Delayed Reaction: The Island

The Pitch: Logan's Run except for organ harvesting.

How I Came Into It: The summer was 2005. I was fresh from graduating from high school and excited to see the last Star Wars movie ever*. And I wasn't going to see it once. I was going to see it many times. Many, many times. It was my way of showing respect to my fandom. An unintended consequence of seeing Revenge of the Sith the 12ish times that I did was that I'd be seeing the same trailers a lot. That meant a lot of Fantastic Four, a lot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and probably more The Island than anything else. As a result, this movie has hung over me like an old friend who I've never met. Coincidentally enough, this was also the second to last movie that I had left on my Michael Bay bingo (the other movie being that 13 Hours movie that came out this year that I can't prove isn't the same thing as Lone Survivor).

*Ok, even at the time I knew there'd be more Star Wars movies. I figured I'd have to wait for George Lucas to die or at least a couple decades for him to finally let someone else take the reins. Regardless, I knew it was going to be a while.

Why I Saw It: Give me Ewan McGreggor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi, Sean Bean, and Michael Clark Duncan and I'm happy. That's the kind of cast that I'll investigate with pleasure. For all the shit people give Michael Bay, he knows how to make things explode and his movies aren't boring...

Why I Wish I Hadn't: ...This was close though. The dystipian story is entirely borrowed and without enough new wrinkles to make it feel fresh. The action scenes feel more obligatory than needed for the story, which is interesting enough on its own. I'm used to Bay's happiness to include product placement by now, but it can still get pretty distracting. If not for two truly god-awful Transformers sequels (for the record, I love the first movie and liked the third), this would be my least favorite Michael Bay movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Sunset Boulevard

The Pitch: A down on his luck screenwriter becomes the kept man of an aging Hollywood starlet.

How I Came Into It: I knew it for the reasons anyone knows it: the quotes. I'll fully admit that the exact cast and plot I had confused with a number of other movies (specifically, The Seven Year Itch). This is constantly rated among the best American films ever made. Normally, those don't disappoint.

Why I Saw It: I watch a lot of movies and TV and one of the biggest trends, especially in TV, is the Hollywood satire: Stories where actors play themselves or that follow the staff of a show or movie set. It's all very "inside baseball". For every 30 Rock, there's a dozen Studio 60s. In film, Sunset Blvd. may be the very best Hollywood satire ever made. It was so refreshing to see it done right for a change. The script is incredible. It somehow manages being both film noir and also a comedy without undercutting either. Gloria Swanson is a force to be reckoned with. William Holden plays it cool. Erich von Stroheim's devotion is both tragic and funny. 

Why I Wish I Hadn't: My first viewing was such a delight that I wasn't really focused on what I didn't enjoy. I'll need some future viewings (which are certain to happen) to really sink my teeth into this.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend

One Big Leap

I use the phrase One Big Leap a lot when talking about movies. Especially when discussing what didn't work. I'm getting tired of explaining it every time, so I'll explain it here.

"One Big Leap" refers to the one big leap of faith that I'll give a movie when I'm watching it. After that leap, it needs to make sense. This could also be looked at as a movie following internal logic. Given the world of the story, does everything else make sense? It's not a difficult concept and I use it as a blanket term. I think it's easier to explain with a couple examples.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 fails pretty miserably at this. Obviously, it's one big leap to say that there's a world where heroes and villains like Spider-Man can exist. Given that, there's no reason why in the city of New York every major character happens to know each other. They need to lay more pipe for, say Gwen to just happen to date Spider-Man and know Electro personally from work.

Serendipity doesn't actually fail the test in my mind. The whole point of that movie is that Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack are fated to be reunited, so all the close calls and near misses are tied to the same big leap. If there was no talk of destiny or chance in the movie, then it would fail badly due to so many contrivances for them not to meet again until the end.

Coincidence, contrivance, and misunderstanding are all things that build up. If the movie requires a character's cell phone battery to die at the worst time, that's fine. If the movie requires two unconnected characters to lose their phones in order to setup a meet-cute (I'm looking at you, Before We Go), that's less acceptable.

Movies that rely on characters repeatedly phrasing something in a way that no human talks in order to keep a miscommunication going that the rest of the movie hinges on is bad writing. That fails.

I hope that explains what I mean. One big leap is a shorthand for saying "I don't like bad writing". This isn't an exact science either. Most movies have small gaffs. Look at something like Superbad. Trying to track Officers Michaels and Slater's timeline working together makes no sense. None of that is important to the plot, so I don't really care.

If I can remember to, I'll keep a log of any time I run into this in movies from now on.

Movie Reaction: Lights Out

Formula: It Follows + Darkness

I love horror movies but I'm picky. I have certain styles that I prefer over others (I'm a well documented sucker for found footage). I prefer being unsettled over being surprised  (i.e. long term vs. short term scares). I don't like characters being stupid who I'm meant to take seriously. I like when the filmmaker plays to his or her strengths. Lights Out is fine, but it falls out of my preference for horror.

It's a simple enough movie. Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) is a 20-something girl with Avenged Sevenfold posters in her apartment (She's edgy). She has a boyfriend, Bret (Alexander DiPersia) who she refuses to admit she's in a relationship with. She has a mother, Sophie (Maria Bello) who she tries not to deal with even though she has a young brother, Martin (Gabriel Bateman), who she cares deeply about. Rebecca is pulled back into her mother's life after Martin gets in trouble at school for sleeping. Martin isn't sleeping because at night, there's a woman he sees in the darkness who terrifies him, but his mother doesn't seem to mind the woman. Both children start seeing the woman more and realize that she disappears in the light. That's about as much as I can say before spoiling the story, but, needless to say, the woman wants to hurt people.

There's a lot of things the film does right. For one, it's short. That's great for horror. The longer the movie, the harder it is to stay scary. This is a clever idea too: an evil woman who can only move in the dark. It plays on some primal fears and makes for a great movie trailer. When the movie is just about what happens to characters in the shadows, it's genuinely scary and director David. F. Sandberg is most engaged there. A smaller note that I loved, which is maybe a slight spoiler, is that the mother has legitimate mental problems. Most movies like this would have Bello's character's time in the mental hospital be the caused by the dark woman. Nope. She has problems with depression (possibly more) before anything with this dark woman. She's not magically cured at the end by getting the dark lady to go away.

Sadly, I had more problems with the film than things that I liked. It doesn't trust the audience at all, which annoyed me. For example, if there's a bunch of stuff clearly written on the wall, you don't have to have a character read it out loud. I really have issue with sensible characters being really stupid. I get that when someone is surprised or in a panic, it's hard to think straight, but when you've had hours to plan, you shouldn't be forgetting things like cranking a flashlight when it's the only thing keeping you alive. Things like that take me out of the movie. It's lazy, plot-driving thinking. It's doesn't feel like  the screenwriter wrote himself into any corners that he had to work to get out of ("Event X happens because I want event Y to happen", not "Event X happens because it makes sense for the character"). I also had some major questions about the rules of this universe. It seems like the limitations on the dark woman change depending on what works best for a specific scene. Does she only appear in the darkness or is she hiding from the darkness? It switches throughout the film.

I'm not the best audience for this, and I accept that. People get different things out of movies and that's especially true with horror movies. A lot of the problems that I immediately zeroed in on are things that don't matter at all to others. For anyone looking to be scared and surprised, there's a lot to enjoy in Lights Out. Maria Bello's performance is very solid and the story moves at a decent pace. If you are the type of person who is going to pick at the details, avoid this. If you are just looking for some decent scares, turn off the lights and enjoy.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Adult Beginners

The Pitch: Failed businessman brother moves in with suburban sister's family.

How I Came Into It: Nick Kroll is a divisive performer. He's similar to Sacha Baron Cohen. I flat out dislike him when he's performing things that he wrote, doing standup, and especially playing any of his characters. But, if he's just playing a guy, like in The League, I enjoy him. Given that, I didn't know what to expect from Adult Beginners. Kroll is a producer and has a "story by" credit. He didn't write the screenplay though and he is just playing a guy.

Why I Saw It: If you put Rose  Byne in a TV show or movie, I'm going to see it. That's what it comes down to. That's how I see Annie in theaters. That's how I end up seeing I Give It a Year. It helps to get me in the Theater for This Is Where I Leave You and The Internship. I only knew who Hugh Dancy was before watching Hannibal because I Netflixed Adam for Rose Byrne. I've seen every episode of Damages (even the DirectTV era). I'm already looking for The Meddler on Netflix, and she's why I'll probably end up seeing something called The Rage in Placid Lake one day.
...So, I liked Rose Byrne in this. No surprise there. She has a potentially unlikable role and adds likability to it that isn't on the page. I forgot how much I could like Bobby Cannavale. He's normally cast as a villain (Spy), an antihero who is more "anti" than "hero" (Vinyl), or a sort of irritant (Ant-Man). In this, he's just a nice guy who does some stupid things. It's a good use of him. Kroll is fine. I can't say much more than that. His character is pretty prickly and Kroll isn't quite lovable enough to make it work. Fine will have to do.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Where is the Indie Movie Handbook and where can I burn it? There's always the dead parent who derailed at least one child's life or a cheating husband or a family member who escaped the family for the big city. If you need proof that it's all one big formula, I was just describing This Is Where I Leave You, not Adult Beginners.

One Last Thought: Paula Garces is looking good for 40. She's in the Kelly Hu club of people who could still play someone in their 20s for a longer time than they were actually in their 20s.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Before We Go

The Pitch: Chris Evans and Alice Eve do a Before Sunrise in New York.

How I Came Into It: It took me off guard when I heard that Chris Evans directed this (in his directorial debut). I like Chris Evans. I just didn't expect this. He's still pretty young. He's very busy these days. Also, there's something about needing to stay in superhero shape that makes me assume someone wouldn't have any time for anything else.

Why I Saw It: Chris Evans and Alice Eve are both actors I've liked in the past. It's not at all difficult to see them as two people who would hit it off. Even when done poorly, I'm a sucker for the Before model. I like that it's a no-frills story. It's mostly the two leads walking and talking. Most days, that's all I really need. There's enough moments that work between Evans and Eve that I don't regret watching this. And, I don't know if it was pulled from something else, but I loved the line "Why is it that any one decision always seems too small to be the biggest decision in your life?", even if I can imagine the screenwriter smugly patting himself on the back when he came up with it.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: This bends over backwards to move the story along in the desired direction. There is very little that's allowed to happen naturally. The story works hard to create circumstances to bring and keep these two together. Any time a movie relies on a phone dying and a purse being stolen to move into a story, that's a tough amount of contrivance to overcome. Even later on, things like being confused for the band or the fortune teller being "open" in the middle of the night are just too convenient. There's a disconnect between how grounded the movie is trying to be and the over-eventfulness of the plot. I'd like to think that Evans and Eve are good enough to pull this movie off without the plot getting in the way so much.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Sunshine Cleaning

The Pitch: Two troubled sisters start a crime scene cleanup business.

How I Came Into It: Amy Adams AND Emily Blunt. That's a pairing I can't resist. Any casual examination of this blog would tell you that my movie selections can be more than a little driven by my numerous celebrity crushes. And this movie has two of them!

Why I Saw It: It's not like Adams and Blunt are just pretty faces. I like seeing them in movies because they are good at what they do. So, no surprise, they are both strong in this. Their characters could really rub me the wrong way with actresses who are any less talented. Adams and Blunt add nuance which isn't there otherwise. And their rapport with one another is great.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: My normal complaint with indie movies is that they normally feel like short stories, not novels. They are often snapshots rather than portraits. Sunshine Cleaning isn't quite that. If anything, there's too much. There's the cleaning, Adams and the married man, Blunt and Mary Lynn Rajskub, Adams and the one-armed man, Alan Arkin and the failed businesses, the kid's behavioral issues, the radio to the heavens, and the mom's movie. Only some of that landed.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Movie Reaction: Star Trek Beyond

Formula: Star Trek + Star Trek: Insurrection

It's really hard to please old and new audiences at the same time. That's been the biggest hurdle of this rebooted Star Trek franchise. Many of the things that the hardcore fans love about Star Trek fly in the face of your standard blockbusters. That makes sense. It was a TV show first, after all, which rarely translates to film. In fact, the current franchise is an outlier in that it's the first time that the movies aren't using the cast from a TV series. They've had two movies to build up what previously took entire seasons. So, director Justin Lin and screenwriters Simon Pegg and Doug Jung have made Star Trek Beyond work the best way they could: by making an episodic movie.

Most blockbusters these days are obsessed with building a larger story. Instead of sequels, they have installments. Watching many of them is like running into an ellipses in mid sentence ("Iron Man saved the day until..."). Beyond, on the other hand, is just another adventure. It builds on the relationships established in the previous movies, but there's no end game that this is building toward. The movie is the movie. I loved that. They could make no more movies or they could make 20 more and it wouldn't really matter for this movie.

Beyond starts in the middle of the Enterprise's five year mission. Kirk (Chris Pine) and the crew are getting restless. While they are constantly going on adventures, those adventures are all starting to feel the same. While on a break at the Federation base called Yorktown, an unmarked ship arrives with a lone survivor from an attack on a research ship. Kirk and the crew take the Enterprise to a remote planet, and, let's just say things don't go well. The crew is divided and stuck on this remote planet, trying to escape from a local warlord called Krall (Idris Elba, unrecognizable under pounds of makeup). They have to find a way to get back to Yorktown and put a stop to Krall.

It's not complex stuff. It sounds like any one of a dozen episodes of Star Trek and relies on more than a few contrivances. There's a few parts of the story that are arranged kind of clunky in order to reveal a twist or two at a better time. That left me confused in a couple places, thinking I'd missed something. It is what it is though. I'm fine with that. The important part is that the relationships are right.

Splitting a familiar group into less familiar pairings, as happens in Beyond, is hardly anything new, but when the characters are all well established, there's a lot of fun to it. The Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban) buddy comedy is easily the best thing about the movie. I don't really remember their rapport in the previous installments, but it is on point throughout the movie. Kirk and Chekov (Anton Yelchin, RIP) have a boss-and-assistant feel to their scenes. Scotty (Pegg) ends up with a native of the planet, Jaylah (Sofia Boutelle), who nicely fills the exposition-dump/spirit-guide function. I would've liked a little more with Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana), but I understand that with so many characters, it's tough to balance than all. Idris Elba felt a little wasted under that costume. He's a good villain for what is needed. Nothing about it needed someone of Elda's caliber though.

After all the secrecy surrounding JJ Abrams' movies (Especially the "I swear it's not Khan" of Into Darkness) it was nice how much Justin Lin let the movie breathe. Since the story isn't that involved, there's plenty of room to make this into the kind of action movie you'd expect from the director of Fast and Furious movies (and I mean that in a good way). There are spaceship battles, hand to hand combat, gun fights, and motorcycle runs. I don't see how anyone could get bored watching this. One music cue in particular is one of my favorite movie moments of the last year. It's silly and fun and cool and I ate it up.

So far, this summer has been about movies preparing me for what's coming up next or seeing if there's any ideas left for a dying property. Star Trek Beyond confidently side-steps that by showing what it can do right now and delivering an exciting and entertaining 2 hours. 

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Final Girl

The Pitch: Teenage girl Jason Bourne.

How I Came Into It: I don't know. I'm pretty sure when Abigail Breslin showed up on Scream Queens, I wondered what she'd been up to the last couple years. When I looked her up on Netflix, I added this. Or maybe I confused it with Barely Lethal or Sucker Punch.

Why I Saw It: It's a really effective pitch. The story is simple which leaves a lot of room for executional flair.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: ...except the movie lacked any flair. I'm not sure what writer/director Tyler Shield's vision was for this. What is supposed to set this apart? The stunt work and fight choreography is pretty unsophisticated. The characters are generic-weird (if that's a thing). The dialogue isn't all that clever. It isn't shot in an interesting way. I understand that this is Shield's debut feature, but with a movie like this, I should come away knowing something that he specializes in. It's hard for me to even give this a rating, because what it really deserves is an incomplete. All that said, I didn't dislike it. It was too short and harmless to watch to dislike it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: To Kill a Mockingbird

The Pitch: Remember that book you read in middle school?

How I Came Into It: Technically, I have seen this before, years ago. I think I was in 8th grade. I make exceptions with my Delayed Reactions for movies that I saw way before I could appreciate the richness. Besides, I barely remembered anything about the story.

Why I Saw It: I have to begin with Gregory Peck. I'm pretty sure that's a law. When anyone talks about To Kill A Mockingbird, that person must begin with Peck. His Atticus Finch is widely considered one of the greatest heroes in American film. And that's completely deserved. He's an idealistic hero. These days, we seem to need the good guys to be compromised or conflicted. It's refreshing to not have that. He's just good.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I remember some things about the book. I know it's the product of the times, but they sure did talk around a lot of things, like the nature of the crime. In context it makes sense, so really, I'm just struggling to find a reason to take issue with this. I really need to restructure how I do these Reactions.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: A Single Man

The Pitch: Colin Firth is a homosexual professor in the 60's, struggling with the grief over the loss of his longtime boyfriend.

How I Came Into It: On a given day, I'll confuse this title with A Serious Man, which both came out in 2009. I don't confuse the movies, just the titles. Now that I've seen both, maybe that won't happen as much. Beyond that confusion, I know this is one of my friend's favorite movies, so it's been on my radar for a while. I held off on it for a while though. Some movies I can put on whenever. Others, I like to make sure I'm in a headspace where I can give it full attention.

Why I Saw It: This is my new favorite Colin Firth performance (other than, of course, What a Girl Wants). He's brilliantly restrained yet conveys so much. I'm so glad that if nothing else, he got an Oscar nomination out of that. Not surprising, given Tom Ford's background, the costuming is fantastic. More surprising was the wonderful cinematography. This is just a great looking movie. And Collin Firth wasn't acting alone. I also like seeing Nicholas Hoult show up in anything. Julianne Moore is always great.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: The heart attack at the end is just cruel. The man has been through so much. Why can't he have the heart attack a minute after the movie ends? The chosen ending still totally works. I'm sure there's arguments that can be made for that ending being superior. It didn't add anything for me.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Once

The Pitch: Two musicians record a few songs and those songs are pretty great.

How I Came Into It: During the 2008 Oscars, I remember the Original Song category being dominated by Enchanted. They did performances of all the songs at the show and "Falling Slowly" got my attention. Then it won the Oscar, which seemed like a surprise at the time (apparently, it almost wasn't even eligible). Shortly after that, I downloaded the song and it's been one of my favorite songs for a while. Eventually, I was going to have to see this movie.

Why I Saw It: The music is terrific. That's the most important thing. Without the excellent music, this would be a film about a couple that never was, with capable performances made on a shoestring budget. This is damn near being a concert movie without the concert. For non-actors, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are pretty good and their chemistry is apparent. The story is sweet and simple and a little sad in just the right way. Really though, it's about the music. Maybe I need to get that soundtrack. I'm sure I can find it.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: At first, I put down that I'd like to see the version of this with a larger budget, but I'm pulling back from that. No budget is what caused the movie to cast Hansard. No budget is what inspired the guerilla filming strategy where most of the extras were people unaware that a movie was being filmed. This version of the movie wouldn't exist with traditional funding and studio backing. Movies like this aren't just chance and alchemy. So yeah, no regrets about what I saw in this movie, even if it isn't perfect.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Waitress

The Pitch: The Good Girl, but with a pregnancy.

How I Came Into It: The story that dominated the press for this movie was that writer/director/supporting actress Adrienne Shelly was murdered before the movie premiered. Because of that, I could never determine if the outpouring of love I heard for the movie was due to the quality or sympathy. Of course, I forgot one very simple fact.

Why I Saw It: Keri Russell is great. I don't think I'll ever understand how she hasn't had a bigger career, because she is excellent in this. I could never be as happy as her character when she starts having the affair with her doctor (Nathan Fillion) and "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" is playing. And it's marvelous how few fucks she gives about everything else when she gets the baby, whether it's dropping her jackass husband or the bluntness of revealing her affair with the doctor. I love the tone of the film. Quirky but not cutesy. Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelly gets some lovely grace notes on the side. Jeremy Sisto is comically awful. Nathan Fillion is charming. And Andy Griffith, representing for the AARP crowd*.

*I'm not being facetious. Griffith was nominated for Best Supporting Actor by the AARP Movies For Grownups Awards.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: God, I want a pie so much right now.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Movie Reaction: Ghostbusters

Formula: Ghostbusters / Spy

I have something to admit. I don't care that much about the Ghostbusters franchise. I liked the 1984 original. The sequel and animated series are forgettable. I can see why people love it though. It's pretty much all the top comedic talents of 1984 coming together for this weird and fun action-comedy. Why wouldn't someone love the shit out of it? For me though, it's just one of a lot of good movies that Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis have all done.

I've stayed out of the discussion leading up to the new Ghostbusters movie as much as I could. From my perspective, it quickly became an echo chamber of empty noise. Some people didn't like the idea of a remake. Some or many of them loudly took to the internet with sexist comments (because the internet can be an awful place). In response, countless think-pieces were written saying that anyone not looking forward to the movie was sexiest. That made the people not looking forward to it double down. Then, the entire discussion about the movie turned into a lot of yelling by a small fraction of the population. In short, the internet happened. Frankly, I'm exhausted by both sides of this.

What I heard when this movie was announced was this:

The director of one of the best comedies of the last decade (Bridesmaids) reunites with the stars of that comedy (Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy), takes a franchise that he adores with an extremely adaptable premise (Ghostbusters), and adds two of the strongest performers on SNL (Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon) for a summer blockbuster.

My only hesitation was that co-writer/director Paul Feig followed up Bridesmaids with a pair of Melissa McCarthy comedies (The Heat, Spy) that weren't quite as good, and I wasn't sure how he'd handle a more overt action movie with a huge budget. Both were small concerns.

Overall, I'm very impressed.

The biggest point of confusion about the film is going to be the best comparison to make. Whether or not you liked the original Ghostbusters doesn't matter. It's whether or not you've liked past Paul Feig movies that will matter. This film is a tribute to the original. The love for that movie is apparent all throughout this one. But the humor is absolutely Feig's. He isn't aping what the Ramis/Aykroyd script did (of course, there's certain unavoidable beats), although he is acknowledging it.

That's really that last of the 1984 movie I want to mention though. What's important is that this is a wonderful cast. There's a performance for any taste. Wiig plays the straight woman on the surface. Her character is all about her madness escaping through the cracks in the wall of respectability she's tried to build around herself. McCarthy has the familiar Melissa McCarthy role. She's overly confident and very physical. So far, Paul Feig is the only director who knows how to utilize he talents so that she doesn't take over a movie in a bad way. This a great reminder why she got that Oscar nomination for Bridesmaids. McKinnon is just one big weirdo. When I first heard about the casting for the movie, I worried that McKinnon would be redundant with Wiig already there. After all, McKinnon has been used as Wiig's direct replacement on SNL. That didn't end up mattering much. While Wiig is reserved most of the time, McKinnon is just a lunatic all the way through. She ends up with the least characterization and probably the biggest laughs. If nothing else, she has the biggest badass moment in the movie by a factor of 10. It's been fun seeing Leslie Jones grow as a performer. Her background is in standup and that's always been apparent. On SNL she's much more comfortable playing herself than a character. That comes across in the film as well. She has trouble with some of the smaller moments, but blows everything away in the big moments so much that it's an acceptable trade-off. Together, they make a fantastic quartet.

Special mention too goes to Chris Hemsworth for his oddball work as the Ghostbusters' assistant. Every scene of his is layered with total absurdity and he nails it. It's all really stupid humor too, that only works because of the quantity. One gag would be stupid, but five in the same amount of time becomes hilarious. His character isn't essential for any sequels, but I'd really like to see him back.

I've put off getting it's the plot of the movie because it doesn't matter that much. Wiig and McCarthy are childhood friends who had a falling out years ago. They're both experts in paranormal science and get pulled back together when they discover a ghost in a haunted mansion. McKinnon is McCarthy's lab partner and a technical genius. Jones starts as a metro employee but joins after a close encounter with a ghost and offers her extensive knowledge of the city. There's a villain who wants to unleash a bunch of ghosts for some reason. It doesn't really matter, because this is movie a joke machine first and foremost: one that landed way more often than it didn't.

Ghostbusters is a really funny movie. It stars four very funny people with a lot of enjoyable side characters too. It's all-around silly, a lot of fun, capable as an action movie, and really not deserving of all the internet chatter it has received. If you come in with an open mind, it's hard to see how you'd dislike it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: 10 Years

The Pitch: I wish my high school reunion was more entertaining.

High school reunions are very popular in TV and movies. Whether it's dancing to a Cindy Lauper song as a last "fuck you" to all the people who treated you like shit or going just to realize that you were in fact the bully or even going to get hammered and make an ass of yourself, some of my favorite storylines come from High School reunions. I get why. High school is a time that you're old enough to remember well but long enough ago that you can be completely changed or tragically the same. It's a time before the realities of the world limited your possibilities. A reunion story is the a present day prequel story.

It should come as no surprise that I was really looking forward to seeing 10 Years since I first heard about it. That cast was good at the time, and five years later is looking like a murderers row of talent. Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt, and Oscar Isaac alone would be enough to make this mandatory viewing. But then there's also Aubrey Plaza, Kate Mara, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie, Scott Porter, Ari Graynor, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, and I'll stop there. That's a cast designed for me. Counter-intuitively enough, the one thing that kept me from seeing this sooner is that I haven't heard from anyone who has seen it. How does this movie stay under the radar for this long? Something must be wrong with it.

10 Years isn't a perfect movie. No one's high school class is that good looking or filled with such an interesting array of back stories. It plays like a checklist of all the tropes that you'd expect: The guy who has been nurturing a crush for a decade, the former "it couple" who are seeing each other for the first time in years, the former bully who wants to apologize for who he was [and still is], the wife who learns about her husband's past, the girl who never left town, the guy who couldn't be further away from town than he is. It's all there, and there's so much story to balance that very few characters get the necessary shading to really be interesting.

Mostly though, I liked this. Writer/director Jamie Linden successfully balances a large cast. The parts that he idealized (Oscar Isaac and Kata Mara's romance, Justin Long, Max Minghella, and Lynn Collins dropping their facades) play sweetly enough. Other parts, he leaves messy or resists the urge to make "hollywood". I like that it never really makes you think that Tatum and Dawson will get back together. I loved how Pratt's character thinks that he's not a dick anymore and completely reverts back to old ways. You feel for his wife (Graynor) while also getting the sense that she's already done the math that the good outweighs the bad with him.

From pacing to structure to execution, this isn't a movie that I see getting made that often, so I'm glad that this pet project of Channing Tatum's did come together. It's not perfect. I don't need perfect. What I'd love to see is a 20 year reunion movie with this cast

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Walt Before Mickey

The Pitch: I'm sorry. The title is missing a few words: Walt Disney Before Mickey Mouse. There. Now you get it.

How I Came Into It: I'm pretty obsessed with the Disney Parks. While I'm not yet in the "Cult of Disney", I'm not far off. I'm not to the point where I'm seeking out Disney biographies, but I do find the man very interesting. To my knowledge, this film wasn't produced by the Disney company. I was curious to see an outsider's perspective.

Why I Saw It: So many good intentions. So many. Whoever was pushing to get this project made really wanted to teach people about how Walt Disney became the public figure we all know. For anyone completely unfamiliar with Disney's early life, this is about as good as glancing over that paragraph of his Wikipedia page.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: This was bad. Everything about it has a surface level understanding of what is going on. Apparently, the director was hired at the last minute, with essentially no knowledge about Walt Disney, on a low budget that didn't afford many takes. All that shows. The dialogue is uncomfortable. The romanticized elements of the story are corny. There's not enough there for the actors to even hope to give a good performance. This was perfectly painless but completely lacking in inspiration. It's like the money man for the movie was telling everyone "make it good" without saying what "it' was or what "good" meant.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Twilight

The Pitch: Paul Newman in a Hollywood neo-noir.

How I Came Into It: For a long time, I knew of this movie as "that movie that has Reese Witherspoon naked". Then, after Wild came out in 2014, I mostly knew thought about this for the funny confused Netflix reviews that its connection to the vampire movies caused. Really, I knew nothing about it. I didn't even know it was a Paul Newman movie.

Why I Saw It: This is a great example of what being a movie star is. Paul Newman commands the screen and basically wills this to be interesting. That's not hard when his sparring partners are Oscar Winners Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman. And then there's future Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon, James Garner, half the cast of The West Wing, the Chicken man, and TV's Margo Martindale.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I like to think of this blog as a safe place. I don't need to pretend to be someone I'm not here (you know, except for pretending that I have any authority to talk about film and TV). So, I'll be honest. Naked Reese Witherspoon happened far too early. I really need that to happen 40 minutes in, so when it's over, I'm already interested enough in the story to continue. As it was, I barely had any story to go off and little investment to continue. The movie was deliberately paced, perhaps to a fault. Every time it had a little momentum, it's like the director said, "No. Pull back...this is a noir".

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Stir of Echoes

The Pitch: What's another way that we can make The Sixth Sense?

How I Came Into It: Ok, it's more of a coincidence that this is so similar to The Sixth Sense. It was released around the same time and one just hit bigger than the other. If the last three years of my Delayed Reactions are my "Club 50 Era", I've moved into my "Friend Recommendations Era". Stir of Echoes was more or less recommended on the strength of specific elements, especially in the beginning. It showed up in my Netflix queue and here we are.

Why I Saw It: This is effectively creepy. I watched this at noon on a Sunday and it still unsettled me. The different nightmare or hypnotism sequences are better than anything in The Sixth Sense. Kevin Bacon plays madness really well which is good, because the entire movie hinges on him. Kathyrn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, and Kevin Dunn all rely on being able to play off him.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Its' really hard to come up with an explanation for a psychological thriller that is satisfying. The stuff about Bacon and his son being more open to communication with the dead or whatever didn't really do it for me, and the reveal about poor Jennifer Morrison's murder and the coverup could've been much more interesting.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Top 10 Movies of 2016 So Far

The other day, I released my mid-year top TV shows. After putting that together, I figured it would be fun to do the same with the movies I've seen. While the TV list is overflowing, the movie list was not nearly as difficult to assemble. There's a few reasons for that. To start, the beginning of any year belongs to movies released the year before that are finally expanding out. That means The Hateful Eight, Anomalisa, and The Revenant don't count. The latter part of any year also includes more of the top tier movies. There's more of the throwaway weeks early in the year than late. More specific to 2016 is the fact that it just hasn't been that strong, with an especially week summer. There's been a few gems though. So let's see where I stand.

Note: I'm sticking with my top 10 only, as opposed to my end of the year list with ranks everything I saw. I don't want to be too redundant on this blog.
Other Note: I wrote this all last week and took a few days to format it. That's why Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates isn't in the top 10. Otherwise, it would probably be in the middle of the pack.

1. Zootopia

Would it be hyperbole to call this the crown jewel of Disney Animation's New Renaissance?* With a March release, I thought Disney was trying to bury this. It turns out, they have just mastered the yearlong domination model in the box office. Zootopia in particular is a smart and funny movie with a terrific voice cast. It looks great and has a story that went places I didn't see coming.

*I do not include Pixar under the Disney Animation umbrella.

2. Eye in the Sky

This blew away my expectations. I saw it on a slow week in April on a whim and I'm glad I did. I can almost call this a "bureaucratic thriller" which sounds worse than it is. The film's great strength is the way that it continues to expand out the story then masterfully contracts it back down to personal beats. This is the hidden gem of 2016 so far.

3. The Nice Guys

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe make a much better comedy duo than I ever would've expected. For anyone who likes buddy cop movies, LA noirs, or black comedies, I can't recommend this enough.

4. The Witch

I like dread over scares. I'd rather see a scary movie that leaves me confused and unsettled than one that gets an immediate reaction with a jump cut and a musical cue. That makes The Witch my kind of movie. It's light on answers but heavy on atmosphere, using the colonial setting to great effect.

5. Capt. America: Civil War

I just need my Marval movies to be fun. My investment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in how they are able to stay profitable while creating such a large interconnect series of films. I don't care at all about if the comics do a better job making a certain point or if the dramatic elements in the film are a little muddled. As long as it can include something as fun as the fight at the airport between all the heroes, that's all I need to put it here on my list. Overall, I think the Marvel movies benefit from my relative apathy for them as anything but a fight and joke delivery service.

6. Hail Caesar

Like any good Coen brothers movie, I'm likely to only like this more over time. All the actors are having a great time, no matter what the size of the role. Josh Brolin navigates the Hollywood backlots in the Golden Age like the old-pro that he is. And I get to see a young Han Solo.

7. 10 Cloverfield Lane

I love the idea of this "franchise". There's not really anything else like it. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr. keep this claustrophobic thriller interesting from beginning to end.

8. Finding Dory

Ellen Degeneres is delightful enough to make me ignore most of the weaknesses in the script. There's an undeniable heart to the movie that all the best Pixar movies have.

9. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Tina Fey is the best. I didn't always know where this movie was going or what it was trying to do, but with Fey, Martin Freeman, and Margot Robbie in the middle of it all, it worked.

10. The Legend of Tarzan

I doubt this will stay here by December. Even in July, I'm putting it ahead of the delightful Jungle Book, the efficient Hush, and the anarchic Deadpool, and that doesn't feel right. I'm still trying to crack the code on Tarzan though. I normally don't have this much trouble placing what exactly I like about a movie, but when it happens, it tends to mean it's doing something very right. Until I figure it out, I'm keeping this in the top 10.

Top 10 TV Shows of 2016 so Far

I've only been keeping up with this blog for about 5 years now and in that short amount of time, the ways that TV is being watched have changed. In past years, I would do a mid-year check-in via my DVR Bloodletting, when I updated what shows I'd be keeping and dropping from the last year. Seeing that nearly half the shows that I watch I do so from online platforms, that process really isn't cutting it anymore.

I decided to change things up this year. There's an overwhelming number of options on TV these days. By the middle of the year, plenty of shows have aired that deserve some recognition, so I came up with a list of my top 10 TV shows so far.

A couple clerical points I'd like to note. This includes any show that has aired new episodes this year that I have seen, including some still in the middle of their seasons. Shows like UnREAL and The Jim Gaffigan Show didn't make my final cut mostly because there wasn't enough episodes yet to judge them above the more complete seasons. Also, for network shows, I'm only including the episodes that aired since 1/1/16, which certainly handicaps them against shows with full seasons. Finally, this is a snapshot in time. I reserve the right to switch up the order for my end of the year lists.

Looking at the list I came up with, it's hard to see how I'm supposed to make room for any July-December shows. This would be a strong year-end list. All that means is that it's a great time to be a fan of TV.

1. Veep

Favorite Episode: "Kissing Your Sister"
It's remarkable how good Veep continues to be. No comedy still on the air has had as strong a run over the last 3 or 4 seasons as Veep. It somehow got even better this season, despite the departure of creator and showrunner Armando Ianucci. I was certain that Ianucci's departure would mark some kind of creative dip given how distinctive his voice is. It turns out that the combination of the returning writers and the cast's command of their characters more than filled the gap. Following the story of Selina Meyers' Electoral College tie and the machinations to try to keep her in the Oval Office was tragic and hilarious. Julia Louise Dreyfus will have earned her 148th consecutive Emmy win come September. I wish there was a way to award every single regular in the cast from Anna Chlumsky to Tony Hale to Kevin Dunn. But, if I had to single one person out, it has to be Timothy Simons. This season saw Jonah Ryan running for congress and every last beat of that had me delirious with laughter. Every year I get more confused that this show isn't a cultural phenomenon. It's terrific.

2. The Americans

Favorite Episode: "The Magic of David Copperfield V: The Statue of Liberty Disappears"
I'm getting as tired of telling you how great it is as you are of hearing people talk about how great it is. Here's the problem: Not enough people are watching this excellent 80's spy drama. There aren't a better pair of leads on TV right now than Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. With the end in sight* season 4 moved the story along a lot. Several series regulars got on a plane back to Russia or "got on a plane back to Russia". Phillip and Elizabeth were pushed to their break points. Somehow, Russell's Elizabeth may have done the most awful thing she's ever done and no one even ended up dead, which says so much about how good the writing is. Noah Emmerich as FBI Agent and family friend, Stan Beeman came closer than ever to figuring out who his neighbors really are, proving that you don't need to make people bad at their job to keep a story going. Even Holly Taylor bucks the trend of annoying teenage characters in prestige dramas. The more they give her to do, the better the show gets. I'm not sure what next season is going to look like but I'm as encouraged as ever that it will be great.

*FX has announced that there will be two more seasons of the series.

3. American Crime Story: The People v. OJ Simpson

Favorite Episode: "A Jury in Jail"
The first of two OJ Simpson-related series on my list. I wasn't ready for how good this limited series would be. I'm not a huge Ryan Murphy fan, but it turns out if you take him out of the writing process, he can add a great deal of value as a director and producer. The cast is superb with Sarah Paulson, Sterling K. Brown, and Courtney B. Vance giving career-best performances. The excellent writing, acting, and directing show new sides to very familiar people and events from the "Trial of the Century". More than anything, this is a shining beacon of hope that maybe the Television episode isn't dead. Rather than being arbitrarily assembled installments in a 10 hour story, each episode was a self-contained chapter that told the larger story of the series while focusing on individual topics like the jury's sequestering or the unfair treatment of Marcia Clark in the media. That's a stark contrast to the Netflix binge model where no episode is distinguishable from another. I liked this so much that I didn't even mind the miscasting of Cuba Gooding Jr. as OJ or John Travolta as Robert Shapiro.

4. Game of Thrones

Favorite Episode: "The Winds of Winter"
I fall in between the popular and the critical sentiment about Game of Thrones. I'm not obsessed with it by any means. Although, I think it is one of the great production marvels that television has ever seen. I've never had issues with the pacing of the story. The inconsistency is the nature of the series. Be it the freedom of moving ahead of the books or just the natural constricting of the story after years of sprawling out and setting things up, season six showed definite signs of an end game. The finale in particular is probably the greatest single episode of the series in both writing and eventfulness. It seems like every week this year had a signature moment that could've been the highlight of a lesser season. The fate of John Snow, the burning of the patriarchy, "hold the door". So many great moments. Hell. I'd watch a full episode of nothing more than Tyrion exchanging jokes with Missandei and Grey Worm.

5. OJ Simpson: Made in America

Yeah, another OJ Simpson show. It's hard to believe but both series were great. This is a five part documentary from ESPN Films. I'd consider putting it higher except, this technically had a theatrical release and might be in play for an Oscar rather than an Emmy. Either way, it was one of the best things I'll see this year. Playing out over 7 hours, it chronicles Simpson's rise to fame, murder trial, and his fall from grace as a way to look at race relations in the U.S. and Los Angeles in particular, including the public unrest and history of abuse by the LAPD that made the Trial of the Century such a powder keg. For anyone who loves a good deep dive into a topic, it doesn't get much better than this.

6. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Favorite Episode: "Donald Trump"
It's not that I manage to catch every episode of Last Week Tonight. I refuse to miss an episode. In his weekly series, Oliver manages to combine the intelligence of John Stewart with Stephen Colbert's ability to engage and mobilize an audience. It's truly remarkable what he accomplishes and I look forward to several more months of jokes about Donald Trump's tiny baby hands.

7. Silicon Valley

Favorite Episode: "The Uptick"
I think I'm always going to compare this series with the high-mark it achieved in Season 1's finale, "Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency", which I consider to be one of the great comedy episodes of the last decade. While nothing in season 3 reached that level, they repeatedly approached that rarified air. Mike Judge and Alec Berg's ability to keep the Pied Piper crew from stumbling too far foward into success or backward from it is masterful. I want to call T.J. Miller, Zach Woods, Martin Starr, and Kumail Nunjiani all the show's secret weapon when, in actuality, it's probably Thomas Middleditch, who is giving the most unde-rreocognized lead performance of anyone in this top 10. The only big knock on the show is that they really should've been able to find a way to use Amanda Crew more by now.

8. The Middle

Favorite Episode: "Floating 50"
I adore this show and you should too. Not every show on TV has to be dark or complex or go after big issues. Sometimes, a deep understanding of the characters and a little narrative adventurousness is all you need. Few shows are more satisfying for me week in and week out than The Middle. To date, it's the only show I've even written about in 2016. It's rare to come by a family sitcom that has weathered the aging of the children as deftly as this has and never allowed the stories to outsize the characters. Highlights from this half-season include everything about Frankie's "50th birthday", Sue making a friend while trying to pledge a sorority, Mike dancing with Frankie's mom at the gas station, and the all-around solid finale.

9. Blackish

Favorite Episode: "Hope"
All this attention for Blackish in 2016 rightfully has gone to "Hope", better known as "the Black Lives Matter episode". It was a special episode that blended a discussion of a major and important issue with as many jokes as they could manage. If diversity on TV means there will be

10. Better Call Saul

Favorite Episode: "Inflatable"
This Breaking Bad prequel has no business being any good. It's a cash-grab. Vine Gilligan and Peter Gould didn't want to leave a lot of people out of a job. Right?
I'm glad they ignored all the internet chatter. Bob Odenkirk continues to blow away my expectations of him as a dramatic actor. Jonathan Banks is as stable as...some sort of really stable chemistry thing. Rhea Seahorn got even better this season. And Michael McKean is one of the most interesting villains on TV. This show will never be out of Heisenberg's shadow but it's remarkable what they've managed to do in the shade.

I'd love to keep going. Brooklyn Nine Nine ended the season strong (One word: Mumps). Fresh Off the Boat is yet another great ABC family comedy. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt returned for a solid second season. Girls improved after a middling 2015. Orange is the New Black went dark in a way that I couldn't shake for days. The Roots remake exceeded all my expectations. Girl Meets World opened with the great "Girl Meets STEM" before ending weak. Even The Muppets showed real improvement toward the end before being cancelled. There's just so much TV.

With the good comes the bad. Here are a few of the mid-year disappointments. Some are shows that I've already stopped watching. Others I'm too stubborn to quit. Or maybe one just had a down season.

Fear the Walking Dead

I only got a couple episodes into the season before I stopped. I don't care about any of the characters and there wasn't enough of a narrative pull to keep me going. I've been much happier since I opened my Sunday nights up.

American Horror Story: Hotel

Only a couple episodes aired in 2016. It was enough to remind me of what the Ryan Murphy that I'm not much of a fan of looks like. I still haven't gotten to the finale on my DVR. I can't get myself to do it.

The Walking Dead

Despite never loving the series, I've never been this close to dropping it. The writers have accepted that there's no end in sight for the series and haven't filled the void in direction with anything else. The season finale, a series of roadblocks eventually leading to a cliffhanger, is an apt description for every half-season of the series at this point. They managed to destroy the most interesting character (Carol) with an unearned religious conversion, and after last fall's Glenn fakeout, I no longer believe they have the courage to take a big chance on anything. That said, I'll probably be back this fall because, I don't know why.

Archer

I have always appreciated Archer's willingness to try things. Archer Vice was an enjoyable detour, for example. The move into the Figgis Agency just felt stale. It wouldn't take much for the show to get great again, I don't think. Not all animated series are meant to last forever though. Especially not when they are this serialized.

Vinyl

Well, HBO already unrenewed (cancelled) it, so there's not much to say. It couldn't been a lot better. I'll always wonder what it would've been had they dropped the murder story and just been about the music. Apparently, there was never an audience. I'm still not sure whether to blame the baby-boomers for not flocking to their nostalgia or the millennials for not attempting to reappropriate the era as their own. Either way, this will go down as one of the big write-offs in television history. Still, I like the idea of a series with Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Olivia Wilde, and Juno Temple.

Movie Reaction: Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Formula: Wedding Crashers * Neighbors

Sometimes, raunchy is enough.

That's my takeaway from Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. It's not a groundbreaking movie. It won't be getting screenplay or acting awards (Ok, maybe an MTV Movie award). It isn't a turning point in anyone's career. In five years, it'll won't stand out among a dozen similar movies.

What it is though, is very funny, and that's all anyone was ever aiming for. This is director Jake Szymanski's first feature film, owing his career so far to a lot of TV work and FunnyOrDie shorts. Writers Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O'Brien wrote the Neighbors movies. If that doesn't paint the picture for what this movie is, I don't know what will. It's also a convenient way to determine if the movie is worth your time. If you hate Frat Pack humor and would like to watch a movie with more prepositions than swear words, please direct your attention elsewhere.

This has a great premise title. You see, these brothers, Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron). They need wedding dates. After years of being loose cannons who ruin family gatherings, their sister (Sugar Lyn Beard) demands that they arrive to her Hawaiian wedding with dates, hoping that will keep them under control. Mike and Dave post and online ad that goes viral is seen by two best friends, Alice (Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza), who are even more of a mess than the brothers. They pretend to be classier than they really are in order to get the brothers to pick them for the trip. Once in Hawaii, the girls unleash all sorts of hell which brings out the worst in Mike and Dave too.

The single greatest strength of the movie is its lack of restraint. No one is holding anything back and the script doesn't ask them to. This is actually the second raunchy comedy movie that Plaza and Efron have been in together this year (the first being Dirty Grandpa) and Efron's third R-rated comedy overall (along with Neighbors 2). This is also pretty similar to what Devine does on Workaholics. Kendrick is the most fun to watch because you can tell that she's wanted to do a role like this for a while. There's no vanity in any of these performances and they all have so much fun with that. One of the easiest ways to get me to fall in love with a comedy is convincing me that the cast had a blast making it. It's why I love the Apatow movies. Its's why I love the Ocean's movies. It's why I enjoyed this. The only difference among the leads is based on their backgrounds. Devine and Plaza cut their teeth in the comedy world. They live in this environment and there's an ease they bring to it, like it's reflexive. Efron and Kendrick, despite their many forays into comedy, have a harder time creating the laughs. They are still very funny, but they look like they are trying harder than their partners. I hope they keep at it though. They offer a lot to a movie like this, even if their improv game isn't quite there. The supporting cast, including Stephen Root, Sugar Lyn Beard, Sam Richardson, and Alice Wetterlund are all on point.

The script has the same third act problems that nearly every comedy movie has, where it drags a little as it switches to focus on the story rather than the jokes. It plays out very similarly to Wedding Crashers except it's 20 minutes shorter, which is in its favor. Overall, it has better balance than a lot of comedies, saving some of the best jokes for the end.

This is just a very funny movie made even stronger by four leads with a variety of talents. I went into this movie looking to see if this would out-Neighbors the Neighbors sequel. It definitely wins that head to head (with the sequel, not the original). Perhaps the better comparison would be to call it more of a successor to Wedding Crashers than The Hangover. Regardless, I want to see the outtakes for this one. And I'll say something that I don't think I'm allowed to say as someone who wants to critically talk about film: I'd love to see a sequel with these characters.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend