Love, Antosha is a heartwarming and heartbreaking documentary on the life and career of actor Anton Yelchin. A career and life cut way too short by the tragic accident that took his life in 2016. The documentary details his growing up wanting to be an entertainer and career as an actor with interviews from his parents Irina and Viktor, along with his friends and co-stars, like Star Trek’s Chris Pine and Jennifer Lawrence. It shows a passionate young man, who was tireless in both his pursuit of his dreams and in his acting, once that career ignited. Unknown to many, he suffered from cystic fibrosis and he battled it’s effects constantly while he continually worked. Despite his ailment, he starred in 69 film and television roles, from the age of 11 till his untimely death at only 27 years-old. Garret Price’s documentary portrays a man loved by his family and co-stars, a man whose passions went from acting to directing to music and photography. The documentary is filled with interviews from many celebrities who all paint a picture of an energetic and driven young man, but also a loving, quirky and kind one that made friends everywhere he went. Yelchin is most recognized for portraying Ensign Chekov in J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot series, but showed great versatility in a variety of independent films as well. A talent sadly gone far too soon. Documentary also features narration from actor Nicolas Cage reading words written by Yelchin himself.
(Remember, clicking the highlighted links brings you to other reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)
Final film in Twentieth Century Fox’s X-Men series, as the rights have gone back to Marvel, finds psychically powerful Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) at the center of it’s story. The film opens in 1975 with an eight-year old Jean causing a tragic accident with her powers and being taken in, as a result, by Prof. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). The flick then moves forward to 1992 where an adult Jean absorbs a massive amount of mysterious energy while on a rescue mission in space. Jean starts to have trouble controlling this new power and when combined with personal issues with her past, and what she sees as a betrayal by Charles, sets her against her friends. While Jean deals with her mixed emotions causing destruction and a devastating accidental death, X-Men, mutant and military alike hunt her down. Unbeknownst to all of them, an alien race plans on using Jean and her new power for their own nefarious purposes.
Last of this current series is written and very well directed by Simon Kinberg. Some may miss the bombastic, global scaled action of the last few films, but this finale is actually a bit of a refreshing return to a more intimate scale and more personal storyline. The film is about an internal struggle within the X-Men and within Jean and while we do get invading aliens and an impressive train set action finale, it still feels more in line with the first few X-Men films, before the series blew up in scale. Sure the The Dark Phoenix Saga was used before as a basis for the heavily criticized Last Stand, but it is handled much better this time around. The story pits X-Man against X-Man against mutant against alien, as various factions want to kill, save, or use Jean depending on their personal agendas. Again, it keeps the drama focused on the X-Men and not on disintegrating cities and floating sports arenas, with the characters buried under the spectacle. It’s not all perfect. Main characters like Xavier, Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) have become too familiar at this point to be overly intriguing and don’t get too much new development. Other characters like Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) don’t get much character time at all, only really showing up in the action. At 114 minutes, it is one of the shorter X-Men films and so Jean’s inner conflicts and her tenuous relationship with new “friend”, alien leader Vuk (Jesscia Chastain), get what little character focus time there is…and for Vuk, there isn’t all that much, either. Some story-lines are never resolved, like Quicksilver’s confronting his father Magneto, and some endings aren’t completely satisfying. That and overall, being the tenth X-Men themed flick since 2000…this franchise could use a break and a fresh coat of paint. On a technical scale the film looks great, the SPFX are top notch and Hans Zimmer delivers another strong score.
The main cast are all familiar with their characters at this point and that is both a good thing and a bad thing. Lawrence, Fassbender and McAvoy all seem to be going through the motions. They are still effective, but they really aren’t given anything new or intriguing to do, or are adding anything new to their portrayals…other than Charles’ guilt over decisions he made for Jean. Lawrence especially seems to be here for a paycheck. Sophie Turner impresses as the very troubled Jean. She goes from emotionally wounded to powerful bad girl smoothly and handles her varied emotional states very well. She gives the role strength. Jessica Chastain oozes malice as Vuk and as her part could have been stronger written, the actress takes what she is given and delivers a suitable villain, like the pro she is. Supporting cast are all likable and fine as various X-Men and mutants and as the series is now finished, some, like Peters’ smart-alecky Quicksilver, will be missed.
Everyone will see this entry as they will. Some may find it too scaled down for their liking and some may not agree with where certain character’s stories end…or don’t. Others, however, may find it refreshing that the final flick, in this almost two decade series, ends with a focus back on the X-Men and leaves the massive city destruction to Godzilla and The Avengers. Maybe all the reshoots report-ably done weren’t such a bad thing, after all?
The latest X-MEN film, Dark Phoenix gets a new and intense trailer. The film follows psychic mutant Jean Grey’s (Sophie Turner) evolving into the powerful Dark Phoenix character from the comics. The film opens 6/7/19 and is directed this time by Simon Kinberg.
Painfully generic Sci-fi/romance has the starship Avalon making a 100+ year journey to a new home world with it’s crew and passengers in hyper sleep for the trip. The ship sustains some damage during a trip through an asteroid field…guess, there is no safety contingency for that…and one of the results is the early awakening of engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) about 90 years too early, with no way (conveniently for the story) of getting back to hibernation…I guess no safety contingency for that either. After a year of loneliness, Jim reviews the ship’s passenger logs…a bit creepy…and finds and falls for pretty Aurora Lane and decides to awaken her, too…even creepier. Faster than you can say The Love Boat, the two fall head over heels, till the damage to the ship becomes critical and now they are the only hope of saving the lives of everyone sleeping on board…and did I mention that Jim is conveniently an engineer?
As directed by Morten Tyldum from Jon Saithts’ hopelessly cliché script, this is a dull and predictable flick despite Lawrence and Pratt having some real chemistry. Everything happens for convenience, whether to help or hinder our couple, like Lawrence Fishburn’s Captain waking up just long enough to point our couple in the right direction before leaving the scenario, or just the right miscommunication at the wrong time allowing Aurora to find out her awakening wasn’t an accident. And that is another mistake, having Jim cruelly and selfishly awakening Aurora to suffer his own fate, just for company, is something we can never forgive the character for, even if Aurora does…and it’s no surprise in this dreck that she unrealistically will. The FX are top notch and the cast give it their all, but a weak script and by-the-numbers direction sink the Avalon far quicker than any asteroids. Would love to see Lawrence and Pratt in a far better flick; they were good together.
Big fan of both Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, as well as Sci-fi flicks, so this 12/21/2016 release has my attention…and now it has a trailer too! Film is written by Jon Spaihts and directed by Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game).
With the tragic passing of actor Anton Yelchin, I thought I’d pay tribute by posting a review I wrote pre-blog about this charming romantic drama he was in with hotties Felicity Jones and Jennifer Lawrence. I chose to resurrect the Date Movie column, thought it was originally created, as obvious by the rating system below, to showcase horror flicks that were good for watching with that someone special. This isn’t a horror flick, but is a good date movie nonetheless…
Like Crazy is a emotional and sometimes heartbreaking tale of two college grads in a long distance relationship. American Jacob Helm (Anton Yelchin) and Brit Anna Gardner (Felicity Jones from The Amazing Spider-Man 2and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) fall in love when they meet in school in L.A. But when Anna violates her student visa to stay with Jacob, she is forced to go back to England and is banned from returning. The couple must now try to decide if their love is strong enough to make this relationship work or move on with their lives.
Like Crazy is an emotional roller coaster as we watch the heartache and indecision that Jacob and Anna go through. They want to be together, but enter other relationships when they are apart. They can’t seem to walk away from each other, but can’t wait till Anna’s visa problems can be worked out. Director and co-writer (with Ben York Jones) Drake Doremus creates a tumultuous relationship that really draws you in. He really makes you believe these two are in love, but at the same time, presents two young people who may not be ready for what true love means. It is very realistic at times in portraying the turmoil of being in a relationship strained by outside elements and the indecision of one’s own heart. For those looking for a romantic drama where everything wraps up in a neat and happy little bow, you may be in for a reality check.
The director draws excellent performances from stars Yelchin and Jones and even draws sympathy for those they bring into their lives and hurt with their indecisiveness. Jacob with sweet and loving Samantha (Jennifer Lawrence) and Anna with her yuppie boyfriend Simon (Charlie Bewley) who wants to marry her. They refuse to be honest with other about their other relationships while they work to settle the problems that keep them continents apart. All adding up to one big question… are either of them ready to truly be in love and deal with all that comes with it?
Like Crazy may portray the story of a difficult love far more realisticly than the average romantic may care for but, it is an emotionally engaging and sometimes heartbreaking tale of first real love. I highly recommend it for indie film fans and for those who like their romances Hollywood cliche’ free. If you are a fan of Yelchin or any other of the cast members, I also recommend it for their work in it, too!
(Remember, clicking the highlighted links brings you to other reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)
While X-Men: Apocalypse is not the worst of this series, it may be the dullest. The film opens in ancient Egypt where a powerful being, En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) is about to transfer his consciousness into another body when he is betrayed and buried beneath the ruins of a great pyramid. We then cut to 1983 where he is dug up by a cult of mutant worshipers and set free to resume his plan of…you guessed it…world destruction and domination. Now Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and rebel hero Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) must somehow stop the first and most powerful mutant with only a group of young students and CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) at their sides. Worse still, En Sabah Nur has gathered a strike force of his own, Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy) and Psylocke (Olivia Munn) and only needs one more piece to carry out his apocalyptic plan…Charles Xavier.
As this is the fourth X-Men flick directed by Bryan Singer and written by Simon Kinberg, co-written with Singer, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, we see a series in definite need of new creative blood. The story is just another powerful villain looking to annihilate mankind yarn, directed very by-the-numbers by Singer. Gone is the cleverness from his first two flicks, as well as, the energy and the fun. The film plods along for 144 minutes, taking itself way too seriously and we only see a spark of life in the last few moments, when the young members of the team must step up against a god-like being…though a god-like being that never really impresses or exudes much menace. And that is another big problem with this flick, En Sabah Nur…or Apocalypse…is a boring villain. He is never frightening, nor do we ever truly feel the power he is supposed to have. He’s just some blue guy who wants to rule the world…yawn. Even his sidekicks, including the usually impressive Magneto, are given little to do, but stand glowering behind him, till the climactic battle and even then only Olivia Munn’s Psylocke shows a little promise, despite being as underused as the rest of them. Add to that a detour into William Stryker’s (Josh Helman) lair, which serves no purpose other than to give a certain familiar face a cameo and adds at least twenty minutes to an already overlong flick. Remove the sequence entirely and it would have no bearing on the story. Even Stan Lee’s usually amusing cameo is dull, though at least we get to meet his real-life wife.
There are some positive points. There is some solid action and the FX are spectacular, even though the whole city destruction thing has been done to death in recent superhero flicks. Evan Peters has another movie stealing scene as Quicksilver and should get his own movie at this point. Mystique’s graduation to team leader works well and Lawrence again shines in the role, as does Sophie Turner as a young Jean Grey, who has a bit of a scene stealing moment of her own in the final conflict. One of the few moments to show some life and have impact. Newton Thomas Sigel returns with some crisp cinematography and John Ottoman from X2 and Days Of Future Past again scores the soundtrack…of which also contains some cool 80s tunes.
The film has a big cast and the recent regulars like McAvoy, Fassbender, Hoult, Byrne and Lawrence all perform their roles well and we wish they were given something more challenging to do. Oscar Isaac is sadly underwhelming as En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse. He just doesn’t project any power or malice, as the supposedly first and most powerful mutant. It is almost as if he was phoning in the part. Evan Peters is once again amusing as the smart-ass Quicksilver and thankfully he has a bigger role. Sophie Turner is good as young Jean Grey and in her big scene evokes the kind of power Isaac could have used to make his villain memorable. As for the rest of the newbies, Jodi Smit McPhee is fun as Nightcrawler, Tye Sheridan is fine as the new Cyclops, Ben Hardy is given very little to do as Angel, so it is hard to really comment on his performance, Alexandra Shipp shows potential for Storm and Olivia Munn, as mentioned previously, makes an impression as Psylocke, even if she is underused.
What can be said? It’s not an outright bad movie like Last Stand, but even that had some fun stuff in it. While this is a better made and written film, it is also a very drab, uninvolving and overlong one. At least Last Stand had the decency to be less than two hours long. Our main bad guy is heaps of dull and his world destroying plot is heaps of been-there-done-that. On a plus note, the FX are as well rendered, the action is well staged and the recast favorites work well enough, with Sophie Turner standing out. There are a few good new characters such as Olivia Munn’s villainous Psylocke and another fun sequence with the scene stealing Quicksilver. A ho-hum entry in a series which has too many interesting characters to run out of gas quite yet.
After seeing David Robert Mitchell’s much acclaimed horror It Follows, I decided to check out his first feature film, a teen-centric comedy/drama. Flick takes place in the Detroit suburbs and tells the story of a group of teens on the night before school starts as they wander back and forth between a number of sleepovers looking for love or simply to punctuate the last day of summer vacation. The film is enjoyable and is more of a low key flick than the usual bombastic Hollywood style teen movies. This works both for and against it, as while it is more realistic and spares us the usual cliché melodrama and slapstick that a lot of teen flicks have, the drawback is that none of the characters are particularly interesting and nothing particularly interesting happens. It has a charm to it and the cast are all very convincing, so it is overall a pleasant watch, but kind of forgettable at the same time. Does exhibit more of Mitchell’s skilled shot composition that made It Followsso effective. Worth a look, especially if It Followsmade you a fan of Mitchell’s. An enjoyable little movie, but maybe a little too understated for it’s own good.
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY p.1 (2014)
I liked the first flick, but found the second installment to be a darker, more depressing retread. While this installment takes the story in a different direction with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) now sequestered in the rebel stronghold and being pressured into becoming the figurehead of the rebellion, it’s still bleak, depressing and filled with overblown melodrama. There’s a few decent action sequences and Lawrence does her best with the material, but make up your minds…is Katniss a strong force to be reckoned with, or a weepy emotional mess that seems on the verge of a breakdown. She switches back and forth from scene to scene. Production value is strong and Francis Lawrence gives it a bit more of a steady pace than the meandering Catching Fire, but the film still failed to really hold my interest or attention. Never read the books and the films don’t inspire me to do so.
St. VINCENT (2014)
I really enjoyed writer/director Theodore Melfi’s comedy/drama about cranky, down-on-his-luck, alcoholic spinster Vincent MacKenna (Bill Murray) whose life changes when he gets a new neighbor, Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) and begins to babysit her young son, Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) to get some much needed cash. Sure, we’ve seen this story about a kid who changes the life of a bitter, angry, older character before, but it’s done so well here and mixes the schmaltz perfectly with some laugh-out-loud humor. Murray is in top form and McCarthy, who I am not a fan of, proves she can be more than just a female Chris Farley. Best of all is young Jaeden Lieberher who really shines and tugs the heartstrings as the awkward Oliver and a scene-stealing Naomi Watts as Vincent’s pregnant Russian hooker associate, Daka. She is absolutely hilarious. The cast all have a great chemistry together, especially Murray and Lieberher and the film never goes overboard with the sentimental bits or the comedy. In fact the sentimental moments really resonate, such as the scenes with Murray and his Alzheimer afflicted wife Sandy (Donna Mitchell). A really good movie and maybe a bit of an underrated/under-appreciated one!
I really liked X-Men: First Class, it was a great way to reboot a series that had stumbled a bit and put together a really solid cast in both familiar and new roles. I was actually a little disappointed when I heard Matthew Vaughn had passed on the next installment, but remained hopeful upon hearing original franchise director Bryan Singer would return to the director’s chair. But sadly all the fun and energy that Vaughn gave his retro entry and even the spark and intensity Singer gave his first two films is, for the most part, lacking in this overlong and somewhat tedious entry that takes until it’s final act to really get going and by then it’s too little too late.
The complicated Terminator-ish story takes place in a bleak and war-torn future where mutants and any human who may have the potential to give birth to a mutation, have been hunted down and almost completely destroyed by the ruling power and their army of robot Sentinels which detect the mutant gene and eliminate those with it. But there is a slight hope. Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) have devised a plan to used Kitty Pryde’s (Ellen Page) power to send Logan’s (Hugh Jackman) consciousness back to his pre-adamantium body in 1973 to contact their younger selves (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender) and try to get them to work together and stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from murdering the Sentinel’s inventor Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) and setting in motion events that will lead to the war that has ravaged the Earth and caused so many deaths. But at this point in history Xavier and Magneto are not allies and Mystique has gone rogue and Logan may only have hours to change the course of time before their time in the future is up… did you get all that?
Obviously, the film has a very complicated story that involves time travel which, always sets up it own set of difficulties, but considering that the film avoids being a mess, is more of a plus. The problem here is not the story details or the logistics of time travel and changing the course of history, but the deadpan tone with which the usually competent Singer directs this affair. Gone is the energy and fun of the first two X-Men films he directed and instead is a very by-the-numbers presentation of what should have been a fun and suspenseful tale. There are a few entertaining bits like Quicksilver’s (Evan Peters) speedy and clever way of getting our heroes out of a jam, but the film really has no spark until it reaches it’s climactic act and then we get a bit more of the movie we wanted to see, but it takes over 90 minutes of mostly ho-hum sequences to get there…sequences that should have been very tense and exciting but aren’t. The pace is also slow for a superhero film even one with a plot of such dire importance as this. And maybe that’s it. Singer just seems to take this story just a little too seriously and we rarely get those little witty character moments that made the previous film’s so fun. The camaraderie between the characters just isn’t there. Maybe it’s Simon Kinberg’s script based on a story by Kinberg, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn that simply was too bleak and left out a lot of the fun. Either way X-Men:DOFP just really lacks something till the final scenes and, to be honest, wasn’t very involving till then. I was never bored, but was never fully drawn in. For the most part I was along for the ride, but never really interested in where it was going… and I should have been.
Again Singer works with a very large and familiar cast, but unlike his previous X-Men adventures, the cast here seem to be going through the motions from Stewart to Lawrence to Jackman to McKellen and most of his principles. There is no real passion or energy in their performances despite having all played their roles before save Dinklage. They all seem like they are just performing by the numbers with the only person really giving his role some pop is the young Peters with his smart aleck Quicksilver and sadly his screen-time is limited. Even the usually excellent Fassbender seems like he’d rather be somewhere else. There are plentiful mutant cameos, some familiar and some new, but few of them really resonate other then the amusement of seeing that familiar face or someone intriguing and new. And the new characters, aside from Quicksilver, are really given very little attention, certainly not enough to endear to us to them. Is it possible that these actors have tired of their roles?
It’s not all bad. It is tedious though I never actually got to the point of being bored. The film really did pick up in the last half hour for a pretty decent finale in Washington D.C. that interweaves with the battle raging in the future, though it certainly can’t hold a candle to the Washington D.C. set finale of the Captain America sequel The Winter Soldierand could have had a little more suspense and intensity. The FX are top notch and the scale of the film seems fairly large especially when the action finally starts. Newton Thomas Sigel is back doing the cinematography though, since the film is set in the 70s, I did miss the retro look of John Mathieson’s cinematography on First Class. And maybe that is what one of the problems is, that the film is set in the 70s, but never really felt like it… like, say American Hustle did. John Ottman returns to score from X2 and also did the film editing…busy man…and his score is adequate but a bit uninspired.
So, overall, X-Men: Days Of Future Past may not be an outright disappointment, but it is a letdown and certainly could have been much livelier considering the importance of what was transpiring. Maybe the whole back in time to fix the future thing has run it’s course, or maybe Singer’s time away from Xavier and company has dulled his passion for the material…or maybe it’s still too familiar to elicit a stronger passion. Either way, it’s not the worst X-Men movie, but far from the best. Also stars Nicholas Hoult as Beast/Hank McCoy.
American Hustle is the new film from Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell that he co-wrote along with Eric Warren Singer based on Singer’s original screenplay. It uses the infamous ABSCAM sting operation of the late 70s as a basis for the fictional story of con-man extraordinaire Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and his lover/partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who have a fake loan operation set up where they charge customers, who are too risky for the banks, an un-refundable $5,000 fee to get them approved for loans that they never actually get approved for. Despite Irving’s unease, Sydney accepts a fee from Richard DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) who turns out to be an ambitious FBI agent. But, Dimaso is out for far larger prey and forces Irving and Sydney to set up a con to catch bigger criminals in order to earn Sydney’s freedom. The deal is to catch 4 criminals and they are free but, Irving cooks up a scheme to catch all 4 crooks at once and soon they are on the trail of the mayor of Camden, N.J. Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) and a bunch of US Congressman in a scam involving funding the rebuilding of Atlantic City as a gambling mecca with money from a fictional Arab Sheik (Michael Peña) and the bribes these men give/accept to set it in motion. But, Irving may have gotten himself in over his head as the more corrupt officials and criminals DiMaso thinks he can catch, the bigger the con gets and the more people it involves, such as Rosenfeld’s emotionally troubled wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) and dangerous mob boss Victor Tellegio (a cameo I won’t spoil here). And the more people that get involved, the more relationships get entangled and the more complicated things get till the whole thing threatens to come down on Irving’s head. Like Silver Linings, Russell takes a serious toned story and fills it with a lot of sly humor and a large cast of eccentric, multi-layered characters… and despite the clever story, it is the characters that really charge this enormously entertaining and smart flick. He creates a large group of very real people who all have various reasons and motivations for doing what they do. Each character is manipulating others for their own purposes and Russell gives his great cast some really complex, colorful and yet very human characters for his actors to bring to life. And it is the life these actors bring under Russell’s guidance that elevates a really good movie to near brilliance. Christian Bale has given some simply great performances in his career ever since getting everyone’s attention at the age of 12 in Steven Spielberg’s Empire Of The Sun and he simply takes it to another level with his brilliant… and I don’t use that word often… performance as the con man who’s gotten involved in a con even he might not be able to pull off. Amy Adams is equally brilliant as Sydney, Irving’s lover and a woman who might even be better then he at the con game as she too gets caught up in the increasing size of the sting in order to keep herself out of prison. Jennifer Lawrence gives another Oscar worthy performance as Irving’s unbalanced and unpredictable wife who gets drawn into the con but, with her own agenda. Cooper once again shows some amazing growth as an actor and creates a portrait of a man ironically getting greedy when it comes with catching the greedy. His FBI agent is ambitious and relentless and his disregard for playing by the rules seems to increasingly blur the line between himself and those he’s trying to catch. Jeremy Renner finally gets a role worthy of the acting ability he showed in The Hurt Locker and The Town as Camden Mayor Polito, a man who truly believes he’s doing what’s best for the people even if it includes backdoor deals and payoffs. His sincere belief that he is doing what’s right and his genuine likability causes a confusion in Irving that could sabotage everything. And that’s another thing that elevates this film from being a routine thriller… and this flick is far from routine… is the complications that arise from the relationships that form between various members of the scenario such as Irving and Carmine, Richard and Sydney and Rosalyn and a mob enforcer. The game becomes so real and people get so involved in their roles that emotions flow and relationships form… or do they?… this is a con game after all. And that’s what makes this such an entertaining movie as you believe in the character relationships portrayed by the top notch cast and yet, you’re not completely sure if it’s not part of the game. And that is part of the fun. All I will tell you is that it’s a real treat to watch this great cast pull the wool over each other’s eyes, manipulate each other and you, the audience as well. And if all that doesn’t convince you, all the great 70s nostalgia and music, ads perfect atmosphere to the whole film. The music in particular is like another character and the songs placed perfectly. I can never hear Wings’ Live And Let Die again without thinking of Jennifer Lawrence. Altogether this is a wildly entertaining and intelligently written flick with a tour de force performance from it’s entire cast. Sure there are a few slow spots but, everything else is such a delight, one can forgive a few moments to catch their breath. A real treat especially if you are worn out by superheroes, Hobbits and over abundant CGI and are looking for some more substantial to enjoy with your popcorn. A blast from David O. Russell!