Delayed Reaction: Young Guns II

The Pitch: You know, we didn't get to how Billy the Kid died in the first movie...

How I Came Into It: I just saw Young Guns about a week ago. It was fine. Nothing special. When I saw that the original cast didn't return in full, I assumed that would be problematic, indicating a lack of interest by certain actors to return. I didn't consider that it wouldn't make as much sense if everyone survived in the interim between movies, given the nature of their work.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Young Guns II transitioned from the outright ensemble of the first to specifically being the Billy the Kid story. As a result, it could breath a little more. It wasn't as busy making sure everyone got his moment, or rather, there were fewer characters to service. I liked the addition of Christian Slater as Arkansas Dave. Honestly, the fact that this was a sequel of a movie that was already a proven success I think put everyone more at ease this time around.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Billy the Kid is a sociopath and no one seems to recognize that. It gets hard to root for him at times. That old man makeup was ridiculous. I can't pretend otherwise. Without the focus on the group, the movie lost some of its edge. I keep thinking back to the introduction of all the actors at the beginning of the first movie. Nothing in this one tried to be cool like that. This lacked an identity.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Hop

The Pitch: Christmas gets all the love. Where's Easter's movie?

How I Came Into It: My mom always told me that Easter is more important than Christmas. That never sounded right, although I was a young atheist in hiding, so I didn't care about the religious importance of either. As non-religious entities, Christmas dwarfs Easter, so an Easter movie is, well, non-essential.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I really like James Marsden. He's one of those actors who finds something good in even the worst of roles. I also don't mind Russell Brand as much as a lot of people I run into. Even though one half is animated, those two make a fun duo. This employs so many of the things that make Elf good, only for Easter. I get a weird thrill out of movies like this, that work so hard to prove that the thing (The Easter Bunny) is real while making the central joke of it all that we know it's not real. It's perfectly calibrated patronizing.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: No one cares about the Easter bunny. There's some legitimate misdirection involved with the Santa thing. The only reason why kids can't see parents hiding the eggs is so they don't know where they are. I guess it's the nature of family movies to leave no fable unadapted though. Hank Azaria's bird character just annoyed me too much. I don't know if it was the accent or that it brought attention to the fact that the Easter factory was using the chicks, essentially as slave labor, but every time it went back to him, I really didn't want to watch the movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Something to Talk About

What I Guessed It Was About: Dennis Quaid and Julia Roberts have a meet-cute, then get together, and become...something to talke about.

How I Came Into It: Julia Roberts isn't my go to RomCom lead (that would be Sandra Bullock, of course). You can immediately tell that it's a RomCom from the poster, but the title doesn't give a good indication about the story contents. That means I was a blank slate, because I'm not about to research a movie like this beforehand.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This did not go in the direction I expected a couple different times. Good on them for not being predictable. I didn't expect Quaid to be cheating. I didn't expect people around her to be so forgiving of him (except Kyra Sedgewick, that is). I didn't expect the movie to end without some grand gesture and reconciliation. Oh yeah, and this is the most I've liked Sedgewick in anything before Brooklyn Nine Nine, which has to count for something.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: It's tweaked the formula a bit, but it's still a pretty standard RomCom. The small southern town aspect bored me pretty quickly and it got a little busy with the sideplots (I just don't care about Robert Duvall being too old for a riding competition). All the sideplot are there though because the central story doesn't have enough to it. I think I'd rather see the version of this that looks more like Grand Canyon, a true ensemble piece with a large variety of small stories about a small town.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Movie Reaction: Spy

Formula: Get Smart * The Heat

Why I Saw It: Paul Feig, Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne. These are names I like in my comedies.

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Miranda Hart, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Peter Serafinowicz, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale, Morena Baccarin, and a lot of other familiar faces for a scene or two.

Plot: Susan Cooper (McCarthy) is CIA desk agent who excellently advises agent Bradley Fine (Law) on his missions. Susan isn't taken seriously and has major confidence issues. Well, one day, on an intel mission, terrorist Rayna Boyanov (Byrne) reveals that she knows the identity of all the CIA's field agents and would kill any of them that she sees. That leaves Susan as the only viable agent to go undercover and stop Rayna from selling a nuke to even less savory people. Susan's equally mild-mannered CIA desk agent friend, Nancy (Hart) helps her and rouge (but not a bad guy) CIA agent Rick Ford (Statham going all-in) keeps getting in Susan's way. The plot is understandably simple (You already have predicted all the plot twists) and the spy work is about as authentic as the police work in The Heat, which fits with the movie.

Elephant in the Room: Which level of Melissa McCarthy are we getting? My big complaint about Melissa McCarthy since her Oscar nominated breakout in Bridesmaids is that directors let her steamroll every scene she's in. She's great at doing that, perhaps the best performer around at it and can get a lot of big laughs. It's not sustainable for an entire movie though. Where her past movies have had her as a force of nature from the first frame, Feig wisely writes her character in Spy to start quiet and become strong. It's a great adjustment and this is easily my favorite work of McCarthy's since Bridesmaids.

To Sum Things Up:
Not only is this McCarthy's best work since Bridesmaids, it's her best movie since it too. She carries herself like a lead and not a supporting character who is given too much screen time (I'm looking at you Tammy). There's a heart to her story that doesn't feel at all forced (I'm looking at you Identity Thief). The supporting cast is quite wonderful. Feig takes a lot of people who made their names in drama and lets them loose. Jason Statham in particular is a delight, poking fun at his normal tough-guy persona. Nothing in the movie is particularly revolutionary, nor does it try to be. Sometimes all you want is a good-spirited comedy that doesn't feel the need to prove how smart it is. Lastly, I appreciate that it kept its R-rating. It easily could've been made as a PG13 movie, but really gets to breath the way they made it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Michasel Jackson's This Is It

The Pitch: Michael Jackson died. We have some footage. So...profit.

How I Came Into It: They churned this movie out as part of the deluge of products produced or reproduced after the King of Pop's untimely death. I was never a big fan of Michael Jackson's. At the same time, he's kind of a big deal and as ubiquitous as they come. And this was never designed to be for anyone other than the fans.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I don't love Michael Jackson, but I do like enough of his songs. Plus, there's the interesting element of seeing the concert come together, not seeing the final product, like in most concert movies. More than anything, I came away from this with a sense that it would've been really cool to see a Michael Jackson concert in person. He put on a show. That's for sure.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: It's understandably uneven. Since MJ was not available for obvious reasons, all the post-production was essentially "How can we make what we have work?". There were a lot of guidelines about what footage could be used (they summed up to "Nothing that makes him look bad"), so there's definitely a sense of not getting a full picture. Again, this is a fan movie, not Hearts of Darkness, so that's to be expected. No, all the issues with this tied into the fact that it was a concert movie made from footage that was not intended to be used for a concert movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Last Boy Scout

The Pitch: It'll be like Lethal Weapon meets Die Hard.

How I Came Into It: 1991 was a good time to have Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans in a movie. Willis is coming off Die Hard. Wayans had In Living Color and a string of notable movie roles. The buddy cop sub-genre was at its peak. I figured this would be very similar to the other movies of its time.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) As I alluded to, if there was ever a time for a Shane Black script with Willis and Wayans as the leads to work, 1991 was it. At first, I was shocked to see them kill off Halle Berry so quickly, then I considered that she wasn't the name then that she is now, so that wasn't intended to be such a big deal. Willis is always great as the constantly irritated cop partnered with a more charismatic partner (a role that Wayans fits into nicely). I forget how good of child star Danielle Harris was.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Once something can be distilled down to a formula, it loses some of the magic. That definitely happens with the buddy cop movies. On paper, there's nothing that makes this different than, say, Lethal Weapon, but I have much more desire to rewatch Lethal Weapon than this. Willis veers a bit much into disinterest and Wayans is trying to be cooler than he is at his best.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Weekly 10: 5/29-6/4

Welcome to the Weekly 10. I'm always trying to find a way to keep both myself and potential readers interested in this blog while also not completely taking over my time (Yes, I have plentiful free time, but there are limits). I found the DVR Purges too difficult to keep up with due to a Spring schedule that was determined to ruin me. I still like bringing up my thoughts on whatever TV shows I'm watching. Mix that in with whatever movies I've been watching (over a year later and I'm still way behind on my Delayed Reactions) plus the occasional other things I've been up to and you have my weekly 10.
The Weekly 10 is my weekly recap of the TV, Movies, and shows in general that have made my week better (or in some cases worse in a notable way). New episodes, DVR recordings I'm finally getting around to, Netflix binges, new releases, and rentals are all fair game. When available, links to reactions will be included.

Community Season/Series Finale
In a way, it's brilliant what Dan Harmon has done. He game us a great potential series finale to season 3, eased us into a world without Community by getting fired for season 4, returned to whittle down the cast in season 5, and hopped to a little used streaming service while whittling down the cast even more for season six, so that by the time it's over, I basically already used to to there being no Community at all. In the first two seasons, this series had potential to be an all-time favorite of mine. Between season 4 and the departure of the essential Donald Glover, that's not a worry any more. Season six was a very good season of TV (ranking is currently 2, 1, 3, 6, 5, 4) and if Yahoo Screen didn't completely suck, I'd've easily kept up with the season instead of binging to catch up. I'm more than fine with this being the end of the series, although I'll be there watching a season seven is there is one.

Game of Thrones "Hardhome"
Holy crap! That was impressive! The battle with the White Walkers managed to be dwarf the spectacle of last season's "The Watchers on the Wall" in half the time. I don't know what's left for this week's penultimate episode, which is generally reserved for the big moments of the season, but I'm excited to find out.

Silicon Valley "White Hat/Black Hat"
Richard attempting to spin the deletion of Intersite's data as a good thing was the hardest I laughed this entire week if not this month. Thomas Middleditch's twitchiness is damn near an a work of art.

Hannibal "Antipasto
Yeah, it's back and I nearly forgot. As interesting as a week of just Hannibal and Dr. Du Maurier was, I'm eager to reunite with Will, Jack, and the other survivors.

Last Week Tonight
It was virtually guaranteed that he'd go after FIFA again and it did not disappoint.

The Road Warrior
Finally got to see this (and the other two from the original trilogy). Loved it! That's climatic fight/chase is still a marvel to see 30+ years later.

Halt and Catch Fire
Yet another Sunday show! Had you told me midway through last season that I'd bee this happy to have Halt back, I wouldn't've believed you.

Another Man's Treasure
I had the pleasure of seeing a reading of my friend's first full length screenplay. It reminded me of About Time in all the right ways, although it was very much it's own thing. I can't wait to see what his final draft looks like or if this gets produced eventually.

Mad Max: Fury Road
Yeah, I saw it again. It's so good! I saw it this time because I'd just watched the first three movies. While they aren't essential viewing, they gave even more context to Fury Road (or maybe it was just the benefit of a second viewing clarifying things).

NBA Finals
This will be the last basketball I get for a while. Hopefully Lebron can make this a series and not a slaughter. The Cavs nearly stole game one. Falling apart in overtime certainly worries me.

Delayed Reaction: The Distinguished Gentleman

The Pitch: Mr. Murphy Goes to Washington

How I Came Into It: There's a period when Eddie Murphy was king. It was never that he could do no wrong. There was Harlem Nights after all. Coming out of the 80s with 2 franchises like Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hours, individual successes like Trading Places and Coming to America, and even a highly successful standup movie, Eddie Murphy Raw, The Distinguished Gentleman came out in a time of transition. It wasn't long before his career was fat suits and Donkey voices. The man was still barely 30 at the time somehow.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Despite everything, I liked this. It's a simple farce that doesn't worry about its greatest logical leap (him managing to get elected) and quickly moves to a nihilistic view of the corruption in politics. Nearly every beat is predictable, but Murphy is engaged enough that I still found enough to like.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I find it funny how often people misappropriate the issue with big government (the problem isn't the lobbyists giving the handouts, it's the amount of power given to a system that can be so easily bought, but whatever. A rant for another day). Not enough of this was clever enough for satire nor big enough for farce. It seems to hold back in a lot of places and even tries to take itself seriously toward the end. Thomas Jefferson Johnson tricks himself into thinking he's a real congressman by the end and the movie thinks it's really a Frank Capra movie.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

June Movie Preview

That was a really long May with a lot of good movies. It was a great start to the summer movie season. It doesn't look like there will be any June lull. As usual, there's a lot of tent-pole movies coming out as well as Sundance movies littering the art-house scene. I shouldn't have any trouble finding something each week.

2015

Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May 

2014

Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

2013

Mar |  Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec

6/5

Spy
Working For It: It's written and directed by Paul Fieg (you know, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, writer and creator of Freaks and Geeks), about a desk-bound CIA agent (Melissa McCarthy) who gets to finally go on a mission. Fieg is the only person to harnass what's great about McCarthy. The rest of the cast includes Rose Byrne, Jude Law, and Jason Statham who all have dabbled in comedy successfully without it being their motus operandi.
Working Against It: Since McCarthy broke out with Bridesmaids, no one has been willing to ask her to hold anything back, which has resulted in a lot of really loud, unpleasant characters that drag the movie down with them. Until I see someone contain her again, I'm not sure it can be done.
Interest Level: I'll see whatever Paul Fieg directs.

Entourage
Working For It: People choose not to admit it, but there was a time when Entourage was a well regarded show. It won Emmys and had some critical acclaim. Yeah, that happened. Sure, it relied on a contrived formula and celebrated a lot of bro habits, but it wasn't a horrible show. It's not even that strange that it's getting a movie considering that another long-running, once acclaimed, now somewhat maligned HBO seires got a movie a well (Sex & the City). I have no doubt that I'll eventually end up seeing this movie, because I saw the whole series and occasionally really enjoyed it.
Working Against It: That doesn't mean that I intend to see it in theaters. Until I'm given a reason to think otherwise, this is a TV show and it's going to play better when watched as one. The Sex and the City Movie played like a condensed season and I have no reason to think this won't too.
Interest Level: Eventually. Not now.

Insidious Chapter 3
Working For It: The first two Insidious movies were interesting and deeply tied together. Chapter 3 is going to be a prequel with a young Elise Rainier. The writer of the Insidious movies is directing this one, keeping things in-house.
Working Against It: Rose Byrne (and Patrick Wilson too to a lesser extent) is one of the main reasons for me seeing these movies. The biggest issue here though is that there's not much of a hook to the Insidious series if the cast continuity is lost. Seriously, what is the angle of Insidious? Poltergeist meets The Conjuring, sort of.
Interest Level: Greatly diminished.

Love & Mercy [Limited]
Working For It: John Cusack and Paul Dano play reclusive Beach Boy, Brian Wilson at different points in his life. As far as biopics go, this is one I'd be interested to know more about.
Working Against It: For a movie that's been making its way through the film festival circuit, I'd expect to have a better idea about what it's about or heard better reviews.
Interest Level: Cautious and low

6/12

Jurassic World
Working For It: I don't know about you, but I really want to see this. It's a direct sequel to the 1993 beloved blockbuster. I don't expect this to be perfect, but I expect it to be fun. Chris Pratt is ideal casting (I've already started hearing Chris Pratt backlash/fatigue, and those people just need to be quiet. He is a treasure!). It's also got Jessica Chastain Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Judy Greer, Jake Johnson, and some kids, which sounds pretty solid to me.
Working Against It: To expect Jurassic Park would be foolish. To hope for The Lost World or Jurassic Park 3 sounds about right.
Interest Level: I'll be seeing it that weekend.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl [Limited]
Working For It: It's a coming of age story about a high school kid who is an aspiring filmaker and befriends a girl with cancer. The plot doesn't sound all that special. What sets this apart is that people went crazy for it at Sundance. You know what people went crazy for at Sundance last year? Whiplash. I think I made my point.
Working Against It: I will absolutely be seeing this. The only questions are "what will the release schedule look like?" or "will I be looking for it on Netflix instead?".
Interest Level: Very high

The Wolfpack [Limited]
Working For It: This is a documentary about a group of siblings, who cope with living in relative isolation by reenacting their favorite movies. It's also from Sundance and it also has a lot of buzz.
Working Against It: What are the odds that a documentary opens wide enough for me to see it? I'm mostly not even considering this in theaters because it won't be an option, but even if it is an option, June is a busy month.
Interest Level: I'm definitely interested.

6/19

Inside Out
Working For It: Pixar is back! This is the first wholly original movie since 2012, and since Brave was them aping the Disney Princess model, really, Up is the last time that Pixar made something that I could only see them coming up with. The fact that it was at Cannes and people were complaining that it wasn't screening for the competition says enough. With a voice cast including Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith (Phyllis from The Office), Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader, and Rashida Jones, they basically cherry picked my favorite parts of NBC over the last decade and put them in a movie. I only know that the plot is about the emotions in a young girl's head and that's all I need. This is in good hands.
Working Against It: It has been since 2009 that Pixar has really blown me away. Should brand-equity still hold up after that long? The short answer is yes.
Interest Level: I must've forgotten to mention that Amy Poehler is playing the embodiment of joy. C'mon. This is a lock.

Dope
Working For It: Guess what? It's another Sundance movie. And, guess what? It's another coming of age story. Where Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is praised all-around, the mostly unknown cast is what carries this story of a kid in a tough California neighborhood who uses an obsession with 90s hip-hop to cope with things.
Working Against It: How many worthwhile coming of age stories can there be? For me, a lot. I'm a sucker for those movies. Mileage may vary for others.
Interest Level: Happy to let this one slide to a rental.

6/26

Ted 2
Working For It: The first Ted was a huge hit in a summer that was devoid of comedy options. Seth McFarlane got humbled with last summers A Million Ways to Die in the West, but that doesn't seem to have tempered his enthusiasm for this sequel, returning the dirty teddy bear with Mark Wahlberg and bringing in the likes of Amanda Seyfried and Liam Nesson (it's so nice to see Nesson not in another Taken or Taken clone).
Working Against It: If there's one downside to McFarlane's brand of comedy, it's that it can be packaged very well into smaller bits. There aren't a lot of context jokes, so if you see too many previews for this movie, you're going to see too many of the good jokes ahead of time.
Interest Level: I'm certain to see it, although I'd invite excuses not to.

Big Game [Limited]
Working For It: I don't know anything about this, other than it looks like Snakes on a Plane: Kid's Edition and that makes me laugh. Also, Samuel L. Jackson as president. That's funny. I have to assume that Jackson's presence single-handedly moved this from a PG to a PG-13 rating.
Working Against It: It looks stupid and I won't be seeing this in theaters.
Interest Level:  I won't be seeing this, probably ever

Max
Working For It: It's American Sniper with a dog.
Working Against It: It's American Sniper with a dog.
Also Working For It: And Lauren Graham.
Interest Level: Just, no.

Batkid Begins [Limited]
Working For It: People loved that Batkid story. It would be interesting to see the documentary treatment of it, to get the whole story and be inspired all over again.
Working Against It: I avoided this story completely the first time it came around. I got the gist of it. That's all I needed.
Interest Level: About the same as my desire to see the original video or story it's based on.

Delayed Reaction: The Final Destination

The Pitch: If we make it sound like this is the last movie, more people might show up.

How I Came Into It: The Final Destination series is the ultimate 2nd-tier horror franchise. It's simple. It's easily repeatable. The villain is easy. The cast doesn't matter. It never struck a cultural nerve the way Halloween or Scream or Paranormal Activity did, but they are cheap and moderately successful. I think this is the fourth movie in the franchise. I'm not sure. I've seen a couple of them and I don't really know why. They were always on at the right time, I guess.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) It's a creepy idea, death chasing you. We are all trying to escape fate, so it's universal. It starts with a bang, some tragedy where you see how badly things could've gone, followed by a series of close calls and deaths, until the hero thinks he's safe (but he's not). The way they hint at every possible way a person can die in an accident before they do is darkly comedic. I called this Horror Foreplay: the Movie as I was watching it.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: The movie lives and dies on two things: the cast and the inventiveness of how they die. Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten and company aren't even Devon Sawa and Ali Larter (oh yeah, and Sean William Scott, apparently). The demises were fine. The NASCAR wreck looked a little cheap. The car wash mishap required a few too many machinations. I don't believe the physics of the pool thing. For a fourth installment* in a horror franchise, this is about as hard as I'd expect them to be trying, having made the standard horror franchise transition from scares to thrills.

*I looked it up.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend