Terminator Genisys
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Dope
The plot of DOPE may be driven by a convenient coincidence, but the resultant joy ride through blerd (black nerd) life, with all its teenage trials and tribulations (and a few particular to urban L.A. neighborhoods riddled with drugs) more than makes up for any contrivance. The solid pedigree of its producers (executive producer Pharrell Williams, who also wrote some of the songs, and producer Forest Whitaker, who narrates) and the talents of the young cast (led by newcomer Shameik Moore) contribute mightily to the success of writer-director Rick Famuyiwa’s effort. Definitely stay for the credit dance. —YSM
Spy
If they consider a sequel to SPY and it doesn’t include Rose Byrne’s spoiled, monstrously mouthed Rayna Boyanov, it’s not worth making. She steals this light-hearted Bond spoof from the immensely talented Melissa McCarthy—who stars as an underrated CIA staffer unexpectedly thrust into the field–and that’s no small feat. Add Jude Law as the Bond stand-in, Jason Statham riffing on his own hardcore rep, Allison Janney as their no-nonsense boss, and Bobby Cannavale as one of the heavies, and you’ve got a winner. Keep an eye on the black ops behind the end credits for extra hilarity, and stick around till the not-so-bitter end. —YSM
Inside Out
The premise of INSIDE OUT–all those little voices in your head brought to animated life–didn’t sound all that compelling. Trust Pixar to render its tale in insanely clever fashion, so that the sum of those voices ends up solidly entertaining. To quibble, one could argue that this packs slightly less emotional and narrative heft than Pixar classics like FINDING NEMO, WALL-E, and UP! Or one could just sit back and enjoy the inventiveness. A few extras are loaded early into the end credits, and the film is preceded by the lovely short “Lava”. –YSM
Jurassic World
Been there, done that. JURASSIC WORLD is the Euro Disney of the resurrected dinosaur franchise: plenty to entertain the eyeballs, but no soul, and little that’s new. A handful of interesting ideas are glimpsed among these fossilized bones, buried beneath layers of the predictable, the cartoonish, and the downright ridiculous. Bryce Dallas Howard as prissy career girl, an eye-pleasing Chris Pratt as ubercompetent superstud, Vincent D’Onofrio as the mustache-twirling spirit of human villainy, and a pair of tots in peril round out the requisite stereotypes. But hey–dinosaurs! –YSM
Testament of Youth
If you go to TESTAMENT OF YOUTH expecting a bygone Anglophile romance à la DOWNTON ABBEY, you’ll get it…and a powerful, personal indictment of the costs of war to boot. Beautiful and surprisingly moving, thanks in no small part to Kit Harington (GAME OF THRONES’ Jon Snow), Dominic West, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson, and above all Alicia Vikander as Vera, the promising young woman who watches her world unravel around her. –YSM
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Trailer Trash:
THE WOLFPACK (documentary of boys who grew up locked inside an NYC apartment and how their coming of age turned that life upside down)–such a weird story that I want to know how all this happened, so yes
KAHLIL GIBRAN’S THE PROPHET (animated adaptation of the inspirational book)–the animation looks off the hook, so yes
THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL (Alexander Skarsgård, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher Meloni as the grownups in a young girl’s coming-of-age odyssey)–solid cast and it felt genuine, so yes
INFINITELY POLAR BEAR (Mark Ruffalo is a bipolar dad who has to raise both his young daughters when wife Zoe Saldana relocates)–I said Mark Ruffalo, so yes
MAD WOMEN (at least 2 generations of women being odd and stressed out)–no
THE OVERNIGHT (comedy in which Jason Schwartzman is a boundary-crossing Angeleno whose dinner party welcoming the neighbors–a naive couple newly arrived to L.A.–goes to unusual lengths)–yes
BATKID BEGINS (doc about the epic Make-a-Wish dream come true for a kid battling leukemia who always wanted to be Batman)–**must see**
IRRATIONAL MAN (a Woody Allen trifle in which Joaquin Phoenix is a depressed professor of something who finds new lust for life in his connection with youthful Emma Stone, and Parker Posey is around too)–creeped me out with its too autobiographical older man/young woman vibe, so no
JIMMY’S HALL (in 1930s Ireland, a dance hall activist faces off against the power of the repressive Catholic church)–I love a good social justice movie! Count me in.
Aloha
With ALOHA, writer-director Cameron Crowe (who penned the screenplays for SAY ANYTHING… and JERRY MAGUIRE) gives a boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl story a hint of Hawaiian mysticism as window dressing. It feels as contrived as nearly everything else in the film, from the characters blurting out their emotional states to the coincidences that precipitate the plot’s credulity-straining crisis. A soundtrack from the Nora Ephron School of Emotional Manipulation Through Music completes the sabotage of a handsome and talented cast (Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, John Krasinski, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin). –YSM
Trailer Trash:
SOUTHPAW (Jake Gyllenhaal as boxer making a comeback from tragedy)–yes
ANIMALS (young couple descends into drug-addicted hell)–I guess
SET FIRE TO THE STARS (period drama in which Elijah Wood hangs with Dylan Thomas, in black-&-white)–yes
PAPER TOWNS (teens on a suburban quest)–no
RICKI AND THE FLASH (Meryl Streep as aging rocker who reunites with her estranged adult children)–definitely
JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS (some inexplicable mess about a girl group)–most definitely *not*
TESTAMENT OF YOUTH (British period romance/drama of lovers caught up in WWI)–with GAME OF THRONES’ Kit Harington (Jon Snow), so sure
LEARNING TO DRIVE (Patricia Clarkson as a late-in-life divorcee who befriends her Sikh driving instructor, Ben Kingsley)–no
THE INTERN (Robert DeNiro is an unusually mature intern to start-up CEO Anne Hathaway)–no
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL (quirky teen cancer drama)–yes
AMY (documentary of the all-too-life of singer Amy Winehouse)–they tried to make me go to bio doc, I said no, no, no
MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS (teen sci-fi action/adventure sequel via YA novels)–After the first one, the prospect of another frightens me for the future of our youth.
THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED (action car driver reboot)–a TRANSPORTER without Jason Statham is a TRANSPORTER without me
POINT BREAK (reboot wherein extreme athlete infiltrates a crime ring of other extreme athletes)–no
THE GIFT (thriller in which old school acquaintance Joel Edgerton comes back with a vengeance into Jason Bateman’s successful suburban life with wife)–it’s been a while since we’ve had a good “From Hell” movie (as in FATAL ATTRACTION was the One Night Stand From Hell, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE was the Roommate From Hell, etc.)…so yes
SPECTRE (Daniel Craig returns as James Bond 007)–oh yes!
San Andreas
Watching SAN ANDREAS, you too may feel like a psychic of the silver screen. As you watch a minor character (you know he’s minor, because of the casting) run for his life, and you think, “There should be a child he stops to rescue, whom he can toss to safety even as it spells his own doom”…that’s just what will happen. As a wide-angle shot surveys the earthquake’s carnage, if you think a bell should toll and a choir should softly sing in mourning…it will. If you think the hero’s romantic rival is wearing way too much makeup for him not to turn cowardly cad when the going gets tough…you’re an oracle. And just when you think, after the quake’s myriad ordeals, the heroine’s hair couldn’t possibly be salon-perfect…there it is, in all its gently tousled, full-bodied glory. Here’s the thing: Being a psychic is *fun*! SEE California suffer a cataclysm of epic proportions! SEE Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, of equally epic proportions! SAVOR the dialogue, every prechewed line a hammy mouthful! Then go home happy. –YSM