REVIEW: Dr. Strange

Marvel's strangest, loosest, and weirdest film to date, Dr. Strange, has arrived in time to reinvigorate the "Marvel Cinematic Universe."  While the character of Dr. Strange has been around since 1963, there seem to be far fewer fanboys to serve with this picture.  This is truly a one-and-done type of comic book movie requiring nearly zero familiarity with the minutia of the comic books.  For a casual filmgoer looking for spectacle, Marvel has really delivered.

Benedict Cumberbatch adopts a somewhat-odd American accent to play Dr. Stephen Strange, a brilliant-yet-prickly neurosurgeon whose hands are severely damaged following a car accident.  Strange alienates the only person who can stand him and squanders his fortune looking for a medical solution to save his battered hands and to allow him to return to life as he knew it.  In desperation, Strange (a logical, non-believer) travels to Nepal looking for a sacred temple which may hold the key to helping him heal.

Instead of medical salvation, he finds there a group of mystical monk-like warriors trained in magic who can access and harness an "infinite multiverse."  He travels through blacklight posters found on 1970s college dorm walls and through M.C. Escher-like kaleidoscope worlds of fantasy.  The visuals are stunning and there is just enough malarkey and gobbledegook to keep it all humming along quickly.  Don't think about it too much, just enjoy it.  Cumberbatch goes along for the ride and injects his wit and sarcasm in equal measure to keep the ride from becoming a drag.

The villain, played with very cool and moody eye make up by Mads Mikkelsen won't be a fan favorite and his plan, to allow the earth to be engulfed by a universe destroying dark force, is both forgettable and terrifically generic.  But Mikkelsen does his best to sell it.  With what he was given, he tries.  Certainly he succeeds where the villains from Thor: The Dark World or Iron Man 2 or most other Marvel entries have failed.  Tilda Swinton (the center of this film's white washing concerns) imbues her character, The Ancient One, with the right amount of wisdom and spry humor.  

The third act is one of the most successful of any Marvel movie.  It avoids the "too muchery" that has cursed most of the series.  The action is intense and satisfying, the music adds to the picture (a rarity for Marvel), and the tool which Strange uses to destroy the galactic threat is hilarious and one that we all can harness at will.  The obligatory (2!) post-credit scenes hint at Dr. Strange's involvement in the larger Marvel film franchise.  On its own this film is fun, thrilling, and brimming with spectacular imagery.  Once we take Strange and graft him into an Iron Man movie, I have doubts about whether that will work as well.  Check this solo picture out while you can.  See it on a big screen with great sound.

What works:

• The visuals and action.  Trippy, like Dali channeling the Matrix.
• The humor.
• The lack of connectivity to other Marvel movies.

What doesn't:

• Cumberbatch's accent.
• The villain, despite Mikkelsen's admirable efforts.

Brass Tacks:

Worth your time.  Grab some munchies, hit a bean bag chair, and drift off into the multiverse.  A-

The Academy Awards are coming - are you ready?

The Spoiler Alert Podcast 2015 Academy Award Best Picture Nominee Episode Library

The Academy Awards are almost here - they are just a few days away.  Would you say that you feel prepared? 

While your favorite celebrities are enduring sleepless nights (all the while being treated like Kings and Queens all day and having gifts bestowed upon them whilst juggling multiple job offers at insane pay rates), you have the stress of your local office Oscar pool to contend with.  What are you going to do?  The Movie Outsiders and the Spoiler Alert Podcast are here to help.  

Throughout 2015, the Spoiler Alert Podcast featured episodes highlighting all eight Best Picture nominees.  The last film to be discussed, Brooklyn, will be featured as Episode 099 and released next week.  In the meantime, be sure to check out these past episodes to bone up for your Oscar pools, snooty film fanatic friends, or just to have fun listening to two idiots talk about movies!  Enjoy.

• Episode 099 - Brooklyn
• Episode 097 - Bridge of Spies
• Episode 095 - The Revenant
• Episode 094 - The Big Short
• Episode 090 - Spotlight
• Episode 089 - Room
• Episode 083 - The Martian
• Episode 065 - Mad Max: Fury Road

The Spoiler Alert Podcast also has you covered when it comes to the Best Animated Feature race this year.  There is really only one to see - and we saw it.  Check out the episode on Inside Out below.

Episode 070 - Inside Out

REVIEW: Spectre

What makes a Bond movie a "BOND MOVIE?"

For many people, that's a personal question.  It depends on when you saw your first film in the series (Spectre is the 24th official entry into the series - Hollywood's longest and oldest film franchise), or which actor played 007.  It depends on your taste:

• Do you like Bond bad-ass and brutal or witty and winking?  
• What do you want out of your villains - megalomania or revenge?  
• How do you take your henchmen?  
• Are you pro-gadget or anti-gadget?  

All of these questions are a matter of taste and all will influence how you respond to Sam Mendes' latest, longest, and seriously action-packed entry into the granddaddy of all film series.  For most people, there are some essential elements to a "classic" Bond film and Spectre boasts them all: amazing action set pieces, great villains, beautiful women, gadgets, martinis ordered 'shaken, not stirred,' tuxedos, and incredible locations from around the globe.  Rest assured, those interested in seeing James Bond travel the world, fight bad guys, and get the girl - you're in for a treat.

For long-time fans, Spectre contains a number of references to classic Bond films without being too on-the-nose about it.  A cold-open helicopter scene evokes For Your Eyes Only, a parade in Mexico City on Dia De Los Muertos hearkens back to Live and Let Die.  Bond has a knock-down, drag-out fight on a beautiful, old train a la From Russia With Love and even wears the same tuxedo he sported in Goldfinger.  I am sure there are several allusions to classic Bond films that I missed and will pick up upon repeated viewings.  All of this is candy for Bond fans.

Unfortunately, what Spectre also has is some of the Daniel Craig-era baggage: endless talk about the state of global intelligence gathering, a subplot requiring MI-6 to prove the value of the double-O program (didn't we JUST do that in Skyfall?!), Bond "going rogue" (Craig has done it in four out four films), and a need for unnecessary plot twists and networked relationships.  In trying to force Craig's outings into a shared "cinematic universe" like the Marvel films, the producers have backed themselves into a corner.  Bond cannot simply have an adventure, he cannot simply save the day or defeat a threat - it all needs to mean something.  It all needs to be interwoven.  And Spectre is a bit weaker for it.  

While boasting some of the best action set pieces I have ever seen in a Bond film, the movie feels forced at times.  Mendes stretches the film out.  Don't misunderstand me - there are long, slow, quiet stretches - and they work.  Mendes allows the film to take a stately pace, and I loved those scenes.  The absolutely gorgeous cinematography of Hoyte Van Hoytema (Interstellar, Her) takes your breath away during these scenes and gives Spectre the title of best-looking Bond film, for sure.  The scenes where Mendes loses things is in the forced web of connecting not only Craig's previous films together but in binding them to the broader and five-decades-long franchise history.  These efforts only make the film feel long, forced, and a bit Hollywood-by-the-numbers.  I wish Mendes and company had been more brutal in their editing and left some of these allusions to the audience's imagination.

I am one of those people who will be debating the merits and follies of Spectre for years to come, so allow me to close with this: dollar-for-dollar, pound-for-pound, Spectre positions itself in the top echelon of the Bond film series.  While not at the top of the list, it is a more-than-solid outing in a long lineup of impressive action films.  

What Works:

• Craig - he still kicks ass and has allowed Bond to find a slightly more playful tone.  He's not all doom and gloom like Quantum of Solace
• The villains - Christoph Waltz adds another charming sociopath to his resume and Dave Bautista's Mr. Hinx offers memorable menace.
• The visuals - this is a beautiful picture from start to finish.

What Doesn't:

• The theme song - this one is a clunker (though still world's better than Die Another Day and Quantum of Solace - two nearly unforgivable errors)
• The MI-6 subplot - just not necessary
• The third act plot reveals and early-era Bond-baddie hijinx.

Brass Tacks:

• For newer entrants into the Bond franchise, or Craig-era-only fans: B-
• For lifelong devotees: A-

Also: Look for a new Spoiler Alert Podcast episode on Spectre featuring mega-Bond fan Danny Pavlovich coming soon!  

REVIEW: Mad Max: Fury Road

Holy hell.  

Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most gonzo, go-for-broke, all-hell-breaks-loose action films I have ever seen.  And I have seen a few.  This film, from George Miller who created Mad Max and the world he survives in more than 30 years ago, is as fresh, raw, real, and gutsy as any action film produced in the last several years.

In Fury Road, Miller produces a world so complete that Wes Anderson is jealous.  In fact, this movie is like Wes Anderson and Terry Gilliam fell in love on the set of David Lynch's Dune, had a baby, peed on it, and left it to be raised by a pack of feral dogs who loved the chase scene from The Blues Brothers a little too much.  From the costumes to the unbelievable vehicles to the practical stunts, this movie delivers.  

The movie shoves us into this world with no preamble or explanation.  What we need to know we can figure out as we race along.  Immortan Joe, the vilainous warlord, is both pure evil and utterly disgusting.  Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, is damaged goods but also more balls than another character in the movie.  She risks her life to save Joe's captive "birthing wives," casting her lot with theirs as they race to a long-unseen "green land."  Tom Hardy's Max is more gutteral than Mel Gibson's version.  Less soulful, more empty.  Perhaps that is an evolution as Max has been solo for far too long.  He has no one to trust, no one to talk to, no one to care about.  He is as much of an outsider as one can get and he is unapologetic about his desire to stay that way.

The plot of the film is thin - a here to there and back chase scene.  But the visual punch and artistry on display throughout the film is truly impressive.  Character design, make up, production design, editing, practical visual effects, and music are all top notch.  As Joe and his unholy entourage chase Furiosa and Max across an open desert in their death machines, Joe has the foresight to also bring a truck laden with enormous speakers and a heavy metal guitarist dangling from chains.  A great laugh in the film comes when the guitarist, who has been sleeping, is awoken and immediately begins shredding.  This is that kind of movie.  

Furiosa owns the movie.  Not only due to her total bad-assery, but because as a character she has a future.  She wants for something.  She has plans or hopes or dreams.  She can imagine a life with her in it and wants to get to that place.  Max, on the other hand, is totally empty.  He is merely motion or reflex.  He reacts and responds.  He knows he doesn't want to die and doesn't want to be a living blood IV drip for one of Joe's "Kill Boys," but he definitely doesn't have anything to live for.  He is just passing through. 

I already look forward to the next time he passes through - and I hope that Furiosa comes along for the ride.  

Prep Your Academy Awards Party

Few things are as sad as when you are prepping your elaborate Academy Awards viewing party and you discover that several of your friends are hosting their own Academy Awards viewing parties and that you have all used the same witty, film-inspired names for your appetizers and cocktails.  The best way to avoid this social death is to plan early and lay claim to the event before your deadbeat, barely-see-any-movies-anymore friends try to pick it off.  

This year will mark the 16th annual Academy Awards viewing party that I will throw with my lovely wife.  Last year, I put up this post to help share some ideas.  My wife wrote up some great suggestions for anyone who is throwing their own party for the big show which can be found on her site here.

We hope that you have a fun, glamorous, and safe Academy Awards night!

RANT: So....How strange is this!?

By Danny Sarnowski

The method for selecting films for The Spoiler Alert Podcast has been...less than scientific.  Random would be a fair word.  To be sure, we haven't resorted to throwing darts or drawing titles randomly from imdb.com (yet).  We have bounced around a bit with the result being an eclectic assortment of movies.  There's something in there for everyone.  This week, however, some of the picks have felt....prescient.

This week we posted our episode featuring My Fair Lady.  As a reminder, we chose this movie because we have committed to watching all of the Best Picture Oscar winners and this was the randomly-chosen pick that came up next.  The movie itself is nearly 50 years old.  Neither of us have ever seen it.  While My Fair Lady has been a beloved film for decades, it has not been circulating in the public consciousness.  Or has it?  

According to an article on playbill.com (read it here), there was to be a new film version produced.  It was written by Emma Thompson and was to star Carey Mulligan in the Audrey Hepburn role.  There is, however, a Broadway revival coming soon from Clive Davis.  Strange how I haven't seen or heard anything about this movie in decades and the week we post the episode - Bam!

Can you imagine Carey Mulligan under this huge hat?  Me neither.  

If that doesn't give you goosebumps, try this.  The prior week, for Episode 014, we discussed the movie Bernie.  This independent black comedy from 2011 starred Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey and told the true-life story of admitted killer Bernie Tiede.  It was announced today that the real Bernie Tiede has been released from prison.  

So a story that resulted in a small, indie film three years ago was updated today.  One week after we chose to discuss the movie on our podcast.  It just seems like a lot of crazy coincidences.  Speaking of crazy, one of the stipulations of Bernie's parole is that he must go and live in director Richard Linklater's garage apartment.  How odd is that?!  What did Linklater do to deserve this odd form of punishment?

Anyway, doesn't this make you wonder a little bit about what movies we'll choose next?

Gaze upon the mustache of an admitted killer.