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California WorldFest is a family friendly event that explores the music and culture of our world. Your festival ticket includes access to international music superstars and legends-in-the-making, option to camp onsite, a variety of dance, yoga, music and vocal workshops, late night DJ sets, youth programs, a Native People's village, a selection of hand-picked artisans, food from around the world and a safe environment for kids of all ages to play, discover and connect. Nevada County Fairgrounds, Grass Valley, CA

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Terminator: Genisys

Just over three decades ago, James Cameron released a little slasher film with a sci-fi twist starring the dude from Conan the Barbarian. The Terminator became a colossal hit, and the dude from Conan went on to bigger movies and a temporary job in government. Terminator: Genisys, the fifth film in the Terminator franchise, isn’t nearly as good as by the original or its first sequel, Terminator 2: Bob Grimm Judgment Day, also by Cameron. Thankfully, bgrimm@ it’s slightly better than the third and fourth newsreview.com Terminator films (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation), films 3 where Cameron was absent and off doing other things like Titanic and his jazzed-up Smurf movie. Cameron himself was part of the marketing campaign for Genisys, admiring the film’s faithfulness to his two original offerings.

"Sure, Jerry Brown balanced the budget ... but can he do this?"

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Very Good While I share his enthusiasm for some aspects of the movie, the film isn’t without its major problems. In some ways, I’m kind of surprised Cameron liked this movie.

There are lots of tricks played within the storyline using the time travel gimmick, skewing the whole Terminator universe out of whack. This gives director Alan Taylor the chance to revisit and recreate events from the original Terminator, including naked Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first scene as the steelyeyed cyborg. The results are often fun, but a little chaotic and sloppy at times.

First, the good stuff: Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in his most iconic role, and he’s great. He plays a couple of different ages here, although he can’t get credit for playing his 1984 self in this film. That Arnold is a total computer creation, and an amazing one at that. Old Arnold does fight his 1984 self in a scene I never thought I would see.

Arnie is as convincing as ever as a now aging cyborg, with his goofy pretend smiles and droll asides. As for action, the film provides plenty of good Terminator fights, and San Francisco, yet again, has a bad time at the movies, suffering through nuclear blasts and catastrophic school bus accidents on the Golden Gate Bridge.

OK, the bad: Emilia Clarke is a washout as Sarah Connor, Jason Clarke is all wrong for John Connor, and Jai Courtney absolutely stinks as Kyle Reese. These are big flaws— flaws big enough to derail most movies.

Emilia Clarke seems disconnected from her part, and there’s insincerity in her every line delivery. Jason Clarke plays John Connor like a cartoon character, which is disheartening after the good work done by Edward Furlong and even Nick Stahl and Christian Bale in the prior films. Stahl and Bale were in subpar movies, but they still came off as decent John Connors. Clarke, whose John Connor takes a sinister turn in this film, plays the evil twist as a snickering caricature, with little nuance. It feels out of place. The biggest soul sucker is Courtney, always an uninteresting actor and very bland in this one. Watch the original Terminator for a real angst ridden, on-the-edge characterization of a guy who has been through the apocalypse. (Thank you, Michael Biehn.) Courtney plays Reese like a soulless video game character. There’s no reason to root for him. But, still, I like this movie. I like it because Arnold looks cool in his Terminator shades, and things blow up real good. Sometimes, I’m relatively easy to please.

Do the time travel complications get to be a little confusing and a little much at times? Sure they do, but I admire Genisys for stretching out and attempting different things in the Terminator universe. Some of the paradox stuff had me scratching my head, but it all sort of ties together in the end. I did hate the total rip-off of the holographic villain from the Resident Evil series, though.

In the end, I had a good time, albeit an exhausting one, watching Terminator: Genisys. I want more, for sure, and the movie leaves things open for the possibility of future sequels, two of which are currently planned. (Stay for the post-credits scene.)

If the future installments get the go-ahead, they should keep aging Arnie but fire the rest of the cast. If this film lacks anything, it’s human charisma. As for Terminators, Arnie has things more than covered. Ω

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3Big Game Jalmari Helander, the guy who gave us Rare Exports (the weirdest Christmas movie ever), now gives us one of the weirdest coming-of-age stories ever made. Oskari (Onni Tommila from Exports) is going through a family ritual on this 13th birthday. He must head into the woods alone and kill an animal with a bow and arrow. He has to camp alone, stalk the animal alone, and kill it alone. He doesn’t feel quite up to the task. Then, Air Force One is shot down in the forest he’s camping in, and Oskari comes across the president of the United States (Samuel L. Jackson). The president has been betrayed by his Secret Service guy (Ray Stevenson), who is in cahoots with a terrorist looking to kill the president and have him stuffed. Oskari’s plans change as he represents the only chance to save the president because the SEALS are too far away. Big Game becomes a buddy movie as the two share an adventure trying to get themselves to safety. Oh boy, is this ever a stupid movie. Yet, Helander pulls it off in an “OK for a Saturday Night rental” sort of way. The action is decent enough (although a little goofy looking at times due to budget limitations), and Jackson is fun as the leader of the free world. Surprisingly, Felicity Huffman, Jim Broadbent and Victor Garber show up in supporting roles. (Available for rent on iTunes, Amazon.com and On Demand during limited theatrical run.)

5Inside Out This is another Pixar masterpiece, not only because it looks fantastic, but also because it generates real, genuine feelings. It also has some of that blissful, bizarre insanity that made Up such a winner (the films share the same director in Pete Docter). There are creations in this movie that just burst with genius energy. The movie takes place inside the mind of Riley (voice of Kaitlyn Dias), newly displaced from Minnesota to a small house in San Francisco with her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan). Inside Riley’s mind we see her emotions, played by the likes of Amy Poehler as Joy, Bill Hader as Fear, Lewis Black as Anger, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, and Mindy Kaling as Disgust. Along with being very funny, the film bluntly addresses the loss of memories as we grow up, how memories can be forever tainted with sadness, and just how important sadness is to any human being. It’s all handled in a Pixar way, which doesn’t mean whitewashed and sanitary. At times, the film is actually quite brutal and startling.

4Jurassic World Taking place 22 years after the original movie (Jurassic Parks II and III are not acknowledged in this film), John Hammond’s original idea has come to fruition, albeit in a bastardized, Six Flags kind of way. Jurassic World has been up and running for years under the guidance of Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), another rich guy owner who just wants the world to have lots of fun with dinosaurs. How naïve! Director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed), who had a hand in writing the script, throws everything into this movie. It’s one of those sequels that makes fun of sequels, and it honestly couldn’t be much dumber. But, sometimes, dumb is good when you are dealing with a big movie featuring rampaging dinosaurs. This one features the Indominus Rex, a hybrid dinosaur created by man in an effort to curb waning interest in dinos. Of course, the monster breaks loose and totally ruins a lot of vacations. Chris Pratt goes along for the silly ride as a raptor trainer, and Bryce Dallas Howard plays the self-centered park supervisor who will have a change of heart before the movie plays out. The finale involving all-star dinosaurs kicking each other’s asses is a real winner. Yes, less emphasis on the people stuff and more dinosaurs, please. I must admit, I was relieved that Sam Neill’s crotchety paleontologist was nowhere in sight.

3Me and Earl and the Dying Girl High school kid Greg (Thomas Mann) is forced by his mom (Connie Britton) to hang out with Rachel (Olivia Cooke), who has cancer. Greg and pal Earl (RJ Cyler), who have been making spoof movies together since they were little kids, decide to make one for Rachel. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon can’t decide if he is making a Wes Anderson film or a Noah Baumbach movie, and the film often plays like those two styles mixed together, even down to the music choices, including Lou Reed and Cat Stevens. The film deals well with Rachel’s illness, and Mann and Cooke have some great scenes together. It goes a little off the rails at times, and lacks a consistent tone. Still, the power of the lead performances, and the fact that some good directors are mimicked rather than bad ones, make this a decent enough movie. Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon and Jon Bernthal are all good in supporting roles.

2San Andreas Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays rescue pilot Ray, a gutsy and virtuous man on the job who, nevertheless, can’t keep things together on the home front. He gets divorce papers from wife Emma (Carla Gugino) on the day he’s supposed to take his daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) on a trip. Before he can pout and dwell on things too long, the earth starts shaking for what will be a series of devastating earthquakes. When it’s all over, numerous quakes and tsunamis have destroyed Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Hoover Dam. While the destruction looks great, and director Brad Peyton pulls out all of the stops when it comes to destroying California, the dialogue in this film is atrocious. When Ray heads out to save his wife in L.A. and his daughter in San Francisco, it’s often the worst of soap operas. Yes, it’s fun to see the San Francisco Giant’s stadium get smoked, especially if you’re a Dodgers fun, but it’s no fun listening to the words spoken by performers before and after the devastation. Granted, dialogue in a disaster movie doesn’t have to be top quality, but this stuff makes a Michael Bay movie sound like a Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

3Spy This is yet another spoof of the James Bond spy movie genre, and it’s a good one thanks to the presence of Melissa McCarthy. It doesn’t hurt that the film is written and directed by Paul Feig, who gave her an Oscarnominated role in Bridesmaids. The team followed up that piece of comic brilliance with the fun police-buddy comedy The Heat. McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a CIA agent chained to a desk in service of her partner in the field, Bradley Fine (Jude Law). Circumstances call for Susan to go into the field for the first time, and she must leave her bat-infested CIA basement behind. In the field, she must do battle with an evil arms trader Rayna (a deliciously nasty Rose Byrne) while contending with rogue agent Rick Ford (a surprisingly hilarious Jason Statham) who doesn’t believe she’s up to the task. The mission takes her to locales like Rome and Paris, while requiring her to sport some pretty embarrassing grandma wigs. For all of her talents as a physical comedienne, McCarthy’s true strengths lie in her ability to shoot off rapid-fire insults at unsuspecting victims. She and Byrne have a couple of verbal square-offs in this film where you have to believe the two actresses were given permission to just go at it and see what happens. Man, you don’t want to face off with McCarthy in an insult contest.

2Ted 2 The original Ted was the oddest of charmers. A profane teddy bear saying some of the most disgusting stuff ever in a mainstream movie, teamed with Mark Wahlberg in dumb puppy dog mode, proved to be a winning success. Now, with 20 or so million extra dollars to spend over the original Ted budget, Seth MacFarlane goes crazy, with a near two-hour movie that feels like five. It is way overstuffed and often ill-conceived. Ted the teddy bear (voiced by MacFarlane), in a bid to be recognized as human, winds up in a courtroom trying to prove he isn’t just property. MacFarlane actually compares his plight to slaves and Dred Scott. Really? Wow. As funny as the film can be at times, and MacFarlane does manage some good guffaws, it just torpedoes itself with the running time and courtroom scenes. MacFarlane falls victim to that need for making a sequel bigger and grander than the original. A simpler film that relied more on the gags and less on bullshit sentimentality would’ve been just fine. There’s no need for 75 percent of this movie to exist, especially the courtroom crap. Amanda Seyfried is a nice addition as a new love interest and Ted’s stoned lawyer, and a couple of celebrity cameos are fun. Overall, it’s a step in the wrong direction for this talking teddy franchise.

THINK FREE.

Films at #NevadaArt presents

ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN FILM FESTIVAL Thursday, July 16 / 6 pm

Celebrate architecture and the built environment with the Museum and the Black Rock Design Institute through a series of fun and interesting short films. Additional sponsorship by KUNR Reno Public Radio.

$7 / $5 Museum Members

Donald W. Reynolds Center for the Visual Arts | E. L. Wiegand Gallery 160 West Liberty Street in downtown Reno | 775.329.3333 | nevadaart.org