Film

Tangled web

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

In my review of director Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, I suggested that Webb was not a good choice to helm a big budget blockbuster. In this, my review of his The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I am repeating that statement. In fact, I will go beyond merely suggesting he wasn’t a good choice and simply call him a bad choice. Webb mucks it up big time with this second go-round featuring Andrew Garfield in spandex and cracking wise. While Webb proves himself adept at drama and romance (Garfield and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy are kind of adorable), he botches the action elements and tries to juggle too many villains. This movie features a goofy villain called Electro (Jamie Foxx), the Green Goblin (Dane Dehaan) and the robotic Rhino (Paul Giamatti). Electro gets the majority of the villain screen time, an unfortunate circumstance given that his baddie is the most uninteresting of the three. Electro starts off as Max Dillon, a geeky electrical engineer who gets transformed into some sort of bluish, see-through monstrosity after electrocuting himself and falling into a tank of electric eels. He has the ability to move and stop things with electricity, which makes no sense, and disappear into wires and sockets, which also makes no sense. Yes, this is a comic book movie where impossible things are routine, but this stuff is just stupid. Foxx is clearly trying to break out and do something memorable with this character in both the human and electrified forms. Given

the sheer magnitude of characters vying for time in this mess, he’s just winds up underdeveloped and uninteresting. He wants to be something memorable like Jack Nicholson’s Joker in the 1989 Batman but he’s more like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze in 1997’s Batman & Robin. DeHaan, an actor I can safely say I by Bob Grimm can’t stand at this point, makes one really, really miss James Franco as Harry Osborn. bgrimm@ DeHaan always speaks as if he just digs his newsreview.com own voice, even if it sounds like he has a sinus infection. 2 His generally annoying presence doesn't get all the blame for this film’s mishandling of the Green Goblin. The blame mostly lies with Webb and his makeup folks, who come up with something tragically bad for Goblin’s looks. He basically has oily hair that looks like he hasn’t showered in a while and a horrific skin problem. Here’s something else that annoys me. Harry, who has inherited Oscorp from his father Norman (Chris Cooper), is dying because he is slowly becoming a lizard, or at least I think that’s what was happening to him. He goes into some secret chamber at Oscorp to discover a possible cure for himself with spider venom. He has a major reaction to the injection, and saves himself by crawling into the Goblin suit, which he sees for the very first time. Harry then takes to the skies, expertly, to battle Spider-Man, without reading a training manual or doing some practice flights. Again, I know I’m supposed to accept the outlandish with these movies, but come on! Garfield and Stone annoyed me in the first movie, but I liked them this time out. Had the movie focused more on their relationship, and perhaps jettisoned a villain or two, this might’ve been something. As it is, the film also spends a lot of time explaining what happened to Peter Parker’s dad. Again, there’s just too much happening in this movie, and most of it is handled sloppily. A big, dramatic occurrence happens deep in this film. That sequence is the best thing in the movie, and the film most certainly should’ve ended directly after it. Instead, Webb and his writers force a terrible, final battle with Rhino that feels tacked on, and destroys any dramatic tension. After a big shocker, Garfield just goes back to cracking jokes and fighting villains. Webb is back as director for the next installment, so all seems to be lost when it comes to Spider-Man for the foreseeable future. Ω

"When I say Spider, you say Man! Spider! ... Hey, where are you guys going?"

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3Blue Ruin Director Jeremy Saulnier has some fun with revenge-thriller clichés and creates a few twists of his own with Blue Ruin, a darkly funny, sometimes quite disturbing showcase for actor Macon Blair. Blair plays Dwight, a homeless man that we first see living a meager life in Delaware. He takes baths in other people’s houses, gets his meals from trash bags, and lives in his car. In its opening moments, Blue Ruin seems as if it will just be an interesting case study of a dude trying to survive on soda bottles and discarded hamburgers. Then, just about five minutes into the movie, a policewoman knocks on Dwight’s car window. No, Dwight isn’t getting hauled in for vagrancy. It turns out the law is just doing its duty by informing him that the man who allegedly killed his parents is being released early from prison. This sets into motion a revenge story like no other, where a hairy homeless guy returns to his childhood home and makes a bunch of people wish they had different last names. Saulnier does a lot with a small budget, shooting a solid looking movie with some pretty heavy gore effects. No, the movie isn’t wall-to-wall bloodlettings, but the moments when the blood sprays are quite impactful. There’s one particular moment when somebody takes a bullet to the jaw that I won’t soon forget. With Dwight, Blair gives us an original, vengeful character to go alongside the likes of Uma Thurman’s Bride in the Kill Bill movies and Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs. He’s unforgettable, and just a little heartbreaking in the end. (Available for rent on VOD, iTunes and Amazon.com during a limited theatrical run.)

4Captain America: The Winter Soldier Like Thor 2 and Iron Man 3, this movie shows us how an Avenger deals with life after saving New York City from an alien attack. Cap (an endearing Chris Evans) is just trying to catch up on modern culture now. His list of things to do includes watching Star Wars and Star Trek, trying Thai food and listening to Nirvana. He’s attempting to settle into a world after being frozen for 50 years. Of course, he’s not going to be able to just kick back and relax because evil still exists below America’s shimmering surface, and governmental wrongdoings are going to challenge Cap’s ability to remain loyal to the country he’s named after. After an attempt on the life of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson just Samuel L. Jacksoning it like only Samuel L. Jackson can!), attention is called to the likes of somebody called the Winter Soldier, a fighting machine with powers similar to Cap and identity that won’t be revealed in this review. Cap’s mission eventually leads him to the discovery of HYDRA, an evil movement controlling members of the government, started back in the Nazi days. With Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Falcon (a well cast Anthony Mackie) at this side, Cap looks to take down HYDRA, kick the Winter Soldier’s ass, and possibly work in a date somewhere during the whole mess. The film packs a solid action punch, and some decent dramatics to boot.

3Draft Day In a film that feels more befitting a TV series than a theatrical release, Kevin Costner plays Sonny, general manager of the Cleveland Browns. It’s draft day, and Sonny has some big decisions to make after he trades away his future for the number one pick, much to the dismay of his head coach (Denis Leary). This is all happening after finding out he’s having a baby with a member of his staff (Jennifer Garner) and shortly after the death of his dad. Directed by Ivan Reitman, who usually helms straight comedies, this is a more dramatic offering from the guy who gave us Ghostbusters. If there’s a big problem here, it is that we watch Sonny go through all of this stuff on draft day, and never get to see the fruits of his labors. The film ends after the draft day is finished, and we never get to see the team play. I’m doubting there will be a Draft Day 2, so I’m thinking this would’ve worked better as an HBO series or something like that. Still, Costner is good in the role, and Reitman has constructed something that is entertaining, while not altogether groundbreaking. 5 The Grand Budapest Hotel Writer-director Wes Anderson does it again with another wholly unique, beautiful, quirky movie that could’ve only been made by him. In a performance that must be remembered come awards time, Ralph Fiennes is magically hilarious as M. Gustave, the concierge at the infamous fictional hotel named in the film’s title. Gustave has a penchant for older woman, much older woman, and his life takes a drastic turn when he is suspected in the murder of an elderly lover (Tilda Swinton in super heavy makeup). Stolen art, scary train rides and a high speed chase on skis ensue, with Anderson even employing stop motion animation at times, as he did with Fantastic Mr. Fox. Supporting performances by Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody, Jude Law, F. Murray Abraham, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Saoirse Ronan and many more make this a can’t miss film. There’s something so joyous and fun about the way Anderson makes movies. This is a remarkable, tremendously enjoyable achievement.

1The Other Woman Leslie Mann is one of my favorite comic actresses, and I’ve been waiting for her to get that one project that would put her over the top as one of Hollywood’s premiere go-to actresses. I thought This is 40 would do the trick but, as it turns out, I was probably the only guy in the world who thought that was a good movie. Now comes The Other Woman, a film that casts her as a wimpy victim of Mark, a cheating husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). She winds up befriending Carly, his mistress (Cameron Diaz), and she becomes a stronger, independent person as the film progresses. Whatever. Director Nick Cassavetes is trying to do a straight comedy here, and things work well enough for at least half of the movie. Mann is at her pathetic best when stalking Diaz, crying on her doorstep with Boston Market food in hand as a peace offering, and a big Great Dane in tow. I admit to enjoying this movie a little in its early stages, thinking it might be the showcase Mann deserved. Then, The Other Woman crashes into a creative wall, sending its stars through the narrative windshield and the movie into stupidity oblivion. I’m not exactly sure of the precise moment when this one starts to go off the rails. Maybe it’s when yet another mistress, played by Kate Upton, enters the scene, and the women start working together to torture and destroy the cheater. Now, mind you, I am all for a movie where a cheater gets his comeuppance. However, I’m not actually up for a movie where one of the revenge seekers is played by the beautiful but bland Kate Upton. What starts as a relatively amusing comedy devolves into ugly, messy business that is not in the least bit entertaining.

1The Quiet Ones Here we go with another low cost, poorly lit, flimsily shot horror movie that substitutes loud, jarring noises and cheap parlor tricks for genuine scares. Jared Harris plays Professor Joseph Coupland, a snobby chain smoker who is conducting an inexplicable experiment on mental patient Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke). I say inexplicable because I never did really figure out what the hell was going on in this movie. I can tell you that the experiment is being filmed by an amateur filmmaker (Sam Claflin), which at least allows for some of that “found footage” horror movie feel we’re all getting sick of. As far as I could gather, Jane is possessed, but the professor is trying to prove that she is just sick, although he seems to believe there are dark forces at hand, or something like that. It’s all very confusing and, ultimately, very stupid. Director John Pogue provides what he would like to think are shock moments, but they are basically just irritating. He favors sudden, loud noises, and there’s something about their timing that renders his scare attempts impotent. It was a true task watching this thing.