THE BABADOOK  3.2***     

 

   

  The Babadook isn't for the mainstream crowd. It is a horror movie for horror genre fans. It will tap…. no bore into your most primal fears. It portrays the truly terrifying things in life - grief, loneliness and despair. Not things that necessarily freak you out but things that make you feel unsettled, disturbed, and human.

STORY: Six years after the death of her husband, Amelia (Essie Davis) is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her “out of control” 6 year-old, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), a son she finds impossible to love. Samuel's dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both. When a disturbing storybook called 'The Babadook' turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he's been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control, he becomes more unpredictable and violent. Amelia, genuinely frightened by her son's behavior, is forced to medicate him. But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real.  

 

It's rare to watch a horror film that is this emotionally deep. The Babadook’s characters are both fascinating and frightening to watch. Essie Davis gives a stellar performance as the stressed out Mom. She very effectively shows a full range of terror, sadness and evilness in an almost seamless fashion. Noah Wiseman also gives a great performance as the not so well-adjusted Samuel. Samuel's off- putting, even weird behavior was a daunting challenge for a child actor, but Wiseman pulls it off flawlessly.

The atmosphere created here is hair-raisingly ominous. Just the look of the house creeps you out… it’s cold hallways and dark rooms full of shadows and noises create an oppressive and daunting atmosphere. From the opening frames you get a sense of the forbidding atmosphere.   As for the monster itself, it's a mixture of primal fears that will send shivers down your spine. But the fear does not come from the violence the monster could cause but from its nefarious shape and what it embodies. It's an amazingly evil film creation especially since it was humanly constructed rather than digitally done which somehow enhances its fear factor.    

 

 The Babadook is an effective, chilling, scary, well-acted, and emotionally rich horror movie.. In fact, it is one of the best psychological horror movies to come along lately.

 

Clark

        SPY  3.3***

          Spy is an entertaining  comedy about elevating the least amongst us to higher positions. After success with Bridesmaids and The Heat,  Paul Feig, as writer and director, teams up again with Melissa McCarthy in what is their best so far. McCarthy plays Susan Cooper who works at a spy agency where she feeds critical information off her computer into an ear piece to assist agents in the field. The central plot involves a nuclear bomb . Since the villain knows the identity of all the field agents in the agency, only Cooper can go into the fiend  undetected. One of the film's best running jokes is the unflattering disguises Cooper is subjected to.

McCarthy endures the physical slapstick action with awkward perfection including a massive battle in a kitchen where she swings a mean frying pan. Rose Byrne plays the villain  whom Cooper must connect with in order to discover the whereabouts of the bomb.  Jude Law plays agent Bradley Fine, in a well done take-off/satire of  James Bond.  Jason Statham is hilarious as agent Rick Ford, a hot head with a huge ego who believes that Cooper will screw up the mission all the while she is constantly saving him.  Miranda Hart plays Cooper's ear piece contact who comes into the field and eventually tackles rapper 50 Cent in order to cause a diversion. The climax is slightly overblown yet McCarthy takes being a spy beyond the realms of normal satire and comedy.

Melissa McCarthy has one of the most impressive potty mouths in cinema. This self-deprecating comedienne fires off f-bombs and trash talk that would make Samuel L. Jackson jealous. McCarthy's tart dialogue, coupled with her  knack for physical comedy, ensures this espionage spoof is  enjoyable   But this film  also heavily relies upon the cast, with the rib-tickling McCarthy receiving excellent support. Rose Byrne nails it as the condescendingly caustic villain, Jude Law admirably does a great Bond satire, and Jason Statham – who snares the movie's best moment with an uproariously macho monologue – is downright hilarious as an obnoxious agent. Spy has its share of flaws and is a bit too long (2 hrs), but when it's funny it's really funny!!  

Rated R for language throughout (lots of F-words), moderate violence, and some sexual content including brief graphic nudity |

Clark

”LL  SEE YOU In My DREAMS  4.0****

 

         At Last.. a must see movie for the “over 50” crowd and a should see movie for the “under 50” crowd !!!

 

“I'll See You in My Dreams”  is one of this year's truly great surprises. It's a film about growing old, being older and taking new chances. In  the wrong hands it might have been played up for stale laughs about hot flashes and Viagra. Thankfully, what we get is a sweet and charming little film that  speaks to audiences of any age. It’s refreshing to see a film that treats older women with respect and not as stereotypical "cougars" on the prowl or the butt of jokes.

 

It’s well written, perfectly cast, warm and honest, funny and sad, a  genuine slice of real  life. The movie begins with a subtle touch.. an older woman of 71 and her beloved dog,  and ends with a heart rendering touch… the same woman and her new dog. What happens in between will make you really  feel with and for the characters, especially the lead character, Carol, a widow  played expertly by Blyth Danner ( mother of Gwyneth Paltrow ) in her best performance ever. Danner is such a lovely woman who just happens to be 72 years old . She has an aura, a glow about her such that you can’t take your eyes off her when she’s on the screen. The story is nicely uncomplicated. Carol is a widow of 20 years who lives alone in a nice home with a nice pool with her beloved dog. But she leads a ritualistic do-the-same-thing day after day life. It’s not unpleasant but it is changeless. Fortunately she has some darling girlfriends who live nearby in a retirement home. They meet for lunch, play cards and golf and, of course, gossip.  Then one day out of the clear blue sky things change. Two men come into her Carol’s life…a 20 something intriguing pool boy and a 70ish suave, handsome bachelor retiree. The rest, as they say, is for you to see and enjoy and relish.

 

I give special praise to the casting in this move starting of course with the incomparable Blyth Danner along with June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place as the girl friends and Sam Elliott and Martin Starr as the older retiree and pool boy.

 

If you’re looking for something special to see, “I’ll See You In My Dreams” is a dream come true. Shot on a shoe string budget in 18 days, this delightful, touching, poignant and very funny independent film is packed with more genuine emotion than you’ll likely see any time soon.

 

You don’t have to be in the AARP crowd to enjoy this movie, but if you are you can and will more easily identify with the characters and feel what they feel and laugh and cry with them as only someone with some age and the wear and tear that goes with it  can truly appreciate.

 

Since this is a small independent movie without any publicity, it will be hard to find. In Raleigh, it’s at the Colony and in Durham it’s at the Carolina. BUT, in any event, please put it on your ‘“must see” list and at least catch it when it’s on DVD or Netflix or some other streaming/TV channel. If you do, you’ll thank me.

 

Clark

SAN ANDREAS  2.5 *** ( 3.2***for a CGI disaster movie)       

      “San Andreas” has all you need for a disaster film: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson‘s arms/biceps, Alexandra Daddario‘s cleavage, and copious CGI.. Without a shark in sight, San Andreas banks on those  three elements. It meets with some success which is largely due to the massive CGI effects and somewhat to the charisma (and biceps) of the leading man, and lastly to the cleavage factor .

Seismologist Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) has created a computer model that can predict earthquakes; he fears that the San Andreas fault is about to be set off, and is instantly proven correct with the first major shock/earthquake in Nevada at the Hoover Dam. Then the quakes spread to Los Angeles where it will follow the San Andreas fault all the way to San Francisco.

Sure, this has spectacular CGI special effects, but a great disaster movie needs some credible people to make us care. San Andreas, with mass destruction  and millions who must be dying,  focuses on one family who, despite incredibly dire circumstances, seem to have no problem staying alive. That’s because  Johnson, a/k/a The Rock is as solid as one, playing an LAFD  Rescue Helicopter Pilot with talents Superman might envy. There’s nothing he can’t do, and along the way he rescues his ex-wife in a ridiculous sequence set on what remains of the rooftop of an L.A. skyscraper. . From there the  pairliterally take to land, air and sea  to rescue their  daughter  played by Alexandra Daddario who is stuck in San Francisco with a couple of too-good-to-be-true British blokes she has just met.  Every now and then Giamatti turns up with his dire warnings saying “there’s more to come” which was  a cue for me to look at my watch to figure out how much more in this nearly two-hour epic.

 People go to see this film are there to watch the  special effects used to recreate realistic disasters. "San Andreas" spared nothing in its span and scale of disaster. You may  have seen the Golden Gate Bridge destroyed in other films, but I bet you've never seen it destroyed this way before. Watching this in 3D  is worth the extra ticket price because it really brings you more into the midst of the massive earthquake and other features. And at IMAX  where I saw it in 3D,with its  super sound system, you can almost feel  the quakes, the explosions and even the motors of the cars, planes, copters and boats we see on screen. . It is breathtaking like a relentless roller- coaster ride.

There are problems with the movie with the main real fault  being not in the earthquake, but in the script which is in the 9.5 magnitude range.  BUT hey, it is what it is… a disaster movie. That was what was advertised and that’s what you get. …ongoing massive disaster and destruction….with that you don’t need a believable story.

Rated PG-13 for intense disaster action and mayhem throughout, and brief strong language |