Gone Girl

Read the book or watch the movie first? Book or movie, movie or book?!? My typical rule of thumb is try the book first and see if it pulls me in. So a couple months ago when I first saw the trailers for an upcoming movie, I sought out the book for Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. I found a rhythm pretty quick and enjoyed the book a lot. Does the movie live up to its book roots? Here's 2014's Gone Girl.

Living in a small Missouri town, the Dunnes, Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike), have fallen on some rough times. They both lost their jobs and had to move from New York City to Missouri to help care for Nick's dying mother. They're struggling along, Nick opening up a bar in hopes of bringing in some cash. One day at the bar, Nick gets a phone call from his neighbor who says the front door is wide open at his house. Nick returns home and finds evidence of a fight all over the house...and Amy is gone. What happened? Where did she go? Was it a kidnapping, or maybe worse? Nick calls the police who immediately go to work trying to find out what exactly happened in the house. Nick maintains his innocence as the investigation builds, stating he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance. The evidence certainly seems to indicate otherwise. What did happen to Amy?

The trailer immediately caught my attention for this mystery when I stumbled across it in theaters. I remember Flynn's book climbing up the bestsellers list a few years back but had no dying need to read the book. I heard generally good reviews, but the trailer sold it. Here's a mini book review for those curious. Flynn's story is excellent. Once you pick up the style, it's a great read, flying by as the clues reveal themselves and the mystery builds as we figure out what's going on. If you're a fan of the book, you'll like the movie. If you haven't read the book, the movie does an admirable job bringing the story to life.

So the movie? Excellent, director David Fincher doing another gem, directing a daunting story considering its unique style. 'Girl' is 149 minutes long and covers a ton of ground, but it never feels long, slow or even remotely dull. The storytelling technique is interesting, adapting Flynn's technique well. We see the developing story from Nick's perspective while getting some seamlessly transitioned flashbacks as Amy writes in her diary of how she and Nick met and how their relationship developed from dating to their marriage. With Flynn doing the screen adaptation, the story is well-written, well-executed and keeps the mystery building. Is it worth it in the end? It's tough to say without giving too much away. There are several twists dotting the story, one excellent one and some moments meant to confuse and keep you guessing.

Talk about some good casting, but as I read the book, the only people I was aware of what characters they played where Affleck as Nick and Pike as Amy. Affleck is nicely cast as Nick, the smart, funny husband, and Pike is similarly excellent as Amy, basically the perfect wife. Their chemistry is pretty excellent, and the biggest reveals do just that, reveal some truths about their marriage. Also look for Carrie Coon as Go, Nick's twin sister, Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit as the police officers leading the disappearance investigation, David Clennon and Lisa Banes as Amy's parents, Neil Patrick Harris, Emily Ratajkowski and Scoot McNairy as three folks involved in the investigation. Go figure, but the best supporting part -- along with Coon and Dickens -- is Grandma Madea herself, Tyler Perry as Tanner Bolt, a high-profile lawyer brought in as the disappearance develops. Funny, smart, an excellent supporting part for Perry. 

If there's a weakness, it comes in the final act. Reading Flynn's book, I felt like she struggled to come up with a fitting finale. That concern carries over to the film, the story keeping the same conclusion. It isn't a tidy ending -- far from it -- in an open-ended, frustrating quasi-resolution. Still, getting there is highly enjoyable. The look of the movie is stylized but never too much, the cast is excellent across the boards, the tension and mystery works perfectly, and the score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is creepy, understated and ethereal in helping to build the tension. Sorry if this is a short(ish) review. I really don't want to give too much away but know that this is an excellent mystery. Well worth checking out. Sit back and appreciate it, however dark and uncomfortable it gets.

Gone Girl (2014): ***/****

The World's End

With 2004's Shaun of the Dead, director Edgar Wright and co-stars and real-life friends Simon Pegg and Nick Frost put themselves on the pop culture map. Three years later, the trio proved they were no flukes, releasing the equally funny and the underrated 2007 flick Hot Fuzz. Well, it took the three of them a couple years -- as in six years -- but they've released the third movie in their unofficial trilogy, 2013's The World's End.

It's been 20 years since Gary King (Pegg) and his four friends celebrated their last day of college with an epic pub crawl, the Golden Mile, that tries to cover 12 different bars around Newton Haven, the town they all grew up in. The celebration went awry though, Gary and Co. only making it about halfway through the crawl. Now in his early 40s, Gary never really moved on with his life -- ever the partying college student -- and now he wants to do one thing above all else; finish the Golden Mile. Gary meets up with the rest of his friends who's he drifted away from over the years, Oliver (Martin Freeman), Steve (Paddy Considine), Peter (Eddie Marsan) and even Andy (Frost), his former best friend he had an epic falling out with, and convinces them all (some more willing than others) to reunite and try to pull it off. It's been years though, and there's something going on in Newton Haven that none of them could see coming.

I really liked both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz so when I read there was another film in the works from Wright, Pegg and Frost, I was excited to see where it went. Then, I saw the trailer which I'll link to below at the end of the review. It starts off decent enough if in some familiar territory about college friends reuniting to take on the world in a way. And then it happened in a flash. SPOILERS STOP READING SPOILERS The quintet stumbles onto some sort of alien replacement invasion, the town they grew up in drastically changed in ways they could never have anticipated. What?!? My first thought was simply "That looks incredibly dumb," but then I realized I had a similar thought about both 'Shaun' and 'Fuzz.' The third time wasn't the charm here, the talented trio coming up short with their third film.

What's the biggest detriment to its success? Quite simply, I didn't find it very funny. It just doesn't have enough laughs to recommend. Sure, there are some funny moments spread out over a 110-minute flick, but not enough to sustain the energy throughout. I thought too -- trying to go in with an open mind -- that the genre-bending story of five college buddies reuniting with a possible alien invasion was oddly brilliant in an out of left field, random fashion. It never molds together though, never finds that right balance between the two and in the end falls short because of it. At different points, it reminded me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (loved it) and more recently, The Watch (hated it). I wanted to like it just because of the talent assembled working together, but I didn't. It's a comedy without the laughs unfortunately.

If there's something that helped me get through 'World,' it is the casting. Even with a script that wasn't necessarily entertaining, the talented cast makes the most of it, specifically the quintet. Pegg as Gary King starts off as a truly obnoxious character (intentionally so), one I was worried would single-handedly handicap the story. As we learn more about him, he's still pretty grating, but there's a certain idiotic charm to his quest to complete the Golden Mile. Not surprisingly, the best thing going is the dynamic between Pegg's Gary and Frost's Andy, a more than frayed former friendship as Gary left Andy out to dry years before, his drinking/partying/drugging breaking up the friendship. Now, Andy either wants to give him one more shot, whether it's to end it once and for all or to see if Gary has changed. The dynamic among the five is fun, Freeman's Oliver a buttoned-down real estate agent, Marsan's Peter a beaten down husband, and Considine's Steve going through a bit of a mid-life crisis.

The best moments come from the group, Pegg and Wright's script effortlessly showing what a friendship would be like this. The group has plenty of history, the script giving them plenty of chances to show off that subtle comedic timing, the dialogue pretty snappy throughout as these friends must band together to get through that hell. Also look for Pierce Brosnan as a former teacher, Rosamund Pike as a former love (oh, yeah, love triangle!), and Bill Nighy providing his voice in a key role late as things come together.

I'm disappointed. I wanted to like this movie. I did like the cast. There is a charm, a style with its goofy cuts and hyper-fast editing and zoom-ins on random objects, but it gets bogged down. Not enough laughs, the message in the finale trying desperately to save things. The finale does provide a good twist in its random darkness which provides a bit of a saving grace but not really enough to save it overall.

The World's End (2013): **/****

Jack Reacher

First introduced in author Lee Child's 1997 novel, The Killing Floor, the character of Jack Reacher has become quite the fan favorite. In 17 novels since then, Reacher has sold millions of books, and there's no end in sight for Lee or Jack. What's that next step then? As is the case with most successful book series, a movie follow-up/tie-in is inevitable, the series getting its film debut with 2012's appropriately titled Jack Reacher.

Along the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, a sniper opens fire one lazy afternoon, gunning down and murdering five random, innocent people. The police follow the evidence and within 16 hours have a suspect in custody, James Barr (Joseph Sikora), a former Army sniper. Rather than sign a confession, he requests the help of one Jack Reacher. The district attorney and police look into the name finding out that Reacher is a former military policeman who upon being mustered out has become a drifter. Why then would Barr want his help? Barr's defense lawyer, Helen (Rosamund Pike), thinks nothing of it until Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) himself shows up in her office unannounced and offers to help...in a way. Reacher knows something about Barr's past, but he says he'll help just the same. It seems like an open and shut case, but it doesn't add up for the former MP turned drifter. Was the sniper's shootings really random, or was there a purpose?

From director Christopher McQuarrie (who also wrote the script), 'Reacher' is based off Child's novel One Shot from 2005. I write this review having watched this movie without giving the Reacher novels a shot so be forewarned. This is a movie review, not a book to film adaptation review. Moral of the story? I liked the movie, and it definitely got better once everything is laid out. There are some early struggles with a lack of tone, from goofy to dumb to really dark. I just couldn't get going early on, but things pick up about the 45-minute mark. From there on in, it manages to find a good mix of drama and action with a few necessary laughs here and there. Once casting was announced, Reacher fans were almost unanimously against the casting of Cruise, mostly because the novel Reacher is 6-foot-5 and about 230 pounds of pure muscle. Cruise? Well, he's in freakish shape, but he ain't that big.

You know what? It doesn't matter. Cruise is a movie star who can act, and physical discrepancies aside, he owns the part. As McQuarrie pointed out in an interview, it isn't about the height or the physical build. It's all about the attitude, that confidence in the character, and that's where Cruise succeeds. That's what counts when we're talking about becoming the character. Jack Reacher is a drifter, seemingly always on the move. He has no real possessions, wearing the clothes on his back, and goes where he's needed. In this case, it's helping someone he worked with in the past (in a way), trying to find out exactly what's going on. Mostly though, his sense of justice appealed to me. He is interested in the law to a point, but mostly he's going to deliver his own brand of vigilante justice. Warrants? Evidence? Nah, let's just get some answers.

More than just his acting, Cruise is really memorable here because he handles most -- if not all -- of his own stunts, something he's become associated with over the years. It adds a touch of authenticity, and more importantly for me, a huge dose of credibility. It's jarring when you see stunt doubles in any type of action scenes, but Cruise? He's a man of ACTION!!! A fight scene early with five thugs dispatched to take him out on a poorly lit street is very cool, Cruise's Reacher swinging and punching and kicking like nobody's business and not surprisingly....winning in grand fashion. A very cool car chase late also has Cruise doing all of his own stunts. The camera is in the shotgun seat with him in a chase reminiscent of some classic 1960s/1970s chase sequences.

The rest of the cast is okay -- nothing spectacular -- in parts that are meant to aid Reacher in his not so normal (read = legal) investigation. Rosamund Pike's Helen seems too dumb for her own good at times, odd considering what a good lawyer she's supposed to be. Unfortunately, the part just devolves into a pretty lawyer wearing heels, short skirts and low(ish) cut shirts. As for the "system," there's Richard Jenkins as the District Attorney Rodin (also Helen's Dad) and David Oyelowo as Emerson, the police officer leading the investigation. Don't want to give too much away in terms of villains, but director Werner Herzog squints as the main baddie, the Zec, with Jai Courtney as his main henchman, a good creepy combo. Also worth mentioning is the always reliable, always fun Robert Duvall in a small but key part as a firing range owner while Alexia Fast is a young woman caught up in something bigger than she thought.

There is something just odd about the movie in general, a lot of that coming from a combination of darkness, dark humor and some slow-going early on. It really finds a groove in the second half, Cruise doing a fine job with the titular character, especially as we see more of him and his unique, brutal means of administering justice. I don't know if the Reacher series will continue, but it's a good flick regardless of where it goes from here on out.

Jack Reacher (2012): ***/****