Author: Christian Sauvé

  • Hercules (2014)

    Hercules (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2015) I don’t quite understand this trend of demystifying legends, offering “the real story” behind fantastical tales or sucking all the fun and excitement out of time-proven tales.  Hercules hops on this bandwagon (see Robin Hood, Exodus, etc.) by telling audiences about the Hercules behind the legend, presenting a mercenary who’s only too happy to let the legend of his twelve labours get him hired by rich clients.  What follows is a historical epic absent of magic, almost bending itself out of shape to deliver epic battles without tipping into the supernatural.  It doesn’t always work, as a not-really-zombies sequence shows.  Still, the film coasts a long time on Brett Ratner’s unobtrusive direction and Dwayne Johnson’s pure charisma.  As often happens, Johnson is fantastic even if the film around him isn’t: playing a mortal-but-extraordinary Hercules is the kind of thing that only Johnson can do in today’s action star pantheon.  Otherwise, Hercules seems almost happy to undercut even its own claims to spectacle, and its bare-bones structure is so predictable that it leaves almost nothing to gnaw upon.  So it ends up as a serviceable, but hardly memorable historical action film. 

  • Grand Piano (2013)

    Grand Piano (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2015) I’m not against craziness in my thrillers, even when the craziness is used as a substitute for logic or coherence.  Grand Piano, in this instance, is a good example of what happens when flamboyance and go-for-broke audacity can compensate for a premise so unlikely as to defy suspension of disbelief.  (It’s insane enough that even the villain’s henchman questions the plot.)  Director Eugenio Mira goes all-out in trying to wring all possible excitement out of his script, and the result is a stylish thriller in which ambitious camera moves serve to obscure the nonsensical plot.  There’s a lot of craft in the direction (early shots have two or three narrative points established in the same image), and the direction seems to get crazier as the film advances.  Elijah Wood makes for a decent protagonist, as a concert pianist threatened with fatal retribution if he plays a single false note.  Meanwhile, John Cusack lies in the shadows as the antagonist, literally calling the shots in a full concert hall and adding another antagonist role to his filmography.  Grand Piano is a short film (excluding the credits, it barely inches past the 75-minutes mark) but it races through its plot points at such a dizzying speed that the flaws of the film seem less consequential.  People most likely to respond favorably to Grand Piano include those who don’t mind a bit of style in their otherwise ludicrous genre exercises – I found myself liking the film a great deal more than I should, but then again I’m fond of thrillers that grab on to unusual premises and milk it to their fullest extent.  In other words, I’m pretty happy with Grand Piano, a film with unexpected rewards that proves that maximalist execution can go hand-in-hand with a crazy premise.  

  • Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

    Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, May 2015) My favourite vice is curiosity, and so there was no way I could stare at the Fifty Shades of Grey new entry in the video on-demand menu and not, eventually, succumb to the temptation of seeing what the fuss is about.  Take the hype, the controversies, the tut-tutting think-pieces away and focus on the film; what’s on screen?  As it turns out, not much.  There is about twenty minutes of plot in Fifty Shades of Grey, stretched over an oft-exasperating two hours.  The story couldn’t be more basic if it tried: a young innocent girl meeting a rich handsome man, and then the push-and-pull of “will they?”  Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan do the best they can with their wish-fulfilment characters, and they don’t really embarrass themselves.  Obviously, the domination/submission aspect of the story is the big avowed draw here, as the protagonist quickly get in bed and then spend the rest of the film arguing about their different conceptions of their relationship.  At best, Fifty Shades of Grey can be funny, skillful and moderately intriguing (the boardroom negotiation scene is as good as it gets, although I kept wondering how they could read anything in that low light.)  Alas, those flashes of interest are rare: Much of the film is a fairly dull affair not just despite the subject matter, but because of it.  As with most sexual fetishes, domination games tend to feel silly or boring if you’re not tempted by them, and so Fifty Shades of Grey’s interest grinds to a halt every time the characters step into The Red Room, or as artificial complications just push the ending further away.  The film does get extra points for an unexpected finale by the usual romantic standards, although that’s mitigated considerably by the knowledge that this is just the first film in a trilogy.  From what I read from the book (which wasn’t much, exasperated as I was with the writing), the film seems to be making the best out of weak material –proof that Hollywood doesn’t always ruin things.

  • Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

    Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, May 2015)  The weirdest franchises can emerge from Hollywood’s idea factory, and so what we have here is some kind of “museum comes to life, allowing historical characters to interact” CGI-fest, along with actors having up playing grander-than-life personas.  This second Night at the Museum is a bit weirdly structured, with Ben Stiller’s protagonist somehow selling a company in order to keep prolonging the franchise.  Oh well; it’s not as if we’re really watching the film for its finer plot points as much as Robin Williams once again having fun as Teddy Roosevelt, or Amy Adams really playing it up as Amelia Earheart, complete with snappy period dialogue.  The rest of the film is almost entirely based on sight-gags, a copious use of CGI and plot mechanics aimed at kids.  It sort-of-works, even though nothing really stick in mind except for Adams’ performance.  There should be more to say about the film, but somehow there isn’t.

  • Neighbors (2014)

    Neighbors (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2015) Complaining that college fraternity comedy Neighbors is too frat-boyish is entirely missing the point of the film and yet… it may still be a worthwhile point.  As someone with fresh memories of taking care of a baby, I expected to feel more sympathy for the protagonist couple of this film, as they try to live next door to a fraternity house with raucous parties.  But there’s a limit to the respectability of a protagonist when he’s played by Seth Rogen: weed addiction, profanity and raunchiness usually follow in close succession, and his performance as a flawed father in Neighbors is no exception.  (I had to restrain myself from muttering a few instances of “Bad parenting!  Bad parenting!”)  I’m not going to pretend that the film isn’t funny: Both Rose Byrne and Zac Efron get a chance to earn theirs laughs and the escalation of absurdity between the protagonists and the frat-house denizens gets steadily more ludicrous.  This is quality comedy, sometimes sloppy in its details but dynamic from beginning to end.  For all of the reprehensible humor of the film, most characters get a few more introspective moments than strictly warranted and there’s a bit of thematic content about impending adulthood running through the film… all without ruining the often go-for-broke comedy.  The very thing that makes Neighbors annoying (the irresponsibility of its so-called protagonists) is exactly what makes the film a bit deeper than expected.  While it won’t become a classic, Neighbors should, at least, earn a grudging respect, even when it dips a bit too deeply into gross dumbness.

  • The Guest (2014)

    The Guest (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2015)  Writer/director duo Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard previously collaborated on You’re Next, a pure genre romp that showed that there’s still life in the home-invasion horror film as long as it’s competently made.  This intention seems just as strong here with The Guest, seemingly a throwback to the kind of B-movie from the eighties in which a stranger comes to town… bringing uncommon skills with him.  Dan Stevens is compelling as the mysterious young man with secrets of his own; he’s instantly credible in a fairly intense role far removed from his usual persona.  He’s the anchor of The Guest, and the film wouldn’t work if he didn’t nail his role as perfectly.  He creates the situations to which other characters react, and by the time we’re down to a third-act horror-house suspense sequence, the film has fulfilled its own goals perfectly. (Although you have to like films with a lengthy list of innocent victims in order to enjoy this one.)  Like You’re Next, The Guest is fast, cheap, self-aware and firmly in control: it’s a bit of a treat for thriller fans looking for well-made genre films. 

  • Furious Seven aka The Fast and the Furious 7 (2015)

    Furious Seven aka The Fast and the Furious 7 (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, May 2015) I’ve been a fan of the Fast and Furious film series since the first 2001 installment (even though my faith was sorely tested by the second film), but I never expected its seventh installment to be so purely enjoyable, even as it features a poignant emotional send-off to a fallen star.  Series lead Paul Walker died during the production of the film, and part of Furious Seven’s impossible mandate was to find a way to deliver hugely entertaining action sequences while acknowledging Walker’s final departure.  The first part of the mission is obviously achieved: Furious Seven contains bigger action sequences, a decent number of laughs, some innovative camera work (including cameras that move in-synch with people crashing through glass tables), decent villains, likable heroes and a decent amount of innovative stunts even in a series that seems to have done everything possible on four wheels.  The action moves fluidly across continents, juggles several recurring characters and a few new ones, harkens back to its perennial theme of family and is just about everything one could wish for in a summer blockbuster.  But no one expected the film to be able to deliver such an effective good-bye to Paul Walker, who is last seen here literally taking a fork in the road to stay safely with his new family, accompanied by a montage and a sad song meant to make even the least emotional members of the audience get a huge lump in their throat.  It works far better than even the most cynical pundits will allow: Walker was in many ways the heart of the series, and Furious Seven couldn’t have given him a better or more appropriate send-off.  Incredibly enough, it doesn’t feel manipulative or crass: it feels like the end of the road, even knowing that the series will have another sequel in two or three years.  Well done.

  • Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

    Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, May 2015)  Few movies exemplify the mid-2010s blockbuster movie trend as thoroughly as Avengers: Age of Ultron: It’s the apogee-so-far of the superhero movie, it’s practically designed to be the kind of film to save movie theaters from bankruptcy and/or irrelevance and it’s crammed with characters, action sequences and special effects.  You don’t get any more “tent-pole film” than this sequel to 2012’s massively successful The Avengers, and the onslaught of commercial tie-ins on TV makes it look as if the film trailer is playing three times per hour.  Interestingly enough, Avengers: Age of Ultron is even a competent movie: It juggles a dozen characters with some ease, meddles with current-zeitgeist issues of technology run amok, revolves around exceptionally dynamic action sequences, benefits from good banter and leaves viewers with a sense of upbeat progress.  Robert Downey Jr is still a delight as Tony Stark, Chris Evans is still as good as Captain America, and Jeremy Renner gets a lot more to do here.  Avengers: Age of Ultron is, in many ways, a better film than its predecessor.  But there’s one thing it doesn’t have, and that’s the element of pleasantly exceeded expectations.  Marvel Studios has defied tremendous odds in bringing its comic-book universe to the big screen, but as far as the whole “team of superheroes vanquish impossible threat” thing is concerned, it’s been done.  So it is that while Avengers: Age of Ultron may be fun and fizzy, it does feel like a repeat, and a harbinger of things to come as something like thirty comic-book movies are scheduled to appear on-screen in the next five years: the melodramatic conventions that sustain comic-books only have a limited shelf life on-screen, and the lack of character development in those films can’t forever be papered over with reboots or fake promises of change (like the Hydra/SHIELD plotline, so promising at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and yet so casually dismissed here).  I did enjoy Avengers: Age of Ultron, but I’m wondering how long such movies can remain the flavor of the moment.

  • The Family Man (2000)

    The Family Man (2000)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2015)  I may be overthinking this film, but there’s an element in The Family Man that pushes this so-called feel-good film straight into existential horror, and I can’t shake it off.  This is, in simplest terms, a film about a successful businessman revisiting his life had things gone differently.  So, rather than keep haunting the expensive apartments and boardrooms of Manhattan as a single man, he is magically spirited to an alternate suburban existence, with wife and kids and a somewhat dreary job as a tire salesman.  He does, as expected, learn a powerful lesson in time for the end.  Except that by that time, he has befriended a number of interesting people, including his adorable daughter who understands his parallel-life predicament and is delighted when her “daddy is back” late in the story.  So far so-good so-expected so-enjoyable except for the ending, in which our businessman becomes again his businessman self and goes back to his ex-girlfriend to rekindle an old romance and… we realize that the adorable daughter (and siblings) has been erased from existence.  Ugh.  I don’t expect most people to have this gut-shot reaction: The Family Man is, after all, built as a solidly mainstream comedy, as predictable as it is safe.  I don’t think that viewers are supposed to probe all that deeply into it, or do anything but laugh at Nicolas Cage’s antics as he fumbles around with Tea Leoni.  Still… for a film that’s supposed to be unobjectionable Christmas family comedy, I do have a significant objection.

  • A Most Wanted Man (2014)

    A Most Wanted Man (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2015)  Films adapted from John Le Carré’s espionage thrillers are a breed by themselves.  They are not meant to be conventionally exciting, feature spectacular action sequences or make anyone feel better about the state of the world.  They are meant to be (relatively) realistic interrogations about the nature of intelligence work in a world where nothing is either black or white.  So it is with A Most Wanted Man, a contemporary intelligence thriller where murkiness abounds, protagonists don’t play fair (because they know everyone else doesn’t) and victory can be extinguished in a moment.  It’s set in Hamburg, among potential fundamentalists, competing intelligence services and a flawed protagonist who’s trying to do his best despite the ambiguity of his circumstances.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is terrific as a wheezing spymaster who think he’s seen everything: his world-weariness is only equalled by his ability to manipulate people and get them to do what he wants.  Not much actually happens in A Most Wanted Man, at least by the standards of other espionage thrillers.  But it does culminate in an unusual final sequence in which a signature is a victory, and where anything can happen at the most inopportune time.  It’s not exactly fun viewing, but it does fit nicely alongside other Le Carré adaptation like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Constant Gardner as meditative thrillers with just enough real-world ugliness to be refreshing.  Don’t see it if you want an upbeat experience, but do try to see it.

  • John Wick (2014)

    John Wick (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, May 2015)  Hitmen movies are a dime a dozen and so are revenge thrillers, but there’s something to be said for competent execution.  John Wick is right up there as a genre-savvy action thriller that completely understands what it’s doing, and seems determined to keep entertaining its audience even as it riffs off the oldest clichés in the book.  Keanu Reeves stars in a vengeful assassin role that’s not a bad fit for his acting range: He doesn’t have to emote much, and he’s able to meet the physical requirements of the stunts he has to do on-camera.  As with his Man of Tai Chi (and before that, of course, the Matrix trilogy), it’s easy to guess that his willingness to give himself up to his stunt experts give him added credibility in carrying the role.  Still, much praise goes to directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, two stunt specialists who clearly understand what it takes to build an exciting action sequence: long shots, clean geography, dynamic camera moves, small details to build credibility (such as reloading bullets) and actors willing to commit to the demands of the film.  Add to that the hints of a deeper mythology in which assassins seem to operate within a subculture, and you get a film that deliriously enjoyable, not so much for seeing Reeves shoot people in the head as much as being in a universe where that kind of thing is possible.  There are some memorable action beats scattered throughout the film (the most striking being a drifting drive-by shooting), but the key point here isn’t so much the oft-ridiculous premise as much as the refreshingly good execution of the formula.  John Wick is the kind of out-of-nowhere modest surprises that still manages to entertain in a world dominated by franchise behemoths.  Alas, that means that the sequel is only a year or two away…

  • Space Station 76 (2014)

    Space Station 76 (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2015)  I seldom want to throw things at my TV during closing credits, but then again most movies aren’t as frustrating as Space Station 76.  I’ll admit that part of my frustration has to do with expectations: Nearly everything about the film’s marketing, from the title to the trailer to the poster to the premise, suggests a light-hearted ironic spoof far lighter than what we get here… because after only a few minutes, it becomes glaringly obvious that we are stuck in the saddest indie-drama imaginable.  As Space Spation 76 goes forward, the laughs never come: instead, we are prisoners of a bleak drama about crushing isolation, unhappiness and narcissistic characters.  The Science Fiction elements are not used with any rigor or invention, and the comedy goes way past humiliation into depression.  Fair enough; I wouldn’t be the first time marketing would sell an entirely different movie than what it is.  But what kills Space Station 76 isn’t mismatched expectations, but unfulfilled potential.  The film is bleak from beginning to end, and some sequences would be hard to stomach under any circumstances.  But the ending doesn’t actually resolve anything: it basically fades to black without much hope for the relatively small number of sympathetic characters imprisoned with the crazy ones.  People with sensitivities toward kids stuck in bad situation will be particularly infuriated by the Space Station 76’s refusal to provide closure.  But then again, most people will be frustrated by the film, no qualifiers needed.  As much as I usually like Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson… I don’t usually go out of my way to suggest people should avoid a movie, but –again- I’ll make an exception for this one.  

  • The Equalizer (2014)

    The Equalizer (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2015)  I don’t think you could come up with a more generic thriller premise than The Equalizer if you tried: A retired special-ops specialist takes revenge on mobsters for putting a young friend in the hospital.  That’s it.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Do you really have any doubt that our protagonist will achieve his ultimate revenge?  Faced with such a generic plot, The Equalizer can only distinguish itself through competent execution.  Fortunately, it can depend on Denzel Washington to bring his usual intensity to the role, and on director Antoine Fuqua to deliver a dollop of style along the way.  The Equalizer may be strikingly unoriginal, entirely linear and far too violent, but after a slow first act, it escalates the tension steadily, showcases Washington’s steely resolve and delivers the bloody vengeance as expected.  The last act (set within a home-improvement store) seems far too long if you’re not entirely invested in the kind of carnography in which a dozen opponents get dispatched in various ways.  But it’s not sloppy, slapdash or accidental: The Equalizer is exactly the kind of movie it wants to be, and it ought to satisfy those who are looking for exactly that.

  • Earth to Echo (2014)

    Earth to Echo (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2014)  I happened to see Earth to Echo, a found-footage Science-Fiction film for young teenagers, at the end of a week where I’d seen one other dull YA SF film and two other found-footage films.  To say that I wasn’t well-predisposed toward yet another found-footage film or YA SF, would be an understatement.  But there is a bit of charm running through Earth to Echo, enough so to forgive the clichés and trend-hopping.  It’s about three young teenagers, spending their last day together tracking down a mysterious signal that has taken over their cell phones.  The signal leads to relics that assemble to form something much more alien than they expected.  Shot through a variety of cameras provided by one of the YouTube-addicted protagonists, Earth to Echo does manage to settle down into a nice narrative rhythm, as the young actors get more comfortable in the roles and the story gets a bit more urgent after the introduction of government agents running at cross-purposes with the group.  It’s obviously aimed at younger teenagers (meaning that adults won’t find as much substance to chew on), but the film does manage to grasp the intense but ephemeral nature of teenage friendships, presents a preposterously cute owl-like alien creature, and director Dave Green occasionally builds rushes of adrenaline fit to forgive the generic and predictable plot.  Earth to Echo doesn’t play too long at slightly less than 90 minutes.  As Science Fiction, it’s basic… but as a small-scale thriller for younger teenagers, it certainly meets its objectives.

  • The Giver (2014)

    The Giver (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2015)  There’s been a recent glut of Young Adult Science Fiction movies adaptations lately, and while The Giver is of a slightly-older nineties-novel vintage than Divergent, The Hunger Games and its ilk, it has so many points of similarity that it courts generic repetitiveness.  Here again, we have a young person with singular talents discovering The Truth behind their too-perfect post-post-apocalyptic society, then rising up against the established order in order to upset the status quo.  Same story, same basic credibility problems, same obvious attempts to manipulate teenage audiences.  Not gaining points for originality, The Giver at least gets a few in terms of execution: there’s something cheap but interesting in the way the black-and-white of the film’s first few moments gradually lets color in, and director Philip Noyce is enough of a veteran to have a steady hand in presenting the action.  Still, that’s not quite enough to rescue The Giver from occasional ennui.  It’s not meant to be particularly smart.  Given the mediocre nature of its premise, it’s surprising to see an actress like Meryl Streep in a matriarch role, playing alongside Jeff Bridges (and Katie Holmes, and Taylor Swift in an unexpected small role).  Still, The Giver has the somewhat unusual daring to feature a baby in peril for a long while, and that baby upstages Streep every chance it gets –The Giver goes heavy on life-affirming clichés, but The Baby In Peril may raise the stakes a bit too high compared to the rest of the film.  Still, for all of its affirmed averageness, The Giver manages to score one or two good lines, plays with ideas without committing to them, and concludes on the kind of life-affirming notions that can mollify even the most bored reviewer.