mother!

First Hit:  It was not very interesting, was poorly scripted and had little to offer.

Director Darren Aronofsky probably had something to say by making this film, but I can only come up with snide thoughts like:  The battle between control and chaos is difficult. One needs to ask their partner before inviting people into the house. People like Him (Javier Bardem), need to have their ego stroked. Well-known artists, Him, would sacrifice his family for outside admiration. People will give the artists they admire leeway to act poorly. Life is a never-ending sequence of the same stuff over and over again. I could go on.

One troubling aspect about this film was that Darren had some great actors, but Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) seemed like she was saying lines and occasionally her actions were more engaging. Him seemed to take on the poor struggling artist role rather mediocrely. Together they were a shipwreck ready to happen throughout the entire film.

The story is that Mother has rebuilt a very large house because it burned down in a fire. It was Him’s family home. She’s doing this because she loves Him and the poems that he’s written in the past. However, he’s had writer's block since the fire burned down his family’s home.

One day, Man (Ed Harris), a chain smoking doctor, shows up at their home thinking it is a place where he can rent a room while doing research. Without asking Mother, Him tells Man that he can stay there as long as he wants. Feeling pushed aside, Mother reluctantly goes along with this.

Then the rest of Man’s family shows up. Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) is pushy and is very passive aggressive while Mother waits on her. All the while Him likes their company. Woman tells Mother that she needs to have a baby to really know what life is about.

During an argument, Him and Mother have make-up sex and she gets pregnant. Also, Woman and Man’s boys come to the house and start a big fight and one of the boys gets killed.

With Mother being pregnant and the killing of the boy, Him writes another poem that causes a national stir and now thousands of people come to the house to both grieve the dead boy and the celebration of this new poem. This makes Mother angry as she tries to kick everyone out because they are wrecking the house she built.

Then the film heads into over weird with rituals and demons and other stuff. Why? I cannot tell you why even if I knew. It is beyond my understanding of the point and purpose of this story and film.

Lawrence gives a uneven performance. It was both difficult and easy to understand her love and devotion based on whatever scene she was in. Bardem had an easier role of being egocentric and caring about himself more than the people for which he professed his love. Harris was OK as the initial interloper. Pfeiffer was interesting because her sarcasm and disdain towards Mother was well done. Aronofsky wrote a confusing and unclear script that came off as being overindulgent towards bizarre behavior. If the audience doesn’t get the point, why do a film like this? As director, the point was lost in the script, and therefore the acting wasn’t reflective of a cohesive story leaving the audience lost.

Overall:  This was self-indulgence at its finest and a waste of my time.

Run All Night

First Hit:  The action is very strong, the acting is good and it’s hard to see older men attempt to move their bodies athletically.

Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) and Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris) have been lifelong friends. They've been criminals for most of their lives.

Shawn has been the brains while Jimmy has been the muscle. Although Shawn has no problem killing someone, it’s been Jimmy that has racked up the kills and they haunt him. He left his wife and boy early on because he did not think he would be a fit enough father to be around his son Michael (Joel Kinnaman).

Michael resents his father and has chosen a life that, although difficult, is honorable. Shawn, on the other hand, has a boy named Danny (Boyd Holbrook) who is partly in the family business but keeps screwing up. When Danny kills a couple of crooked Albanians, Mike gets caught up and Jimmy kills Danny. This splits Danny and Shawn’s close relationship and now they’re out to kill each other.

Neeson is very good at showing determination and completing his appointed task with no feelings. Harris was very strong as the guy who has pulled the strings for years. Kinnaman was excellent as the bitter son. Holbrook was also very good as Maguire’s son. Common as professional hit man Andrew Price, was great. Brad Ingelsby wrote a strong script and Jaume Collet-Serra did a great job of creating a mood of NYC in this Irish community.

Overall:  The story of redemption of a difficult life was well done.

Snowpiercer

First Hit:  Odd story, interesting scenes, and generally unsatisfying.

Global warming has us (humans) attempting to fix the problem with a pill (sort of speak). We spray stuff into the atmosphere to cool down the planet and we send ourselves into a deep freeze. All but a few hundred people remain, alive, on a perpetual motion train on an endless loop. Odd story – yes.

The train is divided into different sections, by classes, whereas the first class people get real food, alcohol, and have a good life as this train drives around this year long circle. However, the people in the back of the train get blocks of protein to eat, live in squalor and lose their limbs with infractions against the other classes. Wilford (Ed Harris), who is the person in charge of the train, believes that everyone has their place and their duty/job. Cutis (Chris Evans), who lives in the rear of the train wants to get control of the train and create a more equal environment among its passengers.

The film is about a social revolution. Some of the scenes where Mason, (Tilda Swinton) Wilford’s speaker and emissary, speaks to the trains’ passengers are priceless. 

Although many of the characters are interestingly unique like, Namgoong (Kang-ho Song), Tanya (Octavia Spencer) Yona (Ah-sung Ko), and Gilliam (John Hurt) and a number of the battle scenes to overtake the train are of interest, it was generally unsatisfying story and execution of the story.

Harris does a good job of being arrogantly omnipotent yet there was a lack of depth in his performance that took away from the film. Evans did a very good job of carrying his character through this odd story and making it work. Swinton was unique, flamboyant and engaging when on the screen. Song was enigmatically interesting in his role as the one who thinks he knows what is going on outside the train. Spencer was wonderful as the mother and lover of the movement to change the status quo. Ko was incredibly engaging in her role. Hurt was excellent as the knowing old man who was once the partner of Wilford’s. Joon-ho Bong and Kelly Masterson wrote this imaginative and unfathomable story. Bong also directed the film.

Overall:  Although it was an interesting film, I left the theater not thinking much about the experience of watching it.

Pain and Gain

First Hit:  This film didn’t know what it wanted to be and I left wondering what the point was.

A film that has to tell you about 2/3 the way through that it is still a true story, means it didn’t do its job. It didn’t make it believable.

It was hard for me to believe that the real life weightlifters Daniel Lugo (played by Mark Wahlberg), Paul Doyal (played by Dwayne Johnson), and Adrian Doorbal (played by Anthony Mackie), would have seen themselves as comically stupid as these actors portrayed them to be. No matter how hard these actors tried to be serious in these roles, they exuded a humorous vein of the stupidity the real life characters couldn’t discern.

What the audience ends up with is some really funny stupidity scenes and the grossness of idiotic violence gone badly. Only Wahlberg seemed capable of portraying believable stupidity but only occasionally. These three guys are tired of their "just getting by existence" so they decide take all of Victor Kershaw’s (Tony Shalhoub) money and assets. T

hey eventually get the money and Victor, who survives the attempted killing by these goons. The cops don’t believe Victor’s story so he’s left to try to get his money back by himself. Then he happens to get ahold of a retired detective named Ed DuBois (Ed Harris) who believes him and begins to unravel the caper.

The boys run through their ill-gotten goods quickly and decide to hit another and, of course, this one falls apart quickly and they get caught.

Wahlberg is the most believable of the actors but the film’s direction didn’t have a clear vision. Johnson is OK but I didn’t buy his character's addictions and therefore I didn’t buy his character. Mackie was the weakest of the three and that might have been the intention because his real life character might have been somewhat wishy-washy. Shalhoub was good as the arrogant tough guy first victim. Harris was one of the better things of this film. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote this script from a true story. Michael Bay misdirected this as the film never seemed to find a center.

Overall:  This film just didn’t work very well although there were some really funny bits.

Man on a Ledge

First Hit:  Parts were fun and interesting others just poorly constructed.

At the end of this film, it is all supposed to come together and it does, but it was not satisfying nor did it feel complete.

Nick Cassidy (played by Sam Worthington) is a former cop and in prison because he’s been accused of stealing a $40M diamond from David Englander (played by Ed Harris). However he claims he is innocence and was set-up and wants to make his name right. He attends his father’s funeral and escapes from his guards.

After being in hiding for a few weeks, he checks into an expensive hotel, eats a fancy meal, leaves a note (claiming his innocence) and climbs out on the ledge 21 floors up. While the cops, news people, news people, and public are focused on him from the street below, his brother Joey (played by Jamie Bell) and his brother’s girlfriend Angie (played by Genesis Rodriguez) are breaking into the building across the street actually stealing the diamond. In this way Nick can prove his innocence.

Englander is characterized as someone having some of the arrogance and stupidity of Donald Trump and the controlled focus and untouchable qualities of a mobster. He uses cops as his dirty work guys whom will kill for him at a price.

This is the underlying scenario as the film unfolds as it includes Nick's working partner as one who was dirty as well.

Lastly, the film also has a focus on a police psychologist Lydia Mercer (played by Elizabeth Banks) who just recently lost one of her “jumpers” and is struggling with the pain. Nick specifically asks for her as a way to help her move through her past event.

The film has enough good shots in it to make it very interesting. The overhead, looking over the ledge and Worthington’s ability to make it seem he could have fallen at any moment, was very good. What didn’t work was that it was far too easy to see, and know, which cops were crooked - they even looked crooked. In other words, in some places the movie, had little too much telegraphing of characterizations and situations.

Worthington was strong and believable in his role although the film teetered as not being believable. Harris was a wonderful arrogant ass who felt entitled to his arrogance. Bell was very good as the brother who wanted to do right for his family. Rodriguez was strong, funny, and vulnerable in her role as accomplice and girlfriend. Banks was OK as the psychologist who is charged with talking down a jumper. Edward Burns, played another police person charged with talking down jumpers and I didn’t think this was of his better work. He seemed to not have a mind of his own and wasn’t convincing why he changed to support Banks role. Pablo F. Fenjves wrote a fairly interesting script. Asger Leth directed some of the ledge and robbery scenes with aplomb while other sections didn’t quite work as well.

Overall: It was interesting while watching it, but it has no legs because the very next day – it is forgotten.