Mini Reviews - "X-Men: Days of Future Past;" "Horns;" "Magic in the Moonlight."

One of the many benefits of traveling for my day job is the opportunity to catch up on films I missed in theaters at no additional expense to me. This past weekend's jaunt to San Francisco was no exception and I was able to see two newish movies while flying and a current release in my hotel room. 

First up, Alexandre Aja's take on Joe Hill's second novel, Horns. I read 'Horns' over a few nights while staying at my sister's a few years ago, and while I liked it a lot, I thought his first novel, 'Heart-Shaped Box' was better. (Hill, if you don't know, is the son of prolific genre novelist Stephen King, writing under his mother's maiden name). Ig Parrtish (Daniel Radcliffe) is accused of murdering his long-time love Merrin (Juno Temple). When he suddenly sprouts what appear to be demonic horns on his forehead, Ig finds those he encounters incapable of telling him anything but the worst secrets about themselves. Determined to find Merrin's true killer, Ig tears through his Pacific Northwest hometown, exposing the worst among it's residents, including his own family. Aja (High Tension; The Hills Have Eyes) displays his distinctive look in full, giving Horns a very in-your-face style. Radcliffe is impressive in the role, though some may find Harry Potter swearing and having sex a little off-putting. Supporting performances from James Remar; Kathleen Quinlan; Heather Grahame and David Morse are excellent, across the board, though Temple seemed a little flat in a role which consisted entirely of flashbacks. While some critics truly disliked Horns, I thought it a fairly faithful adaptation with some interesting FX and an hilarious comment on the secrets we all try to keep from one another. *** (Three Out of Four Stars). Horns is rated 'R' for "sexual content, some graphic nudity, disturbing violence including a sexual assault, language and drug use." 

Next was director Bryan Singer's newest entry in the franchise he created, X-Men: Days of Future Past. While I've always had issues with time-travel story lines, Singer manages to almost seamlessly combine the casts of both timelines in the series in a story revolving around a group of genetically-altered robots used to root out and destroy mutants. With a plot too convoluted to go into in a mini-review and Hugh Jackman's obviously aging Wolverine as a character who doesn't age, Days of Future Past somehow works, despite minimal appearances from the franchise's most famous members. "American Horror Story" cutie Evan Peters and "Game of  Thrones" alum Peter Dinklage join the growing number of terrific actors to appear in the franchise. Great FX and some complex performances from James McAvoy; Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence help make Days... one of the better entries in the franchise. *** 1/2 (Three and a Half Stars Out of Four). Rated 'PG-13' for "sequences of intense sci-fi violence and action, some suggestive material, nudity and language."

Finally, comes prolific director Woody Allen's latest period piece, Magic in the Moonlight. Set mostly in the south of France in 1928, Magic... is the story of a magician and psychic debunker (Colin Firth) who is pressed by a friend and fellow magician (Simon McBurney) to reveal the fakery of an American medium (Emma Stone). What follows is a rather dull and predictable story in which Firth's character is fooled by and eventually falls in love with Stone's. Allen's oft-studied themes of religion and atheism are at the core, but it's nothing we haven't seen from him before. Supporting performances from Hamish Linklater; Marcia Gay Harden and Jackie Weaver and some lovely period costumes and set-pieces make the movie a bit more palatable, but I haven't seen an Allen film I've loved in a long time. There is really nothing new or interesting about Magic in the Moonlight and I think it may finally signal the call for the once-hilariously brilliant filmmaker to retire.  ** (Two Out of Four Stars) Magic in the Moonlight is rated PG-13 for " a brief suggestive comment, and smoking throughout."

More, anon.
Prospero 

2014 - The Year in Sci-Fi Movies

Well, at least the year in Sci-Fi movies which have piqued my interest, anyway. There are plenty of tentpole movies coming up that have me pitching a cinematic tent, starting in no particular order with director Gareth Edwards (Monsters) reboot of Godzilla starring "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston; Aaron Kickass Taylor-Johnson and the not-a-twin Elizabeth Olsen. 

Disaster maven Roland Emmerich failed miserably with his over-inflated 1998 attempt to reboot the Toho Studios franchise which started the Kaiju genre. Edwards' Monsters was quite good, though it was more of a character-study set inside a Sci-Fi story. The newly released trailer looks amazing. I didn't get to see del Toro's Kaiju movie Pacific Rim. I won't be missing Godzilla:

Andy and Lana Wachowski, who gave us The Matrix and 2012's wildly underrated Cloud Atlas, are back this year with Jupiter Ascending, a seemingly Jungian tale of a seemingly ordinary young woman who discovers she is the key to the fate of the entire Universe. Mila Kunis (Ted; "Family Guy") and a pointy-eared Channing Tatum (Magic Mike) star.

Christopher Nolan's (more on him in a moment) cinematographer Wally Pfister makes his directing debut with Transcendence, about a terminally ill A.I. scientist whose consciousness is uploaded to a mainframe and sets about to destroy life as we know it. Johnny Depp (thankfully not in a Burton or Verbinski film) stars alongside Kate Mara and Nolan favs Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy.

Marvel has four major films coming out this year, further cementing their dominance in the Superhero genre. Of course, Uncle P has never been a fan of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, so I will be skipping that movie. But I have every intention of seeing X-Men: Days of Future Past; Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the weirdest of the "Avengers"-related movies. Guardians of  the Galaxy.

Then there's the sequel to the Planets of the Apes franchise, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The creator of Gollum and the most recent incarnation of King Kong, Andy Sirkus reprises his CGMC role as the sentient chimpanzee Caesar. Gary Oldman; Keri Russell; Judi Greer and Kody Smit-McPhee (Let Me In) co-star.

Then there's the "Found Footage" movie, Earth to Echo, about a group of boys who discover an alien in a very Spielbergian film from first-time feature director Dave Green:

Last, though hardly least, is Christopher Nolan's belated semi-annual birthday gift to me, Interstellar. Shrouded, as all of Nolan's movies are in secrecy, Featuring a huge cast of major stars, including Matthew McConhaughy; Anne Hathaway; Jessica Chastain; Michael Caine; John Lithgow; Ellen Burstyn and Matt Damon, Interstellar is about a space crew using a wormhole top traverse the galaxy.

As the Brits might say, I am chuffed for the upcoming movie year!  How about you?

More, anon.
Prospero

X-Men Live; Gay Actor Out

Vin Diesel in Riddick. Confused, Ain't Ya?

Trust me when I tell you all these things really do tie-in together. If you saw my earlier post on Malaprop Mom, you'll continue to  understand what a weird day it continues to be for yer ole Uncle P.  My workday was disrupted by a rather annoyingly unsuccessful doctor's appointment (Grrrr... Long story - trying again tomorrow evening) and for the first time in a long time, I had several things I wanted to talk about. 

So, first: There's a story going around Facebook about a boy in China who can see in pitch black darkness. Snopes, as of this writing, has nothing on this. A friend of mine posted it with the headline: Evolution? If it's true, it's obviously a mutation, which according to Darwin leads to evolution.  Take that, Fundie wingnuts! The story reminded me of two works of Sci-Fi/Fantasy. First, David Twohy's about-to-be-released Riddick, the third in a trilogy of films in which Vin (I want him to talk dirty to me) Diesel plays an escaped convict/savior/mercenary who has had his eyes surgically altered to see in the dark (watch both of these on Full Screen):

And this Red Band trailer for Riddick is probably NSFW for language and violence:



Damn! Now THAT's an Action/Sci-Fi movie!

Of course, the "Evolution" tag also made me think of the mutants who make up Marvel's "X-Men." Homo-Sapiens has remained pretty static for the last 195,000 or so years. It's about time we started to evolve. Of course, the very tabloidy news also brings to mind my favorite Weekly World News story:

Now continuing on my ADD adventure, "Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller officially came out in a letter to the St. Petersburg International Film Festival, to which he'd been invited to attend. Miller, whose sexuality has been the subject of much debate since his breakout role on the Fox series finally opened the glass closet in his response to the invitation saying, in part (via):

"As a gay man, I must decline. I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly."

As I have said all along, visibility is the key to acceptance. Thank you for finally feeling free enough to admit what many of us have suspected and for standing up to a homophobic regime, Mr. Miller. Your voice is a welcome addition to the cause.

Well this was a strange melange of things to talk about, wasn't it?  Je ne regret riens!

More, anon.
Prospero

The Geekiest Gay Love You'll See This Week (Possibly NSFW Edition)

XXX-Men

Really? Another blog post from a movie geek about gay comics? Please... But let this play out. You know I have my own take on things. And this post is actually more for myself a few other fanboy friends. You all know who you are, Stephen; Aaron; Tom; Murph; Chino, Bill M. If you don't get it or can't identify, don't feel bad. I still love that you check in every now and then. So let's talk about comics, shall we?

The comics I read as a kid were Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella from Warren Publications. I know you are hardly surprised by this. The great thing about Warren was, they got around the infamous Comics Code by calling their comics "magazines" and publishing them in an 8"x11" format. The children of the original Tales from the Crypt, the Warren horror comics were dark and weird and silly and often had gorgeous covers from artists like Frank Frazetta. My friends and I would by them from Bob's Bookstore at 5 Points. Bob sold new and used books and comics. He also sold illegal half-cover comics, 10 for $1.00. My personal love of superheroes comes more from TV and movies than from the comics. I didn't discover most of their comic-book personae until I'd seen some other medium's version. And while their is plenty to love about the Marvel Universe, I will always prefer DC Characters. I may have mentioned a few times how many times I was Batman for Halloween (not to mention just playing in the yard with a big bath sheet tied around my neck). And don't even talk to me about tearing up at certain points during the good Superman movies. Yes, I really loved just about every Marvel movie in the past few years (Thor being the exception), but the DC characters are more... pained, I guess. Yes, even Superman - Kal-El is an alien, after all. The LGBT community as a whole may identify more with Marvel's X-Men (and I certainly do, to some extent), but DC's tortured souls speak to me differently. Anyway...

Bill M. is also a DC guy. Bill's love of Superman is equal to mine of Batman. Bill and I met this past spring and quickly found out we love many of the same things and have been posting all kinds of Superhero nonsense on each other's Facebook timelines. Many of our friends have caught on and also post similar things to both of us. Today, sweet Stephen in Portland posted a picture of some hand-painted Christmas ornaments with the logos of several superheroes. Well and good, until my friend Aaron asked "What is Cap(tain America) doing with all those DC characters?" I looked at thepicture again. Yup. Batman; Superman; Flash, Green Lantern (all DC) and Captain America (Marvel). "I didn't make them," I replied, "but the thought of Cap and Bats is pretty hot."

Aaron then linked to the cover for a DC/Marvel crossover with Batman and Captain America joining forces. "No Rule 34" he said. So of course, Uncle P, being the dirty old bear that I am, went looking for Rule 34. And man, is there lots of it!

I'm not sure if that's Brandon or Tom (maybe Tom's head on Brandon's body?) in that composite on the left but it's definitely the work of a gay geek with some mad Photoshop skills and a dirty mind. I personally don't see this particular pairing as very probably in a gay cross-over story. Most of the fan-made gay superhero stuff online is in the form of paintings and drawings (and plenty of 'shopping), usually deliberately done in the style of an established comics artist. Here are a few I found:

Why Does Superman Look So Surprised?

Gay Emo Superboy

Who the Hell Are These Guys?

Of course this fascination with turning established characters gay is hardly new:

Highly Illogical

Oh, Mr. Frodo!

Malfoy Has a Magic Wand

Still a Better Love Story Than Twilight 

It's obvious that the fans want what the fans want. Give us some more hot gay boys, Hollywood! We've grown up since Brokeback Mountain. Of course it could all explode in our faces. Fan fiction also gave us "Fifty Shades of Gray" {violent shudder of revulsion}. I have lots more to say about this subject, but that's for another post.

I will say that 20 years ago, I wouldn't have written a piece like this (indeed, many of the pieces I've written). LGBT acceptance has grown beyond what I ever thought I'd see in my lifetime, and the comics were at the forefront of inclusion, long before many people even noticed. Both Marvel and DC have LGBT characters driving major story lines. Even the wholesome Archie Comics introduced Kevin Keller, an out and proud Military Officer, who married his African American partner Clay Walker this past January. Progress is slow, until it happens all at once. We're getting there.

Of course, there's nothing wrong in finding the humor in all it:

More, anon.
Prospero

Retro Review: 5.5 For and 5 Against "X-Men: First Class"

I really do wish I could see more movies in an actual movie theatre. But, now that I have some premium tier channels again, I'm happy to be catching up on quite a few movies I missed in theaters: The Thing (2011); Scream 4; Conan the Barbarian (2011); Horrible Bosses. The first three were just awful, though  Horrible Bosses' mashup of 9 to 5 and Strangers on a Train meet The Three Stooges was ridiculous, but funny as hell with stellar performances all around. So good, that I have to admit that I did not hate Jennifer Aniston in a movie for the first time, ever. She is actually quite hilarious in this movie, as are Kevin Spacey; Colin Farrell; Jason Sudiekis; Charlie Day; Jaime Foxx and the still-adorable Jason Bateman. A modern madcap comedy for grown-ups. Watch the trailer here.

Tonight, I finally got to see Matthew Vaughn's Superhero origin prequel X-Men: First Class. I'll tell you right now that I liked it a lot. I'm not surprised, Vaughn has made two other films I really like (one of which I adore); Kick-Ass and the perfect fantasy Stardust. It has a mostly terrific cast and it beautifully sets up a lot of what we know about the X-Men from the first three films, as well as what put the events of those films into motion. Anyway, since I was up very late last night, I promised myself not to be tonight. So here (as always with a nod to Sean) are 

5.5 For and 5 Against: X-Men: First Class

 FOR:

5. Four writers doesn't usually mean an intelligent script, but with Vaughn one of them, the alt-history plot which hinged on the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was so clever. It probably helped that Singer was one of the producers and co-wrote the story.

5.5. Cameos galore! So many awesome appearances from genre and franchise favs in dozens of cameos!

4. Rose Byrne, playing plucky CIA Agent Moira McTaggert. I love Byrne in everything I've seen her do (especially "Damages") and thought she did quite well with what she was given. And just for the straight boys, she's down to her 1962 lacy undies within seconds of her first appearance, in order to get into a private party at a Vegas casino.

3. The visuals! First Class features some of the best special effects in the franchise. The attack on Langly and the finale were nothing short of spectacular. The period costumes by Sammy Sheldon and Chris Seagers' production design are dead on.

 

2. Kevin Bacon as an ageless, mad-scientist energy mutant was half Bond villain and all perverse and disturbing as hell. Everybody loves Bacon. (Mmmmm... Unexplained bacon...). Bacon rocks the evil in this movie!

1. One simply cannot take one's eyes away from Michael Fassbender - he is literally fascinating to watch and he once again owns an entire film. If for no other reason, see it for his performance. No one portrays pain and anguish quite like Fassbender. The man's wheels always appear to be turning and his face and body language always say why he's saying what he's actually saying.

AGAINST:

5. Nicolas Hoult's weird-ass baby alien face. Is he almost-not-quite-cute-triangular-headed, or is just me? I guess he makes a cute-ish zombie in the upcoming Warm Bodies. He just just looks odd here, though I guess he's supposed to, in order to like his transformation into Beast. I found him much more attractive blue and hairy, but maybe that's just a bear thing... (Did someone just say TMI?)

4. James McAvoy came very close, but just missed it for me. I wish I knew why. It just wasn't all there, if that makes any sense. He wasn't bad, but I guess he just wouldn't have been my first choice (and please don't ask who is - I don't know).

3. January Jones. Yawn. The whole thing. The character; her abilities; the performance - all terrible, terrible, terrible. Yawn.

2. Shaw's (Bacon) lame motive for starting WWIII. Who the hell wants to be the Emperor of a destroyed planet?

1. As with McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence would not have been my first choice for a young Mystique. A lovely young woman, Lawrence doesn't wear the 'real' Mystique costume nearly as well as Rebecca Romijn and it was actually distracting. Maybe it's the hair? Ugh. She just didn't work for me, here. Again, don't ask why who I would have cast instead. 

Most certainly better than Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but almost as good as X2, X-Men: First Class is certainly worth seeing, if you haven't already. I know that I'll really try to see the as-of-this-writing unofficially titled sequel in a theater, especially knowing that Vaughn is once again directing. ***1/2 (Three and a Half Out of Four Stars).

BTW - did you catch the X-Men reference in the Horrible Bosses trailer?

More, anon.

Prospero

X-Rated

I must admit that I love openly gay director Bryan Singer's first two 'X-Men' films, especially X2. They're smart, funny and very exciting  - not to mention they feature some of the hottest actors working in film today; namely Hugh Jackman, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry and Rebecca Romijn. And while I am hardly a fan of Brett Ratner's 3rd installment in the series, I am very much looking forward to X-Men: First Class, the prequel directed by Matthew Vaughn. 

Vaughn has helmed two of my favorite films of the past decade, Stardust and Kick-Ass, so I am particularly interested in where he will take the Marvel franchise. The story is by Singer and the cast includes a Who's Who of hot young actors, including James McAvoy; Michael Fassbender; Rose Byrne (LOVE her); Jennifer Lawrence; January Jones and the always amazing Kevin Bacon in an origins story about how Charles Xavier started his "School for Gifted Youngsters" and how he and his team helped avert the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Here's the latest trailer (via):

I've always been a sucker for good Superhero movies and hopefully, X-Men: First Class will live up to Vaughn's previous work. Though from the trailer, it looks like he already has. Let the Summer of the Superhero begin! X-Men: First Class is currently scheduled for release on June 3rd.

More, anon.

Prospero