Summer Movie Wrap-Up: June

June:

June was a decent month for film, but featured two big budget sci-fi films that were love letters to Steven Spielberg. One was great, the other just CGI porn. Take a wild guess what film I’m talking about, I wish it was Bad Teacher.

Super 8:

Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler
Rated: PG-13

It’s difficult to tell sometimes if J.J Abrams is following in Spielberg‘s footsteps or trying to walk in them. Abrams has proven to be a competent director and storyteller especially with the fantastic reboot of “Star Trek.” “Super 8” is Abram‘s homage to the heyday of Sci-Fi paranoia films, low-budget movie-making, alien invasion flicks, and Adventure movies. The story of a small town in the 70’s and four kids making a low-budget horror film, when they accidentally witness a train crash that unleashes a deadly monster among their town. Abrams does a condemnable job for 2/3 of the film building the right amount of character drama, tension, and humor. Abrams is a great builder of suspense but the ending feels too cliche, cheesy, and ambiguous. The standouts of the film and the glue that holds it together are the main child actors who are among the best to ever be featured in a film. They posses the right amount of believability, childlike wonder, heart, and likability to help the movie be way more fun and exciting than you’d think. The children actors mixed with the nostalgia of being with friends making cheap films is what gives the film the resonance it needs. Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney are superstars in the making. Their performances elevate the film to something magical and heartfelt. They’re honest and real in their performances and are really the most worthwhile part of “Super 8,” and what it will most be remembered for.

Rating: 7/10

Bad Teacher:

Directed By: Jake Kasdan
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Jason Segal
Rated: R

Cameron Diaz is a great comedic actress but Is also stuck with the dumb blonde role. In “Bad Teacher,” she finally gets a juicier role that gives her a chance to stretch her wings. She plays Elizabeth, a elementary school teacher whose engagement fell apart and now she needs a new sugar daddy. She meets the new substitute played by Justin Timberlake, a wealthy, naive teacher in a nerdy role that feels too forced, and realizes she needs bigger tatas to get the man she wants. Diaz slips into the role of the foul-mouthed, slutty, scantily clad teacher and is hilarious and a great anti-hero, but Billy Bob Thornton she ain’t. “Bad Santa,” a similar film made it’s despicable main character redeemable while this film expects us to root for Diaz even though her questionable choices compromise multiple people’s careers and lives, not to mention a classroom full of students. At the end of the film, the character learns nothing, and gets away with being a criminal, and everything works out without consequences. The film’s biggest redeeming quality is good-natured Gym teacher played by Jason Segal and overly nosy rival teacher played by Lucy Punch. Both play their roles equally hilarious and are the only dimensional characters the film has. Much like the main character the film looks attractive, and has good support but nothing to fill out it’s bra with.

Rating: 4/10

Transformers: Dark of the Moon:

Directed By: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro
Rated: PG-13

I’ll admit I was a fan of the first “Transformers.” Much like Abram‘s “Super 8,” Michael Bay paid homage to tropes of popular Spielberg films and had a young charismatic Shia Lebeouf. “Transformers 2” however was a loud, noisy, visual rape of the human senses. I was hoping that “Transformers 3” would redeem itself, especially shooting in my Chicago hometown. Well, it was better than the second one. The film tries to cleverly recreate history by incorporating the Transformers with the moon landing, but that’s when the cleverness ends. Shia returns with a Megan Fox replacement played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Who made me giggle by saying autobots in a British accent, but overall I think did slightly better than Fox. The plot treads familiar ground with the Autobots defending Earth against another threat that has ties to the Autobots history and the moon landing. Shia, now deals with a hero complex and trying to find a real job. His character of Sam went from idealistic young boy with an alien car to whiny man-child. His presence is over-the-top and a tad annoying. The rest of the usual suspects from the first two films return but this time include throwaway roles from Oscar winners John Malkovich and Frances McDormand. The movie is visually stunning and has some eye-popping sequences including a sequence of a skyscraper collapsing while characters are trapped inside. The last 45 minutes are a battle royale in Downtown Chicago that is exciting with great eye candy, but fails to rev up the adrenaline of seeing it’s actors in life or death situations. With the third film, Bay has successfully completed his trilogy creating a new subgenre of the action film. “Slow Motion Metal Pornography”

Rating: 5/10

Best of the Superbowl Trailers

I didn’t care much for the Superbowl this year. The commercials were uninspired and meh compared to most years, featuring no real standouts, a game that I didn’t care much about, and a halftime show that was a technical mess amidst a Tron:Legacy backdrop. The most surprising thing was that multiple movie trailers were shown, showcasing new movie footage never before seen until the Super Bowl. Here’s what I thought about some of the biggest ones and which I thought were the 5 most memorable.

1. Cowboys & Aliens:

I’ve been very interested since the beginning in this Harrison Ford/Daniel Craig western/sci-fi hybrid movie. Two great actors, a genius concept, and the director of Iron Man at the helm. Well, the first full trailer left me underwhelmed and had not yet completely won me over. Once, I saw the Super Bowl spot the movie immediately jumped up to my must-see list. The 30-second spot gave me everything I wanted from the full trailer in one brief moment. Hell Yeah.

2. Super 8:

J.J. Abrams is known for having secret projects (Cloverfield) and is known for his love of old school sci-fi. The original teaser didn’t give us much in terms of story detail, but piqued my interest when we learned it was going to be some sort of 50’s alien invasion flick. The Super Bowl spot gives us a brief glimpse into the story in which it looks to be a small town under attack by an alien force. The spot makes us feel like we are seeing alot when in fact we are still seeing very little. Bravo.

3. Captain America:

This is a movie I hardly had any interest in. Especially since Chris Evans is the lead and I feel like he has become the quintessential comic-book action character (next to Ryan Reynolds) but was I shocked when I saw the spot and loved it. It looks to have Evan’s best comic book movie role (Fuck the Fantastic Four) and gives him an opportunity to finally mix his charm with his ass-kicking skills. Plus the movie has a great look and feel or maybe I’m a sucker for WWII nostalgia.

4. Thor:

Yes, Yes, we all know that I love Natalie Portman, but this movie looks to be an entertaining, fun movie. I really liked the full theatrical trailer for this film, and seeing a quick montage and getting more scenes of Portman and Hensworth together made me more excited to see if this movie pulls it off and lives up to it’s expectations.

5. Transformers: Dark of the Moon:

The first Transformers was a guilty pleasure, and the second left a terrible taste in my mouth. After seeing the wonderful teaser trailer for the film, showing fake moon landing footage, it left me feeling hopeful. The trailer moved quick, didn’t say much, but flaunted many cool vfx shots of Transformer action sequences, many of which are from my Chicago hometown. Loved the Optimus Prime shot at the end too. I’ll give Michael Bay a chance, after all, I’m just a 12-year old kid with ADD at heart.