The Interview

The latest Seth Rogen & James Franco flick about assassinating the supreme leader of North Korea has its fair share of shenanigans inside and outside of the movie. Allegedly, North Korea (the real country) hacked Sony Pictures in order to boycott the film (President Obama even referenced the attack during a press interview). I have a conspiracy theory that this was all a hoax put on by Sony, Google, and Microsoft in order to boost attention and sales of the film that ended up being distributed online via YouTube, Google Play, XBox, etc. As far as the movie goes, its Seth and James in fine form and in my memory, one of the most intimate movie between these two actors who usually work alongside a posse. James Franco's character, David Skylark is a talk show host who is directed by Seth Rogen's character, Aaron Rappaport. Skylark gets celebrities to come on his show and they reveal things about their lives (like Eminem saying he's gay and Rob Lowe admitting he's bald). Skylark finds out Kim is a fan of his show and begs Aaron to get an interview. Aaron goes through a lot of trouble to even meet the North Koreans (getting an address in terms of coordinate for instance). Once they solidify the interview, the CIA gets involved. Agent Lacey, played by the swelteringly hot (and then not) Lizzy Caplan provides the context for out first usage of the term honeypotting / honeydicking which means using some type of manipulation in order to hypnotize someone else into what you want. I'm not sure if these terms existed before this movie, but it's most definitely one of the big takeaways in terms of lexicon from this movie. Skylark and Rappaport are trained by the CIA (comedy ensues) and head off to North Korea to enact the plan that obviously goes completely awry. Regardless, The Interview was fun to watch, makes you believe a little more in America and free speech, and is a great buddy-buddy film starring two of the best in the biz: 4 stars!

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I watched this while on a plane flight back from Detroit to San Francisco. It has Steve Carrell & Jennifer Gardner in it. Alexander, the main character played by Ed Oxenbould, comes home from school after a bad day! His birthday is tomorrow and he makes a wish for his family to also have a bad day so that they can understand what he feels like. Calamitous things happen to each one of the family members who all seem to have particularly important days simultaneously. Kelly has a book release and public reading, Ben has a job interview, Celia (Bella Thorne) is lead in Peter Pan the musical, and Anthony (Dylan Minnette) has a driving test and Prom. It's just all bad for this crew. But it ends with a bodacious 12th birthday party for Alexander!

Divergent

I really enjoyed the concept of Divergent. In a dystopia sometime off in the future, a society has emerged in the ruins of Chicago. The city is walled in by some sort of electromagnetic fence and the city is comprised of 5 factions: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent). At around 16 or 18 years of age, members of each faction take a personality test that determines the appropriate faction for them and each person is only supposed to have one faction, but if your personality test reveals you are a mix of factions you are considered divergent. Our main character Beatrice Prior, played by Shailene Woodley, is divergent. We watch her as she unravels the plans of the Erudites spearheaded by Jeanine Matthews, played by Kate Winslet. Along the way, Tris (as she calls herself after choosing Dauntless), gets involved with a love interest Tobias Eaton aka Four, played by Theo James. As I said, I liked the concept, but the execution of the movie itself doesn't let itself to much better than a 3 star recommendation in my opinion.

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas was originally based on a book and though I'm usually a fan of novels that are adapted to film (see Gone Girl for instance), Cloud Atlas might be best suited as a novel instead. The move is quite long and tells several disjointed stories that weave together over space and time. It's kind of cool as a movie but I'm sure if far more enjoyable in book form. I'd also call this an artistic film because actors played several different roles depending on the context. It had a good cast, interesting scenes with some decent visual effects, but overall, I just wasn't that in to it.

Gone Girl

Gone Girl was a gripping movie that shocked me and kept shocking me. The story revolves around the marriage of Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike). You're introduced to how they first met, how Nick proposes to her, and also the deterioration of their marriage and breakdown in communication. Amy appears to have been kidnapped and all signs point to Nick. For the first half of the movie, there's pretty much no way you can believe this guy even though he's acting smug as hell and saying he didn't do it. What's worse is he's been cheating on Amy with Andie Hardy, Emily Ratajkowski. Doesn't look so good for Nick, until we find out that Amy's just run away and has contrived the whole plan! She's even gone so far as to plan to kill herself. After she gets in a kerfuffle with some people staying at a trailer park, Amy is forced to contact an ex-boyfriend / stalker, Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris), who is happy to take her in given his fixation with her. Amy sees Nick apologize to her on TV while at Desi's and wants to go back home but Desi won't let her go that quickly. So, she makes it look as though Desi has captured her and she ends up killing Desi in order to return. She arrives back to Nick who is astonished that she even returns and he wishes to leave her. But Amy won't allow it. She manipulates Nick into staying by getting herself pregnant and showcasing it all over TV. Overall, Nick was a bad husband and made Amy feel like she didn't have any life. So, when Amy sees Nick and Andie and how Nick has fallen out of love with her, Amy conjures up one of the most elaborate plans to seek revenge. This really is a striking difference for me in terms of how women and men deal with motives underlying revenge. I think men would typically use force to get their revenge, killing, etc. but Amy uses a manipulative plan that slowly eats away at Nick so that on an emotional level he felt just as dead as Amy must have. Great movie!

Anchorman 2

Anchorman 2 was recently released on Netflix, so I guess I had to eventually watch this sequel which I knew was sure to disappoint. Overall, it was a goofy movie and it gave you all the things you probably loved in the first movie, an insane Ron Burgundy, a ridiculous cast of characters, an arch nemesis in the form of Jack Lime (who Burgundy bets and wins so is forced to change his last name to "Lame"), and a plot line that at times doesn't really make coherent sense (Burgundy going blind and raising a pet shark), but you roll with it because hey, you're watching a movie about a 1970s anchorman. I feel like there were a lot more racist jokes in this movie compared to the first, because Burgundy's new boss is black, but then again I think the first movie was just more discriminatory against women. They even copied the epic fight scene from the first Anchorman with just as many star studded cameos, Will Smith, Liam Neeson, Jim Carrey, Sacha Baron Cohen, Harrison Ford, and even Vince Vaughn made a repeat appearance. I watched the super-sized version which honestly got a little too long at 143 minutes. Look, I'm not going to recommend this movie, but it's there and if you saw the first one, you may just find this one tolerable too.

Predestination

Predestination is a movie depicting an extended predestination paradox. Things begin somewhat gory in a fight scene that ends up with our main character having their face seared off after trying to apprehend a bad guy. Ethan Hawke, only known as The Bartender, is the man behind the bandages. He then is given his final mission to jump through time and seek out and kill the Fizzle Bomber, a mysterious character who has eluded Hawke for some time. He has a long conversation with a woman, The Unmarried Mother, who became a man, in the bar Hawke jumped back in time to, in which she explains his life. Eventually, Hawke convinces her to jump back in time with him and kill the Fizzle Bomber. This is where stuff gets super crazy, because part of The Unmarried Mother's story is about how she met this guy, fell in love, had a child with him, and the child gets kidnapped. What we find out is that an earlier version of the Unmarried Mother, Jane, falls in love with and has a child with her future self! On top of that, the kidnapped child that Jane has (with herself!) turns out to be Jane also! And wait, there's more. Ethan Hawke is just the future version of Jane with a reconstructed face. Yikes, that got all sorts of crazy really fast. It's nuts but Predestination actually does a pretty good job or explaining it and making it clear to the viewer what's happening. But, on a more philosophical level, I think the movie contemplates whether we are on a predestined path and if life is just an eventuality. Characters are given choices throughout the course of the movie sometimes even knowing the eventual outcomes yet ultimately remain on course, unable to break the cycle of the paradox. This movie's a thinker and I enjoyed it!

This Is Where I Leave You

This Is Where I Leave You tells the oft told story about a dysfunctional family brought together by the death of their dad. For all the players, things are not as they appear. Judd, Jason Bateman, is a regular old guy cruising through life but he just finds out that his wife is cheating on him (with his boss no less) and they're expecting! In the midst of returning home, he rekindles a old flame that seemingly never lit with Penny Moore, Rose Byrne. The mother, Jane Fonda, turns out to be a lesbian, sleeping with the next door neighbor, who's son, Horry, played by Timothy Olyphant, is the love interest of Wendy, played by Tina Fey. Tina's character has her own issues with a deadbeat husband and she longs for much much more love in her life. Adam Driver, probably best known for Girls at this point, plays the baby of the family, Phillip, who brings home a therapist the age of his mother. Rounding out the Altman family is Corey Stoll who plays Paul who is having a hard time conceiving with his wife Annie, played by Kathryn Hahn. This movie is stacked with some of your fave personalities, mish moshed from shows and TV series. Ultimately, it's a story about a family going through some changes and throughout the tumult of the 7 days of shiva that the Mom lies the Dad was his final wish, we learn that even the darkest of clouds have their silver linings and above all, life goes on and it presents us with new opportunities so long as we are willing to listen.

112 Weddings

112 Weddings is a documentary made by wedding photographer, Doug Block, who goes back and interviews several of the couples he took pictures of on their wedding day. The movie explores some of the best and worst parts about being married and what "really" happens after the nuptials. Certain couples were still happily married while others had split up. It was a unique approach to addressing a question that has been asked umpteen millions of times, "What are the keys to a successful marriage?" In my opinion, the documentary didn't provide anything particularly enlightening or especially novel in answering this question, yet I still admire the method used to create the documentary.

Escape Plan

I haven't watched an action movie in quite some time. I don't much like them anymore because they are devoid of actual substance with a flimsy plot line and the characters are simply pawns for beating up and shooting up others. 2013's Escape Plan featuring Stallone and Arnie, Hollywood's dynamic duo of action, really went all out. The premise of the movie is absurd. Ray Breslin (played by Sylvester Stallone) escapes from prisons for a living. The movie revolves around him trying to escape from the "The Tomb" and his struggle against Hobbes who is both admirer and arch-nemesis. By the end of the movie, hundreds of prison guards have been slaughtered while Stallone and Schwarzenegger have minor nicks and cuts. In the last 3 minutes of the movie, you learn that it turns out to be an inside job by Breslin's business associate, everyone is connected and every secret is revealed (all of which you could see coming from a mile away).

On a lighter note, huge shout out to 50 Cent who stole the show in this one and Sam Neill, my main man from Jurassic Park!