Blue is the Warmest Color: The best possible movie to see with your parents

Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche
187 Minutes
Rated NC-17
Watch Trailer

Since its premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Blue is the Warmest Color has gathered a swarm of controversy.  The film, from French director Abdellatif Kechiche (don't ask me how to pronounce that), is basically a coming-of-age/sexual awakening story from the perspective of high schooler Adele (played by Adele Exarchopoulos, in her feature film debut), who just can't connect sexually to the boys around her.  But then enters the blue-haired Emma (Lea Seydoux), whom Adele meets at a lesbian bar and slowly they become the object of each other's affection.  The film, being the first at Cannes to ever be awarded the coveted Palme d'Or for both its director and lead actresses, has received positive and negative criticism for its depictions of no-holds-barred, hardcore lesbian sex.  Coming from a straight-male director, and one that apparently treated his actresses badly on set, some have said that the film comes off as voyeuristic and exploitative, while others have touted it as a daring, artful masterpiece.  I personally think that the sex (which is basically as graphic as pornography) shouldn't overshadow the brilliant performances from the leading actresses, which is really where the film shines.

Frozen, Philomena, Out of the Furnace Reviews

Frozen
Dir. Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee

The tale of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen is one of those properties that has been kicked around the Disney animation studios for decades (since the 1940's) and finally, after some 70-odd years, they've finally cracked the code to adapting the story.  With music and lyrics coming from the same team that brought Broadway hits Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon to life, and clever writing and direction from Jennifer Lee (Wreck-It Ralph), Frozen will not leave you cold (sorry I had to).

Although there are love interests in the film, the crux of the story does not revolve around a "Prince Charming," but rather on the relationship between two sisters, Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel).  When they were children, Elsa, who has the power to create snow and freeze things, accidentally hurt her sister with her ability.  Since then, in Rapunzel fashion, she was shunned from any outside activity in her room, slowly waning the sisters' bond.  But as Elsa grows older and finally becomes queen, the two have a misunderstanding, resulting in a fight, leading to Elsa accidentally creating an eternal winter and running off into the mountains.  It's up to Anna to go on a quest to get her back, and along the way she meets friends and sings with them (a la Wizard of Oz), including a mountain-man named Christoff and Olaf, an animate snowman with ironic dreams of the summer.

The songs, while not being quite as instantly memorable or catchy as the top-tier Disney films of the 90's (Aladdin, Lion King), are very well constructed and feel appropriate for a Broadway presentation.  They always move the story along and/or develop the characters and range from hilarious ("In Summer") to powerful ("Let it Go," which is probably the showstopper of the film; Idina Menzel nails it).  In Disney fashion the humor works for both kids and adults, with Kristen Bell's awkward and sincere Anna feeling very relatable, and although he only appears halfway through, Josh Gad's Olaf the Snowman practically steals the film as soon as he's introduced.  It's a charming film, even if it follows the Disney formula to a T.

You'd think the decades-long stint of development hell would spell disaster out for Frozen, but it really was a fantastic film - and if the world is rotating on its right axis should be rendered a current classic in the Disney canon.  It's funny, heartfelt, has an amazing musical score and soundtrack, and although it succumbs to the traditional Disney schmaltz we expect, it still ranks among their better features as of late.

Rating: B

Philomena
Dir. Stephen Frears

At the beginning Philomena, Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a journalist without a story, is presented with an option of following Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), an aging woman whose long-lost son she has been searching for for fifty-odd years.  He responds something to the effect of 'human stories are small minded and bullshit.'  In many ways this was sort of my attitude going into this film.  I didn't necessarily think I'd care about this story, which seemed rather slight in comparison to the other year-end "Oscar-contending" films - but I, just as Martin did, was brought and sucked into this absolutely fascinating story with many layers, unraveling the truth behind Philomena's past and present.  Philomena will come at you very subtly, until you realize you're holding your breath at what will happen next.  It's undeniably a comedy (as its poster protests), but it's so much more than that.

I loved almost everything about this film.  Coogan and Dench are the best screen pairing I can think of this year, and their relationship is incredibly sincere. The culture gap between the two birthed many genuinely funny scenes, and their developing rapport gave the latter half of the picture a lot of heartstring-pulling moments.  The story goes in places you wouldn't necessarily expect (at least I didn't), and I definitely could have cried if I wanted to.  Also worth noting is the brilliant score by Alexandre Desplat, whose soft, lullaby-like music strikes this perfect balance between sweetness and sadness, perfectly encapsulating the feel of the film and Dench's brilliant performance (one of the best of the year).

Other than absolutely trivial nitpicks (such as the over-use of home movie footage of the lost boy during transitions), I loved everything about this movie.  It deals with themes of aging, religion, guilt, and self-discovery, all wrapped in a neat little bow by co-screenwriter Coogan with his fantastic script.  Also, the cinematography, especially around Ireland and Washington DC, was stunning as well (from Fish Tank's Robbie Ryan).  I would recommend this film to just about anyone.

Rating: A

Out of the Furnace
Dir. Scott Cooper

Jeff Bridges won the Academy Award in 2009 for Scott Cooper's Crazy Heart as a grizzled, down-and-out country singer - and in many ways Out of the Furnace is a logical follow-up to Cooper's first theatrical film.  Russell Baze (Christian Bale), is always looking out for his baby brother Rodney (Casey Affleck), as economic times are crumbling in the old steel town of Braddock, Pennsylvania.  Rodney eventually goes off to Iraq, and comes back a changed, angry man - and takes out his aggression in violent fights set up in the backwoods countryside by the violent DeGroat (Woody Harrelson), which obviously doesn't bode well.

Out of the Furnace does a great job establishing its atmosphere, and the actors are all top notch (just looking at the cast list is impressive: Bale, Harrelson, Shephard, Affleck, Whittaker, Dafoe - this may be one of the best "casts" in a film this year), but the film ended up too predictable and melodramatic to be much more than an acting showcase.  It's pretty much The Deer Hunter in a more modern setting, showing the devastation of coming back from war, and turns into a kind of revenge flick.  The post-war stuff in the beginning works much better in my opinion than the straightforward second portion.  It's a fine film with some great moments and great performances (Harrelson in particular sticks out), but never really comes together to make something special.

Rating: C+

Catching Fire, Dallas Buyers Club, 12 Years a Slave Reviews

Hey folks, sorry I haven't been keeping up with my blog lately, but I've been inundated with schoolwork this whole month.  Keep on the lookout at the end of the year though, as I'll be posting both my annual movie superlatives (including a new category: Best Guilty Pleasure) and my Top Ten of 2013 - which is going to be a bitch this year because of all the fantastic films I've seen and yet to see!  As always, thanks for reading, and I hope your holiday plans include watching a movie or two (or twelve).

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Dir. Francis Lawrence

Although it has the general reputation as being the next "Twlight" or "Harry Potter," I think The Hunger Games series is a much richer young adult sci-fi series.  It deals with government regimes, brainwashing media, violence against children, and being caught in a literally life-or-death love triangle.  It's almost as if Battle Royale and Brazil had a teenage daughter.  I enjoyed reading the books, and while its budget was noticable, I thought the first Hunger Games film was a serviceable adaptation to the book.  However, I think Catching Fire is not only a great adaptation, it's a much better film than the original.

Catching Fire doesn't fuck around with telling you what happened last time - it drops you right into the world we previously left off in (something I love in sequels).  District 11 is still a wasteland, but the ridiculous shaky-cam stuff is all gone, and in its place is absolutely gorgeous cinematography from Jo Willems (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy).  Also back is Jennifer Lawrence, fresh off her Academy Award win for Silver Linings Playbook, and totally gives an equally powerful performance, if you can believe it.  In fact I think Lawrence is not just great at playing her character, but her own life parallels that of Katniss Everdeen - she's constantly having to put up a front for the media, and though she's remained a relatively "normal" person by Hollywood standards, she's been thrust into the jungle of show business and forced to survive (only without the poisonous fog or killer baboons).

For a movie that's almost 2.5 hours, it moved extremely fast. Maybe it's just because I'm so used to these books being broken into a billion parts to milk more money out of them (ahem...The Hobbit), but I was engaged the whole time, and the only problems I had with the film were problems I had with the source material (such as the logically questionable, but still satisfying ending).  The special effects are clearly better, with almost double the budget of the first - $130 million vs. the original's $78 million - and the cast and crew really made this into something more than what you'd expect from a young adult novel brought to the screen.  This is a fantastic sequel and as soon as it ended I was excited for the next one.

Rating: B+

Dallas Buyers Club
Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée

Matthew McConaughey continues his winning streak in Dallas Buyers Club, the film in which he lost 38 pounds to transform into the rough-and-tough Texas bull rider Ron Woodruff, who contracts the AIDS virus during its height in the 80's.  Doctors tell him he has 30 days to live, and the drugs they're prescribing are making matters worse.  Taking a cue from Walter White, Woodruff gets in the drug business, acting as a back-door pharmacist for meds not yet approved by the FDA, but have proven to ease the symptoms of the virus.  While the subject of the film is fascinating, and McConaughey gives one of his best-ever performances, the film fell a little flat for me on certain levels.

First off, Woodruff's projected journey is supposedly taking this violently homophobic man and turning him into a more sympathetic person.  But the film makes this shift so suddenly; one second he's pinning a doctor to the wall for "insinuating" that he might be gay, and the next he's playing a friendly game of cards with a man in drag (Jared Leto), who will soon become his business partner.  This issue is at its worst during a scene taking place in a grocery store.  Woodruff at this point has been cut off from his friends and job (because AIDS was synonymous with homosexuality), and bumps into his former work buddy.  Now instead of having some sort of deep psychological conflict between the two, they just get into a short brawl and Woodruff forces his friend to apologize to Leto's character.  Moments ago Woodruff would have beat the shit out of some guy for hinting at his being gay, and now he's defending a drag queen at the drop of a hat - it's just too much too soon (made even worse by the big jumps in time via title cards, e.g. 28 months later).

Everything in this movie is played for the most obvious beats, and we don't really get a close perspective on the AIDS epidemic (if you wanted that check out the recent documentary How to Survive a Plague).  McConaughey is magically cured after he takes the unapproved drugs from Mexico, and he might as well not have even had the disease.  And Jennifer Garner was pretty much wasted as one of the few "good" doctors and also acts as a sort of forced love interest.  Still, Dallas Buyers Club is never boring, and like I said, McConaughey is worth price of admission alone - it's just that this could have been a spectacular film, and it's merely a good one.

Rating: B

12 Years a Slave
Dir. Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) took on a monumental task for his third feature film. 12 Years a Slave is an adaptation of a first-hand account, written in 1853, of a free man and virtuoso violinist, Solomon Northup, who was captured and forced into slavery for 12 years of his life - taken away from his wife and children.  12 Years a Slave is McQueen's biggest film yet, with an ensemble cast including Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, and of course Chiwetel Ejiofor, who gives a "give-this-guy-an-award" performance as Northup himself.

We've seen many films about slavery as it is, and at this point in time, you may ask if it's even relevant to make a film about the horrors of slavery when everyone in their right mind knows it's wrong.  But 12 Years a Slave is definitely not just an ambitious exploitation feature; this film, for the first time, truly put me in the mindset of a slave in the antebellum south.  In much the same way Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan gave you a visceral experience of WWII, 12 Years a Slave is just as brutal and beautiful.  There are certain shots in this film that will probably never leave me (including one long take that snakes around the building where slaves were bought).  It is not an easy film to sit through, but it's an important historical document, and it shows the depths of human depravity without getting preachy.  The film knows how to make you feel something without turning to sentimentality; a lingering shot of Northup's face tells you all you need to know.

I thought everything in this movie is worth adoration, and it's probably the best film on this subject matter.  Hans Zimmer's score was also pretty impressive, always adding to the scene without making too much of an impact (Zimmer isn't normally one to be subtle).  The end of the film hit me hard and I could've cried if I wanted to.  12 Years a Slave is a serious achievement in film.  It's not at all fun to watch and will probably take a lot out of you, but to me it's necessary viewing for this year, or any year, in film.

Rating: A

Captain Phillips, Machete Kills, The Counselor, Bad Grandpa

Captain Phillips
Dir. Paul Greengrass

Perhaps best known for his directorial work on the Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum, Paul Greengrass' style pretty much defined action thrillers of the 00's.  Captain Phillips, based on the true account of an American cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009, is his latest, with Tom Hanks assuming the role of the titular captain, making a serious comeback from a somewhat dwindling career recently.  And making his film debut is Barkhad Abdi, convincingly playing the pirate "captain" (let's just say you won't see Abdi in a Calvin Klein ad).  Captain Phillips, like Gravity, is a claustrophobic thrill ride filled with all the set-pieces you could imagine coming out of the limited scope of a cargo freighter.  The filmmaking is great, I loved the contrast between the respective "captains," and it's hardly boring considering it takes place almost entirely on a boat.  The "message" of the film is a little too blatant, and due to the trailers/based-in-real-lifeness it's pretty predictable, but other than that, I think it's a great true-life thriller.

Rating: B+

Machete Kills
Dir. Robert Rodriguez

I think this series has worn out its welcome.  I was a huge fan of Grindhouse from 2007, the criminally under-seen double feature from Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, of which "Machete" was a fake trailer at the beginning.  Soon thereafter Rodriguez directed a standalone Machete film, with Danny Trejo back playing "the wrong Mexican to fuck with." While entertaining for what it was, I felt the film marked the end of Machete's novelty.  Even with the sequel's exciting cast lineup, including Cuba Gooding Jr, Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, Demian Bechir, and Lady Gaga, Machete Kills just falls flat.  It wasn't clever enough, it wasn't outrageous enough, and it wasn't nostalgic enough.  At first these films seemed like a sincere return to a previous era's style of filmmaking, now it just feels laborious.  Machete is just not that interesting of a character.  At least other "silent-but-deadly" action heroes like Schwarzenegger's Terminator or Eastwood's 'Man with No Name' had epic stories that surrounded them.  It really just doesn't feel edgy anymore, just rehashing the same shit.  "Grindhouse" has become a stock style at this point (just look at this Ruffles commercial), and it's not enough to simply emulate for the sake of it.  I think Rodriguez is an amazing director, and I'm still cautiously awaiting his Sin City sequel, but I'd rather take a shot from Mel Gibon's "inside out" gun than watch this again.

Rating: D

The Counselor
Dir. Ridley Scott

If you ask me what The Counselor was about, I seriously wouldn't know what to tell you.  Michael Fassbender plays a guy who we never learn about (including his name - everyone just calls him "the counselor").  He wants in on the world of the Mexican border drug game...or something...despite the fact that he's boning Penelope Cruz (whom he has zero on-screen chemistry with) and could lose her.  A cowboy hat-wearing Brad Pitt and a spiky-haired Javier Bardem warn him not to get involved, but he does anyway.  Then there's Cameron Diaz who has two pet cheetahs for no reason.  Other than that it's just all long pieces of undecipherable dialogue that thinks it's poetic intermingled with un-erotic sex and uninteresting violence. Just what the fuck is this movie?  This marks 80-year-old Cormac McCarthy's first foray into screenwriting (best known for his novels No Country for Old Men and The Road).  For whatever reason this just flat out didn't work on any level, and it's clear that the actors involved were in it just for the prestige of working with Ridley Scott/McCarthy.  I don't even know how to review this, it didn't even make sense.

Rating: D-

Bad Grandpa
Dir. Jeff Tremaine

I've always been a big fan of Jackass, the show and the movies, and the pranks were always the funniest bits, for me anyway.  In Bad Grandpa Johnny Knoxville reprises his role of 86-year old Irving Zisman, this time getting the "Borat" treatment in a docu-comedy format.  Unlike previous Jackass features there is an actual narrative to follow, though it's loose enough to allow for the disconnected pranks to work.  And they're as funny as ever.  Basically Irving is on a road trip to drop his grandson off with his dad after his mom is sent to prison, and along the way they get into crazy hijinks (mostly in an effort for Irving to score some "tail"). The kid, played by 9-year-old Jackson Nicoll, has a surprisingly mature sense of humor and he plays really well off Knoxville (never caving or laughing during the pranks).  If you've enjoyed the Jackass adventures thus far and have that type of humor, Bad Grandpa is a ton of fun.  It's sophomoric, it's full of fart jokes, and you get to see an old man's genitals wagging around on the big screen.  What more could you want?  Knoxville knox it out of the park here (sorry, I had to).

Rating: B+

Gravity, Don Jon, Rush, Enough Said Reviews

Again, sorry for the short reviews (not that anyone really cares).

Gravity
Dir. Alfonso Cuarón

If movies have taught us anything, it's that space is scary.  But Gravity proves that it can be just as scary without the Aliens.  Set entirely in zero-gravity, this is one of the most unique thrillers to come out in a long time, suspending the audience along with the characters in space - and you will feel like you know what it feels like to float among the stars.  Featuring some gorgeous shots of the Earth, we're introduced to everything we need to know in the first 17 minute-long "unedited" sequence (it was edited digitally but appears to be one fluid shot), where we meet Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), a smooth-talking veteran astronaut and his new medical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), still getting acclimated to being weightless.  Within moments, they are alerted by mission control (Ed Harris - who coincidentally played mission control in Apollo 13) that debris from another satellite is rocketing their way.  The ship is destroyed, effectively leaving them stranded in outer space.  Talk about stakes!

As imagined coming from Cuarón, this is a spectacular movie that perfectly balanced horror with beauty, sure to placed in many 'Top Ten' lists at the end of the year.  The special effects look as good, if not better, than Avatar.  Sure there may be some iffy moments here and there, like Clooney's face under his helmet looking a little too CGI-like, but considering the scope of the film it's still awe-inspiring.  Plus, somehow he managed to make it just as much about the characters as the thrilling set-pieces.  Everything about this movie was great, if somewhat simplified compared to his previous masterwork Children of Men.  I don't want to give anything away, but I'm happy that it stuck to the 'hard science' angle as well.  If Danny Boyle could have only realized you don't necessarily need an alien for every movie set in space, Sunshine could've been this good.  Seriously, if you're a fan of movies at all Gravity should already be at the top of your watch-list.

Rating: A

Don Jon
Dir. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is definitely one of the best young actors working in Hollywood right now (I mean, just look at Brick, 50/50, Looper, The Dark Knight Rises, etc), but Don Jon marks his first time as a writer/director/star.  It's pretty much about this New Jersey meathead, Jon (Gordon-Levitt) whose favorite pastimes include working out, objectifying women, and watching an unhealthy amount of pornography.  Then enters Barbara (Scarlett Johanssen), a "princess" type who sports a shit-eating-grin whenever she watches a romantic comedy.  Don instantly falls for her after seeing her ass in a red dress, and she falls for Don, unaware of his "nasty" habits.  The heart of the film examines how media influences gender expectations in a negative way, and how we set unrealistic standards for the opposite sex.

It wasn't all that deep of a movie, but considering this is a first-time directing job (granted Gordon-Levitt has grown up in the industry), the pacing and the story were handled really well.  As awkward as a Jersey Shore-type porn addict movie may sound, the explicitness wasn't gratuitous and was shown purely to advance the story.  Also, in the middle of the film the always wonderful Julianne Moore shows up and completely changes the dynamic of the story and characters, which helped save the movie from going into monotony (the film intentionally repeats imagery to show Don's routine, but once it you see the same "sister-on-the-phone" gag for the fourth time it can get repetitive).  All in all, despite it sort of condemning sappy romantic comedies, it actually is one by the end.  A solid one that was able to show the potential of a new actor/director by the likes of Ben Affleck, but still your typical stuff.

Rating: B

Enough Said
Dir. Nicole Holofcener

Kind of an ironic title for the last film featuring James Gandolfini (best known for playing Tony Soprano).  In this indie-romantic comedy he co-stars with another famous TV icon, Julia-Louis Dreyfuss (Seinfeld's Elaine - as if I have to tell you these things).  She's a masseuse with a kid going off to college, he's a TV historian with a daughter in college, they're both single parents, and they hit it off.  The only problem is that one of Dreyfuss's clients, whom she begins to form a strong friendship with, is Gandolfini's ex-wife! Oh, the tension.  Enough Said really isn't a challenging picture, but I thought it was a touching and sweet final performance for a man known for playing tough guys.  The two veteran actors held fantastic chemistry together, and is one of the better movies about finding love at an old age that I've seen.  There are some eye-rolling unfunny moments here and there, but this is just such a quaint little movie, it's impossible to root against it.  Another movie that almost made me shed a man-tear.

Rating: B

Rush
Dir. Ron Howard

To me, Ron Howard has no discernable "style" that sets him apart from any other director.  If you look at even his best films back to back (let's say Cocoon, Apollo 13, and A Beautiful Mind), there's no way you'd be able to tell it was from the same director.  He's kind of bland, I'm sorry.  So I wasn't really excited for Rush, one of the few movies to come out set around Formula One racing.  I assumed it would be just like any other sports drama.  Aaaand...that was still the case here.  But the relationship between the two rival racers was well-handled.  The film follows real-life racers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), a Tony Stark-like cocky dude, and Niki Lauda, a calculating German relying on precision more than speed.  Unlike other sport films, where we'd follow one character and hate the other, this film truly shows the story from both perspectives, making the races mean a little more than, say, the Podracing sequence in The Phantom Menace (don't know why that's the example that came to me).

But even with a strong central relationship, I thought Rush was exceedingly "OK."  In the end it was a loud, fast-paced, turn-off-your-brain sports flick with not much to rave about.  Every other character is terrible, especially Olivia Wilde's, playing Hunt's wife; milling around for no reason, she should have just left him a long time ago (in the words of Hemsworth "Don't go to men who are willing to kill themselves driving in circles looking for normality").  Just another "Ron Howard" film to dump onto his pile of other inspirational "whatever" movies.  Frost/Nixon, anyone?

Rating: C

Prisoners, Insidious: Chapter 2, Riddick

Prisoners:

Just how far would you go to do what you think is the "right" thing? This is the question that torments all the characters in Prisoners, the latest thriller from Incendies director Denis Villeneuve.  Hugh Jackman gives an amazing performance as a father whose daughter has been kidnapped and is now missing, along with his neighbors' daughter (played by Viola Davis and Terrence Howard).  On the trail of the kidnapper is Detective Loki, a tattooed Jake Gyllenhaal.  Now, I don't want to give any more away although the trailer spoils a ridiculous amount of the plot. If you plan on seeing this: STAY AWAY FROM THE TRAILER.  But I really thought this was a great film with a great cast that goes all in.  The dread was palpable and I was seriously getting nervous at various points in the film.  It also has just some great "shots" (like when Gyllenhaal inspects an RV at night in the rain, with the only light source coming from his flashlight). It was a beautifully disturbing picture, although I do think it loses some steam with its final "reveal" - not that it was bad or unearned, but simply felt a little hokey.  But seriously, this is a pure and simple, well-crafted thriller.  And god damn Hugh Jackman is the best.

Rating: B+

Insidious Chapter 2:

James Wan must be on top of the world right now.  After The Conjuring scared up $136 million dollars this summer (on a $20 million budget), Insidious 2 made $41 million opening weekend (the second-highest September opening over), AND Fast and Furious 7 will have his name on the director's chair, I'd say he knows what he's doing.  But how did this sequel, sandwiched between two of his biggest projects, both compare to the original and work on its own?  Well, for this particular horror nerd it was a mixed bag.  On one hand it did have some creepy moments, it worked well within the mythology the first created, and Patrick Wilson channels his inner Jack Torrance - but it ultimately felt forgettable and lacked the more nuanced horror of the first.  This one was much more garish, feeling more like a 70's giallo than a haunted house flick.  It was just so "alright" I almost would've rather seen a terrible movie.  Against what everybody else thinks about it, I actually liked this more than The Conjuring and even though it had all the typical tropes, there were some cool new visuals to chew on (like the "Ouija dice" and a creepy sequence involving ghosts wrapped in white sheets - imagine that).

Rating: C+

Riddick:

Nobody was asking for more Riddick after The Chronicles of Riddick, a boring, overlong "space opera" way worse than the Star Wars prequels (Vin Diesel was nominated for a Razzie, but lost to George Bush in Fahrenheit 9/11).  But Vinny D was hell-bent on keeping his glowy-eyed badass in theaters, and pushed this sequel into production.  Not being a huge fan of the original films (other than the Xbox game Escape from Butcher Bay), I didn't really care one way or the other if I saw it, but I think Riddick is marginally best of the three films so far, sneaking past the first by a fraction.  This time around it's back to basics - just Vin Diesel doing what he does best and kicking things' asses.  No more of that space epic BS that plagued Chronicles. I loved the opening 15 or so dialogue-free minutes of Riddick, reminiscent (in a good way) of Pixar's WALL-E with Vin Diesel going around a barren planet and surviving waves of different wildlife out to eat him.  That opening sequence is enough to recommend the film for me, but after that it starts to go downhill.  You don't care about the characters and you just start to grow numb to the fights after a while.  It's a solidly put-together action/sci-fi film, but totally forgettable.

Rating: C

A few quick reviews...

Sorry, but time is catching up with me and I didn't have a lot of time to write four full-length reviews. But in keeping up with my movie-watching journey I'll just post a paragraph or two on the last few films I've seen theatrically.  May have to do this a few times during the school year - but I promise I'll try to keep these to a minimum!

You're Next:

I wanted to hate this movie.  The title is dumb, the plot is dumb, the acting is terrible - nothing about the trailer made me want to see it other than the fact that it was a rated-R horror film.  But honestly, after actually watching You're Next, I can place this away in my 'guilty pleasure' vault alongside Green Lantern and The House at the End of the Street. It wasn't great by any stretch, but it was a totally watchable slasher flick with some interesting deaths (that may or may not have been intentionally hilarious) and a twist that somehow works despite being on the same intellectual level as an episode of Scooby-Doo.  I was pleasantly surprised in that I didn't want to kill myself while watching it.

Rating: C+

The Spectacular Now:

Coming from the writers behind (500) Days of Summer, I was pretty surprised by how low-key and unsentimental this coming-of-age film was.  Shailene Woodley (who you may recognize from The Descendants)  won an acting award at Sundance for her role as the "good girl" Aimee Finecky, who falls for the more popular flask-toting Sutter Keely (Miles Teller) one summer during her routine paper route.  Both young actors do an absolutely fantastic job, even if their relationship took me a little time to warm up to.  Both are totally authentic in their quirks and flaws, and they were just fascinating characters to watch on screen.  But as great as those two are, Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) in a supporting role was the highlight.  He only has a couple of scenes, but they were huge turning points in the script, and considering he's usually typecasted as the "perfect dad," he was brilliantly playing against type in a fairly risky role.  Overall a fantastic film with great performances all around (keep an eye out for Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bob Odenkirk) and a really tight script.

Rating: A-

Salinger:

In high school I was given an assignment to write a report on any book between these certain dates in history and on a whim I chose "The Catcher in the Rye," knowing only that it was a "classic" novel and nothing more.  That book, like with most teenagers, turned into my all-time favorite and I similarly felt that JD Salinger just "got it."  Even for something written 50 years ago, it was easy to connect with Holden Caulfield and his angst against the phony adults around him.  But the reclusive author just disappeared after the book was published and has remained a mysterious figure for years.  This documentary was supposedly going to be the answer to all our questions about the man - but instead it was pretty much your standard biography.  The film itself wasn't too organized.  It would not only jump from re-enactments to talking heads to a sort-of "hunt" for Salinger, but it would jump around in time without a care (going from the 40's to current day to 70's to 50's).  Within the film there was so much repetition with both the facts and the photos/footage it became a little laborious to watch.  Still, die hard fans of Salinger should learn some interesting nuggets about his past life in the army and his many ex-wives, but for those unaware of Salinger or his genius you won't get a real sense of it here (unless you count the unnecessary/awkward montage of teenagers holding up copies of "Catcher in the Rye" and smiling).

Rating: C

Short Term 12:

One of the biggest hits to come out of the 2013 SXSW Film Festival, Short Term 12 is about a foster-care facility supervised by Grace (Brie Larson) and her boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr).  The kids in the program all have their own traumas they bring over, and Grace has her own past she is dealing with.  The film has the same "unsentimental" feel as The Spectacular Now (which ironally also features Brie Larson), making the heartstring tugging all the more raw.  The writing is spot on, the acting, even from the kids, is authentic and should make you fall in love with Brie Larson.  I guarantee this girl will be a big name in the next 5 or so years.  If you're not emotionally devastated by the "Octopus Story" you might have checked your soul at the door.

Rating: A-