Open Letters Monthly: Star Trek Into Darkness

It's been four years, millions of dollars and trillions of 3D applications, but we're finally getting our new Star Trek. Star Trek Into Darkness is the continuing story of J.J. Abrams' reboot of the Gene Rodenberry 1960's television show, replacing legends William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. It shouldn't have worked, but thankfully 2009 saw tons of respect thrown towards Trekkies of all ages, and Abrams' vision proved amenable to moviegoers everywhere. Now he's back with BBC's 'Sherlock' as a villain, and the result is everything you would want from the director before he runs off and directs the new Star Wars sequel.

After a mission in which Captain Kirk betrays the sacred Prime Directive to save his friend, he finds himself stripped of his rank, his friendship, and his command of the starship Enterprise. But a second chance makes itself known when the terrorist known as John Harrison attacks Starfleet, igniting an epic manhunt when he flees deep into Klingon territory. Now it's up to Kirk and the Enterprise to capture one man and make him pay for the lives he has taken. But everything is not as it seems, and Kirk may learn that his brash actions have consequences affecting everybody under his command.

Star Trek Into Darkness is directed by J.J. Abrams and stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, Alice Eve, Peter Weller, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, John Cho and Anton Yelchin.

Click here for the full review at Open Letters Monthly.

Open Letters Monthly: Rise of the Guardians

Dreamworks finally makes their presence felt in the 2012 Oscar race for best Animated Feature with the release of Rise of the Guardians, the folk-tale inspired film based on the Guardians of Childhood series of books by William Joyce. Though Dreamworks has often lived in the shadow of Pixar as far as their animated features have gone, they are always capable of putting out something extraordinary, such as the original Shrek or How to Train Your Dragon. Likely to be nominated, and with Pixar putting out a great-but-not-Pixar-level product in Brave, and Dreamworks might actually have a shot at the big prize this season.

Jack Frost doesn't know why he suddenly came into existence almost 300 years ago. All he knows is that he controls the cold weather, isn't seen by anybody, and wants to live without rules and restrictions that would compromise the fun he has every day. But when the Boogeyman returns from centuries of isolation in an attempt to rule the world with fear, Jack finds himself summoned to join the Guardians of Childhood, led by the legendary Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Sandman. Together, they have a chance to fight back, and Jack may just discover the person he was meant to be.

Rise of the Guardians is directed by Peter Ramsey and features the voices of Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Isla Fisher and Hugh Jackman.

Click here for the complete review at Open Letters Monthly.

Wartime Comedy

Here's how I imagine the idea for This Means War came about: a studio promoter, a teenage girl, and a 44-year-old director who still insists on calling himself "McG" were locked into a room together,  allowed to leave only once they'd agreed on the next film to be made by the man responsible for bringing Charlie's Angels to the big screen. When all was said and done, a spy comedy starring two rising actors (in Star Trek's Chris Pine and Inception's Tom Hardy) was born, with Reese Witherspoon cast as the love object of both men. Witherspoon's addition makes it obvious: this is and always was meant to be a chick flick. However, while the actress is certainly more of a name-brand commodity than either Pine or Hardy at this point in either young man's careers, she is not without her bugaboos, most notably a significant downturn in her career since winning the Best Actress Academy Award for 2005's Walk the Line. It seems that more people have focused on her split from former beau Ryan Phillippe than the movies in which she's starred. Her releases haven't really FLOPPED, but neither have they broken free from the constraints of mediocre draws. Appealing to a younger audience seems like the right choice for the veteran actress, and maybe her unique energy can elevate a film that, on paper, looks like a combination of the worst cliches that spy and romantic comedies perpetrate.

All you tween girls can start screaming now...

CIA agents Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foster (Pine) and Tuck Henson (Hardy) are the best of the best, and the best of friends as well. But after a mission in Hong Kong goes south, their boss confines them to desk duty to help protect them from ruthless international criminal Heinrich (Til Schweiger), who has sworn revenge after the two accidentally killed Heinrich's brother in the line of duty. With the extra time on their hands, FDR and Tuck find themselves seeking romance with the same woman, Lauren Scott (Witherspoon), who doesn't realize that the two men she's become involved with are not only coworkers but best friends. Or, at least they were friends before they got involved with Lauren, as the two go from staying out of one another's way and "letting her decide" to using every tool at their disposal to sabotage the other, desperate to win the affections of Miss Scott. Meanwhile, Heinrich begins to make his way to the agents' home city of Los Angeles to enact his revenge upon the quarreling duo.

Whether she's got a great surgeon or just good genes, Witherspoon still has it all going on.

Let's get the main criticism out of the way first: that these two young, brash agents can do pretty much anything they want in seeking this woman's heart seems lighthearted at first but is completely implausible in practice. The two plant bugs in her home, have junior agents study her entire background, and pretty much act like stalkers in an effort to get an edge on their competition. This wouldn't be so bad if they didn't GET AWAY WITH IT so easily. They are never questioned by superiors, when juniors wonder why they're checking in on this completely innocent American citizen the response is that those details are "classified", and when the pair really delve into non-grey no-no territory, one of them quips "Patriot Act" as justification of their actions. Sure, these issues can be seen as completely fictionalized and unworthy of scrutiny, but at a time in which many people already don't trust their government to keep out of their business, this seems like unnecessarily pouring fuel on the fire. That either man gets the girl in the end is more than a little cockamamie considering what he did to get there.

"No, really, the Star Trek reboot is great! The guy who plays Kirk is going to go places!"

There are some reasons to at least glance at this title, however. The charisma of the two males is undeniable, and actually allows the audience to forgive those characters their (multiple) trespasses over the length of the film. Pine channels a bit of Kirk in his womanizing stud FDR, who never cared to get into a real relationship before meeting his match in Lauren. And you can't help but love Hardy's Tuck, who is so earnest and endeavoring to please. While the characters themselves are little more than archetypes of good boy/bad boy stereotypes, it is the talent of both young actors which really allows them to rise oh-so-slightly above those cliches and make them characters worth rooting for. Witherspoon also unsurprisingly brings her unique bubbly enthusiasm to the big screen, though her character seems even more unassuming and naive than in her Legally Blonde days. She never quite matches up to that level of desirable that demands that these two men destroy their friendship over her, and we never feel bad about the "tough" decision she must make about her future. Chelsea Handler is uneven as Lauren's married best friend; Handler's expertise is dirty humor, and while she gets a few moments to shine, I felt like the film never really took advantage of her presence to raise the quality of the humor present. Schweiger, Germany's most popular actor, once again plays an emotionless European criminal, a Hollywood career I had hoped he would avoid after stealing a few scenes in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

Sadly, Pine doesn't START... talking like... THIS... after being drugged

The humor is also okay, with some chuckles surviving the transition from script to screen successfully. Of course, much of the humor is dependent on Handler; when she's at her best, the film is just fine. When she is held back, the whole thing is far less interesting. The film's action is actually among the best I've seen so far this year, a staple with McG that has actually gotten better with experience, unlike the rest of his "skills." It's a shame these two elements can't make up for poor character development, a bare-bones plot, and deliberate theft from other franchises, including There's Something About Mary and Bad Boys, just to name a few. It's like the filmmakers were worried that there might be something original about This Means War, and set out to squash that possibility as quickly as they could. Toss in the fact that the entire Heinrich story was sidelined instead of being woven into the main tale, and what you have is a romantic comedy that isn't romantic or even all that funny, and an action movie whose best elements are hindered by the aforementioned poor romantic comedy.

Countdown to shit storm in 3... 2...

It's the terrible rendition of friendships and romantic relationships that ultimately sinks McG's latest outing. Not giving his stars a chance to grow beyond the confines of an awful script, This Means War is easily one of the worst movies I've seen in 2012's first three months. I had been hoping that the film would go places I wasn't expecting, only to find myself completely disabused of that notion a mere quarter of the way through. There is some serious talent present here, but sadly that's not nearly enough to make a worthwhile movie-going experience. It seems many out there agree; the film has been a financial flop, not a good sign for the actors involved, especially Hardy, whose post-Inception track record also includes the excellent bomb Warrior, released last year. Still, I expect all these actors to get off scot free, as Pine and Hardy are young enough to recover, and Witherspoon still has enough natural charm to get regular work. I'm honestly not looking forward to another McG film however, as it seems he's given up on the whole "career maturation" thing and is simply unable to make great films. He proved that with Terminator: Salvation, and he proved it here today.

It Can't Be Stopped!

What do you get when you cross one of America's greatest actors, one of it's up-and-coming stars, and a runaway train? If you're director Tony Scott, the answer is Unstoppable, the "based on a true story" tale of two train engineers who take it upon themselves to try and stop an unmanned train that presents a danger to the people along whose rail it runs. The film was inspired by the real-life CSX 8888 incident in which a runaway train carrying hazardous chemicals went rampant through the state of Ohio before finally being brought under control by CSX employees and local authorities. I won't lie, I wasn't entirely behind seeing this film. Besides the fact that the trailer made the film seem so over-the-top dramatic to the point of almost unwatchable, there had been other options out there that seemed far more palatable to my tastes than this. Finding myself out of those options for the first time in a while (and of course needing all the material I can get for three reviews a week) I decided that I liked Denzel Washington and Chris Pine enough (not to mention the foxy Rosario Dawson... Rawr) to slip into theaters unseen and catch this while it was available.

Wait... This isn't the set of Star Trek 2...

There's very little in the way of deep story here. Thanks to the ineptitude of train yard employees, a train trailed by rail cars measuring a half mile long gets loose and under power, entering the main line unmanned and becoming a danger to every community along the rail. Meanwhile, Will Colson (Chris Pine), a young train conductor, arrives at work and learns he's paired with veteran engineer Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington), with whom he's never worked before. After the beginnings of a rocky partnership, plus almost being crashed into by the runaway locomotive, the two team up on the crazy idea of running down and stopping this engine of death. Real deep, riveting stuff.

Washington gets paid big bucks to make you see films like this

Fortunately, the film is a lot more watchable than you might initially think. Yes, it does feature a train full of kids in danger, but those same kids - who the trailer would have you think are a major focal point of the film - are out of danger a mere quarter of the way through the film. So that's one major criticism avoided, as that aspect of the trailer was probably the most over-the-top storyline bit they could have introduced. The film is also compellingly watchable, and if that doesn't seem like the best of compliments, remember that it could have been MUCH worse. The sad truth is that Tony Scott manages to make two men chasing a runaway train in a single locomotive extremely entertaining, and even if it's not a perfect film it can easily be enjoyed by someone looking to just unwind and not think too much. Another good point is it's intelligence with train operation. The film often fills in what might be critics' complaints about the plot by explaining why a train's "dead man" switch doesn't trip or how a device called a "derailer" could fail to derail a sufficiently-laden train. While I should probably feel insulted that the film so openly explains tiny details as if I don't know how a train operates, the truth is that I - as well as most film-goers seeing this title - DON'T know how trains operate, and actually benefit from these open, simple explanations.

No trains were harmed in the making of this film

That said, the film does get a little out-of-hand starting at the mid-point of the tale, as the attempts by the railroad company to stop its runaway get more and more ridiculous. When it's finally Will and Frank's chance to do their part, it's almost a relief because it puts an end to the silliness that had come before. Characters are also pretty slim pickings, as they seem to be pulled from the cliche heap. Will is a husband and father who has found his way into the dog house and starts the film sleeping on his brother's couch. Frank is a father with a dead wife and two daughters, one of whom's birthday happens to be that very day and OF COURSE Frank forgot. It's stuff like this that reminds you that this is Tony Scott, the action-oriented younger brother of the more talented and varied filmmaker Ridley Scott. Tony doesn't DO high class drama, he's an all-American action boy. And he knows how to blow stuff up almost as well as Michael Bay.

The same can not be said, however, for train EMPLOYEES

The film's acting is fine, if not given much material to work with. Washington is getting a paycheck as Frank, whose idea it is to try and capture the train in the first place. This is a typical B-level Washington film, one of the dozens he has sprinkled throughout his career in between solitary drops of actual top-shelf quality film. One might say that he's limiting himself by appearing in so many low-brow releases that he might not be as well remembered after his career as some of his contemporaries, such as Tom Hanks. I however give him credit for doing his career his way and he'll be remembered as one of the most talented actors in Hollywood once his time in the spotlight comes to an end. Pine is obviously an up-and-comer whose big break-out, Star Trek, made him a world-wide phenomena. While not allowed to churn out his Jim  Kirk charm, Pine does a fine job as the young conductor simply trying to get by. Rosario Dawson is good as a train yardmaster who keeps tabs on the duo and helps them figure out what to do in order to stop the train. Once again, there's not a lot for her to do besides support the film's heroes while being angry at her higher-ups who consistently gunk up the works. Kevin Dunn plays the film's main human antagonist (because Scott believes that every film needs at least ONE), a corporate executive for the rail company that looks out more for the interests of the company than the people this train might harm. Ethan Suplee plays a train yard worker who instigates the whole mess. Suplee plays it like a semi-retarded manatee, which is pretty much his range. And Lew Temple plays his train welder as an unlikely secondary hero and is also a hick with a capital H.

Rawr

Though the film does exaggerate the events that actually occurred during the real event, there is nothing so out there as to be completely unbelievable, and Scott does a good job at making sure that your eyes watch the screen at all times. It was poorly advertised and looked much worse in the trailers than it did while sitting in on an actual screening, lending credence to the idea that seeing is believing. Unstoppable is a film that is much better than it deserves to be, but like brother Ridley's 2010 effort Robin Hood, is far from reaching the true potential set by its respective genre. The result is a film that, while overly-relying on fictional danger and poor character designs, manages to entertain through sheer simplicity. And who doesn't want to keep it simple once in a while?

"Warp factor 1, Sulu. Engage."