ROUND UP OF NEW AND RECENT FILMS PART FIVE

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

The Unborn (2009). Written and directed by David S. Goyer. Casey (Odette Annable), a self-absorbed young woman, discovers not only that she had a twin brother who died, but that she is being haunted by a malevolent spirit called a dybbuk. Somehow this production managed to ensnare such name players as Jane Alexander (as the young lady''s grandmother) and Gary Oldman as a rabbi who tries to exorcise the dybbuk, but it's an illogical rehash of every horror movie ever made. There is an interesting sequence in a nursing home where an old man is transformed into a monster, and the closing theme music is snappy. **.

The Wife (2017). Director: Bjorn Runge. Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce co-star -- and are marvelous -- in this study of a long-term marriage when the couple travel to Stockholm where the husband is to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. But simmering tensions over the possible true authorship of his novels begin to boil over. Unlike a lot of modern-day movies, this film does not shy away from dramatic confrontations and is all the better for it. It's a good film all around, although one may come off with the nagging feeling that it could have been better, that some things don't quite jell. ***.

Dismissed (2017). Director: Benjamin Arfmann. High school English teacher Mr. Butler (Kent Osborne) comes into conflict with a bright and ambitious -- and unfortunately sociopathic -- student named Lucas Ward (Dylan Sprouse). Lucas takes serious exception when Butler gives his lengthy paper a B plus instead of an A, and Butler finds his life spiraling out of control. Dismissed is suspenseful and well-acted, and demonstrates how anti-social personalities can figuratively and literally destroy the lives of innocent people, but it can't exactly be considered a modern Bad Seed. **1/2.

Hereditary (2018). Written and directed by Ari Aster. A tragic and gruesome death in an already dysfunctional family causes a mother (Toni Collette) to seemingly go off the deep end, but are her problems really caused by the fact that her recently deceased mother was a Satanist? With its slow pace and off-putting style, Hereditary tries to disguise the fact that it's just another devil/possession movie masquerading as a family drama. When the spooky stuff starts late in the picture, it seems somewhat absurd and almost comical. Collette and some of the other actors give good performances, but stick with the less obtuse and more entertaining The Omen instead. **.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018). Director: J.A. Beyona. It turns out that the public zoo of Jurassic World was inexplicably built on an island with an active volcano, so the two leads of the last film decide to try to rescue the remaining dinosaurs. Unfortunately, some greedy people want to sell the monsters off to the highest bidder (would these savage beasts really make great weapons?) but it is no surprise that they wind up getting loose. JWFK is a pretty bad movie, with a terrible and stupid script hampered by dumb animal rights aspects and obnoxious characters, only one halfway memorable sequence, and moments that we have already seen over and over again. Chris Pratt seems so bored with the material -- and who can blame him? -- that he barely gives a performance. Terrible, despite some amazing and fluid FX work. *1/2.

Deadly Runway (aka Fatal Fashion/2018). Director: Doug Campbell. Jennifer (Linsey Godfrey), a disgraced fashion photographer now working in a high school, takes a shy, nerdy guy named David (Joshua Hoffman) to hand and manages to turn him into a top male model. But trouble begins when she gives the same treatment to Caitlyn (Ellen Michelle Monohan), and David becomes attracted to her. Meanwhile David's mom (Jamie Luner) worries about the relationship between Jennifer and David, as Jennifer goes full-out psycho. The cast in this is appealing and the film works as a decidedly minor thriller. **1/2.

Three Identical Strangers (2018). Director: Tim Wardle. This is the true story of three boys, triplets, separated at birth and who grow up in different households until they come across each other during their college years. They later learn that they were part of a study on twins and triplets that was done without their knowledge or consent. While the movie is nowhere near as "astonishing" as the hype would suggest, and I don't necessarily buy the thesis that being separated leads to depression and suicide (sadly, lots of people kill themselves without being separated in childhood), the documentary does have its interesting and poignant aspects. **1/2.

The Little Stranger (2018). Director: Lenny Abrahamson. In 1948 England a young doctor (Domhnall Gleeson) becomes involved with a once-prosperous family, including the mother (Charlotte Rampling), her disfigured veteran son (Will Poutler) and especially his sister, Caroline (Ruth Wilson). The film begins well, is well-produced and photographed with some good performances, but it abruptly turns into an unconvincing "ghost" story. With all of the elements the plot embodies, surely there could have been a stronger storyline to pin them to? Gleeson's performance plays a bit like a stunt. Based on a novel. **.

Replicas (2018). Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff. After his entire family is killed in an automobile accident, a scientist (Keanu Reeves) and his colleague (Thomas Middleditch, the nerd in the Verizon commercials) clone them and use special technology to transfer memories and personalities into the new bodies. The movie could have gone in several interesting and thoughtful directions, but instead turns into a mere "action" film with the family running from the stereotypical evil corporate executives -- which we've all seen a thousand and one times before. Often very illogical and comparatively shallow, the film takes intriguing notions and doesn't do enough with them. Reeves and Middleditch are okay, but Mona Foster, playing the wife, doesn't even appear to be an actress. Like a long and mediocre episode of The Outer Limits. **1/4. 

PRICK UP YOUR EARS

Alfred Molina and Gary Oldman

PRICK UP YOUR EARS (1987). Director: Stephen Frears.

Midway through Prick Up Your Ears, biographer John Lahr (Wallace Shawn) talks to some of the late Joe Orton's relatives, wiggles his hand, and says, "did you know he was 'that way.'" This sort of sets the tone for this condescending biopic of the playwright Orton (Gary Oldman of Criminal Law), who was murdered by his longtime companion, Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina of The Hoax), before the latter committed suicide. The whole tone of the movie is off-putting, starting with the decision to make John Lahr (upon whose biography this is based and who was co-producer of the film), and his wife, unnecessary characters in the film and even having them and an agent played by Vanessa Redgrave providing non-illuminating commentary throughout. Was Lahr's ego so big that he needed to put himself into the movie? Prick Up Your Ears bounces back and forth in time and never seems cohesive, nor does it make the characters come alive the way they should, focusing more on Orton's sexual escapades than his life and work. The performances are only okay. Oldman somewhat resembles Orton, but the real Halliwell was much better-looking than Molina. Orton's plays were erotic black comedies, and it may be that the filmmakers wanted this picture to reflect that -- Orton and Halliwell had many good times in spite of their horrible ending -- but making a nominal black comedy out of their ultimately tragic lives still seems in poor taste, as if it's "who cares what these funny fags did to each other?" Whatever these two men were really like -- and this film doesn't let us know -- they deserved better than this. Worse was to come: Orton, a campy musical comedy about the two men that played in London. Stephen Frears also directed the equally poor Florence Foster Jenkins.

Verdict: The movie may have seemed progressive thirty years ago, but it doesn't really work today. **.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

The apes in a contemplative mood

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014). Director: Matt Reeves.

Two factions are in conflict, with hurt and angry feelings on both sides. Some members of each faction want to go to war and wipe out the enemy, while others want to avoid a devastating war at all costs. Some members can't get past the mistreatment of the past, and are full of hate and bitterness .. and fear. And misunderstandings abound ... That basic situation has been the basis of a great many movies, and it's the basis of this sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. A contagion has wiped out many humans, and a pocket of them needs the cooperation of the intelligent, talking apes who were created by a lab experiment, but who mistrust human beings. Can they work together, or will violence break out in spite of the best efforts of ape leader, Caesar (Andy Serkis)? Dawn boasts some excellent FX work (although at times it resembles a video game), and some effective scenic design, but its story is so over-familiar and everything is generally so predictable that all you can do is watch the apes go ape-shit and wait for the whole tedious business to be over. I think undiscriminating teenagers who think there's something profound in the ape-human debate made this a hit. The apes, such as Koba (Toby Kebbell of Wrath of the Titans), are much more interesting than the human characters, and usually out-act them as well. Gary Oldman [Criminal Law] is fine as human leader Dreyfus, but he deserves to be in better movies than this.

Verdict: Enough with the apes! **.

ROBOCOP (2014)

Joel Kinnaman as RoboCop

ROBOCOP (2014). Director: Jose Padilha.

In the future American robots are used for overseas combat, but so far the country has resisted the idea of having robot police men back in the U.S. Omnicorp, a company run by Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton of Batman),  hopes to change all that, and figures the answer is to use the same technology on a real human being. Their opportunity comes when Detroit officer Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is nearly destroyed by an explosive device put in his car by a man named Vallon (Patrick Garrow). There's not much left of Murphy -- the movie's most startling scene has his armor dropping off to reveal how much of his original body is actually missing -- but he's put in a high-tech suit and given assorted abilities to fight crime. Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) is able to override Murphy's consciousness, but his memories still fight to the surface and take over. Do either Norton or Sellars care about the ethical concerns of this "project," and why won't Omnicorp let Murphy's wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) visit him? There are many interesting elements to this remake of the original Robocop, and the film boasts some excellent performances from Keaton and especially Kinnaman, with a solid supporting cast (such as Jackie Earle Haley [Shutter Island] as the snarky Mattox and Samuel L Jackson [The Spirit] as a commentator, among others), but the action scenes are cluttered and uninvolving, even a bit dull. The amount of time, energy and money made to turn Murphy into RoboCop doesn't make the project seem very cost-effective, which the movie hilariously ignores.

Verdict: The performances help put this over. **1/2.

CRIMINAL LAW (1988)

CRIMINAL LAW (1988). Director: Martin Campbell.

Slick, well-acted nonsense presents a defense lawyer Ben Chase (Gary Oldman) who gets off a nutty serial killer Martin Thiel (Kevin Bacon), then discovers that he really is guilty and decides to risk disbarment by defending him on new charges and bringing him down while secretly working with the police. Surrrrre -- defense lawyers always do that sort of thing! The movie is never believable but a lot of it is dramatically handled and Oldman and Bacon give dynamic and committed performances. Tess Harper and Joe Don Baker are fine as the detectives pursuing Thiel, and Elizabeth Shepherd is wonderful as Martin's doctor mother. Shepherd made this film ten years after she played the crow-pecked Joan Martin in Damian: Omen II, but she looks even more attractive. The picture has some exciting scenes and suspenseful moments, but it's never able to make its central premise remotely believable.

Verdict: Definite suspension of disbelief required. **1/2.

THE DARK KNIGHT

THE DARK KNIGHT (2008). Director: Christopher Nolan.

During the first half of this very long movie I was thinking how much more entertaining the average cliffhanger serial from the forties is than The Dark Knight. With low-budgets and decidedly low-tech, those old serials had better-choreographed fight and action scenes than this movie does. The Dark Knight is slow and disjointed, badly-edited or badly-written or both -- and director Christopher Nolan isn't much help -- but luckily the movie picks up tremendously in the second half and sends the audience home fairly happy. I don't mind that The Dark Knight is intense and serious (if not exactly intellectual) but I wish it had been more fun and had a few more thrilling action sequences. The only thing that comes close is when Batman saves a woman who's been shoved off of a building, but this doesn't last very long. There's nothing in here like the climax of the otherwise moronic Batman and Robin with George Clooney.

Still the movie is saved by two excellent sequences late in the picture. In the first The Joker plants bombs on two ferries -- one with innocent Gotham citizens aboard, the other with criminals -- and tells each ferry that they can save themselves by using a switch to blow up the other ferry before midnight. Diabolical. (Although it seems odd that no one on the non-criminal ferry reminds the other passengers that there are also cops and guards on board the ferry with the crooks.) The other memorable sequence is a suspenseful climax with Two-Face, Batman, Jim Gordon, and his family where Two-Face holds a gun to Gordon's terrified little boy as The Batman waits to make his move.

The most dynamic performance in the film comes not from The Batman's Christian Bale (who's fine) or The Joker's Heath Ledger (who's vastly over-rated) but from the Harvey Dent/Two-Face of Aaron Eckhart. Ledger tries too hard for a more subdued Jim Carrey kind of approach, over-using those flicks of the tongue; he's not bad, just not that memorable. I was more impressed with Michael Caine's Alfred, as well as Morgan Freeman as Lucius, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, and Eric Roberts as hood Moroni. Maggie Gyllenhaal is interesting casting in that she's not the "babe" you would think they'd cast in a movie like this, but she's undeniably effective in her own quiet way.

Although too long and slow, The Dark Knight has some good effects and amusing, even moving and surprising moments, to make it a good, if highly imperfect Batman epic. I have to say that it isn't quite as mindless as those great old serials, or at least it attempts to have a little more on its mind.

Verdict: You can't keep a good bat down. ***.