Movies – Flight time reviews

Had the opportunity to do some trans-Atlantic flying, which is always a good time to catch up on recent movies I’ve missed.  I saw three on this trip.

Kingsman – The Secret Service (2014) – Her Majesty’s most secret service is looking to fill a vacancy in their elite force just as a new international threat arises.

Yes, a Bond tribute

Sigh.  This one disappointed me the most.  Mainly because it begins so well.  It wants to play along the seam between serious spy flicks (the Bourne movies) and spy parodies (Matt Helm).  It sticks more to the fun and laughs side, which is fine because it does it so very well.  In the end (if you’ve seen the movie you know what a terrible play on words that is) it falls into a juvenile  fascination with stylized violence and finishes in the worst possible way.  Samuel L. Jackson playing the bad guy is simply painful to watch.  The character may work on the graphic novel page but it fails miserably on the screen.  The closing scene is an utter disappointment that should have been rejected and sent back to be re-written.  A wickedly, wonderful first half gradually deteriorates into that wretched, wretched ending.

Why I Liked It – Colin Firth, as the Kingsman known as Galahad (yes, the code names are all Knights of the Round Table) is worth the price of admission all by himself.  On the surface the perfect old school English gentleman.  Refined, educated, well spoken.  You don’t want to get on his bad side however, because he will kick your butt.  Combined with Taron Eggerton as “Eggsy” the street wise young man that Galahad nominates for the Kingsman the movie is a lot of fun.

Why You’ll Like It: Some fun action, especially early on, a quirky concept that touches all the right bases, a story line that will carry you along until faltering in the final half hour.  Watch for Mark Hamill (I kept looking at the character and thinking “Why does he look familiar?”).  It’s a really fun riff on spy movies.

Rated R

Rating – *** Worth A Look

Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) – A washed up actor, whose greatest claim to fame were superhero movies early in his career, tries to re-ignite his star with a Broadway play.  He is gambling everything on recovering his family, his life, his career and perhaps his sanity.

Keaton takes us into an intensely personal venture for the lead character.  This is the last thread that is holding him together and it just might save him.  To keep his grip he will have to learn to let his ego be overshadowed by various people around him.  A stunning performance.  Almost two weeks after I watched it I still don’t know what to make of the final five minutes.  Director Alejandro González Iñárritu leaves you wondering.  Given the brilliance of the rest I’m willing to go along with the ending.  It’s sure to cause many discussions.  One of the best movies I’ve seen this year.


Why I Liked It – Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton.  Which is a good thing since he is on screen almost constantly.  Keaton climbed out on a professional limb here.  It is a role unlike any other he’s tried.  He also had to know that the instant reaction for a large portion of the audience was going to be that he was playing a riff on his own career.  For the younger generation the only thing they associate him with is Batman.  (If that’s you check out Beetlejuice, Johnny Dangerously, heck he’s even done Shakespeare in Kenneth Brannagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing”.)  In reality, his career has a couple bright spots and a bunch of middling offerings.  This one should go on the plus side.  I love when an actor takes a risk.


Why You Will Love It – Watching Keaton’s character dance along the edge of madness, fighting to save everything worth having in his life, is a powerful and engaging story.  He’s reached the point where his only recourse is honesty.  A bit of business that he has very little experience with so far.  Trying to find his way back to family and fame while fighting off the demon inside his head is just powerful stuff.


Rated R

Rating – ***** Highly Recommended

Ex Machina (2015) – A reclusive computer genius billionaire brings a young computer expert to his remote compound to test his latest creation.  It is a potential artificial intelligence in the form of an attractive young woman.  The question is – has true AI been achieved?  The unexpected question is – what will our relationship to that new intelligence be?

Ponderously paced, the movie takes itself far too seriously.  In the end it is an extended riff on the “robot as sexual plaything” trope that never adds much to what has gone before.  In the end it never really arrives at a point other than we will probably create a new intelligence that reflects our own duplicitous nature.

Why I Liked It – I didn’t really.  There are some mildly interesting visual things going on but that’s about it.  The movie takes forever to get anywhere, the two main male characters are either a creep or a zero.  While I wanted to root for Ava in the end there’s just not much there till the absolute final moments.

Why You Will Like It –  You probably won’t.  Once you get over looking at how they make Alicia Vikander (who plays the robot Ava) appear to be part flesh and part machine, you’ll get bored by the script that goes no where.  Which actually makes the ending a relief.

Rated R

Rating – ** Not Impressed