Year: 2015
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Jake Johnson, Nick Robinson, BD Wong
Plot: 22 years after John Hammond's failure to open his prehistoric park, Isla Nublar now has a fully functional dinosaur theme park. Its new owner plans to introduce a new hybrid dinosaur to help boost falling ticket sales, but it backfires when the dinosaur escapes and causes chaos in the park.
Review: Jurassic Park happens to be one of my favorite films of all time. Steven Spielberg has made all kinds of groundbreaking and Oscar winning films, but this is his best, in my opinion. It's a classic, done so perfectly that every sequel that came after it was inferior, even if they were entertaining on their own.
Colin Trevorrow is the man who was reportedly picked by Spielberg himself to do this sequel. Together with three other co-writers, Trevorrow presents Jurassic World as a successful park finally open, with new owners, fully functional rides and lots of dinosaurs to look at. It's kinda like Universal Studios with dinosaurs, really. But, as expected, things are about to go wrong as the park's marketing chief plans to unveil a new hybrid dinosaur to boost the visitor count. As the story goes, nobody expected the Indominus Rex, the new creature, to be an extraordinary thing, and it escapes. The body count starts rising and our only hope is the velociraptor trainer and his pack of raptors.
Yes, you heard me. Raptors can be made to heed a human's command. Apparently, this was hinted at in Michael Crichton's book, but still, to see it happen is much too strange for me. I mean, where's the fun in that? This is one of several problems I had with this film. Trevorrow is trying to marry old ideas with new ones, with varying degrees of success.
Some of his nods to the original, like the abandoned original park lobby and the old jeeps, holograms of the spitting dinosaur and a quick glimpse of a statue of Hammond, work well. Some of the new ideas, like the mosasaur (a huge water dinosaur that is the jurassic version of a water park's pet whale), having over 20000 people become potential victims of an open park etc are welcome. But at the end of the day, the film needs strong characters and a healthy dose of suspense and thrills. Trevorrow is already 22 years too late to give audiences something groundbreaking, which isn't his fault, but it certainly works against him here.
As stated, the characters are rather weak or uninteresting. Chris Pratt does a decent enough job as Owen, the raptor trainer, but is nothing compared to Sam Neill's Alan Grant. Grant was an adventurer of sorts, but never portrayed himself as such, which made him more appealing. Pratt plays Owen like a dashing cowboy type, which is most obvious when he tells two kids that he's an alpha to his raptors. Bryce Dallas Howard is Claire, the marketing chief who comes off as pretty unlikable for most of the film. She gets a couple of good scenes with the dinosaurs, but that's about it. Howard's good, but again, her character is poorly written. Irrfan Khan tries hard, but clearly isn't as memorable as Richard Attenborough's John Hammond. And finally, Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson are the two nephews of Howard's character who get caught up in the whole mess during their visit. They're not interesting either, and come off as annoying half the time, especially Robinson, who doesn't even want to be at the park. I mean, why? It's a dinosaur park for God's sake! Vincent D'Onofrio manages to shine at least, as a security officer who has other plans for the dinosaurs.
As for the thrills, Trevorrow doesn't quite have Spielberg's eye for creating a scene and drawing out the moments. He attempts to recreate some iconic moments from the original in his own way, like the T-Rex chase and the T-Rex attacking the kids in the jeep, but it doesn't match up. I did like his pteranodon attack as well as the final dinosaur throwdown in the film's climax, but it's much too late by then. He did take too much time in setting up the story before finally getting the ball rolling with the Indominus Rex's escape.
I know I made plenty of comparisons to the original here, but bottom line is: I never wanted this sequel, because it was not necessary. To be fair, Jurassic World isn't a bad film. It's decent in fact. But why settle for decent when you can put the Jurassic Park DVD into your player and enjoy excellence instead? (6/10)
Year: 2015
Director: Henry Hobson
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson
Plot: A father does everything he can to protect his daughter after she is infected by a virus that turns people into zombies.
Review: Arnold Schwarzenegger + zombies ought to equal to action horror vehicle, right? No, it's not that kind of film. It's rare to find a zombie film that isn't focused on the horror side of it, or the crazy action flick ala World War Z that it can be. Rather, Maggie is a quiet drama about a father and his daughter who has become infected with a zombie virus.
In this film, a viral outbreak has cost many lives and many infected people have been quarantined. Crops and fields have been torched to stop the spread of the virus. Wade Vogel is a farmer whose daughter Maggie has become infected with the virus, and only has a short time left to live. Doctors have advised him to bring her for quarantine once she shows signs of advanced stages of infection, or end her life himself. So Wade and Maggie's stepmother Caroline do all they can to make her final days as comfortable as possible, which isn't easy as her infection makes her unpredictable, and the local police are concerned about more infections happening.
As stated, this isn't your regular zombie film. Maggie is the kind of film that aims for your heart. If you've ever had a family member who was dying of a disease and there was very little you can do about it, you would relate to this immediately. Even if you don't, the film is well executed enough to make you feel for the lead characters as they do their best to delay the inevitable. New director Henry Hobson does a solid job of keeping the Vogel family relatable to the audience by showing moments of normalcy and laughter in between the gloomy parts of the situation at hand. Cinematographer Lukas Ettlin deserves credit for keeping his focus close on faces, eyes, hands, feet and objects in an effort to make things more intimate between them and the audience.
In a part that one would imagine actors like Sean Penn or Kevin Bacon to excel in, Arnold Schwarzenegger is an unlikely choice, but well made. The Governator still isn't a great actor after all these years (let's be real), but in this film, he does a great job as the father who would do anything to protect his daughter from harm. It's fascinating to note that the man can emote in a quiet film like this. Abigail Breslin is equally good as Maggie, trying to live a normal life as her last days pass her by. Joely Richardson is also solid as Wade's wife and Maggie's stepmother Caroline, who cares for Maggie but is wary of what she's turning into.
The film does take a strange turn in the middle third when Schwarzenegger disappears as Maggie hangs out with her friends and only reappears when her disease takes a bad upward swing. I found it a bit jarring and inconsistent, though not entirely baffling. There's also the question of the lack of focus on the disease itself, but as I've said, it's not that kind of film, so be warned if you're looking for excitement here. You won't find it.
My final verdict would be to check this film out, to satisfy a wee bit of your curiosity. If you ever want to see Schwarzenegger in a drama, then go see this. I say it's worth it. (7/10)
Year: 2015
Director: Brad Peyton
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Paul Giamatti, Ioan Gruffudd, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson
Plot: A huge earthquake hits California, and a rescue chopper pilot has to make a dangerous journey to save his daughter who's trapped in San Francisco.
Review: Disaster films are mostly alike. They all follow the same formula. Big calamity hits. Lots of people die. A few heroes survive. San Andreas follows this too. The only thing that seems to separate these films now is the amount of CGI used.
San Andreas is set in California, where a massive earthquake unlike anything the world has ever seen hits. In the middle of this disaster is Ray Gaines, a rescue chopper pilot who has to save his estranged wife and daughter who are trapped in the city with thousands of other victims. The film shifts attention between the family and Caltech seismologist Lawrence Hayes, who tries to warn everyone of the oncoming destruction.
The most impressive thing about San Andreas is the special effects. The earthquake scenes, from the shaking to falling buildings, shifting grounds and the tsunami in the film's climax look pretty awesome. There are a few moments where you'd go 'wow' due to how realistic it looks.
The other great thing is the acting, which is mostly convincing. Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino make a good couple, and Alexandra Daddario fares well as their daughter Blake, who's rather resourceful in times of danger. Paul Giamatti is ever reliable as the seismologist while Hugo-Johnstone-Burt and Art Parkinson add some variety to Blake's adventure as a pair of brothers who stick with her during the disaster.
But San Andreas is practically filled with cliches. Broken family as the lead characters? Check. Mum has a new boyfriend? Check. Selfish characters meet their demise? Check. Dad has to go rescue his kid? Check. Will the broken family be mended by the time it's over? You know the answer to that one too. If you've seen 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, all this will be most familiar to you. To top it all off, they have Gugino's boyfriend (played by Ioan Gruffudd) turn out to be a not so good guy, which makes it all the more obvious that she'll reunite with her husband. The only curveball they gave here was the idea of a death in the family in their past, which at least gives some weight to the drama between them.
If there's any reason to see this film, it would be the superb CGI. The heart of the story serves its purpose, but doesn't really add anything new to what has come before. (7/10)
Year: 2015
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Miranda Hart, Allison Janney
Plot: A CIA analyst with zero experience in the field is sent on a mission to stop an arms dealer after the agency's top agents' identities are compromised.
Review: When it comes to Melissa McCarthy, I can be on the fence. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I mean, there's only so much of her foul language and physical comedy that one can endure before it gets old. Good thing for us this time though that Paul Feig uses those skills of hers very well and in the right doses.
In Spy, McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a CIA analyst that helps top agent Bradley Fine carry out his dangerous assignments by becoming his eyes and ears via her computer back at Langley. When he gets killed on a mission by Raina Boyanov, an arms dealer trying to sell a nuclear bomb, Susan volunteers to go undercover since Raina has apparently got all the identities of the agency's top assets. And off she goes in an attempt to be like her idol Bradley, with the advantage of not being suspected as an agent due to her image, and the disadvantage of having zero experience in the field.
Feig is wise enough to make Susan Cooper a competent protagonist. Remember Johnny English? How long before one gets tired of watching him make a fool of himself for the whole movie? In this case, Susan is no weakling. She can fight quite well and although a bundle of nerves at first, manages to get the hang of what it takes to be a spy. To that end, McCarthy hits mostly the right notes by playing Susan the same way we would if we were in her shoes. And it is fun to watch her physical comedy this time around, and see her kick ass so well too. The kitchen fight scene is a memorable standout here.
Jude Law exudes charm as Bradley Fine, but doesn't quite get enough screen time here. Rose Byrne is pretty good as the foul mouthed Raina, but it is Jason Statham who steals the show here as Ford, the equally foul mouthed agent who despises Susan. Statham is awesome here, exaggerating his famous tough guy persona by mentioning his torturous experiences in the field while not exactly being the sharpest knife in the drawer. Miranda Hart deserves mention here as the sort of British version of McCarthy, playing Susan's partner Nancy.
The film isn't perfect of course. Some of the comedy bits don't work so well, for instance the serial groper Italian agent played by Peter Serafinowicz only works half the time, and some of the R-rated jokes don't really hit the mark. The last fifteen minutes of the film is also a tad messy due to an abundance of characters and subplots.
Overall, Spy is a solid spoof of the spy genre (complete with a 007 style credit sequence) and a step up from Feig and McCarthy's last effort, The Heat. (7/10)
Year: 2015
Director: George Miller
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Abbey Lee, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Courtney Eaton
Plot: In a post-apocalyptic world filled with chaos and insanity, one man is caught in the middle of an escape plan spearheaded by a female warrior who wants to save the wives of a lunatic warlord.
Review: I hadn't watched the original Mad Max trilogy, but I thought I knew what to expect going into this film. After seeing it, I assure you, even if you knew exactly what to expect, you'll be blown away by it.
Writer-director George Miller, who created the original Mad Max films that starred Mel Gibson, has wonderfully brought a hellacious spectacle of a movie that just might be the year's best adventure. Mad Max: Fury Road basically feels like one long chase sequence from beginning to end, but damn if it isn't so much fun to behold.
There is a plot though, don't you worry. A man called Max is all alone in a desert world filled with crazy people. He gets captured by War Boys, a bunch of foot soldiers who follow Immortan Joe, a warlord with five wives who controls a large water supply that the poor folk depend on. His right hand woman, Imperator Furiosa, hatches a plan to turn on Joe and take his wives away to her home far away, and Max gets caught in the middle. Also along for the ride is Nux, a War Boy who seeks to redeem himself after failing Joe.
If there's one thing that really stands out in this film, it's the amount of vehicular carnage on display here. It pretty much rivals all the Fast & Furious films combined. Crashes, explosions, suicide dives, flips, and a huge sandstorm all come together beautifully. Never has destruction looked so cool on screen. And then there are the vehicles, costumes, sets, cinematography, music....it's insane and yet gorgeous at the same time. You'll have to see it for yourself to know what I mean. Miller is truly a genius, I salute him and his entire production team for creating a world that is visually remarkable and making action sequences, from vehicular destruction to a simple hand-to-hand scrap look awesome.
The cast's three main leads, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult all deliver outstanding performances. Hardy plays Max as a man of few words but says a lot with his fists and eyes very well, just as he did in Warrior and Lawless. Theron gives Furiosa a fine balance between toughness and delicateness, while Hoult succeeds in making Nux a character worth pitying and eventually root for. Hugh Keays-Byrne makes a good villain as Joe despite wearing a mask throughout the film. While the women chosen to play Joe's five wives look like mere pretty faces, to their credit, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Abbey Lee, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough and Courtney Eaton manage to stand out in their own way, with each of them having their own moment to shine.
If there is a downside to this film at all, it would be Max himself looking like someone who is shoved into the main plot instead of being the focal point of the story. Not much background is given to Max, save for visions and nightmares he keeps having of his dead family. But this is a small complaint, which doesn't really matter when you're in the middle of seeing him and Furiosa kick ass.
I can't say it enough. Mad Max: Fury Road is the most adrenalin-pumping, ass-kicking film of the year. Highly recommended. (9/10)
