I’m not sure what all the fuss about Dope is. I saw one early review call it “the Clueless of a new generation.” It is a cute little movie, but not very well acted and not even really all that memorable. It is about a good high school kid who goes to school in a rough inner city school. He has aspirations for Harvard, but even the teachers don’t give him much of a chance with his background. All of his future plans get in jeopardy when he ends up with a backpack full of drugs, which he needs to sell to pay to the dealers, or they will hurt him and his friends. It is a mad dash to the end of the movie, and finale is well done, but the rest of the movie can be kind of a mess at times.
Just Before I Go is better than you might think, with the goofball lead actor of Sean William Scott in a more serious role, but the film is hampered by shtick comedy that hurts an otherwise good story. Scott plays an adult whose life has not turned out the way he had hoped, so he decides to end it. Before he does though, he returns to the small town he grew up in, which he had left right after graduation, to settle some scores and say his good byes. Things don’t go the way he had planned, since the high school bully has turned out to be a good person, “the one that got away” is now married with a house full of kids, and the teacher that bullied him doesn’t even remember him. Not a terrible movie despite the bad reviews online, but ultimately a good script doesn’t reach its potential.
I have little to say about Jimmy’s Hall. It is about an Irishman who returns home after years in exile in America, and tries to teach the new ideas of jazz, free thinking, and modern dancing to the locals, to the chagrine of the church and other conservatives. Based on a true story, there really isn’t much to remember about this one, and it gets dull by the end. You never feel attached enough to the main characters to really care all that much.
Paper Towns was written by the same guy that did Fault in Our Stars, but Towns isn’t nearly as good as Stars. Quentin is a bit of an outcast at school, keeping to himself and his small group of friends. He has a crush on his neighbor Margo, who is the popular girl in school. The new spin on this old tale is Margo doesn’t really care for the attention, and instead runs away. Quentin spends the rest of the film tracking her down. The film is teen drama at its best (worst?) and any viewer over the age of 17 or 18 can’t help but ask a “Really?” by the end.
Self/Less holds an interesting concept, but in the end is really just a decent action film. A group has learned how to move conscienceness from body to body, so old, dying rich people can move to a new younger body and all is well. However, when one man does it and fails to take the drugs perscribed, he sees visions and realizes the body he is now in has a past. The rest of the film is just fist fights, gun fights, car chases, and all that goes with it. Not bad action scenes, but ultimately you wish for more exploration than action.
Jons Movie Takes 