Movies from 2015 including Concussion, Southpaw and Shaun the Sheep

Is it possible to burn out your retinas? I suppose I could Google it. I think I have watched more movies in the past month than in the whole year. It sure feels like it. I consider myself fairly lucky that most of the movies have been above average, and only a few horrid, and even better, most of them have been free or cost less than $2. I love a bargain.

12/31/15 Ride Along, 2014

For some reason I thought that Ride Along was releases in 2015 and could perhaps be eligible for an Oscar (don't look at me like that, if Ted and Bad Grandpa can be nominated, anything is possible). Er, except it was released in 2014 and had not been nominated. That's okay, I had an ulterior motive in that Ride Along 2 is coming out this year, and I thought I should get up to speed on the Ice Cube/Kevin Hart 'series'. As they say themselves in the special features, this is a buddy film, and who doesn't like a buddy film? I didn't like Hart's most recent buddy film Get Hard, but I do like Hart and I needed something light, and this was perfect for my friends and me on New Year's Eve (it also got two thumbs up from my 16 year old friend, and who can argue with that?). Kevin Hart is Ben Barber, a high school security guard with aspirations of becoming an Atlanta police officer; he is also living with Angela, and her brother is a bad ass Atlanta detective, James Payton (Ice Cube) who cannot stand Ben. In an effort to scare Ben off, or at least keep him out of the police academy, Payton offers to take Ben out on a ride along and gives him all of the crazy calls; it almost works, but Ben sticks it out, but gets caught up in a gun smuggling scheme with Payton's bugaboo, Omar (Laurence Fishburne). There are definitely some laugh out loud moments; Hart is funny, he has a comedic delivery and timing that make a funny moment hilarious. Ice Cube is a great straight man, and gives Hart the room to deliver. I guess it got bad reviews, but I think how you rate a film depends on what you expect from it; my expectations were for a few laughs and maybe a little action, not a deep, complex story. We laughed and I'm planning on seeing Ride Along 2 next month. Not everything has to be an Oscar nominee.

1/1/16 Concussion, not yet nominated, 2015

I used to watch football every Sunday, run a fantasy football league and be in another, but my feelings started to change after Junior Seau committed suicide in 2012. I lost interest and have watched only one or two games since then. Concussion is a film about the research into traumatic brain injuries in football by Dr. Bennett Omalu, played by Will Smith, and his attempts to bring this to the attention of the National Football League. Omalu was a forensic pathologist with the Allegheny County Coroner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he first started investigating with the unexplained death of Mike Webster (David Morse), All-Pro Hall of Fame center for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Omalu knew nothing about football, but he wanted an explanation for Webster's death. He is unaware of the firestorm he is walking into as he pulls the curtain back on the most popular sport in America. Omalu is unorthodox in his approach but he has the full support of his boss and mentor, Dr. Cyril Wecht (played by Albert Brooks). Omalu also gets an unexpected ally in Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin) who was the team doctor for the Steelers and was part of the committee to look into brain injuries in the NFL. Smith is getting a lot of praise for his role, and he is very good as the Nigerian-born doctor who firmly believes in the American dream. He may very get a nomination for Best Actor, but I don't know if the movie is strong enough to get him the Oscar. I also think that Brooks should get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I liked the movie very much, but there was something about the pacing of it that seemed to bog it down and stop the momentum. That doesn't take anything away from the information that is provided in the movie about the potential for severe brain trauma when the head experiences repeated blows. It also doesn't change the fact that the NFL is a money-making goliath and does not want to lose fans or participants. As Omalu says in the movie (I do not know if that's a scripted creation or really happened) but he just wants the players to know the risks they face. Some players have walked away from possibly very lucrative careers because they did not think the risk was worth the cost; others have said it's the way the game is. 

1/1/16 Southpaw, not yet nominated, 2015

When Southpaw was released, way back in July, Jake Gyllenhaal was getting a lot of press for his role as Billy Hope; perhaps an Oscar nomination would be in his future. Unfortunately, as I have learned, movies that are released early in the season often get forgotten when it comes time for nominations. However, I hope that I am wrong. When the movie opens, Billy Hope is defending his title; he's the champ and he has a beautiful wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams) and daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence), a huge house, a posse, everything. Then, after a confrontation with a potential rival, Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez), Maureen is shot and killed. Hope's world pretty much crashes in on him and he loses his daughter to child protective services. All Billy knows how to do is box, so he heads to a local gym which is owned and run by Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker); Wills hires Billy to clean up around the gym. He won't let Billy box until he feels he's ready. Eventually, Billy proves he is ready to box again, and he also works to get Leila back. Billy gets an offer to fight Escobar from his former manager, played by 50 Cent, and it's a chance to make some money and find some redemption. Wills reluctantly agrees to train Billy for the fight (he doesn't train professional fighters). Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) directed and he injects a score by the late James Newton Howard and a soundtrack by Eminem into the drama. I found the soundtrack jarring, but I suppose that was the idea. Whitaker is so good - you feel there is so much more under the surface to Tick and he's not eager to share. Gyllenhaal as Hope is so angry, you feel that he could explode any minute, which he does; Billy and Maureen both came up through child protective services, they are really all they have. I haven't seen Creed yet, but I don't know if the voters will recognize two boxing movies.

1/1/16 Shaun the Sheep, not yet nominated, 2015

I often wonder who decides something is the 'best'; like who thought Shaun the Sheep was one of the best animated features of 2015? It was made by the Aardman Studios, although not Nick Park or Peter Lord, and that should have been my first clue that this was not Wallace and Gromit. Shaun the Sheep was first seen in Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave, and I would have preferred a short film instead of a full length feature. The movie opens with the sheep, the dog and the farmer going through their routine, day after day, kind of being bored, so they go on a camping adventure. The farmer gets amnesia and the animals try to find him in the city, but get captured by the animal control officer. So, they have to escape and once they find him, now as a hair stylist (sheep shearing pays big dividends), he doesn't remember them. Yeah, I think it would have been better as a 45 minute short, but I don't think it was the best animated film; I do think that belongs to Inside Out.

I have another blog going to document my experience (and others') on public transit. Check it out: http://doingthebusrun.blogspot.com/