This week at the movies: a veritable bounty, which can only mean one thing – we’ve entered the holiday movie season. Slapstick comedy, serious dramas and one dystopian fiction franchise reaches its conclusion.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
The final final installment of the series based on Suzanne Collins’ books. Katniss leads the civil war to end the reign of President Snow (Donald Sutherland). The major characters are back, including Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and Haymitch (Woody Harrelson).
Perfect For: You are a fan of the first eleventy million movies.
What the Critics Say: For a franchise film it’s pretty good, even if it’s run out of steam. But Jennifer Lawrence is better than ever. New York magazine writes: “A potent antiwar saga: bleak, savage, and very modern in the depiction of an unholy union between political manipulation and showbiz.” And says The New York Times: “What makes the material still feel personal - other than the years long investment and love that transform entertainments into fan communities - is the combination of Katniss and Ms. Lawrence, who have become a perfect fit.”
Our Take: A well-made popcorn movie can never be underestimated.
The Night Before
A holiday comedy bromance featuring Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as three childhood pals who meet up annually for a night of debauchery. Things have gotten complicated because Mackie is now a mega famous football player, but they find a way to infiltrate the hottest ticket in town, the Nutcracka Ball. With cameos (Mindy Kaling, Michael Shannon, Miley Cyrus) and crude jokes galore, it’s a slapstick comedy that’s aiming for the R rating.
Perfect For: Not for the children; fans of Rogen and his brand of goofy, crude comedy.
What the Critics Say: It’s not a classic, but it’s got enough laughs to cover up for the fact that the movie is pretty bad in other ways. Writes Entertainment Weekly: “It’s also a pretty endearing tribute to male friendship—hammy and crude and more baked than a fruitcake, but with a sweetly squishy holiday heart at its center.” Writes the Chicago Tribune: “It's sort of astonishing that Rogen - undervalued, always, because he makes various forms and modes of comedy look so easy - can still wring laughs out of a character stoned/coked/'shroomed out of his gourd ...”
Our Take: We’re big fans of Rogen, and this looks like easygoing fun.
Spotlight
The true story of the investigative team at The Boston Globe that uncovered the systemic child abuse by Boston priests in the Catholic Church and the church’s decade-long cover up of the abuse, Spotlight stars Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, John Slattery, Liev Schrieber and Brian d'Arcy James as the team of real-life journalists and editors at the Globe. Told without embellishment, the movie shows the methodical reporting that the reporters went through even as they were threatened by larger city institutions.
Perfect For: You like thrillers, and you can handle the truth.
What the Critics Say: The all-star cast is just icing on the very well-made cake. (It’s got a 98% Rotten Tomatoes meter rating from Top Critics). Writes The New York Times: “’Spotlight’ is a gripping detective story and a superlative newsroom drama, a solid procedural that tries to confront evil without sensationalism.” Writes The Christian Science Monitor: “The film is often straightforward and hard-hitting. But it plays out all the usual tropes of the investigative-journalism genre -- the hot tips, the clandestine meetings, the hand-wringing about ethics, etc. -- without adding a jot of novelty.”
Our Take: Yes, it’s solid as a rock.
Legend
In the past we’ve complained about how Tom Hardy’s beautiful face is always covered in movies; but in Legend, you get to see double the Hardy. He plays Reggie and Ron Kray, the real-life twin gangsters who ran the British city in the sixties. Yes, this means lots of Hardy wearing smart looking suits worthy of Mad Men in glamorous settings, getting into fistfights and wooing beautiful women.
Perfect For: You want a mix of Bond movies crossed with Scorsese; you love Tom Hardy.
What the Critics Say: The movie is deeply flawed but is nearly saved by all that Tom Hardy. Entertainment Weekly: “The film's saving grace is Hardy, who is as ferocious and watchable as ever, acting smooth and brooding as Reggie and unhinged as Ronnie.” Writes Rolling Stone: “It sounds silly, and often it is. Helgeland's script is hit-and-miss. Still, Hardy, playing gangster twins, is a show all by himself, an actor flying without a net and having a ball.”
Our Take: We’d see it for Tom Hardy. Over, and over, and over.
Secret In Their Eyes
Starring Julia Roberts, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman, Secret In Their Eyes is a remake about FBI agents who take a second crack at an unsolved murder case when their perp gets away the first time. The twist is that the victim is Roberts’ own daughter.
Perfect For: Lover of murder mysteries and when actresses like Julia Roberts get a drab makeover.
What the Critics Say: Meh. Writes The Wrap: “Certainly aims high in its attempts to marry the personal and the political, but by the time you hit the movie's big third-act twists, the film's inconsistencies and artificialities prevent those moments from playing as anything other than gimmicky.”
Our Take: Save it for later.
