MOVIE REVIEW: Jersey Boys

I haven't seen the musical in which Jersey Boys was based on but I know most of the songs that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons sang and I admire Clint Eastwood as a director so I came in the theater with some excitement. I came out humming but wanting more.

Jersey Boys is the story of how iconic singer Frankie Valli and his group The Four Seasons came to be: from their beginnings on the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey, their mob connections, rise of the Four Seasons and their disbandment. This is like Eastwood paying homage to his fellow Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese.

Unlike Scorsese's frenetic fast-paced signature style of film making, Jersey Boys is pure Eastwood, slow with a bit of gloom in it's colors. The vibrancy of John Lloyd Young's singing (reprising his Tony Award winning role as Valli) as well as the group's choreography is lost in the atmosphere and feel. It's the complete opposite of the bright colors of the poster of the Broadway musical.

Acting legend Christopher Walken gives ample support as their father figure and it was nice on Eastwood's part to cast the other actors in the original musical to reprise their roles on the big screen.

If you have seen the Broadway Musical and expecting the same, you will be disappointed. If you're a fan of The Sopranos and other New Jersey based mob films and shows, you'll enjoy it. Either way, Clint Eastwood, despite his age, continues to evolve as a filmmaker.

MOVIE REVIEW: Edge of Tomorrow

I had low expectations coming inside the theater for Edge of Tomorrow since from what the trailer has shown is kinda like Tom Cruise's last film, the bland Oblivion. When the film started, with scenes echoing similarities to the beginning of Brad Pitt's World War Z last year about a force that's threatening mankind, Edge of Tomorrow is one entertaining, comic, action-packed movie. 

Outside of  the Mission Impossible franchise, this is Tom Cruise's best film in recent memory. As inexperienced military officer William Cage, the Hollywood superstar gave a performance that's part comic and believable in scenes that puts his life in death's door. It's always tricky when acting with visual effects but he pulled it off. He is ably assisted by Emily Blunt, if I'm not mistaken, her first action movie, who plays the poster girl for the Allies as the world tries to defeat a powerful alien force that came to invade earth.

The movie with it's concept gets repetitive but with the direction of Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity and Mr.& Mrs. Smith) with The Usual Suspect's Christopher McQuarrie as one of the writers, Edge of Tomorrow, based on the short Japanese light novel All You Need is Kill, is totally unpredictable. You will be at the edge of your seat not knowing what happens next even though some of the earlier scenes gets played over and over again.

Part Groundhog Day mixed with Starship Troopers, Saving Private Ryan and The Source Code, Edge of Tomorrow, despite borrowing some concepts from the above mentioned films, works and well worth your time and hard earned money at the movies.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Other Woman

When the wife and mistresses joined forces to avenge the man they all thought that was loyal to only each of them, The Other Woman is anchored by the comic tandem of Cameron Diaz and most especially Leslie Mann who brought excellent chemistry as the intelligent yet  unsuspecting mistress Carly and the clueless yet sweet wife Kate.

When the two discover that their playboy of a man Mark played by Game of Thrones' Nicholas Coster-Waldau has another girl: young,sexy and voluptuous Amber played by model Kate Upton, Carly and Kate became their friend and unexpectedly bond to plot his downfall.

We have seen The Other Woman before thru She-Devil with Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr and most notably the box office hit The First Wives Club starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton but the movie is saved from the wonderful Leslie Mann, whom I always find to be a comic genius in films such as Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin and many more. It helps that she's married to comedy director Judd Apatow. Her moments in the film are the ones the shine the brightest in The Other Woman.

The film also stars singer Nicki Minaj in her film debut as Carly's secretary with great one liners, Zero Dark Thirty's Taylor Kinney as Kate's brother and Don Johnson as Carly's Dad.

MOVIE REVIEW: Heaven Is For Real

First and foremost, I haven't read the best selling book that the movie was based on but I heard that a lot of people were touched after reading it therefore it sparked my interest in watching Heaven Is for Real.

Greg Kinnear plays Todd Burpo, a pastor in Nebraska whose faith and belief in God was tested when his 4 year old son Colton (Connor Corum) had a near death experience after his appendectomy. He miraculously survived the ordeal and then revealed to his father that he went to heaven.

Colton provided a vivid description of heaven but his father still has doubts. Unlike other faith-based films, the one good thing about Heaven is for Real is that it doesn't shove it in your face with their beliefs and the scene with references to Moses and Mohammed is unlike any other dialogue that I'd heard before in a faith-based film. It lets you find out for yourself if Connor is telling the truth or the Burpo family is just manipulating us. Kudos to director Randall Wallace (who wrote Braveheart and directed We Were Soldiers and Secretariat) for assembling a good cast with Oscar nominees Kinnear (As Good As It Gets), Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) and also with Kelly Reilly (Flight) and Margo Martindale (August Osage County).

Technically, Heaven Is for Real is a just polished version of a Hallmark Channel TV Film: visual effects and musical score are cheesy. It might not even appeal outside the Christian demographic but it is one film that can give you comfort and reassure you that we will go to that place once we die.

.

MOVIE REVIEW: Draft Day

Mixing real life American Football sports teams with fictional characters and set in the annual event which is the film's title, the movie tells a comprehensive behind the scenes on the happenings and goings on one team in the NFL, in this case, the Cleveland Browns and how they will fare in selecting the best player that can make and break the team for possibly the Superbowl title.

As Sonny Weaver Jr,, manager of the Cleveland Browns, Kevin Costner gives a commendable performance as a man stepping out of his Dad's (who was the former manager of the team) shadow to build the team based of his thinking and logic. Just like in Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and Tin Cup, he is at his best in sports themed films. An excellent supporting cast with Ellen Burnstyn as his Mom, Denis Leary as the Browns coach and Frank Langella, as the team's owner guides Weaver Jr. as he makes the ultimate decision. Only Jennifer Garner, who plays the girlfriend and coworker was stuck in a thankless role.

Despite some heavy American Football terminology, Draft Day is a film that celebrates the universal themes of family, sportsmanship and cooperation and the last hour of it is one great crowd pleaser.

MOVIE REVIEW: Noah

Black Swan Director Darren Aronofsky's version of Noah is not your typical Biblical film. The timeless tale of the man tasked by God to save his family and animals when he unleashed a flood that destroyed the evil that inhabited the world during that time and start anew asks  more questions that touch our personal beliefs and makes us determine on how strong our faith is to our Creator (this is how the film addressed God).

Aronofsky conveyed his artistic freedom and while it deviates from what is in the Holy Bible, the movie for me, is not offensive at all and it actually helps us interpret from what we were taught of Noah when we were kids and reflect on our current state of being.

After the Oscar winning A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe (Noah) teams up again with Jennifer Connelly who again plays his wife Naameh and they compliment each other in the film. Crowe with his rugged desperate built tasked by the Creator with such a daunting task to Connelly's Virgin Mary like features that softens the films surrounding and being the mother figure of the film. Anthony Hopkins, in a short role as the "Grandfather" brings a mythical New Age vibe to the film and as usual you want more of him. Emma Watson and Logan Lerman reunite after The Perks of Being A Wallflower in the film in such complete opposite from their iconic roles as Hermione in the Harry Potter series and Percy Jackson respectively. Their transition as adult actors is on the right track.

Stunning cinematography by frequent Aronofsky collaborator Matthew Libatique whose creation shots parallels Terence Malick's The Tree of Life and commendable visual effects makes Noah a good movie to see it on the big screen.

MOVIE REVIEW: American Hustle

Set in the late 1970's- early 80's and loosely based on the Abscam scandal wherein con artists and FBI

agents joined forces to bring down corrupt politicians, American Hustle is a crime film in which from the first scene where Christian Bale's character con artist Irving Rosenfeld was trying to fix his balding hair with a nasty comb over, you know that this would be different from any real life crime film set in the 70's. Director David O. Russell's wisely set up the film as a comedy that well matches the bad hairdos and outlandish outfits from that era.

With a cast that came from his last two films (all of them got Oscar nods for it as well as 2 wins): Bale and Amy Adams from The Fighter, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from Silver Linings Playbook plus Jeremy Renner, they never disappointed and all of them had excellent chemistry for it shows that they had fun doing the film. The ensemble is reminiscent of the great Robert Altman films that also echoes Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights.

Rosenfeld found his match with Amy Adams' character: a fellow con-artist with different names and accents, you really don't know who she is. After being caught by Bradley Cooper's ambitious yet impatient FBI agent Richie DiMaso, the three join forces to bring down a New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who may or not be corrupt. Jennifer Lawrence after her Oscar winning turn in Russell's Silver Linings Playbook, continues to surprise us with a role that's far beyond her age. As Rosenfeld's neglected wife Roselyn, she brings despair and kookiness to it. Her kitchen scenes with Bale stands out.

For two hours and nine minutes, American Hustle is an intelligent film that shows that in crime, there's also comedy.