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Movie Review: “Joy”

December 22, 2015 / David Medsker

Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Elisabeth Röhm, Édgar Ramírez, Virgina Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Ladd

David O. Russell

David O. Russell has developed a repertory of players akin to “American Horror Story” creator Ryan Murphy. Including Russell’s new film “Joy,” Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper have been in each of his last three films, while Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Elisabeth Rohm have been in two of his last four. Russell had some hiccups with actors early in his career (George Clooney and Lily Tomlin come to mind), so it’s nice to see that Russell has found the balance between the directorial process and ego management, and that is crucial to a director’s continued success. If you have a reputation for treating actors poorly, you will no longer have good actors auditioning for your films, or accepting your calls.

With “Joy,” Russell has a motherlode of talent ready to carry the weight, but his own script undercuts them. It begins with an “American Hustle”-style bolt of adrenaline, but it quickly shifts into ‘kick the shit out of Joy’ mode for the rest of the movie. Joy is dealt a terrible hand, and the movie’s message seems to be that that is why she became a success, that it was her awful family that gave her the drive to succeed. So for you parents out there who are encouraging their kids to think positive and believe in themselves, we’re all clearly doing it wrong. If you want your kids to be super-rich, you clearly have to raise them to be sociopaths.

Joy (Lawrence) was encouraged at an early age by her grandmother (Diane Ladd) that she was meant to use her creativity to do greater things for her horribly broken family. She has a half-sister Peggy (Rohm) from her father Rudy’s (De Niro) first marriage, and by the time Joy married singer Tony Miranne (Edgar Ramirez), Rudy was on his third marriage, which of course ended in divorce. Now divorced herself with two kids, Tony living in the basement, and her mother (Virginia Madsen) watching soap operas nearly nonstop, Joy has yet to act on her promise, until a moment on the boat of Rudy’s new girlfriend Trudy (Isabella Rossellini) gives Joy the idea of a lifetime: a mop that people can clean without touching the strands. Joy draws it up with the help of her daughter, and meets nothing but disapproval and resistance from the people who have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, from her success.

Entertainment, Movie Reviews, Movies

Bradley Cooper David O. Russell Jennifer Lawrence Robert De Niro

First Drive: 2016 Nissan GT-R

December 22, 2015 / Frank Washington

Yes, the 2+2 GT-R looks great. It has a severely sloping roof, huge quad exhaust pipes, four LED headlights, matching four-ringed taillights and a fixed wing on the trunk; muscular wheel wells and aero blades on the fenders’ edges provides optimum airflow around the tires and along the body.

As slick as this car looks, however, the sheet metal covers up the fact that GT-R this is a supercar. For the uninitiated, that means the GT-R’s top speed is in the 200 mph category.

And its nitrogen-filled, high-performance run flat 20-inch tires suggest that the Nissan GT-R can achieve its top speed of 196 mph. The 3.8-liter dual turbocharged V6 engine generates 545 horsepower and 463 foot-pounds of torque. The dual clutch six-speed automatic transmission shifts gears at warp speed.

Car Reviews, Cars

first drive nissan Nissan GT-R sports cars sports coupe supercars

Movie Review: “The Revenant”

December 22, 2015 / David Medsker

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Say this for director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu: he does not make things easy for the audience. He staged the full length of “Birdman” to look like one long, glorious take, and challenged the audience to decipher which bits were fantasy and which were reality. “Babel” put us face-to-face with a sexually confused and oft-naked Japanese teenaged girl. “21 Grams” forced the world to imagine receiving the news that your entire family has been killed in a car accident, and then discovering that your new lover has your deceased husband’s heart inside of him. With “The Revenant,” he ups the squirm factor tenfold, but is careful to balance the film’s savagery – and make no mistake, this is one savage movie – with the most beautiful cinematography you’ll see all year. “Wow, that was one of the bloodiest things I’ve ever…ooh look, pretty mountains!” They’re palate cleansers, so you’re not tasting blood in your mouth for the entire film. Smart, and essential.

It is the 1820s, and a group of New World settlers and hired-gun Englishmen are on a fur-trapping expedition in God’s country. The group is besieged by a Native American tribe hell-bent on retrieving a young woman taken from them by one of the light-skinned invaders. (At this point in time, it was either the English or the French.) Captain Andrew Henry (Domhall Gleeson) looks to master tracker Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) to lead the way, but there is doubt among the surviving group, chief among them professional soldier John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), whether Glass can be trusted after miraculously escaping an impossible situation unscathed. Hugh also has a teenaged son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), whose late mother is of the Pawnee tribe. That doesn’t sit well with some of the white people.

Entertainment, Movie Reviews, Movies

Alejandro González Iñárritu Leonardo DiCaprio The Revenant Tom Hardy

Movie Review: “The Hateful Eight”

December 22, 2015 / Jason Zingale

Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Demian Bichir, Jeff Parks

Quentin Tarantino

It’s crazy to think that “The Hateful Eight” almost never happened, but after Quentin Tarantino furiously shelved the project following the leak of his unfinished script, cooler heads eventually prevailed. Though the writer/director’s first crack at making a Western resulted in the slightly disappointing “Django Unchained,” Tarantino’s second attempt is a much-improved genre piece that represents his most accomplished work behind the camera to date. “The Hateful Eight” is filled with the same self-indulgent tendencies that fans have come to expect from his movies, but while it doesn’t exactly earn its three-hour runtime, this Agatha Christie-styled whodunit is a lot of fun thanks to a smartly crafted script and riotous performances from its ensemble cast.

Set in post-Civil War Wyoming, the film stars Kurt Russell as John “The Hangman” Ruth, a well-known bounty hunter who earned his nickname as the only one in his trade who actually bothers bringing fugitives in alive to be hanged for their crimes. John is in the process of transporting wanted murderer Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock to collect the $10,000 bounty on her head when a blizzard forces them to take shelter at Minnie’s Haberdashery in the mountains, where he finds himself trapped in a room with six other strangers he doesn’t trust. In fact, John is confident that at least one of them is in cahoots with Daisy, and he’s determined to figure out who it is before they make their move.

In addition to the two stranded men he comes across on his way to Minnie’s – Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a Union soldier turned fellow bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a Southern rebel who claims that he’s the new sheriff of Red Rock – John’s list of suspects includes local hangman Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), mysterious cowboy Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), Confederate general Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) and a Mexican named Bob (Demian Bichir) who’s looking after the trading post while its owners are away. Confined to the cabin until the storm passes, paranoia begins to set in among the eight strangers as identities and motivations are questioned, secrets are revealed and blood is spilled.

Entertainment, Movie Reviews, Movies

Jennifer Jason Leigh Kurt Russell Quentin Tarantino Samuel L. Jackson The Hateful Eight Walton Goggins

Blu Tuesday: Pan and Dragon Blade

December 22, 2015 / Jason Zingale

Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on Facebook and Twitter with your friends.

“Pan”

WHAT: 12-year-old orphan Peter (Levi Miller) is kidnapped and taken to the magical world of Neverland to work as a slave for the pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman). When he manages to escape with the help of fellow captive James Hook (Garrett Hedlund), Peter embarks on an adventure to uncover the secret of his true identity.

WHY: Director Joe Wright has made some great films over the past decade, but “Pan” is definitely not one of them. In fact, it’s so different from a majority of his work that it’s hard to believe he’s even responsible for this piece of family-friendly garbage. Following in the footsteps of movies like “Dracula Untold” and “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “Pan” is yet another unnecessary origin story filled with an insufferable amount of foreshadowing and self-aware winking at the audience. The cast at least seems to be having fun playing in Wright’s imaginative world of flying pirate ships and exotic creatures (no one more so than a gothic, mustache-twirling Hugh Jackman), but the movie is all over place, including one truly bizarre sequence where Blackbeard and his crew sing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for no reason whatsoever. Wright deserves credit for taking such a terrible script and turning it into something visually interesting, but sadly, that’s about all “Pan” has to offer.

EXTRAS: In addition to an audio commentary by director Joe Wright, there’s a trio of featurettes that cover the casting of the title role, the character of Blackbeard and connecting the story to J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan.”

FINAL VERDICT: SKIP

“Dragon Blade”

WHAT: When corrupt Roman leader Tiberius (Adrien Brody) travels to China with his large army to seize control of the Silk Road trading route, peacekeeping warrior Huo An (Jackie Chan) and defected Roman general Lucius (John Cusack) must combine their forces to stop him.

WHY: Just when you thought John Cusack’s fall from grace couldn’t get any more embarrassing, the actor sells out completely by starring in this atrocious historical epic from director Daniel Lee. Though the movie features a few decent action sequences, they’re overshadowed by a terrible script that plays fast and loose with the real-life events that supposedly inspired the story, as well as some amateurish performances including one of the worst child actors ever recorded. Cusack and co-star Adrien Brody are either huge Jackie Chan fans or they really needed the money, because it’s difficult to imagine any other explanation for their involvement. Cusack has the look of someone just trying to earn his paycheck by keeping his head down and delivering his lines, but Brody takes a different approach, hamming it up as the mustache-twirling villain to the point that he’s actually entertaining in a so-bad-it’s-good kind of way. “Dragon Blade” is hardly the best worst movie of the year, but it’s certainly up there.

EXTRAS: There’s a behind-the-scenes look at making the movie, extended interviews with the cast and crew, and some music videos featuring Jackie Chan.

FINAL VERDICT: SKIP

Entertainment, Movies

Blu Tuesday new Blu-ray