Fly Me to the Moon

Believe it or not, this movie actually made me glad to be old. Not for the inherent qualities of being among the aged—that ferociously sucks—but for the fact that I am old enough to have had the historic events depicted herein happen (just barely) within my lifetime, and I can remember their aftermath on the psyche of the nation. It’s that world-changing impact of the events that makes the space program stuff so perpetually appealing; make a film about those days, those people, those ideas, and you can always hook me in. As for this specific movie, it has its ups and downs, positive aspects and a few downsides. The soundtrack is spectacular, with a lot of great Memphis soul tunes chased with generous doses of Sam Cooke, as well as a handful of standards (yes, including the title song). The performers high and low do excellent work all the way through; no one phoned it in here. And the visual recreations—when they weren’t using archival footage—are spot on. And that includes the wardrobe choices; the men are mostly drab, but the women in particular look absolutely gorgeous. (Maybe, just maybe, the less-is-more aesthetic of the past offers something a bit more inherently attractive than the “it’s all out on front street” look of today’s female fashions.) But it mostly comes back to the Space Race milieu—that is, as always, the true star of the show. Perhaps it’s encouraging that people still want to make movies about that time, and that at least some of us still want to see such films. We could all use the occasional reminders about what our people can do when we all pull together. This one reaches high, and it achieves orbit, at least, if not making it all the way to the stars. 

The Lost City

It’s usually not a great sign when your movie’s putative comic-relief character is relentlessly not funny. It is also contraindicated when the film’s actual funniest character disappears less than halfway through the story. So are we looking at a disaster here? Thankfully, no. This updated take on Romancing the Stone mostly works, not as a laugh riot but as a gently amusing tale presented via likable actors--Tatum and Bullock have good chemistry despite an obvious age difference--and strong visuals. Most of what takes place along this storyline is profoundly obvious, but breaking new ground is hardly the point here. If you’re willing to be indulgent, you’ll get a couple of entertaining hours out of this flick.

Free Guy

I find it almost impossible to give this film the credit it may, possibly, deserve. Perhaps because my tried and true rule of thumb—movies based on or about video games are always bad, or at least major disappointments—should apply here. Ryan Reynolds' well-honed likability as the lead goes a long way towards overcoming that pitfall, while the storyline does just enough to transcend its familiar tropes and bland predictability to remain largely entertaining throughout. Still, it’s difficult to watch this film, as an intelligent human animal, and not be baffled by how far people today go with their gaming obsession—and how normal that is now considered to be. Shrug. There must be a certain amount of downgrade for that; hence, this one rates a MEOW—but with certain tweaks, it could have been a PURR. What can I say? Moviemakers have to learn to level up, too.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

I'm not sure about this. This movie and its predecessor seem to want to be a looser, updated version of James Bond, and in some ways it pulls that off. It's got all the action--in spades--the gadgetry, the humor, the 'save the world' trope...it's all in place, and I can't really say it's not entertaining. And once again, the filmmakers have a certain amount of political insight where they try to deliver a satirical but somewhat cogent point. All well and good. But--and it's a huge 'but'--there are problems here, too. The combination of sophisticated and crude will clash a bit too much for some viewers. This film (and this applies to the previous entry, too) relies almost obsessively on long action sequences that are heavy on visual and camera gymnastics: stuff that looks good at first, but gets tedious after a while, despite the director's obvious love affair with his own shot-making cleverness. And, in addition to being crude, this outing is also remarkably violent; only the John Wick movies are a match for the violence displayed here, and those flicks are substantially darker in tone. This is almost like "playful psychopathy" here--which isn't always funny and entertaining. Toning it down a bit would probably make for a better movie--though I wouldn't count on seeing that in the seemingly inevitable third installment.

Hail, Caesar!

Sometimes it’s good; sometimes it’s not. Everyone is so given over to Coen Brothers hagiography at this point that mumbling a bad word about any movie they make is likely to elicit strong reactions...which is, in a lot of ways, what this movie does not elicit. There are moments, highlights, that are quite good and make you want to give this effort more credit than you ultimately are comfortable doling out. Perhaps if one of the subplots--I’m looking at you, Scarlett--had been left on the cutting room floor, this might have turned out to be a stronger, tighter movie. Alas, the boys overreached, probably because they were too interested in paying homage to classic movies and moviemaking--perhaps they noticed that such things burnish a film’s Oscar-bait credentials--and the overall work suffered accordingly. It’s definitely worth watching if you’re a fan, of the old days or the brothers; otherwise, it may not pass muster.

Foxcatcher

The moral of this story: strange, damaged people should not get together with other strange damaged people. The odd thing that comes through while watching this odd movie is how unnecessary the story--and its tragic ending--were. John duPont could just as easily have stood in Mark Schultz's corner as the wrestling team's sponsor; it's what a lot of rich guys do. But that damage--the need to be a "coach" beyond all self-awareness--led to inevitable conflict and breakdown, and makes this a highlight reel that no Olympian would ever want to be in. The story is clearly told, and the actors do a fine job of conveying the sense of the people--not sure how closely they capture the nature of the people they're playing--but the film loses points for its measured pace, and for being so weird and challenging to the viewer; lots of moviegoers simply would not have the patience for this one. It's worth a look, but a lot of folks simply won't like it. Your mileage may vary.