The Skeleton Twins

The Skeleton Twins - 93 Min - R

I wanted to see this in the theater but din't get a chance.  This is a great film. and you should add it to your lists.  See my review on Web Wombat.

Spy

Spy - 120min - R

I have been a Melissa McCarthy fan for a while. I absolutely love her but her movies are a different story. Even in her worst film I have found her performances to be good. In Spy, she has found her vehicle. This movie is outstanding. It gives her a believable edge and makes this plus size superstar into an action heroine without playing the action for laughs. They address her size but it's never the brunt of the joke unless its calling out the absurdity of the stereotypes. She kicks ass and I hope that they make more of these because this is a franchise I would want to see more of.

Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is a support person in the CIA office and she supports handsome and debonaire but also douchey James Bond-type field agent, Bradley Fine (Jude Law). She performed well in training but was pulled in by the charms of agent Fine to stay behind the scenes and help him. She harbors a crush on Fine and when he gets killed she is forced into the field to find his killer.

The filmmakers could have gone for the easy joke and made McCarthy's body type the main joke in this film but they don't. They do address the absurdity of underestimating her range with each cover story being a cat lady who is a retired lunch lady or the divorced mother of three kids who has won a trip to Europe. The mission takes a turn and she needs to step up her game and persona and becomes just as influential and beautiful as her dashing counterparts. After spending the first part of the mission in frumpy old lady cloths she has to infiltrate a casino so she goes to the store and dresses the part and she looks stunning. Wearing a stunning evening gown she waltzes into the casino and carries on the mission.

Jason Statham plays Rick Ford, a field agent who is completely a loose cannon. He plays the baboonish, bully chauvinist pig really well. He adds just enough tension to the scenes with McCarthy to cause her problems without ruining the mission. His motivation is to find Fine's killer but goes against what HQ says and makes it his personal mission to solve this case before McCarthy can. As a comedic tool (I mean that in both senses of the word), he does an outstanding job of making those pig headed ideas seem as absurd as they are in real life. And it's nice to see Statham have light fun with a role.

The Director (Paul Feig) has again proven he has great sense of comedic timing and the ability to tell a great story. He is an experienced actor in his own right. I think it translates well to getting the best performances from his team. This one and Bridesmaids are some stand out films for him as a director.

The trailers do this movie a disservice. They play up some of the obvious body image jokes that are only a small portion of this film. I have said this before that the team who makes the trailers are trying to get people in the door. It's a shame that the film seems so shallow from the trailers because there is so much more going on here.

Is there a performer that you absolutely love and continue to love even if they are in some stinker films?

The Warriors

The Warriors - 92 min - R

Movies seen when you are young may not stand up to age and time. This is a movie that I loved when I was a kid, Not so much as an adult but I sympathies with what the film wanted to be so I couldn't actually give it a red. See what i wrote on Web Wombat.  

Mad Max - Fury Road

Mad Max:Fury Road  - 120min - R

I know this movie is getting a lot of love from reviewers and viewers and I did enjoy most of it. It seems like the further and longer into the wasteland you travel the more unusual the bad guys get.  There is no doubt this is a high-octane, high-adrenaline, pedal-to-the-metal, no-holds-barred action movie. Action gets high marks, beautifully done. The grown up in me starts to ask questions and ruins the magic a little. I am forced to give this movie a yellow light to accommodate both sides of me.

I am trying to come up with a way to describe what they did to the story line here. It's a sequel but a reboot. Would that be a se-boot or a re-quel? They retcon the history so we are starting fresh.  I am unsure of where this fits in now because of the changes to the timeline but he still has his car and its running so it must have been before the Thunderdome.  But he is now not just a loner who is mourning the loss of his family he now has his demons haunting him with faces of lots of people we have never seen. Tom Hardy is certainly the new Max. He walks into the role like he has been performing it for years.

The reflex action that causes Maxes hand to flinch up seems a bit contrite we have never seen that action before. It seems a bit forced into the story for plot reasons and we now are seeing the emotional weight that Max is carrying around. I think it was more implied in previous movies and now they are busting out and he is now seeing things.

The introduction of Furiosa is outstanding. Charlize Theron does an excellent job bringing this new character to life with strength and compassion. She is just as powerful on screen as Max. I would even go so far as to say I'd watch the hell out of a movie focused on her struggle with creating a society around the ruins of the one they took over. She is interesting where so many of the side characters in the past haven't been.  

I start to wonder about logistics on how they survive in a land where so many things have disappeared. The spray cans of chrome paint they were spraying on themselves when they were about to die. Death comes hard and fast in the wasteland so really they have a huge supply of silver spray paint? Admittedly everyone else would have been getting the food, water and ammunition it was lucky for Immortal Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) to think "Crap I need to get as many of the little chrome paint cans for my minions in the fanatical army I am going to make."

Cirque du Soleil seem to find work after the apocalypse and that is where you might wonder how cool is too cool.  Most of those shots were all done with vehicles that were standing still and the CGI motion and that is outstanding and way safer than having a rolling fight on the trucks. The guitar player in front of the wall of speakers, you know the blind one with a flame thrower guitar. Yes cool looking but again distracting.  He was playing his ass off for the two to three days they were on the road. That is some serious playing but very silly.

If you are going to see this movie leave your adult taste at the door and don't over think this movie. It is nothing but eye candy. Pure, unadulterated eye candy and it doesn't need a reason.

Did you like this movie if so why? Are we rehashing old properties because we have run out of stories?