"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
Richard's Review: 3 stars
Earlier this year a documentary called "Project Nim" detailed the life and sad times of Nim Chimpsky, who was taken from his mother and taught sign language before being abandoned once he outlived his usefulness as a laboratory experiment. It would make a good double bill with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," a big budget prequel to the famous sci-fi films. Man does ape wrong in "Project Nim," and in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" the chimps get even.
The time is modern day San Francisco. James Franco plays Will Rodman, a scientist working to create a drug that will slow, or even reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease. When one of his chimp test subjects goes berserk the project is shut down and the remaining apes are ordered euthanized "in the most cost effective way possible" by Rodman's boss, the ruthless CEO Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo). The scientist rescues a baby chimp, the son of one of his test subjects.
Soon he discovers that the drug given to the baby's mother has filtered through his system, giving him extraordinary intelligence. Raised completely by humans, the chimp, named Caesar (after the emperor, not the salad), doesn't realize he has simian cousins until he is removed from his comfortable home and placed in an ape sanctuary. Soon Caesar becomes like Chimp Guevara, organizing a revolution against his human captors. This ape is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore.
The original "Planet of the Apes" movie was an allegory for racism and nuclear war topped off with Charlton Heston's hairy chest and some cool monkey masks. "Rise," on the other hand is a generic action movie with state-of-the-art primates and the occasional moment that elevates it above Tim Burton's remake, but it doesn't come close to the emotional realism that made the first movie a classic.
Andy Serkis's performance-capture work as alpha ape Ceasar is one of the movie's strengths and weaknesses. There is no doubt that his facial expressions, particularly the use of his eyes, add much to the character of the chimp but the computer generated imagery used to bring Caesar to life, while impressive, lacks an organic feel. It seems fake even though much has been done to ensure a lifelike visage. The Roddy McDowell era apes were obviously fake -- sometimes painfully so -- but somehow they had more soul.
Emotional apes aside, the movie plays it a bit too cute in the beginning, but when the revolution begins -- Caesar uses cookies to bribe his fellow apes into joining him, proving once and for all that an army does indeed march on its stomach -- the movie kicks into gear. Some of the action is a bit too showy -- since when can apes do martial arts? -- but the scene of Caesar on horseback leading the charge against the heavily fortified cops is a real crowd pleaser.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" plays fast and loose with the mythology established in the previous movies and takes a bit too long to get to the movie's exciting monkey business, but delivers an exciting finale that would make Nim proud.
"The Change Up"
Richard's Review: 3 stars
"The Change Up," a new comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, is like two movies in one. It's part gross out comedy, part heart tugger and all Hollywood switcheroo.
Reynolds and Bateman are Mitch and Dave, best friends since grade three but total opposites. Bateman is a career mind lawyer and family man, Reynolds a slacker womanizer who lives like a frat boy. Both have a bad case of "the grass is always greener" and on one freaky Friday they wake up to discover they have switched personalities. Of course no one will believe their outlandish story of personality swapping so they are forced to live each other's lives until they can figure out how to switch back. Mitch must fake being a lawyer and Dave has to... well, pretend to be a slacker. In their time in each other's bodies they discover much about themselves -- Dave learns not to be so uptight and Mitch learns never to let Dave get a tatoo -- and learn to respect one another's lives.
"The Change-Up" feels as though it switched directors midway through. The first hour is all gross out -- baby endangerment, diaper hijinx and pregnant sex kittens -- but into the second hour the characters not only start respecting one another, but the audience as well. It's still pretty outrageous stuff, but it has far more heart than the first half and the "I can't believe they just did that" laughs morph into genuine laughs based on the story and characters.
Bateman and Reynolds have good chemistry and do a nice, subtle job of integrating the other's personality tics into their performances. Bateman adds a little "Van Wilder" to his speech and Reynolds drops his energy a few notches to match Bateman's more laconic style. It works because they are both likeable actors, with charm and charisma to burn. They can play the comedy, but later, when real life enters the story, they can play that as well. This would have been a much different movie if flat out comedians like Will Ferrell and Danny McBride or thesps like Al Pacino and Sean Penn had been cast as the leads.
"The Change Up" feels a bit wonky, as if it can't decide whether to be an R-rated gross fest or a heartfelt rom com. Somewhere between the two is a better movie than the one we got, but for those with a strong stomach for diaper humor there ae some laughs here.
"The Whistleblower"
Richard's Review: 2 1/2 stars
Instead of running the title card "based on a true story" up front, "The Whistleblower," a new drama starring Rachel Weisz, Monica Bellucci and Vanessa Redgrave, begins with the disclaimer "inspired by true events. Some of the characters may be composites or fictitious." No "just the facts ma'am" for this movie. The filmmakers decided to take a perfectly serviceable and important story and tart it up with Hollywood story elements. Because facts are often stranger than fiction, it's a shame they didn't stick more with the truth and less with the movie contrivances.
Weisz plays Kathryn Bolkovac a Nebraska policewoman based on a real life person of the same name. Divorced, she's desperate to move across country to be closer to her kids but can't lay her hands on either the job transfer or the money to make the trip. To raise the cash she takes a six month job as a peacekeeper in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
War has ended and a company called Democra Security has been contracted by the UN to help smooth the transition from strife to peace. Soon, however, she uncovers a human trafficking ring specializing in young women sold into prostitution. Uncovering a far reaching conspiracy she finds herself making some powerful enemies.
"The Whistleblower" is a well intentioned film that more often than not plays like an episode of "Law & Order: SVU," albeit with more exotic locations. It's a police procedural with many of the tried and true plot devices of the genre.
Evidence seems to show up when needed, progress is inevitably slowed by bureaucratic process and the main character is true blue. "I'm an American police officer," she says to a young woman afraid that the UN isn't going to be able to help, "it doesn't matter who I work for." Now that's plucky.
Where it differs from other procedurals is in its uncompromising imagery. A dank dungeon brothel is identified by close-ups of chains, dirty mattresses and used condoms and a scene involving the bad guys disciplining one of their captives is too grim to be described here. Those scenes have impact and underline the importance of telling this story from a humanist standpoint, but from a cinematic perspective it all feels kind of standard and often borders on the sanctimonious.
Weisz, in the role that Mariska Hargitay would have played if this was a TV movie, brings some depth to the gritty cop stereotype we've seen a hundred times before, conveying urgency and determination.
"The Whistleblower" is topped by an effective and exciting final reel but for my money it takes just a bit too long to get there.
"The Devil's Double"
Richard's Review: 2 stars
"The Devil's Double," a new drama starring Dominic Cooper in the dual role of Saddam Hussein's eldest son and heir apparent Uday and his look-a-like body double and bodyguard, captures much of the surface details of the decadence of the life of the son of a dictator, but what it lacks is insight into the mind of a madman.
Out of Sundance "The Devil's Double" garnered lots of attention for Cooper's performance. He plays two characters, one a pampered party boy with a taste for sex, drugs and disco music. The other an unwilling participant in the madness who was forced to become Uday's body double. It's attention grabbing work which displays his range as an actor, but unfortunately he is hemmed in by a script that values overkill (literally) over nuance.
Painted in very broad strokes Uday simply comes off as a Tony Montana clone without the snappy one liners or depth. He's unpredictable, yet on film he's a completely predicable bad guy. Imagine a casting call for the son of a dictator and this is who Central Casting would send over. Perhaps it's because Uday had so little character in real life that Cooper has such a hard time finding the character on the big screen.
Also, it doesn't really help that for much of the movie Cooper resembles the late, lamented lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury, more than Uday.
Better is his take on Latif Yahia, the stoic stand in. With the theatrics of Uday gone he reveals a more understated and more interesting performance, but his better work is overshadowed by the bombast of the rest of the movie.
"The Devil's Double" isn't about the stunt double performance, or the violence. In fact, it isn't about anything much at all. With no insight as to how Uday became a murderous playboy -- he's insane, we're told once or twice -- the movie comes across as a unilayered sensationalist portrait of the absolute corruption of absolute power, but little more.
