‘Pacific Rim’ Brings Forth A True Clash Of Titans And Its Monsterific (Movie Review)
Obviously several thoughts come to mind when explaining that Pacific Rim is about giant robots fighting giant aliens, which includes properties like Transformers or Godzilla. More importantly, it would seem that one’s mind is probably already made up in regards to how seriously they want to take said premise. Even if one is unsure, the film certainly is not. Pacific Rim is larger than life and it knows that. The film is wildly outrageous at times and no matter how much stock is put into the logic behind how this may actually be able to work, physics is not the thing that people have to worry about. Deriving fun from the film is and director Guillermo Del Toro is quite happy putting his imagination on display and letting people consider that for themselves.
When my reviewer Gerard Iribe and Aaron Neuwirth (his Comic-Con 2012 coverage 
When I first learned that Disney was bringing back The Lone Ranger to the big screen I have to admit, I got rather excited. Despite not being a huge fan of Westerns, I have fond childhood memories of the masked fighter of injustice and his white stallion, Silver. Hi-ho Silver! Away! However, I had to check and hit the excitement brakes a few times over the past couple years when I learned about the budget issues and potential delay/cutbacks the production was dealing with and of course when I first saw Johnny Depp’s getup as Tonto. I got a bit squeamish of that image to say the least. This is Tonto? But then came the trailers and as I read more and more about it and the film’s synopsis I thought maybe…just maybe…I can have a little fun with this one. So here we are. It’s 2013 and July 3rd is now upon us! It’s time to saddle up and ride! What say you? 
This is the story of a by-the-book FBI agent teaming up with a sloppy, but dedicated Boston Police detective to take down some bad guys. They are mismatched and hate each other at first, but will have to learn to get along if they want to prove themselves to the other officers and agents. The two will face lots of adversity both from nefarious foes and each other, but they will ultimately use their eventual friendship as a way to work together. Other agents and officers will doubt the work that these two do, in an attempt to uncover the truth regarding secret drug shipments and heinous criminal activities, including violent murders, but hopefully they will prevail anyway. These are classic buddy cop movie elements and they have been applied to this film which teams up Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in a comedy that is hit or miss…mostly miss.
Make no mistake, I’m solely doing this review for my girlfriend. Am I not a nice guy or what? After seeing Melissa McCarthy in this year’s Identity Thief I absolutely wanted nothing to do with her ever again. I grew so tired and disgusted hearing her cuss and drop endless F-bombs for absolutely no reason at all over and over again throughout that film. It was funny in Bridesmaids, but enough is enough, woman. You are not the second coming. You are not funnier than The Hangover (unless we are talking exclusively Part III). So needless to say, even though I chuckled a few times during the initial trailers for The Heat, I really wanted to be left out in the “cold” for this one. Sometimes you just got to suck it up and do things others want to do or see too, right? Of course, horse! 
World War Z is a big surprise and in a very favorable way. As a big fan of the gripping 2006 novel by Max Brooks (Son of Mel), everything I saw in the footage and news leading up to the release of the film adaptation indicated disaster. It seemed that everything about the book, with the exception of the title, was scrapped in order to make for a summer action film. That actually is what essentially happened in this film, but the surprising part is how enjoyable I found it to be. While this film has little to offer in the way of social commentary or political undertones in the ways all the best zombies films do, it has plenty of thrills and real confidence in the way the action and mayhem is presented. Despite all the production issues and a less satisfying third act, World War Z has far more confidence in its presentation than I expected and it plays as a solid piece of entertainment depicting a pandemic on a global scale.
I wonder how many of my reviews for Pixar films begin with how I approach their studio with a lot of faith, given their track record. The notion to mention favorites from the beloved animation studio is also a tendency. It really should not matter and maybe in another 5-10 years, they will be just another studio that does not need to be called out for their past films. With all of that in mind, regardless of whatever Pixar has done in the past and how their newer films stack up, I can that I had a lot of fun with Monsters University, the prequel to 2001’s Monsters, Inc. It is a funny, bright, and colorful underdog story that relies on a lot of good-natured humor to make up for its traditional plotting. The emotional resonance is there, as per usual with Pixar, but the film is about as affecting as it needs to be, for a film that sets out to simply be a fun, all-ages comedy.
It feels like this movie has been in production for so long that it would be a miracle if it was any good. Let’s take a quick look back and count the ways World War Z has suffered from setbacks. First thing first, Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment, first secured film rights in 2007 from the novel of the same name by Max Brooks. That’s when director Marc Forster was first approached to direct. Things proceeded slowly as Matthew Michael Carnahan was hired to write the screenplay in 2009 and filming didn’t begin until around July 2011. The movie originally was set for a December 2012 release date. However, in July 2012 the film’s release date was pushed back and seven weeks of reshoots were scheduled. Wow! That’s right…seven weeks! During that time Damon Lindelof was hired to rewrite the third act, but he didn’t have time and Drew Goddard was hired to rewrite it. What is this, Prometheus? Now with all that in hindsight, the thing that worries me the most is the flick’s PG-13 rating for what looks like one hell of a wild, zombie invasion ride. Were my worries justified? Read on and find out you will.
A horror anthology is one of the easiest types of films to see as hit or miss. Not only can some of the segments either be good, bad, or just okay, but the film itself can drag depending on how many short films we are watching and whether or not the connective tissue between each film (if there is any) is effective. V/H/S suffered from this issue. Some of the segments were better than others; one segment was straight up terrible, in my eyes; and I really disliked the wraparound material to keep it connected in some fashion. What is great about V/H/S 2 is how it manages to correct most of these issues. It is a leaner and meaner experience. I had less issue with the wraparounds, I enjoyed all the segments, the film does not drag, and the creativity is even more prevalent throughout. There may still be curiosity regarding why digital camera footage has been put onto V/H/S tapes, but the film is an effective horror experience overall.
Seriously, how many people out there can rattle off many good third entries in a feature film franchise or at least halfway decent attempts? Any takers? They say that by the third time around a movie franchise usually wears out its welcome. Third time’s not always the charm. A strong concept is harder to conjecture and any fresh breath air you had you have must be rejuvenated and excite the crowd all over again or else you risk quickly boring the bejesus out of your viewers. However, lessoned learned, you must not stray too far from that original formula or suffer the curse of The Hangover Part III you will. How about playing it safe? Does that ever work? Very rarely it does in my opinion. But what about if you give the people what they want? You know they aren’t coming for mind blowing plots or Oscar worthy performances so why even try to venture down that road? If you know what people will desire and exactly who will be showing up, then just give it to them. 
We’ll always have Superman: The Movie. While Superman has arguably been the most recognizable superhero since his creation in 1938 and has remained a national icon, the 1978 film from Richard Donner seems to be the only time cinema had truly done its best to do him justice, let alone be the film that created the template (still in use) for a majority of superhero movies. Superman II is a great example as well, though that film is practically the second half of the first, given that it was part of one big story and shot back-to-back with the first film. For whatever reason, other attempts at a Superman film can’t seem to do anything else that is interesting with the character, regardless of spectacle, the cast involved, or whoever may be directing or producing. Man of Steel is the best Superman film since the first two Christopher Reeve films, but it still ends up waving off some of the more interesting ideas in favor of letting us see super fights on an enormous scale and settling for bursts of emotional content, amidst an unfocused story. As a person who already does not find Superman to be any more fascinating than the story written around him, the potential for this newest iteration to explore the character is downplayed, despite the film still playing out as a visually stimulating experience in the realm of big summer blockbusters.
The day is finally upon us. They said it couldn’t be done. They said it was impossible. They said not in your wildest imagination. Okay. I admit it. I said all of this when I first found out they were attempting to go down the road of reinventing, rebranding and rebooting the legendary Superman franchise. Ha! You should have heard the expletives I said when I found out that Watchmen’s Zack Snyder was helming the project. I have nothing against the looks and visual style of his Watchmen, but my God was that one of the most boringly long, tearjerking films of recent years filled with too many frames of big blue @#$%. However, I know Snyder has more potential than that. After all he did do 300 and created one of the most stunning movie intros ever, in my opinion, in Sucker Punch. So the cat has talent, that much I can’t deny. But then it became to be known that Christopher Nolan was going to be serving as a producer and I thought maybe, just maybe, under the tutelage of King Nolan, Snyder could possibly nail it on the head and get it right this time out. This franchise needs a hero. 
The apocalypse has been quite a popular topic for film in recent years. It has also been handled in various forms; from disaster drama (2012, Knowing), to the various zombie films (the upcoming World War Z), to romantic dramas (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, a film I will continue to go to bat for). Even the provocative, avant-garde filmmaker Lars von Trier took a stab at the end of the world with Melancholia. So with the end of the world as such a popular subject for film, why not see it as a broad studio comedy? This Is The End is a wild joke-fest about the world coming to an end, as well as something akin to The Avengers of comedies, given that it stars many comedic actors all playing versions of themselves in a weird sorta-pseudo-sequel to every Judd Apatow-produced comedy, even though he had nothing to do with this film. Regardless, This Is The End is a hilarious, no-holds bar, star-filled extravaganza that manages to bury some interesting themes within its very bawdy self.
Writer/director Joss Whedon is in a pretty good place right now. He is coming off making one of the biggest films ever (The Avengers), which had the bonus pleasure of being pretty universally well-liked, and has essentially elevated from being loved by geek audiences all over to being a filmmaker who has the ability to do whatever he wants. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but Whedon has made, of all things, a new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, simply because he needed a palette cleanser of sorts. Here’s a film that was made by Whedon, while on vacation from making The Avengers, using his own home in Santa Monica and a cast consisting of many friends/actors he has worked with before. As a result, the title ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ works as a double meaning for the film overall, as it is entertaining, but slight. Some may want to make more of a big deal out of it, but I would say even Whedon is just happy with having done something like this, with little thought of it as a big game changer as far as his oeuvre of films is concerned.
