The Fantastic Four is not a movie. It’s a set up for the actual movie that has yet to come out. It is a boring slog of an origin story about a team of young geniuses who become superhuman. Reed Richards (Miles Teller) becomes the elastic Mr. Fantastic. Sue Storm (Kate Mara) is the Invisible woman; the excellent Michael B Jordan is Johnny Storm A.K.A. The Human Torch and fan favorite Ben “The Thing” Grimm, is played by Jamie Bell. All the cast does fine work. But again, this is your standard, run of the mill, superhero film that proves to me that audiences will eat just about anything Marvel throws at them. After the first two campy and awful F4 films in 2005 and 2007, why did they think we needed a darker, serious movie? Money, that’s why. Shove a hot young cast in a speacial effects laden film with a script that was written on the back of a cocktail napkin and you have a movie.
P.S. Took my kid to the late night screening and he thought it sucked too.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a great movie. Hands down, this installment, number 5, is the best one of them all. How this series doesn’t get worn down with age is beyond me. Tom Cruise is a movie star. Say what you will about the man, I will take him over all the Channing Tatum’s, Jason Statham’s and Mark Wahlberg’s of the world when it comes to true blue action films. This guy has charisma to burn, is in top shape and isn’t afraid to do his own stunts. The much advertised sequence when he hangs off the side of a Russian airline is spectacular — and that’s just in the trailer. Let the sequence play out and you’ll be gasping for breath before the opening credits. The car chase that turns into a motorcycle chase in Casablanca will leave you exhausted and laughing your butt off at the same time. The actual mission impossible break in that involves our hero jumping in a chute of water to de-program a security system is – well, that is what mission impossible is all about. Watch this one and prepare to be amazed.
Southpaw has one thing going for it and that is Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie is about a boxer who suffers a family tragedy that results in the loss of his daughter to child services. He has to become a better father by cleaning up and getting a ordinary job but then meets an older trainer who helps him get back into the ring and….I’m pretty sure you know the rest. This is nothing new. The title should be Cliché. Not saying the film is a bad. It is not. It’s just — ordinary. A plain Jane film with a knockout performance by Gyllenhaal who is turning in our new De Niro. He immerses himself into his roles. From last year’s sickly reporter in Nightcrawler to the beefed up monster in Southpaw, he impresses. I wish the film did the same thing.
