Ewan McGregor and Jim Cummings in Christopher Robin. IMDb.com.

Christopher Robin Sadly Falls Short

I walked into the theater expecting and wanting to like Christopher Robin. Perhaps that was the problem. Maybe I expected too much. It turned out to be something of a disappointment.

The story took far too long to get going, and there was no excuse for that because there wasn’t all that much story to begin with. It boiled down to a retread of the valuable but cliched life lesson about spending less time at work and more time with your family. The first act was dull, and nothing really got interesting until the last 20 minutes or so.

Ewan McGregor didn’t help matters with his wooden portrayal of an adult Christopher Robin. Christopher was boring at work, boring with his family, and stayed boring even after meeting Pooh and company. Things didn’t get interesting until Christopher’s daughter Madeline (Bronte Carmichael) met the animals and set off on an adventure of her own.

Jim Cummings, Nick Mohammed, and Bronte Carmichael in Christopher Robin. IMDb.com.

Jim Cummings, Nick Mohammed, and Bronte Carmichael in Christopher Robin. IMDb.com.

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Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly in Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp

You could tell from the trailer that Ant-Man and the Wasp wasn’t intended to be a particularly serious movie. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a particularly funny one, either.

Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) briefly open a tunnel into the quantum realm. Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) magically receives a message from Janet Van Dyne/original Wasp (Michelle Pfeiffer) that’s she’s still alive after all these years in the quantum realm. Then it’s a relentless series of size jokes and feds acting like Keystone Cops. The whole thing is very one-dimensional and mostly falls flat. Oh, there’s also an antagonist named Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) who meanders in and out and mostly exists to give Ant-Man and Wasp someone to fight with. Walton Goggins shows up and plays pretty much the same guy he always plays.

I must give some credit to Michael Peña as Luis. He’s not given much to work with, but he manages to be pretty funny, nevertheless. He’s clearly the best part of any scene he’s in. Abby Ryder Fortson also does nice work as Ant-Man’s daughter, Cassie.

Paul Rudd and Abby Ryder Fortson in Ant-Man and the Wasp. IMDb.com.

Paul Rudd and Abby Ryder Fortson. IMDb.com.

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If the Three Stooges Made a Dinosaur Movie, it Would Look Like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Only it Would be Funny

The trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom tells you the whole plot. The island the dinosaurs are on is about to get blowed up by a volcano, so a rescue operation is launched. Oh, no! The bad guys were lying! Who would have seen that coming? The bad guys are trying to weaponize the dinosaurs! Mayhem ensues.

From the beginning of the opening sequence to the end, the thin storyline is driven primarily by idiocy. One person after another, good guys and bad, make ludicrously horrible decisions. If that weren’t enough, most of the action sequences rely on implausible events that would qualify as slapstick if they were funny. Unfortunately, they’re not.

Fallen Kingdom can’t even maintain any consistency with its own internal rules. In fact, it makes zero attempt to do so. A dinosaur that rips through metal barriers as if they were paper is stopped by a thin wooden door. Dinosaurs have ultra-keen senses of smell when they need to but can’t smell squat if the right person is trying to hide. Tranquilizers are effective, until they’re not, and they repeatedly wear off instantly at precisely the right/wrong moment. Dinosaurs move like lightning, except when they inexplicably pause to menace a potential victim just long enough for someone/something to appear and save the day.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) IMDb.com

Don’t worry, we’re the good guys. She can’t see, hear, or smell us.
Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) IMDb.com

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Incredibles 2: The Good Enoughs Would be More Accurate

As the cast reminds us in a brief clip before the movie starts, it’s been 14 years since the The Incredibles hit theaters. While not nearly as good as the original, Incredibles 2 is not terrible, which is a notable achievement for a sequel.

The visuals have the Pixar look and polish that we’ve come to expect, but they don’t push the envelope much. Pixar has always done quality work in this department, and maybe they’re a victim of their own success. They’ve set the bar pretty high, so a Pixar movie that doesn’t look any better than you’d expect is still a fine looking film.

Holly Hunter and Craig T. Nelson in Incredibles 2 IMDb.com

Holly Hunter and Craig T. Nelson in Incredibles 2. IMDb.com

The story is nothing special. It has a couple wrinkles, but, for the most part, is a by-the-numbers super hero movie. It’s pretty easy to guess who the villain is, and there are no real surprises as the plot unfolds. While nothing in the film is bust-a-gut funny, there’s enough witty banter and sufficient sight gags to keep the audience entertained. I was happy to see the stale “Mom goes to work while Dad falls apart at home” trope somewhat subverted. Mr. Incredible does, indeed, have a rough time of it at first, but, unlike so many buffoonish and incompetent fathers portrayed in the media over the last few decades, he gets his stuff together and ultimately succeeds in handling various household crises. Continue reading →

Logan Marshall-Green in Upgrade - IMDb

Upgrade – A Few Cuts Above Standard Sci-Fi Pulp

Watching the trailer for Upgrade, one gets the impression it’s intended to be an action/comedy revenge flick. In fact, it’s an intense sci-fi/horror thriller. The trailer reveals the basic premise. Bad guys paralyze protagonist Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) and kill his wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo). Tech genius Eron (Harrison Gilbertson) implants a computer chip called STEM (Simon Maiden) in Grey’s neck that allows him to walk again and that can, when instructed, act autonomously. With his newly regained mobility, Grey sets out to find the men who ruined his life.

Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, the film runs a tight hour and forty minutes and effectively uses every minute to build a compelling world and develop Grey as a character. Set in the near future, Upgrade unfolds in a place where high tech digital devices coexist with current-world analog. The movie opens with Grey rebuilding the engine of a muscle car in his garage as Asha arrives home in a self-driving autonomous vehicle.

The theme of analog vs digital is ingeniously explored as Grey and STEM pursue the murderers. STEM is an artificial intelligence with complete mastery of the digital world, but it cannot detect or influence analog devices. Grey, on the other hand, is wary of digital tech and avoids it whenever possible. The interaction between digital AI and analog man, highlighting the strengths and limitations of both, is brilliantly executed. Continue reading →