The Lego Movie (2014) - Glue and near-robotic square-mindeness gets a kick in the head in the year's surprise family favorite

♥♥♥♥

The colorful, building-inspired poster for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's The Lego Movie

Our hero here is an utterly ordinary construction Lego-man, who, due to a case of bad luck, gets named 'the special one' who is to save the Lego worlds from the evil President Business and his terrifying Kragle.

 
The Lego Movie is an often funny, unusual family animation adventure comedy. It works as a sense-bombardment with great voice work by among others Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)), Will Ferrell (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)), who also appears in the flesh, Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption (1994)) and Liam Neeson (Non-Stop (2014)).
It all builds (no pun intended) on a really good, simple idea; a boy's playing with Lego. The film delights adults and kids alike, blending an original plot with exciting visuals, (the animation was designed to resemble brick-by-brick stop motion and therefore looks pretty unique), satire, cultural references by the boatload and sheer glee.
It is directed by film-making partners Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who are also behind Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009), 21 Jump Street (2012) and 22 Jump Street (2014), - and the two are set to produce the coming Lego Movie sequel, which is set for 2017.

Watch a long trailer for the funny movie here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 468.1 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of The Lego Movie?

Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death!

♥♥♥♥♥♥

The iconic poster for George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead

Dawn of the Dead is perhaps the best zombie movie ever made; coming from the grandmaster of the zombie horror sub-genre, New York-born George A. Romero (Creepshow (1982)), Dawn is the crazy sequel to his perennial classic of all zombie movies, Night of the Living Dead (1968). But whereas Night is a truly scary, strange, creepy and claustrophobic horror film in B/W, Dawn is a dramatically different vision; a satirical action gore zombie feast in blazing colors with special effects bouncing off the walls!
The plot centers on two weather journalists and two soldiers that escape a violent mayhem in an apocalyptic, zombie-infested world in a helicopter and decide to isolate themselves in a shopping mall.
Dawn doesn't try to hide its barbaric colors and was released unrated in the U.S., because it was set to get a (commercially lethal) X-rating: Within 10 minutes, you've got an explicit (and spectacular) head-exploding scene; within 30 minutes, zombie kids are being terminated. The film's incredible success despite these risk factors is truly remarkable.
Dawn is too wild and action-packed to ever become truly scary, though, but it seems that that was also Romero's intentions: Arguing about the color of the blood in the film with its special effects designer Tom Savini (Martin (1976)), (who also plays a big part in the film as a biker gang leader and must be applauded at length for Dawn's mind-boggling and extremely voluminous special effects), Romero stuck with the unnaturally bright red color seen in the film, as he liked the comic book-like effect it produced.
Dawn's greatness comes also from the strength of the symbolic meanings that can be interpreted from Romero's juicy script and the irresistible visuals: The film is full of double meanings and what seems like hidden commentary or critique of modern America:
Facing crisis, our quartet chose to isolate themselves with wealth and a hankering for uncontrolled consumerism; "We've got everything we need here!", the weak weatherman points out to persuade his doubting, pregnant girlfriend that the mall is the place to be. But the consumerist life is empty and devoid of values and substance, which she later realizes, saying "What have we done?!?" Then, when outsiders threaten to break into their isolated 'paradise' to get their part of the wealth of resources in there as well, the males of our group respond with a plan to gate themselves in, "They won't know that we're here", one of them rationalizes. That plan of course misfires, and complete anarchy and depravity breaks out, as the outsiders lacking means break the borders and ravage and steal all that they can in the now plundered and wrecked mall micro-world. - The zombies might be taken as symbols of the mindless consumer people of modern society, or as simply the death that faces the faithless, amoral live people we get to know; future-set to forever stumble around in an empty, consumerist Purgatory.
That is merely my reading of the inspiring Dawn of the Dead. Watch it to develop your own ideas about its meanings.

The eye-popping head-exploding scene from the beginning of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead

The details:

I base this review on the 139 minutes long director's cut, initial edition that Romero premiered at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, (several shorter versions are also available.) This length for a zombie movie is unheard of and crazy in itself. But Romero's material can bear it, as he's got so much great footage and four very well-acting leads as well as tons of great zombies. 
Some say that it's a slow movie; I think it takes its time and gives the audience time to enjoy it and get into its world. I have watched it numerous times and now always feel a strong nostalgia, whenever I put it on; my old zombie best friend ...
It's a great home-watch: Its length demands several food- and snack-gathering kitchen breaks, (for those with gore-trained tummys), and it's also paramount to be able to talk and howl if need be while watching it. The film is most enjoyable as a very interactive experience like that.
The main hero is played greatly by Ken Foree (From Beyond (1986)), and like its franchise predecessor, which also had a black male hero, who in the end SPOILER died as a martyr of an implied racist society, Dawn also makes us root for a black male hero, which isn't a stereotype. Here, we get SPOILER a semi-romantic (interracial!) ending, which also cements the film's forward-thinking, wild nature.
To top it all off, Dawn of the Dead is robed in a phenomenal Italian score by Goblin (Deep Red (1975)) and horror master Dario Argento (Phenomena (1985)), who also helped to finance, distribute and conceive this masterpiece.
Romero's zombie movie series continues in the amazing Day of the Dead (1985), which is a third completely different zombie-apocalyptic vision, the series' darkest, corniest and most disgusting. From then on, Romero has added three recent titles, Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009), all of which do not hold up to the old classics.

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 0.65 mil. $
Box office: 55 mil. $
= Mega-hit

What do you think of Dawn of the Dead?
And George A. Romero's other zombie films?
Any other zombie films that are as solid as these?

The Expendables 3 (2014) - Stars flock in really ugly action clonker

♥

The impressive action ensemble - missing only Robert Davi - posing for Patrick Hughes' The Expendables 3

One of the original, now defected expendables reappears in Somalia and makes a mess for mercenary leader Barney Ross and co. He then decides that young meat is the solution to the problem, but soon only lands himself and the Expendables group in deeper troubles.

 
The third Expendables movie has stacked a somewhat 'impossible' movie for itself suspense-wise, because the entry is so incredibly bizarre and over-stuffed star/character-wise. It lacks fun, it lacks excitement and thrills, it lacks chemistry, and the visuals are often as artificial and unappealing as the dialog scenes are wooden and unnatural. Digital recordings of varying quality are spliced together with uncalled for CGI solutions, and the photography generally lacks craftsmanship and finesse.
None of the veteran stars make a dent impression-wise here in paper-thin, phony, ridiculous parts.
The young, new actors in the film (Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell and Victor Ortiz) also don't make much of an impression, (and could therefore all be killed off in the start of a 4th movie I think, if they are even brought back.)
Expendables 3 sporadically has action with some bite and enjoyment to it, and the sole heart here goes to its stunt team.
The film is directed by the young Patrick Hughes, who has previously made the action thriller Red Hill (2010).

Related review:

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

Here, another poster, - this time excluding new-comers Glen Powell and Victor Ortiz, - for Patrick Hughes' The Expendables 3

Watch the insane, and awesome, trailer - with The Colonel Bogey March and Eminem, - for the film right here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 214.6 mil. $
= Minor flop

What do you think of The Expendables 3?
Are you in agreement about the slack that we ought to cut it?
- Wanna see the franchise live on along with Film Excess?

Calvary (2014) - McDonagh stands up to moral decline and for faith and the Catholic church in spite of everything

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Irish Movie of the Year

Brendan Gleeson in ecclesiastical robe for the poster for John Michael McDonaugh's Calvary, (which actually gives away the film's ending, if you analyze its elements)

In confession, Irish Father James receives a random death threat due to the crimes of the past from another man of the cloth. In the week leading up to his possible assassination by the unknown perpetrator  we get to know some of the members of the priest's fairly miserable congregation and the man himself.

Irish writer/director John Michael McDonagh (The Guard (2011)) moves up in the European cinematic 'league' with a more serious film here: Calvary is a religiously themed dramedy that both has society-critical bite and a really good priest-hero in Brendan Gleeson (The Guard), who inhabits the part as the region's fallible lodestar with integrity. 
Calvary also encumbers a contemplative treatment of the dark and widespread sexual crimes of the Irish Catholic church. It is painful to see, how the church, - and basic faith along with it, - has fallen so low in esteem partly also as a regrettable bi-product of this.
Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids (2011)) is fantastic in the film, proving his worth to this critic for the first time as an also talented dramatic actor.
The film has beautiful Irish music by Patrick Cassidy (Kill the Irishman (2011)) and a good ending that points forward. Its tone is very permanent in its disdain for what it portrays as bewildered and sinful ways of people today, and this hard-bitten gloom and doom could have done with a splash of sunlight, say in the form of a child. Still the film has terrific characters, writing and performances.

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Chris O'Dowd shows a hitherto unknown range and dramatic talent in John Michael McDonagh's Calvary

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Budget: 8 mil. $
Box office: 11 mil. $ (and counting)
= Flop

What do you think of Calvary?

Boyhood (2014) or, Colored Mirror

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Coming-of-Age Movie of the Year
+ Best Poster of the Year

German poster for Richard Linklater's Boyhood

The best film of 2014 so far is a 12 year odyssey of a broken family's time together and apart, while their boy Mason grows up to become a young man.
Boyhood is a really good film that is unlike most others because of its incredible 11+ years of production; you see the child actors grow up and the adult actors grow and change as well in the course of the film's 164 minutes. It is often funny, moving and exciting, and a few times slightly uncomfortable, as Mason's inauspicious partners turn out to be poor examples of manhood.
The acting is extremely fine and impressively consistent by all involved: Patricia Arquette (True Romance (1993)) as the empathetic super-mother and Ethan Hawke (Training Day (2001)) as the loving but financially unhelpful father are both enormously engaging and just plain great.

Patricia Arquette is amazing in Richard Linklater's Boyhood

Ellar Coltrane and Ethan Hawke are great as father and son in Richard Linklater's Boyhood

I recognized a lot in Mason's coming-of-age-experiences from my own, and the film gives you time to think back in time to your own upbringing memories, as those presented here are charming and commonplace, and it makes the experience of watching it feel like a luxuriously arranged emotional pearl. 
Boyhood's realism takes it right into your heart with its sharp observations, warmth and humor, - and a fantastic soundtrack.
It is another masterpiece by great Texan director Richard Linklater (Me & Orson Welles (2008)). - Don't miss it!

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch the great trailer here

Budget: 4 mil. $
Box office: 37.9 mil. $ and counting
= Huge hit

What did you like best from Boyhood?
And what did it make you think of?

A Most Wanted Man (2014) - Hamburg anti-terror spies in lean, serious picture

♥♥♥♥

Layers upon layers in grey and vomit-yellow on the poster for Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man

QUICK REVIEW:

Günther is a leader of an unofficial anti-terror unit in Hamburg, where the 9/11 plot was thought out, which German officials have vowed to never let happen again. Now a tortured, Chechen Muslim arrives with right to an inheritance of millions of euros. Meanwhile a prominent Muslim leader in town is under suspicion of financing terrorism.
Wanted Man is a very unsexy, down-toned, realistic spy movie, which will suit the tastes of the relatively small group of fans of realistic spy movies. One is reminded of other John le Carré adaptations like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and especially its earlier BBC miniseries version, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley's People (1982) with A Most Wanted Man, where we can rejoice in a solid Carré-plot.
There truly isn't much James Bond about Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote (2005)), who looks like a ghost of a man here in his, sadly, last leading role; (he ended his life with a heroine overdose in February 2014.) He plays a disillusioned man terrifically, but with an eerie abandon.
Robin Wright (The Princess Bride (1987)), Rachel McAdams (About Time (2013)), Willem Dafoe (Antichrist (2009)) and the German actors are good as well.
I could have wished a titular introduction of Günther, our lead; because for a time I was wondering if he and the other German-accented Americans were supposed to be Germans, (they are), and that confusion wasn't necessary.
The film is very European in its morose aesthetics: Hamburg, Germany's in reality mundane, expensive, attractive trading hot-spot city, looks like a trashy, drunks- and sex-store-littered hole here.
A Most Wanted Man is a spy drama-thriller that offers intellectual suspense and raises difficult questions about anti-terrorism efforts.
It is directed by Dutch director Anton Corbijn, who feature-debuted with the fine music drama about the British punk band Joy Division, Control (2007). He has since made The American (2010) with George Clooney and will next release Life (2015), a drama about James Dean.

See Philip Seymour Hoffman looking eerily hopeless and beside himself on some stills from the movie here, just months before he ended his own life with drugs:

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 17.9 mil. $ so far
= Unknown

What do you think of A Most Wanted Man?
If you are a fan of realistic spy movies, did you enjoy this, and what other realistic spy movies are good?

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Get giddy with this pretty awesome, silliest blockbuster of 2014

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Blockbuster of the Year

A delicious-looking poster for James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians is a new Marvel comic book adaptation of one of their more wacky properties, which looks like it will turn into its own movie franchise now:

Peter 'Star-Lord' Quill thinks he's all human: He has been taken from Earth following his mother's death in his childhood and is now a bounty-hunter after a very powerful and expensive orb. He gets it, but also becomes locked up with a band of celestial misfits (see posters). They break out, loose the orb and realize that it can be used to kill billions of innocents, so they decide to get it back to prevent that from happening.

Our outlaw heroes in Guardians are good, even if they are primarily out for money and revenge. Guardians of the Galaxy is a somewhat silly, off-center universe, which is apparent right off the bat as Star-Lord, - charmingly played by Chris Pratt (Her (2013)), - starts his dangerous orb-retrieval mission by dancing around to Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede, - just one of the film's many 1970's and 80's pop-rock-hits that make it all a little groovier. - And sillier and more refreshing than most superhero movies in recent years.
But the characters in themselves are also so strange that it would have been a catastrophe for any writer-director to have taken it all too deadly serious. And James Gunn (Slither (2006)) certainly doesn't choose that road: Guardians is probably the most irreverent, self-humorous huge superhero space opera creation of this millennium.
Bradley Cooper voices the raccoon Rocket, wrestler Dave Bautista is the intellectually limited but hard-punching Drax, and Vin Diesel, - in what must be one of the easiest earned top-billings ever, - voices the giant, living tree Groot, who can only say, 'I am Groot'. They are all fun characters. Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)) is a good difficult stepfather for Quill called Yondu, and John C. Reilly (Step Brothers (2008)) is fun as 'Corpsman Dey'. Glenn Close (Dangerous Liaisons (1988)) looks crazy as a tight-haired leader of the peaceful human planet.

They have apparently built some real, huge sets in London for the shooting of Guardians, which is hard to notice in it, because it looks almost completely animated. It is not a critique per se, because it has a consistent look and impressive stuff like the various skies and fights, - which are fun, but still don't draw out and eat up all the room from story and dialog, - but the tour de force cinematic experience is hard to achieve in an environment that feels so artificial as is the case in Guardians and other similar CGI-based giants.
Where Star Wars, in comparison, is always about good vs. evil, this the first Guardians film is more about friendship and comradeship, and diversity meeting and becoming unity, and very timely at that. By its end, the film is a sure and quite uplifting winner.
Guardians is certainly also the funniest major summer blockbuster ride of 2014, and it will certainly stimulate kids and make adults giddy from its permanent wit. Where Avengers (2012) entertained but at the same time punctured my last bit of superhero enthusiasm, Guardians is a new Marvel franchise that I found myself actually looking forward to seeing return by the end of the film. It seems also a good replacement for the X-Men franchise that I at Film Excess deemed obsolete a few months ago.
Guardians has one really vulgar, adult referential joke, (which I don't think it absolutely needed), but it will shoot (bad but as you'll realize; appropriate pun again) right over the heads of the younger ones in the audience, so I'd say the film is fine for any media-trained kid who is 8 years or older.
Pratt was sure fun here, but I hope he will have another, much more serious role to play in next summer's highly anticipated Jurassic World (2015), which will have to be a lot more serious than Guardians to be any bit scary. 

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
 

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 232.3 mil. $
Box office: 773.3 mil. $
= Box office success

What do you think of Guardians of the Galaxy?

Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!

♥♥♥♥

Text-over-crowded poster for John Carpenter's Christine

QUICK REVIEW:

Arnie is a bespectacled loser, while his best friend is the football lover-boy. But then Arnie discovers Christine, a wrecked 1958 Plymouth, and he fixes her up. - But Christine is more than just a car ...
Christine is a classical horror flick, which, if Christine had been a whisky bottle instead of a car,  could have been called a drama. The best and coolest thing about this high school car horror fare is its look: With cinematography by Donald M. Morgan (Starman (1984)) and the visually masterful, great director John Carpenter (The Thing (1982)), Christine looks rad.
And the 50's music, which must have worked like a childhood-anxiety-provoking element especially for the writer of the novel the film is adapting, Stephen King (The Dead Zone (1983)), is cool. Christine is cool.
Unfortunately, many of the actors are amateurs, and several of the young performances are a bag that's a bit too mixed in quality. Also, a little humor wouldn't have hurt Christine.
Robert Prosky (Last Action Hero (1993)) plays a wonderful mechanic in the film.
Carpenter made this between The Thing (1982) and Starman (1984). He's in his late 60's today and seems to have retired from film-making. 

Related review:

John Carpenter: Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making

Only one of the Christine cars are left 'alive' today, and it has reportedly been restored to glory by a collector in Florida

Watch the cool, original trailer here

Cost: 9.7 mil. $
Box office: 21 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty

What do you think of Christine?
Name other scary movie vehicles, if you can ... ?

Cahill U.S. Marshall/Cahill (1973) - John Wayne upholds the law in exciting late-career western

♥♥♥♥

John Wayne takes yet another turn as the man of the law in Andrew V. McLaglen's Cahill U.S. Marshall

QUICK REVIEW:

Lawman Cahill is one of the hard dogs of the West, but he has never raised his sons right, and now they are involved in a bank robbery. But the bad guy, Fraser, is so evil that they don't dare talk to their Pa about it.
Cahill is a film with intense suspense and several great actor's performances. Elmer Bernstein's (Airplane! (1980)) music is peculiar for a western, - it is more urban crime-like. The film has atmospheric locations and a well-playing John Wayne (Stagecoach (1939)) in one of his last performances here. George Kennedy (Another Happy Day (2011)) as the ugly bastard Fraser is also worth seeing, and not least of all is Clay O'Brien (The Cowboys (1972)) a treat as little Billy Joe Cahill, a dougthy lad.
It is directed by Andrew V. McLaglen (The Wild Geese (1978)).

Related review:

Andrew V. McLaglen: Chisum (1970) - Middle-of-the-road John Wayne action-western

Don't mess with this guy! John Wayne as Andrew V. McLaglen's Cahill U.S. Marshall

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 3.1 mil. $ (North America rentals only)
= Uncertainty

What do you think of Cahill U.S. Marshall?
Can you ever get enough of Wayne, the lawman?

The Cowboys (1972) or, John Wayne and the Cowboys

♥♥♥

A nice poster that calls to the boyish heart in us all, for Mark Rydell's The Cowboys

QUICK REVIEW:

Will Andersen has to ride his 1500 cattle-heads very far away to be sold, but unfortunately all the men are out searching for gold. So he will have to settle with 11 boys and a Negro to help him, (this is just the plot as it is), but that turns out to be a lot of fun anyway.
The Cowboys is a very classical boys' film about growing up of course. Nicely filmed by Robert Surtees (The Last Picture Show (1971)); John Wayne (True Grit (1969)) is hard and marvelous in this jovial kiddie western. John Williams (Lincoln (2012)) has composed a score that clearly indicates that the man is 'destined for greater things'. - Why SPOILER Wayne has to die, I don't know. And from there on, the credibility of the plot seems to seep out. Still, an enjoyable little film.
It is directed by Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond (1981)).

 

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 7.5 mil. $ (US only)
= Uncertainty

What do you think of The Cowboys?
Any other good kids' westerns?

Chisum (1970) - Middle-of-the-road John Wayne action-western

♥♥♥

Painted poster with some of the excitement that's the heart of Andrew V. McLaglen's Chisum

QUICK REVIEW:

Two 'great' men are fighting over who is gonna rule in a small town; Chisum, who is just and good, or Murphy, who is greedy and bad.
The action-western is a rare thing, but here is one, where the label fits: Fire, murder, shootings, falls, fist fights, - and almost without stop.
John Wayne (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)) has the pretty boring title lead. Hank Worden (Red River (1948)) and Richard Jaeckel (3:10 to Yuma (1957)) are charismatic in side-roles, but the dialog and script for Chisum - by Andrew J. Fenady (Mayday at 40,000 Feet! (TV, 1976)) is generally too horrid to afford the film any lasting impressions.
It is directed by the London-born film-maker Andrew V. McLaglen (The Undefeated (1969)).
Here are some more posters for this mediocre based on - but far removed from - real events western:

Wayne winning his first Oscar for True Grit (1969) was used in the trailer for the much inferior western from the same year, Chisum here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 6 mil. $ (only US rentals)
= Uncertainty

What do you think of Chisum?
Best and worst John Wayne films in your opinion?