The Wolverine

By John Mulderig, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) — Does the idea of a giant suit of samurai armour made out of an indestructible – but, alas, fictional – alloy called adamantium strike you as the coolest thing ever? If so, then the macho superhero adventure “The Wolverine” (Fox) might just be the movie for you.

Viewers addicted neither to outsized gadgetry nor to the Marvel Comics X-Men mythos of which this is an extension, however, may find director James Mangold’s action picture a heavy lift. That’s largely due to the physical and emotional angst endured by the titular character (Hugh Jackman) who also goes by the more casual handle Logan.

Ostensibly, Logan would seem to have a lot going for him. Not only can he sprout tougher-than-steel (i.e., also adamantium) claws from his hands at a moment’s notice, but his body has miraculous powers of self-healing too.

Ay, but there’s the rub: Logan’s invulnerability has resulted in virtual immortality. And, after more than a century of hanging around, he’s as bored, blase and downright world-weary as any 1950s French philosopher. Then there’s the fact that, along the way, he accidentally killed his true love. Darn!

Perhaps a trip to exotic Japan might alleviate the blues? To justify the jaunt, we open on flashbacks of World War II that find Logan a POW sweating it out in a heavily reinforced hot box that happens to be located across the bay from the doomed city of Nagasaki. As the mushroom cloud looms, Logan saves the life of one of his captors, an officer named Yashida (Ken Yamamura).

Flash forward to the present, and the aged but eternally grateful Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), now a fabulously wealthy industrialist (what else?), is facing death. He summons his old friend for a final visit.

Naturally, Yashida has a fetching granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), whose position as his heir makes her a target for bad guys. How many tattooed Yakuza types can Logan’s built-in Ginsu knives slice and dice? Um, quite a lot.

Fortunately, the relentless combat involves only moderate gore, and occasional flashes of wit offer some relief from the fog of testosterone.

Less welcome is the fact that Logan and Mariko not only fall for each other, but fall into bed together as well. They do so despite the obvious detail that Logan’s mark-of-Cain lifestyle does not exactly lend itself to long-term commitments.

Additionally, a scene where the otherwise conventionally heroic Logan almost murders one of the principal villains (played by Brian Tee) in cold blood – Logan averts the guilt of killing him only by accident – will not sit well with morally mature audience members.

The film contains constant action violence with some blood, ritual suicides, a nonmarital bedroom scene, rear nudity, mature references, at least one use of the F-word and occasional crude and crass language.

 

Scary Movie 5

By John Mulderig, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) — If a Spanish-language version of the shoddy genre satire “Scary Movie 5” (Weinstein) is ever produced, perhaps it should be called “Cinco de No-No.” Like all of its predecessors, this latest instalment of the recidivist franchise is replete with childish gross-out humor and demeaning sex gags.

By way of prelude, not exactly in the Chopin line, we’re treated to scenes of a bedroom liaison between Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan. Set to music that recalls the antics of British bodice fancier Benny Hill, the scandal-prone duo’s exaggerated cavorting is interrupted by a sendup of the “Paranormal Activity” series.

The sketchy plot that follows, principally lifted from Andy Muschietti’s horror film “Mama,” finds Simon Rex as Sheen’s brother Dan adopting his mysteriously deceased sibling’s two young daughters and baby son after the orphaned – and now feral – kids spent months isolated in a cabin in the woods. Dan’s less-than-willing partner in this enterprise is his rock-musician wife, Jody (Ashley Tisdale).

Dan’s scientific work studying the minds of primates leads into a spoof of 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” while Jody’s interest in ballet opens the door for mockery of the previous year’s “Black Swan.”

Back home, meanwhile, Dan and Jody’s Hispanic – and hirsute – housemaid Maria (Lidia Porto) tries to fight off the demonic spirit that has followed the trio of adoptees to suburbia by deploying crucifixes, holy water and incense. When these Catholic accoutrements fail to do the trick, she resorts to others associated with Santeria.

The dopey jibes in director Malcolm Lee’s scattershot parody are as irksome as they are desperate. Indeed, the recurring joke of Dan’s apes inconveniently flinging their excrement around seems an all-too-apt metaphor for this project as a whole.

The film contains pervasive sexual and scatological humour, a frivolous treatment of homosexual activity, same-sex kissing, fleeting rear and partial nudity, some mild irreverence, drug imagery and references, at least one use each of profanity and of the F-word and much crude and crass language.

 

The Place Beyond the Pines

By Joseph McAleer, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) — We have the assurance of the Old Testament that the iniquity of a father will be visited upon his children (Nm 14:18). That happens more than once in “The Place Beyond the Pines” (Focus).

Director and co-writer (with Ben Coccio and Darius Marder) Derek Cianfrance elevates a standard crime drama into a wrenching and profound morality tale about ordinary lives caught in the balance between good and evil. Each life decision carries a high price that few wish to pay, with the debt – and the consequences – passed on to the next generation.

The film’s title is also its setting, the titular phrase being one possible English translation of the Mohawk word from which the upstate city of Schenectady, N.Y., takes its name. The carnival comes to this depressed industrial burg, bringing with it “Handsome Luke” (Ryan Gosling), a motorcycle stuntman who rides around the inside of a steel cage like a gerbil on steroids.

Luke is thrown for a different kind of loop when his ex-lover Romina (Eva Mendes) comes to see his show. She has a surprise for him: a baby son. But Romina wants love, not a husband; she’s living with Kofi (Mahershala Ali) and planning her future.

Fatherhood transforms Luke. Sneaking into a Catholic church to watch his son being baptized — a rite depicted here with refreshing reverence and accuracy — Luke has a tearful epiphany (the redemptive nature of water is a recurrent image throughout the film). He pledges to quit the circus, win Romina back, and provide for his new family.

Sensible fathers resolved on such a course would get a proper job. Luke instead decides to rob banks, relying on his motorcycle skills for smooth getaways. He hooks up with Robin (Ben Mendelsohn), a demented auto-body mechanic and petty thief, to plan the heists.

They are initially very successful – becoming, so to speak, the Clyde & Clyde of the Mohawk Valley. Flush with cash, Luke showers Romina and the baby with gifts, enflaming Kofi’s jealousy. Then Luke beats Kofi to a pulp, and lands in jail.

Not, however, for long. More determined than ever, Luke resumes his life of crime, this time without Robin’s help. “If you ride like lightning you’re gonna crash like thunder,” Robin warns.

That fall happens midway through the film, when “The Place Beyond the Pines” takes a dramatic turn. Avery (Bradley Cooper), a rookie cop, gets his big break, tracking down the elusive bank robber. Like Luke, Avery has a baby son, and has high hopes for his future.

To elaborate further would spoil the outcome of the film. Suffice it to say that Luke and Avery’s interaction has devastating consequences – not only for them, but for their families, and, especially, their sons.

Cianfrance’s picture offers a powerful message about temptation and relativism, as well as the role of conscience and the effect of one individual’s actions on others; though the choices made by the conflicted characters are not, of course, always ideal ones.

The film contains action violence including gunplay, brief gore, frequent drug and alcohol use, a instance of distasteful humour, a scene of sensuality, and a couple of uses each of profane and crass language.

 

Peeples

By John Mulderig, Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) — People are funny. So at least an old saw – and the title of a once-popular radio and television series – inform us. “Peeples” (Lionsgate), on the other hand, not so much.

Backed by producer Tyler Perry, writer-director Tina Gordon Chism serves up a derivative comedy about the mismatch between an earnest young suitor and those he would like to make his in-laws. But the lack of originality on display pales beside the ill-considered humour and freewheeling sexual antics Chism’s picture showcases.

In this case, the beau in question is easygoing Manhattan-based children’s entertainer Wade Walker (Craig Robinson). Wade makes a big mistake when he decide to crash live-in girlfriend Grace Peeples’ (Kerry Washington) weekend at home with her affluent, eccentric family. Wade hopes to transform the brief country idyll — to which he was deliberately not invited — into the perfect occasion for a proposal.

Arriving in tony Sag Harbor, where Grace’s folks have their summer place, Wade is understandably discouraged to discover that Grace has never so much as mentioned his existence to her relatives. They prove welcoming enough, nonetheless, with the notable exception of Grace’s uptight jurist father, Virgil (David Alan Grier).

A series of predictable mishaps and misunderstandings ensue as Wade tangles with starchy Virgil – “Call me Judge” -while also trying to win the affection of Grace’s more sympathetic mother, Daphne (S. Epatha Merkerson), a former disco diva.

Since the Peeples clan is wealthy – Wade’s nickname for them is “the chocolate Kennedys” – dysfunction and denial are, of course, rife. Daphne is a recovering alcoholic who now looks to her garden for substitute stimulants; Grace’s little brother, Simon (Tyler James Williams), is an aspiring gangsta with sticky fingers; soul-of-propriety Virgil secretly frequents a beach where birthday suits are the swimwear of choice. Being of good working-class stock, Wade himself is naturally above such duplicity.

Chism shows the occasional flash of wit as her formulaic farce plays out. But a subplot involving Grace’s sister, Gloria (Kali Hawk), a television news anchor, sends the message that her lesbian relationship with her producer Meg (Kimrie Lewis-Davis) — which, up until now, has constituted yet another family secret — should be accepted without question.

The fact, moreover, that the two women’s bedroom activities draw the salacious interest, close observation and would-be participation of Wade’s brother, Chris (Malcolm Barrett) – who has found his way to Sag Harbor to give Wade his unwanted brand of moral support – is played for laughs.

The film contains a frivolous treatment of homosexual acts, voyeurism, and aberrant heterosexual behaviour, cohabitation, brief obscured nudity, inadvertent drug use, considerable sexual humour, about a dozen crude terms and some crass language.