Collateral Beauty

By George M. Thomas

Will Smith and Helen Mirren in "Collateral Beauty."

What exactly is “collateral beauty?”

The most I can figure is that it’s the good that comes out of any given situation – be that situation tragic, sad or straddling the two.

That’s what a stranger tells a character in the film COLLATERAL BEAUTY, a movie that remains true to the Christmas spirit in that it’s relentlessly optimistic despite the dark material – coping with the grief associated with a child’s death – it explores.

Sometimes that optimism is difficult to ignore and, as in the case of films that tug at heart strings, viewers won’t be able to resist the urge of being drawn into world of Howard (Will Smith), a grieving father and advertising executive who has put his company at risk because of an inability to confront that grief.

Trumbo

Review by Pamela Zoslov

This fall, Hollywood is offering a crash course in modern sociopolitical history. The curriculum includes the women's suffrage movement in England (SUFFRAGETTE), American tinkering with overseas elections (OUR BRAND IS CRISIS), the human cost of techno-capitalism (STEVE JOBS), press coverage of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal (SPOTLIGHT) and the Bush-Kerry election (TRUTH), and the story of embattled whistleblower Edward Snowden (SNOWDEN).

But for pure entertainment, it will be hard to surpass TRUMBO, the zesty dramatization of the struggles of celebrated Hollywood screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo, who was imprisoned and blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947. While blacklisted, Trumbo, who had been one of Hollywood's highest-paid writers, won two Academy Awards for screenplays he wrote under other names.

Woman In Gold

Review by Joseph Anthony

WOMAN IN GOLD presents the true story of Maria Altman (Helen Mirren), a Jewish Austrian who fled Vienna as the Nazi’s took control. Austria, overwhelmed by the Nazi invasion, saw the reign of terror against the Jewish population begin. As we now know, Nazi’s pillaged the country stealing art and personal belongings as they went. Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I – a portrait of Maria’s beloved aunt – was stolen from her family, along with many of their most cherished possessions.

The masterpiece hung in the Austrian State Gallery for decades.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Review by Grace Snyder

Be sure to work up an appetite before seeing Leslie Hallstrom's newest film, THE HUNDRED FOOT JOURNEY, based on the novel of the same name by Richard C. Morais. The film, at it's core, is about food, and the expert preparation of that food. Mixed with family, romance and a fair bit of drama, producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg hope to win audiences over by serving up a "delicious" film.

The film begins with the Kadam family, restaurant proprietors from India, moving to South France in order to start a new restaurant in a small, quaint town. The restaurant's food would be prepared by the young, budding chef, Hassan (Manish Dayal), who took after his deceased mother when it came to the cooking gene. Hassan's Indian cuisine is exquisite, and his father (Om Puri) is determined to show the French a bit of their spicy flavor.

Red 2

Review by Matt Finley

RED 2 is not a bad movie. Next flu season, it’s going to bring a lot of joy to people home sick from work watching HBO2. It’s an unremarkable film that comfortably wades around the original’s broad conceit, making the occasional improvement and the erstwhile diminishment before eventually overstaying its welcome and cutting to credits.

The original cast returns – Bruce Willis as Frank Moses, a grumpy mannequin of Bruce Willis; John Malkovich as paranoid, social maladroit Marvin; and Helen Mirren as Victoria, the Ms. Manners of international assassins – for this globe-trotting hunt for a Cold War-era nuclear weapon.

Monsters University

Review by Pete Roche

It’s been twelve years since monocular Mike Wazowksi and fur ball friend James P. Sullivan rescued Boo, thwarted slithery Randall and crab-legged Mr. Waternoose, and converted the Monstropolis power grid from scream to laugh-based energy.

Pixar Animation Studios has whipped up several excellent computerized cartoons since then (FINDING NEMO, THE INCREDIBLES, UP), the most recent arriving courtesy its corporate parents at Disney.

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY marks the third time Pixar has revisited one of its wondrous CGI worlds, having served up extra helpings of anthropomorphic action figures and automobiles in the TOY STORY and CARS franchises (and FINDING DORY splashes down in 2015).  But this is the first instance of the acclaimed electronic illustrators going backwards, opting for a prequel delving into the history of two of its most beloved characters instead of a sequel about what happens next.

The Debt

Review by Bob Ignizio

It's a good thing other countries still make original movies, or else Hollywood might run out of stuff to remake. THE DEBT is a redo of the award-winning 2007 Israeli film Ha-Hov, at present unreleased in America. With SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE director John Madden at the helm and a prestigious cast that includes past Oscar winner Helen Mirren and Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson, it's obvious that the producers of this American version are hoping to replicate that success.

The plot concerns 3 Mossad agents – Rachael (Jessica Chastain/Mirren), David (Sam Worthington/Ciarán Hinds) and Stephan (Martin Csokas/Wilkinson) who in 1966 are given the mission of bringing Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen) back to Israel for trial. They capture the man in East Germany, but before they can smuggle him to the west, he escapes from his bonds and attacks Rachael. She recovers from the attack and shoots Vogel dead before he can escape, winding up with a scar on her face as a souvenir in the process.

Arthur

Review by Bob Ignizio

I know I saw the original 1981 ARTHUR starring Dudley Moore in the title role around the time it was originally released. I'm also pretty sure I thought it was funny at the time, but I was eleven, so who can say for sure. Such nostalgic memories of my youth tend to be suspect as I recently learned the hard way watching LOVE AT FIRST BITE for the first time in decades. I'll probably ignore this lesson and watch the original ARTHUR again sooner or later, but for now, my poor memory allows me to assess this 2011 remake strictly on its own merits.

Arthur (Russell Brand) is the completely irresponsible and terminally sloshed heir to the Bach family fortune. To what degree he can, he squanders his wealth doing things like buying the Batmobile and giving money to strangers. It's his way of getting back at his mother Vivienne (Geraldine James) for never being a true parent to her son. The closest thing Arthur has to real friends and family are his driver Bitterman (Luis Guzman) and his nanny Hobson (Helen Mirren).