2015 Films: #3. Mad Max: Fury Road

Friday 22 May in Chicago. Apparently there was a need to remake Mad Max as far back as 2011.When I first heard of it, I wasn't that thrilled. However, George Miller, the director of the original trilogy was brought back to helm the re-boot. Miller has directed some very good films like The Witches of Eastwick and Lorenzo's Oil, but between 1998 and 2011 the 3 films he's directed were Babe: Pig in the City; Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two. Not exactly high octane action. The last action film he directed was Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and that was way back in 1985. Which had a lot of problems.

In the newest version, Miller essentially takes several elements of the first 3 films, blends it all together and turns it up to 11. Tom Hardy is Max Rockatansky, the "hero" of few words. We don't get a lot of backstory about Max but he's haunted by the death of a little girl, probably his daughter. Charlize Theron is Imperator Furiosa, a celebrity truck driver in the apocalyptic wasteland of the future (I'm reminds me that  I should hang on to my Class A license because there will be a need for over the road drivers in the future regardless of how bad it gets). The normally striking Theron goes through a very dystopian makeover...

She's not to be trifled with by any stretch.

Furiosa is the lead driver for Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Kaeys-Byrne, the Toe Cutter in the original film), the governor of the oasis in the wasteland known as the Citadel. He makes sure that the people get water and that the machinery works. He's got a lot of responsibility and uses his army of fanatical War Boys to help keep the order. These dudes are loyal to Joe and are all too happy to die for him. While Max is imprisoned by the War Boys, Furiosa is off to make a fuel run to Gas Town but it it comes to light that she's betrayed Joe by "liberating" his wives...

It's good to know that in the post-apocalypse, hot women stay hot. Because why wouldn't they?

Suffice to say Joe is not very understanding about Furiosa's betrayal and he goes after her with a vengeance. He's also not very sympathetic about his wives' desire for a better life than just being a breeder. I can see why they want to leave as Joe is not the best looking guy around...

 

It's been said that women dig power. 

The chase is on and it's here where Miller puts the cinematic metal to the cinematic pedal. Max is strapped to War Boy Nux's vehicle, Max's blood type makes him a universal donor and he's in the midst of a transfusion. For reasons that aren't explained, War Boys need periodic transfusions. Whatever. Max manages to escape during a brutal wreck and links up with Furiosa and the girls. Joe has also enlisted the help of the troops from Gas Town and Bullet Farm, leading to a massive chase through the wasteland.

Despite eluding Joe and the pursuing army, Furiosa's plan dissolves as she's informed that her destination, The Green Place, no longer exists. Max comes up with the idea that they should go back and take over the Citadel. Here we go again! "Once more into the breach" as they say. More car chases, more crashes and more death.

Miller did an awesome job at putting the film together. For a guy who hadn't filmed a car chase in 30 years, he pulls out all the stops. The chase scenes from Road Warrior still hold up today and Miller surpasses them. Sure, Miller borrowed heavily from the original trilogy, especially Road Warrior and Thunderdome, but who cares! Everything in this film is more extreme. The acting, what little their was of it due to the lack of dialogue, was really good and the stunt work something else. Hats off the the stunt coordinator and his/her crew because they did some far out shit.

In the original trilogy, Miller went story first, he doesn't do that here and that's ok. I like that he didn't try to make the same film 30 plus years later, he made a film for today's audience based on his old work. I didn't see this film because I thought it was going to be Casablanca, I saw it because I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic films, I was a fan of the original Mad Max and Road Warrior and quite frankly, the trailer looked cool. If you're to see this film, it should be done so in a modern theater because the audio and visuals are stunning. If you're looking for something a bit deeper then I suggest viewing Miller's Mad Max (1979) and The Road Warrior (1981). It's not necessary to have seen the originals to watch this film however. Thank you for your time.

2015 Films: #2. Ex Machina

May 16th in Chicago: This film was viewed at the Century Landmark Theater, Chicago's art-house theater. It had been awhile since I last saw a film here and was pleasantly surprised to find there's a bar there now and they allow you to take your drinks into the theater (they serve bottled beer at the snack bar...awesome)!

Ex Machina is a variation of the Latin phrase, deus ex machina which means "god from the machine." Originally used a plot device "whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object." Let's just say that there is an unsolvable problem that gets solved with no explanation (other than it exists) and the deus part derives from man creating life. More on this later.

The film revolves around it's 3 main characters; Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), the reclusive billionaire CEO of the fictional search engine company Bluebook (substituting for Google). Caleb Smith (Domhall Gleeson), a programmer for Bluebook who won a company contest to assist Bateman at his home on a special project. The last character is Ava (brilliantly played by Alicia Vikander), we'll get into as we go. When Caleb arrives at Bateman's ultra reclusive estate, he is told that he will assist Bateman in testing a humanoid robot named Ava.

Caleb's job is to see if Ava has consciousness through a series of Voight-Kampff-esque tests. Caleb clearly starts to have feelings for Ava because she has very human like qualities (like looking very attractive in clothes and a wig). Ava is also able to overload the estates generator to cause brief power outages and during a blackout she reveals that Caleb can't be trusted. Eventually Caleb formulates a plan that will free Ava. The plan is set to go down on just prior to Caleb's departure. However, Bateman had been watching the whole time (even during the blackout) ad is prepared. However, it is Ava who outsmarts them both and she escapes (leaving a Caleb behind with a trampled upon heart).

Ex Machina marks the directorial debut of veteran writer Alex Garland. The film is very character driven and minimalist. To me, this is what a small budget science fiction film is all about. The acting is nothing short of excellent and the effects are very good. I would recommend seeing this film. I look forward to seeing more films from Garland because this was a very good debut.

Ava being the robot is obviously the "machina" portion. She does indeed prove she has consciousness (in a big way), therefore cementing Bateman as god or "deus." Bateman has succeeded in creating sentient artificial life. But is the world ready? On a side note, this is how it's going to happens. It won't be zombies that get the best of humans. It will be the machines. Just like they do in the Matrix trilogy, the Terminator franchise and of course Dune...

Hopefully I didn't give too much of the film away. Thank you for your time.

1st Film Viewing of 2015! - Avengers: Age of Ultron

May 1st in Chicago: Opening Day! I will start by getting to the point. I would have liked this film a lot better if I had not seen The Avengers in 2012. It essentially the same film. The team faces a powerful enemy that stealthily turns them against each other. They realize their powerful enemy has poisoned each other, break the spell (in this case literally due to Scarlet Witch's hex power, more on that later) in order to defeat the enemy. The enemy is extremely powerful, immortal (Loki is a god and Ultron can live on by having his programming survive in one of his minion that are built in his image), has superior technology and unlimited manpower resources (Loki had the Chitauri, Ultron has his robots). Despite being hopelessly outnumbered the heroes defeat their enemy by destroying the master (both numerically superior forces dropped dead; the Chitauri when the nuke incinerated the mother ship and the robots when Ultron died, but the robots still required cleaning up to ensure Ultron was truly destroyed).

The film opens with the team attacking Baron von Strucker's castle, HYDRA base, in Slovakia. The Avengers make quick work of Strucker's goons but what the Avengers don't know is that Strucker has a contingency plan in the form of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, remember them?

Quicksilver stalls the Avengers while SW goes about manipulating the minds of some of the Avengers. The Avengers defeat Strucker and retrieve the scepter that Loki used. Before they can celebrate their victory,they need to get Hawkeye medical attention as he was wounded in the skirmish (the only Avenger to sustain more than a scratch!). Back in New York, Hawkeye is patched up and the celebration can begin. While they party heats up Stark is telling Banner about a project he's been working on, a "suit of armor for the world." Stark feels that the scepter is the key to his project and convinces Thor to let him and Banner"run a few tests" on it.

Oh, the project Tony has been working on is an artificial intelligence project known as the Ultron Initiative (roll credits!). While the party heats up, Ultron wakes up and when is confronted by JARVIS, Ultron disposes of him and manages to keep the Avengers busy while he builds himself eventually making his escape and trashing the place.  They pick up Ultron's trail in Africa because Tony knows of an arms dealer, Uslysses Klaue. Ultron wants the Vibranium that Klaue stole from Wakanda to give himself some upgrades and create his drone army. The Avengers arrive and do battle. Quicksilver runs interference and SW continues to manipulate before going after the real prey, Bruce Banner. So Banner gets manipulated, turns into the Hulk and goes on a rampage. Which gives us this...

The massive destruction caused by the fight between Tony and Bruce has made the Avengers outlaws (finally! consequences for their actions) ad they hide out on Hawkeye's farm with his wife and 2 kids.. Moving right along, they chase Ultron to Seoul where Ultron steals the synthetic flesh so he can create a synthetic body for himself. The Avengers stop Ultron from uploading his conscience into the synthetic body and actually take possession of it but Ultron captures Black Widow and escapes. Back in New York Tony decides to upload the not quite dead JARVIS into the body but is hindered by the other Avengers (because his AI efforts created Ultron in the first place and the other Avengers are a bit hesitant and f*cking Tony always has to do it his way). During the scuffle, Thor actually activates the body, creating the "Vision." The team travels to Slovakia for the final battle and with the Vision, they are able to defeat Ultron and his drones. Erasing his existence. There's a lot more to it but I don't want to give away key spoilers.

Make no mistake, this film is entertaining but it there's nothing new in regards to the story. We're only 3 years removed from the first film and they used the same basic story, though it's Iron Man that fights Hulk in this one. There are a few scenes in the film that are setting up future films like the next Thor installment. They do a do an admirable job of trying to stay close to the source material. The creation of Ultron and Vision comes to mind. In the comics Ultron is created by Hank Pym but he's Tony Stark's creation in the MCU. Ultron is a primary villain for the Avengers and in the film he sees the human race as a disease that should be eradicated (kind of like Agent Smith), which he monologues about endlessly. Spader was a good choice in providing the voice/personality of Ultron.

There are some changes to Vision's origin as well but it's not enough for me to get into a twist over. Besides they're setting up future films. In the comics, Vision has definable powers that have limits, in the film, he has almost unlimited power (that's never really explained). Kind of like Scarlet Witch. Scarlet Witch's power enables her to manipulate probability (no idea what this means but I'm guessing math?) but it has limitations. In the film, she's really powerful.I came away with the feeling that with Iron Man and Hulk potentially leaving (RDJ is expensive and Hulk doesn't have a film in the Phase Three line-up) that these 2 will become the powerhouses.

For those not aware, Marvel and Fox have a mutual ownership of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Since the're both mutants they can be used by Fox in the X-men franchise but since they're Avengers, Marvel has those rights. Fox has proprietary use of the word "mutant" which is why the Maximoffs are referred to as "enhanced" in this film. Fox used Quicksilver in X-Men; Days of Future Past for a few moments (though it seems he would have been very handy in some situations) and gave a glimpse of a young girl who we're lead to believe is the future Scarlet Witch (she's got red hair so it's easy to reach that conclusion). In Age of Ultron, the two are twins (just like in the comics) who's origin is not mentioned except for the fact that they have an ax to grind with Stark Industries which is why they join HYDRA. To be honest, I thought thought that Quicksilver's powers in DOFP were better than AofU. Things are looking up for SW in the MCU but her brother, not so much.

I also noticed that Marvel really doesn't like Hawkeye all that much. He's the only Avenger to get wounded in the opening mission where they raid Strucker's castle. Just to remind everyone that he's not wearing high tech murder armor, isn't a Norse god, doesn't carry an indestructible shield or isn't hot like Black Widow. He's also the only one with a family which makes him a liability. Sure Tony cares for Pepper but let's be honest, she just keeps him grounded. It's a fringe benefit that Pepper is attractive.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is currently killing it at the box office. But it does have its fair share of not so positive reviews. Also, I'm going to spoil this but the credits scene featured Thanos. Again. Just sneering. BORING! Been there done that. To be fair he does have the Infinity Gauntlet but with no stones in it. It's worth seeing on the big screen but be forewarned.

39. John Wick - my last 2014 viewing

This film was viewed on February 16th as an OnDemand purchase. Since I had watched The Equalizer, I figured that I need to see this to round out the Fall films that pertained to this subject. John Wick is directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch (who's role as co-director was uncredited) and it stars Johnny Utah on the wrong side of the law as a retired assassin/badass who comes out of retirement to right the wrong of his dog being killed...

Bad choice by the villains

Wick's wife, played in flashbacks by Bridget Moynahan, dies of an unknown illness and he's devastated. She posthumously sends him a puppy to help him get over her death. The puppy takes a liking to Wick, despite the fact that he never seems to feed him or take him for a walk, and naturally Wick gets attached to the puppy. Their first outing together they go for a drive in Wick's wicked awesome 1969 Mustang Mach 1...

Amazingly, it stays pristine throughout multiple firefights.

Wick is allowed access to a private airport and he just drives it real fast back and forth on a runway while screaming. It kind of appears that he's going to kill himself but not really. I'm not sure ofthe meaning of this scene other than to show off what a cool car can do. While at a gas station, a Russian mobster (what a surprise!) takes a liking to the car and offers to buy it from Wick, who in turn tells the dude to go pound sand. Like most Russian mobsters, they don't like being told "no" and later that evening they break into Wick's home, beat him up, kill the dog and take the car. It is now officially on! Now keep in mind that the Russians commit the cardinal cinema sin of leaving the protagonist alive. They killed his dog. They took his awesome car. Why not complete the trifecta by killing him? When villains are that stupid they deserve to be killed.

Which is exactly what Wick does. It turns out the punk that took his car is the son of a senior Russian mob official who previously used Wick's services as an assassin. Wick was the best most badass assassin in the city. Mobster Dad is none too pleased with his son's choice. He knows how good Wick is at killing people but he sends a team to take care of Wick but he dispatches them in about 80 seconds. This is pretty much the whole film. It's like they took DNA from Taken, Bourne and Road to Perdition to make John Wick. Wick gets closer to the mobster's son and leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. He eventually kills the punk mobster and turns his attentions to the father. The finally of the film is Wick and the Russian boss duking it out a la Riggs versus Mr. Joshua from Lethal Weapon.

A kung-fu battle to the death in the rain featuring two men, one of whom in theory wouldn't stand a chance against the other. Since Lethal Weapon was 27 years ago, no one will recall the similarities.

This film was mildly entertaining. I would've like this film 10-13 years ago a lot more but there was very little originality here. Much like The Equalizer and A Walk Among he Tombstones. Of the three, this was the best. It was a much faster pace then Neeson's entry and less stupid than the Denzel's entry. Much like the other two films,  there is the climactic end involves rain (it's raining at the end of Tombstones and Equalizer uses a store's sprinkler system as a substitute). There are some cornball moments, like the fact that there's a high class hotel in NYC that caters to the underworld types where they payment is in the form of gold coins (who the f*ck thought that up?). Does the hotel have a rewards program that allow a person to earn points towards free stays like Marriott Rewards or Hilton Honors. Or that there are all these firefights going on in public and cops are nowhere near the place. I'm fine with suspending disbelief but there's a limit. 

Ugh! I'm going to have to consider taking a break from these types of films. At least Reeves probably donated a portion of his salary as he usually does after filming this. Or he at least did it as a favor to Leitch and Strahelski, whom he's work with before (they worked with Reeves on the Matrix Trilogy as stunt doubles) since this was their first time behind the directors chair. To say the least, this was a mildly disappointing way to close out the 2014 film viewing season. I had two indie films in my Netflix queue but never bothered to get around to them. Sometimes you eat the bar. Sometimes the bar eats you. Thank you for your time.

38. Force Majeure

An OnDemand viewing on February 8th. This Swedish film got a late December 2014 U.S. release. The film was written and directed by Ruben Ostlund, who has done some interesting work over the last 20 years. Granted, I've never heard of anything he's done but it sounds interesting. The film takes place at a luxury hotel in the French alps where a young family; Tomas (father), Ebba (mother), Vera and Harry (the kids) are enjoying a ski vacation.

While eating lunch on the 2nd day, there is a controlled avalanche that gives the appearance that it is definitely not in control...

Suffice to say there's a panic and Ebba tries to gather the kids to flee. You can see Tomas make a half-hearted grab for Harry and bolts out of there leaving his family behind. It turns out that the panic was unnecessary and nothing was harmed. Tomas returns to his family as if it's no big deal. This really grinds Ebba's gears as she's not happy her husband left them there. When she brings it up, Tomas denies her version of the events and it really sets her off. She brings it up at a party with 2 friends who come to visit them (which causes an argument between the couple).

It eats away at Ebba and eventually Tomas has a breakdown and sobbingly admits his faults to Ebba. On their last day of skiing, the weather conditions are not optimum but they go anyway despite Ebba's reservations. In a thick fog, they lose Ebba, who was bring up the rear, and Tomas has to go "rescue" her. All is seemingly fine. As they're leaving on a bus back down the mountain, Ebba has a bit of freak out due to the multiple k-turns the driver has to make, it's mountain for crying out loud! The bus empties and the passengers walk down the mountain, sans luggage. End of film.

This was a really good film minimalist film that relies heavily on acting and dialogue. It had a bit of everything, comedy, drama and a little action as well. Tomas and Ebba are a good looking couple with good looking kids. A great life! Ebba's image of her family are shattered when Tomas runs off and she has a rough time dealing with. You can see it eat away at her until she finally goes off in front of Mats and Fanni. Tomas blows it off as nothing but after they discuss the incident with Mats and Fanni, the guilt starts to eat away at him until he breaks down. The film runs nearly 2 hours but it goes by quickly and I didn't see the need for it to take another run through the editing room like most films. Very nicely done. The thing that got me was if the rescue was staged by Ebba. After Tomas brings her back, she does not appear injured and they go on their merry way back to the lodge and eventually leave. Since she didn't appear injured, she just lost the others in the fog, did she fake everything so Tomas could redeem himself?

The only real issue I had was the ending. Why was it necessary for Ebba to freak out on the bus? I kind of felt that it belittled her character because she got off the bus and expected Tomas to follow her and bring the kids. That's my only issue and it doesn't change my opinion of the film. It was a very nice change of pace and I recommend seeing it. Thank you for your time.

Whalers nostalgia

Apparently, Evander Kane is not happy with being on the Winnipeg Jets. This prompted an article about the 10 worst break-ups in NHL history. Normally I could care less about what's going on with the Winnipeg Jets in February but the story has been making the rounds and Kane appears to be on the trading block. What caught my eye was the 9th worst break-up on the list, Brendan Shanahan and the Hartford Whalers. I read the article and it got me thinking, it was a bad break-up and it sealed the fate of the Whalers being in Hartford.

What the piece fails to mention was what the Whalers gave up to get Shanahan. The Whalers traded a young defenseman (just 20 years old) by the name of Chris Pronger. Pronger was the 2nd player taken in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft and in a long standing franchise tradition of giving up on young players (it's a long list) the Whalers mortgaged their future and it backfired. Badly. Shanahan played 1 full season in Hartford and was traded 2 games into the 1996-97 season (I booed him at the home opener).  At the end of the 1996-97 season, Shanahan would be sipping champagne from the Stanley Cup as a member of the Detroit Red Wings (the 1st of three Stanley Cup Championships during his time in Detroit) and the Whalers would be leaving Hartford.

Jerk!

What would become of Pronger you ask? Pronger would play 9 seasons in St. Louis as the defensive anchor. Under Coach Joel Quenneville (former Whaler!), Pronger would be named to 7 All-Star teams, win both the Norris Trophy (league' s best defenseman) and the Hart Trophy (league MVP) for a Blues team that won the President's Trophy in 1999-2000 season. Pronger would also lead a down trodden Oilers franchise to the Stanley Cup finals in 2006 (the Oilers have terrible since then) and eventually win his own Stanley Cup in 2007 when the Ducks defeated the Senators.

See how well that worked out for everyone?

37. The Drop

This was an OnDemand viewing on Friday January 30th. Directed by Belgian Michael Roskam and starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandalfini in one of his last roles before his untimely death. Hardy is Bob Saginowski, a bartender at a Brooklyn dive bar that serves as a "drop" location for unlaundered mob money. Bob works with Marv (Gandolfini), who used to own the bar, called Cousin Marv's, before being pushed out by a Chechen organized crime group. Suffice to say, Marv is a little bitter about being losing the bar and being relegated to a 3rd class citizen within the organized crime social structure.

The film opens at the bar with Bob and the regulars toasting an neighborhood guy Richie Whelan who was murdered 10 years ago (Richie's murder is an important plot point so bear with me).  As Bob is walking home after work, he finds a pit bull puppy in a garbage can of Nadia (Rapace). Nadia helps Bob care for the injured dog and Bob leaves the dog with her while he decides to either keep it or give it over to a shelter. The next night as the bar is closing, two masked gunmen rob the place of $5k in cash. Bob notices that one of them is wearing a broken wrist watch and actually mentions in to the police. Now Marv and Bob are not made men nor do the have the connections they once had but they still live by the mob code of omerta, which simply means don't talk to the cops about anything. It doesn't take long for the Chechen mobsters to show up and start asking questions and they're not too happy about the fact that Bob "cooperated" with the cops. They also want to see if Bob and Marv know a guy who's in the back of van (in not too good of shape) and that they want their money.

Bod decides to keep the dog and names him Rocco. He also starts to develop a nice relationship with Nadia. Bob runs into Eric Deeds and he tells Bob that the dog is his and he wants it back. While opening the bar one afternoon there's a severed arm, with a broken watch, sent to them and some bloody money. Bob casually preps it for disposal and Eric Deeds shows up again (asking for a Zima for crying out loud). Marv  lets Bob know that Deeds is a local thug who has taken credit for killing Whelan. The Chechens get their money back and they tell Marv that the bar will open up for drops beginning on Super Bowl Sunday. In the mean time Deeds is really giving Bob are hard time and demands $10k for Rocco.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Marv orchestrated the robbery at the bar and after killing the last person who knows he's involved, he decides to bring Deeds in to rob the bar after the Super Bowl. Marv calls in sick on super sunday which Bob finds suspicious. He gets even more suspicious when Deeds shows up with Nadia. With the bar empty, Deeds makes his move to rob the bar and even threatens Nadia. Bob then tells the story of Richie Whelan's death, it turns out that Marv was a loan shark and Richie was into him for a lot of money. Richie wins big at a casino and looks to pay Marv back but Marv has been skimming, so Richie has to go. Bob reveals that it was he who killed Whelan and took care of the body. Then he shoots Deeds. Marv, who prepped his car to dispose of Deed's body after the robbery, is executed. The film ends with the detective investigating the robbery informing Bob that Deeds had been taking credit or Whelan's death for years but he was actually in a mental institution for observation the night of Whelan's disappearance and that Deeds has gone missing. The detective turns to Bob as he's leaving and says, "no one ever sees you coming do they?"

Roskam did a nice job of painting a grim portrait of life around Cousin Marv's bar and the lives of everyone in this section of Brooklyn. AThings are dark, gritty and there's not a lot of hope but people carry on anyway. The pace is sometimes slow but never boring and with just enough intrigue to keep things moving along. Marv is not happy with his drop in status and his life is so terrible that he has to risk robbing the drop to get out. Gandolfini was excellent in his performance but was overshadowed by Hardy. Bob Saginowski comes off as a bit of a simpleton but it's not the case. He lulls you to sleep so you'll drop your guard. The Drop reminded me a bit of Killing Them Softly, except that this film was much better. I look forward to seeing more features directed by Roskam and will make at least a half hearted attempt to see his other films.