I was never sure if the original Hot Tub Time Machine was actually funny. I had seen the movie as the second part of a double feature at the drive-in, and I had been put into such a bad mood by the first movie — Kick-Ass — that I couldn’t even crack a smile during HTTM until about two-thirds of the way through. So I thought I’d give the sequel a shot to see if maybe there was something hilarious I missed because of that other movie.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 picks up after the events of the first movie with Lou (Rob Corddry), his son Jacob (Clark Duke) and friend Nick (Craig Robinson) as the leads. John Cusack (wisely) opted not to reprise his role from the original, although the character of Adam does hang heavily over the film, especially when the three meet Adam’s son Adam Jr. (Adam Scott … that’s a lot of Adams in one movie!) in the future.

Yes, this time the three think they’re going into the past to prevent Lou’s murder (and, let’s face it, he really deserved to be shot in the dick), but the hot tub actually takes you where you need to go, not where you want to go, so they end up ten years in the future and have to try to figure out which red herring killed Lou in the past. Was it the unaccounted for Adam? His jacket is lying next to the hot tub, so perhaps he used it to escape. Was it one of Lou’s disgruntled employees at Lougle? (Yes, Lou invents Google before Google, so it’s now Lougle). Was it actually Jacob, who seems to have benefited greatly in the future from his father’s death? Or someone else? Whoever it is, you can be sure a dick joke will be involved.

Yes, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 seems to have been written by a group of horny twelve-year-old boys who have a fascination with penises and the word “fuck.” Unfortunately, they never seem to be able to figure out how to make either thing the least bit funny (although some squirting semen does garner the film’s one big laugh). Not only is it not funny, but the character of Lou has been made even more grating than I remember him from the first movie (perhaps because Cusack was the real star of that film instead of Corddry). A little Lou goes a long way, and even when a SmartCar tries to murder him, you have to wonder why anyone else would care to save his life. He’s just awful, but there should be a huge cheer from the audience when he gets his comeuppance at the film’s end.

Craig Robinson probably comes off best with his musical ambitions and theft of popular songs like Lisa Loeb’s “Stay” (right down to recreating the original music video). Some of Nick’s songs, which Robinson actually co-wrote, are clever and funny so I have to give him points for that. Duke is fine and Jacob is not as obnoxious as Lou, but you have to wonder why he’d even care about saving the life of someone who is just so utterly terrible to him, even if Lou is his dad … who treats Jacob like a butler instead of a son. Adam Scott fares well too, especially as he goes from weird and needy to completely off his rocker after having a hit of something called Electric Ladybug. Chevy Chase makes a brief appearance and Community alum Gillian Jacobs appears as Adam’s fiancée.

There are not really a lot of good things to say about the movie. They can’t even keep their main concept of how the hot tub time machine works straight! They have to put some kind of blue crystals in to get it going and then there is a big deal made about getting totally plastered with drugs and alcohol, then blacking out and waking up at the destination. They go through this process at the beginning of the journey, but then any other time they use the machine, they just add the blue crystals and off they go. Why make such a big deal out of getting hammered if that really has nothing to do with the mechanics of the time machine??? Or at least address it later with a “huh, guess we really didn’t need to do that” after they time travel again. And almost everything you see in the commercials for the movie happens in the last five minutes!

When asked what we thought of the movie by the studio reps on the way out, the most positive things we could muster were, “the color processing was excellent,” “the sound was loud and clear,” “the picture was really big.” That was about it. I’m sure fans of the first Hot Tub Time Machine will flock to see this one, but right about now I’d like to jump in the tub myself and try to get that wasted 90 minutes of my life back.

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The Wachowski’s have had a varied and checkered career, bursting onto the cinema landscape with the groundbreaking The Matrix and then nearly crashing and burning with two Matrix sequels and Speed Racer. The siblings redeemed themselves (or not) with the outstanding Cloud Atlas, and now they are back with another stunning piece of work, Jupiter Ascending.

The question is, are viewers going to be stunned in a good or bad way? The film is definitely taking its hits already from critics and advance screening audiences, but I’m not going to be quite as harsh on the film as many people are.

The story itself goes something like this: Chicago resident Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) finds herself in the middle of an intergalactic tug of war when the Abrasax siblings squabble over which of them has the rights to harvest the Earth (and by harvest, they mean humans not crops). It turns out, however, that Jupiter is somehow genetically related to the Abrasax family, a reincarnation of the siblings’ mother. This “recurrance” gives her the rights to Earth and each of the siblings woo her in such a way as to trick her out of her property, with Balem (Eddie Redmayne) going so far as marrying her … so he can kill her and inherit the planet. But why do these people actually need to harvest humans?

The plot sounds very straightforward, but the film is defiantly not so, throwing everything AND the kitchen sink into the works. Jupiter’s protector is a human/wolf “splice” named Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), who may be unwittingly helping the bad guys. The film is also filled to the brim with other spliced humanimals, from a rat man to an absurd elephant man creature. And there are the big talking lizards as well as the tiny grey aliens. It seems that they’ve spent so much time on making each creature different that the story got lost amidst all the spectacle.

While they get so much wrong in the storytelling, the Wachowskis can always be counted on to do something right and that is definitely in the spectacle, the minute details on all of the space vehicles and planets, the kingdom hidden behind the clouds of Jupiter, and all of the various makeups and costumes. A few of the CGI shots are not quite up to snuff, but 99% of what’s on screen is just mind-blowing.

As your senses are about to overload, you start thinking about the story again and realize you have no idea at all what is going on. Most of the scenes are filled with exposition, with characters trying mightily to tell us what’s happening but in most cases it’s all for naught. Jupiter is first taken to the Abrasax sister Kalique (Tuppence Middleton in some cringe-worthy middle-aged makeup) who shows her the wonders of a special mineral bath, then she’s whisked off to meet younger brother Titus (Douglas Booth), who explains more about his nefarious siblings (but he’s still not quite coming clean with her about why Earth is so important to them).

By the time she gets to Balem and discovers the truth, you’ve pretty much given up on really understanding anything, especially as Jupiter seems to switch from one emotion to another within the same scene. One minute she’s talking to Caine, the next minute she’s got dreamy eyes and wants to make out with him. Like, out of the blue. No lead up, no banter, no sexual tension. And ignoring the fact that he’s half dog. It was very odd. And speaking of odd, I don’t know whose idea it was for Freddie to whisper all of his lines, except for when he got VERY ANGRY, but it was a very weird, unintentionally hilarious character trait. Freddie is nominated for an Oscar this year as Best Actor (The Theory of Everything) and he could very well get a Razzie nomination next year for this.

Much has been said about Tatum’s performance, that he looks bored or just disinterested but I didn’t find him to be that way at all. I think he might have been thinking he had some ridiculous dialog to recite, but he carries himself well in the big action scenes. Kunis seems too restrained, like she really should be in another movie, and in fact that other movie is actually contained within Jupiter Ascending. The Wachowski’s are huge fans of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, so much so that there is an entire, elaborate sequence that pays homage to the bureaucracy that Brazil pokes fun at. This one sequence is a comedy set-piece capped with a cameo by Gilliam himself, and it shows that the rest of the movie is taking itself way too seriously. Had the entire film been an absurd satire, I think Kunis and Tatum would have been able to loosen up more.

As it is, Jupiter Ascending is just a mish-mash of other, better (or just plain campy) sci-fi flicks like The Fifth Element, The Chronicles of Riddick and Flash Gordon, and it desperately needed more cohesion and more camp to make it something really special. We’re left wondering if the long release delay was truly to hone the effects, or if perhaps the studio imposed a lot of editing that left a potentially great movie on the cutting room floor.

It seems that movies that took place on submarines were a dime a dozen back in the 1940s and 1950s, many of the taking place during World War II. There are also classic submarine movies that don’t specifically take place in wartime, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and On the Beach, and there are a few popular modern day sub movies like The Hunt for Red October but the last major film to be set on a submarine is 2002’s K-19: The Widowmaker. So are audiences ready for another trip in the confines of a steel tube deep under the sea?

If that movie is Black Sea, then the answer is a resounding yet. Black Sea takes place “today,” and focuses on Captain Robinson (Jude Law), a submariner who has worked for a salvage company who suddenly finds himself unemployed and with no other tangible skills. Commiserating in a local bar with his former sub-mates, also unemployed, he is presented with a plan to stick it to their former employer: hire a sub of their own and dive deep beneath the Black Sea to retrieve millions of dollars of Nazi gold that had been lost during WWII.

After meeting with an interested investor, Robinson puts together a crew of English and Russian sailors (he says he needs the Russians because they will be using a Russian sub), and promises them equal shares of the gold once the investor is paid. Unfortunately, Robinson’s friend who originally presented the plan has committed suicide, so he has to bring along a replacement, and the investor insists that his American banker (Scoot McNairy) is also part of the crew. What could go wrong with a group of Englishmen, Russians and a Yank trapped in a claustrophobic environment with no means of escape? As it turns out, plenty.

Black Sea, while not perfect (if the sub is Russian, why do all the gauges appear to be in English?), is still a tense, nail-biter of a thriller that will have you holding your breath as the tension ratchets up. The sub is barely out of port before tensions arise between the Brits and the Russians (over the cooking and the distribution of wealth), leading to a shocking murder that divides the crew. Of course, disaster strikes the sub and the crew must put aside their differences in order to survive, but another monkey-wrench is thrown into the works when the truth about the mission is revealed.

Director Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland) does a great job of setting up the story, showing us all that Robinson has lost – his family – because of his job, and then manages to keep things visually interesting and viscerally thrilling in the confines of the submarine. There may be a few too many mishaps along the way, but for a movie that runs just shy of two hours, the story has to keep moving. MacDonald only ventures outside of the sub once during the film, and one of the most heart-stopping scenes takes place as they listen as a Russian war ship passes by overhead. As exciting as the action scenes are, that one tensely quite scene is the film’s stand-out moment.

Also a stand-out is Jude Law. Forever the “pretty boy,” Law is aging gracefully, bulking himself up a bit and employing a thick Irish accent. He keeps Robinson tightly controlled as the mission begins, but like Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Law shows Robinson fraying around the edges as the promise of millions of dollars in gold begins to cloud his judgment. As he goes from rational to irrational, Law shows us what a great actor he truly is.

The rest of the cast is also top-notch, with real Russian actors playing the Russians – and speaking in Russian only with the occasional subtitle, which keeps us in the dark almost as much as it does the English speaking crew – and everyone accurately showing us what life on a submarine would be like (except for the murders, of course). All in all, Black Sea is a terrific edge-of-your-seat, heart-stopping, breath-holding, nail-biting thriller that stands up to the best of the classic submarine movies.

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This year ABC is doubling down on the winter mini-season, launching two high concept niche shows over what is normally, for most networks, a break from new content. Both Galavant and Marvel’s Agent Carter are period pieces consisting of 8 episodes each. However, for some reason, ABC decided to air Agent Carter over eight weeks while doubling up on Galavant’s shorter thirty-minute episodes over four. In this age of fewer summer reruns and little chance of syndication for a shorter run leads us to believe that the original plan was to air the show over eight weeks as well — otherwise why not just produce four-hour long installments? Maybe they thought stretching it out over eight weeks would lose too many audience members.

Regardless of whether ABC had faith in Galavant or not, the end result is a delightfully cheesy show, a dash of Disney, a pinch of Monty Python, with a side of The Princess Bride. Composer and Disney golden boy Alan Menken, along with the team behind Tangled, have created a fun world in which characters can turn from wholesome to risqué on a dime. With a relatively unknown cast save for former Psych cast member Timothy Omundson and go-to baddie Vinnie Jones, along with a few funny cameos, Menken and Co. have managed to make something that feels original yet familiar at the same time. The lead actors have wonderful chemistry and even Vinnie Jones, who has become almost a parody of himself at this point, works wonderfully as a gruff thug in contrast with Omundson’s prissy king.

The biggest complaint you could make about Galavant is it could have used a one or two more memorable songs. While the majority of the songs were fantastic and almost too catchy for their own good (the title song alone will be bouncing around your head for hours after), several songs throughout the season were less than stellar, there more to drive the plot or serve exposition. Admittedly, these only stick out because we’ve been so spoiled by some of the standout numbers: the pirates’ “Lords of the Sea” along with “Hey Hey We’re the Monks” being two prime examples. Some people will be turned off by the musical aspect of the show but frankly anyone who doesn’t like musicals should stay clear. Galavant doesn’t shy away from the cheesy, flamboyant nature of an old-fashioned musical. If anything they turn hard into the skid. Many of the musical numbers demand repeat viewings and you can’t help but laugh at some of the ridiculous antics that take place.

Plot and writing-wise there were weak points scattered throughout the season. A few parts of our heroes’ journey felt a bit glossed over while others felt like they went on longer than necessary. The pirates we meet in episode four are so funny and offbeat you could easily see multiple episodes dedicated to the adventures they had together on their way to Valencia. It’s a shame they weren’t kept in the mix.  The finale also had some awkward moments that didn’t seem to fit the rest of the season: Princess Isabella went from a strong independent woman to a more traditional damsel waiting to be rescued, and Galavant’s plan to get King Richard drunk to go after his brother seemed unnecessary — though it did lead to one of the best musical numbers, “We’re Off on a Secret Mission.” The biggest surprise that came out of Galavant‘s season finale is that it wasn’t a series finale, we’re left with all our characters in precarious situations and our story draws to a close on a cliffhanger. It seemed like this was a one season and done situation so the fact that we now have to hope for a second season to get any kind of resolution was a real shocker. Though after seeing how fun King Richard and Galavant are together, the promise of more of their growing bromance is exciting. With the way everyone is left at the show’s close, there’s a lot of potential for new settings, situations, and some dynamic pairings of characters. Hopefully these will lead to some great songs as well.

Whether or not we get another season, Galavant was different from the rest of the pack, it did something unique and will no doubt have fans and detractors both in abundance. But for those of us who love musicals and can appreciate the show for the funny, cheesy, self-aware approach it takes, Galavant is a welcome addition to the television landscape and here’s hoping we can have at least one more season of humming that damn catchy titular song over and over again.

January is not a month known for successful film launches. Sure, Oscar hopefuls who squeaked in via limited release before the end of the year see wider releases, but otherwise, January is where many projects go to die. When Blackhat – a film that was at one time talked about in Oscar circles – was scheduled for January, doubt began to creep in. But it’s Michael Mann, man! Director of one of my all time favorites, Heat. Not to mention mega-star Chris Hemsworth. It has to be good, right?

It isn’t horrible, but to call it good might be a bit of an overstatement.

Hemsworth plays Nicholas Hathaway, and is a bit of an unconventional choice for a hacker; how many high-end computer types do you know that look like Thor? We find Hathaway in prison, but conveniently the only person with information that can stop a new player who has already managed to melt down a Chinese nuclear plant and compromise the New York Stock Exchange. It’s a good thing his college roommate is the leader of the Chinese side of the task force working on the investigation, else Hathaway would have never had a chance to save the day, right?

Despite the marketing campaign focusing solely on Hemsworth, the rest of the cast is solid. Smarter studio executives would have featured the amazing Viola Davis (and trade in on some of that How to Get Away With Murder buzz), but from the trailers you might miss that she’s in the movie – maybe because she was criminally underused. Leehom Wang plays the aforementioned roommate Chen Dawai, who inexplicably brings along his sister Lien, played by Wei Tang.

The real star of the movie, for better or for worse, was the director. Blackhat is decidedly and obviously Mann’s work, from the wonderfully filmed gun battles to the deliberate (plodding?) establishing and transitioning shots. (An aside: A fellow film critic mentioned in our post-viewing chatting that he’d never seen Mann’s Miami Vice: I told him it was Blackhat set in Miami). Fans of Mann’s work from Heat to Collateral easily recognize the visual and storytelling style he has brought to screen successfully before … but maybe it is a little too familiar.

I like directors with a distinctive style. I appreciate the fun in following the quirks and idiosyncrasies of how different influences can manifest themselves on screen. At the end of the day, though, stylistic choices need to be made for a reason, and not for the sake of themselves. I never really felt like Mann interpreted the story that unfolded in Blackhat through the camera lens, painting a pretty picture instead of telling a story.

Perhaps this is why the story felt so disconnected and illogical. There’s very little reason to Lien’s inclusion in the story – beyond the obvious eventual pairing with Hathaway. Her brother talks her into it by saying that he needs someone he can trust – the implication seeming to be that he can’t trust his own government, a thread immediately abandoned (except for one moment of needlessly spoken code between the siblings midway through the movie). Even more disjointed was the evolution of the Federal agent guarding Hathaway. His heroic turn later in the movie is confused by the fact that the story barely establishes any real conflict with Hathaway; though at one point our supposedly in-custody protagonist goes of on a side mission – with Lien needlessly in tow – apparently without the need to escape or sneak back in. I won’t even bother with the final action sequence that saw men knifed to death in the middle of a parade whose participants don’t react even as they must be stepping around a dead body (until, at least, the guns come out).

There are things to like about Blackhat, but nowhere near enough to make a good film. One has to wonder exactly how much of the story was left on the cutting room floor to get the running time to a reasonable length (but hey, let’s make sure we have those multiple extended CGI-rendered sequences of the electron-level inner workings of a computer). Or perhaps if we had a villain whose plot audiences didn’t need a map and a flashlight to understand (though admittedly the muscle/henchman played by Ritchie Coster is an intimidating – if one-note – presence). Unfortunately Blackhat and Mann aren’t able to get out of their own way.

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As we come to the end of the holiday season, the winter breaks for many of the current season shows has given us time to perhaps catch up on some of last season’s shows that Santa may have left under the Christmas tree. Or you may be considering a purchase with some cash or gift cards you received. If you’re a fan of television – and you probably wouldn’t be here if you weren’t – we have some reviews/suggestions of a whole crop of last season shows that might be worth your interest.

The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fifth Season

After a sizzling summer with Damon (Ian Somerhalder), Elena (Nina Dobrev) leaves Mystic Falls and moves into a dorm with her roomie Caroline (Candice Accola), ready for new adventures and new friends. But dark thoughts gnaw at Elena, and soon familiar faces are back in the girls’ lives. There’s Stefan (Paul Wesley) with his shadow self Silas, plus Katherine, with a diabolical agenda and a jaw-dropping transformation. As the Doppelgangers test destiny, tearing lovers apart and pitting the Salvatore brothers against each other, the student body count rises, evidence of powerful forces on campus. Anchors, Rippers, Passengers and Travelers struggle to survive alongside witches and werewolves, teaching our favorite vampires painful lessons along the way.

Season Five of The Vampire Diaries arrives from Warner Home Video in a deluxe Blu-ray/DVD combo package that also includes a Digital HD version of the season. If you’re a fan of the show, you know the formula and season five is sure to not disappoint. The Blu-ray image is sharp and clear, looking as good if not better than the broadcast version with an outstanding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround audio track. Dialog is clear, and surrounds are used to envelop you in the scene.

The 22 episodes are spread over 4 discs (5 on DVD). Disc 1 contains episodes 1-6, deleted scenes for episodes 2 and 5, and a 30-minute video presentation from the 2013 Comic-Con panel featuring the cast and creator Julie Plec.

Disc 2 contains episodes 7-12 and deleted scenes for episodes 8, 11 and 12. Disc 3 contains episodes 13-18 and deleted scenes for episodes 14 and 18. Disc 4 contains episodes 19-22 and the bulk of the sets Special Features:

• “I Know What You Did … In the Last 100 Episodes” (10:15) — The cast, producer and writer play a fun game of trivia to see how much they don’t know about the show capped by a thank you to the fans for watching.
• “The Vampire Diaries: To the Other Side and Back” (10:35) — Featurette exploring the mythology of “the other side.”
• “A Day in the Afterlife with Kat Graham” (7:02) — Kat Graham escorts viewers through a day on set.
• “Second Bite” (5:03) — Gag reel

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When you have created something, you have an attachment to it. For art, that is just as true. Not only that, but there is a conflict inherent in the creation of art; money versus substance. Sometimes you are lucky enough to have something that touches a nerve or interests a crowd, and that’s a great thing. But it’s easy to fall into enjoying success without thinking about why you were successful in the first place? Some might say that success implies quality, but others may assert that money isn’t everything. Sometimes art doesn’t stand the test of time because it wasn’t that good to begin with, or because it just only meant something once, but never again. Even so, every artist has one thing in common: They want people to know they were the creator.

Big Eyes is the latest movie from director Tim Burton and tells the true story of Margaret Keane, the artist of a very popular series of paintings of children with unusually large eyes. However, her husband Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) specifically took credit for the art and sold it under his name when the pieces came out in the late 1950s and 1960s. Up until his death, Walter insisted that he was the true artist, although the evidence against him was staggering. Margaret starts the story leaving her first husband and traveling with her daughter to San Francisco, seeking something she can’t yet define. Her work is noticed by Walter, who claims to be a fellow artist. After her work gets a lot of attention, Walter decides that nobody will buy a painting drawn by a lady. Heaven forbid!

So they sold work under his name, Walter schmoozing up the elite and monetizing the art, while Margaret slaved away in anonymity and craved acknowledgment of her own. Of course, art critics panned the drawings, but most people loved them and the Keanes became quite wealthy. Until Margaret could take no more of it, and no more of Walter’s increasingly unstable behavior. The movie tells this story, showing Walter to be a charismatic man with some serious, deep-seated issues, with Margaret trying to escape her mentality as a 1950s housewife.

Tim Burton’s interesting and unique visual aesthetics are nowhere to be found here, except for one particular scene that I won’t spoil. But in many ways, this could be directed by anybody of talent, because the movie doesn’t really have a recognizable style. Perhaps there’s something to that in the take on the big eyes children, but perhaps not. The story itself is dramatized, but interesting. I didn’t know exactly what would happen, so seeing the crazy twists and turns that actually happened were quite entertaining. There are moments of real drama here, watching Amy Adams do that “silent soulful” thing she does so well.

I particularly enjoyed her performance, although I also liked Christoph Waltz. I’ve heard some people complain about it, but I don’t get that myself. His character was odd, sociopathic at times, and the performance reflected that. I guess I just don’t get people sometimes. There are a few smaller parts filled by enjoyable, talented actors, like Krysten Ritter as Margaret’s best friend who’s being pushed away, and Jason Schwartzman and Terrence Stamp as art critics that despise the big eyes children pieces.

In the spate of two hour long prestige pictures at the end of the year, I was glad to see a movie under two hours that had a decent pace and kept me interested, for the most part. Perhaps we could’ve dipped more into the depth of certain parts of Margaret’s struggles and less on Walter’s marketing, but to me it works quite well. A few dramatic moments, some lightness, and a satisfying ending. Perhaps it’s not as interesting to look at as Burton’s other movies, but that’s really okay with me.

Disney, musicals and fairy tales. A match as perfect as peanut butter and jelly or wine and cheese. Add some Stephen Sondheim into the mix, and you have a very curious combination. Of course the new Disney cinematic musical Into the Woods started out life on Broadway and as far from Disney as one could imagine … and seven years before Disney even hit Broadway with its own musical fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast.

Sondheim’s take on some well-known fairy tale characters, like Cinderella, Rapunzel and Jack (of beanstalk fame), was more Grimm than Disney. Not many people realize that the tales we all know and love today, courtesy of Disney, are much darker and violent, and they don’t always end happily ever after. In Sondheim’s musical fantasia, our beloved fairy tales are close to what we know but with a little bit of a twist: a wicked witch is brought into the mix to stir things up after placing a curse on the home of the Baker and his wife (James Corden and Emily Blunt). Because of the misdeeds of Baker’s father (he stole vegetables and magic beans from the Witch’s garden), the house would forever be childless.

It’s up to the Baker to bring the Witch four items: a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, a cow as white as milk, and a slipper as pure as gold. You can pretty much figure out which characters the Baker and his wife will run into in the woods.

As we meet each character, their stories are certainly familiar enough and the film seems to reach its climax with the “happily ever after” wedding of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) and Prince Charming (Chris Pine). But young Jack’s misdeeds at the top of the beanstalk have brought giants to the land below, turning the happy day into tragedy as the land is destroyed, people are homeless and hopeless, and only the resilient spirit of the Baker seems to make the others want to make peace with the giants by returning the stolen items. But the giants want more than their golden egg and magic harp back … they want Jack.

With the arrival of the giants, the film’s bright, colorful palette turns dark and muted, as if dark clouds have come to cover the land. The characters become more human as well, and sadly, death will take some of them. It’s here that you have to wonder what the folks at Disney were thinking. Is it such a good idea for them to produce a film that treats many of its most beloved characters so badly? Parents should be warned that Into the Woods is not a children’s movie.

That being said, it’s nice that Disney has produced a fairy tale movie aimed at adults, and cast it with a who’s who of amazing stars. Blunt has already been nominated for a Golden Globe as Lead Actress in a Musical or Comedy and she is quite good. James Corden’s Baker my be the film’s true lead (and he acquits himself well, particularly with some of Sondheim’s more complicated lyrics), but Blunt’s Baker’s Wife is the film’s true heart and soul. She brings so much warmth and patience to her character that you can’t help but to fall in love with her. And Blunt also has a lovely singing voice, bringing tears to the eyes as she closes out the film with “Children Will Listen.”

Anna Kendrick can sing, for sure, but I really didn’t feel much for her Cinderella until she had a heartfelt moment later in the film at the ruined grave of her mother. She was much too flighty, but I did enjoy Christine Baranski as her Wicked Stepmother and Tammy Blanchard and Lucy Punch in the more broadly drawn roles of the stepsisters. Daniel Huttleston (Jack) and Lilla Crawford (Little Red Riding Hood) are major finds, giving great performances and tackling those lyrics with true professionalism. Pine and Billy Magnussen (Rapunzel’s Prince) deliver the film’s showstopping moment as they sing and try to outdo each other’s proclamations of love with the song “Agony.” The audience loved both actors’ hamminess, showing us what total douchebags these two princes really are. Mackenzie Mauzy is, unfortunately, locked away a bit too much in Rapunzel’s tower, and Johnny Depp shows up briefly as the Big Bad Wolf to leer lasciviously at Red Riding Hood. The role can come off as a bit creepy as he sings about the lusciousness of the young girl, but it’s all in quest of a meal and nothing else.

Of course, the biggest star of the movie is Meryl Streep (Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture) and she can really belt out those songs. She also seems to be having great fun playing the haggard, old witch (breaking her own rule of never playing a witch after she was offered three witch roles when she turned 40) and then gets to glam it up as the curse on her is lifted. Whenever she’s on screen, you just can’t take your eyes off of her.

The film, which was shot on location in England, sometimes feels and looks a bit too stage-bound instead of opened up for the screen, but it also adds more intimacy to the story than you can get watching actors on a stage. I suspect the minuscule budget Disney gave Oscar nominated director Rob Marshall played a big part in the almost claustrophobic feel of the woods (there are very few interior sets). Colleen Atwood’s costumes are also pretty amazing, appropriately regal and tattered, befitting the station of the character wearing them.

Is Into the Woods a perfect movie musical? That all depends on your taste in musicals. I’ve seen the stage version and I enjoyed the film much more. I think it was the music and the singing which drew me into the world more than it did with either stage production. I don’t think it rivals Marshall’s own Oscar-winning Chicago, but I enjoyed the movie very much. The only real negative impact the film may face is the downer of an ending. If you know going in that it’s not going to end happily ever after for some, you may not come out of it feeling so negatively about the rest of the movie. You have been warned.

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Now this is a Broadway musical in every sense of the word. And who would have ever thought that Disney’s flop musical movie from 1992 — starring an 18-year-old Christian Bale in only his fourth theatrical film — would have developed such a cult following that the studio saw enough potential in it to bring it to the stage? Adding music by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman, who wrote six new songs for the show while keeping several from the movie, and a book by Harvey Fierstein helped shape the film into the stage extravaganza that has wowed audiences since its Broadway debut (the show was intended to run for only 101 performances, but demand kept it going for 1005).

The story of Newsies is based on an actual event: the “Newsboy Strike of 1899″ which saw a band of orphans and runaway newsies (the kids who sold newspapers on the streets for the major publishers) go on a two week strike against publishing giants Pulitzer, Hearst and others in New York City. The show tells the story of the fictional Jack Kelly, the leader of the ragtag group of newsies, who dreams of a better life in Santa Fe. When Joseph Pulitzer raised the distribution prices on the newsboys in order to sell more papers, Jack rallies the newsies from across the city to strike for what’s right … even when romance, double-crosses and a sweet deal get in the way.

The moment the orchestra hits its first note, you know this is what a big Broadway musical is all about, and when the massive cast of “newsies” takes to the stage and raises their voices together in perfect harmony, it is one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. Add to that the acrobatic choreography by Christopher Gattelli and you have something magical taking place before your eyes.

And the cast is massive, led by Dan DeLuca as Jack. DeLuca can put on a tough exterior when dealing with the newspaper people, but he shows us his heart too when he’s trying to look out for his boys. He has a real soft spot for Crutchie (Zachary Sayle), and you believe their brotherly relationship. DeLuca also has a wonderfully unique voice full of emotion and power, depending on the situation. Sayle, whose character sadly disappears for much of the second act, is the show’s bit of comic relief as he has to navigate the stage dragging his leg and hobbling with a crutch (hence his name). But when he’s attacked, we also feel for him because he can’t defend himself. That’s the proof of a good performance.

But it’s not all men on stage all the time. Stephanie Styles, as a girl reporter who butts heads with Jack and then begins to fall for him, has the perfect pluckiness for the part and a powerful voice as well. Angela Grovey, as cabaret owner Medda Larkin, pretty much steals any scene she’s in (unfortunately, not many) and her one musical number, “That’s Rich,” is a showstopper. Steve Blanchard also stands out as Pulitzer with his deep, powerful voice whether speaking or singing.

Towering over everyone is a wondrous set consisting of three 24-feet towers with three levels that are fully automated and can move 14 feet up and down the stage, rotate 350 degrees and reconfigure to create tenement fire escapes, a theatre’s backstage, the Brooklyn Bridge and the basement of Pulitzer’s building. The towers also have screens which raise and lower for the lighting and special projections that help set the scenes. The 33 cast members run up and down the stairs to perform on any and all of the three levels throughout the show, making this one of the most physical productions I’ve ever seen. It really is a wonder they’re all not exhausted by the end of the first act.

If you like your Broadway musicals big and flashy, then Newsies is the show for you. Great story, great performances, great singing and dancing, great production all around, this is the show to see when it comes to your town. Newsies is at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre through Sunday, December 7 (it will be in Washington, D.C. June 9-21) and will hit major cities across the country including Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte, Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas and more (alas, not Santa Fe). To get more details about the show and ticket information, click on the banner below.

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THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED.

CliqueClack has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox to offer readers in San Francisco and Sacramento an opportunity to attend an advance screening of Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings starring Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn with Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley.

From acclaimed director Ridley Scott comes the epic adventure Exodus: Gods and Kings, the story of one man’s daring courage to take on the might of an empire. Using state of the art visual effects and 3D immersion, Scott brings new life to the story of the defiant leader Moses (Bale) as he rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses (Edgerton), setting 400,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.

The film’s intrigue, scale, scope, adventurer and vivid characters provide a unique theatrical event. The Exodus from Egypt is the original and definitive heroic saga. It’s also a powerful and personal story rich with emotion, rivalry and betrayal and an undying quest for freedom.

The screening will take place on Thursday, December 11, 7:00 PM at the following locations:

• Century City 9, San Francisco ALL SAN FRANCISCO PASSES HAVE BEEN CLAIMED
• Century 16 Greenback, Sacramento

A limited number of passes will be available on a first come, first served basis. To be eligible, please read and follow the directions CAREFULLY. There will be no exceptions.

• Comment on this post ONLY with either SAN FRANCISCO or SACRAMENTO. Do not include anything else in the comment box. If you make a mistake, do not edit your comment because it will not register. You must submit a new comment.
• Include your FULL NAME (First and Last) and email address on the entry form (NOT in the comment box!). Double check your email address before submitting. If your email address is misspelled, you will not receive passes.
• ONE entry per person or couple will be accepted. CliqueClack has the right to discard any duplicates or comments that appear to be duplicates. Multiple comments from a single person will result in complete disqualification. Keep these offers fair for everyone!
• Winners will be contacted by email. Please make sure to set your filters to accept email from @cliqueclack.com.
• Check your calendar before commenting. If you have no intention of using the passes, please don’t leave a comment. If the studios see that passes we are given to award to our readers are not being used, they will not want to offer us passes for future screenings. Please be considerate!

Winners will receive a code to redeem at GoFoBo.com for up to two passes. Please note that passes do not guarantee seats at the screening. Seating is first come, first served so plan to arrive early. CliqueClack has no control over the total number of passes distributed, and is not responsible for seating arrangements at the theater.

Exodus: Gods and Kings is rated PG-13, and opens December 12.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k8qeqZycgE