Superheroes have taken over the multiplex and the rush isn’t slowing anytime soon. Comic titans DC and Marvel recently unveiled schedules for a dizzying amount of films to be released over the next half-decade; announcements that were met with squeals of glee from insatiable fans. Amid the perpetual hero hype it makes sense that Disney, which acquired Marvel Entertainment a few years back, would be eager to combine that mania with their acclaimed animation work. Enter Big Hero 6, an obscure Marvel Comic team that, with some liberal tweaking of the source material, is ripe for Disney retrofitting. The film isn’t a revolutionary comic-to-screen adaptation and feels too familiar at times, but it’s an entertaining adventure set in an interesting near future world that’s a joy to explore.
Expert documentarian Frederick Wiseman excellently conveys the power and importance of art in a seemingly effortless manner. Information is disseminated at every conceivable instance with Wiseman fixating his camera on any and all aspects and/or department within the National Gallery; be it through behind-the-scenes closed doors discussions or a multitude of craftsmen working on a variety of restorations, just about every possible viewpoint is represented in some context immersing the viewer in the various ins-and-outs of the legendary museum. This all-inclusive approach makes NATIONAL GALLERY one of the most comprehensive visual documents of any institution in cinema.
In a seemingly not-to-distant future, drought and famine consumes the Earth as massive dust clouds blanket the inhabitable regions of the planet. People are growing ill from the prolonged exposure to the dirt, crops are dying one by one and within a generation there will be nothing left to feed anyone and the world will begin to die. It’s an ironic extinction event, the very ground that provides life is the very one that will wipe it off the planet. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a farmer and former NASA test pilot, does his best to keep his family fed and his crops growing. After an unexpected encounter with a brilliant professor and his daughter, Cooper is enlisted for a critical mission that will send him and his crew through a wormhole and into unexplored space in a search for a planet that can sustain life.
DisneyToons Studio’s Planes: Fire & Rescue is a sequel to last year’s animated feature Planes. The film picks up not long after Planes ends — with Dusty Crophopper, a lowly crop-duster airplane, winning the Wings Across the Globe race, a mighty feet considering that (according to Dusty’s critics) his type of aircraft can’t compete with more elite flying machines.
White Bird in a Blizzard is a difficult film to place in a particular genre. It should be a mystery, but it plays out more like a coming-of-age movie about a teenager coming to terms with her parents. That teen, Kat, is played by Shailene Woodley (Divergent, Fault in Our Stars). Some pundits thought Woodley might be nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the George Clooney vehicle, The Descendants, where she performed much better than she does here, swinging from wooden acting to overacting opposite an eclectic cast that includes Christopher Meloni, Eva Green and Gabourey Sidibe. White Bird never comes together, remaining an incoherent mash-up of various themes, none of which are terribly interesting on their own or when stitched together in a less-than-mediocre script.
Once again we have ourselves a film tackling the subject matter of human connections and relationships along with technology's role - both beneficial and detrimental - in the matter. These films portray millennials reliant upon a smattering of websites and smartphone apps that give them the ability to instantly connect with one another physically and/or pseudo-socially, yet ultimately failing when connecting face-to-face emotionally. The difference with Zachary Wigon's debut, compared to the others, is that his film, The Heart Machine, is an intimate exploration bereft of judgement or ridicule.
There are plenty of frightening things knocking about the local Wal-Mart, but Hasbro’s Ouija board – in the toys and games aisle right between Scrabble and Boggle – isn’t one of them. The mass-produced novelty made of common cardboard and plastic is not a vessel for contacting the spirit world but makes for a satisfactory piece of spooky entertainment for tween slumber parties. That’s clearly the target demographic for Ouija, a smorgasbord of homogenized horror that relies on jump scares and a rote haunted house story to supply the shocks. Predictably, the results are more tiring than terrifying.
In the post-Raid era it’s an unescapable certainty that any action film that follows simply won’t be able to achieve the lofty heights of those masterfully made films. The films, especially the second one, featured a fine balance between compelling drama and hard-hitting, fast-paced action. They had a palpable energy that many films, regardless of genre, seldom achieve. For recent action films, the adage of “old is new again” holds true as many of the big action films have been ‘80s-‘90s action-throwbacks that feature aging action-stars. Actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Costner, Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson have all graced the silver screen with action-thrillers, some with greater success than others. Keanu Reeves now joins that group with the action-thriller John Wick.
Here Comes the Night has the hallmarks of do-it-yourself filmmaking. It was written and produced by directors Pete Shanel and Peter Kline as well as the film’s principal actors, Ben Duhl and Kurt Haas. The result is nearly 90 minutes of what amounts to the beginning of a film; that is, there is a premise that is never fully explored or realized. Duhl and Haas create likeable characters who might have something to say in a bigger universe than the one they inhabit on the streets of Los Angeles.
Think back on the last movie you watched. Where and how did you watch it? On your laptop? On your phone? On Blu-ray or DVD? In a movie theatre? Regardless of how films are ultimately distributed they are always meant to be seen on the big screen with an audience. Good or bad, ultra-low or sky-high budgeted, recent release or over a century old, movies were meant for movie theaters. When films are out of circulation that is where the repertoire theaters come in. Revival theaters, as they are also referred to as, screen films that are no longer in circulation. Often these theaters will screen a film in whatever format is available to them, on film, via Digital Cinema Package (DCP) or even off a blu-ray if necessary. Nearly all the films screened are readily available on some home format. So this begs the question, why would you want to see something in a theatre when you can just watch it in the comfort of your own home? Julia Marchese’s entertaining documentary looks to answer that question and more as she examines the revival cinema culture, film preservation and the palpable impact of recent developments in film exhibition.
The creature feature. It’s a genre that hasn’t received much attention as of late. In the last decade, horror movies have primarily focused on crazed killers, self-mutilation, supernatural entities and recently unearthed, never-before-seen footage. Every now and then genre fans would love nothing more than to see a good old-fashioned monster movie.
If you were a fan of HBO’s True Blood but found it desperately lacking in its lycanthropic side, then David Hayter’s Wolves is for you. Although it has decidedly fewer fairies and moody goth vampires, it does have plenty of burly biker werewolves and plenty of silly drama. This is a B movie to be sure, but the forgettable characters and action beats make this pup feel slightly neutered.
One of the most intriguing aspects to Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip will most assuredly be looked at as the biggest point of contention in the film. Although its central character, Philip (Jason Schwartzman), is featured prominently within the first and last acts, the middle of the movie detaches itself from him, resulting in an interesting narrative structure that will fascinate some and leave others disenchanted.
I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t like Gregory Dark’s 2006 horror-thriller See No Evil. While it introduced a new crazed psychopath, Jacob Goodnight, to genre fans, it didn’t leave much of an impression. The film arrived when torture-porn horror films were beginning to reach their peak. Films like Saw and Hostel were pushing the envelope in terms of what horror films can get away with or even show. At the time, the genre became more about shock, blood and just how brutal and gross can you get. After a while you can become so desensitized that it becomes boring. That pretty much summed up my opinion of the original – all shock and brutality and little substance – to the point it was forgotten. It’s 2014 and here comes See No Evil 2, and much to this viewer’s surprise, it’s better than the original and is a pretty well made slasher film.
Horror-comedy is a genre that you seldom see much from nowadays. In recent years you’d have to look to films like Shaun of the Dead, Slither or Zombieland to deliver the shrieks and guffaws. The genre’s offerings can take many forms, such as flat-out parodies (like the Scary Movie franchise), self-aware films that scare you while letting you in on the joke (like the Scream series) or films that deliver exactly what the title promises (like Killer Klowns from Outer Space).
Before first reading about the Mike Myers-directed documentary Supermensch, I was previously unfamiliar with Shep Gordon. After seeing the film, I’m very thankful to now know this incredible story about one of the most influential and well-liked managers to possibly ever exist. From kickstarting the career of Alice Cooper to single-handedly creating the concept of the celebrity chef, Gordon’s career is only half as fascinating as the man himself.
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