Category Archives: Movie Review

“Get On Up”: James Brown paid the cost to be the boss

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“Get On Up” is now playing at Point, Eastgate and Star Cinema. PG-13, 2:18, three stars out of four.

At first, watching the James Brown biopic “Get On Up” is like listening to his greatest-hits album on shuffle. First, we’re in 1988, when a track-suited Godfather of Soul fires a rifle into the ceiling at one of his businesses and is chased by police. Then we’re back in 1968, as Brown and his band flyon a transport plane to a show in Vietnam, enemy gunfire all around. (While his band cowers, Brown seems more offended than anything else that the Viet Cong might cause him to be late for the show.)  Then we’re back in 1939, as a young Brown growing up poor in rural Georgia, the prize in a lifelong tug-of-war between his abusive parents.

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“Guardians of the Galaxy”: A guy, a girl, a wrestler, a raccoon and a tree walk into a bar . . .

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“Guardians of the Galaxy” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Sundance. PG-13, 2:02, three stars out of four.

A guy, a girl, a wrestler, a raccoon and a tree walk into a bar . . .

The punch line is “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which injects a much needed adrenaline shot of silliness into the summer blockbuster formula. Using a team of Marvel backbenchers and directed by Jason Gunn, who completely subverted the superhero film in “Super,” “Guardians’ isn’t quite the anti-Marvel Marvel film some folks were hoping for. It uses the same formula and beats as “The Avengers” or “Thor” — it just seems to have a lot more fun with them.

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“Hercules”: It ain’t easy Herc-ing for a living

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“Hercules” is now playing at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema. 2 hours, PG-13, three stars out of four.

For once, I’m happy to have been lied to by a movie trailer. The trailer for “Hercules” shows Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (if ever there was a movie for him to use “The Rock,” this is it) fighting giant lions, boars, even a multi-headed Hydra sea serpent. Yet another super-serious swords-‘n’-sorcery CGI fest, right?

In truth, all those battles happen in the first five minutes of “Hercules,” and there’s some doubt as to whether they really happened or are an exaggerated legend. In truth, this is a refreshingly unpretentious “Hercules” with human-sized heroes and villains. It’s really more like a Western — specifically, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” with killer pecs.

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“Lucy”: In the sky with diamond-tipped bullets

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“Lucy” is now playing at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Sundance. R, 1:30, two stars out of four.

Scarlett Johansson’s year at the movies has been inhuman. First, she played a sentient computer program in “Her,” then a predatory alien seductress in “Under the Skin.” Now, in Luc Besson’s “Lucy,” she’s a woman who becomes superhuman when an experimental drug unlocks 100 percent of her brain power. The days of playing zookeepers in “We Bought a Zoo” seem long behind her.

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“The Battered Bastards of Baseball”: How the Portland Mavericks kept baseball weird

 

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“The Battered Bastards of Baseball” is now streaming on Netflix. R, 79 minutes, three stars out of four.

Bing Russell was never the guy at the center of the frame. A “plumber actor,” as his more famous son Kurt called him (not unkindly), Russell worked hard in the ’50s and ’60s in small parts in countless Hollywood Westerns, perhaps best known for playing Deputy Clem on 13 seasons of “Bonanza.” I didn’t know “Bonanza” had a “Deputy Clem” either.

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“Third Person”: Write what you know, unless it’s boring

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“Third Person” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 2:17, one and a half stars out of four.

Man, it’s so hard to be a famous writer. Holed up in a swanky Parisian hotel suite, occasionally pecking away at the laptop, with only occasional visits from Olivia Wilde for company. Seriously, I don’t know how I do it.

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“The Double”: Returning to the twin cinema

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“The Double” has its Madison premiere on Friday, July 11 at 7 p.m. at Union South Marquee Theatre, 1308 W. Dayton St. as part of the UW-Cinematheque summer series. R, 1:33, three stars out of four. FREE!

Richard Ayoade’s “The Double” has basically the same plot as Denis Villeneuve’s “Enemy,” in which a nebbishy nobody finds he has a an exact twin, a cockier and more successful version of himself. Somebody needs to flip the script and make a movie about an arrogant stud who comes across his own nerdy doppelganger.

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“Obvious Child”: Trying to find the laughs in “shmashmortion”

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“Obvious Child” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:23, two stars out of four.

I like Jenny Slate a lot. The former “Saturday Night Live” cast member is pretty bold about playing larger-than-life, often spectacularly unlikable characters, such as Jean-Ralphio’s sister on “Parks and Recreation.”

Gillian Robespierre’s “Obvious Child” is a great showcase for Slate’s voice while giving her a more down-to-earth character to play. The banter is often fast and filthy, but still finds room for an underlying sweet tone. But the film’s fearlessness trips itself up when it moves into hot-button territory — abortion — and tries to maintain the same jokey say-anything spirit.

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“Nymphomaniac”: Come for the graphic sex, stay for the fly fishing tips

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“Nymphomaniac” plays Saturday night (“Part I” at 7 p.m, “Part II” at 9:30 p.m.) at the Union South Marquee Theatre, 1308 W. Dayton St. as part of the UW-Cinematheque summer series. Not rated, 4 hours 2 minutes, three stars out of four. FREE!

You know how cartoon characters like Elmer Fudd will have a little Elmer Fudd angel on one shoulder and a little Elmer Fudd devil on the other? Lars Von Trier has that. Only he has a devil on one shoulder and another devil on the other.

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