Money Monster

is one of those movies whose trailers tell the whole story.  You watch the first trailer, and you know the plot.  The question becomes not, "What will happen?", but rather, "Will the ride be fun?"

I'm happy to report that in this case the answer is, yes, it is a very fun ride indeed.

Director Jodie Foster and the team of writers have turned what could have been a preachy agenda film into a velocity exercise (with some preachy bits).  By rarely slowing, the story involves us and only occasionally forces us to consider how very silly the underlying key event is.

The key actors--George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O'Connell--are all in fine form and turn in strong performances.  The players in lesser roles are also uniformly good.

In addition to the pacing, what really makes the film are its grace notes, scenes that could have gone conventionally but that instead have a bit of an odd edge to them. The one involving O'Connell's girlfriend is the best example; I won't spoil it for you by saying more.

Nothing about this movie is realistic, and it wears its politics openly, but it's still a fun ride.  I left the theater quite happy to have seen it.

Check it out.

Tomorrowland: A tale of two tomorrows

From talking with several folks who've seen Tomorrowland, I've come to believe that whether you will like this movie depends entirely on how willing you are to give yourself over to its charms--and its manipulations.

At core, the film is basically an agitprop piece for science-based optimism.  The future we're facing now is one of utter extinction brought on by pessimism and a lack of science-based effort.  The future we could have is bright.  The plot shows us a path from the former to the latter.

A few folks called it Peter Pan, and in many ways that's not far off.  It argues that if enough of us pay attention to the lessons of science, remain optimistic, and work hard to improve humanity's behavior (or clap our hands), we (Tinkerbells all) will live, and all will be well.

That telling, though, is the cynical version of the story, one that you may well feel if director and co-writer Brad Bird's manipulations strike you as too heavy-handed and overt.

For me, Tomorrowland was vastly better than that.  Though I could see the manipulations--Bird pulls no punches with them--I still found the movie a surprising achievement, a film that is entertaining and absorbing from start to finish but that is also clearly and directly a message movie.  I loved every second of it.

I encourage you to check out Tomorrowland.  Even if you hate it, you'll enjoy the visuals and the performances of George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy, and Britt Robertson.  With luck, you'll enter with a little optimism and leave with a great deal more.  I did.

The Monuments Men

is an old-fashioned, overblown, highly theatrical, sappy film that contains way too many speeches and that over-simplifies complex issues and events in the name of making a small band of men appear to be heroes.

I loved it.

I've already covered the film's major flaws.  If you want a politically correct movie, or an historically accurate one, Monuments Men is not for you.  If you hate a film the moment it indulges in schmaltz or tries overtly to tug at your heartstrings, give this one a wide pass.  There's actually quite a lot about this film that should have bugged the hell out of me. 

It just didn't.  Maybe I was in the right mood for it.  Maybe I responded to its look and feel, which helped with the sense that this movie could have been a 1949 piece with better cameras.  I'm not sure I can explain why, but director/writer/star Clooney managed to hit the right notes for me.  I never checked my watch, I responded to every pull on my heart, and at the end I was proud of those men and what they accomplished.

I have to recommend it, even though I expect a lot of folks who heed my recommendation may come away saying, "What were you smoking when you wrote that review?"  Nothing, of course, is my answer; I just loved it.