Men in Black: International

First Hit: Certainly not as good as the original, but at least we’ve got “women” involved.

I never thought of the “Men in Black” as a domestic only group, but I guess I was wrong. I mean, how could aliens be on earth and only lived in the United States? So for me, the premise in the title was weak.

We begin with young Molly (Mandeiya Flory) looking out her window witnessing her parents being neuralysed by Men in Black (MiB) agents because of a commotion in the house. The uproar came from a young alien the agents were tracking, and Molly thinks it’s cute, so she helps the alien escape, but not before learning a word from the alien. You know that this will mean something later in the film.

We jump some twenty years into the future and Molly (Tessa Thompson) is still focused on becoming a MiB agent to work with aliens because she likes the alien she met and saw what happened to her parents after they were neuralysed. We are meant to believe that the single early childhood event has become her singular whole life focus.

Attempting to find where MiB headquarters is located in NYC, Molly sets up computers to track incoming aliens. Finding a MiB encounter, she follows the agents back to their offices. Slipping into the building, she gets caught and quickly tells them, she wants to become an agent carrying a neuralyser. After extensive interviews, she’s given a chance to prove herself as a probationary Agent M.

Her assignment takes her to London (hence the International in the title), where she meets High T (Liam Neeson) who assigns her to work with Agent H (Chris Hemsworth).

Agent H is shown in several scenes to be a play-boyish rogue of sorts, loving to gamble, and drink taboo elixirs. Agents H and M are assigned to meet Vungus, the Ugly of royal alien family heritage. But during this meeting, Vungus is killed by evil twins who can manifest themselves as pure energy.

Because Vungus gives M a secret weapon before he dies, she and H are being tracked by the twins who want this weapon to destroy Earth. Will M and H save the world?

This is the short version of the plot. There are other aliens in the mix as well as a storyline that High T has been protecting H since their encounter with the Hive who tried to destroy Earth many years earlier.

What didn’t work for me was that the plot felt too manufactured to be engaging. It lacked a flow to it, and therefore, it pulled me out of engaging with the story. I’m not sure why the writers needed the character of Riza as the recipient of the weapon. Yes, she was an arms agent, but it seemed like it was created as yet another plot device and character. Additionally, some of the acting (Neeson in particular) felt stiff and done for the money and not for the story. Many of the visuals were fun, like when M and H test the weapon Vungus gave M. The twins when they changed to pure energy was fun to watch.

Tessa Thompson was engaging and fun to watch. Her character made the story work. Hemsworth was a bit too silly and laissez-faire for the critical role as protector of the Earth from aliens. The part was built this way, and I thought he could have toned down some of the silliness. Neeson appeared too disengaged from the story and role. The heavy makeup and powder, as seen in the closeups, didn’t help. Rafe Spall as Agent C was very good as the one who wanted to be seen as having more power and engagement in the London MiB office. Emma Thompson as Agent O was good as the authoritarian in-charge person. Rebecca Ferguson (as Riza) was attractive in a role I didn’t think was needed. Matt Holloway and Art Marcum wrote the screenplay that seemed too manufactured as a way to use the MiB name. F. Gary Gray directed this film.

Overall: Not sure this film added any greatness or enhancement to the MiB franchise.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

First Hit: For something as overly done and complicated as this, it was a drag to watch.

This is another example of a franchise pushing it too far and getting minimal results.

The first opening scenes, when two guys are underwater sawing off a bone of a dead dinosaur and a guy on land, guiding them, was cartoonish although it wanted to be something else. They are sawing off this bone so that the DNA can be used to create more dinosaurs.

The island where the dinosaurs are currently living, Jurassic Park, has been over run (see last episode) by these very same dinosaurs. No people live on the island and it is no longer an amusement park. However, all of the dinosaurs are in danger of dying because a volcano on the island is starting to erupt.

Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) has come up with a plan to transport several of the current species from this erupting island and put them on another island he owns. They identify something like 13 dinosaurs to move. I couldn’t help but notice that they only wanted 1 of each, so my mind went to; how are they going to propagate on this new island without a mate?

Unbeknownst to Lockwood, his company manager, Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), has other ideas. Mills is planning to use Lockwood's money to move the dinosaurs but to a place where he can sell them to the highest bidder. He’s also working with Dr. Wu (BD Wong) to genetically engineer some new species from the DNA of the captured dinosaurs and the bone that was captured in the first scene.

Under the belief that they are supporting Lockwood’s plan, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) help Mills capture the dinosaurs. The were recruited because they know the Jurassic Park Island and Owen raised "Blue" (a Velociraptor) and may be the only one to get the raptor into a cage for capture.

To add some comic relief and younger actors, Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) and Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) are brought on the expedition because Webb is an IT wiz and Rodriguez is an accomplished physician for dinosaurs. Webb’s fear of everything resulted in lots of screaming by him which got old after his second scream.

Meanwhile, the original director of Jurassic Park, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), spends his time arguing in front of Senate committees. He doesn't want to save the dinosaurs and is in favor of letting them die from the volcanic eruption. He suspects that there will be trouble if they are saved.

This is enough of the story line setup to say that things go bad for everyone’s plan and that is where the action takes over. Unfortunately, the only thing good about the action is that CG dinosaurs look awfully cool. The detail in their skin and movement is outstanding. However, some of the actions, like a dinosaur tapping its long-clawed toe on the bedroom floor, is too human of a movement and came off as silly.

Pratt does action, quirkiness and smart-alecky remarks very well. He’s well controlled in his body and always has enough wherewithal to make his character believable. Even in a boring dumb film such as this, he makes his character work. Howard is mediocre at best. She never looks the part of scientist or activist and she doesn’t come off as intelligent. Spall was OK as the guy who was out to make money for himself. Cromwell had a very subdued role and his performance reflected this. Goldblum plays the wiseacre know it all and although it is his signature type of performance, it would be nice to see him really act sometime. Pineda was strong as the young woman whose intent was to save the dinosaurs. Smith’s role was silly, and it made him look silly. Isabella Sermon did an excellent job playing Lockwood’s granddaughter Maisie, however there is something behind the curtain. Ted Levine played Ken Wheatly the tough guy carrying out Mills’ orders and always wanting to be paid. It is actually a good thing that he got his just deserts. Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow wrote this overly complicated moving into boredom script. J.A. Bayona did what he was told, action at all costs, and also throw in some tongue in cheek funny moments and quips.

Overall: This film is a disgrace to the franchise and isn’t worth the money spent on it or the price of admission.

What If

First Hit: There are really good and engaging moments but it seemed too long overall.

Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) is lamenting a breakup from his girlfriend.

It’s been a year and as we meet him, he finally deletes her last VM which he has saved 365 times. This was a good way to give the audience perspective of his sadness. He meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) at a party.

There is an immediate chemistry through their banter. He walks her home and they decided to meet up again but she tells him she has a boyfriend. Through circumstance they meet up and end up being close friends. They spend a lot of time together (which is where the film gets long) in different circumstances and even their friends Nicole and Allan (Mackenzie Davis and Adam Driver respectively), seeing their connection, try to get them to get together.

What didn’t work for me was the script having Chantry being so hesitant to acknowledge what was really going on to her. Yes her boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall) was a solid guy, but after 5 years together and he didn’t invite her to Dublin to live with him seemed like either a poorly written script or an obvious non-committed relationship.

To have an intelligent character put into this hold position for so long was false.  Her character was too smart to wait so long to make and act on a decision. This in-turn had me not believing the story.

Radcliffe was very good and he projected his restraint towards Chantry with a longing wistfulness that was done very well. Kazan was hampered by the script. I just don’t think she was given the opportunity to make the story better. We all knew the end of the story going into the film. Creating extra delay to get there hurt her ability to perform. Davis and Driver were both amazing and outstanding together. Spall was strong as the solid guy Kazan was waiting for. Elan Mastai wrote the screen play and as I’ve said already there were elongating mistakes in the script that kept the film from moving along to its obvious end. Michael Dowse directed the film and could have driven this film forward in a less meandering way.

Overall: This story had potential but was waylaid by the un-crisp script.

I Give It a Year

First Hit:  Laugh out loud funny in moments and a little overdone and mishandled in others.

Maybe there is a trend these days to portray therapists as dolts and in need of more therapy than their own clients, and this film does it as well.

The first few scenes with the therapist and then at wedding reception telegraph the ending a bit more than I liked. Nat (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Rafe Spall) have a torrid 7 months together and marry. Was this too early? That is the question the film attempts to answer.

Their friends and family “give it a year”. That their minister gags, coughs, and cannot get our “I now pronounce you man and wife”, also is a dead giveaway to the film's ending. Danny (Stephen Merchant) is one of Josh’s friends and his monologue scenes (wedding toast and during dinner conversations) are horribly distasteful and made me cringe.

That anyone would tolerate anyone with such poor taste and not be guided to alter their behavior was unreflective of any truth.

On the plus side, many of the scenes with Nat and Alec (Terence Harvey) were great and funny while scenes with Josh and Diana (Jane Asher) were touching and reflective.

Byrne is both beautiful and effective as a reserve, active, interesting, and a successful woman who is flustered by Alec from the moment they meet. Spall is strong as the husband who lives by the beat of a different drum from his wife. He isn’t very active, has an odd sense of humor, and is less sophisticated than his wife. Merchant is great at being a total disgusting jerk but I thought his character was really unnecessary in this film. Harvey is perfect as the guy who steals Nat’s heart. Asher is very good as the somewhat shy idealist who wants Josh to fight for her. Minnie Driver plays a friend of theirs and her scenes are wonderfully effective. It was good to see her again. Dan Mazer wrote and directed this. Some of the comedy was gross and ineffective but other aspects of the film were good and spot on.

Overall:  Although uneven, there are good lines and qualities in this film. However it is better suited to watching On Demand.

One Day

First Hit: Disappointing overall as the chemistry wasn’t there between the leads and I couldn’t care about Dexter.

This film spans 20 years of time and neither character showed much aging.

Briefly, Emma (played by Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (played by Jim Sturgess) are college mates. The audience sees that Emma likes Dexter but is cautiously afraid of him because she doesn’t feel worthy of his good looks and charm. He is supposedly attracted to her but shouldn't be because she isn't hot enough (that's the feeling I got).

They spend the night together but without sex and the audience is to believe that there is something magical growing between them. They go their separate ways and they keep in touch phone calls and occasional dates. The passage of time is noted by the anniversary of their meeting (July 15th) continues to pop-up on the screen.

Dexter uses his charm and looks to snag a job as a TV host who is supposed to be hip. He spends all his time drinking, snorting coke, and screwing women he doesn’t care about. It isn’t that people cannot redeem themselves, but there must be something that touches the audience where redemption springs up from within the audience want him to redeem himself.

There really isn't anything. Only when he is with his daughter at the end of the film did I even begin to like the guy (and maybe that was the point – but it was too little too late). Meanwhile Emma, wanting to be a writer (poems and a novel) works in a Mexican restaurant in England (where they are both located). Ian (played by Rafe Spall) also works at the restaurant and thinks himself as a comedian. So together they are too lost souls not doing what they believe in but working together in this Mexican restaurant.

Because he is stable, and they are having this pitiful life together, he and Emma decide to move in together. This made no sense as Emma's character just wasn't that dumb to do this and yet the story has her doing this. But she’s supposed to have chemistry with Dexter (her life’s love) and there is none here as well.

As time goes by and both Dexter and Emma find their path back to each other, no matter the dialogue, scripting or scenes, there’s nothing really there between them to make me believe that is a “love of my life” relationship.

For comparison, look at Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in “The Adjustment Bureau” for an example of on-screen chemistry.

Hathaway would have done much better with someone with whom she could create chemistry with along with a director who knew how to get something interesting from his actors. I think her acting here is solid enough, but everything around her is sub-standard. Sturgess has the look of a “player” but there was emptiness about him which made his character two dimensional and not worth caring about. Spall played either did a horrible job at his clueless character or the script was equally clueless. Either way, each time he was on the screen I cringed, he resembled no one I’ve ever run into. Ken Scott (as Dexter’s father) and Patricia Clarkson as the mother were solid in their roles. David Nicholls wrote the screenplay from his book which could have been good. While the direction by Lone Scherfig never captured real characters fully and let the story flail away at drama and romance.

Overall: This film is forgettable and had little to offer in the realm of romance.