Zombieland: Double Tap

First Hit: There are some wonderfully funny moments in this zombie spoof.

Ten years after the original Zombieland, the same characters are back, older, wiser, and ready to take on the ever-evolving zombies. To this end, the team talks about the three different types of zombies, but then they learn about the high powered zombies.

Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are still roaming the eastern part of the United States, taking what they want, living where they want, and killing all the Zombies that come their way.

The women are struggling with the men. Little Rock is feeling out of sorts because she’s running around with adults, and she would like to find people her own age. Wichita is feeling pressured by Columbus to get married. Adding to the women’s misery, Tallahassee thinks he’s the boss of this motley crew and spends most of his time tinkering with The Beast, the Gatling gun protected car.

Deciding to take residence in the White House, things come to a head. Little Rock and Wichita steal The Beast and leave a cryptic note for the men saying “so long.”

Wichita and Little Rock run into a young hippy they call Berkeley (Avan Jogia), who is a pacifist guitar-playing guy looking for Babylon. A place he says, where no guns allowed, and the compound is walled off to protect the residents from the zombies.

Columbus runs into Madison (Zoey Deutch) at a mall that he and Tallahassee are pilfering. She’s a dumb blonde who has been living in a freezer that keeps her safe from the zombies. She goes back to the White House with him and seduces him.

Little Rock leaves her sister Wichita to run off with Berkeley in search of Graceland and then maybe Babylon. Alone, Wichita comes back to the White House to ask Tallahassee and Columbus to help her find her younger sister. But as soon as she gets there, she confronts Columbus for sleeping with Madison so quickly after she had left.

Deciding to stay together, they head out to find Little Rock, fearing she’s making a mistake. The journey has them killing lots of zombies on their way to Graceland, thinking that is where Little Rock was headed. After seeing Graceland empty, they find the church of Elvis and find Nevada (Rosario Dawson) running the joint, alone. Ready to rest before heading out again, The Beast is run over and crushed by a monster truck driven by Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch).

With Albuquerque and Flagstaff acting just like Tallahassee and Columbus, respectively, there are moments of great full-throated laughs through the one-ups-man-ship of these four guys. The back and forth is priceless.

The theme of this film is outrageous fun through gags and props. Some of the accessories are; The Beast, the suburban van, the motorhome, Babylon (pronounced by Madison as “Baby lon”), and who killed Bill Murray. Murray is shown in the opening minutes of the ending credits, stay for this. Even Elvis gets his due in this film.

Harrelson is hilarious. He uses sincere looks while going through his mood swings. But the underlying smirk of amusement and self-deprecating humor makes his performance thoroughly enjoyable. Eisenberg was excellent as the semi-cautious list-making member of this crew. Stone is terrific as Eisenberg’s love interest and older sister to Little Rock. Breslin has physically changed more than anyone of the other actors in this crew because she was very young in the original film. She carried her scenes with strength. Deutch was so much fun as the dumb blonde. She made this role work exceptionally well, and I enjoyed her as an addition to this team. Dawson was beautiful as the proprietor of the church of Elvis. Wilson and Middleditch were great as memes of Harrelson and Eisenberg respectively. The swagger of Wilson and the nerdiness of Middleditch were correctly done. Jogla, as Berkeley, the hippie, was OK. I just didn’t think he brought the same level of humor and fun to his role. Murray, in the credits, was excellent. Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Dave Callahan wrote a fun script. They didn’t try to make it too close to the first film and just let the fun be expressed in this one. Ruben Fleischer did an excellent job of directing this film with a loose fun-filled feel while keeping the story logical and moving.

Overall: This film was a great follow-up to the original.

Unforgettable

First Hit:  Unforgettable was completely forgettable. The beginning is OK, there is some suspense with Julia Banks (Rosario Dawson) leaving her job, packing up and heading to Los Angeles from San Francisco. There are questions in her expression as her best friend and former boss gently nudges her about how she’s feeling. Her friend continues to reaffirm that Julia is always welcome back to San Francisco. This seemed to set up that Julia is wounded from her past.

We learn that Julia has been a battered woman, and her two-year restraining order on her ex-boyfriend, Michael Vargas (Simon Kassianides) who is out of jail for his past actions, is ended. She’s headed to LA because she met and fell in love with David Connover (Geoff Stults). David has a wonderful daughter named Lily (Isabella Kai Rice) who is the result his broken and difficult marriage with Tessa (Katherine Heigl). When Julia and Tessa meet, it is obvious that there is something not quite right with Tessa.

Tessa still pines for David and will do anything to get David back, and this sets up the most mechanical, predictable back and forth confrontation between Julia and Tessa, with Lily and David being the foils they use.

Each scene is predictable, whether it be in the police station when Julia is being interviewed, when Tessa demands that Lily act a particular way in front of everyone, and when David trying to keep the peace between all of them.

I don't like when there are scenes in films that have no closure, don't add to the film's plot or direction, or are forgotten about as the film moves along. If you're going to put a camera on it, then make sure it is complete, has value or gets completed later in the film.

One such scene is seeing Julia carefully pack her suitcase, put the suitcase on the roof of the car. During her trip to LA, the suitcase falls off and her clothes scatter. This includes a special hat given to her by her best friend. We never get closure on this and we're left with lots of questions. Did she care about losing all her clothes? Did she care about the hat? Where did she get clothing when she got to LA?

As the film moves along and suspense winds up, I became more disinterested. It was taking way too long to create suspense and it was way too probable.

Dawson was OK as the battered woman trying to make her life better and embrace a positive relationship. Thought that her dialogue with Lily was really strong and created an effective relationship building sequence. Heigl was very effective as the slightly twisted, controlling and uptight woman who’s past reflected her character. Stults was OK and I don’t know if the part was bland or he was bland. It just seemed that he would have had more energy towards what was transpiring. Rice was perfect. She showed this by the different ways she acted towards and reacted to Julia and Tessa. Kassianides was very effective as stalker. Christina Hodson and David Leslie Johnson wrote this screenplay. Although there seemed to be enough material, it seemed either overwritten or poorly conceived. Direction by Denise Di Novi was in error for being mechanical in its presentation. Meaning, nothing was surprising. Additionally, Di Novi was in error for trying to put too much into the film and move away from; saying more with less.

Overall: I couldn’t wait for this film to end.

Top Five

First Hit:  Although there were some funny bits, this film was disappointing.

I’ve been a Chris Rock fan for as long as I can recall. I, unfortunately, came to this film with hopes of seeing something interesting and good.

What I felt was bored about 1/8 of the way in until the last ¼ of the film when it got interesting and with some traction. That is not to say that there weren’t parts in between those two points that I didn’t laugh or enjoy – it is just that they were few and far between. To point out one of those segments was when he was with family or the people he grew up with – they had some funny riffs.

Here “Top Five” refers to the top five rappers each character is asked to state. The film is about Andre Allen (Rock) who is trying to promote what he thinks is a serious film about a black slave uprising in Honduras. The small clips the audience sees of the film shows that it is horrible. He’s also marrying Erica Long (Gabrielle Union) a reality TV star with no discernible talent.

To use a vehicle to discover where Allen is in his life the film uses a reporter Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson) who also masquerades as a male New York Times critic by another name who always bashes Allen’s “Hammy” films. Her interviewing him gives context to discover Allen's state of mind. We know what is going to happen at the beginning of the film and the path to the end is predictable and lacks imagination. What is worse the whole “Top Five” bit isn’t strong enough to create a touchstone or transition touchstone.

Rock only stands out when he does a brief standup routine. It is also where he discovers what he’s good at doing. Else Rock is monotone and appears bored. Union is fine as the reality star that wants to marry Allen because she has nothing else going for her. Dawson is the best thing about this film and there are scenes where she shines. J.B. Smoove is strong as Silk, Allen’s bodyguard. Rock both wrote and directed this film and although he had good intentions, it fell flat.

Overall:  This was a poorly constructed film although the intention might have been good.

Unstoppable

First Hit: Anything with Denzel Washington is good but this film hangs on the border of not being good.

We know the ending as soon as the film begins. Yes this is typical Hollywood action fare but there is hope because there are some great looks and lines by Denzel.

In Unstoppable Washington plays Frank a 28 year veteran of driving trains. He knows his stuff. His partner for the day is Will (played by Chris Pine) who is a newbie, fully distracted because his wife wants a restraining order against him, and has basically failed at most things he’s done in the past.

Two lazy mindless railroad yard employees are ordered to move a train while they are taking yet another break. They don’t hook up the air brakes, they don’t set the switches in the cab correctly, and the only person in the cab jumps out thinking he can throw a switch and get back into the cab.

We all know the answer, the train gets loose and it is at full throttle heading for Stanton, PA on its own with no driver and at high speed. In Stanton there is a dangerous curve which no train can make at more than 25 miles an hour or it crashes into the middle of town and some oil storage containers.

This curve creates the motive for multiple attempts to stop the train. The senior company men care less about lives and safety of people and more about the money that will be lost if they have to derail the train so they make stupid decisions.

After we wade through their failed attempts to stop the train, including derailing it, Frank and Will come to the rescue by catching up to it from behind and slowing down the moving bomb and along the way they become better people.

Washington is wonderful as Frank the 28 year veteran who is wise and caring about who he is and his work. Pine is adequate as the lost Will. I never got that his acting brought realness to his character’s story. Rosario Dawson as Connie, who runs the yard where the runaway train departs from, is good at being commanding in this predominantly male environment. Tony Scott directed this in Tony Scott fashion where the action is big and the story obvious. Mark Bomback wrote the script and there are some good lines but the story is obvious from beginning to end.

Overall: A enjoyable rental film for a family evening viewing.

Seven Pounds

First Hit: Initially I struggled to get into the flow of the film, but in the end it was very satisfying and touches on an interesting subject.

Will Smith has played comedic and dramatic parts and he is showing himself to be very capable at both. In this film Smith plays Ben Thomas as an IRS Investigator, or is he.

Right at the beginning his behavior is unlike any investigator I’ve ever come across (yes I’ve met a couple). But as he investigates people, he truly learns about these people and if they're living of an honest true life. He grants people payment favors if possible and sticks it to others who are lying to him.

Interspersed with the flow of the story are haphazard scenes of him with his wife, his old home, and an accident. The flash backs and story line are choppy and keep one off course, but when the film hits the ¾ mark it starts to clear itself up. Ben has some great scenes with Rosario Dawson (as Emily), Woody Harrelson (as Ezra) and Barry Pepper (as Dan).

Additional scenes with Elpidia Carrillo and Joe Nunez were wonderfully dramatic and very funny respectively.

Will Smith is excellent at showing deep conflicted emotions which are required in this part. Rosario Dawson is wonderful as a woman who, besides having tax issues, has a congenital heart problem and may die. Direction by Gabriele Muccino was less than stellar because the scenes weren’t craftily mixed up, they were confusingly mixed up. As I started to get into the flow of what this film was attempting to do, more than half the film had passed. I think the mystery could have been concealed in a different way.

Overall: Once passed the halfway mark the film starts to get traction and became more engaging and interesting. At the end I felt justified for sitting there for 118 minutes.