Bad Moms

First Hit:  Although it was quite crass at times, there were more than a few laughs, which made this film worth watching.

The story follows Amy (Mila Kunis) as she is taken advantage of by her young, uninformed, boy boss because she shows up each day although she only works their part time.

She has this demanding job, is a mom doing all the mom type running round, tries to stay active with the PTA, and wants to be a good wife. Her primary focus is to help her kids, including doing their school work, so her kids get good grades. After dropping the kids off at school, she shows up to work and is the only grown up in the company.

Her husband casually works, and Amy catches him, one day, having skype sex with a woman he’s never met. This online relationship has been going on for 10 months. She kicks him out.

The pressure to be a good mom and be active in the PTA, led by Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) is fierce. Amy meets and bonds with Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and Kiki (Kristen Bell), two other moms who struggle with the pressures of motherhood.

Carla is divorced and is man hungry. This is where most of the film’s crassness comes from. Carla is foul mouth and man hungry. This is the largest detriment to the film. It might have been better if this character was either cut or the role toned down somewhat.

Kiki, on the other hand becomes empowered through the film and this is nice to see. The three of them are fed up with the power that PTA President Gwendolyn and her henchwomen Stacy (Jada Pinkette Smith) and Vicky (Annie Mumolo) exude with prissiness and entitlement based on money and what they think is right for everyone.

The PTA is the battle ground and Amy decides to challenge Gwendolyn for the presidency of the organization. The film has lots of scenes that show the PTA in all its glory. It shows women deciding to take their lives into their own hands while juggling their children, and their lives outside of school.

I did think the crassness of Carla was overdone and had me wanting to cut her lines. I thought Amy’s relationship with her kids Jane and Dylan (Oona Laurence and Emjay Anthony respectively) was a strong part of the film. The most touching part of the film were the credits, as the actresses and their moms were revealingly interviewed.

Kunis was very good and her ability to carry multiple looks (mom, party girl, and responsible workmate) were strong. Hahn was good and I disliked the script for her. The man and sex hungry woman with a foul mouth didn’t work for me. It never works for me male or female. Bell was wonderful. She brings an engagement to her roles that is always watchable. Applegate was very good and she clearly knew this role. Laurence, for me, was the star of the film. It was a minor role, yet what she brought to it how she engaged each scene was wonderful. Anthony was good as the son trying to figure out his path now that dad was gone. Smith was strong as a henchwoman. Scott Moore and Jon Lucas, together, wrote and directed this film and outside of the overt crassness, it captured some of the life of moms.

Overall:  For the most part my experience was positive, but it wasn’t a great film.

Jupiter Ascending (3D)

First Hit:  All this film has going for it are a few interesting visuals.

Before I knew it, this film descended into the realm of “are you kidding me?” Not only was the premise stupid the execution of this premise was almost as bad.

The only thing that saved it were some of the visuals. Really:  People owned planets in our galaxy? They were divided up amongst 3 people whose job it was is to harvest human specific DNA stuff to make themselves live longer. Their stated goal - to live as long as one can - even unhappily. The planet owners claimed the only worthwhile commodity that exists is time? Titus Abrasax (Douglas Booth), Kalique Abrasax (Tuppence Middleton) and Balem  Abrasax (Eddie Redmayne) owned planets and did the harvesting.

Each wanted the prize planet Earth (of course where most the human type people live). Kalique and Titus live on spacecraft and Balem lives in the red eye of Jupiter which is protected from the gases by some structure he’s built. With Earth being the most desired planet, each of the Abrasax’s kids are trying to find and entice the rightful owner of Earth to give it up to one of them.

Earth is unknowingly owned by earthling Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), who also happens to be their reincarnated mother. When she learns that she owns Earth… OK you may start to get my drift. This story is so far-fetched, complicated and convoluted that it just doesn't (read as "can’t") work. Oh heck, I forgot there is also a hero Cain Wise (Channing Tatum) who flits about on shoes that allow him to skate through life and space at outstanding speeds. Mind you no one else in the film has these skate shoes.

The visuals of the different worlds, of the red eye of Jupiter and the space vehicles are good to very good but that is about it. The dialogue was stilted, the premise undefinable, and the execution miserable.

Kunis was OK, and given the level of story-line, script and direction this is a complement. Booth was bland. Middleton was barely OK. Redmayne was disastrous. The difference between this role and the one as Stephen Hawking is like night and day. Tatum was very disappointing. However for all of these people it wasn’t their acting that brought this down, it was the concept, script and direction. I wonder how they all got bamboozled into taking these roles. Andy and Lana Wachowski did the producers a disservice by actually pitching and making this film.

Overall:  Don’t waste your time. It is bad even in 3D.

Third Person

First Hit:  Three intellectually and emotionally charged stories that become one in the end.

Liam Neeson plays Michael a successful Pulitzer Prize writer in Paris trying to write another book.

Flash - we’re in another story where we have Scott (Adrien Brody) making a deal to purchase stolen clothing designs – he’s a thief. Julia (Mila Kunis) is a young woman charged with intentionally harming her child. Although it wasn’t proven in court she cannot see her child.

Each story starts and is grown from here. In Michaels’ case he has a wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) who calls him from their home in the US and is worried about his welfare. There is pain in their voices when they speak. He also has a lover – Anna (Olivia Wilde) who is both loving and heartlessly mean. Scott hates being in Italy, goes to an “American” bar expecting something like home and doesn’t find it.

He meets Monika (Moran Atlas) at the bar and ends up getting mixed up with her trying to get back her daughter from some street thugs. Then there is Julia’s story of trying to see her son who is living with a famous artist Rick (James Franco) and his live-in lover Sam (Loan Chabanol). She is being defended by Theresa (Maria Bello) who really tries to help Julia see her son but Julia keeps getting in her own way.

As each story evolves the screenwriter slowly brings them together as a singularity. The film is long and at times, I wondered when it would end - and I also was staying engaged.

Neeson’s story is the focal point of the entire film as it begins and ends with him. My perception is that his character creates feelings about things for himself, through the creation of characters in the stories he writes about. His performance was strong. Kunis was amazing as a young woman who tries hard to do the right thing but gets in her own way almost all the time. Brody was divine, in the way he worked through the trials of his life. Wilde was very strong as a heartless woman who wanted to really be loved and cared about while learning to trust. Chabanol was very good and her scene with Kunis in the women’s restroom was very good. Franco was OK as the distant creative artist. Atlas was sublime as the Roma woman trying to get her child back. Her movement between hard and openly soft was amazing. Bello as Kunis’ attorney was very good and her franticness were perfect for the part. Basinger was very good as Neeson’s wife who holds his struggles with equanimity. Paul Haggis wrote and directed this film. He likes complex stories which require the audience to work to understand as well as touching on sensitive subjects – he does this in this film as well. Overall, it boarded on overly complex and trite.

Overall:  I was touched by the acting in this film.

OZ the Great and Powerful (3D)

First Hit:  Wonderful visuals don’t make up for a too long script.

This film had a lot going for it from the opening credits but faded as the story unfolded and became too long and overly complex.

The square format black and white opening was exquisite. Watching the cutouts of images with names and words in this old fashion looking way was very inviting. Then the film stays in this black and white format (Remember Wizard of OZ) until OZ (James Franco) lands in OZ.

The screen grows slowly out of the square format into today’s large format and in beautiful color. The 3D was done well enough to not be distracting except when the spears went through the smoke. The story is about a traveling carnie con-man who seduces women with magic. While escaping a jealous husband, he gets thrown into OZ via a tornado.

While in OZ and despite his con-man ways, Glinda (Michelle Williams) believes in him to save the Land of OZ from the wicked witches. One saving grace for this film is the china/porcelain girl. Her expressions and movements were a phenomenal result of the CGE.

Franco is good enough as a con-man who wants to do good but the overlong and complex storyline and lack of focused direction didn’t do him well. Williams was good in two roles – as OZ’s real world girlfriend Annie and the good witch Glinda. Mila Kunis (as Theodora) was OK and felt there was more she could have given to the part. Rachel Weisz was better as Kunis's sister in her role as Evanora. Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire wrote an ambitious script that was too long and overly complicated. Sam Raimi did an OK job directing what we saw but he needed to reign in the story and simplify it. Lasting 130 minutes, it was about 30 – 40 minutes too long.

Overall: Although this story is pre-Dorothy’s (Wizard of OZ) visit and is clearly a prequel, it lacks the engaging magic.

Ted

First Hit:  At times funny, crude, stupid, and interesting.

Ted, a CG teddy bear, is alive because he was wished life by a young John (played by Bretton Manley) who was a friendless boy.

Ted becomes famous and is even shown on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. The Carson segment was pieced together really well. As John becomes an adult (played by Mark Wahlberg) at age 35 he’s living a stoner life with Ted. He’s got a clerk job with a rental car agency, gets high with Ted as often as possible and has a great girlfriend Lori (played by Mila Kunis).

One of the things missing from their relationship is an understanding for its existence. I didn’t sense/feel any chemistry between them. The jokes and language were crude almost to the detriment of the film. Some of the jokes went over the head of the normal audience that will see this film (“I went Joan Crawford on him”). 

There aren’t that many people who know of Joan Crawford’s antics on her children. But on the other end, there was a moment where John tries to guess the name of Ted’s girlfriend which was very amusing. The acting with the CG Ted was seamlessly wonderful.

This was the technical and acting high point of the film. The overall question this film tries to resolve is; whether John will grow up enough to be an adult in his relationship with Lori? Or, will his friendship with Ted keep his life stuck as an adolescent?

Wahlberg is great at interacting with the CG Ted. Kunis is mediocre in this somewhat lifeless and pivotal role. Giovanni Ribisi (as Donny) was good as the jealous guy who wanted a Ted for himself. Jessica Barth was very good as Ted’s girlfriend Tami-Lynn. Seth MacFarlane wrote and directed this film (he’s also the voice of Ted). It is obvious that this was a pet project and partially worked and partially didn’t.

Overall:  This film was all over the place and in the end forgettable.