The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

YA book to movie adaptations are a dime a dozen now thanks to the enormous success of titles such as Harry Potter, Twilight, and most recently The Hunger Games. But every genre has its run and since the recent adaptations of Beautiful Creatures, The Host, and Percy Jackson floundered to flopped, it feels like this type of movie has seen the last gasps. Maybe The Mortal Instruments and the yet to be released Divergent series will turn that around....but maybe not.

Clary Fray is an ordinary teen living with her mom in New York...sure she draws weird symbols in her sleep and apparently has only one friend in Simon Lewis but her life is fine. Until she goes to a night club and sees a band of mysterious teens apparently stab a young man to death in the middle of the night club....and then realize she's the only one who can see it. Turns out when her mom disappears and she finally hooks up with this group, who really aren't the bad guys, that she is part Shadowhunter. An ancient order of beings descended from the Nephilim (half angel, half human warriors) who's job is to hunt out demons among the mundanes (humans) and apparently keep downworlders (vampires, werewolves, warlocks, witches, and fairies) in order. Complicated plot to say the least...and that is just the beginning....

City of Bones will be compared to every teen flick before it, and mostimes justly. It could probably be called 'The Host of Twilights Games between Beautiful Creatures at Hogwarts' honestly. But just because it came after all of those doesn't mean its not better than most. I can say I only enjoyed two of those referenced more than I enjoyed City of Bones, mainly because this story has teeth. Obviously like most things, the book is better than the movie, but if you like your teen angst movies with a little more blood, a little more darkness, and a little more twistedness (in the story and the relationships) than you will love The City of Bones.

The Butler

Oprah Winfrey rarely attaches her well known name to a feature film. But this Oscar bait film about an African American butler employed in the White House was to tempting to refuse. With a cast studded with names like Forrest Wittaker, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrance Howard, John Cusack, Robin Williams, Leiv Schreiber, and Jane Fonda and the already Oscar buzz I couldn't refuse it either...

                                  

Cecil Gains knows how to serve. As a black man in the early 1900s he isn't given a lot of choice about it but he is good at it and he likes it. Cecil knows as a black man in a white man’s world he should be silent unless spoken to, secretive about his politics, and completely compliant with whatever is asked of him. His good service is recognized by a white house executive while visiting a swank restaurant and Cecil is given the chance of a lifetime: to be a butler at the white house. Cecil of course excepts and is privy to presidents meetings and conversations during some of history’s most memorable civil rights moments including Federal integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Riders, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panther Party, the Vietnam War, the Nixon Resignation, the Free South Africa Movement, and Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

I can't refuse a true story, or an Oscar bait movie, or a good cast, or a period piece...  The Butler has all of the above. I enjoyed the story of Cecil Gains very much and would quickly watch it again. Unfortunately at the end of the movie history is muddled in the racial politics of Barack Obama's presidential election and the story of an incredible man reads like a campaign message. The Butler is a movie I couldn't refuse, the politics I can.

Paranoia

Paranoia. First off Paranoia is a pretty cool, one word title. Most people in the world are paranoid about one thing or another. Second, Paranoia has a killer cast (Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Liam Hemsworth) and third: Paranoia has an interesting plot about corporate espionage. With all of this going for it, one has to wonder what could go wrong. (Besides how many times it's possible to write the word 'Paranoia' in a review...

Adam Cassidy has no delusions about the world. He knows that hard work, a good education, and a likable personality aren’t enough to succeed in this world. One has to have something, someone can’t refuse. An idea special enough to get recognized. So when he and his associates are shot down pretty quick and then fired while making a presentation to technology guru Nicholas Wyatt of Wyatt Industries he gets a little mad. He and his buddies then go out on the town...on the company card. Wyatt though is a nice guy and is willing to forgive Adam his $16,000 debt. That is, IF Adam is willing to go to work for Jock Goddard, Wyatt's competition, and steal company secrets. Adam is then forced into a battle between giants in the techno world where lies, bribery, and murder is all part of a day’s work.

Every summer you have the lower budget movies that try to compete in the heavily funded Hollywood market. Most times they live up to their budget and are just mediocre movies. 2013 has been the year of the fantastic low budget movies. Movies that I went into with low expectations and then left with a new Top Five Favorite Movies of the Year contender. Movies like The Great Gatsby, Now You See Me, and The Purge. Unfortunately Paranoia fails to continue that trend. It comes so close to delivering the jaw dropping twist but just falls short. I loved the movie right up until the last ten minutes. Then it devolves into a completely blanket, dumb, and unexciting ending. It felt like the writer/director wanted to deliver the knock out left hook but was scared to take the chance…and the movie suffers for it. Paranoia is a movie that could’ve been a homerun, but instead settled for a softer, less risky bunt.

Elysium

Neill Blomkamp is known for his gritty, politically themed movie District 9 which used sci-fi as a backdrop to tell about racism and cruelty. Now with a more stellar cast Blomkamp is using the genre again as a back drop for the political thriller Elysium and proves once again that it works.

Its 2154 and life sucks here on Earth. Overpopulation and poverty are the new normal and thieving is necessary for survival. Thankfully there is a place that doesn't suck so bad, a place that takes its name from the home of the gods in old mythology, but a place that is nigh impossible to get into unless you are the richest of the rich. That place is Elysium. Max Da Costa has dreamed of going to Elysium since he was a boy in an orphanage with his best friend Frey and has tried to get the money all his life. But crime still doesn't pay in 2154. Now Max is trying to walk the straight and narrow, working hard, and clinging on to the hope that things will get better. Unfortunately before that has a chance of happening Max is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and is given five days to live. His only hope at surviving is to do the impossible and break into Elysium and Frey asks him to do the same for her daughter who has leukemia. But getting out of the hell on earth and into the heaven of Elysium is easier said than done.

Elysium has a much more complicated plot then the little summery above but that is all I can reveal without spoiling the fantastic finale. There will be many comparisons of District 9 and Elysium, some of them fair and some of them not. They both are gritty takes of a complicated futuristic world. Both have stirring political themes. I can honestly say that I thought Elysium was the better movie. I enjoyed the characters and plot more. There have been a lot of sci-fi movies this summer, some I liked, some I didn't. Very rare does Hollywood offer a gritty sci-fi thriller that is compelling on all levels but Neill Blomkamp knows what he's doing and he delivers a gem in Elysium.

We're The Millers

We're The Millers has a lot to bait and hook audiences. The cast includes comedy alums such as Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn and Ed Helms plus the newcomers Emma Roberts and Will Poulter. The plot is compellingly comedic and the chemistry between the actors is spot on.

David Clark is living the life. Sure his next door neighbor/stripper Rose won’t give him the time of day and his downstairs neighbor Kenny is driving him crazy but he spends his days surfing on YouTube and dealing pot to run down mothers and bored business men. As an old college buddy says he "could disappear tomorrow and nobody would even know." Not in a bad way! Unfortunately that streak of good luck ends when his backpack full of drugs and money is stolen and he goes into deep debt with his supplier Brad. No worries though, Brad has a way for David to pay him back: trot down to Mexico and bring back a 'smidge and a half' of marijuana. Of course David looks just like a drug dealer so how can he become an international drug smuggler? By hiring Rose, Kenny, and a homeless girl to be his family and using an RV to transport the contraband. But this is no typical family vacation...

We're The Millers does have a lot to bait and hook audiences. You will be drawn into the kooky plot with the equally kooky characters. You will laugh at the snarky lines, cringe at the awkward situations, and smile at the predictable but not corny family resolution. Now if you like the raunchiness of the R rated comedy romps then you will enjoy this movie. But if you're like me, the bait of this movie will be a little hard to swallow when you have the crassness of the hook sticking in your lip.

2 Guns

August is usually known as the month that Hollywood throws any junk films that can carry the Superhero/Action Packed/Summer season into the Oscar Hopeful/Grown Up Dramas season. Sometimes there is a big surprise when a truly good movie finds its release date in August. Then still sometimes what looks like a good movie with A-list actors actually deserves a B movie release date.

Robert Trench and Michael Stigman are undercover agents posing as thugs working to bring down Mexican drug lord Papi Greco. They plan to rob a bank Papi uses to hide a small, 3 million dollar part of his earnings, and use the money as evidence in a RICO case. Unfortunately Trench is working with DEA and Stigman is NCIS and neither knows about the other, each think of each other as another thug to be brought down in the case. When they rob the bank and discover it actually holds 43 million dollars and none of it is Papis AND that they are actually allies, both being duped by their respective agencies AND that the money is actually the CIAs... Yeah lets just say the story gets a little complex and the action a little ridiculous.

2 Guns is like its heroes: not what it appears to be. I thought going into it that it would be a buddy cop action drama with a little comedy and maybe a little romance. What it actually is a full blown comedy, enough action to keep you interested, and pretty much an antiromance. Denzel is perfectly cast as a sure-of-himself, "I-know-a-guy", cynic and Walhberg is just as perfectly cast as the arrogant, wise-cracking, eager boyman who is completely unconcerned with openly humiliating cartel lords. The chemistry between these two is absolutely perfect throughout the whole movie and this is the only thing that makes this movie worth watching. There is the most brilliant comedic sketch in years involving Walhberg and some doomed chickens that had the audience in tears. Unfortunately when the movie tries to be smart with its seemingly complex but actually completely predictable plot, the storyline falls flat. So is this the surprise movie of August? I don't think so. It may be a good B movie but it remains a B movie.