June 19, 2013 · 12:41 pm

Review: World War Z

World_War_Z_Poster“World War Z” is formulaic and predictable, but the thrill of watching Brad Pitt survive the impossible and do his part to save the world makes it a satisfying offering for the summer season.

It’s a typical day for the Lane family – until they drive their car straight into a hoard of ravenous zombies. Even with the bitten turning in seconds all around him, Gerry (Brad Pitt) manages to get his wife (Mireille Enos) and two young girls (Sterling Jerins and Abigail Hargrove) to safety with the help from an old pal from Gerry’s United Nations days, Thierry Umutoni (Fana Mokoena). The catch is, Thierry wants Gerry back. Gerry ditched his UN investigator duties to spend more time with his family but now, Thierry is convinced that he’s the guy to track down patient zero and fix this whole thing.

One of my favorite parts of a disaster movie is seeing how people react and life changes as the impending doom approaches. It isn’t always necessary – like in “28 Days Later” where Jim first wakes up 28 days into outbreak – but if you’re going to dabble in pre-disaster character development at all, you might as well dig deep. The catastrophe will be all the more impactful for it. Sadly, “World War Z” misses the mark in that respect.

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June 13, 2013 · 3:20 pm

Review: The Bling Ring

The_Bling_Ring_Poster“The Bling Ring” isn’t as slick as “Spring Breakers,” but it benefits from a boost in credibility courtesy of its outrageous factual source material.

Being the new kid at school isn’t much fun for Marc (Israel Broussard) until he crosses paths with Rebecca (Katie Chang). She immediately takes him under her wing, introducing him to her friends, bringing him to parties, and giving him something he’s always craved, a true best friend, so when Rebecca suggests they sneak into Paris Hilton’s house while she’s away, Marc follows right behind. What starts out as innocent albeit very illegal fun turns into a risky habit, Marc, Rebecca, and their friends Nicki, Sam, and Chloe (Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Claire Julien) returning to Hilton’s home and “shopping” at Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, and Audrina Patridge’s places, too, ultimately accumulating over $3 million in stolen high-end goods.

Just like the Bling Ring’s obsession with celebrity culture, and the world’s for that matter, the concept of a group of kids breaking into A-listers’ homes, enjoying a grand tour, sorting through their personal property and taking what they want has a reprehensible charm to it. Trouble is, if you walk into “The Bling Ring” blind, the introductory material might not be engaging enough to carry you through to the action.

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June 12, 2013 · 9:26 pm

Meet the Real-Life Criminals Behind ‘The Bling Ring’

Katie-Chang-Israel-Broussard-The-Bling-RingIt’s interesting catching The Bling Ring in such close proximity to Spring Breakers. There are loads of similarities in terms of tone, style and material, but there’s also one glaring difference – one’s the real deal and the other very much is not. It’s easy to point a finger at Spring Breakers and, enjoy the film or not, judge it for portraying youths in such a down, dirty and outrageous manner, but when it comes to The Bling Ring you just can’t because it really happened.

From about October 2008 to August 2009, a group of teens from Calabasas, California amassed $3 million by sneaking into celebrities’ homes and stealing cash and pricy personal belongings. The film’s logline is practically an exact match to that summary of the actual burglaries and writer-director Sofia Coppola nails a slew of the finer details from Nancy Jo Sales’ Vanity Fair article “The Suspect Wore Louboutins,” but before the names become interchangeable when the film hits theaters on June 21 (it’s in limited release June 14), let’s draw the line between the film version of the Bling Ring members and the real thing.

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· 1:55 pm

Review: Man of Steel

Man-of-Steel-Poster“Man of Steel” is like Superman taking a punch from a human; you feel nothing.

The film kicks off just as Krypton’s unstable core is about to decimate the planet. In an effort to ensure his race carries on, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) pops his newborn baby boy into a pod and ships him off to Earth. The pod lands in Kansas, right in the Kent’s backyard, and while Jonathan and Martha (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) raise the boy as their own, they’ve also always known he’s not from here. In order to keep his origin a secret, Clark goes through school as an outcast, constantly getting picked on but unable to unleash his unearthly strength to fight back.

Now a 33-year-old man, Clark (Henry Cavill) moves from place to place, trying to keep a low profile. Trouble is, when he sees someone in trouble, he just can’t help himself. Finally Clark seizes an opportunity to learn about his real parents and home planet, but accessing that information also unleashes an unspeakable evil upon Earth, one that only he can stop.

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June 11, 2013 · 4:42 pm

Interview: The Bling Ring’s Israel Broussard

Israel-Broussard-The-Bling-Ring

Israel Broussard already has a handful of titles to his name including a role in Rob Reiner’s “Flipped,” but “The Bling Ring” marks his first foray into the world of high-profile productions and also offers up a performance that suggests he’s an up-and-comer worth keeping an eye on.

The film tells the true story of the Bling Ring, a group of teens from California who were so celeb obsessed, they decided to just waltz into Paris Hilton’s home while she was out of town. It all starts off as an innocent thrill, but ultimately turns into a $3 million crime spree involving a number of celebrities, stolen high-end clothing, and loads of cash, too. In the film, Broussard leads as Marc, a kid first returning to public school after being homeschooled for a stretch of time. Sure enough, he suffers through some new kid syndrome with his peers staring at him or just ignoring him completely, until he catches Rebecca’s (Katie Chang) attention. Soon enough, they’re inseparable and Rebecca is busy introducing Marc to all her friends and their party scene. After finally finding the ideal friendship he’s always wanted, Marc can’t bear to lose Rebecca, so when she suggests they break into celebrity homes, he’s hesitant, but just can’t say no.

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June 7, 2013 · 10:11 pm

The Best – and Worst – Movie Trailers of the Week

Runner-Runner-Justin-TimberlakeHalf the fun of trailers for sequels is getting to see the gang back together again, and while that effect is there, the first trailer for Insidious: Chapter 2 falls short of confirming that a second go-around is necessary. Hopefully the next trailer will reveal a narrative nugget that suggests it’s a worthy sequel, but for now, the Best Stuff belongs to three other contenders.

The Best Stuff

1. Runner, Runner

If you get passed the 36-second mark, the first trailer for Runner, Runner works. Initially it does feels like Justin Timberlake trying to channel his inner Jesse Eisenberg/Mark Zuckerberg, but once the video gets beyond the college campus-set moneymaking scheme, there’s more than enough momentum and pizazz to suggest the film could be a powerful thriller, albeit a little bit formulaic.

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June 6, 2013 · 5:27 pm

Interview: Violet & Daisy Writer-Director Geoffrey Fletcher

Violet_and_Daisy_PosterPrior to skyrocketing to fame courtesy of an Academy Award and “Precious,” Geoffrey Fletcher had another feature brewing, and one of an entirely different genre and tone at that.

“Violet & Daisy” stars Alexis Bledel and Saoirse Ronan as the title characters, a pair of best friends who also happen to be a team of teenage assassins. When they’re not gossiping about their favorite celebrity, they’re armed, dangerous, and meticulous about their hits. Locked and loaded, the girls frolic off to what they think will be a short and sweet gig, but it turns out that taking down Michael (James Gandolfini) is no easy task and not for the reason they’d expect.

With the film due for a June 7th limited release, Fletcher took the time to sit down and discuss the transition from this to “Precious” and back again, the challenge of making a film that mixes drama with comedy while infusing it with a fairytale-like quality too, making the decision to nix a digital format and shoot on film, and more. You can catch everything Fletcher had to say about making “Violet & Daisy” as well as an update on “Attica,” a film about the 1971 Attica Prison riot to be directed by Doug Liman, in the video interview below.

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