April movies

April is usually reserved for one big movie and in years past it's either been a Marvel movie or a Fast and Furious movie. This month it's the latter and if Colossal wasn't also coming out then this entire article would be about how excited I am for the 8th film in the Fast and Furious saga. Along with those two films there's also a few other interesting projects, several melodramas, a bunch of documentaries, a couple biographies and a few films that seem to have been made strictly because the money was right.

I love a good sequel title. My favorite so far this year has been Logan. It wasn't called X-Men: Origins:Wolverine:3:Logan, because there are just way too many colons in that title. It's a simple title and it's made for adults who don't need a title to spell out what the film is for them. Well, The Fast and the Furious series is not made for adults but it has become known for its titles (2 Fast 2 Furious being the most ridiculous, Fast and Furious being the most obvious and Fast and Furious 6 being the laziest). The 8^th and newest film delivers another great title with The Fate of The Furious (F8, get it?). The trailers for the F&F films tend to be very spoiler heavy so I avoid them. I show up early when I go to the theaters so this means I've run out during the trailers for nearly every movie I've attended this year. While I may not know much about the action I do know a little about the plot. When Dom, Vin Diesel, is coerced by a mysterious woman known as Cypher, Charlize Theron, to work with her it puts him at odds with everyone he loves and cares about. This means he turns his back on his family, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris and Tyrese etc. It also puts him in the cross hairs of government agents Hobbs, Dwayne Johnson, and the mysterious/resourceful/charismatic Mr. Nobody, Kurt Russell. Somehow Jason Statham and Helen Mirren work their way into the story. The addition of Theron and Mirren to the series adds to the long list of all too respectable people that Diesel has worked with. While the plot may not matter there is a guarantee for fast cars, a lot of actors I appreciate and plenty of stuff blowing up. Hopefully I don't burst into tears at the end like I did during Furious 7. 

The coming-home-after-life-falls-apart sub-genre of comedy-drama is a tale as old as time. Someone gets dumped, goes home, parties with friends, eventually has a realization and tries to get their life back on track. That's part of the plot of Colossal but it's not the part that made it such a big deal at film festivals. The other part of the plot is that after coming home and partying Gloria, Anne Hathaway, awakes to discover that a gigantic monster appeared in Seoul, South Korea and began wreaking havoc. She then learns that she has a strange connection to the monster. So yeah, it' not your average coming home story. This one has elements of comedy, drama and science fiction. It looks like a ton of fun but I imagine there's some smarts behind it, too. It's probably a film that works better the less you know.

Films about making films usually make for an interesting topic, plus Hollywood loves a film about Hollywood. Too bad for Hollywood, Their Finest is about a British film crew making propaganda during World War II after the Blitzkrieg. Now that might seem like a heavy subject, so to reel it in and make it more entertaining they've cast Bill Nighy (not the Science Guy). Look him up, he's in everything.

 

The story of El Dorado, The City of Gold, is a pretty popular tale and there are plenty of stories about people traveling there. Based on a true story The Lost City of Z is about one particular expedition in the 1920's. A British explorer named Percy Fawcett and a small crew ventured into the Amazon to locate the oft told about city. I believe the film is an account of his journey because, spoiler alert, he disappeared completely and the how and why are debated still to this day. So since there's no way to know the whole story, expect some embellishments. Early reviews are that this movie is great.

Sleight is smaller film that caught my attention strictly because the plot sounds cool. A young street magician has to take care of his little sister after losing their parents, gets in too deep with some criminals and has to use his skills to save her. Now I'm not sure what his skills are but being that this is listed as an Action/Drama/Sci-Fi/ Thriller, I can't help but be interested. Plus this is the director’s first feature film and he's rumored to be doing The Fly remake, which we obviously don't need, but whatever - it means someone thinks he's got talent so maybe this one is all right.

Another topic worth talking about besides the new Fast and Furious film is the unfortunate passing of Bill Paxton. This guy was in loads of great films. Yes, Twister is a great film and people seem to like Titanic as well. Then there's Aliens, Apollo 13, Predator 2, True Lies. The list goes on. Fortunately his final film stars Tom Hanks and Emma Watson so people will see The Circle. Unfortunately Paxton only has a small role as Watson’s sick father so I'm not sure how much of him we'll see. The Circle is a huge tech company that Watson is hired at and quickly rises in the ranks and becomes a sort of protégé to the founder, Hanks. While working there she begins to notice that this company knows everything about her, including her father’s illness, and that privacy is quickly becoming a thing of the past. That's never a good thing.

It's hard to ignore a title like How to Be a Latin Lover and for me, it was even harder to ignore because it's directed by Ken Marino, one of my favorite comedians. His feature length directorial debut is about a man, future Overboard remake star Eugenio Derbez, who has made a career of seducing rich older woman but now has to move in with his sister and learns about love and family. It sounds cute and fortunately, Marino has brought along plenty of friends like Kristen Bell, Michael Cera and Salma Hayek and the three Robs: Lowe, Cordry and Riggle. No complaints about that cast.

Melodrama 1 - A proud atheist/journalist/lawyer takes umbrage when his wife finds Christianity and decides to use his skills to disprove her beliefs in The Case for Christ. This comes from a production company whose previous films have heavy religious themes so I'm pretty sure I can guess how this one ends. 

Melodrama 2 - Chris Pine dons a 5 o'clock shadow and battles his own mother for custody over his daughter who's like super smart a.k.a. Gifted. Jenny Slate also appears and it being a more dramatic role, I imagine her brand of comedy will not make it into this one. 

Melodrama 3 - More of a thriller but I'm pretty sure the overacting will be on display when ex-wife Katherine Heigl makes life hell for new wife Rosario Dawson in Unforgettable. 

Easy paycheck 1: Zack Braff fancied himself a director in the early 00's with Garden State and some Scrubs episodes. His film career didn't really take off and his most recent indie flick didn't garner much attention but he's back as a director for Going in Style. Starring Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin it's about a group of lifelong friends who decide to rob the same bank that ruined them financially and hilarity (or safe pg-13 comedy) ensues. It’s a remake of a film with the same name.

Easy paycheck 2: If there was to be another televised version of 'We Are the World' I imagine the cast of singers would read something like the cast of Smurfs: The Lost Village. There's a lot of people providing their vocal talents to this sequel that focuses on Smurfette as she and her friends follow a map to locate a mysterious village before Gargamel locates it. It also features Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt stars Ellie Kemper and Tituss Burgess and if the producers knew what they were doing, they'd give these two a musical number. 

Easy paycheck 3: Sometimes I read a description to a film and I get excited because the plot sounds so bonkers that I can't wait for one of my movie podcasts to cover it and discuss its ridiculousness. Spark: A Space Tail is one of those movies. It's an animated tail (ha) about a monkey and his animal friends who try to retake Planet Bana (yup) when an evil conqueror takes over. Like the Smurf's sequel this also has quite the voice cast, just not nearly as currently popular. 

Documentary 1: Alive and Kicking takes a look at the world of swing dance.

Documentary 2: Born in China takes a look at the lives of a panda bear, a monkey and a snow leopard. 

Documentary 3: SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock takes a look at the history of rock n' roll through the eyes of photographer Mick Rock.

Documentary 4: Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent takes a look at the life of celebrity chef Jeremiah Tower. 

Biography 1: A Quiet Passion takes a look at the life of Emily Dickinson.

Biography 2: Cezanne and I takes a look at the life of painter Paul Cezanne.