Spectre
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
Three years ago, director Sam Mendes took the reins of the Bond franchise, pitting cyber terrorism against old fashioned knuckle and grit, employing the most talented international actors working, and crafting the single best 007 film of its then 50-year legacy, Skyfall. Heck, it might have even had the best song. That’s a big martini glass to fill with a follow up, and his Spectre can’t quite live up.
In what’s rumored to be Daniel Craig’s last go-round as Bond, cybercrime and the possible end of the Double O program are again the causes of conflict. M (Ralph Feinnes) has a new boss who’s more interested in a global surveillance than man-on-the-ground spying, but Bond can’t be worried about that right now. He has a secret mission and an old adversary to deal with.
Christoph Waltz, an ideal candidate as a Bond villain, is the puppet master, and through him Mendes gets to toss in scores of nods and winks to the entire span of 007 films. There are gadgets, familiar names, enormous henchmen, Bond girls, elaborately staged chases, cheeky one-liners, and cocktails being “shaken, not stirred.” There’s even a board meeting of evil worthy of an Austin Powers film or a Simpsons send-up.
There’s too little else, though.
The film starts off gloriously enough with a brilliantly filmed action piece set in Mexico City’s Day of the Dead parade, but Mendes and crew soon settle into a muddled, anti-climactic mishmash of old tropes and familiar ideas. Spectre offers dozens of gorgeously framed, eerily lit, elegant images, but the drama and style of the previous effort are missing.
Shallow writing full of ludicrous sequencing and convenient decisions rob the film of the resonance Skyfall offered. Lined up against most Bond efforts, Spectre is a fun, lively bit of entertainment. It just so badly misses the high water mark left by Skyfall that it can’t help but feel like a let-down.
Miss You Already
by George Wolf. MaddWolf.com
Sometimes a film will earn a hands-over-eyes moment, as you fidget in your seat from the awkward situation playing out on screen.
Other times, or in the case of Miss You Already, several other times, you’re just struggling to understand what about this project appealed to these actors.
Both Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette should be above this trite episode, but here they are, outperforming the script at every turn.
Milly (Collette) and Jess (Barrymore) have been best friends since childhood, when a family move to London made Jess the lone American in Milly’s grade school classroom. Director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) assembles a rushed introduction where opening montages and narration stand in for character development, and then it’s off the races with these two lovable crazies!
And we know they’re wild and unpredictable because Jess actually says “You’ve done some crazy (stuff) in the past, but this..!”
Milly is married with kids, while Jess and her husband are struggling to conceive. Finally there is good news on the pregnancy test front, but it’s bad timing. Milly has gotten an unexpected cancer diagnosis, and all involved are struggling to understand just how to help Milly cope through a difficult time.
Absolutely nothing about Miss You Already feels authentic. Writer Morwenna Banks provides characters that don’t really talk to each other, they just trade witty repartee until it’s time to stop and get melodramatic about Milly’s illness. I’m not making light of cancer (I’ve had it), but a scene where Milly and her husband give a presentation to the kids about mom’s disease is almost cringe-worthy.
Completely forced and frequently maudlin, Miss You Already aims for heartwarming chick flick while landing squarely on warmed over weeper.
Cub
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
Does this story sound familiar? Friends head into the woods, run into some trouble finding their exact camping spot, settle for an “almost right” spot, tell campfire stories about a lurker in the bushes, and die.
If it doesn’t sound familiar, you are new.
So why, then, is Cub (Welp) immediately scarier than other campground slashers?
Because they’re all little kids.
That is correct. It’s a group of wee Belgian scouts out on their big camping excursion into the wrong damn woods.
Co-writer/director Jonas Govaerts uses that small twist to build a lot of tension as imaginative little Sam (Maurice Luijten) – a boy with an uncertain yet tragic past – believes the campfire tales of Kai, a feral boy who hunts the nearby woods.
Govaerts knows how to wring anxiety as he unveils character, beginning with a group countdown as Sam sprints to try to make the truck that’s leaving for camp. Then there’s a run in with unfriendly French hoods claiming the right to the original camp site, not to mention the inner-troop skirmishes for hierarchy. Childhood is tough, tribalism is brutal, and camping in the woods is just plain stupid. If you don’t know that, again, you are new. No one survives the woods.
Most of the film’s success is due to the strong performances, particularly from Luijten, who is equal parts adorable, earnest, and impressionable. The adult cast is solid enough in a film that knows its territory and agrees to do what it can without redefining anything.
Which, of course, is also Cub’s biggest weakness.
Though Govaerts foreshadows quite well, and his camera captures both the wonder and terror of the woods, he can’t entirely overcome the template he’s chosen for his film. The entire effort just feels too familiar.
That doesn’t make the film an outright disappointment, either. There are bright, gnarly moments here and there. Govaerts just can’t finally deliver all the goods.
