First ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Trailer Roars Online

 First ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Trailer Roars Online

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on July 28, 2014

 

Mad Max: Fury Road has had a rough journey getting to this point. Production stalls, weather issues, a long shooting schedule and many reshoots have occurred along the way, but now the very first trailer is available for the public to see for themselves. In this new installment of the Mad Max saga, the titular gruff anti-hero (Tom Hardy) is caught up in a long chase spanning across the desolate desert landscapes. A band of refugees, led by Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), are on the run from the vicious warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and his gangs looking to recapture them. The paths of these three parties soon intertwine and survival becomes their primary goal in the vehicle clash that ensues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akX3Is3qBpw

The footage in this trailer is based on the same scenes recently seen by attendees of the San Diego Comic-Con, and from the looks of it, series visionary George Miller hasn’t lost a step in recreating the post-apocalyptic wasteland he left behind in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. What’s immediately striking is the gorgeous cinematography from John Seale as the trailer opens on a shot of the downtrodden Max standing by his trusty Interceptor as he surveys the land.

One part of the Mad Max formula I was concerned would be lost over time was the series’ sense of weirdness, but judging by this trailer, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. The grungy production design and wacky costuming that have become staples of these films is left wholly intact. The bigger budget has allowed Miller to go all-out with the visuals, from the modified vehicles-as-weapons to the painful looking crashes that they cause.

The appeal of these movies, apart from Mel Gibson’s iconic performance as Max, has always been their adherence to practical effects for the stunt work. While CGI was certainly used to envision the dust storm sequence shown in this trailer, everything else (as promised by the filmmakers) looks real and dangerous as cars explode into a thousand metal shards and stuntmen perform incredible feats. Some old traditions will always stay fresh.

In that sense, this trailer does a great job of showing that this is truly a Mad Max movie by displaying everything that fans love to see in them. Bringing in Keays-Byrne to play the villain here is certainly a tip of the hat to his (different) villain role as the Toecutter from the very first Mad Max back in 1979, while other elements from The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome are alluded to as well. How Miller will be able to differentiate this revival from previous entries remains to be seen, but there’s a lot of promise shown here that suggests it could succeed in that regard.

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD opens in theaters May 15, 2015.

How to Mix Your (Dragon) Messages

How to Mix Your (Dragon) Messages

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on July 14, 2014

Believe it or not films have a life beyond their opening weekend or two in theaters. So How to Train Your Dragon 2 has been out for a while now and, being a fan of the original, I’ve finally caught up with it. I’ll say upfront that I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel, and the grand scale and fun characters will enrapture young audiences (also, dragons). But the best animated children’s movies have also displayed mature and measured storytelling, so I like to treat them with a degree of seriousness and not just as disposable entertainment. And as Dragon 2 drew to a close, I felt that something was off with the way it decided to wrap things up.

Full disclosure: I admit that I’m most likely in small company on this opinion, so this could just be a case of “looking into it too much.” Hear me out anyway though. Now, when we say a movie is sending a message, especially one aimed towards the younger demographic, we often think that means the characters allude to it in dialogue or flat out speechify the point. But oftentimes, whether it is intentional or unintentional, the writing/direction/etc. sends messages through actions. It’s the old show-don’t-tell rule of film.



In that case, the way How to Train Your Dragon 2’s plot concludes contradicts the supposed messages that it was initially promoting in the preceding 90 minutes. When we finally meet the big bad of picture, Drago Bludvist, he’s defined as a warmonger and a man who dominates his imprisoned creatures with brute force. The name Bludvist, which sounds a lot like “Bloodfist,” doesn’t exactly bring to mind a delicate and caring touch. In contrast, Hiccup’s long-lost mother Valka displays a more loving attitude towards the dragons she lives with and acts as if she were one of their equals, not their ruler.

The intention is clear: as humans we should respect our pets and not treat them as abused playthings. Hiccup’s peace-minded motivation for turning away Bloodfist’s army is an extension of this, and he’s always treated Toothless like a friend instead of a dog on a leash. It’s also telling that although the Alpha that Valka stays with draws dragons near it, these dragons don’t appear to have the same mindless drone effect that Drago’s Alpha does. But by the time the (rushed) climax rolls around, the thematic intentions of the story become muddled.



During the final battle, after eventually regaining control of Toothless from Drago’s Alpha, Hiccup then commands Toothless to essentially blast the Alpha into submission, causing about a hundred other dragons to bombard the Alpha too until it’s tusk is broken off and the beast gives up. While it makes sense that the pair would choose this tactic to end the battle once and for all, on a story level this doesn’t jive with the morals that these characters have previously believed in. The script doesn’t even acknowledge that our hero was so quickly willing to abandon his ethics for the easy, violent way out.

The problem stems from combining Hiccup’s arc of becoming a strong-willed leader with the otherwise benevolent messages about animals and nature. Once these two threads are intertwined at the conclusion, they don’t click together in harmony. I also got the impression that this violence wasn’t really the Alpha’s fault since he was under Drago’s will, so to finish this confrontation with the Alpha getting so aggressively punished instead of Drago, who manages to escape without fuss, felt wrong-headed.



This wrap-up wasn’t total a deal-breaker in the grand scheme of things. How to Train Your Dragon 2 still largely succeeds on the entertainment front due to its spirited voice cast and epic scope. It’s just that, by the end, the good-natured messages introduced early on lost themselves somewhere along the way due to a lack of follow through. It would be like if Batman established that he won’t kill and then jarringly allows a man to die later on. Oh wait that did happen.

Celebrating Seinfeld’s 25th Anniversary

Celebrating Seinfeld's 25th Anniversary

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on July 5, 2014

Originally, before realizing how futile it would be, I was going to do a list of my top ten favorite Seinfeld episodes. Eventually, however, as I was compiling the list I realized that Seinfeld was more than just the sum total of its parts. Sure there are episodes of the hugely influential show that were funnier and more memorable than others (I’m sure no one would argue “The Puerto Rican Day” is anywhere close to as good as “The Contest”), but as a complete experience Seinfeld was akin to capturing lightning in a bottle.

It was a show that could hone in on the most mundane aspects of life and weave together entire episodes around a single situation, like losing your car in a parking garage, while maintaining a sense of humor that was edgier than most sitcoms of the era. Yet even today, upon its 25^th anniversary on July 5 and its influence having spread across the television landscape, Seinfeld still remains as fresh, funny, and relatable as it did when it was on the air.

Simply naming your ten favorite episodes wouldn’t be able to do the show justice because even though it lasted for 180 episodes over nine seasons, the show’s batting average was remarkably high. Even in the first two seasons where the show was still finding its voice or the final seasons where the jokes leaned more on the cartoonish side, creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and their creative team could come up with material as biting as “The Ex-Girlfriend” (“You’re a cashier!”) or as character-defining as “The Little Kicks.”

Revisiting the show’s pilot, “The Seinfeld Chronicles,” after watching the show evolve over almost a decade is an interesting experience. They hadn’t quite nailed down the right comic timing or tone at that point, but aside from the absence of Elaine (whose position was originally filled by the waitress Claire), most of the shows basic elements and idea were already in place. As a show that purports to be about nothing, there are very few things more mundane to center the first interaction around than Jerry chastising George Costanza’s shirt button.

It’s this element of “nothingness,” which could range from the frustration of being in line at a restaurant to getting stuck on the subway, that ironically made the show stand out over others. Well, that and a bottomless supply of clever dialogue, much of which has entered the pop culture consciousness. One can’t buy a pack of Junior Mints anymore without thinking of Seinfeld, let alone drop now ubiquitous phrases like “sponge-worthy,” “yada yada,” “double dipper,” or the iconic “master of my domain.” Anyone who buys soup in a deli can expect a flood of quotes too. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Beyond that, Seinfeld also pushed the boundaries of what could be discussed and/or shown on television. “The Contest” is, of course, the most obvious example of that, a half-hour centered entirely around the characters’ masturbation habits without actually saying the word. Seinfeld and David’s writing motto “No hugging and no learning” perfectly describes their show’s cynical side. They weren’t afraid to put the character’s self-absorbed selves front and center, particularly with Elaine’s abrasive nature, George’s blissful ignorance, and Kramer’s hipster doofusness. But the writers and actors did such a great job of making these rather narcissistic people so relatable and likable together that when the controversial finale decided to turn the mirror on the audience for laughing at these antics, the intention backfired big time.

Even though the show was mostly centered on the titular comedian, its really George, Elaine, Kramer, and the assortment of other characters that stood out the most. Julia Louis Dreyfus had arguably the toughest job since the three men of the quartet generally got more material to play around with, and yet she elevated every scene she was in with just the right amount of brio. And while Kramer caught most viewers’ attentions thanks to Michael Richards’ skill with physical comedy, it’s Jason Alexander’s George that arguably came out on top of them all. George could have been the most irritating of them all, but with Alexander’s mix of self-deprecation and intense neurosis pushed him over the top.

There are many reasons (beyond ratings success) why Seinfeld still runs in heavy syndication on television today. One could see the same episode over and over again and never tire of its humor, or they could catch an episode and nod to themselves, “Yep I’ve been in that exact situation before.” They’ve most likely had a boss as needy as Mr. Pitt (or as eccentric as Mr. Peterman), a nemesis like Newman (“Newman!”), or parents as obnoxious as Frank and Estelle Costanza. So as we celebrate the long and gratifying run in pop culture that Seinfeld started 25 years ago, it truly is a Festivus for the rest of us.

Transformers The Movie (1986) Movie Review

Transformers: The Movie (1986)

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on June 28, 2014

The arrival of the fourth movie in Michael Bay’s Transformers series, subtitled Age of Extinction, brings attention to the fact that the last three decades (September 17 of this year will be the 30^th anniversary of when the very first Transformers television episode aired) have brought us multiple animated series’, one animated movie, and four live action movies built around the simple goal of having giant robots beat the holy hell out of each other. Selling toys is, of course, still the real incentive though. Even diversions into Beast Wars still carried through with those hard-set goals. There’s really not much to it, and yet here we are 30 years later as this premise continues to be milked for all its (relative) worth.

I, like many men born after 1980, certainly harbor some level of nostalgia for the Transformers, so I figured that as Bay’s latest installment in the long running franchise is upon us I would revisit the first of the robot films. No, not the first Bayformers from 2007, but the animated film made in 1986 during a height in the franchise’s popularity. Revisiting Transformers The Movie is a curious experience, one that almost definitely requires the viewer to hold dear to those nostalgic memories as they venture back.

In many ways, despite unflattering comparisons to the cartoon from fans, Bay’s Transformers movies aren’t so different from this one. The same criticisms lobbied at his iteration of the ‘robots in disguise,’ from incoherent plotting to mind-numbing action and paper thin/annoying characters, can be found here as well, so looking at this movie is all about how it filters through your perspective. On the one hand, it shows much nostalgia plays into your enjoyment of the movie. On the other hand, a reasonably short running time and actually being able to distinguish which robot is which during the action does make a difference.

Those may seem like small points, but after about an hour and a half of non-stop beat-downs, a few distinguishing factors go a long way. There is a ton of characters old and new, though as many fans know the old characters get the raw end of the deal here. This is a merciless movie that takes out the majority of the original cast within the first half. Optimus Prime and Starscream’s deaths are the most famous, but Ratchet, Ironhide, and others also bite the dust pretty quickly. Despite the naked motivation to kill these characters in order to focus on new toys in the merchandise line, seeing Optimus’ life slowly go out as his comrades watch still carries a charge of emotional resonance.

Since these rather heavy scenes (especially for a kids movie) are all packed into the beginning on Earth, this leaves the newly introduced characters to pull their weight for the remainder, to rather mixed results. The most memorable is the main villain Unicron, a planet-sized Transformer that devours worlds and provides Orson Welles with his last film role before his death. I’m sure Welles, the innovative director behind Citizen Kane who evolved the very language of film, didn’t expect his final contribution to be that of a giant planet-eating cartoon robot.

Some of the new Autobots make impressions, from the fast talking Blurr to the sole female robot Arcee, although many of them fade into the expansive cast. With the enormous amount of characters on display, it’s hard for the newcomers to leave their mark. The movie tries to compensate for this by hiring big name actors such as Judd Nelson (Hot Rod), Robert Stack (Ultra Magnus), and Eric Idle (Wreck-Gar) to provide the voices. Leonard Nimoy (who would later voice Sentinel Prime in Bay’s Dark of the Moon) comes out on top as Galvatron, who is basically just Megatron with a voice change and new paint job, but even these seasoned vets are overshadowed by fan-favorite Dinobot Grimlock.

All this isn’t to say that Transformers The Movie is without its pleasures. The soundtrack more than fills out the movie’s quota of fun 80s cheese, from Lion’s cover of the catchy Transformers theme song to Stan Bush’s cornball rock anthem “The Touch.” And for those looking for plenty of robot-pounding-robot action, at least until it has worn down the viewer by the third act, will get what they’re looking for. However, like many other pieces of pop culture from our youth, the movie works at its best for those walking in with their nostalgia filter on. Anyone not all that familiar with Transformers should only seek it out as a curiosity, or just remember that Toy Story perfected the plastic-toys-with-souls story.

Walker Stalker Con 2014 Hits Boston

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on June 21, 2014

Starting last Friday, June 13, the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston, MA was home to the Walker Stalker Con, a three-day long event where horror fans (among others) could converge for a weekend full of treats and chances to meet various people in the entertainment industry. Given the name, zombies were naturally the primary focus, with most of the booths spread around the Westin relating to the shuffling walkers in some way shape or form.

The stars of AMC’s hit television show The Walking Dead were the most prominently featured guests at the Con, with most of the Q&A panels and photo ops centered around them and booths set up for autographs and photos with the actors and actresses. Some of the bigger players from the show weren’t around, including Andrew Lincoln and David Morrissey, but the majority of the cast made appearances, from Jon Bernthal to Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Chad Coleman, and many others.

But the Walking Dead cast members weren’t the only people to be featured at the Con. With the event in Boston, it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see the cult hit film The Boondock Saints have a decent-sized presence, including a Saturday screening and follow-up Q&A. Not having Norman Reedus there (at least on Sunday when I attended the Con) was unfortunate, as he would have created a nice bridge between the horror and gangster stuff, but other Saints actors Sean Patrick Flanery and David Della Rocco were on hand to talk to attendees.

Fans of the horror genre were treated to some other nice surprises, including the chance to meet original Night of the Living Dead actors Judith O’Dea and Russ “Coming to Get You Barbara” Streiner. Friday the 13^th series fans had a few notable guests of their own, such as the lead actresses of the first two movies, Adrienne King and Amy Steel, and Tom Morga, one of the many actors to play Jason Voorhees, as well as Michael Myers too. Some other examples of the eclectic line-up of guests included Melissa Hutchison from Telltale Games (who are responsible for the fantastic Walking Dead episodic games), AMC’s Comic Book Men, and the Science Channel’s Oddities.

 

Other vendor booths set up shop around the Westin provided a variety of goodies and entertainment, from artist zombie renderings to a pellet gun range with zombie targets. Movie posters of all kinds could be found almost anywhere in the Con areas, while comics, toys, DVDs, music and other merchandise were available too. Friday night was host to the Zombie Bash dance party to shake things up, while attendees also found themselves visiting the zombie makeup vendor to get decked out in gnarly prosthetics to look more like members of the shambling undead.

But this won’t be the last time that the Walker Stalker Con makes an appearance in 2014. The convention will next make its way to Atlanta from October 17-19, where guests such as Michael Rooker, Melissa McBride, David Morrissey, and Greg Nicotero will be there.

Go (1999) Movie Review

Go (1999)

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on June 12, 2014

The career trajectory of director Doug Liman is one familiar to many other filmmakers. After getting his starting in the world of independent film, Hollywood eventually came knocking on Liman’s door, and the man whose first film was the small-scale Swingers soon gained prevalence as an action director with The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the recently released Edge of Tomorrow. But some time before his action-oriented realignment with Bourne, Liman made a film by the name of Go that both serves as a bridge between the two stages of his career and arguably still stands as his best film.

Although Liman didn’t write Swingers or Go (that would be Jon Favreau and John August respectively, two writers who would also find themselves working in blockbusters eventually), both films share a penchant for witty wordplay and high energy. Liman also carried over the sense of hip attitude from Swingers into the following film, and Go shows the filmmaker fully confident in his ability to expand onto a wider canvas, one which covers the span of one wild Christmas night.

Upon its release, Go carried the reputation of being yet another Tarantino copy with its ensemble cast and branching storylines. But where other movies of that type at the time failed by trying too hard to be slick and cool, that aspect comes through much more naturally here. A large part of that comes from the talented cast, many of whom were relative up-and-comers at the time that went on to bigger things, clicking together with August’s script and their onscreen chemistry.



The story is broken up into three distinct chapters, each of which starts at the supermarket where most of the characters converge before going off on their own adventures that occasionally cross over with each other. The first story deals with Ronna and her friend Claire, played by Sarah Polley and Katie Holmes, conducting a drug deal in order to make some desperate cash, and it functions as a nice lead-in for the following events to play off of. Part of this has to do with these two playing the most relatable of all the characters, so Polley and Holmes are able to ground the audience in the increasing chaotic events.

Their section also does a great job of establishing the tonal mix of tension-filled situations and dark comedy throughout the film, especially during the escapades of Desmond Askew, Taye Diggs, and Breckin Meyer’s characters as they plow their way through every thing that could go wrong in Vegas. Liman stages the various absurdities with plenty of style and style to spare, taking his characters through psychedelic raves, car chases, and unexpected twists.



Along with actors Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf, whose plotline is both the strangest and the last leg of the overarching story, William Fichtner, Jane Krakowski, and then-newcomers Timothy Olyphant and Melissa McCarthy fill out the rest of the cast. Much of the movie’s clever fun comes from how each of these characters unknowingly affects events that happen in the parallel plot threads. Events that seemingly come out of nowhere, like the shock gag that occurs at the end of Ronna’s story, are eventually explained from another angle. The comical unpredictability of such moments keeps viewers on their toes to expect anything, before being rewarded with payoffs that interlock all the pieces.

When it all comes together, Go is more about having a good time and going along for the ride rather than anything deeper. It captures the lively spirit of embarking on that “one crazy night” and then going off into directions and situations that one wouldn’t want to be caught in but would love to watch unfold from the sidelines. Even though it has been 15 years since the release of Go, its clear in the much bigger budgeted Edge of Tomorrow that Doug Liman still has some of that madcap nature left in him. With that film underperforming in U.S. theaters, perhaps its time for the director to take a page from his Swingers writer Jon Favreau and return to the smaller-scale roots that started his career.

Godzilla and the Primal Nature of Family

Reprinted from The Young Folks as posted on June 2, 2014

The new Godzilla film by director Gareth Edwards has attracted multiple comparisons to the work of Steven Spielberg, whether it is for the tease-and-delay monster revealing from Jaws or the terror-tinged wonder from Jurassic Park. But one comparison that hasn’t quite been brought up as much is the bond of family that runs through most of the veteran director’s work. In the case of Godzilla, family bonds run so strong that they form the backbone of nearly every important action and motivation from the primary characters. Major spoilers are to follow from here on out.

The most frequent criticism that has been leveled against the new Godzilla has been its thin character development, which is a valid one for certain. It’s a constant that runs throughout the entire Godzilla series; the monster(s) are cool and the humans are dull. But the King of the Monsters’ 2014 film revival mitigates this to a degree by tying together the characters, even the monsters, by the universally relatable motivation of family. As Ken Watanabe’s Dr. Serizawa repeatedly warns the others, nature is a primal force that humans cannot hope to control. He’s referring to the destructive power of the great beasts, but what is more primal than protecting those closest to you?



It’s a narrative shortcut that ends up working in the movie’s favor. Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) loses his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche) early in the movie due to an accident caused by the M.U.T.O. creature. When Aaron Taylor Johnson shows up as his grown up son Ford (did I mention a film whose lead character is named Ford Brody has been compared to Spielberg?) 15 years later, Joe is leading a one-man crusade to expose the truth. After Joe’s life abruptly ends at the same site where his wife perished, Ford is left with two things that keep him going forward: making sure his parents’ deaths don’t go in vain and keeping his wife and son out of danger.

Even Serizawa, who is otherwise just an exposition vessel, has a moment of human clarity. Later on he reveals that the pocket watch he carries around once belonged to his father, and then stopped after the Hiroshima bomb in 1945. During the suspenseful Honolulu airport sequence, Ford pledges to protect a boy on the tram when he is separated from his parents. For a brief moment after surviving the incident, Ford thinks he lost the boy to the crowd, perhaps scarily reminding him that he is still unaware of his own son’s whereabouts, until he witnesses a touching moment of family reunion as the couple embrace their child.

There is a similar moment between the male and female M.U.T.O.s that occurs prior to the thrilling third act monster throw-down. Both creatures share an unexpectedly tender moment as a father and a mother ready to embrace and nurture their litter of crab-like hellions. Their violent temperament positions the M.U.T.O.s as villains, but when looking at the root of things their motivations aren’t too dissimilar from the helpless humans. Then again both species also share an affinity for advanced technology meant for destruction.

That leaves Godzilla as the anomaly of the pack, to an extent. On the surface he’s a lone wolf, seemingly the last of his kind who shows up in unpredictable intervals to clash with the M.U.T.O.s. The humans, excepting Serizawa, see the titular monster as a last resort to their problem. What the humans don’t understand is that not only is Godzilla their biggest hope for survival, but that he sees them as his family. He has no one else except them. He protects them much like the M.U.T.O.s protect their nest and Ford protects that boy, and he even protects them from themselves.

During the Golden Gate bridge sequence, the Navy does that foolish movie trope of firing missiles at the monster when other humans are close by. But rather than dodging the missiles like Not-Godzilla did in the 1998 movie near the Chrysler Building, Godzilla jumps right in to block the missiles from hitting the bridge traffic. In fact, the big man might not have knocked into the bridge just afterwards had the Navy stopped attacking him. As the climatic brawl in San Francisco nears its end, Godzilla and Ford share a moment together in their battered states, perhaps sensing an understanding together of what drives them.

When Ford makes his sacrificial move with the bomb and the mother M.U.T.O. desperately attacks to avenge her fallen kin, Godzilla works up his strength to end the M.U.T.O.’s reign of terror once and for all with an applause-worthy finish. In the ending minutes, Ford finally reunites with his wife and son after the perilous journey halfway across the world, and Godzilla completes his role as the savior of humanity (give or take a few skyscrapers that crumbled in the process) as everyone freezes in awe at their protector. Nature finds its balance again at the conclusion of Godzilla, showing that the driving force behind nature, one that audiences can easily relate to, is the primal instinct of protecting and living up to those who mean the most to you.