Monday, August 20, 2018

In Case You Missed Them

by Adam Riske
A look at current releases now in theaters.

As always, these are listed in order of my least favorite to favorite.
Christopher Robin – I wasn’t expecting Christopher Robin to be so dull. I didn’t walk out of it, but there were times during this movie where I was so bored I felt like my consciousness astral projected out into the theater lobby. On the plus side, the visual effects that make Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and the rest of the gang come to life are some of the most impressive special effects I’ve seen in years (some people say they look like something out of a horror movie; these people need to see more horror movies). They look like living Disney plushies and their sporadic interplay is the best part of Christopher Robin. But why does this movie have to be so drab and somber whenever they’re not on screen? I have no idea who Christopher Robin is for; it’s too simple for adults (it’s shallower than the similar Hook) and I don’t see kids liking it either because it’s slow, bleak and grown-up.

Rating: 1.5/4 Riskes
The Meg – The useless U.S.-China co-production trend strikes again! On the heels of Skyscraper comes the next utterly generic shitfest, The Meg. It’s like the type of movie you’d watch (passively while eating microwave chili or folding clothes) on SyFy Channel in 2004 that would star Michael Madsen and Yancy Butler. But this time it’s in theaters! The whole aesthetic (especially the CGI, sets, and costumes) is staggeringly tacky to the point where it felt closer to a VR experience or theme park ride pre-show than an actual movie. The Meg also has surprisingly low energy and no tension at all (people don’t even scream most of the time when the 75-ft Megalodon is charging them). The film has a few unintentionally funny bits and Jason Statham (who’s fine in the movie) has a sweet burgeoning romance with another crewmate (Li Bingbing), but as I walked out of the theater while a Chinese language cover of Tony Basil’s “Hey Mickey” played over the end credits, it only confirmed the filmmakers had no idea what they wanted to do with this movie.

Rating: 1.5/4 Riskes
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies – Like the television show, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies has a fun “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach to its jokes and sometimes the film is hilarious (e.g. the “Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life” montage), but that anarchic tone is better in 15 to 30-minute chunks on the show than stretched to a 90-minute movie. The story is pretty basic by superhero film standards and I was exhausted by the end, but I do have a lot of residual affection for the movie in the days since I saw it. I think much of this has to do with how much I like the Teen Titans characters and the animation style. It reminds me of the more modest animated films I used to enjoy as a kid like A Goofy Movie, Jetsons: The Movie, and DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

Rating: 3/4 Riskes
BlacKkKlansman – This movie caught me off-guard a little bit. It’s much funnier than I expected based on the subject matter, but that doesn’t take away from the power of the dramatic elements either. It’s still an angry, moving, and powerful story with some fantastic, blunt rebukes to detestable attitudes and beliefs that are becoming distressingly more accepted these days. I’ve been on record before as being a big Spike Lee fan and I think this is his best movie since Inside Man and maybe even 25th Hour. I’m glad we have such a humanistic filmmaker like him who cares deeply about the morality of his characters and doesn’t sugarcoat his films’ messages. My only gripe with the movie is the through-line of the Adam Driver character (as an undercover Jewish police officer), who explains more than shows his inner turmoil. In the end, though, it doesn’t take away from the great performances and even better filmmaking on display.

Rating: 3.5/4 Riskes
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – I can’t divorce how this movie made me feel with the film’s actual quality, nor can I separate my massive Lily James crush from it either, so take my rating with a grain of salt. I haven’t even seen the first Mamma Mia!, but I fucking love Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. It has so many things I like: musical numbers, energy, sincerity, beautiful locations, Greek people, actresses whose work I enjoy already only to discover they are great singers too (James and Amanda Seyfried), Andy Garcia, etc. The story is basically “What if we did The Godfather Part II for Mamma Mia!???” but I think it works and the two storylines tie in together nicely. This movie is basically all about an island coming to terms with what a goddess Lily James (Meryl Streep) is, and I was just sitting there like “Yeah.” In the week since I saw the movie, I bought both the soundtrack and ABBA’s Greatest Hits and have just been generally happier as a result. You know how in a romantic comedy when the woman gets kissed so well she lifts one leg in the air behind her? That might be me with this movie. I didn’t like the Cher bullshit, though. Her show-off yodel pipes don’t blend well with Swedish Pop. This movie better be nominated for “Best Popular Film” at the Oscars next year or that category can go screw itself.

Rating: G-D help me, 4/4 Riskes

Your turn! What did you think of these movies? Have you seen anything recently in theaters that you want to recommend? Leave a comment below.

25 comments:

  1. About BlacKkKlansman, what do you thing about the commentary by Boots Riley (director of Sorry To Bother You) that the cops in this movie are too nice, or portrayed in a too positive manner?

    While he might be right, i think that's not the point of the movie and not every movie has to be about everything. And this is Spike Lee we're talking about, the man knows how to be angry at something

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    1. There's two sides to it I think: the criticism and the etiquette

      The criticism I don't know who's right. Boots Riley might be right about the facts or be wrong so I have no side to take in that debate. It's clear though that each filmmaker is interested in different aspects of the real life events.

      The etiquette of one director calling out another on social media is gross. If they have those feelings they should do that stuff behind the scenes instead of out in the open. Then again, Spike Lee has done this to other filmmakers so maybe it's movie karma circling back around.

      I'm more prone to side with Spike Lee I guess because he's been working on socially aware movies for over 30 years while Boots Riley is pretty new. Also, Spike Lee's movie is better than Boots Riley's imho.


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    2. i haven't seen Riley's film yet so i can't comment on that. but you make a great point, Riley seem to be looking for something else that might have not be the intent of Spike Lee to do. also, again as you said, i think it's hard to criticize Spike Lee given his work of the part 30+ year

      anyway, i knew you'd like BlacKkKlansman. i can't wait to rewatch it.

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    3. I think that's an unfair criticism because the plot of the movie is about cops who do a good thing. If you made the cops monsters too, the movie would just be too much to take. But still, I think they did enough to show how apathetic the cops were towards the struggles of the people of color of the town.

      And the point about director etiquette is spot on.

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    4. Unless there is more I am missing (which is definitely possible), Riley's criticisms are aimed at Lee's movie and not at Lee himself. I don't see why people would have a problem with that. The criticism, that the movie is portrayed as a "true story" and that it downplays the bad stuff its protagonists did and embellishes and invents the good stuff, is perfectly fair. Those sorts of criticisms are levied at "true stories" all the time. That doesn't make BlacKkKlansman any less entertaining to me, (I thought it was great, almost as good as Sorry to Bother You) but it is worth pointing out and I could see how it might affect others enjoyment of the film.

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    5. I agree with you Scott. I just think it's bad optics to do this over Twitter (shrug).

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    6. i just saw Sorry To Bother You and i think i understand why Riley said these things. he actually put everything in his movie: police brutality, corporate greed, racism, etc... he walks the fine line between being overstuffed and being a good movie. i guess that bothered him because Lee's film is about one thing.

      i'm not saying one is better than the other. i'm saying Riley's movie is a bit all over the place and Lee's film is more focused.

      as i said previously, not everything needs to be about everything.

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  2. Man, and I thought I was the only grouch that didn't like Christopher Robin. You're right, it's incredibly dull and kind of looks Nolanized. It's an insane visual choice. I also thought *very mild spoilers* that the climatic "Ewan pitches to his boss scene" was so unbelievably dumb and ridiculous that it reminded me of that scene in They Came Together where they make fun of that scene.

    I tried to see The Meg but the projector broke halfway through and they sent us all home. The first half was pretty dull and I have yet to go back.

    I liked Teen Titans Go to the Movies when it was making fun of superhero movies, but everytime it got into an actual plot I was very bored.

    BlacKkKlansman is good, but it also made me pretty miserable. I admit I saw it on a day I was pretty down, and listening to 2 1/2 hours of the most explicit racism I've ever heard did not help. It reminded me of my reaction to I Tonya. I should see it again. But I also thought the romance was pretty bad (almost non-existent), and I didn't like whenever the movie paused to basically wink at the camera with veeeery explicit Trump commentary. I like the politics of the movie, I just didn't like when it left the politics of the movie to go to specific 2018 politics. But that's just me, I understand most feel differently.

    I also recently saw Eighth Grade, which I completely adored, and Leave No Trace, which was quite good but I can't see watching it again.

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    1. I saw Eighth Grade yesterday with Rob! More on that in the next Reserved Seating :-)

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  3. Boots Riley has no grounds to criticize Spike Lee as a filmmaker. If he has problems elsewhere, that’s their business. Agreed with the etiquette too. Also Lee was true to his characters in showing that the leader of the Black Student Group could not and would not deal with him being a cop. Any other filmmaker would’ve had her put that aside for a happier end.

    Holy crap The Meg was awful. The worst. Every thing it tries to do was just a lazy and worse version of something that happens in another (better) movie. It’s a literal nothing experience.

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    1. I thought the Meg exceeded expectations. I think I'm one of the few who think that. I enjoyed it far more than Jurassic Mansion.

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    2. I agree with you on your last point, both Ben and Jon.

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  4. oh yeah...i completely feel you on Mama Mia: Here We Go Again! What a delight! Brosnan, Skaarsgard and Colin Firth dancing together...scene of the year? Probably. Lily James screen presence is unbelievable. Wasnt too keen on Cher either but im glad it provided Andy Garcia with that moment at the end because it was perfect. Probably the most Ive ever liked Christine Baranski too.

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  5. I pretty much co-sign on all of this - Lily James's performance is Mamma Mia 2 is my favourite of the year BY FAR. Just incredible. I also want to say how much I love this format for movie reviews - I look forward to this article every month :)

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    1. Thanks Andrew! They're among my favorite columns to write. More to come...

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  6. I am one hundred thousand percent with you on Mamma Mia 2 :)

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  7. Dang it! Now I need to see Mamma Mia 2.

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  8. Mile 22 was bad. Like worse than straight-to-Netflix action movie bad. It took itself way too seriously, there were far too many loose plot strands for a 90 minute movie, and (spoiler alert) Marky Mark's super secret special forces team went out like a bunch of wimps. John Malkovich had a fun haircut, though.

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    1. I keep hearing how bad this is and it makes me want to watch it more.

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  9. There's so much to Christopher Robin I don't understand. I'm with you 100% on the effects and design of the characters (I didn't even mind the faded tones, though I would have preferred bright colors: like Disney Park walk around colors...). But the film on the whole felt so misguided. When the opening montage shows WWII, I was concerned. When Ewan McGregor is a jerk to everyone, I was concerned. When Mark Gatiss is playing a character from a 1970s British sitcom when no one else is, I was concerned.

    I mostly enjoyed the Pooh characters when they're involved, even the London scene, but the first time Christopher Robin is in the 100 Acre Wood yelling at Pooh... I didn't realize how much I didn't want to see such a thing, but man did I not want to see such a thing.

    The movie is just misguided. I don't know what the plot should have been, short of just doing the classic Pooh stories. I would say you can't do it... and yet there are two Paddington movies that show us that you can make fantastic family films with a storybook bear.

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    1. That WWII moment was like "What the fuck are we doing here? This is a kids movie about talking animals no matter how much you want it not to be!"

      Paddington rules!

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    2. Oh Paddington is the best. I would love to see what the Paddington filmmakers would have done with a toupee as bad as Mark Gatiss'.

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