X-Men: Apocalypse

I like to think that the pitch line for X-Men: Apocalypse was, "Sansa Stark is Jean Grey." Sophie Turner joins the cast of the X-Men as a young Jean Grey. I do love that a sea-change is happening in recent fantasy/superhero/dystopian films. Of course, we have the Hunger Games with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Divergent with Tris (Shaileen Woodley), and Star Wars VII with Rey (Daisy Ridley). But, the supposedly male dominated DC and Marvel superheroes are also beginning to crack. In Batman vs Superman, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) shows up to save their bacon, and in Captain America: Civil War, it is Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) who tries to keep the peace. In the new film, X-Men: Apocalpse, Professor X ( James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) seem powerless in the face of the ultimate mutant Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). It is up to Raven/Mystique, played by the indefatigable Jennifer Lawrence to become the de facto head of the X-Men. She gets some help from Jean Grey, Qucksilver (Evan Peters), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

I'm not sure it is worth explaining but the plot of X-Men: Apocalypse involves the original mutant, who somehow gave birth to the pharaohs before being buried "forever." He is reawakened and with his gang of four, a young Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), and Magneto. I'm not sure why Magneto joins up. Let's face it, he's not a joiner and he switches sides three times in this movie. Olivia Munn is very scary as Psylocke. Anyway, Apocalypse co-ops Professor X's mental powers to take over the world. Also in the mix, is the evil Colonel Stryker (Josh Helman) who, as usual, has Wolverine on ice. In a typical X-Man cameo, Raven releases Wolverine and he runs off into the woods. Oh ya, since this is a Marvel film, there is a final scene at the end of the credits. The plot makes no sense but I don't really care. It's always nice to see those adorable mutants. I think X-Women might be a better name.

Love & Friendship

Jane Austen is the most successful screenwriter in Hollywood today but she has not produced anything new in quite a while! So, just when we thought that Jane Austen was never going to produce any new screenplays, we have a new one. It is Love & Friendship which is based on an early unpublished novel, Lady Susan. Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale) is a matchmaker but unlike Emma, is only interested in matches for herself and her young daughter (Morfydd Clark). And the matches must be rich. Lady Susan will stop at nothing to achieve her twin goals and she must manipulate a large number of people. You almost need a program to keep everyone straight. In fact, there is an explanation with subtitles every time a new character is introduced. 

There is Lady Susan's American confidant (Chloe Sevigny) whose husband (Stephen Fry) is "just old enough to be formal, ungovernable and to have the gout – too old to be agreeable, and too young to die." Also, they are staying at the house of her in-laws (Emma Greenwell, Justin Edwards) and her sister-in-law's brother (Xavier Samuel). The brother is in love with Lady Susan and another lord (Tom Bennett) is in love with the daughter. Lady Susan is also having an affair with a married man and his wife (Jenn Murray) is very upset about it. 

No spoilers but Lady Susan and her daughter do quite well for themselves by the end. The cast is a bunch of great British character actors in addition to the A-listers. The most entertaining character is Sir James who is in love with the daughter. He is a complete nutter and very, very happy about it. His joy is extremely infectious and the audience was laughing out loud whenever he was on the screen. The director, Whit Stillman, keeps this film moving right along and it is a very entertaining and light-hearted romp. Love & Friendship has had a lot of buzz since it was shown at Sundance this year and it has an unbelievable 99% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What's not to like?

Money Monster

Sometimes it's just nice to see the old-pros on the A-list do their thing. The big Hollywood movie isn't what it used to be, but Money Monster stars George Clooney (Two Oscars, eight nominations) and Julia Roberts (One Oscar, four nominations), and is directed by none other than Jodie Foster (Two Oscars, four nominations). I don't mind saying that I just love Foster. I also think a lot of George and Julia, so maybe this is a biased review. The A-list stars are backed up by a nice supporting cast, Jack O'Connell (Unbroken), Dominic West (The Affair), Giancarlo Esposito (Homicide: Life on the Street), and Caitriona Balfe (Outlander).

Money Monster is the name of a financial investment cable TV show that is more circus than investment advice. Clooney is the manic host and Roberts is his cool-headed producer.  They have a lot of history together, and Roberts is about to jump ship for a job at another network. During the taping of their daily show, a young man with a gun (O'Connell) comes on camera, takes Clooney hostage, and forces him to wear an explosive vest. He is upset after losing all of his savings after following Clooney's advice to buy a certain stock. Of course, the SWAT team, led by Esposito, soon arrives, and Money Monster seems to be heading toward a typical hostage standoff. But the company that O'Connell invested in and lost his money has wheels within wheels, and so Clooney tries to figure out what is really happening by trying to pigeonhole the company's spokesperson (Balfe) and CEO (West). All the while, Clooney is trying to keep O'Connell alive. Stockholm Syndrome takes hold pretty quickly.

I need to mention two small roles in Money Monster. In one, Lenny Venito, one of those character actors who looks always vaguely familiar, has a breakout role here as Lenny the Cameraman. In the other, Emily Meade has only one scene as O'Connell's pregnant girlfriend who is brought in to talk him down. Meade almost steals the whole movie with one scene. It is great.

Money Monster is directed by Jodie Foster. All of her Oscar nominations have been for acting, but she has been concentrating on directing recently. Money Monster is her fourth feature film and she has been directing episodes of House of Cards, and Orange is the New Black. Foster does a good job here, keeping the action simple and moving along. This film makes good use of the intimacy between the on-air talent and the producer in the control room talking through their earpiece. This technique has been used to good effect before in Broadcast News (a great movie if you've never seen it)  and more recently in the HBO series, The Newsroom (a great series if you've never seen it).  Anyway, it's fun to see Clooney and Roberts is action. Hollywood is not dead yet.

Captain America: Civil War

Aunt May and Tony Stark? I have to say that I never considered that one. But they are both New Yorkers, and having Aunt May played by Marisa Tomei doesn't hurt. But I digress. Yes, Spider-Man is back and he is from the Marvel Universe, so here he is in Captain America: Civil War. Wait, I think I am still digressing. This is a review of the aforementioned Captain America: Civil War, the latest in the many Avengers movies. It is the third in the line of Captain America movies. This one follows a plot that was in the comic books where, yes, there is a war between the Avengers. The New York Times review was discussing it as a political allegory. Think Tony Stark as Donald Trump and Steve Rogers as Bernie Sanders. I am reticent to even try to describe the plot. But it is quite a bit similar to the other "war" move on the DC Comics side, Batman vs Superman. In both movies, a superhero with control issues decides that another superhero is a vigilante not a superhero and needs to be reined in. And in both, a villain is pulling the strings. Here it is Daniel Bruhl. he is good. You gotta see him as Niki Lauda in Rush.

In Captain America: Civil War, the US Secretary of State (William Hurt) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) decide that the Avengers should be put under UN control. I have to say that I am on Captain America's side here. But Cap (Chris Evans) is somewhat biased since he really just wants to save his boyhood pal, Bucky (Sebastian Stan), who keeps killing people and laying waste to the planet. Anyway, as I said, let's not analyze the plot too closely. The Avengers take sides. Thor, the Hulk, and Nick Fury are MIA, so we don't know what they think. Added to the mix are Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and Spider-Man (Tom Holland). The other Avengers from Age of Ultron are all back, some just briefly. Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is the only sane member of the Avengers and that's saying something. She tries to keep them together, then sides with the Iron Man team, but not really since her best buds Steve and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are on the other team. She is also smarter than the others because she just disappears rather than be put in Supermax with the other bad Avengers. Unfortunately, then she isn't in the last third of the movie.

This is really three movies, one where they are all trying to find Bucky but can't and blame each other, and then a very entertaining middle bit where the two Avenger teams face off. This is the best part of the movie and it's obvious no one is going to get killed. Spider-Man and Ant-Man get the most laughs. Then, there is a third movie where it is just Tony versus Steve with Bucky in the middle.

The Avengers movies are mostly well-made and, happily for me, very well written. This movie is no different. It continues the subplot of Black Widow trying to set up Steve with the nurse (Emily VanCamp) who turns out to be in the CIA and has other secrets. But I can report that there is a kiss somewhere in this movie. You can also look out for some nice cameos, William Hurt and Marisa Tomei as mentioned above, Alfre Woodard as a grief-stricken mother, John Slattery and Hope Davis as Tony's parents, and Martin Freeman as a nasty CIA torturer. Don't ask why Martin Freeman is in this because I don't know.

What else? Now we know what was in the folder that Romanov gave to Steve at the end of the last movie. Also, there are two scenes in the final credits, one right at the end which you should stay for. Oh, and look out for Stan Lee playing a Fedex man.

A Hologram for the King

I hadn't even heard about A Hologram for the King until about a week before it opened. But there was Tom Hanks in the trailer and the NY Times liked it. So did I. This is a very interesting movie. A Hologram for the King, based on the novel of the same name, is a great title because it says a lot but you can't figure out what it means. Tom Hanks plays Alan, a businessman who can sell anything, but is down on his luck, just got a divorce, and lost his job. He is offered a new job to sell a holographic conferencing system to the King of Saudi Arabia. He and his IT team are supposed to demo the system for the King, but when they arrive in Saudi Arabia, they find that they are situated in a mostly non-existent city out in the desert, in a tent with no Wi-Fi. And no one knows when the King will be showing up for the demo.

A Hologram for the King is a bit reminiscent of Groundhog Day. Each day, Hanks sleeps through his alarm, misses the shuttle to the city, has to call his Saudi driver (Alexander Black), and then try to find someone who can explain what's happening or at least get them some Wi-Fi. Lots of things happen along the way including wild embassy parties and visits to the hospital. Hanks has a lump on his back and is suffering anxiety attacks. Along the way he befriends his female Saudi doctor (Sarita Choudhury), and spoiler alert, some sparks eventually fly between them.

This film is by the German director, Tom Tykwer, most famous for Run Lola Run. He keeps it moving even though, most of the time, "nothing" is happening. The supporting cast is mostly non-arabic, even the arabic parts. Choudhury, who broke out with Mississippi Masala 25 years ago, is half-Indian, and Black is American. They are both very good. It's also nice to see Tom Skerritt who plays Hanks father. I wished he had more scenes. Tom Hanks is great as always. I know not everyone loves him as much as I do, but it is a joy to watch him work. This is another good everyman role for him, but he makes it better than the script. A Hologram for the King plays out mostly inside the jet-lagged, culture-shocked head of Hanks character, and Tom is very good at making that work. This film is only playing on a few screens around the country. If it appears at a theatre near you, you should go see it.

Born To Be Blue

Ethan Hawke has been around for a long time. he was one of the students in Dead Poets Society, and I loved Gattaca. But I hadn't seen him in anything for a long time when he burst back into view as the father in Boyhood for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He is back this year with a new movie with buzz, Born To Be Blue. In this film, Hawke plays Chet Baker, the famous jazz trumpeter from the 50's and 60's. Born To Be Blue is very meta. It opens in black and white sometime in the 1950's with Baker (Hawke) and his then wife. But then the director calls cut and it is really Baker playing himself in a movie and the time is the 1960's. The woman playing his wife (Carmen Ejogo) in the movie becomes his girlfriend. When they visit Baker's parents back on the farm in Oklahoma, his mother's first comment is, "You look just like Chet's ex-wife." His father's first comment is, "Are you here to dry out again?"

Chet Baker is in a loop that he can't get out of. He became a heroin addict in the 1950's and was still using when he died in 1988. This film is set around the time in 1966 when he was severely beaten and his teeth were all knocked out. He could no longer play the trumpet and begins a long comeback once he has some dentures. Born To Be Blue is bookended by concerts he gives in New York City with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie in the audience before and after his beating.

Born To Be Blue is not a happy movie. Baker's life doesn't have a happy ending, even though he was able to continue his jazz career. Hawke seems to be perfect for the role of Baker, a basically nice guy with a great musical gift but no impulse control. The film centers on both his struggle to regain the ability to play but also his struggle to stay clean with the help of his girlfreind. Ejojo, who played Coretta Scott King in Selma, is very good as the girlfriend who truly loves Baker but isn't willing to go down the drain with him. She is yet another English actor playing an American. They are everywhere and you don't even notice! Selma was hilarious since MLK, Coretta Scott King, LBJ and Wallace were all played by English actors. But I digress. Born To Be Blue is nice little movie and Ethan Hawke may get another Oscar nomination.

Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant...

Allegiant is the third movie in the Divergent Series. it is part of the wave of Dystopian young adult books, which started with The Hunger Games trilogy. Like that series, the third Divergent book has been split into two movies. The last film in the series will be out next year. I quite liked Divergent, the first film. The set up is that civilization has been destroyed (duh) and the survivors in a semi-ruined Chicago have been split into 5 factions, Amity, Erudite, Candor, Abnegation, and Dauntless. Each faction plays a prescribed role in society. Each child grows up in a faction but gets to pick what faction to belong to when they grow up. A young woman from Abnegation (Shailene Woodley) shocks her parents (Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn) by choosing Dauntless while her brother (Ansel Elgort) chooses Erudite. It's like choosing a college where everyone has the same major. Woodley even starts to fall for her TA (Theo James). He's pretty cute. But all is not well. As with all of these dystopian stories, dark forces are at work, in this case, Erudite's leader played by Kate Winslet is planning a coup with Dauntless providing the muscle. Divergent, as with the first parts of all these trilogies, is by far the best. I like this story because it isn't some stupid dystopian high-school love triangle like The Hunger Games. As most of you know, I threw the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy against the wall because I am a Gale lover and a Peeta hater. But I digress.

By the end of Divergent, Woodley and James, now in love, and their merry band including Elgort, Zoe Kravitz, and Miles Teller, are outlaws. In the second movie, Insurgent, they hook up with a larger band of rebels led by James' mother (Naomi Watts). I love that this series features a female lead (Woodley) trying to maintain the peace between the two warring factions led by two very strong, slightly crazed women (Winslet and Watts). The casting is great. My favorite character is Peter played by Miles Teller, who exploded on the screen last year in Whiplash. His character has changed sides about 5 times in the three movies so far ,always betraying his former side but somehow he is still alive. He is very entertaining. Woodley and James are also very good, but as with all these series, as we approach the end, the plots get more and more far-fetched.

In Alegiant, we find out that the two centuries of factional life in Chicago has been some kind of genetic experiment. This would be a spoiler but none of it makes any sense. But we do get to see Jeff Daniels, as the leader of this other mystery group who are ensconsed at O'Hare airport, try to explain which is very fun. Anyway, there is one movie to go and I'm sure Woodley will save the day. I much prefer Woodley's Tris to Jennifer's Lawrence's Katniss. You should definitely see Divergent but the other two not so much.