Zombieland: Double Tap

First Hit: There are some wonderfully funny moments in this zombie spoof.

Ten years after the original Zombieland, the same characters are back, older, wiser, and ready to take on the ever-evolving zombies. To this end, the team talks about the three different types of zombies, but then they learn about the high powered zombies.

Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are still roaming the eastern part of the United States, taking what they want, living where they want, and killing all the Zombies that come their way.

The women are struggling with the men. Little Rock is feeling out of sorts because she’s running around with adults, and she would like to find people her own age. Wichita is feeling pressured by Columbus to get married. Adding to the women’s misery, Tallahassee thinks he’s the boss of this motley crew and spends most of his time tinkering with The Beast, the Gatling gun protected car.

Deciding to take residence in the White House, things come to a head. Little Rock and Wichita steal The Beast and leave a cryptic note for the men saying “so long.”

Wichita and Little Rock run into a young hippy they call Berkeley (Avan Jogia), who is a pacifist guitar-playing guy looking for Babylon. A place he says, where no guns allowed, and the compound is walled off to protect the residents from the zombies.

Columbus runs into Madison (Zoey Deutch) at a mall that he and Tallahassee are pilfering. She’s a dumb blonde who has been living in a freezer that keeps her safe from the zombies. She goes back to the White House with him and seduces him.

Little Rock leaves her sister Wichita to run off with Berkeley in search of Graceland and then maybe Babylon. Alone, Wichita comes back to the White House to ask Tallahassee and Columbus to help her find her younger sister. But as soon as she gets there, she confronts Columbus for sleeping with Madison so quickly after she had left.

Deciding to stay together, they head out to find Little Rock, fearing she’s making a mistake. The journey has them killing lots of zombies on their way to Graceland, thinking that is where Little Rock was headed. After seeing Graceland empty, they find the church of Elvis and find Nevada (Rosario Dawson) running the joint, alone. Ready to rest before heading out again, The Beast is run over and crushed by a monster truck driven by Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch).

With Albuquerque and Flagstaff acting just like Tallahassee and Columbus, respectively, there are moments of great full-throated laughs through the one-ups-man-ship of these four guys. The back and forth is priceless.

The theme of this film is outrageous fun through gags and props. Some of the accessories are; The Beast, the suburban van, the motorhome, Babylon (pronounced by Madison as “Baby lon”), and who killed Bill Murray. Murray is shown in the opening minutes of the ending credits, stay for this. Even Elvis gets his due in this film.

Harrelson is hilarious. He uses sincere looks while going through his mood swings. But the underlying smirk of amusement and self-deprecating humor makes his performance thoroughly enjoyable. Eisenberg was excellent as the semi-cautious list-making member of this crew. Stone is terrific as Eisenberg’s love interest and older sister to Little Rock. Breslin has physically changed more than anyone of the other actors in this crew because she was very young in the original film. She carried her scenes with strength. Deutch was so much fun as the dumb blonde. She made this role work exceptionally well, and I enjoyed her as an addition to this team. Dawson was beautiful as the proprietor of the church of Elvis. Wilson and Middleditch were great as memes of Harrelson and Eisenberg respectively. The swagger of Wilson and the nerdiness of Middleditch were correctly done. Jogla, as Berkeley, the hippie, was OK. I just didn’t think he brought the same level of humor and fun to his role. Murray, in the credits, was excellent. Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Dave Callahan wrote a fun script. They didn’t try to make it too close to the first film and just let the fun be expressed in this one. Ruben Fleischer did an excellent job of directing this film with a loose fun-filled feel while keeping the story logical and moving.

Overall: This film was a great follow-up to the original.

Ender's Game

First Hit:  I liked where the film ended because it gave me hope for compassionate thinking.

The film reflected the attitude of a fear based society, let’s be aggressors and attack to extinguish another race without knowing their current intention.

True, this planetary race attacked our planet and in the battle we beat them along with destroying an outpost planet they had. However, does this past action note their current intent? How does this mirror our current conservative government officials? These are the questions I reflected on throughout the film.

With this theme there is also the theme that children are more adaptable, think faster and can process large complex problems and data better than adults. The theory of the films leaders is to attack and fully eradicate this other race so that there is no chance they can attack earth again. Although they have no proof that this is what these aliens are planning, it is the belief and therefore they are combing all youths to find the one who can willfully attack and annihilate the aliens.

The storyline follows Ender Wiggin’s (Asa Butterfield) attempt to be that person. He is being guided by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley). His sister Valentine (Abigail Breslin) is his conscious and closest family counsel. When he learns he’s tricked into actually extinguishing the perceived enemy, he’s angry and looks to make amends.

Butterflied is very good. He carries the strong willfulness this character needed to succeed and make believable. Ford is perfect as the gruff military man with one goal. Kingsley is also strong as the hero of the first battle with the aliens. Gavin Hood wrote a good script and he got good performances from his cast, while his direction and use of computer generated graphics and visuals were with clear intent.

Overall:  This was a very entertaining film and characters were very well defined.

The Call

First Hit:  A very taut thriller that captured the intenseness of being a 911 operator.

Keeping one’s emotional detachment in place when someone else’s world is falling apart is a talent, especially when they are relying on you to save them. 

That is the life of a 911 phone specialist. Keeping their composure while guiding someone through a tough situation would be difficult. 911 personal also get people who call them for ridiculous things like lost keys. This film focuses on Jordan (Halle Berry) who gets a call from a young girl named Leah who is home alone and someone is breaking into her house, she calls 911 and gets Jordan.

As the perpetrator finds Leah, he grabs the phone from Leah and tells Jordan in response to her statement “please don’t hurt her”, “it’s already done". The girl isn’t found until they uncover her buried and dead. The whole experience affects Jordan more than she wanted and changes jobs from being on the phone to teaching others about how to be on the phone.

While taking a group through the call center, a novice gets a call from a young girl, Casey (Abigail Breslin) who is being abducted. The novice hands the phone to the more senior Jordon and the real thriller begins. The scenes of Jordan and her call center mates were very well done because of the job they share, the scenes came across deeply touching given what they share.

Berry was very strong and exhibited great angst and intensity as her part unfolded. Breslin was very good as the captured girl who wanted, in the end, to stay alive. Michael Eklund (as Michael Foster) was perfectly and weirdly intense as the kidnapper. The scene of him waiting at the stop light for the signal to change was amazing. The audience sees his mouth and jaw clicking and clenching, making small noises, - perfect. Richard D’Ovidio wrote a very intense and strong script while Brad Anderson’s direction kept it taut.

Overall: Well done.

New Year's Eve

First Hit: I don’t know how Garry Marshall created such a vapid film about a great subject with great actors.

New Year’s Eve is a perfect subject and so many things can or don’t happen on that infamous night of nights.

Here we follow various people and their experience of this storied night. You’ve got Tess and Griffin (played by Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers respectively) in a race to win $25K for having the first baby of the new year against Grace and James (played by Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger respectively).

You have Ingrid (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who is a homely, afraid and not living her life. She breaks away, quits her job and hands her to do list to Paul (played by Zac Efron) who is a bike messenger. They climb on his scooter and he, being creative, finds ways to deliver all of Ingrid’s dreams in one night.

Then there is Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker) who works all the time and is very protective of her daughter Hailey (played by Abigail Breslin) who wants to be trusted to meet up with her friends. Kim tells her "no" but Hailey steals out of her room anyway and heads down town with Kim desperately following and trying to find her.

There is Laura (played by Katherine Heigl) a caterer preparing food for the most famous and luxurious New York New Year’s Eve party where the entertainment is being provided by her former boyfriend Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi).

Also there is Claire Morgan (played by Hilary Swank) who is in charge of the famous ball drop and who is linked to a dying Stan Harris (played by Robert De Niro). There are more many more stars in this movie but to be quite frank this is what killed the film. Too many actors vying for limited shallow parts having limited characteristics and story lines..

Biel had a couple funny lines as a pregnant wife. Meyers was mediocre as Biel’s husband. Paulson was the better pregnant wife as was Schweiger as her husband. Their story was more interesting. Pfeiffer was hard to watch as she played Ingrid too close to the chest. Efron was the best of all the actors and he made the film interesting. Parker was useless to watch and was uninteresting. Breslin was OK as the teenage girl wanting to experience her first New Year’s Eve kiss. Heigl was alright as the jilted woman. Jovi was more or less just being himself, a musician. Swank was in the worst role I’ve seen her in, in quite some time. De Niro gave the worst dying person act I’ve ever seen on film. His eyes were too alert and his actions too fast to be on his death bed. Katherine Fugate wrote a painfully soft, sophomoric, and generic script. Marshall’s direction shows he needs to retire. How can one direct so many wonderful actors (and there were more that I didn’t mention) into a wastefully sentimental uninteresting film.

Overall: This film goes for the easy sentimental story and in doing so made me wish it was over sooner than later.

Zombieland

First Hit: It is a fun horror film and I enjoyed it a lot.

Woody Harrelson is perfect as Tallahassee the lone ranger and killer extraordinaire of zombies. Jesse Eisenberg is superb as Columbus the nerdish young man who, through his rule making,  finds himself skilled at being one of the few humans left in the USA.

As a team they are fun to watch as they traverse the USA in hopes of finding other humans or maybe sanctuary. Columbus has stayed alive by following certain rules like: “Always check the back seat.” “Never use public restrooms.”

These rules pop-up on the screen as the film moves along and add to the campy enjoyment of the film. Tallahassee is hell bent on killing zombies any way he can. He has found his calling and thoroughly enjoys the subtle enticement of a zombie towards him followed by a browbeating that is second to none (Zombie kill of the day, sort of stuff).

On their travels towards Ohio, they run across sisters Wichita (played by Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). These two girls are a tightly woven pair and dupe Tallahassee and Columbus twice by taking their car, guns and ammo. However, each time the men run across them again. It is the last time at Pacific Playland where they finally decide to hang out together and fully trust each other.

The film is filled with vomit, black vile, killing and stringy human flesh everywhere. This is a zombie film so expect it.

Once you get over those visuals as being too disgusting, it is a fun romp with a great reference to the film Deliverance and also a reference to either Dan White or Russell Crowe because of Tallahassee’s sole desire to score some Twinkies.

Harrelson is simply perfect in this part. This underrated actor always makes me believe he is the character he is playing. One may not like his choices, but he is not afraid to show you he is not the aw-shucks guy he was on Cheers. Here, he is simply a down home boy who doesn't think too far into the future, isn’t afraid to be kind, but is prone to use a gun to settle an argument or to gain a Twinkie. In zombie killing he has found his calling. Eisenberg wonderfully fits his character as an antisocial nerd who spends most of his time in front of his computer playing games. He is lonely, wants a girlfriend, and wakes up one day to find a zombie in his apartment. He decides it is time to get outside more only to find he may be the only human left, at least in LA. Stone and Breslin are great as sisters plotting to keep themselves alive and protected. Their first allegiance is to themselves. Lastly, Bill Murray shows up as himself, living life the best he can in a zombified world and his get-up is perfect Bill Murray stuff. Ruben Fleischer perfectly paces this film and his direction is spot on throughout, job well done.

Overall: This was fun film and crisply executed. It is a no frills event and will find its place in the hallowed archives of fun horror films like the 1964 film "Zombies", the 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead", Mel Brooks "Young Frankenstein" and "Love at First Bite" because it sets a mark right between them all.