When they announced that they were going to make Man of Steel, the expectations for a second attempt at a redux were high. Superman Returns was a critical flop and still gets dragged through the mud (although I didn’t mind it) so director Zack Snyder had the pressure of directing something that was better. He didn’t have to do much. All he had to do was reach into his bag of cinematic tricks and decorate the screen with a decent story and his trademark Photoshop filter visuals. The result was a cinematic spectacle that takes a treasured superhero icon and grounds it into the Earth with humanity just as much as it let’s it bullet through the sky at exponential mach speed.

Next to Star Trek Into Darkness, Man of Steel was at the top of my list of expected greatness of the summer blockbusters — this was solely based on the watered down Terrence Malick-esque trailers and the emphasis of Kal-el’s origin story. There was a small part of me that thought Snyder was going to Snyder-fy it, but based on the end result, you can tell that producer Christopher Nolan pulled the reins on Zacky. That being said, the movie delivered the goods.

The movie works as a quasi-prequel. In the beginning we see the planet of Krypton in peril. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) are trying to save their newborn baby, Kal-El, from their doomed planet — which is being raped and pillaged by a power hungry General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his Kryptonian gangsters. Before the planet explodes Deathstar style, Jor-El and Lara manage to launch their son to Earth. Shortly after, Zod *SPOILER ALERT* jacks up Jor-El. As punishment for being such a bad boy, the Krypton council of important people launch him and his homies out into exile. Shortly after, Krypton just explodes. Kal-El ends up on Earth to be raised on a farm as a human with his human parents, Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha (Diane Lane) Kent, while Zod and his band of misfits eventually escape their pod of exile to head to Earth to go find Kal-El because it turns out that his Krypton daddy packed the key to re-building Krypton’s existence when they launched him to Earth.

During a discussion of the movie, I was surprised to find out that not many of my fellow movie writers enjoyed it. Naturally, I thought that people would share my opinion because I AM ALWAYS RIGHT…but because I am not a total asshole, I decided to listen to what people had to say.

One movie writer said the movie was too sad and emo. She said that Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El (Henry Cavill) had no chemistry with Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and essentially just a pretty face for the movie. I marinated for a moment on this criticism and understood what she meant.

The movie is very emo. As Clark Kent gets older, he realizes more and more that he is different — and not in a “hair growing in weird places” kind of way. He is different in a “I am super strong for some odd reason” kind of way. He’s rescuing kids from busses and saving men from burning oil rigs. The result is him becoming a reluctant hero. Mirroring this “I don’t want to be different” theme from X-Men is something, that to my knowledge, we have never seen in a Superman movie or TV show. He has always embraced his power and never tried to run away from it. Throughout the movie he wanders about the country with his chiseled abs and scruffy beard. He’s mopey. And for once we feel sorry for him. One moment in the movie that not only tugs at your heartstrings but rips them out and strums a sad song on it. It’s during a flashback when his father finally outs him out of the alien closet. Then, the young Clark looks up at Papa Kent and says, “Can’t I just keep pretending to be your son?” To which Papa Kent responds, “You are my son.” Even as I type this, it’s taking everything in my power not to feel that emotion people like to call “empathy.” Thus, he carries this burden with him all his life because it is so difficult to be a really attractive dude with superpowers.

Cavill is the perfect choice to play the man with the “S” on his chest. Not because he’s easy on the eyes, but because there’s an element of naiveté to him. Besides some TV and movies, he’s green to the scene. He has the right amount of hair and has a twinkle in his vacant eyes to be the perfect alien on Earth. As for his chemistry with Amy Adams — they did what they could with that. There wasn’t really that much strength in that romance because they were too busy trying to make Lois less of an annoying Girl Friday of Superman movies past and more of a Christiane Amanpour. They succeeded, but it’s too bad that the Lois and Clark in Man of Steel developed a romance as a responsibility rather than something the audience can invest in.

The thing that was in favor of Cavill was the cast that surrounded him. They made him look really good — especially Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. They couldn’t have casted a better Mr. and Mrs. Kent. If I were white and lived on a farm, I would want them to be my parents. Russell Crowe makes a desirable impression as his “father beyond the grave” and it mixes in the appropriate Hamlet appeal. And then there’s Michael Shannon at his screamiest. Shannon’s Zod was detestable, evil, and he certainly left some teeth marks in that role. There was no need for him to say “Kneel before Zod!” because he’d make you do it by just glaring at you. Cavill does end accomplishing a certain level of charm that Christopher Reeve injected into the character in the past Superman movies — it’s not replicated — but it’s there.

After all the dust settled from the apocalyptic-worthy destruction of Metropolis in a hefty (and a tad bit too long) fight scene in the end, one thing is for certain about Man of Steel: it gave soul to the franchise. It also slathered it with a heavy coat of CG effects…and for a summer blockbuster, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Man of Steel opens in theaters today.

The post Many People Think ‘Man of Steel’ is Not So Super…I’m Not One of Them appeared first on the finer dandy.

When Academy Award winner Geoffrey Fletcher writes another screenplay AND chooses to direct it, you would think that it would be cinematic gold, right? Well, let’s not jump to any conclusions.

The Precious screenwriter penned Violet & Daisy, a story about two bubble-gum poppin’ teen gals (Alexis Bledel and Saoirse Ronan) who work as assassins. When they are assigned to off a lonely man who has made their boss mad (James Gandolfini), things don’t go exactly as planned.

When an Oscar winner makes a movie, writing or otherwise, expectations are high. The moment they snagged that Academy Award, the bar has been set. It’s unfortunate when their follow-up project serve up a whole lot of boring — and Violet & Daisy does just that.

Although the concept is riveting, the actions throughout the entire movie don’t really amount to anything but a flimsy story with a reason to juxtapose good girls with guns. If I dig deep enough, I know I could find a thought provoking story in the movie, but none of what was going on made me want to do that. It was like watching a distant cousin of Sucker Punch.

Bledel and Ronan are sweet-faced girls and to see them firing guns is cute for 30 seconds. After that, there is nothing clever or riveting about it. What makes it even more uninteresting is why they need to kill Ganolfini’s character. They want the money so that they can buy dresses from a pop star’s fashion collection. Yes, I understand that they are teenage girls and they don’t know any better, but geez — even Hit Girl from Kick Ass had something of depth to fight for. Giving the gals something to kill for would have injected some soul into the movie.

For the most part, the movie doesn’t even attempt to make an emotional connection to the audience — this goes mostly for Bledel. There is a tepid glow that surrounds the performance and father-daughter connection between Gandolfini and Ronan, but not enough to redeem this movie which really seemed like a self-serving project for Fletcher. And why shouldn’t it be self-serving? He won an Oscar. He deserves something where he has total creative control. But now that he’s gotten it out of his system, he can write something that we can actually care about.

Violet & Daisy opens in theaters today.

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This week, I decided to talk for half an hour about the Will Smith/Jaden Smith sci-fi vehicle, After Earth instead of write about it. Over half of what I say probably doesn’t make any sense, but one thing is for certain: I was not a fan of this movie. I make that very clear. There is one other thing that is clear in this podcast: the song, “Let’s Hear it for the Boy” makes me happy.

“After Earth” Movie Review Accompanied by Some Deniece Williams

After Earth opens in theaters today.

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Let’s face it. When the end of the world comes the only thing that will survive are cockroaches, Cher, Twinkies, and the Fast and Furious franchise. At this point in the game, do the movies even need a plot? There isn’t a need to put reason into amazing high octane, gear shifting, car commercial malarky — but they decided to give a plot to Fast and Furious 6 any way.

Fresh off their multi-million dollar heist, Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian’s (Paul Walker) bromance is still thriving with no homosexual undertones whatsoever. Brian has a new baby boy with Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and everything is hunky dory — until Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) comes in to drop a metaphorical bomb that will shake Dom’s world: LETTY IS ALIVE! (Letty played by Michelle Rodriguez, who died in the first F&F…or was it the second one?). Turns out she’s been keeping company with Shaw (Luke Evans), a ruthless criminal mastermind in London that Hobbs is after. Hobbs needs Dom to help him get Shaw and Letty is the bait. Dom bites. He wrangles the gang to help out: the wisecracking Roman (Tyrese Gibson), the techie Tej, (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges), and the lovebirds Han (Sung Kang) & Gisele (Gal Gadot). Where are those other two who can’t speak English? I don’t know. I don’t care. As soon as they reunite, they join forces with Hobbs and his new partner Riley (Gina Carano…don’t worry, she does her fair share of mix martial arts stuff) and the craziness begins.

Oh lord. Where should I begin? The entire movie is just one big blur of bonkers ridculousness. Directed by F&F auteur Justin Lin, the movie is so outrageous and WTF-worthy that you just have no choice but to sit back and enjoy the ride — and that is the best thing about the Fast & Furious franchise. It is so aware of what it is that the audience accepts it. It’s “suspension of disbelief” at its greatest.

Fast & Furious 6 has all the elements needed: super duper cool fast cars, well-crafted chase scenes, numerous shots of people’s hands shifting gears, fast camera cuts, fist fights, girl fights (Rodriguez vs. Carano!), gun fights, super sexy girls with super sexy accents, snappy one-liners, and best of all, the dueling bald heads of Vin Diesel and The Rock. All of this is injected with nitrous to up the ante of action movie absurdity that will have the entire audience hootin’ and hollerin’.

However, if the movie was solely based on the presence of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, it would be as interesting as seeing a bag of hair try to drive a Fiero. Trying to endure them on screen is a daunting task. Vin Diesel’s mumbling is intolerable. It seems like his tongue has grown a couple sizes since the last movie. And it’s a good thing that Paul Walker is pretty because his version of acting is the equivalent of Keanu acting on public access on a bad day. Even his fight scenes lacked personality. Watching a stiff marionette fighting a teddy bear is more exciting. The thing that makes them look good is everything around them: the fast cars, the too-good-to-be-true high falutin’ action, the charisma of Tyrese and Ludacris, and the strong screen presence of The Rock. All of that makes the entire movie worthwhile.

I found myself hollering “WHAT THE HELL?!” throughout the whole entire movie because that’s what you are supposed to do in a movie like this. It relentlessly goes into overdrive with all of its gravity defying sequences, car acrobatics, and an explosive finale that seems to happen on a 30-mile runway. It gives what the audience wants: fantastically ridiculous, no holds barred action of the Fast and Furious variety — and is really generous about it. Fast & Furious is crack and Justin Lin is our dealer. That said, give us Fast and Furious 7. We need our fix and we need it soon.

Fast & Furious 6 opens in theaters today.

The post ‘Fast & Furious 6′ Does Ridiculous Really Well appeared first on the finer dandy.

It’s difficult to expect a lot from a third installment of a raunchy comedy franchise (remember American Pie: The Wedding?). You may argue that by the time it reaches the third installment it has overstayed its welcome. In fact, creating a comedy franchise in general is quite a task, but if you find the right brand of inappropriate bro humor and cleverly up the ante with each installment, then you may be on to something. The Hangover was a hit because of its outrageous 21st century take on the bachelor party. It not only made a bunch of bros flock to Vegas for debauchery, but it put its three leading men, Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms on everyone’s radar. Hell, it even gave us the “toodaloo muthafuckaaaaah” greatness that is Ken Jeong. It established comedy magic that spilled over into The Hangover II, giving us a taste of the same humor, but set in Thailand. It didn’t break any new ground, but it did serve as a fumbling layover to The Hangover III, the final installment that is no better than the first, but a few notches above the second.

Directed once again by Todd Phillips, the wolfpack is back for fun: the pretty Phil (Cooper), the uptight Stu (Helms), and the bizarro strange one Alan (Galifianakis). After the death of Alan’s father and a hilariously unfortunate accident involving a giraffe, Alan’s friends and family decide to have an intervention for his reckless behavior and is forced to go to a rehab clinic. The wolfpack decides to take a road trip to the clinic and they run into a minor speed bump (of course they do). A random man named Marshall (John Goodman) stops them and demands that they find Chow (Jeong) because he stole his gold. Why did he stop them? Because Alan has been communicating with him ever since his Shawshank-style prison escape during a majestically violent prison riot (which we see in the beginning of the movie). Marshall takes Doug (Justin Bartha) hostage and makes the wolfpack find Chow and the gold. If not, he kills Doug. Thus begins the adventure…and an excuse to make a third movie.

For what it is, The Hangover III is a sweet ending to one of the raunchiest comedy franchises that serves as a vending machine of dick jokes, crazy situations and one-liners that get tired as soon as they reach the echelons of frat boys and middle-aged husbands in suburbia.

Besides a couple of new pleasant surprises (Melissa McCarthy and the original “Carlos” all grown up), everything that you expect is in this movie is there. Even though the writers don’t try to shock us anymore with their foul gags and nastiness, they still know how to make us laugh. It was also nice to see Phil and Stu take a backseat (they were getting boring any way) and give Alan and Chow the opportunity to have fun. Without Alan and Chow, there is no story and there is no comedy. Seeing that Galifianakis and Jeong are the strongest comedic actors in the bunch, Phillips and his writing team were smart to put them in the front and run the show. I would have been fine if the movie was titled, The Hangover III: Alan and Mr. Chow’s Crazy Adventure.

Even though they are selling this as an end to the trilogy, the post-credits scene leaves the door open to another. I’d rather just shut that door. For good.

The Hangover III is currently playing in theaters.

The post ‘The Hangover 3′: The Most Hangoveriest of Them All appeared first on the finer dandy.

I enjoyed doing my podcast movie review for Iron Man 3 so much that I decided to do the same thing with The Great Gatsby. And yes, you can rest easy, I decided to incorporate some Celine Dion into the review. I think that might be an ongoing thing. So sit back and listen to me ramble on about Baz Luhrmann‘s take on the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

“The Great Gatsby” Movie Review With Celine Dion on the Side, Of Course

The Great Gatsby opens in theaters today..

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Iron Man 3 opens in theaters today and instead of writing a review, I decided to record myself talking about it…while listening to “Power of Love” by Celine Dion. Please enjoy listening to me — in my own special ADHD way — praise the love between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts and spazz out about the movie’s one MAJOR problem. Oh yeah, there’s lots of spoilers too. You’ve been warned:

An “Iron Man 3″ Movie Review With Some Celine Dion on the Side

Iron Man 3 opens in theaters today.

The post The Finer Podcast: An ‘Iron Man 3′ Movie Review With Some Celine Dion on the Side appeared first on the finer dandy.

Don’t be fooled by the trailer for Trance. This is not an Ocean’s 11 meets Inception…well, actually it kind of is. It’s also very complex. And it involves hypnotism. In other words, it’s one of those movies where I had to pay attention. Close attention.

Trance isn’t one of those movies where you can just go in and casually watch and think that you’ll be fine. It demands your attention. It gives you know choice but to glue your eyes to the screen…but then again, a movie is supposed to do that. You just really have to be in the mood to watch a movie like this. I was partially in the mood to watch a movie like this when I screened it.

One thing is for damn certain: Danny Boyle knows how to write and direct a beautiful movie no matter what the topic is. Whether it is an Indian boy on a game show or a dude cutting his arm off in the middle of the desert to free himself, Boyle’s enthusiasm for cinema shines through in all of his films. He is a technician, a grand storyteller, and a craftsman when it comes to character and testing the boundaries of filmmaking.

But let me back up a bit…what the hell is Trance about?

I’ll break it down in the simplest terms because I am a very simple person:

1.) James McAvoy plays Simon, a fine art auctioneer.

2.) During an auction of a big-time piece by Goya, a group of hoodlums led by Franck (Vincent Cassel) attempt to steal it.

3.) Simon follows protocol and saves the painting, but during the chaos he gets hurt and ends up in the hospital.

4.) He gets out of the hospital and we learn that — uh oh! — he was in cahoots with Franck the whole time! They were stealing the painting together…but Simon doesn’t remember where he put the painting.

5.) In order to find this information, Franck sends Simon to a hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) so that she can enter the corner of his brain to help him find it.

From there, trippy shit starts to happen and the story unfolds more and more with twists and turns that — like I said — will require above normal movie watching attention. Boyle managed to inject a heightened sense of reality with Trance that will make the audience’s brain bleed. I see what he was doing. He wanted us to feel as unsure and anxious as the characters in the film. He wanted us to feel like we were hypnotized. He wanted us to feel like we were in a TRANCE. Get it? GET IT?!

This is very artsy and all, but sometimes, I just want the story to be told. Sometimes, I don’t think I am as smart as the director wants me to be. I want things spoon fed to me. I don’t have time for metaphors, layered storylines, complex angles, and all of that other cinematic hoo-ha that cinephiles love to gorge themselves on. Again, I must reiterate: you have to be in the mood to watch a movie like this…or if you just love Danny Boyle. Which I do.

The story is great, but the execution is where I have the problem. It starts off good, but as things get more bonkers and volatile, things start to crumble. I stop caring about where the characters are going and whether they satisfy their arcs. When I start to think, “I wish all the characters would just die already”, that’s when I know I have a major problem with the movie. I didn’t quite reach that point with Trance, but it was getting there. Also, I had a problem with Rosario as the hypnotist. I felt that she was miscast, but then again, I couldn’t think of anyone else in the role. Does that mean I just canceled my opinion out? I think it does.

Boyle has a lot of good things going on in Trance. The original story he conceived with Joe Ahearne and John Hodge could have been stronger if it weren’t a mishmash of sci-fi, thriller, romance, heist movie, and surrealistic art film. Plenty of fat needed to be trimmed from this film of manipulated reality to make it something spectacular. Instead, it’s an overwhelming adventure that you have to be in the mood for.

Trance opens in theaters today

The post My Rambling, Unstructured Thoughts About ‘Trance’ appeared first on the finer dandy.

As many of you know, I occasionally lend my voice to other websites. Here, I review of Oz the Great and Powerful for OKGorgeous.com. Read, enjoy, repeat.

Many people may think Oz the Great and Powerful is the origin story of the wonderful wizard; a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. While the movie is based on the writings and the fantastical world created by author L. Frank Baum, it’s mostly about the three witchy sisters. Three witchy sisters who obviously hate each other and have the most dysfunctional relationship of any fairy tale ever created — but we’ll get to that in a little bit. Before we get into the dynamics of sisterhood, I feel that it is my responsibility to give some sort of critical review of this movie that one critic called “The first must see movie of the year!” I don’t know if I would go that far. The movie was fun, but calling it “the first must see movie of the year” is a very presumptuous statement. However, I wouldn’t hold this against the critic. I’m sure he/she already has his second and third must see movie lined up.

As mentioned, the movie sets the stage for the classic The Wizard of Oz, telling us how the wizard became the wizard. That wizard is played by James Franco. This is a very peculiar choice for Oz. It just doesn’t fit in with his Kink.com/gay art/soap opera acting/super-duper Ivy League lifestyle. Then again, maybe this role is a perfect fit in his hodgepodge cultural high-low brow repertoire. Nonetheless, we are introduced to Oz in the beginning of the movie (which is shot in black and white) where he is a conman at a circus. All of a sudden, a tornado comes and sweeps him away to the world of Oz (where everything turns to color!). Is all of this sounding familiar? Click here to read the rest of my review.

The post ‘Oz The Great and Powerful’: A Movie Review…or Something Like It appeared first on the finer dandy.

I barely consider myself an expert on the Die Hard franchise. That said, I believe all my opinions and thoughts on the latest installment, A Good Day to Die Hard to be unbiased and the ultimate truth.

As I patrolled my Facebook and Twitter timeline for reviews of A Good Day to Die Hard, I noticed that nearly all of them were bashing the sixth fifth movie in the action franchise and I respect their opinion. But c’mon…this is the SIXTH movie in the franchise. Are we really supposed to take it THAT seriously? Because I certainly didn’t. I was just ready for a bunch of explosions and stuff. Hell, I would have been happy with the iconic John McClane (Bruce Willis, naturally) just walking away from explosions and saying cheesy one-liners like “Well, that plan was a bomb!” for 90 minutes. I watch it for McClane and no one else. He is the only action hero that America is grasping on to for dear life — and Willis has and forever has been making him relevant for nearly 25 frocking years. With longevity like that we should just accept anything this character does. He’s like an irreverent and jaded uncle that gets into a shouting match with a guy that stole his parking spot. We just sit back, let him do his thing, and enjoy the show.

However, I do see why many critics were unhappy with this installment. From the beginning, it seemed like the movie was trying to be something it wasn’t. They tried to paint on this 007-esque gloss that I wasn’t buying. It was so out of place and boring that I managed to sleep with my eyes open for the first 10 minutes or so of the movie — then a demolishing car chase through Moscow happened. That’s when I started to pay attention.

Let me back up and talk about the plot, because that is important…I guess.

While in the U.S., John McClane finds out that his son Jack (Jai Courtney) is up to no good in Russia. He takes the next flight out and then soon learns (after the aforementioned crazy-ass car chase) his boy is working for the CIA to crack down on some sort of nuclear weapons heist that involves Chernobyl and an important dude named Komarov (Sebastian Koch). That said, John and Jack team up to fight against all of these Russian baddies.

It makes sense that this Die Hard movie explore his relationship with his son because Live Free or Die Hard took us through his relationship with his daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Like Lucy, he has to break down a couple of walls to earn the love from Jack. Apparently, John just can’t cut it as a father. Perhaps some parenting classes are in order. Or perhaps a really good self-help book? In any case, their relationship was something that I enjoyed. Jack really hates John when they run into each other in Moscow — really hates him. For what reason? Well, that wasn’t really fleshed out — but who cares? This CIA mission brings them closer together. Nothing says father-son bonding like jumping out of buildings (particularly in one ridonkulous dope-ass escape scene!), gigantic explosions, firing inappropriately huge guns, and killing Russian terrorists in nice Banana Republic clothes.

Speaking of Russians, it’s nice to see that they are coming back into the spotlight as bad guys! We needed a nice break from all those Middle Eastern bad guys. With this and The Americans on FX, perhaps there will be a resurgence of Russian bad guys! Of course, there just HAS to be at least one sexy female villain who’s a total bitch and is linked with the main bad guy. (BEWARE: SPOILER AHEAD! DO NOT READ ON UNLESS YOU PLAN ON WATCHING THIS RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME MOVIE) The sexy female in question is some gal named Irina (who I thought for a split second was Alison Brie from Community, turns out she is played by Yuliya Snigir). Her father is (SPOILER) Komarov — who we think is a good guy, but he is the main baddie behind this nuclear weapons ordeal. The reason why I had to spoil it because I wanted to talk about how creepy their relationship is. There is one moment in the movie, during the big reveal when Irina looks at longingly at Komarov — and not in a father-daughter way. It was too sensual. It made me feel uncomfortable. It was gross.

But let’s get back to brass tacks. The movie is just a series of WTF-worthy dangerous events where death is guaranteed — and all of them involve John and Jack McClane. But by the grace of the Die Hard Gods, they always manage to walk away with minimal damage. If something explodes, they walk away with some soot on them. If they jump through a window, they just have a little bit of blood and perhaps a stray piece of metal in their side — which can easily be removed with hardly any consequence. If they jump off the roof of a building and into a pool that has been stagnant in a radioactive environment, they manage to walk away with a little limp. One thing is certain within all of this: John McClane will end up in a white shirt with blood stains and he will eventually say “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker”– and that’s all we want, right?

A Good Day to Die Hard is so ridiculous that it is exploding with awesomeness. It may not be the strongest in the franchise, but it still shows us why John McClane is a national treasure.

A Good Day to Die Hard is currently playing in theaters.

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