Tag: Michael Douglas

Ant-Man and the Wasp

After two massive cultural events, Marvel throws a softball with a breezy, slight and skippable entry

If the Marvel Cinematic Universe is basically an epic TV show, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” shows Marvel has no qualms about making a throwaway episode. You make two of the biggest cultural events of the year, and then you follow it up with a breezy family comedy with Paul Rudd?

Does anyone else feel like they’ve been cheated into watching a two-hour commercial for “Avengers 4?” And I’ll say upfront, anyone hoping for a juicy post-credits stinger will be sorely let down.

It’s a shame, because “Ant-Man and the Wasp” could be charming if it didn’t also carry the burden of being a Marvel movie. For everything about Peyton Reed’s film that reminds you of an indie darling, all the action and exposition make the whole package feel slight as a superhero movie. Continue reading “Ant-Man and the Wasp”

CIFF Review: Last Vegas

Hopefully this is the last time such legendary actors humiliate themselves like this.

“Last Vegas” screened as the Chicago International Film Festival’s Surprise Screening. This early review is merely an impression of the version screened. 

One would hope that a movie called “Last Vegas” might be the last time some legendary actors starred in such a simple, dumb comedy to be humiliated. Somehow such a thing seems unlikely, especially when this is hardly the first time Robert De Niro has signed up for such a pitiful exploit.

The difference is that Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline and De Niro will all likely survive “Last Vegas” mostly unscathed. Jon Turtletaub’s film is unfunny enough to be listless, a litany of Vegas set pieces with old people that are hardly even designed to be funny, and yet it still manages to fall far short of the kind of outrageous raunch and madcap insanity that came to define the “Hangover” sequels. Continue reading “CIFF Review: Last Vegas”

Behind the Candelabra

The more mundane aspects of Liberace’s relationship dominate in this biopic, and “Behind the Candelabra” feels like an empty and overdone Vegas showpiece.

Too gay, was the reason Steven Soderbergh gave that “Behind the Candelabra” became an HBO TV movie rather than a wide released feature. And yet this biopic on Liberace’s relationship with Scott Thorson shoves the homosexual politicking to the background in favor of the more familiar trope of marital bickering. Although much of the film is enjoyable in that Mr. Showmanship way, this genre, unlike Soderbergh’s other recent genre experiments, does not fit him as well.

Although Liberace (Michael Douglas) was a skilled pop pianist in the ‘70s, his real claim to fame was his fine-tuned crowd work. We’re introduced to Liberace through a dopey Boogie-Woogie number in his Vegas stage show made fun through his simple pleasantries. It’s not that Liberace was the natural showman, but that everything he says here seems just right, and it’s no wonder he wins over Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) along the way.

The nuance of Michael Douglas’s performance, one that strays away from impersonation, is that he does feel as though he’s trying. It is a performance, no matter whom he’s talking to, and that shows. It’s when we’ve been around this act too much that it grows old and tiresome, and that’s exactly what happens to Scott. Continue reading “Behind the Candelabra”

Haywire

“Haywire” is a no-frills action movie that measures what can be accomplished in a genre film.

Something with as many ass kickings as “Haywire” couldn’t possibly be called an experimental film, can it?

Steven Soderbergh built one around porn star Sasha Grey, so why not for martial arts fighter Gina Carano?

“Haywire” is a no-frills action movie that measures what can be accomplished in a genre film.

It minimizes on sweeping photography or handheld queasy cam effects and produces a stylized, precise and expertly choreographed film. Its simplicity is compelling just in admiring the craft of it all.

Carano plays Mallory Kane, a secret agent betrayed by her private contractor (Ewan McGregor), but the plot too is stripped to its bare bones to the point that the cryptic details are just filler for “Haywire’s” artsy combat set pieces.

Soderbergh gives us full-bodied fights that lovingly make use of space, his rapid editing still delineating clear angles as though he were photographing Carano in the octagon.

The gorgeous Carano makes for an unusual movie star with how at home she is during the film’s many battles.

She’s the key in a film uninterested with her striking sexuality. But Carano demands presence, and although she could serve as a better feminist icon than Fincher’s Lisbeth Salander, Carano is too tough and impressive for anyone to really notice or care.

3 ½ stars

Wonder Boys

It isn’t often to see intellectual comedies this side of Woody Allen. Perhaps it’s because few actors can crack wise about other “faux intellectuals” the way Woody can. “Wonder Boys” is a clever, wry film based on Michael Chabon’s inventive novel that certainly tries.

It stars Michael Douglas as the Woody Allen surrogate, English Professor Grady Tripp. Grady is a writer who struck gold once and is now plagued not with writer’s block but an inability to stop writing. As his sophomore book grows ever longer, he finds it hard to focus and come to an ending.

Distracting Grady are his students James (Tobey Maguire) and Hannah (Katie Holmes), the boy a dark, socially awkward kid with a writing gift of his own, and the girl renting a room from Grady but not afraid to move into his. His quasi-gay publishing editor Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.) also pesters him, his wife has left him and his boss and lover Sarah (Frances McDormand) is pregnant.

He also has a dead dog in his trunk.

“Wonder Boys” is a movie about how a man finds his destination in life, especially when there are so many wacky, interesting people around and things going on. Continue reading “Wonder Boys”