He's No Ant-Man! "Downsizing"

Downsizing (2017)

Rated R

Starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis,

Directed by Alexander Payne

The Story:

Paul (Damon) is an occupational therapist who decides that they could have a better life if he and his wife (Wiig) were to undergo the new shrinking process that makes them roughly 5 inches tall so that humanity can lessen their detrimental impact on the earth. However, once you undergo the process, there is no going back...

Speaking of going back, if I could, I would go back and skip watching this.

Overlong... overly tedious... it was an interesting concept for a trailer, but loses its way in a long rambling 2+ hour narrative that literally does a whole lot of nothing.

A horribly wasted in casting Jason Sudeikis is in the movie for about 3 minutes and offers nothing more than a familiar face onscreen. Wiig as well is barely in the film, so any thoughts you had about this being an amusing dramedy, those dreams are shattered and gone early in the film.

Hong Chau is the feisty fireball that gives Paul a new purpose in his life to help the poor and sick with what medical training he has.

Waltz thankfully injects some much needed energy in the proceedings when he is around, but it's often a case of too little, too late.

So far for 2019, it looks like Damon is going to pull off a rare double-entry onto the Worst Films of the Year listing on Thanksgiving.

I'm sure he's too busy swimming in his mountains of cash to care.

:)

Criminal "Masterminds" Indeed!

Masterminds (2016)

Rated PG-13

Starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Jones

Directed by Jared Hess

The Story:

In 1997, David Ghantt (Galifianakis) pulled off one of the largest bank heists in American history when he robbed the Loomis Fargo armored car company of $17 million dollars. This is pretty much his story, and it's mostly all true.

Ghantt meets the lovely Kelly (Wiig) and he is so smitten with her that he would do anything. When Kelly leaves the company, Ghantt is depressed until she contacts him again about the possibility of robbing Loomis of all that money just sitting in the vault.

Ghantt agrees, and becomes the inside man that gets the money and passes it along to Kelly and Steve (Wilson), the brains behind the operation. They take the money, send David to Mexico with a few thousand dollars to lay low, and then plan to cut the guy loose while they keep the rest.

There are a few laugh out loud moments, but for the most part, this is a retelling of a true story that punches up some of the humorous aspects of what really happened, and pads the rest with creative story devices and characters to add meat to the story.

Sudeikis pumps some much needed fun and energy when he arrives as a hitman that is to eliminate Ghantt, but even that doesn't go right.

Nothing that reinvents the comedy genre, but it's harmless enough, and gets a lot of extra mileage from an enjoyable cast of characters.

Final Grade:  C+

It @#$&*ing Sucked... "Sausage Party"

Sausage Party (2016)

Rated R

Starring Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Bill Hader, Salma Hayek,

Directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon

The Story:

Anthropomorphic food get a wake up call when they realize that being chosen by humans is not the blessing they all believe it to be.

I held out for 15 minutes.

15 excruciatingly long, painfully unfunny minutes.

Then eject, send back to Netflix and move on to something, anything better.

Now if your idea of a side-splitting comedy is watching food say #@$#@#$ and want to #$@@#$@# each other, then enjoy this film.

As for me, I didn't find it *#&^ing funny.

:)

This kind of humor is a waste of a great vocal cast.

High school teenagers can, and probably have, written better.

On a positive note, it looked pretty good. Too bad the company opted not to pay all of the artists or give over half of them credit for their finished work.

Yes, I get that it's Certified Fresh and was even on some critics Top 10 lists.

There is always some critical darling that comes along that I don't like.

To be fair, like many critics, this too has the possibility of winding up on one of my End of the Year countdowns.

There is no doubt in my mind that this will wind up on my Turkey of the Year awards.

So far it would be # 1.

With a bullet.

It will be hard-pressed to knock it from this dreaded position.

Final Grade: F 

Deja Vu All Over Again... "Ghostbusters"

Ghostbusters (2016)

Rated PG-13

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth,

Directed by Paul Feig

The Story:

Ghosts have been sighted in Manhattan, and former paranormal believers Erin (Wiig) and Abby (McCarthy) find themselves back in each other's lives. They assemble a group of fellow "Ghostbusters" (McKinnon & Jones) and prepare to save New York from certain doom.

Well, if that sounds familiar, it should.

You've seen it before, and it was better.

However, that's the risk you run when you remake a beloved Hollywood classic.

Now, that's not to say that the original Ghostbusters movie was a cinematic masterpiece.

It was mostly a fun movie that took a science/supernatural story and injected some humor in it with a great cast that had chemistry and fun together.

So when the all-girl remake was announced, there apparently was a shrieking of fandom that what was happening was blasphemy, etc. etc.

That I don't get at all.

If you're going to put the movie on blast, wait until you see it to decide if it is good.

Or at least, wait until the trailer comes out, and then make it the most hated movie trailer in the history of the internet.

Anti-Ghostbuster fans 2...remake 0.

And really, let's be honest, the trailer(s) for Ghostbusters weren't that good.

There was little humor to be found, and it appeared that if anything funny was going to happen, it would be from McKinnon or Jones, not the main leads Wiig and McCarthy.

Which is strange.

Now having seen the movie, the trailer was right, this movie wasn't very funny.

It's like they tried too hard...or not hard enough... I still can't put my finger on it.

There were some things they did right, I absolutely loved all of the new technology McKinnon brought to the team. That was inventive and enjoyable.

However nearly all of the laughs in the film belonged to...

Chris Hemsworth.

Yep, it appeared that if the Ghostbusters movie was going to take a few shots at the men that were attacking the film prior to release, they were going to do it in film with a few pieces of dialogue peppered here and there, and then taking Hemsworth and letting him play the "ditzy blonde" stereotypical role.

Except he NAILED that role and is the most enjoyable part of the film.

His choice of playing sax or listening to sax scene is comedy gold!

So at the end of the day, it's not a horrible remake and is worth a viewing, but I don't see this one having the legs to become a celebrated treasure like the original has become.

Final Grade: C+

Houston, We Have Another Problem... "The Martian"

The Martian (2015)

Rated PG-13

Starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Michael Pena, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Donald Glover,

Directed by Ridley Scott

The Story:

During the latest manned mission to Mars, a violent storm forces an early evacuation by the crew. During the storm, Astronaut Mark Watney (Damon) is struck by debris and assumed dead when the captain (Chastain) is unable to locate him. They leave the planet and head home to Earth. However, Mark's death is slightly exaggerated and he recovers and finds himself alone on Mars. He must find a way to survive, make contact with NASA, and wait and hope for his eventual rescue with the next planned return to Mars in a few years!

The fun part about coming to review these movies so late in the game is that much of the furor has died down. "Greatest movie ever!" "It sucked!" All those varying opinions are out there, and I just brush them aside and figure out if I liked the movie or not. 

And I quite enjoyed it!

I will mention that this one is nearly 2 1/2 hours long, but it's one where it doesn't feel like it, so that's always a plus.

If you're going for distance, make that time spent on the movie an enjoyable one.

Ridley Scott directs a stellar (no pun intended) cast who all provide outstanding support to Damon.

Damon, however, does the bulk of the heavy lifting as he has to be the center of the movie, acting and reacting to dire situations as they arise during his stay on Mars.

That said, though this is essentially a drama, there is enough humor and levity both on Earth and Mars, that you keep smiling and laughing even as you're on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next and will they get to him in time.

Because quite frankly, if they don't rescue Watley, you're going to feel angry and upset when the film is over.

But, at least you know they tried.

It's quite the enjoyable ride, and if you haven't seen it yet, you're likely in for a great experience when you get around to watching it.

Or, you'll hate it.

:)

Final Grade:  B+

Set Those DVRs..."Welcome To Me"

Welcome to Me (2015)

Rated R

Starring Kristen Wiig, Linda Cardellini, Joan Cusack, James Marsden, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Robbins,

Directed by Shira Piven

The Story:

Alice Klieg (Wiig) has issues. When she ends up winning the lottery, she decides to take her winnings to a television station that makes infomercials and create her own talk show. The show is a trainwreck, yet begins to draw an audience. As her new form of therapy, Alice is about to bare her soul to the world and maybe learn a few things about herself in the process.

I don't know, this is one of those movies that is impossible to describe accurately.

A dramedy, to be sure, Alice suffers from borderline personality disorder.  Apparently this is a real thing that a lot of people suffer from, and reading some reviews around the internet, apparently Wiig nails the disorder perfectly and did indeed provide some therapeutic relief for many people who were able to go, "that...that's me!"

The supporting cast, and it is a great one, do just that, they support Wiig fully. While at first the station is eager to get their hands on the money, most of the workers there end up caring a great deal about Alice as her life unspools before them.

Get ready for a quirky experience.

Available to stream on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: C+

One Of Last Year's Best..."How To Train Your Dragon 2"

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

Rated PG for violence and dragons!

Starring Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Djimon Honsou

Directed by Dean DeBlois

The Story:

It's been several years since we last met the Vikings of Berk on the big screen, and as the film opens, it turns out they have adjusted to life quite well being dragon-riders.  Stoik (Butler) has designs on Hiccup (Baruchel) taking over as Chieftan of Berk, but Hiccup is too busy trying to find his way in the world and deciding what he really wants to be.  He's having too much fun exploring the world with Toothless and discovering all of the new lands.  It's on one of these adventures when he discovers two very important things:  there is an evil army collecting dragons in preparation for war; there is a mysterious dragon-rider who has ties to Berk and could help Hiccup unlock more dragon secrets than he ever imagined.

Dreamworks Animation has done it again.

If it sounds familiar, that means you read this review when I saw it in theaters last year.

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and it found its way under the tree.

That should come as no shock to anyone either, Dreamworks has been on a roll that the other studios haven't been able to match.

At least at our house, if not the box office.

I gave the nod to the original for my Top 10 of 2014 simply because I hadn't seen it before, so it was eligible.

Take it off the table, and Part 2 easily makes the Top 10 films of last year.

It's simply breathtakingly gorgeous, and the scope of the film grew tremendously since the first part.  Time has passed, the characters have aged and grown.

There will be a shift in the dynamics of the film by the time the credits roll.

Whether that's good... we'll find out in Part 3!

Final Grade: A

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: We own it, and are looking forward, sadly, to the final installment.

If Everyone Has Seen It, Is It Still "The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty" ?

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Rated PG-13 for language

Starring Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Sean Penn

Directed by Ben Stiller

The Story:

Walter Mitty (Stiller) works for Life Magazine. Life has been bought out and Ted Hendricks (Scott) comes to Life to oversee the transfer from print to digital. When famed photographer Sean O'Connell sends Mitty the negative that is to be the cover of the final issue of Life, he can't find it!  Mitty's previous daydreams of adventure turn real as he goes on a global quest to track down O'Connell to find out why he didn't send the actual negative.

The hook for "Walter Mitty" comes in his daydreams to escape reality.

Perhaps surprisingly, I actually didn't care too much for the movie when Mitty kept having his daydreams.

It is when he actually undertook the task of tracking down O'Connell that the movie began to fully win me over.  Granted, he still had a few daydreams, but they were much shorter, and much less far-fetched than those that had come earlier.

At that point, Mitty became the Everyman that audiences root for to succeed.  We become invested in his quest to track down the missing negative.

Of course, like the rest of the audience, odds are you will figure out where the picture really is, but that isn't the mystery so much as what is on the picture.

What could convey to the audience what could be one of the most important images in Life's storied history?

Needless to say, they nailed it.

It's a beautiful image that might even bring a tear to your eye as you realize that no matter how great technology has become, we are quickly losing so much of our historic past at an alarming rate.

Pretty profound for a comedy.

I have no comparison with the original as to how much or how little is made from the previous movie or story upon which it is based.

All I do know, is I'm glad I got to share in Walter Mitty's Life, no matter how briefly it was.

Final Grade: B

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I'm not rushing out to buy it, but I wouldn't mind watching it again.