In addition to the barbecues, beers, and assorted outdoor revelry, Memorial Day Weekend is also one of the biggest movie-going weekends of the year. And the ’14 edition offers plenty of interesting options. There are superhero blockbusters like the excellent X-Men: Days of Future Past and poignant historical dramas such as Marion Cotillard-starrer The Immigrant. But there’s also a lot of, well, crap. To prevent you from blowing your last $20 on a POS flick, here are all the movies to see—or skip—this holiday weekend.
What appears, on paper, to be a Hollywood cash-grab of epic proportions—combining the cast of the original X-Men trilogy with that of the reboot X-Men: First Class, as well as enlisting the original helmer, Bryan Singer, for a star-studded extravaganza—all goes down surprisingly smoothly. The sharp screenplay by Simon Kinberg weaves the two time-periods seamlessly, ’73 and the grim future dominated by drone-like Sentinels, and the performances are all top-notch in a film dominated by the bromance of Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender), as well as an increased role given to the shape-shifter Mystique, played with pizzazz by the one and only Jennifer Lawrence. Also, Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage steals every scene he’s in as the movie’s de facto villain, Sentinel Program architect Boliver Trask.
20th Century Fox
One of the most endearing attributes of The Amazing Spider-Man, Marc Webb’s 2012 superhero reboot, was the irresistible chemistry between stars Andrew Garfield (Spidey) and Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), and witnessing the real-life couple fall in love right before your very eyes. In the sequel, that spark is still there, but it’s overwhelmed by a very clunk screenplay, a thinly-written villain—Jamie Foxx’s Max Dillon/Electro—and too many outrageous action set pieces. Dane DeHaan delivers a deliciously icy turn as Harry Osborne, but the end of this effects-heavy mess’ll leave you left with a sour taste in your mouth having coughed up good money to take in one long, expensive tease for the upcoming Spidey spin-off The Sinister Six.
Niko Tavernise/Columbia Pictures - Sony Pictures
The plot of this wacky R-rated comedy isn’t the most original one, but its execution is absolute aces. After a young couple (Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne) with a baby move into a house, they discover that a rowdy college frat, run by Zac Efron and Dave Franco, has taken over the place next door. Soon, the two parties find themselves swept up in a no-holds-barred prank war. Directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), this high-octane comedy shouldn’t work as well as it does, but really hits you thanks to the hilarious script, zany pacing, and fully committed performances of Rogen, Byrne, and Efron, whose apparent cocaine troubles while filming only seemed to augment his character’s intensity. This may be the funniest comedy since Bridesmaids, and is a definite must-see.
Photo Credit: Glen Wilson
After a string of truly god-awful comedy duds—Jack and Jill, That’s My Boy, Grown Ups 2, etc.—comedy star Adam Sandler has returned to the well, reuniting with his onscreen plus-one Drew Barrymore for a third go after The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates. While not a total calamity like the aforementioned flicks, this “comedy” about two single parents who go on a disastrous first date only to found their families stuck at the same African safari family resort shortly after, is a total snooze. The years have not been kind to these two likable star’s once-compelling chemistry, and the comedy gags here are mostly harebrained. Do yourself a favor and rent The Wedding Singer instead.
Warner Bros. Pictures
As Ewa Cybulski, the doomed Magdalene-like protagonist of James Gray’s The Immigrant, Oscar winning actress Marion Cotillard delivers one of the best performances of the year (so far), fully embodying a Polish émigré who lands at Ellis Island in 1921, only to fall into the clutches of Bruno Weiss (Joaquin Phoenix), a seedy nightlife impresario/pimp. In addition to Cotillard’s devastating turn, Phoenix is convincingly disturbing as a self-destructive sad sack, and Jeremy Renner pops up for some fun as Emil/Orlando the Magician, a dashing chap who’s taken by Ewa’s beauty and élan. And the filmmaking composition by Gray is exquisite, offering image after image of a world not often put to screen—the largely Jewish Lower East Side of New York during the ‘20s—before closing things out with one of the finest last shots in recent memory.
Anne Joyce/The Weinstein Company
There are some joys to be had in this formulaic Disney flick centering on a baseball agent, played by Jon Hamm, who travels to India in search of pitchers, only to hold a reality contest called “Million Dollar Arm” to attract converted cricketers, ultimately finding two Indian fellas whom he hopes to mold into major league pitchers. It’s your typical Disney/fish-out-of-water/underdog sports tale with all the requisite clichés that, despite a charming leading man turn by the Mad Men star, doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. The real-life story upon which the film is based is far more compelling than the Hollywood version.
John Johnson/Disney
I had several problems with Godzilla, filmmaker Gareth Edwards’ $160 million reboot of the Japanese monster franchise. The 3D is completely pointless, rendering a murky-looking film even murkier; the characters are pencil-thin, featuring a relatively blank performance by Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the hero and a relatively pointless one by Elizabeth Olsen as his worrying wife; and it’s entirely devoid of any humor. Yet, this neo-noirish take on the Toyo monster is an exercise in technical mastery, boasting sequence after sequence of exquisitely crafted monster mayhem that makes up for any shortcomings in the character department.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Ripping off teens is one thing, but fleecing poor, under-slept adults by forcing them to take their kids to this weird spin-off tripe is beyond reproach. This $70 million 3D animated crapfest features grating music—sung by Glee’s Lea Michele, no less—and very little charm. It sullies the greatness of The Wizard of Oz even more than James Franco did, and should be avoided at all costs.
Summertime Entertainment (II)
When the words “based on a series of short stories by James Franco” precede a film, it doesn’t inspire confidence. But this visually arresting portrait of teenage angst, ennui, and frustration is the best film made by a Coppola in a decade (really). In this case, it’s photographer turned filmmaker Gia Coppola, the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and cousin of Sofia, who presides over this drugs, sex, and mischief-fueled teen tale with poise and assuredness. She’s aided by a trio of compelling performances courtesy of Emma Roberts as a rebellious goody two shoes, Jack Kilmer (son of Val) as a well-intentioned screw-up, and Nat Wolff as his hell-raising, self-destructive pal, Fred. Palo Alto is one of the biggest surprises of the year.
RabbitBandini Productions
The two words that best describe the career of Atom Egoyan, the once-promising filmmaker responsible for atmospheric meditations on loss Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, is “diminishing returns.” Ever since the Canadian filmmaker got wrapped up in Hollywood, it’s been an endless series of duds, and this dramatization of the plight of the West Memphis Three is no different. Despite an impressive assortment of actors, including Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, Dane DeHaan, and The Killing’s Mireille Enos, this turgid drama suffers from a serious case of déjà vu, covering well-worn territory that’s already been explored in numerous (far superior) documentaries while offering nothing new of substance. Go see the Paradise Lost trilogy instead.
Worldview Entertainment
The real “walk of shame” here is the one you’ll be doing out of the theater.
Jaimie Trueblood/Focus World
