Mr. Holmes: 100 Word Movie Review

There are some mysteries that even Sherlock Holmes cannot solve, mysteries of memory, age and human relationships that are not easily distilled into mere facts. In Bill Condon’s Mr. Holmes the great detective’s inability to solve such mysteries catches up to him. Set in 1947, this film features a retired Sherlock Holmes living far from 221 B Baker Street, with his housekeeper and her son in a small farmhouse. He struggles to recall the details of his last case even as senility is robbing him of his famous mental faculties. The film flashes back 30 years to the case in question, as well as to a more recent expedition to Hiroshima, Japan, where Holmes seeks out a botanical remedy that he hopes will allow him to recover his memories. There are times when this film feels rather unfocused, much like Holmes’ mind, but the brilliant performances by Ian McKellan (Holmes) and the rest of the cast prove compelling throughout. And in the end Holmes learns that logic and facts will only take you so far, especially in regard to human relationships. A

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Jurassic World: 100 Word Movie Review*

Jurassic World, directed by Colin Trevorrow, is a film about the world’s smartest people making the world’s stupidest mistakes, the same basic premise as the original Jurassic Park 22 years ago. Set on the island featured in the original film, Jurassic World is now a full-blown theme park attracting over 20,000 visitors a day. Bryce Dallas Howard plays a corporate executive looking to increase park attendance with her new asset, a genetically modified dinosaur named Indominus Rex. Chris Pratt is a Velociraptor whisperer brought in to inspect the new dino’s cage, and arrives just in time to participate in its escape, because when you name your brand new dinosaur "Untamable King" (the translation of the Latin Indominus Rex) ya shouldn’t be surprised when it proves to be untamable. Because Congress must’ve passed some law saying you can’t make a film about cloned dinosaurs that doesn’t feature children in jeopardy you also get two kids, who happen to be the nephews of Howard’s character, that run right into the escaped beast. Pratt and Howard spend a lot of time together trying to rescue the boys and contain the dinos, and you get the sense that there might’ve been some genuine chemistry between these actors if someone had thought to write them something other than junior high level dialogue. But then the people are rarely the attraction in these films, and are usually just lucky not to be on the menu. Though certainly not as dumb as your average Transformers movie, Jurassic World offers little that is smart, but a lot that entertains. B

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Old Man's War: 100 Word Book Review*

Old Man’s War, the 2005 debut novel from science fiction writer John Scalzi, is an immensely entertaining sci-fi space opera. The breezy narrative style and compelling plot make this book a quick and fascinating read. Told from the first person point of view of John Perry, a 75-year-old widower from Ohio who decides to join the Colonial Defense Force and defend Earth’s colonies from a host of alien threats, the novel follows his ‘alteration,’ training and combat deployment to various worlds. There’s nothing truly groundbreaking about this novel, Scalzi had an interesting idea and developed it into a very entertaining story. It’s somewhat annoying how the main character always seems to be the smartest person in the room, and manages most of the time to complete missions without too much difficulty. There is not much tension or suspense in how the plot unfolds. Still, Old Man's War is a solid novel that entertains. B+

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Avengers: Age of Ultron: 100 Word Movie Review*

The first question you might want to ask yourself after sitting though Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron is “What year is this?” Because at two hours and 20 minutes the Age of Ultron is almost an eon. After that you probably won’t ask much else, or think much else, about this film. Sure it’s momentarily entertaining, but it doesn’t exactly leave an impression. Ultron brings the band (Ironman, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye) back together on a mission to retrieve the previous film villain’s scepter, which features a jewel of incredible power that happens to be hiding the seeds of an artificial intelligence. After retrieving the scepter, Tony “Ironman” Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) uses the AI as a source for his Ultron program, peacekeeping robots whose presence will allow the Avengers to disassemble. This turns out to be a bad idea of course, as Ultron decides the most efficient way to keep the peace is by eliminating the pesky humans that are always breaking it. Cue multiple globe spanning conflicts between the Avengers and Ultron. It all looks great, if not endless. Hulks and robots and heroes tear through acres of CGI real estate in long and eventually pointless set pieces. Whedon’s wit and his weakness for character development occasionally shines through the endless visual stimulation, but mostly this film is just a hyped up roller coaster ride. I’ve got nothing against roller coaster rides, but I guess I was expecting more. B-

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage: 100 Word Book Review*

Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is a novel about abandonment, loss and coming to terms with the past. Tsukuru Tazaki was one of a group of five friends, who finds that he has been cut off by the other four during a visit home from college. Each of these friends, except for Tazaki, had a color (Red Pine, White Root, etc.) as part of their surname. The novel chronicles the resulting depression, recovery and his eventual reconciliation with the surviving friends several years later. This novel, though exploring very deep and powerful emotional issues, seems very restrained. The characters lack the emotional excesses common to American fiction. This was not a problem for me, but some readers may not appreciate the cultural difference. Although not the type of novel that I ordinary read, I found Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage an engaging and interesting book. A-

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Selma: 100 Word Movie Review*

Director Ava DuVernay's Selma tells the story of the historic 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other noted civil rights activists. The film also covers events in the three months leading up to the march, including King’s continued efforts to secure support for voting rights legislation from President Lyndon Johnson. Although uneven in spots, the film is an authentic and powerful look at a critical juncture in the civil rights movement. David Oyelowo is excellent as King, as is Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, but the film suffers during the scenes they share from the unfortunate lack of chemistry between them. Many of King’s personal moments on screen seem rather muddled, perhaps an attempt to inject a sense of self-doubt that was rarely visible in public, but I’m not sure that this is entirely effective. Overall though, Selma is a well-done chronicle of these events, and a timely reminder of a history that still has strong influences on American society.

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: 100 Word Movie Review*

Orcs and Elves and Dwarves, oh my. No one should be surprised at the identity of three of the five titular armies that go to battle in the final installment of Peter Jackson’s bloated adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Or that the human residents of Lake Town, featured prominently in The Desolation of Smaug, make up the fourth of those five featured combatants. But for the sake of those unfamiliar with the book I’ll refrain from naming the final army, whose critical contribution to the battle seems largely glossed over anyway. But none of the battle sequences in this film feel critical. Well-rendered waves of CGI Elves and Orcs and Dwarves clash convincingly over the well-rendered battlefield of Erebor. But who really cares? The main characters, Thorin, Bard, Gandalf, Tauriel and Bilbo all have brief moments where we get some sense of character and narrative, but mostly the film consists of endless CGI cinematography and warfare. And although Billy Connolly’s turn as the Dwarf king Dain Ironfoot is almost worth the price of admission, the rest of the film, like the others in The Hobbit trilogy, is just too long and too much.

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

The Interview: 100 Word Movie Review*

The Interview, an assassination comedy from Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg, generated a significant amount of controversy in the weeks leading up to its planned Christmas 2014 release. An act of cyber-terrorism against Sony Pictures almost led to the picture not being released at all, which would have been no great loss to the art of moving pictures, but a serious compromise of the rights to free expression guaranteed by the First Amendment. Fortunately, Sony found a way to release the picture to select independent theaters and via streaming services online.

In the film, James Franco plays David Skylark, a vapid tabloid-TV host who lands an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Recruited by the CIA to assassinate the dictator, Skylark and his producer Aaron Rappaport (Rogen) head to Pyongyang on their absurd mission. Although never subtle enough to rise to the level of actual satire, of either the American infotainment industry, the CIA or North Korea and its leader, the film does work hard to make its points between the self-indulgent banter that passes for dialogue. There are plenty of laughs to be had, though of course from Franco and Rogan they trend more toward the crude than the clever and the film as a whole is rather stupid. I doubt that the creators ever had any higher aspirations than to make a dumb comedy. If not for North Korea’s attention the whole thing probably would have faded into obscurity within a couple of weeks. The violence at the end is rather jarring, even for a film about an assassination, but overall, if you’re in the mood for stupid comedy with a side of controversy The Interview isn’t all that bad.

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

A Cold and Broken Hallelujah (Long Beach Homicide): 100 Word Book Review*

I spent quite a bit of time wading through samples of Kindle Books that I had downloaded before finding one that was interesting enough to continue reading. Tyler Dilts' A Cold and Broken Hallelujah (Long Beach Homicide) grabbed me with an interesting opening and above average prose. A first person narrative, told from the perspective of a Long Beach Homicide detective named Danny Beckett, Hallelujah never rises above it’s standard homicide detective novel aspirations. The story meanders a little too much through the middle for my taste, and the conclusion is satisfying only in the most standard way, no real surprises here and the ultimate motive for the inciting murder is somewhat disappointing. Still, Dilts can write prose that entertains, and his characters are generally well drawn, so in spite of its weaknesses Hallelujah is an entertaining read.

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Rosewater: 100 Word Movie Review*

Daily Show host and comedian Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, Rosewater, is the story of Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian Journalist who was detained by the Iranian government for 118 days in 2009. Bahari, who had gone back to Iran to cover the elections, appeared in a Daily Show segment around the same time. Stewart is a competent director and Gael García Bernal does an excellent job portraying Bahari, but the film doesn’t really have the emotional resonance that you expect. Yes, the prison experience is harrowing enough, but you keep expecting it to get worse, and largely it never does. And the worst part of the experience, solitary confinement, is difficult to demonstrate in a 103-minute film. Still, Rosewater, though not a great film, is a good one, and presents a story about the oppression of journalists that everyone should know.

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Birdman: 100 Word Movie Review*

Alejandro Iñárritu’s Birdman features Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomas, a washed-up superhero franchise movie actor who seeks relevance by staging a Broadway play. To accomplish this he surrounds himself with the most dysfunctional cast in New York City, which leads to problem after problem as they progress toward opening night. The illusion that the entire film was shot in a single take is brilliantly executed, and navigating the labyrinthine halls of the theater as the camera follows one character or another adds a claustrophobic madness that mirrors the madness of the characters. Each character, like Riggan, is seeking relevance, a desire to be noticed and important. For Riggan, this includes some super powered fantasies that the film lets you decide are real or not. Birdman is an engaging and entertaining black comedy.

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Interstellar: 100 Word Movie Review*

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is a visually stunning film that works hard to get the science right, but doesn’t really present characters interesting enough to engage the audience. My initial reaction was: blah. Which doesn’t mean that the film is without entertainment value, just that it failed to make me care. The plot, about a group of astronauts (and robots) who travel through a wormhole seeking a new home after Earth has been ravaged by crop blight, is really about separation and emotional isolation. But the film fails to explore the topic in a meaningful way, and as a result largely isolates the audience from the characters. There are a couple of plot twists that might entertain those who didn’t see them coming, but otherwise Interstellar is too long and too cold for human habitation.

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.