Jobs

So there I was, checking my iPhone for information regarding movie times.  I wasn't 100% sure as to which of this weekends "blockbusters" was the one that deserved my small fortune in ticket costs and there was much consideration and debate, both mentally and physically.  It seemed I was not going to be able to quiet the mind riot long enough to settle on my newest prey, that is until I looked over at the the illuminated Apple emblem on the back of my Mac Book; that ladies and gentleman is when lightning struck.  In case you haven't quite figured out my meaning, or have seen the title of this review, I will spell it out: J.O.B.S.

 Walk towards the light.

 This feature length film recaps the dramatic life of Steve Jobs, co-founder and "brain" behind Apple's huge technological fortune, which seems almost to capture the essence of a bio-pic/documentary.  We find ourselves yet again in our trusty Delorean time machines, whisked back to the 70's, and thrust into the life of Steve Jobs, played by Ashton Kutcher, as he wrestles with being a college drop-out and yearning for more out of his life.

 Dude where's my apple?

Through a very fast paced, pieced together script, we see Jobs receive his own epiphany, leading him towards a career in technology.  Tormented by his own ego and fears, Jobs continuously pushes every boundary he approaches, earning both resentment and praise, ultimately finding himself on top of the technology tough guy list looking down upon all those he left in his wake.

Come and join the revolution.

Now, this is something I struggled with throughout the film.  I must admit, I did not know a great deal about Jobs prior to viewing this film.  What knowledge I took away from this was that Steve Jobs was a passionate, inspiring, butt head, one who held himself in higher regards than any other person; larger than all, untouchable.  I can only assume that what was depicted on screen mirrored the reality off screen, after all, this film was all about Steve Jobs.  So having said that, again, while he was busy being passionate about his company and products, Steve Jobs was a butt head to everyone and anyone: friends, family, clients, co-workers, etc.  Literally to the point on throwing his pregnant girlfriend out on the street (has not been confirmed to occur in real life) and financially undercutting his former friends/employees/co-founders.  It made me want to take all of my Apple products and drag them into that little trashcan icon on the dock...I quickly decided against that.  After all, Steve Jobs wasn't the only butt head on the planet controlling products and industries which I regularly partake.

Command, Shift, Delete me, I dare you!

 As mentioned briefly above, this script seemed "rushed" almost; too many gaps in time and reason to make a whole lot of sense.  I understand that the film was more about the initial undertaking of creating a computer company in the early years of computers, fine.  However, this doesn't mean you can have a storyline bouncing all over the place, both in terms of location and year.  There were numerous times in this film where I found myself stopped, thinking long and hard about what was happening, who these people were.  The film would show things like Jobs, his wife and kids, without ever showing us who and where and when these people came from.  This aspect made the film difficult to follow, which basically started at the start and ended at the end.  Profound, I know.

Acting, on the other hand, was what made this film bearable.  That's right reader, even Kutcher brought his "A" game.  Now I have read some other comments (complaints) claiming the opposite, that Kutcher had no business being in this role.  Rest assured, he was more than competent and did a great job harnessing the essence of that turtle neck wearing butt head.  Kutcher went deep and got every mannerism, walking, hand talking habit which Jobs was known for spot on.  Actually, the entire cast was rather remarkably assembled from all corners of the acting community.  Josh Gad (The Internship) played Steve Wozniak, the actual brain behind the Apple start-up, and initially Jobs' right hand man.  Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend's Wedding) played Mike Marrkula, Apple's original angel investor, and one of Jobs' biggest supporters.  J.K. Simmons (Juno) played Arthur Rock, the hard to please board member always trying to control Jobs.  Lastly (for me and this review) Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises) who played John Sculley, the former Pepsi marketing guru turned Apple marketing head/CEO.  At every level of this film I found more and more depth in the acting.  As the film progressed through its entirety, the emotional turmoil/pain/hatred grew more and more palpable, eventually leading to breakdowns and downfalls throughout the company and the individuals, and my understanding.

Most of you know that this "fairy tale" of a life resembles more the Grimm version than the Disney.  It's an easy assessment to make, Steve Jobs' life was remarkable and unique, while being heinous and cruel; this film really hit that nail on the head.  As I was left astonished as to Jobs' behavior and cruelty, I too was amazed with his passion and his genius, and I'm not talking about the bar.

Do you have an appointment?

Final Words: Medium Popcorn 

I must admit, if it wasn't for the acting I think this film would have been a small.  Jobs is by no means a stand out film, but certainly one which deserves some credit.  Even though the script was shaky and on the flimsy side of things, the overall product was bearable, and insightful.  Check this one out on the cheaper side of things. 

Until next time, happy viewing!

Review Rating based on popcorn sizes: small, medium, large, extra-large; 

films worth skipping get snore...zzzzz

Elysium

I went to see the mega-production of the month, Elysium, and was astonished as to what I witnessed.  I fully expected a fast paced action/adventure/sci-fi thrill ride, one which never lets go, since Elysium barely surpassed the 100 minute mark; a rather short length film for today's standards.  What was delivered was everything short of expected, and left me scratching my head and rubbing my eyes not only in disbelief but also frustration.


 The newest film from writer/director Neill Blomkamp, writer/director of District 9, seemed to have more holes than the Swiss, keeping this story from ever taking off.

Someone order a flimsy script?

For starters, the story seemed to have numerous plot points coming from left field.  An elite group of humans living on a space station where the air is clear and crazy medical beds heal and instantly eradicate any and all ailments, this utopia floats in space a mere 19 minute flight from Los Angeles. All the while, the Earth's surface is left littered with trash and destitute individuals all trying to find their way aboard Space Station Elysium.  

 Los Angeles 2154, or 2013?  I can't tell the difference.

 Elysium, snobby mc'snobsville, with their stupid trees and faces.

This made up the semi-understandable story.  The tippy top elite members of society, along with government officials, wanting to isolate themselves from the working class filth...that's not so far from reality.  The problem was that the motivation for total isolation seemed unsupported.  Elysium had these medical beds right?, while down on Earth, society was barely functioning with illness and injury.  Why not supply medical beds on Earth?  Elysium was created to facilitate its citizens living away from famine, disease, danger, etc.  Yet, Elysium also required assistance from the Earth's surface in the manufacturing of robots: medical robots, police robots, etc.  It would seem advantageous for Elysium to supply these miracle medical beds for the Earth's residents as well.  Also, if the human race had the knowledge and capability to create an isolated space station, and have robots to do the "heavy-lifting" and have magical beds to heal any and all problems, how were they unable to reverse the Earth's decline into chaos?  

Now, throughout this film we follow Max, played by Matt Damon, a former criminal turned honest working stiff.  Max lives in Los Angeles and, along with everybody, is trying to end up on Elysium.  Max works at this plant where the police robots are made, and one day accidentally gets exposed to a lethal dose of radiation.  Let me stop things here. 

 Do not pass go, do not collect radiation poisoning.

In a previous scene, we see Max going through his normal work routine.  He makes and installs some metal pieces for the bots, then pushes a pallet of them into a sealed off room, almost like a kiln.  We see and hear him pushing buttons in sequence while shouting out phrases: "Closing 34!" "Firing 34!" (something along those lines)  We clearly see him do a multi-step process in which the robots get subjected to radiation, for one reason or another.  Flash forward a day.  Max finds himself getting trapped inside this kiln, while trying to clear a jammed door.  Why wasn't there any override switch to open the door once the jam occurred?  Not only does the door continue to close, and no one is outside the room to support him in his efforts to clear this jam, even though his supervisor directed him to enter the room, but then the radiation kicks on.  Wait a second I said to myself, didn't we see Max hit two different buttons, one to close the door the other to set off the radiation?  Yes.  So then why when Max is trapped inside this room did the radiation start up on its own?  Then there is the fact about the alarms which started up.  Max's control board flashes a warning along with a siren: Organic Flesh Detected.  If there is a warning siren and message built into this system with the only goal of alerting the operators to the unpleasant issue of Organic Flesh inside the radiation chamber, then why wasn't there a built in shut off when this rare occurrence occurs?  Am I going mad?  

 Hey Neill, this doesn't work for me.

Now, after all this hullabaloo happens, we find Max, somehow alive in a isolated medical bay.  He is informed, by robot, that he has been subject to a lethal amount of radiation, and that his organs would be deteriorating over the next 5 days until his death.  What the heck is going on?  If Max received that much radiation to kill him in 5 days, how did he survive in the first place?  Seems to me that Max should have been dead within the first 20 minutes of the film, not capable of walking out and posing a threat to Elysium.  Instead Max finds himself amongst "gangsters" and no one seems too worried about this lethally radiated man within their personal space.  I don't know here people, seems way bizarre.

Honestly, at this point in the film, I was pretty annoyed.  I kept thinking to myself during the remaining hour plus, "Am I bored?", "Yes, I am bored.  This is boring."  It never got better either.  That above rant was honestly only 15-20 minutes of the film, yet it started the snowball of absurdity which filled up the remainder of the time.  Honestly, for a film only 100 minutes and some change, the story dragged so much, it felt like a 3 hour endeavor.  Part of the issue I feel must be attributed to the fact we got a writer/director issue.  As I discussed in The To Do List review, we potentially run into an almost "conflict of interest" when one individual occupies two creatively important roles; bad form.  I promise you I will not go into any more plot issues, because I don't want this review to end up the length of War and Peace.  Let me just assure you, this film is flimsy flimsy flimsy.  

Now, as you first saw when you entered into this posts realm, there was indeed a popcorn, not a trio of Z's.  I really must commend this film on a handful of things, which slightly earned this film a tiny bit of love and redemption from me.  For one, the acting in this film was rather good, surprisingly.   Even while the story dragged along like a zombie at midnight, the acting was sharp and to the point.  One truly felt the emotion conveyed on screen, just not the reason behind it.  The cast had some big names to support Matt Damon: Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley, to name a couple.  With these names come a certain level of talent even a bad script cannot decline.

Another aspect one can count on from Blomkamp, was the hyper realistic visuals and special effects.  We the viewer got quite an eyeful of some rather gruesome fight sustained damage and medical procedures.  Enough to make even the tough guys in the room squirm.  One can only look at a half exploded face, or disturbing exo-skeletal surgery for so long, you know?

Hold still Mr. Damon, you may feel a slight pinch.

Final Words: Small Popcorn 
All in all folks, this film was un-good.  As with my English in the last sentence, this film lacked reason and story, providing instead ammunition for question marks.  Some may find elements entertaining and worth while, but mostly finding themselves just as bored and confused as I was.  The small popcorn is specifically for the few aspects I mentioned above, and nothing else.  If you find yourself with a hankering to watch this film, do so in the most inexpensive way possible.

Until next time, happy viewing!

Review Rating based on popcorn sizes: small, medium, large, extra-large; 

films worth skipping get snore...zzzzz

 

We're The Millers

Oh, hello reader, I didn't see you there, but I'm glad you are here.  I want to extend to you an invitation of sorts, one which will challenge your mind to accept a very unreal fact about our "relationship".  I want you to pretend for the next handful of minutes that I am not just an exceptional writer, but a relative of yours, perhaps a distant uncle or grandfather.  I'll give you a moment to decide what I will be...........................got it?  Good.  Now sit back, relax, and give your mind permission to follow along with your...(fill in the relationship blank) while I drop some knowledge on you about my newest review subject: We're The Millers.

For starters, HILARIOUS!, secondly, VERY HILARIOUS!  Hopefully this insight will help paint the picture for you.  This film follows David Clark (Jason Sudeikis), a.k.a Poppa Miller, and his "family": 

     Sarah "Rose" O'Reilly (Jennifer Aniston) a.k.a. Sarah "Rose" Miller,

     Kenny Rossmore (Will Poulter) a.k.a. Kenny Miller, sensing a theme are we??, and

     Casey Mathis (Emma Roberts) a.k.a. Casey Miller.

This pieced together team of vagabond, stripper, drug dealer, and weirdo (oddest A-Team ever) came together with one goal in mind: to smuggle a smidge and a half of marijuana from Mexico to Colorado.  Sounds like it should be easyish, right?  Well assuming, that is, you can make it past the border guards and their drug sniffing canines and automatic weapons, and don't become the targeted victim of drug theft by an evil drug kingpin and his massive mountain of a human.  Piece of cake, hire a fake family, travel back into America in an RV, and you're home free.  Oh, and let's not forget that one little detail, what exactly is a smidge and a half?

 2 tons to be exact!

At this point in my story ladies and gentleman, I would like to mention the fact that this film was basically all plot and story.  There was nothing overly spectacular about how the film looked, or any special effects used in the process.  It was a very standard film with a roughly standard story, however, using a very non-standard process and path to get to the ending.

What made this story so unique was having the main character consciously realize that the best way to get past the scrutinizing eye of the U.S. Border Patrol, was to give himself a beard.  No people, I am not referring to facial hair.  David Clark realized that by adopting the appearance of a typical American family, and acting the part, they instantly look less guilty than one man driving a large recreational vehicle into and out of Mexico solo.  Again, interesting and unique process.  What made this story "standard" was the fact that in the end, all parties have grown accustomed to one another and attached, thus leading to each one having a desire to continue their charade.  I found this to be rather bogus and cliche.  I believe that this whole trip, flying from Denver to Albuquerque, then driving from Albuquerque into Mexico, grabbing the drugs, Mexico into the U.S. and back to Denver was literally just a couple of days.  In fact, the film's clock only shows us 2 nights, yet somehow after these 2 nights, all parties who originally disliked the others, were now longing to continue their cover story.  Flimsy.  There was even a scene where David "Miller" Clark was describing each of his family members wholeheartedly, with admiration and adoration.  Again, seemed a little rushed for the small time period we were witness to.

Now, let's get away from semantics here, because we all know that films don't necessarily follow the path of realism.  Within the film world, there aren't really any more original stories.  In fact, some say that as a whole, original stories consist of only a handful of ideas, mostly films are adapting these ideas and tweaking them.  That is common practice since Hollywood big-wigs don't want a story which hasn't been tested, they want the safe bet, something they can bank on.  We're The Millers was a good example of the lack of original overall plot, but a perfect use of the tweak.  As I said above, for a standard ending, the path was very non-standard.  Yet, it was the path which gave this film all of its character.  The comedy was at times relentless in its pacing; one after the other after the other.  Sometimes the jokes were deliberate while others were indirect (things said vs. reactions).  Again one thing is definitely for sure about this film, you will not be disappointed.  You may actually find yourself wanting to get back into line for another go around, I know I did.

Final Words: Large Popcorn 
The minute you start laughing, you're stuck.  This film does not give up, instead gets more and more funny.  You will find yourself wanting more and more, and before you know it, it's over.  This film is vulgar and incredible inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18, and more importantly, anyone uncomfortable around sexual and drug innuendos and crude humor and language.  If that is not you, go see this film immediately, you'll thank me.

Until next time, happy viewing!

Review Rating based on popcorn sizes: small, medium, large, extra-large; 

films worth skipping get snore...zzzzz