Film Review: METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER ★★½☆☆☆

Thrash metal pioneers Metallica don't do anything small. So it's only fitting that their big screen concert film, Metallica Through The Never, goes big, as in IMAX 3D big. The band takes the stage, plays, plays, and without question rocks the beejesus out of the arena. The film is firmly targeted to the loyal fans who need no band introductions, on-stage banter between the boys, or song title announcements. If you have not put in your time on the Metallica tour bus over the years however, Through The Never may bleed into one extended distorted heavy metal guitar riff

Metallica Through The Never, an immersive IMAX 3D extravaganza, combines stunning concert performance footage with a dystopian narrative story line that adds more confusion than satisfaction to the overall experience. The closest I have seen the band live was in 1992 (during my high school years) in the floor section at Giants Stadium during their double headlining tour with Guns N' Roses. There is something to be said about the electricity of a live stadium experience, even standing on your tippy toes beyond the 50 yard line from the main stage. All these years later Metallica still knows how to rock out a concert. The performance parts of Through The Never go beyond putting you in the best seats in the house, but I also found the monstrous and intimidating IMAX sound mix to be equally impressive. It doesn't hurt that the band has retained their well honed Rock God chops decades into their career, and deliver a satisfying nearly ninety minutes of heavy metal glory.

Where the feature stumbles is its all too narrow trajectory straight to their loyal core fan base. Quite simply, Metallica takes right to their impressive in-the-round stage and plays. Play they do, but a straightforward performance is pretty much what you get. Do not expect any stage filler from frontman/vocalist/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield or anything particularly playful from drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. No introductions, no song title announcements, or acknowledgements the cameras, which are to an extent sorely missed with this being a concert movie. Beyond a few shout outs and select interactions with the crowd, the boys are out to rock, not win you over with personality or get to know them moments. It's obviously the band and award-winning director Nimrod Antal's conscious decision to present the show this way, sans showy shtick, which robs it of basic old school  rock show fun.

To be fair, the band revealed more than enough of themselves during their last big screen outing, 2004's Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. I still consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to interview the band at the press junket for their fascinating in-depth feature documentary (to be the only Metallica fan in the office at the time had its perks). Monster allowed the audience to really get into their inner demons and dirty laundry while they auditioned and subsequently hired bassist Robert Trujillo, and recorded their album St. Anger. It would appear that they felt absolutely no need to open up any further and let the music do the talking this time around. You get no more from them than strict by-the-book Rock God stage etiquette here.

The supernatural narrative elements with Dane DeHaan are a strange inclusion that make less sense as they go along. DeHann plays a young roadie sent on a mission and must persevere through a nightmarish series of encounters and apocalypse worthy riots all the while the band plays on in the local arena. The footage doesn't play off as a straight side story or add enough to make the movie feel like an old school concept music video. Parts where the concert elements synced to and enhanced the narrative were too far and in between. I got excited as the beginnings of a riot scene (with police batons hitting riot shields) that were in time to the opening drums of Wherever I May Roam, but then not only was the song cut off, but the music as a whole was rarely an integral part of the story. I felt it was a big overall missed opportunity within the film.

The 3D aspects were strongest when there were grand stage theatrics to work off of (laser bullets during One, roadies assembling a Lady Justice statue during ...And Justice For All, and the given spectacle of Tesla coils and the go-to concert crowd pleaser that is on-stage pyrotechnics). Trust me, somewhere Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are now off planning their inevitable ultimate KISS IMAX 3D Experience. The pyro is effective, as is the elaborate stage whose floor is comprised of LED screens. The over the top theatrics do make for a better 3D experience given how little the band plays it up for an in-your-face experience to the numerous weighty Steadi-Cams that share the stage with them.

The big numbers were just that: BIG. Show staples like One, Enter Sandman, For Whom The Bell Tolls and Master of Puppets are worth the price of admission alone and during those songs I really wished a press screening was a place I could have yelled, head banged, air drumed along, or whoot whistled and applauded at the conclusion of a song. In retrospect I may have been better off a few rows down and in the mix with the audience members decked out in their well worn concert tees.

I definitely enjoyed Metallica Through The Never as an old school Metallica fan, and was blown away by how great the band looked and sounded in the IMAX 3D format. But I was also a bit taken aback by its approach (or lack thereof) to be an accessible film to anyone outside of the fan base, and some missed opportunities to really shine beyond the actual (albeit incredible) stage performance by dabbling with the use of unnecessary narrative elements. Through The Never is not out to strictly please their MTV-era fans by sticking to Black Album staples, but rather celebrate their hard rocking history with a welcome gift to the headbangers who have been at their side for the long run.

Metallica Through The Never opens on select IMAX 3D screens on September 27th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★½☆☆☆
METALLICA FAN RATING:  ★★★½☆☆
Director: Nimrod Antal
Starring: James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, Dane DeHaan
Screenwriters: Nimrod Antal, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo.
Studio: Picturehouse Entertainment
Rated: R
Running Time: 93 minutes

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Film Review: PRISONERS ★★★½☆☆

Prisoners is that rare nail biter thriller that wastes no time in firmly grabbing you by the throat and doesn't let go until its done with you nearly two and half hours later.

With a unforgiving plot that is sure to wreck havoc with any and every parent in its movie goer audience, when two six-year olds are kidnapped, to what lengths would you go to find them when the police's efforts do not turn up enough evidence to charge a likely prime suspect?

Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard star as the fathers of the pair of abducted girls, and are taken on a gripping emotional roller coaster ride over the course of the nine days in which the film is set. Jake Gyllenhaal as the dedicated but too straightforward cop on the case adds a lot to the complicated emotional fire that will leave you drained.

Jackman is extraordinary as the antagonized and distressed Keller Dover. He embodies a complex man put through the wringer and the horrendous toll resorting to the desperate measures will have on someone. He plays a full range of emotions from frantic panic to pained utter rage, to be-all end-all desperation. 

When he's not Wolverine, Jackman has enjoyed a varied career with his choice in roles. I've always felt his performance in the little seen meta sci-fi downer The Fountain was vastly underrated. That film may not have been everyone's cup of tea, Les Mis wasn't mine either, but it showcased the incredible acting chops Jackman keeps in his holster. In Prisoners he easily exceeds the whirlwind of gut wrenching emotions displayed in The Fountain. With his heavy sullen eyes, you feel like you are right there clinging to the anything and everything he needs to do in his obsessive mission to find his child.

Paul Dano easily slips into his role of Alex Jones, a mentally and emotionally challenged local who finds himself the first and easiest suspect in the abduction. No stranger to off kilter performance, Dano (There Will Be Blood, Looper) balances the creepy and the sympathetic all the while the plot thickens and morals are clearly left behind in the search for truth.

As the window to the audience's eyes, Gyllenhaal's Detective Loki, an oddball tattooed local lawman, shows little emotion towards the grieving parents' plights. While far from skimping on his detective duties, his cold public demeanor does little to ease the growing anxieties of anyone he comes in contact with during the twists and turns of the investigation.

While Jackman represents the part of you that reacts and does whatever is necessary, Maria Bello as Grace Dover puts in a great turn as the emotionally shattered mother left increasingly numbed every day her daughter is remains missing.

You could say the film greatly echoes the emotions wrought from 1996's Ransom starring Mel Gibson, but Prisoners is far darker than that film ever dared to go. In addition to the emotional performances, director of photography Roger Deakins plays a huge role in maintaining the film's relentless cloud of gloom. Deakins' consistent excellent work always speaks for itself and in this case is almost its own character in the film. The underlying mood set by the overcast days, rainy nights and dark unexplored locations give that much more weigh to the constant state of uneasiness.

Director Denis Villeneuve brings a lot to the table here. In addition to letting scenes to adequately and effectively breathe and his cast to deliver lines without cutting away to reverse reaction shots, he also makes great use of your fears of what is not revealed on screen. At moments where you are ready to look away, you are then not given a reason to. What you don't see is far more dreadful when left to your own imagination. I have no doubt what was in my head at crucial points was worse than any visual reveal that could have been made. At the other side of Ransom, Prisoners has a lot more in common with the sinister themes of a Seven-era David Fincher film, but rather plays its hand without the literal gruesome reveals and relies more on scant sound design and raw human reactive emotion.

Prisoners will keep you firmly on the edge of your seat from the start and leave you emotionally drained by its finish. The entire cast makes this thriller work, but it's Jackman's show giving a standout emotionally gripping performance that will be hard to ignore during awards season. It's a unforgettable pulse pounding ride to the end, even at two and half hours. I can't say I can comfortably recommend this to parents of young children given its effective execution of a Godawful nightmare scenario, but is without question the most riveting film I've seen all year.

Prisoners opens in theaters on September 20th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★½☆☆
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard, Paul Dano, Viola Davis
Screenwriter: Aaron Guzikowski
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 153 minutes

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Film Review: THE WIZARD OF OZ - AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE ★★★★☆

For me, and like most fans, The Wizard of Oz is has been a movie that lived on through televised broadcasts and the numerous home video versions that have graced my collection shelves over the years. So the opportunity to experience it on the big screen is without question a big rare treat.

As one of the most iconic films of all time, Oz has been given the royal treatment to celebrate its milestone 75th anniversary. You can't help but be skeptical when you think about blowing up a classic film to IMAX proportions in addition to converting it to 3D. But the meticulous work put into the task boasts glorious results that truly makes following the Yellow Brick Road well worth the journey. This despite the countless times you may have seen Judy Garland's adventure as Dorothy Gale over the years.

Few find themselves strangers to the 1939 adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel that chronicles the adventure of the Kansas girl and her little dog who are transported over the rainbow to the magical Land of Oz. With the help of some new found friends, she follows the Yellow Brick Road to seek the help of a legendary wizard in order to get home. All the while breaking into song and eluding a green skinned wicked witch who has flying monkeys as minions. The story needs no scholarly film review here, a classic is a classic, so let's dig into the tech specifics of this anniversary edition.

The folks at Warner Bros. have put the 75-year old negative through several stages of restoration over the years for video releases, with each successive pass benefiting greatly from improved digital technology to remove dirt, scratches and enhance long dormant details. To take a print three quarters of a century in age and see it converted for a theatrical IMAX 3D run is a true test of the tireless work put into this latest restoration. Granted we have big TVs nowadays that are HD, but for me growing up I saw the film only through televised broadcasts or VHS copies on a 4:3 25" Magnavox TV set. The grandeur of the movie going experience all these years later, I'm happy to report, was an eye opening revelation.

The picture is simply stunning. Try and find a scratch or a speck of dirt on the "print" that was scanned frame by fame at an 8K resolution. The colors are vibrant and well within the color pallet you'd expect from the time and the Technicolor film process. You can imagine the color correction artists would have eagerly jumped at the opportunity to crank the knobs all the way to the right and over saturate the film. Thankfully there is a pleasant restraint to their efforts. Oz looks as colorful as you remember it, and still retains its vintage aesthetic. The greens particularly pop on Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West's face as do the jewels that line Emerald City. The skin tones look fantastic, Dorthy's Ruby Slippers shimmer in its iconic red and the warm earth-tone hues of the Kansas scenes look great.

What the big screen particularly allows is a better appreciation of details lost on TV sets, notably the burlap layers in Ray Bolger's Scarecrow make-up and the constant wagging of the Cowardly Lion's tail. As a dog owner, I paid particular attention this time out to Terry, the canine who played Toto. On the IMAX screen you can appreciate how consistently on-point the dog was in wide shots, constantly following the cast, reacting at all the right times, and for God's sake maintaining correct eye-lines. It's these little things that come up big.

The 3D conversion here is also a welcome victory. Granted there is only so much layering you can do with a film negative that old, but the 3D was always present and never distracting. It fell in with the path the best new movies have taken with the technology, allowing it add only subtle layers to the overall experience and not have anything and everything shoot out at you. The second issue I typically have with 3D is the darker projection and too often resulting muddy picture. Oz passed the 3D test well. Was it necessary? Absolutely not given only the overall slight enhancement to the presentation, but it is by no means a reason to skip it. There were a few soft close-up shots, but I think its bound to happen with any IMAX conversion, and Oz has a lot of inherent accepted leeway on its side on the tech side of this.

I have been enjoying the trend of pre-Blu-ray theatrical runs in IMAX and / or 3D for the most part, some more than others. The return of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park on the big screen were victories, whereas Top Gun fell flat and short on all levels except for its rocking '80s re-mastered soundtrack. If certain modern movies do not hold up well in IMAX, its a testament to the artists and filmmakers involved here to have pulled off such a cinematic feat with Oz.

The main thing is I felt like a kid again sharing a big screen journey with old childhood friends. Lavish CGI-heavy prequels can't take away from the original's charm and rightful place in movie history (that means you Oz the Great and Powerful). There is no way around it, The Wizard of Oz is a movie that's impossible leave not in a good mood. This welcome 75th Anniversary edition of the timeless classic is a fantastic cinematic experience fit for the whole family, and the trip down the Yellow Brick Road has never looked so stunning.

The Wizard of Oz - An IMAX 3D Experience opens in IMAX 3D on September 20th.

The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary Collector's Edition hits shelves in Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD and UltraViolet verisons on October 1st.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★★☆
Director: Victor Fleming
Starring: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Frank Morgan, Margaret Hamilton, Terry
Screenwriters: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf
Rated: PG
Studio: Warner Bros.
Running Time: 111 minutes

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Film Review - RIDDICK ★★☆☆☆

Riddick finds Vin Diesel reprising his role as the galaxy's favorite bad ass Furyan in round three of the series. The latest film falls far more in line with the trilogy's first installment, the sleeper sci-fi hit Pitch Black, than the bloated and extremely over ambitious follow-up The Chronicles of Riddick, and strips the character down into a back to the basics slow burn action thriller that will appeal mainly to series' in-house fans.

When we last saw Riddick, he had violently assumed the throne of the Necromongers, an evil race of inter dimensional soul predators. It's a complicated scenario from Chronicles and actually has little to do with the latest chapter, so lets move on. We open with our title character buried alive, wounded and stranded on a desolate desert planet teeming with threats from vicious creatures. Even for Riddick, that’s a really bad day.

In the first half hour we learn he's has been betrayed by the Necromongers, taken off world and left for dead. It’s a sci-fi version of Castaway, with very little dialogue from Diesel as he fights to survive in the savage conditions, tends to his wounds, battles terrifying creatures in the wastelands and even manages to find a companion for himself in the form of an alien canine (we know what to ultimately expect when we get attached to a dog in this sort of film).

Act two introduces two mercenary groups landing on the planet who are hell bent on cashing in on the rich bounty for delivering Riddick's head in a box. A ragtag team led by Santana (Jordi Malla) gets settled first and boasts some necessary brawn from Diaz, played Dave Batista. The WWE star is playing Drax the Destroyer in Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, and his supporting turn here should give fans a lot to look forward to. The second more organized merc unit led by Boss Johns (Matt Nable) has BSG fan favorite Katee Sackhoff in tow as Dahl, a no-nonsense eagle eyed sharp shooter. Both groups do their damnedest to track down Riddick and his four legged best friend. In curious move, we find Riddick noticeably absent for a good portion of the film.

Despite his best survival efforts and taking out a few of a pursuant or three, Riddick’s game of cat and mouse goes only so far, and that’s when the film gets its groove on. The third act heavily echoes the formula that made Pitch Black a winner, and easily that is when the film is the most effective. There is a heavy plot throwback to the first film (to bring it all full circle as they say), but I feel the more Riddick keeps to itself as a standalone installment, the better off it is. Plot points from Black just add to the off kilter nature that is prevalent throughout the film. 

The last half hour is when the film delivers all the bad assness that you expect from the character, but it's mostly nothing we haven’t seen before. Riddick the anti-hero is ultimately brutally tested and fights to survive in the darkness, up against seeming impossible odds (how’s about thousands of carnal aliens out to shred you to death with their claws and teeth?) in a solid sci-fi final act.

I was not as taken aback by the Chronicles of Riddick as many other were, by its exponential budget and high concept ascension from Pitch Black. Honestly I found the expansion of the storyline’s scope fascinating, and applauded the necessary balls to take it from A to B. But it was certainly was a complete 360 from the gritty spookiness of the original and managed to leave Riddick lording over an entire race of ancient warrior vampires. Riddick places the Furian back at square one, where only his brutal survival skills can see him through a "bad day," but acknowledges his fall from grace with the Necromongers via a flashback with Karl Urban as Vaako. To further bury the box office dud that was Chronicles, its storyline is briefly addressed and pushed aside swiftly, only to find the call back to Pitch Black intruding more on the new story in both screen time and implied plot importance.

What does it have going for it you ask? Riddick is a bad ass anti-hero to follow and overall director / screenwriter David Twohy takes Riddick a step back into the perceived right direction, despite its uneven storytelling and absence of its star for a healthy portion of the film. Also as a fan of a tight 90 over a crawling 120 minutes, the film could due with excising some of the running time fat. Fans will enjoy Katee Sackhoff on the bog screen, proving her years on the Galactica as Kara Thrace have served her well playing tough a warrior. 

Had Chronicles clicked with audiences, the series would have easily moved forward with the epic Dune-esque scale direction and that would have been that. But that was not the case. Riddick does impress visually given its scaled back budget and makes the most of the extensive CGI backdrops. But Riddick is for Riddick fans, it isn't going to break in a massive new fan following. Although the series is back on track, unfortunately an uber expensive and imaginative middle chapter has been discarded never to be heard from again.

There are more stories to tell, and fans will welcome them. I would be very surprised if the series could not thrive onwards for years on this smaller scale, but hopefully without such an uneven experience in pacing, plot and tone.

Riddick opens in theaters and IMAX on September 6th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★☆☆☆
Director: David Twohy
Starring: Vid Diesel, Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Dave Batista, Jordi Malla, Matt Nable
Screenwriter: David Twohy
Studio: Universal Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 119 minutes

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Film Review - THE WORLD'S END ★★★½☆☆

The World's End, the concluding chapter in Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's Cornetto Trilogy, is a sci-fi comedy is like no other you will see this year and a rip roaring fitting finale to the irreverent adventures began in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Will a subtle small town alien invasion put a stop to a twenty years in the making bar crawl victory lap? I would hope not.

Twelve pubs. One night. The the pub crawl to end them all. A very appropriate and effective tag seen and heard all over the film's promotions. And that aspect alone is well worth coughing up the admission price. But The World's End is many things more, making it the most complex work yet from director Wright and star Pegg, who co-penned the screenplay.

Twenty years after a failed attempt at completing the Golden Mile, a local legendary pub crawl, with his best buds during their high school years, Gary King (Simon Pegg) finds himself hell bent on getting the "Five Musketeers" back together to take one last stab at finishing the task. But unlike the 40-year old chain smoking man child King, all these years later his chums are settled off with families and successful careers, and have few aspirations of re-tracing their beer guzzling pasts.

Gary re-unites his mates Andy (Nick Frost), Oliver (Martin Freeman), Peter (Eddie Marsan) and Steven (Paddy Considine) and travel back to their hometown for one last go to guzzle the night away on the Golden Mile: one pint at each of the twelve bars culminating at the final pit stop, The World's End.

The lads find a drone-like atmosphere has engulfed the town, which has become boring, mundane and the decor in the bars are all interchangeably corporate as every any Applebee's in the franchise. What brings the group together is what separates this from a tired plot lifted from The Hangover or the like. Like Shaun of the Dead, it turns a genre on its side. World's End takes an Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Attack The Block left turn: King and the gang are put up against an alien robot occupation.

The typical Simon Pegg / Nick Frost on-screen dynamic here is changed up a bit. Frost's Andy Knightly, who hasn't enjoyed a drink in 16 years, wants absolutely nothing to do with the whole grand plan, and even less to do with King (who even managed to swindle him into agreeing to participate in the evening) and his obsession to reclaim former glory. Their initial on-screen relationship is far from the usual win win buddy buddy we are accustomed to. It also allows us to see a different darker side to their comedic chops while still managing to provide us with big laughs. Pegg also offers a winning layered turn here as King, whose obsession with finishing the Golden Mile despite the absolute mayhem going on all around him has a lot more behind it than just an immature Peter Pan complex.

Martin Freeman, a cameo staple of the Cornetto group, finally gets a meaty role as the stuffy business savvy Oliver Chamberlain. His deadpan delivery works its usually magic, especially when the boys have boy-ish things to say about his sister Sam (Rosamund Pike). Eddie Marsan as the aloof Peter brings an amazing bullied underdog element to the film and rounds out the group's various identities well. Rosamund Pike as Sam Chamberlin, a quickie King fling back in the day, offers great sidesteps to the heavy boy's club feel.

Edgar Wright one again showcases his chops as a director who can switch it up big time at the drop of a hat. He can transition from long straightforward dialogue stretches one minute, to his signature quick-cut close-ups montages, to rousing kinetic action sequences right out the best action films. Everything he has under the hood is all out there it. There is an additional unique feel to the film through his frequent use of practical in-camera transitions that keep the film moving along from scene to scene. It's a clever addition in filmmaking, and adds a subtle sense of greater movement rather than going straight cut to cut or dissolving from passage to passage. The always excellent cinematography courtesy of Bill Pope is a huge asset as well.

The special FX are convincing for the scope of the film. Nothing ever goes to an over epic scale in strict relation to what the script requires, but the evil robots and their related abundance of glowing eerie eyes and blue goop innards firmly keep you in this world from every bar fight to street fight. The staging and execution of the fight sequences are nothing to scoff at either. Whether you buy the stamina and hand-to-hand abilities of these middle-aged blue collar Brits is another thing altogether, but it all makes for much action packed fun.

The initially film moves along with a slow burn. There is a conscious effort to not skimp on establishing these characters and their relationships before all hell breaks loose, and that works here. There is payoff to the meticulous set-up of the themes of unfulfilled dreams, adult problems and rekindling life long friendships before diving into the the throes of fighting for the future of mankind. You will wish any attempt at celebrating long lost bonds will not involve similar earth shattering events, but as long as you have your old chums at your side, the end is not neigh.

The World's End is solid fun with a lot of heart mixed in when you least expect it. With no shortage of cameos, sharp one-liners, and winning performances, it's a rousing must-see for the built-in fan base (I am admittedly a devoted Hot Fuzz disciple) and anyone who can enjoy good Brit wit laughs mixed in with sci-fi elements. Wright and Pegg end their trilogy with their most ambitious film yet that delivers a surprising fun feel good ride. By the end credits roll you too may feel like you have finally successfully made that glorious victory lap around the Golden Mile.

The World's End opens on August 23rd.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★½☆☆
Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike
Screenwriters: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Studio: Focus Features
Rated: R
Running Time: 109 minutes

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FIlm Review: THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES ★☆☆☆☆

I'm a not a Yong Adult novel reader, and to my dismay I have to admit I am decades beyond that target age group. Even though the genre sometimes has more than enough sci-fi, fantasy and horror elements to base plenty of material for a site like this, the formula for these works isn't really my thing. Sure I read the entire Harry Potter series (and who hasn't, young or old), the Hunger Games successfully plays older and well enough to various age groups, Percy Jackson is what it is, but my tolerance and attention span was less than scant for the YA forbidden romanticism that anchored The Twilight Saga's big screen adaptations.

Despite that this particular work is based heavily in a fantasy genre I typically enjoy, I could not have squirmed in my seat any more sitting through the flat line cookie cutter experience that was The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

Based on the first book in the bestselling series by Cassandra Clare, the film follows Clary Fray (Lily Collins), who sees the ordinary New York City life she lives with her mother (Lena Headey) turned upside down when she becomes caught between opposing sides of an ancient world of magic, fought by gothic angels, dark demons and various evil creatures.

When Clare starts subconsciously drawing a mysterious symbol, witnesses a murder in a nightclub, and her mother (Lena Heady) disappears following an attack in her apartment, she subsequently falls under the watchful eye of hunky vampire hunter Jace Weyland (Jamie Campbell Bower) and his fellow fighters-for-good called Shadowhunters. Revealed to be a descendant of the ancient warrior bloodline, Clare holds the secret in her subconscious to the whereabouts of a mystical artifact that offers ultimate power.

In the rapidly expanding genre of young adult novels adapted for the big screen, most of the other series have a footing in making their own identity. The Mortal Instruments not only takes a broad stroke cookie cutter approach, but also throws in anything and everything it can to push it along its way.

Sure there is a big quest, demons to battle, and a grand final showdown with the big baddie Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), but the film makes no excuses, for all intents and purposes, in winging it every step of the way.  Somebody need a weapon that would be extremely convenient to use, sure its available. Need a new foe to fight in this scene? Without rhyme, reason or back story some new horrific monster appears that probably popped into the visual FX team's heads at some random moment. At the start of the film we are presented with the ancient order Shadowhunters, great an original concept, but quickly added into the mix are vampires, werewolves, witches, warlocks in addition to other various creatures that can cause trouble. The screenplay runs along as if script doctor was there at every beat on set to provide the quickest and easiest fixes for any situation.

When the reluctant romance element kicks into gear, why not have set a scene in a magic garden in the film's NYC base of operations called The Institute (whose architectural grandeur also happens to be invisible to the eyes of normal humans. Hello Hogwarts?). Clary swoons for Jace, but her geeky life-long friend Simon (Robert Sheehan) of course completes the love triangle and provides for some cringe worthy romantic dialogue and moments. The movie takes heavy leads from the Twilight Saga when it concerns the two leads and both the expected and (almost) unexpected forbidden love bumps. If you don't think this is your thing, it isn't. While the film has its fair share of roll your eyes moments, it doesn't quite attain the laugh out loud high bar set by The Host.

There are also no shortage of direct cues taken from The Lost Boys, Harry Potter, Stargate and honest to God, The Empire Strikes Back. Some of these elements may not be painfully obvious to the mass of the intended younger viewers, but I was pleasantly surprised how well a throwaway Ghostbusters reference went over at my screening. Homage is one thing, but when I say the Shadowhunters keep a Stargate in the Institute (as in the movie and SG-1 Stargate), yes they really gave them a Stargate to utilize in a major plot point.

Lily Collins does her best as a reluctant one-dimensional heroine rammed head first into this supernatural mess. You would think there would be more depth written for a female lead who has an insane amount of upheaval thrush upon her. Campbell Bower plays it cold and occasionally silly at inopportune times. The Edward Cullen mold of hero is not lost here, just adding tattoos and leather for good measure in place of sparkly skin.

Clocking in at over two hours the pace surprisingly keeps moving along, but it tries to cram so much into every scene, from monsters, big effects, fight sequences, goth costumes, party scenes and romantic interludes, all it provides is even less reason to stop for a moment to explain exactly why the hell any of it is logistically happening. It manages to hit many of the familiar necessary beats you would expect from a first chapter setting up an inevitable franchise, but at the same time barely lays down a proper base coat to build upon you care about.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is soulless forgettable film fodder fit to fill in the void left in the wake of The Twilight Saga. Sadly it is hardly interested in pushing boundaries or making its own memorable mythology in the genre. Every beat of the story seems like off the cuff convenience rather than adhering to any of the thin plot parameters it has put so little thought into establishing. It is unfortunately content with begging, borrowing and re-hashing numerous familiar paths taken by other like films rather than making a leap into memorable new territory.

The Mortal Instruments: City of  Bones opens in theaters on August 21st.

REVIEW RATING: ★☆☆☆☆
Director: Harald Zwart
Starring: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Kevin Zegars, Robert Sheehan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Screenwriter: Jessica Postigo Paquette
Studio: Screen Gems
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 130 minutes

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Film Review - ELYSIUM ★★½☆☆☆

Neill Blomkamp set a pretty high bar for himself by roaring out of the starting gate with his visionary directorial debut, 2009's District 9. Sometimes unfortunately nothing is harder to overcome than hitting it out of the ball park your first time at bat when its time for the second go round.

Blomkamp's highly anticipated follow-up, Elysium has a lot to riding on it, with a bigger budget and recruiting A- list stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster to headline the cast. While his latest dystopian vision of the future is neither picture perfect nor a classic example of the dreaded sophomore slump, Elysium delivers on numerous technical and visual levels but ultimately suffers from an unbalanced helping of brawn over brain.

Welcome to the 22nd Century. Disease and over population have turned the Earth into a living nightmare. Utopia however, exists solely for the rich living on Elysium, an the orbiting country club in space. The space station is an artificial ringed habitat where nothing but maintaining an idyllic life matters. All ailments can be cured in medical chambers that come dome a doen and those left to suffer below are tossed aside with an out of sight out of mind policy.

Max De Costa (Matt Damon) lives a lowly life on Earth, making his way the best he can as a robot factory assembly line worker, albeit with a few arrests on his record. Like everyone suffering on Terra Firma, he looks to the sky and dreams of affording a life that would lead him to Elysium, often reminiscing of a promise he made to his childhood friend Frey that he would take her there one day.

On the way to work, sarcastic talk back gets him a royal whop ass from some robotic centurions, which leaves him with a broken arm, a trip to the hospital, an extension of his parole for some previous crimes and he's in hot water with his boss. An accident on the job the next day renders him poisoned with a lethal dose of radiation, left with only five days to live and a thank you package of some government issued pills to ease the pain until he keels over.

DeCosta knows if he can hijack a trip to Elysium, it would allow the opportunity to rid his body of the radiation with a quick zap nap in a medical chamber sitting in every citizen's house. But the orbiting fortress has a ruthless watch dog in the form of Defense Minister Delacourt (Jodie Foster) who has no problem shooting down unauthorized shuttles that attempt to land on Elysium via her rogue one man killing machine on Earth, Kruger (Sharlto Copley).

To see his plan through, DeCosta agrees to merge man and machine by having an exo-suit drilled onto his spine as well and a hard drive burrowed into his brain. He ends up inadvertently downloading secret plans that can ultimately destroy the prime functions of the film Death Star stand in. The secret data that resides in his noggin holds the key to turing the tide on the separation of classes.

Elysium has many more plot points layered into the screenplay, and keeps on target, albeit with a slow burn, in getting to its intended big finish finale. But while the first two acts are balanced with deep ideas, a good balance of sci-fi eye candy, action sequences and character development, Elysium then abruptly changes gears to go with the balls out explosion and gunfire crazed crowd pleaser finish.

The movie is not without enough goodies to please sci-fi fans with its tricked out stunning visuals, gritty futuristic gadgets and thought provoking concepts. But at just about two hours, Elysium doesn't dig as deep into the allegory it wants to explore as seen in District 9. We get a lot of the backstage goings on of the upper class dwelling, but very little is explored in regards to the populace beyond gorgeous shots of how perfect it is to live there.

Damon plays DeCosta with his likable Matt Damon charm and determination, and is allowed to crack a few jokes to break up some scenes as he can do very effectively. You are definitely rooting for the guy as he soldiers on in impossible his quest to Elyisum.

Jodie Foster gives a puzzling and surprising one-dimensional performance as Delacourt. While several characters in the film have thick accents that are at times difficult to clearly understand, Foster's unrecognizable dialect in the film is oft putting and seems to change through out the film. There isn't much for her to do here except twist her villain mustache and represent all the typical bad things you expect the heavy in her situation to do. But frankly I expected there would be more under the hood from Foster.

Sharlto Copley is no stranger to teaming up with Blomkamp, he was the breakout star of District 9 (I can't wit to see him as the villain in Spike Lee's remake of Old Boy). Copley plays Kruger, another tech enhanced human, and the evil mad mercenary on the dirty work take from Delacourt. Copley has no problem chewing up the scenery with insane delivery of dialogue, brutal fight sequences and brandishing an assortment of advanced bad ass weaponry. There is actually more going on with Kruger than Delacourt, but flip flops in motivation throughout the film.

On the surface, Elysium boasts flawless gritty FX (just check out the realistic motion in the robotic police men), and a story that addresses the politics of a futuristic social structure gone bad. Once again Blompkamp's penchant for hand held camera work combined with spot on CG eye candy makes for a convincing cinematic world you can sink into. But where it was running a fine pace and balance for a healthy portion its running time, the extent and excess of the big Hollywood finish ironically takes away the film's punch.

Elysium opened in theaters and IMAX on August 9th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★½☆☆☆
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster,  Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, William Fitcher, Diego Luna
Screenwriter: Neill Blomkamp
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 110 minutes

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Film Review: THE WOLVERINE ★★★☆☆

Wolverine, one of the most beloved and popular comic book heroes of all time and perfectly embodied on film since 2000 by Hugh Jackman, has finally gotten his due in the mutant's latest big screen actioner, simply titled The Wolverine.

It's not to say that this film is perfect (it's a damn noble effort), but following Logan's first solo adventure, 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a God-awful mess on numerous levels, and 2006's disappointing X-Men: The Last Stand, the brooding hero has had rough times on the big screen. Thankfully The Wolverine bucks the comic book movie trend of going bigger and cramming pointless team-up opportunities to instead directly focus on where it belongs, on the ageless man armed with adamantium claws.

Directed by James Mangold (3:10 To Yuma, Walk The Line, Knight and Day), the stranger in a strange land approach to this film finally allows Hugh Jackman to turn in a performance for over two hours that resonates with the necessary dark depth. Hugh IS the star of this movie, and rightfully so.

Following a chilling eye-opening flashback sequence set in World War II-era Nagasaki where an imprisoned Logan saves a Japanese soldier from a nuclear demise, we catch up with him decades later trying to forget the events of X-Men: The Last Stand (but aren't we all?). The ageless hero is still haunted by the death of Jean Grey (Famke Jannsen) by his own hands, and living in self exile in the wilderness. He is no longer a hunter. No longer the Wolverine. That is until a violent scuffle ensues with a group of outback hunters who carelessly take out a grizzly bear Logan had cordially shared the forest with.

A mysterious visitor, Yukio (a fantastic Rila Fukushima) has tracked Logan down, all the better now that he's got the claws out again, to bring him to Japan on orders from Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), the solider he saved in Nagasaki who is now technology mogul lying on his deathbed.

Yashida offers to rid Logan of his curse of immortality so he can live a normal life, fall in love and die old like an ordinary man. Of course this requires Yashida assuming his mutant powers via the decades of medical and technological research his company has done. Logan passes on the idea of helping the old man out and so begins the meat of the story that bridges the script's various other arcs.

Despite his protests, Logan is nonetheless stripped of his healing abilities. Yashida inevitably dies, and his daughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) is targeted for a kidnapping at the fallen mogul's lavish funeral. Now seemingly mortal, Logan takes multiple brutal bruisings along the way trying protect Mariko from mysterious hit men and ninjas lead by a sexy blonde mutant scientist known as Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova).

What works on the story level here is the low key extent of the overall stakes. There is no race against time / world in danger plot line. This is strictly a personal mission for our angry reluctant hero. The film is firmly grounded and committed to sticking to one man's objectives without throwing in Earth shattering consequences if he fails. Protect the girl and get his powers back (and maybe beat up many bad guys). Done and done. To hell with all his former X-Men cohorts and what they're up to. The title of the film could not be more appropriate.

Jackman once again brings his intimidating physique to flex shirtless and often on the big screen, practically berating everyone in the theater chomping away on buttered popcorn and slurping an extra large soda to get their asses to the gym. Well at least that's how I felt. Gone may be his signature leather jacket and cigar, but he does get a motorcycle and the character has never come across better as a vicious killing machine when called to arms, or claws in this case.

Wolverine fights ninjas (yes fans, elaborate awesome ninja fights), and some of the chase sequences are as bad ass as they are thrilling (I find it interesting that I was utterly bored by any of the similarly staged sequences in Mangold's 2010 snoozer Knight and Day). A thrill-a-minute scene atop a speeding bullet train was done no justice when the clip was previewed online earlier this month. It really is something to behold in a theater.

The Japanese setting is gorgeous and refreshing (even if a lot of it was shot in Australia). The culture shock of sending Logan over seas mixes up the expected X-Men formula on a fantastic level. Though it should be noted the storyline is predominantly adapted from a seminal '80s comic book storyline written by Chris Claremont, and adapted further for the screen when Mangold assumed the reigns from original director Darren Aronofsky.

Famke Janssen in flashbacks provides the only major specific call back to the previous mythos of the series as Jean Grey, Logan's true love who gained godlike powers and was forced to kill in X-Men: The Last Stand. If you know the backstory, it adds to Logan's state as a haunted soul. But her inclusion is also vague enough to not make new viewers feel left in the cold. There are some other brief throwaway X-Men references within the movie, but overall the film does a good job existing as a stand alone adventure up until the closing credits.

There is the bad news. But a good thing can only last so long, and the film takes a wrong amp'd up left turn in the latter third act, choosing to put an end to the perfectly good pacing and scale I enjoyed for over 90 minutes.

Let's start with Svetlana Khodchenkova’s Viper, who as a whole is the out-of-place weak link in this otherwise grounded tale. The blonde snake-like mutant presents herself in various sexy green outfits and snarls with the big screen comic book villainy that would have been perfectly fine for the other mutant filled X-Men movies. The Wolverine as a whole does a damn great job of separating itself from the typical super powered good-versus-evil arcs by stripping the story to a one-off Logan solo mission. When Viper does her thing (hissing and spitting venom, snake tongue and all), in this case it's almost disappointing to acknowledge the larger mutant contingent that nonetheless exists in this continuity. Her exaggerated presence and inclusion as the only other on-screen mutant also detracts from Logan's otherwise solo super powered spotlight, and made little sense to me in the overall grand scheme of things.

The raw feral animal we only saw brief glimpses of in X2: X-Men United is our main Wolverine here, and he's a welcome star. It is a very violent (but bloodless) PG-13 film and Wolverine makes no apology for a high body count. The sarcasm and humor are taken way down, but that's not to say Jackman isn't allowed to bring his signature charm to the character. We also witness Logan fall in love again, and for the first time persevere as a mortal wounded man with a fear of death which adds to the fully unexplored scope of the character. It's also a relief to have him drop a few curse words at appropriate moments (hopefully one day for you too Jack Bauer). Profanity rolls off Logan's tongue naturally given his temperament, and it makes you wonder what else an all out R-rated Wolverine adventure would be like. 

Unfortunately the 3D adds very little to the film. Mangold's style here doesn't lend itself to it. These days I don't think directors should be held entirely accountable for a non-jaw dropping 3D experience when the format decision can be made ultimately and unfortunately above their pay grades.

It is disappointing that the third act almost unexpectedly takes The Wolverine into an unnecessary over-the-top formula finish. It by no means breaks the film as a whole, but the big bang FX-laden finale doesn't hold true to its overall back-to-basics premise that was cruising along just fine in its simplicity as a hero's personal journey.

Overall the film delivers enjoyable kick ass character driven action and interaction, and is without question a must-see for fans of the character. We are treated to the best turn from Jackman in his signature role yet, as a snarling violent loner, with the undertones of both a deadly hit man and a Samurai. It scores all the right marks in regards to what has been missing so far from the big screen Wolverine. 

Hands down the film stands worlds above the previous solo effort. This is a different animal altogether that gets so much right for what fans were waiting for and is a huge brave leap forward in adapting the character. However The Wolverine nonetheless feels like it eventually gets spooked by its own shadow and jumps back into a blockbuster safety zone instead of successfully crossing the finish line with the same tone in which its journey began. And it's the fear of landing triumphantly according to the original flight plan that prevents the film from attaining true greatness from start to finish.

There is also, to nobody's surprise, an effective mid-credits scene that is not to be missed. Most X-Fans worth their weight are well aware of the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, and although The Wolverine manages to successfully stand on its own as it relates to the series' overall continuity, this anything-but-subtle nod towards what is to come was too good an opportunity to exclude. Needless to say when the scene played out, the audience I attended with (to use the technical term), went completely apeshit with excitement. Well played indeed.

The Wolverine opened in 2D and RealD 3D on July 26th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★☆☆
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova
Screenwriters: Christopher McQuarrrie, Mark Bomback and Scott Frank
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 126 minutes

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Film Review: PACIFIC RIM ★★★★☆

If you grew up in the '80s like I did, and a fair, if not an unhealthy portion of your TV viewing time was spent on animated fare like Voltron and Robotech, Pacific Rim may be the answer your adolescent prayers. Guillermo del Toro's big screen giant robots versus giant monsters sci-fi extravaganza does not disappoint as far as taking CGI-heavy battles to a new level of intensity and intelligent storytelling in an age when Michael Bay's Transformers series had until now set the technical high bar for 3D mech FX-heavy acrobatics.

The plot is straight forward enough and easily best described by its tagline "In order to fight monsters, we created monsters of our own." But to elaborate further: In the future an inter-dimensional rift in the floor of the Pacific Ocean offers safe passage for invading giant alien monsters known as Kaiju to lay waste to cites all over the Earth. With casualties reaching the millions and conventional weaponry proving ineffective, humanity constructs giant mechanical warriors called Jaegers to counter the growing alien threat.

The human Jaeger pilots must jockey as neural pairs, one controlling the right hemisphere, the other the left of the 25 story high gladiators in order to effectively combat the ferocious threats. Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam leads the cast as Raleigh Becket, a troubled pilot who's still dealing with the loss of his brother years earlier in combat with a Kaiju (which means "Giant Beast" in Japanese). Idris Elba gives another stellar performance as Stacker Pentecost, the no-nonsense leader of the international Jaeger strike force. Few can deliver and pull off with the necessary weight and bravado a military pep rally speech capped off with the soon to be iconic "Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!" Attention Bill Pullman's Independence Day President Whitmore: You have been served.

The mind blowing visuals put forth come courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic. The jaw dropping battles between beast and machine have never been realized like this before on the big screen. For Rim's target audience, which I am unabashedly a part of, much of what we see may have been pre-visualized since our childhoods regarding the behemoths' battles, but it all seriously comes to deafening and tangible life when seen through del Toro's capable eyes. The director takes complete joy in staging sequences with epic scope and gritty weight you'd never think possible. Seriously who can't marvel at witnessing one of the massive mechanical gladiators double fisting train cars to pummel the living bejeezus out of one of the alien beasts?

I had three summer 2013 movies on my "insanely excited to see" list, Pacific Rim being the last of them to be released. I still find it hard to believe I left the theaters following the first two with a feeling of meh befuddlement at what I had just seen, instead of the "gee whiz" wonderment I had hoped for. The third time is a charm here with Pacific Rim, and when I reached the closing credits I felt like I had been taken back to my adolescent self right after a great episode of Voltron, Robotech, or a Godzilla Saturday afternoon movie double feature.

Much credit should be given for the human side to the story and the solid cast that pulls off everything that happens when the film is not in full throttle mode as an FX heavy extravaganza. Charlie Day brings his signature It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia cadence to Dr. Newton Geiszler, a high strung scientist who finds much nerd joy in analyzing the Jaegers' internal organs. Day's gift for comedic timing keeps the film from sinking too deep for too long into dark drama. del Toro's Hellboy himself Ron Perlman is also recruited here to do what he does best playing Hannibal Chau, an extravagant lord of the Hong Kong underworld who makes his fortune from harvesting and selling various parts of recently slaughtered Jaegers. The human cast, their stories, and the simple but nonetheless layered clever plot all add to Rim's big pluses that keep this from being a mindless one-dimensional big budget B-movie.

So let's talk the presentation. Hands down, IMAX 3D is seriously the only way to go. The kinetic energy, the spectacular big screen eye candy and the excessive (but welcome) primal pandemonium is a big screen triumph in tandem with both formats. There is nothing small about this movie. Go big. Go IMAX. You can also add del Toro to your list of directors who work with 3D with flawless results. Not once was I taken out of the moment with a sequence that didn't benefit, or worse was hindered, by poor conversion. Rim boasts one of the best conversions (shot digitally with the RED EPIC camera) I have ever seen for such a quick cutting, fast paced film. The past year has enjoyed improvements in leaps and bounds in regards to the technology. Sure its still vastly over utilized, but a year makes a huge difference in the big screen presentation. del Toro is never at a loss for a beautifully framed shot, and the film's extensive 3D conversion accentuates his layered canvass. Shallow depth of field makes the simpler wide shots epic while the battle scenes gain that much more of a deadly and mighty punch with the added dimension.

To write off this film with simple on the surface comparisons to Transformers, Godzilla, or various anime series would not be fair here, even though those respective franchises' DNA is easily detectable throughout. del Toro has drawn obvious influence from many sources to mash up their strongest and most familiar elements into intense high-tech big screen sparring matches in the ocean or in between towering buildings in Hong Kong. Pacific Rim is a fan boy homage made by a fan boy, and includes both overt and subtle nods to elements that made the climatic ending to battles on any given episode of Voltron exciting to viewers.

Pacific Rim, loud proud and intense, delivers everything promised to its intended audience on truly an epic scale, and in my book successfully hits all the right marks. Guillermo del Toro masterfully morphs his many influences into a stunning dark world of its own. Combating gargantuan metal gladiators and massive ferocious creatures from the underwater depths of hell have never been treated so well on the big screen and provide for a healthy amount of nerd cry worthy moments. Sure the film does skew heavily to a particular fan base, but it's by no means inaccessible. Rather I saw it as fun summer fare on a monstrous level. While it can be a violent ride at times, it manages to keep to the lighter side of its PG-13 rating. Pacific Rim is a spectacular ride, smarter and gloriously grander than anything else it can be compared, to and will rank as one of 2013's best action sci-fi crowd pleasers.

Pacific Rim opens in theaters in 2D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D on July 12th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★★☆
Director: Guillmero del Toro
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman
Screenwriters: Guillmero del Toro & Travis Beacham
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 131 minutes

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Film Review - WHITE HOUSE DOWN ★½☆☆☆☆

White House Down is just that kind of mindless "let's blow everything up in sight" summer popcorn film that you really need to just throw logic, plausibility and opportunity for edgy action out the window. I admit that's typically perfectly fine for me as someone who has sung the praises of that very moviegoing experience on many many occasions, so I should be one of the last people to expect the latest flick from bombastic big screen disaster king (and Independence Day and 2012 director) Roland Emmerich, to reach any cinema verite high bar standards.

Following extremely violent and edgy (and far superior) Olympus Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler, White House Down is the second film in 2013 out of the gate with the premise of one man burdened with battling his way through a fallen White House to save A) the President B) a child in danger and C) the fate of the world from terrorists' ultimate plans to do very evil things on a global scale. While both films follow a painfully similar outline, they wisely differ in their tones and executions of big set pieces. Since my taste for action sequences leans more towards R than PG or PG-13, the victory in my book goes to the intense and dark Antoine Fuqua-helmed Olympus over the play it both safe and by-the-numbers White House Down.

If you can handle the cooky caper antics of terrorists infiltrating the White House by disguising themselves as maintenance workers and A/V techs, big explosions, lots of bloodless gunfire, thin cliched characters blessed with delivering catch phrases, and follow to a tee the "one man against the world Die Hard in..." formula (it here being Die Hard in the White House), you are in for a real treat.

Channing Tatum plays John Cale, a U.S. Capitol police officer with aspirations to secure a position with the U.S. Secret Service. While applying for the job Cale also has his estranged brainy daughter Emily (Joey King) in tow, doing double duty and his damnedest to connect with during a tour of the White House.

Terrorists who have snuck into the White House (in plain sight) also have plans that day, which involves laying siege to the building, making a captive of President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) and other dastardly things. After Cale is separated from Emily on the tour, he ventures out on a rescue mission and in the process manages to rescue the President and begin the room-by-room battle to get our Cammander-In-Cheif to safety. Cue the action, explosions and catch phrases. And that kinda sums it up. Ok, sure there are some plot twist subplots and revealed ulterior motives that attempt to add depth to a screenplay that's best summed up in the poster one-liner, but overall you know what you are getting into with this.

Tatum, who has managed to enchant big screen audiences the past few years and is fast approaching bonafide box office super stardom (WHD may be the one that just solidifies that), does a serviceable job in this role as a struggling divorced dad trying to make the grade to pass the paperwork and education requirements for the Secret Service job. This despite that his combat service, training and proficiency with various powerful firearms that are probably protected under the 2nd Amendment are above and beyond the call of duty. As the reluctant one man army sporting the classic John McClane action hero tank top look, he has the right stuff for this outing. But as written, casting the lead could have been easily interchangeable.

Foxx's flat President Sawyer isn't written with any big tough guy heroics or inherent diplomatic charisma as previous big screen presidents have been. Most of Sawyer's charm comes solely courtesy of Foxx, and it's noted that he has not served a day in the military, further necessitating his need to rely on a trained aid to escape further harm. Sawer and Cale provide a fine buddy film one-two punch, and Foxx plays up this U.S. President suited solely for this wham bam popcorn type of romp, which of course requires him at one point fire a rocket launcher from a moving car accompanied by the expected wacky beats. It's sequences like this that make you appreciate all the more well balanced action movie Presidents like former Air Force pilot James Whitmore (in Emmerich's Independence Day) and Harrison Ford's James Marshall (Air Force One), or the traditional and impeccable statesmen presence provided by Morgan Freeman's Tom Beck in Deep Impact. Though cross referencing the strengths and weakness of big screen Presidents is a whole other thing to fill up a post.

But overall, little imagination went into the WHD's casting process, keeping to actors playing parts effortlessly and squarely within their safety zone. As Secret Service head honcho, James Woods does his best Jamea Woods, ditto for Maggie Gyllenhaal as the no non-sense agent Finnerty. The Speaker of the House played within expectations by the reliable Richard Jenkins and Lance Reddick pulls his out best Fringe tough-as-nails drama card for General Caulfield.

Let's face it, we'll never have another Hans Gruber, but the field villains here led by Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) are all boring action movie archetypes that spiral into stereotypes who manage to further caricature those tired roles. They're all here, the computer hacker who works his keyboards like a maestro, blasts classical music, sips wine and always has a clever quip at the top of his tongue for every misstep the grand plan takes. Throw in the wild card biker terrorist sporting crazy hair a handlebar mustache. How about the insider turncoat pulling all the strings and has ulterior motives that ultimately fail to make him sympathetic in relation to his ultimate revenge scheme? Check, check and check.

I felt a scant sense of danger throughout the film, whether it involved the execution of the big action set pieces or the threat of actual harm whether it involved the innocent hostages, the young Emily Cale with a gun pointed to her head, or much less any situation involved with President Sawyer or John Cale. Plus quickly shooting characters before establishing a connection to the audience is not the way to build sufficient sudden death tension on behalf of the villains. That's where in the same scenario Olympus Has Fallen successfully established a relentless tense atmosphere where at any moment, any one could be sentenced to meet their maker.

While I do applaud seeing Cale capitalizing on using fallen terrorist's weapons as he advances through their body count, it was equally as frustrating to think that not one piece of their body armor was utilized to protect the President or Cale himself. While I undertand you market this film around Channing Tatum sweating and running all about in the tight white tee so all his hard time in the gym is not rendered useless by outfitting him in bulky kevlar, but in the least does it not make any sense have the President take one of the dead villains freely available bullet proof vests?

By the time you have car chases on the White House lawn, witness strategic decisions made by government security strategists that are so incompetent you have only God to thank that this is a work of fiction, and that such scenarios are beyong what our taxpayer dollars pay for in terms of defending 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you have either drank the Kool Aid or given up hope. But I will say both Olympus and WHD bank on exploiting the plot point of the frighteningly long time it takes to mobilize any formidable military anti-terrorist opposition when the White House has been assaulted and captured by enemy forces.

The blue screen for exteriors in painfully apparent. Granted the actual White House is not freely issuing film permits to shoot crowds and explosive action sequences at the front gates, but much of the faked scenery looks surprisingly distracting. The CGI was also disappointing for a Roland Emmerich film. Years after destroying the White House and other world famous landmarks in ID4, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, the FX here somehow manage to look less believable in the shadow of today's better technology, which is unfortunate.

I am admittedly over analyzing this movie as one who typically appreciates the explosive big screen experience Roland Emmerich can be counted on to deliver. But overstaying its welcome at over two hours, White House Down for me plays it far to deep into a paint-by-numbers formula and features a cast of tired run-of-the mill action film cookie cutter characters.

Sure it's a big harmless summer popcorn action romp, and the legions of Channing Tatum fans will get what exactly they want. He and Foxx play off each other well, but deserve a better forum to really show off their potential on-screen chemistry. Check your brain plot filmgoers will enjoy the night out. If you like your explosions and gunfights to stick to safe bloodless cartoonish PG-13 guide lines, here you go. While the disappointing FX will stick out to fellow nitpickers like me, they are not a make or break point to the film, which has other issues that take it down. But even I sometimes hold summer tentpoles whose sole intention is to provide an entertaining night out to reach higher marks when it comes to the sum of its parts. White House Down mangages to overall come up short on too many of the easy levels to pass the grade for me.

White House Down opens in theaters on June 28th.

REVIEW RATING: ★½☆☆☆☆
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gylennhaal, James Woods, Jason Clarke, Joey King
Screenwriter: James Vanderbilt
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 137 minutes

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