Pitch Perfect 2 (6/10): The stakes are higher, the jokes recycled.

"This could very well be the greatest conflict between America and Germany in our nation's history!”

This sequel to the 2012 surprise hit, Pitch Perfect, marks Elizabeth Banks’ feature directorial debut where she reprises her role as Gail, one of the announcers during the a Capella competitions. I was a huge fan and defender of the original film, which I found hilarious and entertaining. It was directed by Jason Moore, who decided to pass on this sequel to direct Sisters, a film coming out later this year starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Screenwriter, Kay Cannon, is back however giving the female characters a strong and independent voice. The original film was a huge vehicle for Rebel Wilson who stole almost every scene she was in and it proved that Anna Kendrick was a solidified star who could be a lead in a comedy. No one really knew she could sing so well and after her success with the Barden Bellas she went on to star in several musicals (Into the Woods and The Last Five Years). She had always delivered strong supporting performances (Up in the Air being my favorite), but after Pitch Perfect her value has sky rocketed. It was an interesting choice to allow the incredibly gifted Elizabeth Banks to direct this sequel because it only adds to the female empowerment in this film. Like most sequels it fails in trying to out perform the original by making the stakes bigger, but it does manage to do some things right to at least make it worthwhile.  

Anna Kendrick is back as Beca, one of the leaders of the female a Capella group, Barden Bellas, along with Chloe (Brittany Snow). For the past three years they’ve been the national champions and have been invited to many events along with the rest of the female members: Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), Stacie (Alexis Knapp), Cynthia (Ester Dean), Lilly (Hana Mae Lee), Jessica (Kelley Jakle), and Flo (Chrissie Fit). During one of those events in which they are invited to sing in front of President Obama and his wife, Fat Amy has a wardrobe malfunction and the Bellas are expelled from the circuit. They are replaced by the extremely talented and flawless German group known as Das Sound Machine (DSM) led by Kommissar (Birgitte Hjorth Sorensen) and Pieter Kramer (Flula Borg). In order to reclaim their status and be invited back into the circuit they find a convenient loophole which allows them to compete in the a Cappella World Cup being held in Denmark. If they want a chance to save the Bellas they will have to do what no other American group has done before: bring home the title. Emily (Hailee Seinfeld), the daughter of a legend from the 80’s Bellas, is the latest addition to the group. Skylar Astin, Adam DeVine, Ben Platt and Anna Camp are also back from the original film playing supporting roles as well as John Michael Higgins who is Gail’s co-anchor again. 

    

The formula from the first film is repeated once again, although this time with much higher stakes. Some of the recycled jokes work well, for instance the politically incorrect commentaries from John and Gail, some of Fat Amy’s lines (although it isn’t as nearly as fresh as the first time we saw her), and the fantastic Riff-Off hosted by David Cross with some great cameos from the Green Bay Packers. I think the riff-off in both films are probably my favorite scenes in each movie, but this one really stood out for me thanks in most part to how great the DSM group sounded. As long as the film centered on the rehearsals, riff-offs, and competitions it was a lot of fun, but what didn’t work this time around were the individual filler scenes involving Beca’s internship, Fat Amy and Bumper’s relationship, Emily and Benji’s embarrassing flirtation, the lazy latino lines delivered from Flo, and so on. The music was the highlight of the film and it did end on a high note, but the narrative wasn’t very appealing. The film could’ve benefited from a little more DSM.

The Homesman (5/10): The female take on the Western Genre

“You are a poor specimen of a man, Vester Belknap!”

I want to begin with a few positive critiques of Tommy Lee Jones’s latest film, which happens to be his fourth behind the director’s chair (he also stars in all these films as well). The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada was his only film released in theaters prior to this one since his other two films were made for TV. In The Homesman he returns to the Western genre, although it is very different. Instead of focusing on the macho cowboys we’ve seen perfectly represented by Clint Eastwood and John Ford, in this film we get the female’s point of view. The lead character is a singe woman who has battled the harsh conditions of the western wastelands on her own. This isn’t one of those macho western films, it is slow and tedious, focusing on the tension the women had to face in this period. In that sense, The Homesman is a fresh and original film. It also captures the harsh conditions of the wasteland extremely well. The cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto  is gorgeous and perhaps the main reason why I kept engaged with the film despite the tedious script. There are also plenty of surprises along the way and interesting twists that I didn’t see coming. The film definitely breaks several genre conventions and delivers something fresh, but it was just too bleak and grim for my liking. I had a difficult time staying awake and found myself dozing off in several occasions, but there are some great scenes along the way that brought me back in to the story. This is more of a western drama, but there are a couple action scenes that worked extremely well. Ultimately, there is a lot of interesting things that Tommy Lee Jones is doing here, but I just felt the tonal shifts and the melancholic setting were a bit too depressing for me. 

The screenplay for The Homesman was adapted by Tommy Lee Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald, and Wesley A. Oliver from Glendon Swarthout’s 1988 novel. The story isn’t actually as interesting as the scenery and performances in this film. There are several tonal shifts and at times the film felt unbalanced. There were some funny scenes that worked well along with the action scenes, but other narrative elements didn’t resonate with me. This isn’t one of those films you will enjoy, but fans of the Western genre might appreciate this unique film. The Homesman is also elevated by the strong performances from Hillary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones. The two have an interesting chemistry and they deliver solid roles. Their characters are as sombre and grim as the scenery, but they still manage to feel authentic and believable. They take us to this period and remind us it wasn’t all about cowboys and indians. The emotional element is also present and they are perfectly captured by Jones’s low life drifter and Swank’s hard working independent and honest character. The supporting cast is also exceptional, including Meryl Streep, Hailee Steinfeld, John Lithgow, and James Spader, but none of their characters were given much screen time. Overall I had a difficult time staying awake because the narrative is tedious, but there are some positive elements about The Homesman.

My Review: Begin Again (8/10)

“I just think you have let your troubles get in the way of your entire life.”

There is no doubt that music has a deep influence in our lives, and there is no one who expresses this better in movies than director John Carney, who has returned to the musical drama genre after his success in 2006 with Once. Begin Again is sort of a love letter for musicians and aspiring musicians as well, reminding them about the importance of not selling out and remaining authentic. This is a big part of the dramatic narrative and Carney, a former musician himself, reminds audiences that music is personal and has a different meaning for everyone. This isn’t your standard rom-com because the screenplay is written in such a way that you never can fully anticipate what direction it’s heading. Rather than centering on a love relationship it focuses on a work collaboration between people who are passionate for music. Somewhere along the way they got their hearts broken and lost their motivation, but a coincidental encounter brought these two characters together and set them in the right path once again. I fell in love with these characters and found it hard to resist this feel good film. The chemistry between Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley was special and charming. This film may have flown under many people’s radar, but it is one that is worth checking out. There are plenty of authentic and funny moments while the dramatic elements are also engaging. The cinematography might not be the best we’ve seen, but the rich characters and charming score make up for it. Begin Again is a joyful and genuine film that pulls at your heart strings without ever feeling manipulative or clichéd.    

The performances are a huge part of the success of this uplifting and cheerful musical film. Mark Ruffalo has been on quite a role lately and once again he plays a rather flawed character in such a way that he still manages to remain likable for the audience. This lost musical producer seems to find his way when he encounters Keria Knightley’s character in a bar one night. Knightley is fantastic as well and I felt her performance to be impressively genuine and authentic. Every scene she shared with Ruffalo felt real and the dialogue was never forced. The natural chemistry between these two is something you don’t run into very often. I would go as far as saying that Knightley’s performance is one of my favorite of the year. Adam Levine gives a solid performance playing this self absorbed rising star. He is a better singer, but that doesn’t mean he can’t act. Hailee Steinfeld has grown as a mature actress, but she has always been a force to reckon with ever since her outstanding performance in True Grit. Most Def and Catherine Keener also have solid supporting roles. Everything about this film is charming and hard to resist despite the fact that it remains small and unimportant. It’s simply a feel good movie that pays homage to the influence of music in our lives, and lets us in on the creative process while at it. 

My Review: 3 Days to Kill (4/10)

"The wolf is the most dangerous terrorist this world has ever faced. Only you can stop him."

Despite not having a great tracking record, there have been a few of McG's movies that I shamelessly found slightly entertaining. 3 Days to Kill began with some promise and I was enjoying Kevin Costner's lead action role, but that feeling didn't last too long once the action scenes and comedy became repetitive. Luc Besson has directed some of my favorite films, but as a screenwriter he hasn't had much success with his latest films. I do have to admit he is trying something different by mixing genres, which partially worked for me in The Family, but it fell flat in 3 Days to Kill. The screenplay was weak, Costner's character kept on having ridiculous blackouts during every climactic scene, the father daughter relationship problems that tried to play out as a comedy were repetitive, and the villains never felt menacing. The only positive thing about 3 Days to Kill were the action scenes and Kevin Costner's star power. It's what he have come to expect from Luc Besson over the past years, some strong actions scenes but poorly written dialogues. 3 Days to Kill feels might have been directed by McG, but it feels much more like a lesser Besson film. 

3 Days to Kill opens with a scene at the CIA headquarters where Agent Vivi (Amber Heard) is given an assignment to hunt down a terrorist known as The Wolf (Richard Sammel). No one has actually seen him before, but his associate, The Albino (Tomas Lemarquis) is supposedly going to meet up with him at an international hotel. They also mention to Vivi that they have an agent on the ground named Ethan (Kevin Costner) whose only mission is to take down The Albino. The film then focuses on Ethan as he is getting the job done, but all of a sudden one of the agents is compromised and things get out of control. Ethan saves the day but just as he is about to capture his target he suffers a blackout and wakes up in a hospital where he is told that he has cancer and only a few months to live. He decides to spend his last months in Paris where his ex-wife, Tina (Connie Nielsen), and his teenage daughter, Zooey (Hailee Steinfeld) live. He always had trouble balancing work with family and that eventually led to him  losing them, but with only a few months to live he wants to make amends. Right after he arrives in Paris, Vivi shows up with an experimental drug that could save his life with the only condition that he finish the job by hunting down The Wolf and The Albino. In order to spend more time with his family, he accepts, but balancing out work and family proves to be a very difficult task.

I was glad that Kevin Costner got a lead action role and I thought he was pretty solid despite the weak character he was given. He might not be as menacing as Liam Neeson, but he is very charismatic. He had a smaller action role at the beginning of the year in Jack Ryan where he was also solid. Amber Heard gave a strange performance, but she looked great nonetheless. The cast was quite solid with Hailee Steinfeld also delivering, but my major issue had to do with the repetitive storyline and the way the final third of the film played out. 

My Review: Hateship Loveship (5/10)

"Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage."

Hateship Loveship is director Liza Johnson's followup to her debut film, Return, which I never had the opportunity to check out, but despite the fact that I wasn't very impressed with her effort in this film I do see some positive qualities in her film making. Somehow she managed to draw me into the story despite the fact that it centered on almost all unlikable or strange characters. The pacing of the film is extremely slow so you have to be patient with it, and there are also one too many relational conflicts explored which leave many undeveloped or forced moments. The romantic story felt a bit awkward and rushed, but the performances are the highlight of this film. I had never seen Kristen Wiig in a dramatic role before and I thought she gave a solid performance although her character is perhaps the quirkiest. I still enjoy her more in comedic roles, but she proves to have some versatility. Her character might seem quiet and domesticated, but she has a strong and resolute will. Guy Pierce is by far the most unlikable character as he play a carless drug addict and ex-con, but the story redeems him. Hailee Steinfeld continues to impress as a child actress and she delivers yet another solid performance. And finally you have the reliable Nick Nolte who is always a great addition to a film. Hateship Loveship has several pacing issues and an unconventional love story that will turn audiences off, but fans of Wiig will enjoy her unique character in this dramatic film.

The screenplay was adapted by Mark Poirier (Smart People) from Alice Munro's (Away from Her) short story. The main character, Johanna Perry (Kristen Wiig), is as a caregiver who has to look for a new job after the old lady she has worked for passes away. She is hired by Mr. McCauley (Nick Nolte) who wants her to take care of his granddaughter Sabatha (Hailee Steinfeld). Her mother died in a traffic accident and her father, Ken (Guy Pierce), lives in Chicago and is in no condition of taking care of her due to his drug related problems. When Johanna arrives, Ken happens to be visiting Sabatha, so the two meet and before he heads back to Chicago he leaves a thank you note for her. Sabatha gives Johanna her father's address when she asks for it so she can write him back, but Sabatha's friend, Edith (Sami Gayle) decides to play a cruel trick on her. Offering to post the letter for Johanna she keeps it and convinces Sabatha to play along and trick Johanna by corresponding with her in her father's name. Johanna begins to fall in love with Ken thinking he is the one writing her, but despite Edith's cruel trick, Johanna finds a way to redeem herself.

Despite the slow pacing, Hateship Loveship has a very important underlying theme which I found uplifting. These two characters that end up falling for each other might not have much chemistry on screen because they are not your typical couple, but what I did get out of it was the importance of not being judgmental. That is perhaps Johanna's greatest asset as she is very quiet and patient. She is treated in an unfair manner but she is determined to forgive and expect the best in the other person without judging them for their actions. Eventually that quality is what helps Ken redeem himself and find his purpose. Sometimes all the other person needs is some patience and not someone to point their finger at them. The characters in Hateship eventually become interesting although at first it might be difficult to relate with them. The ending felt a bit rushed, but I had a decent time with this movie and ended up enjoying it more than I expected to (although not nearly as much as my father did).

My Review: Ender's Game (4/10)

"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him."

I honestly don't understand some of the love this film is receiving considering how bored I was through the entire running time. The philosophy in this film didn't make much sense for me either and nothing in this sci-fi world felt believable. It was like having to sit through watching my little brother play one of his video games. Gavin Hood has received a lot of hate for his 2009 Wolverine film, but I was a huge fan of his South African film Tsotsi so I did have some hope for this. I guess he should stick to smaller productions because big scale films don't seem to work for him. The screenplay is based on Orson Scott Card's famous book of the same name which I never had heard of so I can't rate this based on its faithfulness to it. What I can say is that there isn't really anything thought provoking about it, which is some of the praise the book received. Here the themes are lost under all the CGI and extended action scenes. There are a lot of child actors in this film, which also hurt it a bit despite how much I like Abigail Breslin, Asa Butterfield, and Hailee Steinfeld. I didn't find anything spectacular form Harrison Ford's performance either, although I understand all the excitement from fanboys getting to see him back in space again. I just found this film hard to endure at times and found it a bit too grim and serious considering the subject matter.

Seventy years after an alien race known as the Formics attacked Earth and almost wiped out its existence if it weren't for Commander Mazer Rackham's (Ben Kingsley) heroics, Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) has been preparing a troop for the next attack. He has decided to attack the Formics at their home ground before they come back and destroy them, and in order to do so he has been training young children in hopes of discovering the next Mazer. He believes the one is Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a very quiet and shy boy who has unique strategizing skills. Graff brings him to space to begin his training at a battle school along with other elite kids like Petra (Hailee Steinfeld), Bean (Aramis Knight), Alai (Suraj Partha), and Bonzo (Moises Arias). Ender quickly shows his potential as he masters the training games by understanding the enemy. Despite Graff's assurance that Ender is the chosen one, Ender still fears he might fail because he hasn't quite understood the real enemy's motivation. Will he be able to save the human race? Are the Formics still a threat to humanity? These are questions racing through Ender's head as he begins to dislike who he's shaping up to be.

I found Ender's Game to be one of the worst sci-fi pics of the year along with After Earth. There was nothing really thought provoking about it for me and it completely failed to engage me. This seems to be only the first chapter to a franchise I'm not really looking forward to enduring. I don't even feel inspired to write a proper review for this film and I don't really have much to say about it. There is no charm or appeal found here, and I never bought into the drama. The story could've at least used some dramatic tension to draw me in, but I never felt anything worth engaging in here. 

My Review: True Grit (10/10)

¨You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free except the grace of God.¨

At first sight fans of the Coen brothers might not recognize True Grit as one of their works since it is a bit different from most of their other movies. First of all they never made a remake before and True Grit is actually one which stared John Wayne back in 1969. Sometimes we have so much high expectations from the Two-Headed directors that we expect original work from them, but I have to admit that this film is really superior to the original and the Coen`s have made one of the best westerns of the decade. True Grit is based on the novel of the same name written by Charles Portis, and the Coen brothers did an excellent job with the adaptation of the screenplay. The language feels so real for the period the film is depicting (set in 1880) and it just adds to the authenticity of the story, along with the great performance from the entire cast. However in my opinion the highlight of the film is Roger Deakins`s beautiful cinematography. Deakins is a regular collaborator for the Coen brothers and he is definitely one of the best in the field. True Grit won`t rank among the Coen`s best work (it isn´t Fargo, The Big Lebowski, nor No Country for Old Men), but it is an excellent film nonetheless and I can`t judge this film solely on my high expectations for it. True Grit is an excellent and perfectly executed Western and it will stand out as one of the best among the genre.

The movie takes place in a small town in Arkansas where a 14 year girl named Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) narrates the story of how her father has been cowardly murdered by a thief who goes by the name of Tom Chaney (Josh Broslin). Mattie is not your typical teenager; she is very smart and mature beyond her years. She decides to hire a U.S. Marshall to help her catch the runaway fugitive across the Indian nations. The man she is looking for is Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a man who has proven over time to have ¨true grit¨, although he looks more like an old and wasted alcoholic. Together they decide to chase Chaney across the Indian nation. Chaney seems to be working with Lucky Ned Pepper`s (Barry Pepper) gang, and they seem to be hot on their trail. Rooster and Mattie are not alone in their chase however, as a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) is along the ride with them. He is after Chaney for a crime he committed against a Texas Senator a few years back. Mattie wants Chaney to be brought back to justice in her town in Arkansas for murdering her father and doesn´t really want LaBoeuf to catch him and bring him back to Texas where he`ll die for killing a politician. The three of them form an unlikely bond on their pursuit of the fugitive.

The movie combines the right amount of action with comedy. You can tell Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges had a lot of fun with their roles, and they were great in this movie. Hailee Steinfeld had the most serious role as she played the uptight teenager, and she pulled it off really well. Her character actually did deliver some laughs due to her mature behavior. Steinfeld is the true star of this movie, although she has been considered for an Oscar in the Best Supporting category. There is no way she was a supporting character in True Grit; she had more screen time than anyone else in this movie and more than most of the actresses that are up for Best Lead Actress in the Oscars. I don´t know how she pulled it off, but she managed to outshine both Bridges and Damon in this movie, who were really great as well. True Grit received 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and I do agree with those nominations although I don`t think it will win many. If Deakins doesn`t win an Oscar for Best Cinematography then there is no justice in this world. It is just amazing. The film actually did really well in the Box Office, which isn`t usually very typical for a Coen brothers movie, but maybe Steven Spielberg`s involvement as the Executive Producer had something to do with that. I actually enjoyed True Grit and I can´t find anything negative to say about this movie. It is perfect even though it won`t live up to Joel and Ethan`s best work. True Grit is without a doubt one of the best films of the year.

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