Retro Trio: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014); Win Win (2012); Kung-Fu Panda (2008)

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

I just watched this movie for the second time. The first time, I absolutely loved it. The second time, I really enjoyed it, but I noticed a very unfortunate and nasty blemish that I hadn't seen the first time.

Kingsman is essentially a clever modernization of the entire James Bond mythos, told with a dizzying amount of joy. It centers on Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, a very intelligent and gifted young man who lives the life of a punk in a downtrodden neighborhood. He unexpectedly becomes a part of a group called "The Kingsman," a secret society created by wealthy British aristocrats wanting to protect the world with the freedom and anonymity that national governments do not possess. Eggsy quickly learns that his father was an agent in Kingsman, in which his moniker was "Lancelot," as Kingsman all adopt names taken from the Knights of the Round Table from British history. Eggsy himself is given a chance to become a Kingsman by going through a grueling training/tryout with other candidates. While this is occurring, the brilliant computer programmer Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) is plotting to kill nearly all of humanity in an insane attempt to save the planet from human contamination.

The movie is very self-aware in its over-the-top plot, action, and its use of the James Bond template for an epic tale of world-saving. Two of the main characters even get meta during a conversation about their love of old Bond movie villains and their megalomaniacal schemes. This element of the movie could have become a tiresome crutch, but it merely served as a solid springboard into some highly amusing and creative alterations to the familiar Bond tropes. Where Bond has Q, the Kingsman have Merlin. Where Bond was a polished metrosexual who studied at Eton, Eggsy is a diamond in the rough of a neighborhood full of thugs and punks. Where Bond villains have nearly always been icy cold in their attitude towards death and brutal violence, Valentine becomes nauseated at the sight of blood. The differences are all overtly intentional and wonderfully entertaining.

You might not have guessed it, but Colin Firth makes an
excellent gentleman of lethal action. 

As an action film, Kingsman is brilliant. Director Matthew Vaughn, known for directing Layer Cake and for producing Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, keeps the tempo fast and furious. There are plenty of brutal fights, daredevil escapes, and lively chase scenes, all presented with no end of effective verve. Though I am not a fan of most action movies, per se, I found the controlled insanity of Kingsman a pleasure to take in.

All of the above are fantastic, and they hold up on repeated viewing. On my second watch, though, a nasty element of the film became glaring. The attitude towards female characters is conservative at best and downright insulting at worst. The only "strong" female character is Valentine's henchwoman, Gazelle, who is a bloodthirsty killer in the mold of classic Bond villains like Oddjob. The few other females are painfully weak. Eggsy's mother is a pathetic victim. A Danish princess is initially presented as intelligent, but then becomes a mere sex object. Even Eggsy's fellow Kingsman recruit, Roxy, needs constant encouragement from Eggsy, despite her clear merits as a tough potential agent. I found this gender imbalance a bit callous for the modern age of storytelling.

This is still a really fun movie. A sequel is planned, and I'll gladly go see it. My only hope is that we can see some movement towards giving us at least one or two respectable, strong, and fully-formed female characters to go along with the excellent male ones.

Win Win (2012)

Director: Tom McCarthy

Another great indie film from Tom McCarthy.

McCarthy has been and will continue to be a buzz-worthy name right up to and through the Oscars next year, since he is the screenwriter and director of the amazing Spotlight. However, film fans will likely already know him for his earlier films The Station Agent or maybe even The Visitor. Like those earlier works, Win Win manages to hit on the themes of people's relationships to one another, primarily when one of them is an unintentional misfit within his or her context.

Win Win focuses mostly on small-town, New Jersey lawyer Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti). Mike has a very modest practice which is falling on hard times. His looming financial straits inspire Mike's morally dubious decision to become a state-appointed guardian for a modestly wealthy client, Leo Poplar. Instead of actually taking care of Leo, however, Mike leaves him at a retirement home and collects his guardian checks. This seems to be working fine, until Leo's grandson Kyle shows up from Ohio, mostly to get away from his addict mother. The rather quiet but self-possessed Kyle eventually comes to live with Mike, his wife and daughter. Kyle becomes an even larger part of their lives when Mike, the high school wrestling coach, discovers that Kyle is a top-flight wrestler.

Very much like McCarthy's other movies, Win Win is all about personal relationships and how they shift and change under various pressures. The balance between organic drama and humor is impeccable. In lesser hands, this movie could easily have become a sentimental bore or a more light-hearted, quirky comedy in the vein of Wes Anderson. As it is, though, it has legitimate emotional heft to go with its considerable entertainment value. There are so many great moments of revelation, particularly with Kyle, that prove that stories can be engaging and fulfilling without being sensational.

I am now officially a Mike McCarthy fan. All four of his films which I have seen have been nothing short of excellent, and I eagerly await his next work.

Kung-Fu Panda (2008)

Directors: Mark Osborn and John Stevenson

I was pleasantly surprised with my first viewing of this modern popular animated movie. It showed far more skill and age-spanning humor than I was expecting.

The movie is set in a world modelled after medieval China, and where there are no humans. Rather, it is populated by all forms of animals that walk, talk and move around like humans. In this world, the kindly panda Po (voiced by Jack Black) is a noodle cook who idolizes the "Kung Fu" legends of the land, most specifically the "Furious Five" who fight evil and are headquartered close to Po's village. When word arrives that the villainous Tai Lung (Ian McShane) is about to return and exact vengeance on the Furious Five, a prophesied "Dragon Warrior" is selected to defend the temple. Surprisingly, it is Po who is chosen as the Dragon Warrior. Surprising in that Po is overweight, undisciplined, and completely unschooled in martial arts.

My expectations were not terribly high for this movie, and I mostly watched it because my wife is a fan of the it (and pandas, in general). Much to my delight, the movie is fun, clever, and amazingly vibrant. In both the visual humor and spoken gags, there are plenty of creative and comedic twists on well-known tropes. Young kids surely love the sillier slapstick and goofy, energetic deliveries of Jack Black, but older viewers like me can find plenty of laughs as well. Playing on many of the stereotypes laid out in popular kung-fu movies, the story and script take plenty of left turns to keep things fresh and interesting. It helps that there are some phenomenal voice actors, including Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, and James Hong, among several others.

The characters and settings are as colorful as anything
you've seen in an animated movie. The grade-A voice acting
enhances the energy even more.

The animation and visuals are dazzling. This movie is as colorful and eye-popping as any animated films that you are likely to see. The animators clearly drew from the wide color palate of classic Chinese culture and crafted a movie that is simply a joy to look at. Enhancing all of this are action sequences that are fun but not dizzying, as one may find in more hyper-kinetic anime films or cartoons aimed at very young children.

While I cannot quite put this film on the same level as some of the best Pixar movies, it is as close as I've seen from a rival animation studio. I would gladly return to this one in the future, as it's an entertaining way to feel like a kid again, without feeling as if my intelligence were being insulted. 

New Releases! The Martian (2015); Spotlight (2015)

The Martian (2015)

Director: Ridley Scott

A strong, sober take on outer space adventure, but one that takes no true risks.

Set in an undetermined but not-too-distant future, The Martian is the tale of Doctor Mark Watney (Matt Damon), an astrobotanist who is accidentally abandoned by his crew on Mars during an exploratory mission on the red planet. Once he awakens after being knocked unconscious, Watney must attempt to survive on a planet with almost no water, very limited food, and no immediate way to contact Earth to send a rescue team.

The strength of the film is in seeing just how a top-notch scientist uses all of his knowledge to fend off impending death at multiple turns. Watching Watney diagnose and solve problem after problem offers plenty of fascination for those who wonder exactly how someone might survive in the worst environmental circumstances.

Buoying the compelling plot is the performance of ever-reliable Matt Damon. Damon does excellent work in conveying the affable doctor's fear, frustration, elation, bemusement, and excitement at various turns in the film. He humanizes Watney in a way that stokes our hopes that he somehow safely return to Earth.

Watney takes a little break during one of his lower moments.
Not surprisingly, director Ridley Scott oversaw some
incredible visual effects within which Matt Damon could
bring Watney to life. 

These immense strengths make the movie well worth watching. However, I couldn't help but see some places where other, similar movies have outdone The Martian. The 1995 drama Apollo 13 tells a similar, albeit historically true, tale in which the NASA engineers and astronauts are less romanticized or glamorized while still being granted extreme respect for their intelligence and abilities. The 2013 film Europa Report is far more similar to The Martian, being a futuristic tale of speculative fiction about space exploration. However, this earlier film avoids Hollywood tropes such as the sometimes-misplaced playful humor and occasional caricatures which we see in The Martian (just note the socially awkward, uber-nerdy astrophysicist Rich Purnell). 

The main reason that I think more highly of a movie like Europa Report is that it takes the risk of actual peril with its characters. I never for one moment watching The Martian doubt that Watney would be saved. The movie sets a tone early on that tells us viewers that we shouldn't worry too much about the lovable doctor. What I respect so much about Europa Report is that strong, dignified characters must literally die for a higher purpose - in this case broadening humanity's collective scientific knowledge. It may not be the most crowd-pleasing element, but it is one that I hold in high regard. The Martian misses out on some of this, in the name of finding a broader appeal.

Spotlight (2015)

Director: Tom McCarthy

Quite simply one of the best movies I've seen in years.

Spotlight depicts the lamentably true story of how a handful of dedicated journalists working for the Boston Globe exposed nearly 90 Catholic priests in the Boston area who had molested young children, only to have church authorities and other local institutions cover up and bury the story for decades.

The Boston priest scandal was a bombshell when it broke in 2002. The story of the victims and the protection of their abusers is one that required the utmost respect, diligence, and skill of a filmmaker. Fortunately, director Tom McCarthy and his team were clearly up to the task. Spotlight conveys just how hard it can be, even for the most skilled and dedicated journalists, to construct and publish an immensely impactful story in the proper way and at the right time. This movie truly is the All the President's Men of our time.

When watching a film based on true events, I am always wary of directors' attempts to romanticize or glamorize the real characters or actions. I found none of this in Spotlight. What we get is a group of always committed, sometimes conflicted professionals who are chasing down a social disease. The facts of the story provide all of the drama, without need for anything extra. In fact, I cannot think of a single scene or character in the movie which was superfluous to the primary story. There are no romance stories or relationship dramas thrown in for inattentive viewers, and every character feels completely fleshed out.

Liev Schreiber as editor Marty Baron. He may look and talk
like a human tranquilizer, but underneath lies the steady hand
that urged and supported the revelation that was the Boston
Catholic priest abuse scandal.

The acting, with one exception, is above reproach. My only little gripe is that I found Mark Ruffalo trying a bit too hard to display righteous indignation in an overt, twitchy way that I felt oversold the emotion. I did grow accustomed to it as the movie progressed, though. All of the other actors, major stars and lesser-knows as well, are outstanding. In particular, I found Liev Schreiber's understated yet extremely powerful turn as new editor-in-chief Marty Baron to be quietly amazing. The depiction of his character is the very portrait of a restrained yet unwavering sense of what is right and how to do it correctly. He and all of the other actors seemed well aware that this movie was far less about them or their performances, but rather it was about the horrible story that they were dramatizing. They clearly went to great lengths to get it right, just as their source people did in their jobs as journalists.

I can very easily see this film becoming an inspiration for young people who see it. Just as All the President's Men stoked the fires of meaningful journalism in the 1970's, Spotlight could very well do the same these forty year later. I certainly hope so.