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.

Chappie

First Hit:  At times disappointing and at other times interestingly introspective.

I’ll start with the interestingly introspective thoughts:  Can consciousness be identified, digitized, and downloaded/uploaded?

I loved thinking about this. In this film, Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) thinks he can create a computer program that will allow an electronic brain to learn like a child does (although faster). He’s already created programmable robots that act like police people which dramatically brings down the crime rate in Johannesburg South Africa, where this film takes place.

There is also a part where there is an uploading followed by a downloading of the “consciousnesses” of two humans and a robot named Chappie. This stuff is interesting and can cause one to think about the possibilities. However, the criminals Ninja (Ninja), Yolandi (Yo-Landi Visser), and Yankie (Jose Pablo Cantillo), where at times clown like and too obvious and overt in their actions to make it work. I found it unbelievable that the thieves let Deon go and return on his own free will.

Additionally, I’m not sure the Vincent Moore character (Hugh Jackman), who had developed a large aggressive armored robot, was required to make this film work. He became the antagonist for the criminals, Deon, the company Deon and he worked for, and society.

In the end it seemed like the writers and directors could have made a more thoughtful film without the demoness of Moore’s character and his robot (which was vaguely too similar to other robots in other films).

Patel was good as the caring “maker”. Visser was oddly and engagingly interesting in her role and verbal cadence. Ninja was overtly too much in both ways; as a uncaring bad guy and as someone who missed his girlfriend. Cantillo was the most interesting criminal. Jackman was good in his role but I didn’t think the role was needed. Sigourney Weaver was weak in her role as decision maker in the company that made the robots. Terri Tatchell’s script was both strong and weak. Neill Blomkamp’s direction followed the script, and used some interesting sets (like the round cylindrical building with the Vodafone sign) but this film lost site of the most interesting subject.

Overall:  The concept in this film was really good and the execution faltered in many ways.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

First Hit:  Tongue in cheek fun while being oddly good.

I didn’t know what to expect when the lights went down. The previews had me believing it was more serious than it ended up being.

That’s not to say it was a comedy, but there are times when either the visuals (heads exploding into a colorful fireworks display) or the lines the actors said (“this is my gun”) were spot on funny.

The film is about a group of wealthy gentlemen who decide they can make things right in the world through intervention, usually armed. The group makes it clear they are not part of any government and have only allegiance to what they believe is right. Michael Caine (playing the group’s leader Arthur – think King), gives each member a historical nickname such as Jack Davenport is “Lancelot”, Mark Strong is “Merlin”, and Colin Firth is Harry Hart AKA “Galahad”.

The opening sequence has a terrorist group holding a global warming expert Professor Arnold (Mark Hamill) hostage. A Kingsman comes in to save the day but gets killed by Gazelle (Sophia Boutella) who is an agent for Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson). Valentine decides that he cannot fix global warming and because people are the issue, if he gets rid of most the people on the planet global warming can be reversed.

The Kingsman are out to stop him and with the death of a Kingsman, they have to recruit a new one. Here is how we meet the next generation of Kingsman, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Roxy (Sophie Cookson). I liked having the front for their organization being an English haberdashery in London. The fighting scenes were well choreographed and it was fun to watch Firth be so agile, yet sophisticated in his actions.

Firth was excellent as the prime Kingsman and mentor. Caine was good as Arthur. There is a sophistication he brings that works for this film. Egerton was very good and strong as the young street kid who learns what it takes to become a Kingsman. Jackson was great and embodied the role as the guy who wants to kill (although indirectly) most everyone on the planet. Hamill was fun to see again – it has been years. Boutella was very good as Jackson’s henchman (woman). Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn wrote a fun and amusing script and Vaughn directed this strong cast and story with surety and fearlessness.

Overall:  I enjoyed the film when I saw it and it still resonated the next day. It was violently fun.

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.

Black Sea

First Hit:  Jude Law was great, the film lacked gripping drama and action.

There is a scene when they are pulling the gold across the bottom of the ocean floor and there was nothing that made all this compelling. This was the problem with the whole film; the setups and results were lackluster.

Captain Robinson (Law) did his best to make all this work but it wasn’t enough to carry the film. In essence this film is about working class people trying to find a way to use their skills to get something back. This group of men British and Russian decide to locate a sunken German U2 submarine that is carrying ~80 million dollars’ worth of gold. The crew is motley and they may or may not be trustworthy.

The film explores this with a few choice characters and script choices. Most of the film takes place in an old sub, therefore the sets are limited but they were wonderfully detailed.

Law brings a wonderfully full and expressive character. His maturation as an actor really shows here and I found myself very drawn into his character. All the other actors we OK including; Ben Mendelsohn, Tobias Menzies, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Michael Smiley, Karl Davies, and Konstantin Khabenskiy. Dennis Kelly wrote the plodding script. Kevin Macdonald directed this, and as with most underwater movies, it was dark.

Overall:  Law was the film.