Movie of the Day: "The Dirty Dozen" (1967)

In honor of Memorial Day, I direct you towards the May movies, which have celebrated it all month long, but here's an extra recommendation that I didn't get a chance to note for either "In Commemoration" month. The Dirty Dozen is an awesome action film that still has the power to thrill and excite anyone who watches it. Starring Lee Marvin as a major who's assigned a top secret mission ahead of the D-Day invasion- to gather a group of the army's felons and convicts to raid a meeting where some of the top Nazi officers will be gathered, and take out as many as possible. The ragtag group consists of rebels like Telly Savalas, John Cassevetes and Charles Bronson, who are all willing to go along with the suicide mission- they may be criminals, but they're still patriots, damnit! A lot of this inspired Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds years later, and it's still an exciting precedent for the many other classic war films that followed it.

Original Trailer:

REVIEW: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014) Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy. Dir. Bryan Singer

Bryan Singer returns to helm the latest X-Men movie and it's pretty much a winner, following in the vein of his original two entries in the series (which were my favorites) and uniting the cast of the previous films with that of 2011's reboot, X-Men:First Class, for the most complicated, convoluted X-Men tale yet. Luckily, the clever script intertwines past and present timelines in as straightforward a way as possible, and with the ever present Wolverine as our guide between worlds it turns out to be a fun, twisty and high minded injection of energy into the 14-year old franchise.

It could be argued that 2000's X-Men was the movie that kicked off the era of the perpetual superhero film that we now live in, and in this current world, with each new entry in the genre comes dwindling hope in finding something fresh in any of these comic book stories. The best of this year's crop included Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which held up a mirror to corrupted government institutions that clearly paralleled our own, and now X-Men: Days of Future Past finds some new and somewhat clever material in the time-travel genre, always a risky, loophole filled area of science fiction that threatens to boggle the mind of the viewer, as well as the time traveler in question. In this case, that's Wolverine, our steadfast and reliable central X-Man, as always played by Hugh Jackman, who somehow gets buffer and better looking with every new film. In an apocalyptic future we join up with what's left of the original crew, including Wolvie, Storm, Iceman, and of course, Professor X and Magneto, played once again by aging stalwarts Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. In this world, massive machines called the Sentinels have taken over and are targeting mutants for extinction, thereby forcing the old gang into hiding where they have to battle it out with the robots every day, prolonging the inevitable until they can figure out a solution.

Now they think they have, as DOFP is inspired by one of the X-Men comic's most famous story lines, in which mutant Kitty Pryde goes back in time to try and erase the existence of the Sentinels. Kitty Pryde is here played by Ellen Page, reprising her role from 2006's The Last Stand, although her screentime is limited, since the time traveling role in the film is given to Wolverine, and she's simply the tool through which they send his mind back to his younger self- in 1973 to be exact. Once there he must meet up with the younger mutants and get them back together to stop Mystique, who is the vessel through which the path of destruction is set. Most of the action takes place in the past, where we get to see Jackman team up with the young Charles and Erik, who are still facing the problems of their split in First Class, which this movie essentially functions as a sequel to. The standout this time is James McAvoy as the emotionally damaged young Charles, who's suffering the loss of his legs and treating it with a drug that will bring back his ability to walk while wiping out the use of his powers. McAvoy brings a charisma and energy to the role that gets a bigger chance to shine here than it did in the last film, since the screenplay gets rid of virtually all the extraneous characters in that movie, keeping just Charles, Erik, Mystique and Beast as the important mutants in play.

Fassbender is terrific again as young Magneto, and one of the highlights of this film, as it was before, is the interaction between Charles and Erik, who share a chemistry and rapport that allows us to believe they will eventually become the older and wiser versions of themselves that we're so familiar with. Jennifer Lawrence also returns as Mystique, and thankfully her role has improved since her last appearance, as the film makes her character and her choices the primary vehicle through which all future events depend. Of course, this drastically alters her part in the original X-Men movies, as this Mystique resembles virtually nothing of the villain anyone familiar with the original trilogy remembers. And given her role in creating that hellfire version of the future, what does that say about what happened to the Mystique from the old films? Did she never exist? Of all the loopy time frame questions this story line brings up, that's my biggest one- this movie actually starts off with Patrick Stewart's Xavier re-telling the story of his relationship with Mystique to mutants who all react as if they've never before heard her name, which makes no sense.

But obviously those are the kinds of nitpicks that always occur in "altering the timeline" sci-fi stories, and as such, that's hardly a reason to not see it. It's filled with the kind of action and characters that make for the best summer popcorn movies, while managing at least a little bit to challenge you to keep up with its time-bending structure. One of the best action scenes belongs to new mutant Quicksilver (Evan Peters) who nearly steals the movie in a small role where he moves at lightning quick speed and we see through his eyes what passes in less than a second for those around him (think of it as comparable to the famed Nightcrawler opening of X2). The 70's set sequences radiate a similar kind of period energy that recalls the best parts of First Class, and even gives us a hilarious Richard Nixon impersonation from actor Mark Comacho, (our 37th president was apparently in on some of the mutant-led activity during the Paris Peace Talks of '73). Best of all, the new timeline virtually wipes the slate clean on the events of the first three X-Men movies, which is tolerable if it means we can all pretend that X3: The Last Stand never took place (I know I'd certainly like to), and sets up the possibility of sequels set with either the old cast or the newbies (although I suspect aside from Hugh Jackman, any new X-Men films are likely to want the younger, fresher faces involved).

Days of Future Past gives you everything you might want in a summer action film, while asking just enough of you in return. In some movies that can be lazy, but done well, as it is here, it's a fun and rather ingenious trip back in time, and certainly the most ambitious X-Men film yet made. And hey, any artistic ambition in a summer blockbuster? I'll take it.

* * *

BOX OFFICE 5/23-5/25: 'X-Men' Sails to the Top Over Memorial Day Weekend

X-Men: Days of Future Past opened to $90 million from Fri-Sun, and seems poised to bring in about $107 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. That's just slightly less than X-Men: The Last Stand, back in 2006 over the same holiday, which could be considered a bit disappointing for 20th Century Fox, given all the hype directed at this one. But the X-Men movies look to have a definite ceiling no matter who's in them, at least in the United States. Worldwide it's a completely different story, as DOFP has already made $171 million overseas for a $261 million worldwide total. Given that no X-Men movie has ever grossed even half a billion worldwide before, that's pretty astonishing, and it also means that any superhero movie these days is pretty much guaranteed a gigantic overseas total, no matter what it is. DOFP was incredibly well-reviewed (91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and got an "A" Cinemascore, so it may hold better than the typical X-Men movie domestically, but we'll see.

The other new release this week bombed hard, as the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore comedy Blended fell flat with just $14 million. It got the usual terrible reviews for an Adam Sandler movie, but his comedies are normally bulletproof in that area and he can still bring in $30-40 million openings with stuff like Grown-Ups 2. Not so with this one, despite the reunion with his best co-star, the only person he's ever had any chemistry with onscreen. Could the days of Adam Sandler's reign finally be over? One can only hope. Last week's blockbuster Godzilla fell a surprisingly steep 66% for $31 million this weekend, meaning the word of mouth on this movie was pretty harsh, but it's still likely to make at least $200 million in the end. The rest of the top five was filled out by Neighbors ($117 million total) and Amazing Spider-Man 2, which is another film that may have fell short of predictions in the U.S. but is a monster hit overseas, speaking to the troubling irrelevance of quality in foreign markets when it comes to action and franchise movies. That's an unfortunate trend.

Top 5:

X-Men: Days of Future Past- $90.7 million
Godzilla- $$31.4 million
Blended- $14.2 milliion
Neighbors- $13.9 million
The Amazing Spider-Man 2- $7.8 million

In limited release, Chef expanded to more theaters this weekend, earning $2.2 million for a total of $4.3 million, while Heaven is For Real has now grossed an amazing $86 million total. Next week it's Angelina Jolie's Maleficent and Seth MacFarlane's One Million Ways to Die in the West. See you then!

'Winter Sleep' Wins the Palme d'Or

The Cannes Film Festival jury handed out its prizes today, ahead of the fest's official closing tomorrow. Surprisingly, the coveted Palme D'Or went to the three and a half hour Turkish film Winter Sleep, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, which received respectfully positive reaction at its premiere, but hardly ecstatic. The jury tastes though are often unpredictable at these festivals. Here's how the rest of the awards shook out:

Palme d'Or: Winter Sleep
Best Director: Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Best Actor: Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Maps to the Stars
Grand Prix: The Wonders
Jury Prize: Mommy, Goodbye to Language
Best Screenplay: Leviathan

The Cannes honors normally don't mean much for Oscars later on in the year, although I'm sure that Bennett Miller and Timothy Spall in particular will continue to be talked about in the coming months.

Cannes Roundup #2: Homesman, HTTYD2, Eleanor Rigby

The final roundup for the Cannes Film Festival takes a look at several more of the films that caught my interest over the past week and a half, although the truth is that most of the movies this year appeared to be disappointing, leaving the later, upcoming fall festivals, like Venice, Telluride and Toronto to debut the more anticipated films this year.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2- Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett. Dir. Dean DuBlois

Happily, HTTYD2 debuted to highly positive reviews at Cannes, indicating that the sequel is well on its way to becoming well received here in the U.S. when it opens on June 13th. Probably an early frontrunner for Best Animated Feature, seeing how the first one was nominated and likely would have won had it not been for Toy Story 3 that same year.

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett on the red carpet

"Going beyond the pat eco-conscious message that every kids' film has to have, 'HTTYD2' touches on how complex the emotional bond between a person and an animal can be." (Hollywood Reporter)

"This DreamWorks Animation sequel advances the story without sacrificing the integrity that defined its most atypical toon." (Variety)

"When the film flies, it soars." (Daily Telegraph)

THE HOMESMAN- Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank. Dir. Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones's feminist western and second directorial feature received some of the mixed reviews that characterized so many films out of Cannes this year. The wildly mixed-negative reaction to it probably means it's a non-starter in terms of awards consideration and its uneven and at times surreal tone makes it sound like one of the odder entries of the festival.

"It doesn't help that Swank never finds a way into this highly unappealing character, or that Jones (Mostly phoning in the pitiable surliness) avoids delving very deeply into the story's proto-feminist undercurrents." (Time Out New York)

"Unlike other actor-directors, Jones never seems to indulge excess on the part of his cast. Though the characters are strong, the performances are understated." (Variety)

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY- Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy. Dir. Ned Benson

First time writer-director Ned Benson's relationship drama has been cut into three versions of the same film. Two versions of this debuted back at Toronto to warm reviews, and this new one received a measured positive response as well, more for the performances than the film itself. It's the melodramatic story of a marriage told from two different perspectives- Her and Him were the titles of the two separate films, one from Chastain's point of view and the other from McAvoy's. This combined cut is called Them and will be the one released on September 26th in the U.S. Harvey Weinstein has this movie on his fall slate and will likely push for awards attention for Jessica Chastain, who's said to have given another great lead performance (cementing her burgeoning reputation as this generation's potential Meryl Streep).

Jessica Chastain premieres her new movie

"In all its versions 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby' is a film of marked ambition that turns out to know a fair bit about love and loss and the various ways in which we do and don't grow up to become our parents." (Variety)

"The film really belongs to McAvoy and Chastain, who do close to career-best work here...they're never better than when they're sharing the screen." (The Playlist)

TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT- Marion Cotillard. Dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

The new film by the Dardennes brothers, famed French filmmakers in their home country of Belgium, premiered to a solid, highly enthusiastic reaction from the festival audience, and boasts a killer central performance from Marion Cotillard (who can't seem to land a leading role in Hollywood, sadly). It's a socioeconomic drama about a woman who has to go door to door to beg her co-workers to vote for her to keep her job over getting a pay raise if she's fired by their company. This one definitely sounds like a standout to me, so I'll be keeping and eye out for it.

"Specialists in unvarnished intimacy, the Dardenne brothers add another clear-eyed contemplation of stark social reality to their impressive output." (Hollywood Reporter)

"A powerful, finely scripted issue movie, made all the more incisive by Marion Cotillard's raw performance as a woman fighting to save her job while suffering depression." (Screen International)

Trailer:

TRAILER: "Life, Itself"

Aww. It makes me sad just seeing the trailer for this. The Roger Ebert documentary directed by Steve James (Hoop Dreams) is coming out July 4th, and was praised to the skies when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival a while back. I can't wait to see it and yet I also know it's going to have me bawling by the end. Anyone who loves movies and wants to write about movies needs no explanation as to what a towering influence Roger Ebert was, up until the day he died. I'm just glad you can still hear his voice in the thousands of reviews and essays he left behind.

FEATURETTE: "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"

In what's sure to be a much better film with the word "dawn" in the title, here's a mini-featurette showing all the motion capture that goes into creating the apes for the new Planet of the Apes movies. There's still debate being raged over whether the more and more frequently used motion capture technology should be considered acting or not. Many actors certainly don't think so, but they're probably biased and worried over what this could signal about the necessity of their jobs in the future. All I know is that Andy Serkis personally deserves some kind of recognition for all the characters he's created in the last ten years- Gollum, King Kong and Caesar didn't come from nothing.

Batman/Superman Title Revealed...

So here it is guys. Took 'em long enough, but the official title for the heavily hyped Batman/Superman movie (now complete with logo) is...Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Boy that's a mouthful isn't it? And what's with the "v" instead of "vs."? Is Batman taking Superman to court? Hopefully that profoundly stupid title will be perfectly fitting to what's bound to be one hot mess of a movie- that is if it's anything like Zack Snyder's other horrible movies, and given that he's, you know, directing, I'm assuming it will be.

TRAILER: "Magic in the Moonlight"

Woody Allen's latest is coming out July 25th and it looks to be another period fantasy comedy in the vein of Midnight in Paris (even the title looks to be trying to ride the coattails of that sleeper hit). With his last film, Blue Jasmine, being well received and leading to Cate Blanchett's Oscar win, I can't help but be skeptical of this one, simply because it's been forever since the hit and miss Allen had two decent movies in a row- but this doesn't look too bad actually. Emma Stone has recently signed on to star in the director's next movie as well, which means he liked her enough to want her to stick around. Maybe she has the comedy chops that remind him of a young Diane Keaton or Mia Farrow.

Cannes Roundup #1: Foxcatcher, Mr. Turner, Maps to the Stars

It was a busy first week at the Cannes Film Festival, although some would say that most of the films that have premiered this year have been met with mixed-negative reviews so far, leading some critics and bloggers to pronounce the fest a bit underwhelming. Still, there are a few standouts to take a look at. I'll be back in a few days with more of the smaller movies, but for now here are three of the most talked about films on the circuit:

MR. TURNER- Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville. Dir. Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh's epic biopic about the life of J.M.W. Turner was the first raved about film to premiere at Cannes, garnering nearly unanimous acclaim for both the film and its star, often overlooked character actor Timothy Spall. This would seem to be a surefire Oscar contender much later in the year when it's released in the U.S. (not until December 19th), but it will have to hang on a good long while, waiting for other movies are to come out and perhaps ceding its chance to become the critics' darling (although support from British critics seems guaranteed). Apparently it's also a bit reserved, which is Mike Leigh's unique style, and as such will always have some naysayers- but since I'm someone who hasn't disliked a single film of Leigh's, to me it sounds amazing:

"Mike Leigh's biopic of JMW Turner is a rambling, richly detailed character study with a magnificent central performance from Timothy Spall." (The Independent)

"'Mr. Turner' feels like a perfect summation of Leigh's career. Bold, beautiful and a little cranky." (VF)

"It's funny and visually immaculate; it combines domestic intimacy with an epic sweep and has a lyrical, mysterious quality that perfumes every scene, whether tragic or comic." (Guardian)

"Leigh has made another highly personal study of art, commerce and the glacial progress of establishment tastes, built around a lead performance from longtime Leigh collaborator Timothy Spall that's as majestic as one of Turner's own swirling sunsets." (Variety)

MAPS TO THE STARS- Julianne Moore (above), Mia Wasikowska. Dir. David Cronenberg

Like Mike Leigh, David Cronenberg is another auteur with a signature style that lends almost all his movies an air of divisiveness, and Maps to the Stars is no exception. This film proved bitterly divisive at Cannes, with some largely in favor of it while others proclaim it doesn't work at all. A twisted Hollywood satire starring Julianne Moore, who's said to give a bold and raw performance as a desperate, aging movie star, this will probably come nowhere near awards, as dissecting Hollywood in a negative way has never been the Academy's cup of tea. But it may turn out to be a favorite among some critics. As of now, the reaction is a little too mixed to predict where this one might land, but a Cronenberg film is always interesting nonetheless.

"This Canadian-German co-production looks sharp but, in the end, comes off like a prank more than a coherent take on 21st century Hollywood, even if there are crumbs of truth and wit scattered throughout it." (Hollywood Reporter)

"Cronenberg locates a deeply sick spirit in his take and explores it through far-fetched fiction told with deadly seriousness, also adding a dose of baroque to proceedings and a streak of wicked humour." (Time Out)

"There's so much in this seething cauldron of a film, so many film-industry neuroses exposed and horrors nested within horrors, that one viewing is too much, and not nearly enough. Cronenberg has made a film that you want to unsee- and then see and unsee again." (Daily Telegraph)

"Casting isn't nearly as big a problem as the feeling that most of (screenwriter) Wagner's criticisms were hatched in the early '90s, in a pre-smartphone era, before the Internet got nasty and back when the line 'Harvey's Harvey' would have packed a lot more punch." (Variety)

FOXCATCHER- Steve Carell (above), Channing Tatum. Dir. Bennett Miller

The other heavyweight contender to emerge from the first week of Cannes was Foxcatcher, which entered the festival as a predicted heavy hitter and seemed to deliver, making it the third highly acclaimed feature in a row for director Bennett Miller. Performances were praised as well as direction and scope of the movie's themes, and most seem to think Steve Carell is a lock for an Oscar nomination for his mesmerizing turn as the murderous psychopath John Du Pont, although it hasn't been decided whether he'll be placed in the lead or supporting category. Believe it or not, based on the early word, even Channing Tatum has a chance to get Oscar attention for this (although that's probably an uphill battle) along with Mark Ruffalo, who's been there before, and it's going to be a likely candidate for Picture, Director, Screenplay and other tech nods as well. It does sound extremely dark and disturbing though, more along the lines of Capote in terms of an unsettling character study, so I wouldn't think this would be major hit with audiences. And comparisons to The Master are a little troubling as well in terms of awards prospects- although critically raved about, that movie was extremely divisive and inaccessible, managing to land nods only for its actors in the end. But I guess we'll see:

"A film to be considered along with David Fincher's 'The Social Network,' and Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master' as a swirling, smoke-black parable of modern America." (Daily Telegraph)

"We're left with an acrid, anguished commentary on the temptations of wealth, the abuse of power and the downside of the human drive for success, as a picture that, in setting a cold-blooded account of a true crime in the world of competitive sports, retains a faint, narrative kinship with both 'Capote' and 'Moneyball.'" (Variety)

Channing Tatum at the 'Foxcatcher' photo call

"Centered on an astonishing and utterly unexpected serious turn by Steve Carell, this beautifully modulated work has a great deal on its mind about America's privileged class, usurious relationships, men's ways of proving themselves, brotherly bonds and how deeply sublimated urges can assert themselves in the most unsavory ways." (Hollywood Reporter)

"Channing Tatum's Mark is vulnerable and sad; Mark Ruffalo's Dave is smart and professional; and Steve Carell's Du Pont is a compelling monster- but a monster who inspires not fear but pity." (Guardian)

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Ace in the Hole" (1951)

Billy Wilder was known for his cynical eye, but this movie's got to be the darkest and most cynical he ever made. Recently released on blu-ray, Ace in the Hole boasts a powerhouse performance from Kirk Douglas (did he ever give any other kind?) as the reporter sent to cover an accident where coal miners are trapped underground. You may be shocked at how far this movie is willing to go in terms of its darkness and lack of human empathy, especially over such a realistic incident (that still occurs) and the time in which it was made. But Wilder was always ahead of his time and could foresee the media circus that journalism would become even before such foreshadowing classics as Network. This was not a hit at the time (not hard to see why), but it holds up eerily today as more relevant than ever. Check it out.

Original Trailer from 1951:

TEASER: "Foxcatcher"

Fresh off its premiere in Cannes yesterday, here's the teaser for Foxcatcher, the new true crime drama from Bennett Miller, with Steve Carell and Channing Tatum. Aside from Mr. Turner, Foxcatcher is the other movie of the festival to receive rave reviews, especially for its performances by Carell and Tatum. It's being hailed as a major Oscar player, which I'm sure it will be when it comes out in November. Looks like Miller is now three for three, after Capote and Moneyball, which certainly makes him a director to be reckoned with.