The Circle
by Dave Eggers

read as an iBook 04/29/17
 (also a 2017  movie which I have not seen)


I just finished the book that this movie is based on. In fairness to Emma Watson's acting, her character (Mae) in the novel is superficial, self-obsessed, naive and puerile. Perhaps the director wanted her to duplicate that character. However, while reading about a protagonist who is unbelievably stupid can be difficult, watching that type in a movie is almost impossible. This film is not going bring in the money needed for a profit.

Fortitude

2 seasons with 22 episodes (as of 04/2017) TV series

watched on Amazon Prime 04/22/2017

I am not going to admit to liking this series  I will say it kept me riveted in a binge-watch of one weekend. Fortitude is a fictional town situated in the Norwegian portion of the Arctic. There are only 4 police officers for approximately 700 townspeople.

The violence and visuals of this series go beyond graphic. Nudity, blood, violence, serial killings; this series has it all. The sex is rather mild and infrequent. Many of the characters act calmly and logically in one scene to randomly and bizarrely in the next scene.

I would love to see how the show-runner for this series handles the next plot development should this series be renewed for a season 3.

This series "jumps the shark" so many times that it becomes a metaphorical teacup ride at Disney World.  I was looking for a quirky mystery series.  I found a series that can best be described as Fargo  on Ayahuascha.

I recommend this series to viewers who like the series, American Horror Story, Lost, Game of Thrones, the movie American Psycho and any movie by Ingmar Bergman.

The Fate of the Furious

(#8 in the Fast and The Furious series)

Seen in theater on 04/13/2017

This was a live action cartoon. It was funny and held my attention.

The Fate of The Furious is a great mash-up of the video games Rocket League, Mario Kart with sprinkles of (the "previous" generation) BBC's Top Gear. I mean who needs all those pesky laws of physics and an involved plot when you want to just consume your popcorn and forget all those real-life issues on your smart phone's news feed.

In general the actors who made this film watchable (excluding all the stunts of course) were Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron and another actor (in a short format) who did most of his scenes with Jason Statham and will not be named to avoid spoilers in this review. In a few, too few, short scenes Kurt Russell and Helen Miirren added expert, smart dialogue.

The editing was very fast paced, however I wanted more stunts.  Some of explosions seemed a bit CGI’d, but did not take me out of the movie. I complement the director and writer for not bogging down a fun time with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham with huge amounts of exposition and backstory.

I have only seen a few of the previous 7 movies in this series.  While I am sure that I missed a few Easter eggs, I still had a good time (and plenty of popcorn).

Leonie

(2010)

Watched on Amazon Prime 04/12/2017

Beautiful, riveting and inspiring.

This is film is adapted from a biography of the famous artist and sculptor Isamu Noguchi with the focus on Noguchi's mother, (American) Leonie Gilmour.

Leonie was educated at Bryn Mawr, but she understood that her strong interest in poetry had to come from experience not books. This is how she met a Japanese writer Yone Noguchi, the father of her son Isamu. Leonie had struggles, as a single mother of Isamu and later of her daughter Ailes Gimour. This film presents the portrait of a woman, mother, writer with a love of life and art that she passed down to both children.

The cinematography is beautiful whether focused on America or Japan. The direction never is off, the film flows. The soundtrack made a beautiful frame to hold this movie.  While Emily Mortimer as Leonie was the standout performance, all the actors, whether speaking English or Japanese, were uniformly strong and fully realized personalities.  Looking at the credits, I can see why this movie is such a successful balance between West and East.

Stay for the credits to see some of the accomplishments of Isamu Noguchi. Accomplishments which never would have existed without Leonie's life and choices. I wish this movie was hours longer, but it is a beautiful testament to a unique woman and art.

Ghost In The Shell

seen in theater
March 30, 2017

Surprised at the critical negativity, but I agree it is not a perfect movie. My biggest problem was the bad quality of the 3D (might have been due to theater hardware issues). This film might be more directed to the fans rather than enticing new viewers. I am going to see it again this weekend in 2D. While I am familiar with the anime, I would not classify myself as a knowledgeable fan. However even the way Scarlett Johansson held her body and moved really reminded me of the Major in the anime. Pilou Asbaek as Batou and Takeshi Kitano as Aramaki also felt true to their anime counterparts. I felt that this movie dragged during the corporate scenes (not as bad as Netflix's Iron Fist though). I am a fan of the anime although it has been years since I viewed the films. Even with the opening crawl (not at Star Wars level), this movie probably flows better for those with a basic knowledge of the characters and their world. Not defending the ending, but all the amoral and arrogant scientists along with the CEO appear to be Caucasian, hence the appearance of "the shell", they did not care about the true identities of ghosts within. Perhaps like so many fantasy/science fiction movies Ghost In The Shell used too much time setting up the character and environment forgetting about plot. I was hoping for a better critical reaction to encourage more anime flowing into a wider audience.

Iron Fist

Season 1 - 13 episodes on Netflix March, 2017

I intended to binge this series in one weekend, however I did temporarily stop at episode 6 due to an overload of angst (not mine) and bad character motivation (probably not mine). I am not familiar with the comic character, but Danny Rand seems rather whiney at times. I did finally finish Iron Fist Season 1. While it does improve, it still needs work to have a more successful season 2. I hope that the writers/show-runners take to heart, at least allegorically, that speech that Claire Temple makes in Colleen's dojo towards the end of episode 13. Nice easter egg in episode 13 about 7 1/2 minutes in (upper right corner of screen).

While this series does not match the cohesion and drama of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, it does contain lots of action, unfortunately it also contains lots of corporate executives being rather stupid, disconnected and 2-dimensional.

The actors who shine in this series are, Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing, Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, Wai Ching Ho as Madame Gao and Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth. When one or more is on screen, it provides more glow than the eponymous fist the series title.

With the 13 episodes, I would have devoted at least a single (maybe two) episodes to show Danny Rand growing up, being trained and coming to his conclusion to leave K'un-Lun. Or maybe keeping season 1 to 10 episodes or less would have tightened up the dialogue and plot.

I hear that Iron Fist has been renewed for a season 2. I hope that season 2 is more martial arts than corporate malfeasance.

Power Rangers  (2017)

PG-13 2 hours 4 minutes

(Extra scene midway through credits no extras at conclusion of credits)

                        

I enjoyed this movie. It held my attention. The acting from all principal players was surprisingly good. Elizabeth Banks (as Rita Repulsa) was a somewhat over the top, but that was in line with her character in that Rita has no arc just a colorful cartoonish mania. The 5 rangers along with Zordon all were character-driven. Although Alpha 5 was a truly cartoonish robot (well-voiced by Bill Hader) he was not as omnipresent or cloying in a Jar Jar Binks way.

I went into this movie with only a surface knowledge of the Power Rangers-universe. However there is a 5 -8 minute backstory at the beginning of this movie, which gives the viewer some background. For a smoother entry into the lore of this movie, I would advise a quick Wikipedia read through.

I have heard that this movie has been compared to a combination of the films Chronicle and The Breakfast Club.  I would agree with that comparison, with the addition of the fun, exciting and colorful Transformer battle scenes.

There is a certain commercial entity, which has the best (and possibly the largest) product placement that I have ever seen.  Usually product placement annoys me, but each time that this place was mentioned, I laughed.

Like the television series, this is basically a live action cartoon, but with much better acting, CGI effects and character development than the 20^th century series. Those who come looking for robots smacking each other around will not be disappointed. And for the rest of us who like some plot and character development with our CGI that also is available in enough quantity to feel entertained and enlightened.