Fish and Cherries Productions

It’s impossible to talk about The Interview without touching on the controversy surrounding it. The real life Kim Jong-un threatened repercussions if the film was released. Other people promised “9/11-style terror” to theaters that showed it. Sony itself was hacked and pulled the movie in the face of danger. Celebrities and the press jumped right down their throat as a response. But after all that, the movie where Seth Rogen and James Franco try to assassinate Kim Jong-un got its Christmas release. And… it’s pretty much Pineapple Express on steroids and with a bit more bite. But seeing as I liked Pineapple Express, I mean that in a good way.

In a way, the film’s reputation and infamy have outgrown it to the point where its quality and proposed offensiveness can’t possibly live up to the notoriety. Rogen and Franco aren’t two douchebags who get drunk one day and decide to assassinate North Korea’s dictator, but a TV personality and his producer who get roped into the CIA’s assassination plot because the two happened to get a rare interview with the target. Even then, the movie is smart enough to say, “Um, you can’t just take the guy out and expect everything to just solve itself.” That’s part of what makes the movie interesting, being smart and stupid at the same time (stupid in that Seth Rogen movies seem contractually obligated to have a certain amount of bodily humor). Oddly enough, they were even smart enough to give Kim Jong-un a three-dimensional portrayal rather than just make him a mustache-twirling scumbag. I don’t see this as trying to say that everyone has good in them and should be given a chance, but that even guys who do horrible things can still come off as nice and amicable. I think that’s a lesson that a lot of people could take to heart.

Admittedly, through the first part of the movie, I honestly thought the jokes were mostly just okay and that James Franco’s character was a little insufferable. But in the later part of the movie, everything kicked into overdrive. I had at least a laugh a minute, and the character actually wound up having something of an arc. Some people have a problem with the fact that they made a comedy about killing a person who’s still alive, but I had none. When someone treats their people as bad as Kimmy does, I have no problem sticking it to them any way I can. Also, I don’t recall anyone having a problem back when South Park killed the still-living Saddam Hussein and turned him into Satan’s gay lover.

Really, it comes down to this: Did you enjoy Pineapple Express or This Is The End? If so, then you’ll like this in all its raunchy glory. Is it propaganda? Yes, but it’s done right and has the know-how to portray the North Korean people as the victims of a powerful force and who don’t need another government to intervene to save them. If you’re sick of Seth Rogen comedies, this might not do much for you. But if you’re into that sort of thing, give it a look and enjoy the uncomfortable laughs.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies is a film I enjoyed, but also took a lot of issue with. Of all the movies, I would say that this is the one where stretching out the story to three films really takes its toll, as a lot of it is just one big climax. The final Harry Potter movie did that too, but I felt that movie was a lot better paced. Part of the problem is that quite a bit of the film cut back to the absolutely superfluous character of Alfrid, which was a grating experience that didn’t even have any real payoff.

Still, there were quite a lot of good bits of action… most of the time. However, this is one of the few times where Hollywood’s attempt at bloodless carnage actually bothered me as I didn’t feel a lot of the injuries. I’m not asking for spurting blood or leaking intestines, but when someone gets dramatically impaled through the back and the blade doesn’t come out the other side, it feels fake and it takes me right out of the experience.

And then there’s the gender politics, which are… interesting. I get the impression that the filmmakers want to be progressive, but don’t quite know how. While Tauriel’s inclusion as a love interest is a little suspect on reflection, that’s not what bugs me. MASSIVE SPOILERS INCOMING! DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE! No, what bugs me is that they didn’t allow her to fulfill her arc and finish off the orc that killed Kili. I like that Kili’s death gave the romance some legitimate tragedy, but the filmmakers completely dropped the ball by not allowing her to avenge him and giving the kill to Legolas instead. I just don’t see the point of creating original characters if you’re not going to really do anything with them.

STILL SPOILERS! Because, honestly, did we really need another scene of Legolas being awesomely perfect? We had three Lord of the Rings movies showing that. Wouldn’t it have been better for him to not be as good as he was in the other movies so that he could have something to work up to? When he started running up the falling wall pieces like they were stairs, I mentally facepalmed and asked if this was real life. For crying out loud, he doesn’t get a single scratch on him after everything was said and done, which really ticked me off. Don’t get me wrong, it was also bullshit when Tauriel walked away from a fall that should have broken her back with nothing but a cut on her face, but at least it was SOMETHING. SPOILERS OVER! READ ON!

Again, I didn’t hate the movie, and my favorite parts might surprise you. I actually really liked the mounts the characters road. It wasn’t just horses, there were giant boars, elks, and mountain goats. They even took advantage of the mountain goats by having them traverse the rocks around the mountain. That was really creative. Thorin’s plight was also very engaging. I don’t know if they had Benedict Cumberbatch dub over him in some scenes or if they just edited his voice to make him sound like Smaug, but it was very effective. Of course, as with the other Middle-Earth movies, the scenery and visuals are gorgeous and breathtaking.

I think if they had put the first ten minutes of this movie onto the end of the last movie, the pacing would have definitely improved, even if it wouldn’t have erased all the problems. It’s a good puppet show, but I’m just a little annoyed that I could see the strings.

Penguins of Madagascar wasn’t anything super spectacular or groundbreaking, but it was still fun. I may not have thought much of the original Madagascar when I saw it, but I thought the penguins were the best part, so this was welcome entertainment. There were a lot of clever and fast jokes, as well as a string of puns that I couldn’t tell whether they were clever, corny, ironic, or all three. That said, the plot is a string of tropes and conventions, which leaves Benedict Cumberbatch’s character, which he brings all of his natural charm to, as merely a plot device and not a particularly interesting character. As such, you’ll probably figure out most of the plot as soon as movie gets going.

The biggest stick for me is that the moral seems very confused: there’s a message at the end about how a person’s worth is truly what’s on the inside, but this is being delivered while the heroes are turning people from monstrous to cute. That’s such a huge contradiction that I’m still trying to get my head around it. Honestly, though, I’m glad I saw it. The penguins are their funny selves and there’s plenty of good comedy from the side characters, which is all I was really expecting. It has its faults and it doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s still fun.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was quite the riot and living proof that slapstick can be great comedy. It’s funny that a movie about such a complete asshole can be so charming, but Chevy Chase pulls it off with amazing comic timing and a great script. The humor is very audacious, but not in the intense gross-out way that a lot of comedic flops nowadays tend to go. The situation will also ring a cord to people who have huge family gatherings and have to watch as the different personalities, be they overbearing, abrasive, or downright senile, bound off of each other. It’s not exactly a traditional Christmas classic in the same way as It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol, but it’s definitely a Christmas classic I missed out on in my youth and one I’ll be happy to revisit in the Christmases yet to come.

The Theory of Everything is a very heartfelt movie about a serious subject: love and life with a truly crippling disease. I truly have to give props to Eddie Redmayne; I wasn’t a fan of him in Les Miserables, but here he is able to convey emotions very well, even when portraying Stephen Hawking in the disabled years of his life and working through very limited expressions. There are no villains, either. People make mistakes, but they’re very human mistakes. Without giving too much away, they’re the kind of mistakes that would make you question if you wouldn’t do the same in a similar situation.

With all that said, there is one part that makes me scratch my head a bit. Near the end, Steven Hawking (Spoiler alert: he doesn’t die in the movie for rather obvious reasons) has a momentary daydream where he gets up out of his chair, walks off his disability, and picks up a pen that someone dropped. I’m honestly baffled by what it’s supposed to mean. It’s possible that it was just him wishing that he could do the simple things like everybody else, but the scene was so overblown that I’m convinced that it had to mean something bigger. It’s a topic for discussion, at the very least. And that’s really what it all comes down to: showing that you don’t need Russell Crowe to make a movie about a beautiful mind.

And a few clever Doctor Who references don’t hurt either.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 didn’t have as much action as the previous flick, but it more than made up for it with tension. This movie definitely took some liberties from the book, but that makes sense. The sections of Mockingjay covered here has Katniss see very little fighting, so it figures that the movie would put the spotlight on the important events involve other people. Elizabeth Banks’ character is also expanded (she only appeared at the end of the book for about one or two lines), though I’m not sure how necessary that was, apart from the filmmakers realizing that they have Elizabeth Banks and figuring they may as well use her.

Also, yes, Jennifer Lawrence has a song in the movie and it’s quite good, even amazing how they make it actually sound like a slave song. But the scene that plays alongside is quite breathtaking and I won’t dare spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. What I really have to give credit to is the makeup team, especially on Josh Hutchinson as he looks worse and worse for wear the longer he’s in captivity and a character who gets strangled for the realistic red their eyes turn. This movie doesn’t shy away from the horrible imagery within the scenario, which is why I never bought into the arguments against bloodless carnage. Things can be horrific and traumatic for the viewer without resorting to gore. Just look at Hotel Rwanda to see what I mean.

But the movie that isn’t above lighthearted humor either; there’s a scene where the heroes are shooting some propaganda shorts and the dialogue will be eerily familiar to anyone who’s shot a movie. It had me in silent stitches. Also, one more bit of credit to the scene is that Jennifer Lawrence manages to act like a bad actor very effectively.

If I had one gripe, it’s that I wasn’t really feeling Julianne Moore’s character. I didn’t really get much of a feel for her personality apart from a few speeches she made. We’ll see how it plays out in the next film, but as of now, she’s the least interesting to me. I’m not sure if Mockingjay should have been split up into two movies, but I’m honestly not sure how I would have done it differently. It’s mostly build-up for the next movie, but you can tell that it’s going to be a great finale.

Big Hero 6 was a huge treat to watch. While the plot may be a bit archetypical in terms of a superhero story, it plays it very smart and throws in some really clever twists. The world they present is also wild and colorful. Disney tackled China with Mulan, of course, but this is the first time I’ve seen them do a city with a heavy Asian influence like San Fransokyo. This is also the first time I’ve seen them put gambling and sneak drunken behavior into their film, at least since Dumbo and possibly Pinocchio. The characters are also incredible fun and distinctive, my favorite probably being GoGo for the attitude alone. And yes, Baymax is exactly the adorable show-stealer the advertisements make him out to be. It’s like if Big the Cat was written well. If you don’t get that reference, don’t worry, most Sonic the Hedgehog fans wish that they themselves didn’t.

Where this movie really takes off is showing off the futuristic angle. Anytime the movie shows some kind of technological or scientific advancement, it feels remarkable and, in my case, almost tear-inducing. You really believe that the future has arrived. While this is definitely a point to the writing staff for doing their research (apparently, most/all of this science is accurate and possible), the animation department gets huge props for making it come to life before your eyes. Said department also deserves props for a visual marvel at the end where my jaw actually dropped upon seeing it. I won’t spoil it, but it’s well worth the wait.

Is it as good as Frozen? No, because it doesn’t massively redefine its genre. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t spectacular in its own right. I might even say it’s better than The Incredibles and that Hiro is a better rough-around-the-edges and morally dubious protagonist than Aladdin. While the character of Aunt Cass kind of grated on me, it didn’t detract from the excitement, investment, and heartbreak that should come with a great childhood classic. I’ve been feeling this coming on for a while now since The Princess and the Frog, but now I’m certain: Disney is back.

It’s difficult to talk about the story of Gone Girl because I want to avoid as many spoilers as possible. What you should know from the get go is that I cannot recommend this film enough. This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire running time, even after a twist in the middle that would normally close out a story. Personally, I was kind of shaky when I left the theater because it was just so intense. The cast in this movie is pretty is pretty amazing too. Affleck’s natural awkwardness works really well in making him seem suspicious, Neil Patrick Harris plays against type really well, and even Tyler Perry is tolerable. The film was directed by David Fincher, the same man behind Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It seems like this guy can tackle any genre and make it seem natural, kind of like The Beatles (or Takeshi Kitano, if you really want to get obscure). When the credits were rolling, someone in the audience mentioned that this was just as good as the book. I believe it, though that may partially be because the book’s author also wrote the screenplay. It’s rather graphic and may be taxing for the faint of heart, but this absolutely needs to be seen.

The Boxtrolls is a movie that I’m not quite sure what all to think about, though it leaves a very memorable impression. The characters aren’t the most three-dimensional, but they’re all unique and distinctive. The plot has a very basic good versus evil thing about it, but the plot elements are executed with a lot of subtlety in the dialogue and actions. The social satire can be a bit odd, what with the upper class being obsessed with cheese rather than fixing the problems of their city, but it’s still easy to identify with. But don’t think that I’m bashing this movie, because I’m not. It’s a visual wonder, to be sure, but unlike The Book of Life, which was very grand and colorful, this film has a lot of quirks and nuances in the writing and animation that make it unique. I also have to hand it to that voice acting, because there were a number of famous people in the cast and I honestly couldn’t tell you it was them by listening. This was brought to us by Laika, the studio that gave us Coraline (which, as I said in my pre-website days, kicked ASS), and their ingenuity is felt here as well. I give this my recommendation and invite you to tune in within the next seven days when I take a gander at the final piece of the Laika trilogy that’s eluded me… ParaNorman.

The Judge is in no way a feel-good movie. In fact, a lot of it is depressing as fuck. But beneath all the turmoil is a story about dealing with your own past and not letting it govern or ruin your future. Robert Downey Jr. does a really good job at playing a truly miserable man who hides behind a veil of snark and wit. Anyone who has had difficulty with one or more of their parents or tried to distance themselves from their roots and hometown will be able to relate to him, even if they occasionally find his actions a bit slimy. With its great acting, dialogue, and characters, you should really give this movie the time of day.