THE 33

It is so hard to make a compelling human-drama film out of any story when you know the ending going in.
The true-life story of the 33 Chilean miners who survived for months underground as superiors fought to rescue them and the world watched the efforts in real time is a gripping tale of fortitude, perseverance, religious faith and scientific ingenuity. The fact that no one trapped in the mine perished over the course of the 69-day ordeal is a legitimate miracle, and the details of the events should be shared with as many people as is physically possible.
However...
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It can’t be overlooked that a motion picture based on the burial and subsequent rescue mission never fully works because 99% of the time, when you know a film’s resolution, the story’s unable to generate any dramatic tension or land with any emotional impact. While not quite going through the motions, The 33 dutifully recounts the events of the 2010 mine collapse as it follows the men into the dark, stays with them during their darkest hours, then accompanies them back out to safety. If you tracked the group’s progress on live television as it happened several years back, it will look very familiar. If you didn’t, you likely still know where the movie’s going, and how it intends on getting there.

No pun intended, but The 33 doesn’t dig nearly as deep as it should. Directed by Patricia Riggen and adapted from Hector Tobar’s book by three credited screenwriters, The 33 gives us snapshots of a handful of the miners before they venture into the danger zone. The men largely are characterized by bite-sized (and clichéd) defining traits, so we’ll easily recognize them in the dark and dirty mine. There’s the soon-to-be father; the homeless guy who’s arguing with his sister; the hen-pecked clown who has a mistress the whole town recognizes; and (my least favorite) the old man who’s about to retire. The overcooked script, which often gets in the way of the actual facts, shoehorns in lines like, “Two weeks, and you’re a free man!” Guess again, partner.

The 33 miners are 2,300 feet below the surface with tragedy strikes. Through no real fault of their own, the mountain into which the men are tunneling gives way, and Riggen relies on a mix of CGI dust and rock to recreate the natural disaster in a competent but short-of-thrilling sequence. The collapse is a necessary evil, the point we have to reach before the movie finally can begin. And it’s true, from this moment on, character development begins to drag The 33 toward the light. Strong personalities emerge, both in the mine and on the surface, as passionate performances by Antonio Banderas (as the miners’ unofficial spokesperson) and Rodrigo Santoro (as a structural engineer) start to cut through the melodrama to try and help The 33 stand out.

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CREED

Creed is an echo. It’s a call back to every other Rocky movie, and while it's good, it can't create separation from the powerful legacy of the Rocky series.
Despite the obvious name change, Creed is really just Rocky 7. And that’s OK. We are back in Philadelphia, on the ragged blue-collar streets and in the sweat-soaked gyms of Sylvester Stallone’s first boxing drama (the one that earned three Oscars, including a well-deserved Best Picture win). Stallone, himself, is back in his signature role for a seventh time, adding layers to his timeless palooka and evolving him for a new decade. No one understands Rocky more than Stallone, and the actor finds fresh quirks to animate. I didn’t think that I needed more time with the character after the 2006 Rocky Balboa (which gave Balboa a fitting farewell, and a near-perfect final scene), but I also didn’t regret the extra time and the additional window that Creed provided. It’s nice to see Rocky again.
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But this isn’t Rocky 7. It’s Creed, and the title hints at the creative changes that have occurred, not all for the best. Rocky’s a supporting player, but this isn’t his story. Or, it isn’t supposed to be. Instead, writer-director Ryan Coogler and his Fruitvale Station lead, Michael B. Jordan, appealed to Stallone to let them take a back door into this franchise, telling the story of Adonis, the son of Rocky’s first opponent, Apollo Creed. The idea has promise, and this approach is preferred over a straight (and lazy) remake of Stallone’s 1976 drama. By choosing a continuation, this also allows Stallone to stay in the story, and graduate to the salty mentor role that Burgess Meredith held for the first three Rocky movies. However, Rocky’s presence in Creed is both a welcome gesture and a distraction, and one that kept taking me out of Jordan’s story. That can’t be the desired effect.

You see, Creed is an echo. It’s a call back, at least in Adonis’ boxing storyline, to dramatic steps that Stallone already walked in the shoes of this character, through the lanes of this franchise. Underdog boxer who fights to earn respect? Check. Will he eventually face an allegedly unbeatable champion? Believe it. Are there training montages under the tutelage of a crusty but seasoned manager? It’s all too familiar. Through no real fault of Jordan – or Coogler, for that matter -- Creed can’t create separation from the powerful legacy of the Rocky series. In much the same way that Adonis is constantly measured against the accomplishments of his father, Apollo Creed, Creed is constantly compared to the actions of the previous Rocky movies. And there’s only so much that you can try that hasn’t already been done in six previous movies

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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

13 Hours is a return to Michael Bay doing what he does best. Having people blow stuff up and look cool doing it.
In the last decade, Michael Bay has only directed one film that didn’t have the word Transformers in its title. In the years before he became obsessed with turning toys into movies, he was the go-to guy for movies that needed excessive explosions and gunfire. While it's not perfect by any means, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is a return to Michael Bay doing what he does best. Having people blow stuff up and look cool doing it
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When I heard Bay was going to make a movie that would deal with the tragedy that took place in Benghazi, Libya in 2012, I was equal parts curious and nervous. The only time that Bay had ever dealt with a real event previously was in 2001’s less-than-stellar Pearl Harbor. What’s more, the events of the film are still a political hotbed, making it all but inevitable that this movie will become just one more thing for the politically divisive crowd to fight over. Prepared for the worst with 13 Hours, I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it.

The movie opens with a brief summary of the events that turned Libya from a nation under the rule of despot Muammar Gaddafi into a nation in charge of its own destiny. Unfortunately, this transition was far from clean, leaving the country in upheaval. We are then introduced to our primary character of  Jack Silva (John Krasinski) arriving in Benghazi. He’s a former military man, now independent contractor on a short term contract to help provide security for a covert CIA location and a nearby American diplomatic post. Silva is one of six men at the post. The rest of the team consists of Tyrone 'Rone' Woods (James Badge Dale), Kris 'Tanto' Paronto (Pablo Schreiber), Dave 'Boon' Benton (David Denman) John 'Tig' Tiegen (Dominic Fumusa), and Mark 'Oz' Geist (Max Martini).  Each one is a former Navy SEAL or Army Spec. Ops. soldier. They're the best in the world at what they do (and are classic Bay archetypes).

These also are the men who co-wrote the book on which 13 Hours is based. As such, each one of them is presented as both a perfect soldier and a loving family man. Maybe it’s true that these six men knew exactly what to do at every moment when nobody else could do anything right. But as a movie that’s supposed to be based on a real event, they seem too perfect. Nobody is flawed, nobody makes a mistake at any point. At the same time, each actor is able to bring some degree of humanity to their character so that they are relatable, and you do end up caring about them. Krasinski is absolutely the standout here. I have only a passing familiarity with his time on The Office. Seeing him in this role might be a shock to some who are in a similar boat, but he looks like a natural soldier on screen here.

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RISEN

There’s an obvious religious message, but Risen is actually more concerned with weaving a compelling story than ham-fistedly hammering home a beleaguered point. And that's good.
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I have a friend who writes about movies (shocking, I know) and also happens to be a devout Christian. Last summer, when War Room, a religious drama, surprised pundits and was a box office hit despite widespread negative reviews, someone at his church, knowing his affinity for cinema, suggested that maybe he might want to review it, thinking he would provide a Christian perspective. As it turned out, his review was one of the most savage I read, and the general gist of it was, “Just because I’m Christian doesn’t mean I like shitty movies or that I’ll give one a pass.” He lamented the fact that most faith-based movies are cheap, slapdash, poorly acted, heavy-handed, and simply not very good. The latest entry into this arena, Risen, while not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, is a step in the right direction.

Produced by Affirm Films, the faith-based arm of Sony, with a larger than usual budget and more recognizable talent in front of and behind the camera, Risen is a retelling of the story of Christ. There’s an obvious religious message, but the film is actually more concerned with weaving a compelling story than ham-fistedly hammering home a beleaguered point.
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À La Vie (French w/e.s.t.)

Helen, Lili and Rose met in Auschwitz, where the three twenty-year-old Jewish girls were deported. Thanks to German-speaking Dutch Lili, who was working in the camp kitchen, the two French girls survived. However, after the liberation of the camp, they lost touch. Lili went back to the
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Netherlands. Rose married a former deportee and settled down in Canada. Helen returned alone to France where she met an old childhood sweetheart and married him, aware of his impotency caused by sinister doctors carrying and married him out experiments on him in the concentration camp. Determined to find her old companions, Helen puts an ad in a deportees' newspaper. Against all odds the ad is answered and the women are reunited. The reunion takes place in Berck Plage in the north of France. The women rediscover each other,as well as help each other to overcome their Auschwitz demons.
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Mother's Day

Can someone make director Garry Marshall quit killing holidays before it's too late?

Director Garry Marshall is a menace. He keeps killing holidays with all-star comedies in which a laugh would die of loneliness. First, Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve got the Marshall treatment. Now Mother's Day takes the hit from Marhall's marauders, out to trick a bunch of poor, movie-loving moms to take a chance on this turkey on their special day.
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The focus here is on moms living in Atlanta, Georgia and feeling angsty in the lead up to Mother's Day. First up is Jennifer Aniston, whose natural comic flair is defeated by her role as a mom having a meltdown because her ex-husband (Timothy Olyphant) is marrying a tween. Not really, but Shay Mitchell of Pretty Little Liars looks jailbaity enough to get the point across.

Kate Hudson has it worse in the stereotype department. She and her sister (Sarah Chalke) are keeping their children secret from their racist, homophobic Texas parents. One sister is married to a doctor from India (Asif Mandvi) and the other is living with – yikes! – a woman (Cameron Esposito). Every bigot joke is trotted out and beaten in the service of laughs that never come.

Jennifer Garner is facing even more dire prospects for Mother's Day. She's dead, a soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving her husband (Jason Sudeikis) to pine away while watching home videos of his wife (Garner pushes perky so far you want to scream) and ignoring the effect of his self-pity on his two impressionable daughters. Are you laughing yet?

The Family Fang

Nicole Kidman and Jason Batman are on point in this family comedy with unsettling themes that run deep

What if you had parents who referred to you and your sibling as Child A and Child B? And what if said parents forced you to participate in performance art pieces, such as staging a bank robbery complete with guns, fake blood and bystanders who think it’s all for real? You’d definitely be scarred. The Fang kids sure are, even as adults played by Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman.
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nnie (Kidman) is an actress in a career slump. Baxter (Bateman) is a stalled author. Miraculously, this sister and brother find their way into our minds and hearts. That’s because playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole) has adapted Kevin Wilson's novel into something deeper than another trip to dysfunction junction. And because Bateman, back in the director’s chair after a strong 2014 feature debut with Bad Words, proves he has an affinity for the process, especially for actors. Kidman is in peak form. And Bateman nails every comic and dramatic nuance, finding Baxter’s bruised heart and inner strength. The Family Fang feels lived in instead of constructed. It sneaks up on you. It helps, of course, to have the bracingly bizarre Christopher Walken play Daddy Fang, a wicked charmer named Caleb who literally uses his children as props to prop up his shaky identity as an artist. Other parents do the same thing, but metaphorically. Caleb and his wife, Camille (a stellar Maryann Plunkett) go right at it. In flashbacks, we watch younger versions of Caleb and Camille, played by Jason Butler Harner and Kathryn Hahn, consistently place art over their children. 

In the present, Annie and Baxter come together when their parents go missing. Annie thinks they’re faking it for publicity, much needed since their careers faltered when Annie and Baxter left the act. Baxter resists – he wants to believe even his unorthodox parents wouldn’t be hurtful enough to convince their kids and the world that they’re dead. As Annie and Baxter play detective in a case involving their own lives, The Family Fang emerges as a comedy with disturbing undercurrents. Kidman and Bateman make a potent team in a provocative film that questions the limits of art in a world that forgets to be human. The result is funny, touching and vital. 

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