PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR

GRADE: B -
Starring Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon, John Lakovich, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Stormare, Annet Mahendru
Reviewed by Paul Gibbs

I've always had a fondness for the Madagascar animated films, while of course recognizing that they weren't up with their Toy Story or the other truly classic animated films of our time. But they're likable and funny, and with more heart than they're given credit for (and a still maintain that first one actually had a surprisingly deep subtext, even if it exists nowhere outside of my own mind). The penguins have always been among the funniest and most popular characters, but they're rather one dimensional comic relief. Could they really carry their own movie? The answer is a qualified yes.

The story begins with an origin of the four penguins (Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private) as children in Antarctica (even this actually stretches it a bit with these characters, as detail is not best thing for them, It's not easy for me to accept, even in a cartoon, that they were essentially born thinking they were an elite commando unit). Flash forward to the penguins "escaping" the circus where we saw them at the end of Madagascar: Europe's Most Wanted. Soon the penguins are off on their own for another adventure, one which finds them going up against a dastardly octopus named Dave (delightfully voiced by John Malkovich), and joining voices with an actual elite commando unit called the North Wind, lead by a wolf (voiced by the increasingly omnipresent Benedict Cumberbatch). The character conflict/development is provided by Private's struggle to be a valued member of the team, rather than just being thought of as the cute and cuddly baby brother.


Directors Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith are working with a script credited to 5 screenwriters who have concocted a plot that's pretty flimsy even by cartoon standards, which is really just a basic framework for non-stop gags, some of which are very funny (the early bits involving nature documentary film crews made me laugh out loud), and some of which fall flat. Even the running gags are inconsistent, as a an endless series of puns involving celebrity names is alternately amusing and tiresome. But the film moves fast enough to avoid wearing out its welcome, and the penguins are endearingly goofy enough to keep us engaged. In particular its surprising that Skipper is actually able to pull of some nice character moments.


DreamWorks Animation has taken a real step forward in sophistication in recent years with films like Rise of the Guardians and the excellent How To Train Your Dragon series. This isn't in the same league. But's going to please its target audience, and there's enough to keep the adults who take them to the theater fairly amused. It's not likely to become a beloved favorite or an Oscar nominee for Best Animate Film, but it's a fun time at the movies showcasing lovably goofy penguins. And did anyone really expect more from it? Besides, any film that manages to cast John Malkovich as an octopus and Peter Stormare as a polar bear gets a pass from me. Don't overthink it or expect too much and you'll have fun.

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

GRADE: A+
Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewliss, Charlie Cox
Screenplay by Andrew McCarten, based on the book by Jane Hawking
Directed by James Marsh
Rated PG-13 (Adult themes, profanity)

It's very understandable if your first instinct upon seeing advertising for The Theory of Everything is that it's the sappiest kind of Oscar bait. Truth be told, between the somewhat syrupy poster and the general vibe I was getting from a lot of directions, I had very little enthusiasm going into this film. It just struck me as the sort of film that exists only to win awards and make people cry at how romantic it is. And being familiar (albeit only vaguely) with the story of Stephen Hawking's marriage, I was worried that this was going to be a whitewashed Hollywood feel-good romance that more or less deified him. Happily, it isn't. Yes, it's blatant Oscar bait. But it's good Oscar bait.


The film begins with Hawking (played by Eddie Redmayne of Les Miserables) as a student at Cambridge in the 1960s. Hawking is a brilliant student who seems to be sort of treading water until he comes up with something truly unique (basically a thin, nerdy British version of Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind but with better people skills). He meets and falls in love with the lovely Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), then is diagnosed with ALS. Since there are no ice buckets to be found, they get married. While Stephen is given only two years to live, he defies that by continuing on despite progressively losing more and more of his motor function, until his confined to a wheelchair and capable of only very slight movement of any kind. Jane remains committed to Stephen throughout his struggles and the births of their children. But there's no denying it's a difficult life for both of them, as Stephen goes on developing the brilliant theories that placed him alongside Albert Einstein in the pantheon of scientific genius. It's here that I should probably mention that those looking for a film about Hawking's theories and his contribution to science and human thought are probably going to be disappointed. While Andrew McCarten's screenplay does an infinitely better job of introducing us to Hawking's theories than A Beautiful Mind did with those of John Forbes Nash, it barely scratches the surface. And it's not even a film about Stephen's bravery or resilience. It's about the relationship between Stephen and Jane.


Redmayne has the showy, Oscary role here, and he's brilliant. Not only does he look like Hawking, his ability to twist and contrort his body to resemble the ravages of the disease is nothing short of astonishing. But even better, he's able to convey a great deal of emotion even after Stephen has lost the power of speech and can barely move anything but his eyelids. It's a performance that easily deserves to be toward the top of the list of Oscar contenders. But Jones brings just as much to the film in a less obvious way, and I'm afraid she'll be overlooked. Jane is the heart and soul of the film, the character we come to love, and without Jones' sublime, sensitive performance, The Theory of Everything would slip into being something akin to The Iron Lady, which is to say a great central performance with nothing surrounding it. Instead, it's a fully realized film, and one which is surprisingly sensitive and fair to both sides of a very complex relationship. Director James Marsh takes a fairly straightforward approach to tell the story, and resists the urge let his directing steal focus from the actors. It's a soft approach, and I find myself once again having to rely on the word "sensitive" to describe it. That's really the word which to me most defines the film.


I found The Theory of Everything to be the kind of film which strikes a very personal chord for me, and I was both very moved and very shaken up by it. It's a beautiful film which I will have to revisit somewhat sparingly as it did provoke a wave of complicated and powerful emotions from me. While some of this was very specific to me, it's hard for me to imagine that many viewers won't find themselves feeling quite a bit because of this movie. If you're prone to crying at movies, you'll cry at this one. But it earns its tears honestly, not through overwrought weepiness or cheap manipulation. It's a very unique love story that may very well be different from what you expect. And in its center are two of the very best performances of the year.

BIG HERO 6

Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs



GRADE: A +
Featuring the voices of Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, James Cromwell, Jamie Chung, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Genesis Rodriguez, Daman Wayan,s Jr. and Alan Tudyk
Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams
Rated PG (action and peril, mild rude humor)

Disney Animation studios is on on fire.

The once fledgling afterthought that got started with the meager Chicken Little and stood in the shadow of PIXAR has not only stepped out of that iconic shadow, but after last Wreck It Ralph and Frozen, it's making PIXAR have to work to keep up. The newest offering from the house of mouse is the first genuine Disney movie based on a MARVEL property, Big Hero 6, and it is almost exactl the movie that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed to be in ever way.

Set in the fictional Metropolis of "San Fransokyo: (which is just what it sounds like), our story center around a young robotics prodigy named Hiro Hamata. Having graduated High School at 14, Hiro is content to spend his time hustling the rich in underground "Bot Fights," but his older brother Tadashi  (whom you will look at more than once and ask "is that Matt Dillion? But he looks so young" until the person you came to the movie with points out that it's a cartoon, dumbass), wants something better for Hiro. Tadashi is something of an electronics genius himself, and he introduces Hiro to The San Fransokyo Insitute of Technology, a spectacular nerd school run by an icon in the field, Professor Callaghan (voiced by James Cromwell.). Hiro also gets into a new social with Tadashi misfit friends. But most importantly, Tadashi introduces his little brother to Baymax, an inflatable robot built by the elder Hamata brother to serve as a "healthcare companion."

But when Tadashi .and Callghan are killed in a mysterious explosion, Hiro is on his own. That is, until he accidentally activates Baymax, who sees Hiro as his patient.  Hiro is completely disinterested, until some snooping leads him to believe that there is more to Tadashi's death than meets the eye, and that someone is using an invention of Hiro's to commit evil deeds.

Hiro programs Baymax to learn Karate, and outfits him with high tech armor, and enlists the aid of his new friends in his quest for truth and justice.

Visually splendid and full of heart, Big Hero 6 is an utter delight from start to finish. Baymax (voiced by Scott Adsit of 30 Rock fame) is one of the most endearing characters to hit the big screen in years, and the relationship between the boy and the bot is charming, fun and touching.  The movie is packed with action but very low on violence, and the sense of humor is much more sophisticated than the trailers indicate (looking back at the trailers for The Incredibles, Disney has a knack for dumbing down it's advertising.). As much as it should feel tired and annoying for this story to turn into yet another superhero adventure when Hollywood is so overpacked with them, it is such a good one (and a unique one) that it's cause for celebration rather than eye rolling.

Big Hero 6 is that proverbial "fun for the whole family" movie that will leave laughing, crying, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. You get the idea, but I'm telling you, it really is that good.

The movie is suitable for most ages, but does feature enough intensity and strong emotion that it maybe not be right for some kids 4 and under (you know your kid better than I do, hopefully: you be the judge.).

INTERSTELLAR

 Reviewed by Paul and Patrick Gibbs

GRADE: A 
Matthew McConaghey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, MacKenzie Foy, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine Written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Rated PG-13 (Violence, profanity, intensity)

        

Sometime it's hard to know whether to rate a film based on its ambitions, or how well it achieves them. Interstellar is one of the most ambitious films to come out of Hollywood this decade, a mix of cerebral sci-fi and commercial blockbuster that wants to engage the intellect and emotions equally. Even from the brilliant director Christopher Nolan (Inception, the Dark Knight trilogy) it's not a surprise that it's not 100% successful at achieving these goals. But it does manage to be a dazzling, awe-inspiring cinematic experience with some actual science (thanks to consultant Kip Thorne), and it's also dramatically moving (thanks in large part to leading man Matthew McConaughey, whose career resurgence now includes showing he can carry an epic).

McConaughey stars as Cooper, an engineer who trained as an astronaut but was forced to become a farmer when an environmental disaster called "The blight" turned Earth into a dust bowl that could barely grow anything, leaving humankind on the verge of extinction.  Cooper has a close bond with his children, especially his 10 year old daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy). When a wormhole is discovered near Saturn, Cooper is chosen to fly a mission through it to save the human race by finding inhabitable extra solar planets in another galaxy. But this means leaving his children, possibly to never return (or to return to discover that the effects of relativity have made his children older than him. The scenes of Cooper leaving his children and the emotional effect it has provide the film with its human drama, and McConaughey and Foy (and later Jessica Chastain as adult Murph) nail the emotional content of the film.

Cooper is joined on the mission most prominently by Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), a brilliant scientist, and a really cool robot named TARS (who resembles the iconic monolith from Stanley Kubrick's 2001). The voyage of their ship, Endurance, takes them on an epic journey across space and time.

Nolan is a superb storyteller, and he achieves several moments of brilliance here, and an overall very good
film. But there's simply no way to completely tie everything he's trying to do here into quite the satisfying whole his biggest successes have been. The mix of science and sentiment, along with just some existential speculation, is somewhat tenuous and threatens to break apart at times. The third act is particularly likely to be divisive, as we're unsure whether he's trying to go for Kubrickian brainy sci-fi philosophy, Spielbergian sentiment (the film was actually originally developed as a project for Spielberg) or just "whoa, dude" head trip fare. The film never jumps completely off the rails, but it flirts with it at times, and also sometimes gets a little hard to follow (as good as it is, Hans Zimmer's booming musical score and the fact that Nolan has mixed it too loud don't help).

But through the whole thing, McCounaugey's excellent leading man turn and Nolan's formidable skills as a director manage to steer through the pitfalls of the perhaps overly ambitious material to pull us in. The supporting cast is strong, though Hathaway's character is underdeveloped and we never get a complete handle on her. TARS manages to steal the film with a likable personality and unique design. The film is visually resplendent, including a large number of sequences shot in IMAX (it's definitely worth the extra expense to see it in the large-screen format).  The space sequences are absolutely eye-popping.

Ultimately, Interstellar isn't perfect, and it's going to be a love it or hate thing for a lot of people. For us, it's a worthy addition to Nolan's filmography that deserves admiration for aiming so high, even if it can't quite nail its target.