Watched a few things that I can’t rationalize giving full reviews to, so we’ll bang these out real quick.

Don Jon– Joseph Gordon Levitt’s writer/director debut is not a good movie. Boring, trite and cliched, this was a hard one to watch to the end. Jon is a young man who has no problem being with women, but a lot of problems with actually connecting with them. You watch this obvious character transition slowly take place in New Jersey with terrible accents. The MPAA made him heavily edit the content to get a R rating, so maybe he had to take all the jokes out with the “adult content”. Crummy accents all over the place, but I did like seeing Tony Danza dad it up here. Skip it.

DC Universe titles: Young Justice, Justice League: War and Son of Batman– Young Justice is a TV show that lasted 2 seasons and I didn’t hear about it until recently. It’s basically the junior varsity Justice League with Kid Flash, Aqua Lad, Miss Martian, Super Boy and Robin (Dick Greyson) as the founding members who are essentially overseen by Batman. They go on covert missions, leaving the Justice League to take on the ‘world events’ so to speak.  Awesome writing and animation, I really liked the first season getting through it in about a week. I was stoked to see they made a second season, which I will be starting soon, as I wanted more the second it ended.

Justice League: War on the other hand I found disappointing. DCU movies tend to be amazing and I found this one to be under that standard bar of quality. I didn’t like a lot of the voice work and the animation isn’t too swift. Story is good at least, telling the origin of the Justice League who come together to stop an alien invasion led by Darkseid. Highlight for me is the constant verbal sniping between Green Lantern and Batman.

Son of Batman is the first time Batman meets his son Damian. After knocking costume boots with Talia al Ghul years ago, she kept their sons existence secret.Deathstroke kicks up a hornets nest when he attacks The League of Assassins, killing (!?) Ra’s al Ghul (Talia’s father). Knowing Deathstroke is going to be a rather serious threat, she leaves Damian in Batman’s care while she handles things.  Batman takes it surprisingly well! Damian is a colossal maniac of a brat though. Considering who and how he was raised, that’s not surprising. When Mom loses to Deathstroke, it’s up to Bats and son to set things right. And so Batman gets his new protege. One of the better DCU movie releases, but still well behind the crown jewel, The Dark Knight Returns. I’m not too thrilled with Damian’s voice, but it did grow on me. Animation is good, but there are a few weird direction choices (Ra’s does this weird defensive move using a sword against a bullet that looks terrible and makes no sense, for example).

Next release for DCU is Batman: Assault on Arkham which looks really promising.

Ride Along– My second buddy cop movie in about two weeks. Ride Along stars Ice Cube as the hardened vet cop and Kevin Hart as his possibly soon-to-be brother-in-law. Kevin has a  lot to prove to Cube and ends up going on a police ride along to show that he’ll be able handle the police academy (Kevin is a high school security guard). I liked The Heat more, Melissa McCarthy giving the best comedic performance out of the four. I really like Kevin Hart, and if you know his stuff you know the exact guy he plays in Ride Along. They are very similar movies, it really comes down to which cast you like more.

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.

When Rush came out in theatres back in September, I made a mark to see it as it’s something up my alley, but never made it out to do so. I regret that now as I think the only way I could have liked Rush more would have been to have seen it up on the big screen.

First things first, no Canadian bands are involved in this film. Rush is about the 1970’s Formula 1 rivalry between James Hunt from Great Britain and Niki Lauda from Austria. The story spans about 6 years, starting in 1970 when the two meet in the F3 driving league as young talent looking to make a name for themselves. Almost from the second they see each other, they butt heads, making one of the biggest rivalries in the sports’ history. James Hunt represented the more playboy lifestyle. Boisterous, a hard partier and a ladies man, it isn’t hard for Hunt to steal a spotlight. Niki Lauda is the other side of the coin. Much more serious with a much more logical and clinical thinking mind. He was also brutally honest, he could never make friends like Hunt could. Where Hunt is the wild child, Niki is the straight laced, rule oriented man. The things they did share was the love of the race track, a natural talent behind the wheel and the unrelenting drive to be in first place.

I can’t think of another race movie like this that I’ve seen other than Days of Thunder and that was a generation ago and a fictitious story. If you see racing cars in todays cinema, it’s going to be on the Fast & Furious angle, not professional racing. Rush is a surprisingly compelling tale and the race scenes are truly thrilling. Great direction by Ron Howard, bolstered by a fantastic sound mix and soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.

Chris Hemsworth plays the ever charming James Hunt with Daniel Brühl as the intense Niki Lauda. They have brilliant chemistry, really selling how different but oddly alike these two men were. They goaded each other on season after season, pushing each other as far as they could go professionally. They both annoyed the hell out of each other, but there was a also a clear line of respect (which the movie really tries to show in it’s storytelling). From the outside it could easily seem like they were enemies, but the right word is rivals. They were each shooting to be better than the other, where being better also meant becoming the champion of the F1 circuit. These two were constantly battling each other for first place finishes.

If you are a fan of the Top Gear show, you have to see this. It’ll feed right into that part of the brain that makes you smile. Intense on the track with great moments of humanity and life off of it. I’ll leave it with one of my favorite scenes that gives the best insight on Niki’s mentality. Shortly after Niki first meets Marlene (who he will later marry), he asks her for a ride to the train station from someone’s house. They’re bouncing along a country road in Italy when Niki turns off the car radio after hearing a noise whenever she accelerates.

Niki: Your fan belt is loose.

Marlene: My what?

Niki: And when you brake your foot goes all the way down, which means there’s air in the system.

Marlene: Anything else?

Niki: No… Apart from the rear brakes are worn out, the front right tire’s a bit soft, which explains why you’re weaving so much.

Marlene: How can you tell?

Niki: My ass.

Marlene: Sorry?

Niki: God gave me an okay mind, but a really good ass, which can feel everything in a car.

Marlene then calls Niki crazy, saying her “very expensive” mechanic just looked at the car and it’s in like new condition. The car breaks down a short while later.

Ender’s Game, written by Orson Scott Card and published as a book in 1985, is a military science fiction story featuring a young man named Ender Wiggins. Prior to hearing about this movie being in production, I had never heard of the author or this series and went into watching the movie blind about the story.

Set in the not to distant future, Earth is invaded by an alien race named the “Formics”. They closely resemble bugs in appearance and nearly succeeded in taking over the world. Every military resources on Earth was put to use and in the end it was a man named Mazer Rockham who was able to take down the main ship, ending the war. Tens of millions of people died in the attack and for the next 50 years, Earth has prepared itself for the return of the Formics.

The invasion scared the remaining populace to death. Caught completely off guard, many felt that it was luck that the human race survived. Such an attack could never happen again (hmm, that sounds familiar). With the fear of a seemingly guaranteed second invasion attack to come, the International Military is formed and tasked with making a defense plan. Seeing the youth of the world as it’s best chance, they comb every nation to find the best and brightest, training them to be the military and tactical force that will shut down the Formics for good. Ender Wiggin is the youngest of his siblings and the last to go through training. His sister is let out of the program because she is seen as too compassionate and his brother was let go because he resorted to violence too quickly. Ender is quickly noticed by Colonel Graff as the perfect mix of the two personalities, but he must be groomed and tested to be Earth’s best chance for victory.

I really enjoyed Ender’s Game. A terrific and interesting look into the future of our society, of military life and methodology. Asa Butterfield plays Ender beautifully and Harrison Ford gets a great role as Colonel Graff. Ender’s journey is a fascinating one, as we see a very smart young kid change as he learns from the experiences in this extreme space boot camp. Ender and the other cadets go through rigorous classroom and physical training, learning large scale war tactics and battlefield skills. Seeing Ender testing his superiors and subtlety maneuvering himself into a position of leadership consciously and sub-consciously is a lot of fun. There’s always a layer of mystery surrounding this operation and Ender slowly picks away at it as he feels himself being squeezed by the hand of his superiors. There are cracks in what he is told and the constant stress of being a completely dominating force exhausts his senses and humanity. He doesn’t like what he’s becoming and it scares him that he’s so good at it.

Ender’s Game was released at just about the same time as Gravity, which completely overshadowed it. It’s a very compelling story, much like Gravity and it also has special effects that rival the work in Gravity as well. The zero-G training room is brilliantly executed, the whole aesthetic of the world is really well visualized. It all looks very well thought out and real, making this future scenario seem that much more plausible.

I don’t know what was omitted or change from the book, but I really liked the movie I saw. It kept me engaged the whole time, it’s a smart story and the acting is great from newcomers and veterans alike. I was pleasantly surprised with this one.