"Pacific Rim": Propulsive, Massive Fun

From the trailers, Pacific Rim didn't look like much. At least, not if you'd seen Transformers, Godzilla, or the many different "giant robot" series from Japan. Because the film is directed by someone who is quite well-loved, I thought Guillermo del Toro must have been angling for a paycheck. After all, this is the same man who gave us the great Pan's Labyrinth. Pacific Rim looked nothing like the brilliance found in that film, and so I was skeptical, opting to wait for the video/instant streaming release. However, the reviews started coming in, and since they were mostly positive, I decided this must be something to see on the big screen.

Indeed, I was right. Pacific Rim is a massive, overblown, special effects extravaganza; the plot is familiar, but that's the point. While Pacific Rim may be a close sibling of the Transformers films, del Toro's flourishes of style elevate the material far above anything Bay could produce, or rather, hasn't produced since The Rock. Pacific Rim's style propels the story, even during the slower moments, creating a fun and frequently beautiful film. Even though Pacific Rim didn't have quite the gut-punch Man of Steel delivered, del Toro's child-like film is the most fun I've had at the movies this summer, aside from The Heat, that is. Indeed, the film reminded of those long-gone days of spreading all of my action figures across the top bunk bed and spending hours creating "movies".

A few years in the future, Kajiu (giant, GIANT monsters) rise from the oceans and rain destruction upon the cities of the world. Faced with extinction, humans create Jaegers (giant, GIANT robots) to fight and kill the monsters. Years pass, and the humans piloting Jaegers find themselves famous, and the world begins to feel safe once again. However, the restful status is short-lived. A pair of Jaeger pilots, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnan) and his older borther Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff), face off against the largest Kajiu anyone has ever fought. While the Kajiu is killed, its death comes at a terrible price.

Fast-forward a few years, and Raleigh is working on a huge wall world politicians believe will be enough to stop the Kajiu. Since Jaegers have been falling over the world, world leaders have dismantled the Jaeger program and have placed all their hope into the wall. Naturally, since this is a more than two hour film, the wall doesn't work. Raleigh finds himself in search of a new piloting partner as the world embraces imminent demise.

And let the battles commence!

I know I've already compared Pacific Rim to Transformers, and I'm sure you could infer how I feel about that series, but I think the comparison is needed to demonstrate that skill and planning can create an experience more fun than simply pointing the camera at stuff that blows up. Frequently in the Transformers films (with the exception of the first, which is actually pretty good), I have trouble keeping up with the action. Blocking and shot placement tends to confuse rather than inform. In the third film, Bumblebee is fighting a number of bad robots in what I thought was one part of the city, and then he magically appears to save Shia LaBeouf's character in what I thought was a completely different part of the city.

See, in those films, the action's sole purpose is to look really cool. Who cares about time and space, so long as the shots look cool? Well, time and space mean something, and when one character can simply appear at will to save someone else, there's no suspense, no sense of danger, so what's the point?

Guillermo del Toro, on the other hand, knows exactly where his camera is in time and space. He knows exactly where his characters are. Although the film mostly takes place at night during torrential downpours, I was never lost. Although both the monsters and the robots are CGI creations, there labored movements, and the actor's performances created action set pieces that seemed grounded in some semblance of physical reality. And that makes a huge difference in films with fantastical elements.

However, del Toro knows he's creating a "monster movie," and so he throws in fun moments where he seems to be winking at the audience, bringing them along for the ride, knowing that the film is first and foremost a ride. When one Jaeger wields an oil tanker like a sword, I laughed. The image is absurd, but fun nevertheless.

Of all the summer blockbusters that have been released this summer, at least the ones I've seen so far, Pacific Rim has a director who has a sense of style but doesn't let that style distract from the story; instead, that style propels the narrative forward, bringing the audience along for the fun. Thank you del Toro for reminding me that there are directors out there who can take mediocre material and elevate it beyond the promise of its story. Well done.

"Sharknado"... NO!

A few months ago this movie was brought to my attention on Facebook. Humorously, a friend provided a link to a movie that was seeking distribution during the festival circuit. The movie poster promises insane silliness, especially considering the tag line is "Enough said!" With a poster that features great white sharks spinning around in a tornado, I was a little skeptical of the film's merits. But, that same friend requested a full review, including the velocity required to pull so many sharks out of the sea. Unfortunately for us both, the film fails to deliver the goods.

I was looking forward to the silly shenanigans afoot in the film. Hell, one of my favorite past times with my dad is dissecting the absurdities found in cheesy sci-fi films. We even do that with the good ones. The fun of watching a terrible movie is making fun of it. Just look at the Twilight movies; those are a riot. From the reviews and the advanced press, Sharknado promised to be the type of silly entertainment my dad and I would enjoy watching together.

And so, with bated breath, Tim and I prepared ourselves for a truly awful movie. Tim wasn't nearly as prepared for the horror of cinema he was about to watch. We settled ourselves onto the couch and cued up the DVR. There it was... Sharknado... just as they promised. A preposterous title, with an even more preposterous story. This was going to be great.

In my head, I was imagining sharks flying everywhere, something like a cross between Night of the Twisters and Jaws 3, with special effects so terrible that the filmmakers had to have known what they were doing. Sharknado promised to be a self-parody of disaster movies, a film that didn't take itself too seriously. And with a premise like that, how could they?

The first shot was actually pretty cool. Across a dark sea, shark fins, hundreds of them, pierce the surface of the water as the sharks attempt--or are they?--to flee the oncoming storm. And in the distance, a tornado bears down on the school of sharks.

It's a great start. But the budget of the film and all its creativity seems to have been used up in the first shot. Pity.

Los Angeles is facing an unprecedented hurricane. And in the midst of this unprecedented storm is a very familiar story: estranged father reconnects with his ex-wife and children while trying to save them. Naturally, my first reaction to all the melodrama was this: "There are sharks flying through windows!" How can anyone be concerned with who is doing what to whom when sharks are swimming through the streets, flying through the air, and causing mayhem everywhere, even in Beverly Hills? 

But, that's a small problem. There are larger issues to be dealt with, for example, the film's complete disregard for its own absurdities. If the script had been wittier, more self-referential, more aware of its craziness, I could have forgiven the bad filmmaking. I could have forgiven the fact that the film was filmed in daylight, hoping that the grey filters and infrequent rain would be enough to confuse us. That was probably intentional, but the characters never seem to recognize that this is one odd hurricane, even more odd than the flying sharks. The hurricane doesn't act like a hurricane. The rain and wind are sporadic. Now, I've never been through a hurricane, but it's my understanding that the rain and wind don't stop, not unless you're in the middle of the storm's eye or the storm has passed. However, I may be wrong on this. Florida friends, help me out!

Sharknado's actual antagonist is boredom. Here I was hoping to see sharks flying all over the place with twenty, fifty, possibly hundreds of tornadoes, and the filmmakers only gave us four. FOUR! That's it?! That's what I waited months for? A measly four tornadoes. What a rip off! I suffered through terrible special effects, subpar attempts at humor, characterizations and plot developments that insulted the actors, and all for what... four tornadoes. Ugh!

When the heroes of the film finally (FINALLY) found themselves facing true "sharknadoes" it was too late. I had given up, even when the characters suggested that bombs could defuse the tornadoes. I was despondent and furious. Even that couldn't make me laugh. Awful thing to watch what promises to be a terrible movie, and it turns out only to be a terrible movie. I was hoping for more. I was hoping for the absurdity to reach epic proportions.

And that's exactly what the filmmakers gave me. (Spoiler Warning! Like any of you are actually going to see this...) One character, in her attempt to destroy the final tornado, falls from a helicopter and is swallowed whole by a shark. The scene is funny... But wait! It gets even better.

As the terror is over and sharks are falling from the sky, the hero sees his daughter threatened by a falling shark. He runs, wielding a chainsaw, pushes her out the way and leaps into the maw of the shark. Like his friend, he is swallowed whole. All is lost.

But no, what's that sound? Is that the sound of a chainsaw? Why, yes, it is. The hero is not so dead after all. He is cutting his way through the innards of the shark.

When the chainsaw cut its way through the shark fell onto the ground, Tim said, "Naturally birth: That's some terrifying shit!" Indeed, I was thinking about the same thing. 

Wait, the hero is going back inside the shark. What is he doing? You know what he's doing. He's pulling out the woman who had been swallowed earlier. A quick round of CPR and she's saved.  

Tim just stares at the screen, open mouthed, and I can't stop laughing. At the end, when all hope is lost, Sharknado finally delivers on the potential presented in the poster and opening shot. However, it was too late. Even on the level of so-awful-it's-good, I cannot recommend this movie with a clean conscience. If you do want to see the good bad stuff, simply skip to the final half hour of the film. Or find the ending on YouTube. I'm sure someone posted it. 

I, for one, will have to wipe clean the stains this film left on the walls of my consciousness. Maybe Caligula is out there somewhere... Or even Howard the Duck... Then again, no. Sharknado isn't THAT bad. 

"Upstream Color": A Glorious, Hypnotic Tale

The first time I ever watched 2001: A Space Odyssey I knew immediately that I had watched something great. What the damn thing meant in a larger sense, I wasn't too sure, but it was great. Years later, I have a better understanding of 2001 and have watched a similarly thought-provoking, beautiful film. Upstream Color is hypnotic, literally as it turns out, and stunning. It's impact lasts long after the final shot. In short, I wish I could watch more movies like this. I wish I could go to festivals and watch an unknown film unfold with the kind of exhilaration that comes from not knowing exactly what's happening next. 

On IMBD, the plot is the following: "A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives." That is the most unhelpful synopses I have ever read. Intriguing, yes, but essentially unhelpful. The film starts with a woman, Kris (Amy Seimetz). She's successful, living by herself, with the normal obligations of a successful person in life. Pretty much, she's normal. However, her world is forever altered when an unknown man drugs her by forcing her to drink an worm-like organism; he takes her back to her home and begins a long hypnosis. Kris is forced to take out a loan and empty her bank account (in addition to performing mind-numbing tasks), and the days upon days of her absence cost her her job. 

Kris' life is destroyed, and she doesn't even remember what happened. She only remembers waking up to her apartment's mess, a scar on her ankle, and a huge loss of time. But life goes on, and so must she. In the middle of her new life, she encounters Jeff (Shane Carruth). The two slowly fall in love, even through all of their eccentricities, for the most part unaware of the deeper bond they share. 

The synopsis above does little to convey the style in which this story is told. The plot unfolds in repeated scenes, overlapping dialogue, huge leaps in time, and parallel stories that are hard to connect at first. In fact, very little dialogue is spoken, only enough to facilitate the scene. After the initial hypnosis, the film feels like how I imagine hypnotism. The mind wanders and questions reality, questions identity, wondering if everything it's experiencing is nothing more than illusions, suggestions, planted there by someone else. 

Upstream Color is study on the nature of free will, on our own capacity to break free when outside forces attempt to control our lives. But it's also a wonderful love story. What's even more impressive is that this film is as effective as it is. Pure cinema at its finest. Indeed, I frequently thought of silent films while watching this one. How joyous it is to watch a film that doesn't feel the need to assault our senses with unnecessary noise. Instead, we can watch a story being told through gestures, through images. Lives unfold this way; memories are stored this way. Upstream Color is emotional and truly hypnotic in its presentation, a wonderful experience overall, and a glorious addition to the science-fiction genre. 2001 has great company.  

The End Justifies the Means in "Monster's University"

Monster's Inc. is a wonderful, thoughtful, inventive, and emotional film. So, from the moment the prequel was announced, I felt disheartened. Pixar, a company that has produced some of the finest examples of animation since Toy Story, has run out of ideas. At least, that's what I thought when I first heard about the prequel, Monster's University. In fact, my first question was "Where do they have to go?" I mean, how interesting will it be, really, to see Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) in college? As it turns out, thankfully, I was wrong to despair. The people at Pixar know what they're doing. Monster's University is not equal to its predecessor(?), but it comes pretty darn close.

As the film opens, we see a very young Mike being escorted to Monster's Inc., the factory that produces the energy for the monster world by collecting the power from children's screams. He's fascinated and wants nothing more than to be the best scarer ever. Unfortunately, there's a problem: Mike just isn't that scary. Nevertheless, he works hard and gets accepted into the Scare Program at Monster's University. Also accepted is Sully, the son of a long line of quality scarers.

Enter the scariest creation Pixar has yet created: Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren). She's the stuff of nightmares, with a body that combines centipede and dragon for terrifying effect. Dean Hardscrabble decides that the Scare Program does not need students who aren't up to scratch, and so provides an ultimatum: If she is not impressed by a student's performance during the final exam of Scare 101, that student will not be invited back the following semester. She's a hard one, that Hardscrabble.

Mike, clearly motivated to do his best, studies as best he can. Sulley, feeling like he can pass the exam in his sleep, slacks off. Naturally, they both get under each other's skins. Mike is jealous of Sully's natural ability, and Sulley is embarrassed because a green little eyeball is outshining him. However, circumstances force the pair to work together, which obviously results in them becoming the best of friends.

The plot of Monster's University follows the usual path. A motley crew of misfits must work together to prove their worth. Actually, I was frequently reminded of Revenge of the Nerds. The film does work, but, as I said, it's pretty standard stuff, even with all those monsters. Standard though it is, the film is well made.

For most of the film, I was feeling that Monster's University was never going to live up to the precedent set by Monster's Inc. Yes, the film is funny. Yes, the characters are likable and relatable. But I felt too much of the film had a "been there, done that" atmosphere. One exception is a scene in a library that proves that, even in the monster world, librarians are terrifying. Thankfully, the end redeemed the earlier sections of the film. I won't give away any spoilers, but I was pleased to see the delicate and sensitive way the film's creators handle a truth Mike comes to discover about himself. In addition, that final scare is a highlight. Watching the characters mature into the adult monsters who quite literally change the world is a joy, not to mention a nice refresher in a season filled with explosion-heavy, character-light action films.

McCarthy reigns in "The Heat"

Melissa McCarthy is quickly becoming a one-woman show. To tell the truth, the plot of her more recent film, The Heat, teeters on the edge of forgettable. It's pretty standard stuff, really. That is, if you're comparing it to other buddy-cop films: the awkward straight-and-narrow type meets the rough-around-the-edges type; they hate each other, but grow to respect their differences; and hilarity and action ensues. The Lethal Weapon series is a good template here. However, this film is vastly different from those films, and in a way, it's a lot more "real," or better yet, "believable"... kinda.

The Heat follows Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) and Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) as they investigate the operations of a Boston drug lord. As an FBI agent, Ashburn wants to take lead and work alone. After all, no one wants to work with her anyway because of her arrogance and awkward social skills. Mullins  also works mostly alone, but with her everyone is too scared to work with her. Even her captain makes disparages the effects his job have on his looks: "My kids call me 'Grandpa.'" Neither Ashburn and Mullins want to work together, but they are forced into the relationship due to extenuating circumstances, meaning "the plot." But enough of the plot, let's get down to the real meat of this review.

The main difference in this film, the most notable and obvious difference, is gender. How rare is it to see two women headlining an action comedy. Such things don't happen very often, yet The Heat proves that such things can happen, and they should. The Heat benefits from Bullock and McCarthy's unique charisma and chemistry. But it also benefits from a lack of herculean actions scenes. You know the kind. We've already seen tons of these scenes this summer. TONS. Take, for instance, Man of Steel, a film I actually enjoyed. Nevertheless, I grew frustrated with the level of destruction Metropolis suffered when gods fight. For a film involving superhuman strengths, this makes sense, sort of. However, this is pretty common in most action films today. The leading men of action films perform impossible tasks, regardless of the real-world effects on their bodies. McCarthy and Bullock, at least in this regard, feel more human, more vulnerable in this film, which raises the stakes whenever action scene is inevitable. The biggest action scene in this final, I would argue, involves a knife, just a knife. The result is priceless, and I found myself more involved than when I watched Superman and Zod tear apart metropolis. 

Action, however, is suitably pushed to the background. Instead, the film is a nonstop barrage of profanity, most of it coming from McCarthy, and it's hysterical. This is McCarthy's film, for the most part. She delivers lines without holding anything back. Mullins is a woman working in a male-dominated field and has to push for every single bit of recognition. Mullins, and Ashburn too, reminds us that in many fields, women have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts, if not more. However, profanity alone does not create a likable character. Here McCarthy is an expert. In all three of her hit films (Bridesmaids, Identity Theft, and The Heat), there are moments when her character reveals vulnerability, wisdom, and a lifetime of pain. McCarthy excels at this, and we love her all the more for that. Now, don't think when I say "vulnerable" I mean "weak." No, McCarthy's characters, so far, have been far short of weak. All have displayed a level of confidence that is admirable and attractive. Indeed, one running gag throughout this film involves Mullins running into past lovers. They have fallen in love; she has not. It's great.

Bullock, likewise, brings plenty of laughs, but not by trying to outdo her partner. No, Bullock is smarter than that and plays the "straight" in the relationship to perfection. Indeed, Bullock's best scene (in my humble opinion) is an early scene that beautifully captures the arrogance of her character. Upon arriving in Boston to begin her investigation, Ashburn orders the police captain to take her to a perp. Not wanting to give up any control in the situation, she blindly starts walking, without the slightest clue where she's going. In fact, she has to be told about four times, "Special Agent, this way."Bullock plays the scene wonderfully, just the way comedy should be played: with a straight face, unaware of the ridiculousness of the situation. 

McCarthy is on a role, and I hope it continues. Furthermore, I hope the suits at film studios realize that there is a market for female-driven films, outside of the rom-com bilge that populate the box office throughout the year. And McCarthy proves that she can steal scenes and headline an action film (I'd argue Identity Theft was her first action film). If The Heat is a taste of what could be in cinema, I can look to the future of movies and smile. Change is good.