Hope Springs

Hope Springs was directed by David Frankel and stars Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carrell.

Kay and Arnold Soames (Streep and Jones) have been married for thirty-one years.  They no longer sleep in the same room, haven't had sex in close to five years, barely talk, and are not emotionally available to one another.  Apparently this means that the marriage is in need of dire help.  Kay takes the initiative to sign her and her hubby up for a marriage counseling trip to Maine to see Dr. Bernie Feld (Carrell), since he wrote a book on marriage and must be an expert.  Arnold is against the counseling from the start, however he goes anyways, but is pretty cranky the entire time.  Dr. Feld seeks to delve into these two characters' relationship and try and restore intimacy to a marriage that has become dormant over the years.

This goes without saying, but I love Meryl Streep.  I have mentioned this multiple times on this blog and if you know me personally, chances are that I have told you this to your face.  She is incredibly talented and can literally play any role.  She looks different in every film and sometimes even gets fancy and dons an authentic foreign accent, all while transforming herself into another character.   I feel like she is at her best playing real people, such as Julia Child in Julie & Julia and Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.  However, she is good in Hope Springs, as well.  So what if it's not a role worthy of Oscar recognition.  Also, she has good chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones and it is evident that she loves this man, even after years of becoming emotionally distant and lacking intimacy.  I got to admit I was disappointed when Jeff Bridges decided not to play the male lead.  He and Streep would have been an awesome combination.  However, Jones took over the role perfectly fine, and has some of the funniest lines in the film.  Mostly mined from the character's cynical personality.  

The film also is further proof that Steve Carrell is a talented actor.  If you are expecting Steve Carrell to be hilariously funny like he was on The Office or in several of his films, then go watch one of those.  In Hope Springs all of his dialogue is spoken from the same chair in the therapist's office and hardly any of it is meant to be funny.  He had a simple role, consisting of forcing Streep and Jones' characters to open up to him and each other about the state of their marriage.  Carrell may be done with television for a while, but he has a quite a career in movies, and I don't see him getting typecast like Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler in the same dumb comedies.  

Also, the whole tone of the film was successfully executed and dealt with important topics.  The movie is primarily a drama, with some funny lines and scenes (especially during the credits...so stay and watch them...all of them).  It shows the importance of intimacy in marriage and being open to one another and telling your husband/wife your feelings.  The film showed some of the setbacks that the couple faced as they were trying to do the exercises that Dr. Feld suggested they do to get physically closer to one another.  This adds to the realism in the film, since no marriage is fixed instantly.  Had there been no setbacks, the film would have gotten cheesy and stupid and I would not have been amused by the price of the ticket I bought.  

Just so no one is surprised their is talk about sexuality in this film.  But the characters are married...and having problems in that department, so stop being so sensitive.  And some of it is actually quite funny.

Finally, this movie is way better than Marley & Me.  David Frankel also directed that, and I was absolutely not a fan of it.  He also directed The Devil Wears Prada, which I don't really remember, but apparently Meryl Streep was wonderful in it.   

3 stars out 4.  If you like the cast or films about restoring marriages, or just want to see Steve Carell sit in a chair, then by all means see it in theaters, or rent it.  I understand movies are quite expensive.  

-Joseph Sbrilli 

The Campaign

It's good to see Will Ferrell back in a solid comedy. Discounting last years disappointing "Casa De Mi Padre" Ferrell hasn't been in a solid comedy film since "The Other Guys." But while "The Campaign" isn't his best work, it is a solid film with entertaining leads and constant laughs.

Democratic incumbent Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) has run unopposed in the 14th district of North Carolina four times. He loves America, he loves freedom, and he loves Jesus, but he isn't sure why. He just knows the people love it when he says that. But when he is caught leaving a dirty phone message for his mistress on a constituents answering machine, the higher ups decide to do something about it. The higher ups are the Motch brothers (Dan Ackroyd, John Lithgow), loosely based on the Koch brothers, who need a senator who will vote to allow Chinese factories on U.S. soil. They try to find someone less reckless then Brady. They settle on  republican Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) a small town business owner and son to the Huggins estate. A family that goes so far back they pay their Asian maid to talk like a black woman because it reminds them of the "good old days." Marty at first looks like he has no chance of winning, but with a ruthless Motch funded campaign manager (Dylan McDermott) both Brady and Huggins resort to dirty tricks to undermine one another in the race to get elected.

It is hard to review comedies because no one likes to read the jokes poorly remembered by me, so I am sorry if this one is a little bit short. Ferrell is hilarious. He is back into a character that immediately is reminiscent of Anchorman and should prepare him for that role again. He has beautiful hair, and acts very much like a douchey democratic politician should (looking at you former senator Edwards). He will do anything, up to and including sleeping with his opponents wife and running an ad of their sex tape.

Marty Huggins is the exact opposite. He's short and adorable. He owns two pugs and is very effeminate and very Christian at the same time. His campaign manager spends most of his time making Marty tougher. Replacing his house items with lots of carved wood, stuffed dead animals, and replacing his pugs with a lab and a retriever, the two most American dogs out there.

As I said, the movie is hilarious, with almost constant laughs, mostly coming from our two very capable leads. I wouldn't say there's very many quotable parts, just that every line of dialogue can be made good by a great actor. What detracts from the film, or holds it back is the lack of substance. This film is more parody than satire. The candidates use buzzwords to charge their audience like calling the other one a communist or invoking Jesus. Deeper issues are rarely discussed. There are some subtle jabs, like when Brady hands Huggins some Chick-Fil-A coupons, but on the whole it doesn't get very deep.

Does it matter? No, because it is still funny. Even if they both act like Republican candidates. I also died when Ferrell punches both a baby and the dog from "The Artist". Good, solid R-rated fun, that is funny for all ages in an audience.

3 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

Bourne Legacy

The original Bourne trilogy is, far and away, the best spy movies I have ever seen. Even if he's really only spying for himself. Matt Damon threw himself into the role as Jason Bourne. And moviegoers were treated to some fantastic directing by Paul Greengrass. But we all know Hollywood loves to make money, so they decided to continue the Bourne series even though both Greengrass and Damon decided to opt out. It was a bad move.

Like the poster says, there never was just one. Which we knew from the first movies because Jason Bourne was set upon by multiple highly trained assassin bad guys. If you remember correctly, Bourne was part of a secret government program called Treadstone, or Blackbriar. I forget which because they throw around these names like a great white shark throws around a seal (Shark Week baby). Well, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is part of another program whose name I didn't catch. Except in his program, each operative is given pills that boost their strength and mental capacity. Trying to engineer Captain America. But in the last film, that Pamela Landsbury woman decided to blow the lid on the whole program because she felt bad for Bourne or something. I should really rewatch those.

Well she blew the lid on Jeremy Renner's program somehow, and the government obviously only knows one way to cover it up so nobody talks about it: by killing everyone. Even civilians. Which is ridiculous. They went after Bourne because they thought he was going rogue. They go after Aaron Cross because they'd rather kill a multi-million dollar super soldier then let CBS News know he exists. Obviously, because he is the main character, Aaron is the only one in his program who escapes certain death.

So he's going to find and kill the people responsible for trying to find and kill him right? WRONG. In the weirdest plot line ever, Aaron rescues a scientist woman, whom he shares no intimacy with even though THERE'S SO MUCH SEXUAL TENSION, in order to find a way to get his superhero pills back. BUT WAIT, he only needs one pill because they injected him with a virus that made the physical pill obsolete. This is literally the plot line right here: Aaron needs the virus form of the new pill because without it, he is literally mentally challenged. They need to get to the Philippines before Aaron gets too stupid to function anymore. A very odd way to run a supersoldier program.

And that's basically the movie. Which is just one big setup for the next Bourne film. Oh and the trailer lied, remember that part that says, "It's Treadstone without the inconsistencies."? That's not referencing Aaron Cross. It's referencing a different program called Larx-3 where they bred the empathy out of their super soldiers. Apparently the government has like 20 of these programs. Aaron isn't that special. Bourne was special, Aaron just has superhuman pills.

So we have a very confusing plot, a pretty bad lead female, a end bad guy fight which is entirely underwhelming and the movie ends with no closure whatsoever. When compared to the original films, it doesn't stack up at all. There is no fair comparison. Jeremy Renner is a great lead, and I hope to god he gets to team up with Matt Damon in the next film, but if they stay the course on this one, Bourne's legacy will be a pile of crap.

1.5 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

Total Recall

I always get pumped for science fiction movies. Why? Who knows. Most of them are pretty bad. There's something about the future that will always fascinate us. How will we live? How will we interact? What new, exciting ways can we come up with to kill someone? Can we remake a movie from the 90's that was widely considered pretty great and hope that it stands on par? Not in this case, but that doesn't mean that Total Recall didn't do some things right.

Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) is an average, if distinctly better looking, regular dude. He lives in Australia, also known as the colony. After some crazy war, the only two places on Earth that are inhabitable are the United Kingdom, known as the United British Federation, and Australia, the colony. Everyone who lives in the colony is your working class blue collar poor people that has surprisingly Asian tastes. They all basically work for the UBF. The only means of transport between the two places is a giant train that goes through the center of the Earth between the two every day, which you have to admit is pretty dang cool.

Well, Quaid is pretty unsatisfied with life, even though his wife is a super hot Kate Beckinsale. He decides to go to Rekall, a place that can put imaginary memories inside of your head so it feels like you lived as a spy or a supermodel or something else cool. Quaid goes and right as he's being plugged in, the machine freaks out and cops break in and kill everyone. And then Quaid kills all of the cops. Now he's running around the colony and UBF trying to figure out if what he is experiencing is real or fake while at the same time uncovering a conspiracy and stopping the war.

I don't want to ruin too much more but its pretty obvious from the get-go that he is not suffering from recall memories at all. Sorry to burst that bubble but the movie doesn't really care about that. It cares about action sequences.

And boy, does it have action sequences. Car chases, lots and lots of bullets, elevator chases, and a final badguy vs. hero showdown. It's all pretty fun.

Oh and BRYAN CRANSTON IS THE BAD GUY. And it's amazing. Non Breaking Bad fans are really missing out on this man right now. But seeing him on the big screen growling and kicking ass just makes me want more of him all the time.

The problem with Total Recall is its predecessor. It just doesn't compare. It's not groundbreaking, it has a few cool ideas, but at its core it is just a slightly above average sci-fi big budget action flick. And that is fine, everyone should stop complaining about it because it is way better than the Bourne movie.

2.5 out of 4 stars

P.S. Where's the accents? Only Kate Beckinsale really uses hers and it's based in Britain. Colin Farrell is literally Irish. Use the accents, would have been way cooler.

Moonrise Kingdom

How do you review a movie created by Wes Anderson? I ran into this problem a couple years back after seeing The Fantastic Mr. Fox. How can I talk about a film that reaches astounding levels of emotional depth and directorial mastery while at the same time employing quirks and strange oddities that have no place in a sane movie? It is films like this that let me know I will never be a true "critic", because there is just a point in these sorts of movies that I reach where my mind screams out, "I just don't get it. And I probably never will."

Moonrise Kingdom is a love story. It's a coming of an age story. It's a story of reconciliation. Of marraige. Of suicide. Of becoming a man. With so many characters, it can't just be one tale of one or two people. Famous actors and actresses like Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Jason Schwartzman, and Frances McDormand sit above a bevy of budding child actors and act as backdrops for the love story between young Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) and Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward). Sam is a lonely orphan, disliked by literally everyone, especially his foster home parents and his khaki scout co-troopers whom he is stuck with on the small New England island of New Penzance. But despite being ridiculed by everyone, he is surprisingly smart, confident, and survival savvy. Suzy lives on New Penzance with her parents and three brothers. She is also lonely and very perturbed when she discovers her adulterous mom has a book entitled "Coping with a Troubled Child." She and Sam started as pen pals after meeting at a church play. They decide to run away together and live by themselves forever on the island. This of course leads to various adults of the island, the sheriff (Willis), Suzy's parents (Murray and McDormand), and the khaki scout leader and his troops (Norton) going on an island wide manhunt to find them.

That is the ultimate story, Suzy and Sam finding solace in each other while the world spins around them. Seeking to get away from their broken relationships to build a new one. Honest to God, it's pretty cute. Sam's self assuredness with the things he knows and the things he doesn't is the perfect foil to Suzy's tag along but strong willed character. And the fact that Sam smokes a pipe while Suzy reads to him is fantastic.

But like any Wes Anderson film, Moonrise Kingdom is weird. All of his movies are weird. They're very quirky in ways that would put a contemporary audience in an off mood. And that is why I say that I will never get it. Because don't get me wrong, Moonrise Kingdom is a film school nerd's wet dream. It's a critics wet dream, and I guarantee one or two oscar nominations for writing and cinematography at the very least. But it's just a little too indie.

The film is wonderfully shot and the dialogue is mmm mmm delicious. I have two favorite parts, one when Sam tells Suzy, "I love you, but you have no idea what you are talking about." And when McDormand tells Murray that they have to stay together because they are all their kids have. Murray replies, "That's not enough." I gasped. It was so good. You have to see it to feel the power in such subtle scenes.

And Wes Anderson is the king of subtle performances. And I believe he draws out the best of them in here. So, Moonrise Kingdom is beautiful, full of wonderful writing and has terrific actors who never steal the show from one another. Except maybe Bill Murray because he is always hilarious. But the film is just a little weird for a guy like me. It's hard to chew on. And I believe it is about a half hour too long, dragging on with the introduction of even more characters. But it is by and far my favorite Wes Anderson movie (I've only seen a few though.) Any student of film will adore this movie but non fans of the indie circuit might not be able to access it very easily.

3 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell