Gringo / ** (R)

Amazon Studios

Harold Soyinka: David Oyelowo

Richard Rusk: Joel Edgerton

Elaine Markinson: Charlize Theron

Sunny: Amanda Seyfried

Mitch Rusk: Sharlto Copley

Bonnie Soyinka: Thandie Newton

Miles: Harry Treadaway

Angel Valverde: Yul Vazquez

Robert Vega: Hector Kostifakis

Jerry: Alan Ruck

Amazon Studios and STX Entertainment present a film directed by Nash Edgerton. Written by Anthony Tambakis and Matthew Stone. Running time: 110 min. Rated R (for language throughout, violence and sexual content).

The Edgerton’s appear to be a family of many talents. Hailing from Australia, Joel Edgerton is the better known of the brothers in the United States. He stars in his brother’s latest feature Gringo. Most would recognize him from leading roles in films like Warrior, The Great Gatsby, Exodus: Gods & Kings, Blank Mass, Loving and The Gift—which he also wrote and directed. His older brother Nash Edgerton directs Gringo. Gringo is Nash’s second feature film after the 2008 Australian thriller The Square, which took the top spot as my favorite film of that year. Gringo has some of the earmarks of that film but lacks its sharp tone and strong protagonist.

Ghostbusters / **½ (PG-13)

Erin Gilbert: Kristin Wiig

Abby Yates: Melissa McCarthy

Jillian Holtzman: Kate McKinnon

Patty Tolan: Leslie Jones

Rowan North: Neil Casey

Kevin: Chris Hemsworth

Columbia Pictures presents a film directed by Paul Feig. Written by Kate Dippold & Feig. Based on the 1984 movie by Ivan Reitman, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Running time: 116 min. Rated PG-13 (for supernatural action and some crude humor).

The new reboot of the “Ghostbusters” franchise comes with a load of baggage, mostly having to do with the quite progressive idea of recasting the lead characters as women instead of men. I’ve never seen a beloved franchise so maligned by advance anti-buzz as this film. I’m a big believer in seeing the movie before forming an opinion about it. I guess it goes to show you how little progress we’ve made in this country in terms of equality that so many people have an issue with female heroes. People even criticized the editing of the first trailer as a negative point to avoid the fact that they were upset that their franchise had lost a Y chromosome. I’ve never seen the editing of a trailer criticized before. First trailers are usually poorly edited because they’re trying to tell a story before all the filming and effects have been completed.

Anyway, I think it is wonderful that this franchise was taken over by women. It is a great step forward to see women depicted as heroes while remaining women, instead of becoming over-sexualized props for the men they accompany. The main cast is wonderful. The Ghostbusters are just as iconic portrayed here by Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. They’re funny. They’re capable. They aren’t “real” because they exist in a fantasy, special effects laden universe of the paranormal; but they are women, with thoughts and actions unique to them and not existing in the service of men or even necessarily the plot of the movie. The new Ghostbusters are a shining example of where women in mainstream entertainment should be.

Ebert Thoughts ‘15—Goodbye To Language (2014) **

UR, 70 min.

Director/Writer: Jean-Luc Godard

Starring: Héloïse Godet, Kamel Abdeli, Richard Chevallier, Zoé Bruneau, Christian Gregori

I recently reviewed Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her”. It’s easy to see with that film the track that had started in Godard’s career and would eventually lead him to a film like “Goodbye To Language”. While his less narrative, more documentary style worked well with the freer thinking of the late 60s, his cinematic philosophizing has become as confused as the world itself today. While there might be some value to be weighed into that notion, the consumption of it leaves something to be desired.

Penny Thoughts ‘15—Groundhog Day (1993) ***½

PG, 101 min.

Director: Harold Ramis

Writers: Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis

Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brian Doyle-Murray, Marita Geraghty, Angela Paton

So the time has come once again for us all to have our annual existential comedy experience and relive the same day over and over until we get it right. Perhaps we could all use the unexplained peril of Bill Murray’s self-centered hero from one of the unlikeliest of cinematic comedy successes of all time. “Groundhog Day” was released in February of 1993 to a Valentine’s Day crowd most likely expecting nothing more than another romantic comedy that seemed slightly off target release date wise considering it was the wrong holiday by a couple weeks. Instead they got a comedy with a brain that really wanted to tackle the deep issues that lay at the core of its otherwise silly premise.

Holiday Thoughts ‘14—Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (2014) *

G, 85 min.

Director: Tim Hill

Writers: Tim Hill, Jeff Morris

Starring: Grumpy Cat, Aubrey Plaza (voice), Megan Charpentier, Daniel Roebuck, Russell Peters, David Lewis, Evan Todd, Isaac Haig, Shauna Johannesen, Casey Manderson, Tyler Johnston

The circumstances that led to my watching “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever” are surprisingly mundane. It was a Friday night. The kids decided to spend the evening at their cousins’ house. Ang was going through e-mail that had piled up through the week. I was doing some similar cleaning on my computer. I figured the wife and I would take in a couple of catch up television episodes while we waited for the kids to get back. I turned the TV on just to have some noise in the background. Before I knew it, Ang had gone to bed and I was stuck watching a bad Lifetime Christmas special starring an Internet meme sensation from a year ago.

Gone Girl / **** (R)

Nick Dunne: Ben Affleck

Amy Dunne: Rosamund Pike

Margo Dunne: Carrie Coon

Detective Rhonda Boney: Kim Dickens

Desi Collings: Neil Patrick Harris

Tanner Bolt: Tyler Perry

Officer Jim Gilpin: Patrick Fugit

20^th Century Fox presents a film directed by David Fincher. Written by Gillian Flynn, based on her novel. Running time: 149 min. Rated R (for a scene of bloody violence, some strong sexual content/nudity, and language).

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players. They have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time will play many parts…”

                                                —William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” Act II, sc vii.

What Shakespeare didn’t realize when he wrote those words was that he was at just the infancy of this thing called media, and that it would eventually play the biggest role in the world stage, not only playing its part but also appointing itself the world’s casting director, dolling out the roles for those men and women to play. Now, not everyone finds themselves in the media spotlight, but we chose our own roles to play in our lives and the lives of others. Once the media intervenes, those roles multiply on a scale relative to the scale upon which those lives play on the media’s stage. This is ultimately what David Fincher’s latest dark allegory “Gone Girl” is about, and despite the fact that there is a very frightening person orchestrating the events in this story, based on Gillian Flynn’s best selling novel, it is the role the media plays in these events that is most frightening.

Guardians of the Galaxy / ***½ (PG-13)

Peter Quill/Starlord: Chris Pratt

Gamora: Zoe Saldana

Drax the Destroyer: Dave Bautista

Ronan the Accuser: Lee Pace

Yondu Udonta: Michael Rooker

Nebula: Karen Gillan

Korath: Djimon Hounsou

Corpsman Dey: John C. Reilly

Nova Prime: Glenn Close

The Collector: Benicio Del Toro

With the voices of:

Rocket Raccoon: Bradley Cooper

Groot: Vin Diesel

Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Studios present a film directed by Peter Gunn. Written by Gunn and Nicole Perlman. Based on the comic book by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Running time: 121 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and for some language).

Here’s the genius of the Marvel movie model—it keys into the entertainment memories from childhood of the adults who are now responsible for helping their children to make childhood memories.  The people consuming and writing about movies today are the people who developed their passion for movies consuming the very types of movies and comic books that Marvel’s are based on. They are also using filmmakers who had similar experiences as children.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Ghostbusters (1984) ***½

PG, 105 min.

Director: Ivan Reitman

Writers: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis

Starring: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, William Atherton, Ernie Hudson

30 years ago today “Ghost Busters”—it’s two words on the title card—opened in theaters and became not just a movie, but a cultural reference, as many 80s films seemed to do. You don’t see individual movies become such a phenomenon anymore. Even the Marvel Universe movies became what they are as a group of films rather than individuals. “Ghostbusters” had a life of its own.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Grimm, season 3 (2013-2014) ****

TV-14, 22 45-min. episodes

Creators: Stephen Carpenter, David Greenwalt, Jim Kouf

Directors: Norberto Barba, Eric Laneuville, Karen Gaviola, Steven DePaul, John Behring, Aaron Lipstadt, Terrence O’Hara, Tawnia McKiernan, Allen Kroeker, Peter Werner, Rashaad Ernesto Green, Rob Bailey, Paul A. Kaufman, David Solomon, Clark Mathis

Writers: Stephen Carpenter, David Greenwalt, Jim Kouf, Sean Calder, Rob Wright, Michael Golamco, Michael Duggan, Thomas Ian Griffith, Dan E. Fesman, Alan DiFiore, Brenna Kouf, Marc Gaffen, Kyle McVey

Starring: David Guintoli, Russell Hornsby, Bitsie Tulloch, Silas Weir Mitchell, Sasha Roiz, Reggie Lee, Bree Turner, Claire Coffee

Guest starring: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Reg E. Cathey, James Frain, Christian Legadec, Robert Blanche, Jean-Luc Boucherot, Kamyar Jahan, Jay Karnes, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Damien Puckler, Dan Bakkedahl, Danny Bruno, Michael Welch, Stephanie Nogueras, Brian McNamara, Derek Ray, Sara Fletcher, Manny Montana, Gina Gallego, Bertila Damas, Matt McTighe, Tim Griffin, Gabriel Suttle, Julianne Christie, Alexis Denisof, Matthew Willig, Sharon Sachs, Derek Mears, Shane Coffey, Bernhard Forcher, Sharon Leal, Mark Ivanir, Alicia Legano, Aleksandra Kaniak, Angela Gots, Dalpre Grayer, Emily Rios, Gonzalo Menendez, Kirk Acevedo, Todd A. Robinson, Amy Newman, Matt Lasky, Chris Mulkey, Dee Wallace, Freda Foh Shen, Alain Uy, Tess Paras, Anne Dudek, Gene Freedman, Sam Witwer, Carlo Rota, Chryssie Whitehead, Philip Anthony-Rodriguez, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, C. Thomas Howell, Jacqueline Toboni, Sasha Goldberg, Conner B. Neddersen, Michael Graziadei, Karissa Lee Staples, Camille Collard, Aparna Briel, Sam Anderson, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe

In season 3 of the NBC supernatural horror/adventure series “Grimm” everything returns to grand form. Gone is the endless subplot of Juliette being under a spell. In fact little this season lasts the entire season. The subplot of Adalind’s pregnancy and baby is ongoing, but its one with developments and mysterious and powerful implications. I did get concerned in the final few episodes when it looked like Adalind might be gunning for Juliette a second time, but Juliette was her means not her target this time.

Godzilla / *** (PG-13)

Ford Brody: Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Elle Brody: Elizabeth Olsen

Dr. Ichiro Serizawa: Ken Watanabe

Vivienne Graham: Sally Hawkins

Admiral William Stenz: David Strathairn

Captain Hampton Russell: Richard T. Jones

Joe Brody: Bryan Cranston

Sandra Brody: Juliette Binoche

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film directed by Gareth Edwards. Written by Max Borenstein from a story by Dave Callaham. Based on the “Godzilla” film property of the Toho Company. Running time: 123 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of destruction, mayhem and creature violence).

Kaiju is a Japanese word that translates to “strange creature.” For many years it has also referred to a very specialized subgenre of movies that involve giant monsters doing battle with the human race and each other. The low budget films of the Toho Company, which spawned the Godzilla series of movies, popularized this subgenre with audiences. Recent Hollywood entries into this subgenre include “Cloverfield” and “Pacific Rim”. Now, Warner Bros. has released “Godzilla”, the third Godzilla film released by a Hollywood studio, and the best U.S. effort to bring the giant green lizard to the big screen to date.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Godzilla’s Revenge (1969) *

G, 70 min.

Director: Ishirô Honda

Writer: Shin’ichi Sekizawa

Starring: Tomonori Yazaki, Hideyo Amamoto, Schio Sakai, Kazuo Suzuki, Kenji Sahara, Machiko Naka, Shigeki Ishida, Midori Uchiyama (voice)

I considered giving this movie less than one star. The fact is that it is a children’s movie. It isn’t trying to be what the other Kaiju movies are. It’s kind of Kaiju Jr. It even tries to imbue its harmlessness with a message about standing up for yourself for kids. For that, and that alone, I give it just a very little credit.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965) *½

G, 93 min.

Director: Ishirô Honda

Writer: Shin’ichi Sekizawa

Starring: Nick Adams, Akira Takarada, Jun Tazaki, Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Keiko Sawai, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kenzô Tabu

In the opening credit sequence it’s called simply “Monster Zero”. On the IMDb website it’s called “Invasion of the Astro-Monster”. Whatever it’s called 1965’s “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero” is when the Kaiju movies made like Fonzie and jumped the shark. I think Inoshiro Honda and Shinichi Sekizawa just lost it with this one. Their plot has just gone crazy, the monsters have totally adapted human characteristics, including celebrating their victories and caring about the humans. They’ve taken Godzilla and Rodan into space and brought a ridiculously misogynistic alien race to Earth. An American who sounds like a gangster plays the lead of the film; you know, to appeal to the American audiences. It’s all kind of crazy.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (1964) ***

NR, 85 min.

Director: Ishirô Honda

Writer: Shin’ichi Sekizawa

Starring: Yôsuke Natsuki, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Akiko Wakabayashi, Emi Itô, Yûmi Itô, Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Hisaya Itô, Minuro Takada

Now things start getting a little weird for the Toho Studios Godzilla/Kaiju films. You know that “more sophisticated storytelling” I was talking about in my “Mothra vs. Godzilla” review? Well, they’ve developed it to a high level for this new film with a plot that involves a princess from a small sovereign nation and an assassination plot that is complicated by the fact that an alien being possesses the princess before she can be killed. In another seemingly unrelated plotline, a strange meteor falls to Earth and scientists are baffled by the strange phenomenon that surrounds it.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956) **

NR, 80 min.

Directors: Ishirô Honda, Terry O. Morse

Writers: Ishirô Honda, Takeo Murata, Al C. Ward, Shigero Kayama (story)

Starring: Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kôchi, Akira Takarada, Akihiko Hirata

So, there’s this monster movie from Japan that has become the b-movie talk of the town. You’re an American film producer and you think to yourself, “I’d really like to bring that across the Pacific to American audiences. But surely, stupid Americans aren’t going to want to watch a Japanese movie dubbed into English. How can I remake this thing in English with an American star, but not have to spend any money on it? Reshoot half of it with Raymond Burr as an American news reporter so he con provide voiceover narration for all the story points we want to keep from the Japanese version of course! I’m a genius!”

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Godzilla Raids Again (1955) *½

NR, 78 min.

Director: Motoyoshi Oda

Writers: Shigeaki Hidaka, Takeo Murata, Shigeru Kayama (novel “Gojira”)

Starring: Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura, Masao Shimizu, Seijirô Onda, Sonosuke Sawamura

“Godzilla” has surprisingly become the 2014 movie I can’t wait to see. The first teaser didn’t really convince me that another American attempt at Godzilla would be worth it. The last one was rather disappointing. Gareth Edwards—who masterfully crafted the low budget “Monsters”—at the helm and the fact that the script attracted stars with fairly good taste, like Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Elizabeth Olsen, suggest that it may not be a wasted effort. Plus, the most recent trailers do a good job selling the classic summer blockbuster feel of the new movie.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Goodbye Solo (2009) ****

R, 91 min.

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Writers: Ramin Bahrani, Bahareh Azimi

Staring: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo, Lane ‘Roc’ Williams, Mamadou Lam, Carmen Leyva

Usually when I attend Ebertfest in person, I try not to just write reviews of the movies I see. I often try to pick up on themes I see in the festival or comment on some incident I witness or people I meet there. One thing that has happened on a few occasions—only once at Ebertfest that I recall—is falling asleep during a screening. Now, I love watching movies, so this has only happened when I’ve been quite sleep deprived. I think that’s probably a common enough problem when attending a film festival.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Get a Horse! (2013) ****

G, 6 min.

Director: Lauren MacMullan

Writers: Paul Briggs, Nancy Kruse, Lauren MacMullan, Raymond S. Persi

Voices: Walt Disney, Marcellite Garner, Russi Taylor, Billy Bletcher, Will Ryan

Since I never saw “Frozen” until this past week, I also never got a chance to see the Academy Award nominated short that accompanied it in theaters. Although I hadn’t seen it, I thought for sure the Academy would award Disney for going back to their roots with this retro-transformation animation that involves an classic style Mickey Mouse cartoon come to life in the new CGI world of animation through a clever plot that pits Mickey against his old nemesis Peg-Leg Pete, who is eventually thwarted when Mickey and his pals quite literally break the fourth wall to enter the modern world and used Pete’s mere two dimensions against him. I was wrong, but they could’ve.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Grandmaster (2013) ***

PG-13, 130 min.

Director: Kar Wai Wong

Writers: Kar Wai Wong, Jingzhi Zou, Haofeng Xu

Starring: Tony Chui Wai Leong, Ziyi Zhang, Qingxiang Wang, Jin Zhang, Hye-kyo Song

“The Grandmaster” tells the true-life tale of Ip Man, a master martial artist who came out of the final era of feudal China from a Southern clan. He held a challenge against a Northern successor to become the country’s Grandmaster when World War II got in the way. The invasion of China by Japan led to the end of the old Empire and the end of the martial arts clans. Ip Man continued to practice and teach martial arts in the new age. He most famous disciple was Bruce Lee.

Horror Thoughts ‘13—Galaxy of Terror (1981) **½

R, 81 min.

Director: B.D. Clark

Writers: Marc Siegler, B.D. Clark

Starring: Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Ray Walston, Bernard Behrens, Zalman King, Robert Englund, Taaffe O’Connell, Sid Haig, Grace Zabriskie, Jack Blessing

“Galaxy of Terror” is surprisingly good for an early 80s Roger Corman flick. That might be due to James Cameron’s involvement in the production design and as the second unit director. Cameron would skyrocket to success just a few years later with his first “Terminator” movie. You can see some of his design signatures that are prominent in the “Terminator” movies and “Aliens” in the design of the space ship here, interior and exterior, and the design of the alien pyramid.

Gravity / **** (PG-13)

Ryan Stone: Sandra Bullock

Matt Kowalski: George Clooney

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film directed by Alfonso Caurón. Written by Alfonso Caurón and Jonás Caurón. Running time: 90 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images, and brief strong language).

There are two historical events in man’s history with space that kept coming to mind throughout my screening of the new space thriller “Gravity”. One was the Apollo 13 mission, which saw the astronauts of that mission avoiding disaster with surprisingly low tech equipment and a good deal of improvisation. The events of that mission were memorably put to film in Ron Howard’s most accomplish movie of the same name. I was also reminded of the Space Shuttle Challenger mission, which met disaster in January of 1986 when the shuttle exploded shortly after its launch. One of the seven-crew members of this ill-fated mission was Christa McAuliffe, a civilian teacher from New Hampshire. “Gravity” is a jarring reminder that space is not the fantastical place that we often see in movies like “Star Wars” or “Star Trek”, but an extremely dangerous environment in which our fragility is magnified by the alien nature of its zero gravity conditions.