Category: Reviews

  • There is little grown-up about ‘Grown Ups 2’ but it will make you laugh

    There is little grown-up about ‘Grown Ups 2’ but it will make you laugh

    Chris Rock, Kevin James, Adam Sandler and David Spade about to jump off a cliff in 'Grown Ups 2'
    Chris Rock, Kevin James, Adam Sandler and David Spade about to jump off a cliff in ‘Grown Ups 2’

    Welcome to the latest meeting of the SNL alumni and the Adam Sandler acting company (some of the players are members of both groups).  This time the setting for their gathering is a sequel to one of Sandler’s earlier films.  That’s a first for Sandler, a sequel to one of his films.

    Grown Ups 2 takes the four close friends from the original (Rob Schneider does not return for the sequel) and moves them back home.  “Lenny” (Sandler), his wife “Roxie” (Hayek) and their kids now live in a big house, while his friends “Kurt” (Rock), “Eric” (James) and “Higgy” (Spade) all seem happy but each has his own unique problems.  Kurt is married to “Deanne” (Rudolph) and she is good friends with Roxie and “Sally” (Bello), Eric’s wife.

    Kevin James and Adam Sandler in a parking lot in 'Grown Ups 2'
    Kevin James and Adam Sandler in a parking lot in ‘Grown Ups 2’

    Lenny is not working as the film opens, while Kurt is a cable installer who has an amazingly light workload.  Eric owns an auto body/repair shop but seems to be spending all of his free time doing everything but working on cars.  Higgy is a womanizer who doesn’t believe in relationships, but he’s definitely down with sex.  Then stuff starts happening on the last day of school.

    Lenny’s oldest kid is being picked on by a bully at school.  That’s  déjà vu for Lenny as he had his own tormentor when he was young, “Dennis” (Steve Austin).  Somehow he’s going to have to teach his son to stand up for himself, something he never did himself.

    "Roxie" (Salma Hayek) in the boutique she owns in 'Grown Ups 2'
    “Roxie” (Salma Hayek) in the boutique she owns in ‘Grown Ups 2’

    Roxie owns a boutique and her one employee is head over heels in love with her husband, because of one “date” they had back in sixth grade.  Eric is keeping a secret from his wife.  Kurt just scored a major “get out of jail free” card over his wife because he remembered and she forgot their anniversary.  Higgy’s just learned he has a son and the kid is arriving that morning.  Then there’s the problems they have with a local college frat after an incident on “frat territory”.  There are life lessons ahead for all of them.

    This is more of the typical fare one can depend on to be present in any film that Adam Sandler is doing anything other than just acting in.  The same old actors in similar roles, the same type of urine and vomit humor, with sexual innuendo and undertones.  If you didn’t know that going in, shame on you.

    The thing is, I laughed.  A lot.  Some of it made me groan but there were many moments of hilarity.  It isn’t brilliant, cutting edge writing or directing but it is just over 100 minutes of fairly frequent funniness.

  • ‘The Lone Ranger’ is long, but not all that bad

    ‘The Lone Ranger’ is long, but not all that bad

    Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp walking in a scene from 'The Lone Ranger'
    Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp walking in a scene from ‘The Lone Ranger’

    We were first introduced to the Lone Ranger in the 1930s when it became a radio drama.  It expanded into books and a long-running television series.  It also spawned four film versions, the most recent a two-hour made for TV movie.

    Now we get Gore Verbinski’s collaboration with Johnny Depp in bringing this hero to the big screen in the appropriately titled The Lone Ranger.  Depp chose to portray “Tonto”, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick.  Not quite such a faithful sidekick as he was in the TV series.

    Armie Hammer is “John Reid”, the foppish East Coast lawyer who has come home to be the local district attorney.  His brother “Dan Reid” (James Badge Dale) is a Texas Ranger who is waiting in Colby to take custody of “Butch Cavendish” (William Fichtner).  John Reid and Cavendish are riding on the same train.  Cavendish is in chains and he is to be hanged upon arrival at Colby.  There’s an Indian prisoner locked in next to him who turns out to be Tonto.  Cavendish’s men attack the train to free their leader.

    William Fichtner portrays "Butch Cavendish" in 'The Lone Ranger'
    William Fichtner portrays “Butch Cavendish” in ‘The Lone Ranger’

    Soon Dan Reid is pinning the star of a Texas Ranger on his brother and they ride out with other Rangers to recapture Cavendish and take custody of his men.  They are led into an ambush and all of the Rangers are shot and seemingly killed.  Tonto rescues John Reid and fashions a mask for him to wear.  Now the two are off together, but with separate agendas.  Can they capture Cavendish?  Can they discover who else is involved in Cavendish’s scheme to plunder the land?

    If Will Rogers were alive today and watched this, he’d describe it the same way he described a speech at a political convention.  After the orator was done going on forever, Rogers famously said “that was the Chinese politician On Too Long.”   At two hours and twenty-nine minutes, this film goes on much too long and needed to be trimmed by 20 or 25 minutes.

    As an homage to the original character, it’s not bad.  Good use is made of iconic images and sounds from the early days of the Lone Ranger, the horse, the hat and the music.  The basic theme of a man having to live outside the law in order to ensure that the people receive justice is present.  That the character of Tonto needed to be reimagined in order to even attempt to put out a Lone Ranger film in 2013 goes without saying.  The question becomes, is the best possible reimagining?  Depp’s fetish for quirky characters may have been misplaced here.

    The acting is fine, the action loud, ever-present and satisfying.  This film is not nearly as bad as most critics are making out, but it isn’t a masterpiece either.  Maybe there’s a reason we don’t see very many Westerns anymore.  Perhaps their day has passed.

  • ‘World War Z’ is a zombie tale that deserves an A+

    ‘World War Z’ is a zombie tale that deserves an A+

    Brad Pitt fights to save the world, and his family, in 'World War Z'
    Brad Pitt fights to save the world, and his family, in ‘World War Z’

    Based loosely on the best-selling novel, World War Z is the latest entry in the zombie genre and it is a winner.  Starring Brad Pitt as “Gerry Lane”, a former UN investigator who left his job to spend more time with his family, it opens as though it’s just another day in the Lane household.  His wife “Karin” (Mireille Enos) and their two kids “Rachel” (Abigail Hargrove) and “Constance” (Sterling Jerins) are all getting ready to go out.

    They find themselves caught up in heavy traffic in Philadelphia when things begin to go wrong.  Waves of people running to get away from something are growing, and they are being chased by zombies.  Fast moving zombies.  The Lanes manage to make their getaway, and Gerry phones his old boss “Thierry” (Fana Mokoena) who is now the Deputy Secretary-General of the UN.  After a harrowing journey, during which they pick up a boy named “Tommy” (Fabrizio Zacharee Guido), they find themselves safe aboard a U.S. Navy ship.

    Now the military and the UN want to send Gerry in to find out what’s causing this.  He is to take a virologist “Dr. Fassbach” (Elyes Gabel) to Korea to search for the origin of what the expert thinks is a virus.  Gerry doesn’t want to go, but the alternative means he and his family will wind up in a refugee camp, vulnerable to the growing epidemic of zombies.

    Zombies storm the wall in 'World War Z'
    Zombies storm the wall in ‘World War Z’

    After more adventures, Gerry winds up in Israel, the only nation on Earth that has remained safe thus far.  He gets some useful intelligence from the Mossad’s director “Jurgen” (Ludi Boeken) and is joined by an Israeli soldier, “Segen” (Daniella Kertesz) who saves his life.  The two set out to find the cause of the virus and hopefully a cure.

    Diehard fans of the novel will probably be displeased with how far afield the film takes its source material.  That’s a shame because this is an excellent adaptation of the book.  Tense from the outset, the film’s director Marc Forster (The Kite Runner, Quantum of Solace) has created a movie that makes the audience believe the world may well be ending as they know it.

    Better still, this ranks right up there with any performance by Brad Pitt in a while.  The quiet confidence of a very experienced operator is evident in his character throughout.  While his character seems to have “Mary Sue” qualities, he manages to carry it off very well.  The visuals are a bit uneven, great in some places and not well displayed in others.  Overall, it didn’t matter that much.  Some of the shots from the trailer that are paid-off in the final version are simply stunning in their awesomeness.

    I am going to pay to see this again, on a bigger screen with better sound.  I cannot give a film in this genre a higher endorsement than that.

  • ‘The Heat’ is funny as hell

    ‘The Heat’ is funny as hell

    Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are comedy gold in 'The Heat'
    Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are comedy gold in ‘The Heat’

    Take an entirely too up-tight and straitlaced FBI agent, add in a Boston PD detective who is so far over the top as to be somewhere in the stratosphere and you have The Heat.  Director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) has another winner in this female buddy-cop film starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.

    “Sarah Ashburn” (Bullock) is a veteran FBI agent bucking to become the “boss” at the FBI’s office in New York City.  Her boss, “Agent Hale” (Bichir) is being promoted and will be choosing his replacement.  Ashburn doesn’t have much of a chance at landing the job she wants because she’s managed to piss off every other agent in the office.  Hale gives her one more chance to prove herself, sending her to Boston looking for the murderous leader of a drug cartel.  The problem is, while they know who his chief enforcer is, they don’t have a clue what the cartel leader looks like.

    There is a lead and he happens to have just been arrested by “Shannon Mullins” (McCarthy) who is the roughest, most unkempt detective on the Boston PD.  She has no respect for anyone and is somewhere beyond fearless.  She wants in on Ashburn’s case and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.  Inevitably, the two team up to go after the cartel leader.

    To call the dialogue of The Heat profane is to moderately understate.  It doesn’t come close to Casino or Summer of Sam in the number, but the “f-bomb” is dropped with great regularity.  That’s not a negative, in fact it becomes a device for humor as the more times Mullins says it, the harder Ashburn resists the impulse to use it herself.  The writing is first-rate, especially in the creation of the two characters.  They seem so diametrically different and yet in many ways there are strong similarities beneath the surface.  Not only is there apparently nothing that’s off-limits to being used as humor, it is a very nice blend of spoken and visual comedy.

    If you’re one of those who remember trailers very well, some things you expect to happen just as they did when you watched those trailers may disappoint.  I noted these changes but found the final version to be better than what was discarded.

    Bullock and McCarthy have great chemistry and the rest of the film’s players could be a primer how how to perfectly cast a movie.  Mullins has a large family in the film and when they are together in a large group sequence, they definitely look like a family as opposed to actors pretending to be related.  Marlon Wayans is fun to watch as an FBI agent helping Ashburn while Michael McDonald is a great villain.

    This is a winner.  Oh, and as far as the off-base criticism made by Rex Reed regarding the wonderful Melissa McCarthy in a prior film, he can just kiss my fat ass, which he wouldn’t know from a hole in the ground.

  • ‘White House Down’ may be ridiculously implausible, but is still fun

    ‘White House Down’ may be ridiculously implausible, but is still fun

    Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum battle bad guys in D.C. in 'White House Down'
    Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum battle bad guys in D.C. in ‘White House Down’

    “John Cale” (Channing Tatum) is a veteran of Afghanistan where he saved the life of the son of the Speaker of the House, “Eli Raphaelson” (Richard Jenkins).  As a result he now has a job with the Capitol Police, assigned to Raphaelson’s security detail.  But what he really wants is to become a Secret Service agent.

    He pulls some strings to get an interview and discovers that his old college classmate, “Carol Finnerty” (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is his primary interviewer.  His records from college, the military and work history seem to indicate he would not be a good choice and she tells him he won’t be getting the job.  That would be devastating news to his daughter, “Emily” (Joey King) who is obsessed with the White House and the presidency.  So much so that he brought her along to the White House.

    He tells her it looks like he’ll get the job and then they sneak onto a tour of the building that passes by them.  “Donnie” (Nicholas Wright) is the tour guide and is surprised as Emily’s knowledge of the building’s history.  An explosion at the Capitol Building frightens everyone and puts the White House into lockdown.  It is actually a distraction to allow paramilitary types to take control of the White House.  Led by “Stenz” (Jason Clarke) who got into the building as part of a work crew, they quickly kill most of the Secret Service detail.  But they are unable to secure “President Sawyer” (Jamie Foxx).

    Maggie Gyllenhaal gets politic action in 'White House Down'
    Maggie Gyllenhaal gets political action in ‘White House Down’

    John is separated from Emily when lockdown occurs because she’s gone to use the restroom.  He makes a break and begins searching for her.  After killing one of the mercenaries and taking his gun, he finds President Sawyer and takes on the responsibility of ensuring his safety.  Now it’s a race against time as the invaders try to capture the President to complete their mission.  But there’s more here than it seems at first glance.  Are the men who took over the White House after money, power, revenge or what?  And who is going to double-cross whom?  When it is all sorted out, it’s not entirely clear but at that point who cares?  You don’t go to action-adventure movies to see a great, well-explained plot.  You go to see things go boom and people fight.

    Now if White House Down sounds a lot like a movie that came out earlier this year, that’s because it IS a lot like that movie.  White House Down is implausible, has a few technical errors and yet it’s the kind of movie where you sit back, relax and munch on your popcorn while enjoying the copious action on-screen.

    Channing Tatum is not a great actor but as an action hero he’s more than adequate.  His character has mad skills when it comes to fighting and killing the mercenaries.  Jamie Foxx makes a fine president, carrying it off with aplomb and a nice mix of confidence and klutziness under fire.  The action is frenetic and done well.

  • ‘The Guillotines’ mixes the old and the new

    ‘The Guillotines’ mixes the old and the new

    'The Guillotines is a secret group of warriors and the titular weapon seen here
    ‘The Guillotines is a secret group of warriors and the titular weapon seen here

    “Too many cooks spoil the broth” – old adage

    The Guillotines is a new Wu Xia film from director Andrew Lau (who also has a small role in the movie) who is best known for 2002’s Infernal Affairs.  A period piece, The Guillotines is a re-imagining of Master of the Flying Guillotines without the original’s humor that tries to make up for this with incredible visuals.

    The Guillotines are the secret enforcers of the Youngzheng Emperor.  They were charged with eliminating anyone and everyone who opposes the Emperor’s rule.  When the Qianlong Emperor ascends to the throne, The Guillotines have been successful on every single one of the 348 missions his predecessor sent them on.  But the new Emperor wants to modernize everything he can, and plans to substitute soldiers armed with guns rather than the flying guillotines used by The Guillotines.

    "Wolf" and "Leng" face off in 'The Guillotines'
    “Wolf” and “Leng” face off in ‘The Guillotines’

    While The Guillotines are commanded by someone else, it is “Leng” (Juan) who leads them in the field.  He and his team are sent to eliminate “Wolf” (Xiaoming) and his followers who are known as The Shepherd Gang.  The Emperor commands that “Haidu” (Yue) accompany the team as his representative.

    What the rest of Leng’s team doesn’t know is that Leng, Haidu and the Emperor were brought together in childhood, where Haidu and Leng were raised to be totally loyal to, and to protect the Emperor.   What Leng doesn’t know is that Haidu has two missions.  Kill Wolf and eliminate The Guillotines as they are “a stain” on the legacy of the Youngzheng Emperor.

    The Guillotines are ready to fight and die for the Emperor
    The Guillotines are ready to fight and die for the Emperor

    The worst part of this film is that the titular weapon has been upgraded in a major way and is fascinating to watch how it is used.  You have to watch quickly because after about twenty minutes or so, you won’t see much of it after that point.  The visual presentation of this device, seeing the mechanisms that cause it to fasten around the target’s neck and then clamp its arms down before it decapitates them is fascinating.  More of the use of these devices would have been welcomed.  Particularly since one of the main themes on display here, as it was in The Last Samurai, is how firearms replaced the bladed weapons in combat.

    The performances are adequate, but not exceptional.  There are brief moments when the storyline pushes the audience to become more involved with the film, but the lack of development of any of the central characters limits those moments.  This is probably due to the fact that there were just too many different writers working on the convoluted script.

    It is no surprise that Andrew Lau would choose to update a Shaw Brothers film like Master of the Flying Guillotine.  The Shaw Brothers gave him his start in the industry.  I just wish it had given us those amazing images while keeping the original’s good humor and basic values.

  • ‘This Is The End’ has laughs, weed, and just maybe the end of the world

    ‘This Is The End’ has laughs, weed, and just maybe the end of the world

    From left to right: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride fight to survive the apocalypse in 'This is the End'
    James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride fight to survive the apocalypse in ‘This is the End’

    Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel are very close friends in real life, and that friendship is where This Is The End begins. Jay’s come to the L.A. area to visit his friend Seth, and after spending hours smoking weed and doing other fun stuff, Seth wants to take Jay to a party at James Franco’s house. Jay doesn’t want to go, because he believes none of Seth’s friends like him. However Seth promises to stay by his side the whole time and Jay accedes to Seth’s desires and goes to the party.

    The place is packed and Jay’s concerns come to pass. So he decides to go to the local convenience store for some smokes, and Seth goes with him. While they are there, something happens. Beams of blue light come down from the sky and lift some of the store’s patrons into the heavens. This is immediately followed by fires, car crashes and general mayhem.

    The pair flees back to Franco’s house just in time to watch the largest earthquake in California history open a gaping chasm in front of the house, swallowing up most of the partygoers. Five people survive and barricade themselves in the house. It’s Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and of course Rogen and Baruchel. They figure that because they are “important” celebrities they will be rescued first, and decide they will wait it out. They inventory the available food, water and drugs and agree to ration them out. That is when Danny McBride enters the picture. He’d fallen asleep upstairs after crashing the party and proceeds to become a major problem to the others.

    Emma Watson returns to the house (she’d been at the party earlier), armed with an ax. She lays down to rest, but a misunderstanding frightens her and she robs the men of all of their drinks. They manage to get into the basement to get two jugs of water that were there but McBride wastes a lot of it. The others vote to evict him. Will they be rescued? Will they survive long enough to be rescued? Is Baruchel right, and this is the apocalypse and they still might be saved by the blue beams?

    Just as 1986 was the year of the fighter pilot movie (Top Gun and Iron Eagle), 1997 the year of movies about Steve Prefontaine (Without Limits and Prefontaine) and volcanoes (Dante’s Peak and Volcano), and 1998 the year of celestial bodies threatening the Earth (Deep Impact and Armageddon); 2013 is the year of movies about the apocalypse. Both this film and Rapture-Palooza, which is out in limited release involve the apocalypse and specifically the possibility of the Rapture taking place. World’s End, a British comedy in a similar vein is due out later this year.

    This is the low-brow humor version and that is what makes it effective. Asking actors to play themselves is not as easy as it sounds, but it is something they can and will throw themselves into with all they’ve got. We aren’t going to see how they really behave, but how the writers chose to have them behave. The product is interesting performances and it makes for great conflicts. Rogen and Evan Goldberg who write and direct, do a solid job here. It’s isn’t magnificent, genius movie-making, but it’s a solid effort. You will laugh.

  • ‘The East’ actually hits the target dead center

    ‘The East’ actually hits the target dead center

    Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgard in 'The East'
    Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgard in ‘The East’

    “Jane” (Marling) is a former FBI agent who has taken a job as an operative at a private security and intelligence firm, Hiller Brood.  It’s a major player in the industry and its CEO, “Sharon” (Clarkson) wants to make it even bigger.  She sends Sarah on an assignment to penetrate a group of anarchists who call themselves The East.

    She can’t tell her boyfriend “Tim” (Ritter) where she’s really going.  Instead he thinks she is off in Dubai.  In fact she’s hopping trains, digging in dumpsters and trying to connect with someone who is a part of The East.  Calling herself “Sarah, she eventually gets inside the group and meets “Benji” (Skarsgard).  He is much a leader as anyone in the group, which is a collective that makes important decisions by majority vote.  Benji is charismatic but Sarah stays focused on her mission.  There is tension between her and “Izzy” (Page) as Izzy sees her as a romantic rival for Benji.

    The group is planning to carry our three of their operations (they refer to them as “jams”) against big corporations before they move on from their current safe house.  When a female member of the group leaves suddenly it leaves them one person short for the first jam.  Sarah volunteers and finds herself with only one task at a party.  Keep the son of the CEO of a pharmaceutical firm busy while the others spike the champagne of party-goers with one of the firm’s dangerous drugs.

    After that jam goes off without a hitch, the second is planned.  This one is against a large industrial plant, which is dumping arsenic into the local water system.  That is poisoning the small town adjacent to where the toxins are being dumped.  They kidnap the CEO and another person from the plant and make them get into the water just before the large, nightly dump of the poisons.  This jam reveals who Izzy really is, and doesn’t come off without a hitch.  In the aftermath, Benji sends everyone home for a ‘time-out’ and tells them to come back only if they want to participate in the final jam.

    Now that she is Jane again, she feels she’s done her job and doesn’t want to go back in.  However, Sharon wants to know what that final jam is, and to use it to land yet more clients.  By this point Jane’s feelings are very mixed and how that will impact the finale is definitely unclear.

    This isn’t the first collaboration between Marling and Batmanglij.  They worked together on Sound of My Voice and in the summer of 2009 the pair spent two months living as freeganists as research for The East.  This is a better film, helped along by a bigger budget and producers Ridley Scott and the late Tony Scott.  The East is relevant, revealing and may well make you revile giant corporations (if you don’t already).  It is definitely a film that will have you thinking things over as you walk out of the auditorium.

  • ‘This Is the End’ has lots of laughs… and heart

    ‘This Is the End’ has lots of laughs… and heart

    James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Ferguson, Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen fight to survive the apocalypse in 'This is the End'
    James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, and Seth Rogen fight to survive the apocalypse in ‘This is the End’

    I’m a little mad at this movie. Mad because I had so many puns on the title to use to describe how terrible it is. But that’s not the case at all.

    This Is the End accomplishes the basic goal of being funny, yet has depth to it that the serious disaster movies could learn a thing or two from.

    For whoever doesn’t yet know, the actors here are playing themselves. Or rather, a version of themselves, since I doubt the real Michael Cera is as much of an oversexed cocaine addict. But if it does seem like someone is the same as they always are, there’s at least a valid reason for it.

    Jay Baruchel flies into Los Angeles to spend some quality time with his longtime friend from the old country, Seth Rogen. After an afternoon of activities including 3D television, listening to “Backstreet’s Back”, and recreational drug use (probably all at once), Rogen convinces Baruchel to go with him to a party at James Franco’s house.

    Right from the front door the tension begins. It becomes clear that Baruchel doesn’t mesh well with Rogen’s new friends, who also include Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson. And then it happens.  What seems like a mere earthquake breaks open a chasm is the backyard that kills nearly all partygoers.

    Rogen, Baruchel, Franco, Hill, and Robinson are the survivors and learn that some cataclysmic event has taken place and does all the things that a cataclysmic event does (power knocked out, dangers outside, etc). But soon one more joins the party: Danny McBride. Not invited to the party in the first place, he snuck in and then passed out in the bathroom when everything happened. He proves to a bigger impediment to team unity.

    That’s really the central conflict and aside from the tone, what makes this more than just another disaster movie. The story is as much about the potential end of the world as it is the potential end of a friendship. Bigger themes that build upon this premise are then introduced when the cause of the apocalypse is clarified, and the other character start to learn their lessons too. And let’s face it, as funny as these guys can be, this would a very dull proceeding if everybody played nice.

    Surprisingly, the film doesn’t overdo the celebrity appearances. They appear where they should; no situation makes anyone feel out of place and no one pops in at inappropriate times. It’s also pleasantly unexpected that the celebs of lesser star status are given as much attention as the more famous ones. Martin Starr and Kevin Hart are focused on just as much as Jason Segel or Paul Rudd.

    The main problem here is that it not easily accessible to newcomers. This film assumes that you are already familiar with who these people are and why it would be funny to see them play against type or exaggerated personas. Similarly, the brand of humor is the same as always. If you weren’t into it before, nothing here is going to change your mind.

    Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg make their directorial debuts with this film, and we can only hope they take up the position again soon. This had better not be the end for them. Hey, looks like I was able to make a pun after all.

  • ‘Man of Steel’ flies higher than this franchise has ever soared

    ‘Man of Steel’ flies higher than this franchise has ever soared

    Superman (Henry Cavill) stands tall in 'Man of Steel'
    Superman (Henry Cavill) stands tall in ‘Man of Steel’

    The reboot of the Superman film franchise, Man of Steel hits the big screen with frenetic energy, astonishing visuals and some outstanding acting and writing.  After the disappointing Superman Returns in 2006, it was a real treat to see this film.  Written by David S. Goyer from a story he and the director of the Batman trilogy, Christopher Nolan; came up with, we see the origins of the Man from Krypton and how he came to be on Earth.

    Krypton’s civilization is threatened by the destruction of their world and “Jor-El” (Crowe) has foreseen this.  He tries to warn the ruling council but they won’t listen.  Nor will the supreme military leader “General Zod” (Michael Shannon) who tries to take power in a coup d’etat.  To preserve the race, a codex is stolen by Jor-El and put into a spaceship along with the newly born “Kal-El”.  Jor-El’s wife Lara manages to get the ship launched toward Earth before Krypton meets its end.  And in the end of the planet is Zod’s new beginning, as he and his co-horts are freed from the Phantom Zone by the planet’s destruction.  He vows to find the ship, child and codex no matter how long it takes.

    Superman (Henry Cavill) and Lois Land (Amy Adams) share a moment in 'Man of Steel'
    Superman (Henry Cavill) and Lois Land (Amy Adams) share a moment in ‘Man of Steel’

    We are shown the origins of “Clark Kent” (Henry Cavill) in a non-linear way, with flashbacks to his childhood when he is developing and trying desperately to conceal his powers.  “Jonathan Kent” (Kevin Costner) and his wife “Martha” (Diane Lane) found the ship with the infant inside and raised him as their own son.  We watch him struggle to master his abilities and refrain from doing things that would disclose he is from another world.

    In saving reporter “Lois Lane” (Amy Adams), Clark unwittingly sets a chain of events in motion.  She wants to tell the story, without disclosing his identity.  Her editor, “Perry White” (Laurence Fishburne) refuses to run it.  So she leaks it on the internet.  Then General Zod shows up looking for the son of Jor-El to take back the codex and to kill his rival’s child.

    Michael Shannon is 'Zod' in 'Man of Steel'
    Michael Shannon is ‘Zod’ in ‘Man of Steel’

    Let’s go over the few minor negatives first.  This is a film that could have been ten to fifteen minutes shorter, and might benefit from slightly lowered volume at two or three brief instances.  Long-term fans of Superman may not like the costume re-design, or other insignificant changes to the storyline or characters.  None of these detract from what’s excellent here.

    Crowe raises the bar very high should anyone ever attempt another reboot of this franchise, surpassing even the performance of the late Marlon Brando back in 1978.  Cavill is well suited to the task of portraying the superhero, both physically and emotionally.  Amy Adams is an excellent Lois Lane and one hopes she will return to the role in the inevitable sequel.  There isn’t any actor in the cast who gives a performance that makes Man of Steel any less effective than it is.  The visuals are extraordinary and the action scenes just rivet the viewer’s eyes on the screen.  This is a winner.