Directed By:  David Gelb

Written By:  Luke Dawson and Jeremy Slater

Cast:  Mark Dupress, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, Sara Bolger, Amy Aquino

Rated:  PG 13

Released:  2/27/15

83 minutes
The Lazarus Effect is the latest movie in the history of movies dealing with reanimation of the dead.  It was directed by David Gelb (Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Lethargy) and stars Mark Dupress, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, Sara Bolger, and Amy Aquino. 

The Lazarus Effect follows the tale of a group of researchers commissioned to study coma patients.  They make a breakthrough discovery that leads to the reanimation of a deceased canine.  This highly unsanctioned event does not escape the University’s notice.  The school has been secretly monitoring the team and the group’s research is seized by the University and turned over to a pharmaceutical company backing the grant.  
In a last-ditch attempt to gain credit for three years of work, the researchers break into the facility to video the recreation of the experiment to release to the world.  In the process, Zoe (Olivia Wilde) is killed accidentally and her fiancé, Frank (Mark Dupress) convinces the team to attempt reanimation on a human.  From this point the movie delves into the horror aspect of the feature. 

There is actually a decent story buried in the narrative.  There is a moralistic element that suggests there are real consequences for bringing a person back from the dead.  It also delves into the impact of guilt and singular moments in one's life that haunt us forever.  However, the movie is executed in such a disappointing way that the interesting elements of the story are lost in horror gimmicks that make people not fans of the genre groan. 
And there is plenty to groan about in this movie.  There is frequent and early use of cheap scare techniques.  It would seem everyone in this crew likes to sneak up behind each other.  None of the scares in this way were earned.  There was also an implied levitation at one point, though it looks as though they may have cut out the complete visual effect.  Throwing up at one point, blackened pupils, and frenetic strobe lighting fulfill the balance of our horror story check boxes.  Even the last character standing is predictable in a classic horror sense.

The acting, however, was not bad.  Olivia Wilde is lovely, and although all the characters are pretty much cookie cutter-one dimensional fair, none of them offend the senses, as is so often the case in this type of movie.  At a PG-13 rating, the effects are pretty mild and memorable.
This is a movie that has a good idea that was poorly executed.  I didn’t see it as a possession story at all.  It was a story about a woman tragically killed, haunted by a singular event in her life. She couldn't pass into the afterlife because she was touched by a horrifying, unnatural human intervention that ended in disaster.  Had the movie focused on these elements and not been a slave to horror schlock, it might have been something.
 
D

Movies Cigars and a Brew - The Lazarus Effect (2015)

A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
 
The movie centers on Matthew Scudder (Neeson) in a pre 911 NY.  The story is taken from Lawrence Block’s long time best selling novel of the same character.  Scudder is a dark, broken character seeking redemption...maybe.  He lives in a gray world as an unlicensed private eye doing “favors” for “friends” and receiving “gifts” for his generosity.  He finds himself in this unpleasant reality after shooting three suspects attempting to rob a bar, while off duty and apparently intoxicated. In the process of taking out the culprits an errant shot hits a young girl, killing her.  In the aftermath of this tragedy, Scudder leaves the force and stops drinking.
 
Eight years later, Scudder attends AA meetings and is asked by a fellow participant, Peter Kristo (Boyd Holbrook, Milk, Gone Girl) to see his brother Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens, Matthew Crawley, Downton Abbey) who needs Scudder’s brand of help.  Kenny is a drug trafficker whose wife was abducted and murdered even after a ransom was paid for her safe return.  From here the tail is off on its dark journey.  And, a dark journey it is.

We are introduced to a pair of psycho killers whose motive is never truly discovered. No one is completely likable or hateable, with each character having various degrees of justifiability attachable to their actions.  The movie would descend into the dismal if it were not for the presence and believability of Neeson.  Neeson is perfect as a haunted Scudder living on the fringe of right and wrong.  On the other hand, the introduction of TJ (Brian “Astro” Bradley) seems very out of place and formula driven.

This movie gave me the same feeling, though not nearly at the same height, as the French Connection.  Like the French connection, there is no love story subplot.  Outside the one-dimensional victims, there are virtually no women in this story.  It definitely lends itself to a different feel to the tone of the movie.  This is why the side trip to TJ as the precocious African American orphan feels like a stretch to grab at sentimentality that seems somewhat out of place. In addition, it is rumored that there was a female partner in the movie whose scenes were completely removed during editing.  It seems that this was a good move, though, they should have done the same thing with TJ.

The ending of the movie becomes quite muddled with a tie in to AA’s twelve step program.  Individuals not aware of the origin will probably be put off to this sequence in the movie as I was.  Overall, Neeson does well to give life to a character that otherwise sits in a spiritless movie.
 
C
 
Humorous observation:

Watch how Dan Stevens facial hair changes in the movie.  It seems movies always differentiate a person’s character by the degree of facial hair.  As the movie darkens, Dan Stevens goatee becomes more pronounced...to the point it is dominant in the finale.  Likewise, Matt Scudder opens the movie bearded and with long hair.  In his initial scene sober, he has literally cleaned up with short hair and a clean shave.

Movies Cigars and a Brew - A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)

Whiplash (2014)
A movie seen by few (one of the lowest grossing movies to ever be nominated for best picture), Whiplash is an introspection into the cost of excellence. Damien Chazelle, writer/director, drew upon his own experience as a musician in his youth to create one of the most compelling movies of the year. Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now, Footloose, Divergent) plays the part of Andrew Neimann who is a first year student at the Shaffer Conservatory of Music. He plays the drums as an alternate in a general school band and finds himself “discovered” by Terence Fletcher (JK Simmons). The opening scene of the movie sets the tone for the abusive relationship the two would share. JK Simmons is a highly regarded instructor known for pushing his students in what proves to be dramatic fashion.

The Bobby Knight variety of coaching youth is supported in the movie by Fletcher’s story about Jo Jones throwing a cymbal at Charlie Parker that made him practice harder and would ultimately lead him to become one of the best drummers in history. It is his belief that the two worst words in the English language are, “Good Job”. Fletcher displays a moment of softness when he cries in front of the class at the news of the death of a former student. We later find out more details that lower this essence of sentimentality. Miles Teller displays a single-minded determination that could not be any more demonstrated than by the bloody drumsticks, earned by extremely excessive practicing.

JK Simmons, as Terence Fletcher, seems to have been born to play this part and he rightly won the Oscar for Best supporting Actor. He dominates and carries every scene he is in. Miles Teller(Andrew) likewise plays a very believable student driven by his own want to be the best drummer that ever played. Chazelle does a great job showing how much this single-minded determination can affect one’s personal life. He systematically alienates his family and a girlfriend.

For the comic book geek this movie offers three tie-in’s to former and future geekery. JK Simmons was once JJ Jameson in Spiderman 1-3 in what most think of as an iconic role. Miles Teller and Melissa Benoist will star as Mr. Fantastic and Super Girl, respectively, in upcoming treatments of these two character on TV/film.
  
This is likely a movie you have not seen, but it is one that you should not pass up.
A

Movies Cigars and a Brew - Whiplash (2014)

Seymour: An Introduction (2014)
 
Directed by: Ethan Hawke
 
Seymour Bernstein has lived a life of music.  From an early age he wanted to play the piano, even before the family had one.  By age 15, he already had students of his own and by 17 he had won the Griffith Artist Award.  His travels in life included a stint in the military during the Korean war where he, among less glamorous duties, played for the troops on the front lines. Post war, he played in concert halls around the world.  As a renowned concert pianist, Seymour decided to retire from performance in 1977 at age 50, and devoted himself full-time to teaching.  This context and a chance meeting with Ethan Hawke led to the study of a man and his love for music in Seymour: an Introduction.

“When I was around the age of 15, I remember that I became aware that when my practicing went well, everything else in life seemed to be harmonized by that. When my practicing didn't go well, I was out of sorts with people, with my parents. So I concluded that the real essence of who we are resides in our talent, in whatever talent and there is.”
 
This movie is not your standard biography.  It does not start with a picture of a little house and a monologue about the circumstances of Seymour’s upbringing.  It begins with a shot of him today in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, where it is said he has lived for 50 years.  Beyond his own recounting of certain aspects of his life through anecdote you see little of the man who lies behind his music.  In his story telling, you immediately see what Ethan Hawke saw in him.  Quietly self-possessed, the man holds court through a casual delivery and pleasant demeanor that seems to ooze of wisdom.

You can almost hear a gentle counterpoint to the teaching’s of the fictitious Fletcher in the Oscar-winning Whiplash.  He doesn’t teach by way of force and dominance.  He has a gentle, almost grandfatherly, way of addressing his students.  Yet there is further insight one might draw from what motivated him in life that does align him to the world we saw in Whiplash.  He speaks intimately about his decision to step away from concert performance.  The pressure to perform at the highest levels takes a toll on a person and he remembers that he did not want to become neurotic as a result.  At the age of 50 he decided to step away and teach full-time and in that had more joy than he ever did before.  To me there was almost a haunted quality to the man as he remembered the before times.
 
Seymour was coaxed into playing for an audience by Ethan. The level of his devotion is clear as he says, “I practiced for 8 hours a day for a year prior to this performance.”  Few of us have that kind of fixation on perfection.
 
And it goes without saying, the music is wonderful.

B+

Movies Cigars and a Brew - Seymour: An Introduction (2014)

It Follows
(2015)
Directed by:  David Robert Mitchell
 
Here is a movie that reached heights from relative obscurity...the how and why mystifies some as they object to the hype that surrounds a movie born of a low-budget and against all odds made it to the realm of a national release on the word of mouth.
 
I subscribed to the hype, fascinated by a movie in a genre where the typical cult favorites garner very low critical acclaim.  In my time reviewing many and varied horror flicks for Traumatic Cinematic, I learned to accept the perspective that a very bad, cookie-cutter, horror movie can be perceived as a golden derivative of Night of the Living Dead. Homage plays as much a part as any other consideration in grading most movies of the genre. However, I had hope that this movie would transcend the mundane and truly be something different.
 
On the surface, you could look at this as a morality play.  A young girl, Jay (Maika Monroe), has a sexual encounter with a guy she doesn’t know well, Hugh (Jake Weary), and enters a world where the history of everyone you ever had sex with and everyone they ever have sex with in the future is the object of a force no one but those affected can see.  This force slowly walks towards you no matter where you are and manifests itself in different physical forms with one purpose, to end your life.  The only way to not be the object of this evil is to pass on the curse through sex to the next victim.
 
For me, the brilliance and the tension is in this simple construct.  The evil is established and the play between what the affected see and what all others see is perfect.  You also get moments where you see slow-moving characters in the periphery, who would otherwise be considered extras on-screen. You immediately wonder if they are manifestations of this evil.  You watch the moral conundrum of self-preservation versus sacrificing others as the characters make choices about passing on the curse to others or continuing to run.
 
Where this movie works is in its ambiguity.  You don’t know why this happened.  You accept that it has.  The movie does not rely on fake scares.  Refreshingly, everyone in the movie is not predisposed to walk behind the other one for a cheap scare(cough...Lazarus Effect...cough).  It doesn’t rely on classic horror scares at all.  A tension builds.  You know evil is coming.  What form will it be?
 
I would be remiss if I did not talk about a couple of major points in either praise or derision.  The soundtrack for the movie verged on distraction.  It paid homage to the 80s synth era to a degree that some immediately dismiss this movie for volume alone.  There were a couple 360 camera moments I have to only assume the director threw in as a joke.  The acting was mostly good and the dialogue was at times a bit childish...though, have you ever listened to 17-18 year olds?  At least they didn’t talk like 90-year-old wise men, as is way too often the case.
 
Finally,  this movie worked for the simple reason they did not have some old codger explain the movie to everyone.  I am personally sick of the secret book/old wives tale/insert trite overused convention to give the back story to the stupid.  This movie is akin to the Tales from the Darkside-Twilight Show genre where everything isn’t explained and the story may go unresolved or at least twisted into the macabre.
 
Bravo, David Robert Mitchell, for writing/directing a story that makes everyone talk about horror again.
A-

Movies Cigars and a Brew - It Follows (2015)

Chef (2014)
Directed By Jon Favreau 
Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) plans a new menu at his restaurant in anticipation of critic, Ramsey Michael’s (Oliver Platt), impending dinner at his much respected restaurant in LA, owned by Riva (Dustin Hoffman).  Carl comes into conflict with Riva over the menu changes, with the owner insisting that Carl “play his hits” for Ramsey and not wander off into critic pleasing creativity.
 
The reason for Carl’s complacency and sudden need to get this critic to like him, represents a bit of a narrative gap but the story pushes on at a brisk pace.  After receiving a poor review on twitter from Ramsey, Carl joins twitter and inadvertently starts a viral twitter beef with the critic by sending a message publicly instead of privately.  He challenges him to come back, but once again fights with Riva over the changes.  In the tussle with first Riva and then Ramsey himself, he loses his job and is embarrassed a second time by the critic.  He even has a video posted to the internet of his conflict with Ramsey.
 
Out of work and down on his luck, Carl takes up his ex-wife’s (Inez, Sofia Vergara) offer to go to Miami and babysit their son.  This was a ploy to get him to talk to her first ex-husband to get a food truck to start-up his own traditional Cubano food truck.  The story then drifts off into a relationship movie between him and his son, Percy (Emjay Anthony), coupled with a healthy dose of food porn.
 
John Leguizamo, joins him in Miami, having left the LA restaurant the moment he knew he had a new gig.  Robert Downey JR and Scarlett Johansson each play small parts in the movie to give this independent movie a much bigger feel.
 
Overall, Chef is a pleasant romp that might make you more than a little hungry.  There was little in the way of tension in this movie and the narrative construct kept everything upbeat and light.

B

Movies Cigars and a Brew - Chef (2014)

I won’t lie, this is a movie I circled on the 2014 movie viewing docket with high anticipation.  From Following (1998), to Memento (2000), to everything Dark Knight, to The Prestige (2006), and to Inception (2010), I have been a big fan of Christopher Nolan.  Generally speaking, Nolan is bound and determined to challenge the moviegoer by offering a non linear story.  It seems that “time” is one of Christopher Nolan’s greatest fascinations. This movie is no exception, as we tap the vastness of the universe and our place in it in the nearly 3 hour long Interstellar.
 
Time plays an integral part right out of the gate.  Time is running out for everyone on earth.  The world is dying.  We never completely understand what is happening though it seems that oxygen is fleeting and nitrogen is building.  (This is one of the few scientific critiques that some scientists have offered for this mostly scientifically sound movie)  Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a one time NASA test pilot turned farmer, who finds himself involved in a last ditch effort to save Earth’s inhabitants, when his precocious daughter discovers a hidden message in the strange happenings around her bookshelf.  They translate coordinates left in gravitational waves during a dust storm and find themselves at NASA and the greater story unfolds.
 
A wormhole has been discovered near Saturn and three astronauts have previously ventured forth to the worlds on the other side of this anomaly near a giant black hole, Gargantuan.  None have returned from these survey missions.  The stage is set for Cooper and his band to go into the wormhole to either start an embryonic colony or send word of which planet is habitable once they reach the other side.  Meanwhile, on earth, Dr Brand will work to solve his equation that would presumably allow humans to move giant ships, with all of mankind, into space.  As hard as it would seem, this movie seems rushed at times with information being sketchy around certain aspects.
 
The music score, as created by Hans Zimmer, is fantastic.  The cast is star studded, with Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, and John Lithgow.
 
The praise from renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and scientific backing and advisement by astrophysicist Kip Thorne lends a sense of wonder to the entire story that can’t be denied.  This is a beautifully shot movie that, at it’s core, is a scientific bonanza coupled with the heart and love story of a father, Cooper and his daughter, Murph.  Did I mention there was some of Einstein's Theory of Relativity in the mix?  I won’t spoil it, but I found it fun.
 
Personally, what this movie suffered from was my own soaring expectations.  It was really tough to find a satisfying conclusion for this movie.  There was a lot of subtlety in its ending and a lot of highly scientific references that might seem rushed or confusing to those not a one-time physics major.
 
B+

Movies Cigars and a Brew - Interstellar (2014)

The Marvel juggernaut steamrolls into another early May opening with this weeks Age of Ultron.  Back again are Iron Man (Robert Downey JR), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), War Machine (Don Cheadle) and newcomers Quicksilver (Aaron-Taylor Johnson), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and Vision (Paul Bettany).
Whew, that was a lot of names. With that, I didn’t even introduce the main bad guy...Ultron himself, voiced by James Spader. With this many names and egos in the mix you can’t help but wonder, how are they going to fit all of this in and keep people interested in any one character?
Truth is, they can’t, and what’s more, they aren’t trying to...this is the culmination and advancement of the Marvel machine on an epic global scale. Where the individual hero stories do character development, the Avengers movies highlight massive fight sequences, where the world is in the balance. Before a credit hits the screen, you are launched into a full on Avenger battle against the evil Hydra. This was clearly mop-up from old story lines but it gives you what you want to see right from the get go.

And action is at the forefront of this engagement. This is the end of Phase 2 of the Marvel plan and with it, Tony Stark puts into motion elements that will lead to peace, he hopes. Stumbling upon advanced AI, he goes behind the team’s back to devise an final defense that will let the Avengers retire. Tony apparently has not seen the 15,000 movies I have about artificially sensuous beings. Ultron is born from this gap in movie AI disposition and is determined to wipe out the Avengers.

It has long been my opinion that movies with superheroes are only as good as the villains they defeat. With the first installment of The Avengers, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) provided a surprisingly charismatic evil presence that brought with him God status.  This is where Avengers: Age of Ultron struggles most. Ultron never became the menacing figure that Loki, with the backing of the Chitauri, and ultimately Thanos, brought to bear on the Avengers squad.

Two other factors diminish this movie to me as a placeholder until the real villain arrives.  First, it is clear that Thanos is the true evil to come. Second, every movie in the Marvel stable hints at the infinity war that lies in the future.

Where this movie works is that Ultron breaks down the characters and shows their weaknesses. It shows why some of our most revered heroes are haunted by demons and make choices that may change the future of the makeup of the Avengers. You also see how certain characters have traits that are very opposed to one another (Iron Man-Captain America).
In  the end, this is a movie that a tremendous number of us wanted to see.
B+

Movies Cigars and a Brew - Avengers Age of Ultron (2015)

The D Train is a movie that, in the end, I have to give the thumbs up.  Yes, I was nonplussed by a synopsis that describes a loser reunion committee chair (Dan Landsman, Jack Black), who sees a commercial for a Banana Boat Suntan Lotion ad and an old classmate (Oliver Lawless, James Marsden) as the spokesperson and thinks that he can make noncommittal classmates sign up for their 20 year reunion because he convinces Oliver to attend. But, this movie has a huge turn and commits to a premise that is hilarious in its absurdity and challenges social prejudices in a way that is direct and sharp.
And there is absurdity a plenty!  Dan has lived all his life in Pittsburgh with his wife (Stacey, Kathryn Hahn).  They have two kids, and seemingly, live a mundane life.  Early in the movie, we see Dan trying to get former classmates to go to their twenty year reunion to little success.  Dan is further put upon by his fellow committee members who lie to him about going out to party after a night of calling former classmates.  He is a loser in his current status and his complete obsession is to be a hero to his classmates by bringing Oliver Lawless, the guy that left Pittsburgh to chase his dreams successfully, to the reunion.  He dupes his boss (Bill Shurmur, Jeffrey Tambor) into thinking they have huge potential contract in Los Angeles and gets him to sponsor a company paid expense trip there, whose ultimate purpose is to get Oliver to go to the reunion.
This is the essence of the first act that ends with a twist that I personally did not see coming and is edgy and risky in a way that makes you laugh profoundly.  From here the movie wavers, at times weakly in the aftermath of the trip, that culminates in a third act that left me sort of giggling with its tie up of the premise.
I will not kid you.  This is a comedy that earned an R rating deservedly, and frankly, may be a movie that offends a lot of people.  To me, the best comedy plays in these extremes and I applaud the risk taking if nothing else for its social relevance.
B

 

Movies Cigars and a Brew - The D Train (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road is an adrenaline inducing fult tilt action extravaganza. You wouldn’t have known that the last two movies George Miller directed, since 2006, were Happy Feet 1 and 2. He brings to screen and effort that takes the beauty of his Mad Max movies from 30 years ago and injects all the special effects of 2015.
Right out of the gate Max Rockatansky, Tom Hardy, is pursued and captured by Immortan Joe’s(Hugh Keays-Byrne)  “War Boys”. The “War Boys” are Joe’s post apocalyptic suicidal thugs that are all too ready to visit “Valhalla” in glorious death in service to his bidding. Max is processed and after a failed escape attempt finds himself strapped to the front of Nux’s (Nicholas Hoult) truck because he is a universal donor of blood.


Imperator Furiosa, Charlize Theron, toting one runs off with Joe’s breeding women and his gun infused tanker, “War Rig”. This sets into motion the main element of this movie, which surprisingly, works very well...the chase.  Few movies prove the need to run as this movie does.  The first 30 minutes of this movie will have your head spinning before you it lets you take a breath. The few non-action sequences are enough to build character especially through Furiosa, who, in this remake, steals the movie.
This is sure to be a movie that reignites a franchise, 30 years removed.  Hardy was very good as the taciturn Max.  Dialogue was at a least for this movie. It used flashbacks to give a somewhat vague back story to those not already familiar with the franchise. Since this movie is so visual, it is a movie that will stand up to repeat viewings. Just don’t expect to have many moments where it will be safe to runoff of to the bathroom. This is definitely a movie worth seeing on the big screen.
B+

B Keith Hughes

Popular tracks