Hank and Asha

Hank and Asha, the film debut from writer/director James E. Duff is a wonderful look at how relationships can take shape in today's world. It's reminiscent of Before Sunrise, and just as that movie spawned two more films, hopefully Hank and Asha will do the same. I didn't want the movie to end and because of that I give Hank and Asha three and a half buckets of Killer Korn.













Hank and Asha starts off out of the blue, with Asha, played by the truly beautiful Mahira Kakkar sending Hank a video message after seeing his film at a film festival in Prague. She was impressed by his work and were he at the film festival, she would have invited him out for coffee afterward, but since he was back in NYC, she tracked down his contact information and sent him a video. She swore she wasn't stalking him, that she was a student filmmaker in Prague studying film and was curious about him, and his process. Hank, played charmingly by Andrew Pastides, being the gentleman sent her a video message back and so began their interplay. Asha through multiple videos told Hank all about herself and her love for film, about her imagination, her hopes, and her dreams. She also told him about her culture and what her life may be like in the coming years.

Hank returned the favor, sending Asha videos of him at work, in his super tiny NY apartment, him out on the town in different bars and eateries, he allows Asha into his world. He tells her how he got to where he is, how he ran like hell from the small town where he was from where he was expected to run the family business and how that was the last thing he wanted to do. Eventually the two fall for each other and have the desire to want to meet and they decide on Paris after Asha extols the beauty of Prague but how it still doesn't measure up to Paris. With her being on a seriously strict budget, Hank sends her a plane ticket to Paris to meet him. Sadly that's when the trouble starts. Asha tells Hank something that he pretends doesn't crush him and he continues to act as if everything is fine, that they can meet in Paris as friends, nothing more. But as Hanks videos become more biting and somewhat vitriolic, Asha has a change of heart.

Hank and Aasha was so lovely that I didn't want it to end, and that's a film with just two people in the cast for the most part and not a lick of music. Hank plays Asha a song but that's it. I didn't mind that one bit because the writing was simply superb. Written by James E. Duff and Julia Morrison, the dialogue was fantastic, heartwarming, and inviting. The characters don't just open up to each other but to the viewer as well, and when things go south, you feel their pain. The movie was left open for a follow up and I seriously hope one is coming. I would love to see more, hear more, know more about these characters and if you get the chance to see Hank and Asha, I'm sure you will too. I'll see you at the theater.

www.markericentertainment.com

Draft Day

Draft Day, the latest movie from one of my all time favorite directors, Ivan Reitman is a complete and utter bore. The world could have continued spinning if this movie had not been made and no one would have felt cheated in the slightest way. It's a yawn inducing movie with a really bad bait and switch, and the switch is so unlikely that it borders on the ridiculous. Because of that, I give Draft Day one bucket of Killer Korn.











I am a football fanatic. I love the game and play fantasy football pretty much every season. I know the ins and outs of the off season and the comings and goings during the regular season. I have my favorite team who I pull for (I won't get into that here), I do watch the draft, and I even watch the combine. I say all that to say I know the game in all it's beautiful and flawed facets, so while watching Draft Day I realized one thing, this movie is not for people like me. The hardcore football lover will laugh and snicker and maybe even boo this movie, and it earns all such derision.

Draft Day takes place in one day, draft day. It follows Kevin Costner's Sonny Weaver Jr., the General Manager of the sorry Cleveland Browns. If you've seen the trailer you pretty much knew that going in, what that switch is that I mentioned above is the amazingly weak romance between Sonny and Jennifer Garner's character Ali. First off, there is absolutely NO chemistry between the two actors, and secondly the whole romance feels like it was put together and thrown in at the last minute. It just didn't feel organic and it came across as if the writers wondered what else they could throw into the script to give it heft.

I am not a big Costner fan because basically the man can't act anymore. He used to be a fine actor when he was younger, and if the Kevin Costner who played Jake in Silverado showed up, this movie would have been far more interesting to watch. Instead this movie is saddled with and the viewer is subjected to an actor who looks like he wants to retire. We get the same old Costner, hands on the hips, frustrated, and the same facial expression throughout. How would a woman as lovely as Ali fall for a schlub like Sonny? She wouldn't and yet, the director, producers, and the writers want us to buy this garbage plot line while Sonny wheels and deals on the most important day of any football team.

And when I say wheel and deal, I mean make a deal no GM would ever THINK about making. I almost dropped my popcorn (and you all know how I feel about my popcorn) when the big trade is made. Any GM that makes the deal Sonny does in this film would be run out of town by fans wielding torches and pitchforks, then they would burn down the facilities. This movie was clearly written by people who either don't like football or don't know it. Draft Day was just all over the place, it lacked focus and purpose which makes it in my opinion a truly bad film. I have heard some comparing this film to Brad Pitt's amazing Moneyball and that is just blatant disrespect for Moneyball. The two have absolutely nothing in common, not to mention one was a true story and one was a complete waste of time. Sadly the NFL hitched it's cart to a sickly horse that won't pull it's cart to the market. I say skip Draft Day, wait for the real draft because it will be imminently more interesting than the movie and enjoy the wings. I'll see you at the theater.

And be sure to visit me at MarkEricEntertainment.com

    

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the latest film by Anthony and Joe Russo is a very good improvement over their Captain America: The First Avenger, and in my opinion that wasn't hard to do. Whereas the fist Captain America movie was a boring snooze-fest, this latest foray into Steve Rogers wasn't all that much better. I found it to be lazy and uninspired and because the only thing I liked about this movie was the score, I give Captain America: The Winter Soldier one and a half buckets of Killer Korn.









Now maybe this is Marvels doing or the writers but there was never a time in this film where I felt Captain America wasn't going to win. There was never a moment where I felt the outcome wasn't in doubt, that Steve Rogers life, The Black Widows life, or for that matter Nick Fury's life was in danger. Now again, who do I blame for the anticlimactic feel of this movie? Is it Marvel who announced weeks before this movie that they are going to be releasing Captain America 3 on 5/6/16, so you know he doesn't die, no matter how hairy the situation may be or how bad ass the Winter Soldier is, or do I blame the writers? As a writer myself I feel it is my responsibility to tell a good story and to keep the reader entertained. The onus is on me to take the reader from pillar to post and back again, to keep the pages turning, for the reader to hate when the book ends and to make them want to start it all over again. As a writer, I am God, crafting a universe of substance out of nothing, and this is the reason I say the writers of Captain America: The Winter Soldier delivered a lazy and uninspired story, saved only by big explosions, massive shootouts, great fight sequences, and chase scenes (both by foot, car, and in the air). Remove that and you have something seen before and done a million times before that falls flat. Seriously, if you didn't see Nick coming back to life then you've never read Romeo and Juliet.

The writers of this cash grab are Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and Ed Brubaker. These three men should send back their checks because while Captain was entertaining on the basic levels, it completely failed to connect emotionally. Those three men were probably hampered by the Captain America comic book storylines which never seemed to grab anyone in the first place so why not change things up a bit, the average viewer would never know and you don't hurt the Cap franchise since Avengers 2: The Age of Ultron will have Cap in it anyway? Why bring back relics from Caps past? Hydra? REALLY? Couldn't come up with something better than to have Captain fight Hydra all over again? Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, not looking a day over however old he was when he was dropped from the train in The First Avenger. Was he given the same Captain America, woolly mammoth frozen in ice treatment too? I was expecting the Red Skull to pop back up on the screen, I mean why not?

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has made a ton of money so far, and it's gotten rave reviews, which makes me wonder what movie the critics were watching but I digress. The only good thing about this film is they replaced composer Alan Silvestri with Henry Jackman who delivers a masterful score. It's tense, dark, light, poignant, and heroic. Simply put, it tries to deliver the emotional punch the film fails too and it is masterful. Where Silvestri was over the top with the heroic themes, Jackman toed that fine line of hero worship with mournful horns, poignant piano, and energizing synths. There was no bombast here, just a sturdy score which was unfortunately married to a really uninspired film. I'm sure I stand alone in that camp, but that's fine with me. I refuse to be spoon fed garbage and say it taste delicious because everyone else on the planet says it's so. We are all snowflakes, individuals with our own opinions, and mine is Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a tepid waste of your time and a movie you should skip and save for video.


 

Need For Speed

Need For Speed, the latest from director Scott Waugh, the man that brought to the screen the half documentary, half fictitious military film Act of Valor brings a high energy, slick looking car racing film that amazingly isn't all that bad. While the acting is over the top at times, the stars of this movie aren't the actors but the cars, and the cars shine. Because of that, I give Need For Speed three buckets of Killer Korn.












With his first foray into big budgeted Hollywood films after his memorable run in the TV show Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul, who plays Tobey Marshall is a charming mechanic/street racer from Mt. Kisco. A sleepy little town that still has a drive in, if you can believe that. Aaron Paul is not a great actor, in fact I have my doubts if he's even a good one, which is evident by his performance in this movie. What he is right now though is a hot actor which is how he landed this role in the first place. I'm sure the producers on this film are hoping all Aaron's fans from Breaking will come and watch him sit behind the wheel of some amazing cars and drive, because that's basically all he does. He drives and he rarely talks, and when he does talk, it's pretty much all cliche drivel that pours out of his mouth. It's not just him though, the entire cast is also prone to overact due to being saddled with cringe worthy dialogue, but what do you expect from a movie inspired by a video game, Shakespeare?

Written by (and I use that term loosely here) the brothers Gatins, John and George, the story is one of revenge and redemption, with really bad dialogue. The revenge comes in when Tobey's good friend and brother of his ex-girlfriend Pete, played by Harrison Gilbertson is killed while street racing against Tobey and the bad guy of the film Dino Brewster, played by Dominic Cooper. Tobey does time for a crime he didn't commit and is hell bent on making sure Dino pays for what he did to Pete. Tobey and his crew of misfit mechanics Benny, played by Scott Mescudi aka Kid Cudi, Finn, played by Rami Malek, and Joe, played by Ramon Rodriguez are all reunited when Tobey is released and they figure the best way to get back at Dino is to race him in an exclusive race thrown by Monarch, played by Michael Keaton who does his best to make the corny dialogue sound convincing. He fails but again, the stars of the show are the cars and they don't fail at all.

A Lamborghini Elemento, a Shelby Mustang, a Saleena S7 Twin Turbo, a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, and three Koenigsegg Agera R's tear up the roads in marvelous fashion in Need. They are what makes this movie worth watching if you are a car person. Even if you aren't a car person, it's hard to not be impressed with the array of exotic cars that litter the screen, and the driving  is very impressive with the exception of a few unrealistic stunts. Get past those and Need For Speed truly does keep you entertained.

The cinematography by Shane Hurlbut is well done, he captures the cars in their full throaty glory as they rip past cameras or drift around corners perfectly. The look of the film is soft, there are no hard edges and the color palette is very easy on the eyes. The score by Nathan Furst, who also did the music for Valor creates a score that kept me humming it for days afterwards, which rarely happens, if ever. It was the perfect accompaniment to the images on the screen. In my opinion, this movie is what Fast And Furious used to be but has failed to deliver on for the past six movies (I'm counting Fast 7 that's currently in production). I highly recommend Need For Speed if you want a good time and I'll see you at the theater.

 

The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie, the latest film from writer/directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller is a playful and thoroughly hilarious send up of a childhood toy with very adult themes. This movie will make you laugh out loud and possibly spill your popcorn (I didn't spill mine because I'm a seasoned professional, but you...well just hold on tight). Because this movie was such a delight, I give The Lego Movie three buckets of Killer Korn.












Never in a million years would I have thought The Lego Movie would have been better than RoboCop and yet this movie was better in every damn way. It's a charming, funny, and immensely entertaining story about a nobody who was in the wrong place at the right time. Emmet, voiced by Chris Pratt is a character that can't do anything without instructions and if the instructions tell him to smile and be happy then that's just what he's going to do. He's a construction worker and thinks he's part of a team but he finds out the hard way that he's really not all that special in the eyes of his peers.

One night as the site is closing down he spots someone looking around the site that shouldn't be there. He comes across Wyldstyle, voiced by Elizabeth Banks and she's looking for "the piece of resistance". The one that finds it supposedly fulfills the prophecy of being a "master builder" as well as being "the special", the most extraordinary person in every way and tasked with saving the world. Instead of the more capable Wyldstyle finding the piece, Emmet lands on it and the piece sticks to his back. Side note: Emmet is in love with Wyldstyle who is dating Batman which is voiced by Will Arnett. The hilarity that ensues thanks to that love triangle will make you laugh so hard you'll have a difficult time breathing.

The piece is the only thing that can thwart President Business' plans for destroying the planet. President Business, voiced by Will Ferrell is opposed by Vitruvius, voiced by Morgan Freeman who whenever suits him is either one hundred percent in the corner of Emmet or doubts he can get the job done. The job in question is to stop President Business from unleashing the Kragle on the world. The only thing that can stop the Kragle is the piece of resistance.

I won't get into what the Kragle is, just know it's an hilarious premise. Written by Dan and Phil Hageman, and the directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, The Lego Movie is at times raunchy, bawdy, bold, and always hilarious. It's also a serious commentary on life, conformity, and being so afraid to stick out that you compromise yourself to fit in. It may be a movie made of Lego pieces but it's got a serious theme underneath all the hi-jinks. The Lego Movie in my opinion is worth the price of admission. I'll see you at the theater because everything is awesome.  

RoboCop

RoboCop, the latest film from director Jose Padilha is in my opinion a complete waste of time, especially if you liked the original. This incarnation of RoboCop is a loud movie with a dated idea. In fact the person who green lit this 100 Million dollar fiasco should be looking for a new job. Because of that I give one bucket of Killer Korn.

The genius that put this production in the hands of the relative new comer Padilha, whose previous body of work consisted of four documentaries and two feature films is hopefully unemployed. Now I don't condone anyone losing their job ever, but to give one hundred million dollars to a man who had only previously done four documentaries and two films (Elite Squad and Elite Squad: Enemy Within) obviously has no idea what they were doing.  And while Jose Padilha may one day become an amazing director, RoboCop clearly shows that he was severely in over his head.

There really isn't much to say about RoboCop's story line that you don't already know. Cop is almost killed, get's put into machine by evil corporation, seeks to take down evil corporation, yadda, yadda, yadda. This time however, the so called "updated" idea is the evil corporation headed by genial Raymond Sellars, played by Micheal Keaton (who seems to be on the comeback trail), wants to put robotic personnel in American cities and have them then police American citizens. Backing him is THE right wing talk show host of the day Pat Novak, played by Laurence Fish err Samuel L. Jackson. Senator Hubert Dryfuss, played by Zach Grenier passed a law which won't allow Omni Corp. to police America with robots. 

Undeterred, Raymond thinks what the people want is a machine with a soul. So he sets about putting a man in a machine, enter detective Alex Murphy, played by Joel Kinnaman. He gets blown to bits and his wife Clara Murphy, played by Abbie Cornish signs off on the whole "put my husband in the machine" thing. That allows Dr. Dennett Norton, played by Gary Oldman to do just that. Robo/Alex is then put through his paces by the seedy Rick Mattox who's played by the seedy looking Jackie Earle Haley. In the original film, Alex decides to take down the evil corporation after taking out their henchmen. This go round, Alex is after the dirty cops who were ordered to kill him. 

This RoboCop is tired, dated, and riddled with more plot holes than can be believed. Written by (if you can say that with a straight face) Joshua Zetumer, a man whose previous body of work included...NOTHING! THIS is his first screenplay. Once again, one hundred MILLION dollars handed to a director with no real experience, working off a screenplay by someone with NO experience. Add those two things together and is it any wonder that as of yesterday, this movie has only grossed thirty one million dollars domestically? Do not see this movie unless you need something to inspire you to see the original all over again. I'll see you at the theater.

  

Labor Day

Labor Day, the latest film from the talented writer/director Jason Reitman is a moving, mesmerizing tale of three very damaged and very loving people who need each other in such profound ways. This movie is a joy to watch, the performances are wonderful, and the pacing is superb. That's why I give Labor Day five buckets of Killer Korn.












I initially described Labor Day as "gorgeous", but it's more than that, so much more than that. What this film is/was is flawless. It's the first first of its kind of 2014 and that certainly wasn't what I was expecting going in. I am a fan of Jason Reitman's. Yeah, I said it! I loved Up In the Air, Thank You For Smoking, and Juno so I was definitely going to see this film even though I heard some describe the source material, the novel Labor Day penned by Joyce Maynard as tepid. I had faith in Jason though, and he didn't disappoint. Labor Day was written for the screen as well as directed by him and because of the way he mapped it out, I now wouldn't mind reading the book, just to compare.

This wonderful film stars Kate Winslet as the damaged but fiercely protective mother Adele. Gattlin Griffith is the self aware Henry, her loving, heartbroken young son who takes on the role of man of the house nicely, that is until bleeding escaped convict Frank shows up and demands a ride. At first Adele rebuffs him but when Frank chillingly puts his hand on the back of Henry's neck, she relents because Henry is all she has in the world.

The entire story takes place in a span of only three days, the labor day weekend right before Henry is to start the 7th grade. It also primarily takes place in Adele's house which would be a challenge to any filmmaker but Jason handles it with aplomb. Instead of turning the house into a character, Jason turned it into a maze with turns and twists and off rooms that made the house seem bigger. When all three arrive at the house, Frank helps bring in the groceries, and after having his wound attended to, proceeds to repair things around the house that needed repair. He explained to Adele that she was being shorted by the fire wood salesman, he cooks for them, and while Adele is tied up, strictly for appearances should any neighbors stop by, he slowly feeds her a bowl of chili. And he lays down a path for Henry to follow by showing them how to bake a peach pie.

His plan is to make a run for the train but he's convinced to stay by both Adele and Henry for fear that his stitches from having his appendix removed may reopen. The reasons why they asked and Frank stayed are simple. Adele longed for human touch again, Henry longed for approval by a father figure, and Frank wanted to be needed again.

Labor Day is a wonderfully multi-layered yarn with rich characters who've been through and endured such pain, you wonder how they were able to carry on at times. The story takes place in 1987 so it was in the same time frame as when the film Super 8 takes place. The sets, the clothes, and the cars were era perfect. The film was shot beautifully, cinematographer Eric Steelberg did a wonderful job of capturing this movie just right. Nothing was too garish or too startling. It was never too bright or too dark, and the tones were perfect.

Scored by Rolfe Kent, the creative mind behind the music of Up In the Air, Thank You For Smoking, Reign Over Me and many others helps this movie come alive. The score is pitch perfect and it completes the puzzle beautifully. I highly recommend Labor Day, it is the one flawless film  you would be sorry you missed, and I'll see you at the theater.