“Captive State” Movie Review

    Every now and then, a film comes out with such little promotion that it totally slips past my radar.  I don’t have the time I once did to keep track of every new movie coming out (although I do my best) so from time to time, I stumble on something on home video that wasn’t even aware was released.  “Captive State” just happened to be a film I discovered at the video rental store so I decided to give it a go because I love science fiction films.

    The film tells the story of Gabriel who is living in an alien occupied Chicago.  In the year 2027, the world submitted to alien rule but a small resistance group grew.  The leader of the resistance happens to be Rafe, Gabriel’s brother.  The brothers orchestra attacks on the aliens while being pursued by their father’s ex-partner William Mulligan.  Mulligan is a police officer working for the aliens and is working to bring down the resistance.  Nothing is as it appears however.

    So I admit I did watch the trailer for this at the rental store before picking this up and I thought the film looked like it had a lot of promise and I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t marketed better.  Then I saw the movie and I realized why the studio probably just dumped it out.  Needless to say at this point, I did not enjoy this movie.  It’s sort of a shame because the film had an interesting story, it just wasn’t executed well.

    I think Rupert Wyatt is a talented filmmaker given the right material, just look at “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.  Wyatt showcases some interesting visuals in the film but can not seem to hold the film together.  The film should have taken a clue from “District 9”, a small budget masterpiece which focused on a single main character.  Instead, the characters in “Captive State” weren’t developed enough so the audience didn’t feel invested in them.

    The film’s main flaw is that it tried to be a thought provoking science fiction film in the vain of “Inception” or “2001: A Space Odyssey” but the plot wasn’t developed enough in my opinion and the characters motives were confusing at times.  The slow pace and poor alien design did the film no favors either.  Maybe I am being overly hard on the film but it just didn’t connect with me.  The acting in the film was fairly strong thanks largely to a standout performance from John Goodman.

    “Captive State” was a box office bomb and it’s easy to see why this film was brushed under the rug by Universal.  I had high hopes for the film and it did have promise, unfortunately the film failed to live up to it’s potential.

Grade: D-

“Speed Racer” Movie Review

    A live action "Speed Racer" had been in development for over a decade by the time the Wachowski siblings brought the Mach 5 to life in 2008.  The film was considered a failure at the box office and failed to make it's budget back domestically.  The film was also met with widespread negative reviews from critics.  Did the film deserve the dump the public and critics took on it?

    "Speed Racer" is about a young man (whose name is Speed Racer) who decides to follow in his brother's footsteps as a professional racer after his death.  Racer ends up racing in a cross country race to take down a powerful and corrupt executive.  Needless to say, things do not go smoothly.

    As started in the introduction, a "Speed Racer" film had been in development for over a decade before this film saw the light of day.  The film is an adaptation of the late 60s Japanese hit “Mach GoGoGo” and the anime it had inspired.  An adaptation of “Speed Racer” almost happened in 1995 with Johnny Depp as Speed Racer and Henry Rollins as Racer X (Rollins was ironically also considered for the part of Racer X in this version as well).  Years later, Vince Vaughn tried to get the project off the ground and was set to play Racer X but that project fell through.

    “Speed Racer” stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon, and John Goodman.  Hirsch doesn’t do a bad job in the title role but lacks charisma.  For such a silly film to work, you need an actor with charm.  Matthew Fox also doesn’t add much which is disappointing since he was excellent in “Lost”.  I am usually not the biggest fan of Christina Ricci but she brings a lot of spunk and energy to the project.  I feel like Ricci feels at home in the world of “Speed Racer”.  John Goodman and Susan Sarandon are also wonderful as Speed’s parents.  Goodman and Sarandon are definitely highlights of the film.

    If the title isn’t an indication, the film and it’s premise are incredibly silly.  It isn’t meant to be taken seriously.  It’s high concept and relies heavily on visual story telling.

    For a movie requiring such over the top visuals, the visual style of the Wachowski siblings was just what the movie needed.  They have proven their flair at innovative filmmaking with “The Matrix” and those talents come in handy here.

    The movie wasn’t a masterpiece nor did it have a compelling story to tell.  At the end of the day, it was made to be a big silly popcorn film and in that sense, I think it did it’s job.  That’s just my two cents though.

Grade: B-

“10 Cloverfield Lane” Movie Review

    Once upon a time, there was a movie being developed entitled “The Cellar”.  The movie started life as a popular spec script before being developed at Paramount Pictures.  Somewhere along in the production of the film, the decision was made to link the film to their popular “Cloverfield” franchise since both movies shared some similarities.  Thus “10 Cloverfield Lane” was born.
    So “10 Cloverfield Lane” became somewhat of a curiosity to me.  Very few movies label themselves as “spiritual sequels”.  The film was directed by Dan Trachtenberg who opted to abandon Matt Reeves’ jarring found footage style and shot his film a more traditional way.  The film is not directly tied to “Cloverfield” so you don’t have to watch the first film to understand what is going on in this film.
    Besides the way the movie was shot, another interesting choice was to shift the focus to another genre.  While it’s predecessor was a horror movie, this film is more of a suspense thriller.  I think it served the film overall well.
    The film tells a simple story, after Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) gets into a car accident, she wakes up in an underground bunker with two men who inform her that the Earth is now uninhabitable.  Naturally, she has her doubts.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead does an incredible job dealing with her impossible situation in the film.  The two men she shares a bunker with are Emmett and Howard.  Emmett is played by John Gallagher Jr who had a nice vibe with Winstead.  Lastly, in the most impressive performance in the film, John Goodman plays the ambiguous Howard.  We as an audience don’t know if we can trust him or not and the whole movie hinges on Goodman selling this ambiguity.  John Goodman more than delivers and should have received more recognition for his work.
    The film then comes to an alarming end as we find out if Howard was telling the truth or not.  I won’t ruin the ending for anyone, but it is a divisive way to end a thriller.  I personally enjoyed it but a lot of people were left disappointed with the twist.  So while “10 Cloverfield Lane” may not be as original as “Cloverfield”, it’s also a nice change of pace as well.

Grade: B