Lucky Logan

First Hit:  Funny at times but lacked intrigue and substance.

Director Steven Soderbergh had previously indicated he’d quit making films.  I guess it wasn't true. Here he made a film that could be compared with his other action crime films, Oceans 11 through 13, although dumbed down. You'd think think he had the formula down, but he must not have, this one didn't work.

Maybe the mistake was thinking that making the same kind of robbery/crime film with people that aren’t very bright would be interesting or compelling. Unfortunately, it wasn't as it because the storyline didn't translate out of Las Vegas at all. Although he tried to reduce the complexity of the crime and dumb things down because of the characters, it didn’t work because the actual details to pull off this crime and the reveal at the end, weren’t believable.

Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is a doting and wonderful father to Sadie (Farrah Mckenzie). His former wife, Bobbie Jo Chapman (Katie Holmes), is antagonistic towards him but she does see his love for their daughter. He gets fired from his job, through no real fault of his own, because of a old football injury. He does appear to have some smarts about him.

His brother Clyde (Adam Driver) is slow and not very bright. He lost his arm in the Iraq war and has a prosthetic that is somewhat useless to him as a bartender in a local dive. Jimmy also has a sister Mellie (Riley Keogh) who runs a small town beauty salon and knows a hell of a lot about cars.

The location is significant because it is near the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The Logan clan needs money, so the brothers decide to rob the speedway. Hatching a plan, they decide they need to blow up a safe and decide to hire an incarcerated Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), who is an expert at blowing up safes. Upon hearing the plan, Joe tells Jimmy and Clyde that he'll need his slow hick brothers Fish (Jack Quaid) and Sam (Brian Gleeson) to help him. He wants them to get the explosives and to break the raceway’s computer payment system. The brothers quote was priceless: “I knows all about them twitters and such”, this gives the audience an idea of their ilk.

This team does come up with an ingenious plan to get Joe out of prison without the prison knowing, rob the raceway, and take the heat off them after the robbery. However, the ending leaves a question as to whether they will get away with it as Special Agent Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank), who seems to be the smartest person in the film, bellies up to the bar in the end and starts talking with Clyde.

Tatum was good, but I didn’t buy his perceived dumbness nor his smartness, and maybe that was the point. Driver was OK as a slow dedicated brother. He almost came across at too dumb. Keogh was fantastic as the smart as a whip sister that knew how to control what she needed to control. Mckenzie was excellent as Tatum’s and Holmes’ daughter. She was very engaging to watch. Holmes was OK as mother and former wife. Craig was odd in this role. There was something that didn’t work for me as him being a hick. However, he did create an over the top character. Quaid and Gleeson were very good in their dumb brother roles and it appears they’ve picked up the acting chops of their parents. Rebecca Blunt wrote the screenplay. What didn’t work was not making the characters believable. Their actions and a lack of character depth created too many questions about the story. Soderbergh made some of the comedy work, but the weakness, for me, lay in the believability of the characters and congruency of their actions.

Overall:  This film is funny at times, but fails where it really needs to be strong, pulling plausibility out of characters and their actions.

Women in Gold

First Hit:  Although a bit methodic it was an interesting story and one deserving light.

The Nazis took private property as their own during their invasion of Austria. In the case of this story they stole a famous Klimt painting called “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” or the “Woman in Gold” from Maria Altman’s (Helen Mirren) childhood home.

The subject of this painting was Maria’s aunt Adele who lived with them in her family’s Austrian home. Maria fled to the United States and her family was either killed by the Germans in a camp or died on their own. She wants “what is rightfully” hers. She hires an old family friend’s son Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) who is a lawyer whose family also suffered under the Nazi’s rule in Austria.

Working together they end up suing the Austrian government for rightful ownership of the paintings the Nazi’s took from her Austrian home. It seemed that the aim of telling of this story was to do this through emotional righteous digging, guilt, and the wrongness of the Nazi’s and not on the depth of the characters. Not that this way of telling the story wasn’t good however, it skimped on what might have been a more amazing story.

Mirren was strong and was effective enough, although I found her back and forth on the willingness to pursue this case to be oddly off-putting. Reynolds was bland, and it may have been because whom he was portraying might have been meek but it would have been better if Reynolds mined the character further. Katie Holmes had a minor role as Reynolds wife and her part, like the film, didn't fully engage me. Alexi Kaye Campbell wrote this from stories by the real life Altman and Schoenberg. It is a wonderful story that could have used more depth. Simon Curtis did a good job of directing what was given to him.

Overall:  This was a satisfying story that could have been deeper.

The Giver

First Hit: A lot of hoopla for a film that had a few brief shining moments.

Like too many films today (one of which is the Hunger Games series) we’re into the future and society is being controlled to make it all work.

Not that I don’t like films like this, I do, however here we have the general population existing without any memories. No memories of where they come from and how their society came to exist. At a celebration of passing (moving from one place in society to another), Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is afraid he doesn’t have a path, however he is chosen to become the next person who is the holder of memories. He becomes the receiver of memories while The Giver (Jeff Bridges) transmits the memories of our collective past to him.

This position gives him the right to lie and to advise the elders on decisions. His Father (Alexander Skarsgard) and Mother (Katie Holmes) have higher positions in the society whereas his mother is head of security, his father exterminates (kills kids because they don’t weigh enough or others for various reasons like breaking the laws).

Leading this community is the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) who generally drops in on people via hologram. Jonas has an interest in Fiona (Odeya Rush) but only learns of the power of his interest as his memories are enhanced and he quits taking the feeling suppressive medicine everyone must take each day.

Thwaites is good as the boy who is curious and becomes the person to hold the memories. There was a lack of depth to him which came across as not being confident in his role. Bridges was OK as the holder of memories. However, his anguish look came across as forced and not natural. Skarsgard was really good as the man who does what he is told gladly. He made it seem like he was unattached to killing people which was the role. Holmes was less interesting. Her strict approach to the role may have been what the director ordered but it came off as alienated from the film. Rush was great. Soft innocent and sweet and she met the role well. Streep was OK as the Chief Elder but it was uninspired (her and the role). Taylor Swift was a surprise as the daughter of Bridges who was killed because she couldn’t take on the role as memory holder. Robert B. Weide and Michael Mitnick wrote the screenplay which just didn’t hold my interest. Philip Noyce aptly directed this venture in accordance to the screenplay. What was an interesting effect was the black and white slowly fading to color as memories became available to Jonas.

Overall: This film left me empty and the next day basically forgotten.