By Jason Apuzzo. Here are more of my summer dispatches:
Men in Black 3
After a three year absence from the movies, superstar Will Smith returns to save planet Earth from alien invasion again by traveling back to 1969 to help his straight-laced partner, K – here played by Josh Brolin, in a spot-on, dry-comic imitation of a young Tommy Lee Jones (who also appears in the film). The equivalent of a live action Warner Brothers cartoon, MIB3 showcases director Barry Sonnenfeld’s trademark visual humor, gooey aliens, some light satire at the expense of the loopy 1960s, a nice supporting performance by Emma Thompson, and a great recreation of the Apollo 11 moon launch. Don’t expect any undue brain strain watching this film, however; MIB3 is basically just an expensive platform for Will Smith’s goofy humor – which hasn’t yet grown old, even if this retro-style series probably has.
LFM GRADE: B
Chernobyl Diaries
The basic message of this generally predictable, by-the-book scream fest from writer-producer Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) is: stay out of Russia. When a group of not-very-bright American 20-somethings indulge in some ‘extreme tourism’ by visiting Pripyat (former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor) with a shifty tour guide named ‘Yuri,’ they get a lot more than they bargained for when something creepy begins attacking them after dark. Peli & Co. keep things tense by never really showing you very much – but the characters are too bland and stupid to care about, like they just wandered in from a Final Destination 12 audition. Still, Russian officialdom comes across pretty badly in Chernobyl Diaries; don’t expect any gala Kremlin screenings of this film, with its hints of dark doings on the part of Russia’s military-scientific complex.
LFM GRADE: B-
[Editor’s note: for thoughts on the whole Russia vs. Ukraine issue, please see the comments section below.]
Posted on May 26th, 2012 at 12:37pm.
Don’t you mean ‘stay out of Ukraine’?
No, I very much do mean Russia more generally – because as a person of semi-Ukrainian descent, I’m genuinely appalled by what the Soviets’ mismanagement of the Chernobyl plant did in victimizing the Ukrainian people. The Russians are truly the villains in this case, and also (by inference) in this film.
To restate for those who’ve been contacting me about this, I am singling out Russia in the post, rather than the Ukraine – site of the Chernobyl plant – for several reasons:
1) Because it was the Russian-based Soviet government that was responsible for the Chernobyl disaster.
2) Because the main characters in the film are traveling to Russia, a main plot point in the film.
3) I also happen to be part Ukrainian myself, and don’t wish to heap any more unpleasantness on the Ukrainian people when it’s the Russians who deserve blame here.