X-Men: Days of Future Past is the 6th movie in the franchise and arguably the best yet. 2011’s First Class course corrected things after the mess of a movie that was X3: Last Stand. It settled things down, told a coherent story and brought in some new and fantastic actors to the universe. Future Past runs with the ball that First Class passed off in great form.

The story starts in the future where Trask Industries Sentinel program has obliterated most of humanity. Originally designed as a weapon to hunt down and destroy mutants, further revisions to these giant robots allowed them to scan people and read their genetic code. If this scan revealed the possibility that they could create mutant children or even mutant grandchildren, they were exterminated as well. Any sort or resistance was crushed as the Sentinel program was given more and more power and control. As a last resort, Professor X and Magneto send Wolverine back in time 50 years using Kitty Pryde’s abilities. His goal is to bring young Professor X and Magneto together to stop Mystique (who both share a past with her) from assassinating Dr. Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels. It’s that event that triggers a full blown fear response from the government, green lighting Trask’s proposed Sentinel program. Mystique’s efforts to try and stop a future slaughter actually makes things far, far worse.

I think most of the success from this movie comes from its tone. It doesn’t feel much like a comic book movie. It’s more like a great science fiction tale with believable and compelling people that happen to be able to do extraordinary things. While there are many moments that require your suspense of disbelief it’s all grounded in reality. I liked the tie ins to real life historical events, it’s a clever little hook. An understanding of who the characters are goes a really long way, but I think it would still stick together well if you have no idea who the characters are (seeing First Class is very important though as most of the movie takes place just a few years later and the attitudes of everyone comes from there). This is very much a character driven movie, mostly by the fantastic James McAvoy as Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Magneto and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine who pulls everything together. They are very true to their comic roots, Prof X as a broken idealist here and Magneto as his polar opposite. They both have the same ideals, but with different executions in mind. Really impressed by the careful writing and great acting by the main cast (there’s a pretty big side cast that are mostly there for action purposes). I really liked how they showed the relationship and interactions of young Prof X and Magneto. They are brought together again for a cause and can work together to great affect, but Magneto can’t be held down for long.

Bryan Singer returns to directing after helming the first 2 movies (the original being one of the first comic book movies to kick of the craze in 2000. 1998’s Blade was a success, but I don’t think it had as big of an impact as X-Men did) and he picks up the torch well. It’s a good looking movie, there’s some really nice shots and set ups. The kitchen scene with Quicksilver might be the biggest highlight which brought me back to the insanity and fun of Nightcrawler’s White House scene in X2. I thought there would be more action, there are large stretches without any, but what is there is pretty inventive and exciting. The fights starring Mystique especially as they show how dangerously beautiful she is. Fantastic choreography with great prosthetic and CG FX integration. The team ups to fight off the Sentinels in the future are very well realized and Quicksilver’s speed is shown really well. Whenever they do that with vampires in other movies it looks terrible, but I think they nailed it here. He’s so fast you can can only see him when he starts and stops. The way they show him actually moving around is when you are taken “with” him, seeing how he experiences his extreme power. He’s also funny, he’s got some great dialog. That said, there are more than a few times when the CG takes over and the obvious green screen look becomes hard to ignore. It’s unfortunate, but nothing that breaks the movie.

Days of Future Past keeps the X-Men on a great path, and as a a bonus to fans it rewrites the events of X3. I hope they can keep the trajectory going with the next one.

The buddy cop genre has fallen to the way side, but The Heat brings it back in fine form. Co-headlined by Melissa McCarthy (bad cop) and Sandra Bullock (good cop), The Heat sticks to the formula closely, but with two female leads, gives an enjoyable goose to the premise.

Ashburn is an uptight FBI agent who’s assigned to a drug case in Boston as a final test to see if she’s right for a major promotion. Arriving on the scene she steps on the toes of Mullins who more or less runs the precinct with her foul mouth and in your face method of law enforcement. Turns out the a drug lord is running amok on Mullins’ turf and when she sees the clown that the FBI sent for the job, she’s not having any of it and forces herself on the case. Hilarious hijinks ensue.

The movie gets funnier as it goes a long with some creative scenarios and cursing from Mullins’ mouth that would make Kenny Powers proud. They are two different people who end up rubbing off on each other in just the right ways. Again, this is a genre mold we’ve all seen before but it works thanks to McCarthy and Bullock’s great chemistry. It’s got a similar attitude that Bridesmaids had, so if you liked that check this one out for sure.

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a Jackie Chan adventure so sitting down with Chinese Zodiac, I was hoping for that good old JC action feeling wash over me. I got about half of that.

First, the first half or so of this movie is a mess. I’m wondering if stuff got lost in translation, but a lot of ‘plot’ points and character ‘development’ is dropped in seemingly at random with no context. The movie is about Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) who steals art by making replicas to dupe his marks and then selling them at auction. This brings forth the main theme, that cultures all over the world are being robbed of their history by crooks with few morals. Cue Jackie’s conscience for the final act of the movie.

With that out of the way, there’s half heated effort to give some characters a back story which amounts to little more than having an argument over the telephone. You have no idea who they are talking to and then they pop up at the end of the movie to wrap up the mystery that no one cares about. There’s one character who comes out of no where to help Jackie and then she somehow gets shoehorned into making the entire rest of the movie happen. It was the weirdest character introduction ever.

The directing and editing is really amateur for most of the movie too which is weird since Chan has spent more time behind the camera than many people have been alive. Abrupt and confusing cuts, sudden fast pans and dolly shots are all over the place that can be very disorienting.  It feels really rushed and haphazard and it doesn’t settle down until the hand to hand fight scenes occur. Here, at least, Jackie Chan’s work shines as it should. It’s well thought out and blocked with nice wide shots and cuts that make sense. It’s generally easy to follow and fun to watch. It’s got all his trademarks with extensive prop and environment work with dashes of wirework for the more over the top ideas.

The action is a mixed bag though. The opening scene is creative, but really goofy and hard to swallow with Jackie rolling around in a skate suit. At one point he takes a 20 foot vertical leap on his stomach to a street below that probably would have left any human being cracked in two. As I mentioned the hand to hand fights are great (most notable is the one in the counterfeit art warehouse), but the movie wears out it’s welcome by adding one more action scene after that. Everything is in position to end but they went ahead with a ridiculous sky diving finale that was better left on the page. One more knock for Chinese Zodiac. Most of the special effects look terrible.

Thinking back to Jackie Chan’s catalog, Chinese Zodiac reminds me a lot of Project A. They share the same type of world travel and comedic stylings, but Chinese Zodiac is worse in almost every way. In fact, I’d recommend checking out Project A and Project A 2 long before seeing this. Even better, watch Armour of God, where this Asian Hawk character first appears! Nearly 30 years apart and a much better movie from start to finish.

In the past week, two of my shows got dropped like a bad habit. First was Community. After a murky season 4, show runner and creator Dan Harmon was hired back to his show. Season 5 turned out great. NBC must have been pretty iffy about it anyway (high critical acclaim, average ratings at best) so they ordered a shorter season. With the car running again, Dan Harmon got to park the show in a better spot. Part series finale, part set up, NBC decided to end it. It’d be a great show for a place like Netflix to pick up, but it sounds like Harmon is ready to just move on. So much for “six seasons and a movie.” Never say never I guess.

More of a bummer is the loss of Legit. Moved to FXX for it’s second season (I’m still completely against this spin off decision. It just pointlessly diluted the FX stable), it just wasn’t able to catch on. FX is pretty high on the dial already, FXX is even higher with an even smaller install base, so it was a tough challenge for any show regardless of quality. I like Jim Jeffries  a lot and he made a much stronger season this year. Some great stories with a great cast. The best was yet to come, hopefully Jim can roll his season 3 ideas into a different project. A shame that’s it, I’d love for Showtime to pick it up. It’d be a great fit with Californication finishing in a few weeks.

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge also finished this week. Robert won (I think he earned it), and at just 8 episodes it was a short but sweet season. No word on if it’s coming back, but I’d be down for more. It’s a good side piece to Face Off.

Following The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, Director David O. Russell scores a hat trick with American Hustle. Russell finds and executes some of the best and most eccentric character driven dramas released in the past 10 years. He’s found these amazing stories and brings them to life with a gentle but sharp eye and a cast that is a studios dream come true.

American Hustle brings us to New Jersey in the late 1970’s where a con man named Irving and his mistress Sydney get dragged into a FBI investigation lead by the bull headed Richie DiMaso. Irving and Sydney had a pretty good thing going until having the unfortunate timing of crossing Richie’s path. They kept things clean and simple…manageable scenarios for conning money out of people. When Richie smells blood in the water, he leverages the two into helping him nab crooked politicians of New Jersey. With each minor win he gets with Irv and Sydney, Richie casts the net larger and larger pulling in all sorts of heat towards them. Mayors, congressmen, the mob and Irving’s wife, Rosalyn, are all dragged into the chop. Relationships are tested and twisted as Richie keeps fanning the flames.

Much like how Martin Scorsese loves working with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell has his favorites too. Christian Bale (Irving), Jennifer Lawrence (Rosalyn), Bradley Cooper (Richard), Amy Adams (Sydney)  and Robert De Niro (mobster Victor Tellegio) show up and deliver award quality acting for him again. This is a hell of a cast of characters. The introduction of Irving and his girl Sydney is great. They exist on a taboo plane of existence. They work together by scamming people and their personal life is sneaky too as Irving is cheating on his wife Rosayln with Sydney.  There’s a  gleeful playfulness when they’re together. But Sydney, oh Sydney! Brilliantly played by Jennifer Lawrence, Sydney is a real nutter with a rambling mind and mouth to match. Irving does love her deeply, but his relationship with Sydney is different. When the two women cross paths, sparks fly and the boundaries of their relationships are stressed to the breaking point. It’s actually pretty sad to see Irving pulled apart from the two he loves most. The movie pivots on these three mostly, with Richie being the antagonist of it all. Their plans and their fights are a thing to behold. It’s a wacky movie, but it’s held together by the actors. I can’t really do their work justice. It all comes together in a brilliant and satisfying ending. Roles are changed, lives are changed and remorse and amends are reached. Characters at odds come together and break apart. When it’s all over it feels like something really substantial has happened. Those still standing at the end are changed forever.

With three amazing movies back to back, I can’t wait to see what David O. Russell has up next. It seems like he just hits the ground running after each production ends. The characters in his movies are some of the most memorable and his actors put out their best work. Everyone should be jumping at the chance to work with him and see what he does next. I think he’s one of the best working in filmmaking today. He knows how to surround himself in brilliance.