Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Review


            One of the many things that made Rise of the Planet of the Apes work so well is just how well crafted of an update of the original Planet of the Apes it is while still being able to seem thematically similar to that original.  That’s why it ultimately seems like the latest entry in the franchise, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, is a lesser film.  Dawn of the Planet of the Apesis more visually stunning and its individual scenes are much better written than its predecessor.  However, the film hints and ultimately goes to a much darker ending that, like its predecessor, feel thematically similar to the 1968 classic only to disregard it for a happy, audience friendly ending.  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ends up being a great film that leaves a stale taste in your mouth.

            Dawn picks up ten years after the Simian Flu that was hinted at in the mid-credits stinger from Rise has wiped out the vast majority of humanity.  The ape community led by Caesar (Andy Serkis) lives in a utopia far away from the corruption of humanity.  That is until a crew of humans trying to get a dam functioning again stumbles into their community and begins a chain of events that will put the peacemaking abilities of both communities to the test.  Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In) directs from a script by Mark Bomback and returnees Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.

            This film is so close to being one of the great blockbusters of our time.  For most of its runtime it is the thought provoking allegory that the original Planet of the Apes is while still finding time to include some top notch action set pieces (a long take involving a tank and another involving an escape from a heavily guarded tower are highlights).  However, what made the thought provoking nature of the original so interesting was how harsh of a line it took on humanity, and for so long this film carries that (that humanity’s nature is to corrupt absolutely).  There is a moment near the end of the film that shows just how true this is, and it has massive ramifications for all of the still surviving characters in the film.  Unfortunately, the film only minutes later acts like that this event never happened and we end up with a visual moment of heroism for Caesar when it should be anything but.


            All of that being said this is just one mistake in a film filled with great moments.  Whether it is the already noted action scenes, a script that makes sure every single character has reasons that are easy to identify with for their actions or fantastic performances from Andy Serkis (who still mind-bogglingly doesn’t have an Oscar of some sort) and Toby Kebbell (playing one of the best villains in recent memory as Koba), there is a lot to like in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

8/10

24: Live Another Day Review


In a shocking announcement last spring, FOX announced it was bringing back the long running thriller 24 back to the air for a limited event series.  In theory this sounded great.  At the end of its run, 24 was clearly showing its age but it was/is a show that is easy to hold affection for.  A small event series would allow Howard Gordon and company to do something new with the format and bring the franchise to a better conclusion than it was left off at or set up a potential movie that has been stuck in development hell for sometime.  While 24: Live Another Day was a lot of fun and the perfect type of summer programming, this is not a franchise saving season.

24: Live Another Day picks up in London where President Heller (William Devane) is getting ready to sign a pact on drones with the British Prime Minister (the always charming Stephen Fry in a reoccurring role).  However, a new terrorist threat is emerging while CIA intelligence picks up signs of the return of one of their most wanted men, former CTU agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland).  Most of the crew from the original series returns including showrunner Howard Gordon and main director Jon Cassar.

As a whole 24: Live Another Day is far from being one of 24’s best seasons.  It starts out great and the opening arc (which runs for a good nine episodes) is one of the show’s best.  However, the season is missing a signature 24 moment and it ends with a whimper as numerous plotting mistakes are made in the closing episodes.

While being relatively low-key for 24(there are still numerous action sequences and plot twists in every episode) the opening arc really allows an opportunity for the cast to shine as the sturdy Kiefer Sutherland leads a fantastic supporting cast.  William Devane, Yvonne Strahovski (the new female lead) and Michelle Fairley (one of the show’s best villains ever) all deliver memorable performances. 

This is in theory great, but it made Howard Gordon and company realize they had to up the ante and what we are left with are a final three episodes that are completely worthless.  Villains that no once cared about are reintroduced while major but hardly memorable characters are killed off in order to create a big moment.  All of this fails and it only makes the already murky future of Jack Bauer even murkier.

24: Live Another Day is a bit of a disappointment but not enough of one to stop me from watching another future installment, if there ever is one.

7.5/10

66th Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly


The nominations for this year's Emmys were announced last week.  You can find all of the nominations here.  Here are some of my delayed thoughts on the nominations:

THE GOOD
-The voters did a great job with the Outstanding Drama Series category (I still haven't seen The Good Wife though).  Three of my top four programs of the year (Breaking Bad, True Detective and Game of Thrones) made it in while Homeland's terrible third season missed out.

-While Rian Johnson was snubbed for his work on the episode I was quite delighted to see Moira Walley-Beckett's script for "Ozymandias" make the cut.  I was getting worried when both of Johnson and Walley-Beckett's work was getting snubbed in the precursor awards for the series finale and even other episodes like "Blood Money".  Nonetheless the best episode of the 2013-2014 season found some love somewhere.

-Martin Freeman is having one heck of a year and he was well rewarded for it with two nominations (Lead Actor in a Miniseries/Movie for Fargo and Supporting Actor in a Miniseries/Movie for Sherlock).

-Many of the nominees in the technical categories made me very happy.  Some included Community's stunt coordination nomination, Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan for reality program, the exceptional documentary Hillsborough for exceptional merit in documentary filmmaking, and Ramin Djawadi's score for Game of Thrones finally being rewarded.

THE BAD
-Parks and Recreation received only 1 nomination (Amy Poehler for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series) despite being my favorite comedy of the year.  It's well past the time that Nick Offerman can compete for a nomination and probably even the series to compete for a nomination, but this couldn't pull of a technical or writing nomination?

-The Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series category had a lot of potential just a few months ago with two of the best performances of the year (Robert Forster in Breaking Bad and Pedro Pascal in Game of Thrones) presumably in competition.  Unfortunately, Forster didn't submit and then what might have been the breakout performance of the year with Pascal got snubbed by the voters last week.

THE UGLY
-As I said earlier three of my top four programs of the year made it into the Drama Series race.  The fourth was Hannibal, which is taking network television to new heights.  It got rewarded for this by getting completely snubbed by the Emmys.

In terms of predictions, I went 105 for 152 (69.1%, down 6.1% from last year) in the main categories.

66th Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations: Final Predictions


OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
-Breaking Bad
(-Downton Abbey)
-Game of Thrones
-The Good Wife
-House of Cards
-Mad Men
-True Detective

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
-The Big Bang Theory
(-Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
-Girls
-Louie
-Modern Family
-Orange is the New Black
-Veep

OUTSTANDING MINISERIES
-American Horror Story: Coven
-Dancing on the Edge
-Fargo
-The Hollow Crown
-Luther

OUTSTANDING TV MOVIE
-Burton and Taylor
-Killing Kennedy
-The Normal Heart
-Sherlock
-The Trip to Bountiful

OUTSTANDING VARIETY SERIES
-The Colbert Report
-The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
-Jimmy Kimmel Live!
-Late Show With David Letterman
-Saturday Night Live
-The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

OUTSTANDING REALITY-COMPETITION SERIES
-The Amazing Race
-Dancing With the Stars
-Project Runway
-Survivor
-Top Chef
-The Voice

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Louis C.K., Louie
-Don Cheadle, House of Lies
-Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
-Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
-Andy Samburg, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
-Robin Williams, The Crazy Ones

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
-Jon Hamm, Mad Men
-Woody Harrelson, True Detective
-Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
-Michael Sheen, Masters of Sex
-Kevin Spacey, House of Cards

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
-Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
-Idris Elba, Luther
-Martin Freeman, Fargo
-Rob Lowe, Killing Kennedy
-Mark Ruffalo, The Normal Heart
-Billy Bob Thornton, Fargo

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Lena Dunham, Girls
-Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
-Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
-Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
-Emmy Rossum, Shameless
-Taylor Schilling, Orange is the New Black

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Claire Danes, Homeland
-Vera Farmiga, Bates Motel
-Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
-Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
-Kerry Washington, Scandal
-Robin Wright, House of Cards

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
-Helena Bonham Carter, Burton and Taylor
-Toni Collette, Hostages
-Minnie Driver, Return to Zero
-Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven
-Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Coven
-Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Andre Braugher, Brookln Nine-Nine
-Ty Burrell, Modern Family
-Adam Driver, Girls
-Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family
-Tony Hale, Veep
-Christopher Evan Welch, Silicon Valley

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Jim Carter, Downton Abbey
-Josh Charles, The Good Wife
-Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
-Dean Norris, Downton Abbey
-Mandy Patinkin, Homeland
-Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
-Matt Bomer, The Normal Heart
-Martin Freeman, Sherlock
-Colin Hanks, Fargo
-Joe Mantello, The Normal Heart
-Jim Parsons, The Normal Heart
-Blair Underwood, The Trip to Bountiful

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
-Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory
-Julie Bowen, Modern Family
-Anna Chlumsky, Veep
-Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory
-Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
-Merritt Wever, Nurse Jackie

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
-Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
-Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
-Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
-Michelle Monaghan, True Detective
-Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
-Bellamy Young, Scandal

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES/MOVIE
-Angela Bassett, American Horror Story: Coven
-Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Coven
-Ellen Burstyn, Flowers in the Attic
-Audra McDonald, The Sound of Music
-Julia Roberts, The Normal Heart
-Allison Tolman, Fargo

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
-The Big Bang Theory
-Girls
-How I Met Your Mother
-Louie
-Orange is the New Black

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
-Breaking Bad
-Breaking Bad
-Downton Abbey
-Game of Thrones
-True Detective

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE
-In My Dreams
-Luther
-Mob City
-Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight
-The Normal Heart
-The Trip to Bountiful

OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL
-67th Annual Tony Awards
-Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth
-The Oscars
-Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony
-The Sound of Music Live

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES
-Louie
-Louie
-Orange is the New Black
-Orange is the New Black
-Veep

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES
-Downton Abbey
-Game of Thrones
-The Good Wife
-House of Cards
-True Detective

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A MINISERIES/MOVIE
-Burton and Taylor
-Clear History
-Fargo
-Luther
-The Normal Heart
-Sherlock

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A VARIETY SPECIAL
-67th Annual Tony Awards
-The 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards
-Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays
-The Kennedy Center Honors
-The Maya Rudolph Show

Transformers: Age of Extinction Review


            While the Transformers film series got off on the right track with 2007’s top-notch blockbuster, Transformers, the series has been all downhill since.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallenmight actually be the worst film of all-time while Transformers: Dark of the Moon displays some actual effort but is brought down by an atrocious script and characters that are downright annoying by the end of it.  Transformers: Age of Extinction continues this trend.  While the fourth film in the series actually displays some character work for the first time since the first outing and displays some cleverness in the early going, it can’t overcome its overindulgent runtime.

            Transformers: Age of Extinction picks up years after the Battle of Chicago.  The Autobots are being hunted down by a human task force and Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen once again lending his voice) is in hiding, seriously injured.  Fortunately for Optimus he comes across down-on-his-luck inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg).  Cade helps repair Optimus and ends up in the crossfire of the Autobots, Decepticons and a mysterious transformer who has knowledge of Optimus’ maker.  Michael Bay continues on as director while Ehren Kruger is the solo screenwriter.

            For a good hour it seems like Age of Extinction has found the magic that only the first entry in the series has truly been able to harness.  Mark Wahlberg is perfectly cast as his immature charm seems so natural for this series.  He kills it with the outrageous one-liners that he gets in this film too.  Additionally, T.J. Miller does great work as the comedic sidekick, which has always been something the series has struggled with.  Another problem that this series has always struggled with, interesting villains, is also solved with Mark Ryan’s mysterious Lockdown.  For a tiny moment it even seems like this film has higher ambitions with its meta commentary.

            Unfortunately, this all goes to waste in what seems like a second and third act that are just non-stop, head-banging action.  While Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci (replacing T.J. Miller as the film’s source of comedy in the later stages) try their best, they just can’t overcome unmemorable action scenes that take up all of the room that could have possibly been saved for actual story.  Even the meta commentary completely disappears, which ultimately makes Michael Bay seem tone deaf to what movie he is actually making.

            Transformers: Age of Extinction has some great visual effects and the best acting in a Transformers film yet, but with an obnoxious runtime and an inability to craft a single memorable sequence throughout the film, as a whole, is sorely lacking.

5/10

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