OPENING THIS WEEK
Blackhat
Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis
In this R-rated techno-thriller, a furloughed convict (Hemsworth) and his American (Davis) and Chinese (Wei Tang) partners hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta.
The Plus: The players. Given that his touts more than a few commercial and critical triumphs (Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Ali, Collateral), writer/director Michael Mann deserved a short respite. For his first film since 2009’s Public Enemies, he chose a white-hot star in Chris Hemsworth to headline the action. After establishing himself as Thor in three Marvel properties (Thor, Thor: The Dark World, The Avengers) plus a few well-received side ventures (Snow White & the Huntsmen, Rush), this young actor booked an impressive 2015. Next up is Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea (March 13) and May’s Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1) … after the legendary Mann’s latest, that is.
The Minus: The odds. Mann’s last two films, Miami Vice and Public Enemies, divided critics and filmgoers alike. Even his interim project, the HBO series Luck, got mercifully cancelled.
Paddington
Nicole Kidman, Hugh Bonneville
In this PG-rated family flick, a family befriends a talking bear (voice of Ben Whishaw) at a London train station.
The Plus: The players. In an age when many H’Wood insiders believe that star power is on the wane, this flick boasts more mega-watt British actors than at a BAFTA open bar. Here, Harry Potter producer David Heyman presents Kidman (Before I Go to Sleep), Bonneville (The Monuments Men), Julie Walters (One Chance), Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), Peter Capaldi (BBC’s Doctor Who) and Jim Broadbent (Closed Circuit), plus the voices of Whishaw (Skyfall), Michael Gambon (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2) and Imedla Staunton (Maleficent).
The Minus: The scheduling. If this movie was worth a damn, it would have taken its chances during the holiday season when good family flicks soar (Penguins of Madagascar) and bad family films scour (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb).
The Wedding Ringer
Kevin Hart, Josh Gad
In this R-rated comedy, a shy young groom (Gad) needs to impress his in-laws, so he turns to a best-man-for-hire (Hart) to help him out.
The Plus: The player. Having busted out in back-to-back-to-back smash hits Think Like a Man, Ride Along and his stand-up concert film Let Me Explain, Kevin Hart is the marquee selling point of this comedy. Here, he headlines a cast that includes Gad (Frozen), Kaley Cuoco (ABC’s The Big Bang Theory), Cloris Leachman (The Croods), Olivia Thirlby (Dredd), Mimi Rogers (Almost Human), Whitney Cummings (NBC’s Whitney), Josh Peck (Fox’s The Mindy Project) and Jorge Garcia (CBS’s Person of Interest) in the feature-length directorial debut of Jeremy Garelick (screenwriter, The Break-Up).
The Minus: The competition. One weekend, three new movies, an already crowded box office with awards contenders. Even though this flick aims for the adult, it faces a lot of other contenders this weekend.
NOW PLAYING
Inherent Vice
Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin
*** — Bogie Nights
Inherent-ly muddled, Paul Thomas Anderson’s roll of the Vice satisfies Thomas Pynchon fans and few others. In this 1970s-set R-rated dramedy based on the novel by the author of V and Gravity’s Rainbow, detective Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend through a drug-fueled Los Angeles. Of course, this was the point. On the Penguin Press website, the publisher teases a work that’s “Part-noir, part-psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon … private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog.” So far as realizing this vision, one of this generation’s most gifted auteurs succeeds to a startlingly perfect five-star degree. For filmgoers in general though, especially those who qualified as “square” in the ’60s or weren’t even born yet, Inherent Vice proves only mildly entertaining. In fact, the film tends to get downright boring at points. If Raymond Chandler helped to hard-boil detective fiction through his character Phillip Marlowe in the ’40s and Robert Altman somehow satirized and elevated the genre at the same time with the idiosyncratic Me Generation film classic The Long Goodbye in the ’70s, then Inherent Vice continues this tradition and takes the detective story to the next level … we just don’t know what or where that is. Purposely meandering and muddied with sudden Spartan moments of crystal-clear clarity, much like a drug trip and/or a lost soul trying to find their place in a changing culture and society, the story proudly sports a Byzantine plot navigated by a stoner. We get it. Most of us just don’t enjoy it. Oh, like all of Anderson’s films, it’s always interesting. The director’s telltale stylistic touches pop up to mostly great effect. Working against type, an amazing cast brings some wild characters to life. His long takes, however, actually feel long for a change. Even after weaving toward the solution, only one thing remains certain about Inherent Vice: It assumes the title of “Most Divisive” film on Anderson’s resume from Punch-Drunk Love.
Taken 3
Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker
** — Taken Asunder
Going back to the Mills for another fisticuff-filled man-against-the-clock mystery, Liam Neeson unwittingly remakes The Fugitive in his unfortunate three-quel. In this PG-13-rated actioner, ex-government operative Bryan Mills gets accused of a ruthless murder of his beloved ex-wife, so he brings out his particular set of skills to evade police, find the true killer and clear his name. Taken 3 takes awhile to really get its blood pumping but, once it does … well, the movie only boasts a few real thrills because it mostly rips off a certain 1992 who-done-it. Part three clumsily tries weaving its DNA into the proven man-on-the-run formula that made The Fugitive such a smash success, injecting the lead’s hard-hitting detective skills into the mix with middling success. It must get stated, however: Brian Mills, you are no Richard Kimble. Hell, Taken 3 isn’t even on an entertainment par with U.S. Marshals, the unnecessary Fugitive follow-up that Harrison Ford smartly skipped. Most of the repetitive goings-on of this flick offer standard issue action with very little intrigue. Sure, it easily one-ups the painfully redundant sequel that precedes it, but moviegoers have seen more fist-pumping action in some wedding videos than in Taken 2. All in all, this is not to say that Liam Neeson is a poor man’s Harrison Ford. He believably doles out clenched fist revenge just like in Taken … and Unknown …and Taken 2 … and Non-Stop. Truthfully, this very likeable actor has gone to the mills one too many times. Meanwhile, Forest Whitaker makes the most of a supporting role that’s largely beneath his certain set of skills, assuming Tommy Lee Jones’s Fugitive role as a duty-driven cop who kinda sorta believes that the protagonist is innocent. Also, here’s a final word of advice: No villain comes off as menacing when he sports the page boy bowl haircut of Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber.
Big Eyes
Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz
**** — Big Fishing Deal
Big on colorful vision and colorful storytelling, Tim Burton’s somewhat uncharacteristic latest Eyes up an exquisitely painted portrait of an artist cheated of self-expression. Tim Burton’s (Dark Shadows) PG-13-rated drama centers on the awakening of painter Margaret Keane (Adams), her phenomenal success in the 1950s and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband (Waltz), who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s. The framing proves masterful, 1950s San Francisco dyed with a vibrant palette of eye-popping hues matched brilliantly with complimentary set design and period detail. Not unlike the vintage crayon-colored neighborhood featured in Edward Scissorhands, this location pulls you into the fabric even moreseo because it’s an actual place. Sure, the reality gets heightened — just not to surrealistic lengths like Ed Wood. In fact, this stylish telling of fascinating real events here resembles that Burton picture most of all, presenting history dappled with this auteur’s unique verve and wit. Of course, these films share the same screenwriters: Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Quirky but fact-filled, their bio-pic scripts (The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon) never fail to gleefully entertain while serving their subjects respectfully. Indeed, Keane emerges as much more than a rough sketch and her fight resonates as social commentary without becoming too heavy-handed. Aside from a few arch moments (a trial verging on cartoonish chief among them), laughing comes to crying comes to understanding. The same goes for Burton. Usually purveying a sort of Gothic hyper-reality as picture postcard America (Beetlejuice, Batman, Sleepy Hollow), he instead channels this dark undercurrent just below the surface with Big Eyes. Controlled but still characteristic, the sun-dappled Northern California suburbs (not unlike those in Frankenweenie) hold a lot of stylized beauty, but there’s a sense of real world dread pouring through the cracks in the sidewalks. It speaks the truth, as do the brilliantly layered performances by Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz.