LA Movie Review- Chef

   A great chef decides to take his craft to the road to rekindle his creative spark. Joining him is his son who is in need of a father. Iron Man director Jon Favreau is a triple threat as he not only directs this movie, he also wrote it and stars in it. Starring alongside Favreau is Emjay Anthony as his son, Sofia Vergara as his ex-wife, Scarlett Johansson as his girlfriend, and  John Leguizamo, Robert Downey JR., and Dustin Hoffman in supporting roles.

   Jon Favreau is a hit or miss director for me. I really like what he did with the first Iron Man film, but I wasn't a fan of his work on Iron Man 2 or Cowboys vs Aliens. I think coming back with a smaller film was the right move for the director. Despite this being a smaller film, I imagine it must have been one of the tougher films Favereau has worked on. Wearing multiple hats while working on a movie is no easy task, but I imagine it must have fueled him creatively as it does to his character in the film. He has a good grasp on the direction of the film ad gets his message across. He also made a really good looking movie. Jon Favreau promised he would shoot the food in this movie like how Michael Bay shoots women in his movies. The food plays a big role in the movie and everything looks delicious. As good as everything looks, Faverau also cooks up a nice story about fathers and sons and what it means to express yourself. The characters are all handled well, and they serve the story nicely. 

Emjay Anthony and Jon Faverau

   Not only did Mr. Faverau do a fine job directing, but he is also a good actor in his own right. I really bought into his character in the movie. I bought into the character's struggles in his relationships, whether it be with his son, his ex-wife, or his co-workers and friends. If the child playing the chef's son was a bad actor then this movie would not have worked. Emjay Anthony works in this movie. His relationship with his father was the best part of the movie. This is also my favorite performance of John Leguizamo, who at times can be annoying, but not here. I personally would have liked to have seen more of Dustin Hoffman because he is good in the few scenes he has. Robert Downey Jr. is a lot of fun in the movie, and wasn't used any longer than he needed to be. 

   I like the style that this movie had. Everything from its look to the soundtrack added to the movie's own unique flavor. I thought the movie's portrayal of social media was effective. My one gripe with the movie is that it ends abruptly. A couple of character beats were going and then the movie ties them up as quickly as it could. It struck me as odd considering how up until that point the movie was really taking it's time. I would say Chef is a movie worth seeing at least once, but I don't feel a great need to ever revisit the film afterwards.

3.9/5

LA Movie Review- Maleficent

   A new spin on The Sleeping Beauty story isn't enough to describe Maleficent. No, this is more than that. This movie is a fairy tale where our protagonist is both hero and villain. She's someone who stood for good, was scorned and lost her way. But, just as Professor X taught us in X-Men: Days Of Future Past, just because someone stumbles, loses their way, it doesn't mean they are lost forever. Now it may seem like I wrote that in simply because I wanted to quote X-Men, and in a way you're right, it also applies to this movie in a surprising way.

   Making his directorial debut is Robert Stromberg. Robert came from a background in visual effects and he plays to his strengths with Maleficent. He creates this magical  fairy tale land for the characters to live in. He does go a bit overboard with the visual effects. For example, the fairies in this movie looked absolutely ridiculous. They looked like cartoon characters, and I know that seems paradoxical to say, but  they really didn't work well. Even worse was when the fairies transformed into humans, if every human was a member of the Three Stooges. I will hold off on the bad elements of the movie, so I can acknowledge the best part of the movie; Angelina Jolie. 

Jolie as Maleficent

   Angelina Jolie is really good in this movie. Her performance here was the definition of having fun with a character. You could tell Angelina Jolie was having a good time playing the character. She brought a lot of different emotions to the character and kept her from ever being a full on hero or a full on villain. She was a sympathetic character and one you could root for. Sharlto Copely played the true villain of the film. He has also played villains in his last few films such as Old boy and Elysium. Way to diversify Sharlto. He was fine in the movie. Nothing really stood out as good or bad in his performance.

Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora

   Elle Fanning didn't really have much to do in the movie. Her take on Princess Aurora was the one note, happy-all-the-time sort of girl. Sam Riley played Maleficent's right hand man in the movie. He was serviceable in the movie.

   This movie does it's job as a typical kid's movie. It entertains for an hour and a half and ends. I like that about this movie. It doesn't overstay its welcome by being longer than it needed to be. It isn't too painful to watch because of the run time. This isn't the best movie of the summer, but it isn't the worst either. Maleficent works as a family film. I enjoyed this movie for what it was, but I won't be running back to go see it.

3/5

LA Movie Review- A Million Ways To Die In The West

   A cowardly sheep farmer must find his courage when he is challenged by his ex's boyfriend and the deadliest gun-slinger in the west. Helping him in his quest, is a woman who is new in town, who happens to be full of surprises. A Million Ways To Die In The West is the sophomoric effort from director Seth MacFarlane. Seth MacFarlane also stars alongside Charlize Theron, Sarah Silverman, Giovanni Ribisi, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, and Liam Neeson. 

  The movie is written by MacFarlane, Wellesley Wild, Alec Sulkin, the same trio of writers who brought the world Ted. Now, those three brought us a very funny film in Ted, but completely misfired here. The screenplay is bad, plain and simple. I don't have a problem with vulgarity in movies, as long as it serves some sort of purpose. For example, in The Wolf of Wall Street it added to the dimensions of the characters. It brought colorful life to their ways of speaking. Here it is just vulgar to be vulgar. It adds nothing to humor of the film. The dialog all feels the same as well. Perhaps bringing in another writer would have been a good choice, so they could add another voice to these characters. Seth MacFarlane's writing here doesn't really differentiate the voice between the characters. It almost feels as though he wrote for one character and then decided to split that character up into multiple versions of the same personality. His direction didn't help the film either. This movie was constantly uneven in tone. Something dark would happen followed by a fart joke. 

Seth MacFarlane misfires with A Million Ways To Die In The West

   Charlize Theron did what she could with the material she was given. She is the best aspect of the movie by far. Neil Patrick Harris has a funny moment in the movie and plays his part well. Amanda Seyfried. What a waste of her acting potential. Her character was the definition of bland in the movie. She had nothing to do and she is a very capable actress. I don't even see the point of casting her if MacFarlane planned to use her the way he did. Sarah Silverman plays a prostitute who is dating Edward, a virgin played by Giovanni Ribisi. I felt that a lot of their scenes didn't work together because their jokes weren't landing. Liam Neeson is not in the film very much. I wish his character was more fun so we, the audience, could have fun along with him. Instead his character was just kind of meh. Don't get me wrong, Liam Neeson isn't bad in the movie, but his character is a bad guy just for the sake of being bad. His character was very one-dimensional. Now onto the biggest problem in the cast, Seth MacFarlane. I thought he was really bad in the movie. All of his weaknesses as an actor are exposed here. His portrayal of the character was too sarcastic for my taste.  He had no redeemable quality that felt like he was worthy of being the titular character, or being a "good guy" even.There was too much winking at the camera going on from him.

Liam Neeson, Charlize Theron, and Seth MacFarlane

   This is a well made movie. All of the sets looked good and the visual effects were all neatly done. Together with cinematographer Michael Barrett, MacFarlane made a good looking movie. The problem didn't lie there however, it lied in its director.  Too many repetitive jokes from too similar characters, and a lead who just doesn't work can describe this movie. There are a few funny jokes in the movie, but surprise surprise, the best jokes are in the trailer. A Million Ways To Die In The West is a comedy whose director found a million ways to make this movie disappointing.

2.6/5

LA Movie Review- Neighbors

   A couple with a baby is put to the test when a fraternity moves in next door. Wanting to feel young again, the couple is at first welcoming of the fraternity and their leader. That all changes when the fraternity's nonstop partying disrupts the baby's sleep, leading to a war between the family and the frat. Seth Rogen, Rose Bryne, and Zac Efron star in this Nicholas Stoller comedy. 

   From the director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek, and The Five Year Engagement comes this new, fun comedy. Neighbors is a comedy that hits a lot of high notes. This movie has a great cast that work well together. Seth Rogen is coming off of his, in my opinion, best film last year in This Is The End. In that movie he plays the character he plays in most movies, which is Seth Rogen. If it isn't broken then there is no need to fix it, and in Neighbors it works as efficiently as it ever does. Rogen is very funny in the movie as a father who misses the ability to party. Starring opposite Seth is Rose Bryne who brings a lot of energy to her character. Rose Bryne and Seth Rogen's chemistry together is a big reason as to why this movie works as well as it does. Another big reason as to why this movie works is Zac Efron. This is my favorite Zac Efron performance. He isn't known for his comedic abilities and yet he hangs in there with Seth Rogen. 

Zac Efron and Dave Franco participate in a "Robert De Niro" party

   Zac Efron was really good in this movie and shows a lot of promise for his acting future. Dave Franco is funny and so is the underrated Ike Barinholtz as Seth Rogen's office buddy. Lisa Kudrow even makes a funny cameo in the movie. 

   There are so many memorable lines of dialog in this movie and funny moments. It is nice to see that some movies still believe in not giving away everything in a trailer. There are a few things in this movie that I did not enjoy. There is one scene that I really didn't enjoy, which I won't give away. It seems as though the purpose of that scene was simply to see if they could have gotten away with it and gross out the audience at the same time. The scene didn't really serve any purpose other than that. 

   Nicholas Stoller's film is a very funny one which had a hard job following Seth Rogen's last film, This Is The End. While I believe that he made a funnier movie than This Is The End, I don't believe he made a better movie. Still, there are plenty of laughs to be had in Neighbors, and I even caught myself repeating some of the movie's lines afterwards.

4/5