Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police.

Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police is a little gem of a documentary directed by Andy Grieve and Lauren Lazin. It's told from the perspective of The Police's Andy Summers and it does it's best to give you background on the one member of the group that flew under the radar. It's a fun yet angst filled enjoyable ride back through time and because of that I give Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police three buckets of Killer Korn.












Based on his memoir entitled One Train Later, Can't Stand Losing You centers around Andy Summers and his life before, during, and after The Police. It touches on all the things you never really cared to know about the one member of the group that seemed overshadowed by Sting and Stewart Copeland and it offers up just a nod to why that iconic group broke up. I think this film is for those fans who loved the music and the die hard Andy Summers fans who wanted to know what happened to the musician/photographer.

This film follows Andy from birth to the end of The Police reunion tour that took the world by storm back in 2007/08. It touched on the artist's struggles trying to make it as a musician living in L.A. while having no prospects and no direction. He get's married, flies back to England with his wife and becomes a session player on Mike Oldfield's seminal hit Tubular Bells. Those sessions are where he meets Sting and Stewart who both in bands of their own at the time. One thing leads to another and The Police are born and just when his daughter is born, Andy is on the road for eight months out of the calendar year.

I don't know who really cared about the life and times of Andy Summers outside of those closest to him, family and friends but the music is a time warp. It will bring you back to a time when you first heard Roxanne and Can't Stand Losing You. The movie creates more questions than it answers for sure but the music makes that easier to swallow. If you are a fan of The Police then I highly recommend seeing this film. If you aren't then I suggest you skip Can't Stand Losing You (though that does make me wonder about your taste in music but whatever) and I'll see you at the theater.

50 Shades of Grey

50 Shades of Grey, the latest film from director Sam Taylor-Johnson is one of the biggest wastes of time I have spent in a movie theater in quite some time. I'm sure it's not the worse piece of garbage I have ever seen but it's damn close. I give it a kernel.















50 Shades is one of the most unoriginal movies to come down the pike in a long time and that's saying something when you consider the landscape of films Hollywood has been releasing lately (I won't even mention the films that are slated for release later this year). If you have seen The Thomas Crown Affair remake with Pierce Brosnan, Twilight, and 9 1/2 Weeks then you've seen 50 Shades Of Grey, with the exception of some kinky sex of course. And speaking of the kinky sex, it gets old quickly here, like super quickly. Both Christian Grey played woodenly by Jamie Dornan and Anastasia played annoyingly by Dakota Johnson keep taking their clothes off as if they look so amazingly good undressed, and they do not. There is nothing special about either one of these people unclothed. Sam overshot on that aspect and undershot on everything else.

There was no chemistry between Christian and Anastasia and had Christian behaved the way he had with anyone other than Anastasia she would have labeled him a psycho stalker and called the police. I got NO sense that one was remotely interested in the other. There was no passion, no fire, no heat, no sleepless nights laying in bed and fantasizing what they would do to each other. On the contrary, little mousie Anastasia was saving herself for the right man. How she figured the creepy stalker dude was the right man is absolutely beyond me. Once she's no longer a virgin she starts feeling her way and becomes more confident, she wants to know what it's like to play in Christians "play room" and once she does she seems alright with it. Then suddenly when Christian chooses not to open up to Ana about something and wants to punish her, she allows it only to rebuke him at the end which makes no damn sense at all.

50 Shades goes for a very modern, glass and steel kind of look which renders the movie entirely without personality. I have heard the books written by E. L. James are much the same. The storyline is ridiculous and the acting is atrocious by all involved and that includes Oscar award winner Marcia Gay Harden and Christian's mother. It honestly feels like a Twilight knock-off and Twilight was a far better film (if you can believe that). I can't imagine what the mood on the set was halfway through the filming of this drivel but I'd be shocked to hear if it was positive. Danny Elfman wasted his prodigious talents on scoring this film. He came up with something that was serviceable but I can't see anyone wanting to buy the score. If I were you and you have a satisfying sex life then skip this hot mess of a movie and spend your money on renting The Thomas Crown Affair, or doing something else, ANYTHING else and I'll see you at the theater.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Second Best Marigold Hotel, the latest movie from accomplished director John Madden is like visiting old friends if you saw the previous Marigold Hotel film. While there are times when this film can get on your nerves the performances of the talented cast carry the weight and because of that I give The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel three and a half buckets of Killer Korn out of five.













Let me just say this, the first Marigold Hotel film was adapted from a book by author Deborah Moggach. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was not adapted from a novel and that may be why it seems the movie loses its way early on. The movie starts off looking and sounding like an old sitcom. While trying to capitalize on the charm of the original film its sequel sadly doesn't do a very good job of that. Written by the same screenwriter of the first movie, Ol Parker tries to concoct a story out of whole cloth without the foundation of the novel this time around. Second Marigold suffers the same rudderless fate as The Godfather III and Think Like A Man Too. Thankfully that doesn't last too long and the movie finally gets moving. Sadly though you're then subjected to the tired storyline of the insecure boyfriend/fiancé, Dev Patel's Sonny Kapoor, when a good looking friend of his future wife, Tina Desai's Sunaina, comes back into town looking to make his own mark in the hotel industry. His supposed rival is Shazad Latif's Kushal, one of the new characters, but don't worry, thankfully all the original cast is back.

Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup, Diana Hardcastle, Fiona Mollison, and Lillete Dubey all reprise their roles again as well but they are also joined by Richard Gere as Guy Chambers and Tamsin Greig as Lavinia Beech. The story centers around the wedding between Sonny and Sunaina as well as Sonny and Maggie Smith's Muriel Donnelly attempts to expand their burgeoning niche hotel empire. In the first film Sonny seemed a charming, enterprising young man. This time around however, his act plays a little thin. There is nothing new about him and in fact it seems most of the characters take a step back. What you thought were solid relationships at the end of the first movie seem to fall apart in the second. Now granted you need to build a script, but weakening relationships only to strengthen them all over again is a tired formula and one The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel could have done without.

The look of the film however is absolutely exquisite. John Madden has a fantastic eye and Ben Smithard, his cinematographer this time around, picks up seamlessly where cinematographer Ben Davis left off. This film is lush in color and feel, regardless of the sets. The music, again by the talented Thomas Newman, was absolutely perfect. Like the movie it's a subtle yet lush score accented with authentic instruments that add flavor and color. It was a job well done. If you didn't see the first film don't worry, you don't need to see that film to get its sequel. In fact you may like this movie more if you don't see the first one but if you have then this movie will be more revisiting old friends than seeing something new. John Madden and company put forth a good attempt at a quality sequel but were hampered with a ridiculous script. Still though I would recommend it to those that have seen the first film and enjoyed the characters and I'll see you at the theater.

Focus

Focus, the latest film from the writer/director team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa was a fun caper film that's an emotional roller coaster ride from start to finish (especially at the finish). It doesn't fail to entertain and since I can overlook it's one fatal flaw I am giving Focus four buckets of Killer Korn.














Focus is a Will Smith movie, I mean he is all OVER this film (quick note, if you don't like Will Smith then I suggest you skip this movie because I don't know if I said this already but he is all OVER this film). If he's not on camera he's about to me and when he is he's the best most charming thing the camera can focus on. It isn't however a Will Smith/Overbrook Entertainment film which means more than likely this role wasn't written with him in mind. After his last film, the debacle that was After Earth (which I wish I could have rewritten) Will needed something low key and something that was in his wheel house. Someone must have suggested he read the script for Focus and he came to the conclusion that this was a film he had to be in. I say that because the biggest flaw in this funny, beautiful looking film is the lack of fire/heat/chemistry between the two leads.

Focus stars of course Will Smith as Nicky, Margot Robbie as Jess, Gerald McRaney as Owens, the hilarious Adrian Martinez as Farhad, BD Wong as the fanatical Liyuan, and Rodrigo Santoro as Garriga. It is a very talented cast but as I said earlier, Focus' chief flaw is the lack of heat between Nicky and Jess. Jess and a partner of hers try to take Nicky down who just ends up embarrassing the duo. He then follows Jess, gives her some pointers and then leaves her in the cold NYC winter only to be tracked down by her in New Orleans at the Super Bowl. While there is a connection it feels like nothing more than a older brother/younger sister dynamic than anything else. That is made all the more apparent when he dumps her in New Orleans and moves on with his life only to run into her a few years later in South America. It made it seem that this role wasn't written with Will in mind but he felt like he needed to do it.

Focus is an absolutely beauty of a movie. The colors are vibrant, the costumes/wardrobe by Dayna Pink were perfect, and the cinematography by Xavier Grobet is gorgeous (though he was undoubtedly helped by beautiful locations). It's also a movie blessed with a pithy screenplay that's well written and executed even better. So much so that it has you thinking you know what the outcome is going to be only to be fooled at the very end. Glenn and John did their best to keep the Ocean 11 feel down to a minimum but these days any heist film is going to feel like an Ocean's movie. The charm of Focus though is that it chooses to focus on something other than the heist. My second beef with Focus was the lack of original score. Tasked with supplying music for the movie was Nick Urata and it seemed that the producers was so displeased with his offering that they littered the movie instead with great pop songs from the likes of Bruno Hovart, Stooges Brass Band, to Doris & Kelly's classic "You Don't Have to Worry". Thankfully Mark Graham and his musical team knew what they were doing and were able to give Focus a unique feel, something Nick failed to do. I would recommend Focus to any and everyone that isn't sick of Will Smith yet because I don't know if I said this yet but he is ALL over this movie. I'll see you at the theater.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service is the latest movie from the incredibly talented writer/director Matthew Vaughn and it is a MUST SEE! This film is a rip roaring take on the intelligent agency community and its tongue is firmly planted within its cheek. Kingsman never takes itself seriously until it takes itself seriously and even then it's hilarious. I loved this movie and because of that I give Kingsman: The Secret Service four buckets of Killer Korn.












For a man that has only five feature films on his resume and only six writing credits Matt Vaughn seems to know exactly what he's doing when it comes to making pretty damn interesting if not good movies (so it makes you wonder why director Brett Ratner sucks as badly as he does, at least it makes me wonder). I've seen three of Matt's five (missing Layer Cake and Stardust) and of those three I loved two of them. I am not a big fan of X-Men: First Class (I thought Professor X was too much Yoda and not enough Professor X and that got annoying really fast) but I loved Kick Ass and now Kingsman.

Based on the comic book by Mark Millar and David Gibbons, Kingsman: The Secret Service is a story of an independent intelligence agency populated with highly skilled agents who don names of characters from classic literature who protects Queen and country with their lives if need be. The cast is an impressive one starting off with Oscar award winning actors Colin Firth and Michael Caine playing Galahad and Arthur respectively. Then there's Taron Egerton making his American debut as the lead here playing Eggsy, a young street kid with talents he himself was unaware he possessed. Mark Strong (one of my all time favorite actors) plays Merlin, Samuel L. Jackson plays Valentine, Mark Hamill (yes THAT Mark Hamill) plays Professor Arnold, and Sofia Boutella plays the vicious henchwoman Gazelle with swords for feet (trust me, it works).

Valentine is the quintessential nemesis, the kind that believes that his wrongdoing is for the greater good of mankind. He wants to cull the population and has found an unoriginal way of doing that with an original idea. I won't divulge that here but if you've seen the trailers for the film then you have a pretty good idea. Meanwhile Galahad is trying to convince Eggsy to take his life into his own hands instead of heading down the path of criminality. He introduces Eggsy to the Kingsman and with Galahads stamp of approval Eggsy becomes an agent in training. This is around the time Valentine begins kidnapping certain heads of state if he can't convince them to go along with his diabolical master plan. Those who do get a chip implanted near the base of their skulls to...wait, I said I wasn't going to divulge Valentine's plan here so see the movie. What I will say though is there is a point in the film where those implants are the cause of some serious hilarity.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is not a very diverse one. Outside of Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal of the lisping Valentine this movie is almost completely devoid of color. That's a strike in my book but it may not be in yours, but it's the ONLY strike. Matthew Vaughn has shown the talent to go off the deep end with his original concepts as well as stay within the lines when dealing with properties that aren't his own (X-Men being that one). With Kingsman it looks like he decided to let it all hang out and in doing so he's potentially created a cheeky franchise that could rival the Bond films. There could be many Kingsman films in the future should this one take off (or at least a trilogy) and I hope it does though it might be hard to top this one. The cinematography by George Richmond is perfect with it's part cartoony, part serious look about it. The score by Henry Jackson and Matthew Margeson fit this film to perfection. There were the fitting heroic themes throughout but there was also the villainous themes that added a certain gravitas to the comical Valentine that I enjoyed. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed Kingsman, I highly recommend it, and I'll see you at the theater.

   

Selma

Selma, the latest film from director Ava DuVernay is a powerhouse of a movie. The subject matter is known to almost every American and every citizen around the globe over a certain age and it's the kind of film that should be required viewing of the younger generation. Selma is packed with amazing performances by a truly talented cast and it's quickly become one of my favorite movies of 2014. Because of that, I give Selma four and a half buckets of Killer Korn.












Now I have seen movies regarding the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and they have all fallen short in one major way or another. They either suffered from hero worship and focused on his accomplishments strictly and failed at every turn to show the humanity of the man or they were disjointed messes that wanted to cover everything King had ever done from the cradle to the grave. The beauty and the genius of director Ava DuVernay's Selma is that it centers around one incident in the struggle and fight for Civil Rights. It takes a pivotal moment out of King's life and tells the story of that period with style and grace, not pomp and circumstance. Selma is the movie so many other King films should have been, one the focused on the man and his team as they made demands of Lyndon B. Johnson to pass legislation that would help end discrimination across this country and making demands on the people of this country to look themselves in the mirror and discover what was truly in their hearts.

I am a very big fan of David Oyelowo and while his portrayal of King was not convincing, it was the best one since the late great Paul Winfield's in the 1978 mini-series King. King is a hard man to play due to his distinctive cadence. He spoke slow and deliberately, never wasting a word and I can't imagine how hard that must be to pull off for an actor. Carmen Ejogo play Coretta Scott King and she was marvelous. If Coretta was anything like Carmen's portrayal of her then there was no way King could have failed. Tim Roth, Giovanni Ribisi, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson, Wendell Pierce, Common and so many other wonderful actors comprised the talented cast Ava had to work with. The movie starts off with two seminal moments, King winning the Nobel Peace Prize and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four little girls. The film's intensity never waned and only grew stronger as the story unfolded. Although I do feel there were a few missed opportunities that Ava could have-with creative license taken advantage of-Selma is a resounding film about King's march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. The screenplay by first time writer Paul Webb is phenomenal. It's tight, humorous, and above all focused. There are many characters in this film with their own voices and personalities and not one of them was short changed. Paul may have to clear his calender, I'm sure Hollywood will come knocking on his door very soon if they aren't already.

Now while there is a lot of love to be given out to the cast and crew, I have to give the production design team and set decorator Elizabeth Keenan and costume designer Ruth E. Carter a standing ovation. The look of this movie hinged on those two women's shoulders and they did one amazing job. The clothes looked like they were straight off the rack of some 1960's department store and the appliances, furniture, cars, wall paper, and phones had to have been nearly impossible to find and yet, there they were. The cinematography by Bradford Young was impeccable. The camera's placement and movement captured all the angst, violence, tragedies and triumphs so well that you felt like you were there yourself, as if you could reach out and touch King's shoulder. The score by first time composer Jason Moran was moving and timely. It wasn't overdone or melodramatic. It added to the images on the screen and it didn't pull you out of the moment with being bombastic or overreaching. Selma may bring tears to your eyes so bring tissues dammit, okay? You never listen to me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this movie as much as I did and who knows, it may end up on your list of favorite movies of 2014 as well. I'll see you at that theater.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the latest film from writer/director/producer Peter Jackson was a colossal CG disappointment. This movie was a hollow, soulless, unemotional, and embarrassing last bow of the Hobbit franchise. It was a waste of money and time (two and half hours damn near) that you can never get back. That being said I can only give this Hobbit film one bucket of Killer Korn (yes, it was really that bad).













When The Dark Knight Rises was released upon us many said they felt that Christopher Nolan mentally checked out and didn't put his all into the last film. I didn't see that personally. While it wasn't as good as The Dark Knight, and while it had some significant holes in the plot I still thought it was a good movie, one I enjoyed immensely. However I then started to wonder what that would look like on screen, a movie put out by a director who has mentally moved on to other projects but has yet finished the one he or she was currently working on. I now know what that looks like all too well. It looks like The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. I have no idea what Peter Jackson's next project is (according to IMDB it's The Adventures of Tin Tin: Prisoners of the Sun) but The Five Armies looked so bad that Jackson's mind had to have been on Tin Tin the majority of the time. The film looked to be nothing more than a two and a half hour advertisement of Jackson's special effects department Weta Workshop and the computer program they used to create the battle sequences. The acting was laughable, the dialogue was worse, and the movie never got going, it just spun its wheels.

All of the actors that were in the far superior second film, The Desolation of Smaug are back in this one so I won't get into the cast. Howard Shore has returned to offer up his magic on the score but after five movies of the same sound and very little new melodies or themes, the music feels stale. Somehow John Williams has been able to keep that from happening to his scores for the Star Wars franchise and while the score for Desolation was impressive, the music wore thin this time around. And for a movie filmed entirely on location in places like Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire in the UK along with time spent in Pinewood studios the actors seemed to have spent most of their time running around in front of green screens. It felt like practical film making went right out the window. There was nothing impressive about the cinematography and there should have been since this was as the tagline states, "The Final Chapter". The Five Armies should have been a grand spectacle instead of being a disappointing one. It should have taken your breath away instead of making you yawn. It should have made you float out the theater instead of making you run so you could get to the restroom.

Peter Jackson is a good director and if you watch The Hobbit and The Lord of the Ring films in order you'll see that firsthand, and that's what I suggest you do. That way by the time you get to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers the sour aftertaste of this movie would have long been washed away. Peter Jackson seemingly gave a fuck doing the LOTR films and he seemed to give a fuck on An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, but he then seemed to check out on Five Armies and that was a damn shame because THIS was the one we were all waiting for. Watch the trailer of this film, it is far better than the film itself in almost every way and I'll see you at the theater.