Poltergeist (2015)
POLTERGEIST remakes the 1982 horror hit, adding some economic stress (presumably to render the haunted family more relatable for a contemporary audience), updated SFX, and a character arc or two. It doesn’t amount to a breakout re-invention, but it offers passable scares. The problem is, while the original landed as a fresh surprise, too many spook shows have since inhabited suburbia for this to leave much of an impression. Plus the ubertalents of Sam Rockwell (as the dad) are largely wasted. One postscript in the credits. –YSM
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Far From the Madding Crowd
With the rather glaring exception of failing to establish two of its important characters, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (adapted from the Thomas Hardy novel) delivers what one would expect from a bodice-ripping English period romance: lush imagery; a plucky, luminous heroine (Carey Mulligan); three handsome suitors (Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge); and a moral. (“Be steadfast like the mighty oak.” Or something.) If being ridden hard and fast between country manors gives you a thrill, this mare may be a bit tired and old, but she’s for you. –YSM
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Maggie
We’ve survived the zombie apocalypse (World War Z, 28 DAYS LATER, television’s THE WALKING DEAD, and of course George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and its follow-ups that defined the genre)…then came the zomromcom (fun ZOMBIELAND, charming Warm Bodies)…now, make way for a new twist: the zombitragic drama. In MAGGIE’s world, the contagion is contained and managed, and the infected take weeks to zombify. Which leaves grizzled farmer Arnold Schwarzenegger with a dilemma: what to do about his infected daughter (Abigail Breslin in the title role). For all the somber visuals and zombie angst, this is essentially a disease-of-the-week movie; and since the disease is completely fantastical, it’s hard to feel there’s any import to this tragedy. –YSM
Mad Max: Fury Road
If you’ve seen THE ROAD WARRIOR, then you’ve seen MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. Nitro-boosted action sequences have proliferated, perhaps at times verging on too cartoonish and/or hyperkinetic. As a consequence, there’s little for Tom Hardy (in the title role) to do; Charlize Theron, as his counterpart, fares a little better. The world Max inhabits is more of a dieselpunk outback visual feast than ever…and makes less logical sense. (Where did the giant water spigots come from?) As if that matters. –YSM
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Welcome to Me
WELCOME TO ME walks the fine line between legit humor and exploitation of mental illness, and thankfully not only gets it right, but in gently hilarious fashion. It weds the “gets-it-all-but-loses-her-way, finds-her-way-back” formula to the surefire awkward laughs of “What if this were really on TV?”; “getting it all” in this case would be the lottery win of a woman with borderline personality disorder (Kristen Wiig), who then bankrolls her own self-obsessed local cable TV show. The resultant slow-motion train wreck is fun to watch, even as you wince as the carnage piles up, thanks to a quirky cast (Wes Bentley, Linda Cardellini, James Marsden, Joan Cusack, Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Tyduk) that helps Wiig fashion a fitting tale for our selfie-taking, status-updating era of narcissism. –YSM
Avengers: Age of Ultron
For us longtime members of the Merry Marvel Marching Society, the “wow” factor of AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON can be off the charts; and while it’s not as captivating as the first film, fans of returning writer-director Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) won’t be disappointed either. (Several classic Whedon tropes play out before the film is done.) Everyone else who bothers to buy a ticket will likely enjoy the SFX-laden slugfests, featuring Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Chris Evans’s Captain America, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, James Spader’s voice of villainous robot Ultron, a surprise or two, and above all Mark Ruffalo’s soulful Bruce Banner turning into a CGI Hulk…but they may find the crowded proceedings a bit baffling to the uninitiated, and the bombastic world-saving at this point must seem rather repetitive. And therein lies our superheroes’ real challenge: how to keep this overexploited genre fresh, meaningful, and relevant, when a full docket of future releases by Marvel and DC already looms on the horizon–a horizon that no doubt extends to Infinity [Gauntlet], as the major releases keep minting money. Sorry, kids, but only one postscript after the movie ends. —YSM
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The Water Diviner
THE WATER DIVINER doesn’t explore war in the usual way, particularly considering that the conflict is the infamous Battle of Gallipoli during WWI—where Australians and New Zealanders were slaughtered on Turkish soil—and the director and star is Russell Crowe, a New Zealander. The horror for both sides unfolds graphically, but the focus is on the uncertain path to healing in the aftermath, as a father travels to a strange (and visually lush) land to recover his sons’ corpses. Then, lamentably, Hollywood romance blooms, action-adventure memes pile up, and the promise of a thoughtful exploration of war and mending evaporates. There’s still something here to drink, but it’s bottled and safely marketed, when it could have been so much more refreshing. —YSM
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Trailer Trash:
POLTERGEIST (remake of the ’80s horror classic)–OK, I’ll bite
DOPE (a black teen’s geek life)–yes
MAGGIE (horror/drama as Schwarzenegger’s infected daughter becomes a zombie; what will he do?)–despite Schwarzenegger and his recent track record of cheese, yes
THE D TRAIN (Jack Black high school reunion comedy)–OK
ALOFT (Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy, falconry, and who knows what the hell is going on here??)–no
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION (Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, the usual)–no
NO ESCAPE (ex-pat Owen Wilson & family trapped in Asian nation’s sudden political upheaval)–maybe.
Ex Machina
Ava (Alicia Vikander), the android who puts the machina in EX MACHINA, may or may not be sentient, but she can certainly talk. So can Nathan (a brooding, manipulative Oscar Isaac), her reclusive Jobs-like creator, and Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), the young programmer Nathan brings into his home to test Ava’s mental chops. Mind games ensue–who’s playing who?–as they talk…a lot. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially after the recent Chappie, which made android sentience seem awfully dumb; but it does lead to a somewhat static moviegoing experience. Still, writer-director Alex Garland (28 DAYS LATER, SUNSHINE) intrigues with this latest effort even if he fails to compel, and should be commended for bringing so much intelligent sci-fi to the screen. –YSM
Woman in Gold
It doesn’t shimmer like the glorious painting, but WOMAN IN GOLD has its moments of beauty nonetheless. Decades after the Gustav Klimt masterpiece of the title is looted from the walls of an Austrian Jewish home by the Nazis (who rename the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” to hide its Jewish identity), its rightful owner tries to get it back. The alliance between aging Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann (Helen Mirren) and her young lawyer, Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), never gets past shtick and doesn’t benefit from the revelatory dynamism of a similar justice-seeking pair, the wronged mother and the reporter at the heart of Philomena (also based on a true story). But what might have been a dry courtroom drama instead comes alive thanks to flashbacks to the oppressive grip of the Nazis as it tightens; WOMAN IN GOLD finds the cross-generational human spirit that those oppressors could never crush and that slips free of their cold, dead grasp. –YSM