Sometimes a movie slips throught the cracks on theaterical release, and sometimes they deserve to…
The Seventh Son…Odds are strong that if you clicked on this article, it wasn’t to read about this film, which most people refer to as “What movie again? Haven’t heard of it.” It’s the one with Jeff Bridges teaching a beyond-bland Ben Barnes to kill witches. Although weirdly comforting, and never less than watchable–mostly thanks to Bridges lively line readings, being the best thing here as he was in the similar let’s-fight-demons movie “R.I.P.D.”–it’s also a sign of how unfavorable this movie is that even the great Julianne Moore looks lost for much of it. Grade: C-
Jupiter Ascending…Any sci-fi film that’s creating a new world and engages in real attempts at world building—rather than just blowing up said world—is doing something half-right, but unfortunately this (more than mildly clunky) film just never quite takes off like it should. There are great sequences here and there, and Channing Tatum escapes the Wachowski doldrums (few actors outside of “Cloud Atlas” have gotten out of their films without giving a wooden performance), but Eddie Redmayne is a piss-poor villain–still can’t believe that guy beat Michael Keaton for Best Actor–and the sly Mila Kunis eventually gets lost in the shuffle of all the interplanetary shoot-em-ups. Grade: C+
McFarland USA…Perhaps the least creative of the three films, but also the most enjoyable. It helps that it’s that most endangered of Hollywood movies: one about real people in a believable situation. Kevin Costner gives his umpteenth underrated performance in a row–somebody give this guy his own “Birdman” already–and the movie’s messages aren’t subtle (Costner’s Minnesota exile is so white he goes into a California Mexican restaurant and tries to order burgers and fries…although that is believable), but maybe they don’t always need to be. “McFarland” suffers from being predictable, but maybe there’s a reason you know exactly how a movie like this is going to end: because it still really, really works. Grade: B