Alice Through the Looking Glass review

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS:

BIG ON PRETTY VISUALS, BUT SHORT ON STORY!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** 1/2 out of 4

DISNEY

The White Queen, Alice, Mad Hatter, Time, and the Red Queen battling across time in Alice Through the Looking Glass

            Here we go, the sequel to the 2010 live-action re-imagining of Disney’s animated feature based on the Alice in Wonderland book. Basically this is the film that started the whole live-action remakes of Disney animated films trend, but they didn’t gain positive critical reception until last year’s Cinderella and last month’s The Jungle Book, in the director’s chair was cinematic nutcase and one of my favorite directors of all time, Tim Burton (Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie) and starred Mia Wasikowska (Albert Nobbs, Anna Karenina, Crimson Peak) as Alice.

            The film was a huge hit at the box office in 2010 and was one of the films that heavily advertised its use of 3D technology, which completely sold everyone because this came out a few months after James Cameron’s Avatar, which perfected the use of 3D in theaters and breathed new life into it, now it’s everywhere. Despite the film bringing in the green magic, the film received mixed reviews from critics and fans of the original book pretty much ripped it a new one, I can understand why believe it or not.

            I don’t hate the movie or anything, but I do acknowledge that the film is undeniably flawed and I get why fans of the book disliked it. It’s been a while since I last read the book or watch the original Disney animated film, but being a die-hard Tim Burton fan, I thought it was okay, not even close to being one of my all-time favorites but none of Burton’s films would make it onto my worst films of all-time list, no, not even his Planet of the Apes remake.

            Due to its success, we have the sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, with Burton returning as a producer and Wasikowska returning as Alice, but this time we have James Bobin (Da Ali G Show, The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted) in the director’s chair. And it’s definitely a step backwards from the 2010 film, the film is visually appealing and some of the characters get a laugh, but the plot is very standard, not very interesting, and as the film progresses it gets pretty ridiculous.

            After the defeat of the Jabberwocky, we find Alice spending the last three years following in her father’s footsteps and sailing the high seas. Once she gets to London she learns that her ex-fiancé, Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill-28 Days Later, Doctor Who, Mr. Turner) has taken over his father’s company and plans to get Alice to sell her father’s ship to him in exchange for her family home (Yeah, he’s basically our villain).

            Alice follows a butterfly through a magic mirror and she ends up back in Wonderland (PS: I refuse to call it Underland!) where she is greeted by the White Rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen-The Queen, Frost/Nixon, Tron: Legacy), Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry-Wilde, Gosford Park, The Hobbit 2 and 3), Bayard the Bloodhound (voiced by Timothy Spall-Harry Potter franchise, Enchanted, Mr. Turner), Mallymkun the Doormouse (voiced by Barbara Windsor-Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), the March Hare (voiced by Paul Whitehouse-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Finding Neverland, Corpse Bride), Absolem the Butterfly (voiced by the late, great, Alan Rickman-Die Hard, Harry Potter franchise, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas-Shaun of the Dead, Portlandia, Doctor Who), and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway-The Dark Knight Rises, Les Miserables, Interstellar), and just in time because it’s apparently Tea Time.

            Alice’s friends inform her that something strange is going on with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp-Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), apparently he’s become very sad and depressed due to something terrible that happened in the past, so he basically shut himself out from Wonderland and nobody knows why.

            So it’s up to Alice and her friends to find the almighty man who’s always on “Time” literally named Time (Sacha Baron Cohen-Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Borat, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) who controls time and all the clocks in the world, and convince him to send them back in time to end the tragic event that is nigh.

            Meanwhile the sinister Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter-Harry Potter franchise, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride) is out for revenge on Alice and the White Queen for killing the Jabberwocky and taking the throne from her, which she claims is rightfully hers.

            Overall, Alice Through the Looking Glass is all over the place in terms of story development, but there are good moments in the film like the backstories of the Mad Hatter and Red Queen, you understand why the characters are who they are and for the most part it's well-handled.

            Unfortunately, the film goes from colorful eye-candy to ridiculous ideas, apparently Time has a bunch of living clocks and metal appliances that can transform into giant robots (When did this become Transformers in Wonderland?). But aside from that, the story is heavily recycled from other popular ideas like Back to the Future, The Hobbit, and did I mention Transformers?

            But what did keep me in theater were some of the characters, the Red Queen, Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Time get some good laughs. I love most of the actors in this film, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are two of my favorite actors and it’s usually thanks to Tim Burton’s films that they become favorites of mine, well him and the filmmakers behind Pirates of the Caribbean.

            I can’t say it did nothing for me, the movie is impressive in visuals and animation, the characters are funny, and there are some interesting ideas throughout the film (I didn’t say good things, but interesting ones). It probably won’t sit well with fans of the book, but if you’re a die-hard Tim Burton fan, you might find something to enjoy about it even if he only produced this outing, but there's always Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children later this year. 

X-Men: Apocalypse review

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE:

NOT THE MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING INSTALLMENT OF THE X-MEN SAGA, BUT THE FILM CRANKS UP THE SUMMER POPCORN FUN TO FULL FORCE!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX AND MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT

(From left to right) Jean, Beast, Storm, Raven (Mystique), Charles Xavier, Magneto, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Angel, Quicksilver, and Cyclops in a mutant VS mutant war in X-Men: Apocalypse

            Director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns, Jack the Giant Slayer) returns to the world of mutants in the anticipated follow-up to the 2014 critically and commercially successful Marvel Comics hit, X-Men:Days of Future Past. Marvel’s X-Men film franchise has come quite a long way and each time they tackle something different and new, from mutant heroes teaming up with enemies to stop an evil plan to destroy all mutants in X2: X-Men United, to time travel and change the past to save the future in X-Men: Days of Future Past, to R-rated dark humor and bloody violence in Deadpool, which came out earlier this year.

            After the surprise success of the R-rated Deadpool, the X-Men franchise goes back to its roots with X-Men: Apocalypse, the ninth installment of the franchise and set after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, but before Professor X becomes Patrick Stewart. This film also marks the first time where two X-Men related films are released in the same year, we had Deadpool in February, now we have this.

            X-Men: Days of Future Past is a very hard movie to follow-up on, with its complex ideas and balance between wit, thought, and flashy action sequences and special effects. Does X-Men: Apocalypse successfully follow it up? Not entirely, it’s nowhere near terrible or even bad. Really, it’s about the same opinion I had on 2006’s X-Men 3: The Last Stand where it had lots of superhero action but not much clever storytelling as its earlier installments, not to mention some underdeveloped fan service characters that really don’t add to much, but there’s not as much of it as The Last Stand.

            After Magneto’s (Michael Fassbender-Prometheus, 12 Years A Slave, Steve Jobs) attack on Washington D.C. we find Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy-The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, Victor Frankenstein) running his school for mutants in hopes to one day transform his school into a university for both humans and mutants together. However, he meets up with CIA agent, Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne-Bridesmaids, Neighbors, Spy) who had her memory erased from the last time she saw Charles on the Cuba island when Eric fully transformed into Magneto, and she informs him that there have been mutants living for over a million years and the world’s first mutant is the almighty, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac-Inside Llewyn Davis, Ex-Machina, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) who plans to cleanse the Earth by tempting mutants to rise up and destroy all of mankind.

            Who can stop him? Well, the X-Men, Charles, shape-shifting Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence-The Hunger Games franchise, American Hustle, Joy), Beast (Nicholas Hoult-Warm Bodies, Jack the Giant Slayer, Mad Max: Fury Road), telepathic and telekinetic, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner-Game of Thrones, Another Me, Barely Lethal), optic beam blasting, Cyclops (Tye Sheridan-The Tree of Life, Mud, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse), superfast and cocky, Quicksilver (Evan Peters-Never Back Down, Kick-Ass, Elvis & Nixon), and fan-favorites like Wolverine (Hugh Jackman-The Prestige, Real Steel, Eddie the Eagle), Jubilee (Lana Condor), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee-Let Me In, ParaNorman, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). However, stopping Apocalypse won’t be easy because he’s practically a God and he has his own followers including Magneto, weather controlling mutant, Storm (Alexandra Shipp-House of Anubis, Days of Our Lives, Straight Outta Compton), and telepathic and telekinetic mutant with the ability to project psychic powers, Psylocke (Olivia Munn-Attack of the Show, Date Night, Iron Man 2), it’s X-Men VS Apocalypse before the apocalypse actually happens.

            Overall, X-Men: Apocalypse is a decent installment in the X-Men film franchise, it delivers a lot of superhero action and humor to make for a fun time at the movies this summer. However, in terms of storytelling and complex character development it feels like a step backwards from the cleverly thrilling, X-Men: Days of Future Past.

            The film focuses more on action but less on story, which isn’t a bad thing really, but X-Men always did an excellent job keeping audiences engaged with flashy action and special effects and complex storytelling and pacing. But with that said, the action and special effects are very good, the characters spend a lot of time on-screen using their mutant powers and fighting each other and there are even a couple more humorous gags involving Quicksilver’s running power, so I can’t say I got nothing out of this film.

            One thing that did bother me about the movie though is some mutant characters they brought in don’t add to much of the story, Wolverine is basically a cameo in the film but it makes sense because this isn’t his film and he had the right amount of screen-time he needed for this film so it didn’t bother me that we had only one Wolverine scene. What I did find disappointing was the lack of screen-time for Jubilee and Psylocke, I was looking forward to seeing Jubilee in live-action movie form and watching her fight in the battle because I enjoyed watching her in the 90s X-Men cartoon and Psylocke is around in the film but they don’t give her enough time in the movie to fully develop her character.

            If you’re a fan of the X-Men films, you’ll probably enjoy X-Men: Apocalypse, just don’t expect much story with this one. But if you just want some popcorn entertainment for the summer, this is also a fine choice, though I would recommend Captain America: Civil War over it, hopefully The Wolverine 3 will learn from what works in these films and what doesn’t and give us a satisfying farewell to Jackman as the Wolverine character.

The Nice Guys review

THE NICE GUYS:

A THRILLING ACTION-COMEDY THAT’S NICE AND MEAN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Russell Crowe (left) and Ryan Gosling (right) are The Nice Guys

            From director, Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3) comes a neo-noir buddy cop comedy starring two of my favorite actors of all time, Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Noah) and Ryan Gosling (Lars and the Real Girl, Drive, The Ides of March), The Nice Guys. When I first saw the trailers for it I thought it looked very funny but nothing special but when the 90% Rotten Tomatoes score appeared and the film receiving widespread critical acclaim, I was very excited to finally sit down and watch it.

            And, it was flat out hilarious, yes it delivers what you’d expect from any buddy cop comedy, wacky situations, shootouts, over the top violence that can be funny at times, stereotypical characters, to name a few, but the film manages to be smart and pulls off a well-executed caper, while still being funny and thrilling. A lot of people forget you can do really silly and goofy action comedies in smart and clever ways, the goofiness doesn’t overshadow the wit and intelligence, and vice versa.

            The film follows down-on-his-luck private eye investigator, Holland March (Gosling) joining forces with hired enforcer, Jackson Healy (Crowe) to solve the case that can put an end to all their problems. A porn star named Amelia Kutner (Margaret Qualley-Palo Alto, The Leftovers) has gone missing and an apparent suicide of fading porn star, Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio-Eastbound & Down, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Red Oaks).

            Holland and Jackson get recruited by Amelia’s mother, Judith Kutner (Kim Basinger-Batman, Wayne’s World 2, L.A. Confidential) to find Amelia. However, during their investigation, they eventually uncover a criminal conspiracy that reaches up to the highest circles of power.

            The film also stars Angourie Rice (These Final Hours, Walking with Dinosaurs, Nowhere Boys: The Book of Shadows) as Holland’s daughter, Holly, Matt Bomer (Flightplan, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Magic Mike) as John Boy, Beau Knapp (Super 8, Southpaw, The Gift) as Blue Face and Hannibal Buress (The Kings of Summer, Neighbors, The Angry Birds Movie) as Bumble.

            Overall, The Nice Guys is one of those buddy cop comedies that knows the meaning of fun, the film takes full advantage of the comedic possibilities of its premise and even makes funny new takes on old cop movie clichés, all leading to big laughs. I may have laughed harder watching this than Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising the other night, probably because of the bizarrely likable chemistry between Gosling and Crowe.

            Russell Crowe as the bad cop and Ryan Gosling as the good cop, the comedy and chemistry practically writes itself and they’re pretty much the highlight of the film. But it doesn’t shy away from developing them well and having time for drama and intense action.

            I always find it surreal every time I see Kim Basinger in a movie these days because not going to lie but the first thing that pops into my head whenever her name shows up in a movie I immediately think of Vicki Vale from Tim Burton’s Batman, can you really blame me? But as always she does a solid job as Amelia’s mother who may or may not be an antagonist.

            The cinematography, set design, and overall style of the film is very 1970s, I almost felt like I went back in time from 2016 to the 70s. The cars, buildings, product placements, lighting, even camera work feels like I was watching a movie released in the 70s.

            Of course Shane Black is the right man to direct this film, he wrote the script for Lethal Weapon, he directed the 2005 neo-noir crime comedy, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and need we forget Iron Man 3? This is a director that knows how to direct a film and the end result is usually positive feedback and/or praise, the entire movie screams Shane Black.

            If you want to see different types of Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling performances but also non-stop laughs and action, you’ll love The Nice Guys, it’s a “Nice” comedy with a “Mean” punch.