Ender's Game

ACTION, ADVENTURE

Theoretical Warfare

7.75 out of 10 | Movie or DVD

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Rated: PG-13  Thematic material, some violence and sci-fi action
Release Date: November 1, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes

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Director: Gavin Hood
Writers: Gavin Hood, based on the novel by Orson Scott Card
Cast: Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Aramis Knight, Moises Arias

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SYNOPSIS: The International Military seek out a leader who can save the human race from an alien attack. Ender Wiggin, a brilliant young mind, is recruited and trained to lead his fellow soldiers into a battle that will determine the future of Earth.

REVIEW: Gavin Hood, director of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, returns to the big screen after a short stint working for the small screen. Adapting the work of Orson Scott Card, Hood brings Ender Wiggins to screen at the perfect time.

50 years after an alien invasion by the Formic, Earth's military dedicates itself to enhancing its strategic preparedness to combat future extra-terrestrial threats. The International Military focuses on recruiting brilliant young boys and girls to train in the arts of war. Third child Ender Wiggins (Asa Butterfield, Hugo) follows in the footsteps of his older sister Valentine (Abigail Breslin, The Call) and his older brother Peter (Jimmy Pinchak, Let Me In). Competing to get into Battle School, Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford, 42) takes interest in Ender and pushes the young boy as far past his limits as he can. When Ender excels at all his schoolwork and tactical training, Graff promotes Ender to the orbiting space station for Battle School. Disliked, mistrusted or envied by the other 'Launchees', Ender must do everything he can to win over his fellow cadets. Rising up the ranks, Ender eventually finds himself face-to-face with endless simulation battles between the International Military and the planetary defenses of the Formic homeworld. Will Ender and his misfit squadron beat the Formic in a final simulation in order to graduate? And will they eventually be ready to face the true threat?

Based on the worldwide sci-fi bestseller novel 'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card, this adaptation remains as faithful as possible to the original story. Reading the novel as an adult, I have a greater appreciation for the story Card was telling. Not just a story of kids battling each other for supremacy in a academic school system – a la the Harry Potter franchise. Sure, the fate of the world between wizards and Muggles was threatened by Voldemort, but Ender's included the added components of having to save an entire planet from annihilation.

A sci-fi classic by Orson Scott card, 'Ender's Game' is the most accessible of the Enders stories for reading. As a series goes on, it gets more philosophical and deep. Cards later works, including 'Speaker for the Dead', 'Xenocide', and 'Children of the Mind', start to rival Frank Herbert's 'Dune' in terms of religion, philosophy, and exploration of xenomorphic entities. At the center of all the stories in the series, Ender struggles with is own nature, the solitary life he is forced to lead, and the choices he must make.

Ender's Game boasts a fine cast including Harrison Ford as Graff, Viola Davis (The Help) as Major Gwen Anderson, and Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3) as Mazor Rackham. On the younger side Abigail Breslin plays Valentine, Moises Arias (The Kings of Summer) plays Bonzo Madrid, and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) plays Petra. But the jewel of the crown in casting is that of Ender, played by Asa Butterfield. He is not the normal the muscular and chiseled adolescent protagonist. His portrayal is wide-eyed with innocence, all the while struggling with his dual nature of violence and empathy.

On the strategic and tactical side Ender's Game uses wonderful CGI and wire work to bring to life scenes most integral to the story. From the zero gravity Arena at Battle School, to the mountain lake and skiff on Earth, to the captured forward Formic outpost that the International Military uses as a base of operations to plan assaults on the Formic homeworld. Ender's Game is a mirror of the book. The final simulated battle between the International Military and the Formic armada is rendered in beautiful detail with military precision. It is a sight to be seen, especially in IMAX.

Fans of Orson Scott Card's original and revised work should be thrilled at the adaptation to the silver screen. Now is the time when movie magic FX can tell this tale in grand style. For those who have not read the book, they will find enjoyment in every surprising twist or turn. Ender's Game is a superb sci-fi daylight, grounded in the mind of a young man on the precipice of greatness.

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Beautiful Creatures

ROMANCE, SCI-FI/FANTASY

Dark Secret Will Come To Light

8.5 out of 10 | MOVIE - DVD

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Rated: PG-13 Violence, scary images and some sexual material.
Release Date: February 14, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 3 minutes

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Director: Richard LaGravenese
Writers: Richard LaGravenese, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Zoey Deutch, Kyle Gallner

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SYNOPSIS:  Ethan longs to escape his small Southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.

REVIEW: Richard LaGravenes, screenwriter of Water for Elephants and The Horse Whisperer, and director of P.S. I Love You, directs and writes the adaptation from the supernatural young adult romantic best-selling novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. 

Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich, Tetro) is a banned book bookworm who is also perky and popular. He loves Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five', William . Burroughs' 'Naked Lunch', and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. He dreams of leaving the small-minded and backwater Gatlin, South Carolina, to discover himself and the world before he decides on who he is. During the start of his junior year of high school, a new girl comes to town and to school. Lena Ravenwood Duchannes (Alice Englert, Ginger and Rosa) comes to school as an instant outcast, coming from a long line of rumored satanists and devil worshippers. The other girls make jokes at Lena expense and shun her, but Ethan finds her a kindred spirit and does not take part in his classmates' verbal abuse. When a chance encounter on a deserted road takes Ethan and Lena to her Uncle Macon Ravenwood's (Jeremy Irons, The Words) plantation doorstep, Ethan finds himself more intrigued and enchanted by Lena with every moment. The pair gets closer because of Ethan's gregarious nature, and in spite of Lena's misgivings, prompting her to reveal to Ethan of the fact that she is a caster - a witch with powers beyond that of mere mortals. What's more is that she tells Ethan that she has until her sixteenth birthday until she is confronted with the inevitable Claiming that will decide whether she will become a dark caster or a light caster. While Lena is desperate to stay in the light, her mother Sarafine (Emma Thompson, Brave) Disguised as the town conservative christian Mrs. Lincoln, Sarafine and Lena's cousin, dark caster siren Ridley (Emmy Rossum, Shameless) who was previously lost to the dark, plot an elaborate scheme to ensure that young caster Lena is taken by the dark. Can Ethan's love for her saver from the dark or will he only ensure that she succumbs to it?

The adaptation of the first book in the best-selling series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Beautiful creatures will appeal to fans of The Twilight Saga and other young adult supernatural infused stories. For me, Beautiful Creatures is altogether different than what I expected - for the better. Set in the southern swamplands of Gatlin, South Carolina, lore for Richard LaGravenese uses the story's southern charm to enrich an already spicy story. The people of Gatlin openly cast aspersions to those who they deem as outcasts. Where Edward, Bella, and Jacob seemed to hide in plain sight with no one none the wiser, the setting of the South uses it's lore to make the idea of witchcraft and devilry center stage among those in the community. Appealing to tweens and young adults, this supernatural love story is refreshing and fun.

One of the decidedly different aspects of this film is that it seems a little more intelligent than what we have come to be used to. Sharp and witty, the dialogue is a great asset to the film. Sure kids may not talk that way but Ethan's use of the language is both gripping and fun.

Where I was never a big fan of Kristen Stewart as Bella, I thoroughly enjoyed Alice's Lena. Jeremy Irons brings great Southern hospitality and charm as Lena's uncle and protector, Using an accent similar to what he used in Die Hard with a Vengeance, just with a little less Texan drawl. Emma Thompson's Sarafine excels as the demure Christian housewife and community leader possessed by one of the most evil and powerful dark casters alive. Rossum's cousin Ridley just wants to dark cast and have some devilish fun, as well as being a bubbling henchman to Sarafine's schemes. And Viola Davis as Ethan's housekeeper Amma may know more than what she is letting on as she struggles to walk the razors edge of helping versus hindering.

The costumes, set design, and special effects suit the film well, used in just the right amount to enhance the story of a young witch and her first true love. From the foreboding exteriors of the Green Briar plantation, to the hyper-modern interiors of Macon's home, from the spell casting of Lena and Sarafine's, to a spinning dining room, from civil war re-enacters to Lena's party goers for her claiming party, LaGravenese and his team make great use to visualize the source materials.

Beautiful Creatures is a fine example of a young adult supernatural romance that works on all levels. From perfect casting, to wonderful set design, to quaint and effective use of the South, Beautiful Creatures breathes fresh life into a genre already filled with werewolves, vampires, and zombies - oh my!

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Poignant and Incredibly Powerful

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Rated: PG-13  Emotional thematic material, some disturbing images and language.
Release Date: December 25, 2011 (limited)
Runtime: 2 hrs 9 min

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Director: Stephen Daldry
Writers: ERic Roth, novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
Cast: Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Zoe Caldwell, John Goodman, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright

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SYNOPSIS: Nine-year-old amateur inventor and expeditionary expert Oskar Schell embarks on a new expedition throughout the boroughs of New York City to discover the lock that matches a key that he finds in his father's closet a year after his death in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

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REVIEW: Director of such gripping films as The Hours, The Reader, and Billy Elliot, the three time Oscar nominated director Stephen Daldry has made a name for himself as an careful and caring craftsman of big screen cinema. Bringing to life a script from Oscar winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated), Daldry continues with his fine work.

New York City Jeweler Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks, Larry Crowne) spends his spare time concocting expeditions for his son Oskar (Thomas Horn) to stimulate his mind and reasoning, and force him to step outside his comfort zone to interact with people and travel through New York City's Five Boroughs. When Thomas is killed in the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, Oskar and his mother Linda (Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side) finds themselves grieving in their own way. A year later, when Thomas summons the courage to venture into his father's closet, he stumbles upon a key in a blue vase. Trying to keep his father's memory alive, Oskar embarks him on a new expedition to find the lock that the key opens, starting only with the key itself and a name written on the outside of the envelope it was found in. Focusing on the name on the envelope, Oskar faces his fears head on in order to track down all the possible leads. Along the way, he enlists the help of his grandmother's renter (Max von Sydow) to travel with him in his expedition.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a emotional journey through the eyes of a 9-year-old starting with a catastrophic event a decade ago that has affected and continues to affect many families across America and the world. Using the events of September 11th, 2001 as the backdrop, Oskar's journey is as much about the emotional aftermath from that event as it is about the many facets of life that continues on. As Oskar tracks down all possible leads, he is brought face to face with the many slices of life in New York City. Every person or family he encounters brings new perspective, but may or may not bring Oskar any more clarity to the memory of his father or closer to the device or object or location that the key unlock.

And what of regret? As both Linda receives a cell-phone call from Thomas that he is alright on the upper floors of one of the World Trade Center towers where he was having a meeting, she can look outside her office building to see the smoking wreckage that the crashing planes had wrought to that point. What can be said in the midst of that phone call? And farther uptown a young son, released from school and sent home, realizes from the messages left on the answering machine that he has missed the event almost entirely.

Across the board, the performances are stellar and deep. From Tom Hanks' seemingly happy-go-lucky Thomas whose nurturing and understanding of his son's special way of thinking lead to extraordinary measures to Thomas Horn's freshman acting effort as Oskar that includes pain, hope, secrecy and discovery, Roth's story from Foer's novel under Daldry's direction is a beautiful, haunting, and hopeful look at the the healing of a family and of a nation. Viola Davis (The Help) is a wounded woman in her cameo as Abby Black. Sandra Bullock masks a deep pain from her son as Oskar's mother Linda, reinforcing the Oscar worthy performance she is capable of. And Max von Sydow as Oskar's grandmother's renter is brilliant as he speaks volumes with only his tattooed hands, shrugs and Sharpie marker.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a portrait of the pain that continues a decade after the worst assault on our nation, but focuses more closely on the struggles and discoveries of an intelligent, but troubled young boy with that past event as the backdrop. Tearful and emotionally exhausting, this film will resonate long after the houselights come up

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WORTH: Matinee and DVD

The Help

Heartbreaking and Uplifting

Director: Tate Taylor

Writers: Tate Taylor, Kathryn Stockett

Cast: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Sissy Spacek, Cicely Tyson, Allison Janney, Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard

SYNOPSIS: In the early 1960s, aspiring journalist Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan returns to Jackson, Mississippi and strikes out to tell the stories from the perspective of the 'Help', the African American maids and nannies who have spent their lives taking care of the white families children and households.

REVIEW: The Help is a 2009 novel written by Kathryn Stockett centering around the lives of several main characters living and working in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. Written from Stockett's novel and directed for the screen by Tate Taylor, writer and director of 2008s Pretty Ugly People, The Help takes a humorous, heartfelt and hard look at the cultural chasms between the races.

1960s Jackson, Mississippi is a southern town where an African American woman is good enough to raise a white woman's child but not good enough to use their employers toilet, where segregation is still instituted and carried out, and where the concepts of Civil Rights are soon to become a real movement. Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan (Emma Stone) returns after college graduation more enlightened and ready to pursue a career in journalism. Listening to and abhorring the way some of the 'southern belles' think of and treat their maids, Skeeter reaches out to Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), a middle-aged African American maid who has spent her life raising white children. First using Aibileen's advice for an advice column, Skeeter soon realizes there is a greater, deeper story to be told. Mississippi State law states that any written work that supports the civil rights of the negro community could land the writer in prison, so Skeeter, Aibileen, and soon the outspoken sass-talking maid Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) must meet in secret to get the maids' stories committed to paper. Along the way, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny must deal with Junior League head and community social leader Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) as Hilly strives to get an initiative passed to have separate bathroom facilities installed outside houses where 'colored' help is employed.

The Help focuses on the relationships, good and bad, between white southern families and their African American maids. From households where the maids have raised the children from early ages and have become an integral part of the family, to households where the maids are called upon to make sandwiches for a husband just arriving home while being expected to hush a crying child in the same moment without regard for her worth, each instance defines the deep-south, deep-rooted opinion of of the races.

Emma Stone, in a role more challenging than anything she has done before, brings a naked naivety and hopefulness to Skeeter that does the character proud. Viola Davis as Aibileen expands a performance just as powerful as her Oscar nominated Best Supporting Actress role for Doubt. Octavia Spencer adds as much sass to Minny Jackson as her character adds spices to her Crisco fried chicken. Bryce Dallas Howard's Hilly Holbrook exudes arrogance, contempt and fear of cultural change as she strives to propagate and expand the established segregation that already exists. Pairing off against Minny for more comic effect is Jessica Chastain as white social circle outsider Celia Foote. And rounding out the main cast are a couple of mothers... Allison Janney as Skeeter's ailing health cultural coward mother Charlotte and Sissy Spacek as forgetful, but compassionate Missus Walters. Every performance is riveting, powerful and enlightening.

The Help is a heartfelt, heartbreaking, uplifting, humorous and hard look at the social sentiment between the races as recently as 50 years ago, and the distance that equality and understanding still needed to travel. Powerful performances by powerful actresses, The Help is one of the films to watch come Oscar time. For the immediate future, though, be sure to keep an eye on Minny Jackson's pies.

WORTH: Matinee or DVD