Michael J. Tresca gave 2 stars to: Knights of Badassdom [Blu-ray]

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Knights of Badassdom [Blu-ray] Blu-ray ~ Peter Dinklage

Biting the LARPing hand that feeds it, August 8, 2014

This review is from: Knights of Badassdom [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

You can see the appeal of a film like “Knights of Badassdom” to a crowdsourcing geek audience. It’s got heavy metal, role-playing games, and live action role-playing games. Add in Peter Dinklage as a player named Hung, an “Evil Dead” homage, and gratuitous shots of Summer Glau’s rear-end in fishnet stockings and you’ve pretty much got a hit on your hands. Or you should anyway. Unfortunately, “Knights of Baddassdom” looks like it was filmed in a day and due to sloppy editing, never really rises above a hodgepodge of geek bait.



Joe (Ryan Kwanten), a heavy metal rock singer who has a decent job as a mechanic, gets dropped by his hottie girlfriend who is more interested in a man with career aspirations. I’d like to point out that at no point in the film is being a mechanic apparently considered a viable career, one of the insidious aspects of a film like “Kings of Badassdom” – apparently being a mechanic means you do nothing all day but goof off.



Downtrodden, Joe is bolstered by his two friends, the aforementioned Hung and Eric (Steve Zahn). And by bolstered they roofie him with a combination of drugs and booze, dress him up in armor, and drop him off at a Live Action Role-Playing game (LARP).



One thing “Knights of Baddassdom” gets right is how LARPs actually work. It takes great glee in making fun of the supposed epic nature of the LARP conflicts, despite the fact that they’re essentially taking place in a park and a parking lot, respectively. Unlike other movies about LARPs, “Kinds of Badassdom” makes it a point of showing that referees are an important part of the game. Ronnie (Jimmi Simpson) is an egomaniac, invoking shades of “Zero Charisma,” who is endlessly mocked for being caught masturbating to the picture of a succubus from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. This is a thing – original D&D books frequently showed women’s breasts in art, and it was often the first exposure young boys had to nudity (ah, the days before the Internet).



These two plot points -- lusting after a fictional monster and breaking up with an awful girlfriend – come to a head when Eric uses a real mystical book written in Enochian to accidentally summon a succubus that takes the shape of Joe's girlfriend. Hilarity ensues.



The succubus goes around having sex with people (for some reason, this always happens off screen, despite the frequent use of swear words, drugs, and alcohol abuse) and then killing them by tearing out their hearts and eating it. Our heroes are called on to become true heroes by using actual weapons (totally not allowed in a LARP) to defeat her.



Of course, things get worse before they get better. The problem is they get unbelievably bad when the succubus turns into a huge demon who proceeds to slaughter half of the LARPers. It’s difficult to imagine that anyone could have a happy ending after that, but “Knights of Baddassdom” hopes you don’t notice, and culminates with a rock battle that proves bards really are the most important member of the party.



It’s the execution that suffers. The rock music isn’t that great. The demon looks like a guy in a monster suit, which is a real problem when everyone else looks like guys in monster suits. The demon has a big, vaginal-like opening that looks like it was probably supposed to do something in the movie, but never does. It’s all very Freudian and not particularly rewarding.



The other problem is the women in this film. There are just two: Summer Glau, who only joined to keep an eye on her mentally ill cousin (and frequently dodges the same branch, a scene used twice in the film) and “the bitch” girlfriend, in the form of a succubus on the night of their prom. The phrase “bitch” is used frequently, and despite the bevy of female LARPers in the background, not one of them has anything to do besides die. The one other female who has a speaking part cheats on her boyfriend after having a threesome and then promptly makes out with the succubus in the middle of the woods, despite the fact that she’s spattered with gore. This film doesn’t just fail the Bechdel test, it didn’t wake up on time to even take it.



“Knights of Badassdom” has a pro-gaming message that’s undermined by its attempt to create stereotypes of characters: the slacker/rocker who is a lot more successful at life than the film gives him credit for, the athletic hottie who has almost nothing to do besides be the future girlfriend, and the “bitch” who has a philosophy that LARPing is a waste of time -- a theme the film subtly endorses. According to "Knights of Baddassdom," the only people who are good at a LARP and deserve a happy ending are the two people who didn’t want to be a part of it in the first place.

Michael J. Tresca gave 5 stars to: Guardians of the Galaxy [Blu-ray]

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Guardians of the Galaxy [Blu-ray] Blu-ray ~ Chris Pratt

'Farscape' meets sci-fi 70s album covers, August 6, 2014

This review is from: Guardians of the Galaxy [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

It's hard to know what to expect from a movie about abducted-by-aliens schlub-hero Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), bloodthirsty barbarian Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), green-skinned assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), talking raccoon Rocket (Bradley Cooper)...and oh yeah, talking tree Groot (Vin Diesel). Groot is the least weirdest thing about this gleefully absurd film, and it's thanks to the 70s soundtrack that it all gels together like a retro sci-fi album cover.



At a glance you might think that the emotional heart of the film would be Quill, who was abducted by aliens shortly after his mother died. But it isn't, because Quill's the least important character of "Guardians of the Galaxy." It's actually about friendship and family, despite the wildly varying differences between the unlikely heroes -- or if we're being honest, criminals. Everybody has a sad sack story that they bring with them, and they gradually come to realize that when the universe is at stake, being a self-absorbed violent psychopath will lead to a very short existence. What starts as a simple plot to sell an orb for profit turns into a galaxy-spanning threat as Kree radical Ronan (Lee Pace) gets hold of the Power Infinity Stone with the intent of destroying the Nova Corps home world of Xandar. And thus our ragtag band of misfits are forced together by circumstance and their own stupidity to finally stop surviving and start standing for something more important than themselves.



If that was all "Guardians" was about, it would be a fun film but merely a rehash of what's gone before, notably "Farscape" and "Star Wars." But Peter Gunn's style is indelibly stamped on it, using music against gonzo backdrops to make the movie a love-letter to 70s tunes. It's a joy to watch.



Every character spits out their sob story in paragraphs of dialogue, but the movie clicks along so jubilantly it's easy to swallow. This is how we learn each character's back story, which amounts to: "I had a messed up family life." When they all realize they have this in common, they start to form their own family -- even Groot, who manages to convey more with his only catchphrase "I am Groot" than Quill and Gamora put together.



Of all the characters, the centerpiece couple -- Quill as womanizing rogue, Gamora as damaged antihero -- are unfortunately the weakest. Pratt tap dances the line between being a doofus and a believable rogue but frequently stumbles into goofball territory. Zaldana plays her usual archetype of violent maniac in a tiny, sexy package, but her conversion to good guy status is the least believable of the bunch because we don't really feel her internal pain nearly as much as we see Quill's, or hear Drax's, or witness what was done to poor Rocket's body.



The movie's most poignant scene is not between the two aforementioned humanoids, but between Drax and Rocket. The two don't get along -- Drax calls Rocket a "thing" at some point -- so when they are both sitting together, overcome with sorrow at the loss of their families, Drax tentatively, cautiously, but gently strokes Rocket's head. The reaction from Rocket (I must emphasize, a CGI ANTHROPOMORPHIC RACCOON) feels incredibly real. In that single moment we capture Drax as the father he once was and Rocket as the damage soul he is. Gamora and Quill got nothing on these two.



"Guardians of the Galaxy" isn't perfect -- the friendship message is a subtle as a punch in the face -- but it's 100% dedicated to being fun. What more could you ask in a summer flick?

Michael J. Tresca gave 3 stars to: Maleficent (Blu-ray)

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Maleficent (Blu-ray) Blu-ray ~ Angelina Jolie

Pales in comparison to Frozen, July 14, 2014

This review is from: Maleficent (Blu-ray) (Blu-ray)

My family has a special relationship with the character of “Maleficent.” My wife has long used the eponymous villain from "Sleeping Beauty" as an avatar for games and web sites alike. This was back when Disney villains received little attention and merchandise featuring their likenesses was rare. As a result, we have virtually everything with Maleficent on it (at least, Maleficent only without Aurora). As Disney has begun to reimagine its vast archive of characters on shows like Once Upon a Time and even the Wicked Witch of the West gets a fair shake in “Wicked,” it was perhaps inevitable that Maleficent would get the same treatment. We approached the film with some trepidation.



It’s helpful to understand that “Maleficent” is about Maleficent first and foremost. That means that if something happens in the plot of “Sleeping Beauty” that doesn’t focus on Maleficent (Angelina Jolie), the scriptwriters simply discarded it. The motivation for Maleficent’s curse was originally about not being invited to the christening of Aurora (played in this film by Elle Fanning), but by the time “Maleficent” gets to the same point as the animated film she has quite a bit of baggage to unload in that single curse.



In short, Maleficent was violated by a man, King Stefan (Sharlto Copley). Other bloggers have pointed out how this reduces Maleficent to a “woman scorned” and that’s definitely a problem for the film. Maleficent’s hatred for Aurora changes over time as she comes to realize she has no beef with the girl; the three fairies charged with protecting her are frighteningly incompetent (at least twice it’s clear Aurora would have died without Maleficent’s intervention). In other words, everyone but Maleficent is a moron.



There’s also an addition of her crow Diaval (Sam Riley), who Maleficent turns into other shapes at a whim: wolf, horse, man, or even a dragon. No special effects budget is spared in this portrayal, which makes all of these forms crow-like. Along with the faerie realm that Maleficent decides to take over in her vengeance, the CGI is breathtaking.



The other problem is that Maleficent never really gets the emotional resolution we hope for. Her conflict with Stefan isn’t really about him at all – it’s about saving Aurora. There’s no dialogue between Maleficent and Stefan that gives us the satisfaction that she's able to moved one. Jolie seems to play Maleficent so aloof as to make her mostly mute, so we have to settle for smiles and glares to fill in the blanks.



In the end, “Maleficent”’s biggest challenge is in being different from other Disney films. The conclusion would be revolutionary if it weren’t for the fact that “Frozen” did it first and better.

Michael J. Tresca gave 3 stars to: Zero Charisma

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Zero Charisma DVD ~ Sam Eidson

Only a minor stat boost, July 13, 2014

This review is from: Zero Charisma (DVD)

"Zero Charisma" was a crowdsourced film, presumably by geeks who long to see a role-playing game true to the spirit of gamers everywhere. The good news is that “Zero Charisma” gets a lot of things right. The bad news is it gets so many things right that there are several plot threads that are never really resolved that make for an unsatisfying ending.



Scott Weidemeyer (Sam Eidson) is the old school game master everyone loves to hate. If you've ever played Dungeons & Dragons, you know him well: the DM who house rules everything, argues on message boards, gets thrown out of hobby stores, and rules over his players with an iron fist. Scott's not particularly lucky with the ladies, but he’s got a place to game (his grandmother’s house) and he’s not afraid to use it.



The players around the table are all gaming archetypes: the hopeless nerd, the aspiring creative types, the guy with a family who is constantly battling with his spouse over his game time. When that player realizes that it’s the game or his spouse, he gives up the game. Worse, Scott's mom has returned and has plans to take over his grandmother’s house and move her into a home. Scott's sweet gaming pad is about to disappear. Reality, in essence, comes crashing into the long-standing fantasy world Scott has so meticulously created.



Thus begins a quest to find a new player. This is no easy feat, and there are plenty of opportunities to sneer at younger generations of players who came to D&D fantasy tropes by way of World of Warcraft. In the end, it’s a different archetype that finds his way into the gaming group: the hipster douche in the form of Miles (Garrett Graham).



This new breed of gamer has a successful career in a creative field, runs a popular blog, has a hot girlfriend, and treats D&D like a fun past time the same way other people treat a card game. He doesn’t take it too seriously.



Mile's acceptance in the group soon overshadows Scott, who inevitably finds himself compared to someone with much higher Charisma…and failing the opposed roll. Miles is everything Scott is not, and it’s not long before this rift comes to a head that involves a Gary Gygax stand-in, a philosophical argument over the purpose of playing role-playing games, and a lot of heavy metal.



The problem with “Zero Charisma” is that because of how it was edited, it shambles unevenly along. Considerable attention is paid to glances from Mile's girlfriend, who at one point appears to be flirting with our anti-hero. This plot point goes nowhere, despite the camera frequently zooming in on her expressions. There's also a lot of emphasis on people filming the climactic battle between Miles and Scott that again, goes nowhere.



The climax, which takes place at Miles' party, is meant to reveal the true douchery by showing that while Miles is happy to game with the nerds, he doesn’t really consider them friends. This isn’t really so much said as implied, as not all the other players are invited to the party. It begs the question though: so what? Is it really that big a deal if Miles doesn’t invite people to hang out socially? Additionally, the rest of the players never find out they weren’t invited. What should be a climactic emotional showdown becomes something of a slap fight.



Like the film “Napoleon Dynamite,” “Zero Charisma” asks what kind of happy ending can there possibly be for the mistfits of the world. Unlike that film, “Zero Charisma” has an answer and it’s not particularly satisfying. Instead of growing as a person, Miles keeps the game the same and just changes out the players.



“Zero Charisma” is a fun film for gamers, but it could be so much more. In the end our hero only raises his Charisma a point or two.

Michael J. Tresca gave 4 stars to: Edge of Tomorrow (Blu-ray)

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Edge of Tomorrow (Blu-ray) Blu-ray ~ Tom Cruise

Game Over. And Over. And Over..., June 16, 2014

This review is from: Edge of Tomorrow (Blu-ray) (Blu-ray)

The conceit behind "Edge of Tomorrow" is grounded in American's increasingly foggy memories of D-Day. In short, the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy by sending thousands of young men into the meat grinder of the heavily fortified Atlantic Wall in which it was a triumph simply to remain standing. Dumped into a churning surf, facing withering gunfire, grunts were lucky to survive the first minute of the invasion. "Edge of Tomorrow" works overtime to ensure we keenly feel those stomach-churning moments by playing them over and over and over again.



But to reproduce a modern D-Day requires a few alternations to the modern timeline. The aliens, known as mimics for some reason, have landed in an asteroid strike in the center of Europe (not an unheard-of possibility these days). The aliens spread out and it's up to our heroes, led by steely-eyed heroine Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), to hack her way through the enemy line in a counteroffensive. There's just one problem: the allied invasion can't possibly succeed.



The error in judgment begins with technology. The troops are outfitted with "jackets," inspired by the GE Hardiman project (a suit my father swears he saw in action on a carrier once when he was in the Navy). Overconfidence in the modern jacket's abilities leads to the very wrong assumption that minimal training is necessary. This proves all too deadly on the battlefield -- the mimics are insanely fast swirling balls of tentacles. Engaging them in any hand-to-hand combat is obviously unthinkable, but very few people actually know what it's like to fight one. Enter Major William Cage (Tom Cruise).



As it turns out, the reason she is such a vaunted hero is because Vrataski slaughtered a dozen mimics in one battle; her victory was possible only due to a very set of plot-stretching circumstances, and it's not until Cage appears that the allied forces get another shot at replicating it.



And replicating it he does. Cruise plays Cage as a coward, a personality affectation noteworthy only because it's Cruise playing against type. In typical "Choose Your Own Adventure" fashion, Cage is in a situation where no matter what he does, he's going to war. He learns to eventually game the system, and he and Vrataski share a secret with just one day to make a difference.



Two themes run throughout the film: heroism is a team effort, and love is about shared experiences. The grunts that go into battle with Cage eventually become a key part of saving the world. And the center of the film is as much about the relationship between Cage and Vrataski as it is about winning the war. To Cruise's credit, he conveys Cage's emotional states more with his eyes than his words, from steely-eyed determination to murderous rage to tender affection. For a film about war, "Edge of Tomorrow" finds its heart in those quiet moments when Cage struggles mightily to keep Vrataski alive despite the knowledge she will die a hundred times over.



By the time Bill Paxton shows up, it truly is "game over." Only in this game you can save first. A fascinating film marred slightly by its tidy ending.

Michael J. Tresca gave 5 stars to: X-Men

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

X-Men: Days of Future Past Amazon Instant Video ~ Michael Fassbender

A welcome course correction, June 5, 2014

This review is from: X-Men: Days of Future Past (Amazon Instant Video)

I had my doubts about “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” For one, it’s the seventh installment in the series (yes, really, counting the Wolverine movie). For another, it’s a mash-up between 2006’s retro “X-Men: First Class” and “X-Men: The Last Stand.” In a fashion similar to the Star Trek franchise reboot, “Days of Future Past” is an entire retcon of the events of “The Last Stand” – an opportunity to forge a new path with younger actors that isn’t beholden to the main storyline. Fed up with the many nonsensical plotlines of “The Last Stand?” Loved the ruthlessness of “First Class”? Then you’re in luck, true believers!



“Days of Future Past” features a dystopian future in which mutants are hunted by Mark II Sentinels, capable of instantly copying any superpower they encounter. Their directive: protect humans from mutants at all costs. Unfortunately, the definition of a mutant rapidly expands to include those with the potential to have mutant offspring, and it’s not long before the shapeshifters are killing off most of humanity. Desperate, Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian Mckellen) team up with Storm (Halle Berry), to use Kitty Pryde’s (Ellen Page) powers to send Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman) consciousness back in time to 1973. It’s all to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating the creator of the Sentinels, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), which sets off the chain of events leading to Sentinel apocalypse.



This leads to a fun series of acting exercises in which young Xavier (James McAvoy) and young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) must be convinced by taciturn Wolverine (still Hugh Jackman) to work together. There’s just a few problems: Xavier’s a drug addict and Magneto is in a super prison. And oh yeah, they hate each other’s guts. Enter Peter Maxmioff AKA Quicksilver (Evan Peters), who is like the Flash with worse hair. It’s also the best part of the film.



The fun of a retconning film like this is that all bets are off. Older characters can die without permanently damaging the franchise, new characters can forge their own paths, and everything that was old feels new again. Although there are always plot holes in a time traveling film, it’s easy to forgive them as director Bryan Singer repairs the wreckage he left behind when he fled the helm of “X-Men: The Last Stand” to lead the dreadful “Superman Returns” and left it to Brett Ratner to pick up the pieces. I’m not sure this film is enough for fans to forgive Singer, but it’s a much improved course correction to the franchise.

Michael J. Tresca gave 5 stars to: Captain America

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Amazon Instant Video ~ Chris Evans

Where will we fight injustice?, June 2, 2014

This review is from: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Amazon Instant Video)

It’s hard to make a guardian government agency these days without someone believing that, no matter how well-intentioned the individual agents are, there’s something fundamentally corrupt about it. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” a franchise deeply rooted in American jingoism, takes this cynicism head on with its titular hero in a way that feels surprisingly modern.



Our hero, Steve Rogers AKA Captain America (Chris Evans) does what good soldiers should: he follows orders. So when he discovers that his companion Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has an ulterior motive during a standard counter-terrorism mission, Rogers suspects something is up. This dichotomy -- Captain America forthright and public, Black Widow secretive and in the shadows – is a theme that runs throughout the film that parallels the challenge of the modern whistleblower: should we fight the creation of these privacy-invading organizations in public or release secrets illegally like Edward Snowden?



Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) prefers the latter, and he uses Black widow as a tool to get to the truth. When he gets too close, the truth attempts to rub him out in a thrilling car chase sequence with a hovercraft mode that conveniently won’t kick in when it’s needed most. With Fury presumed dead, Cap and Black Widow track down the contents of a mysterious flash drive, where they discover that when a global event threatens the authority of the world’s superpowers (the alien invasion from “The Avengers”) it reasserts itself with terrible force in a way reminiscent of fascism…the kind of fascism Captain America fought in World War II. His idealism has never felt more relevant.



And that’s what makes “The Winter Soldier” so great. What could easily be a dated concept feels fresh because the issues Captain America grapples with have changed names, countries, and titles, but are still lurking in the shadowy corners of our beloved institutions. Just don’t watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. first – the concurrent episodes give away the entire plot.