Film

The OKest minutes

The Finest Hours

I haven’t been on a boat in many, many years. The Finest Hours kind of makes me feel OK about that particular character trait of mine. In 1952, an oil tanker called the Pendleton split in two during a blizzard off the coast of Cape Cod. All eight crewmembers who were in the stern at the time the boat broke in two perished. Thirty-three men initially survived in the bobbing bow section of the ship, mere hours away from certain death. Upon hearing news of the situation, a four-man crew boarded the smallish CG-36500 boat and set out to sea, a violently choppy sea, in search of the Pendleton and its crew. Director Craig Gillespie has crafted an exciting sea-faring movie. That is, an exciting sea-faring movie when it is actually out at sea. Some of the stuff that happens back on shore bogs the movie down in schmaltziness. That’s OK. The action sequences, and the performances during those sequences, put The Finest Hours over the top as an entertainment worthy of your time. Chris Pine plays Bernie Webber, who captains the tiny ship tasked with saving over thirty men. Yes, this provides the opportunity for the guy who plays Captain Kirk to be called Captain a lot during the course of this film. It’s a slight distraction, but a good one nonetheless. As Ray Sybert, one of the unlucky fellows aboard the Pendleton when it met its fate, Casey Affleck is rock solid as the man who takes charge in the face of great peril. When some of the crew thinks it’s a good idea to board the lifeboats in the middle of gale force winds, Sybert gives them a demonstration that renders that option moot. Affleck, one of the more underrated actors in the biz, offers the film’s best performance.

Unlike the dreadful In the Heart of the Sea that Ron Howard shat into the ocean last year, this one packs a major, exciting action punch with a lot of water. I haven’t felt this freaked out watching people ride into slamming waves since Wolfgang Petersen tortured Clooney and Wahlberg in The Perfect Storm. Bernie rides into the belly of the beast by Bob Grimm with three crewmembers played by Ben Foster, John Magaro and Kyle Gallner. All bgrimm@ four are terrific at looking scared shitless newsreview.com while being drenched and bounced about like a 5-year-old in a bounce house with a bunch 3 of energetic and older fat people. When the action covers their voyage, or Affleck’s struggles aboard the sinking vessel, the movie is top notch. Sadly, Gillespie feels the need to make this a love story, too. Holliday Grainger battles hard against the sap monster back on shore, and it’s a battle she loses despite an admirable effort. She plays Miriam, Bernie’s new girlfriend, and her face-offs with Bernie’s commander (Eric Bana with a distracting accent) at Coast Guard HQ are tiresome stuff. Bernie and Miriam’s courtship is actually kind of sweet in the early part of the movie, but their love story becomes nothing but an unwelcome distraction once waves start hitting Bernie’s boat. The film looks and plays a lot like a movie that could’ve been shot in black and white. Some of the faces in this film (especially Foster’s) look like old timey actors, and there were times I was expecting one of the Bowery Boys or Humphrey Bogart to show up and lend a hand. There are times when the film has a palpable classic vibe. Pine comes to life when his character is out at sea, but his stilted choices back on shore seem almost gimmicky. He’s very charismatic in most of his roles, and the sheepishness he portrays on dry land feels forced and overdone. He salvages his work during the action sequences, for sure, but the movie does feature some of his career worst work at times. If you are looking for a good seafaring movie with a decent love story, your best bet is still Titanic. The Finest Hours is no masterpiece, but it gets the job done. Ω

“We’re going to need a bigger boat.”

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POOR

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FAIR

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GOOD

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VERY GOOD 5

EXCELLENT 1The 5th Wave This is based upon the young adult novel by Rick Yancey, the first in a trilogy. God willing, this movie will be the only one to receive a movie adaptation. Further cinematic installments will cause me to punch myself in the face and hurt my standing at the workplace, in social gatherings, etc. Chloe Grace Moretz plays Cassie Sullivan, a normal teenage girl who drinks beer at parties, drools over high school football guy Ben Parish (Nick Robinson) and calls the guy from Office Space (Ron Livingston) dad. Things go from routine to wacky for Cassie when a big metal spaceship thing parks over Ohio and starts messing with the human race in “waves.” The first wave involves an electromagnetic pulse that knocks out all power and renders PlayStation 4 useless, while the second wave brings earthquakes and tsunamis. The third wave involves plague, while the fourth includes survivors battling with aliens in human hosts. The fifth wave … well, that’s a mystery. A mystery you will solve really quick if you put forth even the slightest effort.

313 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi This is Michael Bay’s best film yet. Is it the great film this true story deserves? No, it isn’t. It is, however, a strong, competent effort from a guy whose action films are usually incomprehensible and schmaltzy. So, I think my “I Hate Bay” club membership card is going to be revoked … for now. Why is it his best film? Because the cast totally rocks from start to finish, and Bay actually tells a story, and a harrowing one, keeping over-baked action film trickery to somewhat of a minimum. There’s real, palpable tension in this movie, something I’ve never felt during a Bay movie before. On the anniversary of 9/11 in 2012, a CIA security force in Benghazi, Libya, must try to protect a U.S. Ambassador during a terrorist attack on U.S. compounds. Because of the nature of these compounds, the security force finds itself dealing with a bunch of red tape prohibiting them from flying into action and, much worse, possibly preventing them from receiving assistance from the U.S. military. Bay does a decent job of showing us the confusing hell these men must’ve gone through. In the end, Bay delivers the goods in a fine action film.

4The Big Short Director Adam McKay, the master behind such broad comedy gems as Anchorman and Step Brothers, flexes his slightly more serious muscles for this one, a take on the housing bubble that nearly destroyed the global economy. An ensemble cast featuring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt make this a funny-yet-scary look at how big banks nearly sent us back to the stone ages. Carell is especially good as Mark Baum, a banker with a conscience who realizes a little too late that things are going bad, and his wealth is going to come at the expense of a many U.S. homeowners. Bale is typically good as Michael Burry, the man who saw the storm coming and made a boatload of money betting against the biggest monsters of modern finance. Pitt has fun as a financial guru who has taken to the hills in anticipation of the oncoming financial apocalypse, while Gosling gives the whole thing a nice Martin Scorsese vibe as a fast-talking banker/narrator. It’s a drama, but it’s often funny. (Margot Robbie in a bubble bath … brilliant!) McKay shows that his chops go well beyond directing Will Ferrell with a fireman’s mustache.

3Daddy’s Home The second pairing of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg isn’t as funny as their first offering, The Other Guys, but it’s still funny enough to warrant a look. Ferrell is in bumbling mode as Brad, stepfather to a couple of kids who hate him and the husband of Sarah (Linda Cardellini). Just when the kids are starting to only hate him a little, Sarah’s ex-husband Dusty (Wahlberg) comes back into the picture in a boorish bid to win back his ex’s love, reclaim his children and get Brad out of the house. This provides a setup that sees Ferrell’s Brad subjected to all forms of humiliation and injury, including a calamitous trek through his house on a motorcycle and a rendezvous with electrical wires after getting some impressive air off a half-pipe. Ferrell and Wahlberg are funny together, and the movie does a decent job of making them both likeable idiots. Thomas Haden Church steals scenes as Brad’s obnoxious boss at a smooth jazz radio station, as does Hannibal Buress as a handyman who winds up crashing on Brad’s couch. The film is nasty, but it’s neutered a bit by it’s PG-13 rating. It’s clear this is being marketed at families, but that’s a mistake right there. I’m sure there’s a nastier cut of this movie, and if I have a complaint it’s that the movie doesn’t go all the way with its sinister message. It pulls some punches, keeping it from being the dark comedy it deserves to be, and making it more of a feel-good film with some sinister undertones. Still, I laughed enough, and the film is recommended to fans of Ferrell and Wahlberg.

3Kung Fu Panda 3 Jack Black returns as the voice of Po in this decent second sequel in the saga of the Panda warrior and his warrior cronies. This time out, Po encounters his long lost dad, Li (the warm growl of Bryan Cranston), who takes him to the land of the pandas so that he can learn the powers of his chi. Such an advancement in his warrior techniques is absolutely essential for the lands are being threatened by a spirit realm warrior named Kai (J.K. Simmons voicing what I think is some sort of super muscular yak-type thing). The stuff with Po and Li is cute, with the added element of Po’s adopted dad (James Hong) being a little jealous. There’s a cool psychedelic look at times, and the animated series continues to impress on artistic levels. The story feels a bit like a repeat of the previous two. That’s OK, but doesn’t necessarily place this chapter high on the originality scale.

5The Revenant For the second year in a row, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has delivered the year’s best film. The best movie of 2015 is The Revenant, an eye-popping Western thriller that gives Leonardo DiCaprio, the winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actor, the role that should finally score him that first Oscar. The innovative Inarritu was also responsible for last year’s Birdman. DiCaprio gives it everything he’s got as Hugh Glass, a scout working with fur traders on the American frontier in the early nineteenth century. Glass, while doing his job, gets a little too close to a couple of bear cubs, and Mama Grizzly is not all too happy about such an occurrence. What follows is a lengthy and vicious bear attack where Glass tangles with the nasty mother not once, but twice. Inarritu, DiCaprio and some amazing visual technicians put you in the middle of that bear attack, minus the searing pain of actually having a bear’s claws and teeth rip through your flesh. Trust me when I tell you, it’s an unforgettably visceral moment when that bear steps on DiCaprio’s head. DiCaprio is incredible here, as are Tom Hardy as a villainous fur trapper who wants to leave Glass behind, Domhnall Gleeson as the commander forced to make horrible decisions, and Will Poulter as the compassionate man who makes a big mistake. It’s a revenge tale amazingly told.

5Star Wars: The Force Awakens With this seventh chapter in the Star Wars saga, J.J. Abrams and crew have done exactly what they did with Star Trek, and created a fun movie that not only respects the blessed canon of a beloved franchise, but stands on its own as a piece of supreme entertainment. It’s 2015’s most entertaining film, for sure, and a movie that stands up proudly in the realm of Star Wars movies. In many ways, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the best movie in the franchise. I won’t say it’s my personal, sentimental favorite. (I think The Empire Strikes Back still holds that post, but a little more time will tell.) The Force Awakens has solid storytelling, its special effects are first rate, and the performances are, undoubtedly, the best the franchise has ever seen. That’s due in part to Daisy Ridley, an incredible talent who becomes an instant star for the foreseeable future as Rey, a scrappy scavenger on a Tatooine-like desert planet. I don’t think I’m overdoing it by saying she delivers the alltime, all-around best dramatic performance in the Star Wars universe in this role. The film will leave you craving for more, and a good Star Wars craving is a nice thing to have.