This week: We drag our sorry ass back to Sin City, order up more Jump Street, and reluctantly head Into the Storm.
► After a certain amount of time, some sequels fall into ‘why bother?’ Had SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR come out a few years after the classic original, it would have had a much better fate. But nine years? What was original and cutting edge the first time around felt a bit moldy, with Frank Miller adapting some of his less-than-stellar stories and adding a few brand new ones to fill the space. Robert Rodriguez co-directs with the same zany exuberance, it just feels a bit played out. Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba and Rosario Dawson all return, joined by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ray Liotta and – stealing the movie – Eva Green as seductress who cons Dwight (Josh Brolin) into killing her rich husband.
► Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill move on to college for 22 JUMP STREET, going undercover to bust up another drug ring. Yes, it’s the exact same movie, but at least everyone’s in on the joke that there wasn’t supposed to be a sequel. Ice Cube and Nick Offerman return. Just like the first, this was a movie with zero expectations everyone seemed to love.
► Somehow managing to make ‘Twister’ look like a masterpiece, INTO THE STORM is your typical disaster movie brew of horrid acting, forgettable characters and an insultingly clichéd script. We get a single dad, his two sons, some storm chasers and a couple of rednecks as a series of tornados pummel the Oklahoma town of Silverton. Former ‘Walking Dead’ star Sarah Wayne Callies and ‘The Hobbit’s Richard Armitage star, though you’ll be hard-pressed to remember anything before the credits are finished, including the seen-it-all-before tornado effects. At least they didn’t have sharks.
► Based on the weepy Gayle Forman book, IF I STAY lays it on thick with Chloe Grace Moretz as a teen musician having an out of body experience after a car accident, watching her loved ones as she’s in a coma. Director R.J. Cutler keeps the sap coming, but it’s clear Moretz is going to be a huge star. She has been phenomenal in virtually everything. The novel had a 2011 sequel, ‘Where She Went.’
► A huge audience favorite at this year’s South by Southwest, Gerard Johnstone’s HOUSEBOUND has Morgana O’Reilly as a thief sentenced to house arrest after trying to rob a bank. She’s forced to shack up with her mom, who insists her house is haunted. Which tends to be a problem if you’re not legally allowed to leave. Lots of buzz for this low budget surprise from New Zealand.
► Two things about the late ‘70s you should know if you weren’t there: There was a wave of absolutely great Vietnam movies, and Jon Voight was a pretty incredible actor. COMING HOME offers both, with Voight winning the Oscar for Best Actor as a paraplegic from the war who falls for a military wife (Jane Fonda) after her husband (Bruce Dern) is deployed. Fonda also won an Oscar, and she was never better. Certainly one of the most quietly devastating anti-war movies ever made, overshadowed by the other Vietnam classics of its time.
► There’s just something kinda sad about a Rob Reiner movie you only hear about once it comes to Blu-ray and DVD. AND SO IT GOES came and went in July, starring Michael Douglas as a dickhead grandfather asked by his soon-to-be incarcerated son to take care of his granddaughter. Diane Keaton, one of the neighbors who can’t stand him, offers to help and of course he starts to loosen up. Safe and sticks to basics, which is all Reiner does nowadays, sadly. He used to make movies like ‘Stand By Me.’ Now he keeps your grandparents occupied.
► Brett Culp’s documentary LEGENDS OF THE KNIGHT is just about the most inspiring Batman film ever made, not starring Batman. Visiting people across the country who got a raw deal from life, Culp intertwines their story with the amazing impact Batman has had on pop culture and people’s lives these past 75 years. It was funded by Batman fans, and few movies have ever gotten closer to the superhero spirit.
Also out this week:
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