Rise of the Planet of the Apes

(Guest Review by Russ)

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A genetic engineer's (James Franco) quest for an Alzheimer's cure results in making his pet chimpanzee (Caesar) really smart, and then really determined to rule like that other Caesar he was named after.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, Andy Serkis, David Oyelowo

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! Here we have yet another version of an apes-rule-the-world scenario loosely based on the amazing novel by Pierre Boulle, but it really is like no smart-ape movie that has come before it. Using motion capture technology on par with Avatar, the apes are no longer humans in costumes but that is only one part of what makes this film so thrilling. The deep emotional through-line between Caesar the chimp and his owner sucks you in, and the knock-out suspenseful and action-packed finale will leave you as satisfied as the popcorn and soda you had while watching it all.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Many of Caesar's antics as a young, growing chimp will keep you amused in a I-want-a-pet-chimp! sort of way. (But read Monique's review of Project Nim before you do!)

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: For most pet owners, it probably will. For all others, uh, yeah, you'll probably cry too. Sorry.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: The advanced special effects on display will most likely get attention. But with the Academy still considering nominating up to ten films for Best Picture, this one might very well get some votes. It's that good.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: The stand out performance here is without a doubt, Andy Serkis as the grown-up Caesar. The actor (who also played Gollum in Lord of the Rings) was later digitally manipulated into a chimp, but his very human reactions, eyes and empathy come through in every single scene and it gives the film its huge heart. His transformation from a sheltered curious child to a cunning and manipulative leader is the stuff of Academy Award nominations. There are some other amazing ape performances; a gorilla and former circus orangutan come to mind. Yeah, the actors who did those apes were great too.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: I really have no clue who Rupert Wyatt is, nor have I seen the one other feature film he directed before this one, but he gets just about everything right here. This is another example of a director who makes everything seem so effortless that you sort of forget how impressive it all is. This guy just jumped to the Hollywood A-list of directors with this one.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: If there's a quibble to be had here, it's with the script. The story works just fine, but I wish more had been given to some of the human characters. Freida Pinto is beautiful to look at and I'm pretty sure she's a very capable actress, but she's little more than window dressing in this story. Also, John Lithgow (as James Franco's father) disappears about half way through the movie and it would have been nice to not leave us hanging so much where he's concerned. But overall this is a stellar re-imagining of this material that pulls off the difficult feat of creating a satisfying ending while also setting up a sequel that's sure to be even more interesting.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: Rise of the Planet of the Apes Trailer

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Hereafter

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A man in America (Matt Damon) struggles with his gift for talking to the dead, while a woman in France (Cecile de France) struggles with the aftermath of a near-death experience, while a boy in England (Frankie McLaren/George McLaren) struggles with the sudden loss of his twin brother.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Matt Damon, Cecile de France, Jay Mohr, Frankie McLaren, George McLaren, Thierry Neuvic, Bryce Dallas Howard, Richard Kind, Lyndsey Marshal, Rebekah Staton, Declan Conlon, Steven R. Schirripa, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Niamh Cusack, George Costigan, Jenifer Lewis, Marthe Keller, Derek Jacobi

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! I was so into it, that I couldn't stop thinking it was a true story. It's not... But I still think the basic principles of it are.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Clint Eastwood wouldn't know humor if it landed on his head and farted ... Okay, I may just be saying that to get a rise out of the idiot commentators who threatened to rape and kill me when I compared Clint Eastwood's performance in Gran Torino to Will Ferrell. I've erased the comments because they were so incredibly graphic and offensive, but I still wanted to take this occasion to say F-U!

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: As I learned from the aforementioned commentators, death is a very sensitive subject, especially when it's threatened on you. But the answer to this question would have been yes anyway. You will cry.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: I kind of hope so, even though this is the kind of "Hollywood" movie that will have all the die hard cineastes up in arms if itwins. It's got a similar vibe to Crash.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: The young boys and their heroin-addicted mother (Lyndsey Marshal) are the surprise break out performances. And Cecile De France has a charm that's reminiscent of Meg Ryan in her prime-- with a cute little French accent to boot.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Anyone who shoots a movie that takes place in not one, but both of my favorite cities in the world, is all right with me. Go ahead, take a guess. Hint: they're the two cities I grew up flying back and forth between. If you've been reading my reviews, you should be able to answer this one by now.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Let me tell you why Peter Morgan is a great writer: even as I'm predicting what's going to happen next, I'm not feeling like I'm watching anything formulaic. Try to figure that one out.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/hereafter/1421819/trailers

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Going the Distance

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A couple (Drew Barrymore & Justin Long) meet in New York, when she has only 6 weeks left before she moves back to San Francisco, but they fall in love anyway, so they decide to try a long distance relationship.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate, Ron Livingston, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Jim Gaffigan, Kelli Garner, June Diane Raphael, Rob Riggle, Sarah Burns, Natalie Morales, Matt Servitto, Leighton Meester, Kristen Schaal

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! As far as romantic-comedies go, this one actually has comedy in it.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Much more than the preview leads you to believe. But be warned, it gets pretty raunchy at times. Even when it's girls talking... and I know that many of you are hyper-sensitive to hearing girls talk about some of the things that girls actually talk about.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It's sad that it's so much easier to fall in love with someone when you know they're leaving and you don't have any pressure to get into a serious relationship. But it's also stupid because you actually get your heart broken twice as hard that way.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Most successful film starring a couple who is actually dating, since the 1950s (I'm referring back to Lucy and Desi, of course.) Although it may be because they broke up before filming commenced... or maybe they're still together. No one seems to know the latest on this, but it's certainly better PR if they at least pretend to be together until the film passes $100 million at the box office, because you feel like you're getting a glimpse into their real life as a couple.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: As charming and funny as Justin Long is as the MAC guy, he's just not a leading man. Drew Barrymore is even more cute and disarming than usual, despite the fact that she has the laugh of a 60-year-old alcoholic. And Charlie Day is the new Zach Galifianakis.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Let's put this in the "You go, girl!" category. Nanette Burnstein, who has multiple awards for documentary directing, but has never directed a fictional script before, could have fooled me.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Apparently Geoff LaTulippe's original script made the "Black List," which is Hollywood's unofficial list of the best script each year that didn't sell. Knowing this, you can imagine my surprise when I found out in the Q & A, that the first thing the director did was to hire two different writers to rewrite the script completely, and then have the actors improvise most of their dialogue. In turn, I can imagine your surprise at the fact that I'm still surprised that the script got rewritten, even though I should get by now that this is pretty much true of every single movie that has ever gotten made in Hollywood. Then again, while I don't know what the Black List script was like, I did like this version.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/search/going%20the%20distance/trailers

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The Book of Eli

(Guest Review by Tempany)

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Eli (Denzel Washington) fights his way across a post apocalyptic world to safely deliver the supposed last St James Bible into safe hands.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, Gary Oldman, Tom Waits, Jennifer Beals, Michael Gambon, Malcom McDowell

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! Do not let ANYONE trick you into paying for this movie. They should be paying you. Not only is it a poor man’s version of The Road, the entire plot is implausible, weak, ridiculous and riddled with holes. It will only leave you frustrated, angry and confused as to how it ever got released.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Several of the hair and wardrobe choices will give you a giggle. Particularly Malcolm McDowell’s hair and Denzel’s Zen outfit in the final scenes. Not to mention Mila Kunis’s high fashion hipster outfit that looks brand new even though the world has been in disarray for thirty years….grrrr. Oh, and did I mention that everyone has shiny designer sunglasses? It’s hard to get water and food in a post apocalyptic world but Sunglass Hut has never been busier.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: No. Unless you paid for it and then you will be a bit weepy.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Razzies for everything. Although the fight scenes were pretty good… MTV’s best kung-fu kick award?

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Mila Kunis sure is cute and made a nice transition from TV to the big screen with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. But in The Book of Eli she is way out of her league - some of the worst acting I’ve seen in a long time. Tom Waits has a nice little cameo and Denzel is solid. Gary Oldman does his evil guy schtick, but what the movie really needed was the complexity of Ian McShane’s ‘Al Swearingen’ from Deadwood.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: They just got the whole thing wrong. Even though it’s set in the future, the Hughes brothers obviously need to stay in the world of sci-fi future and not gritty realism future. There are so many bad choices that this film never had a chance in hell of being good.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: I’m still trying to figure it out – and not because it was clever and tricky. If there was supposed to be a religious message, I never grasped it because I was so distracted by how nothing made sense.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: Fighting from the Matrix, warrior girl shots of Mila Kunis channeling Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft, Malcom McDowell stealing wig ideas from Christopher Lloyd, and almost identical cannibal warriors from The Road, makes The Book of Eli a million movies mashed into one very bad one.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-book-of-eli/30184/trailers

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Star Trek

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: The beginnings of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the USS Enterprise crew from before they had a famous television series, or as is the case with this new cast, an inevitable film franchise. This Star Trek movie is so special, it doesn't even need a number.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder, Tyler Perry, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Morrison, Rachel Nichols, Faran Tahir

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! I have a long history of hating Star Trek. First it was a source of fights with college roommates about what was or was not allowed to be cluttering the air of our living room, via the television airwaves. Then, as luck would have it, my first job out of college was as a director's assistant on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager-- a job that forced me to watch endless episodes of those series, and worse, to have to read boring scripts, geeked out with techno-babble beyond my comprehension-- and that's not to mention the constant dodging of Trekkies who had-- to my misfortune-- asked, "So what do you do?"... Well the years have passed, and this movie has none of the old, stiff tone of the television shows. It's fun, and vivacious, and thrilling, despite the fact that I still only understood about two-thirds of what they were talking about with their trans-thrusters and their parallax beams.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Surprisingly, quite a bit. And even more so if you're in the know.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: I almost cried twice, and one of the times was in the first act, so that's unusual, but the reasons James T. Kirk is given, as to why he should join Starfleet Academy, are deeply moving.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Anyone who can reinvigorate this tired old series deserves an award for something.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Chris Pine is Brad Pitt: The Next Generation (TNG for those on the inside). He's sexy, charismatic, and he even has those little pockmarks on his face. But the whole cast is fantastic and well defined, each building on and amplifying what their predecessors brought to the table in the 1960s. We will look back on this film as the one that launched a lot of young actors into the A-list.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: In a lot of ways, it is the look of this film that sells it to the non-Trekkie audience. It is modern, and big, but still true to the standard angles so often highlighted on the Starship's Bridge, like the whip pan from the Captain's chair to the Flight Engineer, or the side angle, slow pans and push ins of two shots and three shots, as the crew looks dramatically at some disaster on a screen. I'm sure it's deliberate on J.J. Abrams' part, but having been on the bridge of several of those ships, I can tell you that it's also because there are very few places to put a camera on those sets, especially if you want to capture anything that looks dynamic. Oh God, I'm having flashbacks!

Q: How is the story/script?

A: I love time travel! It keeps your mind in a constant state of jumble, so you almost don't notice the wormholes in the plot, or care, for that matter, about how many incredible coincidences it takes for this story to work itself out. And anyway, the characters are so well developed, and the dialogue is so snappy, that I have to assume it all makes sense.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: The area that requires the biggest suspension of disbelief and has probably not been mentioned by anybody else is this: How many times can Kirk hang off the edge of a cliff by just his fingers and not fall? Do it once, and I'll give you a pass, but in this movie it happens about 4 times. Maybe it's an inside joke I don't know about, but all I kept thinking was, "Not only is it rare to manage to catch yourself mid-flight that way, when gravity is pulling you downward, but it's nearly impossible to lift yourself up from that position using only the strength of your own arms." Try it if you don't believe me. I can't do it, and I was a trained gymnast.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/star-trek/29301/trailers

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Four Christmases

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: When their Christmas day flight to Fiji gets canceled, Brad and Kate (Vince Vaughn & Reese Witherspoon) are forced to try to make it to all four of their divorced parents' Christmas celebrations, running from his dad's, to her mom's, to his mom's, to her dad's.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Mary Steenburgen, Jon Favreau, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Kristin Chenoweth, True Bella, Patrick Van Horn, Katy, Mixon, Brian Baumgartner, Cedric Yarbrough, Peter Billingsley, Skyler Gisondo

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. Another fun, innocuous Christmas movie that'll scratch your itch but won't go down in Christmas Classic History.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Vince Vaughn does his shtick but the character is too "normal" for him to take it as far as he needs to go to be at his best.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It starts down a promising emotional path of love, family and babies, but never quite gets to the heart of the matter.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: No, but when they remake it 20 years from now, and play out all the missed opportunities and unreached potential this premise contains, it could get an award for best remake.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: This is one of my favorite performances by Jon Favreau, who is finally getting a chance to show us his full range, now that he's too busy being an A-list director to do much acting over and above the bit character parts he plays in his buddy's movies. I also enjoyed seeing Donkey Kong Champion Steve Wiebe, of King of Kong fame, sitting linelessly in the family rooms, posing as Kristen Chenoweth's husband. And if you don't know what I'm talking about here, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Making the jump from a micro-budget documentary (King of Kong: Pocketful of Quarters) to an $80million feature narrative with an all-star cast would be a daunting task for anyone. Seth Gordon pulls it off, but I think with his next film, he will be more relaxed and have a chance to take a few more exploratory risks with the camera blocking. That said, his editing background really pays off in the action-comedy sequences, where he manages to convey a lot of actions and related emotions in only a few short seconds.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The concept of how you don't fully know someone until you've spent time with their family is an interesting arena, but the conflicts that arise are resolved too quickly and easily, never giving them a chance to build on each other and compile, which would have created a more palpable tension, and in turn, would have caused a resolution to feel more satisfactory.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/four-christmases/25133/trailers

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