Money Monster Review

3.0 Stars

 

Money Monster stars George Clooney as Lee Gates, an entertaining, over-the-top financial advisor on television, not unlike Jim Cramer on his show Mad Money.  While it looks like the movie and the character drew a lot of inspiration from Cramer's Money show, the Monster movie takes a terrifying twist that Cramer hopes he'll never have to face.  During a live broadcast, amateur investor Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) takes over the set holding Gates hostage with a gun.  Per standard protocol, the feed is cut by Director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts).  Once Budwell threatens Gates, Fenn restores the broadcast for the world to see.  Budwell lost everything following the advice of Gates, but he believes the conspiracy to rob Americans of their money runs deeper and higher than Gates' TV show.  

Money Monster reunites Clooney and Roberts for their fourth collaboration.  They first appeared together in Oceans Eleven in 2001 and were together immediately in 2002 with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.  Though they were back in Oceans Twelve in 2004, Roberts did not return in 2007 for Oceans Thirteen, so it's been twelve years since the two have been on screen together.  O'Connell joins them for this conspiracy theory financial thriller.  O'Connell recently played the lead in Unbroken in 2014 and was brilliant in his performance, so we don't have to worry about him holding his own with the Clooney Roberts powerhouses.

The preview looked entertaining, thoughtful, provocative and infuriating in a time when we are consistently hearing about the erosion of the middle class while the wealthiest get even wealthier and the middle class that used to be is kicked down closer to poverty level.  Budwell wanted to invest and make a better life for himself and his pregnant girlfriend but loses the $60,000 he got after his mother's death on a single stock and demands to find out why.  One of the questions I asked during the preview was, will anyone be held accountable for falsifying the financial information and making out like bandits because of it?  Well, don't hold your breath.

 

The problem with Money Monster is that there are really no good "innocent" guys.  Gates is the host of a financial advice television show, he's wealthy and successful, but his most meaningful relationships are with money, not people.  Budwell wasn't smart to dump his entire $60,000 inheritance into one stock.  While he was right about something wrong going on, he held a man and crew hostage at gunpoint to uncover the truth.  The CEO of the company that lost $800 million overnight was shady and lied to his coworkers and the public.  So, if you're looking for the good guy to win and the bad guy to get what's coming to him, again, don't hold your breath.  

 

That being said, it was entertaining.  I didn't find it as infuriating as I thought it would be, but I enjoyed it.  I predicted 3 stars and that's exactly what it delivered.  It was worth the money either in the theatre or to rent, and it's one of those that I might watch again on cable, but not go out of my way to see again, nor make it part of my personal collection.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Money Monster Preview

Money Monster stars George Clooney as Lee Gates, an entertaining, over-the-top financial advisor on television, not unlike Jim Cramer on his show Mad Money.  While it looks like the movie and the character drew a lot of inspiration from Cramer's Money show, the Monster movie takes a terrifying twist that Cramer hopes he'll never have to face.  During a live broadcast, amateur investor Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) takes over the set holding Gates hostage with a gun.  Per standard protocol, the feed is cut by Producer Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts).  Once Budwell threatens Gates, Fenn restores the broadcast for the world to see.  Budwell lost everything following the advice of Gates, but he believes the conspiracy to rob Americans of their money runs deeper and higher than Gates' TV show.  

Money Monster reunites Clooney and Roberts for their fourth collaboration.  They first appeared together in Oceans Eleven in 2001 and were together immediately in 2002 with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.  Though they were back in Oceans Twelve in 2004, Roberts did not return in 2007 for Oceans Thirteen, so it's been twelve years since the two have been on screen together.  O'Connell joins them for this conspiracy theory financial thriller.  O'Connell recently played the lead in Unbroken in 2014 and was brilliant in his performance, so we don't have to worry about him holding his own with the Clooney Roberts powerhouses.

The preview looks entertaining, thoughtful, provocative and infuriating in a time when we are consistently hearing about the erosion of the middle class while the wealthiest get even wealthier and the middle class that used to be is kicked down closer to poverty level.  But this isn't even about Budwell wanting to be a wealthy man, he just wanted to invest and make a better life for himself and his pregnant girlfriend.  He loses $60,000, his entire life savings, on a single stock and demands to find out why.  Everyone is shocked to see just how far the lies go up the ladder.  One of the questions one asks themselves during the preview is, will anyone be held accountable for falsifying the financial information and making out like bandits because of it?  Knowing how justice for the wealthy usually works here, one would logically conclude that no one will be held accountable.  But, this is a Hollywood film and they aren't bound by how events would actually unfold, so maybe this is a chance for us and Budwell to some long overdue justice.

I'm predicting 3 stars.  While it looks entertaining and I think Money Monster will be worth the money either in the theatre or to rent, it looks like one of those that I might watch again on cable, but not go out of my way to see again, nor make it part of my personal collection.  Am I right?  We shall see.

Gravity Review

3.0 Stars

 

Gravity is the harrowing tale of the survival of brilliant medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in space.  This is Stone's first mission to space and Kowalsky's last before retiring.  While out on a seemingly routine spacewalk, tragedy strikes.  Debris from a nearby Russian satellite that has just exploded destroys their ship and the space station, killing the rest of the crew and leaving Stone and Kowalsky drifting away by themselves.  

This looks like a combination of Apollo 13 in which astronauts were trapped inside their damaged shuttle and Open Water in which two scuba divers are stranded in shark infested waters with no land in sight.  Gravity appears to be the worst of both of those scenarios; however, for me, it failed to truly capture the sense of desperation.  The film starts with about a ten minute continuous shot of Dr. Stone (Bullock) working on updating a satellite in space while Kowalsky (Clooney) is maneuvering around the satellite and the shuttle.  The cinematography is brilliant as the camera captures shots of the earth, of deep space, of Dr. Stone, of the shuttle and of Kowalsky.  The crew is alerted that the Russians have destroyed one of their own satellites with a missile and debris is heading their way.  Although the movie opens with the notes that sound does not travel through space, for dramatic effect, we hear the debris screaming past the astronauts and the ship being torn apart. The debris sends Dr. Stone and Kowalsky hurdling through space.  They are separated and Dr. Stone has no way to stop herself from floating away.  Though we spend a few minutes tumbling frantically with her, it seemed Kowalsky was able to track her down rather quickly and they both made their way back to the shuttle to assess the damages.  Upon arriving at the ship, we learn that Dr. Stone and Kowalsky are the only two survivors.  Peering into the wreckage of the shuttle, silently alone in space, the bodies of two other crew members killed in the accident come floating towards Dr. Stone and the silence is broken up with sharp and loud music heightening the terror of discovering the dead bodies.  Sometimes I feel that less is more and that the horrified reaction of Dr. Stone alone would have been scarier than the manipulated fear the accompanying music tried to create.  Gravity has been nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Original Music, but I felt that the music actually took away from the movie rather than complimented it in many parts of the film.

After realizing their shuttle is completely destroyed, Dr. Stone and Kowalsky make their way to the International Space Station where they will hopefully use one of the pods to make their way back to earth.  Dr. Stone is running low on oxygen and Kowalsky keeps her talking to keep her calm and conserve her oxygen.  But he also has a problem as his jet pack is running low of propulsion fuel.  Once they make it to the ISS, Kowalsky quickly realizes, they both won't be able to make it and one of them must go forward without the other.  He sacrifices himself and she enters the ISS.  I know that he is a professional astronaut and makes the smart decision to allow Dr. Ryan to continue, but I felt the scene was just a little too quick and emotionless again failing to create the sense of Dr. Ryan's situation getting more and more desperate and hopeless.  Once inside the ISS, Dr. Ryan realizes the boosters on the remaining escape pod have been damaged and she appears to be trapped.  She quickly gives up on herself and shuts down the oxygen supply to her ship.  Miraculously, Kowalsky reappears claiming he was able to find a little more juice in his jet pack to make it back to her and reminds her that there's still a way to power the escape pod enough to make it to a nearby Chinese satellite which should still have an escape pod to make it to earth.  It turns out, predictably to me, that the Kowalsky return is a hallucination, but it's enough to prompt Dr. Stone to give it another shot.  She resupplies her pod with oxygen and makes her way to the Chinese satellite.  There is, indeed, a remaining pod and she's able to use the pod to safely return to earth.

The movie is only an hour and a half long.  With so many movies often eclipsing the two hour length, it seems that a few more minutes of excruciating and awkward silence could have been added to some scenes to create the feeling of hopelessness and futility of the situation.  I felt there was always hope and always a way out for Dr. Ryan.  I was disappointed with the use of musical accompaniment to create emotions when I felt the situation by itself would have achieved the effect much more successfully.  I felt the long continuous shots of the astronauts in space were ground-breaking and gorgeous.  My only complaint about that would be the times when water splashed on the camera lens.  This is a technique used sometimes in movies to create the effect that you, the viewer, are right there in the middle of the action.  However, in a 3D movie, the water on the lens just created a blurry distraction.  I felt that Sandra Bullock gave an incredible performance.  I can see why she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, but I will have to see the rest of the nominees before deciding if she is the worthy recipient.  Ultimately, Gravity fell short of my expectations which is why I gave it 3 stars.  It was worth the money to see it, but I probably won't see it again and it won't be making its way to my personal collection.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Gravity Preview

Gravity is the harrowing tale of the survival of brilliant medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in space.  This is Stone's first mission to space and Kowalsky's last before retiring.  While out on a seemingly routine spacewalk, tragedy strikes.  Debris from a nearby Russian satellite that has just exploded destroys their ship and the space station, killing the rest of the crew and leaving Stone and Kowalsky drifting away by themselves.  

This looks like a combination of Apollo 13 in which astronauts were trapped inside their damaged shuttle and Open Water in which two scuba divers are stranded in shark infested waters with no land in sight.  Gravity appears to be the worst of both of those scenarios.  The film is nominated for ten Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director (Alfonso Cuaron), Best Leading Actress (Bullock), and Best Visual Effects.  The creative team that worked on Gravity have also worked on the visual effects in Batman the Dark Knight, Avatar, Superman Returns, several of the Harry Potter movies, Transformers, Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan, just to give you an idea of why this might be nominated for an Oscar in this particular category.

This is a tough film to preview since we really aren't given too much to go on by the trailer.  The astronauts are on a routine spacewalk, their ship is destroyed, and two of them are left floating in space.  It sounds absolutely terrifying and the brief clip definitely does its job well making me want to rush to the theatre to see what happens.  We already know the movie should be visually stunning, so I will be seeing this in 3D.  The rest of it, well that will be up to the two stars of the film, Clooney and Bullock.  And they are both wonderful actors.  This is Bullock's second Oscar nomination for Best Actress.  She won her first Oscar for her performance in The Blind Side. Clooney has been nominated for eight Oscars and won two of them, Best Film for Argo with Ben Affleck and Best Supporting Actor for his role in Syriana.  Clooney was not nominated for an Oscar in Gravity.  This is the first time Clooney has worked on a film with his longtime friend Bullock.  They almost had a chance fifteen years ago, but Bullock lost the leading part in Out of Sight to Jennifer Lopez.  This has all the makings of another movie that terrifies you without and blood or violence or even a villain to root against.  I predict 4 stars and that Gravity will be worth the money in the theatre, a movie I'd love to see again, and one that has a good chance of finding a home in my personal collection.  Am I right?  We shall see.