craig's long-form review. You'll see that Edge of Tomorrow is shaping up as the surprise kick-butt action film of 2014.

By the way, let me give a general shout-out to Chris and Craig for the outstanding review work that they do. Chris runs a popular YouTube channel, while Craig is the proprietor of Fat Movie Guy. Chris's reviews are all videos, while Craig's are more traditional articles. Both Chris and Craig have most of their reviews up well in advance of a film's release; sometimes months in advance. They also run special pieces, like Craig's "10 Things You Might Not Know About The LEGO Movie" and Chris's "Analyzed Movies" videos (including Prometheus, Drive, and a really great Enemy analysis that changed my mind about the film). I highly recommend bookmarking their sites, even if you're just looking for your next Netflix recommendation.

[Denny]

Not strictly on topic, but speaking of movies and LEGOs...


Dystopian Lego Cyberpunk City is Straight Out of Blade Runner

[Cole]

You seen Million Dollar Arm, John?

I figured as a baseball fan it would be on your list... Just saw it last night and thought it was OK - pretty standard Disney movie fare, I suppose. I'm a sucker for baseball emotion and the film had a decent amount of heart.

[John]

I saw Million Dollar Arm a couple of months ago, Cole, and it hardly left any impression on me at all. The story is certainly a compelling one, but the execution was terribly derivative. I gave it a D+ more for wasting my time with inoffensive triteness than for being truly awful, which it wasn't. It just wasn't very good.

However, I did see a film tonight - The Fault in Our Stars - which truly is good. I came into it not having read the terribly popular novel, yet I loved it, so clearly it's unnecessary to have experienced the book first. The characters spoke very naturally and the story managed to cover very difficult territory without veering into sappiness. The writer set little obstacles in front of his characters, things that would seem minor to us but were deeply challenging for them because of their physical condition. Watching them face those challenges down was quite rewarding. I appreciated Hazel's journey from cynicism to appreciation of the beauty she had been granted. Perhaps that's just another trite-ism of the kind delivered by Million Dollar Arm, but it rang more true here. I'll give it an A-.

Seriously, if you're only going to get out to the theater once or twice this year, this coming weekend is the right one to go. Between The Fault in Our Stars and the so-freaking-awesome Edge of Tomorrow, you have two superlative films opening. See at least one; better yet, both.

[Lions]

I finally saw the Lego movie yesterday while pricing some things for a tag sale. Had some laugh out loud moments with the highlight being the Duplo invasion. Overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit. While the ending added some emotional stakes, it honestly came across to me as both overly preachy and a bit disjointed. I didn't really buy Will Farrell's quick transition, but it did tie everything together in a fun way. I wonder how well kids connected with that part.

There were a lot of fun sets and builds for the movie. Interesting ways of using parts to show effects. Of course, there were some bricks used in the movie that didn't exist before it, too, although they've since been released in Lego movie sets. Making static bricks look like they're in motion is one of the harder things to do, and the animation shows how a series of static images create motion by adding/removing bricks between frames. That said, here's an example of falling bricks that look in motion in a snapshot of time.

[Zephyrs]

John, I just went to see Guardians of the Galaxy with my kids and wow! Did you review it? I don't recall seeing a review.

[Alleghenies]

John, I just went to see Guardians of the Galaxy with my kids and wow! Did you review it? I don't recall seeing a review.

Yeah, I also just saw it and I do believe it is my new favorite movie, or at least it is in my top 5.

[John]

John, I just went to see Guardians of the Galaxy with my kids and wow! Did you review it? I don't recall seeing a review.

I moved to a quarterly roundup format for my film reviews this year. Guardians of the Galaxy will appear in the Q3 roundup, but I have no problem with telling you right now that I loved it. Don't be scared away if you're not into the comics. I have never read a single Marvel comic in my life (a statement that would have made me cool 10 years ago and now makes me look like a complete cultural ignoramus), yet I had no trouble clicking with this film. It's more of a science fiction tale than a true superhero film, and it's a wild, bright, heartfelt, optimistic ride.

I worried going in that the film would be hopelessly goofy. It's not. You will fall in love with these characters, just as you fell in love with the crews of Moya and Serenity. They're well-dimensioned characters, and that's no small feat considering one of them is a raccoon and another is a tree. I was so engrossed in their arcs that I found myself wishing they had unleashed these characters on the small screen so that I could watch them grow over the course of a full season of high-quality television.

Just a few days after seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, I caught Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Wow, what a difference. If Guardians is everything that's right about these comics-to-film adaptations, Turtles is everything that's wrong. Utterly banal in every way. Yes, your kids might giggle at the turtles' insufferable "brah"-vado, but I would argue that Guardians is the superior film for children, too. First, Turtles is that insidious kind of PG-13 "family film" that packs in more violence than many R-rated films. Guardians is actually far less violent (thanks in part to the fact that the weaponry is more fantastical). Second, both films aim for humor, but where the laughs in Turtles dry up within minutes, Guardians remains genuinely funny throughout. And while some Guardians' humor will be over kids' heads, the young ones can still appreciate the sense of awe that Guardians evokes (something Turtles utterly fails to attain).

I could easily see Guardians of the Galaxy becoming the Star Wars for this generation of children. Yes, it's that good. I gave the film an A- and ranked it behind only Edge of Tomorrow on my list of 2014 favorites. (For the record, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles received a F.) Consider Guardians highly recommended to all but the staunchest haters of science fiction, well-developed characters, and anything that hearkens them back to the awe we felt as children. (And if you fall into that category, allow me to extend my greatest sympathies.)