The Finest Hours (5/10): Fine for a January release

"In the coast guard they say you go out, they don't say you gotta come back."

Director Craig Gillespie and Disney team up once again following their 2014 film, Million Dollar Arm. This time the true story is based on the 1952 Coast Guard rescue attempt at Cape Cod. The film counts with a stellar cast starting from the always charismatic Chris Pine, and including some strong supporting performances from the likes of Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Eric Bana, Holliday Grainger, and John Magaro. The Finest Hours captures the fifties with delicacy while also remaining old school. The film is by the books and told in a way that most movies based on true events are, so it doesn't stand out. The effects are believable but they never accomplish much visually. There are some thrilling moments and the film slowly builds the tension during the final act, but it does take a bit too long setting the premise and trying to establish a love story that doesn't seem to be all that interesting or relevant. 

The Finest Hour begins by introducing us to the hero of the story who is about to go on his first date with the woman who will eventually become his fiancée. Chris Pine is Bernie Webber, a shy man who follows orders and likes to do things by the books, while Holliday Grainger is Miriam, a woman who is set on going after what she want. The love story lacks emotion and therefor it is the weakest link in the film. It is the reason why the first half of the film didn't work for me and why I wished the film focused more on the events taking place in the split oil tanker during the storm. Pine is playing against type here since his character is rather timid and that takes away a lot of his charm. I will give him credit for trying to play a different character, but I don't think he was the right choice for the part. Casey Affleck is the true standout, playing one of the crew members in the oil tanker fighting for their survival. He reminds us what a great actor he is and I wish the film focused more on his character.  The rescue mission is exciting and thrilling, but the film takes too long to set itself up. 

Perhaps The Finest Hours is one of the better films being released in January since this is considered the dumping ground for most movies, but it still isn't good enough to get a fresh grade from me. The film has its moments and Casey Affleck should be getting bigger roles, but other than that the movie does fall flat and lacks the emotional depth other rescue films have. I'm usually a fan of Chris Pine, but I didn't enjoy his performance here and this is one of the few films from him that I haven't liked. If you are nostalgic for old-fashioned adventure films than this might be the right film for you, otherwise skip it.

My Review: Deadfall (4/10)

"What would home look like? I don't know. A farmhouse in the valley, I guess, like the one we grew up in, Liza and I."

Academy Award winning director for his foreign film The Counterfeiters, Stefan Ruzowitzky, now brings us an American crime thriller dealing with dysfunctional families. It seems to be an odd choice for a director who had so much success back in Austria considering this is an average B-film that doesn't introduce anything new or unique to the genre. Deadfall never manages to deliver the thrills that it promises either and has a rather unsatisfying ending. At times it felt like a film that was trying to be something else, but it never quite figured out what it wanted to be and ended up only scratching the surface of the dysfunctional family drama it was so desperately tying to explore. Perhaps it suffered from trying to add several subplots and intertwine them together towards the climactic end, but ultimately Deadfall felt like your average crime thriller with a strong ensemble cast, but a poor and unimaginative script. Deadfall never quite delivers the thrills and the characters are underdeveloped turning this film into a messy ordeal. As much as I wanted to enjoy this, I couldn't find anything redeeming about it, and not even the beautiful Olivia Wilde shines here. It's a dull film that tries to be more important than it really is with way too many subplots and overlapping themes that are barely explored.

The screenplay was written by Zach Dean centering on two siblings, Addison (Eric Bana) and Liza (Olivia Wilde), who are heading towards the Canadian border after having pulled of a casino heist. We never see the actual heist take place since the film opens with them already in route to the border when all of a sudden in the midst of a blizzard their vehicle crashes into a deer. Addison is forced to kill the patrolman and decides to split up with Liza and meet up later as the police will be after him. On another note, we are introduced to a former boxer named Jay (Charlie Hunnam) who is being released from prison. The first thing Jay does is call his mother June (Sissy Spacek) who lives in a farmhouse near the spot where Addison and Liza crashed. She invites Jay over for Thanksgiving dinner despite the fact that he's been estranged with his father Chet (Kris Kristofferson). Along the way, Jay finds Liza nearly freezing to death near the highway and he decides to give her a lift. Addison on the other hand is being hunted by Sheriff Becker (Treat Williams) and his men who are closing in on the trail of blood he's left behind. Becker's daughter, Hannah (Kate Mara), whose also an officer is ordered to stay in the station and out of trouble. As the characters are all introduced it becomes inevitable to realize that they are all going to intersect somewhere along the way.

Despite the talented ensemble cast, the script is so poorly written that there is not much they can do to prevent their characters from becoming cardboard cutouts. Even the always reliable and legendary actors such as Kris Kristofferson and Sissy Spacek can't do anything to save this film. Hunnam and Wilde have a very poorly developed romantic subplot that felt extremely rushed. Bana didn't really look too menacing as the villain and at times his character felt cartoonish. The dysfunctional family elements that this film tries to explore never really gets anywhere and they all seem too cliche. The male characters are seen as tough while the females are forgiving and patient. The western showdown near the end wasn't engaging either and everything about this film felt ordinary despite the different themes they were trying to blend together. It never digs under the surface of those elements it's trying to introduce and that's why the film feels so dull and empty. Deadfall is not the important and smart thriller it's trying to be.

My Review: Lone Survivor (8/10)

"So if you're feeling froggy, then you better jump, because this frogman's been there, done that and is going back for more."

Lone Survivor caught me completely by surprise considering I wasn't expecting much from director, Peter Berg, whose films I tend to dislike quite a bit. "From the director of Battleship and Hancock" isn't exactly great marketing campaign for a film. This personal and passionate project of Berg's ended up being by far his best work to date. Saying that this was the best war movie of the year is also an understatement considering I really can't recall another one, but I can tell you that despite having its flaws some of the action scenes do recall moments from Saving Private Ryan (and that is very high praise for a war film considering I'm not really the biggest fan of this genre). I tend to get tired with overlong firefight action scenes, but it wasn't the case with Lone Survivor. These scenes felt real and gruesome while building a lot of tension. Not once during the two hours did I feel like the film was dragging. The pacing of this film was solid. Berg actually did his homework here and having spent a month based with an actual SEAL team payed off because the screenplay felt believable. Ultimately the film is about brotherhood and fighting for survival, and that is accomplished very well by Berg who decided to make a narrow minded and focused movie instead of a large scale war film.

Lone Survivor is based on a true story that took place in Afghanistan in 2005 involving a SEAL team's mission to kill a Taliban leader named Ahmad Shah. Berg adapted the screenplay from Marcus Luttrell's book of the same name. Lutrell (played by Mark Wahlberg) was one of the four SEAL members involved in the mission "Operation Red Wings" taking place in the Afghan region. The others were Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Matt Axelson (Ben Foster). Their mission becomes compromised when a group of goat herders run into their hideout in the Hindu Kush region and the four have to make a quick ethical decision. They can either kill them or they can let them go knowing that they will warn the villagers of their presence. Despite knowing the risks involved they decide to let the herders go and quickly try to reach a better location to communicate back to their base before the Taliban catches up with them. It's not long until they are surrounded by enemy forces and are forced to fight for survival despite being heavily outnumbered. 

Despite knowing where the film is heading (considering the title gives away the story), it still maintains the audience's interest and build tension really well. The performances from Wahlberg, Foster, Kitsch, and Hirsch are all pretty solid and they each bring some unique trait to their characters. We sympathize with these characters and understand the quick moral decisions they have to make considering their lives are on the line. In a way Berg is trying to pay some sort of tribute to these soldiers who put their lives on the line every day and makes us appreciate the risky work they do even more. Perhaps many people found this film a bit heavy handed in that it does try to deliver a patriotic and courageous message about macho soldiers, but I didn't have an issue with that because at the same time Berg is also portraying the ugliness of the battlefield. Perhaps the easiest moment to pinpoint this film as military propaganda is the opening SEAL's training montage, but I thought it worked to help set the characters better and in a way sort of pay homage to these soldiers.

My Review: Hanna (8/10)

¨I just missed your heart.¨

Hanna is an action film that really delivers and gives us more than we were expecting without being anything extraordinary. I really enjoyed the freshness of its script and the lead performance from Saoirse Ronan who had already worked with director Joe Wright in the past in Atonement. Wright is also famous for his adaptation of Jane Austen`s novel Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley. Hanna is one of those action films that stands out from the rest of the pack because it feels fresh and original. Seth Lochhead had already written the script way back in 2006 and had received some recognition for his work by being listed in the Black List twice (an annual list that signals out some of the best screenplays that were never produced) until his movie was finally produced and directed by Wright. Yes, the script might have some plot holes here and there, but Ronan`s performance and the action make up for it. The action is almost nonstop and we get to travel across different locations as we experience one chase after another. The fighting scenes are pretty well choreographed and the supporting cast is also interesting. Hanna is not your typical action film, it is different and kind of hard to predict. At first it is difficult to understand what is going on, but as the story develops we get to piece together the mystery and uncover the past. Hanna also works because we have a rather unconventional heroine who can really bring it. Joe Wright found the perfect person in Saoirse Ronan for the role.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away because this is one of those movies that the less you know about the better. I will only mention some of the characters and general storylines and let the viewer piece the story together as they watch the film on their own. Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) has spent her entire childhood and adolescent life undergoing special training somewhere in the middle of a forest in Finland far from all civilization. Her father has spent his life training and educating her so that she be ready for a very important mission. He has turned Hanna into a perfect killing machine because he claims there is someone who wants to kill her. Hanna`s father, Erik (Eric Bana), decides to train her and prepare her for her encounter with this person named Marissa (Cate Blanchett). When Hanna feels ready Erik lets her go on the mission and the chase begins across various locations beginning in Morocco and ending in Germany. Marissa isn’t the only one after Hanna, she has help from Isaacs (Tom Hollander) and some of his friends. Hanna on the other hand befriends another girl named Sophie (Jessica Barden) and she and her family are the first people she`s ever had a relationship outside of her father. Olivia Williams plays the mother, Rachel, while Jason Flemyng is the father, Sebastian. Hanna discovers she isn`t actually a normal girl and decides to search for answers while facing off with Marissa and Isaacs who are after her.

The soundtrack of the film is by The Chemical Brothers, who aren’t actually among my favorite bands, but they have a very different style of music which worked perfectly with this very different kind of action film. Beside Ronan`s performance which I have already signaled out, I have to say Eric Bana does a pretty decent job playing her father and Blanchett does the same playing the nemesis although we`ve seen them before in better roles. Tom Hollander plays a really weird character in this film and I really wasn’t interested in his character. As for the technical aspect of the film it was beautifully shot and edited. The action was pretty well developed and I enjoyed watching the story unfold as the movie moved on. Joe Wright has directed a very different film from what he has made in the past, but he did a great job with Hanna. By the end of the year I will probably still remember this film because it`s one of those movies that sticks with you for being entertainingly awkward. Midway through the year I can say it is one of the better action movies I`ve seen this year, but not nearly as close to being anything extraordinary. It’s no masterpiece, but it works nonetheless. Saoirse Ronan has an interesting future ahead of her and she`s proven that her excellent work in Atonement was no one-time thing; she can really bring it considering the strong physicality this role required and she delivered. This is one movie you won’t want to miss.

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My Review: Munich (9/10)

¨We are supposed to be righteous. That's a beautiful thing. And we're losing it. If I lose that, that's everything. That's my soul.¨

Munich is a very powerful and emotional movie that combines thrills with human drama. I went into this film expecting it to be simply a revenge movie, but it is much more than that; Spielberg doesn`t take sides and brings a lot of interesting elements that open up the debate between Israel and Palestine and which country is really the enemy. Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors active in American cinema and he has directed several masterpieces, Schindler`s List being perhaps the best one. Munich will probably not rank amongst his best work, but it`s still a great and powerful film that required a lot of risks on Spielberg`s part as a Jew because in Munich he never takes sides and by doing so both sides have declared him an enemy. The movie is based on George Jonas`s book ¨Vengeance¨ and the screenplay was adapted by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). The screenplay was beautifully written and also nominated for the Oscars along with four other categories (editing, directing, score, and best picture), although it went home empty handed. Those were probably the strongest elements the movie had, which was finely edited and the score really enhanced the film. I thought that there were also some very good performances from the cast, especially Eric Bana who gives his best performance to date, and Ciaran Hinds who also nails his role. Spielberg has only directed the fourth installment of Indiana Jones since Munich in 2005, but we will be hearing from him soon.

The film opens with the 1972 murders that took place in the Olympics of Munich. 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by a terrorist group called Black September. Munich focuses on what happened after these murders took place although there are several flashbacks during the movie returning to this attack. Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) didn`t negotiate with the terrorists and therefore the hostages were killed, but now she decides to allow for a black operation to take place in order to kill some of the men behind the planning of the 72 attack. They hire Avner (Eric Bana), a Mossad agent who had served as a bodyguard for Meir, to lead the assasination squad which consisted of five men. The other men hired for the job were Steve (Daniel Craig), the driver, Hans (Hanns Ziechler), an expert at forging false documents and passports, Carl (Ciaran Hinds), the man in charge of doing the clean up after the assasinations took place, and Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), the bomb expert who knows more about dismantling them than creating one. The men resign from their official jobs and the Mossad and work as black operatives not tied to the government. They only receive a list of eleven men they have to kill and have to get the rest of intel on their own and work as a terrorist group and the only connection they have with the government is the payment they receive in the Bank and through a middle man named Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush). Avner contacts a man named Louis (Mathieu Amalric) who finds the location of almost every name given to him in exchange for a high price.

The movie begins very slow, but once the assasinations take place the thrills and suspense begin to play a big part in the film. This is not your average revenge film, it`s much more than that. It opens ethical questions and dilemmas on several issues. Even the characters feel remorse for what they do and end up questioning if they are doing the right thing. Ephraim and Avner have very insightful conversations which open up the debate on this issue. It seems as if every murder that takes place is retaliated by the other group, and every leader that is murdered is replaced by a new one so the war will never end. Some leaders justify their actions by claiming it is the price to pay for building their home and having a land. Speilberg is very clever and doesn`t take any sides in this movie, he doesn`t justify the violence and makes you debate over who the true enemy really is. Munich is a very powerful film that relies on good direction from Spielberg and a solid performance from the entire cast. I really enjoyed this emotional thriller and it will leave you debating several issues.

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My Review: Funny People (6/10)

¨You're not funny. You look funny, but you're not funny.¨

(6/10) The writer/director who brought us The 40 Year Old Virgen and Knocked-Up now brings us his latest feature film, Funny People. Judd Apatow has directed, written, and produced very funny stuff (Pineapple Express, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Superbad, Talladega Nights, among many others) and he is one of the men responsible for changing the way we view comedies in this decade. This is why I found it fitting that Judd Apatow would want to write a movie about comedians and their rise to fame and do it in a much darker and serious tone. At moments this movie feels more like a drama than an actual comedy, but with a talented cast like this one they will always get laughs out of you anyways. However don`t go see this movie expecting to laugh throughout the entire thing because it is a very slow paced film with a lot of drama, sprinkled with some humor here and there. There are moments of the film that seem very real and personal and makes you wander if the film might be biographical in any way (the film actually begins with real footage of Adam Sandler doing classic pranks when he was young and makes you think that perhaps many of the things that happen throughout the movie are experiences many comedians have actually faced in real life). If this is the case, many comedians will reconsider choosing a different profession.

The movie revolves around the life of a struggling comedian named Ira Wright who is played by the very funny Seth Rogen (Observe and Report, Superbad, Knocked-Up, a Judd Apatow favorite). Ira shares an apartment with Leo (Jonah Hill, who also works a lot with Rogen and Apatow) and Mark (Jason Schwartzman, Darjeeling Limited and The Royal Tenenbaums). Leo and Mark are also aspiring comedians. Mark is beggining to have success as a leading man in a new television comedy series, and Leo is receiving more attention as a stand up comedian than Ira is. The three are friends although they seem pretty competitive towards each other and envy the other`s success. One day at a stand up show Ira encounters George Simmons (Adam Sandler) who is a very famous Hollywood popcorn movie comedy star who has done hit movies such as Mer-Man (similar to the one Ben Stiller did in Zoolander) and Re-Do (Sandler plays a man in a baby`s body). George has just been diagnosed with a rare blood disease that is mortal and it is during this stage of his life that he meets Ira and decides to hire him as his personal assistant, among which one of the many job requirements is to write him jokes because he has decided to go back to his roots and do more stand up comedy. Ira accepts the offer and both of them form a friendship although a very different one from your typical buddy-comedy. George begins to reconsider the important things in his life during his life threatining disease and remembers the girl he loved and let get away. George visits Laura (played by Leslie Mann who is actually Apatow`s wife in real life) and they become romantically involved even though she is married to Clarke (Eric Bana) and has two daughters with him (played by her real life daughters Maude and Iris Apatow). As George`s assistant Ira is dragged along into this mess.

The movie has a very talented cast. When you see names such as Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, and Leslie Mann you would expect to see a hilarious comedy, but this movie is much more serious than expected. Adam Sandler plays a more dramatic role like he did in Spanglish or Punch Drunk Love, but he is great in his role and gives a good performance. Seth Rogen also plays a much more serious role than what we are used to seeing him in and he delivers as well. The funniest guy on this film is probably the one I would expect the least from: Eric Bana, he is really funny in this movie. There are also several cameo appearances that will make you smile from Eminem, Ray Romano, Andy Dick, James Taylor, Sarah Silverman and many others. The movie has all the right ingredients to be a success, but it drags for long periods of time during it`s 150 minute run and at the end it feels like a lot more could have been done with these actors. I don`t think this film is up to par with Apatow`s other works, but it is unfair to compare because this is a different movie. At the end I have to agree with Iris`s co-worker from Otto who told him: ¨You're not funny. You look funny, but you're not funny.¨ I think this line is what better describes Funny People.