72 San Diego Reader July 21, 2016
and asking, “WTF?” That is, if you’re tak- ing any of it seriously by that point. Once more, with feeling: a group of talented individuals must learn to overcome their personal foibles and function as a team — sorry, as a single organism — in order to stop a villain bent on controlling the world’s computers. The early appear- ance of Lizzy Caplan as a fake-violence specialist who once pulled a hat out of a rabbit is enough to inspire hope, but don’t be fooled. She quickly devolves into a love interest/sad quipstress, leaving the odd spotlight to Woody Harrelson goofing as his own twin. And of course, there’s no danger of mistaking computer- enhanced trickery for actual sleight of hand, so even the modest but honest pleasure provided by quality card work is compromised. Directed by John M. Chu. 2016. — M.L. ● (AMC LA JOLLA; REGAL PARKWAY PLAZA)
Our Kind of Traitor — Quick! Name a memorable Ewan McGregor perfor- mance. Neither can I. Who better to play a college poetics professor who, apart from being a principled sort, is utterly unremarkable? (DJ Qualls would have been the honorable choice.) Knowing a kosher salt when he sees one, a money-laundering Russian mob accountant (Stellan Skarsgård, boisterous as a jack-in-the-box, coiled and prone to physical outbursts both random and amusing) inveigles the altruistic patsy’s sympathy in order to facilitate a deal with British Secret Service to help usher his family to safety in exchange for top- secret documents. Government agents generally play to one of two extremes: all bad or all good. Underneath the power frames, Damian Lewis’s ruthless MI6 agent grooves on the complexities of moral functioning needed to turn his otherwise rank-and-file pest into an appreciably well-heeled heel. The mid- summer release of an adult, effects-free British thriller relating to the collapse of Europe’s global financial system timed out perfectly. You’ll Brexit knowing that your entertainment dollar was well spent. 2016. — S.M. ★★★★ (AMC LA JOLLA; ANGELIKA FILM CENTER)
Our Little Sister — Reviewed this issue. 2015 — S.M. ★★★★ (ANGE- LIKA CARMEL MOUNTAIN)
The Peanuts Movie — Director Steve Martino and the makers at Blue Sky, aware of the potential for aesthetic barba-
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rism in transferring a beloved comic strip (and hand-drawn animated television property) to CGI, have exercised great care and sensitivity in bringing Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the gang to the big screen. Many of the old exchanges and punchlines have been preserved com- pletely intact. Creator Charles Schulz’s scribbled facial expressions endure on the newly rounded heads, and the essen- tial sweetness and humanity are still in place, despite the slings and arrows of outrageous childhood fortune. (Hello, kite-eating tree.) But those slings and arrows? Blunted, just like the suffering they so famously cause our hero. And without suffering, Peanuts becomes little
more than wholesome distraction for kiddies. Which is pretty clearly the goal here — viz. the primary-color obvious- ness of lines like, “Charlie Brown is not a quitter,” “That was a very brave thing you did, Charlie Brown,” and “It must feel pretty great being Charlie Brown right about now.” Viz. also the thin story, the Looney Tunes–style visual gags, and the heavy reliance on Snoopy the dog’s heroic flights of fancy. Sigh. 2015. — M.L. ★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
The Purge: Election Year — Evil white men try to kill a woman who’s out to stop their fun, but she’s got some decent minorities on her side, plus
a studly protector dude. 2016. (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made — Reviewed this issue. 2015 — S.M. ● (DIGITAL GYM)
The Secret Life of Pets — Fresh from releasing Minions, the #11 grossing movie of all time, and also its predeces- sor, Despicable Me 2 (#28!), the good people at Illumination Entertainment have decided to see if they can spruce up the less-successful Toy Story franchise, substituting domesticated animals for children’s playthings and imagining what they get up to when their owners aren’t
around. The result: great casting, design, and character conception; a plot that makes precious little use of any of that; decent humor; and an overreliance on wacky action at the expense of anything worth caring about. Affable terrier Max (Louis CK) gets the Woody role, con- vinced of his owner’s undying devotion and therefore mystified when an inter- loper shows up in the form of a big brown pound pooch named Buzz, er, Duke. Their rivalry gets them lost in New York City, which is a shame, because the pets back home is far more interesting than the angry gang of Flushed Pets our heroes wind up running with (and from). And while a Busby Berkeley number set in a sausage factory is good fun, too much of the film feels like hot dog filler: inof- fensive but also insubstantial. Directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney. 2016. — M.L. ★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
The Shallows — Director Jaume Collet-Serra and cinematographer Flavio Martinez Labiano put Blake Lively (here making her bid to be the next Kill Bill-era Uma Thurman in terms of limb length, visage resolution, and pain management) through her paces (strokes?) as a woman who decides to mourn the loss of her mother by going back to the Mexican beach where Mom went after learning she was pregnant. (There’s even an island that reminds her of a pregnant woman lying on her back — head, breasts, and belly rising from the sea.) Though her surf buddy has remained behind, she braves the waves, even as night comes on (thanks to an upsetting phone chat with Dad, during which she wonders why Mom bothered fighting so hard to stay alive). Then she drifts up to a whale carcass, and also, the great big shark that has been munching on it. The progres- sion from personal drama to surf film to (wo)man vs. nature story to full-on crea- ture feature is smooth, even expert, and always managed with handsome panache. It’s true that the camera’s eye substitutes rather improbably for Lively’s in places, but a girl needs all the help she can get when it’s just her, a shark, and a wounded, highly symbolic seagull. 2016. — M.L. ★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Star Trek Beyond — The third install- ment of the reboot based on the ’60s sci-fi TV show. Directed by Justin Lin. Review forthcoming at sandiegoreader. com. 2016 (IN WIDE RELEASE)
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