The Huntsman: Winter's War

First Hit:  A misguided film with a weak story and little relevancy.

As actors go, I like Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain. I’m not a huge fan of Chris Hemsworth as he’s shown little range in his acting.

Here, Theron (as Ravenna) plays the ruler of a huge kingdom that gets bigger all the time. She has a powerful magic mirror that tells her that she’s the fairest of them all, although Snow White in another kingdom ranks right up there - really?

Ravenna’s sister Queen Freya (Blunt) is subservient to her sister but when she falls in love and gets pregnant, the mirror tells Ravenna that the baby, when born, will be the fairest in the land. Ravenna is not going to let this happen and sets up so that the baby is killed.

Freya doesn't know her sister killed her baby and is so hurt she finds her inner anger and power (turning things into ice) and heads off to find her own kingdom where love is not allowed. She is so cold she steals children from families that her army’s defeat while turning those orphaned children into more soldiers to conquer more lands.

Two of her earliest child recruits Sara (Chastain) and Erin/Huntsman (Hemsworth) turn into her premier soldiers who continue to bring back new children soldier recruits along with new conquered lands. However they find love and .... the story becomes muddled mess while Sara and Eric end up with midgets as their supporters and the scenes fill with fairies and other odd beings become part of the storyline. Somehow they all want the missing and ever powerful mirror. The best thing about the film was some of the background scenery but little else.

Theron was appropriately evil as the person who needed to be driven by her beauty and ego. Likewise, Blunt was appropriately cold as the Ice Queen but the story let her down as well. Chastain had the most interesting role as a warrior who also wanted love. Hemsworth was his typical warrior self with tongue-in-cheek comments there to make him interesting. Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin wrote this script trying to find a story. It was almost as if there were great actors wanting to fulfill their commitments, so a script was thrown together for them to fulfill their contracts. Cedric Nicolas-Troyan directed this aimless script. He attempted to make a film of it by putting the scenes in order with some nice pictures. In the end the story and film didn't work.

Overall:  This was a waste of time and the story doesn’t deserve the actors in the film.

Identity Theft

First Hit:  A general waste of time, not funny and does little to bring to light the prevalent issue of identity theft.

This film has an identity problem. It tries to be funny, point out the issue of identity theft, and tries to be heartwarming or meaningful. It is none of these.

Watching Diana (Melissa McCarthy) is like watching a train wreck, you know it’s going to happen, you know it will be catastrophic, and the only thing left is a mess. I’ve yet to see McCarthy be in anything interesting, intelligent or of value. She appears to specialize in uncultivated actions of an overweight person trying to fit in, be funny or the center of attention. Sandy Peterson (Jason Bateman) does his best to hold the film together but this is a match made hell.

The presentation of the subject and story is rarely interesting and mostly just grossly reaching for laughs.

McCarthy is horrible in this character and it there was nothing about her character that would make the audience be interested in her. The attempts to have Sandy’s kids like her were grossly obvious ploys to have us care about the character – too little too late. Bateman tried his best and did the best he could with the script, direction, and McCarthy. The moments he spends and communicates with his kids and wife Trish (Amanda Peet) are good and are the only things good in this film. Peet, in a minor role, was OK. Craig Mazin wrote a poorly conceived script. Seth Gordon tried to make the story interesting but the script, McCarthy, and idea were guaranteed to make this film fail.

Overall:  Not worth more than 5 minutes of anyone’s time.

The Hangover Part II

First Hit: There are no real surprises here as it is the same film as Part I with a few new twists and a new location.

When a film presents a somewhat new view on an event like the original “The Hangover” did, it is easy to get caught up and enjoy it.

The concept of “no one knowing" what happened the night before until they view the ending pictures was fun the first time around. To do a sequel means the surprise is over unless the filmmaker can create a real and new next step in the concept.

The Hangover Part II fails this in all ways. The initial scene tells us directly, “we’ve done it again”. Then the film takes us back a week and attempts to prepare us for the boys to not have the same event because they’ve taken precautions. It wouldn’t be a film if they really did and here is where this film fails.

We don’t believe any of the first part of the film because we’ve already gotten a preview that it is going to be worse than the first one because of Phil’s (played by Bradley Cooper) opening scene phone call. Mistake, mistake, mistake and because of this we have to wade through all of what we basically know will happen to that fateful phone call.

Yes some of it is funny, some of it is cute, but basically the audience has to wade through this stuff until the phone call, and then we get to see how they make things right (as we know will happen). The boys are the same boys as in the first film with Phil, Stu (played by Ed Helms), and Alan (played by Zach Galifianakis).

Additionally Doug (played by Justin Bartha) is back, but not as the one the other three misplace this time. Also back is Mr. Chow (played by Ken Jeong). There is a new person lost in this film and his name is Teddy (played by Mason Lee) who is the younger brother of Lauren (played by Jamie Chung) who happens to be the bride character this time.

Cooper is OK as the smart; level headed one of the three. Helms is fine the overwrought groom dentist who “has a dark side”. Galifianakis is OK as overly pampered rich guy who wants to be part of the “wolf pack”. Bartha has virtually no role as he did in the first film and appears only to be there for congruency. Jeong has a larger part in this film than in the past and he makes the most of the character. Craig Mazin and Scot Armstrong were the compliant scriptwriters that robbed most the script of this film from the first film by using MS Word's search and replace feature as the main writing tool. Todd Phillips might be better staying as a producer than a director as he created little in the way of engagement. Proof? The audience laughed very little and it was a ¾ full theater.

Overall: God hopes they don’t’ try to make a Part III and IV but it appears the writing is on the wall or in Word, that is.