Passengers

First Hit:  This was an enjoyable film with wonderful visual effects and three actors and a director that made it work.

Not only was the overall film enjoyable, I walked away thinking would I sign up for a space journey like the one they were on?

To ask this question meant to me that I bought into the premise of the film that 5,000-people signed up to be put to hibernation for 120 years, loaded onto a spaceship so that they could travel to a distant habitable plant, Homestead II, and start a new life. I’d do it in a heartbeat because it would be interesting to see what people bring to the table and the reasons why they would take this risk. It would also give me a chance to use what I’ve learned to assist in the growth of a new society.

On the way to this distant planet, the starship “Avalon” passes through a massive meteor shower and collides with a very large meteor. The ship gets damaged and although it does its best to repair itself, the system overrides cause additional errors to begin, grow, and cascade. This is gets communicated to the audience by giving them a peek into the Avalon's control bridge holographic visuals of the ship's status.

The damage releases the hibernation sequence in one of the pods and wakes Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) 90 years early. At first, he’s really confused as he wanders the ships massive corridors and meeting rooms only to find out that he’s the only one alive. He makes attempts to re-hibernate himself but learns that it is not possible. He tries to break into the hibernating crew quarters but to no avail. His only friend is a robot bartender named Arthur (Michael Sheen).

After about a year of loneliness and frustration and realizing that he will live the rest of his life alone on this spaceship, he decides to wake a fellow passenger whom he thinks is attractive and interesting. Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), the person he wakes up, is a creative writer and when she shares her storyline, as to why she made the choice to go on this adventure, it is beautifully expressed.

The struggle for Jim is that he is also giving her the same death sentence he has by waking her. Again, this provides provocative questions:  Would you wake up another person? Would you tell them that you did this?

The visual effects are well done with a few being outstanding. I liked the views of space, the interior shots of the ship, when they venture outside the ship on tethers, and I was especially impressed with the scene when gravity is lost while Aurora is in the swimming pool. I liked the romance that these two created as it wasn't rushed and left to develop nicely with breath of spaciousness.

This story is unique which also adds to this movie’s appeal. When they discover the ship is dying and they have to try to fix it or the remaining passengers and crew will die, the film shifts into another gear.

Pratt was very good and probably the best role I’ve seen him in. His naturally humorous nature was used judiciously while his caring intensity was kept in check. Lawrence was mesmerizing. She has a way with her voice that allows her to seem both intelligent and sultry at the same time. It is a great combination. Sheen was fantastic as the droid bartending robot. His subtle and human nature spiced with robotic witticisms was perfect. Laurence Fishburne as Gus Mancuso a crewmember that also gets mistakenly awakened was good in this minor role. Jon Spaihts wrote a very strong script that incorporated humor, dramatic elements and a great backdrop. Morten Tyldum had a firm and confident grip on directing the actors, storyline and visuals.

Overall:  This was a very entertaining film in all ways.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (3-D)

First Hit:  A very long, overly complicated, saga that makes little or no sense and is a waste of 151 minutes.

To make a film where Superman/Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) and Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) meet each other, let alone go to war with each other is a flawed concept because each are heroes in their own towns.

The film begins with a very convoluted sequence of scenes that attempts to build a story. It doesn't do this well. The strongest acting and segments of this film include Jesse Eisenberg (as Lex Luthor) because he’s actually interesting. That we have “Gotham” and “Metropolis” just across the river from each other is even more ridiculous.

Somehow a government Senate committee led by Senator Finch (Holly Hunter) is investigating Superman’s unfettered and unguided way he decides whom to help and when. Given that he is indestructible (faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful that a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…) the government wants to have more control about his deeds. The motivation for Batman's actions against Superman is that he believes that when Superman saved the human race from aliens, his actions hurt his family’s business and all the people inside the family's building that was destroyed.

In the meantime Luther is doing his best to stir the pot because he knows that getting rid of Superman, he’ll have more power. The film also finds a ridiculous way to introduce Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot).

That the resolution to Batman and Superman’s disagreement ludicrously comes because their mothers’ shared the same name (Martha) seemed far fetched and was telegraphed from the opening scenes in the film.

Cavill is OK as the stiff, socially uncomfortable, other worldly and powerful Superman. Affleck was interesting as the brooding Batman. Many of Batman’s fight scenes seemed stilted with Affleck’s lack of smooth movement. Hunter was wasted in this unneeded role. Eisenberg was perfectly manic, intense, and strong as the antagonist. Gadot was somewhat interesting as Wonder Woman. Laurence Fishburne was wasted in his role of Perry White managing editor of the Daily Planet. Amy Adams was sincerely doing her best in the role of Lois Lane. Jeremy Irons was OK as Alfred, Batman’s gentlemen's gentleman. Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer wrote this absurdly convoluted script that was created only to draw box office receipts. There was no effort to make an interesting film. Zack Snyder directed this mess.

Overall:  All told, the story, the direction, and much of the acting was poorly fabricated and executed.

Contagion

First Hit: Interesting, scary, overcomplicated stories and created questions of realism.

What would happen if a new disease came to this world that had a high R 0 factor (R Naught). Although it was explained as a primary part of the film, it wasn’t reinforced enough throughout the film for me to understand the some of the dialogue they used later.

From what I understood a high R Naught means that for every one person who dies multiple more will die. Anyway this was just one of the confusing things in this film. Then I kept having questions while the celluloid rolled. If they created a contagious area, sealed it off a whole city, who would man the electric power stations? Who controls all the other social utilities if the city (Chicago) is dying from a disease?

And although the film-makers showed a society degenerating by having people breaking into banks, grocery stores, and pharmacies; I kept wondering who’s running the electrical grid. Anyway, outside of the problems in this film because it compromised the way society would breakdown with this disease, it did bring up great questions about what would happen if a devastating disease struck the world.

Beth (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) is ground zero for this disease (we discover this at the end of the film). She stops on her way home and has a quickie with an ex-boyfriend (why was this important?), comes home to her husband Mitch (played by Matt Damon), who ends up being immune to the disease but her son isn’t and both the son and wife die.

The film includes the involvement of the WHO and a bunch of other agencies which lets us know that this is important and out of control. The way the WHO and the US Government methodically find a cure and plan how to immunize a lot of people was interesting, but overall this film tried to make drama in too many places which dissipated the energy of the film. I would have rather stayed with just a few of the people and not try to give us so much about so many.

One of the opening scenes when they cut Beth’s scull open to analyze her death, I found myself cringing but ready for a film that would be more focused, it fell off the table and became a different film from there.

Paltrow has a small but critical part because she is ground zero. Damon was good as the caring father. Marion Cotillard as Dr. Orantes was very good and probably did the best acting in this film. Jude Law was very good at playing a blogger named Alan Krumwiede as someone who was skeptical of the government’s action on the disease but he was worse in his lying to his public. Laurence Fishburne was OK as Dr. Cheever and I really thought the story was overplayed when he gave his wife a heads up to leave Chicago. There were lots of other actors but this film didn’t require it and in fact dissipated its energy. Scott Z. Burns wrote the script and made it too complicated by adding lots of strong parts. Steven Soderbergh directed this film and, to me, it needed simplification in some areas to create a more powerful effect.

Overall: This was a good film but too many stories with big time actors dissipated the strength of the idea.

Armored

First Hit: This story is almost unwatchable and you know the end before 10 minutes has gone by.

Matt Dillon plays Mike the self appointed ring leader of a group of armored truck security guards. Some of the crew are Jean Reno playing "Quinn" and Laurence Fishburne playing "Baines".

Mike is the godfather to Ty (played by Columbus Short) who has just joined the crew. He has a younger brother named Jimmy (played by Andre Kinney) and they are struggling.

Ty is a Iraq Vet who is viewed as a hero but he doesn't see it that way, their parents have recently died, and the house they are living in is about to be taken back by the bank. Mike primes Ty with stories about a successful armored truck robbery and then springs on him that he and the crew are about to rob one of their trucks. Ty reluctantly goes along with the promise from Mike, “no one gets hurt”.

Well we know what happens and Ty has to make a choice.

Dillion isn’t old enough looking in the film to be Ty’s godfather. Reno and Fishburne play heavys which they can easily do and appear to be doing this film for the paychecks. The plot is well worn and the ending telegraphed.

Overall: Definitely don’t spend money to watch this film as there is really nothing to watch.

21

First Hit: The film started out well. In fact I enjoyed the premise of a young strong mind finding traction in the hot fast world of gaming, however at some point it turned more towards being unbelievable or false.

Based on a true story, Jim Sturgess plays Ben a young bright MIT student doing what he can to enter Harvard Medical School.

In one scene he is meeting with a Harvard representative who is telling him that to receive an all paid trip to Medical School on a grant, he must have, besides perfect school and test scores, a dazzling life experience story to tell.

The rep wants to be dazzled. Ben walks away dejected because his life has been all study and no play he doesn’t have any life experiences to dazzle the Harvard rep, nor does he have the $300,000 it takes to pay for school.

During a class taught by Professor Micky Rosa (played by Kevin Spacey), Ben impresses Mickey with an answer to a math problem. Upon further questioning by the professor Ben impresses the whole class with his thought process and brilliance.

Days later Ben is invited to sit in a meeting with the Professor and some students who have created a team that counts cards in 21 and plays for money in Las Vegas on the weekends.

They want him to join the team because they lost one of their players. On this team is the girl of his dreams Jill Taylor (played by Kate Bosworth). Although it tempting as a way to pay for school he initially declines their offer.

Jill comes to see him and he is finally convinced to try this but sets a limit that he is only there to win $300,000 for his tuition and after that he is out.

At this point the film starts telegraphing itself with the high life he gets caught into while gambling in Las Vegas. After a few trips, he finds himself to be really good at the game and starts to think he is better than the rules set up by the team.

At one point he disregards the signals by his team members and ends up losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although counting cards is not illegal, casinos don’t like it and anyone suspected of counting gets a reminder that counting is not tolerated.

Ben gets his lesson from Laurence Fishburne who has strong feelings against card counters and as we find out Professor Rosa.

Overall: This was an entertaining film, more at the beginning than at the end where the real character seemed to get lost. Some of the gambling scenes are great.