Crisp Criticism - "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies", "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb", "The Water Diviner", "The Book of Life"

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Julien Faddoul

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The story concludes, beginning mere seconds after the previous film.

Shorter than the previous two films but even more laborious, with battle after battle with no incentives. Good effects.

d – Peter Jackson

w – Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro   (Based on the Novel by J.R.R. Tolkien)

ph – Andrew Lesnie

pd – Dan Hennah

m – Howard Shore

ed – Jabez Olssen

cos – Richard Taylor, Bob Buck, Ann Maskrey

p – Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Zane Weiner

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Stephen Fry, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Cate Blanchett, Mikael Persbrandt

Retrospective: The Last 25 Years of Walt Disney Animation Studios

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Julien Faddoul

The Jeffrey Katzenberg Era

The Little Mermaid (1989) ***

A mermaid falls in love with a prince and longs to be human.

The film that opened the door for the Disney Renaissance, reestablishing the commitment to superior animation and an excellent score. The rampant sentimentality is forgiven.

Writer/Director – John Musker, Ron Clements

Music – Alan Menken

Lyrics – Howard Ashman

Original Score – Alan Menken

Art Director – Michael A. Peraza, Donald A. Towns

Editor – John Carnochan

Visual Effects Supervisor – Mark Dindal

Layout Supervisor – David A. Dunnet

Background Supervisor – Donald A. Towns

Clean-Up Supervisor – Vera Lanpher

Supervising Animators

Mark Henn

Glen Keane

Duncan Marjoribanks

Ruben A. Aquino

Andreas Deja

Matthew O’Callaghan

Producer – Howard Ashman, John Musker

Cast: Rene Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Paddi Edwards, Buddy Hackett, Jason Marin, Kenneth Mars, Edie McClurg, Will Ryan, Ben Wright, Samuel E. Wright

Crisp Criticism - "Annie", "Horrible Bosses 2", "St. Vincent"

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Julien Faddoul

Annie

A foster kid, who lives with her mean foster mom, sees her life change when a business tycoon and New York mayoral candidate makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in.

Icky stock confection taped together with fabricated vocals and some truly atrocious acting.

d – Will Gluck

w – Will Gluck, Aline Brosh McKenna   (Based on the Musical Book by Thomas Meehan)

ph – Michael Grady

pd – Marcia Hinds

m – Greg Kurstin

ed – Tia Nolan

cos – Renee Ehrlich Kalfus

p – Jay Brown, Will Gluck, James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett Smith, Caleeb Pinkett, Tyran Smith, Will Smith, Jay-Z

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Quvenzhane Wallis, Cameron Diaz, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Big Hero 6 (US/2014)

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Julien Faddoul

*** (3 stars)

d – Don Hall, Chris Williams

w – Jordan Roberts, Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson   (Based on the Characters Created by Duncan Rouleau, Steven T. Seagle)

pd – Paul Felix

m – Henry Jackman

ed – Tim Mertens

p – Roy Conli

Cast: Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, James Cromwell, Alan Tudyk, Maya Rudolph

In reading other reviews of Big Hero 6, the 54^th feature film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, many critics seem to be pestered by the film’s association with Marvel Studios. The Marvel brand has, in this day and age, become a classification of its own. The movie has flying jetpacks, a gigantic city under destruction, a superhero who self-sacrifices and a Stan Lee cameo – all things that have become tiresome tropes in big-budget Marvel moviemaking. Many have identified these aspects to explain their drudging experience.

Crisp Criticism - "Serena", "Get on Up", "Why Don’t You Play in Hell?"

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Julien Faddoul

Serena *

Set in 1930s North Carolina, a man’s timber empire is in jeopardy when it becomes clear that his wife is as barren as the land he harvests.

Once again, Bier’s blockheaded use of metaphor paralyzes her own drama here, as well as the miscasting of her two leads.

d – Susanne Bier

w – Christopher Kyle   (Based on the Book by Ron Rash)

ph – Morten Søborg

pd – Richard Bridgland

m – Johan Söderqvist

ed – Pernille Bech Christensen, Matthew Newman, Simon Webb

cos – Signe Sejlund

p – Ben Cosgrove, Mark Cuban, Paula Mae Schwartz, Steve Schwartz, Todd Wagner, Nick Wechsler

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Toby Jones, Sean Harris, Sam Reid, Blake Ritson

Crisp Criticism - "Night Crawler", "Exodus: Gods and Kings", "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"

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Julien Faddoul

Nightcrawler *

An unemployment lunatic, who has been driven to thievery, finds a job in the world of LA crime journalism.

Unsettling thriller/black comedy that is far too satisfied with itself and its rather obvious delineations on the corruption of human decency to be at all illuminating, despite a committed central performance.

wd – Dan Gilroy

ph – Robert Elswit

pd – Kevin Kavanaugh

m – James Newton Howard

ed – John Gilroy

cos – Amy Westcott

p – Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal, David Lancaster, Michel Litvak

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal. Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton

Crisp Criticism - "The Theory of Everything", "What If", "Men, Women & Children"

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Julien Faddoul

The Theory of Everything *

A retelling of the relationship between famous physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife.

Flat and dull biopic with only the occasional insightful observation seeping through its tameness. It’s ironic that a film about a man who was so revolutionary can be so stodgy.

d – James Marsh

w – Anthony McCarten   (Based on the Book by Jane Hawking)

ph – Benoit Delhomme

pd – John Paul Kelly

m – Johann Johannsson

ed – Jinx Godfrey

cos – Steven Noble

p – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Maxine Peake, Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, David Thewlis, Abigail Cruttenden, Guy Oliver-Watts

Crisp Criticism - "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1", "Maps to the Stars", "The Homesman"

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Julien Faddoul

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

Katniss Everdeen reluctantly becomes the symbol of a mass rebellion against the autocratic Capitol.

Under-lit, choppy and shapeless film that serves merely as set-up for the next installment.

d – Francis Lawrence  

w – Peter Craig, Danny Strong   (Based on the Novel by Suzanne Collins)

ph – Jo Willems  

pd – Philip Messina 

m – James Newton Howard  

ed – Alan Edward Bell, Mark Yoshikawa  

cos – Kurt and Bart

p – Nina Jacobson, Jon Kilik

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Natalie Dormer, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone

Interstellar (2014/US)

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Julien Faddoul

* (1 star)

d – Christopher Nolan

w – Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan

ph – Hoyte Van Hoytema

pd – Nathan Crowley

m – Hans Zimmer

ed – Lee Smith

cos – Mary Zophres 

p – Christopher Nolan, Lynda Obst, Emma Thomas

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Wes Bentley, Matt Damon, Mackenzie Foy, David Gyasi, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, Timothée Chalamet, Bill Irwin, Josh Stewart

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is a bold film. It has an urgency and a sense of concord that is evident in all his films. Regrettably, as his career has progressed, that urgency has turned to bombast and that sense of concord has become more like pacification. Interstellar contains all these things, but unfortunately, the latter outweigh the former.

Crisp Criticism - "Fury", "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya", "Listen Up Philip"

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Julien Faddoul

Fury

As WWII approaches its end, a tank of five men are ordered to go on a mission behind enemy lines.

Violent American WWII film that despite clear attempts to take the material seriously becomes marinated in its own heavy-handedness. It remains merely a wallow in machismo dramatics.

wd – David Ayer

ph – Roman Vasyanov

pd – Andrew Menzies

m – Steven Price

ed – Jay Cassidy, Dody Dorn

cos – Owen Thornton

p – David Ayer, Bill Block, John Lesher, Ethan Smith

Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, Jim Parrack, Brad William Henke, Kevin Vance