Into the Woods

Into the Woods is far less controversial than The Interview by a wide-margin. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's fairy tale mash-up, which originally premiered in my native San Diego in 1986, is now a feature film.

There's a nameless Baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt) who want a child but are unable to. The Witch (Meryl Streep) who cursed his family into barrenness decides to throw him a bone. She'll lift the curse if she gets some items in three days. But how will they get a white cow, a red cape, a yellow hair and a gold slipper?

They get the cow from Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and give him magic beans. The cape comes from Little Red Riding Hood (Lila Crawford). The gold slipper belongs to Cinderella (Anna Kendrick). Rapunzel's hair looks just right.

These fairy tale characters all wish for things. They want a quick "Happily Ever After" and will do anything to get it. That just brings about a big problem onto the land.

Like the earlier Sondheim rendition Sweeney Todd, this is reasonably adapted for the screen. The alterations to the play's libretto lets it seamlessly run in one continuous act (rather than two). Any unfortunate changes were done for the sake of the film story. You won't get thrown off by the story. 

The artistic design isn't as garish as the advertisements suggested. In fact, it's a fine display of fantasy costumes and environments. There's magic in the visuals even in questionable spots. One might snicker at the Big Bad Wolf's (Johnny Depp) suit when he first appears. But he's legitimately creepy and unsettling once he starts singing. You won't be laughing much longer.

Into the Woods has an amazing rendition of its Sondheim score. Each tune is a memorable piece of music. The actors who sing the parts are well chosen. The dramatic numbers do their job well. Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen's (as the dashing Princes) duet is a highlight as it's a ridiculous dramatic number. Sondheim's trademark rapid tempo and lyrics don't overwhelm the cast at all.

This isn't a fun and fancy story, though it's nowhere near as Grimm as the play or its original stories. Keep that it mind when you go Into the Woods and you'll come out good. It really is a memorable cinematic fairy tale.

Special Report

And here it is, a film that I thought I'd never see. A film I thought no one would ever see. A film that certain people didn't want anyone to see. But against all odds, it's here. I am of course talking about The Interview.

Dave Skylark (James Franco) is the star of the talk show Skylark Tonight. His good buddy and producer Aaron Rapoport (co-director Seth Rogen) has seen the show through 1,000 episodes. Aaron's upset that nobody seems to take Dave seriously as a journalist. That all changes when he finds out that no less than Kim Jong-Un (Randall Park) of North Korea is a fan of the show. Aaron personally reaches out to the supreme leader for an interview and surprisingly, Pyongyang agrees.

CIA agent Lacy (Lizzy Caplan) decides the interview is the best chance to permanently deal with Kim. She ropes Dave and Aaron for the Mission Impractical. But since Aaron and Dave are idiots and Kim's cult of personality is strong, the mission looks like it's beyond impossible. How will anyone get out of this OK?

Rogen, co-director Evan Goldberg and their writing partner Dan Sterling certainly got a lot of attention for conceiving this premise. No need for me to explain that. As I see it, the guys set out to make a frat movie set in a politically unstable region rather than the next The Great Dictator. Their end result is stupid and proud of it. That honest tone is the best part of the film.

Franco and Rogen make for a likable pair of idiots. At worst, they're clueless and not overtly offensive. They're the least qualified men for the job and they know it. They get into mishaps along the way that understandably frighten them. All they want to do is party and be serious journalists. The audience will surely want them to at least get out of North Korea alive.

Sony's train-wreck of bad luck forced them to scale back The Interview's release. You can see it in arthouse theaters, the last places you'd expect this kind of movie to be in, or online, which I did. Depending on your choice, you'll see the same silly comedy that certainly dared to exist.

Wild

The last two movies I covered were the final installments to two dissimilar trilogies. The film I'm now reviewing, Wild, is a self-contained piece.

In June 1995, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) was at the lowest point in her life. Her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern) died of lung cancer four years earlier. She sought the company of every man she met except her husband Paul (Thomas Sadoski). Now they're divorced. She decides to get over her misery by hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.

It took her three months to hike 1,100 miles. Her most trustworthy companion was her enormous backpack. A collection of kindly strangers helped her along the way. Natural and emotional challenges threatened to stop her trek. But she didn't quit. Her story became a best-selling memoir, which director Jean-Marc Vallée and screenwriter Nick Hornby now present on-screen.

Witherspoon carries the movie a lot easier than that backpack. Her sarcasm provides the film's best laughs (even the title cards get sarcastic at on point!). On a more serious note, we see her as an emotionally damaged woman. She knows she's messed up and wants to redeem herself. That's what keeps the audience invested in her long trek.

Speaking of damage, the makeup department provides many gruesome physical ailments. Its most shocking display is Cheryl's bloody foot in the first scene. Of that I'll describe no more.

Cheryl's trek took her across snowy fields, forests and the open desert. In each environment, cinematographer Yves Bélanger's presentation of the PCT is pretty. They look like nice places to visit if you can get around the wildlife. But don't go unprepared or under-prepared if this movie inspires you.

Wild is a good cinematic hike. Its lead character and involving storyline make it a film to watch out for in the coming months.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

It took them five years, but now director Shawn Levy and star Ben Stiller bring another monumental adventure to screen. According to the advertisements, this latest Night at the Museum, subtitled Secret of the Tomb, will be the last.

Larry Daley (Stiller) has the best job possible at the New York Museum of Natural History. As security guard, Larry also supervises events with "living exhibits." Larry's secret is that the exhibits are alive, animated by the mystical tablet of Ahkmenrah. And it's corroding real fast.

The only one who can fix the tablet is its creator, Pharaoh Merenkahre (Ben Kingsley). His wax likeness stands comfortably at the British Museum of Natural History. So Larry and the series' regular exhibits head off to London for a talk. It's all easy until one British exhibit decides to ruin things.

The visual effects, which were shortlisted for Oscar consideration, are awesome. The CGI makes you believe that statues and dinosaur skeletons can move and interact with real people. The miniaturization of actors Steve Coogan and Owen Wilson (as figures Octavius and Jeb) is also well-done. The highlight was a battle inside M.C. Escher's Relativity. One amusing animated character was a mini Garuda statue (which makes sense once you realize who voiced it).

Anyone unfamiliar with the franchise won't get lost. You'll know what's up in these films right away. The details this film adds to the series actually make sense. For instance, it re-introduces the first film's villains in a cameo appearance. When it's revealed that one of the villains actually discovered the tablet as a lad, his actions are understandable.

It's a decent family adventure film. Its 98 minute plot progresses quickly and easily for kids and adults. Any bits of childish humor didn't degrade the film for me. The funniest moment of the film was a performance of Camelot which went awry. It easily got sentimental when it reminded the audience that this was the end. Never was this more evident when Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams, both of whom passed on this year, were on-screen.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb ends the franchise pretty well. It may be the end, but it makes the most of it.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

What's it about?

Uh, something about Hobbits and the Dwarves who hire them. And Wizards. And creatures and five armies. And something else. I don't know.

Start again.

We finally reach the end of Bilbo Baggins's extended cinematic outing. FINALLY. Anyway, this is The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, previously subtitled There and Back Again.

The film opens with the evil dragon Smaug out to destroy a nearby town. And he's dead before the subtitle comes up. The heroic Bard the Bowman saved the day. But his villagers are homeless and the closest town is in prince Thorin's territory. He wants Thorin to honor his word about helping the people. And Thorin's like "Make me! Pfft."

So everybody comes to Thorin's place to take over. The Elves, the Orcs, humans of many dispositions, giant animals. It's all a mess. Meanwhile, Thorin tries to get a MacGuffin to certify himself king. The other, saner dwarves try to reason with him. Good luck.

There's also a Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo gets a hold of the MacGuffin and tries to reason with Thorin. That's pretty much it for him.

At 144 minutes, it's much shorter than either of its predecessors. But its main battle, which clocks in at about 45 minutes, goes on forever. It was hard to keep up with who was fighting who and why. The end result was like a food fight stretched to feature length. They don't even explain why they called it "The Battle of the Five Armies."

The visuals redeem this adventure a bit. Smaug looked great as always and he made the most of his minuscule screen-time. The giant creatures who participate in the epic battle were pretty good too. Sets, Costume and Makeup designs were also good. Nothing to complain about in this field.

As I think about it, this whole adventure should have been two films at most. The point of the first film was to find Smaug and he's quickly dispatched in this one. It really deflates his menace. We now have a film of little substance stretched over a long canvas. The best part of this installment is that it's the last one. I can breathe a sigh of relief now.

The Theory of Everything

Jethro's Note: As you may have noticed, my site is different.

An Oscar-winner for Man on Wire, director James Marsh now examines the life of scientist Stephen Hawking and his first wife, Jane. Jane's memoir, Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen. was the basis for the film called The Theory of Everything.

In 1963, Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) studies cosmology at Cambridge. Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones) is an arts student at the same college. The two meet at a party and fall for each other. Stephen's genius impresses instructor Dennis Sciorma (David Thewlis), who mentors him through his doctoral studies and beyond. Stephen's developing Motor Neurone Disease threatens to destroy his future. Nevertheless, Jane sticks with her eventual husband through thick and thin.

That pretty much describes the film.

Redmayne is wonderfully cast as Hawking. His first scenes endear him to the audience with likability and charm. His humor persists even as his mobility decreases. When he finally loses his voice and has to speak through a computer (the real Hawking), his spirit remains. It helps that his makeup job makes him the spitting image of the real man.

Jones's performance is also a highlight. She willingly defies Hawking's borrowed time by loving him. That alone earns her the audience's admiration. She earns the audience's empathy as she and Stephen mutually split.

Johann Johansson provides a magnificent and emotive score. Its pure serenity makes it the best part of the film. The set and costume design set the decades quite nicely. There are some great celestial and earthbound images from cinematographer Benoit Delhomme. The crew firmly establishes the film as a pretty movie.

The Theory of Everything is a great use of 123 minutes. Even if physics and what-not aren't your thing, the well-told love story might attract you. It's a definite crowd pleaser.

Home

Adam Rex's 2007 novel, The True Meaning of Smekday, introduced its readers to a brand new Alien holiday. This would have been the best time for its film version, Home, to come out.

But Dreamworks didn't see it that way. Home's coming got put off till March. Meanwhile, I have to review the film that was meant to come out that month, Penguins of Madagascar. And surprisingly, it was a bit better than I thought it would be.

Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and Private (Christopher Knights), the flightless co-stars of the Madagascar films, have their own film now. They open the story by ditching their co-stars for a trip to Fort Knox. But they're not there for the gold bullion. They're here for the precious Cheese Dibble snacks in the vending machines. And somehow, Dave knew they'd be there.

Dave the Octopus (John Malkovich) used to be the star of the Central Park Zoo. But the Zoo moved him out when the Penguins moved in. The same thing happened at every other Zoo Dave moved to. And now Dave wants revenge on all of penguin kind. If only Skipper could remember his name.

The Penguins are saved by the North Wind, a crew of secret agent arctic animals. The leader (Benedict Cumberbatch), a wolf whose name is Classified, wants to stop Dave his way. Skipper and the Penguins want to stop Dave their way. They'll have to find the right way to stop Dave's revenge scheme.

The movie gets its first point for casting John Malkovich as Dave. Dave's an over-the-top villain with a ridiculously petty goal and Malkovich is surely having fun here. Dave sometimes earns the audience's sympathy with his bad backstory. He gets his chance at redemption at the end, but throws it away for "more revenge." He's that evil.

The technical aspects get the next point. The animated characters and scenery look great as does the camerawork. The best use of the camera was to show the Penguins make an aerial escape. It was an amazing, almost one take display of the Penguins free-falling from planet to plane and to the desert below.

Penguins of Madagascar is a good matinee. Its quick pace should entertain the kids and adults in the audience. Its sense of humor is fine even if there were a few groaners. It even knows how to make Dave be a legitimate threat. It's a harmless adventure and I'm fine with that.