Batman and Superman together at last. It’s the giant of the week and a clear signal that comic book movies are going to keep coming. There’s plenty of adult fare too this week about high-tech war, jazz, mandatory mating and a most inspiring piece of music.
Here’s the list:
Batman v Superman: 2 ½ stars
Eye in the Sky: 4
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2: 3 stars
Born to be Blue: 3
Following the Ninth (Beethoven’s Symphony): 3 ½
Knight of Cups: 2 ½
The Lobster: 3
BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE: You want spectacle? You get lots of it here. As much as the huge budget ($250 million according to reports) could buy and some of it created in computers here in Vancouver. Now if only there was a more engaging story. Then we’d have something. This one feel s like it was ordered by the front office to get DC back into the comic-book movie game and compete with Marvel. I can imagine the bosses saying the fans will relish the mano a mano fight between the two iconic characters. Add in Wonder Woman and brief glimpses of three other characters and you’re setting up a series. Two Justice League films are already in the works.
This one however is grim and ponderous. It never lightens up through 2 ½ hours and gets tiring. Batman (Ben Affleck) is more and more driven by revenge and Superman (Henry Cavill), as mild-mannered and do-gooder reporter Clark Kent, tries to expose him. The editor won’t have any of it but Lois Lane (Amy Adams) gets tangled up as she tries to investigate Lex Luthor (played crazy-manic but too young by Jesse Eisenberg). The story stumbles clumsily from a terrorism plot to fun with kryptonite and then a giant monster. Buildings are destroyed. The big fight is intense. What’s missing is fun. Warner Brothers and director Zack Snyder haven’t learned from Marvel’s recent movies that humor is a great asset. There’s only one mild chuckle in this one. (Playing everywhere including The Park, 5th Avenue, Dunbar, Gateway and Scotiabank) 2 ½ out of 5
EYE IN THE SKY: Here’s the latest, and possibly best, of the films about drone warfare. We’ve had two documentaries and a drama recently, all harshly disapproving, and one (London Has Fallen) which tried to have it both ways. Gavin Hood’s film takes a smarter look at the subject through a fictional incident that seems all too real.
Helen Mirren plays a British colonel tracking terrorists in Kenya. (Alan Rickman is part of it too, in one of his last films). They spot two people being fitted for a suicide bombing mission. A drone operator (Aaron Paul) at a computer screen in the US is given orders to take them out but then a young girl wanders into the picture. She sets up a table to sell bread. One girl versus dozens of potential victims? The debate about ethics and morality reaches the highest levels. I haven’t seen it but a friend who reviews for a CBC site tells me it’s “a nail-biting British thriller… Possibly the best film of the last couple of months, Eye is totally engrossing, exciting and, for those who know little about drone warfare, you’ll come out of the theatre knowledgeable and shocked.” He adds this: “Tense, taut, timely and terrific!” and gives it a 3 ½ rating (which would be 4 out of 5 stars in my system). (5th Avenue and a few suburban theatres)
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2: It’s been 14 years since the original film soared to be what the studio calls “the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time.” I didn’t know though that we wanted a sequel. Now I can see why. This film gives us pretty well the same stuff over again. All of the quirky Portokalos family is back. The jokes are the same. Ethnic stereotypes abound. Gus has two new uses for Windex and Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin) again spouts her observations and advice.
Toula (Nia Vardalos) and Ian (John Corbett), who got married last time, now have a teenage daughter ready to leave the nest. She’s deciding on what college to attend. That family tension is new. Bigger though is the revelation that for want of a signature Toula’s parents were technically never married. That has to be corrected and the clan gets boisterous planning a wedding. They indulge in some acute talk about the institution of marriage and while a bit of it is racy there’s nothing edgy here. The film is amusing and safe. (5th Avenue, Gateway, International Village and many suburban theatres) 3 out of 5
BORN TO BE BLUE: Ethan Hawke does a commendable job evoking the persona and fears of Chet Baker, the west coast jazz trumpeter. He also simulates his singing style on hits like My Funny Valentine and the title song. However the film is like every jazz junkie movie I’ve ever seen. It’s too familiar a story.
Baker had good looks and a smooth musical approach and almost got to star in an autobiographical movie. This film imagines it was actually in production when his self-made misfortune caught up with him. He was a heroin user (for confidence, he says) and one night thugs sent by his dealer beat him up. That knocked out his front teeth and made his trumpet playing a trial. We see his other struggles with methadone, police arrests, trying for a comeback and seeking the respect of his peers. Dizzy Gillespie was friendly but Miles Davis carped he wasn’t ready for Birdland. It’s an impression of his life during the 1950s and 60s, not a full biography. Hawke charms and jolts in his performance. The writer-director, Robert Budreau, is a Canadian and filmed it in Sudbury, Ontario. Vancouver’s Callum Keith Rennie, who plays a friend and record producer, will attend Friday night for a Q&A. (VanCity Theatre) 3 out of 5
FOLLOWING THE NINTH: Bearing the subtitle “In the Footsteps of Beethoven's Final Symphony” this a documentary that inspires and encourages. Perfect for Easter, I’d say.
In 1989, protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square played its Ode to Joy section over loudspeakers until the army moved them out. In Chile, women sang it outside Pinochet’s prisons. Leonard Bernstein conducted it in Berlin when the wall came down. Most remarkably, there’s something of a cult around it in Japan where there’s an annual performance by upwards of 5,000 voices. The film uses archival clips and recollections from participants to tap into the unique attraction this one piece of music has for so many people. Oddly there’s no mention that it’s the anthem of the European Union and I wish there was more on Beethoven’s original work in creating it. Still, it is a vibrant ode to a transcendent piece of music. (VanCity Theatre. Director Kerry Candaele will attend for a Q&A Friday evening) 3 ½ out of 5
KNIGHT OF CUPS: The difficulty with personal essays like this, it’s often hard to decipher exactly what the filmmaker has floating around there in his mind. Terrence Malick doesn’t make much of an effort to explain either. You simply have to soak it up and make of it what you can. It’s an interesting excursion he takes us on but a bit like sitting through a friend’s holiday photos. Except, here their meaning is elusive at best.
Christian Bale plays a mopey Hollywood screenwriter, apparently disenchanted with the parties and sights of Los Angeles and Las Vegas but on a constant tour through many of them. “Where did I go wrong?” he asks. I don’t see that he finds an answer and the script doesn’t help. There’s very little dialogue. Time and again characters walk away before anything is established. He recalls life with six women (including Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman and Freida Pinto) but we learn only tidbits. Scenes cut short before they reveal much. He’s got a demanding father (Brian Dennehy) and a difficult brother (Wes Bentley) and memories of another brother who died early. That may be autobiographical. There’s a steady flow of beautiful images but only fragments of talk, including voiceovers by Ben Kingsley, to elucidate. You have to do that. (International Village) 2 ½ out of 5
THE LOBSTER: Why should teenagers get all the movies set in a dystopian future? Here’s one for adults sending a big satiric blast at our modern protocols around mating. I didn’t know that needed to be done. The Greek enthusiast of absurdity, Yorgos Lanthimos, did know apparently and made it his first film in English. In his vision of the future, people are required to find a mate. If they don’t, they’ll be turned into animals. I don’t follow the allegory, but appreciate the funny result.
Colin Farrell plays a widower who rebels against the rules, escapes to the woods to join other rebels, led by Léa Seydoux, but finds her rules just as disagreeable. The “loners” in her colony aren’t allowed any romantic involvement at all. They risk disfigurement as a punishment. Farrell dares to court a “short-sighted woman” (Rachel Weisz) and they plan to escape. Things get even weirder. John C. Reilly, Ben Whishaw and Ashley Jensen are among the other actors in this wild and bizarre spoof of what, I’m not quite sure. Fun, though. (International Village) 3 out of 5