The Fate of the Furious

Or, never count a franchise out prematurely...

The "last" installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise wasn't it. So there's another movie with Fast cars at Furious speeds. This installment continues those traditions along with its wildly-varying title system. This time it's The Fate of the Furious.

Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his wife, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), spend their honeymoon in Havana.The evil hacker super-villain Cipher (Charlize Theron) blackmails Dom into her services. Dom runs Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) off the road during a mission in Berlin and takes their prize: an EMP device. Hobbs gets disavowed and incarcerated, but is let out with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the last movie's big bad. They and Dom's fellow racers have to stop Cipher from starting World War III. This will surely bring them in conflict with Dom.

And that's it for plot.

F. Gary Gray is the latest man behind the director's wheel, riding alongside screenwriter Chris Morgan. They continue the franchise's long tradition of wild car chases and stunts. It's most insane when Cipher and her goons set every car in Manhattan loose on a Russian diplomat's convoy. The climactic chase against Cipher's hijacked submarine was also spectacular. But the best bit is how Dom gets away from Cipher in the end.

Perhaps catching up on the previous installments is necessary this time. Part of the plot concerns Elena (Elsa Pataky), a character who first appeared in Fast Five, but I forgot about her till now. A few characters from the fourth movie, Fast & Furious, appear in key supporting roles. But I still remembered that the MacGuffin of Fast & Furious 6 was an EMP-Device like the one here. Huh. Fortunately, other details like Shaw's history with our heroes was properly explained.

But the cast still worked wonders. Johnson and Statham are just as efficient comedians as they are action stars. Some of the film's best laughs come from their hilariously over-the-top bickering. The other established stars are still a reliable crew as always. Cipher is so vile that the audience wants her dead. There's also a delightful cameo from Helen Mirren as Shaw's mother Magdalene. 

I won't guess if The Fate of the Furious really is the last one. Remember last time? The end leaves it open for yet another sequel. And they still make money. Anyway, it's a good pre-summer blockbuster. It gives the audience elaborate action and reasons to care about it. Let's hope that a prospective ninth movie won't make the franchise crash and burn. The ride's been good so far.

The Boss Baby

Marla Frazee's book, The Boss Baby, gleefully exaggerates the working conditions of new parents under demanding infants. Now they're corporate drones under demanding tycoons. That I can believe. Dreamworks' animated expansion of this story raises a lot of perplexing questions.

Tim Templeton (Toby Maguire) narrates the story of his childhood days. Seven-year-old Timmy (Miles Bakshi) is happy with his mom (Lisa Kudrow) and dad (Jimmy Kimmel). One day, mom and dad bring home a little tyke in a business suit. The new arrival bosses around the parents and leaves Timmy in the dust. He thinks the "Boss Baby's" business suit is weird. That's until he hears the little man talk.

The Boss Baby (Alec Baldwin) is an upstart executive at Baby Corp, an organization run by babies who act like adults because of their Secret Baby Formula. Their job is to make sure babies get lots of love and attention. But the evil Puppy Co. has been cutting in their love margin. That company's CEO Francis E. Francis (Steve Buscemi) has a deviously cute puppy in the works. Mom and Dad Templeton happen to work for Puppy Co. Boss Baby and Timmy will have to act like brothers to stop this evil plan. Otherwise, Boss Baby is out of a job.

A press summary of this bizarre story flat-out calls Tim an unreliable narrator. Timmy gets a few imagine spots of daring adventures that dissolve to reality. Is the whole movie an imagine spot for Timmy's promotion to big brother? The finale doesn't clarify what all the elaborations represented. Its last shot makes it look like some of it happened. So, what?

It still raises a disturbing, satirical point about people who view puppies as "accessories." No, not taking away all the baby love margin. It's the surplus. Francis E. Francis even unveils the new puppy like Steve Jobs would unveil his new Apple product. It's not explored all the way, but the inference is still there.

The voice actors make the story bearable. Alec Baldwin's clearly having fun as Boss Baby. He's the enthusiastic corporate raider we'd love to hate if he were any older. As he shows his sympathetic side early on, he becomes the corporate raider we'd love to admire. Bakshi is also perfectly cast as the over-imaginative protagonist. Buscemi's Francis E Francis, while delightfully evil, has an understandable backstory. Conrad Vernon is also great as Francis's henchman/brother Eugene.

So what about the technical work? Well, the colors and animation are good. The imagine spots provide some wonderfully bizarre visuals. Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazarro's score is lively and Cheek to Cheek is a nice leitmotif. The sound was OK, though one line sounded dirtier than what it was because it was barely discernible. It was nothing Oscar worthy, but it worked for what it was.

The Boss Baby's weird story may certainly entertain impressionable kids. They'll think about life's little mysteries years from now; adults will think about this film's mysteries once they're done. It's an OK matinee for a flatscreen showing. Just don't think about it too much. 

Ghost in the Shell

Masamune Shirow's cyberpunk manga opus The Ghost in the Shell took off once its anime film version premiered in 1995. There were anime follow-ups in television and theaters, but this latest incarnation, Ghost in the Shell, is live-action. It's a visual accomplishment but its story could've used fine-tuning.

In the not so distant future, humanity has upgraded themselves with technology. The evil Hanka Corporation have found a way to upload human minds (Ghosts) into androids (Shells). Their first creation is Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson), sole-survivor of a terrorist attack. One year after the incident, she works for the counter-terrorism force Section 9 under Chief Aramaki (Takeshi Kitano). She can free-fall from buildings with ease, turn invisible and fight a room full of villains.

The android Kuze (Michael Pitt) sets out to kill Hanka officials. When Killian and her partner, Batou (Pilou Asbæk) investigate, she realizes her past isn't what it seems. Kuze has the answers to her hazy past. The evil Hanka head Mr. Cutter (Peter Ferdinando) decides to terminate her before she finds out.

Director Rupert Sanders works from a screenplay by Jamie Moss, William Wheeler and Ehren Kruger. It discusses profound themes such as reality and identity as much as its predecessors. How it chooses to discuss them may make or break the film. On one hand, there's a subplot about a garbageman (Daniel Henshall) who gets brainwashed into a Kuze sleeper agent. On the other hand, there's the revelation of Mira's true identity. The first bit is subtle and the garbageman is the best of the bit characters. The second is a bit extreme. These themes are sometimes blunted by the action, the overabundance of which blunts it even further.

How about the principal characters? Johansson is a compelling lead as Mira; she's believable as a cyborg struggling with her emotions. Her chemistry with Asbæk was fine. Speaking of which, Asbæk makes for a cool guy as Batou. Juliette Binoche provided warm moral support as Mira's chief scientist, Dr. Ouelet. Takeshi Kitano was great as Chief Aramaki. The other characters of Section 9 were just there and barely had much insight. Meanwhile, Pitt and Ferdinando were acceptable as the villains.

The technical areas are where the film impresses the most. The production, costume and makeup designers do a splendid job of recreating the source material's designs. The best accomplishments of the visual effects team are merging CGI-mechanical parts with real actors. How do they put on Batou's mechanical eyes? Mira's camouflage suit is another visual highlight. The giant holographic ads across the city were pretty nifty too. The worse effect was the obvious CGI "spider-fingers" on some random character. On the bright side, Jess Hall's cinematography really illuminate the city at night. Clint Mansell and Lorne Balfe's score is OK; not exactly memorable but not bad. Kenji Kawai provides the closing credits with a redo of his much more memorable opening theme of the first movie.

Ghost in the Shell is a movie with good intentions. But it struggles to balance its melancholic and choleric tendencies. It wants to have it both ways but it's struggling with its programming. Still, at 102 minutes, it wasn't really boring. If you want a great looking sci-fi movie, this will do fine. If you want a great looking, profound, sci-fi movie, you may want to wait for Blade Runner 2049.