21 Jump Street

Movie remakes are typically a tedious and formulaic affair. Studios get the rights to an old TV show, turn it into a comedy/action/action-comedy movie, throw a couple of famous actors into the mix, and voila! Instant money. While they're almost always successful, remakes are typically lacking in sustainable quality. They may be entertaining and make you wax nostalgic for the original. Or they could be flat-out horrible. But the universal thread that binds them together is that they're also typically forgotten a few months after their DVD release. Movie remakes of classic TV shows are flashes in the pan of the movie industry. The best we can hope for is that the ones we watch are at least entertaining.

Fortunately, 21 Jump Street is captivating enough to be classified as a good remake. One of the better ones, in my opinion. Actually a continuation of the television show, 21 Jump Street follows Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill), two cops who are assigned to the recently-reopened Jump Street program and tasked with bringing down a synthetic drug ring. Tatum and Hill, while surprisingly good at playing off each other, are character archetypes for action-comedy buddy cop movies. Tatum plays a dumb, handsome jock while Hill is the smart and nerdy outcast who falls for a girl way out of his league. On the other hand, one of the things that I appreciated about this movie the most, and what makes the movie fresh, is how the writers flip the high school caste system on its head. I won't go too far into it, but it's a novel approach that makes it stand out among other high school comedies.

There's another very good reason for you to go see 21 Jump Street, and it's only two words: Channing Tatum. Normally, this would be a deterrent for me, but I could not stop laughing every time he was on screen. Part of the humor does come from the fact that he's breaking from his typical cheesy romance-novel heartthrob role, but part of it is also because he's genuinely a funny guy. I gained a little more respect for him. The rest of the cast plays their tried-and-true characters: Jonah Hill plays Jonah Hill, Rob Riggle plays Rob Riggle, Elle Kemper plays Elle Kemper, and so on and so forth. It's an R-rated action comedy. It wasn't meant to be a challenge.

At the end of the day, 21 Jump Street is funny, raunchy, and entertaining. If you're looking for an R-rated comedy to pass the time, there are a lot of worse options than this. But it is still a TV movie remake. I enjoyed it, but I know that I'll have a hard time remembering it a year from now. I give it 7 misread Miranda rights out of 10.

The Artist

The words "movie-going experience" are heard at least once during the opening trailers to any given movie. It's a phrase that's been overused to such a point that it means nothing to audiences. The Artist is one of those few films where the word  "experience" is actually the appropriate term to use.

The Artist is a silent film, and it was, needless to say, the only silent movie playing when I walked into the theater this afternoon. This was very cool because, being 22 years old and living in central Louisiana, I don't really get many opportunities to see a silent film on the big screen. I was pleasantly surprised with how the experience played out. Story-wise, The Artist's plot is very reminiscent of Singin' in the Rain: a tale of the transition from silent film to "talkies" and its subsequent upset in the balance of old Hollywood power. The story follows George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), an immensely popular silent film actor who is upstaged by the new generation of actors and struggles to cope with his life outside of the limelight. It's a classic story of a successful man's fall from grace and subsequent redemption. What makes it stand out from the countless others like it is entirely in the style.

From an acting perspective, this movie is unlike anything else you'll be seeing in theaters. Being a silent movie, the story has to be conveyed entirely through the movement and facial expression of the actors. And they all deliver. Dujardin is on point in showing Valentin's triumphs and pitfalls, and his supporting cast does an excellent job at sustaining the world in which he operates. Stylistically, the movie is all about evoking nostalgia. From the old practice of showing extended credits at the start of the film to the glamorous over-exaggeration of every emotion, The Artist is definitely an homage to the silent film era and the glamour of old Hollywood.

That being said, The Artist is more about the spectacle than anything else. Had the movie not been silent, it would have likely suffered for its cliche story and its campy style. The Artist is a well-crafted novelty, and should be treated as such, but it is not a movie that really brings anything new to the table . It is a unique movie-going experience, and a fun one, but it was really little more than that. I give it 7 over-exaggerated camera mugs out of 10.

Hugo

When I first read that Martin Scorcese was directing a family film, I could hardly believe my eyes. The man responsible for Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed was going to make a movie for children? I knew it was going to be interesting. And it is. Hugo is a truly unique cinematic experience for anyone remotely familiar with the family film genre of the 21st century. Unlike its many contemporaries, Hugo isn't a film made to sell merchandise or create a franchise. Instead, it focuses on the things that are truly important in movie-making: acting, cinematography, story, and emotion.

Hugo is the story of Hugo Cabret, a Parisian orphan who lives in the walls of a train station and maintains the station's clocks. His only comfort is a broken automaton, his late father's pet project and Hugo's only remaining bond to his memory. After getting caught trying to rob a toy store owner to get the parts needed to finish the project, Hugo is whisked into a decades-old mystery involving the automaton, the toymaker, and the advent of the film industry. Asa Butterfield plays the titular character, and I was totally blown away by his performance. Expect to see great things from him in the future. His supporting cast is filled out wonderfully, from Ben Kingsley as the mysterious toymaker, to Chloë Grace Moretz as Hugo's friend Isabelle, and Sacha Baron Cohen as the film's antagonist: a comical, yet strangely tragic security guard that crusades against the orphans that inhabit the station. Every character fits right in with the movie's tone: whimsical, with just enough darkness and pain in it to let the audience connect it with the real world.


Visually, this is one of the most stunning movies I've ever seen. Everything, from the early 20th century grandiosity of the train station to the montages detailing the silent film creation process, is shot in such a way that every bit of the visual story perfectly compliments the audio story that the actors and score tell. Everything from the camera angles to the color of the costumes is so meticulously perfect that it's visually moving in a sense unlike anything else I've ever seen. It won its Oscar in cinematography for a very, VERY good reason.


Hugo is, without question, one of the best family movies I've ever seen. It can be a bit slow at times, and its lack of constant hectic stimulation make it an odd fit in the world of SpongeBob Squarepants and those awful Alvin and the Chipmunks movies, but it's definitely a family film that won't put the parents in agony. If anything, they'll probably like it more than the kids will. I give it 9 dramatic camera-zooms through clockwork out of 10.

Drive

I love it when a movie is far better than it initially looks. It's a rare treat, but there's that occasional movie that comes in and exceeds all of your expectations. The trailers for Drive make it look like little more than car-oriented action flick, but the first fifteen minutes of the movie lets you know that this isn't the movie experience you thought it was going to be. It's going to be much better.

Drive is the first US film by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, and stars Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, Bryan Cranston, and Christina Hendricks. Gosling plays the titular Driver, a nameless stuntman and mechanic who moonlights as a getaway driver. I know, the character sounds like an action movie archetype, but Gosling's performance will blow away any preconceived notions you might have. I don't want to ruin anything for the audience, but I will say that the Driver is one of the most unique film characters to have come out in quite some time. Backing Gosling is a solid cast, from Bryan Cranston's role as a sleazy auto-shop owner to Albert Brooks' unique take as a Jewish mob boss and Carey Mulligan as the struggling mother next door whose family is ravaged by underworld politics.

The other pleasant surprise that Drive offered was how well the story is pieced together. For a movie called Drive, there's a surprisingly small amount of time that anyone spends in a car. The movie finds an excellent balance of giving the testosterone-driven action movie masses what they want in the form of super-violent fight scenes and bloody Mafia dirty dealings while still fleshing out the characters in subtle ways that speak louder than you would initially think. And it does it all in less than two hours.

I was honestly blown away by this movie. It's one of my favorite movies of 2011. I caution the faint of heart against this movie for some graphic violence, but if you're looking for an action movie with real talent behind it, I can't recommend any movie more highly. I give it 9 and a half scorpion jackets out of 10.

Chronicle

It's hard to find movies with original ideas. Producers like to place safe bets, so movies are typically made to have a certain amount of familiarity with audiences. Sometimes, though, a movie comes along that takes a couple of those reused ideas and creates something that is more than the sum of its parts. Chronicle takes the video-camera point of view made popular by The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and Paranormal Activity and matches it up with the superhero genre to make a movie that feels simultaneously familiar and fresh.

Despite the fresh take on the superhero genre, the rest of the movie is pretty mediocre. The special effects are pretty good, and the acting is decent, but a lot of my grievances with the movie come from the story. I know that ideas are used and reused, but this story is painfully predictable. I don't want to give anything away, but if you've ever seen a movie (or, more commonly, children's superhero cartoons) where the villain is a bullied kid who gains superpowers, then you know exactly where this movie is going to go after the first ten minutes.

The saving grace is that the movie is still really fun to watch. The video camera POV gets a fresh update from other movies that you've seen, the actors all give solid performances, and the special effects are really top notch. Had they made the plot a little better, this would be a really great movie. As it stands, though, the cliche-ridden script chains the movie down to mediocrity. I give it 6 silly telekinetic pranks out of 10.

The Descendants

The Descendants is one of those movies that are obviously tailored to garner critical acclaim. They take a tried-and-true plot (my wife is cheating on me!), add a unique tragic twist to it (but she's in a coma!), take an actor that's very good at both drama and comedy (George Clooney) and put him as the lead, and unleash it upon the viewing public in the last couple of months leading up to Oscar voting. It's a formulaic process that Hollywood goes through every fall and winter, but it doesn't make it any less enjoyable to watch.

Although I knew The Descendants would be good, I had no idea it would be this well-done. One of the things that jumped out at me the most was how perfectly the movie was cast. Clooney plays Matt King, a Hawaiian lawyer with the weight of the world on his shoulders, juggling work, family, and the tragic news that his wife is dying. His older, troubled daughter is played by Shailene Woodley, who I had only known from the commercials to The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Knowing her only from that made me cringe at first, but after about 30 seconds of screentime, I understood perfectly why she was put in this movie. Clooney and Woodley play incredibly well off of one another, skirting the line between rebellious animosity and familial codependency with an amazing sense of honesty.

The story, like I said, is standard-fare Oscar screenwriting: formulaic, but good. It flows very well from one instance to the next, developing all three of King's struggles fairly evenly without losing the audience. It drags a little in parts, and some of the scenes can be a bit cliche, but it's overall a very solid storyline. The cinematography is unique in that it captures Hawaii from the point of view of the characters. At the beginning of the movie, King states that the beauty of Hawaii becomes the norm, and it gets kind of lost on the people that live there. The cinematography captures this by showing the beauty of the setting, but not overemphasizing on it until the moment is right.

Overall, The Descendants is a fantastic film. It could have been a little tighter in the middle, but overall, I think it's a huge contender for Best Picture. I give it 9 awkward father-daughter confrontations out of 10.

The Ides of March

My personal record with political thrillers has been very lukewarm. I've watched plenty of them over the years, but they're so forgettable that hardly any ever stick out. The Ides of March is an entirely different experience. An adaptation of the play Farragut North, The Ides of March is the third film directed by George Clooney and stars himself, Ryan Gosling, Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Gosling plays Steven Meyers, a young, idealistic deputy campaign manager who, while campaigning for presidential candidate Mike Morris (Clooney), uncovers a potential career-ending scandal and learns the ugly truth about the dirty underbelly of political campaigning. Gosling is absolutely amazing, portraying the shift between starry-eyed naivety and cold political shark with fantastic skill. And with Clooney's smooth-talking politician, Hoffman's gruff campaign manager, and Wood's overwhelmed intern, the supporting cast is an actor's dream come true.

The story is a pretty standard-fare political drama affair. The concept of a hotshot newcomer being disillusioned by the gritty behind-the-scenes work of politics is something that's been done again and again. What makes this story stand out though is the impeccable sense of pacing. The movie goes by quickly, but they pace it enough to make sure it doesn't leave the audience feeling like they've missed something.

At the end of the movie, I was angry that it didn't get as much critical commendation as it should have. It's nominated for only one Academy Award (Adapted Screenplay) and was nominated for four Golden Globes, where it went home empty-handed. I think it's one of the best movies of 2011. I give it 9 shady political meetings out of 10.