Begin Again (2014)

This film was pretty good though it could have been better.
Dan Mulligan (Mark Ruffalo) is a bum. He used to be a brilliant music producer but his life is in shambles. His wife (Catherine Keener) cheated on him, his daughter, Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) dresses like a slut and he just lost his job.
Gretta (Keira Knightley) is also down on her luck. For five years, she was a devoted girlfriend to her up and coming musician boyfriend, Dave Kohl (Adam Levine) only find out through his new song that he cheated on her. He is pissed that she can read his mind.
Gretta has her own sound and she is stripped down but excellent. Her talent is raw and Dan picks up on that and even persuades her to record her own album. Gretta goes from being a songwriter to full blown performer but this album must be done on the cheap as Dan's partner at the record studio (Yaslin Bey) doesn't like it much. So they set out into the streets literally recording the album in the streets with a bunch of unknown musicians. The result is brilliant and once it is finished the studio is interested but Gretta is unconventional. She doesn't understand why the studio would get so much of the money from her album, plus they would make all these changes to it, changes she would not approve of. She's seen it happen. Dave took this brilliant, emotional ballad she wrote for him and turned it into this horrid pop mash up with some crappy falsetto.
The film ends after the credits have already begun with Gretta releasing the album herself, online for dirt cheap but it is a hit and it will probably only increase as the word of mouth spreads.
As for the relationships, Gretta encourages Violet to not dress as though she's easy and urges Dan to spend more time with his daughter. Though it probably wasn't easy, Dan eventually forgave his estranged wife, Miriam and he moves back home. And despite Dave practically begging Gretta to forgive him and he even plays the song the way it was meant to be for her, she still walks away from him.
This film does have some good performances even Adam Levine is good. None of them are Oscar worthy by any means, but everyone is good with Knightley standing out as her voice is great and fits the character perfectly. Fortunately, the songs are great and strongly carry the film. The setting of the actual New York City is also great. Sure, curse words are used too frequently and the timeline gets a little jumbled here and there  And the ending was completely underminded by having it end and then the credits begin and then continuing the film when Gretta actually releases her album almost as though it is an afterthought which it should never be.
Also look for some scene stealing performances from Cee Lo Green and James Corden. This film may not have been bad but I probably won't watch it again anytime soon. Grade: B

Say Anything (1989)

This was a good film.
Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) is actually a nice guy. He's average, basic even, but he's kind and almost values the feelings of women, thanks largely to his vast array of female friends: Corey (Lili Taylor) and Rebecca (Pamela Adlon). Corey is going through her own rough break-up with Joe (Loren Dean) but she stands up to him when he is more than willing to rekindle their romance. It is such a simple moment but very empowering.
But the film isn't about Corey. It's about Lloyd and his pursuit of the super brain Diane Court (Ione Skye). She is very intelligent so much so that she has received a fellowship to study in England. She is more than the apple of her overbearing father's (John Mahoney's) eye.
Despite her always being busy, between studying and helping out at her father's nursing home, Diane tries not to be interested in Lloyd but she goes to a party and finally got to know and understand her classmates. Before they were just figures in the distance, now they are real people.
Her father isn't thrilled with the relationship even though Diane is acting her age for the first time in her life. He wants her to remain focused on her goals, something that she's been working her whole life for. But Mr. Court has his own distractions: he's being investigated by the IRS for ripping off the elderly people in his very nursing home. This plot point turns out to be much more important than I originally thought.
But this is a film and everything works out. Diane mends fences with her criminal father and Lloyd follows her to England because he doesn't have any career goals of his own and his main goal in life is to make Diane happy.
The film is filled with very natural performances and great realistic dialogue and the film flows well. There aren't any major flaws which is great. Perhaps the only problem I had is when Lloyd lifts his boombox outside of Diane's window is that she remains in her bed, ruining the epic moment I had in my head. But there is so much more to love. Sure, I wish there were more guys like Lloyd but he is far from perfect with no life goals of his own, opting to focus on the new sport of kickboxing. But he is good with his nephew and has natural banter with his sister (John's actual sister Joan Cusack). He records stuff to tell Corey while he's driving around ruing the day he ever met Diane during their brief separation. He's almost perfect, even writing a letter to Diane after their love making to show his gratitude and appreciation. I would like him to have have his own actual realistic goals with his career but his friends know why Diane would fall for him and so does the audience and that is all that matters. Grade: A-

Bull Durham (1988)

Let me give you a piece of advice, don't watch this film.
There isn't really much to like here. Sure, the performances from both Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner are pretty good, and that is saying something as I can't stand Costner, the plot is ridiculous. Sarandon is a college educated woman but her greatest achievement is picking a minor league baseball player, and sleeping with him for the season which will be the best of his career. For the season the film follows, she has selected ladies' man, 'Nuck' LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) for her sex buddy. She does give him good advice, at least on the field, which includes listening to the seasoned catcher, Crash Davis (Costner).
It is basically a three person drama though there is an interesting subplot between the religious ball player Jimmy (William O'Leary) and Anne's frisky friend, Millie (Jenny Robertson) which should have been given more attention.
The film has that small town feel to it, which is appropriate but the characters don't mesh and the evening is just a mess with Nuck being called up to the majors and Crash picking a woman over his career. Though baseball is Anne's main religion, she knows that is nothing personal when Crash briefly leaves her, after all, baseball is a job also.
I wish the film would have been funny or meaningful or filled with great performances or witty dialogue. In the end, it had none of those. Grade: C-

The Lego Movie (2014)

This film was robbed of an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, and many were devastated. I can see why, however, what the Academy couldn't mention as this spoils the film is that is it probably didn't qualify based on a technicality. It also contains actual people.
Thanks to President Business (Will Ferrell) everything in Lego Land functions like a well oiled machine, everyone follows the instructions and none do that better than Emmet (Chris Pratt). In fact, Emmet is so good no one even notices him. He's usually ignored, but he doesn't get upset. But one day, at the end of work, he sees someone who shouldn't be there: Wild Style (Elizabeth Banks). He doesn't report her because she's so beautiful. She's part of the resistance, determined to undermine President Business's plan and join an object with the Kragle (glue) so everything can go back to the way things were: with rules or regulations. Everyone can be themselves.
From here, some interesting characters are introduced: Batman (Will Arnett) Wild Style's boyfriend who only likes working with black or dark gray legos, Princess Unkitty (Alison Brie) who always tries to think positively and Master Pirate (Nick Offerman) who manages to save the day.
Though Emmet's plans are simple and most think that they are completely stupid, he still manages to save the day with his double decker couch. Even the God-like figure of Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) thinks that idea was just the worst, but it saves their lives from Bad Cop (Liam Neeson) although Bad Cop is actually okay, in the end.
Emmet also decides that the last thing the President would think the Master Builders would do is follow the instructions and that's what they do even if it goes against the fiber of their very being. Things go almost according to plan until Bad Cop shows up and ruins everything. The special piece is tossed away and Emmet is devastated to learn that he is not actually the Special and that Vitruvius made up the prophecy but anyone could be special if they are told that they are which is what happens. The Man Upstairs decides to let his young son actually play with all the lego pieces even if things are no longer exactly so.
Life is a free for all but everyone is themselves and they are all special.
The film's message is something tried and true and at the least the journey is incredibly enjoyable. We should all be ourselves and a simple compliment can go a long way to reviving someone's spirits and self-esteem. Even something so simple could be so meaningful and brighten someone's day.
Fortunately, everything in this film just works. The voice acting is great and though the plot has been done before, some of the jokes are new and the characters just interesting enough to make it seem fresh. There are also some voice cameos from Channing Tatum and Billy Dee Williams reprises his role as Lando in the brief Star Wars scene. Sure, the ending is incredibly predictable as Batman kindly surrenders Lucy (Wild Style's real name) to Emmet so everyone can be happy. (Rebound much?) Yet, the main song is so catchy it will stick in your head for days. This film cannot be hated.
I didn't really like that the film got metaphysical when they brought in real people although that small part also had meaning as the father learned to let his son be free to express himself. This part made the film seem just odd and pulled out of that special world the legos had created. That being said, I still loved the film and will gladly watch it again. Grade: A-

Interstellar (2014)

This film should have been good, it really should have been, but it wasn't. It fell short of brilliant.
America several decades in the future is rapidly becoming a vast wasteland. Blight is killing the crops, NASA has faked the moon landing solely to bankrupt Russia and the MRI is a machine of the past. Cooper (Matthew McConaghey) is having none of that. He wants his only son to go to college, have other options in life than just being a farmer which is what his simple test scores say he will be. He wants to figure out the ghost who keeps moving books in his daughter's room. Then Coop gets a mysterious message with coordinates which lead him and young Murph (Mackenzie Foy), as in Murphy, named after the law, to the underground NASA movement led by Professor Brandt (Michael Caine). Here, they realize that the Earth is dying, thanks to the dust storms and lack of food to share. He is determined to develop a formula which will let all the citizens leave the Earth, but there is not enough gravity for this to happen. Thus, the back-up plan: bringing thousands of fertilized eggs to grow another population so the species doesn't die out.
Let me back up, NASA is launching a mission to follow-up on the planets in another galaxy. There is a wormhole near Saturn where twelve new planets exist. Each of these have been explored to see if they can sustain human life. Despite everything, including leaving his family behind, Coop decides to go, he was a pilot in the air force after all. Coop sets out with Amelia Brandt (Anne Hathaway), Professor Brandt's daughter and two others: Doyle (Wes Bentley) and Rom (David Gyasi).
They make it through the wormhole and land on the first planet where the gravity is so heavy and slow that just one hour on that planet encompasses seven Earth years. This planet is a disappointment, filled with water and huge tidal waves that are horribly destructive. The next planet is even worse, a barren tundra with amnomia for air. Dr. Mann (an uncredited Matt Damon) sent out a positive signal just so he would get rescued. Coop took a chance and now, there is only one viable planet left and not enough fuel to return home. He sends Brandt to that other planet with all the zygotes while he manages to return home through a black hole which actually turns out to be a tesseract. Time travel is involved, people. Yes, this film gets super weird really fast.
Back on Earth, decades have past. Murph (now Jessica Chastain) is all grown up, determined to help Professor Brandt solve the equation, only to have discovered he lied, there is no way to solve the gravity equation. Tom (Casey Affleck), Coop's son, is a farmer but the dreadful amounts of dust have already killed his oldest son and are slowly killing his wife and other son, named after his father. While she is gathering her stuff from her old bedroom, her father is in the tesseract and he turns out to be her ghost, forcing the books off her shelves; he told himself the area where NASA turned out to be and he solves the missing part of the equation and messages that to Murph using morse code in the watch he left with her. She solves the equation which saves everyone.
Coop wakes up in a space shuttle orbiting Saturn and sees his elderly daughter one last time before she dies, as time continues to pass. Murph (now Ellen Burstyn) urges him to go and help Amelia on her new planet which, unlike the other two, is good, crops are thriving there.
The film has several plot holes or stuff that is easily missed. How does the tesseract work, exactly? It shouldn't necessarily work the way it does. And how does gravity slow down time? How will all the fertilized eggs become people?
Whatever, though I have problems with those things what bothered me more is Hans Zimmer's overwhelming score. Sure, it's great, but it is too loud and used too frequently. Some of the lines are murmured and thus, you miss them. The acting is mediocre and these are good actors. The only good scene is when Coop returns from the first planet to find that twenty-three years have past and he catches up on all the messages he has missed. His son is now married with a family and his daughter is the same age he was when he left. That scene made me cry. However, other than that, the acting wasn't great. Hathaway was a disappointment and Chastain should have been better. The plot of the film also was unsteady, dragging at parts and then speeding up too quickly before slowing down again and then ending. Chastain isn't frantic enough when she is packing up her room, when she returns to NASA to solve the problem, the score takes over the scene, ruining her achievement. Her romance with a fellow doctor (Topher Grace) isn't developed at all. After she solves the problem, saving all living humans, she merely jumps into his arms and starts kissing him. But they must get married and have children because she does have kids, later. And what happens when Coop rejoins Amelia on the new planet?
At least this film looked good. Grade: B

The Astronaut Wives Club: Pilot

I have read the book and greatly enjoyed it, but as far as the show is concerned, I was disappointed. Here, each woman is determined that her husband be the first in space, and none are that appreciative of the talents of the other astronaut candidates. Most also undervalue themselves, believing that it is their job to help their respective husbands get what the husbands want. Only Rene Carpenter (Yvonne Strahowski) believes that she has something more important to look forward to, after all, she's the mother of four and a college graduate.
The wives of these Mercury Seven could have easily been forgotten but LIFE Magazine decides to do a photo shoot for the wives and continues to follow their story. Of course all the wives are in, and voila, the story begins.
Sure, the wives appear gorgeous, the perfect housewives, but there is more than what meets the eye.
The Coopers marriage is beyond rocky, though Trudy (Odette Annable) has stayed, but solely for the sake of his career.  She even went as far as filing the papers, but it would have ruined her husband's career, so she stayed, though anger could sometimes get the better of her. She also believes that she's a modern woman, and maybe she is, but only for the late 1950s.
It is also her idea to surprise the men for a test launch of a rocket only to have everything go horribly wrong. Louise Shepherd (Dominique McElligott) catches Alan (Desmond Harrington) with another woman, something I saw coming, after all, at the beginning his secretary was in his office, not at her desk.
But even worse, the rocket explodes only seconds after launching. Most of the women are sick and grateful that their husbands weren't on board. Louise, however, is the exception, saying simply that they will learn from their mistakes. Most of the other wives leave in a huff, not realizing before how dangerous the whole thing was.
When it comes time to launch, the Russians have beaten the Americans, having put a man in space first. Whereas that was done is almost complete secrecy, the press is all over the rocket that carries Alan Shepherd into space. But Louise refuses company, terrified out of her mind and nearly faints when she finally stands up, thrilled that mission control made contact with her husband inside the  capsule. She doesn't let anyone know how scared she is, and manages a gracious, beautiful statement to the press gathered outside her door.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at things, this is only the beginning, with the moon as one of the next goals, so there is no time for breathing room, leaving Louise forced to understand that her fear will become routine not a rarity. She decides that she needs kindness and compassion from other humans who vaguely understand what she is going through. The wives are friends, for now.
Now, there are some things that the show gets right. For example, Annie Glenn (Azure Parsons) has a stutter in real life and also in the show so at first, many don't like her because she's painfully shy. Marge Slayton (Erin Cummings) was also previously married and divorced, something she refused to discuss, not that anyone could blame her.
However, the show fails. There were several great moments and the performances of the wives are pretty good, not Emmy worthy, not even close but certainly good enough to keep the show moving. The husbands are mostly underdeveloped and most are interchangeable at this point which needs to change. The show also moved at a speed far too brisk, skipping over many events and jumping between gaps in time far too quickly. The pilot opted to cover two years in time, which is just far too much and most of the wives haven't been introduced properly yet which is a real shame. The dialogue is also bad, most of the time far too modern for the time. This show has the material to be much better than it is, and I think it has the talent to make it better but it is nothing more than a wasted opportunity thus far, hopefully it will get better. Grade: B-

Empire: Season One Recap and Reaction

I have finally finished watching this show. Despite my countless issues with it, it is a must see, mostly thanks to the excellent cast of colorful characters.
Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) has just been released from prison where she has spent the last seventeen years of her life, going down for a drug deal where the money was used to start her husband's record business. Now, Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) is her ex-husband, he's moved on, eventually getting engaged to Anika Calhoun (Grace Gealey).
Lucious, however, has his own problems. He's just been diagnosed with ALS and has less than three years to live. He needs to decide which one of his (and Cookie's) three sons will take over the family business. There's Andre (Trai Byers), the eldest, book smart, the CFO of the company. Next, Jamal (Jussie Smollett), the most talented, though Lucious will never admit it. Then, there's Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), the spoiled youngest child and the one whom Lucious is personally grooming to take over.
Once Cookie is released, she takes over Jamal's career and wants him to take over the business. Unlike his father, she's never cared that he's homosexual while Lucious finds it appalling.
All three of Lucious's sons are disappointments: Andre married a white woman, Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) and is bipolar, Jamal is gay and Hakeem is dating an older woman, Camilla (Naomi Campbell). Lucious sends Camilla away, almost forcing Hakeem to sign with the enemy label.
Judd Nelson plays Billy Baretti, the sworn enemy of Lucious. Lucious used to work with him, but now Baretti has the rights to many songs that Lucious wrote, which makes Anika's betrayal by working with Baretti all the more bitter. Perhaps she had good reasons. Though Lucious had proposed to her, forcing her doctor father to commit fraud, he nevertheless hooks up with Cookie and Anika catches them. Cookie tells on her because if Lucious's money disappears, then hers does too, and she never wants to back to being poor.
Jamal turns out a nasty act, nearly tossing Baretti over the edge of a building just to get the song rights back, despite his issues with his father, he's the most talented and helps Lucious write new songs, so Lucious decides that Jamal will take over, leaving the almost turned religious Andre and devastated Hakeem out in the cold. Cookie isn't pleased, she wanted him to leave the business to both Hakeem and Jamal, and is forced to work with Anika to get revenge on Lucious.
Now, ironically, perhaps, by the time the season is over, only Hakeem isn't a law breaker. Lucious murders his longtime friend and Cookie's cousin, Bunkie (Antoine McKay) because Bunkie wanted more money. Cookie almost smothers Lucious with a pillow, something only Jamal knows about. Jamal nearly tosses Baretti over the ledge and Andre gets into a fist fight with Vernon Turner (Malik Yoba), one of Lucious's right hand men and doesn't call the cops when Rhonda accidentally kills him. Rhonda also happens to be pregnant. I hope everything goes okay, considering she sure can drink. Also, the two have an open marriage, but now, they are bound forever.
The plot line that I had huge issues with was the one where Lucious forced Jamal to marry a back up singer, Olivia (Raven Symone) when he was eighteen, all the time while he was sleeping with her. Olivia is now in an abusive relationship and leaves her young daughter, Lola wiht Jamal, who slept with Olivia a grand total of once but he takes this new role of fatherhood seriously, only to have Lucious ruin everything. This plot line was sort of stupid. First of all, a DNA test is never performed. These are wealthy people, surely they would want that for sure, and a father forcing his son into a cover marriage, that's just barbaric. I hated the whole thing. I could have imagined a woman trying to pin a baby on Hakeem, that would have actually been believable. Whatever, it was only briefly, I don't think we'll see Olivia again.
Oh well. Still, this is a great show, with excellent guest stars, including Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson as a musical therapist, Timberland out does himself with the great songs, covering several genres effortlessly. The cinematography and editing are also great, each episode almost feels like a short film instead of a television show. The acting is the true stand-out, with the five main characters playing someone so complex. All five deserve Emmy nominations, too bad that almost certainly won't happen. Grade: A-