Bryan Caron's Blog, page 25

Star Wars: The Anticipation Awakens

At one point in my 2012 film, Secrets of the Desert Nymph, one of the characters encourages his best friend to go after the girl of his dreams before it’s too late. When his friend finally agrees, he’s boggled by the idea that he do it right that minute.

The exchange:

“You mean now?”

“No. When episode seven hits theaters.”

Of course, this was when it was a well-known fact that George Lucas wasn’t ever going to release another Star Wars film. The joke was meant to mean if he didn’t do it right that minute, he never would.

Cut to one year later and the announcement that Disney bought Lucasfilm and its entire film library for $4 billion dollars. Disney’s second announcement — Episode 7 was coming, and it was coming fast. And even though it makes the joke in a three-year-old movie seem as dated as the fight over Beta and VHS, I couldn’t be more excited.

With the film’s release three weeks away (three weeks!?! I still have to wait that long?!?), the anticipation is bubbling over, and not simply because I am a huge fan (being one of the very few who actually like the prequel trilogy). There are several things that make this new chapter one to watch.

Jar-Jar Binks aside, one of the biggest reasons a lot of people were disappointed in the prequels was because of Lucas’s choice to go almost completely digital, using CGI to create the majority of landscapes and characters. I will attest, doing this certainly made the films feel much more fake at times, and stole a lot of the magic of the original trilogy away. However, if you’re able to get past this, there is a lot to like about the prequel trilogy — the lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul, Yoda putting Count Dooku in his place, and the moment Anakin officially embraces the dark side and strikes down a school of Jedi children, to name just a few — that live up to the original trilogy, show great strength in the force, and, when watched as a whole, give reason to a lot of choices.

What happened was, the anticipation for the prequels was so high, when the film failed to live up to the expectation of what people remembered from their childhood, the disappointment hit everyone much harder. But when you go back and watch the original Star Wars (that is, Episode 4 – A New Hope), you’ll notice a film that is far from perfect. It has plenty of its own flaws, which no one will really deny, but the spirit of the movie — the adventure, the joy it was, and still is, able to conjure up — helps most people overlook the flaws and enjoy the escapism. The Phantom Menace (as well as the following two films) looked and felt “wrong”, so many couldn’t find a way to look past the flaws.

Now, being a child of the eighties, I grew up in a time when filmmakers pushed the boundaries of makeup effects and animatronics to the point that the majority turn out to be more real than any computer generated image ever could. The puppeteers behind creatures such as Gizmo and Harry (bigfoot, that is) produced an exorbitant amount of emotion out of their little toys, and it gave the actors something to work off of rather than a tennis ball, allowing them to invest in the characters more deeply, translating that emotion to the audience. Computer animation and visual effects certainly have their place, but to completely ignore old-school makeup and practical effects creates a disconnect between the characters and the audience. Even if it’s only a subconscious effect, we as the audience still register that disconnect.

So when JJ Abrams announced he was going to use real sets and practical effects while shooting the new Star Wars, I’m not afraid to say, I was giddy. JJ Abrams wanted to return to the era the original films were made, using computer effects as a means to add to what was already there, rather than create everything from scratch. But it wasn’t until Abrams started his UNICEF campaign early in the film’s shoot, surprising everyone with a hermit-type character that looked so amazing in all of its animatronic glory, that I felt his honesty. This one little choice alone, to me, was going to bring back the power, joy and magic sprinkled throughout the original trilogy.

I also have to applaud the decision Disney and Abrams made in how to market the film. As a writer, I understand how painful it is to have secrets revealed too soon. I keep all of my work very close to the vest until I know it’s ready for official release, mostly because I want to be able to surprise my readers and give them something more to look forward to. These days, it’s hard to watch a trailer for a film without some major secret being revealed (I’m looking at you, Terminator: Genisys). It pains me to think that had The Empire Strikes Back been released today, the studio probably would have had Darth Vader announce his connection to Luke in the trailer, simply to drive more buzz across Twitter.

Abrams knows better. So far, based on the trailers (I try to stay away from sites, blog posts and articles that claim to have spoilers), all we know for sure is that John Boyega’s Finn is a Stormtrooper who for some reason defects from his duties and crash lands on the desert planet of Jaaku. From there, he meets Daisy Ridley’s Rey, and together join forces with Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and his sidekick Puke — wait, I mean, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) — to… what? Not exactly sure, but it has something to do with the Force, a war against Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and his army, and the “disappearance” of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). The reason I put disappearance in quotes is because Luke is missing from the trailers, the posters, and all media. In my opinion, it’s a genius move of marketing because it adds to the conversation about where he is, what he’s doing, and how he fits into the plot. Is there a secret twist Abrams and Disney are keeping held captive? Or is it a ploy to keep people talking about the movie and raise the anticipation? Either way, it works.

If there was one disappointment I have with the film (other than the fact that the Twentieth Centry Fox fanfare won’t be heard prior to that iconic John Williams score), it’s that it’s not staying with tradition and being released on Memorial Day. To hear that a Star Wars film was being released in December sort of broke my heart. But then I thought, you know what…? If there was ever a film to break Titanic‘s monster run as the number 1 film at the box office, it’s The Force Awakens, and with the film opening on the same weekend Titanic opened in 1997, it could very well run the Millennium Falcon into the history books.

That is, if it’s any good. But is there really any doubt?

What do you guys think? Are you as excited as I am for the return of our favorite heroes? Are you looking forward to joining a new cast on new adventures? Do you believe practical effects will always trump computer effects? What are you anticipating the most?

Movie Mayhem – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

In my review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, I postulated that the movie was a set up for what would “more than likely… be a killer finale.” Knowing what I knew from the novels, Part 2 of this final chapter to the Hunger Games series would follow the girl on fire, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), as she led her band of merry followers into the Capitol to take down President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and end his tyrannical reign once and for all. The set-up would have you believe we were in for an explosion of excitement, heartbreak and rousing fanfare. What we end up getting with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, though, seemed much too cold, calculated and unemotional.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part2 — 2015; Directed by Francis Lawrence; Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore and Donald Sutherland

I’m not quite sure what it was, but compared to the last two movies, this finale simply felt dead somehow. What should have been heartbreaking emotional moments came and went without resonance, including the death of someone very important to Katniss. This moment is not only vital to Katniss’s final decision, but it’s essential to the entire series, so when it fails to provoke the expected emotional response, I felt directer Francis Lawrence forgot what made the franchise so powerful in the first place, exchanging passion with fatigue.

As an example, when Katniss, fresh off her attack at the hands of Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), is asked by President Coin (Julianne Moore) to help rally both the rebels and the loyalists in District 2 against the Capitol and solidify their position against Snow, her presence there is so subdued, it feels impersonal and stale. The speech she gives is an afterthought compared to the inciting speech she delivered in Part 1 and makes it feel as if the actors are somehow sleepwalking their way through to the finish line. They know their time in Panem is almost over and have chosen to go through the motions rather than invest in their character’s plight. Even Katniss getting shot by a loyalist does nothing for the film as a whole. It’s meant to be that one moment that turns the tide and gives the rebels the confidence and fire to push on and complete their mission. And though we hear it does just that, we never truly feel the impact. The same thing happens when she’s suspected of being killed later on in the movie. The idea that her death provides advantages in the war never lasts long and feels disengaged.

Unlike the other three films, almost everything Katniss does here feels false. There’s one scene at the end (one of many, which like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, just seem to keep coming with no stop to them) that falls in line perfectly with who Katniss is and the motivations behind her actions, but her continuous drive to kill Snow and her need to be out there fighting to get to him aren’t developed nearly enough to justify what she does. To better explain the film’s inability to live up to its own hype, when the rebels realize Katniss is alive by her arrival at the rebel camp outside the Capitol, the moment should have been a rousing, tearful, joyous moment. But in the way it’s filmed, Lawrence fails to stir the emotions enough to give it the strength of jubilant victory.

But it’s not just Katniss that falls into this lack of energy and artificial emotion. In an effort to bolster their propaganda efforts, Coin sends Peeta to join the group to prove to the Capitol they were able to recondition him to their side. I was excited to see this part of the film because the progression to finding himself again in the book was excellently defined. Here, it seems to be watered-down, mostly because Hutcherson can’t quite seem to capture the intensity needed to feel as if he’s battling two sides of the same coin. All I really ever saw was Peeta pretending to be angry, not Snow’s lapdog trying to find his way back to being the kind, loving, compassionate man he truly wants to be. There were a couple of strong moments, but they’re rather fleeting.

Time is another issue that gets tangled up here, as we’re never really sure how much time it takes for things to happen. In the very first scene of the film, Katniss’s throat is heavily bruised and she can hardly talk. In the next scene, when she’s on her way to District 2, she’s basically fully healed. How much time passes between the final infiltration on Snow’s mansion to the final sequences in the film is only evidenced by Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) going from bald to a fancy new hairstyle. All of these jumps make the film choppy and a little incoherent.

I also believe the side characters, such as Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Prim (Willow Shields) weren’t allowed to breathe in the way they needed to add extra juice to the climax of the film. I would argue the same for Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman), but Hoffman’s untimely death may have had something to do with that. The only character that’s developed enough to truly connect with Katniss is Snow, leading to a finale moment that works on every level. The two of them are simply magic together.

The other aspect Lawrence got right was in the infiltration of the Capitol. All of the traps laid out for the rebels across the city are all well executed, especially the ocean of oil sequence. In fact, this one isolated scene is what I was hoping the rest of the film would be. It encapsulates the expectations by giving the characters the right level of emotion, effectively developing the world, hinting back at the lunacy of the traps in the Hunger Games, and delivering on what Peeta is supposed to be throughout the film, making the sequences that don’t work as well that much harder to swallow. Much like some of the issues in the previous chapter, a lot of what we’re given (such as the excesses of the Capitol, the Mutts and the Evos) were never set up correctly to deliver the right amount of punch for this last chapter to be effective. Because they weren’t set-up properly, when the mutts do arrive, they seem wholly out of place as part of this world.

I really liked Part 1 of Mockingjay, but even though the halves were filmed in succession, it seems the filmmakers sucked all of the most emotional parts out of Part 2, making me believe that had they combined the films into one movie, it would have helped intensify the impact of the final war on the Capitol and the liberation of Panem, keeping the film from feeling like just another propo.

My Grade: B

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Next week, new movies include Creed, The Good Dinosaur and Victor Frankenstein. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Movie Mayhem – Love the Coopers

I’m a sucker for Christmas movies. I’m not sure why, but broken families coming together and putting away their differences to help one another work through their issues during a time of love and wonder just hits me the right way. Hans Gruber once said, “It’s Christmas, Theo. It’s a time of miracles.” But the season itself isn’t always necessary for the plot — a lot of the time, the holiday is simply used as a plot device to bring together several characters who would normally have no other reason to get together and showcases each one in varied storylines that coalesce nicely by the end. There are many elements that go into cooking up a familiar, yet inspirational Christmas tale, and it’s obvious when one is missing. With Love the Coopers, what gets ignored is one of the most necessary ingredients for keeping the movie from becoming a stale fruitcake — love.

Love the Coopers — 2015; Directed by Jessie Nelson; Starring John Goodman, Diane Keaton, Olivia Wilde, Ed Helms, Alan Arkin, Marisa Tomei and Amanda Seyfried

This time around, the patriarchs highlighted are Sam (John Goodman) and Charlotte Cooper (Diane Keaton), a couple desperate to get through one last family Christmas before they announce their separation after 40 years of marriage. It’s a good hook that doesn’t have enough sharp wit or strength to keep you interested. Almost the entire cast seems bored out of their gourds, but no more so than Goodman, who seems out of touch and tired. It could very well be an acting choice to be so despondent, but it never goes beyond much more than Sam being dead inside. With such a rocky marriage crumbling before our eyes, I wanted to see more passion come through, especially in the fights that are crucial to the character wanting to rebuild the foundation of who they once were. Of course, this isn’t only Goodman’s fault; screenwriter Steven Rogers is all over the place in style and tone, unable to hone in on any real, clear direction.

Let’s unpack the rest of the family, shall we?

First up, there’s Charlotte’s sister, Emma (Marisa Tomei), who is introduced stealing a broach for Charlotte’s Christmas gift, supposedly because she feels highly inadequate when it comes to her big sister. She doesn’t even make it to the door when she’s carted off in a police cruiser by Officer Williams (Anthony Mackie). Not only does this storyline go absolutely nowhere (the whole idea that Emma is able to reconcile with her sister or become a better person simply because of this one conversation, I didn’t buy it – Emma could have learned this lesson in a much better, more natural way), but the only reason the subplot seems to exist is in order to fill the mandatory person of color/LGBT quota for the film, doing so in one fell swoop. Yay for activism, I guess.

Then there’s Charlotte and Emma’s father, Bucky (Alan Arkin), who seems to have some awkwardly quasi May-December romance with Ruby (Amanda Seyfried), a waitress with a tragic past that’s used most often for comic fodder (which is incredibly sad given the weight Rogers could have given this storyline to provide a much-needed tonal balance). I didn’t mind that these two characters find each other attractive based on who they are and their personalities, but I was never captivated by their relationship. There was a similar type of relationship between Denzel Washington and Chloë Grace Moretz in last year’s The Equalizer, which ended up being the best part of the film because it was handled with caring hands. Here, it just feels weird and lifeless.

Moving onto Sam and Charlotte’s children, Hank (Ed Helms) is a family man himself with three of his own kids. He doesn’t tell anyone he’s lost his job as a portrait taker at Sears (replaced with automation, natch) and is hard-pressed to find another one. Somehow, everyone ends up knowing anyway causing the entire plot to become moot faster than ice-cream melting on the sidewalk on a hot summer afternoon. Hank is also divorced to someone we really don’t get to know beyond her penchant for spitting food when she talks? Their kids end up being no more than a mixed bag of forced comedic moments, which include: a daughter (Blake Baumgartner) who has a penchant to blurt out “You’re such a dick” to everyone, a sentiment whose payoff is rudely interrupted and never given the chance to shine; a young son (Maxwell Simkins) seeking an unknown gift he never gets; and an elder son (Timothée Chalamet) looking for his first kiss which, admittedly, is mildly funny, at least when the entire family gets to see it happen.

The only endearing storyline revolves around Eleanor (Olivia Wilde), who while hiding out in the airport afraid of disappointing her parents once again, talks up Joe (Jake Lacy), a soldier grounded due to weather. The two couldn’t be more different, or so the movie will have you believe: she’s a compulsively lying, cheating, floozy of a Democrat; he’s a stand-up, patriotic good-ole religious Republican. But it works, mostly because the two actors share the most chemistry of anyone else on screen. They’re also given the most time and energy, and though there are still plenty of moments that will make you cringe and find fault in Rogers’s capabilities, they are the only couple I truly come to care about.

The tone is what hurts the film the most, especially when Rogers tries to squeeze laughs from quick flashbacks told through Steve Martin’s labored narration. These flashes (and sometimes dreams or desires) are meant to add levity to the film, but they come off as forced and unnecessary, the narration simply there to pay off a twist that doesn’t feel warranted. There’s a moment late in the film when Charlotte and Emma are fighting where director Jessie Nelson jump cuts between their adult selves and them as children. This moment is far more effective than any of the tired narration in showing the differences between the characters and how much they rely on remembering their pasts as a piece of who they are. With more moment like this filtered throughout, perhaps the filmmakers would have been able to invite you in with a warm embrace rather than leaving you out in the cold feeling wholly unloved.

My Grade: C-

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Next week, new movies include The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 2, The Night Before and Secret In Their Eyes. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Have Yourself A Merry Sci-Fi Christmas

That’s right, Christmas is once again peering its red and green eyes around the corner, and everyone’s gearing up to blow the doors off of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the three weeks between Thanksgiving and the giving holiday (well, those who celebrate it, at least). The question now is, what do you get that sci-fi lover in your life? I mean, it’s so hard to find anything in the realm of science fict… oh, who am I kidding. Let’s be real. It’s not hard to find a gift for the nerdy geek — what’s hard is choosing from the plethora of plethora of science fiction items out there.

Well, rest assured, I am here to help. As a science fiction fan (and sometimes nerd, sometimes geek and all out Star Wars fanatic), I scrounged the Internet to compile a list of five terrific gifts any true sci-fi nerd would love. I should know. I want all of these.

BB-8 Droid

For Star Wars junkies and robotics enthusiasts

Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock over the last few months knows who BB-8 is. When he first arrived on the scene, many were skeptical about J.J. Abrams claim that it was a live-functioning robot. Now you know it’s true with this awesome remote-controlled replica.

Han Solo Fridge

For hot shot smugglers and lazy couch potatos

Staying with the Star Wars theme for a second, here’s a collectible for those who hate getting off the couch and would love to have Han Solo as a prize. And not only can this mini-fridge keep your drinks cold, it can keep them warm as well. Just not so warm, though, that it melts the carbonite.

Firefly Clue

For Browncoats and board game lovers

Anyone who has seen Firefly knows how devastating it was to have it killed so early in its run. This take on the whodunnit will allow you to honor the series as you relive the exploits of Mal Reynolds and the crew aboard his Firefly-class transport, Serenity.

Dancing Groot Bobblehead

For friends of talking trees and bobblehead enthusiasts

Anyone who’s anyone knows the best scene in Guardians of the Galaxy was when baby Groot got down with his bad self to the Jackson 5’s I Want You Back. Take part in the dance party with this piece of memorabilia that will keep you smiling all day long.

Flux Capaciter USB Charger

For time travel enthusiasts and tech-savvy geeks.

With Back To the Future day behind us, own part of the time machine that lied to us about hover boards, but was nearly omniscient when it came to the Cubs winning the World Series.

And if you don’t believe any of these suggestions will work, check out the following online stores for additional possibilities: ThinkGeek.com, Star Wars Disney Store, Star Trek Store, Funko. And if you have any other gift suggestions, please feel free to post them in the comments section.

Have a merry sci-fi Christmas everyone!

Sponsor A Foster Child This Christmas with J.E.F.F.

Over the last few weeks, I illustrated and designed a flyer for an event the Murrieta Chamber of Commerce is putting on in association with Rancho Domacitas Family and Children’s Services Center and Senator Jeff Stone. Rancho Damacitas is a foster care facility located in Temecula, California that provides care for children who were abused and neglected, nurturing and empowering them through life-enriching programs to become self-sufficient, well-educated, healthy young adults.

The event kicked off this past week with the erection of a Christmas tree at the Chamber office with several ornaments listing gifts the kids at Rancho Damacitas have asked for this Christmas. Businesses and individuals alike are encouraged to choose one of the ornaments from the tree at the Murrieta Chamber office (located at 25125 Madison Ave., Suite 108, Murrieta, Ca 92562) and return the unwrapped gift to the office by December 16th, 2015. In addition, there will be an appreciation luncheon with Senator Jeff Stone on December 17th for all of the tremendous sponsors.

This is a great way to support the children of our local community who are less fortunate than most. Don’t miss this awesome chance to give back and sponsor a foster child this Christmas.

I have my ornament already!

Sponsor a foster child this Christmas with Senator Jeff Stone, the Murrita Chamber of Commerce and Rancho Damacitas. Artwork by Bryan Caron (©2015 Phoenix Moirai)

Movie Mayhem – The Peanuts Movie / Spectre

Two long-running franchises released new chapters to their repertoires this weekend to varying degrees of success. And I’m not talking box office dollars (both did quite well for themselves); I’m talking creative ingenuity. With franchises that have spanned the course of several decades, it’s sometimes hard to find new and exciting ways to produce what amounts to basically the same thing. On occasion, a well-done facelift is in order to help make the old feel new again. But this type of change can be a slippery slope — if you don’t go far enough, people will look at it with a high degree of boredom; go to far and people will reject it because it doesn’t feel the same, or it goes against what they remember. Both The Peanuts Movie and Spectre understand this well enough and stay relatively true to their source material while at the same time, updating their characters for the newer generations. But how well do these new iterations actually work?

The Peanuts Movie — 2015; Directed by Steve Martino
Spectre — 2015; Directed by Sam Mendes; Starring Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz and Léa Seydoux

Charles M. Schulz created the Peanuts Gang in 1950, introducing us to poor, lonely Charlie Brown, a kid with no luck and even worse karma. His friends were a varying degree of emotional constructs: Lucy was his (main) bully, Linus his support, Peppermint Patti his pal, and Snoopy his loyalty. They were friends like any other, teasing and picking on his faults (which include being unable to fly a kite, stealing away the football, and never being able to strike anyone out), but they would always be there for him when it counted because his kindness and compassion always brought everyone together. The movie, written by Bryan & Craig Schulz and Cornelius Uliano, and directed by Steve Martino, doesn’t stray at all from those very specific points. What it does is add a new level of sophistication to the attitude behind both the story and the animation style.

The main plot is simple enough: on a cold winter’s day, the little red-haired girl (Francesca Capaldi) moves in next door to Charlie Brown (Noah Schnapp), who tries (and miserably fails) to impress her over the next few months. Whether it’s slipping on punch during a school dance to having his awesome book report chewed up by a passing toy airplane, nothing he does ever works in his favor. As fans of the comic know, the little red-haired girl is Charlie Brown’s ultimate crush, so it was really nice to go back to the beginning of that story to develop that relationship. And that’s not the only thing the filmmakers set-up in this movie. In a seemingly random subplot that tries to mirror Charlie Brown’s story, Snoopy finds an old typewriter in the garbage and brings it back home to begin writing his tails of the Flying Ace and his enemy, the Red Barron, all framed around the rescue of a cute female dog. Snoopy’s side story is fun, but he’s even funner when he’s helping Charlie Brown to get his own girl and doing all he can to fit in with all of the other children.

Most of the main staples return as well, which brings back a fun, vibrant nostalgia under the new computer-generated animation that doesn’t subvert the original designs, only enhances them. Instead of fully realizing these characters as 3D models, the filmmakers mix the two mediums, giving their animation both a 3D and 2D feel. It’s a very interesting choice that works well alongside the strong message of always being yourself and doing what you feel is right. If only the script had been funnier and a bit more biting, I think this would have been a stellar addition to the franchise rather than just a good one. (Bonus points for hiring mostly child actors to voice the children.)

On the James Bond front, beginning with Sean Connery’s Dr. No in 1962, the Bond franchise has gone through several major makeovers. Not counting the novels that some of these stories are based, the Bond franchise has seen a heavy variance in both creativity and audience, each new reinvention coinciding with a new fresh face to play the suave 007. Beginning with 2006’s Casino Royal, the current go-round finds Daniel Craig taking up the 007 mantle in a much different way, updating the franchise for a new generation while taking us back to the roots of how Bond first joined the 00 program. The producers also decided to start interconnecting all of the films, developing one long story thread that make all of the Craig’s films in some ways independent of each other, but in need of their predecessors to make the most sense. These aren’t your Connery standalone stories!

Spectre marks Daniel Craig’s fourth (and possibly final) turn as Bond and does a decent job of wrapping up the story thread that started in Casino Royal. Fresh off of M’s (Judi Dench) untimely death, Bond hunts down and kills a terrorist she asked him to find upon her demise. This off-the-books mission leads him to the secret terrorist faction, Spectre, the head of the snake behind all of Bond’s recent misadventures. Upon discovering the group — led by the nefarious Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) — Bond must protect the daughter of one of its former members and find a way to take down the operation once and for all before they basically shut down the 00 program and take over the world.

The problem with stringing a series of films together like this, where by removing one will add a bit of confusion to events and characters in the following chapters, is that there’s always the possibility that one or more of the films won’t be as good as the others, keeping viewers from continuing on with the franchise. Quantum of Solace nearly did just that, but Skyfall was able to bring the fans back. Spectre treads right in between the best and worst of Bond. What should have been a tight thriller is bogged down in a mess of insane action sequences more reminiscent of the Pierce Brosnan era of Bond and a subplot that makes absolutely no sense. Yes, Bond is a womanizer; we get it. But would Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) really fall for Bond after what happened to her father (Jesper Christiansen)? And more importantly, why was she so important to Blofeld and Spectre? It seems Bond believes they are out to kill her, however, all Blofeld’s crony hitman (Dave Bautista) does is kidnap her… to do what? It’s never really explained and feels horribly superfluous and unnecessary. Just another way to get a new Bond girl into the picture that will heal his wounds from the loss of Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) a few weeks or months earlier (in accordance with the inner time frame) in Casino Royal.

The additions of Ralph Fiennes as the new M and Naomie Harris as the illustrious Moneypenny do nothing to help raise the profile either. They are left mostly to spout off exposition in aiding Bond in his quest to stop Blofeld. The only one who fits this criteria and actually adds something else to the proceedings (in this case, comic relief) is Ben Whishaw as the inventor/hacker Q, who gets so exasperated by Bond, but remains as loyal as ever. But even after what amounts to a mediocre outing, I have a feeling Bond’s truest fans will continue to follow their favorite super spy to the ends of the earth and back again.

My Grades: Peanuts: A-; Spectre: B

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Next week, new movies include The 33, Love the Coopers and My All American. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Improv To Improve: How to Fix Saturday Night Live

Last night’s Saturday Night Live episode with host Donald Trump was the nail in the coffin of an NBC staple. For an episode that was clearly being used as nothing more than a grab for ratings, it did a piss-poor job of attempting to secure those fresh, new eyeballs for future episodes. The show as a whole was stale, boring and insipid — even the pre-taped bits felt labored and uninspired. When the only genuine laughs of the night come from Drunk Uncle, there’s clearly something wrong. And I’m not blaming Trump for this fiasco either; the show has been on life-support for several years now, without showing any signs of returning to what made it great in the first place.

But there’s hope. If Lorne Michaels truly wants to bring people back to Saturday Night Live without looking like some corporate shill who’s lost touch with anything that doesn’t highlight the dollar signs in his eyes, he needs to throw the political correctness rulebook out the window and follow these three simple steps that will go a long way in fixing the show’s current problems.

1) Ditch the Cue Cards.

I can’t stress this one enough. It is getting really tiresome watching the performers reading off cue cards and then waiting for the audience to laugh. The performers hardly look at each other any more and instead stare in the direction of the camera or off screen for the majority of skits. I realize it is a lot of work for the performers to create these skits every week, but by continually using the cue cards as a crutch, it makes them all feel extremely lazy and bland. There’s no spontaneity in any of the skits any more, simply because the performers aren’t willing to experiment or rely on their own wit. I take you back to the early nineties and Chris Farley’s Matt Foley character. Watch the first skit this character was in. Pay particular attention to the cast, as they actually look at and respond to one another throughout the whole thing. If they were looking at cue cards, it’s not evident at all. Watch as David Spade (and Christina Applegate) nearly crack halfway through. All of this makes it feel live and gives it a sense of fun. The performers hardly do any type of physical comedy anymore, and they hardly ever push their fellow comedians to go beyond what they’ve been practicing and try to get them to crack. Recently, Undateable tried something new and did a live episode to try and boost ratings. It ended up working so well, the producers made the entire show live, leading to some very crazy, very funny, very spontaneous bits. The reason — the performers do everything they can to get their fellow actors to crack. They occasionally mess up their dialogue, but are good enough at improvisation to run with it, which makes it all the more hilarious. And if one of the current slate of performers can’t hack it without cue cards, get rid of them. Which leads me to —

2) Half the Cast Should Be Improvisational Experts Who Buck Political Correctness

This goes very much along with #1. There are some very talented cast members on Saturday Night Live, there’s no doubt. Kate McKinnon, Taran Killem, Cecily Strong, Jay Pharoah and Bobby Moynihan — they all do what they can to make even the worst material work, and most of the time are the highlight of the show. But even they are hardly ever really challenged. When SNL first started, the group was called the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players because they didn’t follow any rules. They were hungry for attention and didn’t care who they might offend and pushed the envelope every chance they got. To bring that feeling back, there needs to be an infusion of improvisational artists to help boost up those who may not be as good and give them something they can sink their teeth into. This way, when something isn’t funny, or isn’t working, the improv artists can turn things around by going off-script and coaxing their fellow players to come with them. Comedians are smart, and mostly work best on their feet when they’re not worried about whether or not they are going to offend someone. Basically, what this show needs are more Robin Williams’s and Jimmy Fallon’s, and less Kyle Mooney’s.

3) Showcase Up-And-Coming Comedians

Enough already with hiring hosts who are ratings ploys, have no clue about comedy, or are only there to promote their next movie or project. This hasn’t worked to boost ratings and it never will. People watch Saturday Night Live for the humor and the shock, not to see their favorite movie star, singer or sports athlete make a fool of themselves. This is why Lorne Michaels should only allow up-and-coming comedians to host the show for at least a year. Be the trend-setter rather than the bandwagon. Johnny Carson used to be a master at this, finding young talent and giving them a strong platform to show their stuff; if they weren’t ready, they weren’t booked on his show. How about this? Why not use it as a job interview. Of the 20 or so comedians that host over the year, choose the two or three best/most popular ones and hire them as featured players for the next year. It would give the public a chance to see new faces, and performers a chance to prove they can hold their own with the cast before being hired.

I say again, if Michaels is really sincere about returning Saturday Night Live to what it once was, while creating something fresh and new, this is where he needs to start. He doesn’t even have to make the leap into the deep-end. Test the waters. Carve out a couple of weeks where you give these three things a chance. It may turn out to be a train wreck, but I would bet dollars to doughnuts people would be talking about it in a positive way.

So, Lorne Michaels, if you’re listening, here’s what you do. One week, bring a veteran stand-up to host, such as Steve Martin. He’d do very well without cue cards and would show how it can be done in the right way. Then, the following week, bring on a young talent (may I suggest this year’s America’s Got Talent runner-up, Drew Lynch, who was not only hysterical, but was quick on his feet) to do the exact same thing. Those two episodes would bring a fire to a show that has been floundering in comedy purgatory for far too long.

Do you agree? Do you have any other suggestions that might help, other than the basic, hire a new cast or hire new writers?

Movie Mayhem – Burnt

There’s a scene in Bradley Cooper’s new film, Burnt, when it felt I was watching Gordon Ramsey filet his team of chefs with a bevy of expletives as part of Hell’s Kitchen. On his first night in his new restaurant, Adam Jones (Cooper) spews anger like it was water from a hose. When dinner service is over, the chiding continues and nobody is safe, though his tirade is focused, of course, on the most prominent characters (you know, the main cast) for mistakes they made during dinner. But in the high intensity world of fine dining, the best chefs (like Ramsey, or Wolfgang Puck) are the most aggressive. Not because they think their underlings are out to hurt them, or because they think they aren’t up to the task; quite the opposite. Master chefs hate to see great talent wasted, so when they see someone they know is capable of being a rock star in the kitchen fail to live up to their potential (and their own standards), they lash out — not to hurt, but to motivate. It doesn’t just happen in the kitchen, either. To achieve greatness, sometimes you have to be pushed; sometimes you have to be torn down; sometimes you have to get burnt.

Burnt — 2015; Directed by John Wells; Starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller and Daniel Brühl

Most films about chefs revolve around two things: finding love in the kitchen and the chase for the coveted Michelin Stars (the Oscar of the food industry), which proves your restaurant is one of the best in the world. Burnt tackles both scenarios with a fine dash of ingredients that mix well for a delightful viewing experience. As it states in the movie, a restaurant with one star is equivalent to being at the status of Luke Skywalker; two stars is the equivalent of Obi-Wan Kenobi; three raises you up to Yoda-caliber greatness. Restaurants can gain stars or lose stars depending on the caliber of the dining experience in any given year, so if a chef wants to keep their stars, they need to guarantee quality year after year; if a chef wants to earn a third star, they must prove they are better than the best. Adam’s main goal is to gain that third star, however, as that motivation drives the movie, there is a much deeper focus that screenwriter Steven Wright and director John Wells put their energy into.

Adam is a broken man; a drug-addicted, womanizing drunk who made a lot of enemies during his meteoric rise in France to earn those first two Michelin stars. After leaving France for good, Adam gave himself a penance, spending three years shucking oysters at a low-rent restaurant in the States until he reaches the hallmark number of 1,00,000. In that time, he sobers up, stops womanizing and puts the pieces of his life back together. Once completed, he returns to London to go after that third star. The question is, will going back to that world send him reeling back to his old ways?

Enter Tony (Daniel Brühl), an ex-colleague of Adam’s whose restaurant is floundering. Adam deviously talks a prestige critic to swing by the restaurant because he knows unless he cooks for them, the restaurant will receive a scathing review. This moment leads to a partnership in which Adam takes over the restaurant as head chef. To earn his third star, Adam brings back some of his old friends, including a sous chef (Omar Sy) he royally screwed over in the past, but whom is ready to forgive, and a convict (Riccardo Scamarcio) recently released from prison for cutting off his own sous chef’s nose. During his recruitment of new faces, he meets Helene (Sienna Miller), a young woman wasting her talents in an average restaurant (or so Adam claims). One of the key criteria Adam is looking for in his kitchen, no matter how low on the totem pole they may be, is arrogance, informing a young, up-and-coming chef (Sam Keeley) that his food is outstanding, but in order to work for him, he needs to show a high-level of confidence in his craft.

Cooper already has a natural confidence about him, which is what allows for such a strong connection with him, even when he’s hit rock bottom, or seems too arrogant for his own good. I have no problem believing him to be a great chef because he carries himself with strong commitment, no matter what he’s doing. This conviction allows for good chemistry with everyone involved, most importantly Miller. Their relationship is one of the focal points of the movie, so if that didn’t work, the movie would have failed. And although Helene’s character arc isn’t the most developed (in fact, nobody’s arc is that well developed, even Adam’s), Miller still brings enough to the table to keep us interested in the relationship. But that’s the point, really; this film isn’t about individual character arcs. It’s about the addiction, the drive and the passion for something that can take you over the edge when you think you’ve failed — and when you believe you’ve succeeded. That is where this film shines brightest.

Just as the Michelin Star narrative drives the plot but not the essence of the film, so to does the rivalry between Adam and his old colleague and friend, Reece (Matthew Rhys), drives the battles, but not the main conflict. The rivalry is predicated on two arrogant alpha males trying to prove they are better than the other, while trying to adapt to a new world of cooking. The main antagonist may appear to be this battle between chefs, but in reality, it’s actually Adam himself. He’s seeking change — something new, something fresh — but is holding himself back by refusing to evolve, take advice from others, or join his team for lunch. He feels he has lost his touch, that he’s inferior because what he knows may not be good enough anymore, and that scares him, leaving him right on the edge of falling back into old habits. It’s only when he allows those around him to better him, including Dr. Rosshilde (Emma Thompson), a shrink assigned to make sure he doesn’t resort to old habits, that he becomes the chef he knows he is. When greatness beckons, it isn’t about what you know, or what you can do that makes you great; it’s the people around you, those you choose to bring into your inner circle to help you get to where you want to be, and the confidence to trust them to get you there that make you great.

My Grade: A

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Next week, new movies include Spectre and The Peanuts Movie. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.

Creating Your Writing Ritual – How To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

Life is full of rituals. It can be a simple morning routine — a shower, a cup of coffee and a half hour of exercise — to get you going after you wake up, or a very specific act that has to happen before you can accomplishing something, like double-checking all the doors are locked before going to bed at night. Whatever it is, you can’t help it; it’s ingrained in your subconscious to help you feel happier, healthier or more secure. I’m sure, as writers, we all have certain rituals we must adhere to in order to find that creative groove and churn out that next great American novel. It doesn’t matter what that ritual might be; everyone has a different personality, so no one ritual will ever be the same. However, if you’re finding it hard to find the time to write, or when you do, you just don’t have the energy to put any words to paper (which most would call writer’s block), here are some things you might add to your current rituals to help get the juices flowing before sitting down to write.

Read

Sometimes, the succubus of life may devour all of the creative energy from your soul. When that happens, it can be extremely hard to build a rhythm. So, every day before you start writing, grab a book and read for an hour. Reading is a great way to spark creativity, especially when you read something and think, “I wish I would have thought of that (or written that).” I myself find movies to be an extremely effective way to spark my creativity (sometimes, after watching a gloriously made movie, I hit the computer to write regardless of what else I have to do, simply because it feels the force has awakened in me), but books work the exact same way. There’s nothing better than that feeling of magic and enchantment words can evoke. And when you make reading a ritual, not only are you burning the embers of your creativity, but you’ll slowly find yourself becoming a better writer because of it.

Time and Place

One of the biggest things most writers (and I am not excluding myself from this group) will say when asked how their book is coming along is, “I’m having a hard time finding time to finish it.” Yes, we know; we all have jobs we need to worry about and family to take care of. But if you’re serious about going from aspiring writer to published author, you will find the time to do so, no matter what. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, how long it may be, or where you do it, but schedule that time and don’t avoid it. If you are going to write from 10 to 11 at night in your bed, do it, and make it a ritual. When I wrote In the Light of the Eclipse, I wrote every day during my lunch. It didn’t matter how much I wrote (sometimes it was a paragraph, sometimes a page), but the moment I clocked out, the laptop was open.

Word Count

In conjunction with the previous ritual, choosing a set amount of words to write per day is also an effective ritual that will keep you moving forward. Again, it doesn’t matter whether you set a minimum of 100 words or 10,000 words per day, so long as you meet that minimum number. If you know your obligations will never allow you the time to sit still for more than ten minutes at a time, break it up with word count. Just remember; this number cannot change – it has to become habit.

Check Your Notes

It’s hard for some to jump right back into their art after waking up in the morning, or returning from work, or taking the kids to soccer practice. There’s that moment when you say, “Okay, where was I?” A good ritual to take up for this problem is to review your notes, or reread the last couple of pages or chapter, to get your mind back into the swing of things. I do this often, especially when I haven’t been able to write for a day or two. By doing this, it helps me remember where my head was at at the time and what I may have been ready to write before life came and pulled me away from the computer.

Play With Your Muse

As a writer, the muse is your best friend. But it’s also a bit of a narcissist and can get very temperamental when it doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. Don’t be afraid to spend a little time each day with your muse; acknowledge its power and how much you need it. If your muse comes only when it’s silent, find a place where there isn’t any noise and do some yoga, or practice your zen for a half hour. If you’re like me, your muse needs noise, so grab your headphones and have a solo dance party in your room, or watch your favorite TV show. Whatever brings your muse out to play, make sure you feed it before doing anything else, because even if it’s already there and ready to write, if you ignore it, it may not stick around for very long.

Bottom line, writing isn’t about the constant act of typing on the keyboard; it’s about creating an atmosphere that generates the creativity needed to produce the characters and plots that your readers will enjoy. Creating your own rituals will help you generate quality work, while helping you grow as an artist. Find something that fits your personality, stick with it, and before you know it, your book will be complete, and you can ask your muse to begin the next.

Movie Mayhem – The Last Witch Hunter

Vin Diesel has always done his best work when providing his voice to iron robots and giant trees, characters that have very limited dialogue and emotive capabilities. When it comes to fleshing out a live character, there’s a distinct disconnect in his interpretation that bleeds through to the audience. Okay, let’s be frank — if it weren’t for that deep, gravelly voice of his, I’m not sure he’d have much of a career outside of fast cars and alien bounties. The Fast and Furious franchise (in association with Riddick) made Diesel a star and is the only thing (aside from his voice-over work) that keeps him afloat in Hollywood. Without it, he’s left wading among the depths of mediocre to terrible projects. Then again, if we were to remove him from the equation, would he still be the considered at fault for the failure of his non-Fast roster of films? As evidenced by The Last Witch Hunter, there may just be more to it than that.

Goosebumps — 2015; Directed by Breck Eisner; Starring Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, and Michael Caine

Diesel is the title character, Kaulder, a viking-type character who lost his wife and daughter to the Witch Queen’s (Julie Engelbrecht) plague somewhere around the 13th century. He, together with a band of other viking-type characters, track the Witch Queen to her lair, where they quickly dispatch of her minions, leaving Kaulder and the Witch Queen, all molested by plastered makeup and creepy insects, to face off Mano-a-mano. Like any decent witch, before she’s dispatched by a fiery sword, the Witch Queen curses Kaulder with eternal life so that he may suffer his family’s death forever. Cut ahead a few centuries to modern day New York, where Kaulder continues to hunt witches who violate a code that’s recently been developed by a high council of witches and a patriarch of priests (known as the Dolan) to keep order among witches and prevent mass human destruction. Any witch who violates this treaty is imprisoned in some deep dark hole somewhere. It all sounds well and good until Kaulder’s old partner — and I guess scribe, or historian? — Dolan 36th (Michael Caine), retires, only to be found dead the next day. When Kaulder discovers it’s all a trick of dark magic, he’s got only a couple of days to find the witch that cast the spell in order to save his colleague and friend.

Aside from the obvious unknowns that hinder the acceptance of the overall mythology, the description makes this sound like a decent movie that, if done correctly, could have gone one of two ways: it would either raise the bar as a grand adventure, or embrace its 80s B-movie camp. Unfortunately, the film does neither; instead it sucks all of what could have been fun about it and turns it into a sour gumball that never finds its flavor. By that, I mean, the filmmakers try so hard to give the people (or the producers) what they want, they forgot to have fun with what they were creating. So instead of developing a whimsically dark fantasy, the quest director Breck Eisner delivers is stale and uninterested. Boredom thus jumps off the screen, not only from Diesel, who always seems like he’s half asleep to begin with, but from Elijah Wood, who plays Dolan 37th, Dolan 36th’s ingenue. Wood is a tremendous actor when he wants to be, but here, he’s simply going through the motions, unwilling to go above Diesel’s low-set bar.

It takes a fantasy alum to bring some intrigue and whimsy to the proceedings. Rose Leslie burns red hot as Chloe, a dream walker who helps Kaulder learn the truth about the fateful night he was cursed. Leslie has the fire and spunk to match her beauty, and quickly becomes the only intriguing character in the film. So much so, I have to wonder what the film would have been like had it been told from her perspective, focusing on the dream walking aspect of her powers and lessening Diesel’s role to a supporting player. In some cases, a presence like this might have helped raise the script above its obvious flaws, however, even with the help of Michael Caine turning all of his lines into pure silk (including one line that becomes the highlight of the film), Eisner can’t capture that rare moment.

There’s a good way and a bad way to build a world, and Eisner chose the bad way, delivering line after line of heavily unnatural exposition that panders to the audience. The biggest faux pas is the randomly placed voice-over from Caine explaining the rules of the game for us, even though the same information eventually comes out in pieces later on. It goes to show how inexperienced everything feels. If only the producers had the foresight to spend even half the budget they used for the special effects on the script, the movie may have found its voice. The visual effects are far from lazy. From the raging storm at the beginning to the Witch Queen’s makeup, it’s all incredibly life-like, creepy and stunning, and makes you wish all aspects of the film had been thought out with as much enthusiasm and care. But visual effects does not a movie make, and when filmmakers tarnish a decent idea with a poor script and a lead character who may have been better had they removed his tongue to keep his dialogue to the bare minimum, a film like the The Last Witch Hunter is born.

My Grade: B-

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Next week, new movies include Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocolypse and Our Brand Is Crisis. If you would like to see a review of one of these, or any other film out next week, please respond in the comments below.