The Jungle Book

Jon Favreau, 2016

IMDB

2/5

Before I ramble about all of the ways in which the Jungle Book failed to wow me, I need to point out something. I am not a non-believer in CGI-heavy film. Seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D was one of the most memorable cinematic experiences of my lifetime. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is my Star Wars in terms of it's immersive world-building and how I just want to live inside of it. I didn't even have that much of a problem with the copy-and-paste army in the Battle of Five Armies.

So going into The Jungle Book, a movie in an almost entirely CGI constructed world, I went in with an open mind and with open eyes. I am a supporter of Favreau, who has really contributed some solid films in his career. Elf, the first two Iron Man films, Chef are all well-made films. But now he is taking this direction in his career that almost feels Tim Burton like by "re-imagining" classic Disney favorites. After making this film - they are of course going to continue to wring out the proverbial sponge by having Favreau direct a Jungle Book sequel. But they are also employing him to direct a live action reboot of The Lion King. Nothing is untouched these days.

I wanted this movie to be great and impactful, especially being someone that grew up with the original animated version. I sat watching and kept waiting for it to hit me. Waiting and waiting. I realized by the mid-point that it likely wasn't going to happen. For whatever reason I wasn't ever able to make an emotional connection to anything on screen. Was it the abundance of CGI? I am not sure, because the animals all look amazing. But Life of Pi had one CGI Tiger and I was totally on board with the film emotionally.

It was a delight to see veteran actors like Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley and Christopher Walken provide the voices for Baloo, Bagheera and King Louie. But it didn't elevate the movie from more than just good grabs. Shere Kahn left more to be desired in a villain. He wasn't nearly as ruthless as he should have been. He didn't have that despicable nature to him as say, Scar in the Lion King. While Neel Sethi deserves some credit for working hard in front of a green screen, he wasn't exactly the next Jacob Tremblay (Room) with his performance as Mowgli. The best sequence in the film by far is the sequence in The Monkey City with King Louie. But the climax was just underwhelming and it just didn't feel like the stakes were high enough. Like the rest of the movie, it just seemed to run through the motions without ever being too significant.

Creed

Ryan Coogler, 2015

IMDB

4/5

When people heard that there was going to be a Rocky reboot, they probably let out a sigh of disappointment. They probably said to themselves oh great now Rocky isn't even safe. The sponge was about to be wrung out again, beating an American classic to death. Then they saw the film. Creed goes on to defy the rebooting culture that we have grown accustomed to. It doesn't just try to repurpose a classic for a quick moneygrab (cough Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Creed isn't a bastardized version of the classic Rocky films. It has its own personality, its own youngness. It's own style. It's own energy. It's an inspiring film about past and present. Old and new. The old - Rocky Balboa, who warms the screen when you first see him. The legend of Rocky is evident throughout the Philly streets. The new: Adonis Creed - the young offspring of the late Apollo Creed. Rocky has a long career behind him and Adonis is an aspiring boxer who can't escape his genetic urges to fight in the ring. He tracks down Rocky and is persistent in his attempts to take him on and train him. They say that kids that do not have active fathers will look for fathers in life. And you can sense the feeling of obligation that Rocky feels, having been personally affected by Apollo Creed's death in the ring. Rocky at this point is tired, beaten, still grieving. Time has caught up with him, and as he says so poignantly time is the real "undefeated champion".

One of the most refreshing aspects of the film is it's not built on the tired premise of the kid from the streets who comes from nothing and has something to prove. has something to prove. Adonis comes from money, could easily have stayed in his desk job in the corporate world. He would have had success without fighting. But he just couldn't resist. So he ultimately has to defy expectations that he's just a son of a hero that was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Stallone does an amazing job of carrying his history with him. He walks slowly, his mumbling voice reminds you of all of the punches to the head that Rocky has had to endure. He's an aged man. Humbled by father time. You see them both fighting themselves on some level, although the fights are so different in nature.

There's something so truly American about the Rocky films. The struggling working class man pushing yourself to he limit, overcoming the odds. The underdog story. Everyone has the images ingrained in their memory of Rocky at the tops of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art with his hands in the air in that classic shot. And although Adonis isn't necessarily a working class hero, he does have something to prove and something to personally overcome. Creed even has it's own version of the "top of the steps shot" that is actually quite moving. What is a Rocky film without the epic big fight scene? Creed doesn't hesitate to create its own David vs Goliath, Country VS Country scene. USA Vs. England. The film builds to that final fight so remarkably. The final twenty minutes will have you on the edge of your seat, shadowboxing and biting your nails.

Godzilla

Gareth Edwards, 2014

Can I Stream it?

2/5

Edwards decides to take on the ambitious task of rebooting the 60 year old Godzilla franchise, 16 years after the previous (and awful) Roland Emmerich version. Edwards can seemingly only go up from there, and was coming off the more subtle (and pretty good) 2010 aptly-named monster-film Monsters. He certainly demonstrated some abilities in pacing and build up of tension in that film, which he certainly put to use here. He makes a few good decisions right off the bat, first off with not casting Matthew Broderick (whoever the casting agent that thought it would be a good idea to put him in big budget action film should've probably changed careers, and probably did). He instead takes a chance on lesser-known actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson to play hero Ford Brody, who comes off as sort of a Logan Lerman-type without the charm. The studios continue to force Elizabeth Olsen upon audiences, who is quite unremarkable as Ford’s wife Elle. There is some veteran actingat work, with Sally Hawkins and David Strathairn in supporting roles. None of them really get the opportunity to shine, at least not as much as Bryan Cranston. Cranston is the stand-out performance of the film, and unfortunately when he departs a lot of the momentum goes with him. Cranston is responsible for a good portion of the films build-up, and by the time that the film reaches the destructive climax it feels it drags on until the very end. There must have been a CGI-quota for high rise toppling. Maybe the special effects team was under contract for 28 destroyed skyscrapers, and they weren’t going to stop until every one of them have been toppled by either Godzilla himself or the insipid grasshopper beasts. Maybe beasts like Godzilla or King Kong are better left preserved in history. They certainly had their place in time. There is a certain unwillingness to preserve certain films, and instead of going in a more inventive direction we continue to reboot everything to the point of exhaustion. Maybe there is a certain magic to those gritty black and white versions. Maybe they don’t need multi-million dollar CGI makeovers. After all, by the time our great-grandchildren are in their thirties... is there going to be 25 Godzilla films that were made?