Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) is the very, very late sequel to the 1996 box office smash that more or less helped define the modern, overblown blockbuster. It was the film that put Roland Emmerich on the map and ushered in a new era of big, dumb explosion films. But, viewing the new film, one can almost feel the original is a subtle masterpiece of deft storytelling.

Resurgence picks up 20 years after the original, in an alternate-universe Earth where the alien technology has helped us make great advances as a civilization. World peace is universal, as all our petty differences have been put aside to unite and build a strong fortification for the inevitable return of the aliens that attacked us so long ago.

And, before long, the aliens do return. This time, instead of sending several large discs from one mothership hovering near the moon, we get one, massive ship, 3,000 miles in diameter, with it's own gravitational pull, which creates a whole new method of city destruction as one East Asian city is picked up and dropped on London, completely obliterating both places.

The film does an impressive job of reigning back in all the major players from the first film, except Will Smith, who opted to make the forthcoming Suicide Squad instead. His absence is explained away as a test run crash that killed him, and his son Dylan (Jessie T. Usher) has filled his father's large shoes rather well, becoming a pilot in his own right. Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Vivica A. Fox, and even Brent Spiner (who many, myself included, assumed died in the first film) are back.

There's very little this film does right, but the things it does well include Spiner's character, a wacky scientist who gets considerable more screen time and adds some much needed levity to the proceedings, and one or two fun set pieces, including Goldblum driving a school bus full of children away from a giant alien.

But the film has a multitude of problems. The first is it's endless subplots. Emmerich is a fan of having many characters in many locations to move the plot forward, but unfortunately the film becomes spread so thin between all these different locations that none of them have barely anytime to register, leaving us simply exhausted trying to keep up.

There's President Whitmore (Pullman) from the first film, suffering visions from his psychic link to the aliens; an African warlord who also suffers the same visions; a nerdy guy proving he can kill aliens; a rivalry between Dylan and Jake (Liam Hemsworth); a budding romance between Jake's friend and a Chinese pilot; a real romance between Jake and the President's daughter (Maika Monroe); a therapist deciphering the alien message; an alien being from another planet not associated with those trying to kill us; Judd Hirsch traversing across the country with a school bus full of children to reach his son; and a merchant boat out in the Atlantic monitoring the aliens' drilling.

All of this is edited at a breakneck pace that barely gives you anytime to breathe. The film hurdles through scenes, establishing characters and relationships with the typical expository dialogue you've come to expect from Emmerich. Characters introduce themselves by quickly explaining their backstories and what issues they might have with other characters so we know they'll be resolved by the end of everything. That this film has five credited screenwriters is baffling; something written by five people should never be this bad.

The film also suffers from not feeling as big as the first one. Say what you will about Independence Day, but it builds and builds to the first payoff, the set piece in which the White House and Los Angeles are blown to hell. The films spends about 45 minute getting all the characters into place, and while the script is really no better, at least there is a sense of pacing. There is a sense of how big this threat is and how impossible the odds are for our heroes to win. In this film, there is never a moments doubt that our heroes will prevail in the end.

I guess I'm not sure what I expected from a big Emmerich blockbuster. He's got a long track record of horrible films, and while this is certainly not his worst, it does nothing to give him credit as a filmmaker. The film shrewdly tries to set the wheels in motion for a sequel, which I certainly do not look forward to. In our reality of 2016, everything must be built to be a franchise, a unique universe to pull in huge bucks for the studios. But you have to make the characters interesting and worth investing in first.

The Fits (2015)

The Fits (2015) is a rather strange little indie drama from first time director Anna Rose Holmer that showcases remarkable skill and a gifted filmmaker to watch for in the coming years. The film is short, at only 72 minutes, but it feels just right and that there shouldn't be any more or any less to it. It's an economical story and sometimes those feel just right.

The story concerns an 11-year-old tomboy named Toni (Royalty Hightower), who helps her older brother at a boxing gym, but is fascinated with the dancing troupe right next door (many of whom admire the bulked up boxing boys). She slowly grows to fit in, but not before the girls on the troupe start having unexplainable violent fits that send them to the hospital.

The why explaining what the fits are isn't important; some speculate it's the school water supply, but tests ring back that the water is clean, and soon the girls grow from fearing the oncoming fits to accepting that they will happen at some point, and almost anticipating the out-of-body experience others are describing.

Shot almost entirely in one location, the movie has a terrific, indescribable sense of dread pervading it. At first it seems like an innocuous pre-teen movie, before the fits start taking over. Holmer, who has extensive credits in the camera department for bigger budge Hollywood films (such as Twilight), stages many shots to focus solely on our protagonist and not show us what is going on around her. We almost see her from everyone else's perspective, and barely register hers.

Ultimately this is an interesting movie that's worth checking out on Video on Demand. By no means a great achievement, it showcases a great talent for the creative team behind it, and makes me anticipate any new films from these creators.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

What is there to say about a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie? The premise is wholly silly, a quartet of turtles mutated to humanoid form who hide in the sewers of New York and fight the evil Foot Clan, lead by Shredder (Brian Tee). It's unfair really to objectively review a movie like this because I don't believe it was ever meant to be taken seriously, or be good.

This follow-up to the 2014 revival of the franchise is fairly forgiving to those who didn't see the first one (me!), as the film nice sets up the status quo. The turtles still hide in the sewers, and attend Knicks games by hiding in the jumbotron. Vernon (Will Arnett) for some reason was credited with bringing down Shredder in the last movie, and lives the life in the spotlight. Meanwhile, the turtles and April O'Neil (Megan Fox) investigate things and I think Megan Fox transformed into a school girl outfit to get close to Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry), a mad scientist who's bent on breaking Shredder out of prison?

The details aren't really that important. For turtles fans, this movie introduces Casey Jones (Stephen Amell), Bebop and Rocksteady (Gary Anthony Williams and Sheamus, respectively), and Krang (voice of Brad Garrett). If those names are familiar to you, and the prospect of their presence in this movie excites you, then you should probably go check this out.

But if you're like me and are only cursorily aware of the turtles and their universe, maybe not so much. The movie is directed by Dave Green and produced by Michael Bay, and the movie hews close to his aesthetic. Unlike Bay's recent films, this one clocks in at under 2 hours and is not a pain to sit through. Bay can up the ante so much that his movie's are insufferable, and to Green's credit, he does Bay better than Bay.

The movie also does a pretty good job of distinguishing the turtles. I have to admit, they all seemed fairly interchangeable to me, despite the colored masks. Strip those away and they are as identical as any of the South Park kids without hair or hats. But the movie gives each turtle a characteristic, so dummy like me actually knew which one was Raphael and Leonardo. Previous iterations only defined the turtles by their masks and weapons of choice.

The action is fine. There is an opening chase scene in which Shredder is extracted from a prison convoy, in a scene eerily similar to The Dark Knight. There is an extended sequence in Brazil where the turtles ride down a river on a tank, and a final battle in the skies over New York. Just don't ask me how they defeated Krang, because I may have closed my eyes for that part.

But there's nothing special about this movie. There is the echoes of a good idea as the turtles confront a substance that could make them human, and grapple with what that would mean. But the movie quickly resolves this and emphasizes team work and camaraderie. The rest is fairly forgettable and boring. The script is rote, the performances phoned in (except for Laura Linney who is always fantastic and for some reason is in this movie), and the movie is over 50% CGI, so why are we watching a live-action version of this? I don't think a real April O'Neil and Casey Jones sells the universe. Sorry turtles, you are not my cup of tea.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

The mockumentary is all but a dead format in mainstream cinema. Not that is was ever thriving, but since the format was repurposed for found-footage horror flicks, there has been precious little comedies put out in the format, save anything Christopher Guest and crew put out.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is the new film from the Lonely Island, the rap trio composed of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer, and utilizes this format very well. Intercutting an impressive amount of fake interviews with established music industry heavyweights, including Mariah Carey, Carrie Underwood, Nas, Usher, 50 Cent, Ringo Starr, Akon, DJ Khaled, and so forth, the movie tells the story of the latest release from superstar Conner 4 Real (Samberg), and the tour to promote his album.

He's an egomaniac, a member of a three piece outfit called The Style Boyz (the other members being Taccone and Schaffer), before he split off on a solo career and poisoned his relationship with one of the members (Schaffer). Surrounded by entourage that can never tell him no, Conner lives a life of luxury and ignorance, until his latest release bombs both critically and financially, and he has to bring on a new up-and-coming rapper to open his tour just get ticket sales up.

In addition to the multitude of musicians tapped to star, there is also Sarah Silverman as Conner's publicist, Tim Meadows as his manager, Joan Cusack as his mom, Maya Rudolph, Will Arnett, and Will Forte. It's an impressive lineup of comedians who all deliver in various ways, and add an extra bit of fun to the proceedings.

The real star here, though, is the music. You either love or hate the Lonely Island's output (which includes I'm On a Boat, I Just Had Sex, Jizz in My Pants, and more), and I myself am a pretty big fan of their stuff. The songs are all dumb jokes, but they are just the right amount of dumb, if that makes sense. The songs written for this film include an opening number about Conner's humility, a riff on Spaniard accents, a song about not being gay but still cool with equal rights, and a song about deep thoughts. Honestly, I would have preferred the movie to showcase more the songs, as only three get full productions and the rest are no more than an iTunes sample to entice you to buy the album. I suspect the digital/blu-ray/DVD (whatever you call it these days) release will have an extended cut with these songs more fully fleshed out.

Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the rest of the movie; it has plenty of laughs throughout, including one hilarious scene where Conner signs a member of that I'm sure few people have signed. But the film estranges the trio and while Samberg is funny enough on his own, Taccone and Schaffer to hold up much on their individual scenes and the movie has some real sparks when they are altogether again (oops, minor spoilers, although honestly you could have predicted that).

The closest comparison I can draw to this movie is This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and while I am not saying these two movies are close in quality (nothing here will enter the lexicon quite like "These go to 11."), the formula set forth in that older film plays well here. Popstar is entertaining and funny enough to act as a nice diversion from the oncoming summer heat. But it will probably play better on your home theater, where an extended cut with more of the songs will hopefully be available. That is, after all, The Lonely Island's greatest strength.

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016)

Despite it's best intentions, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising can't help but feel like a quickly thrown together sequel to follow-up the successful 2014 comedy starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron. The first film was a fairly funny look at what its like to suddenly realize you are not the cool kids anymore, instead the cantankerous neighbor that calls the cops for noise complaints.

Neighbors 2 fits the bill of repeating the same thing but this time with a sorority next store rather than a fraternity, to shake things up. There are a few beat-for-beat repeats of gags from the first film, but surprisingly, the movie stands alone as its on entity, and even has a different message to spin.

Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young college freshman, is looking to enter a sorority, but soon discovers that sororities are not allowed to throw parties, it is only fraternities that can do that. So she sets out to a fraternity party to find the whole thing nothing more than a fairly rapey set-up, a cattle call of beautiful women for these bros to have sex with.

So Shelby, along with her two new friends Beth (Kiersey Clemons) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein), set out to start their own sorority and throw their kind of parties. And, naturally, they end up next door to Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne), who have their home in escrow and don't want the new buyers to be scared away by the unexpected presence of a loud sorority.

So enter a lot of the same shenanigans as last time, as Mac and Kelly try to civilly quiet their neighbors, before resorting to war. Teddy (Zac Efron) returns, first to help the sorority get established, then when he is kicked out to join Mac and Kelly's side of the war. Plenty of funny and unfunny gags ensue.

One refreshing spin is checking in on the bros of the first film, who all have filled into adulthood, save Teddy whose peak was when he ran the fraternity. It's a nice reminder that not everyone stays on top forever, and that those who seemed like jerks can grow to be good people.

And the film seems to be trying to be fairly feminist, as Teddy's character comes to the realization that frat parties are, essentially, cattle calls for bros to have sex with beautiful women, the rape culture they inspire. The film is rated R for nudity, but you won't find female nudity here; instead it is the men who are exploited, particularly Efron in one of the film's better moments when he puts on a Magic Mike-lite show at a tail gate party. And there is a frank, true conversation about how a dad feels when his son has sex vs. his daughter. It doesn't all feel honest, but it feels like the right step.

But the problem with the film is the pacing. Set, more or less, during the 30 days Mac's house is in escrow, the film hurdles through events at a breakneck pace and barely allows anything to develop. For all of Shelby's good intentions with the new sorority, she comes off as a self-entitled brat that I wanted to see lose. She is the antagonist, but at the same time, her anger and reason for doing what she is doing is well-founded. You might argue it's the movie being morally complex, but I say it's the script and the characters being rushed due to the 2-year turnaround for this movie.

Neighbors 2 is a slight sequel with a big message. What it is trying to do is fairly positive, but unfortunately it hangs it all on a rather mediocre film.

Keanu (2016)

Keanu was cooked-up with a simple premise in mind; gangsters and hard thugs will melt in the presence of an adorable kitten. That's the joke that runs through most of Keanu, the first big screen film from the comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. And while that doesn't sound like enough to sustain a 90-minute movie, thankfully Key and Peele's charisma carry most of the film

Opening with a drug shoot-out, two assassins known as the Allentown Boys (Key and Peele) halt the massacre when a drug dealer's kitten approaches him. The silent duo adopt him as their own, but soon the kitten escapes into the home of Rell Williams (Peele), a recently dumped homebody who uses the kitten to get over his break-up. His best friend Clarence (Key) is an obsessive George Michael fan (his love of Faith is the movie's long-running gag that loses steam), and when Rell's kitten escapes, dubbed Keanu, Clarence joins him in infiltrating a gang that has taken possession of the kitten.

Key and Peele always traded off playing comic foil to one another on their sketch comedy show, and here they are reigned in to playing only three characters apiece. To watch them shift from normal, everyday guys to hard thugs is hilarious, and they carry out the task admirably. But they are limited to those two sides (the Allentown characters don't give them much room to exercise their chops), and one almost wishes they had gone full Monty Python and peppered themselves in various roles throughout the movie.

The transition from sketch comedy to full narrative can be tricky, and more often then not doesn't fly. Peele co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Rubens (a Key & Peele veteran), and it more or less holds up a three-act structure and hits the necessary dramatic beats to tell a story. But some of it is tiresome, specifically the violence, and I found myself getting a little weary of the film's repeated beats.

Not to mention that the screenplay ends with a fairly convenient outcome, including a gang member who was undercover the whole time, and Clarence finally learning to be a man and stand-up for himself. There is nothing innovative here, and the script likes a satirical edge that makes many of their sketches from their show great. There's a sly social commentary that is sorely missed here.

But what does work, works. The George Michael Faith gag, though long running, still provides laughs and culminates in a fairly ridiculous payoff. There is an extended cameo from a famous actress that is one of the films' more inspired scenes. And Key and Peele are great together on screen. But the biggest complaint anyone walking into this movie will have was there was not enough of the kitten. That little guy almost steals the show.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Captain America: Civil War, the 13th entry in the never-ending Marvel Cinematic Universe, has the distinct honor in kicking off what is being dubbed Phase Three, which will include more sequels to Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Avengers, as well as standalone movies for Black Panther and Spider-Man (introduced in this film), as well as Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel. It's a golden age for comic book movies, as they have never been more lucrative and the fanbase never more rabid.

Civil War, the third and presumably final Captain America film, stars little of Cap (Chris Evans), as this movie functions more as an Avengers 2.5, reeling in all the Avengers characters save Hulk and Thor (who will pal up in Thor's third installment). At this point it's kind of hard to make one of these movies without bringing in the whole gang, as the most prevalent question throughout Marvel's Phase 2 movies was "Why don't they just bring in The Avengers?" (see: Iron Man 3 and Winter Soldier, although in Ant-Man they address this head-on).

Politics bog down the first hour or so of this film, as the Avengers divide over the issue of whether or not they should cede power to the U.N., in what is being known as the Sokovia Accords, named after the city lifted into the sky in Age of Ultron. Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) can't live with the guilt of what their actions have wrought on innocents, and Steve Rogers maintains the Avengers should have autonomy. Meanwhile, Rogers' old pal Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) resurfaces as a suspect in a U.N. bombing, but Rogers believes he is innocent and goes on the lam.

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo do a more capable job of juggling the many characters established in this universe. One of Age of Ultron's biggest downfalls was how overstuffed it felt, and how no one character stood out as the lead. Here, Rogers and Stark are the clear protagonists, and the movie benefits from several films establishing these characters' ideological backgrounds, so it's clear when they divide why they do. Their conflict makes sense, although why several other members rally to Cap's side is a bit of a mystery (probably so they can evenly match the two sides with 6 apiece).

The film does double duty of introducing a character never before seen on the big screen, Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), as well as bringing in fan favorite Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who both enliven the proceedings. Spider-Man's presence is a bit pointless, his function no more then to have the character in the film because Sony finally relinquished the rights after those awful Amazing Spider-Man films. Regardless, his moments are some of the best in the film, and Holland is an able Spider-Man and shows promise for the upcoming standalone film.

Two of the best fight scenes in all of Marvel exist here: one is a showdown at an abandoned airport between the super friends that is both exciting, alive, and endlessly inventive. It works because we are invested in each character on different levels and they all bring unique powers and abilities to the fold. Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is a particularly delightful addition, adding some humor to the proceedings.

The other is a final showdown that I won't spoil, but carried surprising emotional heft and was a fight where I genuinely didn't know which side to root for. Both sides were wrong and right for different reasons, and to see that kind of moral complexity in these films is encouraging for later installments. Let's just say it's a more emotional battle than the gladiator match of the century promised us in March.

But alas, despite all this film does right, it still just fails to connect overall. The opening hour or so, while effectively staging the conflict, drags on and I felt rather sleepy during it. The villain, a regular dude named Zemo (Daniel Brühl), is a bore, his intricate plan so elaborate that it could only work in the movies where characters act exactly as he wants them too. And at this point, there are too many damn characters to follow or care about. Side plots include Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) meditating on their powers, as well as Black Panther's hunt for justice.

Not that Captain America: Civil War isn't a good time; it's a blast. But I fear this may be the last, cohesive film starring the Avengers. The films have already gone full comic book (the existence of a character like Vision is still something I don't quite comprehend), and I can't imagine the upcoming Infinity Wars, for all their good intentions, to not be overblown mega-blockbusters that will ultimately exist to service whatever is next for Marvel. Civil War's biggest shortcoming is in it's ending; after all the events that have transpired have split our heroes, an olive branch is offered to assure reunification in the sequel. These films can't stand alone anymore because they have to set-up the next billion dollar entry, and while that is exciting from an overall, big picture perspective, it takes its toll on the individual experience.