The problem is that it has too much of everything. The
cameos are prevalent to the point that every time a human face is onscreen you
may wonder where you’ve seen them before –and yet they have very little to do.
Some of the Bret McKenzie’s musical numbers are really good but there are one
too many of them. Even at 107 minutes, the movie feels too long for what it is.
This may be a problem for impatient kids, who I cynically believe are too
over-stimulated by today’s entertainment to get much out of the puppet entertainment
I loved as a child.
The endearing characteristics of The Muppets still exist.
The sense of humor and heart is there even if it’s hard to capture what Jim Henson
gave them. This movie finds inspiration from the jewel thief plot of 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper, involving adventure abroad, sinister bad guys and Muppets
behind bars. I was generally entertained by it, but I was done with it before
the final act.
Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is an impersonal,
yet fun vision of a sinister point in twentieth-century European history. Set
between World War I and II in a fictional country at a mountain resort hotel,
the story focuses on the friendship between a lobby boy and an eccentric
concierge who is the murder suspect of an elderly countess.
Ralph Fiennes plays the concierge to a whimsical perfection
and Tony Revolori plays the lobby boy with the deadpan straight-faced nature
required of most Anderson characters. They spend a good amount of the film on
the run with a police inspector (Edward Norton) and a hired killer (Willem Dafoe) on their tail. There are undertones of fascism spreading through Europe
and the looming threat of war. Anderson’s miniature effects and storybook
aesthetic help to lighten an ill-fated part of the world, but he throws in
moments of horror here and there.
Did anyone see that SNL short a few months back when they
spoofed Wes Anderson and everything predictable about his style? It was pretty
amazing. Spoofing a director’s work is like doing an impression of a celebrity.
It’s a statement about what we’ve learned to expect from them –whether we like
them or not.
Wes Anderson is to art-house cinema, what Michael Bay is to
action movies. You can interpret that statement however you like. From Anderson,
I have learned to expect all style and some substance. I’ve always found his
style to be unique and amusing. It’s his substance, more often than not, which
bores me. The guy is great at setup but weak at payoff. Every one of his films,
with exception of his best, Moonrise Kingdom, get to a point during the final
act, where I find myself yawning.
Starting with The Fantastic Mr. Fox, I’ve been pleased
with Anderson’s choice to change-up his movies a bit and I’m pretty sure that The Grand Budapest Hotel is his best-looking film. The choice to shoot in the
classic “Academy” square-shaped aspect ratio works wonderfully with the
scenery. I wish that more directors would attempt to reuse this format when the
material calls for composition of this kind.
As always, the cast is huge, but the film is thankfully
focused on its main characters. I still find Anderson’s need for quirky details
to be more distracting that entertaining. When I first saw in the film’s
trailer, that Saoirse Rohan has a birthmark on her face in the shape of Mexico,
I groaned. Maybe someone will think it’s funny. Not me. I think it’s just
stupid.
The Grand Budapest Hotel It says a lot that I loved Moonrise Kingdom. I’ve found myself ostracized from certain circles for not liking the films of Wes Anderson. I had always wanted to like them simply for how they looked and “Moonrise” was the first one to correct every problem I had with his previous works. I feel very enthusiastic about his new movie. The trailer’s colorful imagery and period setting all captured in classic “Academy” aspect ratio looks rather amazing and so does the cast, including Ralph Fiennes -who is one of my favorite actors- in the lead.
Noah Darren Aronofsky’s biblical endeavor of a film may turn out to be terrible for all I know. I just respect the classic Hollywood approach to making a Bible story into a fantasy adventure. I don’t think it’s fair that most movies based on religious scripture tend to be so banal. Bible stories, especially the ones from the Old Testament, have an epic quality that should interest anyone, whether they are religious or not.
Enemy Prisoners director, Denis Villeneuve makes a surreal thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal about a man who seeks out someone identical to himself. This looks bizarre. I’m interested.
Transcendence Wally Pfister, the cinematographer best known for his work with Christopher Nolan on “Inception” and the Batman movies, makes his directorial debut with a technophobic thriller about a scientist, played by Johnny Depp, who backs his brain up on a computer before dying and becomes the most dangerous computer virus the world has ever known. So much for all the love we got from “Her.”
Guardians of the Galaxy I don’t know the comic. I just know that this looks to be a comparatively zany addition to the Marvel Movie Universe. There’s a raccoon with a machine gun! How can you go wrong?
Godzilla This gazilionth retread of the famous Japanese property has a bit going for it. It’s director, Gareth Edwards is known for his independent monster film, “Monsters” which only cost $800,000 and looked like it cost millions. We know he’s the right guy for this kind of material. The cast looks excellent and the new imagery revealed in every trailer looks cooler and cooler. My only reservation is that it will lack the fun that “Pacific Rim” achieved so beautifully last year.
X-Men: Days of Future Past I haven’t liked an X-Men movie since the second one. With that said, I find it somewhat hopeful that the director of the first two films has taken on this project. The last film, “X-Men: First Class,” established a very good cast and I hope they’re better-utilized here. The trailer is pretty great.
A Million Ways to Die in the West Seth MacFarlane can’t write a good story but he sure has funny jokes. Just like his movie debut, “Ted,” I expect a hilarious experience, which may turn dull at the end when he adds unnecessary sincerity to his characters. I really like what he’s making here. It looks like a “Blazing Saddles”-style Western comedy, which focuses on jokes about mortality in the 1800s.
Whiplash J.K. Simmons plays a psychotic jazz teacher to a pupil played by Miles Teller. This was a Sundance favorite by first time writer/director Damien Chazzelle.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes I was surprised by 2011’s prequel/reboot “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” It featured a performance from a computer-animated chimp that outshined most of the film’s human actors. The sequel seems to take place years after a virus wiped out most of the human population and a war may be brewing between the surviving humans and Caesar’s army of intelligent apes. This time, Matt Reeves, best known for “Cloverfield,” directs.
Gone Girl Based on Gillian Lynn's2012 novel, this mystery story starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike looks like perfect material for director David Fincher, who in my opinion, has been on a flawless streak since 2007’s “Zodiac.”
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Back in 2004, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller achieved the truest adaptation of a comic book to the screen… ever. It took a long time to get the cast back together, but it looks like they’re going to get the same results.
Boyhood Richard Linklater (“Dazed and Confused”; “Before Midnight”) has been making this film, on and off, since 2002, starring Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. It’s a drama about a boy growing up. Linklater thought the most effective way to shoot such a project, would be to literally allow a kid to age in years during the filming process.
They Came Together David Wain and Michael Showalter (“Wet Hot American Summer”) reunite as the writers of this sardonic looking romantic comedy, starring Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler and a cast of dependably funny actors. Wain directs and hopefully this will be a return to form for a very funny artist who by 2012, had disappointingly resorted to the conventional studio comedy formula with the only somewhat funny “Wanderlust.”
Under the Skin Jonathan Glazer (“Sexy Beast”) makes a dark sci-fi movie. Scarlett Johansson is an alien. ‘Nuff said.
