My Review: Lucy (5/10)

"We've codified our existence to bring it down to human size, to make it comprehensible, we've created a scale so we can forget its unfathomable scale."

I've always been a fan of Luc Besson's work so I was expecting great things from Lucy considering I had read several positive reviews, but personally I was disappointed. And I'm not trashing this film simply because the assumption that humans only use 10% of their brain is erroneous; that wasn't an issue I had here. I just found it hard to engage with the character of Lucy, the philosophical themes explored here were silly, and the entire premise simply bored me. There were some similarities between this film and Johnny Depp's Transcendence where despite some solid visual styles the philosophical themes hurt the overall narrative. Scarlett Johansson delivers another solid performance, but her character really didn't work for me as well as former Besson leading ladies such as Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element and Natalie Portman in Leon. Perhaps it was all the philosophical and scientific mumbling that ended up hurting the narrative story for me. However I do have to give Besson credit for trying something different and taking risks because the film goes to unexpected places at times. I do feel that comparisons with 2001 are unfair. Some of the CGI didn't really work for me either, especially the one with the neanderthal during the opening scene. Besson also experimented with the use of imagery that seemed to be taken from a National Geographic channel which overlapped with the narrative serving as an analogy, but those scenes felt forced and they also took me out of the film. This sci-fi film might have taken several steps to stand out from other formulaic movies by not following the standard structure of a genre film, but the result didn't really pay off. I felt as if Lucy was trying to be this sort of profound philosophical film, but it turned out to be fairly silly and incomprehensible. Perhaps it may be that I use less than 10% of my brain and therefor just didn't get it, but for my limited brain capacity Lucy wasn't worth my time or money. 

Scarlett Johansson has taken several risks in the past year delivering some very solid roles in films like Her, Under the Skin, and now Lucy. The risks seem to have payed off considering she is catching the attention of talented directors and I'm glad she isn't going for the easy roles in rom-coms or standard action flicks. Despite enjoying her performance, this film lost me halfway through it. I enjoyed the supporting cast as well. It was great to see Choi Min-sik (better known for his role in Oldboy) play the villain here although I wish he would have been given more screen time. Perhaps my favorite performance was that of Amr Waked who played the officer helping Lucy (or should I say simply riding along with her?). Besson switched the genre roles here as usually it is the other way around, where the male character is the one doing all the work and the female only riding along. Morgan Freeman might just be the weakest link in this film as he is the one responsible for all the scientific and philosophical blabbing going on (my least favorite thing about Lucy). For a film that tries to take itself seriously with profound themes about wasted human potential, there are way too many flaws involved. I understand that most of these flaws were needed as an excuse to introduce some of the action scenes which this film would have suffered without. There are some fun scenes like a car chase across Paris, but there isn't much more to this whacky film. For all the scientific rambling there is very little substance to Lucy despite its ambitions.

My Review: Warm Bodies (8/10)

¨You miss him…like a boyfriend…you miss your boyfriend? ¨

Jonathan Levine surprised me a couple of years ago with 50/50 and now he tries his luck on a very different genre in Warm Bodies. With the success of The Walking Dead television series the zombie genre is probably as popular as ever, but Levine does something different by turning things around. Instead of having us run away from the incoming brain eating zombies, he puts us inside their heads as we get to see things through a zombie´s point of view. The main character´s name is R and he is a zombie. We get to experience everything he is thinking as he narrates the film. This is probably what makes this film so fun and entertaining because we get to see this misunderstood zombie grunt and walk around so slowly while his mind processes things so quickly. Zombieland had already broken the predictability of the zombie genre by making fun of the premise, but Warm Bodies takes a different turn in that it makes the zombie one of the protagonists. These zombie eating villains might have a heart after all and we get to experience it in this romantic comedy. Nicholas Hoult, who is also the star of Jack the Giant Slayer, plays the leading zombie in a very funny way using a lot of physical comedy. The fact that he is given some very clever lines also helps this film. The screenplay was adapted by Levine himself from Isaac Marion´s novel and it is very loosely based on the Rome and Juliet story (the balcony scene pays homage to that Shakespearean play). Teresa Palmer plays his human love interest with whom she shares great chemistry. She is very talented and the two make this film work thanks to some very funny moments and a touch of romance. Warm Bodies is really well paced and has a little bit of everything, combining comedy with romance and action. It is probably my favorite film of the year so far.

In a near future zombies are now in the top of the food chain, and humans have been reduced to live inside closed walls. R (Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie living inside an airport with a bunch of other zombies. He seems to be a little tired of his daily routines which involve walking slowly around the airport, spending some time sitting around with his best friend M (Rob Corddry) just grunting at each other, and eventually going out to find something to eat. They have to eat, although they do feel guilty about it. R claims that eating a human brain is what makes them feel alive again as they can access the memories of that person. It is as close to feeling alive as they can ever get. One day they encounter a group of humans who are out looking for pharmaceutics. Julie (Teresa Palmer) is one of the members of the expedition along with her boyfriend, Perry (Dave Franco), and friend Nora (Analeigh Tipton). R ends up eating Perry and gets access to his memories. He ends up falling in love with Julie and decides to protect her from other zombies by spreading some blood over her face and asking her to remain still. R takes her to an abandoned plane inside the airport which he uses as his personal room full of items he collects including some records. R is a different kind of zombie, but this new connection he feels for Julie has made him feel more alive than ever. Not only R begins to feel alive again, but some of the other zombies seem to slowly be recovering their humanity. The problem is that Julie´s father, Grigio (John Malkovich), is the general behind the closed walls that is determined to exterminate all the zombies and they are running out of time.  

The film is perfectly well paced with some memorably funny and clever moments. The film is funny, romantic, and lots of fun. Levine seems to know his craft and he uses this well known genre as a sort of parable to how through all the new technology we seem to be living as zombies and losing real human connections with each other. This film reminds us of the power of human connection, but that is just one point that Levine tries to get across without seeming to preachy. The film has some very funny performances and some great moments as well. This isn’t a perfect film, and I probably enjoyed Zombieland a little more, but it definitely is a new spin on the zombie genre and it really worked for me. I have to give this movie a lot of credit for being so original and taking us inside the rotten mind of a brain eating zombie. Levine once again takes a huge risk here, but it really pays off nicely. One would never expect to be rooting for a lead character like this but you can´t help but sympathize for this guy. I had a great time with Warm Bodies!

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My Review: Crazy, Stupid, Love (9/10)

¨I`m so mad at you; I`m really mad at you for what you did, but I`m mad at myself too; because I should not have jumped out of that car; I should have fought for you, because you fight for your soul mates.¨

Once every year out of the dozens of formulaic romantic comedies that come our way, one or two manage to stand out above the rest. Crazy, Stupid, Love is one of those films that manages to remain fresh and original, and balance the comedy and romance well enough without relying on the usual rom-com formula. It is one of those films where the chemistry between the actors feels real, and love is actually depicted like it can be in real life. It is one of those movies that manages to surprise us by remaining fresh and never letting us know for sure what direction it is going to take on every turn. You can predict how most romcoms are going to end from the very opening sequence, and even if you might do the same in Crazy, Stupid, Love; you will definitely not expect some of the twists that come your way. It also has the perfect emotional balance that will bring you to tears at some points and laughter at others. The cast is absolutely amazing and everyone does a terrific job. This is Glenn Ficarra and John Requa`s second feature film after last year`s critical success with I Love You Phillip Morris. That film was very risky, and in a way so is Crazy, Stupid, Love because it doesn’t follow the basic formula that other romcoms do. There are several scenes that could have been a total disaster, but really worked because they served as transitions from comedy to romance to drama and so on. The script by Dan Fogelman (Cars, Bolt, and Tangled) is another highlight of the film because the dialogue in this movie was great. The actors were given great characters to work with so every piece seemed to fit in perfectly for this film.

Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily (Julianne Moore) have been married for 25 years; they live with their two children: Robbie (Jonah Bobo) and Molly (Joey King) and they seem to be living the perfect life. That is until Emily asks Cal for a divorce because she seems to be going through a sort of mid life crisis. She tells Cal that she slept with another co-worker, David (Kevin Bacon), and that is more than enough to end the marriage. Cal moves out of the house and begins frequenting bars and moping about his miserable life. At the bar Cal meets Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a playboy who always gets the girl due to his charm. Jacob promises Cal that he will help him recover his manhood with a few lessons. The first thing they do is change Cal`s wardrobe, then he teaches him how to pick up girls in the bar, and pretty soon Cal becomes an expert on seducing women. Jacob meets Hannah (Emma Stone) one night in the bar and can`t seem to get his eyes off her. Hannah doesn’t fall for Jacob`s charisma at first, but Jacob will soon discover what being in love is really about. All the characters seem to intertwine with each other at one point or another making the movie all the more hilarious. For example we have Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), the 17 year old babysitter who has a crush on Cal, but at the same time Robbie, his 13 year old son, is in love with Jessica.

It`s these love triangles and confusions that actually prove that love can be crazy and stupid at times, but wonderful at others. There is a great amount of time dedicated to each character, and the focus isn`t solely on Steve Carell and Julianne Moore. There are several more relationships that the movie deals with, but it never loses the main thread. The film balances the romance with the comedy really well, making this a very emotional film. I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit. The entire cast was just brilliant. I loved the mope performance from Steve Carell, although we`ve seen it before in other films like Dan in Real Life. Julianne Moore is always a talented actress and she brings her game. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are very talented young actors and the chemistry between both of them was really believable. Gosling has to be one of Hollywood`s best modern young actors around. The actors who really surprised me however were the relatively unknown ones: Analeigh Tipton and Jonah Bobo; they share the funniest scenes in the film. Marisa Tomei also has some screen time, and she is great as always. Crazy, Stupid, Love is just a complete film that manages to deliver on all levels. It is my favorite romantic comedy of the year so far, and will probably be on my list of best films of the year. This is a movie you will want to go see.

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