Crisp Criticism - "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back", "Cafe Society", "Shin Godzilla", "Keeping Up with the Joneses"

by

Julien Faddoul

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

Jack Reacher returns to the headquarters of his old unit, only to find out he's now accused of a 16-year-old homicide.

Dull, visually flat sequel that feels so inconsequential it just about evaporates before your eyes. It’s star seems even more miscast than before and Zwick seems to have lost all the aptitude he once had.

d – Edward Zwick

w – Richard Wenk, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz   (Based on the Book by Lee Child)

ph – Oliver Wood

pd – Clay A. Griffith

m – Henry Jackman

ed – Billy Weber

cos – Lisa Lovaas

p – Don Granger, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie

Cast: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge, Danika Yarosh, Patrick Heusinger, Holt McCallany, Austin Hébert

Café Society **

In the 1930s, a young Bronx native moves to Hollywood, where he falls in love with the secretary of his powerful uncle, an agent to the stars.

In collaborating for the first time with Storaro, Allen creates what is clearly his most visually ravishing film in decades. But his plot goes everywhere he’s been before including mismatched couples and societal misapprehension.

wd – Woody Allen

ph – Vittorio Storaro

pd – Santo Loquasto

ed – Alisa Lepselter

cos – Suzy Benzinger

p – Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Edward Walson

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Steve Carell, Parker Posey, Corey Stoll, Ken Stott, Anna Camp, Stephen Kunken, Sari Lennick, Paul Schneider, Tony Sirico

Shin Godzilla *

Japan is plunged into chaos upon the appearance of a giant monster.

Japanese reboot of its most famous monster that works as a sort of referendum on the 2014 US film (clearly, the Japanese weren’t impressed). Fun for some of the time.

wd – Hideaki Anno

co-d – Shinji Higuchi

ph – Kosuke Yamada

pd – Yûji Hayashida, Eri Sakushima

m – Shiro Sagisu

ed – Hideaki Anno, Atsuki Sato

p – Yoshihiro Satô, Masaya Shibusawa, Taichi Ueda, Kazutoshi Wadakura

Cast: Hiroki Hasegawa, Satomi Ishihara, Yutaka Takenouchi, Kengo Kora, Matsuo Satoru, Mikako Ichikawa, Kazuo Takahashi, Kanji Tsuda, Shinya Tsukamoto

Keeping Up with the Joneses

A suburban couple becomes embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbors are government spies.

Mediocre and implausible action/comedy which won’t be amusing to anyone who has seen this kind of thing even half as many times as I have.

d – Greg Mottola

w – Michael Lesieur

ph – Andrew Dunn

pd – Mark Ricker

m – Jake Monaco

ed – David Rennie

cos – Ruth E. Carter

p – Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald

Cast: Gal Gadot, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, Zach Galifianakis, Maribeth Monroe, Jona Xiao, Fred Galle, Matt Walsh, Patton Oswalt, Kevin Dunn