Five cigars

It has been awhile since I went to see a movie and enjoyed it as much as I did this one. From the previews, this looked rather silly and I went in expecting to be bored. Not so.

This is a spoof on the classic spy movie, yet is a seriously well written, well acted film on its own.  All the elements of a good story are here.  Good guys, bad guys, action, humor, underdog, tension, emotion, and puppies.  Even though you know the good guys will triumph, the film takes you on quite a ride to reach that point. There is quite a bit of humor, both subtle and vulgar.  Based on the reaction of those around me, some of the subtle was lost on them.

Samuel L. Jackson plays the bad guy and like any film he is in, it is fun to watch him act.  Michael Caine is the head of the Kingsmen  and like Jackson, brings great talent to the film.  Interestingly, I did not recognize Mark Hamill who plays Professor Arnold.

Be sure and stay past what appears to be the last scene, the real last scene makes you say, “Yes!”.

This gets five cigars, and I may just have to see this one again.

One cigar

This film is based on the book by Gillian Flynn, and oddly enough she wrote the screen play.  Hopefully, you will read the book and skip the movie.

The book was good because it was suspenseful, the movie is not.  The book was good because a major portion of it was from the main characters perspective, Amy, through her journal.  The movie left most of this out.  The book was good because the husband, Nick, had a minor role, not so in the movie.  Ben Affleck plays Nick and was probably the worse choice for the part.  The book has his mistress constantly bugging him about their relationship, the movie left this out. In the book, Amy’s parents are extremely weird, not so much in the movie. In the book the tension is immense when Amy is robbed at the cabin she is staying in, the movie falls flat on this point.

The fact that Flynn wrote the screenplay confuses me because you would think she would want the film to honor the book, it does not. This one gets one cigar and again, if you haven’t seen the film, skip it, just read the book.

One cigar

On the surface, this sounded like a good premise.  A woman exposed to a substance that expands the amount of brain power she has until it reaches 100%.  The possibilities for a good story are endless.  Unfortunately, the writer decided on the lamest one.

The director had an easy job. Take two great actors give them simple directions and start filming.  In Morgan Freeman’s case, just stand and look dumbfounded.  For Scarlett Johansson, just walk around looking perplexed.  Throw in a car chase, machine guns in a confined space where no one is injured, and some footage from National Geographic and the film is complete.

In the film the character Lucy says, “Time is the only true unit of measure”.  True, and I just wasted 89 minutes of mine.  This gets one cigar, make that one short cigar.