Jack Reacher (2012) - Highly entertaining, dark hero-vehicle for Tom Cruise

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A poster for Christopher McQuarrie's Jack Reacher

QUICK REVIEW:

Jack Reacher is summoned by a mass-murder-accused sniper in Pittsburgh, but the horrible crime goes deeper than that ...
Dark, good-looking action picture with good actors: German master director Werner Herzog (Die Andere Heimat (2013)) is an evil, cynical villain; Robert Duvall (A Night in Old Mexico (2013)) is good as helper to our hero, and Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day (2002)) is fine, as usual, as an ambitious but uncourageous district attorney. The center is Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)) as our hero Reacher. In a couple of scenes, his self-confidence and nonchalance probably goes farther than is good for himself and the movie, but he still delivers here.
Jack Reacher is entertaining, - particularly the Camaro-chase scene, which Cruise did without a stunt driver's help, and the massacre in the beginning are very well-achieved.
It is directed by Christopher McQuarrie, whose only other feature directing was on The Way of the Gun (2000). He is now slated to direct Mission: Impossible 5.
The film is the first in a series, based on the popular book series by Lee Childs.
Reacher came out right along the Sandy Hook Elementary-massacre that shook America to its core and the premiere was therefore delayed. There were hesitations about a sequel, but it seems to be happening now, from the book Never Go Back.

Tom Cruise, the world's greatest movie star, in the Camaro-chase in Christopher McQuarrie's Jack Reacher

Watch the cool trailer here

Budget: 60 mil. $
Box office: 218.3 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Jack Reacher?

John Carter (2012) - Bloated Mars-nonsense yawner

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+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year
+ Most Expensive Flop of the Year

Huge Mars-monsters trying to sell Andrew Stanton's John Carter

John Carter starts well:
From the mythic West, with bravado-filmed landscapes, Mr. Carter, who really doesn't want to fight Apache Indians (!), is thrown very mystically to Mars, where another, mythic narrative begins ...
- No, unfortunately it does not.

Taylor Kitsch looking at ... no-one knows. In Andrew Stanton's John Carter

Instead on Mars, a silly mash-up of Star Wars, Planet of the Apes and Transformers awaits, with overly powdered 'stars': Taylor Kitsch (Lone Survivor (2013)) and Lynn Collins (The Number 23 (2007)), who plays even less charmingly than he. And the plot is as bad; it seems like a film cut out of a target group template made to forcibly include everyone, but it instead comes out tiring, incredibly boring and about as dumb as corrugated cardboard.
Mark Strong (Zero Dark Thirty (2012)) and Dominic West (The Wire (2002-08)) play deadly boring, weirdly costumed, henna-tattooed villains. The good planet in Carter is idiotically named Helium, and the film wallows in violence, but has no sex and is supposed to be family entertainment, but is so boring it is more likely family punishment.
After the first hour, the most likable character in John Carter is the monster CGI-dog seen below, and so continues the over-long, romantic western/sci-fi action adventure:

The most likable character of Andrew Stanton's John Carter

Carter is an adaptation project that had lived in Hollywood for decades with different studios and talent involved, before it was finally made into Andrew Stanton's (Finding Nemo (2003)) debacle of a movie, his first live-action feature.
The then head of Disney, Rich Ross resigned following the movie which lost a great deal more than 100 mil. $, thus making it spectacular in one, definite way: As a flop.
Stanton is getting back to his (much more successful) roots with his next movie, the much anticipated sequel Finding Dory (2016).

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2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess 

Watch the terrible trailer for John Carter here

Budget: 250 mil. $ (+ 100 mil. $ in marketing)
Box office: 284.1 mil. $
= Big flop

What do you think of John Carter?

Iron Sky (2012) or, The Moon Nazis Attack!

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The packed to the fullest poster for Timo Vuorensola's Iron Sky

The Nazis fled Earth in 1945 to the dark side of the moon, where they have been planning their invasion ever since. In 2018, the American president unknowingly sends a black male model up there, and so the trouble begins ...

Iron Sky is a very original and consistent satirical universe full of fun misunderstandings and cultural entanglements. Well cast and visually a lot more convincing than one might fear, - actually the visual effects are quite impressive for its pedigree: The film is a partly crowd-funded, mainly Finnish sci-fi comedy.
First and foremost, it is the Nazis and the Americans that are ridiculed in Iron Sky, and often very amusingly so, and the keen, underlying barbs towards the Americans are delivered with unmistakably friendly, warm feelings.

There are funny Nazi turns and Julia Dietze and Christopher Kirby quite excellent (and attractive) as the central Nazi/American couple, who find each other on the moon.

Iron Sky is a funny and very unusual science fiction war comedy treat.
Its director Timo Vuorensola (Star Wreck: In the Pirkenning, video (2005)) is now attached to an adventure sci-fi-comedy entitled I Killed Adolf Hitler about time-travelers sent to 1927 to kill Hitler! There has also been heavy talk about an Iron Sky sequel, which seems to have found funding now under the title, The Coming Race.

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2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Budget: 10 mil. $
Box office: 8.1 mil. $
= Flop

What do you think of Iron Sky?
Can you name any other similarly crazy science fiction comedies?

The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - The 2004 tsunami depicted in one of the strongest disaster films ever

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+ Best Spanish movie of the Year
+ Best Disaster Movie of the Year 

Naomi Watts in one of the staggeringly realistic moments of J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

The true story of a family's survival during the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Naomi Watts in one of her best performances yet, as the mother in J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

Ewan McGregor (I Love You Philip Morris (2009)) and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive (2001)), who was Oscar-nominated for her performance, both turn in incredible work in this the definitive movie about the 'impossible' mega-catastrophe that killed more than 230,000 people across several nations.
With a fascinating visual side that recreates the disaster in uncanny realism, subdued use of music and brutal reality in terms of the survival on the South-Thai island in the after-wake, the audience is made into sobbing participants in the struggle for unity and survival for the family that we follow. 
Only the first 20 minutes of the movie could perhaps stand a bit stronger.

Tom Holland and Naomi Watts on a poster for J.A. Bayona's The Impossible

The Impossible is a beautiful, healing film, and the child actors Oaklee Pendergast (Wer (2013)), Samuel Joslin (Paddington (2014)) and Tom Holland (Heart of the Sea (2015)) as the bigger son all play incredibly as well. I have seen the film both in a jam-packed Copenhagen cinema and with Thais in Northern Thailand, and I can attest to its strength across peoples, cultures and borders of all kind. The Impossible is a transcendent, incredible film.
The Spanish director J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage (2007)) has now also directed a few episodes of Penny Dreadful (2014-) and is also attached to A Monster Calls (2016) and World War Z 2.

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2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Watch the trailer here, devastating in its beauty and tragedy just as the movie is

Budget: 45 mil. $
Box office: 198 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of The Impossible?
If you have any personal stories about the film, please go ahead and share here

The Salvation (2014) - Classic western yarn meets Danish dynamite

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'Bad Men Will Bleed' is the tagline of the poster for Kristian Levring's The Salvation

Besides some rather ridiculous earlier attempts, the so-called 'potato westerns', Denmark has never made a real western. - Until now.

Danish post-1864 Denmark/Germany war US settler Jon and his brother Peter are finally met by Jon's beautiful, Danish wife and son after 7 years on different continents. But tragedy immediately strikes in the new, dangerous world, and Jon's revenge is swift. But there follows a bloodshed, which forces him to get more entangled in the small town, ripe with cowardice and bubbling oil ...

The solid script and direction is by Kristian Levring (The King Is Alive (2000)) and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen (The Green Butchers (2003)). The America that is presented here is a uniformly tough place, where greed, cruelty and self-regard reigns, in-line with Danish master filmmaker Lars Von Trier's notoriously America-critical Dogville (2003), (not to speak of follow-up Manderlay (2005) and his musical Dancer in the Dark (2000)), and in this strict focus The Salvation loses a central color of the western, that of the good American. But this is truly an outsider western, more accurately a Euro-western shot in South Africa! It is like a spaghetti western-inspired horse opera, shot digitally and stylistically infused with Sin City (2005) affinity.
Salvation is visually impressive, with cool cinematography by Jens Schlosser (The One and Only/Den Eneste Ene (1999)). From the dusty railroad beginning and the following, exciting stage coach scenes, we see classic, well-made western settings. And later the cindered town of the film's gang leader tyrant Delarue is brought to good use as an atmospheric setting more than once. The style is that of a digitally heightened reality, fresh, sharp, simple and handsomely achieved.
Complicating the story, - and making for a richer experience, - are some rich secondary characters; Delarue's mute woman played intensely by Eva Green (White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)); Jon's sympathetic, helpful brother Peter played by Mikael Persbrandt (In a Better World (2010)), who seems to be a bit preoccupied with getting his Swedish tongue to sound alternately Danish and Danish-American; and the town's 'yellow' mayor/undertaker, played beautifully by Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)). The Salvation's exciting cast also includes former Manchester United soccer star Eric Cantona as our heavy's right hand man, and Danish popstar Nanna Øland Fabricius, - better known as Oh Land, - who plays Jon's ill-fated wife. Lastly, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Possession (2012)) is good as the self-righteous Delarue. - He liked the movie so much, he's had a tattoo made on his arm of his character's favorite weapon in it!
I sort-of understand, because Salvation is a solid good western. The tale is arch-typical and has been done before, yet it still it seems fresh; the Danish settler angle and music (by Kasper Winding (Me and Charly/Mig og Charly (1978)) is different, as is some of the visuals. Though it's shot in South Africa, it looks like the American West. The production is good, and the pacing modern yet graceful.
If you are a western-lover, this may very well be your favorite movie this year, however unlikely, it is a Danish western. Rough, violent, with some dark humor and a strong hero in Mads Mikkelsen's (The Hunt (2012)) Jon, who tries to avoid conflict for as long as he can, and is different than any American western hero I can recall, if only because of his look and heritage.
SPOILER The title seems to refer to Mikkelsen and Green's outsider renegade characters finding each other and forging a new alliance in their young adopted country (America), which the ending implies will strengthen its people's moral hollowness in extreme wealth (arriving in the form of oil.) - Go see this one!

Mads Mikkelsen as Jon in Kristian Levring's The Salvation

Mads Mikkelsen, co-writer/director Kristian Levring and Eva Green on the set of The Salvation

Budget: 10.5 mil. euros
Box office: Not known yet
= Still unknown

What do you think of The Salvation?
Any recent western/s that you want to recommend?

Here Comes the Boom (2012) - Laugh a few times and feel good with this idealistic MMA-dramedy

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Kevin James as the good-natured teacher Scott Voss on the poster for Frank Coraci's Here Comes the Boom

QUICK REVIEW:

An apathetic biology teacher is outraged, when he learns that the school's music program is being axed due to budgeting. He decides to spearhead turning the development around by fighting in the UFC.

Kevin James carries Frank Coraci's Here Comes the Boom well

Kevin James (Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)) and Gary Valentine, - former colleagues on The King of Queens (1998-2007)), - are fun in Boom, with a sympathetic character for Henry Winkler (Night Shift (1982)) in a story with a lot of heart and a refreshing reality to it. - The money problems that so many have felt the world over especially since the financial crisis came upon us in 2008 aren't dusted under the rug in Boom.
James develops into a kind of life coach during the movie, and there are some scenes that just don't work, like the cake-throwing scene in Las Vegas or the stadium singing scene with the You-tube girl phenomenon.
Still, Here Comes the Boom is a good (MMA) martial arts dramedy, - a clearly well-meant and very happy film.
It is directed by Frank Coraci (The Waterboy (1998)), whose latest, Blended (2014) with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore is struggling to get off the ground right now.

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 42 mil. $
Box office: 73.1 mil. $
= Modest return

What do you think of Here Comes the Boom?
Are you looking forward to seeing James as Blart again in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)?

Frances Ha (2012) or, Growing Older Ain't Easy

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+ Best New York Movie of the Year
+ Best Poster of the Year

The chic, lovely poster for Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha

Frances lives in New York with her 'clone'-friend Sophie, but they might not really be all that similar after all. And there's quite a few other things as well that are not really coming together for Frances lately.

 

Mickey Sumner and Greta Gerwig in Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha

Greta Gerwig (Greenberg (2010)) really possesses her title character here, - whom she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach, - and does so with a delightful authenticity. The smart lines of the film amuse, - although I'm not charmed by the glib NY-manners. Still, I found myself relating to situation upon situation in the life of Frances.
The film has some lovely montages, an original visual expression, - molded in B/W to brush against nouvelle vague and Woody Allen films, - nice music choices, - and Frances at one point delivers an extremely fine, poignant explanation of love.
Her dancing around the streets and intersections of New York are certain to make the film a cult hit that will live on. Beautiful, chic and melancholic, Frances Ha was one of the best movies of 2012.
Co-writer/director Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming (1995)) made his probably best film yet with The Squid and the Whale (2005), but Frances Ha seems perhaps just as good. Baumbach has several projects in the making; a documentary, an 'untitled public school project' with Gerwig, and a dramedy with Ben Stiller and lots of other good names involved titled While We're Young (2015). Sounding very good... 

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2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch the fine trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: 8.3 mil. $
= Unknown

How did you like Frances Ha?
What do you think of Noah Baumbach and his movies?

Gangster Squad (2013) or, Good Men vs. Bad Men!

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Los Angeles is ravaged by the Jewish gangster boss Mickey Cohen, but one good police chief wants to get rid of him, and he gets a pertinacious, tough cop to lead the group which is to crush Cohen.
Gangster Squad is highly stylized and handsomely produced, but cartoonish in its simplified representation of reality; good vs. bad.
Reality yields to action and gore in this forgettable, thoughtless, - but entertaining - shoot-em-up-movie. It is based on true events but takes so many liberties in its storytelling that it is more fiction than historical by any reasonable account.
Sean Penn (Mystic River (2003)) goes theatrical with his heavily make-up-created villain. Ryan Gosling (Drive (2011)) not so much plays a character as merely being a sex-steaming model for the film. The macho-picture that is Gangster Squad also mauls over one of its few female roles, Josh Brolin's wife in the movie (Mireille Enos), who only plays functional second banana to the inelegant, stomping picture.
It is directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland (2009)), who had to reshoot a scene of a shooting at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood following the Aurora-shooting (during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises that killed 12 people and injured 58). The real-life massacre also changed the trailer and pushed back the release of Gangster Squad by around 6 months.
The squad that is the basis of Gangster Squad has also been the basis of another movie, Lee Tamahori's better Mulholland Falls (1996).
Since the relative flop of this and Fleischer's movie before it, 30 Minutes or Less (2011), he has reverted to TV gigs for the time being.


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2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

30 Minutes or Less (2011) or, Idiots and Lesser Idiots

'Pulp' version of the Gangster Squad poster

 Watch the film's in-your-face trailer right here

Budget: 60 mil. $
Box office: 105.2 mil. $
= Minor flop

What do you think of Gangster Squad?

The Expendables 2 (2012) - An over-packed action hot-air balloon

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Explosive poster for Simon West's The Expendables 2

QUICK REVIEW:

The mercenary group of 'expendables' owe money to Church (Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)) and therefore take a job, which kills their young sniper.
After this, the plot seems like a rehash of some 80's left-overs; a maniac (Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport (1988)) with plutonium arrives, and there's also the obligatory revenge.
Unfortunately, this is a bad sequel to the energetic predecessor. The plot is unexciting and old hat. Mickey Rourke has vanished from the group without explanation, and instead we get an uncharismatic Chinese woman (Nan Yu (Beijing Love Story (2014)) and a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator (1984))-Bruce Willis-Chuck Norris (The Delta Force (1986)) interplay, which unfortunately just isn't very cool. They babble post-modernistic-style around old lines and other action movie references, which almost only works to blow even more air into an already floating construction, this rather bizarre gathering of action star veterans.

Front-man Sylvester Stallone (Rocky (1976)) has said that he thinks this film is much better than the first one, which only shows how wrong the person behind movies can often be about their own creations. - Right around now, he is telling folks in Cannes that with Expendables 3, - hitting cinemas everywhere in August, - they really got it right ... Well, we'll see about that.
Simon West (Con Air (1997)) directed The Expendables 2, which was biggest outside of the US, and particularly in China, where it beat The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spiderman with a stunning 54 mil. $ in its first 35 days there.
Trivia about the film includes that a stunt man got killed during its long location shoot in Bulgaria, where the film was also sued and fined for environmental damage in the cave seen in the film, where scores of endangered bats apparently died due to the production.
West's next film will be a Jason Statham-starring movie called Wild Card (2014).

Tasteless? - Oh yes. The Expendables 2 last supper advertising gimmick

Watch the trailer for the film here, which looks a lot more exciting than the actual film is

Watch the teaser currently out for The Expendables 3 here

Budget: 100 mil. $
Box office: 311.9 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of the first two Expendables films?
Are you looking forward to the coming third chapter?