So it was May 28th when I posted the first of the Review Capsules, which means it’s been a full 6 weeks since I said I’d do these regularly and I hope to be better (as I keep promising). However, while these will be all encompasing in films of then and now I’m going to take minute to do some 2014 discussions as I’ve started to hit up my local cinema a lot more these days — since I’m working again — and there’s a lot to talk about, but sadly this edition isn’t that inspiring.

As always if you want to keep up with every film day to day that I’m watching just follow me on Letterboxd.

Here’s this edition of Capsules:

DELIVER US FROM EVIL (2014) (dir. Scott Derickson)

Do know how you get from area A to area B generally in life, whether literally or metaphorically? Through a door. According to this film though it also happens when Jim Morrison pipes up and starts reminding me how awesome his music is. Am I allowed to just write 500 more words on how much I like The Doors? I love the ‘When You’re Strange’ song, it’s probably the first song of them I heard and knew I had to find out who this was.

But moving away from Jim Morrison this film is okay. The biggest problem, and probably strength of the film, is that for the most part it feels like this week’s episode of some brooding police procedural. We have Sarchie (Eric Bana) as our lead who’s forced down the rabbit whole and hangs out with Butler (Joel McHale) who’s the adrenaline junkie that wants a beating for just wearing a Red Sox cap but is kind of badass nonetheless — kudos to McHale for pulling that off, if there’s one character I never truly thought I’d buy him as it’s a badass cop — and in this week’s episode we become introduced to Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez) who’s a pack a minute smoking priest that happens to specialize in exorcisms and such. The film remains as simple as it needs to be, while at the same time annoying us by not really deciding to be a balls to the wall crazed jump scare horror film or a detective story. There remains no big mystery and no real catharsis in overcoming any true horror of this world.

What we do get is a two hour long slog of a film that reminds us that detectives really need to stop being distant with their families. That, and more Doors…

Grade: ★★☆☆

CUBAN FURY (2014) (dir. James Griffiths)

Ambition is an interesting element of filmmaking. I marvel at it. So what does one say when it’s obvious that a film lacks it? It’s not unfamiliar. Most films — a truth that we cinephiles tend to ignore — lack ambition completely. They walk in the door with little to no care for making an engaging story and walk out hoping to just suck away the previous ninety minutes with little to no physical or emotional injury in the passage of time. Cuban Fury is one  of these films and I’m not sure if I have a problem with it at all.

There’s a young boy who loves to salsa; he’s the best at the salsa until he’s bullied one evening and decides to quit salsa; as an adult (who’s shy and overweight) he has a crush on his new boss — Julia (Rashida Jones) — and decides that returning to salsa is to only way into her heart. Along the way he must deal with the overbearing asshole, Drew (Chris O’Dowd) in many ways, including a lunch break dance off in the parking lot, and his own insecurities to win the lady’s heart.

The thing about this film is that while it’s story and characters are nothing but trite it uses that to just hobble about in the land of silliness scene to scene and not really caring of it all and when a joke doesn’t work we move on to the next potential gag so much that we don’t mind. It reminds me a lot of Run Fat Boy Run and I’m okay with that. It’s pedestrian and easy viewing and won’t kill us for being dumb about itself.

Grade: ★★☆☆

BAD WORDS (2014) (dir. Jason Bateman)

So talking about comedies that don’t care a lot, Jason Bateman’s Bad Words is a film about an asshole who has decided to ruin the whole game by entering the spelling bee (or whatever they’re calling it) and playing it to win it. With parents, educators, children and even the organizers straight up hatred of it all Guy (Bateman) we’re thrust into a foul mouthed comedy that walks a weird line between being all about the shock effect and about character catharsis. The only problem with that is that unlike Cuban Fury which didn’t care about characters truly developing or comedy being always on point this film does, and more than that it fails because it’s both not funny and not really well placed to affect it’s audience into caring about Guy’s actual catharsis in why he’s deciding to do this weird thing with a spelling bee at age 40.

 

Grade: ★☆☆☆

My count for the year of 2014 is updated to 152 First time watches (46 from 2014); 68 Rewatches; 230 Total Films