Avengers:
The Age of Ultron *** ½

Short Take: An unbelievably convoluted plot, too many characters, and overbearing special effects made this a real endurance contest for me, but fans of the series will feel differently.

Reel Take: “The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax… and why are there so many superhero movies?” My apologies to Lewis Carroll but the time has come for me to ask such a question since there is now an onslaught of this type of film and I have to review them.

The obvious answer is, of course, money. Now that the overseas box office has overtaken the domestic one, the studios release these movies there first and recover their costs before they ever open here. The Far East in particular can’t seem to get enough of them. It must be like martial arts on steroids for them.

However, I have another answer as to why they are popular. I believe there is something cyclical going on here. Back in the 1950s, Cinemascope religious epics like The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur were all the rage. In the 1980s, it was mammoth biopics like Gandhi or Reds. Now 30 years later, it’s the superhero movie. Hopefully, it will be over soon and fortunately I won’t be around 30 years from now to see what the next “flavor of the month” will be.

Well, enough of this digression and pontification, what of the movie itself? Avengers: The Age of Ultron is very big, it’s (too) long, and it’s (way too) loud! In other words, it’s a typical Marvel movie, full of big name performers (too many), overly dramatic music (makes Wagner sound like Chopin), and enough time devoted to computer generated imagery to make three old school B movies.

There are also too many superhero characters for one film. If they were blood related, it would be considered incestuous. It reminded me of the old 1940s Universal Monsterfests that featured Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, and a mad scientist all thrown together. To quote a critical view of that type of film from the 1940s “too many ghouls spoil the broth.”

The plot of Ultron, for those of you who care, is incredibly convoluted but I’ll try my best to summarize it. Tony Stark (Iron Man) implements Ultron, an artificial intelligence global defense system that decides the only way to save Earth is to destroy humanity. The numerous Avengers band together to destroy it, which they do, but only after massive destruction occurs.

All of the old Avengers are back and this time around two new members are added which should provide plenty of material for future sequels. Fans of these movies will continue to flock to them, but if the budgets continue to climb (Ultron’s was $280 million), they’ll eventually reach the point of no return. Unfortunately for me, that won’t be soon enough.

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, and suggestive content.

Review by Chip Kaufmann

Far From the Madding Crowd *****

Short Take: A beautifully filmed, streamlined adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel.

REEL TAKE: If you’ve read Reel Takes for a while, you’ll know that we’re suckers for a good costume drama. But in the case of Thomas Vinterburg’s (The Hunt) adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd I was a little wary. I read the book (or at least the Cliff Notes) in an AP English class in high school and wasn’t crazy about it at the time. Our teacher had a penchant for classic novels with tragic, tortured and otherwise conflicted female heroines. It was a penchant that I did not share. Adding to my general aggravation with the story was the 1967 film adaptation starring Julie Christie. What some considered epic, I considered bloated.

Fortunately all trepidation was wiped away by Vinterburg’s beautiful distillation of the Hardy’s story. The photography is sumptuous, the acting pitch perfect and the narrative is streamlined with respect to the source material, and due respect to running time. It not only surpassed expectations, but will no doubt be on my top ten list at year end.

Far From the Madding Crowd tells the story of Bathsheba Everdine (Carey Mulligan), a strong-willed, independent young woman in Victorian England and her relationship with three suitors; the stoic yet quietly charismatic sheep farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), the mild-mannered gentleman Mr. Boldwood (Michael Sheen), and the dashing but rakish Sergeant Troy (Tom Sturridge).

Orphaned as a young girl and raised by an aunt, Bathsheba is educated but not a person of means. When an inheritance jettisons her position to a member of the landed gentry, she becomes an oddity for the age – a single woman and business owner, running a productive farm.

Her new-found financial independence also gives her the ability to thwart marriage proposals. While she’s not eager to marry, she does not toy with the affections of her suitors. She is honest, candid and kind. However her fierce independence does not mean she possesses emotional intelligence. This is an attribute that comes with time, and lessons learned via poor choices and bad judgment calls. While romance may be at the heart of Far From the Madding Crowd, the story is made from all the richer layers of societal mores, prevailing attitudes and personal growth.

I was unconvinced that Mulligan was the best choice for the role as Bathsheba, but she absolutely shines. It may be her best performance to date. Sheen gives a heartbreakingly delicate performance as the melancholy Mr. Boldwood. Sturridge is solid as the sword wielding Sergeant Troy. But it is Matthias Schoenaerts who damn near steals the show as Farmer Oak.

The Belgian actor’s English accent has been criticized by some, but [for me] it matters not. Schoenaerts inhabits his character with a strength and grace that is positively arresting. You hinge on his every word (spare though they may be). He and Mulligan have good chemistry which serves the film’s narrative to great effect.

Far From the Madding Crowd’s target audience is obviously the Merchant Ivory costume drama type; a demographic that will no doubt be pleased with the results. It may however interest younger filmgoers to know that Bathsheba Everdine was the inspiration for the Suzanne Collins’ Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games trilogy. Perhaps they’ll be motivated to explore the story that helped influence a beloved heroine for their generation. I myself will be revisiting the film and the novel without a thought of Miss Hubbard’s AP English class.

Rated PG-13 for some sexuality and violence.

Review by Michelle Keenan

Mad Max: Fury Road *** ½

Short Take: Director George Miller returns to the Mad Max franchise after 30 years and delivers a too over-the-top dystopian fantasy with a feminist angle thrown in for good measure.

Reel Take: I am old enough to have seen the original Mad Max when it was released back in 1979. I also was present at a number of Road Warrior parties during the early 1980s. I disliked Mad Max the first time I saw it but found it positively enchanting when Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) came out in 1981. I still haven’t seen Mad Max 3: Beyond the Thunderdome (1985).

So now 30 years later and with two successful animated features (Happy Feet, Happy Feet 2) behind him, Australian director George Miller, having recovered from the fiasco of Babe: Pig in the City (1988), has decided to return to his roots and has given us Mad Max: Fury Road.

Think of it as The Road Warrior on a combination of nitrous oxide and steroids. While we get some incredible set pieces, we also get them going on for far too long. I call this the IMAX factor where sequences designed to show off that process seem to exist for no other reason than to satisfy video game junkies who have moved on to harder stuff.

We’re back in a dystopian future only this time the precious commodity is water not oil (although fuel is still important). A disfigured cult leader, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), stockpiles water so that he can hold the surviving community around him enslaved. He also has a harem of Playboy like lovelies to serve as breeders and his many sons do all the work that needs to be done.

Everything is fine until a disgruntled warrior, Furiosa, with a mechanical arm (Charlize Theron) kidnaps the harem and sets out to find a legendary “green place” inhabited by women where they can all live in peace. Immortan Joe and his minions pursue them and that’s essentially it. Where is Mad Max you say? He is chained to the front of a vehicle and acts as a human GPS. He does escape and joins forces with Furiosa to try and get the escapees there.

Tom Hardy, in Mel Gibson’s star making role, really isn’t given a lot to do and he looks bored. While Hardy is certainly the better actor, at least Gibson was engaged. Theron makes the most of her warrior role and there is a definite feminist slant to the proceedings which is fine but it takes too long to get there.

There are some number of surreal touches such as Immortan Joe’s face mask which looks like Bane from The Dark Knight Rises with a Buick Roadmaster grill attached and the use of Cirque du Soleil members as pole swinging cult members but they are only fleeting moments. There’s a great movie here, but this isn’t it.

Rated R for intense sequences of violence and for disturbing images.

Review by Chip Kaufmann

Hot Pursuit ***

Short Take: Amiable comedy covers familiar territory but still manages to be an effective time killer made quite enjoyable by its two high profile stars.

Reel Take: Hot Pursuit is easily the weakest from a critical POV of the three movies that I reviewed this month but, paradoxically, it was the one I enjoyed the most. There were a number of reasons for this. 1) It doesn’t run longer than it needs to. 2) It’s unpretentious. 3) It is pleasantly though not outrageously funny. 4) It features agreeable performances from the two leads.

This movie is an excellent example of a film that is made to please a mainstream audience. Judging from the audience that I saw it with (myself included), it succeeded. We had a good time. Chuckles instead of belly laughs were the order of the day and everyone left happy. True, it was an older audience (no one was silencing their cell phones or texting during the movie), but there are very few movies that serve their needs these days.

Reese Witherspoon, making a welcome return to comedy, portrays an uptight cop who must transport a widow (Sofia Vergara) to testify against the head of the drug cartel her husband worked for. Naturally there will be many trials and tribulations along the way including double crosses, escape attempts, numerous costume changes, and a final showdown.

Think of Midnight Run with a female Barney Fife more neurotic than Don Knotts and a female Ricky Ricardo complete with outrageous mangling of the English language and you’ll have some idea of what to expect. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with predictability if that’s what you want.

As might be expected, Hot Pursuit has received a critical drubbing but I’m surprised at just how much of one. It might even have garnered a negative number rating on Rotten Tomatoes by now. Lighten up folks! This is a simple, old fashioned comedy that features tried and true situations and holds no surprises. If it works, it works, and Hot Pursuit certainly did for me and the people I was with.

I suspect the inclusion of gay jokes and the broad ethnic humor may be partially responsible for this harsh reaction as our society seems to be coming more and more thin skinned with overreactions being the order of the day. There are really bigger things out there to get upset over.

I predict that Hot Pursuit will age gracefully and will be just as enjoyable years from now as it is today. Is it a great movie or a great comedy? No, it is an old-fashioned type of lightweight comedy, tailored to it stars’ talents. The type of comedy that Hollywood used to crank out by the dozens for an everyday audience who wanted nothing more than to escape the daily grind for a couple of hours. In that regard Hot Pursuit succeeds admirably and should not be penalized for being exactly what it set out to be.

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, violence, language, and drug related material.

Review by Chip Kaufmann