Top 5 Films of 2016

Well, the door's about to close on another year at the movies. 2016 will go down as Hollywood's biggest, just nudging out last year's record-breaking haul, even though attendance at the nation's theaters remained flat.

Yeah, it's pretty easy to keep breaking records when all you have to do is raise ticket prices. If this keeps up, pretty soon we'll be paying $50 for a Thursday matinee.

I can tell you I visited fewer multiplexes this year, pretty much avoiding them completely from May - August, as the industry trotted out its weakest summer slate in recent memory. But as usual, things picked up considerably in the fall, and by year's end I had trouble keeping up with all the films I wanted to see. Below you'll find my Top Five Films of 2016.

1. The Lobster: Released abroad in 2015, this bizarre little gem about a society where singles have 45 days to find a mate or face being turned into an animal opened here in the States last spring and was easily the most exhilarating and original piece of cinema this year, all anchored by a wonderfully wacky script and great performances by Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz. Seek this one out.

2. La La Land: Ask anyone, I'm not a fan of musicals, but damned if this "little" Hollywood fable from Whiplash director Damien Chazelle didn't sway me with its bewitching cinematic charms. Both Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone provide undisputable proof on why they're two of the most charismatic and consistently watchable actors working today. I'm still humming "City of Stars."

3. De Palma: This fascinating documentary from Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow on virtuoso filmmaker Brian De Palma is a film geek's dream, just two hours of pure cinematic joy about a man born to tell stories visually.

4. Moonlight: Barry Jenkins' moving tale of self-discovery is subtle-yet-powerful cinema, featuring wonderful, career-defining performances from Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris and André Holland.

5. Captain America: Civil War: Not just the most entertaining popcorn movie of the year, but arguably the greatest super-hero film Marvel has ever produced. Simply two hours of great action, humor and heart. The things Saturday-matinee dreams are made of.

Rounding Out The Top 10: 6. Manchester By The Sea 7. Fences 8. Hell or Highwater 9. Loving 10. Midnight Special

Most Overrated Film of 2016: Hail, Caesar! - This unfunny, nonsensical Hollywood farce from the Coen Brothers has shown up on a lot of Top 10 lists this year. Seriously? The only thing I can remember about this self-indulgent dud is waking up at the end of it.

Happy New Year!

Remembering Carrie Fisher

I was at an early screening this morning and just got in to learn of the passing of Carrie Fisher at 60.

I was hoping for the best after her heart attack and subsequent hospitalization Friday, but in the back of my mind I was bracing for the worst. At least get her through Christmas, I thought.

Carrie Fisher was my first childhood crush. I was six in the spring of 1977 and had just experienced a bigger-than-life space adventure called Star Wars. The film had everything a young boy could love: spaceships, robots, alien creatures, dashing heroes, a terrifying villain and a beautiful princess.

In her form-fitting white robe and bun-curled hair, Leia Organa commanded your attention the moment you first saw her on screen. Striking to look at, sure, but as spunky and courageous as any of her male counterparts. From the second she starts to verbally spar with the imposing Darth Vader, you knew she was more than just a pretty face. Leia's mettle is underestimated throughout the film, but every person she tussles with - from Governor Tarkin to Han Solo - comes to eventually respect her unrelenting spirit and fortitude.

That spunkiness was on display even more in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back. As a respected leader of the Rebel Alliance, Leia can't admit she has feelings for Han Solo, no matter how hard the scruffy smuggler goads her on. Her building frustration is classic to watch unfold - looks of distain, mumbling to herself - and really is one of the main reasons Empire is considered the best of the Star Wars saga today.

I could have cared less about dolls growing up. But you better believe I had every Leia action figure released from 1978-1983. Every guy my age did, whether they admit it or not.

Fisher was always best remembered for Star Wars, but she did have a career outside of the popular space franchise, providing memorable turns in films like The Blues Brothers, Under The Rainbow, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Burbs and When Harry Met Sally.

They say you always remember your first crush. Well, rest assured, sweet princess, in that galaxy far, far away, you will never be forgotten.

Quick Flick Review: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

The story of how the Rebel Alliance stole the plans to the dreaded Death Star that ultimately enabled Luke Skywalker to destroy the Empire's planet-killing superstation has intrigued legions of Star Wars fans for nearly 40 years.

The brainchild of Lucasfilm visual effects veteran John Knoll, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story finally shines a light on that crucial missing chapter, the first non-episodic SW film in the franchise's five-decade-long history.

Rogue One centers around the plucky Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the long-since-abandoned daughter of Imperial scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) who the Alliance learns has dispatched a messenger to rebel extremist Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) with information on a new super weapon the Empire is close to testing. It seems Jyn and Gerrera are old acquaintances, a bond the Alliance hopes to exploit so Gerrera will share his valuable bestowment.

Jyn reluctantly agrees to act as the go-between and is teamed with rebel intelligence officer Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and the sardonic K-2S0 (Alan Tudyk), a repurposed Imperial droid who frequently can't help but convey his "bad feelings" about the mission.

Unfortunately, the reunion with Gerrera is cut short and the information lost when the Empire decides to test its new weapon on the city surrounding the extremist's compound, forcing Jyn and her companions to find a new way to retrieve the crucial data.

Of course with the Death Star lurking overhead, they've got some Imperial baddies standing in their way. There's Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), the ambitious head of weapons research, who shares a secret past with both Jyn and her father, a predominantly featured, CG-enhanced Grand Moff Tarkin (good to see a "resurrected" Peter Cushing working again) and, yes, a certain Dark Lord of the Sith of some repute, who doesn't get a lot of screen time but undeniably makes his presence "felt" in every scene in which he appears.

Speaking of appearances, several characters from the original trilogy make smile-worthy cameos (Walrus Man, anyone?), the most notable of which coming at the very end and providing a seamless transition to the initial 1977 film.

The film does throw a lot of characters (many with heavy, hard-to-follow accents) and plotlines at its audience and the narrative becomes a bit convoluted at times. Also working against the film is the fact that as much as you want to like these new heroes, you know you'll never see any of them again going forward in the saga, making it hard to establish any kind of connection or root for their success.

And while the action is consistent and swiftly paced, much of it comes off as contrived and gratuitous, especially the climatic "heist" sequence at the end of the film that feels more Mission: Impossible than Star Wars.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story serves its purpose for the most part, giving fans the backstory they've desired for years and providing enough nostalgia to remind all of why returning to a 40-year-old space saga never gets old. Grade: B-

Merry Christmas!

Dec. 30: Top 5 Films of 2016

Citizen Kane: Still Sublime After 75 Years

The wife and I screened Citizen Kane last weekend. I hadn't seen it in about five years, my wife in more than two decades.

As we sat there in the dark, I kept thinking how incredible it was that a 75-year-old black-and-white film could still seem so fresh and illicit such awe in this day of glossy, highly kinetic computer-generated entertainment.

But such is the cinematic power of Orson Welles' 1941 tale of newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, a film highly praised at the time of its release but quickly forgotten, only to be rediscovered decades later and universally anointed the greatest film ever made.

Welles was just 25 when production began on Kane in August of 1940. He had achieved great success in radio with his Mercury Theatre company and RKO Pictures had come courting, offering the untried auteur a film contract with complete artistic freedom. Welles was both star and director, had co-written the script and cast the film with actors from his theatre troupe, all virtually unknown to Hollywood.

The film unfolds in flashbacks and follows the life of a young country boy who in 1871 is transferred into the custody of New York financier Walter Thatcher (George Coulouris) by his mother after a literal gold mine is discovered on the family's property. Mary Kane (Agnes Moorehead) wants a better life for her son, a proper education and to be free from the clutches of her abusive husband.

When we next see Charlie Kane he's 25 (now played by Welles) and in full possession of his $60 million-plus fortune. One of the assets that intrigues him is the New York Inquirer. As he writes Thatcher: "I think it would be fun to run a newspaper."

So with the help of college friend Jed Leland (Joseph Cotton), Kane begins to raise the circulation, via salacious journalism, allowing him to acquire more newspapers and slowly build an empire. Soon he's marrying the President's niece and mounting a run for governor of New York. But things take a turn for the worse when his affair with aspiring singer Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore) is revealed, costing Kane his marriage and derailing any political chances he once had.

Kane in turn becomes a recluse, retreating to his palatial Xandadu compound where he makes it his mission to turn the talentless Alexander into a singing superstar.

I first saw Citizen Kane in a high-school film class and was instantly taken by its masterful script (it won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), effortless acting and exquisite photography. I saw it again in college and my affinity only grew.

Over the years I've sought out a revival screening or two (even taking my mom to one) and each time I've left the theater in a state of sheer awe, in both craft and relevance decades after its release. It's not one I revisit every year, but it is a film that unequivocally reminds me of why I love cinema every time I screen it.

You can count on one hand the films that still resonate today 75 years after their release. Citizen Kane is one that will continue to be studied and admired by generations of movie lovers: old ones like me, and new ones yet to discover its charms. I'm envious already.

Happy Thanksgiving!

American Cinematheque Lands Exclusive Exhibition Rights To 2001: A Space Odyssey

Southern California cinema fans rejoice! The L.A. Times is reporting today that The American Cinematheque has obtained an exclusive five-year exhibition deal with Warner Brothers for a newly struck 70mm print of Stanley’s Kubrick’s 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The deal calls for two extended runs per year, rotating between the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

The first screening will be this Sunday at the Egyptian as part of Beyond Fest. The next one will be an eight-day run in December, also at the Egyptian.

Hopefully this will encourage other studios to return their classics to the big screen, where they belong. Can you imagine if a film like the original Star Wars returned to theaters twice a year instead of playing on TNT? We can dream.

Quick Flick Review: Sully

Clint Eastwood's Sully is a swiftly directed, efficiently acted docudrama that plays more like a History Channel special than a feature film.

Based on the real-life account of US Airways pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's "Miracle on the Hudson" landing in 2009, the film stars Tom Hanks as the eponymous hero who, despite saving all 155 souls on board his disabled passenger jet, found his career in jeopardy during the subsequent National Transportation Safety Board investigation.

We experience the events leading to the "forced water landing" through pilot recollection and NTSB simulations, leaving no detail unturned as professionals sift through all the conditions and variables. It's technical, sure, but effectively engaging.

As far as learning a little more about the man, we're afforded two quick glimpses into Sullenberger's life: a flight lesson as a teenager and a harrowing landing as an Air Force pilot. Other than a few interactions via phone with his wife (Laura Linney), we really glean nothing as far as character background. It's pretty apparent Eastwood feels the 208 seconds of Sullenberger's miraculous flight are all the insight we need.

Hanks is quietly effective as Sullenberger: cool, calm and professional. Aaron Eckhart offers some levity as Sullenberger's co-pilot and Anna Gunn provides a few nice moments as a NTSB member.

Tightly crafted at just ninety-six minutes with credits, Sully is well acted and engaging, but with little to no characterization, it comes off as nothing more than a big-budget TV dramatization without commercials.
Grade: B

Where No Show Has Gone Before: 50 Years of Star Trek

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Gene Roddenberry's iconic space adventure Star Trek.

Yes, on September 8, 1966 audiences tuning into NBC that night were first introduced to Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and the rest of crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they began a five-year mission to "explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before."

Billed as "Wagon Train to the stars," the show was not a ratings hit during its initial run, but it did develop enough of a following, due mainly to its likeable crew, nifty effects and frank portrayal of race and social issues, to warrant 79 episodes over three seasons before its eventual cancellation in 1969.

My first exposure to the Star Trek was as a child in the early '70s. The show was experiencing a resurgence of sorts through syndication and seemed to be playing every time you flipped the television on. I loved the brightly colored uniforms, cool gadgets and all the wonderful sounds emanating from the bridge and transporter room.

Star Trek: The Animated Series debuted in 1973 and only helped to bolster my affinity for the show. Soon Mego Toys was creating 8" action figures and a fold-out bridge with rotating transporter. I was in heaven.

It wasn't until the success of Star Wars in 1977 that we got to see Star Trek transferred to the big screen. Star Trek: The Motion Picture arrived with much anticipation a few weeks before Christmas in 1979. New, Star Wars-size action figures debuted ahead of time as did Trek-themed McDonald's Happy Meals.

Unfortunately, the film contained none of the engaging, adventurous qualities of the original series and seemed more interested in dazzling its audience with Star Wars-like special effects. It was too long and slowly paced, and despite being a box-office success and featuring a beautiful score by composer Jerry Goldsmith, deemed a failure.

The brand was given a second chance for cinematic sustenance with 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It was more action driven, contained a classic villain and featured the dramatic death of a key crew member. It possessed everything that made Star Trek, well, Star Trek. And like that, a franchise was born.

Four more films would follow with the original crew over the next nine years. In the middle of that period, we got a another TV series with an all-new crew. Eventually they made their own four films that paved the way for more TV incarnations and a film reboot featuring a younger Enterprise crew.

It's hard to believe Star Trek has consistently been a part of our lives, in one form or another, for half a century. What makes it endure? Well, for me, beyond promoting the timeless themes of hope and adventure, it's all about the original crew, mainly the relationship between Kirk, Spock and Dr. McCoy, three drastically different personalities who all seem to function as one symbiotic force.

Each needs the other to provide something the other is lacking: courage, logic, conscious. They're really the main reason I've returned to the franchise over the years. Their interaction always makes me smile and reminds me how powerful an ally friendship can be.

Thank you, Star Trek, for 50 years of thrills, laughs and tears. You truly blazed a path where no show has gone before.

Ferris Bueller Finally Gets A Soundtrack

Here's a little nugget of news to share at your Labor Day barbecue. After 30 years of waiting, fans will finally get a soundtrack album to John Hughes' beloved 1986 classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off later this month.

Hughes never authorized a commercial release back in the day as he thought kids wouldn't want to listen to the likes of the Beatles' "Twist and Shout" and Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen" on an album with contemporary '80s tunes.

Well, now film-score specialty label La-La Land Records is letting fans decide for themselves with a limited-edition, 35-track compilation of songs and score cues from the iconic film.

In addition to favorites like "Danke Schoen" and Yello's "Oh Yeah," you get rare gems like the Flowerpot Men's "Beat City" and Blue Room's "I'm Afraid." Alas, there's no "Twist and Shout" nor the English Beat's "March of the Swivel Heads" due to licensing issues, but you can easily download those from most online retailers.

You can order your copy of the Ferris Bueller's Day Off soundtrack directly from La-La Land Records (www.lalalandrecrecords.com) or Screen Archives Entertainment (www.screenarchives.com) beginning Tuesday, September 13. Better take the day off.

Remembering Gene Wilder

Another brilliant creative light has been extinguished with the passing of beloved comedic actor Gene Wilder yesterday at 83.

My first exposure to the gentle soul with the wild hair and mischievous smile didn't come with Willy Wonka or Young Frankenstein, but rather 1976's Silver Streak.

I was six and as usual my Saturdays were spent seeing a movie with my mom. The film featured a runaway train, enough of a draw for a young boy, but I can remember instantly being drawn to Wilder's "funny" face and easy-going demeanor. He was a soft-spoken leading man, calm and articulate, until events caused his inevitable comedic "eruption," an unmatched cacophony of grunts, groans and hollers that endeared him to you even more.

I was too young to see 1980's R-rated Stir Crazy in theaters but I can remember catching it repeatedly at a buddy's house on cable and reveling in the effortless interaction between Wilder and Richard Pryor. I seem to recall "We bad" became an anthem of sorts as we strutted around the playground.

It wasn't until my teens that I discovered Mel Brooks' horror-spoof Young Frankenstein. Talk about a perfect vehicle for Wilder's talents. It became an instant favorite of mine and remains one I still seek out whenever I'm feeling down and in need of a little pick-me-up.

Gene Wilder's films are all classic pick-me-ups, like good chicken soup when your sick. They comfort, fill you with warmth and make you smile. And they'll do so for generations to come.

Top 10 Films of the 21st Century

Yesterday the BBC unveiled their list of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century (2000 and beyond). As usual with lists of this type, critics from around the world were polled for their selections. And as usual, I disagreed with many of their choices. For me, engaging stories and characters always supplant self-indulgence and incoherency. But to each his own, right?

Their list reminded me that I posted my own ranking of the 21st century's top ten films at the end of 2009. Looking it over again, I found I'd keep most of my selections, albeit in different order, but there are a few I'd remove to make room for more deserving, recent releases.

Below is my revised top ten films of the 21st century (in descending order). Let the debate begin.

10. Gladiator (Dir. Ridley Scott; 2000)
9. Memento (Dir. Christopher Nolan; 2001)
8. The Artist (Dir. Michael Hazanavicius; 2011)
7. Boyhood (Dir. Richard Linklater; 2014)
6. Wonder Boys (Dir. Curtis Hanson; 2000)
5. The Royal Tennenbaums (Dir. Wes Anderson; 2001)
4. No Country For Old Men (Dir. Joel Coen; 2007)
3. 12 Years A Slave (Dir. Steve McQueen; 2013)
2. Sideways (Dir. Alexander Payne; 2004)
1. There Will Be Blood (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson; 2007)


Honorable Mentions:

About Schmidt
Aviator, The
Brooklyn
Cinderella Man
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Contender, The
Crazy Heart
Dark Knight, The
Departed, The
Grand Budapest Hotel, The
High Fidelity
History of Violence, A
In The Bedroom
Inglorious Basterds
Life Itself
Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The
Madmax: Fury Road
Minority Report
Moonlight Kingdom
Zodiac

Quick Flick Review: Jason Bourne

Paul Greengrass' Jason Bourne features one exhilarating, expertly crafted action sequence after the next. Unfortunately when it comes to evolving the storied franchise, things fall a bit flat.

It's been nine years since we last saw Matt Damon as everyone's favorite amnesiac government assassin. In that time, Bourne has kept his head down, living off the grid and making ends meet as a bare-knuckle street brawler. (You gotta eat, right?) It isn't until his old Treadstone ally Nicky Parsons (Julia Styles) tracks him down claiming to have new information on his past that Bourne becomes the hunted once again.

It seems in addition to possessing revealing details on Bourne's father, Parsons has uncovered files on a shadowy new CIA surveillance program called Ironwill. Well of course the agency can't have knowledge like that in the hands of its most-wanted rogue operative and soon they dispatch a team, led by cyber-terrorism chief Heather Lee (a steely Alicia Vikander), to neutralize the threat.

What ensues is basically the same been-there-done-that formula as the three previous films. Sure, the action is great, breathless and clever, but to what end? There are really no new disclosures, nothing to evolve the characters or storylines.

Tommy Lee Jones steps in as the resident top-ranking government baddie, but he's really just another incarnation of the ones played by Chris Cooper, Brian Cox and David Stathairn. Apparently the agency gets these guys off an assembly line.

Both Damon and Greengrass have always resisted reviving the character unless the story was something special. This was the best they could come up with? Grade: B -

Remembering Garry Marshall

Just a quick post to acknowledge the passing of producer/director Garry Marshall yesterday at 81.

I don't think many could deny having a soft spot for at least one of Marshall's films or television shows over the last 40-plus years.

From creating the beloved sitcoms Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy to directing such hits as Young Doctors in Love, Nothing in Common, Pretty Woman and The Princes Diaries, Marshall excelled at delivering popular, relatable entertainment that never really tried to do much more than put a smile on its audience's faces.

Sure, many were a little schmaltzy and wore their hearts on their sleeves, but that's what we all liked about them, whether we admit it or not. They went down easy and didn't require too much thought. They made us laugh, cry and learn a little more about a thing called humanity. Not a bad legacy if you ask me.

Quick Flick Review: De Palma

Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow's new documentary De Palma is a fascinating, career-spanning look at a man born to tell stories visually.

All of virtuoso filmmaker Brian De Palma's classics are touched upon - Sisters, Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito's Way - each providing an insightful, often humor-filled glimpse into the process of one of cinema's most engaging-yet-polarizing technicians.

Briskly paced and full of wonderful big-screen memories tailor-made for a darkened theater, De Palma is simply a film geek's dream and easily one of the best films of the year. Grade: A

Remembering Prince

Like most, I'm still processing the sudden passing of Prince yesterday at 57. As with the loss of David Bowie earlier this year, the news hits straight to the gut and takes a few hours, if not days, to fully absorb that someone so dynamic, vibrant and full of life is actually gone.

I grew up in the '80s as part of the MTV Generation, discovering artists and their songs mainly through the advent of music videos rather than traditional radio airplay. Oh, I was a slave to Top 40 radio, too, religiously taping songs off Casey Kasem's Sunday-morning AT40 shows from age 12-15, but I mainly found and soaked up said artists and their songs through highly stylized three-minute films beaming from my television every afternoon after school.

One of the first videos I can remember seeing was for Prince's "Little Red Corvette" in 1983. A great song wrapped in a pretty low-key performance video (they were all like that in the early days): just a microphone stand, back-up band and a man in a shimmering purple suit. Pretty simple. Except that the man was Prince. He may just have been standing there for three minutes, but he oozed such charisma and style you couldn't take your eyes off of him.

The next year brought the soundtrack to the film Purple Rain. The first single was "When Doves Cry" and both the song and the video just blew my then-13-year-old mind (I still consider it one of the top ten songs of the entire decade). From there came "Let's Go Crazy." I can remember buying that one as a 45 and playing it and the b-side "Erotic City" over and over on my little Emerson turntable with my bedroom door closed so my mom couldn't hear certain lyrics. Ah, good times.

By 1987, I had transitioned from Top 40 to alternative and I can't say I bought any Prince tunes after
that (well, maybe the Batman soundtrack in 1989). But I was always interested in what he was doing. You couldn't be a fan of music and not be interested in what Prince was doing next.

Prince was in a league of his own. A pure genius and a talent unlike any we'll ever see again. I cut my teeth on the music of the '80s. It'll always be a reminder of my youth and basically encapsulates a 30-plus-year passion for sonic creativity. Prince's music will always be a big part of that. Thank you, my friend.

Quick Flick Review: Midnight Special

Jeff Nichols' Midnight Special is a well-acted, compelling sci-fi thriller, one of those come-out-of-nowhere surprises that actually renews your faith in the power of original cinema.

The film opens on a local news broadcast playing on the television inside a Texas roadside motel room. From it we glean an Amber Alert has been issued for eight-year-old Alton Meyer and that his alleged abductor is one Roy Tomlin (Michael Shannon).

As the camera pulls back inside the room, we spy Roy loading a shotgun into a bag and another man (Joel Edgerton) securing cardboard over the window and peephole. Sitting in the center of the room, reading a comic by flashlight under a bed sheet, is Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), goggles over his eyes, construction-grade headphones over his ears. Roy tells him it's time and soon the three are hitting the road under the cover of darkness.

We soon learn Roy is Alton's father and the two have fled a religious cult that had been exploiting the boy as a pseudo-messiah. You see Alton is special, prone to speaking in odd tounges and light bursts shooting from his eyes. With the help of childhood friend Lucas (Edgerton), Roy is determined to get Alton to a secret location where something remarkable may or may not happen.

It isn't long before cult members and the government (led by Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Adam Driver) are pursuing the trio across the highways and in the shadows of the American South.

Midnight Special definitely has a Close Encounters/E.T. vibe about it, albeit a little more intense and enigmatic. But it's those qualities that provide an engaging, contemporary freshness to the tale and set Nichols' film on its own path away from those Spielberg classics.

Shannon, Edgerton and Driver all give solid, memorable performances and Kirsten Dunst provides a nice, quiet turn as Alton's excommunicated mother.

The only complaint is that Alton's powers are really never explained, other than they mirror beings who inhabit a world "on top" of our world. And when that world is eventually revealed, it resembles a utopia straight out of last year's ill-fated Disney debacle Tomorrowland.

Those quibbles aside, Midnight Special is a satisfying, deeply layered and highly effective piece of cinema, one that makes you look forward to what Jeff Nichols does next. Grade: B+

Quick Flick Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Zack Snyder's long-awaited Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a big, loud, overloaded, beat-you-over-the-head endeavor that never seems to find that one crucial component necessary for a worthy superhero film: heart.

Set 18 months after the city-leveling battle over Metropolis between Superman (Henry Cavill) and General Zod depicted in 2013's equally mind-numbing Man of Steel, the world is still trying to come to terms with an all-mighty alien living amongst them. Is he a savior or a an unchecked global theat? One who believes the latter is Gotham City's Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck), who witnessed first hand the kind of destruction the "man" in the red boots is capable of.

Another "non-fan" is Metropolis' Zuckerberg-like billionaire Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) who has successfully petitioned the government for access to Zod's corpse and quarantined ship in an attempt to forge a Krytonite-based weapon as a "deterrent" against any future aggression by Superman. Yeah, sure.

It doesn't take long for Batman to learn of Luthor's plot and decide that it should be he who creates and controls that kind of weapon. Of course this was Luthor's plan all along and after some cleverly devised goading on his part, gets the Caped Crusader to call out the Man of Steel for a winner-take-all showdown.

What follows is a lot of merciless pummeling until the real threat rears its ugly head: a Luthor-created Kryptonian monster hell bent on destroying both our heroes.

And since the film carries the Dawn of Justice subtitle, it isn't long before another iconic warrior reveals herself and kicks the fight into overdrive.

Cavill is serviceable as Superman, no Christopher Reeve by any means, but far better than Brandon Routh ever was. Affleck is supposed to project an older, wiser Bruce Wayne/Batman, but I can't say it's a performance that leaves an impression, other than he strangely resembles the Michelin Man every time he appears in the bat suit.

And who was the genius that thought Jesse Eisenberg would make a good Lex Luthor?

In all, Batman v Superman just feels soulless and kind of hollow, concocted solely to launch a Justice League franchise. It's too long, too contrived and ultimately too bleak to make once really care about these characters going forward. Grade: C -

Disney Announces Fifth Indiana Jones Installment

Disney announced today it will release a fifth Indiana Jones film in 2019 with Steven Spielberg once again sitting in the director's chair, and if you can believe it, 73-year-old Harrison Ford returning as the intrepid archeologist.

A follow-up to 2008's hugely successful Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull seemed inevitable after Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, but talk the last few years had producers bringing in a new, younger actor to reboot and extend the 35-year-old adventure franchise.

No offense to Harrison, who was great in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and will always be my Indy body and soul, but this was the perfect time to let a younger actor take over the character and shed some light on Jones' earlier, pre-Raiders adventures. The wedding of Marion and Indy at the end of Crystal Skull felt like an appropriate, just goodbye for these beloved characters. Do we really want or need to see geriatric Indy juggling married life with his duties as associate chancellor of the university? Not really.

Other than the prodigious box office and fitting send-off, Crystal Skull was universally considered the worst film of the franchise. The flying fridge and Shia swinging on vines played a big part, but for me, seeing an old Indiana Jones just wasn't appealing. I'd rather choose to remember him battling the likes of Belloq and Mola Ram than Irina Spalko and giant killer ants.

Ford is hot again after Star Wars so I'm sure that made the decision to stick with him as Indy an easy one. The film will undoubtedly make money and extend the wallets of all involved. But will it really service the character and capture the spirit and adventure of the first three classic films? Probably not. That really won't be possible until Disney, Spielberg and Ford realize it's time to let a new face return Indy to his glory days so he can dazzle us once again.

Oscar: The Morning After

Just a quick post to congratulate Spotlight's surprise Best Picture win, Mad Max's six statues and both Leo and Ennio Morricone for finally taking home Oscar gold.

And while it would have been nice to see sentimental favorite Sylvester Stallone win for Best Supporting Actor, Mark Rylance did an incredible job in Bridge of Spies and more than deserves the honor bestowed on him.

Let's hope next year's show is a little less contentious and a lot more positive. At the end of the day we're all there to celebrate one thing: the art of cinema.

Oscar Predictions

My picks in the major categories for Sunday's Academy Awards. Enjoy the show.


Picture: The Revenant
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu The Revenant
Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio The Revenant
Actress: Brie Larson Room
Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone Creed
Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander The Danish Girl
Original Screenplay: Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy Spotlight
Adapted Screenplay: Charles Randolph and Adam McKay The Big Short