Quick takes on 5 films

The Other Half is a beautifully done, well acted film, about a love story involving two people with some serious baggage. Nickie is a young man from England, living in the states, where he is running from his past. He has lost a younger brother, and stays away from his parents and anything that reminds him of his loss, acting out with aggression towards anyone who crosses paths with him. He finally starts to come out of his shell when he meets, Emily. Emily is wild and fun, and Nickie falls instantly in love with her. However, it turns out Emily is struggling with bipolarism, and suffers from extreme highs and extreme lows. She has saved Nickie in a way, but he is now faced with the impossibility of doing the same for her. This is a heart-warming and heart-breaking film, and will hit close to home to anyone who has loved someone struggling with mental illness.

Ghost in the Shell is a major letdown for science fiction lovers. Boasting cool visuals and an interesting premise, it can never shake the feeling of a bad Syfy channel film on a big budget. Scarlett Johansson is Major, a fully synthetic cyborg with a human brain. She is built as a weapon for the military, hunting down terrorists in a futuristic city. However, she can’t shake buried memories from her past human life, and the people she is hunting may not be terrorists after all. The pretty computer enhanced effects and rather good acting by Johansson can only take this movie so far. Rough dialogue and a choppy story drown this film before it can get off the ground.

I enjoyed Kong: Skull Island more than I thought I would. I debated even seeing this one, usually these kinds of movies aren’t my thing. But this one, taking place in the ’50’s about an American expedition to a recently discovered island and finding it inhabited by giant monsters, has just enough surprises in the first half to sustain its lack thereof in the second. Upon hitting the island, the military helicopters are attacked by King Kong, and find shortly thereafter he isn’t the only mammoth sized animal on the island. With a good cast and good effects, this film won’t win any awards, but it will entertain, as long as you temper your expectations.

What followed for me was a couple comedies which I could just not get into. Toni Erdmann is a German film about a lonely middle-aged man, divorced with a grown daughter whom he hardly speaks to. When his longtime pet dies, the man goes to visit his daughter at her high-stress job in Romania. She obviously doesn’t enjoy this, and finds an excuse to usher him out the door after just a couple days. As she is regaling her weekend to her friends, her dad pops ups again, in the guise of Toni Erdmann. Toni his much more outspoken and direct than her father. This is where I gave up on the film, 1.25 hours into a nearly 3 hour movie. Maybe I just don’t get German humor, or maybe something was lost in the subtitles, but the moments where the film wanted me to laugh, I couldn’t even crack a grin. I’m sure the film was heading towards a conclusion where she realizes her dad is more than the doddering old fool she sees at first, but good luck sticking around to that conclusion.

I also bailed on Punching Henry, and this time I couldn’t blame it on a language barrier. Henry is a down-and-out musician/comedian. He returns to LA after having been laughed out of town (and not in a good way) several years earlier. He is heckled at bars he performs at, has his car stolen 30 minutes after entering town, and when a producer decides to make his dreary tale into a TV show, even the execs at the studio can’t believe how bad his life is. Again, I turned this one off, this time making it about halfway through the 1.5 hour movie. I’ll admit I did chuckle a few times at poor Henry’s expense, but not enough to warrant sticking around for another 45 minutes of tedious wisecracks. After these two films, I need to go re-watch Groundhog Day, Office Space, or something that will actually make me laugh.