Action - Cinema Crespodiso

Review: ‘Jason Bourne’

“Jason Bourne” brings back Jason Bourne, the American anti-Bond, the 21st century of a spy movie hero, broken by the Powers That Be and constantly seeking answers in a dark and murky world of dubious morals and ethics, fighting not against foreign enemies but instead against the system that birthed him, dissatisfied with what he has become, with a need to blame someone and his aim always shifting to different targets until he finds what he’s looking for. Which of course leads to more questions. And then more searching. Almost as if…it will just go on forever? Meaninglessly?

When “The Bourne Ultimatum” ended back in 2007, it felt like a solid wrap up for the story of regular guy turned incredible super agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), as he got most of his answers he was looking for and then escaped the system with his life, his future unknown but at least free in a way of what these shady government programs made him. And yet almost ten years later Jason Bourne is back on movie screens, this time because “there’s a new program” that he apparently needs to be made aware of, and there is also a link to his father in these spy programs, and I am pretty sure in four movies this is the first time his parents are mentioned in any way, shape or form, so of course it feels contrived and kind of hacky.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Star Trek Beyond’

“Star Trek Beyond” is the third Star Trek movie with this particular iteration of the original crew of the USS Enterprise (quite possibly one of the most famous fake vehicles ever), which started with the 2009 reboot “Star Trek,” a reimagining of these iconic characters as younger and less experiences, embarking on their first missions, tested immediately by evil space forces of various sorts, bringing them closer together as a crew, etc. etc., you know the drill. If you aren’t on board with these movies by now, this one is not likely to change your mind.

On the flip side, if you do like these movies, you’ll likely really dig this newest installment because it is simultaneously a fun movie while also having some big stakes and featuring a villain, despite being a bad guy, still makes some sense when he discusses his reasoning for his actions. There are jokes, action scenes, a bit of a plot twist, and it all looks pretty, which all comes together to make for a fine piece of summer entertainment.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Ghostbusters’

“Ghostbusters” is the story of a trio of scientists with expertise in the paranormal and how they opened a company in New York City in order to investigate a series of ghost sightings and supernatural activities. As they develop their tech and grow closer as a group, they find themselves at odds with the city and federal government who want them to stay out of public view and not cause a panic, which becomes difficult for this new team as they find themselves facing bigger and bigger threats, until finally it all comes to a head when they have to engage in a very public battle against a gigantic, building-sized foe determined to destroy the city and everyone in it.

Yup, that’s the plot for both the original 1984 movie and this new “Ghostbusters.” The details, however, all the little things that connect these big plot points are all very different. These are different characters with their own sets of problems, and the way these ghosts are summoned and the nature of these ghosts and what they do is all very different, and even the bickering between the city officials and the team takes on a different tenor, as this NYC mayor and his employees are much more media savvy. It is completely the same but also totally different and in a good way, making for an experience that is alternately classic and surprising. That doesn’t mean this movie couldn’t have been better, but it also works on its own terms in a pretty endearing way.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘The Purge: Election Year’

“The Purge: Election Year” is the capper to the trilogy no one saw coming, the third film in a series written and directed by James DeMonaco, and if you’ve been following along since the first movie, then you will be a little surprised to see the scope of this world opened up even more, and now a rather complete picture has been painted in a very visceral manner, with the thematic elements of class warfare and wealth inequality become the driving force behind an insane premise for a movie, let alone three of them.

The basic premise was barely laid out in the first movie, in which Ethan Hawke played a guy who installed security systems in the homes of people who could afford to barricade themselves up during Purge Night, the one night of the year in which all crime is legal for 12 hours, in an effort to let people “get it out of their systems” so that they would be cool to each other for the other 8,748 hours of the years. His character quickly discovered even his family wasn’t safe, as a bunch of psychopaths broke into their home and terrorized them all. The second movie drops this character and picks up with a new guy, who was going to use Purge Night to kill the guy who DUI-manslaughtered his son, but instead wound up saving people out on the streets and not going through with the murder. In this second movie, it is explained that people suspect the Purge was a tool by the government to eliminate the impoverished portions of their constituency. Continue Reading …

Review: ‘The BFG’

“The BFG” is an adaptation of a 1982 Roald Dahl book of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison, and the last time these two made a movie together was back in 1982 with “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” so the pedigree of this particular movie is most certainly of a high quality, and as such some bigger expectations are involved because how can they not be? This story of a 10-year old orphan girl and her new friend, a 24-foot giant who collects dreams at the top of a mountain and blows them into children’s bedrooms at night, is very imaginative and goes to some surprising places if you are not familiar with the story going into it, and there was definitely potential there for a new children’s classic.

But “The BFG” does not live up to those kind of ridiculous expectations. While not an “insta-classic,” which is an admittedly absurd thing to expect ahead of time no matter the people involved, it is a perfectly fine film, overall very nice and bittersweet. There is also some darkness and danger, a staple of those great 1980’s Amblin movies we all know and love, but the prevailing feeling for the movie as a whole definitely leans towards saccharine, as both the tone of the movie and the story seem designed to elicit awe and delight, two things that Mr. Spielberg loves to represent on film.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’

“Independence Day: Resurgence” is a sequel to the biggest hit of 1996, and Roland Emmerich and (most of the) crew from that original aliens versus humans blockbuster went with the good old mantra of “bigger means better,” which means everything is bigger in this movie. The ships, the aliens, the threat, all of it, which makes sense because Emmerich spent the intervening two decades destroying the planet in bigger (though not necessarily better) ways over and over, and here he takes all of those huge and ludicrous scenes and ideas that defy nature and physics and he pushes the throttle forward and adds those aliens and boom, yet another nostalgia fueled blast to the past, another return to a beloved 1990’s movie, another couple of hours with both familiar icons from another movie and some fresh young faces of today, all encompassed by more CGI than you could shake a selfie-stick at.

But was it worth it?

Nope.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Central Intelligence’

“Central Intelligence” is an action comedy that gets by on the great chemistry between leading actors and hopefully new comedy duo Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The movie itself is kind of rote, as most of the action is very generic and not presented particularly well, and the plot used to justify this comedy team up seems very much like an afterthought, as there is a bunch of nonsense about “satellite codes” and some not-so-secret secret auction and some shadowy figure called “the Black Badger” that everyone chases and it really it just feels exactly like the kind of generic spy plot used in these type of action comedies (see: “Spy” and “The Brothers Grimsby” and so on). So as the story has nothing to offer and the action is mostly “meh,” then what does “Central Intelligence” have to offer?

Well first and foremost, Dwayne Johnson is definitely working his ass off in this movie as Bob Stone, a possibly disgraced CIA Agent (super agent really) who is insanely competent in terms of being a spy and is painfully socially stunted thanks to a childhood that consisted mostly of being bullied and an adulthood that consisted mostly of lifting weights and learning how to kill people for the government. When he meets up with the only person in high school who was ever nice to him, his wide eyed enthusiasm and overly sincere accolades are both funny and a little off putting because it is obvious this guy has a screw or two loose, apparently jarred loose by a traumatic childhood that he has never gotten over. This coupled with his abilities as a spy make him a very unpredictable person, and hence, an interesting and fun character to follow. He has real emotional hang ups to get over, all the while trying to do this silly thing with the satellite codes and whatever other hooey they made up to get this plot in motion.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Warcraft’

“Warcraft,” an adaptation of the hugely popular “World of Warcraft” video game series, is a big budget high fantasy movie that doesn’t have too much separating itself from other tales of men versus monsters with some magic thrown in for good measure. You can go through the fantasy movie template and check off the appropriate boxes – a battle versus good and evil, a giant winged beast, a world destroying MacGuffin, two armies charging at each other in an open field, it is all here, done up in a serviceable enough way to be entertaining but not bringing enough to the table to be compelling. Existing in that middle ground where ambivalence resides, the movie is packed with too much in two hours to be boring, but isn’t different or interesting enough to be truly interesting, “Warcraft” is a decent if inconsequential couple of hours.

Worth noting, for some reason this title has been shortened for its release here in the U.S., because in most markets around the world this film is called “Warcraft: The Beginning” and that is much more telling of what to expect from this movie. Because this is 100% a set up for more movies, itself a movie without a real ending, instead just setting up most characters and foreshadowing their futures, to be explored in possible sequels. And in this regard, this particular film is surely successful, as they did present an open ended story which they hope people will be wanting to revisit.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows’

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” is here to proclaim very loudly and garishly that the insane phenomenon that started out life as a satirical comic series for teens and adults and has become a decades long franchise of multiple television shows, feature length movies and action figures is still here and intends to stick around for another few decades. And considering that the folks who watched the original animated TV show in the late 1980’s now have young kids of their own which they are bringing to this movie, it is conceivable that these mutated turtle teenage brothers proficient in ninjitsu will be around as long as there is money to be made in kids’ entertainment.

And surely this stuff has to be entertaining enough for the kids, and rest assured that most people who make movies and television shows for children has little respect for them and their still evolving tastes (and to be fair, children do indeed have terrible cultural taste), so they let the dumb jokes fly and stuff as much loud action and antics into a movie with a barely there plot and there is your recipe for a blockbuster aimed to 10 year olds.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’

“X-Men: Apocalypse” is the end of the second trilogy of X-Men centric movies, so if you are not onboard this particular train by now, this is not the movie to try to jump on, lest you don’t mind watching movies in which most of the character development has already been done in prior installments and references are constantly made to previously told stories. This is a culmination of serialized storytelling, and if you haven’t seen any other X-Men movie but watch this one for some reason, that is like just watching the season finale of the second season of a television show you’ve never seen. Sure lots of stuff happens, and it seems exciting, but does it mean anything without the years of build up?

The weird thing is that this movie is actually doing two things – it both ends this trilogy of movies (started with “X-Men: First Class” in 2011 and followed by “X-Men: Days of Future Past” in 2014), and also introduces new, younger versions of characters who will be the focus of the next X-Men movies. So certain characters (or at least certain actors playing these characters) are having their last hurrah while others are fresh faces and get to do just enough to set them up for whatever comes after this. And rest assured, there will be more of these, because why would 20th Century Fox ever stop making them? It is the only comic book franchise they do even close to right and which makes them any money (just look at how well they did with Fantastic Four and Daredevil). So get ready for high school Cyclops and Game of Thrones Jean Grey and twenty year old Nightcrawler and so on and so forth.Continue Reading …