Gravity

You sit at the box office at the movie theater, the question hanging there in the air. Would you like a ticket for the 2-D or the 3-D version? For me, it's always been an easy question. I just want to see the movie, I don't need any number of cheap, cheesy gimmicks "thrown" at me. Well, I've found a film that's worth forking over the extra cash for to see in a 3-D format, a film currently tearing it up at the box office, 2013's Gravity.

Assigned to a mission on the space shuttle Explorer, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a medical officer/engineer experiencing space for the first time. The small crew includes veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), a likable, little goofy astronaut on his last space mission before retiring. While the crew attempts to repair a panel outside the shuttle, Mission Control warns them of debris hurtling through space, the result of a Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite. In a flash the news changes, the debris is heading straight at them. With only minutes to spare, maybe only seconds, the crew must try to get back into the Explorer and get away, but it's too late. The shuttle is ripped to shreds by the debris, killing everyone but Stone and Kowalski. They are now floating in space, Kowalski outfitted with a thruster pack, their only hope lying in reaching other nearby satellites and shuttles. They are truly alone though with no hope of rescue from anyone other than themselves.

In 2006, director Alfonso Cuaron received some much-deserved acclaim for his Children of Men, one of the best movies of the decade. Well, seven years later, here comes his follow-up, an equally impressive film that he co-wrote with his son, Jonas Cuaron. It is a good example of a brutally simple, incredibly uncomfortable story that rises above its relatively straightforward roots. Deep space is a hellish place with no gravity, hellacious temperatures and for lack of a better description....countless horrific ways to die. If something goes wrong, you're on your own. There's no cavalry to come and rescue you. That's what I'm going for in describing its simple roots. It's a survivor story unlike anything we've seen prior. Survivors of a plane crash, trapped in the freezing mountains with little supplies. Sure, it's terrifying to think of, but how about you transport that do-or-die situation to deep space? Profound in its simplicity, it works on an epically successful level.

I had issues with this movie that I'll get to later, but one thing here cannot be even remotely criticized in my opinion. This is one of the most stunning visual movies I've ever seen. It totally lives up to expectations in the 3-D department. My biggest takeaway is this; I'm assuming I'll never get to explore deep space. This is the closest I'll get to that experience. It's incredible. The opening tracking shot sets the tone, an almost 14-minute scene where the camera doesn't have an edit, simply following Stone, Kowalski and their mission outside the Explorer. It breathlessly follows the action in a sequence that is truly amazing to watch. That is the entire movie, the sense of the immensity of floating through space paired with the incredibly close, ultra-personal experience of being right there in the spacesuit with Dr. Stone. Obviously, it's CGI for the most part, but it is seamless/flawless. It never stands out, looking as natural and realistic as possible. You never question that you're watching something that isn't happening in actual space.

'Gravity' plays on a simple notion here concerning survival. Instead of falling off a cliff or drowning in the ocean, the 'death option' here is far scarier in my mind. In several instances, Stone and Kowalski's life depends on one or the other grabbing a piece of the space station as they throttle past it. A door, a handle, a piece of equipment, anything. Grab it, and you've got a slim chance of survival. Miss it? They will float on and on with no rescue until finally their air runs out, and they die a slow, painful death. Survival is one thing, this is another, something most -- if not all -- of audiences will never experience.

So here we sit, I'm five paragraphs in and haven't mentioned much about the acting. It's basically a two-person movie -- Bullock and Clooney -- with the focus exclusively on them. We see some other members of the crew (briefly, very briefly) and hear a couple voices (Ed Harris plays Mission Control). This is Sandra Bullock and George Clooney's movie. We get little snippets about who they are, their background, how they came to be on this mission, but not too much, just enough. Clooney is Clooney, calm, collected, smooth and a huge presence. I didn't think of highly as Bullock who is drawing some rave reviews for her part as the tortured Dr. Stone. I think it is a good performance, not a great one. Obviously being in the situation would produce all sorts of panic and chaos, but I thought the performance/part was a tad too whiny. We're rooting for her to make it though regardless, one individual struggling to survive.

There it is, a movie that's raking in ridiculous amounts of money three weeks into its theatrical run. The reviews are uniformly positive for a reason. While I have some issues with it, none of them are deal-breakers. I'm not ready to call it an all-time great, but it is a good, even really good movie. It offers a chance to experience deep space at its most primal, survival or death hanging in the balance.

Gravity (2013): ***/****

The Heat

Right or wrong, what do you think of when you hear 'buddy cop'? I think of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon series, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys, Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs. What's the common link? For lack of a better description......it's usually dude buddy cop movies. Until now that is!!! Here we go with 2013's The Heat.

Working out of the branch office, FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is a very capable agent who's closed her fair share of cases, but all her fellow agents despise her. A supervisor position has opened up, and Ashburn wants nothing more than that promotion but because of her all-around popularity her chances of getting is are slim. She's tasked with going to Boston to help take down a new drug supplier on the scene, a man with no witnesses against him and little evidence. Where to start? Ashburn meets Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy), a hard-edged police officer not too interested in physical appearance or...well, following the rules most police officers live by. Ashburn wants to do things her way but Mullins knows Boston, her sources and the streets. Forming an unlikely partnership that's more of a rivalry, they jump head first into the case, if they don't kill each other first.

Is it a bad thing if you call a movie 'predictable'? I suppose it can be depending on the description, but I don't intend it here. This buddy cop movie with female cops from director Paul Feig (written by Katie Dippold) is very good, very funny and very entertaining from beginning to end. Audiences certainly liked it this past summer, 'Heat' earning over $200 million in theaters. It is R-rated so in the vein of Bridesmaids -- also starring McCarthy -- we get a darker, filthier and far more foul-mouthed comedy with female actresses and comedians getting a chance to be funny. Novel concept, isn't it? There's cursing, raunchiness, some surprising (if not truly graphic) violence and plenty of laughs along the way. Went in hoping for a funny movie if nothing else but came away impressed with a very funny movie with lots of memorable bits and lines.

It is a buddy cop flick though so let's talk about some buddy cops. That type of movie -- male, female, monkeys -- and their successes or failures depend almost entirely on the casting and chemistry. Do you like the buddies? It's hard not to like the pairing here, Bullock and McCarthy showing off that effortless back and forth banter that elevates Dippold's script a notch or two just by their line deliveries. Bullock's Ashburn is the buttoned-down, suit-wearing, all business, all professional agent who does things by the book. McCarthy's Mullins is all about results, wears sweat pants at basically all times, lives in a filthy apartment, isn't worried about making people happy, and generally just has fun with life. Yes, the Odd Couple of Cops. You can tell they like working together, and that's nothing but a positive. The duo is in virtually every scene together so that ain't bad either.

My issue with previous McCarthy parts has nothing to do with whether she's funny or not. She is. She's hilarious. But in Identity Thief and her supporting part in This is 40, it just goes too far. Her improvised bits go on to the point that it's painful to watch. That being said.........ready for a 180 degree change.......'Heat' avoids all those issues. Sure, a fair share of jokes are in horrific taste, but with the right dosage, horrific taste can be funny. McCarthy is as good at physical comedy as just delivering a line, a real double comedic threat. The story is predictable because we know they'll butt heads, see they have to work together, and then become the unlikeliest of friends. The jokes keep things moving in an episodic story that follows the case. The end game, the twist, the reveal, it's all pretty unnecessary. We know where things are going. The jokes are funny, and the purpose is to let Bullock and McCarthy have a ton of fun together. Do we really care who the drug dealer is? Nah, just go along for the ride.

The rest of the cast is solid if unspectacular, filling in the parts around our buddy cop duo in the spotlight. Demian Bichir is Hale, Ashburn's FBI supervisor, with Marlon Wayans playing an FBI agent in Boston aiding the case. Dan Bakkedahl and Taran Killam are two DEA agents following their own evidence on the case, Spoken Reasons is Rojas, a dealer Mullins keeps running into, Michael McDonald is Julian, the right-hand man to the drug supplier, Jane Curtin (underused) and Michael Rapaport as some of Mullins' family, and Thomas F. Wilson as Captain Woods, Mullins' much-maligned precinct commander.

Just a good funny movie. If it doesn't rewrite the comedy or buddy cop genre, so be it. Sit back and enjoy Bullock and McCarthy having a ton of fun together.

The Heat (2013): ***/****

The Blind Side

If pressed for my favorite type of movie behind the western, it would be a tough decision, but one of the main contenders would have to be sports movies. In comedy and drama, real life and fictional, old and new, sports movies seem to carry on. Even being pretty cynical when it comes to movies, the sports movie is the one genre I'm always happy to see the happy Hollywood ending.

Released in late November in theaters, The Blind Side is a perfect example of a movie that has thrived because of word of mouth. It got decent enough reviews but nothing extraordinary. Now two months later, Blind Side has earned over $200 million in theaters and is even picking up steam in hopes of getting some nominations coming up in awards season. I finally got around to seeing it this weekend -- 3 movies in theaters in one week is a new record for me -- and ended up loving this sugary, sappy sweet movie based on the true story of Baltimore Ravens lineman Michael Oher.

With a drug addict mother and a father who abandoned the family a week after his son was born, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) cares for himself, staying with friends whenever he can and just barely skating by at school. He's accepted to Wingate Christian High School, a private school in Memphis, with some help of a friend's father, but just trying to survive takes priority over schoolwork. So one day walking back to the school gym to stay the night, Michael is stopped by Leigh Ann Touhey (Sandra Bullock) and her family driving home from a volleyball game.

Married to a well to-do businessman Sean (Tim McGraw) and with two kids, high school junior Collins (Lily Collins) and precocious youngster S.J. -- for Sean Jr -- (Jae Head), Leigh Ann has the ideal life. But seeing this high school student living on his own, Leigh Ann says he can come home with them and sleep on their couch. What starts as one night turns into another and another until Michael finally just moves in with them, with Leigh Ann and Sean finally becoming his legal guardians. Michael slowly opens up to them and really hits his stride when introduced to playing football. Standing 6'4 and weighing almost 300 lbs, Michael takes to the sport right away.

This movie doesn't have a negative bone in its body, and that's a good thing. Blind Side director John Lee Hancock has worked with true stories before, like 2004's The Alamo, and also true sports stories, 2002's The Rookie, and handles Michael Oher's story perfectly without being too sentimental...although it's hard not to feel for the character. Seeing him change and develop with his surroundings then is that much more effective when it does happen. From the get-go, you're in Michael's corner. He's trying to rise above a situation in the poorer neighborhoods of Memphis where very few people get out of. With help from the Touheys, he does just that.

Last night at the Golden Globes, Sandra Bullock won the award for best actress in a motion picture, and good for her. I've always thought of her more as a comedic actress -- although she was excellent in Crash playing completely against type -- but Bullock delves into the Leigh Ann Touhy character and brings her to life. Full of personality and personal beliefs, it's hard to take your eyes away from her. Where Bullock's Touhey is out-going and downright confrontational at times, Aaron's Michael is just the opposite. He's quiet, mild-mannered and generally introverted until he's given a chance to express himself, and that's when he begins to thrive. It is a great performance by Aaron and hopefully a springboard for him in the future.

Bullock and Aaron dominate the movie's screentime, and it is their relationship that the movie succeeds with, but the supporting cast does not disappoint. If anything, McGraw is underused as Leigh Ann's husband Sean, but with what's provided makes the most of of thinly written part. Young Jae Head is that movie kid, the one who talks like no kid ever has, but is very cute, very precocious in doing it. His bonding with Michael provides some of the movie's funnier moments. Kathy Bates also makes an appearance as Miss Sue, Michael's tutor and Ray McKinnon hams it up as Coach Cotton, Wingate's football coach.

Like most serious sports movies, Hancock's Blind Side does attempt to pull the old heart-strings a bit but it doesn't try too hard. Because of that, the movie works in that middle ground, not too sappy, not too distant. Working with a true story and real people has to be tricky, but the movie handles it well. Highly enjoyable overall for a good old-fashioned well told story. It's weird how good stories turn into good movies, isn't it?

The Blind Side <----trailer (2009) *** 1/2 /*****