Just because two people embark on an extended vacation to one of the most beautiful places in the world doesn’t mean that happiness is guaranteed to come with them. Such is the tale of Vanessa (Angelina Jolie – Girl, Interrupted, Changeling) and Roland (Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Moneyball), a married couple of 14 years who set out for a remote French seaside town for some quiet time together in a local hotel that offers a stunning view of the landscape it sits next to, which happens to be the Mediterranean Sea. He’s a writer looking for inspiration. She’s a retired ex-dancer. But, unfortunately, all is not well and has not been well for quite some time in the Angelina-directed (Unbroken) By the Sea.
Category Archives: 2015
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
As my friend Tom would say, directing a Mission Impossible movie is like a doorknob. Everyone gets a turn. This is so true and not really in a good way. While this franchise is certainly getting better with each new installment, this wasn’t always the case. My biggest problem with the first four movies of the franchise was how different they were from one another. I have never watched a sequel that was so inherently different in directing, storytelling, cinematography, sound,, and everything else from the original than Mission Impossible 2 was from Mission Impossible. John Woo’s Hong Kong-style martial arts action flick was so far completely different from the Brian DePalma intelligent, well-crafted big-budget adaptation of the smart spy television series that ran for seven years in the late 1960’s that it felt like the two movies weren’t even related. I don’t necessarily oppose changing a director (though I don’t love it), but I oppose the changing styles. Plenty of franchises have had different directors that have made that work (most notably the James Bond franchise, which is similar to Mission Impossible), but many more haven’t. Throw in J.J. Abrams (Mission Impossible III) and Brad Bird (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol), and you’ve got four different directors, each with a completely different vision from one another, for the first four movies of the series. Honestly, I expected the franchise to die at three films, but I am grateful that it got a new life with 2011’s Ghost Protocol (93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation introduces its fifth director in the franchise (Christopher McQuarrie – The Way of the Gun), but the first to direct multiple installments (2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout). The franchise has turned into a series of cleverly written and executed spy action thrillers. And with its cast of A-list movie stars, each movie is a unique experience and a fun escape from reality.
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Daddy’s Home (2015)
With apologies to the extremely funny The Campaign, first-time co-director John Morris and Sean Anders’s (Horrible Bosses 2, Sex Drive) Daddy’s Home is, ironically, Will Ferrell’s (Old School, Step Brothers) best-starring comedy role since 2010’s The Other Guys. It’s not a movie I thought I would particularly like and one that I had serious doubts about as much as 20 minutes in (I hadn’t laughed but maybe one time), but as the movie progressed, it got funnier and funnier. By its conclusion, it became a somewhat memorable movie that I wouldn’t put on the “A-shelf” comedy list but might find itself just a notch below. What made the movie work was the dynamics between Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg (Lone Survivor, The Fighter), who didn’t have the same chemistry they had when they teamed partners in the buddy cop The Other Guys but were still pretty close. While Daddy’s Home was 100% completely predictable, it didn’t make it any less fun, and while Ferrell and Wahlberg weren’t exceptionally awesome in the scenes where they weren’t together, it more than made up for during the scenes where they shared screen time.
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A Walk in the Woods (2015)
A Walk in the Woods, the 2015 comedy-drama that I thought would be a throwaway movie that I originally only watched so that I could add it to my list, turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the year. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d be a fool to think that a year from now that I’d remember anything from this movie or that I’ll ever watch this movie again. But for two hours on a Tuesday night in the middle of April, it was a very refreshing escape from reality, and a movie had me grinning from ear to ear from the first scene until the last. Also, if Robert Redford (The Horse Whisperer, All is Lost) or Nick Nolte (The Prince of Tides, Warrior) called it a career today, and this was either of their last movies, I think that would be okay. Each has had a solid career. While not his number one fan, I find it absolutely criminal that Redford has only been nominated for one Oscar for acting in his entire career (way back in 1974 for The Sting). Nolte has had more success as an actor in terms of awards (three Oscar nominations). And while these two actors are household names who each have more than a dozen movies that you could rattle off the top of your heads, their careers have followed very different careers. Controversies in his personal life have marred Nolte’s career, whereas Redford has sort of been the poster boy of how an A-list actor can live his life while staying out of the tabloids. The two don’t seem like much of a match for a movie like this so late in their careers. But the movie worked perfectly for each man. You’ll leave your viewing knowing that each gave an admirable performance even though it’s light-hearted and certainly not one of their most memorable ones.
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Miss You Already (2015)
Beaches 2 or something more? Maybe somewhere in between. Miss You Already tells the story of two lifelong best friends who have been there for each other at every instance of their lives. Jess (Drew Barrymore – Charlie’s Angels, The Wedding Singer) and Milly (Toni Collette – The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine) have been nearly inseparable since Jess transferred into Milly’s first-grade class in London after moving from the United States. Now, as the pair each approaches her 40th birthday, they are infused with a situation that no one can ever prepare for. Yes, this is both a friendship movie and a cancer movie. Yes, it will do its best to try to guilt you into tears. But, while the acting is not great and the story predictable, something about the movie keeps you interested when a lesser movie would have lost you completely 45 minutes in.
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