Crisp Criticism - "Central Intelligence", "The BFG", "O.J.: Made in America"

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Julien Faddoul

Central Intelligence *

After he reunites with an old pal through Facebook, a mild-mannered accountant is lured into the world of international espionage.

At times funny – certainly more than anything its two stars have done before – but ultimately hesitant action comedy on homoerotic relationships.

d – Rawson Marshall Thurber

w – Ike Barinholtz, David Stassen, Rawson Marshall Thurber

ph – Barry Peterson

pd – Stephen J. Lineweaver

m – Ludwig Göransson, Theodore Shapiro 

ed – Michael L. Sale

cos – Carol Ramsey

p – Peter Principato, Scott Stuber, Paul Young

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Aaron Paul, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicolet, Ryan Hansen, Bobby Brown, Megan Park, Timothy John Smith

Crisp Criticism - "Independence Day: Resurgence", "Louder Than Bombs", "Everybody Wants Some", "Genius"

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Julien Faddoul

Independence Day: Resurgence

Two decades after the first Independence Day invasion, Earth is faced with a new extra-Solar threat.

As atrocious as a blockbuster can get: A noisy, incoherent mess in which nothing on screen is even remotely believable, either thematically or aesthetically. It attempts to differentiate itself from the original while remaining in every instance completely derivative, with the most cynical of endings.

d – Roland Emmerich

w – Nicolas Wright, James A. Woods, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, James Vanderbilt   (Based on the Characters by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich)

ph – Markus Förderer

pd – Barry Chusid

m – Harald Kloser, Thomas Wanker

ed – Adam Wolfe

cos – Lisy Christl

p – Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser

Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick St. Esprit, Joey King, Jessie Usher, Chin Han, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Maika Monroe, William Fichtner, Vivica A. Fox, Sela Ward, Brent Spiner

Crisp Criticism - "Warcraft", "Me Before You", "Miles Ahead", "Sunset Song"

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Julien Faddoul

Warcraft

The backstory of a video game.

Atrocious, laughable, dumbfounding piece of pulp fiction based on a video game that makes the catastrophic choice to treat everything with the utmost seriousness. The result is a riotous exercise in ridicule, from the characters’ appearance to the juvenile narrative.

d – Duncan Jones

w – Duncan Jones, Charles Leavitt   (Based on the Characters by Chris Metzen)

ph – Simon Duggan

pd – Gavin Bocquet

m – Ramin Djawadi

ed – Paul Hirsch

cos – Mayes C. Rubeo

p – Stuart Fenegan, Alex Gartner, Jon Jashni, Charles Roven, Thomas Tull

Cast: Paula Patton, Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster, Robert Kazinsky, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Daniel Wu, Clancy Brown, Ruth Negga, Daniel Cudmore, Callum Keith Rennie, Ryan Robbins, Burkley Duffield, Donnie MacNeil

Finding Dory (2016/US)

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Julien Faddoul

*** (3 stars)

d – Andrew Stanton

co-d – Angus MacLane

w – Andrew Stanton, Victoria Strouse

ph – Ian Megibben, Jeremy Lasky

pd – Steve Pilcher

m – Thomas Newman

ed – Axel Geddes

p – Lindsey Collins

Cast: Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Hayden Rolence, Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Idris Elba, Dominic West, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger

Like many cinephiles, my obsession with cinema began as a child. That’s when I first secured grasp of its language, its rhythms, its cadency and its philosophy, as well as the confidence that cinema is a living thing that is constantly evolving, creating an amalgamation of all the images and all the sounds of all the movies. It was also during childhood that I discovered that not everyone felt this way. Not only did they not understand what I was talking about, they didn’t want to. This led to the speculation of “Well, what do they feel when they see a film”?

Crisp Criticism - "Now You See Me 2", "The Conjuring 2", "High-Rise"

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Julien Faddoul

Now You See Me 2

The Four Horsemen resurface and are forcibly recruited by a tech genius to pull off their most impossible heist yet.

About as dumb as a movie can get, with ugly scenarios, nonsensical developments and a cast who all look embarrassed to be there.

d – John M. Chu

w – Ed Solomon, Pete Chiarelli   (Based on the Characters by Boaz Yakin, Edward Ricourt)

ph – Peter Deming

pd – Sharon seymour

m – Brian Tyler

ed – Stan Salfas

cos – Anna B. Sheppard  

p – Bobby Cohen, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Radcliffe, Jay Chou, Henry Lloyd-Hughes

Crisp Criticism - "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows", "Money Monster", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople"

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Julien Faddoul

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows *

As Shredder joins forces with mad scientist Baxter Stockman and henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady to take over the world, the Turtles must confront an even greater nemesis: the notorious Krang.

Agreeable, at times even engaging piece of schlock that certainly eclipses its predecessor in everyway. It achieves this by substituting ersatz grit for simple cartooniness. Despite this, it still remains unsatisfactory due to its reliance on expected bombast and crassness.

d – Dave Green

w – Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec   (Based on the Characters by Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman)

ph – Lula Carvalho

pd – Martin Laing

m – Steve Jablonsky

ed – Bob Ducsay, Jim May

cos – Sarah Edwards

p – Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Bradley Fuller, Scott Mednick, Galen Walker

Cast: Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Will Arnett, Laura Linney, Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Tony Shalhoub, Tyler Perry, Brian Tee, Gary Anthony Williams, Stephen Farrelly, Alessandra Ambrosio, Brad Garrett