Vacation

Actors: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, Leslie Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Beverly D'Angelo, Chevy Chase.

Rating: 7 out of 10, Every bit as gross and puerile as promised – and also very funny. My wife laughed almost continuously and as we were leaving said she didn’t like the movie. When I asked her why she was laughing so hard she said it was funny but “so stupid”. I said that’s the point. That’s an apt description of the entire series of Vacation movies – the humor is gross but undeniable. There were several nods to the earlier films – often with very funny sudden turns – such as the fate of the beautiful woman in the hot car. This movie has the next generation of the Griswold clan taking to the road. Clark’s son Rusty (Ed Helms) is now the accident prone but loving dad with kids unappreciative of the majesty of the family vacation. Helms is funnier than Chevy Chase was in the original but the movie plays more like a series of skits. We follow the Griswold family across country in their Albanian rental car where they encounter a cesspool swim, a well-endowed brother in law, a cannibalistic steer, and maniacal truck driver. Leslie Mann is completely underused as the now grown sister but there’s an endless parade of cameos that contribute to the fun. It doesn’t help that both of the kids are more insufferable than needed. An overblown zeppelin is called upon to reprise the role of Clark Griswold, the billing said it was Chevy Chase but I’m not so sure. So, not a film to revel in thespian excellence but pretty damned funny.

MVP: Helms as Rusty, the capable Griswold heir apparent

San Andreas

Actors: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi, Paul Giamatti, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Will Yun Lee, Kylie Minogue.

Rating: 8 out of 10, It’s your typical summer popcorn disaster opus with the Rock rescuing everyone in sight as California is rocked by the mother of all earthquakes and tidal waves. Film technology has progressed to the point that the disaster scenes are all too realistic, especially when my daughter lives in L.A. You have to park your sensibility at the door for this type disaster flick which delivers on all expected fronts although the Rock shouldn’t waste so much time trying to put his marriage back together as skyscrapers are falling around him. One “message” from the film seemed to be that survival is predicated on ample cleavage, which Carla Gugino and Alexandra Daddario amply deliver. So a lot of scary escapist fun as long as you don't go in expecting Shakespeare.

MVP: Daddario and her gravity defying tank top

Trainwreck

Actors: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, Vanessa Bayer, John Cena, LeBron James

Rating: 8 out of 10, One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s hard to imagine finding fertile ground in the well-trod subject of girl meets boy but this film takes the traditional rom-com and turns it inside out and sixteen ways from Sunday. Amy Schumer is so funny in the title role as a New York gal with serious “issues” when it comes to men. The movie is stock full of fantastic cameos and supporting roles including another magnificent turn by Tilda Swinton (does she ever do anything bad?). Bill Hader also finally gets to emerge from his usual background roles to play the guy who may finally be right for Amy. There are too many laugh out loud moments to chronicle and while the film does limp a little to the finish line, that’s almost a relief after laughing continuously for nearly two hours straight.

MVP: Swinton because she’s incomparable as the boss

Lost Boundaries

Actors: Beatrice Pearson, Mel Ferrer (in his first starring role), Susan Douglas Rubes

Rating: 7 out of 10,
Based on a true story of a light skinned black doctor who passed himself off as white in the 1930’s and 40’s. The coolest aspect was the story was based on an actual doctor who plied in trade in none other than Keene, New Hampshire (my hometown) although it’s called Keeneham in the movie. There were a lot of connections as a close friend grew up in a house directly cross the street from the doctor and my mother worked with him at the local hospital. I’d heard the story many times but this was the first time I ever saw the picture which was fascinating. It was a brave picture for the times it was made even though white actors were used in the critical roles. It exposed the idiocy of race based character judgements. Racism never fares well when exposed to the light of day and while this movie didn’t make any strident arguments, the story was eloquent. MVP: Mel Ferrer in his first starring role as the doctor

Fantastic Four

Actors: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson

Rating: 7 out of 10, I can understand the criticism because it is a seriously flawed movie but I didn’t hate it. I think some people invest too heavily in the traditions of the source material without giving a new view a choice. The Fantastic Four should be one of the easiest of the comic book legends to make a bankable movie about; but this has to be listed as a stumble. No time was spent developing the relationships between several of the four and the pacing was pathetic. I guess this is one of those directors who has a dark vision and thinks that will sell. We go to see superhero movies to be inspired, not depressed. The actors were fine and did everything they could with the material. It hurt to keep all the limited action scenes in the wilderness or an interdimensional barren planet. There was no connection with the audience which should be a Fantastic Four strength. The final confrontation was laughably short and Delmar from Oh Brother Where Art Thou as an evil mastermind was a bit of a stretch. I half expected him to break out in “Man of Constant Sorrow” at some point. All this though couldn’t distract totally from a fair to middling Sci Fi adventure, even if the “Four” deserved better.

MVP: Kate Mara as Sue Storm because, well, Kate Mara

The Martian

Actors: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Rating: 10 out of 10, Matt Damon carries the movie by force of understated personality; not an easy feat. He plays an astronaut stranded on Mars who faces impossible odds to survive. The camerawork and special effects are superb but this is a story of the human spirit, embodied by Damon’s heroic solitary struggle as well as the concurrent story back on earth and his fellow crew members on a ship in transit. All too often movies take the easy way and demonize the politics or the inevitable infighting a disaster entails. Here the nobility of what man is capable of is explored, even lionized and not in a cheap, exploitive manner. It seems the current generation is being beaten down by the forces of political correctness bent on limitation but not here. Faced with life and death Damon’s character doesn’t bemoan his fate, he just gets to work. Maintaining the focus on the human level drawn on an epic sci fi canvas Ridley Scott delivers a true masterpiece. “Riveting” would vastly understate the last 45 minutes of this movie.

MVP: Damons’s movie from start to finish as the irrepressible Mark Watney