X Men Days of Future Past, English Hollywood Film Movie review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * *

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Action entertainer but without the Sparkle

English Film review

Johnson Thomas

Film: X-Men: Days of the Future Past

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Hennifer Lawrebce, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen

Director: Bryan Singer

Rating: *  *  *

  

Back at the helm of the Fox/Marvel franchise he successfully launched 14 years ago, director Bryan Singer stages a stealth reboot by introducing a playful time-travel element to the ongoing saga, bringing two generations of mutantkind together in a story that toggles cleverly (if not always 100% coherently) between the political tumult of 1973 and a not-so-distant dystopian future. Singer’s This film lies somewhere in between all X men films, in terms of period- bu that’s not all, the future is also part of this repost. The non-linear narrative follows characters who travel in time to prevent a future apocalypse. Entirely of the paint-by-numbers, Plot driven kind, this film is also not very distinctive in it’s look. The action is less than superlative and the exposition lacks wattage in terms of dialogue. There’s a lot of movement going back and forth in time but the sense of urgency and tension is missing. 

The movie starts in the future. A murder of mutants led by benevolent Charles "Professor X" Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and frenemy Erik "Magneto" Lehnsherr (Ian McKellen) conspire to save both human and mutantkind from shape-shifting, killer robot Sentinels. To prevent the Sentinels from becoming government-sanctioned weapons, the mutants send Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to 1973 to stop Raven "Mystique" Darkholme (Jennifer Lawrence) from murdering the Sentinels' creator, Bolivar Trask ("Games of Thrones"'s Peter Dinklage). And in the process, Logan is forced to motivate and re-unite younger versions of Raven, Xavier (James McAvoy), and Magneto (Michael Fassbender)-  who don’t make this species saving expedition easy!

 

"Days of Future Past" is the seventh X-Men movie since 2000.  Singer (director of the franchise's three best films) and screenwriter Simon Kinberg make the spiel confident and entertaining with signature action and short expedient dialogue. The very basis for it’s existence seems a little out-of-the-blue. While the film begins in the dystopian future, it moves into the past quickly and allows for little scope for the fringe players Peter Maximoff(Evan peters), Bishop(Omar Sy) and future versions of Xavier and Magneto.  Halle Berry’s Storm , Shawn Ashmore’s Iceman and Anna Paquin’s Rogue suffer through blink-and-you-miss-it appearance.

 

“Days of Future Past” embraces specific historical moments  sending Mystique off to Saigon to rescue a squad of mutants from Trask’s clutches and including a subplot suspecting Magneto’s role in the JFK assassination. Working from Simon Kinberg’s screenplay (very loosely adapted from an “X-Men” comicbook storyline by Chris Claremont and John Byrne), Singer’s moves are smooth and easily transient. Though not spectacular, the action has dash and style.

 

More importantly, there are some key character flaws, such as young Xavier's need to take a drug that removes his powers but gives him the ability to walk, which are barely developed. When he walks he loses his mutant ability of telepathy and while he endures his wheelchair bound existence, his powers come out in full flow. There isn’t much development happening other than in the form of dialogue. The explanations are all in words, not visuals.  Xavier has knowledge of what ails Raven, Erik and himself, yet isn’t much into the rescue effort. If you can forget that there’s not much solidity in story, you could be rewarded by some fun entertainment. Great pacing, and some deftly executed sequences get the pulse rate going. Action is steady. The graphics animation and FX wizardry are not consistently up-to-the-mark though. As a result you feel entertained but not enthralled!

Johnsont307@gmail.com                                      

American Hustle, Hollywood English Film movie reviews, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * * 1/2

English Film review

Johnson Thomas

Typically American com-undrum!

 

Film: American Hustle(English)

Cast: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Jack Huston, Michael Pena

Director: David O Russell

Rating: *  *  * ½

This is typical American cinema- a talk heavy con within a con spoofy drama with sharply etched performances.

Director David O. Russell's fictional period crime drama is about a reckless FBI agent who recruits a con man and his alluring British partner into a scheme to gain the upper hand over other talented swindlers. Loud fashions and outsized shades abound from the first scene, in which paunchy, middle-aged Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) fusses with an elaborate hairpiece. It’s an intro that is quite telling. 

The screenwriters may have changed their characters’ names but most knowing viewers will recognize Irving as a stand-in for Mel Weinberg, a Long Island scam artist who joined forces with the FBI to avoid prison time. Out of that unlikely partnership emerged Abscam, an audacious sting operation that pushed federal undercover work to controversial new levels of manipulation and entrapment, resulting in the bribery convictions for seven congressmen and various other government officials in 1981.

 

Irving, is shown as a smooth-talking relatively honorable small-time hustler: He owns a legit dry-cleaning business but moonlights as an art forger and loan shark, bilking desperate applicants out of a few thousand dollars at a time. But things change when he falls hard for smart, beautiful redhead Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), an unlikely kindred spirit who, with the worldly alias of a British businesswoman named Lady Edith, swiftly moves Irving’s scam into the big leagues.

 

When renegade FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper) thrusts the deceptive duo into the treacherous world of New Jersey power players and underworld heavies, the thrill of the grift grows too strong to resist. Meanwhile, New Jersey politician Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) gets caught in the middle, and Rosenfeld's capricious wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) holds more power than anyone could imagine.

It’s not a smooth enough con to pull-off. But it’s certainly ambitious and fitfully entertaining.  As directed by that master of modern farce,David O. Russell, this fictionalized account is less a dramatic FBI procedural than a human comedy writ largely on themes of duplicity and paranoia against a dazzling ’70s backdrop. The performances are all keeping with the mood and setting momentum for the narrative that tries hard to pull off a bigger con- By skimming over it’s indulgent length, and lack of emotional payoff!

Russell  and co-screenwriter Eric Warren Singer (“The International”) chart a shaggy, meandering journey across a sweeping and colorful true-crime canvas. Production designer Judy Becker, costume designer Michael Wilkinson, composer Danny Elfman and above all music supervisor Susan Jacobs — have managed to imbue the experience with  a palpable delight in the garish excesses of the era-mid-’70s New Jersey milieu.   The Director goes for style over substance in a major way and the result is an intermittently involving production !

Johnsont307@gmail.com