Movie Review

  • 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.

    (In theaters, May 2015) Watching Furious Seven a decade after its release, I’m more amazed by everything I had forgotten or nearly-forgotten than what I remembered. That tower-jumping scene in Dubai? Almost felt brand new. I had forgotten half of the stunts in the great Azerbaijan mountain sequence. More significantly, it only occurred to me about two-thirds of the way into the film that this was the series’ send-off to tragically deceased star Paul Walker. It certainly puts a damper on the pure enjoyment factor (some of it feels crasser than it did at the time), and marks the end of the series’ high-water mark. On the other hand, the film welcomes Nathalie Emmanuel into the fold, and that’s a notable addition. Otherwise, the stunts are solid, director James Wan does well in Justin Lin’s shoes, the energy level remains high and the return to Los Angeles for the high-tech street fight finale is pretty good as a wrap-up to one of the major cycles of the series.

  • 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. 

  • Europa Report (2013)

    Europa Report (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2015)  Taken along Last Days on Mars and Interstellar, Europa Report marks a small trend of space-exploration science-fiction, relatively harder-edged than the usual Hollywood pap.  Overcoming the disadvantage of being presented as a found-footage film, Europa Report tells the story of a doomed expedition to Europa.  (This is not a spoiler, as we know early on that Something Terrible has happened.)  Much of the film can be described as procedural hard-SF, as we see, from cameras used to document the expedition, the various dangers and events of space exploration.  This is a relatively near-future film, meaning that there are no extravagant scientific breakthroughs on display.  Intensely credible in its technical details, the film accumulates a lot of credibility during its relatively slow first half, which helps a lot when the film does take a step into the unknown toward the end.  Unlike The Last Days on Mars, however, Europa Report is a rarity: A film that confronts the deadly unknown not as a source of dread, but as potential for wonder at the universe.  The conclusion could have been presented as a downbeat horror-show but becomes uplifting, enigmatic and awe-inspiring.  Director Sebastián Cordero has managed quite a bit out of a relatively low budget.  While it may not be a perfect film (the pacing is an issue, the characters are a bit fuzzy, the script can’t get away from some obvious sequences and there’s a nagging feeling that the film is one Big Idea away from complete success), Europa Report will probably become one of those oft-referred films, especially by SF fans bemoaning the lack of realistic examples of the form.    

  • Chef (2014)

    Chef (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2015)  Once you get past the pseudo-intellectual nonsense and fancy vocabulary, one of the basic questions to be answered by movie criticism is this: Has this movie made me happier than I was before watching it?  It’s not a universally-applicable test (I’m not seriously proposing that all great movies are feel-good movies) but it’s one of the big ones.  And it gives me some pleasure to report that among Chef’s best qualities is that it’s a movie that made me happy.  It’s a bubbly, charming, energetic-but-relaxed comedy about food, relationships and criticism as a path to self-improvement.  The plot isn’t exactly tight, but it is about a chef forced to make life-altering changes in the wake of a disastrous restaurant review and ensuing social media kerfuffle.  From Los Angeles to Miami and back again via New Orleans and Austin, Chef offers a loose comedy with quirky characters, up-to-the-moment techno-social commentary, fantastic food imagery and an unapologetic upbeat ending.  Jon Favreau not only stars, but produces, writes and directs the film, which raises all sorts of fascinating questions about vanity projects with valid artistic intentions: It’s hard to see this tale of chef reinventing himself by going to his roots and avoid comparison with a filmmaker with three massive Hollywood movies under his belt going back to his independent film origins.  (Note to Favreau: I’ll take one fresh Chef over ten reheated Cowboys versus Aliens.)  Not only is Favreau reaffirming his directing credentials with a lower budget (the film is a breeze to sit through), but his credibility is current enough to be able to attract an astonishing cast in supporting roles from Robert Downey Jr to Scarlett Johansson to Dustin Hoffman to Oliver Platt.  Sofia Vergara has a rare non-irritating role, while John Leguizamo turns in one of his most likable performances to date and ten-year-old Emjay Anthony features strongly.  The script may not be fined-tuned (the episodic structure can feel disjointed and the ending, as positively-happy as it is, feels abrupt) but it hits a likable tone strongly supported by a peppy soundtrack.  Chef is one of those (too-rare) films that make you happy, make you feel alive, make you feel as if everything is fine with cinema.

  • Into the Storm (2014)

    Into the Storm (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2015)  Twister remains, even nearly twenty year later, one of my big fond memories of mid-nineties movie-going (I bought the Blu-Ray version a while ago… I really should watch it again) and tornadoes are a natural fit for big-screen disaster movies… so why has it taken eighteen years for another big-screen tornado movie to come along?  No matter; Thanks to the progress of computer-generated imagery, we can now have a technically-impeccable tornado disaster movie… directed as a teenager-centric found-footage film.  But don’t lose all hope yet: For all of the found-footage overexposure and exasperating concessions to the teen audience, Into the Storm does manage a handful of great action sequences.  Despite the bouncy subjective camera, the film is technically polished, and the tornadoes are vividly rendered with a loving amount of detail.  (Keep your eyes open for a bovine homage to Twister.)  Some of the tornado sequences are eye-popping, and the mayhem will give your home theater system a run for its money.  What’s not so fortunate is how the story is wrapped around a bunch of teenagers and a storm-chasing team: the story quickly becomes banal and contrived whenever humans are talking on-screen, and while director Steven Quale does cover the essential bases, he never elevates it above the basic wham-factor of seeing a bit of tornado destruction on-screen.  The found-footage gimmick gets a bit shaky toward the end.  The sense of anticipation of the approaching storm isn’t established as strongly as it should, and the climax does feel like an anticlimax after seeing fire tornadoes and colliding jetliners earlier in the film.  Still, I’m not exactly disappointed: the film does deliver on the essentials of its intentions, doesn’t run too long at barely 90 minutes and the story isn’t annoying despite its basic features.  I can’t help but be fascinated by what’s now possible with special effects: Twister was, in 1996, a major tent-pole film that redefined special effects at a time when the field was embracing the new possibilities of CGI, while Into the Storm was, at best, just another mid-summer studio release with a budget half of its predecessor.  So, essentially: if you’re in the mood for a man-against-nature thrill-ride, consider Into the Storm… but not before seeing Twister beforehand.