No Escape

First Hit:  It was an OK story with better than average acting.

The Dwyer family moves to a country bordering Vietnam (could have been Cambodia or Laos). Jack (Owen Wilson) is moving his wife Annie (Lake Bell) and two girls Lucy (Sterling Jerins) and Beeze (Claire Geare) to their new home because it is the only job he can get. The job, he believes, is helping the country’s water purification system and so he believes he's doing good for others.

On the first night, a coup breaks out killing the country’s Prime Minister. The ensuing chaos has the rebel citizens killing foreigners, especially anyone who is associated with the water company Jack works for. The rebels attack the hotel, killing almost everyone and now Jack and his family are in danger of being killed.

The rest of the film has the Dwyer family running for their lives and being assisted by Hammond (Pierce Brosnan) who is an English intelligence agent. The scenes of the streets and alleyways in this unnamed city are perfect. All of them had the right feel. Having spent a lot of time in Asia, I was happy to not see manufactured vistas or an inaccurate beautified view.

I thought the plot needed a little working, by providing a little more background of the coup as well as the Jack’s previous work. I did think the director created the right amount of intensity in this full movie chase. The most insightful scene to mark Jack and Annie’s relationship was when Annie, being sad and unhappy, tells Jack that she cannot help him feel better about their being away from their Austin home.

Wilson was good, although there were a couple of moments, I sensed his laissez faire persona creep through. Bell was superb. I thought she held the film together. Jerins and Geare were really good and realistic in their roles. Brosnan was amusing in his role and it worked. John Erick and Drew Dowdle wrote the script. As previously mentioned, I thought there were strong points and some missing background. John Erick Dowdle directed this films and given the probable limited budget did a great job of creating intensity.

Overall:  The film was entertaining and Bell was the strongest of the characters.

The Gift

First Hit:  The audience has moments of being shocked and the point of the film, impact of bullying, is well made.

The set-up is that a couple has moved from Chicago to LA. Simon (Jason Bateman) because of a new job opportunity and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) because as a designer she can work from anywhere and that they lost a baby while in Chicago.

The story and script try to have you believe that she’s gets too anxious and may be struggling and as the film moves on, you find out differently. The seed for the story heading a different way from the setup is Gordo (Joel Edgerton) a hold high school buddy of Simons.

There is tension during each interaction and as it builds the actual reasons for the tension become known towards the film’s ending. The misdirection is handled fairly well and the script (by Edgerton) is filled with hanging truths.

Bateman is really good as being the man who wants to take care of his wife and does this a little too strongly. Hall is excellent as portraying a level of dependency to her husband, but also with and empathy and compassion for Gordo to inquire why he is the way he is. Edgerton is really strong as the affected man who continues to deal with the events of his high school days. He carries and expresses the burdens he obtained from his earlier years very well. Edgerton wrote a strong script and did a good job of directing the actors, including himself.

Overall:  I enjoyed suspense created in this film and appreciated the point of the film about bullying even more. 

The Stanford Prison Experiment

First Hit:  A puzzling and difficult film to watch. The behavior changes shown by both the prisoners and guards in the mock prison experiment was astounding.

This film is based on a true event in the summer of 1971 where Dr. Philip Zimbardo (Played by Billy Crudup) set up and ran a prison experiment in a basement of a Stanford University campus building. I sat mostly flabbergasted at the scientists running this experiment, the prisoners, and the guards behaviors. This was supposed to be a two week project where the subjects were given $15 a day to either be a prison guard or a prisoner.

The choice was made by a coin flip by Dr. Philip Zimbardo the guy who conceived and ran the experiment. Although I wasn’t there, and this is a film reenactment, this experiment needed to be stopped far short of the 6 days it lasted. The behavior of Dr. Zimbardo was filled with power and it took him 6 days to realize that he had became part of the experiment and problem. The men who were selected as guards almost to the person found that power over others was intoxicating. This behavior I found less shocking.

However, I was really shocked at how quickly the prisoners fell into such subservient positions to the guards. This film was difficult to watch and I wasn’t the only one. The audible gasps in the audience assuaged my own gasps and nervous laughs.

Crudup was strong as the ego driven psychology professor. Nelsan Ellis as the former San Quentin prisoner, Jesse Fletcher, who was monitoring the experiment was outstanding. All the prisoners and guards were great and made it seem like this is how it could have happened. Strong performances – all. Tim Talbott wrote this powerful script. Kyle Patrick Alvarez expertly directed this film.

Overall:  This film was fascinating and difficult to watch.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

First Hit:  This film was action packed although it did not unnecessarily make much sense – but who cares – it's really fun to watch.

Each MI film is a stretch of the imagination and Rogue Nation continues the tradition. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) never plays by the rules because he knows better than any other character in the film. And as obnoxious as that is, it works really well.

Cruise makes statements so strong and with such confidence that certainty of his plan or statements are never questioned, despite the strong smart people on his team. In this film in the opening scenes (which is also in the trailer), he grabs on to the side of a plane taking off so that he can get inside and foil the bad guys who are transporting poisonous gas. His crew William (Jeremy Renner), Benji (Simon Pegg), and Luther (Ving Rhames) are here again and with the introduction of Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) as an English agent representative working the same sort of case.

The villain they are after is Atlee (Simon McBurney) who portrays an evil doer looking for a huge payoff. The action scenes are not so elongated that the audience tires, yet the film is filled with them. The chase scenes are long and short enough to capture interest. The quips by the MI team are well thought out. Is this film filled with award winning performances? No. Is the storyline one for the ages? No. Yet the film works and is very fun to watch.

Cruise is easy to watch. He’s competent at making the audience think and believe he’s the character. Cruise does intense and action well. Simon Pegg is funny and good as the head support guy in the MI group. Renner is OK in a more subdued role and delivers what is required from the part. Ferguson is strong as an English counterpart to Cruise. Rhames is OK is a small and important part. McBurney was good as the villain. Christopher McQuarrie wrote a strong action script and did a really good job of directing this action film.

Overall:  This is a fun action film.

San Andreas (3-D)

First Hit:  Some of the visual effects were awesome even if improbable, the rest was mediocre.

To be frank, the storyline was extremely implausible. As pointed out by the experts, the San Andreas fault would not create the type of crevasses as depicted in this film. Neither would the tsunami that picks up a large cruise ship and tosses it against, and breaks, the Golden Gate Bridge.

Despite the unreal depictions, the way they were presented was fun in 3-D. I loved the rolling ground during the earthquake. However the helicopter scenes where they fly between the falling buildings of LA were not believable.

As for the characters, they were subsets to the whole film. Although Ray (Dwayne Johnson) with his huge physic did what he could, he and the rest of the characters couldn’t compete with the visual graphics. I was also highly suspect of Ray’s ability to fly the helicopter and borrowed airplane, with his wife Emma (Carla Gugino) from LA to SF during this type of catastrophe to save their daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario).

Johnson did his best to be as big and dynamic as the visual effects of the earthquakes. It just wasn’t a possible task. Paul Giamatti (Lawrence) as the scientist who figures out how to predict the huge quake came off as odd. At one point he seems unhinged and at other times clearly in-charge. Gugino as Johnson’s wife was good, but competing with the effects was just not possible. The best acting was done by Daddario because many of her scenes are more human oriented and not based solely against special effects. She showed both vulnerability and strength that worked with the two English boys she was helping. Carlton Cuse wrote an unbelievable screen play which was not based on actual science. Brad Payton did a wonderful job of putting in lots of effects, but as far as directing a believable film – it didn’t work.

Overall:  Go to watch the effects, just don’t expect much in the way of realism from the story or actors.